The Patriot Post® · Monday: Below the Fold

• Trump vs. Houthis: Over the weekend, Donald Trump dramatically shifted the U.S. response to the Houthi terrorists in Yemen, who have been attacking international shipping traffic in the Red Sea region since 2023. On Saturday, Trump announced that “decisive and powerful” military strikes¹ had been taken against the Houthis in Yemen, taking out several Houthi leaders who have been effectively running a modern-day pirating operation. As Trump stated, Houthi attacks “on American vessels will not be tolerated.” Trump also directly warned Iran: “Support for the Houthi terrorists must end IMMEDIATELY! Do NOT threaten the American People … or Worldwide shipping lanes. If you do, BEWARE, because America will hold you fully accountable.” This action is a welcome change² from Joe Biden’s feckless foreign policy.

• Trump’s rocky road to peace in Ukraine: President Donald Trump said he plans to talk to Vladimir Putin tomorrow about ending the war in Ukraine — this after U.S. and Russian negotiators met in Moscow for the same purpose. “A lot of work’s been done over the weekend,” said Trump³ to reporters on Air Force One late last night. “We want to see if we can bring that war to an end. Maybe we can, maybe we can’t, but I think we have a very good chance.” Trump’s guarded optimism is at odds with those on the anti-Trump right, who believe the president is being too nice⁴ to Putin. What exactly these critics might do differently to end the dying is curiously unclear.

• Trump visits the DOJ: “A corrupt group of hacks and radicals.” Those were among the choice words⁵ Donald Trump had for the deep state forces that have been arrayed against him from within the federal government. Speaking at the Department of Justice Friday, Trump added, “They tried to turn America into a corrupt communist and Third World country, but in the end, the thugs failed and the truth won. Freedom won, justice won, democracy won, and above all, the American people won.” The speech was supposed to build support for Trump’s policies for fighting violent crime, drugs, and illegal immigration, but he couldn’t resist giving his political enemies a good throat punch — and the Leftmedia couldn’t resist caterwauling⁶ about perceived norms and partisan politics. To them, we might suggest: Get used to it.

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• Intelligence leakers: On Friday, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced an agency crackdown⁹ on intelligence leakers. Though intelligence leaks to the media have become commonplace, Gabbard said this behavior will end, one way or another. She referenced several recent examples, including “a leaker within the [intelligence community] sharing information on Israel / Iran with the Washington Post.” Senator Tom Cotton welcomed the news: “I’m grateful that @DNIGabbard is working to end leaking and the weaponization of the Intelligence Community. Another promise made and promise kept.”

• Sinema mocks Dems for filibuster hypocrisy: Last year, Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema left the Democrat Party — and then the Senate — after facing criticism for standing against the then-Democrat majority’s failed push to eliminate the filibuster. Now, with Democrats in the minority and many lawmakers having argued for Democrats to use the filibuster to prevent Senate Republicans from passing Friday’s Continuing Resolution¹⁰, Sinema reminded Democrats of their hypocrisy. In particular, she noted Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), who last year called for abolishing the “Jim Crow filibuster.” Sinema quipped¹¹, “Just surprised to see support for the ‘Jim Crow filibuster’ here.”

• Rubio explains zero-tolerance policy for campus terrorists: Hundreds of leftists marched in New York and Boston and Philadelphia to show support for 30-year-old agitator Mahmoud Khalil¹² and demand his release from federal custody. Leftists keep saying this is a free-speech issue, but it’s really an incitement-to-lawlessness issue. As Marco Rubio told¹³ CBS News’s “Face the Nation” Sunday, “These guys take over entire buildings; they vandalize colleges.” Asked whether the administration was singling out those with “pro-Palestinian views,” Rubio added, “We don’t want terrorists in America. I don’t know how hard that is to understand. We don’t want people in our country that are going to be committing crimes and undermining our national security or the public safety.”

• UN judge found guilty of enslavement: Judge Lydia Mugambe is a former human rights fellow with Columbia University. Nevertheless, when she wanted a live-in nanny, she violated the human rights of a fellow Ugandan by enslaving her. Mugambe has been found guilty¹⁴, and sentencing will occur May 2. Indications are that John Mugerwa, a deputy high commissioner at the Ugandan embassy in London, facilitated this importation and enslavement. The Walk Free Global Slavery Index indicates¹⁵ that approximately 50 million people are imprisoned around the world today. Clearly, there’s a lot of work left to be done.

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• Guttmacher opposes abortion reporting requirements: For good science to be possible, solid data and recordkeeping are essential. But when promoting a social agenda becomes the primary concern, good science goes by the wayside. A case in point is the Guttmacher Institute’s recent call for states to eliminate any requirements¹⁸ for collecting abortion data. The rationale, according to the pro-abortion Guttmacher, is concern that accurate data on abortion numbers will be used to “harass” or “prosecute” abortion facilities and women who’ve had abortions. Of course, how women would be harassed by nameless statistics is not explained. Clearly, Guttmacher’s concern is that pro-life states could use abortion data to inform their abortion-limiting legislation, something that Guttmacher opposes.

• American Heart Association lobbies for sugar: They were misquoted. That seems to be the excuse being offered by a powerful and influential organization whose purpose is ostensibly the heart health of the American people. At issue is the American Heart Association’s opposition¹⁹ to a Texas bill that would restrict the purchase of sugary drinks and processed snacks via food stamps, more euphemistically known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Discerning folks wondered if maybe the AHA’s opposition to the bill has something to do with all the corporate cash it receives from the likes of PepsiCo and Coca-Cola. An AHA flack explained that the organization’s position on the Texas legislation was “miscommunicated” and that the AHA has long supported healthy foods over sugar-loaded and processed foods.

• French politician wants the Statue of Liberty back: Maybe Raphael Glucksmann²⁰ doesn’t understand the concept of a gift. “We gave [the Statue of Liberty] to you as a gift, but apparently you despise it. So it will be just fine here at home,” huffed Glucksmann, the leader of the Place Publique Party, which holds one whole seat in the French National Assembly. Monsieur, we paid back that gift in 1917²¹ and 1944²². How do you say “take a hike” in French?

• Broke Hunter Biden vacations in luxury South African resort: Despite just asking a judge to dismiss his own lawsuit²³ against alleged laptop hacker Garrett Ziegler, Hunter Biden is traveling to South Africa²⁴ for vacation. Coincidentally, this will keep him out of the country for his deposition in that court case. Hunter is a beneficiary of round-the-clock Secret Service protection, unusual for the son of a former POTUS, but The Big Guy was looking out for him. Biden signed an order near the end of his term that indefinitely extended the agency’s protection to Hunter. So now taxpayers are partially subsidizing Hunter’s vacation in a $500-a-night Villa in South Africa described as an “ultra-luxurious designer home with spectacular 180 degrees unobstructed views of the sea.” Life’s tough for the Biden Crime Family.

Headlines

• Trump says Biden’s autopen pardons are now “void, vacant and of no further force or effect” (NY Post²⁵)

• Trump says he’ll put FBI’s new headquarters in DC despite it being promised to Maryland (Baltimore Sun²⁶)

• Kristi Noem announces expansion of border wall in Arizona (Washington Examiner²⁷)

• Russia wants “ironclad” guarantee that Ukraine will be barred from NATO (Fox News²⁸)

• Columbia University expels, revokes degrees from students who seized campus building (Daily Wire²⁹)

• Second anti-Israel Columbia protester, Leqaa Kordia, arrested by Homeland Security for immigration violations — as third self-deports and flees to Canada (NY Post³⁰)

• Trump administration slashes millions more in grants to Columbia (Washington Free Beacon³¹)

• Job seekers hit wall of salary deflation (WSJ³²)

• Humor: Enough is enough: Supreme Court rules First Amendment does not apply to Meghan Markle (Babylon Bee³³)

For the Executive Summary archive, click here³⁴.