Wokeness is out and entertainment is in at The Kennedy Center. 
The Center’s lineup for the <a href="https://www.kennedy-center.org/">new season was just announced</a> as new staffers at the venue continue to make headlines for fighting back against progressive propaganda that’s been on the docket for years.
Now The Kennedy Center will feature a full lineup of music, drama, and dance that’s inspiring for all ages.
For younger fans, there are two world premiere productions as part of the season, including “The Sea Beyond the Ocean” and the Center’s first Theater for the Very Young commission, “Fishing for Stars,” an immersive non-verbal work for ages 2–6. 
There’s also a new play, “Young Dragon,” and a nostalgic throwback millennials are sure to recognize. The brand-new musical adventure “Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock LIVE” presented by the Jim Henson Company debuts in 2026.
“This season brings students of all ages on inspiring journeys,” Jordan LaSalle, Vice President of Education, said of the new shows. “Featuring some of the most exciting companies from across the nation and world, each performance encourages the young and young-at-heart to unleash their imaginations. We are thrilled to continue our decades-long commitment to commissioning new works, including our first for our youngest of audiences and their families.”
In the realm of dance, the Center will showcase ballet and dance offerings from world-class companies and artists. As America nears its 250th anniversary, the 2025-26 season features programming that reflects the deep history of the nation plus fresh, modern interpretations. This includes some new shows plus returning favorites such as “The Nutcracker” from The Cincinnati Ballet.
The theater season also has new and award winning shows, per the press release.
“There is truly a great theater season of excitement and joy coming to the Kennedy Center,” said Senior Vice President of Artistic Programming and Executive Producer of Theater, Jeffrey Finn. “I couldn’t be more proud to feature a season filled with Best Musicals from Broadway, including three Tony®–winning original Best Musicals: ‘The Outsiders,’ ‘Moulin Rouge! The Musical,’ and ‘Spamalot.’”
Trump made headlines earlier this year when he promised to reform the Kennedy Center, which began when he replaced its board and was elected chairman. Trump also tapped Special Envoy Richard Grenell to serve as the Center’s president.
“At my direction, we are going to make the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., GREAT AGAIN,” Trump wrote in February. “Just last year, the Kennedy Center featured Drag Shows specifically targeting our youth — THIS WILL STOP.”
The changes the new board made led to full-scale meltdowns on the Left, including protests expressed through interpretive dancing.
According to a previous report published on The Daily Wire, the Kennedy Center is $40 million in debt and will be making major cuts to staff.
&#8220;The former leadership built a broken budget with an operating deficit of 100 million dollars and a bottom-line deficit of 26 million dollars,&#8221; CFO Donna Arduin said. &#8220;The former leadership led Board members to believe there was a balanced budget when there was $26 Million in false funds. Fiscal Year 25 budget was previously passed with $26M of fictitious funds. We have now truly balanced the budget.”
Besides their financial goals, the Center’s new leadership is focused on offering high-quality entertainment that’s free from radical progressive messaging.

The Kennedy Center

New Kennedy Center Lineup Includes Family-Friendly Content, Zero Drag Shows For Kids

Culture

Dance

Entertainment

Music

Theater

U.S.

Washington D.C.

The new acting director of The Kennedy Center has responded to reports that employees plan to unionize.
“These people who only now want to speak out and organize were silent while the Center was going into deficit spending,” Richard Grenell said in a statement on the situation, per <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2025/05/15/you_should_be_celebrating_trump_kennedy_center_rolls_eyes_at_union_push__152798.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">RealClearPolitics</a>. “They missed their moment but should be celebrating now.”
His remarks come after multiple legacy news outlets reported on the unionization push. The Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/theater/2025/05/15/kennedy-center-union/">reported</a> that it spoke with Kennedy Center employees about their reasoning, who confirmed it was spurred by President Donald Trump taking control of the center and firing the entire board of trustees.
According to newly filed paperwork, the new union will be called the “Kennedy Center United Arts Workers,” and instead of having “at will” employment status, they will be “for cause.” This means instead of being able to be fired at any time for any reason, leadership will be required to prove a reason for any dismissals.
One union organizer told The Post, “Communication from leadership to staff has been reduced to emails that are few and far between,” and claimed they haven’t had any staff meetings.  
“This lack of transparency from leadership has really contributed to a culture of anxiety and uncertainty,” the unnamed person added.
During a visit to the center earlier this year, Trump commented on the state of the building, which first opened to the public in 1971. The president said it was in “tremendous disrepair, as is a lot of the rest of our country — most of it because of bad management,” per the <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2025-03-17/trump-visits-kennedy-center-slams-hamilton">Los Angeles Times</a>. Trump also said he was “disappointed” but promised to “do what has to be done” to make things right again.
Trump’s Kennedy Center takeover and shakeup have caused big reactions from leftists. There have been protests, cancellations, and a general aura of doom and gloom, but the venue has been attracting record crowds despite the drama. The Kennedy Center just broke its all-time attendance record for a public event on March 29, welcoming 11,000 attendees, of whom 76% were there for the first time.
This comes after Trump also promised to scrub leftist programs from the Center’s lineup. “NO MORE DRAG SHOWS, OR OTHER ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA — ONLY THE BEST,” the president wrote on Truth Social in February.

U.S. Ambassador Grenell At Berlin 4th Of July

Kennedy Center Director Ric Grenell Says Staff Planning To Unionize ‘Should Be Celebrating’ Instead

Kennedy Center Director Reacts To Employees Plan To Unionize: 'You Should Be Celebrating'

Donald Trump

General

Politics

Ric Grenell

Richard Grenell

Unions

FBI Director Kash Patel said on Friday that the bureau&#8217;s J. Edgar Hoover Building in Washington, D.C., which has been the agency&#8217;s headquarters for 50 years, would shut down as he seeks to move agents out of the nation&#8217;s capital.
Patel made the surprise announcement during a <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/video/6372897577112">preview clip</a> of Fox News&#8217; Sunday Morning Futures, which was released on Friday morning, alongside Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino.
&#8220;I didn&#8217;t know I was going to do this, but I&#8217;m going to announce it on your show anyway: this FBI is leaving the Hoover Building,&#8221; Patel said. &#8220;Because this building is unsafe for our workforce. We want the American men and women to know, if you&#8217;re going to come work at the premier law enforcement agency in the world, we&#8217;re going to give you a building that&#8217;s commensurate with that, and that&#8217;s not this place.&#8221;
Bongino laughed as Patel made the announcement, telling him, &#8220;You just gave up a big nugget there.&#8221;
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BREAKING: Director Kash Patel announces the FBI will be leaving the J. Edgar Hoover building <a href="https://t.co/VfJ1LnrJK6">pic.twitter.com/VfJ1LnrJK6</a>
&mdash; ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) <a href="https://twitter.com/alx/status/1923362159192342715?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 16, 2025</a></blockquote>
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A year before he became FBI director, Patel <a href="https://rollcall.com/2025/02/20/senate-confirms-kash-patel-as-fbi-director/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> that he would &#8220;shut down the FBI Hoover building on Day 1 and [reopen it the] next day as a museum of the deep state.&#8221; He added that he would &#8220;take the 7,000 employees that work in that building and send them across America to chase down criminals.&#8221; The FBI director has been <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/kash-patel-to-relocate-hundreds-of-fbi-staff-out-of-dc-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pushing</a> major changes to the bureau, including increased &#8220;accountability&#8221; and a return to more traditional law enforcement roles.
For more than two decades, the FBI has been considering moving out of the J. Edgar Hoover Building, which was completed in 1975. A <a href="https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-12-96.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2011 report</a> from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said the building needed serious repairs and was &#8220;inefficient&#8221; for the FBI&#8217;s needs. Former President Joe Biden <a href="https://wjla.com/news/local/washington-fbi-headquarters-hoover-building-deteriorating-pennsylvania-avenue-set-for-move-suburbs-2022-president-joe-biden-budget-fiscal-year-2023-it-infrastructure-greenbelt-metro-station-landover-gsa-warehouse" target="_blank" rel="noopener">included</a> language in his 2023 fiscal year budget to get the ball rolling on a brand new 2.1 million-square-foot headquarters for the bureau in Maryland that would house around 7,500 employees. The project would cost $2.5 billion.
President Donald Trump <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/baltimore/news/maryland-washington-dc-fbi-headquarters-greenbelt-president-trump/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in March, however, that he is putting a stop to those plans, and instead, wants to &#8220;build another big FBI building right where it is, which would have been the right place because the FBI and the DOJ [Department of Justice] have to be near each other.&#8221;
&#8220;They were going to build an FBI headquarters three hours away in Maryland, a liberal state,&#8221; Trump said, adding, &#8220;But we&#8217;re going to stop it, not going to let that happen.&#8221;
Patel also said he wants to reduce the number of FBI employees in the D.C. area.
&#8220;Look, the FBI has 38,000 when we&#8217;re fully manned, which we&#8217;re not,&#8221; Patel told Fox News. &#8220;In the national capital region, in the 50-mile radius around Washington, D.C., there were 11,000 FBI employees. That&#8217;s like a third of the workforce. A third of the crime doesn&#8217;t happen here, so we&#8217;re taking 1,500 of those folks and moving them out.&#8221;

Kash Patel

Kash Patel Says FBI Is Shutting Down D.C. HQ

kash patel

Trump Administration

President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that he would tap a new nominee to serve as the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia after his pick, Ed Martin, struggled for support.
In comments from the Oval Office, Trump expressed disappointment in Martin’s situation. The nomination was pulled after GOP Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina met with Martin and said Tuesday that he would not back him for the U.S. attorney role.
&#8220;He is a terrific person,” said Trump. “He wasn&#8217;t getting the support from people that I thought.”
“I just want to say, Ed is unbelievable. Hopefully we can bring him into, whether it&#8217;s DOJ or whatever, in some capacity because he’s really outstanding,” the president continued. “To me, it was disappointing. I have to be straight. I was disappointed. A lot of people were disappointed. But that’s the way it works sometimes. That&#8217;s the way it works.”
“And he wasn&#8217;t rejected, but we felt it would be very – it would be hard. And we have somebody else that we’ll be announcing over the next two days who’s going to be great,” he added.
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🚨 BREAKING: It seems Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) succeeded in tanking the nomination of Ed Martin to U.S. Attorney for D.C. 
Trump: &quot;We have somebody else that will be great. I just want to say, Ed is unbelievable. Hopefully we can bring him into, whether it&#39;s DOJ or whatever, in… <a href="https://t.co/NYsK0sjIC3">pic.twitter.com/NYsK0sjIC3</a>
&mdash; Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) <a href="https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/1920508588616798291?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 8, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Tillis <a href="https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/05/06/congress/thom-tillis-opposes-ed-martin-00330664" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> reporters on Tuesday that his opposition to Martin was largely over disagreements about the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
“I have no tolerance for anybody that entered the building on Jan. 6, and that’s probably where most of the friction was,” the Republican senator said. He added that he had visited with Trump and suggested SEC Chair Jay Clayton be appointed to the post.
“If you take a look at his tenure as SEC &#8230; he’s a rock solid, smart guy,” Tillis said. “So all I’ve said was: ‘Look, if we’ve got to find another nominee, I wouldn’t count him out if he would be willing to serve.’”
It’s unclear if Trump means to take Tillis’ advice. Tillis’ pushback to Martin blocked his nomination in committee. As a member of the Judiciary Committee, Tillis’ opposition meant that Martin’s nomination would stick in committee in an 11-11 vote, assuming all other Republicans supported the nominee and all Democrats opposed.
Martin is currently serving as acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. His appointment is set to expire on May 20.
The acting U.S. attorney sparked some pushback among Republicans over his past comments on the January 6 riot and some of the people involved.

Trump Teases New, ‘Great’ Pick For D.C. U.S. Attorney After Withdrawing Ed Martin

Executive

Thom Tillis

Kennedy Center director Richard Grenell has issued a strongly worded response to reports that around a dozen actors from a “Les Misérables” tour group are planning to boycott an upcoming performance at the facility because President Donald Trump is expected to attend.
“We haven’t heard this rumor,” Grenell told Entertainment Weekly in a <a href="https://ew.com/kennedy-center-boss-calls-out-les-mis-actors-over-trump-performance-11730526">statement</a> on Wednesday. “But the Kennedy Center will no longer fund intolerance.”
“Any performer who isn’t professional enough to perform for patrons of all backgrounds, regardless of political affiliation, won’t be welcomed,” Grenell added. “In fact, we think it would be important to out those vapid and intolerant artists to ensure producers know who they shouldn’t hire — and that the public knows which shows have political litmus tests to sit in the audience.”
“The Kennedy Center wants to be a place where people of all political stripes sit next to each other and never ask who someone voted for but instead enjoy a performance together,” he concluded.
Grenell was responding to a CNN <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/07/politics/kennedy-center-les-mis-cast-boycott-trump">report</a> citing sources claiming that “Les Mis” cast members were allowed to boycott the June 11 performance because of Trump. The outlet didn’t name any names, but said “both major cast members and members of the ensemble are among those sitting out,” per their sources.
The Kennedy Center has been in the news lately following Trump’s election and his subsequent move to fire all former leadership and appoint himself Chairman of the Board, plus installing Grenell as interim director. 
There have been protests, cancellations, and general doom and gloom from leftists, but despite their reactions, the venue has been attracting record crowds. The Kennedy Center just broke its all-time attendance record for a public event it hosted on March 29, welcoming 11,000 attendees, of whom 76% were there for the first time.
This comes after Trump promised to scrub leftist programs from the Center’s lineup. “NO MORE DRAG SHOWS, OR OTHER ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA — ONLY THE BEST,” the president wrote on Truth Social in February. 
“At my direction, we are going to make the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., GREAT AGAIN,” Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-dumps-kennedy-center-board-puts-immediate-end-to-drag-shows-for-kids">wrote</a> in another post. “Just last year, the Kennedy Center featured Drag Shows specifically targeting our youth — THIS WILL STOP.”

Mike Pompeo Visits Germany

Kennedy Center Director Rips ‘Les Mis’ Cast Over Trump Boycott: ‘Vapid And Intolerant’

Kennedy Center Director Rips 'Les Mis' Cast Over Trump Boycott: 'Vapid And Intolerant'

Kennedy Center

President Donald Trump&#8217;s top prosecutor in Washington, D.C., faces an uncertain future after one Republican in the Senate expressed opposition to his nomination for a full-time appointment.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) told reporters on Tuesday that he met with interim U.S. Attorney Ed Martin but is unwilling to vote for him because of his views concerning the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021.
&#8220;I need somebody in that role who believes that every single person that came into this building illegally should have suffered some consequences,&#8221; Tillis said, <a href="https://x.com/maxpcohen/status/1919782656016802242" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to Punchbowl News.
Tillis also <a href="https://x.com/alanhe/status/1919759215154872360" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> reporters that he &#8220;indicated&#8221; to the White House that &#8220;at this point&#8221; he would not support the nomination, although the senator emphasized that he would back Martin in any other district besides D.C.
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Tillis after meeting with Ed Martin last night:
“At this point I’ve indicated to the White House I wouldn&#8217;t support his nomination.” <a href="https://t.co/T1OSqSabOn">pic.twitter.com/T1OSqSabOn</a>
— Alan He (@alanhe) <a href="https://twitter.com/alanhe/status/1919759215154872360?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 6, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Martin&#8217;s interim status lasts only for 120 days, a term set to end on May 20. He needs Senate confirmation to remain in the role, but the margin in any votes is sure to be close, as Democrats already oppose his nomination.
In fact, Democrats have <a href="https://www.schiff.senate.gov/news/press-releases/news-sens-schiff-durbin-senate-judiciary-democrats-file-misconduct-complaint-against-interim-u-s-attorney-ed-martin-with-d-c-bar/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">filed</a> a professional misconduct complaint against Martin that alleged he abused his position, and <a href="https://x.com/JudiciaryDems/status/1919527800576299359" target="_blank" rel="noopener">criticized</a> the nominee over the disclosure that he appeared on Alex Jones&#8217; InfoWars show.
A key hurdle rests with the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has 12 Republicans and 10 Democrats. If Tillis were to vote &#8220;no,&#8221; Martin would not advance. As of press time, the panel has not even put Martin&#8217;s nomination on its agenda.
“All I can say is, as the chairman of the committee….I want to put people on the agenda, that I can help the President be successful in his nominees. And that&#8217;s all I can say at this point,&#8221; said Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA), <a href="https://x.com/AnnieGrayerCNN/status/1919759823794540628" target="_blank" rel="noopener">per</a> CNN.
Trump vouched for Martin, who has overseen January 6 case dismissals following an executive <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-issues-full-pardon-to-nearly-all-j6-defendants-could-be-released-from-prison-tonight" target="_blank" rel="noopener">order</a> granting pardons for defendants and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/u-s-attorney-says-he-will-chase-anyone-threatening-doge-employees-to-the-end-of-the-earth" target="_blank" rel="noopener">vowed</a> to &#8220;chase&#8221; anyone who threatened the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) project&#8217;s employees.
&#8220;I hope, that the Republican Senators will make a commitment to his approval, which is now before them. Ed is coming up on the deadline for Voting and, if approved, HE WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN,&#8221; Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114457993936599790?utm_source=Sailthru&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=5/6/25%20%20AM:&amp;utm_term=Punchbowl%20AM%20and%20Active%20Subscribers%20from%20Memberful%20Combined" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posted</a> on Truth Social on Monday.
Another Republican member on the Senate Judiciary Committee whose stance on Martin had been unclear, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), reportedly <a href="https://x.com/burgessev/status/1919763073654485109" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> on Tuesday that he intended to support the nominee in a vote.

Interim United States Attorney for DC Edward Martin attends Anacostia Coordinating Council meeting

Trump’s Pick For Top D.C. Prosecutor In Jeopardy

Congress

Department of Justice

U.S. attorneys

U.S. Senate

President and Interim Executive Director of the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Richard Grenell called out The Associated Press for allegedly lying about an event getting canceled. 
“The [AP] lied,” he shared in a tweet on Monday. “And &#8230; [The Advocate] has been forced to tell the truth. We didn’t cancel a single show at the Kennedy Center. We simply ask that shows don’t lose money and leave us with the bill,” he added, including the hashtag “CommonSense.”
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The <a href="https://twitter.com/AP?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AP</a> lied. 
And the <a href="https://twitter.com/TheAdvocateMag?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@TheAdvocateMag</a> has been forced to tell the truth. 
We didn’t cancel a single show at the Kennedy Center. 
We simply ask that shows don’t lose money and leave us with the bill. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CommonSense?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CommonSense</a> <a href="https://t.co/AVkNK5CPJO">https://t.co/AVkNK5CPJO</a>
&mdash; Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) <a href="https://twitter.com/RichardGrenell/status/1919447515578921405?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 5, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Per <a href="https://www.advocate.com/news/worldpride-venue-changes-explained">The Advocate</a>, Capital Pride Alliance canceled their event at The Kennedy Center voluntarily, which is different from the story published in AP.
The outlet noted that a display of panels including the display of an AIDS Memorial Quilt and a Drag Story Hour have been relocated to WorldPride Welcome Center in D.C.
Capital Pride Alliance Executive Director Ryan Bos told The Advocate that they changed venues because of the “inhospitable” environment at The Kennedy Center.
“We would not be allowed to have any official drag programming,” Bos said. “That defeats the purpose of Pride — in terms of creating a welcoming and safe environment for anybody to feel comfortable being their true, authentic self, which is what Pride’s about.”
Bos continued, saying, “If someone doesn’t feel comfortable being their true, authentic self, then that’s not the venue or space where we want to have an event.”
In response to the accusations, a rep from The Kennedy Center told The Daily Wire, “We would have worked with them on a program.”
Meanwhile, the AP story published April 25 said that “organizers and the Kennedy Center have canceled a week’s worth of events,” with some artists and producers allegedly telling the outlet that their Pride-related programs were dropped. So far, the outlet has not issued a statement or published a correction to the original piece.
The Kennedy Center has been in the news ever since President Trump took office and promised major reforms, including firing the entire board, as The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dolly-parton-show-heads-to-kennedy-center-as-they-usher-in-golden-age-of-the-arts">reported</a>.
“At my direction, we are going to make the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., GREAT AGAIN,” Trump wrote on social media in February. “Just last year, the Kennedy Center featured Drag Shows specifically targeting our youth — THIS WILL STOP.”
The changes made by the new board led to full-scale meltdowns on the Left, including protests expressed through interpretive dancing. But their protests haven’t made much of a difference. The Kennedy Center just broke its all-time attendance record for a public event it hosted on March 29, welcoming 11,000 attendees, of whom 76% were there for the first time.

Kennedy Center President Ric Grenell: ‘The AP Lied,’ Venue Didn’t Cancel Events

Media

Pride

President Donald Trump and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced on Monday that the 2027 NFL draft would be held at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., as the nation&#8217;s capital prepares for the Washington Commanders, formerly Redskins, to return to the district.
The National Mall is home to iconic American monuments and memorials. Trump was joined by Goodell, D.C. Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser, Washington Commanders owner Josh Harris, and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum for the announcement in the Oval Office.
&#8220;The draft is a celebration of one of our country&#8217;s most cherished cultural institutions and the annual highlight for football fans everywhere,&#8221; Trump said. &#8220;Everyone in the world is going to be watching.&#8221;
&#8220;Not only are these announcements great for the NFL, but they also advance the mission of making Washington D.C. safe and clean and beautiful,&#8221; the president added.
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.<a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a>: &quot;Not only are these announcements great for the NFL, but they also advance the mission of making Washington D.C. safe and clean and beautiful. We&#39;re working very closely with the Mayor &#8212; and we&#39;ve made a lot of improvements in the last few months&#8230; Crime is way down.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/Yt0BUcG6v2">pic.twitter.com/Yt0BUcG6v2</a>
&mdash; Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1919449512378089557?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 5, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Goodell said that he believes the draft in D.C. will draw more than one million people over three days, adding, &#8220;The draft has become one of the great entertainment and sports events.&#8221;
&#8220;It will not just be an event. It will be something that will show the world how far the nation&#8217;s capital has come and where it&#8217;s going,&#8221; the NFL commissioner said.
For decades, the NFL draft was held at different venues in New York City, but beginning in 2015, the league allowed cities to bid on hosting the draft, an event that now draws hundreds of thousands of people. Last year, Detroit <a href="https://www.freep.com/story/sports/nfl/lions/2025/04/25/2025-nfl-draft-attendance-round-1-green-bay-detroit/83250827007/#:~:text=Green%20Bay%20hosted%20approximately%20205%2C000,during%20the%20three%2Dday%20event." target="_blank" rel="noopener">set the record</a> with 775,000 people coming to the three-day event, <a href="https://detroitsports.org/news/2024/7/11/general-visit-detroit-and-the-detroit-sports-commission-announce-record-setting-2024-nfl-draft-generated-213-6-million-in-economic-impact.aspx#:~:text=%22Visit%20Detroit%20and%20the%20Detroit,Co%2DChair%20of%20the%20Detroit" target="_blank" rel="noopener">generating</a> more than $200 million for the city&#8217;s economy. The 2025 draft in Green Bay last month drew an estimated 600,000 fans.
Professional football is making a comeback in the nation&#8217;s capital as the Commanders will return to playing within the district&#8217;s borders in 2030. The team is also led by Jayden Daniels, an exciting young quarterback who took Washington to the NFC championship game last season. The team appears poised to be a serious contender for years to come. Last week, the Commanders, alongside D.C. Mayor Bowser, announced the construction of new domed stadium in the district, built on the site of Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium, where the Redskins played for 36 seasons before moving to Prince George&#8217;s County, Maryland, in the late 1990s.
Trump previously <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/sports/trump-touts-commanders-stadium-deal-hopes-lead-less-crime-dc" target="_blank" rel="noopener">called</a> the new stadium deal a &#8220;HUGE WIN for Washington, D.C., and for the Team’s incredible fan base.&#8221;
&#8220;It will also boost Economic Development, create more Jobs and, hopefully, lead to less Crime in the area,&#8221; he added. &#8220;We are making Washington, D.C., GREAT AGAIN, one step at a time!&#8221;

NFL Draft announcement

Trump Joins NFL Commish To Announce Iconic Location For 2027 Draft

Roger Goodell

The pilot of the Black Hawk that crashed into a passenger jet in January, killing all 67 people aboard both aircraft, failed to turn the military helicopter when advised to do so by her co-pilot, according to a new report.
On Sunday, The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/27/business/dc-plane-crash-reagan-airport.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">published</a> new details on various &#8220;failures&#8221; underlying the mid-air <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/report-suggests-airport-tower-understaffed-at-time-of-collision-had-been-for-years" target="_blank" rel="noopener">collision</a>, which happened over the Potomac River in the Washington, D.C., area.
In the final moments, Capt. Rebecca Lobach, who was piloting the Army Black Hawk Helicopter involved in the crash, was told by her co-pilot and instructor, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Loyd Eaves, that he believed air traffic control wanted them to turn left to avoid the American Airlines passenger jet as it was about to land at Reagan National Airport.
&#8220;Turning left would have opened up more space between the helicopter and Flight 5342, which was heading for Runway 33 at an altitude of roughly 300 feet,&#8221; the New York Times report said. &#8220;She did not turn left.&#8221;
Investigators &#8220;might never know why&#8221; Lobach continued flying the helicopter straight, the report asserted.
&#8220;There is no indication that she was suffering from health issues at the time or that a medical event affected her during those final moments aboard the Black Hawk, according to friends and people familiar with the crash investigation, which included autopsies and performance log reviews,&#8221; it said.
As noted in the report, there were other issues underlying the deadly incident, including those related to the helicopter&#8217;s altitude and radio communications.
The air traffic controller had contacted the Black Hawk, asking if its crew had seen the passenger jet, according to the report. Eaves said they saw &#8220;traffic&#8221; and requested permission for &#8220;visual separation&#8221; that would allow the helicopter to maneuver around it.
But cockpit voice recordings &#8220;indicate&#8221; the controller&#8217;s command for the Black Hawk to &#8220;pass behind&#8221; the passenger jet may not have been heard by the military helicopter crew because of a &#8220;bleep-out&#8221; when they activated their microphone.
Two seconds after the controller&#8217;s cut-out instruction, Eaves again communicated that the helicopter had the jet in its sights and sought the go-ahead for visual separation. In their last communication, the controller replied, &#8220;Vis sep approved.&#8221; That&#8217;s when, with 15 seconds to go, Eaves told Lobach that he believed air traffic control had given them the go-ahead to turn.

Emergency Crews Respond To Aircraft Crash Near Reagan National Airport

New Revelation From Deadly Mid-Air Collision: Black Hawk Pilot Failed To Turn When Advised

Air Travel

Military

Editor’s note: This is the third installment of a six-part series by pollster Brent Buchanan on the politics of the American South. Last week, Buchanan explored the shifting priorities of minority voters in the South — and why Democrats shouldn’t take those voters for granted. This week, he breaks down the unique features, and critical importance, of the Southern suburbs.
We hope you enjoy.
—
Few things embody American culture and consumerism better than the suburbs.
Both a subject of generational aspiration and comedic ridicule, America’s suburbs remain a bridge to a nostalgic past and the ideal archetype of the “American Dream,” where home ownership, good schools, and safe neighborhoods still represent the opportunity of upward mobility and a prosperous future.
It&#8217;s fitting, then, with backyard barbecue season approaching, that, in part three of this series, we examine why the suburbs in America’s South have been politically stagnant.
While many of the country’s suburbs are rapidly shifting, voting behavior and partisanship in Southern suburbs are remarkably stable. This “stuck in neutral” dynamic is shaping the political battlegrounds of tomorrow — and it’s not necessarily a disadvantage for Republicans. If Democrats keep choosing the 20 percent side of 80/20 issues — like men in women’s sports, deporting illegals, or prioritizing the rights of nefarious illegal immigrants over crime victims — they’ll lose votes to Republicans or drive their own voters to stay home in the 2026 midterm elections.
That would be good news for Republicans. But our analysis of the South suggests its suburbs are much more hardened than its northern or western counterparts. Too often, mostly on Election Night, pundits and analysts rush to describe the country’s suburbs as hotly contested areas with high concentrations of swing voters.
While this is true for suburban pockets elsewhere in America, it is not the case in the South.
“As we mentioned in part one of this series, when we described the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-rise-of-the-south-is-not-what-you-think-why-it-holds-the-keys-to-political-control" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sweet Tea Suburbs</a>, their inelasticity reflects a unique dynamic that poses a significant challenge for Republicans,” says Nicholas Valdiviez, Cygnal’s Sampling Lead for this exclusive Daily Wire project. “The GOP could seek to strengthen its performance in other areas to offset suburban stagnation, or they could try to crack through some of these areas, though the payoff would be incremental and likely extend beyond 2026.”
<h3>The Faux South: A Case Study in Suburban Inelasticity</h3>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-911457" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/DW-The-Faux-South-1.png" alt="" width="690" height="535" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/DW-The-Faux-South-1.png 690w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/DW-The-Faux-South-1-300x233.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 690px) 100vw, 690px" /></div>
The word faux is not used as a negative slight toward any of the great people or communities of this region, nor to detract from their “southernness.” In fact, as an important descriptor for this far-reaching analysis of America’s South, the term illustrates the region’s distinct and historically vital role as a sprawling gateway to the southern heartlands shaped more by commerce and trade routes than agriculture, combined with its geographical position along the borderlands of our nation’s capital.
Voters here, especially in Virginia, will tell you they are absolutely Southern — with the exception of those hard-left-leaning folks living in the DC-Maryland-Virginia (DMV) nexus along the Potomac River. Surrounding the ineffectual machinations of DC, the Faux South covers all of Maryland, most of West Virginia through the Alleghany Mountains, throughout middle and southeastern Virginia, extending down to coastal and near-inland North Carolina.
From 2016 to 2020, the Faux South saw the largest surge in Democratic turnout in the Southern United States — a 48% increase — but Republican turnout also jumped by 27%, marking the biggest regional year-over-year turnout shift in the last 16 years. At face value, that would signal some tailwinds for Republicans as the Faux South mixes most frequently with the Trumpian Highlands, another southern transitionary region. But it is the presence of the Sweet Tea Suburbs that serves as a sort of counteractive ingredient to such tailwinds.
Examining Virginia and North Carolina as the dominant states of the Faux South, we measured a strong voter disenfranchisement for elected officials at all levels, more than any other region in the South. Even our latest National Voter Trends (NVT) <a href="https://www.cygn.al/poll-democrats-continue-to-struggle-as-trump-maintains-strong-approval-even-in-light-of-tariffs/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">poll</a> bears this out: voters in this region had high mistrust of their elected officials from local positions like mayor and city council up to their Member of Congress. The Faux South’s approval of their congressional representatives falls nearly four standard deviations below the average (18-point approval vs. the average of 29%, or the high of 36%). Even approval of their state legislators is 10 points below the average, and five points below the average of mayors and/or village presidents.
While the numbers are net positive in our latest NVT and across all regions in the South, they&#8217;re markedly lower here than in the other regions. And despite surges in turnout, this sentiment influences how voters in the Faux South differ from the other regions’ more rightward leanings, making them more likely to disengage altogether or maintain the status quo.
Yet, as entrenched as this region can be, there are some silver linings for Republicans. Since Virginia governors are limited to two nonconsecutive terms, Lieutenant Governor Winsome Sears shows the most <a href="https://www.cygn.al/virginia-governor-race-poll-sears-positioned-for-strong-showing/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">promising </a>signs to galvanize a broad base of support and carry on the progress of widely popular outgoing Governor Glenn Youngkin. How the battles for Republican control of state legislative seats, particularly in suburban districts, with Sears atop the ticket, will indicate how well Republicans have begun to crack the Faux South.
North Carolina is a tougher story for Republicans. Though the state saw a shift rightward from 2020 to 2024, the tension lies in this portion of the Faux South’s proximity to the Sweet Tea Suburbs. The &#8220;Research Triangle,&#8221; the area between Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill, is central to scattered pockets of Sweet Tea Suburbs, which we described earlier as nearly immovable (split in 2020 and only R+3 in 2024), upper middle-class neighborhoods with high economic mobility. The confluence of these regions, combined with large areas of Trumpian Highlands in the western parts of the state, makes North Carolina more resistant to significant Republican gains.
<h3>Influence of Cities</h3>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-911459" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/DW-part-III-four-cities-652x576.png" alt="" width="652" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/DW-part-III-four-cities-652x576.png 652w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/DW-part-III-four-cities-300x265.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/DW-part-III-four-cities-768x678.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/DW-part-III-four-cities.png 798w" sizes="(max-width: 652px) 100vw, 652px" /></div>
The overall trend remains one of inelasticity, with only a modest Republican recovery and little evidence of the dramatic swings seen elsewhere. But the hardening of the South&#8217;s suburbs is also heavily influenced by the region&#8217;s cities. Some are burgeoning hubs of economic revitalization, while others are still stuck in neutral themselves and struggle to keep pace with the South’s rising political prominence.
The most salient point to describe the odd relationship between Southern cities and suburbs is that voters in the ‘burbs tend to be more woke and believe in Leftist virtue signaling as a way to prove their solidarity with the more economically-stratified and depressed conditions of largely-minority city dwellers. &#8220;Normies,&#8221; as Ben Shapiro might call them, chalk this up to the same old political pandering we’ve seen from highly educated suburbanite Democrats. But the political symbiosis of Southern cities and many of their surrounding suburbs has created a concrete structure for social and political acceptance of the status quo.
Compounding this disjointed interdependency is the high rate of disenfranchisement among city dwellers, especially among minority voters, who tend to view these strongholds of Democratic leadership as a matter of course — years of broken and empty promises have led less to an embrace of Republicans and more to full-on disengagement. Contrast this with cities like Chicago, where more minority communities are starting to push back against entrenched and corrupt Democratic leadership.
What makes so many of the South’s suburbs hardened to political swings, especially in Republicans’ favor, is this symbiotic relationship with many of its cities.
In recent elections, we saw the opposite happen in northern states like Ohio, where suburbs like those outside Columbus and Cleveland helped turn that state from a closely-watched swing state in presidential election years to a reliably red state. Southern cities like Memphis, meanwhile, mix heavily with the Big Sky South and Soulful South, keeping it politically stagnant and resistant to major partisan shifts.
We see something similar in Huntsville, where explosive population and economic growth have made the area more influential within Alabama. With a heavy dose of Trumpian Highlands to mix with, the surrounding suburbs continue to reflect consistent voting patterns year after year.
Similarly, Birmingham and Charleston’s suburbs have not experienced significant partisan shifts. Even as their urban cores evolve, their suburbs have not experienced significant political swings, despite some of the prevailing Soulful South trends we noted in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-end-of-democratic-assumptions-how-minority-voters-are-reshaping-southern-politics?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Brent+Buchanan&amp;category=News+and+Analysis&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=The+End+of+Democratic+Assumptions%3A+How+Minority+Voters+Are+Reshaping+Southern+Politics" target="_blank" rel="noopener">part two</a> of this series.
This persistent inelasticity underscores how deeply-rooted disenfranchisement and longstanding racial and cultural undercurrents keep these Southern cities and their surrounding suburbs in a perpetual state of tension, making them the most resistant to the nationwide political and generational realignment that has accelerated in the Trump era.
For Republicans, the challenge is to find incremental gains in both the suburbs and cities or look beyond these gridlocked areas for more growth in regions like the Big Hat Bloc or among the Republican Resettlers. In those two regions, <a href="https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2023/12/07/hispanics-in-the-rio-grande-valley-are-now-swing-voters/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hispanic populations</a> in particular are ripe for additional Republican gains.
For Democrats, the risk of alienating moderate voters or encouraging disengagement is more real than ever. If they continue to champion positions out of step with the suburban mainstream, Republicans can capitalize. This gives credence to the strategy of letting your opponents make unforced errors.
As the South continues to grow in population and political influence, the lesson is clear: state lines and national narratives rarely capture the true dynamics at play. The inelasticity of Southern suburbs is less a sign of stagnation than a testament to the encroaching fallout from the national political realignment.
COMING UP NEXT: All eyes are on Georgia and North Carolina ahead of the 2026 midterms. As two of the most prominent Democratic holdouts in the South, parts four and five of this series will delve into the extent of their influence and whether they’ll remain regional hegemons or embrace the coming red wave of longstanding conservative control.

Neat line of suburban houses in Fairfax, Virginia

Beyond The Swing: Why Southern Suburbs Refuse To Budge 

2026 Midterms

Glenn Youngkin

Suburbs

Virginia

Voting

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Wednesday that the United States is focused on developing deeper trade relationships with nations around the globe as the Trump administration seeks to bring countries to the negotiating table through tariffs.
Bessent spoke at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank meetings in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday morning, addressing President Donald Trump&#8217;s global trade strategy. The meetings come a day after Bessent said in a closed-door meeting that a prolonged trade war against China is <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-says-tariff-on-china-will-drop-substantially-after-bessent-warns-against-trade-war?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+Says+Tariff+On+China+Will+Drop+%E2%80%98Substantially%E2%80%99+After+Bessent+Warns+Against+Trade+War" target="_blank" rel="noopener">unsustainable</a>.
&#8220;I wish to be clear: &#8216;America First&#8217; does not mean America alone,&#8221; Bessent said. &#8220;To the contrary, it is a call for deeper collaboration and mutual respect among trade partners. Far from stepping back, &#8216;America First&#8217; seeks to expand U.S. leadership and international institutions like the IMF and the World Bank. By embracing a stronger leadership role, &#8216;America First&#8217; seeks to restore fairness to the international economic system.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/SecScottBessent?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SecScottBessent</a>: &quot;I wish to be clear: America first does not mean America alone. To the contrary, it is a call for deeper collaboration and mutual respect among trade partners.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/Nes9sPK993">pic.twitter.com/Nes9sPK993</a>
&mdash; Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1915046107115352346?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 23, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Trump administration officials said that more than 100 countries are ready to negotiate with the United States on trade, and the president&#8217;s trade team is set to meet with 34 nations this week. China, however, remains a major hurdle for the administration&#8217;s trade agenda as Trump and his team still seek to bring China to the table to work out a deal. After Bessent warned against a trade war with China on Tuesday, Trump told reporters that the 145% tariff on Chinese goods would drop.
“It will come down substantially, but it won’t be zero,” Trump added.
Stocks rose on Tuesday following Bessent&#8217;s remarks and continue to climb on Wednesday morning. Bessent also addressed trade with China during his speech at the IMF and World Bank conference, saying the country &#8220;needs to change&#8221; its strategy.
&#8220;China, in particular, is in need of a rebalancing,&#8221; Bessent said. &#8220;Recent data shows the Chinese economy tilting even further away from consumption toward manufacturing. China&#8217;s economic system, with growth driven by manufacturing exports, will continue to create even more serious imbalances with its trading partners if the status quo is allowed to continue.&#8221;
&#8220;China&#8217;s current economic model is built on exporting its way out of its economic troubles. It&#8217;s an unsustainable model that is not only harming China, but the entire world,&#8221; he added. &#8220;China needs to change. The country knows it needs to change.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/SecScottBessent?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SecScottBessent</a>: &quot;China, in particular, is in need of a rebalancing&#8230; China&#39;s current economic model is built on exporting its way out of its economic troubles. It&#39;s an unsustainable model that is not only harming China, but the entire world. China needs to change.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/uKcUkhc22r">pic.twitter.com/uKcUkhc22r</a>
&mdash; Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1915046948484288659?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 23, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Scott Bessent

‘America First Does Not Mean America Alone’: Bessent Calls For ‘Deeper’ Trade Relationships

America First

China

Economy

Tariffs

Trade War

On January 24, 2017, just four days after Donald Trump was inaugurated for his first term in office, the FBI sent two agents to the White House to interrogate Trump&#8217;s national security adviser, Michael Flynn. It wasn&#8217;t billed as an interrogation at the time; they convinced Flynn that it was just an opportunity for a friendly chat. But in retrospect, their goal could not have been any more clear: They wanted to manufacture a pretext to secure Flynn&#8217;s termination. Getting rid of Flynn would enable the FBI to continue to conduct a series of fraudulent investigations into the Trump administration. It would insulate the bureau from any kind of large-scale reform. And it would help the FBI spread the narrative that the Trump administration was secretly working for Russia in some way.
Therefore, the FBI asked Flynn a few questions in the White House. Then they convinced Mike Pence that Flynn had lied to them — even though to this day, no one can explain what exactly Flynn said, because the conversation wasn&#8217;t recorded. In any event, Pence took the FBI&#8217;s word for it. Michael Flynn was fired after less than a month. His tenure as national security advisor was the shortest in American history.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1580-the-coordinated-hit-job-on-pete-hegseth-must-be-exposed-and-defeated-member-exclusive?elementPosition=0&amp;row=2&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show</a></h3>
What happened to Michael Flynn is worth recalling this week because it was not a one-off. This wasn&#8217;t a random act of sabotage by some unelected, shadowy officials. It was, in fact, standard operating procedure. It is the default response of a bureaucracy that feels threatened. They will come up with a smear campaign, launder it through sympathetic media outlets, and ultimately pressure the decision-makers to get rid of their target. Eight years ago, this is precisely how they got rid of Michael Flynn. And right now, it&#8217;s how they&#8217;re trying to destroy Donald Trump&#8217;s defense secretary, Pete Hegseth.
From the moment Hegseth was nominated, there was a concerted effort to smear him as an alcoholic who was too inexperienced to do the job. It was almost like the Brett Kavanaugh hearings all over again. Anonymous accusations began surfacing every other day. We were even told, if you can believe it, that Pete Hegseth once celebrated St. Patrick&#8217;s Day, live on the air on &#8220;Fox &amp; Friends.&#8221; That was supposed to be profoundly scandalous. In reality, the point of that fake scandal was never to convince anyone of anything. Instead, the point was to send a message to the incoming Trump administration. The message was that the most powerful forces in Washington did not want Pete Hegseth to be confirmed. They wanted Donald Trump to pull his nomination and select someone more conventional — someone who would be more responsive to the needs of defense contractors, for example.
But Trump didn&#8217;t abandon Hegseth&#8217;s nomination. He decided, after what happened in his first term, to trust his own instincts and stand by his selection. The result has been predictable. Just a few months into Donald Trump&#8217;s term, Hegseth&#8217;s enemies have begun yet another smear campaign. And like the campaign to oust Michael Flynn, it&#8217;s not meant to withstand any kind of scrutiny. The point is to move quickly, create panic, and ultimately pressure the White House to fire Hegseth.
It&#8217;s not exactly a subtle operation. Yesterday morning, NPR came out with this story, which directly states the outcome they want to achieve: 
<blockquote>Exclusive: The White House is looking to replace Pete Hegseth as defense secretary.</blockquote>
According to NPR:
<blockquote>The White House has begun the process of looking for a new leader at the Pentagon to replace Pete Hegseth, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to speak publicly. This comes as Hegseth is again mired in controversy over sharing military operational details in a group chat.</blockquote>
So here we have an unnamed source — just one person, who&#8217;s described only as a &#8220;U.S. official&#8221; — stating that the White House is planning to fire Pete Hegseth. And based on this one nameless official, who supposedly serves somewhere in the United States government, the narrative has been set. Pretty much every outlet picked up this story: They&#8217;re all trying to convey the perception that Hegseth&#8217;s removal is a foregone conclusion.
Meanwhile, there&#8217;s a steady drip of new information that&#8217;s supposedly even more damning than the last hit piece. Tune into CNN, and they&#8217;ll tell you that Hegseth needs to be removed because of a new Signal chat that&#8217;s suddenly been uncovered. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="004 Ex Hegseth aide" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NWXmVI-Ge94?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
&nbsp;
Before we go into the specifics, I need to make it clear that I was a fan of the Hegseth pick when it was initially announced. But after seeing this unrelenting smear campaign that started before he was confirmed and hasn&#8217;t let up since, I am now an even bigger fan of the pick. It&#8217;s clear that the establishment sees this guy as a threat to their agenda. He&#8217;s in a position to do extraordinary damage to their interests. And it seems like he&#8217;s already doing a lot of damage — which is why he needs to stay in his position at all costs.
And as you saw, Donald Trump doesn&#8217;t need to be told that. He understands exactly what CNN and the rest of the corporate press are doing. The coverage is breathless and fast-moving because you&#8217;re not supposed to scrutinize it. If you think about it for five seconds, you&#8217;ll realize that — as was the case with Michael Flynn — the hysteria makes absolutely no sense.
To recap: The case against Pete Hegseth is that the national security adviser, Mike Waltz, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-national-security-story?author=Ben+Shapiro&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=The+National+Security+Story" target="_blank" rel="noopener">mistakenly added</a> Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor of The Atlantic, to a classified group chat about a U.S. military strike. Even if this is true — even if we pretend for a moment that a rabidly anti-Trump journalist, with extensive ties to the deep state was somehow &#8220;accidentally&#8221; added to a highly sensitive group chat — it&#8217;s still not remotely clear why Pete Hegseth should be fired as a result. He&#8217;s not the one who made the mistake.
The next alleged scandal, as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/22/us/politics/hegseth-signal-chat.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> by The New York Times, concerns a Signal chat that involved Hegseth and a dozen other people, including his lawyer, his wife Jennifer and his brother Phil, who works at the Pentagon. The chat, which was called &#8220;Defense Team Huddle,&#8221; also reportedly included Dan Caldwell and Darin Selnick, two former Hegseth advisers who were just fired after a leak investigation. Supposedly, during this chat, Hegseth again discussed war plans involving Yemen, although no one&#8217;s sure exactly what was communicated.
Now, under the circumstances, it would be reasonable to wonder if Dan Caldwell or Darin Selnick might have had a role in placing this story in the New York Times. After all, they were just fired from the Pentagon for leaking. They were both members of this group chat. And now they&#8217;re publicly attacking Pete Hegseth&#8217;s Defense Department, and implying that the Pentagon wants to pursue a reckless war with Iran.
As it relates to unelected operatives in the Pentagon, that may be true. I&#8217;m not in a position to dispute that claim. But anyone who&#8217;s paying attention to what Pete Hegseth is doing, both in public and in private, knows that he&#8217;s going to do everything he can to prevent that outcome.
Here&#8217;s what <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QTwlqbkbos" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hegseth told</a> Fox News earlier this month:
<blockquote>[Trump] is dead serious that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. &#8230; He&#8217;s said that for 20 years, he&#8217;s been consistent, that is clear. He&#8217;s dead serious that he wants it done at the negotiating table, he wants it done peacefully, and that&#8217;s why he&#8217;s going straight to these talks, he&#8217;s set that deadline. &#8230; But he&#8217;s also dead serious that if we can&#8217;t figure this out at the negotiating table then there are other options, to include my department to ensure that Iran never has a nuclear bomb.</blockquote>
In other words, his primary objective is not to attack Iran. It&#8217;s a peaceful, diplomatic resolution.
A couple of days later, The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/16/us/politics/trump-israel-iran-nuclear.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">confirmed</a> that, in private, Hegseth had personally helped avert a military strike on Iran that could&#8217;ve spiraled into World War III:
<blockquote>Israel had planned to strike Iranian nuclear sites as soon as next month but was waved off by President Trump in recent weeks in favor of negotiating a deal with Tehran to limit its nuclear program, according to administration officials and others briefed on the discussions. &#8230; Inside the Trump administration, some officials were becoming skeptical of the Israeli plan. In a meeting this month — one of several discussions about the Israeli plan — Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, presented a new intelligence assessment that said the buildup of American weaponry could potentially spark a wider conflict with Iran that the United States did not want. A range of officials echoed Ms. Gabbard’s concerns in the various meetings. Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff; Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth; and Vice President JD Vance all voiced doubts about the attack</blockquote>
That report was published on April 16. It states, very clearly, that Hegseth had helped stop a military attack on Iran, which could&#8217;ve easily devolved into all-out warfare.
Four days later, on April 20, the Times published <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/20/us/politics/hegseth-yemen-attack-second-signal-chat.html">a story</a> outlining Hegseth&#8217;s second Signal chat, which is supposedly grounds for his termination. In other words, we get a new scandal, right after Hegseth enrages the defense contractors that would&#8217;ve made many millions of dollars, if not more, from an all-out conflict with Iran. And then, hot on the heels of the new scandal, we get an unverified, barely-sourced report about how the White House is looking to replace Hegseth.
At this point, I can only assume that&#8217;s another fake smear. It would be a disastrous mistake for Trump to cave to the pressure and offer up his Defense Secretary as a sacrifice. It&#8217;s the kind of mistake that could derail his entire presidency. And it would be a major victory for establishment Washington, which is becoming increasingly desperate by the day.
You can see the signs everywhere. Here&#8217;s one of them: On Monday, four more Democrat lawmakers made a <a href="https://thepostmillennial.com/four-dems-denied-meeting-with-kilmar-abrego-garcia-after-flying-to-el-salvador#google_vignette" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pilgrimage</a> to El Salvador to visit that MS-13 gangbanger, following the visit by Senator Chris Van Hollen that we discussed last week. The lawmakers were Robert Garcia of California, Maxwell Frost of Florida, Yassamin Ansari of Arizona, and Maxine Dexter of Oregon. These politicians, like the rest of the Washington establishment, are pulling out all the stops to defend their open borders, globalist agenda. Making a martyr out of Abrego Garcia, and a scapegoat out of Hegseth, is all part of that plan.
To be clear, I see no indication that this is going to work. It doesn&#8217;t look like this MS-13 gangbanger is going to be returned to the United States, any more than it looks like Pete Hegseth is about to be replaced by another Raytheon board member. The idea that the White House is planning to cave to the demands of establishment Washington, at the moment, seems like yet another fabrication from the corporate press. For the sake of the world, which wouldn&#8217;t exactly benefit from nuclear armageddon, it should remain a fabrication and nothing more.

Defense Sec. Pete Hegseth Meets With El Salvador Minister Of National Defense Rene Merino Monroy At The Pentagon

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