Category: Judicial Watch
Trump’s primary endorsements are sabotaging his own agenda
Imagine what the Republican Party would have looked like had President Trump been endorsing conservative reformers down-ballot rather than milquetoast RINOs backed by special interests for five consecutive cycles.
In 2016, President Trump stormed the corporatist castle of the country-club GOP. But over the next five election cycles, he pulled up the rope ladder behind him. He left the reinforcements outside the gates, which crushed his ability to deliver on his promises in his first term. It also allowed generic Republicans to ride his brand while drifting away from his original America First message.
Conservatives understand that competition improves a product. When Trump protects incumbents from primary pressure, he guarantees that the party never improves.
Now he is making the same mistake in his second term by backing status-quo, corporatist Republicans in key races.
2026 is do or die
The opening months of 2026 should be the Super Bowl of primaries for the right. Vulnerable establishment Republicans and open seats sit on the board across solid red states — for Senate and governor.
Even if Republicans struggle in swing states, Trump could still lock in a generation of red-state power by backing grassroots conservatives in open seats and insurgents challenging weak incumbents.
Instead, he keeps yanking the rug out from under his own base.
Louisiana bait and switch
Over the weekend, the president endorsed Rep. Julia Letlow (R-La.) for U.S. Senate in Louisiana. Until now, Trump has refused to back conservatives against incumbents — except when he endorsed against Freedom Caucus Chairman Rep. Bob Good of Virginia in 2024.
So yes, Trump finally moved against Sen. Bill Cassidy, a pro-COVID-vaccine liberal wasting a conservative seat. But he waited until more conservative candidates — state Treasurer John Fleming, state Sen. Blake Miguez, and state Rep. Julie Emerson — softened Cassidy up. Then Trump picked a challenger who matches Cassidy’s worldview in a prettier package.
Letlow sides with Cassidy on government-run health care and the COVID vaccines. She also voted against penalizing FDA officials for unlawfully expanding access to mifepristone. Trump carried Louisiana by 22 points and won 57 of 64 parishes. He could have used his clout to elect a conservative stalwart like Miguez. Instead, he chose another version of the same problem.
RELATED: Voters won’t buy ‘freedom in Iran’ while Minneapolis goes lawless
Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Governors matter now
If Democrats regain Washington, governors become the last real barrier against federal abuse. Red-state governors will matter more than ever, especially if Democrats install a weaponized Gavin Newsom-style agenda at the national level.
After Ron DeSantis turned Florida from swing state into the red-state model, Republicans should be building an entire bench of governors who make even DeSantis look tame. But Trump’s endorsement habits keep locking in mediocrity. In Florida, he is backing Byron Donalds — a favorite of the legislative RINOs who fought DeSantis for years.
Fourteen governorships are up in states Republicans should win even in a rough year: Alabama, Alaska, Florida, Iowa, Idaho, Kansas, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Wyoming. Trump hasn’t made one bold, movement-building endorsement as he did with DeSantis in 2018. Instead, he has already pre-emptively endorsed Idaho Gov. Brad Little for a third term and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for a fourth.
Texas betrayal rewarded
Trump has started interfering even in state legislative races. In Texas, Republicans cut a deal with Democrats and installed Dustin Burrows as speaker against the will of most of the party. Burrows rewarded them by handing committees to Democrats and killing conservative priorities.
When conservatives moved to defeat the traitors, Trump carpet-bombed the effort by endorsing Burrows and his lieutenants for re-election.
Conservatives understand that competition improves a product. Trump keeps canceling that competition. When he protects incumbents from primary pressure, he guarantees that the party never improves.
Judicial Watch Sues Chicago Treasurer Over Plan to Halt U.S. Treasury Purchases
(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today it filed an Illinois Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against Melissa Conyears-Ervin, treasurer of the City of Chicago, for details of her declared plan to stop buying new U.S. Treasury securities and divest the city of indirect holdings (Judicial Watch Inc. v. Chicago Treasurer’s Office (No. 2026CH00302)). […]
The post Judicial Watch Sues Chicago Treasurer Over Plan to Halt U.S. Treasury Purchases appeared first on Judicial Watch.
California’s Love of Taxes is Backfiring
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — National news stories have recently discussed Crazy California’s effort to impose an “emergency” wealth tax of 5 percent on…
The Fred Phelps Left Invades the Churches
A Pew poll released about a year ago noted that just 37 percent of American liberals identify as Christians, versus…
The Latest Democratic Impeachment Dream Has To Be Heard To Be Believed
‘That has to be the day one priority’
Minneapolis Mayor Calls for Release of Activists Who Stormed Church Service
Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey is calling for the release of anti-ICE protesters who stormed a St. Paul, Minn., church on Sunday. He previously refused to condemn the activists for barging into the church and terrorizing congregants.
The post Minneapolis Mayor Calls for Release of Activists Who Stormed Church Service appeared first on .
’I don’t think that’s relevant’: American tennis star shuts down reporters fishing for anti-Trump answers
A 24-year-old professional tennis player reminded reporters that politics has nothing to do with her sport.
Amanda Anisimova, born in New Jersey to Russian immigrants, is the No.4-ranked player in the Women’s Tennis Association, just behind fellow American Coco Gauff.
‘I don’t think that’s relevant.’
After a straight-set victory in the second round of the Australian Open, the American spoke to members of the media in Melbourne, Australia.
Lodged between questions regarding her recent performance was an oddly political query about how it feels to be representing America.
“I’ve been asking a lot of the American players just how it feels to play under the American flag right now. And I’m curious how you feel,” a male reporter asked, using significant vocal fry.
Anisimova did not take the bait, replying, “I was born in America, so I’m always proud to represent my country. And yeah, a lot of us are doing really well, and it’s great to see a lot of, you know, great athletes on the women’s side, on the men’s side.”
Anisimova was likely referring to the current success her compatriots are having on the tour. Americans hold three of the top six positions in the women’s tennis rankings currently, with several more in the top 30.
“I feel like we’re all doing a great job representing ourselves,” Anisimova added.
However the reporter wasn’t ready to let the topic die just yet.
“Sorry. Um, just to clarify a little,” the man continued. “I mean, sort of in the context of the last year of everything that’s been happening in the U.S., does that complicate that feeling at all?”
Anisimova seemed to think the follow-up question was unworthy of an answer.
“I don’t think that’s relevant,” she said with a smirk.
Fans who watched the press conference on YouTube sided unanimously with the young star and pointed out that the press conference culminated with yet another political question. In fact, it was nearly identical to the first.
“America is a, you know, divided place at the moment, euphemistically,” another male reporter prefaced. “Do you ever find it difficult or distracting to play under the American flag at the moment?”
Anisimova again brushed the question off.
RELATED: Tennis player labeled ‘racist’ for scolding black opponent after match: ‘I was NEVER racist‘
Photo by Albert Perez/Getty Images
“I mean, I’m not planning to, you know, switch my nationality or represent a different country. I was born there, so it’s not something that comes to my mind.”
Women’s tennis can be strangely political at times.
In fact, the WTA does not showcase the flag of its ranked players if they are from Russia. This includes world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka and No. 7 Mirra Andreeva. Three more Russians in the top 50 do not have Russian flags on their official WTA profiles either.
The same does not apply to Ukrainian athletes, as No. 20 Marta Kostyuk and No. 28 Dayana Yastremska have their flag proudly next to their names.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
‘If they don’t …’ DHS doubles self-deport bonus — and warns those illegal aliens who don’t ‘take advantage of this gift’
As the Trump administration celebrates one year in office, the Department of Homeland Security made a big announcement for its CBP Home App program in a bid to keep the deportation numbers high.
In a Wednesday press release, DHS announced that it will be increasing the self-deportation stipend the American taxpayer has been paying illegal aliens to self-deport.
‘Illegal aliens should take advantage of this gift and self-deport because if they don’t, we will find them, we will arrest them, and they will never return.’
The stipend will increase from $1,000 to $2,600. DHS’ offer also covers the airline ticket price and forgiveness of any civil fines or penalties for failing to leave the country.
“Since January 2025, 2.2 million illegal aliens have voluntarily self-deported and tens of thousands have used the CBP Home program. To celebrate one year of this administration, the U.S. taxpayer is generously increasing the incentive to leave voluntarily for those in this country illegally — offering a $2,600 exit bonus,” said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP via Getty Images
“Illegal aliens should take advantage of this gift and self-deport because if they don’t, we will find them, we will arrest them, and they will never return,” Noem continued.
DHS explained in the press release that an enforced deportation costs a little over $18,000. With the new offer, the burden on the U.S. taxpayer for a voluntary self-deportation is substantially lessened, dropping to just over $5,000.
The department also claimed that the Trump administration finished its first year with over 675,000 deportations, though more specific breakdowns of the data have been difficult to obtain.
“Those illegal aliens who don’t take advantage of this special offer today have only one alternative: They will be arrested, deported, and they will never be able to return to the United States,” DHS said. “The smart and simple thing to do is to start planning your trip home through CBP Home today.”
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
‘Handcuff ICE’ bid fails: Appeals court overrules Biden judge, restores agents’ power to stop hostile mobs
Anti-ICE activists’ attempts to frustrate federal immigration law enforcement in Minneapolis and elsewhere hit a snag on Wednesday.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota and three Minnesota-based law firms filed a lawsuit on Dec. 17 against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, alleging its agents violated the constitutional rights of several anti-ICE activists, including a Minnesota woman and a Somali-American who were both accused of attacking federal agents.
A federal judge who was nominated by former President Joe Biden ruled last week in favor of the radicals.
‘A liberal judge in Minnesota tried to handcuff ICE agents.’
U.S. District Judge Kate Menendez prohibited federal agents involved in Operation Metro Surge and related operations in the Gopher State from:
- “retaliating against persons who are engaging in peaceful and unobstructive protest activity”;
- arresting such persons;
- “using pepper-spray or similar nonlethal munitions and crowd dispersal tools against persons who are engaging in peaceful and unobstructive protest activity”; and
- “stopping or detaining drivers and passengers in vehicles where there is no reasonable articulable suspicion that they are forcibly obstructing or interfering with Covered Federal Agents.”
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security promptly appealed the Biden judge’s ruling to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. On Wednesday, the appellate court granted the defendants an administrative stay of Menendez’s preliminary injunction.
Attorney General Pam Bondi appeared greatly pleased with the higher court’s ruling.
Photographer: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images
“A liberal judge in Minnesota tried to handcuff ICE agents who are enforcing the Nation’s immigration laws and responding to obstructive and violent interference from agitators,” Bondi said in a statement on Wednesday.
“The 8th Circuit just granted an administrative stay HALTING these restrictions, which were designed to undermine federal law enforcement,” continued the attorney general. “This DOJ will protect federal law enforcement agents from criminals in the streets AND activist judges in the courtroom.”
Federal agents didn’t waste any time taking advantage of their restored abilities.
Hours after the ruling, Greg Bovino of U.S. Border Patrol was caught on tape warning a hostile crowd of anti-ICE protesters in Minneapolis that gas was coming, then tossing a gas canister their way.
The Department of Homeland Security indicated that “Border Patrol agents who were in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area as part of a targeted enforcement operation were repeatedly harassed and blocked by hostile crowds while simply trying to take bathroom breaks.”
“At each gas station where the agents stopped to use the restroom, groups of agitators appeared, yelled at them, stalked them, and even tried to prevent law enforcement vehicles from leaving, creating unsafe conditions,” said the DHS. “At one stop, individuals in the crowd threw food at the agents. At their final gas station stop, someone spit on an agent. When an agent moved to detain the person who spit on him, the crowed tackled and attacked the agents while surrounding them. To safely clear the area agents had to use crowd control measures to disperse the hostile crowd.”
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Taxpayers are funding California’s Medicaid shell game
Federal prosecutors in Minnesota have launched one of the largest Medicaid fraud crackdowns in American history. Raids. Indictments. Billions of dollars. A system designed to help the poor became a loot bag for criminals and grifters.
California saw those headlines and said, “They should have consulted us!”
Taxpayers don’t care whether fraud happens the Minnesota way — through day-care centers and nonprofits — or the California way — through health care accounting games.
Sacramento’s progressive class has spent years perfecting a cleaner version of the same scam — one that stays inside the lines, collects federal dollars on paper, and sends the bill to taxpayers everywhere else. Call it “legal.” Call it “approved.” Call it “routine.” None of those words makes it legitimate.
In 2004, the Government Accountability Office warned Congress that states were gaming Medicaid through intergovernmental transfers. States would shuffle public money through a circular process to make spending look real, inflate federal matching payments, then cycle the funds back to themselves. The GAO described “round-trip” arrangements that generated federal dollars without exposing states to true financial risk and that undermined the balance Congress intended.
Washington shrugged. Some states backed off. Others refined the trick.
California scaled it.
Medi-Cal, the state’s massive Medicaid program, now serves as the vehicle for this legal laundering operation. State officials insist that the system complies with federal rules. Fine. A loophole still remains a loophole, and taxpayers still pay the tab.
Paragon Health Institute, a conservative health policy organization, has laid out the mechanism clearly. Counties and public hospital systems transfer funds to the state through IGTs. The state counts that money as the “non-federal share” of Medicaid spending, then claims a larger federal match. Sacramento sends the combined state and federal funds back to government-owned providers through supplemental payments and formula-driven reimbursements.
The math almost always works in the contributors’ favor. The entities that send money in get reimbursed in full — and often receive more than they put up.
Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images
California’s ambulance program shows how ugly this gets. Under the state’s Ground Emergency Medical Transport program, California bars payments from the state’s general fund. Public ambulance agencies instead receive “supplemental payments” that California largely restricts to public providers, limiting private companies’ access.
The result: California pays public ambulance providers about $1,065 per transport, while it offers private ambulance companies roughly $339 for the same job.
Then the federal government matches the inflated payments.
This isn’t just favoritism. It warps the market. It pushes private providers out and leaves patients with fewer options.
California has also expanded Medi-Cal eligibility regardless of immigration status. The state claims it funds routine coverage for “undocumented” adults with state dollars, but emergency Medicaid remains federally reimbursable. Sacramento still taps federal funds through the back door, even as it sells the program as a self-funded moral gesture.
This system stinks — even when regulators bless it.
And the political contrast tells you everything. Minnesota’s fraud scandal has created enough public anger to drive its Democrat governor out of the next election. California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), whose administration runs a program built on the same kind of federal exploitation — just with better paperwork — remains a top Democrat presidential prospect in 2028.
The federal government could stop this tomorrow. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services could clamp down on the abuse of IGTs and demand a genuine state contribution, not an accounting illusion. Instead, under the Biden administration, CMS approved major expansions and encouraged the same incentives that fuel the problem.
Audits don’t fix it, either. Regulators review what states claim on paper, not what taxpayers actually fund. If a state can justify the scheme in bureaucratic language, CMS signs off. Fraud analysis often misses the point for the same reason. A state can structure IGTs so the “state share” exists largely as a bookkeeping device. Federal taxpayers remain the only party exposed to real financial loss.
Congress never designed Medicaid to serve as a revenue stream for local governments. It created Medicaid to help the poor. California’s 12-to-1 payment disparities punish the poor by reducing competition, shrinking access, and driving private providers out of business.
RELATED: The insane little story that failed to warn America about the depth of Somali fraud
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call Inc. via Getty Images
Congress already has the solution. The GAO outlined it two decades ago, and the George W. Bush administration backed the basic idea: Close the loophole by prohibiting Medicaid payments that exceed actual costs for government-owned facilities.
In plain English: Stop rewarding government-owned providers with inflated reimbursements that private providers can’t touch. Set equal rules. Require real state contributions. Cut the circular funding schemes that turn Medicaid into a federal ATM.
Taxpayers don’t care whether fraud happens the Minnesota way — through day cares and nonprofits — or the California way — through health care accounting games. We care that Washington keeps subsidizing systems designed to break the rules everyone else has to follow.
California built this machine. Congress can shut it down.
