President Donald Trump's longest-serving director of legislative affairs is departing this White House in the coming weeks, wrapping up nearly 600 wild, white-knuckle days of managing relations between the the 47th president and the Congress.
While Trump's massive 2024 electoral victory created powerful momentum in the early days of the administration, hard battles were quick to follow. The White House relied on knife's-edge majorities in both chambers, as well as a number of senior senators in particular who carried no love for the president — and no sure loyalty to his priorities.
'James has played a critical role in our many accomplishments with Congress.'
Just a week after Trump trounced Democratic nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris by 2,284,967 votes and 86 electoral points, former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) gave a speech to the neoconservative think tank AEI in which he promised to devote his remaining days in office to frustrating the incoming Republican administration.
While less strident than their leader, Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) promised similarly tough approaches. Both Collins and Murkowski backed former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley for president, though her campaign only ever won Washington, D.C., and all three of them had voted to impeach at the end of Trump's first term.
Despite formidable obstacles from the entire Democrat coalition and parts of the Grand Old Party itself, James Braid and his team were able to accomplish sweeping legislation on taxes, energy, the border, and spending in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act; send $70 billion to immigration and border enforcement with the Secure America Act, even after the ICE-involved Minneapolis shootings scattered Senate support; create a regulatory framework for stablecoin cryptocurrency with the Genius Act; claw back $9 billion in overspending with a Rescissions Act; and crack down on deadly fentanyl trafficking and revenge porn with the Halt and Take It Down acts.
Even while the president, the Congress, and the parties all duked it out, the legislative affairs team was able to notch a number of major bipartisan victories. Early on, the Laken Riley Act won Democrat votes to create new tools for states to detain criminal illegal aliens and, possibly more importantly, give states legal remedies when the federal government refused its responsibility to protect states being swamped by illegal immigration, as many experienced during the Biden administration.
Braid and his team were also instrumental in helping to form coalitions and grease tracks for the 21st Century Road to Housing Act. The bill was perhaps Washington's most populist reform of the past two years, working to lower housing prices and protect American families by taking on powerful, entrenched private equity interests that had been busily buying up entry-level homes in fast-growing markets, paying cash, and converting starter neighborhoods into permanent rental communities. While the vote ended up passing nearly unanimously, it was a battle to see it out of committees run by corporate-friendly Republicans and others unwilling to work with liberal Democrats.
Aside from legislative victories, Braid and his team successfully shepherded a number of deeply contentious nomination fights through an often hostile Senate, winning votes for Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Chairman of the Federal Reserve Kevin Warsh, and Attorney General Todd Blanche.
Blanche's confirmation was successful even after Trump targeted two of the Republican senators on the committee in their primary campaigns. While former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) withdrew their nominations, this administration has never lost a confirmation vote.
"James has played a critical role in our many accomplishments with Congress, including the ONE BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL, beating the Democrats in two shutdown showdowns, passing the GENIUS Act, defeating a record number of War Powers resolutions, and in the confirmation of my Cabinet at the fastest rate in decades," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post Thursday morning.
Braid has long worked on Capitol Hill and joined the campaign as the legislative director for JD Vance, then a fast-moving and combative freshman senator. "James Braid had one of the toughest jobs in the entire Administration as White House Legislative Director and delivered for President Trump at every turn," Vance wrote Thursday morning. "He played a critical role in all of the administration’s achievements in Congress: largest tax cut ever, resources to carry out President Trump's historic immigration agenda and finish the border wall, defeating two Democratic shutdowns, a landmark first crypto bill, the fastest confirmation of the cabinet in decades and much more."
"I am profoundly grateful to President Trump and Vice President Vance for the opportunity to be a part of this extraordinary team and to serve in an administration that has worked with the Congress to deliver the largest tax relief in American history, the resources necessary to secure the border and build the wall across two reconciliation bills, the fastest confirmation of the Cabinet in 20 years, and defeating two Democratic shutdowns," said Braid in a statement.
Britain is among the Western nations whose liberal elites embraced the cult of multiculturalism and repeated the mantra "diversity is our strength" while welcoming unassimilable hordes from the third world. The fallout of this toxic empathy has been severe and far-reaching.
It has gotten so bad, in fact, that the British Home Office evidently saw cause to remind migrants on Wednesday not to rape or mutilate children.
'The Home Office should instead deport them.'
The government's new booklet, titled "Understanding behaviours and expectations in the U.K.: A guide for asylum seekers," states at the outset, "We understand that coming to a new country can be difficult, and that laws and customs here may be different from your home country. In the U.K., there are laws that protect everyone's safety, dignity, and rights. It is important that you understand them."
The booklet points out, for instance, that women in the United Kingdom are actually allowed to "work and earn their own money; study and go to school or university; travel freely; choose who they marry, or choose not to marry; [and] make their own decisions about their lives."
The Home Office underscored that even husbands, fathers, and brothers cannot make decisions for an adult female without her consent.
In the section on sex and consent, the Home Office informed newcomers that unlike whatever backwaters they may hail from, "In the U.K., the law is clear and strict: Both people must agree to sex or sexual contact of any kind."
"If someone is asleep, drunk, or unable to respond, they cannot consent," added the booklet, published just days after an Eritrean migrant, 33-year-old Bruke Desalagne, was found guilty of raping an intoxicated elderly man for 20 minutes outside a church in North London.
After telling asylum seekers that they are expected not to threaten people into having sex with them, the Home Office's booklet emphasized that statutory rape is indeed a crime.
"The legal age of consent in the U.K. is 16. This means that anyone under the age of 16 is considered a child and cannot legally agree to have sex," said the document. "There are no exceptions to this rule. Even if they say yes, it is still illegal. You could go to prison, lose your support and accommodation, and it will affect your asylum claim."
Of course, the United Kingdom won't deport all foreign child rapists.
For example, the victims of 73-year-old child rapist Shabir Ahmed were informed in June that the criminally convicted leader of a Pakistani grooming gang — which police said victimized as many as 50 girls — was being released from prison and could not be deported due to provisions under the Immigration Act of 1971.
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Besides reminding migrants that women have rights and that it's wrong to have sex with children, the Home Office guide noted that asylum seekers are expected to refrain from making sexual comments to strangers, making kissing noises at passersby, stalking individuals in public or blocking their paths, and verbally abusing people because of their religion, sex, or appearance.
The booklet concludes by informing asylum seekers that it is a crime to "take sexual images of someone without their consent" and to "share sexual images of someone without their consent."
On Wednesday, the Home Office also released a leaflet titled "Keeping children safe in the U.K.," again reminding asylum seekers that "what is allowed in some countries may be illegal here."
In addition to reminding foreigners that sex with children is a crime and that children shouldn't be beaten with "objects like belts or sticks," the leaflet notes that "female genital mutilation (FGM) and forcing a child to marry are serious crimes in the U.K."
Just in case asylum seekers manage to miss these materials, the Home Office apparently has produced posters stating that sex with children "will affect your asylum claim."
"The Home Office has spent your money to produce these posters for illegal migrants," tweeted Reform UK leader Nigel Farage. "Why are we letting these people into our country?"
Chris Philp, the Conservative member of parliament serving as shadow home secretary, wrote, "The Home Office has just issued a booklet to illegal immigrants advising them not to commit rape and sexual assault, including of children[.] This tells us all we need to know about the kind of people illegally entering our country."
"Illegal and legal immigrants are coming from places and societies where attitudes towards women are completely incompatible with Western society," continued Philp. "It seems like every day there is another report of an illegal immigrant raping or assaulting women and young girls here. Instead of trying to train these mainly young, male illegal immigrants to behave in a civilised way towards women, the Home Office should instead deport them."
According to data obtained from the U.K. Ministry of Justice by the Telegraph, foreign nationals were responsible for over 25% of sexual assaults on women that were successfully prosecuted in 2024. The Telegraph noted that another 8% of sexual assaults on women were committed by offenders of "unknown" national origins, meaning the overall proportion of convicted foreign-born rapists is likely much higher.
It appears Britons are tiring of all this diversity.
A poll released in November by the National Center for Social Research found that whereas 64% of American respondents said that diversity strengthens society, only 49% of British respondents agreed. Forty percent of Britons said that white people declining as a share of the population was bad for society.
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A Chinese national was arrested Wednesday in Massachusetts for orchestrating a bizarre scheme involving the alleged framing of another national for voter fraud.
33-year-old Yupeng Sun impersonated another Chinese person who had legal permanent status and tried to frame the victim for voting in the 2024 election, according to a U.S. Attorney's Office press release.
He then submitted numerous anonymous tips to Homeland Security Investigations and US Citizenship and Immigration Services accusing the victim of illegally voting.
Sun also allegedly submitted two fraudulent immigration forms in the name of the victim and his wife, which led to their green cards being confiscated. They were also entered into removal proceedings.
Prosecutors said Sun impersonated the victim in order to register online to vote and then submitted an early voting ballot at Malden City Hall.
He then submitted numerous anonymous tips to Homeland Security Investigations and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services accusing the victim of illegally voting in the presidential election.
Sun went on to impersonate the couple in order to request the abandonment of their legal permanent status.
The couple discovered the scheme when they returned to the U.S. from an international trip in June 2024 and their green cards were confiscated during secondary inspection at the airport in Boston.
The DOJ said the Lexington Police Department and the Andover Police Department were instrumental in the investigation to unravel Sun's alleged scheme.
Sun was charged with one count of fraudulent voter registration and one count of fraudulent voting.
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The charging documents indicated that the victims told police Sun was their tenant but had been evicted and retaliated by harassing them and ultimately trying to get them deported. Sun had been arrested for allegedly attacking the victims' daughter, but the charges were dropped.
Sun admitted that he was "very, very" angry at both the victim and his daughter in an interview with police and appeared to confess to signing some of the documents.
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'If you have sex with someone without their consent, this is called rape. Rape is a serious crime in the UK.'
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