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Trump Says US Is 'Low-Keying It' With Iran

President Donald Trump said Sunday the United States is "low keying it" with Iran for now, signaling he is prepared to let mounting economic pressure squeeze Tehran rather than immediately launch a new military offensive.

"We are low keying it," Trump told Axios during a brief phone interview.

"We are only semi-negotiating with them. We are just watching Iran with its huge inflation and the fact they have no money," Trump said.

The president stressed that Iran "is in very bad shape" economically and lacks the money to pay its troops, arguing that the U.S. naval blockade has intensified the regime's financial crisis.

Trump's comments came roughly a week after U.S. officials said he had been leaning toward resuming major combat operations against Iran before deciding to de-escalate for the time being.

The president also pointed to falling oil prices as easing the war's impact on Americans, saying crude prices have dropped to slightly more than $75 a barrel.

 

"It will work out. It always works out. It's like a chess game," Trump said of the ongoing confrontation with Tehran.

Trump did not issue new military threats during the interview or express frustration over Iran delaying an agreement negotiated with Oman and the United States to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

The agreement has been pending for several days and would give Iran partial control over traffic through the strategically vital waterway — authority Tehran did not have before the war.

Qatari and Pakistani mediators had been confident the agreement would be announced Wednesday, but its prospects have since appeared to fade.

Iran on Saturday issued a new series of demands for reopening the strait, going beyond the terms negotiated in Oman.

Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, 

 

head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said the United States must never "threaten nor insult Iran in any language" and must "permanently end the war against Iran and Iran's allies in Lebanon, Gaza, Yemen, and Iraq."

Zolghadr also demanded that Washington lift its naval blockade, withdraw military forces from areas surrounding Iran, compensate Tehran for war damages, lift all sanctions, and release frozen Iranian funds.

Until several weeks ago, similar demands had been presented as conditions for reaching a nuclear agreement. Tehran is now raising them as conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

A diplomat from one of the countries involved in mediation said Zolghadr's demands reflected political divisions inside the Iranian government.

U.S. officials also have pointed to growing disagreements within the Iranian regime over how to respond to the economic crisis.

One faction, led by Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, 

 

is deeply concerned about the possibility of economic collapse and believes Tehran needs an agreement with Washington. Another faction, led by Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Ahmad Vahidi, opposes making concessions.

U.S. officials said Trump had been leaning toward restarting major combat operations about a week earlier but was persuaded to hold off.

One official argued that continued fighting allowed Iran's leadership to avoid confronting the consequences of the war, including damaged infrastructure and a deepening economic crisis.

Without active warfare, the official said, Tehran is forced to confront those problems with few apparent solutions.

Meanwhile, approximately 8 million barrels of oil are moving out of the Persian Gulf each night through the southern lane of the Strait of Hormuz in coordination with the U.S. military, according to a U.S. official. Washington intends to increase those flows as much as possible while negotiations remain unresolved.

Vice President JD Vance said Saturday that the administration continues to use diplomatic, economic, and military pressure against Tehran.

 

"This thing is not over. It's obviously not at the beginning. We're in the middle of the game, and we're applying a whole host of tools — diplomatic, economic, military tools — to ensure that we get the best outcome for the American people," Vance told Fox News.

© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

 

Fresh Humiliation for Abigail Spanberger As Fiddlers' Convention Boos Her Off the Stage

Whatever in the world possessed Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger's staff to think this was a good idea? For some inexplicable reason, they scheduled the Democrat to appear at a Saturday fiddlers convention in rural southwest Virginia. 

Needless to say, this was not her crowd, and they let her know it.

The setting was Galax, Virginia, a small independent city in the Blue Ridge Highlands of Southwest Virginia, located very close to the North Carolina line. It's been called the “gateway to the Blue Ridge Mountains," and its identity has deep ties to old-timey Appalachian bluegrass music. 

Galax takes its role of preserving and showcasing the musical traditions of the area very seriously. Its rural residents also enjoy things like guns and not having congressional representation by the far-left Democrat radicals of Northern Virginia.

The event was the 90th annual Old Fiddlers' Convention, which bills itself as the "world's oldest and largest" event of its kind. It draws bluegrass and old-time musicians, families, campers, and music fans from across Virginia and around the country. It’s a very rural, rootsy crowd that gathers with their banjos, fiddles, and RVs. And guns. This is a crowd that likes their guns.

The governor was super pumped to be there, at least according to video she posted from her car as she made her way through Galax. (Virginia Dems love to post "here I am being chauffeured around in my fancy car – see, I'm just like you" videos for some reason; Sen. Mark Warner gives a daily masterclass in why you shouldn't hold the camera too close to your face.)

Anyway, here's a super-pumped Spanberger raving about her experience with their fiddler enthusiasts:

Here's what actually happened: 

 

When she arrived and took the stage to address the crowd, she was greeted with a chorus of boos and a flood of people turning their backs to her and making tracks in the opposite direction. 

Governor Spanberger booed in Galax.  Turns out when you break your campaign promise, attempt a Leftist power grab pushing an unconstitutional gerrymandering effort In order to silence rural Virginia voices, coupled with massive tax increases, it results in a frosty reception….

Absolutely brutal optics for a woman with presidential ambitions.

This was never going to go well for Spanberger, and it's a real head-scratcher as to why her staff booked her such an event. Maybe they have it out for her?

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SEE ALSO: 66,000 'Virginians' Just Sneakily Got Voting Rights – Here's What Democrats Aren't Telling You

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It's the latest in a long line of humiliations for Spanberger, who garnered the lowest early-term approval ratings of any Virginia governor in recent memory, got slapped down in her party's aggressive gerrymandering push (for which she put her smiling mug front and center), and watched her gun grab agenda get kneecapped by the courts before she could turn her party's anti-gun wish list loose on the rest of Virginia.

If the Democrat Party cares at all about rural voters, they might want to think twice about the possibility of Abigail Spanberger being a vice presidential contender for their '28 ticket. If this is how a so-called "moderate" Democrat is treated when she tries to mingle with rural Virginians, imagine how well that sales pitch is going to play in small towns and rural communities across the rest of America.

 

Tensions Explode After Texas Town Council Approves Massive Islamic Center Expansion

You can't say the residents of McKinney, Texas, didn't make their voices heard as their town council considered the Islamic Association of McKinney's proposed plan to expand to a much larger campus.

Over 150 residents signed up to address the council at a recent meeting – so many of them, in fact, that they overflowed out of the room and into the hallway. The start of the meeting was delayed because it took so long to register that number of residents to speak.

The crowd was amped up, though, and began clapping loudly to get the meeting started because they had a lot to say. And when it did start, the council members got an earful.

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SEE ALSO: JD Vance Returns Fire After Abdul El-Sayed Sneers About VP's 'Brown' Children

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Republican Rep. Keith Self (TX-03) 

 

kicked things off by getting right to the point: "Child marriage, honor killings, don't tell me it can't happen here." The crowd gave him a standing ovation. 

An Iranian Christian who had once lived under Sharia law warned, "I'm a Sharia law survivor from Iran, an I'm here to tell you, this is a dangerous ideology you're allowing in their country!"

 

 

Things got heated.

🚨 NOW: Outrage is ERUPTING after McKinney, Texas council votes to APPROVE a large Islamic Center

Countless citizens stormed the meeting to oppose it, including an Iranian Christian migrant who SURVIVED Sharia Law

"I'm a Sharia law survivor from Iran, an I'm here to tell you, this is a DANGEROUS ideology you're allowing in their country!"

Other angry residents: "They forced their way into countries and forced their religion!"

 

"It may become a base where young men and women will be taught and trained to overthrow this great nation, a threat for which my forefathers fought with their own blood to build for the liberty of its citizens!"

"The imam of the McKinney Islamic Association, Sheikh Mohammed Ajabali holds leadership roles with the Islamic tribunal of the Dallas area. The Attorney General stated that the group has sought to replace actual courts of law, impose Sharia on disputes among Texas Muslims and falsely represent its decisions as final judgments with the approval of the Texas without the approval of the Texas judicial system."

THIS HAS TO BE BLOCKED, EVERYWHERE!

The council members are traitors.

Democrats, of course, showed up in favor of the mosque expanding from its current site to an expansive one on 5.5 acres; the new site is expected to hold up to 2,000 Muslims at a time.

McKinney's former Mayor George Fuller was booed and called a "traitor" when he spoke up in favor of the plan.

 

 "For those who may not know, the McKinney Islamic Community has been a member of our community for years," he said. "We're talking about families that have served this community." 

The McKinney town council voted unanimously

 

 to approve the Islamic Association of McKinney's expansion plan.

 

In a Sunday interview on CNN, Rep. Nancy Mace addressed the justified concerns of many Americans over the consequences of expanding Muslim influence in the United States. "Our granddaughters will be wearing burkas to school," she said. "As a woman, that's scary to me. It's being forced on women...a 6-year-old girl doesn't get to say whether she wears a hijab or not."

Pointing out that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani campaigned alongside an unindicted co-conspirator of the 1993 World Trade Center bombings, not to mention the unholy alliance forming between Democrat Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and Muslim influencer Hasan "America Deserved 9/11" Piker, Mace raged, "We have Christian foundations! Have you seen Dearborn? The call-to-prayer five times a day, they are trying to push our people and values out!"

 

Young People Got Shafted and Need to Suck It Up

I identify as Gen X even though I was technically born in the last week of the Baby Boom, and my generational cohort is taking a lot of grief from a lot of young people — by whom I mean anybody not of driving age when 9/11 happened. The rap is this: the older folks rigged the game and, to the extent they have gotten out of the way (Boomers being accused of selfishly clinging to power, prestige, and position long after their sell-by date), we have left subsequent generations an economic Schiff sandwich. Some of this critique is justified — those kooky kids today are right that they got served up an unprecedented set of obstacles and challenges to success. But us crusties have a point too: if you’re regularly dropping your cash on the proverbial $20 burrito, you’re doing money management wrong.

 

Basically, things fiscally suck for young people, but things have always fiscally sucked for young people, and the only way through it is through it.

When we hear younger folk complain how everything sucks, our usual move is to explain how things sucked for us. And things did suck for us. I was making $3.10 an hour mopping out the stalls at the Foster City Carl’s Jr. in 1981. I moved up in the world across the street to McDonald’s, where I slung Big Macs for $3.35 an hour. I got fired from Denny’s along the way for gross incompetence. And in 1988, I was pulling in $1,286.10 a month as a second lieutenant. I did freelance writing in the ’90s and wrote trivia questions and jokes for bar trivia games. I built a law firm after leaving a bigger law firm — I brought in Circuit City as a client as a second-year lawyer and got offered the same bonus of $500 as the associate they caught sleeping under his desk; my counteroffer was that I keep everything. What that meant was long hours, risk, and that everyone else got paid before I did. If we didn’t make money one month, I didn’t make money. And I was a reservist during that time, and my active duty did not count (one weekend a month and two weeks a year, my rear end — I ended up deploying for 16 months after 9/11, plus mobilizations for riots, fires, earthquakes, plagues of frogs, and O.J.). Eventually I was doing multiple gigs at once — lawyering, soldiering, stand-up comedy, and then writing, first for Andrew Breitbart, then here at Townhall, and also pumping out books (like my latest novel, “American Warlord,” out for presale now).

My purpose here is not to demonstrate the awesomeness that is Kurt; it’s to show that I worked a lot. I missed important stuff. I did not take vacations. I drove a used Volvo. It was 2005 before I paid off my student loans. I, and once I got married, we sacrificed a lot of the fun we saw friends having for our long-term goals. I did not buy $20 burritos; I still don’t. But one day, you get to a place where a $1,500 surprise transmission fix is not going to send you into a tailspin. So when I presume to offer my insights into getting your life into fiscal order, I did it. But none of this means young people today have it easy. It means no one had it easy. No one gave us anything, and no one is going to give young people everything. But none of that means that their complaints do not have some basic legitimacy. Take student loans — please. I used the GI Bill to pay some of my school, but I still walked out with about $70,000. It was doable; it never occurred to me that I should palm off the education that gave me the ability to practice law on the taxpayers. But the truth is that gullible young people got told that they should run up $200K to get a degree in Trans-curious Ecuadorian Interpretive Dance. And then they found that a barista’s salary — because they have no other saleable skills — isn’t going to service that debt. Imagine a six-figure millstone hung around your neck when you are just starting out with no upside that allows you to earn it off. Sure, they signed on the line that was dotted, but there is such a thing as joint and several liability; the system our generation put in place is liable as well.

And there are other problems. Inflation from the Biden era, along with the much smaller but still significant consequences of tariffs and Iran (both of which have a point, but require some sacrifice), means the dollars the kids make don’t stretch. We could go out in our 20s and get $2 beers; a couple of beers today is now over $20, and that’s unsustainable. No wonder the birthrate is dropping; 

 

the kids can’t go out and meet mates without taking out a mortgage. Moreover, there’s unfair competition, and our generation allowed it. We told the kids to go learn to code, to do the STEM thing, and then we allowed zillions of foreigners in on H-1B visas (or with no visa at all) into the country to provide a cheap serf class for the corporations. We priced the young people out of the market — I wasn’t competing with thousands of dudes from Goatbangistan when I was coming up. And a guy like me could get a job. DEI fascism has disenfranchised the male-identifying people o’ pallor; it was Jim Crow, except for honkies. And yes, rent and houses are expensive, but they were for us, too.

All this adds up to real problems for young people. There are some who think they should be living like their parents the day after they toss their mortarboard at their graduation from the University of College. Some believe that they can buy a daily $8.50 half-decaf half-espresso mocha macchiato every morning,

 

 and that’s just not so. When you’re young, you have no money. We didn’t; they won’t either, and to the extent they are bitching about that, well, talk to the hand. But our generation did do some damage, and we need to fix it. How? Here’s a non-exclusive list:

• End the student loan scam. Government-guaranteed student loans let colleges raise their prices because they don’t care — they always get their money.
•  
• They need skin in the game to incentivize them to stop scamming credulous kids.
• Deport the illegal aliens and free up housing and jobs.
• No more H-1B visas. Why are we importing foreigners when our own young people are sending out a thousand resumes and getting maybe one interview?
• Totally eradicate DEI and demand pure merit as the only criterion. The deliberate discrimination against the non-diverse must end. The best should prevail, be it a cisgender male who makes Mitt Romney look ethnic or a lesbian Hindu of color with a limp.

But while we can fix some structural problems, here’s the hard truth. It’s always tough starting out. It always will be. You get nothing for free; if you want the Instagram fantasy life, you have to work for it. We get that there are obstacles. We get that there are challenges. We understand that there are things our generation did that need to be undone. But at the end of the day, what is going to make the difference is hard work and sacrifice. We need to get out of its way, but there’s no scenario where the younger generation gets anything handed to it. And that means maybe boiling up some ramen during your 20s instead of DoorDashing those $20 burritos.

 

'White Privilege': Sophie Cunningham Breaks Silence After Taking a Brutal Hit Over the Weekend

The WNBA continues to attract media attention for all the wrong reasons. The controversy over transgender athletes has led to a league meeting to define what it means to be a woman — you can't make this up. There’s the ongoing Caitlin Clark issue, where the star player and league face are taking a lot of heat, and Sophie Cunningham is becoming public enemy number one for wanting to protect girls’ sports. It’s a circus, which reached a main event moment on August 8, with the Indiana Fever’s game against the Chicago Sky, where a technical foul was called on Clark for accidentally running into an official — ridiculous—and Cunningham getting clotheslined by the Chicago Sky's DiJonai Carrington. 

As Joe wrote about the mayhem over the weekend, Carrington was ejected from the game, as she should have been. She later tweeted, “white privilege,” after she was booted. Cunningham took the high road when asked about the foul and Carrington’s tweet, noting she had experienced the same situation last year, when she was ejected, and stated that’s what should happen — no one should play like that. She added that she felt Carrington’s foul was intentional but is puzzled as to why, since they don’t know each other or have any ‘beef.’ Cunningham doesn’t believe it was a racial issue and expects the league to handle it. Clark’s technical, which could have led to a one-game suspension, was later rescinded. Also, Indiana Fever coach Stephanie White chalked up Carrington's foul as something that happens when one competes. That would be acceptable if it weren't for the tweet afterward, but okay 

“Clearly I think it was unnecessary,” Cunningham said. “I’ve never really spoken to her and I have no beef with her, but I guess she has some pent up stuff.”

[…]

Cunningham got up immediately, charged toward Carrington and pushed her as she was held back by a teammate.

“I popped up,” Cunningham said. “I’m not going to let anyone just do that to me. I think everyone knows that. I think that’s why she did it because she wants attention.”

[…]

“I think the league is taking care of that,” she said. “This has nothing to do with race. Last year, I did the same thing and I got kicked out. And I deserved to be kicked out. There’s no reason even to play that card.”

In the third quarter, Fever star Caitlin Clark was assessed a technical foul after she made contact with a referee when she was forced out of bounds. The technical was Clark’s eighth of the season, triggering a one-game suspension for Indiana’s next game if not rescinded by the league.

“She said I ran into her,” Clark said in a postgame television interview. “I’ve already watched it on the tape, so we’ll let the league decide. But it wasn’t intentional or anything, so I’m hoping it’s getting rescinded,”

A few hours after the game Clark got her way. The WNBA rescinded the technical foul.

What a mess. 

The Fever won the game 90-86. The Sky play the Fever again on August 23. Will this happen again?  Likely. 

 

Acting ICE director accuses AP of misrepresenting agency's body camera policy in 'sensationalized' report

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents walk outside the Ventura County Government Center in Ventura, California, on July 27, 2026.

The acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), David Venturella, accused the Associated Press of mischaracterization and sensationalism in its article on the agency’s body-worn camera (BWC) policy. 

 

In a Saturday statement posted to X, Venturella said the news outlet conflated the broader agency policy on release of footage with expedited release in certain circumstances.

“It’s disappointing, though not surprising, to see yet another misleading and sensationalized Associated Press report about ICE operations and policy,” he said.

“The AP fundamentally mischaracterized ICE’s body-worn camera policy by conflating the expedited release of footage following a serious bodily injury or death in custody with ICE’s broader authority to release body-worn camera footage,” he continued.

Acting ICE Director David J. Venturella issues statement on mischaracterization of ICE's body-worn camera policy. pic.twitter.com/fTJo8RZ9Sk

— U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (@ICEgov) August 8, 2026

In its Friday article, the AP referenced the February, 2025 ICE directive on BWCs, which gave parameters for the expedited release of footage in the event of serious bodily injury or death in custody.

“If it is determined that it is in the best interests of the agency to publicly release the BWC footage, ICE will, as soon as practicable, expedite the public release of such footage,” the directive stated, noting this should occur within 72 hours or when feasible.

“If there are specific and compelling circumstances justifying an objection to public release that cannot be resolved by redaction or other means, when determined by the ICE Director or his or her designee, ICE may withhold or indefinitely delay the release of the BWC footage,” the document continued.

The AP framed the policy as giving the agency broad ability to protect its image while sacrificing transparency. 

 

“That gives its director discretion to release recordings that reflect well on the agency’s image while working to keep others secret, experts on body camera policies said,” wrote Ryan Foley, the article’s author.

 

Foley quoted a professor of Brandon University in Canada, Christopher Schneider,

 

who co-authored the book “Police Body-Worn Cameras: Media and the New Discourse of Police Reform.”

“In some ways, ICE is saying the quiet part out loud,” Schneider said. “Body-worn cameras are being used as contemporary image-work tools to present the police to the public in the most favorable way possible.”

Foley further wrote that ICE did not respond to a question from the outlet regarding the “specific and compelling circumstances” referenced in the directive.

 

However, Venturella in his Saturday statement elaborated on the policy over the expedited release of footage.

“ICE policy permits expedited release when appropriate–and clarifies that it’s not appropriate to release footage when doing so could compromise investigations or privacy,” he said.

He also asserted that this practice remains consistent with the operations of other federal agencies.

“This approach mirrors other federal law enforcement agencies’ policies and is fully consistent with the Freedom of Information Act and the Privacy Act,” he said.

Foley’s sources noted that selective release of footage is common for some law enforcement agencies, but they emphasized its purported explicit inclusion in policy.

“It’s not unheard of for agencies to delay or withhold or selectively edit footage at all, but to say that explicitly just really gives the game away,” said Katherine Hawkins, the senior legal analyst at the nonprofit Project On Government Oversight.

Following two recent fatal shootings by ICE agents, it was announced that ICE will be requiring officers to wear at least one body camera during vehicle stops.

White House Border Czar Tom Homan said while appearing on Fox & Friends that the cameras “exonerate more law enforcement than they convict.”

“I want officers to wear body cameras because I want the American people to see what the officers saw when they took that action,” he said.

Venturella said that the issuance of cameras to the agency’s officers was ahead of schedule.

“At the same time, we’re committed to transparency and accountability, and we’re on track to equip every officer and agent in the field with body-worn cameras by the end of August, ahead of our original timeline,” he concluded.

 

El-Sayed's Campaign Choice Sparks Outrage: Cozying with Anti-American Rhetoric

Never in a million years should any American have to choose between a candidate who loves this country and one who happily campaigns alongside people who once said “America deserved 9/11.” Mike Rogers put that bluntly on the record, warning voters that Abdul El‑Sayed’s willingness to appear with far‑left influencer Hasan Piker raises grave questions about judgment and patriotism. Americans who remember that day and the thousands of lives lost deserve better than equivocation from those seeking the Senate.

Hasan Piker’s own record is unmistakable: he infamously said in 2019 that “America deserved 9/11,” a remark that sparked national outrage and that he later attempted to walk back. That admission — however much he tries to dress it up as foreign‑policy critique — is not some harmless online provocation; it is a moral blind spot that should disqualify influencers from being paraded on the campaign trail for mainstream office seekers. Voters have a right to know whether a candidate who shares a stage with that kind of rhetoric actually rejects it in plain, unequivocal language.

Worse, this isn’t hypothetical theater — El‑Sayed scheduled events where Piker was billed to energize campus crowds, and the optics are disastrous for anyone who cares about national unity and the memory of 9/11 victims. Campaigns are about judgments and associations, and rubbing shoulders with someone who celebrated an attack on our country is a judgment call Michigan voters should evaluate harshly. If you wonder why Republican grassroots are fired up, look no further than these choices by Democratic operatives.

Mike Rogers isn’t a flash‑in‑the‑pan critic; he’s a veteran public servant and a proven campaigner who knows how to read Michigan’s battleground terrain after a tight 2024 race. He’s made no secret that he sees El‑Sayed as a weak general‑election nominee for Democrats and that his team is ready to hold the line against radicalism masquerading as youthful energy. This is a stark contrast to the tolerant, national security‑sidelining instincts we’re seeing from parts of the left.

 

The stakes are immediate: Michigan’s Senate nomination process and the Aug. 4 primary matter to every working family worried about border security, inflation, and the safety of their communities. If Democrats nominate someone who cozies up to figures with a record of celebrating America’s pain, Republicans will make the case that Washington’s elites have lost touch with decency and common sense. It’s not fearmongering to point out that associations have consequences at the ballot box.

Conservative voters should also note how establishment Democratic groups and national left‑wing activists are doubling down rather than distancing themselves, a reveal of priorities that should alarm moderates across Michigan. When the party’s machinery protects candidates who align with extreme online personalities, it proves the point Republican critics have been making for months: this is a party that prizes ideology and theatricality over steady governance and respect for victims. The choice in November will be clear if voters pay attention.

Patriots who love America must act: ask the tough questions, demand straight answers, and turn out in force for candidates who put country before controversy. Mike Rogers has signaled he will fight for Michigan families and for a Senate that defends American values against cynical theatrics. If you want a senator who respects the memory of 9/11 and the safety of our nation, make your voice heard at the ballot box this primary and general election.

 

Universities Under Siege: The Rise of Moral Relativism and Self-Worship

We are watching our universities, once beacons of rigorous inquiry and character formation, turn into finishing schools for moral confusion and radical self-worship — and Allie Beth Stuckey’s recent conversation with Cliffe and Stuart Knechtle

 

pulled back the curtain on exactly how that rot spreads. Their discussion lays out a simple, devastating argument: when a campus swaps the God of Scripture for the god of self, every institution that relied on objective truth begins to crumble.

What’s happening on college quads is not mere disagreement about policy; it is the triumph of moral relativism and therapeutic thinking that treats feelings as the final arbiter of right and wrong. Stuckey and the Knechtles make the case that emotional fragility is being cultivated, not healed, as students are taught to prioritize subjective experience over moral clarity and intellectual rigor.

This manifests in the celebration of sexual license, the elevation of identity above character, and an academic culture that punishes dissenting viewpoints instead of testing them. The result is a generation groomed to view liberty as license and truth as whatever feels validating in the moment — a recipe for social decay and the weakening of civic institutions.

Cliffe and Stuart Knechtle bring hard-earned credibility to the fight because they have been on the front lines of campus evangelism and debate, answering skeptical students with patience and reasoned faith. Their work, and the book and resources they produce, show that robust apologetics and clear moral teaching still win hearts when Christians refuse to cede the ground of truth.

Allie Beth Stuckey, 

 

speaking from a conservative Christian platform, is right to frame this as a battle for the soul of the West — not a mere skirmish over curricula. If we allow the present academic orthodoxy to stand unchallenged, we will hand our children institutions that preach dependency, relativism, and anti-Christian moral frameworks.

The remedy isn’t timidity. Churches must reclaim the work of moral formation, parents must insist on educational options that teach virtue and truth, and conservatives should mobilize to support programs that restore classical learning and free inquiry. We will not out-compete the left by adopting its premises; we must outlast it by rebuilding schools and communities that prize courage, honesty, and the transcendent dignity of the human person.

This is a call to common sense and to faith: the future belongs to those who raise sons and daughters who can think, speak, and stand for truth under pressure. Roll up your sleeves, invest in real education, and refuse to bow to a culture that worships the self — because America was never meant to be founded on feeling but on the unchanging truths that made liberty possible.

 

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