Category: Blaze Media
Bessent delivers bad news to Somalis on welfare: No more wire transfers to the homeland
U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent revealed on Thursday that the Trump administration is clamping down on extra-national remittances by individuals exploiting public assistance.
The announcement, which comes on the heels of a series of damning revelations about fraud committed by Somalis in Minnesota, could prove impactful for the crime-ridden Islamic nation of Somalia.
After all, members of the Somali diaspora sent $2.12 billion in remittances home in 2024 alone. The loss of the American portion of this funding stream would not go unnoticed for a failed nation with a GDP in the neighborhood of $12 billion.
‘Our generosity has been taken advantage of.’
Bessent, who is also the acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham, “We are here to follow the money because that’s what Treasury does.”
“We did it with the mafia, we have done it with the cartels, and now we are going to do it with these Somali fraudsters,” continued Bessent. “Treasury has something called FinCEN, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, and we are coming in.”
Bessent indicated that the agency is launching four investigations into money-service businesses “that we believe may have wired money out of the country — a lot of the ill-gotten, stolen money — over to the Middle East, over to Somalia. We’ll see where that’s going.”
Photographer: Ben Brewer/Bloomberg via Getty Images
As part of the crackdown, Bessent indicated that FinCEN will be issuing a Geographic Targeting Order, an order that imposes new identification and record-keeping requirements pertaining to transactions within a certain region, and engaging in “enhanced surveillance.”
“There’s something called a Suspicious Activity Report if a certain amount of money gets wired,” added Bessent.
According to guidance released in October by FinCEN, financial institutions are required to “file a SAR if the institution knows, suspects, or has reason to suspect that the transaction or series of transactions are designed to evade [currency transaction reporting] requirements.”
After Ingraham suggested the threshold was $10,000, Bessent said, “We’re lowering that to $3,000.”
In addition to significantly lowering the threshold for a SAR, Bessent said that “from now on, anyone who wires money out from one of these money-service businesses has to check a box saying whether they are on public assistance.”
“If you are on public assistance, we are going to start pushing that you cannot wire money out of the country,” added Bessent.
“Our generosity has been taken advantage of.”
The treasury secretary further suggested that if a so-called asylum seeker is wiring money out of the country, “one of two things must be true: You are getting too much money and your benefits should be cut, or you are part of this conspiracy.”
Days before President Donald Trump announced the termination of the Temporary Protected Status designation for Somalia, BlazeTV host Christopher Rufo and investigative reporter Ryan Thorpe detailed the alleged direction of stolen taxpayer funds by Somalis in America to terrorists abroad.
According to the duo’s City Journal report, federal counterterrorism sources confirmed “that millions of dollars in stolen funds have been sent back to Somalia, where they ultimately landed in the hands of the terror group Al-Shabaab.”
Al-Shabaab is a Somalia-based, Al-Qaeda-linked terrorist organization committed to waging a global jihad.
One confidential source told Rufo and Thorpe that “the largest funder of Al-Shabaab is the Minnesota taxpayer.”
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Ted Cruz pelted with insane AI memes as X bans unpaid users from editing pics with Grok
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) can thank his own legislation for putting a stop to deepfakes on Grok and X.
Cruz introduced the Take It Down Act in early 2025, aimed at stopping online publication of “intimate visual depictions of individuals,” both authentic and computer-generated.
‘These unlawful images … should be taken down and guardrails should be put in place.’
According to the BBC, an usual trend of asking xAI tool Grok to artificially remove people’s clothing from their photos has permeated across the website and has even extended to victimizing children, according to the Guardian.
In response, X owner Elon Musk announced consequences for anyone inappropriately uploading content.
“Anyone using Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content,” Musk wrote.
X’s safety team followed suit, saying it would take action against “illegal content,” including permanently suspending accounts and working with law enforcement.
When Cruz made note of the unlawful images and praised X for addressing the issue, he was hit with a string of bizarre attempts to use Grok against him.
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“These unlawful images … should be taken down and guardrails should be put in place,” Cruz wrote.
What followed were remarks like users asking Grok to put “Ted Cruz on his knees” in front of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; in this case, Grok obliged.
Other obvious violations of the Take It Down Act included generated photos of Cruz naked, photos of body parts in his mouth, and multiple AI photos of him wearing a dress, sometimes while wearing a yarmulke.
One user even posted an AI video of Cruz saying he was upset with Tucker Carlson for not wanting to date him.
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Photo by Alex Slitz/Getty Images
On January 6, however, Cruz himself posted an AI-generated video regarding “Trump’s Venezuela Magic,” which showed President Trump making former Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro magically appear onstage.
Despite others taking issue with his own usage of AI generation, Cruz’s post is unlikely to be against his own drafted bill because it does not contain “intimate visual depictions.”
Additionally Variety reported that X has now limited AI image editing to paid users only.
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has rung alarm bells over the controversy, advocating for “all options to be on the table” in terms of legal punishment and a possible ban of the platform.
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Career criminal with over 20-year-long rap sheet reportedly gets sweetheart plea deal — now a beloved teacher is dead
A career criminal killed a beloved North Carolina teacher in a horrific home invasion, according to police — and new reports suggest the suspect previously received a sweetheart plea deal that allowed him back on the streets.
The Raleigh Police Department said in a statement that officers responded to a report of a burglary just after 6:30 a.m. Jan. 3.
‘It was like a horror movie.’
Police said the victim — 57-year-old Zoe Welsh — indicated a man was inside her home.
“While still on the phone with dispatch, the suspect began to assault her,” police stated.
Police said Welsh was suffering from life-threatening injuries when officers arrived at her home. However, Welsh later died at a hospital.
Officers arrested 36-year-old Ryan Camacho, and he was taken into custody without incident.
Camacho was charged with murder and felony burglary. He was denied bond and is being detained at the Wake County Detention Center.
Raleigh Police Chief Rico Boyce said of Welsh, “I am deeply heartbroken for this mother, friend, and mentor to many in our community, and for the unimaginable trauma her family must endure.”
Boyce added, “The arrest of the suspect sends a strong message that criminal acts will not be tolerated in the city of Raleigh.”
This investigation remains ongoing.
Welsh had taught AP biology and forensic science at Ravenscroft School in Raleigh since 2006, a school spokesperson told WTVD-TV.
“Her loss is deeply felt by all of us who had the privilege of working with her and learning in her classroom,” the school spokesperson said.
Calysa Sauls, one of Welsh’s former students, told WRAL-TV, “She really cared for her students. She definitely was one of those teachers who was passionate about the subject that she taught.”
Olivia Alvarez — Welsh’s house cleaner for years — added to WTVD, “I’ll remember her smile; she was always happy.”
Alvarez added, “I love you, Zoe, so much, you are now with God, and this man is going to pay, he’s going to pay.”
North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein (D) wrote, “Zoe Welsh, by all accounts, was a special teacher and person. My heart goes out to her family and students, who have suffered a traumatic loss from another senseless act of violence.”
Camacho reportedly has a lengthy criminal history spanning over 20 years but allegedly has benefited from generous plea deals.
In December, a judge dismissed breaking-and-entering charges against Camacho after a mental competency examination, WRAL noted in a separate story.
Prosecutors recommended that Camacho be involuntarily committed to a mental hospital, but that request was denied by Judge Louis Meyer, according to District Attorney Lorrin Freeman.
Freeman told WRAL, “Based on the evidence that was available to the court at the time, the court did not find that he met the threshold for involuntary commitment. For involuntary commitment, the judge has to make a finding that they are a danger to themselves or others.”
Meyer did not immediately respond to Blaze News‘ request for comment.
WRAL reported that Camacho’s lengthy rap sheet includes charges of assault with a deadly weapon, breaking and entering, larceny after breaking and entering, malicious conduct by a prisoner, injury to personal property, injury to real property, trespassing, stalking, and probation violations.
In 2025, Camacho reportedly got a sweetheart plea deal that allowed him back on the streets.
Citing public records, WRAL reported that Camacho faced up to a four-year prison sentence for four felony charges — but all the felonies were reduced to a single misdemeanor.
What’s more, Camacho in 2021 attempted to escape from the Piedmont Correctional Institution in Salisbury, according to the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction.
Freeman on Monday said “he has spent a lot of time bouncing between the prison system and the local jails over the last few years and has really been in custody all but maybe a total of 12 months within the past six years.”
Wes Phillips — a long-time Raleigh resident — claimed he was forced to move after Camacho, his former neighbor, allegedly harassed and stalked his family nearly a decade ago.
In the spring of 2016, Phillips said he discovered two tires on his car were slashed and a mirror was torn off while a mirror on his wife’s car also was torn off.
According to the Raleigh News and Observer, Phillips questioned Camacho about the vandalization of the cars, “The lightbulb sort of went on for me at that point, and I asked him, ‘Did you touch my [expletive] car?'”
Phillips alleged that Camacho walked toward him and “cocked his fists into a fighting position.” Phillips’ wife reportedly broke things up.
In October 2016, as Hurricane Matthew hit North Carolina, Phillips noticed Camacho outside his home.
“It was like a horror movie, like he was standing there in a black jacket, staring at us in front of our house during a hurricane,” Phillips told WRAL-TV. “Not talking, like making sure that we knew who he was.”
Just days later, Phillips alleged that after he entered his vehicle and locked the doors, Camacho “was pulling on the door, trying to get in.”
WRAL reported, “Security video from that day showed a man throw a rock into the windshield of Phillips’ car and then through the sunroof, before punching and kicking the vehicle.”
Phillips’ landlord let him end the lease early so he and his family could move away from Camacho, but the suspect allegedly showed up at Phillips’ new townhome with a gun.
Phillips explained, “He shot into our building where he thought that we lived. That’s something that stays with us.”
Citing court documents, WRAL reported that no one was injured in the shooting, but Camacho was arrested and spent two years in prison.
In fear of violence from Camacho, the Phillips family armed themselves with “lethal and non-lethal protection measures.”
Phillips noted, “It’s not like there weren’t signs. We were really adamant about the danger that we felt we were in, and perhaps other people were in, and it just wasn’t taken seriously.”
Phillips said that there was a complete failure that led to a “woman being killed.”
Phillips continued, “My wife and I are asking ourselves right now as we think about what happened this past week, how close did we come to being that person, and could that have been prevented?”
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‘The beginning of a civil war’: Glenn Beck sounds alarm on Walz, Frey challenging federal authority in Minneapolis ICE shooting fallout
On Wednesday, January 7, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, 37-year-old U.S. citizen Renee Nicole Good was fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent during a large-scale federal immigration enforcement operation. Based on video footage from the incident, President Trump, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and many other officials have accused Good of deliberately obstructing ICE and weaponizing her vehicle in an attempt to ram and run over the agent who shot her.
The left, meanwhile, is foaming at the mouth, framing Good, whose vehicle struck an officer, requiring him to seek medical attention, as an innocent observer.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D) and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) have even gone as far as challenging federal forces. Most conservatives have had little reaction to their statements, as they’re on brand for the two radical leftists, but Glenn Beck says they should terrify everyone.
On this episode of “The Glenn Beck Program,” Glenn breaks down the dangerous implications of Frey’s and Walz’s statements.
In a press conference following the incident with Good, Frey said, “I have a message for ICE. To ICE, get the f**k out of Minneapolis. We do not want you here. Your stated reason for being in this city is to create some kind of safety, and you are doing exactly the opposite.”
Glenn is flabbergasted by the mayor’s words. “What else is going on in Minneapolis? … The biggest scandal of the state and possibly the biggest heist of taxpayer money in the history of our country is going on in [Minneapolis’] Somali community,” he says, predicting that both Frey and Walz will “go to jail” for their alleged complicity in it.
“So do they have any incentive at all to make the federal government into the bad guy? Absolutely,” Glenn continues, adding that Frey’s disdain for the federal government is akin to that of the “anarchists, communists, [and] people who are trying to actively overthrow our government by causing chaos in our streets.”
Walz’s statement was even more terrifying, however.
“We do not need any further help from the federal government. To Donald Trump and Kristi Noem, you’ve done enough. … I have issued a warning order to prepare the Minnesota National Guard. We have soldiers in training and prepared to be deployed if necessary. I remind you, a warning order is a heads-up for folks,” he said.
“There is no other way to read this other than: ‘I am training our National Guard to stand up against our federal government,’” Glenn translates.
As outlined in the Constitution, a governor, Glenn explains, “cannot block the Department of Justice in any criminal investigation,” “the Department of Homeland Security enforcement action,” or “Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportations carried out under federal statute.”
“Federal authority in these areas come directly from what’s called the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution. It means the federal law is supreme over what the governor says and what the state law is,” he explains.
“State consent for federal law enforcement is not required, so when a governor says, ‘We don’t need any further help from the federal government’ … there’s nothing legal in that — nothing.”
It is legal, however, for a governor to “refuse cooperation,” “withdraw all state resources,” and even “instruct state agencies, ‘you’re not to participate.”’ But “the moment the governor crosses this line from non-cooperation to interference, they’ve just violated the Constitution and put us on the edge of a constitutional crisis or civil war,” says Glenn.
Walz threatening to deploy the military against federal operations in the state is “the brightest red line,” he says.
“Once the governor said that, everything has to change.”
One option, although it’s Glenn’s least favorite, is Trump federalizes the Minnesota National Guard.
The other option is for Walz to face “obstruction consequences,” says Glenn. “Federal injunctions, contempt of court, criminal exposure for obstruction — this all has precedent, and it should be considered.”
Glenn is certain that Walz is not actually threatening to deploy the National Guard against federal officers — as that would land him in jail, which he’s already trying to avoid in light of the state’s egregious Somali fraud schemes.
“He is calling up the Democratic national guard. … He is calling on people like Renee Nicole Good. He is trying to get people who are so zombie-like on the Democratic side to go up and put their bodies in and to obstruct. He’s using them as soldiers,” Glenn lays bare.
What Walz said is “not just unconstitutional on the National Guard side. That is just morally reprehensible.”
To hear more, watch the video above.
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Conan O’Brien calls out lazy Trump-hating comedians
Late-night host and writer Conan O’Brien says Trump-deranged comedians need to step up their game.
Speaking at the Oxford Union Society, the former talk-show host and “Simpsons” writer lamented that some in the comedy establishment have given up on laughs in favor of angry tirades about President Trump.
‘We don’t have a straight line right now. We have a very bendy, rubbery line.’
“I think some comics go the route of, ‘I’m going to just say F Trump all the time’ [and] that’s their comedy. And I think, well, now, a little bit, you’re being co-opted because you’re so angry.”
“You’ve been lulled,” added the Harvard alum, likening the allure of crowd-pleasing but joke-free anti-Trump material to a siren song.
The comedian continued, “You’ve been lulled into just saying ‘F Trump. F Trump. F Trump. Screw this guy.’ I think you’ve now put down your best weapon, which is being funny, and you’ve exchanged it for anger.”
Finding the funny
The 62-year-old noted that he has always prided himself on finding a way to be funny in any situation, and he did not give his peers an out when it comes to political comedy.
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“Any person like that would say, ‘Well, things are too serious now. I don’t need to be funny.’ I think, well, if you’re a comedian, you always need to be funny. You just have to find a way,” O’Brien told the audience at the esteemed student debating society.
“And you just have to find a way to channel that anger. … Good art will always be a great weapon, will always be a perfect weapon against power, but if you’re just screaming and you’re just angry, you’ve lost your best tool in the toolbox.”
Playing it straight
Earlier in the interview, O’Brien recalled that some of his most joyful memories in comedy were parodying different magazines or news outlets by mocking their tone and style. At the same time, he said it was impossible to parody something that doesn’t follow a “straight line.”
He referred to the National Enquirer, describing the outlet’s content as impossible to make fun of because it would print stories like, “Elvis found in Titanic lifeboat 105 years after sinking. He is now a woman, and he’s married a giant peanut-butter sandwich.”
“How do you parody that? You can’t,” he explained. “And I think with Trump we have a similar situation in comedy, which is people saying, ‘We’ve got a great Trump sketch for you. In this one, he’s kind of talking crazy and he’s saying stuff, and he tears down half the White House to build a giant ballroom, and he says it’s going to be the new Mar-a-Lago.’ Yeah, no, that happened yesterday,” O’Brien joked.
RELATED: How ‘conservative’ art can go from cringey to cathartic
Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images
“Comedy needs a straight line to go off of,” O’Brien added. “And we don’t have a straight line right now. We have a very bendy, rubbery line. We have a slinky. We have a fire hose that’s whipping around, spewing water at 100 miles an hour or something else.”
Fani Willis’ failed lawfare against Trump might cost her a fortune
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis did her apparent best to throw President Donald Trump in jail and failed miserably.
While Willis was disqualified in 2024 from the Georgia case regarding alleged 2020 election interference and the case was dropped late last year, the Democrat DA has proven unable to put the lawfare behind her.
In addition to having to fight misconduct allegations, Willis now faces the possibility of having to shell out millions to the president in attorney fees and costs, thanks to legislation ratified in May by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R).
‘It’s Fani Willis’ fault.’
The new law, which went into effect in July, provides “for the award of reasonable attorney’s fees and costs in a criminal case to the defendant upon the disqualification of the prosecuting attorney for misconduct in connection with the case and the subsequent dismissal of the case by the court of a subsequent prosecutor.”
Although the law might appear perfectly tailored to Trump’s case, the legislation had bipartisan support.
Photo by Dennis Byron-Pool/Getty Images
Trump is pushing for over $6.2 million in restitution. As the president’s legal team has reportedly already been paid, most of the requested funds would go to reimburse Trump.
Steve Sadow, Trump’s lead attorney in the case, told WXIA-TV, “I feel for the people in Fulton County, because Fani Willis has involved herself in improper conduct. She’s now set up a situation where her office, from funds that have been collected through Fulton County, will have to pay for it. It’s Fani Willis’ fault.”
“At the same time, maybe Fani Willis will tell us how much money she spent from her budget pursuing this politically motivated case against President Trump,” added Sadow.
Her office has since filed a motion to intervene in the matter, which states, “The statute raises grave separation-of-powers concerns by purporting to impose financial liability on a constitutional officer, twice elected by the citizens of Fulton County, for the lawful exercise of her core duties under the Georgia Constitution.”
Willis’ office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.
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Trump has the chance to end the welfare free-for-all Minnesota exposed
It’s the $1.2 trillion question.
The United States spends roughly $1.2 trillion every year on means-tested welfare programs — cash aid, food assistance, housing subsidies, and medical care. The list runs through a thicket of acronyms: SNAP, TANF, SSI, EITC, ACTC, WIC, CHIP, ACA subsidies, and CCDBG, plus school meals, Medicaid, and Section 8 housing.
States that eliminate fraud can afford to provide better aid to real residents in need — creating a race to the top in administration rather than a race to exploit Washington.
This guaranteed-income architecture now fuels a destructive cycle. Federal spending drives debt. Debt fuels inflation. Inflation expands dependence. And Washington responds by printing more money and sending it back to the states — without demanding serious accountability.
The result is a bottomless pit of spending, fraud, and inflation, with states handed endless federal funds and almost no incentive to police abuse.
Minnesota’s massive Somali-linked fraud scandal exposes this system in its most grotesque form. The question is whether President Trump will use it to force states to reclaim ownership — and responsibility — over welfare.
The day-care, nutrition, and medical fraud uncovered in Minneapolis is not an aberration. It is the predictable outcome of an open-ended entitlement state. Fraud networks thrive wherever federal money flows without limits or consequences. While the Minneapolis cases involved tight-knit ethnic networks, the underlying problem is national and structural. As long as states do not have to pay their own way, fraud will remain rational behavior.
California offers a parallel example. A report last summer found that roughly one-third of all community college applications in the state were fake — submitted solely to extract federal financial aid. That scam could not survive if California had to pick up the tab.
It isn’t just a blue-state problem, either. As Alex Berenson has reported, Indiana’s Medicaid spending on “autism behavioral therapy” exploded thirtyfold in just six years, reaching $75,000 per child for a few hours a week of unproven playtime therapy. When federal dollars cover the bill, discipline evaporates.
RELATED: Government fraud meets its worst enemy: Some dude with a phone
Wanlee Prachyapanaprai via iStock/Getty Images
Many Americans ask how Minnesota allowed the Feeding Our Future scandal to persist for years. The answer is simple: Washington supplied unlimited money, and the state faced no budgetary consequence for ignoring warning signs.
Over 200 day-care and medical providers allegedly siphoned billions across Medicaid, child care, and nutrition programs. That scale of fraud does not occur without political indifference — or worse.
States have every incentive under this system to look away. Federal money enables a closed loop of special interests, dependency, and electoral protection. Oversight threatens the flow.
Devolving welfare programs to the states — using fixed block grants rather than open-ended federal matches — would cut this dynamic off at the knees. States must balance their budgets. They do not have a printing press. When fraud costs real money, enforcement follows.
This is the moment for Trump to make that case. Either states raise taxes to fund welfare programs themselves, or they reform and prioritize them. That choice restores democratic accountability.
Consider the contrast. The United States spends roughly $1 trillion on national defense — protecting everyone. Yet we now spend even more on means-tested welfare that serves narrower populations while distorting the economy for all. Open-ended welfare spending drives inflation, which then forces more people onto welfare. End the money-printing, and fewer people will need subsidies in the first place.
RELATED: The insane little story that failed to warn America about the depth of Somali fraud
NoraVector via iStock/Getty Images
In response to the Minnesota scandal, Trump’s Office of Management and Budget froze $10 billion in funding for TANF and the Child Care Development Fund across several states. That is a start. But temporary freezes will not survive the next Democrat administration.
The durable fix is statutory restructuring — through budget reconciliation — to force states to assume full financial responsibility for welfare programs. Without unlimited federal backstopping, abuse becomes politically and fiscally intolerable.
Critics warn that block grants spark a “race to the bottom.” The 1996 welfare reform suggests the opposite. When states gained ownership, many innovated — emphasizing work, child-care support, and fraud reduction. Accountability improved because incentives changed.
Yes, benefits should be limited to the truly needy. Open-ended entitlements allowed 250 “meal sites” to appear almost overnight in Minnesota, claiming to feed 120,000 children a day.
Force states to balance their books, and they will treat taxpayer money with respect. States that eliminate fraud can afford to provide better aid to real residents in need — creating a race to the top in administration rather than a race to exploit Washington.
The real way to “feed our future” is to end inflationary money-printing and dismantle the infinite entitlement state — so families can afford food on their own again.
BURN NOTICE: ‘Hills’ heel Spencer Pratt to run for Los Angeles mayor
“It’s official. I’m running for Mayor of LA.”
After a year of calling out Democrat leadership for its handling of last year’s devastating Los Angeles wildfires, Spencer Pratt is offering Angelenos an alternative: himself.
Pratt, who shot to fame playing a villainous version of himself on hit MTV reality show “The Hills,” lost the Pacific Palisades house he shared with wife (and former castmate) Heidi Montag and their children in the January 7, 2025, conflagration. Since then, he has emerged as one of the most prominent critics of L.A. Mayor Karen Bass and California Governor Gavin Newsom, both Democrats.
‘Gavin Newsom and his state park policies actually literally dictated that we let the Palisades burn.’
Fired up
The Palisades native has accused Bass of bungling the response to the deadly blaze, which eventually spread to 23,448 acres, costing 12 lives and destroying almost 6,000 homes.
Pratt has also claimed that Newsom’s inadequate brush-clearance policy helped cause what was otherwise a preventable disaster.
Pratt kicked off his mayoral campaign on Wednesday with an impassioned speech to at least 1,000 attendees.
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“It’s official. I’m running for Mayor of LA,” Pratt announced in a post sharing video of the speech. “I’ve waited a whole year for someone to step up and challenge Karen Bass, but I saw no fighters. Guess I’m gonna have to do this myself. Let’s make LA camera ready again!”
Brush-off
Pratt addressed the enthusiastic crowd with a mixture of defiance and sorrow.
“Standing here one year later, I have to tell you the most heartbreaking part of the past year wasn’t being displaced or losing everything I own. It was the realization that all of this was preventable,” he explained, fighting back tears.
The 42-year-old continued, “The state and local leaders let us burn. Gavin Newsom and the state of California let brush grow wild … no wildfire maintenance.”
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Photo by Steve Granitz/WireImage
Policy pinch
Like many of the would-be constituents in attendance, Pratt faced the fires without standard homeowners’ insurance, after insurers declined to renew policies for thousands of homes in the Palisades, Altadena, and other designated fire-prone areas in recent years. Most notably, State Farm announced in 2024 that it would discontinue coverage for roughly 72,000 houses and apartments statewide.
Pratt’s sole coverage came from the state’s supplementary California FAIR Plan, which he has previously said did not provide enough money to rebuild.
In his speech, Pratt laid the blame squarely on Newsom, who he said “created an insurance market so hostile that every major carrier stopped writing policies” and thereby “dictated that we let the Palisades burn.”
The candidate also had harsh words for the Los Angeles Fire Department, which he blamed for “fail[ing] to deploy sufficient firefighters, fire engines, and firefighting resources, whether it be due to lack of budget, lack of knowledge, or simply DEI.”
Pratt concluded by touting his showbiz experience as something that made him uniquely attuned to the workings of power in the city. Singling out “NGOs, nonprofits, and unions,” he vowed to make it his “mission” to dismantle what he labeled a “machine designed to protect the people at the top.”
Cancer care is becoming another Wall Street extraction industry
Across rural America, families are learning a hard lesson. The biggest threat to their local hospital or cancer clinic no longer comes from distance, workforce shortages, or regulation. It comes from private equity.
Over the past two decades, private equity firms have quietly bought hundreds of cancer clinics, oncology practices, and community hospitals. They promise efficiency and stability. Many communities experience something else: consolidation, higher costs, fewer doctors, and the slow erosion of care. When profit targets fall short, clinics close. Patients travel hours for treatment — or go without it altogether.
The same forces that hollowed out manufacturing towns and family farms are now targeting essential health care.
This shift reflects a deeper failure: treating health care as a financial asset rather than a public obligation.
Private equity follows a familiar playbook. Firms acquire medical practices with borrowed money, cut staffing, increase billing, extract profits, and sell within a few years. That model rewards investors. It fails patients who need long-term care and towns that depend on a single hospital or cancer center.
The collapse of 21st-century oncology shows how destructive this approach can be. After private equity took control, the company expanded rapidly across the Southeast while piling on debt. Pressure to generate revenue intensified. Federal investigators later uncovered widespread abuse, including unnecessary testing and illegal billing. The company paid more than $86 million in fraud settlements to the federal government and patients before filing for bankruptcy.
Entire regions lost access to cancer care with little warning. Investors exited. Patients were left to deal with the fallout.
Rural communities suffer the most. In cities, the loss of a clinic often means longer wait times. In rural America, it can mean the end of cancer care entirely. Patients face long drives, delayed treatment, or impossible choices between health and family obligations.
The same pattern appears in rural hospitals owned by Apollo Global Management through its control of LifePoint Health. After the acquisition, hospitals took on heavy debt. Executives sold real estate to raise cash, cut staffing, reduced services, and closed cancer centers. In New Mexico, state officials opened an investigation after reports that an Apollo-owned hospital denied or delayed cancer care for low-income patients.
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amphotora / Getty Images
Defenders of private equity claim these firms rescue independent practices from hospital monopolies. In reality, they replace local control with corporate control.
Doctors lose authority to distant executives who never set foot in the affected communities. The language of independence disguises a transfer of power away from patients and physicians and toward investors.
Conservatives should recognize this for what it is. An elite financial class is extracting wealth from essential local institutions and leaving weaker communities behind. The same forces that hollowed out manufacturing towns and family farms are now targeting essential health care.
Cancer care should not function as a short-term investment. Rural hospitals should not exist to satisfy quarterly return targets. A system that allows this will continue to fail the people who rely on it most.
The answer is accountability, not a government takeover of medicine. Regulators must enforce antitrust laws. Policymakers should strengthen protections that preserve medical judgment from corporate interference. Communities deserve transparency about who owns their hospitals and who controls decisions about their care.
Health care depends on trust and continuity. When financialization dominates cancer care, rural Americans lose both. And once these institutions disappear, rebuilding them proves far harder than protecting them in the first place.
Jasmine Crockett tells ‘The View’ being black ensures Texas Senate win — but Sara Gonzales isn’t buying it
Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D) is making the media rounds as she eyes a U.S. Senate run — and her latest stop on “The View” raised eyebrows for all the wrong reasons.
“She’s running for Senate here in Texas, where she will fail miserably, and she’s making the rounds ’cause she’s running for U.S. Senate. And so, she made an appearance on everyone’s favorite daytime talk show, ‘The View.’ And they asked her a pretty reasonable question,” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales says.
When the panel asked Crockett why she’s willing to go all in on a Senate race in Texas, her answer was essentially that she’s black.
“We are also a majority minority state. So, for everybody that’s like, ‘Well, she running for Senate, and she black.’ Yes, I am. I am. … We have more African-Americans in the state of Texas than any other state,” Crockett said proudly on “The View.”
“That’s the first time I’ve ever heard you tell me that you’re black, Jasmine. I never would have known that you were black except for all the times that you’ve just led with the fact that you’re a black woman. Other than literally every time you speak, I would have never known that you were black,” Gonzales says sarcastically.
“It seems to be your only identification in your entire life, is that you’re an independent black woman who don’t need no man,” she adds.
Gonzales believes that Crockett, despite being black, might face some challenges trying to sway Texans to vote her way.
“President Trump won Texas in 2024. This was, like, unprecedented since 2012. 56 to 42. That’s the largest gap since 2012. It was a difference of 1.5 million votes, I believe,” Gonzales explains.
“So, yes, the overwhelming majority of black people voted for Harris, but they only made up 11% of the total vote. So, like, okay, cool. There are more black people who live in Texas than anywhere else. They’re not voting,” she continues.
“And I don’t know, I guess she’s just like, ‘I’m going to get black voter enthusiasm up so high that they’re just going to, like, skip to the ballot box,’” she adds.
Crockett also is refusing to release her polling numbers.
“What I did is, I evaluated the numbers. The numbers are clear that we can win,” Crockett said on “The View.”
“I want to be clear that a lot of people haven’t put their numbers up, and I haven’t put mine up for a good reason because I’m playing for keeps. But let me tell you that I know how to evaluate, and I know how to win races,” she explained.
Crockett went on to claim that she shared her numbers with the “front-runner” in the race, who decided to “step aside” after seeing her numbers.
“He decided to step aside because he felt like what mattered was getting the best person across the finish line,” she added.
“Or, Republicans just tricked you and astroturfed you,” Gonzales says.
“This was actually a thing that they did to try to push you into a Senate run,” she continues. “They ran these polls suggesting that she would win.”
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