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Welcome to this week’s newsletter, !

In Washington, Democrat finger pointing and infighting continued, and a lead anchor for CNN is cashing in on it. President Trump signaled an end to the many years of American interventionism abroad. House Republicans failed to advance a budget package, as their liberal counterparts ripped and replaced baseless Articles of Impeachment.


In Houston, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo continues her quest to waste taxpayer money.


We break it down below.

CNN lead anchor Jake Tapper (and Axios reporter Alex Thompson) published a book entitled “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again.” The title is self-explanatory. It chronicles, from the perspective and accounts of Democrat political insiders, the erosion of Biden’s mental facilities–which was clearly apparent to those without a political motive to lie about it during his first campaign–and the resulting political fallout.


The irony is palpable. Tapper himself was on the front lines of the very coverup he now sees fit to monetize to the tune of $27 a book. Tapper and Thompson have even reportedly been circulating the manuscript to Hollywood movie producers to adapt the book for the big screen.


A Friday evening newsdump only added fuel to the fire ablaze in Democrat circles.


Axios (Thompson’s employer, coincidentally) leaked the full audio recording of Special Counsel Robert Hur’s October 2023 interview with Biden regarding his mishandling of classified documents surrounding the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. The full interview is a sad slog to listen to, but some of the most telling moments from it, linked above, include:


  • Biden mixing up the dates and circumstances surrounding the death of his son Beau


  • Biden admitting he kept classified documents on Afghanistan–an offense which was supposedly grounds to try jailing President Trump for life–“for posterity’s sake.”  


  • Rambling about a trip to Mongolia when asked about said classified documents


  • Inconsistencies with/no recollection of the locations and handling protocols of the documents


This is a snapshot of the mentally and physically addled man DC Democrats wanted running the country another 4 years, the state of his health and our country be damned. If only the expert investigators at CNN and Axios could have warned us all what was going on sooner.  

In the first major diplomatic trip of his second term, President Trump wheeled and dealed with Middle Eastern nations.


Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman signed several agreements with the Trump Administration on energy, investment, defense, mining and more–totaling ~$600B. The deals encompass $142B in arms sales, the largest single international defense transaction in US history.


In Qatar, our two nations agreed to an economic partnership worth $1.2 trillion; full details here. That lofty number is in addition to commercial exchanges totaling $243.5B–a portion of which entails the sale of American made jetliners to Qatar Airways, and a multibillion dollar defense agreement/security partnership.  


In the United Arab Emirates, the White House secured another ~$200B in commercial deals, ranging across a variety of commercial and oil/gas sectors.


But the most consequential diplomatic moment of the trip occurred during President Trump’s speech in Riyadh, in which he rejected neocon ideology and praised the independent progress spearheaded by regional leaders. His speech signaled a significant course reversal from the foreign interventionist playbook employed by both Democrats and Republicans alike for decades–and laid out a trailblazing path towards a peaceful and prosperous globe. A telling excerpt from his Earth-shaking address below:


“It’s crucial for the wider world to know this great transformation [in the Middle East] has not come from Western interventionists, or flying people in beautiful planes giving you lectures on how to live and how to govern your own affairs. In the end, the so-called nation builders wrecked far more nations than they built and the interventionists were intervening in complex societies that they did not even understand themselves.”


“No, the gleaming marvels of Riyadh and Abu Dhabi were not created by the so-called ‘nation builders,’ neocons, or liberal nonprofits, like those who spent trillions and trillions of dollars failing to develop Baghdad and so many other cities. Instead, the birth of a modern Middle East has been brought by the people of the region themselves — the people that are right here, the people [who] have lived here all their lives, developing your own sovereign countries, pursuing your own unique visions and charting your own destinies in your own way.”


President Trump’s vision for his Teddy Roosevelt (i.e. “Speak softly and carry a big stick”) like approach to foreign policy was backed by action this week: he publicly encouraged Iran to take his “olive branch,” negotiate a good faith nuclear deal, or face “maximum pressure.” Additionally, he lifted sanctions on Syria. Following his meeting with the new Syrian president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, he announced his White House would consider going a step further, and normalize state ties with Syria. Iran and Syria have long been unreceptive (to say the least) to American interests in the Middle East. These de-escalatory gestures, and President Trump’s deals with other nations in the region (hopefully) indicate a new era is at hand for the Middle East and America alike.

Speaker Johnson opted to address the stalemate with dissenting House Republicans over the weekend, and has said that talks went well. He plans to bring the final budget package to the House Floor for a final vote by the end of this coming week–a sign he’s confident he made satisfactory concessions with the fiscal hardliners that will be enough to garner their support to pass it out of committee before then.


It’s worth noting, for all the hand wringing and heartburn this budget vehicle has given Speaker Johnson, some of his efforts could end up a moot point. Multiple Senators, including leadership and committee chairs, have indicated Republicans in the upper chamber intend to change various parts of the package if and when the House passes it their way. We’ll see how it all shakes out.

Shri’s Sideshow Shutdown; AI Answers the Call

Rep. Shri Thanedar [D-MI-13] pulled his Articles of Impeachment before they could blow up in his face, and force swing-seat Democrats into a difficult vote on the matter.


Enter (unfortunately) Houston’s own Rep. Al Green [D-TX-9], who filed another Article of Impeachment loosely grounded in reality. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

In Other News


According to the travel request, Hidalgo is seeking taxpayer funding for herself and three staffers to participate in a delegation from Harris County to Paris to “showcase the county as a lead in global innovation and AI.” The request notes that the trip will include “public policy collaboration with European ministers and elected officials.”


Hidalgo’s travel request comes as Harris County leaders have struggled to provide adequate funding for county law enforcement.


Other expenditures on the agenda for Thursday’s meeting of Harris County Commissioners Court include $5,000 for the county to sponsor the 2025 “Pride in Business” event hosted by the Greater Houston LGBTQ+ Chamber of Commerce and $30,000 for another public art mural.

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