The Patriot Post® · Wednesday: Below the Fold

• Marc Fogel comes home: It was a sublime scene¹ last night on the South Portico of the White House: President Donald Trump greeting a smiling man with an American flag draped around his shoulders and snowflakes falling all around them. That man, Marc Fogel, is free today, thanks, he says, to Trump. “I feel like the luckiest man on Earth right now,” he said. Fogel had been in Russian custody since August 2021, having been sentenced to 14 years in prison for bringing into the country what he and his family say was medical marijuana. Newly minted Pennsylvania Senator Dave McCormick, who was part of the team that helped secure Fogel’s release, noted that he and Trump had met Fogel’s 95-year-old mom², Malphine, at their Butler rally last fall, where Trump promised her that he’d bring her son home. Promises made, promises kept.

• Gaza update: On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu echoed Donald Trump’s ultimatum to Hamas³, stating, “If Hamas does not return our hostages by Saturday noon, the ceasefire will end, and the IDF will return to intense fighting until Hamas is finally defeated.” On Monday, Hamas broke its end of the deal, reneging on returning the last nine hostages in the agreed-upon first phase. Hamas falsely claimed that Israel had broken the ceasefire. IDF forces have gathered on the Gaza border, preparing to once again go in to take out Hamas. Meanwhile, Jordanian King Abdullah II told Trump that he is willing to bring to his country 2,000 Palestinian children⁴ who are suffering from illnesses such as cancer. He further noted that Egypt will soon offer a plan to work with Trump on dealing with the Palestinians.

• Household appliance standards deregulated: In his effort to return “common sense standards” to Washington’s regulatory agencies, Donald Trump has issued an order reversing⁵ the Biden administration’s green-energy-based regulations⁶ targeting household appliances. Trump ordered EPA Secretary Lee Zeldin to return to his prior environmental orders⁷ that “were terminated by Crooked Joe Biden.” This covers a variety of household items and appliances — everything from sinks to toilets to dishwashers to lightbulbs. This deregulation order is a welcome development that will serve as a cost-saving measure for consumers.

• Will the Dems shut down the government in protest of DOGE? Government shutdowns have never ended well for Republicans, but the Democrats might soon try their own luck to fight the financial auditing of DOGE. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries says⁸ he’ll use the federal government’s March 14 funding deadline as leverage. New Jersey Democrat Senator Andy Kim decried Donald Trump’s “lawlessness,” also dropping⁹ the Democrats’ hardy perennial of a “constitutional crisis” in his remarks. The Democrats, of course, are the Party of Government, and the mainstream media carries their water, so they’ll have some inherent advantages. But they’ll also be seen as siding with rampant fraud, waste, and abuse. So there’s that.

• Red states creating their own DOGE programs: In yet another example of the Trump Effect, eight conservative states have launched¹⁰ their own versions of Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency. “This is a magic moment to shape the size and scope of government in our lives,” said Jonathan Williams, the president and chief economist of a consortium of red-state lawmakers. “Voters are watching closely after voting in large numbers for President Trump to reduce the federal debt.” Funny, though, how it took Trump and Elon Musk to light a fire of frugality under all these folks. Among the lowest hanging fruit for these state cost-cutters are fraudulent Medicaid payments, including payments to dead people; wasteful education spending, which might be better directed toward school-choice initiatives; and transportation funds, which are commonly diverted to other Big Government pet projects. Godspeed, we say!

• SecDef Hegseth addresses NATO: “Stark realities prevent the United States from being the primary guarantor of security in Europe,” said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in a bracing address¹¹ to NATO nations earlier today. Hegseth added that Europe must become more lethal¹², pay its fair share, and provide for its own defense while the U.S. pivots to China and the security of its own southern border. Donald Trump wants NATO countries to spend 5% of their GDP on defense, as reports indicate that Russia is spending more on defense than the entire continent of Europe. As for the awful war¹³ in Ukraine, Hegseth delivered hard news to President Volodymyr Zelensky: No NATO membership for Ukraine and no pre-2014 borders in any peace deal with Russia — which means that Russia would likely keep both Crimea and the Donbas region, both of which it has now occupied for two years.

• Republicans push Big Tech to dump NewsGuard: Newly installed FCC Chairman Brendan Carr is calling on Big Tech companies Microsoft, Apple, Google, and Meta to cut ties with NewsGuard¹⁴. This self-appointed arbiter¹⁵ of news outlet “trustworthiness” leans heavily left and encourages companies to avoid advertising on right-leaning media outfits. Carr called it Orwellian and said one of his top priorities is ending “censorship cartels” that have actively engaged in the suppression of free speech. NewsGuard may soon be subject to a Federal Trade Commission investigation because, as FTC Commissioner Andrew Ferguson noted in December, “it can choke off the advertising dollars that are the lifeblood for many websites.” Congressional Republicans have also targeted NewsGuard, with the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee launching an investigation into its impact on free speech rights.

• Judge orders leftist gender ideology back into HHS, CDC, and FDA: In a great example of the judicial branch interfering with the executive, U.S. District Judge John Bates granted a temporary restraining order¹⁶ sought by a leftist group called Doctors for America hoping to restore leftist gender ideology onto the websites of the HHS, CDC, and FDA after Donald Trump ordered it removed. Bates concluded that the executive agencies likely acted unlawfully in stripping this “medical information,” which harms “everyday Americans, and most acutely, underprivileged Americans, seeking healthcare.” Furthermore, Bates noted that two of the doctors in the case claimed they would not be able to treat and meet their patients’ needs if this information were not publicly published on these government websites. In truth, this is all about the Left’s ongoing effort to prop up the gender-bending cult as “scientific.”

Headlines

• Consumer prices rise 0.5% in January; annual rate rises to 3% (CNBC¹⁷)

• As DOGE targets FEMA, the aid agency is accused of illegally destroying records (Washington Examiner¹⁸)

• Trump admin tells NCAA to strip records of male athletes who competed in women's sports (Daily Wire¹⁹)

• Disney walks back DEI initiatives, changes disclaimers on classic films (Daily Wire²⁰)

• PBS shuts down its diversity office (AP²¹)

• Humor: 10 essential things USAID provides to poor kids in foreign countries (Babylon Bee²²)

For the Executive Summary archive, click here²³.