American voters want President Donald Trump&#8217;s administration to use trade leverage to protect American businesses from European Union regulations, according to a new poll first shared with The Daily Wire.
The <a href="https://eu-usforum.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://eu-usforum.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1763480980517000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2A1Ns3BfuiQLCZTutD9Sg1">EU-US Forum</a> surveyed likely general election voters and found that Americans view two specific European Union directives — the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive — as bad for American businesses at home. The EU-US Forum is an American nonprofit organization working to advance the president&#8217;s agenda in Europe and combat &#8220;the EU’s radical leftism.&#8221;
&#8220;Our latest national survey of likely general election voters in America shows that they view the European Union’s environmental, social, and governance (ESG) regulations as unfair to American companies, chiefly because they expect these rules to raise costs and hurt American competitiveness,&#8221; the forum said in a release.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/americans-want-trump-to-use-trade-leverage-to-protect-american-businesses-poll-finds/screenshot-2025-11-18-at-11-43-53-am" rel="attachment wp-att-1002275"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-1002275 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Screenshot-2025-11-18-at-11.43.53-AM-1024x342.png" alt="" width="1024" height="342" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Screenshot-2025-11-18-at-11.43.53-AM-1024x342.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Screenshot-2025-11-18-at-11.43.53-AM-300x100.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Screenshot-2025-11-18-at-11.43.53-AM-768x256.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Screenshot-2025-11-18-at-11.43.53-AM-1536x513.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Screenshot-2025-11-18-at-11.43.53-AM-2048x684.png 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
&#8220;A clear majority want the Trump administration to protect U.S. companies from the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CS3D) by using ongoing trade negotiations as leverage to shield American companies from EU overreach,&#8221; they shared. &#8220;Elected officials who support President Trump in his leadership to confront CSRD and CS3D in trade negotiations stand to benefit politically, as voters say they are more likely to re-elect lawmakers who fight to free U.S. businesses from excessive European regulation.&#8221;
Almost six in 10 Americans surveyed said that it is important for American officials to use trade negotiations in order to roll back the European Union&#8217;s ESG regulations on American companies, according to the poll, conducted via an internet panel between November 11 and 12 with a margin of error of +/-3%.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/americans-want-trump-to-use-trade-leverage-to-protect-american-businesses-poll-finds/screenshot-2025-11-18-at-11-44-05-am" rel="attachment wp-att-1002279"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-1002279 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Screenshot-2025-11-18-at-11.44.05-AM-1024x469.png" alt="" width="1024" height="469" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Screenshot-2025-11-18-at-11.44.05-AM-1024x469.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Screenshot-2025-11-18-at-11.44.05-AM-300x137.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Screenshot-2025-11-18-at-11.44.05-AM-768x352.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Screenshot-2025-11-18-at-11.44.05-AM-1536x704.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Screenshot-2025-11-18-at-11.44.05-AM-2048x939.png 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
Fifty-seven percent of those surveyed said the European Union regulations would unfairly impact United States businesses. Fifty-two percent of those surveyed said they would be more likely to vote for a member of Congress who pushes the president to use trade negotiations to stop the European Union from putting strict ESG regulations on American companies. Seventy-one percent said that the European Union&#8217;s compliance regulations would raise costs on American families. Seventy-two percent think that the reporting requirements would be problematic for smaller U.S. suppliers.
The EU-US Forum argues that their polling shows that the EU directives are unfair for American businesses and will be expensive for American families and that the Trump administration should use its trade leverage to stop them. They also argue that lawmakers who align with the president&#8217;s agenda &#8220;stand on solid political ground and can credibly claim they are protecting American workers, businesses, and exporters from Europe’s red tape agenda.&#8221;
The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive <a href="https://finance.ec.europa.eu/capital-markets-union-and-financial-markets/company-reporting-and-auditing/company-reporting/corporate-sustainability-reporting_en">requires large companies to share information</a> on &#8220;what they see as the risks and opportunities arising from social and environmental issues, and on the impact of their activities on people and the environment.&#8221; The alleged goal is to help investors, stakeholders, and civil society organizations to evaluate &#8220;the sustainability performance of companies as part of the European green deal.&#8221;
Along similar lines, the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive <a href="https://www.corporate-sustainability-due-diligence-directive.com/">gives companies</a> an &#8220;obligation&#8221; to &#8220;conduct appropriate human rights and environmental due diligence&#8221; with &#8220;respect to their operations, operations of their subsidiaries, and operations of their business partners in companies’ chains of activities.&#8221;

NATO Summit In The Hague Final Day

Americans Want Trump To Use Trade Leverage To Protect American Businesses, Poll Finds

Donald Trump

Europe

European Union

Do you agree with the Apostle Paul?
That was the question police asked Finnish parliamentarian Päivi Räsänen repeatedly over the course of 13 hours of interrogation over a social media post she made featuring a Bible verse. 
Six years ago, Räsänen found herself in a small room being questioned after she <a href="https://x.com/PaiviRasanen/status/1140693636176384011">shared</a> a Bible verse from the book of Romans detailing the Christian understanding of sexuality. After she shared the verse, she was charged with hate speech and dragged to the police station for numerous rounds of questions about her beliefs. 
“It was a very, very absurd and surreal experience,” Räsänen said on Thursday when asked by The Daily Wire to describe her experience. “I was sitting in a small room in a police station. I had the Bible on the table and the police were asking me very theological questions.”
She said that she was asked about the meaning of Romans and about the concepts of sin and shame in the Bible. Räsänen said she was brought in for questioning three times for a total of 13 hours, leading to a joke that she was “going to have a Bible study” at the police station, she said. 
Räsänen said her experience reminded her of stories she heard about Christians being persecuted by the Soviet Union. 
“Those stories that I had heard from these communist countries,” she said. “So I was so shocked that something like that could happen in Finland, in a country that has long roots in Christianity and rule of law and freedom of speech and faith.”
After each interrogation, she was given two weeks to delete her social media post and apologize. She refused each time. 
“I said that I do not apologize… because it&#8217;s not my opinion, it is what the Word of God says,” Räsänen said. 
She is a member of the Lutheran Church and was previously Finland’s Ministry of the Interior, meaning she once oversaw the police who interrogated her. Her case is now before Finland’s top court and comes after she was unanimously acquitted in 2022 and 2023 by lower courts. She faces two criminal charges for “agitation against a minority group.”
Räsänen’s case was heard on Thursday by the Finnish Supreme Court. She was represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom International and criminal defense lawyer Matti Sankamo. 
<div id="attachment_993749" style="width: 1674px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-993749" class="size-full wp-image-993749" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-30-at-1.20.01-PM.png" alt="" width="1664" height="1106" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-30-at-1.20.01-PM.png 1664w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-30-at-1.20.01-PM-300x199.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-30-at-1.20.01-PM-867x576.png 867w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-30-at-1.20.01-PM-768x510.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/Screenshot-2025-10-30-at-1.20.01-PM-1536x1021.png 1536w" sizes=" (max-width: 1664px) 100vw, 1664px" />Räsänen outside the Supreme Court/ Alliance Defending Freedom International.</div>
In a press call after Thursday’s hearing, Sankamo said that it appeared that prosecutors had changed the primary focus of their case against Räsänen.
Also on trial is Bishop Juhana Pohjola, a Lutheran church leader who published a pamphlet in 2004 written by Räsänen defending the Christian view of marriage as between one man and one woman. Prosecutors have called for Pohjola to pull the pamphlet from circulation. 
“The Christian message of marriage and sexuality has been taught for two millennia, and it should never be considered a crime to speak what Christians have always believed,” he said ahead of the hearing. 
Both Pohjola and Räsänen face a hefty fine if they lose their case. The charges they face could come with prison time, though prosecutors have not requested that punishment. 
Paul Coleman, the executive director of Alliance Defending Freedom International, said that losing the case could make countless other Christian materials considered criminal. 
“We&#8217;ve not yet seen a case reach the highest court of a land where actual theological concepts like sin are considered hate speech, or where the words of the Bible are being put on trial,” he said Thursday. “And so again, if the prosecutor is successful, then that will set a new low, really, for freedom of expression in Europe and specifically for Christians.”
A verdict in the case is not expected until spring 2026, but Räsänen is hopeful that the result will be a resounding win for freedom of religion and speech. 
“The main question in this whole process is, the heart of this trial, is the question of whether teachings related to the Bible can be presented and whether it is still permissible to agree with the Bible, even when they contradict the main ideology of the society,” she said.

MixCollage-30-Oct-2025-01-20-PM-5744

The Bible On Trial: Christian Politician Goes Back To Court Over Religious Beliefs

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF)

Christianity

Finland

Free Speech

Marriage

Religious Freedom

U.S. President Donald Trump&#8217;s administration has prepared additional sanctions it could use to target key areas of Russia&#8217;s economy if President Vladimir Putin continues to delay ending Moscow&#8217;s war in Ukraine, according to a U.S. official and another person familiar with the matter.
U.S. officials have also told European counterparts that they support the EU using frozen Russian assets to buy U.S. weapons for Kyiv, and Washington has held nascent internal conversations about leveraging Russian assets held in the U.S. to support Ukraine&#8217;s war effort, two U.S. officials said.
While it is not clear whether Washington will actually carry out any of those moves in the immediate term, it shows there is a well-developed toolkit within the administration to up the ante further after Trump imposed sanctions on Russia on Wednesday for the first time since returning to office in January.
Trump has positioned himself as a global peacemaker, but has admitted that trying to end Russia&#8217;s more-than-three-year war in neighboring Ukraine has proven harder than he had anticipated.
European allies &#8211; buffeted by Trump&#8217;s swings between accommodation and anger toward Putin &#8211; hope he keeps upping the pressure on Moscow, and are also mulling major actions of their own.
One senior U.S. official told Reuters that he would like to see European allies make the next big Russia move, which could be additional sanctions or tariffs. A separate source with knowledge of internal administration dynamics said Trump was likely to hit pause for a few weeks and gauge Russia&#8217;s reaction to Wednesday&#8217;s sanctions announcement.
Those sanctions took aim at oil companies Lukoil and Rosneft. The moves spiked oil prices by more than $2 and sent major Chinese and Indian buyers of Russian crude looking for alternatives.
Some of the additional sanctions the U.S. has prepared are geared toward Russia&#8217;s banking sector and the infrastructure used to get oil to market, said a U.S. official and another person familiar with the matter.
Last week, Ukrainian officials pitched the U.S. with new sanctions activity, said one source with knowledge of those conversations. Among the specific ideas put forward were measures to cut off all Russian banks from the dollar-based system with U.S. counterparts, two sources said. It is not clear, however, how seriously Ukraine&#8217;s specific requests are under consideration.
The U.S. Senate is also making moves, with some lawmakers renewing a push to get a long-stalled bipartisan sanctions bill over the line.
The person with knowledge of internal administration dynamics said Trump is open to endorsing the package. The source warned, though, that such an endorsement is unlikely this month.
The Treasury Department did not respond to a request for comment.
Kirill Dmitriev, Russian President Vladimir Putin&#8217;s special envoy for investment and economic cooperation, said on Friday he believes his country, the United States and Ukraine are close to a diplomatic solution to end Russia&#8217;s war in Ukraine.
Halyna Yusypiuk, Ukrainian Embassy spokesperson in Washington, said the recent sanctions decision was appreciated, but did not otherwise comment.
&#8220;Dismantling Russia&#8217;s war machine is the most humane way to bring this war to an end,&#8221; Yusypiuk wrote in an email.
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Trump&#8217;s decision to hit Russia with sanctions capped a tumultuous week with respect to the administration&#8217;s Ukraine policy.
Trump spoke with Putin last week and then announced the pair planned to meet in Budapest, catching Ukraine off guard.
A day later Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Washington, where U.S. officials pressed Zelenskiy to give up territory in the Donbas region as part of a lopsided land swap to end the war. Zelenskiy pushed back, and Trump left the meeting with the position that the conflict should be frozen at its frontlines.
Then last weekend Russia sent a diplomatic note to Washington reiterating previous peace terms. A few days later Trump told reporters the planned meeting with Putin was off because &#8220;it just didn&#8217;t feel right to me.&#8221;
Speaking to CNN on Friday after arriving in Washington for talks with U.S. officials, Dmitriev said a meeting between Trump and Putin had not been cancelled, as the U.S. president described it, and that the two leaders will likely meet at a later date.
Trump ultimately decided to slap Russia with sanctions during a Wednesday meeting with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a senior White House official said.
Behind the scenes, Ukraine got an apparent U.S. boost after the U.S. approval process for providing targeting data for long-range Ukrainian strikes in Russia was moved to U.S. European Command in Germany &#8211; viewed by U.S. and European officials as more hawkish on Russia &#8211; from the Pentagon in Washington, according to a U.S. and a European official.
However, Trump has said he was still not ready to provide Ukraine with long-range Tomahawk missiles, which Kyiv has requested.
The U.S. is also putting pressure on Europe to further tighten the financial screws on Moscow. In announcing the U.S. sanctions, Bessent pushed the EU to follow. Broadly speaking, U.S. officials have criticized EU and NATO countries for not taking more decisive steps to stand up to Russia.
It will be more difficult, though, for the EU to unleash full-blocking sanctions on Lukoil than it is for the U.S., one senior EU official argued, given how heavily entangled Lukoil is with Europe&#8217;s economy. The oil company owns refineries in Bulgaria and Romania and has a robust retail gas station network throughout the continent.
&#8220;I think we need to find a way to disengage&#8230;before we can fully sanction,&#8221; the EU official said.
(Reporting by Gram Slattery and Steve Holland in Washington and Max Hunder in Kyiv; Additional reporting by Humeyra Pamuk, Jonathan Landay and Daphne Psaledakis in Washington and Julia Payne in Brussels; Editing by Michelle Nichols and Diane Craft)

US-UKRAINE-RUSSIA-CONFLICT-SUMMIT-TRUMP-PUTIN

U.S. Eyeing Further Sanctions On Russia, But First Wants Europe To Amp Up Pressure

Global Politics

Russia

Sanctions

Ukraine-Russia War

Vladimir Putin

Volodymyr Zelensky

World

NATO said on Saturday it is upgrading its mission in the Baltic Sea with an air-defense frigate and other assets in response to drone incursions in Denmark.
Unidentified drones were observed near military installations in Denmark overnight, the Armed Forces said on Saturday, following several drone incursions near airports and critical infrastructure this week.
Copenhagen Airport, the Nordic region&#8217;s busiest, closed for several hours late on Monday as several large drones were seen in its airspace. Five smaller Danish airports, both civilian and military, were also shut temporarily in the following days.
In response, NATO will &#8220;conduct even more enhanced vigilance with new multi-domain assets in the Baltic Sea region,&#8221; it said in a statement emailed to Reuters.
The alliance said the new assets included &#8220;intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance platforms and at least one air-defense frigate.&#8221;
A NATO spokesperson said they would not provide details on which countries were contributing the extra assets.
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The new assets will enhance NATO&#8217;s &#8220;Baltic Sentry&#8221; mission, launched in January in response to a string of incidents in which power cables, telecom links, and gas pipelines on the Baltic Sea bottom have been damaged.
NATO countries have deployed frigates, patrol aircraft, and naval drones as part of the mission, to help protect critical infrastructure.
The alliance also launched the &#8220;Eastern Sentry&#8221; mission this month, to bolster the defense of Europe&#8217;s eastern flank in response to Russian drone incursions into Polish airspace.
It warned Russia on Tuesday that it would use &#8220;all necessary military and non-military tools&#8221; to defend itself after Estonia said on Friday that three Russian MiG-31 fighter jets violated its airspace for 12 minutes before NATO Italian fighter jets escorted them out.
Russia has disputed that Russian jets violated Estonia&#8217;s airspace and said that its drones had not planned to hit targets in Poland.
German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said on Saturday that the threat from drones was &#8220;high&#8221; and that the country would take measures to defend itself.
Russia&#8217;s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned NATO and the European Union on Saturday that &#8220;any aggression against my country will be met with a decisive response.&#8221;
(Reporting by Andrius Sytas and Andrew Gray; Editing by Alison Williams)

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen

NATO Increases Baltic Presence As Mystery Drones Swarm Denmark

Denmark

Drones

Congressman Jim Jordan on Tuesday celebrated Google&#8217;s decision to reinstate YouTube creators censored under President Joe Biden, calling the decision &#8220;a win for free expression.&#8221;
Jordan, who is the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, told The Daily Wire that Google and YouTube parent company Alphabet <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/unacceptable-and-wrong-google-admits-caving-to-censorship-pressure-from-biden-admin" target="_blank" rel="noopener">admitted</a> in a Tuesday letter to the committee that the company and its subsidiaries bowed to pressure from the Biden administration to censor conservative creators speaking out about election integrity and COVID-19.
&#8220;They had kicked some people off the YouTube platform altogether — you, your channel, you&#8217;re gone. They&#8217;ve agreed to reinstate those individuals, which I think is good. They&#8217;ve said they will not use the fact-checkers, like other platforms have done — which was a big problem because fact-checkers are typically really biased against conservatives. I thought it was, again, a win for the First Amendment, a win for free expression.”
Alphabet <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/google-reinstate-banned-youtube-accounts-censored-political-speech" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pledged</a> in the letter its &#8220;commitment to free expression,&#8221; and said it &#8220;will provide an opportunity for all creators to rejoin the platform if the company terminated their channels for repeated violations of COVID-19 and elections integrity policies that are no longer in effect.&#8221;
Creators banned under this regime include Dan Bongino and Sebastian Gorka, both of whom now serve in the Trump administration.
Jordan, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, recalled just how extreme the Biden administration&#8217;s censorship efforts were.
&#8220;Never forget the Biden administration established the disinformation governance board,&#8221; Jordan said on Wednesday&#8217;s edition of Morning Wire. &#8220;I mean, the most Orwellian-sounding thing you could think of — as if a bunch of bureaucrats can tell you what you can say, what you can read, what you can tweet, what you can post! That was frightening stuff.&#8221;
Fortunately, Jordan notes, &#8220;we had an election last November and, thank goodness, things changed.&#8221;
Still, Jordan isn&#8217;t ready to give up the fight, warning that the United States could soon fall victim to European speech restrictions — something congressional Republicans are fighting to stop.
European speech laws are creating complications for the American social platforms, Jordan said. In particular, the European Union’s Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act could <a href="https://fedsoc.org/events/the-digital-services-act-and-global-free-speech" target="_blank" rel="noopener">force</a> restrictive European speech codes on Americans.
Jordan takes that risk seriously.
Earlier this month, British authorities arrested Irish comedian Graham Linehan upon his landing at London’s Heathrow Airport after a flight from the United States. At issue were a series of X posts he wrote in April, which included jokes about transgender-identifying people.
“If a trans-identified male is in a female-only space, he is committing a violent, abusive act. Make a scene, call the cops and if all else fails, punch him in the balls,” one of Linehan’s posts in question <a href="https://x.com/judebrew/status/1965556461612007541" target="_blank" rel="noopener">read</a>.
Americans are generally not in danger of arrest in the United States for mocking leftist ideologies, such as transgenderism. But they are still under threat of suppression and retaliation from companies like YouTube or other influential entities, Jordan says.
“I think it&#8217;s just a matter of time before that happens to an American,” the lawmaker told The Daily Wire. “We&#8217;re particularly concerned about that relative to YouTube.”

Jim Jordan

Jim Jordan Celebrates YouTube Ending Conservative Censorship: ‘A Win For Free Expression’

Jim Jordan Celebrates YouTube Ending Conservative Censorship: 'A Win For Free Expression'

Congress

Google

Politics

YouTube

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee pulled no punches on Tuesday while speaking with The Jerusalem Post at its Diplomatic Conference, declaring that European nations pushing a unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state “destroyed” the negotiations for the Israeli hostages held by the terrorist group Hamas in Gaza.
“I’ll tell you what destroyed the negotiations for the hostages was the European nations going and having this push for a unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state,” Huckabee asserted. “I can tell you that was very detrimental, and it destroyed negotiations.”
“I can’t say we were close to some type of resolution because Hamas has never been close to a resolution, and people have to understand: Whatever they pretend that they’re for, they’re not at the moment in which they have to make the agreement,” he stressed. “The same people who did the barbaric, savage things on October 7 are the same people you’re expected to sit down and have a conversation and a negotiation with? Look at what they did on October 7. Good gosh, remember what they did?”
“These are not normal people,” he asserted. “These are not people that you deal with like you’re buying a car or you’re working out some trade agreement. These are horrible, savage people who did the most unspeakable things to other human beings, civilians, and so they don’t negotiate for hostages based on a moral code that we’re used to dealing with; Israel is used to dealing with. That’s not what we’re dealing with. And so, we all want the hostages home, and we want them home today. President Trump has said so many times, so clearly, so consistently: All the hostages come out at once and Hamas must disappear, go away, disarm, can’t stay. That’s as clear as he can be.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
US Ambassador Mike Huckabee:
&#8220;What destroyed the negotiations for the hostages was the European nations going and having this push for a unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state&#8230; it destroyed negotiations.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/Y83Jvifvyn">pic.twitter.com/Y83Jvifvyn</a>
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) <a href="https://twitter.com/Osint613/status/1968305229038072007?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 17, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
“We not only disagree, we strongly urge nations to not go there,” he said of the movement for unilaterally declaring a Palestinian state. “For one, it violates Oslo. It is a stunt at the United Nations. It is not going anywhere; it is not going to create a Palestinian state.”
Huckabee also <a href="https://www.jpost.com/diplomatic-conference/article-867635">said</a> that if Israel decided to claim sovereignty over the biblical areas of Judea and Samaria, the U.S. would not object. “We respect Israel as a sovereign nation,” he stated. “We are not going to tell Israel what it can and cannot do any more than we would expect Israel to tell us what we can and cannot do.”
“Sometimes [Israel] may disagree with the United States – that is their right,” the ambassador said. “They are a sovereign nation, and they have every basis to say we disagree. We respect our partner. &#8230; We have friends as the United States, and we do have allies, but I would say we only have one real partner,” noting the “levels of intelligence, military hardware and software, levels of cooperation and communication, the likes of which simply do not exist with any other country.”
“West Bank is a very modern, nebulous term,” he contended. “It is more accurate to call it Judea and Samaria, the term that goes back two or three thousand years – and 80% of the Bible is about Judea and Samaria.”

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Holds Nomination Hearing For Mike Huckabee To Be Ambassador To Israel

Huckabee: Europe’s Palestinian State Push ‘Destroyed’ Hostage Negotiations

Israel

Judea and Samaria

Mike Huckabee

Palestinian State

Imagine facing your nation’s Supreme Court for the “crime” of sharing a Bible verse. On October 30, that’s the reality for Päivi Räsänen, a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/top-finnish-court-to-hear-case-on-politician-charged-over-sharing-bible-verse?author=Leif+Le+Mahieu&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Top+Finnish+Court+To+Hear+Case+On+Politician+Charged+Over+Sharing+Bible+Verse">Finnish grandmother</a>, medical doctor, and parliamentarian. Her soon-to-be seven-year ordeal began in 2019, when she questioned her church’s support for Helsinki Pride and posted a Bible verse on X. That single tweet triggered 13 hours of police interrogation, two full trials, and now a third prosecution under Finland’s “hate speech” law.
Räsänen’s case might sound like an exclusively European story — but it also serves as a warning about the growing threat of censorship coming from the EU. While someone living outside of Europe might assume they are exempt from the troubling wave of censorship spreading across the continent, that assumption is dangerously mistaken.
The EU has implemented an online censorship law that could turn stories like Päivi’s into a legalized norm. The law, known as <a href="https://adfinternational.org/es/article/digital-services-act-unpacked">The Digital Services Act</a> (DSA), poses one of the greatest threats to free speech online, not just in Europe, but worldwide.
Presented as a way to create a “safe online environment,” the DSA is in fact a sweeping censorship regime. It compels major online platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, X, and Google to take down “illegal content” or face crippling fines of up to 6% of their global revenue. For companies like Apple or Meta, that could mean billions. With penalties this steep, platforms have every incentive to preemptively over-censor content, not just in Europe, but everywhere.
And what counts as “illegal” content? That depends on the varying laws of 27 EU member states. One country’s vague definition of “hate speech” or “misinformation” can ripple outward, forcing platforms to delete content across the entire internet. What Brussels bureaucrats decide could silence speech in Boston or Boise — posts fully protected by the First Amendment, gone in an instant.
The enforcement system makes this worse. The DSA empowers “trusted flaggers,” which can include activist groups, regulators, or even private entities, to demand removals. The European Commission itself sits at the top, monitoring and punishing companies that don’t comply. In practice, this means platforms will act first and ask questions later, scrubbing lawful speech before it can cause “problems” in Europe.
<div id="attachment_652929" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-652929" class="size-large wp-image-652929" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/Screen-Shot-2023-11-14-at-7.01.23-AM-1024x573.png" alt="Päivi Räsänen" width="1024" height="573" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/Screen-Shot-2023-11-14-at-7.01.23-AM-1024x573.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/Screen-Shot-2023-11-14-at-7.01.23-AM-300x168.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/Screen-Shot-2023-11-14-at-7.01.23-AM-768x430.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/Screen-Shot-2023-11-14-at-7.01.23-AM-1536x859.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/Screen-Shot-2023-11-14-at-7.01.23-AM.png 1573w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Credit: Alliance Defending Freedom International</div>
Päivi Räsänen’s case shows what happens when governments weaponize vague speech laws: peaceful expression treated as criminal conduct. The DSA threatens to make this dynamic global. By institutionalizing vague categories like “hate speech” and “disinformation,” it builds the <a href="https://constitutionaldiscourse.com/the-eu-digital-services-act-and-freedom-of-expression-friends-or-foes/">architecture for censorship</a> that knows no borders.
Americans should not be lulled into thinking this is someone else’s problem. The internet is global, and so are the platforms that host our speech. Already, U.S. lawmakers — from the House Judiciary Committee to Vice President JD Vance — have warned that the DSA could chill <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/jim-jordan-presses-european-commission-for-answers-over-eu-social-media-law-henna-virkkunen-digital-services-act/">constitutionally protected expression</a> here at home. The danger isn’t hypothetical: EU officials have already floated the possibility of censoring American <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/technology/4824438-eu-sends-warning-letter-to-musk-ahead-of-trump-interview/">political figures under the law.</a>
The stakes are enormous. If the EU succeeds in exporting its censorship regime, authoritarian governments worldwide are likely to use it as a blueprint. They will point to Brussels as justification for their own crackdowns. Already, we’ve seen Europe attempt to export the DSA model abroad. For example, at the EU-Canada Summit, Canada and the EU agreed to advance a Digital Trade Agreement that <a href="https://judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/republicans-judiciary.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/price-testimony.pdf">expands the reach of DSA principles.</a>
Free speech does not stop at national borders. If America cares about freedom of expression, it must push back against the DSA and its creeping global reach. Päivi Räsänen’s trial is a human face on what’s at stake. Her courage reminds us that when governments claim the power to police speech, no voice is safe.
* * *
Lorcan Price is an Irish barrister and legal counsel for ADF International.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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Europe’s Digital Speech Police Won’t Stop At The Border

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The U.S. military destroys a drug boat from Venezuela as a federal judge tries to block President Trump from using the National Guard for law enforcement in Los Angeles. A massive populist backlash against mass migration is fueling a historic political shift to the Right across Europe. The FDA restricts access to COVID vaccines for healthy Americans as President Trump demands Big Pharma release its data and questions his own Operation Warp Speed.
It’s Wednesday, September 3, 2025, and this is the news you need to know to start your day.
Morning Wire is available on video! You can watch today’s episode here:
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If you’d rather listen to your news, today’s edition of the Morning Wire podcast can be heard below:
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<h2>U.S. Military Sinks Drug Boat, Judge Blocks Trump in L.A.</h2>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-968047" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/MRN-9.3.25-Wed-SH1-1024x576.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/MRN-9.3.25-Wed-SH1-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/MRN-9.3.25-Wed-SH1-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/MRN-9.3.25-Wed-SH1-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/MRN-9.3.25-Wed-SH1-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/MRN-9.3.25-Wed-SH1.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></div>
Topline: The U.S. military destroyed a boat allegedly carrying drugs from Venezuela on Tuesday, the most dramatic move yet in the Trump administration&#8217;s war on cartels, as a federal judge in California ruled against the president&#8217;s use of the National Guard for domestic law enforcement. 
As part of an &#8220;enhanced counter narcotics operation,&#8221; the U.S. military has deployed at least eight warships to the Caribbean. &#8220;We just, over the last few minutes, shot out a drug-carrying boat,&#8221; President Trump announced Tuesday. &#8220;These came out of Venezuela.&#8221; The action follows the president&#8217;s designation of several large drug cartels as terror organizations, allowing for a more aggressive military approach. 
Meanwhile, a district judge in San Francisco ruled Tuesday that Trump’s deployment of the National Guard in Los Angeles to protect federal property and aid immigration enforcement was illegal. The judge, Charles Breyer, barred guardsmen from engaging in law enforcement activities. The Trump administration will appeal the ruling, which has been put on hold for ten days. A federal appeals court previously reversed a similar ruling from Breyer in June. 
In other administration news, the Pentagon will send up to 600 of its lawyers to the Justice Department to serve as temporary immigration judges, a move intended to clear a 3-million-person backlog and speed up deportations. President Trump also announced that the U.S. Space Command Headquarters will be relocated to Huntsville, Alabama, a move the White House says will save nearly half a billion dollars.
&nbsp;
<h2>Europe Sees Historic Shift to the Right Amid Migrant Backlash</h2>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-968045" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/MRN-9.3.25-Wed-SH2-1024x576.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/MRN-9.3.25-Wed-SH2-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/MRN-9.3.25-Wed-SH2-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/MRN-9.3.25-Wed-SH2-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/MRN-9.3.25-Wed-SH2-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/MRN-9.3.25-Wed-SH2.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></div>
Topline: For the first time in modern history, right-wing populist parties are leading the polls in Europe&#8217;s three largest economies — France, Germany, and the United Kingdom — driven by a massive public backlash against mass migration. 
&#8220;Immigration is the number one factor driving all of these movements,&#8221; Alvino-Mario Fantini, editor-in-chief of the European Conservative, told Morning Wire. Since 2015, an estimated 25 to 30 million immigrants, primarily from Muslim countries, have entered Europe, leading to a culture clash and widespread anger over the high costs of housing and welfare for migrants. 
As a result, nationalist parties like Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, France’s National Rally, and Germany’s Alternative for Germany are now topping the polls in their respective countries. 
The establishment parties have responded with what many conservative analysts call &#8220;lawfare,&#8221; similar to tactics used against the MAGA movement in the U.S. In France, National Rally leader Marine Le Pen was convicted of misusing E.U. funds and banned from running for office for five years. In Germany, the country’s intelligence agency has classified the Alternative for Germany party as an “extremist” group, which could be used to ban its members from public office.
&nbsp;
<h2>FDA Restricts COVID Vax as Trump Questions Warp Speed</h2>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-968043" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/MRN-9.3.25-Wed-SH3-1024x576.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/MRN-9.3.25-Wed-SH3-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/MRN-9.3.25-Wed-SH3-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/MRN-9.3.25-Wed-SH3-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/MRN-9.3.25-Wed-SH3-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/MRN-9.3.25-Wed-SH3.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></div>
Topline: The FDA has removed the emergency use authorization for COVID vaccines, restricting their availability for healthy Americans, as President Trump is now publicly questioning his own Operation Warp Speed and demanding that pharmaceutical companies release their data on the shots. 
The FDA has removed the &#8220;emergency use authorization&#8221; that allowed widespread access to COVID vaccines during the pandemic. While high-risk individuals can still get the vaccine, healthy people will now need a recommendation from a physician. FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary said the agency doesn&#8217;t &#8220;have data [on] healthy Americans, so we’re not recommending it for healthy Americans,&#8221; adding that the change makes future vaccine mandates &#8220;legally impossible.&#8221; 
The move comes as President Trump has taken a more critical tone on the vaccines. In a post on Truth Social, he demanded that companies like Pfizer &#8220;justify&#8221; the success of the drugs and release their data to the public. In a notable shift, he also questioned his own signature program, writing, “I hope OPERATION WARP SPEED was as ‘BRILLIANT’ as many say it was. If not, we all want to know about it, and why???” 
The policy changes follow a major shakeup at the CDC, where HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently fired the director, prompting several other top officials to resign and nine former directors to write an op-ed condemning Kennedy. NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya responded by noting that the former directors criticizing Kennedy were the same ones who &#8220;embraced politicized school closures and covid vaccine mandates.”

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Morning Brief: US Military Strikes Drug Boat, Rise Of European Populism & COVID Vax Pullback

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George Carlin had his seven words you can’t say on TV, but today there is only one ineffable (un-sayable) word in American public life. You all know what it is. That one-word ban is due to the unique history and politics of the United States.
Are there any ineffable political beliefs?
In America, not yet. The Constitution’s First Amendment allows us to speak our minds. Other than calling for violent overthrow of the government or the immediate commission of a crime, we can say what we want. That includes bizarre, unpleasant, or even insane beliefs.
But in Australia, Canada, and Europe, free speech on asylum, migration, and national identity is increasingly being curtailed by law.
Western countries are undergoing massive, and often unpopular, demographic change. In democracies, the people have the right to discuss all political issues and decide what their own future should be. Yet increasingly, speech is prescribed, especially in the English-speaking world.
The news site Axios recently <a href="https://www.axios.com/newsletters/axios-am-0229ba50-fb70-47e4-924a-ed4b931d1c13.html?utm_source=newsletter&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosam&amp;stream=top">wrote</a> that &#8220;[i]n MAGA&#8217;s telling, America is the heir to ancient European civilizations, built on a Judeo-Christian foundation of white identity, meritocracy and traditional gender roles.&#8221; Axios is clearly trying to be critical here, but what’s their issue?
I’d substitute the race-baiting term “white” with the more accurate “European,” and add something about free markets and free speech, but Axios describes exactly why millions flee the Third World and what they&#8217;re coming to. But as Western countries absorb those millions, the rules on what speech and conduct is acceptable are changing to accommodate them, with government complicity.
As popular dissent grows, opposing the progressive establishment’s insistence that migration is an unalloyed good is increasingly risky. Being a nationalist, meaning putting your nation first. Calling to limit all — not just illegal — migration. Criticizing over-generous and easily-gamed asylum systems.
Advocating for indigenous rights for Europeans. Citing official <a href="https://www.azerbaycan24.com/en/german-politician-convicted-for-sharing-migrant-crime-stats/">statistics</a> that show nationals of some countries commit violent crime at rates many times that of natives. Citing <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/09/14/britain-pay-for-costs-low-skilled-migration-for-generations/">studies</a> that show low-skilled migrants actually take more in benefits from the fiscal pot over their lifetime than they put in. All these can land one in hot water in some supposedly free countries that are close U.S. allies.
The most toxic topic is the war in the Middle East, which has little connection to the lives of everyday Westerners but inspires demonstrations from <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/01/13/1224641296/gaza-dc-march-ceasefire-israel-protest">Washington</a>, D.C. to <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/570172/watch-pro-palestinian-protests-across-country-call-on-government-to-sanction-israel">Wellington</a>, NZ.
A two-tier attitude to free speech is rapidly developing across the Anglophone world, where provocative behavior is tolerated from supporters of Palestinians that would have been unimaginable only a generation ago.
In Australia, thousands of <a href="https://apnews.com/video/thousands-rally-at-pro-palestinian-marches-across-australia-1409f7e23ca2493085aa77bc8d361eba">protesters</a> took to the streets recently “demanding that the Australian government take action against Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza,” according to AP News. They chanted “free, free Palestine,” as they waved a Palestinian flags.
In Canada, the group <a href="https://x.com/mtl4palestine/status/1953598884489674804">Montreal4 Palestine</a> has held public Muslim <a href="https://x.com/ThevoiceAlexa/status/1957223530539454540?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1957223530539454540%7Ctwgr%5E2b5d1b302916d487c1c2c13a5cb72e0e7e937e65%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rebelnews.com%2Fwatch_protesters_face_off_against_islamic_public_prayer_in_montreal">prayers</a> outside the Basilica of Notre Dame. Quebec is a French-speaking province and heavily Catholic. The symbolism of Muslim prayers in front of a prominent Catholic church, under flapping Palestinian flags, is powerful. Montreal4 Palestine protesters held a banner saying “we fight, we liberate, we return,” a slogan echoing the goals of Hamas. An opposing group of <a href="https://x.com/ThevoiceAlexa/status/1957205906225049709?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1957205906225049709%7Ctwgr%5E2b5d1b302916d487c1c2c13a5cb72e0e7e937e65%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rebelnews.com%2Fwatch_protesters_face_off_against_islamic_public_prayer_in_montreal">counter-protesters</a> carrying Quebec flags and playing patriotic songs was much smaller.
Meanwhile in England, indigenous people are <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/world/england-flag-displays-powerful-symbol-immigration-fight-trump-style-populism-sweeps-through-uk">flying</a> the English flag, a cross of St. George on a white background. Some are doing so spontaneously, and others as part of <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/world/england-flag-displays-powerful-symbol-immigration-fight-trump-style-populism-sweeps-through-uk">Operation Raise the Colours</a>. Critics try and tie it all to far-right extremism, but there is a groundswell to this movement that exceeds the tiny numbers of the radical right in Great Britain.
The London borough of Tower Hamlets and the City Council of Birmingham tore down English flags that had been hung in the streets. The symbolism is clear there too. In Tower Hamlets, Bangladeshis outnumber indigenous (white) British, and the non-English reportedly dominate government-subsidized housing.
Birmingham, a town in the middle of England, was 99.6% indigenous in 1951, but a decade ago, the Daily Mail <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2755654/The-changing-face-Britain-A-child-Birmingham-likely-Muslim-Christian.html">reported</a> that “a child in Birmingham is now more likely to be a Muslim than Christian.” Since then, the country has seen mass migration from countries including Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Somalia. Today, indigenous British in Birmingham are under 50%.
The U.K.’s left-wing national broadcaster, the BBC, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx271162ee3o">hints</a> that anyone raising the English or British flags must be a right-wing extremist. The left-wing newspaper the Guardian predictably <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/aug/20/row-grows-over-motives-behind-england-flag-campaign-far-right-racist">claims</a> that putting up English and British flags &#8220;may offer cover for far-right agendas.&#8221; By “far-right,” they include opposition to mass migration, concern about increased sexual violence against girls and women, and fear of cultural disintegration.
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Opposing mass migration is now an ineffable political position in the left-wing dominated academia, civil service, and media. But it is perfectly understandable and legitimate reaction to enormous demographic change across the Western world.
If current policies and trends continue, that change will make indigenous British a minority in their land within a few generations. Other countries like France and Germany are not far behind. This fate is not inevitable, it is a choice. It will only happen if the people accept it and elect governments accordingly. Putting out more flags perhaps signals that they won’t.
* * *
Simon Hankinson is a senior research fellow in The Heritage Foundation’s Border Security and Immigration Center and the author of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ten-Woke-Commandments-Must-Obey/dp/1680533614">&#8220;The Ten Woke Commandments (You Must Not Obey)&#8221;</a> from Academica Books.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

More Than 50,000 Migrants Have Crossed The Channel To The UK Since Labour Came To Power

The Unspeakable Truth About Mass Migration

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As the media and Democrats fulminate over President Trump&#8217;s supposed capitulation to Vladimir Putin, precisely the opposite seems to be happening.
But leave it to the media and the Left to deliberately misinterpret what is going on.
On Monday, President Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/with-historic-zelensky-visit-donald-trump-moves-the-world-one-step-closer-to-peace?author=Mary+Margaret+Olohan&amp;category=undefined&amp;elementPosition=14&amp;row=3&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+News&amp;rowType=Vertical+Carousel&amp;title=With+Historic+Zelensky+Visit%2C+Donald+Trump+Moves+The+World+One+Step+Closer+To+Peace">met with</a> Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, along with a bunch of European leaders.
Everything seems to be moving toward Ukrainian territorial concessions in return for serious security guarantees for Ukraine.
Those guarantees would presumably be some form of European trigger force in Ukraine that would implicate a mutual defense pact. It wouldn&#8217;t exactly be NATO, but it would be NATO-lite. The problem is that to be a credible deterrent, you need tens of thousands of troops.
The second possibility is a trip-wire force that would trigger the possibility of the mutual defense coming into effect if Russia were to walk across the border.
A third possibility would be a kind of observer force, perhaps a few hundred troops or so, to report on incoming military action, which could be accomplished with satellites and ground cameras.
Of course, all of this flies in the face of the fact that Russia wants to leave Ukraine utterly defenseless and prostrate before them.
But here’s the thing: The fact that President Trump is willing to hold Russia&#8217;s feet to the fire by even talking about these kinds of significant security guarantees is a major move from the president, and pretending that it&#8217;s a pro-Russia move is silly. If there were a significant security guarantee, a sort of NATO-lite and Article Five-lite approach to Ukraine in exchange for territorial concessions in Donbas, that would be a masterstroke from the president of the United States, because otherwise this war just keeps going.
All of Trump’s forward movement on this issue is to the great consternation of both the media and the Democrats, who claim that Donald Trump was a Putin catspaw. They thought that Trump was going to welcome Zelensky to the White House yesterday by berating him and telling him he needed to basically surrender in the war: No security guarantees, no economic health, no nothing.
None of that happened. In fact, it was pretty warm. You could see Trump and Zelensky getting along. This was not an antagonistic meeting.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2262-the-ben-shapiro-show?elementPosition=2&amp;row=2&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h3>
One of the things that Zelensky also said is that as part of any of the security guarantees put forward by Europe and the United States, Ukraine would buy $90 billion in American weapons via Europe. The rest of the NATO nations and the United States military would benefit from it. The defense industries in the United States would end up benefiting from that. He expressed gratitude to both President Trump as well as the EU leaders for their hard work on the possibility of a peace deal.
There are still a lot of steps to go. We still have to see whether Vladimir Putin actually is interested in ending the war in any serious way.
As I’ve said before, a good thing about President Trump is that he&#8217;s heterodox in his views, which means he does very creative things. But if things don&#8217;t happen, he will respond. He&#8217;s responsive. He doesn&#8217;t just stick with an idea, no matter what.
The idea that endless diplomacy is something that President Trump is going to pursue here is not true. If Russia does not come to the table, if he feels that Putin is jacking him around again, he&#8217;ll walk away. He is not going to be bullied by Vladimir Putin here.
Trump remains optimistic, saying that he thinks that Putin wants to make a deal.
For the media and the Left to pretend that somehow Trump is doing Putin&#8217;s work here is to ignore everything that&#8217;s actually going on in favor of a pre-established narrative.
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Even Michael McFaul, who was President Obama&#8217;s Russian ambassador, <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5459351-mcfaul-praises-trump-peace-efforts/">admitted</a> that Trump is actually doing a pretty good job here. “I think this was a very positive meeting,” he said. “And whoever had the idea to bring all these European leaders together, in addition to President Zelensky, that was a brilliant, brilliant idea. And having it come so quickly after Alaska was also very important because now they&#8217;ve changed the talking points here. Just in this meeting alone, they&#8217;ve walked back some of the positions that the president was echoing, when he met with President Putin. So this is very positive progress.”
If you&#8217;re honest —even if you&#8217;re a Democrat — you should be acknowledging that President Trump not only is not doing anything wrong here, he&#8217;s actually moving the ball forward.
To pretend that this was somehow a gigantic Trump capitulation to Putin is to ignore the actual reality of the situation, and it demonstrates the wild disconnect between reality and what Democrats think of President Trump.
But then, Democrats and reality are like oil and water.

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Could Trump’s Masterstroke End The Russia-Ukraine War?

Could Trump's Masterstroke End The Russia-Ukraine War?

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President Donald Trump said on Tuesday morning that he pushed back on a European leader&#8217;s suggestion to wait one or two months before setting up another meeting to discuss a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia.
In a phone interview with &#8220;Fox &amp; Friends,&#8221; Trump said one of the European leaders he met with at the White House on Monday told him they should set up more peace talks &#8220;in a month or two,&#8221; an idea that the president immediately shot down. Trump did not name the European ally in question, only saying he&#8217;s &#8220;a great gentleman&#8221; whom he did not want to offend.
&#8220;I said, &#8216;A month or two? You&#8217;re going to have another 40,000 people dead in a month or two. You have to do it tonight!&#8221; Trump said.
&#8220;And I did, actually,&#8221; Trump added. &#8220;I called President Putin and we&#8217;re trying to work out a meeting with President Zelensky.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a>: &#8220;One of the gentlemen&#8230; he said, &#8216;Well, let&#8217;s meet in another month or two&#8230;&#8217; I said, &#8216;A MONTH OR TWO? You&#8217;re going to have another 40,000 people dead in a month or two — you have to do it TONIGHT.&#8217; And I did actually, I called President Putin and we&#8217;re trying to work… <a href="https://t.co/418xxn9apH">pic.twitter.com/418xxn9apH</a>
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1957779870865305750?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 19, 2025</a></blockquote>
Along with Zelensky, Trump met with European Union President Ursula von der Leyen, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and Finnish President Alexander Stubb.
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In the middle of the meeting, Trump called Russian President Vladimir Putin to set up a face-to-face meeting with the Ukrainian president. Trump told &#8220;Fox &amp; Friends&#8221; that he did not call Putin in front of the European leaders.
&#8220;I thought that would be disrespectful to President Putin. I wouldn&#8217;t do that because they have not had the warmest relations,&#8221; Trump continued. &#8220;And, actually, President Putin wouldn&#8217;t talk to the people from Europe. That was part of the problem. They had no communication.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a> on his call with President Putin: &#8220;I didn&#8217;t do it in front of them&#8230; because they have not had the warmest relations &#8230; It was years that he didn&#8217;t speak to anybody from the White House — and it was a long time that he didn&#8217;t speak to anybody from Europe.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/ss7LoSZn5F">pic.twitter.com/ss7LoSZn5F</a>
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1957782144639545613?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 19, 2025</a></blockquote>
German Chancellor Merz said on Monday evening that Trump successfully <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/putin-zelensky-to-meet-face-to-face-within-two-weeks-german-chancellor?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Tim+Pearce&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=1&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=Putin%2C+Zelensky+To+Meet+Face-To-Face+Within+Two+Weeks%3A+German+Chancellor">set up</a> a meeting between Putin and Zelensky that is set to take place within two weeks. After the Russian and Ukrainian leaders meet one-on-one, Trump said he would step in to take part in a trilateral discussion.
&#8220;We had a very good call, and I told [Putin] that we&#8217;re going to set up a meeting with President Zelensky, and you and he will meet, and then after that meeting, if everything works out okay, I&#8217;ll meet and we&#8217;ll wrap it up,&#8221; Trump <a href="https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/1957782313737056640">added</a>. &#8220;It takes, in this case, two to tango. They have to have somewhat of a relationship. Otherwise, we&#8217;re just wasting a lot of time. I don&#8217;t want to be doing that. I just want to end it.&#8221;
Both Trump and Zelensky described Monday&#8217;s discussions as constructive. The U.S. president vowed to provide Ukraine with security guarantees if a peace deal is reached with Russia, and Zelensky was open to meeting with Putin to hash out a deal.

European Leaders Join Ukrainian President Zelensky For White House Meeting With Trump

Trump Rips European Leader Who Wants To Wait ‘A Month Or Two’ For Next Ukraine-Russia Meeting

Emmanuel Macron

Giorgia Meloni

Keir Starmer

President Trump hosts Ukrainian President Zelensky and European leaders at the White House to push for a peace deal that would require Ukraine to cede territory. An illegal immigrant with a California-issued commercial driver&#8217;s license kills three in a Florida crash, reigniting the battle over sanctuary state policies. Texas Democrats end their standoff and return to the state, paving the way for a new GOP-drawn congressional map as California plans its own gerrymandering in response.
It’s Tuesday, August 19, 2025, and this is the news you need to know to start your day.
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<h2>Trump Pushes for Peace Deal at White House Summit</h2>
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Topline: President Trump hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and a delegation of European leaders at the White House on Monday to discuss a framework for ending the war with Russia, emphasizing a peace deal over a ceasefire.
Following his meeting with Vladimir Putin last week, President Trump is now pushing for Ukraine to accept a peace deal that would end the war, but result in significant territorial concessions. The diplomatic balancing act puts Zelensky in a difficult position. If he agrees to the deal, he ends the war and secures a U.S.-backed security guarantee, but he breaks his promise to the Ukrainian people that he would never cede land to Putin. If he refuses, he risks alienating his most important ally.
Trump reiterated on Monday that he wants to move quickly toward a final peace deal, rather than a ceasefire, which he argued could create a &#8220;strategic disadvantage for one side or the other.” While no deal was reached, the meeting was a sign of improving relations between Trump and European leaders, many of whom praised the president for the progress made in recent weeks.
The diplomatic push comes as Ukrainian public opinion has dramatically shifted. A recent <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/693203/ukrainian-support-war-effort-collapses.aspx">Gallup</a> poll shows that 69% of Ukrainians now support an immediate peace, a complete reversal from 2022 when 73% wanted to fight until victory.
<h2>Illegal Immigrant With CA License Kills Three in Florida Crash</h2>
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Topline: An illegal immigrant who obtained a commercial driver&#8217;s license in the sanctuary state of California has been charged with killing three people in a vehicular homicide in Florida, sparking new outrage over sanctuary policies.
Harjinder Singh, a 28-year-old illegal immigrant from India, was driving a semi-truck on the <a href="https://www.flhsmv.gov/2025/08/16/illegal-u-turn-truck-driver-arrested-for-vehicular-homicide/">Florida</a> turnpike last week when he allegedly attempted an illegal U-turn, causing a collision that killed all three occupants of a minivan. Singh entered the U.S. illegally in California in 2018 and was able to obtain a Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) in the state.
The incident has reignited the national debate over sanctuary policies. A DHS spokesperson <a href="https://x.com/DHSgov/status/1957433429689020919">said</a> in a statement, &#8220;Three innocent people were killed in Florida because Gavin Newsom’s California DMV issued an illegal alien a Commercial Driver’s License—this state of governance is asinine.” Governor Newsom&#8217;s office has attempted to shift blame, claiming the Trump administration issued Singh a work permit, but DHS says the permit was rejected under Trump and later approved under the Biden administration.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R), who signed a ban on sanctuary city policies in his state, expressed shock that a man who he said doesn&#8217;t even speak English was issued a CDL in California. DHS issued a statement asking, &#8220;How many more innocent people have to die before Gavin Newsom stops playing games with the safety of the American public?”
<h2>Texas Redistricting Resumes as CA Plans Retaliation</h2>
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Topline: The Texas Democrats who fled the state to block a Republican-led redistricting effort have returned, paving the way for the GOP to pass a new map that could net them five House seats.
After fleeing the state for weeks to deny Republicans a quorum, the protesting Democrats have returned to the state capital. Their effort failed to stop the new congressional map, which is now on the agenda for a new special session called by Governor Greg Abbott (R). The returning lawmakers now face hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines, at a rate of $500 per day for their absence. Governor Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) are also seeking to have 13 of the lawmakers removed from office.
In response to the Texas GOP&#8217;s move, California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) is asking voters in his state to approve a measure in a special election to temporarily suspend California&#8217;s independent redistricting commission. This would allow the state&#8217;s Democrat-supermajority legislature to gerrymander its own map to gain five House seats and &#8220;neuter&#8221; the Republican gains in Texas. Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), who led the effort to create the independent commission, is leading the opposition to Newsom’s plan.

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Morning Brief: Trump Hosts European Leaders For Peace Talks, Sanctuary Outrage, Texas Redistricting

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