Month: April 2025

Screenshot: Fox News @Night w/ Trace Gallagher

While leftist students shouted vulgarities and waved communist flags during an anti-Trump walkout in Los Angeles, one brave teenager stood silently in the crowd, not to protest—but to observe.

That student, 17-year-old Lucky Basseri, is now being hailed by conservatives as a bold truth-teller for documenting what he called the “shocking radicalism” on full display in his high school’s anti-Trump walkout.

In a searing firsthand account submitted to The Gateway Pundit and featured on Fox News @ Night with Trace Gallagher, Basseri exposed what many on the right have long warned about: America’s youth are being systematically indoctrinated by leftist educators and woke city officials.

According to Basseri, the protest was packed with Marxist slogans, Cuban and Palestinian flags, and angry student activists who had little understanding of the policies they claimed to oppose. When he showed up—not to agitate, but to learn—he was met with insults, intimidation, and baseless accusations of being a “fascist.”

The Gateway Pundit previously reported:

Speakers stood, rambling on about the class struggle against the capitalist system and far-right oligarchy that they believe exists.

One self-identified transgender speaker declared that they had begun puberty blockers and hormone treatments at fifteen. Many spontaneous chants of “f***” Trump and Elon Musk broke out throughout the approximately two-hour-long spectacle. Another student declared that D.O.G.E’s formation was Elon Musk’s “coup” of the United States government.

Some attendees carried flags supporting Communist Cuba, anarchist banners, and pro-Hamas messages. I also noticed several signs reading ‘Deny, Defend, Depose’—a thinly veiled call for Marxist revolt against the U.S. government and support for Luigi Mangione, the now-infamous murderer idolized by many on the far left.

My main takeaway was clear: the indoctrination of activist teachers and parents has succeeded. The pro-leftist, anti-American agenda being taught in schools, which you can read more about here, is pushing Americans further apart than ever and pushing young impressionable minds towards radical marxism.

Read more:

“I Attended an Anti-Trump Walkout at My School. The Things I Witnessed Were SHOCKING.” Guest Teenage Writer Lucky Basseri TELLS ALL!!

As Basseri told Fox News, students in LA schools are introduced to Marxist theory as early as third grade, then force-fed CRT, queer theory, and anti-American rhetoric through middle and high school.

Transcript:

Trace Gallagher
Meantime, a conservative student attending a recent anti-Trump walkout in his Los Angeles high school says he witnessed some shocking stuff. Let’s bring in 17-year-old activist, speaker, and writer Lucky Basseri. Lucky, it is great to have you on the show. I mean, it’s amazing because you write this in The Gateway Pundit, and I want to put this on the screen:

“As I walked through the crowd, I faced many agitated students who hurled insults at me and demanded to know why I was there. Several students confronted me, labeling me a fascist, a neo-Nazi—accusations that could not be further from the truth. Many spontaneous chants of ‘F Trump’ and ‘Elon Musk’ broke out throughout the approximately two-hour-long spectacle.”

Why did you go in the first place, Lucky?

Lucky Basseri
Well, Trace, I went because I wanted to get a feel for what the other side believes—what these other students think—because everyone’s entitled to their own opinions. I wanted to learn. I wanted to actually get an understanding of why people believe what they believe. But what I faced was huge criticism, huge hostility, and a general aggravation toward my presence there.

Trace Gallagher
I’m wondering—when you talk about young people not liking Trump—why is it that we saw in the election young people your age, a little bit older than you, really gravitating toward the president or the former president at that point in time? Now you see in Los Angeles, some of these people gravitating away from Trump. What do you think is causing both?

Lucky Basseri
Well, I don’t believe Los Angeles is representative of the rest of the United States. Los Angeles is an island of very deep blue ideology. In fact, starting in third grade, we were being indoctrinated into this ideology as my teacher would openly discuss communism and Marxist theory as if they were positive things for society. Every year succeeding that, it got worse and worse.

Talking about CRT, queer theory, feminist theory, and just radical left-wing talking points—we’re indoctrinated with all of it. So these kids are left in an echo chamber. They don’t know what they believe because they haven’t actually done the research. They haven’t actually learned the facts. They’re just getting talking points from their teachers, the mainstream media, and their parents.

Trace Gallagher
You’ve asked these kids, “Why are you anti-Trump?” And they give you just talking points. Is that what it is?

Lucky Basseri
Yeah. I always try to have an honest and open dialogue with these kids, but most of them are more interested in name-calling and uncivilly disagreeing. Every time I bring up a point they may disagree with, they say, “Oh, you’re racist, you’re homophobic, you’re fascist.”

They don’t actually have a reason as to why I’m any of those things. They don’t have anything to dispel what I say.

Trace Gallagher
Do you think they hate Trump, or they’re just going along with what their friends say—they’re just trying to belong to a group?

Lucky Basseri
Oh, they’re absolutely just trying to belong. Most of them have almost no idea what they’re talking about. As I said, they have very, very limited knowledge. That’s what happens when you scroll TikTok and Instagram and that’s where you’re getting your political information from—it’s just not reliable.

When I try and have these discussions, that’s what is reflected. It’s really a travesty because our young people are the future of our country. They’re the most malleable and impressionable among us, and they are being totally indoctrinated into an ideology they might not necessarily believe.

WATCH:

The post Brave Teen Defies Anti-Trump School Walkout, Exposes Marxist Indoctrination and Leftist Hostility in Powerful FOX News Interview Following TGP Report appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

President Donald Trump, Congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro meet at G20, in Japan. (Photo: Reproduction/Instagram/@Bolsonarosp)

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is now leading a struggle for justice reminiscent of President Trump’s legal travails under the Biden regime – with the 70-year-old Bolsonaro facing a 39-year prison sentence from the same corrupt Supreme Court that released current Brazilian president Luiz Lula da Silva from prison on dubious grounds.

In 2018, a Brazilian Appeals Court sentenced then-former President Lula to 12 years in prison for corruption and money laundering charges regarding Lula’s key role in “Operation Car Wash.” Lula was found to have accepted upwards of $1M USD in bribes from a construction company that, in turn, received contracts from a notorious state-owned oil company.

Although Lula was once himself sentenced to prison until 2030, his political opponent, Jair Bolsonaro, is today banned from seeking public office until 2030. Lula served barely over one year of his prison sentence before the Brazilian Supreme Court brazenly ruled that convicted criminals no longer must serve prison time after losing their first appeals case – freeing Lula to depart prison in 2019 while seeking further appeals.

In 2022, Lula defeated Bolsonaro in Brazil’s presidential election by a narrow margin, leading to protests by hundreds of thousands of Bolsonaro’s supporters on grounds that Lula’s prison sentence had been unjustly annulled and that machine voting fraud could not be ruled out according to a statement issued by Brazil’s Defense Ministry.

In the wake of these protests, Bolsonaro, dubbed “Trump of the Tropics,” has been stripped of his ability to run for president in 2026 – while Lula’s approval rating has cratered to a career-low of 24 percent.

Last week, shortly after Brazil’s Supreme Federal Tribunal ruled that Bolsonaro must stand trial. He faces up to 39 years in prison for his alleged coup attempt against the convicted criminal, Lula.

Bolsonaro told reporters,”Everyone knows that if I were allowed to run, I would win.”

“The coup [Lula’s government] has no law, no rules – the coup has a conspiracy with the press, parliament, the judiciary, the economy – armed forces first, society, businessmen, and farmers,” Bolsonaro continued.

Bolsonaro told the media regarding his possible prison sentence,

“It’s the end of my life. I’m already 70 years old.”

“A possible arrest would be completely unjust. Where is my crime? Where did I break [the law]? Where is the proof of a possible coup? Other than discussing constitutional provisions that haven’t left the realm of words,” Bolsonaro added.

On the War Room podcast, populist firebrand Steve Bannon recently advised Bolsonaro to seek asylum in the United States, at all costs, even while Bolsonaro’s passport remains under siege by the Brazilian government.

The stakes of Bolsonaro’s personal freedom – and territorial control of Brazil – are simply too high, Bannon warned, for Bolsonaro to spend his life in prison or even sooner be murdered.

Bolsonaro could instead maneuver to join his son, Eduardo Bolsonaro, who recently gained a safe haven in the United States while building popular support for their movement abroad.

When asked in March whether he would consider seeking political asylum in the United States, however, Jair Bolsonaro said, “Zero, zero, zero. I look good here. I feel good. I want the good of my country.”

Under the very rogue Brazilian Supreme Court that enabled CCP-backed Lula’s communist takeover of Brazil, Bolsonaro’s only hope for restitution may be martyrdom.

The post Jair Bolsonaro Fighting for His Life in Communist-Occupied Brazil – Former President Could Face 39-Year Prison Sentence Within Brazil’s Corrupt Judicial System appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Guest post by Drieu Godefridi

Faced with the American “tariffs,” Europe has two options.

The first is to export less. This is the retaliation strategy. Responding to US tariffs with new European tariffs. This strategy will automatically lead to a drop in imports from the United States, and a drop in exports to the United States. So everyone loses, starting with European consumers.

Well, all losers, but especially Europeans.

Europe exports more to the USA than the other way round. Europe, therefore, has more to lose from a tariff war with the USA than vice versa. And let’s be careful.

On four fronts – economic, financial, budgetary and military – Europe is in a position of weakness the likes of which it has not experienced since 1945. At this stage, any mistake could precipitate our downfall. In this respect, it should be noted that if Europe takes refuge as usual in a verbose wait-and-see attitude – i.e. delays negotiating with the Americans, piling on fruitless summits between Europeans – the result will be the same: a drastic fall in European exports. Because the new (basic) American tariffs come into force immediately. The clock is ticking.

The second option is to import more goods and products made in the USA. The US government wants to balance its trade with Europe, which means opening up European markets. This means lowering our tariff barriers, especially the insurmountable European barriers equivalent to customs duties.

European tariffs against the USA are not very high. But the EU is a formidable machine, constantly churning out standards in every field. Any American product that does not meet each of these standards is de facto banned from the European market. This applies to just about every product made in the USA. “But, sir, of course there are standards! We don’t want chlorinated Yankee chicken on our plates”, goes the familiar refrain. Which is a bit simplistic, and we’re not forcing anyone to eat it.

But if, for every American product, the EU brandishes a standard that prohibits its entry into Europe, under various pretexts, then we will necessarily be heading towards option 1, a tariff war that will lead to the massive impoverishment of Europe.

The truth is that the American tariffs are an opportunity. Not to strengthen the EU, as the pro-Europeans claim, because the EU is a leaden blanket that poisons everything it touches: just think of energy! The war in Ukraine! Freedom of expression!

No, the opportunity to take the American government at its word.

By proposing the creation of an Atlantic free trade area, based for example on the recognition in principle of the equivalence of health, environmental and other standards in all aspects of transatlantic trade. In this way, European consumers would have access to all American products, and Americans would have access to all European products.

In truth, Europe has no choice, because Europe is weak, and its defence has been funded for half a century by the American taxpayer. It will remain so for another five to ten years, because armies don’t spring up like daffodils in March.

The negotiation of such an agreement, whose scope would be telluric and civilizational – on the model of the agreement between Argentina and the USA, for example – requires a new generation of European leaders.

The stuffed, smug creatures of the von der Leyen and Lagarde type have demonstrated their incompetence tinged with deadly ideology. Let’s hand the arena over to figures of a different calibre, like Giorgia Meloni, inspired souls with a grand vision and an impeccably coherent world vision, who cherish and grasp the profound essence of Europe, while cultivating an enlightened and unprejudiced friendship with our brothers in America.

Stock markets are plummeting, and in Europe the paleopress is spitting out its hatred of Trump. That notwithstanding, Europe’s future, if it is to be prosperous and secure, lies in deepening the transatlantic partnership.

Drieu Godefridi is a jurist (University Saint-Louis, University of Louvain), philosopher (University Saint-Louis, University of Louvain) and PhD in legal theory (Paris IV-Sorbonne). He is an entrepreneur, CEO of a European private education group and director of PAN Medias Group. He is the author of The Green Reich (2020).

You can follow Drieu on X.

The post The European Dilemma appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Credit: CNN Newsnight screenshot

One of the few bright lights on the channel, sometimes referred to as the Clinton News Network, has been a conservative strategist and Trump supporter, Scott Jennings. Time and again, he has gone into the lion’s den to take on deranged leftists.

On Wednesday night, he battled with the angry left once more, especially with former Hillary Clinton spokeswoman Karen Finney. The two have had several showdowns on CNN over the years, with Jennings usually coming out on top.

This latest encounter was no exception. During a debate over Trump likely trolling people into believing he’s serious about seeking a third term, Finney started ranting about some of the president’s poll numbers, which show he is more popular than any congressional Democrat or Republican leader in the country.

But Jennings sent her scrambling with just one simple question that anyone with a rudimentary understanding of politics could answer.

“Karen, question: who’s more popular right now, Donald Trump or Congressional Democrats?” Jennings asked.

A flummoxed Finney absurdly replied, “It doesn’t matter. Donald Trump happens to be president, doesn’t he?”

WATCH:

pic.twitter.com/8ZRBRiYJu0

@ScottJenningsKY shows us all how to deal with a Karen.

JENNINGS: Karen, question: who’s more popular right now, Donald Trump or Congressional Democrats?

KAREN FINNEY: Doesn’t matter.

JENNINGS: It doesn’t? He’s sitting at 50/50. You’re sitting at…

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) April 3, 2025

“It doesn’t?” Jennings fired back. “He’s sitting at 50/50 (approval rating); you’re sitting at 20/80.”

Having no real answer for these facts, Finney tried to nitpick and say that Trump’s approval number was actually 48% approve/50% disapprove (as if that makes any difference).

When Jennings understandably started shaking his head, Finney got triggered and asked if he wanted to call her a name, to which he responded with a mic-drop.

“You want to call CBS News?” he quipped.

The post WATCH: Scott Jennings Flummoxes Triggered Clinton Crony with One Simple Question When She Lashes Out Over Trump’s Third Term Comments appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Credit: @teslaownersSV screenshot

Despite their close partnership, Elon Musk and President Trump appear to share different views on global trade, particularly concerning Europe. He also had some choice words for a key Trump trade adviser.

As The Gateway Pundit reported, Trump announced on Wednesday the implementation of a 10% baseline tariff on all imports, effective April 5, 2025. The worst offenders will be hit with even tougher measures on April 9.

Speaking from the White House Rose Garden, President Trump proclaimed April 2 as “Liberation Day,” marking a new era of economic independence. He emphasized that this measure is essential to protect American jobs and revitalize domestic manufacturing.

The White House also released a detailed chart showing how badly many countries have been ripping off American workers, charging high tariffs on U.S. goods while benefiting from America’s generosity in return. This included a 20% tariff on the European Union.

During a virtual rally on Saturday with Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister, Matteo Salvini, Musk talked about Trump’s new policy and expressed hope that all tariffs between Europe and America are dropped to establish a genuine free trade relationship.

“I hope that the United States and Europe can establish a pretty close partnership,” Musk said. “There is an alliance already but I’m hopeful there can be a pretty close relationship with America and Europe.”

“And I’m hopeful that the (Trump) tariffs at the end of the day…I hope it is agreed that both Europe and The United States should move ideally, in my view, to a zero tariff situation, effectively creating a free trade zone between Europe and North America,” he added. “And also, more freedom for people to move between Europe and North America if they wish. ”

WATCH:

BREAKING: Elon Musk hopes that the United States and Europe will have zero trade tariffs

“I hope it is agreed that both Europe and The United States should move ideally in my view to a zero tariff situation, effectively creating a free trade zone between Europe and North… pic.twitter.com/GF4qBRC6ac

— Tesla Owners Silicon Valley (@teslaownersSV) April 5, 2025

On Friday, Musk spoke harshly about Peter Navarro, Trump’s senior counselor for trade and manufacturing. After seeing a video in which Navarro, an avowed protectionist, defended Trump’s tariffs and schooled a CNN reporter on how global trade works, Musk took a shot at his Ivy League background.

“A PhD in economics from Harvard is a bad thing, not a good thing,” Musk wrote.

A PhD in Econ from Harvard is a bad thing, not a good thing.

Results in the ego/brains>>1 problem.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 5, 2025

Musk became piqued further when an X user said Navarro was 100% correct on trade.

“He ain’t built sh*t,” Musk fired back.

He ain’t built shit

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 5, 2025

The post Elon Musk Speaks Out on President Trump’s New Global Tariffs and Harshly Criticizes a Key Trump Trade Adviser (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Skywatchers are scanning the night sky for an explosion that happened 3,000 years ago.

A nova called T Coronae Borealis, called the “Blaze Star,” is expected to soon be visible in the night sky, according to Space.com. Experts say it will be visible without fancy equipment.

That pairing of a hot, red giant star and a cool, white dwarf star is about 3,000 light years away. Because it explodes every 78 to 80 years, and the last explosion took place in 1946, the next explosion has been expected for months.

In April, the constellation that hosts the Blaze Star will rise in the eastern sky three hours after the sun sets and be visible about four hours after sunset.

Predictions that the explosion will be visible have been ongoing for months, with some stretching as far into the future as Nov. 10, June 25, 2026, and Feb. 8, 2027, according to ABC.

Blaze Star that’s 3,000 lightyears away will soon explode — and you’ll get to see it from Earth: ‘Once-in-a-lifetime event’ https://t.co/R5041ZHwM8 pic.twitter.com/jyb45TywAD

— New York Post (@nypost) April 5, 2025

“It could go up tonight, it could go up next month, any month now, there you go,” Louisiana State University professor Brad Schaefer said, according to WBRZ-TV.

He said the explosion comes about as material from one star lands on the other.

“They’re so close that matter from the big normal star falls onto the white dwarf, accumulates on the surface, and at some point, you’ll accumulate enough matter that you have a thermonuclear runaway reaction. It’s a hydrogen bomb,” Schaefer said.

The smaller star will not be consumed because “it’s an incredibly dense, well, white dwarf.”

“So even having a hydrogen bomb on the surface of it, just eats off a little bit of the outer layer. White dwarfs are incredibly sturdy,” Schaefer said.

Elizabeth Hays, chief of the Astroparticle Physics Laboratory at NASA Goddard, said amateurs wanting a peek will probably get their first clue on social media, according to NASA.

“Citizen scientists and space enthusiasts are always looking for those strong, bright signals that identify nova events and other phenomena,” Hays said. “Using social media and email, they’ll send out instant alerts, and the flag goes up. We’re counting on that global community interaction again with T CrB.”

Rebekah Hounsell, an assistant research scientist specializing in nova events at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said seeing the explosion will be “a once-in-a-lifetime event that will create a lot of new astronomers out there, giving young people a cosmic event they can observe for themselves, ask their own questions, and collect their own data.”

“It’ll fuel the next generation of scientists,” she said.

Blaze Star Explosion: Earth View
We created this animation to show how the Blaze Star, T Coronae Borealis (T CrB), will appear from Earth when it explodes this week. This rare event, happening once every 80 years, will light up the night sky, visible without a telescope. pic.twitter.com/VGICtcfSbO

— TheBrainMaze TBM (@thebrainmaze) March 26, 2025

“There are a few recurrent novae with very short cycles, but typically, we don’t often see a repeated outburst in a human lifetime, and rarely one so relatively close to our own system,” Hounsell said. “It’s incredibly exciting to have this front-row seat.”

The Blaze Star was first noticed in 1217 by a monk named Burchard in Ursberg, Germany.

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.

The post Binary Star System Expected to Explode Soon, Resulting Nova Will Be Visible from Earth appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

The Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem arrived at the National Palace to meet with

The post Kristi Noem visits Mexico and demands “Actions, not just words”, urging Claudia Sheinbaum to provide biometric data and strengthen border control. appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Credit: C-SPAN screenshot

An arrogant illegal alien decided to run her mouth about her status during an anti-Trump protest in DC. Unfortunately for her, she now has the attention of Team Trump.

As TGP readers know, thousands of radical leftists have invaded major cities across America and the world on Saturday to protest against the Trump administration’s policies. Of course, these protests are far from spontaneous as far-left groups such as Third Act, Indivisible, MoveOn, and Fight Back Table have been involved in the planning for weeks.

One speaker during the “Hands Off” rally in DC was Greisa Martinez Rosas, the executive director for the open-borders United We Dream organization. Martinez Rosas is an openly gay illegal alien from Mexico who came to the US as a child and now resides in Dallas.

To add insult to injury, she also receives a hefty salary from her organization. This likely explains why she felt comfortable boasting about her immigration status.

“My name is Greisa Martinez Rosas,” she bragged at the rally. “I am an immigrant; I am undocumented, unafraid, queer, and unashamed!”

WATCH:

“I am an immigrant, I am undocumented, unafraid, queer, and unashamed!” – Greisa Martinez Rosas@ICEgov — she’ll be in D.C. all day for the Hands Off protests pic.twitter.com/YDlANnWlGb

— Jessica (@RealJessica05) April 5, 2025

But it seems Martinez Rosas forgot America now has a president who has stopped the illegal alien invasion cold and is promising mass deportations.

Indeed, her boast quickly drew the attention of White House Communications Director Steven Cheung. He issued a perfect response by posting a funny gif of former New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick writing on a notepad.

The message to Martinez Rosas was crystal clear: you screwed up and are now on our list. Mess around and find out.

https://t.co/2nX3Jvuk6w pic.twitter.com/l0WAETY9kb

— Steven Cheung (@StevenCheung47) April 5, 2025

Let’s hope that Trump and Border czar Tom Homan will also be notified soon.

How ironic if Martinez Rosas’ own mouth gets her sent back to Mexico all because she had to show up to a stupid rally?

The post Trump Administration Puts Loud-Mouthed Illegal Alien On Notice with a Perfect Response After She Brags About Her Status During Anti-Trump Rally in DC (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

In the course of my writing career, I have become inured to rejection. 

No matter the care or eagerness with which I prepare the pitch for an article, I understand that its acceptance is far from assured. Call it getting older, call it becoming jaded, but I accept that no athlete wins every game. Why should I expect that every stray idea rattling around in my head will be met with enthusiasm? I no longer find it discouraging, deflating, or even especially noteworthy to receive one of what seems to be a set of standard replies preferred by magazine and newspaper editors when declining a submission, such as “I’m going to pass” or “This doesn’t fit our needs.” 

Perhaps my studied nonchalance when it comes to editorial rejection can be traced back to one of my earliest submissions for publication. At the age of 12, I sent a batch of my political cartoons to the New York office of George magazine—and the rejection I received in the mail was so memorable that I asked my parents to frame it.

Some context may be necessary: Prior to finding my true calling as a critic and opinion journalist, I fancied myself a future daily newspaper cartoonist in the tradition of Charles M. Schulz or Bill Watterson. Already bewitched by the idea of appearing regularly in print, I suspect that the serial nature of the comic-strip format appealed to me: What could be better, I reckoned, than to be guaranteed a spot in the newspaper seven days a week? Not even breaking news or late sports scores could eat into the space carved out each day for Peanuts.

Recognizing that I was, at best, several years away from newspaper syndication, I set my sights on placing my panels on an ad hoc basis in my favorite magazines, which included, at the time, George. This magazine not only appealed to my burgeoning political interests—at some point, my hero worship had switched from Schulz and Watterson to Garry Trudeau and Jules Feiffer—but had something else going for it: the Kennedy mystique.

Founded in 1995, George represented a kind of mid-career do-over for the cofounder and editor John F. Kennedy, Jr. Having struck out in his sojourns as an actor and attorney, Kennedy evidently decided that Charles Foster Kane was a plausible model to emulate for his third attempt at finding a calling. What can be said except that print media still looked like a winning industry in the 1990s?

I remember George as being a fun, peppy publication with no particular political axe to grind—it was probably where I first encountered the bylines of both Norman Mailer and Ann Coulter—but I would be lying if I said that I paid attention to it for any reason other than its editor’s famous family. 

In the same manner that she attended to the doings of the British royal family, my mother had been an enthusiast of the Kennedy family since the 1960 presidential election, when she, alone among her family, rooted for JFK over Nixon. Among her most treasured possessions was Six White Horses, a touching book-length poem written by a high-school student in Michigan named Candy Geer amid the national mourning following the president’s assassination. The poem, accompanied by haunting, evocative pen-and-ink illustrations, imagines JFK Jr.’s thought process as he attends his fallen father’s funeral: “They said my Daddy’s in that box— / The black one, with the six gold locks.” My mother’s younger brother gave her the book, and among all the moves she made in her life, she never lost it.

So, with the weight of my family’s reverence for the Kennedy family in the back of my mind, I submitted a batch of comic strip samples to George magazine. I have no idea what I sent, but I suspect that my cartoons parodied the political figures of the day: Clinton, Dole, probably Steve Forbes. Astonishingly, I received a reply in the mail some weeks later.  

“Thank you for sending along your cartoons,” the letter began. “Everyone here at George really enjoyed them and you are obviously very talented.” The next paragraph delivered the bad news in language that was then new to me—“Unfortunately, they are not right for us at this time …”—but I remember my eyes reading past the rejection and instead focusing on the signature line below. The letter was signed by JFK Jr., who, at that point in his life, styled himself “John Kennedy” (foregoing his middle initial and the “Jr.”) 

I had no expectation that the magazine would, as the letter’s writer promised, keep my cartoons “on file” in the event they might be used in the future. (George went kaput following Kennedy’s death in 1999.) It didn’t matter to me. After my parents had it framed, this rejection letter hung on my wall for years—officially a document of failure but, in my eyes, a reflection of a family occasionally capable of great accomplishment and grace. Simply put, Kennedy was under no obligation to reply to a wannabe cartoonist’s amateurish submission, but, to his credit, he treated me with appreciation and courtesy. Alas, he also gave me a preview of what became a lifetime of interacting with editors who judged my article ideas “not right for us at this time.”

Why do I place such confidence in the plans of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.? It is not merely that RFK Jr. has been right about so many issues—from the unconstitutional madness of the governmental response to the pandemic to the superiority of beef tallow for spud-frying—but also that his cousin, the president’s son, wrote an aspiring journalist such a polite and professional letter all those years ago.

The post A Memorable Rejection appeared first on The American Conservative.

Advances in drone technology and artificial intelligence seem destined to transform defense planning and budgeting. But we shouldn’t assume these innovations will render obsolete manned weapons systems.

It would be a strategic and costly mistake to cut the procurement of existing programs that we need in the short term. Given the real chance of great power conflict in the near future—well before new technologies now in the research and development phase are ready to use—the United States must continue fielding traditional combat-relevant systems and weapons while continuing to research and develop the next generation of defense technologies.

This isn’t a new conversation. In the 1920s, following the First World War, some analysts believed that the invention of tanks meant that dismounted infantry was a thing of the past. After the Second World War, some Air Force generals argued that warships were no longer needed thanks to advances in airpower. History shows how difficult it is to predict how transformative new technologies will be or how they will affect existing systems and operations.

Today, air and sea drones are the current innovations that many believe will replace existing systems, such as manned warships and fighter aircraft. Already, some have called for scrapping procurement of existing warships and fighter jets entirely and focusing the defense budget on researching unmanned systems. Yet ongoing conflicts show that this would be a big mistake.

Consider the Russo–Ukrainian War and the most recent iteration of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia. In both cases, drones have played an outsized role, especially in intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. In Ukraine, drones have been instrumental in spotting for artillery strikes and conducting kinetic strikes on opposing forces. But they cannot wage war on their own. In the modern land domain, drones are complementary to and force multipliers of infantry, armor, and artillery units.

While drones and autonomous systems remain largely untested in air or naval combat, there are clear indications they’ll play an important role in future operations. What’s not clear is whether they’ll replace existing systems like manned warships, fighter aircraft, and bombers entirely, or whether they’ll complement them, as they have in ground combat.

And for drones to play a large a role in a maritime theater like the Indo-Pacific, they would require a much longer range than do the drones deployed in Ukraine, where war is conducted mostly over distances from tens to hundreds of miles. In contrast, a naval and air war in the Indo-Pacific would be conducted across thousands of miles.

Some argue that drones reduce costs by the very virtue of being “unmanned.” But the pilot isn’t the main reason an F-35 is expensive.

Manned fifth-generation fighter jets are expensive because they need powerful engines to travel long distances, complicated electronics systems for detection and targeting, state-of-the-art composite materials and design to ensure stealth, and large frames to carry sufficient ordnance to complete the mission. A drone capable of doing what an F-35 can do would cost just as much, as it would have to do all the same things—and it would still need to be operated or commanded remotely by a human pilot.

Nor do drone swarms—in which large numbers of small disposable drones with single, relatively small payloads attack a base or a ship—clearly eliminate the need for warships or jets. These swarms are both a cause for concern and an offensive capability to be studied. However, it’s far from clear that they would be more effective than precision-guided munitions in, say, sinking ships during an attempted amphibious invasion, especially given limited payload and range.

Moreover, every major military is working to develop countermeasures against individual drones and swarms. These militaries are observing drones in action in Ukraine and using those observations to develop systems to defend ships and bases.

Drones cannot yet automate many the functions performed by manned warships—from frigates to destroyers to aircraft carriers—which play a vital role by conducting strikes with large numbers of missiles or aircraft, projecting concentrated firepower, and displaying the flag in foreign ports (which reassures partners and allies).

The Chinese certainly believe such vessels are still needed. Indeed, they’re currently engaged in a massive military buildup of aircraft carriers and fifth-generation fighter aircraft.

We need warships and manned combat aircraft now, and in great quantities, to deter Chinese aggression in the Indo-Pacific. And for all we know, we may well continue to prefer such weapons systems far into the future.

Many of the systems under development are still 10 to 15 years away from being fielded at scale. There’s no guarantee that conflict won’t happen before then.

While drones and autonomous systems have shown that they have an important and (almost certainly) increasing role to play in modern warfare, that role remains one of complementing existing systems, rather than replacing them.

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