Congress Goes War-Mode as Trump Quietly Grabs Culture Levers
Defense cash, foreign “peace,” and blue-city radicals show where power is really shifting.
Good Morning, it’s Sunday, December 14th, 2025.
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The $901 Billion Defense Question: Who’s Really in Charge?
Congress just rolled out a record $901 billion national defense bill for next year—about $8 billion more than Trump asked for, with $400 million carved out for Ukraine. That’s not budgeting, that’s the permanent security state flexing.
The same package folds in a separate push aimed squarely at China: new tech bans, investment crackdowns, and a 4% pay raise for troops. Translation: Congress is locking in a long-term Cold War 2.0 posture whether the White House likes the exact numbers or not.
The Hill also released the full NDAA text, confirming what we already know: the real negotiations don’t happen on C-SPAN, they happen between lobbyists, committee staffers, and the contractors they’ll work for later. Trump may set the tone, but the Hill still writes the checks.
Why it matters: when Congress goes bigger than Trump’s own request, it tells you two things. First, the war lobby feels safe—no political price for overspending. Second, “America First” fights now happen inside the Republican coalition, not just against Democrats.
For readers: the NDAA is where the swamp hides everything—from social engineering inside the military to sanctions that reshape the global economy. If you only watch presidential drama, you miss where the real money and power are actually moving.
War, “Peace,” and Europe’s Slow Suicide
Zelenskyy is calling his peace talks with U.S. reps “constructive but not easy,” as he heads to huddle with European leaders. That phrase usually means: he didn’t get everything he wanted, but the funding pipeline isn’t closed.
In Gaza, Netanyahu says the second phase of the ceasefire will begin “very shortly,” with Hamas still trying to locate the remains of the final hostage. That signals Israel is trying to pivot from all-out war to a more “managed” conflict—under the glare of Western governments and institutions trying to cancel it in every direction.
At the same time, Trump’s new National Security Strategy openly calls out Europe’s “civilizational suicide,” a rare moment of honesty in a document that normally reads like think-tank word salad. He’s telling allies: keep your borders open, birthrates low, and energy policy insane, and you’re not really allies—you’re cautionary tales.
Long game: Ukraine “peace,” Gaza ceasefires, and Europe’s demographic decline all intersect in one question—how much longer will U.S. taxpayers bankroll a security structure built on other countries refusing to protect their own borders or cultures.
Trump vs the Permanent Class: Parks, Arts, and Banks
The national parks fight looks silly on the surface: Trump added his own birthday as a free-entry day while axing MLK Day and Juneteenth from the list. The media screams symbolism; the deeper story is Trump refusing to let the Left own every cultural calendar decision.
Then there’s the Kennedy Center. Trump not only reinstated the traditional presidential hosting role—he took control of the board, replaced members, and presided over a red carpet packed with Stallone, George Strait, Kelsey Grammer and more. He even joked he “didn’t really prepare” to host, which is classic Trump: turn institutional capture into casual showmanship.
On the financial front, JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon denied politically “debanking” Trump Media—but then blamed the Biden administration for “militarizing the government” against Trump’s orbit. That’s as close as a global bank CEO gets to saying out loud: yes, regulators were weaponized.
Meanwhile, DOJ just took a hit in its effort to re-indict former FBI Director James Comey, with a judge temporarily blocking use of key evidence from the first round of charges. Lawfare isn’t gone—but it’s no longer a one-way ratchet. Some judges are clearly uncomfortable with endless “try again” prosecutions.
Big picture: Trump is quietly pushing into elite spaces—parks calendars, high culture, financial narratives—while parts of the system that went all-in against him in the 2020s now scramble for legal and reputational cover.
Somali Fraud Wars: Omar on Defense, Treasury on Offense
Rep. Ilhan Omar admitted there were “always those alarms” about Minnesota’s gigantic COVID-era fraud schemes, now under investigation and sending scammers to prison. Translation: she saw smoke, did nothing, and is now doing cleanup on aisle Minneapolis.
At the same time, Omar is on TV claiming Trump has an “unhealthy and creepy” obsession with her while painting Somalis as victims who “also could have benefitted” from the stolen welfare money. That’s a wild frame: the real injustice wasn’t the theft—it’s that more people from her community didn’t get a piece.
Trump’s Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent answered that with a punch: Somali migrants, he said, “gotta learn not to defraud the American people,” and confirmed Treasury is probing whether the massive Minnesota fraud ring has terrorism links. That’s the first real signal the administration sees this not just as stolen money, but potentially as a threat vector.
Long game: Omar is trying to keep her coalition together by blaming Trump and vague “systems.” Treasury is drawing a bright red line: abuse American welfare at scale, and you’re not just a fraud case—you’re a national security problem. Expect more friction between the Hill’s identity politics and the administration’s security framing.
Blue-City Socialism Meets the Brick Wall of Reality
NYC Mayor Eric Adams is already reality-checking incoming socialist mayor Zohran Mamdani, calling his plan to stop clearing homeless tent cities “idealism colliding with realism.” Adams is basically warning: you can’t run TikTok policy in a city with real crime and finite budgets.
Mamdani, for his part, just posted a video coaching illegal immigrants on how to “stand up” to ICE and evade enforcement, walk-through style. That’s not sanctuary rhetoric, that’s an elected official training people to resist federal law enforcement on camera.
On schools, his transition team now includes a member described in the New York Post as a fan of a convicted cop-killer—slotted onto the youth and education committee. Put that together: fewer encampment sweeps, friendlier posture to illegal immigration, and education voices that normalize anti-police extremism.
Strategic read: Mamdani is trying to turn New York into the flagship city of the global Left. The risk for Democrats nationally is simple—if crime, chaos, and anti-ICE theatrics spike, every Republican from Trump down will hang “This is your blueprint” around their neck in 2026 and 2028.
Border, Woke Cities, and 2028: Fast Movers to Clock
Border czar Tom Homan went on CNN and reminded Dana Bash that ICE officers “have been shot at” and receive death threats daily, defending aggressive arrest tactics under sustained media attack. He’s drawing a bright contrast: activists see “raids,” the people doing the job see incoming gunfire.
As Mamdani invites illegals to resist ICE and promises to end tent-city sweeps, Eric Adams is signaling he wants no part of owning the fallout. Watch how fast blue-state mayors start distancing themselves as sanctuary theatrics become a daily security story, not an abstract virtue-signal.
On the 2028 front, Jim Clyburn backed Michelle Obama’s line that America is “not ready” for a female president yet—then tried to soften it by saying the country is “getting closer.” That’s a major Democratic power broker telling the Kamala/Whitmer/Harris bench to manage their expectations.
Foreign policy adds more pressure: Netanyahu’s “Phase II” Gaza ceasefire and ongoing attempts to cancel Israel in global culture mean Democrats will be squeezed between their progressive wing and traditional pro-Israel donors for the next cycle. This is exactly the kind of wedge issue Trump world loves to exploit.
Reader Ammo: Lines You Can Use This Week
Congress just proved who runs DC: the war budget goes up even when Trump asks for less.
Ilhan Omar’s line on Minnesota fraud isn’t “never again”—it’s basically “we wanted a fairer cut.”
Mamdani isn’t doing “immigrant rights”; he’s filming tutorials on how to dodge federal law.
Jamie Dimon accidentally said the quiet part out loud: the government was weaponized against Trump’s companies.
Trump isn’t just back in office—he’s slowly repossessing the cultural institutions the Left thought it owned forever.
What to Watch Next
Watch how the NDAA gets implemented, not just passed: the real tells will be in which China-linked sectors get hit hardest, how Ukraine money is conditioned (if at all), and whether Trump’s team can claw back any leverage in follow-on appropriations fights. If Congress keeps ignoring his topline requests, that’s open warfare between the populist base and the Hill’s defense industry wing.
On the home front, keep an eye on three pressure cookers: the Somali fraud–terror probe, NYC under Mamdani, and the ICE vs. “sanctuary” showdown. If any of those blow up—say, a terror link confirmed, a high-profile crime tied to New York’s new policies, or an ICE operation gone sideways—the 2026 midterms will tilt even harder toward law-and-order populism.
In a town built on illusions, today’s stories all point to the same reality: the fight now is over who actually governs—not just who gets the title.
That’s today’s board: who really holds power, who’s pretending, and where the next cracks will show.
~ Scott 🇺🇸
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