The Daily Signal

Are Democrats really ready for a comeback—or are we about to revisit the graveyard of their own failed experiments?

The so-called “new paradigms” of the Obama-Biden years—open borders, DEI mandates, deficit socialism, disarmament, and radical gender ideology—didn’t just falter… they collapsed under their own weight, argues Victor Davis Hanson on today’s edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words:”

👉 The Daily Signal cannot continue to tell stories, like this one, without the support of our viewers: http://dailysignal.com/donate

👉Don’t miss out on Victor’s latest short videos by subscribing to The Daily Signal today. You’ll be notified every time a new piece of content drops: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/dailysignal?sub_confirmation=1⁠ 

Also on Spotify: https://megaphone.link/THEDAILYSIGNAL9753340027 

👉Want more VDH? Watch Victor’s weekly, hour-long podcast, “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words,” now! Subscribe to his YouTube channel, and enable notifications:  https://www.youtube.com/@victordavishanson7273?sub_confirmation=1👉More exclusive content is available on Victor’s website: https://victorhanson.com

00:00 Midterms Preview: Trump Counterrevolution vs. a Democratic Comeback

02:15 ‘Graveyard of Bad Ideas’ #1: The Trans Politics Pushback

04:17 Bad Idea #2: Open Borders and the Immigration Backlash

05:37 Bad Ideas #3–4: Disarmament Illusions & Deficit Socialism Debt Bomb

08:00 Bad Idea #5 + Wrap-Up: DEI Fatigue and the Final Verdict
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President Trump is reversing the Biden administration’s years of damage to American “family finances” and “federal finances.”

When Biden left office in Jan. 2025, “the private sector wasn’t adding any jobs at all, but losing them,” explains E.J. Antoni, Ph.D., The Heritage Foundation’s chief economist.

One year later and Trump is righting the ship: Last month was the best January ever for employment among native-born Americans. 

The private sector added 172,000 jobs while government jobs declined by 42,000. All told, Donald Trump has reduced the federal bureaucracy by 323,000 in just one year.

👉For more videos like this, subscribe to The Daily Signal’s YouTube channel and enable notifications to be alerted the second a new video drops: https://www.youtube.com/dailysignal?sub_confirmation=100:00 Jobs Flip to ‘America First’: Native-Born Gains Under Trump

01:07 How Bidenomics Stalled the Private Sector (and Grew Government)

02:31 Righting the Ship: Private-Sector Hiring Up, Federal Bureaucracy Cut

03:49 Paychecks vs Prices: Inflation Cools, Affordability Still a Fight

06:24 Deficits, Spending Cuts, and What Congress Must Do Next (Wrap-Up)
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When there’s a problem, call Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Trump’s “fireman.”

Last week, Marco Rubio, in keeping with the tradition started by Vice President JD Vance last year, painted a sobering picture of Europe’s future. But with a twist.

Rubio did not gloat or talk down to his fellow world leaders.

Instead, he glorified America’s European heritage—a very controversial statement amongst leftists who try to distance themselves from Western norms and cultures—saying that Europe is poised to make the same mistakes America has already made: 

letting in 10 million illegal aliens, replacing meritocracy with DEI, failing to maintain military superiority, and forgoing energy independence.

Europe is currently backsliding because it, unlike America, does not have a continent full of Donald Trumps to bring about a counterrevolution, argues Victor Davis Hanson on today’s edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In a Few Words:”

“It really enhanced the position of Marco Rubio because he's sort of become Trump's fireman. When there's a problem that seems unsolvable or that people, whether it's in Panama or whether it's in the Middle East or whether it's in the Western Hemisphere, people call on Rubio.

“And I think we should watch that very carefully because I think we're going to enter into the 2028 race, not with a Vance-Rubio vice president, but with two strong candidates.”

👉 The Daily Signal cannot continue to tell stories, like this one, without the support of our viewers: http://dailysignal.com/donate

👉Don’t miss out on Victor’s latest short videos by subscribing to The Daily Signal today. You’ll be notified every time a new piece of content drops: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/dailysignal?sub_confirmation=1⁠ 

Also on Spotify: https://megaphone.link/THEDAILYSIGNAL9753340027 

👉Want more VDH? Watch Victor’s weekly, hour-long podcast, “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words,” now! Subscribe to his YouTube channel, and enable notifications:  https://www.youtube.com/@victordavishanson7273?sub_confirmation=1

👉More exclusive content is available on Victor’s website: https://victorhanson.com
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

California’s unfunded mandates “are exactly what they sound like:” a mandate “with no money behind it.”

 

A solution like deannexation, however, could really “change the culture of what Sacramento” has been been doing of forcing cities to follow mandates and pay for them, explains Elaine Culotti, The Daily Signal’s California contributor.

 

“It starts to direct tax dollars directly back to the cities in which have been deannexed. It’s an interesting business model, and for a state like California, is really important.”
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With only nine months until the midterm elections, Democrats will scrutinize every move President Donald Trump takes as they fight to reclaim control of the House and the Senate.



Victor Davis Hanson lays out the narrow road ahead to victory for Trump and the GOP during the 2026 midterm elections. History is not on the incumbent’s side. Messaging mistakes and unforced errors could shift key voters and hand Congress back to Democrats. Hanson explains what it will take to hold a Republican majority—and why the stakes for these midterm elections could not be higher—on today’s episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In a Few Words."



“There's another advantage that Trump has. They've raised, I think, $90 to $100 million. They've out-raised the Left by three or four times. And the billionaire class of Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg, not to mention Marc Andreessen or Elon Musk, they have defected and it's really hurting the Democrats.



“What they're looking at in California with this billionaire's tax, you can be a billionaire and have property and investments, homes, but you might only have, I don't know, $100 million. They're gonna take $50 million from you on your aggregate worth. That's not gonna go over well with the billionaire class. And there, that's just a foretaste of what Kamala Harris will do if she has a Democratic Congress.”



(0:00) Midterms Ahead
(2:04) Unforced Errors
(4:34) Incumbents Usually Lose Seats
(5:35) What’s Working
(9:11) Outraging Democrats
(10:08) Known Unknowns
(10:55) Final Playbook



👉 The Daily Signal cannot continue to tell stories, like this one, without the support of our viewers: http://dailysignal.com/donate



👉Don’t miss out on Victor’s latest short videos by subscribing to The Daily Signal today. You’ll be notified every time a new piece of content drops: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/dailysignal?sub_confirmation=1⁠ 



Also on Spotify: https://megaphone.link/THEDAILYSIGNAL9753340027 



👉Want more VDH? Watch Victor’s weekly, hour-long podcast, “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words,” now! Subscribe to his YouTube channel, and enable notifications:  https://www.youtube.com/@victordavishanson7273?sub_confirmation=1



👉More exclusive content is available on Victor’s website: https://victorhanson.com
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices