Democrats are looking at 2028 and see Republican vulnerability. What they see is a 2024 election that — while it was fairly solid as a win for Republicans in the Electoral College — was a pretty narrow win in the popular vote. They think that perhaps they can reverse the tide, perhaps take the White House in 2028 with someone like Gavin Newsom. Thus, Democrats have shifted away from their 2024 failing strategy, taking the least popular parts of their agenda and moving those to the back burner. We heard all about equity in the run-up to the 2020 election. It was the centerpiece of the Joe Biden campaign. In 2024, it was again the centerpiece of the late-breaking Kamala Harris campaign in 2024. You no longer hear Democrats talking about equity each and every day the way that they were before. Instead, they are talking about “affordability.” The same thing is true about radical trans issues. The politics of transgenderism are awful for Democrats. The vast majority of Americans believe that boys are boys and girls are girls, and boys cannot become girls, and attempts to brainwash children into the idea that they are, in fact, members of the opposite sex, or even could be members of the opposite sex, is perverse. Telling a young kid that you might have a girl’s brain in a boy’s body is not only gnostic and scientifically nonsensical, it is also terribly wrong to do that to children. That was the general perception among Americans, and it drove huge numbers for President Trump. The single most effective ad of the 2024 campaign was on this issue from the Trump campaign, and suggested that Kamala was for transgenders while President Trump was for you. If you talk to people in minority communities who swiveled from Democrat to Republican, this was a major issue because the trans issue — which affected a fairly small percentage of the population, went to fundamental truths about our society. Could you trust people who told such a basic lie: that boys could be girls? The answer was no. So Democrats have decided that they are going to put that on the back burner. One of those Democrats was Gavin Newsom. A few months ago, Gavin Newsom was doing a podcast with the late Charlie Kirk in which Charlie pressed Gavin Newsom on trans politics. Newsom admitted that boys should not be playing in girls’ sports, admitting that it was unfair. But — the other day, Newsom — having been asked questions by members of the Democratic base and believing that he is the front runner for the 2028 Democratic nomination — did a podcast with Ezra Klein of The New York Times in which he was asked about his take on trans politics. Now that Newsom believes that he has to win primaries in the Democratic Party as he prepares for that 2028 run, he swiveled back into a losing strategy for Democrats.  “I want to see trans kids,” he proclaimed, continuing: “I have a trans godson. There’s no governor that’s done more pro-trans legislation than I have. No one has been a stronger advocate for the LGBTQ community.”  The normie position is that there is no such thing as a trans kid. There are kids who may have gender dysphoria. That is a different thing. There is no such thing as a kid who is a boy in a girl’s body, or upon whom we should be performing hormonal therapies and surgeries that are utterly unscientific and permanently damaging to them. So when Gavin Newsom says, “I want to see trans kids, there’s no governor that’s done more pro trans legislation than I have,” that creates a real awkwardness for the Democratic Party.  This broke into the open because it precipitated a confrontation with Elon Musk. America, a PAC founded by Musk, posted the video of Newsom, and it went viral. Gavin Newsom’s press office replied, referring to one of Musk’s sons who identifies as a woman, “We’re sorry your daughter hates you, Elon.” It’s insane to get personal on these sorts of issues. When I discuss these issues, I try not to get personal. The reason I try not to get personal is because once you’re into the emotional valence of somebody’s family, you have a problem. A few years ago, I spoke at the University of British Columbia in Canada, and it was about this issue. A person got up who identified as a woman. He started personalizing the question, saying, “My family treats me as though I’m a girl.” I replied, “You know, I would really appreciate it if we could keep this on the level of the philosophical and issue-based, because once we get into critiquing interpersonal relations, this is going to get very personal very quickly.” This person kept insisting, ”No, I know that I’m a woman because my family treats me as a woman.” And I kept saying, “Please, I don’t want to talk about how your family treats you because that’s about your family. It’s about the broader issue, which is the question of public policy and how we ought to deal with these issues as a general society”. But the person wouldn’t stop. Finally I said, “The reason that your family is saying to you that you are a woman and confirming you in your delusion is because they are afraid that you will do something bad to yourself, not because they actually believe that you are a woman. They do not believe that you are a girl. They know that you are not. They are trying to humor you because they’re afraid of what will happen if they do not.” This person got extremely emotional and rushed out of the room. It was a perfect YouTube clip, but the reason you’ve never seen that on YouTube is because I went to the organizers of the event and asked them to remove that from the tape of the event, because I knew that this person was going to be damaged by that tape. It would have hurt him. Not only that, I then found friends of the person and asked this person to come to breakfast the next morning with me to make sure this person was okay. That’s because when you merge the personal and the political in this way, it gets really ugly, really quickly. Gavin Newsom’s press office targeting Musk over his child was truly ugly stuff. Musk then tweeted back, “I assume you’re referring to my son, Xavier, who has a tragic mental illness caused by the evil woke mind virus you push on vulnerable children. I love Xavier very much and hope he recovers. My daughters are Azure, Exa (she goes by Y) and Arcadia, and they do indeed love me very much.” The fact that Newsom’s office went that low is really disgusting, and shows how the Democrats are going to run headlong into their own radicalism on this issue. Newsom seems like he’s trying to avoid the issue altogether. But if he is dragged back into discussing this issue, and if Democrats keep making the same moral litmus test as to whether boys can be girls, especially minors, then they’re going to be in for a world of hurt.

Alleged MS-13 gangbanger Kilmar Abrego Garcia was back on the streets Friday as he vowed to “fight” the Trump administration. A federal judge ordered Abrego Garcia’s release from ICE custody at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania, on Thursday, arguing that the federal government had no legal basis for holding him. Abrego Garcia was appearing for a routine check-in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Baltimore when he delivered remarks before a crowd of activists. “I stand here today with my head held up high. And I will continue to fight and stand firm against all of the injustices this government has done upon me,” Abrego Garcia said. Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin called the judge’s decision “naked judicial activism,” pledging “to fight this tooth and nail in the courts.” Abrego Garcia’s legal team condemned the Trump administration, saying they need to face “consequences.” “This is not about one man or one family or one community — this isn’t even about the issue of immigration. This is about power over law,” Abrego Garcia’s attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg said. “The Trump administration has always chosen to use Mr. Abrego Garcia to try to stand for the principle that they get to do whatever they want to whomever they want whenever they want — with no consequences. There need to be consequences for the government, and that’s what we as his legal team are fighting for,” he added. Christmas Sale – Get 40% off New DailyWire+ Annual Memberships The Trump administration deported Abrego Garcia, who entered the U.S. illegally in 2011, to his home country of El Salvador in March due to an “administrative error.” He was brought back to the U.S. in June on human smuggling charges stemming from a 2022 Tennessee traffic stop. Alleged MS-13 gangbanger Kilmar Abrego Garcia is now back on the streets, pledging to “fight” the Trump admin. pic.twitter.com/Eztkwi4lnM — Jennie Taer (@JennieSTaer) December 12, 2025 Abrego Garcia was seen behind the wheel with eight other passengers in tow in body camera footage taken during the incident. Although the group had been on the road for days as they made their way from Texas to Maryland, they had no luggage in the car. A responding officer noted that he suspected “a human trafficking incident,” but they ultimately let Abrego Garcia go with a citation for driving with an expired license.

Activist group One Fair Wage is pushing a 2026 ballot effort in Maryland to get a $25 minimum wage, which would be much higher than any other state in the nation – sparking concerns from some economists about the potential impact. “$25 isn’t radical! It’s survival,” the group posted to X on Friday morning. “One Fair Wage is pushing a 2026 ballot measure to make Maryland the first state with a true living wage for all workers.” The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, but many states and territories go beyond that, with California at $16.50 an hour and Washington, D.C., at $17.95 an hour. If One Fair Wage’s proposal went into effect, a full-time worker could make a minimum of $52,000 a year. Maryland-based economist Rachel Greszler, Senior Research Fellow at The Heritage Foundation, said that the proposal could create serious issues because of its drastic nature. The Old Line State’s minimum wage is currently $15 an hour, with Montgomery County having a minimum wage as high as $17.65 for companies over 51 people. Christmas Sale – Get 40% off New DailyWire+ Annual Memberships “I think it’s insane. Maryland’s already trying to compete, especially with Virginia nearby, and you were losing businesses, especially the small businesses, which are disproportionately affected by high minimum wages, and to do this is just gonna exacerbate the problems that we’re having with the budget, of course, and of having good jobs for people,” she said, noting that “good intentions don’t necessarily lead to good outcomes.” Virginia’s minimum wage will go $12.77 an hour starting January 1. “You need these starting wages to be able to step onto the ladder and then be able to climb it. If that first step is $25 an hour or $52,000 a year, a lot of people would just never be able to step onto it,” she said, noting the risk of youth employment decline even further. Greszler wrote in September for the Economic Policy Innovation Center that teen employment has gone down 15.6% since 2000 to only 30%. Non-partisan business groups have also raised concerns about the suggested increase. “We understand that many Marylanders are struggling with the cost of living and want better opportunities to get ahead. But Maryland’s economy is already struggling to create and keep jobs, and raising the minimum wage to $25 would make it even harder,” the Maryland Chamber of Commerce told WMAR 2 News Baltimore in November. If it makes it to the ballot, Greszler is not confident that the measure would pass, despite the hope from activists that it could excite voters, according to WMAR. “I think it’s such a big jump,” she said. “I could see them going for a smaller one.” The economist noted that she feels “sympathy” on the issue due to cost-of-living concerns, but added that “there’s no way that that’s gonna be sustainable.” “Half of people who earn it are under age 24. It’s primarily teenagers. And more than half of the people who are earning the minimum wage are just working part-time,” she noted.

The Trump administration is ramping up its America First Global Health Strategy in its latest efforts to ditch the traditional USAID model by delivering billions in aid directly to several countries in Africa. Under the new model so far, which bypasses the propping up of the “NGO industrial complex,” the United States has signed six memoranda of understanding (MOUs) with six African countries totaling over $4 billion in direct U.S. investment matched by over $1.6 billion from signatory countries. According to a senior State Department official, the old USAID system was unsustainable, “enriched beltway bandits,” and was designed to perpetuate itself rather than help countries become self-reliant. “Now, under the Trump administration, we are committed to ensuring that every tax dollar spent overseas delivers real results by ensuring aid gets directly to its intended recipients and creating a structure that helps partner countries move toward self-reliance,” the official told The Daily Wire. Countries that have signed so far include Kenya, Rwanda, Liberia, Uganda, Lesotho, and Eswatini, while Mozambique and Ethiopia are expected to sign similar MOUs next week. According to the senior official, the Trump administration’s goal is to sign a dozen agreements before the end of the year. The five-year MOU signed with Eswatini, a country in southern Africa, on Friday focuses on improving public health data systems, modernizing disease surveillance and outbreak response technology, and HIV prevention and treatment. In Eswatini, where 23.4% of people aged 15–49 live with HIV, the government plans to boost domestic health spending by $37 million over the five-year, $242 million MOU, according to the State Department. Christmas Sale – Get 40% off New DailyWire+ Annual Memberships Last week, when announcing the new initiative, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the previous system was inefficient by funneling aid through foreign or U.S.-based NGOs that absorbed funding through overhead and administrative costs while limiting host-country control. “We would go to a country and say we are going to help you with health care needs and then we would drive over to northern Virginia somewhere and find an NGO, one of these organizations, and give them all the money and tell them to go to this country and do their health care program for them,” Rubio said. “By the time it got down to it, the host country had very little influence … and only a percentage of the overall money ever actually reached the patients.” Rubio added that he hopes to sign 50 such agreements with other countries. “If we’re trying to help countries, help the country. Don’t help the NGO to go in and find a new line of business,” he said. Top executives at health NGOs backed by American taxpayer dollars frequently have very high salaries. In 2024, the president of Research Triangle Institute earned over $1.4 million, and two of its vice presidents earned more than $850,000 each. At Johns Hopkins University’s Jhpiego Corporation, one executive earned over $1.08 million. Other top salaries included $598,348 at Management Sciences for Health, $545,290 at Family Health International, and $506,371 at Pact Inc. In 2023, the president of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation earned $577,275, and the president of PATH earned $703,405.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) moved Friday to block current and former officials from testifying in a probe launched by Judge James Boasberg. Boasberg, an Obama appointee, plans to hold contempt hearings next week to investigate whether the government willfully violated his March order to turn planes around that were carrying alleged members of the […]

Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Sean Duffy on Friday threatened to withhold tens of millions in federal taxpayer highway funds for New York and other blue states that issue commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) to illegal immigrants. Duffy said in a Wednesday press conference that among blue states allowing foreign nationals to receive CDLs, including California, New York is […]

Crockett has long received mockery from the right for her persona

'Cabin crew immediately attended to the situation'

'Holding a lot of white men accountable'

Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, is officially running to keep his senate seat come 2026. The Daily Signal was on the ground in Columbus to speak to Husted as he filed his paperwork on Friday morning with Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s office. In the 2026 midterm election, Husted will likely face former Democrat Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, who lost his seat in 2024 to Sen. Bernie Moreno. .@JonHusted has had a busy week! He filed this morning with Secretary of State @FrankLaRose and met with supporters after a press gaggle in Columbus. Stay tuned for my piece today with @DailySignal, including to do with a question asked by yours truly on polling. pic.twitter.com/1tFco9yNg1— Rebecca Downs????? (@RebeccaRoseGold) December 12, 2025 At an event after the filing, Husted met with campaign supporters and filmed a video expressing enthusiasm not only for next year’s election, but also next year’s 250th anniversary of America. A Tight Race While the once-purple Ohio has trended red in recent elections, a recent poll suggests races in Ohio could be tight. On Thursday, Emerson College released a poll that found Husted leading Brown 49% to 46%, which is 3% down from Husted’s Emerson College poll advantage in August 2025. In the August poll, Husted had led Brown by 50% to 44%. When asked by The Daily Signal if he was concerned about the shift, Husted pointed out he was still leading but also that he is “not going to get into the business of following every poll.” “At this point, we’re ahead. We’re in great shape, but understand, I never take the voters of Ohio for granted,” Husted continued. “We’ll go out and earn every single one of those votes next year and beyond, and we’ll come away victorious.” “Poll numbers will fluctuate,” Husted added, and that you “can’t depend on poll numbers.” Building Support The Emerson poll also found that Husted’s name identification lags behind other prominent politicians from the Buckeye state. When voters were asked if they had a favorable or unfavorable opinion of, or were unsure/had never heard of a group of Ohio politicians, 38% said they were unsure or had never heard of Husted. “Having everybody know you as somebody that’s been around forever is not exactly an asset,” Husted argued about such a poll finding. But the senator acknowledged that “there are a lot of people that I have to introduce myself to, that’s true.” In Husted’s mind, however, it’s an opportunity. “We have a lot of growth opportunity,” which he sees “as really good news, as a matter of fact.” In this effort. the Husted campaign hit the ground running this week, releasing a campaign video boasting his service record and announcing a list of county chairs for grassroots efforts. Husted Versus Brown Husted invoked Moreno during the press gaggle as well, pointing out that Moreno was down against Brown early on in the polls and ultimately emerged victorious. Moreno’s victory despite Brown’s status as a well-known figure in Ohio politics also came up. “Sherrod Brown just spent $300 million on his election… around a year ago, and lost by over 200,000 votes. He’s probably as well known as anybody in the history of Ohio politics, but he’s been there for 50 years. He was in Washington for 32 years, and the voters just sent him home, and they have a pretty good memory, and I’m confident that they know that I have fought for them,” Husted shared. As Husted told The Daily Signal about his race against Brown during an exclusive interview in September: “I’m an Ohio guy and he’s a D.C. guy.” Before being appointed by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine to fill now Vice President JD Vance’s seat, triggering next year’s special election, Husted served as Ohio’s lieutenant governor. Previously, Husted has also served as Ohio’s secretary of state, a state representative (which included time as speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives), and a state senator. The Daily Signal reached out to the Brown campaign but did not receive comment. The post Husted Officially Files for Race That Could Determine Control of the Senate appeared first on The Daily Signal.