For months, Democrats have tried to weaponize the delayed release of the Epstein files against President Donald Trump, after Trump got all weird about releasing the files in February. In recent weeks, House Dems selectively leaked materials to suggest the delay meant Trump had something to hide, even though none of the photos or emails implicated him in Epstein’s sex-trafficking (something the NY Times even admitted). And after enormous bipartisan pressure spearheaded by Rep. Thomas Massie and MTG, Trump finally signed the Epstein Files Transparency Act into law – requiring the release of ‘all’ the Epstein files no later than Friday. And while the DOJ only released ‘about half’ of what they were supposed to, they did offer a deeper peek into what was going on behind the scenes.

The first tranche of DOJ files released Friday include thousands of pages of material on Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, along with photos featuring high-profile figures such as Bill Clinton, Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, Mick Jagger, Kevin Spacey, Chris Tucker, Sarah Ferguson, Prince Andrew, and Bill Gates.

While no major bombshells have surfaced yet, former President Bill Clinton is facing renewed scrutiny because of some of the photos in the latest release: him posing with Epstein in matching shirts, chatting up a dancer, and lounging on what appears to be a plane with a redacted woman on his lap. Clinton also appears at a dinner table with Mick Jagger, Epstein, and Maxwell.

One standout image captures Clinton in a pool or hot tub with an unidentified woman whose face the DOJ blacked out, indicating that the individual is a victim and/or underage, which was allowed by the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

Mr. Clinton is one of the few people whose faces were not redacted, along with Mr. Epstein himself and Ms. Maxwell. In posts on X after the release, a White House spokeswoman repeatedly pointed out photos of Mr. Clinton and argued that the news media did not want to focus on the images.

“Here is Bill Clinton in a hot tub next to someone whose identity has been redacted. Per the Epstein Files Transparency Act, DOJ was specifically instructed only to redact the faces of victims and/or minors. Time for the media to start asking real questions,” White House deputy press secretary Abigail Jackson wrote on her personal X account.

Meanwhile, Republicans on the House Oversight Committee are also seeking to force Bill and Hillary to give in-person depositions in their own investigation. On social media, Trump has claimed without evidence that Clinton and other Democrats spent “spent large portions of their life with Epstein, and on his ‘Island.’”

Unsurprisingly, the Clinton camp wasn’t happy about the latest drop. Angel Ureña, Clinton’s deputy chief of staff, posted an angry statement attacking the release on X. “The White House hasn’t been hiding these files for months only to dump them late on a Friday to protect Bill Clinton. This is about shielding themselves from what comes next, or from what they’ll try and hide forever. So they can release as many grainy 20-plus-year-old photos as they want, but this isn’t about Bill Clinton. Never has, never will be. Even Susie Wiles said Donald Trump was wrong about Bill Clinton,” Ureña wrote. ”There are two types of people here. The first group knew nothing and cut Epstein off before his crimes came to light. The second group continued relationships with him after. We’re in the first. No amount of stalling by people in the second group will change that.”

Ureña concluded, “Everyone, especially MAGA, expects answers, not scapegoats.”

Clinton’s ties to Epstein have been well documented – having moved in the same elite circles as far back as the early 1990s, leaving behind a trail of photos over the years. Epstein and Maxwell visited the Clinton White House multiple times, and Maxwell later appeared at Chelsea Clinton’s 2010 wedding.

Clinton also flew on Epstein’s jet in the early 2000s for trips his team says were connected to Clinton Foundation work in Europe, Asia, and Africa. Clinton faces no criminal charges related to Epstein, and his representatives insist he did not know about Epstein’s crimes.

And of course, the MSM is pissed!

“The images and documents have been released without context or background information,” the New York Times writes. “It is unclear which photographs might have been taken by Mr. Epstein and which might have been sent to or acquired by him, or where many of them were taken. Justice Department officials have not said how they selected the particular tranche of documents that were released on Friday.”

Authored by Luis Cornelio via Headline USA,

An attorney for Fulton County, Georgia admitted earlier this month that the county accepted roughly 315,000 early votes that were not lawfully certified in the 2020 presidential election. 

Attorney Ann Brumbaugh made the admission while representing the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections at a Dec. 9 hearing before the Georgia State Election Board, according to Wednesday’s reporting by The Federalist. 

The SEB hearing pertained to a complaint filed by election integrity activist David Cross, who accuses Fulton County of having violated Georgia law by counting early votes that were not properly signed off by election workers. 

As quoted by The Federalist, Brumbaugh told the board that Fulton County does “not dispute that the tapes were not signed.” 

She added, “It was a violation of the rule. We, since 2020, again, we have new leadership and a new building and a new board and a new standard operating procedures. And since then the training has been enhanced. … But … we don’t dispute the allegation from the 2020 election.” 

According to The Federalist: 

“Georgia’s Secretary of State Office investigated the alleged failure to sign tabluation [sic] tapes and ‘substantiated’ the findings that Fulton County ‘violated Official Election Record Document Processes when it was discovered that thirty-six (36) out of thirty-seven (37) Advanced Voting Precincts in Fulton County, Georgia failed to sign the Tabulation Tapes as required [by statute],’ according to a 2024 investigation summary. In addition to probing the unsigned tabulation tapes, the investigation also found that officials at 32 polling sites failed to verify their zero tapes.” 

The issue, as detailed by the outlet, is that Georgia statute orders election officials to print three “closing tapes” toward the end of each voting day.  

Doing so allows officials to officially end counting for the day and avoid votes from the previous day being overcounted. 

“These signed tapes are the sole legal certification that the reported totals are authentic,” Cross said during the SEB hearing.

“Fulton County produced zero signed tabulator tapes in early voting.” 

Cross reportedly uncovered the discrepancy through open records requests that cost him $15,800.  

“These are not clerical errors. They are catastrophic breaks in chain of custody and certification,” Cross said.

“Because no tape was ever legally certified, Fulton County had no lawful authority to certify its advanced voting results to the secretary of state. Yet it did. And Secretary Raffensperger accepted and folded those uncertified numbers into Georgia’s official total without questioning them. This is not partisan. This is statutory. This is the law. When the law demands three signatures on tabulator tapes and the county fails to follow the rules, those 315,000 votes are, by definition, uncertified.” 

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) received more than 220,000 applications for more than 10,000 open positions at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), ICE said in a statement on Dec. 18.

DHS has officially hired 11,751 law enforcement officers, attorneys, criminal investigators, and mission support staff, the agency said. This is the “most successful federal law enforcement agency recruitment campaign in American history,” the agency said.

DHS launched the ICE “Defend the Homeland” recruitment drive on July 29. The recruitment effort is backed by funding from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB), signed into law by President Donald Trump in July, which allocates $170 billion to border security and immigration enforcement initiatives.

OBBB had granted ICE $76.5 billion, of which $30 billion was to be used to hire 10,000 additional staff members.

In a Dec. 18 post on X, ICE said it hit its goal of hiring more than 10,000 personnel in less than a year.

ICE Deputy Director Madison D. Sheahan praised the OBBB for providing the agency with necessary resources to enforce immigration law “as it’s been written and codified by Congress.”

“The president and Secretary Noem set a goal, and we exceeded it, but that doesn’t mean we’re done. We continue to call on American patriots to serve the homeland because we know that there’s still more work to do—and we will not stop until every community in this nation is safe,” Sheahan said, referring to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.

ICE said it was offering “unparalleled” incentives to recruits, including a signing bonus of up to $50,000, up to $60,000 in student loan repayment, and an attractive benefits package that includes health insurance, paid federal holidays, and a retirement plan.

Meanwhile, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced new recruitment and retention incentives on Dec. 18 to attract skilled individuals to key law enforcement positions in the agency.

CBP is offering new border patrol agents up to $60,000 in incentives, with current agents eligible for up to $50,000 in retention incentives, the agency said.

New Air and Marine agents can become eligible for up to $10,000 in signing bonuses once they complete academy training. Both new and current agents are also eligible for retention incentives of up to 25 percent of their salary.

For new CBP officers in the Office of Field Operations who sign up for hard-to-fill and most difficult-to-fill locations, incentives of up to $60,000 are being offered. Experienced supervisors and officers eligible to retire in certain locations also may qualify for up to $60,000 in retention incentives.

“CBP is committed to recruiting and retaining top talent for our critical mission,” CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott said.

“By offering competitive incentives, we are investing in skilled professionals who will help secure America’s borders and advance national security.”

The strong recruitment numbers come despite immigration enforcement officers facing unprecedented violence against them. On Dec. 12, DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said that officers were facing an 8,000 percent increase in death threats along with a 1,150 percent increase in assaults.

Federal Immigration Enforcement

Democrats have criticized ICE and CBP for their part in federal immigration enforcement.

This month, a group of Democratic senators introduced the “Accountability for Federal Law Enforcement Act,” which seeks to grant individuals the right to sue law enforcement agencies and officers in civil court for any constitutional or civil violations, according to a Dec. 15 statement from the office of Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.)

This right to sue will be made available to all individuals in the United States “regardless of citizenship,” it said.

“For months, ICE and CBP officers have terrorized communities across the country, deploying violent and excessive tactics against immigrants, U.S. citizens, journalists, and bystanders alike with no accountability,” Padilla said.

“These abuses of individuals’ constitutional rights without consequence shatter public trust and stoke fear among hardworking members of our communities.”

DHS says ICE arrests target illegal immigrants with a history of criminal activities and has recently launched a website to boost transparency regarding the arrests.

DHS operates the website, “Worst of the Worst,” which allows users to search, based on location, for criminal illegal immigrants who have been arrested and removed from communities. On Dec. 18, the agency said it had added another 5,000 criminal illegal immigrants to the growing list of 15,000 profiles on the website.

“This new update represents just a small sample of the total number of arrests we’ve made—70 percent of ICE arrests are of criminal illegal aliens that have been charged or convicted of a crime in the United States,” McLaughlin said.

The chart below is a fascinating snapshot of the last 75 years in the demise of the American empire.

As The Burning Platform’s Jim Quinn explains in his no-nonsense manner, there are currently 164 million people employed in America. About 34 million of those are employed part-time.

When you understand the working age population is 275 million and your friendly number fudgers at the BLS declare 103 million of them NOT IN THE LABOR FORCE, and hysterically declaring only 7.8 million Americans are unemployed, you understand what a fraudulent economy we have.

The reported 4.6% unemployment rate is complete and utter bullshit. In reality, it is north of 20%.

Welcome to the golden age…

• The percentage of total jobs in the Education and Health Services sector has grown from 4.8% in 1950 to 17.8% today. Wow!! We must be the smartest, healthiest nation on earth. Not quite. With 28 million teachers, doctors, nurses, and mostly administrators (aka overhead), our education system matriculates millions of barely functional idiots into society every year. Meanwhile, as a country, we are sickly, fat, lazy, dependent upon Big Pharma drugs, and spend more on healthcare than any country on earth. To quote the immortal Dean Wormer,  “Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son.”

• Proof we have become a non-productive, debt dependent, government dependent, shadow of our former industrial powerhouse is the decline in the percentage of manufacturing jobs from 30.2% in 1950 to 8.0% today. We borrow and consume, when we used to invest and build. Trump can threaten, tariff the world, and make bullshit announcements about manufacturing jobs coming back, but they are not coming back. Any new manufacturing plants will be operated by robotics.

• Even though the percentage of government employees (aka parasites) has remained relatively steady since 1950, we are stuck with 24 million blood suckers who contribute nothing to the country’s productivity. The average working schmuck has to pay outrageously high taxes to pay the bloated salaries and pensions of these government freeloaders.

• And now some bad news for the formerly well paid workers in the Professional & Business Services sector, which had grown from 6.6% of total jobs in 1950 to 14.1% today. ChatGPT and the avalanche of AI tools are eliminating jobs in these sectors at hyperbolic speed. These are the same assholes who used to tell blue collar workers to “learn to code”. Well, now the plumbers, electricians, and construction workers can recommend they learn to be fry cooks at McDonalds, but too late, robots are taking those jobs.

The relatively stable employment situation over the last few years has been the only thing keeping this ship of fools from sinking.

But, the increase in the fraudulent unemployment rate from 4.0% when Trump took office to 4.6% today shows the ship is taking on water and it won’t be long before millions are drowning under the waves of debt, delusion, and dumb decisions.

Many analysts agree that the last round of fighting between Israel and Iran last June was not the final conflict the two regional powers will face.

Despite President Trump having declared that the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program had been completely obliterated in the US knock-out strikes against three nuclear facilities which came at the end of the 12-day war, Israel suspects the Iranians are still conducting nuclear development activity in secret, and are busy reconstituting and expanding their ballistic missile arsenal.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due to visit the United States yet again, from December 28 to January 4, and will meet with President Trump at the Mar-a-Lago estate. Netanyahu will reportedly lobby the president to take more military action against Tehran.

NBC reports Saturday, “Israeli officials have grown increasingly concerned that Iran is expanding production of its ballistic missile program, which was damaged by Israeli military strikes earlier this year, and are preparing to brief President Donald Trump about options for attacking it again, according to a person with direct knowledge of the plans and four former U.S. officials briefed on the plans.”

“Israeli officials also are concerned that Iran is reconstituting nuclear enrichment sites the U.S. bombed in June, the sources said,” the report continues. “But, they added, the officials view Iran’s efforts to rebuild facilities where they produce the ballistic missiles and to repair its crippled air defense systems as more immediate concerns.”

But the timing of potential new Pentagon action against Iran couldn’t be worse, given the concentration of American military assets currently in the southern Caribbean at a moment the US is threating regime change actions against Venezuela’s President Maduro and cartels in Latin America.

The USS Gerald R. Ford carrier group was even recently moved from the Mediterranean, where it was closer to the Middle East and CENTCOM region, to join operations threatening Venezuela in the Caribbean.

However, the Pentagon has just this week engaged in new ‘counter ISIS’ strikes in Syria, and so presumably would have enough or limited support assets in the region if it chose to assist with some new Israeli anti-Iran operation.

Still, all of these unprovoked attacks on foreign powers and adventurism abroad could grow increasingly unpopular with the American people, and certainly there’s a large chunk of the MAGA base which is dead set against the US entering new wars and conflicts, also at a time the Ukraine proxy war shows no signs of slowing.

The Trump administration is still standing by its assessment that Iran’s nuclear capabilities have been destroyed. “The International Atomic Energy Agency and Iranian government corroborated the United States government’s assessment that Operation Midnight Hammer totally obliterated Iran’s nuclear capabilities,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly has said in a statement.

There’s widespread acknowledgement that Iran’s ballistic missile capability is among the most advanced in the broader region, and that it did real damage against Israel in the June war:

Iran has not just developed one of the most advanced ICBMs in the world
(New video on the Qaem ICBM has just been released on the DDD YT-Channel)

➡️ Israeli sources now claim that Iran was close to mastering what no other country has ever masted:
Purse-Fusion nuclear weapons… https://t.co/qvq1nnLW46 pic.twitter.com/bUrnOIvB0X

— Patarames (@Pataramesh) December 20, 2025

She further warned: “As President Trump has said, if Iran pursued a nuclear weapon, that site would be attacked and would be wiped out before they even got close.” So while Trump might be open to mulling new action, the official US stance is that there’s no need to at this point.

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

The FBI sounded the alarm on Dec. 17 regarding the risks associated with sports gambling as its popularity continues to gain steam across the United States.

The law enforcement bureau noted that 39 states and the District of Columbia have legalized some variant of sports betting, but it said that “illegal sportsbooks and illegal online gaming sites” are still widespread.

Some $673.6 billion is wagered each year by Americans via illegal or unregulated gambling markets, the FBI said, citing data from the American Gambling Association.

“Individuals engaged in illegal gambling risk funding organized crime activity and becoming vulnerable to violence, extortion, and fraud,” the FBI said in its bulletin released on Wednesday, adding that it is working to target “organized crime and illegal gambling operations.”

Some gambling sites operated in other countries have advertisements that target Americans and seek to obscure their respective countries of origin, the agency said. These offshore sites do not follow the same legal regulations as licensed sports books in the United States, it added.

Furthermore, the bureau said that the gambling profits gained by these organized crime groups can fund human trafficking, drug smuggling, and weapon smuggling activities.

“Unregulated sportsbooks and offshore gambling websites put U.S. consumers at risk of losing their money and earnings,” the FBI warned.

“Illegal betting can also lead bettors to other criminal activity, such as tax evasion and money laundering, due to the illicit nature of the financial gains. It is each bettor’s responsibility to play with a licensed and regulated sportsbook operator.”

It was more than a month ago that several high-profile figures, current and former NBA players—such as Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier—and coaches, were charged in illegal sports betting and money laundering schemes, prosecutors have said.

In late October, former NBA star and Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups was also charged in an alleged scheme to rig illegal poker games, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said.

Rozier pleaded not guilty earlier this month to wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy charges stemming from accusations that he helped some friends win bets that revolved around his statistical performance in a game played in March 2023.

Billups also pleaded not guilty last month to charges related to a separate scheme to fix high-stakes, Mafia-backed poker games.

In Major League Baseball, Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz were arrested in November, the DOJ said.

The pair was accused of gambling on individual pitches that they threw in MLB games.

A poll from NBC News released on Dec. 17 found that 70 percent of Americans believe that the rise of sports betting is damaging the integrity of games or could cause games to be rigged.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said on Dec. 16 that the league is taking the cases seriously, stating that “if this game isn’t viewed as being honest and the competition being on the level and at the highest integrity, over time we will lose our fan base.”

Update (1244ET): The DOJ released three new folders of Epstein files on Saturday. Folder #5 mostly contains what appear to be hard drives and media from both Epstein’s lockup at the NY Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) and his property. 

Folder #6 is mostly court filings related to Epstein and Maxwell’s cases. 

Folder #7 contains information from Epstein’s 2007 prosecution. 

We will update this post if anything of import emerges… Also, since the DOJ placed everything in a PDF file that makes it difficult to navigate, you can browse the first tranche of Epstein files here.

Of note, 680 pages of yesterday’s release were entirely redacted. 

*  *  *

Update (1756ET): What were you expecting? 

The ‘long awaited’ Epstein files were released a few hours ago by the DOJ, as required by the Epstein Files Transparency Act. 

TL;DR – A solid collection of new pictures and files with massive redactions throughout, and no bombshells yet.

Click into Nick Monroe’s thread of interesting shit if you’re curious:

UGH fine. I have the day off from work so I might as well take the time to look at whatever Epstein files drop today.

(*And if I get the hankering for it, I’ll look over the other recent stuff that came out already.) https://t.co/vEbIblfHRK

— Nick Monroe (@lobsterlooker) December 19, 2025

A few items we also noticed which might be in Nick’s thread;

Bill Clinton:

Trading station or CCTV monitoring station?

Recording and networking equipment:

Closer shot of hard drives and other recovered media:

David Copperfield making Ghislaine’s tits disappear:

Oh:

Honeypot of the year shirt?

And yet…

*  *  *

The Department of Justice will miss today’s deadline to release the ‘full’ Epstein files to Congress as required under new legislation Trump signed into law last month. 

Instead, the Justice Department will release “several hundred thousand” documents today, “and then over the next couple weeks, I expect several hundred thousand more,” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told Fox News, citing the need to redact any names or identifying information about witnesses.

“So today is the 30 days when I expect that we’re going to release several hundred thousand documents today. And those documents will come in in all different forms, photographs and other materials associated with, with all of the investigations into, into Mr. Epstein,” Blanche said.

“What we’re doing is we are looking at every single piece of paper that we are going to produce, making sure that every victim, their name, their identity, their story, to the extent it needs to be protected, is completely protected. And so I expect that we’re going to release more documents over the next couple of weeks. So today, several hundred thousand and then over the next couple weeks, I expect several hundred thousand more.”

U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche: “Today is the 30 days and I expect we’re going to release several hundred thousand [Epstein]documents today, and those documents will come in all different forms — photographs and other materials… just so everybody appreciates —… pic.twitter.com/JM22FXELTx

— RedWave Press (@RedWave_Press) December 19, 2025

Rep Thomas Massie, who was part of a bipartisan duo that pushed to force a vote on the Epstein Files Transparency Act, reminded everyone that today’s the day for all records to be released.

pic.twitter.com/GjZIlCAUyJ

— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) December 19, 2025

On Thursday Massie made a video about today’s deadline, making it clear that there is no ambiguity within the law. 

“This is a very unique situation. … This is a case where the president who appointed the attorney general and for whom the attorney general works has signed the law and the ink is not even dry yet on his signature on this law,” Massie said, adding “There’s nothing subject to interpretation.”

Our Epstein Files Transparency Act is now law. It establishes a December 19 deadline for the Attorney General to release the Epstein files.

In this video, I’ll tell you what to expect in advance of tomorrow’s statutory disclosure deadline. pic.twitter.com/7aD7q1kyLC

— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) December 18, 2025

Meanwhile, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee continue to release new batches of Epstein photos.

#EpsteinFiles 😳 pic.twitter.com/N6sCs5nLta

— swanaamdhanya (@swanaamdhaanya) December 19, 2025

“Oversight Democrats will continue to release photographs and documents from the Epstein estate to provide transparency for the American people,” Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) said in a statement. ” As we approach the deadline for the Epstein Files Transparency Act, these new images raise more questions about what exactly the Department of Justice has in its possession. We must end this White House cover-up, and the DOJ must release the Epstein files now.”

The photos show several images where women’s body parts have quotes from the book “Lolita” written on them. 

“She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock,” one quote reads. 

As ABC News notes further:

There are several images of passports and ID cards for women from Ukraine, the Russian Federation, South Africa, Italy, the Czech Republic and Lithuania. All identifying information has been redacted from the photos. After Epstein’s 2006 arrest and jail sentence in Florida for solicitation of a minor, he was alleged to have turned his focus to recruiting young women from Eastern European countries.

A screenshot released Thursday of a text message chat — whose participants are not revealed — seems to involve a discussion about recruiting an 18-year-old woman to meet Epstein.

“I will send u girls now,” the message says.  “Maybe someone will be good for J?”

Interestingly, in the world’s most buried lede – the NY Times admits that there’s no evidence that Donald Trump participated in Epstein’s sex trafficking. 

Kind of “burying the lede” here pic.twitter.com/jhgR1nmtPo

— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) December 18, 2025

In a surprise move, Republican New York Rep. Elise Stefanik has not only pulled the plug on her recently-launched gubernatorial campaign, but will also refrain from seeking reelection to the US House. The decisions cap a year in which the ardent backer of Donald Trump has been through a hot-and-cold relationship with the mercurial president that’s seen him first cancel her nomination to serve as UN ambassador and then fail to endorse her in the governor’s race. 

Stefanik dropped the big news in a lengthy afternoon post on X. Key excerpts:  

“While spending precious time with my family this Christmas season, I have made the decision to suspend my campaign for Governor and will not seek re-election to Congress… While we would have overwhelmingly won this primary, it is not an effective use of our time or your generous resources to spend the first half of next year in an unnecessary and protracted Republican primary, especially in a challenging state like New York… 

While many know me as Congresswoman, my most important title is Mom. I believe that being a parent is life’s greatest gift and greatest responsibility… I will feel profound regret if I don’t further focus on my young son’s safety, growth, and happiness — particularly at his tender age.”  

The 41-year-old Stefanik was first elected to Congress in 2014, after her campaign as a moderate helped her flip her upstate New York seat back into the GOP column — taking it from a Democrat who’d ruined a Republican winning streak in the district that spanned a century. As Trump’s first term unfolded, Stefanik strayed from the moderation of her campaign and increasingly aligned herself with Trump, calling herself “ultra MAGA.” 

Stefanik’s national profile surged in December 2023 with her heated grilling of the presidents of Harvard, Penn and MIT, who she accused of tolerating antisemitism on their campuses amid protests over Israel’s devastation of Gaza following the Oct 7 Hamas invasion of Israel. Critics contended that Stefanik wielded a false definition of “antisemitism,” equating common pro-Palestinian slogans — such as “Palestine will be free from the river to the sea” — with “calling for the genocide of Jews.” Regardless, Stefanik’s questioning of the university presidents was enormously impactful: Video of her histrionic performance went viral, and Penn president Liz Magill and Harvard president Claudine Gay both announced their resignations within weeks. 

She was poised to rise to even greater visibility when Trump nominated her to serve as ambassador to the UN in his second term. Stefanik’s Zionist credentials made her a perfect fit for that role, which, even more so in a Trump administration, disproportionately centers on advancing the Israeli agenda. However, in March, Trump yanked her nomination over concerns that pulling her from Congress would endanger the GOP’s thin House majority. Compounding the gut-punch, by that time, Stefanik had already resigned as chair of the House GOP caucus — the fourth-ranked Republican slot in the House.  

More indignities awaited. When socialist New York mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani visited the Oval Office in November, a reporter referenced Stefanik’s condemnation of Mamdani as a “jihadist” and asked Trump if he agreed. Trump disagreed, praising Mamdani as a “very rational person…a man who really wants to see New York be great again.” 

Q: Stefanik has called Mamdani a ‘jihadist.’ Do you think you’re standing next to a jihadist right now?

TRUMP: No, I don’t. I met with a man who’s a very rational person pic.twitter.com/DrdUFhwNHX

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 21, 2025

Next came an in-person White House embarrassment. Last month, Stefanik announced her candidacy for governor, in a bid to oust Democratic incumbent Kathy Hochul. Long Island Republican Bruce Blakeman, also a Trump ally, then announced his own candidacy. Last week, with Stefanik standing next to Trump, reporters asked him about the contest. Trump merely said Stefanik has “got a hell of a shot at it...she’s got a little competition with a very good Republican, but she’s a great Republican, so we’ll see what happens.” Earlier in the month, when asked if he had a preference, he merely said, “They’re both great people.” 

A December Siena College poll had Stefanik trailing Hochul by 19 points. Stefanik’s favorability rating was a lousy 22% against 33% unfavorable. Her departure from the governor’s race comes after she raised more than $12 million for the bid. It’s not clear what she’ll do with that cash horde. She could refund it to her donors, but under federal law, she has other options, like reallocating money to other candidates or PACs, or keeping it for a possible future run at another office.  

Authored by Matt Lamb via The College Fix,

Every year, The College Fix likes to remind readers of what higher education declared racist in the past 12 months.

From Taylor Swift, to liking Mozart, our scholars and so-called “experts” never cease to find racism hiding under every rock and in every tree.

The list is grouped as reasonably as possible.

Some things are presumed “racist” if they require an “equity lens.”

For example, Minnesota State Mankato requires that assistant football coaches view their jobs through an “equity lens.”

This implies coaching football suffers from racism and needs a DEIntervention.

The full list of articles can be found here.

Activities:

Coaching football

Concepts:

Capitalism

Colonialism

Merit

Events:

Kamala Harris losing 2024 presidential election

Groups:

Immigration and Customs Enforcement

National Football League

Police

Pro-life Christians

Turning Point USA

University of Oklahoma Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity members

“White churches”

Medicine:

Dark green acne masks

Healthcare in general

Pediatric cancer care

Pregnancy care (sometimes)

White doctors

People:

American pioneers

Charlie Kirk

Conservatives

Elon Musk

Indiana Governor Mike Braun

Israeli actress Noa Tisby

John Winthrop

President Donald Trump

Rush Limbaugh

Stonewall Jackson

Voters who didn’t support Kamala Harris (majority of the country)

White men

White people in general

White students

White women

Places

The British countryside

Schools

University of Chicago

University of South Carolina dance school

Hofstra University 

Policies:

Arresting illegal immigrants

Asking black students to write positively about themselves

Asking students for update on work

Bonuses for having babies

Depicting Jesus as white

Keeping men out of women’s prisons

Localization

Not funding a tiny black college with a subpar graduation rate

Opposing DEI

Portraying a black mom using marijuana

Prohibitions on abortion

Trump creating a lot of news stories

Subjects:

Art

Chemistry

Culinary arts

English/grammar

Marine Science

Math

Social Work

Literature

Things:

James Bond novel “Dr. No.”

Mars rover

Michelin restaurant guide

Monuments to American pioneers

Tesla Cybertruck

Words and phrases:

‘Carrot top’ (when directed at a Latino)

‘Carrot cake’ (when directed at a Latino)

‘Field’

‘Mob rule’

Disgraced DC Police Chief Pamela Smith appeared completely unhinged during her exit speech at Metropolitan Police Department headquarters on Friday, shouting, “To all my haters, f*ck you.”

“Never would I compromise my integrity. Never would I compromise 28 years in law enforcement for a few folk who couldn’t stand to be held accountable. And if I had to do it all over again… so I’m going to the Bible when I say this: to my haters, F you,” Smith emphasized.

She continued, “The same folks who said in that report that they changed their numbers and I did not. The report is very clear. I did not direct anyone. You should investigate those folks.”

🚨 WTF?! DC’s DEI police chief Pamela Smith just had a SCREAMING MELTDOWN while giving her resignation speech, after she was caught fudging crime stats

“I’m going to the BIBLE when I say this: TO MY HATERS, F YOU!”

This person should’ve NEVER been in ANY position of power.… pic.twitter.com/KqHLVqoRkL

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) December 19, 2025

Smith’s erratic behavior is totally unacceptable at such a high level and only raises questions about whether she was ever fit to be DC’s top cop.

Earlier this month, she stepped down after the Department of Justice uncovered a “massive scandal” involving manipulated crime statistics.

A recent report from the House Oversight Committee alleged that Smith played a considerable role in the overall Democratic effort to hide true crime statistics from the general public.

Remember when the propaganda narrative by Democratic leaders and left-wing mainstream media puppets asserted that conservative red states were the greatest source of criminal activity in the US, not violent crime-plagued Democratic-run cities. That narrative was merely part of a disinformation campaign by Democrats to distract the public from the nation-killing crisis caused by the ongoing problem of progressive, soft-on-crime policies.

I’m so glad we’re winning this battle and exposing the rampant DEI.

Average Americans are waking up.

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) December 19, 2025

Time to bring back meritocracy. DEI has failed.