Midterm Palpitations

 

Recent regional special elections have seen Democratic candidates win a number of special election races.

Now energized left-wing politicos remind the nation daily that every incumbent president, except three over the last century, has suffered substantial midterm losses in Congress.

Polls show President Donald Trump suffering an average 11-point negative unfavorability rating.

So Democrats promise to soon stop all new legislation and end Trump and his counterrevolution itself.

But the left will never offer any alternative agenda on the economy, the border, crime, or foreign policy.

Instead, the new Democrat-Socialist Party views the Biden disaster of 2021-2024 not as a result of his puppeteers’ toxic policies of open borders, 21 percent aggregate inflation, dead-end green energy subsidies, DEI mandates, trans fixations, and an appeasing foreign policy that led to wars abroad and emboldened China.

Instead, they now blame those catastrophic years on former President Joe Biden’s own enfeebled state — as if he were merely a hapless, debilitated messenger for their otherwise superb radical message.

So, absent a positive agenda, Democrats will simply run all their state and federal campaigns as if Trump, their satanic monster, is on every ballot.

Their Trump obsessions result in three now well-worn strategies.

The first, of course, is still more chaos.

The left believes that the unending 2020 riots cost Trump the election.

Ever since, they have sought to concoct a nihilist replay — whether the Tesla hysterias, the perpetual threats of government shutdowns, tough-guy talk of open insurrection against the federal government, or the current, performative-art, anti-ICE violence in Minneapolis.

They concede that most Americans still support Trump’s closed borders and legal-only immigration, but hope they want a return to “normalcy” even more.

The more violence, Nazi-invective, and sheer craziness the left can instill — storming church services, ramming ICE vehicles, taking over the streets, or boasting of armed resistance — the more they believe that voters will blame not them, the instigators, but Trump, the target of their insurrectionary madness.

In Democrats’ blinkered reckoning, voters supposedly would prefer 10,000 illegal aliens methodically and daily swarming the border instead of seeing Minneapolis in utter neo-Confederate revolt.

Second, Democrats seize on every Trump art-of-the-deal excess or coarse putdown.

They scream that narcissistic Trump’s new ballroom has wrecked the White House. Or madman Trump was on the verge of fighting our NATO brethren in Greenland. Or cruel Trump wrecked our relationship with the lovable and blameless Canadians.

Democrats grant that voters sincerely like Trump’s secure border, the new trade agreements that correct past asymmetries, a rearming NATO, a defanged Iran, and the end to Maduro’s communist thugocracy — but not Trump’s messy art-of-the-deal means to achieve those desirable ends.

They scream that Trump talked crazily of making Canada a 51st state, not that it was finally shocked into promising to pay what it owed back in NATO contributions, securing its side of the border, and addressing its massive trade surpluses with the U.S.

So, Trump needs to avoid the very melodramas the left wants to exploit, which detract from his own undeniable accomplishments and the Democrats’ previous disastrous record.

Third, Democrats still rely on their ossified partnerships with the media, academia, and popular culture to mouth the old talking points.

So we are told ad nauseam that Trump caused the “affordability” crisis.

Or Trump is still Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s puppet.

Or Trump was an Epstein groupie.

Or Trump’s trade war crashed the economy.

Behind this stale Democrat boilerplate lies a deep fear that the Nietzschean Trump, just as he beat all their lawfare ambushes, will also do the impossible and avoid losing the Congress in November.

And they should fear.

Trump’s catalysts for a booming 2026 economy are already in place.

No one can now stop massive deregulation, new tax cuts and incentives, recalibrated tariffs, unprecedented foreign investment, record energy development, and the new emerging technologies.

All that is needed before the midterms is not controversial new initiatives, but more focus on the current boom in GDP, lower inflation, and increased purchasing power — all in contrast to Biden’s inflation disaster.

Voters still support closed borders and deportations of criminals and the millions who swarmed in under Biden.

But the best way to remind them of a secure border is to concentrate on partnering with red and purple state and local law enforcement for the next few months.

Each week, the thousands of systematically deported criminals in these jurisdictions will contrast with the thousands of violent offenders who are sanctuaried and protected in failed blue states.

And without the smokescreen of the ICE psychodramas, there are a lot of Democrat fears — like the vast Somali fraud in Minnesota, the even greater welfare scandals emerging in California, and the antics and verbiage of the hard left, like Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and the herky-jerky Gavin Newsom, who turned California’s natural paradise into a man-made purgatory.

Scott Bessent Calmly Shuts Down Senator Warnock’s Anti-Tariff Rant

 

Senator Warnock, a Democrat from Georgia, blasted Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, blaming President Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs for month-after-month declines in manufacturing jobs and for leaving small businesses in his home state struggling to keep pace with large manufacturers. Bessent responded calmly, arguing that while the numbers may not yet reflect it, the Trump administration’s economic policies are rapidly laying the groundwork for a manufacturing boom, securing trillions of dollars in foreign investment, and dismissing outlets like the Wall Street Journal as out of touch with Main Street.

“Thank you, Chair Scott, and welcome, Secretary Bessent,” Warnock began. “President Trump promised that his administration would usher in a, quote, ‘Golden Age’ of American manufacturing. In September 2024, at a rally in my home state of Georgia, Donald Trump said, quote, ‘We’re going to have a manufacturing boom.’ Secretary Bessent, we’re now more than one year into the Trump administration, yes or no. Has there been a manufacturing boom in the United States?”

“There are the beginnings of a manufacturing boom,” Bessent replied. “We have intentions, factory groundbreakings, sir.”

“So your answer to that is yes, there’s been a manufacturing boom?”

“That we are at the beginning of a manufacturing boom.”

Sen. Warnock went on to pin the struggles of American businesses on the president’s tariff policies, citing a Wall Street Journal article that placed the blame for the manufacturing downturn squarely on tariffs.

“Okay, you and I could agree to disagree,” Warnock responded. “But more importantly, manufacturers are telling us something different. Manufacturers are struggling because of the president’s policies, and that’s what they keep telling us, and the facts keep telling us. In fact, just this past Monday, the Wall Street Journal published this article entitled, ‘U.S. Manufacturing is in Retreat and Trump’s Tariffs Aren’t Helping.’ I request consent to enter this article into the hearing record, Mr. Chairman.”

“Secretary Bessent, do you know how many manufacturing jobs the United States has lost since Liberation Day in April 2025, when the president first announced his tariffs?” Sen. Warnock asked.

“Yes, Senator, because you were out of the room, but it was already brought up,” the Treasury Secretary quipped.

“We do many things. I don’t need you to tell me where I was,” Warnock fired back.

“Seventy-two thousand,” Bessent said. “And I will point out that the Wall Street Journal is not called the ‘Main Street Journal,’ and they care more about Wall Street than Main Street.”

“Sir, I’m not asking you to opine on the Wall Street Journal. I have three minutes. Just answer the questions that I’m actually asking you. So, 72,000 manufacturing jobs, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Thank you for answering the question. Manufacturers shed workers, shed workers, in each of the eight months after President Trump unveiled his tariffs on what he called Liberation Day. I would submit that it’s a strange liberation and a curious freedom that leaves you unemployed.”

Even worse, smaller businesses are struggling to keep up with the tariff chaos. Big manufacturers may have the resources to shift suppliers. And I need you to understand the spirit of my questions. I spend a lot of time talking to the people in Georgia who’ve given me the great honor of representing them in the United States Senate. And so, this is about them. And especially our small businesses. They don’t have the ear of the President. They don’t have access to Mar-a-Lago. And so, they’re not able to insulate their company from the worst of the tariff. Secretary Bessent, small businesses without the same resources or unfettered access to the President, what should those businesses do for relief if they can’t get into Mar-a-Lago?

“Again, sir, small business competence is up,” Bessent replied. “And we are seeing that the One Big Beautiful Bill gives the full expensing for equipment, factories, and ag structures.”

“They are telling us that it’s more expensive to make basic things,” Warnock replied. “We are moving in the wrong direction. The facts don’t lie. The president lies often. But the facts don’t lie. In fact, if you’re saying we’re at the beginning, basically your answer to those small businesses is wait a little while. Is that the answer?”

“You ask about manufacturing?” Bessent said.

“That’s right. I’m asking you about this manufacturing boom. Will we see something different a year from now?”

“We are going to see it. I was just in my home state, Senator Scott’s state, South Carolina, that we are seeing a boom there,” the Treasury Secretary replied. “And I believe Georgia has very good pro-business policies. I’m sure you will see a boom there also. The factory build intentions are quite high.”

Rather than pressing for specific figures on the manufacturing boom Bessent cited in South Carolina, or asking how that growth might spread across the rest of the country, Sen. Warnock spent the remainder of his time offering his own assessment of the manufacturing economy. He continued to pin rising costs, from groceries and electricity to health care and small businesses, on the Trump administration, blasting it for problems the administration has repeatedly said are the legacy of the Biden era. 

I’ll tell you what I see. I see as I talk to folks that it’s more expensive to build things in America. I see that we’ve lost 72,000 jobs a year into this administration. We’ve lost manufacturing jobs every month since he called for Liberation Day. And meanwhile, folks who are working in these small businesses trying to make their lives work, they’re seeing higher costs. They’re seeing their costs go up for groceries. They’re seeing their costs go up for electricity. They’re seeing their costs go up for health care. And I think the American people are still waiting for a solution. So far, we haven’t seen one coming out of this Trump tariffs regime. The Baptist preacher is done. I have no time left.

Despite Warnock’s view of the matter, in 2025, several countries and multinational corporations announced massive new investments in American manufacturing, totaling in the trillions, and commitments the Trump administration argues were secured only through its tariff policies. 

While that manufacturing boom has yet to fully register in nationwide economic data, the administration insists that, at the ground level, manufacturers are already praising the tariffs and that those massive investments will soon translate into measurable gains across the country

Why Minnesota Is Becoming America’s New Nullification Crisis

 

In the months before the April 12, 1861, firing on Fort Sumter, there were lots of sharp divisions in the North about the proper reaction to the first seven Confederate states that had already left the Union.

Not all Unionists believed that war was inevitable. Some, in fact, were happy to be done with the departing South and thus see their stain of slavery gone from the Union. Similarly, others agreed that the emerging Confederacy was not worth the trouble and costs of war, and the secessionists could just form their own nation and stew in their own backward, servile juice.

But after Fort Sumter, Abraham Lincoln—who was hated as much by the Confederates as President Donald Trump is by the woke and socialist left—gained a consensus that the Constitution had no clauses about any lawful departure from the union. But it did operate under a clear supremacy clause that made state obstruction of federal law and occupation of federal property veritable sedition.

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Lincoln and the preservationists felt that they easily had the moral high ground of abolition versus the continuance of slavery. Nor did they want a North America of fragmenting, warring nations in the manner of Europe.

Something similar is emerging over Minnesota, the South Carolina of our age.

Once sanctuary states, cities, and counties had established the precedent that, with impunity, they could nullify federal immigration law, then what followed was a logical and mounting descent into the current open defiance of the federal government. How odd that self-described progressives are now acting out the visions of prior kindred nullificationists and neo-Confederates from John C. Calhoun to George Wallace.

The reaction of the rest of the nation, especially its conservative half, to Minnesota resembles the 1861 disconnect in the North over the insurrectionary states.

Some believe that if Minnesota wants to protect its approximately 1,300 jailed illegal alien murderers, rapists, and assorted felons, so be it, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement should leave such a dysfunctional and dystopian state to its own self-destructive path.

In this way of “See ya, wouldn’t wanna be ya” thinking, Trump should stick to the red and purple states, clear them of criminal aliens with the help of local enforcement, but without the organized performance-art leftist resistance. Then he could contrast the nation with the difference between low crime, noncontroversial deportations, versus the blue-state model of protecting illegal alien criminals and their indifference to the mayhem they inflict on the innocent.

If Minnesota further wants to be a state like 1861 South Carolina that openly defies the federal government, then also so be it. But it should accordingly not expect federal funding for its pick-and-choose approach to federal law and property.

Has Minnesota forgotten that, like blue-state America, it cheered on Barack Obama’s Justice Department when it successfully sued Arizona in 2010, insisting that it was Obama’s right as a federal custodian not to enforce federal immigration law at the border—and thus not legal for Gov. Jan Brewer to use her state resources to enforce a federal law that derelict federal officers would not?

But on the other hand, contemporary Unionists objected that such live and let suffer is defeatist. Moreover, there are millions of Americans inside insurrectionary Minnesota who do not support their neo-Confederate leaders. Millions in Minnesota properly see themselves as Americans first and Minnesotans second.

In this line of argument, just as Lincoln refused to give up federal armories, property, and offices inside the South—most notably Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor—to insurrectionists, so too the Trump administration has an obligation to protect federal property and offices in Minnesota and to enforce federal law throughout the nation, at least if it is to continue as a nation.

Very soon, Trump will have to decide which strategy is preferable and politically viable before the midterms.

Meanwhile, Minnesota’s highest elected officials have ordered local and state police not to protect federal immigration officers from the very street violence that they fuel. Indeed. Gov. Tim Walz, Mayor Jacob Frey, and Attorney General Ellison are actively encouraging Minnesotans to obstruct federal officers from enforcing federal laws—despite the mounting violence that follows their collective prompts.

The three know that organized and well-funded groups organize the protests and incite the violence. And perhaps the trio even welcomes would-be martyrs to use their vehicles to ram ICE officers or to arrive at protests armed with military-grade, semi-automatic pistols with plenty of magazines and ammunition to spare.

Walz and company further quietly accept that they could easily mitigate the violence by simply turning over roughly 1,300 criminal illegal aliens in various Minnesota jails to federal authorities. To do so would lessen the chances of violence, make Minnesota a safer place, and expedite the rotation of ICE out of Minnesota.

But, of course, Walz, Frey, and Ellison have no such intentions, given their schemes are elsewhere.

Given the failure of an increasingly socialist Democratic Party in 2024 to offer a more popular and convincing agenda than Trump’s, it believes its future lies in an increasingly redistributionist America, fueled by unlimited, unaudited immigration from the former Third World. It views as a political asset millions of arriving poor in dire need of massive federal health, food, housing, and education subsidies and entitlements, imbued with DEI victimhood, and nursed on America as toxic at its birth and ever more pathological ever since.

So, for the Minnesota state officials, screaming for ICE “to get the f— out of Minnesota” is more than mere braggadocio. It is a reminder that the Democratic Party wants a safe place for illegal immigration, the fuel of a future dependent constituency—as the architecture of the recent massive Somali fraud attests.

Democrats also believe that the more turmoil, the more violence, the more resistance, and the more a general sense of chaos and unrest swirl around the Trump administration, the more they can drive down its popularity before the midterms.

They still cherish the months of riot, violence, and arson in the George Floyd “summer of love” in 2020 as critical in defeating Trump.

Now as then, the Left believes it can create a lose/lose dilemma for Trump: send in the National Guard to restore order, and he confirms that he is a “Nazi” and using the “Gestapo” to quell “peaceful” protests. Stand down, and the Left owns the street, exasperating the MAGA base that mysteriously Trump has allowed the criminal left to nullify the enforcement of federal law in near-secessionist fashion.

There are other Democrat agendas, both short- and long-term.

The Minnesota Democrat apparatus either knowingly turned a blind eye to, protected, or silently partnered with the architects of likely the largest theft of federal welfare and entitlement monies in U.S. history—largely by the Somali community, both immigrants and their second-generation apparatchiks. The Democrat elite counted on the prophylactic cry of “racist!” to exempt the Somali community from any legal accountability. And so far, it seems right in that assumption.

And the public?

Polls reveal its trademark ambiguity. A majority voted for Trump to enforce immigration law, close the border, end illegal immigration, and deport those who broke federal law. But that hope and the reality of implementing it are two different things—especially when a state like Minnesota has not just institutionalized illegal immigration but nearly canonized foreign nationals illegally residing in the U.S.

To sum up public opinion, the proverbial people want all criminal illegal aliens deported as soon as possible, and they may even support the deportations of all 10 million-12 million illegal aliens who came en masse, unaudited, and with the de facto blessing of the Biden administration.

But that said, they want the act of deportation of the non-criminal to be out of sight, out of mind—as if magically they can simply disappear and thus either self-deport or assemble at ICE stations eager to be sent at no cost home.

For now, Walz, Frey, and Ellison are upping the rhetoric, fanning the violence, and talking openly about how best to nullify federal law and impede federal enforcement. They are convinced that they have galvanized national opposition to the hated Trump, smothered the Somali fraud scandal, and stopped ICE deportations of their constituents.

In all of those assumptions, they have little idea they are following the Confederate script to the letter. And like their spiritual forefathers of 1861, they grow ever more cocky, boastful, and defiant as they create martyrs, spread narratives of victimhood, and daily slouch toward another Fort Sumter.

Tim Walz Caves, Will Work With Trump and Tom Homan. Is This Why?

 The situation in Minnesota is out of control, and finally, happy hands lunatic Tim Walz has chosen reason, deciding to cooperate with Trump officials in the wake of the recent shooting of Alex Pretti by Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis last Saturday. It sparked another round of outrage from the Left, who claim, without evidence, that he was executed. Meanwhile, some conservatives claimed wrongly that he was about to commit mass slaughter before he was shot—Pretti was carrying a firearm at the protest. He didn't have his carry permit, which, before everyone gets huffy about that, is only a $25 fine and is not considered an offense where his gun or his Second Amendment rights would be stripped, as in a domestic violence situation. 

The incident created a total mess on messaging, and now Trump is stepping in to clean up the mess, appointing Tom Homan, who I assume is going to be the point person, not just of the overall operation in the state, but with Walz personally in resolving this matter (via Fox 21/Associated Press): 

Walz’ office said the call was “productive.” 

“The Governor made the case that we need impartial investigations of the Minneapolis shootings involving federal agents, and that we need to reduce the number of federal agents in Minnesota,” his office wrote in a release. 

Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both Minnesota residents and U.S. citizens, were fatally shot and killed by federal immigration officers in separate incidents in Minneapolis. 

Trump agreed to talk to the Department of Homeland Security about ensuring the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is able to conduct an independent investigation, Walz’ office said, and also agreed to look into either reducing the number of federal agents in Minnesota or working with the state “in a more coordinated fashion on immigration enforcement regarding violent criminals.” 

.Why the change of heart, Tim? For days, you’ve been on a psychopathic rant against federal immigration officers, comparing the situation to the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg, making not-so-subtle remarks about being at war with the federal government, and finally saying that what’s happening in your state, which you’ve allowed to devolve into anarchy, is not so dissimilar to the Nazis and Anne Frank. It’s crazy. You’re a crazy person, Tim—and screaming nonsense on a bullhorn atop a metal fence is mental patient antics.  

It’s now led to another person getting shot and killed over your incessant lies. But there could also be the issue of the anti-ICE signal chat being exposed, where some top Minnesota Democrats, who allegedly include Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, might have something to do with it. Reporter Cam Higby posted the contents of this chat over the weekend, showing a vast, coordinated effort to disrupt ICE operations. Some could argue it’s a blueprint on how to commit acts of domestic terrorism. 

They're Scattering: Anti-ICE Leftists Consider Fleeing Country After Signal Chat Got Exposed

 

They got exposed, but that doesn’t mean they’ve gone away or stopped. They’re a roach infestation. These leftists in Minneapolis, causing mayhem for our law enforcement, had their secret Anti-ICE chat on Signal exposed, but new ones have been established, and the older ones nuked from existence. 

Still, the chats revealed a coordinated system from which these psychopaths could engage in targeted harassment and assault of federal law enforcement. Reporter Cam Higby dropped this nuke over the weekend, and now they’re scattering. Some said they’re fleeing the country and going to Cuba, which was amusing:

Here are some of the contents from the initial story Higby dropped over the weekend. RedState broke down the mayhem even further, diving into the funding and who was on it. We know that ‘Flan,’ the alleged codename for Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, was part of this chat, along with Alex Pretti, the latest leftist shot and killed by immigration officers, which led to the second wave of lefty mayhem in the city. Pretti was carrying a firearm, though he didn't have his proper ID with him*, at this protest, but things went awry, and he was killed. Again, interfering with federal law enforcement operations will lead to dire consequences for the agitator. The Left claims this was another execution. The bodycams from the Border Patrol agents involved are being analyzed.  

You’ll notice emojis next to people’s names. Here’s a key for what those emojis mean.   

The highlighted positions are the most crucial. Most are self explanatory. Mobile patrols spend their entire “shift” searching for suspicious vehicles.    

When they find one they send it to the group so that “plate checkers” can compare with their database and see if it’s a known federal vehicle or if the patrol can make the confirmation so that the database can be updated.  

[…]  

A new group chat for each zone is made each day. The chats are dated, and deleted at the end of each day.   

This is likely to avoid detection, record keeping, and consequences.    

My mid-day, the group chats hit maximum capacity (1,000 people)    allowed by signal and people who are not chasing federal agents are asked to leave to create room for those who are.   

The dispatch calls also reach maximum capacity constantly. I believe it’s 50 people maximum. Which means, at any given time in each small zone, there are 50 people chasing agents.  

[…]  

THEY ARE EVERYWHERE AND LOCAL POLICE ARE COOPERATING.   

Here an “observer” calls out a possible agent but says she’s just out walking her dog so can’t continue on.  

Dispatch called for “backup”   

Also below is a message indicating that local PD may get involved if ICE “hinders public safety”