Your First Look at Today's Top Stories

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Friday, May 23, 2025

Please note: In light of the Memorial Day holiday, the next Daybreak will land on Tuesday, May 27. Wishing you all the best as we slow down--and honor those who've paid the ultimate price for our freedom.

MAHA Commission Releases Landmark Report on Childhood Chronic Disease

RFK, Jr: “We will end the childhood chronic disease crisis by attacking its root causes head-on—not just managing its symptoms,” said U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. “We will follow the truth wherever it leads, uphold rigorous science, and drive bold policies that put the health, development, and future of every child first. I’m grateful to President Trump for his leadership—and for trusting me to lead this fight to root out corruption, restore scientific integrity, and reclaim the health of our children” (HHS). The core drivers of the health crisis and the clearest opportunities for progress:

Poor Diet: The American diet has shifted dramatically toward ultra-processed foods (UPFs), leading to nutrient depletion, increased caloric intake, and exposure to harmful additives. Nearly 70% of children’s calories now come from UPFs, contributing to obesity, diabetes, and other chronic conditions.
Aggregation of Environmental Chemicals: Children are exposed to an increasing number of synthetic chemicals, some of which have been linked to developmental issues and chronic disease. The current regulatory framework should be continually evaluated to ensure that chemicals and other exposures do not interact together to pose a threat to the health of our children.
Lack of Physical Activity and Chronic Stress: American children are experiencing unprecedented levels of inactivity, screen use, sleep deprivation, and chronic stress. These 6 factors significantly contribute to the rise in chronic diseases and mental health challenges.
Overmedicalization: There is a concerning trend of overprescribing medications to children, often driven by conflicts of interest in medical research, regulation, and practice. This has led to unnecessary treatments and long-term health risks (Full report: WhiteHouse). Trump reads out the alarming findings (Rapid Response).

House Oversight Committee Demands Testimony From Biden Doctor and Others

Perhaps a first step towards a more thorough exposing of the cover-up. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY): “The cover-up of President Biden’s obvious mental decline is a historic scandal. The American people deserve to know when this decline began, how far it progressed, and who was making critical decisions on his behalf. Key executive actions signed by autopen, such as sweeping pardons for the Biden Crime Family, must be examined considering President Biden’s diminished capacity. Today, we are calling on President Biden’s physician and former White House advisors to participate in transcribed interviews so we can begin to uncover the truth. In the last Congress, the Biden White House blocked these individuals from providing testimony to the Oversight Committee as part of the effort to cover-up Biden’s declining health. Any continued obstruction will be met with swift and decisive action. The American people demand transparency and accountability now” (Oversight). Axios: The Republican-led House Oversight Committee on Thursday took its first step in its new investigation of the White House’s handling of former President Biden’s health: Demanding testimony from his doctor and his top advisers. The probe comes amid a renewed focus on Biden’s age and fitness for office after his cancer diagnosis and the release of “Original Sin,” a new book by Alex Thompson and Jake Tapper…. House Oversight Committee chair James Comer (R-Ky.) sent letters to Biden’s personal physician, Kevin O’Connor, and former White House officials Neera Tanden, Anthony Bernal, Annie Tomasini and Ashley Williams seeking testimony. In the letter to O’Connor, Comer cited his February 2024 assessment that Biden was “robust” and “fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency,” as well as Axios reporting about Biden’s cognitive struggles. “The Committee seeks information to ensure accurate information was provided to the American people and your health reports were not subject to any improper influence,” Comer wrote (Axios).

Supreme Court Allows Trump to Fire Agency Heads

Townhall: On Thursday afternoon, the U.S. Supreme Court handed the Trump administration another victory. In an unsigned order, the Court granted the application to stay a ruling from the administration to pause a lower court’s ruling about whether members from independent federal agencies can be fired. The order notes that this does not apply to firing members from the Federal Reserve, however (Townhall). SCOTUS Blog: The dispute stems from Trump’s efforts to remove two federal officials, Gwynne Wilcox of the National Labor Relations Board and Cathy Harris of the Merits Systems Protection Board, earlier this year. Both women were appointed by then-President Joe Biden for terms that were due to expire in 2028. Wilcox and Harris went to federal court in Washington, D.C., where they argued that their firings violated federal law because, unlike most federal officials, they can only be removed for good cause (SCOTUS Blog).

Big, Beautiful Bill Passes in the House

Yeas: 215. Nays: 214 (Clerk). The Hill: The vote defied the skeptics who thought it impossible to unite the feuding factions of the House GOP behind so large a bill. And it marked a huge political victory for Trump, whose approval rating is well underwater, and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who has faced internal criticisms for his handling of major legislative debates since he took the gavel in 2023 (The Hill). Grover Norquist: It’s go time…. The bill provides powerful pro-growth tax cuts. It will provide immediate 100% business expensing so that American businesses can expand their operations, buy new equipment and trucks and create more jobs. Republicans included a key new tax cut to spur new construction right here in America: 100% full business expensing for new factories and for upgrades to existing factories. The sooner this tax cut becomes law, the sooner construction crews can get to work…. The bill provides Death Tax relief for family farms and businesses and provides research and development tax cuts. Trump’s most prominent tax promise – no tax on tips – is fulfilled and provides tax cuts for not only employees but for independent contractors too. Waiters, waitresses, drivers, barbers, stylists, caddies, gig workers and other traditionally tipped Americans will benefit and see an immediate reward for their hard work…. This bill guarantees that the Republicans will maintain the majorities in the House and Senate and that Trump will have full four years to reform Washington (Daily Caller). Majority Leader Scalise: Next Stop: the Senate (X).

Playing Hardball With Harvard: Student Exchange Program Terminated

DHS: Today, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem ordered DHS to terminate the Harvard University’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) certification. This means Harvard can no longer enroll foreign students and existing foreign students must transfer or lose their legal status. Harvard’s leadership has created an unsafe campus environment by permitting anti-American, pro-terrorist agitators to harass and physically assault individuals, including many Jewish students, and otherwise obstruct its once-venerable learning environment. Many of these agitators are foreign students. Harvard’s leadership further facilitated, and engaged in coordinated activity with the CCP, including hosting and training members of a CCP paramilitary group complicit in the Uyghur genocide (DHS). DHS Secretary Kristy Noem: It is a privilege, not a right, for universities to enroll foreign students and benefit from their higher tuition payments to help pad their multibillion-dollar endowments. Harvard had plenty of opportunity to do the right thing. It refused. They have lost their Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification as a result of their failure to adhere to the law. Let this serve as a warning to all universities and academic institutions across the country (X).

Blocking Gavin: Senate Overturns California Ban on Gas-Powered Cars

Los Angeles Times: In a 51-44 vote, the Senate overturned a Biden-era waiver that enabled California and a contingent of Democratic-led states to enforce zero-emission requirements for the sale of new passenger vehicles. After several hours of debate and testimony, legislators struck down a landmark regulation that aimed to drastically accelerate electric vehicle sales in California and nearly a dozen other states that chose to follow its lead, substantially reducing air pollution and planet-warming carbon emissions from tailpipes…. By invalidating the rule, Republican senators stamped out one of California’s most ambitious environmental policies and, more broadly, challenged the state’s authority to enact vehicle standards to combat its notoriously unhealthy air quality. If the measure is signed into law by President Trump and survives impending legal challenges, the vote would serve as a coup de grace to the state’s decades-long efforts to comply with federal smog standards in Southern California and meet California’s own ambitious climate goals (Los Angeles Times). Jennifer Horn: Best news of the day! Gavin’s gas powered car ban is dead. Well done @KevinKileyCA (X). Cal Matters: Today’s move by the Senate — following a vote in the House last month — sets the stage for what is likely to become a high-stakes legal and political battle between California and the Trump administration (Cal Matters).

America Has a Problem With Political Violence

Scott Jennings: The fight for the future of Western Civilization and our culture is happening NOW. The barbarians are at the gate. America stands with Israel and the Jewish people, and we cannot allow our culture to be overrun by violent, leftist radicals (X). Manhattan Institute: This is not just about antisemitism. It is about a broader, deeply nihilistic anti-Western worldview that sees violence as virtue and civilization as oppression. That ideology represents a profound threat to the American experiment. We cannot allow it to fester. We cannot look away. We must defeat it (Manhattan Institute). Noah Rothman: It makes no difference at all that this murderer’s ideological proclivities were to the left of the mainstream Democratic Party. His politics were of the left. He made a career out of activism for the left. He responded to the incentive structures established and maintained by the left. He is a creature of the left. It is, therefore, incumbent on the left to disown him and disabuse his ilk of the delusion that their darkest impulses are righteous…. at this moment, it’s the Democratic Party’s failure to check the intemperate sort on the fringes of its coalition that is the most urgent crisis facing the country. It does no one any favors to pretend otherwise. The threat is here, now. Terrorism isn’t somewhere over there; it’s on our doorstep (National Review). Noah Rothman (again, from February): For more than a quarter century now, the post–Cold War progressive left has made a fetish out of violent expressions of political zeal. And in so doing, they have not only glamorized but made increasingly more likely the kind of social-political violence that is despoiling American public life (Commentary).

America Has a Problem With Antisemitism

Bari Weiss: Venomous, untrue statements about Israel, its supporters, and the war against Hamas in Gaza have chipped away at the old taboo against open antisemitism in America. Constant demonization of American Jews and Zionists is how a democratic state and its supporters have been made into targets. It is how the “permission structure” for violence against Jews in America has been erected…. Those who participate in this culture of lies and who now want to distance themselves from yesterday’s violence will insist that the alleged killer’s acts do not represent them. That it harms their movement (X). Eli Lake: Make the anti semites uncomfortable. Shame them. Let them know we are not going anywhere. Unmask them. Refute their lies. Drive them out of polite society (X). The antisemitism problem has infected modern medicine: We found that health professionals were more than 2.5 times more likely to be found among antisemites than their share of the workforce. Doctors were almost 26 times overrepresented in the list of antisemites relative to their prevalence in the workforce. And half of those Jew-hating doctors received their medical degrees abroad. The fact that Jew-hatred has found a perch among highly educated doctors and other health professionals runs counter to the conventional explanations for antisemitism. According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and other legacy Jewish organizations, antisemitism is born of ignorance which must be fought through education (Tablet).

The Pessimists Have Had to Press “Pause”: Perhaps the Counterrevolution Can Succeed

Heather MacDonald: I am wondering whether it is time to trade in my innate pessimism for something more optimistic, something more, shall we say, Kimballian. For the transfer of presidential power in January 2025 was not just an ordinary replacement of one administration with another, or one set of policy preferences with another. Instead, a worldview is being uprooted before our eyes, one that had seemed unshakably entrenched across mainstream society. This challenge to orthodoxy has unleashed ferocious opposition. Every daily assault on the political and cultural status quo triggers a furious counterassault…. The scandal of the present moment is that someone with outsize visibility has said: No more. The race hustle is over; the gender hustle is over. The denigration of traditional values and American history is over. The demonization of law enforcement: over. Being black or female will no longer be treated as an accomplishment. The only thing that matters in employment is excellence. And to realize that principle, the White House on April 23 banned the greatest enemy of meritocracy: disparate-impact analysis…. Burke had a canny intuition of the risks of revolutions. He foresaw the lustful vengeance of a mob that can only tear down, not create. Would Burke have been optimistic that Western culture can return to its roots and show what he called “implicit reverence to all the institutions of our ancestors”?…. this White House does understand how much we owe to the giants of our past. Because of that, in the end I am optimistic that this counterrevolution just might succeed (New Criterion).

10.

A Grateful Nation Enters Memorial Day Weekend—Renewed by the Contagion of Their Courage

From the Great Communicator, Ronald Reagan, March 30, 1987: Americans have—time and again—taken up arms in liberty’s defense. Knowing the ferocity of war and the immensity of sacrifice it exacts, they have nonetheless followed the spirit of our Founders who pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to the support of freedom. The debt we owe to those who have left home and family to serve this cause is beyond measure—but our greatest debt of all is to those who fell in battle. Their ranks are legion. The stories of their heroism, countless. Many of them lie beneath the soil of distant lands and many here at home. Their final bivouac may be a well-kept cemetery or an unknown, unmarked field or lane or shore, but glory guards each one well. These heroes who fought with all the faith and valor that free men can muster. Oliver Wendell Holmes expressed a fitting thought when he said, “at the grave of a hero, we end not with sorrow at the inevitable loss, but with the contagion of his courage.” I join all of you who proudly share that spirit in your own service to our nation as you pay tribute to these brave Americans. May we always walk in the light of their memory, the light of liberty, which shines from age to age, and still illumines the way forward. God bless you. God bless America (Audio: Reagan).

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