In his decades covering sports, Stephen A. Smith has seen a lot of cheating and dirty tricks, but it’s nothing compared to what he'd face in a longshot bid for the Democratic nomination for president. 

Those who run the nation’s oldest political party will not just hand Smith the car keys. In fact, they will do everything they can to destroy his nascent political career, even if that means destroying him.

STEPHEN A. SMITH SAYS HE'S STRONGLY CONSIDERING PRESIDENTIAL RUN

On Sunday, Smith appeared on ABC’s "This Week," after confirming last week that he is not ruling out a run at the highest office in the land. And after all, you might say, if a celebrity like Donald Trump can find himself residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., then why not Stephen A. Smith?

The answer to that question is that Democrats are not Republicans. 

Just ask Robert F Kennedy, Jr., who Democrats denied any opportunity to challenge Joe Biden in the 2024 primary, and who now works for Trump.

The party didn’t just try to defeat RFK Jr., they sought to humiliate and marginalize him. Smith should take heed.

Democrats do not go with the hot hand just to win. If they did, Bernie Sanders would've been their nominee in 2016, not Hillary Clinton. And they proved it again at Sanders' expense in 2020, when they pushed him aside for Joe Biden. Democrats want someone from their club, or at least someone they can control.

Stephen A. Smith is neither.

To be sure, there is a very positive case to be made for Smith as the Democratic Party wanders through the political wilderness, shivering in the long cold shadow of Biden’s incompetence and decrepitude.

Smith is obviously a gifted communicator, and more than that, he appeals to the Achilles heel of the party, working-class men. He also appears more or less immune to wacky woke ideas like men playing in women’s sports.

Smith has an undeniable everyman appeal. After all, almost by definition a sports analyst is the guy you want to have a beer with, and even in that world, Smith balances the brutishness of sport with high-mindedness and impeccable style.

His wildly successful career in the aggressive and high-stakes world of sports media is an asset for Smith. Before voters can agree with what a politician has to say, they have to want to hear what they have to say. Smith knows how to get attention.

But before we start designing the fully lit basketball court in the Rose Garden, it is worth considering the extensive tools that the Democrats’ elite have to thwart Smith, a set of tools that, had they had them, Republicans would have used to kneecap Trump in 2016.

First of all, superdelegates, which is to say unelected party insiders who cast ballots for the nominee at the party convention, play a vastly bigger role in the Democrats’ primary process than in the GOP’s. Added to this, given the dominance of Democrats in our major urban areas, local Democratic Party machines play an outsized role. 

It was Rep. James Clyburn’s get-out-the-vote effort in South Carolina cities that propelled Biden to his 2020 win, even though just a week earlier his candidacy had looked dead as a doornail.

The party elders pick the candidates, whether the voters like it or not. Let’s not forget that just five months ago Kamala Harris ran for president, having never won a primary. Does it really matter how many votes Smith can get in a party that anoints nominees nobody voted for?

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In 2016, Donald Trump didn’t so much win the Republican nomination for president as he did take over the GOP, fundamentally transforming it in ways we are still seeing play out with young and working-class voters, and with tariffs and peace deals.

To become president, Stephen A. Smith would have to likewise. It wouldn't be enough to simply get the most votes for the Democratic nomination. He would have to fundamentally change the party itself, and the power structures within it, like Trump did.

As talented as Smith is, changing the Democratic Party is likely too tall an order for anyone. It is a machine designed to minimize voter impact. 

If Smith really wants to be president someday, he’d probably have a better chance running as a Republican. But that is a column for another day.

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As I write these words, my heart is heavy. For almost 500 days, I've lived in a nightmare that no mother should ever endure. My son, Alon, spent his 24th birthday earlier this week in the dark tunnels of Hamas, chained, tortured and abused – his second birthday in captivity.

Alon is my eldest son. He has two younger siblings. He is beautiful, with blond hair and bright green eyes. He's also an incredibly talented pianist and a sensitive young man with many dreams yet to fulfill. Alon is a people person – I am always inspired by his ability to connect with others and build deep bonds. I miss his smile, his voice, his sense of humor, and our conversations about life. I miss just having him with us, watching him make his way in the world with his characteristic determination and curiosity.

FATHER OF HAMAS HOSTAGE: LET TRUMP CLOSE DEAL OF THE CENTURY

On Oct. 7, 2023, Alon attended the Nova music festival. When the attack began, he and others sought refuge in what we now tragically call the "death shelter." Out of 27 people hiding there, only seven survived. Four were kidnapped: my son Alon, Or Levy, Eliya Cohen and Hersh Goldberg-Polin. Or was just released this past weekend, Eliya is set to be released later this month, and Hersh was tragically executed in captivity. And my son? Despite his severe injuries and deteriorating condition, he is not even included in the current phase of releases.

This past Saturday, when I watched the release of Or Levy – who was kidnapped together with Alon – along with Eli Sharabi and Ohad Ben-Ami from captivity, I collapsed. Something that hadn't happened to me once in the past 16 months. I burst into tears that I couldn't stop for hours. It was so shocking to see them and the terrible state they were in, so emaciated, pale, with sunken eyes. I tried to imagine my Alon, my beautiful boy. How does he look now? 

That same evening, to my great joy, I received a message – the first sign of life since Oct. 7. Along with this came the horrifying descriptions of the conditions in which he is being held. He was with Or and Eli throughout their time in captivity. He has been restrained with iron shackles during his entire captivity, limiting his movement. He has a severe injury to his eye, with a foreign body lodged in it, leaving him able to see only shadows. There are also shrapnel embedded in his arms and neck that have been left untreated. He, like the others, receives barely one piece of bread per day. Almost 500 days in complete darkness.

And he is still there – not even included in the current phase of the deal. How is my son, chained and wounded, not considered a "humanitarian case"? 

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I am deeply grateful to President Trump for his extraordinary efforts in securing the hostage deal. In a matter of weeks, he achieved what seemed impossible, bringing many of our loved ones back home. His unwavering stance has been clear and powerful – all hostages must be released, and they must be released now. He understands they have no time left. There are still about 20 living hostages, including my son, who aren't included in the first phase of releases. 

President Trump has already proven he can make the impossible possible. Our hope for Alon's return, and the return of all remaining hostages, rests strongly with him. These efforts, alongside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's work, have reunited families and saved lives. 

Alon’s great-grandfather survived Auschwitz, weighing just 38 kilos when liberated. He came to Israel and built a beautiful family. Perhaps it's this resilient DNA that keeps Alon alive now, as he endures conditions that echo the darkest chapters of our people's history. But how can we, in 2025, allow such suffering to continue?

The tunnels where my son is held are dark, but our determination to bring him home must shine brighter than ever. I refuse to let Alon mark another birthday in captivity. I refuse to let him become another statistic in this brutal saga. Bring them home now. Bring my son home now. Before it's too late.

There’s an old saying that if you watch the pennies and nickels, then the dollars take care of themselves. President Donald Trump is taking that dictum to heart, ordering Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to halt minting pennies because the government actually loses money on the coins.

Normally, printing currency and minting coins costs less than the face value of the money being created. For example, the federal government pays less than $100 for the paper and ink to print a $100 bill. That used to be true for pennies too, because the amount of copper used to mint a penny cost less than one cent.

But decades of deficit-fueled inflation devalued America’s currency, so much so that it now costs more than a penny to create one. To preserve its seigniorage (the value gained by turning materials like paper or metal into money), the Treasury began minting pennies out of cheaper metals and using a mere wash of copper on the outside.

TRUMP SAYS HE HAS INSTRUCTED US TREASURY TO STOP MINTING NEW PENNIES: 'THIS IS SO WASTEFUL!'

But the continued devaluation of the dollar, which accelerated greatly under President Joe Biden, sent commodity prices soaring so that even zinc is too costly to make a penny. Put simply, the government is losing money with every one of these coins that it mints, and that means it’s costing taxpayers too.

Trump is so determined to restore sanity to federal finances that he is leaving no stone unturned when it comes to looking for ways to cut costs in the government’s bloated budget. Americans like Trump, Bessent, and Elon Musk understand the rationale of the above-mentioned aphorism about paying attention to the little details—and that’s the only way to eventually fix the multi-trillion-dollar annual deficit.

This is yet another example of Trump and his team having to clean up the mess left by the Biden administration’s failures. Under Biden, the currency lost approximately one-fifth of its value as prices skyrocketed over 20 percent in just four years, while runaway federal spending became the norm, the debt exploded to over $36 trillion, and annual interest on that debt exceeded $1 trillion.

MUSK'S NEXT TARGET? TRUMP SAYS DOGE WILL LOOK AT DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, PENTAGON FUNDING 

In short, Biden left both the government’s and American families’ finances in tatters. The only way out of this economic malaise is to stop the spending out of Washington, D.C. And that starts by returning to common sense—like the cessation of minting coins that lose money for the government and taxpayers.

While some may be sentimental about Lincoln’s image on our nation’s smallest coin, Honest Abe would likely make the same decision as Trump. The self-effacing 16th president faced difficult currency questions himself when trying to finance the Civil War and would certainly rather preserve America’s solvency than perpetual his visage on increasingly scarce financial transactions in the digital age.

Additionally, no one should worry about running out of pennies. In fact, there’s no reason why today’s transactions can’t be conducted to the nearest 10th of a dollar instead of the nearest 100th, meaning a single decimal place instead of two.

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In fact, doing so would simply recreate the same level of exactness in prices that existed in 1913, before the Federal Reserve began a near continuous campaign of devaluing the nation’s currency, a cumulative drop of over 90 percent.

Cutting the penny is part of the broader war to cut government spending, and it needs to be viewed in that context. Trump, Bessent, and Musk understand the perilous condition of federal finance led by the Biden administration and the omnipresent nature of abuse, fraud, and waste within the federal budget.

This is why the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is so vital in returning America to fiscal sanity. They’re going through everything with a fine-tooth comb and ensuring taxpayer dollars are being used appropriately.

We are truly in bad shape financially, and no government spending can be exempt from close examination—down to the penny.

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There are the Black elites and then there are the rest of us. Ibram X. Kendi is one of them. Despite his middle class upbringing and current vast material wealth, he has made a living out of telling America that she is a systemically racist nation and that Blacks are her perpetual victim. He has also made a living out of telling Whites that they are racist unless they repent and become anti-racists in the manner formulated by him. 

The one thing that Kendi has not done is uplift the Blacks born into the underclass in cities all across America. Though he may profess to care about his brothers and sisters, it is only lip service. For to truly help develop and uplift them would eliminate his bread and butter: racism. 

I thought good riddance when I heard that Boston University was closing Kendi’s Center for Antiracist Research. He had raised nearly $55 million for his Boston University center, including $10 million from Twitter’s former owner, Jack Dorsey. During his time there, he averaged $35,000 per 60 minute speech — at the speech he gave at Cal State Northridge, he showed up 15 minutes late for a Zoom speech and still collected the full amount for 45 minutes of work. Not only that, he wrote books that have found their way into almost every K-12 school library across America. 

FOUNDER OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY’S ANTIRACIST RESEARCH GROUP DEPARTS AS CENTER PREPARES TO SHUT DOWN

This man exploited the aftermath of George Floyd’s death to deepen the Black victimization cult in America. So I was glad to hear that he was gone from Boston University. Then I heard he was moving onto Howard University to set up a nearly similar center called the Institute for Advanced Study. A representative from this new center stated that it’s purpose is "advancing research of importance to the global African Diaspora, including inquiry into race, technology, racism, climate change, and disparities."

It also promises that it will be "built on the highest standards of intellectual inquiry."

What malarky, to put it politely.

Kendi is nothing more than a race hustler dressed up in the uniform of academia. That is why I was disappointed that Howard University, perhaps America’s most famous historically Black university, was taking in this racial victim charlatan. 

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We have had over 60 years of victimization poisoning the minds of Blacks and we’re on the bottom of nearly every educational statistic. Too many of our Black academics focus on race and not on development. Like Kendi, they exploit Black pain for the money in the bank account, the fancy car they drive, and the rosy house they live in and when they’re asked how much longer before Blacks get justice, they always say, there’s so much more work to be done. 

I am the opposite of Kendi and his peers. I don’t believe in the politics of Blackness or exploiting our history of oppression for gain. I believe in the only one thing that matters in this nation: individual development. 

What a waste to give Kendi all that money when it could have been put into foundational development that equips the young with a mind, thereby allowing him or her the opportunity to truly thrive in the world. That is how you achieve true diversity — by developing those who were born into less fortunate circumstances. 

So it is my hope that Howard University recognizes its responsibility as an education establishment to reject the Kendis of America and move forward onto the path of development — a path we should have been on since the 1960s. 

We have squandered far too many young minds to the race hustle and it is our sacred duty to our people who survived slavery and segregation to do right by the youth of today. 

We cannot afford any more dead ends.

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This darling little town of 30,000 holds an astounding $36 trillion dollars of debt, but it’s not the people's fault. Allow me to explain.  

Back in 1957, the Bureau of the National Debt was placed in this remote Appalachian city in case of national emergency, which presumably meant nuclear war. So, while New York, Chicago ,and DC were mushroom clouded, the federal government could continue banking. 

This is why, on Tuesday morning, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency will arrive in this pleasant hamlet to gain access to more of the comings and goings of America’s money.

NATIONAL DEBT TRACKER: AMERICAN TAXPAYERS (YOU) ARE NOW ON THE HOOK FOR $36,219,581,958,530.58 AS OF 2/10/25

The actual thing that exists here in Parkersburg is called the Central Accounting Reporting System (CARS). Some locals told me is resides in the basement of an old building in town. It’s all a little vague and spooky. 

What Musk and his team want is access to the real numbers, the payouts on our debt, our collections, what money is going where. This is where the answers reside. Every single day, the thousand or so federal employees in Parkersburg track and report on that debt.

On Monday evening at the Hotel Blennerhassett, built in 1889 and still an imposing and elegant centerpiece of the area, the impending visit from DOGE was already the talk of the town.  

"This is a huge part of this city’s economy," one local retired attorney told me, adding, "We don’t know what’s going to happen to it." 

Local Democratic officials have been raising similar alarm bells, as well. Jeff Fox, the Wood County Democratic Party Chair said, "Our community relies heavily on the employment provided by the U.S. Treasury here in Parkersburg. The prospect of DOGE’s intervention raises serious questions about job security for our residents." 

Fair enough, except that all Musk’s DOGE team is seeking is access to data. There is nothing to suggest that the plan here is to fire anyone, except maybe for Musk’s sometimes overzealous rhetoric. 

And honestly, it is that trolling rhetoric that seems to be leading to the confusion. 

Musk and his team have taken to using a signature scene of the Gen X classic Office Space to explain DOGE. It is the Bobs, brought in to fire people, interrogate them as to "what they actually do here."

But the point of those scenes was not that it was vital that Initech become more efficient, as the tech bros would have it. It was that Peter, the protagonist, wanted more than efficiency for his life. That is precisely why he confused them. 

On the ground in Parkersburg, I cannot provide you with a black and white story of good and evil, of graft and honesty. It's more complicated than that. It always is. 

There is no apparent reason to think that Musk’s minions are rolling up to the Bureau of Fiscal Service, right across the street from the hotel, with a briefcase full of pink slips. What I saw today was a full parking lot of federal employees’ nice cars outside the building. These are people showing up.

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Instead, what Musk really wants is a look under the hood of federal debt, and Parkersburg is absolutely its service station. There may be legitimate concerns about sensitive information contained within, but if President Trump has tasked Musk to suss it out, then he’s allowed to do that. 

I drove across the mountains to Parkersburg in my spunky red Mitsubishi Lancer because it’s the kind of place I like to report on. This DOGE intervention was icing on the cake. 

I don’t know what, if anything, local reaction will be to Musk’s DOGE invasion of Parkersburg Tuesday, but I’m here so I can find out.

Our federal government is probably the biggest and most important thing that has ever existed in the world. It won global wars hot and cold, it landed on the Moon, its glory knows no bounds. 

But all of that was funded in Parkersburg, West "By God" Virginia, and this week, Donald Trump and Elon Musk will be going through the receipts. 

Nobody likes an audit, but maybe it's time.

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The bureaucrats who run government agencies – especially those in charge of tech infrastructure – are up in arms over Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency ("DOGE") colleagues barging in and making sweeping changes. And I couldn’t be happier to see it. 

My experiences as White House chief information officer and working with government as a cybersecurity consultant in the private sector taught me two things: the U.S. government has some of the most talented technologists and cyber warriors on the planet; but even the best operatives are hamstrung by bureaucratic bungling, infighting, waste, outdated infrastructure and other unnecessary complications. 

Musk and DOGE offer the best chance in a generation to untangle the mass of complex cables that are supposed to keep our government, our economy and our people safe. 

I and every other federal department and agency CIO had to fight the same battles against the entrenched bureaucracy that Musk is fighting now. Much has been made, too, of the cadre of young "tech bros" working at DOGE – the U.K.’s Daily Telegraph called them "college-aged, fresh-faced Muskovites." But make no mistake: they would not have gotten within Musk’s orbit were it not for preternatural talent that had also been recognized elsewhere. 

THE REAL REASON BIG TECH IS COZYING UP TO TRUMP 2.0

One of these whiz kids won a $250,000 prize for using AI to reveal hidden contents of ancient Roman papyrus. Another was given $100,000 in seed money by OpenAI to found his own startup. It may be that these fresh minds are just what we need to rebuild our woefully outdated systems.

You don’t need to be a technology or cybersecurity expert to understand that the status quo is inefficient at best and dangerous at worst. Last December, the U.S. was hit with two of the worst cyberattacks in our history, courtesy of the Chinese government’s elite corps of hackers. 

In one assault, they breached multiple U.S. telecom companies, and even gained access to networks used for vital law enforcement and intelligence gathering. In the aftermath, there was confusion as to whose job it was to secure the important telecom networks: a government agency like the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) or the telecom companies themselves? What about data collected by law enforcement agencies but stored in the private companies’ systems? 

TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME WAS REAL. SO IS 'LONG TDS'

Another Chinese attack targeted the Treasury Department, where hackers accessed documents and workstations by compromising a third-party vendor’s security key. Once again, sorting out the responsibility for security between Treasury, Homeland Security and the White House became overly complicated, not to mention the obvious failure to properly vet the third-party vendor’s security protocols. 

A few years ago, a major ransomware attack shut down a national fuel pipeline, leading to shortages and exposing serious security flaws in our critical infrastructure. 

In all of these cases, confusing, fragmented oversight made recovery (and the process of learning lessons) slow and inefficient. They showed that these inefficiencies, plus outdated security models and unclear paths of oversight, threatened our national security, economic stability and public safety. 

PRESIDENT TRUMP HAS MADE AN APPOINTMENT THAT HAS BIG TECH PANICKED

All of this remains true today. Our government’s inefficiencies have led to complexity – in systems, processes and oversight – creating blind spots that leave us vulnerable to cyber incidents.

DOGE has the chance to cut through the complexity, drive accountability and ensure cybersecurity measures actually work – before the next major breach. The government technology apparatus should welcome their fine-toothed forensic review (and probably would, if the territorial mindset wasn’t so fully ingrained). 

By identifying inefficiencies in operational procedures, Musk and his team can find ways to streamline government functions, reduce waste and improve services. 

LOOK TO OUTER SPACE FOR TRUMP'S GREENLAND PLAYBOOK AMBITIONS AMID RUSSIA, CHINA ARCTIC ADVANCES

They can save taxpayer money by, for instance, implementing zero-based budgeting, where every dollar spent must constantly justify its existence. That would force agencies to rethink spending, ensuring resources fuel efficiency, not bureaucracy. 

They would also have to prioritize the most worthy investments, such as upgrading outdated systems to generate better service for citizens, faster processing times and more robust data management. Encouraging the adoption of new technologies and methodologies could set a precedent for more agile and responsive government operations.

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I know this reorganization is creating a lot of uncertainty for our nation’s hardworking technology teams, and that’s incredibly tough. My thoughts and prayers are with you. Our technology is broken; as painful as this is, it must be done. Trust that your talent, resilience and work ethic will open doors. 

DOGE’s deep dive into people, processes and technology can reduce complexity, increase transparency and shrink our attack surface, making catastrophic cyber incidents far less likely.

Who was the biggest winner on Super Bowl Sunday? Donald Trump. Yes, the Philadelphia Eagles rolled over the Kansas City Chiefs with ease, with their formidable defense smothering KC quarterback Patrick Mahomes. 

But it was the president who arguably carried the day, becoming the first-ever commander in chief to show up at the Super Bowl. Fox, which broadcast the game, didn’t make a big deal of Trump’s presence; that was the right choice. No one wants to politicize one of the most-loved US traditions.

And yet when the president and first daughter Ivanka appeared briefly on the stadium’s Jumbotron, football fans gave them a standing ovation. (Taylor Swift’s image a bit later provoked a round of boos; apparently Eagles fans outnumbered those rooting for KC, and she is now the face of the Chiefs. Maybe, but she also endorsed former Vice President Kamala Harris in the last election….) 

TRUMP RECEIVES RAUCOUS RECEPTION AS HE SALUTES DURING SUPER BOWL LIX NATIONAL ANTHEM

People gathering across the nation talked up their bets and their teams, but it was Trump storming the country’s political universe that grabbed most of the attention, and applause.

Recent polling shows Americans are on board the Trump Train. A recent CBS News/YouGov poll shows the president more popular than ever and earning high marks for his warp-speed takeover of the U.S. government. Some 70% of Americans think Trump is doing what he promised on the campaign trail, a majority back his handling of the Israel-Hamas conflict, while 59% like his deportations and 64% approve of his sending troops to the U,.S.-Mexican border. Meanwhile, a (slim) majority wants Elon Musk playing a role in the administration even as Chuck Schumer and others on the left rail about the tech giant’s undue influence. Take that Democrats! https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-approval-opinion-poll-2025-2-9/

President Trump is not only issuing executive orders and upsetting norms at breakneck speed, he is also changing our culture; we saw that during the Super Bowl. Patriotism is back and DEI is on the skids.

Witness the stirring clip of Brad Pitt introducing the Super Bowl with an unabashedly proud homage to the United States, a montage that included representations of the Founders signing the Declaration of Independence, video of cowboys on horseback waving Old Glory, clips of NASA engineers and first responders and those who protested for racial equality. 

EAGLES WIN SUPER BOWL LIX, DENYING CHIEFS HISTORY IN DOMINANT FASHION

Pitt says about the U.S.: "Isn’t that union at the core of this day, and this glorious chaotic exasperating experiment that is us?" He finishes his narrative saying, "Today we celebrate the urgency of now, the thrill of what’s next, the glory of this game, and we do it as one." How refreshing, a message of unity after four years of divisiveness. 

Many of the Super Bowl ads demonstrated the country’s course-correct. Jeep’s flag-bedecked ad featured Harrison Ford broadcasting a critical message: "Freedom is for everybody. But it isn’t free. It’s earned." Photos of GIs storming beaches drove home his message.

The Secret Service aired a stirring recruitment ad that featured video of President John F. Kennedy famously telling Americans, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country," a message the current generation needs to hear. The ad also includes video of Ronald Reagan demanding that Soviet leader Gorbachev "Tear down this wall." Most dramatic, it shows the iconic photo of Donald Trump moments after he was shot in Butler, Pennsylvania, pumping his fist and yelling, "Fight, fight, fight!" 

My guess – just like recruitment for our armed services in December hit the highest level in 15 years, as young men and women responded to the abandonment of Biden’s woke agenda, we’ll see a jump in the number of Americans signing up for the Secret Service.

It wasn’t just the ads or the pregame messages that signaled a different vibe this year. The NFL changed its message stenciled onto the endzone message from "END RACISM" to "CHOOSE LOVE." It will be the first time in five years that the "END RACISM" tagline will not be splashed onto the end zone, signaling an end to the left’s George Floyd-inspired insistence that the U.S. is an inherently racist nation. That charge, as millions of viewers tuned in to cheer on mostly Black world-class athletes making on average more than $3 million apiece, has worn out its welcome.

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Of course, President Trump did not just attend the Super Bowl on Sunday. He started the day with a round of golf in Florida with Tiger Woods and his son and then, en route to New Orleans aboard Air Force One, officially changed the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.

In addition, Trump taped an interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier on Friday, parts of which were broadcast during the pregame show. Remember that then-President Joe Biden declined to do the traditional Super Bowl interview in 2023, causing Democrat bigwig David Axelrod to recently post on X that Biden’s decision not to address the game’s "unparalleled audience" was "bewildering" and a "major sign of trouble. Trump is all over it today." 

In the interview, the president reiterated his support for Elon Musk, the current bete noir of the left, and said he was sending the Tesla founder and fellow disruptor to get to work on reforming the Department of Education, and then the military. 

That will set the never-Trumpers howling. Trump also talked about putting tariffs on steel and aluminum, which will alarm Wall Street all over again, and feed doubts about the president’s commitment to bringing down prices, one of his few weak polling spots currently. Given his high approval rating on most issues, he can afford to take measures important to America’s future, like bringing manufacturing home, that will not pay out overnight.  

The exhausted news media wonders: does the man ever sleep? Americans wonder: can he please keep plowing ahead and make our country great again?

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On February 1, President Donald Trump announced a 10% tariff on Chinese goods to help stop "the flow of contraband drugs like fentanyl to the United States, through illicit distribution networks," which "has created a national emergency, including a public health crisis."  

Trump was correct when he stated that "Chinese officials have failed to take the actions necessary to stem the flow of precursor chemicals to known criminal cartels and shut down money laundering by transnational criminal organizations." This is consistent with what I advised him when I served as secretary of Health and Human Services in his first term.  

Among the most significant health crises confronting the nation is the continued manufacturing, shipping and distribution of fentanyl from Chinese companies. Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid more potent than morphine, has been a major contributor to the opioid overdose crisis in the United States.  

FENTANYL'S FINANCIAL GRIP ON US SKYROCKETED TO $2.7T AT HEIGHT OF BIDEN ADMIN: STUDY

It is estimated that over 80,000 people are killed every year in the United States by fentanyl. Nationally, fentanyl has emerged as the leading cause of death for individuals aged 18 to 45. The Drug Enforcement Administration has identified China as the primary source of fentanyl and its related substances trafficked into the U.S., often through international mail and express consignment channels.  

We’re all hopeful that new tariffs, which include provisions that suspend the duty-free exemption for low-value shipments under $800 — a loophole that has been exploited to smuggle fentanyl and its precursor chemicals into the United States, will go a long way toward stopping the problem at hand.  

Unfortunately, however, fentanyl is no longer the only product being smuggled in from China that is threatening Americans’ health and safety.  

China also has a state-owned corporation with chartered monopoly status to sell nicotine products. This monopoly provides the communist regime with a significant amount of annual funding. In 2023, its receipts clocked in at $210 billion, $10 billion shy of funding the entire People’s Liberation Army.  

One of China’s most important nicotine products is its flavored vapes, which the country continues illegally smuggling into the United States.  

In 2023, over 60% of disposable vapes sold in the U.S. were illicit, with the majority originating from China. This is concerning because there is increasing evidence that some of these products contain harmful contaminants, such as heavy metals, pesticides and other toxins, due to lax manufacturing standards in Chinese factories.  

This raises the question: now that the U.S. has taken significant action to squelch the prevalence of Chinese fentanyl within our borders, what can it do to stop the scourge of these dangerous Chinese nicotine products?  

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First, the administration must crack down on illicit Chinese vape imports through targeted customs enforcement and stricter penalties for distributors of illegal e-cigarettes. A concerted effort to increase inspections at ports of entry, penalize bad actors in the supply chain as needed and will significantly reduce their presence.  

Second, the administration, including incoming Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and incoming Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, should override former President Joe Biden’s appointees at the International Trade Commission’s decision to ban the only legal, U.S.-produced flavored vaping products from the marketplace within the 60-day window that they have to do so. If it goes into effect, this prohibition will allow China’s illicit marketplace to grow stronger.  

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the administration should work with Congress to reintroduce and pass legislation that holds Chinese companies accountable for violating U.S. safety and trade laws. The halt of illegal fentanyl imports through the Phase One tariffs in 2020 showed that trade measures can pressure China into compliance. Extending these policies to cover unsafe vape products would protect American consumers from dangerous, unregulated imports.  

From the devastating fentanyl crisis that precipitated the imposition of tariffs on China to the resurgence of youth vaping driven by illegal flavored e-cigarettes, the pattern is clear — China does not follow the rules.  

Protecting our families, especially our children, from these dangers must remain a top national priority.  

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The "thirty years war" of "new media" versus legacy media began almost 40 years ago when the Federal Communications Commission ended the absurdist "fairness doctrine" and Rush Limbaugh built the talk radio mall which I’ve been happy to have a prime location in since. The FCC ended the rule in 1987 and Rush launched his nationally syndicated program in 1988, and thus began the Long March of the new media against legacy media.

Before Rush, there was William F. Buckley and his National Review magazine and "Firing Line" television show and the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal. R. Emmett Tyrell launched The American Spectator. Regnery Publishing helped launch a thousand ships, but the legacy broadcast networks and big papers were all at first liberal and then left-wing, and the government subsidized media of NPR and PBS were overwhelmingly the same way. (If the budget/reconciliation package fails to completely defund both, it is a failure out of the gate. Whatever was the original argument for both and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, it is no longer persuasive and money to all three is money in support of the American left.)

There are two kinds of "new media": old and new. Old new media includes talk radio, and the first generation of bloggers which appeared more than two decades ago, e.g. Instapundit and Powerline. The disintermediation of legacy media from their reading and watching audiences thus began before 2005 and has only accelerated since.

Now the variety and depth of "new" new media astonishes. There is actually no reason to watch a legacy network that is biased. If you want the pure left wing point-of-view, flip over to MSNBC. Everything else among the old brands is just watered down MSNBC, but run by folks who believe in the MSNBC world view.

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No matter your tastes or age, there is a cornucopia of new media choices available to you. Fox News, both broadcast and online, is the backbone of the new media ecosystem and talk radio remains a force of considerable and expanding reach.  

New broadcast networks like the Salem News Channel exist to provide choice on the center-right to right, and the new force majeure on the media landscape is podcasting. My own diet of pods runs from the PG—National Review’s "The Editors" and "The McCarthy Report"—to the PG-13—"Getting Hammered" with Mary Katharine Ham and Vic Matus to the "Commentary" podcast and "Call Me Back" with Dan Senor—and the R-rated—"Ruthless" and "The Megyn Kelly Show"—and that’s just the pods aimed at least in part at the 40+ demo.

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Barron Trump and Alex Bruesewitz both famously helped guide President Trump to the enormous online audiences under 35 that devote hardly a second to legacy media but which consume pods by the scores of hours.

Now legacy media is crumbling, simply fading away, with audiences declining and subscriptions plummeting and advertising revenue shaky. The folks who buy advertising long ago realized their budgets go much further with both old new media and new new media. Because the universe of potential audience has sought out those new platforms. They are not operating out of habit. They are cutting cords.

Repurposing predictable, biased content into different types of displays, churning out newsletters with last generation columnists, reconfiguring deck chairs on sinking chairs—all of it doomed. Puzzles and recipes have saved the New York Times but how long until advertising wants only the puzzles and recipes and subscribers figure out there are a lot of free puzzles and recipes to be had.

It’s a death spiral. Rush launched it. It has slowly accelerated and now the speed has reached new levels—and will continue to accelerate.

Hugh Hewitt is host of "The Hugh Hewitt Show," heard weekday mornings 6am to 9am ET on the Salem Radio Network, and simulcast on Salem News Channel. Hugh wakes up America on over 400 affiliates nationwide, and on all the streaming platforms where SNC can be seen. He is a frequent guest on the Fox News Channel’s news roundtable hosted by Bret Baier weekdays at 6pm ET. A son of Ohio and a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been a Professor of Law at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law since 1996 where he teaches Constitutional Law. Hewitt launched his eponymous radio show from Los Angeles in 1990.  Hewitt has frequently appeared on every major national news television network, hosted television shows for PBS and MSNBC, written for every major American paper, has authored a dozen books and moderated a score of Republican candidate debates, most recently the November 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in the 2015-16 cycle. Hewitt focuses his radio show and his column on the Constitution, national security, American politics and the Cleveland Browns and Guardians. Hewitt has interviewed tens of thousands of guests from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump over his 40 years in broadcast, and this column previews the lead story that will drive his radio/ TV show today.

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Judges around the country are making quick work of climate lawfare, a welcome development following the U.S. Supreme Court declining to confront the issue earlier this year.  

In recent months, three judges in Maryland and New York have dismissed climate-change lawsuits from public litigants who accuse energy companies of harming communities through emissions and concealing those harms from the public. Their decisions suggest an emerging consensus that federal law does not permit these kinds of claims, which fail on their own terms in all events.  

More than two dozen cities and states have filed nearly identical climate-change lawsuits, creating significant risk for energy companies and consumers who enjoy the quality of life cheap and abundant power provides. 

NJ LAWSUIT CLAIMING OIL COMPANIES CAUSE CLIMATE CHANGE DEALT MASSIVE BLOW IN COURT

The plaintiffs pleaded state law claims accusing the defendants of creating a public nuisance and deceiving the public. The energy companies have raised a variety of defenses. Their principal defense is that the climate claims are preempted by the Clean Air Act, which assigns emissions regulation to the Environmental Protection Agency, with limited carve-outs for states that do not apply in the instant cases.  

Taken together, the recent decisions clarify the fundamental political goals of climate litigants. In dismissing the city of Baltimore’s climate lawsuit, Judge Videtta Brown explained that a successful state law climate claim "would operate as a de facto regulation on greenhouse gas emissions," echoing the like conclusions of the Second and Ninth U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal.  

The reason for that is obvious. In these cases, the energy providers face liability unbound. The prospective damages are so high that the defendants would fundamentally alter their business practices. That is the policy outcome the plaintiffs intend, which makes the preemption issue straightforward.  

Indeed, U.S. District Judge William Alsup speculated that climate lawfare threatens the continued viability of fossil fuel production altogether. When dismissing Oakland’s climate change lawsuit in 2021, Alsup wrote that the damages sought "would make the continuation of defendants’ fossil fuel production ‘not feasible.’" 

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Public reporting about the origins of the climate nuisance, fraud and misrepresentation cases fills out the picture. News accounts establish that a skillful network of academics, lawyers, celebrities and leftwing foundations are at work behind the scenes, at once incubating new legal theories and lining up financing. These facts aren’t necessarily germane for a court, but reasonable onlookers should not be obtuse about what’s going on here.  

Apart from the preemption issues, a Jan. 14 decision in New York clarifies that climate deception suits don’t meet the requirements of a misrepresentation tort. As above, the reason is obvious.  

"The connection between fossil fuels and climate change is public information," Judge Anar Rathod Patel wrote in dismissing the second of New York City’s climate change lawsuits. Courts have determined that "a reasonable consumer cannot have been misled" when the plaintiff does not identify salient facts that the defendant alone possessed.  

The climate misrepresentation claims rest on a contradiction. The plaintiffs maintain that the public is broadly aware of climate change, and that "climate anxiety" shapes economic and political choices. But those same consumers have supposedly been deceived by the energy companies and kept in the dark about the connection between fossil fuels and a changing climate. As Patel wrote, the plaintiffs "cannot have it both ways."  

Rebranding extreme social engineering as environmental or consumer protection is an old liberal trick. Ironically, the pioneer of this tactic, Ralph Nader, contributed to the current climate policy problem with his successful "pro-consumer, pro-safety" crusade against nuclear power in the 1970s.   

I am not sure that the Supreme Court is clear of climate lawfare. While most courts confronting the late wave of climate lawsuits have dismissed them, a few have allowed them to proceed to discovery and trial. The existing split in authorities thus seems like to grow. And the plaintiffs need only prevail in a handful of cases to extract the changes they seek. But it is surely positive for consumers and for the rule of law that the prevailing trend is against the plaintiffs. 

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As America turns its attention to Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans, We the Veterans and Military Families will proudly be on hand to launch Military250, a unifying national campaign marking the 250th anniversaries of the U.S. Army, Navy and Marine Corps. This initiative celebrates military history and the enduring values that make America great: service, sacrifice and civic pride. 

Before American patriots proclaimed our independence in 1776, the Founders mustered an Army, Navy and Marine Corps that fought and sacrificed to earn our freedom. So, before the celebration of America’s 250th anniversary in 2026, for which President Donald Trump recently formed a White House task force to coordinate plans, we want to honor the service of those who were instrumental in achieving our independence, setting us on a course to be the nation we are today. 

The Military250 campaign will spotlight key moments in American history, by formally recognizing 250 veteran and military family service organizations, 250 leaders continuing their service and 250 acts of service, demonstrating how actions from everyday people are the backbone that strengthens America.  

SENATE CONFIRMS DOUG COLLINS TO LEAD THE DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS

The journey toward these historic milestones over the next 18 months is an opportunity to pause and reflect on our nation’s past, honor the contributions of all Americans and look ahead toward the future we want to create for the next generation and beyond. Through these moments, and many more, Military250 reminds us that patriotism is more than a concept. It’s a practice rooted in our daily actions. 

As the U.S. Army announces record recruitment numbers, Military250 is a challenge to every American: How will you carry forward this legacy of service? For military families and veterans, this might mean taking on local civic leadership opportunities or mentoring others through a veteran service organization. For others, it could mean volunteering, voting, or even serving as a poll worker. 

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At We the Veterans and Military Families, we’ve seen how everyday actions of patriotic participation can transform communities. They foster connection and remind us of the shared values that bind us together. Grounded in the universal values of service and sacrifice, this campaign brings together those from all corners – community organizations, athletes and sports executives, business leaders and everyday Americans who want to celebrate what’s best about our nation. To honor our past and chart a new course forward toward the next frontier. 

We the Veterans is honored to be invited by the National Football League to be on media row at Super Bowl LIX. As we kick off Military250 on America’s biggest stage, take a moment to reflect on how you can give back to the country that has given us so much.  Find ways to serve — whether through a local veterans’ organization, your neighborhood school or a national charity you care about. 

This campaign is more than a commemoration, it’s a reminder that patriotism requires so much more than waving a flag on Independence Day. It’s about embodying the courage, service and unity that have defined our country for 250 years. As President Ronald Reagan reminded us, "freedom is a fragile thing and it's never more than one generation away from extinction." 

If you’re looking for a way to celebrate America and the shared history that binds us together, join us in honoring our past and building a future that lives up to the sacrifices on the shoulders of the giants on which we all stand.  

Together, we can ensure that America’s next 250 years are defined by the same spirit of resilience and service that built this nation, and that our nation remembers General Jimmy Doolittle’s words that "There's nothing stronger than the heart of a volunteer." 

Ben Keiser is a Marine Corps veteran and a co-founder and executive chairman of We the Veterans and Military Families. 

On Feb. 9, the Kansas City Chiefs will take the field against the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LIX, a highly anticipated rematch of their Super Bowl LVII showdown. 

For the Chiefs, this is more than just another championship game – it’s a shot at making history. Winning back-to-back Super Bowls is rare, but achieving a three-peat has never been done in the modern NFL era.

This matchup is a battle between a team striving to solidify its dynasty and another looking for redemption. The Chiefs, led by Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid, have dominated the league for years, proving they have the formula for sustained success. Meanwhile, the Eagles return with unfinished business after falling just short in their last Super Bowl meeting with Kansas City.

Maintaining excellence year after year is no easy task. The pressure mounts, expectations grow and the competition only gets stronger. Whether on the football field, in business or in life, the lessons from these two teams show us what it takes to stay on top.

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The Chiefs have become the NFL’s gold standard under coach Andy Reid and quarterback Patrick Mahomes, making their fourth Super Bowl appearance in five years. But staying on top comes with immense pressure. Every team builds their strategy around beating you. Every mistake is magnified. And the hunger that once fueled your climb must be reignited again and again.

Sustaining greatness isn’t just a challenge for NFL teams – it’s a reality for anyone striving for long-term success. Whether in business, leadership or personal goals, the Chiefs’ journey offers key lessons for those looking to not just win but keep winning.

First, Adapt or Fall Behind. Success is never final, and the Chiefs know this better than anyone. After winning Super Bowl LVIII, they entered this season with a target on their backs. Opponents studied their every move, and their offense faced criticism after struggling with dropped passes and inconsistent performances.

Yet, the Chiefs adapted. They leaned on a top-tier defense, embraced a more methodical offensive approach, and trusted Mahomes to step up in big moments. When the playoffs arrived, they looked like a different team—one built to win under any circumstance.

TRUMP EXPECTED TO ATTEND SUPER BOWL LIX IN NEW ORLEANS

The lesson? Adaptation is the key to sustained success. What worked yesterday may not work tomorrow. Whether in sports or life, those who refuse to evolve will be left behind. Growth comes from adjusting, refining and finding new ways to win.

Second, The Weight of Expectations Is Heavy – Learn to Carry It. Winning one championship is hard. Winning multiple is even harder. But what makes the Chiefs' journey remarkable is their ability to embrace the expectations that come with greatness.

With every season, the pressure builds. Every mistake is scrutinized. Every setback fuels doubters. Yet, Mahomes and Reid have created a culture where pressure is not a burden – it’s a privilege. After the Chiefs’ AFC Championship win, Mahomes said, "We never take these moments for granted. We embrace them."

In life, success comes with higher expectations. The pressure to perform can be overwhelming. But true leaders don’t shrink under expectations – they use them as motivation. The Chiefs show us that sustaining success isn’t about avoiding pressure, but learning how to thrive under it.

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Third, Winning Is Hard—Winning Again Is Even Harder. Most NFL teams dream of just one Super Bowl. The Chiefs are chasing a dynasty. But the greatest challenge in sports, business, and life isn’t reaching the top – it’s staying there.

Dynasties don’t happen by accident. They require discipline, resilience and an unrelenting commitment to improvement. The Chiefs have built their success on a foundation of preparation, accountability and trust in their process.

That’s why, year after year, they are in the conversation for the Super Bowl. It’s not just talent – it’s a mindset. Sustaining greatness requires the humility to keep working and the discipline to never settle.

As the Chiefs take the field on Sunday, they aren’t just playing for another ring – they’re proving that sustained excellence is possible. And whether on the football field or in life, the same principles apply: Adapt to challenges, embrace the weight of expectations and understand that success is never guaranteed.

In the end, history will remember the final score. But the real lesson from the Chiefs’ dominance is this: Winning is temporary, but the pursuit of greatness never ends.

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If you listen to the Democrats these days you will hear lamentations about the deep cuts the Trump Administration is making to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Lives will be lost, they insist.

But, curiously, outside of the United States, there has been a deafening silence in regard to this massive shift in how America goes about funding various projects around the world, and even some support for the changes from unlikely quarters.

Take the president of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, who shocked his CNN interviewer this week by saying of the cuts to USAID, "President Trump has unconventional ways of dealing with things. I completely agree with him." When pressed on the support his nation's people may lose, he replied, "We might learn some lessons."

HOW USAID WENT WOKE AND DESTROYED ITSELF

The point that Kagame is making, and it is a wise one, is that Africa needs to be more self-sufficient and not permanently a needy client state of global powers, including America. USAID and the State Department dole out most of the roughly $70 billion in annual foreign aid from the U.S. But much of USAID's funding is passed directly to various groups and projects that may or may not align with the recipient's government. 

In Hungary, President Viktor Orban has gone a step further than applauding Trump’s USAID actions. His nation is making it illegal for many anti-government organizations to accept foreign aid from our country.

"Now is the moment when these international networks have to be taken down, they have to be swept away," Orban said this week, alleging that American foreign aid funds have been used in attempts to "topple" his government.

Orban has a point. There is a fine line between, for example, exporting the American value of a free press by funding Hungarian news outlets, and interfering in Hungarian elections, especially if the news outlets are essentially mouthpieces for opposition parties.

The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, seconded Orban’s assessment in an X post in which he wrote that most nations don’t want the aid. "While marketed as support for development, democracy, and human rights, the majority of these funds are funneled into opposition groups, NGOs with political agendas, and destabilizing movements."

U.S. foreign aid serves two basic purposes. The first is economic: We buy a certain amount of allegiance from developing nations with our largesse, as well as eventual access to their markets.

The second is informational: We get a megaphone to try to make those nations more like America and less like China. 

USAID is an independent agency established by President John F. Kennedy, but President Trump has moved to put it under Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Although Rubio has proposed deep personnel cuts, he has assured Americans that important, life-saving, economic aid that is in line with America’s interests will be protected by his department. And few argue we should simply shut down medical clinics or stop sending mosquito nets to Africa.

Even Kagame envisions his continent being weaned off of a need for foreign assistance, not quite going cold turkey.

No, where the real issue lies is in the informational purpose of foreign aid. What started out as an opportunity to spread the basic American ideals of freedom and democracy turned into anti-democratic attempts to affect political change in other nations that border on imperialism.

Moreover, the side order of wokeness that comes with American foreign aid these days, in areas like gender and sexuality, are not only unwelcome in many third world nations, but it can actually retard those societies’ natural evolution towards greater tolerance.

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It is difficult at the moment to understand exactly what changes are being made to foreign aid. Beyond the dramatic removal of agency names on buildings and announced layoffs, it's not clear what aid we are keeping and what we are disposing of.

Ultimately, it is Rubio who has put himself in charge of foreign aid and the future of USAID. It is his responsibility to separate the wheat from the chaff, the programs that both save lives and advance American interests, versus those driven by partisan ideology.

What is not acceptable to the American people, or it seems to many global leaders, is that American foreign aid continues with the status quo. Trump was elected to make concrete changes to how we influence and interact with the world.

Trump and Rubio earned and deserve this chance to dramatically change and fix an aspect of our foreign policy that has been broken for decades, that has lost sight of its mission and that has often wrought more harm than good.

This can be a new age for American foreign aid, and a much more successful one. 

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When entrepreneur Elon Musk made headlines with his vociferous comments supporting the H-1B visa program, the ensuing debate focused on the implications of his position on immigration. 

But this debate obscured the reason America even has such a program in the first place: its homegrown students are being poorly educated in math. 

According to federal law, the H-1B program gives visas to foreigners coming to perform services "in a specialty occupation." A specialty occupation is defined as requiring "theoretical and practical application of a body of highly specialized knowledge," plus higher education requirements. 

US 'REPORT CARD' SHOWS STUDENTS HAVE FALLEN BEHIND IN READING, BARELY BUDGED IN MATH: ‘THE NEWS IS NOT GOOD’

The program is annually capped at 65,000 regular H-1B visas, with another 20,000 for those foreigners who have earned advanced degrees from U.S. universities. 

Given Musk’s vehement support of the program, it is no surprise that a federal report states that in 2023, "computer-related occupations were the largest major occupational area, accounting for 65% of all beneficiaries [of the program]." In comparison, less than 1% of H-1B visas were given to foreigners in the social sciences. 

While much of the coverage of the H-1B debate focuses on the foreign-versus-American-worker angle, the real issue regarding H-1Bs is that the U.S. is failing to produce domestic workers with the requisite math skills required by Musk’s SpaceX and other high-tech companies. 

In 2024, a shocking 72% of eighth-grade students taking the National Assessment of Educational Progress math exam failed to score at the proficient level -- a full 6% increase over the 66% of eighth graders failing to achieve proficiency in 2019.

Why are American students doing so badly in math? The answer lies in the ineffective math instruction they are receiving. 

In the early 2010s, most states adopted the Common Core national education standards, which were touted as a cure for America’s math woes. Unfortunately, Common Core turned out to be bad medicine. 

Common Core confused many students by emphasizing indirect ways to arrive at the right answer instead of just learning straightforward mathematical operations. 

For example, in multiplying numbers, children are often asked to draw pictures instead of simply memorizing the multiplication tables. 

Michael Malione, a professional math tutor in California, said that his students were instructed by their public schools to draw and shade different areas of rectangles when multiplying fractions, rather than simply multiplying the numerators and multiplying the denominators to get the correct answer. Requiring students to learn math this way is both inefficient and ineffective. 

"We’re going to draw a picture every time we’re given 10 problems with fractional multiplication, when you could do them in your head?" Malione asks. "That’s insane." 

Malione sees students "who are completely lost and they’re not getting the step-by-step guidance early on." 

Given Malione’s experience, it is unsurprising that a federally funded study found that Common Core had significant negative effects on the math achievement of eighth graders. 

College math professors are shocked at students’ poor math skills. 

One college math instructor in the Silicon Valley lamented that the lack of algebra knowledge is "the number one deficiency and its chronic." He said, "we’re not producing the kinds of students and graduates that Silicon Valley needs."

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Sugi Sorensen, a top engineer at famed Jet Propulsion Laboratory who also tutors students in math, urged a return to proven traditional math practices, which includes mastering the basic skills of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division through "the memorization of math facts and procedures" so that students "can perform computations quickly, accurately, and effortlessly." 

Further, math topics should be sequential, "where new concepts are built upon previously learned ones in a structured, hierarchical manner," Sorensen said. 

Finally, Sorensen recommends that math operations such as long division "should be explicitly taught and practiced until mastery," with an emphasis on accuracy. 

America has nearly 50 million K-12 students. If schools use proven math instructional methods instead of failed progressive techniques, there would be less need for H-1B visas because there would be more than enough young Americans with the skills companies need. The tech titans at Trump's inauguration should lean on schools to do just that. It is time to make math great again. 

Lance Izumi is senior director of the Center for Education at the Pacific Research Institute. He is the author of the PRI book The Great Classroom Collapse: Teachers, Students, and Parents Expose the Collapse of Learning in America’s Schools. 

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With President Trump back in office, our country’s energy security will be restored with the return to commonsense energy policies. Our country can now look forward to a future where American energy is embraced and not restricted. The American people sent a clear message in November by fully supporting a pro-energy agenda and on day one, President Trump delivered by taking decisive action to return our country to being a leader in energy security.  

First, The Trump administration will expand our onshore and offshore lease sales.

By expanding our onshore and offshore lease sales, our country can once again be a leader in domestic energy production to reduce carbon emissions throughout the world and our dependence on foreign rivals and adversaries.

FORMER TRUMP CABINET MEMBERS LAUNCH GROUP TO PROMOTE PRESIDENT'S ENERGY AGENDA

Earlier this year, under the shadow of a presidential transition, President Biden made a highly political and economically dangerous move to ban offshore oil and gas production in vast swaths of the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean mere weeks before President-elect Trump takes office.

As I recently put it on Fox Business: "If it wasn’t so serious, it’d be sophomoric." In some sense, we shouldn’t be surprised: the Biden administration has from its beginning made every effort to politicize American energy production and usage and shockingly put forth the smallest lease sale in history last year.

Offshore access accounts for 14 percent of total U.S. crude oil production with a market size of $40.04 billion. Both these figures have room to grow, with some estimates suggesting that by 2032, the American offshore drilling industry could be worth nearly $75 billion: a near 90 percent increase in value in less than a decade. This would lead, of course, to an explosion in good-paying jobs from Alaska to California to Gulf states like Texas and Louisiana.

Second, as outlined in his Energy Executive Order, President Trump pledged to lift the detrimental LNG pause.

By lifting the liquefied natural gas (LNG) pause, long overdue permits will now be expedited, and the LNG industry can continue supporting thousands of American jobs and fulfill our commitment to our allies overseas.

Despite more than a decade of market evidence and independent analyses that LNG exports benefit economic and environmental security in the United States and worldwide, former Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm wrote a memo urging caution on LNG project approvals last month.

LNG facilities have brought significant economic benefits to communities nationwide, especially along the Gulf Coast. According to a recent National Association of Manufacturers report, U.S. LNG supported the creation of over 200,000 jobs in 2023 alone.

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Despite Ms. Granholm’s alarmist rhetoric, the DOE report demonstrates environmental benefits — including lower emissions — from U.S. LNG. U.S. greenhouse gas emissions are declining relative to energy produced, stating that with unfettered LNG export approvals and no added carbon capture technologies assumed (the most extreme growth scenario), emissions would rise by only 0.05% over the next 25 years.

Third and finally, President Trump’s Energy Executive Order pledged to end Biden’s unpopular EV mandates.

Consumers will now be empowered to make their own choices regarding the cars or trucks they drive, as the federal government should not be dictating Americans’ transportation needs. President Trump’s Executive Order directs federal agencies to reevaluate these policies, including tax credits for EV purchases, federal funding for charging infrastructure and regulatory incentives that encourage automakers to shift from gas-powered vehicles to electric.

On day one, the Trump administration reversed the Biden administration’s restrictive energy policies in order to unleash American energy. President Trump’s second term will no doubt follow on the huge success of his first term, reinforcing our country as the world’s top producer of oil & natural gas and the largest exporter of liquefied natural gas.

Generation Z has now come up with another new term you’ll be hearing more about, it’s called "micro-retirement." The concept of "micro-retirement" is to take time from work while you are still young, rather than deferring all your future leisure plans to the later years of life.  

Some people just call this being unemployed for a while. Others call it taking a sabbatical from work. This new trend is sweeping through Generation Z and are they on to something smart or is this going to create an even more cratering financial effect on their financial future? 

OK. I must make a confession. At 55 years old, it’s hard to get my head wrapped around needing a big ‘break from work’ in your 20s. 

TRUMP'S ULTIMATUM TO FEDERAL WORKERS: RETURN TO OFFICE 'OR BE TERMINATED'

Brittney Foley, 26, is a woman who is opting for a micro-retirement. She explained that taking smaller career breaks earlier in your life is perfect when you don’t have kids as you can quite literally do whatever you want. This is assuming you can afford it. Although, with national credit card debt at a staggering $1.2 trillion and the average credit card balance soaring past $6,000, can Generation Z really afford it? 

Brittney said, "With other people my age, there’s so much pressure to chase promotion cycles and raises, and everyone is so burnt out." Burnt out? At 26? 

This generation has decided to flip the script of how they view their own financial plan, which is live for today and don’t worry about tomorrow.  

There is a much more cynical view from people in their 20s that they will be able to afford a home, retire comfortably and reap the benefits of Social Security. So, we are witnessing a counterculture of younger people turning the retirement script upside down with this idea of having three- to six-month breaks in between their next career move. 

A very close friend of mine has a daughter who left Google recently at the age of 30. She had done very well there, rising through the ranks and building an income of almost $300,000. But, feeling the passion to live for today, she quit the job and is currently living for four months in Hawaii and then off to two months in Bali before she figures out her next career move. Is this something that Boomers and Gen Xers should have done when they were younger? 

The phrase micro-retirement was first described in "The 4-Hour Workweek," a self-help and careers guidance book published by the entrepreneur Tim Ferris in 2007.  However, most young people may not fully think about the financial consequences of these mini-retirement decisions. 

Your 401k/retirement savings: For Gen Z workers, they need to look closely at the matching and profit-sharing contributions from their company. Often, these contributions made by the employer have a vesting schedule and it could be a horrific financial move to walk away from unvested money that could have a substantial impact on your retirement balances over the long haul. 

Your ability to earn the same income … or more: The strategy of micro-retirement assumes you’ll be able to re-enter the workplace quickly and at the same income or more. Part of growing your income, bonuses and potentially company stock is often tied to your tenure with a company.  

It’s unknown yet how employers will view someone who has two, three, or four breaks in their resume to micro-retire and whether they will want to hire that person knowing they could quit in a couple of years after the employer invested tons of time and money training that new employee. 

Your Social Security: While some Gen Z workers believe they will never see a dime of Social Security, it’s important to account for how a break in your income will affect your long-term Social Security. It’s likely the full retirement age for those in their 20s will be past the age of 67, but having gaps of income could make your overall Social Security lower down the road and impact your overall retirement. 

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Debt: What’s most worrisome aspect of this new trend is the debt that younger workers in America may take on to achieve a mini retirement. Most people in retirement aren’t jet-setting around the world and often these micro-retirement breaks are partnered with exotic vacations or luxury travel which could increase the debt load on younger people. 

This new trend that emerged on TikTok sees Gen Z workers from around the world vowing to take periodic breaks from the office to protect their "mental health" — despite being several decades away from the retirement age. 

On one hand, I’ve done financial plans for many people in their 40s and 50s who are seeking an early retirement to start to enjoy their hard-earned money and savings. However, many of those people often worry about running out of money, so they’ll extend the amount of time they work another five or 10 years to be sure they have enough retirement savings to do whatever they want to do in retirement. In some cases, health issues that arise like a bad knee or hip or something even more consequential may stop them from fully enjoying the assets that they have saved up. 

You could say it’s irresponsible to not focus on saving and planning for your future to just enjoy every nickel and more that you have in the bank today. 

You are not only applying a much narrower window of achieving retirement success with micro-retirement, but it could also cost America billions of dollars to take care of people who didn’t save because they wanted to spend their money today. Are you ready to bail out people for their future retirement like people got bailed out for college loans? 

So, who has it right? Those of us that toil away, max out our 401(k), pay down our house quicker and save that bucket list for when we retire? Or does Gen Z have it right with the attitude that tomorrow is never promised, who knows when we will have a COVID-19 like event again? You should just sit back, assume you’ll work forever, and soak up as much fun as you can when you are in your 20s and 30s? Time will tell if this is another fad, or it will become a staple of how people live in the future.  

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Sometimes in life, it is only once a crisis passes that we can truly see just how awful and harmful it was. This week, in these pages, Joseph Wulfsohn offered a long read, detailing the prevarications of the mainstream media in the Joe Biden era, and its complicity in the lie of the century.

You should read the whole damning thing, as only now journalists begin to admit their duplicitous role in propping up Biden. I applaud Wulfsohn for persevering. I would have thrown a coffee mug through my laptop about halfway through writing it out of sheer anger.

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The story begins at the beginning with the cover-up of the Hunter Biden laptop, and here is what Marc Caputo, then at Politico, had to say about his coverage of the first son's crime-scene-on-a-hard-drive being quashed:

"...I wrote what would have been a classic story…That story was killed by the editors. And they gave no explanation for that either," Caputo said on the "Somebody's Gotta Win" podcast.

I’d like to offer Caputo the explanation he was denied. You see, the people who signed Caputo’s checks back then, along with 90% of corporate media, wanted Donald Trump to lose and Biden to win. If that meant killing true stories and smearing honest journalists then so be it.

And it wasn’t just Politico burying the laptop. Wulfsohn has the receipts and shows that Jake Tapper and Brian Seltzer, who both still pontificate from CNN daily, also hid the story, as did NPR, and almost every major newspaper in the country that isn’t called the New York Post.

As bad as the lies surrounding the laptop were, they paled in comparison to what would come next, an all-out, no-holds barred effort by the liberal media to conceal Biden’s obvious and dangerous mental decline. 

Just weeks before Biden’s disastrous debate performance, NBC News was warning its viewers not to believe their lying eyes about Grandpa Joe’s decline, writing, "Experts have warned that while advanced technology like generative artificial intelligence can spread misinformation, so-called ‘cheap fakes’ that often use only minor or selective editing can be more effective at spreading false narratives."

Never forget that they really tried to pull this on you.

And do not accept the Johnny-Come-Lately excuses we now hear from the exposed liars in the news media, such as the Manchester Guardian’s David Smith, who said recently, "There was perhaps, even on an unconscious level, the notion that if you focus so much on Joe Biden's age, you are somehow helping Donald Trump." 

An unconscious level? What the hell does this even mean? Biden would regularly stumble around a stage shaking hands with the air and all the liberal reporters in the country just couldn’t see it because they had some Freudian mind block, or something?

Here is how The New York Times’ Peter Baker addressed the lies about Biden fitness: "It's very personal. Anybody who's had a father or mother who is aged, and you talk to them by taking away their keys, these are not easy issues…I can sit down and make the case that we did too little about it. I can make the case we did too much. I can play it either way. But the truth is, it's an important issue."

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This so-called journalist claims he can make the case that too much was made of Biden’s age in the media. It is abject madness, and it is infuriating, because it shows that they have learned absolutely nothing, and they plan to continue with their lies.

Hiding Biden’s infirmity, the fact that he was by no means actually in charge of the country, is the lie of the century. Every journalist who perpetuated it through their dishonesty or negligence should never work in the industry again.

The liberal news media, which is the vast majority of the nation’s news media, didn't just get the laptop story wrong or simply miss the signs of Biden’s decline. They intentionally misled the American people in a desperate, dishonest, and thankfully failed, effort to defeat Trump. 

That is not forgivable.

Sadly, these Democratic Party propaganda machines posing as news outlets still have no shame or self awareness, and show no signs of righting their sinking ships. But the good news is that Americans are hip to the lies now, almost laughably so.

The liberal media can continue fooling itself, giving each other awards, talking gravely about the importance of truth in the age of Trump. But they themselves are the biggest liars of that age and now the American people, thanks in part to real journalists like Joseph Wulfsohn, damn well know it.

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This summer, our beleaguered big screens will welcome the return of America’s most famous illegal alien: Superman. This much needed reboot comes as President Trump, who earned my vocal support, is rebooting our country’s immigration policy and culture more broadly. 

The changing story of our first superhero offers a mythological mirror on the challenges we’re confronting as a nation, from without and within. What should it mean to be and become an American? How do we see ourselves, as heroic or villainous? And how might we forge a new way forward? I have a few ideas plucked straight from the political forbidden zone. 

Post-Truth, Social Justice, and the Anti-American Way 

Baby Clark Kent crash-landed in America during our last major wave of immigration in the 1920s and 30s. And like so many new Americans, including my own Italian great-grandparents, he embraced his new home with gusto, coming to our defense against the Nazis and then the Communists. His motto reflects our highest values: Truth, Justice, and the American Way… at least it used to. 

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The last part of our famous Kryptonian-American’s super-slogan, "the American Way," fell out of favor in recent decades with the rise of anti-heroism and so-called "critical social justice." Academia, entertainment, and the news media made it their full-time jobs for decades to portray America and our history as the world’s greatest supervillain.

Every aspect of American culture has been under siege. Our kids are now taught that our real birth as a nation wasn’t 1776 with the Declaration of Independence, but 1619 with the arrival of the first slaves in an effort to portray a previously universal, and despicable, practice as uniquely American. So much for "truth".

Having defeated the Nazis and the Soviets in wars both hot and cold, most on the left and even some on the right now see the US as a too-often belligerent force on the world stage. Even Superman himself, in Frank Miller’s bold and bleak 1986 graphic novels, was reduced to a cynical super-weapon of the military industrial complex, destined for defeat by the Dark Knight. Justice died in darkness too. 

Our world-leading economic growth is decried as a scourge on the planet, producing a "climate crisis" that threatens to extinguish all mankind. Make that personkind, since the basic definitions of man and woman have come under assault, and with them, our kids mental health and future fertility much to the convenient satisfaction of those same climate alarmists. 

And finally, pulling a page from the 2000 Superman comics, we’re told that Donald Trump is our real life Lex Luthor, a corrupt billionaire fascist supervillain turned-president. 

It should come as no surprise that poll after poll has found that patriotism, especially among young Americans, has completely collapsed. Axios found that only 18% of 18-34-year-olds are "extremely proud" to be American. That’s down from 85% in 2013 before the woke reign of terror ramped up. A 67% drop! That same timeframe has also seen a complete collapse in perceived race relations in America, for similar, and similarly fraudulent reasons.

One of the ironies of our modern era is that as our elite has poisoned our patriotism at home, we’ve also seen more people flood INTO this country from abroad than ever before in our history! While blue-haired banshees on TikTok and silly "studies" professors bash America at every turn, millions of poor and huddled masses, (mostly) yearning to be free, have flooded into our alleged hell-hole. It’s a stark reminder that while we’re building a wall to keep people out, actually hellish countries wrecked by communism and its various "progressive" cousins have historically had to build walls to keep their own people IN.

And so, here we are as Americans, just like Superman at the start of his newest big screen trailer: face-down in the snow, beaten, and bloodied.

A Dark Night for America

"Make America Great Again" resonates with voters because so many Americans believe that our country is no longer great. Too many think we never were. Let’s be clear: our country DOES face a flood of very real problems, each one is impacted by immigration, though the outcomes are subject to good-faith disagreement. 

Last fall, I quixotically released a Hamilton-style musical, Battle of the Borders, that brought all of these issues on both sides and more to life with the production value of a summer superhero blockbuster. In working through the details of the immigration debate, I found my own views shifting, though I remain more pro-immigration than many of my fellow Trumpian travelers. 

Millions of working-age men have left the labor force even as some measures suggest that a majority of new jobs have gone to immigrants. Yet many (maybe most) economists agree that immigration is a net contributor to growth and a powerful tool for countering inflation. 

Crime is up across the country, yet some statistics suggest that immigrants, including illegals, commit less crime than native-born citizens. That’s cold comfort to the victims of violent illegal gang violence. And how much should anyone trust these government statistics in the first place, given recent FBI revisionism? 

Our opioid epidemic is a humanitarian disaster destroying millions of lives and flooding our streets with the desperate and homeless. But a big beautiful wall on our southern border won’t change the demand-side of the equation. Plus, our nation’s history of alcohol prohibition has lessons we shouldn’t be so quick to forget. 

Meanwhile, cities across the country have seen their schools, hospitals, and shelters pushed beyond capacity by the Biden-era wave of illegal mass migration. Remember, our last big wave of immigration, when Kal-El first arrived in Kansas, took place before the dawn of the progressive welfare state.

When even the Democrat mayor of Gotham City, Eric Adams, is warning that migrants will destroy the city, we should probably take notice. 

Our Complicated Culture Matters Most

None of the immigration-related issues we face cut as deep for the future of America as our changing culture, which as Andrew Breitbard noted is upstream of politics and policy. And this is where my friends on the right proclaiming "culture matters" need to clarify: which culture? 

Buchanan-style populists like to point to our white, Western European history as a guide for our future. But that Europe is a distant memory. A look at the beliefs of our mostly-white, politically engaged elite should give every patriot serious pause. I’m afraid the W in WASP now stands for "woke". 

Consider that it mostly wasn’t Latin American immigrants who tore down statues of Abraham Lincoln during the BLM riots in 2020 or dressed a George Washington statue up as a Hamas fighter in 2023. Those were our native-born and bred, college-indoctrinated kids who did that! While they were burning American cities after their Starbucks shifts, 55% of Latino men were busy voting to re-elect Mr. MAGA himself.

Mindset matters more than skin color or country of origin. 

Put bluntly, I’d gladly welcome two hard-working new Americans from Mexico in exchange for every one native-born America-hating gender studies graduate from Harvard. I’ll welcome ten more graduates from Guatemala’s Universidad Francisco Marroquín before considering a single censorious, terror-sympathetic Oxford Anglo. 

My point here is simple. We shouldn’t expect newcomers to assimilate into America and WANT to be American… if our native culture despises our country! The woke warriors have told us and our kids that we should hate America. Their nihilistic cries for "land back" and "reparations" might as well say: come on in and strip us for parts! We deserve it! 

What a self-defeating mantra for newcomers to embrace! If that is our "way", we won’t be a country for much longer. Luckily, that tide is finally turning, if slowly.

A New American Way on Immigration 

Most people, including President Trump, believe we need continued immigration into America. Immigration in general has historically been good for our country and still can be. But the past four years of black market open borders through willfully neglecting the law was never tenable or just. 

Biden and Harris encouraged millions of people to skip the line, come to America through the back door, and remain in the shadows with an unstable and uncertain future. And they’ve let thousands of seriously "bad hombres" in along the way. That’s a supervillain move if I’ve ever seen one, complete with Joker-style laughter.

Protecting our citizens and sovereignty is the most basic function of government. I support President Trump’s efforts to restore the rule of law at our borders. I also hope that success in that effort will lay the foundation for a more honest debate over the legal path for future American immigrants. That will involve making political compromises in an era of polarization. 

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So here’s a potential policy compromise to consider: let’s prioritize more and easier permanent legal residency and in exchange, tightly restrict full citizenship and voting rights to natural-born Americans alone, along with universal voter ID like every other major civilized nation with same day vote counts. 

While restricting the franchise to natural-born citizens may be political Kryptonite, it would help depoliticize immigration by eliminating migrants as a voting bloc up for grabs. No more Tammany hall style vote-buying by left-wingers or reactionary right-wing restrictions for fear of an imported electorate! And besides, why should any newcomer get to change the rules of the game they just joined? If you don’t like our rules, don’t come to play.

One thing is crystal clear: the immigration debate is fundamentally a debate about the future of American culture. Who are we, as a nation? Which values should we cherish, promote, and expect newcomers to assimilate in to? What is "The American Way"? We shouldn’t just drop that from our super slogan. We need it and need it well-defined. 

We don’t need to reinvent this wheel. America’s creed is the best of Western Civilization: Freedom. Individual responsibility. Religious liberty, rooted in Judeo-Christian values. Opportunity. Identity-blind equality under the law. Local authority. Voluntary association. 

This is what Truth, Justice, and the American Way means to me. This is what newcomers should be expected to embrace. And here’s hoping that, like Superman, it’s about to make a comeback.

When I think of the farmers I grew up around, I think of resilience and stewardship. These are people who rise before the sun, work tirelessly to feed not only their families but all of us and endure hardships most of us cannot imagine. Yet the headlines about America’s farming recession remind us of just how much they shoulder — and how little recognition they often receive. 

As an actor, recognition finds you whether you want it or not. While the work is meaningful, it can pale compared to the daily hours, grit and commitment farming families dedicate daily. There is no craft services table waiting for them — they are feeding everyone else.  

Farming is not just a job — it is a calling. Theirs is often an unnoticed sacrifice, from the long hours and rising costs to the unpredictable weather and policy challenges. A single bag of corn seed now costs $230, nearly double the price of a few years ago. Combine that with declining crop prices, and farmers must navigate a system stacked against them. Yet they persevere because their work feeds millions and sustains communities. 

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My great-grandfather, Gulbrand Nelson, left Norway to settle in Wisconsin before moving to South Dakota, where our family farm still stands today. That upbringing instilled in me the importance of values, tradition and faith — ideals I see fading as time passes. If we let them fade long enough, they will vanish. 

I’ve been blessed in my career with the ability to do things I believe in. At this stage in my life, it has become all the more important to work on projects that matter to me and the legacy I will leave to my children, grandchildren and those who have entrusted me with their viewing time over the years.  

My family's heritage inspired me to take on one such project called "Green and Gold," a film that reflects the spirit of farming families and their struggles today. The project embodies what I value most: resilience, stewardship, and legacy. It is a tribute to the farmers who quietly hold our country together. 

Growing up near farming communities, I saw firsthand what that perseverance looks like: long days in the fields, families working through mechanical failures or harsh weather, and a deep-rooted pride in their labor. Those experiences shaped my values and the stories I want to tell. 

When I was offered the opportunity to be part of "Green and Gold," I knew it was more than a role — it was a chance to honor the legacy of farming families. The film highlights their resilience and quiet strength, reminding us of their vital contributions to our country. 

Farmers are America's backbone. Their stewardship of the land reflects faith, responsibility and commitment to something greater than themselves. Yet, they are often left to face economic and policy challenges alone. This farming recession is not just a farming issue but a national one. Rural communities are struggling, and the ripple effects will touch us all. We must do more than recognize farmers in times of crisis. We must advocate for policies that support them, invest in rural infrastructure, and champion their contributions to our everyday lives.  

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Beyond the economic struggles, farming takes an emotional toll. In conversations with farmers, while preparing for "Green and Gold," I heard pride in their work and concern about the future. Who will carry on their legacy? Will their children want to inherit the struggles that come with it? These are not just questions — they are the realities shaping rural America today. 

We owe so much to our farmers. They feed us, clothe us and sustain our economy. Their work is woven into the fabric of our history, yet their voices are often absent from national conversations. By telling their stories — on screen and off — we can honor their contributions and address their challenges. 

Take a moment to reflect on the farmers behind the meals you eat and the clothes you wear. Support your local farmers’ markets, advocate for policies that uplift them, and express gratitude for their tireless work. 

I have walked down many red carpets in my career, surrounded by accolades and recognition. Yet, may these words, in even the smallest way, serve as an amber wave of gratitude to honor farming families across our great land. 

Thank you, farmers.