It’s Day 38 of Trump 2.0 and I joined the Cardle & Woolley Show on 1370 Talk Radio in Austin to announce the Winners & Losers of the week. Here’s who made the list:
Winner: Trump’s First Cabinet Meeting
The transparency of the Trump administration is dazzling but the game-changer that was on display during his first Cabinet meeting this week was the president’s absolute candor. Trump lets the entire world knows exactly what he thinks and why he thinks it. His forthrightness has disarmed the hostile media, at least when they are asking him questions—and they ask a lot of questions. One report revealed that Trump responded to nearly 1,100 questions in his first 30 days in office, compared to 140 by Joe Biden. The media can hate his answers, they can hate his cabinet members and they can certainly hate Elon Musk, but it is very hard for them to build a case that some crazed MAGA-wing conspiracy is going on when Trump and his team are all sitting around a table, responding to dozens of mostly hostile questions in a reasonable way.
It’s the exact reverse of what we witnessed with the Joe Biden presidency. The legacy media told us everything was fine, but in the rare instances that Biden was on TV, the whole country could see there were serious issues.
Now the legacy media is telling us that terrible things are happening, but we can see with our own eyes that Trump and his team are functioning across the board in real time. They have moved beyond campaign promises, the rubber hits the road every day—criminals are being deported, bureaucrats are being fired and sanity is returning to our institutions.
Trump also doesn’t think it is onerous for bureaucrats to be required to respond to an email to confirm they are working—a “pulse check,” as Musk said.
No workers in America are more coddled than federal bureaucrats. They are better paid, with better benefit packages, shorter work days and fewer actual work requirements. Plus, it is almost impossible to be fired. Taxpayers who work in the private sector have none of those protections and are still required to shell out big chunks of their paychecks every month to pay for the federal bureaucracy. The media is trying to whip up sad stories about poor federal workers, but it’s unlikely any outrage will erupt.
Winners: Sens. Brandon Creighton & Paul Bettencourt Draw Line in Sand Over DEI Compliance
Texas Senate Higher Education Chairman Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe and Local Government Chair, Sen. Paul Betterncourt, R-Houston, called out Texas public universities yesterday, charging many were not in compliance with Senate Bill 17, Texas’ anti-DEI law. In a letter to the universities, the Senate leaders, who both serve on the Senate Finance Committee, declared their requests for increased funding were frozen until the universities demonstrate they have done more than relaunch, rename or re-authorized racially divisive DEI programs.
Apparently unaware that the majority of Texans of every racial group oppose DEI programs and want the programs removed from colleges and universities, the Texas Tribune tried to suggest the moves against university funding are because Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is on a personal crusade against DEI. Here’s what they reported about an internal email they obtained from Texas A&M:
- “The rumor is the [lieutenant] governor will cut everyone’s institutional enhancement money to try to get higher ed’s attention,” Julie Kopycinski, a top government relations staffer, wrote to her boss, Texas A&M President Mark Welsh.
- “What part of our ‘attention’ is he trying to get,” Welsh responded, according to an email exchange obtained in an open records request.
- “That we have collectively lost our core mission and are still too [DEI] and leftist focused,” Kopycinski responded.
President Welsh apparently didn’t hear that Lt. Gov. Patrick made it clear at the Texas Public Policy Foundation Summit last week that he will not support continued funding for universities that don’t get rid of DEI programs. The universities could lose anywhere from $40 to $50 million each if they fail to comply with the law.
Meanwhile, the Goldwater Institute has just released a report showing that at least five Texas universities are requiring students to take DEI courses in order to graduate.
Loser: Federal Judge Who Blocked Trump’s Anti-DEI Executive Orders
U.S. District Judge Adam B. Abelson temporarily blocked Trump’s two executive orders that declare the racial preferences dictated by Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs to be illegal. Trump withdrew all federal funding from institutions, including colleges and universities, that persist in pushing DEI.
Abelson’s preliminary injunction is in response to a lawsuit from the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education (NADHOE) and the judge assists them in pushing the myth that DEI programs are somehow part of civil rights protections, saying “ensuring equity, diversity, and inclusion has long been a goal, and at least in some contexts arguably a requirement, of federal anti-discrimination law.”
Nothing could be farther from the truth. According to NADHOE itself, their mission is to “engag[e] in ongoing ways to incorporate alternative narratives in the curriculum and provide robust learning opportunities on the history of racism, colonization, and conquest on how higher education and other sectors of society have been complicit in maintaining systems of privilege.”
“Alternative narratives” means rewriting history and dividing Americans into two groups, oppressors and the oppressed, based on immutable characteristics of race or gender.
Dr. Mr. Luther King was motivated by a dream that someday his children would be judged on the content of their character, not the color of their skin. The only “dream” of the NADHOE and the pro-DEI crowd is that one day every child in America will be judged only “by the color of their skin” and maybe their gender identity.
NADHOE President Paulette Granberry-Russell issued a written statement saying that Trump’s actions are a direct threat to their core values. You bet they are! That’s the point.
Winner: White House Press Shake-Up
As a former reporter, I can tell you that few things are greater than being a member of the press corps. Press credentials can get you to the front of the line at virtually any event. When I worked in New York I had a placard in my car that proclaimed: “WORKING PRESS,” which allowed me to park virtually anywhere—handicapped spaces, fire hydrants, and the sidewalk. I’ve had badges at national conventions that screamed “ALL ACCESS” in big baby blacks. It was a great feeling to think I was more important than virtually anybody.
I assume that’s how the people at the White House Correspondents Association felt until this week when Trump press secretary Karoline Leavitt informed them that they would no longer get to decide who sits in the front row at the White House briefings, who gets to ask the first question and whose part of the smaller press pool.
Lefty reporters are screaming about the changes, but it is hard to imagine a more democratic move than dragging the White House news operation into the 21st Century and expanding the number of media outlets. Only a tiny fraction of Americans get their news from the New York Times or CBS, so why should they get all the access.
Meanwhile, the Associated Press is still in the penalty box for failing to acknowledge the Gulf of America—but it’s not just that. The AP Stylebook directs what every media outlet is supposed to say about virtually everything. It’s the AP that demanded that news outlets describe unnecessary mastectomies and castrations on children as “gender-affirming care,” as well as insisting that “Black” be capitalized when talking about people, but “white” should remain lowercase because, well, who knows why.
LOSER: MOVEON.ORG is Funding Anti-DOGE protests
There were anti-Trump and anti-Elon Musk marches in Austin last week and in other places around the nation. One of the groups organizing them was MoveOn.org which is putting millions into fighting DOGE with new chants claiming “Congress Works for Us, Not Musk.”
MoveOn.org is getting their funding from mega-lefty George Soros, but for those who may not have been around in 1998, here’s a reminder that they originally organized to encourage the country to ignore the fact that President Bill Clinton had sexual relations with a White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. They said it wasn’t a big deal and the country should just “MoveOn.” I guess their message now is that we should just MoveOn from the billions in bureaucratic waste in the federal government or the millions the Agency for International Development spent funding DEI programs around the world or the hundreds of thousands who have died from fentanyl coming across the open border.
Loser: Rachel Maddow’s Defense of Joy Reid
If you missed the story of how MSNBC host Rachel Maddow defended her colleague Joy Reid, who was fired this week, take a look at it here.
Joy Reid is a racist who hates just about everybody, so we can only assume that Maddow’s outrage is because she also subscribes to Reid’s hate-filled racism. Maddow said she still had “so much to learn” from Reid.
Winner: Californians are Trying to Recall Newsom Again
Californians frequently show up on my losers list for giving their governor, Gavin Newsom, such high approval ratings. However, a report came out this week announcing that Golden State residents are ready to try to recall him again. Here’s some great footage of Mel Gibson, who lost his home in the recent fires, explaining why Newsom has to go.
Winners: Longhorns are No. 1
The women’s basketball team at the University of Texas finally claimed the top spot in the national rankings this week after beating all the top teams in the SEC and a few others. They had a close call last night against Mississippi State but they kept their winning streak going and are currently 28 and 2. They are expected to take the No. 1 seed in the NCAA bracket coming up. They play Florida on Sunday afternoon in Austin, so go root for them.
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.
