New Deal for Kids. Abused Word: Protester. Marco! Marco! Warmth of Collectivism: Homeless Freeze in NYC. More
If babies could vote …
“Your baby could qualify for $1,000 with a Trump Account,” trumpets a Washington Post headline, which goes on to explain how these accounts work:
As a continuation of President Donald Trump ‘s pitch to Americans on affordability and the economy under his administration, the U.S. Treasury and White House are celebrating the upcoming launch of a program they view as a key milestone: Trump Accounts.
A provision of Trump’s tax legislation, Trump Accounts are meant to give $1,000 to every newborn, so long as their parents open an account. That money is then invested in the stock market by private firms, and the child can access the money when they turn 18.
“Trump Accounts: The Defining Policy of America’s 250th Anniversary” is the title of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s explanation on the Treasury website. Bessent writes:
Trump Accounts are among the most significant policy innovations of modern times. They mark a singular moment in economic history by expanding the benefits of private ownership and compound growth to all Americans. Today, I will explain where Trump Accounts came from, how they work, and why they will render socialist notions moot by making every citizen a shareholder.
Bessent lists many of the corporations and others contributing to this undertaking. Michael and Susan Dell made a flagship pledge of $6.25 billion of their own money. President Trump unveiled the accounts yesterday at a presser. It was pure Trump. Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary and rapper Nicki Minaj, both Trump Accounts contributors, joined the president onstage, where Ms. Minaj proclaimed herself “President Trump’s Number 1 fan.”
The London Telegraph called the presser “bizarre,” especially noting that the Leader of the Free World admired the rapper’s fingernails. Ms. Must would admire Ms. Minaj’s nails, too, if she’d just donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to my innovative new program for American families. Ms. Minaj’s superlative nails can be seen in photos accompanying the Telegraph report. As far as I can tell, the New York Times has not yet gotten around to covering yesterday’s presser.
Groundhog Day: “Shutdown Déjà Vu” is the headline over Kimberley Strassel’s Wall Street Journal column. She writes:
Last year’s record-duration shutdown was entirely a product of a progressive left that demanded Democrats show “resistance” to Donald Trump. Congressional Democrats worried the exercise would cause enormous pain for their own constituents, even as it was unlikely to yield them the extension of ObamaCare subsidies they demanded. They did it anyway.
We’re in a Yogi Berra moment—all over again. Congress last Friday was cruising to pass its final fiscal 2026 appropriations bills, eliminating the threat of another government shutdown. Then came the Saturday shooting in Minneapolis of activist Alex Pretti. Progressive groups immediately demanded Democrats take a stand by opposing appropriations, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer took up their call. Senate Democrats are now refusing to provide the votes necessary to keep the majority of government open past Friday.
Still, this could prove a tougher political sell than the last go-round.
The New York Times reports that President Trump and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer are seeking a deal to avoid a shutdown.
New York Post cover today: “Killed by ‘Kindness’ … 10 Freeze to Death after Mamdani Says He Won’t Force Homeless off the Streets.” Of course, it wasn’t kindness. It was a misguided collectivist mentality that has already led to the deaths of millions. Read more about the preventable deaths of homeless people in New York.
The latest wrinkle in the Minneapolis ICE-capades is the surfacing of video in which Alex Pretti appears to spit at ICE agents and kick in the taillights of their vehicle more than a week before he was fatally shot by federal agents:
The video, which the BBC said it has verified, captured the ICU nurse yelling at agents while they were driving away during a heated Jan. 13 protest before booting the back of the car, prompting them to jump out and tackle him to the ground, according to footage from The News Movement.
The man — who was wearing similar clothing in the video to what Pretti had on when he was fatally shot last Saturday — was taken to the ground by at least five agents, who deployed tear gas into the whistle-blowing crowd during the wild confrontation.
The horde of agents continued to hold him down until he retreated and joined the raucous crowd in shouting at the agents — with a gun visibly tucked into the back of his pants.
The video has no bearing on whether the shot that killed Pretti was a good or bad shot; his death was still a preventable tragedy. But the video potentially offers us a look at “the real Alex Pretti“:
In any event, it shows the real Alex Pretti: not a “peaceful protester,” not a sensitive nurse, but a left-wing fanatic and a violent lawbreaker.
The word “protester” is generally applied to Alex Pretty and others undertaking similar actions in Minneapolis. Rich Lowry says this is a misnomer. His column is headlined “Don’t Abuse the Word ‘Protester.’” He writes:
This is different. Opponents of ICE are, in an organized effort, tracking agents and showing up at operations to stop them from doing their job or make it as difficult as possible. This is more a form of low-level, (by and large) nonviolent insurgency than conventional protest.
And Pretti was part of this effort. It’s more accurate to describe him as an agitator, or — depending on the level of his involvement in the ICE network — even as an operator, than a protester.
“Leftist Disorder Is a Feature, Not a Bug” is the headline of Examine Editor-in-Chief Hugo Gurdon’s most recent column:
A left-wing activist outfit called 50501 is organizing businesses to hide illegal immigrants in a network of safe houses and deliver them free food and attorneys to prevent their arrest and deportation. It dismisses democratic laws as though it were an absolute monarch, which is ironic given that it organized the “No Kings” demonstrations this year. It dispatches activists toor swarm federal agents when they are trying to arrest immigrant criminals. That is what appears to have happened in the incident that led to the shooting death of protester Alex Pretti. This has become the norm, the modus operandi, of the Left.
And it is not just the far Left. …
Former Vice President Mike Pence writes at The Free Press that “Minneapolis Is a Warning.” The tease: “Americans deserve to have safe streets, our laws enforced, and our constitutional rights respected. All have been violated in Minneapolis by leaders of both parties.”
Testifying about the Trump administration’s policy in Venezuela before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee yesterday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio was cool as a cucumber—and funny. He was deft answering questions, sometimes not civilly put, from Democrats. National Review’s Haley Strack writes in The Corner that “The Kids Love Marco“:
Rubio is the competent adult in the room. And he has an endearing Trump-like quality that Gen Z loves: He’s meme-able without making himself the butt of a joke.
New Hires at CBS: The Wapo reports that Baris Weiss says the network must change or it “is toast.” Surprisingly, the comments aren’t that hostile.
“America Doesn’t Do Fascism” is the headline of Barton Swaim’s latest in the Wall Street Journal. Despite the Hitler memes, Trump is “more interesting, and more puzzling and exasperating, than the latter-day fascist of liberal imagination. He has far more in common with Andrew Jackson than with Buzz Windrip, the fascist American dictator and antihero of Sinclair Lewis’s novel “It Can’t Happen Here.”
In another interpretation, the president is more Ozymandias and is allowing hubris to wreck his second term. Meanwhile, don’t forget it’s National School Choice Week and treat yourself to Thomas Sowell talking about school choice with Peter Robinson.
