As President Donald Trump is in Beijing today for historic talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, the Iran war is casting a shadow over the meeting.

China wants the world to believe it is a force for peace, open shipping lanes, stable energy markets, lower oil prices, and a responsible global power. But the truth is much uglier, and Beijing is helping to bankroll the very regime threatening the world’s most important energy choke point, the Strait of Hormuz. Trump is openly forcing China’s hypocrisy into view. It is now a test of Beijing’s role in sustaining the instability it publicly opposes. He arrives in China with leverage over a contradiction that Xi has tried to hide.

The test is critical as Iran stalls during peace talks. Trump called Iran’s most recent proposal “totally unacceptable” because it was not a peace offer; it was a list of demands to end the blockade, lift sanctions, and preserve Tehran’s leverage over the Strait of Hormuz. Once again, we are watching a weakened regime try to bluff from a position of strength. The U.S.-Iran ceasefire is on life support, and the message is clear from Trump: If Beijing wants calmer energy markets and protected shipping lanes, it must stop underwriting a regime that threatens both.

Beijing has spent years playing both sides. It wants uninterrupted access to Gulf energy, freedom of navigation, and all the economic benefits of regional order. At the same time, it treats Iran as a useful anti-American partner by helping Tehran evade U.S. sanctions, sustain its destabilizing activity across the Middle East, and, in return, secure deeply discounted Iranian oil.

While the China-Iran relationship is not a formal alliance, an official document is not required to see what the United States already knows. China is Iran’s largest trading partner and the primary purchaser of Iranian oil, accounting for roughly 90% of Iran’s exported crude and providing Tehran with billions in revenue.

China’s relationship with Tehran directly conflicts with America’s mission to restore global stability. It continues to benefit economically while the U.S. absorbs the security costs. Trump is changing that equation.

This moment is unique because Trump is directly turning Tehran into a China problem. If freedom of navigation is not restored and the Strait of Hormuz remains unstable, Beijing can no longer hide behind slogans about peace while bankrolling the regime, putting the global economy at risk. China may not care about America’s interest in restoring order, but it cares about its own growth, energy security, and economic stability.

For years, Beijing enjoyed a free ride in the Middle East. The United States absorbed the terror, security, and military shocks, while China collected the economic benefits and expanded its regional influence. Trump is ending that arrangement and calculates that China will bend, given that its security is on the line. Historically, China acts when its own energy security and commercial stability are threatened. In 2008, when piracy endangered Chinese petroleum imports from the Middle East and trade routes to Europe and North Africa, Beijing deployed naval escort missions to protect shipping. The Strait of Hormuz now presents the same test on a far larger scale.

Trump’s visit to China today is also a call to policymakers in Washington to recognize that the Iran war is a broader power struggle with Beijing and not an isolated Middle East conflict. Every move China makes, from China-based entities supplying drones and missiles and satellite imagery that enabled Iranian strikes, to U.S. intelligence showing Beijing was preparing to transfer a new air-defense system during the conflict, shows the clear fight.

If Beijing wants the benefits of stability, it must stop financing Tehran. It can either use its leverage over Iran to help force peace, or it will face a Trump pressure campaign that no longer lets China profit from chaos at America’s expense.

Editor’s note: This is a lightly edited transcript of today’s video from Daily Signal Senior Contributor Victor Davis Hanson. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to see more of his videos.

Hello, this is Victor Davis Hanson for The Daily Signal.   

We’ve had a series of debates on the future of California, at least in venues for the mayoral race in Los Angeles, in which the outsider Spencer Pratt challenged Karen Bass, the mayor, and Councilman Nithya Raman, both hard leftists.  

And then we had these—a series of gubernatorial debates in which we had just two conservatives, Chad Bianco, the sheriff from Southern California, and Steve Hilton, Fox commentator. 

And they were arrayed against Kathleen Porter, Xavier Becerra, Antonio Villaraigosa, and, in addition, Tom Steyer.

Now, there’s a common thread to all of this, none of the people on the Democratic side want to talk about any issues. In the mayoral race, neither Bass nor Raman wanted to talk about what happened in the LA fire or why Karen Bass was in Ghana, or we don’t want to talk about why the reservoirs were empty or the hydrants not working or it was against the law to remove brush or the conduct of the fire department—or the vice mayor phoning in a bomb threat. 

So, when the mayor was gone, the vice mayor was under arrest. There was nobody in control of the city. Nobody wants to talk about the highest taxes on gas in the nation, the highest income tax. Nobody wants to talk about one-third of all the welfare recipients here. Almost half the nation’s homeless are here. 

The high-speed rail, $250 billion boondoggle without a foot of track laid. Probably $250 billion wasted in various government entitlement frauds administered by the state. I could go on and on, but when Spencer Pratt tried to mention these things and ask them why you did this or what … They don’t want to talk about it. 

They don’t want to talk about because for 20 years, they’ve had a supermajority in the Legislature in both the Senate and the Assembly, and it’s been 20 years since a Republican governor. So, almost all the judiciary, both the federal judiciary under Joe Biden and Barack Obama’s nominees, but mostly the state, Superior Court, Appellate Court, Supreme Court, have all been nominated and approved by Democrats. 

And so, there’s no one else to blame. That’s why they will not talk about it. And their argument is essentially, we have this huge $13 to $14 trillion Silicon Valley, of which now they’ve turned on with their millionaire and billionaire taxes, and that runs the whole state. That’s their argument. 

Every time Gov. Gavin Newsom is presented with a critique of his leadership, he said, “We’re the fifth-largest economy in the world.” He never says that I’ve driven out oil refineries. I prohibited pipeline construction. I drove out the timber industry, and that I, as a San Francisco County official, as a mayor of San Francisco, as a lieutenant governor of the state, and as governor, I’ve had over 32 years, and no one is more responsible for California as it is today than Gavin Newsom. 

No, he won’t talk about any of these problems. He just talks about Donald Trump, Donald Trump, Donald Trump. He has these nasty sort of Truth Social people who use capital letters, foul language, and threaten people. I’m gonna hit Trump in the mouth, or people in Europe got on their knee pads, kind of foul imagery, thinks it’s really neat. 

He gives these interviews where he kind of wiggles his shoulders, but he doesn’t talk about his record. So how did we get here if they didn’t tell us? How did a state that was well-governed and had a natural paradise and was the envy of all 50 states in matters of energy production, defense, production, tripartite higher education system, a solid K-12 educational, system, great infrastructure— 

Why would the American Trucking Association say, “I don’t want you driving on the 99 or north-south lateral”? Most dangerous highway in the nation per miles driven. What happened? Well, how did these people come to power? The first thing was that we had an explosion in technology in the 1970s and ’80s, and due to the location of Stanford University and UC Berkeley, in between was Silicon Valley. 

And that boomed as the creators of everything from computers to iPhones to iPads to Adobe to everything. Now it’s AI, and that has now ballooned to $14 or $15 trillion in market capitalization, and it’s left-wing. At least it was until recently. The state has turned on them. We’ll see what happens. 

But when Gavin Newsom says we’re the fifth-largest economy in the world, he doesn’t talk about anything he’s done. He’s saying that despite our efforts, these people are multibillionaires, and they’re anchoring our entire agenda and paying for it and subsidizing candidates, donating to candidates. 

Second is when this thing started, high taxes, very little in return from it, we were losing 200 to 300,000 people a year. So, the proverbial Dalmatian Pete Wilson, Ronald Reagan, Arnold Schwarzenegger voter doesn’t exist. He and she are in Montana. They’re in Nevada. They’re in Florida. They’re in Tennessee. They’re in Texas.  

And they’re making those states redder and redder, but they’re gone. And then we had the highest level of illegal and legal immigration of any other state. So we probably had half of the original 11 million illegal aliens that were here, maybe up to 20, before the Biden influx. We don’t know how many they are. 

When Karen Bass was asked specifically, “Would you allow illegal aliens to vote in California elections?” She wouldn’t answer the question because she knew she’d have to say yes and get some criticism from people on the stage, one person on the stage maybe. And so, 27% of the state residents were not born in the United States. 

That’s an enormous task of acculturation, assimilation, integration, language fluency, civic education. We didn’t do any of that. And those are powerful lobby groups, and they feel as newcomers they are not as affluent, although many are, as the existing resident population, and they should have repertory entitlements, and they should run them. 

And so, you put all of those things together and California is what it is. What can save California? What will save California?  

Well, if the people who got their wish, and that’s the people, 60% of the population who continually vote in the Karen Basses and the Gavin Newsoms, and they approve of that agenda. 

And yet gas is now about $8 on the coast, and here it’s about 6.50 a gallon in California, $2 at least higher than elsewhere. Electricity runs from 30 to 45 cents a kilowatt, and we’re gonna have shortages. There’s not enough water anymore because of the releases into the bay.  

My point is that there’s so much regulation, and there’s so much bureaucracy, and there’s so much diversion of key monies from infrastructure to illegal aliens or to subsidize the 50% of the state who’s on Medi-Cal, if you have all of that, who can stop it?  

The only answer is it won’t work anymore. It’ll reach collapse. It will be unsustainable. What can’t go on, as the old proverb says, won’t go on. And then people will say, “Well, where’s my dialysis clinic?” Or, “It’s too dangerous to drive to San Francisco from Fresno. 

“A DUI person hit my daughter on the highway and left the scene of the accident, and we don’t know where he is. And if we do know where he is, he’s gonna be out with no cash bail.” 

 So, when it starts to hit a majority of the people, and we’re very close to that, then it won’t go on anymore.  

But the question I leave you with, when it’s no longer sustainable and people say, “I can’t take this anymore,” and they start voting in a different fashion, will there be a California left to save? 

We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.

Republican attorneys general noted steep declines in violent crime and drug overdose deaths as they gathered in Washington on Wednesday.

The Republican Attorneys General Association released findings ahead of the press conference touting numbers that Iowa has seen a 46% reduction in fentanyl deaths since its 2022 peak, while violent sex crimes are down 50% in the state.

In Kansas, fentanyl deaths dropped 17% since 2022, while in West Virginia deaths dropped by 25%.

Overall, crime hit a historic low in Kansas, Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach said at the National Press Club. The event was held by the Republican Attorneys General Association.

He also noted state law enforcement is working with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to remove illegal immigrant offenders.

“We immediately started looking for aliens, illegal aliens hiding in plain sight. We looked at our offender registries,” Kobach said. “Every state has tens of thousands of sex offenders who must register where they are living. And these people are available on the internet, public record. We started going through those things, and we had found an alarming number of people who have committed serious crimes like rape, sex crimes against children, crimes of violence, and they are deportable. They should have been deported during prior administrations when they were released from state custody after finishing their sentence. But they were not. We are now going out and arresting them.”

The association also pointed to a decline in child exploitation and trafficking cases, with 331 children rescued in Mississippi and more than 60 rescued in Louisiana.

The attorneys general paid tribute to law enforcement during National Police Week.

“Police deserve our support. With law and order comes safer communities,” Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch said. “With safer communities comes better education, comes stronger economic development, and infrastructure.”

With 30 state attorneys general races in 2026, some noted a contrast with Democrat state attorneys general, who are often interested in “sound bites” policy, for suing various administration policies, Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird said.

“As attorneys general, we uphold the laws and Constitutions. So, we file lawsuits when we need to uphold our constitutional values, and then we also work hard to fight crime,” Bird told The Daily Signal

“So, when you look at the choice, the choice couldn’t be clearer. We put boots on the ground, we put prosecution in the courtroom, and real support behind victims of crime as attorneys general,” Bird said. “And it makes a really big difference to whether a park is safe for a child to play in, what kind of safety your neighborhood has, and whether you’re concerned about being a victim of violent crime.”

Democratic Attorneys General Association Co-Chairs Kwame Raoul of Illinois and Keith Ellison of Minnesota have supported policies such as cash bail reform in their states, which Republicans characterize as soft on crime.

The Democratic Attorneys General Association did not respond to an inquiry from The Daily Signal for this story by publication time.

Fighting fraud is a priority as well, noted West Virginia Attorney General J.B. McCuskey.

“People can’t enjoy the benefits that they’ve earned when it’s being stolen and shipped overseas,” McCuskey said. “Probably more importantly, is all that money is funding terrorism, all that money funding cartels. There is no good end to money that is gotten that way. When we start to talk about cutting off the head of the snake, for these drug cartels, finding the ways that they’re scamming Americans and ruining our programs, and retrieving this money, is wildly important.”

Democrats on the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government sharply criticized a GOP‑led hearing Wednesday that examined concerns about Sharia law and Islamic terrorism in the United States, calling it a “conspiracy theory” rooted in “unconstitutional bigotry.”

“There is no evidence of any plot to impose Sharia law,” Ranking Member Mary Gay Scanlon, D‑Pa., said during the hearing, accusing Republican politicians of “shamefully scapegoating Muslims for political gains.”

“They made up a conspiracy theory about their Muslim neighbors to intimidate voters. Saying lies over and over again doesn’t make them true, and it doesn’t make unconstitutional bigotry legal,” she added.

Sharia law, defined as a religious and ethical system within Islam derived from the Quran and the Hadith, guides Muslims in matters of faith, morality, and aspects of daily life.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D‑Md., argued that extremism is not tied to any one religion, saying the existence of Christian extremist groups shows that terrorism “has no religion.” He accused Rep. Chip Roy, R‑Texas, co‑founder of the congressional Sharia Free America Caucus, of seeking to “demonize and vilify those who adhere to the religion.”

In her opening remarks, Scanlon also sought to discredit the hearing by noting that none of the four witnesses were experts on Islam or Sharia law, even though Democrats were tasked with inviting one of the four witnesses.

“Democrats didn’t want them to go on record—that’s why they didn’t call on them to testify,” Roy told The Daily Signal after the hearing.

Rep. Sydney Kamlager‑Dove, D‑Calif., said the spread of Sharia law is “not a pressing issue” and described the concern as a “manufactured crisis.” Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D‑Wash., said the hearing should not be held because “Islam is a very important religion.”

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R‑Ohio, rejected those claims, saying Sharia law and Islamic extremism “are real issues of concern.”

Roy opened the hearing by raising alarms about what he described as an ideological push by Islamic fundamentalists in Texas who are attempting to impose elements of Sharia law. He cited the East Plano Islamic Center near Dallas—often referred to as EPIC City—claiming it plans to establish radical Islamic rule.

Raskin dismissed the claim, calling the site a “community center,” and said he does not believe Sharia law or Islamist extremism is being promoted there.

During his opening remarks, Roy accused some lawmakers of refusing to call out radical Islamic extremism “by its name” because they fear backlash from their voting base.

After the hearing, Raskin told The Daily Signal that he does condemn “radical Islamic terrorism” and said he would be surprised if his colleagues did not share that view. However, Jayapal; Rep. Max Frost, D-Fla.; and Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., have all refused to condemn radical Islam when previously asked by The Daily Signal.

Roy then turned to the witnesses, who included Amy Mekelburg, founder and editor‑in‑chief of the Rise, Align, Ignite, Reclaim Foundation USA; Ammon Blair, senior fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation; Marco Hunter‑Lopez, a student at Wylie East High School in Texas; and Amanda Tyler, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty.

Mekelburg testified that she believes radical Islam poses a real threat.

“I have documented Islam’s assault on Europe. They stalked us, they harassed us, they fill us with death threats,” she said. “I feel unsafe when I open my front door. Islam has taken that from me. The hard part of this fight is seeing my friends pay the ultimate price.”

Mekelburg referenced a Christian‑Iraqi friend she said was killed by Islamist extremists in Sweden after speaking out against Sharia law and claimed Sweden enacted laws restricting blasphemy against the Quran.

When Mekelburg accused nonprofit organizations, including the Council on American‑Islamic Relations, of facilitating Islamist extremism, Rep. Steve Cohen, D‑Tenn., began clapping loudly and then left the hearing room.

Hunter‑Lopez criticized public‑school policies he said reflect Islamic influence, including the serving of halal meals.

“Public schools aim to educate, not promote principles that are incompatible with our Constitution and way of life,” he said.

Responding to Raskin’s claim that America has no established religion, Hunter‑Lopez noted that “God is mentioned four times in the Declaration of Independence.”

Tyler followed by arguing that the hearing was promoting “the imaginary threat of Sharia law.” Republican lawmakers challenged that assertion.

Rep. Mark Harris, R‑N.C., cited a reported 2025 case in Washington state in which parents allegedly attempted to carry out an honor killing after their daughter refused an arranged marriage. “This is not compatible with our way of life,” he said.

Rep. Robert Onder, R‑Mo., questioned Tyler about whether religious liberty is respected by groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood and the Taliban, or in countries including Iran, Sudan, and Afghanistan.

“I’m not familiar,” Tyler replied.

She later said the United States protects freedom of religion so citizens “can believe what we want and act on those beliefs.”

When Roy asked whether Islam is compatible with Western civilization, Tyler declined to answer.

Rep. Wesley Hunt, R‑Texas, closed the hearing by arguing that importing belief systems “not aligned with our way of life” erodes the nation’s social fabric.

Probing Sharia law and Islamist extremism “is not racist,” Hunt said. “I’ve been black my whole life—for 44 years.”

Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice launched a federal civil rights investigation into Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano over allegations that his office gave preferential treatment to illegal immigrants accused of serious crimes.

This Thursday, mere days after that announcement, Descano—who has received more than $650,000 from George Soros-backed PACs and affiliated groups—is scheduled to testify before Congress at a House Judiciary Committee hearing examining the dangerous consequences of sanctuary policies in Fairfax County, Virginia. 

Indeed, Descano is a key player contributing to the increasingly dangerous environment in Fairfax County. In February, police arrested Abdul Jalloh, an illegal immigrant from Sierra Leone, and charged him with the fatal stabbing of Stephanie Minter, a 41-year-old mother, at a bus stop in Fairfax County. Jalloh had previously been arrested more than 30 times, only to be released back onto the streets. In more than a dozen of his arrests, Descano’s office entered “nolle prosequi,” a legal term meaning it chose not to pursue the charges. 

Sadly, Jalloh is one of many illegal immigrants in Fairfax County whom Descano was committed to keeping out of jail following violent crimes. In fact, Descano openly stated his intentions on his since-deleted 2019 campaign page. He wrote, “If two people commit the same crime, but only one’s punishment includes deportation, that’s a perversion of justice and not a reflection of the values of Fairfax County.” 

The Department of Justice is right to investigate Descano for discriminating against Americans, but he is only the tip of the iceberg. Descano and other county leaders seem to believe that the “values of Fairfax County” include protecting illegal adult criminals in K-12 public schools. 

For background, English language learners are permitted to attend school until they are 22. The number of English language learners in Fairfax County’s schools increased precipitously due to former President Joe Biden’s open southern border and the inception of the sanctuary policy, up to a total of 47,438 English language learning students in 2025. 

Disturbingly, a recent Freedom of Information Act request found that there are 339 adult male English language learning students attending K-12 public schools throughout the county. By design, it is unclear how many of them are in the country illegally.

One of them, Israel Flores Ortiz, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador who turns 19 in June, was found guilty on nine counts of assault on female students at Fairfax High School this year. Despite the fact that he groped their genitals in the hallways, Descano’s office charged him with lesser misdemeanor charges of assault, instead of sexual assault, as the case should warrant. Ortiz was convicted last month and is scheduled to be released in September after only spending about six months in custody.

Descano and Fairfax County Sheriff Stacey Kincaid, who refuses to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, are not the only officials protecting illegal immigrants such as Ortiz. A Freedom of Information Act request found that, in seeming violation of federal law, Fairfax High School administrators did not file Title IX referrals when female students told school staff that Ortiz sexually assaulted them. 

Only after Ortiz’s arrest and under pressure from the victims’ families did the school principal, Georgina Aye, send a delayed, sanitized email notifying the community, stating that “the incidents involved the student touching other students’ buttocks while they were transitioning in the hallways.”

The attempts at secrecy and obfuscation run deep, protecting illegal immigrants at the cost of all other students in the district’s schools. To that end, the district’s senior administrators ordered all student identification documents on record to be destroyed.

On July 1, Dave Anderson, Fairfax County Public Schools’ senior district manager for student registration, sent an email to school-based registrars that stated, “Based on recent Division Counsel guidance … FCPS will no longer retain copies of identification documents, including the student birth certificate, in the student’s cumulative file … For clarification purposes, identification documents refer to copies of a parent’s photo ID, such as a driver’s license, passport, etc.” 

Fairfax County’s 199 public schools are decorated with sanctuary policy flyers, written in nine languages, promising, “We will not collect or maintain any information on the citizenship or immigration status of students or their families.”

Taken together, these incidents and policies raise serious questions about accountability, transparency, and public safety in Fairfax County. From prosecutorial discretion in the handling of repeat offenders, to school system policies affecting reporting and record-keeping, it is clear that county leadership has prioritized ideological commitments over the protection of students and the broader community. 

Fairfax County has become a focal point in the broader national conflict over immigration enforcement, criminal justice reform, and the role of local institutions in upholding public safety. The outcome of these investigations and hearings will likely shape not only the future of county policy, but also the wider national debate over the dangers of local “sanctuaries.”

We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.

Kevin Warsh has been confirmed by the Senate to become chair of the Federal Reserve under unusual circumstances after a historically partisan vote cleared the way for him to succeed the departing chairman, Jerome Powell, whose term as chair ends Friday.

The Senate confirmed Warsh for a 14-year term on the bank’s Board of Governors by a 51-45 vote Tuesday. Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was the only Democrat to cross the aisle in favor of Warsh.

Republican senators backed Warsh almost unanimously, but Sens. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Pete Ricketts of Nebraska, and Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi did not vote.

The Senate then voted by the same margin to advance his nomination as chair of the Federal Reserve to replace the term-limited Powell. On Wednesday, the Senate voted 54-45 to confirm Warsh as chair. Fetterman was again the only Democrat to support his confirmation.

Powell has said he intends to remain on the Board of Governors until he is certain the Department of Justice has dropped an investigation of alleged inconsistencies in congressional testimony about Federal Reserve building renovations, which he views as a politically motivated attempt to influence monetary policy.

The department dropped the probe as Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who sits on the Senate Banking Committee, said he would not advance Warsh without its termination.

President Donald Trump has put pressure on Powell throughout his second term, urging him to ease interest rates.

Federal Reserve nominations are generally cleared on a bipartisan basis.

In 2018, the Senate voted to confirm Powell by an 84-13 margin, and he was confirmed again in 2022 by an 80-19 vote.

This is par for the course, as Janet Yellen was confirmed by a 56-26 vote in 2014, and Ben Bernanke was confirmed 70-30 in 2010—which broke the record at the time for being the narrowest confirmation of a Fed chairman in history.

Warsh is hardly an outsider pick, as he served on the Fed’s Board of Governors from 2006 until 2011. 

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., accused Democrats Wednesday morning of being excessively partisan in their opposition to Warsh.

“This is just how bad Trump derangement syndrome has gotten on the other side of the aisle,” Thune said. “It doesn’t seem to matter who President Trump nominates. Democrats blindly oppose them. Democrats aren’t interested in a person’s qualifications. All they care about is opposing President Trump.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, has been a prominent critic of Warsh, accusing him of lacking independence from the president.

“No Republican claiming to care about Fed independence should support moving forward the nomination of Kevin Warsh, who proved in his nomination hearing to be nothing more than President Trump’s sock puppet,” Warren wrote in a statement before the vote.

Warren harshly criticized Powell during President Joe Biden’s administration, putting pressure on him to ease interest rates in order to support government-subsidized green energy companies.

In August 2025, Trump attempted to remove Lisa Cook from the Board of Governors, which was overturned by the Supreme Court. In September 2025, the Senate confirmed Trump’s pick, Stephen Miran, to join the Board of Governors after the resignation of Adriana Kugler.

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FIRST ON DAILY SIGNAL—Trial lawyers are putting a heavy focus on a Democrat House majority by not only donating to organizations backing House candidates, but also dumping money into drawing favorable congressional maps. 

A report from the watchdog group Alliance for Consumers, set to be released Thursday, shows that since 2025, trial lawyer-aligned political action committees have given $100,000 to the House Majority PAC, which focuses on getting Democrats elected to the U.S. House. The PACs also gave $50,000 to the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, run by former Obama administration Attorney General Eric Holder.

The redistricting committee has been influential in the last year, donating $150,000 toward the election of Democrat candidates for the Virginia state Legislature, and another $150,000 toward the election of Democrat gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger. 

Immediately following the donations in October, the Virginia Democrats called a special session to attempt to amend the state constitution to allow for new gerrymandered districts, which would flip the state’s 6-5 Democrat congressional map to a 10-1 Democrat advantage. The new map passed in a referendum, but last week the Virginia Supreme Court found the procedure unconstitutional. 

“The formation of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee arose after coordination with progressive groups like Emily’s List and Planned Parenthood, and fundraising efforts that were spearheaded by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other leading D.C. Democratic leaders. Since the beginning of 2017, the Shady Trial Lawyer PACs have sent NDRC over $650,000,” the report says. 

The report examines key donors, including the AAJ PAC, affiliated with the American Association for Justice and by far the biggest spender; the Truth And Justice Fund Company; and the Justice PACs, which since 2018 have changed names for the election cycle, from Justice 2018 PAC to now Justice 2026 PAC. 

The National Democratic Redistricting Committee has opposed redistricting efforts in Texas and Florida expected to favor Republicans. The organization also supported the California redistricting effort approved last year, which is expected to allow Democrats to win more House seats. 

Donating to redistricting efforts shows the trial lawyer PACs “aren’t fairweather liberals,” said O.H. Skinner, executive director of Alliance for Consumers. 

“They are pushing for generational change, and they see the money they are giving can create majorities for their team year in and year out,” Skinner told The Daily Signal. 

“The NDRC does not care about individual issues. They just want Democrats to win,” Skinner continued. “So, the money to Emily’s List and America Votes shows the trial lawyers are on board with their mission. But the large amount of money going to the NDRC really shows their level of commitment.”

The AAJ PAC has been the biggest donor to various liberal causes and candidates since 2017, giving $23.4 million, according to the report. The others are the Justice PACs, which spent $4.4 million, and the Truth and Justice Fund, which spent $3.2 million. 

Other major recipients, according to the report, have donated at least $100,000 since 2025 to American Bridges 21st Century Foundation, founded by former journalist David Brock, a noted former Clinton family antagonist-turned-supporter. Since 2017, the PACs have given $700,000 to American Bridges.   

The trial lawyer PACs also donated $75,000 to America Votes, a left-leaning group that advocates for voting access, for a total of $1.5 million since 2017. The PACs gave $40,000 to Emily’s List since 2025 and have given $750,000 to the pro-abortion group since 2017.

Last week, filmmaker Charles Curran posted a viral AI-generated video that now looks less like satire and more like prophecy. 

In the video—boosted by Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt—Mayor Karen Bass is transformed into a full Joker—green hair, purple suit, permanent grin—presiding over a burning, chaotic Los Angeles. 

Pratt swoops in as Batman to save the city. Gov. Gavin Newsom appears as an out-of-touch French royal scarfing cake while the state collapses. Former Vice President Kamala Harris chugs vodka. The video, captioned “LA is worth saving—Vote Spencer Pratt,” exploded across X and went mega-viral within hours.

Exactly one week later, on May 12, Bass became the meme. Speaking about the city’s homeless crisis, she said: “How many people who are unhoused that you meet have no teeth at all? They don’t have teeth. Why? Because meth rots your teeth. You can’t succeed without teeth. So there needs to be comprehensive health care provided to people.”

Translation: You can’t succeed without a smile. The same mayor whose AI version was already cackling as the Joker just told the world that the biggest obstacle facing 75,000 unhoused Angelenos is missing molars—not the meth, fentanyl, mental illness, or policy failures that put them there.

The Joker has always been obsessed with smiles. “Why so serious?” he asks. “Let’s put a smile on that face.” 

In some versions, he carves a Glasgow smile into victims’ cheeks—deep cuts from the corners of the mouth so they grin forever, even in death. The Joker doesn’t want happiness; he wants the grotesque, forced, permanent illusion of one while the world burns.

Bass, apparently, wants the same thing for LA’s streets. She doesn’t want actual success fixing the homelessness crisis, but instead wants dentures—a taxpayer-funded grin so the zombies can “succeed” while the rest of us dodge needles and human waste on the sidewalks. It’s not policy; it’s performance art from the dumbest cohort in American politics.

This dental revelation dropped just days after Newsom unveiled his own masterpiece of superficial and unserious solutions: the “Golden State Start” program, handing out up to 400 “free” government diapers per newborn as a serious solution to California’s poverty and cost-of-living crisis. 

Families hammered by the highest taxes, worst housing prices, and most suffocating regulations in America don’t need policy fixes—they just need $200 taxpayer-funded diapers that only cost $100 at the local Costco. Diapers for babies and teeth for meth addicts—these are the flagship ideas from the people running California.

These people aren’t leaders; they’re clowns in expensive suits, convinced every symptom of their ideological failure is just another invoice for “comprehensive” services.

The Joker parallel is almost too perfect. The Clown Prince of Crime doesn’t fix Gotham; he accelerates the collapse while demanding everyone smile through it. Bass and Newsom don’t fix California; they enable addiction, dismantle consequences (hello, Prop 47), pour billions into a homelessness industrial complex that produces more tents, then lecture us about dental care and diapers. 

Bass, who constantly reminds voters of her physician assistant background, surely knows meth mouth is a symptom of heavy drug use. Yet she elevates rotten teeth to the central barrier preventing “success.” The meth itself, the decades of decriminalized drugs, Prop 47’s revolving-door justice, soft-on-crime experiments, and a housing-first dogma that treats addiction as an afterthought—those aren’t the problems, apparently. Missing incisors are.

Normal Americans understand something the Joker-Democrats never will: A person fried on supermeth needs detox, mandatory treatment, cleared streets, and basic law enforcement. You can’t “succeed” without teeth? Fine. But you really can’t succeed when politicians have spent years turning cities into open-air asylums and then act shocked when civilization erodes.

The AI video captured the truth before the quote even dropped: Bass isn’t a serious mayor, but instead she’s a grinning villain in the progressive clown show. Her constant rictus smile in real life only adds to the eerie resemblance to Jack Nicholson’s Joker character. She doesn’t see broken people; she sees clients for more bureaucracy, more nonprofits, more of your money, more excuses.

This isn’t compassion. It’s the creepy, detached stupidity of people who have never met a problem they couldn’t solve with another government program and a performative grin. They dismantle incentives, enable chaos, then demand we all smile about it. 

The AI video wasn’t satire. It was a warning. Karen Bass as the Joker isn’t a joke anymore. It’s the logical endpoint of a party so ideologically deranged it thinks free teeth and free diapers will fix the mess they created. 

We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.

For years, Democrats screamed about “foreign interference.” But while they were chasing ghosts on cable news, foreign influence was infiltrating our courts right here at home—making a killing and sticking American families with the bill.

This is why the Tackling Predatory Litigation Funding Act, introduced by Rep. Kevin Hern, R-Okla., is so important. It will stop a growing industry that is letting outside foreign investors with anti-America First interests bankroll lawsuits in the U.S.  in exchange for a cut of the winnings. 

Think hedge funds, but instead of investing in companies, they’re betting on court outcomes.

Much of that money is coming from foreign sovereign wealth funds. These funds are gaming lawsuits against American businesses, winning big, and then sending the profits straight out of the country.

Most of these suits are weak—the kind that would have never been filed, or would have quickly fizzled out, if not for deep-pocketed backers looking to turn litigation into a payday.

These funders don’t care if the cases ultimately succeed; they just want settlement money. 

Americans have spent years worrying about foreign control of supply chains and tech. But we’ve ignored the fact that our legal system is now open for business to shadowy overseas interests.

This should concern anyone who believes in American sovereignty.

When investors bankroll lawsuits, they’re not looking for justice. They’re looking for a return. 

This can make even weak cases expensive to fight. So companies settle, not because they’re guilty, but because the game is rigged in favor of the people financing the case.

The costs of this profiteering are felt across the American economy.

They show up when a manufacturer delays hiring. They show up when an energy company cuts investment. They show up when prices quietly creep up for everyone else. All because companies had money extracted from them by foreigners gambling on lawsuits and needed to make up the difference. This hits factories, trucking firms, and energy jobs in red-state America.

This is a hidden transfer of wealth out of American communities. No other country would ever tolerate this. Foreign nations would never accept American-backed money quietly steering lawsuits inside their courts and skewing their justice system.

So why are we not only allowing it here, but even providing these exploitative litigation funders with preferential tax treatment?

The investors financing these lawsuits often structure their investments so that their earnings are taxed as capital gains rather than ordinary income. This gives them a lower effective tax rate than the plaintiffs. In fact, in many cases, foreign investors can avoid U.S. tax liability altogether.

The Tackling Predatory Litigation Funding Act, which Congress is currently considering, addresses the problem by closing that loophole. It would tax the profits of litigation bankrollers at the top income tax rate in the country, plus an additional 3.8%. The bill comes down to one simple principle: The people taking money out of the U.S. economy should not be rewarded with a tax shield while injured parties pay higher taxes than they do. 

If foreign profiteers are going to game the American justice system, then Uncle Sam should be taking a big cut before their money leaves the country. If this fix is put in place, it should disincentivize third-party financiers from ever getting involved in the first place. After all, if you tax something, you usually get less of it.

The proposed act is just common sense.

American lawsuits shouldn’t be just another asset class for global investors that forces regular Americans to absorb the damage.

The MAGA movement was built on the idea that Americans should not be played for suckers—not by Beijing, Brussels, global corporations, or other foreign-backed litigation funders gaming our courts for profit.

If Republicans are serious about defending American sovereignty, they cannot ignore what is happening inside the courtroom. The Hern bill is a critical reform that draws an important line. If foreign money wants to influence American litigation, the American people at least deserve a cut.

It’s time to stop pretending this is normal. There is nothing pro-worker, pro-family, or pro-sovereignty about a system that makes life more expensive at home while lining the pockets of wealthy investors abroad.

This is exactly the kind of upside-down system President Donald Trump was elected to fight. Congress should pass this bill without delay. If it doesn’t, then the Trump administration should consider taking action itself to make clear that American sovereignty and America’s courts are not for sale. 

We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is pausing new Medicare enrollment for hospices and home health agencies for six months to review alleged rampant fraud.

Vice President JD Vance’s Anti-Fraud Task Force is working with the agency to combat fraud, waste, and abuse in Medicare. So far, the task force has withheld $1.4 billion in federal funding from home health and hospice providers across the country, Fox News reported.

“We’ve seen systemic and deeply troubling fraud in the hospice and home health space, with bad actors exploiting some of our most vulnerable Medicare patients and stealing money from the American taxpayer,” CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz said.

“Today we’re shutting the door on fraud—preventing new bad actors from entering Medicare while we aggressively identify, investigate, and remove those already exploiting them. This is about protecting patients, restoring integrity, and safeguarding taxpayer dollars,” Oz said.

The announcement comes after The Daily Wire reported on alleged widespread Medicare fraud in Ohio’s home health industry. Officials with Ohio Medicaid told The Columbus Dispatch the department had been investigating fraud concerns before the recent reports surfaced.

The moratorium will not affect current Medicare enrollments. Existing providers will continue to deliver services to Medicare beneficiaries.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will use the new enrollment moratorium to “intensify targeted investigations, deploy advanced data analytics, and accelerate the removal of hospice and HHA providers from the Medicare program that are suspected of committing fraud,” according to a news release.

The administration hopes to stop bad actors from evading detection by crossing state lines.

Earlier this year, the agency announced a similar moratorium to prevent fraudulent Medicare billing by certain durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics, and supplies companies.

In February, Vance announced that the administration was withholding reimbursements for $259.5 million in Medicaid funds from Minnesota pending an investigation into allegations of widespread welfare fraud there.

Vance is holding a news conference Wednesday afternoon to warn all 50 states they must fully comply with anti-fraud statutes or risk losing federal Medicaid funding, The Wall Street Journal reported.

“Under President [Donald] Trump, we are unleashing the most aggressive federal anti-fraud efforts in American history,” Vance said. “We won’t rest until we root out every bit of fraud infecting our government and screwing over taxpayers.”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said her political aspirations go beyond becoming president, as she addressed speculation she is preparing to run for the White House in 2028.

“My ambition is to change this country,” said the New York Democrat and leader of the progressive House faction, “the squad,” in a conversation with President Barack Obama’s former top political adviser, David Axelrod, Friday at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics.

“They assume that my ambition is positional; they assume that my ambition is a title or a seat,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “And my ambition is way bigger than that.”

“Presidents come and go; Senate, House seats, elected officials come and go, but single-payer health care is forever. A living wage is forever. Workers’ rights are forever. Women’s rights, all of that,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

While the former bartender was criticized for her lack of foreign policy expertise at the Global Economic Forum in January, Ocasio-Cortez has proven to be an agenda-setter for the Democrats.

The congresswoman says she wakes up in the morning asking, “What move or decision can I make today that’s going to get us closer to that future, stronger, faster, and better than yesterday?”

Her main moves tend to revolve around attacking the wealthy.

A War on Billionaires

After receiving mockery for her statement last week that “You can’t earn a billion dollars,” Ocasio-Cortez doubled down in her chat with Axelrod, claiming that “the American Revolution was against the billionaires of their time, and we are declaring independence from such an extreme marriage of wealth and the state, that the voices of everyday people did not exist.”

She also claimed billionaires are trying to thwart her ambitions to change the country, conveniently ignoring those billionaires who bankroll the progressive agenda.

“No billionaire can stop that,” she said. “No concentrated level of power and no elite, no gatekeeper, can prevent me from doing everything I can,” she said.

Ocasio-Cortez then reiterated that her mission of “waking up every day in service of the working class” can be accomplished anywhere.

“I can do that in the House, in the Senate. I can do that in the White House,” she said. “I can do it from a shack in upstate New York chopping wood and being a burnout. I can do it from anywhere.”

A Yale Youth Poll from fall 2025 revealed Ocasio-Cortez has strong backing among young Democrats versus other potential presidential candidates. There Ocasio-Cortez leads among Democrats under 35 with 32% support.

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—Amid Police Week, the National Republican Senatorial Committee is targeting Democrat Senate candidates with a series of ads accusing them of being anti-law enforcement.

The NRSC has produced eight new ads targeting Democrat Senate candidates in battleground states: former Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina, Graham Platner of Maine, Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia, former Rep. Mary Peltola of Alaska, Rep. Chris Pappas of New Hampshire, and former Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown.

The campaign committee is also targeting three Democrat candidates in Michigan’s Senate primary: Rep. Haley Stevens, state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, and former health official Abdul El-Sayed.

 Additionally, one of the ads takes aim at two Iowa Democrat candidates: state Sen. Zach Wahls and state Rep. Josh Turek.

“As Democrats prioritize dangerous illegal immigrants and threaten to abolish law enforcement agencies, Republicans are working to keep criminals behind bars and make communities safe again,” NRSC National Press Secretary Bernadette Breslin told The Daily Signal. 

“Democrats’ soft-on-crime policies are too dangerous for American families,” Breslin added.

In one such ad, a narrator highlights the administration’s work on crime before criticizing Cooper on issues of law enforcement.

“Thanks to Republicans, violent crime is at all-time lows, and American communities are safer,” the narrator begins.

“But Roy Cooper wants to turn back the clock and bring back Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer’s pro-crime agenda that vilifies law enforcement, denies them crucial resources, and prioritizes dangerous illegal immigrants,” the narrator adds. “Americans can’t afford another Democrat crime wave. Reject Roy Cooper and stop the anti-police agenda.”

The ad features news clips highlighting recent drops in violent crime and Senate Democrats’ opposition to renewing Department of Homeland Security funding.

The ads come as Republicans in the Senate are moving to provide funding to immigration enforcement agencies through a party-line budget bill after a monthslong shutdown of DHS. Democrats objected to providing funding to immigration enforcement agencies during the record-setting shutdown.

The Daily Signal reached out for comment from the candidates mentioned in the ads.

“While Roy spent his career putting rapists and violent criminals behind bars and securing raises for law enforcement and public safety officials, Michael Whatley spent his appointing a convicted child sex predator who served time in prison for multiple counts of felony child sex crimes to a powerful position within the North Carolina Republican Party,” a Cooper campaign spokesperson replied, referring to the Republican candidate for Senate in North Carolina.

The spokesperson was speaking of Harvey L. West Jr., a convicted sex offender who held positions in the North Carolina Republican Party at the same time as Whatley was its chairman.

In response to the Cooper campaign, Whatley told The Daily Signal in a statement, “Nineteen innocent North Carolinians are dead because Roy Cooper chose to let violent criminals walk free—including the brutal murderer of Iryna Zarutska. He won’t answer to the families. He won’t explain the releases. He didn’t even follow the law to notify victims.”

Whatley added, “This was a deliberate, reckless choice that prioritized violent criminals ahead of innocent North Carolinians. Roy Cooper failed at his most basic duty as governor, protecting the people of North Carolina, and families paid the price.”

A Peltola spokesperson also responded to The Daily Signal, rejecting the ad’s premise.

“This ad from D.C. political operatives is a lie—Mary has always stood up to her own party to crack down on violent crime and secure the southern border, and that’s what she’ll continue to do when she gets to the U.S. Senate,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

The spokesperson added, “Mary also called out Joe Biden for his failures at the southern border, and she voted for tougher enforcement and billions in funding for Border Patrol. In the Senate, Mary will work with anyone, including President [Donald] Trump, to bring down crime, secure the border, and keep Alaska safe.”

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FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—Chairman of the House Committee on Education and Workforce Tim Walberg has written a letter to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz stating that Walz’s office has failed to adequately comply with its investigation into alleged improper payments and misuse of federal taxpayer childcare funds under the Child Care Assistance Program.

The letter comes days after the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided over 20 daycares in Minnesota as part of the administration’s crackdown on taxpayer fraud.

“The Committee on Education and Workforce (Committee) is continuing its investigation of alleged improper payments to, or improper use of public funds by, child care providers through Minnesota’s Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP), under the authority of the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990 (CCDBG),” the letter reads.

In the letter, the committee accuses Walz’s office of not cooperating with the committee’s investigation through its lack of responses and unexplained redactions. The committee, which began work in January, described the governor’s silence as “both unacceptable and impeding the Committee’s oversight and legislative efforts.”

“As you know, the Committee is charged with monitoring on a continuing basis the application, administration, execution, and effectiveness of federal laws and programs under its jurisdiction,” the letter continued. “Congressional oversight extends to implementation of CCDBG in Minnesota through the CCAP, the state program for carrying out childcare activities. The Committee’s review of alleged improper payments to or improper use of federal funds by childcare providers will help inform the Committee about the kinds of legislative changes to CCDBG that may be warranted.”

Although Minnesota produced nearly 38,000 pages in response to a Jan. 5 oversight request, the committee says fewer than 75 pages were meaningfully responsive.

More than 90% of the production consisted of repeatedly duplicated press releases and news articles unrelated to childcare funding, including materials about Walz’s decision not to seek reelection and gun control executive orders.

Some of the same press releases were submitted dozens of times, creating what the committee calls a misleading appearance of compliance.

The committee also criticizes Minnesota for asserting broad attorney‑client and work‑product privilege claims without identifying the specific basis for individual redactions, which in some cases obscure entire email bodies.

Congressional leaders emphasize that the House does not recognize non‑constitutional privileges as binding on oversight requests.

Citing these deficiencies, the committee reiterates and narrows its demands, ordering Minnesota to produce unredacted emails involving Walz, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, and senior staff that reference specific childcare centers under scrutiny, as well as records identifying providers that received more than $1 million in CCDF funds in a single fiscal year.

Flanagan, who is now running for U.S. Senate, was endorsed by embattled Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., on Monday. Omar is the subject of a House Oversight Committee and potential House Ethics Committee probe over her recent rise in wealth and potential involvement in the Feeding Our Future fraud scandal.

The committee says the information requested from Walz will inform proposed legislation aimed at strengthening anti‑fraud safeguards and protecting taxpayer dollars in federal childcare programs.