California Republicans filed a federal lawsuit on Wednesday, arguing that the Democrat-drawn congressional map <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/californias-redistricting-ballot-measure-overwhelmingly-passes">approved by voters</a> Tuesday night unconstitutionally favors Hispanics.
The Dhillon Law Group filed the <a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/71875910/1/tangipa-v-newsom/">lawsuit</a> on behalf of the California Republican Party, state Rep. David Tangipa, and 18 California voters. The lawsuit argues that Proposition 50 violates the Equal Protection Clause. Harmeet Dhillon led the Dhillon Law Group before President Donald Trump tapped her to lead the Justice Department&#8217;s Civil Rights division earlier this year.
&#8220;This violates the 14th Amendment&#8217;s guarantee of equal protection under the law, and the right under the 15th Amendment to not have one&#8217;s vote abridged on account of race,&#8221; Dhillon Law Group partner Mike Columbo said at a <a href="https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1OwGWenWVoZxQ">press conference</a>. &#8220;When drawing the Proposition 50 map, the chief consultant who drew the map has stated that the first thing that he did was to increase the power of Latino voters.&#8221;
&#8220;Additionally, the state legislature has announced that the maps increase the power of Latino voters,&#8221; Columbo added.
Voters overwhelmingly approved Prop 50 on Tuesday with 64% support. The measure was placed on the ballot after the Democratic-led state legislature approved new congressional maps in response to Texas passing a new map that will likely give Republicans five more House seats. With Proposition 50&#8217;s passage, Democrats have likely added five more U.S. House seats for their party.
President Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-california-redistricting-vote-is-a-giant-scam-mail-ballots-under-legal-criminal-review">said</a> on Tuesday that Prop 50 was a &#8220;giant scam,&#8221; adding, &#8220;All ‘Mail-In’ Ballots, where the Republicans in that State are ‘Shut Out,’ is under very serious legal and criminal review.&#8221; It&#8217;s unclear if Trump&#8217;s threat of legal action was in reference to the lawsuit filed by Republicans on Wednesday.
According to the complaint, Proposition 50 expanded the number of districts where Hispanic voters are likely to play a decisive role, rising from 14 to 16 of California’s 52 congressional districts. In a 1986 ruling, the Supreme Court established a three-part test, known as the &#8220;Gingles Test,&#8221; to allow states to redraw district lines to give racial minorities greater influence over who is elected to represent them. The Republican lawsuit claims that California&#8217;s new map does not meet the requirements of the Gingles Test since Hispanics make up the largest ethnic group in California and are not a racial minority in the Golden State.
&#8220;We believe that the Supreme Court Gingles Test cannot be satisfied by the state, as such under the 14th and 15th Amendments, the maps drawn by Prop 50 will be considered unconstitutional,&#8221; said Dhillon Law Group attorney Mark Meuser, who was the GOP Senate candidate in California in 2022.
Rep. Tangipa said he is &#8220;appalled&#8221; by the Democratic-led legislature and Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom pushing Proposition 50.
&#8220;As the first Polynesian elected ever to the state legislature, I understand the diversity and the beauty that this state has, and what we have seen with Prop 50, these maps, they are completely diminishing the voices of [some] groups to benefit other groups,&#8221;  Tangipa said.

Prop 50

California GOP Sues Over Democrat-Drawn Congressional Map Designed To ‘Increase Power’ Of Hispanics

California

Courts

Democrats

Election

Gavin Newsom

Lawsuit

Politics

Redistricting

Republicans

President Donald Trump ramped up his pressure campaign to end the filibuster on Wednesday, telling Republican senators in a White House meeting that it’s “very important” for the GOP to “terminate the filibuster” and reopen the government.
In the past week, Trump has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-crazed-democratic-lunatics-blocking-americas-comeback-filibuster-must-go?author=Hank+Berrien&amp;category=undefined&amp;elementPosition=21&amp;row=3&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+News&amp;rowType=Vertical+Carousel&amp;title=Trump%3A+%E2%80%98Crazed+Democratic+Lunatics%E2%80%99+Blocking+America%E2%80%99s+Comeback+%E2%80%93+Filibuster+Must+Go%21">called</a> for the end of the filibuster <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-wants-republicans-to-hit-stone-cold-crazy-dems-with-ultimate-trump-card-in-shutdown-fight">multiple times</a> as Democrats continue to block GOP efforts to pass a short-term spending bill to end the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. Trump took another step in his call for the end of the filibuster in Wednesday’s meeting, making his plea directly to Republican senators.
Trump suggested that Republicans should end the filibuster as soon as “this afternoon.”
“I think it’s very important. We have to get the country open, and the way we’re going to do it this afternoon is to terminate the filibuster,” he said. “And it’s possible you’re not going to do that, and I’m going to go by your wishes. You’re smart people. We&#8217;re good friends, but it would be a tremendous mistake, it would be a tragic mistake, actually. It’s time.”
The filibuster allows senators to prolong debate on legislation; 60 votes are needed to end a filibuster and proceed to a vote on a bill. The minority party often uses the filibuster to block votes on bills pushed by the ruling party. Republicans have cautioned against ending the filibuster, saying that it would set a precedent that would also be used against the GOP in the future. Trump, however, argued that Democrats will nuke the filibuster the next time they have power.
“We have to do it first,” the president said. “We’ll end up with two, three years, and we’ll have this country so perfect. We will have passed more legislation than any Congress and any group of senators or group of congressmen. … It will be a beautiful machine. Otherwise, we’re just going to sit around and argue with these people all day long, and they’re highly unrealistic. Many of them are radical Left subversives, frankly.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a> to GOP Senators: &#8220;I think it&#8217;s very important. We have to get the country open, and the way we&#8217;re going to do it&#8230; is to terminate the filibuster&#8230; It&#8217;s time, it&#8217;s time&#8230; We&#8217;ll end up with two, three years, and we&#8217;ll have this country so perfect.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/Clrd60V7nS">pic.twitter.com/Clrd60V7nS</a>
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1986067842295287839?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 5, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Trump added that keeping the filibuster alive would ultimately hurt Republicans.
“If [Democrats] take power, and it’s more likely that they take power if we don’t [end the filibuster] because we won’t be passing any legislation,” he said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a>: &#8220;If I thought that they weren&#8217;t going to pass the filibuster, I wouldn&#8217;t even bring it up. They&#8217;re going to pass it within the first hour&#8230; if [Democrats] take power&#8230; they&#8217;ll wreak havoc.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/ogxZN6PkVT">pic.twitter.com/ogxZN6PkVT</a>
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1986065444256510330?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 5, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
After the media left the room and cameras were turned off, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) reportedly disagreed with Trump on this point, and the two engaged in a “spirited back-and-forth,” according to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-government-shutdown-election-11-05-25?post-id=cmhm47vi100053b6oy3rv3tl7">CNN</a>.
During his remarks, the president argued that if Democrats refuse to agree to a simple bill to extend government funding for even a short period, they won’t negotiate any significant legislation.
“We should start tonight with the country is open, congratulations, and then we should pass voter ID. We should pass no mail-in voting. We should pass all the things that we want to pass to make elections secure and safe,” Trump continued. “Because California is a disaster, many of the states are disasters.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a> to Republican Senators: &#8220;It&#8217;s time for Republicans to do what they have to do — and that&#8217;s terminate the filibuster.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/BMUKPybb9a">pic.twitter.com/BMUKPybb9a</a>
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1986065143478776187?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 5, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Trump’s comments on Wednesday morning came hours after Axios <a href="https://www.axios.com/2025/11/04/trump-filibuster-republican-senators-shutdown" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that the president was preparing to ramp up pressure on Republican senators. One anonymous Trump adviser told Axios that the president planned on making GOP senators’ lives “a living hell.” Another anonymous adviser cited by Axios said that Trump is “really mad about this.”
As of last week, Republican Senate leadership remained “unchanged” in its support for the filibuster. The office of Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-WY) told <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/senate-leaders-stance-on-filibuster-remains-unchanged-as-trump-pushes-nuclear-option">The Daily Wire</a> last Friday that they continue to support the filibuster. Thune <a href="https://x.com/burgessev/status/1986092191383502925">told</a> reporters on Wednesday morning, “I know where math is on this issue in the Senate. It’s just not happening.”
When former President Joe Biden was in office with majorities in the House and Senate, some Democrats pushed for party leaders in the Senate to end the filibuster to pass leftist priorities, such as abortion protections, gun control, and packing the Supreme Court. Democrats’ efforts to eliminate the filibuster in 2021 were ultimately stopped by former moderate Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.

Donald Trump

Trump Demands Action From GOP Senators, Wants Filibuster Terminated ‘This Afternoon’

Congress

Executive

Filibuster

Senate

Senate Republicans

As California prepares to count ballots on Tuesday, President Donald Trump questioned the state&#8217;s election integrity and called the Proposition 50 vote &#8220;unconstitutional&#8221; and a &#8220;giant scam.&#8221;
Trump said that California&#8217;s mail-in ballot process is &#8220;RIGGED&#8221; and &#8220;under very serious legal and criminal review.&#8221; Tuesday&#8217;s Proposition 50 election in California puts the state legislature&#8217;s redrawn congressional maps before voters for approval. If passed, the new maps would add to Democrats&#8217; numbers in the U.S. House.
&#8220;The Unconstitutional Redistricting Vote in California is a GIANT SCAM in that the entire process, in particular the Voting itself, is RIGGED. All &#8216;Mail-In&#8217; Ballots, where the Republicans in that State are &#8216;Shut Out,&#8217; is under very serious legal and criminal review. STAY TUNED!&#8221; Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115492361756063244">wrote</a> on Truth Social.
It&#8217;s unclear if Trump&#8217;s mention of a &#8220;legal and criminal review&#8221; is referring to a federal investigation into California&#8217;s mail-in ballots or something else. The Department of Justice sent election monitors to California and New Jersey to watch polling sites and &#8220;ensure transparency, ballot security, and compliance with federal law,&#8221; CBS News <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/justice-department-election-monitors-california-new-jersey/">reported</a>.
California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom called for <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/inside-californias-effort-to-fight-back-against-trump-with-redistricting" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a special Proposition 50 election</a> in response to Texas passing a new congressional map that will likely give Republicans five more House seats. California Democrats called Texas&#8217;s move a &#8220;power grab orchestrated by President Trump.&#8221; The California Democratic Party said that Proposition 50 &#8220;would negate the five Republican seats drawn by Texas.&#8221;
Last month, California sent mail-in ballots to all 23 million registered voters for the Proposition 50 special election. As of Monday, 28% of California voters had cast a ballot, according to <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-11-04/polls-open-for-californias-special-election-but-how-many-people-will-show">The Los Angeles Times</a>. The mail-in votes <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/sacramento/news/sacramento-county-ballot-envelope-holes-concerns-prop-50-election/">in Sacramento County</a> have faced <a href="https://x.com/tedcruz/status/1976745073300652466">scrutiny,</a> with some people <a href="https://x.com/Bubblebathgirl/status/1977423844936986993">claiming</a> that a &#8220;no&#8221; vote on Proposition 50 could be visible through a hole in the envelopes, allowing officials to see how people voted. Conservatives, including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and the popular X account Libs of TikTok, criticized the mail-in ballots on social media.
California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, a Democrat, appeared to <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-10-14/california-ballot-design-unfounded-viral-conspiracy-theories-november-election-rigged">push back</a> against this claim, saying, &#8220;The small holes on ballot envelopes are an accessibility feature to allow sight-impaired voters to orient themselves to where they are required to sign the envelope.&#8221;
However, the Sacramento County Department of Voter Registration and Elections <a href="https://www.saccounty.gov/us/en/articles/2025-articles/response-to-special-election-ballot-envelope-posts.html#gsc.tab=0">acknowledged</a> that &#8220;there are at least eight ways to insert a ballot card into the return envelope, and only two of these might result in a bubble being visible in the hole.&#8221; But according to the department, &#8220;There is no way to determine how a voter voted through this small hole.&#8221;
Some California Republican officials also blasted the mail-in ballot theories pushed by some conservatives on social media. Los Angeles County Republican Party Chair Roxanne Hoge warned voters last month, <a href="https://x.com/RoxanneHoge/status/1976817550613999712">writing</a>, &#8220;C&#8217;mon people! If you&#8217;re worried about your vote showing through the hole, fold it the other way. Vote NO on 50!&#8221;
In another post, Hoge <a href="https://x.com/RoxanneHoge/status/1976892993790787845">wrote</a>, &#8220;Please don&#8217;t panic people about something that is easily addressed by turning their ballot around. We need every no vote and we need them now.&#8221;
The Republican Party of San Diego <a href="https://x.com/RPSDC/status/1982158321760297233">added</a>, &#8220;It&#8217;s simple. Republicans need to stop complaining and vote. We ask and ask and ask and yet turnout still lags. To win this one GOP turnout needs to be materially better than average. It&#8217;s very doable but won&#8217;t just happen. Work it.&#8221;
Trump and Republicans have also expressed concerns about mail-in ballots being sent to California&#8217;s large illegal immigrant population, who are ineligible to vote. California officials claim that the state has safeguards that prevent illegal immigrants from voting.
Recent polls <a href="https://www.sacbee.com/opinion/article312761827.html">suggest</a> that Proposition 50 will likely pass, giving Democrats even more power in the deep-blue state.

Trump: California Redistricting Vote Is ‘A Giant Scam,’ Mail Ballots Under ‘Legal & Criminal Review’

Elections

Mail-In Voting

President Donald Trump on Thursday called for Senate Republicans to play their “Trump card” and get rid of the filibuster to end the government shutdown. 
While the House has passed a bill to temporarily fund the government, the Senate has repeatedly failed to reach the 60-vote threshold required to advance the same legislation. It is now the 31st day of the government shutdown, just four days short of the record. 
“The one question that kept coming up, however, was how did the Democrats SHUT DOWN the United States of America, and why did the powerful Republicans allow them to do it? The fact is, in flying back, I thought a great deal about that question, WHY?” Trump wrote on Truth Social. 
Trump then praised House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) before calling on them to get rid of the filibuster. 
“It is now time for the Republicans to play their ‘TRUMP CARD,’ and go for what is called the Nuclear Option — Get rid of the Filibuster, and get rid of it, NOW! Just a short while ago, the Democrats, while in power, fought for three years to do this, but were unable to pull it off because of Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona,” Trump wrote. “Never have the Democrats fought so hard to do something because they knew the tremendous strength that terminating the Filibuster would give them.”
Trump argued that Democrats would end the filibuster if they were in power and that Republicans should do it while they have the opportunity.
Join us now during our exclusive Deal of the Decade. Get everything for $7 a month. Not as fans. As fighters. Go to <a href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">DailyWire.com/Subscribe</a> to join now.
“Well, now WE are in power, and if we did what we should be doing, it would IMMEDIATELY end this ridiculous, Country destroying ‘SHUT DOWN.’ If the Democrats ever came back into power, which would be made easier for them if the Republicans are not using the Great Strength and Policies made available to us by ending the Filibuster, the Democrats will exercise their rights, and it will be done in the first day they take office, regardless of whether or not we do it,” he wrote. 
“BECAUSE OF THE FACT THAT THE DEMOCRATS HAVE GONE STONE COLD ‘CRAZY,’ THE CHOICE IS CLEAR — INITIATE THE &#8216;NUCLEAR OPTION,&#8217; GET RID OF THE FILIBUSTER AND, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” he added. 
When former Vice President Kamala Harris ran for president, she called for Democrats to end the filibuster to pass nationwide abortion legislation. That proposal was supported by many Democrats, but opposed by former Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia.

US-POLITICS-TRUMP-RETURN

Trump Wants Republicans To Hit ‘STONE COLD CRAZY’ Dems With Ultimate ‘TRUMP CARD’ In Shutdown Fight

Government Shutdown

There is something deeply wrong with young people in this country.
There&#8217;s something bizarre going on in the New York City mayoral election. People don&#8217;t actually love Zohran Mamdani’s policies, but he&#8217;s likely to win anyway.
A poll released on Tuesday found 58% of respondents feared that making buses free could make them into roaming homeless shelters, while 33% believe all fares should be eliminated. Thus, by a 25% margin, people believe that Mamdani’s free bus idea is incredibly stupid.
His proposal to get rid of the city&#8217;s gifted and talented program is wildly unpopular. 64% of the same voters who are giving a plurality of their vote to Mamdani believe that gifted and talented programs should be expanded. Only 21% believe that it should be scaled back in early grades.
When it comes to repealing bail reform laws and returning to the bail system before 2019, 55% want to go back to the system before “no cash bail.” Only 29% support the current program, which is what Mamdani backs.
Mamdani’s policies are not that popular among voters.
So why is he popular?
<ol>
<li> He&#8217;s running against lousy competition. Andrew Cuomo is a particularly bad candidate.</li>
</ol>
<ol start="2">
<li> Generation Z. Generation Z is the most Left generation by a country mile. It is not close. They are far to the left of the general population on every single issue. The bizarre idea on the Right that Generation Z is going to carry us forward into a conservative future is not supported by any hard evidence.</li>
</ol>
In the latest <a href="https://www.suffolk.edu/-/media/suffolk/documents/academics/research-at-suffolk/suprc/polls/other-states/2025/10_27_2025_new_york_city_press_release.pdf?la=en&amp;hash=29E66C2E3D25A148940F2E3BB98DAC3E5A7C6D6F">Suffolk poll</a> on the New York City mayoral race, in which Mamdani is leading Cuomo 44% to 34%, Mamdani trails among all voters age 45+; among voters aged 35 to 44, he runs ahead by about 23 points against Cuomo, but among voters who are 18 to 34, Mamdani leads by a whopping 61 points.
That means he has support in the high 70s among people 18 to 34 voting in New York City, according to that poll. And this is not a rarity. Polls of young people show that they are wildly to the left of their forebears on virtually every single issue right now.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2306-generation-z-ohran"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-974957 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-300x50.webp 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-768x128.webp 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1536x256.webp 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-2048x341.webp 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
What is going wrong? Why are young people like this now?
There&#8217;s always been an explanation that young people are naïve; they don&#8217;t pay taxes; they&#8217;re not ushered into an actual real life where they&#8217;re participating in the normal institutions of daily activity. Thus, they can kind of live in “airy fairy” land, where everything is handed to them on a silver platter.
There&#8217;s truth to that. We have delayed adulthood for young people all the way into their thirties.
But there&#8217;s something else going on, too: Young people have been told that they never have to enter adulthood. They have been told that everything ought to be handed to them, and that when things are not handed to them, it&#8217;s because they themselves have some sort of deep, abiding illness, or society itself is victimizing them in some way.
All the things that would normally usher you into a more mature view of life — getting married, having kids, holding a job, and paying taxes — are things Generation Z is apparently not interested in doing and doesn&#8217;t believe that they will ever do.
This is not because Gen Z is some sort of truly victimized generation in all the history of all the humans on all the planet. The idea that American Generation Z is somehow the greatest victimhood class we&#8217;ve ever had is insane and bizarre. In fact, more Generation Z people hold degrees than millennials and Gen Xers did at their age. Generation Z will be the largest and richest generation in American history within just ten years.
So what&#8217;s going wrong? What exactly is happening? 
We have to understand that there is a radical thing that is happening with young people — on both the Left and the Right.
On the Left, there is a grievance culture that is resulting in revolutionary thinking, and on the Right, a grievance culture that is resulting in a different kind of revolutionary thinking. There&#8217;s some horseshoe theory going on, and these two revolutionary movements can sometimes hold hands.
You see it in a crystallized fashion with the Mamdani campaign. Canary Mission, which is a nonprofit that examines political issues from a right-leaning perspective, examined the impact of the Democratic Socialists of America, which has had an outsized impact on the Democratic Party.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was a charter member of the DSA. Mamdani is a DSA guy. The DSA is the jet fuel for the modern Democratic Party. This is not a Left-leaning, mildly progressive movement; this is a truly revolutionary movement.
How does that kind of movement take over the Democratic Party? Where does it come from? The answer is that it&#8217;s been inculcated by the Boomers for generations. The Boomers and the Millennials are responsible for their children. If your child ends up being a radical, it&#8217;s difficult to say that you had nothing to do with it.
The Boomers and the Millennials decided to inculcate a brand of vague anti-Americanism that then metastasized into a very virulent, cancerous form of anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism.
This is why whenever I hear parents talk about their kids and they say, “I&#8217;m just giving them the tools to think; I&#8217;m not telling them what to think, what values to hold,” that&#8217;s bad parenting.
You should be telling your kids what values to hold. That is the most important thing you should be doing as a parent: becoming part of that chain that Edmund Burke talks about between the past and the future, maintaining the wisdom of generations, and passing that on to your kids.
If you&#8217;re not doing that, you&#8217;re not doing your job as a parent. Instead, parents have been farming out their kids to universities filled with radicals, who then teach the kids radical politics.
We tell an entire generation of people that they are victims of a system that has made them the most wealthy, prosperous, and free people in the history of planet Earth. And then we sell them the soap that if you grant power to one of these people, one of these revolutionaries, they will fix all of their problems.
There are a lot of politicians willing to sell that soap.
The left-wing version of the grievance campaign is that America is an awful, terribly racist place that has aggrieved Third World minorities and cracked down on gays and lesbians and therefore must be brought low by the revolutionaries, that capitalism has brought us all to this horrible fate.
On the Right, there is an equal and opposite movement. It is growing in power. It is not taking over the Republican Party yet, but it&#8217;s attempting to. And that right-wing movement is saying the same thing, except the victims are white Christian males, and the idea would be that white Christian males have been brought low by the system, and that therefore the only corrective action is a complete revolution against capitalism, meritocracy, and all the rest.
In the seed of both of these movements, there is a grain of truth. There is truth to the idea that America, historically speaking, was not good to black people, and historically speaking, was not good to certain classes of immigrants. But it’s a flaw in the system, not a feature of the system.
The same thing is true on the Right. When people say white Christian males have been put under the boot by the system, there&#8217;s certainly truth to the idea that there is discriminatory policy — both socially and in governmental policy — that has discriminated against white Christian males over the course of the last 30, 40, 50 years. There&#8217;s truth to that.
But the idea that such actions are emblematic of the constitutional system or meritocracy or capitalism, and the only solution is some sort of dictatorship of the white Christian male proletariat overthrowing constitutional norms and boundaries, going after minorities, is just as revolutionary from the opposite point of view.
The vast majority of Americans are normies. The vast majority of Americans like meritocracy. The vast majority of Americans believe in the traditional American dream, meaning economic progress for them and for their children, meaning the capacity to build community and church and life in freedom. The vast majority of Americans like the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. The vast majority of Americans like America.
But if you let the radical revolutionary vanguard take over your party with some sort of benighted idea that you must unite with the radicals in order to achieve victory, you&#8217;re not going to achieve victory. And the victory that you achieve will be pyrrhic, because you will have sacrificed what you actually care about to people who hate that very thing.
If this were really working out great for the young, why are they so depressed? Why are they so upset? Why are they so anxious? Why aren&#8217;t they getting married or reproducing?
Inculcating a victimhood grievance mentality in an entire generation of people doesn&#8217;t just inhibit the working of the country, it makes those people miserable as well.
* * *
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New York Mayoral Candidate Zohran Mamdani Campaigns Ahead Of Election Day

The Infantilization Of A Generation: How America’s Youth Falls For The Politics Of Grievance

Democratic Socialism

Gen Z

Leftists

Mayor

New York City

Opinion

U.S. Politics

Zohran Mamdani

President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the Constitution is &#8220;pretty clear&#8221; on presidential term limits, putting to rest <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trumps-third-term-talk-puts-leftists-in-a-tizzy-again">theories</a> that have been pushed recently about Trump seeking to run again in 2028.
While en route to South Korea, Trump told reporters on Air Force One, “I have my highest poll numbers that I&#8217;ve ever had, and, you know, based on what I read, I guess I&#8217;m not allowed to run.&#8221;
&#8220;I would say that if you read [the Constitution], it&#8217;s pretty clear. I&#8217;m not allowed to run. It&#8217;s too bad,&#8221; Trump added. &#8220;But we have a lot of great people,&#8221; referring to the potential Republican presidential candidates waiting to take the torch from him.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
&#8220;Based on what I read, I guess I&#8217;m not allowed to run.&#8221;
US President Donald Trump conceded Wednesday that it was “pretty clear” the Constitution didn’t allow him to seek a third term as president, despite frequently floating the idea in recent months <a href="https://t.co/3MeLI1D3J8">https://t.co/3MeLI1D3J8</a> <a href="https://t.co/08tM9EfCMu">pic.twitter.com/08tM9EfCMu</a>
— Bloomberg (@business) <a href="https://twitter.com/business/status/1983453256715063423?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 29, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/article/can-trump-run-for-a-third-term-in-2028-mike-johnson-says-he-doesnt-see-the-path-192522300.html">pushed back</a> against the third-term theories on Tuesday, saying, “It&#8217;s been a great run, but I think the president knows, and he and I have talked about, the constrictions of the Constitution.”
The 22nd Amendment of the Constitution, ratified in 1951, states, “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.” The 22nd Amendment was ratified shortly after President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected to four consecutive terms before he died in office in 1945.
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Theories about Trump running for a third term in 2028 swirled this week after former Trump adviser Steve Bannon said in an interview that &#8220;there is a plan&#8221; to create a path for Trump to run again. Trump would be 82 years old when the 2028 election takes place.
“Trump is going to be president in 2028, and people just ought to get accommodated with that,” Bannon <a href="https://x.com/TheEconomist/status/1981393309869215887">said</a> during an interview with The Economist last week. “We need him for at least one more term, and he’ll get that in 2028.”
Trump was asked about Bannon&#8217;s remarks earlier this week and told reporters that he &#8220;would love&#8221; to run in 2028. Trump&#8217;s and Bannon&#8217;s comments sparked rage and trepidation among political commentators on the Left. Some leftists have also argued that Trump&#8217;s tearing down the East Wing of the White House to build a ballroom is evidence that he plans on staying in office past January 20, 2029.
The president has hinted at a potential 2028 run multiple times in recent months, but has also stated that the idea &#8220;is not something I&#8217;m looking to do.&#8221; Trump&#8217;s official store also sells &#8220;Trump 2028&#8221; hats, keeping alive fears that he could run. But all of the third-term talk appears to just be talk, or possibly a ruse to troll Democrats. Political <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/27/us/politics/trump-third-term-politics.html">analysts</a> have also <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/27/politics/president-trump-third-term-2028">suggested</a> that Trump and his allies are keeping third-term theories alive to prevent Trump from becoming a lame-duck president, which could hinder his agenda as he gets closer to the end of his term.

Trump Puts Third-Term Theories To Bed, Says Constitution Is ‘Pretty Clear’

2028 presidential election

Constitution

Mike Johnson

Steve Bannon

CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten voiced his own surprise on Tuesday as polls indicate that Republicans are not seeing a drop in popularity due to the ongoing government shutdown.
Enten joined CNN host John Berman to discuss the shutdown and how it might eventually come to an end — and Berman predicted that &#8220;political pain,&#8221; for one party or the other, would be what ultimately brought people to the table. Enten pushed back, noting that Democrats might be the ones feeling the pain.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BREAKING?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BREAKING</a>: Republicans&#8217; polling has improved during Democrat government shutdown
CNN: &#8220;The Republican brand in Congress has actually improved&#8221; incl. with Independents 📈
Plus alarm bells for Democrats: &#8220;The worst position Democrats have been…in the last 20 years&#8221; 🚩 <a href="https://t.co/g0hWYhsChM">pic.twitter.com/g0hWYhsChM</a>
— Ben Petersen (@bennpetersen) <a href="https://twitter.com/bennpetersen/status/1983171790601105409?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 28, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;One thing that might end a shutdown is political pain, if parties start to feel that it’s hurting them. So let’s talk about that, starting with Republicans. How has the shutdown seemed to have affected their political standing?&#8221; Berman prompted.
&#8220;Yeah, you might think, given that the Republicans are in charge of both the House and the Senate, that a government shutdown might actually hurt the Republican brand. But in fact, it hasn’t!&#8221; Enten replied. &#8220;If anything, it’s been helped a little bit! Take a look here, the shift in net popularity versus pre-shutdown. When we’re looking at the Republican Party overall, that brand, actually up two points. That’s within the margin of error, but clearly it hasn’t dropped. Come over to this side of the screen, look at the net approval ratings for Republicans in Congress. It’s actually up five points since pre-shutdown! So what we’re seeing here is the Republican brand in Congress has actually improved somewhat compared to where we were pre-shutdown, despite the fact that Republicans control. And that’s the math that John Thune and Mike Johnson are looking at is, &#8216;Hey, why should we give in, electorally speaking, when our brand has actually improved a little bit?'&#8221;
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Berman pressed for details, asking whether Republicans were only getting more popular with die-hards or were they making gains across other demographics: &#8220;Now we say their position is getting better, with whom?&#8221;
&#8220;It’s rallying the base for sure. Look at this, the net approval rating up 12 points versus pre-shutdown,&#8221; Enten began — but he did not stop there. &#8220;But it’s not just with the base, it’s also with the middle of the electorate. Look at this among independents, it’s up eight points as well! So we’ve got a situation here where Republicans with the shutdown are actually rallying their base, but it’s also something that’s not hurting them with the folks in the middle. If anything, it’s helping them with folks in the middle, and this is the type of math that if you’re Republicans, you like to see, right? Because something could rally the base, but alienate those in the middle, or something could rally those in the middle, but alienate the base.&#8221;
&#8220;But the truth is, we’re not seeing that. What we’re seeing is the Republican brand has actually gotten better among independents and it’s also gotten better among Republicans as well, that Republican brand when it comes to those in Congress,&#8221; Enten added. &#8220;So again, what’s the electoral reason that Republicans would give in at this point?&#8221;
&#8220;And Democrats, of course, they have their eyes on the midterm elections. Yeah, we have elections one week from today, but what Democrats in Congress are mostly focused on are one year and one week from today, from the midterms. So how do Democrats, how are they positioned right now?&#8221; Berman asked.
Enten broke out the worst news, noting that Democrats were actually losing ground as the midterms crept closer. &#8220;You look at this point back when Trump was president the first time around, Democrats were up 11 points. Look at where it is now. Democrats are ahead, but they’re actually only up three points. This is, in fact, the worst position Democrats have been on in a generic ballot at this time in a midterm when there was a Republican president in the last 20 years. And this is no different from pre-shutdown. So Republicans aren’t losing on this metric either. They’ve become more popular, and they’re in a pretty good position for them historically when it comes to the generic congressional ballot.&#8221;
&#8220;This is a concerning number for Democrats, are you saying?&#8221; Berman tried one more time.
&#8220;This is a concerning number for Democrats, because it’s considerably worse than they traditionally do in midterm elections when there’s a Republican president,&#8221; Enten confirmed the worst.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson

‘They’ve Become More Popular!’: CNN Pollster Shocked As GOP Gets Shutdown ‘Bump’

'They've Become More Popular!': CNN Pollster Shocked As GOP Gets Shutdown 'Bump'

Harry Enten

Media

Polls

There may be no state legislator more popular at The Daily Wire than Laurel Libby.
She took a bold stand for girl’s sport in Maine and refused to budge. But it wasn’t always that way.
As Libby explains, she once failed to stand strong for what was right. Never again. — The Daily Wire
* * *
America’s founders appropriately recognized freedom of speech as the most fundamental right for a flourishing republic. But in today’s America, telling the truth carries a cost.
From social media bans to government censorship to silencing dissent inside our statehouses, the message is clear: if you dare to speak the truth, you will pay a price.
I witnessed this firsthand in Maine’s Democrat-controlled state house, where I was stripped of my right to speak for the people of Maine as their elected representative simply for highlighting biological differences between boys and girls in a state competition.
And the problem is getting worse, not better. Without a renewed commitment to our founding ideals, our society may become free in theory, but authoritarian in practice.
My experience in Maine began in February with a viral social media post. A biological male, who had placed fifth in the boys’ competition the year prior, won the girls’ state pole vault championship. Seeing his female competitor relegated to second place broke my heart.
I could not remain silent.
I posted two publicly available photos side by side. One showed the athlete finishing fifth in the boys’ competition one year; the other showed him taking gold in the girls’ competition the next. Official results had already been available for all to see, but this picture made the unfairness of the situation crystal clear.
Girls in Maine, and across the country, were being forced to compete on unequal terms – not only to justify a political cause, but to signal obedience to an ideology that punishes anyone who questions it.
And punished I was. 
The Maine House Speaker demanded I delete my post. When I refused, I was stripped of my right to speak or vote in the Legislature. Unless and until I issued a formal apology, I would remain barred from representing the nearly 9,000 constituents who elected me.
This wasn’t the first time legislative leadership in Maine used procedural tools to suppress dissent. In May of 2021, the Democratic legislative leadership issued a mask mandate, solely for the State House, after Governor Janet Mills had lifted the state mask mandate.
As a result, Mainers were denied their First Amendment right to assemble, to petition their government, and to speak freely, unless they traded a piece of their liberty. 
I knew it was wrong, and alongside five colleagues, I walked in without a mask.
In response, the Speaker stripped us of our committee assignments and barred us from voting. I agonized over what to do, but in the end, I put a face shield back on, telling myself it was my duty to vote for my constituents.
But the truth is I failed to stand strong in defense of the First Amendment. And that failure taught me that when you give in to fear and intimidation, it only encourages more of both.
This year, I chose not to make the same mistake.
Now, in February, I was confronted with a choice again: to give in or keep fighting. For Maine, for our girls, and for our First Amendment, I chose to fight. 
I filed suit against the Legislature after they barred me for exercising my right to speak truthfully about protecting girls’ sports. And the Supreme Court ruled in my favor and restored my vote!
It was, by any normal standard, the right outcome. But it should never have been necessary. An elected official was forced to file a lawsuit to fulfill her duty to the people of Maine, all because she took a stand for women and girls.
These are the things of totalitarian governments, not the United States.
We still talk about the First Amendment as though it protects us in practice as well as in theory. But in much of American life, the real barriers to speech are procedural, reputational and cultural. They come from norms that shift depending on the issue at hand and the politics of the speaker.
When Charlie Kirk was assassinated, I was in Washington, DC. I called home to tell my older children, and my teenager’s first question stopped me in my tracks: “Mom, are you going to stop speaking up?” Without hesitation, I answered: “No. Absolutely not.”
If we stay silent now, we surrender the foundation of liberty. If we bow to intimidation, we hand our children a future where truth is unwelcome and freedom is conditional.
This is not someone else’s fight. It is ours. Parents, teachers, students, pastors, lawmakers, citizens – every one of us has a role to play in protecting the space to speak truthfully, even when it costs us.
This moment is where we stand to lose, or gain, the most. The only way we lose is if we make the choice to silence ourselves.
We cannot be silent. We must speak. We must stand. There is too much at stake to do otherwise.
 * * * 
Laurel Libby is a member of the House of Representatives in Maine.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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Maine legislature

Silenced In Maine: How Standing Up For Girl’s Sports Cost Me My Voice

Silenced In Maine: How Standing Up For Girl's Sports Cost Me My Voice

Gender

gender ideology

Maine

Transgender Athletes

The New Hampshire Senate race was shaken up on Wednesday when former Senator John Sununu jumped into the Republican primary.
Sununu was a senator for the Granite State from 2003 until 2009 and served in the House of Representatives prior to that. He is the brother of former New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu. In 2008, he was defeated by Democrat Jeanne Shaheen, who is now retiring, leaving the seat open and highly competitive.
&#8220;It’s been awhile since you elected me to serve New Hampshire, and boy have things changed. Washington’s never been perfect. It’s not meant to be,” the former senator said in his launch video.
“But when I was there, people with different opinions could get together, work things out, and come to solutions that made a real difference. But now Congress just seems loud, dysfunctional, even angry,” he said, saying that somebody needs to help “lower the temperature” and “get things done.”
Sununu got the backing of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, currently led by Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC).
“John Sununu’s deep roots and passion for the Granite State make him built to win. New Hampshire is ready for a proven leader who stands up for seniors, fights for economic and educational opportunity, and delivers real solutions to make life more affordable and prosperous,” Scott said on Wednesday morning.
“Granite Staters are fed up with Democrats like Chris Pappas, who is beholden to Nancy Pelosi and the most radical elements of his party instead of New Hampshire families. The [NRSC] is all-in for [Sununu]!” he added.
Former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown, who was the former Ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa during President Donald Trump’s first term in office, is also vying for the open seat.
“Anyone who thinks that a Never Trump, corporate lobbyist who hasn’t won an election in a quarter century will resonate with today’s GOP primary voters is living in a different universe. While John was supporting John Kasich in 2016, I was campaigning with Donald Trump,” Brown told The Daily Wire in a statement regarding Sununu’s entrance.
“While John was fighting for special interests, I was serving in the first Trump administration. While John was wooing the DC establishment this summer, I have been working with grassroots activists across the Granite State. Senate seats are earned, not handed down. I stopped one political dynasty before, and intend to do the same in 2026,” the Republican continued.
On the Democratic side, Rep. Chris Pappas is considered the frontrunner in the race, currently ranked by the Cook Political Report as “Leans Democrat.”
“This race just became one of the most competitive in the country, and I’m up against deep-pocketed special interests,” the Democrat posted to X on Wednesday morning.
The Daily Wire reached out to Pappas’ campaign for comment.

Alberto Gonzales Survives Senate No Confidence Vote

Ex-GOP Senator Enters Highly Competitive Race In Hopes To Flip New Hampshire Red

chris pappas

Jeanne Shaheen

John Sununu

New Hampshire

scott brown

WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans emerged from their Tuesday lunch at the White House with a message for their Democrat colleagues: they are unified, and they are on Donald Trump&#8217;s team.
“This is the fourth week of the Democrats’ shutdown, but we are all here today because your Republican team in the Senate is unified,&#8221; Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) told President Trump as he took the podium following the president&#8217;s remarks.
&#8220;Senate Republicans, House Republicans, and the President of the United States are all in favor of opening the federal government,&#8221; the Senate Majority Leader added as he gaggled with reporters outside the White House following the lunch. &#8220;You have a bunch of the people here, a united team, that believes profoundly that we need to get our government open and if Democrats want to talk about subjects, things unrelated to getting the government, we&#8217;re happy to have those conversations.&#8221;
The Rose Garden luncheon brought together the nation&#8217;s top Republicans, including the president, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, Senators Chuck Grassley, Mike Lee, Ted Cruz, Jim Banks, Tim Scott, Mitch McConnell, Ashley Moody, and many others.
<div id="attachment_989177" style="width: 885px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/thune-trump-warn-democrats-republicans-are-united-and-its-time-to-end-the-shutdown/us-politics-trump-191" rel="attachment wp-att-989177"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-989177" class="wp-image-989177 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-2242055965-875x576.jpg" alt="" width="875" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-2242055965-875x576.jpg 875w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-2242055965-300x197.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-2242055965-768x506.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-2242055965.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 875px) 100vw, 875px" /></a>President Donald Trump speaks in the Rose Garden on October 21, 2025. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)</div>
Trump, who is very proud of his Rose Garden renovations, as well as his upcoming ballroom addition to the White House, acted as host for the event, touting the beauty of the outdoor space to his Republican friends, many of whom he knows very well. He also tore into Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and the Democrats in the Senate, calling for them to immediately end their resistance to the &#8220;clean, bipartisan CR and reopen our government.&#8221;
Earlier on Tuesday, Schumer had slammed the Rose Garden lunch as a &#8220;pep rally,&#8221; posting on X of his Republican colleagues: &#8220;No time to fix the healthcare crisis they created, but plenty of time for a mini pep rally with Donald Trump!&#8221;
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&#8220;From the beginning, our message has been very simple,&#8221; President Donald Trump told the gathered Republicans. &#8220;We will not be extorted on this crazy plot of theirs. &#8230; Chuck Schumer and the Senate Democrats need to vote for the clean, bipartisan CR, and reopen our government &#8230; right now.&#8221;
&#8220;We are not doing that,&#8221; added the president, speaking of the Democrats holding up the government from opening. &#8220;They are the obstructionists. And the reason they are doing it is because we are doing so well. We&#8217;re doing so well all over the world.&#8221;
Notably absent from today&#8217;s lunch was Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, whom Trump singled out.
&#8220;Everybody showed up,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We&#8217;re just missing one person.&#8221;
Paul responded to the president&#8217;s remarks on social media, saying in an X post: &#8220;I actually wasn’t invited to the White House lunch today, but that’s ok. I had a previously scheduled Liberty Caucus Lunch with [Thomas Massie].&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
I actually wasn’t invited to the White House lunch today, but that’s ok I had a previously scheduled Liberty Caucus Lunch with ⁦<a href="https://twitter.com/MassieforKY?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MassieforKY</a>⁩ <a href="https://t.co/7IHoQiZ3OR">pic.twitter.com/7IHoQiZ3OR</a>
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) <a href="https://twitter.com/RandPaul/status/1980684335956001002?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 21, 2025</a></blockquote>

President Trump Hosts A Rose Garden Club Lunch

Thune, Trump Warn Democrats: Republicans Are United, And It’s Time To End The Shutdown

John Thune

Democrats have some major problems.
We are about one year away from the midterm elections. It is worthwhile to note that in the RealClearPolitics polling average, Democrats right now are leading by roughly 1.6 points in the generic congressional vote, within the margin of error.
Every single poll over the course of the last month has the margin between Democrats up three points and Republicans up one point.
There are no polls showing Democrats with a significant advantage on the 2026 generic congressional ballot.
Just so you understand how these things stack up, in 2018, when Democrats had a great election, Democrats netted 40 seats in the House and took the House by a significant majority. The RealClearPolitics polling average had Democrats on Election Day in the generic congressional average up by 8.4 points.
Today, it&#8217;s more like 2022, when Republicans won nine seats, which was a very narrow victory. The RealClearPolitics polling average had Republicans up 2.8 points, and there are significantly fewer competitive battleground districts this time around, thanks to both redistricting and population movement.
According to Cook Political, there are effectively eight seats that are toss-up seats held by Republicans, but could theoretically move Democrat. There are ten Democrat toss-up seats, including seats in California, Maine, New York, Ohio and Texas.
This means it could be an unbelievably close election — at best — for Democrats. And there is the significant possibility that if redistricting occurs in Texas, the Republicans will retain the House.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-974957 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-300x50.webp 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-768x128.webp 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1536x256.webp 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-2048x341.webp 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></div>
Democrat chances right now are plummeting. Part of that is because they have no narrative whatsoever. They have major problems.
They trotted out their “No Kings” protest over the weekend. They got roughly seven million people to show up. But the salient point about gigantic mass protests like this is if they have no crossover appeal, it makes no difference at all.
If you look at the popular vote in 2024, you’ll notice that Kamala Harris won 75 million votes. Getting seven million Kamala Harris voters out into the streets to be angry at President Trump doesn&#8217;t mean anything. It&#8217;s less than 1/10 of the number of people who actually voted for Kamala Harris.
How many registered independents or Republicans were at the “No Kings” protest? The answer is: close to zero.
Thus, it&#8217;s just all performative outrage for the Democrats. They are hoping in the end that they have higher voter enthusiasm in 2026 than Republicans do. Evidence of that exists, but it is starting to wane.
There is some evidence that Democrats are animated to vote. In excess of 70% of Democrats are saying they are animated to vote in 2026; for Republicans the numbers are in the mid-50s, but those numbers are likely to close before the election.
The more performative Democrats look, the more they seem tired and gray and old and with nothing in the tank.
For example, there’s Nancy Pelosi, who&#8217;s now 176 years-old and remembers the Battle of Antietam in the Civil War. Well, she made a little video for social media where she broke a crown in order to show there were no kings. This is a lady who has been in Congress longer than most kings reign on their thrones and is worth over $100 million. And she is going to be talking about the oligarchs and the kings, dentures a-clacking?
MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace, from the fan network for the “No Kings” rallies, said the thing about this opposition is that it&#8217;s “led by the people.” 
No, it&#8217;s not. It&#8217;s an opposition led by a bunch of grassroots astroturf organizations like labor unions and the Communist Party USA.
If you can find me ten people — we&#8217;re now doing the biblical story of Sodom and Gomorrah here — if you can find me ten people in the crowds who were registered Republicans and voted for Donald Trump in the last election cycle, I will be very, very surprised.
Rep. Jamie Raskin also tried to make all of this into some sort of gigantic popular uprising, saying, “This is right now the largest set of demonstrations that&#8217;s ever occurred in American history. I don&#8217;t know that there&#8217;s ever been seven million people who have assembled in unity against an administration that has been so determined to violate the civil rights and civil liberties of the people, usurp the powers of Congress, and trampled the Constitution as well as shut down the U.S. government.” 
The idea that this is a gigantic popular uprising is betrayed by the polls. There is no evidence that President Trump is in any serious trouble here. He seems to be absolutely Teflon right now.
Trump knows this, and he&#8217;s enjoying it. President Trump put out a viral video via Truth Social of him flying his poop jet over the rallies.
Meanwhile, Democrats legitimately can&#8217;t take a joke. Bernie Sanders — the only male “The View” will invite on their show — was outraged over President Trump&#8217;s fake AI poop bomb. He declared, “Trump may be crazy, and he may be a liar. &#8230; I don&#8217;t know what world these guys are living in; the president of the United States dropping feces on an American city.”
Hello? He didn&#8217;t literally drop feces on an American city. He put out an AI video that is legitimately hilarious.
The performative outrage is really something to watch.
Democrats are trying to create havoc with the government shutdown, and people are not panicked. They&#8217;re not feeling the havoc. It isn’t having much of an impact, as Harry Enten on CNN admitted, saying, “The bottom line is this: The first shutdown during Trump&#8217;s first term, 2018/2019, was hurting Donald Trump. This one is not hurting him at all.”
The reason it’s not hurting Trump is because Americans recognize that eventually the shutdown will come to an end, people will get their back pay, and that will be it.
The polls show that Democrats are not gaining any momentum from the shutdown. That’s because until five minutes ago, Democrats always opposed government shutdowns. They wanted the government to continue functioning and running no matter what.
So that’s a losing issue for them, too.
President Trump is having a great time.
And it looks as though it will continue for a while.
* * *
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TOPSHOT-US-POLITICS

The Democrats Have Big Problems. No Wonder Trump Is Smiling.

2026 Midterms

Ben Shapiro

Real Clear Politics

U.S. House of Representatives

It has never been said “So goes New Jersey, so goes the nation.” But next month’s gubernatorial election here between Democrat Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill and Republican former State Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli may indeed be a bellwether regarding how the midterms will play out next year.
This is an interesting state. If not solidly blue, it has certainly pitched its tents in the blue camp more often than not. The last ostensible Republican to sit in the governor’s residence of Drumthwacket was the rather pathetic and Trump-deranged Chris Christie — who has since made a career currying favor with left-wing media as their token “Republican.”
Next month voters in the Garden State will have a clear choice as there are genuine challenges facing whoever wins the race.
First off, it is an expensive proposition to both live and run a business in New Jersey. The median price of a single-family home here is $580,000, up 3.5% year-on-year and over 60% in five years. Property taxes on these homes can run you north of $13,000/year. Although this is a strain on finances, in the past we could at least turn to excellent schools as a demonstration of getting a bang for our buck. I personally put two kids through the entire public school system where I live from K-12 and was more than satisfied with the quality of their education (a few spasms of wokeness along the way notwithstanding). But in the past ten years New Jersey has tumbled from having the overall second-highest rated public schools in the country to twelfth. So, what then are we getting for shelling out property taxes — which for many homeowners here is tantamount to a second mortgage — that seem to go up 2% per year like clockwork?
Utility bills are another point of contention. In 2020 the average New Jersey household (median is harder to locate) paid a little over $91/month. As of mid-2025 the number has risen to $162/month. A 78% increase. Increased demand certainly has played a part as data centers, particularly for AI, have a voracious appetite for electricity … this at the same time Democrats have been trying to push consumers into EVs and using electricity as opposed to fossil fuels. Indeed, New Jersey has aggressive clean energy and decarbonization goals. While those are meant to reduce emissions in the long run, in the short run they can introduce costs — e.g. retiring fossil plants, investing in transmission upgrades, subsidies or mandates for renewables, and constraints on new fossil generation. 
 
The New Jersey Democrat Party&#8217;s platform supports &#8220;reducing fossil fuel dependence, expanding renewable energy, and protecting residents from its impacts.&#8221; Our current governor, Phil Murphy, has proposed a &#8220;100% clean energy goal&#8221; and has pushed &#8220;renewable energy&#8221; legislation.
<div id="attachment_988403" style="width: 778px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-988403" class="wp-image-988403 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-2213896301-768x576.jpg" alt="RUTHERFORD, NEW JERSEY - MAY 10: Jack Ciattarelli and Matt Servitto attend 2025 Paisan Con at The Williams Center on May 10, 2025 in Rutherford, New Jersey. (Photo by Bobby Bank/Getty Images)" width="768" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-2213896301-768x576.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-2213896301-300x225.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-2213896301.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px" />RUTHERFORD, NEW JERSEY &#8211; MAY 10: Jack Ciattarelli and Matt Servitto attend 2025 Paisan Con at The Williams Center on May 10, 2025 in Rutherford, New Jersey. (Photo by Bobby Bank/Getty Images)</div>
New Jersey also has among the highest individual income tax rates in the nation. At 10.8% for the states’ highest earners, it is only superseded by California, Hawaii, and New York. Ciattarelli proposes lowering the top-tier income tax rate to 5% as well as capping property taxes at a percentage of a home’s assessed value. He has also pledged to lower business taxes from 11.5% to 5% and make the first $100,000 in small business income tax-exempt. Businesses are leaving. And, to be frank, but for personal reasons keeping me here, I’d have moved my fund out of this state to more business-friendly environs (not coincidentally red states) years ago. I am not the only one. Of course, it will cost you 2% to leave the state if you sell your home … they get you coming and going here.
Then there are the costs of auto insurance, third highest in the country, and healthcare, which run 15%-20% over the national average. It goes on and on &#8230; and the middle class continues to get squeezed. 
 
Gov. Murphy, a Goldman Sachs alumnus, need not worry about these matters of course. But these are issues that New Jersey residents feel every day, every time the latest utility bill or property tax assessment comes in the mail. Issues that Sherrill especially, pitching for the incumbent party, must address. (Her most sensible policy proposal I have seen is an idea to combine school districts to reduce redundant costs. But she needs more.) Yet, when pressed directly in two separate debates whether she plans to raise taxes, she could not give a straight answer.
And that is part of Sherrill’s problem. She seems unable to answer questions in a manner akin to Kamala Harris, master chef at the word salad bar. In a May 4 interview with CBS New York’s Marcia Kramer, the congresswoman was asked what law she’d like to enact on day one if she became governor. The way Sherrill looked at Kramer you would have thought the woman asked her to tell the world her social security number and ATM pin code. “I would love — that’s a really good question, ‘cause there’s so many that are coming to mind right now.” After stalling for about 18 seconds, she finally offered a meek pitch for a federal block grant program to help the state with “key programs” including ones in the “health care area”. (A less friendly interviewer might have followed up by informing the congresswoman that she would have no control over such grants as governor.)
Sherrill is pushing the “girl boss” motif, leaning on her experience as a Naval aviator to offer a veneer of toughness to resist those who have driven out some of the state’s most valuable taxpayers and businesses. But the last time the GOP held a majority in either chamber of the New Jersey Legislature was 35 years ago. New Jersey is a Democrat-controlled state. So, what policies do we need her to defend us against? Her own party’s?
<div id="attachment_988401" style="width: 877px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-988401" class="wp-image-988401 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-2240039071-867x576.jpg" alt="CAMDEN, NEW JERSEY - OCTOBER 11: New Jersey Democratic gubernatorial nominee Mikie Sherrill tours the USS Battleship New Jersey as part of a campaign stop on October 11, 2025 in Camden, New Jersey. Sherrill is set to square off against Republican nominee Jack Ciattarelli on November 4 for the position as New Jersey's 57th governor. (Photo by Matthew Hatcher/Getty Images)" width="867" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-2240039071-867x576.jpg 867w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-2240039071-300x199.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-2240039071-768x510.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/GettyImages-2240039071.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 867px) 100vw, 867px" />CAMDEN, NEW JERSEY &#8211; OCTOBER 11: New Jersey Democratic gubernatorial nominee Mikie Sherrill tours the USS Battleship New Jersey. (Photo by Matthew Hatcher/Getty Images)</div>
And this stain of de facto incumbency is about more than just party. Sherrill appears to be a graduate of the Nancy Pelosi School of Investing. Estimates vary, but her net worth, now roughly $10 million, grew significantly after she was elected to Congress. Ciattarelli has pounced on that, accusing her publicly of insider trading; she did indeed trade defense stocks while sitting on the House Armed Services Committee. Sherrill’s response to this accusation should be of little comfort to a DNC wishing to put behind them Hillary’s smug deflection of questions about wiping her private server clean (“you mean with a cloth?”) or Kamala’s “I haven’t been to Europe” debacle. Said Sherrill, “It’s not as if I go sit on the House Armed Services Committee and suddenly, I’m trading Boeing or something.” She was, in fact, fined for a reporting violation (not insider trading). Sherrill appears to be, to put it bluntly, another self-enriching DC “swamp” creature.
With that said, Ciattarelli certainly has some hurdles before him. He is running as a Republican in a state that has not voted Republican for President since 1988. Nor does New Jersey tend to vote for a GOP governor if there is also a Republican in the White House. But he also has some things in his favor. Locally, Murphy is finishing his second term, and not since 1965 has New Jersey given Democrats three gubernatorial terms in a row.
Sherrill has been trying to tap into the undercurrent of TDS I often see manifested in otherwise rational and intelligent people here by linking him to Trump. But how effective is that in 2025? As Ciattarelli has said: “The president has nothing to do with high property taxes or energy prices.” New Jerseyans may accept that. In 2016 and 2020 Donald Trump received 41% of the vote here. Last November that number climbed to 46%. And given the double-whammy of Trump’s successes so far — closing the border, ending wars, record-high stock markets, clamping down on urban crime, etc. — as well as the Democrat Party literally polling the lowest in a generation, it is no wonder that Democrats are looking to the New Jersey race with considerable disquiet.
Another, if anecdotal, bit of encouragement for Ciattarelli is that in my three decades in the Garden State I&#8217;ve noticed New Jerseyans are able to separate local and national politics. As one example from my own town, we had an off-year election in 2023 for four of the eight Town Council seats. Prior to then the make-up was seven Democrats and one Republican. After the election it was three Democrats, five Republicans. A GOP sweep. And this is in a zip code that nevertheless went 68% for Harris just a year later.
As with past elections, Democrats may be too reliant on optimistic polls, which consistently show Sherrill ahead. Even so, there are ominous signs in the numbers. The latest from Quinnipiac puts her at just 50% to Ciattarelli’s 44%. But as I have discussed with fellow conservatives in my town, no pollster ever calls us … or if they do we tend to not engage. It should be noted that a Rutgers-Eagleton poll in October 2024, less than a month before the election, showed Trump could expect just 35% of the Garden State to pull his lever. The actual result was, as stated, 11 points higher.
Barring a Sherrill blow-out, New Jersey is a “no-lose” scenario for the GOP. If Sherrill squeaks to a narrow win, well, it’s a blue state anyway. But if Ciattarelli somehow gets the nod, that would be a harbinger of bad things to come for the Democrats in the midterms. Who knows? For Ciattarelli, who has run for governor twice before, maybe third time’s the charm?
* * *
Brad Schaeffer is a commodities fund manager, author, and columnist whose articles have appeared on the pages of The Wall Street Journal, NY Post, NY Daily News, The Daily Wire, National Review, The Hill, The Federalist, Zerohedge, and other outlets. He is the author of three <a href="https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B07MQJBJSD?ccs_id=55112527-86f6-4c89-b82e-a96d6869abed">books</a>. You can also follow him on <a href="https://bradschaeffer.substack.com/">Substack</a> and <a href="https://x.com/bschaeffer123">X</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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Mikie Sherrill Campaigns For Governor Of New Jersey Ahead Of November’s Election

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