<aside class="css-12dnjm8">This piece is part of MI x DW, a collaboration that brings Daily Wire readers exclusive commentary and research from the Manhattan Institute’s world-class team of scholars.</aside>
<div id="post-body-text" class="css-1tho4p7">
<div class="e1azwojd0 css-jpqt6g" data-narration-container="true">
***
</div>
</div>
In a bizarre joint <a href="https://x.com/HQNewsNow/status/2089768108898541784" target="_blank" rel="noopener">advertisement</a> for Liquid Death and Garage Beer, Super Bowl champ Jason Kelce calls on viewers to send their urine to data centers.
&#8220;AI data centers waste millions of gallons of water,&#8221; he claims, and so &#8220;we want your pee to cool these data centers.&#8221; Liquid Death&#8217;s vice president of creative <a href="https://www.marketingdive.com/news/liquid-death-and-garage-beer-take-on-ai-data-centers-with-pee/827879/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">explained</a> that the sentiment is &#8220;literally the one thing that unites all Americans right now, across the spectrum.&#8221;
As a web developer, most of what I build runs on Amazon Web Services, which means data centers in Northern Virginia and Ohio. Every request that reaches our servers lands in one of those buildings. So does almost everything else people use without thinking about it, from email and banking to every app on a phone.
But I find myself increasingly alone in my position. Public opposition to artificial intelligence and the infrastructure needed to support it has crescendoed in recent months, and politicians are following suit. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro <a href="https://x.com/GovernorShapiro/status/2089780762815992002" target="_blank" rel="noopener">signed an order</a> &#8220;implementing the strictest standards in the nation for AI data centers,&#8221; while New York Governor Kathy Hochul <a href="https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/first-statewide-moratorium-new-hyperscale-data-centers-launched-governor-kathy-hochul" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> a moratorium on new hyperscale data centers.
Nor is this attitude limited to the Left. Florida Congressman Byron Donalds is <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DaNx2ecy62j/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">running ads</a> as part of his gubernatorial campaign promising to protect families from data centers that &#8220;jack up utility rates and make everything else more expensive.&#8221;
The trouble with this backlash is that the evidence doesn&#8217;t support it.
<h3><a href="https://manhattan.institute/subscribe?utm_source=DailyWire&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=reihan" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Click here for more Manhattan Institute content.</a></h3>
Anti-data center arguments rest on three fears: that data-center buildouts are raising electricity bills for the Average Joe, that the infrastructure is consuming all of the drinking water and drying up rivers, and that the adoption of AI will ravage the job market. Under scrutiny, none of those hold up.
Consider the claim, voiced on both the Left and the Right, that data-center construction is raising everyone&#8217;s electricity bills. It’s true that rates are rising. But Manhattan Institute scholars Shawn Regan and Ken Girardin have <a href="https://cityjournal.substack.com/p/data-centers-arent-raising-your-power" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shown</a> that the real driver is regulation, since the sharpest increases came in states whose policies made producing and delivering electricity <a href="https://www.city-journal.org/article/energy-electricity-prices-utilities-government-policies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">more expensive</a>.
Data centers aren&#8217;t the culprit. In fact, a <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/2606.19777" target="_blank" rel="noopener">white paper</a> by researchers at the <a href="https://www.epri.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Electric Power Research Institute</a> and <a href="https://watershed.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Watershed</a> found the reverse. From 2015 to 2024, per-unit electricity costs fell as demand rose. Accounting for where developers choose to build, the authors estimate the average American lives in a state where data-center capacity grew 160% since 2019, leaving residential rates roughly 6% lower than they otherwise would be.
This is economies of scale at work. Transmission and distribution are natural monopolies carrying enormous fixed costs, spread across everything the system sells. A large, steady load absorbs a substantial share of them, and everyone&#8217;s average rate falls.
The water panic is just as unfounded. Data centers draw around 450 million gallons of water a day, <a href="https://www.fwpcoa.org/content.aspx?page_id=5&amp;club_id=859275&amp;item_id=130961" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to</a> the Florida Water &amp; Pollution Control Operators Association. That&#8217;s roughly 0.3 to 0.4 percent of national water withdrawals. Golf course irrigation, meanwhile, uses an estimated <a href="https://www.usga.org/content/dam/usga/pdf/Water%20Resource%20Center/how-much-water-does-golf-use.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2 billion gallons of water a day</a>.
As for jobs, technological innovation has historically created jobs in the long run while displacing them in the short term. In the early 1800s, handloom weavers smashed the new power looms. Wages cratered and many were displaced. Then textile manufacturing became Britain&#8217;s largest industry, employing more people than the cottage system ever had. Computing created more jobs than the typing pools it eliminated.
De-industrialist populism has set American innovation back before, with nuclear power in the late 1970s and 1980s and then with fracking. Both panics restricted the construction these energy sources required, and both set back environmentalism itself. Nuclear is <a href="https://www.energy.gov/ne/articles/3-reasons-why-nuclear-clean-and-sustainable" target="_blank" rel="noopener">among the cleanest sources</a> of energy there is, and natural gas has <a href="https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/fracking-can-play-an-important-role-in-lowering-energy-costs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lowered</a> utility bills while displacing coal.
Ironically, a majority of Americans now say they <a href="https://x.com/christopherrufo/status/2089817513614004502" target="_blank" rel="noopener">would prefer</a> a nuclear plant near their homes to a data center.
These neo-Luddites won&#8217;t lower a single utility bill, won&#8217;t return a gallon of water and won&#8217;t save a job. They&#8217;ll move the construction, the tax base and the computing to whoever will take them. Right now that&#8217;s China. Compute is the input to everything AI does, and a country that stops building it ends up renting it from one that didn&#8217;t, on terms set by a government that answers to nobody here. These decisions compound, because a moratorium relocates a buildout permanently and the supply chain and expertise follow the construction.
***
Matias Ahrensdorf is a web developer at the Manhattan Institute.

Demonstrators Against Data Centers On National Day Of Protest

AI Nihilism Won’t Save The Water Or Create Jobs. But It Will Empower China.

china

data center

electricity price

josh shapiro

kathy hochul

An Iranian dissident unleashed a blistering broadside at New York Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul on Tuesday, blasting the Democratic leader for “cosplaying” in a hijab to pander for votes while women in her homeland are tortured and killed over the exact same headscarf.
The fiery backlash erupted after Hochul donned religious headwear during a Friday visit to a mosque, which drew fire from President Donald Trump.
“Kathy Hochul, considered the Worst Governor in the Country, in a recent picture working hard to get the Arab Vote, even though they can’t stand her!” Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/117197726086943631">wrote</a>. “Congestion Pricing in Manhattan is hurting her with everybody, but especially the people for whom she wears the hijab. The whole thing is CRAZY!”
Hochul clapped back on X, trying to claim the high road.
“I was a guest in a Muslim house of worship and showed respect for the people who welcomed me,” the governor wrote. “I’ll never apologize for treating people of any faith with dignity, no matter how Islamophobic you and your enablers are.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
I was a guest in a Muslim house of worship and showed respect for the people who welcomed me.
That used to be standard in this country before you came along.
I’ll never apologize for treating people of any faith with dignity, no matter how Islamophobic you and your enablers… <a href="https://t.co/WMMBfnPVj4">https://t.co/WMMBfnPVj4</a>
&mdash; Governor Kathy Hochul (@GovKathyHochul) <a href="https://x.com/GovKathyHochul/status/2094944962953486423?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 2, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
That’s when a former Iranian refugee who escaped Tehran’s brutal theocracy in 2019 stepped in to torpedo the governor&#8217;s self-righteous posturing.
“Miss Governor, Women in Iran and across Muslim communities get beaten and murdered for refusing the hijab,” Sana Ebrahimi Ledene shot back on X. “I was kicked out of school, multiple times, for ‘improper hijab.’ That was my life.”
“So am I an Islamophobe for saying ‘f*ck you’ when you cosplay as a champion of women’s rights while wrapping yourself in the same symbol that was used to police, punish, and erase me and millions of women around the world just to court Muslim votes? No. I’m not,” she raged. “F*CK YOU.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Miss Governor,
Women in Iran and across Muslim communities get beaten and murdered for refusing the hijab. I was kicked out of school, multiple times, for &quot;improper hijab.&quot; That was my life.
So am I an Islamophobe for saying &quot;fuck you&quot; when you cosplay as a champion of women’s… <a href="https://t.co/YXog8OPqEO">https://t.co/YXog8OPqEO</a>
&mdash; Sana Ebrahimi Ledene (@SanaELedene) <a href="https://x.com/SanaELedene/status/2094977303826530758?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 2, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The explosive response highlights the deadly reality Iranian women face every day under Tehran’s blood-soaked regime.
In June 2026, a court in Qom <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/iranian-regime-whips-female-singer-for-youtube-concert-as-mullahs-execute-protesters">sentenced</a> 28-year-old Iranian singer Parastoo Ahmadi to 74 lashes, a travel ban, and a ban on performing because she livestreamed a concert from a historic site without wearing a hijab. Eight of her crew members were also convicted for “offending public decency.”
Ahmadi&#8217;s brutal sentence came alongside a terrifying state-sponsored killing spree, with at least 22 political prisoners executed over a six-week span. Dissident Masih Alinejad ripped into the violence, declaring, “A woman’s voice scared them more than any superpower ever could. This is not a normal government. This is apartheid against women.”
The regime’s infamous violence burst onto the global stage in September 2022 following the murder of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died in custody after being snatched by morality police for an &#8220;improper&#8221; hijab.
Her death sparked a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/its-a-revolution-now-iran-regime-murdering-scores-of-protesters-reports-say">full-blown revolution</a> across Iran. Braving tear gas, batons, and live rounds from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, young women tore off their hijabs and burned them in the streets, chanting “Woman, life, freedom” as blood ran through university grounds.
Yet while courageous women in Iran risk their lives to tear the headscarf off, New York&#8217;s governor is happily wrapping herself in one to win over the Muslim political bloc.

Kathy Hochul hijab

Iranian Dissident Torpedoes Hochul After Governor Trades Barbs With Trump Over Hijab

donald trump

hijab

iran

mahsa amini

politics

From Billie Eilish at the Grammy Awards to Code Pink activists in the Halls of Congress, “ICE OUT NOW” has been the slogan du jour for lefties parroting the party talking point for the last year and a half since Donald Trump took office and decided to actually enforce the laws of our land passed by Congress. The Left has treated that chant like a moral commandment.
Never mind the fact that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) law enforcement is simply enforcing the rule of law. What’s richer is that the reason ICE is surging in these jurisdictions in the first place is because of Democrats’ “sanctuary” policies.
Take a look at New York, where the Trump administration has just surged immigration enforcement officers under Operation Rotten Apple. The Department of Homeland Security says that in the past month alone it has arrested 2,100 illegal aliens with criminal records in Gotham — ranging from killers and child predators to kidnappers and narcotics smugglers.
So where were New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Governor Kathy Hochul?
Busy creating the problem. Their policies are the very reason ICE has needed a large presence in New York at all.
In states like Florida, you’ll find a smaller presence of ICE law enforcement. Why? Because most jurisdictions in Florida not only cooperate with ICE, but they will honor detainers. That means if a local cop picks someone up who is here illegally, they call ICE, and they can coordinate transfer after the alien has served their time. That means fewer criminals on the loose and less need for a federal surge of ICE officers.
New York politicians did the opposite. One of Zohran Mamdani’s first acts as mayor was to sign an executive order reinforcing sanctuary policies and choking off any New York City law enforcement from working with ICE to apprehend and keep illegal aliens in custody. Mr. Mamdani went a step further by signing a law that banned ICE from operating at any of New York’s 19 correctional facilities. Then he wondered why federal agents showed up in force.
How absurd.
A reasonable person would assume New York’s leaders would be thrilled that over 2,000 criminals were removed from their communities, right?
Not this mayor. Yesterday, Mamdani accused ICE of “terrorizing immigrants” and “criminalizing the very act of being an immigrant.”
That only works if you hide the rap sheets. He is hoping we will collectively forget these people also broke our nation’s immigration laws.
He also said that if someone committed serious crimes, the city “would be in contact with the federal administration” about it. He must not have bothered to look at the criminal records of those arrested and taken off his streets.
Among the criminals ICE arrested as part of Operation Rotten Apple is Bogdan Detrovich Gren, a Ukrainian national in the U.S. illegally with convictions for murder, kidnapping, abduction resulting in death, among other crimes.
Also taken into custody were Palvinder Singh, an illegal migrant from India who was convicted of rape in Germany, and Carlos Mendez-Acosta, a Venezuelan migrant convicted of rape, according to the feds.
Andreas Bernal Chiquito is an illegal migrant from Colombia who has past arrests for sexual conduct against a child and injuring a child under age 17.
The Department of Homeland Security says the call from New York officials about those with “serious crimes” never came.
What Hochul and Mamdani did do was take $7.25 million in taxpayer dollars and announce they would pay the legal expenses for unaccompanied minors.
And that’s the tell. They will stage the press conference. They will pay the lawyers. They will chant “ICE out now” as if immigration enforcement is not as old as our country itself. What they will not do is honor a detainer, hold a convicted rapist in jail, or admit that sanctuary policy put those men back on the street.
Elections have consequences. Nowhere is that clearer than immigration. Democrat politicians spent years daring Washington to enforce the law. Trump did. Now they want the law enforcement gone — and the criminals left behind.
If Mamdani and Hochul want fewer ICE officers in New York, there is a simple solution: stop releasing the criminals ICE is trying to remove.
***
Tricia McLaughlin served as the Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at the Department of Homeland Security. Follow her on X: @TriciaOhio

Federal Agents Patrol In Halls Of New York Immigration Court

Tricia McLaughlin: Democrats Chant ‘ICE Out’ While They Let Criminals In

immigration enforcement

sanctuary city policy

zohran mamdani

Progressives are once again peddling their novel, ingenious, groundbreaking idea: the wealth tax. Taxing wealthy individuals based on their net worth. Love it.
Except, of course, it isn&#8217;t novel, ingenious, or groundbreaking. It&#8217;s moronic, and it&#8217;s been tried and failed over and over again for centuries.
<a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DcyUC5CvJct/">https://www.instagram.com/reel/DcyUC5CvJct/</a>
Those with less have been trying to steal from those with more for as long as governments have existed, and the inane ideas of the far-left are just the newest variation of this. Angie Nixon, a socialist running for U.S. Senate in Florida, wants a &#8220;federal asset registry&#8221; to impose a 5% annual wealth tax on everything you own, starting with billionaires. Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed is pushing a 7–8% annual wealth tax on the rich. California&#8217;s Billionaire Tax Act proposes a 5% tax on billionaires&#8217; net worth. And the decrepit Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) have been screaming about a wealth tax longer than I&#8217;ve been alive. No doubt they&#8217;ll keep screeching this song from the grave.
Set aside the morally abhorrent implications of this; the idea, after all, is stealing from those who have prospered so that government can manhandle their property as they please under the false pretenses of “EQUALITY.” The economics are just as damning.
Let’s look at a few examples.
In 1662, the Crown, under Charles II, was short of cash, so Parliament came up with the bright idea to tax hearths and chimneys. Two shillings a year for each one, on the theory that rich people had more of them. It failed. Homeowners simply bricked up their fireplaces before the &#8220;chimney-man&#8221; could count them. And the result? Less heat, brutal winters, worse indoor smoke, and more house fires.
In 1696, under King William III, the window tax was introduced. The idea was that opulent folk tend to have more windows; ergo, charge them a pretty penny for the sunlight. Englishmen boarded up their windows to dodge it, which produced stuffy ventilation, spread disease, and resulted in vitamin D deficiencies that stunted growth in entire generations. You might be a short king because a man with a ledger taxed heaven&#8217;s rays.
In the 1990s, Congress slapped a 10% tax on new boats over $100,000 to “soak the rich.” Turns out the middle and lower classes were the only ones in the splash zone, because the boat boys just stopped ordering new boats, bought used ones, or bought abroad. Booyah. Some 19,000 boatbuilding jobs were lost, yards ran dry, and the tax raised almost nothing. Progressivism once again, looking regressive in hindsight.
Bernie Sanders was alive for pretty much all of this history, so why does he continue to push a wealth tax that resembles these failed schemes?
Potentially because he has never held a real job a single day in his very long life, so he has legitimately no concept of how money works because he’s leeched off the ass of public society for his entire career and pays the mortgage on his three homes with our taxpayer dollars. Or, more simply, because envy is the engine that drives him.
The 5% annual billionaire tax he’s proposing stems directly from his coveting of what the ultra-rich have created for themselves. But even if the government completely liquidated and confiscated 100% of every U.S. billionaire&#8217;s assets, it would barely fund the government for a single year. America’s billionaires hold a combined net worth of about $8.42 trillion, while the U.S. government spends about $7.4 trillion annually. So the reality is that seizing every single penny from Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett, and every other U.S. Billionaire Bob would only keep the federal government running for maybe 12 months. Bring in the middle class!
The octogenarian’s billionaire tax would quickly creep onto the rest of us, just like the federal income tax did. It was first permanently established in 1913, sold to the public as a tax only on the ultra-wealthy, featuring a top tax rate of just 7% on the highest earners. A century later, the middle class — whom the Democratic Party has long ceased working for — bears a continuous, heavy share of that tax burden, handing over almost one-third of their income every year.
This is my very long way of saying that he should delete his X account, shut up, and retire.
Newsom’s similar wealth tax has dozens of California tech billionaires making plans to <a href="https://x.com/RichSementa/status/2094763335413543314">exit</a> the state, presumably taking their companies, careers, and cash troughs with them. The ones who stay can simply move money out of equities and into real estate, which happens to be exempt. But less money flowing through the stock and bond markets leads to less innovation, less progress, and an overall dampening of societal and economic growth. Those mRNA cancer vaccines set to reach markets as soon as next year? Well, those aren’t possible without an overabundance of capital willing to absorb years of trial and error. I’m not saying the Left is prolonging cancer, but I’m not not saying it.
On the Eastern side of the country, New Yorkers aren’t boarding up their chimneys yet, but they are building stubbier buildings. Their hijab-donning, Handmaid&#8217;s Tale-loving feminist governor Kathy Hochul signed into law a program that mandates developers pay construction workers a ridiculously <a href="https://biz.chosun.com/en/en-international/2025/11/13/7EQXDXXZ3VENPBQSZK6NGJYDGM/">high</a> wage if they are working on a building that has 100 or more units. Hence why developers are capping their blueprints at exactly 99 floors to dodge the wage hike. Fewer skyscrapers, less efficient use of space, fewer apartments, less happy New Yorkers.
New York’s terror-sympathizing, joker-looking, smarmball mayor (as we call him) is trying his own version of this stupidity, in trying to tax both second homes over $1 million and more broadly “the rich,” though his 9.5% city-wide property tax hike failed already due to reality hitting everyone in the face.
The pied-à-terre tax is in effect, and the surcharge doesn’t just apply to the global elite&#8217;s second penthouse. It applies to condos and co-ops valued at more than $1 million, and family homes valued at more than $4 million. Any unit without a full-time resident gets hit, which is precisely the pool of owners that pencil out new construction in the first place. Kill the demand at the top of the tower and the tower never breaks ground. It’s quite apparent that his degree in Africana studies did not adequately prepare him for the inner workings of Economics 101.
The rich are already being taxed. The top 10% of earners in this country already pay over 70% of the federal income tax revenue, and the bottom 50% pay just 3.3%. Even they don’t have enough money to pay for the unending supply of free promises and wishful thinking being spouted off by the Left ad nauseam. Their harebrained money-grabbing schemes will fall squarely on the shoulders of the working class, who will have gained nothing and lost their freedoms and their private property in the bargain.
The alternative is taking a chainsaw to regulations, slashing taxes, and driving economic growth and innovation, which will lead to unbounded prosperity and a rising economic tide for everyone.
Tax Elon Musk into oblivion and you get less investment in self-driving cars, satellite internet for people who&#8217;ve never had it, and research into restoring sight to the blind. Tax Larry Page and Sergey Brin dry and you get a dumber phone: worse search, worse Maps, no cheap Android for half the planet. Tax Jensen Huang until Nvidia can&#8217;t fund R&amp;D, and you get fewer chips like the ones training the cancer models that could save grandma&#8217;s life.
The jealousy of the socialists is going to rupture the genius, innovation, and groundbreaking success our trailblazers see every day that benefit the entire world.
It would behoove us not to listen to them and send a few of them packing to the nursing home.

Bernie Sanders speaks at a Tax the Rich rally

How ‘Soaking The Rich’ Always Drowns The Middle Class

bernie sanders

elizabeth warren

new york city

opinion

wealth tax

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) quietly conducted raids across New York dubbed &#8220;Operation Rotten Apple&#8221; that yielded the arrests of more than 2,100 illegal immigrant criminals.
Among those arrested were murderers, kidnappers, rapists, robbers, burglars, child predators, drug traffickers, and other violent criminals released onto the streets by sanctuary authorities, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin announced during a press conference on Tuesday. The raids took place between July 27 and August 29 and targeted more than 13,000 criminal illegal immigrants who were released from local jails despite having ICE detainers lodged against them.
&#8220;Operation Rotten Apple was an operation we decided to take on because you have a very liberal slash socialist mayor here in New York City that instead of working with law enforcement tries to cut NYPD&#8217;s budget by $22 million and refuses to work with federal law enforcement. You have a governor that refuses to work with us,&#8221; Mullin said.
&#8220;These are your rapists, your murderers, your child predators, these are gangbangers, these are terrorists. 13,000 individuals that the state of New York had locked up and we said &#8216;Hey, they&#8217;re in this country illegally,&#8217; &#8230; We targeted those 13,000. That&#8217;s where we got those 2,100 and we&#8217;re not done, we&#8217;re still moving forward,&#8221; Mullin said.
During Tuesday&#8217;s announcement, Mullin took swipes at New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul for adopting the sanctuary policies that forced ICE to take to the streets.
&#8220;These individuals should&#8217;ve never been on our streets, but while the radical left sanctuary states protect illegals, underneath Trump&#8217;s administration and the Department of Homeland Security, ICE officers &#8230; are out there every day protecting Americans. Let&#8217;s not forget earlier this summer when the mayor of New York City, the socialist Mamdani, said he believes that ICE raids are cruel, inhumane, and they do nothing to serve to protect the interests of the public safety,&#8221; Mullin said.
&#8220;You want to tell me that these individuals here that was arrested off your streets mayor, that&#8217;s in the interest of public safety,&#8221; Mullin said, adding that Mamdani is &#8220;extremely out of touch&#8221; when it comes to public safety and the wants of the American people.
He went on to criticize Hochul for recently <a href="https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/keeping-new-yorkers-safe-governor-hochul-announces-local-cops-local-crimes-provision-banning" target="_blank" rel="noopener">banning</a> local police from entering into agreements to work with ICE.
&#8220;Recently, your liberal governor of the great state of New York &#8230; got behind a podium that read &#8216;Keeping New Yorkers Safe.&#8217; At the same time, she&#8217;s announcing that she&#8217;s ending 287g agreements and banned individuals in New York from working with us,&#8221; Mullin said.
Mullin listed several of the criminal illegal immigrants ICE nabbed during the operation, which included an Indian man wanted in Germany for rape who was released into the country during the Biden administration. ICE also arrested a Ukrainian murderer, a Colombian national arrested for sexually assaulting a child, and a Dominican heroin trafficker.
Ken Genalo, field office director for ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations in New York City, called the operation &#8220;deliberate,&#8221; &#8220;precise,&#8221; and &#8220;effective.&#8221;
&#8220;These are not the people New York&#8217;s sanctuary policies should be protecting from federal immigration enforcement,&#8221; Genalo said.
The officers who took part in the raids faced harassment from outside agitators as they worked to arrest the illegal immigrant targets, Genalo said, adding that his agents remain undeterred.
&#8220;While our officers were removing public safety threats from the New York streets, they were also being harassed, threatened, targeted, and terrorized,&#8221; he said. &#8220;And when elected officials excuse, minimize, or even celebrate the behavior as they did in this case, they place a target on the back of the officers who are doing their jobs. ICE officers will not be intimidated by political rhetoric, sanctuary policies, or street-level threats.&#8221;

Untitled design – 2026-09-01T094635.096

‘Operation Rotten Apple’: ICE Nabs Hundreds Of Illegals Released By Sanctuary New York

immigration

sanctuary city

We are approaching 25 years after 9/11, and New York is now led by people who would have sided with the terrorists.
The mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, thinks the real victims of 9/11 were his auntie, who had to experience “evil American Islamophobia,” and also millions of Muslims globally, who are the true victims of American foreign policy.
The governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, is a suicidally empathetic white lady who dons a hijab in honor of Islam.
This is apparently New York&#8217;s electorate now: radical Muslims and the leftists who support them.
It&#8217;s amazing to think that an entire generation of humans was not born when 9/11 happened. In the forgetfulness of the tragedy, people tend to imbibe from the well of stupidity and suicidal ideation.
Case in point: Kathy Hochul.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ben-shapiro-show-ep-2496?elementPosition=1&amp;row=0&amp;rowHeadline=Recent+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-981859" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner.avif" alt="" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner.avif 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner-300x50.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner-768x128.jpg 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
Over the weekend, she brought dance back to New York City with Kevin Bacon. She has been tasked with removing regulations in New York that apparently banned dancing, and she brought Kevin Bacon along to explain how. After he chortled, “Let’s dance,” he began to dance while Hochul explained, “We couldn&#8217;t afford the rights to the original Footloose music, so whatever.”
They couldn&#8217;t afford the rights to the original Footloose music because New York is essentially bankrupt.
Why do I bring up Kathy Hochul and dancing? Because Kathy Hochul has posed as a hardcore feminist. She&#8217;s standing for the ladies. She&#8217;s standing against the patriarchy that would strip women of their rights.
You may recall that she gave a speech in Albany in 2021 in which she talked about how we need to get abortion bans off of women&#8217;s bodies. Women&#8217;s bodies needed to be free. This can&#8217;t be &#8220;The Handmaid&#8217;s Tale.&#8221;
She said, “I just got in from Seneca Falls. Why did I go to Seneca Falls? Well, first of all, their rally was before yours. Okay, so that&#8217;s nothing personal here. I went there because I needed to channel the spirit of those brave, audacious women who, 173 years ago, demanded the rights to control their own bodies. They were tired of being the property of men. They stood up, they fought. And many of them did not live long enough to see the rights that they believed in and fought for in Seneca Falls at that gathering. But we are all beneficiaries of that because they had courage and stood up.”
Why is this relevant? Because Hochul was attending a mosque on Friday and decided to show up wearing a hijab.
There are many religious places all over planet Earth where women cover their hair out of respect. That is not the same thing as full-on putting on the garb.
We&#8217;ve talked about this before because a bunch of Democratic politicians have been doing this. AOC did this. She full-on donned the hijab. That is different from Nancy Pelosi when she visited Syria, putting a scarf over her hair, or women who decide to cover their hair when they go into Saint Peter&#8217;s Basilica, or to the Western Wall.
When you decide to full-on don the garb that, in the vast majority of planet Earth, is mandatory for Muslim women and whose rejection is punishable by law, you are making a statement.
There&#8217;s a reason the hijab is banned in France. Hijab, globally speaking, is typically a form of compulsion on women.
The fact that the governor of New York is not just covering her hair out of respect but full-on donning the garb says something. It is taking a position now espoused by an enormous percentage of Democratic governance and leadership.
And that position is that they are going to submit to the rules.
This is different from somebody putting a doily on their head when they go into a Catholic Mass or somebody going to a synagogue and putting on a yarmulke.
(By the way, I&#8217;m just telling all politicians: as an Orthodox Jew, you don&#8217;t have to put on a yarmulke to walk into a synagogue. The only people who ask you to do that are Reform Jews, who typically don&#8217;t wear a yarmulke in the first place. People like me who wear it full time would not ask you to do so.)
What’s happening here is all part and parcel of a willingness on the Left to not only gloss over Islam, but also to submit to it and to start repeating all the talking points of it.
This has become not just a New York issue; it is a globalized issue. Canada&#8217;s CBC News, for example, initially decided to cover 9/11 by not calling it a terrorist attack. After significant backlash, CBC attempted to <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/08/29/media/cbc-releases-policy-change-after-controversy-about-refusing-to-refer-to-9-11-as-terrorist-attacks/">backtrack</a> from the controversy.
This is what the West has done to itself: decide that it is guilty and that the West deserves what happened to it. People have to be imported en masse because the West is guilty.
Nate Friedman, the video journalist, went to New York and the East Village – a heavily Muslim part of New York City. Things got awkward because it turns out that streets have been taken over by Islamic prayer, and some of those people are leaving bikes in the streets without getting parking tickets. Apparently, some police officers in the traffic department there barely speak English and are essentially allowing people to get away with violations of the law.
Friedman asked one of the Muslim men in this area about sharia law. The key to the clip was not the Muslim man who wants sharia law in New York City; the key was the white lady who yelled at Nate Friedman for asking the question as she walked by.
Eighty-four percent of women aged 18-29 in New York City voted for Zohran Mamdani — 84%.
They released videos from the night of Mamdani’s victory, cheering sharia law, which none of them would want to abide by. Sharia law is not in favor of literally anything these women want to do.
We&#8217;ve seen shades of this in other countries. In 1979, a bunch of feminists protested against the Shah and ended up bringing Ayatollah Khomeini onto themselves.
Why are American women — in blue areas in particular — buying into all of this? 
 First, many of these women have been taught that tolerance is the greatest virtue, perhaps the only virtue. If you are ”intolerant” by noticing cultural differences and pointing out that Islam on a global scale is a repressive force, “That is a form of intolerance, so go f*** yourself.”
Second, they’ve been taught that their civilization is uniquely intolerant, which means sexist and terrible and evil and horrible. They will protest the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court in Handmaid&#8217;s Tale outfits.
 Yet they will don the uniform of female repression across planet Earth in New York City in order to fight American intolerance. Why?
They&#8217;re using politics as a substitute for family and community, which is why they&#8217;re voting the way that they are. It provides a sense of communal solidarity. The great irony of young leftist feminists shouting for sharia law is astonishing.
This is how you end up with a New York City that is being dominated by people who believe that America is inherently evil and terrible, with people who sympathize with the ideological belief system of the people who murdered 3,000 people on 9/11.
I&#8217;m saying that advisedly, because Mamdani literally does. On September 11, 2023, not 20 years ago, but only three years ago, he tweeted, “Nearly 3,000 New Yorkers died on 9/11. 22 years later, the death hasn&#8217;t stopped. We mourn our neighbors who died that day, the hundreds of thousands who died in the wars that followed, the unknown, millions injured and displaced in their memory. In their memory, we work toward a better world.”
Did you know that 3,000 New Yorkers died spontaneously? They were simply walking around in the streets and BAM! They all had heart attacks. They spontaneously combusted. In the words of Ilhan Omar, “Some people did something.”
These people can&#8217;t acknowledge what radical Islam did, and can’t acknowledge what terrorism did. It wasn&#8217;t terrorism; the real tragedy, according to Mamdani, was the hundreds of thousands of Muslims victimized by America.
Notice what Mamdani was doing in that tweet. 1) He&#8217;s pretending that people spontaneously combusted. There was no Islamic terror attack on 9/11; it was all in our imagination. 2) The real tragedy was not the 3,000 people murdered. It was the hundreds of thousands and millions of people who were harmed by the United States. The United States is the bad guy.
This is what he truly believes. And this piece of dreck is the mayor of New York City.
Always and forever for these people, the West is responsible for the sins of Islam. The West brings it upon itself. 
This is the prevailing view among people like Abdul El-Sayed, Hasan Piker, Mamdani, and a Democratic Party that has decided it must fellow-travel with these people and agree with them.
Meanwhile, the West continues to import these people.
Their goal is to use the West&#8217;s freedoms against itself.

IMG_6592

Feminism’s Most Insane Contradiction Yet

islam

New York’s self-proclaimed feminist governor, Kathy Hochul, set off a social media firestorm after strapping on a black hijab to address a crowd at an Islamic center last Friday.
Video showed Hochul in a hijab while addressing Muslim religious and community leaders in New York as the nation prepares for the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks carried out by radical Muslims.
The pandering didn’t go unnoticed. Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) blasted the Democratic governor, exposing the Left’s favorite cultural wedge issue.
“Democrats: ‘Sexist Republicans are turning America into the Handmaid’s Tale!’ Also Democrats:” Gill posted on X, attaching the photo of Hochul decked out in her headscarf.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Democrats: &quot;Sexist Republicans are turning America into the Handmaid&#39;s Tale!&quot; 
Also Democrats: <a href="https://t.co/7lWhOtvXFN">pic.twitter.com/7lWhOtvXFN</a>
&mdash; Brandon Gill (@realBrandonGill) <a href="https://x.com/realBrandonGill/status/2094102683661521020?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 30, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Critics were quick to point out that this wasn&#8217;t Hochul&#8217;s first time donning the headscarf. She previously wore one at the July 2025 funeral for slain NYPD officer Didarul Islam. As RedState <a href="https://redstate.com/kyle-becker/2026/08/30/ny-gov-hochul-ditches-feminist-routine-to-don-hijab-for-muslim-men-n2206254">noted</a>, female Democratic leaders including former Secretary of State and first lady <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/20091030-clinton-hits-out-pakistani-government-over-al-qaeda">Hillary Clinton</a>, former Speaker of the House <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/2007/04/04/pelosi-visits-syria-mosque-brushes-off-bush-criticism/">Nancy Pelosi</a> (D-CA), Rep. <a href="https://www.ynetnews.com/article/byfn4yrggg">Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez</a> (D-NY), and Minnesota Lt. Gov. <a href="https://nativenewsonline.net/currents/minnesota-lt-gov-flanagan-draws-right-wing-backlash-after-wearing-hijab-in-solidarity-with-somali-community/">Peggy Flanagan</a> have all put on hijabs to appeal to Muslim voters.
Democrats have obsessively weaponized Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel &#8220;The Handmaid’s Tale&#8221; to attack conservatives. For years, Democrats and their media cheerleaders have pushed the narrative that conservative policies will turn America into the fictional, totalitarian &#8220;Republic of Gilead.&#8221;
Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ) dramatically claimed in 2024 that &#8220;we&#8217;re living in the Handmaid&#8217;s Tale – in the state of Arizona.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
“We’re living in the Handmaid’s Tale &#8211; in the state of Arizona &#8211; in 2024. 
This is no longer a book of fiction by Margaret Atwood… set in the Republic of Gilead… where women are powerless and ruled by men.”
— my high school AP English teacher, Sen. @ChristinePMarsh. <a href="https://t.co/V8aV02bX9x">https://t.co/V8aV02bX9x</a>
&mdash; Yassamin Ansari (@yassaminansari) <a href="https://x.com/yassaminansari/status/1778299744349295094?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 11, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Meanwhile, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) explicitly validated the smear during a national TV interview, <a href="https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2021/09/01/elizabeth-warren-not-hyperbolic-to-compare-texas-abortion-law-to-the-handmaids-tale">agreeing</a> that fears of a GOP-led &#8220;Gilead&#8221; were &#8220;not hyperbolic.&#8221;
Nobody loves the analogy more than former MSNBC host Joy Reid, who <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/joy-reid-the-handmaids-tale-gilead-abortion.amp">routinely</a> brands red states like Texas as &#8220;Handmaid&#8217;s Tale&#8221; territory and rants about &#8220;the Republicans of Gilead.&#8221; Over on &#8220;The View,&#8221; Sunny Hostin <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/conservatives-roast-views-hostin-calling-republican-women-roaches-fired-immediately">publicly shamed</a> Republican women, sneering: &#8220;Do they want to live in Gilead?&#8221;
Left-wing groups like <a href="https://www.democratsabroad.org/341101/similarities_of_project_2024_and_the_handmaid_s_tale">Democrats Abroad</a> have published entire presentations directly comparing GOP platform initiatives and Project 2025 to Atwood&#8217;s novel. Leftist protesters frequently march in crimson robes and white bonnets, while liberal pundits routinely <a href="https://www.comicsands.com/katie-britt-sotu-handmaids-tale">slap</a> the &#8220;Handmaid&#8221; label on conservative women like Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL).
Democrats will relentlessly smear conservatives as oppressive &#8220;Gilead&#8221; bosses for supporting pro-life values, yet turn around and eagerly drape themselves in religious coverings without a second thought.

New York Governor Hochul, Mayor Mamdani, And AG James Make Announcement On ICE Actions

New York Governor Wears Hijab For Muslim Men Just Ahead Of 9/11 Anniversary

brandon gill

new york

september 11 attacks

<div>
Montana GOP Sen. Tim Sheehy blasted calls for a moratorium on new data centers Monday, warning that restricting their construction would kill American jobs and threaten the country&#8217;s technological future.
&#8220;First they killed our timber mills, then our mines, then our factories — now data centers,&#8221; Sheehy said.
</div>
Sheehy’s response came after Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) publicly called for a moratorium on the construction of new artificial intelligence server farms, claiming three-quarters of the country backs such a pause.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Five months ago, AOC and I called for a moratorium on new AI data centers.
We were called “radical,” “crazy” and “extremists.”
Today, 75% of Americans agree and hundreds of candidates are responding.
The message is clear: We need a moratorium.
&mdash; Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) <a href="https://x.com/BernieSanders/status/2091559335851634894?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 23, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;Every good-paying, middle-class employment powerhouse has been systematically murdered by globalist and communist lobbying in America sending those jobs, that industry, and all of its economic impact overseas,&#8221; Sheehy wrote.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
First they killed our timber mills, then our mines, then our factories &#8211; now data centers. Every good-paying, middle-class employment powerhouse has been systematically murdered by globalist and communist lobbying in America sending those jobs, that industry, and all of its… <a href="https://t.co/Y5Gt0MYD1W">https://t.co/Y5Gt0MYD1W</a>
&mdash; Tim Sheehy (@TimSheehyMT) <a href="https://x.com/TimSheehyMT/status/2091682407107776682?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 24, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;Every politician calling for the end of data centers is also calling for the destruction of the future jobs they create and the end of Netflix, X, YouTube, Instagram, Spotify, Google, Amazon, and every app you actually use,&#8221; he added. &#8220;They all run on data centers.&#8221;
The push comes as some GOP lawmakers sound the alarm over dark-money foreign meddling. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-KY) recently <a href="https://energycommerce.house.gov/posts/chairmen-guthrie-joyce-and-latta-request-investigation-of-foreign-adversaries-efforts-to-block-american-data-center-buildout">demanded answers</a> from federal investigators over mounting evidence that China is orchestrating covert influence campaigns on U.S. soil.
“Our nation is locked in a race with China to innovate and lead the world in the development of artificial intelligence technologies,” Guthrie warned. “The fact that Chinese Communist Party-backed entities and other foreign adversaries may be attempting to influence decisions related to American data center infrastructure puts into perspective how serious of a fight we are in.&#8221;
&#8220;Americans deserve to know who is bankrolling the disinformation campaign that seeks to block critical infrastructure investments,” he added.
According to congressional investigators and security watchdog reports, foreign entities linked to the Chinese Communist Party are funneling cash through non-profit networks and unleashing online bot armies. They are intent on spreading fake outrage over local utility bills and water usage to trick local communities into blocking server farms.
By tricking state politicians into putting moratoriums on fresh construction, Beijing hopes to paralyze America’s power grid expansion and take total control of global AI dominance.
Supporters of data-center development also dispute claims about the industry&#8217;s environmental impact. The Goldwater Institute, a free-market think tank, <a href="https://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/the-data-center-debate-fact-vs-fiction/">points out</a> that data centers are actually amazingly efficient. All server farms nationwide combined consume under 0.05% of American freshwater, which is tiny compared to basic agricultural irrigation.
Even better for taxpayers, tech developers pay for local utility upgrades rather than leaving working families to pay. In Loudoun County, Virginia, server facilities generate tens of millions in local property taxes, producing roughly $26 in municipal revenue for every dollar spent on public services.
Yet despite the massive economic payoff, left-wing leaders continue taking the bait. New York Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul recently blocked local server farm permits as her administration develops new rules governing their construction.

NASA Hearing 12/3/25

‘Communist Lobbying’: Sheehy Blasts Left-Wing Push To Kill Data Centers

artificial intelligence

tim sheehy

A woman who allegedly pledged allegiance to ISIS was arrested after plotting to bomb the New York State Capitol in Albany, federal prosecutors announced Thursday.
Jessica Bowie, 35, was charged with attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization after allegedly communicating with an undercover FBI source posing as an ISIS facilitator and seeking assistance in carrying out an attack.
According to a federal criminal complaint, Bowie converted to Islam roughly five years ago and subsequently created numerous social media accounts using an Islamic honorific. Several of those accounts were allegedly suspended for violating platform rules, according to <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/fbi-thwarts-isis-plot-bomb-new-york-capitol-building-rcna593595">NBC News</a>.
Between May and July, accounts linked to Bowie allegedly posted messages expressing support for terrorism. Beginning in July, Bowie allegedly began communicating with an FBI confidential source about her plans.
Bowie allegedly told the source that she wanted to attack the New York State Capitol because she wanted to “harm the enemies of god.” The Capitol was less than two miles from where Bowie lived, according to prosecutors.
Investigators <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/fbi-arrests-woman-who-allegedly-plotted-attack-new-york-state-capitol-building">allege</a> that Bowie conducted surveillance of the Capitol, taking photographs from multiple vantage points, including a nearby observation hall. She allegedly purchased materials that could be used to construct an explosive device from a hardware store on Aug. 5.
The complaint says Bowie wanted to carry out the attack and then escape. If she successfully avoided arrest, she allegedly planned to return and conduct additional attacks.
On Wednesday, undercover sources allegedly provided Bowie with an inert explosive device and a nonfunctional handgun, along with instructions for detonating the device according to documents reviewed by <a href="https://abcnews.com/US/new-york-state-capitol-attack-thwarted-fbi/story?id=135812339&amp;cid=social_twitter_abcn">ABC News</a>.
She was subsequently arrested. During an interview with federal agents, Bowie allegedly acknowledged that she was facing a lengthy prison sentence. 
“There’s no helping me, you guys know enough,” she allegedly said. “I’m … going to prison for the rest of my life.”
She allegedly added: “Material support is up to 20 years in prison, I already Googled it before, I know I’m going to jail.” 
Bowie is expected to appear in federal court Thursday afternoon. If convicted of attempting to provide material support to ISIS, she faces up to 20 years in prison.
New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul praised federal and state law enforcement for stopping the alleged plot. 
“I’m grateful to the FBI for leading this investigation and to the New York State Police for their work to apprehend this dangerous individual,” Hochul wrote on <a href="https://x.com/GovKathyHochul/status/2090505893444047191">X</a>. “While there is no immediate threat at this time, we will continue working closely with our law enforcement partners to protect New Yorkers and keep our communities safe.”

ISIS flags

ISIS Supporter Arrested In Plot To Bomb New York State Capitol

isis

jessica bowie

new york state capitol

terrorism plot

As Republicans look to defy history in the upcoming midterm elections, they hope to pick up seats in an unexpected place: New York. 
One of the top New York House seats being targeted by the GOP is that of Rep. Laura Gillen, who represents large swaths of Long Island. The GOP is banking on Gillen’s leftist voting record and the unpopularity of Governor Kathy Hochul to open the door for them to get a win in the swing district. 
Gillen, who won New York’s 4th Congressional District by ousting incumbent Republican Rep. Anthony D’Esposito by about 8,000 votes in 2024, has <a href="https://clerk.house.gov/evs/2025/roll246.xml">voted</a> with her party to <a href="https://amendments-rules.house.gov/amendments/MACE_113_xml%20(2)250905102500556.pdf">force</a> the Department of War to use taxpayer dollars for transgender surgeries and wants to keep Haitian nationals from being deported. 
“Out-of-touch radical Laura Gillen has repeatedly fought to send Long Islanders’ tax dollars down the drain,” National Republican Congressional Committee spokeswoman Maureen O&#8217;Toole told The Daily Wire. “Her record of pushing woke pet projects won’t fly in this district, and voters will send her packing in November because of it.”
Midterm elections historically favor the party out of the White House, and President Donald Trump is broadly unpopular in New York, but Republicans believe local trends may favor them in Gillen’s district. The district favored President Joe Biden by 15 points in 2020 but only went for Vice President Kamala Harris by one point in 2024. Last year, Republicans won all the top positions in Nassau County, where Gillen’s district is centered.
One of Gillen’s top priorities since entering Congress has been prohibiting the deportation of Haitian nationals living in the United States. She <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/1689?s=1&amp;r=19">sponsored</a> legislation opposed by the Trump administration that would expand Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitians until 2029. 
“The president has made it clear that this administration’s priority is protecting the American people and addressing the criminal threat posed by those who enter this nation with little to no vetting or overstay the visa granted them,” the White House <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-trump-admin-comes-out-swinging-on-haitian-immigration-bill-backed-by-some-republicans">said</a> in a policy statement explaining its opposition. “Numerous Haitian nationals previously granted TPS have been the subject of administrative investigations for fraud, public safety, and national security.”
In one recent social media post, Gillen <a href="https://x.com/LauraAGillen/status/2087593342926254146?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet">claimed</a> that ending TPS for Haitians would burden the “healthcare system by forcing them to fire caregivers.”
Gillen voted against an amendment to keep the military’s TRICARE health coverage from being used to fund transgender procedures on gender-confused members. Additionally, she <a href="https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2025203">opposed</a> $9 billion in foreign aid cuts to programs pushing LGBT and climate activism around the globe. 
The New York Democrat is a member of the Congressional Equality Caucus, which <a href="https://equality.house.gov/about-cec/mission">backs</a> a <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/2487/text">bill</a> pushing federal funding for transgender procedures and <a href="https://x.com/EqualityCaucus/status/1933166704680472794">opposes</a> efforts to keep drag shows off of military facilities. 
Running against Gillen is Republican Jeanine Driscoll, who is <a href="https://driscoll4congress.com/">focusing</a> on a platform of cutting taxes, backing law enforcement, and securing the southern border. Driscoll was an official in Hempstead Town, where she oversaw local taxes. 
In recent years, Republicans have performed well in the district. Long Beach, a city of about 35,000, elected all Republicans to the city council in November 2025 for the <a href="https://www.liherald.com/merrick/stories/gop-sweeps-long-beach,218435">first time</a> in over half a century. Republican Bruce Blakeman coasted to re-election as Nassau County Executive in 2025 by over 10 points. Now running for governor, one <a href="https://sri.siena.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/SNY0826-Release-Crosstabs_Corrected.pdf">recent poll</a> showed Blakeman down just 10 points to Hochul, who once led by 20 points. 
The same poll showed Republicans with a 49% to 44% lead over Democrats on the generic Congressional ballot in the suburbs. 
“In New York, Republicans are in the strongest electoral position possible, because while Kathy Hochul and Zohran Mamdani run the Empire State into the ground, Republicans are delivering,” O’Toole said. “Taxes are down, communities are safer, and New Yorkers have President Trump and Republicans to thank for it.”

Republicans Make Play For House Seat Democrats Can’t Afford To Lose

2026 midterm election

laura gillen

new york 4th congressional district

temporary protected status

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that his administration is examining whether the federal government has the authority to intervene against New York City Democratic Mayor Zohran Mamdani&#8217;s controversial pied-à-terre tax. 
“I am looking to see if the Federal Government has any legal right to avert this disaster, before it is too late, for the millions of people who cherish New York and want to see it thrive, as opposed to becoming a filthy, crime ridden, decrepit place of mockery and scorn,” Trump said.  
“The NYC pied-à-terre tax is costing New York City and state a fortune in that the money, eventually to be gotten, is very little compared to the taxes paid by the tens of thousands of people who are fleeing the City, never to return,” he added. 
Trump&#8217;s comments come after a New York state judge temporarily halted the city&#8217;s rollout of the tax Monday amid a lawsuit from three homeowners challenging how the Mamdani administration is implementing it.
Staten Island Supreme Court Justice Wayne Ozzi issued a temporary restraining order blocking the city from enforcing tax notices and requiring the Department of Finance to remove a supplemental property roll published as part of the tax&#8217;s implementation. The Mamdani administration appealed the order hours later, automatically staying Ozzi&#8217;s order and allowing the rollout to continue while the case proceeds.
The tax, championed by Mamdani and authorized by New York state lawmakers with the support of Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, imposes an annual surcharge on high-value New York City homes that are not used as primary residences.
It generally targets second homes with market values exceeding $5 million. It also applies to condominiums and co-ops valued at more than $1 million. 
The controversy intensified after the city sent roughly 17,000 notices to homeowners whose properties officials believed could be subject to the surcharge. Some recipients said their properties were actually their primary residences and therefore should be exempt.
The Department of Finance also published a supplemental property roll containing roughly 960,000 properties. City officials have stressed that the roll includes residential properties that are not necessarily subject to the surcharge and is not a list of nearly one million people who will owe the tax.
The three homeowners suing the city are not challenging the legality of the tax itself. Instead, they argue that the Mamdani administration unlawfully shifted the burden onto homeowners to prove that their properties qualify for an exemption rather than requiring the city to first determine which properties are actually subject to the surcharge.
“The Mayor’s administration screwed up this rollout. It’s been a debacle, and it was in violation of state law,&#8221; Randy Mastro, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/video/6403224700112">said</a> Monday. &#8220;The Mayor wanted to grab a quick headline, so he rushed it out and instead he violated the very law that the state passed authorizing him to impose.” 
A hearing in the case is scheduled for August 31.
Mamdani has <a href="https://www.wsj.com/us-news/judge-temporarily-blocks-mamdanis-pied-a-terre-tax-744b0003">promised</a> to &#8220;vigorously defend” the city’s implementation of the tax in court.
A spokesperson for the mayor said Monday that the administration is &#8220;confident in both the pied-à-terre surcharge and the City&#8217;s ability to implement it fairly and effectively.&#8221;
&nbsp;

trump_Mamdani

Trump Eyes Federal Action To Stop Mamdani’s Pied-A-Terre Tax

pied-a-terre tax

When President Trump took office last year, he rightfully declared an energy emergency and ushered in orders to accelerate domestic production. The Biden administration had used the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to hamstring American energy companies with burdensome regulations disguised as “fighting climate change.”  These actions stifled new energy initiatives, contributing to a nationwide <a href="https://geology.utah.gov/docs/statistics/electricity5.0/pdf/T5.24.pdf">rise in electricity rates</a>. Now, with its new Trump-appointed members, FERC <a href="https://www.ferc.gov/news-events/news/ferc-unleashes-natural-gas-permit-reforms-accelerating-infrastructure-upgrades">has instituted</a> major reforms to cut red tape and hasten energy dominance.
One such reform, voted 5-to-0 by the Commissioners, proposes to reform the “Blanket Program,” streamlining the approval process for infrastructure projects that improve existing systems. For example, if a company already received FERC approval for a natural gas storage facility and wants to build a second, it is common sense that most of the paper-pushing, box-checking bureaucracy was well established the first time. The Blanket Program expedites the process for “brownfield” project sites that are already in use.
But here come the blue states, hellbent on stopping anything Trump. Fifteen Democratic Attorneys General (AG), led by Washington’s AG Nick Brown and Massachusetts AG Andrea Campbell, have petitioned FERC to keep permitting slow, tangled, and expensive, calling the new FERC reform a threat to &#8220;ratepayers.&#8221; That’s the pot calling the kettle black. The other state AGs who are joining this letter — California, New York, Maryland, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Oregon, Colorado, Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota, Vermont, and the want-to-be-state Washington, D.C. — have no credibility on this topic. FERC should recognize that they represent a who’s-who of the nation’s highest electricity prices. Just ask their own ratepayers how &#8220;protection&#8221; is working out for them.
Since 2021, electricity prices in Washington have risen 32.8%, and in neighboring Oregon, 37.6%. Massachusetts leads New England in price increases, up 38.7% over five years, with neighboring states Connecticut up 29.4% and Maine up a stunning 65.3%.  To lower energy costs, these states should be begging FERC to expedite the infrastructure they need to heat homes and generate electricity.    
D.C. residents have seen their electric bills climb 73.7% since 2020. California, home to some of the priciest power in the country, is up 59.1%. Maryland&#8217;s AG, Anthony Brown, wants to protect ratepayers from &#8220;unjustified&#8221; cost increases, even as his own state has seen electricity prices rise nearly 50%. Colorado is up 28.2%, and even Arizona (not exactly a coastal blue-state stronghold) is up 24.9%. Michigan and Minnesota round out the list, both up over 20%, both states that mandated 100% &#8220;clean energy&#8221; deadlines their grids can&#8217;t and won’t actually meet. Now their Attorneys General want to make sure the natural gas infrastructure that could steady those prices gets buried.
New York’s AG Letitia James, a person who has never missed an opportunity to use her office to attack President Trump, is defending red tape on gas pipelines while New Yorkers eat a 43.7% rate hike. New York State, home to one of the world’s largest natural gas deposits(though asinine green mandates forbid developing it), continues to push the green agenda. Somewhere in NY, Governor Kathy Hochul is nodding along, hoping the media continues to ignore <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/20/nyregion/hochul-new-york-climate-law-delay.html">her delay in implementing</a> her celebrated energy-crushing climate initiatives until after her November election. The latest poll has the incumbent leading only by four points, answering the age-old question: when is a climate crisis not a climate crisis? When it hurts re-election.
This is the same script the climate fringe has run for years: block energy initiatives like new pipeline developments, mandate expensive wind and solar, then act shocked when the bill triples. Europe has been doing this for nearly 30 years, and they pay three to four times as much as Americans for electricity. One would think our elected leaders would learn a lesson here, but they have not.
One blue state whose Attorney General did not join this effort is New Mexico. During the same period, its electricity prices increased by only 11%. Home to part of the natural gas mega site, the Permian Basin, even its AG knows who butters the state’s bread.
One can rightfully ask whether these AGs even knew what they were signing, or whether “stop President Trump” is enough for them to act. Clearly partisanship trumps common sense, especially if it gets Trump; affordability be damned.
If these AGs spent half the energy (pun intended) they spent litigating it on demanding faster permitting, their states might not be leading the country in rate hikes. But that would require admitting their states’ respective energy policies have failed, risking the wrath of green donors who fund their campaigns. Sadly, politics wins out over policy, especially in an election year, and tens of millions of Americans living in these states will continue to suffer high electricity prices until their AGs stop being politicians and start being pragmatic. I won’t hold my breath.
***
Daniel Turner is the founder and executive director of Power The Future, a national nonprofit organization that advocates for American energy jobs. He also runs a sheep and cattle farm in rural Virginia.  Contact him at daniel@powerthefuture.com and follow him on Twitter @DanielTurnerPTF

Conceptual double exposure image of a red fuel pump nozzle at gas station overlaid with red and green stock market candlestick chart and fluctuating price line. Oil market volatility and crisis.

Menu