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Glenn's Show Prep

Morning Brief 2023-12-14

December 14, 2023
Chris Brady

TOP OF HOUR 2
GUEST: Carol Roth
TOPIC: The government does NOT care about small businesses.

TOP OF HOUR 3
GUEST: Rep. Thomas Massie
TOPIC: Congress is set to extend FISA, which authorizes government surveillance of foreigners who could be security threats, in national defense bill.

Luke 2:29-32

Luke 2:29-32

Glenn Beck...

Glenn Beck: What ‘Brave New World’ gets right that ‘1984’ doesn’t
I believe in exactly one conspiracy theory: There exists a class of all-powerful elites with an unknowable measure of control over each of our lives — more power, influence, and control than we could ever know.

Video: Gavin McInnes gives you a look at Glenn's 'All in the Family' set
It's not a knock-off, it's the actual set — and Glenn has something planned for it next year.

News...

Let’s Play ‘Spot The Dictator!’
A head of state is desperately working to jail his top political opponent before a national election. Who does that sound like?

NY Times: Senate Passes Defense Bill, Steering Clear of Far-Right Policy Dictates
The $886 billion legislation is the product of bipartisan negotiations between the House and Senate in which right-wing restrictions on abortion, transgender care, and diversity initiatives were jettisoned.

Russiagate hoaxers beg Congress to preserve intelligence agencies' ability to spy on Americans without warrants
On Monday, 46 former intelligence officials signed a letter to the House speaker, majority leader, and minority leader, pleading for them to renew Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Newly released DOJ memo details top-down pressure on cops to probe vague school board threats
Shows the top-down effort from Garland's department to gather information and facilitate prosecutions with local law enforcement against parents concerned about curricula imposed on their children.

Violent threats from shoplifters soar, Home Depot honcho tells Congress: ‘Not exaggerating’
Retail workers face increasing threats from shoplifters brandishing “knives and guns,” a top Home Depot executive told a congressional panel looking to pass legislation amid the scourge of organized retail theft.

Gen Z is scamming companies out of billions each year
The research found that 42% of those aged 26 and younger admitted to filing a fraud claim — or other type of dispute — despite having not only received their purchase, but being satisfied with it as well.

Retail Theft Suspects Argue That Discount Prices Apply in Court, Too
Two men charged with stealing from a Kohl’s argued that they should face a misdemeanor charge rather than a felony since some of the items were on sale.

68% of Portlanders say Portland is declining, 56% would consider moving if they could
A full 56% of respondents said they'd leave the city if they could "afford it professionally and personally."

Prosecutors Agree He Shot a Man in Self-Defense. They're Still Trying To Put Him in Prison.
LaShawn Craig may spend years behind bars — because the gun he used to justifiably shoot someone was unlicensed.

Courts...

Supreme Court Will Hear J6 Dispute That Could ‘Undo’ Hundreds Of Cases, Impact Trump
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a monumental case on a federal obstruction law that could potentially “undo” hundreds of January 6 cases and directly impact special counsel Jack Smith’s case against Trump.

Judge pauses Trump Jan. 6 case as he appeals immunity claims
U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan issued the order, which "automatically stays any further proceedings that would move this case towards trial or impose additional burdens of litigation on Defendant."

Democrats push Clarence Thomas to recuse himself pre-emptively from important Trump case
"There are so many unanswered questions about the relationship of the justice and his family with the Trump administration that I think in the interests of justice, he should recuse himself," Dick Durbin said.

Supreme Court Will Decide Whether To Uphold Ban On ‘Dangerous’ Abortions By Mail
The Supreme Court agreed on Wednesday to take up a case about the drug regimen responsible for more than half of the nation’s abortions.

Biden Crime Family...

House Republicans authorize Biden impeachment inquiry
"As President Biden continues to stonewall lawful Congressional subpoenas, today's vote of the full House of Representatives authorizing the inquiry puts us in the strongest position to enforce these subpoenas in court," Republicans said in a statement.

Biden reacts to House impeachment inquiry by blaming border crisis, other issues on Republicans
"Instead of doing anything to help make Americans' lives better, they are focused on attacking me with lies," he wrote.

By Modern Standards, Biden Should Be Impeached
Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee, in the first Trump impeachment, expressly stated that "impeachment is part of democratic governance."

Hunter Biden tries to protect his dad but does the opposite in just one sentence
Hunter's claim — that President Biden was not "financially involved" in his business schemes — is a significant departure from what President Biden has long maintained. For years, Biden said that he never even discussed business with his son.

House moves to hold Hunter Biden in contempt after he failed to appear for deposition
"We will not provide special treatment because his last name is Biden."

Politics...

Biden Criticizes House For Going Home During A ‘Crisis’
Here are the times he went on vacation during emergencies.

Boston mayor's office mistakenly sends invitations for non-white holiday party to entire city council
The office of Boston Mayor Michelle Wu mistakenly sent holiday party invitations — meant only for city council "Electeds of Color" — to the entire city council, prompting a white city council member to call the move "divisive."

Vivek Ramaswamy spars with CNN's Abby Phillip over Jan. 6 claims at town hall
Ramaswamy recounted his journey to coming to believe that there were government agents involved in the riot until Phillip interrupted to bring him back the question, which related to whether he was worried that Jan. 6 defendants were using his remarks in their trials.

Newsom's administration orders state spending freeze as it braces for big budget problem
The latest blatant attempt by Gavin Newsom to cast himself a moderate as he runs a shadow presidential campaign.

Economy / ESG...

Fed holds rates steady, indicates three cuts coming in 2024
Along with the decision to stay on hold, committee members penciled in at least three rate cuts in 2024, assuming quarter-percentage increments. That’s less than market pricing of four, but more aggressive than what officials had previously indicated.

Former Facebook DEI strategist pleads guilty to stealing more than $4 million from company
Barbara Furlow-Smiles, who led various Facebook Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs from 2017 through mid-2021, stole the money “through an elaborate scheme,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Atlanta said.

I’m a professional gift picker — thanks to inflation, it’s all about practical presents this Christmas
Lizzie Scholes, 28, works for a corporate gifting company in the United Kingdom, selecting the ideal presents for clients.

Israel at War... 

Biden’s Palestine Prioritization Betrays His Pro-Israel Facade
The suggestion that the White House is only softening in its support is wishful thinking. President Biden is turning up the public pressure for Israel to accept a ceasefire and abandon its goal of eradicating Hamas.

US brushes aside Netanyahu distaste for Palestinian Authority's role in postwar Gaza
The Biden administration expects the Palestinian Authority to rule the Gaza Strip following the destruction of Hamas despite Israel’s skepticism about that prospect.

FBI and DHS warn of possible violence at public gatherings due to tension from Israel war
The announcement was not made in response to any specific plotting activity, the agencies said.

Muslim news site editor says there's 'zero proof' of 'Palestinian 'atrocities against civilians' on October 7'
"Why do Muslims have to condemn Palestinian 'atrocities against civilians' on October 7 when there is zero proof that any took place?!" Roshan Salih wrote. "Israeli officials, MSM and Zionists shouting that they happened do not constitute evidence."

Boy, 13, Accused of Plotting Mass Shooting at Ohio Synagogue
Law enforcement received a report of the incident that took place on or around September 1, sparking an investigation.

Progressive Jewish protesters shut down LA freeway in call for Gaza ceasefire
Local news reported that when the disruption began, commuters tried to "take matters into their own hands."

COVID-19...

Pfizer stock plummets as people turn away from COVID boosters
Pfizer's stock is down more than 44% in 2023.

Entertainment...

Daily Beast: Fox News Loses Its Mind Over Obama’s ‘Anti-White’ Netflix Film
Fourteen years after then-Fox News star Glenn Beck made headlines by calling Barack Obama a “racist” who has a “deep-seated hatred for white people,” the right-wing network is still warning its viewers that the ex-president is trying to indoctrinate Americans with his “anti-white” racism.

Denzel Washington's Netflix casting as Hannibal criticized in race controversy
In the North African country of Tunisia, numerous news outlets are reporting complaints from Tunisians about the racial and ethnic composition of the actor as not an accurate historical portrayal.

Netflix Viewership Data Finally Revealed in Landmark Report
Here are Netflix’s top 10 movies and top 10 series.

Media...

‘Misinformation’ service NewsGuard targeted in defense bill
The 2024 defense authorization bill now in its final stages on Capitol Hill contains a provision that would restrict the Pentagon from spending money on an advertising agency that relies on the self-described “counter-misinformation” group NewsGuard, a blow to the leftist organization.

Study Finds Taxpayer-Funded NewsGuard Is Outrageously Biased Against Conservatives
In a study published Tuesday, Media Research Center Free Speech America found that NewsGuard, the taxpayer censorship giant self-tasked with rating media outlets on reliability, “overwhelmingly favored left-leaning outlets over right-leaning ones.”

WaPo Editor’s Purse Column Inspires Zero Hope For The Next Generation Of Narcissistic Journos
In a Dec. 6 op-ed titled “The bag that opened up my Blackness,” Alexi McCammond devotes the first 600 words to lauding a $150 luxury bag that has “unexpectedly opened up so many spaces for organic Black joy and connection.”

China...

Xi Secures Major Deal With Key US Ally Months After Biden Touted ‘Historic’ Relations
China and Vietnam announced a deal on Wednesday to increase strategic cooperation, months after President Joe Biden touted the United States’ strengthened “historic” relationship with Vietnam.

Environment...

California could vote on turning sewage into drinking water next week
The rules would allow "toilet to tap," converting water from toilet and shower drains into drinking water. The project is an effort to tackle climate change and the problem of water droughts.

Eco-terrorists vandalize Christmas tree displays to show outrage over global climate summit outcome
Climate extremists in a coordinated attack Wednesday vandalized public Christmas tree displays in Berlin and six other German cities.

The Media's Misleading Fearmongering Over Climate Change
"Over the last 20 years, because of temperature rises, we have seen about 116,000 more people die from heat. But 283,000 fewer people die from cold."

LGBTQIA2S+...

Detransitioner suing American Academy of Pediatrics: ‘I don’t want this to happen to other young girls’
A Florida woman who medically transitioned from female to male as a 14-year-old is suing the American Academy of Pediatrics — alleging she was whisked through the process as a minor by “a collection of actors who prioritized politics and ideology over children’s safety, health, and well-being.”

High school is first in Florida to be fined via Women's Sports Act
The boy took part in 33 games between the 2022-23 season and the 2023-34 season, with the team winning 18 of those games. The school was fined $500 for each of these games.

Education...

The Lie At The Heart Of The College Free-Speech Debate Is That Free Speech Exists On Campus
If American universities had open discourse, they wouldn’t be havens for extremism, bigotry, and stupidity.

Claudine Gay Is Why I Never Checked the 'Black' Box
I have known people like Claudine Gay my entire life and they are the reason why I never checked the black box on college and employment applications.

Princeton punished me for fighting to fix DEI and anti-Semitism on campus
If the words “diversity, equity, and inclusion” mean anything, it’s that hatred is unacceptable no matter what form it takes. Yet the past two months have made clear to me that institutional DEI tolerates — and thereby encourages — the particularly awful hatred of anti-Semitism.

Health...

How Much Weight Comes Back After Stopping a Weight-Loss Drug?
People who continued taking tirzepatide for an additional year lost, on average, another 5.5% of their body weight. Those who were switched to the placebo, however, gained 14% of their body weight on average.

Oprah Defends Her Use Of Weight Loss Medication: ‘Obesity Is A Disease’
Oprah Winfrey defended her use of weight loss medication on occasion, saying “obesity is a disease” and is not due to a person’s lack of willpower.

Religion...

‘After School Satan Club’ set to start at Tennessee elementary school
Already active in a handful of states, the program hosted by the Satanic Temple is scheduled to begin at Chimneyrock Elementary School when students return from Christmas break.

ACLU stands up for Christian organization after DC Metro rejects ads: 'Selective censorship'
The ACLU defended a Christian conservative organization's free speech rights on Tuesday, after the group was denied requests to advertise on Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority buses.

AI...

ChatGPT may have learned from humans to slack off around the holidays
Some developers speculate that ChatGPT's recent refusals to perform some tasks may stem from it having learned seasonal effects like humans slowing work in December.

Elon Musk...

Elon Musk to start new university in Austin
This educational institution is kicking off with around $100 million from Musk and will begin with a STEM-focused primary and secondary school, Bloomberg reports.

Elon Musk's mom blasts Joe Biden
"I am the mother of @elonmusk. His goal is to make this world a better place. @POTUS wants to stop him. Have you any idea how furious I am? People in other countries are proud of Elon and do not understand the US President's motive. Please tell me how I should answer them."

Media Launches Attacks On Tesla In Apparent Bid To Damage Elon Musk
Reports from places like the NY Times are calling that Tesla is having to do a massive "recall" of 2 million vehicles, when in fact, it's sending out an over-the-air software update.

SpaceX valuation climbs to $180 billion
SpaceX’s latest valuation ranks it above the market value of top U.S. defense contractors as well as the most valuable U.S. telecommunications companies.

Animals...

Why are the CIA and a sketchy gene company trying to resurrect the woolly mammoth?
You might wonder why the CIA has a venture capital company or would partner with Paris Hilton and Tony Robbins to fund an eccentric scientist trying to breed woolly mammoths to fight climate change.

Dec 14, 2012 - Glenn Beck's new Christmas sweater... New death tax rates coming!... Anti-Agenda 21 stands being taken locally... More On Trivia: San Francisco at New England... Financial terrorism about to strike America?... Kwanzaa quiz...

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.

Durham annex EXPOSES Soros, Pentagon ties to Deep State machine

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.