Jan. 9, 2026

Permission to republish original opeds and cartoons granted.

 

 

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz: “We’ve Never Been At War With Our Federal Government.” What About The Civil War? Put The Fuse Out Before It Gets Lit, Mr. President. 

 

By Robert Romano

“We’ve never been at war with our federal government.” 

That was lame duck Minnesota Democratic Governor Tim Walz on Jan. 7, responding to the death of Renee Nicole Good, talking about being at war with the federal government, apparently officially setting forth a policy to obstruct federal authority. The key issue once again is President Donald Trump’s efforts to enforce federal immigration and other laws.

To Walz and other Democratic Party governors, that is waging “war” on the states. When asked how he planned to use the National Guard, which he now has on stand-by.

But it gets worse. In the same press conference, Walz even said he was considering using the National Guard against “rogue federal agent[s]”, stating, “I don't quite know how to respond to the question other than my primary responsibility as governor is the protection of the people of Minnesota. And you can be assured whether it's the state patrol or whether it's the National Guard, their deployment is there to protect Minnesotans from whatever it is. If it's an act of nature, if it's a global pandemic, or in this case, if it is a rogue federal agent… I don't know at this time. And I want to be very careful.”

What an irresponsible thing for a governor to say. “Very careful”? Walz is saying he wants to use the National Guard against the federal government and federal agents, prohibited by 18 U.S. Code Sec. 253, the same statute that would authorize the President to federalize the National Guard in the event of rebellion, which waging war against the federal government entails. 

Now, the nation once again reaches a boiling point.

Tragically, in the course of detaining a suspect who was obstructing federal law enforcement activity, prohibited by 18 U.S. Code Sec. 111, in Minneapolis with her SUV, an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officer used deadly force as the woman was using her SUV to speed into the officer who was standing directly in front of the vehicle while she was being detained. The event was captured on video and shows the woman initiating her vehicle’s accelerator while officers were surrounding the car, including the officer who was positioned right in front of the SUV. 

It was reasonable for the officer to believe this was attempted murder of a federal agent, prohibited by 18 U.S. Code Sec. 1113.

“Federal officers cannot tackle an SUV. A car is a potentially deadly weapon. She was not engaged in self-defense, the officer was. If you are being surrounded by law enforcement and they’re drawing their weapons, the only thing to do is put your hands up and surrender, not hit the gas pedal. If you’re standing directly in front of a vehicle and the person driving jams on their accelerator, your life is in danger no question.

In this case, the officer appears to have used appropriate force pursuant to Department of Homeland Security policies, including 2023’s Update to the Department Policy on the Use of Force that states, “DHS [Law Enforcement Officers] LEOs may use deadly force only when necessary, that is when the LEO has a reasonable belief that the subject of such force poses an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury to the LEO or to another person.”

Many commentators have suggested the woman was attempting to flee. But deadly force also applies even if the suspect is attempting to escape, as explicitly noted by the policy, “deadly force is authorized to prevent the escape of a fleeing suspect where the LEO has a reasonable belief that the subject poses a significant threat of death or serious physical harm to the LEO or others and such force is necessary to prevent escape…” 

This absolutely comes into play because the officer was standing directly in front of her vehicle, and who followed his training to protect his own life and anyone else who might have been struck by the vehicle.

This was a preventable tragedy. It was preventable because nobody should be obstructing federal law enforcement activities. The states could help, but they aren’t. And these kinds of tragedies, and much worse, are what have happened when the states refuse to cooperate with the federal government.

Walz could have said he was going to assist federal law enforcement to get illegal aliens and others who are defrauding the federal government and taxpayers of billions of dollars, maintain order as officers execute their duties and to above all keep radical agitators away from federal law enforcement. Instead, he joined the ICE obstructors and said he would use the Guard to wage war against the federal government. Is he nuts?

It’s also untrue. “We’ve never been at war with our federal government?” States definitely were at war with the federal government in the Civil War. It’s happened before and hundreds of thousands of Americans died because states would not submit to federal authority. You think Ukraine looks bad? Well, that’s what civil wars look like. It could happen again, with the most likely cause and historically the only cause ever for a civil war here was states rebelling against the federal government.

It’s fair to say Democrats hate Donald Trump just as much as they hated Abraham Lincoln. To prevent a war, the President should first communicate with the Governor directly in a meaningful way. Have a meeting, call or something. Let’s talk this out. 

And then immediately take action to federalize the National Guard in Minnesota as Walz' actions appear to be to deliberately provoke war. Walz doesn’t want to enforce the law, leaving the President with little choice. 

But it’s also worth considering the Governor appears to want Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act and federalize the Guard for political reasons apparently because it polls well for Democrats and energizes their voters. In 2020, the President failed to use the Guard to stop the riots. The Civil War started for political reasons, too. 

But what else should the President do? Let Walz encourage other governments to obstruct the enforcement of federal laws? Walz has lost his mind, and he should resign in disgrace but he can just sit in the Governor’s mansion and watch while the President does his job for him and enforces the laws. 

Put the fuse out before it gets lit, Mr. President.

Robert Romano is the Executive Director of Americans for Limited Government Foundation. 

To view online: https://dailytorch.com/2026/01/minnesota-gov-tim-walz-weve-never-been-at-war-with-our-federal-government-what-about-the-civil-war-put-the-fuse-out-before-it-gets-lit-mr-president/ 

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Thanks To President Trump The Number Of Unaccompanied Children Brought Across The Border Has Plummeted   

By Manzanita Miller 

Under the Biden Administration’s misguided open borders agenda, not only did an unprecedented number of illegal adults enter the United States, but one of the most disturbing issues was a rise in the number of unaccompanied children brought across the southern border. Thanks to President Donald Trump’s commitment to a secure border, the number of unaccompanied children brought to the United States illegally without a guardian has plummeted according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data.   

Thanks in large part to a porous border and the impression on foreign nations that the United States would not turn away illegal aliens at the border, tens of thousands of unaccompanied children began to arrive at the border shortly after President Joe Biden took office in January 2021. According to CBP statistics, by March of 2021, CBP detained over 18,000 unaccompanied children. 

According to CBP data, 110,672 unaccompanied minor children were encountered nationwide by border patrol and field operations in FY 2024 before the Trump Administration took control. In 2023, that number was 137,992 unaccompanied children. In just the first three months of 2023, over 26,000 unaccompanied minor children were encountered. 

President Donald Trump reversed this disturbing trend and drastically reduced the number of unaccompanied children brought — or trafficked — across the border without a parent or guardian. President Trump’s border security border policies, including strengthening the border and making it clear to other nations that the United States will deport illegal aliens upon arrival, have worked exceptionally well to curb illegal encounters, including the trafficking of unaccompanied children.   

In December of 2025, the most recent month for which statistics are available, border patrol encountered 6,858 unaccompanied minor children at the southwest border. Compare that number to the numbers of unaccompanied minor children encountered by border patrol during the peak of the migrant flood under Joe Biden. CBP numbers show that in March of 2022, close to 19,000 unaccompanied children were encountered by border patrol. In FY 2025, a total of 29,584 unaccompanied minors were encountered at the border, down from 110,672 in FY 2024. 

What is more, a majority of the children apprehended under Biden were from non-contiguous countries, largely from South America, which meant the United States was not able to return them to their home country and was forced to place them into the hands of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). A 2008 law forces the U.S. to sort migrant children into those from “contiguous” countries, meaning Mexico or Canada, and those from anywhere else, as explained by Andrew R. Arthur, Resident Fellow in Law and Policy at the Center for Immigration Studies. Those from Mexico or Canada can be directly returned to their home countries, while those from South America and elsewhere must be handed into the hands of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). 

Thanks to President Trump’s bold commitment to border security and clear communication to the rest of the world that the United States will deport illegals brought into the country, the number of unaccompanied children brought over the border, often by the hands of criminals and traffickers, has fallen significantly. In FY 2025 less than 30,000 children were brought across the border without a parent, compared to 110,672 in 2024. Children brought over the border without a guardian are often in an extremely vulnerable position, and many are victims of trafficking and other crimes. Rather than opening the border and encouraging criminals to traffic children across the border, President Trump slammed on the breaks and is drastically reducing the number of children put in danger. 

Manzanita Miller is the senior political analyst at Americans for Limited Government Foundation. 

To view online: https://dailytorch.com/2026/01/thanks-to-president-trump-the-number-of-unaccompanied-children-brought-across-the-border-has-plummeted/ 

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Unemployment Falls To 4.4 Percent After Rising For 34 Months, But Is The Worst Behind Us?

Jan. 9, 2026, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government Executive Director Robert Romano today issued the following statement in response to the latest jobs numbers published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

“After rising for 34 months, unemployment took a dip in December, with the unemployment rate dropping from a revised 4.5 percent down to 4.4 percent, and the unemployment level from 7.78 million down to 7.5 million, falling 278,000. This is great news for the economy, and could mean — although only time will tell — that peak unemployment might have been reached in November. For the current cycle, the unemployment level is currently up 1.75 million since January 2023, 1.3 million of which happened before President Trump was sworn into office. 

“Looking at real-time data, continued jobless claims increased the week of December 27 by 56,000 on a seasonally adjusted basis and 323,000 on an unadjusted basis, but that's rather normal right after Christmas. There could still be a little bit of time left on the cycle, and depending how the population adjustment is ascertained this month, next month's jobs report could also show further uptick. The longest period for increasing unemployment in modern history was 39 months, from March 1989 to June 1992 when it rose 3.8 million to 10 million, so the current trend is bound to end likely sooner rather than later, if it did not just end altogether. That's the good news, which is, whatever weakness economically arose out of the great inflation of the Biden era should almost be over.

“More good news comes from average weekly earnings, which are growing on an annual basis of 3.75 percent, still outpacing the current inflation rate of 2.7 percent. 

“Going forward, if unemployment continues falling, more Americans will be finding jobs, moving into new rentals, buying homes and spending more money, and demand will increase. That's usually when inflation begins to heat up again. How that manifests itself will depend greatly on the supply side of the equation. Are we growing more food? Breeding more cows? Overall, are markets being flooded with goods in the supplies necessary to keep inflation cool or to even help prices to fall? And will incomes and wages continue to stay ahead of inflation, as they have since mid-2023? If so, then the worst might be behind us, but it could still be a little while before the American people feel it.”

To view online: https://getliberty.org/2026/01/unemployment-falls-to-4-4-percent-after-rising-for-34-months-but-is-the-worst-behind-us/