Governor Josh Shapiro (D-PA) claimed on Tuesday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had no legitimate &#8220;mission&#8221; when going into cities like Minneapolis, saying that he believed their only mission was &#8220;to violate people&#8217;s constitutional rights.&#8221;
Shapiro, who was a contender to be former Vice President Kamala Harris&#8217; running mate in 2024 and is considered to be in the running for the 2028 Democratic nomination, discussed the situation during a conversation on ABC&#8217;s &#8220;The View.&#8221; He argued, among other things, that it was time for ICE&#8217;s &#8220;mission&#8221; to end — and said that he&#8217;d have no problem thwarting federal law enforcement if such operations targeted his state.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Shapiro says he&#8217;s ready to stop ICE from enforcing immigration law in Pennsylvania. <a href="https://t.co/hoXXZ2C0KB">pic.twitter.com/hoXXZ2C0KB</a>
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) <a href="https://twitter.com/NickFondacaro/status/2016186174411354127?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 27, 2026</a></blockquote>
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Co-host Ana Navarro raised the question of Minneapolis, referring first to the deadly confrontation between Border Patrol agents and Alex Pretti, and asking Shapiro to weigh in on the still-unfolding scene.
&#8220;Well, it&#8217;s obviously extremely disturbing,&#8221; Shapiro said of Pretti&#8217;s death. &#8220;To me, it is very clear that the mission the president and Kristi Noem and Stephen Miller and JD Vance and all of them sent these federal officials on is a mission to violate people&#8217;s constitutional rights, and it is clear that the mission needs to be terminated immediately, period, hard stop.&#8221;
Co-host Sara Haines took the next question, noting that Philadelphia could be a potential target for a similar surge of federal immigration enforcement resources and personnel, and she asked how Shapiro planned to respond if that were the case.
&#8220;What can you do if they bring this crackdown to your state next?&#8221; she asked.
Shapiro quickly made it clear that he had already considered that possibility — and was taking preemptive action to prepare ahead of time. &#8220;Look, Sara, we&#8217;ve been planning for this. We understand that this is a risk — maybe not just in Philly, but Pittsburgh, Lancaster, other communities across Pennsylvania; we&#8217;ve heard similar rumors. Wherever it comes, we&#8217;ll be prepared, we&#8217;ll be prepared in the community, we&#8217;ll be prepared in the court of law.&#8221;
&#8220;I&#8217;ll remind you, as a former attorney general, I know how to take this president to court and win,&#8221; he declared, going on to boast, &#8220;And even as governor, I&#8217;ve taken him to court 19 times in his first 12 months in office. We&#8217;ve won every single time on behalf of the good people of Pennsylvania.&#8221;

Rally Against Hate Held In Philadelphia Days After Jewish Cemetery Vandalized

2028 Dem Hopeful Claims ICE Has No Real ‘Mission,’ Only Shows Up To Violate Constitutional Rights

Josh Shapiro Claims ICE Has No Real 'Mission,' Only Shows Up To Violate Constitutional Rights

Donald Trump

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

Josh Shapiro

Media

Pennsylvania

Politics

Jonathan Gerlach, a 34-year-old Pennsylvania man, was arrested on Tuesday after vandalizing a cemetery — only later did police discover human remains in his basement and storage unit, including more than 100 skulls, several long bones, mummified feet, and decomposing torsos.
The <a href="https://x.com/FOXLA/status/2009736991189979136">arrest</a> follows a months-long investigation of burglaries at graves and mausoleums. From November 7 to early January, 26 underground vaults and mausoleums were broken into or damaged, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Surveillance footage from Mount Moriah Cemetery on January 6 shows the suspect&#8217;s car with “numerous bones and skulls in plain view in the back seat,” Delaware County District Attorney Tanner Rouse said. From there, police observed Gerlach leaving the cemetery with a crowbar and a burlap bag filled with the skeletal remains of two small children, skulls, and other bones. He was taken into custody and, according to police, confessed to stealing roughly 30 sets of human remains. Authorities say a Monster drink was also found nearby and was later processed for DNA and fingerprints.
It is still unclear what Gerlach was doing with the bones, Rouse noted, some of which were more than a century old.
“Very simply, detectives have recovered an awful lot of bones at this point, and we are still trying to piece together who they are, where they are from, and how many we are looking at, and it’s going to be quite some time before we have a final answer,” Rouse said.
He called the sight &#8220;horrific,&#8221; adding, “Detectives walked into a horror movie come to life in that home.”
Yeadon Borough Police Chief Henry Giammarco also said it was one of the worst things he had witnessed in his 30-year career. &#8220;When people are laid to rest, that&#8217;s important,&#8221; he added. &#8220;The remains, they&#8217;re so old, but still, when they lived, they had a life, they mattered. It was important to us to get justice, and that&#8217;s working with the DA&#8217;s office. Hopefully justice will be served.&#8221;
Gerlach is charged with more than 300 counts, including 100 counts each of abuse of a corpse and receiving stolen property, multiple counts of desecrating a public monument, desecrating a venerated object, desecrating a historic burial place, burglary, trespassing, and theft. He is also accused of stealing jewelry, possibly taken from human remains.
He is jailed on a $1 million bond with no lawyer listed in court records, and an arraignment hearing is scheduled for January 20.

Human Bones

Hands, Feet, And Hundreds Of Bones Found In Pennsylvania Man’s Basement And Storage Unit

Crime

Death

Law Enforcement

U.S.

A gas explosion followed by a partial collapse of the building resulted in a number of people being trapped inside a Pennsylvania nursing home on Tuesday afternoon.
The explosion and subsequent fire took place at Silverlake Nursing Home in Bristol Township, Bucks County — which is near Philadelphia — and first responders rushed to the scene.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
More photos from the Silver Lake Nursing Home gas explosion in Bristol Pennsylvania
There are multiple injuries and the fire is not yet contained <a href="https://t.co/ekI7gvnlw3">pic.twitter.com/ekI7gvnlw3</a>
— PhillyCrimeUpdate (@PhillyCrimeUpd) <a href="https://twitter.com/PhillyCrimeUpd/status/2003568450044854637?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 23, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Bucks County officials told The Associated Press that they were first notified that there had been an explosion at the facility shortly after 2 p.m. local time. Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency spokesperson Ruth Miller told the outlet they were also informed at that time that a portion of the building had collapsed and that an unknown number of people could still be trapped inside.
ABC News posted video of the fire that continues to burn on site, reporting that police have declared a &#8220;mass casualty incident&#8221; and have asked people to &#8220;avoid the area.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
BREAKING: A massive fire has erupted at a nursing home in eastern PA following a possible gas explosion, officials said.
Police described it as a &#8220;mass casualty incident&#8221; at the Silver Lake Nursing Home and asked people to avoid the area in Bristol.<a href="https://t.co/EN9IPJbJGe">https://t.co/EN9IPJbJGe</a> <a href="https://t.co/JQDFwUDD03">pic.twitter.com/JQDFwUDD03</a>
— ABC News (@ABC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ABC/status/2003575069897843081?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 23, 2025</a></blockquote>
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State Rep. Tina Davis, who represents the area including the Silver Lake facility, said that she approached the area in her car, but held back to avoid getting in the way of those working the scene: &#8220;I saw smoke and I saw car after car after car was a fire truck or ambulance from all over the city, from all over.&#8221;
&#8220;It’s just so sad — it’s that hopeful time of year. This is just something that is sad for everybody and the families and the workers that are there. I hope there’s positive results from this. We don’t know at this point,&#8221; Davis said.
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Governor Josh Shapiro (D-PA) addressed the tragedy in a <a href="https://x.com/GovernorShapiro/status/2003571868805062736">post on X</a>, saying, &#8220;I’ve been briefed on the incident at Silver Lake Nursing Home in Bucks County, and my Administration is in contact with local officials and first responders on the ground. @PEMAHQ and @PAStatePolice have offered their full support and any resources needed. The scene is still active, and folks nearby should follow the direction of local authorities. Please join Lori and me in praying for the Bristol community.&#8221;
The Silver Lake facility gets poor ratings from <a href="https://www.medicare.gov/care-compare/details/nursing-home/395258?city=Bristol&amp;state=PA&amp;zipcode=">Medicare</a> overall, but no citations were issued when a routine fire inspection was done in 2024. A state level inspection done in October found several issues, however, including the absence of a Life Safety Code Floor Plan — a detailed map of the facility that shows the exact locations of exits and fire and smoke barriers.

Firefighters and a hose in front of a fire engine

Gas Explosion Leaves People Trapped Inside Pennsylvania Nursing Home

Explosion

Fire

General

Nursing Homes

Taxpayers in Pennsylvania continue to pay for transgender procedures on children despite actions from the Trump administration to protect them from the life-altering procedures, according to government data shared with The Daily Wire. 
Pennsylvania funding for the procedures has continued to surge, even with President Donald Trump’s executive actions to cut funding for entities that promote the procedures on kids. From January to September 18, 2025, Pennsylvania has shelled out nearly $3 million in funding for the procedures, according to data obtained by the Pennsylvania Family Institute. 
The spending numbers come from “Right to Know” requests filed with the Pennsylvania Department of Health and Human Services by Dan Bartkowiak, the chief strategy officer at the Pennsylvania Family Institute. He said that there should be a drop in funding due to the Trump administration’s actions. 
“So are other entities doing this?  Will we see the drop?” he said. “The assumption would be, it&#8217;s going to be less than last year&#8217;s total.” 
In 2015, Pennsylvania&#8217;s spending on “sex reassignment and transition-related services and drugs” for children and young adults surged from $74,000 per year to over $5 million in 2024. In total, the commonwealth has spent over $31 million on transgender procedures on 6,229 patients between the ages of 5 and 18 since 2015.
Despite increasing backlash from lawmakers and parents about the dangers of the procedures, the spending hasn’t appeared to slow down.
How young were the patients? According to the data, there were 133 children last year between the ages of 6 and 12 who received transgender procedures. 
<div id="attachment_1012881" style="width: 1090px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1012881" class="size-full wp-image-1012881" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Sex-Reassignment-Infographic-Square-120125-v2.jpg" alt="" width="1080" height="1080" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Sex-Reassignment-Infographic-Square-120125-v2.jpg 1080w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Sex-Reassignment-Infographic-Square-120125-v2-300x300.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Sex-Reassignment-Infographic-Square-120125-v2-576x576.jpg 576w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Sex-Reassignment-Infographic-Square-120125-v2-150x150.jpg 150w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Sex-Reassignment-Infographic-Square-120125-v2-768x768.jpg 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 1080px) 100vw, 1080px" />PA Family Institute.</div>
One of the hospitals that has performed transgender procedures on kids, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, is currently fighting the Trump administration’s efforts to gain data on the use of puberty blockers. They sued to block the Justice Department&#8217;s efforts to investigate the hospital. 
From January until September 18, $2,925,736 in Pennsylvania Medical Assistance has gone toward the procedures through the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), fee-for-service claims, physical health paid encounters, and behavioral health paid encounters, according to the data. 
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Bartkowiak flagged the increasing amount of CHIP funds going toward the procedures, rising from just over $15,000 in 2015 to over $1,114,367 in 2024. Already over $487,00 in CHIP funding has been spent on the procedures. CHIP is Pennsylvania’s program for uninsured kids and teenagers who aren’t eligible for Medicaid. 
The Pennsylvania Department of Health and Human Services told The Daily Wire that it is &#8220;required to follow all applicable federal and state Medicaid rules and covers services related to gender transition that otherwise fall within a beneficiary’s scope of covered Medicaid benefits, such as physician’s services, inpatient and outpatient hospital services, behavioral health services, and prescribed drugs when medically necessary.&#8221;
It added that relies on the guidance from the radical World Professional Association for Transgender Health &#8220;in determining medical necessity for gender-affirming health care services.&#8221;
Senator Judy Ward, a Pennsylvania Republican, is attempting to stop taxpayer funding of the procedures and protect kids from gender surgeries, cross-sex hormones, and puberty blockers. In June, she introduced the &#8220;<a href="https://www.palegis.us/legislation/bills/text/PDF/2025/0/SB0843/PN0921">Do No Harm Act</a>&#8221; to shield kids from the procedures. 
“It&#8217;s just a horrible, horrible thing, and we&#8217;re doing it to children,” Ward told The Daily Wire of the transgender procedures. “It is child abuse [in] every sense of the word.”
Ward did not believe that Democrat Governor Josh Shapiro would sign the legislation if it passed the Republican-controlled Senate and managed to get across the finish line in the Democrat-run House. Under Shapiro, $14 million has been spent on the procedures. Shapiro did not respond to a request for whether he would sign Ward’s legislation. 
She said that more awareness is needed to make Pennsylvanians aware of where their hard-earned money is going. 
As a registered nurse, Ward said that health professionals were supposed to help people, not push them into experimental treatments. 
“We are to help people to heal and to be the best person that they can be physically, mentally, spiritually, even, and in doing this sort of care is not helping people,” she said. “I think it&#8217;s taking advantage of someone who is confused.&#8221;

Biden Addresses Building Trades Union Conference After Endorsement

Swing State Still Spending Millions On Trans Procedures For Kids

Swing State Still Spending Millions On Trans Procedures For Kids, Data Shows

Transgender

President Donald Trump highlights the administration’s affordability efforts, a key Senate race gains a new wrinkle in Texas, and mainstream science erupts at a new government memo on vaccines.
It’s Wednesday, December 10, 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 <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/mrn-251210-member-exclusive">video version can be 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-touts-affordability-lone-star-senate-showdown/id1576594336?i=1000740617515" 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 Kicks Off Economy Tour</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-1012423" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Affordability-Center-Stage-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Affordability-Center-Stage-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Affordability-Center-Stage-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Affordability-Center-Stage-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Affordability-Center-Stage-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Affordability-Center-Stage.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Topline: President Trump is hitting the road to tout his economic progress as Americans remain pessimistic about affordability and the cost of living.
Since retaking office, many of the president’s most high-profile road trips have been abroad to meet with foreign leaders and lock down peace deals and trade agreements. But with midterms fast approaching and affordability remaining the top issue for voters, he’s launching a nationwide tour to tout his economic record and address voter concerns on affordability.
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For years now, Republicans have dominated on the topic, with poll after poll showing voters prefer their handling of the economy over Democrats. But goodwill from Trump’s first term has not carried over, as Republicans now trail Democrats on the economy.
Last month’s electoral results in New Jersey, Virginia, and New York were seemingly a wake-up call for the White House. It’s not just that Democrats won handily, but it’s the fact that they won by attacking President Trump’s economy and focusing on affordability. Now the president has held a series of meetings with his top advisers to devise a new messaging strategy to convince voters that he’s taking the right course ahead of the midterms.
Trump appeared in Pennsylvania for the first of what the White House says will be a string of events focused primarily on affordability.
Trump is in a tough political spot. On the one hand, he takes great pride in his economic prowess and his role as a sort of businessman-in-chief. But if he continues insisting that things are going great, he risks coming off as out of touch and angering folks.
A Fox News poll this month found that 76% of voters view the economy negatively, while POLITICO found that even 37% of Trump voters say the cost of living is the worst they’ve ever seen.
For his part, the president reportedly feels the issue is perception, and that Republicans must step up their efforts to highlight the progress they’re making.
“We gave you an extension of the biggest tax cuts and the biggest tax cuts ever, even bigger than the first term, and that&#8217;s one of the reasons that your 401(k)s are through the roof. It&#8217;s one of the reasons that the stock market is at the highest point,” said Trump Tuesday evening. “Rent prices are down, dairy prices are coming down very strongly. The cost of Thanksgiving turkeys was down by 33% compared to the Biden era. That&#8217;s a good start. We&#8217;re bringing it down and we&#8217;re coming down more. We&#8217;re coming down a lot more.”
President Trump also touted the progress made so far in lowering the cost of gas and eggs, which reached historic highs in recent years. 
“We&#8217;re down lower than we&#8217;ve been in seven years. And gasoline prices in oil prices, not just the three states that I talk about with 1.99 a gallon,” said Trump. “  What about eggs? … The price of eggs is down now 80% since March. Think of that.”
<h2 style="text-align: center;">Shootout For Texas Senate Seat</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-1012425" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Senate-Battle-Brews-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Senate-Battle-Brews-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Senate-Battle-Brews-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Senate-Battle-Brews-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Senate-Battle-Brews-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Senate-Battle-Brews.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Topline: A Texas Senate race is already heating up as candidates for both parties jockey for the chance to win the key seat, and some notable names are shaking things up.
A new Democrat challenger: Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) is jumping into the race. Crockett is a sound-bite factory, so prepare to see some major developments out of the U.S. Senate race in Texas.
Former Rep. Colin Allred (D-TX) dropped out of the race earlier on Monday while signaling that Crockett was going to get in. Meanwhile, state Rep. James Talarico is maintaining that he is going to stay in the contest on the Democratic side.
Texas is a red state, but with the 2026 election, Democrats are feeling a bit cocky about their shot at winning that seat and many others, if possible.
Crockett’s impact: The NRCC, or the Republican arm focused on House elections, is already touting that Crockett could potentially be the Democratic nominee. What that means for down-ballot races is that moderate Democrats will face a choice: whether to embrace Crockett and risk being painted as radicals by Republicans, or to push away from Crockett and risk pushback from Democrats.
Either way, Republicans will likely try to paint Crockett as the standard-bearer of the Democratic Party in Texas.
GOP’s packed primary: On the Republican side, it&#8217;s a complicated primary. Incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) is running, as well as state Attorney General Ken Paxton. Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-TX) is also in the race.
Cornyn is backed by the NRC, the official party arm that defends incumbent GOP senators. Paxton, Hunt, and Cornyn are all vying for Trump&#8217;s endorsement. But the president has not yet picked a favorite.
Hunt and Paxton have both portrayed themselves as the better option to stand with Trump and carry out the president’s agenda. But there is a highly volatile dynamic in the race, and polling shows the contest is incredibly close.
<h2 style="text-align: center;">FDA Revamps Vaccine Standards</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-1012427" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Shots-Under-Scrutiny-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Shots-Under-Scrutiny-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Shots-Under-Scrutiny-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Shots-Under-Scrutiny-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Shots-Under-Scrutiny-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/12/Shots-Under-Scrutiny.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Topline: The FDA is implementing tougher standards for vaccines, a move riling up the medical establishment.
Reports circulated this week about an internal memo from Dr. Vinay Prasad, director of the FDA’s vaccine division, proposing an overhaul of how vaccines are evaluated and approved, initiating tougher standards. The new process would include full randomized clinical trials even for updated or routine vaccines, such as the flu shot.
The trials would allow evaluation of real-world protection, not just antibody levels, as well as side-effect rates and additional information for risk-benefit analysis. Currently, officials rely primarily on immune-response data, such as antibody levels from small groups of people.
Notably, this memo cited at least 10 children who died “after and because of” receiving COVID vaccines. That is apparently driving this new direction for tougher vaccine approvals. 
How it&#8217;s playing: Twelve former FDA officials denounced the memo in an editorial, claiming that it casts doubt on vaccine safety. They claim these new standards reject “long-standing science” and say it will slow innovation. Former FDA head Dr. Scott Gottlieb appeared on CBS News and <a href="https://x.com/EricLDaugh/status/1997844527353409711">said</a> Prasad’s new procedures could hamper vaccine effectiveness.
Trump admin response: The Department of Health and Human Services stands by Dr. Prasad and these new standards. An HHS spokesperson took a swipe at the “resistance” editorial, saying, “The fact these criticisms are coming from former FDA officials who opposed raising the bar for vaccine science confirms we are on the right track.”
HHS press secretary Emily Hilliard told Morning Wire that the American people “deserve evidence-based science,” and said Dr. Prasad’s email “lays out a philosophical framework that points us toward that higher standard.”
Hilliard also said HHS will “soon release documents laying out that framework,” as well as data confirming how the COVID vaccine resulted in children’s deaths that previous leadership failed to investigate properly.

MRN_251210_V2

Morning Brief: Trump Touts Affordability, Lone Star Senate Showdown, & Vax Standards Revised

Morning Brief: Trump’s Economy Tour, TX Senate Race, And FDA Revamps Vax Standards

Economy

Jasmine Crockett

John Cornyn

Ken Paxton

Morning Wire

Texas

Vaccines

President Donald Trump will tout his economic agenda during a speech in Pennsylvania on Tuesday evening as Americans continue to express concerns about the cost of living.
Trump is <a href="https://www.timesleader.com/news/1726288/sources-trump-to-speak-at-mount-airy-casino-resort-on-tuesday-dec-9">expected</a> to speak at 6:00 p.m. ET at Mount Airy Casino Resort in Mount Pocono, where he will discuss the Republican Party&#8217;s plans to ease the strain on Americans&#8217; bank accounts. The president&#8217;s rally-style event will be the first stop on a &#8220;travel blitz&#8221; to tout the administration&#8217;s economic actions ahead of the vital 2026 midterm elections, Axios <a href="https://www.axios.com/2025/12/04/trump-comeback-travel-economy-2026">reported</a>.
The economy has come back to the forefront of the political debate ahead of the midterms as voters <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/economy-remains-top-concern-for-voters-in-2025-election-ap-voter-poll-finds">expressed</a> their concerns about the cost of living during the elections that took place across the country last month. Leftist Democrats had success focusing on economic issues in blue states, such as New York, New Jersey, and Virginia, during their 2025 campaigns. In New York City, voters overwhelmingly elected democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani as mayor after Mamdani focused much of his campaign on helping struggling New Yorkers afford housing, groceries, and transportation. Democrats also won gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia, running on similar messaging.
Last week, Trump said that Democrats are throwing around the word &#8220;affordability&#8221; but that &#8220;it doesn&#8217;t mean anything.&#8221; He argued that the so-called affordability crisis is a &#8220;fake narrative&#8221; pushed by Democrats to score political points.
Yet, in the weeks following Democratic election victories, Trump has ramped up his messaging on his economic agenda and taken action to help relieve economic strain for some Americans. The president gave himself an &#8220;A+++++&#8221; on the economy during an <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2025/12/09/donald-trump-full-interview-transcript-00681693?experience_id=EXYF89KVT5UQ&amp;template_id=OTJIR2CRKUD6&amp;variant_id=OTV632IE7RALS&amp;is_login_link=true">interview</a> with POLITICO that was released on Tuesday.
On November 14, Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-rolls-back-tariffs-on-dozens-of-food-imports-heres-what-will-be-affected">issued</a> an executive order rolling back tariffs on certain imported foods, such as beef, coffee, and bananas. On Monday, Trump also <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-to-provide-billions-in-relief-to-farmers-impacted-by-tariffs?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Zach+Jewell&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=1&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=Trump+To+Provide+Billions+In+Relief+To+Farmers+Impacted+By+Tariffs">provided</a> $12 billion of relief to American farmers who have been affected by his massive tariffs on countries around the world.
While the president has rolled back some of his tariffs, he insists that his unprecedented trade actions will energize the American economy and eventually pay off for American consumers.
&#8220;We’ve got $18 trillion coming into our country,&#8221; Trump said, crediting his tariffs. &#8220;Biden had less than a trillion for four years, and he was heading south. Our country was falling apart.&#8221;
The president <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2025/12/09/donald-trump-full-interview-transcript-00681693?experience_id=EXYF89KVT5UQ&amp;template_id=OTJIR2CRKUD6&amp;variant_id=OTV632IE7RALS&amp;is_login_link=true">told</a> POLITICO that he &#8220;inherited a total mess&#8221; after taking the reins from former President Joe Biden.
“Prices were at an all-time high when I came in. Prices are coming down substantially,&#8221; Trump <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2025/12/09/donald-trump-full-interview-transcript-00681693?experience_id=EXYF89KVT5UQ&amp;template_id=OTJIR2CRKUD6&amp;variant_id=OTV632IE7RALS&amp;is_login_link=true">said</a>. &#8220;Look at energy &#8230; energy has come down incredibly. When energy comes down, everything [comes down] &#8230; it’s so much bigger than any other subject.&#8221;
The White House has also focused on falling gas prices around the country, arguing that Trump&#8217;s &#8220;pursuit of American energy dominance&#8221; is helping ease Americans&#8217; pain at the pump. Average gas prices recently dropped to under $3 per gallon in 37 states, with the median gas price in the United States falling to $2.79, according to <a href="https://x.com/GasBuddyGuy/status/1998040188950614213?s=20">GasBuddy</a>.
The Trump administration also <a href="https://x.com/SecretaryTurner/status/1996294100220350935">said</a> last week that the president&#8217;s massive deportation operation has coincided with housing costs dropping for four straight months. CNBC <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/02/apartment-rents-vacancies-november.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that increased housing supply in the multifamily housing market, combined with slowing demand, &#8220;is pushing vacancies up and rents down.&#8221;
&#8220;Prices are coming down. You talk about affordability, the Democrats love to say affordability, but then they never talk about it,&#8221; Trump told POLITICO. &#8220;They’re the ones that gave us the high prices. I’m the one that’s bringing them down.&#8221;

Trump To Focus On Economy During Pennsylvania Rally As Cost-Of-Living Worries Persist

2026 Midterms

Democrats

Executive

Pennsylvania Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro headed to a West Philadelphia hair salon to sign a bill that would prohibit “hair discrimination” in the state.
The CROWN Act, which stands for &#8220;Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair,&#8221; explicitly calls for protections for &#8220;natural&#8221; hairstyles, including locs, braids, twists, afros, and more. The legislation passed the state Senate with a 44-3 vote.
&#8220;Real freedom means being respected for who you are — no matter what you look like, where you come from, who you love, or who you pray to,” Shapiro <a href="https://www.pa.gov/governor/newsroom/2025-press-releases/governor-shapiro-signs-crown-act-into-law">said</a>. &#8220;For too long, many Pennsylvanians have faced discrimination simply for hairstyles that reflect their identity and culture — that ends today.&#8221;
House Speaker Joanna McClinton and U.S. Democratic Rep. La’Tasha D. Mayes have been working to get the CROWN Act implemented since 2019. 
Both women said the motivations were personal. 
&#8220;I never wore braids from law school to being a public defender for seven years in this city, because I always had a perception that it would not be respected,&#8221; McClinton said. &#8220;They will not look at your hair and say you cannot work here. They will not look at your hair and say you do not belong.&#8221; 
&#8220;Hair discrimination has taken confidence from our children, but that ends today,&#8221; Mayes added. &#8220;Hair discrimination has taken dignity from workers, but that ends today. It has taken access to economic opportunities, hopes and dreams, but that begins to end today.&#8221;
The CROWN Act was introduced in the House of Representatives in 2021 and was approved in 2023. It was reintroduced in both the House and Senate last year, but has not passed.
Twenty-eight other states have similar legislation on the books.
Black hair has been a hot topic of conversation lately, especially during former first lady Michelle Obama’s book tour. 
Obama said that black women are “trapped” by societal pressure regarding their looks and feel compelled to keep their hair straight, meaning they can’t participate in everyday activities.
“Let me explain something to white people. Our hair comes out of our head naturally in a curly pattern,” the 61-year-old said earlier this month. “When we straighten it to follow your beauty standards, we are trapped by the straightness.”
“That’s why so many of us can’t swim, and we run away from the water. People won’t go to the gym because we’re trying to keep our hair straight for y’all! It’s exhausting, expensive and takes up so much time.”
Obama concluded by effusively telling society to “get out of&#8221; her hair.
“So why do we need an act … an act of law to get white folks out of our hair? Don’t tell me how to wear my hair. Don’t wonder about it. Don’t touch it. Just don’t. It just is.”
RELATED: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/california-becomes-first-state-ban-racial-hair-jeffrey-cawood">California Becomes The First State To Ban Racial &#8216;Hair Discrimination&#8217; Against Braids, Cornrows, And Dreadlocks</a>

Pennsylvania Democratic Governor Signs Bill Banning ‘Hair Discrimination’

Pennsylvania Governor Signs Bill Prohibiting 'Hair Discrimination'

Beauty

Discrimination

Racial Discrimination

Social Issues

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy <a href="https://www.transportation.gov/briefing-room/trumps-transportation-secretary-sean-p-duffy-warns-pennsylvania-75-million-line-if">announced</a> that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has determined that Pennsylvania violated federal safety regulations by illegally issuing non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs), including to individuals who were not legally eligible to receive them.
FMCSA found that PennDOT failed to verify lawful presence and, in some cases, issued licenses that extended beyond the individual’s authorized stay in the United States. As a result, the Transportation Department is threatening to withhold nearly $75 million in federal funding unless Pennsylvania revokes all improperly issued CDLs and corrects the systemic failures that allowed the violations.
The findings emerged amid a nationwide audit of non-domiciled CDLs initiated in June, shortly after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/11/17/ice-arrests-uzbekistan-criminal-illegal-alien-and-wanted-terrorist-driving-18">arrested</a> a suspected terrorist who had illegally entered the United States and received a Pennsylvania CDL earlier in the summer. Secretary Duffy cited this case as evidence of the national-security implications of lax CDL standards and criticized prior immigration policies for enabling such risks. He stated that the Department, under President Donald Trump, is committed to preventing unqualified foreign drivers from operating heavy commercial vehicles on American roads.
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USDOT has ordered Pennsylvania to take several immediate steps: pause all issuance or renewal of non-domiciled CDLs and commercial learner’s permits (CLPs); conduct a thorough audit to identify all noncompliant licenses and the procedural failures behind them; and revoke any unexpired, improperly issued licenses to ensure unqualified drivers are removed from service.
This enforcement action follows a broader series of transportation safety initiatives under the Trump administration. Earlier in the year, President Trump issued an <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/enforcing-commonsense-rules-of-the-road-for-americas-truck-drivers/">executive order</a> directing the Department of Transportation to strengthen roadway safety, with a particular emphasis on enforcing long-standing English-language proficiency requirements for commercial drivers. The order argues that English proficiency is essential for reading traffic signs, communicating with law enforcement and inspection officials, and performing basic safety and reporting functions. It instructs the FMCSA to rescind its 2016 guidance and implement updated inspection procedures, ensuring that non-English-proficient drivers are placed out of service.
The executive order also directs FMCSA to review irregularities in states’ issuance of non-domiciled CDLs and improve verification of domestic and international driving credentials.
In recent months, Secretary Duffy has introduced several related actions, including emergency restrictions on eligibility for non-domiciled CDLs, a nationwide audit exposing widespread non-compliance, a pro-trucker initiative to reduce regulatory burdens, and new guidelines mandating out-of-service orders for drivers who fail English-language requirements. These steps align with President Trump’s March order designating English as the official language of the United States.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy Marks Newark Airport Runway Reopening

Duffy Says Dem State Is Breaking Law By Giving Driver’s Licenses To Illegals

Duffy Says Pennsylvania Broke The Law By Issuing Driver’s Licenses To Ineligible Applicants

Department of Transportation

Drivers Licenses

Immigration

Sean Duffy

Left-wing activists in Pennsylvania have threatened to launch a primary campaign against Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) — but he&#8217;s just laughing it off, saying that they&#8217;ll make him look more like the reasonable person he&#8217;s always claimed to be.
Fetterman reacted to the news on Friday&#8217;s Fox News broadcast of &#8220;The Story&#8221; with host Martha MacCallum, saying he did not expect the group  — Working Families for Pennsylvania — to get much traction against him.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
🚨NEW: John Fetterman *TAUNTS* left-wing party over primary threat🤣
&#8220;Ooh, ooh, oh, I hope, promise. I hope so — because I guarantee whoever they put up, they&#8217;re going to make me look the reasonable guy that&#8217;s going to work with both sides together and find a way for… <a href="https://t.co/McL2okE1RW">https://t.co/McL2okE1RW</a> <a href="https://t.co/jnufWD4QQ7">pic.twitter.com/jnufWD4QQ7</a>
— Jason Cohen 🇺🇸 (@JasonJournoDC) <a href="https://twitter.com/JasonJournoDC/status/1991971728906502295?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 21, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The left-wing group had released a statement a few days earlier, promising action: &#8220;We&#8217;re primarying John Fetterman. Last week, Fetterman once again sold out working Pennsylvanians. He was the deciding vote for a Republican budget bill that will strip healthcare from over 400,000 Pennsylvanians. We deserve real working class leadership in the U.S. Senate.&#8221;
Fetterman struggled to contain his mirth.
&#8220;Ooh, ooh, oh, I hope, promise. I hope so — because I guarantee whoever they put up, they&#8217;re going to make me look the reasonable guy that&#8217;s going to work with both sides together and find a way for Pennsylvania,&#8221; he said, laughing at the idea.
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Fetterman went on to defend his vote to end the recent government shutdown — the longest in American history — saying that he would not apologize for voting to restore SNAP benefits (food stamps) to the more than 40 million families who relied on them, nor would he apologize for voting to restore pay for the United States military and the Capitol Police.
&#8220;If they want to primary me &#8230; I&#8217;ve been on the side of common sense and I&#8217;m always going to put our country over party, and I think most people now realize that shutting our government down was wrong,&#8221; he concluded.

John Fetterman

Left-Wing Activists Threaten To Primary John Fetterman. He Just Laughs.

Congress

The Trump administration is taking on yet another blue state for issuing commercial driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has threatened to withhold $75 million in federal funding from Pennsylvania if the state refuses to stop handing out trucking licenses to illegal immigrant drivers, The Daily Wire has learned. It comes after an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/illegal-immigrant-on-terror-watchlist-received-pennsylvania-trucking-license?author=Jennie+Taer&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=7&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Illegal+Immigrant+On+Terror+Watchlist+Received+Pennsylvania+Trucking+License">Uzbek illegal immigrant</a> who had an international warrant for terrorist activity was pulled over in Kansas and discovered to have a Pennsylvania commercial driver’s license.
Duffy highlighted his concerns in a letter sent to Democratic Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro on Wednesday, claiming that Pennsylvania issued “non-domiciled CDLs [commercial driver’s licenses] with an expiration date that extended well beyond the driver’s authorized stay in the United States and failed “to require any proof of lawful presence before issuing a CDL [commercial driver’s license].”
“Under President Trump, this Department is taking every measure to ensure dangerous foreign drivers aren’t illegally operating 40-ton vehicles on American roads,” Duffy said in a statement shared with The Daily Wire on Thursday.
He continued: “Joe Biden allowed tens of millions of illegals to pour into our country through open borders, including a suspected terrorist who Pennsylvania then allowed to get behind the wheel of a semitruck. I will continue to fight to get these dangerous drivers off our roads to protect American families and support our national security.”
Shapiro&#8217;s office, however, defends that they&#8217;ve complied with federal audit requirements, which they said found no cases of concern.
&#8220;Following the release of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Association&#8217;s (FMCSA) Interim Final Rule on September 29, 2025, PennDOT immediately paused issuing all non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs). PennDOT [Pennsylvania Department of Transportation] fully cooperated with FMCSA&#8217;s regularly-scheduled audit – and out of 150 cases the federal government audited, FMSCA did not identify a single commercial driver&#8217;s license issued to someone who was not eligible,&#8221; Shapiro&#8217;s office told The Daily Wire.
They also claimed that they have several layers of checks to ensure commercial driver&#8217;s licenses don&#8217;t end up in the hands of illegal immigrants.
&#8220;All non-citizens who apply for driver’s licenses, including CDLs [commercial driver&#8217;s licenses], must provide PennDOT with proof of identity and must have their legal presence in this country verified through the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) database – a database maintained by the United States Department of Homeland Security. PennDOT follows the established federal process for confirming that the applicant was lawfully present using the SAVE database in every case,&#8221; the governor&#8217;s office said.
&#8220;PennDOT&#8217;s top priority is safety on our roadways and ensuring only those legally eligible are able to secure a license. The Department is reviewing FMCSA&#8217;s letter and will respond within the required timeline,&#8221; they added.
In response to a series of fatal crashes, the Trump administration has taken steps to stop the issuance of commercial licenses to illegal immigrants, while also auditing states that have already handed them out.
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Much of the blame has been placed on California, which issued 17,000 non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses to foreign drivers, the agency said earlier this month. Non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses allow truckers certified in one state to work for companies in other states.
The Department of Transportation has already withheld $40 million from California after a federal investigation found that state authorities weren’t enforcing the English-language requirement for truck drivers.
Florida is also suing California after illegal immigrant <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/illegal-given-commercial-drivers-license-by-californias-newsom-charged-in-fatal-semi-truck-crash" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Harjinder Singh</a>, who was issued a commercial driver’s license in the Golden State, allegedly killed three people while making an illegal U-turn in August in the Sunshine State.

Untitled (1200 x 675 px) (1)

Trump Admin Threatens To Withhold $75M From Blue State That Gave Commercial Driver’s Licenses To Illegals

Trump Admin Threatens To Withhold $75M From Pennslyvania For Handing Commercial Driver's License To 

Illegal Immigration

Truckers

If you didn&#8217;t see Tucker Carlson&#8217;s recent segment on Thomas Crooks, the 20-year-old man who nearly assassinated Donald Trump live on national television during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania last year, there are a few important revelations you should know about.
The first revelation — which isn&#8217;t remotely controversial — is that the FBI has clearly been hiding relevant information about Thomas Crooks from the general public. And by itself, that&#8217;s a national scandal that justifies completely gutting the FBI, from the highest levels on down. Even if you firmly believe that Thomas Crooks was a lone gunman, and even if you believe that the Secret Service was merely incompetent (as opposed to complicit) — the fact remains, our government has been withholding important details about the assassination attempt on Donald Trump&#8217;s life, without any justification whatsoever.
We should not have to rely on Tucker Carlson, or any podcaster, to tell us that Thomas Crooks left a lengthy trail of comments on YouTube, in which he openly called for political violence for several years.
These calls were so overt, and so disturbing, that one user wrote in response to Crooks:
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-1003085 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Crooks-1-1024x158.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="158" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Crooks-1-1024x158.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Crooks-1-300x46.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Crooks-1-768x119.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Crooks-1.jpg 1520w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></div>
<blockquote>You&#8217;re on YouTube threatening to shoot government officials. I sure hope the FBI is monitoring social media for violent nutcases.</blockquote>
It&#8217;s almost too on-the-nose to be real. But that comment is still available on YouTube, to this day. Thomas Crooks&#8217; account has been suspended, and all of his comments have been hidden. They&#8217;re only accessible using the Internet archive website. But the replies are still there. And yet, more than a year after the assassination attempt in Butler, we have to rely on Tucker Carlson to tell us about any of this. That is completely, overwhelmingly, unequivocally unacceptable. It shouldn’t fall to anyone in the media to tell us what Thomas Crooks was saying online — and how people were reacting to his comments.
We also shouldn&#8217;t have to rely on podcasters to tell us that Thomas Crooks decided, sometime during the COVID lockdowns, to completely reverse his political views, and to begin openly attacking Donald Trump and his administration on social media. And we certainly shouldn&#8217;t have to rely on podcasters to tell us that Crooks was in contact with a mysterious person — who remains unidentified, beyond the online alias &#8220;Willy Tepes&#8221; — who openly encouraged Crooks to commit acts of violence.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-1003091 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Crooks-2-1024x204.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="204" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Crooks-2-1024x204.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Crooks-2-300x60.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Crooks-2-768x153.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Crooks-2-1536x305.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/11/Crooks-2.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></div>
At one point, Willy Tepes wrote to Crooks, 
<blockquote>&#8230;authority obviously comes from the barrel of a gun. We have more guns than they do. There is no way we can avoid a war at this point, so you better just get used to the idea.</blockquote>
In common parlance, this is known as &#8220;fed posting.&#8221; Willy Tepes is almost being too obvious about it. He understands that Thomas Crooks is a radical who&#8217;s prone to violence. He sees that Crooks is posting about acts of violence against political officials — and that Crooks wrote, at one point, that even the White House could be overwhelmed if enough Americans took up arms. Willy Tepes is aware of all this. And instead of expressing concern, he encourages Crooks to go to war.
Is it possible that this is just some random internet troll? Of course it is. It&#8217;s also possible that &#8220;Willy Tepes&#8221; was working with a government agency or a terror cell — either in this country or some other country — to groom potential assassins. In fact, given how weird &#8220;Willy&#8217;s&#8221; comments were — and to be clear, he replied to Crooks multiple times — it seems very likely that he was trying to groom Thomas Crooks. So what has the FBI done to investigate Willy Tepes? What have they done to figure out his identity? Why is Tucker’s show the first time — literally, the first time — that anyone in this country has heard the name &#8220;Willy Tepes&#8221;?
That is inexcusable, for about a million different reasons. It&#8217;s not the FBI&#8217;s job to determine what information is worth sharing to the public, or what information they deem is &#8220;important.&#8221; When it comes to the near-assassination of the leading presidential candidate, no detail is irrelevant. If Thomas Crooks went bowling every week, we should know that. If Thomas Crooks loved the film &#8220;Good Will Hunting,&#8221; we should know that. And certainly, if he was in regular communication with an anonymous person who sounded a lot like a fed, we should know that, too. At the very least we should know something about this guy. But if the feds had their way, we would know nothing at all. And that’s what we knew — nothing — until this week.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1694-tucker-carlson-reveals-shocking-details-about-thomas-crooks?"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-976065 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Matt-watch-now-1-1024x171.jpg" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Matt-watch-now-1-1024x171.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Matt-watch-now-1-300x50.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Matt-watch-now-1-768x128.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Matt-watch-now-1-1536x256.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Matt-watch-now-1.jpg 1800w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
And on top of that, beyond the transparency issues, it would obviously help the government&#8217;s investigation to raise awareness about these posts. Maybe someone, somewhere, knows who &#8220;Willy Tepes&#8221; is. And as long as Willy Tepes isn&#8217;t the alias for a CIA agent or something like that, then you&#8217;d think your government would want someone to come forward and identify him immediately. But that&#8217;s not possible if they bury his identity, and all information about him.
And then there&#8217;s the fact that Crooks&#8217;s PayPal account, for one reason or another, uses the name of an ex-FBI agent who worked in Pennsylvania, and who investigated the Las Vegas mass shooting — the one where no motive has ever been established. What exactly is going on there? We have no idea, because again, this is the first time anyone&#8217;s hearing about any of this. Our government — under both the Biden administration and the Trump administration — made the conscious decision to hide all of this information from us. The only reason we&#8217;re hearing about it now is that a random source got in contact with Tucker Carlson&#8217;s team, and tipped him off to Crooks&#8217; online history. And because this information remains uncontested by the FBI, several days after Tucker Carlson&#8217;s broadcast, we can assume it&#8217;s all true.
So let&#8217;s pause for a minute here, and zoom out. Let&#8217;s really think about what&#8217;s happened here. This is the official narrative. Last summer, Thomas Crooks — supposedly an untrained 20-year-old with an angry, inconsistent social media history — managed to outwit the Secret Service and gain access to a roof 500 feet away from Donald Trump. 
And he wasn&#8217;t particularly subtle about it. As you can see here, he was clearly visible, running along the rooftop as Trump spoke.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
CRAZY. This video is from James Copenhaver &#8211; one of the bystanders who was shot twice and critically wounded during the assassination attempt against Trump. It CLEARLY shows Crooks&#8217; head scurrying on the rooftop moments before the shooting.
Takeaway: Secret Service BLEW IT and… <a href="https://t.co/1rP6083ZFH">pic.twitter.com/1rP6083ZFH</a>
— Justin Hart (@justin_hart) <a href="https://twitter.com/justin_hart/status/1818701467190165566?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 31, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Credit: @justin_hart/X.com
But the Secret Service didn&#8217;t notice him — even though random attendees in the crowd were suspicious, and notified law enforcement. Somehow the Secret Service didn&#8217;t have anyone on the roof — because it was too &#8220;sloped&#8221; — and somehow the Secret Service counter-snipers couldn&#8217;t see any of this. They only shot Thomas Crooks after he unloaded several shots at Donald Trump, including a shot that hit Trump in the head. And coincidentally enough, the rally in Butler was the first time that the Secret Service had deployed counter-snipers to a Trump rally during the 2024 campaign season. Yes, the Secret Service snipers made their debut at the Butler rally — just in time to neutralize Thomas Crooks after he got his shots off. 
So in a very tidy fashion, Thomas Crooks was quickly erased from the picture. No one could question him. No one could put him on trial. And then a funny thing happened. No one really investigated Thomas Crooks. No one told us anything about his social media posts, or his political views — beyond the claim that he was a Trump supporter, which was false. It took more than a year for us to learn that, in fact, Thomas Crooks was openly promising to commit violence on social media — and that someone was encouraging him to do so.
But the story gets even stranger from there. 
Less than 48 hours after Tucker&#8217;s reporting, out of nowhere, the New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/11/17/us-news/thomas-crooks-used-they-them-pronouns-had-obsession-with-violence-and-muscle-mommies-sources/">published</a> this exclusive information.
<blockquote>Thomas Crooks used they/them pronouns and posted threats of political violence and violent art on his secret social media accounts before he attempted to assassinate President Trump, according to sources who shared the suspected messages with The Post. &#8230; .Crooks had two possible accounts on DeviantArt, a site that hosts fan art and has become notorious for its community of furries — people who identify as anthropomorphized animal characters and/or are sexually attracted to them. One of the DeviantArt accounts linked to Crooks shared just one post, a repost of a towering, muscular female bodybuilder and a slight man in his underwear.</blockquote>
Separately, the Post&#8217;s Miranda Devine reported that Crooks, &#8220;had an obsession with scantily clad cartoon characters sporting muscle-bound male bodies and female heads.&#8221;
This seems to be a clear case of yet another psychologically disturbed mass shooter — someone who had been indoctrinated into the LGBT cult — turning to violence. Which is not a particularly surprising development. As I&#8217;ve said repeatedly, the LGBT cult is the single greatest domestic terror threat this country faces. In just the past few years, trans-identifying terrorists have shot up multiple Christian churches and schools. &#8220;Non-binary&#8221; mass shooters have targeted high schools and bars. A Leftist living with a &#8220;furry&#8221; assassinated Charlie Kirk in front of thousands of people.
Put simply, trans extremism is an epidemic. And the pattern of trans and “non-binary” violence is not at all surprising, even though the media tries to cover it up. Any man who identifies as a woman or a “they/them” is mentally unstable by definition. It seems nearly certain that all of these people were on psychiatric meds and in some cases hormones. And there&#8217;s another common theme here as well, which is that all of these violent LGBT shooters all probably developed their “gender identity” from consuming hundreds of hours of porn. The gender stuff is the product of extreme nihilism and extreme perversion. A steady long term diet of pornography turns anyone into a nihilist pervert. It’s not a far leap to get from that to murderer.
That&#8217;s why it’s not exactly shocking to hear that Thomas Crooks was also a member of the &#8220;they/them&#8221; cult, who regularly consumed various degenerate forms of media. At this point, you almost expect the investigation to uncover something like this. Thomas Crooks is yet another violent LGBT-linked killer, to add to a very disturbing, and fast growing, list.
There were some concerns expressed by some commentators that perhaps this revelation was an intentional diversion. A targeted leak, intended to distract us from the investigation that Tucker Carlson just published. That does seem like something the FBI might try to do, but that’s not what happened in this case. Miranda Devine has made it clear that her source is the same as Tucker’s — the information didn&#8217;t come from the FBI. Devine also provided more information on the Willy Tepes character, who was first identified by Tucker Carlson. 
Here&#8217;s what Devine <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/11/17/opinion/fbi-secret-service-butchered-the-thomas-crooks-case-and-invited-conspiracies-we-deserve-the-truth/">wrote</a>.
<blockquote>One of the people Crooks interacted with online was &#8216;Willy Tepes,&#8217; a member of Norwegian neo-Nazi group the Nordic Resistance Movement, which has since been designated a terrorist organization by the State Department. In one comment on Oct. 5, 2025, more than a year after Butler, Tepes commented to another user that he had been contacted by both Russian and American intelligence. &#8216;People who ask you to contact them when they just as easily could contact you, are Feds. This is how they avoid entrapment. Both American and Russian intelligence does this. I have chatted to both.&#8217; Tepes said.</blockquote>
There are only two possibilities here. The first possibility is that we&#8217;re seeing a monumental, unforgivable failure by the FBI — a degree of incompetence that&#8217;s simply staggering. Maybe they missed all of these chats. Or maybe they didn&#8217;t think they were relevant, and just never got around to releasing them. So they&#8217;re left to respond with pathetic &#8220;rapid response&#8221; press releases when Tucker Carlson and Miranda Devine publish investigative reports a year later. That&#8217;s the best-case scenario. That is the absolute, best-case scenario we&#8217;re dealing with.
The worst-case scenario is almost too dark to say out loud. But I&#8217;ll try my best. The worst-case scenario is that the FBI has been hiding all of this information about Thomas Crooks for the same reason that the Secret Service — supposedly the most elite protective force in the entire world — failed to secure that slightly-sloped roof 400 feet away from Donald Trump, with a direct line-of-sight to his head. The worst-case scenario is that the leadership of our intelligence agencies want Donald Trump dead. And if that&#8217;s the case, then there&#8217;s no reason to think they&#8217;re going to stop trying to kill him.
It&#8217;s not my job, or your job, to decide between these scenarios. It&#8217;s the job of our government, out of an abundance of transparency, to absolve itself completely of any responsibility in the attempt to murder Donald Trump. They should be telling us everything they know, even if they don&#8217;t think the information is relevant. But our government has not done so. And for that reason, it&#8217;s not insane or paranoid to assume the worst, or at least to consider it a very real possibility. For one reason or another, we aren’t being told the whole story, or even an incomplete story. And it’s way past time for us to ask one question: why?

Secret Service Says Trump Is ‘Safe’ After ‘Incident’ At Rally

Tucker Carlson Reveals Shocking Details About Thomas Crooks

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Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) said on Saturday evening that he&#8217;s made a &#8220;full recovery&#8221; after taking a nasty fall at his home in Braddock, Pennsylvania, this past week.
&#8220;[Twenty] stitches later and a full recovery, I’m back home with [Gisele Fetterman] and the kids,&#8221; the Democrat posted to X, captioning a photo of himself. &#8220;I’m overwhelmed + profoundly grateful for all the well-wishes. Truly.&#8221; 
&#8220;Grateful for the [University of Pittsburgh Medical Center] for the incredible medical care that put me back together,&#8221; he added. &#8220;THANK YOU SO MUCH. See you back in DC.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
20 stitches later and a full recovery, I’m back home with <a href="https://twitter.com/giselefetterman?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@giselefetterman</a> and the kids.
I’m overwhelmed + profoundly grateful for all the well-wishes.
Truly.
Grateful for <a href="https://twitter.com/UPMC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@UPMC</a> for the incredible medical care that put me back together.
THANK YOU SO MUCH.
See you back in DC. <a href="https://t.co/j81LXZGLBx">pic.twitter.com/j81LXZGLBx</a>
— U.S. Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenFettermanPA/status/1989784336170684880?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 15, 2025</a></blockquote>
Fetterman’s team announced Thursday that the senator suffered a “ventricular fibrillation flare-up&#8221; and subsequently fell as he was light-headed, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/conservatives-rally-around-fetterman-after-fall-lefties-cant-get-the-knives-out-fast-enough?author=Virginia+Kruta&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Conservatives+Rally+Around+Fetterman+After+Fall%2C+Lefties+Can’t+Get+The+Knives+Out+Fast+Enough">The Daily Wire</a> reported. He sustained minor injuries to his face, as Fetterman&#8217;s attached photo on Saturday showcased.
At the time, Fetterman quipped, “If you thought my face looked bad before, wait until you see it now!”
Conservatives rallied around Fetterman when they heard of his fall, but the tone from leftists on X-alternative Bluesky was far different. As highlighted by <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/conservatives-rally-around-fetterman-after-fall-lefties-cant-get-the-knives-out-fast-enough?author=Virginia+Kruta&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Conservatives+Rally+Around+Fetterman+After+Fall%2C+Lefties+Can%E2%80%99t+Get+The+Knives+Out+Fast+Enough">The Daily Wire</a>, leftists mocked Fetterman for falling and complained that he lived.
Just before his fall, Fetterman said on CNN airwaves that the most vicious attacks aimed at him have not come from conservatives, but rather those on the Left. The Democrat has strayed from his party on numerous occasions, like supporting the reopening of the government and giving nuanced takes on the Israel and Gaza conflict.
“I asked my digital team, I said, ‘We’re on all the platforms, you know, what’s kind of the harshest? What’s kind of the most personal?” Fetterman recalled. “And the answer was immediate. They said, ‘Oh, Bluesky. It’s Bluesky.'&#8221;
“And the difference is the Right would say really rough things and names, some names I won’t repeat on TV,” he continued. “But on the Left, it was like, they want me to die, or that, ‘We’re cheering for your next stroke’ or, that’s terrible that depression — ‘Why couldn’t the depression won?’ And, ‘I hope your kids find you.’&#8221;
“I remember one that they claimed, ‘Oh, the doctor let us down,’ and ‘Why did they have to save his life?&#8217;” Fetterman added. “I mean, just really — I just can’t imagine people are wishing, ‘I wish he dies,’ or ‘I want him to die,’ you know, literally cheering for a stroke. And I don’t know &#8230; the kind of a place where that comes from.”
“That’s much different from calling me a name,” he explained. “And that’s really been consistent in that community online.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
🚨NEW: John Fetterman *STUNS* CNN&#8217;s Dana Bash by telling her how Left crueler than Right🚨
FETTERMAN: &#8220;The Right would say really rough things and names &#8230; but on the Left, it was like they want me to die or that &#8216;We&#8217;re cheering for your next stroke&#8217; &#8230; they even have a gif… <a href="https://t.co/iMRyVTssgs">pic.twitter.com/iMRyVTssgs</a>
— Jason Cohen 🇺🇸 (@JasonJournoDC) <a href="https://twitter.com/JasonJournoDC/status/1988670736924336374?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 12, 2025</a></blockquote>
Virginia Kruta contributed to this report 
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/conservatives-rally-around-fetterman-after-fall-lefties-cant-get-the-knives-out-fast-enough?author=Virginia+Kruta&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Conservatives+Rally+Around+Fetterman+After+Fall%2C+Lefties+Can’t+Get+The+Knives+Out+Fast+Enough">Conservatives Rally Around Fetterman After Fall, Lefties Can’t Get The Knives Out Fast Enough</a>

John Fetterman Shares Photo, Medical Update After Fall Lands Him In Hospital

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