Category: The American Spectator
Minnesota police crack down on anti-ICE protesters, multiple arrests outside hotel
As talks between the Trump administration and Minnesota leadership continue, with some possible success, police have begun dealing with protesters more efficiently this week.
In a surprising turn of events, protesters in Minneapolis were swiftly dealt with near the Graduate by Hilton hotel.
‘All individuals: You are under arrest. Please sit down.’
In video originally captured on independent reporter Brendan Gutenschwager’s livestream of the protests in Minneapolis on Wednesday night into Thursday morning, protesters could be seen being kettled by police on a street block.
Police officers, who were reported to be Minnesota state police and University of Minnesota police officers, quickly formed a line on the street.
Photo by Kerem YUCEL / AFP via Getty Images
“All individuals: You are under arrest. Please sit down,” one officer says once the police line is set.
The video showed a few dozen protesters on the street, many of whom sat down immediately in compliance with the order.
Gutenschwager reported that this kettling tactic was used near the Graduate by Hilton Minneapolis.
A second video of the aftermath of some arrests shows police walking arrestees toward a line of blue buses.
Frontlines TPUSA posted a video on the ground of the same event. Describing the scene, the cameraman says, “They’re being taken into these buses now with bars on the windows.”
Though the crowds seemed subdued during and after the kettling tactic, Gutenschwager’s livestream showed that the protesters were much more energetic and disruptive in the earlier hours of the night.
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Hard times create strong men — at any age
I know this guy, Richard. He’s friends with a couple of different friends of mine. He’s in his late 40s. He’s had a successful microbrewery business going for many years.
Last year, I heard that his business was in trouble. And then, more recently, his wife filed for divorce. He is apparently having problems seeing his kids.
Maybe this is our new male initiation ritual. Getting crushed by family court. Losing your business to far-left politics. Being abandoned in your moment of need.
I saw him recently at a large gathering. He was in pretty bad shape. He was getting screwed at family court. He was blaming Trump for his business problems.
His blaming Trump was no surprise. Many otherwise intelligent people do that automatically here in Portland. Everything is Trump’s fault. I don’t really hold it against them. The propaganda is so thick here. And if you own a public-facing business, you probably have to go with the flow.
More likely, the true cause of his business problems is the economics of Portland. Taxes are up. Insurance is skyrocketing. Homeless people have invaded your neighborhood. Drug addicts are lighting your dumpster on fire.
Hitting bottom
So I was at this event, and I ended up in a small group with Richard and a couple of other guys. I could see that he was upset. He looked terrible.
I could relate to his situation. I had gone through a similar compound disaster when my father died, right in the middle of my own divorce.
So I had felt that pain. But I didn’t have kids. Which probably makes Richard’s situation much worse.
Eventually, the other guys wandered off, and I found myself giving Richard a little pep talk. I told him what happened to me and explained how at the time, I tried to think of it as a test.
I thought to myself: How often in life will I have to face two life-changing crises, coming from two different directions, at the same time?
I tried to think of my situation as a challenge, a rare opportunity to test my mettle, as I faced a mountain of emotional stressors and practical problems.
I couldn’t tell if he was buying it. And I didn’t know him that well. So I left it at that.
The soft life
But in the days after, I thought more about Richard’s situation.
He was a solidly upper-middle-class guy. His parents were well off. He went to a good college. He was a successful businessman and a respected member of the local microbrew scene. His brewery had prospered for years, before Portland took its current downturn.
He had really had an easy time of it, all things considered. So really, my idea that this was a “rare opportunity” was not far off. His current problems were easily the worst thing that ever happened to him. And they were all happening at once!
This also might have been a good time to try to red-pill him on local politics. Bro, Trump isn’t the reason you can’t run a business in Portland. But he wasn’t going to change on that.
But the “test” thing. That was still a valid point. Richard had never been hit this hard. And like a lot of men, he wasn’t ready for it. He had lived a relatively soft life.
RELATED: The American dream lives where people still choose to build
CS0523183 via iStock/Getty Images
Into the wilderness
People have been saying for years that part of the problem with American men is they don’t have any form of initiation ritual.
There’s no rigorous coming-of-age process. We have no “rites of passage.”
You can live your whole life and never have to endure any true hardship or serious deprivation.
Other cultures make a point of creating those “rites of passage.” Growing up in the West, I heard about young Native American men going on “vision quests.” They ventured into the wilderness by themselves, with no food and no protection from the elements or predatory animals.
In this way, they proved themselves worthy of their people, both physically and mentally. They were pushed to the limits of their endurance.
This was not only a physical ordeal, but a chance for spiritual growth as well. Becoming a man was not just about strength and skill; it was about humility and understanding your responsibilities within your tribe.
Once you had experienced the difficulties of fending for yourself, you would forever appreciate the security of life within a stable and healthy community.
The new vision quest
I thought about Richard’s predicament, which is now fairly common in America. What was happening to him was happening to men all the time.
Maybe this is our new male initiation ritual. Getting crushed by family court. Losing your business to far-left politics. Being abandoned in your moment of need by your own social class, because they’re progressive Democrats as well.
That’s how I would think of it if I were him. What else are you going to do? Cry to your lawyer? Complain about Trump? Whine to your Kamala-voting buddies?
Or are you going to grieve your losses, accept your situation, and then respond with a new resolve, a new clarity of mind, and perhaps a stiffer spine?
I mean, I feel for the guy. He’s going through hell. But these kinds of men have got to stop crying and focus on what is really going on around them.
Think of your present difficulties as the rite of passage you should have experienced when you were 14. Think of them as your overdue vision quest. You’re in the wilderness now. You have only yourself to depend on.
The FDA is undermining a culture of life inside and outside the womb
Last Friday during the annual March for Life, President Trump delivered a pledge to the nation: His administration stands for the “infinite worth and God-given dignity of every human life.” Vice President JD Vance’s remarks at the rally were just as clear: We must “build up that culture of life” and “cannot be neutral. Our country cannot be indifferent about whether its next generations live or die.”
Vance and Trump were primarily talking about the unborn. But their principles clearly include providing the right to life — as well as health and safety — for all citizens, especially the most vulnerable among us.
We have entire policies at the FDA dedicated to making it more difficult for children inside and outside the womb to live the lives they deserve.
Unfortunately, these principles have been undermined by a few key officials at the Food and Drug Administration, and not just for unborn children. Thousands of kids with rare diseases have seen valuable treatments slowed or even halted since last summer, thanks to FDA Commissioner Marty Makary and Chief Medical Officer Vinay Prasad.
As one of the oldest living Americans with spina bifida (I celebrate my 60th birthday this year), I understand the value of providing children with rare and fatal diseases the ability to improve or even extend their lives from a personal, policy, and political perspective. I took that knowledge into the first Trump administration as the commissioner of the Administration on Disability at the Department of Health & Human Services. Today, I’m deeply concerned by what Makary, Prasad, and — at times — Health & Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have done to reduce children’s ability to live the full length of their God-given lives.
Those concerns were why I raised the alarm when RFK Jr. was going through his Senate hearings a year ago. He had been openly supportive of abortion on the presidential campaign trail, but I and other concerned pro-life advocates were told that he would have plenty of pro-lifers around him and that people would become policy. They were right: People did become policy, but not the way we had hoped. Now, we have entire policies at the FDA dedicated to making it more difficult for children inside and outside the womb to live the lives they deserve.
Last October, the FDA outraged pro-life warriors across the country by approving a cheaper version of mifepristone, one of the most prevalent and notorious abortion drugs on the market. Women can have these drugs dropped off in their mailboxes and have abortions in the “comfort” of their own homes. The pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute estimates there were over 640,000 chemical abortions in 2023 — 63% of the total abortions that year.
In 2026, there will be even more.
That number, troubling enough on its own, understates the problem because it doesn’t account for the injuries these drugs inflict on the women who take them. One devastating fact I have learned in my advocacy for people with disabilities is the particular hazard the abortion pill presents for women who use wheelchairs or otherwise live with limited mobility. Any drug that causes blood clots — and abortion drugs definitely do — will be a deadly danger to people who have limited mobility.
FDA Chief Medical Officer Vinay Prasad is similarly problematic for those who support protecting life. He not only supports legalized abortion, but since his appointment in mid-2025, Prasad has held up the production of drugs and treatments that would make real differences in the lives of kids who suffer from rare diseases like Sanfilippo syndrome and Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
In 2018, Prasad opposed the Trump “right to try” doctrine, through which hundreds of patients have seen amazing results from drugs still in their experimental stages or through off-label usage. That number could be higher if Prasad’s red tape weren’t keeping effective drugs in “pre-approval” limbo.
RELATED: No, President Trump: The sanctity of life is not ‘flexible’
Photo by Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images
At HHS, the buck stops with RFK Jr. But ultimately in our government, the buck stops at the Oval Office. Trump and Vance recommitted to supporting life on Friday, and that commitment must be consistent throughout the administration. The FDA’s actions against the unborn and children with disabilities and rare diseases threaten to undermine what should be a slam dunk for Trump’s pro-life legacy.
In short, HHS and FDA appointees should be defending life, not quietly undermining it. Vance and Trump can make that happen.
Qatar Is Pushing for ‘Social Justice’ Lessons and Arabic Classes in US K-12 Schools
Foreign rulers should not have a say in what children learn in our nation’s K-12 schools, which is why we should be alarmed by the state of Qatar’s under-the-radar activities in American primary and secondary education.
Public documents from Georgia reveal that Qatar Foundation International (QFI), the Qatari royal family’s charity arm in the United States, is funding multiple education initiatives in the Peach State: K-12 teacher trainings, Arabic textbooks for young students, and student trips to Qatar.
The post Qatar Is Pushing for ‘Social Justice’ Lessons and Arabic Classes in US K-12 Schools appeared first on .
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No More Safe Spaces
“No More Safe Spaces,” editorial cartoon by Yogi Love for The American Spectator on Jan. 27, 2026.
‘That’s Gross’: Philadelphia DA’s Rhetoric Against ICE Too Extreme For Fetterman
‘I think we should stand down’
TikTok and Snapchat dodge trial on harm-to-kids lawsuit
TikTok will no longer be on trial when it comes to a lawsuit that claims Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube have platforms that are addicting and harmful to children.
The lawsuit, which involves a 19-year-old plaintiff going only by KGM, says the social networks caused her to become addicted to the apps and led to depression and suicidal thoughts.
‘New families every day … are speaking out and bringing Big Tech to court for its deliberately harmful products.’
TikTok has reportedly decided to settle and agreed in principle just hours before jury selection started in Los Angeles this week. Bloomberg Law reported that along with TikTok, Snap Inc. — owner of Snapchat — also reached a confidential settlement with the woman on January 20.
“Plaintiff KGM and defendant TikTok have reached an agreement in principle to settle her case,” Joseph VanZandt, the woman’s attorney, reportedly said in a statement.
The trial, which will continue with the other social media companies later this year, is just one of many that claim the sites are harmful, addictive, and otherwise have failed to protect children.
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While this is the first case to go to trial, there are thousands of complaints from users and families that have sparked other lawsuits in Santa Fe, New Mexico, New York City, and the Northern District of California.
For example, in the Northern District of California, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube were accused of “relentlessly” pursuing growth and “recklessly” ignoring the impacts their products have on children’s mental health.
In that case, Instagram’s former head of safety and well-being testified that Meta had a “17x” strike policy toward those who reportedly engaged in “trafficking of humans for sex.”
“You could incur 16 violations for prostitution and sexual solicitation, and upon the 17th violation, your account would be suspended,” the former employee claimed, citing internal documents.
Meta strongly denied the claims, stating, “We strongly disagree with these allegations, which rely on cherry-picked quotes and misinformed opinions in an attempt to present a deliberately misleading picture.”
“The full record will show that for over a decade, we have listened to parents, researched issues that matter most, and made real changes to protect teens,” Meta went on.
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Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images
The settlement between TikTok and KGM should come as no surprise, said Sacha Haworth, executive director of the Tech Oversight Project.
“This was only the first case — there are hundreds of parents and school districts in the social media addiction trials that [have started], and sadly, new families every day who are speaking out and bringing Big Tech to court for its deliberately harmful products,” she said in a statement provided to Blaze News.
If social media apps are found guilty in these trials, it could set a huge precedent for high-value settlements and possibly lead to sweeping regulation for how the sites handle youth accounts.
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