House Democrats joined with six Republicans on Thursday to block legislation advancing the long-awaited Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum, tanking the bill after Republicans added language limiting the museum to celebrating biological women and barring exhibits portraying males as female. The measure failed on a 216-204 vote after every Democrat voted against it, joined by a small bloc of Republican defectors, halting what had previously been a bipartisan effort to establish the museum on the National Mall. The legislation was led by Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY). The collapse of the bill came after Democrats abandoned legislation many of them had previously supported, once Republicans amended it to explicitly define the museum around biological women. New language added by Republicans stated the museum would be dedicated to “preserving, researching, and presenting the history, achievements, and lived experiences of biological women in the United States,” while also prohibiting the museum from depicting “any biological male as a female.” Democrats immediately denounced the changes, arguing they excluded transgender-identifying individuals and handed too much authority over the museum to President Donald Trump. Republicans countered that a women’s history museum should, by definition, focus on women. “The addition of the word biological made them all run for the hills,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said Wednesday. “If that’s controversial in the Democratic Party, we’re in serious trouble.” Malliotakis similarly blasted Democrats for withdrawing support over the added language. “A women’s history museum is supposed to be dedicated to women, period,” Malliotakis told Fox News. “And the fact that they’re going to pull their support after overwhelmingly co-sponsoring this bill because the word biological was inserted, to me, is ludicrous.” Democrats insisted the issue extended beyond transgender inclusion. The revised legislation also gave Trump authority to select an alternative site for the museum on the National Mall and included language calling for “equal representation of the diversity of the political viewpoints and authentic experiences held by women in the United States.” Leaders of the Democratic Women’s Caucus accused Republicans of turning a bipartisan project into a political fight. “They amended the bill to give Trump and his allies unregulated power over what content and which women can be included in the museum, and the museum’s location,” caucus leaders said in a statement. “A museum about women, fought for and supported by women, should not be controlled by one man.” The Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum was initially authorized by Congress in 2020 alongside the planned National Museum of the American Latino, but construction has remained stalled pending congressional approval of a permanent site. House Republicans widely viewed Thursday’s vote as an opportunity to force Democrats into a politically uncomfortable position on gender after the party’s struggles during the 2024 election cycle over questions involving transgender-identifying athletes and definitions of “woman.” But Republicans also faced internal resistance from fiscal conservatives and lawmakers skeptical that another Smithsonian museum was necessary. Several GOP lawmakers reportedly objected that women were already represented across existing Smithsonian institutions and raised concerns that the institution could ultimately become a platform for left-wing causes rather than a celebration of women’s achievements throughout American history. A source familiar with Republican concerns told Fox that lawmakers feared the museum could evolve into “a shrine to abortion activists like Margaret Sanger or the latest progressive cause” without stronger guardrails written into the legislation. In the end, those Republican defections combined with unanimous Democratic opposition were enough to sink the legislation, leaving the future of the women’s history museum uncertain and construction plans once again stalled indefinitely.

Kyle Busch, the two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion and one of the most accomplished drivers in stock car racing history, has died at the age of 41. NASCAR, Richard Childress Racing, and the Busch family announced his death Thursday in a joint statement, calling his passing a “sudden and tragic” loss for the sport. Earlier in the day, Busch’s family revealed he had been hospitalized with a “severe illness” and would miss race weekend activities at Charlotte Motor Speedway while undergoing treatment. “Our entire NASCAR family is heartbroken by the loss of Kyle Busch,” NASCAR, Richard Childress Racing, and the Busch family said in a joint statement. “A future Hall of Famer, Kyle was a rare talent, one who comes along once in a generation.” Busch spent more than two decades at the top level of stock car racing and became one of the most polarizing and successful drivers in NASCAR history. Known to fans as “Rowdy,” Busch won 63 Cup Series races, ranking ninth on NASCAR’s all-time wins list, and captured Cup championships in 2015 and 2019. He was also the winningest driver in the history of NASCAR’s secondary national series, recording 102 wins in what is now the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and 69 wins in the Craftsman Truck Series. Born in Las Vegas on May 2, 1985, Busch came from a racing family and followed his older brother, fellow NASCAR star Kurt Busch, into the sport. Busch debuted in the Cup Series in 2004 before becoming a full-time driver the following season with Hendrick Motorsports. After three seasons with Hendrick, Busch joined Joe Gibbs Racing in 2008, where he became the face of Toyota’s NASCAR program and developed into one of the sport’s defining stars. He later moved to Richard Childress Racing in 2023, driving the No. 8 Chevrolet during the final chapter of his career. Busch’s aggressive driving style and fiery personality made him one of NASCAR’s most divisive figures, earning both loud boos and an intensely loyal fanbase known as “Rowdy Nation.” Beyond his driving career, Busch also helped develop future NASCAR talent through Kyle Busch Motorsports, his successful Truck Series team that won 100 races and multiple championships. A cause of death has not yet been released. This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

An illegal immigrant released into the country under the Biden administration was accused of raping a 12-year-old girl in Missouri, resulting in her pregnancy, The Daily Wire has learned. Investigators said Colombian national Brayanne Escobar-Guarnizo even admitted to a detective that “we only had sex one time” and acknowledged possessing nude images of the young victim on his phone, according to the Springfield Daily Citizen. Authorities arrested Escobar-Guarnizo in Greene County, Missouri, in 2024 after the child’s mother contacted law enforcement upon discovering her daughter was pregnant, the local news outlet reported. The illegal immigrant was convicted on charges related to the sexual exploitation of a minor, which led to his sentence of 25 years in federal prison. He was also hit with a charge of first-degree statutory rape, according to the report. Detectives collected DNA from the unborn child, the victim, and Escobar-Guarnizo as part of the investigation. Test results later found that “Brayanne Escobar-Guarnizo cannot be excluded as the biological father of the child,” adding “The probability of paternity is 99.999%.” The victim reportedly later terminated the pregnancy. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) assisted local authorities in the investigation that led to Escobar-Guarnizo’s conviction and sentencing. “This dirtbag was charged with production of child pornography and sexual exploitation of a minor after he raped and impregnated a 12-year-old girl,” Acting Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement shared with The Daily Wire Thursday. “Thanks to the investigative work of ICE law enforcement officers and our state and local partners, this child predator has now been sentenced to 25 years behind bars,” she added. Bis also emphasized that the Trump administration has zero tolerance for criminal illegal immigrants. “This illegal alien NEVER should have been allowed into our country by the Biden Administration. Under Secretary Mullin, we will continue to target criminal illegal aliens and get them OUT of our communities,” she said. Escobar-Guarnizo entered the United States illegally under the Biden administration in 2023, according to the Department of Homeland Security. After serving his time behind bars, Escobar-Guarnizo is required to be placed on supervised release for an additional 10 years, according to a report. He was also referred to a sex offender treatment program. In such a case, the illegal immigrant will serve time for charges in the United States before facing potential deportation.

President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he might not make it to his eldest son’s destination wedding — planned for the Memorial Day holiday weekend — because it’s “not good timing” for him. Donald Trump Jr. plans to wed Bettina Anderson in a small ceremony on a private island in the Bahamas, Page Six reported on Tuesday, and the president said he was going to “try” to attend, but was not sure whether he’d be able to make it happen. “He’d like me to go, but it’s going to be just a small little private affair, and I’m going to try and make it,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday. His explanation was simple: the timing, given everything going on in Iran and around the world, was not great as far as he was concerned. “This is not good timing for me. Everything called Iran and other things,” he said, adding that there was no answer he could give that would not get him into trouble with someone. “That’s one I can’t win on. If I do attend, I get killed. If I don’t attend, I get killed,” he said, implying that there would likely be negative coverage from the press if he missed his son’s wedding — and no shortage of negative coverage if he left Washington to attend. Don Jr., 48, and Anderson, 39, have been engaged since December — and had initially considered a White House wedding, but ultimately decided that the optics would not be the greatest. “They’re very aware that a lavish wedding at the White House while people are dying wouldn’t be well-received,” an insider told Page Six. They opted instead for a smaller, more private ceremony — but the end result might be that they have to carry on in the president’s absence. “Hopefully they’re going to have a great marriage,” Trump added. News of the imminent ceremony comes just as Vanessa Trump, Don Jr.’s ex-wife, has announced a breast cancer diagnosis.

It’s time to say a bunch of stuff that’s going to get me in trouble in the too-online sphere right now; people on the Left who live in mansions, who hate capitalism, and also people on the Woke Right, the New Left, who also live in mansions, who also hate capitalism but like to pretend that they like capitalism. Here we go. I’m going to defend private property and free markets and basic common sense, because these are the things that allow you to succeed economically in life. It is good to make more money by providing people with better goods and services. It is good to be fiscally responsible. It is good to make smart decisions about your money. Most Americans know all that stuff. But a lot of Americans are being lied to these days. They’re being told a bunch of garbage that makes their lives actively worse. And increasingly — particularly if they are young and too online — Americans believe those things. The Left and the Woke Right are going to get angry when I say you shouldn’t spend too much money eating at a restaurant if you’re unable to pay your rent. They’ll say that I’m saying that because I don’t care about people. (You see, it’s better to be poorer and also keep eating at Wolfgang’s Steakhouse.) They will get angry when I say that Amazon makes your life better and cheaper. They’ll say it’s better to yell at Amazon, try to shut down their business, and tax them more because “Jeff Bezos is bald and rich and has a yacht!” or something similar. They’ll get angry when I say that billionaires aren’t inherently bad because they’re billionaires, and that instead, genuinely immoral people are bad and moral people are good. Tax returns have nothing at all to do with any of that. The billionaires are typically billionaires, not because they are stealing from the poor — spoiler alert: the poor don’t have much money to take — but because they make a lot of people’s lives better. They make goods and services for cheaper. So get ready. Here comes the blowback. It comes every time I talk about this stuff. Remember that time I said young people who couldn’t afford to live in New York City might think about moving if policies don’t change because it’s more productive to search outside of New York City and find some success than to sit there in your expensive apartment with your two roommates and pizza? People got super-duper mad. Remember that time I said that Social Security needs to kick in later in life — especially for people who are currently 40 and under — because people are now living 20 years longer, and then Social Security kicks in, which is really expensive and is bankrupting the country? And also that when you hit retirement age, sure, you can retire, especially if you’re working a backbreaking job, but you should continue to do productive things in your community because it’s good for you on both a mental and spiritual level? People got super-mad again. Well, here’s the thing. I don’t really give a crap about how people feel about reality. And here is the reality: the only way your life gets more affordable is 1: You make more money; 2: Your expenses get lower, and 3: Products and services get more plentiful and better and cheaper. All of these rely on free markets and common sense. When Americans don’t feel good about the economy in general, they tend to think that things are “unfair.” “Unfair” is just a substitute for “I don’t feel good about things.” This is human nature. It applies to us. It applies to our children. Whenever something happens that my kids don’t like, it’s unfair, right? They deserved something, and it didn’t happen. It’s possible for two things to be true: The economy is not doing what it should be doing right now, and there are problems in the economy; regulatory problems, subsidy problems, market distortions, etc. But generally speaking, the economic system in this country is mostly fair. It is fair because you have property rights in this country. You have the equal rule of law in this country, as opposed to the vast majority of other countries around the Earth and in all of human history. Politicians love lying to you. It is their favorite thing to do because the way that you win votes is by appealing to the lizard part of the brain, the part that says, “A bad thing happened and it’s unfair. It’s the system,” as opposed to, “A bad thing happened. Life is full of bad things.” How do you solve poverty? The answer for most politicians is to yell at rich people and pretend the rich people got rich by causing poverty, which is untrue. Poverty is the natural state of all mankind; for all of human history, everyone was poor. The question is not why there are poor people and rich people; the question is why even the poor people in the United States are, by any historical marker, very, very rich. That is the real question. We now live in a world where, if you give basic financial advice, like “Move elsewhere if you can’t get a job in your area,” if you say things that reflect reality, people get mad, especially if there is a group of people telling them they don’t need to live in the world of reality. Is Jeff Bezos the bad guy? Amazon directly employs 1.6 million people globally. People who use Amazon to sell products account for another 2 million jobs. Elon Musk’s global workforce consists of 150,000 people. Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta has 70,000 employees. The notion that you kill private property and modern finance and somehow the economy gets better is absolute stupidity. But it is part and parcel of a lie that is being sold to you; that if only you had more power to centralize government, if you gave more power to Bernie Sanders or Tucker Carlson or people who want control over the economy, they would bring you back to some placid, agrarian past in which you can fish in the evening and write poetry in the morning. It’s just trash. It’s stupid, and it does not comport with reality. And as I’ve been saying for decades: in the end, reality always wins.