DV Journal

I’m just back from broadcasting at the White House to mark the Trump administration’s First 100 Days.

Dr. Marty Makary, the new head of the FDA, and Vani Hari, the Food Babe, were among our guests. They are important because, outside of issues like immigration, Americans are paying close attention to RFK Jr.’s push to make our food more healthful. Makary and Hari are key players for those plans. Both spoke extensively about the progress made in removing harmful dyes from our food and taking on Big Pharma. They illustrate Trump’s big tent, since he is a huge fast-food fan.

I also talked with Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer about Trump’s gains with union workers and working-class Americans. Trump’s proposals, like removing taxes on tips and overtime, resonate tremendously with this part of the Trump coalition.

When Tom Homan, the Trump Border Czar who has slowed illegal immigration from a stream to a trickle, entered my broadcast room, he was swarmed by grateful talk radio hosts. Homan has been relentless and achieved remarkable success in deporting thousands of criminals here illegally. He has also provoked the opposition to his enforcement of our immigration laws into possibly criminal actions.

During this past week, we saw a New Mexico judge (who hastily resigned) and his wife arrested for allegedly harboring a Venezuelan drug gang member. A Wisconsin judge was charged after she allegedly attempted to sneak an illegal immigrant who was charged with beating a woman out the back door of her courtroom to evade ICE agents.

Without a doubt, Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration has been his most successful policy. It has also been successful politically. Check out how Democrats have started to retreat from defending Kilmer Abrego Garcia, the illegal immigrant from El Salvador who they constantly referred to as a Maryland man. His baggage included deep connections with or membership with the notorious MS-13 gang, and his wife asking for protective orders against him.

As Americans learned about his background, the Democrats dropped Garcia as their poster boy for what they claim are Trump’s abuses of due process for people here illegally.

One area where President Trump is still facing challenges is with the progressive and unfair media narrative that he is not to be recognized like other presidents.

That narrative falsely claims that he is a budding Hitler or, at least, an authoritarian figure who should be isolated and shunned. Is this why Philadelphia Eagles Quarterback Jalen Hurts, wide receivers A.J. Brown and Devonta Smith, the retiring Brandon Graham, and multiple other Eagles claimed, “scheduling conflicts,’ skipping Trump’s White House celebration for their dominant Super Bowl win?

Is this why The Philadelphia Inquirer could run a column headlined “Will Saquon Barkley, Philadelphian and Eagle, Survive Getting Cozy with Donald Trump?” This headline was in response to Barkley playing golf with Trump days before the White House visit. How could Barkley, who arguably carried the Eagles to the championship and is seen as a model person, be shunned in Philadelphia? Well, Inquirer columnist Marcus Hayes  wrote, “I scrolled on, knowing, inevitably, that Barkley’s choice to implicitly endorse and validate the person and presidency of a convicted felon whose overt associations with, and endorsements of, racism especially directed at Black people, could result in months, if not years, of Barkley being cast as the latest Kanye West or Mike Tyson or Antonio Brown …”

All this because Barkley played a round of golf with the president of the United States?  Trump didn’t even gain any points from The Inquirer for endorsing the Tush Push. I salute the Eagles’ ownership for going to the White House and Barkley for respecting the office.

God only knows what the next hundred days will bring.

When the Trump administration begins deporting illegal immigrants currently living in Pennsylvania, will Gov. Josh Shapiro step up and help, stand aside, or try to stop them?

Shapiro spokesman Manuel Bonder made it sound like the governor was ready to take on the Trump administration, telling Newsweek that Shapiro would “never back down from defending Pennsylvanians’ fundamental freedoms.”

“The Shapiro administration is preparing for all scenarios and taking steps to safeguard our commonwealth from potential federal actions that could be harmful to Pennsylvania families and communities,” Bonder added.

But when DVJournal followed up with Bonder about whether Shapiro was going to join Democrats like Denver Mayor Mike Johnston or Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey and try to hinder Trump’s deportation plans, he appeared to walk back his bold talk. Bonder pointed DVJournal to a statement Shapiro made last month while visiting a York County business in which he said he would hold off deciding how to respond until he new more about the specifics of Trump’s plans.

“Let’s wait and see,” Shapiro said.

That’s a very different response from Democrats like Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D-Ill.) who have clearly announced their plans to resist Trump’s mass deportation efforts.

“I am going to do everything that I can to protect our undocumented immigrants. They are residents of our state,” Pritzker told MSNBC. “And I also, obviously, need to make sure that whatever (federal immigration agents) are doing in our state, that it is actually within federal law or state law for them to do it.”

Shapiro is sometimes labeled a moderate within the Democratic Party, though he largely embraces the progressive policies of the Biden-Harris administration. And he’s clearly not staking out a centrist position like New York City Democrat  Mayor Eric Adams, who has said he will work with President-elect Donald Trump to deport illegal immigrants who commit crimes.

Even Shapiro’s fellow Keystone State Democrat, U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, says it’s time for their party to support border security.

“Well, one area where we kind of lost ourselves was the border,” he told Fox News after the November election. “And I’ve been on this network saying, ‘Hey, you know, it can’t be controversial for our party to have pro-immigration, but we need a secure border.'”

Polls show a solid 57 percent of Americans support mass deportation of people in the U.S. illegally. And Gallup polling shows a huge swing in voters’ attitudes about immigration during the Biden presidency. In May 2020, slightly more Americans wanted to see increased vs. decreased immigration (34 to 28 percent).

By June of this year, support for increased immigration had plunged to 16 percent, while the number supporting decreased immigration soared to 55 percent — a 45 percent swing.

Reports of crimes by illegals, including apartment buildings taken over by Venezuelan gang members in Aurora, Colo., and brutal murders, including Laken Riley and Lizbeth Medina, have galvanized public opinion.

In the Delaware Valley, a jailbreak in Chester County by undocumented Brazilian and convicted murderer Danelo Cavalcante resulted in widespread outrage last year in the two weeks he was on the loose.

Other problems caused by the influx of undocumented immigrants include overcrowded schools and hospitals, deadly drugs, and some 300,000 missing migrant children.

Pennsylvania has an estimated 170,000 undocumented immigrants. Lancaster resident Kevin Lynn, executive director of the Institute for Sound Public Policy, believes the government can and should deport illegal immigrants. He said the 2,500 or so Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) agents could remove 2.4 million illegal immigrants a year.

“We have the capacity to do it,” said Lynn. “We have the personnel to do it. We’ll be able to remove all the people who have come here [illegally] in the last four years. Now people are screaming about the expense.”

But he noted, there is already the cost to the government of “putting them up at the Roosevelt Hotel (in New York), they don’t seem to care about that.” These undocumented immigrants also receive taxpayer paid cellphones, housing and food stamps.

The U.S. House Budge Committee found in May the cost of the open southern border was $150.7 billion and counting. Various religious and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) receive block grants from the federal government to resettle the immigrants, who are being relabeled “newcomers.”

“I think removing the grants and bringing back ‘public charge’ rules, where if you come here you have to demonstrate that you can get by without being on the government dime would go a long way. That’s easy enough to do,” Lynn said.

Many illegal immigrants can be “removed expeditiously. They don’t have to go in front of an immigration judge or anything like that,” said Lynn. “If there’s a mayor or a governor impeding that, as far as I’m concerned, they’re aiding and abetting a criminal.”

“Mass deportations are possible and they’re justified. We have to do that because we won’t have a country if we don’t,” said Lynn. “I’ve just sat by in absolute horror watching it happen.”