As President Donald Trump positions “the largest naval and air forces” off Iran’s coast that the U.S. has “seen since the invasion of Iraq in 2003,” he has some pros and cons to weigh about striking the Middle Eastern country. 

The U.S. isn’t in a war with Iran right now, so Trump’s positioning of forces could be for “either a preventive war, long-term threat, or a preemptive war,” explains Victor Davis Hanson on today’s episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In a Few Words.”

“It’s very controversial, and we don’t know whether he’s going to pull the trigger or not ... He’ll have to make the decision pretty quickly because you can’t just take those many naval assets and stick them halfway across the world ... The window is probably about another six weeks.”

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Thursday, Feb. 19, Tazewell Circuit Court Judge Jack Hurley Jr. granted a restraining order sought by the Republican National Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee along with Congressmen Ben Cline (VA-06) and Morgan Griffith (VA-09). The order prohibits any voting to take place before March 18. 

In order to comply with Virginia law, voting of the April 21 deadline needed to begin on March 6.  

The request for a restraining order is based on the contention that the Democrat majority in the General Assembly were ramming redistricting-related bills through the legislature. 

Hurley ruled in favor of the plaintiffs because he found merit in the argument concerning the ballot question’s language. The judge further sided with Republicans in ruling that the referendum violates the timing requirements set out in the state constitution.

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From preserving parental vaccine rights to the inner workings within the Gold State’s capitol, Darrlene Alquiza and Jessica Cabrera with Informed Policy Advocates join Elaine Culotti, Daily Signal California contributor for a special interview to discuss their work.

NOTE : This interview was recorded prior to Elaine Culotti’s 2026 California governor announcement.

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Are Democrats really ready for a comeback—or are we about to revisit the graveyard of their own failed experiments?

The so-called “new paradigms” of the Obama-Biden years—open borders, DEI mandates, deficit socialism, disarmament, and radical gender ideology—didn’t just falter… they collapsed under their own weight, argues Victor Davis Hanson on today’s edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words:”

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00:00 Midterms Preview: Trump Counterrevolution vs. a Democratic Comeback

02:15 ‘Graveyard of Bad Ideas’ #1: The Trans Politics Pushback

04:17 Bad Idea #2: Open Borders and the Immigration Backlash

05:37 Bad Ideas #3–4: Disarmament Illusions & Deficit Socialism Debt Bomb

08:00 Bad Idea #5 + Wrap-Up: DEI Fatigue and the Final Verdict

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President Trump is reversing the Biden administration’s years of damage to American “family finances” and “federal finances.”

When Biden left office in Jan. 2025, “the private sector wasn’t adding any jobs at all, but losing them,” explains E.J. Antoni, Ph.D., The Heritage Foundation’s chief economist.

One year later and Trump is righting the ship: Last month was the best January ever for employment among native-born Americans. 

The private sector added 172,000 jobs while government jobs declined by 42,000. All told, Donald Trump has reduced the federal bureaucracy by 323,000 in just one year.

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01:07 How Bidenomics Stalled the Private Sector (and Grew Government)

02:31 Righting the Ship: Private-Sector Hiring Up, Federal Bureaucracy Cut

03:49 Paychecks vs Prices: Inflation Cools, Affordability Still a Fight

06:24 Deficits, Spending Cuts, and What Congress Must Do Next (Wrap-Up)

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When there’s a problem, call Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Trump’s “fireman.”

Last week, Marco Rubio, in keeping with the tradition started by Vice President JD Vance last year, painted a sobering picture of Europe’s future. But with a twist.

Rubio did not gloat or talk down to his fellow world leaders.

Instead, he glorified America’s European heritage—a very controversial statement amongst leftists who try to distance themselves from Western norms and cultures—saying that Europe is poised to make the same mistakes America has already made: 

letting in 10 million illegal aliens, replacing meritocracy with DEI, failing to maintain military superiority, and forgoing energy independence.

Europe is currently backsliding because it, unlike America, does not have a continent full of Donald Trumps to bring about a counterrevolution, argues Victor Davis Hanson on today’s edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In a Few Words:”

“It really enhanced the position of Marco Rubio because he's sort of become Trump's fireman. When there's a problem that seems unsolvable or that people, whether it's in Panama or whether it's in the Middle East or whether it's in the Western Hemisphere, people call on Rubio.

“And I think we should watch that very carefully because I think we're going to enter into the 2028 race, not with a Vance-Rubio vice president, but with two strong candidates.”

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California’s unfunded mandates “are exactly what they sound like:” a mandate “with no money behind it.”

A solution like deannexation, however, could really “change the culture of what Sacramento” has been been doing of forcing cities to follow mandates and pay for them, explains Elaine Culotti, The Daily Signal’s California contributor.

“It starts to direct tax dollars directly back to the cities in which have been deannexed. It’s an interesting business model, and for a state like California, is really important.”

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With only nine months until the midterm elections, Democrats will scrutinize every move President Donald Trump takes as they fight to reclaim control of the House and the Senate.

Victor Davis Hanson lays out the narrow road ahead to victory for Trump and the GOP during the 2026 midterm elections. History is not on the incumbent’s side. Messaging mistakes and unforced errors could shift key voters and hand Congress back to Democrats. Hanson explains what it will take to hold a Republican majority—and why the stakes for these midterm elections could not be higher—on today’s episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In a Few Words."

“There's another advantage that Trump has. They've raised, I think, $90 to $100 million. They've out-raised the Left by three or four times. And the billionaire class of Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg, not to mention Marc Andreessen or Elon Musk, they have defected and it's really hurting the Democrats.

“What they're looking at in California with this billionaire's tax, you can be a billionaire and have property and investments, homes, but you might only have, I don't know, $100 million. They're gonna take $50 million from you on your aggregate worth. That's not gonna go over well with the billionaire class. And there, that's just a foretaste of what Kamala Harris will do if she has a Democratic Congress.”

(0:00) Midterms Ahead

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Are we prepared for the Cold War we’re actually in?

Communist China is deeply embedded in every facet of American life—our economy, academics, and cultural life. For that reason, Victor Davis Hanson warns that we are already in a Cold War against it. 

The Soviet Union had thousands of nuclear weapons. But China, Hanson argues, presents a different kind of challenge—one rooted in infiltration, influence, and integration rather than isolation. Do Americans recognize the scope of the challenge we’re up against? And are we prepared to stand strong? Victor Davis Hanson answers all this and more on today’s episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In a Few Words.”

“There's an insidious idea that China's not really an enemy because of the massive amount of money that has been invested there. And that means put the Chinese students, the Chinese residents, the foreign investment, and our history of empathy with China; it’s very, very hard to tell people that China is an existential enemy in the way that Russia was. And we all know that they played the DEI woke propaganda card. Especially we saw that with COVID.

“Can you imagine if the Russians bought farmland next to us, high-security military bases? We would have never allowed that to happen. We would have never funded a Russian lab. So there are so many different ways that China has infiltrated the cultural, social, economic, political life, the military life of the United States, that they are much more insidious, much more powerful.”

(0:00) Introduction

(0:15) Comparing the Cold Wars: Russia vs. China

(0:40) The Russian Cold War: Isolation and Espionage

(2:14) China's Unique Position

(3:20) The Cultural and Economic Infiltration by China

(5:34) DEI Propaganda and COVID-19

(6:38) China's Strategic Infiltration and Conclusion

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It’s been five weeks since the U.S. removed former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from power. But the question on everyone's mind is what comes next now that Maduro is no longer in power. 

State Department Deputy Spokesperson Tommy Pigott joined “The Signal Sitdown” this week to discuss the plan to stabilize, recover, and transition power in Venezuela.

Pigott explained the administration's phased approach to Venezuela. 

"First, the stability of Venezuela. Second, the recovery, where you might see the beginnings of investment, in oil infrastructure, for example. Then the third phase being that transition to a longer-term situation where hopefully you have a reliable partner in the region."

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