Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

The secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said in a recent interview that the department found that 500,000 people are registered twice for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, while more than 5,000 deceased people have also been receiving the benefits.

In an interview on Nov. 12 with Fox News, USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins said that SNAP is one of the “most corrupt, dysfunctional programs” in U.S. history, adding that 80 percent of people using the program are able to work.

After an investigation, the secretary said that 5,000 dead people were getting SNAP, while another 500,000 people were getting SNAP twice under the same name.

“They choose not to work because taxpayers are footing the bill,” she added, saying that “very big announcements” will be coming in the next week.

Her comment was made as SNAP benefits, known as food stamps, saw setbacks and legal wrangling during the government shutdown that was ended on Wednesday evening.

Rollins also suggested that if some SNAP benefits are cut off, more illegal immigrants will self-deport, which she said would change the outcome of the Census.

Earlier in the month, as SNAP benefits were suspended, Rollins described “massive fraud” in the system, noting that the fraud was discovered only in states that had cooperated with a prior investigation. She said that 21 states refused to hand over their SNAP data to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which was established by the Trump administration earlier this year.

After the shutdown ended, the USDA, which runs the program, issued new guidance on Nov. 13 saying that “state agencies must take immediate steps to ensure households receive their full November allotments promptly.”

“The reduction in maximum allotments for November is no longer in effect,” it added.

“State agencies should immediately resume issuing combined allotments for November and December for newly certified applicants who apply after the 15th of the month.”

Officials with USDA said that because households that receive SNAP didn’t get a full month of benefits and saw uncertainty, the department sent instructions to states “to not issue countable months for time limited participants for November 2025” and that states “should resume normal procedures for countable months beginning in December 2025.”

The federal food program is used by about 42 million people, or around one in eight Americans, namely in lower-income households. They receive an average of $190 monthly per person.

In some states where SNAP recipients received nothing in November, officials said they are working to load money onto people’s electronic benefit cards by Friday, if not sooner.

The Arkansas Department of Human Services said on Nov. 13 that full November SNAP benefits are expected to be available at midnight for people to buy groceries.

“This has been difficult for our beneficiaries, and we are incredibly appreciative to our partners across the state who helped bridge the gap through food pantries, donation drives, and other assistance efforts,” Department Secretary Janet Mann said in a statement.

Officials in West Virginia, which also had not issued November benefits, said the full monthly amount should be available by Nov. 14. And Alabama said full SNAP benefits should be issued on Nov. 13.

The shutdown ended as President Donald Trump signed a continuing resolution to fund the federal government until late January, coming after the Senate and House passed a funding package.

Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times,

The Trump administration said Nov. 13 that it has finalized a rule rescinding Biden-era restrictions on oil and gas drilling in Alaska as part of efforts to strengthen U.S. energy security.

The new rule, to be published in the Federal Register on Nov. 17, will revoke the measures imposed by the Biden administration that restricted drilling in the National Petroleum Reserve on the North Slope, according to the Interior Department (DOI).

The petroleum reserve in Alaska, spanning roughly 23 million acres, was designated in 1923. Last year, the Biden administration restricted oil and gas drilling on over 13 million acres of the area for environmental reasons.

The DOI stated that it aims to restore drilling in the area to strengthen energy supply and reduce U.S. reliance on foreign sources, following President Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order that called for the expansion of natural resource development across federal and state lands in Alaska.

“By rescinding the 2024 rule, we are following the direction set by President Trump to unlock Alaska’s energy potential, create jobs for North Slope communities and strengthen American energy security,” Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum said in a Nov. 13 statement.

“This action restores common-sense management and ensures responsible development benefits both Alaska and the nation.”

Voice of the Arctic Inupiat, a nonprofit representing North Slope communities in Alaska, said it supports the move, noting that it would help sustain power generation, education, and other services that rely on tax revenue from resource development infrastructure.

North Slope Borough Mayor Josiah Patkotak also voiced support, calling the move a “meaningful step toward restoring a federal process” that respects local leadership in Alaska.

“Good policy comes from good process, which requires hearing directly from the people who live, work, and hunt here,” Patkotak said in a statement issued by the nonprofit.

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) opposed the move, claiming the DOI’s new rule disregards its obligation to protect the reserve.

“This rollback is nothing more than a giveaway to the oil and gas industry,” Bobby McEnaney, NRDC director of land conservation, said in a statement.

“Weakening protections is reckless, and it threatens to erase the very landscapes Congress sought to safeguard.”

This is not the first such Biden-era restriction that Trump has rolled back. Last month, the DOI announced that it would reopen the coastal plain of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas leasing and reissued permits for the 211-mile Ambler Road Project, which would allow access to cooper and cobalt deposits in the area.

Democratic political operatives initiated a coordinated propaganda attack centered on releasing Jeffrey Epstein’s emails and promoting a range of narratives targeting President Trump, including claims that he and Epstein shared a Thanksgiving dinner in 2017. The Trump team has since responded, with the Department of Justice and the FBI set to begin investigations into “Epstein’s involvement and relationship with Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, and Reid Hoffman.”

Let’s begin here: The email dump occurred on the same day Trump signed legislation ending the record-long government shutdown, a shutdown driven by the Democratic Party’s decision to hold government funding hostage, triggering nationwide travel disruptions and SNAP funding outages.

This is a lie.

You’re spreading Fake News to distract from the fact that you left 80,000 Illinoisians without a paycheck and nearly 2 million without food.

You’re using the words of a dead pedophile to build your fake story.

You’re sick. https://t.co/VYfpPvUk1w

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) November 14, 2025

pic.twitter.com/IY1c90RSFw

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) November 14, 2025

What’s clear is that the Democratic Party staked heavily on the Jeffrey Epstein email narrative. Bloomberg data shows that headlines mentioning “Epstein” were minimal throughout the shutdown, but as soon as Trump signed the bill to reopen the government, putting Democrats in a very unfavorable position and creating terrible optics in the news cycle, their propaganda cannon was fired. 

Western Journal’s C. Douglas Golden describes the Democratic Party’s maneuvering to control the news cycle after the government shutdown’s damaging optics, highlighting how they cherry-picked Epstein emails to redirect attention.

On Wednesday, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released three of Epstein’s emails, which mentioned President Donald Trump in some vague way.

They redacted the name of one of his victims, who is said to be Virginia Giuffre; now deceased, the woman at the center of the scandal involving the former Prince Andrew was formerly employed at Mar-a-Lago but had repeatedly avouched, during her life, that she never witnessed Trump at any events where misbehavior was going on.

Later on Wednesday, the GOP members of the Oversight Committee decided to call foul on the cherry-picking and released over 20,000 pages of documents that paint a fuller picture of what’s long been known: Trump and Epstein knew each other and broke in the early 2000s. The unredacted documents also seem to confirm the redacted victim was Giuffre.

Democrats, of course, were not happy. But the party had a new theory: OK, maybe the person in the email consistently stated that Trump didn’t do anything wrong, but what about the fact that Epstein said he spent Thanksgiving of 2017 with Trump?

In a post on X, they said that’s exactly what the “[d]ocuments show,” noting that, “At the time, Trump was already president, and Epstein was already a convicted sex offender.”

. . .

And, as conservative operative Greg Price noted, it wasn’t verified “because it’s an easily disprovable lie and the attempts to connect President Trump to Epstein’s crimes are a giant hoax.”

. . .

The post has since been deleted, since the Democrats figured out the smoking gun turned out to be an exploding cigar. But the internet is forever, as is evidence of what Trump was doing on Thanksgiving in 2017:

One of the claims – now a deleted X post, the Democratic Party’s official account stated, “NEW: Documents show Donald Trump spent Thanksgiving with Jeffrey Epstein in 2017. At the time, Trump was already president, and Epstein was already a convicted sex offender.” 

Now deleted post. 

For very obvious reasons. 

What’s clear is that the info war launched by Democrats was intended to paper over the terrible optics surrounding the government shutdown.

However, the pendulum is now swinging the other way… 

Trump has asked Bondi, DoJ, and FBI to investigate “investigate Jeffrey Epstein’s involvement and relationship with Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, Reid Hoffman, J.P. Morgan, Chase, and many other people and institutions, to determine what was going on with them, and him.” 

“Fatty at LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman” 

“This is another Russia, Russia, Russia Scam, with all arrows pointing to the Democrats,” the president noted. 

It appears the Democratic Party’s social media desk, likely staffed by inexperienced Gen-Z operatives, didn’t bother to verify anything. However, competence was never the point; the objective was to plant a headline and let it do maximum damage before anyone could check the facts. That’s the nature of information warfare. And now it looks like the Trump team is preparing to hit back.

Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com,

Over the past two weeks, we’ve addressed a persistent question: if the data signals weakness, why hasn’t the recession arrived? In “Slowdown Signals: Are Leading Indicators Flashing Red?” we examined the cracks forming beneath the economy’s surface. From deteriorating leading indicators to credit stress and cooling employment metrics, the evidence supported a cautious stance. In the follow-up, “Promised Recession … So Where Is It?”, we explored the tension between these bearish signals and the market’s resilience. Economic risk has not disappeared, but the timeline for a downturn has stretched further than most expected.

Both articles’ tone was analytical but precise: the economy has not escaped danger. Leading economic indicators flash warning signs, from the Conference Board’s LEI to the ISM Manufacturing Index. Credit conditions remain tight with delinquencies on the rise, and employment trends, while stable on the surface, have started to weaken in rate-sensitive areas.

The consumer, long the backbone of the post-pandemic recovery, shows signs of fatigue. Excess savings have dwindled, credit card usage is climbing, and real wage gains have slowed. These are not signals of strength, but of late-cycle fragility.

Yet, despite these risks, the economy has not broken. The recession expected by most economists, strategists, and market commentators has yet to arrive. The S&P 500 continues to grind higher. Volatility remains muted. Consumer spending, while uneven, has not collapsed. And corporate earnings, though pressured in some sectors, have not cratered.

This divergence between bearish data and market behavior raises an important question: could the consensus be wrong? More specifically, what if the economy is not headed for contraction, but toward a renewed phase of expansion? That’s the contrarian view, an economic reacceleration, and it’s worth considering, not because it is guaranteed, but because few are prepared for it. In markets, surprises matter more than forecasts. If the surprise is upside growth, the implications for asset prices, portfolio strategy, and risk management could be substantial.

Let’s dig into it.

The Case for Economic Reacceleration

While consensus remains cautious, there is a case, however tenuous, for economic reacceleration. This isn’t about ignoring risks. It’s about acknowledging that conditions aligning could drive a shift from stagnation to renewed growth.

First, financial conditions have eased substantially since late last year. Despite the Fed maintaining higher policy rates, markets have pushed bond yields lower and credit spreads tighter. Equities have rallied, creating a wealth effect that supports consumption, at least within the top 10% of the population that owns 87% of the equity market. Furthermore, the top 40% of income earners currently account for 60% of total consumption.

Adding to that backdrop, the Chicago Fed National Financial Conditions Index has turned increasingly accommodative, suggesting that monetary policy’s grip on the economy is slipping. This eases the burden on consumers and businesses, setting the stage for renewed activity.

Third, fiscal support remains more robust than many acknowledge. Federal spending continues at a high level, with infrastructure outlays and industrial policy subsidies supporting investment in energy, manufacturing, and technology. These initiatives feed directly into corporate capital expenditures. The AI investment boom is a clear example of spending accelerating not just in “big tech,” but across the industrial supply chain. UBS has flagged this emerging capex cycle as a significant tailwind for mid-cycle expansion, which could offset a slowdown in consumer spending.

Fourth, labor market dynamics are more stable than the headlines suggest. While job openings have declined, layoffs remain low. Real disposable income has started to recover, supported by moderating inflation. This income stability allows consumers to maintain spending despite rising debt levels. Goldman Sachs has emphasized that consumption trends, particularly in services, remain strong enough to support growth in the near term. In the economically weighted ISM surveys, services (70% of the economy) are keeping the composite index in expansion territory.

Finally, there is the issue of data distortion. In recent months, significant revisions have been made to payrolls and GDP. Preliminary reports painted a picture of sharp deceleration, only for final data to show much more resilience. Goldman has warned that headline data may be underestimating actual activity. If that’s true, the economy may not need to rebound; it may already be stronger than it appears. We also see improvement in the Economic Composite Index, which comprises more than 100 data points, including manufacturing, services, leading indicators, and other economic factors.

Combined, these factors do not guarantee a reacceleration but offer a plausible case. They suggest the economy may be more resilient, supported, and responsive to easing conditions than the bearish narrative implies.

Supporting the Bull Market: Earnings and Valuation

If reacceleration gains traction, it becomes a fundamental driver of earnings growth. That’s the critical link. The equity rally has run ahead of fundamentals in some sectors. Valuations, particularly in technology and discretionary names, are stretched. Without earnings growth, they cannot be sustained. However, an economic reacceleration changes that dynamic. A pickup in nominal GDP would lift revenues. Stabilizing costs and improving operating leverage could support margins. As top-line growth returns, analysts would raise forward earnings estimates.

As UBS notes, they expect stronger earnings growth going into 2026, supported by stronger economic growth.

This path is especially relevant given the current market structure. Much of this year’s performance has been driven by a handful of mega-cap names; therefore, a broader earnings recovery, driven by an economic reacceleration, would allow the rally to widen. This is the theory, at least, and as breadth improves, volatility drops, and price-to-earnings multiples become more sustainable.

However, as we have noted previously, we had booming economic growth in 2020 and 2021, but the earnings growth remained confined to the largest companies. As shown in the chart above, earnings growth for the 493 remained weak. However, the expectation is that an improvement in economic growth, but not strong growth, will somehow allow the bottom 493 stocks to generate earnings growth as the Capex cycle for artificial intelligence engages. Maybe that is the case, but it remains a risk to investors. Nonetheless, the hope is that the economic reacceleration thesis, not a call for explosive expansion, will allow for durability in the current cycle, allowing the earnings tailwind to extend the bull market further than most expect.

Final Thoughts

For us, risk management remains essential. The case for economic reacceleration is certainly plausible, but it is also based on much “hope.” Hope that consumers will continue to consume at a strong pace, that AI Capex will offset declining savings risk, and that earnings will continue to sustain themselves well above long-term growth trends indefinitely to support current valuations. That seems to be a significant risk.

While there is certainly risk that “hopes” are disappointed, as investors, we must consider the possibility that an economic reacceleration comes to fruition. Such could leave overly defensive investors underexposed to equities, creating significant opportunity costs. Currently, many investors remain positioned for stagnation or slow deterioration. While that positioning aligns with the data, the yield curve, and historical patterns, the markets rarely reward consensus thinking. If reacceleration unfolds, it will catch many investors with an underweighted risk exposure.

Positioning for this shift does not require full conviction. But it does require readiness. Watch leading indicators for signs of stabilization. Monitor earnings revisions and forward guidance. Track credit spreads and yield curve behavior. These are the tells.

The opportunity lies in being early but not reckless. If growth is turning, earnings will follow, and earnings ultimately sustain bull markets.

Just something to consider.

Parts of the Novovoronezh nuclear power plant in southwestern Russia were temporarily taken offline overnight after a cross-border drone attack from Ukraine, in a highly dangerous close-call for the nuclear site and its operators. 

By morning, power was restored to all sections of the plant, head of the state nuclear agency Rosatom, Alexei Likhachev, said. He described that about eight drones targeted the facility but all were intercepted; however, debris from a downed drone reportedly damaged the site.

“Approximately eight drones were directed – there is no doubt about this – toward the Novovoronezh nuclear power plant,” Likhachev said. “All of them were neutralized and shot down. However, debris fell and damaged the main switchgear.”

The senior official then said a “preventative measure” was taken to disconnect three power units to the facility, but everything was brought back online by Thursday morning.

Ukraine has not acknowledged the accusation of targeting the Novovoronezh facility. But the timing is interesting given the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director Rafael Grossi is currently visiting Russia to meet with Likhachev.

The visit is to discuss and monitor the current situation of nuclear power plants on either side of the crisis, as both Russia and Ukraine have at times accused the other of targeting them.

Currently, Russia holds the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, which is said to be is cold shutdown mode as a safety measure.

Meanwhile both sides continue to trade drones and missiles, with energy sites being a foremost target of the conflict. From Russia’s point of view, it the attacks on oil refineries and transit sites which remains most alarming:

Oil deliveries to the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk were suspended after Ukrainian strikes damaged key energy infrastructure in one of the most disruptive overnight attacks on the Krasnodar region in recent months, Reuters reported Friday, citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter.

Russia’s state pipeline monopoly Transneft halted crude flows into Novorossiysk, according to two sources cited by the news agency, while the port also stopped receiving and loading oil following the attack.

After many months of similar headlines related to other facilities, it’s being widely reported that some 20% of oil refining is currently offline. 

🚨 Russia’s Rosatom chief meets with IAEA head over Zaporozhye nuclear plant

Alexey Likhachev and Rafael Grossi are holding talks in Russia’s Kaliningrad

The goal: discuss how to jointly prevent nuclear accidents at the Zaporozhye power plant amid RECKLESS Ukraine’s attacks pic.twitter.com/VdOqfXejkJ

— Sputnik (@SputnikInt) November 14, 2025

However, this appears to have had limited effect so far, given the “disruption cut output by only 3-6% as Moscow relied on idle units to absorb the damage, Russian industry sources told Reuters.”

Authored by Jill McLaughlin via The Epoch Times,

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem handed out $10,000 bonus checks on Nov. 13 to thousands of frontline Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers who stayed on the job during the federal government shutdown.

About 47,000 agents who worked through the 43-day shutdown despite not getting paychecks will be awarded a bonus along with back pay, according to Noem.

“We are going to not only continue their paychecks like they should have received all along, but also they’re going to get a bonus check for stepping up, taking on extra shifts, for showing up each and every day, for serving the American people,” Noem said at a news conference at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston.

The officers were thanked for taking seriously every day the mission of the Department of Homeland Security, “and that’s keeping the American people safe while they go and commute across the country, and while they do their work and business and take care of their families,” Noem added.

A couple of the officers were singled out for their “exemplary” service and for taking on more hours and shifts during the shutdown.

“They were examples to the rest of the individuals that worked with them, and endured those hardships and continued to shine a light on what is special about America,” Noem said.

Noem added that she would be looking at all TSA officials who worked during the shutdown and would recognize their efforts with a bonus check to get them back on their feet.

She noted that TSA agents who missed work or called out sick were not necessarily exempt from receiving the bonus, saying that “people were not just inconvenienced but they were also damaged and harmed” by the government shutdown.

“What I’m so proud of today … is the outstanding patriotism and service of our TSA officers and officials that stepped up every single day,” Noem said.

She also recognized the public and private companies that stepped up during the shutdown.

“We still saw the best of America,” she added. “We saw people come together, support each other, take care of each other, and go above and beyond to make sure the mission of the Department of Homeland Security was fulfilled.”

The department worked late Wednesday night to complete administrative paperwork to start paying TSA agents the backpay they earned during the shutdown, Noem added.

TSA Precheck entry at San Diego International Airport on Oct. 26, 2024. Jane Yang/The Epoch Times

President Donald Trump Wednesday night signed a bill passed by Congress to fund the government until January, bringing an end to the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.

The Trump administration has implemented measures this year to help speed up TSA lanes in airports, including allowing passengers to leave their shoes on when going through the scanners.

The department also plans to implement veteran, military, and family lanes, according to Noem.

Authored by Matt Lamb via TheCollegeFix.com,

President Donald Trump doubled down on his support for flooding the country with 600,000 students from Communist China as a way to prop up colleges and universities.

Fox News host Laura Ingraham pressed Trump on his proposal, questioning whether it was in America’s interest to bring in so many Chinese students. The U.S. currently accepts around 300,000 Chinese students per year.

“We do have a lot of people coming in from China. We always have, China and other countries,” Trump said on Monday.

“We also have a massive system of colleges and universities. And if we were to cut that in half, which perhaps makes some people happy, you would have half the colleges in the United States would go out of business.”

He later reiterated that reducing Chinese student visas would “destroy our entire university and college system.”

However, the truth is that Chinese college students are clustered in big cities and at major elite universities that have plenty of American students clamoring to get admitted. But they are competing in some cases with wealthy foreigners who can pay higher tuition and also pay more for rent, pricing out Americans. University of Illinois Urbana Champaign is first supposed to be for Illinois students, and then for Midwestern agricultural students, and then for the country, and then for the world. But it might be better these days to apply for UIUC if you’re from Peking than Peoria.

Trump also does not explain why we need to let in foreign Chinese students who do not share our culture and are likely to return home with their engineering and computer science degrees to work for American competitors. These students do so after undercutting American wages through the “Optional Practical Training” loophole. 

This allows companies to pay lower wages to foreign students in STEM provided they can claim that it is part of their education. “Most foreign students participating in the post-completion science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) OPT extension were from India (48.0%) or China (20.4 %) with 165,524 foreign students participating in STEM OPT in 2024,” Homeland Security reported.

If any foreign student is the same as another one in terms of paying tuition, we should be recruiting from countries that share our culture, like England, France, Poland, and Germany. From a foreign relations standpoint, we could also be increasing the number of high-qualified students from our neighbors Mexico and Canada.

Experts have also raised concerns about Trump’s proposal.

“Taking away spots in schools from Americans and giving them to future Chinese Communists is wrong, and admitting students who have been weaponized by the CCP to commit acts of espionage is extraordinarily dangerous,” China expert Gordon Chang told Fox News.

“American presidents for decades have allowed China’s regime to maintain in our country organizations and extensive networks of agents and diplomats that surveil, intimidate, and coerce Chinese and other students.”

Others have previously warned about the consequences of letting in more Chinese students.

“The CCP leverages Chinese students to steal American research and exploits our open education system to censor Chinese nationals on U.S. soil,” Michael Sobolik previously told The Fix.

“Universities are complicit in this because they depend on international student tuition rates,” the Hudson Institute expert said.

“Policymakers shouldn’t continue a status quo that favors our enemy and leaves our universities exposed to espionage.”

Tucker Carlson has just released a deep dive into Donald Trump’s attempted assassin, Thomas Crooks – who both the Biden and the Trump FBI have been very quiet about since the July 13, 2024 shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania. 

In late September, Carlson’s team received an anonymous tip from someone who said they had gained access to some of Crooks’ online accounts, which he found using ‘tools commonly used by private investigators’ after obtaining Crooks’ phone number and gmail address from public documents. He then traced that to two encrypted foreign email accounts (bcook[at]mailfence.com and americangamer[at]gmx.com). He also had a snapchat account, a Venmo, Zelle and PayPal account among several others. 

“It turns out that Crooks was hardly an online ghost,” Carlson reports. “And yet, federal investigators lied and told us there was no trace of him online.”

The source was able to obtain all materials from Crooks’ deactivated YouTube account – which includes his search history, watch history, and 737 public comments. 

When Carlson’s team asked the FBI why they hadn’t shared this information with the public, the agency replied by asking if they could verify the authenticity of the shooter’s account. 

What did Crooks say?

The comments by Crooks were posted between 2019 and 2020, when he was between 15 and 17-years-old. “They show two things,” Carlson explains. “First, that Thomas Crooks was not some secretive lone wolf who never warned anyone that he was planning on violence. Just the opposite. Years before he showed up in Butler, Crooks was leaving a detailed digital trail of violent threats – including calls for assassinations and political violence. Second – they show a man who started out as a radical Trump supporter, whose views on the President transformed – changed completely, during Covid. The FBI lied about that fact, and that Crooks was a right-winger.”

Pro-Trump: 

On July 19, 2019 Crooks writes: “Ilhan Omar and others are invaders and should honestly be killed and their dead bodies sent back.”

On July 20, 2018, Crooks writes: “If youre saying trump is a bad president you arent a patriot as trump is the literal definition of Patriotism”

Seven hours after that comment, Crooks writes: “I hope a quick painful death to all the deplorable immigrants and anti-trump congresswoman who dont deserve anything this countru [sic] has given them”

Later that evening he wrote: “Everyone of the Trump hat-ing democrats deserve to have their heads chopped of and put on steaks for the world to see what happens when you fuck with America“

These types of comments continued for months, “and became increasingly violent.” 

“If any of the democratic candidates win. They wont be in there for long. Because unlike the dems we have guns and lots of them“

He also quoted Mao – writing “The only real political power comes from the barrel of a gun.” 

The Change:

In early 2020 as the pandemic shifted into the headlines, crooks “radically” changed – writing of “trumps stupidity.” 

He then began to mock the idea of the deep state – writing that “The deep state is simply made up of anybody who dis-agrees with the right wing. Conversation over.” 

In Feb. 2020, Crooks called out Trump supporters as “brainwashed,” and a “cult.”

Later that day, Crooks called Trump a racist. 

And in April 2020 when the COVID panic was in full swing, Crooks became pro-lockdown, writing “It seems that you people don’t understand that sometimes Public safety comes before your Personnel rights.” 

He then wrote: “…going to a chinese new years party in america isn’t putting you at risk for corona virus because believe it or not viruses don’t spread through race like Tucker Carlson probably told you.” 

In May of 2020, Crooks called Republican concerns over voter fraud “ignorant.” 

He then wrote a comment that sounded like a “digital manifesto,” Carlson reports. 

“they only way to fight the gov is with terror-ism style attacks, sneak a bomb into an essential building a set it off before anyone sees you, track down any important people/politicians/military leaders etc and try to asasinate them. Any sort of head fight is suicide and even ambush/surprise attacks likely aren’t going to end well.”

The Agitator

Then – a YouTube user @Willy_Tepes began seemingly encouraging Crooks… writing “If a gun and a badge is all that is needed, then authority obviously comes from the barrel of a gun. We have more guns than they do ;)” 

“We have nothing to lose and everything to win,…..and the alternative, a global police state, is unacceptable!” Tepes continues in another comment. 

Carlson asks who Tepas could be – noting that the FBI hasn’t made any mention of him, but that someone had screenshotted his YouTube page despite the fact that he had very few followers. 

That said, the usernme was used on a foreign Antifa website linked to the Nordic Resistance Movement, which was designated a terrorist organization by the US State Dept. 

Crooks’ online comments mysteriously disappear after his interactions with Tepas, and Carlson notes that Crooks was ‘ripe for recruitment‘ by someone. However his search history was still available:

From early 2019 to mid-2020, “Crooks searched for Trump more than 700 times online,” and searched for “Jack Ruby” , “Best places for mass shooting.” , and how to make various explosives and devices for mass killings. He also searched for “Sniper in Dallas shooting” , “American Nazi Party” , “German National Anthem 1933-1945,” and “Hitler’s speeches with subtitles.” 

FBI Coverup? 

“Why is the FBI keeping Crooks’ views a secret?” asks Carlson, adding “Why are they ignoring Congressional subpoenas to divulge information?”

“So here you have a volatile, troubled, possibly mentally ill young man with a long record of espousing violence in public,” Carlson continues. “The FBI clearly knew he existed. And then you have at the very end of his years commenting in public, espousing violence, an exchange with a mysterious figure affiliated with a group that we know is being monitored by the US State Department.” 

Turns out that around the same time as Thomas Crooks was making assertions and posting overt threats of violent against public figures on YouTube, the FBI was issuing contracts to private sector tech surveillance firms to harness the power of mass data collection tools to monitor social media for people just like Thomas Crooks,” Tucker continues. “It’s hard to imagine that Thomas Crooks is making these posts publicly and in his own name, and had not been identified and looked at closely by federal law enforcement. In fact, it’s impossible to imagine.” 

“We know that the FBI had access to these YouTube comments.”

Yet, “they used a selective read of those comments to lie about what Thomas Crooks was saying.“

Two and a half weeks after the attack, a ‘source familiar with the investigation’ told CNN that “Federal investigators are looking into a YouTube account possibly connected to Crooks in which the user espoused political violence as well as antisemitic and anti-immigration themes.“

Carlson says that the FBI “knew full well” that it was Crooks’ account. “There was never any question.” 

Biden’s FBI Deputy Director lied the same day as the CNN report in Congressional testimony, while the NY Post reported in Feb. 2025 that the “FBI has obstructed efforts to solve the mystery of why Thomas Matthew Crooks, who left no manifesto, did what he did.”

Other notable facts: 

• Crooks’ body was cremated on orders from the FBI the same day the House Homeland Security and Oversight Committee began their investigation.

“Can’t do a new tox(icology) screen, because the body doesn’t exist,” Carlson points out. 

• Photos from the day after the shooting “show an FBI agent hosing down the site where Crooks died,” which high-level sources told Carlson was ‘very strange,’ as the FBI ‘usually hires out crime scene cleanup to third-party contractors – but in this case they did it themselves.” 

• Biden FBI officials accessed Crooks’ phone using software from an Israeli firm, Cellebrite, and accessed his phone, computer and his encrypted messaging apps in Belgium, New Zealand and Germany – “yet none of the online activity the FBI discovered was referred to in any way in the final Congressional report.” 

Carlson then notes FBI Director Kash Patel and Assistant Director Dan Bongino’s awkward and evasive answers when asked whether we’ll find out more…

These interviews are from May. Patel and Bongino told us there would be another release from FBI on Butler and that we’re going to know everything they know … here we are in November and crickets.

Where is their release? We don’t know anything close to what they know. https://t.co/xR5rviChxp pic.twitter.com/UzxnuquK54

— JaneDoeUKnow (@MsJaneDoeUKnow) November 14, 2025

More Weirdness

Carlson also points out that Crooks had an unbelievably ‘lucky day’ the day of the shooting, which the FBI is stonewalling the public over. 

For example: 

• Within days of the shooting, the FBI had ‘collected all the relevant surveillance footage,’ which includes footage from local businesses, state police,  and “critically, the gun range where Thomas Crooks trained.” Did he train alone? We don’t know, because to this day the FBI refuses to release the footage.

• Some of Crooks’ comments were erased from the internet archive after the shooting. 

• On the day of the attack, Crooks conducted surveillance at Butler – flying a drone over the rally site for 11 minutes – right as the Secret Service’s anti-drone system was mysteriously down. 

• Police at Butler saw Crooks with a rangefinder and a backpack, identified him as a suspicious person, but ‘quickly lost track’ of him. 

• Crooks climbed onto the only building in the area that did not have a video surveillance system, and was ‘remarkably’ outside the Secret Service’s security perimeter. 

• Two local cops saw crooks but did not report it, while a 3rd police officer who was supposed to be covering the building ‘left early.’

Watch the entire thing below:

Who is Thomas Crooks? pic.twitter.com/WwjvPGGRwS

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) November 14, 2025

President Trump’s Operation Affordability initiative kicked off this week, with the White House unveiling plans for tariff reductions and expanded trade ties with Latin American countries to boost imports of key food products. The goal: drive down supermarket prices ahead of the 2026 midterm election cycle to reverse darkening sentiment among low- and middle-income consumers.

Bloomberg reports that Trump is set to slash import levies on everyday staples, such as beef, bananas, and coffee, while moving ahead with new trade frameworks with Argentina, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Ecuador. 

On Tuesday, President Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent both revealed on corporate media major moves by the administration to reduce costs for Americans when it comes to food. Trump called the effort “surgical and beautiful,” while Bessent said the effort will bring down prices “very quickly” and predicted that “people would start feeling better about the economy in the first half of 2026.”

UBS analysts, led by Jonathan Pingle, describe President Trump’s economy as “a big bet on AI and upper-income households.”

Pingle noted the bifurcated consumer environment between higher-income and lower-income households in this chart.

The analyst also pointed out, “Our base case is that an equity market drawdown is avoided. Households suffer for the next two quarters.”

He expects a $55 billion boost to disposable income in 2Q 2026 from retroactive tax relief in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA).

He said these “bumper refunds” should temporarily revive household spending in mid-2026, which is just in time for the midterm election cycle.

So Bessent is likely right that consumer sentiment will begin improving in the coming months, and this reversal is crucial. If these sentiment gauges fail to reverse, some folks may be drawn toward the newly transformed Democratic Party, now heavily influenced by Marxist-aligned DSA agenda, who aim to squander America’s inheritance by dangling “free stuff” to voters.

The way to ensure the Marxist revolution stops dead in its tracks is to tackle the affordability crisis, a lingering disaster left over from the Biden-Harris years. 

The New York Times reported that updated “reciprocal tariff” rules will include carve-outs for beef and citrus, expanding on a prior executive order directing agencies to identify products not grown domestically for exemption.

New agreements with Guatemala, El Salvador, and Ecuador are reducing tariffs on products like bananas and coffee beans, which the U.S. imports but doesn’t produce domestically. These frameworks should be finalized by the end of the month. 

Operation Affordability will target low- and middle-income households as well as younger voters, including Gen Z and millennials. The administration’s strategy is to improve sentiment and restore affordability, with the hope that these folks will vote “America First”, rather than embrace unhinged left dangling free bus rides and government-run grocery stores, in next year’s midterm elections.

AOC: “We are not the crazy ones…. They want us to think we are crazy. We are sane.”

pic.twitter.com/zch0baKHg6

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) October 27, 2025

It’s always the ones insisting they’re “not crazy” who end up being the real nutjobs.