Shut It Down, Already!

The Phyllis Schlafly Report
By John and Andy Schlafly

Both the Right and Left seem fine with a government shutdown, so let the drama unfold. Republicans in Congress have proposed a clean funding bill that continues the Biden-era spending levels through November with no additional expenditures, while Democrats demand far more.

With Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) retiring next year and no longer acting as a Senate leader, his Chicken Little predictions of political disaster for Republicans from a shutdown ring hollow. Many in MAGA supported the reelection of Trump for the purpose of shutting down the government, and this appears to have been the primary goal of mega-donor Elon Musk.

Liberals use false spin for their benefit by insisting that a shutdown always hurts the Republican Party the most. The Republican Congress shut down the government for 21 days in late 1995 through early 1996, and in fact gained two Senate seats in the subsequent election, despite the Democrat Clinton prevailing over the weak Republican nominee Bob Dole at the top of the ticket.

Clinton failed to garner a majority in the popular vote after that shutdown, and Republicans held onto their majority in the House of Representatives. Republicans also maintained their large majority in state governorships, without any net loss.

Google AI says that Republicans received most of the blame for that 1995-96 shutdown but, even if true, that was decades before MAGA and the growing public opinion that the federal government needs to be shut down. The federal debt at the end of the 1995 fiscal year was only $5 trillion, while today it is grotesquely more than 7 times that amount, at a monstrous $37.5 trillion.

Public contempt for the federal government and officials in Congress is sky high. The leadership of both political parties on Capitol Hill has disapproval ratings greater than their approval ratings, in another indication that the American public would be just fine with unplugging their lavish salaries and benefits.

A recent Gallup poll found that only 23% of Americans have a favorable opinion of the federal government, while 61% have a negative view. These approval and disapproval ratings are worse than those of every other sector, including pharmaceuticals, oil, and utilities.

The federal government is plainly broken in many other ways, too. Federal workers are almost unanimously anti-Trump, and their one-sided verdicts against Trump supporters in court cases in D.C. have been appalling.

Foreign aid has continued to flow to prop up regimes in faraway lands and to fund warfare. Trump has taken laudable steps to end USAID and other foreign spending that spreads liberal harm around the world, but shutting down the federal government may be the only foolproof way to end this.

Eight months into the Trump Administration, many in MAGA conclude that it is impossible to clean house in the Swamp. Shutting down the federal government is the only viable way to end injustices wrought by the Feds.

Democrat leaders in Congress may be supporting a shutdown to appease their base of the far Left. Zohran Mamdani, a self-described socialist, is leading by a landslide in the polling for the next New York City mayor to be elected in five weeks.

Progressives complained loudly and bitterly about the Democrat leadership who agreed to the Republican bill last March to continue federal spending, because it led to trimming Medicaid funding. Progressives indicate that they may challenge the Democrat establishment next year based on their capitulation to Trump.

Meanwhile Trump’s brilliant Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, has devised a clever plan to lay off much of the federal workforce permanently, in what is called a reduction in force (RIF), if Democrats force a shutdown. Democrats are squawking because these federal workers are overwhelmingly anti-Trump, but this has not yet caused the Dems to budge on their unreasonable demands.

Liberals fulminate about how it is unprecedented to conduct RIFs during a government shutdown, but this ingenious approach is likely to succeed. While federal agencies have not traditionally implemented RIFs during shutdowns, the law is clear that they have the discretion to do this if they abide by the rules as Vought is explaining to them.

Democrats can keep the government open by enacting a clean funding bill, but instead insist that Republicans provide free health care to migrants whom Biden wrongly reclassified as “lawfully present.” Trump properly revoked that special status, which appropriately renders them ineligible for free health care, and Republicans are right to protect Americans against the medical costs of illegal aliens.

Given the 60-vote threshold in the Senate, eight Democrats must join the Republicans to keep the federal government going. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has vowed to vote Nay because the spending is too high under the Republican bill, even without tacking on the additional Democrat spending demands.

John and Andy Schlafly are sons of Phyllis Schlafly (1924-2016) and lead the continuing Phyllis Schlafly Eagles organizations with writing and policy work.

These columns are also posted on PhyllisSchlafly.com, pseagles.com, and Townhall.com.

Phyllis was right about the ERA

Ted Meehan writes:

In the late 1960’s and early 70’s, as the feminist movement was rising in influence, its leaders wrote and promoted passage of an Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) presumably to guarantee the rights of women. Very few people saw any problem with agreeing that women and men should be equal under the law.

The prescient Phyllis Schlafly led opposition to passage of the ERA, and took plenty of abuse for doing so. What objection could justify opposing such a nice gesture that codified what nearly everyone already believed?

Phyllis recognized this as a legislative Trojan Horse that could force upon America, a number of unintended results that very few people approved. She feared passage would open the door to legalizing abortion. She warned that some people could use the ERA to justify men entering women’s bathrooms or locker rooms. She also believed that ERA could remove some legal protections for women – like Title IX. She was called an alarmist and was ridiculed. But a look at America in 2025 shows her to be the visionary she was.

Some public service jobs have physical requirements. A fire department or police candidate may be required to lift and carry a 200-pound man for 100 yards in under 45 seconds. If women firefighters are physically unable to perform such a task, are they disqualified? Well, no. Recognizing the unequal physical attributes of men and women, some physical qualifications were lowered – only for women – to allow some women to qualify. Discrimination lawsuits by men have not been noted. But a strict interpretation of the ERA would certainly prohibit lowering physical standards to favor one gender over the other.

The pseudo-scientific transgender movement has had nearly no effect at all on men’s sports. Can anyone recall reports of men feeling threatened by a transitioning female displacing male athletes on any sports teams? There have been none! But we regularly see controversy over female records being broken by biological males. Or females being displaced or injured after being physically overmatched by a post-pubescent biological male. We read reports of trans-identifying biological males entering female locker rooms, or bathrooms – with some even sexually assaulting the females! Once again, score this one for Phyllis Schlafly.

What about abortion? How could something like that possibly be justified by the ERA? Well, today three pro-abortion judges – Christine Donahue, Kevin Dougherty, and David Wecht (up for retention) — are citing ERA to argue that a “gender-based law” is unconstitutional. They argue that since only mothers (females) are prohibited from having abortions, then laws regulating abortion, discriminate only against women, and so they are unconstitutional. So, for these judges, the ERA contradicts and supersedes basic laws of nature! Imagine the outcry from feminists if the same abuse of logic was directed at them!

The Equal Rights Amendment is not a part of our federal Constitution, but the passage of a state version in Pennsylvania in 1971 should not be cited to declare abortion to be a constitutional right — or to require taxpayers to fund elective abortions. Our elected legislature — with approval by our elected governors — has passed laws to regulate abortion – as had been required by the since-overturned Roe v. Wade decision, with the recent Dobbs decision. Absent Roe, no federal law imposes abortion on states. Roe’s overturning should teach us that laws passed by legislators – not lawsuits by profit-motivated abortion businesses, decided by pro-abortion judges – should be the basis for governance.

Haul Jack Smith before a Miami Grand Jury

The Phyllis Schlafly Report
By John and Andy Schlafly

Eight months of all talk and no action in prosecuting Leftists has left President Trump frustrated. On Saturday night, Trump publicly criticized his Attorney General, Pam Bondi, for achieving so little so far.

“Pam: I have reviewed over 30 statements and posts saying that, essentially, ‘same old story as last time, all talk, no action. Nothing is being done,’” Trump posted. He added that the Left “impeached me twice, and indicted me (5 times!), OVER NOTHING.”

Last week Trump posted, “Why was the wonderful Turning Point under INVESTIGATION by ‘Deranged’ Jack Smith and the Corrupt & Incompetent Biden Administration. They tried to force Charlie, and many other people and movements, out of business.”

And yet the response has been radio silence from Trump’s top advisors in holding Trump-haters responsible for their weaponization of government. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene recently pointed out that when Democrats return to power, they will continue where they left off by weaponizing government further against Republicans.

The man who wrongly indicted Trump more than anyone, Jack Smith, is an apparatchik of the Deep State, and he may be impossible to indict in the anti-Trump swamp of Washington, D.C. The grand jury pool in that venue, where 95% of the residents voted against Trump in 2020, has already refused to deliver indictments in multiple smaller prosecutions there.

Jack Smith’s principal wrongdoing was committed not in D.C., but in the Southern District of Florida, where the federal court is based in Miami. It was in that judicial district where Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home was wrongfully raided, and where an unjustified indictment was filed against Trump to try to derail his reelection campaign.

Ultimately, federal Judge Aileen Cannon tossed out the indictment because Jack Smith was acting in violation of the Constitution. In other words, it was Jack Smith who violated the law by indicting Trump, and it does not matter whether then-Attorney General Merrick Garland authorized it because the Constitution is supreme.

Under federal law, 18 U.S.C. § 371, the crime of conspiracy is when two or more persons agree to do an unlawful act against the United States. Jack Smith agreed with others in his office to indict Trump, contrary to the Constitution as later held by Judge Cannon.

Neither Jack Smith nor anyone associated with the Deep State in D.C. would obtain the favoritism in Miami that they have been receiving from judges and juries in D.C. Miami-Dade County voted 55-44% for Trump in 2024, and Trump enjoys enthusiastic support from Cuban immigrants who are leaders in that community.

It is difficult to view Jack Smith’s actions against candidate Trump last year as anything other than election interference, as Trump said in his winning campaign. By re-electing Trump, American voters agreed with him that he was innocent and the prosecutions of him were improper.

On Saturday Trump replaced the U.S. Attorney for the all-important Eastern District of Virginia, where federal workers have commonly been prosecuted in the past. This district includes the federal court in Alexandria, just across the Potomac from Washington, D.C., with a reputation of convicting nearly every time.

That is the pro-conviction venue where liberals prosecuted Trump advisor Paul Manafort, but the charges were so bogus that the jury deadlocked on most of them such that complete verdicts could not be reached. Ultimately President Trump pardoned Manafort for everything.

Contrast the ferocity with which the DOJ went after Trump, Manafort, and many other advisors to Trump with the inaction by the DOJ in investigating and prosecuting liberals. Trump’s newly appointed U.S. Attorney for eastern Virginia, which includes D.C. suburbs, is hopeful.

Historians should notice the similarity with President Abraham Lincoln’s frustration over the inaction by his first Commanding General during the Civil War, George B. McClellan. Lincoln finally quipped in a letter, “If General McClellan does not want to use the army, I would like to borrow it for a time.”

Ultimately Lincoln found an outsider from Missouri, Ulysses S. Grant, to replace McClellan to lead the Union Army. As an outcast, Grant was what Lincoln needed to win the Civil War as Grant then fully used all available resources to accomplish the mission at hand.

Neither Jack Smith nor others on his team who indicted Trump in Florida were pardoned by President Biden’s autopen. And while a doctrine of immunity protects prosecutors in their advocacy role, immunity does not protect them from accountability for their investigative and administrative work, as the Supreme Court held in Buckley v. Fitzsimmons (1993), and the Court could likewise deny immunity to Smith.

Prosecutors are the first to declare that “ignorance of the law is no excuse.” Jack Smith’s team insisted that no one is above the law, and neither are they.

John and Andy Schlafly are sons of Phyllis Schlafly (1924-2016) and lead the continuing Phyllis Schlafly Eagles organizations with writing and policy work.

These columns are also posted on PhyllisSchlafly.com, pseagles.com, and Townhall.com.

Memorial to Charlie Kirk

Here is an AI-generated tribute to Charlie Kirk.

Charlie Kirk was a bold and steadfast leader whose voice rang clear in defense of American values. As the founder of *Turning Point USA*, he led a new generation of young conservatives toward understanding the importance of traditional American principles. Charlie was unwavering in his commitment to the values that built this great nation—faith, family, and freedom. He was a tireless advocate for conservative ideas, especially in the education system, where liberal ideologies have long held sway. With grace and conviction, Charlie stood against the tide of political correctness, speaking truth to power even when it was unpopular. His courage inspired countless young Americans to take a stand and fight for the future of this country.

His passing leaves a void, but Charlie's legacy endures in the hearts of those he inspired. Just as Phyllis Schlafly fought to defend American institutions and the sanctity of the family, Charlie understood that the future of our nation rests in the hands of the next generation. His work was never about the accolades or the spotlight—it was about the fight for freedom, a fight he believed every American should join. Charlie’s passion for our country and his dedication to the principles of limited government and personal responsibility will continue to inspire. His influence on the conservative movement will never fade, and his memory will live on in the work of those who carry on his mission.

You can ask AI-Phyllis questions here.

Seek the Death Penalty Against Kirk’s Assassin

The Phyllis Schlafly Report
By John and Andy Schlafly

The assassination of Charlie Kirk cries out for the death penalty, which is rarely imposed by Utah courts. This murder was premeditated and executed with vengeance, against an innocent victim merely for exercising his constitutional right of freedom of speech.

This crime struck at the heart of our republic, and has terrorized Americans from expressing their views in public. Like the assassination of President William McKinley by an anarchist on September 6, 1901, for which the assassin received full due process and then was executed on October 29, retribution by seeking the death penalty against Kirk’s assassin is needed.

Before the suspected Kirk assassin was arrested, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox pointed out that Utah still has the death penalty, but Utah law makes it nearly impossible to apply. Utah has executed only one person (an American Indian) in the last 15 years, and there are only four criminals on Utah’s death row, each of whom has been supported there at taxpayer expense for more than 29 years.

A murderer cannot be punished by the death penalty in Utah state courts unless there is an aggravating factor as narrowly defined by Utah law, such as killing a police officer or shooting in a way that creates a “grave risk” to bystanders in a crowd. Kirk’s assassin allegedly fired one shot from a high-precision rifle at Kirk while he was seated on stage, so it is unclear if Utah’s death penalty even applies to this crime.

In addition, Utah has a pro-transgender culture, contrary to every other Republican state. Codifying a pro-transgender administrative rule promulgated in 2020, Utah in 2023 became the only Republican state with a law that prevents parents from seeking professional counseling to straighten out gender dysphoria in their children. In 2022, Gov. Cox also vetoed legislation protecting girls’ sports against transgender athletes.

The suspect, Tyler Robinson, was living with his transgender partner, whom Gov. Cox praised as being “incredibly cooperative” with investigators. Robinson reportedly had a romantic relationship with his transgender roommate.

Bullet casings found with the murder weapon contained markings demonstrating that this assassination was carefully planned and carried out with vengeance. These inscriptions included a merciless “CATCH,” along with positive references from online communities, including the sexually deviant furry subculture.

Afterward Robinson reportedly sent electronic messages to his transgender lover about the murder. Robinson also exchanged messages among more than 20 people in the online platform Discord soon after the assassination, apparently without anyone rebuking him or telling him to turn himself in to authorities.

The FBI reports that Robinson’s DNA has been linked to the crime scene, where a high-powered hunting rifle with a 500-yard shooting range was found nearby. It is alleged that Robinson shot Kirk from a rooftop merely 150 yards away.

Tyler Robinson has so far been charged only in state court with three crimes for assassinating Charlie Kirk: aggravated murder, felony discharge of a firearm, and obstruction of justice. In state court Robinson will benefit from a system that is more lenient than federal court, and less likely to impose the death penalty.

As President Trump vows a full federal investigation, his Attorney General Pam Bondi needs to file federal charges that carry the death penalty. The FBI should not be relegated merely to a supporting role in Utah, which is notorious for its Trump-haters and for favoring residents against outsiders.

Tyler Robinson admittedly hated Charlie Kirk, who frequently professed his Christian faith and was outspoken against the transgender ideology, as President Trump has been. Robinson’s love interest is transgender, and Kirk’s close association with Trump made Kirk a proxy of Trump and a target for Trump-haters, of whom there are many in Utah.

The federal death penalty is triggered by hate crime murders when motivated by animus towards one’s perceived race, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or disability. If it is a capital offense to murder a transgender person, then it should be a capital offense for a transgender’s lover to murder a prominent Christian critic of the transgender movement.

The federal hate crime statute – and the federal death penalty – should be applied to prosecute this assassination of an outspoken Christian. The Trump Administration should ensure that Americans are fully informed about what encouragement the assassin may have received from well-funded Leftist organizations before and after this crime.

On Tuesday FBI Director Kash Patel was subjected to rants by Senate Democrats and liberal Republicans in a hearing on Capitol Hill, but little of it had to do with this shocking assassination that has terrorized millions of Americans. Instead, Democrats were more concerned about preventing unproductive federal workers from being fired.

Kirk’s death is a watershed moment for our country, and freedom of speech depends on how thoroughly this heinous crime is prosecuted.

John and Andy Schlafly are sons of Phyllis Schlafly (1924-2016) and lead the continuing Phyllis Schlafly Eagles organizations with writing and policy work.

These columns are also posted on PhyllisSchlafly.com, pseagles.com, and Townhall.com.

Trump’s 18-0 Winning Streak in SCOTUS

The Phyllis Schlafly Report
By John and Andy Schlafly

No NFL team in the last 50 years has attained perfection without a loss, but this is Trump’s record in the U.S. Supreme Court: 18-0. His splendid Solicitor General, John Sauer, has racked up 18 wins this year, in staying lower court decisions against Trump and thereby allowing the President to exercise the full “executive power” granted by Article II of the Constitution.

These victories have been on emergency applications to the Supreme Court, where it is difficult to obtain the Justices’ attention and even more challenging to prevail. Also called the “shadow docket,” these wins by Trump have come quickly, without oral argument, often by a 6-3 or greater margin.

Seven of these wins have been on deporting illegal aliens, five on firing unnecessary federal workers, four on terminating wasteful federal spending, one on ending transgender personnel in the military, and one on stopping the epidemic of nationwide injunctions by district court judges.

On Monday, Chief Justice Roberts granted a stay to Trump, as requested by Sauer, of a D.C. Circuit ruling that had blocked Trump from removing a Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission. Despite being on the Court’s traditional summer vacation until it returns later this month, Roberts granted Trump’s request on the second business day after it was filed.

An even bigger victory for Trump came on Monday from the Supreme Court when it stayed a Ninth Circuit ruling that had blocked Trump’s deportation campaign in Los Angeles County, where an estimated 10 percent of its 10 million residents are illegal. Justice Kavanaugh wrote a concurrence agreeing with Sauer’s argument that ethnicity can be relevant in deciding whether to investigate someone’s immigration status.

Kavanaugh explained that Supreme Court precedent and common sense allow “apparent ethnicity” to be a “relevant factor” to be considered by immigration officials, not alone but in conjunction with other relevant factors, in forming a “reasonable suspicion” sufficient to justify a so-called Terry stop. Further investigation is then required before arresting or deporting a suspect.

This does not mean that Hispanics or any other group can be deported based on their ethnicity, but merely that ethnicity can be one of several factors justifying further investigation. “Importantly, reasonable suspicion means only that immigration officers may briefly stop the individual and inquire about immigration status,” Kavanaugh explained.

Indeed, a recent immigration raid occurred at a Hyundai electric vehicle plant in Georgia, where illegal aliens from South Korea were caught, identified, and detained. Congress should investigate how hundreds of these Asian illegal aliens migrated here illegally.

The Hyundai raid also cast doubt on the premise that foreign car manufacturers are helping Americans by locating a few plants here. In this case, the manufacturing jobs were going to illegal aliens from the country of the foreign competitor.

Trump has been winning in federal appellate courts, too. On Monday a 2-1 Republican majority on a panel in the Fourth Circuit ruled in favor of Trump on his authority “to lay off thousands of probationary employees across multiple federal agencies.” The Democrat on the panel dissented, in Maryland v. USDA.

Many more lawsuits against Trump are percolating through the federal court system on the road to ultimate review by the Supreme Court. There are signs that justices on the High Court are growing impatient with the defiance by liberal lower court judges of precedents in favor of Trump, which has burdened the Supreme Court throughout these summer months to stay the anti-Trump decisions.

Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, one of the less conservative justices, expressed his exasperation on August 21 while the justices were on summer vacation. “So this is now the third time in a matter of weeks this Court has had to intercede in a case squarely controlled by one of its precedents.”

“All these interventions should have been unnecessary, but together they underscore a basic tenet of our judicial system: Whatever their own views, judges are duty-bound to respect the hierarchy of the federal court system created by the Constitution and Congress,” Gorsuch wrote while quoting precedent, in this victory for Trump in NIH v. American Public Health Association to allow him to terminate research grants.

After being forced to work all summer to block anti-Trump rulings by federal judges in district and appellate courts, mostly in the First and DC Circuits where liberals have forum-shopped their cases to obtain Democrat-appointed judges, the Supreme Court returns on Monday, September 29, 2025. Then it will hold its traditional “long conference” to dispose of hundreds of petitions for certiorari that accumulated while they were away.

The following week, the Supreme Court begins its oral arguments for its “2025 Term” that will last until the end of June next year. Trump can expect to win many more reversals of flawed lower court rulings that liberal judges are rendering against him.

John and Andy Schlafly are sons of Phyllis Schlafly (1924-2016) and lead the continuing Phyllis Schlafly Eagles organizations with writing and policy work.

These columns are also posted on PhyllisSchlafly.com, pseagles.com, and Townhall.com.

Fire the Rest of the CDC Staff, Too

The Phyllis Schlafly Report
By John and Andy Schlafly

Last Thursday dozens of staffers, both low- and high-level, walked off their jobs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), protesting the firing of the CDC director and the subsequent resignation of three senior-level executives. This defiant walkout illustrated the dangerous arrogance of this federal agency that thinks it is above accountability to the president and the American people.

In a pitiful op-ed published by the New York Times on Monday, prior CDC directors whine about the shake-up at the agency by RFK Jr., as the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). Notably, the CDC directors under the George W. Bush and first Trump Administrations did not sign onto this protest.

This op-ed by former CDC officials absurdly tries to take credit for the CDC for an American lifespan that increased over half a century, which is due to improved hygiene and medical technology, and fewer accident fatalities. The CDC performance during Covid was so abysmal that poor countries managed the disease better than the CDC and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) did.

The former CDC directors sarcastically put the word “treatments” in quotation marks as though that cannot be a viable alternative to vaccination. Measles is known to be worse in those who have a vitamin A deficiency, as the CDC admits on its website, and RFK Jr. should be praised for promoting greater awareness about this vitamin.

RFK Jr., to whom Trump refers as Bobby, then appointed successful Silicon Valley entrepreneur Jim O’Neill as the acting director of the CDC. His first public statement right out of the gate on X was spot on: “Public health is a noble calling. When it is driven by transparent data and rigorous science, it earns public trust and keeps the world safe.”

Contrary to the measles fearmongering by former CDC officials, O’Neill implied that it was “new screening technology to detect infections from foreign travelers,” as developed by the Trump Administration, which partly “stopped the Texas measles outbreak.” He added that RFK Jr.’s good appointments have “ended the misuse of the childhood immunization schedule for Covid vaccine mandates.”

This perspective of Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) is refreshing. On Monday morning, President Trump signaled his support for RFK Jr.’s incoming new CDC leadership by saying, “It is very important that the Drug Companies justify the success of their various Covid Drugs.”

“Many people think they are a miracle that saved Millions of lives. Others disagree! With CDC being ripped apart over this question, I want the answer, and I want it NOW,” Trump added.

By asking for more transparency about what really happened in Big Pharma’s response to Covid, “I want them to … clear up this MESS, one way or the other!!! I hope OPERATION WARP SPEED was as ‘BRILLIANT’ as many say it was. If not, we all want to know about it, and why???” Trump stated.

This punctured the appeal to Trump by the Old Guard at the CDC, who tried to get on his good side by praising the first Trump Administration’s support of Operation Warp Speed. It “produced highly effective and safe vaccines that saved millions of lives during the Covid-19 pandemic,” the former CDC officials asserted.

But what about the interference by Big Pharma, the CDC, and the FDA with access by Americans to inexpensive early Covid treatments like ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine? Congress funded the use of treatments other than vaccines during Covid, and several states have made ivermectin, for which a Nobel Prize was granted, available over-the-counter as is common in foreign countries.

But Big Pharma does not profit from ivermectin as it makes billions of dollars from mandatory vaccination, and every official who misled the public by disparaging ivermectin should be fired. During the Biden Administration, on Aug. 26, 2021, the CDC issued an emergency CDC Health Advisory through its Alert Network by declaring that “Ivermectin is not authorized or approved by FDA for prevention or treatment of COVID-19.”

CDC officials know that 25% of all prescriptions are for “off-label” uses that have never been specifically approved by the FDA, and never will be. It was deliberately misleading for the CDC to emphasize that the FDA had not approved ivermectin for treating Covid, because generic medication is rarely approved for additional uses, as that is costly and unnecessary.

Yet this deception by the CDC and FDA was then invoked by hospitals to deny ivermectin to patients dying from Covid, and when some courts ordered hospitals to allow the treatment to save the patients, hospitals fought for reversal on appeal. It is welcome that RFK Jr. has fired leadership at the CDC, and the mass walkout there last week shows that more house-cleaning is needed at this Big Pharma-controlled agency.

John and Andy Schlafly are sons of Phyllis Schlafly (1924-2016) and lead the continuing Phyllis Schlafly Eagles organizations with writing and policy work.

These columns are also posted on PhyllisSchlafly.com, pseagles.com, and Townhall.com.

Making Schools Great Again Thanks to Trump

The Phyllis Schlafly Report
By John and Andy Schlafly

“Back to school” feels different this year, thanks to President Trump’s executive orders that remove Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI). Trump is also restoring the presidential fitness test that Democrats had removed.

Big-name colleges, including the University of Michigan and Columbia University, have shut down or scaled back their DEI centers due to concerns about Trump pulling federal funding from the school. Meanwhile, under Trump’s leadership, colleges in red states like Texas, Florida, and Kansas have ended their DEI programs to comply with state laws.

Five months ago, Trump’s Department of Education ordered public schools to eliminate their DEI programs or lose federal funding. School districts for the K-12 level were told to certify that they no longer have DEI programs, while universities were informed they would lose federal funding if they refuse to terminate their DEI.

Trump officials gave public schools two weeks to comply. Instead, many blue states ran to federal court to seek an injunction against Trump, and on August 14 federal judge Stephanie Gallagher invalidated and blocked the anti-DEI letters by Trump’s Education Department.

Judge Gallagher was initially nominated by President Obama to the federal bench and, possibly as part of an unfortunate compromise, subsequently renominated by Trump in 2018. Her 76-page decision in AFT v. Dept. of Education complained that Trump had “initiated a sea change in how the Department of Education regulates educational practices and classroom conduct.”

A “sea change” in education is exactly what Americans wanted when they returned Trump to the White House, to focus on teaching basic skills rather than indoctrinating children with a liberal ideology. An appeal is likely of this decision in favor of Randi Weingarten’s teachers union.

The percentage of students who are in traditional public schools has declined to 83%, or about 50 million kids, as parents flee from school failures. Homeschooling is growing and may increase further with the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to improve online learning.

Effective September 1, a new law in Texas (SB 12) prohibits DEI in public schools there and requires parents to be notified if their child requests to be referred to by a different pronoun. Texas bans school clubs “based on sexual orientation or gender identity.”

In May Texas also enacted an immense school voucher program, which provides $10,000 per student to attend an accredited private school instead of a public school, and up to $2,000 apiece for homeschooled children.

But this program does not begin until fall 2026, and is initially capped at $1 billion. Some conservative legislators from rural Texas who opposed splintering their school system with this were defeated by Gov. Abbott in order to enact this voucher program.

Democrat-controlled Illinois goes in the opposite direction, by lowering its proficiency standards without giving families enough options. Trump has threatened to take over Chicago to end the crime epidemic there, and it would be tantalizing if he could take over the Chicago public schools, too.

Even the editorial board of the liberal Chicago Tribune is complaining now about how Democrat politicians are lowering the proficiency standards there. Its August 22 headline shouted, “Illinois moves the goalposts on reading, math and science.”

“Now, scoring an 18 in English language arts and a 19 in math on the ACT will count as ‘proficient’ for high school juniors.” But an 18 is below the national average and far below the score of 30 to 34 that most freshmen at the University of Illinois attain.

Missouri enacted a statewide ban on all personal cell phones, smart watches, headphones, and tablets by public school students, with limited exceptions such as emergencies. School districts and teachers are welcoming this law and its implementation for this school year.

As to physical fitness, President Obama ended that test for public school students in 2012, which Trump is restoring so that students can again be asked to run a mile or do situps and pushups to demonstrate their physical fitness. For more than 50 years this test was given to public school students annually in gymnasiums.

Obama’s termination of the fitness test was part of the harmful shift away from competition and individual merit in education. The Democrat Party has abandoned the vision of President John F. Kennedy, who sought a stronger America and even wrote an essay for Sports Illustrated entitled “The Soft American.”

Trump inherits a nation of children who are badly out of shape, obese, and plagued by health problems. At least 20% of schoolchildren are obese, according to the CDC, and 77% of young adults are unfit to serve in the United States Armed Forces.

Chronic absenteeism has shot up to 25% of students in some school districts. A quarter of student enrollment did not show up for more than 10% of the school days last year.

John and Andy Schlafly are sons of Phyllis Schlafly (1924-2016) and lead the continuing Phyllis Schlafly Eagles organizations with writing and policy work.

These columns are also posted on PhyllisSchlafly.com, pseagles.com, and Townhall.com.

GOP Should Prioritize Ending Election Fraud

The Phyllis Schlafly Report
By John and Andy Schlafly

Sandwiched between Trump’s high-powered meetings with foreign leaders, Trump took the time to prioritize ending fraud-prone mail-in voting. Slightly more than half of our country – 28 states – permit mail-in voting without any documented reason or excuse.

Earlier this month, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Judge James Ho began his decision in favor of a voter ID law in Texas by declaring, “Mail-in ballots are not secure.” The vast majority of the world agrees and has banned the permissive mail-in voting that is allowed here.

Our postal service was never intended to conduct elections – that is not its mission. The delivery standards of our postal service have been declining, such that postmarks are no longer consistently used and letters are no longer reliably received within 3 days of being mailed.

Like the designated hitter rule in baseball that many traditional fans oppose, a team needs to use what is allowed in order to win. Campaigns should encourage Republicans to vote early, including by mail, in states that allow it, while also seeking a return to Election Day-only voting for everyone to improve election integrity.

Federal law has long required that national elections be held on only one day, and our country would be better off with a return to that gold standard for everyone. As the Fifth Circuit explained on August 4 by quoting from a report by the bipartisan Commission on Federal Election Reform, “absentee ballots remain the largest source of potential voter fraud.”

Yet liberals are in a tizzy over Trump’s new push against mail-in voting, and stories about it have displaced news about Trump’s meetings with foreign leaders. The liberal media doubts that Trump can end mail-in voting by executive order, as Trump indicates he will do.

Democrats insist there is no evidence that mail-in voting is susceptible to fraud, but they have blocked attempts by Republicans to audit signatures on mail-in ballots to check for authenticity. Some have destroyed records concerning the flood of mail-in ballots used in 2020 to elect Biden.

The Republican-controlled Congress has failed to hold hearings on this important issue, and the Department of Justice (DOJ) has failed to investigate it. Instead, Republicans like Trump’s chief of staff in 2020, Mark Meadows, remain under indictment by a Democrat county prosecutor in Georgia for questioning the massive number of mail-in ballots counted in favor of Biden to surprisingly award him that state in 2020.

Since 2020, 19 states have enacted restrictions on mail-in voting. A surge of 33 million mail-in ballots in 2020 was used to elect Biden, and there has never been a real investigation as to the legitimacy of that massive spike, which was not seen again in 2024.

“REMEMBER, WITHOUT FAIR AND HONEST ELECTIONS, AND STRONG AND POWERFUL BORDERS, YOU DON’T HAVE EVEN A SEMBLANCE OF A COUNTRY,” Trump posted Monday morning prior to his high-profile meeting with European leaders. Trump is impressed by how other countries have long prohibited mail-in voting “because of the MASSIVE VOTER FRAUD ENCOUNTERED.”

As nearly half of our country limited mail-in ballots in the 2024 election, Kamala Harris received 6.3 million fewer votes than Biden did four years earlier. At the same time, Trump received 3 million more votes in 2024 than in 2020.

The Harris campaign spent $1.5 billion in 2024, which included paying for ballot harvesters, yet there is little explanation of what all that money funded. House Republicans and the DOJ should be investigating this, but have failed to.

“We, as a Republican Party, are going to do everything possible that we get rid of mail-in ballots,” Trump responded to reporters at the White House on Monday. “We’re going to start with an executive order that's being written right now by the best lawyers in the country to end mail-in ballots.”

DOJ has spent tens of millions of dollars investigating critics of the reported election outcome in 2020, and yet apparently not a dime has been spent by DOJ on investigating rampant ballot harvesting and drop-box ballot dumps in 2020. There has been no investigation to explain the 6.3 million votes for the Democrat presidential nominee that disappeared between 2020 and 2024.

Trump’s opponents say that Germany and a few other Western countries allow mail-in voting, but only with stricter rules than in the United States such as Germany’s requirement that ballots be received by Election Day to be counted. France banned mail-in voting due to fraud, and most other European, Middle Eastern, and Latin American nations also prohibit it.

In too many of our states, mail-in signatures are not verified and ballots are accepted until 14 days after Election Day. Paid political operatives continue to have far too much influence over the harvesting of ballots.

John and Andy Schlafly are sons of Phyllis Schlafly (1924-2016) and lead the continuing Phyllis Schlafly Eagles organizations with writing and policy work.

These columns are also posted on PhyllisSchlafly.com, pseagles.com, and Townhall.com.

POTUS Trial Balloon on Pot

The Phyllis Schlafly Report
By John and Andy Schlafly

On Monday, President Trump floated a trial balloon to downgrade the federal ban on marijuana, and cannabis stocks skyrocketed by 25-40% on the news. This pro-marijuana change is something that the pot industry had hoped Biden would do for them, but never expected it from the Republican side.

Last November, 4 out of 5 Republican states defeated heavily funded ballot initiatives to legalize marijuana, with more than 75% of Trump’s supporters voting against the drug. Someone is giving Trump bad advice by encouraging him to give a shot in the arm to cannabis, which is the name preferred by marijuana dealers.

Marijuana farms are magnets for illegal aliens, and also exploiters of forced child labor. Last month a raid by Homeland Security at two of these farms in California netted the arrest of 361 illegal aliens, who included criminals convicted of rape, serial burglary, DUIs, and hit-and-run.

Federal law enforcement agents had to overcome more than 500 rioters who tried to block these arrests, one of whom shot at the agents while other protesters damaged vehicles. A total of 14 children were found working at these two locations.

The marijuana farms had licenses to operate, but there are many thousands of illegal marijuana farms today. In California, most of the licenses granted to grow marijuana have gone inactive, as the illegal grows run by criminal gangs have infiltrated the supply of pot.

Despite the proliferation of crime, much of it by illegal aliens, Trump is being pressured to reclassify marijuana as a less harmful Schedule III drug, like steroids or Tylenol with codeine. Currently marijuana is classified by the federal government in Schedule I, which is the category of drugs including cocaine that are prohibited for any purpose.

This reclassification by the federal government would enable marijuana sellers to take tax deductions for their business expenses, such as television and internet advertising. IRS Code Section 280E prohibits Schedule I drug dealers from deducting business expenses other than the cost of goods sold, and if this changes then pot promotion will become pervasive.

The potency of marijuana has sharply increased since a generation ago, as its THC content grew by 21% between 1995 and 2015 alone. A 2022 study found that 12% of drug-related emergency department visits were due to marijuana, most often for cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, which is severe stomach pain and vomiting that afflicts long-term consumers of the drug.

The CDC warns that 30% of marijuana users develop cannabis use disorder, which includes an increased likelihood of “problems with attention, memory, and learning” and reckless car-driving while under the influence of the drug. Like many addictions, there is a never-ending increased craving in desperation by marijuana users for more to attain the same “high” as before.

Voters in Oklahoma rejected legalizing marijuana for recreational use in 2023, while the state has been overrun by 3,000 illegal farms controlled by Chinese gangs, to export this weed to other states. Two months ago Oklahoma’s Attorney General announced a drug bust of 40,723 marijuana plants and more than 1,000 pounds of processed marijuana.

While there has been talk about prohibiting the purchase of American farmland by China, the expansion of marijuana farms is a greater problem. In addition to Oklahoma, the States of California, Maine, Massachusetts, and Oregon all have a problem with Chinese gangs controlling marijuana operations.

Legalizing or downgrading the classification of pot was not a campaign promise by Trump, but was instead an idea raised by a donor at a fundraising event in Bedminster, New Jersey, one of the liberal states that has legalized this harmful drug. Trump’s NJ country club is not surrounded by the pot operations and their foul odor that have driven people away from California, Oregon, and Colorado.

Californians complain about the “sewer-like” smell of marijuana as it has taken over the Golden State in the last decade, without any redeeming benefits. Earlier this year the Cathedral City town council adopted a moratorium on any expansion or new opening of a cannabis business because the “disgusting” odor has diminished the quality of life for residents and harms the environment.

The proliferation of illegal cannabis farms, which become impossible to stop once marijuana is embraced, has led to rampant use of harmful pesticides and chemicals that are unlawfully dumped directly into the environment to contaminate groundwater. Yet liberal environmentalists are mostly silent about this.

Two weeks ago, New York City announced that it would refuse to renew the licenses of more than 100 marijuana dispensaries that are illegally operating within 500 feet of a school. By April, D.C. authorities had closed 50 illegal dispensaries in its pot market exceeding $4 million in monthly sales, and these drugs may have worsened its crime epidemic.

John and Andy Schlafly are sons of Phyllis Schlafly (1924-2016) and lead the continuing Phyllis Schlafly Eagles organizations with writing and policy work.

These columns are also posted on PhyllisSchlafly.com, pseagles.com, and Townhall.com.

Governors Harbor Fugitive Texas Legislators

The Phyllis Schlafly Report
By John and Andy Schlafly

The exodus of more than 50 Democrat members of the Texas House to block a quorum in Austin is bad enough. Even worse is how the Democrat Governor of Illinois, JB Pritzker, has promised them safe harbor, appearing with them at a press conference on Tuesday while declaring “we’ll do everything we can to support” them as they violate Texas law.

Control of the U.S. House for the second half of the Trump Administration hangs in the balance, as the redistricting map to be voted on in Austin would give Republicans a good chance of winning 5 of the 13 Texas congressional seats now held by Democrats. Illinois already gerrymandered its House maps to help Democrats win 14 out of its 17 seats, so it is hypocritical for them to allege unfairness in Texas doing what Illinois did.

Perhaps Illinois was chosen because its Democrat governor owns the Chicago Hyatt hotel, which has offered rooms to these Texas Democrats while they violate Texas law. At a press conference near Chicago on Tuesday, Pritzker denied that he was writing them checks – yet.

Trump observed on Tuesday morning that “I got the highest vote in the history of Texas. And we are entitled to five more seats” in Congress from Texas.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott stated on Monday, “Any Democrat who ‘solicits, accepts or agrees to accept’ … funds to assist in the violation of legislative duties or for purposes of skipping a vote may have violated bribery laws.” Abbott added that any person who “offers, confers or agrees to confer” money to the Democrats who left could also be charged with a crime.

In 2021, Democrat House members likewise fled Austin to frustrate a quorum, in order to block passage of new voting integrity measures including voter ID. That blockade lasted through the first and into the second special session, when three Houston Democrats returned while giving the pandemic as their reason, a quorum was established, and the bill passed. A court struck it down, but on Monday the appeals court ruled that it easily complies with federal law.

In the Texas House a quorum requires the presence of two-thirds, or 100, of the 150 representatives. The legislative session on Monday fell eight votes short of a quorum.

Civil arrest warrants were then ordered under Texas law because of the dereliction of duty by Democrats, but these warrants are enforceable only in Texas. The governors of states where they can be located could approve an extradition request, but they all fled to states having Democrat governors vowing to protect them against extradition.

Democrat Texas Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer said, “We recognized when we got on the plane that we’re in this for the long haul.” Fellow Texas Democrat Rep. Gene Wu observed that he and his colleagues “will do whatever it takes.”

Congressional Democrats have encouraged this defiance of the Texas law requiring its legislators to be in Austin. Ironically, Texas has an enormous congressional delegation of 38 seats because Democrats insist on including illegal aliens in the census used to allocate seats among the states, and multiple Democrat congressmen from Texas will lose their seats next year under this redistricting plan.

If Gov. Abbott’s threat of prosecuting those who aid these fugitive Democrats is ignored, then they have the financial resources to stay away for many months, whereupon it would be too late to redistrict. Texas has an early primary scheduled for March 3, 2026.

Defiance by Democrat-controlled states of Republican ones is growing. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has separately opposed a request by Texas to record a Texas judgment against an abortion provider in New York, who was sued in Texas for prescribing the abortion drug illegally for someone in Texas.

Gov. Hochul welcomed the Texas legislators who fled to New York in violation of Texas law, and even held a press conference with them. She blamed this on the same person that New York Democrats repeatedly try to scapegoat: Donald Trump.

There are 30-day limits on special legislative sessions in Texas, such that the current one must end by August 20. Gov. Greg Abbott can call as many new special sessions as it takes.

U.S. Marshals, the federal equivalent of sheriffs, typically handle federal warrants but also help in capturing and returning fugitives. In the acclaimed movie “The Fugitive” (1993), Tommy Lee Jones won an Oscar for portraying a U.S. Marshal chasing after a state-crime fugitive played by Harrison Ford.

Gov. Abbott could request assistance by the U.S. Marshals to return the renegade Texas Democrats who skipped town. Gov. Abbott has not yet publicly made this request, perhaps because of the pride that Texas takes in its independence, but Attorney General Pam Bondi could lead by stating her willingness to help.

John and Andy Schlafly are sons of Phyllis Schlafly (1924-2016) and lead the continuing Phyllis Schlafly Eagles organizations with writing and policy work.

These columns are also posted on PhyllisSchlafly.com, pseagles.com, and Townhall.com.