Category: Trump administration
America First energy policy is paying off at the pump
When it comes to gas prices, what a difference one administration can make. After peaking above $5 a gallon under President Biden, prices at the pump are now at their lowest levels in more than four years — and still falling. Today, the national average for regular gas sits at about $2.85, and a growing number of stations are dipping below $2. That’s a real Christmas gift for working families, one that makes a meaningful difference.
Falling gas prices bring immediate relief to households worried about affordability while also easing pressure across the broader economy. Compared with this time last year, Americans are saving a collective $400 million per week at the pump, according to GasBuddy.
Cheaper fuel deserves celebration, but there is more work to be done to lock in these gains and drive prices even lower.
Most people associate the One Big Beautiful Bill Act primarily with tax cuts. But it may prove to be one of the most consequential pro-energy laws passed in years. Lower gas prices do not happen by accident. They are the result of deliberate policy choices — specifically, President Trump’s reversal of the anti-energy agenda pursued by the Biden administration.
That agenda, driven by radical environmental activists, sought to force a rapid transition away from oil and gas regardless of cost. It relied on higher taxes, blocked infrastructure projects, restricted leasing, and constrained production. Taken together, those policies drove up prices and fueled inflation that hit working families hardest.
On day one, President Trump moved quickly to unwind many of those decisions, issuing nearly half a dozen energy-focused executive orders that restored certainty for producers. That early action was followed by his signature legislative achievement, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which combined broad-based tax relief with policies designed to restore American energy dominance.
The bill reduces production costs by repealing the Inflation Reduction Act’s misguided fee increase on oil and gas produced on federal lands. It cuts that fee by 25%, making domestic production more attractive and more affordable for drillers.
Just as important, the OBBBA restores predictability to federal leasing. The law mandates nearly 40 offshore oil and gas lease sales in the Gulf of America, Alaska, and other regions. It also establishes quarterly onshore lease sales and biannual offshore sales, giving the private sector long-term certainty. Under President Biden, leasing all but ground to a halt, with fewer leases issued than at any point since the 1960s — crippling the pipeline of future energy projects.
The bill also repeals or tightens a range of Green New Deal-style tax credits that heavily subsidized renewables at the expense of oil and gas. Those credits masked the true costs of renewable projects and distorted electricity markets, contributing to grid instability and higher energy prices.
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Justin Hamel/Bloomberg via Getty Images
The bottom line is simple: The OBBBA encourages more oil and gas production at lower cost. Over the next decade, that means a steadier supply of crude ready to be refined into affordable gasoline.
Still, Congress and the administration should not take their foot off the gas. Cheaper fuel deserves celebration, but there is more work to be done to lock in these gains and drive prices even lower.
At the top of the list is permitting reform. Energy projects routinely take longer to permit than to build. Environmental reviews intended to inform decisions have morphed into open-ended processes that stretch on for years. Even approved projects can be tied up indefinitely by duplicative reviews and serial lawsuits from activist groups. The result is uncertainty that discourages investment and delays infrastructure Americans depend on every day.
America First energy dominance is working, and families are saving real money because of it. The House has already passed several pro-energy permitting reforms, but meaningful engagement with the Senate will be required to deliver a comprehensive overhaul to the president’s desk. Without permitting reform, the full benefits of the OBBBA’s energy provisions will remain unrealized.
The lesson is clear: Energy dominance follows when government gets out of the way. If permitting reform advances next year, producers will gain the certainty and speed they need to deliver reliable, affordable energy to consumers. In 2026, Congress should finish the job.
What are freedom cities, and when will you live in one?
Everywhere you look, it seems like there is an embarrassment of riches when it comes to plans for futuristic, dystopian systems of government. However, one such plan has already materialized and has caught the attention of some very powerful people: freedom cities.
While it’s too early to tell if freedom cities will be a dystopian nightmare or, in the more likely scenario, a merely fascinating innovation, what is clear is that many powerful people have been interested in the idea for years.
‘Our objective will be a quantum leap in the American standard of living.’
First, what are freedom cities?
Freedom cities are essentially deregulated economic zones designed to encourage innovation and technological development without (or with much less) cumbersome bureaucracy, rules, and taxes.
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Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images
According to an article by Newsweek, the creation of a freedom city in the United States would require at least two states to demarcate land along their borders and to agree on taxation and policy.
But why should we care about what is probably just a billionaire pipe dream to ease the billionaire tax burden?
Well, one of the powerful people who is very interested in these cities is President Donald Trump.
Freedom cities have been on President Trump’s mind for nearly three years at least.
In March 2023, then-former President Trump issued a video statement detailing several plans to revitalize American innovation.
Past generations of Americans pursued big dreams and daring projects that once seemed absolutely impossible. They pushed across an unsettled continent and built new cities in the wild frontier. They transformed American life with the interstate highway system — magnificent, it was. And they launched a vast network of satellites into orbit all around the earth.
But today our country has lost its boldness. Under my leadership, we will get it back in a very big way. If you look at just three years ago, what we were doing was unthinkable — how good it was, how great it was for our country.
Our objective will be a quantum leap in the American standard of living. … Here are just a few of the ways we can do it.
Almost one-third of the land mass of the United States is owned by the federal government. With just a very, very small portion of that land, just a fraction, one-half of one percent — would you believe that? — we should hold a contest to charter up to 10 new cities and award them to the best proposals for development.
In other words, we’ll actually build new cities in our country again. These freedom cities will reopen the frontier, reignite American imagination, and give hundreds of thousands of young people and other people — all hardworking families — a new shot at home ownership and in fact the American dream.
While President Trump’s plans have not yet been put into practice in the United States, the idea of a freedom city has already been put into practice in Honduras, for example.
According to Newsweek, Pronomos Capital, a venture capital firm backed by tech billionaires Peter Thiel and Marc Andreessen, has helped push for the creation and development of Prospera ZEDE, a privately run economic zone on parts of Roatan, an island off the coast of Honduras, and on the coast of La Ceiba, Honduras.
According to the company’s website, Próspera ZEDE (Zone of Economic Development and Employment) is “a startup zone with a regulatory system designed for entrepreneurs to build better, cheaper, and faster than anywhere else in the world.”
However, this economic zone in Honduras has seen its fair share of criticism from locals, pushback from the Honduran government, and legal challenges since its establishment.
Think tanks like the American Enterprise Institute have also taken an interest in the creation of freedom cities in the United States. According to a March 2025 report produced by the AEI Housing Center, freedom cities “offer a dynamic framework for re-shoring critical industries, expanding housing affordability, and facilitating rapid progress in emerging fields such as biotechnology, aeronautics, and energy.”
The AEI even drafted a “homesteading map” showing the pockets of federal land in Western states that could potentially be used for freedom cities, forecasting that the development of freedom cities would take anywhere between 40 and 50 years.
‘DONE WITH JUNK SCIENCE’: RFK, HHS Move to Shut Down Gender Procedures for Kids [WATCH]
![‘DONE WITH JUNK SCIENCE’: RFK, HHS Move to Shut Down Gender Procedures for Kids [WATCH]](https://hannity.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/GettyImages-2251208040-300x200.jpg "Secretaries Rollins And Kennedy Make Agriculture And Health Announcement")
The Trump administration is escalating its crackdown on so-called gender-affirming care for minors — and this time, the warning is coming straight from the top of Health and Human Services.
RFK Jr. moves to ban transgender procedures for children: ‘This is not medicine; it is malpractice’
Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is leading the charge to protect children across America from life-shattering transgender procedures.
Kennedy announced a new declaration on Thursday moving to ban sex-altering operations, hormone replacement therapy, and other irreversible medical procedures that target children suffering from gender dysphoria. Rather than affirming tragic delusions and relying on taxpayers to subsidize these experimental interventions, Kennedy’s health department is working to pull funding and impose enforcement actions on the medical institutions that profit off of vulnerable children.
‘We’re done with junk science driven by ideological pursuits.’
“The Trump administration will not stand by while ideology, misinformation, and propaganda push vulnerable young people into decisions they cannot fully understand and that they can never reverse,” Kennedy said Thursday.
“There is divine worth in every person, and it shines most brightly in our children. That worth commands us to protect them.”
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Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Kennedy was flanked by numerous health officials in President Donald Trump’s administration, Republican lawmakers, and even Chloe Cole, a de-transitioner who described her own traumatic experience with the medical industry.
“It’s not too late to accept the beautiful way God has created you,” Cole said during her remarks.
Kennedy went on to describe the predatory nature of the medical institutions that convince American youth that sex is malleable and that a life-altering, irreversible medical procedure is a one-size-fits-all solution to the mental health struggles for these children.
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Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
“They betray the estimated 300,000 American youth ages 13 to 17 conditioned to believe that sex can be changed,” Kennedy said. “They betrayed their Hippocratic Oath to ‘do no harm.’ So-called gender affirming care has inflicted lasting physical and psychological damage on vulnerable young people. This is not medicine; it is malpractice.”
“We’re done with junk science driven by ideological pursuits, not the well-being of children.”
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101-year-old WWII vet cheers on Trump in fiery patriotic speech: ‘Godd**mit, put a uniform on me — I’ll go tomorrow’
A 101-year-old World War II veteran delivered a passionate speech about his love for America and President Donald Trump’s leadership during an event at Mar-a-Lago this week.
On Tuesday, America’s Future hosted the Second Annual Champions for America Celebration Gala to honor and recognize individuals “whose lives reflect courage, sacrifice, and unwavering commitment to faith, freedom, and service.”
‘This was a reminder of who we are.’
Navy veteran and Bronze Star of Valor recipient William “Bill” Dillon, who served from 1942 to 1947, shared powerful remarks with the audience.
“There’s nobody in the godd**n world who cares more for this nation than this guy that you’re looking at,” Dillon stated. “And I think Trump is not only the president of the United States; he is the president of the world.”
Dillon complimented Trump for his “fantastic job” negotiating on behalf of the country.
“I’m 101, going on 102. Godd**mit, put a uniform on me — I’ll go tomorrow!” Dillon declared.
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Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Matt Van Swol, a former nuclear scientist at the Department of Energy, stated that he had the honor of meeting Dillon at the event.
“Bill said that he has lived under 22 American presidents and that President Trump is his favorite. … Truly a special person,” Van Swol said.
“A World War II veteran, Bronze Star of Valor recipient, submariner, and aerospace pioneer, Bill delivered an energetic, passionate speech that reminded everyone what real courage looks like. From serving aboard the USS Sailfish to helping build America’s early space program, his life reflects sacrifice, resolve, and love of country,” America’s Future said, referring to Dillon. “This was a reminder of who we are.”
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Bill Dillon. Photo by Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images for Associated Television International
America’s Future highlighted remarks from actor Isaiah Washington, human biologist Gary Brecka, author Angela Stanton-King, and General Charlie Flynn.
The organization referred to the event as an “unforgettable evening.”
“Tonight, America’s Future gathered to honor courage, faith, and conviction. Bringing together voices and leaders who refuse to stay silent when the stakes are high. From powerful remarks to heartfelt moments of recognition, this was a night that reminded us what America stands for and why the fight for her future matters,” the organization wrote.
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Troops who refused COVID shot to receive retroactive honor to ‘right the wrongs of the past’: Hegseth
President Trump’s secretary of war is making it a point to set the record straight for those servicemen and -women who adhered to their convictions and refused the Biden COVID shots.
In a memorandum dated December 6, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth ordered Pentagon leadership to identify service members wrongfully discharged because of their refusal to take the jab and give them their due.
Sean Parnell said that nearly 8,700 service members were ‘involuntarily separated’ from the military because of their refusal to take the jab.
Specifically, many service members were given a general discharge rather than a fully honorable discharge.
“It is unconscionable that thousands of former Service members who held true to their personal and religious convictions were not just separated, but separated with General (Under Honorable Conditions), rather than Honorable, discharge characterizations,” Hegseth wrote.
RELATED: Activist judges overruled: Trump judges greenlight Hegseth’s ban on military ‘dudes in dresses’
Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call Inc. via Getty Images
Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said that nearly 8,700 service members were “involuntarily separated” from the military because of their refusal to take the jab.
Of those, Parnell continued, “more than 3,000 received less than honorable discharge characterizations.”
“The department is committed to ensuring that everyone who should have received a fully honorable discharge receives one and continues to right wrongs and restore confidence in and honor to our fighting force,” Parnell said.
In his first week back in office, Trump signed an executive order to reinstate service members who left or were removed from duty on account of the “unfair, overbroad, and unnecessary” COVID vaccine mandates. Hegseth then began implementing that directive in February.
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STANDING WITH SUSIE: Trump, Vance, Gabbard Defend Wiles in Wake of Vanity Fair Hit Piece
Prominent members of the Trump Administration — including the President himself — are coming out in support of Chief of Staff Susie Wiles after a Vanity Fair hit piece went live early Tuesday.
Scott Jennings Clarifies Where Wiles Stands With Trump After Vanity Fair Backlash
‘a little bit of palace intrigue’
Trump approval rating drops slightly: Poll
President Trump’s approval rating has dropped slightly, according to a poll released Sunday. In the NBC News Decision Desk poll, 42 percent of respondents said they either “strongly approve” or “somewhat approve” when it comes to “the way Donald Trump is handling his job as president,” down 2 points from a poll that began in…
Trump’s First Year of His Second Term Lacks the Drama of 2017. Good.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is a better boss the second time around. You can see it in his staffing….
