Day: December 26, 2025
Jerry Jones reveals dressing like Santa Claus for Cowboys players before Christmas Day victory over Commanders
The season may not have gone how Jerry Jones hoped for, but that didn’t stop him from dressing as Santa Claus and passing out gifts to his Dallas Cowboys.
LA Mayor Bass laments historic Latino Border Patrol recruitment surge across southern border
LA Mayor Karen Bass responded to the historic surge in Latino Border Patrol recruitment as applications jump 70%. Over half of southern agents are Hispanic.
Interior Department plans AI Theodore Roosevelt exhibit for America250
Revolutionary AI technology brings Theodore Roosevelt back to life at his North Dakota national park, letting visitors interact with the president.
Catherine Zeta-Jones, Gwyneth Paltrow’s daughters honor famous moms in 2025’s fashion full-circle moments
From Michael Douglas’ daughter Carys to Gwyneth Paltrow’s girl Apple, Hollywood nepo babies are recycling their parents’ designer looks.
New motion seeks former Colorado Clerk Tina Peters’ release, challenging state after Trump’s pardon
President Donald Trump’s pardon of former Colorado County Clerk Tina Peters is front and center in a legal battle as she remains jailed on a state conviction.
Trump casts Maduro’s ouster as ‘smart’ move as Russia, China enter the fray
China and Russia slam Trump’s Venezuela operations as Maduro faces mounting pressure from U.S. oil seizures and military strikes in Caribbean waters.
National Guard members killed in Syria attack returned to families in Iowa
Earlier this month, two National Guardsmen and an interpreter were killed after they were ambushed in Syria.
On Wednesday, the remains of the two members of the 1st Squadron, 113th Cavalry Regiment, were returned home to Iowa in a solemn Christmas Eve for their grieving families.
Both soldiers were posthumously promoted to the rank of staff sergeant.
The caskets of Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar, 25, and William Nathanial Howard, 29, were returned to Des Moines, Iowa, and greeted by their families on the tarmac.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R), U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst (R), and U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn (R) joined senior leaders of the Iowa National Guard at the transfer ceremony, according to the Associated Press.
RELATED: Trump promises ‘big damage’ after 2 National Guard soldiers killed in Syrian ambush
Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images
The soldiers’ remains were first flown to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, where President Donald Trump paid his respects and met with family members of the deceased.
The Independent reported that both soldiers were posthumously promoted to the rank of staff sergeant.
Following the attack, President Donald Trump promised “a lot of damage done to the people that did it.”
Ayad Mansoor Sakat, of Macomb, Michigan, a U.S. civilian working as an interpreter, was also killed in the attack. He was buried in Michigan over the weekend, the AP reported.
Citing the Iowa National Guard, the AP said that soldiers’ funerals will take place in the coming days.
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DOGE didn’t die — it moved to the states
The media and conservative pundits may have buried the Department of Government Efficiency, but they have yet to carve a date of death on its tombstone. While DOGE in Washington may have appeared to insiders as a vanity project, voters saw it as a mandate — one that Republicans at the federal level have largely set aside in favor of politics as usual.
But activists have not forgotten. In red states across the country, they are still demanding accountability. And in Idaho, that pressure is finally producing results.
If Idaho can succeed and follow Florida’s lead, there is no serious reason other red states cannot do the same — unless they are prepared to admit they never intended to keep their promises.
For what appears to be the first time, state legislators serving on Idaho’s DOGE Task Force concluded their 2025 work with a meeting that departed from months of cautious, procedural discussion. Members asked harder questions, voiced long-simmering frustrations, and issued a recommendation that could reshape the state’s fiscal future: urging the full legislature to consider repealing Medicaid expansion, a costly policy that has drained taxpayers of millions.
Red states can’t stall forever
Idaho may not be Florida, where Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ DOGE-style reforms have produced consistent wins for fiscal sanity and limited government. But it is doing more than other red states, such as North Dakota, where a DOGE committee stacked with Democrats predictably ignored the voters’ mandate.
The Idaho meeting exposed growing dissatisfaction with the task force’s approach. Over the summer and fall, the committee — charged with identifying inefficiencies — repeatedly deferred to state agencies for suggestions on cuts. Unsurprisingly those agencies offered little beyond cosmetic changes.
Idaho state Rep. Heather Scott (R-LD2, Blanchard) gave voice to that frustration. “What is the goal of this committee?” she asked, pressing colleagues to offer recommendations that actually matter. “Twenty thousand here, 50,000 there, or removing old code is not meaningful efficiency,” Scott said. Repealing Medicaid expansion, she argued, would be one of the “best decisions” the state could make.
Nibbling at the edges
Scott’s experience on the Idaho task force stands in stark contrast to the early federal DOGE efforts, which moved aggressively to slash U.S. Agency for International Development’s workforce, freeze fraudulent payments, and cancel billions in corrupt contracts. By comparison, Idaho’s task force had mostly nibbled at the edges. This recommendation marked its first serious step toward substantive reform.
Another revealing moment came from co-chairman state Sen. Todd Lakey (R-Nampa), who read a letter from a small-business owner offering health insurance to employees. Workers routinely request schedules capped at 20 to 28 hours per week to preserve Medicaid expansion benefits — even though full-time work would require only a modest contribution toward employer-provided coverage.
The result is a perverse incentive structure: businesses struggle to find full-time workers while taxpayers subsidize underemployment. The government fuels workforce shortages through welfare, then spends more taxpayer dollars trying to fix the shortages it created. This welfare-workforce vortex is the opposite of efficiency, and it is spreading nationwide.
The meeting’s most explosive moment came from state Rep. Josh Tanner (R-Eagle), who described Idaho’s Medicaid reimbursement structure as resembling “money laundering.”
Citing analysis from the Paragon Health Institute, Tanner explained how provider assessment fees allow states to inflate Medicaid spending to draw down larger federal matching funds, cycling the money back through enhanced payments. Paragon has described these arrangements as “legalized money laundering” — schemes that shift costs to federal taxpayers while enriching connected providers or funding unrelated priorities.
Nationally supplemental payments now exceed $110 billion annually, siphoning hundreds of billions from taxpayers over a decade.
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Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
DOGE’s second life
My sources tell me that hospital lobbyists went into panic mode after the meeting, urgently contacting Capitol officials to contain the fallout from Tanner’s remarks.
For the first time, the task force aired real frustrations, documented real harms, and named real abuses. That alone offers reason for cautious optimism.
Idaho now has committed conservatives in positions of influence. With the task force’s recommendation to revisit Medicaid expansion heading to the legislature, the state has an opportunity to govern as it campaigns — preserving liberty, restoring accountability, and expanding opportunity.
If Idaho can succeed and follow Florida’s lead, there is no serious reason other red states cannot do the same — unless they are prepared to admit they never intended to keep their promises in the first place.
‘All in’: TPUSA’s Andrew Kolvet sets sights on 2028 presidential candidate after AmFest
With the first Turning Point USA AmFest convention since Charlie Kirk’s death in September now concluded, TPUSA’s Andrew Kolvet offered his insights on the convention and the political path ahead.
Earlier this week, Kolvet told Fox News in an interview that Turning Point is “all in” for one of Charlie Kirk’s closest friends in politics.
‘Charlie was very close to the vice president and had basically endorsed him already for months beforehand.’
“We’re all in behind Vice President JD Vance. Charlie considered him a generational talent and somebody that could lead this nation forward,” Kolvet, executive producer of “The Charlie Kirk Show,” said.
Kolvet remarked that it was almost natural for the organization to support JD Vance given Charlie Kirk’s relationship with him. “Charlie was very close to the vice president and had basically endorsed him already for months beforehand. It was no surprise for us. It was no surprise for those who were close to us.”
RELATED: TPUSA straw poll shows dominant front-runner for 2028 nomination
Turning Point CEO Erika Kirk announced her endorsement of JD Vance during her speech at America Fest on the first day of the convention.
“We’re gonna ensure that President Trump has Congress for all four years,” she said. “We are going to get my husband’s friend JD Vance, elected for 48 in the most resounding way possible!”
Andrew Kolvet reiterated the organization’s support for the vice president while urging people to stay focused on the present: “We’re very happy for the here and now, so we’re going to let the next year play out, but heading into 2028, we’re excited to get behind him. And the machine that Charlie built and that’s still in place at Turning Point is going to be all in for the vice president.”
Vice President JD Vance gave a speech on unity on the last day of the convention, refusing to condemn dissident voices despite loud demands within the conservative movement.
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Debate: Can JD Vance become the right’s great unifier — or does his VP role stand in the way?
The young conservative movement is experiencing a notable leadership gap amid ongoing chaos in the online right-wing space. Sure, there are passionate influencers and rising political voices, but no one has fully stepped up to unify and guide the broader coalition with a commanding presence.
One person investigative journalist and BlazeTV host Christopher Rufo thinks might be able to step into the role, however, is Vice President JD Vance. But Rufo’s co-host Jonathan Keeperman isn’t sure Vance is up for the job either.
In this episode of “Rufo & Lomez,” the hosts debate whether JD Vance can step up as the unifying leader the conservative movement needs amid escalating chaos.
“I’ve been so far a bit surprised that the vice president hasn’t tried to step into this role,” says Rufo, arguing that Vance has both the “charisma” and the “authority” to effectively lead the movement.
“I’ve known JD over the years. … It does feel like he has some hesitation or maybe even some fear,” he adds.
While Keeperman agrees that Vance “has all of the tools and charisma and … the right talking points” to be an excellent leader, his role as the vice president would actually be a hindrance.
“I don’t think JD Vance should actually do that in his vice presidential position. Not right now. I think it’d be a bit presumptuous. I think people might kind of see it as him stepping in to sort of correct a situation that I think needs to just happen organically,” he counters.
For one, Vance’s position prohibits him from “[speaking] candidly about the administration.”
“Whoever is going to step into this role has to feel credible to this audience, and part of that credibility is going to come from just speaking honestly about all of these different things happening in this ecosystem — whether it’s the different personalities, the ideas, the sort of ideology that’s animating Trump but also the specific actions that the Trump administration is taking,” Keeperman explains.
In other words, the kind of leader people will follow needs to be an outsider who can speak brutal truths about the current administration, and Vance, as Trump’s right-hand man, can’t be that person.
Secondly, President Trump is still the top dog, Keeperman explains. For his VP to assume the authority of this role as the leader of the conservative movement “might not sit well inside of this coalition.”
“Maybe you’re right,” Rufo concedes. “We need some sort of native figure to step up in the same way that Charlie Kirk did, in the same way that Tucker had done.”
To hear more of the conversation, watch the episode above.
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