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TERMS OF USE | PRIVACY POLICY

Live

Glenn's Show Prep

Copy of Morning Brief 2022-06-07

June 08, 2022
Chris Brady

Top of Hour 2
GUEST: Alex Berenson
TOPIC: Discussing his lawsuit against Twitter for banning him for 'COVID misinformation.'

Top of Hour 3
GUEST: Brad Meltzer
TOPIC: Discussing his two newest books: 'I am Dolly Parton' & 'I am I.M. Pei'

CB, RR, JB, SK

Domestic News...

Biden's America: Germany airlifts baby formula to Texas
A plane carrying more than 110,000 pounds of specialty baby formula from Germany is expected to land in Fort Worth later this week.

From firebombing protesters to lying FBI agents, a two-tier justice system sharpens in focus
While holding firm in its promise to prosecute J6 offenders to the max, Biden's Justice Department made a curious move last week. It withdrew its own plea deal with two lawyers accused of using Molotov cocktails during George Floyd riots in NYC and allowed the defendants to plea to different charges that carried less prison time.

Proud Boys charged with ‘seditious conspiracy’ related to Capitol riot
Prosecutors said they had encouraged people to attend the "Stop the Steal" rally, obtained concealed tactical vests, protective equipment, and radio equipment, dressed “incognito”, lead the crowd onto Capitol grounds, stormed past barricades and “assaulting law enforcement officers.”

Adams calls NYC’s criminal justice system ‘laughingstock of our entire country’
Adams lashed out at prosecutors and judges Monday for cutting loose suspected shooters to unleash more gunfire on the Big Apple’s streets — saying the “bad guys no longer take them seriously.”

NY Gov restricts gun ownership to 21 and up, bars citizens from buying body armor, bulletproof vests
Unelected New York Governor Kathy Hochul also signed a law establishing a "task force on social media and violent extremism" which requires those suspected of "bias-related violence and intimidation" to be reported to authorities.

Pols ignore mass shootings we can do something about: gang violence
It doesn’t make any sense to strike a pose against gun violence in general without taking on this scourge in particular — unless striking the pose is the point.

New York Officials Fear Supreme Court Ruling Will Mean More Gun Crime
Across the city and state, authorities are bracing for a ruling, expected from the United States Supreme Court this month, which could strike down a century-old New York State law that places strict limits on the carrying of handguns.

Video shows man violently toss woman onto Bronx subway tracks
Newly released video captured the horrifying moment a man violently tossed a 52-year-old woman onto the subway tracks in the Bronx on Sunday.

Far-left Philly DA blames NRA for shooting
But the mayor says there is 'no price to pay for carrying illegal guns'

9 Big Things We Learned From The Michael Sussmann Prosecution
While we have learned much from the Sussmann prosecution, we still don’t know whether Durham intends to hold the Crossfire Hurricane team responsible.

Soros spent $40 million to elect 75 ‘social justice’ prosecutors: Report
Soros and his groups have helped to elect prosecutors in whose cities jailings have plummeted and crime has surged.

Babylon Bee: Emperor Palpatine Builds A Bigger, Even More Powerful Death Star Equipped With A 9mm
The Death Star's blast is now said to be so powerful it can blow the core out of a planet.

Politics...

Biden wants to get out more, seething that his standing is now worse than Trump’s
Frustrations are mounting and the window for a political revival is closing.

Radar Online: White House Refuses To Comment On Hunter Biden's Naked, Illegal Gun-Toting Pictures
According to Radar, the gun was illegally obtained as Hunter lied on an application about his past drug use. Making a false statement on a federal criminal background check, known as ATF Form 4473, is a violation of federal law under Section 922(a)(6) of the U.S. criminal code.

Definitely didn't slip his mind: Biden issues D-Day remembrance tweet hours after his bedtime
Biden issues D-Day remembrance tweet after skipping it his first year in office... late in the evening, as the day already passed in France.

Joe Biden on track to take more vacation days than most recent presidents
Biden is on track to take more vacation days than his recent predecessors and, if he continues at this pace, will spend more than 550 days on vacation.

Unrelated Movie Review: Weekend at Bernie's II
This time out, the inept trio pack themselves off to St. Thomas, in search of the $2 million Bernie embezzled.

Poll: Most Americans say Trump only somewhat to blame or not really to blame for Jan. 6
Only 45 percent of Americans say Trump was “solely” or “mainly” responsible for the rioting on Jan. 6, the new polls says, according to NBC News, adding that 55 percent say Trump was only somewhat responsible or not really responsible for the Capitol riots.

CNN Pollster Says Republicans Are In The 'Best Position' For Midterms In Over 80 Years
Enten collected public support for both parties at this point in the midterm cycle from 1938 to today and found Republicans are up by 2-points on the generic ballot. “It beats 2010 when Republicans were up a point...”

NY Times: Democrats Can Win This Fall if They Make One Key Promise
Polls show that roughly two in three Americans oppose overturning Roe and almost 60 percent support passing a bill to set Roe’s protections in a federal law. What’s more, polls showed a rising number of voters listing abortion as their top midterm issue.

California voters poised to decide primary races for governor, senator and 52 House seats
The most populous state in the nation has some competitive races to follow as well as some high-profile incumbents up for reelection.

Matthew McConaughey meets lawmakers as Capitol Hill talks guns
McConaughey expressed support for raising the minimum age to 21 nationwide to purchase so-called assault weapons, in particular AR-15s, and implementing a national red flag system. He also backs background checks and a national waiting period.

AOC calls out Dems who won’t say ‘Latinx’
Polling data indicates most Hispanics don’t use the term or virulently object to it.

Economy...

Gas Prices Have More Than Doubled Since Biden Took Office
According to AAA, the nationwide average for a gallon of regular fuel reached a new record of $4.87 on Monday, a 101 percent increase from the $2.42 when Biden was inaugurated in January 2021.

More states hit $5 a gallon gas prices
In total, more than one out of every five gas stations nationwide are now charging more than $5 a gallon for regular.

A record-high Social Security cost-of-living adjustment in 2023 may affect program’s depletion dates
The last time the federal agency announced a bigger annual bump was in 1981 when there was an 11.2% increase.

Housing wealth gains a record $1.2 trillion, but there are signs the market is cooling
In total, the nation’s so-called tappable equity stood at $11 trillion, or two times the previous peak in 2006.

Kim Dotcom Predicts ‘Great Economic Reset’, Is Crypto a Solution?
The internet entrepreneur and political activist took to Twitter with his predictions of economic collapse.

Punctuality Is Having a Moment
“Fashionably late” falls out of fashion after more than two years of remote work, when, for many people, there was no good reason to be tardy.

Border...

Up to 6K join new caravan through Mexico, call for Title 42 repeal
The caravan began its journey from Tapachula, less than 10 miles from Mexico’s border with Guatemala, a departure timed to coincide with the start of the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles.

WAR News...

Top EU diplomat blasts Putin for airstrike on massive grain terminal in Ukraine
"Another Russian missile strike contributing to the global food crisis. Russian forces have destroyed the second biggest grain terminal in Ukraine, in Mykolaiv," EU Rep Josep Borrell said on Monday.

Guerrilla attacks deep inside Russian-controlled Ukrainian territory signal a rising resistance to Russian occupation
The Kremlin-backed mayor of the Ukrainian town of Enerhodar was standing on his mother’s porch when a powerful blast struck, leaving him critically wounded.

MONKEYVID-2219...

Australia leads the way on New World Order
“It has been revealed Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has a data agency to monitor Victorians’ everyday activities, including social media sentiment and credit card transactions. It was set up as part of the government’s Covid response in August 2020.

Here We Go Again: Biden’s CDC Recommends Masks For Monkeypox
The CDC upgraded the monkeypox alert to level 2 on Monday, advising travelers to practice enhanced precautions, including wearing a mask.

82 million COVID-19 vaccine doses discarded in US: Report
Nearly 11% of distributed doses in the United States have reportedly gone to waste from December 2020 through mid-May.

Entertainment...

Paramount sued over ‘Top Gun’ copyright
The family of the author whose article inspired the original 1986 “Top Gun” is suing Paramount, stating that the studio failed to reacquire the rights to Ehud Yonay’s 1983 article, “Top Guns.”

Suit claiming Kevin Spacey sexually abused teen can move forward, judge rules
When Rapp was 14, Spacey allegedly “grazed” his buttocks and laid his body partially across him before the teen was able to “wriggle out” of Spacey’s grip.

Media...

NY Times: Violent Crime Is Up as Cities Lose Police Officers. What Now?
What happened in Uvalde is especially bad for the reputation of the police because it dispels the machismo and heroism that are so often trotted out when law enforcement does something wrong, including killing someone who is unarmed.

Democracy Dies At The Hands Of Taylor Lorenz And Every Other Bad Hire At The Washington Post
The Washington Post is doubling down on its lie-ridden articles and supporting problematic staff like disgraced doxxer Taylor Lorenz.

Washington Post suspends reporter without pay for retweeting joke
David Weigel had shared a tweet that said, "Every girl is bi. You just have to figure out if it's polar or sexual," after which, fellow reporter Felicia Sonmez said it was "fantastic to work at a news outlet where retweets like this are allowed."

Europe...

Boris Johnson Survives ‘No Confidence’ Vote
Johnson carried the vote 211-148 — a majority of 63 — despite needing only a simple majority to retain his office.

Middle East...

Israel’s Government Teeters Again, Losing Vote on Law that Supports West Bank Settlers
The vote’s failure — from defections within the governing bloc and a power move by usually pro-settler opposition lawmakers — could topple the government and throw a lifeline to former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

South America...

Colombia’s presidential race will decide if the country goes the way of Venezuela
“My political awakening came in the late 1960s when I saw my father cry over the death of Argentine revolutionary leader Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara,” recalls Gustavo Petro, former urban guerrilla and hard-left candidate who could become Colombia’s next president.

Environment...

Biden to invoke Defense Production Act for clean energy
The upcoming announcement said Biden would "take steps to provide U.S. solar deployers the short-term stability they need to build clean energy projects."

Biden Waives Solar Tariffs In Massive Win For Chinese Industry
The move came in response to complaints from the green energy industry and Democratic lawmakers that an active Commerce Department probe into Chinese companies’ tariff violations was slowing the admin’s clean energy goals.

I Rented an Electric Car for a Four-Day Road Trip. I Spent More Time Charging It Than I Did Sleeping.
Our writer drove from New Orleans to Chicago and back to test the feasibility of taking a road trip in an EV. She wouldn’t soon do it again.

LGBTQIA2S+...

The 100 Most Influential Queer Books of All-Time
Today, transphobia is rampant among the queer community, and there are still plenty of issues (biphobia, acephobia), histories, and experiences that the best-educated queer person needs to be willing to open themselves up to and learn more about.

Texas lawmaker to bring bill to BAN minors from drag shows
"The events of this past weekend were horrifying and show a disturbing trend in which perverted adults are obsessed with sexualizing young children."

I’m in a relationship with my 1998 Chevy Monte Carlo - and our sex life is so special
Nathaniel suffers from objectophilia, whereby individuals develop strong sexual or romantic feelings for a specific inanimate object. Some academics have theorized that the condition could be linked with autism.

Education...

WSJ: Biden’s decision on student loan forgiveness is likely to come in July or August
There’s no precedent for such a move.

Facebook Factcheckers Are Wrong: An Illinois School Is Changing Grading Based On Race
There is a very clear reason school administrators are implementing these changes, and it has everything to do with race.

Health...

Volcano burn survivor removes face mask for first time
Stephanie Browitt was one of 47 tourists exploring the volcano on Dec. 9, 2019, when it erupted, spewing gases, rock and ash. Twenty-two of the tourists were killed, including Browitt’s father and younger sister.

Technology...

Musk accuses Twitter of ‘resisting and thwarting’ his right to information on fake accounts
“Mr. Musk reserves all rights resulting therefrom, including his right not to consummate the transaction and his right to terminate the merger agreement”

Why Elon Musk and Bill Gates, two of the world’s richest men, can’t help but feud over Twitter
“Bill is an opinionated guy and so is Elon. So [the spat] doesn’t surprise me. But I don’t think Bill particularly likes it.”

Apple announces editable text messages
Apple also announced that it is bringing multiple notable updates to its Messages app. These include an edit button and the ability to unsend a message and mark threads as "unread."

Science...

Glenn's Tarot Card Reading For June 7, 2022
Aquarius - Life can be all rainbows and sunshine for you. You have so many things that you are optimistic about and ought to be for good reason. There's nothing you cannot accomplish.

NASA reveals new, next-gen spacesuits
“When we get to the Moon, we will have our first person of color and our first woman that will be wearers and users of these suits in space,” said Vanessa Wyche, director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

UFO spotted during the Queen's Jubilee celebration?
“Just watched the BigJetTV angle again, this goes WAY too fast to be a drone or balloon in the wind. I'm inclined to say this is a genuine [Unidentified Aerial Phenomena]."

UFO at the Miami Air and Sea Show?
In the clip, a jet plane is seen flying over a large crowd of people at the beach. Then something small seemingly emerges from the water, and shoots straight up at a great speed.

Sports...

First 'trans' cheerleader in NFL to make debut with Carolina Panthers
While NFL cheerleading squads had allowed men to join the roster starting in the late 90's, Lindsay will be the first man who claims he's a woman to join.

Walmart heir expected to purchase Denver Broncos for record-setting $4.5 billion
If the final purchase price ends up being $4.5 billion, that would smash the American record for most money ever paid for a sports team. The record is currently held by the Nets, who sold for $2.35 billion in August 2019.

Pickleball is the Hamptons’ hottest amenity
It is a cross between, tennis, ping-pong and badminton, and its the trendy 'sport' to play.

Animals...

Video: Cow Causes Chaos On Oklahoma Interstate, Cowboys Save The Day
A local TV helicopter captured footage of cowboys taking down the cow on the streets of OKC.

2007: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, cu labores definitionem mel, ex nisl conclusionemque sed

2012: Ea sed ocurreret disputando, amet salutatus pri ex, dico facer nec ea. Ad nonumy insolens eos, sed cu facete ornatus urbanitas, ut euripidis dissentiunt eum.

2020: Nam diam saperet accumsan ea, id tacimates dignissim cum, id mea audiam ceteros.

Americans expose Supreme Court’s flag ruling as a failed relic

Anna Moneymaker / Staff | Getty Images

In a nation where the Stars and Stripes symbolize the blood-soaked sacrifices of our heroes, President Trump's executive order to crack down on flag desecration amid violent protests has ignited fierce debate. But in a recent poll, Glenn asked the tough question: Can Trump protect the Flag without TRAMPLING free speech? Glenn asked, and you answered—thousands weighed in on this pressing clash between free speech and sacred symbols.

The results paint a picture of resounding distrust toward institutional leniency. A staggering 85% of respondents support banning the burning of American flags when it incites violence or disturbs the peace, a bold rejection of the chaos we've seen from George Floyd riots to pro-Palestinian torchings. Meanwhile, 90% insist that protections for burning other flags—like Pride or foreign banners—should not be treated the same as Old Glory under the First Amendment, exposing the hypocrisy in equating our nation's emblem with fleeting symbols. And 82% believe the Supreme Court's Texas v. Johnson ruling, shielding flag burning as "symbolic speech," should not stand without revision—can the official story survive such resounding doubt from everyday Americans weary of government inaction?

Your verdict sends a thunderous message: In this divided era, the flag demands defense against those who exploit freedoms to sow disorder, without trampling the liberties it represents. It's a catastrophic failure of the establishment to ignore this groundswell.

Want to make your voice heard? Check out more polls HERE.

Labor Day EXPOSED: The Marxist roots you weren’t told about

JOSEPH PREZIOSO / Contributor | Getty Images

During your time off this holiday, remember the man who started it: Peter J. McGuire, a racist Marxist who co-founded America’s first socialist party.

Labor Day didn’t begin as a noble tribute to American workers. It began as a negotiation with ideological terrorists.

In the late 1800s, factory and mine conditions were brutal. Workers endured 12-to-15-hour days, often seven days a week, in filthy, dangerous environments. Wages were low, injuries went uncompensated, and benefits didn’t exist. Out of desperation, Americans turned to labor unions. Basic protections had to be fought for because none were guaranteed.

Labor Day wasn’t born out of gratitude. It was a political payoff to Marxist radicals who set trains ablaze and threatened national stability.

That era marked a seismic shift — much like today. The Industrial Revolution, like our current digital and political upheaval, left millions behind. And wherever people get left behind, Marxists see an opening.

A revolutionary wedge

This was Marxism’s moment.

Economic suffering created fertile ground for revolutionary agitation. Marxists, socialists, and anarchists stepped in to stoke class resentment. Their goal was to turn the downtrodden into a revolutionary class, tear down the existing system, and redistribute wealth by force.

Among the most influential agitators was Peter J. McGuire, a devout Irish Marxist from New York. In 1874, he co-founded the Social Democratic Workingmens Party of North America, the first Marxist political party in the United States. He was also a vice president of the American Federation of Labor, which would become the most powerful union in America.

McGuire’s mission wasn’t hidden. He wanted to transform the U.S. into a socialist nation through labor unions.

That mission soon found a useful symbol.

In the 1880s, labor leaders in Toronto invited McGuire to attend their annual labor festival. Inspired, he returned to New York and launched a similar parade on Sept. 5 — chosen because it fell halfway between Independence Day and Thanksgiving.

The first parade drew over 30,000 marchers who skipped work to hear speeches about eight-hour workdays and the alleged promise of Marxism. The parade caught on across the country.

Negotiating with radicals

By 1894, Labor Day had been adopted by 30 states. But the federal government had yet to make it a national holiday. A major strike changed everything.

In Pullman, Illinois, home of the Pullman railroad car company, tensions exploded. The economy tanked. George Pullman laid off hundreds of workers and slashed wages for those who remained — yet refused to lower the rent on company-owned homes.

That injustice opened the door for Marxist agitators to mobilize.

Sympathetic railroad workers joined the strike. Riots broke out. Hundreds of railcars were torched. Mail service was disrupted. The nation’s rail system ground to a halt.

President Grover Cleveland — under pressure in a midterm election year — panicked. He sent 12,000 federal troops to Chicago. Two strikers were killed in the resulting clashes.

With the crisis spiraling and Democrats desperate to avoid political fallout, Cleveland struck a deal. Within six days of breaking the strike, Congress rushed through legislation making Labor Day a federal holiday.

It was the first of many concessions Democrats would make to organized labor in exchange for political power.

What we really celebrated

Labor Day wasn’t born out of gratitude. It was a political payoff to Marxist radicals who set trains ablaze and threatened national stability.

Kean Collection / Staff | Getty Images

What we celebrated was a Canadian idea, brought to America by the founder of the American Socialist Party, endorsed by racially exclusionary unions, and made law by a president and Congress eager to save face.

It was the first of many bones thrown by the Democratic Party to union power brokers. And it marked the beginning of a long, costly compromise with ideologues who wanted to dismantle the American way of life — from the inside out.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Hunter laptop, Steele dossier—Same players, same playbook?

ullstein bild Dtl. / Contributor | Getty Images

The Durham annex and ODNI report documents expose a vast network of funders and fixers — from Soros’ Open Society Foundations to the Pentagon.

In a column earlier this month, I argued the deep state is no longer deniable, thanks to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. I outlined the structural design of the deep state as revealed by two recent declassifications: Gabbard’s ODNI report and the Durham annex released by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).

These documents expose a transnational apparatus of intelligence agencies, media platforms, think tanks, and NGOs operating as a parallel government.

The deep state is funded by elite donors, shielded by bureaucracies, and perpetuated by operatives who drift between public office and private influence without accountability.

But institutions are only part of the story. This web of influence is made possible by people — and by money. This follow-up to the first piece traces the key operatives and financial networks fueling the deep state’s most consequential manipulations, including the Trump-Russia collusion hoax.

Architects and operatives

At the top of the intelligence pyramid sits John Brennan, President Obama’s CIA director and one of the principal architects of the manipulated 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment. James Clapper, who served as director of national intelligence, signed off on that same ICA and later joined 50 other former officials in concluding the Hunter Biden laptop had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation” ahead of the 2020 election. The timing, once again, served a political objective.

James Comey, then FBI director, presided over Crossfire Hurricane. According to the Durham annex, he also allowed the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server to collapse after it became entangled with “sensitive intelligence” revealing her plan to tie President Donald Trump to Russia.

That plan, as documented in the annex, originated with Hillary Clinton herself and was personally pushed by President Obama. Her campaign, through law firm Perkins Coie, hired Fusion GPS, which commissioned the now-debunked Steele dossier — a document used to justify surveillance warrants on Trump associates.

Several individuals orbiting the Clinton operation have remained influential. Jake Sullivan, who served as President Biden’s national security adviser, was a foreign policy aide to Clinton during her 2016 campaign. He was named in 2021 as a figure involved in circulating the collusion narrative, and his presence in successive Democratic administrations suggests institutional continuity.

Andrew McCabe, then the FBI’s deputy director, approved the use of FISA warrants derived from unverified sources. His connection to the internal “insurance policy” discussion — described in a 2016 text by FBI official Peter Strzok to colleague Lisa Page — underscores the Bureau’s political posture during that election cycle.

The list of political enablers is long but revealing:

Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who, as a former representative from California, chaired the House Intelligence Committee at the time and publicly promoted the collusion narrative while having access to intelligence that contradicted it.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), both members of the “Gang of Eight” with oversight of intelligence operations, advanced the same narrative despite receiving classified briefings.

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, exchanged encrypted text messages with a Russian lobbyist in efforts to speak with Christopher Steele.

These were not passive recipients of flawed intelligence. They were participants in its amplification.

The funding networks behind the machine

The deep state’s operations are not possible without financing — much of it indirect, routed through a nexus of private foundations, quasi-governmental entities, and federal agencies.

George Soros’ Open Society Foundations appear throughout the Durham annex. In one instance, Open Society Foundations documents were intercepted by foreign intelligence and used to track coordination between NGOs and the Clinton campaign’s anti-Trump strategy.

This system was not designed for transparency but for control.

Soros has also been a principal funder of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, which ran a project during the Trump administration called the Moscow Project, dedicated to promoting the Russia collusion narrative.

The Tides Foundation and Arabella Advisors both specialize in “dark money” donor-advised funds that obscure the source and destination of political funding. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was the biggest donor to the Arabella Advisors by far, which routed $127 million through Arabella’s network in 2020 alone and nearly $500 million in total.

The MacArthur Foundation and Rockefeller Foundation also financed many of the think tanks named in the Durham annex, including the Council on Foreign Relations.

Federal funding pipelines

Parallel to the private networks are government-funded influence operations, often justified under the guise of “democracy promotion” or counter-disinformation initiatives.

USAID directed $270 million to Soros-affiliated organizations for overseas “democracy” programs, a significant portion of which has reverberated back into domestic influence campaigns.

The State Department funds the National Endowment for Democracy, a quasi-governmental organization with a $315 million annual budget and ties to narrative engineering projects.

The Department of Homeland Security underwrote entities involved in online censorship programs targeting American citizens.

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

The Pentagon, from 2020 to 2024, awarded over $2.4 trillion to private contractors — many with domestic intelligence capabilities. It also directed $1.4 billion to select think tanks since 2019.

According to public records compiled by DataRepublican, these tax-funded flows often support the very actors shaping U.S. political discourse and global perception campaigns.

Not just domestic — but global

What these disclosures confirm is that the deep state is not a theory. It is a documented structure — funded by elite donors, shielded by bureaucracies, and perpetuated by operatives who drift between public office and private influence without accountability.

This system was not designed for transparency but for control. It launders narratives, neutralizes opposition, and overrides democratic will by leveraging the very institutions meant to protect it.

With the Durham annex and the ODNI report, we now see the network's architecture and its actors — names, agencies, funding trails — all laid bare. What remains is the task of dismantling it before its next iteration takes shape.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

The truth behind ‘defense’: How America was rebranded for war

PAUL J. RICHARDS / Staff | Getty Images

Donald Trump emphasizes peace through strength, reminding the world that the United States is willing to fight to win. That’s beyond ‘defense.’

President Donald Trump made headlines this week by signaling a rebrand of the Defense Department — restoring its original name, the Department of War.

At first, I was skeptical. “Defense” suggests restraint, a principle I consider vital to U.S. foreign policy. “War” suggests aggression. But for the first 158 years of the republic, that was the honest name: the Department of War.

A Department of War recognizes the truth: The military exists to fight and, if necessary, to win decisively.

The founders never intended a permanent standing army. When conflict came — the Revolution, the War of 1812, the trenches of France, the beaches of Normandy — the nation called men to arms, fought, and then sent them home. Each campaign was temporary, targeted, and necessary.

From ‘war’ to ‘military-industrial complex’

Everything changed in 1947. President Harry Truman — facing the new reality of nuclear weapons, global tension, and two world wars within 20 years — established a full-time military and rebranded the Department of War as the Department of Defense. Americans resisted; we had never wanted a permanent army. But Truman convinced the country it was necessary.

Was the name change an early form of political correctness? A way to soften America’s image as a global aggressor? Or was it simply practical? Regardless, the move created a permanent, professional military. But it also set the stage for something Truman’s successor, President Dwight “Ike” Eisenhower, famously warned about: the military-industrial complex.

Ike, the five-star general who commanded Allied forces in World War II and stormed Normandy, delivered a harrowing warning during his farewell address: The military-industrial complex would grow powerful. Left unchecked, it could influence policy and push the nation toward unnecessary wars.

And that’s exactly what happened. The Department of Defense, with its full-time and permanent army, began spending like there was no tomorrow. Weapons were developed, deployed, and sometimes used simply to justify their existence.

Peace through strength

When Donald Trump said this week, “I don’t want to be defense only. We want defense, but we want offense too,” some people freaked out. They called him a warmonger. He isn’t. Trump is channeling a principle older than him: peace through strength. Ronald Reagan preached it; Trump is taking it a step further.

Just this week, Trump also suggested limiting nuclear missiles — hardly the considerations of a warmonger — echoing Reagan, who wanted to remove missiles from silos while keeping them deployable on planes.

The seemingly contradictory move of Trump calling for a Department of War sends a clear message: He wants Americans to recognize that our military exists not just for defense, but to project power when necessary.

Trump has pointed to something critically important: The best way to prevent war is to have a leader who knows exactly who he is and what he will do. Trump signals strength, deterrence, and resolve. You want to negotiate? Great. You don’t? Then we’ll finish the fight decisively.

That’s why the world listens to us. That’s why nations come to the table — not because Trump is reckless, but because he means what he says and says what he means. Peace under weakness invites aggression. Peace under strength commands respect.

Trump is the most anti-war president we’ve had since Jimmy Carter. But unlike Carter, Trump isn’t weak. Carter’s indecision emboldened enemies and made the world less safe. Trump’s strength makes the country stronger. He believes in peace as much as any president. But he knows peace requires readiness for war.

Names matter

When we think of “defense,” we imagine cybersecurity, spy programs, and missile shields. But when we think of “war,” we recall its harsh reality: death, destruction, and national survival. Trump is reminding us what the Department of Defense is really for: war. Not nation-building, not diplomacy disguised as military action, not endless training missions. War — full stop.

Chip Somodevilla / Staff | Getty Images

Names matter. Words matter. They shape identity and character. A Department of Defense implies passivity, a posture of reaction. A Department of War recognizes the truth: The military exists to fight and, if necessary, to win decisively.

So yes, I’ve changed my mind. I’m for the rebranding to the Department of War. It shows strength to the world. It reminds Americans, internally and externally, of the reality we face. The Department of Defense can no longer be a euphemism. Our military exists for war — not without deterrence, but not without strength either. And we need to stop deluding ourselves.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.