Category: Trump administration
‘Grow a backbone’: Border czar Homan fires back at heckler who interrupted TPUSA event
Border czar Tom Homan fired back at a heckler during a Turning Point USA conference at the University of Texas at El Paso on Thursday.
During the event, Homan spoke and answered questions from the audience, which numbered roughly 500.
‘I don’t want anybody hurt. I don’t want anybody to die — that includes officers and that includes aliens.’
He compared the border security under the Trump administration to that of the previous White House, describing the difference between them as “night and day.”
“There was 12,000 a day sometimes crossing the border illegally,” Homan said, referring to illegal crossings under the Biden administration. “You know what it was yesterday — 106 across 2,000 miles of border. And those 106, not a single one of those were released into the United States.”
The audience erupted in applause.
Homan debunked the legacy media’s narrative claiming that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is disproportionately arresting non-criminals. He stated that the most recent stats indicated that 64% of immigration arrests were of criminals.
RELATED: ‘He’s not that smart’: Homan lampoons Chicago mayor for pleading with UN to intervene against ICE
Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
He slammed the media and immigration enforcement critics for labeling him the architect of “family separations.”
“It wasn’t done to punish. It was done in an attempt to save lives and stop sexual assaults, and maybe control the border,” Homan said.
“You are a racist!” a heckler shouted. “You are destroying the Constitution!”
The audience responded with boos and drowned out the heckler’s rant by chanting, “USA!”
Homan continued his speech unfazed by the disturbance, explaining that the Biden administration lost track of over 300,000 unaccompanied alien children and had not attempted to locate them. He reported that the Trump administration had already located 40,000 of those children.
RELATED: DHS to increase operations in Twin Cities region as Somali fraud becomes unignorable
Photo by BRYAN R. SMITH/AFP via Getty Images
“Every night [when] I go to bed, I pray for the safety and security of every Border Patrol agent, ICE agent, and I pray for everybody that we’re looking for,” Homan said. “I don’t want anybody hurt. I don’t want anybody to die — that includes officers and that includes aliens. … Call me what you want.”
“Traitor!” a heckler shouted back.
Homan replied by telling the heckler to “grow a backbone, put a Kevlar vest and a gun on your hip, and go secure this border!”
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Dealing With Maduro Is No Distraction. It’s a Necessity.
With the latest American-led negotiation about Ukraine well underway, Beijing browbeating Japan’s new prime minister over her concerns about Taiwan’s security, and India rolling out the red carpet for Vladimir Putin, the Beltway is consumed with… Venezuela. The Trump administration’s drone strikes on alleged drug smuggling boats have roiled Washington, and criminal accusations and constitutional challenges abound.
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Federal judge in Florida orders release of long-hidden Epstein grand jury documents
After the nearly unanimous passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act last month, many have wondered what other files and information have yet to be disclosed amid the heated controversy over the Epstein files.
A federal judge in Florida just ordered the release of grand jury documents from an old case against Epstein, defying past orders not to release them.
U.S. District Judge Rodney Smith argued that a recent law now takes precedence over the rules that prohibited past disclosure.
U.S. District Judge Rodney Smith has ordered the release of grand jury transcripts related to investigations from 2005 and 2007 involving convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
RELATED: Was the latest Epstein document dump just Trump’s 4D chess trap? Steve Deace answers.
Photo by Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images
Grand jury proceedings are often conducted in private and there are higher standards to meet in order to disclose transcripts from them.
However, U.S. District Judge Rodney Smith, in his short decision to release the transcripts, argued that a recent law now takes precedence over the rules that prohibited past disclosure.
Representative Thomas Massie (R-Ky), who spearheaded the effort for disclosure, posted the news of the ruling on X on Friday afternoon.
Massie highlighted the fact that the Epstein Files Transparency Act played a crucial role in the judge’s decision to override past decisions against disclosure.
The Act, being “later-enacted” and more “specific”, trumps the rules barring the release of the documents in the past.
Epstein was not convicted of any crimes as a result of this grand jury investigation..
Instead, he famously pleaded guilty to comparatively minor charges in 2008 under the U.S. Attorney at the time, Alex Acosta, who later became Trump’s Labor Secretary in his first term. Acosta subsequently resigned following scrutiny over the non-prosecution agreement in 2008.
It is not clear when the grand jury transcripts will be released or exactly how much new information will be disclosed.
The Epstein Files Transparency Act, signed into law on November 19, gives the government 30 days to prepare and release all relevant records.
Those following the case can expect an update on the release of any remaining files by December 19.
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How to win the opioid fight
Despite thousands of lawsuits against OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma now being settled, the opioid crisis continues to devastate families and communities. This is why there are massive national efforts to expand addiction treatment, develop non-opioid pain alternatives, promote natural remedies, and confront the Mexican drug cartels flooding America with fentanyl. In recent years, opioid-related deaths have finally begun to decline, suggesting that those initiatives are starting to make a real impact. But that progress may already be slowing.
The introduction of work requirements for Medicaid eligibility under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act is producing unintended consequences for people in addiction recovery. Early studies show that declines in Medicaid enrollment correlate with drops in the number of patients receiving treatment for opioid use disorder. Because Medicaid is the primary source for buprenorphine and addiction services, these enrollment changes threaten fragile but meaningful recovery gains.
Conservatives champion individual responsibility — but responsibility also requires ensuring that systems meant to help people reclaim their lives aren’t working against them.
Work requirements aren’t the problem — they’re sound policy to preserve the financial stability and original intention of the program. The real issue is Medicaid’s regulatory structure, which is too rigid and dysfunctional to absorb yet another layer of complexity.
This crisis didn’t begin with work requirements. Medicaid’s own structure, combined with state policies, had been restricting access to effective OUD treatment for years. Patients face prior-authorization delays, prescriber rules that block lifesaving medications, and certificate-of-need laws that stop treatment centers from opening or expanding. Policymakers often claim these rules protect patients or control costs. In practice, they have choked off reliable care and pushed people in recovery farther from the help they need.
In states where prescriber limits and facility restrictions already make treatment scarce, adjusting Medicaid eligibility has a serious impact on the availability of buprenorphine providers. The problem lies in creating a policy that requires personal responsibility within an already bureaucratic structure that actively slows treatment access. When enrollment pressures combine with supply constraints caused by CON laws and prescription rules, the result is fewer people getting the care that keeps them alive.
This is especially true in Appalachia, which is ground zero of the opioid crisis. Pennsylvania explicitly prohibits off-site methadone “medication units,” while legislation has been floated in West Virginia that aims to ban methadone clinics. Local governments across the region routinely block zoning permits for treatment facilities, often caving to community pushback rather than addressing a staggering public health emergency. Many states still impose CON laws, restricting the ability of hospitals and clinics to add new treatment beds or open new treatment programs.
RELATED: Trump faces drugmakers that treat sick Americans like ATMs
Credit: Photo by Pete Marovich/Getty Images
On the provider side, well-intentioned prescribing rules have created even more barriers. Despite a dire shortage of addiction specialists, many states limit the prescription of OUD medications to certain providers, leaving primary care doctors — who could dramatically expand treatment access — underutilized or prevented from issuing prescriptions. Lawmakers have inadvertently created a bottleneck: too few qualified providers and too many hoops to jump through for those who want to treat addiction.
As the Trump administration continues to build a populist coalition that includes voters from Western Pennsylvania, Ohio, and other communities deeply scarred by opioid addiction, it must confront this reality head-on. Doing so does not require abandoning conservative principles, nor does it mean reversing work requirements. Those reforms remain both necessary and widely popular. But a serious conservative health care agenda must recognize that Medicaid’s regulatory architecture is undermining progress against opioid addiction — and America cannot afford to lose ground now.
Conservatives champion individual responsibility — but responsibility also requires ensuring that systems designed to help people reclaim their lives aren’t working against them. Addressing Medicaid’s regulatory failures is not just good policy; it is essential to sustaining progress in one of the most consequential public health fights of our time.
Editor’s note: A version of this article was published originally at the American Mind.
HOMAN HITS BACK: Border Czar Blasts Protester Who Calls Him ‘Traitor’ – ‘Why Don’t You Grow a Backbone?’ [WATCH]
![HOMAN HITS BACK: Border Czar Blasts Protester Who Calls Him ‘Traitor’ – ‘Why Don’t You Grow a Backbone?’ [WATCH]](https://hannity.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Homan-300x196.png "Homan")
White House Border Czar Tom Homan lit up a crowd at the University of Texas at El Paso on Thursday after a heckler branded him a “racist” and a “traitor” mid-speech.
Why the Ukraine Peace Plan May Be Pointless
President Trump’s latest Ukraine peace offensive took the world by storm. The 28-point plan and Thanksgiving deadline set off a diplomatic frenzy on both sides of the Atlantic. The Ukrainian government and European negotiators rushed to connect with their U.S. counterparts, and the Russians passive-aggressively threatened to veto any proposal emanating from these talks. As of this writing, 19 points are now on the table—and peace is nowhere in sight. Amid this week’s zigs and zags, three dynamics stood out as the most important factors affecting the fate of Ukraine: Trump is determined not to be dragged in any further, but he wants to be at the center of anything that happens, and none of the other powers are strong enough to change his mind or meaningfully alter facts on the ground.
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Trump to pardon former Honduran president sentenced to prison for drug trafficking
President Trump is set to pardon a former Honduran president who had been sentenced to prison for drug trafficking, he announced on social media Friday. “I will be granting a Full and Complete Pardon to Former President Juan Orlando Hernandez who has been, according to many people that I greatly respect, treated very harshly and…
National Guard member Sarah Beckstrom dies after DC shooting
U.S. Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, one of the two National Guard soldiers shot in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, has died. President Trump first made the announcement on Thursday night, describing Beckstrom, 20, as a “highly respected, young, magnificent person” who was “savagely attacked.” “She’s just passed away. She’s no longer with us. She’s looking down…
Johnson on life amid Speakership: ‘We’re kind of in survival mode right now’
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) opened up in a revealing Wednesday interview alongside his wife Kelly, sharing some of the challenges he has faced since taking the reins of the lower chamber amid Republicans’ razor-thin majority. Johnson in an interview on The Katie Miller Podcast said his life was a daily “triage” packed with constant…
Trump admin reexamining green cards linked to 19 countries after DC shooting
The Trump administration on Thursday said it would reexamine green cards linked to 19 countries after two National Guard members were shot outside of a metro station blocks from the White House. “At the direction of @POTUS, I have directed a full scale, rigorous reexamination of every Green Card for every alien from every country…
