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

Donald Trump

Joe Biden

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;
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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.
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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

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;
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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>
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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>
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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;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
&#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;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
“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.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
🚨 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.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
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.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
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

On Wednesday night, President Trump attempted a reset of the first year of his presidency. It was an effort to seize the narrative away from the Left, which keeps hammering away about “affordability.”
To set the scene: The president obviously is looking forward to the 2026 midterm elections, but Republicans are not in amazing shape for them. They&#8217;re down on the generic congressional ballot by a significant amount at this point. If the elections were held today, there is a high likelihood that Republicans would lose somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 seats.
With that said, the president is attempting to convince Americans that things are getting better.
It was great that he showed charts, a Reagan-esque move. President Reagan used to do this back in the 80s. He would do a national address, and he would take out actual charts and try to educate the American people about what was happening.
President Trump did that last night. He showed Joe Biden&#8217;s price increases and Trump&#8217;s price decreases in a wide variety of areas, ranging from hotel rates up 37.4% under Joe Biden, down 5.1% under Trump; propane rates 24.9% up under Biden, down 4.2% under Trump; gasoline up nearly 31% under Joe Biden, down 7% under Trump; sporting events up nearly 50% under Joe Biden, down almost 10% under Trump.
Those are all good things to show the American people.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2337-president-trump-pushes-the-affordability-reset-button?elementPosition=6&amp;row=2&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-974957" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-300x50.webp 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-768x128.webp 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1536x256.webp 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-2048x341.webp 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
The one problem is that when you look at a chart like that, you think that the baseline price has gone down from where it was before Joe Biden — but that&#8217;s not true. If the price rises 40% under Joe Biden and then comes down 10% under Donald Trump, it&#8217;s still higher than it was before Joe Biden took office.
That&#8217;s the embedded part of the economy that President Trump is not really going to be able to wipe away. Years of inflation cannot be wiped away absent some sort of economic downturn.
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But the president was right to point out real wage increases under his tenure and wage decreases under Joe Biden. The private sector wage growth averaged $1,048 since he returned to the White House, versus losses of almost $3,000 under Joe Biden. The president showed the new yearly mortgage cost increase under Joe Biden was up almost $15,000, versus Trump&#8217;s new yearly mortgage cost decrease, down almost $3,000.
When he referred to Obamacare, he pointed out it&#8217;s not the Republicans’ fault, it&#8217;s the Democrats’ fault. It&#8217;s the Unaffordable Care Act.
And that is true.
So here’s the Big Question: Why aren’t Americans feeling it?
There are a few reasons. One is that Americans expect the amounts they currently pay to actively plunge, not just from where they were last year, but from where they were three or four years ago. But if you radically inflate prices and then decrease them marginally, people are still going to feel priced out.
A second reason is that many of the items the president cited as having dropped in price are not the items that Americans most commonly buy. The number one complaint you will hear from Americans right now about pricing is in the grocery store. If you&#8217;re shopping for a family of four for a week of food, you&#8217;re now paying, in some cases, 30-40% more than you were just three or four years ago. And if the places that you most often shop are the places where you feel the most inflation and the most “unaffordability,” that&#8217;s what&#8217;s going to stick in your mind.
Yes, mortgage rates might be down, but how many people are actually taking out a new mortgage this year in the United States? Not very many.
If the thing you buy most frequently is up in price, you&#8217;re going to feel pressed. If the thing you buy once every 20 years is down in price, you&#8217;re not going to feel that quite as much because your last comp wasn&#8217;t last year, your last comp was probably ten years ago, or 15 or 20 years ago. If your last mortgage was taken out at 2.5% under the George W. Bush administration, and your new mortgage is being taken out at 5.75% under the Trump administration, you&#8217;re going to feel like things are more expensive, even though the mortgage rates are down from where they were a year or two ago.
But I&#8217;ve been saying for a while that “affordability” is a weasel word.
Affordability is vague. Affordability is a feeling. You can&#8217;t ask people, “Are things affordable?” and expect them to say yes. Virtually no one who is not truly wealthy thinks of things as “affordable.” For most of my life, everything felt unaffordable, and then at a certain point, we achieved a certain level of income where things felt more affordable.
But you have to move dramatically up in the income ladder in order for things to feel “affordable.” When you think about whether things are affordable or not, what you mean is, am I thinking about the price of the thing that I am buying?
“Affordability” is a feeling. It&#8217;s not a statistical fact.
Thus, President Trump dove into the facts, which was necessary and good.

President Trump Delivers Oval Office Address To The Nation

Trump Pushes The ‘Affordability’ Reset Button 

Ben Shapiro

Democrats

Opinion

The White House unveiled new plaques beneath the portraits of American presidents on its Presidential Walk of Fame on Wednesday, with some of the plaques including President Donald Trump&#8217;s jabs at former Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama.
The Presidential Walk of Fame, which is located along the outside wall of West Wing, includes biographies for every U.S. president. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Trump, &#8220;as a student of history,&#8221; wrote some of the descriptions himself, which is evident, as much of the sentence structure and grammar is reflective of the president&#8217;s unique style usually seen in his social media posts.
Instead of a photo of Biden for the former president&#8217;s portrait, the White House displays an image of an autopen. The text beneath the image reads, &#8220;Sleepy Joe Biden was, by far, the worst President in American History. Taking office as a result of the most corrupt Election ever seen in the United States, Biden oversaw a series of unprecedented disasters that brought our Nation to the brink of destruction. His policies caused the highest Inflation ever recorded, leading the U.S. Dollar to lose more than 20% of its value in 4 years. His Green New Scam surrendered American Energy Dominance and, by abolishing the Southern Border, Biden let 21 million people from all over the World pour into the United States, including from prisons, jails, mental institutions, and insane asylums. His Afghanistan Disaster was among the most humiliating events in American History, and resulted in the murder of 13 brave American Servicemembers, with many others gravely wounded. Seeing Biden’s devastating weakness, Russia invaded Ukraine, and Hamas terrorists launched the heinous October 7th attack on Israel.&#8221;
“Nicknamed both ‘Sleepy’ and ‘Crooked,’ Joe Biden was dominated by his Radical Left handlers,&#8221; the biography continues. &#8220;They and their allies in the Fake News Media attempted to cover up his severe mental decline, and his unprecedented use of the Autopen. Following his humiliating debate loss to President Trump in the big June 2024 debate, he was forced to withdraw from his campaign for re-election in disgrace. Biden weaponized Law Enforcement against his political opponent, while also prosecuting many other innocent people. He left office issuing blanket pardons to Radical Democrat criminals and thugs, as well as members of the Biden Crime Family — But despite it all, President Trump would get Re-Elected in a Landslide, and SAVE AMERICA!”
The plaques for President Obama refer to him as &#8220;one of the most divisive political figures in American history&#8221; and blast his handling of foreign policy and Obamacare.
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Obama&#8217;s plaques reads, “Barack Hussein Obama was the first Black President, a community organizer, one term Senator from Illinois, and one of the most divisive political figures in American History. As President, he passed the highly ineffective ‘Unaffordable’ Care Act, resulting in his party losing control of both Houses of Congress, and the Election of the largest House Republican majority since 1946. He presided over a stagnant Economy, approved the terrible Iran Nuclear Deal, and signed the one-sided Paris Climate Accords, both of which were later terminated by President Donald J. Trump.”
“Under Obama, the ISIS Caliphate spread across the Middle East, Libya collapsed into chaos, and Russia invaded and took Crimea, in Ukraine. He crippled small businesses with crushing regulation and environmental red tape, devastated American coal miners, and weaponized the IRS and Federal bureaucracies against his political opponents. Obama also spied on the 2016 Presidential Campaign of Donald J. Trump and presided over the creation of the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, the worst political scandal in American History. His handpicked successor, Hillary Rodham Clinton, would then lose the Presidency to Donald J. Trump.”
Trump&#8217;s plaque for President George W. Bush was far more friendly, but it still took a shot at Bush over the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
&#8220;The son of former President George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush was the Governor of Texas when he won the hotly contested 2000 Election for President. His Administration was largely defined by the events of September 11, 2001 — The destruction of the World Trade Center, after which he led the war on terror. President Bush created the Department of Homeland Security, but started wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, both of which should not have happened. He also enacted Tax Cuts, expanded Medicare, signed the No Child Left Behind education bill, and launched the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Shortly before the end of his Administration, a Global Financial Crisis and major Recession took place.”
For President Bill Clinton, Trump&#8217;s plaque highlights the economic boom in the 1990s, but it also mentions the &#8220;scandals that plagued his presidency.&#8221; The end of Clinton&#8217;s biography states, &#8220;In 2016, President Clinton’s wife, Hillary Clinton, lost the Presidency to President Donald J. Trump!&#8221;
President Ronald Reagan&#8217;s plaque reads, &#8220;Ronald Reagan won the Cold War, and transformed American politics and the Conservative Movement. Before entering the White House, Reagan was a Hollywood actor, President of the Screen Actors Guild, Governor of California and, for decades, a leading voice in American Conservatism. As President, he enacted Tax Cuts, presided over a thriving Economy, and rebuilt the American Military. He survived being shot by an assassin, and confronted the Soviet Union with striking moral clarity, labeling it an &#8216;evil empire,&#8217; and putting unprecedented pressure on the Communist menace. Known as &#8216;The Great Communicator,&#8217; he was re-elected in a landslide in 1984, and left office with high approval, having restored National Confidence, Spirit, and Will. He was a fan of President Donald J. Trump long before President Trump’s Historic run for the White House. Likewise, President Trump was a fan of his!&#8221;
Of course, the most admiring biography was for Trump, with the president&#8217;s plaques reading, &#8220;On January 20, 2025, Donald J. Trump became the first President in 132 years to be sworn into office for a second non-consecutive term, following his Historic Victory in an Electoral College landslide, 312 to 226. Overcoming unprecedented Weaponization of Law Enforcement against him, as well as two assassination attempts, he won all battleground States by millions of votes, was the first Republican in decades to win the Popular Vote, BIG, and won 86% of Counties in America, 2,700 to 525. All 50 States shifted toward the Republican Party for the first time ever. At his Inauguration, President Trump announced the beginning of the &#8216;Golden Age of America,&#8217; and he delivered, ending eight wars in his first eight months, securing the Border, deporting gang members and migrant criminals, making our Cities safe, helping our Farmers, defeating Inflation, reducing Energy costs, and drawing Trillions of Dollars of new Investment, a RECORD, into the United States.&#8221;
&#8220;President Trump signed the Largest Tax Cuts in American History, the Largest Spending Cuts in American History, and implemented the Largest Ever Regulation Cuts,&#8221; a second plaque adds. &#8220;He obliterated Iran&#8217;s nuclear enrichment capacity with Operation Midnight Hammer, convinced NATO Countries to agree to increase contributions from 2% to 5% of GDP, reformed the Global Trading System, and made America Rich with Historic Tariffs, removed Critical Race Theory and transgender insanity from public schools, and banned men from women&#8217;s sports. He began the construction of the Golden Dome missile defense shield, renamed the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, and has built, right here at the White House, the magnificent Trump Presidential Ballroom after a 225 year wait—but THE BEST IS YET TO COME!&#8221;

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Trump Adds Descriptions For Every President On Presidential Walk Of Fame. You Need To Read Them.

Barack Obama

Bill Clinton

Executive

Ronald Reagan

White House

President Donald Trump sues the BBC for billions of dollars as the White House rebuffs a controversial exposé, newly declassified documents cast suspicion on the Mar-a-Lago raid, and the University of Michigan launches an investigation as the Sherrone Moore scandal deepens.
It’s Wednesday, December 17, 2025, and this is the news you need to know to start your day. Today’s edition of the Morning Wire podcast can be heard below, and the video version can be <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/mrn-251217-member-exclusive?elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+Show+Episodes+Carousel">seen on The Daily Wire</a>:
<iframe style="width: 100%; max-width: 660px; overflow: hidden; border-radius: 10px;" src="https://embed.podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/trump-sues-bbc-michigan-athletics-probed-12-17-25/id1576594336?i=1000741658046" height="175" frameborder="0" sandbox="allow-forms allow-popups allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-storage-access-by-user-activation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation"></iframe>
<h2 style="text-align: center;">Trump Vs. The BBC</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-1016197 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Trump-Battles-BBC-1024x576.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Trump-Battles-BBC-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Trump-Battles-BBC-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Trump-Battles-BBC-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Trump-Battles-BBC-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Trump-Battles-BBC.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />
President Trump has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-files-5-billion-lawsuit-against-bbc-over-malicious-documentary">launched</a> a multi-billion dollar lawsuit against the BBC as he continues to clash with media outlets at home and abroad. This week, the president filed a 46-page lawsuit in a federal court in Miami, accusing the BBC of defamation and violation of Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. He is looking for $10 billion from the broadcaster. The suit stems from a documentary the BBC released ahead of the 2024 election titled, “Trump: A Second Chance.” The film spliced together two quotes from Trump&#8217;s speech that were said about an hour apart, making it appear as if the president called for violence at the U.S. Capitol and leaving out Trump’s request to protest &#8220;peacefully and patriotically.&#8221; The lawsuit accused the BBC of “intentionally, maliciously and deceptively doctoring [Trump’s] speech in a brazen attempt to interfere in the 2024 presidential election.”
<h2 style="text-align: center;">Messages Reveal DOJ Pushed For Mar-a-Lago Raid Over FBI Objections</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-1016199 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Mar-A-Lago-Misgivings-1024x576.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Mar-A-Lago-Misgivings-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Mar-A-Lago-Misgivings-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Mar-A-Lago-Misgivings-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Mar-A-Lago-Misgivings-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Mar-A-Lago-Misgivings.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />
The FBI did not believe it had the proper justification to raid Mar-a-Lago in August 2022, but the Biden Justice Department pushed for it anyway. Messages <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fbi-agents-worried-there-was-no-cause-to-raid-mar-a-lago-biden-doj-made-them-do-it-anyway?author=Virginia+Kruta&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=2&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=FBI+Agents+Worried+There+Was+No+Cause+To+Raid+Mar-a-Lago%3B+Biden+DOJ+Made+Them+Do+It+Anyway">released</a> by the FBI detail that agents involved in the investigation into classified documents kept at President Trump’s Florida home believed that search warrants obtained for the raid lacked proper predicate. FBI agents also discussed a combative relationship the Biden Justice Department had started with Trump’s legal team, and expressed concern about FBI agents standing in the crossfire between the DOJ and Trump’s team.
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<h2 style="text-align: center;">Michigan Probes Athletics Department After Moore Ouster</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-1016201 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Michigan-Scandal-Deepens-1024x576.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Michigan-Scandal-Deepens-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Michigan-Scandal-Deepens-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Michigan-Scandal-Deepens-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Michigan-Scandal-Deepens-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Michigan-Scandal-Deepens.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />
The University of Michigan is looking into its athletics department following the firing of head football coach Sherrone Moore and his subsequent arrest. Moore was fired last week after an inappropriate relationship with a staffer was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/moore-comes-to-light-after-michigan-head-football-coach-arrested-following-surprise-firing">revealed</a>. Now, the University of Michigan has commissioned an investigation into the practices and culture of its entire athletics department. The investigation will be handled by the same Chicago-based law firm that opened an inquiry earlier this fall into Moore’s affair.

MRN_251217_V1

Morning Brief: Trump Sues BBC, More Revelations On Mar-a-Lago Raid, And Michigan’s Sweeping Athletics Probe

Morning Brief: Trump Sues BBC, FBI Objected To MAL Raid, And UM’s Sweeping Probe After Moore Ouster

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