President Trump announced what he calls the biggest oil deal in history: an agreement that could give the United States a controlling interest in the output from 17 Venezuelan oil fields containing a reported 65 billion barrels. The arrangement could reshape American energy security, revive Venezuela’s battered petroleum industry, and shift influence in the Western…
Trump’s Bulk-Power Emergency Order and the Security of the U.S. Grid
President Trump has declared a national emergency involving foreign-made equipment used in America’s bulk-power system. The executive order seeks to prevent certain equipment associated with foreign governments or entities from being purchased, imported, installed, or operated when federal officials determine that it presents an unacceptable security risk. Despite the more dramatic headlines, this isn’t a…
Ukraine Aid Returns to the House Floor
Rep. Gregory Meeks’ Ukraine Support Act has now been forced toward a House vote through a discharge petition, meaning supporters gathered enough signatures to bypass House leadership and bring the bill out of legislative limbo. That alone makes the story politically significant. Discharge petitions aren’t everyday tools. They’re congressional crowbars, used when enough members decide…
Why Is the DOJ Tracking Lawmakers’ Epstein File Searches?
The latest eyebrow-raising twist in the Epstein saga isn’t just about what’s buried inside the files. It’s about reports that the Department of Justice has been tracking lawmakers’ searches of those very records, monitoring who’s looking, and possibly what they’re looking for. Let that sink in. Members of Congress—people with oversight authority over federal agencies—access…
Congress Must Decide Whether Oversight Is a Duty or a Weapon
When Rand Paul called on senior officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to testify before the Senate, he invoked one of Congress’s most fundamental responsibilities: oversight of executive power. That responsibility is not partisan. It’s constitutional. Yet the moment in which this request arrives reveals…
War Powers, Warning, and the Weight of Authority
The renewed debate over presidential war powers, sparked by Vice President J.D. Vance’s dismissal of the War Powers Resolution as “fake” and unconstitutional, exposes more than a technical disagreement about statutes. It reveals a deeper conflict over authority, restraint, and accountability in the exercise of force. At stake is not merely how wars are authorized,…
Power Without Righteousness Is Not Strength
Yesterday’s closed-door briefing to lawmakers on U.S. actions in Venezuela did little to resolve the most troubling questions raised by the operation. If anything, it exposed a widening gap between executive power and moral clarity. Members of Congress emerged divided not merely over tactics or outcomes, but over first principles: who authorizes force, what limits…
Bombs, Boats, and the Battle Against the Bad Guys
President Trump recently decided that enough is enough when it comes to the drug cartels flooding our streets with fentanyl, cocaine, and all manner of misery. He’s officially labeled these cartels as “unlawful combatants,” a fancy legal way of saying, “We’re treating them like terrorists, not just criminals.” Under this new policy, the U.S. military…
Why Real Compassion Demands Epstein File Transparency
There’s nothing quite like a good old house return from recess to get the political heart pumping. This week, Congress reopened, and another chapter of the Jeffrey Epstein saga took center stage. Over 33,000 pages of documents were released to the House Oversight Committee, but don’t let that number fool you. Many of these pages…
D.C. vs. the White House: Who Runs the Police in the Capital?
Washington, D.C., has filed suit to block President Trump’s bid to assert control over the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), hours after U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi named Drug Enforcement Administration chief Terry (Terrance) Cole the city’s “emergency police commissioner” and directed that MPD leadership obtain his approval before issuing further directives. Bondi simultaneously moved to…
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