President Donald Trump applied the woke-standard of absolutism like “defund the police” and “abolish ICE” to begin the process of eliminating the federal Department of Education and move control of schools to the states. He orchestrated a photo op with signing an executive order in front of school children which bemoaned the DOE’s spending over $3 trillion since its creation in 1979, without improving student knowledge.
US President Donald Trump holds an executive order in the East Room of the White house in Washington, DC, March 20, 2025 to start dismantling the Department of Education, in front of young students. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP)
The photo session included a young Orthodox Jewish student in the background. It was perhaps not surprising, as Trump was the only president to invite an Orthodox rabbi to speak at his inaugurations – both times.
When Trump held the signed EO aloft and the other students similarly did so, the Orthodox boy in large blue kippah continued to write. People speculated whether he had OCD and was compulsively checking his spelling. Perhaps he was correcting grammar in the EO or adding footnotes like the biblical commentator Rashi (1040-1105).
To read progressive media, one would believe that the Trump administration is seeking to end “research and science” and “great debates” on the country’s campuses. That’s how papers like The New York Times understand the Trump administration’s letter to Columbia demanding change.
The New York Times article on March 20, 2025 misdirecting readers about the Trump administration’s letter to Columbia University
It could not be further from the truth.
The March 13 letter is just two pages long and covers nine points. Nowhere is “science” and “great debates” mentioned. “Research” is mentioned once, and the Trump administration’s letter is actively trying to protect it.
The first two points in the letter demand that the school must enforce consequences for the students that break university policies, including vandalism and harassment. It asks that the “Office of the President” handle such matters rather than the University Judicial Board, presumably because many members of the board are sympathetic to the student rioters.
The next three points build on this theme of discipline. It demands that the university adopt “time, place and manner rules,” – very common and ordinary measures – to prevent the disruption of “teaching, research and campus life” (emphasis added). It adds a mask ban so rioters can be held accountable and demanded a formalized university plan for groups that violate university policy.
The sixth point shifted from general disciplinary matters to define antisemitism, because that has been the crux of rioters’ conduct against Jews at Columbia. Presumably, it would help clearly define matters of free speech versus hate speech (to the extent that such thing exists).
The seventh bullet transitions back to discipline, empowering university security to arrest rioters.
The eighth point refers to a particular department within the school – the Middle East, South Asian, and African Studies department (MESAAS) – which is to be put under “academic receivership.” If there is a claim that Trump is coming after “research” and “great debates”, it must be in this discipline.
The ninth point seems to cover perhaps a related point to eighth – to make sure that admissions, including “international recruiting… conforms with federal law and policy.”
As seen above, the letter seeks to ensure the ability of students and faculty to do research (third bullet), albeit the MESAAS department has been marked as a problemed child.
The reality is that American universities have been trying to paper over their critical problems by importing students from the Global South, from those MESAAS countries. If there is a Trump target on academic research, it lies there, not in scientific matters, despite the Times claim that Trump is “imperiling the backbone of the nation’s research endeavors.”
America’s core problem lies in its PUBLIC K-12 schools which are FAILING TO TEACH MATH AND SCIENCE, with the US placing 25th among 37 OECD countries for 15 year olds. The country is relying more and more on international students – many deeply distrustful and anti-Western values – to fill the university’s STEM departments because America’s elementary and high schools have failed.
Progressive media will not place the blame squarely where it belongs – on the public school system – because it has long ago adopted the fiction that pouring billions of dollars into teacher unions will magically produce better educated students.
The Trump letter is an immediate call to make universities safe, not a call to dismantle research. The long-term fix is to remake America’s public schools, which have catered to teachers and administrators over students for far too long.
The United States passed the Taylor Force Act in March 2018 which prohibits the U.S. from giving funds to the Palestinian Authority as long as it continues its “Martyrs’ Payments” to terrorists who killed and injured Americans or Israelis. The PA flatly refused to stop the payments for years, with PA President Mahmoud Abbas saying that he would prioritize giving terrorists and their families money even if he had only one penny left.
In the aftermath of Palestinians’ loss against Israel in the war Gazans started on October 7, 2023, Palestinians are desperate for money. Still, US President Donald Trump is halting the generous flow of money and support to various Palestinian groups and is making it very difficult for the PA’s other sponsors like Iran and Qatar to continue to fund the decimated Palestinian Arabs as long as they support terror.
Rather than halt the extremely popular pay-to-slay program, Abbas announced on February 10 that he will transfer the responsibility of terrorist-tribute from his Ministry of Social Development to a separate agency, the Palestinian National Foundation for Economic Empowerment. Abbas thinks that this slight of hand to a foundation whose trustees are appointed by him, the PA president, will somehow confuse the United States to turn on the money spigot.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas
The unpopular PA president is caught between Palestinian Arabs who seek the destruction of Israel and murder of Israelis, and the United States which accounts for a majority of Palestinian aid, now headed by an administration which will not countenance genocidal jihad, especially on its dime. Abbas prays that this farcical shell game will confuse US President Donald Trump as if he were former Obama Secretary of State John Kerry.
The Palestinians are starting to get the message that they must stop supporting terror. The issue is that the masses would rather live in rubble with “dignity” than coexist with the Jewish State.
President Donald Trump once again turned to the Orthodox community to give a benediction on behalf of American Jewry at his inauguration. Yesterday, it was Rabbi Dr. Ari Berman, President of Yeshiva University, a modern Orthodox institution. At his last inauguration in 2017, Trump called upon Rabbi Haskel Lookstein who had overseen the conversion of his daughter Ivanka, leader of Kehilat Jeshurun, a modern Orthodox synagogue in New York City, and Head of the Ramaz School, a modern Orthodox K-12 school. Liberal alumni of Ramaz objected to Rabbi Lookstein participating in the inauguration so the rabbi backed out, and was replaced by Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, also an Orthodox rabbi.
Trump’s selection of Orthodox rabbis stands in sharp contrast to every other president who chose non-Orthodox rabbis. In 2021, during Joe Biden’s inauguration at the height of the pandemic in a virtual ceremony, Sharon Brous of IKAR in Los Angeles and Sharon Kleinbaum of Congregation Beth Simchat Torah in New York City spoke. The two female rabbis are on the far-left of the religious and political spectrum, with the latter being married to Randi Weingarten, the powerful far-left leader of the American Federation of Teachers which only backs Democratic politicians.
The divide between Orthodox and non-Orthodox streams of Judaism is now beyond the confines of keeping kosher and Shabbat observance. There is a clear divide politically and about Israel as well.
According to a May 2021 Pew Research poll, Orthodox Jews preferences for the Republican and Democratic parties were 75% and 20%, respectively. Conservative and Reform Jews tilted towards the Democratic Party by a mirrored amount. An incredible 81% of Orthodox Jews approved of Trump’s job performance, while a similar percentage of non-Orthodox Jews disapproved of Trump’s performance.
These sentiments are echoed in the divide in the Jewish communities’ feelings about a range of issues including Israel and the treatment of American Jews. The majority of Orthodox Jews approved Trump’s handling of immigration, the environment, Israel and his treatment of Jews in the United States, while non-Orthodox Jews were much more split.
These polls were taken well before the October 7, 2023 massacre by Palestinian Arab terrorists of civilians in Israel, and the horrifying cheers of jubilation from the socialist-jihadi alliance on American campuses and in Congress. Since then, even Conservative Jews have begun to migrate towards the Republican Party (now almost one-half from just over one-quarter 3.5 years ago), while Reform and unaffiliated Jews remain entrenched with Democrats, according to an October 2024 poll by the Manhattan Institute.
It should not come as a surprise to see Trump invite an Orthodox rabbi to Washington, D.C., even while they make up a small percentage of Jews in America. It will be interesting to see if the Jewish Conservative movement continues to shift away from the Democratic Party and become a fixture in Washington during the Trump Administration.
The interactions of political opponents have gotten frostier through the years, as bipartisanship has been cast as evil. That dynamic is playing out amongst the spouses of politicians as well.
The New York Times chose to reframe that issue as really being about its perception of Republican racism.
Two particular incidents unfolded in Washington, D.C. in January 2025, as a new president and Congress were being sworn in. One included a Democratic Black female political spouse disrespecting a Republican White male politician, and the other had the mirror image of a Republican White male political spouse disrespecting a Democratic Black female politician.
The stories were covered under the Times’ theme of White male Republicans being racists.
Former First Lady Michelle Obama issued a press release that she would not attend the inauguration of Donald Trump on January 20. Her actions were rationalized that she believed that Trump was sexist and racist, who was scared of educated, hard-working, successful Black people. There was no Times commentary that many people criticized her snubbing of Trump.
The Times used very different language when it wrote about Sen. Deb Fischer’s (R-NE) husband not shaking the hand of Vice President Kamala Harris during a swearing in ceremony. It cast Harris as doing her job in difficult circumstances while being disrespected by a White man. The Times wrote about the criticism online of the snubbing, calling the White male Republican’s actions racist and sexist.
As politics become more polarized, The New York Times fans the flames of division that its readers are the resistance against racist and sexist White male Republicans. It is crafting a bleak world that is no longer about policy differences and compromise, but a battle between good and evil.
And it is doing so in the aftermath of an election that saw more minorities vote Republican – with a Black female presidential nominee! – than ever before, seemingly marketing itself to a rapidly shrinking audience.
The Times is not just airing left-wing biased reporting but attempting to become the vanguard of progressive causes built on a foundation of smears and apologies for the woke-christened evil and noble, respectively.
The exit polls are in for the 2024 election, and President Donald Trump did remarkably well for a Republican amongst Jews, particularly in key swing states of Pennsylvania, Arizona and Nevada, where he secured 41%, 37% and 42% of the Jewish vote, respectively.
The 32% tally which Trump secured nationally among Jews was the highest tally since 1988.
To put that figure in context, since 1952, Jews have only broken the 30% threshold for Republicans seven times, and in each of those situations, the Republican has prevailed. In the 12 elections where the Jewish vote for Republicans was 30% or less, the Republican only won four times, or just one-third.
Jews are a minority-minority and their votes do not necessarily deliver the outcome, but they are seemingly a solid bellwether of the national mood. The nation – and a considerable portion of its Jews – feel that the United States has been going in a bad direction and is now putting its faith in the Republican Party.
The election of Donald Trump has brought out the anticipated comments by politicians and pundits. The talking heads have said that they are “outraged”, “disgusted” and “horrified” that the nation would elect a convicted felon who was accused multiple times of sexual assault.
Cover of Vanity Fair magazine
They referred to Trump has “Hitler” and a “Nazi” who would destroy democracy, an autocrat hell-bent on power. His racist ideology would punish minorities like Hitler did to the Jews.
Cover of the Daily News from December 2015
After the 2016 election of Trump, many liberals stopped inviting people who voted for Trump to their houses, parties and events. Anyone who did not have the clarity to see the vileness of Trump was deemed morally corrupt.
It’s a scene that has had a parallel over the past year among Jews who watched the glee of the socialist-jihadi alliance about the gruesome October 7 massacre of 1,200 people in Israel.
Jews were appalled that university presidents did not have the basic humanity to condemn calls for the genocide of Jews on campuses. That the United Nations Secretary General would demand that Israel not bring the terrorists to justice. That the Jewish Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer would not bring acts meant to stem the tidal wave of antisemitism to a floor vote.
People have been disgusted by scenes of Jews being openly attacked, intimidated and harassed on streets and college campuses. Outraged that attackers are immediately released and suffer no consequences. Incensed that people affix stickers that “rape is resistance” while ripping down posters of Jewish toddlers stolen into captivity. Revolted that members of Congress would deny rape – if it happened to Jewish women
Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY16) yelling to a crowd on the streets of White Plains, NY after the October 7 massacre that Israel is making up propaganda to kill Arabs
Decent people are sickened that the International Court of Justice could accuse Israel of “genocide” for a war it didn’t start, doesn’t want, would end immediately if the hostages were released and terrorists surrender, and has the lowest civilian-to-terrorist death ratio of any urban combat. People are horrified that nations would vote to recognize a Palestinian State in the aftermath of Palestinian Arabs proving that they will not accept the basic presence of Jews anywhere.
On one side, people are disgusted that fellow citizens have elected a vile person, while on the other side, people are horrified that people have embraced antisemitic murderers. Liberals are shocked by the figurehead while Jews have been traumatized by pogroms.
Where does all of the revulsion lead? Will liberals once again end friendships with Trump supporters? Will Jews fire rabbis who sit on the board of Jewish Voice for Peace?
Will people recognize that the polarization is mutual? Will it matter?
Democrats and Republicans are no longer negotiating the finer points of economic or foreign policy. We have enabled the extremist members of the House of Representatives, as well as our politically active and biased media and school systems to redefine language and dismantle the foundation of facts to reframe the narratives of history advancing an us-versus-them dynamic.
“Us” is the “powerless,” minority groups and LGBT+ communities. “Them” are White misogynistic powerful men. The battle is a broad redistribution of power, wealth and privilege. The combatants are the socialist-jihadi coalition embedded in your school system, running your media and serving in Congress, against “The Man,” now in the caricature of Donald Trump.
There have already been two assassination attempts on Trump before he was even elected. Has our society reached such a terrible state that unhinged extremists would have theoretically tried to kill John McCain or Mitt Romney because they are White male Republicans?
Many blame Chinese-owned TikTok and other social media algorithms for fueling the outrage. However, it is our education system, legacy media and political process that are the main culprits. It’s not just everyday citizens’ posts and reposts on social media meant to shock and awe to get followers, but historic institutions that upheld society which have tacked to the immoral perverse.
The feelings and comments of Americans about the disgust they feel for America – fellow Americans, actually – about the election of Trump should NOT be to double down on the war against the “Patriarchy.” The left and right should retool their worldview for a country that provides freedom and opportunity for everyone collectively. Pitting one group against another will always be bad for society.
Will Democrats let the education system which they control via the teachers unions be fixed? Will mainstream media reorient their news towards facts instead of biased narratives? Will the country retool its political processes to allow moderates to win seats in deeply blue or red districts?
I doubt it.
People elected Joe Biden as a moderate to bring the nation together. He and Kamala Harris were a complete disaster. We remain disgusted with each other’s sense of humanity and morality.
It is time for us to be honest about our collective condition: there is a thin veneer of civilization covering tremendous anger and contempt for fellow Americans. At this vulnerable time – like a long dry spell marking susceptibility for forest fires – we need to douse our fields, cut back the dense wood, have emergency cut off of power lines and have early warning systems. Politically that means inserting civics classes into our schools, encourage volunteerism in our communities, cut back our viewing of mainstream and social media, and aggressively monitor hate groups, including expelling them and their financial sponsors from universities.
Donald Trump is not the cause of our disgust nor are the rabbis marching with Students for Justice in Palestine. They are byproducts of a deeper decay in our society, an us-versus-them mentality being aggressively fomented by a socialist-jihadi alliance.
Globalize the Intifada is a violent revolution brewing in the United States. Disgust may seem a quaint emotion before long.
American Jews have long favored Democrats in presidential elections. The best showings that Republican candidates have had since World War II among Jews was 40% (Eisenhower 1956), 39% (Reagan 1980) and 36% (Eisenhower 1952). Since the 1992 election, Democrats have sailed to clear majorities with between 68% and 80% of the Jewish vote for president. On average, 71% of Jewish voters chose Democratic candidates and 26% chose Republicans since 1968.
Historians consider that Jews aligned themselves with Democrats as it was considered the party of working class immigrants, just as the Jews were coming to the country from Europe and the USSR in the first half of the 20th century. As Jews became more established in America, and the Second Vatican Council of 1965 pushed antisemitism out of the Catholic doctrine, Jews sought candidates which had greater support for their economic and religious (Judeo-Christian) interests between 1972 and 1988 and began to vote for Republicans more frequently. Bill Clinton’s popularity helped bring Jews back overwhelmingly to the Democrats but that faded as Democratic candidates emerged from left-wing states of Illinois, New York and Massachusetts.
President Ronald Reagan (R-CA) at a Jewish synagogue
The majority of Jews still live in liberal states including New York, California, New Jersey, but many now reside in conservative Florida and moderate Pennsylvania. Overall, Jews are moving away from the Northeast (from 63% in 1971 to 40% in 2020) to the South (12% in 1971 to 25% in 2020) according to Brandeis. They are going for the sun and lower taxes to live with more conservative neighbors.
This 2024 election may yield a breakthrough of Jews voting for the Republican candidate, former President Donald Trump. No Republican candidate crossed the 30% of Jewish vote threshold since George HW Bush in 1988 collected 35% of the Jewish vote. Trump’s share of the Jewish vote jumped from 24% in 2016 to 30% in 2020.
If Trump pulls over 30% of the Jewish vote – particularly in Pennsylvania (where the Jewish population is about 430,000 or 3.3% of the state), Georgia (140,000; 1.3%) and Michigan (87,000, 0.9%) – it might prove to be the tipping point to help Trump win the electoral college.
American Jewry: Approximately 5%, 2% and 2% of American Jews live in swing states of Pennsylvania, Georgia and Michigan, respectively (Brandeis)Jews outnumber Muslims in Pennsylvania by almost 3-to-1
The trend of Jews voting more Republican is likely to continue into the future. Orthodox Jews are currently the only denomination to vote Republican (75% according to Pew) and they have much higher fertility rates than the non-Orthodox streams. Orthodox Jews made up roughly 12% of American Jewry in 2021, which is expected to grow to 29% by 2063 according to a study by Yale. That will likely yield a more conservative voter base for the Republican party.
Republican candidate Donald Trump visits grave of the Lubavitch rebbe
The media is focused on the Israeli record of Trump and Biden-Harris in their analysis of how Jews will vote, and it is a factor amid the Iranian proxy-Israel war. But so is the growing segment of Jews who do not want to see economic interests and religion trampled by liberal laws, nor suffer overt (physical attacks and harassment) and covert (DEI mandates) discrimination.
American citizens in 43 states will have no say on the presidential election in November 2024. Seven “purple” states – Arizona (11), Georgia (16), Michigan (15), Nevada (6), North Carolina (16), Pennsylvania (19) and Wisconsin (10) – with a collective total of 93 electoral votes, will ultimately decide the election. All of the other states are deeply Democratic or Republican so an individual’s vote there will not change anything, despite how vocal or passionately they feel about the candidates.
It does not mean that there is nothing for the vast majority of Americans to do.
For those who are moderate and do not want to see the country continue its divisive path towards the fringes, it is incumbent to try to help separate the party of Congress from that of the presidency. That means, that as Democratic nominee Vice President Harris continues to gain momentum and looks to secure the White House, people should try to ensure that Republicans are the majority in the House and/or Senate to avoid a Democratic administration tacking to the socialist-jihadi extreme of the party.
House of Representatives
The current split in the House of Representatives is 221 Republicans and 213 Democrats. Of these, fifteen are running for a different office (12 of which are Democrats), fourteen are retiring (8 of whom are Democrats) and three are resigning (1 Democrat).
Roll Call identified ten of the most contested races in the House of Representatives; I have added one more, NY17. In every race, the pro-Israel bipartisan lobbying group AIPAC endorsed the incumbent, of which seven are Republican. Those races are (incumbent listed first, AIPAC endorsed in bold, Republicans endorsed by AIPAC in red):
NY22: Brandon Williams (R) v. John Mannion (D)
CA13: John Duarte (R) v. Adam Gray (D)
NY4: Anthony D’Esposito (R) v. Laura Gillen (D)
WA3: Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D) v. Joe Kent (R)
NC1: Don Davis (D) v. Laurie Buckhout (R)
OR5: Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R) v. Janelle Bynum (D)
NE2: Don Bacon (R) v. Tony Vargas (D)
AK: Mary Peltola (D) v. Nick Begich (R)
CA27: Mike Garcia (R) v. George Whitesides (D)
PA8: Matt Cartwright (D) v. Rob Bresnahan (R)
NY17: Mike Lawler (R) v. Mondaire Jones (D)
Senate
The Senate is currently divided with 51 Democrats and 49 Republicans. According to Bloomberg, “of the 34 Senate elections currently scheduled for 2024, Democrats and allied Independents are the defending party in 23 contests, while the Republicans are defending just 11 seats. Democrats Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Jon Tester of Montana, and Sherrod Brown of Ohio are all up for re-election in states President Joe Biden lost in 2020. Trump won all 10 states where Republicans are defending Senate seats, all but two of them by double-digit percentage-point margins. Nebraska will have two races in 2024, including a special election triggered by the resignation of Ben Sasse (R).”
According to Real Clear Polling, there are seven toss up races in the Senate in 2024. They are:
Arizona: [open] Ruben Gallego (D) v. Kari Lake (R)
Florida: Rick Scott (R) v. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (D)
Maryland: [open] Larry Hogan (R) v. Angela Alsobrooks (D)
Michigan: [open] Elissa Slotkin (D) v. Mike Rogers (R)
In summary, the top ten races people should get behind to stem the anti-Israel and antisemitic tide are: Bacon (NE2); Chavez-DeRemer (OR5); D’Esposito (NY4); Duarte (CA13); Garcia (CA27); Lawler (NY17); Williams (NY22); and in the Senate, Moreno (OH), Rogers (MI) and Scott (FL).
Runner-up to the top ten is also a somewhat tight race in NJ7 where incumbent Tom Kean (R) is running against Sue Altman (D).
To be clear, I am not suggesting that these individuals have great records overall; I am saying that a balanced Congress is the best antidote for extremist policies, and donating or volunteering for these candidates may provide a path for a more moderate administration.
One can donate to the candidates via the AIPACPAC portal. The two non-AIPAC endorsed candidates should be contacted directly at Mike Rogers and Bernie Moreno. Volunteering should also be done directly at the person’s website. Early action is highly recommended, as it takes time to build the local momentum needed to win these races.
Rep. Jamaal Bowman is an ongoing embarrassment to Congress and his district in New York’s lower Westchester County.
There have historically been very few members of congress to be publicly and officially censured by a bipartisan vote, and Bowman is a lowlight among them. He intentionally pulled a fire alarm in a government building putting thousands of lives at risk, just to delay a vote in congress. He then lied about it and pleaded to a misdemeanor.
Bowman is seemingly incapable of being embarrassed himself. He is a compulsive liar and hypocrite, even by the standards of D.C. politicians. He slammed members who didn’t vote for the Infrastructure Bill, then voted against it, then lied to his constituents that he actually voted for it, and then smugly took a selfie with extremists members of “the Squad” just as President Biden ridiculed him for taking credit for a bill he rejected.
His constituents have taken notice of Bowman’s histrionics and hyperbole rather than passing legislation that benefits them. While Bowman won the 2022 Democratic primaries in a three-way race, the Democratic establishment has unified in coming out to support his rival, Westchester County Executive George Latimer.
The entire local Democratic establishment has turned on an incumbent in a highly unusual action. They have rallied to Latimer who has made a career delivering actual results for his constituents, rather than behave like Bowman who compulsively runs to Tik Tok to make another incendiary video as if he were a 16-year old hunting for clicks and “likes.”
Latimer’s campaign is “Results, not rhetoric,” which perfectly sums up the race in the Democratic primary to be held on June 25, 2024.
Latimer is actually being diplomatically kind. Bowman is not just a blowhard; he is an embarrassment seeking to inflame the country.
First One Through 