This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
PALM BEACH, Florida – President-elect Donald Trump said Tuesday he's going to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
At a news conference from his Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Florida, Trump said: "We're gonna be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, which has a beautiful ring.
"That covers a lot of territory. The Gulf of America. What a beautiful name. And it's appropriate. It's appropriate."
Trump noted: "We have a massive deficit with Mexico, and we help Mexico a lot. They are essentially run by the cartels, and can't let that happen.
"Mexico is really in trouble. A lot of trouble. A very dangerous place."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Joe Biden, who describes himself as a devout Catholic, cursed at reporters for asking about his age during an event over the weekend.
"My being the oldest president, I know more world leaders than any one of you ever met in your whole g*****n life," Biden snapped.
(Editor's warning: Please be aware of Biden's offensive profanity below:)
Commentator Todd Starnes commented that Biden was cursing after being asked about his age, during a White House event regarding Social Security.
"Biden is supposedly a devout Catholic. What sort of a devout Catholic would intentionally use God's name in vain? Or for that matter, what sort of devout Catholic would support late-term abortions or allow his Justice Dept. to recruit priests to spy on their parishioners?" Starnes pointed out.
"Of course, this is the same devout Catholic who repeatedly referred to the 'palmists' who wrote the Old Testament book of 'Palms.' In the Baptist faith tradition, we call that particular part of the Bible, the 'Psalms,'" he said.
Further, "Just last week the oldest-serving American president called on President Trump to embrace decency in the Oval Office. And a few days later he's using God's name in vain."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
When the history books start discussing Joe Biden's presidency, there will be no lack of blunders to mention. Afghanistan, inflation, the border, transgenderism for all, abortion, making taxpayers pay for student loans they didn't take out.
But as 2024 drew to a close, a report in the Washington Stand identified the biggest three issues that stand out from the pack as Biden's biggest blunders as president — the issues that turned the greatest number of Americans against him.
Washington Stand senior writer Joshua Arnold explained that Biden "careened from one crisis to the next" during his time in the White House, which ends in just days.
That cost him "the trust of the American people."
First among the biggest is Biden's foreign policy, highlighted by his disastrous withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan.
Biden ordered that "despite warnings from his advisors of the consequences that might follow such a decision. Without U.S. support, the democratic government in Afghanistan quickly folded to the aggression of Taliban militias. As a result, the Taliban captured $83 billion worth of U.S. military equipment, and a suicide bombing killed 13 U.S. servicemembers at the Kabul airport before the evacuation was completed."
Biden actually "threw away" 20 years of opposition to the Taliban and left the terror-linked organization "stronger than ever."
Catastrophically, he had America abandon local allies and even left behind America citizens there "with no way home."
Biden's second big blunder category was the economy.
"When President Biden assumed office, Congress had already passed multiple stimulus packages totaling trillions of dollars during the mandatory shutdowns in response to COVID-19. As a result, the Consumer Price Index inflation rate rose from 1.4% in January 2021 to 5.4% in June 2021. By this point, it should have been obvious that the U.S. government needed to take immediate, corrective action," the report said.
"However, at that point, Biden was asking Congress to pass another $4 trillion worth of spending on a progressive wish list. So, in June 2021 Biden claimed that inflation was 'transitory' and that 'no serious economist' thought unchecked inflation was on the way. Biden only convinced Congress — then controlled by his own party — to spend about half that amount, broken into separate bills."
The result was that Biden's inflation peaked at 9.1% in July 2022, and over his term, his inflation is continuing even now to cost consumers more than 20% for the same products and services as before he was elected.
He even resorted to "falsehoods" that inflation was 9% when he took office, which even leftists were unable to ignore. Actually, inflation was below 2% when he took office.
Third was immigration.
"When President Biden took office, he rescinded Trump administration policies that had effectively slowed the number of illegal border crossings down to a trickle — most notably a policy allowing for expedited deportation of migrants with no legitimate asylum claim and a policy requiring migrants to remain in Mexico while their asylum claims were adjudicated. These policy changes inspired more foreigners — not only from Latin America but from all over the world — to make the dangerous journey to America's southern border. Illegal border crossings surged to unheard-of levels: 3.2 million in FY 2023, 2.9 million in FY 2024, and a sum total of more than eight million encounters during Biden's four years in office, besides 1.7 million known 'gotaways,'" the report said.
In fact, the Biden administration's schemes to address the entry of illegal aliens actually brought them into the country "faster."
Among the problems that developed was the entry of suspected terrorists and criminal gangs that actually are now trafficking children "to force them into prostitution."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Wonder about how Americans felt during the last year of Joe Biden's term in the White House.
This would be the year when the administration pushed its pro-transgender and pro-abortion agendas to their highest level, when Christians over and over were jailed for praying outside abortion businesses, and after they'd already seen the Afghanistan disaster, an invasion of illegal aliens, and inflation of some 20%.
One revealing indicator is the "most popular" Bible verse for people during the year.
A report from CBN explains the information comes from the Bible app YouVersion, which revealed the verse indicates people "have been seeking God's comfort in tumultuous times.'
"This year, the most searched scripture was Philippians 4:6. It reads: 'Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God,'" the report said.
YouVersion chief Bobby Gruenewald said in the report it suggests people are more likely to turn to God when they face worry amid daily struggles.
He explained, "In many cases, our anxiety comes from holding onto worries that we aren't meant to carry. To me, this verse being sought out the most this year is an illustration that our community is seeking God in prayer and choosing to trust Him to carry their burdens—and we're seeing that supported in the data."
The app was designed to challenge people to seek God, and has been downloaded onto more than 875 million devices, the report said.
"I was just trying to figure out how to use technology to help people read the Bible more consistently," Gruenewald previously told CBN News.
The report also noted, "The words 'prayer' and 'peace' were among the top in-app search terms this year and the app's YouVersion Prayer features went up by 46% this year compared to last year."
The report noted every month of 2024 became the new record for installs and daily use of the app. Some 11 million new devices were added to its system each month.
"Countries like South Sudan (82%), Angola (68%), Mozambique (55%), Guinea (50%), Nigeria (35%), and Algeria (35%), saw a rise in daily Bible use in 2024," the report said.
Sales of physical Bibles also are up 22% over the previous year.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Joe Biden called a briefing he gave to the nation about terrorist attacks in New Orleans and Las Vegas as "this damn thing" and fretted about missing the kickoff to the Sugar Bowl:
"The Sugar Bowl is back on. Kick off is going to take off very shortly. If I don't get this damn thing done we're gonna be in real trouble," he said. And he checked his watch.
On X, Libs of TikTok said, "He's annoyed he has to update the country on a t*rrorist attack because he wants to watch football. Sick."
Other commenters: "no way this is real! What is wrong with this man?"
"He's disgraceful."
"It's always about him."
And, "Oh, those pesky presidential duties … always so inconvenient."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
The first details of the New Year's terror attack in New Orleans are beginning to emerge now that the suspect has been identified as 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, an American man living in Texas.
One victim is 18-year-old Nikyra Cheyenne Dedeaux, who sneaked out to New Orleans on Tuesday from Gulfport, Mississippi, along with her cousin and a friend, 18-year-old Zion Parsons, to celebrate the New Year on Bourbon Street.
She was one of at least 15 fatalities after Jabbar drove a pickup truck down the French Quarter Street in an act of terrorism.
"I just want to see my baby," Nikyra's mother Melissa Dedeaux, 40, told Nola.com. "She was the sweetest person. She would give you anything, anything."
"As a mother, when my niece and [Parsons] said they covered her with a sheet, I just knew that was it for my daughter," Melissa Dedeaux said.
Known to her family as "Cheyenne," she was the third oldest of Melissa Dedeaux's six children.
"She was my favorite," Melissa Dedeaux indicated. "She was my child."
A 2024 graduate of Harrison Central High School in Gulfport, Mississippi, Cheyenne was following in her mother's footsteps and was set to begin a nursing program at Blue Cliff College on Jan. 13.
"Cheyenne was a very smart and outgoing girl," Melissa Dedeaux said. "She's never gotten into any trouble."
"If she wasn't at work, she was sleeping or getting together with her girls. She always had carloads of friends," she continued.
"I didn't even know she came over here," Melissa Dedeaux said. "No matter how good you are, how sweet you are, you can be the one that's buried. Things like this can happen."
Another victim of the terror attack is 37-year-old Reggie Hunter, a Baton Rouge father of two who reportedly decided on a whim to head to New Orleans for New Year's Eve.
"They decided to go out there because he came in from work and said, 'Hey, the Sugar Bowl is tomorrow. It's New Year's Eve. Let's go to the city," said his first cousin Shirell Jackson, who was also struck by the pickup, according to Nola.com.
"Just something so simple. Hey cuz, had, wanna ride me to the city?"
Hunter worked as a warehouse manager for the past six years, and reportedly took pride in his 12-year-old son's academic accomplishments in the STEM field and in his 18-month old son.
Hunter also loved working out with his family and friends.
"He wanted to be in the gym with his homeboys and cousins," Jackson said. "And he said, 'I'm getting swole. I said, 'Where? You are so little.'"
"He was the city slicker. The tennis shoes have to match the hat," she said.
She and other relatives never expected this past Christmas to be their last family gathering with Hunter.
"You are praying for a prosperous year in 2025," Jackson said. "And never do you think this is the news you are going to get."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
PALM BEACH, Florida – President-elect Donald Trump is trolling Democrats and the legacy news media as 2024 comes to a close, posting a video compilation of network coverage of perhaps the biggest cover-up of the year: Joe Biden's failing mental health.
Trump is apparently responding to comments by Jan Crawford of CBS News, who said this week on "Face the Nation" that Biden's "obvious cognitive decline" was the most "under-covered and under-reported" story of 2024.
"It's starting to emerge now that his advisers kind of managed his limitations, which has been reported in the Wall Street Journal, for four years, and yet he insisted that he could still run for president," Crawford indicated.
"We should have much more forcefully questioned whether he was fit for office for another four years, which could have led to a primary for the Democrats.
"It could have changed the scope of the entire election."
Trump's video, nearly three minutes long, opens with White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre strongly defending Biden's mental abilities, as she says, "Oh my gosh! He's the president of the United States! I can't even keep up with him."
A variety of national lawmakers and officials are featured in Trump's compilation, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., all claiming how sharp and capable Biden is.
First lady Jill Biden is also included defending her husband, saying on "The View": "You're gonna see how smart he is, and the experience he has."
She suggested Joe's age is actually a benefit, saying: "He's wise, he has wisdom, he has experience."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A new poll reveals that Americans, a majority of 57%, want former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., investigated by the FBI for her role in former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's partisan Jan. 6 riot-investigating committee.
The results, from Rasmussen, cited in the Florida Capital Star, follow a report from House Republicans that accused Cheney of witness tampering.
"Based on the evidence obtained by this Subcommittee, numerous federal laws were likely broken by Liz Cheney," the report said.
According to the report, House members recommended the FBI investigation over allegations of procuring another person to commit perjury.
"In the report, the House GOP said Cheney tampered with January 6 Select Committee witness Cassidy Hutchinson by secretly communicating with the former Trump administration worker without telling her attorney," the Capital Star said.
"Hutchinson committed perjury when she lied under oath to the Select Committee. Additionally, Hutchinson was interviewed by the FBI as part of its investigation into President Trump," the report detailed.
WND reported when the House report came out that members of Congress concluded Cheney "likely" violated federal law during her work to pin the blame for the Jan. 6, 2021, events in Washington on President Trump.
The report, from the House Administration Oversight Subcommittee, and chairman Barry Loudermilk, was released and concluded the riot was preventable.
Cheney decided to join in the Democrats' organized lawfare against President Donald Trump, and their allegations of his responsibility for the riot, even though he had told his supporters to protest peacefully.
Further, he had volunteered to have thousands of National Guard troops at the Capitol complex that day in order to prevent any disruption, but was refused by Democrats in Washington.
"Based on the evidence obtained by this Subcommittee, numerous federal laws were likely broken by Liz Cheney, the former Vice Chair of the January 6 Select Committee, and these violations should be investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation," charged the report.
The report continued, "Evidence uncovered by the Subcommittee revealed that former Congresswoman Liz Cheney tampered with at least one witness, Cassidy Hutchinson, by secretly communicating with Hutchinson without Hutchinson's attorney's knowledge. This secret communication with a witness is improper and likely violates (the law). Such action is outside the due functioning of the legislative process and therefore not protected by the Speech and Debate clause."
The criminal law that prohibits tampering with witnesses could subject a defendant to a penalty of 20 years in prison.
The report also faulted Hutchinson, described as Cheney's "star witness at the nationally televised hearings, alleging that Cheney encouraged false testimony about a handwritten document and noting her sensational claim that former President Donald Trump tried to commandeer his presidential limousine that day to take it to the Capitol," a claim that was debunked by the Secret Service itself.
Loudermilk's report explains evidence obtained by his subcommittee suggests "Hutchinson committed perjury when she lied under oath to the Select Committee." Cheney's fault likes with "violating 18 U.S.C. 1622, which prohibits any person from procuring another person to commit perjury."
The report explained the report further charges that there is "evidence of collusion" between the J6 committee, led by Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and Cheney, who shortly after was thrown out of her congressional seat by her own voters.
The other side of the colluding parties would be special counsel Jack Smith, who had created a number of lawfare cases against Trump, all of which now have collapsed and been dismissed.
The report said, "When Smith released a trove of documents in October that were used in his filings in the Trump case, present in the batch was an unredacted transcript from one Jan. 6 Select Committee interview with a witness."
The report said the only way for Smith to have gotten that document was "from one of the two institutions which did not cooperate" with the subcommittee's investigation.
It also confirmed Pelosi's committee refused to preserve significant evidence, Hutchinson made "significant material changes" in her testimony "with the help of Vice Chair Cheney," and Pelosi "took some responsibility for not ensuring adequate Capitol security in unaired footage recorded" for a documentary.
Loudermilk also addressed a letter to colleagues with a warning: "Americans expect and deserve a government that is small in size, limited in scope, and fully accountable to the people, as our Founders intended. The actions of some elected officials and certain government bureaucrats in the aftermath of January 6, 2021, are evidence of how we have ventured far away from those basic principles of our constitutional republic. Transparency, accountability, and equal application of the law are the only solutions to return our nation to one that is free, safe, and full of opportunity."
Cheney has been one of the names suggested for Joe Biden to protect with "preemptive" presidential pardons.
That topic came up as Biden pardoned his son Hunter, who was convicted of multiple gun felonies and pleaded guilty to multiple tax felonies and could have spent decades in prison.
Biden followed that up with hundreds and hundreds of commutations.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
PALM BEACH, Florida – President-elect Donald Trump is demanding Democrats take a vote on the U.S. debt ceiling immediately, saying the extension of the ceiling is "one of the dumbest political decisions made in years."
In a statement Sunday evening on Truth Social, Trump indicated:
"The extension of the Debt Ceiling by a previous Speaker of the House, a good man and a friend of mine, from this past September of the Biden Administration, to June of the Trump Administration, will go down as one of the dumbest political decisions made in years.
"There was no reason to do it – NOTHING WAS GAINED, and we got nothing for it – A major reason why that Speakership was lost.
"It was Biden's problem, not ours. Now it becomes ours.
"I call it '1929' because the Democrats don't care what our Country may be forced into. In fact, they would prefer 'Depression' as long as it hurt the Republican Party.
"The Democrats must be forced to take a vote on this treacherous issue NOW, during the Biden Administration, and not in June. They should be blamed for this potential disaster, not the Republicans!"
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
An appeals court has tossed out a "contempt" finding against former Colorado county clerk Tina Peters, who not long ago was jailed for nine years for a situation in which she allegedly revealed an election systems password, for lack of evidence.
A report from Colorado Politics explains the Colorado Court of Appeals determined there simply wasn't sufficient evidence to sustain the claim by retired judge Paul Dunkelman, and the accompanying $1,500 fine.
Witnesses told Dunkelman of seeing Peters, during a court hearing, holding her iPad as if recording, and on that basis Dunkelman held Peters in contempt.
He claimed, "She was recording a proceeding. She was doing so covertly. She hid the fact when called out on it by Judge Barrett — certainly an indication to this court that Ms. Peters was aware it was not acceptable, if not a violation of a court order."
But the appeals court noted there was no finding at the lower court that were was a valid court order prohibiting recording, and whether Peters knew about it.
The appeals panel said there simply wasn't evidence in the record to support the case against Peters, a former Mesa County clerk who is serving a sentence of nine years for "attempting to influence a public servant, official misconduct and related offenses stemming from a security breach of her office's elections equipment in 2021."
The contempt claim developed from Peters' attendance at a hearing for her deputy clerk in 2022. Prosecutors claimed she was recording and she denied it.
The judge then continued the hearing, failing to have determined that Peters had been recording.
Prosecutors later brought their now-debunked claim against Peters.
Judge Stephanie Dunn, on the appeals panel, confirmed, "Peters is correct that the contempt judgment lacks several required findings, without which it cannot stand."
While Peters is serving a prison term for her actions that might have exposed an election systems password, prosecutors have given a pass to a Democrat state official in Colorado, Jenna Griswold, the secretary of state, who allowed lists of election systems passwords to be posted online and then schemed to conceal that fact.
The U.S. Supreme Court blocked her agenda with a scolding.
That report explained Griswold "played an integral role when Tina Peters, then a clerk in Mesa County, made a copy of the 2020 election results from her county and, in the course, exposed briefly an election systems password."
Prosecutors gave Griswold a pass after she leaked "current passwords for voting equipment in 34 Colorado counties, including El Paso."
Griswold has claimed there was no election security threat because two passwords are needed to access each machine.