The Patriot Post® · Thursday Executive News Summary
Early voting returns not looking good for Old Dominion gerrymandering referendum: The date for in-person voting on the Virginia Democrats’ redistricting referendum is April 21. Should the referendum pass, it would supersede the state’s bipartisan redistricting commission and adopt the Democrats’ gerrymandered map, effectively eliminating four of the state’s five Republican districts and giving Democrats 10 of Virginia’s 11 congressional districts. This obvious power grab is being disingenuously framed as restoring “fairness.” Furthermore, Democrats have poured tens of millions into the campaign, outspending Republicans by nearly 4-to-1. However, based on early voting numbers, it appears the gambit is not going the Democrats’ way. Thus far, registered Republican voting is significantly outpacing registered Democrats, to the point that panicked Democrats are pressing Gov. Abigail Spanberger to hit the stump. Hopefully, Virginia’s Republican voters all show up and vote down this dubious scheme.
“No Kings?” Charles III invited to address Congress: House Speaker Mike Johnson has invited the UK’s King Charles III to deliver a joint address to Congress at the end of the month. The state visit from King Charles and Queen Camilla will be the first by a British monarch since Queen Elizabeth II made her fourth such trip in 2007. Queen Elizabeth delivered her last address to a joint meeting of Congress in 1991. The forthcoming visit is meant to reaffirm the strong ties between the U.S. and the UK and the special relationship that has traditionally existed between the two. It also comes as America prepares to celebrate the 250th anniversary of severing the subject-monarch relationship between the colonists and Charles III’s ancestor, George III.
Teachers union funds anti-ICE protests: One of the country’s largest teachers unions, the National Education Association, has given $1.4 million from members’ dues to a leftist outfit called Midwest Academy. Midwest Academy specializes in providing training resources for leftist activists with the goal of “building a more equitable and just society.” The organization promotes school walkouts over various leftist causes, most recently to voice opposition to ICE. Director of Research at Defending Education Rhyen Staley observed, “This is yet another example of how activists and teachers unions view schools as a tool to advance their political agenda. It should be deeply concerning that one of the suggested tactics is to enter schools to protest against policies they don’t like. Putting children’s education and safety at risk for political gain is unethical and immoral.”
More Iran executions: The Iranian regime has demonstrated yet again that it will stop at nothing to keep its stranglehold on the Iranian people. The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), a coalition of Iranian dissident groups led by the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), has announced that the regime has executed four of its members in the last 48 hours. The chairman of the NCRI, Mohammad Mohaddessin, pointed out that “regime leadership is extremely concerned about the domestic situation and the possibility of another uprising” and that it sees “the Iranian people and the organized Resistance as its principal enemy and an existential threat.” Iran’s supreme court has sentenced 15 other PMOI members to death, and Mohaddessin warned that many more of the 2,000 members detained in January are likely to receive death sentences. He urged the international community to take action as the regime sows fear to prevent the Iranian people from joining the resistance.
Bernie and AOC’s new data center proposal: “Let China win”: Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have teamed up yet again to propose a moratorium on the construction of data centers. The socialist lawmakers want the moratorium so that “strong national safeguards” can be put in place to protect workers from losing jobs to AI, ensure privacy rights, and address environmental harm. A moratorium on new data centers — the beating heart of the AI arms race with China — is a nonstarter, but some concerns are worth addressing. Communities across the country have begun to push back against the construction of new centers in their towns, as some neighborhoods report constant humming from the buildings, which one local news outlet measured at 90 decibels. Other issues include the significant power and resource usage of these centers. The solution is not a moratorium but a reasonable discussion about location.
Trump approval hits new low: Rising gas prices and their cause, the war in Iran, are not popular with the American people, as a new Economist/YouGov poll shows. President Trump is facing some of his worst polling results yet, with only 35% of respondents approving of his job, while 58% disapprove. This -23 net approval rating blows away his mark at this time in his first term, which was -11. The poll found that Trump’s approval with his 2024 voters had fallen from 93% to 76%. Sixty-one percent of Americans report rising gas prices (are the other respondents not driving?), and only 29% say the economy is getting better, down from 55% last month. Your team at The Patriot Post refers to most polling as “pollaganda,” meaning it’s intended to drive public opinion rather than reflect it, but these numbers are not hopeful for the president.
Headlines
Trump says core objectives of Iran war nearing completion (Breitbart)
Senate passes bill to fund most of DHS after House GOP caves (Fox News)
Man who killed NYPD officer acquitted of murder but convicted of manslaughter (Fox News)
Successful Artemis II launch sends astronauts into deep space (Daily Signal)
The Executive News Summary is compiled daily by Jordan Candler, Thomas Gallatin, Sterling Henry, and Sophie Starkova. For the archive, click here.