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Rep. Tom Emmer on his bipartisan Israel trip and upcoming budget, Trump meets with Gold Star families, Dems’ mass mobilization peters out quickly
Hill GOP backs Trump on crime crackdown, Arizona Dems’ anti-GOP boycotts backfire, API rolls out message to Congress, and more
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September 4th, 2025
Let’s dive in.
INTERVIEW: Rep. Tom Emmer on his bipartisan Israel trip, government funding, crime in D.C., and more
INTERVIEW: "Promises made, promises kept": Inside the Gold Star families' meeting with President Trump
Heard on the Hill
EDITORIAL: How Secretary Bessent can right the ship at the IRS
EXCLUSIVE: Arizona Dems’ silence is deafening as activists boycott GOP-supporting businesses
SCOOP: "Enough is enough": Republican Study Committee members roll out agenda to back Trump's crackdown on D.C. crime
EXCLUSIVE: Susan Collins opponent bashes anti-"fascist" fundraising texts while sending anti-"fascist" fundraising texts
SCOOP: Congressman’s dirty eating habits could jeopardize path to the majority for Democrats
SCOOP: Democrats' Hill "mass mobilization" fizzled out quickly
EXCLUSIVE: OMB unveils latest Statements of Administration Policy that reverse Biden-era energy restrictions
SCOOP: "When America builds, America wins": American Petroleum Institute's message to Congress
OPINIONATED: Rep. Tom Emmer on the lessons from his latest trip to Israel, Administrator Kelly Loeffler on how Trump keeping D.C. safe helps Main Street, J. Christian Adams on restoring faith in our voting processes, and Will Thibeau on how to maintain the Trump administration’s success with military recruitment
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INTERVIEW: Rep. Tom Emmer on his bipartisan Israel trip, government funding, crime in D.C., and more
by Matthew Foldi
Rep. Tom Emmer (R., Minn.) had a hectic District Work Period, headlined in part by leading a bipartisan trip of freshman lawmakers to Israel with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
In an interview with the Washington Reporter, Emmer spoke about the importance of seeing firsthand what Palestinian “animals” did to civilians on October 7th, 2023 — which was also the worst terrorist attack on American citizens since September 11th, 2001.
“We had one of the more revealing and troubling experiences there [in southern Israel],” Emmer said. “We met with a resident of Kibbutz Be'eri, which was attacked by some 350 of these animals on October 7, and he described how they came in and went from building to building, murdering, raping, burning people alive. I mean, just awful stuff…It was pretty amazing during the experience the explosions are taking place in Gaza. Why? Because they're still blowing up the tunnel system that these guys built.”
“Imagine,” Emmer said, “over the last 20, 25, years, if they would have taken all the money that they spent to build a tunnel system underneath the city, which, by the way, is usually accessed through hospitals, through schools, through anything that puts civilians at risk, big enough for semi tractor trailers to drive through, imagine what a beautiful place Gaza would have been had they been investing that into the actual infrastructure, whether it be roads, sewer, water, buildings, it would have been a completely different place, but they were bent and directed for one thing: hate the Jew, kill the Jew, that's what they were about.”
But Israel’s importance goes beyond just the Middle East, Emmer explained. For terrorists in the Middle East, “this is not about destroying the State of Israel,” he said. “This is about destroying Western civilization from the Ayatollah and these radical, crazy Muslim extremists. Their goal is to go through Israel to get to the United States.”
INTERVIEW: "Promises made, promises kept": Inside the Gold Star families' meeting with President Trump
by Matthew Foldi
For the first time since the Islamic suicide attack that killed 13 American service members in Afghanistan, their relatives met with the President of the United States in the White House.
While President Donald Trump has met with the families whose loved ones were killed at Abbey Gate on multiple occasions in between his time in office, he and his administration invited the families for a commemoration of the four-year anniversary of the attack.
During the meeting, the families met with Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Veteran Affairs Doug Collins, and Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
Darin Hoover, the father of Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover, one of the 13 servicemembers who was killed on August 26th, 2021, exclusively spoke with the Washington Reporter about the meeting with the president.
“I don’t know what I was expecting, other than that we are in one of the most hallowed and recognizable houses in the world, but to be able to meet President Trump in that office was something that I’ll never forget,” Hoover said.
For years, Trump has met with Hoover and his fellow Gold Star family members, especially those in the Abbey Gate Coalition — a subset of those who lost loved ones at Abbey Gate; members of that coalition addressed the 2024 Republican National Convention (RNC) to great fanfare in the summer of 2024.
Heard on the Hill
ANOTHER STEFANIK SCALP: Northwestern University’s embattled President Announced he is stepping down over President Trump’s pressure on the school to stop antisemetic mobs and racial discrimination. This is the sixth campus president to resign since Rep. Elise Stefanik (R., N.Y.) grilled college presidents over their horrific response to October 7.
TAXPAYERS’ BIG WIN: Microsoft's decision to save taxpayers $6 billion on cloud services for the federal government is getting strong support from the Administration and Congress. One Congressional official said, "this is a win for taxpayers, it's a win for Josh Gruenbaum's leadership at GSA, this is a win for Microsoft. Policymakers will remember this. Amazon and Google should follow Microsoft’s lead immediately."
LOBBYING CHINA CONTROVERSY: In August, Ballard Partners registered to represent TP-Link, a company targeted by Republicans for ties to China. A Republican source said, “this is a company targeted by China hawks as a potential national security threat and this is raising a lot of eyebrows on the Hill.”
COUNT ‘EM RIGHT: Reps. August Pfluger (R., Texas) and Chuck Edwards (R., N.C.) rolled out the Citizen Only Updated National Tally (COUNT) Act to back up President Donald Trump’s recent census-related executive order; the law would, among other essential provisions, add what the lawmakers describe as a “crucial” question to the census about citizenship status.
HIGH-PAYING JOB CREATION: Amgen, the biosciences firm, announced a $600m new research facility with many high-paying jobs–yet another big win for President Trump and Republicans’ pro-growth economic policies.
MASK OFF MOMENT: A shady group called Home of the Brave recently put up signs across D.C. demanding that law enforcement officers “take off your masks!” The Washington Reporter looked into this group, and found that its leadership includes George Conway, current Baker Donelson lobbyist Barbara Comstock, and Benjamin Wittes — a friend of James Comey and Peter Strzok.
SPOILER ALERT: Attorney General Pam Bondi recently put Hollywood to shame with her description of the Trump administration’s counternarcotics strategy. “The show Narcos on Netflix? Now we know how it ends.” The Trump administration recently bombed a ship filled with drugs coming from Venezuela; over 50 senior cartel leaders and violent criminals that have come into U.S. custody since Trump returned to office. Bondi recently promised that top cartel leaders will die in federal prison.
CONTROL, NOT ENVIRONMENT: The Union of Concerned Scientists (USC) is one of the most active coalitions pushing back on the Trump administration’s pro-American energy independence policies. A recent report in Fox News by Peter Pinedo and Andrew Mark Miller exposed how USC is part of a “web of dark money.” Jason Isaac, the CEO of the American Energy Institute, explained that “this isn't about the environment. It's about political control over America's energy future and our energy dominance.”
JUDICIARY INVESTIGATION LAUNCHED: Reps. Jim Jordan (R., Ohio) and Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) — top Republicans on the Judiciary Committee — announced plans to investigate the Climate Judiciary Project (CJP) for “allegedly seeking to bias judges hearing climate-related cases.” The Daily Caller’s Katelynn Richardson had it first.
HUGE WEEK FOR COACH: Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R., Ala.) scored major wins this week; Auburn beat Baylor and the Trump administration announced that it will move Space Command from Colorado to Alabama — something that Tuberville has spent years pushing for.
NEW VICE CHAIR IN TOWN: Rep. Laurel Lee (R., Fla.) is the new Vice Chair of the Republican Main Street Caucus; she won the election earlier this week. The Washington Reporter had the scoop on her orange-filled campaign materials.
FACT CHECK: Katie Couric, a journalist perhaps best known for deceptively editing a documentary about gun owners in America, recently attacked the Kennedy Center in its Instagram comments section, calling the cultural center a “disgrace” under the new leadership of President Donald Trump and Ambassador Richard Grenell. Grenell fact checked the journalist, replying that “we didn’t cancel a single show. Your team couldn’t perform for Republicans. They canceled. It is this exact intolerance that we fight against. Everyone is welcome to the Kennedy Center….even you!”
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EDITORIAL: How Secretary Bessent can right the ship at the IRS
by the Washington Reporter Editorial Board
After four years of chaos, incompetence, and weaponization of the entire Federal government, the Trump administration has been a breath of fresh air. But when it comes to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), there’s a chance for Secretary Scott Bessent to do much more to restore the trust of Americans in a badly damaged agency.
As our readers know, the IRS has been rocked by scandals that have shattered public trust, particularly among the Republican-leaning Americans that have been targeted. Hill sources tell the Washington Reporter that under the Biden administration, the IRS targeted private businesses with unfair treatment, making policy with biased Revenue Rulings that bent the law to harm companies. This targeting is well known in the partnership space, but it likely is happening in other areas too.
And the real scandals go further back, including the 2013 Tea Party scandal, where conservative groups were attacked by refusing to obtain tax-exempt status because of politics.
What’s alarming is that even in the first months of the Trump administration, some of the IRS’s personnel who were alleged to have been biased or involved in these issues remained in their roles. More recently, a top IRS lawyer, Anthony Sacco, was placed on leave after fears of ongoing politicization. Before that, one of Lois Lerner’s deputies was placed on leave for the same concerns. These incidents have fueled perceptions of an agency that has remained weaponized against Republicans, even after President Trump’s historic landslide win.
EXCLUSIVE: Arizona Dems’ silence is deafening as activists boycott GOP-supporting businesses
by Matthew Foldi
Arizona Democrats running in a highly-contested House seat found themselves in between a rock and a hard place following a disruptive protest of a private business which led to multiple arrests, after left-wing activists refused to let Arizonans enter a car dealership.
Jim Click, a Kia dealer in Tucson Arizona, has donated thousands of dollars to Republicans across the country, primarily his home state representative, Rep. Juan Ciscomani (R., Ariz.), as well as to Rep. Tom Emmer (R., Minn.), the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), and a handful of other organizations.
For some Democratic Party activists in Arizona, that is unforgivable. Last month, Democratic activists from Arizona’s 17th Legislative District staged a protest in which they “put their freedom on the line by blocking the car dealership entrance to bring attention to Click’s generous monetary support of our Republican congressman, Juan Ciscomani,” according to their press release.
SCOOP: "Enough is enough": Republican Study Committee members roll out agenda to back Trump's crackdown on D.C. crime
by Matthew Foldi
Hours after Congress reconvened, members of the conservative Republican Study Committee (RSC) gathered at the House triangle to reinforce the White House’s messaging that crime in D.C. was out of control, and that President Donald Trump was right to step in.
The RSC’s Rep. Harriet Hageman (R., Wyo.) led the way, because she helms the group’s Article One Task Force. Hageman and her colleagues, Reps. August Pfluger (R., Texas), Ron Estes (R., Kansas), and Brad Knott (R., N.C.), explained in response to a question from the Washington Reporter why the administration’s moves were necessary.
“We all recognize that if you have a police presence and if you actually prosecute criminals, you’re going to have less crime,” Hageman said. “You’re going to have less people willing to take the risk of either throwing a projectile at a member of Congress or carjack or engage in other nefarious behavior. What we’re talking about is nothing earth shattering, this is common sense…common sense is back in vogue.”
Hageman added that her constituents back home support the administration, both in making D.C. safer and across the board more broadly. “I know the people of Wyoming, across the board, not just on the issue of protecting the citizens of Washington, D.C., but across the board, we’re seeing so many issues resolved and addressed by the current president, that people are like ‘why did we wait so long? Why has it taken us this long to actually address the challenges that we have in this country?’ He’s exposed that our political betters aren’t always the brightest lights on the porch.”
EXCLUSIVE: Susan Collins opponent bashes anti-"fascist" fundraising texts while sending anti-"fascist" fundraising texts
by Matthew Foldi
The Democrats’ best hope of finally beating Sen. Susan Collins (R., Maine) may be an unvetted, far-left, anti-Israel oysterman who says that he hates fundraising, while he simultaneously asking for one dollar donations to fight “fascism.”
According to fundraising texts sent by Graham Platner and obtained by the Washington Reporter, the newly-minted Senate candidate is asking for one dollar donations to “defeat Susan Collins & protect our democracy from fascism.”
These texts may be unwelcome news to Platner himself, who recently tweeted that “nothing pisses me off more than getting a fundraising text from Democrats talking about how they’re fighting fascism… Because it’s such bullshit. We’re not idiots. Everyone knows most of them aren’t doing jack shit right now to fight back.”
SCOOP: Congressman’s dirty eating habits could jeopardize path to the majority for Democrats
by Matthew Foldi
A House Democrat’s dirty eating habits could jeopardize the Democrats’ narrow path to the majority in 2026.
Rep. Gabe Vasquez (D., N.M.) recently posted about fishing from the Anacostia River in D.C., a body of water so polluted that D.C. health authorities “advise[] the general public to limit consumption of fish from all DC waters.”
While posing with his catch, Vasquez suggested that he prefers to regularly eat dirty fish as opposed to “fancy dinners.” That may be ill-advised, according to the D.C. health authorities.
“The Department of Energy and Environment (DOEE) has recently completed a tissue study of fish caught in DC waters,” the DOEE recently noted. “Results of the study indicate that persons who eat fish caught in the District of Columbia’s Potomac and Anacostia Rivers need to consider eating less of those fish.”
SCOOP: Democrats' Hill mass mobilization fizzled out quickly
by Matthew Foldi
Congress is back in session, and so too are garden variety liberal activists who took several GOP offices by storm this week.
The groups’ anger revolved around several different, disparate, issues, but the two most prominent were opposition to President Donald Trump’s successful efforts to clean up Washington, D.C. and an assortment of demands relating to the Jeffrey Epstein files.
Hill staffers across the Capitol told the Washington Reporter what the scenes looked — and smelled — like.
“There are lib crazies walking around Cannon wearing Handmaid clothes banging on all the conservative offices really aggressively and they smell worse than the homeless,” one staffer reported.
EXCLUSIVE: OMB unveils latest Statements of Administration Policy that reverse Biden-era energy restrictions
by Matthew Foldi
The Trump administration’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is continuing its work to support the White House’s energy independence agenda, with plans to send three Statements of Administration Policy (SAP) to Congress — obtained exclusively by the Washington Reporter — that disapprove of several radical rules promulgated by the Biden administration’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM).
These SAPs should be welcome news to three freshman GOP lawmakers from energy heavy states: Reps. Troy Downing (R., Mont.), Julie Fedorchak (R., N.D.), and Nick Begich (R., Alaska).
“The Administration strongly supports passage of H.J. Res. 104, H.J. Res. 105, and H.J. Res. 106, which would disapprove three rules submitted by the Bureau of Land Management during the previous Administration,” the OMB’s SAP reads.
The Biden-era rules collectively impact almost 20 million acres of American land, and restrict coal and other mineral production.
SCOOP: "When America builds, America wins": American Petroleum Institute's message to Congress
by Matthew Foldi
With Congress coming back from recess, the American Petroleum Institute (API) rolled out an ad campaign reminding lawmakers of the bipartisan support about “the growing urgency to modernize decades-old rules to meet the nation’s growing energy infrastructure needs.”
The ad, which is running on television, digital, and on podcasts in the D.C. area, reminds Congress about the need to pass comprehensive permitting reform as quickly as possible.
API’s ad features clips of every president, from Jimmy Carter to Donald Trump, talking about the need to secure American energy independence.
“They all said it,” the ad notes. “Every party. For fifty years. Now it’s time to do it. Pass permitting reform now.”
OPINIONATED
Op-Ed: Rep. Tom Emmer: After visiting Israel, our resolve to stand with our ally is stronger than ever
by Rep. Tom Emmer
Last month, I had the privilege of leading a congressional delegation to Israel. The scenes we witnessed on our visit — the aftermath of October 7, the resilience of the Israeli people, and the constant threat of terror faced by the nation — further solidified my resolve to stand with our partner Israel in their fight against evil and pursuit of peace.
50 hostages, including two Americans, are still being held captive by Hamas terrorists in Gaza. It has been 696 days since these terrorists invaded Israel, slaughtering over 1,000 innocent people without provocation.
The most sobering day of our trip was the day we visited sites of atrocities committed on October 7, 2023. As we walked through a kibbutz where terrorists raped women, killed children, and ruthlessly paraded their victims in the streets, the pure evil of Hamas still hung in the air.
Along with the kibbutzim, we visited the site of the Nova Music Festival, where 400 innocent young people were viciously murdered, raped, and kidnapped. Brave survivors of the festival shared their stories with us as we walked on the very ground where they fought for their lives just two years ago.
Op-Ed: Administrator Kelly Loeffler: President Trump is making D.C. streets safe again, including Main Street.
by Administrator Kelly Loeffler
For four years, small businesses across America faced a rising crime wave. Hardworking job creators saw their storefronts vandalized, shelves looted, and unchecked violent crime that drove away customers. Many business owners who survived the Biden economy — including excessive regulation and rampant inflation — were rewarded only with smashed windows and stolen livelihoods.
Today, 81 percent of Americans say that crime is a “major problem” in our largest cities — the same cities where “defund the police” politics took hold in 2020, further exposing businesses and their employees as cashless bail and weak sentencing protected criminals.
When offenders know there are no consequences, Main Street pays the price — and nowhere is that truer than in Washington, D.C.
Theft in our nation’s capital — including the retail theft that overwhelmingly impacts small business owners — rose by 20 percent from 2020 to 2024. At the end of last year, the city had the fourth-highest homicide rate in the country. If D.C. were a state, it would rank as the deadliest, despite being 5 percent of the size of Rhode Island.
Op-Ed: J. Christian Adams: President Trump is right to target mail voting, but there’s a better way to fix it
by J. Christian Adams
President Donald Trump recently acknowledged an important reality: mail-in ballots and insecure election systems must be reined in.
The president recently remarked that “you can never have a real democracy with mail-in ballots” and pledged to eliminate mass mail voting and unreliable machines.
While Trump is right to focus on the threat posed by mail-in ballots to American elections, there are smarter and more constitutionally sound ways to secure the vote than federal intervention.
That’s where experience matters. And nobody has been in this fight longer than my group, the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF).
For years, PILF has sounded the alarm about the vulnerabilities of mail-in ballots. Our research shows what happens when the system goes unchecked. In the 2020 election alone, nearly 15 million ballots went missing. That’s more votes than the entire state of Florida cast in the 2024 election.
Op-Ed: Will Thibeau: Congress must cement the restored character of the Pentagon
by Will Thibeau
President Donald Trump said he wants to return the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War. That is in keeping with the fact that his leadership has ushered an era of restoration for the military, something once considered impossible.
After the Biden administration weakened its integrity, the military is showing remarkable signs of recovery after only seven months with new leadership. But without legislative codification of the Trump agenda, this success will not outlast the current political moment.
The Air Force’s 2021 experiment with segregated classes for minority and female fighter pilots is one of the most glaring examples of pre-Trump military policy. In an attempt to engineer outcomes, Air Force Generals “clustered” underrepresented candidates together to form a class that resembled the American population. This wasn’t about excellence or skill; it was about optics. Graduation rates of preferred groups showed no measurable improvement. It was a case study in the bankruptcy of diversity as military policy.
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We created the Washington Reporter to give Republicans in Congress an outlet for insights to help you succeed, and to cover the toughest policy fights that don't get the attention they deserve.
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