“From The Patriot Post (patriotpost.us)”
THE FOUNDATION
“No country upon earth ever had it more in its power to attain these blessings than United America.” —George Washington (1788)
IN TODAY’S DIGEST
- Executive News Summary
- Featured Analysis: Team USA Delivers
- More Analysis
- Best of Right Opinion
- Best of Videos
- Short Cuts
- Today’s Meme
EXECUTIVE NEWS SUMMARY
The Editors
- Olympic gold: It’s been 46 years since the iconic Miracle on Ice, when the USA men’s hockey team took down the mighty Soviet Union and then went on to win Olympic gold. Since 1980, there had been no gold medals for USA men’s hockey, while our neighbors to the north have taken home the gold three times, defeating the U.S. twice in the championship game. On Sunday, the U.S. gold medal drought ended after Team USA defeated Canada 2-1 in a thrilling game that went wire to wire, won by Jack Hughes’s overtime goal. “This is all about our country right now,” he said in an immediate post-game interview. “I love the USA. I love my teammates. It’s unbelievable. The USA hockey brotherhood is so strong. … I’m so proud to be American today.” Indeed.
- Trump implements 15% tariff: President Donald Trump is nothing if not persistent. After the Supreme Court’s stunning decision to strike down his tariff regime on Friday, Trump immediately took action to reimplement his tariffs. Having been told that the “Liberation Day” tariffs enacted under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act were unconstitutional, Trump immediately enacted a global 10% tariff under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974. Despite enacting his backup plan, the president still blasted the SCOTUS decision as “anti-American” and suggested that the justices were influenced by “foreign interests.” On Saturday, Trump raised the global tariff further to 15%. Those hoping SCOTUS would put an end to Trump’s tariff regime will likely be disappointed, as it doesn’t seem to be ending anytime soon.
- Mexico kills kingpin, cartel retaliates: Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, or “El Mencho,” was Mexico’s most wanted criminal and the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel until he was killed in a military operation on Sunday. El Mencho was injured during his capture and died in transit to Mexico City for medical attention, and at least nine other cartel members were killed in the operation. Almost immediately, Jalisco thugs struck back, plunging the region into chaos. Guadalajara, Mexico’s second-largest city, saw gangsters burning trucks and cars as well as blocking roads. The tourist destination of Puerto Vallarta also saw violence erupt. The U.S. embassy urged Americans to seek shelter as the Mexican government works to restore order. Although the U.S. provided some intelligence to help with the operation, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum continues to steadfastly deny U.S. military forces permission to target the cartels within Mexican territory.
- Iran’s nuclear project and the U.S. military buildup: Last June, Operation Midnight Hammer saw U.S. B-2s bomb Iran’s premier nuclear facilities, with the White House declaring them “obliterated.” Experts suggested that by destroying centrifuges and burying the sites in rubble, Iran’s nuclear project had been delayed by one or two years. Now, less than a year later, White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff warns that Iran is only a week away from having enough enriched uranium to create at least one bomb. President Trump has suggested that, given the massive U.S. military buildup off the shores of Iran, the mullahs should come to the negotiating table, give up on nuclear weapons, and work out a deal. The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and its strike group are already in position, while the approaching USS Gerald R. Ford has reached the eastern Mediterranean.
- Mamdani’s shoveling IDs: New York’s first socialist mayor just can’t seem to catch a break. As the city faces its first blizzard in nearly a decade, he is calling for paid volunteers to shovel snow. The catch for the mayor, endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America, is that volunteers must bring photo ID. Just a driver’s license won’t do. No, New York is demanding that volunteer snow shovelers bring two small photos, originals and copies of two forms of ID, and a Social Security card. The DSA has actively campaigned against voter ID laws, calling them a “campaign to reverse the gains of the Civil Rights Movement.” Democrats believe you need copious forms of ID to shovel snow on a volunteer basis, but not to vote.
- California Democrat vulgarly insults Trump: Former U.S. Rep. and current California Democrat gubernatorial candidate Katie Porter spoke at the state’s Democrat Party convention over the weekend. Apparently, Porter is suffering from a raging case of TDS, as she focused her candidacy on her ire toward Donald Trump. During her speech, she held up a whiteboard upon which was scrawled “F*** Trump,” saying, “Yeah, that’s right, f*** Trump.” She added, “Together, we’re gonna kick Trump’s a** in November.” She accused Trump of killing people in the streets, taking away healthcare, and attacking democracy. RNC spokesperson Nick Poche responded, “The good news for Katie Porter is that she can pick up her medication for far less thanks to TrumpRx. … The bad news is her all stunts no substance campaign just came in a distant fifth, and no amount of abusing her staff will change that she won’t be governor.”
- Could two GOP candidates win California’s gubernatorial primary? There’s still a long way to go before the June 2 jungle gubernatorial primary in California, but the current situation has Democrats worried. Emerson College polling shows that the leading candidates are Republican Steve Hilton with 17%, and tied at 14% are Republican Sheriff Chad Bianco and Democrat Eric Swalwell. Other leading Democrats include Katie Porter at 10% and Tom Steyer at 9%, with the rest of the candidates struggling to break through. For Democrats, the situation doesn’t look promising since their jungle primary system will advance the top two candidates regardless of political affiliation. If the Democrat field stays this crowded and split, both Republicans could theoretically advance to the general election, giving the deep-blue state its first GOP governor since Arnold Schwarzenegger left office in 2011.
- Uber won’t let violent felons drive: Following a bit of investigative journalism by The New York Times, Uber was exposed for having allowed in 22 states those with criminal records, including violent felonies, to work for the company as drivers. While Uber had a policy banning drivers who had murder, sexual assault, kidnapping, and terrorism convictions, the company did permit drivers who had other violent criminal records, so long as their convictions were at least seven years old. Since the Times’s report, Uber has changed its policy and now bars all individuals convicted of violent felonies, sex offenses, and child or elder abuse from driving for the company.
- Qatar’s spending influence: Qatar continued to expand its influence and lobbying by tripling its funding for U.S. universities in 2024-2025, making it the largest foreign financier of higher education, with China in second place. As The Washington Free Beacon reports, “The five biggest recipients of Qatari money over the years, according to the Department of Education, are Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, Georgetown University, Texas A&M, and Northwestern University in that order.” All of these universities and others across the U.S. have negotiated contracts with the Gulf state and have opened satellite campuses, including a medical branch, in Qatar. Is the increasing culture of antisemitism on these campuses connected to their financial ties to Doha? Qatar is one of the biggest financial backers of Hamas and still harbors its leaders. Despite increased scrutiny over its influence deals and support for terrorism, Qatar continues its funding efforts.
- Universities shuttering women’s and gender studies over Trump’s anti-DEI order: A growing number of colleges and universities across the country are ending their women’s and gender studies programs in an effort to comply with the Trump administration’s mandate against schools promoting DEI ideology. Prominent schools like the University of Iowa and the University of California, Santa Cruz have nixed their women’s studies programs, while Texas A&M University is phasing out its program this year. The question is just how thoroughly schools are dumping these programs. As University of South Florida professor Marc Defant observed, “In many places, it looks less like a full rollback and more like a ‘wait-and-see’ posture and a shift to less visible or differently labeled programming.”
Headlines
- Federal judge blocks release of Jack Smith report’s second volume (Fox News)
- Man shot dead by Secret Service at Mar-a-Lago was obsessed with Epstein files (NY Post)
- U.S. evacuates non-emergency personnel from Beirut embassy (NewsNation)
- DC police sweep labor secretary’s office over allegations against her husband (RedState)
The Executive News Summary is compiled daily by Jordan Candler, Thomas Gallatin, Sterling Henry, and Sophie Starkova. For the archive, click here.
FEATURED ANALYSIS
Team USA Delivers
Douglas Andrews
God, I’m sorry. I’ll see you next Sunday.
So said more than one American yesterday morning at 8:10 ET as they settled in for the final event of the Winter Olympics in Italy — the gold medal hockey match between Team USA and Team Canada.
It didn’t disappoint.
From the drop of the first puck, you felt the clamminess in your palms because you knew this wasn’t just any hockey game or any Olympic event. You jumped out of your chair when a full-speed Matt Boldy split two Canadians by popping the puck up onto the blade of his stick and Tiger Woodsing it forward before beating Canadian goalkeeper Jordan Binnington with the game’s first goal. Then you felt a sense of foreboding as the Canadians — whose team included the NHL’s first-, second-, and fourth-leading scorers — began to impose their will, far outshooting us throughout the game, including 19-8 in the second period. Yes, the Yanks kept clinging to that 1-0 lead, but it seemed only a matter of time before the walls fell in.
Connor Hellebuyck, though, had other ideas. The American keeper singlehandedly kept us in the game with one crucial save after another, including a preposterous behind-the-back stick job to deny Canada’s Devon Toews from point-blank range. On another occasion, with Hellebuyck on his knees in the middle of a wild scrum, it was his teammate, defenseman Charlie McAvoy, who batted down a certain goal that the Canadians’ Tom Wilson had jabbed over Hellebuyck’s shoulder. Hey, it’s a team game.
With the game tied at 1-1 after regulation, it went to sudden death, with three skaters per side instead of five. Here, we felt that the slick-skating Americans had at least a slugger’s chance. And sure enough. After withstanding a furious Connor McDavid rush, Jack Hughes beat the Canadians’ Cale Makar to a loose puck and headed up ice with teammate Zach Werenski, who fed Hughes beautifully, who then beat Binnington “five hole” with the Golden Goal.
A few minutes earlier, Hughes had been spittin’ Chiclets from a nasty high-stick to the mouth courtesy of Canada’s Sam Bennett. But were Hughes to have been offered the trade of a couple of choppers for an Olympic gold medal, he’d have crossed-checked his grandma for the opportunity.
“This is all about our country right now,” said Hughes in a viral post-game interview. “I love the USA. I love my teammates. It’s unbelievable. The USA hockey brotherhood is so strong. We had so much support from ex-players. I’m so proud to be American today.”
Hughes wasn’t done. Asked how they managed to get it done, he immediately credited others. “Unbelievable game by Hellebuyck,” he said. “He was our best player tonight by a mile. Unreal game by our team. Just a ballsy, gutsy win. That’s American hockey right there. That’s a great Canadian team, but we’re USA, we’re so proud to be Americans. Tonight was all for the country.”
If that doesn’t give you chills, you might check your pulse.
As for Hughes’s missing teeth, he credited — what else? — American dentistry. “I’m lucky I’m from the best country in the world, and we’ve got great dentists there, too. I’m lucky I’m American, and they’re gonna fix me right up.”
Ultimately, it was good ol’ American grit that prevailed on the exact day when, 46 years ago, a group of American college kids engineered the greatest upset in hockey history, the Miracle on Ice, by beating the unbeatable Soviet Red Army team in Lake Placid, New York. There was nothing miraculous about this year’s team beating the Canadians — unless you consider Connor Hellebuyck standing on his head for 61 minutes and 41 seconds a miracle — but that doesn’t make the victory any less sweet. While there exists a ton of respect between the Canadian and American players, some of whom are NHL teammates, our two countries have — perhaps you’ve noticed — been somewhat at odds of late.
“You be the judge of who was the better team today,” said a stunned and embittered Canadian, Nathan MacKinnon, who was on the ice when Hughes notched his game-winner, and who missed a chance to put Canada up 2-1 in the third period when he missed a chip shot from point-blank range on the left side of a wide-open U.S. net. I suspect he slam dunks that puck 99 times out of 100, but not yesterday. When the hopes and dreams of a hockey-crazed nation are sitting on your shoulders, it can affect even the surest hands in the game.
I wonder if anyone on the Soviets’ awesome Red Army team tried to claim MacKinnon’s weak-saucy consolation prize 46 years ago. I wonder if Fetisov or Maltsev or Kharlamov or Tretiak said, after the Miracle on Ice, “Yeah, we lost the gold, but we were the better team out there.”
Nyet. The better team was the American team. And they proved it by beating MacKinnon and his fellow Canadians, 2-1. Indeed, the Americans swept the hockey golds in Milan, with Team USA women having beaten, yes, Canada by an identical 2-1 score in sudden death a few days earlier.
As the merciless crew at The Babylon Bee quipped, “Communists once again suck at hockey.”
Donald Trump called the team immediately afterward, and you could hear the joy in his voice. “Congratulations,” he said. “That was an unbelievable game. … I want to shake hands with everybody, but I gotta shake hands with that goalie.”
And if you’d thought you’d seen it all, I give you FBI Director Kash Patel, there in the Team USA locker room afterward, drinking a beer and singing Toby Keith’s “Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue” with his fellow Americans.
Yesterday, we were all Americans. And we were treated to a spectacular game by a group of patriotic young Americans who — rather than bad-mouthing their country or competing for the commies — put America unequivocally first.
MORE ANALYSIS
- Emmy Griffin: Liu vs. Gu: A Story of Two American-Born Athletes — One chose to represent her country. The other chose to represent her country’s greatest enemy.
- Thomas Gallatin: Tucker Beclowns Himself in ‘Detention’ — Painting Israel in a negative light, Tucker Carlson falsely claimed that he was “detained” by Israeli security at the airport in Tel Aviv.
- Nate Jackson: The Tariffs Are Dead, Long Live the Tariffs — The Supreme Court may have struck down President Trump’s tariffs on Friday, but hours later, he had reimplemented them under other authority.
- Gregory Lyakhov: The Supreme Court’s Tariff Ruling Was Constitutionally Correct — Even if you support President Donald Trump’s tariffs and strategy, six of the Court’s justices came to the right conclusion.
- Roger Helle: ‘The Real Housewives of Minneapolis’ — After watching anti-ICE protests night after night, I think there should be a series about Minneapolis housewives.
- Armed Forces Tribute: The Few, the Proud — Iwo Jima — On this day in history, the American flag was raised atop Mount Suribachi.
BEST OF RIGHT OPINION
- Gary BauerSupremes Torpedo Tariffs; Trump Immediately Launches Plan B
- Tony PerkinsWhen Free Exercise Draws Hostility
- Allen WestThe Incompatibility of Sharia Law With the U.S. Constitution
- The Washington StandAs Lawsuits Multiply, Transgender Reversal Movement Gains Momentum
- The Babylon BeeCanada Now Officially an American Province
For more of today’s columns, visit Right Opinion.
BEST OF VIDEOS
- Mamdani Gets Backlash for Requiring IDs for Snow Shovelers — DSA comrade and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani wants you to provide IDs to have the honor of being an “emergency snow shoveler.”
SHORT CUTS
AOC Apologist
“Rather than the substance of her arguments [in Munich], it was [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s] on-camera stumbles when answering questions about specific world affairs that rocketed around conservative social media and drove plenty of the discussion about her visit.” —The New York Times’s Kellen Browning circling the wagons
Spin Doctor
“Republicans have decided that they would rather shut down FEMA, shut down TSA, and shut down the Coast Guard than get ICE under control.” —House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY)
Non Compos Mentis
“The AGs in many states are … almost jubilant about being able to use these laws to ban young people from accessing content that could be educational if they are queer.” —”transgender” Minnesota State Rep. “Leigh” Finke arguing against an age verification law that aims to protect children from porn
Village Idiots
“The [Charlie Kirk] memorial service was one of the most potent examples of the shift we’re seeing in our culture right now. Where a large segment of American Christians are being activated by these ideas, radicalized by these ideas. That say they are the persecuted ones and that they need to stand up for Christian’s rights.” — Georgetown University visiting scholar Matthew Taylor
“Free speech is a [sic] pure bulls**t if nobody knows how you are guided through this so-called free speech, especially when it is to be guided from one hated speech to another hated speech.” —French President Emmanuel Macron
Doomsday for Tariffs?
“The Court’s decision is likely to generate other serious practical consequences in the near term. One issue will be refunds. Refunds of billions of dollars would have significant consequences for the U. S. Treasury. The Court says nothing today about whether, and if so how, the Government should go about returning the billions of dollars that it has collected from importers.” —Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s dissent in the 6-3 decision on Donald Trump’s tariffs
“I’m a simple man: when [Samuel] Alito and [Clarence] Thomas agree on a legal matter, I assume they’re right.” —Michael Knowles
“The administration has other tools in its toolbox. It can actually impose tariffs under other statutes.” —constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley
“During the next short number of months, the Trump Administration will determine and issue the new and legally permissible Tariffs, which will continue our extraordinarily successful process of Making America Great Again.” —President Donald Trump
For the Record
“We should not forget that in the 2024 presidential election, Kamala Harris won all 12 states that did not have voter ID. Things that make you go hmm…no wonder why Marxist leftists do not want ICE out and about in their unconstitutional and unlawful self-declared ‘sanctuary’ states and cities.” —Allen West
Upright
“Pride in one’s nation and one’s civilization, properly understood, is not a warrant for self-satisfaction but a summons to duty, a reminder that for us to whom much has been given, much is asked. In Munich, [Marco] Rubio was not just Trump’s good cop but a mature American leader towering above the crowd.” —Michael Barone
TODAY’S MEME
For more of today’s memes, visit the Memesters Union.
| ON THIS DAY in 1945, the American flag was raised atop Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima. Three of the six Marines in that famous photograph were later killed in action before the battle concluded. Too many Americans now have no concept of the price of Liberty. |
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