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Trump Taking Steps to Install Columbus Statue Near WH

 President Donald Trump is taking steps toward installing near the White House a replica of a statue of famed explorer Christopher Columbus that had been tossed into Baltimore's harbor during his first term amid protests against institutional racism.

 John Pica, a Maryland lobbyist and president of the Italian American Organizations United, said his group owns the statue and agreed to loan it to the federal government for placement at or near the White House.

 Pica told The Associated Press in an interview that he was contacted about the statue around Columbus Day last year by an intermediary who said the White House was looking for a statue of the explorer. Pica says his organization took a straw vote and unanimously decided to send the statue to the White House. They signed the loan agreement Wednesday.

Asked if he was optimistic the statue would make it to the White House, Pica said, “Cautiously optimistic, yes.” The exact timing for any planned installation was unclear, he said, though he added, “possibly within two weeks.”

Maryland state Del. Nino Mangione, a Republican who has worked with the Italian American group to find the statue a new home after it was pulled from the harbor, also confirmed the plans for the statue, which were first reported earlier Wednesday by The Washington Post.

The White House declined to comment to the AP on plans for the statue but reaffirmed Trump’s affinity for Columbus, whose legacy has shifted as historians and educators amplify how white European figures and their descendants treated Native Americans and enslaved Africans to develop the New World.

“In this White House, Christopher Columbus is a hero,” said Trump spokesman David Ingle. “And he will continue to be honored as such by President Trump.”

For Pica and his group, the statue's Washington placement would celebrate a famous Italian who holds iconic status among Italian Americans. For Trump, it would be another move to reshape the telling of U.S. history as the nation marks the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Trump endorses a traditional view of Columbus as leader of the 1492 mission that marked the unofficial beginning of European colonization in the Americas and the development of the modern economic and political order. But in recent years, Columbus also been recognized as a primary example of Western Europe’s conquest of the New World, its resources and its native people.

The statue now headed to Washington is a replica of one toppled by protesters on July 4, 2020, and thrown into Baltimore's Inner Harbor after anger boiled over following the death of George Floyd at the hands of police. It was one of many statues of Columbus that were vandalized around the same time, with protesters saying the Italian explorer was responsible for the genocide and exploitation of native peoples in the Americas.

“I was there when we got it out of the harbor,” Mangione said, adding that artist Will Hemsley used parts of the old statue, first unveiled during Ronald Reagan’s presidency, “to build and restore a beautiful, brand new statue.”

In recent years, some individuals, institutions and government entities have displaced Columbus Day with recognition of Indigenous Peoples Day. President Joe Biden in 2021 became the first U.S. president to mark Indigenous Peoples Day with a proclamation.

Pica emphasized that his group is lending the statue and would reclaim it if a future administration wanted it taken down.

Trump dismisses the shift on Columbus as “left-wing arsonists” bending history and twisting Americans’ collective memory.

 

President Trump Awards Medals of Honor to 100-Year-Old Pilot and an Afghan War Hero

President Trump awarded two very belated Medals of Honor to two highly deserving Americans on Wednesday.

The first went to Army Staff Sergeant Michael Ollis

 

 , unfortuantely this was a posthumous award.

 SSG Ollis was assigned to 2d Battalion, 22d Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light) stationed at Fort Drum, New York. From all accounts, he seems to have been a stud. He completed Airborne, Air Assault, and Ranger Schools. Getting a Ranger School slot as an enlisted man not on orders for a Ranger battalion shows he really stood out as a stellar soldier. He had served one combat tour in Iraq and was on his second combat tour in Afghanistan when he was killed in action. In fact, when he was killed, on August 28, 2013, he had less than two months left in Afghanistan before rotating home.

On August 28, 2013, a complex enemy attack involving vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices, suicide vests, indirect fire, and small arms fire struck Forward Operating Base Ghazni, Afghanistan. What made Ghazni unique was that it was defended by Polish Special Forces, who advised an Afghan unit also on the base. According to X, Ollis and his men were simply passing through the area enroute to Bagram and the "Freedom Bird" when things went pear-shaped.

When the attack kicked off, Ollis got his men out of their billets and into bunkers. It was then he saw that the Taliban had breached the perimeter, and like any good soldier, he "marched to the sound of the guns." Along the way, Ollis encountered Polish Second Lieutenant Karol Cierpica.

Ollis and Cierpica advanced on the enemy without body armor and armed only with their rifles. They linked up with the defenders nearest the breach and began attacking to drive the Taliban from the airfield and adjacent buildings, all the while under continuous small arms, indirect, and rocket-propelled grenade fire. The counterattack achieved its purpose.

During the counterattack, they rounded a corner in a field of storage containers and confronted a Taliban fighter. He opened fire, striking Cierpica in both legs. Ollis returned fire and seemingly fatally wounded the enemy fighter. The man was wearing a suicide vest, and Ollis positioned himself to shield Cierpica. As Ollis approached the dying man, he set off his suicide vest, killing Ollis.

Cierpica survived the blast and, when he returned home, named his newborn son Michael. Michael sleeps with a teddy bear made from a set of OIlis's uniform bearing his name tape. (You really have to see the picture.)

Staff Sergeant Ollis was 24 when he died. He was awarded a Silver Star for his conduct during the counterattack. It was subsequently upgraded to a Distinguished Service Cross, the nation's second-highest award for combat gallantry. 

Oddly enough, New York Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer was one of the behind-the-scenes forces who kept the campaign to award Ollis the Medal of Honor alive when the official deadline expired in 2016.

The military training program at the Senior Academic High School at the College of Health Sciences has been renamed in his honor.

Here is his father getting the official call from President Trump.

The moment President Trump informed the Ollis family that Staff Sgt. Michael Ollis would posthumously receive the Medal of Honor: https://t.co/bWnQL6XSEB pic.twitter.com/XyE6pqxg1h

— Kristina Wong 🇺🇸 (@Kristinawong) February 4, 2026

The second story is much more uplifting.

Elmer Royce Williams was born April 4, 1925, in Wilmot, South Dakota.

 

 He enlisted in the U.S. Navy shortly after Pearl Harbor as an aviation cadet and completed flight training in August 1945. Williams chose a career as a career officer and eventually flew the Navy's first jet carrier fighter, the Grumman F9F Panther.

The year 1952 found Lieutenant Williams assigned to the Pacemakers of VF-781, flying off the USS Oriskany.

On November 18, 1952, Williams was part of an airstrike on the Hoeryong industrial complex near the Korea-Russia border. Later, in Williams's second mission of the day, he was assigned to the Combat Air Patrol protecting the 20+ ships of Carrier Task Force 77, which included the battleship USS Missouri as well as the Oriskany, led by Admiral and Navy Cross recipient, Admiral "Jocko" Clark. It was then that seven Soviet MiG-15s, launched from a Soviet base near Vladivostok, appeared on the Oriskany's radar and headed directly toward CTF 77. The Russians hadn't attacked U.S. forces yet, but, then again, the Chinese hadn't attacked right up to the point when they did. Williams and three other U.S. pilots flying F9F–5 Panthers were dispatched from the USS Oriskany to pursue the seven MiG–15s in blizzard conditions to engage over the Sea of Japan.

The flight leader’s instruments reported a fuel-pump warning; he aborted the mission and was escorted back to the USS Oriskany by his wingman. This left Williams and his wingman, Dave Rowlands, to do the heavy lifting. 

Due to the weather, Williams and the Oriskany's radar lost the seven MiGs (the middle-schooler in me can't resist noting that the NATO codename for the MiG-15 is "Fagot," spelled with one "g", so I suppose that gets us by the DEI police). Their last sighting gave the impression they were headed home, so Williams was ordered to return to his assigned station guarding CTF 77. Not so fast, Scooter.

“While I was doing that,” Williams said, “the four that had turned to the right came at us in a finger-four formation and started firing. All of them were shooting.” With a head-on closure of over 1,000 knots, the chances of a hit were minimal, but a single hit from a MiG’s heavy cannon could be catastrophic.

“I kicked a lot of rudder and pulled hard to get on the tail of their number four plane as they shot by,” Williams recalled. “ I put the pipper, the aiming point, which was controlled by the gyro system, and maneuvered my plane to make sure the shells intercepted the target. I used fire discipline, since I had only about 720 rounds.”

As the two groups were merging, Williams scored hits on one MiG, and it fell out of formation. His wingman followed it out of formation, leaving Williams to pursue the remaining six MiG-15s on his own. In his efforts, Williams expended all of his ammunition and shot down four, very likely five, of the seven Soviet MiG–15s, setting the American aviator record for MiGs shot in a single sortie and the only naval dogfight over water in the Korean War. Only one other fighter pilot during the Korean War managed four kills in one day. On November 30, 1951, USAF Major George Davis claimed three Tupolev Tu-2 bombers and a MiG-15. Davis scored seven kills in World War II and 14 in Korea before he, himself, was killed in action on February 10, 1952

After 35 minutes of intense dogfighting, Williams—shot up, out of ammunition, his aircraft perforated with 263 bullet strikes, and without electrical or hydraulic systems—headed for home. A MiG was at his six o'clock, and it was then that his wingman made a surprise appearance. "I had a MiG on my tail. Then Rolands came up and followed the MiG until we made it back under the cloud deck. Apparently, his guns jammed so he could not fire but the MiG pilot chose not to attack,” Williams said. “During the fight Rowlands did not know what had happened to me. He thought he was going to have to tell my wife I was dead.”

Just to liven things up, some of the escort vessels for the Oriskany and Missouri mistook his Panther for a MiG and took him under fire.

Williams hit the Oriskany's deck at 170 knots, a tad bit faster than the ideal landing speed of just over 100 knots. He snagged the number three wire and made a perfect landing. His plane was scrapped.

This is where the story goes cloak-and-dagger. 

A few days later he was called by Vice Admiral Robert Briscoe, Commander, Seventh Fleet. “We met in his office and he had his secretary and intelligence officer with him,” Williams recalled. “The intel officer did not participate. The entire conversation was between Admiral Briscoe and myself.”

Williams was told the MiGs were not flown by North Koreans, or Chinese, but by Soviet Naval Aviation pilots flying out of Vladivostok. He was also told never to speak of the incident to anyone—his squadron mates or even his wife.

The then-new National Security Agency (NSA), using a variety of sensitive eavesdropping technology, had been listening in on Soviet air traffic out of Vladivostok on that November morning. The NSA already knew the Soviet Navy had sent the seven MiG-15s south to observe the carrier task force. But, intent on keeping the Soviet Union from learning how good their covert listening systems were, they had to erase all traces of the dogfight.

President-elect Dwight Eisenhower, visiting Korea, asked Williams to meet with him. “Eisenhower greeted me warmly and introduced me to Generals Bradley, Clark, and Ridgeway. They explained how important it was that no one ever know about the fight with the Russians.”

With the growing tension of the Cold War, U.S. officials covered up the entire incident—the first, and so far as is known, only time that U.S. and Soviet aircraft had met in combat. They feared U.S. public reaction to the aggressive attack by Soviet fighters on American pilots could ignite a global crisis.

For nearly 50 years only Williams and a few people in the Pentagon, the NSA, the White House and Soviet Union knew what had happened that day. But Williams had destroyed the MiG-15’s air of invincibility. He was awarded the Silver Star for his actions and went on serve in Vietnam.

Williams received a Silver Star for his gallantry. Williams served in the Navy for over 30 years, flew over 220 missions in Korea and Vietnam, and retired as a captain in 1984.

It wasn't until Soviet archives became public, sorta, after the fall of the USSR, that the story of Lt. Williams's lonely fight against seven Soviet MiGs could be made public.

In 2022, his Silver Star was upgraded to a Navy Cross, and his award of the Medal of Honor was made possible by a bill introduced by Republican Representative Darrell Issa (CA-48)

I can't pretend to explain how a selfless hero like Michael Ollis wasn't recommended for the Medal of Honor. The impulse to let the Russians save face might have been understandable during the Korean War, but by the time of the Reagan administration, it no longer made much sense deprive Williams of recognition. The belated actions have served some modicum of justice, but if we have time to look back over 100 years for fancied awards that were held back by racial, ethnic, or religious animus, we should have time to award fully deserved medals in a timely fashion.

 

Why Are Democrats Trying to Protect Illegals at Polling Places? GOP Senator Demands Answers

Top Democrats House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer have sparked backlash after demanding that taxpayer dollars not be used for immigration enforcement operations near "sensitive locations," including polling places.

 Which, of course, begs the question: Why would there be elevated concerns about the presence of illegal aliens at polling places?

Democrats' DHS Demands Spark Outrage: Why Shield Polling Places from ICE Enforcement?

Jeffries (NY-8) and Schumer (D-NY) sent a letter to Republican leadership on Wednesday, demanding reforms to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) immigration enforcement as part of ongoing funding negotiations. Their list of demands includes a key provision prohibiting the use of funds for enforcement operations near "sensitive locations."

One such location raised eyebrows immediately.

"Prohibit funds from being used to conduct enforcement near sensitive locations, including medical facilities, schools, child-care facilities, churches, polling places, courts, etc.," the letter reads.

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READ MORE: Virginia Democrat Debuts Bill to Prohibit ICE at Polling Places, and Suddenly It All Makes Sense

New: Schumer Declares GOP Voter ID Bill 'Dead on Arrival' As Jim Crow Throwback

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Wait, suddenly Democrats are opposed to people storming churches and creating chaos for worshippers again? That's rich. Anyway ...

Senator Katie Britt (R-AL), who is leading the charge for Republicans on the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, fired back sharply at Schumer and Jeffries, questioning why illegal aliens would need such special protections at voting sites. 

She is demanding that DHS be fully funded. Britt also demanded passage of the SAVE (Safeguard American Voter Eligibility) Act. The Act is designed to safeguard elections by ensuring only American citizens vote in federal elections.

There seems to be a theme here. RedState's Sister Toldjah reported last week on efforts by Democrats in Virginia to implement similar protections for illegal immigrants at polling locations. 

A new bill, HB 1442, seeks to prohibit "any person from performing any act for the purpose or in furtherance of enforcement of federal immigration laws within 40 feet of any building, or part thereof, used as a polling place."

Even better, they want to keep law enforcement from enforcing immigration laws at "a meeting place for the local electoral board while the electoral board meets to ascertain the results of an election, or the place for a recount."

Why would Democrats be adamantly against immigration enforcement at polling places and/or anywhere that election results are being tabulated? Why would illegals be sauntering around within 40 feet of a polling place to begin with? Those, as you might imagine, are rhetorical questions.

Schumer recently declared the SAVE Act, passed by the House of Representatives in April 2025 and currently pending in the Senate, to be racist. He insists it is "dead on arrival."

Republicans want to protect American elections from illegals, while Democrats will do anything to make sure illegals are protected at a ballot box they shouldn't be anywhere near. 

As Sister Toldjah wrote: "Democrats are again showing us exactly who they are, and we should believe them."

 

A Dem 2028 Hopeful's Family Story Just Got Wrecked by Historical Records

Democrats cannot stop lying. Whether it’s about their personal history, like Joe Biden, or their military record, like Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), who claimed to have served in Vietnam but never left American soil.

 In academia, there appears to be a serial plagiarism issue. For Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, who could be a 2028 Democratic nominee, his family story just got torpedoed by historical record. No doubt, the story about his great-grandfather fleeing South Carolina because of the Ku Klux Klan would’ve animated his supporters and the Democratic base. The problem is that it’s likely not true, as the Washington Free Beacon reported:

Maryland governor Wes Moore, who is widely expected to seek the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination, has a powerful family story of racial injustice that he repeatedly tells during public speeches: His grandfather, as a small boy, fled 1920s Charleston with his family in the dead of night after his father—a prominent black minister and Moore's great-grandfather—angered the Ku Klux Klan with sermons condemning racism. Narrowly escaping a lynching, the family took refuge in Jamaica. But Moore's grandfather, just six years old at the time, vowed to return to America, where he eventually raised a grandson who made history in 2022 by becoming Maryland's first black governor. 

[...] 

But there's a problem with Moore's story: It's flatly contradicted by historical records and is almost certainly false. 

Moore's great-grandfather on his mother's side, the Rev. Josiah Johnson Thomas, did preach in the 1920s at a church in Pineville, S.C., about 65 miles north of Charleston. But historical records housed at the archives of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of South Carolina undercut the three main elements of Moore's story—that Thomas suddenly fled the country in secret, that he was targeted by the Ku Klux Klan, and that he was a prominent preacher who spoke from the pulpit against racism. 

Detailed church archival records, as well as contemporary newspaper coverage, indicate that Thomas, a Jamaica native, on Dec. 13, 1924, made an orderly and public transfer from South Carolina to the island of his birth, where he was appointed to succeed a prominent Jamaican pastor who had died unexpectedly a week earlier, on Dec. 6, 1924. Amid the copious documentation of the life and career of Moore's great-grandfather, there is no mention of trouble with the Klan, which operated openly in 1920s South Carolina but never had a chapter operating out of Pineville, according to Virginia Commonwealth University's Mapping of the Second Ku Klux Klan. 

Moore has repeated this story many times; it’s a cornerstone of his public image. Andrew Kerr, who wrote the story, has more:

Moore's great-grandfather, the Rev. Josiah Johnson Thomas, preached at an Episcopal church in Pineville, SC, from 1922 through Dec. 1924, when he made an orderly and public transfer to Jamaica, his home country, to take over for a prominent Jamaican pastor who had unexpectedly died a week earlier. 

The Pineville church where Moore's great-grandfather preached had a stellar reputation within the local white community during his time there from 1922 through 1924, according to contemporary reporting.

William Guerry, the Episcopal Bishop of SC (best known for his work to advance racial equality & who oversaw the ordination of Moore's great-grandfather) reported in 1924 the white community held the Pineville church in high regard for the work it performed for the black community.

Guerry reported in 1925 the "colored work" at the Pineville church "is in a most prosperous condition." 

Guerry made no mention or suggestion in his reporting that the Pineville church or its pastors had any sort of conflict with the Ku Klux Klan, which operated openly in the 1920s but didn't have a chapter anywhere near Pineville during this timeframe. 

Moore's office declined to comment on this reporting when I first reached out to them over two weeks ago. Instead, they strongly insinuated I'm a racist for daring to question the story of his great-grandfather's escape from the Ku Klux Klan. 

Moore's fantastical tale of his great-grandfather's escape from the Ku Klux Klan to exile to Jamaica adds yet another asterisk to his remarkably inflated résumé, which is littered with lies about his place of birth, lies about his privileged upbringing, lies about his athletic achievements, lies about his academic achievements, and lies about his military achievements.

 The archival records are linked to his story. Yikes. 

 

We Know Why Dems Are Freaking Out About This Election Integrity Stuff

We'll hear a lot about voter ID laws, but the effort to pass them will largely depend on the Republicans. John Thune, bring the SAVE Act to a vote. I'm not concerned about the 60-vote requirement or the Democratic Senate leaders' posturing—let them be forced to endorse something that enjoys 70-80% public support. Even black voters back voter ID laws, which undermines the false narrative of Jim Crow 2.0. Let them overreach, because they probably will. Currently, the Democratic leadership's strategy and judgment are truly poor.

 The debate concerning election integrity has persisted over time; however, the core arguments and underlying motives remain unchanged. The objective is to ensure secure elections in which only American citizens can vote, whereas some allege that Democrats seek to perpetuate electoral misconduct. Additionally, with President Trump removing illegal immigrants from the country, desperation appears to be emerging.  

For generations, Democrats have stayed relevant by permitting illegal immigrants into the country, housing them in Democratic strongholds, recruiting similar ethnic groups for elections, and using the census to redraw congressional districts. This is why they strongly support amnesty, prefer an open border, and oppose any efforts to reduce immigration.  

They know what lies ahead: the 2030 census could end the Democrats’ reported advantage in the Electoral College. The blue wall will be rendered irrelevant, as a new red wall could emerge in Georgia, North Carolina, and Arizona. That development, plus new laws to ensure voter integrity would ceertainly kneecap Democrats in elections (via Decision Desk): 

GOP would win 274-264, whereas right now this map would produce a Dem Electoral College win of 276-262

— Geoffrey Skelley (@geoffreyvs) February 3, 2026

These shifts in electoral votes would take away the Democrats’ most common path to victory in recent years: the fabled “Blue Wall” battleground states across the Frost Belt. Democrats have long had a path to 270 electoral votes if they carried blue-leaning states and the swing states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Trump narrowly carried all of those states in 2024, but had Harris won them (on top of the states she did carry), she would have garnered exactly the 270 electoral votes needed to win. However, the projected electoral vote change would have made it so that Harris only reached 258 electoral votes. 

As a result, Pennsylvania, which Trump carried by 1.7 percentage points, would no longer have been the “tipping-point” state in the 2024 election. That is, if you lined up all the states (and congressional district-level results in Maine and Nebraska) from most Republican to most Democratic by margin, Pennsylvania delivered the 270th electoral vote to whomever won it. Yet these apportionment projections would move the tipping-point state farther to the right, making Georgia (Trump +2.1) the decisive state based on the 2024 results. 

In a way, these trends only make it more necessary for Democrats to compete in the states that they narrowly won in 2020. With the Blue Wall’s reduced clout, Democrats would likely have to more consistently win Arizona and Georgia to get to 270, or also flip North Carolina, which has often been a “close, but no cigar” state for Democrats. But given the shifts in recent elections, the necessity of competing in those places is not really a huge change for Democrats. After all, Democrats lost the Blue Wall states in 2016 and 2024, and Trump’s margin of victory in Georgia and North Carolina in the latter was not that different from his edge in Pennsylvania. 

On the other side of the aisle, Republicans are in line to gain significant ground in red-leaning places like Texas and Florida, as well as make small gains in solidly red states like Idaho and Utah. This contrasts with the sizable projected Democratic losses in California and New York, two of that party’s largest safe states. As long as the GOP retains the upper hand in Texas and Florida, they will not need to carry quite as many highly-competitive states as Democrats to win presidential races. In 2024, Democrats had to win three of the seven main swing states — the three in the Blue Wall — to reach 270. Under these projections, Republicans would only need the three competitive but light-red states that we could call their Red Wall — the Sun Belt trio of Arizona, Georgia, and North Carolina — to reach 270. (Nevada was the other state among the core seven swing states in 2020-24.) 

However, while these projections could be deleterious for Democrats, we should not overstate how determinative they will be in future presidential elections. Even though our political situation is quite polarized, we can expect shifts in the party coalitions and changes in the electorate to alter the political status quo as we know it. So, while the GOP stands to gain among the states it carried in 2024 and has tended to win in recent years, hypothetical Democratic gains in Sun Belt states could quickly alter the political calculus. For instance, if Texas became consistently competitive, the GOP would risk the loss of the bedrock of the party’s Electoral College foundation. 

And with Democrats cultishly devoted to woke authoritarian politics, it’s likely they’ll continue to lose ground with normal voters, until the blue-haired freaks, white wine-guzzling lunatic lefty women, and a bunch of gays are all that’s left for Democrats to cobble together a national messaging campaign.  

That’s for sure a coalition destined to lose every election known to man.

🚨NEW: Enten *SOUNDS ALARM* over Dems' long-term political odds🚨

"The biggest population growth this decade: All 5 of the states are states that Trump won! ... But it's not just a red state boom. We’re looking at what I would dare call a blue state depression." @DailyCaller pic.twitter.com/XidlrPHb97

— Jason Cohen 🇺🇸 (@JasonJournoDC) February 2, 2026

U.S. Dept of War: Scouting America must reverse DEI initiatives or risk losing long-standing federal partnership

A person representing Scouting America rides a bicycle with children during the WorldPride 2025 parade in support of LGBTQ+ rights in Washington, D.C. on June 7, 2025.

The U.S. Department of War issued a formal warning to Scouting America, formerly known as the Boy Scouts of America, on Monday warning that the organization must reverse its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives or risk losing its long-standing federal partnership.

 On his first full day in office in his second term, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order (EO) titled “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity.” This directive effectively abolished “DEI preferencing” within federal contracting, requiring all government-affiliated organizations to shift back to merit-based standards.

In light of this mandate, Sean Parnell, who is currently serving as the assistant to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, announced via X that the department is actively “reviewing its relationship” with Scouting America. While Parnell acknowledged the organization’s “great” history, he warned that it has recently “lost its way” by prioritizing far-left ideologies over its founding mission.

Parnell’s message was clear: if the Scouts wish to maintain their decades-long partnership with the military, they must align their internal policies with federal standards and dismantle their DEI initiatives.

 

“From Day One at the War Department, we have made it very clear: No more DEI at DoW. Zero tolerance,” Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell shared in a statement posted to X.

“As a result, over the past several months, the Department of War has been reviewing its relationship with Scouting America—formerly known as the Boy Scouts of America. A great organization, that has — in many ways — lost its way,” he continued. “But, for more than a decade now, Scouting America’s leadership has made decisions that run counter to the values of this administration and this Department of War, including an embrace of DEI and other social justice, gender-fluid ideological stances. This is unacceptable.”

 

Since its founding in 1910, Scouting America, which was previously named the Boy Scouts of America, has undergone a series of rapid structural changes. This evolution accelerated in 2018 when the organization opened its Cub Scout program to girls, followed by the 2019 decision to allow girls to earn the prestigious rank of Eagle Scout.

Alongside these progressive “gender-inclusive” shifts, the organization has expanded its membership to include openly gay adult scout leaders, as well as transgender-identifying youth.

Historically, Scouting America has maintained an often controversial relationship with LGBTQ+ inclusion and child safety. For decades, the organization explicitly banned gay individuals from leadership, a policy the Supreme Court upheld in 2000, before eventually reversing the ban on gay youth in 2013 and gay adult leaders in 2015.

 

Distinct from this debate over membership was a pervasive and long-standing crisis of sexual misconduct. The organization kept internal “Ineligible Volunteer Files” to track leaders accused of sexual abuse but was often criticized for failing to prevent those individuals from simply moving to other troops. This systemic failure eventually led to a 2020 bankruptcy filing and a historic $2.46 billion settlement to compensate over 82,000 survivors of abuse.

During CNN’s New Year’s Eve broadcast in January 2025, comedian Whitney Cummings notably delivered a sharp-edged joke regarding the organization’s rebranding to Scouting America.

The comedian suggested that the name change was a strategic move common among those facing widespread allegations of sexual assault, implying that the organization was attempting to distance itself from its history of litigation and misconduct.

 

“Boy Scouts of America, they renamed themselves Scouting America. You know who else changed their name? Sean Combs. Just saying… let’s learn something in 2025,” Cummings said at the time.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has exerted sustained pressure on public and federally supported organizations to realign with traditional, science-based views on gender and sex. Last year, Hegseth cracked down on DEI and other “progressive” initiatives in the military as well, banning gender-dysphoric service members and reimplementing certain physical fitness and grooming standards.

During the previous Biden administration, the Army, through the first female Secretary of the Army, Christine Wormuth, introduced the Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT). It was originally intended to be “gender-neutral” but was eventually modified with “gender-normed” scoring, allowing different passing benchmarks for men and women, to address high failure rates among female and older soldiers.

Critics, including Hegseth, who was a political commentator at the time, argued these adjustments weakened the force’s overall readiness. Upon becoming the new Secretary of War, Hegseth replaced the ACFT with the Army Fitness Test (AFT) and reinstated strict “sex-neutral” standards for 21 combat-specific roles, such as Infantry and Special Forces. The policy mandates that all soldiers in these high-stakes positions meet the same rigorous physical benchmarks, prioritizing uniform combat lethality over inclusivity.

Meanwhile, regarding Parnell’s “warning” to Scouting America, he later noted that the organization appeared to be receptive to the Trump administration’s request, and that he was in discussions with officials.

“Scouting America remains far from perfect, but they have firmly committed to a return to core principles. Back to God and country—immediately!” Parnell added, concluding the X post with “we have more to announce soon,” indicating a certain yet unclear shift coming to the organization.

The Boy Scouts emerged as a deeply embedded American institution, closely aligned with military values and service. As early as 1937, the Pentagon actively supported the organization, supplying vehicles, medical staff, instructional resources, and aviation programs at National Jamborees. This relationship translated into tangible outcomes: Eagle Scouts often entered the armed forces at higher ranks, and roughly 20 percent of cadets trace their early leadership experience back to scouting.

Another State Moves to Shatter the 2nd Amendment—What’s Next?

New Mexico Democrats are pushing Senate Bill 17, dubbed the “Stop Illegal Gun Trade and Extremely Dangerous Weapons Act,” through legislative committees in a brazen attack on law-abiding gun owners and small businesses. Sponsored by Sens. Michaelita Debbie O’Malley, Heather Berghmans, and others, the bill advanced on party-line votes in the Senate Health and Public Affairs Committee on January 28, 2026, and faced a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee on February 2. Gun rights groups like the NRA-ILA blast it as an omnibus gun control scheme that shreds Second Amendment protections under the pretense of curbing trafficking.

 At its heart, SB 17 brands gas-operated semi-automatic rifles—tools millions use for hunting, sport, and defense—as “extremely dangerous,” banning their sale or transfer to non-federal licensees starting July 1, 2026. It also outlaws magazines over 10 rounds, .50 caliber rifles and cartridges, and machine guns, sparing only rimfire .22s, antiques, or limited-action firearms like bolt-actions and lever guns. Republicans, including NM GOP Chair Amy Barela, call this a “blatantly unconstitutional” assault on common firearms, ignoring Supreme Court precedents like Bruen that protect such rights.

The legislation piles crushing mandates on federally licensed dealers, forcing costly security alarms, 24/7 video surveillance retained for two years, hardened premises, monthly inventories, and detailed record-keeping of every transaction. Dealers must hire only those 21 and older, run background checks, undergo mandatory state training on straw buys and suicide prevention, report multiple sales within five days, thefts in 48 hours, and quarterly traces—creating a backdoor registry primed for abuse. Family-run shops will buckle under these burdens, designed to shutter them and starve citizens of legal access.

Proponents cite polls from Everytown for Gun Safety claiming 77% support, but this ignores New Mexico’s sky-high crime rates driven by repeat offenders, not sporting rifles. Why no similar red tape for pharmacies or liquor stores? It’s selective overreach, punishing responsible owners while cartels flood streets unchecked. A coalition of 26 House Republicans warned it targets hunters and self-defenders, not criminals, echoing national patterns where “safety” bills disarm the innocent first.

This New Mexico power grab signals alarm for every American: if Democrats succeed here, copycat bans will spread nationwide, eroding the Founders’ guarantee against tyranny. Patriots must flood legislators, rally at hearings, and vote out these rights-trampling radicals—before SB 17 sets a precedent that chains us all. The Second Amendment isn’t negotiable; it’s our bulwark in a chaotic world.

 

Children Used as Shields in Shocking Anti-ICE Riots

Protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have swept through major American cities this past weekend, from Minneapolis and Portland to Los Angeles, New York City, and Tucson, as demonstrators rail against federal efforts to secure the nation’s borders. Sparked by recent high-profile incidents, including a fatal shooting by an ICE agent in Minneapolis and a Border Patrol confrontation in Portland, these gatherings have drawn crowds chanting for the agency’s abolition and broader immigration overhauls. What began as targeted outrage has ballooned into a nationwide spectacle, with protesters blocking streets, vandalizing property, and clashing with law enforcement, underscoring a growing resistance to President Trump’s renewed push for strict enforcement.

 Amid the chaos, a disturbing pattern has emerged: parents dragging schoolchildren, even those from elementary and middle schools, into the fray. Reports from Minneapolis highlight students walking out of classes, waving signs denouncing ICE as they echo adult slogans learned at home or in activist-led sessions. In freezing conditions outside government buildings, kids as young as grade-school age have been spotted front and center, their presence turning what should be adult debates into exploitative photo ops for social media. This isn’t youthful rebellion—it’s calculated recruitment, where impressionable minds are fed a steady diet of anti-law-enforcement rhetoric that paints border agents as villains rather than protectors.

The involvement of children crosses a dangerous line, prioritizing political theater over safety and innocence. In Portland, one young girl was exposed to pepper spray during an anti-ICE march, a grim reminder of the risks when volatile protests become family outings. Schools, meant for math and reading, are morphing into organizing hubs, with some teachers turning classrooms into echo chambers that glorify law-breaking over civic duty. Parents who cheer this on aren’t raising informed citizens; they’re engineering pint-sized activists, using their own kids as props to amplify a radical agenda that undermines national sovereignty and the rule of law.

These spectacles echo darker chapters of history, where regimes weaponized youth against authority, fostering division within families and communities. When children are taught to vilify ICE—the very agency upholding immigration statutes enacted by Congress—they’re not learning critical thinking but blind animosity toward those enforcing order. This trend threatens to erode parental authority, pitting kids against moms and dads who dare support secure borders, all while real threats like gang violence from unchecked migration go ignored. True compassion would focus on legal pathways, not endangering the next generation in street brawls.

As these protests persist, Americans must reclaim common sense: free speech doesn’t extend to child endangerment or sabotaging the homeland security that President Trump champions. Families deserve protection from both illegal crossings and the manipulative activism that exploits the vulnerable. The real battle isn’t in the streets—it’s in homes and schools, where parents must shield their children from being pawns in a losing war against lawful governance. Until that line is held, expect more unrest, more arrests, and more innocents caught in the crossfire.

 

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