Trump administration
March 5, 2026 — John Hinderaker
President Trump has announced that Kristi Noem is stepping down as Secretary of Homeland Security. I don’t have any particular comment on that. Noem was an excellent Governor of South Dakota, but at some point her fame seemed to go to her head, and she went Hollywood. Trump is nominating Markwayne Mullin, Senator from Oklahoma, to succeed Noem. Mullin is up for re-election this year, so Republicans will have to
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February 27, 2026 — Scott Johnson
The Trump administration is looking at the issues implicated in Ilhan Omar’s naturalization. That is what is to be inferred from Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon’s comments in the video clip below: “It’s a truism of immigration law that if you commit fraud in the course of obtaining your citizenship…if you lie about your marriage status on which your citizenship depends or you’re familial status or what have you, if
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February 26, 2026 — Scott Johnson
We learn via X that Dr. Oz has deferred $259.5 million of quarterly federal Medicaid funding in Minnesota to prevent payment of questionable claims while further investigation is completed. The related press release explains: CMS’ review of Minnesota’s Medicaid spending for the fourth quarter in FY 2025 resulted in a deferral of $259,505,491 in federal matching funds. This includes state expenditures of $243.8 million for unsupported or potentially fraudulent Medicaid
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February 25, 2026 — John Hinderaker
I want to add a few thoughts to Scott’s post on the State of the Union, with which I agree. I don’t know whether last night’s speech was the longest SOTU ever, but it had to be the most combative. The fact that President Trump can keep it up for nearly two hours is impressive, but I have to think most viewers had turned in by the time he finished.
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February 25, 2026 — Scott Johnson
Last night President Trump gave the second State of the Union address of his second term. It ran nearly 11,000 words and two hours. I have cued the PBS video below to begin with Speaker Mike Johnson’s introduction of the president. NPR has posted a transcript of the speech. No offense — the speech is too damn long. I would like to note a few themes and observations in bullet
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February 24, 2026 — John Hinderaker
There is general agreement that President Trump’s mission tonight should be to focus on domestic policy, and remind viewers of the many tangible accomplishments of his administration. Toward that end, Stephen Moore and the Committee to Unleash Prosperity have supplied these five charts that tell a good part of the story: President Trump has slashed inflation from the 9.1% peak under Biden. Costs of everything from cars to groceries to
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February 20, 2026 — John Hinderaker
On a 6-3 vote, the Supreme Court ruled this morning that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not empower the President to impose tariffs. As a result, President Trump’s “drug trafficking” and “reciprocal” tariffs have been struck down. Today’s decision is not a surprise. I have written about these cases several times, including here. I wrote in that post: I have not done a deep analysis of the legal
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February 13, 2026 — Scott Johnson
The good news is that the Trump administration has announced its repeal of the Environmental Protection Agency’s “endangerment finding.” As Matthew Hennessey puts it in the Wall Street Journal’s Free Expression newsletter this morning, the finding is the “2009 determination that greenhouse gases pose a threat to public health. It was the legal basis for most federal climate regulation, allowing Washington technocrats to treat carbon dioxide, methane and four other
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February 6, 2026 — John Hinderaker
At the beginning of his administration, President Trump issued two executive orders directing federal agencies to end DEI programs in federal grant and contract processes. Those orders were challenged by plaintiffs that included the City of Baltimore, the American Association of University Professors and the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education. Those plaintiffs sought, and obtained, a preliminary injunction in the district court, preventing implementation of the President’s
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January 30, 2026 — John Hinderaker
President Trump announced this morning that he is nominating Kevin Warsh as the next Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve: Stephen Moore and his colleagues at the Committee to Unleash Prosperity greeted Warsh’s appointment enthusiastically: He’s a superb choice and one we’ve been pushing for more than a year. Congrats, Mr. President. You hit the bullseye. Unlike the failed tenure of Jerome Powell, Warsh is not
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January 29, 2026 — Scott Johnson
President Trump dispatched “border czar” Tom Homan to the Twin Cities in search of a resolution of what has become an untenable situation. This morning he held a press conference to provide a status report on his efforts (video below). The video is worth your time all the way through to the end. The president sent the right man for the mission. What a breath of fresh air on this
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January 27, 2026 — John Hinderaker
Across the country, Democrats are planning to make the purported “affordability crisis” a centerpiece of their midterm campaign. They hope to pin the cost of living on President Trump, which should be impossible. But when have Democrats ever been tethered to reality? Remember when Democrats made the price of eggs their anti-Trump talking point early in his second term? They aren’t talking about eggs anymore; this chart, from the U.S.Department
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January 27, 2026 — Scott Johnson
The Trump administration has appealed the preliminary injunction entered by Judge Kate Menendez in Tincher v. Noem to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. Yesterday the Eighth Circuit granted the administration’s motion to stay the preliminary injunction pending appeal. I have embedded the Court’s per curiam (i.e., unsigned) opinion below via Scribd. I wrote about Judge Menendez’s 82-page order granting the preliminary injunction in “The Menendez obstruction” and followed up
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January 26, 2026 — John Hinderaker
Following President Trump’s conciliatory account of his phone call with Tim Walz, some thought the administration might be caving out of a desire to get federal agents out of harm’s way in Minnesota. Apparently not: a few hours ago, Karoline Leavitt laid down the President’s conditions for cooperating with local authorities: 🚨 BREAKING: Karoline Leavitt has outlined President Trump’s DEMANDS for Tim Walz and Mayor Frey in Minnesota pic.twitter.com/mu5WpDWf4M If
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January 26, 2026 — Scott Johnson
We are witness to what I have called “The battle of the Twin Cities.” On one side is federal law enforcement. We support federal law enforcement. On the other side are state and local authorities, the Star Tribune, and a highly organized resistance. We beg to differ with them all. Not enough attention has been paid to the resistance. It is well-funded, covert, highly organized, and supported by state and
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January 16, 2026 — Scott Johnson
Robby Starbuck formulates an answer to the Leninist question What is to be done?. It is the question that is naturally raised by the resistance of Minnesota’s state and local authorities to federal law enforcement. In the X post below Starbuck responds to the Leninist question: • Invoke the insurrection act • Military arrests rioters and politicians • ICE triples presence and deports maximum # of illegals while DHS denaturalizes
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January 8, 2026 — John Hinderaker
Today I attended a lunch sponsored by the Economic Club of Minnesota, at which Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent spoke. Bessent’s presentation was impressive, not because he is a spellbinder, but because he is a data guy, and the data are remarkably strong. GDP is up, the deficit is down. Inflation is under control. 2026 promises to be a terrific year, driven in part by tax refunds resulting from the Big
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