Speech beat: Trump v. the Censors
President-elect Donald Trump’s “first major policy statement since his landslide victory outlines his plan to restore free speech,” cheer the Washington Occasions’ editors. Trump “said he intends to sign an executive order on Jan. 20 banning federal employees from doing anything that impedes lawful speech,” like “the FBI, Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security worked closely with social media platforms such as Twitter, YouTube and Facebook to remove content.” He’s vowed to “identify and fire anyone who participated” and to “pull the plug on government funding for nonprofits and universities that contribute in any way to the ‘authoritarian project’ to blacklist citizens.” This exhibits “Trump knows how to get things done this time. Democrats won’t know what hit them.”
International desk: European Soccer Ostracizes Israel
Forward of “this week’s big international soccer match in Paris” between the French and Israeli nationwide groups, “Israel’s national security council has warned Israelis against attending the game,” groans Commentary’s Seth Mandel. It “raises wider questions about the attempts to exclude Israelis from international sports competitions.” A European soccer “policy has been in effect since soon after Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre,” below which “fans of Israel’s national team and its premier club team must travel out of the country to attend any of their games.” Since “some teams’ home cities” are “refusing to host” Israeli groups for safety causes, “it’s far from unthinkable that teams will start refusing to play” Israeli groups altogether. “The easiest solution would be for anti-Zionist protesters to just, you know, not be violent,” however we should always count on continued escalation.”
Conservative: Nix ‘Environmental Justice’ Agenda
As Workforce Trump appears to reverse “pernicious” Biden insurance policies, its “environmental-justice agenda belongs high on the list,” argues Metropolis Journal’s James B. Meigs. It’s “a Trojan horse designed to smuggle unpopular progressive social goals into broadly supported environmental programs.” The “vague” guidelines of President Biden’s Justice40 Initiative, as an illustration, may power “contractors to hire expensive unionized labor” or difficulty grants to “community activist groups,” diverting funds from true environmental wants. And EJ guidelines tie up “every federal agency,” whereas legal guidelines just like the Inflation Discount Act lets EPA funnel federal cash to “far-left groups,” comparable to one which asserts local weather justice travels by a “free Palestine.” In brief: “The environmental-justice paradigm” is the “real enemy of environmental progress.”
From the appropriate: To Reverse Biden’s Border Disaster
“Variations in wording aside, when Trump talks about mass deportation, he is talking about the mass deportation of criminals,” explains the Washington Examiner’s Byron York. His group “will seek to deport quickly those illegal immigrants who are deemed national security threats” or have “criminal records,” and prioritize the estimated 1.35 million to 1.6 million who’ve already been “ordered removed.” As for the “many more millions,” Trump may “rely on a document known as the Mayorkas Memorandum,” which identifies noncitizens who unlawfully enter the nation as safety threats. “If Trump were to apply” that coverage, he’d “have a basis to reverse a significant part of the Biden border rush.”
Mideast watch: Draining Iran’s Swamp
“Iran’s leaders must be wondering if they’ve ‘poked the bear’ (i.e., Donald Trump) for the last time,” sneers Merrill Matthews at The Hill of Tehran’s “scheme to assassinate” the president-elect. It’s proof that “the Iranian swamp needs to be drained, and Trump might just do it.” Plotting to assassinate a US presidential candidate is “an act of war.” But “it’s doubtful the outgoing Biden will do anything.” Trump will probably take “decisive action, including coordinating with Israel, taking whatever steps are necessary to neutralize Iranian belligerence.” This may “have a deterring effect on other bad actors,” like Russia and China. And “perhaps with the aid of Europe and Israel,” Trump will “drain the swamp in Iran.”
— Compiled by The Publish Editorial Board
