Now is a good time to remind everyone why tariffs are more damaging to our economy than income or sales taxes. 🧵 1. Tariffs distort market prices, raising prices while reducing choices available to consumers.

The Democrats are in a tough spot. Making a change at the top of the ticket creates countless opportunities Republicans can and will exploit -- just as the Dems would do to Republicans if the situation were reversed. Here are some of them. 🧵 DEFENSE, DEFENSE, DEFENSE. The Democrats will be on defense now for months. It's all defensive, introspective hand wringing. Trump's long list of legal problems blown right off the front page and Sunday shows. Whatever the Dems do, they can't score until they get past this.

Reagan got a Democrat-controlled House to pass the biggest tax cut in American history and a massive military buildup.

Trump could not get a Republican Congress to build his wall, or repeal Obamacare.

Why? 🧵 Reagan was a far more effective President than Trump. He spurred the longest peacetime economic growth in history, and prevailed over the Soviet Union.

In part because Reagan made it difficult for Democrats to oppose his plans.

Trump makes it incredibly easy.

This evening I was invited to a private screening of Bearing Witness — footage of the Hamas terror attack of October 7.

The most disturbing 43 minutes of non-fiction film I have ever seen.

I have two conclusions to offer. 🧵 First, of the various anti-Israel protesters I have seen, I have not seen any condemn Hamas or the events of October 7.

Not one. Instead, I have seen endless rationalizing, explaining away, and whataboutism. None of that withstands any scrutiny.

After speaking with my colleagues in center right parties around the world at @idualliance meeting in London, it’s crystal clear conservatives around the world are strongly backing #Ukraine and oppose Russia’s illegal war of aggression.

Who on the “right” supports Russia? 🧵 Russia has been “working the room” for years trying to peel off those on the fringe left (remnants of the anti-war movement) and right (isolationist populists). Paid-for trips, jobs, “agreements” with Putin’s party, propaganda, and disinfo are some of the tools.

White supremacy, anti-Semitism — any form of racism — is fundamentally incompatible with conservatism. If one is a racist or anti-Semite, then one is not a conservative.

No conservative should be shy about stating this obvious fact. 🧵 Conservatism holds people should be judged on their behavior, their conduct. Not by the group to which they belong. This is a fundamental conservative principle.

Conservative governments in Europe strongly support Ukraine. American conservatives supporting Ukraine are in good company. 🧵 🇮🇹 Italy’s President of the Council of Ministers @GiorgiaMeloni is the most conservative Italian govt leader in decades.

Strongly supports Ukraine.

“People experiencing homelessness” is the latest Orwellian Newspeak term designed to normalize and de-stigmatize living on the streets. Vast majorities of these people are primarily homeless because of drug addiction or mental illness. This isn’t just a phase for them.

https://twitter.com/reviewjournal/status/1657053062022701056

Pretending this is just a phase they’re going through because of some economic reason is to put blinders on. Without serious intervention followed by drug/psychiatric treatment, they’ll just be shuffled around.

The #GeorgeSantos scandal continues to spin out of control and is getting worse. Here’s why. 🧵 First, the severity of the fraud is breathtaking. This isn’t a little resume embellishment. It’s making up his entire life story, the centerpiece of his campaign. This isn’t exaggerating about some obscure point — the whole life is a lie.

The “conservative” — and decent — thing to do is to side with the families of those murdered at Sandy Hook, and condemn Alex Jones for lying and slandering the families.

There is no gray area here. No “both sides.” Walk with me. 🧵 The thirst of some in politics to gain attention for themselves is insatiable. Social contagion leads people to say and do outrageous things to get attention, followers, “engagement,” and ultimately money. We see this today around Alex Jones and Sandy Hook.

It's nice to be proven right.

Turns out the flack behind "CalExit," the fake California "secession" movement, was backed by the Russian FSB after all. Good reporting from the @sacbee_news

msn.com/en-us/news/pol… After serving as presidential campaign spox for @tedcruz in 2016, I compiled the open source intel on Russian active measures in the US, including the "hack-leak" and "amplify" tracks. The later was aimed at amplifying social tensions in the US.

I just spent a week in Poland with many of the country’s political and business leaders.

On matters of history and security, the Poles “get it” more than many others on the continent, and it shows in how they’re dealing with Russia, Ukraine, and their own history. 🧵 The Poles have a refreshing level of moral clarity. They survived the Nazis, and the Russians. They’re not ambiguous about how they feel about both.

A proud statue of Reagan stands opposite the US embassy.
I walked through the intersection of John Paul and Solidarity Avenues.

Is the recall election “rigged?” Certainly Gavin Newsom and the Democrats have played games with the process to their advantage, such as moving up the election because they felt it would benefit Newsom politically. But voter fraud? Where’s the evidence? (THREAD) There’s this case of some “passed out man” found with 300 ballots. That’s under investigation. However, unless it’s part of some massively larger secret conspiracy, this is a one off. apnews.com/article/busine…

I’ve been active in the conservative movement for 32 years, and I signed up for my #COVID19 vaccine as soon as I could. I got the Moderna shot one week ago. Here’s why I chose to get vaccinated and I encourage you to as well (THREAD). Diseases are dangerous and vaccines are safe, within any reasonable definition of those words. Specifically, COVID-19 is dangerous and the 3 vaccines approved in the US are safe.

So in the @GavinNewsom recall, today's a big day. Proving all Newsom's spin downplaying the recall was total nonsense, he now admits it's real and has legs by launching a pushback campaign today. (THREAD) Unfortunately, the Newsom campaign people picked a terrible day to launch their pushback campaign, as a new poll shows 58.3% of Californians want a new governor. One doesn't get to that number without a lot more than Republicans.