Veterans Day 2026

 

California Voters Reject Billionaire Tax

 California voters rejected a proposed tax on billionaires even as Democrats won control of Congress and scored victories in statewide races in the midterm elections.

Newsmax projected Monday that California voters had rejected Proposition 40, nearly a week after Election Day. With about 82% of the vote counted, 52.9% opposed the proposal and 47.1% supported it.

The tax would have imposed a one-time 5% levy on residents with a net worth of at least $1 billion.

Two competing ballot measures sought to restrict wealth taxes or impose added requirements on new state taxes. Under California law, when conflicting propositions pass in the same election, the provisions of the measure receiving more affirmative votes generally prevail.

Proposition 42, which would prohibit certain new taxes on personal wealth and retroactive taxes, remained undecided Monday night. With 87% of the ballots counted, 51.7% supported the measure and 48.3% opposed it.

Proposition 41, which would restrict certain new taxes, was defeated, with 54.8% voting against it and 45.2% in favor, according to Decision Desk HQ.

The campaign over Proposition 40 and the two competing measures was among the most expensive ballot-measure fights in California history, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday.

More than $400 million was spent on the three measures, with more than 90% going toward efforts to defeat the billionaire tax, according to campaign finance disclosures filed with the California secretary of state's office.

Billionaires, including Google co-founder Sergey Brin, contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to groups that financed advertising campaigns against the tax. Brin alone contributed $102 million.

Gov. Gavin Newsom, the California Teachers Association, and Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California were among the prominent Democrats and Democrat-aligned groups that expressed concerns about the proposal, including the possibility that billionaires would leave the state.

The Times reported that some billionaires, including Brin and fellow Google co-founder Larry Page, moved out of California amid concerns about the proposed tax.

Ads opposing the billionaire tax argued that it could affect all Californians, not just the ultra-wealthy. Advertisements featured teachers, firefighters, and other middle-class Californians arguing against the proposal, the Times reported.

Opponents of Proposition 40 said Californians made the "right decision," calling the proposal a "reckless experiment" that would hurt the state's economy. The coalition included the California Medical Association, California Primary Care Association, and California School Boards Association.

"Proposition 40 risked California's economic competitiveness and fiscal stability, as well as the revenue we rely on to fund our top priorities — from education and healthcare to public safety and infrastructure," the group said, according to the Times.

Leaders of the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, which sponsored Proposition 40, vowed to pursue another billionaire tax measure in 2028 unless state leaders find other ways to support healthcare, the Times reported.

California lawmakers face a difficult budget outlook next year, raising questions about how the state could replace an estimated $100 billion in federal healthcare funding cuts, according to the Times.

Supporters said the proposed tax on more than 200 California billionaires was intended to raise $100 billion, with 90% of the revenue going to healthcare and the remaining 10% to schools and food assistance.

"Billionaire-funded propaganda may have influenced the outcome of this election, but as hospitals reduce services, emergency rooms close and families lose access to care, the truth will become increasingly difficult to hide," Suzanne Jimenez, chief of staff for the SEIU-UHW, told the Times. "Californians will see for themselves what was at stake."

At the federal level, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., who backed Proposition 40, are pushing for an annual 5% tax on American billionaires. Earlier this year, they introduced the Make Billionaires Pay Their Fair Share Act.

Michael Katz ✉

Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than three decades of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.

© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

SCOTUS Blocks Judge's Border Wall Injunction, Delivers Blunt Lesson on Constitutional Claims

Sometimes, what you call something matters. Other times, the courts aren't particularly interested in your creative labeling.

The Supreme Court made that second point abundantly clear Monday, handing the Trump administration a win in its effort to resume border wall construction in Texas — and delivering a rather pointed lesson about the difference between constitutional claims and statutory ones.

In Mullin v. Friends of the Ruidosa Church, the High Court granted the administration's request to stay an October 2 preliminary injunction issued by a federal district judge in the Western District of Texas. That injunction had halted construction of border barriers and roads in the Big Bend Sector along the U.S.-Mexico border.

At issue is a provision of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA), which gives the Homeland Security secretary broad authority to construct border barriers and waive legal requirements that might impede their construction — including environmental and conservation laws.

There's a catch for anyone wishing to challenge those waivers in court, though: Congress specifically limited judicial review to claims alleging violations of the Constitution.

Enter the plaintiffs, including a river guide, an environmental organization, and a group dedicated to preserving a historic Texas church. They challenged the administration's waivers using what's known as the major questions doctrine.

That's a legal principle requiring clear congressional authorization before federal agencies can exercise certain powers of vast economic or political significance. The plaintiffs argued that the administration lacked that authorization. And the district court agreed, concluding that the major questions doctrine is rooted in constitutional separation-of-powers principles and therefore provided a constitutional basis for the challenge.

SCOTUS delivered a big NOPE to that view, however. In an unsigned, five-page opinion, the justices explained that while the major questions doctrine certainly reflects constitutional concerns, it's still a tool courts use to interpret statutes.

And the Court didn't mince words:

There is no such thing as a “constitutional” major-questions claim.

In other words, arguing that an agency exceeded the authority Congress granted it doesn't magically become a constitutional claim simply because the underlying legal principle has constitutional roots.

Call it what you like. It's still a statutory challenge.

Moreover, Congress expressly barred the lower courts from entertaining those challenges to the secretary's waiver decisions. Thus, the Court concluded that the administration was exceedingly likely to prevail on its argument that the district court lacked jurisdiction.

The justices also noted that the injunction was costing the government nearly $500,000 per day in unrecoverable expenses, according to a Customs and Border Protection official, and interfering with Congress's expressly stated preference for expedited border construction.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson would have denied the stay, though she offered no written explanation.

Now, there's a caveat here: Monday's order is not a final decision resolving the underlying lawsuit. What today's order means is that the injunction remains suspended while the administration pursues Supreme Court review.

But the ruling carries significance well beyond this particular stretch of border wall.

Congress can limit lower federal courts' authority to hear certain disputes. And when it does, litigants cannot sidestep those limits simply by giving their statutory arguments a constitutional makeover. (A rose by any other name...)

It's also important to bear in mind that the separation of powers works in more than one direction. And sometimes, the most consequential question isn't whether the government acted lawfully, but whether the court had the authority to decide that question in the first place.

Credit: redstate.com 

 

Mamdani’s Staff Is Panicking As Their ICE Favor Pipeline Just Hit a Brick Wall Named Stephen Miller

Zohran Mamdani's reported favor line to the White House may have just gone dead thanks to Stephen Miller.

The communist New York City mayor has quietly been asking President Trump's team to release individuals held in ICE custody, according to a Monday report from Politico.

Sources and quotes from Mamdani himself show that his inexplicably cordial relationship with the President had previously expanded into an open line of communication on specific immigration enforcement issues. According to Politico, that communication came through former Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.

It began in February, when Mamdani persuaded Trump during a White House sit-down to free Columbia University student Elmina Aghayeva, who had been detained by federal immigration agents earlier in the day.

Mamdani pointed to her release as proof that his surprising relationship with Trump could deliver for New Yorkers. What nobody knew at the time was that he kept going back to the well.

Since then, Mamdani and his staff have handed Trump's team the names of about two dozen more immigrant New Yorkers in ICE custody and asked the president to order their release, according to two people with knowledge of the outreach. The most recent list reportedly came during Mamdani's September meeting with Trump at Gracie Mansion. 

Of course, this whole tale rests on two anonymous sources, and even Politico admits it can't confirm that a single name on that list has walked free. That's an odd result for a president who is supposedly listening to favor requests. And the lack of tangible results fits the man who has made mass deportations the centerpiece of his agenda.

Mamdani's aides allegedly worked the requests mostly through Wiles, who has since left the White House. Aside from Aghayeva, Politico claims Mamdani was able "to secure a short-term visa for a woman from Ghana whose son was fatally shot in the Bronx."

"Other than that, not much substantive has materialized between the two ..." the outlet adds.

“Over the course of these conversations, we have been able to free a New Yorker from ICE detention," Mamdani said in an interview with Fox News. "We have been able to secure a visa for a grieving mother who would otherwise have to watch her son be buried from thousands of miles away."

The game, though, has apparently shifted with President Trump's move to name Miller his new Chief of Staff, replacing Wiles. As expected, Miller is making many people on the left nervous.

 

And that includes Mamdani's team, who fear the hardline immigration-enforcement advocate will be less responsive to requests from Gracie Mansion. 

Politico reports there is growing concern inside the mayor's administration that whatever door of communication was open is now closing since it seems "unlikely that Miller, given his posture on immigration, will keep playing ball in the same way Wiles did."

Good. Miller is making the right people antsy.

 

Murad Awawdeh, a close Mamdani ally, had a strange way of trying to keep their foot in the door.

“Stephen Miller is a cruel man who has spent his career targeting immigrants, but he is not the president. Donald Trump is, and the deportation agenda is his,” he said. “New York expects the president to work with the mayor, deliver for this city, and end the terror in our neighborhoods. Promoting Miller changes none of that.”

New York shouldn't "expect" anything, and I'm not sure the right approach to keep a cordial relationship alive is to insult the new Chief of Staff.

Trump, for his part, has come out and reiterated his tough stance on criminal illegal aliens.

"We have a very strong deportation policy, there's no amnesty, there's no anything, we keep that," he told reporters. "But, we focus on the worst of the worst. We want the murderers out. We've gotten most of them out ... We want to get the worst of the worst, and then we'll see what happens."

Mamdani has supposedly been slipping names to the White House, but the guy answering the phone now is Miller. Something tells me that list is headed straight for the shredder.

Editor’s Note: New York City is now facing the consequences of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s socialist takeover.

Credit: redstate.com 

 

Texas Democrats Are Wasting No Time With Their Radical Ideas

Texas Democrats are wasting no time in putting forth a wildly progressive agenda for the Lone Star State, with dozens of bills being proposed to radically reshape the state.

BREAKING: Democrat Senator @SenRoyceWest

 

introduced a bill to end school choice for over 100,000 kids in Texas. He sent his kid to a private school. https://t.co/2fFiRLkQFq

— Corey A. DeAngelis, school choice evangelist (@DeAngelisCorey) November 9, 2026

Democrats are seeking to legalize marijuana, end school choice, restrict gun access, expand Medicaid, and double the minimum wage. The moves aren’t being limited to the Texas Legislature, either. Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa has proposed siphoning off massive chunks of the state’s emergency savings account to distribute $1,500 checks to state residents.

The fate of these proposals would fall in the hands of the Texas State Senate, the last body that Texas Republicans have retained control of following the 2026 midterm elections.

Credit: townhall.com 

Texas has Fallen to the enemies of America. 

 

 

Watch Trump Chop Block CNN and Thomas Massie in Under a Minute

 President Trump held an impromptu press conference lasting a little over 30 minutes, during which he gave an update mostly on the Iran War. UFC’s Dana White also fielded questions after being at the White House for other matters. No, he’s not the new press secretary, which the president admitted was a joke. Trump did, however, take questions, as he always does, and managed to take down CNN and outgoing Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) in one swoop. Massie filed articles of impeachment against Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on Monday. Kaitlin Collins was the one who got buzz-sawed here, though she’s used to it. 

TRUMP: “Massie’s a loser. Just like you’re a loser at CNN.”

“Just like your ratings are a loser.”

“Massie is a loser. Stone cold loser.”

Trump later called into C-SPAN last night:

President Trump Calls In to Washington Journal Primetime C-SPAN host Mimi Geerges: "We heard that you like to watch C-SPAN. What do you like to watch?" President Trump: "I like to watch the call-ins because it gives me a little of an indication of where we are." https://t.co/wMrZmy3FSW

— CSPAN (@cspan) November 10, 2026

Credit: townhall.com

Bill Maher Cannot Deny This Aspect About Trump's Life

Bill Maher and Donald Trump do not get along, but that doesn’t faze the HBO host. Trump posted a 1,300-word diatribe against the comedian, but it’s not the first time. Maher has dined with Trump multiple times, even bringing along all the insults Trump has hurled at Maher — and the president signed off on it. He can take a joke, but we all know his social media activity is out of control. Regardless, Maher has been calling strikes and balls regarding this guy. You might not like his opinions — he’s not a conservative — but he’s also not Trump-deranged. 

On his Club Random podcast, Dean Norris was the guest, and the two reminisced about the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, where Barack Obama humiliated Trump, which is where he set in motion the grand plan to become every liberal American’s nightmare by forever canceling Hillary Clinton’s presidential ambitions. 

Maher said what Trump did was badass. From then until now, it’s been remarkable. The Left wrote him off, and he got elected twice to the presidency:

MAHER: “I've certainly never held back on cataloguing all of his horrible missteps, vengeances, corruptions, but wow!”

“That's pretty BADASS to sit there, get humiliated and say...if this was a movie, turn to the co-star or whoever and go; ‘I'm going to get back at that a*hole.’”

“And then do it.”

NORRIS: “Twice!”

MAHER: “Twice!”

I mean, where's the lie?

Credit: townhall.com 

 

UFC CEO Dana White clears the air at WH briefing: 'I have zero political aspirations'

US President Donald Trump and CEO of Ultimate Fighting Championship Dana White shake hands after participating in a press briefing in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on November 9, 2026.

During a press conference at the White House, President Donald Trump was joined by Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) CEO Dana White after the president jokingly floated White as a potential replacement for press secretary.

White — a longtime friend of Trump’s — joined the president at the White House briefing room on Monday to clear the air after Trump jokingly wrote in a Truth Social post that the “violent fighter and warrior” had been offered the position.

“He loves the idea and I love the idea,” Trump told reporters on Monday afternoon. “The only thing is we have other things we have to think about.”

During the briefing, Trump explained how the situation began, adding that he was “totally kidding” about the idea.

“I don’t know why but I thought of his name, I said, you know, I think I’m going to get Dana White to be my new press secretary and that was it,” Trump said. “I was totally kidding and then they wrote this story as if I wasn’t kidding.”

After the president introduced White, the UFC chief took to the floor, where he maintained he has “zero” interest in entering politics.

“I have zero political aspirations,” White said, adding that the president is “the toughest most resilient human being I’ve ever met in my life.”

When asked if he declined the president’s offer to be press secretary, White replied, “I don’t tell the president ‘no’ to anything. Every media outlet was calling me and I didn’t want to be disrespectful and say anything until he said something first.”

In his original weekend Truth Social post, the president joked that he was “pleased to announce that the great Dana White” was offered the White House role.

“I am pleased to announce that the Great Dana White, a violent Fighter and Warrior, has been offered the job of Press Secretary of the United States,” Trump wrote. “I have requested that he bring with him assistants, even though some are not from our Country, of Islam Makhachev, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Justin Gaethje, Daniel Cormier, Amanda Nunes, and Kayla Harris. We need these people to defend us against the Lunatic Left. Dana will be a Press Secretary like none other. Dana, please take the job!”

The White House is still searching for a permanent replacement for Karoline Leavitt following her departure earlier this year. Political commentator Katie Zacharia briefly held the position, but her controversial five-day tenure ended after allegations surfaced that she misrepresented her legal credentials.

Credit: oann.com

 

 

Honda announces new $3B plant in Ohio, expected to increase U.S. production to about 1.3M vehicles annually

In a major validation of President Donald Trump’s domestic manufacturing push, Honda announced it will invest $3 billion to build a brand new auto plant in Central Ohio. This marks the automaker’s fourth assembly facility in the Buckeye State and its first major new U.S. assembly plant since 2008.

The new facility — designed primarily to boost production of hybrid-electric vehicles — is slated to begin operations in 2029. The site will have the capacity to produce 240,000 vehicles annually, bringing Honda’s total United States auto production capacity to about 1.3 million vehicles per year, Honda stated on Monday.

“As Honda approaches 50 years of building products close to our customers in America, we are making one of the most significant commitments in our history to position Honda for the next 50 years,” said Bob Nelson, executive vice president of American Honda Motor Co., Inc.

Company executives noted that Ohio was chosen for the new plant in part due to “an established, highly skilled workforce” as well as its proximity to much of the automaker’s development operations and existing supplier networks.

“Honda’s leadership could have chosen to build this plant anywhere in the world, but they chose Ohio because there are so many advantages to being here,” said Ohio Governor Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) during the announcement. “For almost half a century, Honda and Ohio have grown together, and generations of families have built their careers on Honda’s manufacturing lines. Today’s announcement isn’t just an investment in a new facility — it’s an investment in Ohio’s people and Ohio’s future.”

The new plant, expected to create more than 2,000 new jobs, will be built in Central Ohio, between Honda’s existing plants in East Liberty and Marysville. It will mark the company’s ninth auto-related production facility in the United States.

The company also announced it would be making investments in other plants in Ohio, Alabama, and Georgia to scale up component production for next-generation hybrid systems.

This news comes comes as a major validation for President Trump’s domestic manufacturing push, following his administration’s implementation of a 25% general tariff on imported automobiles and foreign parts auto. Designed to penalize overseas production and compel global automakers to shift manufacturing back into the United States, the tariff strategy is proving to be a decisive catalyst in corporate investment decisions. 

Credit: oann.com 

 

Congratulations Democrats for your victory on the destruction of America, good job dumb asses👍