Friday, July 18, 2025

07/18 Links Pt1: Syria’s new dawn is already a nightmare; Biden admin used $900m to fund terror, anti-Netanyahu protests; How Congress Can Finish Off Iran

From Ian:

Andrew Fox: Syria’s new dawn is already a nightmare
Israel’s actions also reflect a broader strategic purpose. Its strikes near Damascus were initially seen as a ‘performative escalation’ – warning shots rather than conclusive strikes. The aim is deterrence: to signal to President Sharaa that any attempt to unify Syria by force, especially by moving armed units into the south, will be met with Israeli firepower.

Some observers argue that Israel simply prefers a weak and divided Syria. By attacking Sharaa’s forces, Israel limits the new regime’s ability to establish control. However, regardless of Israel’s motivation – a mix of realpolitik and solidarity with the Druze – the fact remains that Israeli airstrikes probably saved many Druze lives this week by stopping the advance of sectarian killers.

Israel at least seems to understand what kind of regime it is dealing with in Syria. The contrast with the UK here could hardly be more stark. Barely two weeks before the Sweida massacre, UK foreign secretary David Lammy was in Damascus, shaking hands with President Sharaa and pledging £94.5million in aid to support Syria’s ‘long-term recovery’. With great fanfare, the UK re-established diplomatic ties with Syria after 14 years. Lammy spoke of ‘renewed hope’ and an ‘inclusive and representative’ transition.

Washington has been equally eager to embrace Syria’s post-Assad regime. US president Donald Trump lifted sanctions on Syria in June, and even praised Sharaa as an ‘attractive, tough guy’. He also floated the idea of Syria joining an expanded Abraham Accords peace framework, therefore recognising Israel. The logic was simple: bring Syria in from the cold, peel it away from Iran’s orbit, and declare the 14-year civil war resolved.

That aspiration is now in tatters. The massacres of Druze and Alawites cast grave doubt on the new Syrian government’s credibility and intentions. For all the talk of a fresh start, Syria’s interim rulers have shown a grim continuity with the past: intolerance of dissent, reliance on sectarian militias and a propensity for violence. The West’s willingness to overlook HTS’s jihadist pedigree in exchange for a quick diplomatic win now looks not just cynical, but also dangerously naïve.

Sharaa’s cabinet is literally teeming with individuals and factions under terrorism and human-rights sanctions. Did London and Washington really believe such actors would morph overnight into guarantors of pluralism and human rights? With scattered revenge killings of regime loyalists, crackdowns on minority communities, early signs of trouble were already there, but many Western policymakers and media outlets downplayed them. The result is that Western nations are now awkwardly complicit. British aid and American rapprochement have effectively helped legitimise a government whose associates have now butchered over a thousand men, women and children based on their sect. How will these same leaders credibly condemn atrocities elsewhere when they stayed mum on Syria’s? It is a staggering moral failure.

These events have sobering implications. Regionally, Syria’s ‘new dawn’ is revealing itself as just another nightmare. And far from unifying the country, Sharaa’s reliance on hard-line Islamist forces is deepening its fractures. The Druze, long wary of both Assad and Sunni extremism, may now conclude that they have no place in the new Syria, potentially sparking an exodus or armed self-defence. The Alawites, who already feel betrayed and endangered, could turn to desperate measures, perhaps even inviting foreign protection or forming insurgencies. Sectarian bloodshed on this scale risks reigniting a cycle of vengeance that could unravel the fragile peace achieved. In Lebanon next door, where Druze and Alawite communities also exist, the spillover of sectarian tensions is an ominous possibility. Israel’s direct strikes on Damascus also mark a dangerous escalation, and serve as a reminder that Syria’s war can at any moment ignite regional conflagration.

As the Druze and Alawite tragedies have shown, there is nothing ‘inclusive’ or ‘reformed’ about Sharaa’s new regime.
Arsen Ostrovsky: The massacre of the Druze is a moral test: Israel acted, the world failed
The Druze are a small but proud religious and ethnic minority in the Middle East, numbering around one million, primarily in Syria, Lebanon, and northern Israel. In Israel, they are an integral and cherished part of our society. They serve in the military, hold senior positions in government, and have long stood shoulder to shoulder with the Jewish people in defending the state, including fighting in Gaza, after the October 7 massacre by Hamas. They are our brothers-in-arms.

But in Syria, the Druze are now at a perilous crossroad. After more than a decade of civil war, economic collapse, betrayal and hardship, the Druze in the southern Syrian city of Sweida, home to the country's largest Druze community, sought to peacefully protest for their basic rights, dignity, and freedom.

And for that, they are now in the regime’s crosshairs. What started with attacks by Bedouin forces against the Druze escalated when government forces entered Sweida, supposedly to oversee a ceasefire. But according to media reports and eye witnesses, the Syrian soldiers, recognisable by their uniforms and military insignia, joined the Bedouins and murdered Druze on the streets and in their homes.

Sickening videos have also emerged of thugs forcibly shaving the beards of Druze men, a calculated act of religious humiliation. Such outrages against personal dignity, particularly acts of humiliating and degrading treatment, constitute clear violations of international law and the Geneva Conventions.

For the Jewish people, this evokes a chilling reminder of one of the darkest chapters in our history, when Nazis similarly sought to strip Jewish men of their dignity and faith by publicly shaving their beards and humiliating them in public. This is not just repression, it is dehumanisation.

And as the world largely stood by – silent, or offering little more than empty words and meek statements of concern – while Druze were massacred in Sweida, I am proud that Israel did not turn its back. The Jewish state showed courage, conviction and leadership, to step in with military force against the Syrian regime, to help defend our Druze brothers.

For Israel, the bond with the Druze is not abstract. It is deeply personal. Their loyalty has never wavered. Nor can ours now.

The Druze have also stood for moderation, coexistence, and resistance to extremism. In a region overrun by Iranian proxies, jihadist militias, and failed regimes, the Druze offer a rare glimmer of hope.

This is not only about doing the right thing and protecting a vulnerable minority. Supporting the Druze is a moral imperative. Meantime, the international community cannot continue treating President al-Sharra as a legitimate partner on the world stage or welcome Syria into the Abraham Accords, while turning a blind eye to the atrocities that are being committing in Sweida.

It is not enough for al-Sharra to issue vague condemnations or deflect blame onto so-called “outlaw groups.” Even if he did not give the orders, these atrocities are unfolding on his watch, under his authority, carried out by forces loyal to his regime – and reportedly by his own troops.

There must be accountability.

If al-Sharra wishes to be seen as a credible leader or statesman, he must demonstrate it – not with empty rhetoric, but through decisive action. That begins with reining in these jihadist thugs, whether they are merely aligned with his regime or, worse, operating within it.

The Druze of Sweida are not pleading for your sympathy, they are demanding their inalienable right to live in peace and dignity, with full civil rights. What happens next will reveal whether the international community truly seeks a new Syria, or will continue rewarding tyranny with silence. For Israel however, silence was simply not an option.
How Congress Can Finish Off Iran
With the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program damaged, and its regional influence diminished, the U.S. must now prevent it from recovering, and, if possible, weaken it further. Benjamin Baird argues that it can do both through economic means—if Congress does its part:

Legislation that codifies President Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure” policies into law, places sanctions on Iran’s energy sales, and designates the regime’s proxy armies as foreign terrorist organizations will go a long way toward containing Iran’s regime and encouraging its downfall. . . . Congress has already introduced much of the legislation needed to bring the ayatollah to his knees, and committee chairmen need only hold markup hearings to advance these bills and send them to the House and Senate floors.

They should start with the HR 2614—the Maximum Support Act. What the Iranian people truly need to overcome the regime is protection from the state security apparatus.

Next, Congress must get to work dismantling Iran’s proxy army in Iraq. By sanctioning and designating a list of 29 Iran-backed Iraqi militias through the Florida representative Greg Steube’s Iranian Terror Prevention Act, the U.S. can shut down . . . groups like the Badr Organization and Kataib Hizballah, which are part of the Iranian-sponsored armed groups responsible for killing hundreds of American service members.

Those same militias are almost certainly responsible for a series of drone attacks on oilfields in Iraq over the past few days


Biden admin let $900m in federal funds go to terror, anti-Netanyahu protests, House panel says
The U.S. Agency for International Development, U.S. State Department and other federal agencies under the Biden administration failed to prevent nonprofits from using more than $900 million in taxpayer funds to oppose Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and to support terror groups, according to the House Judiciary Committee.

On Thursday, the committee released a memo based on 380 documents it received in a probe of six nonprofits: Blue White Future, Movement for Quality Government in Israel, PEF Israel Endowment Funds, Jewish Communal Fund, Middle East Peace Dialogue Network and Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.

According to the House panel, PEF Israel Endowment Funds sent more than $884 million “to groups involved in anti-democracy protests in Israel,” and Jewish Communal Fund allocated more than $42.8 million to groups that fund an organizer of anti-judicial reform.

Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors “likely” used parts of $20 million in federal grants to fund protests against Netanyahu in Israel, and the Middle East Peace Dialogue Network “may” be violating its nonprofit status due to its funding of “anti-democracy protests in Israel,” according to the House committee.

The panel added that “the Biden-Harris administration provided U.S. government funding to terrorist-linked NGOs.”



According to the memo, federal funds flowed to Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, which funded PEF Israel Endowment Funds, which in turn distributed monies to Blue White Future, which the House committee describes as a “radical anti-Netanyahu organization.”

“The committee’s oversight shows that Blue White Future, a key player in the anti-Netanyahu protests, may have been a downstream recipient of U.S. grant funding,” the memo states.

The House panel noted that “the fungibility of money—the ability to easily replace one set of funds with another set of funds of equal value—suggests that PEF donations may have included funding that originated with the U.S. government.”

“More broadly, when an NGO receives government funding for a project, it can use the money previously earmarked for that project on something else which it would have otherwise not been able to fund,” it states.
U.S. Taxpayer Dollars Helped Fuel Anti-Netanyahu Protests in Israel and Fund Terror-Linked NGOs
U.S. Funds Reached Anti-Government Protest Leaders in Israel
The Israeli NGO Blue White Future (BWF), a major organizer of protests against Prime Minister Netanyahu’s judicial reform, received $22 million in 2023—$18M from the PEF Israel Endowment Funds and $4M from the Middle East Peace Dialogue Network (MEPDN). PEF itself received federal funds via Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors (RPA), a direct recipient of over $50 million in U.S. grants. BWF leaders called Israel’s elected government a "dictatorship" and openly coordinated the protest coalition's headquarters.

Under Israeli law, BWF’s actions may violate nonprofit guidelines by engaging in overt political activity

U.S. State Department Funded Radical Curriculum in Israeli High Schools
The NGO Movement for Quality Government in Israel (MQG), another protest leader, received $42,000 from the U.S. State Department to run “Civic Activism Training” in Jerusalem high schools. MQG has called for “civil war” and legally challenged the Netanyahu government—including petitions to bar elected officials from office. MQG was pushing anti-Zionist, secular, post-nationalist values onto religious students, likening its curriculum to American-style Critical Race Theory.

$884 Million in U.S.-Based Funding to Israeli Protest-Linked Groups

From 2021 to 2024, PEF Israel Endowment Funds distributed nearly $884 million to over 1,000 Israeli organizations, including protest participants like MQG, Physicians for Human Rights Israel, and Darkenu. PEF moved funds through donor-advised funds (DAFs), which obscure final recipients but include at least $187,000 in federal grant funding via RPA. IRS law prohibits 501(c)(3) organizations like PEF from engaging in foreign political activity, yet the evidence points to clear coordination.

Jewish Communal Fund Channeled $42.8 Million to Protest Networks
The Jewish Communal Fund (JCF) contributed $41.2 million to PEF and $1.67 million to MEPDN, both top funders of BWF. Though JCF denies receiving direct U.S. government funding, it accepted DAF contributions from PEF, which did. JCF also funds U.S. political groups like the ACLU and the Obama Foundation, raising further questions about its use of charitable exemptions while financing foreign political activity.

Middle East Peace Dialogue Network Operated a Parallel Protest Network
MEPDN not only donated to BWF but also backed other protest groups, including “Have You Seen the Horizon Lately (HYSHL),” which worked to mobilize Israel’s Arab citizens against the Netanyahu government. HYSHL co-organized the "Dead Class Citizens" campaign with Qadaya, a project of the Arab Center for Alternative Planning, and launched a propaganda campaign labeling judicial reform a “regime coup.” MEPDN received $870,500 from JCF’s DAFs during this time.

Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors Linked to Protest and Terror Funding
RPA, a recipient of over $50 million in U.S. grants, gave $187,000 to PEF and $557,000 to its partner, Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF). RBF in turn donated hundreds of thousands to the New Israel Fund, Brothers and Sisters in Arms, and other protest-driving NGOs. RPA’s refusal to fully disclose its use of government money raises red flags over potential legal violations.

U.S. Funds Reached Terror-Tied NGOs
The investigation revealed U.S. taxpayer funds reached Bayader, a Gaza-based group that coordinated with Hamas, just days before the October 7 attacks. Similarly, USAID has long supported ANERA, despite longstanding allegations that it funds Palestinian Islamic Jihad activities and extremist kindergartens. Other NGOs receiving U.S. funds include:
- Unlimited Friends Association (UFA): Pays families of terrorists and publishes antisemitic content.
- Palestine Children's Relief Fund (PCRF): Operates in Hamas-controlled hospitals; omits funding disclosures.
- Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCI-P): Tied to the PFLP terror group.
- Samidoun, sponsored by Alliance for Global Justice, celebrated the October 7 massacre and led U.S. college protests.


Time To End UN’s Anti-Israel and Anti-American Commission of Inquiry
All three members of a notoriously anti-Israel and anti-American UN commission resigned in recent days. While a welcome first step, the resignations only take effect after another three months. In addition, the commission framework itself remains in place, with an irredeemably biased mandate, multi-million dollar budget, and large staff. The UN has already begun soliciting nominations for replacement commissioners, with no indication that the new ones will be less biased. Commission Has Endangered U.S. National Security

The commission has, in the process of defaming Israel, misinterpreted and misapplied international law in a manner that impedes the ability of the United States and its NATO allies to defend themselves against terrorism. For example, by ignoring Hamas’ rampant use of human shields, which is itself a war crime, and instead using the resultant civilian casualties to falsely accuse Israel of war crimes, the commission has incentivized the continued use of human shields by Russia, ISIS, and the Taliban.

Resignations Have Delayed Effect
Formally known as the “Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel,” the commission has had the same three members since its founding in 2021: Navi Pillay (the chair), Miloon Kothari, and Chris Sidoti. Pillay and Sidoti resigned effective November 3; Kothari resigned effective October 31.

The resolution establishing the commission requires it to submit a report to the General Assembly, which it has done each September. Sidoti’s resignation letter implied that the commissioners plan to issue such a report again this September, noting that his resignation will take effect “at the completion of the Commission’s reporting program for 2025.” The commissioners seem likely to issue a parting report containing even more egregious falsehoods than in the past.

Resignation’s Connection to Albanese Sanctions
The commissioners’ resignations were announced five days after the United States imposed sanctions on Francesca Albanese, a UN Special Rapporteur for Palestinian rights who was similarly notorious for anti-Israel bias, pursuant to Executive Order 14203, “Imposing Sanctions on the International Criminal Court.” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio explained that Albanese had “directly engaged” with the ICC’s efforts to target U.S. and Israeli citizens notwithstanding that both countries had refused to subject themselves to ICC jurisdiction.

The commissioners, and indeed the commission itself, could be sanctioned pursuant to the same executive order, since the commission has, under their leadership, collected “evidence” for use against Israeli officials and provided it to the ICC prosecutor.

Egregiously Biased Commissioners
The three commissioners demonstrated blatant anti-Israel bias before their 2021 appointments and have continued to do so while in office. For example, Pillay in 2020 publicly urged governments to “Sanction Apartheid Israel!” In June 2022, during an official proceeding, Sidoti accused Jews of throwing around accusations of antisemitism “like rice at a wedding.” In July 2022, Kothari denounced the “Jewish lobby,” which he claimed controls “social media” and has “thrown” around “a lot of money” to discredit him and his fellow commissioners. Two senior U.S. diplomats both called Kothari’s comments “antisemitic” as well as “outrageous, inappropriate, and corrosive.”

The commissioners’ prejudicial statements prior to their appointments, and their blatantly biased comments and publications while in office, mean that both their appointments and their service were contrary to UN ethics rules, which mandate impartiality, objectivity, and professionalism.


Syria's Forgotten Minority—Why the Druze Deserve Our Protection and Attention
As an Israeli Druze woman serving as a minister at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., I feel compelled to share what is happening to my people in Suwayda, Syria.

The Druze of Syria, the largest concentration of Druze in the Middle East, numbering more than 700,000 people, are facing a brutal and systematic assault. Despite their relatively small numbers, the Syrian Druze played a foundational role in shaping modern Syria, just as we play a significant role in Israel.

They led the Great Syrian Revolt against French colonial rule, fighting for liberalism, the rule of law, and human rights for all. This religious minority known for its dignity, neutrality, resiliency, and peaceful resistance is now being targeted by Jihadi militias supported by the Syrian regime, with tanks artillery, and heavy weapons.

As a human being I am watching history repeat itself—in real time—through the footage of this horrendous ethnic cleansing.

The atrocities of October 7 in Israel did not occur in a vacuum.

We have warned the world for years about this growing wave of radical extremism. It has targeted the Yazidis in Iraq, the Alawites in Syria, Christians across the Levant—and now, it is butchering innocent Druze civilians: women, children, and the elderly.

Homes are being shelled, families displaced, hospitals are being bombed, and religious sites and symbols desecrated, led by the Syrian regime with the blessing of President Abu Mohammad al-Jolani. And yet once again—the world has remained largely silent in the face of the genocide taking place against my people.

Let me be clear: The Suwayda massacre is not an internal Syrian issue.


Call me Back Podcast: A Political Reckoning for Netanyahu - with Nadav Eyal and Amit Segal
On Monday, the three Haredi parties in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition were presented with a draft of a new Haredi conscription bill, which they say did not satisfy their demands for military exemption for Haredi youth.

This led two of the parties, Degel HaTorah and Agudat Yisrael, to leave Netanyahu’s government on Monday, bringing the coalition down from 68 to 61 seats, which is the smallest possible majority in the 120 seat Knesset. On Wednesday, Shas, another Haredi party, announced its resignation from the government, but not from the coalition, leaving the coalition’s majority at an extremely thin margin.

In other news, over the past couple days, the new Syrian government led by Ahmed el-Sharaa, has been working alongside local Bedouin tribes to violently target Syria’s southern Druze community. This has prompted around 1,000 Israeli Druze to breach the Israel-Syria border in an effort to join their brothers and sisters’ struggle. In response to the Syrian government’s actions, Israel launched a series of airstrikes targeting military infrastructure in Damascus.

To unpack the developments taking place in Netanyahu’s government, as well as the chaos unfolding in Syria, we were joined by Call me Back contributors Nadav Eyal and Amit Segal.

00:00 Introduction
03:58 Israel’s system and current composition
10:00 What are the parties negotiating?
18:18 Haredi conscription in the IDF
24:54 Why did the ultra-Orthodox parties resign?
31:32 What are Netanyahu’s options?
40:29 What does this mean for a hostage deal?
43:30 Crisis in Syria
54:11 Outro


Israeli journalist tears apart viral New York Times story
Israel is fighting not just against Hamas, Hezbollah or Iran, but against an entrenched media machine and deep state actors manipulating global perception.

This week, host Danny Seaman is joined by Rachel Berger-Schechter, a sharp-witted attorney and political commentator, for a fearless takedown of The New York Times’ latest so-called “investigation.” Together, they dismantle the false narratives being spread by Western media and the Israeli political opposition.

Key revelations include leaked Hamas documents found in Gaza's terror tunnels, showing how Sinwar orchestrated the Oct. 7th, 2023 massacre to prevent his own ousting and how Hamas deliberately uses Israeli media to destabilize the country from within. Berger-Schechter also shares shocking details of selective prosecution by Israel’s legal establishment, media bias and the ideological war threatening the very identity of the Jewish state.

Topics also covered:
How Western media outlets, including The New York Times, serve Hamas’s narrative
Selective prosecution of pro-Israel whistleblowers vs. impunity for anti-government leaks
Deep state influence, judicial manipulation and media monopolies in Israel
The urgent need for Israel to embrace its Jewish identity in a global war of civilizations
What’s really at stake: national unity, victory over terror and the soul of the Jewish state

Chapters
00:00 Understanding the October 7th Attack on Israel
09:47 Media Manipulation and Psychological Warfare
15:10 Political Motivations Behind Leaks and Prosecutions
20:10 The Identity Crisis in Israel
30:44 Embracing Jewish Identity in Times of Conflict




Josh Hammer: Why Tucker Carlson Is Fixated on Jeffrey Epstein
We saw a very similar dynamic play out in last month’s Israel-Iran war—the “12-Day War,” as Trump calls it. There too, many figures purporting to speak for MAGA—with Carlson again leading the charge—vehemently protested U.S. involvement both before and after Trump’s decision to send in the B-2 bombers. But credible polling showed, at the time, that 94 percent of self-identified “MAGA Republicans” supported Trump’s decision to devastate the Iranian nuclear program with quick, surgical strikes—without suffering a single American casualty. I made this point during Sunday’s debate on Israel and U.S. foreign policy at Turning Point’s Student Action Summit in Tampa.

There are some key differences between the politics of the strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities and the Epstein saga. The Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein ordeal absolutely leaves crucial unanswered questions and much to be desired, and Republicans’ approval rating of Trump’s handling of the issue is barely above water in a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll. Still, for all the circular firing squad’s fiery condemnations we’ve seen from within the political right, more Republicans do approve than disapprove of the administration’s handling of this matter. Yet again, then, it seems the hysterics are the ones out of touch with the MAGA base.

Most Trump voters, it turns out, care first and foremost about the substantive issues that affect their everyday lives: the economy, job creation, inflation, immigration, crime and public safety, global stability, and so forth. They care considerably less about the sort of salacious soap-opera fare that seems to so entice the online masses. Nor, furthermore, do most Trump voters appreciate their favorite talking heads accusing their favorite president and favorite administration of being complicit in the deliberate cover-up of an abhorrent pedophile and sex-trafficking ring—maybe even at the behest of “forces bigger than the U.S. government” or “Mossad.”

The fact is, not every partially unexplained thing demands an extraordinary explanation. And not every mishandled Justice Department rollout requires ascribing blame to shadowy foreign intelligence services and accusing the president of the United States of being, wittingly or unwittingly, a tool of a Protocols of the Elders of Zion–style cabal.

Occam’s razor, after all, is still a thing: It is entirely possible—perhaps likely—that Epstein was just a sick, evil, wealthy man acting on his own for self-serving reasons. Maybe there is indeed something more here than meets the eye, but there is simply no firm evidence—none—to substantiate such speculation at this time. And idle speculation, absent anything whatsoever concrete to back it up, no matter how confidently such speculation may be presented, is irresponsible at best and sinister at worst.

Outrage clicks and downloads are undoubtedly part of the story. For those fixated on the Epstein story, it has all the makings of a blockbuster: sex, money, the “deep state,” palace intrigue, cover-ups, Jews, and more. And they spread these narratives with remarkable efficiency.

Only by zooming out can we begin to see what is actually going on here. A piece published this week at The American Conservative website, with the headline “MAGA vs. Ultra-MAGA,” provides a clue. The piece argues that Trump, through his involvement in the 12-Day War, his changed position on Ukraine, and his complicity in the Epstein “cover-up,” has irrevocably betrayed the very MAGA movement he purports to lead. It is now incumbent upon the remnant of those true believers, who we might call “ultra-MAGA,” to preserve the movement (whatever that may mean).

Hold aside, for now, that this is a laughable misreading of what is actually happening. Trump’s general worldview—that of an American nationalist and sober-minded realist who eschews ideological fixations of all stripes—hasn’t changed one iota since his fateful descent down the Trump Tower escalator a decade ago. There has been no grand Trumpian “betrayal” of his followers. Rather, what is happening is that the Tucker Carlsons of the American right have a very different conception of MAGA and “America First” than Trump himself.

The goal, which seems increasingly obvious, is to fracture the political right into pro-Trump MAGA and Trump-skeptical/anti-Trump “ultra-MAGA,” in order to allow a new presidential lane to emerge in 2028—perhaps within the folds of the Republican Party, or Elon Musk’s new “America Party,” or some other vehicle. And who might be the standard-bearer for that new anti-Trump, anti-American movement?

One man seems far likelier than anyone else: Tucker Carlson himself.


Trump Can Unmask the Protest Class
Lawmakers in red and blue states alike have introduced antimasking bills tailored to today’s protest landscape. But state action alone won’t solve the problem—especially when the worst offenses increasingly take place on federal property or involve interference with federal officers. That’s where President Trump comes in. He should order the following three steps:

First, the Justice Department should direct federal prosecutors to pursue enhanced sentences for masked criminals. Federal guidelines allow sentencing enhancements for obstruction of justice or premeditated conduct. A masked assault can lead to a two-level sentence increase, making it more likely that violent offenders serve real time.

Second, the Homeland Security Department should deploy Federal Protective Service officers to respond to masked protesters on federal property. DHS is already empowered to secure federal buildings and grounds. New regulations prohibit the use of masks to avoid identification while breaking the law on federal property. That authority now needs to be enforced aggressively.

Finally, the administration should make prosecution of federal crimes committed by masked offenders a priority. These offenses include assaulting a federalized National Guard member and damaging federal property. They already are federal crimes, but the added presence of a mask should be treated as a red flag and an aggravating factor. Prosecutors should move swiftly and law enforcement should make arrests public.

These measures wouldn’t criminalize protest, chill dissent or limit protected speech. They would send a clear signal: If you hide behind a mask to commit a crime or intimidate others, the federal government will hold you accountable.

Americans have every right to protest their government, but not to do so anonymously while terrorizing others and flouting the law. We aren’t talking about masking for medical, religious or occupational purposes, but mobs in balaclavas and keffiyehs blocking streets, harassing Jews, and daring law enforcement to stop them. No society should tolerate that.




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This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For 20 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

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