Elise Stefanik Gets the Trump Treatment

 https://www.wsj.com/opinion/elise-stefanik-gets-the-trump-treatment-af599479?mod=hp_opin_pos_4

Being an opponent of President Trump is fraught, but being his friend can also be perilous. Witness New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, a rising GOP star who thought she had Mr. Trump’s support to run for Governor until she didn’t.

Ms. Stefanik announced her run for Albany shortly after the November election. But on Friday she left the race, despite having raised $12 million, and says she also won’t run for re-election in her upstate district. It’s hard to blame her after her rough treatment by the President.

’60 Minutes’ Faces Backlash For Pulling Trump El Salvador Prison Segment

 https://www.newsweek.com/cbs-60-minutes-backlash-pulling-trump-el-salvador-prison-11252176

CBS program 60 Minutes is under fire after posting a notice that a segment on its episode set to air Sunday had been pulled - one featuring interviews with prisoners sent from the U.S. to El Salvador's Terrorism Confinement Center, known as CECOT.

Democratic political commentator Marco Foster wrote on X: "This is the now deleted teaser for the 60 Minutes report that was supposed to air tonight on the CECOT torture prison in El Salvador that Donald Trump sent hundreds of migrants to. CBS is officially a mouthpiece for the Trump administration thanks to Bari Weiss."

Secret of the Scale- Rav Dovid Eidensohn Bnei Noach Academy

 https://open.spotify.com/episode/5wxJiCdJJHDokHA9Mk8JQH?si=VGUZgUSuSOeEML0cvSFiFw&t=54

https://open.spotify.com/episode/5wxJiCdJJHDokHA9Mk8JQH?si=lZtLti0-RLycpdJus4MS_g

Secret of the Scale

Trump HIDES in His Bunker as Epstein Files, War Crimes & “Hippo Tests” Haunt Him | Jimmy Kimmel

We are in a religious war

 https://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/we-are-in-a-religious-war/

Just like in the time of the Hasmoneans, today too—whether in Sydney, Australia, on the Temple Mount, or in the October 7 massacre—acceptance of us comes with a condition: that we Hellenize, or rather, Islamize. This is the demand of Iran and its proxies, and also of the Palestinian Authority, which continues to reject recognizing Israel as the Jewish state.

At Turning Point’s annual gathering, young conservatives fret about the future

 https://edition.cnn.com/2025/12/20/politics/turning-point-young-conservatives-worried?iid=cnn_buildContentRecirc_end_recirc&recs_exp=most-popular-article-end&tenant_id=popular.en

Many young voters say they plan to express their dissatisfaction by sitting out the next election. While that sentiment is strongest among independents, apathy is more pronounced among Republicans than Democrats. Only half of young people who voted for Trump in 2024 said they definitely plan to vote in 2026, compared to 66 percent of Kamala Harris’ young voters.

Divisions remain, though, over whether Trump should attempt to win over the generation with more targeted policies. Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro delivered a different message to young people on Thursday: “Get off your ass and go do the thing.”

“Finish high school, get a job, get married, have kids, go to church. Those are all in your control,” he said from a studio at AmericaFest. “You pretending those things are not in your control is grievance culture BS.”

Tucker Carlson inflames a raging battle for MAGA’s future

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/12/20/tucker-carlson-maga-trump-fuentes-antisemitism/

Tucker Carlson had some concerns. So he called President Donald Trump.

The right-wing podcaster and provocateur wanted to understand why the U.S. was attacking alleged drug smuggling boats off the coast of Venezuela and he warned against pursuing regime change there — a prospect that has alarmed the more isolationist “America First” Republicans in Trump’s movement.

The conversations last weekend, which Carlson recalled in an interview, show how the Fox News castoff is at the center of some of the most heated disputes in MAGA — over foreign policy, antisemitism and conspiracy theories, among other topics heightening tensions in the movement. As the right wrestles with what it should stand for and against in the coming years, Carlson is a divisive and influential figure with an audience — on social media, among MAGA commentators and inside the White House.

Turning Point Embraces MAGA Debate on Night Two of AmericaFest

 https://www.newsweek.com/turning-point-embraces-maga-debate-on-night-two-of-americafest-11247849

In contrast, Bannon—a critic of the H1-B visa program—utilized his speech to embrace the “America First” platform, denouncing “Israel First” conservatives like Jewish commentator Ben Shapiro, whom he labeled a “cancer.” Bannon followed these statements in saying conservatives must continue winning because “We have to Christianize this country.”

As Bannon focused on Israel and America First—indirectly defending Carlson who’s taken flak for conducting an interview with far-right Holocaust skeptic Nick Fuentes—Ramaswamy denounced Fuentes by name. He centered his speech on combating what he described as the “online right” who push the idea of “Heritage Americans,” those who can trace their lineage to Colonial America, as being the “true Americans.”

Some may see this debate as evidence of the MAGA coalition ripping itself apart, and that could be the case. However, it could also be true that conservatives have found an effective forum to litigate their internal issues that could lessen the amount of time spent on such discussions as the calendar nears 2028. Either way, Turning Point appears to be positioning itself as the premier forum for discussion in the Republican Party, and that’s a win for Erika Kirk.

Trump says Venezuela stole U.S. oil, land and assets. Here’s the history.

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/12/20/venezuela-oil-nationalization-expropriation/

President Donald Trump said this week that the expropriation of American oil company assets justified a “total and complete blockade” of oil tankers arriving and leaving Venezuela in defiance of U.S. sanctions. The blockade will remain, he wrote on Truth Social, until the South American nation returns “to the United States of America all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us.”

“They’re not going to do that again,” Trump told reporters. “We had a lot of oil there. As you know they threw our companies out, and we want it back.”

But U.S. companies never owned oil or land in Venezuela, home to the world’s largest proven reserves of crude, and officials didn’t kick them out of the country.

“Trump’s claim that Venezuela has stolen oil and land from the U.S. is baseless,” said Francisco Rodríguez, a Venezuelan economist at the University of Denver.

16 Epstein files, including photo of Trump, disappear from DOJ website: Report

 https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5658618-doj-redactions-epstein-files/

At least 16 files on the Justice Department’s (DOJ) webpage containing files on Jeffrey Epstein, including a photo featuring two pictures of President Trump, were found to have disappeared from the department’s website as of Saturday, The Associated Press reported.

One photo of the desk included two pictures inside an open drawer that featured Trump. The first printed picture shows Trump surrounded by a group of women in bathing suits. The second partially covered photo shows Trump with first lady Melania Trump, Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell in 2000.

“This photo, file 468, from the Epstein files that includes Donald Trump has apparently now been removed from the DOJ release,” Democrats on the House Oversight Committee stated in a post on the social platform X. “[Attorney General Pam Bondi] is this true? What else is being covered up? We need transparency for the American public.”

DOJ’s Epstein disclosure draws fire for website glitches, missing documents, redactions

 https://www.foxnews.com/politics/dojs-epstein-disclosure-draws-fire-website-glitches-missing-documents-redactions

The Department of Justice's efforts to release all of its files related to Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell's sex trafficking cases by the legal deadline fell short of expectations on Friday, resulting in complaints ranging from technological glitches to excessive redactions and missing documents.

The most common criticism, however, focused on what critics described as an incomplete release and extensive redactions. The DOJ has said it was required to redact information that could identify victims or minors.

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., highlighted the statutory language of the Epstein Files Transparency Act on X.

"Unfortunately, today’s document release by @AGPamBondi and @DAGToddBlanche grossly fails to comply with both the spirit and the letter of the law that @realDonaldTrump signed just 30 days ago," Massie wrote.

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., a co-sponsor of the legislation, said he and Massie were "exploring all options," including potential contempt proceedings or other actions against DOJ officials.

"It is an incomplete release with too many redactions," Khanna said.

‘Nuclear option’: Holder floats impeachment over DOJ Epstein files release

DOJ risks criminal prosecution for defying Epstein documents release law: Weissmann

'Release all the files': DOJ withheld more Epstein files than law requires