Obamacare enrollment fell by nearly 3 million in 2026, dropping from a peak of 22.1 million last year to 19.2 million as of February, according to federal data released June 26. The decline has reignited the national fight over whether the program is truly making healthcare affordable — or simply hiding waste, fraud, and dependency behind taxpayer-funded subsidies.

Democrats immediately blamed President Donald Trump and Republicans, claiming the decline proves that premiums are becoming unaffordable. KFF reported that average monthly premiums rose from $113 in 2025 to $178 in 2026, while benchmark silver premiums increased about 25 percent. But the Trump administration and conservative health policy experts argue the real story is program integrity.

During the pandemic-era emergency, Obamacare enrollment ballooned after verification rules were relaxed and automatic reenrollment expanded. Those policies created a perfect opening for improper sign-ups, including people receiving subsidies they did not qualify for.

According to the administration, roughly 2.9 million enrollees were blocked from receiving improper subsidies, while estimated fraudulent enrollments fell from 5.6 million last year to 2.6 million. CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz pushed back on Democratic attacks, saying many policies were tied to “fake people” or enrollees who never used the coverage.

From a conservative perspective, the enrollment drop is not a healthcare disaster — it is evidence that Trump’s reforms are draining the swamp inside Obamacare. Real affordability will not come from endless subsidies and loose oversight. It will come from restoring accountability, fighting fraud, and freeing Americans from a broken government-run system.

Liberal economist Paul Krugman is finally discovering what President Trump warned about for years—that unchecked Chinese trade hollows out Western industry. In a recent Bloomberg Television interview, Krugman said conditional tariffs on Chinese cars are “probably going to be necessary” in Europe, arguing that they cannot allow its auto industry to be wiped out by Beijing-backed competition.

That is a remarkable shift from one of the left’s most prominent voices for neoliberal free trade. Krugman has repeatedly attacked President Trump’s tariff agenda, calling parts of it chaotic, illegal, and economically misguided. But when it comes to Chinese vehicles flooding Western markets, even Krugman now admits the old globalization playbook no longer works.

Krugman cautioned against completely shutting Chinese cars out, however, saying that could hurt consumers. But he also said national security and massive market disruption from the red menace cannot be ignored, especially when an industry as important as autos is at stake. This is vindication for how President Trump has shifted the Overton Window on trade.

Tariffs are now on the table on a global basis as the economic elites are forced to admit their effectiveness. President Trump was able to articulate this reality as the establishment was in the tank for China. But now that the public has soured on Chinese dominance, they are forced to change their tune. Beijing has always used subsidies, industrial policy, slave labor, and devious strategic pressure to dominate critical sectors — from electric vehicles to batteries, software, and manufacturing.

The choice is not between free trade and protectionism. The real choice is between defending American and Western industry or surrendering it to the evil aims of the totalitarian and repressive Chinese Communist Party. Krugman may not say it directly, but his message is an endorsement of President Trump’s economic policies. President Trump was right to take China seriously, and it cannot be denied any longer.

Senate Republicans are opening a new front in President Trump’s war on waste, fraud, and abuse, launching an Anti-Fraud Task Force aimed at stopping criminals from looting federal programs at taxpayer expense. The effort is being led by Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri, who says fraud has become “organized theft on a national scale.”

He is joined by Republican Sens. Roger Marshall, Tommy Tuberville, Katie Britt, Ashley Moody, Tim Sheehy, Pete Ricketts, Marsha Blackburn, and Ron Johnson. Their mission is to find the weak points in federal programs, expose the fraud rings exploiting them, and force Congress to take responsibility for the money it authorizes.

Sen. Johnson warned that federal fraud may range anywhere from $250 billion to $1 trillion a year with the nature of the federal bureaucratic goliath lending itself to widespread graft. And once that money is gone, taxpayers rarely get it back.

That is why Republicans are making the point that prevention — not after-the-fact prosecution — must be the priority. The Senate effort mirrors the Trump administration’s anti-fraud campaign led by Vice President JD Vance. Vance’s noble efforts have already flagged nearly $6.3 billion in government contracts tied to potentially fraudulent businesses and forced hundreds of companies to prove they are legitimate, introducing the alien concept of accountability into the system.

In May, it also withheld $1.4 billion in federal funding from home health and hospice providers suspected of wrongdoing. This is exactly what our lawmakers in Washington should be doing: protecting working Americans from fraudsters, grifters, and bureaucratic negligence, instead of taking orders from lobbyists and special interests to give themselves more power at our expense. The Trump administration is rapidly changing the culture in Washington D.C., and the days of treating taxpayer money like a slush fund are over.

President Donald Trump has issued a sweeping executive memorandum aimed at delivering what his administration calls the largest deregulatory action in American history, taking direct aim at costly environmental rules that have driven up vehicle prices and restricted Americans’ ability to repair their own cars, trucks, and equipment.

The order directs the Environmental Protection Agency to expand “freedom to fix” protections by clarifying, within 30 days, what vehicle owners may lawfully do when repairing emissions systems on their own vehicles. It also tells the EPA to consider deprioritizing civil enforcement against Americans who make good-faith efforts to restore vehicles to their original configuration.

At the center of the order is a direct challenge to California’s outsized control over aftermarket parts. The memorandum argues that the California Air Resources Board has become a costly, backlogged bottleneck, with approvals taking more than a year and effectively allowing one state to dictate national repair options.

The order also instructs EPA to encourage alternative testing and certification pathways for aftermarket parts that comply with the Clean Air Act, while protecting manufacturers’ intellectual property and cracking down on cheap foreign knockoffs. From a conservative perspective, this is a major win for consumers, farmers, mechanics, small businesses, and American manufacturers.

It pushes back against green bureaucracy, restores practical repair rights, and puts affordability ahead of climate-driven red tape. President Trump is living up to his promise to undo environmental regulations that have killed free markets and consumer choice.

Just hours after the Senate Ethics Committee quietly dismissed a review of sexual misconduct and improper spending allegations, the Department of Justice opened a formal investigation into first-term Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) for potential campaign finance violations.

The move draws attention to how some Democratic lawmakers treat donor cash as a personal slush fund.

The inquiry, triggered by a whistleblower complaint from Southern California, is examining Gallego’s reported use of campaign and leadership PAC money to finance childcare, Super Bowl tickets, lavish trips, family travel, and outings to Disney World and Disneyland. 

Details include lavish trips to St. Barts and Miami, some loosely tied to donor events or family occasions, raising questions about whether personal indulgences were improperly funneled through political accounts.

This federal escalation arrived just after the Senate Select Committee on Ethics closed its review of a complaint from Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.). The committee examined FEC filings, Senate records, and travel documents, ultimately clearing Gallego of violating federal law or Senate rules.

Many have long viewed congressional ethics panels as toothless enablers more interested in protecting their own than enforcing accountability, especially for high-profile Democrats.

This exposes the classic hypocrisy of Washington Democrats who decry “dark money” and “corruption” while living large on donor dimes.

Gallego’s office predictably labeled the DOJ probe a partisan attack by a weaponized Justice Department under President Trump, framing it as political retaliation against a rising Democratic star and potential 2028 presidential contender.

Media outlets like Politico and the Daily Beast  first highlighted Gallego’s spending habits. One source familiar with his operations told Politico he “just spends his campaign account like it’s his personal slush fund,” using political donations to underwrite a luxury lifestyle.

Compounding the controversy is his longtime friendship with disgraced former Rep. Eric Swalwell, who resigned from Congress in April amid multiple sexual assault allegations and separate controversies involving his own campaign spending.

The two lawmakers jointly operated the “Swallego Victory Fund,” which funded a 2023 Super Bowl trip that included family members. Billed as a fundraiser with $5,000 tickets and a pre-game brunch, the joint committee raised roughly $56,500, spent about $34,700 on event tickets alone, and later disbursed the remaining funds to Gallego’s and Swalwell’s individual campaign committees, $7,643.89 each.

Campaign finance rules strictly prohibit converting contributions to personal use.

The DOJ’s criminal investigation is expected to involve subpoenas for bank records, receipts, emails, and donor communications, significantly raising the stakes beyond the Senate Ethics Committee’s earlier dismissal.

With Gallego positioning himself for a potential 2028 presidential run, the probe serves as a pointed reminder that public service should not come with a side of luxury family vacations funded by political supporters.

In the end, the questions center on Gallego’s reported use of campaign and leadership PAC funds for family trips to Disney World and Disneyland, luxury outings in Miami and St. Barts, and more than $18,000 in childcare reimbursements since 2019. The federal probe was triggered by a leaker’s complaint, with potentially more details expected to emerge as the DOJ investigation continues. The investigation is ongoing.

For decades the poisonous river of cocaine flowing into the United States has not respected borders, languages, or governments. It has carried with it shattered families, violent street gangs, organized crime, corruption, and the slow corrosion of national security on both sides of the hemisphere. America cannot win the war against narcotics unless the nations where those drugs are cultivated, refined, and exported stand shoulder to shoulder with us in a common cause.

That is why the election of Colombia’s new president represents far more than a routine transfer of political power. It signals the emergence of a government that understands that narcotics trafficking is not merely a criminal enterprise but an act of economic warfare, social sabotage, and terrorism directed against free societies. By declaring uncompromising war on the narco terrorists who have held vast regions of Colombia hostage for generations, the new administration has extended its hand to the United States in a partnership rooted not in ideology, but in the mutual defense of civilization, sovereignty, and the rule of law.

History teaches that nations rarely perish from invasion before they first decay from within. Rome was not conquered in a single day. Its institutions were hollowed out, its confidence diminished, and its enemies emboldened long before the barbarians breached the gates. The same lesson has echoed throughout the modern era wherever governments have surrendered territory, sovereignty, or political will to criminal empires masquerading as revolutionary movements. Today, Colombia stands at another such historic crossroads.

The election of Abelardo de la Espriella marks one of the most consequential political shifts in the Western Hemisphere in decades. After years in which drug cartels, Marxist guerrillas, criminal syndicates, and narco terrorist organizations expanded their influence across large portions of Colombia, the Colombian people have elected a president who has declared that accommodation has ended and confrontation has begun. During and immediately following his victory, De la Espriella made unmistakably clear that his administration intends to treat narco terrorists not as political actors worthy of endless negotiations, but as enemies of the Colombian state to be defeated. He has pledged a sweeping security crackdown, closer cooperation with the United States, and a renewed campaign against the criminal organizations that have profited from cocaine production, extortion, kidnapping, and political intimidation. His incoming government has also signaled that Colombia will cooperate more closely with American led regional efforts aimed at strengthening the fight against organized crime and narcotics trafficking.

This declaration is not merely a change in rhetoric. It represents a rejection of the dangerous illusion that peace can be purchased through endless concessions to violent criminal organizations. Throughout history, governments that confuse weakness with compassion inevitably invite greater violence. Winston Churchill warned Britain that choosing dishonor over resistance would ultimately produce both dishonor and war. Colombia has lived through precisely that tragic cycle for generations.

The history of Colombia is inseparable from the scourge of narco terrorism. Pablo Escobar transformed Medellín into the headquarters of one of the largest criminal enterprises the world has ever witnessed. His cartel assassinated judges, murdered journalists, bombed civilian airliners, bribed politicians, and openly challenged the authority of the Colombian government. Escobar understood an enduring truth about organized crime. Criminal empires flourish whenever governments hesitate to use lawful force against them.

Although Escobar himself was eventually eliminated, his empire did not disappear. It fragmented into new cartels, new trafficking networks, and increasingly sophisticated alliances with Marxist guerrilla organizations such as the FARC and the ELN. Drug trafficking became the financial engine powering insurgency, terrorism, kidnapping, illegal mining, human trafficking, and corruption across enormous swaths of the country. Even after the celebrated peace agreements of the last decade, numerous dissident factions and criminal organizations continued expanding their operations while coca cultivation and cocaine production reached historic highs. Armed groups now compete for territory, intimidate entire communities, and exploit illegal economies that generate billions of dollars annually.

The consequences extend far beyond Colombia’s borders. Cocaine flooding into North America fuels addiction, organized crime, money laundering, human misery, and violence throughout the United States. Every kilogram that leaves Colombia finances additional weapons purchases, corrupts more public officials, recruits more young criminals, and strengthens transnational criminal organizations operating across the hemisphere. The poison that begins in the jungles and laboratories of South America too often ends in American emergency rooms, county morgues, devastated neighborhoods, and grieving homes where parents wonder how their children were swallowed by an invisible empire of narcotics and death.

President Donald Trump has long argued that drug cartels should no longer be viewed as ordinary criminal enterprises but as terrorist organizations that threaten national sovereignty. That philosophy increasingly appears to be influencing governments throughout Latin America. Ecuador has intensified military operations against cartel organizations. El Salvador demonstrated that aggressive law enforcement can dramatically reduce organized criminal violence. Argentina has embraced stronger security policies. Now Colombia appears poised to join this growing coalition dedicated to restoring state authority over territories long surrendered to criminal control.

Critics will undoubtedly warn that such policies are too aggressive. They will invoke concerns about civil liberties, political polarization, and executive authority. Those concerns deserve thoughtful consideration in every constitutional republic. Yet history also teaches that liberty cannot survive where criminal organizations become more powerful than legitimate governments. Citizens cannot enjoy constitutional freedoms while living under the constant threat of assassination, extortion, kidnapping, and narcotics fueled violence.

Abraham Lincoln understood that preserving constitutional government sometimes requires extraordinary resolve against forces determined to destroy it. Ronald Reagan recognized that communist movements financed by narcotics trafficking represented not merely criminal enterprises but strategic threats to democratic civilization throughout the Western Hemisphere. Their warnings remain strikingly relevant today, as narco terrorist networks operate less like street gangs and more like hostile shadow governments with their own armies, treasuries, intelligence networks, propaganda machines, and political patrons.

Colombia’s new president inherits enormous challenges. Powerful cartels possess vast financial resources, heavily armed militias, sophisticated intelligence networks, and decades of experience corrupting public institutions. They will not disappear simply because a new administration takes office. Success will require sustained political courage, professional military leadership, honest law enforcement, judicial integrity, international cooperation, and unwavering public support.

For the United States, this moment should be welcomed and strengthened. A Colombia prepared to cooperate with Washington, D.C. in reducing narcotics trafficking and defeating narco terrorism is not merely a regional ally. It is a strategic partner in the defense of our own cities, borders, families, and national security. America should encourage this new seriousness, share intelligence where appropriate, coordinate interdiction efforts, and make clear that the days of treating narcotics trafficking as a remote foreign problem are over. The cartel pipeline is not a distant inconvenience. It is a hemispheric war.

Whether De la Espriella ultimately succeeds remains to be seen. Campaign promises are always easier than governing. Yet one truth is already unmistakable. Colombia has declared that narco terrorism is no longer a political inconvenience to be managed through endless negotiations. It is an existential threat to national sovereignty that must be confronted directly. That declaration matters not only to Colombia but to every nation struggling against transnational criminal organizations that poison communities, undermine democratic institutions, corrupt governments, and finance violence across international borders. The battle against narco terrorism is not simply Colombia’s fight. It is the fight of every free nation that refuses to surrender civilization to organized criminal empires.