• Republican senators introduce the WALL Act: Long-term success in border enforcement will require completing a strategic physical barrier. In that vein, Senators James Risch and Katie Britt introduced the WALL Act on Monday. “Now is the time to finish the southern border wall,” Risch declared, adding that this legislation will help Donald Trump complete what he started in his first term. The bill establishes a price of $25 billion for completing the wall, which Risch contends will be offset by “closing loopholes and eliminating taxpayer-funded entitlements and tax benefits for people who are in the U.S. illegally.” During his first term, 460 miles of border wall were constructed despite heavy opposition from Democrats. This time, Trump has the majority of the American people demanding border enforcement.

• White House pauses federal grants and loans: In an effort to tackle the federal government’s spending problem, Donald Trump has directed all federal agencies to analyze all their financial assistance programs. On Monday, the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, Matthew Vaeth, sent a memo to all federal agencies directing them to “temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance.” Vaeth specifically noted that the order included suspending “financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the Green New Deal.” Furthermore, all agencies must deliver detailed reviews of these programs by February 10. Democrat lawmakers objected to the order, calling its scope “breathtaking, unprecedented, and … devastating.” We’ll give them “breathtaking.”

• Trump orders Iron Dome for America: Seeing how well it has worked for Israel, Trump signed an executive order on Monday instructing newly confirmed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to lead the Pentagon in developing an “Iron Dome for America.” The order directs Hegseth to submit within 60 days “a reference architecture, capabilities-based requirements, and an implementation plan for the next-generation missile defense shield.” Given the fact that both Russia and China are developing hypersonic missiles, this shield will need to defend “the United States against ballistic, hypersonic, advanced cruise missiles, and other next-generation aerial attacks from peer, near-peer, and rogue adversaries.” Considering the size of the U.S., experts note that, unlike Israel, this missile defense shield will include some form of a space-based missile interception system. No price tag was included in the order, but it will certainly run in the billions.

• Trump DOJ fires lawfarers and probes J6 investigations: It was a rough day for the lawfare crowd at the former Biden “Justice” Department, as new management says it’s firing more than a dozen members of (unconstitutional) Special Counsel Jack Smith’s merry band of Trump persecutors. According to Acting Attorney General James McHenry, the newly unemployed lawyers aren’t part of the plan for “faithfully implementing the president’s agenda.” In addition, interim U.S. Attorney Ed Martin is leading a review of certain January 6 prosecutions. In an email Monday, he asked prosecutors to turn over “all files, documents, notes, emails and other information” related to J6 cases — namely, the ones that relied on an obscure Enron-era obstruction statute. Martin called this decision a “great failure,” saying, “We need to get to the bottom of it.”

• Biden released a murderer: Amid the record-setting deluge of pardons handed out by Joe Biden, there were bound to be some really egregious ones. As it turns out, one of them went to Adrian Peeler, a dirtbag who was convicted for his involvement in the murder of an eight-year-old boy and his mother in Bridgeport, Connecticut, in 1999. Prosecutors said the two were gunned down to keep the child from identifying and testifying against Peeler in a separate murder case. How did it happen? Apparently, Peeler had been convicted on two separate sets of charges, with the murder conviction being a 25-year state charge that he completed in 2021, while he was still serving a federal drug-trafficking charge.

• Sleazy Bill Gates kinda sorta regrets his Epstein sickness: “In retrospect, I was foolish to spend any time with him. I think I was quite stupid.” So said Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, who was finally asked during a lengthy Wall Street Journal interview about his relationship with the convicted pedophile. “I thought it would help me with global health philanthropy,” Gates added. “In fact, it failed to do that. It was just a huge mistake.” Apparently, Gates wants to win a Nobel Peace Prize, and he thought Epstein could somehow help burnish his credentials. Maybe Donald Trump should release the Epstein Files.

• COVID vax mandate dropped for legal immigrants: Legal immigrants will no longer be required to get a COVID vaccination in order to receive their green card. In a post on X, Riley Gaines revealed: “Just got another letter from USCIS saying they won’t give my husband his green card until he gets the Covid jab. This is ridiculous. We’ve been married coming up on 3 years. We’ve spent thousands for the submitted forms to expire on their time. We’re hoping for change soon.” Within hours of that post, Gaines noted “HUGE NEWS” with a link to the USCIS website showing that the COVID vaccine requirement for legal immigrants has been rescinded. “I can’t even tell you the thousands of people in the same situation who have reached out over the past few years,” she added. “Promises made, promises kept. Thank you, [Donald Trump].”

• Trump outlines agenda at GOP congressional conference: The unity and enthusiasm were evident yesterday as Donald Trump welcomed House Republicans to his Doral resort in Miami for their annual Congressional Institute conference. The president spoke for roughly an hour, stressing the need to stick together given the party’s razor-thin margin in the House. “This has been … and will be a very exciting new chapter,” he said. “There’s nothing we cannot achieve as long as the Republican Party stays united.” Among the issues Trump discussed were extending his tax cuts, raising the debt ceiling, and passing legislation for border security and energy production. As for how it’s accomplished, Trump said he’s flexible about passing one all-encompassing bill or two. One ominous sign regarding unity was noted by former Congressman Jason Chaffetz: 48 House members didn’t even show up.

Headlines

• Trump signs executive orders banning “radical gender ideology,” DEI initiatives in the military (Fox News)

• U.S. places dozens of senior aid officials on leave (AP)

• Google Maps to rename “Gulf of Mexico” to “Gulf of America” (The Hill)

• Attorneys challenge Bank of America’s claims it doesn’t discriminate against conservatives (The Federalist)

• Selena Gomez posts, quickly deletes video crying about ICE deportations (Fox News)

• Sharpton uses MSNBC platform to promote corporate shakedown of companies that ditch DEI (Washington Free Beacon)

• Humor: Confused Joe Biden shows up to Monday morning staff meeting (Babylon Bee)

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