Longtime Fox personality Martha MacCallum was not going to tolerate the patronizing attitude of American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten Tuesday as the two discussed government schools on MacCallum’s show.

WATCH:

UNREAL?

Union Leader @rweingarten calls @marthamaccallum “SWEETHEART” in a very serious segment about the abysmal learning outcomes of American Schools who have failed American Kids and says that “More money” is the answer!

HUGE FAILURE ? pic.twitter.com/v0BBlQNYYp

— Professor Nez (@professornez) April 22, 2025

As Colorado lawmakers consider a bill that would take custody rights away from parents who diverge from transgender orthodoxy, the Trump administration’s Education Department says that children aren’t the property of the government.

“Children do not belong to the government. They belong to parents,” Education Department spokeswoman Julie Hartman told The Daily Signal.

The Colorado House of Representatives passed a bill April 6 that would remove kids from parents’ custody for behaviors such as “misgendering” and “deadnaming” a transgender-identifying child. The bill has yet to progress in the Colorado Senate.

HB 1312 defines “coercive control” as including “deadnaming, misgendering, or threatening to publish material related to an individual’s gender-affirming health care services.”

“A court shall consider reports of coercive control when determining the allocation of parental responsibilities in accordance with the best interests of the child,” the summary adds.

These provisions would effectively require parents to endorse gender ideology in order to maintain custody of their own children in a dispute.

“The department will not tolerate abuse of parents’ rights—or of students who are victims of predatory behavior by adults who are supposed to protect them,” Hartman said.

The Department of Education on March 28 sent a “Dear Colleague” letter directing schools to comply with federal parental rights laws.

Those laws include the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, which gives parents the right to inspect their children’s school’s educational records, and the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment, which gives parents the right to notice of surveys and the right to opt their children out.

The Office of Civil Rights has also launched investigations into Maine, California, and Washington state for reportedly concealing student gender identity from parents.

“Parents should be the primary decision-makers when it comes to their child’s education,” Hartman said.

Tyler O’Neil contributed to this report.

[Editor’s note: This story originally was published by The Daily Signal.]

Dan Caldwell was one of the strongest voices at the Pentagon opposing war with Iran. Then he was falsely accused of leaking classified documents and fired.

(0:00) Introduction
(1:10) What Would Happen if the US Went to War With Iran?
(9:13) The Real Reason the US Invaded Iraq… pic.twitter.com/JUktfTIySd

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) April 21, 2025

White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt has confirmed that there is progress on President Donald Trump’s agenda to get fair international trade standards for American manufacturers and consumers alike.

The president launched a series of tariff battles because for years American producers have had to pay high tariffs to get their products and services into other nations, while those nation’s often have been given virtually free access to American markets.

The imbalance is what has caused America’s large trade deficit and other financial complications.

Trump’s tariffs have been producing results she said.

“We’re doing very well in respect to a potential trade deal with China,” says @PressSec.

“We feel everyone involved wants to see a trade deal happen — and the ball is moving in the right direction.” pic.twitter.com/GfsGBOzaWJ

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) April 22, 2025

“We’re doing very well in respect to a potential trade deal with China. There have now been 18 proposals and more than 100 countries around the world who are wanting to make a deal with the United States of America,” Leavitt confirmed.

“The president and administration are setting the stage for a deal with China. … We feel everyone involved wants to see a trade deal happen — and the ball is moving in the right direction.”

The Daily Mail pointed out the Dow Jones Industrial Average rocketed up 600 points on the announcement. Actually, the market surged about 1,000 points on the news.

Fox News reported she continued, “You have Secretary Bessent, Secretary Lutnick, Ambassador Greer, NEC Director Hassett and Peter Navarro, the entire trade team meeting with 34 countries this week alone. We are moving at Trump speed to ensure these deals are made on behalf of the American worker and the American people.”

Reports confirmed that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent at the same time was telling an investor summit he believes the tariff impasse between the U.S. and China will de-escalate soon.

Reports also have cited progress on deals major trading partners like Japan, Indian and more.

JUST IN: Karoline Leavitt announces the White House is meeting with 34 COUNTRIES this week to negotiate trade deals

There are already 18 proposals on paper

“We’re working at TRUMP SPEED to ensure these deals are made on behalf of the American worker,” Leavitt said.

LFG! pic.twitter.com/GYfaUiX4jv

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) April 22, 2025

U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi hosted Trump administration officials at the Department of Justice on Tuesday for a meeting on the Eradicating Anti-Christian Bias Task Force, which President Trump had directed her to form.

“Together, this task force will identify any unlawful anti-Christian policies, practices or conduct across the government, seek input from faith-based organizations and state government to end anti-Christian bias, find and fix deficiencies in existing and regulatory practice that might contribute to the anti-Christian bias,” Bondi said.

Bondi said the Biden administration’s Department of Justice “abused and targeted Christians.”

“As President Trump has stated, the Biden administration engaged in an egregious pattern of targeting peaceful Christians while ignoring violent, anti-Christian offenses. The president is right,” Bondi said. “President Biden declared Easter Sunday to be Transgender Day of Visibility. No longer.”

As reported by WGME, many top Trump Cabinet members were in attendance at the meeting, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, FBI Director Kristi Noem, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Education Secretary Linda McMahon.

The task force drew criticism from Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

“Rather than protecting religious beliefs, this task force will misuse religious freedom to justify bigotry, discrimination, and the subversion of our civil rights laws,” said Rachel Laser, the group’s president and CEO.

Watch Bondi’s explanation of the new task force:

.@AGPamBondi launches the Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias as part of @POTUS‘s directive to end unlawful anti-Christian discrimination by the federal government. pic.twitter.com/J8yEeJUjrL

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) April 22, 2025

A lawyer for parents calling for protections for their religious rights has told justices on the Supreme Court the practices by the school district in Montgomery County, Maryland, don’t involve “exposure” to children of its LGBT ideologies.

“It’s indoctrination.”

“Our clients’ faith teaches they shouldn’t expose children during their years of innocence to instruction about sexuality without moral context,” Becket lawyer Eric Baxter told the justices. “That’s not just exposure — it’s indoctrination.”

A report from the Washington Examiner pointed out that at least five of the justices appeared to be willing to be granting protections for parents’ religious rights in the fight.

The dispute is over the decision by school officials to push LGBT ideologies to children as young as three years old, and then refuse permission for parents to opt their children out of indoctrination that would violate their religious faith.

Bringing the case was a coalition of Muslim, Christian and Jewish parents.

“Several justices appeared sympathetic to the parents’ concerns, especially regarding the young age of the students. Justice Samuel Alito noted that some of the books were approved for children as young as three or four years old,” the report said.

Baxter explained Montgomery County’s curriculum imposed a “uniquely coercive” environment on much younger children, in part by designing instruction to “disrupt cisnormativity:” and challenge traditional gender beliefs.

Leftists on the court argued for giving the school district absolute authority to decide what its mandatory lessons would include, the report noted. “Justice Elena Kagan warned that granting such a right whenever a parent has a sincere religious objection could effectively turn every classroom into a battlefield.”

Baxter explained there are three levels of violation in the district program: Substantial interference with religious upbringing, pressure to abandon beliefs to access a public benefit, and discriminatory treatment, such as granting opt-outs for some religious views but not others.”

The Daily Caller News Foundation explained Justice Brett Kavanaugh noted that Maryland was founded on religious liberty, but now appears intent on denying it.

“Maryland was founded on religious liberty and religious tolerance, a haven for Catholics escaping persecution from persecution in England going back to 1649,” the justice said. “I guess I’m surprised, given that this is the hill we’re going to die on in terms of not respecting religious liberty.”

The arguments revealed the district does allow opt-outs for musical performances, dissections, high school sex ed classes, and more, but refuses to allow them for the books used to indoctrination young children.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett pointed out that the district presents the LGBT ideology as fact, and that’s not the same as simply exposing students to an idea.

Podcast host Jennifer Welch became enraged during a Tuesday episode of her show when former Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel downplayed the importance of transgender issues.

Emanuel, who is seriously considering a bid for president in 2028, appeared on “I’ve Had It” and criticized the Democratic Party for focusing on “bathroom” issues at the expense of “kitchen table” and “family room” issues. Welch  vehemently disagreed and became agitated, accusing Emanuel of adopting a “right-wing media narrative.”

WATCH:

“That is such bull****! That is total bull****! That is buying into the right-wing media narrative and I’m so sick of Democrats like you selling out and saying this. You know who talks about trans people more than anybody? MAGA,” Welch said. “MAGA is the most genital-obsessed political party I have ever seen. [Former Vice President] Kamala Harris talked about homeownership. She talked about kitchen table issues. Trump’s over there droning on about Hannibal Lecter. Are you kidding me?”

“This is where the Democrats lose, because we’re playing the game with the rulebook — they’ve ripped the rulebook up and are cramming it down everybody’s throat. And Democrats are upset because [former President] Joe Biden pardoned his son?” she continued. “We gotta f***ing fight! They’re the gender-obsessed weirdos, not us. We’re the ones who fight for Social Security. We fight for Medicare. And yeah, we’re not going to bully trans people. We’re not going to f***ing do it. If you want to do it, fine.”

Emanuel touted his record as former Chicago mayor, saying in 2016 he “dealt with the bathroom issue.”

“It’s not my most important issue,” he said. “It was dealt with, and I appropriately dealt with [it], dealt with marriage equality, as I said.”

Welch repeated all she cares about regarding transgender issues is not bullying people who are transgender. Emanuel expressed his agreement.

“It upsets me. It upsets me so much because we live here in this red state, and you see the damage of it,” Welch said. “When I see politicians that are supposed to be leaders in the Democratic Party buy into the narrative that Republicans have defined us by instead of fighting and saying, ‘You’re the weirdos that are obsessed with it. Yeah, we’re not going to bully some trans kid,’ and we buy into their narrative, it just — it’s why I think we lose.”

“I have to live in a state where women rape victims can’t get an abortion because of this bull****! And so I’m going to fight till the bitter end,” she added. “And I’m not going to let some MAGA moron define what progressive values are. And I think it’s a really dangerous precedent. Mr. Emanuel, I’m sorry, but I just — I have to push back. And I’m not some coastal elite liberal.”

Emanuel replied that she has the option to move to another state.

“I’ll just tell you this: my view is there’s a whole set of issues, and these are side, tangential issues,” he added. “They’re not core, and they’re not core to what we believe in.”

The vast majority of Americans back reversing the Biden administration’s agenda on transgender issues, such as preventing biological males from participating in women’s sports. But Democratic lawmakers, including those representing congressional districts Trump won in November, are persisting in advancing left-wing stances on transgender issues.

Portraying Harris and the Democratic Party as excessively far left on transgender issues was one of the most potent advertising campaigns in boosting support for Trump and GOP candidates down the ballot during the 2024 election, according to multiple reports.

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Radio host and former California gubernatorial candidate Larry Elder set out to discover the real truth about electric vehicles, and he’s releasing his new documentary on the subject on Earth Day Tuesday.

While environmental activists and EV manufacturers have crafted a narrative that EVs are not just the cars of the future but our only clean solution to an ostensible climate crisis, Elder uncovers the dirty truth: EVs require more energy to produce, provide less freedom for drivers, empower America’s chief rival in the world, and actually make things worse for the environment.

“Mass delusion has always fascinated me,” Elder says in the film, “Electric Vehicles: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” released on Salem Now. “Scientists, media people, politicians, academics have convinced the average person that our climate is in peril and if we don’t do something real fast to get us off of fossil fuels, we’re going to be in trouble. I just, intuitively, am skeptical about that.”

He asks the hard questions, and comes away with unsettling answers—for the proponents of EVs. Ironically, only the oft-demonized fossil fuels give viewers a sense of hope for the future, and many political and ideological forces are attempting to snuff out the lights powered by the internal combustion engine.

Fossil Fuels Are the Heroes

Contrary to the popular narrative, fossil fuels haven’t made life worse for humans or the environment, experts in the film tell Elder.

Alex Epstein, an energy expert who wrote the book “The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels,” tells the radio host that climate-related disaster deaths have decreased 98% in the past century, and “a key cause of that is fossil fuels.”

“Fossil fuels haven’t taken a safe climate and made it dangerous; they’ve taken a dangerous climate and made it safe,” he explains.

Ronald Stein, an energy policy advisor for The Heartland Institute, notes that “everything that needs electricity is made with the oil derivatives manufactured from oil.” He lists off examples, including iPhones, defibrillators, coffee makers, x-ray machines, pencils, and much, much more. He challenges viewers to “try to identify something that was not made with fossil fuels,” and warns that without fossil fuels, consumers will face “shortages and inflation in perpetuity.”

Are EVs Really Clean?

Fossil fuels even form the primary power source for electric vehicles.

“They say they’re green, they say they’re emissions-free,” Diana Furchtgott-Roth, director of The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Energy, Climate, and the Environment, tells Elder. “They’re not emissions free because they’re recharged by electricity. It’s generated by oil and coal, and other kinds of power like that.”

The story gets far worse, however. Not only do EVs still require carbon emissions, but consumers tend to recycle their batteries less.

Anna Stefanopoulou, a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Michigan, notes that while consumers recycle most materials in traditional cars, they only recycle about 5% of EV batteries.

When Elder asks her about the EV recycling industry, she responds, “What recycling industry?”

Yet the dirtiest secret about EVs involves the process of mining the raw materials.

“A brutal reality is playing out in silence along our push for EVs and other so-called renewables,” Elder notes. His film shows the brutal conditions in the Shabara artisanal mine in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. “At least a fifth of the Congo’s cobalt production is mined by hand under hazardous conditions that flirt with death and disease daily.”

UNICEF has estimated that around 40,000 children work in the mines of southern Congo.

Rep. Pete Stauber, R-Minn., tells Elder that he sponsored amendments preventing the U.S. from purchasing “one ounce of critical minerals mined by child slave labor”—amendments that Democrats opposed.

Empowering America’s Greatest Rival

Adam C. Simon, a professor of earth and environmental science at the University of Michigan, tells Elder that climate activist groups exhibit a kind of “cognitive dissonance.”

“We have lots of individuals and environmental groups that are opposed to mining” in the U.S., he says. “Simultaneously, those groups advocate for the clean energy transition to happen as fast as possible.”

While the U.S. could mine many critical minerals more cleanly and more humanely than other countries, environmentalists block domestic production.

This empowers the Chinese Communist Party, which has acquired stakes in mining operations across the world.

Dan Kish, senior vice president of policy at the American Energy Alliance, warns Elder that the transition to EVs would prove an “enormous boon for China.”

James Jay Carafano, a Heritage Foundation analyst, raises concerns about electric vehicles undermining America’s cybersecurity.

“An electric vehicle is a computer with four wheels and some seats,” Carafano says. “Everything that your car does in the future will be subject to the same issues of privacy, hacking, exploitation, as your computers are.”

He warns that America may “essentially become a vassal state of China.”

Furchtgott-Roth raises concerns about “bidirectional charging,” where the power grid can take electriticy out of your car battery, not just charge it.

What Do We Get For All of This?

If Americans transition to EVs, rejecting the fossil fuels that have powered prosperity, abetting child slavery abroad, and empowering China, what do we get in exchange for accepting all this risk?

Not much, according to Leon Kaplan, a 40-year radio host known as “The Motorman.”

Kaplan, who has built, repaired, and raced cars all his life, tells Elder that he’s “not real fond of electric vehicles.”

“If you’re just commuting around town, they’re good for around town,” he says. “If you’re long-distance, they create anxiety.”

He notes that it takes “30 minutes to an hour” to charge a fast charger, and “you can’t store it for long.” To make matters worse, “batteries don’t like to be charged fast,” and have a tendency to overheat when they do.

A McKinsey and Company study last year found that nearly half of EV owners say they want to buy an internal combustion engine car next.

“Green” technologies are also not cost-effective. California already faces rolling blackouts as it seeks to use more solar and wind energy, which cannot generate power on demand but must rely on climate conditions.

EV manufacturers and environmentalists like to dress up electric vehicles as the sleek, fashionable future, but Elder convincingly paints the opposite picture.

Earth Day seems the perfect time to deliver this important message.

[Editor’s note: This story originally was published by The Daily Signal.]

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—The House Homeland Security Committee released its latest “Border Brief” Tuesday, highlighting significant changes at the border since President Donald Trump took office, and a staggering year-over-year decline in the number of illegal immigrants attempting to enter the United States.

“Southwest border crossings have hit another record-low because we now have a president and [Department of Homeland Security] secretary who enforce the law,” Rep. Mark Green, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, told The Daily Signal.

“In less than three months, President Trump has restored law and order to our nation’s borders, removed criminal illegal aliens from our communities, and helped ensure the safety of the American people by empowering Department of Homeland Security law enforcement to do their jobs,” according to a committee press release.

In March, encounters with illegal aliens between ports of entry at the southern border fell by 94% compared to March 2024.

Customs and Border Protection encountered 29,065 illegal aliens nationwide last month, down 88% from the 246,505 encountered in March 2024. Border Patrol’s daily apprehensions nationwide were the lowest in recorded history in March, averaging 264, a 94% decline from the previous year.

The House Homeland Security Committee credits the decline in illegal crossings to the “Trump administration’s sustained deployment of military and federal law enforcement across the Southwest border, as well as partnerships with countries like El Salvador.”

Since Jan. 20, the Trump administration has deployed thousands of troops and additional military resources to the southern border. The U.S. also formed an agreement with President Nayib Bukele to house deported illegal aliens in El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center.

The Trump administration has also ended various parole programs set in place or expanded under the Biden administration, such as the CBP One mobile application that allowed illegal aliens to schedule an appointment at a port of entry to claim asylum. The result of ending the Biden administration’s parole programs, according to the House committee, is an 80% decline in migrants encounters at U.S. ports of entry since March 2024.

The daily average of known “getaways,” illegal aliens who manage to evade Border Patrol apprehension, has also fallen by more than 90% since Trump took office.

Last week, a Maryland jury found Victor Martinez-Hernandez, a reported illegal alien gotaway from El Salvador, guilty of murdering Rachel Morin, a mother of five.

The number of unaccompanied alien children arriving at the southern border declined by 92% last month when compared with March 2024.

Border Patrol has also witnessed a 97% year-over-year decline in the number of Chinese nationals crossing the southern border between ports of entry.

Rather than “commending this return to law and order,” Green, R-Tenn., said his “colleagues across the aisle are working to defend an illegal alien MS-13 gang member who was rightfully removed from our country.”

Democrats are advocating for the return of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, an illegal alien with ties to MS-13 who the Trump administration recently deported to a prison in El Salvador. Some Democrats, such as Mayland Sen. Chris Van Hollen who traveled to El Salvador to meet with Abrego Garcia, claim the man was wrongfully removed from the U.S.

“To the American people, the contrast could not be clearer,” Green continued. “Make no mistake–our communities are safer because the Trump administration has empowered DHS law enforcement to do their jobs, remove violent criminals, and dismantle the cartels’ business model. Now, Congress must codify President Trump’s homeland security agenda and provide the necessary funding to continue successfully securing our borders.”

The House Homeland Security Committee’s March “Border Brief” celebrates the 32,809 arrests of illegal aliens at the hands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers during the first 50 days of the Trump administration. The nearly 33,000 arrests included, “14,111 convicted criminals, of whom 1,155 were criminal gang members, as well as 39 aliens on the Terrorist Screening Data Set,” according to the committee.

ICE has also arrested more than 300 members of the violent prison gang Tren de Aragua since Trump took office.

The committee in April advanced legislation introduced by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., that would require the DHS to publish the known number of special interest aliens, that is illegal aliens who pose a possible national security risk to the U.S., who cross U.S. borders.

In its first border related hearing of the 119th Congress, the committee highlighted the changes at the border during a Border Security and Enforcement Subcommittee hearing on March 28, aimed at showcasing the Biden administration’s “failure” at the border.

“President Trump continues to deliver on the promises he made to secure our border,” Rep. Michael Guest, R-Miss., told The Daily Signal. “As the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Border Security and Enforcement, I am honored to have the opportunity to work alongside President Trump to continue delivering results for the American people.”

[Editor’s note: This story originally was published by The Daily Signal.]