WND

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will issue a memo setting equal standards for men and women in combat roles across the armed services, he announced on X Monday.

The memo aims to implement the same set of standards for all service members involved in combat, regardless of sex, Hegseth said on X. Hegseth said the services would review the guidance to ensure the “highest and equal standards for men and women in combat.”

“For far too long, we have allowed standards to slip,” Hegseth said in his post. “We’ve had different standards for men/women serving in combat arms [Military Occupational Specialty] MOS’s and jobs…. That’s not acceptable, and it changes right now!”

For far too long, we have allowed standards to slip. We’ve had different standards for men/women serving in combat arms MOS’s and jobs….

That’s not acceptable, and it changes right now! pic.twitter.com/Zn9OyBew6G

— Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (@SecDef) March 31, 2025

Men and women currently have different standards for combat roles, with the U.S. Army deciding to make different standards for men and women in the Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT) in 2022 after the RAND Corporation found in a study that women failed the test at much higher rates than their male counterparts; 65% of women were failing the ACFT test at one point in 2021, which prompted the change in standards.

Additionally, female candidates in Army Ranger school were reportedly given more chances to pass tests during the so-called “RAP week,” the first five days of ranger school, according to multiple Army Rangers’ testimonies.

Hegseth took flak from Senate Democrats during his confirmation hearing for his past comments on potentially barring women from combat roles. However, he walked back the comments during the hearing, instead saying he supported standards that “maximize efficacy” instead of setting different standards based on sex.

“Women will have access to ground combat roles given the standards remain high,” Hegseth said during the hearing. “We’ll have a review to make sure standards have not been eroded in any of these cases.”

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

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Political analyst Chuck Todd cautioned former Vice President Kamala Harris about running for California governor in 2026.

Harris will decide whether to run for the governorship of her state by the end of the summer, she told a pre-Oscars party attendee, according to two individuals with knowledge of the discussion, Politico reported. When “News Conference” host Conan Nolan asked whether Harris will run for the position and whether she should, Todd said he would be surprised if she did, and that it would be challenging for her to win.

WATCH:

“Boy, I would be shocked if she does. If she wants to run for president in ‘28, you can’t run for governor of California in ‘26,” Todd said. “So I do think if she runs for governor, she’s made the decision she’s not running.”

Todd also highlighted the challenge a typical Democrat could face in winning the governorship after years of one-party control.

“Here’d be my warning to any conventional Democrat running for governor of California in ‘26: Go look at the track record of any political party trying to win a governorship for basically for 20 straight years,” he said. “It doesn’t happen very often, right? And so this is 16 straight years of Democratic governance in California. It’s the longest, I think, going back nearly a hundred years.”

Todd also argued Harris’ status as a long-time powerful politician could work against her if she were to run for the governorship.

“Governor is the one place where voters won’t always vote their jersey color, and I think voters are going to be looking for somebody from the outside,” the political analyst said. “And I think that Harris — somebody who’s the former vice president, former U.S. senator, former district attorney in San Francisco — how does she sell change? She’s got to somehow run against Gavin Newsom’s governorship.”

“So I just don’t see the path for her. I could see an outsider Democrat being able to message this. I think it’s a tough place for her to be,” he added. “If I were advising her, I’d tell her: go throw yourself into the rebuild of LA and get involved with the LA Olympic Committee. Be above politics for a couple of years and come back maybe in 2030 or 2032.”

Harris ultimately lost all seven swing-states and the popular vote to President Donald Trump in November. When she ran for president in 2020, she only secured 844 votes in the Democratic primary, gaining zero delegates in the process, according to archived election data.

Political analyst Mark Halperin argued in December that Harris would face an uphill battle, whether she runs for president again or enters the race for California governor.

“I think her chance[s] of being governor of California are greater than being the Democratic nominee, but I don’t think they’re as great as people say, because again, her challenge is her weakness,” Halperin said. “She does not like to make difficult choices under pressure, and that is the job description for running for governor of California, being governor of California, running for president, being president.

“So I think she might try, but I think she’d be surprised at how tough it is. And finally, I’ll say I’m not sure she wants to be governor of California,” he continued. “It’s not a great job right now, and so why she’d run and risk losing, and then if she did win, get the job — I’m not really sure.”

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Billionaire entrepreneur and Trump advisor Elon Musk dropped a bombshell this weekend during a fiery 100-minute town hall in Green Bay, Wisconsin, where he campaigned for conservative judge Brad Schimel in the state’s upcoming Supreme Court election on Tuesday.

Joined by Antonio Gracias, a private equity titan and a key member of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team tasked with rooting out waste in the federal government, Musk unveiled a shocking chart: a dramatic spike in Social Security Numbers issued to non-citizens, soaring from 270,000 in 2021 to a mind-blowing 2.1 million in 2024.

That’s almost 5 million non-citizens now embedded in the system—collecting benefits, draining taxpayer dollars, and, most alarmingly, infiltrating the voter rolls.

“This is a mind-blowing chart,” Musk declared, pointing to the data. “This wasn’t an accident. This was a massive, large-scale program under the Biden administration to import as many illegals as possible—ultimately to change the voting map of the United States, disenfranchise the American people, and lock in a permanent deep-blue, one-party state from which there’d be no escape.”

Gracias, founder of Valor Equity Partners and a self-described son of legal immigrants, echoed Musk’s outrage.

“We went to Social Security to find fraud, and we stumbled on this by accident,” he said.

“And this isn’t political, by the way. My parents are immigrants… My brother and sister all born in Spain. I’m pro-legal immigration. This is not political. This is about America and the future of America. And there are a lot of good people in the system that pointed this in this direction. I want to honor them right now. They’re working with the government today and took the risks to show us these numbers and tell us what’s going on.”

Gracias continued, “We found 1.3 million of them already on Medicaid as an example. On every benefit program we went through, we found groups from this particular group of people, 5.5 million people in those benefit programs. And then what was really, really disturbing us was why. We’re asking ourselves why. And so we actually just took a sample and looked at voter registration records, and we found people here registered to vote in this population.”

The evidence, according to Musk and Gracias, is undeniable. By sampling voter registration records, they uncovered non-citizens who not only registered but voted in American elections.

“We’ve referred them to prosecution at Homeland Security Investigations,” Gracias revealed. “That’s happening right now.”

But the scandal goes deeper than voter fraud. Gracias, who traveled from D.C. to Social Security offices and the southern border alongside Musk, painted a grim picture of a system rigged to incentivize illegal entry.

“And then you walk across the border. They do what’s called a “release on your own recognizance” and give you an NTA — a Notice to Appear — which is to appear before a judge. The wait times on judges are, on average, six years. Look it up on Grok — you’ll see it. Immigration judges — there are only 700 of them. This is 5.5 million people,” he explained.

Gracias continued, “So what happens then? Once you’re in the country and you’ve got asylum through one of these pathways — and we mapped the whole thing out — you can apply for a work document. You file a 765 — that’s the work form. You get this form called the 766 — that’s the authorization. And then the Social Security Administration automatically sends you your Social Security number in the mail. No interview. No ID.”

Musk didn’t mince words about who’s to blame. “This is worth just reiterating. People sometimes think that under the Biden administration, that he was simply asleep with the switch. He wasn’t a sleep. No. They weren’t asleep with the switch.”

The human cost, however, is what Gracias called “the darkest thing.”

He estimates human traffickers and cartels raked in $13 to $15 billion exploiting this broken system, preying on desperate migrants from Africa and Central America.

“You think someone in Africa or Central America has $10,000 to $20,000 to pay these traffickers? No. What happens is: you come in, then you owe them the money. You’re an indentured servant,” said Gracias.

“And if you don’t pay? What do they do? They kill your mother. They kill your brother. They kill your family. What happens next? That’s what we discovered. And I have to tell you, it’s tragic to me. The human tragedy this created is the real problem,” he added.

Even worse, ICE data reveals 30,000 children who never showed up for their hearings and 270,000 more who didn’t even get Notices to Appear.

“ICE told us that kids are being trafficked back and forth across the border to complete families to make this easier. This is a human tragedy,” Gracias said.

“And how many of these people died on the way up here that didn’t make it in? What happened to them? We created a system here that created a incentive for people to come and been taking advantage of by these traffickers.”

WATCH:

This article originally appeared on The Gateway Pundit.com.

There might be less incentive for migrants to enter the country illegally if clearer U.S. visa work programs were in place, says Ben Brubeck, vice president of regulatory, labor, and state affairs for Associated Builders and Contractors.

Associated Builders and Contractors, a construction industry trade association, “is clear that there’s no place in our country for lawbreakers of any kind, and we oppose any efforts to facilitate that,” he said. But there needs to be a clear process that “does allow for foreign workers here legally … to participate in the construction industry,” he said.

“And, you know, if there were an easier system, I don’t know that we’d have as many people here illegally, so I think we’ve got to sort of address that,” Brubeck told The Daily Signal.

Under the U.S. H-2B program, 66,000 aliens are allowed to enter the country each fiscal year “to fill temporary nonagricultural” jobs, and can stay in the country for a maximum of three years, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. But those 66,000 workers only make a small dent in the current construction worker shortage.

Instead of capping the H-2B program at a set number, it should be based on economic need within the industry, Brubeck said.

Currently, the biggest issue within the construction industry is a shortage of skilled labor, according to Brubeck, who has worked for the trade association for 21 years.

Associated Builders and Contractors, which represents the needs of more than 23,000 companies, estimates there is a shortage of 439,000 people in the construction industry, which employs about 8 million in the U.S.

“It’s harder to get new people in the industry, especially the young folks,” Brubeck said, adding that his association is working to “recruit from all different entry points in the industry.”

The strategy to meet the needs in the construction worker shortage includes getting “more legal immigrants into the industry and also [making] sure that the illegal immigrant population is not working and undercutting the wages of legal immigrants as well as [those of] the American workforce,” he said.

In addition to removing the permanent cap on the H-2B program, Brubeck said Associated Builders and Contractors has been pushing for a merit-based, market-driven visa system that would “make sure the people who are coming in for these jobs are fully vetted and have a skill and have the ability and opportunity to work and are serious about it.”

The construction worker shortage can also be addressed through a bill Rep. Lloyd Smucker, R-Pa., introduced in 2023 called the Essential Workers for Economic Advancement Act. The bill, if passed, would create a new visa program that would allow up to 85,000 annual positions for temporary workers to address worker shortages in the construction industry. Associated Builders and Contractors supports the bill.

Brubeck says association members also want to see “administrative backlogs” addressed “for work authorization documents from immigrants who are legally residing in the United States.”

In recent years, the construction industry has suffered under something of a “perfect storm,” Brubeck explained.

“We’ve had material costs increased 40% since the start of the [COVID-19] pandemic until the start the Trump administration, so, you know, everything’s more expensive. We’ve got higher interest rates, so lending and financing is more expensive,” Brubeck said. “We’ve got permitting delays, and issues getting big projects built because of permitting inefficiencies, and we’ve got the skilled labor shortage.”

The Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration could lead to increased wages for workers in the construction industry, and that cost is often passed onto the customer or taxpayer, he said, but it’s “good news for existing workers.”

Brubeck said he’s looking forward to “working with the administration and then our partners and states to address” the challenges facing the construction industry.

[Editor’s note: This story originally was published by The Daily Signal.]

Colleges and universities across America have an estimated $837 billion stashed away for a rainy day if they want, in their endowments.

And Republicans in Congress are eyeing that trove as a possible source for tax revenue for the nation.

Reports say that Harvard alone has about $49 billion stashed away, and the University of Texas some $45 billion.

But members of the GOP have talked about raising the tax on those assets significantly, to help bring in revenue to balance the tax cuts they intend to create in a “sweeping fiscal overhaul,” according to a report in the Washington Examiner.

“I love it. We should do it,” U.S. Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, said in an interview with the publication about taxing endowments.

The report explained the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, during President Donald Trump’s first term, set an excise tax of 1.4% on the investment income of universities if their endowments exceed $500,000 per student.

That has raised, over the years, not even a billion dollars.

But Nehls is proposing a plan that would make that rate 21%, “which would bring it in line with the rate paid by for-profit corporations,” the report said.

That is estimated to be able to raise $70 billion over a decade, the report said the Tax Foundation suggested.

The GOP could adopt that through reconciliation, a process in Congress that allow proposals to bypass the Senate filibuster, where Democrats could halt such an idea, and be adopted with a simple majority vote.

Universities already had been facing significant financial turmoil because of the cuts they have faced under the Department of Government Efficiency’s efforts to reduce fraud, waste and corruption in government spending.

Multiple grant programs have been affected.

The report explained the GOP generally likes the idea, because universities are viewed “as overrun by left-wing radicalism.”

Another possible change facing universities is a plan to end the tax exemption from municipal bonds, where the interest, under current law, is excluded from taxable income.

A spokeswoman for the National Association of College and University Business Officers said the options are part of the “tools that colleges and universities use to keep costs low.”

But actually, Scott Hodge, of Arnold Ventures, explained the average university paid some $1,000 in interest expenses per student as recently as 2020, “raising costs without improving education.”

Other actions under the Trump administration also have hit the education industry.

The White House already said it would withhold $400 million from Columbia University because of allegations of anti-Semitism.

And it has paused $175 million in grants to the University of Pennsylvania because of that school’s beliefs in transgender ideologies.

And 2,000 layoffs were announced by Johns Hopkins University when the government halted $800 million in U.S. Agency for International Development grants there.

It’s true that those who run for political office, like Congress, have moderate resources when they campaign.

Often, they’re lawyers, or from other professions, where they’ve had good salaries, or they come from state or local government, where they’ve collected decent paychecks.

And in government, like Congress, they earn $174,000, with bonuses for a few select officers.

So how do they accumulate vast personal wealth, in the hundreds of millions of dollars?

After all, 20 years of such salary is only about $3.5 million and that’s before living expenses.

DOGE wants to know:

Elon Musk announced at a Wisconsin town hall that his team at DOGE will investigate congressional wealth accumulation, questioning how politicians amass multimillion-dollar fortunes on $200,000 salaries.

Musk specifically named Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell, Chuck Schumer, and… pic.twitter.com/fHPxJtpPgT

— True Crime Updates (@TrueCrimeUpdat) March 31, 2025

Elon Musk, running President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency to track down and remove fraud, waste and corruption in government spending, confirmed at a town hall in Wisconsin that he’s asked DOGE team members to investigate.

A report at the Daily Mail “has long been vocal in his suspicions about ultra-wealth career politicians.”

“A lot of strangely wealthy members of Congress, where I just can’t, I’m trying to connect the dots of how they became rich,” Musk said. “How’d they get $20 million if they’re earning $200,000 a year? Nobody can explain that. We’re gonna try to figure it out, and certainly stop it from happening.”

Musk’s own fortune estimated as some $340 billion is linked to his companies, Tesla, X and SpaceX.

The report noted members of Congress are allowed to buy and sell stocks and cryptocurrency as long as they disclose all transactions. That actually hasn’t always happened.

The report said, “Musk has specifically taken aim at Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell, Chuck Schumer and Elizabeth Warren, whose cumulative net worth is said to total an estimated $439 million in a post shared to Musk’s X account.”

PALM BEACH, Florida – President Donald Trump is opening up about his thought process in agreeing to having dinner with one of his fiercest political critics, Bill Maher.

In a message posted on Truth Social Sunday night, Trump indicated: “I got a call from a very good guy, and friend of mine, Kid Rock, asking me whether or not it would be possible for me to meet, in the White House, with Bill Maher, a man who has been unjustifiably critical of anything, or anyone, TRUMP.

“I really didn’t like the idea much, and don’t like it much now, but thought it would be interesting. The problem is, no matter how much he likes your Favorite President, ME, he will publicly proclaim what a terrible guy I am, etc., very much like the Democrats at my recent Address to the Joint Session of Congress, where I stated, correctly, that no matter what I said or did, they wouldn’t stand, they wouldn’t applaud, they wouldn’t smile or laugh and, certainly, they wouldn’t be in any way ‘nice.’

“Who knows, though, maybe I’ll be proven wrong? In any event, I’m doing a favor for a friend. I look forward to meeting with Bill Maher, Kid Rock and, I believe, even the Legendary Dana White will be present. It might be fun or, it might not, but you will be the first to know!”

Maher himself is looking forward to the dinner at the White House, telling Chris Cuomo:

“I’m doing it because, first of all, it was presented as … maybe this is a beginning to heal America. Now, I don’t have some sort of complex where I think I can heal America. I can’t! OK, let’s get that clear. I’m not going to be healing America.

“But if two guys who’ve been at each other for so long, I mean, it’s kind of a Nixon-to-China thing. I have the credential. There was nobody who was harder on Trump, or more prescient about the fact that he wasn’t going to leave office voluntarily than I was. I feel like I have the credentials.

“But they also respect me because I’m honest abut the woke train to Crazytown. And I don’t shrink from that, and I’ve also lost a lot of fans for that. The woke people have left the building and I’m willing to make that sacrifice. But it does give you a certain credibility.”

In a recent episode of his “Club Random” podcast. Bill Maher i confirmed plans to meet President Trump at the White House, facilitated by musician Kid Rock.
This development is particularly intriguing given Maher’s history of critiquing Trump. pic.twitter.com/OFIJwyQtZt

— April Color (@ColorApril) March 28, 2025

“First of all it’s an honor to be invited to the White House,” Maher explained. “I’m impressed by it a lot. I’m impressed the f*** out of it. I get to go to the White House. And yes, that is the structure of this dinner.

Is the news we hear every day actually broadcasting messages from God? The answer is an absolute yes! Find out how!

“It’s just, let’s talk. Let’s talk to each other face to face. Let’s stop shouting from 3,000 miles away. So, if they expect me to be leaving in a MAGA hat, they’re gonna be very disappointed, but I know they don’t.

“Look it probably will accomplish very little, but you gotta try, man. You gotta try.”

As the Wrap reported, Bill Maher laid into Republicans during his “New Rules” segment on Friday’s “Real Time,” which he started by explaining to people who ask why, if he roasts “the woke nonsense peddlers, why don’t you go all the way and join” the right wing.

“Let me give you the short answer,” Maher said. “Because I don’t want to live in North Korea.”

“Republicans dance like Trump now. They may name weapons systems after him. They’ve even dressed like him with the trademark suit and tie, available exclusively at Banana Republic,” he added. “All these super macho guys eating the a** of another man.”

Andrew Powell, a sports and entertainment blogger for the Daily Caller, noted of the coming Trump dinner with Maher: “Please tell me there will be cameras rolling.”

Follow Joe on X @JoeKovacsNews

A video from a gathering of the Washtenaw County Democratic Party, posted earlier this month, captured Democratic Michigan Rep. Debbie Dingell and other Democrats speaking candidly about their strategies to protest President Donald Trump.

The meeting called “Democratic Responses to Trump’s Attacks & Lessons Learned from 2024 MI House Races,” attended by various activist groups and Democratic organizers, was intended to rally the Democratic base and coordinate efforts to counteract Republican policies. During the meeting, a young Black man spoke positively about Trump’s decision to appoint Alice Marie Johnson as pardon czar and applauded his move as a meaningful step towards criminal justice reform.

“A couple points slash concerns to bring up. I think one thing that’s missing in this conversation,” the young man asked Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit.”Trump appointed a new pardon czar. And it’s a Black woman, a real Black. And so I bring that up to bring up the point that the Republicans are kind of moving in on what is traditionally like a progressive concept, right? You know, giving people back there for very different reasons though, right? He’s trying to take care of the people that take care of him, whereas I don’t see very strong Democrat messaging on this point at all.”

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His comment led to a tense moment when a man tried to take the microphone from him, and the audience visibly disapproved. Trump recently announced he’s appointing Johnson as pardon czar. During his first term, he granted her a full pardon for her non-violent drug offense, after she spent 22 years in prison. 

The video also captured Dingell hinting at tactics to go against Trump. This, amid discussions meant to rally the Democratic base against Trump’s influence and strategize for upcoming elections.

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“We need to make sure it’s in every one of those damn conservative, wherever they’re communicating, and we have to be the voices that are smart, targeted and effective, and fighting back. And the way we do it. We litigate. We legislate. We only need three votes, three Republican votes. I don’t know that we can ever get the person that’s closest to us, but he is chair of Ed and Labor, but we need to be targeting someone that may want to run for governor,” Dingell said.

Dingell’s plan involves not only traditional legislative efforts, but also legal battles and public education campaigns designed to shift public opinion.

“I’m not gonna give you names so I can’t get in total trouble but take your brain one little bit. We need to be targeting all that. Then we need to be educating, that’s raising the stories, that’s telling people what is happening. We’ve got to be advocating, and we gotta be communicating. So that’s the five-prong strategy, litigate, legislate, educate, advocate, communicate,” Dingell said. “I wish I could be more cheerful, but there’s a lot of work, and we gotta keep that energy up. I could do a couple. I’ll do a couple. I’ll speed to Bloomfield Hills [near Detroit].”

After speaking, Dingell muttered, “I hope nobody taped that.”

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

WATCH:

Watch the latest video at foxnews.com

Numerous leftists have been caught keying Tesla cars and Cybertrucks amid nonstop media attacks against Elon Musk.

However, some of the attacks against Tesla owners have become violent.

A 61-year-old woman driving a Tesla was boxed in by a male driver and beaten by him while she was sitting in her car.

The violent attack took place in Flagstaff, Arizona, last week.

The victim, who wished to remain anonymous and was referred to as “Susan,” told AZ Family that she was appalled when a motorist chased her, boxed her in and began beating her through an open car window.

“I’m just appalled,” Susan told AZ Family. “I didn’t buy my car for a political statement. I bought my car because its really fun to drive. My politics have nothing to do with that. I’m ashamed of our society and what they are doing.

Susan said she bit the attacker’s hand as he repeatedly punched her with a closed fist.

The suspect was charged and is due in court this week.

Another woman told AZ Family that found a nasty note on her Tesla after she left a Flagstaff grocery store.

The note said she is a “Nazi” and a “loser.”

WATCH:

Last week Las Vegas police arrested Paul Kim, 36, related to his “targeted attack” on a Tesla center.

Per Fox News reporter Bill Melugin: Las Vegas Metro Police say a search of Tesla firebombing suspect Paul Kim’s social media shows him with potential communist & pro-Palestine affiliations. They say they have a DNA match and showed video of him using a rifle to shoot out surveillance cameras before attack.

NEW: Las Vegas Metro Police say a search of Tesla firebombing suspect Paul Kim’s social media shows him with potential communist & pro-Palestine affiliations. They say they have a DNA match and showed video of him using a rifle to shoot out surveillance cameras before attack. pic.twitter.com/RykYhLzXEQ

— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) March 27, 2025

According to police, Paul Kim used Molotov cocktails and firearms during his attack on the Tesla center last Tuesday morning.

Kim was charged with third-degree arson, shooting a gun into an abandoned structure/vehicle, destruction of real property, and possession of a flammable device.

Tesla owners have taken to social media asking for help from the public identifying vandals caught on their vehicle’s camera system.

EXCLUSIVE: Cops are looking for an unhinged Karen in Issaquah, WA after she was caught on camera keying a Tesla Model Y. I’ve slowed down parts of this video to help identify this woman. @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/FxZ2PJude9

— Jonathan Choe (@choeshow) March 23, 2025

This article originally appeared on The Gateway Pundit.com.