Over the weekend, we learned about a very powerful, very rich cadre of people who think they have inordinate control over the direction of our nation’s politics. I’m speaking, of course, about the Grammys. This year’s Grammys were filled with our usual celebrity geniuses spouting their usual performative politics to the cheers of their fellow celebrities. The reason I’m pointing this out is because if you ever wonder what the room is like where special people hash out what our culture ought to look like, it looks like the Grammys. What makes the Grammys and so many of our award shows fascinating is that they are an inside look for the rest of the world of what these people actually sound like at dinner parties. I know a lot of the people in Hollywood. I’ve spoken with many of them. Far too often, we see people patting themselves on the back for their performative version of the most extreme radical politics in our society. That’s the reason we are so annoyed when it shows up on our television. When people tune into the Grammys or the Oscars or any other awards show, what they expect is a celebration of the culture that we all share, the music or films that we all enjoy. DailyWire+ Instead, what we usually get is a cocktail party punctuated by some people who share lifestyles holding up the trophy. These are the most protected, wealthy people in our society, and the people who share that lifestyle are people who tend to share their politics. And they act as if we, the little people, are privileged because they are sharing their politics with us. Sunday night at the Grammys, virtually every performer decided they were going to lead by ripping into Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Trump administration.  Obviously, there are other things going on in the world, and sometimes that’s the focus. Just a year or two ago, virtually everyone at the Grammys said something about the supposed evils of the Israeli Defense Forces in the Gaza Strip. Now, of course, the Iranian government has been mowing down protesters, perhaps by the tens of thousands. Not one single word about that at the Grammys. But lots of words for Immigration and Customs Enforcement doing its job in Minneapolis. Bad Bunny, whose real name is apparently Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, and who was nominated for six Grammys, won an award for his album. He’s the same guy who is supposed to perform at the Super Bowl, apparently wearing a dress, which is exactly what we all want. (Because if you’re showing your nine-year-old son the Super Bowl, where men are men and athletic performance and grit and determination and heart are the keys to victory, what you really want is a dude gallivanting around in ladies’ garments during halftime.) Stewart Cook/CBS via Getty Images Bad Bunny proceeded to rip into ICE, which is precisely what we need to hear from this human. “Before I say thanks to God, I’m going to say ‘ICE out,” he declared to thunderous applause. “We’re not savages. We’re not animals. We’re not aliens. We are humans, and we are Americans. And also, I want to say to people I know it’s tough not to hate on these days. … The hate gets more powerful with more hate. The only thing that is more powerful than hate is love.” Deep words. Love is more powerful than hate. That is deep verbiage. I can see why he is such an acclaimed songwriter and performer. I love how celebrities really believe that they are Michael Scott in “The Office.” They think they can walk into the middle of a room and shout, “I declare bankruptcy,” and it is legally effective. If you go into a room with all of your fellow celebrities protected by armed security outside, where every single human who comes into that arena has to have their background checked, you can sit there and tell the rest of America that no protection is available — for them. Billie Eilish —whom I would guess not only has armed security but a palatial estate surrounded by a fence because she has stalker problems— said, “nobody is illegal on stolen land.” By stolen land, I assume she means all of planet Earth, since populations have been moving since the beginning of recorded human history. Billie Eilish does look significantly less unhappy since she started dating a dude. At least, she’s got that going for her. Olivia Dean chimed in, “I guess I want to say I’m up here as a granddaughter of an immigrant, I wouldn’t be here.” I should point out that a huge percentage of Americans have ancestors who came here at some point. Oh, the bravery of these people. They all think alike. They all act as if they have similar lifestyles, and they are speaking to you, the little people, the people who don’t have armed security at your palatial estates or have people pay you millions upon millions of dollars to sing songs written by a large coterie of other people. You need to hear their voices. You need to hear their words. These are the tastemakers. These are the people shaping the culture for our children. Gloria Estefan compared ICE to the Holocaust. You can’t just compare something to the Holocaust. Picking up individual illegal immigrants and sending them back to their home countries is not the same as an entire war infrastructure set up to systematically murder millions of people of a particular race. America is not Nazi Germany. You know what you didn’t see in the middle of World War II? A bunch of artists getting up on red carpets, talking about how terrible the Nazis were — in Berlin. Francis Specker/CBS via Getty Images And of course, we got Trevor Noah hosting the Grammys, where he was his usual smarmy, obnoxious self, ripping Nicki Minaj for the great sin of having gone to the White House to promote the Trump accounts, which are savings accounts being set up for American children. “She is still at the White House with Donald Trump discussing very important issues,” he mocked to cheers from the audience. I love that all the people cheering when he mocks Nicki Minaj for “discussing serious issues” act as though they are discussing serious issues. They sing songs that are overproduced in autotune, and then they go on stage and pretend they know something about policy. Noah dropped what he thought was a joke about Epstein Island and Trump and suggested that the president had been to Epstein Island. Trump fired back, threatening to sue Trevor Noah. Why is any of this really important? Because when you have all the cultural tastemakers who are all pushing the same politics, that is likely to seep out into the broader culture, and sometimes these politics can go viral and turn into a brain worm that eats the American body politic. You saw this, for example, with the trans issue, pushed by every cultural arbiter in American society. For a decade, this was promoted as the way to decide whether a person was virtuous or not, whether they were willing to say that a boy could be a girl and a girl could be a boy.  It does make a difference when the entire cultural apparatus mobilizes behind an issue. But there is something else here that is also worthy of note. Celebrities have their own social circle that tends to mirror itself. It is, in fact, a hallway of mirrors. You’re not welcome in a lot of these social circles if you have different politics. You cannot succeed if you don’t mirror their politics. The story of Hollywood in its most depraved form, writ small, would be the Diddy “White Parties.” That was Hollywood in its most depraved form, writ small. That was a microcosm of what Hollywood is. That was the most extreme version of what’s happening in that cultural milieu. But we are supposed to be privileged to listen to what these kinds of people have to say.

President Donald Trump says he wants to move forward with the federal government spending package without any changes, as the government has remained shut down since last weekend. Some Republicans, like Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), have advocated for including the SAVE Act in the package, which would require documentary proof of citizenship in order to become a registered voter — though Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said such a move would be a dealbreaker if appropriations bills returned to the chamber with it included. “There can be NO CHANGES at this time,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post, saying that he wants the bill to be signed into law right away, and that he’s “working hard with Speaker Mike Johnson.” “We will work together in good faith to address the issues that have been raised, but we cannot have another long, pointless and destructive Shutdown that will hurt our Country so badly — One that will not benefit Republicans or Democrats. I hope everyone will vote, YES!” he added. Last week, the White House brokered a deal with Schumer to pass the funding bills and secure Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding through a short-term continuing resolution — even as Democrats want to see more regulations on federal immigration enforcement. Changes being demanded by the Democrats range from a switch from administrative to judicial warrants for immigration arrests to the end of masking for immigration authorities, despite doxxing concerns having been raised amid a surge in assaults against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. The House Rules Committee is currently meeting to go through the procedural process to get the funding bills up to the House floor on Tuesday. Johnson told a scrum of reporters on Monday afternoon that “we’re gonna get this job done, get the government reopened.” Although Johnson has a one-seat Republican majority, the spending bills prior to the DHS deal were already approved by the House last month before they headed to the Senate. For the current version of the spending bills, Appropriations Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) indicated during the rules committee hearing that she is going to back the spending package, saying, “It gives us time, and it gives us leverage to secure the protections we need for our communities,” according to the Washington Examiner. Schumer lambasted the SAVE Act as a relic of the Jim Crow era, despite similar policies already being in place in multiple states.“The SAVE Act is nothing more than Jim Crow 2.0. It would disenfranchise millions of Americans,” he posted to X. “Every single Senate Democrat will vote against any bill that contains it. Speaker Johnson should tell SAVE Act Republicans to stand down or else this shutdown will be on them.”

'NO CHANGES'

'I planned on voting for him'

'That drives the far left crazy'

The exact details regarding Scott Laidlaw's death were not disclosed

DHS will expand the move across the nation

DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION—Turning Point USA (TPUSA) announced the lineup for their “All American Halftime Show” on Monday to rival Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny’s Sunday Super Bowl performance. Musicians Kid Rock, Brantley Lee, Lee Brice and Gabby Barrett will perform during TPUSA’s halftime show which will air on Rumble, Real America’s Voice and other non-cable television platforms. The performances are an alternative to Bad Bunny, who cross-dresses and has repeatedly spewed anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) rhetoric. The National Football League (NFL) stood by its decision to have Bad Bunny perform, claiming that the rapper has a “massive global outreach,” according to ESPN. THE LINEUP FOR THE ALL-AMERICAN HALFTIME SHOW IS HERE! ?Watch Kid Rock, Brantley Gilbert, Lee Brice, and Gabby Barrett THIS SUNDAY ?? pic.twitter.com/xwurEhdB13— Turning Point USA (@TPUSA) February 2, 2026 Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem condemned the NFL’s decision in an interview on “The Benny Johnson Show” in January. She also said ICE will be present at the Super Bowl and only law-abiding citizens should attend the game. “They suck, we’ll win and God will bless us and we’ll stand and be proud of ourselves at the end of the day and they won’t be able to sleep at night,” Noem said. “Because they don’t know what they believe and they’re so weak.” Bad Bunny continued to push anti-ICE messages onstage during the Grammy Awards on Sunday, where he said, “Before I say thanks to God, I’m going to say, ICE Out.” He previously stated that he would avoid tours on the U.S.’ mainland over fears of ICE raids at his concerts. In his song, “Nuevayol,” he imitated President Donald Trump’s voice apologizing to immigrants. In retaliation for Bad Bunny’s scheduled halftime performance, TPUSA announced in October that the organization would put on its own show to promote a pro-American message and appeal to people of faith. Trump said on Oct. 6 that the NFL’s upcoming lineup was “absolutely ridiculous.” Originally published by Daily Caller News Foundation. The post Turning Point USA Announces Lineup for Rival Super Bowl Halftime Show appeared first on The Daily Signal.

In the months before the April 12, 1861, firing on Fort Sumter, there were lots of sharp divisions in the North about the proper reaction to the first seven Confederate states that had already left the Union. Not all Unionists believed that war was inevitable. Some, in fact, were happy to be done with the departing South and thus see their stain of slavery gone from the Union. Similarly, others agreed that the emerging Confederacy was not worth the trouble and costs of war, and the secessionists could just form their own nation and stew in their own backward, servile juice. But after Fort Sumter, Lincoln–who was hated as much by the Confederates as President Donald Trump is by the woke and socialist left–gained a consensus that the Constitution had no clauses about any lawful departure from the union. But it did operate under a clear supremacy clause that made state obstruction of federal law and occupation of federal property veritable sedition. Lincoln and the preservationists felt that they easily had the moral high ground of abolition versus the continuance of slavery. Nor did they want a North America of fragmenting, warring nations in the manner of Europe. Something similar is emerging over Minnesota, the South Carolina of our age. Once sanctuary states, cities, and counties had established the precedent that, with impunity, they could nullify federal immigration law, then what followed was a logical and mounting descent into the current open defiance of the federal government. How odd that self-described progressives are now acting out the visions of prior kindred nullificationists and neo-Confederates from John C. Calhoun to George Wallace. The reaction of the rest of the nation, especially its conservative half, to Minnesota resembles the 1861 disconnect in the North over the insurrectionary states. Some believe that if Minnesota wants to protect its approximately 1,300 jailed illegal alien murderers, rapists, and assorted felons, so be it, and ICE should leave such a dysfunctional and dystopian state to its own self-destructive path. In this way of “See ya, wouldn’t wanna be ya” thinking, Trump should stick to the red and purple states, clear them of criminal aliens with the help of local enforcement, but without the organized performance-art leftist resistance. Then he could contrast the nation with the difference between low crime, noncontroversial deportations, versus the blue-state model of protecting illegal alien criminals and their indifference to the mayhem they inflict on the innocent. If Minnesota further wants to be a state like 1861 South Carolina that openly defies the federal government, then also so be it. But it should accordingly not expect federal funding for its pick-and-choose approach to federal law and property. Has Minnesota forgotten that, like blue-state America, it cheered on Barack Obama’s DOJ when it successfully sued Arizona in 2010, insisting that it was Obama’s right as a federal custodian not to enforce federal immigration law at the border–and thus not legal for Governor Jan Brewer to use her state resources to enforce a federal law that derelict federal officers would not? But on the other hand, contemporary Unionists objected that such live and let suffer is defeatist. Moreover, there are millions of Americans inside insurrectionary Minnesota who do not support their neo-Confederate leaders. Millions in Minnesota properly see themselves as Americans first and Minnesotans second. In this line of argument, just as Lincoln refused to give up federal armories, property, and offices inside the South–most notably Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor–to insurrectionists, so too the Trump administration has an obligation to protect federal property and offices in Minnesota and to enforce federal law throughout the nation, at least if it is to continue as a nation. Very soon, Trump will have to decide which strategy is preferable and politically viable before the midterms. Meanwhile, Minnesota’s highest elected officials have ordered local and state police not to protect federal immigration officers from the very street violence that they fuel. Indeed. Governor Walz, Mayor Frey, and Attorney General Ellison are actively encouraging Minnesotans to obstruct federal officers from enforcing federal laws–despite the mounting violence that follows their collective prompts. The three know that organized and well-funded groups organize the protests and incite the violence. And perhaps the trio even welcomes would-be martyrs to use their vehicles to ram ICE officers or to arrive at protests armed with military-grade, semi-automatic pistols with plenty of magazines and ammunition to spare. Walz and company further quietly accept that they could easily mitigate the violence by simply turning over roughly 1,300 criminal illegal aliens in various Minnesota jails to federal authorities. To do so would lessen the chances of violence, make Minnesota a safer place, and expedite the rotation of ICE out of Minnesota. But, of course, Walz, Frey, and Ellison have no such intentions, given their schemes are elsewhere. Given the failure of an increasingly socialist Democrat Party in 2024 to offer a more popular and convincing agenda than Trump’s, they believe their future lies in an increasingly redistributionist America, fueled by unlimited, unaudited immigration from the former Third World. They view as a political asset millions of arriving poor in dire need of massive federal health, food, housing, and education subsidies and entitlements, imbued with DEI victimhood, and nursed on America as toxic at its birth and ever more pathological ever since. So for the Minnesota state officials, screaming for ICE “to get the f— out of Minnesota” is more than mere braggadocio. It is a reminder that the Democrat Party wants a safe place for illegal immigration, the fuel of a future dependent constituency–as the architecture of the recent massive Somali frauds attests. They also believe that the more turmoil, the more violence, the more resistance, and the more a general sense of chaos and unrest swirl around the Trump administration, the more they can drive down its popularity before the midterms. They still cherish the months of riot, violence, and arson in the George Floyd “summer of love” in 2020 as critical in defeating Trump. Now as then, the left believes they can create a lose/lose dilemma for Trump: send in the National Guard to restore order, and he confirms that he is a “Nazi” and using the “Gestapo” to quell “peaceful” protests. Stand down, and the left owns the street, exasperating the MAGA base that mysteriously Trump has allowed the criminal left to nullify the enforcement of federal law in near-secessionist fashion. There are other Democrat agendas, both short- and long-term. The Minnesota Democrat apparatus either knowingly turned a blind eye to, protected, or silently partnered with the architects of likely the largest theft of federal welfare and entitlement monies in U.S. history–largely by the Somali community, both immigrants and their second-generation apparatchiks. The Democrat elite counted on the prophylactic cry of “racist!” to exempt the Somali community from any legal accountability. And so far, they seem right in that assumption. And the public? Polls reveal its trademark ambiguity. A majority voted for Trump to enforce immigration law, close the border, end illegal immigration, and deport those who broke federal law. But that hope and the reality of implementing it are two different things–especially when a state like Minnesota has not just institutionalized illegal immigration but nearly canonized foreign nationals illegally residing in the U.S. To sum up public opinion, the proverbial people want all criminal illegal aliens deported as soon as possible, and they may even support the deportations of all 10-12 million illegal aliens who came en masse, unaudited, and with the de facto blessing of the Biden administration. But that said, they want the act of deportation of the non-criminal to be out of sight, out of mind–as if magically they can simply disappear and thus either self-deport or assemble at ICE stations eager to be sent at no cost home. For now, Walz, Frey, and Ellison are upping the rhetoric, fanning the violence, and talking openly about how best to nullify federal law and impede federal enforcement. They are convinced that they have galvanized national opposition to the hated Trump, smothered the Somali fraud scandal, and stopped ICE deportations of their constituents. In all of those assumptions, they have little idea they are following the Confederate script to the letter. And like their spiritual forefathers of 1861, they grow ever more cocky, boastful, and defiant as they create martyrs, spread narratives of victimhood, and daily slouch toward another Fort Sumter. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.    The post Victor Davis Hanson: Slouching Toward Fort Sumter? appeared first on The Daily Signal.

WARNING: Images from this piece may disturb some readers. The fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis have put major heat on ICE. Investigations will discover whether Good, Pretti, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, or Border Patrol officers acted appropriately, poorly, criminally, and how much for each of these individuals. Meanwhile, those who vent volcanic rage at ICE should save a little lava for the protesters who have terrorized Minneapolis. ICE agents might exhibit the gentility that their critics demand if they did not endure relentless pressure and violence from the Left. –ICE agents routinely receive death threats, including one that Fox News host Sean Hannity aired Jan. 26: “You’re a f—- fascist pig,” one provocateur voice mailed an ICE officer. “You should f—- kill yourself. I hope your wife dies. I hope your mom and dad die.” US.. Department of Homeland Security –Police arrested a woman for possessing and deploying metal-screw-filled devices onto local streets, to flatten ICE’s tires. –Anti-ICE anarchists threw themselves in front of moving ICE vehicles, hoping to trap them inside a local federal parking lot. Of course, those who got hurt blamed ICE for hitting them. –ICE’s enemies, including Renee Good, illegally used their cars to block streets and pin down ICE vehicles, as violent mobs closed in. –Agitators lobbed fireworks that exploded around and in front of ICE agents. As the saying goes: “This is cute, until someone loses an eye.” –Anti-ICE barbarians stormed Cities Church in St. Paul on Jan. 18. They disrupted worship and screamed slogans. They violated 18 U.S. Code § 248, the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act of 1994 (FACE) Act, which shields religious sites from such evil. –Subversives have shouted, blown whistles, and banged drums outside visiting agents’ hotels, to keep them awake. On Jan. 25, anti-ICE criminals attacked two adjacent hotels that hosted ICE officers. They graffitied “ICE out” and “Kill yoself” on windows and then smashed them. Officers blocked an entrance with vending machines to exclude these invading maniacs. If detractors want ICE agents to perform exquisitely, let them sleep. Exhaustion never fuels sound snap judgments. –ICE foes, including Pretti, physically impeded ICE agents from performing their duties (violating 18 U.S. Code § 111), resisted arrest, and wrestled with them on the ground. As the Associated Press reported, video footage from 11 days before Pretti’s  shooting showed him screaming profanity at ICE agents. He also kicked in their SUV’s right taillight, which shattered as his boot smashed it. Pretti then wrestled in the road with officers. He broke free, ran away, and lived to die another day.   –Anarchists used long, strong straps to dislodge a gun vault from an ICE vehicle. They pounded its locks open and stole weapons, ammunition, and secret documents. These included the doxx-ready names and home addresses of ICE agents. –Anti-ICErs, including Good, have floored their gas peddles and rammed ICE agents.ICE man Jonathan Ross, who apparently shot Good in self-defense, suffered internal bleeding after her car hit him. –Three Venezuelan illegals attacked an ICE agent with a shovel and broom handle on Jan. 14, as he tried to arrest one of them. In self-defense, the agent shot the target non-fatally in the leg. A Border Patrol agent in Minneapolis holds his badly damaged hand. An anti-ICE protester allegedly bit and nearly severed his fingertip. Department of Homeland Security. Doctors could not save the Border Patrol agent’s fingertip. They surgically removed it and placed it in this container. Department of Homeland Security. –Federal prosecutors have charged ICE foe Emily Baierl, 37, of Minneapolis with biting into a Border Patrol officer’s middle finger on Jan. 24. That day, officials say, Claire Feng, 27, of St. Paul, totally bit off a Border Patrol officer’s right ring-fingertip. Too many media outlets that covered the latter incident blurred these gruesome images. The American people should bear witness to left-wing political violence (and its far-rarer right-wing equivalent). Obscuring such pictures is as unhelpful as telling 340 million people to watch the news with their eyes closed. Warn sensitive viewers and then show the ICE agent’s mutilated hand. Americans need to see this. –Anti-ICE violence exceeds Minneapolis. The first year of Trump 47 saw 275 assaults against ICE officers, versus 19 the previous year–up 1,347%. Vehicular attacks: 66 versus 2–up 3,200%. During this time, ICE officers have seen death threats climb 8,000%. Too much of Minneapolis’s anti-ICE activism looks nothing like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s March on Selma, with civil-rights activists wielding nothing tougher than locked arms and the soothing sounds of Negro spirituals. Instead, Minneapolis mirrors the darkest days of bloodshed in Belfast. Anti-ICE violence makes life easier for convicted, illegal-alien thugs to stay in America and continue their violent-crime careers. These rotten monsters include drunk drivers, armed robbers, child rapists, sex-slavers, murderers, multiple murderers, and Islamic terrorists. Those who turned Minneapolis into a war zone are A-OK with keeping bloodthirsty evildoers as their neighbors.  Remember all of this as the anti-ICE fires roar. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post Minneapolis ICE Haters Are Not so Into Peace, Love, and Understanding appeared first on The Daily Signal.