Day: February 26, 2025

White House Confirms WHCA No Longer Decides Which Reporters Access Trump After Question from John Fredericks

Tom Pappert
White House Press

On the heels of obtaining confirmation the Trump administration will cease to allow the White House Correspondents Association (WHCA) to manage the White House press pool, The Virginia Star publisher John Fredericks said the decision would destroy a “monopolistic, power-hungry cartel” that effectively managed media coverage of the president for more than “ten decades.”

In response to a question from Fredericks, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the administration will be taking control over the rotating schedule for the White House press pool, giving new media outlets the opportunity to travel with the president on Air Force One, enter the East Room of the White House, and ask President Donald Trump questions during special events.

Read the full story

Top DOGE Administrator Revealed by New York Times to be Nashville Woman

Tom Pappert
Amy Gleason

The top administrator at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was revealed on Tuesday by The New York Times to be Amy Gleason, a Nashville woman who seems to have previously worked as a Senior Advisor to the U.S. Digital Service (USDS), which was renamed DOGE after Elon Musk was made a special government employee.

According to The Times, a White House official confirmed Gleason’s identity as legacy media outlets sought answers about DOGE’s leadership in response to the Trump administration confirming Musk does not lead the government agency. The outlet described Gleason as “the temporary leader of what is formally known as the U.S. DOGE Service.”

Read the full story

America’s Second Largest Teachers Union Sues Trump Admin to Keep Left-Wing Ideology Embedded in Schools

Daily Caller News Foundation
Students asking question

The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and American Sociological Association (ASA) filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the Trump administration over its crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in schools.

The lawsuit specifically targets a Feb. 14 memo released by the Department of Education (ED) threatening to revoke federal funding from schools that do not halt all racially discriminatory practices and programs. AFT, the country’s second-largest teachers union, and ASA claim the letter “misrepresents” the law surrounding schools’ ability to use race as a factor in decision making.

Read the full story

More Companies Looking to Quietly Roll Back DEI Efforts Under Trump, Survey Shows

Daily Caller News Foundation

The majority of American companies are now considering scaling back their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts following President Donald Trump’s return to the Oval Office, according to a new survey.

Just over half, 51%, of executives surveyed said that Trump’s recent DEI-related executive orders will likely result in their businesses scaling back on diversity programs, according to a Littler Mendelson survey published Wednesday. Of those who said they would consider rolling back DEI-related initiatives, 61% said they are also considering whether to remove or reduce diversity-related language from their websites, proxy statements or other outward-facing communications.

Read the full story

Gabbard Says 100 Plus Intelligence Officers Were Fired over Inappropriate NSA Chatrooms

Just the News
Tulsi Gabbard

National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard said Tuesday evening that over 100 intelligence officers who participated in sexually explicit messages in National Security Agency chat rooms were fired.

“There are over 100 people from across the intelligence community that contributed to and participated in what is really just an egregious violation of trust,” Gabbard said on the Fox News Channel. “I put out a directive today that they will all be terminated and their security clearances will be revoked.”

Read the full story

‘Laudable’: Public Policy Expert Applauds Tennessee Attorney General’s ‘Wildly Popular’ Wins for Tennesseans

Kaitlin Housler
Jonathan Skrmetti

Recovering journalist and Nashville-area public policy expert Clint Brewer thinks Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti would be a strong candidate if he were to run for governor in 2026.

“If this were a state where the attorney general was elected, we’d be talking about Skrmetti for governor right now,” Brewer said on Tuesday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.

Read the full story

Trump Moves to Prevent an AI-Powered Digital Pearl Harbor from China

The Daily Torch
President Donald Trump departs Marine One

President Donald Trump in a February 21 proclamation entitled “America First Investment Policy” that seeks to assert American dominance particularly in advanced technology sectors including artificial intelligence (AI), by incentivizing investment in the U.S., restricting it from the People’s Republic China (PRC) and restricting investment by China and other foreign adversaries in the U.S.

Read the full story

Wyoming U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman’s House Caucus Aims to Root Out Woke Agenda in Government

The Daily Signal
Rep. Harriet Hageman

Diversity, equity, and inclusion programs were embraced under the previous administration, but the Anti-Woke Caucus is exposing how these “insidious theories have infiltrated so much of our government so that we can start pulling them out,” Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo., told The Daily Signal at the Conservative Political Action Conference just outside Washington, D.C., in Oxon Hill, Maryland, on Saturday.

Read the full story

Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap Threatens Legal Action Against County Supervisors Over Taking More Control of Elections

Rachel Alexander
Maricopa Recorder Justin Heap

New Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap published a news release on Monday demanding that the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors (MCBOS) return their control over much of the elections process to him, or he would take legal action. The MCBOS transferred significant powers away from the recorder in 2019, due to a disappointing job performance by then-recorder Adrian Fontes. They grabbed even more powers from Heap last fall, and have mostly ignored his objections.

“With an election less than 90 days away,” Heap said, “the Supervisors’ unwillingness to address these concerns will force me to take legal action against the Board to restore this office’s full authority, and deliver the results voters elected me to achieve. If the Board is unwilling to have good faith discussions with the Recorder regarding our statutorily shared election duties, then perhaps it is time to return all election responsibilities to the Recorder’s Office — something I readily welcome.” 

Read the full story

Illegal Gun Reporting Mandate Struck Down Again in Pima County

Rachel Alexander
Chris King, Pima County

A judge struck down a law in Pima County last week which made it a crime to fail to report lost or stolen guns to law enforcement within two days or face $1,000 fines. This was the second time the law was passed and removed for conflicting with state law. Unlike most states, Arizona does not require those who purchase firearms to undergo a federal background check unless they purchase the firearm from a dealer with a Federal Firearms License. Since many Arizonans are concerned about privacy, they purchase guns from private parties instead to avoid getting on a government list. 

Goldwater Institute (GI) lawyers sued the county last April over Ordinance 2024-2, representing Air Force veteran Chris King and the Pima County-based Arizona Citizens Defense League. GI issued a statement afterwards. “The new ordinance wasn’t just illegal — it took aim at the wrong people,” GI said. “Rather than target criminals who steal firearms, the requirement would have revictimized law-abiding gun owners who experience the loss or theft of a firearm. Some may not even realize they are victims until much later.” 

Read the full story

Vivek Ramaswamy Nets Early Endorsements from Trump, Musk After Analyst Says President’s Support Leads to Easy Victory

Tom Pappert
Vivek Ramaswamy

Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy received early endorsements from President Donald Trump and Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) leader Elon Musk shortly after his Monday announcement, receiving key support an Ohio political pundit recently said would prove pivotal in the primary contest.

Trump endorsed Ramaswamy in a Monday night post to Truth Social, where he described the former businessman and presidential candidate as “Young, Strong, and Smart!”

Read the full story

ICE Arrests in Virginia Include Egyptian Man Who Entered U.S. Illegally Through Mexico, Was Released from Jail by Biden DOJ

Tom Pappert
ICE police

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recently announced the arrest of an illegal immigrant who is citizens of both Turkey and Egypt, but nonetheless entered the United States illegally from Mexico, and is now alleged to have violated the terms of his release into the country by moving to Virginia without informing authorities.

A Friday press release from ICE stated that Noareleslam Abdelrahman was first arrested by the U.S. Border Patrol in June 2023, after he illegally crossed the southern border near Yuma, Arizona, when they served him with a notice to appear before a Department of Justice judge to determine whether he would be allowed in the United States.

Read the full story