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Weekend Punch: Michael Sobolik On Defeating Red China

Communist China

DW Opinion

Punch

Taiwan

In a very literal sense, Taiwan is moving westward toward China, and there’s nothing that can be done about it. The tectonic plates that have shifted over millions of years, creating the island’s mountain terrain, are also driving it slowly and irrevocably toward the mainland. That notoriously craggy terrain is expected to act as a deterrent to any attack from the People’s Liberation Army from across the Taiwan Strait, a lane of the Pacific which runs as narrow as 100 miles and for the most part shallower than 100 meters. For the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan lies just out of reach. It is the military equivalent of skipping a smooth rock.
Taiwan’s position as a locus of China’s ambitions go beyond the temptation of seizing hold of the island’s burgeoning chip industry. It is the path to becoming a true ocean-ruling power, breaking out of the chain of Western-allied archipelagos that run along the Pacific Ring of Fire. To extend the PLA’s untested forces and grasp Taiwan isn’t just a matter of national pride to further the One China policy. It is a giant step toward the global dominance China’s leader, Xi Jinping, wants to transform into an inevitability — his lifetime’s legacy for the PRC.
For critics who have questioned the interests of the United States in its military support for Taiwan, the explosion of the semiconductor industry came at an unfortunate time. Beyond the obvious American interest in defending against the expansion of China’s brutal communist regime, Taiwan is now dominating the global foundry of chips — including more than 60 percent of the market overall, and 90 percent of the most advanced versions, central to the pursuit of artificial intelligence dominance. Taiwan&#8217;s innovations made their independence essential at exactly the same time protectionists and isolationists wanted to press the case the island is utterly dispensible.
How very inconvenient.
The question that confronts Donald Trump now as he wings his way to the long-anticipated meeting with Xi Jinping is how clearly he will make that importance known. There is no security, market, or historical incentive at this point to concede the long-held position of the United States toward Taiwan — bolstered most recently in a December package that included $11 billion in weapons for the island. But there is the question of how dedicated the Taiwanese are to their own defense, after the opposition to Taiwan’s president — who holds the largest portion of legislative seats — nixed a major package that would’ve significantly increased their defense spending, opting for a half measure that cut back on domestic drone production and their air defense systems. The opposition’s leader, Cheng Li-wun, has courted accusations that she’s working to diminish the island’s deterrence capability — a storyline that only grew after she chose to <a href="https://breakingdefense.com/2026/05/taiwans-parliament-passes-pared-back-supplementary-defense-budget/">meet</a> with Xi Jinping in person last month.
For the people of Taiwan, there is also the question of time. Opposition to the acceptance of China taking over their republic is largely the view of older members of society, and the youngest people on the island seem increasingly open to the idea. The constant influence of PRC-backed social media campaigns and outreach efforts to exert soft power over the minds of youths absolutely has something to do with this. For a population that is facing a gargantuan decline — their fertility rate fell to the lowest in the world last year at 0.7 — perhaps all China will have to do is wait them out.
The PRC has telegraphed its Taiwan-related intent for this meeting all along. It wants to tempt Donald Trump by appealing to his personal vision as a peacemaker — particularly in the context of the Iran conflict — by asking for an alteration to stated U.S. policy, or just to have the president declare publicly that he opposes Taiwan’s independence. The propaganda victory alone would send a shudder through the island’s political leadership and would be a coup for Xi Jinping, even if it may seem like a low-cost offering from President Trump for potential economic gain.
In this context, the meeting this week takes on a whole new importance when it comes to dictating the future — not just for AI in the West, but for Donald Trump’s legacy as a world leader. He has restored a hardened focus on America’s interests, particularly in the Western Hemisphere. As dedicated as he is to ending Iran’s chances at becoming a nuclear power, some of his advisors might use that effort’s uncertainty as a justification for sacrificing America’s interests in Taiwan.
If there’s one thing we know about this president, it’s that, as much as he listens to those around him, he keeps his own counsel on the right path forward. There is no wisdom in being remembered as the president who gave China what it craves most. And in a brutal sense, so long as the PRC’s energy is directed at this one infuriatingly productive mountainous island the size of West Virginia, it is spending less time on everything else it would like to do to become the global superpower of Xi Jinping’s dreams. Trump is a gambler, wagering the cost of breaking norms and diplomatic rituals on his, and America’s, strength. Today, that is a cost worth paying.

TOPSHOT-TAIWAN-SKOREA-US-CHINA-DIPLOMACY

Trump Holds The Future Of Taiwan In His Hands

China

Foreign Policy

In a massive blow to Virginia Democrats and the national party&#8217;s hopes for the midterms, the Virginia Supreme Court threw out the 10-1 gerrymander passed narrowly by voters last month as unconstitutional, finding its result &#8220;null and void.&#8221;
The Court&#8217;s 4-3 ruling is a vindication for critics like former attorneys general Jason Miyares and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/gerrymandering-democrats-taken-to-court">Ken Cuccinelli</a>, both of whom were loud critics of the process that put the referendum on the ballot in the first place.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
If Abigail Spanberger and Virginia Democrats had paid attention my October 2025 AG’s Opinion that made clear this scheme was unconstitutional and illegal, they could have saved more than $70 million, countless headaches, and months of obnoxious television ads defending the… <a href="https://t.co/787vvZRHZD">https://t.co/787vvZRHZD</a>
— Jason Miyares (@JasonMiyaresVA) <a href="https://twitter.com/JasonMiyaresVA/status/2052756571243909513?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 8, 2026</a></blockquote>
This wasn&#8217;t even about the bizarre nature of the Democrat-favoring map itself, with its now notorious lobster-shaped district. The court ruled that the General Assembly failed to meet the Commonwealth&#8217;s constitutional requirements, which include an intervening election. The fact that early voting had already led to almost half of Virginia voters casting their ballots meant the session that General Assembly Democrats used to spark the referendum process in an October 31 vote didn&#8217;t pass muster.
&#8220;While the Commonwealth is free by its lights to do the right thing for the right reason, the Rule of Law requires that it be done the right way,&#8221; Justice Arthur Kelsey wrote for the majority.
Everyone involved on the Democratic side now has egg on their face. The 10-1 redistricting referendum dominated the political conversation of Gov. Abigail Spanberger&#8217;s first months in office, squandering any goodwill among independents toward the faux-moderate. It set a pile of money on fire to the tune of more than $70 million from Democrats nationwide pouring into ads, promotions, and social media.
Spanberger isn&#8217;t the only victim of this hubris, caught as she was in an immediate flip-flop on the issue and forced by state Senate President pro tempore Louise Lucas — the most powerful Democrat in Richmond, who this week had her offices and businesses raided by the FBI — to accept such an extreme map. National Democrats flocked to push for the measure, including noted constitutional scholar Barack Obama.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Virginia, if you haven’t done it already, make a plan to vote YES on the redistricting referendum.
You can vote early by April 18 or on Election Day, April 21. Find your polling place at <a href="https://t.co/vsawTNnoax">https://t.co/vsawTNnoax</a>. <a href="https://t.co/NiCTBpS10I">pic.twitter.com/NiCTBpS10I</a>
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) <a href="https://twitter.com/BarackObama/status/2045138583934447660?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 17, 2026</a></blockquote>
The Democrats still have major backing heading into the midterms, and history says they should sweep into power in the House of Representatives. But their biggest investment and most extreme move in the redistricting game blew up in their faces, and Virginians can rejoice that the state Supreme Court found their methods to violate the rules and the law.
As for House Democrats, this <a href="https://www.axios.com/2026/05/08/virginia-supreme-court-redistricting-democrats">statement</a> to Axios, offered on condition of anonymity, is a good summary of their mood: &#8220;F*****ck!!&#8221;

Supreme Court

The Virginia Supreme Court Just Nixed The Spanberger Gerrymander

gerrymandering

Virginia Democrats

House Lawmakers Work On Funding Deal As Possible Government Shutdown Looms

Kevin McCarthy Tells The GOP How To Not Get Crushed In 2026

2026 elections

Kevin McCarthy

Republicans

For the ninety seconds when members of the media were diving under tables at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, watching as politicians and cabinet members were yanked from the room by security, you have to wonder how many had the honest thought: did we do this?
The repeated media normalization of assassination fantasies on the American left hasn&#8217;t been a quiet trend. A decade after Kathy Griffin posed with Donald Trump&#8217;s severed head, their attitude is the same as Steve Schmidt&#8217;s in the immediate aftermath of this latest attempt: to the extent anyone is to blame for repeated attempts at Trump&#8217;s assassination, it&#8217;s the man himself — and then maybe his supporters for having the audacity to elect Orange Hitler twice.
Remember the Rutgers study that found more than half of Left-of-center respondents said it would be at least somewhat justified to murder Donald Trump? When the &#8220;radical Left&#8221; describes such a vast portion of the Democratic electorate on the question &#8220;should the president be unalived,” believe them.
The legacy media has declared who they want dead. They continue to platform the Left&#8217;s voices who urge his death. They rely on the violent Left&#8217;s bark being worse than their bite — even as those who bay for blood continually show their eagerness for the exact outcome that motivates the president&#8217;s would-be murderers.
Hasan Piker&#8217;s call to murder capitalists and drench the streets with their blood gets the New York Times and Conde Nast imprimatur. &#8220;Your cool murderous communist message is such a song of the summer vibe, tell me more, lol.&#8221; That casual endorsement of bloodshed isn’t fringe — it’s increasingly mainstream by the same people who claim democracy dies in darkness. Well, it almost died in the sun in Butler and West Palm and the bowels of the Washington Hilton. How many more cracks does the media want their psychotic fellow travelers to take at this? How long will they stand by Senate Democrats who have blocked security funding in the midst of war and blatant terror threats? Or should we just get used to a political reality where we refuse to treat violent rhetoric as the incitement it is?
The WHCD attack was not an isolated incident of random violence. It was the predictable outcome of years of rhetoric, glorified in newsrooms, popularized on campuses, featured on podcasts, and given serious, intoned consideration in the pages of glossy magazines by the same people who claim to be standing against hate. The Left’s open celebration of political murder did this, and it will continue to do it, fueled by a legacy media that knows a click is a click, no matter the motivation.

“No Kings” Protest In San Francisco

The Legacy Media Is Complicit In America’s Assassination Vibes

assassination attempt

Legacy Media

Political Violence

White House Correspondents’ Dinner

Virginia was taken over by partisan Democrats in a radical act of disenfranchisement and gerrymandering last night, in a snap election where Fairfax County — populated by bureaucrats, contractors, lobbyists, and other people who contribute absolutely nothing enduring to society decided that the Commonwealth, the mother of presidents, should be ruled by Karen in her Emerald Subaru from the Potomac to the Shenandoah.
Abigail Spanberger, the CIA vet avatar of these Karens who, nonetheless, is wise enough to understand that people really, really hate her, was in the New York Times the morning of the vote, spinning the idea that oh, woe is me, this was a gerrymander thrust upon me by forces outside of my control. She can see her potential as a Gavin Newsom running mate slipping away and she is doing her best to reframe herself as the moderate she pretended to be before she forced a plethora of illegal immigrant murderers back on the streets. No one likes your new outfit, Abigail. It&#8217;s not working for you.
Meanwhile, the GOP flavor of the month, who used to be the darling of the Wall Street Journal editorial page, utterly flamed out. How much of his personal money — not PAC money, his own, he has a ton of it! — did Glenn Youngkin devote to the effort to block the most obscene gerrymander in the history of the nation? Was it less than the cost of his car? If it was, why should he get the time of day from Republican voters for any position he desires in the future?
The general impression of national Republicans for months has been that Virginia was a total screwup, a situation where bad consultants didn&#8217;t know what they were doing and a contest that could&#8217;ve been won was instead ignored by national Republican donors. That take doesn&#8217;t always turn out to be correct, but it sure looks like it was this time, with the margin coming in far lower than many had predicted. What could&#8217;ve happened if Republicans found someone to just match a third of what the Soros family poured into the Commonwealth? We&#8217;ll never know. Instead, for the foreseeable future, Virginia will be a state that Democrats win by 3-5 points while taking 10 out of 11 congressional districts.
The only hope the GOP has is legal recourse. There is some basis for this — the referendum was written with clearly biased language, at odds with constitutional requirements, and the special session was clearly inappropriate in terms of the timing of its decision. But do you really expect a court system larded with Democrats to produce a different outcome than the one the party wants? This isn&#8217;t a democracy; it&#8217;s rule by the Country Club Democrat and their favorite president, Barack Obama. Remember when he was supposed to be a figure who ended partisan divides? That was a fun five minutes. Now he&#8217;s just the rampant partisan with the butt-ugly museum you have to spend the cost of a good dinner to tour. He&#8217;s publicly celebrating the vote today, as are the wonderful likes of Adam Kinzinger, Bill Kristol, and the gamut of hosts at MSNOW. It turns out the defenders of democracy are only interested in defending it if they cheat for an edge.
What Republicans need to understand after this vote is that they have, without question, lost the House of Representatives. The question now is whether Democrats get a more than 20 vote margin — and the trend certainly looks closer to 25-30. Such a hole will take years to climb out of, thanks in part to a lackadaisical approach that ignored local warnings and embraced the hubris of a nationalized election in a midterm year. Democrats are now set to rule a purple state by a 10-1 margin. The questions to Republicans should be: Do you think what you&#8217;re doing is working? Why?

Early Voting Nears End For Virginia’s Redistricting Referendum

In Virginia, Republicans Wuss Out And Democrats Grab Power

Virginia

This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/introducing-upstream-a-lifestyle-and-culture-section-of-the-daily-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream,</a> The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
***
It’s a common conversation among millennial parents, so common that it isn’t worth remarking on beyond the brief acknowledgement of shared pain. A writer colleague on a trip together broke the ice with a mention.
“Yes, we’ve got three at home, and my husband has them; he’s very capable. Grandma is there, too,” she said with a long sigh. “She actually makes things harder. I just wish she could, you know, help? I don’t get it. She always wanted grandkids, she always told me she wants grandkids, but now it’s like, ‘It’s Tuesday. I have pilates.’”
The Baby Boomer generation is the greatest generation in only one measure: in terms of the redistribution of wealth to itself. No other American generation comes close, thanks to the timing of the Great Society, the expansion of old-age benefits, the timing of Wall Street booms, and a real estate market Boomers continue to dominate. They are the largest group of homeowners by far, despite being just 20% of the population; in 2025, they were also the largest group of home buyers, typically with cash. Empty nest boomers own <a href="https://www.redfin.com/news/empty-nest-large-homes-2026/">a third</a> of all three-bedroom homes in America. They own double the percentage of homes millennials do, and according to a 2025 <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/61-boomers-never-plan-sell-123100288.html">survey</a>, 61% of boomer homeowners say they never plan to sell their homes.
Those homes are often the epicenter of family moves. Because millennials rent when their parents bought, they are the ones who have to move when they have kids, proximity to grandma and grandpa being a presumed benefit offering free childcare and occasional help. Three-quarters of millennials say it’s important to live near their parents after having kids, and depending on the survey, approximately a third say they’ve relocated or already made a point of living near their parents because of the kid factor. But when it comes to delivering on that help, Boomers are sorely lacking: Just one out of five millennial parents says parents help with regular childcare. The anecdotes are ubiquitous, and they are not flattering.
“We moved 15 minutes away from my parents after we had our second,” a friend tells me. “Since we had a boy, I thought my dad would want to spend time with him. We’ve lived here a year, and he’s seen him four times. He held him once.”
The Boomer drive-by seems to be the most common interaction: a momentary disruptive pause in the day when kids are taken to do some activity that could conceivably give you enough time to run a few errands, get the car serviced, or spend actual time picking out a steak. But it turns out that something happens, or the kids were rowdy, or grandpa forgot he has to do something, and they’re back on your doorstep 45 minutes later, somehow still hungry. Or there’s one level worse: the drive-by for social media, where grandma is just in the house long enough to snap a picture for her friends on The Facebook.
“My brother had kids 10 years before I did, and he got ‘grandma weekends,’ the kids staying over at their house for two to three days,” another friend tells me. “I didn’t get married till a decade later, and I’m lucky to get ‘grandma lunch.’ She’s in Europe for a month. He played golf at Spyglass; I’m lucky to get a Costco run in.”
Anecdote isn&#8217;t the plural of data, but the conversation around this topic has been widespread and only goes in one direction: toward Grandboomers who are consistently more interested in fun than in<a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/millennials-feel-abandoned-parents-available-help-raise-grandkids-busy"> helping out</a> with the grandbabies. It&#8217;s fine if the elders are just deciding that taking care of a toddler isn&#8217;t &#8220;living their best life,&#8221; but they can&#8217;t expect to escape criticism for it. As one beleaguered mom whose complaints went viral<a href="https://www.newsweek.com/millennials-thinks-boomers-worst-grandparents-ever-2068439"> told</a> Newsweek last year, &#8220;It definitely triggered guilty boomers who were irritated and said they&#8217;re not going to raise our kids, but that&#8217;s not what we&#8217;re asking for. I have gotten so many messages from millennials saying they felt heard and less alone. They thought it was only their issue, and they had no idea that others dealt with this.&#8221; Believe me, if you talk to your fellow millennial parents, you absolutely know.
You can ascribe this social trend to any Boomer aspect of your choosing: permanent main character syndrome, an abiding aversion to any reminder of their aging nature, belief that they “did their time” changing diapers and shouldn’t have to do another run, or just a rejection of the parenting styles of millennials as being too demanding, too helicopter for their tastes. But it is an undeniable trend, one that virtually every millennial parent knows all too well.
“My mom changed our diapers growing up, and she says she’s done enough for her life,” yet another friend tells me. “But it sure would be nice if she was willing to do it just for one Friday a month.”
You can dismiss this development as just a generation that has lived longer enjoying life to the fullest. You can describe it as irrelevant because millennials should figure out ways to pay for childcare and take care of it themselves. But the hard fact is that an underlying reason for the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/people-arent-having-kids-and-one-reason-keeps-coming-up">decline in American population</a> that we see so regularly reported, year after year, is this Boomer attitude.
It is a simple binary: In the absence of date nights, without a break from the kids, millennial parents simply do not have time to make more kids. If that’s something America wants to change, it’s going to have to bring back shame for our elders. Help your kids, or get used to fewer grandkids. You&#8217;re the product of a Baby Boom, but you seem completely uninterested in creating another one. That’s the reality. Change starts with you.

GettyImages-1766623890

America’s Birth Rate Problem Might Start At Grandma’s House

Birth Rates

family

kids

Millennials

Upstream

The attempted <a href="https://www.thefp.com/p/why-the-vatican-and-the-white-house">hit piece</a> on one of J.D. Vance&#8217;s closest allies in the administration fell apart in a day.
Let&#8217;s take a step back to understand the context. For years, Elbridge Colby — currently the Undersecretary of War for Policy at the Pentagon, a prominent and respected realist thinker on national security — has been the target of attacks from those seeking to undermine his status within the policy community. These attacks have come primarily from neoconservatives seeking to undermine someone who has the resume of a future secretary of state or the like.
Now, as with so many other disputes, Colby has come to serve as a proxy for the true target of criticism: Vice President J.D. Vance, who purportedly shares many of his foreign policy views.
The latest assault originated in the The Free Press, which published a freelance writer who made audacious, unsourced claims about conversations that occurred within a January meeting with representatives of the Catholic Church. Concerning a meeting between Pentagon officials and the Apostolic Nuncio Christophe Cardinal Pierre — preceding any critique by the Pope of the current conflict in Iran — The Free Press published claims that read like they were designed by AI to offend Catholics everywhere.
Describing the confab as &#8220;a bitter lecture warning that the United States has the military power to do whatever it wants—and that the Church had better take its side,&#8221; it included the hair-on-fire claim that in the meeting, Pentagon officials — presumably including Colby — &#8220;went so far as to invoke the Avignon Papacy, the period in the 1300s when the French Crown leveraged its military power to dominate the papal authority.&#8221;
The claim was echoed by the ideologically incoherent band of Trump administration critics, in this case including The Atlantic&#8217;s David French, Pod Save America&#8217;s Jon Favreau, and noted resident of the furthest reaches of the galaxy Candace Owens. Bro podcaster Shawn Ryan <a href="https://x.com/ShawnRyan762/status/2041990673222570488">suggested</a> that the Trump administration was literally threatening to bomb the Vatican.
The report led to this question on the tarmac in Hungary of Vance, who was clearly blindsided by the claims:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="JD Vance Reacts to Report US Official Issued Threat to Vatican Ambassador" width="422" height="750" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7DJc5jCOYT4?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
The only problem with this report is that everyone in the room has said that&#8217;s not what happened. This comment in response from Brian Burch, Ambassador to the Holy See, related the views of Cardinal Christophe Pierre, who retired as the Apostolic Nuncio following his 80th birthday:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
I was pleased to speak today with His Eminence, Cardinal Christophe Pierre. As expected, he confirmed that recent media characterizations of his meeting with Undersecretary Colby are “fabrications” that were “just invented.” Given the intelligence and seriousness of Mr. Colby, I… <a href="https://t.co/R2ogLy2HAf">https://t.co/R2ogLy2HAf</a>
— Ambassador Brian Burch (@BrianBurchUSA) <a href="https://twitter.com/BrianBurchUSA/status/2042307511504519366?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 9, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;I was pleased to speak today with His Eminence, Cardinal Christophe Pierre. As expected, he confirmed that recent media characterizations of his meeting with Undersecretary Colby are &#8216;fabrication&#8217; that were &#8216;just invented.&#8217; Given the intelligence and seriousness of Mr. Colby, I was likewise not surprised when His Eminence acknowledged there were no threats of any kind in the meeting. &#8216;It was a frank and cordial meeting that took place two months ago.&#8217; Threat of Avignon? &#8216;None.'&#8221;
In fairness, the participants were smiling an awful lot for just getting threatened with Dresden on the Tiber.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Under Secretary of War for Policy Elbridge Colby <a href="https://twitter.com/USWPColby?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@USWPColby</a> had a substantive, respectful, and professional meeting with Cardinal Pierre, the then-Papal Nuncio, and his team on January 22, 2026. During the cordial meeting, they discussed a range of topics, including issues of… <a href="https://t.co/McI0sB2wKC">pic.twitter.com/McI0sB2wKC</a>
— DOW Rapid Response (@DOWResponse) <a href="https://twitter.com/DOWResponse/status/2042300020494418303?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 9, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The Vatican release this morning is as definitive as it gets, reading in full:
<blockquote>
As confirmed by His Excellency Christophe Pierre, former Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, his meeting with Mr. Elbridge Andrew Colby was part of the Pontifical Representative’s regular duties and provided an opportunity for an exchange of views on matters of mutual interest. The account offered by certain media outlets regarding this meeting does not correspond to the truth in any way.
</blockquote>
There are denials, and then there are vociferous denials, and then there are unequivocal denials. The Free Press piece remains published, with only an editor&#8217;s note giving comment from the Pentagon. The question we should be asking is this: Why would anyone run such a thinly sourced piece attacking the prominently Catholic vice president unless there was an underlying agenda?

Pope Leo XIV Meets With JD Vance And Marco Rubio, The Day After Inauguration Mass

Don’t Fall Prey To Claims The Trump Administration Wants To Bomb The Vatican

Catholics

JD Vance

Trump Administration

The ceasefire being trumpeted across the world today looks less like a two-week agreement toward the end of the current U.S.-Israel war on Iran’s regime and more like a break so President Donald Trump can watch Master’s golf undisturbed.
The reported details laid out in Iran’s ten point response to negotiation talks represent, on multiple points, a risky series of steps that are either impossible to maintain or aren’t even being reported the same to both sides – with a depiction in Farsi of agreed allowance for the continued enrichment of uranium.
That should be a non-negotiable point for a president who has derided Barack Obama’s Iran deal ad nauseam, regardless of his reluctance to extend the current conflict into the summer.
Here’s the reality of the proposed deal if accepted on its face:
<ul class="ul1">
<li class="li1">Iran still has its nuclear materials, and without immediate extraction, will now sprint to enrich the uranium in its possession and construct a nuclear weapon.</li>
<li class="li1">Iran’s regime has now, despite the loss of dozens of leaders and the utter destruction of missile and other capabilities, survived both internal rebellion and external attack.</li>
<li class="li1">Iran has shown that it can and will control the Strait of Hormuz, and therefore the world economy, at will – without even inspiring Europe to clear the mines, one of the last things its military is good at.</li>
<li class="li1">If not defeat, Iran has shown it can at minimum deter the United States Navy at the strategic level.</li>
<li class="li1">Iran has shown that no wartime coalition will coalesce against it, even when it directly attacks over a dozen neighboring countries, and even when it demonstrates the ability to lob missiles into central Europe.</li>
</ul>
None of this is good.
The more fundamental problem for the United States, beyond President Trump’s tenure, is that America will have shown an inability to plan and win at the strategic level, and furthermore has shown itself to be without effective wartime allies beyond Israel.
The markets are speaking, and their shaky nature means they’re optimistic about this deal. But it’s a bad one, short- and long-term, for an America First policy perspective. It’s certainly satisfying to swipe the chessboard clear of a bunch of bad guys. It’s another to expend significant resources to create a scenario in which the takeaways all speak to Iran’s ability to stand up to the Great Satan and survive, and to the advantages going forward for China that are impossible to fully estimate at this point.
The Trump approach to foreign policy and national security has, time and again, proven his critics wrong. He has ridden a hot hand repeatedly, to the great benefit of the American people. But he’s often done so by gambling and winning, often facing long odds. Eventually those odds may prove too long. Eventually the table goes cold. Or sometimes, you just need a break to go off tilt.
We’ll see which situation this is for the president in short order.

Trump visit to Scotland

Trump Takes A Break From Bombing Iran For The Master’s

America First

Donald Trump

Iran

We have, in this recess of the United States Senate, been gifted an extraordinary vision of perfection, the apex example of a social phenomenon long observed but rarely embodied with such an apotheosis of type: The Sad Childless Disney Adult, as <a href="https://www.tmz.com/2026/03/30/lindsey-graham-enjoys-disney-ride-during-government-shutdown/">embodied</a> in the person of one Lindsey Graham.
The longtime strongman ruler of South Carolina politics — peace be upon him — decided upon dismissal from the swamps of D.C. and the uncomfortable couches of many a green room to take respite from long days of agitating for wars and causing international kerfuffles to indulge in the joys of what is, for his money, the best kingdom of them all, the Magic one, where birds sing, princesses flit, and bubble wands can be purchased on every corner. Make sure you get the ones that let you replace the batteries — you don&#8217;t want them to run out when you take them home.
(They have not yet committed to sending arms to battle the Houthis, but he has a co-del meeting with Buzz Lightyear later to run that down.)
The things you must know about navigating Disney as a childless adult is that you are their ideal customer: trapped by nostalgia, burdened with a crippling lack of childhood maturation, and desperate for figures who can fill the obvious and manifold emotional gaps in your life. So, in the absence of the figures who contribute to a healthy life, one turns to that old comfortable friend, the fellow with an ear to lend and a &#8220;ha HA!&#8221; to give: M-I-C, K-E-Y — he&#8217;s always there for you with a hug and a waffle shaped like his head. No judgment here, just a land where wishes come true.
<div id="attachment_1069163" style="width: 777px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1069163" class="size-large wp-image-1069163" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Disney-tmz-767x576.jpg" alt="Credit: TMZ" width="767" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Disney-tmz-767x576.jpg 767w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Disney-tmz-300x225.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Disney-tmz-768x577.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Disney-tmz.jpg 977w" sizes=" (max-width: 767px) 100vw, 767px" />Credit: TMZ</div>
The other thing you must know is that you have to download the app to skip the lines, because damn if those &#8220;affordability&#8221; people don&#8217;t have a point about how much it costs to be a dedicated Disney adult in the land of lines and upsells. Though, in fairness, the filet mignon at <a href="https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/dining/magic-kingdom/cinderella-royal-table/menus/dinner/">Cinderella&#8217;s Royal Table</a> is the best steak you&#8217;ll ever have. And don&#8217;t sleep on the Floating Island, it has strawberry meringue. Delectable!
You&#8217;re in cycle? There&#8217;s a co-del? There&#8217;s a primary? Who cares, that&#8217;s not important. This is a personal wellness journey, holding space for the future we are manifesting. The problems of tomorrow disappear when you&#8217;re in this special place. Oh look, it&#8217;s Space Mountain! We went to space, we&#8217;ll do it again — we&#8217;re America, dammit.
People complain too much. Iran is fine. TSA will get paid. Gas prices are a distraction. The important thing is there is a live performance coming up soon, and picking between which character you want a selfie with is always the hardest part. Wish Lindsey luck!

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This week&#8217;s scheduled debate at USC between the plethora of Democrats vying for the California gubernatorial nomination had to be<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/peak-california-usc-backs-out-of-gov-debate-over-lack-of-diversity"> canceled</a>. Not for any of the normal reasons debates get canceled — disputes about rules, moderators, venue, or the metrics used to determine candidate eligibility — all those were in order and agreed upon in advance. No, it had to be canceled for a more<a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-03-23/california-leaders-call-to-boycott-debate-if-other-candidates-not-included"> basic reason</a>: all the candidates who qualified were noticeably, inconveniently, white. 
In an announcement, the university acknowledged that it canceled the debate because its selection criteria had “created a significant distraction from the issues that matter to voters.” That selection criteria was based on a combination of polling and fundraising, a fairly standard measure of potential success. Unfortunately for Democrats who want to project an image of diversity (even if all their leading candidates in this race are white), this effectively excluded former HHS Sec. Xavier Becerra, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Superintendent Tony Thurmond, and former State Controller Betty Yee from the debate. That&#8217;s racist, criteria! Bad criteria, bad.
The hue and cry that followed blamed a USC election professor for coming up with the racist popularity + money = viability metric, which has never previously been applied to politics, as each candidate demanded to be included and the university was afraid of saying no. Think of it as similar to California&#8217;s inability to pick a single state nut — it currently has almonds, pistachios, walnuts and pecans all occupying the same vaunted role. “[W]e have four state nuts, nobody wanted to be left behind,” Alex Vassar, the communications manager for the California State Library,<a href="https://www.politico.com/newsletters/california-playbook/2026/03/26/the-professor-at-the-center-of-the-debate-debacle-00845901"> told Politico</a> this week. Only four California nuts? Have you seen the debate stage? It has Eric Swalwell, Katie Porter, AND Tom Steyer — there have to be more than four.
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<div id="attachment_1066875" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1066875" class="size-large wp-image-1066875" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-2258201958-864x576.jpg" alt="PASADENA, CALIFORNIA - JANUARY 28: (L-R) Eric Swalwell, Xavier Becerra, Tom Steyer, Katie Porter, Louise Bedsworth, Sammy Roth and Mary Creasman attend &quot;Our Climate Future: A Forum with California's Next Governor&quot; on January 28, 2026 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Matei Horvath/Getty Images for California Environmental Voters)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-2258201958-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-2258201958-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-2258201958-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-2258201958.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Matei Horvath/Getty Images for California Environmental Voters</div>
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<div>The problem that faced California Democrats presages the racial challenge they&#8217;re going to face in 2028, when their debate stage will almost certainly be dominated by white candidates. California&#8217;s own Gavin Newsom, former Transportation Sec. Pete Buttigieg, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, and Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly all routinely rank in the top ten candidates in early polling for 2028. The only non-white candidates who share the same status are &#8220;falling out of a coconut tree&#8221; 2024 disaster Kamala Harris and Democratic Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Maybe if Jasmine Crockett had more of an opportunity in Texas, she&#8217;d sneak into the top ten — but no, the party chose another bland-looking white guy because they think that&#8217;s what dumb voters want.</div>
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Republicans would be wise to recognize the opportunity here. Having built an elitist left coalition overwhelmingly dependent on identity politics above all else — while offering minority voters nothing of substance when they hold power — Democrats are ripe to correct for Kamala in 2028 and nominate some white guy who they think is &#8220;safe&#8221; from a pool of candidates who all have to wear SPF 70 and above. When all the left has to offer is checking a racial box, it leaves an opening for the right to build on Donald Trump&#8217;s success in attracting voters who are tired of the visual pandering California Democrats think is more important than actual policy. If what they have to offer in 2028 connects with what people actually care about, maybe they can even do it with a white guy from Ohio. And as Kamala Harris showed us, play stupid DEI games, win stupid DEI prizes.
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California Governor Gavin Newsom Continues Book Tour In San Francisco

2028 So White: Why California’s Canceled Debate Shows Democrats’ Incoming Race Problem

2028 So White: Why California's Canceled Debate Shows Democrats' Incoming Race Problem

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As early voting rolls along, Virginia Democrats are nervous about their ludicrous gerrymander of the Commonwealth. But they have help from the state election board thanks to a recommendation that prevents voters from even seeing the bizarrely drawn map before they cast their ballots.
According to documents provided to the Daily Wire thanks to a freedom of information act request, a “Redistricting Webinar FAQ,” provided by the General Registrars and Elections Office staff recommends that the proposed map not even be publicly posted by Virginia&#8217;s 133 localities:

<div id="attachment_1065357" style="width: 792px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1065357" class="wp-image-1065357 size-full" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/virginia-election.jpg" alt="Screenshot: Redistricting Webinar FAQ/Virginia Dept. of Elections." width="782" height="147" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/virginia-election.jpg 782w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/virginia-election-300x56.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/virginia-election-768x144.jpg 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 782px) 100vw, 782px" />Screenshot: Redistricting Webinar FAQ/Virginia Dept. of Elections.</div>
Among the Congress-critters benefiting from the new map is longtime Democrat Rep. Don Beyer, who stands to see a dramatically redrawn district — more than half of voters in it are new to him — and admitted this week that the map looks “unfair.”
“It’s not a done deal by any means,” Beyer told <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-election/not-done-deal-democrats-start-sweat-virginias-redistricting-referendum-rcna263726">NBC News</a>. “We have to effectively make the case that even though this seems unfair in Virginia, it’s totally fair for America, for those of us who believe that taking back the House is the most significant thing we can do to stop Donald Trump.”
“It’s unfair, sure, but Trump” has been the Democrats’ argument for the absurdly redrawn districts, designed to turn a 6-5 majority delegation into a 10-1 blue slate. The fact that voters will be unable to see how ridiculous it is that five Democratic reps could live in Northern Virginia while representing most of the state is one of the best things they have going for them. They&#8217;re counting on voters to stay ignorant of the truth.

Virginia Marked on Map

Democrat Admits To ‘Unfair’ Map — While Keeping Voters In The Dark

Top Democrat Admits Virginia Gerrymander Is 'Unfair', But Don’t You Dare Let Voters See The Map

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Ben Domenech