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Ilhan Omar calls Trump an 'unhinged lunatic,' urges booting him out of office
Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., called President Donald Trump an "unhinged lunatic" in a Monday post on X, advocating for him to be ousted from office.
"This is not ok. Invoke the 25th amendment. Impeach. Remove. This unhinged lunatic must be removed from office," she asserted.
The left-wing lawmaker made the comments while sharing a screenshot of the president's controversial Easter Sunday Truth Social post threatening attacks against Iranian power plants and bridges.
TRUMP WARNS IRAN HE MAY STRIKE ‘EVERY POWER PLANT’ AS DEADLINE TO REOPEN HORMUZ NEARS
"Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the F[---]in’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah," Trump wrote in the post, referring to the Strait of Hormuz.
Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., warned in a Monday post on X, "Threatening to target power plants and other non-military targets is not strength. If those words become orders to destroy civilian infrastructure with no valid military purpose, it’s hard to see how they would not violate the laws of armed conflict. America leads best with strength, discipline, and professionalism. Illegal orders to make civilians suffer would be a black mark on our military and our country."
MARK KELLY PRESSED ON WHETHER HE WOULD REFUSE ORDERS IF HE WAS STILL IN UNIFORM
Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., declared in a Sunday post on X, "President Trump's profanity-laden Easter threat to attack Iran's civilian infrastructure—power plants and bridges—are the words of a frustrated and immoral madman. Many experts agree that such attacks would be war crimes under international law. To our military leaders, remember this: You are legally required to refuse orders to commit war crimes."
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., characterized Trump's comments as "the ravings of a dangerous and mentally unbalanced individual," asserting in a Sunday post on X, "Congress has got to act NOW. End this war."
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment early Tuesday morning.
‘GOD IS GOOD’: INSIDE THE HIGH-RISK US MISSION TO SAVE A WOUNDED AIRMAN SHOT DOWN IN IRAN
During remarks on Monday, Trump indicated the U.S. has "a plan … where every bridge in Iran will be decimated by 12 o'clock tomorrow night, where every power plant in Iran will be out of business, burning, exploding, and never to be used again, I mean complete demolition by 12 o'clock."
"We don't want that to happen," he said.
Student 'accidentally' finds 'extremely rare' Crusader-era sword after chasing off suspected thieves
A student in Israel recently made a chance discovery tied to one of history's most violent eras: the Crusades.
The University of Haifa recently said in a release that one of its students "accidentally" discovered a Crusader-era sword off the coast of Dor, an ancient port in northern Israel.
The sword, which dates to the 12th century, measures over three feet long.
LOOTERS' ARREST UNCOVERS 2,000-YEAR-OLD WORKSHOP NEAR JERUSALEM BIBLICAL PILGRIMAGE PATH
University of Haifa student Shlomi Katzin was swimming near Dor when he "noticed a group of divers with metal detectors," per the translated release.
Katzin, who studies maritime civilizations, suspected the group were antiquities thieves.
"Shlomi managed to drive them away from the area, and later during his swim, he spotted the sword protruding from the seabed and acted quickly," the release said.
TOURISTS WALK PILGRIMAGE ROAD FROM JESUS' ERA FOR FIRST TIME IN 2,000 YEARS: 'DEEPLY SIGNIFICANT'
"He informed Prof. Debbie Cvikel from the Department of Maritime Civilizations at the University of Haifa, who contacted the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA)."
Once the IAA approved the sword's removal, it was sent to Elisha Medical Center for a CT scan.
Pictures of the artifact show it was heavily encrusted with shells over the centuries, though it still retains the unmistakable shape of a sword.
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Debbie Cvikel, a professor at the University of Haifa, called the artifact an "extremely rare find that sheds light on the Crusader presence along the country’s coastline."
She added, "Only a handful of similar swords from the Crusader period are known in the Land of Israel, and this discovery greatly contributes to our understanding of the use of maritime anchorages and the lives of warriors during this time," according to the release.
Eyal Berkowitz, imaging sciences expert at the University of Haifa, noted that his team's imaging techniques were non-invasive and kept the artifact intact.
"Using CT, we were able to see what the human eye cannot — the internal structure of the sword and its precise physical condition — all through a non-invasive examination that preserved the integrity of this rare artifact for future generations," he said.
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Researchers said the sword also carried symbolic significance.
In the release, Sarah Lantus from the Department of Maritime Civilizations at the University of Haifa noted that swords were symbols of "knights and chivalry, as well as of the Christian faith."
"It was also one of the most common weapons used by Crusader knights, and their lives depended on them," said Lantus.
"Swords were valuable objects — and therefore were carefully maintained and preserved."
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The Crusades were a series of wars between Christian and Muslim forces between the 11th and 13th centuries.
They began when Pope Urban II called to reclaim the Holy Land in 1095, with the First Crusade resulting in the siege of Jerusalem in 1099.
The discovery is the latest in a string of notable archaeological finds in the region.
In March, archaeologists announced that they had found a 2,100-year-old sling bullet with a sarcastic message aimed at enemy forces.
Also, last month, officials announced the discovery of a mysterious Christian artifact near the Sea of Galilee, not far from Jesus' ministry.
Video shows teens take over Chicago streets as mayor warns of ‘trends’ that can turn ‘deadly’
Hundreds of young people filled the streets and sidewalks in Chicago last week in what Mayor Brandon Johnson is calling "teen trends" that he warned can turn deadly.
Video, obtained by Fox News from ChitownCrimeChasers, showed the teens filling streets and sidewalks on March 30, clustering around parked vehicles and moving through intersections.
Other footage from that night captured different individuals dancing and socializing in the city's streets, while other moments showed people climbing on cars and brief altercations within the crowd.
In Hyde Park, residents say the March 30 takeover lasted for hours late into the night.
One resident, Jason Hale, said his car was among roughly 30 affected by crowds in Chicago that night.
"Yeah, it’s bad. The hood is messed up, terrible. A thousand worth of damage, dents everywhere, footprints everywhere," Hale told FOX 32 Chicago.
Video shows groups of teens standing and moving on top of parked vehicles as crowds formed around them.
Chicago police confirmed to the local outlet that three curfew violations were issued in connection with the gathering. A 16-year-old girl was also charged with unlawful possession of a weapon and disorderly conduct.
City officials and police have described these gatherings, which are often organized through social media, as part of a broader, growing trend across Chicago.
Recent events have drawn large crowds to neighborhoods including downtown and Hyde Park, with activity ranging from social gatherings to more chaotic crowd movement.
Johnson released a public service announcement telling parents to not let their kids attend the increasingly popular "teen trends across the city."
"We're currently tracking five. That's right. Five teen trends across the city this weekend," the mayor said in an April 3 message. "I'm calling on all parents. Check in with your children. See where they plan to be this weekend. Please, do not allow your child to attend any of these trends this weekend."
"They're unsafe, and they can turn deadly. Our police officers will be out enforcing the city's 10 p.m. curfew," he said.
Some residents say the repeated gatherings are raising concerns about safety and quality of life.
Hale said the incident has prompted him to reconsider staying in the city.
"Your kids should not be out here… I had parents who guided me," he said. "And these parents, they just let them run rampant."
DR MARC SIEGEL: Bleeding, alone and hunted -- a downed colonel’s miracle survival
How does someone — even a military hero with prodigious physical prowess and training — manage to survive approximately 36 to 48 hours in the mountainous terrain of southwestern Iran, likely without food and with little water?
How does such a person live with the high chance of having sustained leg fractures or other lower-extremity injuries from being ejected from a plane traveling at high velocity?
And how do Navy SEALs, Air Force Special Operations, Army Special Operations Aviation, search and rescue, and combat medics, flanked by 150 aircraft, possibly find him? As CIA Director John Ratcliffe said, it is like finding "a grain of sand in the desert."
The answer is a combination of great skill on the part of the rescuers, God’s presence, the airman’s deep faith, and the body’s survival mechanism, known as the "fight-or-flight" response.
‘GOD IS GOOD’: INSIDE THE HIGH-RISK US MISSION TO SAVE A WOUNDED AIRMAN SHOT DOWN IN IRAN
In the end, SEAL Team Six commandos extracted the officer, and he was taken first to a U.S. military medical facility in Kuwait, where he will receive high-level care, including wound management, hydration, nourishment and any orthopedic interventions needed. He will no doubt recover — a clear-cut medical miracle.
This weapon systems officer, an Air Force colonel with survival and evasion training, reportedly climbed 7,000 feet up a ridge and remained hidden there for nearly 48 hours in a mountain crevice.
President Trump, during a press briefing on Monday, said that the airman "scaled cliff faces, bleeding rather profusely, treated his own wounds."
TRUMP CALLS RESCUE OF DOWNED AIR FORCE PILOT AN 'EASTER MIRACLE'
During his time on the mountain, he could have used bandages and tourniquets to help stop the flow of blood, but he would also have soon needed water to replace the lost fluids. He is reportedly a man of deep spiritual faith, which clearly helped him to survive, and when he finally made radio contact, he sent the message, "God is good."
He was spotted by the CIA with a camera from 40 miles away. According to the president, "They kept the camera on him for 45 minutes. He wasn't moving. And they said, ‘You know, probably wrong, but we're seeing something moving.’ This is a vast mountain, vast, thick with bushes, trees. ‘We see something moving 40 miles away.’ It was the head of a human being," the president shared. "’I'm telling you, it's moving.’ And then all of a sudden, 45 minutes later, he moved a lot, stood up, and they said, 'We have him.’"
As Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said at the press conference with President Trump, "in that moment of isolation and danger, his faith and fighting spirit shone through."
INSIDE THE DARING RESCUE OF AIRMAN BEHIND ENEMY LINES: HOW CIA ASSISTED WITH 'DECEPTION CAMPAIGN'
It is unclear whether the downed airman received help from local residents who are opposed to the Iranian regime or if he toughed it out on his own, but either way, his survival constitutes a faith-driven medical miracle.
The way human physiology responds to threat clearly played an essential role. At a time like this, the body kicks into fight-or-flight mode, also known as an acute stress response, with an outpouring of stress hormones — epinephrine, norepinephrine and cortisol.
Here’s what happens: The heart rate, blood pressure and rate of breathing increase. There is a release of energy as the body shunts blood toward the muscles and away from the skin. The person feels increased alertness, and all the senses are heightened, which creates a survival advantage.
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Though a person can go several days without food, water is essential for organ function, and dehydration can quickly lead to organ failure, especially in the presence of ongoing bleeding.
It is unknown how much water the downed colonel had, but it was unlikely to be sufficient for someone with substantial injuries.
Survival under these circumstances is clearly a medical miracle. The team that rescued him are angels sent by God. As further details are released in the coming days, they will provide the exact narrative by which God, great military prowess and personal fortitude all came together.
Clearly, the colonel’s spirit to survive overcame both the enormous physical challenges and the looming danger he faced inside Iran.
Trump-backed candidate aims to pad GOP's fragile House majority battle in showdown for MTG's seat
ROME, GA — Republican congressional candidate Clay Fuller says that Tuesday's special election runoff in Georgia is "extremely crucial."
Fuller is facing off against Democrat Shawn Harris in the race to fill the seat in Georgia's solidly red 14th Congressional District — in the northwest part of the state — left vacant when MAGA firebrand Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene stepped down at the beginning of January. Greene quit Congress with a year left in her term, after a bitter falling out with President Donald Trump.
The special election, held on the same day as a state Supreme Court contest in battleground Wisconsin, comes as Republicans cling to a razor-thin 218–214 majority in the House. The GOP cannot afford any surprises or allow the Democrats to pull an upset in the special election, in a district Trump carried by a whopping 37 points in his 2024 presidential victory.
"We need the reinforcements," Fuller, a local district attorney and a lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard who's served in the Air Force since 2009, emphasized in a Fox News Digital interview on the eve of the runoff election, as he pointed to the GOP's fragile majority. "I think the voters in Georgia 14 understand that, and they're looking forward to sending a MAGA America first fighter up on Capitol Hill to support that agenda."
PRIMARY PAUSE, POLITICAL FIRESTORM: HIGH-STAKES ELECTIONS THIS MONTH TAKE CENTER STAGE
Asked if he was concerned that MAGA supporters would sit out what may be a low turnout election since the president is not on the ballot, Fuller said voters "would crawl through glass to make sure they have a representative up there that fight for them and fight for President Trump, and that's why we're going to have the votes pouring out on April 7."
TRUMP HITS CAMPAIGN TRAIL IN KEY BATTLEGROUND AS RACE TO REPLACE MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE HEATS UP
Harris, a cattle farmer who spent four decades in the military and retired as an Army brigadier general, needs the support of crossover Republicans in order to pull off an upset.
"I am a Democrat, but I'm not tied to the party," Harris highlighted as he spoke with Fox News Digital. And Harris argued, "My opponent, Clay, cannot say that. He actually sold his soul to President Trump."
Harris, pointing to surging gas prices fueled by Trump's military attack on Iran, said when voters "go to the polls, they will have to stop at the pump, and that'll be the last thing they think about before they go and vote. And they're going to say, 'You know what, Shawn Harris is the only one that's talking about bringing down costs, Shawn Harris is the only one saying, 'I'm going to stand up for the people here in Northwest Georgia, period.'"
"We will win this war militarily. However, if we don't watch it and be clear with the American people, based on these gas prices and diesel prices, we could actually lose this war politically."
Harris said he "will support President Trump on things like the...southern border." But he added "when it comes to things like...a forever war. Send me. I will push back."
Fuller said that "the voters in Georgia-14 support the president in this endeavor. They understand that the Iranian regime was a long term threat to our national security...they understand that President Trump is making the world safer, and they understand that there may be short term pain at the gas pump, and they'll expect those prices to drop as soon as this conflict is over."
Harris grabbed 37% of the vote, with Fuller at 35% amid a field of 17 candidates, including 12 Republicans, in the first round of voting in early March. Since no candidate topped 50%, Harris and Fuller advanced to Tuesday's runoff.
The congressional seat — which stretches from Atlanta's outer suburbs to the state's northwest borders with Alabama and Tennessee — was left vacant when Greene quit Congress with a year left in her term, after a very public falling out with Trump mostly over her push to release the Jeffrey Epstein files.
While Greene remains popular among Republicans in the district, Fuller said the voters he's talked with on the campaign trail "are focused on the fights of the future, not anything that had happened in the past."
Asked if he's talked with Greene, Fuller said he "reached out to Rep. Greene, had conversations with her and got advice on the district, and I'll keep those conversations confidential."
Harris, who as a first-time candidate lost to Greene by nearly 29 points in her 2024 re-election, emphasized that "I'm not running against Marjorie Taylor Greene anymore," and that his name "carries more weight than any other name in this district."
If Harris loses but holds Fuller's margin to the mid-teens or less, national Democrats will argue the election is the latest in nearly 15 months since Trump returned to the White House in which they overperformed.
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The ballot box brawl in Northwest Georgia isn't the only electoral showdown on Tuesday. There's also a state Supreme Court election in battleground Wisconsin.
While officially a non-partisan contest, state Supreme Court elections in Wisconsin have become extremely partisan in recent years.
With the court's majority on the line in last year's contest, outside money poured in and out-of-state door knockers blanketed Wisconsin. One of the biggest spenders was Trump ally Elon Musk, who headlined a rally days before the election and donned a cheesehead hat worn by fans of the Green Bay Packers.
Democrats won that election by a larger-than-expected margin and currently hold a 4-3 majority on Wisconsin's highest court.
With a conservative justice retiring, the majority isn't at stake in this year's election, although if state Appeals Court Judge Chris Taylor, a former democratic state representative, wins, liberals would expand their majority on the high court to 5-2.
If Appeals Court Judge Maria Lazar, a conservative, wins or keeps the margins close, the GOP may claim a moral victory.
MORNING GLORY: Will President Trump go full Sherman in the war on Iran?
If James McPherson’s 1988 classic history of the American Civil War, "Battle Cry of Freedom," has been translated into Farsi, the remaining leadership of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps may want to read it quickly, especially the chapters about General William Tecumseh Sherman’s two famous marches.
The first was the fabled "March to the Sea" from Atlanta to Savannah. The second was the less well known but longer, more difficult and far more devastating for the locals march from Savannah to North Carolina, a march that ravaged the home of secessionist fanaticism, South Carolina, and did so in a way that the state’s people did not think possible given the geography of its marshy lowlands.
Of course, America has waged and won wars against tyrants before, but we do not love to wage war. We have never been a conquering empire, but when necessary, our leaders have been ruthless when it comes to concluding war.
MORNING GLORY: PRESIDENT TRUMP’S BIG SPEECH ON IRAN — WHAT WILL IT DO?
"If we can march a well appointed army right through Jefferson Davis’ territory," Sherman appealed to a skeptical General Ulysses S. Grant and President Abraham Lincoln, it would be "a demonstration to the world, foreign and domestic, that we have a power that Davis cannot resist."
"I can make the march and make Georgia howl," Sherman added to the doubters, Grant and Lincoln. Sherman was proposing something not done before in the long years of war to preserve the Union and free the enslaved — abandoning his lines of supply and living off the land his army would despoil.
Like Lincoln, Sherman "believed in a hard war and a soft peace," writes McPherson, and once approved by his chain of command, Sherman delivered on the "hard" in devastating fashion.
"War is cruelty and you cannot refine it," Sherman said.
ALL 4 IRAN WAR ASSUMPTIONS DEAD WRONG — TRUMP PROVES EXPERTS GOT FOOLED AGAIN
"It takes a simple, direct and ruthless man to wage war," wrote a different American general in a different war.
General George Patton recorded that blunt statement in his diaries, according to another great popular historian, Rick Atkinson, in his "An Army At Dawn" about Operation Torch in WW2.
Sherman had anticipated Patton by nearly 80 years.
TRUMP SAYS IRAN ‘NO LONGER A THREAT’ AFTER 32 DAYS — OUTLINES NEXT PHASE OF US WAR
"We must make old and young, rich and poor, feel the hard hand of war," Sherman argued, saying of the Confederacy’s elite that his armies would make them "so sick of war that generations would pass away before they would again appeal to it."
"It is mercy in the end," he concluded.
Throughout Sherman’s two marches, Lincoln was open to peace on his terms. The greatest president even took a surprise trip to Grant’s headquarters to meet the South’s peace commissioners in person on February 3, 1865.
Because Lincoln was adamant about preserving the Union and freeing the slaves, his offers were rejected by Confederate President Jefferson Davis when they were returned to him. Lincoln had even offered some level of compensation to the Southerners who would see their enslaved freed, but that was not enough for the fanatics in Richmond.
The South was already shattered at that point. The value of the confederate dollar had plummeted to 2% of its 1861 value and there was no more meat for General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, which continued the doomed effort to save Richmond. But the leadership of the Confederacy had devolved into denial of reality.
Davis addressed the Congress of the Confederacy three days after Lincoln’s offer, and press reports at the time relayed to the North that the tone of the Confederacy's president was one of "unconquerable defiance."
"We will never submit to the disgrace of surrender," Davis thundered.
But, of course, the South effectively did submit on April 9, 1865, when Lee surrendered the largest of the Confederate forces to the Union, accepting defeat. Those two unnecessary months of war that occurred between Lincoln’s offer and Appomattox saw Sherman’s "70,000 Blue avengers" ravage South Carolina where the Civil War had had its start. "I almost tremble for her fate" Sherman said, but he did not hesitate to unleash his forces.
"The war in South Carolina wasn’t pretty and hardly glorious," concluded McPherson, "but Sherman considered it effective. ‘My aim then was to whip the rebels. To humble their pride, to follow the to their inmost recesses and make them fear and dread us.’"
TANVI RATNA: WITH ONE WAR, TRUMP IS BREAKING MIDDLE EAST'S OLD POWER STRUCTURE
Sherman did just that. As did the relentless Grant to his long-time foe Lee. Presiding over the long and bloody war from Washington, D.C., was a man of supreme vision and moral clarity, the indomitable Lincoln, misjudged by almost everyone from before the beginning of the war. He had never demanded emancipation before the war was begun by secessionist fanatics who imagined an empire of slavery from the old South into Mexico and extending into Cuba.
Lincoln ordered done what had to be done to break the will of the fanatics in Richmond and spread throughout the confederacy. Like Presidents Wilson, FDR and Truman in the next century, Lincoln had his terms and would accept nothing less.
Lincoln’s price for peace grew higher as the cost of Union lives grew higher too. The 20th century presidents were far from Lincoln in wisdom and eloquence. It is arguable that Wilson was our worst president despite his vast intellect and refinement. Wilson could not win the peace after America won World War I, and in the failure was the seed of the Second World War.
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FDR, of course, was a deeply flawed man when it came to character but a superb leader in the Second World War, and like Churchill, ruthless when necessary. Truman did what had to be done and didn’t lose any sleep over the atomic bombs which saved tens of thousands of American lives. Presidents do what they think best in wartime. History assesses and often second-guesses them, but they are obliged to act in the moment.
Lincoln was a man of great soul and sorrow but also of indomitable spirit. Like Sherman and Grant and Lincoln’s famed "Team of Rivals," Lincoln persevered even when a significant peace party sprang up in the North and even when he lost 25 of his 123 Republican seats in the midterms of 1862.
We have no idea what will follow President Donald Trump's deadline to the IRGC tonight — we can dispense with the fiction that the mullahs are running Iran now — but there is a very hard core at the heart of the American experience of which we have to hope the IRGC generals are aware. If Trump taps into that and decides to do to Iran’s oil and energy and transportation infrastructure from the air what Lincoln allowed Sherman to do to the Confederacy in Georgia and South Carolina via an army on the ground, it will not be unprecedented. It could in fact eventually result in freedom for an enslaved people.
Trump’s critics are legion, and they are especially enraged when he posts what they conclude to be vulgar and unnecessarily provocative posts. What the impact of those posts are on the IRGC we cannot know. Eventually we will. In the meantime, Iran’s people yearn for a freedom that only Trump can deliver and probably only through hard measures.
Hugh Hewitt is a Fox News contributor and host of "The Hugh Hewitt Show" heard weekday afternoons from 3 PM to 6 PM ET on the Salem Radio Network, and simulcast on Salem News Channel. Hugh drives Americans home on the East Coast and to lunch on the West Coast on over 400 affiliates nationwide, and on all the streaming platforms where SNC can be seen. He is a frequent guest on the Fox News Channel’s news roundtable, hosted by Bret Baier weekdays at 6 p..m ET. A son of Ohio and a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been a Professor of Law at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law since 1996, where he teaches Constitutional Law. Hewitt launched his eponymous radio show from Los Angeles in 1990. Hewitt has frequently appeared on every major national news television network, hosted television shows for PBS and MSNBC, written for every major American paper, has authored a dozen books and moderated a score of Republican candidate debates, most recently the November 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in the 2015-16 cycle. Hewitt focuses his radio show and his column on the Constitution, national security, American politics and the Cleveland Browns and Guardians. Hewitt has interviewed tens of thousands of guests from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump over his 40 years in broadcasting. This column previews the lead story that will drive his radio/ TV show today.
STEVE FORBES: Europe’s attacks on US tech firms must stop. We have just the way to do it
As President Donald Trump grapples with our trade relationships around the world, one longstanding issue has emerged: Europe’s unfair, anticompetitive trade policies governing tech and telecom. America’s innovators and job creators have been treated unfairly for far too long.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer recently announced two new Section 301 investigations related to forced labor and manufacturing. Rumblings in Washington, alongside warnings from senior administration officials, indicate that the Trump administration might soon launch a Section 301 investigation into Europe’s discriminatory digital policies. Such a probe is long overdue and should be welcomed.
But a fair, balanced and transparent digital partnership with our European friends is not a given. Here’s why. Over the next several weeks, Europe will undoubtedly attempt to forestall any potential investigation by pulling the United States into an endless, futile negotiation in which they promise to fix every problem, but in reality simply run out the clock on addressing the issues.
The administration would be wise to avoid getting dragged into such a pointless endeavor that will tie it up in years of bureaucracy and result in an imaginary, never-concluded deal.
US NEEDS TO BREAK CHINA’S SUPPLY CHAIN CHOKEHOLD TO WIN THE TECH RACE
We’ve seen this movie before. During the Obama years, the United States entered negotiations with Europe for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). The process ran for three long years without ever producing a final agreement, absorbing time and attention but doing little to address imbalances or alter the underlying trajectory of the trade relationship.
The stakes are far too high for a repeat feature. The most consequential distortion in the transatlantic relationship is unfolding in the regulatory treatment of digital services and platforms. Here, the terms of competition are increasingly being set by a European agenda that is unmistakably protectionist. This unfair arrangement cannot continue, and it’s high time we got to the bottom of it.
Europe has spent years building a digital regulatory regime that places unique burdens on American technology companies. What it presents as neutral governance to promote so-called European "digital sovereignty" has, in practice, concentrated restrictions on a small group of U.S.-based platforms while leaving domestic competitors largely untouched. And as digital innovation becomes more central to economic and national security, that targeted enforcement has only intensified in scope and scale.
NOT JUST TARIFFS: FOREIGN NATIONS PROFITED OFF OF US — NOW TRUMP IS STRIKING BACK
Europe has already directed roughly $5 billion in data-privacy penalties at American companies, often in the name of "fair competition" or "consumer protection." At the same time, it forces firms like Apple, Google, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft to delay product launches, strip out features, or offer watered-down versions of their services under the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), Digital Services Act (DSA) and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Comparable scrutiny of non-U.S. competitors has been far less evident.
More recently, that posture has turned even more aggressive. European authorities raided the Paris offices of X in February, following months of investigations and a €120 million fine imposed without any detailed basis for the charge until a U.S. House Committee subpoenaed the decision.
Now European officials are rewriting their proposed Digital Networks Act (DNA) to insert new "network usage fees" that would fall almost entirely on U.S. firms. This, despite a prior commitment in a recent joint U.S.-EU trade framework to avoid such fees. Slipping them into the DNA framework amounts to a deliberate breach of that agreement.
This is not exactly the record of a neutral regulator or a reliable trade ally. Nor is there much indication that Europe intends to ease its push to reshape the digital marketplace through protectionist policies that deliberately single out the United States.
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A Section 301 investigation is needed into these practices, to address discriminatory digital regulation. It would allow the United States to formally assess European practices and provide it with important leverage should the United States wish to enter negotiations after completing the process.
In the meantime, Europe should abandon its campaign and support a fair playing field. Although European nations complain about a lack of "digital sovereignty" and U.S. dominance, the truth is American firms are, in fact, dependent on European energy systems and connectivity for their data center infrastructure. The wiser play for Europe would be to continue maximizing excellence in these areas, complementing the strengths of the United States through fair competition.
There may be a time and place for further negotiations. But for now, the United States must establish the magnitude of the problem, which can only come through a 301 investigation. Europe cannot be allowed to stall while expanding its regulatory reach, and exporting its discriminatory model to other countries, including right here in the Western Hemisphere.
President Trump and his trade team must not enter into what would be an ill-fated, fruitless discussion with the Europeans. Bluntly put, entering into talks now would be a trap. A Section 301 investigation into European digital protectionism is a necessity.
LIZ PEEK: Progressive hypocrisy revealed by Cesar Chavez sexual abuse revelations
Jeffrey Epstein is not the only sexual predator who was embraced by Democrats. Consider the case of farmworkers union leader Cesar Chavez.
All over the U.S., civil rights organizations are tearing down statues of Chavez. Celebrations of the late labor leader are being canceled, and schools that honored him are being renamed.
The speed with which progressive groups have tossed the Latino icon overboard is stunning and suggests this: they knew.
They knew about the horrific sexual abuse of girls as young as 13, reported in recent weeks by The New York Times. They knew that Chavez raped and impregnated a 15-year-old girl, who in later years attempted suicide, and routinely sexually abused other young women. But the left kept silent. Political opportunism trumped protecting women from a sexual predator.
The Times report has not led to lengthy investigations or hearings pondering the "allegations." There has been no push-back from Chavez’ family or friends – not even from the United Farm Workers union, which he founded. Indeed, the Times acknowledges, "A handful of Mr. Chavez’s relatives and former U.F.W. leaders have been aware for years about various allegations of sexual misconduct, but there is no evidence that they made efforts to fully investigate the accusations…"
The Chavez revelations remind us yet again that Democrats, who pretend to care about women, are profoundly hypocritical. In explaining why his city is scrubbing Chavez’ name from schools and parks, San Fernando Mayor Joel Fajardo said the speedy do-over was necessary "to let our children know that we took this seriously, to make sure that we have a society that values the victims, that trusts the survivors."
HIGH-RANKING DEMOCRATS ADMIT TO KNOWINGLY ABANDONING WOMEN
Is that true? Consider the case of Tara Reade, who credibly accused then-presidential candidate Joe Biden of sexually assaulting her when she worked for him as an aide in 1993. Reade went public with the sordid accusations in 2020, months before the election that landed Democrat Biden in the Oval Office. NPR and other outlets, including the New York Times, found that Reade had recounted the incident, in which she claimed Biden pushed her up against a wall, lifted her skirt and digitally penetrated her, to a close friend soon after the incident.
The friend, Lynda LaCasse, described herself to a New York Times reporter as a "very strong Democrat," who supported Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren during the primaries and intends to support Biden in the general election. She was not a GOP operative. As NPR wrote, "She said she felt compelled to share ‘the truth’ despite her personal politics."
BROADCAST BIAS: MEDIA ATTACK CESAR CHAVEZ, BUT SKIP HIS BIG NAME DEMOCRAT FANS
Given Biden’s reputation for inappropriately touching women, and his daughter’s recollection of her dad's ("probably not appropriate") showering with her at a young age, Reade’s story is entirely believable. But Nancy Pelosi, at that time House speaker, said she had "great comfort" with Biden’s denials, and the world moved on. Reade, saying she was being threatened and was afraid for her life, moved to Russia, and that was that. Whatever Biden did, Democrats simply put politics first.
An even more astounding example of Democrats throwing victims under the bus comes, of course, from the seedy history of former President Bill Clinton, close friend of Jeffrey Epstein. Juanita Broaddrick accused the former president of raping her in 1978 in her hotel room; she varied her story over the years, including at one time recanting the charges in an affidavit relating to similar accusations from a woman named Paula Jones. But in 1999, she came forward, recounting again the alleged rape in an NPR interview. Broaddrick, too, had told a friend about the incident at the time. She, too, was credible.
And Broaddrick’s story, like that of Reade, fits well with the known behavior of Clinton, who was also accused of sexual assault by Jones and Kathleen Willey. Jones, who claimed Clinton had assaulted her in her hotel room, eventually settled a civil suit against the former president, for $850,000.
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And, by all means, let us not forget Monica Lewinsky, a 22-year-old White House intern who had oral sex with Bill Clinton in the Oval Office. And, Clinton’s many trips on Epstein’s Lolita Express.
These are stories from the past, but there are plenty of modern-day examples of liberal disdain for women. Remember Vice President Kamala Harris’ husband Doug Emhoff, who cheated on his first wife by impregnating the family’s nanny, and was credibly accused of assaulting a former girlfriend. Nonetheless, the Washington Post’s Catherine Rampell described him as a "Modern-Day Sex Symbol" and gushed that he was an "ideal partner."
Worse, consider the silence from the left about the Iranian women's soccer team, who defied their country’s brutal regime by refusing to sing their national anthem. A number of players initially sought asylum in Australia, where they had competed in the Women’s Asian Cup, but after they and their families were threatened by Iran’s thuggish mullahs, they returned home to an uncertain fate.
Our hearts break for them, but not the hearts of those like soccer star Megan Rapinoe, who finally uttered some supportive words after being criticized for her multi-day silence.
And what about the left’s love affair with trans women, which has led to the thrashing of outspoken women like J.K. Rowling, author of the beloved Harry Potter books? Rowling, a defender of same-sex marriage and abortion rights, dared to criticize biological men competing against women, and was viciously canceled by the left.
Riley Gaines, a 12-time NCAA All-American swimmer, has been insulted and on one occasion assaulted by protesters enraged by her resistance to trans competitors.
Encouraging biological men to play against women in sports is the essential insult to girls and women who work hard to succeed, only to find themselves defeated by people who are naturally stronger and faster.
Liberal women are Democrats’ most reliable voters. But they should realize that they are valued mainly as political tools by the left. After all, Democrats cannot even define what a woman is. That says it all.
Dem Senate primary erupts in key state as candidate teams up with radical streamer: 'America deserved 9/11'
A Democratic candidate in a crucial Senate battleground showdown is taking plenty of incoming fire from his primary rivals as well as the Republican contender in the race as he prepares to team up on Tuesday with a controversial far-left online streamer.
Abdul El-Sayed, the 2018 Michigan Democratic gubernatorial runner-up who is backed by progressive champion Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., as he seeks his party's 2026 Senate nomination, is scheduled to hold campus rallies at the University of Michigan and Michigan State University with Hasan Piker, as well as with progressive Rep. Summer Lee of Pennsylvania.
Piker, a potent progressive influencer, could help boost El-Sayed in a competitive and combustible Democratic Senate nomination race thanks to his millions of younger, progressive social media followers on YouTube, Instagram and X.
But the appearance at the campus rallies by Piker — who once said "America deserved 9/11," and who critics argue is antisemitic due to his sharp criticism of the Israeli government and the downplaying of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel — is alarming to many Democrats.
BERNIE-BACKED DEMOCRATIC SENATE CANDIDATE IN KEY RACE TAKES INCOMING POLITICAL FIRE
El-Sayed's top two rivals for the nomination have blasted his scheduled appearance with Piker, which was announced less than two weeks after a man rammed his truck into a Michigan synagogue, wounding a guard in what authorities said was a targeted act of domestic terrorism against the Jewish community.
"It is unacceptable for a candidate wanting to represent all Michiganders to campaign with Hasan Piker, a person who is unapologetic about a career of making hurtful and anti-Semitic comments," Rep. Haley Stevens said in a statement. "With all that's at stake in this election, we should be focused on the challenges Michiganders are facing and how to fight for them."
And State Senator Mallory McMorrow, in an interview with the Jewish Insider, called Piker "somebody who says extremely offensive things in order to generate clicks."
SANDERS-ENDORSED SENATE CANDIDATE KNOCKED FOR ALLEGED FLIP-FLOP TO 'HAVE IT BOTH WAYS' ON KEY ISSUE
"That is not somebody that you should be campaigning with at a moment when there is clearly a lot of pain and trauma across our state," McMorrow added. "You don’t fan the flames and stoke division just to get attention."
El-Sayed, Stevens and McMorrow will face off in an early August primary.
It's not just El Sayed's Democratic nomination rivals who are criticizing his decision to team up with Piker.
Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and the Anti-Defamation League have charged Piker is antisemitic and Matt Bennett, a leader of the well-known moderate Democratic group the Third Way, slammed El-Sayed as a "disgrace to the Democratic Party."
Former Republican Rep. Mike Rogers, who's on a glidepath to the GOP Senate nomination in Michigan for a second straight cycle, told Fox News Digital in a statement, "If you would have told me a few years ago that Democrat frontrunners would campaign with known antisemites, I would've thought you were crazy. But one thing Abdul continues to prove, there's no limit to how far left Democrats will go."
"From calling to defund the police and make Michigan a sanctuary state, to attempting to abolish private healthcare, and now campaigning with an antisemite who claimed ‘America deserved 9/11,’ one thing that's for certain: Abdul and the Democrats are too radical for Michigan," Rogers argued.
In the wake of the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack that incited Israel’s war with Gaza, Piker described Hamas, a terrorist organization, as the "lesser of two evils" in the conflict.
Once, when asked if he supported terrorism, Piker answered by saying, "No, I don’t. I don’t support the state of Israel, and I don’t support the state of the United States of America."
He also faced backlash for praising the "brave" "mujahideen" who injured Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, who lost an eye in Afghanistan.
"What the f--- is wrong with this dude? Didn't he go to war and like literally lose his eye because some mujahideen — a brave f---ing soldier—f---ed his eye hole with their d---?" Piker said.
El-Sayed has repeatedly stood his ground in defending his appearances with Piker. The candidate noted that Piker was allowed by Democrats to stream at the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
"It's about speaking to a broader audience," El-Sayed said last week in an appearance on Fox News' "America's Newsroom."
El-Sayed emphasized that "just because you invite somebody to campaign with you, or you're engaging with them does not mean that you agree with them.... Every day, 30,000 people and counting tune in to Hassan's stream. A lot of folks who don't watch Fox News, they don't watch CNN, they don't watch MSNBC."
The Senate race in Michigan is one of a handful in this year’s midterm elections that will determine if the Republicans hold their 53-47 majority in the chamber. Michigan, where Democratic Sen. Gary Peters is retiring, is one of the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s (NRSC) top targets as they try to not only hold onto their seats, but also possibly expand their majority.
Trump commandeers Cabinet members to campaign in midterms, ordering them to drop or mute controversial stances
President Donald Trump is drafting Cabinet members and top aides – at least those who haven’t been fired or about to be let go – for a targeted new strategy aimed squarely at the midterms.
Key members will be criss-crossing the country, particularly in Republican districts, trying to minimize the party’s losses in November.
In: The more popular parts of the Trump agenda.
Out: The more controversial aspects of the Trump agenda that have suddenly become politically inconvenient.
TRUMP FIGHTING FIERCE BATTLES, AT HOME AND ABROAD: WHY HE CASUALLY DISMISSES THE CONSEQUENCES
It’s an uphill climb. Trump has acknowledged that the president’s party usually gets shellacked in its sixth year. Some Trump loyalists privately acknowledge that the GOP will definitely lose control of the House, and possibly even the Senate.
If Hakeem Jeffries becomes speaker, that will trigger endless investigations that are certain to make Trump seem even more of a lame duck than he is under the Constitution.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is the classic example. He has spent most of the last year crusading against vaccines, in keeping with his lifelong anti-vax campaign that is not supported by scientific evidence. Kennedy has branded his movement Make America Healthy Again.
He has fired the CDC director (who said RFK ordered her to rubber-stamp his policies without evidence), ousted other agency officials, and still hasn’t come up with a permanent director.
But as Politico reports, Kennedy has "been told by the White House to stay away from some of the more polarizing parts of the MAHA agenda, like vaccine skepticism, and focus instead on issues like nutrition."
The campaign must reengage the roughly half of MAHA supporters who say that Trump and Kennedy haven’t done enough to make America healthier, the website says. RFK is a lifelong Democrat, and his party sees a chance to influence voters interested in goals long identified with the left, such as battling unprocessed foods and shrinking chemicals in the environment.
Trump is hardly the first president to utilize his Cabinet in the run-up to the midterms. Jimmy Carter, in 1979, fired his health secretary, treasury secretary, energy secretary, transportation secretary and attorney general. It didn’t help. And when Iran seized 52 American hostages later that year, he was toast.
"Cabinet members will be urged to focus on several things Trump has done since taking office," including tax cuts, Axios reports.
He is also considering removing FBI Director Kash Patel and Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, according to media reports, but has dropped plans to dump National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard after discussing it with aides.
The president took a hard shot at one of our longtime allies yesterday:
"We rebuilt Germany. How about Germany telling us, Germany telling that, well, it’s not their war. ‘We had nothing to do with it.’ They wanted me to go and tell them everything I was doing. ‘We didn’t know anything about it.’ Well, if I would have told them, they would have leaked it, and we wouldn’t have been nearly as successful, possibly, right?"
He also blamed the media for disclosing the disclosing there was a second crew member missing from the F-15 that Iran shot down, though that seemed to come out almost immediately.
"We didn’t talk about the first one for an hour. And then somebody leaked something, which we’ll hopefully find — that leaker. We’re looking very hard to find that leaker. And talked about there’s somebody missing. They basically said that we have one and there’s someone missing. Well, they didn’t know there was somebody missing until this leaker gave the information. So whoever it was, we think we’ll be able to find it out, because we’re going to go to the media company that released it, and we’re gonna say national security — give it up or go to jail. And we know who — and you know who we’re talking about."
Amit Segal, a reporter for Israel’s Channel 12, posted this on X at 11:19 a.m. Friday: "Western source: One of the American crew members was successfully rescued."
CONSERVATIVE COLUMNIST SAYS DONALD TRUMP HAS LOST THE COUNTRY. IT’S COMPLICATED.
A New York Times report on deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, architect of the hardline mass deportation campaign, is revealing:
"He faces questions about how aggressively he can continue to drive the deportation campaign, and how much appetite his party and the country have for tactics that proved successful in helping to boost arrests of immigrants but reignited a polarizing debate over what it means to be American… Miller even pulled back his public appearances for a time."
So he’s pushing all the same policies, even against immigrants with no criminal record, but… quietly.
"Rather than Mr. Miller seeing his power recede, he has moved to apply it in other ways, seeking policies that would pressure undocumented immigrants to leave on their own."
Oh, and one more thing.
You might have the impression that there will be a huge blue wave in November.
But Charlie Cook, a seasoned and utterly nonpartisan political analyst, explains why that’s not the case.
While the Democrats are virtually assured of taking the House, "Only three Republicans were elected in 2024 in districts that Kamala Harris won. Among independents nationally, Trump’s approval ratings typically are down in the high 20s and low 30s, but gerrymandering and political self-sorting by the population has shrunk the number of purple districts, thus diluting independents’ power. There are very few Republican-held seats anywhere in that much peril."
With Republican approval of the president in the 80s, "MAGA voters are so in love with him and trust him so thoroughly that nothing—not the Epstein files nor the attacks on Venezuela and Iran — are peeling them off. So Democrats have their work cut out for them to flip many red districts."
That brings us to the math. "Only 17 GOP seats are rated as Toss Up or worse. Adding in the next level of competitive seats (‘Lean Republican’) brings only three more GOP seats to the competitive pile — still well below the post-World War II average midterm outcome of a 26-seat loss for the president’s party… Democrats could run the table, hold on to all their own vulnerable seats, and still fall short of their pickups in 2006 or 2018."
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What’s more, says Charlie, in the last eight years, "the party that lost seats in the House actually gained in the Senate. With just a third of the Senate up every two years and only a handful of seats competitive in most years, the upper chamber’s results tend to be more idiosyncratic."
Trump is deploying the Cabinet because he’s looking at serious losses in November. But it may not be the blowout that most prognosticators are expecting.