America last: Is Big Tech hiding jobs from US citizens to hire cheaper foreign labor from India and China?

Reports indicate that the American tech job market is slowing down significantly, making it increasingly more difficult for qualified individuals to find employment. However, a team of technology professionals contends that jobs are out there; they are just not being advertised to American talent.

The Economic Policy Institute found that the top 30 H-1B employers hired 34,000 new foreign workers in 2022, yet laid off at least 85,000 between 2022 and early 2023, further fueling concerns that companies are booting Americans for foreign nationals to keep wages lower.

'We were shocked to discover these discriminatory practices are still widespread across major American companies today, keeping Americans out of jobs in their own country.'

Indian nationals accounted for roughly 71% of H-1B workers in 2024, while Chinese nationals ranked second, with 12%. Indian and Chinese nationals also represent the largest groups of foreign-born STEM workers, according to the American Immigration Council.

The background

Reports like this sparked action from fed-up tech workers who decided to establish Jobs.Now, an online job board featuring a list of positions sourced from "legally mandated PERM labor market test locations" in newspaper classified advertisements.

PERM is a permanent labor certification issued by the Department of Labor, allowing employers to hire foreign talent to work in the United States. This certification sets workers on a path to receive a green card. Many of these candidates are already working for the employer on temporary visas, such as the H-1B or the Optional Practical Training programs.

The tech workers were driven to start the online job board after Apple and Facebook settled worker discrimination lawsuits with the Department of Justice.

In 2021, Facebook agreed to pay $4.75 million in civil penalties and up to $9.5 million to eligible victims after it was accused of “routinely” refusing to “recruit, consider, or hire U.S. workers” for positions it had reserved for temporary visa holders.

Similarly, in 2023, Apple agreed to pay $6.75 million in civil penalties and establish an $18.25 million back pay fund for victims after the DOJ claimed the company “illegally discriminated in hiring and recruitment against U.S. citizens and certain non-U.S. citizens.”

Photo by Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images

“We were shocked to discover these discriminatory practices are still widespread across major American companies today, keeping Americans out of jobs in their own country,” Jobs.Now told Blaze News. “We started Jobs.Now to fight against these illegal practices and help Americans find good jobs.”

Sneaky tactics

Jobs.Now warned that some companies — particularly those seeking to fill engineering, data science, finance, accounting, and biotechnology positions — will try to hide opportunities from American workers to favor their existing H-1B employee and provide lower wages.

Under PERM laws, a company seeking to hire a foreign national must demonstrate "that there are not sufficient U.S. workers able, willing, qualified, and available to accept the job opportunity in the area of intended employment and that employment of the foreign worker will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of similarly employed U.S. workers."

To demonstrate this, the employer must advertise the position in two Sunday newspapers and select three additional recruitment steps, which can include advertising the position at job fairs, the employer's website, an online job board, and on radio and television, among other options.

'Jobs.Now highlights those ads, but that doesn't mean the company is running a new search. It's just about meeting the compliance rules.’

The employer can hire a foreign national via the PERM process only if there are no other minimally qualified U.S. citizens or existing green card holders available.

"As a result, they put ads in newspapers with obscure application methods aiming to hide the listing from Americans, so they will not receive applications and will be able to sponsor their preferred immigrant candidate for a green card to fill the job," Jobs.Now told Blaze News.

Jobs.Now explained that it has found some job postings that feature "hidden" characteristics — including "not being posted on the company website, not being posted on mainstream job boards, and requiring email or paper mail applications" — that could result in fewer American applicants.

Jobs.Now has also highlighted postings that refer individuals to send their applications to immigration professionals and law firms, rather than human resources workers.

"To maintain business continuity, or the wage arbitrage of hiring lower-paid immigrant workers, companies prefer to keep these existing employees rather than seek American citizens as required for permanent roles," Jobs.Now stated. "They commonly treat PERM labor market tests as compliance exercises where they fill out paperwork, rather than actual hiring processes. As a result, they often direct applications to immigration professionals or law firms rather than ordinary recruiters."

Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Clashing views

While Jobs.Now highlights the labor market tests as being treated as mere formalities rather than genuine efforts to recruit American workers, recruiter Mark Fabela affirmed that these postings are meant to satisfy regulatory requirements and are "not about launching a broad hiring campaign." Though, perspectives differ on whether this complies with the law.

"Instead, it's about documenting for the Department of Labor that no qualified U.S. workers stepped forward during the recruitment phase. That's why you see the mandated postings in newspapers and other outlets," Fabela told Blaze News. "Jobs.Now highlights those ads, but that doesn't mean the company is running a new search. It's just about meeting the compliance rules."

"By the time these ads appear, the role is often already filled by someone, usually an H-1B worker the company is already employing," he said, dismissing Jobs.Now's claim that the posts aimed to hide jobs from Americans.

‘Only after no US worker can be found will the PERM application be approved. Whether the foreign worker is already performing the job is immaterial.’

However, other experts challenge Fabela's perspective, asserting that the law requires genuine efforts to hire Americans, even through the labor market tests posted in the newspaper.

“Employers must conduct good-faith recruitment of U.S. workers and offer that position to any qualified and willing U.S. applicant,” Dr. Ron Hira, an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at Howard University, told Blaze News. “Only after no U.S. worker can be found will the PERM application be approved. Whether the foreign worker is already performing the job is immaterial.”

Hira called the law “crystal clear” but noted that even the DOL “has been guilty of administrative malpractice in enforcing PERM regulations.”

Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg via Getty Images

“For the past few decades, DOL has turned a blind eye to rampant employer discrimination against U.S. workers in the PERM recruitment process,” he explained. “Everyone, including DOL, knows that discrimination is more common than not in PERM applications.”

The DOL admitted in a 2020 report that the PERM program “relentlessly has employers not complying with the qualifying criteria.” It also stated that it has “limited authority over the H-1B program as it can only deny incomplete and obviously inaccurate applications and conduct complaint-based investigations, challenges in protecting the welfare of the nation’s workforce.”

“Therefore, the PERM and H-1B programs remain highly susceptible to fraud,” the DOL concluded.

Hira called for Americans to petition the Trump administration “to start enforcing the plain language of the law.”

‘Americans don't have a real shot at these jobs; they were already displaced long ago when the employer hired the worker on a temporary visa.’

Jessica Vaughan, the director of policy studies for the Center for Immigration Studies, echoed Hira's concerns about enforcement failures, calling the PERM process “a charade.”

“The reality is that nearly all of these employers already have a foreign worker in the job and are just seeking to check off the boxes that the law requires,” Vaughan told Blaze News. “Americans don't have a real shot at these jobs; they were already displaced long ago when the employer hired the worker on a temporary visa.”

Congress fueled some of these issues by adjusting the eligibility criteria for green cards to more closely align with those for temporary visas, Vaughan explained.

“That means there are more temporary workers now seeking to get green cards to stay permanently, and they are willing to work for less money on that promise. However, they have a long wait for the green cards, and the employers don't want to have to consider Americans for these jobs, since they promised them to the foreign workers, and they can get away with paying them less,” Vaughan stated.

Concerning any “good faith” efforts to find Americans to fill these positions, Vaughan reasoned that there is “little enforcement of the requirement” because employers have found ways to circumvent rules.

Fabela acknowledges that issues exist within the current process, including a lack of modernization with the print newspaper ad requirement. He also noted that some job requirements are so "overly narrow" that they "effectively match one candidate's resume." The most concerning issue is "wage-level manipulation," according to Fabela.

"Bad actors will write dumbed-down job descriptions in a way that understates the role's actual skill level. That allows them to pay experienced candidates significantly less while still clearing the prevailing wage test," Fabela told Blaze News.

Jobs.Now also highlighted issues with the manipulation of the "overly broad" prevailing wage standard, which "allows companies to slot jobs into categories that could include far less advanced roles, which have lower wage standards."

America First reforms

Amid an uncertain tech job market and ongoing criticisms of the PERM process, advocates like Jobs.Now are pushing for reforms to address the root problems and restore priority to American workers.

Jobs.Now is calling for changes to H-1B and PERM regulations, as well as the cancellation of the OPT visa program, to open more job opportunities to American workers, including entry-level recent college graduates.

‘We think the regulations must be changed so that labor market tests give American citizens the right they deserve to be considered first for jobs in America, rather than the formality they are currently treated as.’

Companies should also be required to prove that there are no qualified American candidates available for a position before issuing an H-1B visa, Jobs.Now stated.

The tech workers behind the job board website are advocating for companies to be required to post all labor market tests on their website’s career page, accept digital applications, and post on high-traffic job boards like LinkedIn or Indeed, rather than newspaper classifieds.

Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

“In short, we think the regulations must be changed so that labor market tests give American citizens the right they deserve to be considered first for jobs in America, rather than the formality they are currently treated as,” Jobs.Now told Blaze News.

Fabela agrees that the H-1B program is flawed and in need of reform to prevent abuse. However, he noted that he is “unapologetically pro-H-1B," expressing concern that China would win the tech race “without firing a shot” if the U.S. closes the door on foreign talent.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has vowed to clamp down on employment bias by increasing investigations, compliance checks, and litigation.

“The EEOC is putting employers and other covered entities on notice: If you are part of the pipeline contributing to our immigration crisis or abusing our legal immigration system via illegal preferences against American workers, you must stop,” EEOC Acting Chair Andrea Lucas stated in March.

“The EEOC is here to protect all workers from unlawful national origin discrimination, including American workers,” Lucas remarked.

The DOL did not respond to a request for comment.

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American universities should be for Americans

During a press gaggle this week, President Trump casually announced that the United States would allow 600,000 Chinese nationals to enter the country as college students. He has long focused on improving relations with China, but the idea of importing and educating such numbers runs against the America First instincts of his voters.

When Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was asked why these students were so important, he admitted that many U.S. universities would go out of business without foreign enrollment. For the right, that sounds less like a warning and more like a promise.

Republicans once opposed bailouts for failing businesses. Why make an exception for universities that train activists and foreigners to despise America?

Ending large-scale immigration from a rival power while letting bankrupt institutions fail should be an easy win. Instead, the Trump administration seems poised to prop up anti-American universities by training the children of our most dangerous adversary.

Why import students from our greatest rival?

Every conservative politician and pundit insists that China is America’s foremost threat. It has a massive population, vast economic leverage, deep investments in resources, and ambitions to expand its sphere of influence. Its military is large, its weapons advanced, and its spies operate regularly on U.S. soil. A hot war may be unlikely, but it is fair to call China our greatest economic and geopolitical rival. So why are we welcoming Chinese nationals into the country, much less into our most prestigious schools?

America’s broader immigration crisis has already ravaged our job market, housing market, health system, and education system. Illegal immigration rightly comes first: Illegal aliens are unvetted, often smuggled in by cartels and gangs, and begin their stay by breaking the law.

But the public is waking up to the damage caused by legal immigration as well. The administration recently admitted there are 55 million active visa holders eligible to enter the United States — a number equal to the combined populations of Florida and Texas. Voters want both illegal immigration ended and legal immigration slashed.

Chinese nationals should be first on the block. If China is truly our enemy, why would we let any of its citizens inside? The Chinese state is infamous for espionage. Its spy network has penetrated American government, military, corporations, and universities. These spies don’t just chase classified secrets; they steal research and technology from labs and departments. Commentators like Eric Weinstein have suggested that universities slow their own programs for fear that breakthroughs will be stolen by foreign students. America is holding back its own scientific progress to import spies. That’s insane.

Educating tomorrow’s rivals

The danger goes beyond espionage. Universities don’t just teach skills; they confer the credentials that grant access to elite institutions in business, science, and government. A Chinese student who returns home brings knowledge and prestige that strengthen a rival nation. One who stays uses that same credential to climb into elite corporations or agencies that shape American culture, policy, and economy. Why would we seed our leadership class with foreign nationals from our chief adversary?

This also raises the question of whom our universities exist to serve. In a Fox News interview, Howard Lutnick admitted outright that these Chinese students would displace Americans from top universities. That isn’t speculation; it’s an open admission. Under an America First agenda, displacing native students for the children of foreign rivals is indefensible. Taxpayer-backed institutions must put American children first.

The bailout excuse

Lutnick argues that Chinese students keep universities solvent. Foreign students pay higher tuition and receive less aid. So what? The idea that universities are too big to fail and must be bailed out with foreign visas is laughable. Many schools already hoard enormous endowments. If others collapse, that’s the market working. Republicans once opposed bailouts for failing businesses. Why make an exception for universities that train activists and foreigners to despise America?

Blaze Media Illustration

The truth is that universities are ideology factories. They churn out left-wing radicals who hate America and despise Christianity. Yes, we still need doctors and engineers, but there is no reason to subsidize this industry with mass immigration. Republicans should be forcing universities to purge their bias or lose government funding. Instead, they are keeping them afloat with students from a hostile foreign power.

America First means Americans first

Trump often makes sweeping statements he never intends to enact. This may be a bargaining ploy in negotiations with Xi Jinping. But sovereignty should never be a chip in trade talks. Chinese enrollment peaked at 372,000 in 2020 and fell to 277,000 in 2024. Now the administration is talking about more than doubling it. The correct number isn’t 600,000. It isn’t 277,000. It’s zero.

The United States should stop importing enemies to enrich its ruling class. American universities should exist for Americans. That is what America First must mean.

The real fraud in higher ed: Universities need that Chinese money

The universities preaching that America is structurally racist now say they need international students to survive. Sad but true.

President Trump on Monday floated a proposal that has conservatives buzzing. Just before meeting with the president of South Korea, while discussing trade negotiations with China, Trump suggested that the deal might include allowing 600,000 Chinese students to attend American universities.

Instead of winning hearts and minds, universities would be exporting American self-loathing. Why should taxpayers fund that?

I’ve learned not to sprint ahead of Trump’s negotiations. He often uses public remarks as part of the bargaining table — dangling outrageous possibilities to shove the other side into error. And inconveniently for his critics, it usually works. Still, this one deserves a closer look.

Universities built on sand

As a professor at Arizona State University, the nation’s largest state school, I see firsthand how fragile higher education has become. Universities increasingly depend on international students to prop up their budgets. They reorient themselves not around local students but around foreign ones, reshaping programs and communications to make sure outsiders feel at home.

ASU boasts 195,000 students. Yet when the semester began, the university’s homepage highlighted international arrivals, not Arizona students. The welcome-back email did the same. Arizona families — the taxpayers who actually fund the place — were treated as an afterthought.

Administrators justify this by pointing to economic contributions, diversity, and talent. But native students notice the slight. Parents notice it too. The message is clear: Tuition dollars matter more than the citizens who built these schools. ASU may call itself the “New American University,” but more often it presents itself as the “No Longer American University.”

Moor Studio via iStock/Getty Images

A house of cards

Here’s the truth: Many American universities cannot survive without international tuition checks.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick admitted as much on Laura Ingraham’s Fox News show, saying the bottom 15% of U.S. colleges would simply shut down without that revenue. Universities have operated like Ponzi schemes, built on the illusion that enrollment growth never ends. But as American students tire of being hectored with radical political agendas, growth slows and the budgets collapse.

The U.S. already hosts about 270,000 Chinese students, not counting tens of thousands more from India, South Korea, and elsewhere. ASU alone has 16,000 international students, down from 18,000 last year. Trump’s proposed deal would more than double the number of Chinese students nationwide overnight.

What are they learning?

Even if you grant the economic benefits, the bigger question — maybe the biggest — is: What sort of education would these 600,000 students receive?

We could introduce them to the greatness of the American experiment, the sweep of Western civilization, and the biblical truths that shaped both. We could even present the gospel to hundreds of thousands of students who may never have heard it before. That would be a noble exchange.

But that isn’t what happens on most campuses.

Drop them into a humanities classroom and they’ll be steeped in anti-racism, DEI dogma, LGBTQ activism, “decolonizing the curriculum,” and the thesis that America and the West are irredeemably wicked. Instead of winning hearts and minds, universities would be exporting American self-loathing — either by turning foreign students into residents who despise their host country or sending them home as ambassadors of contempt.

Why should American taxpayers fund that?

A higher-ed reckoning

Universities like ASU showcase international students while sidelining their own. They rely on foreign tuition to mask fiscal rot. And in exchange, they sell a curriculum that treats America as racist, the West as evil, and Christianity as oppressive.

No “economic benefit” offsets that catastrophic formula.

If American universities want to survive, they must first clean their own house.

Admit the harm caused by their reckless anti-America, anti-West, anti-Christian curriculum.
Abandon DEI dogma, corrosive identity politics, and “decolonized” philosophy.
Value American students — the citizens and taxpayers who fund these schools.
Reorient higher education toward the people of the states and communities that built it.
Teach again that we are created by God, equal in worth, and capable of knowing truth, goodness, and beauty.

Only then can we discuss whether more international students make sense. Until then, it is rich with irony: The same universities that teach contempt for America now admit they need foreign students to survive.

John Cornyn: America First senator or MAGA fraud?

It’s election season, and Texas Senator John Cornyn (R) wants voters to believe that he’s an America First candidate and a close ally of President Donald Trump — but BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales knows that couldn’t be further from the truth.

“Actions speak louder than words,” Gonzales says on “Come and Take It.” “And so instead of just taking John at his word right now in 2025 when he is just trying to win an election, which, by the way, the polls show he’s probably not going to win. ... Let’s look at actions.”

Conservative Review assigns federal officeholders a grade based on their “Liberty Score,” which is based on the top 50 votes that officeholder has taken in the duration of a rolling six-year window.

And Gonzales has Cornyn’s Liberty Score.

“Let’s give reasonable perspective. So, our other Texas senator, Ted Cruz, let’s look at his Liberty Score. He has a respectable 88%. Not perfect. I would expect an A from any senator from the state of Texas,” Gonzales explains.

“John Cornyn is coming in at [an] abysmal 54%,” she says, disturbed. “Now, I’m not great at math, but I believe that that’s an F. That is a failing Liberty grade. John Cornyn is failing in liberty, and this is coming from a Texas senator. That is embarrassing.”

Gonzales points to several things that could have contributed to Cornyn’s failing score.

“Did you know that John Cornyn was one of Joe Biden’s biggest cheerleaders on, well, many things, but one of which was his gun control legislation? Did you know that?” she explains. “Yeah, under Joe Biden, John Cornyn was pretty instrumental in the negotiation of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.”

“It increased federal grant money to states who enacted red flag laws. So it’s giving an incentive,” she adds.

And President Trump agrees with Gonzales.

“The deal on ‘Gun Control’ currently being structured and pushed in the Senate by the Radical Left Democrats, with the help of Mitch McConnell, RINO Senator John Cornyn of Texas, and others, will go down in history as the first step in the movement to TAKE YOUR GUNS AWAY. Republicans, be careful what you wish for!!!” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.

“John Cornyn is the one that is being paired together, lumped in with Mitch McConnell, for good reason, because birds of a feather flock together, and the two of them were doing Joe Biden’s bidding with his gun control legislation,” Gonzales says.

“John Cornyn was as anti-MAGA as it gets,” she adds.

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America First energy policy will be key to beating China in the AI race

The world is on the verge of a technological revolution unlike anything we’ve ever seen. Artificial intelligence is a defining force that will shape military power, economic growth, the future of medicine, surveillance, and the global balance of freedom versus authoritarianism — and whoever leads in AI will set the rules for the 21st century.

The stakes could not be higher. And yet while America debates regulations and climate policy, China is already racing ahead, fueled by energy abundance.

Energy abundance must be understood as a core national policy imperative — not just as a side issue for environmental debates.

When people talk about China’s strategy in the AI race, they usually point to state subsidies and investments. China’s command-economy structure allows the Chinese Communist Party to control the direction of the country’s production. For example, in recent years, the CCP has poured billions of dollars into quantum computing.

China’s energy edge

But another, more important story is at play: China is powering its AI push with a historic surge in energy production.

China has been constructing new coal plants at a staggering speed, accounting for 95% of new coal plants built worldwide in 2023. China just recently broke ground on what is being dubbed the “world’s largest hydropower dam.” These and other energy projects have resulted in massive growth in energy production in China in the past few decades. In fact, production climbed from 1,356 terawatt hours in 2000 to an incredible 10,073 terawatt hours in 2024.

Beijing understands what too many American policymakers ignore: Modern economies and advanced AI models are energy monsters. Training cutting-edge systems requires millions of kilowatt hours of power. Keeping AI running at scale demands a resilient and reliable grid.

China isn’t wringing its hands about carbon targets or ESG metrics. It’s doing what great powers do when they intend to dominate: They make sure nothing — especially energy scarcity — stands in their way.

America’s self-inflicted weakness

Meanwhile, in America, most of our leaders have embraced climate alarmism over common sense. We’ve strangled coal, stalled nuclear, and made it nearly impossible to build new power infrastructure. Subsidized green schemes may win applause at Davos, but they don’t keep the lights on. And they certainly can’t fuel the data centers that AI requires.

The demand for energy from the AI industry shows no sign of slowing. Developers are already bypassing traditional utilities to build their own power plants, a sign of just how immense the pressure on the grid has become. That demand is also driving up energy costs for everyday citizens who now compete with data centers for electricity.

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, has even spoken of plans to spend “trillions” on new data center construction. Morgan Stanley projects that global investment in AI-related infrastructure could reach $3 trillion by 2028.

Already, grid instability is a growing problem. Blackouts, brownouts, and soaring electricity prices are becoming a feature of American life. Now imagine layering the immense demand of AI on top of a fragile system designed to appease activists rather than strengthen a nation.

In the AI age, a weak grid equals a weak country. And weakness is something that authoritarian rivals like Beijing are counting on.

Time to hit the accelerator

Donald Trump has already done a tremendous amount of work to reorient America toward energy dominance. In the first days of his administration, he released detailed plans explicitly focused on “unleashing American energy,” signaling that the message is being taken seriously at the highest levels.

Over the past several months, Trump has signed numerous executive orders to bolster domestic energy production and end subsidies for unreliable energy sources. Most recently, the Environmental Protection Agency has moved to rescind the Endangerment Finding — a potentially massive blow to the climate agenda that has hamstrung energy production in the United States since the Obama administration.

These steps deserve a lot of credit and support. However, for America to remain competitive in the AI race, we must not only continue this momentum but ramp it up wherever possible. Energy abundance must be understood as a core national policy imperative — not just as a side issue for environmental debates.

Photo by Grafissimo via Getty Images

Silicon Valley cannot out-innovate a blackout. However, Americans can’t code their way around an empty power plant. If China has both the AI models and the energy muscle to run them, while America ties itself in regulatory knots, the future belongs to China.

Liberty on the line

This is about more than technology. This is about the world we want to live in. An authoritarian China, armed with both AI supremacy and energy dominance, would have the power to bend the global order toward censorship, surveillance, and control.

If we want America to lead the future of artificial intelligence, then we must act now. The AI race cannot be won by Silicon Valley alone. It will be won only if America moves full speed ahead with abundant domestic energy production, climate realism, and universal access to affordable and reliable energy for all.

America First is driving jobs and a welcome corporate return

“They’re coming home — they’re all coming home.”

That’s how President Donald Trump described Apple’s decision to invest $600 billion in the American economy, $100 billion more than initially expected.

For decades, corporate America packed up and left. Under President Trump, companies are coming back.

Standing alongside Apple CEO Tim Cook, President Trump declared: “These investments will directly create more than 20,000 brand-new American jobs and many thousands more at Apple suppliers like Corning, Broadcom, Texas Instruments, and Samsung.”

This is proof that the America First agenda is working.

Bringing industry back

America First isn’t just a campaign slogan. It’s a movement rooted in economic patriotism. For decades, global corporations were incentivized to offshore jobs and close American factories, leaving once-thriving towns in economic ruin.

President Trump is reversing that damage. His America First agenda creates the conditions for companies to thrive here at home — cutting taxes, slashing red tape, rebuilding infrastructure, and putting American workers first in trade deals and policy decisions.

Apple’s investment is just the latest example. From Silicon Valley to the Rust Belt, companies are responding favorably to the president’s policies, which are rewarding their investments on U.S. soil.

In the past six months alone, more than $17 trillion in new investment, factories, and infrastructure projects have been announced. From semiconductor plants in Arizona to advanced steel manufacturing in Pennsylvania, we are witnessing the rebirth of American manufacturing.

Challenging China

And America First doesn’t stop at building new factories. It also means building the capacity to win strategic fights — including the tech war with China.

One example is the Trump administration’s recent decision toheed U.S. intelligence experts and greenlight the merger between Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Juniper Networks.

For years, national security experts have warned about Huawei, the Chinese tech giant with deep ties to the Chinese Communist Party. Huawei’s global dominance in 5G and enterprise networking poses a serious threat to cybersecurity, national defense, and communications freedom. The problem wasn’t identifying the threat. The problem was that no U.S. company could match Huawei — that is, until now. Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi are helping the U.S. finally compete in this industry.

Another example is President Trump’s executive order jump-starting America’s rare-earth and critical mineral supply chains — an industry China has dominated for years. From electric vehicles to advanced weapons systems, the modern economy runs on rare-earths. Yet for too long, America depended on Chinese exports to power everything from smartphones to fighter jets.

That is changing under President Trump, who signed an executive order cutting red tape, fast-tracking permits, and directing federal agencies to prioritize American sourcing and refining of rare-earth and critical minerals. As a result, U.S. companies are now increasingly investing in domestic mining operations in America, laying the foundation for greater American economic independence.

In June, Trump even signed an agreement with China to resume exports of U.S. rare-earth minerals. The global tide on U.S. exports is now turning.

Photo by BRANDONJ74 via Getty Images

America First is winning

America First means just that: America first. Whether it’s encouraging companies such as Apple to invest here at home or ensuring that U.S. tech companies can go toe to toe with China, President Trump is delivering real results.

For decades, corporate America packed up and left. Under President Trump, companies are coming back. They’re investing in our people, our cities, and our future. That’s not just good policy. That’s what winning looks like.

Democracy promotion is dead: Good riddance

What passes for intellectual heft at the Atlantic is any criticism of President Donald Trump. In the Atlantic’s pages and its digital fare, you can read the now-discredited musings of David Frum, who helped bring us the endless wars in Afghanistan and Iraq; the inane foreign policy arguments of Max Boot; the interventionist prescriptions of Anne Applebaum; and now, the democracy promotion of political science professor Brian Klaas, who, in a recent article, blames President Trump for killing “American democracy promotion.”

If Klaas is correct, that is one more reason that Americans need to thank President Trump.

Klaas’ first priority is using American treasure and blood to promote his chimerical notions of global democracy and universal human rights.

One would have thought that the debacles in Afghanistan and Iraq would have humbled our nation’s democracy promoters — but they haven’t. One would have thought that the failed foreign policy of Jimmy Carter would have humbled those who wish to make “human rights” the centerpiece of U.S. foreign policy — but it didn’t. One would have thought that the chaos facilitated by the so-called “Arab Spring” would engender prudence and introspection among the democracy promoters — but it is not so.

Professor Klaas wants the world to become democratic and for U.S. foreign policy to lead the effort in bringing the globe to the promised land.

Rewriting history

The Trump administration, Klaas writes, has “turn[ed] against a long-standing tradition of Western democracy promotion.”

Perhaps Klaas has never read George Washington’s Farewell Address, in which he counseled his countrymen to conduct foreign policy based solely on the nation’s interests. Or perhaps he missed John Quincy Adams’ July 4, 1821, address, in which he cautioned against going abroad in search of monsters to destroy and reminded his listeners that America is the well-wisher of freedom to all but the champion only of her own.

Perhaps Klaas believes that Wilsonianism is a “long-standing” American tradition, but in reality, it is mostly limited to starry-eyed liberal internationalists and neoconservatives.

Klaas mentions the “democracy boom” under President Bill Clinton, which was nothing more than a temporary consequence of America’s victory in the Cold War. Yet Klaas thinks it was the beginning of “shifting international norms” where freedom and democracy triumphed in “the ideological battle against rival models of governance” and “had become an inexorable force.”

Here, Klaas is likely referring to Francis Fukuyama’s discredited theory of the “end of history.” We have since discovered, however, that history didn’t die and that democracy is fragile, especially in places and among civilizations that have little democratic experience.

Fukuyama was wrong, but Samuel Huntington was right when he wrote about the coming “clash of civilizations.” One wonders if Klaas has read Huntington or Toynbee — or Spengler for that matter. Or, even more recently, Robert Kaplan’s “The Tragic Mind.”

Authoritarianism disguised as ‘democratic’

Klaas criticizes Trump for praising dictators, but President Woodrow Wilson praised Lenin and President Franklin Roosevelt praised Stalin. Klaas says that Trump is indifferent to democracy and human rights. No, Trump simply refuses to make them the centerpiece of U.S. foreign policy, which is a “long-standing” tradition that stretches back long before Wilson to our founding fathers.

However, neither Wilson nor FDR wanted America to right every wrong in the world, as Klaas does. Klaas wants his “human rights” and democracy agenda “backed by weapons.” He laments that authoritarian regimes no longer need to fear the “condemnation” and the “bombs” of the American president.

Klaas’ leftism is revealed when he condemns the United States for helping to replace Mossaddegh with the pro-American shah of Iran, overthrowing the Marxist regime of Patrice Lumumba in Congo, helping to overthrow Allende in Chile, and cozying up to other authoritarian regimes.

Bonnie Cash/UPI/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The professor also might want to read Jeane Kirkpatrick’s “Dictatorships and Double Standards” to learn that sometimes doing these things is in America’s national interests. Klaas’ leftism jumps off the page when he refers to the illegal aliens removed by the Trump administration — many with criminal records — as “foreign pilgrims.”

Some of those “foreign pilgrims” raped and killed Americans. But Klaas’ first priority is not America or its citizens; it is using American treasure and blood to promote his chimerical notions of global democracy and universal human rights. He is anti-Trump precisely because Trump’s foreign policy is America First. Let’s hope Klaas’ style of democracy promotion is dead.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published by RealClearDefense and made available via RealClearWire.

How did a terrorist in a tailored suit get Trump’s stamp of approval?

While the Trump-Putin summit in Anchorage has dominated headlines, another danger has quietly re-emerged — one far more dangerous to American lives than a frozen conflict in Eastern Europe. Donald Trump has legitimized a man who once led an al-Qaeda/ISIS faction, lifting U.S. terrorist designations and sanctions to recognize him as Syria’s leader.

For millions of Trump voters, ending America’s involvement in endless wars and repudiating the neocons who started them was a central promise. Trump’s campaign video “Preventing World War III” called out warmongers and globalist elites like no other candidate before him. He vowed to replace them with patriots and pursue an expressly America First foreign policy.

Trump’s instincts on war and peace can be right — if he listens to MAGA voices.

But instead of draining the neocon swamp, Trump has given it fresh water. His recognition of Abu Mohammed al-Jolani — the protégé of ISIS founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi — has kept us on the endless war track.

This isn’t what MAGA voted for.

How we got here

In December, Bashar al-Assad’s government in Syria collapsed after 14 years of civil war. Into the vacuum stepped al-Jolani and his terrorist army, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham — the latest iteration of al-Qaeda and ISIS. This is the same Islamist movement that murdered 3,000 Americans on 9/11, beheaded Americans, and committed atrocities across the globe.

Yet the United States — first under Joe Biden and now Trump — recognized HTS as a legitimate government. Trump went farther, praising al-Jolani as “a young, attractive guy” with “a strong past” and removing HTS from the U.S. government’s list of designated terrorist groups.

The ISIS record

Trump still celebrates the 2019 mission that killed ISIS founder al-Baghdadi. But Baghdadi's deputy, al-Jolani, was an equally ruthless figure — a homicidal psychopath once targeted by the State Department with a $10 million bounty and a spot on its most-wanted list.

ISIS, originally known as al-Qaeda in Iraq, became notorious for public beheadings, bombings, rape, sexual slavery, torture, and genocide — including the murder of Americans.

In 2011, al-Baghdadi sent al-Jolani to Syria to establish an ISIS foothold. Al-Jolani formed the Al-Nusra Front, Syria’s largest jihadist militia, which later evolved into HTS.

Interventionist fingerprints

ISIS didn’t appear from nowhere. U.S. foreign policy paved the way, under the influence of neoconservatives who believe that the purpose of American military might is to bend the world to their political will, regardless of who is in the White House. They’ve engineered endless wars in service of the military-industrial-congressional complex and globalist elites.

Just a month after 9/11, General Wesley Clark learned of a neocon plan within the Pentagon to topple seven Middle Eastern governments in five years: Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Iran.

Six are down. Only Iran remains.

The 2003 invasion of Iraq was predicated on nonexistent “weapons of mass destruction.” The result? 4,492 dead Americans, at least 655,000 dead Iraqis, trillions of tax dollars squandered, the ascent of ISIS, and a far more dangerous Iran.

Barack Obama’s decision in 2011 to oust Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi was another interventionist catastrophe. Spearheaded by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (Democrat by party, neoconservative interventionist by worldview), Libya was left a barbaric, failed state.

Photo by OMAR ALBAW/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images

After Gaddafi was sodomized to death by a mob of savages, Clinton perversely gloated: “We came, we saw — he died.” Now Libya is a human trafficking hub with open-air slave markets.

Then came Syria. Obama secretly authorized the CIA’s Operation Timber Sycamore to arm “moderate” rebels. Billions’ worth of weapons ended up on the black market or with al-Qaeda affiliates, including al-Jolani’s forces.

Syria has been shattered — 530,000 dead, 13 million displaced, with 6 million fleeing abroad.

Immigration jihad

Since 2001, U.S.-led wars have displaced 38 million people, destabilizing Europe and swelling its Muslim population to 44 million. Many have no interest in assimilating. Globalist elites and EU leaders have encouraged this migration to weaken national sovereignty and culture.

Clothes make the man?

When Assad fell, al-Jolani rebranded. Out went the mujahedeen garb; in came tailored European suits. Trump praised him and lifted sanctions, granting his regime international legitimacy.

Predictably, HTS continues slaughtering Christians, Druze, Alawites, and other Shia Muslims.

The choice ahead

When it comes to foreign affairs, Trump’s presidency is faltering. Badly. Caving to neocon interventionists has escalated war and betrayed his base. Embracing an al-Qaeda/ISIS warlord desecrates the memory of every victim of jihadist terror.

I still believe Trump’s instincts on war and peace can be right — if he listens to MAGA voices. Patriots inside and outside his administration must push him to break with the neocons, reject al-Jolani, and put America First again.

MAGA meets the machine: Trump goes all in on AI

The technology once confined to science fiction has now become reality, and its impact will be revolutionary. When artificial intelligence first broke through, many MAGA supporters reacted with suspicion. They saw it as another weapon for woke elites — a way to erase inconvenient facts and reshape public opinion, potentially with government support.

President Donald Trump acted to block that threat. His recent executive order directs the federal government to contract only with AI companies that “prioritize truthfulness and ideological neutrality.”

A MAGA-aligned council of AI policy experts will make the next golden age of American exceptionalism possible.

That’s a strong start, but MAGA weakens itself if it treats AI solely as a threat. I learned that firsthand, working in the field before most people even knew what AI was. It’s coming whether we like it or not.

Meanwhile, other nations — including enemies such as China — have committed to developing AI. If they reach artificial superintelligence first, the consequences could be catastrophic. Our technologists understand the stakes. America must lead in this arena, not trail behind.

Winning over MAGA

Despite what’s at stake, MAGA has a dearth of people who support or even understand AI — at least, until recently, when President Trump delivered remarks at the “Winning the AI Race” summit hosted by the "All-In" podcast at the Hill and Valley Forum.

That change is monumental. Imagine a few years ago, when an AI bot put you in TikTok prison for violating the site’s “terms of service” — as I was — and someone told you that a re-elected Donald Trump would participate in an AI summit with the big Silicon Valley companies and MAGA-aligned leaders.

That’s why people like James Burnham are key to bridging the gap between the Silicon Valley and the MAGA base.

Burnham bridging the gap

At the summit, I met with Burnham, a former senior lawyer at the Department of Government Efficiency and now head of the AI Innovation Council, to talk about MAGA’s role in shaping the future of artificial intelligence.

He may share the name of the author of “Suicide of the West” — a man often called the intellectual godfather of neoreaction and one of the first practitioners of psychological warfare — but the resemblance ends there. This Burnham is an unapologetic optimist, a happy warrior, and an original MAGA activist determined to unite the movement’s best minds with the tech right.

His goal: Mend fences and help define AI policy for the years ahead.

“I was there when Trump went down the golden escalator,” Burnham told me. “My hope is that I can help bridge the gap between true MAGA and the tech right.”

Some might see him as an unlikely figure for the role, given that his enthusiasm for AI matches that of Silicon Valley’s most bullish innovators. But for Burnham, advancing American AI is more than a defensive measure against hostile nations. It’s an opportunity to create America’s next golden age.

As he told the New York Post: “Artificial intelligence is a revolutionary technology with the potential to make the United States wealthier and greater than it has ever been.”

The AI we deserve

Burnham’s perspective is not exactly shared by much of MAGA — and understandably so. After all, as recently as last year, we were terrified that woke tech companies would use AI to clamp down on our speech. Having had that experience, our instinct might be to try to kill the technology in its crib.

sankai via iStock/Getty Images

But that’s simply not realistic — and not just because China will develop AI without us. The Silicon Valley’s left will then seize the mantle of the future. We can’t allow that to happen, not least of all because the left doesn’t deserve that kind of credit. All leftists want out of AI is the world’s smartest and most vigilant woke hall monitor.

America can — and must — do better than that.

But if we’re going to do better, we need the tech world to be willing to talk to us. That’s why people like Burnham are so critical. You win more flies with honey than with vinegar — just ask AIs themselves.

Unlike AI, however, a MAGA-aligned council of AI policy experts won’t just flatter the people it engages with. It will make the next golden age of American exceptionalism possible.

Exclusive: DHS reveals ‘record-shattering’ winning streak on immigration

The Department of Homeland Security is taking a victory lap after a steady winning streak on immigration enforcement, according to a memo obtained exclusively by Blaze News.

The memo, which was circulated to Republican lawmakers on Thursday, details all of the major accomplishments that have taken place under President Donald Trump and Secretary Kristi Noem's leadership. Within Noem's first 200 days in office, the United States experienced an "unprecedented" decline in the foreign born population, a surge in enforcement, and accelerated deportations.

'A historic start to the largest deportation operation in American history.'

"This incredible achievement is the direct result of President Donald J. Trump's decisive, unapologetic immigration policies and Secretary Noem's aggressive, disciplined implementation - both of which have put Americans first," the memo reads. "Together, they have delivered the strongest immigration enforcement outcome in American history."

DHS Memo to Congressional Republicans

The United States experienced a 2.2 million drop in foreign born population since January, which is the largest ever recorded drop according to the memo. There has also been a 1.6 million drop in illegal aliens within the same time frame, which the memo said is "a historic start to the largest deportation operation in American history."

While there was a decline concentrated among non-citizens, there was simultaneously an increase in naturalized citizens. The memo also said that 2.5 million more U.S. born Americans were employed since January, which is a gain "supported by a tighter, fairer labor market."

DHS Memo to Congressional Republicans

These "record-shattering" figures are supported by the policies pushed by the White House and implemented by DHS. The Trump administration has restarted and accelerated the construction of the border wall, reinstated the "Remain in Mexico" policy, expedited deportations, reinforced cooperation with state and local law enforcement, and even cracked down on visa overstays with biometric exit tracking.

"The United States is sending a clear message - it matters who enters our nation, and how they enter our nation," the memo reads. "The American people have given President Trump this mandate."

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The background

Sneaky tactics

Clashing views

America First reforms

Why import students from our greatest rival?

Educating tomorrow’s rivals

The bailout excuse

America First means Americans first

Universities built on sand

A house of cards

What are they learning?

A higher-ed reckoning

Want more from Sara Gonzales?

China’s energy edge

America’s self-inflicted weakness

Time to hit the accelerator

Liberty on the line

Bringing industry back

Challenging China

America First is winning

Rewriting history

Authoritarianism disguised as ‘democratic’

How we got here

The ISIS record

Interventionist fingerprints

Immigration jihad

Clothes make the man?

The choice ahead

Winning over MAGA

Burnham bridging the gap

The AI we deserve

We’ll keep you informed with top stories for conservatives who want to become informed decision makers.