Before Wednesday, the Trump administration had “swiftly and smoothly” issued scores of executive orders that “left the Resistance in shock and Democrats stunned,” writes Free Beacon founding editor Matthew Continetti. Then, Trump’s win streak ran out. Under scrutiny from Democrats and their journalistic and judicial allies, Trump’s Office of Management and Budget rescinded a memo that directed federal agencies to stop spending money until grant programs could be moved in alignment with the Don’s agenda.
The move was not quite the total victory Chuck Schumer portrayed it to be. Trump’s executive order calling for a funding freeze remains in effect and will, for now, be “rigorously implemented,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. Still, the snafu showed that, for at least 45 hours, “the Resistance came alive,” Continetti writes. It also shows that if you come for the swamp, you best not miss.
Trump won every swing state and the popular vote not just because of the open border, inflation, and chaos abroad and in the streets. He won because of an anti-woke cultural appeal made most famously in the “Kamala is for they/them” television ad.
Now comes the hard part. You exorcise wokeness from government by tackling spending, for sure. But you also wrestle back control of the bureaucracy through hiring freezes, attrition, offers of early retirement, and moving federal agencies outside the Beltway.
Just don’t expect it to be easy. The snafu over the OMB memo was a reminder that de-wokeifying the government isn’t a matter of snapping one’s fingers. The federal workforce backs Democrats both politically and financially. Powerful interests are invested in the status quo. Only careful planning, precise language, consistent messaging, and effective legislation will rein in the federal Leviathan. And wipe the smile off Schumer’s face.
Read the full column here.
Student radicals at Columbia made headlines Wednesday night when they dumped cement into a campus sewage system and soaked another building with red paint. Columbia said the acts of anarchy would not be tolerated. Just months before, however, those student radicals “met within the walls of a recognized student organization to train each other on all things anarchy,” our Jessica Schwalb and Jessica Costescu report—and Columbia has done little about it.
That meeting, held in November, took place at the house of Alpha Delta Phi, a literary society that sits between several Columbia dorms and uses university resources like WiFi. It included a list of suggested readings for “aspiring revolutionaries” that “outlined the sewage cementing and graffiti soaking tactics used on Wednesday.” And while Columbia launched an investigation into the event, the probe remains ongoing and does not appear to have led to suspensions. Columbia continues to recognize Alpha Delta Phi as a student organization, according to its website.
“The apparently premeditated nature of the attack suggests Columbia could have impeded it by cracking down on the event’s attendees and its host,” write Schwalb and Costescu. Engineering student Alon Levin, who attended the November training session as a concerned observer, says it’s a precursor to “violence.”
“They made it their goal to make life unbearable for everybody else until they get what they want, which is essentially the end of the Jewish state, right?” Levin told us. “It’s never going to happen, so we’re all gonna have to be miserable.”
Back in D.C., the newly independent and widely despised journalist Jim Acosta, formerly of CNN, “followed in the footsteps of another obnoxious journalist, former Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin, by launching a new website on Substack to defend democracy or whatever,” the Free Beacon‘s Andrew Stiles writes. Acosta posted the first episode of his eponymous Substack show on Tuesday. As a service to our readers, Stiles watched it in its entirety.
“It was even worse than he expected,” he writes. “After struggling through some technical difficulties and charmless banter with his guest, former CNN analyst Norm Eisen, who cofounded the Contrarian with Rubin earlier this month, Acosta found his smug, self-righteous groove by ranting about ‘truth’ and pretending to be thrilled about his emancipation from the ‘perfectly lighted studios’ at CNN.” Acosta told Eisen they could “bro out, I guess, or something like that.” In turn, Eisen predicted Acosta’s resignation would be a “signal moment” in the history of Trump’s second presidency and asked how young journos could tell the truth “in a time of rising autocracy.”
Acosta, who is somehow even less charismatic than Hillary Clinton, responded by quoting “the great Christiane Amanpour,” who once said, “Don’t be neutral, be truthful.” He went on to complain about all the “unAmerican” things Trump has already done since taking office. “That is not America,” he said. “And, you know, I think it’s well within our rights as journalists to call that out. I know what America is. I know what it’s about, and so I can say that.” He promised to “tell people the truth even when it hurts” because “that is what a true newsman, newswoman, newsperson does.”
Eisen thanked Acosta for his “courage,” and said the whole team at the Contrarian considered him “first and foremost among the friends of our project,” which recently announced Paul Krugman, the obnoxious former New York Times columnist, as a contributor alongside “humor” writer Andy Borowitz, author of the hilarious satirical post, “Inauguration to be Held Inside Cybertruck.”
Watch the lowlight reel here.
Away from the Beacon:
- Chicago cops blocked city inspectors from entering Mayor Brandon Johnson’s so-called Gift Room. What was inside? A “Gucci Tote bag and crossbody bag,” a “Givenchy Bag, Kate Spade Red Purse, Carucci Size 14 Burgundy Men’s Shoes,” and a “Personalized Mont Blanc pen,” according to a bombshell IG report. A CBS News writeup on that report does not mention Johnson’s partisan affiliation. Johnson is a Democrat.
- Pod Save America bro Jon Favreau waited until after Joe Biden’s exit from the race to disclose that “every single person” he talked to who attended an infamous Hollywood fundraiser for Team Biden agreed that ole Joe was decrepit. Now, he “couldn’t agree more” that “Biden and his family landed us in this mess with selfish decisions and deceptive behavior.”
- As it braces for a formal spinoff from parent company Comcast, MSNBC’s primetime lineup finished January with its smallest-ever audience “among the advertiser-coveted demographic of adults aged 25-54,” Fox News reports. Mazel tov!
