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On today’s Top News in 10, we cover: 

The House of Representatives’ newly created DOGE Subcommittee held its first hearing Wednesday with a focus on the “War on Waste.” The subcommittee is running parallel to President Trump and Elon Musk’s audit of the federal government. 

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth spent Wednesday in Brussels, where he told members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to have a dose of realism about the outcome for Ukraine in its war with Russia. 

The White House is turning up the pressure on federal judges who have blocked many of Trump’s executive actions. White House press secretary Karoline Levitt spoke about the so-called constitutional crisis between the two branches of government at Wednesday’s briefing. 

Plus, our news flash: 

The U.S. Senate confirmed Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence in a 52-48 vote Wednesday with Sen. Mitch McConnell as the sole Republican in opposition. 

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem retrieved the $59 million that FEMA allocated last week to house illegal aliens in New York City. 

Sen. Joni Ernst and Rep. Scott Perry introduced Protecting Taxpayers’ Wallet Act to rein in the amount of time federal employees spend on union business. 

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Why did President Barack Obama start using words like “diversity, equity, and inclusion” instead of the typical "affirmative action"?

Affirmative action was created to right the historic wrongs imposed on African Americans during the Jim Crow era, which included about 10% of the U.S. population. Obama used DEI to expand the terminology to anyone who isn’t white. Why?

Victor Davis Hanson argues in this edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words” that it was to dramatically increase the size of the historically marginalized constituency, allowing the Obama administration to implement its expansive woke agenda: 

“Affirmative action was created during the civil rights era, 1964 and '65, and then, now, it has been with us almost 60 years. But remember what it was originally designed for—to address the historic racism and oppression of black Americans through slavery and Jim Crow, de facto segregation in some of the Northern states, but de jure segregation in the South.

"And it said that because of that African Americans had not been given equality of opportunity. Statute never said anything about quotas or equality result ... 

“When the Obama administration came in, they saw that that constituency was not big enough for the type of woke agenda that they were envisioning 

"So, they recreated it. They used a word, “diversity.” And diversity then would morph in, during the Obama years, to “diversity, equity, and inclusion.” They added the “equity and inclusion” so you didn't obsess on race, which was the obsession. But they didn't want you to think about that. So then, all of a sudden, anybody was diverse on one qualification.

"They were not white."

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Is the Left taking the bait? While many in the legacy media continue to berate Elon Musk for his role in defunding bloated federal programs and agencies, Donald Trump remains largely unscathed. Is this part of a larger strategy by the president, wonders Victor Davis Hanson on today’s edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words.”

“He's more legitimate—or he has more statutory legitimacy—than earlier presidential advisors, like Harry Hopkins, who moved into the White House under the FDR administration, or Bernard Baruch, who basically ran two world wars, in terms of domestic production, under Woodrow Wilson and FDR. So, let's just dispel the idea that he's doing anything unusual. ...

“As far as the executive orders that created the DOGE program and eliminated USAID—that was perfectly legal in itself—USAID was created by John F. Kennedy in 1961 by an executive order. There was a statutory direction for the president to disperse foreign aid into a comprehensive body, but it didn't say USAID—he could do whatever he wanted. ...

"And so, Donald Trump has decided to end an autonomous USAID and fold it into the State Department for disaster relief or poverty relief or famine relief. ...

 “All Donald Trump is doing is saying, ‘I don't believe the impoundment act is legal. We'll see what the Supreme Court says—but I'm just following the precedent that Joe Biden did.’ But now, the shoe's on the other foot."

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After years of military service, and long before running for Congress, Rep. Pat Harrigan, R-N.C., and his wife started a family and focused on growing their business in North Carolina. The couple had “nothing to do with politics until Afghanistan came crashing down” in 2021. 

Watching Afghanistan fall so quickly back into the hands of the terrorists that Harrigan had fought to defeat during his military service was one of the reasons Harrigan says he decided to run for Congress.  

“Our politicians failed us,” he said. “Our military leaders failed us. And at some point, you just step back and you realize, if we're structurally so weak that we would lose Afghanistan the way that we lost it, we're just asking our adversaries to attack us.” 

“I really do believe that the way that we left Afghanistan condemned the next generation of Americans to conflict,” Harrigan added. “And I want to do everything that I can possibly do here in Washington to deter that next conflict that I think is very likely to happen. And in the event we are not able to deter it, I want to set the conditions to win it because there's no substitute for winning.” 

Harrigan’s passion for strengthening the U.S. defense industrial base began to take form during his years of military service, going back to when he was 23 and found himself in Afghanistan overseeing about 350 Americans, Afghans, and expatriates at a small combat outpost. 

The position was “very difficult,” Harrigan says, but also a “very rewarding leadership experience that really shaped a lot of who I am today.” Harrigan, a graduate of West Point, returned to Afghanistan in 2015 after becoming a Green Beret. 

The congressman joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” just one month into his term to discuss how the Trump administration can restore U.S. military readiness, and decrease wasteful use of military resources that is adding to the U.S. national debt. 

Please enjoy my conversation with Rep. Pat Harrigan!

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On this edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words”, Hanson talks about the current status of the Mexican-American relationship.

Currently, the United States has a $100 billion plus trade deficit with Mexico. 

Days after taking office, President Trump directed the U.S. military to begin deportation flights to Mexico. Mexico initially refused, only to concede days later. 

Trump threatened to impose a 25% on Mexican imports unless America’s southern neighbor took concrete action to curb the flow of illegal aliens and drugs across its borders. 

A day later, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum caved, sending 10,000 national guard troops to the U.S. southern border. 

“What is the Mexican-American status quo now? It's very disturbing. We sent deported criminals back to Mexico and they would not allow them to land in Mexico. We had people of the cartel shoot an American citizen on U.S. land and shoot at our Border Patrol. So, what is Mexico? Is it a neutral? Is it an ally? Is it an enemy? Is it a frenemy?”

“So, I don't know what Mexico is, but I know what we can do about it. 20% tax on anybody who sends, anywhere in the United States, money back to Mexico. That would raise about $12 billion dollars. That would send a message. And then we have a tariff. Donald Trump says he's going to do it very quickly and that would tell Mexico, “you're not going to run up a $167 billion under the guise of the North American Free Trade [Agreement].”

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President Donald Trump is not using tariffs for their historical purpose, which is to protect and promote domestic industry. Instead, Trump, as Victor Davis Hanson argues, is using tariffs to hold countries, like Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, and China, accountable. 

And it’s working. 

On this edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words,” Hanson dispels the Left’s hysteria over President Trump’s tariff policies: 

“So, if you take Venezuela and Colombia, he's saying that ‘you people deliberately emptied your jails and you sent them to the United States—sent them being felons—violent felons. And you're not going to do that anymore’ 

And they said, ‘we're not taking them back’. He said, ‘you're going to take them back, or I'm going to put a tariff’. So, it was a lever of diplomacy, and it worked. They backed down completely.” 

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On today’s Top News in 10, we cover: 

President Donald Trump’s speech to members of Congress and faith leaders at the National Prayer Breakfast. He promised to make America faithful again and signed an executive order directing Attorney General Pam Bondi to create a task force to “eradicate anti-Christian bias.” 

Players from the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles who are speaking openly about their faith. Each team’s star quarterback—Patrick Mahomes of the Chiefs and Jalen Hurts of the Eagles—spoke about the role of Jesus Christ in their own lives during Super Bowl media day. 

The NCAA’s decision to comply with Trump’s executive order banning men from women and girls’ sports is already having an impact. The NCAA was ground zero for many of these controversies, sparking outrage from student athletes like swimmer Riley Gaines. 

Plus, our quick hits: 

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers targeted multiple apartment complexes across Aurora, Colorado, but the operation netted only one member of the dangerous Tren de Aragua gang due to a suspected leak. 

Democrats successfully delayed FBI director nominee Kash Patel’s confirmation until next week. 

The Trump administration ousted members of the board that would hire Kari Lake to head up the Voice of America, potentially easing her appointment to the long-troubled international broadcasting agency. 

Federal workers have a few more days to decide if they want to take the Trump administration’s buyout offer thanks to a judge’s ruling Thursday. 

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