Illegal border crossings this month fell to levels not seen in decades after President Trump intensified his crackdown, newly revealed federal data show.

Early data from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) show that only 359 illegal migrants are being processed daily across the southern border, reflecting a 90% decrease from the same period last year, reported the New York Post.

According to internal documents recently shared with the Post, Customs and Border Protection recorded 3,953 illegal migrant encounters through February 11. If that pace holds, total crossings may end up near or below 10,000 for the month, a figure comparable to April 2017, when roughly 11,000 people were taken into custody. That milestone had previously stood out as one of the lowest monthly tallies in recent memory.

“That’s a very, very low number,” said John Gramlich, the associate director at the Pew Research Center, noting that at this time in 2024, officers processed over 4,800 migrants per day.

Mark Krikorian, the executive director at the Center for Immigration Studies, said, “If you kind of break down the numbers … we haven’t had numbers this low since the 1960s.”

Sheriff Thaddeus Cleveland in Terrell County, Texas, likewise called it a “relief,” noting the striking contrast with the high crossings previously seen in cooler months.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement ramped up operations under this crackdown, netting 11,000 arrests of illegal migrants in only 18 days. Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks credited stronger leadership under President Trump, saying agents “know how to secure the border,” but needed a commander in chief who would empower them.

Federal agencies have paired policy changes with collaboration from Mexico, which sent 10,000 troops to its northern boundary after the White House threatened a hefty tariff if stronger deterrence measures were not introduced.

Additionally, the administration has ended “catch and release,” restarted deportation flights to Venezuela, and begun transferring certain criminal offenders to Guantanamo Bay.

These steps represent a marked departure from earlier strategies and have been credited by some officials with causing the steep decline in attempts to cross the southern border without authorization.

The New York Jets announced that the team is moving on from QB Aaron Rodgers, thanking him for “everything” he’s given over the last two years.

In a press release on Thursday from the team, the NFL organization wrote that it had recently met with Rodgers and informed him that they would be “moving forward” without him.

“Last week we met with Aaron and shared that our intention was to move in a different direction at quarterback,” Head Coach Aaron Glenn and GM Darren Mougey said in a statement released by the team. 

“It was important to have this discussion now to provide clarity and enable each of us the proper time to plan for our respective futures,” the statement added. “We want to thank him for the leadership, passion, and dedication he brought to the organization and wish him success moving forward.”

We have informed Aaron Rodgers that we will be moving in a different direction at quarterback.

— New York Jets (@nyjets) February 13, 2025

Chairman Woody Johnson said in a statement that since Rodgers’ arrival in 2023, “he was met with unbridled excitement and I will forever be grateful that he chose to join us to continue his Hall of Fame career. From day one, he embodied all that it meant to be a New York Jet, embraced our fans, and immersed himself in our city. That is what I will remember most when I look back at his time here. He will always be welcome, and I wish him only the best in whatever he chooses to do next.”

In a message later posted on X, the Jets team wrote, “For everything you’ve given us the past two years, thank you 8.” It included a picture of Rodgers wearing his Jets uniform, with the number 8.

Rodgers came to the Jets in 2023 via a trade with the Packers.  At the time, the QB, said, “There’s something special about playing in the city, for a team like this with a storied franchise. Going way, way back to Super Bowl III, to be a part of something special would definitely help you go down in the history of our organization. Already have 18 years in an incredibly iconic organization and it would be fun to be a part of the history of this one, as well.”

Only four plays into his very first game as a Jet in 2023, Rodgers tore his Achilles tendon, effectively ending his first season with the Jets. In 2024, the QB returned to lead the team, starting 17 games last season, with the team’s record ending 5-12.

His 3,897 yards and 28 TDs were the third-best single-season totals in franchise history, respectively, the release noted.

At the time of this publication, there has been no comment from Rodgers.

Related: Aaron Rodgers Takes Jab At Critics Of His Game, Telling Them To Reveal Their Vax Status First

President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to place tariffs on any country that currently places duties on U.S. goods and does not receive equal treatment from the United States.

Trump signed a memorandum ordering an investigation and report into the state of international trade with the United States. One of the chief goals of the report is to identify countries that currently place economic boundaries to goods from the United States, but do not suffer the same hurdles in getting access to U.S. markets.

“On Trade, I have decided, for purposes of Fairness, that I will charge a RECIPROCAL Tariff meaning, whatever Countries charge the United States of America, we will charge them – No more, no less!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“For many years, the U.S. has been treated unfairly by other Countries, both friend and foe. This System will immediately bring Fairness and Prosperity back into the previously complex and unfair System of Trade,” the president wrote. “I have instructed my Secretary of State, Secretary of Commerce, Secretary of the Treasury, and United States Trade Representative (USTR) to do all work necessary to deliver RECIPROCITY to our System of Trade!”

The memo signed by Trump asserts that the reciprocal tariffs will help solve the U.S. trade deficit that “threatens our economic and national security, has hollowed out our industrial base, has reduced our overall national competitiveness, and has made our Nation dependent on other countries to meet our key security needs.”

A fact sheet produced by the White House lists several examples of the unfair trade practices that the memo intends to target, such as ethanol trade with Brazil.

“The U.S. tariff on ethanol is a mere 2.5%. Yet Brazil charges the U.S. ethanol exports a tariff of 18%. As a result, in 2024, the U.S. imported over $200 million in ethanol from Brazil while the U.S. exported only $52 million in ethanol to Brazil,” the fact sheet says.

Commerce Secretary nominee Howard Lutnick estimated that the study into U.S. international trade could be completed by April 1, leaving Trump to take action based on the results of the study afterward, according to Axios.

One of former President Joe Biden’s top allies took some heat on Thursday when he tried to blame President Donald Trump’s “attempt to gut foreign aid” for what he claimed was $300 million worth of medication that was about to expire.

Senator Chris Coons (D-DE), who defended Biden’s obviously lagging mental acuity right up until he bowed out of the 2024 presidential race, posted a photo on X and claimed that it showed proof that Trump’s attempts to dial back foreign aid were already putting people at risk.

“$300 million worth of medications are sitting on pallets about to expire thanks to Trump’s effort to gut foreign aid. These drugs would’ve prevented people from going blind from a preventable tropical disease—Donald Trump would rather waste them in an East African warehouse,” Coons posted.

$300 million worth of medications are sitting on pallets about to expire thanks to Trump's effort to gut foreign aid. These drugs would've prevented people from going blind from a preventable tropical disease—Donald Trump would rather waste them in an East African warehouse. pic.twitter.com/SDj5qp5TTq

— Senator Chris Coons (@ChrisCoons) February 12, 2025

But as people soon noted, there were problems with his claim. The photo he had shared clearly showed two large stacks of boxes and one smaller box in the foreground. The box in the foreground was not clearly labeled as far as contents — but it did say that the contents had been “sterilized by gamma radiation,” which suggests that box contains medical supplies like alcohol swabs or hypodermic needles. According to a clear label on the side, the contents of that box will not expire until 2027.

The larger stack of boxes also had a clear label stating that the boxes in that stack contained the antibiotic Zithromax. In addition to treating a variety of bacterial infections from ear infections and tonsillitis to pneumonia and some STIs, the New England Journal of Medicine reported in 2018 that when given to children under the age of five, it could have a significant impact on reducing childhood mortality in sub-Saharan Africa. The label on that stack of boxes said that the medication contained there would expire in 2026.

“The box in the photo says exp. 1/2027,” one posted.

The box in the photo says exp. 1/2027 https://t.co/Z2fuXjAxx7 pic.twitter.com/jcOjfOpsfH

— Chef Andrew Gruel (@ChefGruel) February 13, 2025

“You know we can see the actual expirations on the boxes, right?” another asked.

You know we can see the actual expirations on the boxes, right? https://t.co/ZQg4uiewAr

— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) February 13, 2025

 

President Trump promised that when he entered office, he was going to assess the Russia-Ukraine situation and try to facilitate an actual end to the war. 

People who have been watching this war very closely understand Russia’s original goal: take Kyiv, completely ingest and then digest all of Ukraine, and turn it into a functioning part of the new Russian empire.

That failed very early on in the war.

The war then very quickly transmuted into a Ukrainian attempt, backed by Europe and the Biden administration, to take back portions of the country that had essentially been conquered by Russia in 2014 after the Euromaidan Revolution. That revolution was an attempt to take Donbas and Crimea back from Russian forces but was largely doomed to failure. The only way for it to have been successful would have been to arm Ukrainians to the extent that it might have prompted a larger Russian intervention, possibly using tactical nuclear weapons.

It may be that those concerns over a larger war were exaggerated. However, the risk-reward relationship was out of balance. The reality was that the West had very little interest in Ukraine fighting a large-scale war to take back Donbas and Crimea, areas that are predominantly pro-Russian by virtually all polling data, even before the fake Russian democratic takeover. Those areas were historically very pro-Russian.

Russia taking over those areas was devastating to the economy of Ukraine. Much of Ukraine’s oil-rich area is in its east, in the Donbas region. Crimea, of course, is on the Black Sea, where many of the warm water ports available to the Ukrainians were.

The reality was that, barring some sort of massive war effort, those areas were not going to be retaken by Ukraine. So, this conflict had settled into a stalemate for almost three years; the original invasion took place at the end of February 2022.

WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show

For a very long time, the Biden administration had a conflicting and mutually exclusive strategy. On the one hand, the Biden administration suggested they would continue to provide endless aid until “victory was achieved,” but on the other, they refused to provide either the necessary aid to achieve full-scale victory or to define victory as something other than full-scale victory.

These were mutually exclusive tactics. If they were defining victory as, “Ukraine takes back Donbas and Crimea,” then they were going to have to give Ukraine the weaponry necessary to accomplish that. Anything less would lead to stalemate and loss. Or, theoretically, “victory” could have been redefined as survival, meaning Russia already controlled Donbas and Crimea before the 2022 invasion thus Russia’s goal had already been defeated. At that point, victory could have been achieved — by any sort of rational stretch of the imagination — by simply fending off further Russian territorial aggression.

By that measure, the war should have come to an end a couple of years ago, basically because the battle lines in Ukraine have been fairly solidified for roughly two and a half years.

The late Henry Kissinger proposed that this off-ramp essentially be offered in May 2022. I thought that his idea was the correct approach because there was no actual end goal achievable.

The Biden administration openly admitted this. They basically said, “We are going to provide weaponry until victory is achieved.” How was victory defined? They said, “We don’t know.”

You cannot win a war if you refuse to define victory. Either victory would mean taking back all Ukrainian territory, which would have required the Biden administration to send F-16s to Ukraine, or victory would be defined in some other way, in which case an off-ramp should have been sought.

Trump is taking a much more concerted view of reality; he is open to negotiations with the Russian regime. He has put forward a proposal to meet with Vladimir Putin directly. He revealed on Wednesday, according to the New York Post, that he and Russian President Putin have agreed to start talks immediately to end Moscow’s war on Ukraine.

“[W]e want to stop the millions of deaths taking place in the War with Russia/Ukraine,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, contending that the war “would not have happened if I were President, but it did happen, so it must end. No more lives should be lost!”

The Post continued:

The president also said that he and his Russian counterpart expressed openness to “visiting each other’s nations,” while letting slip to reporters in the Oval Office Wednesday afternoon that “we expect that he’ll come here, and I’ll go there, and we’re going to meet also, probably in Saudi Arabia.”

Trump added on Truth Social that the negotiating process “will begin by calling President [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy [sic], of Ukraine, to inform him of the conversation, something which I will be doing right now,” before revealing that the American delegation to any peace talks would be led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, national security adviser Mike Waltz, and Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff.

Zelensky then confirmed in a Facebook statement that he and Trump had “a meaningful conversation” about “opportunities to achieve peace [and] discussed our readiness to work together at the team level, and Ukraine’s technological capabilities—including drones and other advanced industries.”

In other words, he was making an argument to Trump that the United States should provide Ukraine with enough weaponry to fend off any future Russian attack.

Now, in reality, Zelensky is going to have to be dragged kicking and screaming to the deal, at least publicly. Why? Let’s assume you’re a Ukrainian citizen, and you’ve watched your brothers and sisters get murdered by the Russians, which is what has happened over the course of this war. You’re talking about hundreds of thousands of people if you combine both sides’ dead and wounded.

You’ve been told by Zelensky that you’re not just going to win the war, but you’re also going to push the Russians off of every inch of Ukrainian land, and now you’re going to get less than that. Zelensky is going to have to take the political hit unless the United States is willing to take the political hit.

Biden was never willing. He was always cowardly and pusillanimous when it came to the idea that he would take the hit for anything less than a full Ukrainian victory. He did not want to be blamed for Ukraine not being able to push Russia off that land. So, instead, he decided to let the war percolate and simmer on, and he was willing to allow his poll numbers to be boosted by Russian and Ukrainian dead.

Why? Because he was unwilling to do what actually had to be done, which was to publicly negotiate a deal with Putin over Zelensky’s head and then cram down the deal on Zelensky. That would have made him a bad guy in the eyes of many members of the Left in the United States who decided that the Ukrainian flag was going to go in their profile.

If Biden had been a brave, capable leader, he would have negotiated the off-ramp that everyone saw coming.

The off-ramp looks something like this: Ukraine does not become a part of NATO because one of the reasons that Russia says they invaded Ukraine was because Russia didn’t want to be bordered by NATO nations. Instead, there would have been, effectively, a mutual defense guarantee between the United States, Europe, and Ukraine to prevent a further act of Russian aggression that was not exactly NATO.

There wouldn’t have been an entry by Ukraine into the EU, which has always been a sort of hot button issue in Ukraine. In fact, when Zelensky was first elected, he was not somebody who was considered supremely for entering the EU. It was only after the Russian invasion that he seemed to turn wildly in that direction.

What the deal looks like is Ukraine gets armed up to prevent further Russian invasion. Russia gets to claim sovereignty over these areas — which, by the way, it already has. In its own Duma, they’ve already voted to claim sovereignty over Donbas and Crimea.

The international community probably half-accepts it. They don’t say, “Yes, this is now sovereign Russian territory,” but they do say, “We are not going to foment war over the retaking of that territory.”

Then, everybody basically goes weapons-down for the moment. It doesn’t end the conflict. It’s more like the Korean War. There’s an armistice line. There was never any peace agreement signed at the end of the Korean War. There just ended up being a North Korea and a South Korea. And that armistice line has been holding since 1953.

That’s probably the best-case scenario. President Trump is not willing to allow Putin to slow-play this, to wait for Trump to withdraw aid and then invade the rest of Ukraine.

I said all this during the campaign. There was all of loose talk, by both isolationists on the Right and nut-jobs on the Left, that Trump was going to walk into office, immediately pull all aid from Ukraine, and allow Putin to stroll down the streets of Kyiv.

I said that was not something that Trump was willing to do. Why? Because Trump doesn’t want a headline in which he surrenders Ukraine to Putin.

If there’s one thing that President Trump cares about on a personal level, it is not being made to look weak and feckless. So he was always going to provide continued aid to Ukraine to the point where some sort of off-ramp could be reached.

President Trump is a strong president. And he wishes to give off the image of a strong president, which is why he’s not going to cut off the aid. President Trump is deeply American. And this country was founded on strength and on freedom.

Trump is not a fool. He’s not going to trust Putin, who’s a deeply untrustworthy, evil dictator. He throws people off the third stories of buildings if they happen to cross his regime.

But Trump understands power. He innately understands politics in his bones.

He is taking the pragmatic, utilitarian approach to the situation. It has been the correct approach for several years, but Biden was unwilling to do it. Trump will be seen by those on the Left as a bad guy for having “sold out” Ukraine. But Ukraine was never going to be able to retake the territories.

And Trump has the guts to face everyone down and get the job done.

Journalist and activist Christopher Rufo will join Daily Wire editor emeritus Ben Shapiro Friday to release exclusive footage documenting the left-wing ideological capture of the Department of Education.

Shapiro teased the interview on X, writing that Rufo will be joining his show tomorrow “to drop new exclusive bombshell clips and documents from the Department of Education,” adding, “You won’t see this anywhere else. Don’t miss it.”

Tomorrow on @BenShapiroShow, @realchrisrufo is on to drop new exclusive bombshell clips and documents from the Department of Education. You won’t see this anywhere else. Don’t miss it. https://t.co/V5syQUllkV

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) February 13, 2025

“I’m sitting on a trove of insane videos, slides, and documents from the Department of Education. The whole department functions like a Ponzi scheme for left-wing ideologies,” Rufo remarked, adding that he was waiting for the moment of “maximum impact.”

President Donald Trump is reportedly preparing an executive order to shut down the Department of Education. Trump stated that he’d close the department during his campaign, saying in one video, “One other thing I’ll be doing very early in the administration is closing up the Department of Education in Washington, D.C., and sending all education and education work and needs back to the states.”

Rufo has begun releasing internal documents from the department, indicating that the executive agency has been captured by left-wing ideologues who’ve used the government to push gender ideology and critical race theory.

“The Education Department granted $8 million” of taxpayer funds to an organization behind a presentation on “Identifying and Disrupting Your Whiteness.” The organization advised over 7,000 school districts across the Midwest as it pushed far-left ideology and demonized the United States as a white supremacist society.

EXCLUSIVE: The Department of Education granted $8 million to this left-wing NGO, which promotes the idea that America is a white supremacist society and demands that you must “disrupt your whiteness.”

This NGO is responsible for advising 7,000 school districts in the Midwest. pic.twitter.com/GFK7YeV967

— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) February 13, 2025

“The term whiteness refers to race privilege, a way of seeing the world, and a set of cultural practices that are usually unmarked and unnamed,” the presenter said. That same organization created a DOE-funded resource claiming that white people do not have “permission to accuse BIPOC of being racist” and arguing that black children must “decolonize the mind” from the effects of whiteness and capitalism.

The Department of Education funded this resource for teachers, which argues that black children must start “decolonizing the mind” from whiteness, capitalism, and individualism. White people, especially “anti-woke” whites, do not have “permission to accuse BIPOC of being racist.” pic.twitter.com/eFV6zz3ERg

— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) February 13, 2025

The executive agency also partnered with “Welcoming Schools,” a left-wing organization that taught elementary school students “there are many ways to be a girl, boy, both, or neither.”

In 2023, the Department of Education partnered with “Welcoming Schools,” an NGO program that teaches elementary school children that they might be “pansexual,” use “they/them” pronouns, and imitate “non-binary animals.”

“There are many ways to be a girl, boy, both, or neither.” pic.twitter.com/LzlwI0B91M

— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) February 13, 2025

The organization also taught young children that they might be “pansexual” and can use “they/them” pronouns, all while discussing “non-binary” butterflies. 

Hollywood producer Shonda Rhimes announced she had resigned as treasurer from the Kennedy Center board after President Donald Trump became the chairman of the board.

“Please be advised that as of today, Shonda Rhimes has resigned from the board of the Kennedy Center,” a spokesperson for the 55-year-old writer-producer told Deadline magazine.

It comes after Trump’s announcement that he had terminated most members of the Board of Trustees at the Kennedy Center — including Chairman David Rubenstein — and had taken over the role himself, as previously reported.

Formerly appointed to the board by former President Barack Obama, Rhimes had been serving as one of its officers. Her resignation was followed by singer-songwriter and former frontman of Ben Folds Five, Ben Folds, who announced he also was out as artistic adviser to the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) following the move by Trump, The Hollywood Reporter noted.

Shonda Rhimes, Ben Folds resign from Kennedy Center roles after Trump takeover https://t.co/M9XAjkYHAc pic.twitter.com/QSzP0k9L3t

— New York Post (@nypost) February 13, 2025

“Given the developments at the Kennedy Center, effective today I am resigning as artistic advisor to the NSO,” Folds wrote in a post on Instagram. “Not for me.”

The Kennedy Center oversees the NSO, as well as the Washington National Opera, THR noted.

A short time later, actress Renee Fleming said she was out as artistic adviser at large, too, Deadline noted.

Trump made the announcement in a post to his social media platform Truth Social, and added that he also planned to make immediate changes to some of the events that were held there — beginning with drag shows that were intended for an audience of children.

“At my direction, we are going to make the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., GREAT AGAIN,” Trump began. “I have decided to immediately terminate multiple individuals from the Board of Trustees, including the Chairman, who do not share our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture.”

“We will soon announce a new Board, with an amazing Chairman, Donald J. Trump,” the president’s post continued, and he then pivoted to give some insight as to why he had made the call to change the center’s direction.

“Just last year, the Kennedy Center featured Drag Shows specifically targeting our youth — THIS WILL STOP,” he said, adding, “The Kennedy Center is an American Jewel, and must reflect the brightest STARS on its stage from all across out Nation. For the Kennedy Center, THE BEST IS YET TO COME!”

Following the termination of Kennedy Center president Deborah Rutter, Ric Grenell, who is serving as interim president, announced on X that he had been briefed “by the CFO of the Kennedy Center on its financial situation” and said it was dire.

“She told me there is ZERO cash on hand. And ZERO in reserves,” Grenell wrote. “And the deferred maintenance is a crisis. For the past months they’ve been digging into the DEBT RESERVES.”

The Daily Wire’s managing editor, Brent Scher, added on X, “I’m told by a source inside the Kennedy Center that Grenell cut $2.4 MILLION (!!!) worth of executive salaries today. Its former president was making $1.4 million a year. Its general counsel was making over $500k. That’s absurd.”

Virginia Kruta contributed to this piece.

Related: Trump Dumps Kennedy Center Board, Puts Immediate End To Drag Shows For Kids

Shortly after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was sworn in as Secretary of Health and Human Services on Thursday, President Donald Trump announced the establishment of the “Make America Healthy Again Commission.”

Trump signed an executive order on Thursday that establishes the commission — and dives into the American health crisis in detail, arguing that 90% of the nation’s $4.5 trillion in annual healthcare expenditures are for people with chronic or mental health conditions, and that 77% of young adults don’t quality for the military based, in part, on their health scores.

All of these items are points of personal interest to the new HHS secretary.

“In short,” the order says, “Americans of all ages are becoming sicker, beset by illnesses that our medical system is not addressing effectively. These trends harm us, our economy, and our security.”

“To fully address the growing health crisis in America, we must re-direct our national focus, in the public and private sectors, toward understanding and drastically lowering chronic disease rates and ending childhood chronic disease,” the executive order continues. “This includes fresh thinking on nutrition, physical activity, healthy lifestyles, over-reliance on medication and treatments, the effects of new technological habits, environmental impacts, and food and drug quality and safety.”

Trump’s order further argues that his administration seeks to “restore the integrity of the scientific process by protecting expert recommendations from inappropriate influence and increasing transparency regarding existing data,” and ensure that “our healthcare system promotes health rather than just managing disease.”

The “Make America Healthy Again” commission will be chaired by Kennedy. The assistant to the president for Domestic Policy will serve as the executive director of the commission, and a slew of other members of Trump’s cabinet will be included as well, including the Education Secretary, the OMB director, the Commissioner of Food and Drugs, and the Director of the National Institutes of Health.

Trump’s goal with the commission, according to the executive order, is first and foremost to fight childhood disease, but also address the overall health of Americans.

Within 180 days of the order, the commission is ordered to submit a strategy to “Make Our Children Healthy Again,” based on their findings from a “Make Our Children Healthy Again Assessment” that they will conduct.

“The Strategy shall address appropriately restructuring the Federal Government’s response to the childhood chronic disease crisis, including by ending Federal practices that exacerbate the health crisis or unsuccessfully attempt to address it, and by adding powerful new solutions that will end childhood chronic disease,” the order states.

NFL legend Brett Favre said it’s “absolutely insane” that President Donald Trump had to sign an executive order to keep men from competing in women’s sports.

In a video posted on X, the NFL Hall-of-Famer gave credit to Trump for signing an order banning trans-identifying males from competing in girls’ sports by threatening to rescind funds from schools that allow this, saying it “results in the endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls and deprives them of privacy,” as previously reported.

Favre said as the father of two daughters — who’ve advised him to not share everything on social media — this was an issue he thought it was important to speak out about and stand up for what he believes in.

“And it’s crazy because most of it is common sense and to think we’re having a discussion that our president has to sign (an executive order) to keep men out of women’s sports is absolutely insane,” the legendary QB said.

Here’s a few reasons why I think it was important to speak up for @realDonaldTrump needing to sign an executive order to keep men and out of women’s sports and kudos to @Riley_Gaines_ for standing her ground. pic.twitter.com/oLLvFUxhXp

— Brett Favre (@BrettFavre) February 13, 2025

“But that’s the world we’re in right now,” he added. “We bought ourselves some time in the next four years. We’ll see how that plays out. But the common sense part of our country and the decisions that are being made, right now, are becoming more stable and back to the norm.”

“I feel like the more we speak up and back common sense thinking, the better off we’re gonna be,” Favre concluded.

Favre captioned his post explaining why he needed to speak up after Trump signed the executive order and gave credit to outspoken women’s sports advocates like Riley Gaines for “standing her ground.”

The Super Bowl-winning QB previously spoke out against transgenderism and the radical activists pushing it, calling it “wrong” that a trans-identifying man can use a women’s bathroom.

Related: ‘This Is Wrong’: NFL Hall Of Famer Brett Favre Slams Transgenderism

A federal judge on Thursday blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order banning the federal government from funding or supporting child transgender drugs and surgeries.

U.S. District Judge Brendan Hurson granted a temporary restraining order against a pair of Trump orders, one cutting federal funding from doctors who offer children transgender medicalization and the other officially recognizing only male and female sexes.

“This is a population with an extremely higher rate for suicide, poverty, unemployment, drug addiction,” Hurson said during the hearing in federal court in Baltimore.

The judge claimed that stopping transgender drugs and surgeries for children would be “horribly dangerous for anyone, for any care, but particularly for this extremely vulnerable population.”

Trump’s order, signed last month, commits that the United States will not fund or support the “so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another, and it will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures.”

“This dangerous trend will be a stain on our Nation’s history, and it must end,” Trump wrote.

The order prompted a slew of hospitals to pump the brakes on transgender medicalization for children, including hospitals in New York City, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Colorado, and Virginia.

The administration is expected to appeal the decision, and the case could end up at the Supreme Court.

Several progressive groups sued the administration over the move. The ACLU and Lambda Legal filed the lawsuit on behalf of PFLAG and GLMA, as well as seven anonymous trans-identifying youth under 19.

The attorneys general of Washington state, Oregon, and Minnesota have also sued over Trump’s transgender order in a separate case.

Critics, especially parents and detransitioners, have raised the alarm over transgender surgeries and hormone treatments for gender dysphoric children over the last several years.

In Europe, several countries have already pumped the brakes on these drugs and procedures for children. More than two dozen U.S. states have passed legislation against them as well.

A growing number of medical experts, including the American College of Pediatricians, say the research does not support the idea that puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, or genital and breast surgeries benefit the physical or mental health of gender dysphoric children.

Transgender surgeries are not reversible, and both puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones come with serious health risks. Puberty blockers can affect bone growth and density and cause sexual dysfunction, voice damage, and infertility, among other issues. Cross-sex hormones can cause infertility, deadly blood clots, heart attacks, increased cancer risks of the breasts and ovaries, liver dysfunction, worsening psychological illness, and other serious conditions.

Question: do married people observing the modern dating scene feel like they caught the last chopper out of ‘Nam?

Answer: Obviously, yes.

Anyone who found their significant other in a time before dating apps ruled the internet and swiping left and right became a national pastime is bound to feel a sense of deep relief. 

Yes, the dating pool has grown into a vast dating ocean, allowing individuals to narrow down their choices on a granular level. But with this change comes a slew of new problems, including shifting cultural values, a deepening political divide, and what seems like a whole lot more predators and psychopaths lurking in our midst.

It’s enough to make even the most optimistic person consider a life of intentional solitude.

And the stats back it up:

• 47% of Americans say dating is harder today than ever before​.
• 63% of men under 30 are single—double the rate of women​.
• 75% of young adults say finding a committed partner is nearly impossible​.

It happened for a myriad of reasons. Once upon a time, a man was expected to pursue a woman (except for the Sadie Hawkins dance) and then the pair would explore a partnership if they both liked and were attracted to each other. 

These days, singles practically need a pre-date screening form before anything resembling a date can occur. This vetting process might include questions on topics that people from ten years ago couldn’t begin to understand: 

✅ Polyamory

✅ Digital consent

✅ Ethical non-monogamy

✅ Situationships

✅ OnlyFans

✅ Soft launches

✅ Ghosting

While keeping clear about your intentions and not treating dating like a marketplace might help with some of this, one solution is a lot of fun.

With the new Yes or No: Dating & Relationships Expansion Pack, you can finally cut through the nonsense and find out what people really think about love, relationships, and dating in the current era. Think of it as that modern vetting form, but in game form. It’s the ideal item to break out and play before devoting any time to someone who thinks it’s possible to have a committed relationship with an AI chatbot.

This expansion pack is designed to help you cut through the noise and discover the truth about modern dating. With 125+ new cards covering the toughest relationship questions, you’ll finally get the real answers and narrow down the field to people who are worth your while. 

Some sample questions include:

• Are interfaith marriages doomed to fail?
• Are “fur babies” replacing real children?
• Is it okay to date multiple people at once if you’re not exclusive?

No more dodging. No more pretending. This special Yes or No game inspires real, raw discussions that help cut the nonsense and weed out the worst candidates for your affection so you can both stop wasting your time.

Modern dating is a mess — but you can navigate it better when you know what people actually believe. Instead of opting out, take a chance on love and figure out how to best navigate the challenges of dating in this strange new era.

Stop swiping and start living. Get your Yes or No: Dating & Relationships Expansion Pack today and take back control of the conversation.

ORDER NOW!

The interim U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York resigned Thursday after the Justice Department ordered the corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams to be dropped.

Danielle R. Sassoon, the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, resigned after an order from newly installed Justice Department officials to abandon the case, according to a report by NBC News.

Three days earlier, Acting U.S. Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove ordered federal prosecutors to drop the case against Adams, partly because of how it interfered with Mayor Eric Adams’ stated focus on “illegal immigration and violent crime” in collaboration with the Trump administration.

Sassoon and other prosecutors initially refused to drop the case out of principle, pushing Bove to blast Sassoon and other non-compliant federal prosecutors for their “insubordination.” Sassoon and two other federal prosecutors involved resigned shortly after.

“The Justice Department will not tolerate the insubordination and apparent misconduct reflected in the approach that you and your office have taken in this matter.” Bove said. “Your office’s insubordination is little more than a preference to avoid a duty that you regard as unpleasant and politically inconvenient.”

Adams, a former New York police captain, was indicted last September on charges of allegedly accepting $100,000 worth of bribes, including overseas travel paid for by wealthy Turkish nationals. The mayor, who has pleaded not guilty, has described the charges as politically motivated.

Sassoon’s exit follows her tenure as a prosecutor known for taking on significant financial fraud defendants, most prominently the entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried. While she has not publicly spoken about her decision to resign, the AP obtained an email she sent to her colleagues that confirms the Adams case as the cause of her resignation.

It remains unclear who will helm the Southern District going forward. The office is often referred to as the “Sovereign District of New York” for its reputation of operating with considerable independence when investigating public officials and other high-level targets. Traditionally, its prosecutors are known for pushing back against interference, though resignations at this scale are considered highly unusual.

Although the Justice Department’s new leadership cited concerns about policy goals possibly being hampered by prolonged litigation, there has been no indication of how or if the government will proceed with the charge.

“Captain America: Brave New World” is slated to open this weekend and it’s already generating negative attention, with some of the worst critical reviews of any Marvel film to date.

The fourth installment in the MCU’s Captain America franchise is led by Anthony Mackie, who took over the role from Chris Evans. Other main characters in this latest installment include Red Hulk (Harrison Ford), The Leader (Tim Blake Nelson), and Sidewinder (Giancarlo Esposito).

“Brave New World” has debuted with a 52% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes as of Thursday afternoon. Comparatively, that puts it only ahead of “Eternals” (2021) and “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” (2023), two recent MCU films that also got poor reviews from critics.

Digital Trends critic A. A. Dowd called the film a new “rock bottom” for the franchise with a “mess” of a plot. “No blockbuster that cost this much money should look this shoddy,” he added.

“With its cheap action and garish visuals, it’s then that we enter yet another genre altogether: action-figure commercial,” observed New York Times critic Brandon Yu.

Vulture critic Bilge Ebiri also had harsh words, calling Marvel a “giant slop machine” and saying the franchise was spinning “out of control into the confused and shallow mess that we have before us.”

Meanwhile, Washington Post critic Ty Burr gave the film 1.5 stars and called it “humorless” and a “pixel-pounding mishmash” that is “more interested in fan service and protecting corporate IP” than in telling a good story.

“The fight sequences are meditative, the grave-whisper acting belongs in a coming-attraction trailer from 1996 and, yet again, the viewer needs to have watched a TV series and at least two movies to fully grasp what’s happening,” New York Post reporter Johnny Oleksinski wrote.

The movie’s synopsis says, “Anthony Mackie returns as the high-flying hero Sam Wilson, who’s officially taken up the mantle of Captain America. After meeting with newly elected U.S. President Thaddeus Ross, Sam finds himself in the middle of an international incident. He must discover the reason behind a nefarious global plot before the true mastermind has the entire world seeing red.”

Bad reviews are only the latest controversy for the new “Captain America.” Recently, the film’s star came under fire for comments he made about the titular character. Mackie said, “For me, Captain America represents a lot of different things and I don’t think the term ‘America’ should be one of those representations. It’s about a man who keeps his word, who has honor, dignity, and integrity. Someone who is trustworthy and dependable.”

After his comments went viral, the actor clarified his statements and called himself “a proud American.”

“Let me be clear about this, I’m a proud American and taking on the shield of a hero like CAP [Captain America] is the honor of a lifetime,” he said, as The Daily Wire previously reported.

“I have the utmost respect for those who serve and have served our country,” he added. “CAP has universal characteristics that people all over the world can relate to.”

An elderly pro-life sidewalk counselor who was brutally beaten outside of a Baltimore Planned Parenthood said he would be willing to go back to court after a jury declined to convict his attacker of first-degree assault.

Mark Crosby told The Daily Wire this week that he would be willing to have his case go to trial again after a jury convicted 28-year-old Patrick Brice of multiple lower assault charges while not reaching a verdict on the more serious first-degree assault charge. Brice was caught on video beating then 73-year-old Crosby and 80-year-old Richard Schaefer back in 2023 outside of a Planned Parenthood building.

Last week, a jury in Baltimore convicted Brice on two counts of second-degree assault and two counts of reckless endangerment while not coming to an agreement on the first-degree assault charge after a two day trial. A first degree assault conviction could have carried 25 years in prison.

Crosby told The Daily Wire that he was surprised that Brice was not convicted on the first-degree assault charge, saying that the surveillance video posted during the trial seemed to have an impact on the jurors.

“Some of the jurors were actually moaning and one was crying, and they were looking away, gasping at his attack on us,” he said.

The footage shows Brice tackling Schaefer into a large potted plant after a heated exchange. Crosby then ran over to help Schaefer before he was forced to the ground. The man in the video punches Crosby in the face and kicks him in the head.

“I call it attempted murder. If you watch the video, he actually is straddling me and he hits me double fisted,” Crosby said.

Crosby was treated after the attack for a fractured bone in his face, blindness in one eye, head and neck pain, two fractured fingers, and bruising on his arms and legs.

“Whether we want to retry it, we’ll see,” he said, saying it would be up to the legal team at the Thomas More Society. “I’m willing to retry it even though it’s a major stress for me.”

He added that the “result is probably better than nothing,” but would wait to see when Brice is sentenced on March 20. A maximum sentence for second-degree assault could be up to 10 years in prison and a $2,500 fine.

Crosby believed that one of the reasons for the attack was because he and Schaefer had been effective in convincing women to turn to a nearby crisis pregnancy center. He previously told The Daily Wire that both men have frequently returned to the Planned Parenthood. He said Schaefer still stood outside five days a week and that he would be “back in action” after the trial ended.

On Thursday, 9 GOP senators who serve in the Senate Finance Committee issued an open letter to President Trump to express their support for his desire to block the expiring provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) and their determination not to “support a tax package that only provides temporary relief from tax hikes.”

If the provisions are allowed to expire, marginal rates will return to their permanent TCJA levels of 10%, 15%, 25%, 28%, 33%, 35%, and 39.6%. The TCJA reduced those to 10%, 12%, 22%, 24%, 32%, 35%, and 37%. Under the TCJA, basic standard deduction amounts were nearly doubled. They were adjusted annually for inflation after 2018. The TCJA essentially suspended the personal exemption.

“You were elected with a mandate to do big things,” the letter began. “One of those big things is to provide lasting tax relief for small businesses and families across the country. As members of the Senate Finance Committee, we write to express our support for your position that the expiring provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act must be permanent and not sunset. After passage of your tax cuts in 2017, we had a booming economy with soaring investment, higher wages, increased productivity, and zero corporate inversions. Without action, at the end of this year, taxes will increase for Americans in every income group and nearly six million jobs are at risk.”

“A temporary extension of these pro-growth and pro-families policies is a missed opportunity,” they declared. “Businesses need certainty while investing in their companies and taxpayers should not fear tax hikes due to Congressional inaction. Congressional Republicans have an historic opportunity to enact this lasting tax relief. Failing to act boldly does a disservice to the American people who entrusted us to deliver in November. Thus, we will not support a tax package that only provides temporary relief from tax hikes.”

“If lawmakers fail to extend these provisions, 62% of filers would see a tax increase,” Faith Jablokow of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance stated. “Additionally, the TCJA fostered a 4.7% increase in corporate investment, a significant achievement. This is due to the TCJA lowering the corporate income tax rate from 35% to 21%. This had the dual effect of making American corporations more competitive globally and allowing them more liquid assets to invest back into the economy.”

GOP Senators Steve Daines (MT), Senate Majority Leader John Thune (SD), Mike Crapo (ID), John Barrasso (WY), James Lankford (OK), Ron Johnson (WI), Roger Marshall (KS), Marsha Blackburn (TN), and Thom Tillis (N.C.) signed the letter.

When President Trump stated his commitment to getting “back to plastic,” it sparked a barrage of positive reactions across every major communication outlet. Why? Because paper straws suck.

As an industry committed to sustainability, we’ve grown weary of these “press release policies.” Going beyond plastic straws or getting “back to plastic” stokes a debate about whether we have accepted too many ineffective environmental policies in recent years that fail to pass the proverbial sustainability smell test but make for a feel-good headline for the activist organizations behind them.

Through a recent executive order, Trump declared that it is “the policy of the United States to end the use of paper straws.” 

Replacing a plastic straw with a paper one with no clear environmental advantage is just one example of a policy that gained momentum without a sound scientific foundation. It actually started innocently enough with a 9-year-old who used parochial data about straw consumption for a school report. His intention was likely environmental in spirit, but little did he know that his daily-use number would be promoted by activist organizations, reported as fact by journalists, and used by lawmakers to justify their feel-good policies and ban plastic straws.  

Just recently, a study illustrated more unintended consequences of local policies driven by “feel-good” emotions rather than facts. In New Jersey, a law was passed aimed at reducing plastic that did exactly the opposite. Instead, a mandatory ban on paper and plastic bags boosted the importation of non-recyclable plastic bags from Southeast Asia, increased overall material consumption, heightened the carbon footprint of shoppers, and slapped them with higher costs to boot. Again, “environmental” policies like these may sound good at first, but in the end, they are counterproductive and distract us from achieving our shared sustainability goals. If the elected officials in New Jersey could admit this mistake and actually “get back to plastic,” they would be passing pro-environmental legislation.

It’s easy to chuckle about straws and bags, but on the state, national, and global stages, we hear a chorus of activist organizations calling for limitations on all plastic production — material needed for our daily lives and critical to meeting most sustainability goals. What we know is that ocean-bound plastic from the United States makes up less than 1% of what ends up in our seas, and more than half of that comes from discarded fishing gear. According to multiple studies, about 90% of plastic in the ocean comes from just 10 rivers, nine of which are in Asia. In fact, the Yangtze River in China is the largest contributor of plastic waste across the globe, dumping up to one million tons into the ocean each year. Yet American consumers and businesses have been pressured to move away from using essential plastic products because extremist groups have a political agenda rather than a truly environmental, solution-based one. 

I think the president is onto something much bigger here. Perhaps this executive order, which justifies our completely rational use of plastic straws and getting “back to plastic,” serves as a permission slip to rethink what we’ve been pressured to do in recent years. Maybe it’s directing us toward common-sense solutions rather than reactionary press release policies. As a society, we need to collectively agree that plastic is essential to our protection, well-being, health, and safety while simultaneously encouraging elected officials, businesses, and government to create environmental policies rooted in science rather than emotions. We also need to take a step back as a nation, not only to reduce waste but to invest in solutions that increase recycling rates and keep valuable plastic materials in the U.S. economy. 

Our industry believes that any molecule of plastic that leaves the economy is truly a waste, and our members work hard every day to innovate and provide the most sustainable solutions for their customers. We will continue to work with this administration and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle on practical, common-sense policies that support efforts to keep plastic out of the environment, increase recycling rates, and keep plastic products safe and available. Now is the time to hit reset on the misguided policies of the past few years, heed the words of the president, and go “back to plastic!”

* * *

Matt Seaholm is President and CEO of the PLASTICS Industry Association.

The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Comedian Seth Rogen, an avowed leftist, weighed in with a blunt take on why the country is so divided politically.

“I personally try not to go too dark on all of it and think like, ‘Oh, are we on the precipice of global societal collapse?’” the “Knocked Up” star said in an Esquire interview posted Tuesday. “Since the end of the Civil War, America’s remained a very divided country in a lot of ways.”

Rogen vaguely referenced President Donald Trump’s campaign promises to prosecute criminals as resonating with people, even those in Democrat-heavy urban areas. 

“People get sick of seeing f***ing hippies doing acid and f***ng on their lawns, and they’re like, ‘Let’s f***ing clean up these streets a little bit,’” Rogen told the outlet. “And then people get sick of seeing f***ng dorks cleaning up the streets and they go back the other way. That’s not to say it doesn’t have very real and troubling ramifications on many people’s lives, but I try to maintain hope that the ball will roll onwards, even though it might be wobbling back and forth.”

This observation differs from what Rogen said a couple of years ago when an X user complained about having his car broken into. At the time, the actor urged the crime victim to just deal with it because crime was common, and Los Angeles “still had a lot going for it.”

“Dude I’ve lived here for over 20 years. You’re nuts haha. It’s lovely here. Don’t leave anything valuable in [your car]. It’s called living in a big city,” he responded to the person who had his personal items stolen, as The Daily Wire previously reported.

“i can still be mad tho right? feel so violated,” the person replied, prompting Rogen to write, “You can be mad but I guess I don’t personally view my car as an extension of myself and I’ve never really felt violated any of the 15 or so times my car was broken in to. Once a guy accidentally left a cool knife in my car so if it keeps happening you might get a little treat.”

“I lived in West Hollywood for 20 years and parked on the street. … Also it sucks your sh** was stolen but LA is not some sh**hole city. As far as big cities go it has a lot going for it,” he added in a follow-up.

The U.S. Navy said on Thursday that a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier was involved in a collision with a large cargo ship in the Mediterranean Sea this week.

“The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) was involved in a collision with the merchant vessel Besiktas-M at approximately 11:46 p.m. local time, Feb. 12, while operating in the vicinity of Port Said, Egypt, in the Mediterranean Sea,” the U.S. Sixth Fleet said in a statement.

“The collision did not endanger the Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) as there are no reports of flooding or injuries,” the statement continued. “The propulsion plants are unaffected and in a safe and stable condition.”

Navy officials said they have launched an investigation into the incident and will release more information as it becomes available.

The USS Harry S. Truman, named after America’s 33rd president, was the eighth aircraft carrier built in the Nimitz class.

The aircraft carrier was built in the 1990s under President Bill Clinton and cost $4.5 billion — well over $10 billion today.

The U.S. Naval Institute noted that the ship deployed in September from Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia to the U.S. Central Command.

The report said in part:

Port Said, Egypt, is at the northern tip of the Suez Canal, where it meets with the Mediterranean Sea. The indications from the position of Truman was the carrier was returning to the Red Sea after a port visit to Souda Bay, Greece.

Based on AIS data, Besiktas-M had just transited the Suez Canal and was bound for the Black Sea port of Constanta, Romania. Besiktas-M, a bulk carrier, is more than 550 feet long with a deadweight of 53,000 tons. The ship’s owner and manager was not immediately clear.

The last time that a U.S. aircraft carrier collided with a merchant vessel was in 2004, when the USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67) collided with a small ship in the Persian Gulf, the report said.

A North Carolina citizen group is asking the Trump administration to intervene after local leaders prioritized Hurricane Helene small business relief grants on the basis of race and sex. 

Western North Carolina Citizens for Equality filed a complaint with the Treasury Department last month after Buncombe County announced that it would “focus” on supporting small businesses damaged by Helene that were “BIPOC” and “women” owned. Buncombe County, home to liberal Asheville, funded the program by using repurposed federal COVID relief funds. 

“In this situation, there is no doubt that Buncombe County intended to discriminate against white business owners in its Helene Relief Project. The County directed that the funds be used in manner that prioritizes one group of business owners over another based solely on skin color,” WNC for Equality President Carl Mumpower wrote in a civil rights complaint filed with the Treasury Department. 

The Buncombe County Board of Commissioners, all Democrats, rolled out its small business relief grant program in November, announcing it would prioritize helping businesses not owned by white men. The program would make business owners eligible for tens of thousands of dollars in repurposed American Rescue Plan funds.

The county said that the “focus” area of the small business support program would be “BIPOC-owned businesses,” “women-owned businesses,” and “sole proprietorships.” 

From November 13-17, the county partnered with non-profit Mountain Bizworks to administer $1.5 million in funds appropriated for the program. The non-profit, which says that it focuses on working with  “people of color, women, and immigrant entrepreneurs” and works to promote “racial equity,” was also targeted in the complaint from WNC for Equality. 

“Further, Mountain Bizworks used the repurposed federal ARPA funds and furthered the County’s objective: culling applicants and awarding grant money based, in part, on the skin color of applicants. These actions are clearly illegal,” the complaint says. 

To evaluate businesses for relief, Mountain Bizworks developed “scoring” criteria that included “underserved entrepreneurs,” which were defined as “women-owned businesses,” “businesses owned by people of color,” “veteran-owned businesses,” and lower-income individuals. 

The non-profit added that it would “prioritize independent small business owners who lack access to traditional funding resources” and that the application would be “equity focused.” A screenshot included in the complaint showed that both race and sex were required fields for the application through Mountain Bizworks. 

Statistics shared by the county showed that grants were disproportionately awarded to women and minorities. Of the 137 awards given out, 28.5% were given to “minority owned businesses,” and 60.6 were given to “women-owned businesses.” The county is nearly 90% white, according to Census Data. 

The county did not respond to questions about how many applications were sent in and the demographics of the applicants 

Mumpower believes that the process not only violates federal law, but also Buncombe County’s own anti-discrimination law. That ordinance describes discrimination as treating people differently for a number of different factors, including race and sex. 

He told The Daily Wire that he was “optimistic” that the complaint, filed on January 22, will get a fair hearing under the Trump administration.

“We want our local government to follow the law and not use color as a consideration for application for public dollars. And that’s all we want,” Mumpower told The Daily Wire. 

Because Buncombe County and Asheville are completely controlled by Democrats, Mumpower said they were “ruthless in their willingness to ignore the law” and believed they could get away with anything. He also said that his group has mainly seen a negative response from the broader Asheville community, an area that backed Kamala Harris by over 60%. 

“It’s very disappointing that a society has worked so hard to get color off the table as to how we measure one another that we would have so many misguided local leaders who are willing to ignore the progress we’ve made and even try to set us back,” he said. “It’s very ironic.”

President Donald Trump has been critical of the federal and local response to Hurricane Helene, saying that North Carolinians “were treated very badly by Democrats.” Most of his criticism has been aimed at FEMA, which he has floated getting rid of completely in favor of more state responsibility over natural disasters.

Donald Trump’s comeback has reshaped America’s cultural and political landscape in just a matter of weeks. In perhaps the greatest challenge to Andrew Breitbart’s popular adage that, “Politics is downstream from culture,” culture is proving to be highly responsive to political change, evidenced by the flurry of major companies running for the exits on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. On Tuesday, it was reported that Disney is slashing its DEI programs and even redrawing strongly worded trigger warnings added to classic films in October 2020, such as “Peter Pan,” “Dumbo,” and “The Aristocats” on the Disney+ streaming platform.

What’s happening here is not just CEOs recognizing DEI’s defeat in the court of public opinion and on Wall Street, but also a response to a rising tide of demand for heroes in a country that has been told for eight years to forget they exist. This is something President Trump seems to understand in his stated recommitment to open a National Garden of American Heroes.

The age of expecting young people to participate in the future of a country they’re told is deeply racist, or hoping families will stream “Peter Pan” while also telling them that it’s an offensive story – is over.

Consider a recent underreported change at Disney Parks. Last week it was revealed that a “new” character was coming to Disney’s Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge theme park: Luke Skywalker.

It’s hard to believe, but the titular hero of the “Star Wars” franchise has not been a part of the $1 billion expansion started in 2018. Disney was only three years into their ownership of the world’s most valuable intellectual property at the time, acquired under the first tenure of CEO Bob Iger, and its divisive second “Star Wars” was roiling Star Wars fans to a degree few could have imagined.

The 2017 film by Disney and director Rian Johnson, “Episode VIII: The Last Jedi,” infamously transformed the classic Star Wars hero of Luke Skywalker into a curmudgeonly hermit who had lost all hope in the future. Mark Hamill, who plays Luke Skywalker, was outspoken for a time about his disdain for the treatment of his iconic character.

“I hate what you’ve done with my character” is about as unambiguous as Hamill could have been about Luke’s diminished stature in the movie, and Star Wars has truthfully never been the same since. Both in its cultural prestige and financial success, Star Wars has faded.

Heroes became unfashionable in Hollywood after the 2016 election of Donald Trump, an expression of elite cynicism over Hillary Clinton being roundly rejected by Americans along with core elements of Barack Obama’s legacy.

In a perfect cascade of nihilism that engulfed memorials to the Founding Fathers, Francis Scott Key, and Ulysses S. Grant, and then negatively tinged stories about Captain America, Luke Skywalker, Superman, and Indiana Jones, the fashionable thing in entertainment was to invert hero narratives and question the goodness of virtuous characters in popular stories.

How else do you arrive at anti-American author Ta-Nehisi Coates being asked to handle the Captain America character for a line of Marvel comics? For many years the consensus was that fictional heroes should be handled by creatives like Rian Johnson and Coates who wanted to subvert their narratives and turn fans into skeptics.

It’s why the Scientific American dedicated space in its publication to 2021 to addressing how Star Wars’ Jedi Knights were “problematic,” “toxically masculine” and racist at their core.

The Left can’t build alternative heroes for American culture unless older ones are torn down first. This is as true of real-world political movements as it is of storytelling.

For Disney Parks, it made some degree of sense at the start of their Star Wars park to center the new characters driving their installments to the Star Wars universe, but it was always a defying of consumer demand to build a family experience around Kylo Ren, Rey, and the virtually unknown but “diverse” Vi Moradi, instead of Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia.

Disney joins the ranks of Amazon, Meta, Boeing, Ford, Goldman Sachs, Bud Light, Harley Davidson, and others in rolling back or ending DEI commitments. For Disney that included the Reimagine Tomorrow initiative for promoting stories on underrepresented groups, another way of saying they’d have fewer straight, white characters and employees. The America First Legal group filed a federal civil rights complaint against Disney for “violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by engaging in illegal race, sex, and national origin discrimination.”

This is all connected.

It is not a coincidence that Luke Skywalker is coming out for family photo ops at the same time Disney is rethinking the usefulness of DEI to its bottom line. To recognize that kids (and parents) revere Luke Skywalker and would stand in a 2-hour long line to say “cheese” is to acknowledge they won’t do that for other characters.

DEI failed in its effort to reshape America’s belief in the goodness of the country, and so the business community appears to be getting back to doing business. This could be Disney’s last chance to reassert leadership in family entertainment and bring heroism back to Hollywood.

* * *

Stephen Kent is a conservative commentator and author of How The Force Can Fix The World: Lessons on Life, Liberty & Happiness From a Galaxy Far, Far Away. Kent is the Media Director for the Consumer Choice Center. Follow him @StephenKentX

The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.