Taking names: President Trump is off and running to deliver on his promise to restore common sense to America—slashing waste and corruption, attacking discrimination in higher education, and protecting women’s sports, among many other steps.

• USAID, for example, has been using taxpayer money “to promote pet projects of the left” including, but not limited to, DEI in Serbia, green energy in Lebanon, and transgender comic books in Peru, said Senior Policy Analyst David Ditch. Watch Ditch here.
• President Trump’s executive order ending federal DEI programs will hit leftist colleges and universities particularly hard, writes Adam Kissel, visiting fellow at the Center for Education Policy. Read more here.
• And Moms for Liberty co-founder and Heritage Visiting Fellow Tiffany Justice explains why President Trump’s order banning men from competing in women’s sports is a huge win for common sense. See it here.

Read more about President Trump’s executive orders here.

Liquid gold: President Trump’s push to unleash domestic energy supplies and aim for U.S. energy dominance won’t just benefit Americans—it will benefit everyone.

• “By walking away from the net zero fiasco that has taken over the West, President Trump is quietly pressuring other countries to do the same,” writes Diana Furchtgott-Roth, director of the Center for Energy, Climate, and Environment. 

Read more here.

You’re fired: The fears of those panicking about President Trump’s tariffs are misplaced, writes Research Fellow EJ Antoni. “Trump’s actions will benefit Americans greatly.”

• “We forget that during America’s Golden Age, the government essentially funded itself entirely with tariffs; the income tax didn’t even exist,” he writes. “Instead of tariffs wreaking untold economic calamity, they coincided with our fastest sustained levels of growth.”

Read the full story here.

Root canal: President Trump’s aggressive stance on the Panama Canal raised some eyebrows. But Heritage Senior Research Fellow Eugene Kontorovich points out in the Wall Street Journal that Chinese operations there likely violate the terms of the 1977 handoff to Panama.

• “The U.S. has a serious legal basis on which to contest—including by military intervention—what it regards as impermissible foreign influence in the canal,” he writes.

Read his op-ed here.

250 years young: Heritage has launched a special round of the Innovation Prizes ahead of America’s 250th anniversary to recognize and provide substantive financial awards that, in total, amount to $250,000 to non-profits for projects focused on themes relating to the Semiquincentennial in 2026. We welcome projects that focus on the following: 

• Celebrating America’s 250th anniversary 
• Building civic awareness and encouraging Americans to engage in civic life 
• Inspiring patriotism 
• Educating citizens about America’s founding principles 
• Teaching Americans about our government’s foundational tenets 

Applications for America’s 250th Anniversary Innovation Prizes are open through May 1. For more information and to apply, please visit our website.

Dads on Duty: A Father’s Role in Shaping Society

 

Dr. Matthew Mehan of Hillsdale College, Dr. Brad Wilcox of the Institute for Family Studies, and Heritage’s own Delano Squires and Brenda Hafera will discuss the essential role of fathers, the higher purpose of children in American society, and marriage as America’s keystone institution.

 

March 4, noon. Register here.

• The DEI Regime Is Trying to Make a Comeback—Mike Gonzalez
• Porn’s Diabolical Appeal—Jack Fitzhenry
• Education Savings Accounts Would Give Military Families Freedom They Deserve—Crystal Bonham
• How Education Choice Helped Me—Mary Mobley
• Media Recycles Teachers Union Rhetoric to Attack School Choice. Here’s the Truth—Jonathan Butcher
• Report: Death to ‘Discretionary’ Budgeting—David Ditch
• If Prosecutors ‘Followed the Science’ As They Claim, We’d Have Less Crime, Not More—Cully Stimson
• Trump’s Foreign Policy: What to Expect from MAGA 2.0—James Jay Carafano
• Trump’s Border Ground Game Is Off to a Fast Start. To Guarantee Change Congress Must Do 3 Things—Simon Hankinson
• Why Trump Blew Away Biden’s Wind Energy Fantasy on Day 1—Austin Gae
• President Trump Saves Electricity Grid from Projected Disaster—Diana Furchtgott-Roth and Jackson Moody

Victoria Coates, vice president of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy, appeared on Fox News to discuss President Trump’s recent remarks on Gaza, pointing out that he said “what no other American leader has had the courage to say before—which is that the United States is willing to step in here and play the leadership role we need to play.” Watch the clip here.