This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

An expert has explained, in an online commentary, that President Donald Trump now has an opportunity to fix what Rep. Nancy Pelosi broke in America's trade agenda during his first term.

It is Andrei Iancu, who helped negotiate trade deals during Trump's first term, who explained what Pelosi damaged, and how a fix could be in the works now.

It was during work on the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, a plan that replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement, that the damage happened, he said.
And he noted a fix is possible soon, as the three nations soon are to meet to discuss how it is working.

He explained there had been a provision protecting drug manufacturers in America from knockoffs created by overseas competitors in the original plan.

But "that provision designed to reduce foreign freeloading was stripped from the agreement at the insistence of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose support was necessary to pass the USMCA's implementing legislation through Congress," he explained.

Trump's administration, he said, now could push for the restoration of the original provisions during the coming discussions, he said.

The benefits for Americans are obvious: "Strengthening regulatory data protection in our neighbors would end the freeloading and help bring lower prices to American patients," he said.

It would be, he said, "a political and economic victory."

"During the first Trump administration, as under secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, I worked on the intellectual property aspects of that pact," Iancu explained.

"The president, U.S. Trade Representative Bob Lighthizer, and the rest of the team secured numerous concessions from our northern and southern neighbors to strengthen intellectual property (IP) protections — which help prevent foreign rivals from stealing technologies and designs from innovative American companies, reduce foreign free-riding on America's investment in innovation and incentivize American firms to boost their research spending and expand into foreign markets."

The biggest issue, however, was "a requirement that Mexico and Canada offer 10 years of 'regulatory data protection' to cutting-edge biologic medicines grown from living cell cultures."

That is what Pelosi cut out of the plan, he said.

It is during that time period that rival companies aren't allowed to use the clinical trial data of a biologic developer to create their own "knockoff" products, he said.

Those protections allow innovators to recoup their development investments, which often are costly, and that "incentivizes them to pour more resources into research and development, creating research and manufacturing jobs in the process," he said.

Trump's goal at the time was straightforward: "Raise protections abroad, so that foreign manufacturers can't free ride on American biotech inventors by prematurely introducing knockoff products," he said.

He said support was needed from Pelosi, then House speaker, for the legislation to move forward, and she refused to allow the protections for American companies.

"Now, though, there's a new Congress. The second Trump administration would be wise to push for the original terms, which Canada and Mexico had already agreed to, during the upcoming USMCA review," he wrote.
"Stronger intellectual property protections would mean more new treatments for patients — at lower prices for Americans — along with more high-paying jobs in the industries of the future, and continued leadership in critical 21st-century industries for the United States."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

A Wisconsin judge who is accused – and soon on criminal trial – for allegedly helping a criminal illegal alien try to escape from federal officers has been handed a series of defeats in a motions hearing.

A federal judge handling the immigration-related case for suspended Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan said Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI chief Kash Patel are not going to be on the defense's list of mandatory witnesses.

Further, he said she could not argue that her behavior, allegedly criminal according to an indictment, had to be allowed because they were part of her judicial duties.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Indian venture capitalist Asha Jadeja Motwani has publicly claimed credit for President Trump's sudden "change of heart" on H-1B visas, a program the White House itself admits has been "deliberately exploited to replace" American workers. Indeed, Trump's September 2025 Presidential Proclamation states that H-1B has undermined both America's "economic and national security."

Yet within months, Trump reversed course and began welcoming more H-1B workers, declaring that H-1B is "MAGA" and stating that unemployed Americans cannot fill these jobs.

Motwani boasted that she spent "almost one year battling for India in Washington D.C.," enjoying "unusual access" at Mar-a-Lago while pressing U.S. leaders to adopt India-aligned immigration positions. Indian media profiles describe her as a key power broker in Washington behind Trump's H-1B shift.

On Nov. 15 she posted on X that she met Trump at his private club and spoke to him about "my favorite country India" and "how crucial it is for the U.S. to have India strongly aligned with us," adding that he replied he "loves both India and Modi."

Under U.S. law, direct political engagement with a sitting president on behalf of a foreign nation is not a social courtesy. It is foreign political activity. The Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) requires anyone who seeks to influence U.S. officials "at the order, request, or under the direction or control of a foreign principal" to register with the Department of Justice so the American people can see who is trying to move their government.

Motwani did not present herself as an American citizen sharing a personal opinion. She described herself as lobbying for "India," complained that "not a single other high net worth individual (HNI) Indian American is helping India in D.C.," and urged more wealthy Indian-origin donors to join her. That is a self-portrait of someone acting for a foreign principal while enjoying the benefits of U.S. citizenship.

A search of the official FARA database shows no registration for Asha Jadeja Motwani or her foundations, despite a years-long pattern of India-aligned political advocacy stretching from the White House to Silicon Valley, elite universities and national-security think tanks.

Blueprint for a foreign lobby

This is not a one-off brag. In a detailed thread on X Motwani laid out a step-by-step plan to build an "India lobby" in Washington.

She wrote about targeting "Trump circles," explicitly distinguishing them from the State Department and urged Indian conglomerates such as Reliance and Adani to spend "substantial amounts" to "build influence in D.C." and "build relationships in Washington D.C." That is a call for foreign corporate money to reshape U.S. political outcomes.

Foreign governments and foreign companies can lobby in the United States only through registered agents who disclose their activities under FARA and lobbying laws. Motwani's own words describe the same conduct – lobbying for a foreign principal – without registration or public accountability.

She repeatedly frames America as an instrument for India's geopolitical strategy and describes her goal as keeping India "in the American pocket and not with anybody else." That language tracks directly with India's official diaspora strategy, which calls on Indian-origin elites in the United States to advance Delhi's strategic agenda inside Western institutions.

H-1B as 'slave labor'

Motwani has also openly described how the H-1B system she champions actually works. In a Sept. 21 post she wrote that the "dirty little secret" of H-1B labor is that foreign workers are treated as "a bit of slave labor," pointing to 80-hour work weeks, "no complaints" and no overtime demands.

She added that this arrangement "would be impossible if American workers replaced these foreigners," because employers would be forced to pay overtime, provide benefits and face litigation from workers who are free to report abuse without risking their immigration status.

Her own description of H-1B labor conditions, illegal hours, unpaid overtime and silence enforced by fear of deportation points approvingly to unlawful practices under U.S. labor and employment law, regardless of a worker's nationality. This is not a "talent pipeline." It is a system built on vulnerability. Employers exploit H-1B workers precisely because their immigration status can be used as leverage. Motwani's statements reveal the program's real function: securing a cheaper, more compliant, more easily exploited labor force.

Motwani is not a detached commentator, but rather is a long-time Silicon Valley investor with ties to firms repeatedly scrutinized for H-1B abuse, including Google, PayPal and multiple venture-backed tech companies she has funded, mentored or partnered with. Her statements are not guesses; they are admissions from inside the investor class. Yet she continues to press U.S. leaders to expand the very pipeline she admits is built on "slave labor," while American workers are displaced and U.S. wage laws are undercut.

Foreign ideology and political access

Motwani's political influence campaign is paired with explicit support for the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological parent of India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). As documented by the Encyclopaedia Britannica and AP News, RSS provides the doctrine while BJP executes that doctrine through state power.

Motwani has repeatedly praised RSS as "India's crown jewel," said she is "studying it on a war footing" and urged Indians to "defend it."

In another post, she argued that anyone in the West who "defames" RSS should be "taken to court."

Reporting by the U.K.-based Byline Times notes that Motwani's father served in the RSS and identifies her as part of a U.S.-based network amplifying Hindutva-aligned narratives.

At the same time she boasts of influencing U.S. lawmakers, senior officials and even President Trump on H-1B and U.S.-India policy. Under FARA, "foreign principals" include foreign governments, foreign political parties and foreign ideological movements. RSS and BJP fall squarely into those categories. When someone with direct RSS lineage and open ideological alignment gains access to U.S. leaders and uses that access to press for foreign-aligned policies, it raises exactly the foreign-influence concerns FARA was enacted to address.

Nonprofit fronts and foreign defense pipelines
Beyond her personal lobbying, Motwani runs U.S.-based foundations including the Motwani Jadeja Global Foundation and the Motwani Institute for Thought Leadership in Innovation.
These entities state that they aim to shape government policy in India and the United States, promote "Indian voices" in U.S. think tanks and "open doors at Davos and Washington."

Her foundation funded a major initiative at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), one of Washington's most influential national-security think tanks. With her support, CNAS launched a program on the "U.S.-India Strategic Partnership" focused on defense cooperation, intelligence sharing, drones, space, semiconductors and the Quad, the exact areas where India seeks deeper U.S. alignment.

At the same time, Motwani is partnering directly with foreign defense institutions. In 2024, her foundation launched DRISHTI, an India-Israel initiative built with Israel's Directorate of Defense Research & Development, part of Israel's Ministry of Defense, to advance dual-use technologies in AI, drones, robotics and autonomous systems. She then opened the Motwani Jadeja Centre of Excellence at T-Hub in Hyderabad as the hub of this corridor.

This creates a closed loop: A U.S. private foundation is embedded in Indian and Israeli defense-adjacent tech pipelines overseas while funding U.S. think-tank work that shapes how Washington views and manages its defense relationship with India. Under FARA, foreign-aligned policy programming combined with direct work alongside foreign defense ministries is a textbook indicator that registration and disclosure are required.

The Department of Justice has already brought cases in response to similar patterns of undisclosed foreign influence, including charges against think-tank co-director Gal Luft for alleged China-linked activity, scrutiny of Qatar's funding of the Brookings Institution and the indictment of former Trump adviser Thomas Barrack for acting as an unregistered agent of the UAE.

Pipelines into Silicon Valley and American institutions

The Rajeev Circle Fellowship, run by Motwani's foundation, is marketed as a program that "induces" founders from South Asia into a "tight knit community" in Silicon Valley. Fellowship materials say participants are groomed into a "distributed network of budding Scout VCs," signaling a foreign-national investment and influence network embedded inside the U.S. tech ecosystem, not a typical scholarship.

The program promises that fellows "acquire a permanent home in the Valley" after their first visit and enjoy "unprecedented freedom" to return to the U.S. for sales, fundraising and business development, with all expenses covered by the foundation. A private foundation cannot grant immigration status or lawful residency. Yet the language describes a privately funded system giving select foreign nationals repeated, structured access to U.S. tech and capital markets.

According to the foundation's own descriptions, fellows become a "living and breathing corridor between South Asia, Europe and the U.S.," a South-Asia-only network connecting founders directly into U.S. venture, technology and commercial platforms. That structure mirrors the diaspora-mobilization frameworks promoted in India's own policy documents.

The same approach appears in Motwani's work with U.S. policy institutions. In February 2024, the foundation announced a partnership with the Atlantic Council to send U.S. foreign-policy and national-security experts to India's Raisina Dialogue, co-organized by India's Ministry of External Affairs, with the stated goal of "advancing India's global ambitions" and "shaping India's trajectory on the world stage."

Then in October 2024, the foundation made a major gift to the 21st Century India Center at UC San Diego to fund an India fellowship, leadership program and courses hub targeting U.S. federal and state officials, U.S. military officers, journalists and business leaders and to place them inside Indian institutions for weeks at a time.

At the Stanford India Conference 2025, on a panel titled "Geopolitics and Defense in the Changing World," supported by the foundation, Motwani joined national-security scholars to discuss India's military strategy, defense posture, AI-enabled warfare and its alignment with U.S. frameworks such as the Quad and I2U2.

At Davos 2025, her foundation sponsored a panel on U.S.-India relations featuring former U.S. Ambassador Eric Garcetti and executives from major Indian multinationals to promote deeper alignment on defense, technology, trade and security.

These are not casual networking events. Rather, they are structured programs that bring U.S. officials, experts and capital into forums built around India's strategic priorities. Under FARA, when such programs are carried out "for or in the interests of" a foreign principal, particularly when they target U.S. decision-makers, transparency and registration are not optional.

A pattern the law was written to expose

Viewed together, the pieces form a clear pattern. Asha Jadeja Motwani tells the world she is "battling for India in Washington," claims to have helped flip a U.S. president on H-1B, urges Indian corporations to pour money into "building influence in D.C.," praises and defends the RSS-BJP ideological machine that governs India and runs U.S. foundations that partner with foreign defense ministries, move foreign founders into Silicon Valley and embed U.S. officials in Indian institutions.

She openly states that the "dirty little secret" of H-1B is that workers are treated as "a bit of slave labor," describing conditions that, if imposed on any employee in America, violate U.S. law. Yet she pushes U.S. leaders to expand that program while American workers are sidelined and their wage protections are weakened.

Finally, as noted earlier, under American law, anyone who acts "for or in the interest of" a foreign government, foreign political party or foreign ideological movement and tries to influence U.S. policy or public opinion must register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Failing to register while doing that work is a federal offense.

Americans should not have to decode legal jargon to see what is happening: A powerful Silicon Valley figure is using U.S. citizenship, U.S. institutions and U.S. access to advance the agenda of a foreign government, including a visa system she herself describes as built on exploitation and "slave labor," without the transparency federal law demands.

The record of Motwani's statements, her political outreach, her foundation's partnerships and her role in programs involving U.S.-India defense, technology and immigration policy fits the very pattern of undisclosed foreign influence that FARA was designed to bring into the open. The harm is not abstract. It falls on American workers, American institutions and American security. Whether those protections are enforced in this case is a test – not of India's power, but of America's willingness to uphold its own laws.

The documented records

 

 

 

 

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

It now is up to the U.S. Supreme Court to sort out the proper precedent for whether public school students in America can be forcibly indoctrinated with Islamic teachings.

Such as the lesson imposed on students in Chatham Middle School in New Jersey, where seventh-grade students were taught, as fact, "May God help us all find the true faith, Islam."

The fight originated nearly a decade ago when Libby Hilsenrath challenged the district's indoctrination of Islamic beliefs.

The Thomas More Law Center of Michigan now has filed a reply brief on her behalf with the high court, the final written plea for the justices to reverse lower court decisions allowing the teachings.

Hilsenrath had raised concerns as a parent about the school's religious indoctrination. Seventh grade students at the school were ordered to watch a five-minute video, "Intro to Islam," that was "filled with purely Islamic religious beliefs presented as facts during a mandated class in World Cultures and Geography."

Students were ordered to take notes on:

"Muhammad (Peace be upon him) is the last & final Messenger of God. God gave him the Noble Quran."

"What is the Noble Quran? Divine Revelation sent to Muhammad (S) last Prophet of Allah. A Perfect guide for Humanity."

"The Noble Quran: Guidance, Mercy and Blessing for all Mankind."

"The Noble Quran: Without any doubt and an eloquent guide from Allah."

"The Beautiful Quran: Guidance for the wise & sensible."

And "Islam: A shining beacon against the darkness of repression, segregation, intolerance and racism … ."

The bias was documented by the fact the school allowed no similar proselytizing videos involving any other faith, such as Christianity and Judaism.

The lower courts' approval of the teaching is "inconsistent with previous Supreme Court opinions that gave parents and students broad protection from subtle coercive pressures in school settings under the Establishment Clause," the TMLC said.

While the recent Kennedy v. Bremerton decision allows a coach to pray on school property, that ruling didn't overturn any previous precedents, the legal team explained.

The filing argues, "Establishment Clause prevents schools from advancing religious views that may conflict with the private beliefs of the student and his or her family."

"Lower courts have struggled to determine whether Kennedy articulated a new Establishment Clause test, what that test is, and what impact, if any, that test has on the long-standing Establishment Clause precedents which safeguard parents and their students against coercion in public schools," the legal team said. "Only the Supreme Court can resolve the lower courts' confusion and confirm the heightened protection parents and students enjoy under the Establishment Clause in the public-school setting."

The filing states, "The Free Exercise Clause safeguards 'the rights of parents to direct 'the religious upbringing' of their children.' … The Establishment Clause protects the same right of religious belief for parents and their children."

Further, existing precedent is that, "Families entrust public schools with the education of their children, but condition their trust on the understanding that the classroom will not purposely be used to advance religious views that may conflict with the private beliefs of the student and his or her family."

The dispute is that the district claims it can use "religious texts and teachings" in its classes, but the issue actually is more specific, about the use of "lessons that proselytize or promote a religion that conflicts with a parent's or child's religious beliefs" and whether that violates the Constitution.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

An appeals court has used a Florida COVID closure order case to deliver a stunning decision about the government's confiscation of property, setting a huge new precedent for closure orders that became common during the pandemic created by the China virus.

In fact, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that government orders shutting down private beaches during that time period violated the Fifth Amendment's ban on government taking property without compensation.

It is constitutional expert Jonathan Turley who pointed out, "This is a major ruling on takings, including the treatment of the limits as a physical rather than regulatory takings. It could find itself before the Supreme Court on that issue."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

In the wake of her announcement she's quitting Congress, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has jumped to third place on the Polymarket prediction market to be the 2028 Republican presidential nominee.

The Georgia Republican currently stands at 6%, just behind second-place Secretary of State Marco Rubio at 8%, and far behind the current front-runner, Vice President JD Vance who has 55%.

She is ranked ahead of other well-known names, including President Donald Trump, with whom she has had a highly publicized falling out, as well as journalist Tucker Carlson, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and Donald Trump Jr.

But is the MAGA firebrand interested in running?

Time Magazine suggested yes, writing on Saturday: "The Georgia lawmaker has privately told allies that she has considered running for president in 2028, according to two people who have spoken with her directly about the prospect and three others familiar with her thinking.

"The possibility comes amid the dramatic rupture in Greene's relationship with President Donald Trump, which contributed to her decision to announce on Friday that she would resign from the House of Representatives in January."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Although the U.S. military's mandate that service members receive the COVID-19 shot, implemented under the Biden administration, has been widely deemed "unlawful as implemented," and while many calls have since emerged for pardons or amnesty for those service members negatively impacted, these urgent requests have largely been ignored.

On June 2, 2025, representatives from Stand Together Against Racism and Radicalism in the Services, Inc. (STARRS), the MacArthur Society of West Point Graduates and the Calvert Task Group signed on to a letter sent to President Donald Trump.

The letter accurately stated that "mandatory COVID shots from 2021 to 2023, as well as the earlier anthrax vaccinations from 1997 to 2003, were formally declared by federal officials to be 'unlawful as implemented' and 'illegal,' respectively."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

There's hope for a future for New York City under a mayor-elect, Zohran Mamdani, who follows socialist, some even say communist, values, and President Donald Trump, who has been accused by Mamdani supporters of being "fascist":

The two political leaders, one heading a city and the other heading the nation, met for talks on Friday only about 10 days after Mamdani was elected.

At stake is the future of the city that has gone far left in recent elections but remains a leading municipality in America.

According to a report from one network, ABC, the two met in the Oval Office and both had good things to say.

"I just want to congratulate. I think you're going to have hopefully a really great mayor and the better he does, the happier I am. I will say there's no difference in party. There's no difference in anything. And we're going to be helping him, to make everybody's dream come true, having a strong and very safe New York and congratulations, Mr. Mayor," Trump said.

Mamdani, meanwhile, followed up by meeting with Trump after promising that he would be willing to work with Trump.

"It was a productive meeting focused on a place of shared admiration and love, which is New York City and the need to deliver affordability to New Yorkers," Mamdani said. Trump has spent building skyscrapers in New York, and is known for his support for the city.

They both talked about affordability, which is becoming a problem for more and more people following Joe Biden's tenure in the White House when inflation exploded to as much as 9.1%.

Mamdani actually is a member of the Democratic Socialist organization, but Trump is anything but the "fascist" his critics claim.

Mamdani had thrown out any conciliatory attitude he had held when he was elected, addressing Trump on election night with, "So hear me, President Trump, when I say this: To get to any of us, you will have to get through all of us."

The president does hold a significant power of the purse in a lot of federal programs that provide funding to New York, and has suggested he would withhold that support if needed.

Mamdani has, meanwhile, suggested taxing white people, providing free transit services in the city and other projects that even his fellow liberals do not support. The New York governor has suggested a block on Mamdani plans to boost taxes.

Mamdani also has claimed he'll enforce international law and arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on orders of an international court, if he comes to New York, prompting a scolding from commentators who say Mamdani will earn quickly that he's bound to follow the U.S. Constitution and U.S. law.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

President Donald Trump on social media has pointed out that the penalty for the refusal of military troops to obey orders is serious.

Punishment up to and including execution.

The response from the president came after a list of Democrats made a video urging federal employees, including members of the military, to refuse to obey what they called, without a definition, "illegal" orders.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, the Texas Democrat who is fighting to keep her seat amid a redistricting war in her state, has delivered some apparently unintentional laugh lines in Congress, and to Congress.

She claimed while the House was voting on a censure move against Rep. Stacey Plaskett, D-Virgin Islands, who was revealed to have been texting with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein during a congressional hearing, that a long list of Republicans and GOP groups took money from Epstein.

They did, only the records show the donations were from Dr. Jeffrey Epstein, not the convicted sex criminal who died in a New York jail awaiting further charges.

Crockett's comments were described as "disastrously wrong" and social media comments pointed out, "And I once had my house painted by a guy named John Kennedy. What's her point?"

And there was immediate discussion about "censure" for her.

The Gateway Pundit pointed to Crockett's "unintentional comic relief" right before the House gave Plaskett a pass for apparently taking direction from and guiding her congressional questioning based on the convicted sex offender Epstein's texts with her.

Crockett, on the House floor, charged the GOP was exhibiting a double standard.

She claimed, "Folks who also took money from somebody named Jeffrey Epstein, as I had my team dig in very quickly: Mitt Romney. The NRCC. Lee Zeldin. George Bush, WinRed, McCain-Palin, Rick Lazio. I just want to be clear: if this is standard we're going to make, then we're just going to expose it all! And the FEC filings are available for everybody to review."

In fact, it was the Washington Free Beacon's Chuck Ross who took advantage of those records "available to everybody" and confirmed that the Epstein donations to Republicans were from a different Epstein.