The ongoing legal battle between Hunter Biden and Lunden Roberts over their seven-year-old daughter, Navy Joan, has reached a new level of friction in an Arkansas court. The dispute centers on <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15510483/Hunter-Biden-ghosted-daughter-Navy-Lunden-Roberts-stripper.html">allegations</a> that Biden has &#8220;ghosted&#8221; the child and failed to fulfill the unique terms of a 2023 settlement agreement.
Lunden Roberts recently filed to reopen the child support case, labeling Biden &#8220;classless&#8221; for cutting off all contact with Navy Joan in 2024. In response, Biden’s legal team submitted a blunt filing asserting that his lack of communication does not constitute a violation of the law. His lawyer argued that because the court order does not explicitly mandate him to speak to or visit the child, his silence is not punishable by contempt. This follows a brief period where the two had reportedly begun building a foundation through scheduled calls.
A central pillar of their <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/06/20/hunter-biden-baby-mama-luden-roberts-settle-child-support-dispute-with-first-sons-payments-slashed/">2023 agreement</a> was Biden’s commitment to provide Navy Joan with 30 of his original paintings or the proceeds from their sale. At the time, Biden’s art was valued as high as $500,000 per piece. Roberts claims Biden has failed to hand over the art, while Biden’s defense maintains that because the settlement did not establish a specific deadline, he is not currently in breach of the order. Meanwhile, the market value of his work has reportedly plummeted since Joe Biden left the White House.
Roberts cited a stark contrast between Navy Joan’s upbringing and that of Hunter’s other children. Her filings point to the Biden family’s exclusive lifestyle—specifically a 2025 Thanksgiving gathering in Nantucket—noting that Navy Joan is the only grandchild excluded from such family activities. Roberts argues that while the court cannot force Biden to be a &#8220;good dad,&#8221; it can ensure the child receives the same level of financial support as her half-siblings.
The relationship began in 2017, and Navy Joan was born in 2018. Although Hunter Biden initially claimed he had no memory of Roberts and denied paternity, a 2019 DNA test <a href="https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2019/nov/20/dna-test-shows-hunter-biden-father-arkansas-womans/">confirmed</a> he was the father. Despite this, he famously omitted Navy Joan from his 2021 memoir and successfully fought to prevent her from using the &#8220;Biden&#8221; last name.

House Oversight Committee Considers Citing Hunter Biden For Contempt Of Congress

Legal Filings: Hunter Biden Defends ‘Ghosting’ Daughter

Courts

Hunter Biden

Joe Biden

U.S.

In the last year of the Biden administration, the Department of Veterans Affairs inaugurated an effort to embed diversity, equity, and inclusion principles that would outlast their time in power.
In January 2024, the VA&#8217;s Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access Council met to discuss the results of a survey, wherein employees were asked to identify &#8220;pain points&#8221; connected to their individual identities — based on race, gender identity, and a number of other factors — in order to further embed Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the agency.
The discussion centered on &#8220;identity insights&#8221; and was designed to &#8220;improve employee experience,&#8221; records obtained by the Center to Advance Security in America reveal.
Just under 300 participants identified some 5,710 &#8220;pain points&#8221; that ranged from complaints about a colleague making an &#8220;inappropriate comment&#8221; to concerns that office holiday decorations excluded certain religious preferences. Other &#8220;pain points&#8221; were centered on general workplace environment and feeling that other employees did not understand certain sensitivities connected to those identity characteristics.
The 2024 meeting, which was planned three years earlier, began as a partnership between the Veterans Experience Office&#8217;s Employee Experience Organizational Management Directorate and the Office of Resolution Management, Diversity and Inclusion to improve employee experience by addressing the &#8220;pain points&#8221; they experienced in the workplace based on their identities.
Those identities — in addition to race, sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity — divided participants along religious lines and listed separate categories for Baby Boomers, Generation X-ers, Millennials, and Generation Z employees as well.
Of the 281 who were interviewed, only 3% answered based on only one identifier. Nearly one-fourth (24%) selected two identities, and 39% selected three. Of the remaining participants, 21% chose four identities, 11% chose five, and 2% chose six.
Following the late January meeting, the Council recommended a series of steps designed to make the VA a more receptive place for employees to express their &#8220;whole, authentic identity.&#8221;
&#8220;The three most pressing data fields that would benefit from a redesign as having emerged from the Identity Insights project include &#8216;gender,&#8217; &#8216;sexual orientation,&#8217; and &#8216;race,&#8217; as these categories either do not exist or do not exhaustively provide inclusive options for employees to holistically and accurately self-identify,&#8221; the study advised.
Another recommendation was for a &#8220;streamlined escalation pathway&#8221; for employees to resolve identity-based complaints — particularly &#8220;in the event of mistreatment, including reporting I*DEA issues, harassment, and general concerns with conduct in the workplace.&#8221;
Those complaints, the study indicated, could stem from interactions between employees, between employees and supervisors, and even between employees and the veterans they serve — with emphasis placed on the potential for veterans to create &#8220;pain points&#8221; that impact employees.
The study also suggested there should be an avenue for dealing with &#8220;the impacts of negative customer experiences on employees such as health practitioners providing additional coverage when LGBTQ+ Veterans are denied care by a colleague&#8221; — but did not provide evidence that such denial of care was happening within the VA system.
Almost one year to the day after that meeting — on January 27, 2025 — the VA under President Donald Trump had already begun to <a href="https://news.va.gov/press-room/va-ends-dei-stops-millions-in-spending-on-dei/">root out the DEI initiatives</a> within the department.
&#8220;Under President Trump, VA is laser-focused on providing the best possible care and benefits to Veterans, their families, caregivers, and survivors,&#8221; VA Director of Media Affairs Morgan Ackley explained. &#8220;We are proud to have abandoned the divisive DEI policies of the past and pivot back to VA’s core mission.&#8221;
In the year since, under Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins, the agency has <a href="https://department.va.gov/2025accomplishments/">cut $14 million</a> in spending that went solely to DEI-focused initiatives and training. It is unclear whether the recommendations made during that meeting were ever implemented, and if so, what the new administration may have in place to put a stop to the process.

Department of Veterans Affairs

How The Biden Admin Tried To Keep The VA Woke After It Left Town

How The Biden Admin Tried To Embed DEI In Dept Of Veterans Affairs On The way Out The Door

Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

Donald Trump

Doug Collins

Veterans

WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump has made good on many of his campaign promises since taking office for the second time a year ago.
Standing in the Capitol Rotunda on January 20, 2025 — the inauguration having been moved indoors due to frigid temperatures in our nation&#8217;s capital — Trump took the Oath of Office, then addressed an expectant nation, outlining his goals and priorities for this second and final term in the White House.
The 45th and 47th president <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/remarks/2025/01/the-inaugural-address/">pledged</a> that &#8220;from this day forward, our country will flourish and be respected again all over the world.&#8221; Trump planned to restore American greatness by securing the southern border &#8220;to repel the disastrous invasion of our country,&#8221;; by making &#8220;our children safe, healthy, and disease-free&#8221; and safe from radical gender ideology; and by &#8220;defeating America’s enemies&#8221; to promote peace.
It was an ambitious agenda, but one Trump and his administration say they&#8217;ve met.
&#8220;President Trump accomplished more in one year than many presidents did in eight,&#8221; Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told The Daily Wire. &#8220;Under President Trump’s leadership,&#8221; Leavitt said, &#8220;America is safer, stronger, and more prosperous than ever before, and the best is yet to come.&#8221;
Perhaps most notable has been Trump&#8217;s handling of the border crisis. The president completely shut down the border, which had become dangerously porous under President Joe Biden. After four years of record illegal immigration, Customs and Border Protection touted a record-low number of encounters in most months last year. November was the seventh straight month of zero releases into the United States.
In the first 10 months of Trump 2.0, CBP said, there were fewer apprehensions than one month under Biden, and nationwide apprehensions averaged under 10,000 a month.
&#8220;These numbers reflect the tireless efforts of our agents and officers who are delivering results that redefine border security,&#8221; CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott promised in December. We’re not slowing down. We’re setting the pace for the future.”
Additionally, the president&#8217;s Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have detained more than 66,800 illegal immigrants this year, with huge numbers of detentions in Texas, Arizona, California, and Louisiana, despite protesting, unrest, and even rioting over the apprehensions in some cities.
<div id="attachment_1029999" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/we-will-dream-boldly-how-trump-transformed-the-united-states-in-a-year/2025-trump-politics-inaguration" rel="attachment wp-att-1029999"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1029999" class="wp-image-1029999 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-2194475404-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-2194475404-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-2194475404-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-2194475404-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-2194475404.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" /></a>(Photo by Aristide for The Washington Post via Getty Images)</div>
Fixing the illegal immigration problem is just one of several ways Trump has upended Biden&#8217;s legacy. By rescinding executive orders, pardons, and policies, Trump has significantly minimized his predecessor&#8217;s impact — and reduced Biden&#8217;s legacy, as <a href="https://www.axios.com/2026/01/18/trump-one-year-biden-legacy">Axios reported this weekend</a>, to a mere &#8220;footnote.&#8221;
This includes purging Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs and policies from government agencies and academic institutions, one of the &#8220;radical political theories and social experiments&#8221; he lambasted in his second inaugural address. The president also targeted fraud resulting from illegal immigration and the Biden administration&#8217;s failure to properly vet refugees in the aftermath of the botched Afghanistan withdrawal.
While the Biden administration revered climate change and warned that it presented a threat to the entire world, Trump has given the topic little discussion, instead focusing on things like the &#8220;Make America Healthy Again&#8221; movement. After elevating leading MAHA figures like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to the Department of Health and Human Services, Trump made waves with announcements about infant vaccinations, dietary guidelines, and nutrition.
In his second inaugural address, Trump only spoke of health when he spoke of children. To that end, Trump signed an <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/protecting-children-from-chemical-and-surgical-mutilation/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">executive order</a> almost immediately protecting children from irreversible gender transition procedures, calling them a “stain on our Nation’s history.”
The president&#8217;s order states that the United States will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the attempted gender transition of a child, promising that it will “rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures.”
Since the signing of that order, transgender programs all across the United States <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hospitals-across-u-s-stop-transitioning-children-after-trump-signs-order-protecting-kids">have shut down</a> or ceased offering dangerous hormones to children: in New York, NYU Langone Health, in Colorado, Denver Health, in Virginia, both VCU Health and the Children’s Hospital of Richmond, in Washington, D.C., Children’s National Hospital, to name just a few.
The Department of Health and Human Services has also taken further steps to penalize hospitals involved in these procedures, and the White House <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/white-house-answers-questions-on-trump-actions-protecting-children-from-trans-procedures">has told The Daily Wire</a> that it would &#8220;certainly&#8221; back legislation protecting children in this way.
Trump also pledged last year to fix an education system that &#8220;teaches our children to be ashamed of themselves — in many cases, to hate our country despite the love that we try so desperately to provide to them.&#8221;
So far this term, as Trump and Education Secretary Linda McMahon work to dismantle the Education Department, the president has prioritized patriotic curricula. He also created a joint task force between the Department of Education and the Justice Department to aggressively investigate schools that have discriminated against women by allowing men in women&#8217;s sports or spaces.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
SCOOP: Tomorrow, Donald Trump will sign an executive order on keeping men out of women&#8217;s sports, <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDailyWire</a> has learned.
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) <a href="https://twitter.com/MaryMargOlohan/status/1886785828459831335?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 4, 2025</a></blockquote>
That task force is one of several ways Trump is enforcing a February <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/president-trump-to-sign-executive-to-keep-men-out-of-womens-sports">executive order</a> banning men from women&#8217;s sports, a historic moment in the fight to protect the integrity of women’s spaces from gender activists and ideologues. Trump signed that legislation surrounded by female athletes, including women like Riley Gaines, who spoke out against men competing in their sports.
The executive orders Trump signed in his first few months largely set the stage for the year to come. In his inaugural address, Trump pledged to sign a day-one executive order &#8220;designating the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.&#8221; His second-term war on narcoterrorists escalated in recent months, culminating with a daring midnight raid on Venezuelan Dictator Nicolas Maduro, capturing the authoritarian and bringing him back to the United States to face trial.
That raid, which is widely considered to have been carried out flawlessly, stunned the world. And as he explained the president&#8217;s actions to the press, Secretary of State Marco Rubio emphasized that the raid shows that Trump, unlike many world leaders, absolutely <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/after-threats-from-trump-colombian-president-rings-the-white-house?author=Mary+Margaret+Olohan&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=10&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=After+Threats+From+Trump%2C+Colombian+President+Rings+The+White+House">means what he says</a>.
Following that raid, Trump dubbed his foreign policy &#8220;The Donroe Doctrine.&#8221; Through strategic military action and negotiations, Trump aims to achieve what he said would be his &#8220;proudest legacy&#8230;that of a peacemaker and unifier.&#8221;
The president has told the press many times that he has ended almost 10 wars, referring to conflicts between Israel and Gaza, Israel and Iran, Pakistan and India, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Thailand and Cambodia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, Egypt and Ethiopia, and Serbia and Kosovo. He has also been heavily involved in helping Russia and Ukraine negotiate an end to their ongoing war, hosting both leaders in the United States.
With the president&#8217;s blessing, Pete Hegseth is aggressively straightening out the War Department, freshly re-named to emphasize the deadly seriousness of the administration when it comes to protecting the United States and American interests. The Pentagon is cracking down on loosened standards, woke ideology, and more.
None of which is to say that the foreign focus of Trump&#8217;s second term distracted from domestic policy. In just one year, the president secured almost $10 trillion in both private and foreign investments for the United States, including $600 billion in investments from Saudi Arabia, a $350 billion tech deal with the United Kingdom, and more.
&#8220;In recent years, our nation has suffered greatly,&#8221; Trump told the nation a year ago. &#8220;But we are going to bring it back and make it great again, greater than ever before.&#8221;
&#8220;We will stand bravely, we will live proudly, we will dream boldly, and nothing will stand in our way because we are Americans,&#8221; Trump concluded. &#8220;The future is ours, and our golden age has just begun.&#8221;

The Inauguration Of Donald J. Trump As The 47th President

‘We Will Dream Boldly’: How Trump Transformed The United States In A Year

Foreign Policy

Immigration

A shocking new report from the House Oversight Committee says the Biden administration broke the law in its crusade against the alcohol industry.
Last year, the Biden administration released a report that claimed there was “a very direct link between alcohol consumption and increased cancer risk.” Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called for putting this warning on all alcohol products and called for a reassessment of the guideline limits for alcohol consumption to account for cancer risk.
As The Daily Wire reported at the time, this was the culmination of the Biden administration’s quiet efforts to redo America’s dietary restrictions to recommend Americans never drink alcohol. The relatively secret effort, which flaunted years of precedent and drew on the recommendations of Canadian citizens, largely flew under the radar.
The congressional investigation found the Biden administration’s alcohol study was both biased and unlawful. The report comes just hours before Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins hold a press conference in the White House Briefing Room, where they&#8217;re expected to unveil new guidelines.
The <a href="https://oversight.house.gov/report/a-study-fraught-with-bias-how-the-biden-administrations-alcohol-intake-and-health-study-tried-to-undermine-the-2025-2030-dietary-guidelines-for-americans/">report</a>, titled “‘A Study Fraught With Bias: How the Biden administration’s Alcohol Intake and Health Study Tried To Undermine the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines For Americans,” details a yearlong congressional investigation into the alcohol and health study authorized by the Biden administration in 2022. Biden’s study found a link between cancer and alcohol.
According to the report, the Biden administration directed the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Prevention of Underage Drinking to conduct an alcohol intake and health study intended to influence the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. House Republicans argue the effort violated federal law.
Congress had already authorized the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) and appropriated $1.3 million to conduct the sole alcohol related study meant to inform the next round of dietary guidelines. Lawmakers say the Biden administration&#8217;s parallel effort was not only duplicative but also designed to reach a predetermined conclusion.
House investigators found that all six members selected for Biden’s study were &#8220;anti-alcohol advocates who had conducted previous research linking negative health outcomes with alcohol.&#8221; Three of the six experts in Biden’s study reside in Canada and were involved in developing Canada’s controversial 2023 alcohol guidance, which concluded that no amount of alcohol consumption is safe.
House investigators found that all six members selected for Biden’s study were &#8220;anti-alcohol advocates who had conducted previous research linking negative health outcomes with alcohol.&#8221;

President Trump Toasts The 2025 Kennedy Center Honorees

House Republicans Expose Biden’s Biased Efforts To Ban Alcohol

Alcohol

Republican Party

Surgeon General

Vice President JD Vance said during a Tuesday interview that President Donald Trump&#8217;s administration was pulling out all the stops to reshape the American economy after &#8220;40 years of bad policy.&#8221;
Vance spoke with Salem radio host and CNN commentator Scott Jennings, and said that while former President Joe Biden had certainly dealt a devastating blow, he wasn&#8217;t entirely responsible for the longer-term bad policies that had kept the economy from surging forward.
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.<a href="https://twitter.com/VP?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@VP</a>: The economy wasn&#8217;t just wrecked under Biden, it was wrecked by 40 years of bad policy. If we rely on our OWN workers and ingenuity to make our stuff, we&#8217;re more prosperous, more free, much wealthier — and that&#8217;s exactly what <a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a>&#8216;s economic policies are leading us to. <a href="https://t.co/59IzFELIV9">pic.twitter.com/59IzFELIV9</a>
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/2008611951820345733?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 6, 2026</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;The economy, in some ways, wasn&#8217;t just wrecked under the Biden administration; it was wrecked by 40 years of bad economic policy,&#8221; Vance explained. We shipped way too many jobs to China and other countries all over the world, we became less reliant on ourselves and more reliant on foreign countries, and undoing that takes time.&#8221;
Vance touted the progress made in just a year since President Trump was sworn in to begin his second term, adding, &#8220;If we rely on our own workers and ingenuity to make our stuff, we&#8217;re more prosperous, we&#8217;re more free, we&#8217;re much wealthier as a country, and that&#8217;s exactly what the president&#8217;s economic policies are leading us to.&#8221;
The vice president went on to address several specific issues that had been driving up costs in the United States, beginning with illegal immigration.
&#8220;It is not a coincidence that during the worst open border we have ever had under Joe Biden, the cost of an American home doubled,&#8221; Vance said, adding, &#8220;Now that we&#8217;re getting those illegal immigrants out, you see rents have come down for 4 straight months. We want them to keep coming down.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/VP?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@VP</a>: It is not a coincidence that during the worst open border we have ever had under Joe Biden, the cost of an American home doubled&#8230; now that we&#8217;re getting those illegal immigrants out, you see rents have come down 4 straight months. We want them to keep coming down. <a href="https://t.co/WT38Sv2J3x">pic.twitter.com/WT38Sv2J3x</a>
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/2008614378611110059?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 6, 2026</a></blockquote>
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He also addressed the astronomical — and still increasing — health insurance premiums, driven by the unsustainable costs of Obamacare, and said that President Trump had plans to move on that as well.
&#8220;The president is sick of Obamacare and how unaffordable it&#8217;s made American healthcare, we actually met about this yesterday,&#8221; Vance said, adding that other priorities include reducing the cost of housing for American families.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/VP?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@VP</a> on Trump admin priorities in 2026: &#8220;<a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a> is sick of Obamacare and how unaffordable it&#8217;s made American healthcare&#8230; We&#8217;re very focused on some housing legislation&#8230; We really do need to make it harder for foreign countries to take advantage of the American economy.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/hYUqRIOgaQ">pic.twitter.com/hYUqRIOgaQ</a>
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/2008615249667412241?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 6, 2026</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;We really do need to make it harder for foreign countries to take advantage of the American economy,&#8221; he concluded.

US President Donald Trump, alongside Vice President JD Vance

Vance Lays Out How Trump Plans To Fix The Economy After ’40 Years Of Bad Policy’

'40 Years Of Bad Policy': Vance Lays Out How Trump Admin Plans To Fix The Economy

Affordable

Economy

JD Vance

Media

Politics

On Saturday, elite American military operators descended upon an indicted narco-terrorist and extracted him from Venezuela, delivering him to New York to face the charges. That indicted narco-terrorist just happened to be Nicolás Maduro, the dictator who calls himself &#8220;president.&#8221;
With Maduro gone, Democrats who once called for his ouster are suddenly up in arms, simply because President Donald Trump is the one who made it happen.
For those who don&#8217;t spend their Sunday mornings glued to the television — and their Sunday afternoons attempting to dig through a week&#8217;s worth of network and cable news media spin — The Daily Wire has compiled a short summary of what you may have missed.
Across the major legacy networks, Democrats complained about the fact that the Trump administration had sent military operators in to extract Maduro — and media personalities quickly joined them in questioning whether or not the Trump administration had the authority to take that action without first getting congressional approval.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer — who <a href="https://x.com/mazemoore/status/2007868827355484611">criticized Trump</a> in 2020 for not ending Maduro&#8217;s regime — led the charge on ABC&#8217;s &#8220;This Week,&#8221; speaking with Democratic strategist-turned-ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos, Schumer conceded that Maduro was a bad actor but claimed that the Trump administration had still been coloring outside the lines in going to get him.
&#8220;Look, Maduro is a horrible, horrible person,&#8221; Schumer said. &#8220;But you don&#8217;t treat lawlessness with other lawlessness. And that&#8217;s what&#8217;s happened here. The American people, this morning, are scratching their heads in wonderment and in fear of what the president has proposed: &#8216;The United States will run Venezuela.&#8217; We have learned through the years [that] when America tries to do regime change and nation-building in this way, the American people pay the price in both blood and dollars.&#8221;
Stephanopoulos pointed out the fact that Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Trump administration had the authority to move on Maduro, and Schumer protested: &#8220;It&#8217;s a violation of the law to do what they did without getting the authorization of Congress.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer criticizes the U.S strike in Venezuela and capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro: “It&#8217;s a violation of the law to do what they did without getting the authorization of Congress.” <a href="https://t.co/jbZuHwZD9A">https://t.co/jbZuHwZD9A</a> <a href="https://t.co/nNEQWg1d7V">pic.twitter.com/nNEQWg1d7V</a>
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ThisWeekABC/status/2007838874295287924?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 4, 2026</a></blockquote>
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CBS News anchor Margaret Brennan brought in Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), who became a household name when he traveled to El Salvador to retrieve MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Van Hollen also complained that the Trump administration had overstepped its authority in taking action in Venezuela without asking Congress first.
He predicted that in reaction, Congress &#8220;will have a vote on a war powers resolution probably as early as this week, if not next.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Sen. Chris Van Hollen says President Trump does not have the legal authority to attack Venezuela and says he’s sure that Congress “will have a vote on a war powers resolution probably as early as this week, if not next.”
“For the most part, Republicans are happy to give Donald… <a href="https://t.co/J4kq7RraNC">pic.twitter.com/J4kq7RraNC</a>
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) <a href="https://twitter.com/FaceTheNation/status/2007863051152679414?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 4, 2026</a></blockquote>
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On &#8220;The Sunday Briefing,&#8221; Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) said much the same to Fox News host Jacqui Heinrich, after first claiming that more traditional avenues like sanctions hadn&#8217;t worked on Maduro because American allies hated Trump too much to join the United States in enforcing them. Then he, too, argued that Trump should have come to Congress for approval before sending military operators into Venezuela.
Kaine, as recently as 2024, had called Maduro an <a href="https://x.com/SenTimKaine/status/1836398711837974976">illegitimate leader</a> and demanded a &#8220;peaceful transfer of power.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
🚨 WOW. Democrat Sen. Tim Kaine just got UTTERLY EMBARRASSED on national television!
&#8220;If Dems cared SO MUCH about process, why didn&#8217;t THEY do anything to bring Maduro to justice when THEY were in charge? The guy&#8217;s been under indictment since 2020!&#8221; 🔥💯<a href="https://t.co/aoPkS0qMlC">pic.twitter.com/aoPkS0qMlC</a>
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) <a href="https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2007878745403912679?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 4, 2026</a></blockquote>
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More of the same came from Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT), who <a href="https://x.com/TimMurtaugh/status/2007864277823107222">said in 2019</a> that Trump would move to topple Maduro because &#8220;getting rid of Maduro is good for the United States.&#8221;
On CNN&#8217;s &#8220;State of the Union,&#8221; however, he said Trump&#8217;s actions had been &#8220;wildly illegal&#8221; and claimed that he was only moving on Venezuela to gain control of natural resources for his own personal financial gain.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Sen. Chris Murphy tells Dana Bash that Trump’s attack on Venezuela “seems to be mostly about oil and natural resources” and is “all about making money for his friends.” <a href="https://t.co/EvylbRzl5B">pic.twitter.com/EvylbRzl5B</a>
— State of the Union (@CNNSOTU) <a href="https://twitter.com/CNNSOTU/status/2007847037501329477?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 4, 2026</a></blockquote>
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But Rubio explained in several interviews on Sunday why the Trump administration had not asked Congress for permission to act — or even notified Congress prior to doing so — and why they hadn&#8217;t been bound to do so.
&#8220;This was not an action that required congressional approval. In fact, it couldn’t require congressional approval because this was not an invasion. This is not an extended military operation,&#8221; he told NBC News anchor Kristen Welker on &#8220;Meet the Press.&#8221;
&#8220;We will seek congressional approval for actions that require congressional approval. Otherwise, they’ll get congressional notification.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
&#8220;This was not an action that required congressional approval&#8230; This was not an invasion,&#8221; says <a href="https://twitter.com/SecRubio?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SecRubio</a>.
&#8220;We will seek congressional approval for actions that require congressional approval. Otherwise, they&#8217;ll get congressional notification.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/up6ZEJtmXd">pic.twitter.com/up6ZEJtmXd</a>
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/2007831235091910730?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 4, 2026</a></blockquote>
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On ABC&#8217;s &#8220;This Week,&#8221; he added, &#8220;You can&#8217;t congressionally notify something like this for two reasons. Number one, it will leak. It&#8217;s as simple as that. And number two, it&#8217;s an exigent circumstance,&#8221; Rubio explained.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Sec. Rubio responds to criticism of the lack of congressional authorization in the U.S. operation in Venezuela: “You can&#8217;t congressionally notify something like this for two reasons. Number one, it will leak. It&#8217;s as simple as that. And number two, it&#8217;s an exigent circumstance.” <a href="https://t.co/qIBPiRuDYk">pic.twitter.com/qIBPiRuDYk</a>
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ThisWeekABC/status/2007837470977581424?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 4, 2026</a></blockquote>
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George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley addressed that point as well, responding specifically to the comments made by Tim Kaine, and argued that not only was the Trump administration&#8217;s action legal, it was no different than actions taken by previous Democratic presidents.
&#8220;Sen. Tim Kaine (D., Va) told Fox that &#8220;the Constitution does not give the President the right to initiate military action.&#8221; That is entirely incorrect. The Constitution does not give a president the right to declare war. However, presidents are allowed to use military forces without such a declaration&#8230;&#8221; <a href="https://x.com/JonathanTurley/status/2007884771209187539">Turley stated</a>, adding, &#8220;Democratic presidents routinely launched attacks in other countries without any objection from Sen. Kaine. Obama not only killed an American citizen not charge with any crime but attacked Libya&#8217;s capital and attacked its military to cause a regime change without consulting with Congress.&#8221;

Nicolás Maduro

Spin Cycle: Flip Test, The Maduro Edition

ABC News

CBS News

Congress

Constitution

Global Politics

Military

NBC News

The Trump administration moved to end a Biden-era rule on Monday it said created a fraud-friendly environment for daycare providers seeking federal funds. 
The Department of Health and Human Services proposed a new rule that will reverse regulations that required agencies to distribute government funds to daycare providers based on enrollment, not attendance, and before any care was delivered. HHS said the rule opened up the door for widespread fraud, including the kind currently under investigation in Minnesota. 
“Congress appropriated this funding to support working families and ensure children have safe places to grow and learn,” <a href="https://www.hhs.gov/press-room/hhs-close-biden-era-loophole-states-pay-child-care-providers-without-counting-attendance.html">said</a> HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. “Loopholes and fraud diverted that money to bad actors instead. Today, we are correcting that failure and returning these funds to the working families they were meant to serve.”
Last week, HHS paused all childcare payments to the state of Minnesota while it investigates allegations that millions of taxpayer dollars have been funneled to fraudulent daycares across the state throughout the past ten years. 
“Paying providers upfront based on paper enrollment instead of actual attendance invites abuse,” HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill said. “In Minnesota, we’ve seen credible and widespread allegations of fraudulent daycare providers who were not caring for children at all. The reforms we are enacting will make fraud harder to perpetrate.”
The proposed rule from HHS will reverse <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/03/01/2024-04139/improving-child-care-access-affordability-and-stability-in-the-child-care-and-development-fund-ccdf">changes</a> made to the Child Care and Development Fund under President Joe Biden that required agencies “to pay providers prospectively and based on child enrollment.&#8221;
The New York Post, which <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/01/05/us-news/trumps-hhs-rescinds-biden-child-care-funding-loopholes/?utm_source=chatgpt.com">first reported</a> on the new rule, noted that about $19 billion was paid out under the Biden rules.
The new rule will allow states to make payments based on attendance data, make payments after care is delivered, and allow more parental direction over how the funds are distributed. 
The new proposal from Kennedy will reverse these changes and take effect after a 30-day comment period. 
The Child Care and Development Fund is a partnership program funded by both the federal government and the states that gives financial assistance to low-income families to provide care for their kids while they work or attend school. 
The Trump administration has multiple ongoing investigations into suspected fraud throughout Minnesota, including at daycare centers and other government-funded programs.

Joe Biden Campaigns For President In Minnesota

Trump Admin Reverses Biden ‘Loophole’ That Invited Fraud, ‘Abuse’ At Daycares

Trump Admin Reverses Biden 'Loophole' That Invited Fraud, 'Abuse' At Daycares

Department of Health and Human Services

Fraud

Minnesota

Editor’s note: This week, we’re reprinting some of our best stories from the past year. This piece, originally published in November, details the Biden administration&#8217;s apparent unwillingness to protect one European nation from the predations of another.
In the final months of 2022, President Joe Biden was dealing with one foreign policy crisis after another.
The crisis dominating headlines and requiring the administration’s immediate attention that year was Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But there was another conflict brewing, around 200 miles south of Russia’s border.
In December 2022, Azerbaijan set up environmental protests as a false flag to illegally block the Lachin Corridor, the only road connecting Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh, a region inside of Azerbaijan that had been the home of ethnic Armenians for thousands of years. In the months that followed, the Azerbaijani regime in Baku ramped up its attack on Nagorno-Karabakh, as Armenian soldiers and civilians were killed in intense fighting.
Azerbaijan also cut off electricity and prevented food and aid from reaching the region, forcing around 120,000 ethnic Armenians to flee the place they had called home since the 7th century B.C.
One senior Biden administration official appeared to be the ideal person to address the growing humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh and come to the aid of Armenians. Samantha Power, Biden’s Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), spent decades raising awareness for human rights issues, including highlighting the violence that Armenians have faced for decades. Power, a longtime journalist, gained more notoriety after publishing a book titled “A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide,” in which she highlighted the Armenian genocide, among other genocides that she argues the U.S. government failed to stop.
“She was not your average Biden administration official,” Democratic political strategist Eric Hacopian told The Daily Wire. “Because she has this halo over her head about human rights.”
Her human rights activism and writing landed Power a coveted post in the Obama administration when she was tapped to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Power had <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yNt7XsV-Dg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">thrown her support</a> behind Obama’s 2008 campaign, arguing that he had an “unshakable conscientiousness about human rights on the issue of genocide prevention.” Power also highlighted then-candidate Obama’s support for recognizing the Armenian genocide and “his willingness as president to commemorate it and certainly to call a spade a spade and to speak truth about it.” That recognition never came under Obama, something for which Power <a href="https://x.com/SamanthaJPower/status/856561854520467457" target="_blank" rel="noopener">apologized</a>.
Power then became one of the most influential people within the Biden administration when it came to human rights, especially with Armenia. Then the conflict with Azerbaijan exploded.
Azerbaijan’s attacks in late 2022 and 2023 were not a surprise: President Ilham Aliyev’s regime had long hinted that it would push to take control of the region. Professor Nerses Kopalyan told The Daily Wire that the Biden administration’s “inaction” on preparing for such an attack was “shocking.”
“The fact that the United States&#8217; foreign policy establishment was privy to this information, their general inaction was quite shocking purely from the lens of humanitarianism, considering the fact that Samantha Power and the entire wing in the foreign policy structures in the Biden administration had for such a long time been very vocal and a strong proponent of humanitarian issues,” Kopalyan said.
“When it came time to walk the walk, Samantha Power and that branch of the Biden administration basically disappeared,” Kopalyan added. “So we realized that it was all talk and no action, and the blockade continued until the ethnic cleansing.”
Between November 2022 and September 2023, then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken held three rounds of peace talks with Armenia and Azerbaijan, with the Biden administration <a href="https://www.foreign.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/6667fb89-a975-4fab-d8b8-e8875312e37e/09%2014%2023%20--%20Assessing%20The%20Crisis%20in%20Nagorno-Karabakh.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">claiming</a> that the talks “yielded results.” But whatever was discussed during the meetings was not enough to stop Azerbaijan from proceeding with its plan to uproot over 100,000 Armenians from their home. Top Biden officials also <a href="https://www.foreign.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/6667fb89-a975-4fab-d8b8-e8875312e37e/091423_Kim_Testimony.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">signaled</a> that the administration would not tolerate the ethnic cleansing of Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh, a line that the Aliyev regime crossed without any consequences.
Internally, some officials in the Biden administration urged the White House to draw a red line for Azerbaijan, according to a former government official with knowledge of the situation who spoke to The Daily Wire on the condition of anonymity.
“We were certainly pushing for more fortitude on the part of the White House and the State Department in making it clear to Aliyev that there would be consequences for moving militarily on Nagorno-Karabakh,” the official said. “Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.”
The source said that in the months prior to Azerbaijan’s offensive, “there was a sense” in the Biden administration that Baku would move militarily on Nagorno-Karabakh, adding that “there was outreach from Washington to Baku at a high level to dissuade that kind of action.”
“But that messaging was not married up with real consequences,” the former official added.
Despite Power’s apparent sympathy for the Armenian position, many Armenians believe that she left them out to dry. In the weeks and months leading up to Azerbaijan’s blockade, Power did not visit Armenia or make any major statements on aiding the Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Hacopian, who is also an Armenian political commentator, told The Daily Wire that Power and USAID were “entirely insincere” in their efforts “early on in the process” before Azerbaijan launched its major offensive.
“They were never working to get aid into that region during the illegal Azerbaijani blockade,” Hacopian said. “They simply wanted to deal with the effects of the ethnic cleansing.”
He added that it was obvious that the Biden administration wanted to take a hands-off approach to the conflict, and that Power was “not willing to take a stand.”
“She, essentially, cynically went along for the ride, not saying a word,” Hacopian said. “And the moment the ethnic cleansing started, she showed up.”
“She’s wildly reviled here because of that,” he added.
Some of that disdain for Power was captured on camera after she arrived in Armenia in September 2023. During a press conference near the Azerbaijan border, Power was heckled in Armenia by someone who shouted, “Sanction Azerbaijan or go back to your country. You don’t care. Stop the lies.”
<iframe loading="lazy" title="US Response to Calls for Sanctions in Azerbaijan: Samantha Power&#039;s Armenia Visit" width="422" height="750" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Kk6KTtTh1KA?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Power did not respond to a request to be interviewed for this piece.
The former Biden official who spoke to The Daily Wire on the condition of anonymity said that once Azerbaijan had forced the Armenians out of Nagorno-Karabakh, discussions in the administration were “less about how do we punish Azerbaijan right now and more about what do we do to support Armenia in this moment.”
“We could’ve walked and chewed gum at the same time, but we didn’t,” the official said. “But I do think there was an effort to try to show up for Armenia.”

Best Of 2025: The Human Rights Activist Who Couldn’t Save Her Cause: How A Top Biden Official Failed Armenia

Armenia

Biden Administration

World

President Donald Trump has spent this year unwrapping an economy handed to him by former President Joe Biden. Inside the box: inflation and sticker shock.
From when Biden took office in January 2021 through the end of December 2024, consumer prices rose <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/the-final-accounting-on-bidenflation-212613508.html?guccounter=1&amp;guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&amp;guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAIfT9OGeVAKKbHJR4Tc3o4i4IUGV_jwsWj6OEQ8pCpV9PPLtJmCmTCXD4cqtQ1RwqCeiHtlpYZfcCj9KieR8wHDmrBZ3JmV40xfO9AUcSvmmtUin-czVIwgJGFLU1WUxtldZKbbACfYT06DHFrn6jaTYSiXXdyPTtPvvGasDDKHL">21.2</a>%. Even as inflation cools under President Trump, Americans are still living with the higher prices locked in during Biden’s term in office.
With the exception of George Washington, every president’s tenure runs the risk of being defined by the lingering effects of their predecessor’s policies. That reality has put the Trump White House on the defensive. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has repeatedly pushed back against the notion that today’s economy belongs to Trump alone.
She’s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/those-were-two-utter-lies-white-house-press-briefing-turns-contentious-over-affordability">described</a> Democrats as “the greatest con artists in history,” who are “trying to claim ownership of an issue that they created.” On offense, the press secretary says that by economic measures, things are actually looking up.
“Every economic metric does in fact show that the economy is getting better and brighter than where it was under the previous administration,” Leavitt said. Shortly after that statement, November inflation came in at 2.7% and GDP growth surged to 4.3% — far exceeding expectations.
While the economic playing field is never fully level, Joe Biden and Donald Trump occupy a rare position as the only presidents in modern U.S. history to both inherit the monetary effects of the other.
President Joe Biden received an average inflation of 1.9% and an economy primed with two stimulus packages from President Trump.
In March of 2020, Trump signed the CARES Act into law, a $2.2 trillion stimulus package that acted as a lifeline to shut-down businesses all over the country. The package was passed unanimously in the Senate and 388 to 5 in the House of Representatives — notably, the five representatives who voted against the bill were Republicans who were concerned about the cost and impacts to the federal deficit.
In December of 2020, Trump signed a second relief package totaling $900 billion, which included another round of direct payments. Six Republican senators voted against the bill; no Democrats opposed it. The House passed the measure 359-53. The 53 who voted against the bill <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/republicans-democrats-voted-against-stimulus-why-1556574?utm_source=chatgpt.com">included</a> 50 Republicans who broke with party leadership. The legislation was a compromise, with Republicans pushing for limited total spending, and Democrats demanding larger checks and extended unemployment benefits.
One year later, Joe Biden signed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan into law, more than double the size of Trump’s final stimulus package. The bill sent $1,400 checks to Americans in a bustling economy. Not a single Republican voted to pass the legislation.
Economists later echoed the concern that all three of the stimulus packages inflated the economy. “Both Trump and Biden contributed to the fiscal stimulus that fed into the inflation,” <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Business/republicans-rnc-blame-biden-inflation-economists-misleading/story?id=112022864">said</a> George Selgin, senior fellow at the Cato Institute.
Biden had average inflation during his term of 4.9% while Trump had average inflation of 1.9%. Trump’s inflation reached a high of 2.5% during his first term while Biden’s reached a high of 9.1% in June 2022.
Economist Peter Morici was blunt in his <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Business/republicans-rnc-blame-biden-inflation-economists-misleading/story?id=112022864">assessment</a> of where blame should be issued.
“It was irresponsible to do stimulus when the economy was well on its way to recovery. Blame is falling where it’s due. Biden does bear responsibility for the endurance of COVID inflation.”
As inflation finally began to cool, credit shifted elsewhere. Many point to former Senator Joe Manchin for blocking additional spending that could have further fueled price increases. Left-wing MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough <a href="https://townhall.com/tipsheet/spencerbrown/2022/06/14/scarborough-says-you-can-just-thank-joe-manchin-inflation-isnt-worse-n2608707?utm_source=chatgpt.com">remarked</a>, “You can just thank Joe Manchin if you&#8217;re glad that interest rates aren’t even higher,” referring to the interest rate hikes the Federal Reserve had to implement in an attempt to tame inflation.
Billionaire entrepreneur and investor Sam Zell <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/billionaire-praises-manchin-saving-us-catastrophic-biden-bill-1716160?utm_source=chatgpt.com">agreed</a>, saying, “Unfortunately, we only had one senator who stepped up to the line when, in fact, everyone should have stepped up and recognized this was a disastrous policy.”
Others issued credit to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. Republican Senator John Kennedy said, “It seems to me that you and some of … your colleagues deserve some credit for that. … I’m not saying things are perfect, but I never imagined that our landing could be this soft.”
The “soft landing” has continued into Trump’s second term with an average of 2.7% inflation so far. But lower inflation does not mean lower prices — and now, voters are left paying the bill. As Americans continue to confront elevated sticker prices, Republicans will be forced to defend seats in an economy still shaped by stimulus spending many warned against.

Biden-Inflation copy

Biden’s Only Gift For Trump Was The Inflation Crisis

COVID

Inflation

Immigration courts are facing a surge in no-shows, leading judges to issue more deportation orders.
In fiscal year 2025, which ended in September, immigration judges across the country issued more than 310,000 deportation orders for migrants who were absent from their hearings, <a href="https://www.justice.gov/eoir/media/1344881/dl?inline" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to Department of Justice data. There were roughly 223,000 deportation orders issued &#8220;in absentia&#8221; the year before that, 160,000 in fiscal year 2023, 62,000 in fiscal year 2022, and 8,000 in fiscal year 2021.
The drop in court appearances can be largely attributed to President Donald Trump&#8217;s reversal of a key Biden-era policy that instructed immigration judges to dismiss or terminate thousands of cases, which effectively allowed more than 700,000 illegal immigrants to stay in the country without any status, Andrew Arthur, resident law and policy fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, told The Daily Wire. It also ties back to the millions of illegal border crossers that the Biden administration released into the country, who never applied for immigration status, according to Arthur.
&#8220;There’s no reason to go to immigration court if you can’t give the immigration judge any legitimate reason to allow you to stay, and in hundreds of thousands of cases last year, respondents didn’t,&#8221; Arthur said.
<div id="attachment_1019135" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1019135" class="wp-image-1019135 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/GettyImages-2222331385-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/GettyImages-2222331385-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/GettyImages-2222331385-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/GettyImages-2222331385-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/GettyImages-2222331385.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />(Photo by Mostafa Bassim/Anadolu via Getty Images)</div>
Another reason illegal immigrants aren&#8217;t showing up to their hearings is that the Trump administration has increasingly instructed Immigration and Customs Enforcement to make arrests at immigration courts across the country.
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&#8220;Of course, DHS under Trump II has also been arresting certain respondents when they appear for their removal proceedings, which has likely given countless respondents plenty of incentive to skip court,&#8221; Arthur said.
&#8220;Again, however, those aliens are entitled to the process they are due, and the government will ensure they receive it — they might just be detained throughout that process,&#8221; he said, adding, &#8220;Given the fact, as noted, that the INA [Immigration and Nationality Act] required most of them to be detained to begin with, they can hardly complain when DHS subsequently takes them into custody and gives them due process while in detention.&#8221;

ICE Detains Immigrants Inside New York City Courthouses

Illegal Immigrants Are Increasingly Ditching Court Amid Trump’s Mass Deportation Campaign

illegal immigrants

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

Democrats are shelving their 2024 election autopsy despite having completed it, and attempting to move forward as though nothing has happened — prompting people outside their camp and even some within it to ask what was so bad that they didn&#8217;t want anyone to see?
A post-election autopsy — like an After-Action Review (AAR) in the military — is supposed to look at all aspects of any given election cycle and determine what went right and what went wrong. While it certainly can be useful to look at those factors after winning an election, often the most valuable lessons come from acknowledging what went wrong in an election that ended in loss.
Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin — who said as recently as February that he&#8217;d have no problem releasing the report — <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/18/politics/democrats-autopsy-dnc">announced last week</a> that he would not be releasing the completed report after all, claiming that the party was already showing gains and arguing that its release would not aid in their efforts to move forward.
&#8220;We are aligned on what’s important, and that’s learning from the past and winning the future. Here’s our North Star: does this help us win? If the answer is no, it’s a distraction from the core mission,&#8221; he claimed.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) brushed off questions about the DNC&#8217;s decision during a Sunday morning appearance on CNN&#8221;s &#8220;State of the Union,&#8221; saying simply, &#8220;What went wrong is, we lost the election.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin on DNC&#8217;s refusal to release 2024 post-election autopsy: &#8220;What went wrong is, we lost the election.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/X5pTYPvSwl">pic.twitter.com/X5pTYPvSwl</a>
— State of the Union (@CNNSOTU) <a href="https://twitter.com/CNNSOTU/status/2002776072967135375?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 21, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Democratic strategist and CNN commentator Xochitl Hinojosa <a href="https://x.com/XochitlHinojosa/status/2001704268882153501">backed Martin&#8217;s play</a> as well, saying, &#8220;I could not agree more with this decision. We all know why Dems lost in 2024. The DNC has and should continue to make changes, and that is one of the reasons Dems have been winning up and down the ballot. Let’s stop looking back. Let’s look forward and continue winning.&#8221;
But there were some rumblings from the Left as a few worried that former Vice President Kamala Harris would reap the most benefit from less scrutiny directed at the election she lost. Jeff Weaver, who managed Senator Bernie Sanders&#8217;s (I-VT) 2016 campaign, observed: &#8220;Kamala Harris certainly benefits from not having an open discussion.&#8221;
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Rebecca Katz, adviser to Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), added, &#8220;How are Democrats going to learn from mistakes if we don&#8217;t have any concept of the depth and breadth of those mistakes?&#8221;
&#8220;I suspect the reasons why this isn&#8217;t being released are precisely the reasons why it should be released,&#8221; Lis Smith, adviser to former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, <a href="https://x.com/Lis_Smith/status/2001717083290153057">said</a>.
CNN anchor Kasie Hunt asked a panel on Sunday&#8217;s &#8220;State of the Union&#8221; whether refusing to release the report would just give voters one more reason to feel like the Democratic Party was not listening to them. She asked whether it might feel like &#8220;a continuation of the reasons the public doesn’t trust the Democratic Party.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
CNN panel melts down after host asks why Democratic party’s decision not to release their autopsy on losing 2024 election is “not a continuation of the reasons the public doesn’t trust the Democratic party?”
Bakari Sellers: “This is laughable.”
CNN host: “18% of Americans… <a href="https://t.co/mu9UPEkeY7">pic.twitter.com/mu9UPEkeY7</a>
— TV News Now (@TVNewsNow) <a href="https://twitter.com/TVNewsNow/status/2002907455617974688?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 22, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
On &#8220;The Big Weekend Show,&#8221; Fox News regular and Marine Corps veteran Joey Jones argued that the reason the Democrats lost in 2024 should be obvious: Kamala Harris was &#8220;a terrible messenger for a terrible message.&#8221;
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&#8220;A TERRIBLE MESSENGER FOR A TERRIBLE MESSAGE&#8221; &#8211; Democrats are refusing to release their 2024 autopsy report, saying there&#8217;s no point because it won&#8217;t help them win future elections. But <a href="https://twitter.com/Johnny_Joey?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Johnny_Joey</a> already knows why they lost and it’s all because of Kamala Harris. Do you agree? <a href="https://t.co/WOLjytPmz4">pic.twitter.com/WOLjytPmz4</a>
— The Big Weekend Show (@BigWeekendShow) <a href="https://twitter.com/BigWeekendShow/status/2002917426057646534?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 22, 2025</a></blockquote>
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On Fox News panel show &#8220;The Five,&#8221; Tyrus suggested in mocking tones that he didn&#8217;t really blame Democrats for scuttling the report — largely because if he&#8217;d lost that badly, he wouldn&#8217;t be too keen on watching the replay either: &#8220;Some of the worst behind-whoopings of your life… you don’t sit down and break out the, ‘hey, let’s watch the video when Mom left Dad at Christmas for his uncle. Let’s break that video out.'&#8221;
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“Some of the worst behind-whoopings of your life… you don’t sit down and break out the, ‘hey, let’s watch the video when Mom left Dad at Christmas for his uncle. Let’s break that video out.”
The DNC is getting slammed for killing their autopsy on what went so wrong in the 2024… <a href="https://t.co/vecDQM2zZi">pic.twitter.com/vecDQM2zZi</a>
— The Five (@TheFive) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheFive/status/2002174612029985087?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 20, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Democrat panelist Jessica Tarlov disagreed, arguing that the party was going against promises of transparency by refusing to release the report.
&#8220;I wish they had released it. I don’t think you can give a slew of interviews saying ‘we need this’ and then tell people ‘it’s ok, it’s going to be fine,'&#8221; she said.
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🚨 Even Jessica Tarlov is calling out the DNC for not releasing their 2024 election autopsy report: “I wish they had released it. I don’t think you can give a slew of interviews saying ‘we need this’ and then tell people ‘it’s ok, it’s going to be fine’.” <a href="https://t.co/k4NCfYMaQS">pic.twitter.com/k4NCfYMaQS</a>
— TV News Now (@TVNewsNow) <a href="https://twitter.com/TVNewsNow/status/2002367100967395453?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 20, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Of course, the writing may have already begun to appear on the wall months earlier when it was revealed that the autopsy would not include a review of then-President Joe Biden&#8217;s insistence upon running for reelection, his spectacular implosion as a candidate, and then-Vice President Kamala Harris&#8217; effective installation as heir apparent.
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The Democrats’ 2024 election autopsy will reportedly not examine the Biden fiasco or Harris’ quality as a candidate. Odd choice! <a href="https://t.co/Bh3jyAjOw1">pic.twitter.com/Bh3jyAjOw1</a>
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) <a href="https://twitter.com/guypbenson/status/1948796238817542358?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 25, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Martin, according to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/12/18/dnc-autopsy-report-kamala-harris/">The Washington Post</a>, said at the time that he did not feel it was important to review those particular issues because he did not believe it likely that a similar set of circumstances would present in a future election.

Kamala Harris

2024 Election Autopsy Report Is So Bad Democrats Are Burying It

2024 Elections

The Trump administration has found more than 129,000 migrant children who went missing under the Biden administration.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced on X Friday that federal authorities located the children after &#8220;the Biden administration lost them&#8221; and that &#8220;too many &#8230; were exploited, trafficked and abused.&#8221;
&#8220;We will continue to ramp up efforts and will not stop until every last child is found,&#8221; Noem said.
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Federal officials combed through immigration court records and data kept by United States Citizenship and Immigration Services to find the children, a federal government source familiar with the operation told The Daily Wire. They only counted those who showed up for their immigration hearings.
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Under <a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a> Trump, <a href="https://twitter.com/DHSgov?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DHSgov</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/HHSGov?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@HHSGov</a> have located more than 129,143 unaccompanied children that the Biden Administration lost. Too many of these children were exploited, trafficked and abused.
We will continue to ramp up efforts and will not stop until every last child is…
— Secretary Kristi Noem (@Sec_Noem) <a href="https://twitter.com/Sec_Noem/status/2002117268906684881?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 19, 2025</a></blockquote>
It was a massive undertaking since the Biden administration kept poor records on the children after they crossed into the United States, said the source, who was granted anonymity because they weren&#8217;t authorized to speak publicly.
&#8220;Under the Biden administration, the data was so bad, and our ability to find where these cases went was so bad, we just had to comb through every single agency to see if these kids [had] ever stepped in front of another agency,&#8221; the source explained.
&#8220;The kid had to be present [in court] for us to count it,&#8221; the source added.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration revealed it had located roughly 62,000 of the missing migrant children.
Border Patrol agents must hand unaccompanied migrant kids to the Department of Health and Human Services, which helps connect them with a sponsor living in the United States.
Under the Biden administration, roughly 500,000 migrant minors crossed the border unaccompanied. Many of them were released to poorly vetted sponsors who, whistleblowers say, never had to appear in person to prove the children were going to safe homes.
The vetting concerns were also corroborated in an inspector general&#8217;s <a href="https://www.oig.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/assets/2024-08/OIG-24-46-Aug24.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> released last year.
Whistleblowers said they believed some of the sponsors were traffickers and gangbangers.
Roughly 291,000 unaccompanied migrant children were never given their court dates, the government watchdog found.
Another 32,000 migrant children who had future court dates never showed up to their hearings, according to the report, which tracked cases from October 2018 to September 2023.

Migrants continue to cross US border

Trump Admin Finds More Than 129,000 Missing Migrant Children

Kristi Noem

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