Column

The president is still riding on global goodwill for the release of hostages from Hamas. On stage in Egypt, the president of Pakistan praised President Donald Trump for bringing peace to what could have become a nuclear war between Pakistan and India. The Israeli people love him more than they do their own leaders. But here at home, Democrats have kept voting to keep the government shut down…

The government is “shut down.” Media call this a “crisis.” A “crisis (with) no deal in sight,” says Fox News. Reuters says it's a “key risk to US stability.” But when I look around, I see business as usual -- families raise children, workers work, people play music ...  The media act like government is the most important part of life. It isn't. Fortunately, most of life, and the best of life,…

When President Donald Trump pulled out of the Iran deal in his first term, The New York Times predicted catastrophe. Its editorial board wrote: “When it comes to the danger of a nuclear arms race in the Middle East, there is no sign Iran or any of the other major powers in the existing and so far successful pact will simply fall in line with Mr. Trump’s notional new plan. More likely, his…

President Donald Trump loves a Sharpie pen, and now he has all the more reason to love the company that makes them. The president signed the flurry of executive orders he issued the day he returned to office with a Sharpie. He’s used them for years, finding them more reliable than fancier pens. Now we know they have another merit, too: They’re almost entirely made in America.

One more time: There is no such thing as free lunch. Government has no money. It acquires the money used to pay for things one of three ways: taxing, borrowing or printing. Democrat senators, with three exceptions, voted against keeping the federal government fully running because they want to add back spending reduced under the so-called Big Beautiful Bill; they want to spend even more; and…

Have you heard how young people suffer now? Scroll TikTok, Instagram, etc., you see the same message: “Young people today can’t get ahead!” One popular meme says when baby boomers like me were young, “A family could own a home, a car and send their kids to college, all on one income.” “That’s a fantasy,” says economist Norbert Michel. “We are much better off than we were.” My new video takes…

The nation is rightly traumatized by the horrible assassination of Charlie Kirk. The media is filled, also rightly, with give and take trying to understand what can and should be done so that we don’t see more of the same. But unfortunately, much of the expression that I hear is informed by the same misguided sense of right and wrong that brought to fruition the horrible act.

As the Trump administration takes on the latest wave of left-wing violence, an obituary reminds us what happens when political killers get away with their crimes. The law never caught up with Joanne Chesimard, aka Assata Shakur. She died last Thursday, age 78, an honored guest of Cuba’s Communist regime — and honored, disgracefully, by tenured radicals in America’s universities, too.…

“Mental health is declining,” says psychologist Jonathan Haidt. This week, his book, “The Anxious Generation,” is number one on The New York Times bestseller list. His book has been a bestseller for more than a year. Haidt argues that smartphones and social media have “rewired childhood” and made kids more anxious and depressed. My son agrees. He brings Haidt’s argument to schools.…

Over the years, our government has expanded dramatically, all with the objective of improving our lives. Yet, with all of this, confidence that Americans express in our country and its major institutions has plummeted. Of 18 of the nation’s major institutions, per a recent Gallup survey, there are only three in which 50% or more now express a “great deal or quite a lot” of confidence.

Some parents abuse their kids. Child welfare workers are supposed to stop that to protect the kids. But bad things often happen while they watch. “Children have a right to safety,” says Tim Keller. “If home is a danger, we as a society have to step in and protect those children.” Keller, legal director of the Center for the Rights of Abused Children, is a libertarian. “It’s surprising to hear…

The much-publicized exchange between Bed Bath & Beyond chairman Marcus Lemonis and California Gov. Gavin Newsom is a lesson for the whole country. We shoppers look back fondly on the marketing acumen that, starting with one store in 1971, built Bed Bath & Beyond into a retail giant that once had 365 stores nationwide.

Everything has a political angle now. The left gets worked up by a jeans ad. The right gets worked up by Cracker Barrel removing both the cracker and the barrel from their logo. Red and blue, colors on the light spectrum and in nature, are now political. A 23-year-old transgender gunman killing children is political. The prayers offered are maligned as useless. It is all political.

At this point in his second term, President Donald Trump has higher approval ratings than Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama in their second terms. According to the Real Clear Politics average of presidential approval polls, Trump, on Aug. 13, 2025, had a rating of 45.8%. G.W. Bush on Aug. 13, 2005, registered a 43.2% rating. Obama, on Aug. 13, 2013, stood at 43.8%.