Ideas have consequences and the battle for ideas is important in any age, but especially in our own day, when relativism, secularism and intentional disinformation are rampant in our world. Thus, in an astonishing and shocking act, President Trump, on 15 March 2025, ordered the termination of grants for Radio Free Asia and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Voice of America, the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (Radio and Television Marti), the Open Technology Fund and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks are also being dismantled.

The eruption of antisemitism on the left—dressed up as opposition to Israel’s tactics in a war started by its enemies—is the most potent form of antisemitism in America. Wall Street Journal columnist, Gerard Baker writes, “Antisemitism has a strong pedigree on the left: The equation of capitalism’s evils with the supposed avarice of Jewish financiers is a popular theme, and to it has been added the modern ‘settler colonialist’ narrative that alleges Zionist rapine in Palestine.” Baker adds that “our universities are run by leaders who are models of the left-wing ideology that dominates so much of our politics and culture. It deems the rights of certain people less worthy of protection than others, it divides the world into oppressor and oppressed. You can call for the murder of all Jews, but say sex is biological and you will be punished . . . ‘Truth’ has been deposed and replaced with the monomaniacal ideology of the ‘My Truth’ crowd.”

Attorney, columnist and evangelical Christian David French poignantly observes that it is understood that American elections “could reset our national security strategy, but they did not change our bedrock alliances. They did not change our fundamental identity. Until now.” Donald Trump is upending the entire national security strategy of the United States. His vision is destructive and dangerous. As Wall Street Journal columnist Gerard Baker observes, “Trump’s mendacious contempt for Ukraine and . . . his cringing admiration for Russia and the ‘genius’ in the Kremlin” raise real concerns, but also signify a “new world order,” one that “will come at a steep price.”

When President Trump was running for a second term in 2024, he promised to end the Ukraine war “in 24 hours.” Of course, that did not happen, but now we are seeing how he seeks to end this atrocious war, now over 3 years old. As the Wall Street Journal editorially observed, Trump’s plan is a “tilt toward a Ukraine sellout.” As a student of history, I believe it also ignores one of the profound lessons of history from the 1930s in Europe.

In our democratic-republic in America, there are three branches of the federal government. In the brilliance of the design articulated by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, all three of whom wrote The Federalist, these three branches are to form a checks and balance system without the national government. The judicial branch interprets the Constitution as cases are brought before it. There are federal District Courts, Courts of Appeals and then of course the Supreme Court. The founders argued forcefully for an independent judiciary.

The age of amateur sports at many American colleges and universities is apparently over. Year 2024 is the last year where the College Football Playoffs will be played by amateur athletes. Next year they will all be pros. It is pretty clear that the NCAA has embraced some form of “pay for play” that enables schools to pay players for their athletic skills.

When Hamas militants led a deadly cross-border raid into Israel on 7 October 2023, Hamas leaders were convinced that this event would trigger a wider Middle East war that would result in the end of Israel. The exact opposite has occurred. The Hamas terrorist attack triggered a war with Israel that has devastated Gaza, and it set off additional shock waves that have reshaped the Middle East: Powerful alliances were upended. Long-established “red lines” were crossed. A decades-old dictatorship at the heart of the region was swept away. The Middle East has been radically transformed.

President Trump had made immigration a major aspect of his presidential campaign and now a policy goal of his presidency. Few would disagree with his commitment to end illegal immigration. Few would doubt that dealing with illegal immigrants already in the country must be addressed. But, solving these challenges must be balanced with the reality of a serious worker shortage in the US. In this Perspective, I hope to review the issue of the worker shortage facing the US along with the volatile issue of immigration.

In 1958, political theorist, Isaiah Berlin, delivered a lecture entitled “Two Concepts of Liberty,” which established two strands of thought on the concept of freedom.

Over 30 years ago, Daniel Patrick Moynihan published his famous essay, “Defining Deviancy Down.” Bret Stephens summarizes his thesis: “Every society, the senator-scholar from New York argued, could afford to penalize only a certain amount of behavior it deemed ‘deviant.’ As the stock of such behavior increased—whether in the form of out-of-wedlock births, or mentally ill people living outdoors, or violence in urban streets—society would most easily adapt not by cracking down, but instead by normalizing what used to be considered unacceptable, immoral or outrageous.”