<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">At the Cannes Lions festival in France, the most prestigious gathering in advertising where awards are given for effective campaigns, they’ve spent decades talking past </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">right-of-center </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">consumer</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">s </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">entirely. Not represented in the work. Not studied in the research. Not discussed on the panels. Treated as a problem to manage rather than an audience to understand.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This year, we want to help change that. At LSKR Connects, sponsored by The Daily Wire, we’re building the day around the consumer conversations the industry too often avoids: overlooked audiences, the dangers of brand safety, and creative conformity. It&#8217;s a full day of fireside sessions focused specifically on the consumer, and the marketing strategies that actually can connect with all Americans.</span></p>
<blockquote>
<h3><b>Introducing LSKR Connects, sponsored by The Daily Wire</b></h3>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"> Matthew Mazzone, LSKR&#8217;s Chief Creative Officer and Christine Hoffmann, Executive Vice President of Ad Revenue at The Daily Wire, joined heads to make LSKR Connects, with the goal of forcing the conversation Cannes has spent decades avoiding. A full day of sessions on June 24, built around four topics that the rest of the festival won&#8217;t touch:</span></p>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Market You’re Missing — Addressing brands antigrowth strategies </span></li>
<li><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Influencer Orbit — Where trust is won and lost</span></li>
<li><span style="font-weight: 400;">Institutional Pressure — How brands drift from their core consumers</span></li>
<li><span style="font-weight: 400;">Original Thinking in a Conformist Market</span></li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Mazzone, the Chief Creative Officer at LSKR, an advertising firm that’s focused on appealing to the whole consumer market, says that the advertising executives who descend on Cannes later this month are focused on the wrong type of creative. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Brands deserve agencies that understand their customers and respect the value they deliver,” Mazzone told The Daily Wire. “LSKR exists because a massive segment of American consumers has been overlooked by the advertising industry, and brands are paying the price.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Creative should not be designed to impress the industry,” Mazzone told The Daily Wire, describing what typically happens at Cannes. “It should be designed to connect with the customer. At the end of the day, every creative decision should answer one question: does this help the brand connect with its core consumer and sell more goods and services?”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Surveys consistently show that a majority of consumers are increasingly willing to spend extra with brands that align with their values, and are less likely to buy from a company that takes a political stand they disagree with. </span></p>
<div id="attachment_1104197" style="width: 498px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1104197" class=" wp-image-1104197" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Screenshot-2026-05-28-at-4.38.40-PM-300x152.png" alt="" width="488" height="247" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Screenshot-2026-05-28-at-4.38.40-PM-300x152.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Screenshot-2026-05-28-at-4.38.40-PM-1024x518.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Screenshot-2026-05-28-at-4.38.40-PM-768x389.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Screenshot-2026-05-28-at-4.38.40-PM-1536x778.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Screenshot-2026-05-28-at-4.38.40-PM.png 1576w" sizes=" (max-width: 488px) 100vw, 488px" /><p id="caption-attachment-1104197" class="wp-caption-text">Ipsos Global Trends</p></div>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A whopping 62% of Americans buy brands that reflect their personal values, a double-digit increase in the last decade.</span></p>
<div id="attachment_1104227" style="width: 479px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1104227" class=" wp-image-1104227" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Screenshot-2026-05-28-at-5.11.23-PM-300x167.png" alt="" width="469" height="261" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Screenshot-2026-05-28-at-5.11.23-PM-300x167.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Screenshot-2026-05-28-at-5.11.23-PM-1024x569.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Screenshot-2026-05-28-at-5.11.23-PM-768x426.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Screenshot-2026-05-28-at-5.11.23-PM-1536x853.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Screenshot-2026-05-28-at-5.11.23-PM.png 1736w" sizes=" (max-width: 469px) 100vw, 469px" /><p id="caption-attachment-1104227" class="wp-caption-text">Ipsos Global Trends</p></div>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Hoffmann, the Executive Vice President for advertising revenue at The Daily Wire, knows first-hand from her experience in conservative media how important it is for products to “reach the right audience.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Consumers who genuinely align with a brand’s products, values, and customer base are ultimately more valuable than passive scale alone,” Hoffmann said. “Our audience is highly engaged and deeply invested in the content they consume, which creates stronger and more authentic opportunities for brands that show up thoughtfully in those environments.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“We want to join the broader conversation around how marketers can move beyond overly broad, one-size-fits-all strategies and think more intentionally about resonance, trust, and audience alignment,” Hoffman said.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Daily Wire has led the charge against the politicization of the advertising industry, exposing how advertising industry executives colluded to keep advertising money away from conservative news organizations. Last year, the top advertising agencies in the world were forced to pledge</span> <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-trump-ftc-secures-landmark-agreement-to-end-political-collusion-in-advertising-industry"><span style="font-weight: 400;">to the federal government</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> that they would no longer allow political bias to influence their actions.  </span></p>
<p><b>The forgotten consumers</b></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">These conversations about “left out” consumers aren’t just a gut feeling. It’s based on real data.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Kim Whitler, a professor at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia, has studied the negative impact on companies that choose to engage in activism. Whitler finds that executives think they’re doing the right thing, even if it hurts their company. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">She says too often business leaders are acting on their “own agenda” and end up making what she calls a “value-destroying activism decision.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Having worked with over 1,000 business leaders navigating reputation- and value-destroying activism decisions,” Whitler, a speaker at LSKR Connects, told The Daily Wire. “The most common and most consequential is the belief that ‘doing the right thing’ is a matter of personal conscience rather than legally prescribed responsibility.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Anne Marie Malecha, who runs a top crisis communications firm, Dezenhall Resources, says the companies get themselves in trouble when they &#8220;start performing for someone other than their customer.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Somewhere along the line, a brand decides the people whose opinions matter most are not the people actually buying the product. The activists. The trade press. A loud sliver of social media. A consultant that told them what the &#8216;modern consumer&#8217; wants,” Malecha said. “Whatever it is, the company stops asking who their actual customers are and what those actual customers need from it and starts asking what would make a smaller, vocal noise makers approve of it.”</span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-1103629" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Cannes-2-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="559" height="372" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Cannes-2-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Cannes-2.jpg 512w" sizes=" (max-width: 559px) 100vw, 559px" /></div>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Trust and revenue are declining before most brands know they’re in the middle of a crisis,” she said.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Anson Frericks has seen the consequences firsthand. He had just stepped down as an executive at Anheuser-Busch InBev when it brought on Dylan Mulvaney to promote Bud Light. The marketing team was so far removed from the customer base that the company didn’t even see the backlash coming. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“When companies hire only employees from NYC, agencies from only NYC, and look at their customer base through the lens of NYC, they are missing the needs of a majority of their customers and only realize it after sales suffer,” Frericks told The Daily Wire. “No one wins.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Josh Culling, the president of Dezenhall Resources, says the “groupthink” created by the fact that these advertising executives are often clustered together in the same coastal cities is a critical issue for the industry.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Consumers in the middle of the country have a fundamentally different frame of reference to those on the coasts, and are too often ignored or dismissed,” Culling said. “Brands that are too comfortable living amongst their geographic and socioeconomic peers, and too uncomfortable wading outside that comfortable cohort, leave billions of dollars of shareholder value on the table.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It’s not only a bad thing for the companies leaving money on the table, it’s a bad thing for the consumers. They deserve the industry’s attention.  </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">So here&#8217;s the questions worth asking at the most prestigious creative event on earth: Can creativity really be called creative if it only speaks to half the consumers? Why are we drawing inspiration from only half the talent and only half the consumer base?</span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-1103631" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Cannes-3-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="574" height="382" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Cannes-3-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/05/Cannes-3.jpg 512w" sizes=" (max-width: 574px) 100vw, 574px" /></div>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Cannes has spent decades celebrating creativity while quietly enforcing conformity. LSKR Connects, sponsored by The Daily Wire, is the first time the other half of the conversation gets a seat on the Croisette.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The cream of the industry will be there. The question is whether they&#8217;re ready to hear something they haven&#8217;t heard before.</span></p>


LSKR

The Consumers The Ad Industry Isn’t Talking To — And Why We’re Going To France With LSKR To Change That

Bias

Conservative Media

Industry

Special Reporting

<p>Right-wing internet troll-turned-anti-MAGA commentator Chuck Johnson may end up in prison over a fraud and extortion lawsuit in which he was found to have lied to victims by presenting himself as an intelligence asset.</p>
<p>Johnson, whose name has resurfaced in recent months over his false claims regarding Jeffrey Epstein, finds himself at the mercy of a court-appointed receiver who has been ordered by a federal judge to carry out a $71 million ruling against him. He was accused of lying about being an intelligence asset as part of an “extortion scheme,” in which he threatened investors with &#8220;sabotage&#8221; if they did not give him favorable investment terms.</p>
<p>Now, the fight over his assets appears to have extended to a criminal investigation, with the judge asking the receiver to report “any potential criminal conduct or wrongdoing” by Johnson. Johnson was thrown in jail late last year for contempt after he failed to disclose his assets to the court.</p>
<p>In an <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/1029547182/April-Federal-Court-Filing-In-Case-Against-Chuck-Johnson?_gl=1*1hi4ipj*_up*MQ..*_ga*MTUxNDY4NzY4My4xNzc2Nzk3MDEw*_ga_Z4ZC50DED6*czE3NzY3OTcwMDkkbzEkZzEkdDE3NzY3OTcwMTMkajU2JGwwJGgw*_ga_8KZ8BV0P5W*czE3NzY3OTcwMDkkbzEkZzEkdDE3NzY3OTcwMTMkajU2JGwwJGgw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">April 13 filing</a>, the court says Johnson’s conduct “bears the hallmarks of conduct consistent with wire fraud … and money laundering,” adding that it &#8220;may constitute criminal perjury or false declarations.” The statements are, for now, based on a status report of the ongoing probe, and not a definitive conclusion of law.</p>
<p>Johnson, who was labeled a “sociopathic liar” in the initial case, has reemerged in the press due to years-old fantastical claims he made to the FBI about Jeffrey Epstein that were released in the Epstein files. Among the unsourced claims by Johnson were that President Trump was “compromised by Israel.” He also claimed that Jared Kushner, Trump’s Jewish son-in-law, was running the presidency in his first term.</p>
<p>The 2020 claims from Johnson were picked up by other anti-Semitic activists such as Dave Smith and Hasan Piker, who made no mention of the fact that Johnson had no basis for any of his claims.</p>
<p>FBI documents show Johnson was making similar unsourced claims about others in Trump’s orbit. One FBI report from May 2020 shows that Johnson claimed to the intelligence bureau that Sergio Gor, a top Trump official who is now his ambassador to India, was a “Russian spy.” He also said that Arthur Schwartz, another close ally of Trump, was a “spy.” Neither claim was paired with any evidence.</p>
<p>“Chuck Johnson is a complete loser who has failed at everything in life,” Schwartz told The Daily Wire. “Like many others in Washington, I look forward to the day that he’s sentenced to a lengthy and well-deserved term of incarceration.”</p>
<p>Johnson, who has referred to The Daily Wire as an “Israeli propaganda rag,” is open about his Jew hatred. He regularly associates with both Richard Spencer and Nick Fuentes, and is a <a href="https://www.tampabay.com/florida-politics/buzz/2018/02/05/matt-gaetzs-state-of-the-union-guest-admits-he-questioned-holocaust/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Holocaust denier</a>, saying that both “Auschwitz and the gas chambers” are not real.</p>
<p>“I love Nick Fuentes,” Johnson <a href="https://archive.is/1OmQY#selection-419.0-419.33" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a> in July 2024. “I avow him.”</p>
<p>Though Johnson is often represented as a far-right figure, he is now politically aligned with Democrats, and supported Kamala Harris over Trump in 2024. He liked Joe Biden, he said, but liked Harris even more because of her stance on Israel.</p>
<p>“I am a huge Joe Biden fan, and will remain such on domestic matters, but he has deferred to the Israelis way too much,” Johnson said during the 2024 campaign, “and I think to some extent, Kamala Harris is going to be a bit more aggressive towards them.”</p>
<p>Johnson’s handler at the FBI was reportedly Jonathan Buma, who became a favorite of liberal media for claims he made in 2023 that the bureau was biased in favor of Trump.</p>
<p>Buma was <a href="https://oig.justice.gov/news/press-release/former-fbi-special-agent-arrested-disclosure-confidential-information" target="_blank" rel="noopener">arrested in March 2025</a> for leaking confidential information to the press. It was actually disclosed by Johnson that he and Buma had both leaked information to the Wall Street Journal.</p>
<p>Buma has since been profiled for his claims that Trump and Elon Musk are entangled in a Russian conspiracy. Again, the claims came without evidence.</p>
<p>“Those efforts were intense and they were ongoing,” he said of Russian efforts. “I can’t go into too much more detail.”</p>
<p>Johnson did not respond to requests for comment.</p>


Chuck Johnson ABC30

Anti-MAGA Troll Chuck Johnson May Be Headed To Prison In Fraud Case

Chuck Johnson

Fraud

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Unions love nothing more than blaming problems on non-union operations.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">So it was no surprise last weekend when the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, best known as IATSE, blamed the lack of union representation on the set of The Daily Wire’s new action film when movie star Jonathan Majors </span><a href="https://deadline.com/2026/04/jonathan-majors-falls-through-window-crew-strike-daily-wire-1236773038/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">fell through a prop window</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> and </span><a href="https://x.com/realDailyWire/status/2041273088428413189"><span style="font-weight: 400;">“nearly died.”</span></a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Well, not exactly. Majors only fell a few feet. He’s totally fine. In the video of the “accident” posted by Deadline you can hear Majors immediately asking, “Did we shoot it? Use it!”</span></p>
<p><strong>READ MORE: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/daily-wire-1-hollywood-union-0-production-wraps-on-jonathan-majors-action-movie">Daily Wire 1, Hollywood Union 0: Production Wraps On Jonathan Majors Action Movie</a></strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Still, IATSE, the self-proclaimed “union behind entertainment,” wants people to believe that if they were there, nobody could have possibly gotten hurt.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Except, here’s the thing: IATSE is full of it. It’s all a game to twist producer Dallas Sonnier’s arm into entering a collective bargaining agreement with the union. And it’s a game </span><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/daily-wire-1-hollywood-union-0-production-wraps-on-jonathan-majors-action-movie?author=Amanda+Harding&amp;category=undefined&amp;elementPosition=10&amp;row=3&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+News&amp;rowType=Vertical+Carousel&amp;title=Daily+Wire+1%2C+Hollywood+Union+0%3A+Production+Wraps+On+Jonathan+Majors+Action+Movie"><span style="font-weight: 400;">the union lost</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, because Sonnier “doesn’t negotiate with communists.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But let’s go back to the issue of the unions and safety. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Forget for a moment that a Screen Actors Guild representative was present on set the entire time and had no safety concerns. Forget, again, that Majors only took a small tumble and was totally fine. Let’s pretend Sonnier had caved to the union’s demands and given them everything they wanted. That would have prevented even this minor injury, right?</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Well, sure. Nobody ever gets hurt on union-run Hollywood sets — at least if you don’t count the “Mission: Impossible” where Tom Cruise broke his ankle jumping off a building.</span></p>
<blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DIO8OLlyG-c/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14">
<div style="padding: 16px;">
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;">
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"></div>
<div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;">
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"></div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"></div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="padding: 19% 0;"></div>
<div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"></div>
<div style="padding-top: 8px;">
<div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div>
</div>
<div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"></div>
<div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;">
<div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"></div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"></div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"></div>
</div>
<div style="margin-left: 8px;">
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"></div>
<div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"></div>
</div>
<div style="margin-left: auto;">
<div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"></div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"></div>
<div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"></div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"></div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"></div>
</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DIO8OLlyG-c/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Mission: Impossible (@missionimpossible)</a></p>
</div>
</blockquote>
<p><script async src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Yes, IATSE was on set for that. It’s on set for every Hollywood movie. It’s unclear whether anyone walked off after that accident, which was so bad that they even included it in the film’s promo. Shout out to Cruise, who had the same reaction as Majors and immediately told the director to use the footage. He kept going after he knew he snapped his ankle, because he knew it was the perfect shot. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">IATSE was also probably on the set of “Django Unchained” when Leonardo DiCaprio slammed a table so hard that he smashed a prop glass and bled all over his co-star, Kerry Washington.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It’s unlikely that anyone walked off that set. In fact, it’s said the crew broke out into applause after director Quentin Tarantino called “cut.” And Tarantino put DiCaprio and his blood-soaked hand into the final cut of the movie.</span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DPRHyajiVFk/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14">
<div style="padding: 16px;">
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;">
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"></div>
<div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;">
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"></div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"></div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="padding: 19% 0;"></div>
<div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"></div>
<div style="padding-top: 8px;">
<div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div>
</div>
<div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"></div>
<div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;">
<div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"></div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"></div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"></div>
</div>
<div style="margin-left: 8px;">
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"></div>
<div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"></div>
</div>
<div style="margin-left: auto;">
<div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"></div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"></div>
<div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"></div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"></div>
<div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"></div>
</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DPRHyajiVFk/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by The Film Enthusiast (@thefilmthusiasts)</a></p>
</div>
</blockquote>
<p><script src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js" async=""></script></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">On the set of “Cast Away,” Tom Hanks ignored a small cut on his leg and developed an infection that nearly killed him. He was rushed to the hospital, and production was shut down for weeks as Hanks recovered. Again, it’s unclear whether any crew left the set in Fiji in protest.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">George Clooney was so badly injured performing a stunt on the set of 2005’s “Syriana” that he considered suicide. It was during a torture scene, and Clooney flipped the chair he was tied to and cracked open his skull. He leaked spinal fluid out of his brain.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">He won the Oscar for best actor, back when an Oscar really meant something. There were no reports of a union worker mutiny for an unsafe set.</span></p>
<div id="attachment_629217" style="width: 820px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-629217" class="size-large wp-image-629217" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/Tom-Hanks-810x576.jpg" alt="Tom Hanks" width="810" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/Tom-Hanks-810x576.jpg 810w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/Tom-Hanks-300x213.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/Tom-Hanks-768x546.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/Tom-Hanks-1536x1093.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/10/Tom-Hanks-2048x1457.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 810px) 100vw, 810px" /><p id="caption-attachment-629217" class="wp-caption-text">Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic via Getty Images</p></div>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Sylvester Stallone got slammed so hard by wrestling legend Stone Cold Steve Austin in “The Expendables” — an awesome movie which he directed himself — that he broke his neck and dislocated both of his shoulders. He needed seven surgeries and ended up having a metal plate inserted into his neck.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Jackie Chan gets injured in almost every movie he does: cracked skull from a jump off a tree, legs crushed between two cars, and even one time where he almost lost an eye to a roundhouse kick. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">We can imagine that an IATSE production assistant advised Jackie Chan to take a few plays off, but I assure you that didn’t happen.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">As Sonnier told Deadline, sometimes the people making action movies are just “too busy being bad asses, blowing sh*t up, flying helicopters, and killing movie terrorists to concern ourselves” with attention-seeking union assholes. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">So, no, unions don’t make film sets any safer. If anything, injuries on union-run sets are so common at this point that it’s almost malpractice to involve them.</span></p>


Untitled design (1)

Hollywood Debunked: No, Unions Don’t Make Movie Sets Safer

Hollywood

Jonathan Majors

Unions

<p><i>This article is part of </i><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/introducing-upstream-a-lifestyle-and-culture-section-of-the-daily-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><i>Upstream,</i></a><i> The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.</i></p>
<p><i>***</i></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The worst part of a new pair of shoes is breaking them in. You basically know you’ll end up with blisters on the back of your feet. It’s going to be great when you get home from work, if you ever do, and flip those bad boys off. Maybe the next time they’ll be comfortable — if you ever muster the will to throw them back on. Let’s face it, these days sneakers can even be considered business casual. Stylish dress shoes just aren’t worth it.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">That is, unless you take the advice of President Donald Trump. The man turns 80 in just over two months, and he’s still working what sometimes feels like endless days. I assure you, none of it is in sneakers. He never got the memo about them qualifying as business casual, and if he did, he would have used a Truth Social post to fire whoever wrote it.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A lot of people wonder: How does he do it? </span><a href="https://youtu.be/fkY7W6kCRY4?si=cmCQuE1WcWmaLt1G"><span style="font-weight: 400;">It’s gotta be the shoes</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Thanks to some shoe-leather reporting from the </span><a href="https://www.wsj.com/style/fashion/trump-florsheim-shoes-tucker-carlson-jd-vance-bessent-448567ab?gaa_at=eafs&amp;gaa_n=AWEtsqf4AI6VdGE65moXS4NHxB_DydGEbd4CW-TAaqii9rliV-oOiwEJKZ9WWcUT14s%3D&amp;gaa_ts=69cf2b14&amp;gaa_sig=aPJgK3qPf9xdcmiBVIe1uY2o7KaohQ41R-a8FmBhbDat1Xmuj2eKdiXj9WHrDVBfDQBT1a1YUwCg7Eo_qOwyjA%3D%3D"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Wall Street Journal</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, Trump’s secret was revealed. It’s a $145 shoe from Florsheim. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Nope, the New York billionaire isn’t sporting $1,090 Guccis. He’s rocking a Wisconsin-based shoe brand founded in 1892. And he loves its shoes so much he insists the top men around him are wearing them too. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">At a December meeting with two men who may both be president one day, JD Vance and Marco Rubio, Trump leaned over the desk to alert them both that they had disappointed him.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Marco, JD, you guys have sh*tty shoes,” Trump said before asking their size and outfitting them with Florsheims. He’s reportedly taken to doing it with many men around him, including the wealthy Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">If it’s good enough for the Cabinet, it’s probably good enough for me. But specifically, what shoe is it? </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A visit to the Florsheim website found that nearly all the dress shoes are $145. Trump says you should wear a black shoe. I recently heard Michael Knowles </span><a href="https://www.florsheim.com/shop/styles/shoes/dress/page0.html?pt_asset=SubMenudress&amp;view=category"><span style="font-weight: 400;">order a Daily Wire employee</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to do the same. And I know from the Kingsmen you wear Oxfords, not brogues; a man doesn’t need an adorned shoe.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">So I imagine Trump is outfitting his team with the same black plain-toed Oxford I selected. It came in the mail last week, and let me tell you something: I skipped right past the worst part of a new pair of shoes. On day one, I felt like I’d broken in the leather for years.</span></p>
<p>I put them on at 7:45 in the morning when I laced them up to leave the house, and found them still on my feet after I got all three of my kids to sleep just after 8:00 at night. I’d like to say they were so comfortable I forgot I was wearing them, but that would be a lie. I couldn’t stop thinking about how good my feet felt. And, just like Trump, I couldn’t stop pushing them on my coworkers. I made two men in my office touch the inside of my shoe; at least one made a purchase on the spot. The next morning, he told me he dreamed about the shoes.</p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Once you take them off for inspection, it becomes quite clear what’s going on. The inner lining of the shoe is partially lined with a thick, soft padding. Apparently, it’s a proprietary Florsheim material called Suedetec, which is strategically placed inside the shoe to navigate the usual pitfalls of a new shoe.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The certainty that there is no break-in period prompted me to pull the trigger on one of the hardest-to-break-in men’s clothing items: a pair of loafers (still $145) for black-tie occasions.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Most people looking for comfort end up wearing Crocs or Uggs. But in Florsheims, you can dress for comfort and still look like a president. Don’t want to look presidential? Fine, how about imitating the greatest pop star of all time (before he lost his mind)? Yes, that’s right. They’re the same shoes Michael Jackson did his moonwalk in.</span></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FlorsheimFriday?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FlorsheimFriday</a>: Did you know that Michael Jackson taught himself to dance wearing our shoes and sported them for the rest of his career? <a href="https://t.co/GWBOb9N2dL">pic.twitter.com/GWBOb9N2dL</a></p>
<p>— Florsheim Shoes (@FlorsheimShoes) <a href="https://twitter.com/FlorsheimShoes/status/875800939118153728?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 16, 2017</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Still not your cup of tea? How about wearing the same shoes as the greatest heroes in American history? Perfect, because Florsheim was the principal manufacturer of shoes for the U.S. military in both World War I and II. The company, founded by a Jewish German immigrant in Chicago, had a promotion that for every pair of shoes it sold, it gave a pair to the military. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In my first official product review, I’m happy to put my stamp of approval on the official shoe of the Oval Office.</span></p>


Donald Trump Holds Campaign Rally In Tulsa

I Bought Trump’s Favorite Pair Of Shoes. They May Be The Key To His Success.

Clothes

Donald Trump

Fashion

Upstream

<p>Politico, the Washington insider outlet that bills itself as a &#8220;leading destination for non-partisan news and unbiased policy coverage,&#8221; has been paying for the services of a liberal mega-donor who has already forked over six figures directly to the Democrat Party this calendar year.</p>
<p>First appearing in a February newsletter from Politico Influence, its daily bulletin on the swampy world of lobbyists in the nation&#8217;s capital, was a disclosure that one of the biggest figures in the industry, Invariant, is now working for Politico. Invariant is the influence shop founded and run by Heather Podesta, the former wife of lobbyist Tony Podesta and longtime power-player in Democrat politics.</p>
<p>&#8220;POLITICO is a client of Invariant,&#8221; read the disclosure, which has appeared in at least seven disclosures since the middle of February.</p>
<p>Podesta has contributed more than $250,000 to Democrat candidates and committees this election cycle, including the maximum allowed $44,500 to both the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Over the years, Podesta has given millions of dollars to Democrats.</p>
<p>It is unclear what Invariant is providing for Politico. Neither responded to a request for comment.</p>
<p>Invariant offers not only lobbying, but also public relations and crisis management. The firm brought in over $47 million from lobbying clients in 2025, according to figures compiled by Open Secrets.</p>
<p>The addition of Invariant comes just a few months after Politico brought in a veteran Democrat operative to be its head of communications. The operative, Evan Hollander, was named senior vice president of communications, a post he picked up after years of crafting messaging for House Democrats, according to a <a href="https://freebeacon.com/media/politicos-new-comms-chief-is-veteran-house-dem-operative-who-called-trumps-first-term-an-unmitigated-disaster/">report</a> from the <em>Free Beacon. </em></p>
<p>Politico also found itself in hot water in recent weeks over a <a href="https://freebeacon.com/media/politico-publishes-cartoon-depicting-trump-republicans-wearing-blood-covered-jewish-prayer-shawls-yarmulkes-amid-bags-of-money/">cartoon that depicted</a> President Donald Trump and Republican senators Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham wearing blood-covered Jewish prayer shawls and yarmulkes. The cartoon was taken down with an editor&#8217;s note saying it did not &#8220;meet our standards,&#8221; but only saying it could be &#8220;reasonably interpreted&#8221; to be &#8220;hateful.&#8221;</p>
<p>It is unclear whether Podesta and Invariant were involved with crafting the statement.</p>
<p>Politico just <a href="https://www.politico.com/blogs/politico-press/2026/03/29/jonathan-greenberger-named-politico-global-editor-in-chief-00849724">added</a> a new editor-in-chief, Jonathan Greenberger, who will take the helm in May.</p>


ELLE And Hugo Boss Women In Washington Power List Dinner

Politico Brings In Major Dem Donor’s Public Affairs Firm

Democrats

John Podesta

Politico

<p>The Arkansas restaurant that kicked the state&#8217;s governor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, out, citing concerns that employees were threatened by her presence, has responded to the firestorm, with employees digging in even as ownership says politics had nothing to do with it.</p>
<p>Hours after The Daily Wire revealed the details of the incident at The Croissanterie in Little Rock, in which Sanders was asked to leave after having lunch with two mom friends, and was both shouted at and flipped off as she departed, the restaurant told local press that it had nothing to do with her conservative politics.</p>
<p>&#8220;After the party completed their meal, a member of the security detail was quietly asked to help conclude the visit in line with our standard 90-minute table policy,&#8221; the restaurant told KARK. &#8220;The request was not immediately received, and the party remained for an additional period before departing without incident once communication was established.&#8221;</p>
<p>Restaurant employees didn&#8217;t seem to get the memo. In a widely circulated Facebook post that was taken as a statement from restaurant staff, an employee called the governor &#8220;evil&#8221; and made it very clear that Sanders&#8217; politics made the governor&#8217;s visit controversial.</p>
<p>&#8220;I’m proud af to work here! I’m proud af to be gay and I’m proud af to be an Arkansan,&#8221; the employee wrote. &#8220;My voice matters. Try again.&#8221;</p>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-1062341" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/HDx4MhfWcAAaJ2p-370x576.jpg" alt="" width="370" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/HDx4MhfWcAAaJ2p-370x576.jpg 370w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/HDx4MhfWcAAaJ2p-193x300.jpg 193w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/HDx4MhfWcAAaJ2p-768x1194.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/HDx4MhfWcAAaJ2p.jpg 771w" sizes=" (max-width: 370px) 100vw, 370px" /></div>
<p>The restaurant also denies there was any commotion, contrary to the account from the Sanders camp.</p>
<p>&#8220;We want to be clear: there was no disruption in the restaurant,&#8221; the statement said. &#8220;Claims that an employee made an inappropriate gesture are incorrect—it was a customer, and the situation has been addressed.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>READ MORE: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/red-hen-deja-vu-sarah-sanders-kicked-out-of-arkansas-restaurant-flipped-off-by-staff">Red Hen Déjà Vu: Sarah Sanders Kicked Out Of Arkansas Restaurant, Flipped Off By Staff</a></strong></p>
<p>There was never any claim by the governor that an employee gave her the middle finger as she left. The Daily Wire reported on Thursday that as Sanders was leaving without making a scene, a group started shouting, “It’s time to leave,” and they flipped her the middle finger in front of other guests. It was not reported that an employee made the gesture.</p>
<p>This is the second time Sanders has found herself in the situation of being kicked out of a restaurant by liberal owners. Back in 2018, when she was White House press secretary, it made national news when a small Virginia restaurant called the Red Hen told her and her family to leave because she worked for Donald Trump. The incident earned the restaurant owner praise from liberal media outlets like the Washington Post, which <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HE3JwfWm2EI" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hailed the owner</a> for “taking a stand” against Sanders.</p>
<p>The Virginia restaurant <a href="https://www.thenews-gazette.com/article/4303,red-hen-to-close" target="_blank" rel="noopener">permanently closed in 2023</a>.</p>
<p>Though the Croissanterie appears to have received support from liberal members of the community, the social media backlash has been harsh.</p>
<p>&#8220;Absolutely VILE ppl,&#8221; wrote one self-proclaimed Arkansas user. &#8220;I hope this restaurant goes under just like the Red Hen.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;What a classy establishment,&#8221; wrote conservative commentator Guy Benson. &#8220;They took her business &amp; money before performatively throwing her out for &#8216;safety&#8217; reasons, while giving her the finger.&#8221;</p>


Arkansas_Restaurant_response

Restaurant That Booted Sarah Sanders Responds As Staff Contradict Their Own Story

Arkansas

Sarah Huckabee Sanders

<p>It&#8217;s the Red Hen all over again.</p>
<p>Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the governor of Arkansas and former White House press secretary, says she was having lunch with two mom friends at a restaurant called <a href="https://www.thecroissanterielr.com/menu#sectionId-d6c124ee-7ad0-461a-b274-1929dc7a5462">The Croissanterie</a> in Little Rock when the owner kicked them out. Her presence at the restaurant, the owner told the governor, made the employees feel &#8220;threatened and uncomfortable&#8221; because of her political views. As they left, she was given the middle finger.</p>
<p>This is the second time Sanders has found herself in this exact situation. Back in 2018 when she was White House press secretary, it made national news when a small Virginia restaurant called the Red Hen told her she and her family to leave because she worked for Donald Trump. The incident won the owner of the restaurant profiles from liberal media like the Washington Post, which <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HE3JwfWm2EI">hailed the owner</a> for &#8220;taking a stand&#8221; against Sanders.</p>
<p>That restaurant <a href="https://www.thenews-gazette.com/article/4303,red-hen-to-close">permanently closed in 2023</a>.</p>
<p>For Sanders, it was more surprising to have it happen in her home state of Arkansas. She told The Daily Wire on Tuesday night that the only people to talk to her during her just over an hour meal at The Croissanterie came over to thank her for the work she was doing in the state. By the time they were booted, they had already eaten and paid.</p>
<p>When her security detail was informed that they were being asked to leave, she decided that they&#8217;d leave without making a scene. But then the group started shouting, &#8220;It&#8217;s time to leave,&#8221; and giving her the middle finger in front of other guests.</p>
<p>Sanders, who is up for reelection this year, is widely popular in Arkansas. She was elected in 2022 by nearly thirty percentage points, and is viewed positively by more than half of the state, polls show.</p>
<p>In a statement on the incident, Sanders says The Croissanterie doesn&#8217;t meet the proper &#8220;standard&#8221; for Arkansas.</p>
<p>&#8220;Arkansans are known for their warm hospitality, and while that restaurant certainly doesn&#8217;t meet that standard, my administration will continue to focus on lifting Arkansans up, not tearing others down with discrimination and hate,” Sanders said.</p>
<p>The Croissanterie did not respond to a request for comment. After publication of this story, a group of employees at the restaurant posted on Facebook taking a shot at the governor. The post indicates</p>
<p>&#8220;Sarah Huckabee Sanders, no amount of evil you send our way can ever take our smiles away!!!&#8221; wrote Hickman, along with a picture of the staff. &#8220;I’m proud af to work here! I’m proud af to be gay and I’m proud af to be an Arkansan. My voice matters. Try again.&#8221;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-1062339" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Screenshot-2026-03-19-at-9.45.54-AM-583x576.png" alt="" width="583" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Screenshot-2026-03-19-at-9.45.54-AM-583x576.png 583w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Screenshot-2026-03-19-at-9.45.54-AM-300x297.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Screenshot-2026-03-19-at-9.45.54-AM-768x759.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/Screenshot-2026-03-19-at-9.45.54-AM.png 1214w" sizes=" (max-width: 583px) 100vw, 583px" /></div>


blue gradient travel (Presentation (169)) (2)

Red Hen Déjà Vu: Sarah Sanders Kicked Out Of Arkansas Restaurant, Flipped Off By Staff

White House

<p>President Donald Trump is done with Tucker Carlson, declaring that the podcaster has &#8220;lost his way.&#8221;</p>
<p>Trump told ABC reporter Jon Karl on Thursday that Carlson was no longer MAGA, and that he&#8217;s known this for a &#8220;long time.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;Tucker has lost his way,” Trump said, according to Karl. “I knew that a long time ago, and he&#8217;s not MAGA. MAGA is saving our country. MAGA is making our country great again. MAGA is America first, and Tucker is none of those things. And Tucker is really not smart enough to understand that.&#8221;</p>
<p>Carlson has been an outspoken critic of Trump&#8217;s strikes on Iran, saying that the operation is &#8220;absolutely disgusting and evil.&#8221; Carlson has also claimed, without evidence, that the decision to launch strikes was driven by Chabad, a Jewish outreach organization.</p>
<p>Carlson campaigned for Trump in 2024, but has been increasingly critical of the president, especially on foreign policy. Carlson, however, has made several visits to the White House in recent months, where he reportedly met with the president. Those meetings were reportedly part of a failed effort to convince the president not to strike Iran.</p>
<p>Trump&#8217;s statements represent a major change of heart since last November, when the president declined to criticize Carlson for his interview with antisemitic commentator Nick Fuentes.</p>
<p>&#8220;You can&#8217;t tell him who to interview,&#8221; the president said last November, adding that &#8220;people are controversial.&#8221; Trump, in that same interview, said Carlson had &#8220;said good things about me over the years.&#8221;</p>
<p>Thursday&#8217;s comments are the president&#8217;s harshest to date on Carlson, but not his first criticism. Earlier this week, Trump told reporter Rachael Bade that Carlson&#8217;s criticism &#8220;has no impact&#8221; on him. He also hit commentator Megyn Kelly, saying she &#8220;ought to study her history book a little bit.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;I think that MAGA is Trump — MAGA’s not the other two,” Trump told Bade, referring to Kelly and Carlson. “MAGA wants to see our country thrive and be safe. And MAGA loves what I’m doing — every aspect of it.&#8221;</p>
<p>Polling supports the president&#8217;s assessment, showing that a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/maga-unity-polls-show-republicans-opposed-to-trumps-iran-strikes-are-loud-small-minority">large majority of Republican voters</a> are in favor of Trump&#8217;s actions in Iran. The margins increase when Trump&#8217;s objectives are laid out to voters.</p>


Donald Trump/Tucker Carlson

Donald Trump: Tucker Carlson ‘Lost His Way,’ Is ‘Not Smart Enough To Understand’

Executive

Iran

Politics

Tucker Carlson

<p>Colony Ridge, the Texas neighborhood that became the “fastest growing development” in the country thanks to a marketing scheme that targeted illegal immigrants, has <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.txsd.1945245/gov.uscourts.txsd.1945245.149.1.pdf">agreed</a> to pay $68 million in penalties in a joint settlement with the Trump administration and the State of Texas.</p>
<p>The developers of Colony Ridge, located just north of Houston, came under both federal and state investigation after a 2023 report by The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/inside-colony-ridge-the-fastest-growing-development-in-the-u-s-is-a-magnet-for-illegal-immigrants" target="_blank" rel="noopener">exposed</a> how it grew to nearly 100,000 residents with a business model catered to illegal immigrants. Its Spanish-only marketing campaigns were directed at foreign buyers.</p>
<p>The initial lawsuit was brought by the Biden administration, which said Colony Ridge “targeted Hispanic consumers with predatory loans” and “misled” them about what they were getting. Colony Ridge sold inexpensive plots of land at sky-high interest rates, with a type of loan available to illegal immigrants who are ineligible to apply for traditional loans. The buyers ended up in a “cycle of foreclosure,” creating a “nightmare for thousands of hardworking Hispanic families,” Biden’s Department of Justice said, treating the illegal immigrant population as the victim.</p>
<p>The settlement, however, was reached by the Trump administration and Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton. Its provisions appear designed not only to punish Colony Ridge, but also to end its ability to give loans to illegal immigrants, and even to supercharge deportations.</p>
<p>Included in the settlement is a pledge to require purchasers to present a valid Texas-issued driver’s license or identification card, or a valid visa issued after January 1, 2025. Also included is a pledge to spend $20 million to build a new law enforcement center inside Colony Ridge, where cartel activity has taken a foothold.</p>
<p><strong>Want to support The Daily Wire’s journalism? <a href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/?_gl=1*zk9jo9*_gcl_aw*R0NMLjE3NzA3MDY0MTIuQ2p3S0NBaUFxS2JNQmhCbUVpd0FaM1Vib05iT0dWbm9xdVB3Mk1RR1c0VmdKb0xlVVRSSU9KYUlDbEpSQjVNYWJSMGVndlB5dnB3MFBSb0NEZ3NRQXZEX0J3RQ..*_gcl_au*Mjc1MjQyNDA2LjE3NzAwNDYyOTM.*_ga*MTQxNjEzNTU5NC4xNjkxNjk2NTg1*_ga_CZKR9ZYKJP*czE3NzA3MDU5NjUkbzM1MyRnMSR0MTc3MDcwNjQyOSRqNjAkbDAkaDA." target="_blank" rel="noopener">Join DailyWire+</a>.</strong></p>
<p>According to Paxton, the funding can be used to facilitate deportations carried out by local Texas law enforcement.</p>
<p>“Colony Ridge endangered American citizens by allowing illegal aliens to run rampant on its streets, in its schools, and in its community. Now, it’s time for those responsible to pay a steep cost for their unlawful actions,” Paxton said. “My office will continue to bring the full force of the law against anyone who threatens the safety of our state or creates a safe harbor for illegals.”</p>
<p>Paxton’s office said the agreement “halts the development of a de facto illegal immigrant community.”</p>
<p>Among the other provisions are $48 million for infrastructure improvements to the development, which was plagued by flooding and sewage issues, and a promise to end its predatory lending practices.</p>
<p>“This DOJ will go after all lenders, financiers, and land developers who participate in schemes which ultimately encourage illegal immigration,” said Harmeet Dhillon, who leads the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. “The changes required by this settlement will promote public safety, and affordable and sustainable homeownership in America, key priorities of this administration.”</p>
<p><b>LISTEN TO MORNING WIRE’S INVESTIGATION INTO COLONY RIDGE:</b></p>
<p><iframe style="width: 100%; max-width: 660px; overflow: hidden; border-radius: 10px;" src="https://embed.podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/inside-americas-largest-illegal-immigrant-enclave-9-17-23/id1576594336?i=1000628139512" height="175" frameborder="0" sandbox="allow-forms allow-popups allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-storage-access-by-user-activation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation"></iframe></p>
<p>Colony Ridge became a flash point for the illegal immigration crisis in America. The massive influx of illegal immigrants that came across the border during the Biden administration found a whole community that was ready to accept them.</p>
<p>The communities that surrounded them all of a sudden saw their lives changed. Their once-quiet towns were now down the street from shocking crimes, such as three previously deported illegal immigrants who were <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/3-illegal-aliens-arrested-after-344-pounds-of-meth-found-in-colony-ridge?author=Spencer+Lindquist&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=3+Illegal+Aliens+Arrested+After+344+Pounds+Of+Meth+Found+In+Colony+Ridge" target="_blank" rel="noopener">caught with 344 pounds of crystal meth</a>, Mexican <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-illegal-alien-captured-at-colony-ridge-believed-to-be-tied-to-mexican-drug-cartel?author=Spencer+Lindquist&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=EXCLUSIVE%3A+Illegal+Alien+Captured+At+Colony+Ridge+Believed+To+Be+Tied+To+Mexican+Drug+Cartel" target="_blank" rel="noopener">drug cartel leadership</a>, and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/illegal-alien-two-accomplices-plead-guilty-in-colony-ridge-murder-case?author=Spencer+Lindquist&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Illegal+Alien%2C+Two+Accomplices+Plead+Guilty+In+Colony+Ridge+Murder+Case" target="_blank" rel="noopener">several brutal murders</a>.</p>
<p>After President Trump took office, deportation raids captured more than 100 targets in Colony Ridge alone, The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nearly-100-illegals-captured-in-colony-ridge-deportation-raids?author=Spencer+Lindquist&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Over+100+Illegals+Captured+In+Colony+Ridge+Deportation+Raids" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.</p>


Colony Ridge

Colony Ridge Agrees To Pay $68 Million In Penalties For ‘Illegal Immigrant Haven’

Harmeet Dhillon

Ken Paxton

Texas

<p>Nashville, Tennessee, where The Daily Wire is headquartered, is covered in a massive sheet of ice.</p>
<p>A weekend of freezing rain coated every surface in Music City and surrounding areas of middle Tennessee with an inch-thick layer of ice, causing massive power outages and dangerous structural damage. With temperatures hovering in the teens, there is no thaw in sight.</p>
<p>The main culprit has been downed trees, which are blocking roads and taking down power lines all around the Nashville area.</p>
<p>Below are some of the scenes, collected by our staff.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<div id="attachment_1033759" style="width: 910px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1033759" class="wp-image-1033759 size-full" src="https://drwordpress.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/IMG_3737.jpeg" alt="" width="900" height="506" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_3737.jpeg 900w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_3737-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_3737-768x432.jpeg 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px" /><p id="caption-attachment-1033759" class="wp-caption-text">Daily Wire</p></div>
<div id="attachment_1033761" style="width: 910px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1033761" class="wp-image-1033761 size-full" src="https://drwordpress.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/unnamed-1.jpg" alt="" width="900" height="506" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/unnamed-1.jpg 900w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/unnamed-1-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/unnamed-1-768x432.jpg 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px" /><p id="caption-attachment-1033761" class="wp-caption-text">Daily Wire</p></div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<div id="attachment_1033625" style="width: 778px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1033625" class="wp-image-1033625 size-large" src="https://drwordpress.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/1000011407-768x576.jpg" alt="" width="768" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/1000011407-768x576.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/1000011407-300x225.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/1000011407-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/1000011407-2048x1536.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px" /><p id="caption-attachment-1033625" class="wp-caption-text">Daily Wire</p></div>
<div id="attachment_1033627" style="width: 778px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1033627" class="size-large wp-image-1033627" src="https://drwordpress.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/IMG_2380-768x576.jpg" alt="" width="768" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_2380-768x576.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_2380-300x225.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_2380-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_2380-2048x1536.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px" /><p id="caption-attachment-1033627" class="wp-caption-text">Daily Wire</p></div>
<div id="attachment_1033629" style="width: 778px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1033629" class="size-large wp-image-1033629" src="https://drwordpress.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/IMG_2398-768x576.jpg" alt="" width="768" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_2398-768x576.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_2398-300x225.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_2398-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_2398-2048x1536.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px" /><p id="caption-attachment-1033629" class="wp-caption-text">Daily Wire</p></div>
<div id="attachment_1033631" style="width: 442px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1033631" class="size-large wp-image-1033631" src="https://drwordpress.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/IMG_2617-432x576.jpg" alt="" width="432" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_2617-432x576.jpg 432w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_2617-225x300.jpg 225w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_2617-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_2617-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_2617-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_2617-scaled.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 432px) 100vw, 432px" /><p id="caption-attachment-1033631" class="wp-caption-text">Daily Wire</p></div>
<div id="attachment_1033633" style="width: 442px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1033633" class="size-large wp-image-1033633" src="https://drwordpress.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/IMG_5014-432x576.jpg" alt="" width="432" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_5014-432x576.jpg 432w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_5014-225x300.jpg 225w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_5014-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_5014-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_5014.jpg 1536w" sizes=" (max-width: 432px) 100vw, 432px" /><p id="caption-attachment-1033633" class="wp-caption-text">Daily Wire</p></div>
<div id="attachment_1033635" style="width: 442px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1033635" class="size-large wp-image-1033635" src="https://drwordpress.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/IMG_5016-432x576.jpg" alt="" width="432" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_5016-432x576.jpg 432w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_5016-225x300.jpg 225w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_5016-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_5016-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_5016.jpg 1536w" sizes=" (max-width: 432px) 100vw, 432px" /><p id="caption-attachment-1033635" class="wp-caption-text">Daily Wire</p></div>
<div id="attachment_1033637" style="width: 778px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1033637" class="size-large wp-image-1033637" src="https://drwordpress.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/IMG_6214-768x576.jpg" alt="" width="768" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_6214-768x576.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_6214-300x225.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_6214-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_6214-2048x1536.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px" /><p id="caption-attachment-1033637" class="wp-caption-text">Daily Wire</p></div>
<div id="attachment_1033641" style="width: 442px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1033641" class="size-large wp-image-1033641" src="https://drwordpress.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/IMG_6450-432x576.jpg" alt="" width="432" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_6450-432x576.jpg 432w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_6450-225x300.jpg 225w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_6450-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_6450-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_6450-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_6450-scaled.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 432px) 100vw, 432px" /><p id="caption-attachment-1033641" class="wp-caption-text">Daily Wire</p></div>
<div id="attachment_1033683" style="width: 442px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1033683" class="wp-image-1033683 size-large" src="https://drwordpress.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/IMG_0972-432x576.jpeg" alt="" width="432" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_0972-432x576.jpeg 432w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_0972-225x300.jpeg 225w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_0972-768x1024.jpeg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_0972-1152x1536.jpeg 1152w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_0972-1536x2048.jpeg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_0972-scaled.jpeg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 432px) 100vw, 432px" /><p id="caption-attachment-1033683" class="wp-caption-text">Daily Wire</p></div>
<div id="attachment_1033685" style="width: 778px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1033685" class="size-large wp-image-1033685" src="https://drwordpress.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/IMG_3475-768x576.jpg" alt="" width="768" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_3475-768x576.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_3475-300x225.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_3475-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_3475-2048x1536.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px" /><p id="caption-attachment-1033685" class="wp-caption-text">Daily Wire</p></div>
<div id="attachment_1033691" style="width: 778px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1033691" class="wp-image-1033691 size-large" src="https://drwordpress.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/IMG_7723-768x576.jpg" alt="" width="768" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_7723-768x576.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_7723-300x225.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_7723-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_7723-2048x1536.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px" /><p id="caption-attachment-1033691" class="wp-caption-text">Daily Wire</p></div>
<div id="attachment_1033693" style="width: 442px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1033693" class="wp-image-1033693 size-large" src="https://drwordpress.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/IMG_0967-432x576.jpeg" alt="" width="432" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_0967-432x576.jpeg 432w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_0967-225x300.jpeg 225w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_0967-768x1024.jpeg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_0967-1152x1536.jpeg 1152w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_0967-1536x2048.jpeg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_0967-scaled.jpeg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 432px) 100vw, 432px" /><p id="caption-attachment-1033693" class="wp-caption-text">Daily Wire</p></div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<div id="attachment_1033699" style="width: 334px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1033699" class="wp-image-1033699 size-large" src="https://drwordpress.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/IMG_8573-324x576.jpg" alt="" width="324" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_8573-324x576.jpg 324w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_8573-169x300.jpg 169w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_8573-768x1365.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_8573-864x1536.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_8573-1152x2048.jpg 1152w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_8573-scaled.jpg 1440w" sizes=" (max-width: 324px) 100vw, 324px" /><p id="caption-attachment-1033699" class="wp-caption-text">Daily Wire</p></div>
<div id="attachment_1033641" style="width: 442px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1033641" class="size-large wp-image-1033641" src="https://drwordpress.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/IMG_6450-432x576.jpg" alt="" width="432" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_6450-432x576.jpg 432w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_6450-225x300.jpg 225w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_6450-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_6450-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_6450-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_6450-scaled.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 432px) 100vw, 432px" /><p id="caption-attachment-1033641" class="wp-caption-text">Daily Wire</p></div>
<div id="attachment_1033701" style="width: 610px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1033701" class="wp-image-1033701" src="https://drwordpress.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/IMG_9022-324x576.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="1067" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_9022-324x576.jpg 324w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_9022-169x300.jpg 169w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_9022-768x1365.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_9022-864x1536.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_9022-1152x2048.jpg 1152w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_9022-scaled.jpg 1440w" sizes=" (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" /><p id="caption-attachment-1033701" class="wp-caption-text">Daily Wire</p></div>
<div id="attachment_1033695" style="width: 442px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1033695" class="size-large wp-image-1033695" src="https://drwordpress.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/IMG_1237-432x576.jpg" alt="" width="432" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_1237-432x576.jpg 432w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_1237-225x300.jpg 225w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_1237-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_1237-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_1237-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/IMG_1237-scaled.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 432px) 100vw, 432px" /><p id="caption-attachment-1033695" class="wp-caption-text">Daily Wire</p></div>
<div class="mceTemp"></div>


IMG_3475

PICTURES: Ice Wreaks Havoc On Nashville, Leaving Thousands Without Power

Nashville

Snow

Tennessee

Weather

<p>New York officially has a heavyweight political bout on its hands in 2026.</p>
<p>A new survey of New York voters shows Kathy Hochul, the incumbent Democrat governor, with a slight single-digit lead over Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, and also that the race could get even tighter if New York City voters elect socialist Zohran Mamdani next month.</p>
<p>Hochul leads Stefanik 48% to 43%, according to the GrayHouse poll conducted late last month just after the governor <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hochul-endorses-mamdani-the-very-next-day-he-refuses-to-endorse-her">endorsed Mamdani</a>. Hochul finds herself in a &#8220;deeply vulnerable position,&#8221; the polling memo reviewed by The Daily Wire states, especially given underlying data points that indicate the race will only tighten.</p>
<p>It shows, for example, that a win by Mamdani in the mayor&#8217;s race makes 47% of independent voters less willing to vote for a Democrat for governor, with only 9% saying it would make them more likely to vote for a Democrat. When voters were asked whether they wanted Hochul reelected or whether it was time for someone else, 59% of New York voters said it was time for anyone but Hochul.</p>
<p><strong><a href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/?utm_campaign=fall40&amp;utm_content=fallsale&amp;utm_medium=website&amp;utm_source=editorial" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Get 40% off new DailyWire+ annual memberships with code FALL40 at checkout</a></strong></p>
<p>And in what the pollster calls an &#8220;informed ballot,&#8221; in which voters are polled after hearing political narratives about the candidates, including that Hochul had just endorsed Mamdani, her 5-point lead completely evaporates: in that sample, Stefanik actually takes a small half-point lead, 46.4% to 45.9%.</p>
<p>Stefanik says the poll results should be expected, given the state of New York under single-party Democrat rule.</p>
<p>&#8220;Kathy Hochul, the worst Governor in America, is a deeply embattled and historically unpopular failed Governor who is struggling to even gain support from her own party,&#8221; Stefanik said. &#8220;Kathy Hochul’s single party Democrat rule affordability crisis, coupled with the crime crisis from failed bail reform, combined with the sanctuary state policies, putting criminals and illegals first and New Yorkers last, is a political disaster for Hochul.”</p>
<p>Stefanik, an Albany native who has represented upstate New York in Congress for the past decade, has risen to political stardom in recent years as a member of House leadership and close political ally of President Donald Trump. The president actually nominated her to be his ambassador to the United Nations, but she stepped down during the confirmation process to save the Republican majority, thereby winning the support of her allies throughout the party. She has yet to officially launch her gubernatorial bid, but it&#8217;s considered a question of when, not if.</p>
<p>Hochul, who took office after her disgraced Democrat colleague Andrew Cuomo resigned over sexual harassment accusations, vastly underperformed expectations in her only election at the top of the ticket. In 2022, with polls predicting she&#8217;d win by double-digits over Republican Lee Zeldin, Hochul only won by a few percentage points. And with the state reeling during her first full term as governor, Stefanik&#8217;s team views her as vulnerable.</p>
<p>&#8220;This poll is devastating for the Worst Governor in America,&#8221; said Alex deGrasse, a longtime Stefanik operative. &#8220;Voters want change and a Governor who will fight for them, which is why they will resoundingly reject Kathy Hochul for new leadership in Elise Stefanik if she decides to run for Governor. What is truly remarkable about this poll is that this is before Elise has even formally announced her campaign. There is a reason why Kathy is running scared.”</p>
<p>Hochul finds herself in a precarious position, with Democrat voters in the state split between more traditional candidates and socialists like Mamdani and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.  Asked whether they &#8220;align&#8221; more with &#8220;traditional Democrats like Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and Hakeem Jeffries&#8221; or &#8220;Democratic Socialists like AOC, Bernie Sanders, and Zohran Mamdani,&#8221; Democrat voters were perfectly split, 40% to 40%.</p>
<p>Hochul&#8217;s one-time running mate, Andrew Cuomo, is running against Mamdani in the New York City mayoral race as an independent. Though Hochul endorsed Mamdani, she&#8217;s so politically unpopular that he was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hochul-endorses-mamdani-the-very-next-day-he-refuses-to-endorse-her">unwilling to even return the favor</a>.</p>
<p>Polling in recent months has shown Stefanik trailing by double digits, including one poll that showed Hochul with a lead of 25 points, according to <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2026/governor/ny/2026_new_york_governor_stefanik_vs_hochul-8740.html">RealClearPolitics</a>. The GrayHouse poll was conducted from September 20 to September 26, and had a 2.6% margin of error.</p>


Stefanik/Hochul

Elise Stefanik Has Kathy Hochul In Striking Distance After NY Gov Endorses Mamdani: Poll

<p>Plenty of ink has been spilled on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the sweeping piece of budget reconciliation legislation that cuts taxes, creates “Trump accounts” for newborns, and grants an unprecedented new surge of funding in support of mass deportation and border security efforts.</p>
<p>But one of the law&#8217;s biggest impacts may be its unfurling of a longstanding gun law that firearms enthusiasts and Second Amendment advocates have long had in their sights.</p>
<p>The government has imposed a tax on suppressors, tools that are used to dampen the sound of a gunshot, ever<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-republican-budget-proposal-has-removal-gun-silencer-tax-its-sights-2025-05-14/"> since</a> 1934, when the National Firearms Act was passed. Thanks to the Big Beautiful Bill, that tax will be dropped in January, and its elimination could tee up massive victories for Second Amendment supporters.</p>
<p>The Daily Wire team had the chance to learn from firearms experts and gun rights advocates during a day at the range, firing both suppressed and unsuppressed AR-15s. Their utility became clear as the day went on, and as thousands of rounds were fired.</p>
<p>“Millions of Americans use them to protect their hearing,” Knox Williams, Executive Director of the <a href="https://americansuppressorassociation.com/">American Suppressor Association</a>, said of suppressors. “Gunshots are loud to the point that when you don’t have hearing protection, any exposure to an unsuppressed gunshot can and will lead to permanent and irreversible hearing damage … if you lose it, there is no coming back.”</p>
<p><iframe loading="lazy" title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ybRNYFVBSY4?si=9Spl_fUZhMME-dSp" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p>Suppressors, often referred to colloquially as silencers, work in the same way as a muffler on a car — with a tube that traps, cools, and dissipates the hot gas that comes out of a barrel after a round is fired. In fact, the suppressor and the muffler were developed by the same American inventor in the early 1900s. Both inventions prevent the rapid contact of the hot gas with the cooler surrounding atmosphere, which is one of the main causes of the noise that is generated when a gun is fired.</p>
<p>Suppressors reduce the noise of a gunshot by anywhere from 20 to 35 decibels, making their effect roughly equivalent to earplugs and earmuffs in their ability to protect one’s hearing.</p>
<p>Americans’ impression of suppressors comes primarily from James Bond films and video games, where the devices are used to sneakily assassinate a target in a crowded setting, allowing the shooter to escape undetected.</p>
<p>The reality, as was apparent after a day at the range, is that even a suppressed firearm is still loud enough to cause hearing damage if used without hearing protection, and far too noisy to allow one to pull off a Bond-style operation, especially when used indoors. Instead, a silencer is a valuable tool to protect your hearing, and it works best when used in conjunction with earplugs or earmuffs.</p>
<p>The removal of the tax on suppressors, Williams says, is a victory that could build momentum in the service of a broader goal.</p>
<p>“The primary thing that we want is to remove these things from the National Firearms Act entirely. In the House version of the Big Beautiful Bill, that actually passed. It was full removal of suppressors from the National Firearms Act, which meant no tax and no registration requirement,” the American Suppressor Association Executive Director explained.</p>
<p>That version of the bill did not pass in the Senate, but the removal of the tax is an initial victory for Second Amendment advocates, and one that could beget bigger wins.</p>
<p>Williams explained that the tax wasn’t just an added financial burden to those looking to buy suppressors, but also created a registry of Americans who paid the tax, in effect resulting in a federal registry of Americans owning suppressors.</p>
<p>The removal of the tax, Williams says, has “set us up for being able to challenge the constitutionality of these items in the National Firearms Act in court.”</p>
<p>A new lawsuit from the American Suppressor Association, the National Rifle Association, and other pro-Second Amendment organizations aims to do just that. The suit contends that the registry is no longer Constitutional, given that the tax that justified its existence is being eliminated.</p>
<p>“The National Firearms Act has been a weight around the neck of law-abiding gun owners for nearly a century,” Williams charged. “Our lawsuit challenges the NFA as an unconstitutional registry of now untaxed firearms. Common sense and the law are on our side, and we look forward to fighting on behalf of all Americans in Federal Court.”</p>


Menu

Brent Scher