• Trump’s NatSec Strategy release: On Monday, the White House released President Donald Trump’s National Security Strategy, which includes a 33-page blueprint laying out his policy agenda. In brief, Trump’s policy boils down to reasserting enforcement of the Monroe Doctrine and adding his own corollary. The document notes, “The goal is for our partner nations to build up their domestic economies, while an economically stronger and more sophisticated Western Hemisphere becomes an increasingly attractive market for American commerce and investment.” Focusing on an America First policy, the document states, “The choice all countries should face is whether they want to live in an American-led world of sovereign countries and free economies or in a parallel one in which they are influenced by countries on the other side of the world.”

• Trump’s tariff bailout for farmers: President Trump has insisted that foreign nations are paying the bulk of the cost of his tariffs, but when trade negotiations with those countries are upended, some damage to Americans is inevitable. American farmers felt the pinch from tariffs and trade wars this year, especially soybean farmers, who saw their biggest foreign purchaser, China, boycott their product for most of this year. In October, a U.S.-China framework agreement was reached, under which China promised to buy 12 million tons of soybeans in the remainder of the year. Until then, Trump is taking $12 billion in tariff revenue and putting it toward a one-time payment meant to tide farmers over until next year, when trade is expected to be more normalized.

• House moves to pass defense bill: The House is poised to vote on the National Defense Authorization Act this week, which includes several significant changes. Speaker Mike Johnson summarized these changes as “codifying 15 of President Trump’s executive orders, ending woke ideology at the Pentagon, securing the border, revitalizing the defense industrial base, and restoring the warrior ethos.” House Republicans want to quickly pass the legislation and send it to the Senate before Congress breaks for the Christmas recess. This NDAA sets a spending budget of $892.6 billion, which is $8 billion over what the White House requested. It includes a 4% pay raise for enlisted military personnel, officially ends the use-of-force authorization in the Middle East, and bans DEI-based and critical race theory programs. It also includes a provision, in light of Arctic Frost, requiring the FBI to notify Congress if it investigates candidates for federal office.

• SCOTUS grants religious vaccine exemptions: In a win for parental rights and religious liberty, the Supreme Court erased a lower court ruling that had upheld New York’s strict school vaccine rules, which don’t allow religious exemptions. Amish parents living in New York protested the new regulations enacted in 2019, but their appeals were rejected in a federal district court and then the Second Circuit Court. The Supreme Court vacated the Second Circuit opinion, ordering the court to reconsider in light of a ruling from last term in a case challenging the lack of parental opt-outs to the LGBTQ diversity curriculum in Montgomery County, Maryland. Justice Samuel Alito hit the nail on the head when he wrote for the majority in that case, “Public education is a public benefit, and the government cannot ‘condition’ its ‘availability’ on parents’ willingness to accept a burden on their religious exercise.”

• Trump signs EO blocking states from regulating AI: Artificial Intelligence, love it or hate it, is not going away. In light of that, many states have begun tackling the thorny problem of regulating AI. On the one hand, AI’s potential negative side effects are numerous and frightening; on the other hand, falling behind in the AI race could leave us defenseless against the AIs of hostile nations. Donald Trump and Big Tech executives seem convinced that falling behind in the race is the worst option. Trump explained that he would be signing a “one rule” national AI policy executive order this week. “You can’t expect a company to get 50 approvals every time they want to do something,” said Trump of the state-level regulations. Some Republicans like Ron DeSantis insist that states should be able to regulate AI, calling Trump’s moves “federal government overreach.”

• Judge blocks Trump’s wind stoppage: U.S. District Judge Patti Saris sided with 17 states, Washington, DC, and the Alliance for Clean Energy New York when she ruled on Monday that Donald Trump’s executive order to pause wind farm permits was illegal. Saris wrote, “After review of the parties’ submissions and a hearing, the Court concludes that the Wind Order constitutes a final agency action that is arbitrary and capricious and contrary to law.” On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order pausing wind farm permits to assess the Biden administration’s permitting process and whether the permits posed potential harm. Trump reversed Biden’s anti-fossil fuel policies and, in turn, has squelched development of pricey renewable energy projects. Environmental groups hailed this ruling as a big win.

• Harmeet Dhillon to fight anti-2A laws: The Department of Justice has launched a Second Amendment section to challenge onerous state-level laws that amount to restrictions on the right to bear arms. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon of the Civil Rights Division will be taking up the Second Amendment fight on behalf of citizens. Dhillon has agreed with Attorney General Pam Bondi, who said that the “Second Amendment is not a second-class right.” Some state regulations expected to face challenges include multi-thousand-dollar concealed carry permit applications, unreasonably long delays, and specific gun bans. “The right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” For once, Americans have a DOJ that remembers that fact.

• Fuentes is a phony influencer: A Hitler-admirer and Stalin-fanboy, online provocateur Nick Fuentes has been viewed as a growing influencer on the right, and especially so following his softball interview with Tucker Carlson. Indeed, Fuentes used the publicity to claim his supposed influence among young conservatives surpasses that of the late Charlie Kirk. However, a recent report reveals that most of Fuentes’s supposed followers are fake. According to a report released Monday by the Network Contagion Research Institute, 92% of Fuentes’s 1.1 million followers on X are anonymous, and retweet at a velocity that outpaces Elon Musk’s 229.5 million followers. In other words, the vast majority of Fuentes’s followers are artificial. Furthermore, half of Fuentes’s retweets come from followers located outside the U.S., concentrated in India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Malaysia, and Indonesia. These places are notorious for bot farms.

• Zelensky rejects land for peace: The leaked peace proposal that the Trump administration hoped would finally end the four-year Russo-Ukrainian war called for Ukraine to cede territory that Russia has taken, and even some territory it has not. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has now rejected that point of the proposal outright, saying his country cannot give anything away: “That is what we are fighting for.” Many have commented that the proposal, which was widely touted as the best path to peace so far, seemed to favor the Kremlin heavily. That may be because Russia shows no sign of wanting peace. Ending the war may be the most prominent concession diplomats could hope for from Russia. Ukrainian and European leaders insist that Ukraine needs stronger protections in any peace plan, but they continue to insist that this requires American cooperation, which the Trump administration seems unwilling to provide.

• Trump watches: Viewers of cable networks have likely seen ads for Trump Watches, featuring a video of Donald Trump promoting the brand watches, including the tag-line “It’s Trump time.” These watches range in price from $499 to $2,999, with one made of pure gold having sold for $100,000. The ads raise the question of whether this is Trump’s watch company and whether he is using his office to sell his products. The answer to both counts is no. Trump Watches are from the company TheBestWatchesonEarth LLC, which has no direct association with Trump. The company licensed Trump’s name, image, and likeness, before he we re-elected in 2024, a long-standing practice for Trump. Some other examples include Trump vodka and Trump wrapping paper, which he has no direct involvement in producing or selling. While some may see this as off-putting, Trump is not doing anything illegal. Furthermore, other American presidents in the modern era have licensed their names for use to market watches and other products.

Headlines

• ABC makes Jimmy Kimmel contract decision after yanking him off air over Charlie Kirk comments (New York Post)

• Alina Habba becomes Bondi advisor, leaving role as top New Jersey prosecutor (Fox News)

• Trump warns Europe to be “very careful” after EU slaps Musk’s X with $140 million fine (Washington Examiner)

• Tensions rising between China and Japan (Washington Times)

• Atheist looks forward to the warmth and cheer of arbitrary cultural traditions with no transcendent meaning (Babylon Bee)

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