Eclipse fever hits Texas towns as residents and officials prepare for a crush of visitors
Llano residents are told to stock up on groceries. A Sulphur Springs church is renting its parking spots. And everyone’s watching the weather forecast ahead of Monday’s eclipse.
Texas counties facing surprise surcharge from voter registration software vendor
Votec, one of only three companies certified to manage voter registration data in Texas, is facing a financial squeeze and asking counties for a 35% surcharge.
Influential conservative PAC wades into Texas Legislature primaries
Club for Growth announced it will spend $4 million on a TV ad targeting five anti-school voucher Texas House Republicans.
Top GOP super PAC reveals first round of ‘trailblazer’ candidate endorsements: ‘Proven track records’
FIRST ON FOX: The Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF) dropped its first round of “trailblazer” endorsements for the 2024 election cycle, a major advancement in Republican efforts to expand their slim House majority in the fall. CLF, a top Republican super PAC closely aligned with House Speaker Mike Johnson that supports and invests in Republican congressional campaigns across the country, made 20 key House endorsements Wednesday that were shared first with Fox News Digital. Throughout their campaigns, the selected Republican candidates will receive financial support from the group’s Trailblazers Fund, a hard-dollar arm set up ahead of the 2018 midterm elections to fund high-priority congressional campaigns. REPUBLICANS BLAST DEPARTING GOP LAWMAKERS AS RAZOR-THIN MAJORITY FUELS FEARS OF DEM TAKEOVER The 20 candidates receiving the backing of the GOP group are as follows: Nancy Dahlstrom (AK-AL), Kevin Lincoln (CA-09), Scott Baugh (CA-47), Gabe Evans (CO-08), George Logan (CT-05), Joe McGraw (IL-17), Randy Niemeyer (IN-01), Prasanth Reddy (KS-03), Austin Theriault (ME-02), Tom Barrett (MI-07), Joe Teirab (MN-02), Laurie Buckhout (NC-01), Yvette Herrell (NM-02), Alison Esposito (NY-18), Orlando Sonza (OH-01), Derek Merrin (OH-09), Kevin Coughlin (OH-13), Rob Bresnahan (PA-08), Rob Mercuri (PA-17) and Derrick Anderson (VA-07). REPUBLICANS WARM TO SOCIAL SECURITY, MEDICARE REFORM AS 2024 ELECTION NEARS “These candidates have proven they have what it takes to connect with voters and win in battleground districts,” said CLF President Dan Conston in a statement. “For the third straight cycle, House Republicans have had tremendous recruits in swing seats — and that can make all the difference. With the right resources, we will be well-positioned to hold and grow the House Majority come November.” CLF noted that its endorsements are carefully picked for identifying campaigns led by “standout candidates with proven track records of tangible achievement and impressive character.” The group also made several endorsements in the 2022 midterms, spending roughly $250 million in its successful effort to regain the majority in the House. Republicans are protecting a rather slim majority in the chamber this cycle after several members have either announced they will not seek re-election in the fall or have fully resigned ahead of the November election. Rep. Rep Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., recently announced an early exit from his seat, leaving the GOP with a temporary one-seat majority. As the CLF begins its focus on the initial 20 standout candidates, and likely running ads for the endorsed candidates, the recent departures make House GOP pickup opportunities and strategic investments that much more crucial going into the fall election.
Republican Senate candidate in crucial race in key battleground state reports $6.2 million haul
FIRST ON FOX – Dave McCormick, the Republican candidate running for the Senate in the swing state of Pennsylvania, is showcasing a second straight formidable fundraising quarter. McCormick reports bringing $6.2 million in the January-March first quarter of 2024 fundraising, according to figures shared first with Fox News on Wednesday. The haul includes $1 million contributed by McCormick, a former hedge fund executive, West Point graduate, Gulf War combat veteran and Treasury Department official in former President George W. Bush’s administration. SIX KEY SENATE SEATS REPUBLICANS AIM TO FLIP IN NOVEMBER The money raised by McCormick the past three months comes close to the $6.4 million he brought in during the fourth quarter of last year. That haul also included $1 million of his own money. McCormick will face off in November against longtime Democratic Sen. Bob Casey, in a high profile and expensive race which could ultimately decide whether the GOP wins back the Senate majority. THIS FORMER BLUE STATE REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR IS AIMING TO FLIP A DEMOCRATIC HELD SENATE SEAT Casey, who served a decade as the state’s auditor general and then treasurer before winning election to the Senate in 2006, has yet to announce his first quarter fundraising figures. Candidates running for federal office have until later this month to file their reports with the Federal Election Commission. Casey, the son of a popular former governor, raised $3.6 million in the fourth quarter. McCormick, who is making his second straight Senate run, was part of a crowded and combustible battle for the 2022 GOP nomination. He ended up losing the nomination by a razor-thin margin to celebrity doctor and cardiac surgeon Mehmet Oz, who secured a primary victory thanks to a late endorsement from former President Donald Trump. Oz ended up losing the general election to Democrat John Fetterman. This time around, McCormick faces no major opposition in the GOP primary in Pennsylvania later this month. He is backed by longtime Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and the Pennsylvania GOP, and was encouraged to run by the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which is the party’s Senate campaign arm. McCormick – as he was in 2022 – is once again facing incoming fire over his residency. McCormick, who grew up in northeast Pennsylvania and who is the son of the Keystone State’s first state university system chancellor, was attacked for owning a house in an affluent part of Connecticut, where he lived for years before buying a home in Pittsburgh ahead of his 2022 Senate campaign. Pennsylvania Democrats have repeatedly charged that “the real David McCormick is a mega-millionaire Connecticut hedge fund executive who is lying about living in Pennsylvania.” But McCormick campaign spokeswoman Elizabeth Gregory told Fox News that “Pennsylvanians from across the commonwealth are joining the movement to elect Dave McCormick, a 7th-generation Pennsylvanian, combat veteran, and PA job creator who will bring new leadership and fresh ideas to the Senate.” “Dave is exactly the kind of candidate who can beat Bob Casey, secure a Senate majority and get this country back on track,” she emphasized. Democrats currently control the U.S. Senate with a 51-49 majority, but Republicans are looking at a favorable Senate map this year, with Democrats defending 23 of the 34 seats up for grabs. Three of those seats are in red states that Trump carried in 2020 — Ohio, Montana and West Virginia, where Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin is not running for re-election. And Pennsylvania is one of five key general election battlegrounds where the Democrats are defending seats. Democrats may also have to worry about holding the open Senate seat in blue Maryland, where former GOP Gov. Larry Hogan is running. Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.
J&K: Sub-inspector dies after shootout inside Government Medical College in Kathua
Acting on a tip-off, a police party was chasing a car in which gangster Vasudev, a key accused in a murder case registered at Ramgarh police station was travelling.
Truckers challenge Biden administration over climate crackdown on electric big rigs
American truck drivers are sounding the horn on the Biden administration’s recently-finalized environmental regulations that aim to push for the heavy-duty vehicle sector to go all-electric. The truckers voiced concerns that electric heavy-duty vehicle technology is not nearly advanced enough to replace the nation’s existing diesel-powered fleet, noting limitations on vehicle batteries, like low performance in cold weather conditions and shorter range. They also warned that the lack of high-powered charging infrastructure and power grid upgrades needed for fueling vehicles would present additional problems. “I’m an owner-operator. I’ve been in the business for 30 years,” Mike Nichols, a Wisconsin-based trucker, told Fox News Digital in an interview. “Even if they subsidized the cost of the electric vehicle 100%, I still would refuse because I still would go broke. That’s how useless they are. If they gave me one of these things, I still wouldn’t take it. “EV trucks don’t do as much work. They’re heavier, so they can’t haul as much. They don’t go as far. They take longer to charge,” Nichols added, saying he wouldn’t be able to run his business if he were forced into using an electric vehicle. FEDERAL COURT STRIKES DOWN BIDEN’S CLIMATE RULE FOR STATES “So, you’re going to need more trucks on the road, which is completely the opposite of what we would want if we were actually concerned about bettering our society.” On Friday, the Environmental Protection Agency finalized the regulations, which kick in beginning in 2026 for model year 2027 vehicles. The regulations gradually become more stringent through model year 2032, affecting short-haul and long-haul tractor-trailer trucks and vocational trucks like delivery vehicles, school and public transit buses, and garbage trucks, concrete trucks and fire trucks. EPA previously projected the standards could lead to 50% of vocational trucks, 35% of short-haul tractor-trailers and 25% of long-haul tractor-trailers produced in 2032 being electric. INTERNATIONAL CODE COUNCIL REJECTS AGGRESSIVE GREEN ENERGY HOME BUILDING CODE MANDATE While the average diesel-powered semi-truck has a typical range of between 1,500 and 2,000 miles, depending on its mileage and tank size, the highest-end electric semi-truck, Tesla’s Semi model, has a range of 500 miles. And most other electric models have ranges below 330 miles, according to data compiled by Ptolemus Consulting Group. In addition, electric trucks can take as long as three hours to fully charge, the data showed, while diesel truck tanks can usually be filled in 20 minutes or less. At the same time, despite the lower efficiency, according to the International Council on Clean Transportation, the average electric truck typically costs around $300,000, while traditional diesel models are half that price on average. Nichols noted that an additional problem with electrifying heavy-duty vehicles is the impact on trucks that need to execute a power takeoff — for when the vehicle is stationary — but the engine is running to operate another function, such as a hydraulic system, pump or blower. He couldn’t say how a battery-powered truck would perform these tasks. The American Trucking Associations estimates trucks transported a whopping 11.5 billion tons of freight in 2022, equivalent to about 72% of total tonnage shipped nationwide. CONSUMER GROUP REVEALS LEFT-WING GROUPS INCREASINGLY USING COURTS TO PUSH GREEN NEW DEAL But less than 1% of new truck sales in the U.S. are zero emissions, according to the Truck and Engine Manufacturers Association, which represents the world’s leading manufacturers of heavy-duty vehicles. While the U.S. would need 28 million charging ports by 2030 to meet electrification goals, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, there are currently only 160,000 such ports. “This administration just continues to put out regulations on truckers and small business trucking without any knowledge or even trying to get the knowledge of what these truckers have to go through. This is just so frustrating to me,” Lewie Pugh, who drove a truck for 25 years and serves as executive vice president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA), said in an interview. “Truckers want clean air, clean water but there are certain ways to go about it. We’re passing mandatory laws on technology that’s not even invented, and nobody knows what the cost is going to be.” Pugh raised concerns that the U.S. power grid isn’t ready for such an increase in the level of electrical demand that would be sparked by trucks being plugged in so frequently. A December 2022 study by the American Transportation Research Institute determined the full electrification of the U.S. transportation sector would require a 40% increase in generation and transmission capacity compared to the current grid. BIG OIL COMPANIES ASK SUPREME COURT TO INTERVENE IN HIGH-STAKES CLIMATE CASE In addition to individual truckers and OOIDA, other industry groups such as the American Trucking Associations and American Bus Association came out against the EPA’s regulations, characterizing them as “burdensome, expensive and rife with a series of long-term issues.” In response to the criticism it has received, the EPA pointed to its original explanation of the regulations. The agency told Fox News Digital it would monitor implementation of the regulations in the coming years to determine whether any potential adjustments to the program are warranted. “The rule will deliver substantial public health benefits, while at the same time ensuring fleet owners and operators the flexibility to choose the vehicle technologies best suited to their operations,” EPA said in a statement. The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Pro-life advocates sound alarm on ‘extreme’ Florida abortion vote that Dems hope could swing general election
The Florida Supreme Court ruled on Monday that a ballot measure enshrining abortion into the state’s constitution can be voted on in November which prominent pro-life advocates tell Fox News Digital will involve a “misleading” playbook that is too “extreme” for Florida voters. While Monday’s ruling upheld a 15-week abortion ban signed into law by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and cleared the way for the imminent enforcement of a 6-week ban, which Democrats have already attacked as “MAGA extremism”, it also approved a ballot measure in November allowing Florida voters to decide whether to enshrine abortion access into the state constitution. The Florida ruling comes shortly after voters in Ohio, where Trump won by 8 points in 2020, overwhelmingly voted in favor of a constitutional amendment allowing abortion. Several pro-life advocates spoke to Fox News Digital about what the post-Roe v. Wade battle will look like in Florida. “The abortion businesses pushing this extreme amendment know the heartbeat law is supported by the majority of Floridians and second- and third-trimester abortion is wildly unpopular,” Katie Glenn Daniel, Tampa lawyer and SBA Pro-Life America State Policy Director, told Fox News Digital. OHIO VOTERS APPROVE AMENDMENT ENSHRINING ABORTION ACCESS INTO STATE CONSTITUTION “That’s why they will use tens of millions of dollars like they did in Ohio to use fear and deception because they know their extreme policy is wildly unpopular. Despite the clear fact that emergency care continues to be available to pregnant women in all 50 states, they will rely on the lie women won’t receive medical care and sow confusion that puts women’s lives in danger.” Daniel explained that in order to avoid a similar result as Ohio, prominent Floridians must persuasively articulate what the abortion measure means for residents. “Gov. Ron DeSantis must be at the forefront of protecting Florida from Big Abortion’s attempt to eliminate the rights of unborn children, parents, women, and girls,” Daniel said. “Gov. DeSantis signed protections for babies who feel pain and have a heartbeat into law and now he must lead in defending those protections.” Since Roe v. Wade was overturned and the issue was given back to the states, Republicans have suffered several defeats at the ballot box that many pundits attribute to poor messaging on abortion from the GOP but some pro-life advocates, including Caitlin Connors, southern regional director for SBA Pro-Life America, have made the case that Democrats are not where the majority of Americans are on abortion. PRO-LIFE GROUPS REJECT MEDIA NARRATIVE THAT GOP CAN’T WIN ON ABORTION AFTER OHIO DEFEAT: ‘NOT A LOSING ISSUE’ “The media narrative that late-term abortion is a political winner is wrong. Since Dobbs we’ve seen strong pro-life candidates like Senator Rubio stand strong for life and win,” Connors told Fox News Digital. “The Democrats know their candidates suffer when they get on a debate stage and are confronted directly on the extreme position to legalize 2nd and 3rd trimester abortions, so they are trying to use deceptive amendments to cover their tracks. Their extreme position is not a winner with the American people and Republicans must continue to expose the Democrat position for voters across America.” Prominent Democrats have already begun promoting the idea that a wave of turnout for the abortion measure will not only constitutionally override the state’s current abortion bans but could also benefit President Biden’s effort to carry Florida in November which would be a crushing blow to former President Trump’s campaign. “More and more people are realizing how wrong these bans are and you’ve seen it across the country, whenever there have been ballot initiatives, no matter how red the state is, the people rise up for women’s reproductive freedom here,” North Carolina Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper told reporters during a Biden-Harris campaign conference call on Wednesday. FOX NEWS POLL: RECORD NUMBER SAY ABORTION SHOULD BE LEGAL “So the more Republicans do here, the worse it’s going to get for them at the ballot box, as it should, because this is an issue that people care about all across the country.” “I think the empirical evidence suggests that we have a good shot for this,” Florida Democratic State Rep. Fentrice Driskell said on the call. “And it’s tough to ignore the electoral implications. The last time that a Democratic presidential candidate won Florida was when there was an anti-abortion measure on the ballot. So this is something that Floridians pay attention to. That was President Barack Obama in 2012. So I am optimistic that it will pass the finish line in November.” Republicans outnumber Democrats in Florida by a wide margin and a recent Politico analysis suggested that recent abortion ballot measures did not significantly boost Democrat turnout. Still, Biden campaign manager Julie Chávez Rodríguez said on the zoom call, “We definitely see Florida in play.” After the Ohio defeat, pro-life groups assessed that part of the reason for the result was being massively outspent and pointed to what they said was misleading language in the abortion amendment, two things that they say must be addressed in Florida. “Our campaign will ensure that Florida voters won’t be fooled by the misleading amendment language and ensure that the abortion industry and out of state abortion extremists who have spent nearly $20 million on their campaign so far won’t succeed in their efforts to enact one of the most extreme abortion amendment proposals in America,” Sara Johnson, grassroots director of Florida Voters Against Extremism, told Fox News Digital. “No law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s healthcare provider,” the ballot measure, known as Amendment 4, states. “This amendment does not change the Legislature’s constitutional authority to require notification to a parent or guardian before a minor has an abortion.” Florida Republican Attorney General Ashley Moody, in an amicus brief that was denied by the court, argued the wording is misleading for several reasons including not defining the term “viability.” “The ballot summary
Battleground Dem senator posted 23 times on George Floyd, silent on Laken Riley
Longtime Democrat Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey Jr. has yet to say anything on social media about the recent murder of nursing student Laken Riley, but he has tweeted nearly two dozen times about the 2020 killing of George Floyd, according to a review of the battleground state lawmaker’s social media accounts. Fox News Digital reviewed Casey’s official Senate X account as well as his campaign X account and found he has tweeted at least 23 times underscoring the tragedy surrounding Floyd’s death in 2020 during an interaction with police in Minneapolis. When searching for any tweets on Riley, the accounts turned up empty. Fox News Digital repeatedly reached out to Casey’s campaign regarding the tweets on Floyd versus none on Riley but didn’t receive comment. Casey has long been a Pennsylvania Democrat stalwart, first winning his election to the U.S. Senate in 2007 and serving in a state where his father was elected governor in 1987. Casey has said this year’s election will be a “tough race” as he works to hold onto his seat in a swing state that will likely help determine the results of this year’s presidential election. LONGTIME PA DEM SILENT ON SUPPORT FOR FRESHMAN ‘SQUAD’ MEMBER AFTER HIS NAME QUIETLY REMOVED FROM SITE Casey is anticipated to face off against Republican Dave McCormick following the state’s primaries in April. McCormick is an Army combat veteran and former CEO of hedge fund Bridgewater Associates. He served as the Commerce Department’s undersecretary of commerce for industry and security as well as undersecretary of the treasury for international affairs under former President George W. Bush. Riley’s murder has become a rallying cry for Republicans this year as they demand the Biden administration drastically strengthen its immigration policies, similar to how Floyd’s killing ushered in demands from Democrats to defund police departments and overhaul policing in the U.S. Riley, 22, was discovered beaten to death in February after going for a run on the University of Georgia’s campus. The Augusta University student crossed paths with Venezuelan national Jose Antonio Ibarra, according to authorities, and died from blunt force trauma to the head. Ibarra, 26, was charged with Riley’s murder. He entered the U.S. through El Paso, Texas, in 2022 and was freed on border parole. He first lived in New York City, where he was arrested for endangering a child, before moving to Athens, Georgia. LAKEN RILEY’S MOTHER SPEAKS OUT ABOUT ‘AVOIDABLE TRAGEDY’ AFTER DAUGHTER’S FUNERAL Floyd was killed on May 25, 2020, in Minneapolis after police officers pinned him to the ground by kneeling on his neck and body after he was accused of using counterfeit money at a convenience store. Floyd’s death was soon followed by massive protests and riots across the nation demanding police departments be defended; there was also a spike in the nation’s violent crime rate as police pulled back from patrolling and some officers left the force in record numbers in response to anti-police rhetoric. Casey’s X accounts show repeated tweets remembering Floyd, including on Father’s Day in 2020 when he took a moment of silence in memory of Floyd and other Black Americans who died during interactions with police, and called for reforms to the U.S. justice system. Casey, who has positioned himself as a supporter of law enforcement, outlines on his Senate page that “we must reform” policing systems. He came under fire last month from leaders in law enforcement in the Keystone State for “aligning” himself with a “defund the police” group, Indivisible Philadelphia, and its state chapter, Pennsylvania Indivisible. The group threw their endorsement behind Casey ahead of his election battle against McCormick this year. “[Casey] wants to hide his culpability in the tragic murder of Laken Riley,” said Nate Sizemore, McCormick’s campaign press secretary, when asked about Casey’s silence on Laken Riley. “Casey’s support for sanctuary cities, his opposition to a border wall, his votes against funding that could have saved 4,000 Pennsylvanians from fentanyl overdoses – it’s all enabling the deaths of Americans and the terrorizing of our communities. Pennsylvanians are fed up with this empty suit who won’t put their safety and the safety of their children first.” Casey has voted against measures such as former President Trump’s border wall and a bill that would disqualify illegal migrants from being counted in the U.S. Census. He’s endorsed fellow Democrats like former Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney, who reinstated the city’s sanctuary city status. COOKIE MONSTER HIDES SEN BOB CASEY’S REPLY ON X AFTER DEM SOUGHT CAMPAIGN DONATION: ‘CAN YOU CHIP IN? Following Riley’s death, Republican lawmakers rallied around Georgia Rep. Mike Collins, who introduced the Laken Riley Act, which would require Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to issue detainers and take custody of illegal migrants if they commit certain theft-related crimes, among other measures. The bill received widespread support in the House, passing 251-170, while the Senate’s version of the bill was subsequently blocked in the Democrat-led upper chamber. Casey has voted in recent years against a similar bill called Kate’s Law, which is named after California woman Kate Steinle who was shot and killed by a Mexican national in 2015. If enacted, Kate’s Law would impose mandatory minimum prison sentences on foreign nationals with aggravated felony convictions who illegally reenter the U.S. after being deported. PENNSYLVANIA POLICE SLAM LONGTIME DEM SEN CASEY ‘ALIGNING’ HIMSELF WITH DEFUND THE POLICE GROUP: ‘DANGEROUS’ “Senator Casey believes that all perpetrators of violent crimes should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Casey’s office told the New York Post in February when asked about Kate’s Law, adding that Casey “believes that we need concrete solutions to secure the border and fix our broken immigration system, not political games.” Riley’s murder has become a focal point of the immigration crisis in the U.S. as Republicans continue slamming Biden’s border policies that have led to more than 7 million migrants entering the U.S. since 2021. A handful of Democrats, such as Casey, have avoided talking about Riley, while Republicans, like
Will a second-term Trump be radical, restrained or routed by the resistance?
The media are filled with chatter, prognostication and speculation about what another Trump term would look like. This is in part because he has a good shot at winning–something the press didn’t believe a few short months ago–and because we basically know what a second Biden term would look like. That’s the lot of an incumbent president – Biden can say he wants to “finish the job” and stop his dangerous opponent, but the liberal direction of the administration is clear. What makes another four years of Donald Trump less clear is that at times he’s said different things to different people. In a speech in Waco last year, Trump said: “I am your warrior, I am your justice. For those who have been wronged and betrayed … I am your retribution.” WHY EVANGELICALS ARE WEDDED TO TRUMP AS HE MAKES A MORE BIBLICAL APPEAL But he has since softened that rhetoric. In our Mar-a-Lago interview, the former president said “my greatest retribution, or as you would also say, revenge, like my revenge will be success for our country.” He added: “People say you’re conservative, I say, but really, what I am is a person with common sense.” That depicts him as liberated from Republican orthodoxy on such issues as abortion and Social Security. Or had he already sent the retribution message he wanted to rile up to his base? Trump and his allies have suggested, and I asked about this as well, that he will not be constrained as he was in his first term by such establishment figures as Jim Mattis, John Kelly, Bill Barr, John Brennan, Gary Cohn and H.R. McMaster, most of whom have since turned against him. Instead, he’ll populate a new administration with such hard-line figures as Stephen Miller and others from right-wing think tanks. National Review, in its new cover story, explores three basic options that boil down to this: Which Trump will we get, and what will he be able to accomplish? Behind Door No. 1: A Return of the Limited Trump Congress and the courts placed “strong limits” on the Trump presidency. The former president was also limited by “a lack of follow-through,” often listening to the last person he spoke to. Cohn is reported to have stolen documents from the president’s desk to prevent him from seeing them. Trump was also constrained by his relative unpopularity and the country’s massive debt, which has hardly vanished. But the common-sense Trump could also pass a version of Marco Rubio’s child tax credit–he’s expected to get a Cabinet post if he’s not picked for VP–or “even Mitt Romney’s child-benefit proposal.” HOUSE REPUBLICANS PUSH TO RENAME MAJOR INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT AFTER TRUMP Behind Door No. 2: The Full Trump While groups such as the Heritage Foundation would provide an influx of younger wonks, such senators as Tom Cotton now back Trump’s foreign policy agenda, and J.D. Vance would “relish the chance to push a full-throated MAGA agenda.” Trump could build a border wall, ride the wave against “woke” ideology, and further push the judiciary, including SCOTUS, to the right. But author Michael Brendan Dougherty sees this as fairly unlikely, saying “it is far-fetched that the progressive citadels of power in American political life would allow him to mollify and charm the public for long.” Behind Door No. 3: A Four-Year Siege “We might see a ‘Resistance’ whose legal, moral, and political brinkmanship presents as many threats to American institutions as, or even more than, Trump himself. “A Democratic House will find every chance to investigate Trump a worthwhile one. They could try to pick up where other criminal investigations have failed — returning to the events of January 6 or to Trump’s mishandling of classified documents in the first term… “Symbolic point-scoring would count for a great deal. At a minimum, we might see a Democratic House refuse to invite Trump to deliver a State of the Union address.” This scenario concludes by saying “most unfortunately, it would take as a given that Trump authentically represents America, and that the entire American tradition is a tree that produces bad fruit…he has already given his opponents a playbook to undermine him again.” BORDER CRISIS HAS BEEN A ‘DISASTER’ FOR THREE YEARS UNDER BIDEN ADMIN: HOWARD KURTZ My money (if I were a betting man) is on the Limited Trump, not because of constraints but because he learned a good deal about navigating the powers of the presidency in his first four years. In his sitdown with me, Trump was quite disciplined, knowing he was playing to a more independent “Media Buzz” audience. He also deflected questions he didn’t want to answer. When I asked about his threat to knock NBC and CNN off the air because they refused to run his Iowa victory speech, he focused on the unfairness of that move after these outlets covered the primaries intensively, but never circled back to the question of retaliation. By last weekend, of course, Trump was reposting someone’s image of Joe Biden hog-tied in the back of a car. And that’s the thing. The former president always slides back into over-the-top or offensive language or imagery that stirs up his base. It’s how he dominates one news cycle after another. But if it doesn’t translate into policy, you could say his bark is worse than his bite. Not that Trump won’t aggressively change policies on the border, tartiffs toward China, toughness toward Iran, and perhaps more tax cuts. But my sense is that he’s learned not to spend political capital on battles he can’t win. Here’s the perfect example: Trump spent his presidency trying to repeal Obamacare, failing three times and particularly expressing outrage when John McCain cast the deciding vote against the last attempt. But when the Biden team, which is touting the law’s growing popularity, accused Trump of still wanting to abolish it, the former president said that was wrong and he just wants to improve it – a significant shift that didn’t get