Month: January 2025

Every Friday morning at 8:30 a.m., I join the Cardle & Woolley show, Talk 1370 Radio in Austin where we discuss who made the list of Winners & Losers for the previous week. President Donald Trump’s makes it clear daily that he intends to change pretty much everything, which gets him on the top of the winners list again this week. Meanwhile, now that he’s gone, we are getting daily revelations that former President Joe Biden’s policies were even bigger losers than we thought. Lots of winning and losing happening in Texas, too.

Winner: Trump Calling Out DEI on the Plane Crash

President Trump was already poised to make the winners’ list this week with his statement that its time to get rid of the income tax, which is a great discussion starter, particularly for all of Texas’ “Fair Tax” fans. Onlookers, like CNN, went nuts when its own polling found that Trump’s approval rating is the highest ever recorded in the history of approval ratings. Same thing at the New York Times, which was shocked to learn that many of President Trump’s policies are even more popular than he is. In fact, 89% of Americans believe that any illegal alien who has a criminal record should be deported.

In yet another demonstration of straight talk in government, President Trump shocked reporters at the press conference after the tragic crash of a passenger plane over the Potomac River on Wednesday night by suggesting that the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs employed by the federal government could have been a contributing factor in the accident. Predictably, left-wingers, like former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, called his comments “disgusting,” and the NAACP accused him of “sowing hatred and falsehood.” Headlines excoriated Trump for discussing blame before there was an investigation, but when a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter crashes into an American Airlines flight on a clear night just outside the nation’s capital, it raises questions and, as the president said, pointing the finger at DEI as a possible factor is just common sense.

We don’t know why the helicopter crashed into the jet after being told the plane was there, but as we are ruling out possible causes, Americans should be able to be confident that both pilots were the best and the brightest, after being certified that they have the aptitude and the skills developed in uncompromising training that has prepared them for virtually any dangerous eventuality that might occur.

Unfortunately, one of the many tragedies of DEI is that Americans no longer have that confidence. When American airline companies and the military announce they have made DEI a priority so they can break down the “male bastion of aviation,” it is worrisome.

I am a big fan breaking down male bastions, but like most Americans, I don’t care at all about the race or gender of the person piloting any plane I’m flying on. I just want to know that certification standards have not been compromised in order to accommodate diversity quotas.

That’s why President Trump introduced the topic of DEI as the investigation of the crash begins, even though other factors may be revealed as causes of the crash. Americans know that DEI programs, which lower standards and even get rid of them altogether, in order to increase “diversity,” is a risk to our safety. Trump wants to let Americans know that he understands that too.

Winner: Do No Harm Exposes DEI in Medical Profession

Americans also don’t care about the race or gender of the doctor they are seeing, but, again, they want to be assured that they meet the same high academic standards that have always been required of physicians. Do No Harm, a national organization focused on eliminating DEI in the medical profession, revealed again this week that increasingly, in medical schools across the country, that isn’t happening. Looking at data from the Association of American Medical Colleges, they found that in the most recent class of students admitted to medical schools, “the average Asian and white matriculants respectively had to score in the 89th and 84th percentile on the MCAT test, which the AAMC oversees to be admitted. The average black matriculant applicant scored in the 68th percentile, while the average Hispanic scored in the 66th percentile.”

This data had not changed from the previous year, before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that universities must use merit, not race, when determining which students to admit to medical schools. Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, founder of Do No Harm, was my guest on the Sherry Sylvester Show this week discussing the impact of DEI and other issues. Listen to the interview here.

Winner: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Directs State Agencies to End DEI

DEI programs are not only ubiquitous in the federal government, they are also riddled throughout state agencies in Texas. Today, Gov. Greg Abbott ended all that, declaring that DEI programs “deviate from constitutional principles and deny diverse thought.” He directed state agencies to shut them down.

Texas DEI workers will undoubtedly be marching shortly, but as they gather their outrage, it is important to remember that DEI is based on the belief that white supremacy is the predominant view driving America and that racism permeates every American institution and, indeed, everything Americans do. According to the ideology of DEI, because slavery is America’s original sin, we are doomed to live forever in a country divided into two groups—the oppressors and oppressed. The oppressed get hiring preferences. The oppressors do not.

DEI is a multi-billion dollar industry, so it will not go away quickly. Last week, President Trump fired hundreds of DEI workers and cancelled $450 million in DEI contracts.

Winner: Texas Partnership with ICE on Deportations

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is also a winner for ordering state agencies to assist the Trump administration in deporting people who are in the country illegally, starting with criminals. The left has been stoking fear everywhere, which is why it was refreshing to see Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar tell CNN that he had spoken with administration officials and learned there were no plans to go door to door, church to school, checking students and teachers. Salazar said his goal was to “bring down the fear level” in San Antonio and across the country by sharing this information. Good for him, but it was hardly a secret. Trump officials had made it clear when they were beginning the deportation operation that they were going after “the worst first.”

Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Houston is pushing the fear narrative, telling Houston residents that they do not have to answer questions from immigration officials. She is following the lead of the Acacia Center for Justice in Washington, D.C. which insists that ICE is exploiting black and brown people and that “no illegal immigrant should be detained.” Acacia is funded by a $769 million federal contract.

Loser: National Report Card Shows America’s Kids are Losing Ground

The latest National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores are back and the results aren’t good. Fully 40% of 4^th graders in America are reading below basic levels and in 8^th grade math, and the distance between the highest scores and the lowest is larger than it has ever been. Scores in Texas follow the same downward trend as we continue to see no recovery from the dramatic learning loss of COVID-19.

Winner: Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s Legislative Priorities

Every legislative session, Texans eagerly await the release of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s legislative priorities to see the roadmap for what is going to be accomplished in the new legislative session. The failing NAEP scores add one more talking point to the case for passing Senate Bill 2, to provide Education Savings Accounts so every Texas parent can choose the best school for their child. Patrick predicted the Texas Senate would pass the school choice bill out on Wednesday if Gov. Abbott makes it an emergency item.

There’s lots of other great stuff on the list this year including providing property tax relief, reforming bail, ending drag queen story hours and taxpayer funded lobbying.

Winner: CIA Finally Admits COVID-19 Came from a Lab Leak

They have known it for a while, but now that Biden is gone, the CIA is admitting that COVID-19 most likely originated from a lab leak. A lot of people have known this for years, of course, but take a couple minutes and watch what Jon Stewart said about it in 2021, as Stephen Colbert tries to cut him off. Oldie but goodie that is always good for grins.

Loser: Biden Adds Almost $2 Trillion in Regulation Costs

Another disturbing thing that happened on Biden’s way out the door is that an internal audit revealed that the former president added $1.8 billion in new regulations to slow down the economic growth and generally stifle our lives. Most of the new regulations were in the Environmental Protection Agency. President Trump has already unraveled most of these regulations, and you can bet he’ll get all of them.

Winner: Best Moment of the Week – Trump’s New Spokesmouth

Karoline Leavitt is the youngest person ever to serve as a presidential press secretary. She demonstrated this week that she is more than ready for the job, making it clear to the old legacy media that there is a new sheriff in town. So-called new media, including Breitbart and Axios, are now sitting in the front of the room, and the Associated Press did not get the first question. She didn’t have a binder, she didn’t promise to circle back and she never said “I don’t have anything for you on that,” a phrase we heard a million times from her predecessor Karine Jean-Pierre. This is going to be fun.

One week out from the Super Bowl, I am trying hard to work up some enthusiasm.

Have a great weekend.

Sherry Sylvester is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and the former Senior Advisor to Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick.

Sign up to receive this in your inbox every week at www.texaspolicy.com/9thandCongress.

Follow me on X @sylvester1630 and follow my podcast, the Sherry Sylvester Show on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Every Friday morning at 8:30 a.m., I join the Cardle & Woolley show, Talk 1370 Radio in Austin where we discuss who made the list of Winners & Losers for the previous week. After Donald J. Trump’s Second Inauguration on Monday changed so many things, he’s got dozens of winners. The Texas Legislature has finished all of its ceremonials and is up and running too, so there’s lots going on, no matter where you look. Here’s who made the list:

Winner: Donald Trump’s List of Immediate Changes

In the ‘70s, everybody agreed that the “medium is the message,” and Trump’s a boomer who clearly gets that. He is the medium, and the message he delivered is that American exceptionalism is back. You could see that in everything from the guests on the inaugural stage, which included legendary innovators like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, to his take-no-prisoners inaugural address. The contrast of the winners and losers on the inaugural stage also amplified Trump’s message. The somber faces of President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former President Barack Obama sent a clear message—their dark, divisive vision of America has been rejected.

In terms of Trump’s Day One initiatives, it’s hard to rank the list, but my personal favorite is the president’s declaration that “henceforth, the official policy of the United States government is that there are only two genders: male and female.” (ICYMI, see my op-ed “Gender is Over! Sex is Back!”) If you’ve forgotten a few of Trump’s initiatives since Monday, here’s the list from his speech—all winners.

• Declaring a national emergency at the border (and sending troops)
• Designating drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations
• Making bringing down inflation, costs and prices a top Cabinet priority
• Ending the Green New Deal
• Revoking the Elective Vehicle Mandate
• Establishing an External Revenue Service to collect tariffs
• Establishing the Dept. of Government Efficiency
• Ending government censorship, bringing back free speech
• Restoring fair, equal and impartial justice
• Bringing law and order back to the cities
• Ending DEI social engineering programs and forging a color-blind and merit-based society
• Reinstating service members who were dismissed because they wouldn’t take COVID vaccine
• Rebuilding the military
• Initiating a federal hiring freeze
• Changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America
• Restoring the name of Mt. McKinley
• Retaking the Panama Canal
• Planting the American flag on Mars

Winner: School Choice Gets a Billion in State Budget

The time has come for Education Savings Accounts in Texas. Most Texans have supported school choice for years, and Gov. Greg Abbott has proved again and again that it is a top priority for him. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick proudly noted at the State Senate swearing in ceremony last week that senators have passed parental choice legislation five times. This week Texas lawmakers put their money where their mouths are by allocating a billion dollars for the program in both the Texas House and the Texas Senate’s proposed budgets.

Loser: National Cathedral Bishop Embarrasses Christians

In what can only be viewed as a pitch to get a guest slot on ABC’s “The View,” Mariann Edgar Budde, the Episcopal Bishop of the Diocese of Washington, launched into a left-wing harangue targeting President Trump at a prayer service in the National Cathedral. In lecturing Trump, Budde insisted that because of his policies, illegal immigrants and so-called “trans people” are living in fear. Trump has been clear that people who entered the country illegally must be held accountable, but if “trans people” are living in fear, it is because people like Budde are fueling it.

It is notable that President Trump did not ask Budde to apologize to him; he demanded that she apologize to the entire country for her outrageous partisan flag waving.

Bishop Budde should look at what is going on in Britain (the mother country of her church) and the rest of Europe where health providers have switched to counseling for children who believe they are the opposite sex. Puberty blockers and sex change operations have been discontinued there because they have shown to be ineffective and harmful in treating people suffering from gender dysphoria. Trump is proposing the same. If Budde truly wants to care for her flock, she should stop stoking paranoia and division and look at how to really help people.

It is ironic that earlier this month former President Obama and President Trump were seen talking and laughing together at former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral at the National Cathedral. Some real grace shown there on both sides—Budde should have been paying attention.

Full disclosure, I am an Episcopalian, one of many this week who were embarrassed by Bishop Budde’s antics.

Winner: Agriculture Secretary Nominee Brooke Rollins—A No Brainer

Both Texas senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz introduced Trump’s nominee to be U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, as an appointment whose confirmation should be a “no brainer.” Throughout frequently intense questioning by the Senate Agriculture Committee, Rollins demonstrated that the Texas senators were absolutely right. Because of her broad policy range and depth, particularly on agricultural issues, trade and labor policies, even cynical Democrat bomb-throwers like California Sen. Adam Schiff and Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock didn’t lay a glove on her. Rollins, of course, is the former CEO of the Texas Public Policy Foundation and she did us all proud.

Loser: PBS Starts Elon Musk Nazi Salute Lie

Normally these crazy stories come off fringy social media threads, but the smear campaign that Elon Musk delivered a Nazi salute at an Inauguration Day event seems to have been put out there by PBS, who delivered it with a straight face. Four days later, it is still running in the news cycle even though both the Anti-Defamation League and Benjamin Netanyahu have called it bogus. Netanyahu called Musk “a great friend to Israel [who] visited after the October 7 massacre in which Hamas terrorists committed the worst atrocity against the Jewish people since the Holocaust.”

Still, U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman, D-NY, said Musk’s gesture “can only be interpreted as a Seig Heil salute that is synonymous with Nazi support for Hitler,” and the press is still replete with stories debating whether Musk actually delivered a Nazi salute, with most leaning toward the affirmative. In a background story, the New York Times just released a thousand word report on the history of the Nazi salute.

Jon Stewart also suggested that Eric Trump made some kind of Hitler hand gesture during the Inauguration. A few questions: What is wrong with these people? Do they have any idea who Americans are? Do they really think that broad support for Trump indicates any support for Hitler? Finally, why is the media treating this stupidity as if it is actual news?

Winner: Abbott Presents Bill for Border Security to Federal Government

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sent a bill to Congress this week for the $11 billion that the state of Texas has spent doing the job the federal government is supposed to do—securing the border. In his invoice, Abbott included the cost of busing illegal immigrants to blue state sanctuary cities, a move that helped the country finally understand the impact thousands and thousands of illegal aliens can have on communities, services, crime and quality of life. On behalf of Texas taxpayers, thank you!

Loser: Joe Biden’s Last Minute Pardons

In what may have been his last official act, former President Joe Biden issued a host of pardons as he went out the door on Monday including reprieves to both his brothers, his sister and their spouses. Perhaps to distract the focus away from the obvious financial implications of the family pardons which, like the one delivered to his son Hunter, exonerate his siblings from everything they’ve ever done or will do, he threw in some political players as well.

He pardoned COVID-19 czar Anthony Fauci, General Mark Milley, former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney and every member of the House Committee that investigated January 6. The pardons mean that the recipients can’t be punished, but they can still be investigated and while we are all tired of hearings, we must push forward and get the facts on every one of these people—family and all. History needs to know.

Winner: Dept. of Government Efficiency (DOGE)

DOGE head Elon Musk may have identified a future loser, this week, the penny. Musk just announced that it costs about 3 cents to mint a 1 cent penny, which he says added up to $179 million in 2023. Presumably, this is the first step toward moving us to a cashless country, but it will take a while. In the meantime, this is a great issue for Musk and for Trump. Virtually everyone in the country will have an opinion on what to do about the penny, and the new administration will undoubtedly come up with all kinds of ways to make sure those opinions are heard.

Texas will have a number of strong voices on the DOGE Committee in the U.S. House to help jump start the legislative effort. U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson appointed four Texans to serve there—U.S. Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Prosper, Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Flower Mound, Rep. Greg Casar, D-Austin and Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas. The always outspoken Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia will chair the committee, so it should be fun.

What Ohio State’s Championship was Worth

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Ohio State Buckeyes would be worth almost $2 billion if the team were sold on the open market. The report comes from a finance professor at Indiana, but it doesn’t look like there’s any built-in pro-Indiana bias since his team didn’t make the top 25 list.

Texas came in second to Ohio State, with its value estimated at $1.9 billion. Texas A&M came in at $1 billion even, ninth on the list. There has been talk of private equity entering the college football world for a while. Now that we are in that long boring stretch of empty time, analyzing recruitment and transfers and watching the rebuild for next year’s college football season, we can also ponder the possible impact private equity might have on the game.

If I missed one of your winners and losers for the week, email me.

Have a great weekend.

Sherry Sylvester is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and the former Senior Advisor to Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick.

Sign up to receive this in your inbox every week at www.texaspolicy.com/9thandCongress.

Follow me on X @sylvester1630 and follow my podcast, the Sherry Sylvester Show on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Every Friday morning at 8:30 a.m., I join the Cardle & Woolley show, Talk 1370 Radio, in Austin where we discuss who made the list of Winners & Losers for the week. The Texas Legislature is officially sworn in, the House has selected a speaker and we have 72 more hours left of President Joe Biden. We are going to miss him on Winners & Losers.

According to the last polls taken this week, the Biden administration is viewed as one of the biggest losers of all time. The latest CNN poll found that only 36% of Americans approve of the way Biden has handled the presidency. And 64% view the Biden presidency as an overall failure.

Gallup has Biden’s approval at 39% and they show that under his leadership Americans believe the country has lost ground on virtually every issue that matters. Sixty percent of Americans believe America has failed on the economy, reining in the national debt, immigration, terrorism, trade, national defense and maintaining our position in the world. We frequently say we are a divided nation, but we are not equally divided when it comes to Joe Biden—it’s more like a third who support him versus two-thirds who don’t.

Biden’s awful “farewell to the nation” speech on Wednesday night makes it clear he has no idea why he (and Kamala) lost the election. He actually doubled-down on his losing messages while trying to get people to believe that Democrats were beaten by oligarchs and tech moguls with lots of money, forgetting that their team spent millions more than Trump.

Unfortunately, this isn’t all going to end in 72 hours. Much of the Democrats’ ridiculous questioning of Trump’s cabinet nominees this past week as well as their votes in the House come out of the same playbook.

Winner: Attorney General Nomination Pam Bondi’s Confirmation Testimony

All of Trump’s nominees did pretty well this week during their confirmation hearings. Rubio was exemplary, but my favorite response came from Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi who faced down crazed Democrat zealot Sen. Richard Blumenthal who tried to inject a litmus test into the hearing: “You have to be able to say that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. … You have to be able to say that January 6 insurrectionists who committed violence shouldn’t be pardoned,” Blumenthal said.

Bondi didn’t buy it and she slapped him down: “No, I don’t. … I’m not going to sit up here and say anything that I need to say to get confirmed by this body. I don’t have to say anything.”

Like Biden, Blumenthal and the other malicious senators who questioned the nominees didn’t get the message Americans sent on Nov. 5—they care about the economy, the border and crime—they don’t care about Jan. 6 or the 2020 election.

Winner: House Bill Banning Men in Women’s Sports

After the November election, it should not be difficult for any elected official to support a mandate that men should not be allowed to play on women’s sports teams. In fact, 69% of Americans say they oppose boys in girls’ sports and that percentage is increasing.

Still, only two Democrats (both Texans) voted in support of the Protection of Women and Girls Sports Act—Congressmen Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez. The bill will prohibit federal funds from going to schools that let boys who think they are girls participate on the girls’ team.

In a desperate search for some kind of moral high ground, the rest of their Democrat colleagues managed to contort themselves into crazyville, suggesting the legislation would lead to genital inspections by sexual predators. Hard to figure how they got to that. The wording of the legislation is clear—your sex on your birth certificate determines which team you can play on. Apparently, House Democrats weren’t paying attention to what happened to the last public official who championed “they/them” over us.

Winner: Ceasefire Agreement Could be a Winner

But we’ll have to wait and see. Getting some of the hostages out is a huge victory, but Hamas is notorious for violating these agreements and Israel is right to be more than a little suspicious. However, there’s no need to get into the debate over whether Biden or Trump deserves the credit for the deal—it’s not debatable. Trump absolutely did it with his “hell to pay” promise. If Biden could have gotten it done sooner, why didn’t he?

Winner: Texas Gets $27 Billion from Fossil Fuel

Texas oil and gas producers this week announced that the state received $27 billion in royalties from the fossil fuel industry last year—about $75 million a day, to support schools, public safety and essential services. Speaking to the massive forces pushing to shut down the fossil fuel industry both in Texas and the world, Texas made it clear that here we see fossil fuels as an asset, not a liability. Since the royalty subsidies began in 2007, they have contributed $275 billion to state coffers.

This week, Texas also got the announcement that Texas has a $24 billion budget surplus—making Texas taxpayers winners after Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick reiterated his commitment to making property tax relief a top priority for the surplus funds.

Loser: California Again

Apparently, even the devastation of the wildfires has not changed the progressive “climate change, open border” delusions in California. As the fires were still burning, they doubled the amount of money they will spend to “Trump proof” the state against the new administration’s policies. California lawmakers slapped down $50 million, including $25 million to provide lawyers to help residents who are about to be deported.

State Senate Budget Chairman, Democrat Scott Weiner, said California faces two massive challenges, the wildfires and the Trump administration, which is threatening to deport residents who are here illegally. Seriously?

Gov. Gavin Newsom did announce that he is rolling back the massive permit requirements from California Environmental Quality and the California Coastal Act that routinely delay building projects for years. Local government regulations will still be in place so it remains to be seen if enough Californians get that the hellish bureaucracy that they have created not only prevented government from taking steps to prevent the fires, it could also prevent residents from being able to rebuild and recover.

Winner: Mark Zuckerberg Again — It’s the Vibe Shift

After I put Zuckerberg on the winner’s list last week, several people, mostly men, told me that that Zuckerberg is faking his born-again anti-wokeness. They insist he’s not really one of us and he doesn’t believe what he’s saying. My response to that is, “so what?” It doesn’t matter. Getting rid of DEI programs at Meta and on all his platforms is not simply ending the program, it is abandoning DEI’s ugly core mission. Meta had diversity-based hiring and recruitment wired into everything they do. They got all their materials and vendors from “diversity-based” sources and they had rigid quotas on virtually everything linked to racial and gender identity. Zuckerberg says all that has to go. As we have seen in higher education in Texas that is easier said than done, but the first step is to say it and now Zuckerberg has.

Granted, he may just be courting Trump. He put up a million for Trump’s inauguration and added Dana White, CEO of Ultimate Fighting Championship, to his Board of Directors, but again, “so what if he’s courting Trump?” Like his announcement last week that he’s dropping Facebook fact checkers and moving the monitoring operation to Texas, Zuck’s changes represent what has been called the biggest “vibe shift” since Trump’s re-election in November. Whether he’s truly seen the light or just pretending, it will be hard to roll it back. Others will follow.

Loser: Texas A&M’s Trip to Chicago

University leaders across the state have repeatedly assured the Legislature they are fully on board with Senate Bill 17, passed last session, which prohibits DEI programs and activities that divide students on the basis of race and gender. Still, it is not uncommon for news stories like this to pop up revealing that Texas A&M was recruiting black, Hispanic, and Native American students to attend a conference in Chicago where white and Asian students were not eligible to participate. When asked about it on Twitter, Gov. Greg Abbott became an instant winner for immediately tweeting:

“Hell, no. It’s against Texas law and violates the U.S. Constitution. It will be fixed immediately or the president will soon be gone.”

Texas A&M President Mark Walsh quickly backed down after Abbott’s shout out but the controversy will undoubtedly continue. DEI is deeply embedded in every cranny of university life and culture. It will take vigilance and commitment to finally root it out.

Winner: Jane Nelson Gavels in the Texas House

After much wailing and gnashing of teeth, the Texas House finally elected a new speaker on Tuesday, under the watchful eye of Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson. Nelson, who served in the Texas Senate for over 30 years, brought the same precision, tone and grace to the proceedings that she used while chairing the powerful Senate Finance Committee for over a decade. Nelson reminded the lawmakers in the lower chamber that they are all Texans—all family, and they need to take care of each other. We’ll be watching to see how that works out—but it was great to see a strong, competent woman in the chair.

Winner: Monday, January 20^th

Hundreds of Texans will be in Washington, D.C. on Monday to watch Donald J. Trump be sworn in as the 47^th President of the United States. If you are staying home, you can see them on TV. The Lone Star State loves Trump and as the biggest red state on the map, lots of Texans are naturally called to represent.

There’s also a big football game Monday night. Ohio State has the line, but I’m betting on Notre Dame. It’s a God thing.

Winner: Rumor that Coach Prime is Going to the Cowboys

Who knows, but this Sports Illustrated report sure makes it sound like it’s a real thing.

Sherry Sylvester is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and the former Senior Advisor to Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick.

Sign up to receive this in your inbox every week at www.texaspolicy.com/9thandCongress.

Follow me on X @sylvester1630 and follow my podcast, the Sherry Sylvester Show on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Winners & Losers Digital is back for 2025! Every Friday morning at 8:30 a.m., I join the Cardle & Woolley show, Talk 1370 Radio, in Austin where we discuss who made the list of Winners and who turned up on the Losers list for the previous week. Now that the ball has dropped and we are in the final countdown for the opening of the 89^th Legislative Session in Texas and the swearing in of the once and future President is about to take place, it’s time to take a look at who made it—and who did not—in the first full week of January.

Loser: California, its Governor and the whole Progressive, Left-Coast Model

The tragic fires in California may not have been preventable, but they were predictable—the Santa Ana winds blow every year. California is a big, rich state and it should have had a plan. Unfortunately, Gov. Gavin Newsom was too busy working on legislation to “protect” California from the policies of the incoming Trump administration to attend to the critical issue of wildfire mitigation. Forest underbrush wasn’t cleared, controlled burns weren’t set and there wasn’t enough water available. Current estimates are now as high as $150 billion to build back and since California is one of the most difficult places in the country to build anything because of onerous government red tape, you can double or triple that. Biden promised that the U.S. Government would pick up 100% of the firefighting and cleanup tab for the first 180 days (because California has no money, of course). Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis pointed out that the media would absolutely hold Republican leaders accountable for such a massive disaster failure, but so far, Newsom and other California leaders are not taking much heat from the press.

Winner: Women’s Sports & Women’s Rights

Yesterday’s ruling by the U.S. District Court of Eastern Kentucky which pulverized President Joe Biden’s Title IX rules change was a big victory for women’s sports and women’s rights. Chief Judge Danny C. Reeves pulled no punches, calling the proposed rules changes “unlawful.” Reeves was crystal clear, saying there is nothing in Title IX to suggest it means anything other than to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex. He said the idea of twisting that principle to include gender identity “turns Title IX on its head” and to use it to open locker rooms and bathrooms to both sexes “makes no sense.”

Finally, the ruling states that requiring teachers to use whatever pronouns their students dictate—like “they and them” instead of “he and she” clearly violates the free speech principles in the First Amendment. This ruling is going to make a big difference in our educational institutions and, hopefully, in the culture.

Winner: Bring Hollywood to Texas

Without capitalizing on the tragedy of the people of Southern California, it is important to note that a coalition of actors and other movie workers were already pressing the Texas Legislature to allocate more funds for film production in the Lone Star State. Their goal is to “move Hollywood to Texas.” And as Matthew McConaughey says in their latest message to the legislators, “if you don’t like what Hollywood’s been dishing, let’s take over the kitchen.” If you haven’t seen their latest spot featuring McConaughey, Woody Harrelson, Dennis Quaid, Billy Bob Thornton and Renee Zellweger, it’s called “True to Texas – Let’s Bring Production Home.” You can watch it here.

Winner: Trump’s Idea to Buy Greenland—Texas Should Do It!

Trump is an ideas guy and his going after Greenland is one of his best. He’s right that Greenland is needed for national security and it’s a strategic source of rare minerals. Unfortunately, Washington kills good ideas. Congress will stall, Democrats will push back, crazies in Europe and the United States will weigh in and rile up the Greenlanders and it will all be tied up in some bogus international court for years.

It makes more sense for Texas to buy Greenland. It will be faster and more efficient. Think about what happened at the southern border when Trump was first elected. He wanted to fix the problem, but he ran into all kinds of resistance from sanctuary cities and the Washington swamp. Meanwhile, Texas simply outlawed sanctuary cities, deployed hundreds of border patrol officers, fenced off the biggest entry points, put buoys in the river and substantially stemmed the illegal migrant flow.

Texas could pick up Greenland without much drama or bureaucratic red tape and it won’t cost much when you consider the almost immediate return on investment.

Texas could also remind the Greenlanders that we actually know what it is like to transition from being an independent country to a state. We can assure them they can retain their own identity, like we do, and we can help them set up a “keep Greenland Greenland” campaign.

Trump would still get the credit, of course. It was his winning idea.

Winner: Gov. Greg Abbott Endorsed “Gulf of Texas” Idea

Along the same lines, in an X tweet this week, Gov. Abbott amended President-elect Trump’s suggestion that the Gulf of Mexico should be renamed the “Gulf of America” to “Gulf of Texas” which makes more sense. We’ve all suffered through left-wing name changes like calling Columbus Day “Indigenous People’s Day,” so it’s time that normal people make some suggestions — a “Gulf of Texas” is a great start.

Winner: Zuckerberg Moving Content Moderators to Texas

Meta founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, announced this week that he is laying off fact checkers and will be employing a “Community Notes” system like X so that anyone can add comments if they think something inaccurate has been posted. Zuckerberg said the new system will be monitored in Texas because he thinks he’s less likely to get biased workers here than at his HQ in California.

All Meta’s soon-to-be laid-off fact checking groups denounced the move, insisting that they are arbiters of the truth and the only thing that stands between us and complete anarchy. But Politifact’s annual “Lie of the Year” award demonstrates the problem. Readers could select from a variety of “lies” from 2024—all but two were uttered by conservatives. The lie that won was Trump’s statement about immigrants in Springfield, Ohio eating pets. The lie that was not on the list was the claim by Democrats, including Vice President Kamala Harris, that Joe Biden was absolutely fit to run for re-election. That seems like a “pants on fire” moment.

Loser: Justin Trudeau and His Left-Wing World View

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced this week that he will be stepping down before Canadians make a move to push him out. Trudeau began his final decline in 2022 when he employed emergency powers to go after truckers who were protesting the country’s extreme COVID mandates. Trudeau also authorized freezing the bank accounts of truckers who opposed his policies.

Most recently, Trudeau chided Americans, saying the failure to elect Kamala Harris was a setback for women’s rights. President-elect Trump has suggested making Canada a 51^st state, but Trudeau has left it in such a mess that we’d be better off without it. Canadian conservatives are running almost 30 points ahead right now. Let them take over and fix it.

Winner: McDonald’s Ends DEI Programs

McDonald’s is the latest big company to announce it has ditched its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs and is re-focused on what is good for business, customers and workers. America First Legal and conservative activist Robby Starbuck, who has pushed a dozen other big companies to abandon DEI, have had McDonald’s in their sites for a while. As companies abandon DEI, which research shows has failed to provide any positive benefit, the big losers are the multi-billion dollar DEI industry and extortion groups like the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index which forces companies to follow policies based on racial and sexual identity, regardless of their impact on the business or workers. It took a long time for the phony ideology of DEI to become embedded in our culture and it is going to take a long time to weed it out—but Americans don’t like it and it is time for DEI to go.

Winner: Golden-Cheeked Warblers in the Texas Hill Country

My colleagues at TPPF began a legal battle a decade ago to remove the Golden-Cheeked Warbler, which lives in the Texas Hill Country, from the endangered species list. This week, the U.S. Dept. of Fish and Wildlife announced the warbler was no longer in need of an endangered designation, because its migratory patterns are expanding and it is generally thriving. The U.S. Department of the Interior makes the final decision on whether to keep the endangered designation, but TPPF’s legal pushing has helped to finally get the process moving. TPPF can also take the credit for the announcement by Black Rock this week that they have dropped out of the Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative, a program that pushes ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) policies that block investment in fossil fuels in the name of fighting climate change. TPPF’s Life Powered program has been working for years to fight ESG and give Americans the truth about energy issues. It’s working.

Loser: The Presidential Medal of Freedom is Not What it Used to Be

Many conservatives were rightly outraged this week when President Joe Biden gave the Presidential Medal of Freedom to George Soros, who shares much of the blame for the increase in violence and crime to American cities after he spent the last two decades bankrolling district attorney candidates who wouldn’t put people in jail. Biden also gave the medal to Hillary Clinton, because she was the “first woman nominated for president on a major party ticket.”

The Presidential Medal of Freedom was given to Martin Luther King, Jr., and Mother Teresa, but the standards seem to have dropped a bit. Granted, civil rights warrior Fannie Lou Hamer got the award posthumously this year—the Biden team undoubtedly did not know she was an outspoken opponent of abortion—but so did clothes designer Ralph Lauren and Annie Wintour, the editor of Vogue, who organizes the annual Met Gala, a big lefty get-together in New York City. Former U.S. Senator and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy also received the award, but apparently Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Trump’s designee to serve as Secretary of Health and Human Services, was not invited to the ceremony.

For the folks in the Biden White House, freedom does just seem to be “another word for nothing left to lose.”

Big Game Tonight!

By the time we are back here next week, we will know whether the University of Texas will be playing Notre Dame in Atlanta on January 20. Let’s not say anything about that now—you know how the Longhorns are and we don’t want to do anything to jinx it. Have a great weekend!

Sherry Sylvester is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and the former Senior Advisor to Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick.

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