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Issue: Foreign Affairs

New Supreme Leader’s Cabinet May Give New Meaning to “Skeleton Crew.” Jasmine Crockett’s Alamo. Cornyn & Paxton in Runoff. Jason Riley: Pronouns Only Taught Here.

Posted on by Charlotte Hays

What’s left of Iran’s high command is set to announce a successor to the late Supreme Leader -it appears that Khamenei Jr. is the front runner. He is Mojtaba Khamenei. 56, a chip off the old block: a hard liner, who’s reportedly been running the show for a while.

Is this really such an attractive job qualification? Anyway, Israeli Defense Israel Katz vows this will be a short-term hire, as he Israel will make any successor to the Supreme Leader an “unequivocal target for elimination.”

Mojtaba Khamenei might find his cabinet gives new meaning to the term skeleton crew. Israel is “blowing up Iran’s police state” with the objective of allowing a revolt:

Israeli officials have made it clear they are looking to do enough damage to Iran’s police state from the air that the people can take over on the ground. While Israel has long been content to weaken Tehran with military action or covert operations, Israeli officials have concluded they now must push for regime change.

A front-page Wall Street Journal investigative piece takes us inside the operation that killed the Ayatollah Khamenei. Two Wall Street Journal editorials set the record straight. “The Bibi-Made-Trump-Do-It Canard” that the U.S. is at war with Iran because for 47 years Iran was at war with us. “Is the U.S. Running Out of Ammo?” is the other straight-talking editorial, which says that, while the military needs more ammunition, the U. S. has enough for Iran.

The different tones of the legacy media and more conservative outlets can be seen in the New York Time’s choice for the front page of a story about how Iran is choking off the world’s oil and gas supply. “Defang the Snake” is the New York Post’s lively  cover headline. Danielle Pletka of AEI has been terrific on the Iran conflict—and she’s definitely up to snuff today. Ms. Pletka writes today about why the endgame matters:

Donald Trump has clearly rejected the Powell Pottery Barn rule — you break it, you own it. It was a dumb “rule” to begin with, and Trump is not much of a fan of such silly tropes.He rightly looked at Libya and noted that Obama broke that and didn’t do squat. His view is that the nukes, the missiles, the terrorism, the hating on Israel, and the whole kill-30,000-of-your-own-people attitude was intolerable, and with the State of Israel, let loose.

Thoughtful Washingtonians of a certain ilk wonder what it is that Trump is hoping to achieve. Well, see above. They ask further whether he has a plan, as if the absence of such a plan undercuts the entire raison d’etre of this conflict. It does not. Most such post-conflict plans don’t work brilliantly, much to my regret. And channeling the President, I suspect he doesn’t care much as long as a new regime doesn’t do the same bad stuff the old regime did.

There is a problem, though, and Pletka addresses it.

Maverick Democrats Mark Penn and Andrew Stein write in the Wall Street Journal that “On Iran, Democrats Offer Only Partisanship.” Most want the effort to fail. Senator John Fetterman is a patriotic exception. Examiner Chief Political Correspondent Byron York explores the Iran conflict and Iraq Syndrome. Unlike previous Presidents, Trump refused to kick the can down the road. “Through the fog of war, it’s possible to see where all this is heading,” Michael Doran asserts in a The Free Press article headlined “Trump’s Endgame.”

And in New York Iranian Americans celebrated, in contrast to their Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who called the strikes against Iran “a catastrophe.” Yael Bar Tur captures the moment for City Journal:

As the marchers stepped off toward Times Square, secured by repeatedly thanked NYPD members, Second Avenue saw a stream of American, Israeli, and pre-revolutionary “Lion and Sun” Iranian flags.

Most demonstrators’ signs were homemade—a stark contrast with the generic, NGO-funded ones often held by far-left protesters. Some carried signs urging the international community to help secure the liberation of homeland, knowing full well those calls would go unheeded. Others hoisted images of the exiled crown prince Reza Pahlavi, stuffed toy rats (symbolizing Khamenei) hanging from poles, and “Make Iran Great Again” signs.

One fashionable woman held a photo of herself as a young hijab-clad girl in Iran. A man raised a gory photo of the Ayatollah with the words “RIP—Rest in Piss.”

You know who’s been egregiously absent in the struggle for Iran’s freedom? American feminists. “Progressive opinion has become obsessed with boardroom quotas and microaggressions – rather than the real oppression visited upon women,” writes Anabel Denham at the London Telegraph.

The Pentagon has begun releasing names of the valiant Americans who have died in this conflict.

The Texas Primary. James Talirico defeated brash and unfiltered Rep. Jasmine Crockett to become the Democratic nominee for a seat in the Senate:

The race between Talarico and Crockettpresented more of a contrast in style than ideology.

Crockett, 44, said the party, the country and especially Black women like herself needed to fight back against MAGA with equally combative terms and tactics. The 36-year-oldTalarico, meanwhile, emphasized the need to win people over by engaging them on religion and cultural topics that other Democrats have largely ceded to conservatives.

Senator John Cornyn, in a race with MAGA stalwart and Texas AG Ken Paxton, did better than expected and there will be a runoff between the two. Rep. Wes Hunt came in a distant third. Politico reports:

Sen. John Cornyn defied expectations in the Texas GOP primary on Tuesday. National Republicans believe his unexpectedly strong showing may be enough for President Donald Trump to endorse the embattled incumbent.

Not so sanguine about Cornyn’s chances. National Review’s Jeffrey Blehar, who writes “Carnival of Fools” laments the loss of Crockett for his carnival and adds:

My opinion of him notwithstanding, Paxton remains very well positioned to win the nomination, unless Texas Republican voters rally to their senses next month.

Former Republican National Committee head Michael Whatley walked away with the GOP nomination with 64 percent of the vote in a multi-candidate field in North Carolina.

Former Navy SEAL Rep. Dan Crenshaw lost his bid for renomination to his seat in the House to state Rep. Steve Toth, who had strong backing from Senator Ted Cruz.

Wall Street Journal columnist Jason Riley hits in out of the ballpark with “Why Johnny Can’t Read Anything Other Than Pronouns.” “Schools have become laboratories for esoteric ideological projects, not centers of learning,” Riley argues.

He begins with the recent Supreme Court ruling that reinstated a lower-court ruling that California parents must be notified when they children adopt news pronouns or a new “gender identity.” Riley writes:

Far too many children are still assigned to substandard schools, and too many remain unable to read or do math at grade level. Meanwhile, educators and policymakers seem preoccupied with nonsense like helping students “transition” behind their parents’ backs or indoctrinating impressionable youngsters with social-justice poppycock to promote trendy political causes. American kids are outperformed by their foreign peers on international exams while we have to concern ourselves with whether school libraries make sexually explicit texts available to third-graders.

For a growing number of people in charge of the public education establishment, making sure that boys can play on girls’ sports teams has become more important than making sure students are acquiring basic academic skills that will enable them to learn a trade, complete college, become productive adults.

“Do You Believe in California Miracles?” is the headline on James Freeman’s Best of the Web” column. Seems a prominent Democrat is warning that a Republican could be elected Governor of the Golden State.

What would a Gavin Newsom presidency look like? The Federalist says “California’s Dying Bullet Train Is A Preview” of Newsom in the top job.  

The late Ayatollah Khamenei may have missed out on the virgins, but he certainly got nice obits from legacy media outlets.  

Bernard-Heni Levy reflects on how a noble name disappeared from the map and Persia became Iran.

Iran Is Not Winning Friends in Region. What If Trump Were a Democrat? Eyes on Texas Primary. Nurse Ratched Now a Committed Lefty. More

Posted on by Charlotte Hays

As the Middle Eastern conflict enters its fourth day, Iran is lashing out with “indiscriminate” strikes across the Gulf of Oman—so indiscriminate that Iran took out one of its own oil-transporting “ghost” ships.

Iran is operating with—shall we say—a slimmed down roster of top leaders. The New York Post cover features a scowling President Trump with the headline “Wait for the Big One.”  The U.S. appears to have sunk the entire Iranian navy. Satellite images analyzed by the New York Times show an Iranian naval base and four ships on fire:

 No notable salvaging efforts are visible.

“No, Marco Rubio Didn’t Claim That Israel Dragged Trump into War with Iran” National Review responds to the latest canard from the President’s critics:

Trump isn’t exactly shy about pressuring people into doing what he wants….People are free to agree or disagree with Trump’s decision, but it’s patently clear that Rubio was not trying to argue that Israel dragged the U.S. into this war. 

“An Emboldened Israel Is Seizing Opportunities to Remake Region” is the headline on a New York Times analysis. Is there some other country in the Middle East you’d prefer to remake the region?

“Iran Is Collapsing, but Islamism Is Spreading,” Ayan Hirsi Ali writes in The Free Press. “The fall of the Islamic Republic would be a defeat for political Islam. But an election in Britain and an attack in Texas suggest that Islamism poses an increasing threat to the West,” she argues.

Meanwhile, Wall Street Journal columnist Gerard Baker makes the case for “cautious optimism” about President Trump’s strikes on Iran:

So if regime change doesn’t come now, what kind of regime survives? Leaderless, impoverished, isolated, besieged, mostly disarmed, is Iran likely to be stronger after being on the receiving end of a campaign from the most technologically sophisticated and best-equipped militaries in the world? There are risks, and news of the first U.S. casualties reminds us that the costs are dear. But for an opportunistic president, there may never be a better opportunity.

“Trump Tries to Avoid the Iraq Trap” is the headline on international affairs guru Walter Russell Mead’s column. Mead writes that Trump “practices 21st-century gunboat diplomacy” in Venezuela and Iran:

The attack is the biggest gamble of Mr. Trump’s political career. A success that ends nearly half a century of brutal, bigoted and utterly unscrupulous rule by a clique of fanatical clerics would serve both the American national interest and the welfare of humanity. Failure could irreparably dent Mr. Trump’s prestige abroad, shatter his political coalition, and destroy his authority at home.

The early stages of battle should leave Mr. Trump hopeful. 

There are several other good articles on Iran on the Wall Street Journal’s Opinion pages this morning. An editorial contends that Iran has expanded the “Trump coalition” by attacking its Arab neighbors. “Iran was counting on the West’s cravenness,” writes Scalia Law School Professor Eugene Kontorovich but instead was met by the “confluence of brave and aligned leaders in Washington and Jerusalem.” Bill McGurn asks what would happen if Trump were a Democrat. He’d talk a good game but not act.

Along these lines, you might enjoy “Why Trump and Hegseth’s Swagger Leaves Washington’s ‘Elite’ Seething,” by Glenn Reynolds in the New York Post.

The midterms begin today with the primaries for a Senate seat in Texas. “I hope Crockett wins Texas primary so she can lose in November” is USA TODAY’s conservative columnist Nicole Russell’s headline. The latest Emerson poll has Texas AG Ken Paxton, MAGA darling, ahead of Senator John Cornyn but Cornyn is by no means out of the game.  The shooting in Austin, by a man wearing a “Property of Allah” T-shirt, and a spewer of hatred, has become a campaign issue. The shooting also should put a spotlight on security for all of us during this tense time. “Memo to Dems: There’s a War On — Stop Blocking Funds for Homeland Security” is the headline over a New York Post editorial.

The Supreme Court has blocked California’s restrictions on telling parents that their children identify as transgender. You likely know who voted how:

The Supreme Court on Mondaybarred California from enforcing state rules that restrict when schools can notify parents about students who come out as transgender and requires teachers to use children’s preferred pronouns.

The court, on a 6-3 vote on ideological lines, allowed a federal judge’s ruling in favor of parents who oppose the policy on religious grounds to go into effect. The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had put the judge’s decision on hold pending further litigation.

The Associated Press headline says that the Court blocked “outing transgender students to their parents in California.” Outing to their parents? “Who says Democrats have learned their lesson about ‘gender-affirming’ treatments for kids?” begins a City Journal article in an Oregon law that would hide data about gender procedures for children?”

The Supreme Court also sided with New York Republican Rep. Nicole Meliotakis, who challenged a Democratic redistricting plan:

Over the dissent of the court’s three liberal justices, the conservative majority halted a state court ruling that had ordered New York’s redistricting commission to redraw the district held by Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., that covers Staten Island and a small piece of Brooklyn. A judge had ruled that the district was drawn in a way that dilutes the power of its Black and Hispanic voters and had instructed the state’s Independent Redistricting Commission to complete a new map. 

We’re just now getting the full story (with video) of Hillary Clinton’s dramatic threatened walk out during her Epstein House Oversight Committee hearing after Rep. Lauren Boebert leaned a picture of the proceedings (against the rules). Also, here.

On the other hand, we might never have gotten the true figures from the Mamdani administration about the number of New Yorkers who froze to death in the snow without the relentless digging of the New York Post:

Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration admitted that an additional seven New Yorkers froze to death indoors — bringing the tally of fatalities from the recent stretch of frigid weather to 29.

The updated death toll was only released after The Post pressed the admin Monday on a list showing 31 possible fatalities that was circulated in City Hall and some agencies during the historic cold snap in mid-January to early February.

A City Hall representative said seven more indoor deaths that occurred between Jan. 23 and Feb. 10 were ruled as being caused by hypothermia, bringing the total number of New Yorkers who died from the cold at home to 14.

“Why Are So Many Nurses Left-Wing?” is the alarming headline on a City Journal article. It begins:

National Nurses United has a message for the White House: “ICE messed with the wrong profession.” After intensive-care nurse Alex Pretti was killed in Minneapolis last month, the union’s members called U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement a “fascist, terrorizing, and lawless paramilitary force violently enforcing a white supremacist agenda.” In another statement, the union called federal immigration enforcement agencies one of America’s “top public health threats,” adding to a string of similar declarations it made about racism, climate change, and Israeli “apartheid.”

The helping professions—occupations like therapy, social work, and nursing—have increasingly drifted from their traditional roles as carers and embraced social-justice advocacy. These fields have long leaned left and female, but the skew has recently intensified, following broader trends in academia. Progressives now vastly outnumber conservatives, creating an echo chamber that has radicalized a segment of the workforce.

In “J.D. Vance’s Iran Dilemma” The Free Press’s Eli Lake suggests, “The vice president is caught between Donald Trump and Tucker Carlson.” Vance went on Jesse Waters show last night to talk about Iran. Did he put to rest the notion that the strikes go against his long held beliefs?

Virgin Alert: Relax! He’s Going to the Other Place. Texas Primary Making GOP Nervous. Green Jim Crow. You Really MUST Read Lionel Shriver’s New Book. More

Posted on by Charlotte Hays

President Trump did it.  

President Trump launched the battle for Iran. Today is Day 3 of the joint strikes on Iran conducted by the U.S. and Israel.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is dead, which called for celebratory dancing in the streets in Iran.  “Khamenei Joins Saddam in Hell, but Iran 2026 Is Not Iraq 2003” is Niall Ferguson’s headline at The Free Press. Ferguson predicts that this war will not be a long drawn-out affair like Iraq. In an impromptu moment, a Sky News host in Australia addressed the late Ayatollah, urging, “You son of a b—h, shame on you, burn in hell!” 

Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia is not dancing for joy. “An unwise and unconstitutional attack on Iran,” Kaine says. George Will, who has nary a nice word for the current occupant of the White House, begs to differ. “At last, the credibility of U.S. deterrence is being restored” is the argument of Will’s latest. Will writes:

Some say that U.S. involvement in Iran constitutes a “war of choice.” That too casually bandied phrase rarely fits untidy reality. America’s Civil War was a choice: Lincoln chose not to heed those — they were not few — who agreed with the prominent publisher Horace Greeley. He said of the seceding Southern states, “Let the erring sisters go in peace.” Lincoln chose against such national suicide. Donald Trump’s administration has chosen not to wager U.S. safety on Iran’s abandoning its multi-decade pursuit of nuclear weapons, or on Iran’s acquiring them but not really meaning “Death to America.”

A Wall Street Journal editorial contends that it’s too soon for off ramps for Iran, while Elliot Kaufman highlights the Ayatollah’s fatal mistakes, and Seth Cropsey outlines the Trump doctrine for Iran and beyond. In contrast, many on the left weep for the Iranian theocracy. New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani also sides with the theocratic regime.

Andrew McCarthy has a piece in National Review saying that the President doesn’t have to wait until the danger to the U.S. us immanent before striking. An alternative way of expressing this might be: We don’t have to wait until it is too late. Meanwhile, the conflict has widened. Iran has hit U.S. military installations across the Middle East. Iran, however, has also hit civilian targets. There have been three Americans killed. Sending “our immense love and eternal gratitude” to the families of those killed, President Trump acknowledged that there will likely be more. The sad number of U.S. military deaths has risen to four.

The Free Press says that the Iranians who celebrated the death of the Ayatollah have now seen a glimpse of the possibility of democracy and freedom. “Thanks to President Trump, the hour of Iran’s freedom is at hand,” writes Reza Pahlevi, the eldest son of Iran’s last Shah in the Washington Post. He concludes: “God bless America. Long live Iran.” This went over like a lead balloon with frequenters of the Post’s comments, who were notably hostile.

“For Democratic [2028] contenders, Iran war presents opportunity and risk,” Examiner Chief Political Correspondent Byron York observes. A tantalizing snippet:

Fifth in the polls at the moment, Gov. Shapiro was the only Democrat to include criticism of Iran’s leadership in his statement on the war. “Make no mistake, the Iranian regime represses its own people and is the leading state sponsor of terrorism around the world,” Shapiro wrote. 

We saw another mass shooting over the weekend. Two people were killed and at least 14 others were wounded in a bar early in the morning in Austin. The shooter, who wore a hoodie and t-shirt with “Property of Allah” on it and allegedly collected fan pix of Iranian “leaders,” was killed by police. I sure hope the authorities can discern his motive.

The Eyes Are Upon Texas. A Senate primary in Texas tomorrow is “heated” and “has Republicans worried.” GOP contenders are Senator John Cornyn, state AG Ken Paxton, and U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt. Why are Republicans worried?

“Paxton puts the seat at risk,” the GOP’s main Senate campaign arm, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, wrote in a February memo. It said its internal polling showed that “Cornyn is the only Republican candidate who reliably wins a general election matchup” against either of the Democrats’ likely nominees.

Meanwhile, the Democrats’ stomach for race and gender politics is being tested in the same primary:

In the final weeks of the Senate primary race here, Rep. Jasmine Crockett has accused her Democratic opponent, James Talarico, of supporting ads that are “straight up racist” against her.

She’s called the questions about her electability in the red state a “dog whistle,” aimed at demeaning her as a Black woman and picked up the endorsement of the 2024 Senate Democratic nominee, who blasted Talarico for allegedly privately referring to him as a “mediocre Black man.”

California prides itself on being enlightened. Demographer Joel Kotlin notices an irony: the Golden State’s stringent green policies harm actual workers: 

[T]he greatest irony is that both Latinos and African Americans do worse in California than in  “unenlightened places”  like Texas and Florida.

The key difference in California has been the imposition of draconian environmental regulations, which have devastated industries like construction, manufacturing, and logistics. 

It’s what attorney Jennifer Hernandez calls “the green Jim Crow.”  

For example, Latinos constitute well over 50% of all California construction workers and the majority working in logistics, according to the American Community Survey. 

But due to regulatory constraints, construction in California has been among the weakest in the nation, making it hard to build what the market wants — namely, affordable apartments and modestly-priced single family homes. 

Latinos have been hardest hit because many are employed in the “carbon economy,” which relies on energy and has been decimated by regulatory pressures.

Ms. Must has not really kept up with Candace Owens since she accused French First Lady Brigitte Macron of being a man. Now, she is conducting a campaign against Erika Kirk, widow of slain conservative hero Charlie Kirk. USA TODAY columnist Nicole Russell has been staying abreast of Owens’s doings and is disgusted.

Axios reports that “centrist Democrats” have launched a campaign to stop AOC from being their 2028 nominee. We are reliably informed that unicorns, likely numerically superior to moderate Democrats, are also dead set against AOC.  

Alan Dershowitz’s name appeared in the Epstein files, so called. What makes him angriest is that he has not been allowed to confront his anonymous accuser, a right guaranteed by the sixth amendment.

I recently recommended Lionel Shriver’s new novel A Better Life. And lo and behold Seth Baron reviews Shriver’s “splendidly paced immigration satire” at City Journal:

In June 2023, then-mayor Eric Adams suggested a solution to the problem of tens of thousands of migrants coming to New York City to take advantage of Gotham’s absurd guarantee of shelter on demand for anyone who asked for it: private individuals could house them. In the event, the idea never came to fruition, and the city wound up leasing or buying thousands of hotel rooms instead. In the fictive world of A Better Life, Adams’s proposal is actually launched, and Gloria Bonaventura—a well-meaning, house-poor, sixty-something divorcee who lives in a rambling, restored Queen Anne with her twentysomething slacker son Nico in leafy Ditmas Park, Brooklyn—enthusiastically signs up to take in one of our “newest New Yorkers,” as just-arrived illegal aliens are routinely called (in real life, not just in the novel).

Events quickly go from bad to worse. Nico spends his days browsing anti-immigration websites and lurking around migrant welcome hubs, much to the dismay of his mother, who devotes herself to liberal good works of the “In this house, we believe” variety. Gloria lavishes attention and praise on Martine, their cheery, hardworking Honduran boarder, whose vague backstory inspires skepticism in Nico. Various insalubrious compatriots of Martine soon turn up, and eventually the menage takes on a comic/horrifying claustrophobic and surreal quality reminiscent of Buñuel (The Exterminating Angel), Polanski (The Tenant, Cul-de-Sac), Sartre (No Exit), or Beckett (Waiting for Godot, Endgame).

Delusional Mullahs & the Stakes in Iran. Dancing Frogs and F-word Part of Dem Arsenal. The Dream That Will Not Die: NYT Pushes Unverified Trump Smear in Epstein Files. More

Posted on by Charlotte Hays

President Trump faces a legacy defining decision: whether to strike Iran. The U.S. and the Islamic regime are engaging in indirect talks in Geneva. “We just need action,” say desperate Iranians back home.

A Wall Street Journal editorial is headlined “Trump and the Stakes in Iran.”  The editorial argues that, while there are reasons to strike Iran, the President has not made the case yet:

This failure is creating uncertainty even inside his Administration. Media reports Monday said that Gen. Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, is worried about the risks of striking Iran. Our sources say those stories are accurate, and the leaks suggest an effort by doubters inside the Administration to deter Mr. Trump more than Iran.

We’re also told that as of Tuesday the head of Central Command, Adm. Brad Cooper, hadn’t briefed Mr. Trump on the war plan he’s put together for Iran. The plan calls for an extensive attack on a host of Iranian regime and military targets, which is consistent with the armada Mr. Trump has assembled in the region.

Some inside the administration are proposing a delay. The Editors, however, caution against that idea:

Waiting would squander a rare opportunity to topple a regime that has terrorized the world, spread war across the Middle East, supplied Russia and China, and killed or maimed thousands of Americans.

Waiting would also damage Mr. Trump’s credibility. He told the Iranian public in January that “help is on its way,” and he didn’t say help would only arrive after the U.S. election. If he now settles for nuclear promises or symbolic strikes after having amassed so much force, Moscow and Beijing will notice. An honorable peace in Ukraine becomes harder.

There is heightened anxiety in Israel, where hospitals are conducting emergency drills and citizens are obtaining list of locations of bomb shelters. Quotable pro-attack Republican Senator Lindsey Graham says that Iran is facing its “Berlin Wall moment.” Daniel Pletka has a really magnificent piece on the Iran decision in National Review this morning.

Pletka writes that President Trump is baffled as to why Iran, facing regime annihilation by the U.S., doesn’t want to give up its nuclear ambitions:

Foreign leaders like Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the current supreme leader, don’t just dress differently and speak different languages. They live in a different reality. In their reality, Iran is a formidable power that killed scores of Americans with a strike on Iraq in 2020, downed Israeli F-35s, and killed hundreds of Israel Defense Forces troops in its 2025 strikes on Israel. Of course, these things didn’t happen, but Iran’s senior-most leaders nevertheless believe they did.

Liberation Delayed. Cuban nationals living in the United States were prevented from “infiltrating” the communist island in their Florida-registered speedboat. The Cuban government says that the people in the speedboat fired first. Cuban border agents killed four. The brother of one of the men killed described his brother, a truck driver, as pursuing an “obsessive and diabolical quest” for Cuba’s freedom. Call me crazy, but I don’t see how wanting to free Cuba could be termed “diabolical.”

“The State of the Union Is Belligerent” is Wall Street Journal politics columnist Karl Rove’s headline this morning. Rove writes:

Throughout his record number of guest introductions, the president was empathetic and personable. His remarks, delivered as written, were often moving, patriotic and unifying.

This was also the most partisan State of the Union in memory. In what may have been a first, Mr. Trump attacked his predecessor by name several times. He repeatedly condemned congressional Democrats, tried to force them to stand and applaud him, and lacerated them when they didn’t. He was spoiling for a fight.

Polling dials indicate that one of the most popular moments in the SOTU, even for Democrats, was when the President called for a ban on insider stock trading for members of Congress, calling renowned stock picker Nancy Pelosi by name.

Who Doesn’t Love a Green Frog? But let’s admit—the Dems were memorable too. “Dems Ditched American Heroes for Adults in Frog Suits and Tiresome De Niro — All we can do is Pity Them” is the headline on  Kirsten Fleming’s enjoyable piece.

[S]ome of our nation’s lawmakers chose to hang with wack jobs in inflatable frog costumes at a “State of the Swamp” event in DC, organized by the Anti-Trump organization Defiance.org.

“Tonight I defy Trump and his authoritarian project by standing in joyful, radical, peaceful resistance with the Portland Frog Brigade,” Rep. Maxine Dexter of Oregon said to the audience proudly sporting Kermit’s cousins on their heads.

“We answered with frog costumes, dancing, singing and joy when Trump wanted us to cower in fear,” she said crediting her amphibian army with keeping the National Guard out of their city.

I beg you: Do not under any circumstances miss the dancing frog pictures.

Miranda Devine writes that the Dems revealed their stance on illegal immigration and their true colors by refusing to stand during the SOTU. Lowered standards of civility are bipartisan, but the Democrats’ shocking embrace of the f-word takes it to a new level of vulgarity. Jonathan Turley has a worthy piece on Democrats’ obscenity-larded race to the bottom.

Another great Barton Swaim article. “Vance, Newsom and Tales of Want” argues that politicians who romanticize economic hardships of growing up (some more plausibly than others) don’t others to experience the hard knocks that shaped them:

The vice president fervently supports expanding almost any redistributionist program said to benefit the working class. Maybe if Mr. Vance’s ideas had obtained 30 years ago, the American economy would have shown more generosity to the working class, Mamaw would have enjoyed an income in keeping with her moral worth, and she would have had no trouble buying that calculator. But in that case, Mamaw would have had to make no sacrifice and there would have been no “Hillbilly Elegy” and thus no Vice President Vance.

Did Richard Nixon get done in by the deep state? It is an intriguing idea explored by Christopher Caldwell at the London Spectator. Unfortunately, behind the pay wall, so only lucky subscribers can get it. 

There are some other pieces I want to recommend: City Journal’s article saying that New Yorkers don’t know how much they spend on public education (more than any other state with abysmal results). … A Wall Street Journal editorial to the effect that vaccine skeptic Dr. Casey Means, who has been nominated for Surgeon General, is not the best person to restore credibility to the Department of Health and Human Services. … An editorial at the same esteemed publication predicting that the shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security is about to bite.

It is an article of faith among TDS sufferers that someday, if they just keep pushing hard, something. Somewhere in the Epstein documents will destroy Donald Trump. The New York Times, in that spirit of hope, has a story claiming that the released DOJ files included a brief mention of a woman’s unverified accusation that Trump assaulted her in the 1980s, when she was a minor. But several memos related to her account are not in the files. 

Breitbart focuses on the unverified nature of the accusation (not that others have not been ruined by unverified material in the Epstein material). The white whale for Republicans is the Clintons. Wily Mrs. Clinton is scheduled to be deposed on the Epstein matter in behind closed doors at her Chappaqua residence. Raise your hand if you think this will be a fruitful endeavor.

The State of the Union. Dems Mull: Silent Resistance or Outright Protest. War in Paradise. Gavin Newsom’s SAT. Mamdani’s Personality Transplant. Epstein Mania and Trial by Jury. More

Posted on by Charlotte Hays

President Trump tonight delivers the first State of the Union address of his second term. The President is expected to use the SOTU to assess that the United States is ‘strong, prosperous and respected’ as it enters its 250th year:

President Trump will use his State of the Union address to sell the public on the economy and unveil new measures meant to lower costs, as Republicans try to address voters’ concerns ahead of the midterm elections later this year.

The official theme of the speech, according to White House officials familiar with the draft: “America at 250: Strong, Prosperous and Respected,” a reference to the 250th anniversary of the country’s founding. The address will emphasize the idea of American exceptionalism, and the president is planning to weave in stories of Americans who say they have benefited from his policies, the officials said.

Fox Digital also looks to tonight.

Coming shortly after the Supreme Court’s ruling against the Trump tariffs, the stakes for the President could be even higher than usual.

The question for the out of power party tonight is: “‘Silent defiance’ or outright opposition? Democrats split over how to confront Trump” MS Now informs us. They tried the first and made fools of themselves last year (it was a presidential speech but not a SOTU) and thus Rep. Hakeem Jeffries is leaning towards the silent treatment this year.

Bummer. But some will boycott the SOTU and there will be an array of options outside the House chamber (where the speech is delivered):

One of those events, dubbed the “People’s State of the Union,” will take place on the National Mall beginning shortly before Trump’s speech is scheduled to begin. Sponsored by liberal activist groups, including MoveOn Civic Action, it’s set to feature a number of prominent Democrats from both chambers, including Sens. Chris Van Hollen (Md.), Ed Markey (Mass.) and Chris Murphy (Conn.), and Reps. Veronica Escobar (Texas), Pramila Jayapal (Wash.) and Greg Casar (Texas), who heads the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

Another countermessaging event, “The State of the Swamp,” will be staged at the National Press Club near the White House. That gathering is also expected to attract some high-profile Democrats, including Sen. Ron Wyden (Ore.) and Reps. Seth Moulton (Mass.), Eric Swalwell (Calif.) and Dan Goldman (N.Y.). At least two other Democrats, Reps. Jason Crow (Colo.) and Eugene Vindman (Va.), have said they will participate in the event but also attend Trump’s speech later in the evening.

And if Eugene Vindman and Dim Dan are not enough star-power, Joy Reid was touted last week as a “sober, centrist” voice at the People’s SOTU. Half dozen or so Democrats have invited Jeffrey Epstein victims to be their guests, presumably because hope springs eternal that next 3 million documents dump will bring down the President. Meanwhile, Team USA hockey star Jack Hughes says the guys are super excited to meet President Trump tonight.

Ruy Texeira of The Free Press writes that the State of the Union has been “overstated:” he argues that the speeches used to make history but are now mired in tribal warfare. Nothing Trump could say will change that. Former George W. Bush speech writer Bill McGurn makes the case for the SOTU. A White House invitation for also triumphant women’s hockey team either was not sent or was declined.

“War in Paradise” blares the New York Post cover headline. “Mexico just decapitated its most dangerous cartel. That means war,” award-winning Mexican journalist Leon Krauze writes in the Washington Post. He urges President Claudia Sheinbaum to stay the course. A piece at Unherd argues that El Mencho death shows President Trump’s growing influence in Mexico. Bloomberg says Sheinbaum has crossed her Rubicon.

More Snow. A record snowfall blankets the Northeast. In response, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani has softened his policy forbidding homeless sweeps that was responsible for 19 deaths. And there is much rejoicing because this will save lives of the poor and downtrodden? Nope, “compassionate” left wing activists are furious. 

“Tax the Rich—Or Mamdani Will Tax You All” is the headline on Nicole Gelinas’ latest City Journal piece. Galinas observes:

[T]he guy who couldn’t stop smiling last year insists the city is in crisis now. Why? He needs a crisis to push through his proposed $9 billion in annual new taxes on high earners and corporations. He wants to raise taxes for the sake of raising taxes—and the governor, who must sign off on any such increases, won’t cooperate. Last year, Mamdani wanted these tax hikes partly to pay for his universal childcare plan. Instead, the governor swiftly agreed earlier this year to fund the plan’s gradual rollout with existing state revenues.

Meanwhile, a City Counsel member warns Mamdani that his plan not to add 5,000 police will make the city less safe. Meanwhile, a mob tormented police officers during the snow emergency:

Mayor Zohran Mamdani has been blasted for fueling anti-cop hate after an unruly mob launched a “disgusting” snowball attack on NYPD officers during Monday’s blizzard.

Former Police Commissioner Bill Bratton calls upon Mamdani not to eliminate NYPD’s Strategic Response Group, which keeps protesters safe and does much more.

Police aren’t the only New Yorkers feeling undervalued by the Mayor. “’Jim Snow 2.0′: Critics blast Mamdani’s $19 snow jobs after $30 wage pledge” explains that Mamdani wants you to pay a high minimum wage from which he exempts himself. Give the kid a break—this is the first time he’s ever had to make payroll.

Dumb Like You. Ms. Must thought Andrew Stiles’ Free Beacon piece on California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s racial pandering might be satire. Nobody could be that dumb. But no. Somebodu is that dumb. CBS has a story on the pandering and Newsom’s (dumb) attempt to blame the fallout on “MAGA bigotry:”

Newsom spoke Sunday with [Atlanta Mayor Andre] Dickens in front of a packed auditorium, reflecting on his academic challenges. “I’m not trying to impress you, I’m just trying to impress upon you I’m like you, I’m not better than you,” Newsom said. “I’m a 960 SAT guy and you know, I’m not trying to offend anyone — you know — trying to act all there if you got 940 — but literally, a 960 SAT guy. You’ve never seen me read a speech because I cannot read a speech. Maybe the wrong business to be.” 

Another prominent Golden State politician has yet to make public her SAT scores but I for one would be interested.

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is a fool and a knave. But Wall Street Journal columnist Gerard Baker writes that “Even Contemptible Men Don’t Deserve Mob Justice.” The “militant wing of Epstein mania” is beginning to worry me.

Wall Street Journal columnist Walter Russell Mead writes that the tariff battles are far from over.  Limits will only inspire President Trump to for alternatives to search to increase his leverage at home and abroad. An editorial in the Wall Street Journal complains that (in the opinion of the Editorial Board) the President’s new basis for tariffs is “a relic of a bygone era.”  FedEx is suing the administration for return of tariff revenues taken so far. President Trump “smacked” the tariffs in the lead-up to tonight’s speech. National Review’s Jeffrey Blehar deduces:

Yes, tonight’s State of the Union address is probably going to be a dumpster fire, or, for that matter, a zeppelin fire. Donald Trump has already warned: “It’s going to be a long speech. Because we have a lot to talk about.” (Imagine the futility of speechwriting for Trump, knowing that a full 65 percent of your material will never be spoken, given his improvisational tendencies.)

Don’t Miss. There was a wonderful tribute to the kind of masculinity personified in the US hockey team in the Examiner. It’s headlined “The US hockey team knelt — and that is what matters.”   I don’t know as much as I should about sports, but I was blown away by this piece.