Quick Takes from the Past 24-48 Hours

The following is an installment of Trump-Vance team accomplishments (each article is linked for further info):

1. President Trump’s Strong Holy Week Message: Recognize Jesus’ Suffering, Redemption

The president wrote in a Palm Sunday statement:

This Holy Week, my administration renews its promise to defend the Christian faith in our schools, military, workplaces, hospitals, and halls of government.

We will never waver in safeguarding the right to religious liberty, upholding the dignity of life, and protecting God in our public square.

Further:

As we focus on Christ’s redeeming sacrifice, we look to His love, humility, and obedience—even in life’s most difficult and uncertain moments.

This week, we pray for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon our beloved Nation. We pray that America will remain a beacon of faith, hope, and freedom for the entire world, and we pray to achieve a future that reflects the truth, beauty, and goodness of Christ’s eternal kingdom in Heaven.

In conclusion:

May God bless you and your family during this special time of year and may He continue to bless the United States of America.

2. Navy Sec. Phelan to Newsmax: U.S. Must Invest in Military Again

The United States has “underinvested” in its military and its capabilities for some time, and to return it to strength, President Trump must be given the capability to allocate capital efficiently, Secretary of the Navy John Phelan told Newsmax‘s Carl Higbie in an exclusive interview.

Phelan, an investment banker by trade, said there is much to unpack when it comes to questions about shipbuilding and the budget for it, and Trump must be allowed to have the flexibility to allocate the capital.

Building the military, he added, will require a “whole-of-government approach. We do need funding that’s predictable and has a multi-year aspect to it.”

Trump this week signed an executive order to revive U.S. shipbuilding and to reduce China’s hold on the global shipping industry, and Phelan told Higbie that “readiness is my number one priority.”

Further:

After visiting the Iowa, our latest Virginia-class sub and being on this ship, we’re ready. I think that our adversaries should not in any way underestimate our capabilities.

You’re a former SEAL. As you know, you always want to improve and get better. There are things we can do to get better, and that’s really my job.

And:

But the United States must continually invest in the nation’s shipbuilding, because China is closing the gap.

Phelan explained:

From what I understand, China built more ships last year than we have since World War II.

I think the president has correctly identified this as an issue. I would actually call it a national emergency.

Further:

I think that we have hollowed out our economy. We’ve hollowed out our ability to make things and manufacture things.

And:

[We have the capability to defend the United States, but] we need to make that gap bigger [with other countries, and that will take proper investments].

SecDef Hegseth announced $5.1 billion in cuts that had gone into diversity programs in the military, and Phelan said he thinks the Defense secretary has quickly reversed the DEI issues.

3. Newly Declassified Docs Show FBI KNEW Pulitzer Prize-Winning WaPo Russiagate Story Was FALSE

Conspiracy theories of the past decade are magically COMING TRUE, almost as if they were never conspiracies in the first place.

At some point, the mainstream media decided they did not care about their reputation, their integrity, or even bothered with telling the truth once Donald Trump came into the political picture, and it has never been more evident than now.

Check out the latest on the Washington Post‘s Pulitzer Prize-winning Russiagate story:

From justthenews.com:

The newly-released Rogers interview with the Mueller team shows the then-NSA director was read a quote from The Washington Post article—that ‘President Trump urged [Rogers] to publicly deny the existence of any evidence of collusion during the 2016 election’—with the FBI notes stating ‘Rogers responded the media characterization was wrong, and the President had asked about the existence of SIGINT [signals intelligence] evidence only.’

The Rogers interview was among hundreds of pages of Crossfire Hurricane documents declassified by President Trump and sent to Congress by FBI Director Kash Patel.

Is anyone surprised?

Of course:

Does anyone else smell indictments in the wind?

4. Big, Beautiful Tax Cuts Should Offset Any Tariff Increases

President Trump has predicted his tariffs could raise as much as $6 trillion over the next decade in federal tax collections. These include up to 104% tariffs on China, plus the combination of reciprocal tariffs—we charge them whatever they charge us. Also, the protectionist tariffs on steel, aluminum, autos, lumber, etc.

The tariff rates put on the table by Trump are higher than those at any other time in the last century, so it is no wonder we have seen a painful stock selloff, reducing asset values by well over $7 trillion.

But what the markets are missing is Trump has also announced money raised from the tariffs will be offset by other tax cuts. If that is the case, then the net impact of the tariffs will be a positive for the economy.

He is on to something potentially big here which could cause an epic stock market recovery: A way to bounce stocks back to life and boost growth while also fulfilling Trump’s goal of freer and fairer trade.

In other words, tariff revenues should be a major “pay for” in extending and expanding the tax cuts. It would obviate the need for any offsetting tax rate increases. If we were to raise, say, $500 billion from tariffs, that would pay for indexing capital gains, the 15% “Made in America” business tax and a reduction in the payroll tax.

Another idea is a 15% flat tax on everything. Steve Forbes advised Trump should announce a bold new “15% plan.” Fifteen percent tariffs, 15% personal income tax, 15% corporate tax, 15% capital gains, dividends, death tax, etc. It is a plan with a broad tax base and low rates so as to minimally distort economic activity. Imports would share some of the load—much as other nations do to us.

Military academies could possibly demonstrate what President Trump wants to see from public schools and colleges.

While K-12 districts and universities are fighting back against book removals, transgender athlete bans and the extermination of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, the administration has a far freer hand at military institutions.

Military schools fall under an entirely different set of laws and regulations from public ones and are under the direct control of Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.

The president has signed multiple executive orders affecting military schools, including bans on DEI and on transgender girls and women competing on sports teams that match their gender identity. Unlike with some of his other education orders, the results have been swift.

The U.S. Naval Academy has already removed approximately 400 books from its library that it says promoted DEI. The removals from the Nimitz Library collection, the academy said, were done “to ensure compliance with all directives outlined in Executive Orders issued by the President.”

According to The Associated Press:

West Point and the Air Force Academy are also reviewing their curriculum and will look at the content of their libraries.

On Friday, the federal government said in a court filing the Air Force Academy has also ended race-conscious admissions.