DV Journal

An emotional U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean told a packed crowd at the Montco Cultural Center in Blue Bell they are right to worry that President Donald Trump may impose martial law and said she is personally afraid she could be “disappeared” by the administration.

The seven-term Democrat wiped away tears as she took the stage Thursday night to address more than 500 people at the town hall event, where questions centered around an alleged threat to U.S. democracy posed by Trump. Dean said Trump’s actions “are worthy of impeachment.”

Dean said it was her “solemn honor” to be an impeachment manager at Trump’s second impeachment. And if Democrats retake the House next year, another impeachment could be in store. “He is certainly guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors,” Dean said.

Dean wasn’t the only emotional participant in the town hall. More than one questioner appeared to border on the hysterical, suggesting Trump was preparing to declare himself a dictator.

“People text me in a panic: ‘Is it possible he’s going to declare martial law and avoid another election, cancel an election?’ I didn’t used to be like this. He will do anything. Of course, he will,” Dean said. “Will he try to run for a third term and stay in office? Of course he will.”

Asked about illegal immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was recently sent to an El Salvador prison by the Trump administration, Dean said what happened to the alleged MS-13 gang member could happen to any American citizen.

“That man was disappeared from his child. In front of his child, he was disappeared,” Dean said of Abrego Garcia. “You saw the way they treated those men. Without humanity. Shaving their heads. Making them look like they are less than human. Disappearing them.”

“It makes me so damn mad,” Dean added. “Any one of us can be disappeared. My son has a lot of tattoos. One of them is a crown. He might be disappeared. I have a tattoo. My son and I could be disappeared. You just don’t know who might judge you with extraordinary powers and disappear you,” Dean told the crowd.

Dean went out of her way to praise U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) for going to El Salvador to meet with Garcia, and she promised to visit the detained man herself.

“I’m so damn proud of Van Hollen. And we members of the House will go. We’ve asked for a trip,” Dean said, though she acknowledged House leadership would not approve an official congressional delegation trip funded by taxpayers.

“We’re just going to go on our own.”

Dean has been a staunch opponent of increased immigration enforcement, voting against withholding federal funds from sanctuary cities and against the Laken Riley Act, which requires any illegal immigrant who commits burglary, larceny, shoplifting, or theft to be detained.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem says Garcia is a “violent criminal illegal alien” who belongs behind bars and off American soil.”

“This was just one of those examples of an individual that is a MS-13 gang member, multiple charges and encounters with the individuals here, trafficking in his background, was found with other MS-13 gang members—very dangerous person, and what the liberal left and fake news are doing to turn him into a media darling is sickening,” Noem said.

Homeland Security also alleges Garcia was arrested with drugs and rolls of cash with two other MS-13 members. Previously, two judges found he was a member of that gang, and DHS reports show he was involved in human trafficking. Also, his wife had obtained a protection-from-abuse order against him. She claimed he punched her, scratched her, and ripped off her shirt, and bruised her.

His wife is now retracting those claims, saying she had previously been in an abusive relation and requested the protection order “out of caution.”

Asked what the Democrats’ plan is to stop Trump, Dean said her party had limited tools to do so. The responsibility is with the voters.

“I will start by saying elections have consequences. This man got elected twice. I do not know how it happened. I did everything — this is not a political event, we know that — but I did everything in my power to lift up a candidate I thought would be more worthy,” Dean said.

“I was not successful in that.”

History has repeated with Donald Trump’s journey back to the White House, trumpeted by the widely embraced “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) slogan. However, another week of economic turmoil makes me wonder whether “greatness” is the target we should be seeking. Why not “Make America Happy Again”?

Seen constantly for the better part of a decade on the president’s signature red baseball caps —  as well as on bumper stickers, other merchandise and even the sides of barns — MAGA is more than just a slogan. It’s a globally recognized brand.

The words are mnemonic and adaptable. Upon being sworn into office in January, Trump promised to stop inflation and “Make America Affordable Again” — a winning political idea if ever there was one. He also pledged that steps would be taken to secure the borders and “Make America Safe Again.” Then, when Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was named Health and Human Services secretary, Trump promised to “Make America Healthy Again.”

Most recently, when imposing new tariffs on nations far and wide and calling it “Liberation Day,” the president said the action would “Make America Wealthy Again.” Those watching financial markets collapse undoubtedly thought otherwise, and the president partly (and possibly temporarily) backed down.

Given all this and for other good reasons, maybe this is the time to Make America Happy Again. Let’s add “MAHA” to the mix.

After all, “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” is what the Founding Fathers claimed as the nation’s national purpose. To be sure, feeling safe, happy and prosperous makes it easier. In some ways, the reverse might also be true, and achieving some degree of happiness might enable people to feel safe, healthy, and like their resources are adequate.

In other words, can a nation be great if its population is unhappy?

And that’s where the rub comes in. In the most recent 2025 World Happiness Report, America dropped to 24th among the 147 nations listed, our lowest ranking ever and far below an 11th-place finish in 2012.

And where were people, by their own reckoning, happiest? Following top-ranked Finland were Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Costa Rica, Norway, Israel, Luxembourg and Mexico.

Specifically, the ranking is based on responses to this question: “Please imagine a ladder with steps numbered from 0 at the bottom to 10 at the top. The top of the ladder represents the best possible life for you and the bottom of the ladder represents the worst possible life for you. On which step of the ladder would you say you personally feel you stand at this time?”

A quick glance at the top countries suggests what one would expect: that higher income yields greater happiness, though not systematically. Deeper research indicates that if America entered a golden age, as Trump promised, happiness would increase for most people. However, as two Princeton University researchers have shown, a persistent share of miserable people would not get happier no matter how much their incomes increased. (I think most of us recognize this.)

Of course, some deep problems must be resolved if America is to become happy again. “Death of despair” — drug overdose, alcoholism and suicide — is now the leading cause of death for people in the 1-to-44 age bracket. According to the Trust for America’s Health, “between 2002 and 2022, the combined rate of deaths due to alcohol, drugs and suicide has increased by 142 percent, from 74,003 deaths in 2002 to 207,827 deaths in 2022.” A significant upward acceleration started with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Happiness is an elusive thing, but it’s still a fundamentally worthy goal for a nation to pursue. Trump seems to believe there is too much despair in America and that security, prosperity and health are essential remedies. In these early months of his new administration, the chessmen are just beginning to be arranged on the playing board, so to speak.

Every time the pieces are nearly set up, some key Trump player, or Trump himself, turns the board over. Uncertainty, as measured by the weekly Economic Policy Uncertainty index, is approaching an all-time high, and consumer confidence is headed south.

It remains to be seen whether Trump’s results will Make America Happy Again.  Ultimately, it’s up to us to find our own happiness. Some of the president’s proposals could help — as would less economic upheaval.

For an alternative viewpoint, see “Counterpoint: Conventional Wisdom Behind Birthright Citizenship Is Flat Error”

On his first day in office, President Trump issued an executive order aimed at ending automatic citizenship — known as “birthright citizenship” — for children born in the United States to two non-citizen parents. His argument rests on interpreting the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof,” found in the 14th Amendment, which codified birthright citizenship into the Constitution. Trump claims that non-citizens, both legal immigrants and undocumented immigrants, are not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States. Therefore their children are not entitled to automatic citizenship.

It’s clear that Trump has little regard for America’s extraordinary ability to welcome newcomers and transform them into fully equal citizens. It’s just as clear that he can’t nullify a constitutional right with the stroke of a pen.

The president’s interpretation has been tested by the Supreme Court and found invalid. In United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898), the court ruled that a child born to Chinese immigrants was a U.S. citizen by birth, even though his parents were not eligible for citizenship. The court affirmed that “every person born in the United States … needs no naturalization.” In the 1980s, the court reaffirmed this principle in Plyler v. Doe and INS v. Rios-Pineda.

The Supreme Court has specifically clarified what “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” means. Today, it refers to diplomats and their children, who are not subject to U.S. law because of diplomatic immunity. Diplomats generally cannot be arrested, charged or imprisoned. They are, by law, outside U.S. jurisdiction.

If the president has a different interpretation of the 14th Amendment, his administration regularly contradicts it with its actions. The president has increased law enforcement actions against legal immigrants on visas and illegal immigrants, sending them to jail, deporting them, and even, in some cases, airlifting them to foreign prisons for detention.

Trump’s actions demonstrate, repeatedly, that he thinks people in America on visas and illegal immigrants are subject to the legal jurisdiction of the United States. If this is the case, these same immigrants and their children are covered by the 14th Amendment.

Critics of birthright citizenship will argue that it encourages illegal migration to gain citizenship for unborn children and birth tourism. However, there’s little evidence of either. Births to undocumented mothers have declined since 2009. And undocumented parents gain no immediate benefit from having a child here — citizen children can’t sponsor a parent until age 21. As for birth tourism, it’s rare: the Niskanen Center estimates fewer than 2,000 such births a year. Border officials already have the authority to deny entry to women suspected of coming to the United States for this purpose.

More fundamentally, birthright citizenship should remain because it embodies our national ideals. America is a nation of immigrants, founded on the premise that American identity is rooted in shared values that anybody can live by — not by immutable traits such as race or ethnicity. The 14th Amendment was adopted to enshrine that principle permanently rather than leave it vulnerable to the shifting whims of politicians. Punishing children for their parents’ status or creating two classes of birth contradicts the Declaration of Independence’s assertion that “all men (sic) are created equal.”

What Trump proposes — confining citizenship primarily to those with a citizen parent — is rooted in jus sanguinis, or “right of blood,” a European concept America explicitly rejected at its founding. Instead, our full commitment to jus soli — “right of the soil” — ensures that we do not become a society stratified into citizens and non-citizens based on birthright. Immigrant families invest more in our country when they know their children will be treated as equals. Unlike many European countries that struggle to integrate newcomers, the United States has absorbed wave after wave of immigrants with relative success because they are fully American by the second generation.

Birthright citizenship represents the best of America: a clear, principled rule that has served us well for over 150 years. It cannot be easily changed, nor should it be, because it defines who we are: a nation where everyone is given a chance to belong and succeed from the very start.

The expiration of key provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) at the end of 2025 presents an opportunity for Congress to foster continued economic growth and protect families from higher taxes. If lawmakers fail to extend these provisions, 62 percent of filers will see a tax increase. 

A failure to extend the TCJA’s provisions will also reverse essential tax cuts for small businesses. It will also lead to a more complex tax code for families. Permanently extending these provisions should be a priority for lawmakers.

The TCJA was a landmark piece of tax reform policy. It lowered rates while broadening the tax base and resulting in a more efficient and equitable tax code. By simplifying the tax code for individual filers, the TCJA made it easier for families to navigate their taxes while reducing their tax burden. Some such provisions include lowering marginal tax rates, creating limitations on itemized deductions, and expanding the standardized deduction.

Each of these provisions simplified the tax code for individual filers. These tax cuts directly increased disposable income, increasing investment and economic stimulus. Should these provisions expire in 2025, the reduced marginal tax rates would be changed to higher pre-TCJA levels.

Additionally, the TCJA fostered a 4.7 percent increase in corporate investment, a significant achievement. This is due to the TCJA lowering the corporate income tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent. This had the dual effect of making corporations more competitive globally and allowing them more liquid assets to invest in the economy. As policymakers create and analyze new tax legislation, they should continue to prioritize opportunities for corporate investment and encourage consumer participation.

The TCJA enhanced competitiveness among all businesses, specifically small businesses. One provision that helped small businesses thrive is the 20 percent business deduction or 199A deduction for pass-through entities (businesses where profits flow through individual owners for taxation). Small-business owners would face significant tax increases without this tax code deduction. More than 33 million businesses are organized as pass-throughs, meaning a crucial part of the economy would be negatively affected.

Extending the 199A provision would allow small businesses to continue to invest in expansion, innovation, research and development. This is critical in an environment of high inflation. Additionally, the 199A deduction gives these pass-through businesses a greater ability to compete with larger corporations. Smaller businesses would lose their advantage if the 199A deduction is not extended, as larger corporations would still operate with the 21 percent rate.

Another key provision set to expire in 2025 that benefits businesses and families is the state-and-local tax (SALT) deduction cap. The TCJA limited the deduction to $10,000 for individuals and pass-through businesses. The SALT deduction allows taxpayers to deduct state and local taxes from their federal returns. Thus, this part of the tax code is a subsidy for high-tax governments nationwide, with the rest of the nation taking the hit. Beyond retaining the cap, lawmakers should continue to investigate lowering the cap for individuals and businesses beyond $10,000 or zeroing out the deduction altogether.

Maintaining the changes to the alternative minimum tax is crucial for taxpayers. The AMT system is complex and requires taxpayers to calculate their liability under two tax systems and pay the greater of the two. The TCJA helped expand exemptions from this system. Allowing these AMT exemptions to expire would create significant burdens for taxpayers and open the door for litigious auditors at the IRS to seize on the confusion.

Lawmakers have an opportunity to build on the successes of the TCJA and make these tax cuts permanent. Keeping the tax code stable is a foundational element in tax reform. Stability is vital to those who depend on a simple tax code when making economic decisions. Permanently extending pro-business and pro-worker provisions from the 2017 law will ensure the years ahead will be marked by financial stability and vibrancy.

The accomplishments in President Donald Trump’s first few weeks of his second term read like a checklist of his promises from the campaign trail – especially when it comes to eliminating government overreach and paring back the bloated federal bureaucracy that ballooned under the Biden administration.

The work of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), at the direction of the president, is key to restoring Americans’ faith in government. One agency’s actions – the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) – were of particular concern to me under control Democratic control given the targeting of American taxpayers. With President Trump in power, a lingering Biden era regulation and investigation unit deserves a closer examination from DOGE.

What was once an unbiased institution for tax collection was utilized as a tool by the Biden administration and career liberal staff to unfairly audit middle-income filers. As an example, in 2023, 63 percent of new audits were aimed at taxpayers with an annual income of less than $200,000.

Job creating business owners were another target of the previous administration especially in the waning days of its power. The IRS modified the tax rules governing business partnerships despite having no legal authority to do so without approval from Congress. By altering how the IRS views commonplace and lawful basis shifting transactions used by partnerships, businesses are now subject to burdensome and duplicative reporting requirements, penalties, and increased audit scrutiny.

On top of onerous and duplicative reporting, the Biden IRS established a special investigations unit staffed by career IRS lawyers tasked with scrutinizing business partnerships, further straining these entities which drive economic growth in our country. This is not just an issue for businesses in Pennsylvania; the impact, if this regulation and investigations unit remain in place, will be felt across the entire nation.

Karen Kerrigan, CEO of the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council (SBE Council) said it best, “…local economies, jobs, and U.S. competitiveness are at risk. The fallout goes further as these costs will be passed down to consumers, which is certainly not needed right now given volatile inflation and high prices for consumer goods and services.”

What makes this action more concerning is its unconstitutionality. The legal authority for the IRS to establish a regulatory unit of this magnitude was never granted by Congress, making the creation of this unit a dangerous overreach of executive power. Rather than focusing on excessive regulation, the IRS should prioritize more pressing issues such as addressing the massive backlog of tax refunds, modernizing their systems, and implementing cybersecurity measures to protect taxpayer information.

During my time as Chester County Register of Wills, I prioritized bringing technological advancements to our office and finding ways to increase efficiencies and reduce costs for our local government. These are the types of goals our federal agencies should be aiming for on behalf of American taxpayers across all levels of government, not burdening the individuals and organizations focused on spurring economic growth to Make America Great Again.

Americans deserve a responsive government that acts in their best interest, and the IRS should be committed to fulfilling its fundamental mission of providing efficient services and support for taxpayers. Voters sent a strong message in November by electing leaders who are committed to reining in government excess, streamlining operations, and ensuring taxpayer dollars are spent responsibly.

Pennsylvanians are fortunate to have leaders fighting on our behalf like Rep. Lloyd Smucker.  Smucker (R-Lancaster) was an outspoken critic of Biden’s poorly run IRS sharing that he constantly heard “from constituents across Pennsylvania’s 11th District, that the IRS is failing in its customer service mission. An effective government is a responsive government.

The IRS needs to make significant efforts to improve its responsiveness to its customers—the American taxpayer.” Leaders like Rep. Smucker must continue to fight for the interests of their constituents, pushing back against overregulation and ensuring policies that foster economic growth and protect taxpayers.

To get this done, they must work alongside pro-business leaders like President Trump to ensure a future where American businesses can thrive and not be hamstrung by bureaucratic red tape. Rescinding this unlawful rule targeting business partnerships and eliminating the investigation unit should be a top priority for President Trump and DOGE.

After a four-year absence, Andrew Jackson is back in the Oval Office.

Not the actual Jackson, of course. After all, the iconic office didn’t exist when he lived in the White House. Instead, his likeness has returned.

President Trump makes no secret of his admiration of Old Hickory. Jackson’s portrait hung there during Trump’s first presidency (a loaner from the U.S. Naval Academy). President Joe Biden replaced it with a painting of Ben Franklin when he moved in. Jackson was restored along with Trump 2.0 in January, though it’s a different image.

Something else is different from 2017 as well. Because President No. 45 and  No. 47 now shares something in common with President  No. 7 that he didn’t during his first term.

Would-be assassins marked both men for death.

The bullet that grazed Trump’s ear while he was speaking in Pennsylvania last July came dangerously close to robbing him of his political comeback. And his life. Few people remember that Andrew Jackson almost became America’s first assassinated president. And it was a very close call.

It happened on January 30, 1835. A funeral for a South Carolina congressman had just wrapped up inside the U.S. Capitol, and Jackson was walking out of the East Portico.

Suddenly, an unemployed painter named Richard Lawrence approached. He pulled a derringer pistol out of his pocket and fired at point-blank range. The percussion cap didn’t ignite, meaning the gun didn’t fire.

How did Jackson respond? By bellowing, “Let me alone!” and lunging at his assailant. Lawrence produced a second derringer and pulled the trigger. It also didn’t fire.

The 67-year-old Jackson delivered his own brand of justice by whacking the daylights out of Lawrence with his hardwood walking stick. Suddenly, the attacker was in danger of becoming the victim.

Lawrence was spared when a naval officer, joined by Congressman Davy Crockett (of Disney’s later “King of the Wild Frontier” fame), intervened. Jackson was hustled into his carriage and rushed to the White House.

He had just survived the first known assassination attempt on a sitting president. Jackson talked about it endlessly at a party that night, blaming his political rivals for trying to eliminate him. But no traces of a conspiracy ever turned up.

That’s because Lawrence was as crazy as the proverbial bedbug. During his trial that April (where he was defended by Francis Scott Key, the author of “The Star-Spangled Banner”), he told jurors they had no right to pass judgment on him. Privately, he claimed Jackson had killed his father. He also said he was English King Richard III and was entitled to payments from his American colonies, which Jackson had somehow denied him.

No surprise then that Lawrence was found to be insane. He spent the next 26 years in a mental institution, dying there in 1861.

And what about the derringers? Why didn’t they fire? Nobody knows. Both guns were later tested and worked perfectly, their bullets hitting a target 30 feet away. Experts rated the odds of both pistols not firing at 1 in 125,000.

Andrew Jackson had, figuratively, dodged two bullets.

He completed the final two years of his presidency and returned to his plantation outside Nashville, Tennessee. He died there eight years later at the then-ripe old age of 78.

At the time of his death, Jackson was precisely what he had been throughout his life and remains 180 years later: a highly controversial and divisive figure. And very nearly the first in the tragically long line of presidents gunned down, too. Proving yet again the truth in Harry Truman’s observation, “The only new thing in life is the history you don’t know.”

For an alternate viewpoint, see “Point: A Case for Mandatory National Service.”

There could not be a worse time to implement a required national service for young people.

In a nation that has turned individual freedom into a fetish, such an idea would always be a hard sell. Now, with an autocratic president and his sidekick car salesman slashing federal jobs, it would be a disaster.

Forced service would further sap strained military recruiting, which has struggled to meet targets since the draft ended a half-century ago.

Forced service would add costs to a federal budget that Donald Trump and Elon Musk claim, with typical exaggeration, is bloated. One advocate, New York City lawyer and Navy vet Steve Cohen, puts the annual cost at $132 billion, a price tag he acknowledges is “a lot of money.”

Forced service would further demoralize young people already hurt by high housing prices, stubborn inflation and the persistent pandemic hangover from lost schooling and painful isolation.

Worse still, a mandatory national service program would normalize the scattershot “reforms” Musk and his uninformed hatchet toadies are overseeing.

It’s easy to imagine how Musk would replace capable civil servants receiving solid pay and good benefits with low-paid, temporary newbies — and then boast about the short-term savings while ignoring the long-term costs.

This son of South African apartheid, who shrugs at his ludicrous mistakes like ending Ebola prevention and cutting cancer research, would be delighted to see young people doing the jobs now performed by inmates in orange prison suits. Picking up litter on highways and pulling weeds in forests — now there’s a future for young people searching for hope.

Musk, however, would not be the sorriest figure to launch a mandatory service program. That luminary would be Trump.

To have even a ghost of a chance, a national call for service, whether voluntary or forced, requires a leader who inspires in both word and deed.

It requires an FDR suffering in silence from polio and using fireside radio chats to chart an escape from the Great Depression, a visionary who gave desperate men and women real jobs in his Civilian Conservation Corps.

It requires JFK to urge Americans to “ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country,” a dynamic idealist dispatching young people around the globe in Peace Corps crews demonstrating an alternative to war.

It requires LBJ to start a VISTA program to combat poverty at home, war hero George H. W. Bush to promote “a thousand points of light,” Bill Clinton to urge his AmeriCorps members to teach in underfunded schools.

Instead, we have Donald J. Trump, who, even before sitting in the Oval Office, told twisted tales of American carnage and painted dark, fantastical portraits of foreign rapists pouring into our country.

This is a man who scorned the “losers” and “suckers” buried at France’s Aisne-Marne cemetery as he toured the gravesites of World War I fallen.

This is a man who declined to praise as a hero John McCain, the late senator and admiral’s son who endured years of torture as a Vietnam War POW while refusing release earlier than those captured before him.

Trump is a man who procured a suspect diagnosis of bone spurs — fake news! — to avoid serving in the same war.

A man who puts self-aggrandizement, whether monetary or via phony mythology, above the most basic notion of patriotism — a president who, in his first term, profited from visiting dignitaries staying at his Washington hotel.

A man who routinely breaks promises, from Mexico paying for the wall to ending inflation on day one and putting a fair end to the Ukraine war.

Imagine that man trying to inspire young people with an exalted notion of public service.

Trump fancies himself a great salesman, but his effort to pitch a new national program would only fail.

Young people would see through the Trumpian ruse. There would be no art in that kind of a deal, only trickery and betrayal.

President Donald Trump may be coming to Philadelphia on Saturday to attend the men’s NCAA wrestling championships, but he’s getting a WWE-style “Nature Boy” Ric Flair welcome from enthusiastic local Republicans.

“I hope President Trump enjoys his time in Philadelphia and in the commonwealth that put him back into the White House!” said Bucks County Republican Chair Pat Poprik.

It is Trump’s first Delaware Valley visit since retaking the White House. He’ll be joined at the NCAA match by freshman U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick, who wrestled in high school and at West Point.

“I’m thrilled to be in Philadelphia this weekend with President Trump for the NCAA Wrestling Championship at the Wells Fargo Center,” said McCormick. “I grew up wrestling in small towns across Pennsylvania and at West Point. Wrestling taught me grit, resilience, hard work. It’s full circle for me watching collegiate athletes compete on the mat, and I’m excited to see the incredible Penn State team hopefully bring home another championship.

During a campaign stop in Montgomery County last year, McCormick credited the lessons he learned from wrestling as helping him hang tough.

“I wrestled in college. If I got into the third period within a point or two, I always knew I’d win because the third period in wrestling is not about wrestling. It’s about mental toughness. It’s about heart. It’s about staying on offense every single second. That’s what I’m going to do in the next six days,” McCormick said shortly before the election.

Trump has his own, slightly less athletic, connections to the sport. The only WWE Hall of Fame inductee ever elected president of the United States, Trump had an infamous ringside encounter with the organization’s CEO Vince McMahon, who Trump took out with a body blow.

But there are no hard feelings: McMahon’s wife Linda is Trump’s Secretary of Education.

Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) are also expected to join Trump at the NCAA wrestling championship. Mullin, a member of the Cherokee Nation, is a former undefeated Mixed Martial Arts fighter in the Oklahoma Wrestling Hall of Fame. Jordan was a champion wrestler in high school and a two-time NCAA wrestling champion in college.

With Trump returning to the state, DVJournal asked local Republicans how they think the president is doing in his early days back in office and if they have any advice.

“I think he’s doing an excellent job,” said Poprik. “It is refreshing to have a commander in chief who is visible and working around the clock. His accomplishments in just two months are incredible. He’s been delivering on his promises to the American people and we’re all excited to see what he has in store for these next four years.”

“Just some eight weeks into his new term, President Trump is acting on his campaign promises, and in order to achieve them he is upending some long-standing institutions,” said Frank Agovino, Delaware County GOP chairman. “Ultimately, the president understands the government is too big and our national debt jeopardizes our standing as a global leader. As a local party leader, I’m concerned that swing voters who came our way in November 24 may not be there for us in ’25. It remains to be seen, but patience is needed most now–but isn’t always apparent in politics.”

Guy Ciarrocchi, a Republican pundit and former congressional candidate, joked, “With President Trump coming back to Philly to watch wrestling at Wells Fargo, he ought to keep an eye out for weird Tim Walz showing up in wrestling tights after his remarks this week.”

“It’s good that Trump continues to go to events that we all go to—as fans. Things that bring us together,” said Ciarrocchi. “My message (to Trump) is: Push-on. Biden and the Dems in Congress ruined a lot, from the border to our economy to our safety. Fixing it will take time, persistence and courage. Fight on!”

Following the contentious Oval Office meeting between President Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance, and Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelenskyy on Friday, Gov. Josh Shapiro quickly jumped into the fray, issuing a statement blaming the president and vice president for the dispute while offering his own “tough talk” against Russia.

In this hasty yet hollow response, Shapiro once again proves he is quick to speak but absent when it is time to take real action. If Shapiro truly cared about the safety and security of America and standing with our European allies, he would act now by supporting the development of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility in Southeast Pennsylvania. It could easily be done and there are private investors at the ready, but there is one obstacle: Pennsylvania State Government.

The war in Ukraine made painfully clear the consequences of Europe’s dependency on Russian natural gas for its energy. Four years later, the European Union is still paying the price, while Russia continues funding its war efforts from its sizable energy exports. Oil and natural gas exports make up anywhere between 30-50 percent of Russia’s yearly federal budget revenues, making it their largest single revenue source by far.

If you want to defund the Kremlin’s war machine, it begins with replacing Russian energy with U.S. energy exports. With its strategic location and sizable natural gas reserves, Pennsylvania is uniquely positioned to support our European allies by meeting their LNG needs more efficiently. Exports from the Philadelphia region can reach Europe at least a week faster than those from Texas, Louisiana, and other Gulf Coast states, providing a critical advantage in energy security and supply stability. All while providing an economic boom to the Philadelphia region by supporting nearly 32,000 jobs, $2.7 billion in labor wages, and $4.3 billion in gross state product.

Turning an LNG export facility into reality requires more than just words from Gov. Shapiro—it demands real action. That means genuine support for expediting state permitting processes to accelerate development, while also ensuring that industry-killing energy taxes never take root in Pennsylvania.

Right now, The Shapiro Administration is appealing a Commonwealth Court decision to keep in place an unconstitutional $800 million energy tax scheme, known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), while simultaneously pitching his own, new, energy tax proposal known as the PACER program.

Carbon taxes stifle economic growth and signal to industries and energy producers that they’re better off doing business elsewhere. Gov. Shapiro has the power to withdraw the RGGI appeal, put an end to any new energy taxes in Pennsylvania, and make our commonwealth a global energy leader.

Pennsylvania has lost other major projects to competitor states because it simply takes too long for shovels to touch dirt because of excessive regulations—all of which are enforced by the Governor’s office. Investors look to other locations because no matter how many times he says, “government should move at the speed of business,” it doesn’t.

Gov. Shapiro says he wants to support the “safety and security of America and our national security interests.” Instead, he is the face of an unpredictable regulatory environment, overly burdensome state permitting processes, and the looming threat of $800 million in energy taxes—casting a dark cloud over Pennsylvania’s future and leaving our European allies out in the cold.

True leadership demands action, not empty rhetoric.

Unless Gov. Shapiro backs his words with decisive action, his statement, like so many before, remains nothing more than political showmanship—the worst kind of hypocrisy. Pennsylvania’s energy producers are ready to unleash the full potential of Pennsylvania natural gas to support our European allies and make the world a safer place. If what he really wants is to “not cower to dangerous dictators like Vladimir Putin”, then build a needed LNG terminal in Southeast Pennsylvania, load up the ships on the Delaware River, and send them across the Atlantic. He could make it happen, if he actually wanted to.

President Donald Trump’s whirlwind of “swift and unrelenting” action during his first 90 days in office appears to have congressional Democrats flummoxed.

During Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress Tuesday, some Democrats silently held up protest signs, a few — including Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon — made a scene of walking out in the middle, and cane-waving Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) was expelled when he refused repeated warnings to stop disrupting the event.

And Democrats made the decision not to stand up or applaud for the special guests Trump acknowledged in his remarks. That included a 13-year-old cancer survivor who was made an honorary Secret Service agent, the mother of Laken Riley who was murdered by an illegal immigrant, and Payton McNabb, a young woman who was seriously injured while playing volleyball against a biological male on the opposing women’s team.

“House and Senate Democratic leaders didn’t join the escort committee for the president. Dems turned their back on him when he entered the chamber and didn’t shake his hand,” reported CNN’s Manu Raju. “They didn’t applaud virtually anything. Several walked out in the middle of the speech.”

The refusal of Democrats to join them left many on both sides of the aisle in shock.

“The behavior of Democrats last night was completely disgraceful and demonstrated how severely out of touch they are with the American public. It was the most shameful moment in the history of presidential addresses in that beautiful chamber,” said White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt Wednesday morning.

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) took his party to task in a post on X/Twitter.

“A sad cavalcade of self-ownership and unhinged petulance. It only makes Trump look more presidential and restrained. We’re becoming the metaphorical car alarms that nobody pays attention to—and it may not be the winning message,” Fetterman wrote.

He’s not the only Democrat denouncing his party’s behavior.

“I agree with him.  It feeds the narrative that the place is filled with unserious dopes,” said Democratic political consultant TJ Rooney.

Dan Turrentine, a longtime Democrat and co-host of the popular Morning Meeting on the 2Way platform said, “It was embarrassing to be a Democrat last night.”

“It was a disgrace that they would not show some humanity for the child, for the man who got into West Point, which is just an amazing accomplishment,” Turrentine said. Like many Democrats, the day after, he worries his party is veering farther from the views of average Americans.

“I think the bottom line is our leadership has no clothes,” Turrentine said. “We need to get our head screwed back on. Hopefully, last night was the bottom of the barrel, and we will start the march back.”

Asked about Fetterman’s criticism, Mark Nevins, a Democratic consultant, told DVJournal, “There was nothing substantive about last night. Not the president, not the cheering Republicans, not the booing Democrats. It was just swamp noise. In the real world outside of Washington, D.C., real people are getting hammered with the increased cost of just about everything and Trump’s agenda is going to make it all even worse. Unless we’re talking about that, we’re wasting time and energy.”

Muhlenberg College political science Professor Christopher Borick said, “I think Fetterman’s analysis has validity. Some of the actions by Democrats in attendance certainly didn’t help their standing. I think the best strategy in that particular setting would have been to remain silent and keep the focus on the president’s behaviors that included name-calling and belittling others in a setting where unification of the country is usually the focus. The Democrats may have played into Trump’s hands.”

Jeff Jubelirer, vice president of Bellevue Communications, agreed.

“The Democrats played into Trump’s hands,” he said. “There’s nothing more satisfying to him than a fight, and he got it. The problem was he had, and has, the bully pulpit, and he’s every bit the bully.

“It’s time to come up with a different approach,” said Jubelirer. “Bringing fired federal workers to the speech who, other than being a government employee, did nothing to deserve their fate? Better move, Democrats. Anyone with a heart can empathize with them…most importantly, the so-called ‘middle America’ folks who aren’t already completely burrowed inside the Trump GOP or Democratic camps. Their stories, as told in first person, are much more impactful than wearing pink, shouting out, or merely holding up signs in protest.”

“I respectfully disagree with Sen. Fetterman’s post,” said Chester County Democratic Chair Charlotte Valyo. “There are several ways to respond to President Trump’s speech, and we can disagree on the best method. But we would all agree that the sad spectacle we saw from the president and his Republican sycophants was more a MAGA rally speech, with all his whining and lying, and less like an honest discussion with the nation about where we are headed. The speech was disrespectful, divisive, and hate-filled. It was unworthy of a presidential speech.”

However, the American people liked the speech, according to some polls taken immediately afterward.

A CBS poll found 76 percent of Americans approved of the speech. And a CNN poll showed 69 percent of Americans had a positive reaction.

Rep. Dan Meuser (R-Pa.) said, “President Trump reaffirmed his commitment to the renewal of the American Dream and made clear that ‘Promises Made, Promises Kept’ is not just a slogan—it’s a reality.”

Freshman Sen. Dave McCormick (R-Pa.) said on X, “Honored to attend my first Joint Session Address by President Trump. His speech made clear he is making huge progress every day on delivering for Americans on securing the border, fixing the economy, and restoring U.S. dominance on the world stage.”