• Saudi Crown Prince hosted at the White House: Mohammed bin Salman became the latest world leader to visit the White House yesterday. U.S.-Saudi relations had been strained by the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, but this visit was friendly. Bin Salman upped his nation’s promised investment of $600 billion in the U.S. to $1 trillion at President Donald Trump’s prompting. Trump has eyed Saudi Arabia as a potential jewel of the Abraham Accords. “We want to be part of the Abraham Accords,” bin Salman said of the agreement that has begun normalizing Israeli-Muslim relations in the Middle East. A Saudi entry into the accords is not set in stone, but Trump’s friendly overtures and designation of the country as a “major non-NATO ally” are a step in that direction.

• Federal court blocks TX congressional map: Texas’s redrawn congressional district map, which the state legislature passed into law and favors Republicans, has been blocked by a panel of federal judges. According to Judge Jeffrey Brown, who wrote the ruling, “The public perception of this case is that it’s about politics. To be sure, politics played a role in drawing the 2025 Map. But it was much more than just politics. Substantial evidence shows that Texas racially gerrymandered the 2025 Map.” Brown further determined that the new map violated the Voting Rights Act because it broke up non-white majority districts. Gov. Greg Abbott blasted the court’s ruling, arguing that “any claim that these maps are discriminatory is absurd.” He said the “clearly erroneous” decision “undermines the authority the U.S. Constitution assigns to the Texas Legislature.” Abbott promised to “swiftly appeal to the United States Supreme Court.”

• Trump downplays ObamaCare subsidy extension: Some $35 billion of ObamaCare funds are on the brink of expiring come December 31. These funds were first passed during the COVID pandemic to subsidize insurance payments, capping premiums for a “benchmark” plan at 8.5% of income. While Republicans like Jen Kiggans, a swing district representative, are attempting to extend the subsidies for one year, Trump and other Republicans have increased their attacks, making it clear they won’t allow an extension in its current form. “The only healthcare I will support or approve is sending the money directly back to the people,” Trump declared. Republican leaders have designated committee members to draft alternative options that would give the funds directly to Americans, perhaps through HSAs, FSAs, or even direct cash payments. Can they craft a plan that gets 60 Senate votes before time runs out?

• Texas governor homes in on the Muslim Brotherhood, CAIR: Gov. Greg Abbott designated the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as foreign terrorist organizations on Tuesday. The step prohibits the organizations from purchasing or acquiring land in Texas and allows the state’s attorney general to sue to shut them down. The move comes amid a startling rise in the number of mosques in the state, with almost 50 being built since 2023. CAIR has also recently been exposed for paying $1,000 to college students on the Harvard, Columbia, and UPenn campuses who were punished for anti-Semitic protests.

• House rebukes retiring Dem lawmaker: The House voted to officially rebuke four-term Illinois Democrat Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García on Tuesday after Washington Democrat Rep. Maria Gluesenkamp Perez accused him of “subverting an election.” García announced his retirement after the state’s election filing deadline, effectively ensuring that his chief of staff, Patty Garcia (no relation), would win his seat in the solidly blue district. The vote fell largely along party lines, though 22 Democrats joined Republicans to pass the motion 236-183. The rebuke carries no actual consequences beyond public embarrassment, but it allowed Perez to officially scold García and her own party. “If you’re not going to run, you don’t get to choose your successor, no matter how noble the work you have done beforehand,” she stated, adding, “This is not who we are as a country. People bled and died for the right to elect their own representative.”

• Dem lawmakers urge U.S. military members to defy “illegal orders” from Trump: Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, and several other Democrat lawmakers posted a video on Tuesday urging service members to defy “illegal orders” from the commander-in-chief. The judicial ping-pong matches Americans have seen this year on all sorts of issues could provide ample grounds to argue that any particular order is illegal at any given moment. Democrats urged service members to “protect and defend this Constitution” and even mentioned threats “from right here at home.” White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller said Democrats are “openly calling for insurrection.” Secretary of War Pete Hegseth commented that those in the video suffer from “Stage 4 TDS.” Veterans on X were quick to point out that Democrats looked far less favorably on service members refusing orders when it came to the COVID vaccine mandates.

• Ed Dept. offloads grant programs: In the latest move to effectively gut the Department of Education, Trump administration officials announced on Tuesday that the department was offloading billions in grant programs and transferring them to other federal agencies to administer. Education Secretary Linda McMahon explained, “The Trump administration is taking bold action to break up the federal education bureaucracy and return education to the states.” These educational grant programs will now be administered by four agencies: the Labor Department, the State Department, the Interior Department, and the Department of Health and Human Services. President Trump campaigned on eliminating the Education Department; however, doing so requires congressional approval, which he currently lacks the votes to secure. In lieu of that, his administration has worked to shrink the department’s size as much as possible.

• AI-generated music? AI-generated songs have topped music charts in what is likely to be an increasingly common sight. “Walk My Walk” and “Livin’ on Borrowed Time” by the “artist” Breaking Rust reached the top of Spotify’s “Viral 50” songs. A Dutch anti-migration anthem, “We Say No, No, No to an Asylum Center,” reached the top of Spotify’s global chart of viral songs. Streaming app Deezer suggests that the sheer volume of AI-generated songs is contributing to the success of a few; more than 50,000 AI-generated songs are uploaded to the app each day. The app also surveyed 9,000 people and found that 97% could not distinguish AI-generated music from human creations. So far, AI songs are not reaching the top of traditional charts like Billboard’s “Hot Country Songs,” but the rise of AI music has begun.

• Academy voters now “required” to watch films: Over recent years, it has been regularly noted how woke Hollywood has become, and nothing has exemplified this more than the Academy Awards and its growing set of woke rules. However, the Academy has issued a new rule for the Oscars that is so self-evident that it is surprising it needed to be codified. The new rule requires Academy members to have actually seen all the films they are voting on, or they will not be eligible to cast a vote. Apparently, the wokification of Hollywood has made many of the movies it produces unwatchable, even for the radical leftists who make up the guild. However, whether an Academy member has actually seen the movies in question will be determined entirely by the honor system. No actual evidence, such as ticket receipts, is required. In other words, it’s all just for show.

Headlines

• Larry Summers to step back from public commitments after Epstein emails (WSJ) | Harvard to open new inquiry (NY Post)

• Stacey Plaskett avoids censure over Epstein texts (Roll Call)

• Democrat staffer fired after tricking DHS into releasing illegal alien (Newsweek)

• Loyola New Orleans student court overturns previous decision barring Turning Point chapter (Fox News)

• Half of all U.S. homes fall in value (Daily Mail)

• Will Los Angeles be the latest city to elect a socialist mayor? (RedState)

• Humor: In devastating blow, newly released emails reveal Trump not well-liked by pedophile (Babylon Bee)

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