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Politics Zoomer Power When it mattered most, Barron Trump delivered in a way no one else could. It was nearly 3 a.m. when President-elect Donald Trump hit the stage in Florida after securing the presidency. Melania smiled and waved. Donald Trump Jr. and the UFC chief Dana White were chatting and laughing along the curtains. Hovering above the joyous fray stood a key figure in the 2024 presidential race—18-year-old Barron Trump. At 6’9”, Trump and Melania’s only child is a towering and unmissable addition to the incoming MAGA White House. The youngest of Trump’s five children, Barron has acted as a youth liaison to the campaign, coordinating and signing off on a series of interviews that the senior Trump participated in geared explicitly at appealing to younger voters.  The strategy worked.  Of the 41 million eligible voters between the ages of 18–24, Trump made significant gains against Vice President Kamala Harris. In 2020, Trump lost the Gen Z demo to President Joe Biden by 24 percent. He more than halved that figure on Tuesday, losing to Harris by just 11 percent. In the 18–29 age bracket, Trump performed better than any GOP presidential candidate of the last two decades. And according to NBC exit polls, Trump secured the young white male vote outright.  As strategists called on Trump to moderate his message and focus on winning white suburban women, he listened to the instincts of Barron, who suggested he target their sons. In the final months of the 2024 election, Trump appeared on a number of podcasts listened to by millions of young American men. Trump golfed with the LIV Tour star Bryson DeChambeau; the pair listened to Elvis. Trump sat with the former MIT professor-turned-famous-talker Lex Fridman, who openly pondered the “spiritual benefits” of psychedelic drugs with the former president. During Trump’s appearance with comedian Theo Von, the Arkansas hellraiser admitted to being a recovering cocaine addict. Trump listened sincerely.  The podcast tour was crafted by 27-year-old Alex Bruesewitz, a social media influencer with nearly half a million followers on ?. When Bruesewitz pitched the tour to Trump, the Don only had one question: “Have you talked this over with Barron?” asked Trump. When Bruesewitz replied “No,” Trump instructed him to reach out to Barron for approval. Barron signed off on the schedule. Weeks after surviving an assassination attempt, Trump met with 23-year-old streamer Adin Ross at Mar-a-Lago. The Gen Z influencer presented Trump with the kind of gift that a 23-year-old American man would love—a Cybertruck wrapped with a photo of Trump surviving the attempt on his life.  But Trump’s offbeat talk circuit wasn’t done. Only a week before the November election, Trump landed his white whale—a much-requested appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast. Spotify’s $100-million man had repeatedly stated in the run-up that he wouldn’t interview Trump or Harris because he didn’t want to tilt the scales. But with less than 14 days to the election, Rogan announced he would interview Trump for his massive audience. The conversation lasted three hours and spanned a variety of topics. Trump was his affluent and affable self, weaving between subjects with ease. At one point, he credited Barron with helping the campaign reach a younger demographic.  “I have a son who is very smart and tall, Barron, right? He knows all about you and guys I’ve never heard of. He said, ‘Dad, you don’t know how big they are,’” Trump said of Barron. “It’s a whole new world out there. Have you seen the numbers? Billions of hits, it’s crazy. A Republican is always down 30 with young people, I’m up 30.” Harris was given the same opportunity, but refused to fly to Austin to sit for several hours with Rogan. There isn’t a universe in which Rogan could’ve swung the 2024 race to Harris, but her refusal to meet Rogan’s meager demands shows how little her campaign worried about Trump peeling away young voters. Her campaign couldn’t have been more wrong.  The 2024 election was the election where new media firmly took control from the powers that be. From ? to TikTok, the surge in new organizations and personalities that dictated the tone and outcome of the race skyrocketed. And the Trump campaign, with his son Barron signing off on appearances, intuitively recognized this in a way that Harris didn’t. The Barron memes filtered across ? early Wednesday morning following Trump’s reelection. Autists were comparing Barron to the Lisan al Gaib, a title used for the prophet or messiah in Frank Herbert’s novel Dune. Others noted that Barron stood stone-faced behind his father as every other member of the Trump family smiled in a post-victory party. “I can smell their fear,” read one viral post that showed Barron and Donald standing next to one another.  Republicans had all but given up on the youth vote after decades of being systematically repelled at the ballot box. All that changed this year. Students at universities across America poured into their quads and ran through their halls in celebration of Trump’s victory. Videos of young men and women performing Trump’s trademark dance are racking up hundreds of millions of views across social media. The permission structure has been broken. The age-old axiom that the youth are liberal and the old conservative has been turned upon its head.  Trump’s willingness to reach out to what was viewed as an unwinnable demographic speaks to the man and the politician he is—unburdened by what has been. Where Harris’s running mate, Minnesota’s Gov. Tim Walz, used his son as a tearful subplot, Trump harnessed Zoomer Power to turn the table and change the course of American history forever. None of it would have been possible without Barron.  Only days before he survived an assassin’s bullet, Trump boasted about Barron at a rally in Doral, Florida. “He’s a very special guy,” Trump touted as Barron rose in a navy suit and raised his fist in celebration. Months later, Trump would honor his son again, calling him the “King of the Internet” at an October rally. The crowd loved it. What lies next for Barron remains to be seen. He’s technically still a freshman at NYU, where he is enrolled in the Stern School of Business. Should he want to be closer to his father’s administration, Barron could transfer to a college in DC or simply drop out of school altogether. The latter seems less likely. Whatever path the young Trump should choose, the role he played in the 2024 election will be lionized forever. The post Zoomer Power appeared first on The American Conservative.

Foreign Affairs Trump’s Election Provokes Fear South of the Border The incoming administration has changes in U.S. policy towards Mexico high on its list of priorities. “The worst scenario for Mexico has occurred,” writes Elías Camhaji, the Mexican correspondent for El País. “Donald Trump used Mexico as his favorite piñata,” writes Guadelupe Galvan, of El Universal. La Jornada waxes more poetic: Trump is “the spark that will light millions of fires that were waiting for hatred like fuel and for power like the wind to stoke the flames.” The triumph of Trump and the Republican Party in the 2024 election carries serious implications for the United States’ southern neighbor. Trump was elected on a platform of law and order, including the elimination of illegal immigration and a crackdown on drug trafficking and the cartels that carry it out—all of which will require an adjustment in relations between the U.S. and Mexico and new political challenges for the recently inaugurated Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum. During his campaign, Trump promised he would reinstate the “Remain in Mexico” policy, which required immigrants seeking asylum to remain south of the border while their applications were being processed. He also promised to deport the approximately 11 million illegal immigrants currently living in the U.S., most of whom came from Mexico. Furthermore, he also advocated for deploying American military forces to combat cartels in Mexico to cut down on the Mexican drug trade into the U.S. All of these policies will require cooperation with Mexico and could have significant costs for the country, which is already embroiled in an escalating violent conflict with the cartels in the wake of the American capture of the Sinaloa cartel kingpin “El Mayo.” Making things yet more difficult for Sheinbaum is the Mexican populace’s virulent opposition to perceived American intervention in Mexican politics. The country has a fiercely independent streak and has often resented the interference of its more powerful neighbor in its domestic and international affairs. More than one Mexican politician has seen their career wrecked by the perception that they were too subservient to the interests of the United States. While some of the immigration agreements have precedent—the “Remain in Mexico” policy, for example, was negotiated by Donald Trump during his first term as president with Sheinbaum’s predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador—others, like the deployment of the American military in Mexican territory to combat drug trafficking, are likely to provoke extremely hostile comparisons with previous American armed interventions in the country. Donald Trump will, however, have a significant amount of leverage in potential negotiations between the two countries over border policies and security agreements. The U.S. is Mexico’s largest trade partner, importing $475 billion from the country in 2023, and has benefited immensely from efforts by American companies to decouple their supply chains from China. The important USMCA free trade agreement is up for review in 2026, and Trump has threatened to end free trade with Mexico and impose a 25 percent tariff on Mexican imports if the flow of fentanyl from Mexico to the U.S. does not diminish. If Trump does not get what he wants and decides to play hardball, the consequences could be devastating to the Mexican economy. The situation comes at a very bad time for Sheinbaum, who is already suffering from a crisis of investor confidence in the country due to Mexico’s recent judicial reform. The new system will allow voters to select every judge in the country through popular election, an arrangement that has many worried will produce low-quality, corrupt, or biased judges that will rule unfavorably towards international corporations. It also raises the specter of cartels manipulating elections to secure friendly judges, increasing the difficulty of fighting organized crime. Despite widespread hostility to Trump among Mexicans, however, Sheinbaum has played a cool hand so far. She declined to make any partisan comments on the election while it was ongoing (unlike, for example, the left-wing Brazilian President Lula Ignacio da Silva, who stated his preference for Kamala Harris at the end of last week). When asked about a potential Trump victory, she said diplomatically, “President López Obrador in the end had a good relationship with Trump and I don’t see why we wouldn’t be able to have it as well.” She has also been quick to establish a working relationship with the president-elect. In a post on ? Wednesday afternoon, Sheinbaum congratulated Trump for his victory and called for cooperation between the U.S. and Mexico: “I am certain that we will continue to coordinate our work together, with dialogue and respect for national sovereignty on both sides, to advance the broad bilateral agenda that unites us.” Sheinbaum also spoke with the president-elect Thursday directly over the phone. How and to what extent Sheinbaum and Trump coordinate could be a significant factor in both of their political careers. Much of the illegal immigration to the U.S. that Trump wishes to control originates outside of Mexico and is most easily stopped at the Mexican, not the American, southern border. An agreement for Mexican border forces to turn back illegal immigrants from other countries, like that worked out with López Obrador, would be of great use for reducing border crossings to the U.S. At the same time, Sheinbaum is facing a plague of cartel violence within Mexico, and the aid of the U.S. could prove helpful in bringing it under control. One of the major portions of Sheinbaum’s security strategy is increasing the capacity of Mexican intelligence services—American assistance could prove useful in accomplishing that goal. On the other hand, a fallout between the two leaders could have major economic consequences for both countries. The U.S. imports more from Mexico than from any other country in the world, including China. Accordingly, the imposition of tariffs or other economic measures by the Trump administration could decimate certain Mexican industries, and also significantly increase costs for American consumers and businesses. For now, though, it appears that Sheinbaum is disposed to bargain. The post Trump’s Election Provokes Fear South of the Border appeared first on The American Conservative.

The following article, To HELL With Free Speech: Police Consultancy Group Wants U.S. Law Enforcement To Set Up “Misinformation” Censorship Units, was first published on Conservative Firing Line. (Natural News) A private consultancy group that works closely with law enforcement agencies across the country to help them come up with new policing techniques is pushing for police departments everywhere to establish special “misinformation” and “disinformation” units to tackle free speech. Lexipol, as the group is called, published a rallying cry at Police1.com that rhetorically asks all law enforcement units … Continue reading To HELL With Free Speech: Police Consultancy Group Wants U.S. Law Enforcement To Set Up “Misinformation” Censorship Units ...

Some harsh words. The post “A bit contrived”: Why Ian Anderson thought The Beatles sounded twee first appeared on Far Out Magazine.

We live in the Age of Trump. Kamala Harris’ failure to realize this helps explain why we can bestow a name to our time (placeholder presidents do not bequeath an “Age of Biden” or a “Fillmorian Era” to the history books) that started in 2015 and, as a result of this week’s events, will continue until 2029, and perhaps beyond. A populism characterizes this age, albeit not primarily of the kind pundits fixate upon when discussing Donald Trump. With perspective, historians will recognize that heeding the masses neither on border integrity nor on a retreat from foreign wars, stands as the glaring demarcation line between the Age of Trump and past and future eras. His is not a populism of the ballot box or of the dollar, but a populism of the tongue. People love Donald Trump because they hate scolds forbidding them from speaking their minds. The federal government does not guarantee Americans equal incomes or equal looks. The Constitution forbids the federal government from granting speech rights to the favored while denying them to the frowned upon. Ordinary Americans felt this enshrined equality was threatened. The populist billionaire entered politics just as political correctness reemerged as “woke.” It demanded the outward acceptance of lies as the price of admission to polite society. Just as the Reformation came as a reaction to the Renaissance, the Age of Trump arrived because of the pervasive wokeness that preceded and overlapped. This hysterical force, similar to the Salem Witch Trials or the Clown Scare of the last decade, kicked a feminist off social media for posting “men aren’t women,” blacklisted doctors who questioned the COVID narrative, and imposed the term “Latinx” on Hispanics, despite a 2023 Pew poll discovering just 1 percent of them prefer that label and that 40 percent, according to another survey, find it offensive. It employed censorship, but its preferred method of silencing involved transforming those who disagreed into pariahs through the mechanism of cancel culture. If the top-rated cable news network dared to air heterodox thoughts, then they did not get to air Kellogg’s or Bud Light or Ozempic ads but curiously 1-800-number commercials touting reverse mortgages, precious metals, and pillows. If your comedy prioritized funny over ideological correctness, then late-night television exiled you to the recesses of the podcast world. And, if you said something 130 years ago that offended someone today, the mob came and murdered your statue. Donald Trump shouted “the emperor has no clothes” to all that. His example awarded a permission slip, formerly known as the First Amendment, to those cowed into a disconnect between thoughts and words. The public attitude toward woke — in comedy, in Congress, and in corporations — now mirrors the “Death to Disco” movement of the late 1970s. This past Tuesday was America’s Disco Demolition Night toward DEI crusaders and social justice warriors. Why did America connect with Trump and not Harris? Trump says what he thinks. Harris says what others tell her to. The latter remains a captive of the dying era of rote speech spoken not to say anything but rather to say nothing offensive to the special, protected groups. Her 11th-hour gambit of demonizing her opponent as a fascist seemed similarly straight out of the woke playbook. The former spearheads this time of full exercise of the principles of the First Amendment granted to every American equally. In a word, the Age of Trump is genuine. People prefer milk to nondairy creamer, an orchestra to synthesizers, and Ghostbusters to Female Ghostbusters. In the Age of Trump, they can spot the fake. The phony fact-checker industry that proliferated in Trump’s wake depicts him as the biggest liar since Pinocchio. In fact, Trump’s honesty attracts voters to him. The billionaire speaks sans teleprompter or filter. Yes, this exposes his occasional pettiness, exaggerations, and braggadocio. Of greater salience, it exposes him. Whether fulfilling orders in the McDonald’s drive-thru or in a sanitation truck, the Republican nominee appeared immune from Michael-Dukakis-in-the-tank moments because he comes off naturally. Donald Trump, a man more comfortable in his own skin than any who walks the earth, cannot be anyone but Donald Trump. Contrast this with his vanquished opponent, a nervous, giggling woman who spent the first half of the campaign dodging the press and the second half mastering ways to dodge the questions the press posed to her. Perhaps a product of San Francisco by necessity camouflages herself and her outlook when running for president of the United States. Who is Kamala Harris? After nearly four years as vice president and more than three months running for president, few can answer with confidence. She repeatedly told us she grew up in a middle-class neighborhood, to the point, à la an affirmation or a mantra, that we began to disbelieve her. In her worst moments, Kamala Harris sounded like A.I. Kamala Harris. On Election Eve, the Democratic nominee encountered a surprised Pennsylvania couple, presumably party activists of some sort, at their home. “I wasn’t expecting that,” the husband explained, “thought it was [Gov. Josh] Shapiro.” Harris informed the man, “Well, I want to door-knock.” The couple understood, retreated inside their house, and the cameras then readied for the manufactured scene. The pseudo-moment encapsulated her career, her campaign, and why she lost. When, as an unknown, she received plum jobs, a car, and an entrée to the politically connected through her outré relationship with a short bald man 30 years her senior, she displayed a hollowness of soul later seen in her plagiarized Smart on Crime book and her cringeworthy conversations with child actors in a promotional video for NASA passed off as genuine interactions. This career pattern continued during the campaign when she adopted various manners of speech foreign to her own (“Ya betta thank a union member!”), embarrassed herself by repeating “32” as a cry for help of sorts over a teleprompter glitch, and spoke in a programmed manner in interviews once she finally deigned to submit herself to them. Post-Donald Trump, a presidential aspirant sticks to the script at his or her own risk. The teleprompter, invented in 1952, remains a useful tool, but dependence on that screen places yet another screen between politicians and the electorate — atop the pollsters, advisers, speechwriters, and others looking to “Johnny Bravo” a candidate. Such well-compensated hangers-on insist on the 1952 technology for the same reason they shielded their charge from the oh-so 2024 technology of podcasts: control. The coterie of Democrat poohbahs Johnny Bravo-ed Kamala Harris, who merely fit the suit, into certain defeat. Trump spoke to. Harris spoke down. Trump talked to communicate. Harris talked to communicate that she is apart from the masses in this special clique that knows what every letter in the ever-expanding alphabet-people initialism means but cannot explain what a woman is. Trump highlighted what he believes. Harris hid what she believes. The normalization of the group lie in the 2024 campaign of ideological obfuscation, marked by evasive language and euphemism that alienated voters, also permeated the strictly political deceit, embraced to the detriment of the party by every leading Democrat in America, that President Methuselah remained as alert and clearheaded as ever. The teleprompters and protection from the press that doomed Harris doomed Joe Biden, too, once he exposed himself to an uncontrolled environment without advisers telling him what to say. A party in a perpetual how-dare-you mode at the unfiltered speech of normal Americans ran a campaign afraid to air its true thoughts for fear of alienating those normal Americans. Elites daily in judgment faced the predictable verdict of ordinary people quadrennially in judgment of them. One cannot win the presidency post-Donald Trump through such a fondness for obliquity, evasion, and euphemism. The choreographed candidate appears counterfeit juxtaposed to the live-without-a-teleprompter, shoot-from-the-hip, I’ve-gotta-be-me Donald Trump. It all — the pressure on the public for guarded speech that suppresses true thoughts, the dishonest propping-up of unwell leaders and policies at the political level, the use of euphemism and evasion to disguise ugly ideas with sweet labels at the ideological level — recalled the waning days of the Soviet Union. The who-moved-my-cheese response to changing conditions from the Kremlin meant the death of the Soviet Union. The liars in charge did not adapt, so they were overcome. Americans, fed fakeness for so many years, craved authenticity in 2024. In style and content, nobody speaks like Kamala Harris in a private setting. Donald Trump spoke conversationally and clearly without anybody whispering lines in his good ear. The political lesson bequeathed by the times? Be yourself. In America, the rules have changed. We live in the Age of Trump. And the Democratic Party could die in the Age of Trump if does not abide by the new rules. READ MORE from Daniel J. Flynn: Kamala’s Conceited Cunctatious Concession Voters Prefer Warts-and-All Trump to Photoshopped Harris Kamala Harris Flunked the Job Interviews The post The Age of Trump appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

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