Automakers are quietly building ahead, padding
inventories from Asian assembly plants to U.S. dealer lots as the war
with Iran rattles the raw materials behind plastics, aluminum, and
semiconductor chips.
The bet is straightforward: hold cars on the balance sheet now rather
than risk a repeat of the chip-shortage paralysis that left lots empty
during COVID.
With a tentative U.S.-Iran agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz still awaiting final approval, the industry is choosing inventory over discipline.
The war has pinched supplies of naphtha, the petroleum derivative
used to make plastics, along with the inputs that feed aluminum
production and the helium, urea, and ammonia required for semiconductor
manufacturing.
Japanese and Korean automakers, which depend on Middle Eastern naphtha, are most at risk from the squeeze.
The shortages have arrived even as a tentative deal to reopen the
Strait of Hormuz works its way toward approval, a sign that the ripple
has already outrun the diplomacy.
Michael Robinet, vice president of forecast strategy at S&P
Global Mobility, told an Automotive Press Association audience that the
build-ahead trend will likely accelerate through the summer.
The math, he said, is one carmakers normally resist: "If you can get
the feedstocks now, and you can find resin to make plastic, and you can
find chips that require helium, and you can find urea and ammonia that
are required for different operations, if you can find all of that, then
they're going to build the vehicle."
Unsold inventory will sit on the books until it moves, but with
shortages threatening, a drag on the balance sheet beats empty
showrooms.
The hedge is showing up beyond the auto sector.
U.S. durable goods orders jumped
7.9% in April to $346 billion, the Census Bureau reported Thursday,
lifted by a 21.5% surge in transportation equipment that included a
spike in civilian aircraft.
Pantheon Macroeconomics chief U.S. economist Samuel Tombs told Axios
the headline figure looks temporary, describing it as companies racing
to build buffer stocks against war-driven supply disruptions.
The pattern echoes last year's tariff-driven scramble, when
manufacturers raced to lock in orders before President Donald Trump's
import duties bit.
Whether the Strait of Hormuz deal
closes within days or drags into summer, automakers are signaling they
would rather absorb the cost of unsold cars than relive 2021,
underscoring how fragile global production has remained five years after
the chip crunch.
Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt's leftist opponents are not happy with how his campaign has taken off.
Listen
to how upset the Los Angeles city council member Nithya Raman
is about
the amazing ads supporters have been putting out that have so animated
Pratt's campaign.
Raman tried to claim Pratt was promoting his campaign with AI videos,
and that was "deeply insulting" to the industry and workers.
Interviewer
Elex Michaelson
then brings her up short, telling her these are videos
by supporters, not made by Pratt. That just killed her argument, big
time. She knows it, and she tries to shift to another attack.
But it's things like that that show the basic difference in campaigns and in sense.
What
the Pratt supporters are putting out is better than anything the
present mayor, Karen Bass, or Raman are putting out. Of course, part of
the problem is that Bass and Raman don't inspire the same positive
thoughts for change that Pratt does.
Pratt's
opponents are likely to have a cow with the latest ad that's going
viral. This ad hits so many things about Los Angeles, even having a
doctor looking like a TV doctor.
It depicts a woman, rushed to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center by her mother. The problem? She has "the Pratt."
"Spencer
Pratt is the common sense choice for Los Angeles," the daughter
proclaims. "Our leaders have failed us...Everything is worse under Karen
Bass."
The mother admits that something may have slipped through
the restrictions she has on the media for the daughter: The New York
Times, MSNBC, and NPR. "Maybe CNN...if we're feeling frisky," the mom
says.
The doctor quizzes the mom, "Does she know anyone, anyone at all who thinks for themselves?" Perhaps that's how she got it.
The doctor tells the mom it starts with a mild cough.
"The
next thing you know, you hate seeing homeless drug addicts injecting
your kids. It's very contagious. Better prescribe four doses of NPR,
every hour on the hour. Two doses of The New York Times. five doses of
The LA Times."
"Why was Karen Bass in Ghana while the city was burning (during the
Palisades fire)?" the daughter asks. Oh, no! She's thinking! Democrats
are afraid of that.
The doctor then amends his prescription,
upping the dosage, "Six doses of The LA Times." He advises the mother
that they'll have to hold the daughter in quarantine for a while, as
she's then wheeled in with other affected people.
Then the
brilliant part at the end: the doctor coughs. He looks around, knowing
what has happened, as the caption runs on the bottom, "Vote Spencer
Pratt."
Politicocontinues its dogged faux “reporting” to create a narrative that Democrats are
a lock to control the U.S. Senate in 2026. Which gives me a great
opening to make one of my periodic updates on some of the crucial Senate
races. The Republicans have a 53 to 47-seat majority in the Senate.
There are 35 seats up for grabs in 2026. The Democrats need a net pick
up of four seats to win control.
The central problem for the Democrats is that only two Republican
seats – Maine and North Carolina – are in competitive states. The other
20 GOP seats are in states where Donald Trump won by double digits. That
almost never happens in Senate elections, let alone twice. In the 2025
Virginia elections, the Democrats won a landslide, but they still didn’t carry a single district where Trump won with that margin.
The
Democrats also must not lose any of their own competitive seats. And in
the blue wave of 2018, the Democrats still lost in an upset for their
incumbent in Florida.
The GOP is going to have a yuge edge in funding, with the RNC, NRSC, the Senate Leadership Fund, and the MAGA Pac together swamping the Democrats.
Former statewide elected Democrat Rep. Mary Peltola is challenging incumbent Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan. The RCP average has the two deadlocked, although it does not include the numerous Alaska Survey Research polls, which consistently show a solid Peltola edge. This may be because the ASR polls have a reputation for being
“left-Center biased.” Although Peltola is universally known and
generally liked in Alaska, 1) she was beaten as an incumbent
Congresswoman by a weaker candidate than Sullivan; 2) she only won her
two victories over the very unpopular Sarah Palin; and 3) Sen. Sullivan
is a well-liked incumbent with no obvious weaknesses. Both candidates
will have plenty of money. Alaska has a weird Ranked Choice Voting
system – created to protect renegade Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski – so
it is unclear which candidate has the edge from that (although it may
be Peltola). But Sullivan should still be the favorite.
Georgia: Jon Ossoff / 50.61% D / Leans D
On May 19, Georgia had
its primaries, and the Republican field to oppose Sen. Jon Ossoff
shrunk from three to two, to continue to the June 16 runoff. Rep. Mike
Collins (GA-10) seems to have a solid polling edge in RCP over Coach Derek Dooley, who is backed by Gov. Kemp, as my fellow RedStaterhas reported.The two have about equalmoney right now, but both heavily trail Sen. Ossoff, who has had gangbuster fundraising – for months, I could not watch music videos at the gym without seeing Ossoff ads pleading for money. Collins hashadsome
scandal issues, but he is also considered more MAGA than Dooley,
although the president has not endorsed yet. Georgia has a weird
electoral system, too, with a runoff after the November 3, 2026,
election, which may help the Democrats. Regardless, Ossoff is the
favorite at this junction, although his left-wing record opens him up to criticism in a Republican leaning state.
Iowa: Joni Ernst (retiring) / Lean R
GOP Rep. Ashley Hinson has the privilege of raising boatloads of money while watching an unfolding June 2 Democrat primary fight between the Bernie Bro candidate Zach Wahls and the Democrat establishment's choice, Josh Turek. Which Democrat has the primary edge is pretty much the choice of which group is polling the race. The Democrat winner is likely to be the underdog in the general, despite
Democrat optimism, as President Trump won the state by double digits,
and Rep. Hinson represents one of the three competitive districts, which
she has convincingly locked down, while the fourth district is heavily
Republican.
Maine: Susan Collins / 50.98% R / Tilt R
The fake working class, Nazi Democrat in Maine, Graham Platner, has established a polling edge over moderate Republican Sen. Susan Collins. Just like her less crazy Democrat opponent from six years ago did. But prominent Democrats are increasingly worried, including a Democrat Congressman from Massachusetts who has called Platner’s radicalism “disqualifying.” Among some of the recent Platner crazy statements that have come out is his call for the death of a hero Army veteran in Afghanistan, and his slander of another war hero, the deceased Chris Kyle, whom Platner accused of slaughtering civilians to boost Kyle’s kill count. My Redstate colleague has
also written about Platner’s factually untrue statement that Collins
“voted to send me to Iraq.” Because of Platner’s falsehoods, in the
latest polls, the 40 percent of the state that is made up of independent
voters has turned against him. It also seems likely that some of the polling in the state has a left-wing bias. Despite the polling, there is no question in my mind that Sen. Collins is the favorite for this seat, again.
Michigan: Gary Peters (retiring) / Lean D
While the Republican candidate, former Rep. Mike Rogers, who narrowly lost the 2024 Senate race, raises money and waits, the Democrats are still facing a competitive three-way primary. Bernie Bro and Radical Muslim Abdul El Sayed seems to have established
the primary edge in the RCP, but he also performs the worst against
Rogers. The establishment favorite, Rep. Haley Stevens (MI-11), is being
hindered by her lack of a visceral hatred towards Israel and her debate screwup
on the filibuster. If El Sayed wins the primary, he will join the
crazed Jew-haters team that the Democrats are assembling throughout the
country, including the Nazi in Maine and the Al-Qaeda member
in a New Jersey House Race. Unfortunately for him, he will be running
in a much less Democrat leaning area than the others nuts.
Texas: John Cornyn (defeated in the primary) / Lean R
On May 26, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton crushed – with huge turnout – incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in the Republican primary runoff. Although Paxton has
his own issues, this result should not be unexpected, as Cornyn really
shouldn’t have run again. (Incumbents often have a hard time knowing
when to quit – see my former boss, Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter.) The
Democrats are once again confident of victory – despite Wendy Davis,
Beto O’Rourke, and Colin Allred, etc. – this time with state Rep. James
Talarico. Talarico is a fundraising powerhouse whose ads are now popping up to me repeatedly at the gym. Talarico also leads in the polling, although pollsters tend to undervalue Republican support in Texas. However, Talarico is a far-left crazy, which Paxton has already begun exposing in the media, and Talarico is already being forced to explain his statements, which is always a bad sign. Also, Talarico will have problems getting out his necessary black voters, and the GOP isalready uniting behind Paxton.
Told you. @FBI just arrested the man who threatened to kill ICE officers and their families. FAFO. https://t.co/ai2Y46nmOR
— Acting AG Todd Blanche (@DAGToddBlanche) May 30, 2026
The
leftist rioter in Newark who promised to m—rder federal agents and
their family members, including children, has been arrested: https://t.co/PRLkXk0tCE
Thank you to the @FBI for arresting a rioter who threatened to kill an @ICEgov law enforcement officer and his family outside Delaney Hall.
Our
officers are facing an 8,000% increase in death threats against them as
they put their lives on the line to arrest the worst of the…
— Secretary Markwayne Mullin (@SecMullinDHS) May 30, 2026
🚨
JUST IN: Trump FBI RAIDS THE HOUSE and carries out FELONY ARREST
against leftist terrorist who threatened to kill ICE agents and their
FAMILIES on camera, exposed by @NickSortor
DOJ
sources tell me the FBI has arrested Nicholas Scelfo, the man police
say was caught on camera threatening to kill an ICE agent and the
agent’s family outside Newark's Delaney Hall detention facility this
week.
“I’ll kill your whole f–king family. Your whole f–king family is dead. Your children, your wife, all dead."
A
left-wing activist in Newark was caught on camera shouting those words
at an unmasked ICE officer as protests outside the Delaney ICE facility
turned chaotic.
Mary Peltola, a Democrat running for the
U.S. Senate seat in Alaska, appears to be behind a scheme to run a
candidate named Dan Sullivan in the race in order to siphon votes away
from the Republican incumbent and front-runner with the same name.
Sullivan, who announced his campaign today, issued a press release
expressing his desire to unseat the incumbent Sullivan. A PDF of the
press release reveals that the author is an individual named Amber Lee, a
left-wing consultant
who the New York Times has described as a supporter of Peltola.
Lee hasn’t been shy to the press about her love for Peltola, either. Lee told the Hill
that Peltola is “a real challenger” for the Republican incumbent. “I
believe there’s a real chance for her to win this,” she added. In another article for the Hill, Lee glowed about Peltola, saying that she wished she would run for governor.
Sullivan, the candidate who appears to be her client, maintains a campaign website
sparse with any information that a perspective voter may hope to see.
No issues page appears on the site at this time and contains a low
resolution campaign logo on the footer. The only content available on
the site is regurgitated from the issued press release.
Sullivan’s campaign hasn’t hid the fact that the names of
the phony candidate and the incumbent are the same as the press release
is headlined “Dan Sullivan Challenges Dan Sullivan for U.S. Senate Seat”
with a subheading of “Urges Alaskans to defeat incumbent, elect a
Sullivan who Stands up for Alaska.” Sullivan has also taken to adopting
incumbent Sullivan's original campaign slogan of "Sullivan for Senate."
Local media have noted the odd situation and Peltola's involvement, as Peltola recently completed a trip to Sullivan's hometown of Petersburg.
Alaska will hold its election on November 3, and the winner will be selected by rank-choice voting.
U.S. President Donald Trump looks down from the Presidential Box in the
Opera House at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as he
participates in a guided tour and leads a board meeting on March 17,
2025 in Washington, DC.
President Donald Trump blasted a “Barack Hussein Obama”- appointed
judge on Truth Social following a federal ruling that halts the Kennedy
Center’s vital structural renovations and mandates the removal of
Trump’s name from the building.
Following a ruling by Obama-appointed U.S. District Judge Christopher
Cooper, President Trump took to Truth Social on Friday to slam the
court for sabotaging the world-class restoration of the Kennedy Center.
The judge blocked the Trump administration’s planned July closure to
repair what Trump exposed as the building’s “years of neglect, decay,
and poor maintenance,” halting its transformation into the finest
facility of its kind.
“Judge Cooper was given a presentation by leading Building and
Construction Experts as to how structurally dangerous the Building is,
with rotting beams, parking areas that are subject to collapse, and
various other Life and Safety problems, in addition to the fact that it
also needs a MAJOR renovation, from an aesthetic standpoint, but he was
not ‘swayed,’ and said he wants the Building to, incredibly, remain open
and, therefore, dangerous,” Trump wrote. “Judge Cooper should be
ashamed of himself!”
Trump continued to fiercely condemn the judge’s order to strip his
name from the building, pointing out that the center’s 36-member Board
of Trustees had previously voted unanimously to rebrand the iconic D.C.
venue as “The Trump Kennedy Center.”
“Additionally, Judge Cooper ruled that the 36 Member Board of
Trustees, which unanimously voted to add the name ‘TRUMP’ onto the
former Kennedy Center, making it The Trump Kennedy Center, did not have
the right to do such an addition, and the name, ‘TRUMP,’ must be
removed,” he continued.
President Trump also noted that he took immense personal pride in
taking over the financially struggling venue, writing that he had looked
forward to “making it into a Great and Prestigious WINNER for
Washington, D.C., and indeed, the United States of America.”
He compared the halted project to his administration’s ongoing
aesthetic and physical restoration of the nation’s capital. Trump
highlighted the extensive “construction, renovations, and ‘fix ups’”
overseen alongside the Department of the Interior to restore D.C.’s
“Waterfalls, Fountains, Monuments, and other things of Beauty.”
According to the 47th president, those cleanup initiatives
have successfully brought the city back to life “in a now SAFE AND
SECURE, after Record Setting Crime, Washington, D.C., which is thriving
like, perhaps, never before!”
Due to the new court order, Trump revealed that he is walking away
from the project entirely, stating he won’t be involved if he isn’t free
to do what he does best. He has officially ordered the U.S. Commerce
Department to arrange a full transfer of the “failing institution” back
to Congress — so lawmakers can handle the financial and physical mess
themselves.
“Unless I am free to do what I do better than anyone else, bring this
Institution back, physically, financially, and artistically, I have no
interest in continuing what could only be a hopeless journey into ‘NEVER
NEVER LAND.’”
On Friday’s Carl Higbie FRONTLINE, Carl didn’t mince words — he laid
bare how taxpayer dollars are being diverted by nongovernmental
organizations into programs that help illegal migrants instead of
serving American citizens. His blunt assessment echoed what many
patriotic Americans have suspected for years: a permanent activist class
has learned how to exploit Washington’s purse strings to pursue its own
agenda rather than our national interest.
Higbie
framed the problem as systemic, pointing to recent revelations that
federal grants have flowed to activist groups with little
accountability, an issue Rep. James Comer
raised on the same program
when he accused the Biden-era EPA of funneling billions to left-wing
groups. Conservatives have long warned that when government becomes the
ATM for ideological NGOs, taxpayers pay the bill while these groups
build power and influence.
He also walked viewers through a
shocking local example: reporting on a Maine nonprofit allegedly billing
millions to state programs while its founder was reportedly pursuing
political ambitions abroad that included raising funds for armed forces
in Somalia.
That kind of double life — drawing U.S. taxpayer dollars at
home while engaging in foreign political scheming — is precisely the
sort of abuse that should make every American’s blood boil.
This
isn’t an accidental loophole; it’s an industrialized political
arrangement in which NGOs, left-leaning officials, and sympathetic local
governments profit from chaos at the border and from endless grant
programs. The remedy is straightforward and unapologetic: full audits,
clawbacks of misspent funds, and criminal referrals where warranted —
and an immediate freeze on grants that cannot prove they put Americans
first.
Patriots should demand that our elected officials stop
pretending this is merely policy disagreement and start acting like
stewards of the public purse. Cut the money to groups that enrich
themselves and import voters, enforce the law, and make sure every
federal dollar is spent to benefit hardworking American families — not
to prop up a left-wing patronage network.
Ken Paxton has pushed back hard after Democrats tried to cry foul
over campaign ads that spotlight James Talarico’s own past remarks,
arguing Texans deserve to know who would represent them in Washington.
Paxton’s team moved quickly to define Talarico by his own viral clips,
and the early ad exchanges make clear this general-election fight will
be won on who convinces voters they stand for Texas values.
Talarico
didn’t take that lying down — in a CBS interview he accused Paxton of
“intentionally clipping my cringey comments to distract from his career
of corruption,” a line meant to turn the camera away from Paxton’s long
list of ethics questions. Democrats hope outrage and claims of “out of
context” editing will blunt the GOP’s message, but that’s exactly the
kind of political theater voters have grown wise to.
Fact-checkers
weighed in and found fault with Paxton’s ad for leaving out key
follow-up language from a Talarico debate line about the border, noting
the clip omits where Talarico added a “lock on the door” and said the
U.S. should keep out those who mean harm. Fair or not, campaigns in
high-stakes races clip and juxtapose — voters should see the clips and
the fuller remarks so they can judge for themselves.
Let’s be
blunt: Democrats want to weaponize outrage and pretend selective quoting
is some novel sin while their own playbook is all spin and selective
memory. Conservatives understand that when an opponent’s past statements
reveal a worldview at odds with Texas — on gender ideology, border
policy, or cultural values — it’s the job of Republicans to spotlight
those contradictions and defend our way of life.
This contest just
got national implications the minute Paxton beat John Cornyn for the
GOP nod, shifting Cook’s rating and making November a must-win for
patriots who refuse to cede Texas as a left-wing laboratory. Both sides
are already spending big and testing messages; Republicans must not only
defend Paxton from smears but also hold the line on the real contrast
voters care about: corruption versus accountability, and traditional
values versus radical experiments.
Talarico has been his own
problem in many respects — he’s been pilloried by conservatives for past
comments about religion and gender and mocked over a now-debunked
“vegan” jab — and Democrats can’t have it both ways, demanding mercy for
context while selling a narrative that papered over those raw clips for
donors and influencers. The electorate deserves straight talk about
what candidates have said and what those words mean for families,
schools, and public safety.
Patriotic Texans should watch this
fight closely and refuse to be shamed into silence by the predictable
outrage industry that protects Democrats and hounds Republicans.
Paxton’s ads may be blunt, but bluntness is preferable to the soft-sell
of elites who want to reorder our culture; if conservatives are serious
about protecting the country, we must back candidates who will call out
radicalism and fight for the freedoms that built Texas.
The National Republican Congressional Committee and Republican
National Committee defended Missouri's newly enacted congressional map,
arguing that Democrats and allied groups are attempting to use the
courts to overturn a lawfully approved redistricting plan after
suffering a series of defeats nationwide.
The intervention comes as legal challenges to Missouri's 2025
congressional map continue to unfold, even after the Missouri Supreme
Court unanimously upheld Gov. Mike Kehoe's authority to call the
extraordinary legislative session that approved the new districts.
"The people of Missouri deserve fair and equal representation, not a
partisan power grab designed to silence voters and overturn a lawfully
enacted map," NRCC Chairman Richard Hudson, R-N.C., said in a statement emailed to Newsmax on Thursday night.
"The NRCC and RNC are standing up for the integrity of the democratic
process and defending Missourians' right to have their voices heard
under fair congressional districts."
RNC Chairman Joe Gruters accused Democrats of relying on litigation after electoral setbacks.
"Democrats across the country are using frivolous lawsuits to cling
to power after failing at the ballot box," Gruters said. "The RNC is
fighting for the values of Missourians against Democrats trying to use
the courts to rig congressional districts in their favor and override
the will of voters."
The NRCC and RNC said Missouri's congressional map was lawfully
enacted by the General Assembly and complies with the state
constitution.
Republicans also pointed to the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in
Louisiana v. Callais, which they said reaffirmed that states cannot draw
districts predominantly based on race and that legislatures retain
broad authority to craft maps reflecting the political makeup of their
states.
The announcement follows a significant victory for Republicans in Missouri.
The Missouri Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled 7-0 that Kehoe acted
within his constitutional authority when he convened lawmakers for an
extraordinary session to consider congressional redistricting, KRCG reported.
The lawsuit, brought by the Missouri NAACP, argued there was no urgent circumstance justifying the session.
The court rejected that argument, concluding that the state
constitution places no meaningful limitation on the governor's
discretion to call lawmakers into session when the legislature is not
already meeting.
Republicans currently hold six of Missouri's eight U.S. House seats.
The revised map is widely viewed as strengthening GOP prospects in
the state and potentially putting additional pressure on Democrat Rep.
Emanuel Cleaver's Kansas City-based district.
The NRCC noted that Democrats and allied groups have spent millions
challenging Missouri's map in court, while also highlighting
unsuccessful efforts to redraw congressional districts in other states,
including Virginia.
Republicans argue that those cases reflect a broader national
strategy to achieve through litigation what Democrats could not
accomplish at the ballot box.
Lee hasn’t been shy to the press about her love for Peltola, either. Lee 
