How a viral video exposed the fall — and rise? — of California



Social media often serves as a cultural barometer, providing useful insight into cultural trends and their shifts. Consider a song parody video that recently went viral. “California Freedom” is an AI-generated satirical reimagining of the 1960s classic “California Dreamin’” by the Mamas and the Papas. Remember that one?

The original song painted California as a paradisiacal escape from the drab and dreary East Coast, a dream only a lucky few could call their home: “All the leaves are brown, and the sky is gray. I’ve been for a walk on a winter’s day. I’d be safe and warm if I was in L.A. — California dreamin’, on such a winter’s day.”

California Freedom gets closer every day as locals rise to the challenge and opportunity in front of them.

The song predates the internet era, but its imagery is timeless: golden sunshine, palm trees, beaches, teens in drop-top cars cruising down Sunset Boulevard. It depicted California as a place of effortless joy — life as it ought to be.

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This is a starkly different California. The scenes are familiar but jarring: riots, wildfires, corrupt officials with clown faces, piles of money from China and other state malefactors. Set to the same tune, the new lyrics deliver a biting contrast:

Our governor’s a clown, so’s the mayor of L.A. Corruption at the top, arrogance on display. Always assumed we would conform — we’re finally awake. California freedom gets closer every day ...

At first glance, this parody video might seem dark and pessimistic, a major fall away from the sunshine of the original. But the opposite is true. The Mamas and the Papas’ version is the one with a sad, nostalgic, depressed message despite its lovely harmonies and lilting flute interlude. The writer is resigned, stuck. He has little agency in his condition. He tells us:

Stopped into a church I passed along the way. Got down on my knees, and I pretended to pray. You know the preacher liked the cold, he knows I’m gonna stay ... if I didn’t tell her I could leave today… California dreamin’ on such a winter’s day ...

The lead singer contributed nothing to the California dream he longed for and felt no control over his own life. Many in his generation shared that attitude. Baby Boomers who came of age in the mid-1960s soaked up messages that told them they were powerless over their future. They grew up and raised children with little resilience, unprepared to face adversity.

These were the kids who never walked alone in the woods or dug up worms by hand. They grew into college students who needed “safe spaces” and coloring books to cope with opposing viewpoints. They are the fragile offspring of a generation that surrendered its agency — and passed along the habit.

RELATED: LA wildfires point to a long list of failures by California authorities

Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images

But the “California Freedom” video tells a different story. Early on, the bear from the state flag rears up, growls, and bares its teeth — startling Nancy Pelosi. We see ICE and law enforcement pushing back on rioters. And after a litany of the corrupt and destructive acts of key state leaders, the original song’s flute solo plays once again — but this time, Donald Trump is shown performing it in front of California’s most iconic and breathtaking landscapes.

Trump playing the flute may draw laughs — a wink at his claim of childhood musical talent — but the image carries weight. His administration has moved swiftly and forcefully to restore order where leftist leaders welcomed chaos and destruction. Through initiatives like the Department of Government Efficiency and budgetary reform, Trump has choked off taxpayer funds to activist groups pushing bloated, often corrupt government control over everyday life.

The video places Trump against California’s most iconic landscapes — redwoods, poppy fields, the Golden Gate — transforming a moment of satire into something more. It’s not just a gag. It’s a statement: California’s promise still lives. Freedom, prosperity, and integrity don’t flow from bureaucrats or ideologues. They come from the land itself — and the people who choose to defend it.

The video speaks clearly: We have agency. California doesn’t have to remain broken. Beneath the corruption, arrogance, and engineered collapse lies a chance to rebuild. The bear — California’s symbol — rises, growls, and shows its teeth. And through the noise, the music plays again. Behind the drug camps and trash-choked boulevards, the state’s beauty and strength still hum with life.

This energy, stronger than COVID lockdowns that crushed working people while Gavin Newsom dined at the French Laundry, signals something new. The future is coming — and it looks nothing like the ruins left behind.

I first traveled to the San Francisco Bay Area in the early 1970s to meet my fiancé’s family, and I fell in love immediately with the land and the sea. Later, while living in Silicon Valley, we explored the state whenever possible. In the L.A. area, I walked the ocean paths often.

What happened to California in the decades since grieves me. It’s one reason I refused to retire there.

But now, a new generation offers hope. Young people inspired by Trump are shedding the passive fragility their parents too often embraced and indulged. They’re building a different California — one rooted not in globalist pretensions or bureaucratic arrogance but in the sea, the mountains, and the enduring beauty of the land itself.

California freedom gets closer every day as locals rise to the challenge and seize the opportunity in front of them.

The Democrats get their left-wing battering ram



For anyone who read my commentary last week, it should be no surprise that I am overjoyed that state Rep. Zohran Mamdani trounced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the New York City mayoral Democratic primary on Tuesday.

Cuomo is a repulsive creep who, as governor, killed thousands of elderly New Yorkers by filling nursing homes with COVID-infected patients. He then lied persistently about his misdeeds. Adding insult to injury, Cuomo groped and mishandled vulnerable women, an offense that led to his resignation in disgrace.

Except for Mamdani’s use of the verboten term 'socialist' and his outspokenly anti-Israeli positions, someone like him fits quite well into the present Democratic Party.

Finally, Cuomo removed bail for violent criminals, something he tried to cover up in his primary race by promising to be “tough on crime.” The fact that Wall Street plutocrats — led by the feckless former mayor, Michael Bloomberg — were backing this shameless reprobate made me even more eager to see him defeated.

Clearly, I am not happy to see Mamdani victorious because I agree with his politics. Looking at the positions he advocates, I can’t find one that doesn’t turn my stomach — but that is also the case when listening to Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, and Amy Klobuchar.

I’ve been told that Mamdani is worse than these other leftists because he calls himself a socialist and bleeds for Hamas. Let me register my doubts that once in office (if he manages to win the general election) he would do anything to nationalize anything. His Upper East Side Manhattan backers, who poured out to vote for him, wouldn’t allow him to act like Castro or Lenin.

What Mamdani would likely do if elected mayor would be to make all the horrible conditions produced by New York’s big-city government even worse. Streets, outside the opulent neighborhoods inhabited by Mamdani’s benefactors, will be overrun by criminal thugs. New York City will become even more of a magnet for LGBTQ+ and Black Lives Matter exhibitionists, and normal people will move out of the urban zoo even faster than they’re doing right now.

Mamdani fits right in

Those claiming that Zohran Mamdani marks some unprecedented plunge into leftist madness haven't been paying attention. High-ranking Democrats such as the Squad, Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, and Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii have long paved the way. Cultural leftists already infest Congress and crowd the statehouses. Aside from Mamdani’s unapologetic use of the word “socialist” and his anti-Israel posturing, he fits quite well in the modern Democratic Party. Nothing about him signals a deeper descent than what voters already hear nightly on MSNBC.

RELATED: New York City’s likely next mayor wants to ‘globalize the intifada’

Christian Monterrosa/Bloomberg via Getty Images

In the general election, Mamdani may end up splitting the left-wing vote with fellow Democrats, including Mayor Eric Adams, who plans to run as an independent. That kind of vote-splitting could hand the race to Republican Curtis Sliwa, who has positioned himself as the law-and-order candidate. He’s the only one I’d actually like to see win. Still, I won’t pretend I wouldn’t enjoy the irony if Mamdani pulled it off. A Mamdani victory would deliver maximum schadenfreude.

Democrats forsake the working class

For decades, New Yorkers and denizens of other major cities have sabotaged themselves at the ballot box — electing pro-criminal politicians, embracing every deranged social experiment, and lately drooling over criminal illegal aliens. Despite the hand-wringing on Fox News, these urban voters aren’t victims of the Democratic Party. They’ve reshaped it. They turned a once-working-class coalition into a hive of government dependents and ideological psychopaths.

Justice demands that these “progressives” live with the consequences of their own political choices. They asked for this. Let them have it — good and hard. The tragedy, of course, is that normal people will suffer too. Those without the money to flee to private buildings with armed security or relocate entirely will pay the price. That’s why I hesitate to cast Mamdani as some kind of avenging angel.

Still, even with the obvious costs of a Mamdani administration, his rise might accelerate a trend that’s both inevitable and necessary. Sane people with means will keep fleeing cities run by criminals and ideologues. Those who stay behind — those who cheer on the chaos — can live with the rot they helped create.

Nothing new under the sun

Let me close with a brief speculation about politicians like Minnesota’s Ilhan Omar, Mamdani, and their counterparts in Europe — figures who somehow blend radical leftist politics with expressions of Islamic fervor. On paper, devout Muslims ought to align with the Christian right on most social issues. And many Muslim parents across the country have taken a stand, loudly opposing LGBTQ+ indoctrination in schools.

So why don’t Muslim politicians follow suit? Two possible explanations come to mind. Either they’re mimicking the old communist playbook — aligning with fringe social movements as a means to power — or they’re using Islamic identity as a wrecking ball to level what’s left of Western tradition and cohesion.

Let’s not pretend both options are equally likely. I suspect it’s the latter.

A version of this article was originally published in Chronicles.

Street riots can’t set US immigration policy



The New York Post last week chided President Trump for not “getting it right” on deportations. But its real target wasn’t Trump. It was Stephen Miller, the president’s longtime immigration adviser and current White House deputy chief of staff. The Post’s editorial board warned that Miller’s plan to apprehend 3,000 illegal aliens per day is “asking for trouble.”

The Post argued the number is unrealistic. Even if Immigration and Customs Enforcement focuses on “the worst of the worst,” the roundup will still trigger media-fueled hysteria and nationwide riots. Mass arrests, it claimed, carry the “highest risk public-opinion-wise.”

If we concede to street violence, we let the enemy set the terms. That’s not leadership. That’s surrender.

The Post envisioned a wave of anti-ICE demonstrations, media pearl-clutching, and chaos. It feared ICE would be stretched too thin trying to hit its daily targets. Worse still, agents might apprehend illegal immigrants who entered before Biden — or even before Obama — and have “put down some roots.” That, we’re told, would create “economic problems,” particularly for agriculture.

The solution? The Post recommended a “scalpel, not a hammer.” Encourage illegal immigrants to self-deport. Offer incentives. Go soft. Supposedly, a million have already left on their own. And if Trump continues gently urging them out, the paper claims, many more will go peacefully.

The problem? We don’t even know if that number is real. The Department of Homeland Security doesn’t systematically track self-deportations. It’s possible some of the exits happened during the Trump years or even before. Regardless, they’ve hardly made a dent in the 11 million people Homeland Security says are here illegally.

But more troubling than the questionable data is the message Trump would send if he adopted the Post’s approach: that he’s willing to pull back on deportations — not because it’s the right policy, but because it might provoke the left. It would mean ICE can’t arrest even violent felons if it risks upsetting the street mobs funded by Democrats. And because the left treats all illegal immigrants as future voters, that would effectively shut down enforcement altogether.

As a historian, I’ll offer a provocative but fitting comparison: Today’s leftist thugs resemble the Nazi brownshirts of the Weimar era. Back then, many thought the nationalists could harness the street violence for political gain. They were wrong. The brownshirts brought chaos, not order. I see nothing morally or politically superior about the rioters in Los Angeles. They may call themselves anti-fascists. But their behavior — and their impact — is the same.

RELATED: Police union calls on Cudahy vice mayor to resign over video taunting violent street gangs to defend LA from ICE agents

Photo by MARVIN RECINOS/AFP via Getty Images

Those who excuse or encourage this violence, or who blame the government for trying to remove violent criminals, don’t care about law and order. They don’t care about stopping murderers, rapists, or cartel operatives. They care about power.

If some illegal immigrants have lived here for years and become productive members of society, the government can evaluate those cases once the criminals are gone. Prioritizing felons doesn’t mean abandoning discretion. But it does mean enforcing the law — despite the noise.

Trump’s crackdown will also encourage more self-deportation. If illegal immigrants know there’s a new sheriff in town, they’ll think twice about staying. As for the rioters and their wealthy enablers? Perhaps, we could find a way to help them self-deport to Antarctica. At a minimum, they deserve the same accommodations the left gave to January 6 protesters.

Even if Miller’s 3,000-a-day goal can’t be fully met, the effort matters. Laura Ingraham is right: We won’t deport all of the Democrats’ future voters. But that’s no reason not to try. The street violence and intimidation are designed to cow Republicans into submission. They’re a threat — not just to policy but to republican government itself.

If we concede to street violence, we let the enemy set the terms. That’s not leadership. That’s surrender.

No more accommodation. Crush the coup.

Why I’m rooting for the lunatic over the creep in NYC



Although I would do so reluctantly — while holding a barf bag in one hand — if forced to vote in the next New York City mayoral election, I’d cast my ballot for Zohran Mamdani.

Yes, thatZohran Mamdani.

It isn’t just the Democratic Party destroying these cities — it’s the people who keep voting for them. Let them live with the consequences.

A dire warning about this unappetizing candidate, a “Muslim lefty from the other side of Queens,” just appeared in the New York Post, which reports that Mamdani consorts with pro-Hamas rioters, adores Black Lives Matter, and recently said Bill de Blasio was “the best mayor of his lifetime.”

In a sane political environment, such a figure would be consigned to the loony bin. But in the present urban climate, voters find themselves grasping for the least ghastly option — if they bother voting at all.

And Mamdani, God help me, appears marginally less disgusting than Andrew Cuomo, who is now the front-runner.

Cuomo, who presided over the slow death of New York as governor, seems poised to take the helm of a city already in decay. In any race to the bottom, he’d win in a landslide. This is a man who groped and manhandled female staffers while parading his feminist credentials; who packed nursing homes with COVID patients, causing the deaths of thousands; who then lied about it repeatedly and shamelessly. He worked tirelessly to eliminate cash bail, unleashing a wave of criminality across the state.

And yet, somehow, Mamdani is supposed to be worse?

That former Mayor Mike Bloomberg — now a prolific funder of leftist candidates — is backing Cuomo only sharpens the stench of this whole affair. The staleness of the New York political class, its complete moral exhaustion, has never been more evident.

Still, I’ll give you another reason I prefer Mamdani: Sometimes collapse is a better catalyst than stagnation.

Cuomo would likely run the city into the ground — but slowly. He’d reward the usual Democratic parasites with patronage, keep street crime just under the boiling point, and exercise marginally more restraint when it comes to unwanted touching. He’d reassure the woke plutocrats and Wall Street donors that he won’t rock the boat too much. He knows the game and plays it well.

But the rot would fester.

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Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images

New York would remain unsafe. Schools and other public institutions would stay in the grip of culturally radicalized unions. The courts would remain ideological tools of the left. Nothing would improve. The decline would just ooze along — business as usual.

Mamdani, by contrast, might deliver a spectacular crash.

If he’s as doctrinaire and deranged as his critics suggest, his administration could bring about real catastrophe with impressive speed. That kind of shock might finally push productive citizens to flee en masse and accelerate the corporate exodus already under way. Sometimes it takes a maniac to wake the slumbering.

This wouldn’t be the first time a disastrous mayor paved the way for genuine reform. In 1994, New Yorkers elected Rudy Giuliani after enduring the catastrophic tenure of David Dinkins. Giuliani cracked down on crime, brought investment back, and helped restore a semblance of order. But it took years of misrule to make that turnaround politically possible.

Yes, I know what you’re thinking: That kind of change isn’t possible any more. Cities like New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia are too far gone. Their voting blocs are locked into leftist fantasy. The idea of another Giuliani, a Richard Daley Sr., or even a Frank Rizzo showing up today seems laughable.

Maybe so. But if that’s true, then the voters are getting exactly what they asked for. It isn’t just the Democratic Party destroying these cities — it’s the people who keep voting for them.

Let them live with the consequences.

Given the state of our urban politics, the choice now is between ideological lunatics and cynical reprobates. Mamdani may fast-forward the train wreck. Cuomo might slow it down. But either way, the crash is coming.

At least with Mamdani, we might finally reach bottom — and from there, maybe, begin again.

SCOTUS Must Rein In Rogue Judges Threatening To Enable Violent Rioters

Over and over again, the court seems fit to allow injustice to persist when it comes to halting the policies of President Trump.

Trump fulfills his oath while Newsom and Bass shield foreign felons



Los Angeles looked like a war zone this week. Rioters — roughly 1,000 strong — torched vehicles and hurled rocks, concrete, and fireworks at law enforcement officers. They slashed tires and set fires in the streets. In the middle of it all, an American flag burned on the pavement as a mob urinated on it and screamed, “F**k Trump!”

This wasn’t spontaneous outrage. It was an organized assault on law, order, and national sovereignty — an eruption years in the making. And it happened in a city governed by officials who have spent decades dismantling the very structures meant to defend their constituents.

The United States owes rights and protections to its citizens — not to those who break its laws and exploit its generosity.

This riot didn’t begin last week. It began when Joe Biden threw open the nation’s borders and undermined the rule of law.

As rioters burn the American flag in downtown Los Angeles, state and local officials burn the constitutions that once protected their citizens.

The Constitution’s preamble lays out the government’s core mission: to establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, and secure liberty for ourselves and our posterity. Article II, Section 3 provides that the president will ensure the laws “be faithfully executed.”

Contrary to what we’ve seen in Los Angeles, the duty of our elected officials is to defend the rule of law — not to support those who challenge it. That responsibility ultimately rests with the president: to protect the safety and security of the United States and its citizens.

Biden lit the fuse

Biden abandoned that responsibility. During his four years in office, he permitted more than 12 million illegal crossings, including at least 500,000 individuals with criminal records in their home countries.

He didn’t just neglect the law — he defied it. And the consequences have been deadly. More than 300,000 Americans died from fentanyl poisoning during the Biden years. Illegal alien gangs now operate trafficking networks in every major U.S. city. Innocent Americans have been raped, murdered, and assaulted because the federal government refused to act.

That’s not failed policy — it’s failed leadership. And the Constitution offers no cover for it.

Trump restores constitutional order

The voters responded in November. Donald J. Trump returned to the White House in January with a clear mandate: re-establish sovereignty, restore order, and protect the American people. That mandate extends to the men and women he’s appointed to carry it out — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and ICE Director Todd Lyons.

Their job is not theoretical. It’s real, it’s active, and it’s happening now. While California officials obstruct federal agents and give shelter to violent mobs, Trump’s team is working to reassert lawful authority — starting with immigration enforcement.

RELATED: Why is Gavin Newsom going full Jefferson Davis?

Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

You might think California’s leaders would welcome help as their cities descend into chaos. Instead, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D) demand that ICE back off and the National Guard go home. Rather than cooperate with federal law enforcement, they’ve chosen to protect the very forces tearing their communities apart.

They might want to reread their founding documents.

Article I, Section 1 of the California Constitution states:

All people are by nature free and independent and have inalienable rights. Among these are enjoying and defending life and liberty, acquiring, possessing, and protecting property, and pursuing and obtaining safety, happiness, and privacy.

Moreover, the Los Angeles City Charter grants broad authority to protect life, liberty, and property. Yet, Bass and Newsom are using that power to shield foreign criminals from lawful arrest.

Sanctuary for criminals

Among those ICE sought to detain last week:

  • Armando Ordaz, convicted of sexual battery and affiliated with a known gang.
  • Victor Aguilar, previously deported and convicted of assault with a deadly weapon.
  • Jesus Morales, a wanted felon convicted of alien smuggling conspiracy.
  • Jose Ortiz, convicted of trafficking large quantities of cocaine.
  • Cuong Chanh Phan, convicted of second-degree murder.

Don't mistake those men for “asylum seekers.” They are predators. And California’s sanctuary policies shield them.

The Declaration of Independence reminds us that legitimate government exists “to secure these rights” — not for foreigners in defiance of the law but for citizens who consent to be governed under it. That is the basis of our system. That is what’s at stake.

This government belongs to Americans

The United States owes rights and protections to its citizens — not to those who break its laws and exploit its generosity. Yet, Democrat-run cities across the country have flipped that principle on its head.

New York. Chicago. Portland. Seattle. Los Angeles. City after city refuse to enforce basic law and order and make a mockery of their charters.

This must end.

Every foreign national who entered this country illegally must come under the jurisdiction of the federal and state constitutions — and face removal. Let them return home and wave their own flags instead of burning ours in the streets.

Donald Trump and his administration understand what’s at stake. The Constitution demands action. America is blessed to have a president willing to deliver it.

No, you’re not a ‘xenophobe.’ You’re just awake.



America is on fire — again. But this time, it’s not just cities burning — it’s our identity.

In Los Angeles, mobs of masked agitators — many waving the Mexican flag, others clutching Palestinian flags, and some burning the American flag — have taken to the streets, firing guns into the air, hurling rocks at ICE vehicles, blocking traffic, and setting fires.

America doesn’t need a savior. It needs a reckoning.

Where is the outrage from the media? Where are the helicopters? The FBI raids? The solitary confinement cells? When a handful of peaceful Americans entered the Capitol on January 6, 2021, a great many politely walking between velvet ropes, they were branded “insurrectionists.” Grandmothers were hunted down. Veterans were jailed without bail. But in Los Angeles, when foreign nationals tear through city streets waving foreign flags, they’re “demonstrators.”

Give me a break.

Illegal alien anarchy

What we saw in California over the weekend was the result of an illegal invasion. And it isn’t new. These aren’t “immigrants.” A great many are illegal aliens — a term defined by law — who have broken federal immigration law, ignored due process, and poured over our borders with the help of a regime that has openly defied the Constitution.

I personally know families who have tried for years to bring a spouse or child to America the legal way. They wait. They pay. They follow the rules. But if you’re an educated Christian refugee from Africa or a skilled engineer from India, you’re told to stand in line. Meanwhile, if you’re a cartel mule from Honduras or a “gotaway” with a gang affiliation, you get flown around the country on the taxpayers’ dime.

We’ve abandoned every principle that once defined American immigration: Learn English. Pledge allegiance. Assimilate. Respect the flag.

Instead, we have mobs chanting slogans that would have triggered national security alerts a decade ago. Now they trigger hashtags. And while President Trump is calling out the National Guard, California’s “leaders” stall, the courts shrug, and citizens remain unprotected.

This isn’t incompetence. It’s sabotage.

Our rights usurped

And the most dangerous part? We’ve been living under a kind of soft martial law for decades.

Since 1938, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure quietly restructured the judiciary under a corporate framework that operates outside the Constitution. These rules merged law and equity courts, nullifying constitutional guarantees and opening the door for administrative tyranny in family courts, juvenile courts, and beyond.

Don’t believe me? Try asserting your First, Fourth, or Fifth Amendment rights in a family court. You’ll be laughed out of the room — if your children haven’t already been taken based on an anonymous tip and a judge’s rubber stamp.

If martial law is officially declared, the Constitution is suspended. That’s not conjecture — that’s legal doctrine. Read Ex parte Milligan (1866), in which the Supreme Court ruled that martial law cannot be imposed where civilian courts are open. Guess what? They’re not “open” any more — they’re rigged, corrupt, and run by private bar guilds with no accountability to the people.

RELATED: The culture war isn’t a distraction — it’s the main front

Photo by Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg via Getty Images

It’s an old tactic. In 1933, Adolf Hitler used the Reichstag fire to suspend civil liberties and pass the Enabling Act. In 1992, Peru’s President Alberto Fujimori used a wave of urban chaos and domestic terrorism to declare martial law and dissolve the legislature. In post-9/11 America, we got the Patriot Act, a surveillance dragnet sold to us under the guise of “security.” Now we’re watching the same script play out again — engineered chaos followed by calls for federalized control and, eventually, constitutional suspension under the banner of “safety.”

Welcome to the final phase of the coup.

While MAGA people wait for Trump to ride in on a white horse, they miss the point: He’s not going to save us. He can’t. No one man can reverse decades of infiltration, judicial fraud, and corporatist collusion.

And note to MAGA: Trump gave immunity to the creators of the COVID-19 vaccine, and his “one big, beautiful bill” is fraught with overspending and a government AI takeover, in which all participants have been granted immunity for wrongdoing for a decade.

We’re done being silent

America doesn’t need a savior. It needs a reckoning.

It needs state nullification, legal rebellion, and mass resistance.

If waving a Mexican or Palestinian flag while burning the Stars and Stripes makes you feel at home, then I’ve got a simple solution: Go home.

Because this isn’t your country. You didn’t build it. You’re not assimilating. You’re here to take, not contribute.

And to my liberal neighbors still crying about how “un-American” it is not to allow these criminals to stay: What’s un-American is letting our Constitution be shredded. What’s un-American is flooding our cities with criminals while veterans sleep under bridges.

What’s un-American is weaponizing immigration to collapse a sovereign nation.

We’re not xenophobes. We’re patriots, and we’re done being silent.

Clear messaging, closed border: Homeland Security’s campaign is working



The Trump administration can claim many historic victories but none greater than securing the southern border. This wasn’t just the fulfillment of Trump’s signature campaign promise — it was a demonstration that “law and order” means nothing without real enforcement.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has become the face of that message. She appears in a series of high-profile ad campaigns — aired nationwide and internationally — warning illegal immigrants to self-deport or face permanent removal. The ads sparked predictable outrage, but the message remains clear: The days of catch-and-release are over.

After four long and chaotic years, this country is once again speaking up for our sovereignty, our citizens, and our way of life.

But the ads aren’t brazen — they’re brilliant.

Democrats have slammed the ads as a waste of money or a form of political advertising. But the truth is, they hate the ads because of how powerful they are.

These ads reflect a basic truth: DHS has a duty to enforce federal immigration law. Campaigns like these aren't new. The Biden administration ran its own digital push in 2022 under Customs and Border Protection, urging migrants to “Say No to the Coyote.”

But the results now speak louder than any slogan. Trump and Noem haven’t just increased removals or tightened border security — they’ve changed the calculus entirely. Fewer migrants are even attempting to enter the country. That’s the power of clear, consistent messaging.

Biden told the world illegal entry wouldn’t carry consequences. Trump has made it clear those days are done.

As Todd Bensman of the Center for Immigration Studies once noted, the power of presidential messaging became undeniable in 2016. Compare the “Trump effect” to the “Clinton effect”: In November 2016, border agents logged more than 63,000 apprehensions. By March 2017 — just two months into Trump’s first term — that number dropped to just over 12,000.

By the end of that term, Trump had slashed both legal and illegal immigration by a staggering 92%. The world took notice.

It’s happening again. After four catastrophic years of Joe Biden, Trump’s return to the Oval Office has triggered a collapse in border crossings. Overall encounters have dropped 93% since he took office. In Panama’s Darien Gap — one of the most notorious corridors for illegal migration — crossings have plunged by 99%.

The message is getting through: America’s borders are no longer open.

Law and order depends, first and foremost, on clarity. It’s one thing to enforce the law, but it’s another thing to make sure everyone knows that you’re enforcing the law. The only way someone can play by the rules is if he knows what the rules are and what the penalties are for breaking those rules.

Why do we write down our laws? Any healthy human society already knows that things like murder, theft, and fraud are wrong. That law is written in our hearts. We write down laws and penalties so that everyone knows exactly what the rules are for living together and what happens otherwise. Advertising the information is the entire point of putting it down on paper in the first place.

RELATED: ‘Self-deport’ flights begin as some illegal migrants take advantage of Trump's tempting offer

Photo by J. David Ake/Getty Images

If our laws are to be truly just, they must be stated clearly and enforced faithfully. This is the entire point of having a written set of laws, so that everyone knows the rules of the game and the penalties for breaking them.

Laws don’t enforce themselves. Without consequences, they’re just suggestions.

Kristi Noem understood that early. She was the first governor to deploy National Guard troops to the southern border in support of Texas during Biden’s open-border disaster. In one meeting with Border Patrol agents, she heard it straight: “There are no consequences right now. Without consequences, there is no enforcement, and there is no law.”

That’s changed.

Under Trump and Noem, consequences are back. And the whole world knows it.

We are no longer seeing mobs of illegal aliens rushing the border wearing Biden campaign T-shirts, expecting to receive free, taxpayer-funded handouts that candidate Biden promised them on the campaign trail. Instead, the corporate left-wing media is forced to churn out pearl-clutching sob stories about how illegal aliens are choosing to self-deport or how businesses that depend on immigrant traffic through the Darien Gap have collapsed due to the decline in immigration.

The famous chart from Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) proves that President Trump accomplished in just 100 days what it took him four years to do last time. And he’s just getting started. These results are not just a function of enforcement. They are a result of messaging.

When America speaks, the world indeed listens. Now, after four long and chaotic years, this country is once again speaking up for our sovereignty, our citizens, and our way of life.

Law And Order Is Coming For America’s Bluest City

Alcatraz is, above all, a signal to criminals and San Francisco lefties alike: this is not Joe Biden's America

EXCLUSIVE: GOP Rep Unveils Bill To Prevent ‘Left-Wing Lunatics’ From Holding US Highways Hostage

'They belong in jail, not on our highways'