Category: Podcast

This commentary was originally published by the San Antonio Express-News.

Diversity, equity and inclusion are words that appeal to American values, but DEI programming departs from American tradition.

Both President Donald Trump and Gov. Greg Abbott have pumped up their efforts to end diversity, equity and inclusion, known as DEI, programs everywhere they find them — in public schools and universities, government agencies and the military.

Trump’s Jan. 21 order also targeted publicly traded companies, and in Texas, Attorney General Ken Paxton has focused on Costco  and its support for DEI.

But I wonder if its executives really know what DEI is.

A lot of people don’t exactly know what DEI is, and that is intentional.  DEI sounds like a good thing.  Diversity and inclusion are strong American values, and as for equity — that’s like equality, right?  Even U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders doesn’t know the difference.

But equity is not the same as equality. Equality means everyone must be given an equal chance to enter the race. The DEI crowd often frames equity as providing the resources that ensure equal opportunity, but it often comes across as everyone who enters the race must win it, regardless of how they perform.

Whatever the framing, Americans don’t like DEI.  In 2023, the Texas Public Policy Foundation, where I am a senior fellow, polled Texans before Senate Bill 17, which outlawed DEI programs at public universities, and found that almost 70% of respondents, including a majority of Black and Hispanic Texans, did not want special programs to help minority students succeed.

Texans want every student to be treated the same. That’s equality.

The U.S. Constitution, as well as laws created in the 1960s to prevent discrimination on the basis of race or sex — Title VI and Title IX — remain in full force, and university programs for students, including mentoring, tutoring and counseling programs, continue across every campus.

But that is not what DEI is about, and it never has been.  DEI’s mission is to change America’s sense of who we are by challenging our values and rewriting our history.

Contrary to what pro-DEI advocates are saying today, DEI was not part of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.  Martin Luther King Jr. was motivated by a dream that someday his children would be judged on the content of their character, not the color of their skin — a “color-blind”  America.  Today, DEI proponents have argued the term “color-blind” can perpetuate racism.

As a result of DEI, beginning in kindergarten and extending to university classrooms and company boardrooms, alternative narratives proclaim that America is founded on racism and white supremacy. DEI divides all Americans into two groups — oppressors, who are racists and colonizers, and those they oppress, whom they call victims.

DEI teaches that because of America’s original sin of slavery, we are all doomed to live in a country where those who are oppressed cannot succeed, no matter how hard they try, because racists have stacked the deck against them.

Now higher education officers and other DEI officials are suing Trump because he took immediate and comprehensive steps to end DEI.

It is hard to understand why Trump’s and Abbott’s actions to end DEI are even controversial.  Over the last 20 years, DEI has not increased the numbers of minority students on campuses, and a Texas study conducted last year showed  DEI programs also didn’t improve educational outcomes, including graduation rates or better job opportunities, for minority students.

DEI is a multibillion-dollar industry that has infiltrated our schools, businesses and government. But instead of making our communities more diverse and inclusive, it has divided us by race, gender, sexual orientation and ancestry. That’s why Trump’s edict to end DEI is both broad and deep. It needs to be.

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.

Recorded at the Texas Public Policy Summit’s 2025 Texas Policy Summit in Austin, TPPF Distinguished Senior Fellow Sherry Sylvester shares her Winners & Losers list from the week of February 21.

Listen to the Sherry Sylvester Show on Apple or Spotify.

Subscribe to the 9th & Congress newsletter, which includes Sherry’s weekly Winners & Losers column.

We put this week’s edition of Winners & Losers in podcast format taped during TPPF’s annual Texas Policy Summit on the University of Texas campus in Austin. You can listen to the entire list — here’s couple of top lines:

TPPF’s Family Success Agenda earns a top spot on the “Winners List” for taking steps to integrate the “Success Sequence” into public policy, ensuring state agencies will support programs to help young Texans finish high school, get a job and wait until they are married before having children.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is also a big winner this week for educating the always obtuse Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation. In case you missed it, Brennan compared Vice President J.D. Vance to Hitler for “weaponizing” free speech. Rubio reminded her that there was no free speech in Nazi Germany, where citizens were jailed if they criticized the government and book burnings were routine.

Former President Joe Biden is still on the “Losers List” this week because we just learned that, in addition to his family, he commuted the sentence of Leonard Peltier, who killed 2 FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota 50 years ago.

Finally, Baylor University in Waco is erecting a new statue — a Memorial to Enslaved Persons — in order to help students and faculty “repent the sin of slavery.”

But wait, there’s more. Watch and listen to all this week’s Winners & Losers here:

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 the Winners & Losers for the previous week. President Donald Trump looks like he may get a complete sweep on his cabinet appointments, and Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows released his committee assignments—so the legislative games can truly begin. Here’s who made the list this week:

Winner: Trump Proclaims End to Paper Straws (and RFK, Jr. is Confirmed)

There may be no metaphor that better epitomizes the insanity progressives inflicted on the country than the paper straw. Paper straws are worse than non-binary pronouns and those signs that are still stuck on floors everywhere reminding us to stay six feet apart. Based on no science, if you happen to find yourself in a blue city in 21st century America, paper straws are your only option, most often pushed on you by a sanctimonious waitperson who is in therapy to help her manage her fear of climate change.

But this week the paper straw nightmare ended with another victory for the frustrated and annoyed majority. Trump proclaimed that plastic straws are the straw of the land. Just read this beautiful legal language:

It is therefore the policy of the United States to end the use of paper straws [and eliminate] all policies within the executive branch designed to disfavor plastic straws.

Cue Lee Greenwood. So proud to be an American.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., was also confirmed this week. President Trump continues to make it clear that when it comes to the federal bureaucracy, there is no baby in the bathwater—it all has to be thrown out. Right up to the end of the confirmation process, the legacy media told us RFK, Jr., might not make it, but in a strong rebuke to his cousin, Caroline Kennedy, who said some very awful things about him last week, the GOP Senate Majority made him Secretary of Health and Human Services on a vote of 52 to 48.

Caroline’s attack on her cousin made it clear that blood is not actually thicker than water. By spewing talking points from the lefty hate machine, Caroline made the Kennedys look like the royal family as she tried to portray RFK, Jr. as the awful Prince Andrew. Instead, she came off like Megan Markle.

Caroline apparently is unaware that few Americans care if her entire family of Massachusetts, blue-blood Democrats sets their hair on fire. RFK, Jr. now holds the highest-ranking position in federal government since his father was attorney general and his uncle was president. Trump has redefined the Camelot dynasty. The name Kennedy will stand for something different in America from now on.

Winner: Mark Fogel Released from Russian Prison

Moving news reports this week announced that Mark Fogel, an American school teacher who had been in prison in Russia since 2021, had finally been released from prison. Fogel kissed the snowy ground at Andrews Air Force Base when he finally landed on U.S. soil. He had been arrested for possessing medicinal marijuana, just like WNBA star Brittney Griner, who former President Joe Biden helped get released in 2022, after she served 10 months in prison.

Every American who is falsely imprisoned should be brought home, but Fogel’s release reminds us that Biden ignored him while trading a notorious arms dealer, nicknamed the “Merchant of Death,” for Griner, a gay, African-American basketball star who had walked off the court in protest of the Star Spangled Banner being played before games.

Happily, Griner’s time in a Russian prison changed her perspective, which was clear when she was one of Team USA’s shining stars at this year’s Olympics. Fogel’s mother had talked directly to President Trump during the campaign and he promised her he’d get her son home. Trump gave Russian Alexander Vinnik, a crypto money launderer, in exchange.

Loser: Californians…What are they thinking?

What were Golden State voters watching during the presidential campaign last year? A new poll shows that 57% of voters say they would back Kamala Harris if she ran for governor of the country’s largest state. Gavin Newsom, who is presiding over the current disasters there, can’t run for re-election. Guess they don’t want to be “burdened by what has been.”

Winner: Cy-Fair ISD Passes Gender Disclosure Policy

The Cy-Fair ISD school board passed a gender disclosure policy last week that will require teachers to inform parents if their son is asking to be treated like a girl at school. Dissenting parents can sign a release for the school to allow their child to say they are a different gender than they are. News reports out of Houston say that “many” parents showed up to protest, but some perspective is needed. Cy-Fair is the third largest school district in the state with about 120,000 students. If even 100 parents show up to protest something—and the photos look like the count was much smaller than that—it’s not indicative of anything about what parents think. A University of Houston poll last year found strong majorities of parents oppose policies that empower children of one sex to declare themselves to be the opposite sex.

Winner: Trump’s Team

As of this writing 16 of Trump’s 22 cabinet nominees have been confirmed by the Senate. This includes Tulsi Gabbard, who became Director of National Intelligence this week. Gabbard, with RFK Jr. and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, were viewed as the longest shots so most of the heavy lifting is done. Our friend and former Texas Public Policy Foundation CEO Brooke Rollins was also sworn in as Secretary of Agriculture this week.

Loser: PBS Brags that 68% of Programs are “Diversity Related”

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting abruptly fired its DEI officers this week after the Free Press published comments from a whistleblower that revealed they were trying to get around Trump’s Executive Order to eliminate DEI. Here’s what he said:

In 2023, PBS boasted that 68 percent of its programming was BIPOC or “diversity-related,” and that BIPOC employees comprised 48 percent of new hires, while women accounted for 75 percent of new hires. “Race is a major determining factor in decision-making,” the high-ranking source said. In 2024, when a round of layoffs led to the dismissal of 24 employees and the closure of seven vacant positions, “the DEI budget was untouched,” the source said.

(BIPOC means Black, Indigenous and People of Color.) The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which includes PBS and NPR, gets a half billion dollars in federal funding. Getting rid of its racist hiring practices and DEI programs are not enough. The federal funding needs to stop and they should compete in the marketplace like the rest of the media. Their news shows will die, like MSNBC, and you can already watch Masterpiece Theatre and Sesame Street on Prime, so it’s not a big leap.

Winner: Super Bowl LIX Breaks Viewing Record

An amazing 127.7 million people watched the Super Bowl on Sunday, the most ever, which is good. We don’t have many cultural focus points anymore where everybody watches the same thing at the same time and even though it wasn’t a great game it’s good to see the country come together. President Trump was cheered. Taylor Swift was booed and the Chiefs’ Tight End Travis Kelce admitted the Chiefs’ loss might have been his fault since he took Swift out to dinner instead of watching tape with the team. Doesn’t matter. The Eagles had a big victory parade today and the fans decided not to burn down Philadelphia to celebrate, so everybody is a winner.

Winner: Texas Women’s Longhorns Rout Kentucky

The No. 3 ranked Texas Longhorns routed Kentucky last night 67-49, setting them up to play LSU on Sunday. Over a million people watched the Texas women defeat the South Carolina Gamecocks on Sunday, breaking their 57 game winning streak. Good to see South Carolina go down after their coach, Dawn Staley, came out last year in support of allowing men who think they are women to play in women’s sports. Not sure how Staley feels about the NCAA announcement last week ensuring that only women will compete in women’s sports, as well as news this week that the U.S. Department of Education is asking the NCAA to return all the awards biological men have won in women’s sports so they can be given to the women who actually won them. The Women Longhorns play the No. 5 ranked LSU Tigers on Sunday at 2 p.m. Central. The Longhorns, the Tigers and South Carolina are in a three-way tie for the top spot in the SEC. Should be a good game.

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.erever 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. But since President Donald Trump was inaugurated and everything is moving at warp speed, a week is a very long time. Lots of things are happening. Here’s who made the list:

Winner: Texas Sen. Brandon Creighton, Gov. Abbott, Lt. Gov. Patrick & Texas Children

The Texas Senate is a notoriously collegial place. Texas senators each represent about a million people, and on most days, they are pointedly respectful of each other’s opinions, regardless of partisan differences. However, this week, just before the final passage of Senate Bill 2, establishing Education Savings Accounts in Texas, Senate Education Chairman Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, finally had to call out his Democrat colleagues for spewing a barrage of recycled lies about his school choice bill, parroting, as he said, “the talking points of the American Federation of Teachers, coming straight from [national teacher union president] Randi Weingarten.” Creighton shook his head incredulously at the Democrats’ hyperbolic allegations that Senate Bill 2 is a “white kids bill,” or a “rich kids bill” in their effort to create doubt and chaos about legislation that will transform public education opportunities for marginalized and minority kids. He asked his Democrat colleagues several times, “what are you fighting for, mediocrity?”

Don’t get me wrong. Creighton remained a gentleman the entire time — that’s who he is and that’s the way they do business in the Senate, but his message was clear. The Democrat senators’ opposition to school choice did not spring from a simple disagreement over policy, because they all want better schools. Instead, their opposition dramatically affirmed the fact that the teachers’ unions own the Democrat party lock, stock, and barrel.

You can listen to Creighton’s no-nonsense remarks here, beginning at the 59 minute mark. If you begin the playback from the beginning in the same link, you can watch many of the Texas Democrat senators — the highest ranking elected Democrats in Texas — stand up and oppose giving Texas parents the right to choose the best school for their children. You can hear them pounding the table and ignoring piles of data showing that states with school choice have better academic outcomes, safer schools, better programs for disabled kids, better civic engagement and improved college readiness. Even though many of them represent districts where mostly failing and under-performing schools are located, they ignored that and, as Creighton said, “toed the party line for the teachers’ unions.” When Senate Bill 2 finally passed, it did not receive one Democrat vote.

I have been around school choice battles in several states for many years, and like Creighton, at some point you can only shake your head at the hypocrisy. Many of the Democrat lawmakers who spoke the loudest against school choice attended private schools themselves, a decision their parents made that may have been key in giving them the education, confidence and skills they needed to become elected leaders. It is inexcusable that they oppose extending that same opportunity to their constituents and their children.

Of course, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is also a winner in passing Senate Bill 2. He’s been working for school choice during his entire time in public office and has passed it out of the Senate six times. Another big winner is Gov. Greg Abbott, who made school choice a priority, campaigned for it all over the state and helped elect a Texas House that is ready to vote for it. When Patrick announced that Senate Bill 2 is now on its way to the Texas House, he made it clear that in Texas, as in Washington, it is time to move at warp speed.

Winner: Marco Rubio Gets Rid of USAID

Secretary of State Marco Rubio took USAID over after the people working there wouldn’t take his calls. His demand seems simple enough — he wants America’s foreign aid funding to be synchronized with our foreign policy.

Since Rubio shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Federalist compiled an outrageous list of insane things it funded including $2 million for a clinic for sex change operations in Guatemala, another couple million for electric cars in Vietnam and meals for al Qaeda-affiliated fighters in Syria. USAID is also one of the biggest funders of BBC Media Action, part of the BBC, in England. Huh? U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., is “exceptionally upset” USAID funding is gone, which would indicate shutting it down is a good thing.

However, it is important to remember that while the wacky list of USAID funded things — a transgender opera in Columbia, a DEI program in Serbia and a transgender comic book in Peru — all have to go, the United States should still be out there helping poor countries fight malaria, clean up their water and keep children from starving to death. Nobody opposes that, and I am confident Rubio will move forward with foreign aid that comports with our foreign policy.

Winner: Trump Cancels Legacy Media Subscriptions

In unraveling the USAID spending, there was a lot of hoopla about how much money they were giving to legacy media companies, which caused us conservatives to go crazy. Even though we won the election and even the New York Times admits that most everybody in the country agrees with us, we still have to put up with the legacy media spitting out the same sanctimonious lies now that they were spitting out before the election. If taxpayer dollars are helping keep them afloat, that’s a real outrage.

Trump agrees and he told the General Services Administration to just cancel every subscription and contract with any media company. It’s a good idea that would work well in Texas too. Elected officials fork over thousands of dollars every year to newspapers and digital outfits that traffic in inaccurate information and baseless attacks on conservatives while shilling for progressives. They survive on subscriptions. Stop paying them.

Winner: Scott Turner Will Take Over HUD

Some remember Scott Turner as a former Texas state representative and others remember him as a defensive back for the Denver Broncos, but the Texan has just added Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to his resume. His confirmation hearing was low-key and impressive. There are few issues more pressing than affordable housing, so it’s terrific news that we’ve got a Texan in that job.

Loser: Americans Are Just Not That into Democrats Right now

The latest Quinnipiac Poll found that only 31% of Americans have a positive view of the Democrat Party right now. The same poll found that almost half of Americans, 47%, feel positively about President Trump and Republicans. Democrats seem to have no idea why people don’t like them, and it’s fun to watch them flailing.

Loser: N.J. Gov. Moved Possible Illegal Alien to His Garage

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy also didn’t help Democrat approval ratings this week when he convened a press conference to suggest that the woman who cleans his house might be an illegal alien so he’s moved her into the apartment over his garage. He dared U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to come and get her.

It’s not clear what message he’s sending to the people of New Jersey by taking this action. It’s hard to figure why the governor of the 11^th most populous state with a budget of about $60 billion can’t find a legal citizen to clean his house.

As someone who has lived in New Jersey, let me give you a little background on this. The Governor’s Mansion isn’t in the state capitol in Trenton. It is actually in Princeton and it’s called Drumthwacket, but Gov. Murphy doesn’t live there. He lives in a $10 million mansion next to Jon Bon Jovi in Middletown. If you think I am making this up, you can read all about it in the Asbury Park Press.

Loser: Vogue Editorial Criticizing Melania Trump

Sorry to intrude with a fashion alert, but I simply must put Vogue Magazine on the losers list this week for criticizing Melania Trump’s official White House portrait. Speaking mostly in gibberish, the ladies at Vogue apparently didn’t like Melania’s black pantsuit and white blouse. It’s no surprise this ridiculous publication is filled with lefty snobs, but this snub of Melania is over the top. Hillary Clinton also wore a black pants suit for her official portrait when she was first lady. But what really is annoying is that Dr. Jill Biden appeared on the cover of Vogue three times, even though her husband was a one-termer while Melania hasn’t made the cover since her husband became president — and she’s a professional model. Dr. Jill’s last appearance on the cover of Vogue came just a couple of days after Joe blew the debate, demonstrating he was incompetent to run the country. Remember that?

Winner: Trump Bans Men from Women’s Prisons

Trump has barred men who say they are women from federal women’s prisons this week — a move that will undoubtedly increase the safety of women who are incarcerated. In making the move, an amazing statistic came out — 15% of the “women” in federal prison are transgender. Perhaps it’s not that amazing. If a man knows he’s going to go to prison, claiming to be a woman is a smart move to make. Just 1.6% of the population says they are transgender.

Winner: Women Athletes

When President Trump signed another executive order this week banning men from playing in women’s sports, he proclaimed, “The war on women’s sports is over.” He’s right. Women won. Any school or university that continues to allow men who think they are women to participate in women’s sports will lose their federal funding. Trump also warned the Olympic committee that America will not tolerate men in international women’s sports either.

The persistently spineless NCAA immediately announced a “transgender student athlete participation policy change,” that restricts women’s sports to “student-athletes assigned female at birth.” There are some problems with the whole “assigned female at birth” stuff, but, as Trump said, the war is over.

Losers: Texas Doctors Who Do Sex Change Operations
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has stopped three doctors in North Texas from performing sex change operations on children, an important step in shutting down clinic operations that are violating Texas law. There is big money in puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and so-called “transition” surgeries, so it is no surprise that those involved in mutilating children aren’t going away quietly. The attorney general is right to crack down and keep the pressure on them, until these clinics are completely eradicated in Texas.

Loser: CBS Heavily Edited Harris Interview During Campaign
This week, CBS’s “60 Minutes” finally was forced by the Federal Communications Commission to turn over the tape of their interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris. The interview was conducted during the presidential campaign and includes about an hour’s worth of footage, although they aired less than 20 minutes. It is instructive to look at what CBS left out — basically every word salad and stupid answer Harris gave — because it demonstrates how legacy news media slices and dices news reports to manipulate the message.

Winner: Super Bowl Sunday
Forty-one percent of Americans told Gallup that football was their favorite sport. Baseball and basketball, which are number two and three, don’t even come close, at 10% and 9%. Americans are football people, which is great because on Sunday, President Trump will become the first sitting president to attend a Super Bowl Game. Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts is being kind of snooty about it, saying the president can do whatever he wants, but the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback and former Texas Tech star and East Texas native Patrick Mahomes says he’s excited because “it’s always cool to play in front of a sitting president, someone who is at the top position in our country.” Even the Chiefs’ tight end Travis Kelce calls it an honor, despite the fact that his girlfriend was a Kamala supporter. It’s gonna be fun.

Happy Super Bowl Sunday!

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.ever you get your podcasts.erever 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. 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.

TPPF’s Sherry Sylvester sits down with Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, author of “Take Two Aspirin and Call Me By My Pronouns” to discuss his journey as the “Paul Revere regarding medical schools being infiltrated by woke policies.”

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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.

A Texas History Lesson on Trump’s Biological Truth Proclamation

President Donald J. Trump’s unequivocal statement on Inauguration Day—that there are just two biological sexes in America—ends the heinous practice of using laws designed to protect women from sex discrimination to promote men pretending to be women.

Trump’s Executive Order, “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” is monumental. The battle for “biological truth” has been going on for almost a decade.

Here’s how it went down in Texas:

In 2017, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick made Senate Bill 6, the Women’s Privacy Act, a legislative priority. The bill was authored by Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, and was Texas’ emergency response to President Barack Obama’s federal edict, issued in 2016, that all public schools must allow boys who think they are girls to use the girls’ restrooms. If they didn’t, they would lose their federal funding.

Kolkhorst, an NCAA champion athlete, could see the writing on the wall. The language of the legislation was straightforward, simply stating that in Texas public schools and in state-owned buildings men and boys would not be allowed in women’s restrooms. The bill was later expanded to prohibit men and boys from participating in women’s and girls’ sports.

Although property tax reform and school choice were also legislative priorities for the lieutenant governor in 2017, the media snidely referred to the Women’s Privacy Act as “the bathroom bill” and made it the defining issue of the session. They used it to push a narrative that the Republicans who’d been elected to lead the state were actually crazed right wingers, too radical for everyday Texans. To demonstrate this point, they created a tasteless video featuring some “everyday Texans” standing up for the right to “Pee with the LGBT.”

Polling consistently showed that the public supported separate restrooms for girls and women, but pollsters and the media went all out to obscure that data, ultimately insisting it was an issue that could not be polled.

Kolkhorst rightly defined the bathroom bill as a women’s rights issue, but news reports rarely included her statements on her legislation. Instead, they distorted her message, portraying her and her fellow senators who supported the bill as bigoted and out-of-touch. Hundreds of screaming left-wing activists mobbed the Capitol to testify against it.

Many major Texas businesses weighed in against SB 6, prodded to act by a new generation of DEI officers who had infiltrated corporate board rooms and propagated the lie that Texas would lose billions in tourism dollars because gay people would boycott travel in the state. AT&T, Dell, Kimberly-Clark, Southwest Airlines and Texas Instruments joined with national firms including IBM, Facebook, Apple and American Airlines in sending a letter to Gov. Greg Abbott, Patrick and then-Speaker of the House Joe Straus insisting that SB 6 would “seriously hurt the state’s ability to attract new businesses, investment, and jobs.” They produced a serious-looking impact study that purported to show that passing SB 6—or even talking about it—would cost the state $8.5 billion and 100,000 jobs. Even left-leaning Politifact admitted the study was bogus.

The NCAA threatened to pull the Final Four out of Texas (they didn’t) and the National Football League (NFL) suggested it might not hold another Super Bowl here (it did).

Despite being ruthlessly attacked in both the state and national media, Patrick and Kolkhorst stared down Obama and stood their ground. The Texas Senate passed the Women’s Privacy Bill on a party-line vote. The bill was gutted in the Texas House.

Looking back a decade later, Texas Democrats and the media can still be heard muttering “bathroom bill” under their breath from time to time, but Texas lawmakers have passed strong legislation protecting women’s spaces and women’s sports, prohibiting puberty blockers and sex change operations in children as well as the strongest anti-DEI bill in the nation. DEI officers are being purged from corporate conference rooms and female athletes are pushing back against males participating in their sports and it looks as if the NCAA is on the path to finally institute a ban.

History should not be kind to Obama. With the help of the DEI cartel and the left-wing media, he created a country where men were not only able to go into women’s restrooms, but also women’s prisons, simply by claiming to be women. Thanks to him, we got federal documents that give a half dozen options in addition to male and female to report what sex you are, teachers can be prosecuted for refusing to refer to a boy as “her,” and a Supreme Court Justice of the United States can say that she is not qualified to define a woman because she is “not a biologist.”

Trump’s Executive Order “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism” restores biological reality and ends a long ugly decade of this gender insanity. Trump’s Executive Order makes it clear that a woman is defined as an “adult female.” Gender is over. Sex is back!

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