We Built It Blog by Larry Jacob

The contents of this blog are a compendium of multiple media reports and include my personal opinion, where indicated.

Here we go again. We have all seen this movie before. We didn’t like it the previous times, and we like it even less now. Welcome to the world of government shutdowns.

This time House and Senate Democrats, led by Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries, and a host of other lefties are blocking funding for the Department of Homeland Security, arguing that reforms are necessary to protect citizens. Republicans generally oppose these reforms and denote that, thanks to the BBB, DHS already has sufficient funding to operate for years whereas a shutdown could affect other agencies, such as the Secret Service, Coast Guard, FEMA, and TSA.

What are the chief causes of this shutdown? What are the Dems’ objectives? Why deprive thousands of hard-working Americans of their paychecks and the rest of us of vital services? I’m glad you asked. Read on.

In my opinion this shutdown has an immediate cause and various underlying causes. The immediate cause is the disagreement regarding ICE’s treatment of the untold millions of illegal aliens that poured into the country during the Biden Administration. I have posted several blogs discussing this issue, in detail, and there is no need to repeat it all here. Simply put, the Dems want to give illegals sanctuary (even those who have continued to commit felonious crimes on American citizens) and otherwise bestow upon them all the rights of citizens (or sometimes, even better), most significantly, the right to vote. The Repubs want to locate, detain, and deport them, especially those who have continued to commit crimes. Dems have focused their ire on DHS and ICE and have continually tried to impede them in the lawful performance of their duties.

The spate of violence that the Dems fomented recently in Minneapolis is the latest example. I believe that the Dems wanted to foment violence, and thy succeeeded.

So, what are the underlying issues that have led Shumer and the other far-lefties in the House and Senate to cause the current shutdown? What is their objective?

As I indicated, simply put, they want to reform and restrict the authority of DHS and ICE. Their demands include, among other things, mandating that ICE agents (1) obtain judicial warrants before entering private homes or property, (2) identify themselves, remove masks during operations, and use body-worn cameras, (3) comply with stricter, enforceable codes of conduct to prevent excessive force, (4) cease operations at “sensitive locations” such as schools, hospitals, and churches, (5) verify an individual’s citizenship status before detaining them, (6) wear body cameras, (7) identify themselves, and (8) restrict the use of force.

Furthermore, they continue to advocate for full healthcare benefits for illegals, (which the BBB omitted), maintain sanctuary cities and states, and protect the illegals there. Of course, we have the old standby mantra, oppose anything President Trump does, says, or supports. Read on for details.

Let’s be clear and succinct. As I have discussed in previous blogs, in Minneapolis and elsewhere ICE personnel have been engaged in activities that are mandated by Federal law, which authorizes and requires them to ferret out, detain, and deport illegals. They are all criminals just by virtue of having entered the country illegally. Cities and states that provide sanctuary to illegal aliens are violating Federal law. Anyone who impedes ICE personnel from accomplishing the above is aiding and abetting contraventions of Federal law. That includes Governor Walz, Mayor Frey, and the protesters/demonstrators. They can stand by and hold signs, but speeches or actions that incite violence are illegal. All of the above crossed the line. The killings of Hand and Pretti were tragic, but they were a direct result of the aforementioned illegalities.

This is actually a partial shutdown. Some 95% of the government is already funded. The focal point is DHS, but other agencies such as the TSA, FEMA and the Secret Service have been dragged into it. For now, most of the employees of these agencies are continuing to work with their pay being deferred. Nevertheless, we can anticipate travel disruptions, and we better pray that there are no natural disasters requiring assistance from FEMA.

Ironically, ICE and other Customs and Border Protection agencies, the main targets of the shutdown, have billions of dollars in funding on hand courtesy of the BBB. On the other hand, FEMA and the Transportation Security Administration, face more immediate impacts. So, it would appear that the Dems will be causing inconveniences and disruptions for people for no discernable benefit.

FEMA has reported that its disaster relief fund is currently down to $9.6 billion from roughly $30 billion in December. So far disruptions of air travel have been relatively inconsequential. However, as we learned in past shutdowns they tend to build over time, so sooner or later they will occur. Some of you may recall that about a month into last year’s record-breaking shutdown the TSA was forced to close two checkpoints at Philadelphia International Airport temporarily and directed all commercial airlines to reduce their domestic flight schedules. However, some observers such as John Rose, the chief risk officer for Altour, a global travel management company, are concerned that this time issues could start to “pop up” sooner. In addition, weather is always a complicating factor and there are two potentially historic blizzards on the horizon.

The impact of the shutdown on people and the finger-pointing have commenced and will intensify as time goes on. Today, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced DHS has suspended the TSA PreCheck and Global Entry airport security programs, which expedite airport check-in for the many travelers who are members of the programs. Right on cue, critics are complaining that DHS is intentionally “kneecapping” these programs and “ruining [people’s] travel [plans] on purpose.” Of course, that claim is disingenuous since one of the main objectives of the shutdown was to curtail the DHS’ operations.  Noem replied to critics that this is an example that “shutdowns have serious real world consequences.”

The tragedy is that the average citizen will be impacted most of all. Many federal employees will be deprived of their livelihood and struggle to provide for their families. Travel will be disrupted. Victims of natural disasters could have the federal assistance they need urgently delayed.

Conclusion

These shutdowns have become routine and tiresome and ultimately don’t accomplish much at all. All the inconveniences, disruptions and pain are felt by the average citizen while the perpetrators, chiefly members of Congress, will not feel the effects in the least. They will continue to bloviate and attack each other. They will continue to get paid. (Why)?

Here’s a novel concept for our congressmen to consider. For the benefit of your constituents why not negotiate and reach a bilateral agreement. DHS has already agreed to implement some of the reforms. Reasonable people can come to an agreement on the remainder. A shutdown is NOT necessary.

Ultimately, as always, there will be an agreement that will not change much. Each side will blame the other. The same underlying issues will persist and recur again and again. This is your government at work.

As always, the contents of this blog are a compendium of multiple media reports supplemented by my personal opinion, where indicated.

Note in the title of this blog I said “lawlessness,” not “protests” nor “demonstrations” nor some other bland characterization. More about the reason for that choice of words below.

Like most people, I am sorry to see any loss of life, especially when it is preventable. I offer my condolences to the families of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti. Their deaths were very preventable and regrettable.

That said, I am not interested in the details of their killings. I’m not interested in ascribing blame to a particular party nor determining who was to blame at the scene, who instigated the incidents, who did what to whom, etc. Furthermore, I have no interest in reading any more about what kind of person Hand and Pretti were or the actions and motives of the ICE personnel. I don’t want to get lost in the weeds regarding these killings. I am sick and tired of the self-serving politicizing by the media and various politicians who clearly have their own agendas. As far as I am concerned these were two unfortunate incidents for which all parties bear some responsibility.

Keep in mind Hand and Pretti were not engaged in peaceful demonstrations. Each willingly placed themselves in a dangerous, volatile situation and exacerbated it by their own actions. Everyone knows or should know that when a law enforcement person tells you to do something, such as move your car or show your hands, you comply, especially if the situation is tense and volatile and people are on edge. Also, what was Pretti doing spitting on ICE officers and kicking their car. I think he wanted to incite violence. The fact that he had a permit to carry a weapon is irrelevant.

In this case, like always, there were immediate causes and underlying causes. We all know the immediate causes, but in order comprehend fully what is occurring in Minneapolis one also has to be cognizant of the big picture, the “root causes,” if you will.

1. For four years the Biden Administration opened our borders to everyone. It even encouraged illegal immigrants to emigrate unvetted. We all know the result. It is widely believed that as many as 18 million illegals entered the country, many of which were criminals, terrorists, drug dealers, and traffickers. No one really knows who they are, where they are, or their intent. Let’s be clear: just by entering the country they broke the law. It doesn’t matter if they became model citizens afterwards. Technically, they are illegals and criminals, and federal law authorizes them to be detained and deported.
2. What we do know is that (1) many of them gravitated to various sanctuary jurisdictions throughout the country, such as Minneapolis, and (2) many of them have committed heinous crimes such as rape, murder, and assault on innocent Americans. While many Americans are focusing on the killings of Hand and Pretti, how about the many Americans that illegal aliens have victimized. For example, do you remember the heinous murders of Laken Reilly, Jocelyn Nungaray, Rachel Morin and Kayla Hamilton, each of whom was brutalized by illegal aliens who, in some cases had already committed multiple crimes in the US only to be released by from jail to repeat their criminal activities? The media seems to have forgotten them. The woke Dems seem to have forgotten them. Their deaths don’t fit their narrative. The perpetrators of crimes such as these are examples of the so-called “friends and neighbors” whom sanctuary jurisdictions like Minneapolis are protecting.
3. DHS and ICE personnel were tasked to ferret out these criminals, detain them, and deport them. Plainly and simply, their actions are sanctioned by federal law. Local politicians, police and citizens should be helping them, not impeding them. At the very least when local police detain an illegal for any reason, they should notify ICE. ICE would then pick them up easily and peacefully. That is how it works in most areas of the country but not in Minneapolis and other sanctuary jurisdictions.
4. By their actions and words Governor Walz, Mayor Frey and others have exacerbated the situation. They and others who oppose ICE or impede them in any way by words or deeds that result in inciting or committing violence are breaking federal law. Some would even characterize their actions as seditious.
5. At the very least they have created, encouraged and exacerbated a volatile and dangerous situation where violence, even death, was almost inevitable. Therefore, they bear some responsibility for the deaths of Hand and Pretti. Even worse, they have done so for political reasons. They are not stupid (although one can argue that Walz is). They know the law. They are just playing to their radical left base.

Conclusion

As I said above, I am sick and tired of all the partisan blathering, bloviating and pandering by the Dem politicians and the mainstream media with respect to immigration. Let’s not forget three things: (1) Trump has a clear mandate from the American people to ferret out, detain and deport illegals. (2) His actions are sanctioned by federal law. (3) Federal law supersedes local law.

President Trump has been the only adult in the room regarding this situation. Realizing that the violence was not benefiting anyone and also the likelihood that it would spread to other locales he has delegated Tom Homan to meet with Walz and others to try to find a way to defuse the situation yet still accomplish the mission. Hopefully, the parties will agree on a plan to do so.

In my opinion, Walz, in particular, has another ulterior motive. He is aiming to distract attention away from the massive fraud that has been running rampant in his state under his watch. I have discussed this in detail in previous blogs, and there is no need to repeat it here. Suffice to say, the DOJ and Congress are already investigating, and his ploy will not work. He should be in prison. At the very least he should resign.

The contents of this blog are a compendium of multiple media reports supplemented by my personal opinion where indicated.

President Trump rode into office with a decisive mandate. He garnered 312 Electoral College votes to Harris’ 226, won the popular vote with a plurality of 49.8%, the first Republican to do so since George W. Bush in 2004, and carried all seven swing states.

However, the hopes and expectations of the electorate were formidable. He was expected to, among other things, (1) secure the border, (2) deport the millions of illegals that had infiltrated our country under the Biden Administration, (3) protect us from terrorist attacks, both internal and external, (4) eliminate (or at least mitigate) the flow of drugs into the US and the power and influence of the drug cartels, (5) restore respect (and fear) of the USA viz a vis both our allies and our enemies, (6) eliminate Iran’s nuclear capabilities, (6) settle various conflicts and wars such as those in Gaza and Ukraine, (7) restore us to energy independence, (8) reduce inflation and (9) rehabilitate the economy. Furthermore, he was expected to accomplish all of the above while dealing with a hostile Dem Party and mainstream media that continually sought to undermine him at every turn. No problem, right?

So, after one year, to what extent has he fulfilled his mandate? Has he accomplished some, all, or none of the above goals? I’m sure you all have your own opinions and analyses. If nothing else, Trump is controversial. Read on for mine.

1. Within the first few days of his tenure Trump executed hundreds of Executive Orders, many of which countermanded EOs that had been issued by former president Biden, to get the ball rolling. For example, one EO designated eight drug cartels and transnational organizations responsible for violent attacks as “Foreign Terrorist Organizations.” Those designations gave law enforcement officers wide latitude to combat these organizations.
2. He focused on the cartels that had been disseminating cocaine, fentanyl and other deadly drugs throughout the US. Trump averred these cartels “functionally control[ling] — through a campaign of assassination, terror, rape and brute force — nearly all illegal traffic across the southern border of the United States.” Solutions have included increased border seizures, tougher prison sentences, offering rewards for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of narcotics traffickers, and blowing up “cigar boats’ on the open seas loaded with drugs.
3. Through his “drill baby, drill” policy he reversed Biden-era drilling restrictions, approving nearly 6,000 applications for permits to drill for oil and gas even on federal and Native American land — a 55% increase from the same time period in 2024-2025.
4. For years the Dems had insisted that the huge influx of illegal immigrants across our southern border could not be controlled without Congress’ passing new laws. Trump closed the border in a few weeks by applying EXISTING laws, which were not being enforced. His immigration policies as enforced by DHS, the DOJ and ICE have largely restored control over immigration for the first time in decades. They have reduced illegal border crossings to their lowest level since the 1970s, facilitated the removal of in excess of 2.6 million illegal aliens from the United States through arrests, detentions and deportations, both forcibly and voluntarily, prioritizing the “worst of the worst” – murders, rapists, gang members, and repeat offenders, led to negative net migration in 2025 for the first time in some 50 years, and reduced the trafficking of fentanyl and other dangerous drugs at the southern border by some 56%.
5. He formed a new department, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) headed up by Elon Musk, to ferret out and eliminate waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government. According to the Office of Personnel Management by November 2025 DOGE had reduced the number of federal employees by some 317,000 through mass buyouts, terminations, and early retirements.
6. In a remarkable display of military might and efficiency U.S. forces succeeded in capturing Venezuelan President Maduro without any loss of life and transporting him to the US to face justice for his crimes. The action was a military necessity since Maduro had been cozying up to China, Russia and Cuba, terrorizing his own people and through his socialist policies had been ruining the country’s economy. Trump declared that the U.S. would be taking control of Venezuela’s oil infrastructure temporarily and selling the oil for the benefit of Venezuelans, Americans and U.S. oil companies. Also, we sent a not-so-subtle message to the rest of the world that we were reinstituting the precepts of the Monroe Doctrine and had the military power to do so. Although the operation was a military success it will only be a political success if Venezuela manages to form a stable government to fill the current void in leadership.
7. Trump promulgated an audacious tariff policy to reshape our international trade relations with other countries. He maintained that our trading partners had been ripping us off for decades by levying excessive tariffs on our products thereby hindering our exports. He made it clear that the US would no longer tolerate this practice. He negotiated more beneficial tariffs with virtually all of our trading partners.
8. This policy has been controversial. It has raised some $300 billion for the country and stimulated foreign investment and construction of manufacturing plants in the US. On the other hand, critics claim that ultimately consumers will pay higher prices for some products. This opinion is consistent with survey results that three out of four Americans claim Trump isn’t focusing enough on lowering prices. Moreover, three out of four Americans complain that their income isn’t keeping up with inflation. More on this issue below. 
9. He has been negotiating deals with certain pharmaceutical companies to bring down the prices of drugs for Americans.
10. The financial markets have been climbing substantially. For example, the Dow Industrial Index has increased from 42,392 when Trump took office to 49,098 currently, an increase of 13%. This bodes well for the economy in 2026 and beyond since the financial markets are a leading economic indicator.
11. His policies with respect to crime have resulted in the largest one-year decline in homicides in U.S. history. These policies focused on federal crime crackdowns, terminated the Biden Administration’s soft on crime policies, and reversed the nationwide violent crime surge of recent years. Rapes, robberies, and aggravated assaults have declined by 6%, 19%, and 10%, respectively. In addition, the FBI has captured a record number of criminals on its Most Wanted List. In one year it exceeded the total of Biden’s all four years.
12. All of the foregoing accomplishments are fine, but when people cast their votes on Election Day the paramount issue is always the economy. Voters are more concerned with how they will be able to provide for their family than the other issues I have discussed above. Trump is cognizant of this, and he has promulgated many policies to boost the economy.
13. For example, he has reduced the price of gas at the pump to its lowest in five years. According to AAA the average price of a gallon of regular gas nationally is $2.89. Prices vary by region, with highs up to $4.50 in CA and lows of under $2.40 in the Gulf Coast area. 
14. He has reduced inflation to a multiyear low chiefly by enforcing fiscal restraint and reversing the runaway spending that had characterized the Biden Presidency. Inflation peaked at 8% in 2022. The current level is 2.7%.
15. He reduced mortgage rates to around 6%, which is the lowest in three years by stabilizing the mortgage-backed securities markets, reducing the Prime Rate, and expanding liquidity thus rendering buying a house affordable to more people.
16. He passed the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill,” which will, among other things, provide a substantial boost to the economy through various tax cuts, the elimination of taxes on tips and overtime, tax reductions for seniors and other measures.
17. He created “Trump Accounts” that will encourage families to establish tax-advantaged savings accounts for newborns.

Conclusion

Trump’s mantra has consistently been “America First,” and all of his actions have been aimed at that goal. As I said above some of his policies are controversial, and you may not agree with all of them. I, myself, have doubts about a few of them. I have discussed most of them in detail in previous blogs.

Overall, I maintain that Trump’s first year in office has been very successful. He inherited a chaotic situation, especially with respect to the economy. I say give him a chance to clean it up. The Big Beautiful Bill has many elements, particularly the tax cuts and rebates, that I feel will boost the economy. In my lifetime every set of tax cuts and rebates has done so. They just need a few months to work.

The 2026 off-year elections are looming. We all know that typically the president’s party loses congressional seats, sometimes a myriad of them. Trump still has much work to do to clean up the aforementioned mess that he inherited. If the Dems were to gain control of one or both Houses of Congress, it will be most unfortunate for the country. The Dems will likely block all of Trump’s initiatives and probably impeach him and others. Nothing of substance would be accomplished for the next two years.