The Patriot Post® · Friday Executive News Summary
- The Mamdani revolution begins: Socialist and Muslim Zohran Mamdani became the first New York City mayor to be sworn in on a Quran yesterday in a ceremony in which he promised to replace “rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism.” Some 10,000 of Zohran’s fans invited to the block party by Mamdani’s staff were left disappointed by the lack of food, bathrooms, and music, and by the freezing cold. The new mayor appointed as his chief counsel Ramzi Kassem, who served as defense for al-Qaida following 9/11 and once accepted CAIR’s “Defender of Truth” Award. Florida and Texas have declared CAIR a terrorist organization. NYC’s new fire chief is Lillian Bonsignore, whom Mamdani celebrated as the first gay person to hold the position.
ObamaCare enhanced subsidies end: The Biden-era temporary enhanced subsidies for ObamaCare, over which Democrat lawmakers shut down the federal government in a failed bid to have the subsidies extended indefinitely, have ended. This will result in premium increases for several million people on ObamaCare, rising by an average of 26%. House Republicans passed a healthcare plan before leaving for the Christmas break, though Senate Democrats will likely seek to block its passage. Healthcare affordability will be a significant campaign issue heading into this year’s midterms.
Trump designates record number of terrorist groups: Before Donald Trump’s second term, no president had added more than six groups to the State Department’s Foreign Terrorist Organization list. In the last year, however, Trump has added 25. Fifteen of the newly designated groups are in the Western Hemisphere, including MS-13, Tren de Aragua, and the Cartel de los Soles. Some worry that the addition of so many drug cartels, which are motivated more by profit than spreading terrorism, could dilute the impact of the nearly 30-year-old list, but the administration insists that the threat these groups represent justifies their additions. Since the additions were made, the number of flagged individuals attempting to cross the southern border has grown from dozens to 1,000 a month, since dangerous suspects are now being correctly flagged.
Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick ripped for editing out fraudulent ring: Indicted Democrat Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick got called out on X for a Christmas post that edited out a $100,000 ring she is accused of purchasing with stolen COVID funds. Sheila and others, including her brother Edwin, are charged with stealing $5 million in FEMA funds that were paid to their family healthcare company in July 2021. In September 2021, Sheila purchased the $109,000, 3.14-carat ring in question, which was included in the congresswoman’s official photo. Over Christmas, the same image was shared on X with the ring photoshopped out. Sheila’s spokesman said her staff made the edit without her signing off on it.
San Fran reparations: Theoretically, black residents in San Francisco could be receiving up to $5 million following the board of supervisors’ passage of an ordinance last month, signed by Mayor Daniel Lurie two days before Christmas, to create a framework for a “Reparations Fund.” However, there’s one big problem: the city is currently running a $1 billion deficit. In other words, there is no money to pay for this radical leftist virtue signal. Furthermore, the ordinance does not allocate or guarantee payments, and no taxpayer funds will be funneled to this blatantly racist program. It is therefore unlikely that any black San Francisco resident will see even a single red cent.
U.S. murder rate plummets: 2025 saw a record drop in the nation’s murder rate, which decreased by roughly 20% across more than 550 law enforcement agencies from 2024 numbers. Donald Trump took aggressive action on fighting violent crime, beginning in August with his sending in of the National Guard to Washington, DC, which resulted in homicides there dropping to their lowest number in eight years. Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration and ICE’s actions targeting criminal illegal aliens certainly had a positive impact on crime as well. Chicago saw homicides drop by 30%, and the historically crime-ridden Baltimore saw its homicide numbers hit a 50-year low.
California trans secrecy law blocked: Federal Judge Roger Benitez recently made permanent his 2023 preliminary injunction blocking California’s school secrecy law, which prevents teachers from alerting parents of their students’ declared “gender identity.” “Parents have a right to receive gender information,” Benitez ruled, “and teachers have a right to provide to parents accurate information about a child’s gender identity.” Benitez’s initial ruling followed a lawsuit brought by two Christian teachers challenging the rule. The state had since dropped the requirement, replacing it with AB 1955, which bans school districts from adopting policies that require alerting parents to their children’s gender identity. Benitez wrote, “The state bases its legal position on a derogation of the parents’ federal constitutional right to care for and raise their children and an unwarranted aggrandizing of a student’s state-created right to privacy. … They misapprehend the supremacy of federal constitutional rights.”
California hits the brakes on canceling illegal truckers’ CDLs: Roughly 17,000 illegal aliens were set to have their improperly issued commercial driver’s licenses canceled on January 5 before the California DMV delayed the action by 60 days. The Trump administration has been cracking down on illegals with CDLs who don’t meet the English language requirement after illegals caused several deadly crashes in 2025. California has already said it will not follow the Trump administration’s updated requirement. California DMV Director Steve Gordon says supply chains will stop moving if the state does not “promptly resume issuance of nondomiciled commercial driver’s licenses.”
Iran protests grow, Trump warns of U.S. intervention: Iran is embroiled in protests as its rial currency collapses. The protests are now in their sixth day and have become the largest in Iran since the 2022 uprisings. At least seven people have been killed so far in the violence surrounding the demonstrations, which, despite being sparked by economic issues, have increasingly become anti-government. President Trump warned Iran that if it “violently kills peaceful protesters,” the U.S. “will come to their rescue.” Iranian officials fired back that any American involvement would only stoke chaos in the region and invite destruction of U.S. interests. “Though the grievances that fuel these and past protests are due to the Iranian government’s own policies, they are likely to use President Trump’s statement as proof that the unrest is driven by external actors,” said Naysan Rafati, an analyst at the International Crisis Group.
Headlines
Trump slams “rigged” polling data, claims “real” approval is over 60% (Washington Examiner)
DOGE at one year: Efficiency department sparks lasting changes in federal spending habits (Washington Times)
Trump administration delays tariff increases on furniture and kitchen cabinets by a year (CBS News)
Oklahoma teaching assistant fired after uproar over flunking Christian student who referenced Bible in essay (Fox News)
Trump-backed conservative Nasry Asfura declared winner of Honduras presidential election (NY Post)
Humor: The Babylon Bee’s predictions for 2026 (Babylon Bee)
For the Executive Summary archive, click here.