Joe Burrow is the latest NFL star to be the victim of a home burglary, joining Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce.
Burrow’s home was burglarized while he was in Dallas facing the Cowboys on Monday. The NFL recently sent out a memo regarding the incidents.
Burrow discussed the incident, albeit briefly, on Wednesday, saying it adds to the stress of living a life where his whereabouts are constantly known.
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Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, #9, watches from the sideline during the second half of an NFL football game against the Washington Commanders on Monday, Sept. 23, 2024 in Cincinnati.(AP Photo/Jeff Dean)
“So obviously everybody has heard what has happened. I feel like my privacy has been violated in more ways than one. And way more is already out there than I would want out there and that I care to share, so that’s all I got to say about that,” Burrow began.
“We live a public life, and one of my least favorite parts of that is the lack of privacy. And that has been difficult for me to deal with my entire career. Still learning. But I understand it’s the life that we choose. Doesn’t make it any easier to deal with.”
Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, #9, drops back to throw a pass in the first quarter of the NFL Week 11 game between the Los Angeles Chargers and the Cincinnati Bengals at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, on Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024.(IMAGN)
TUA TAGOVAILOA SAYS HE HAS ARMED SECURITY AFTER BURGLARIES AT NFL PLAYERS’ HOMES: ‘THINK TWICE’
The league cautioned players to be on high alert after homes were hit last month that were believed to be tied to international organized crime.
NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reported last month that the FBI is investigating the crime spree, “which is believed to be tied to a South American crime syndicate.”
According to the report, at least one other NFL player had his home burglarized.
Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, #9, walks off the field after his team’s loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers in an NFL football game on Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024 in Cincinnati.(AP Photo/Jeff Dean)
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In the memo, the league also urged players to take precautions, including installing home security systems. They were also encouraged not to post images of expensive items or live updates of their comings and goings on social media.
Fox News’ Scott Thompson contributed to this report.
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While a majority of American voters questioned in a new Fox News poll say they are hopeful about the re-election of President-elect Donald Trump, they are divided when it comes to the president-elect’s top nominees who will likely serve in his upcoming second administration.
Fifty-four percent of respondents in the survey, which was conducted Dec. 6-9 and released on Wednesday, said Trump’s election victory last month in the White House race over Vice President Kamala Harris made them hopeful.
However, when asked about the president-elect’s cabinet selections, which include some unconventional nominees, 47% of those polled said they approved, with 50% disapproving.
It was the same response when asked about billionaire Elon Musk serving as a close adviser to the president-elect during the transition from President Biden’s administration to the Trump administration, with 47% approving and 50% disapproving.
TRUMP ALLIES TURN UP THE HEAT ON GOP SENATE HOLDS IN NOMINATION SHOWDOWN
President-elect Donald Trump, right, greets Elon Musk as he arrives to attend a viewing of the launch of the sixth test flight of the SpaceX Starship rocket on Nov. 19, 2024 in Brownsville, Texas. SpaceX’s billionaire owner, Elon Musk, a Trump confidante, has been tapped to lead the new Department of Government Efficiency alongside former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.(Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
Two other polls also conducted in recent days and released on Wednesday shed additional light on how Americans feel about the incoming administration and how Trump’s handling the process of building out his government.
According to a CNN poll, 54% of Americans say they expect Trump to do a good job as president once he takes over the White House.
Additionally, 55% said they largely approve of how the president-elect is handling the transition.
That is a higher percentage compared to eight years ago, when Trump first won the White House, but it is still well behind other recent presidents, according to CNN polling.
CHECK OUT OUR NEW FOX NEWS POLL ON TRUMP AND HIS TRANSITION
Meanwhile, 47% of people questioned in a Marist Poll gave the former and future president a thumbs up when it comes to how he is handling the transition, with 39% disapproving and 14% unsure.
Not surprisingly, the polls point to a massive partisan divide on the question. In the Marist survey, 86% of Republicans approved of how the GOP president-elect is handling the transition. However, 72% of Democrats disapproved. Among independents, 43% disapproved and 38% approved.
French President Emmanuel Macron, right, shakes hands as he welcomes President-elect Donald Trump before a meeting at the Elysee Presidential Palace in Paris on Dec. 7, 2024.(Photo by Mustafa Yalcin/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“Although more people support Trump’s transition than oppose it, more independents are taking a wait-and-see position than more partisan voters,” Marist Institute for Public Opinion Director Lee Miringoff said.
Miringoff added that “a note of caution for President-elect Trump is that fewer voters approve of the transition than gave a thumbs up to either Biden or Obama at this point.”
GET TO KNOW DONALD TRUMP’S CABINET: WHO HAS THE PRESIDENT-ELECT PICKED SO FAR?
The release of the polls came as Trump’s cabinet picks continued to meet with senators on Capitol Hill ahead of confirmation hearings starting next month.
Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be Defense secretary, gives a thumbs-up as he walks with his wife Jennifer Hegseth, left, to meet with Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Monday, Dec. 9, 2024.(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Trump named his nominees for his cabinet and his choices for other top administration officials at a faster pace than he did eight years ago after his first White House victory.
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However, his transition has already faced some setbacks, including his first attorney general nominee, former Rep. Matt Gaetz, ending his bid for confirmation amid controversy over allegations he paid for sex with underage girls.
Trump last weekend made his first international trip since winning last month’s election, and he was courted by world leaders during a stop in Paris.
Trump will be inaugurated Jan. 20.
Fox News’ Victoria Balara contributed to this report.
From his divorce from Theresa Nist after three months of marriage to his shocking cancer diagnosis, “Golden Bachelor” star Gerry Turner has had quite the year, but those setbacks are not stopping him from finding love again.
“I have dated a bit, off and on,” Turner, 73, told Fox News Digital. “Currently, you know I am dating someone, and I will continue my search to find my partner for the rest of my life.”
In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, the reality TV star and retired restaurateur opened up about his cancer journey thus far, explained how the diagnosis led to his split with Nist and shared why his new love interest is “quite refreshing” from previous relationships.
‘GOLDEN BACHELOR’ GERRY TURNER SAYS INCURABLE CANCER DIAGNOSIS LED TO THERESA NIST DIVORCE
“Golden Bachelor” star Gerry Turner said he is dating after his split from Theresa Nist.(Brian Bowen Smith/ABC via Getty Images)
“You know, let’s not go into labels yet,” Turner said when asked if he considers this new woman his girlfriend. “It might be a little early for that. We haven’t been dating that long. You know, a very short time.”
“There is a certain freedom involved, a certain acceptance for who I am,” he said when describing his new fling. “Almost a humorous lack of understanding of where I’ve come from in the last year, year and a half. It’s really quite refreshing to have someone who hasn’t seen all the history in a relationship with me. They didn’t watch the show. They’re not interested in what’s on social media. They don’t care.”
Turner and Nist married in January of this year in a televised ceremony after Turner proposed in the season finale of the ABC reality dating series.
Gerry Turner shared that given their living situations and other factors, he and Theresa Nist recognized the best thing to do was go their separate ways.(John Fleenor/Disney via Getty Images)
WATCH: ‘GOLDEN BACHELOR’ GERRY TURNER DATING NEW WOMAN SINCE CANCER LED TO DIVORCE FROM THERESA NIST
Turner filed for divorce in his hometown of Petersburg, Indiana, on April 12, citing “irreconcilable differences.” His filing came several hours after the couple’s split announcement on “Good Morning America.”
“Theresa and I have had a number of heart-to-heart conversations,” he said on “GMA.” “We’ve looked closely at our living situations, and we’ve kind of come to the conclusion mutually that it’s time for us to dissolve our marriage. The things that strike me the most in our conversations (is) how dedicated both of us are to our families. So, we look at these situations, and I think we just feel like it’s best for the happiness of each of us to live apart.”
‘GOLDEN BACHELOR’ STARS GERRY TURNER AND THERESA NIST DIVORCING 3 MONTHS AFTER TELEVISED WEDDING
The two tied the knot in a televised wedding ceremony in January.(Getty Images)
“I still love this person, there’s no doubt in my mind. I root for her every day.”
The duo finalized their divorce in June.
During a recent interview with People magazine, Turner revealed he was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer in March.
“There’s a topic that I haven’t wanted to talk about until now,” Turner told the outlet, referring to his split from Nist. “I think it’s time, also, because it probably will clear up a lot of mystery around what happened back in February, March and April.”
He continued, “As Theresa and I were trying very hard to find our lifestyle and where we were going to live and how we were going to make our life work, I was unfortunately diagnosed with cancer.”
Turner’s bone marrow cancer goes by a “really long name,” according to the star. He was diagnosed with Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia, which, according to the Mayo Clinic, “is a type of cancer that begins in the white blood cells. Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia is considered a type of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. It’s sometimes called lymphoplasmacytic lymphoma.”
Gerry Turner revealed his cancer diagnosis on Dec. 11.(Craig Sjodin/ABC/Getty Images)
WATCH: ‘GOLDEN BACHELOR’ GERRY TURNER AND THERESA NIST HAVE HAD ‘ALMOST NO CONVERSATION’ ABOUT HIS CANCER JOURNEY
“Unfortunately, there’s no cure for it,” Turner told the outlet. “So that weighs heavily in every decision I make. It was like 10 tons of concrete were just dropped on me. And I was a bit in denial for a while, I didn’t want to admit to it.”
Turner told Fox News Digital that his diagnosis was “very much a factor” in his decision to split from Nist.
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“I think it’s the unknown element that people wondered about all this time,” he said. “You know, the question was always, ‘What’s going on? You know, there’s got to be more to the story.’ And the truth of the matter is that when I got that news and I got over that period of time where I just felt like I had just been gut punched, I realized the things that were the most important. I kind of fell back to the old habits, the old familiar feelings of a family and my two daughters and thinking about when my wife passed away and how that affected not just me, but my girls.”
“I’m not sure it’s all completely logical, but sometimes feelings aren’t logical,” he added. “But the bottom line is that it had a huge impact on my thinking about my relationship with Theresa and that marriage.”
Gerry Turner said he and Theresa Nist have had “almost no conversation” about his cancer journey thus far.(Eric McCandless/Disney via Getty Images)
While Nist told People the news was “devastating,” she was hopeful given Turner’s optimism.
“He told me, though, that it was the type of cancer that he would most likely outlive,” she told the outlet. “He’s a very positive person, and I am, too, and I know that he will do the best that he can to make this a positive experience. And I have every faith that is going to work out that way, that it’s going to be the type of cancer that will not affect his life and that he’ll live to be a very healthy old age.”
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Since the diagnosis, however, Turner said the two have had “almost no conversation” about his journey thus far.
“There’s been almost no conversation with Theresa about [the cancer diagnosis],” he told Fox News Digital. “When I told her about it in February, we had only one brief follow-up conversation after that… And that was it.”
“There’s really no communication,” he added. “There hasn’t been for quite some time.”
However, Turner said he wishes nothing but “the very best” for Nist.
“I have absolutely no animosity,” he said. “There’s nothing that makes me feel like that. I want her to be very successful at whatever endeavor she pursues.”
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Fox News Digital’s Janelle Ash contributed to this report.
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The University of Pennsylvania, where suspected gunman Luigi Mangione earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees, has refused to comment publicly on its alum’s arrest in the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
When asked multiple times for comment via email and phone, a UPenn spokesperson would only share that Mangione graduated on May 18, 2020 with bachelors and master’s degrees and minored in mathematics. He earned degrees in engineering and was part of the Eta Kappa Nu Honor Society for Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Cornell Law Professor William Jacobson, president of the Legal Insurrection Foundation and of EqualProtect.org, told Fox News Digital that the school could be withholding comment because it is “afraid of the students” at the liberal institution, considering that “[its] campus has been a hotbed for anti-American, anti-Israeli, antisemitic outbursts and protests.”
COULD IVY LEAGUE MURDER SUSPECT LUIGI MANGIONE FACE FEDERAL CHARGES?
CEO murder suspect Luigi Mangione shouts as officers restrain him as he arrives for his extradition hearing in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024.(David Dee Delgado for Fox News Digital)
“I’m not sure why, on something like this, they wouldn’t be able to give some sort of statement – not necessarily convicting him in the media but expressing condolences to the family of the deceased or something like that,” Jacobson said.
UPENN PRESIDENT’S FATE HANGS IN BALANCE AS ANGRY BOARD CONVENES FOR EMERGENCY MEETING
Julia Alekseyeva, an assistant professor of English at the school, posted several TikTok videos seeming to praise Mangione.
Alekseyeva identifies as a “socialist and ardent antifascist” on her website and posted the videos under the name “The Soviette.” In one, she holds her hand over her heart as the song “Do You Hear the People Sing?” from the musical “Les Miserables” plays in the background.
FRIENDS, ACQUAINTANCES DEFEND MANGIONE’S FAMILY AS MEDIA DESCENDS ON ALLEGED CEO KILLER’S HOMETOWN
The University of Pennsylvania, Luigi Mangione’s alma mater, refused to comment directly about their former student’s arrest in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.(iStock)
“Have never been prouder to be a professor at the University of Pennsylvania,” she wrote.
LUIGI MANGIONE SUPPORT FUNDRAISERS, MERCHANDISE YANKED BY GOFUNDME, ETSY
A UPenn spokesperson said that Alekseyeva had “retracted” her comments after realizing they were “insensitive and inappropriate.”
“Much concern was raised by recent social media posts attributed to Assistant Professor Julia Alekseyeva,” the spokesperson wrote. “Her comments regarding the shooting of Brian Thompson in New York City were antithetical to the values of both the School of Arts and Sciences and the University of Pennsylvania, and they were not condoned by the School or the University.”
The University of Pennsylvania campus is seen in Philadelphia.(Jumping Rocks/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
However, the school did not name Mangione or condemn Thompson’s assassination.
“It seems odd that they can’t offer generic condolences about his death without commenting on the guilt or innocence of their alum,” Jacobson said.
In contrast, the headmaster of the small private academy where Mangione attended high school issued a statement the same day that the former valedictorian was arrested.
Luigi Mangione was taken into custody in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on Monday morning in connection with the ambush murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City.(Luigi Mangione/Facebook)
“We recently became aware that the person arrested in connection with the killing of the UnitedHealthcare CEO is a Gilman alumnus, Luigi Mangione, Class of 2016,” Henry P. A. Smyth, headmaster of the Gilman School in Baltimore, said. “We do not have any information other than what is being reported in the news… This is deeply distressing news on top of an already awful situation. Our hearts go out to everyone affected.”
A general view of the Gilman School in Baltimore on Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024. Luigi Mangione, who was arrested in Pennsylvania for the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, graduated from the school in 2016.(Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)
The Ivy League university’s silence on the national news involving its graduate comes a year after former Penn President Liz Magill declined to outright state that calls for the genocide of Jewish people constitute bullying or harassment under Penn’s code of conduct during a congressional hearing.
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University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill listens during a hearing of the House Committee on Education on Capitol Hill on Dec. 5, 2023, in Washington. Magill resigned amid pressure from donors and criticism over testimony at a congressional hearing where she was unable to say under repeated questioning that calls on campus for the genocide of Jews would violate the school’s conduct policy.(AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
Magill resigned four days after the hearing, on Dec. 11 of last year, ahead of a Board of Trustees meeting on whether she could continue to effectively fundraise and lead the university after the backlash against her handling of antisemitism at the school.
“I don’t know if [refusing to comment is] the lesson they’ve learned, but I do know that schools and companies in general, their standard PR pattern is to not comment on things – it may be in completely good faith, what they’re saying,” Jacobson said. “Or it might be something else.”
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Rural voters in California have had it with the Democratic majority in Sacramento and are pushing for their communities to divorce the blue urban areas that dominate state politics.
Conservative residents in California’s rural regions are tired of over-regulation, the high cost of living and the myriad of policies coming out of the Democratic-dominated state Legislature, said Paul Preston, who founded New California State in hopes of splintering off from its current home.
“We recognized that we were in a tyranny,” Preston told Fox News Digital, citing the disparity between Democrats and Republicans in state government.
Preston, a former school administrator, described California as a “one-party” state that operates similar to a communist regime by passing laws that disregard the rural class.
GAVIN NEWSOM GRILLED OVER HEFTY PRICE TAG TO HELP ‘TRUMP-PROOF’ CALIFORNIA: ‘TOTAL WASTE’
A proposed map showing New California State.(New California State )
Under the proposed map, New California State would comprise nearly all of California’s 58 counties, except most of Los Angeles County and parts of Sacramento County, San Francisco and other parts of the Bay Area. The map is purely a proposal and doesn’t represent the final state borders, Preston said.
Supporters contend breaking California in two would provide fairer and more responsive governance for areas outside the state’s major cities.
Preston noted that the proposed state would border Mexico in an effort to combat illegal immigration. Among his many grievances are California’s crime woes, which prompted voters to recall San Francisco’s district attorney in 2022 and Alameda County DA Pamela Price in November. In Los Angeles County, voters ousted DA George Gascon on Nov. 5 after only one term as critics blamed him for being too lenient on criminals.
Voters also strongly passed tough-on-crime Proposition 36 last month despite efforts by state Democrats and Gov. Gavin Newsom to preserve a decade of criminal justice reform policies that critics say enabled criminals.
“I don’t think anybody’s going to tell California that we are free from invasion and we’re free from domestic violence,” Preston said, citing crime and the flow of illegal migrants into the state.
Fox News Digital has reached out to Newsom’s office and state Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, a Democrat. The California Democratic Party said no one was available to comment on the matter.
OPINION: THE SIMPLE SOLUTION TO THE ‘CALIFORNICATION’ OF AMERICAN ENERGY POLICY
The California state Capitol in Sacramento(Justin Sullivan/Justin Sullivan)
In recent years, California has been criticized for its high cost of living, its homelessness epidemic – despite spending billions to address the problem – and lenient criminal justice and sanctuary state polices that opponents have said contribute to crime.
James Gallagher, the Republican leader in the state Assembly, said he didn’t know about the New California State effort specifically but said, “I totally understand it.” However, Gallagher said the divide isn’t necessarily urban versus rural, as much as it is coastal versus the inland communities.
“It often feels like there are two separate states in California,” he told Fox News Digital. “That inland portion feels completely forgotten by Gavin Newsom and the supermajority Democrats. All the policies that come out of Sacramento don’t really burden them (Democratic lawmakers).”
CALIFORNIA COASTAL ENCLAVE NEAR SANCTUARY CITY TRIES TO ‘NEWSOM-PROOF’ ITSELF
Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks at a press conference on Sept. 25.(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
As an example, Gallagher cited California-led electric vehicle mandates that require all new vehicle sales in the state to be zero-emission models by 2035, which he said would hurt many rural residents.
Tina Hessong, 55, who lives in Yuba City, a few miles north of Sacramento, said California is actually more conservative than what the rest of the country is led to believe. She cited the Electoral College map from November’s presidential election.
“The map that has come out of the recent vote and how red the state of California truly is, is more representative of the way that I feel the reality of the state of California is,” she told Fox News Digital. “We are a red state and the big blue centers –Los Angeles and San Francisco – they get all the representation because they have the bigger population.”
Ellen Lee Zhou, who grew up in China and has run for mayor of San Francisco, said Democratic lawmakers and Newsom had prioritized illegal immigrants over legal residents and have abandoned all common sense.
“What we’ve seen in the last 10 years is unbelievable with the homeless, open drug dealing and prostitution,” Zhou told Fox News Digital. “I just can’t explain what happened to the leadership.”
Despite Vice President Kamala Harris winning the statewide popular vote, with heavy support from coastal regions, Trump took most of the counties, mainly in the rural areas.
MIGRANTS CAUGHT AT BORDER BUSSED, FLOWN OUT OF SAN DIEGO IN POSSIBLE ‘COVER UP’ BEFORE ELECTION: OFFICIAL
The map showing the 2024 presidential election results in California. President-elect Trump won the counties in orange and Vice President Kamala Harris took the counties colored in blue, mostly along the coastal and urban areas.(California Secretary of State)
Following the Nov. 5 election, Newsom visited California’s red counties, where he told voters: “Message received.”
“I don’t care who you voted for. I care about people. I care about Trump supporters, I care about RFK Jr., (Robert Kennedy Jr.) supporters, I care about Tucker Carlson supporters, I care about Charlie Kirk supporters, I care about Ben Shapiro supporters, I care about all people,” he said during one of his stops.
“I care about the people living here, in the Sierras, folks down in San Diego, where I just was, or my backyard in Fair Oaks, California,” Newsom added.
Trump has assailed liberal cities, saying they are rife with crime, overtaxed and falling apart because of Democratic policies focused on “woke” ideology instead of improving the quality of life for residents.
California has a long history of attempts to break itself into smaller pieces. Since 1850, when it became the 31st state admitted to the union, there have been more than 220 attempts to bisect, trisect or dissect it into six smaller states, according to the California State Library.
More recently, billionaire Silicon Valley venture capitalist Tim Draper proposed an initiative to split California into six states, but the proposal failed to qualify for the 2016 ballot.
NEWSOM VETOES CONTROVERSIAL BILL THAT WOULD HAVE GIVEN HOUSING LOANS TO ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
In 2018, Draper was successful in getting a measure to break California into three states on the 2018 ballot after the “Cal 3” referendum garnered enough signatures from voters. However, the state Supreme Court decided on July 18, 2018, to remove the question from the ballot “because significant questions have been raised regarding the proposition’s validity,” the library’s website states.
Other states have also supported some type of succession effort in the past.
In 2020, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice said unhappy rural counties in neighboring Virginia were more than welcome to join his state.
“If you’re not truly happy where you are, we stand with open arms to take you from Virginia or anywhere where you may be,” Justice, a Republican, said at the time. “We stand strongly behind the Second Amendment, and we stand strongly for the unborn.”
The rural-urban divide has long been part of politics. In November, Trump made some gains in urban, suburban and rural areas, surprising many.
HOW A POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE ROCKED CALIFORNIA AND MADE CRIME ‘FINALLY ILLEGAL AGAIN’
California Gov. Gavin Newsom and President-elect Trump(Getty/AP)
Despite his increased support among Californians, Newsom has convened a special session amid efforts to “Trump-proof” the Golden State from potential federal interference, but said he would work with the incoming administration.
“But when there is overreach, when lives are threatened, when rights and freedoms are targeted, we will take action,” he said. “And that is exactly what this special session is about – setting this state up for success, regardless of who is in the White House.”
While Preston doesn’t anticipate a separation right away, considering the effort would need the blessing of the Legislature, he believes an opening will come.
“This is really an urban versus rural debate,” he said. “We’ve been received very well in Congress (during visits to Washington), even by Democrats. It’s interesting that people who are starting to see what we’re doing are on board.”
Hawaii was the last state admitted to the union in 1959. Efforts to attain statehood by Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., have fallen short in recent years after not having garnered enough support.
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“I get the discussion,” Gallagher said of the New California effort. “I think we might need to look into it. Maybe there should be two states.”
Washington, D.C., councilman Trayon White edged closer to expulsion this week after an investigative report found he violated multiple city code of conduct provisions.
Despite being arrested by the FBI on a federal bribery charge in August, White, a Democrat representing Ward 8, recently secured a third term on Election Day in a landslide victory.
While the federal criminal case remains pending, the report, commissioned by an ad hoc committee and conducted by the law firm Latham & Watkins LLP, was submitted to the council on Monday following an independent probe into whether White violated applicable D.C. law, the D.C. Code of Conduct, or Council Rules. The council is meeting next Monday to deliberate the findings and consider whether to recommend sanctions against White.
The councilman has pleaded not guilty to allegations he accepted $156,000 in cash payments in exchange for using his position to pressure government employees at the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (ONSE) and Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services (DYRS) to extend several D.C. contracts. The federal complaint says the contracts were valued at $5.2 million and were for two companies to provide “Violence Intervention” services in D.C.
DC COUNCILMEMBER FACING FEDERAL BRIBERY CHARGES WINS LANDSLIDE RE-ELECTION, BUT COLLEAGUES MAY OUST HIM
DC Ward 8 Councilmember Trayon White, Sr. speaks at a ribbon cutting ceremony for The Asberry, the first on-site building constructed at Barry FarmHillsdale in Washington, DC on Nov. 21, 2024. (Craig Hudson for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson established the ad hoc committee in August.
White has declined multiple offers to meet with the committee since.
Councilman Kenyan McDuffie, who chairs the ad hoc committee, said the investigation found “substantial evidence” that White’s alleged conduct connected to the bribery claims violated several provisions of the D.C. Council’s Code of Official Conduct, FOX 5 DC reported. McDuffie said that the report does not support allegations White violated residency requirements outlined in the District of Columbia Home Rule Act of 1973.
Council member Trayon White Sr. leaves Ferbee Hope Recreation Center voting place in Southeast Washington, D.C., Nov. 5, 2024, after casting his vote. (Astrid Riecken For The Washington Post via Getty Images)
DC COUNCILMAN STUFFED POCKETS WITH ENVELOPES OF CASH IN ALLEGED BRIBERY SCHEME, FEDS ALLEGE
White has not publicly commented on the report’s findings.
The investigation spanned 11 weeks and involved 22 interviews with officials from multiple D.C. agencies, including DYRS, ONSE and the Office of Risk Management; current and former members of White’s staff; leaders in the violence intervention community and other individuals believed to have information related to the allegations against White.
D.C. Councilman Trayon White Sr. departs the E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse on Sept. 12, 2024 in Washington, D.C. (Michael A. McCoy for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
The law firm also reviewed relevant documents and records obtained from D.C. agencies and thousands of emails from the official accounts of White and his staff.
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The report says White declined both requests to be interviewed by the law firm.
Danielle Wallace is a breaking news and politics reporter at Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to [email protected] and on X: @danimwallace.
The U.S. Department of Education spent at least $1 billion on grants advancing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in hiring, programming and mental health training in America’s schools since 2021, according to a new report.
Parents Defending Education “PDE”, a right-leaning organization that pledges to “reclaim our schools from activists imposing harmful agendas,” shared its new report exclusively with Fox News Digital.
Researchers at the organization pored through nearly four years of publicly available data from the Department of Education to determine the number of grants and the dollar amount awarded to students and school districts for grants that had a clear DEI “motive.”
From 2021 to present, they found the Biden administration awarded 229 grants across 42 states and Washington, D.C. that met that criteria.
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President Biden delivers remarks regarding student loan debt forgiveness alongside Education Secretary Miguel Cardona in August 2022.
According to the report, $489,883,797 was spent on grants for race-based hiring; $343,337,286 went toward general DEI programming; and $169,301,221 went to DEI-based mental health training and programming, totaling $1,002,522,304.81 spent in all.
The total grant amount “incorporates both awarded (committed) and disbursed dollars, as most of the grant money is distributed [a] period of several years,” the report states.
Grants that fit into more than one of these categories were only counted once, Parents Defending Education researcher, Rhyen Staley, explained. He also said that their report likely undercounts the actual number of grants given, because researchers were conservative in determining which ones met their criteria. For example, he said PDE researchers excluded examples where they determined DEI was not the goal of the program, even if the grant’s abstract used DEI “buzzwords.”
Examples in the report include a $3,974,496 grant given to the School District of Philadelphia for a restorative justice program headed by a former Communist Party USA member; a $4,000,000 grant given for a 3-week residential “culturally responsive” computer science summer camp for 600 11th and 12th graders; and $38,000 grant to a Michigan school district for a one-day professional development training by an equity consultant, along with copies of the consultant’s book.
BIDEN SIGNS ‘RACIAL EQUITY’ ORDER REQUIRING FEDERAL AGENCIES TO BUILD ‘EQUITY ACTION PLAN’
Parents in St. Paul, Minnesota protesting outside a public school district on November 3, 2021. (Getty Images)
President Biden has signed several executive orders over his term mandating DEI actions in federal agencies.
Fostering DEI in US schools has likewise been a key priority for his Education Department under Secretary Miguel Cardona. For instance, the term, “equity,” is found over 70 times in the department’s 2022-2026 strategic plan. The department lists diversity, equity, inclusion and meeting students’ social-emotional needs as part of its agenda’s six “focus areas.”
Multiple press releases on the Education Department’s website also reveal high-dollar figures awarded for DEI grants to school districts. Most recently, the agency announced the administration had awarded over $67 million through magnet schools program and fostering diverse schools grants.
BIDEN-HARRIS ADMIN PUSHED MORE THAN 500 ‘DEI ACTIONS’ ACROSS GOVERNMENT, REPORT FINDS
A new report found at least $1 billion has been spent on DEI grants for public schools by the Biden Administration.(iStock)
Staley said the report clearly shows how the Biden administration has been “incentivizing” far-left ideologies in US schools rather than “rigorous, proven methods of instruction,” to the detriment of students.
“The only people or groups to benefit from the enormous amount of grant funding are the universities, administrators, and DEI consultants, at the expense of children’s education,” he said. “This needs to change by placing children’s learning at the forefront of education, instead of prioritizing race-based policies and DEI.”
Michele Exner, Senior Advisor at Parents Defending Education, also characterized the spending as wasteful when students are already failing to meet academic standards.
“Over one billion dollars squandered on progressive pet projects all while American students’ academic performance continues to plummet. Under Secretary Cardona, this organization has been a complete farce that has failed families and students time and time again. This will be the legacy of the Biden administration’s Department of Education. Families are fed up and are excited for January when we will have new leadership in the nation’s capital who will focus on getting this toxic and divisive waste out of our education system,” she said.
TRUMP WANTS TO DISSOLVE THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION. EXPERTS SAY IT COULD CHANGE PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Elon Musk, Co-Chair of the newly announced Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), arrives on Capitol Hill on Dec. 5, 2024 in Washington, D.C.; Vivek Ramaswamy, chairman and co-founder of Strive Asset Management, arrives to meet with lawmakers on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024. (Left: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images; Right: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics indicates nearly one-third of U.S. public schoolchildren were behind grade level at the end of the 2023-2024 school year.
The Department of Education did not return a request for comment.
President-elect Trump has pledged to abolish the Education Department when he returns to office and cut down on wasteful spending in the federal government.
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, whom Trump tapped to lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) advisory board, recently signaled their approval for dismantling the Education Department.
Legal experts say Trump will likely need approval from Congress to enact this plan, however.
Fox News’ Taylor Penley contributed to this report.
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Kristine Parks is an associate editor for Fox News Digital. Read more.
Last Wednesday’s oral argument in United States v. Skrmetti was promising for many reasons: it appears that the Supreme Court will rule that Tennessee’s law protecting minors from sex-trait modification procedures (which proponents often call “gender-affirming care”) does not violate the Constitution’s equal protection clause, which bans sex discrimination.
Still, the oral argument left open a big question: is the Supreme Court going to let women’s sports die?
Justice Kavanaugh asked the Biden administration, “Would transgender athletes have a constitutional right, as you see it, to play in women’s and girls’ sports…notwithstanding the competitive fairness and safety issues that have been vocally raised by some female athletes?”
SCOTUS HEARS ARGUMENTS IN CASE THAT COULD RESHAPE ENVIRONMENTAL LAW
The Biden administration’s response? “[W]hen it comes to access to sex-separated spaces, like sports and bathrooms, courts already recognize that those are facial sex classifications that trigger heightened scrutiny.”
Those words mark a sea change from established precedent, which states that treating the sexes differently is not discrimination that warrants heightened scrutiny as long as the treatment is equal and related to the innate biological differences between men and women. And this can’t be smeared as some “far-right” interpretation: even liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg opined in United States v. Virginia that “[p]hysical differences between men and women…are enduring,” in such a way that “[t]he two sexes are not fungible.”
This is what the Biden administration is rejecting. Moreover, it is going so far as to claim that the Constitution’s demand for sex equality means that women’s sports and women’s spaces are already constitutionally prohibited – unless women can defend themselves in court.
Women have advocated equal treatment in the past, and we will advocate for equal treatment today, but, no matter how strong we are, we don’t have unlimited resources. How many rural women’s swim teams have the ability to find a lawyer who’ll take such a case on? How many middle-school girls’ hockey teams want to spend their money or energy suing those who attempt to destroy their sex-protected spaces?
The truth is, forcing women to go to court if they want to protect their own interests would end women’s sports as we know them. No more girls’ volleyball teams or women’s soccer leagues. Girls’ athletic scholarships? Gone. The generations of women who have been able to gain confidence in themselves through single-sex athletics? Relegated to history. And while they’re at it, the Biden administration’s logic doesn’t stop at sports and extends to all women’s spaces, so say goodbye to women’s dorm rooms, women’s bathrooms, and women’s prisons.
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None of the Supreme Court justices – even the ones who are likely to side with Tennessee – seemed to raise these concerns in the oral argument. But if the Biden administration’s logic holds, it would be the end of every policy that treats men and women as equals without treating them as biologically identical. That’s a scary prospect for women everywhere: if the very concept of women-only spaces is subject to constitutional scrutiny, women who want the dignity of our own spaces would become subservient to males who are bigger, taller, faster, and stronger than us.
Leftist ideologues may claim the mantle of progress, but they are actually arguing for regression when the conclusions of their gender ideology wind up stripping women of our sex-based rights.
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Riley Gaines is the host of OutKick’s “Gaines for Girls.” She is an Independent Women’s Forum ambassador, Turning Point contributor, director of the Riley Gaines Center, and author of “Swimming Against the Current.”
Lawmakers, activists and commentators argued that the acquittal of Marine veteran Daniel Penny Monday shows the United States is a racially unjust society.
Penny was found not guilty of criminally negligent homicide in the death of Jordan Neely on a Manhattan subway car in May 2023. Neely, a 30-year-old homeless man with schizophrenia who had an active arrest warrant at the time, had barged onto the train shouting death threats while high on a type of synthetic marijuana known as K2. Penny restrained Neely with a chokehold with the assistance of two other passengers, one of whom appeared to be Black, and Neely later died.
While the case has been seen by many as an intersection of cultural battles about issues such as homelessness, drugs and crime, the issue of race took center stage.
“The acquittal of Daniel Penny in the death of Jordan Neely has effectively given license for vigilante justice to be waged on the Black community without consequence,” the NAACP X account posted Monday. “It’s a painful reminder of the inequities in our justice system. Jordan deserved compassion. Instead, he was met with violence. We stand with his family in calling for accountability.”
LIBERALS RAGE AFTER DANIEL PENNY ACQUITTED IN NYC SUBWAY CHOKEHOLD CASE
Daniel Penny’s acquittal sparked incendiary rhetoric from lawmakers and activists.
X users responded with a community note adding the context that “Daniel Penny did not act alone in defending himself and others from Neely. A black man can be clearly seen assisting Penny to subdue Neely. A black woman testified in defense of Penny. There is no evidence that Penny was motivated by race.”
A Black woman testified at the trial, according to the New York Post, that she heard Neely saying, “I don’t give a damn. I will kill a motherf–ker. I’m ready to die.”
“I was scared s—less,” the woman testified, and said she thanked Penny after for his help.
Penny rejected accusations that his actions were racist, telling Fox News Digital in an interview last year, “The majority of the people on that train that I was protecting were minorities, so it definitely hurts a lot to be called that.”
CNN’s Scott Jennings and Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Solomon Jones locked horns about whether race played a factor in Daniel Penny’s acquittal.
WHOOPI GOLDBERG BRISTLES AT DANIEL PENNY CELEBRATING ACQUITTAL: ‘YOU KILLED A GUY’
But that did not stop other commentators, including lawmakers, from arguing the acquittal is a sign America still harbors deep racial hatreds.
“Jordan Neely was unarmed. He needed support and care,” Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, argued. “Instead, he received a death sentence. His family grieves while the man who took his life walks free.”
“This is more than a miscarriage of justice – it is a green light for more violence against unarmed Black Americans,” she added.
Rep. Summer Lee, D-Pa., penned a similar statement.
“The acquittal of Daniel Penny in the murder of Jordan Neely is a painful reminder of a long-standing reality: vigilante violence against Black people often goes unchecked,” the lawmaker said. “Jordan deserved compassion, not violence. We stand with his loved ones in demanding accountability.”
“Everything that led up to and followed the lynching of Jordan Neely on a New York City subway train by Daniel Penny could have and should have been prevented,” Tiffany Cabán, Council member for NYC Council District 22 in Queens, New York, wrote on Bluesky.
Neely, who struggled with mental illness, had been arrested more than 40 times, including for numerous violent assaults on strangers in the subway, and was on the city’s “Top 50” list of homeless people most in need of outreach. Just three months before his death, a warrant had been issued for his arrest after he left a few weeks into a 15-month court-ordered alternative-to-incarceration program.
Neely had agreed to stay in a treatment facility and abstain from drugs in exchange for his felony assault on a 67-year-old woman that broke her nose and fractured her orbital bone being reduced to a misdemeanor. Instead, he ended up on the subway threatening people.
ALVIN BRAGG TORCHED ONLINE AFTER FAILED DANIEL PENNY PROSECUTION: ‘SHOULD PAY ULTIMATE POLITICAL PRICE’
Outgoing Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., addressed “White people” as a group he is increasingly frustrated with.
“Dear White People, I don’t know why I feel the need to keep talking to you,” he lamented. “I don’t know why part of me still has hope for you and for us. Some of you are too far gone. But maybe enough of you aren’t and will join us in fighting to end white supremacy.”
He continued, “I just wanna call out the hypocrisy and evil of it all and just continue to hope. I won’t rely completely on you because I know what’s most important is to work with my community and other like minded allies in the fight for justice.”
“I ask white people, how many times have you seen a white man killed in cold blood on camera on your newsfeed? How many times have you even heard about this?” he asked, while some X users pointed out the irony of the statement with video of the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson dominating the news.
“The answer is never. You never have,” Bowman alleged. “And whenever you feel discomfort from your whiteness, Black people are harmed or killed. And there is never accountability or justice. This is the evil of white supremacy. It spans across geography and political parties and sickens us all.”
Daniel Penny arrives to Manhattan Supreme Court in New York, NY on Tuesday, December 3, 2024. Closing arguments are expected to finish today in his second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide trial for in the 2023 death of Jordan Neely on a New York City subway train.(Rashid Umar Abbasi for Fox News Digital)
Activists and members of the media shared fiery responses as well.
“Imagine, just imagine, if Jordan Neely had been white and Daniel Penny was black,” former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan implored. “Imagine what some of the folks defending Penny today would be saying. Just imagine.”
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On a CNN panel Monday, Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Solomon Jones brought up “the dreaded r-word,” saying, “Race plays a role in this.”
CNN senior political commentator Scott Jennings countered this claim by bringing up an equivalent case involving a Black man.
“What about the Jordan Williams case here in New York?” he asked. “Same situation. African-American gets on a subway, ends up killing a guy, grand jury tosses it out at the exact same time as the Penny case.”
Just one month after Neely’s death, Williams, who is Black, fatally stabbed a homeless man on the subway who had been harassing and threatening others, including Williams and his girlfriend, which led to a physical confrontation. Williams had been charged with manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon but was found to have acted in self-defense and charges were quickly dropped.
After Penny’s acquittal, New York BLM co-founder Hawk Newsome told reporters, “We need some Black vigilantes.”
“People want to jump up and choke us and kill us for being loud? How about we do the same when they attempt to oppress us?” he added.
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Fox News’ Kristine Parks, Rebecca Rosenberg and Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.
Alexander Hall is an associate editor for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to [email protected].
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On Sunday, commenting on the downfall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria, President-elect Donald Trump took a dig at Russian President Vladimir Putin, a staunch supporter of Assad whom Putin gave political asylum in Russia.
“There was no reason for Russia to be there in the first place,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. Trump pointed to the fact that “600,000 Russian soldiers lay wounded or dead, in a war that should never have started, and could go on forever.” Trump said Russia is in a “weakened state right now,” because of “Ukraine and a bad economy.”
This swipe at Putin is likely to be a prelude to Trump’s Russia policy during his second term. If you thought Trump and Putin were buddies, don’t be fooled. There almost certainly will be no rapprochement between Moscow and Washington on Trump’s watch. Here’s why.
TRUMP’S PLAYBOOK: HOW PUTIN OUTSMARTED 4 US PRESIDENTS, THEN WAS OUTPLAYED BY ‘THE DONALD’
Then-President Trump, right, shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 on June 28, 2019.(AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
Whether President-elect Trump succeeds in settling the almost three-year-old devastating conflict between Russia and Ukraine, as promised, his negotiating talents, not withstanding, the incoming commander in chief is highly unlikely to erase the fundamental irreconcilable differences between Moscow and Washington. Ukraine, where Russia and the United States are currently head locked in a proxy war, is just one example of Russia’s national interests colliding directly with U.S. long-term bi-partisan foreign policy.
Moscow and Washington each want Ukraine within their sphere of influence. Russia considers Ukraine as part of its strategic security perimeter and, therefore, off limits to U.S. geopolitical control. To enforce Russia’s version of the Monroe Doctrine, Putin has been waging a brutal war on Ukraine. His goal is to keep Ukraine out of NATO, an adversarial military alliance, in Moscow’s view. Similarly, Russia considers other former Soviet states, such as Georgia and Moldova, as part of its vital interests.
Former President Donald Trump, right, meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Trump Tower on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024 in New York City.(AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
The U.S. policy in Eurasia is almost a century old and is highly unlikely to change in the foreseeable future. This policy has been guided by the so-called “defend forward” logic, conceptualized by the Dutch American geostrategist John Spykman in the 1930s. A balance-of-power realist, Spykman convinced the U.S. national security establishment that to improve its chances of survival, America should get involved in Eurasian affairs. This strategy called for the creation of U.S. strategic alliances and military bases in Eurasia, in order to prevent an emerging rival power that could threaten America.
Spykman’s doctrine was rooted in the British geographer Halford Mackinder’s thesis, put forth in 1904, that whoever controls Eurasia—which he called the World Island—commands the world. Mackinder believed that Eurasia is predetermined to play a dominant role in global politics because of its vast natural resources and central location on the globe.
5 REASONS WHY ZELENSKYY’S VICTORY PLAN FOR UKRAINE IS A NO-WIN GAMBLE
Russian servicemen take a group photo near a U.S. M2 Bradley fighting vehicle captured in Ukraine by Russian troops, in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Nov. 3, 2024.(Photo by Artem Priakhin/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Former President Jimmy Carter’s national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski summarized this policy in his 1997 book, “The Grand Chess Board: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives.” Echoing Mackinder and Spykman, Brzezinski wrote that the U.S. must “make certain that no state…gains the capacity to expel the United States from Eurasia or even to diminish significantly its decisive arbitrating role.”
The Russians took Brzezinski’s strategic guidance -“who controls Eurasia controls the world” – seriously. They concluded that what Washington was after was Russia’s containment and territorial fragmentation. A major Russian think tank summed up its perception of U.S.-Russia policy as follows. “The United States will strive to weaken and dismember the rest of the world, and first of all the big Eurasia. This strategy is pursued by the White House regardless of whether it is occupied by the conservative or liberal administration or whether or not there is consensus among the elites.”
The deeply seeded distrust between Russia and the U.S. dates back to Soviet times. Trump is highly unlikely to overcome it. At the center of this distrust is the expansion of NATO.
Moscow and Washington have entirely different interpretations of what was promised to Russia when U.S. Secretary of State James Baker met with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on Feb. 9, 1990, as part of the negotiations on the peaceful re-unification of Germany. The Russians took Baker’s famous assurance “not one inch eastward” as a promise not to admit former Soviet states into the Alliance, a claim that U.S. and NATO leaders deny, some calling it a “myth.”
A serviceman from the 24th Mechanized Brigade, named after King Danylo of the Ukrainian armed forces, fires a 2s5 “Hyacinth-s” self-propelled howitzer toward Russian troops at a front line amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, near the town of Chasiv Yar in Donetsk region of Ukraine on Nov. 18, 2024.(Oleg Petrasiuk/Press Service of the 24th King Danylo Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces/Handout via REUTERS )
Following the collapse of the USSR in 1991, NATO admitted the Baltic States — Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania — which used to be part of the USSR and added several former Soviet bloc countries, such as the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland, to the alliance. In total, 13 Eastern European states have become NATO members since 1997. This resulted in the reduction of Russia’s buffer zone from 1,000 miles during Soviet times to 100 miles. Feeling duped, Moscow accused the U.S. and NATO of violating their promises. Putin made it his life-long mission to restore the lost buffer against NATO.
Thirty declassified U.S., Soviet, German, British and French documents, consisting of written contemporaneous memcons and telcons at the highest levels, reveal that Gorbachev indeed received what he perceived as NATO’s promises not to erode Russia’s security. For example, the U.S. Embassy in Bonn informed Washington that German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher made clear “that the changes in Eastern Europe and the German unification process” would not lead to an “impairment of Soviet security interests.”
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The same cable included language indicating that NATO should rule out an “expansion of its territory towards the East, i.e. moving it closer to the Soviet borders.” However, the phrase “led to believe” appears to be the key verbiage used across these documents, which contributed to the difference of interpretations. The phrase reflects the informal nature of assurances rather than legal guarantees.
That is why Putin will almost certainly not accept, as part of the peace settlement Trump seeks to broker between Russia and Ukraine, anything less than formal legal guarantees from NATO, precluding Ukraine’s membership.
Putin does not trust Trump, despite the seemingly positive rapport between the two. Nor does Trump trust Putin. During his first term, Trump took several actions that aimed at undermining Russia’s military strategy and economy. Trump sanctioned the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, founded the U.S. Space Force, ordered the development of a low-yield, nuclear-armed, sea-launched cruise missile and authorized an operation that killed 300 of Russia’s Wagner Group mercenaries in Syria. In 2017, Putin summed up his realpolitik relationship with Trump. He “is not my bride. And I am not his bride, nor his groom. We are running our governments,” Putin told a reporter at an economic summit.
President-elect Donald Trump accepts the ‘Patriot of the Year’ award at Fox Nation’s Patriot Awards.(Fox Nation)
President Biden’s recent drastic policy change, green-lighting Ukraine to attack Russia properly with U.S.-supplied long-range missiles, served as confirmation for Putin that Washington cannot be trusted. It’s why, in response to Trump’s recent request to Putin, that reportedly took place during a phone conversation, not to escalate in Ukraine, Putin did the opposite. The Russian made two highly escalatory moves. Putin approved changes to Russia’s nuclear doctrine, lowering the threshold for nuclear weapons’ use, and he authorized a strike on Ukraine with a new class of experimental hypersonic missile, the Oreshnik. The Oreshnik has sufficient range to target all of Europe and the U.S. West Coast. Neither the U.S. nor NATO have any defenses against it.
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A product of the Russian strategic culture, Putin has a worst-case scenario mindset. Presupposition of inevitable conflict, deeply rooted in the Russian thinking will always drive Moscow’s foreign policies. A talented businessman, Trump may be able to transition U.S.-Russia relations from hostile onto a transactional basis. But Trump or not, Russia and America will never become friends.
