The Patriot Post® · Friday Executive News Summary
Release full SNAP giveaways, says judge: On Thursday, U.S. District Judge John McConnell rejected the Trump administration’s plan to provide partial Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program payments for November in response to the continued Democrat shutdown. McConnell said the administration was violating his previous order and directed it to fully distribute SNAP payments by depleting the roughly $5 billion in the SNAP contingency fund. The administration noted that covering SNAP costs through November would cost upwards of $9 billion. McConnell pointed to a $23 billion USDA fund for the school lunch program and suggested it could be tapped into to fully fund SNAP. Vice President JD Vance called the ruling “absurd,” noting, “You have a federal judge effectively telling us what we have to do in the middle of a Democrat government shutdown.”
FAA cuts back flights at 40 major airports due to Schumer Shutdown: Airplanes remain the safest way to travel. Amid the Democrats’ government shutdown, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is making cuts to scheduled flights to maintain that safety. Today, air traffic controllers will miss their second paycheck since the shutdown began, and absences have skyrocketed. Few Americans can afford to work for 37 days without a paycheck, as Democrats have forced air traffic controllers to do. Roughly 5% of flights will be canceled today at some of America’s busiest airports, rising to 10% by next week unless Democrats relent and pass the clean continuing resolution to fund the government. Dulles International, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International, O'Hare International, and Los Angeles International are among the 40 major airports facing flight cuts. FlightAware, a flight disruption tracking website, reported that 601 flights were canceled for today.
Arctic Frost, continued: Trump’s phone grabbed by Smith: Jack Smith, the politically motivated and unconstitutionally appointed DOJ special counsel in the “Get Trump” Arctic Frost investigation, was given Donald Trump’s government-issued phone by the Biden administration, which AG Pam Bondi calls an “UNPRECEDENTED action.” Bondi added in a post on X, “Special Counsel subpoenaed all of President Trump’s PERSONAL phone records.” These actions were irregular and obviously intended to hamstring the then-former president’s future political prospects. We’ve previously written about the investigation’s spying on eight Republican senators, including Lindsey Graham. Graham’s involvement runs deeper, though, according to Rep. Rick Renzi of Arizona, who says he brought evidence of Smith’s wrongdoing to Graham in 2019. Renzi suggests that since many of Graham’s staffers were on loan from the DOJ and worked with Smith, “he was nothing more than their pawn.”
Second Circuit breathes life into Trump’s effort to void NY conviction: Yesterday, President Trump got a big win in his effort to get his dubious 34-count conviction in New York for falsifying records regarding a payment to an adult actress thrown out. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Trump’s favor regarding his request to have the case moved from state court to federal court. Trump made this request in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling upholding presidential immunity standards. The Second Circuit’s ruling means that a lower district court must revisit the question of whether it was improper for this case to have been tried in a state court rather than a federal court. This ruling does not guarantee that the district court will rule in Trump’s favor, but it certainly increases the likelihood of that.
Supreme Court allows Trump admin to acknowledge male/female binary: Somehow, as 2025 draws to a close, the fact of the two human sexes, male and female, remains a litigated issue. The Supreme Court’s conservative majority has correctly rejected arguments that requiring trans-identifying individuals to register by their biological sex on passports would represent a “concrete injury,” as Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson would have it. For all of human and American history, identification — official or otherwise — categorized humans as male or female. In 2022, based on no evidence but ideology, the Biden administration created an “X” option on passports, representing “unspecified or another gender identity.” The Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision this week freezes a lower court order that halted the Trump administration’s efforts to remove the “X” option, suggesting that the administration will ultimately prevail when SCOTUS delivers a final opinion.
Looks like they like Elon Musk again: It appears that the Left’s war against Tesla, because Elon Musk was temporarily head of Donald Trump’s DOGE and overseeing cuts to bloated government agencies, is over and has been completely memory-holed. Tesla shareholders voted to give company CEO Musk a record-setting $1 trillion payment package over a decade. The vote wasn’t even close, with over 75% of shareholders approving the deal. It will increase Musk’s stock in Tesla from his current 15% to as much as 25% should he hit a number of benchmarks, including expanding the company’s market capitalization, which currently sits at $1.5 trillion, to $8.5 trillion over the next decade. Musk responded, stating, “What we’re about to embark upon is not merely a new chapter of the future of Tesla but a whole new book.” He added, “I guess what I’m saying is hang onto your Tesla stock.”
Trump cuts deal to lower “fat drug” prices: “This is a great day for American health and healthcare and for all the American patients,” said President Trump yesterday from the Oval Office as he announced a new cost-savings deal his administration has garnered with drugmakers Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk. The drugs in focus are those used to treat obesity that have quickly become popular and are having a positive health impact on America’s growing diabetes problem. Under this agreement, Eli Lilly’s Zepbound and Nordisk’s Wegovy will cost as little as $149 per month. Furthermore, Medicaid and Medicare will also help cover these drug costs, with Medicare patients having a copay of no more than $50. This could go a long way toward helping Americans cut overall healthcare costs if it leads to fewer health issues.
State Dept. yanks over 80K visas this year: The State Department, which has vast authority over visa approval and revocation, has revoked 80,000 visas this year, more than twice the number of removals in 2024. Most of the removals were related to criminal offenses, with approximately 16,000 for driving under the influence, 12,000 for assault, and 8,000 for theft. One of the first executive orders signed by President Trump in his second term instructed the State Department to ensure that visa holders “do not bear hostile attitudes toward” the United States or its people, prompting closer examination of applicants’ social media. The State Department has exercised its authority to revoke a visa for “supporting terrorism” to a greater extent than in the past, leading to several of the 8,000 student visa revocations. Visitors to the U.S. should be mindful that visas are a privilege, not a right.
Kazakhstan joins Abraham Accords: In a move that will benefit both countries and refute the Leftmedia’s claims that Israel is “diplomatically isolated,” Kazakhstan has become the sixth country to join the Abraham Accords. The 2020 agreement has not seen any additions since President Trump’s first term, but Thursday’s news could set the stage for more countries to join. “The Abraham Accords is a club that many countries want to be a member of, and it will be a step for turning the page on the war in Gaza and moving forward towards more peace and cooperation in the region,” a U.S. official stated. Saudi Arabia has been rumored to be another potential addition to the Abraham Accords. Israel and Saudi Arabia are moving closer to establishing direct talks aimed at normalization, and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman will visit Washington in two weeks.
Jihadi threats ruin German Christmas markets: The jihadis’ plans to terrorize people are continuing to succeed in Germany. The word “Islam” means submission, and Germany is doing just that. Several towns across Germany have been “forced” to cancel their traditional Christmas markets because they can’t afford the security that would be required to keep them safe from the jihadists. Three mass attacks have occurred at Christmas markets in recent years: Berlin in 2016 with 12 dead and 56 injured, Solingen in 2023 with three killed and eight injured, and Magdeburg in 2024 with six dead and 323 injured. Seems they may want to stop importing millions of Muslims and start enforcing stricter laws on those who commit these heinous crimes instead of canceling customs that have been part of the German culture for generations. There’s a reason Europeans fought for a thousand years to keep Islamists out of their countries.
Headlines
Top Democrat backs U.S. intel on narco-trafficking strikes (Fox News)
Heritage Foundation rocked as antisemitism task force quits think tank (Newsmax)
DC sandwich slinger found not guilty of assaulting feds (Not the Bee)
Appeals court upholds Texas drag show ban law (Just the News)
Moody Bible Institute sues Chicago Board of Education for barring Christian students (Not the Bee)
Russia drawing up plans to conduct nuclear tests after Trump announcement (Fox News)
Trump deploying military to Damascus airbase in major Syria shift (Newsweek)
Humor: Nancy Pelosi prepares for sad future of outsider trading (Babylon Bee)
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