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A nonpartisan election integrity watchdog has released a detailed report outlining what it says are must-needed reforms to be taken up in states across the country to ensure election integrity.

The Honest Elections Project (HEP) released its 2025 ‘Safeguarding our Elections’ report that lists over a dozen ‘critical’ measures, ranging from voter ID to cleaning up voter rolls to banning foreign influence in elections. 

‘Election integrity ballot issues passed with flying colors across the board on election night. Now that state legislative sessions are starting up, lawmakers have a duty to fulfill the mandate the American people gave to make it easy to vote and hard to cheat,’ HEP Executive Director Jason Snead told Fox News Digital.

‘Honest Elections Project’s 2025 ‘Safeguarding Our Elections’ report gives legislators a roadmap to do exactly that.’

HEP has been active in recent years advocating against foreign influence in statewide elections via dark money and various loopholes, which the report discusses in the first section and points to polling showing 78% of Americans oppose foreign funding in elections. 

‘It is illegal for foreign nationals to contribute to political candidates, but a legal loophole allows them to contribute both directly and indirectly to ballot measure campaigns,’ the report states.

‘A single left-wing group, the Sixteen Thirty Fund, has simultaneously accepted approximately $243 million from foreign billionaire Hansjörg Wyss and spent $130 million supporting or opposing ballot issue campaigns in 25 states. Ballot issues can rewrite election laws and change state Constitutions. These campaigns should not be a Trojan Horse for foreign influence, whether from activists like Wyss or hostile foreign powers like China and Russia.’

The report also warns against Ranked Choice Voting (RCV), which some states have banned but other states, including Alaska, continue to use it.

‘RCV makes it harder to vote, harder to understand election results, and harder to trust the voting process,’ the report explains.

‘Nevertheless, a small group of left-wing megadonors are pushing RCV as a way to drag politics to the left. In 2024, donors like John and Laura Arnold collectively spent $100 million on ballot measures to bring RCV to six new states. Voters rejected them all, defeating ballot issues in states as diverse as Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, and Oregon.’

‘Zuck Bucks’ became an increasingly controversial aspect of election security after Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg poured $400 million in grants during the 2020 election to fund a variety of work and equipment. HEP’s report urges states to prevent similar instances from occurring in the future.

‘Elections should be accountable to the public, not to special interest groups and liberal megadonors,’ the report says. ‘In 2020, left-wing nonprofits pumped more than $400 million from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg into thousands of election offices, giving more money to places that ultimately voted for Joe Biden.’

Other issues in the report include, requiring transparency and robust post-election audits of election processes and procedures, ensuring that elected lawmakers write election laws, and protecting vulnerable mail ballots.

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The Senate is poised to vote on whether to confirm Russell Vought to a top administration role after Democrats held a rare overnight session to oppose his nomination.

Vought was tapped by President Donald Trump to lead the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the office that helps create and manage the federal budget.

While many Trump nominees have received bipartisan support, Vought’s nomination has been controversial among Democratic lawmakers who are opposed due to his stance on the Impoundment Control Act – a 1974 law that reinforces Congress’ power of the purse. 

On Wednesday, the Senate voted to advance Vought’s nomination to a final vote on the floor, prompting a 30-hour, overnight debate period that Democrats vowed to use entirely for protest.

Democrats scheduled speakers to hold the floor throughout the entire night in an effort to delay Vought’s confirmation.

However, the Senate is likely to hold a confirmation vote for Vought on Thursday evening once the debate period ends.

‘We’re gonna do everything we can to make sure he doesn’t get confirmed,’ Sen. Gary Peters, D-Michigan, said in a video posted on X. ‘We know that Republicans have the votes, but we’re going to fight every step of the way.’

Fox News’ Diana Stacey and Julia Johnson contributed to this report.

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At first glance, Super Bowl Sunday’s lineup of brands and celebrities touting them to a global audience looks standard.

Viewers tuning into the Feb. 9 game on Fox will be greeted by the usual phalanx of hunky movie stars and aging idols, chart-topping singers, adorable animals and football legends touting snack treats and booze, fast cars and faster tax preparation.

Yet underlying the gaggle of talent is a shift in its makeup, which, intentionally or not, mirrors that of NFL and Super Bowl viewership: More women are entering the picture.

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In the past three years, according to research performed by marketing professor Kim Whitler, the number of Super Bowl ads that have had male-only celebrities has declined by 26% compared to a similar cycle from 2015-2017. Consequently, the number of ads that include both male and female celebrities has increased by 79%.

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A glance at USA TODAY’s Ad Meter results from that period almost feels like peering into a time capsule. Here were Bryan Cranston, Kevin Hart, Ryan Reynolds and Steve Harvey, among many others, carrying their spots themselves with only passing assistance from non-playable characters.

Contrast that to this Sunday, when viewers will be greeted by Willem Dafoe paired with Catherine O’Hara, Orlando Bloom opposite Drew Barrymore, Becky G and the Mountain Dude, among many others. Those spots will duck in before or after cutaways to the world’s most famous pop star, for the second consecutive year, watching the game from a suite.

“By 2024,” says Whitler, marketing professor at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, “you have more (product) categories represented and more diffusion. More variety of advertisers promoting their products in part because they’re seeing greater value in reaching this broader audience.

“More male-female celebrities and a decline of male-only celebrities from beginning to end. And a significant increase in the percentage of ads that were men and women celebrities.”

Now, the audience is increasingly reflecting why advertisers are paying $7 million to $8 million per 30 seconds of airtime this year.

“I love that more women are watching the game,” says Greg Lyons, chief marketing officer for PepsiCo., whose Baja Blast spot will air during the game. “The Super Bowl is for everybody. We need to have ads on it that resonate with women and men and not be too targeted.

“That wouldn’t be a good media buy to be too targeted on the Super Bowl.”  

And Sunday’s audience that likely will be the biggest and most diverse in game history.

The Taylor Effect

Swift’s romance with Kansas City tight end Travis Kelce remains a plot point, even if the story reached a seeming apex when they shared an on-field kiss following the Chiefs’ overtime victory one year ago.

Yet the pop star’s return to the game’s narrative will mark an interesting measuring stick for her lasting impact on the game and league.

So far, the one-year sample is eye-opening.

“A few million more viewers did tune in because of that,” says Syracuse University professor emeritus Dennis Deninger, author of The Football Game That Changed America. “Last year’s Super Bowl was the record for tune-in, and that helped.

“The celebrity impact helped the NFL. And it doesn’t hurt that the Kansas City Chiefs have returned.”

Last year’s numbers were startling: An estimated 123.7 million viewers smashed the record set the previous year, while the number of people who watched at least a portion of the game also set a high-water mark: 202.4 million, dwarfing the 184 million from the previous year.

And the share of audience that was female likely set a record as well: 49% of viewers, up from what Deninger says is typically a 53-47 male-female split. It’s also a massive leap from a gender split during regular season games that’s more typically close to two-thirds male, although that gap has narrowed as the NFL gains popularity with women and girls.

Now, the Swift-centric viewer joins a different demographic, that of potential returning customer. And the rate of retention may set a course for decades of further NFL domination.

“She gave a whole new young demographic a reason to pay attention,” says Whitler. “That exposure will stick for some of them. Some of that new demographic will say, ‘I really enjoyed that. I liked the party, I liked the community aspect, I enjoyed the game.’

“You have a subscription-based economy. Part of the goal is not just to have trial, but to get repeat purchase. She generated trial of the NFL among this young cohort, this whole new demographic, who has 50 or 60 years to appreciate it.

“The long tail effect of Taylor could be if 10, 15 or 20% of the community she brought in loves it enough that they come back a second year and love it even more and come back a third year and fourth year and fifth year.

“She was the catalyst to opening the door to a new demographic that potentially could become loyal for 40, 50, 60 years. That’s powerful.”

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‘Catalyst to broadening the NFL community’

In that sense, the increasingly coed composition of commercial lineups will be meeting the newbies where they are.

Certainly, the big game always featured pitches that crossed generations and tried to reach avid football fans and also the millions of casuals tuned in – much more complex than a low-stakes buy on a college basketball game or an HGTV program.

The gap between the Super Bowl and virtually every other medium will only continue to grow, certainly if at least a few drive-by watchers stick around.

Yes, somehow the biggest game will keep getting bigger, and this year’s viewership numbers will go a long way toward illustrating just how quick and vast – and lucrative – that growth will be.

“If they had a good experience last year, why would you not want to repeat it?” says Whitler. “It could be a very important catalyst to broadening the NFL community and drive greater interest from more, varied brands to want to reach this varied audience.

“Which drives up demand for Super Bowl advertising. Which drives up dollars.”

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The ‘Polar Bear’ is heading back to Queens.

Slugging first baseman Pete Alonso agreed to a two-year, $54 million with New York Mets that includes an opt-out after the first year, finally re-signing with the team that drafted him after a drawn-out winter of negotiations, according to a person with knowledge of the deal.

The person spoke to USA TODAY Sports on the condition of anonymity because the deal isn’t yet official.

One of the most prolific power hitters in Major League Baseball, only Aaron Judge has more home runs than Alonso since his big-league debut in 2019. That year saw the first baseman set an MLB rookie record with 53 homers.

Now 30 years old, Alonso averaged 43 home runs and 112 RBI per 162 games over his six seasons with the Mets.

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Alonso will earn $30 million in 2025 including a signing bonus, and has a $24 million player option for 2026.

A second-round pick out of Florida in 2016, Alonso had spent his entire career with the New York Mets organization and quickly became one of the most popular players in franchise history. His 226 homers rank third on New York’s all-time list behind Darryl Strawberry and David Wright.

In 2024, Alonso had a disappointing contract year with career-lows in slugging percentage (.459) and OPS (.788). But he came alive in the postseason, hitting four homers with 10 RBI and a .999 OPS in 13 games as the Mets took the eventual World Series champion Dodgers to six games in the National League Championship Series.

His ninth-inning home run in Game 3 of the wild-card series off Brewers All-Star closer Devin Williams kept the Mets’ season alive in what could have been his final at-bat with the club.

At 6-foot-3, 245 pounds, Alonso has vastly improved his defense at first base and has become one of the league’s most reliable receivers, ranking near the top of baseball in scoop percentage.

Alonso appeared in all 162 games in 2024, and ranks second behind Marcus Semien in games played since 2019.

As a rookie in 2019, Alonso became the Mets’ first position player to win Rookie of the Year honors since Strawberry in 1983, pick up the first of his four All-Star nods and win the Home Run Derby, a crown he’d earn again in 2021.

Pete Alonso stats

.249 career average, .854 OPS in 846 games
226 home runs. 586 RBI
MLB rookie record 53 home runs in 2019
1.003 OPS (5 HR, 11 RBI) in 16 postseason games

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The only thing set so far for the 2026 U.S. Olympic men’s hockey team is general manager Bill Guerin and coach Mike Sullivan.

But the U.S. team for next week’s 4 Nations Face-Off could serve as a blueprint for the NHL’s return to the Olympics for the first time since 2014 in Sochi, Russia.

The United States, Canada, Finland and Sweden will play in the 4 Nations tournament from Feb. 12-20 in Montreal and Boston. If the USA wins, that would be a good sign of what the core of next year’s Olympic team could look like. A lot, though, will depend on how U.S. players are faring early in the 2025-26 season before teams are finalized.

Here’s the U.S. 4 Nations Face-Off U.S. roster (listed alphabetically) and others who could be in the mix for 2026:

Forwards

Matt Boldy, Minnesota Wild
Kyle Connor, Winnipeg Jets
Jack Eichel, Vegas Golden Knights
Jake Guentzel, Tampa Bay Lightning
Jack Hughes, New Jersey Devils
Chris Kreider, New York Rangers
Dylan Larkin, Detroit Red Wings
Auston Matthews, Toronto Maple Leafs
J.T. Miller, New York Rangers
Brock Nelson, New York Islanders
Brady Tkachuk, Ottawa Senators
Matthew Tkachuk, Florida Panthers
Vincent Trocheck, New York Rangers

Much of this lineup should be the same. Matthews, Hughes, the Tkachuk brothers and Connor are key players and Boldy is a rising star. The question involves Kreider, Trocheck and Nelson, who are in their 30s. So is Miller, but he seems likely to stick around.

The USA has a deep talent pool, however. Utah’s Clayton Keller is having a strong start this season. Dallas’ Jason Robertson missed this year’s cut because of a slow start but he twice has scored 40 goals. Montreal’s Cole Caufield, Utah’s Logan Cooley and Buffalo’s Tage Thompson and Alex Tuch could also get a look.

Defensemen

D Brock Faber, Minnesota Wild
D Adam Fox, New York Rangers
D Noah Hanifin, Vegas Golden Knights
D Quinn Hughes, Vancouver Canucks
D Charlie McAvoy, Boston Bruins
D Jaccob Slavin, Carolina Hurricanes
D Zach Werenski, Columbus Blue Jackets

This group will be one of the top blue lines at the 4 Nations. But the USA has other defensemen who could make a case. Montreal’s Lane Hutson is among the favorites for rookie of the year. Ottawa’s Jake Sanderson, Winnipeg’s Neal Pionk, New Jersey’s Luke Hughes and others could also get a look. If Luke Hughes makes it, that would be three Hughes brothers at the Olympics.

Goaltenders

Connor Hellebuyck, Winnipeg Jets
Jake Oettinger, Dallas Stars
Jeremy Swayman, Boston Bruins

This could easily be the goaltending mix for 2026. Hellebuyck is a two-time Vezina Trophy winner and Oettinger and Swayman have solid credentials. Vancouver’s Thatcher Demko would have been in the mix at the 4 Nations, but he was hurt for the start of the season. If he gets off to a strong start next season, he could be considered.

Other U.S. goalies to watch: Calgary’s Dustin Wolf, a rookie of the year candidate, and Seattle’s Joey Daccord.

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MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin — Speedskating is such a big deal in the Netherlands, it once got Jordan Stolz out of a parking ticket. In his home country, however, not so much.

“Nobody’s swarming you at Pick ‘n Save,” joked Bob Corby, Stolz’s coach.

A year from now, that all could change.

Stolz, 20, churns out gold as if he was a mint, winning three races at each of the last two single-distance world championships and last year becoming the youngest allround champion since Eric Heiden. His second-place finish in the 500 meters Sunday ended his World Cup winning streak at 22 races, most ever for a male speedskater.

Keep this up, and Stolz will join Mikaela Shiffrin and Ilia Malinin as the biggest stars of the Milan Cortina Olympics that are now just a year away. The Winter Games are Feb. 6-22, 2026, in northern Italy.

“I think I can handle it,” Stolz said last week. “If I can handle the training and the skating, (the spotlight) shouldn’t be too much of a problem.”

Stolz was captivated by speedskating at the 2010 Olympics and began training on a pond in his family’s backyard. Conveniently, his hometown of Kewaskum is in the northwestern exurbs of Milwaukee, home to the Pettit National Ice Center, and Stolz’s parents soon began making the 45-minute drive so he could train there.

Stolz was 14 at the time.

“You could tell he was good. Like, `Oh wow, this kid has naturally really good technique and he’s willing to hurt or to train really hard,’” Corby recalled.

But Stolz was also raw. He’d never lifted weights, and biking was his only summer conditioning.

“I told him, `Listen, I’ll write you a really good program.’ … When he started lifting weights and training in a sophisticated way, he just took off. That’s when I knew, `Wow, he’s going to really be good.”

And it wasn’t just Corby who thought so.

“Foreign coaches were going, `Don’t tell anyone, but I never miss his races,’” Corby recalled. “So you just know he’s good.”

Stolz was just 16 when he won his first senior title, in the 500 meters at the 2021 U.S. championships. A year later, he won his first medal at a senior World Cup, finishing second in the 1,000 meters. He also qualified for the Beijing Olympics, finishing 13th in the 500 meters and 14th in the 1,000 meters.

And then he really took off.

Stolz’s win in the 1,500 meters at the first World Cup of the 2022-23 season made him the youngest man to win an individual World Cup race. At another World Cup the following month, he won medals in each of his three races, taking gold in the 1,000 and silvers in the 500 and 1,500.

He won the 500, 1,000 and 1,500 meters at the World Junior Speed Skating Championships, then did the same thing a month later as a senior at the World Single Distances Speed Skating Championships. It made Stolz the youngest world champion in history.

He defended his three titles at last year’s single distance worlds, then won the world allround, an event that tests skaters at the short, middle and long distances.

‘I’ve been beaten by a phenomenon,” three-time allround champion Patrick Roest of the Netherlands said after finishing second to Stolz.

This year, he’s been practically unbeatable. Literally. He won his first six 500-meter races, and his first four races at 1,000 and 1,500 meters. (Some World Cups have two 500-meter races.)  

Even that second-place finish Sunday was by just 0.05 seconds, and came after he’d won three races the previous two days.

“For a lot of people, it could be a lot. For someone to get that much success dumped on your shoulders right away,” Corby said. “He doesn’t seem to let it bother him too much. And I criticize him enough that I keep him grounded.

“You have to be. You just can’t let it get to your head,” Corby added. “This is really hard. And if you’re planning on winning for years to come, you got to be humble to keep training.”

At the same time, Stolz is not oblivious to the spotlight that’s about to be trained on him. He recently signed with Octagon and Janey Miller, the same agent who has represented Simone Biles and Apolo Anton Ohno.

“Hopefully I can get some good sponsors going into the Olympics,” Stolz joked. “Hopefully I don’t disappoint them, which I don’t think I will.”

While Olympic stardom could be life-changing for Stolz, who still lives at home and trains in his hometown, it also could be transformative for his sport.

Speedskating, like many Olympic sports, flies under the radar with the U.S. public for all but a month or two every four years. But if Stolz collects a fistful of medals and is all over TV and social media, it could encourage some kids to take up the sport.

Just look at the effect Stolz had on last week’s World Cup at the Pettit Center.

Milwaukee has long been a hub for speedskating, but this was the first World Cup in the city in almost 20 years. It was awarded to Milwaukee because of Stolz, and the sell-out crowds who packed the stands all three days cheered enthusiastically when he warmed up, when he raced and when he took his cool-down laps.

Afterward, they packed the Pettit Center lobby to congratulate him and take photos.

As Stolz posed for selfies, Shani Davis watched from a few feet away. The two-time Olympic champion has known Stolz since he was a kid — Davis used to train at the Pettit Center — and the two have remained close.

“He’s like my little brother,” Davis said.

And Davis knows, perhaps better than anyone, what’s in store for Stolz in the leadup to next year’s Games.

A phenom himself, Davis won his first world title at 21. By the time he got to the Turin Olympics, he’d won his first allaround title and was touted as one of the U.S. team’s stars. Davis would go on to win gold in the 1,000 meters and silver in the 1,500 in Turin, a feat he’d duplicate in Vancouver.

“It’s exciting and I think it’s something that the sport needs. It needs an American, a young American who is frontrunning, a champion,” Davis said of the impact Stolz could have.

“I think it’s just going to explode,” Davis added. “As we get closer to the Olympics, it’s only going to get bigger and bigger.”

Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.

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Commercials have long been a huge part of the Super Bowl experience for Americans, whether the high-profile ads were water cooler fodder on Monday decades ago, or instantly lighting up social media these days.

Since 1989, USA TODAY Ad Meter has surveyed viewers live on Sunday and awarded an annual winner to the highest-rated commercial. Anheuser-Busch has won Ad Meter 14 times – the most of any company – but hasn’t finished on top since 2015.

Some of the world’s biggest celebrities are set to start in 2025 commercials, including David Beckham and Matt Damon for Stella Artois and Matthew McConaughey for Uber Eats

Here’s a look back at all the USA TODAY Ad Meter winners:

2024: State Farm, ‘Like a Good Neighbaaa’ (6.68

2023: The Farmer’s Dog, ‘Forever’

2022: Rocket Mortgage, ‘Dream House with Anna Kendrick and Barbie’

2021: Rocket Mortgage, ‘Certain Is Better – Tracy Morgan, Dave Bautista & Liza Koshy’

2020: Jeep, ‘Groundhog Day’

2019: NFL, ‘The 100-Year Game’

2018: Amazon, ‘Alexa Loses Her Voice’

2017: Kia, ‘Hero’s Journey’

2016: Hyundai, ‘First Date’

2015: Budweiser, ‘Lost Dog’

2014: Budweiser, ‘Puppy Love’

2013: Budweiser, ‘Brotherhood’

2012: Doritos, ‘Dog bribes cat owner’

2011 (tie): Bud Light, ‘Dog sitter puts dogs to work’

2011 (tie): Doritos, ‘Dog’s revenge for Doritos teasing’

2010: Snickers, ‘Betty White and Abe Vigoda play in a casual football game’

2009: Doritos, ‘Crystal ball sees free Doritos’

2008: Budweiser, ‘Dalmatian trains Clydesdale to make beer wagon team’

2007: Budweiser, ‘Crabs worship Bud ice chest’

2006: Bud Light, ‘A secret fridge stocks Bud Light’

2005: Bud Light, ‘Pilot jumps out of plane for six-pack of Bud Light after skydiver refuses’

2004: Bud Light, ‘Owners demonstrate how their dogs fetch Bud Light’

2003: Budweiser, ‘Football-playing Clydesdales turn to zebra referee to review call on replay’

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2002: Bud Light, ‘Romantic evening goes awry with satin sheets’

2001: Bud Light, ‘Cedric’s dream date goes awry’

2000: Budweiser, ‘Rex the dog recalls worst day’

1999: Budweiser, ‘Dalmatians get different jobs’

1998: Pepsi, ‘Flying geese’

1997: Pepsi, ‘Pepsi bears dance to Village People tune’

1996: Pepsi, ‘Coke driver nabs Pepsi’

1995: Pepsi, ‘Boy gets sucked into Pepsi bottle’

1994: Pepsi, ‘A chimp experiment goes awry’

1993: McDonald’s, ‘Jordan, Bird shoot hoops’

1992: Nike, ‘Michael Jordan/Bugs Bunny’

1991: Diet Pepsi, ‘New jingle spreads around the world’

1990: Nike, ‘Announcers and athletes’

1989: American Express, ‘Saturday Night Live’

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Sen. Ted Cruz, R-TX, is reintroducing a constitutional amendment to cap the number of Supreme Court Justices at nine, amid calls to expand the court. 

Cruz, now joined by 15 cosponsors including Republican Sens. Bill Cassidy (LA), Chuck Grassley (IA), Mike Crapo (ID), Thom Tillis (NC) and John Cornyn (TX), previously introduced the amendment in 2021 and in 2023. 

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Cruz said Democrats are seeking to ‘use the Court to advance policy goals they can’t accomplish electorally.’

‘Such a move would be a direct assault on the design of our Constitution, which is designed to ensure the Supreme Court remains a non-partisan guardian of the rule of law,’ Cruz said. ‘This amendment is a badly-needed check on their efforts to undermine the integrity of the Court.’ 

Likewise, Grassley said the amendment would ensure the Court’s independence from political pressures. 

‘Democrats’ radical court packing scheme would erase the legitimacy of the Supreme Court and destroy historic precedent,’ Grassley said in a statement. ‘The Court is a co-equal branch of government, and our Keep Nine Amendment will ensure that it remains independent from political pressure.’

The nine-justice court currently has a conservative supermajority. Following various landmark decisions in recent years, including the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, Democrats have re-upped calls to impose court reforms, including expanding and packing the court as well as imposing term limits. 

In October, then-Vice President Kamala Harris entertained the notion of imposing court reforms during a CNN town hall. Harris was asked if she would support expanding the number of justices from the current nine to 12. 

‘There is no question that the American people increasingly are losing confidence in the Supreme Court and, in large part, because of the behavior of certain members of that court and because of certain rulings, including the Dobbs decision and taking away a precedent that had been in place for 50 years, protecting a woman’s right to make decisions about her own body,’ Harris said during the event.

‘So, I do believe that there should be some kind of reform of the court, and we can study what that actually looks like.’ 

Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Democrat from Minnesota, also called for reforming the Court that same month, saying in social media posts, ‘We need to radically reform the broken Supreme Court.’

Democrats have consistently proposed legislation to expand the Supreme Court to a 13-justice bench. 

In May 2023, Georgia Democrat Rep. Hank Johnson joined Democratic Sens. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Tina Smith of Minnesota, and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, as well as Democratic Reps. Jerry Nadler of New York, Cori Bush of Mississippi, and Adam Schiff of California, in reintroducing the Judiciary Act of 2023.  

‘We want to prevent this kind of rot and decay from ever overtaking a Supreme Court again,’ Johnson told Fox News Digital in October. 

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Now that the dust has settled on President Donald Trump’s triumphant return to power, it is time to govern. The president has already signed hundreds of executive orders tackling issues from immigration to DEI. He is working non-stop for the American people, and he is just getting started. This truly is a new golden age for America, a period of technological advancement, prosperity, and peace.

On Nov. 5, 2024, Trump achieved the greatest comeback in political history against all odds. He did so because he and his family had a strong team of America First patriots behind them. In the years since he left office in 2020, many of these patriots faced unemployment, Big Tech censorship, lawfare, and debanking simply because they supported Trump and refused to disown him. Peter Navarro and Steve Bannon even went to jail for him. Many woke actors in corporate America played a role in canceling these patriots, and Trump knows this. He remembers how in 2020, corporate America flocked to donate millions of dollars to Black Lives Matter, knowing that it was a Marxist organization, but refused to donate to his campaign.

Today, woke corporate America is busy rebranding itself as MAGA-friendly so it can cozy up to the new Trump administration. These moves are at best cosmetic. My advice to the president, the Trump White House and broader administration following these moves? Don’t believe your lying eyes. Big Tech is not your friend. Do not put hope over experience and sell yourself short. Mark Zuckerberg may have given the Trump inaugural fund $1 million, but he spent $400 million trying to stop Trump in 2020.

So why is Big Tech cozying up to MAGA like they are on a cheap date? The answer is easy: antitrust law enforcement. What Big Tech really cares about is not Trump, or his family, or even the country. What they really fear is tough, but fair, antitrust enforcement by the Trump administration.

Today, Alphabet (Google and YouTube), Amazon, Meta (Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp), and Apple are facing major, bipartisan antitrust lawsuits from the Justice Department and FTC. Several of these cases began under the Trump 45 administration, including two cases against Google filed by the Justice Department. The Biden Justice Department won the first case, and the Trump Justice Department is poised to win the second case. Google is banking on the Trump 47 Justice Department pulling its punches on both cases. They and the other Big Tech platforms desperately want a return to the Bush-Obama Uniparty antitrust ‘enforcement,’ and they are hoping they can fool the Trump 47 administration into going there. 

After all, the George W. Bush and Obama administrations enforced the antitrust laws so little that they put the ‘Big’ in Big Tech. It was the Obama administration that waved through Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsApp and Instagram, and it was the Obama White House that forced the Federal Trade Commission to close an early monopolization investigation into Google back in 2013. The Big Tech platforms used this uniparty antitrust amnesty to hyperscale and become dominant in several important online markets.

President Trump is smart enough to know a bad deal when he sees one; he literally wrote a book called ‘The Art of the Deal.’ He is also too smart to buy the argument that Big Tech monopolists must become even bigger and more dominant in order to compete with China. America will win the AI global race the American way, like it always has.

Free markets exist only when antitrust laws are enforced with vigor. Free markets require functioning markets. And when the trillion-dollar Big Tech monopolists – Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple – crush competition, shutter small businesses, cancel those with whom they disagree, and carry China’s water, we no longer have functioning and free-markets. We must end Big Tech’s gatekeeping power over information and commerce.

There is clear historical precedent for this: If President Reagan had listened to AT&T in 1984, we might never have seen the competition and innovation unleashed by the Ma Bell breakup. This innovation included the wireless industry and key parts of the early internet. At the time, the tech giant argued that it needed to be a monopoly so the U.S. could compete globally with the Soviet Union. Of course, AT&T was wrong, and the Soviet Union crumbled in 1990. But if Reagan had listened to the company in 1984, not only would he have been on the wrong side of history, Americans might never have benefited from the competition and innovation brought about by antitrust law enforcement against AT&T.

President Trump’s antitrust law enforcers, led by Gail Slater at the Trump Justice Department’s Antitrust Division and FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson, will be fair and enforce the law impartially, protecting the U.S. free market from woke monopolists and standing up for American values and American consumers. They will target the anticompetitive tumors on the free market, which is the opposite of the industry-wide regulations (market-entry barriers to startup competitors) the Big Tech monopolists (like Facebook) seek.

Uniparty antitrust that favors woke corporations and Big Tech monopolists will do the opposite. Big Tech and their allies alongside the DC establishment will pull every dirty trick in the book to undermine Trump’s antitrust law enforcers, but Trump knows better. This is his time for choosing Trump antitrust over uniparty Bush-Obama antitrust. To quote Reagan, when it comes to antitrust, Trump should ‘dance with the one who brung ya.’

Mike Davis is the Founder and President of the Article III Project.

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Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was tapped as the acting director of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) just days ago, is taking on another new role in President Donald Trump’s new administration. 

Rubio is now also serving as the acting director of the U.S. Archives, ABC News reported, citing a high-level official. Fox News Digital reached out to the State Department for comment, but they did not immediately respond.

Trump signaled last month his intention of replacing the now-former national archivist Colleen Shogan, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden, during a brief phone interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt. The National Archives notified the Justice Department in early 2022 over classified documents Trump allegedly took with him to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida after leaving office. That would later result in an FBI raid, and Trump being indicted by former special counsel Jack Smith. 

The source told ABC News that Rubio has been the acting archivist since shortly after Trump was sworn in as the 47th president last month. 

This week, Rubio is traveling on his first official State Department trip to Central America, during which he convinced the Panamanian president to end its Belt and Roads project deal with the Chinese government. Trump has said the United States could claim the Panama Canal through economic or military measures if necessary after raising concerns about Beijing allegedly controlling the strategic waterway that was constructed by the U.S. 

The Trump administration has suspended some foreign aid pending a review into how U.S. taxpayer dollars are being spent abroad, resulting in thousands of layoffs and ended programs. 

While addressing reporters in Guatemala City on Wednesday, Rubio said he issued waivers for certain programs that assist in gathering biometric information to better identify fugitives, as well as bolster technology and K-9 units to identify shipments of deadly fentanyl and precursor chemicals, showing ‘firsthand the kind of foreign aid America wants to be involved in.’ 

‘This is an example of foreign aid that’s in our national interest. That’s why I’ve issued a waiver for these programs, that’s why these programs are coming back online, and they will be functioning, because it’s a way of showing to the American people this is the kind of foreign aid that’s aligned with our foreign policy, with our national interest,’ Rubio said.

America’s top diplomat said the United States wants some fugitives who are ‘strategic objectives, meaning they help us strengthen our partners, and they help us to cut the head off the snake of a transnational group that’s particularly dangerous.’ He said the State Department would be ‘working very closely’ with U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Justice Department in ‘prioritizing our extradition requests so that they align with our strategic objective with regards to who it is that we’re going after.’

The State Department announced on Wednesday that ‘the government of Panama has agreed to no longer charge fees for U.S. government vessels to transit the Panama Canal,’ saving the U.S. government ‘millions of dollars a year.’ 

However, the Panama Canal Authority denied having made any adjustments to the tolls or transit agreements of the canal despite the State Department’s announcement, adding that they are ‘ready to establish a dialogue with the relevant officials of the United States regarding the transit of warships.’ Earlier this week, Rubio voiced frustration about U.S. Navy ships having to pay to transit through the canal despite the U.S. being under treaty agreement to defend the canal if it is attacked. 

‘Secretary of State Marco Rubio is such a breath of fresh air & he’s proven to be incredibly effective in implementing President Trump’s PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH vision for the world,’ Rep. Carlos Giménez, a Republican ally of Rubio in Congress representing south Florida, said in a statement to Fox News Digital. ‘Panama has agreed to drop its ‘memorandum of understanding’ with Communist China & to waive the toll for U.S. Navy ships transiting the Canal Zone. Panama must continue to work with the United States to evict Communist China from their country & achieve a productive, long-term deal that prioritizes both of our countries’ shared interests.’

Besides the canal, Rubio has focused his trip on immigration, praising the Panamanians for the decreased flow of migrants through the Darien Gap and overseeing a deportation flight of Colombian nationals back to Colombia. 

Rubio secured two agreements with first, El Salvador, and then Guatemala on Wednesday, for the countries to accept deportees from the U.S.

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