This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
If politicians are known by the company they keep, things are looking a little precarious for U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
It's because he's been keeping company with Chinese Communist Party officials, including those "actively seeking to weaken American from within."
That's according to a Fox News report which explained Michael Sobolik, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, warned, "It sends mixed signals when politicians talk about countering the CCP one day then break bread with them the next.
Images of Schumer, a far left politician who now leads the minority Democrats in the Senate and has faced calls for an investigation over his threat to two members of the U.S. Supreme Court if they didn't rule the way he wanted them to on abortion, have been appearing on social media as well as on Chinese sites.
Fox reported Schumer "has been repeatedly photographed this month" sharing stages with CCP Consul General Chen Li, who then posted images online.
Chen Li, known for publicly denying China's alleged genocide against the Uyghur population, posted, "Thrilled to join thousands at the [Brooklyn] Lantern Festival Parade!" The posting included a photo of him standing with Schumer.
Schumer previously was the target of criticism for his association with Chen's predecessor at the consulate, Huang Ping, "who also denied the Uyghur genocide and has promoted CCP propaganda in the past," the report explained.
Huang left his post last year after being named in a criminal indictment against Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul's former deputy chief of staff, Linda Sun, the report said.
Huang has called the CCP a "great" party and is listed as PRC Official-1 in the indictment.
Chen's denials of China's alleged genocide conflicts with condemnations from multiple governments around the world, as well as one from the United Nations.
The report said, "The CCP has long claimed its 're-education camps' are voluntary and work only to stamp out extremism, but the leaked documents and photos have shown the camps are far from voluntary."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
The initial goals indeed were lofty: For the Department of Government Efficiency to cut $2 trillion from federal spending by cutting out fraud, waste and corruption.
Even $1 trillion, discussed by many as realistic, was huge.
In just a few weeks, reports say, DOGE, run by Elon Musk, has found $55 billion to eliminate.
And it looks like a bit of that could end up coming back to taxpayers.
The Washington Examiner reports, "The Trump administration could be sending out $5,000 checks to millions of people next summer if Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency have their way."
Musk said on social media he's checking with the president on the future of what proponents call a DOGE Dividend.
Early plans suggest 20% of what is saved could be sent back to taxpayers.
The report said, "If the idea moves forward, it is sure to face pushback, as have most of Trump and Musk's moves over the last month. Thousands of people have been laid off or fired throughout the federal government, and Democrats are staging protests almost daily outside various agencies or on the National Mall."
A report from Forbes said the idea was pitched by James Fishback of investment firm Azoria. He reportedly advises DOGE.
The report explained the plan is to return 20% of DOGE's targeted $2 trillion in savings to some 79 million tax-paying households.
Musk has confirmed that ultimately the decision would be up to President Trump.
Musk and his DOGE team have been working to cancel grants and contracts, reduce the federal workforce, and more. Multiple lawsuits have been filed, with some of the DOGE actions now on hold, while other judges have affirmed various moves, such as offering federal workers six months of paid leave in return for leaving government employment.
Fishback, in the report, was called "an outspoken supporter of Trump, Musk and DOGE" who considers DOGE "pro-taxpayer and anti-waste."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
In the aftermath of a decision by President Donald Trump's DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency, essentially to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development and transfer a few remaining workers and responsibilities to the Department of State, a columnist has released a stunning report.
It charges that USAID ultimately was responsible for the delivery of billions of dollars in American cash to the Taliban.
A description of the events that transpired, leaving the Taliban with $2.9 billion in American cash, was provided by Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, at the Gatestone Institute.
He explained how the DAB Afghanistan Bank boasted of $40 million in stacks of hundred-dollar bills "sitting on the tarmac at Kabul International Airport."
He said the Taliban-run bank called it one of three shipments of "humanitarian aid" totaling more than $100 million.
At the time, the bank was run by Noor Ahmad Agha, a "specially designated terrorist" who had been accused of financing "bomb-making" including IEDs that killed more than 1,000 American soldiers.
"While no international organization was willing to admit to the cash-smuggling operation, the ultimate responsibility lay with USAID," the report said. "The $40 million on the tarmac was part of a much larger scheme under which USAID and the State Department provided over $1.7 billion in funding to the UN, which then shipped $2.9 billion in cash to Afghanistan."
At the time, it was illegal for U.S. banks to process such transfers to the Taliban.
"USAID was helping finance an illegal operation to circumvent sanctions on terrorists," he wrote.
The report said USAID claimed it did not provide "currency" to the Taliban because the money instead went to the United Nations' "pooled accounts."
What happened was that the $1.7 billion was sent to the U.N., which "used some of the money to buy dollars to fly into Afghanistan, to trade for Afghan currency, which the U.S. had also arranged to have printed on behalf of the Taliban."
The report charged, "USAID funded the U.N., which used an intermediary to purchase the hundred-dollar bills from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where Afghanistan's wealth, claimed by the Taliban, was being held, then contracted with a company, quite possibly Osama bin Laden's old airline, to fly it to Afghanistan, deposit it in banks, allocate it to NGOs and then use DAB to convert the dollars into local Afghan currency."
Ned Price, then a spokesman for the State Department, said the plan was to "address one of the aspects of Afghanistan's ongoing liquidity crisis."
Greenfield reported the situation actually "is even worse than it sounds," as DAB arbitrarily set the exchange rate for afghanis and dollars "at a far higher rate than the black market exchange rate."
He said, "The money laundering operation required multiple steps and plausible deniability for USAID, the State Department and the U.N., which insisted that '[n]one of the cash brought into Afghanistan is deposited in the Central Bank of Afghanistan nor provided to the Taliban de facto authorities by the U.N.' To the extent this was true, it was because the money was deposited in a 'private bank,' allocated to NGOs funded by the U.N., which then exchanged it with DBA's assets."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Amid rumors that an all-female flight crew was at the helm of the Delta Air Lines flight that crashed and flipped upside down in Toronto this week, the company's chief executive officer is refusing to identify the pilots.
"I can't provide any details," Delta CEO Ed Bastian said Wednesday morning on CBS. "It's an ongoing investigation."
When asked specifically about the pilots, Bastian said: "It was an experienced crew."
"There is one level of safety at Delta," Bastian said. "All these pilots train for these conditions."
While he called video of the crash "horrifying," he praised the actions of the crew deducting the evacuation process.
"This is what we train for," Bastian noted. "We train for this continuously."
Meanwhile, video has emerged of the pilots of Endeavor Air, which operated the Minneapolis-to-Toronto flight.
One clip is set to the 2004 Disney movie "The Incredibles" and includes the lyrics: "Girls, come on? Leave the saving of the world to the men? I don't think so. I don't think so."
A female pilot os shown lip-synching the words as she wags her finger in a negative manner.
LibsofTikTok says it appears Endeavor "is fixated on promoting all-female 'unmanned' flights." The reference to "unmanned" implies male-free.
As WND reported Tuesday, Delta Air Lines is coming under severe criticism for doubling down on its push for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, or DEI, just days before Monday's spectacular crash at Toronto Pearson Airport.
On Feb. 6, Peter Carter, chief external affairs officer at Delta, said: "We are steadfast in our commitments because we think that they are actually critical to our business."
"Sustainability is about being more efficient in our operations and really DE&I is about talent and that's been our focus."
"The key differentiator at Delta is our people," Carter added, according to Fox5Atlanta.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Famous "The Harbinger" author Jonathan Cahn has delivered a prophetic message to members of Congress – and others – during the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C.
It's a call for revival across America.
"We have this chance. We have this window that we may never have again," he explained.
He said the "window" that has opened is the re-election of President Donald Trump.
"This is our moment. This is our window."
He cited the warning from America's first president. "The propitious smiles of heaven, he said, can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which heaven itself has ordained."
And now, he judged, "We have turned away from God, we have disregarded His eternal rules of order and right. We have profaned the holy and we have sanctified the profane. We have celebrated evil and condemned and canceled the good."
But Trump, he said, likening the president to the Old Testament king Jehu.
He said Jehu was "wild, impulsive and unpredictable," he forged an alliance with religious conservatives, he contended against a former national leader, and then overturned the nation's temple of Baal and "moved with lightning speed."
Just like Trump.
He said this time is the window and called for prayers to "let revival fall upon this land."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
DOGE, President Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency, which is led by Elon Musk and tasked with eliminating fraud, waste, and corruption in federal government spending, actually is an agency that was created by Barack Obama.
All Trump did was change the name and give it a new assignment and staff.
But the funding paths and authorities were already established.
It was Obama's United States Digital Service, created in 2014, that was gutted and transformed into an organization that is expected, by its own estimation, to cut hundreds of billions of dollars a year from federal spending.
It's already inserted itself into dozens of federal agencies, including the Defense Department and the IRS, and it has largely eliminated the U.S. Agency for International Development, transferring only some of its workers and responsibilities to the State Department.
Multiple reports have defined how Obama launched the agency in an attempt to make the federal government's digital capabilities better, following the disastrous rollout at the time of HealthCare.gov, the Obamacare website.
Trump moved the organization from the Office of Management and Budget to the Executive Office of the President, appointed "special government employee" Musk to run it, and unleashed it.
It already has been targeted by a long list of lawsuits from lawfare schemes launched by Democrats against Trump and his plans. And Trump has made it clear that he is the decision-maker for DOGE plans to cut spending, eliminate grants, and more.
The founding of DOGE was the topic of comment by Ed Dowd just days ago on the Charlie Kirk podcast. Dowd's comments come at about the 24-minute mark of Kirk's recent podcast, "JD Vance Buries the Globalists."
Dowd, a real estate investor, financier, and philanthropist, explained the brilliance of the Trump plan to take over the agency already created by Obama and turn it into DOGE.
He explained the move gave it oversight of the bureaucracy and gained immediate access to many government offices.
And, he said, there's "nothing that the Deep State can do."
The move, he described, amounted to a Trump "blitzkrieg" against the Deep State, the establishment in Washington, the funding routes and procedures.
"The big point, I'm very impressed, with the foresight, planning before they even hit the ground on Jan. 20," he said.
Democrats have been left gasping for breath with how quickly Trump and DOGE have moved against fraud, with announcements about the elimination of thousands of federal jobs.
The number of illegal immigrant encounters in the southwest has plummeted since January of last year, KNSD-TV reported. This suggests that President Donald Trump's promised crackdown is working as it should.
The U.S. Customs and Border Patrol released figures last month showing there were 61,000 encounters during January of this year. This represents a decrease of 36% from December and a whopping 65% from January of 2023.
However, the numbers don't tell the whole story. Trump took office on Jan. 21, 2025, which represents a little more than a week of the month, but immediately increased deportations and deployed military personnel to the Southern border.
Trump's strategy is helping to catch those who are coming into the nation illegally while deterring others who might otherwise try it with. Shockingly, it's already working even better than anyone could have hoped.
The most recent raw numbers are starting to complete the picture of a desolate border no longer inundated with newcomers as it was under Trump's predecessor, then-President Joe Biden. Border Czar Thomas D. Homan shared Tuesday's numbers that reflected a winning strategy.
"In the last 24 hours, the US Border Patrol has encountered a total of 229 aliens across the entire southwest border. That is down from a high of over 11,000 a day under Biden," Homan posted to X, formerly Twitter.
"I started as a Border Patrol Agent in 1984, and I don’t remember the numbers ever being that low. President Trump promised a secure border and he is delivering," Homan added.
In the last 24 hours the US Border Patrol has encountered a total of 229 aliens across the entire southwest border. That is down from a high of over 11,000 a day under Biden. I started as a Border Patrol Agent in 1984 and I don’t remember the numbers ever being that low.…
— Thomas D. Homan (@RealTomHoman) February 17, 2025
Trump's success has predictably caused the Democrats to lash out at him. According to The Hill, Trump's immigration and deportation raids in places like Chicago have sparked outraged.
"These unwarranted raids have not only targeted hardworking individuals but, alarmingly, have also wrongfully targeted U.S. citizens and veterans. Such actions sow fear, disrupt families, destabilize local economies, and undermine public trust," Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY), Congressional Hispanic Caucus leader, claimed.
Meanwhile, so-called sanctuary cities continue to stand firm. As Fox News reported, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and Michael Cox, her Democrat-appointed Police Commissioner, are insisting that they "don't enforce" federal immigration laws.
"We don’t enforce civil detainers regarding federal immigration law," Cox said of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's edicts. "It's defined here in the state, and that’s just how it works," he added.
Trump's policies are performing as promised even as Democrats are actively trying to thwart what he's doing. However, the numbers don't lie, and the American people can see it.
The Washington Post withdrew a "Fire Elon Musk" ad, which would have demanded the firing of the Tesla CEO and SpaceX creator, who holds U.S. government authority as DOGE's head.
A spokeswoman for Musk critic Common Cause told reporters that the Post pulled the ad. The Washington, D.C.-based paper partnered with Common Cause and the Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund to publish the ad in Tuesday's issue for $115,000, as The New York Post reported.
Submitting artwork to the Post, Common Cause President Virginia Kase Solomón was informed the ad might be placed inside the paper but not as a wrap: "We said 'thanks, no thanks' because we had a lot of questions."
The ad would have filled the front and back pages of the Tuesday Post and had a full-page segment with the same theme inside, Common Cause told The Hill.
The advocacy group's representative said Common Cause learned Friday that the Post would not print the Musk ad.
The Post's owner, Jeff Bezos, publicly backed Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election, and the publication took a lot of heat for not endorsing a candidate. This led to the decision to pull the plug.
"It's deeply concerning that our ad was censored and rejected without a valid reason. We believe this is limiting our freedom of expression at a critical time in our nation's history," a joint statement emailed to USA TODAY from Solomón and Margaret Huang, Southern Poverty Law Center president & CEO, reads.
"This seems to show the Washington Post is feeling pressure to cover the news a certain way."
A representative from The Washington Post informed reporters via email that the publication would rather not discuss internal decisions on individual advertising campaigns, instead referring to its broad advertising guidelines.
Journalists were provided with the design of the advertisement by Common Cause.
The advertisement featured a giant photo of Elon Musk laughing with his head cocked back, as well as a cutout image of the White House and large white writing that says, "Who's running the country: Donald Trump or Elon Musk?"
On the lower area of the first page of the ad, a smaller text says, "Since day one, Elon has created chaos and confusion and put our livelihoods at risk. And he is accountable to no one but himself."
"The Constitution only allows for one president at a time. Call your senators and tell them it's time Donald Trump fire Elon Musk," the ad reads, followed by the URL FireMusk.org. The second page of the ad says, "No one elected Elon Musk to any office."
On August 5, 2013, Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and the space corporation Blue Origin, acquired the Post for $250 million.
Since that time, the publication has been subjected to scrutiny for certain political decisions, such as choosing not to endorse a candidate during the 2024 presidential election.
"The Washington Post will not be making an endorsement of a presidential candidate in this election. Nor in any future presidential election," Post publisher Will Lewis said in a statement. "We are returning to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates."
According to Solomón, the Post’s decision not to run the ad could be attributed to the relationship between Bezos and Trump.
"Is it because we're critical of what's happening with Elon Musk? Is it only OK to run things in the Post now that won't anger the president or won't have him calling Jeff Bezos asking why this was allowed?" Solomón told the Hill.
President Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, has asked the Justice Department to investigate House Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-Ny.) for obstructing immigration enforcement after she gave illegal aliens advice on dodging the law.
“I’ve asked DOJ, where is that line of impediment, where is that line of interference?” Homan told Fox News. “I’ve simply asked the Department of Justice, give us that line.”
AOC has been an outspoken opponent of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) since her entry into Congress. Last week, she hosted a controversial "know your rights" Facebook webinar that shared information about the alien removal process.
Ocasio-Cortez did not appear in the webinar, which provided advice on evading deportation. The presentation encouraged immigrants not to open the door when ICE officials come knocking and to demand a warrant first.
Homan - who is overseeing President Trump's mass deportations - has warned that AOC could be in legal jeopardy for obstructing the law.
"What I find disturbing is that any member of Congress wants to educate people on how they evade law enforcement,” he said.
“We are talking about people who are in the country illegally, committed a crime. They are public safety threats, and they’ve been ordered removed by a federal judge,” he added.
“It’s like AOC and others don’t want ICE to enforce the law that they enacted.”
While many agree with Homan that AOC is obstructing the law, some have defended her on free speech grounds. Conservative law professor Jonathan Turley called Homan's threats an attack on the First Amendment.
“Border Czar Tom Homan doubled down last night that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) might be prosecuted for hosting a forum on ‘Know Your Rights’ for accused illegal aliens. Such a prosecution would be an assault on free speech rights,” Turley wrote on X.
On the other hand, Homan has said there's a difference between informing people of their rights and openly encouraging defiance of the law.
“You can claim you’re educating those constitutional rights, okay, you can keep that claim, okay. But what she is in fact doing is telling people ‘Don’t open the door, hide in your home, don’t talk to ICE,’” he told Fox News.
Meanwhile, the Justice Department has pledged to track down leakers who have sabotaged ICE by publicizing planned immigration raids.
Homan said he would defer to the DOJ on whether AOC should face arrest.
President Trump stopped his motorcade to show some love to supporters who gathered outside his Florida golf course on President's Day.
The president momentarily exited the presidential limousine - known as "The Beast" - to wave back to an adoring crowd, Breitbart reported.
The motorcade was leaving Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, which is the location where a gunman tried to assassinate Trump in September.
While his security detail took necessary precautions for his safety, Trump made it clear he would not let past attempts on his life deter him from connecting with his supporters.
The president - surrounded by Secret Service - got out of the limousine and paced the street from behind a parked car.
Trump - sporting a red MAGA hat and golf polo - pumped his fists and waved as the crowd chanted, "USA!"
After getting back into his limo, Trump continued waving from behind the tinted windows as supporters cheered over chants of "lock him up!"
The spectacle came a day after Trump met with an enthusiastic reception at the Daytona 500. Trump - joined by his granddaughter, Carolina - shared a message of support with the drivers over radio as his limo made two laps around the racetrack.
"This is your favorite President. I'm a big fan, a really big fan of you people. How you do this, I don't know," he said. "But I just want you to be safe. You are talented people and you are great people and great Americans. Have a good day, have a lot of fun and I will see you later."
President @realDonaldTrump addresses the drivers before the 2025 Daytona 500. pic.twitter.com/DP9hXWjDpm
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) February 16, 2025
Later, Trump discussed the "fantastic" race with Fox Sports as he hailed a new spirit of optimism all over the world.
“It’s great for the country. Our country is doing well again. And we have spirit — all over the world, there’s spirit again,” he said. “We brought it back, and it’s been less than four weeks. So, you’ll see what we do in — in a little period of time, it’s going to only get better. But this is very exciting.”
A few weeks into his second term, the public is giving Trump positive ratings as he takes aggressive action to put America back on track.
While Trump's scattered opposition has struggled to regain focus, crowds of protesters did gather in the streets on President's Day to voice their anger toward Trump and his close adviser, Elon Musk.