President Donald Trump declares a blockade on Venezuelan oil tankers, then addresses the nation in a rare primetime Oval Office speech, and Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest Conference kicks off under a new kind of spotlight. It’s Thursday, December 18, 2025, and this is the news you need to know to start your day. Today’s edition of the Morning Wire podcast can be heard below, and the video version can be seen on The Daily Wire: Trump Begins ‘Blockade’ Of Venezuela President Trump has announced a “total and complete blockade” of sanctioned oil tankers coming in and out of Venezuela. It comes as the United States escalates a pressure campaign against the Maduro regime. The president is now putting pressure on the state-run oil industry of Venezuela and declared that Maduro’s government is a foreign terrorist organization. Trump warned that this “will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before.” The U.S. Navy in the region is expected to receive orders in the coming days to escalate operations. The president said the blockade of Venezuela will continue until Maduro returns “all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us.” Christmas Sale – Get 40% off New DailyWire+ Annual Memberships Trump Addresses The Nation President Trump gave a much-anticipated address to the nation late Wednesday night. The address was short on new announcements and read more like an attempt to set the tone for the midterms as the end of the year approaches. The most notable portion of the night came when the president announced the “Warrior Dividend,” a $1,776 payout for American service members, and said it would be paid to more than 1.4 million people before Christmas. This comes weeks after the possibility of a dividend payout to Americans from tariffs was floated, but this is the first time an element of that policy has materialized. The president also primarily focused his remarks on the economy, including the concept of affordability. Affordability has become a key topic and nearly a buzzword touted by Democrats and slammed as hypocritical by Republicans, including the president, in recent months as Biden-era inflation has cooled. AmFest Kicks Off TurningPoint USA’s annual AmericaFest conference kicks off Thursday, marking the first major TurningPoint event since the assassination of its founder, Charlie Kirk. Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, and members of the TurningPoint team have made it clear that they want Kirk’s mission to advance conservatism and his legacy to continue. Leaders have described this year’s AmFest as a “powerful celebration of faith, freedom, and the legacy of … Charlie Kirk.” Erika, who’s stepped in as TurningPoint’s CEO, is expected to speak, as are prominent conservatives including Vice President JD Vance, Megyn Kelly, Tucker Carlson, and The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro, Matt Walsh, and Michael Knowles. TurningPoint leadership seems to be stressing unity and free speech, despite the background noise over the past few months.

The House on Wednesday approved a bill that would prohibit doctors across the country from performing transgender surgeries on minors or giving gender-confused kids puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones. The legislation, introduced by outgoing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), passed 216-211. Under Greene’s proposal, doctors who provide transgender procedures to children could face steep fines or up to 10 years in prison.  “One of the most serious responsibilities we have is adults and particularly those of us who are elected and hold power when it comes to legislating and making laws is to protect children. Today, the House is delivering on what the American people voted for,” Greene said from the House floor. “Most Americans agree that kids just need to grow up before they do anything radical, like a mastectomy on a 15-year-old girl, castrate themselves through surgery, or even take dangerous drugs that have lifelong effects.” Democrat Reps. Henry Cuellar (Texas), Donald Davis (North Carolina), and Vicente Gonzalez (Texas) joined 213 Republicans in backing the measure. Four Republicans, including Reps. Gabe Evans (Colorado), Brian Fitzpatrick (Pennsylvania), Mike Kennedy (Utah), and Mike Lawler (New York) voted against the bill.  More than three dozen Republicans co-sponsored the proposal, known as the “Protect Children’s Innocence Act.”  The procedures prohibited in the bill include giving males who identify as girls estrogen and females who identify as boys testosterone. Cross-sex hormones given to children can have profound impacts on fertility, sexual function, and heart health. The law also blocks doctors from giving kids puberty blockers, which can significantly harm bone development.  It would also ban genital surgeries and the removal of the breasts of girls who identify as boys.  Christmas Sale – Get 40% off New DailyWire+ Annual Memberships American Principles Project President Terry Schilling praised the bill’s passage.  “Republicans showed today that they are as committed to protecting children as Democrats are to disfiguring them,” he told The Daily Wire. “Bipartisan supermajorities support commonsense protections for at-risk children, and yet only three Democrats had the moral courage to stand up to a multi-billion-dollar industry that profits off of the misery of American kids. Democrats have been captured by an ideology that is as poisonous as it is profitable.” The legislation now heads to the Senate, where Republicans have previously introduced similar proposals. In September, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) introduced legislation to ban transgender procedures nationwide, a measure the Trump administration quickly endorsed. The bill has not advanced since its introduction and has not yet received a committee hearing or vote. More than two dozen states have moved to enact similar bans on transgender procedures over the last few years.

'President Trump’s Historic run for the White House'

Whenever Republican officials sit for an extensive interview or series of interviews with a liberal media source, their supporters ask: Why did you have to do that? Why does Donald Trump need to speak to Michael Wolff or Bob Woodward? Now, it’s Trump chief of staff Susie Wiles talking to author Chris Whipple for the lefties of Vanity Fair. But if Republicans made an energetic policy of not accepting any interview requests from liberal journalists, the press would paint it as authoritarian “North Korea,” because liberals dominate the media. It’s much easier for Democrats to accept zero interviews from conservative media than the reverse. President Joe Biden wasn’t going to sit down with Fox News or with some spunky magazine writer from the right wing. No one expects it. Biden barely sat down with anybody for an interview, and when he did, it was typically tender softballs from sympathizers, like actors Drew Barrymore and Kal Penn. Republicans should not be surprised when their words end up spun against them. But the drama over Wiles and her 11 interviews with Whipple can be overdone. Mediaite put these words in their headline: “The Trump Era Is Ending.” Year One isn’t over yet. Here’s what’s funny: They’re quoting former Trump communications director Anthony Scaramucci. The “Scaramucci Era” at the White House was 10 days—in part because he granted an interview to Ryan Lizza of The New Yorker. Oops. Whipple wrote a flattering book that came out in 2023 about Biden titled “The Fight of His Life.” He told NPR he asked for an interview with Biden. “I was told I could email questions and I would get written answers in reply. You know, clearly, they were uncomfortable even then with the prospect of the president having an interview in real time with a reporter.” The stage management wasn’t a problem. The media elite didn’t care about their own access. They were members of the Biden team, sharing their questions to Biden in advance so they could type them up on note cards. It certainly didn’t matter with Whipple, who appeared on the “PBS NewsHour” for a book interview back then and cheerfully proclaimed Biden was hitting his stride: “I think he goes into his third year really with the wind at his back.” No one finds a scandal in the way Whipple operates. In his 2025 campaign book “Uncharted,” he depends intensely for juicy details on former Biden chief of staff Ron Klain. But Klain seems to have two personalities. There’s the one who can see Biden can’t possibly be president for another four years as he watches him bumble disastrously in debate prep. Then there’s the one who thinks it’s a “mistake” for Biden to withdraw. Whipple doesn’t reconcile the two Klains. The insider source is always right in his case. Trump has granted far more access to reporters in his second term than Biden, and yet the media elites never stop trying to wreck his presidency. He knows he has the right to remain silent, and that anything he says can and will be used against him in a court of public opinion. You can’t win by granting access, and you can’t win by denying it. The authors and activists of the Democrat press approach Trump with the mentality of “heads we win, tails you lose.” COPYRIGHT 2025 CREATORS.COM We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post When Republicans Do Long Interviews With Liberal Journalists appeared first on The Daily Signal.

That 'Superflu?' It's the Flu, Nothing More

In a hard-hitting segment on Newsmax's The Chris Salcedo Show Tuesday night, Media Research Center (MRC) President David Bozell joined host Chris Salcedo to break down President Donald Trump's $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the BBC. Bozell also weighed in on what some are calling a Vanity Fair “hit piece” on the Trump leadership team.  Trump’s BBC lawsuit stems from the state-owned media’s deceptive editing of his January 6, 2021, speech in a Panorama documentary. By splicing comments made nearly an hour apart—omitting Trump's calls for peace—the BBC falsely portrayed him as inciting violence. Salcedo kicked off by noting Trump's prior victories in similar cases against CBS and ABC, asking how the President might fare against a taxpayer-funded giant like the BBC. Bozell was optimistic: "I think it's kind of slim to none" for the BBC to win. "The video is pretty apparent. They spliced Trump's commentary one hour apart on J6... How can you defend that? Like saying, 'oops'?" Bozell explained that the BBC, akin to a British PBS, is largely supported by a mandatory £169 (about $225) annual license fee paid by every UK household with a TV. "If the BBC were to lose, who pays?" he asked rhetorically—pointing out that British taxpayers could foot the bill for any settlement or judgment. Bozell also discussed White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles' extensive off-camera interviews with Vanity Fair, a notoriously anti-Trump outlet. Bozell advised caution, "If you've got to do [these interviews], do them on camera... This way, no nonsense about being taken out of context." While acknowledging the "political utility" of appearing on legacy shows (like Trump's own Meet the Press sit-down), he urged conservatives to be wary of biased outlets. Bozell's appearance underscored the MRC's watchdog role in holding the media accountable, predicting strong odds for Trump while warning conservatives about the perils of an elitist press corps that fundamentally doesn't like conservatives.  Watch the full interview here.       

If nothing else, Trump’s speech shows the White House realizes the political challenge it faces on the economy.

Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino DROPS Evanston, Illinois Mayor Like a Bad Habit (Watch)

If your Android smartphone has been feeling sluggish lately, here are some tricks you can try to improve its responsiveness and make it feel just like new.