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Trump orders proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections

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Quick Hit:

President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order aimed at restoring confidence in America’s elections by enforcing voter ID, cracking down on non-citizen voting, and ensuring compliance with existing federal election laws.

Key Details:

  • The executive order criticizes the United States for falling behind other nations in securing its elections, noting that while India and Brazil use biometric voter ID systems, many U.S. states rely on self-attestation.

  • Trump ordered the Election Assistance Commission to update the national voter registration form to require “documentary proof of United States citizenship,” including passports or REAL ID-compliant documents.

  • The order also instructs the Department of Justice to crack down on states that count ballots received after Election Day, stating that counting late ballots is akin to letting someone “vote in person at a former voting precinct” days after polls close.

Diving Deeper:

On Tuesday, President Trump signed a far-reaching executive order titled Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections, aiming to overhaul how federal and state governments enforce longstanding election laws.

In the order’s opening section, Trump drew comparisons to foreign democracies, arguing that “the United States now fails to enforce basic and necessary election protections employed by modern, developed nations.” He cited examples including India and Brazil’s biometric-linked voter ID systems and Germany and Canada’s paper ballot requirements, adding that “many American elections now feature mass voting by mail,” often accepting ballots “without postmarks or those received well after Election Day.”

Trump’s directive enforces federal laws already on the books, such as 2 U.S.C. § 7 and 3 U.S.C. § 1, which establish a uniform national Election Day. Referencing a 2024 Fifth Circuit ruling, the order states that ballots must be both cast and received by Election Day. “This is like allowing persons who arrive 3 days after Election Day, perhaps after a winner has been declared, to vote in person… which would be absurd,” the order reads.

A central element of the order is the crackdown on non-citizen voting. It mandates that the national voter registration form include “documentary proof of United States citizenship,” such as a passport, a REAL ID-compliant card, or a military ID indicating citizenship. The order also requires that state and local officials document the specific proof of citizenship used during registration.

To assist states in cleaning up voter rolls, Trump directed the Department of Homeland Security to provide access to immigration databases and mandated that the Social Security Administration share death and identity data. The Attorney General is instructed to “prioritize enforcement” of statutes that prohibit non-citizens from registering or voting and to coordinate with state officials to prosecute violations.

The order also targets election infrastructure and voting machines, requiring that all voting systems include “a voter-verifiable paper record” and banning systems that use barcodes or QR codes to contain vote data, except for accessibility needs. The Election Assistance Commission is instructed to decertify equipment that fails to meet new integrity standards within 180 days.

The executive order further aims to eliminate foreign interference by enforcing 52 U.S.C. § 30121, which bans foreign contributions to federal, state, or local elections. Trump highlighted the abuse of ballot initiative spending loopholes and committed federal enforcement resources to curtail this influence, declaring that “foreign nationals and non-governmental organizations have taken advantage of loopholes… undermining the franchise.”

Through information-sharing agreements, increased prosecution, and withholding of federal funds to uncooperative states, the order seeks to hold jurisdictions accountable for maintaining accurate voter rolls and enforcing citizenship requirements.

“In honest elections,” the order concludes, “voting methods must produce a voter-verifiable paper record… to protect against fraud or mistake.”

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Business

Labor Department cancels “America Last” spending spree spanning five continents

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Quick Hit:

The U.S. Department of Labor has scrapped nearly $600 million in foreign aid grants, including $10 million aimed at promoting “gender equity in the Mexican workplace.”

Key Details:

  • Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer and Deputy Secretary Keith Sonderling were credited with delivering $237 million in savings through the latest round of canceled programs.

  • Among the defunded initiatives: $12.2 million for “worker empowerment” efforts in South America, $6.25 million to improve labor rights in Central American agriculture, and $5 million to promote women’s workplace participation in West Africa.

  • The Department of Government Efficiency described the cuts as necessary to realign U.S. labor policy with national interests and applauded the elimination of all 69 international grants managed by the Bureau of International Labor Affairs.

 

Diving Deeper:

The U.S. Department of Labor on Wednesday canceled $577 million in foreign aid grants, including a controversial $10 million program aimed at promoting “gender equity in the Mexican workplace,” according to documents obtained by The Washington Post. The sweeping decision to terminate all 69 active international labor grants comes as part of a larger restructuring effort led by John Clark, a senior DOL official appointed during the Trump administration.

Clark directed the department’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) to shut down its entire grant portfolio, citing a “lack of alignment with agency priorities and national interest.” The memo explaining the cancellations was first reported by The Washington Post and highlights a broader shift in federal labor policy toward domestic-focused initiatives.

Among the eliminated grants were high-dollar projects that had drawn criticism from watchdog groups for years. These included $12.2 million designated for “worker empowerment in South America,” $6.25 million targeting labor conditions in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador, and $5 million to elevate women’s workplace participation in West Africa. Other defunded programs involved $4.3 million to support foreign migrant workers in Malaysia, $3 million to improve social protections for internal migrants in Bangladesh, and $3 million to promote “safe and inclusive work environments” in Lesotho.

The Department of Government Efficiency, also involved in the review, labeled the grants as “America Last” initiatives, and pointed to the lack of measurable outcomes and limited benefits to American workers. The agency commended the leadership of Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer and Deputy Secretary Keith Sonderling for securing $237 million in savings during this round alone.

The cuts mark the second major cost-saving move under Chavez-DeRemer’s leadership in as many weeks. Just days earlier, she canceled an additional $33 million in funding, including a $1.5 million grant focused on increasing transparency in Uzbekistan’s cotton sector. Chavez-DeRemer, a former Republican congresswoman from Oregon, was confirmed as Labor Secretary on March 11th by a bipartisan Senate vote of 67-32.

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Health

RFK Jr. says ‘everything is going to change’ with CDC vaccine policy in Michael Knowles interview

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From LifeSiteNews

By Doug Mainwaring

When Michael Knowles asked new Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. if anything will change regarding the public’s justifiable concern with the growth of vaccines, Kennedy quickly shot back, “Everything is going to change.”

Kennedy pointed to the Centers for Disease Control’s current flawed VAERS (Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System) online mechanism.

By way of example, he said, “None of the vaccines that are given during the first six months of life have ever been tested for autism. The only one was the DTP vaccine. And that one study that was done, according to the Institute of Medicine, the National Academy of Sciences, found that there was a link.”

But “They threw out that study because it was based upon CDC’s surveillance system, VAERS, and they said that system is no good.”

“That begs the question, why doesn’t CDC have a functional surveillance system?” he asked. “We’re gonna make sure they do.”

“They don’t do pre-licensing safety testing for vaccines” he continued. “They’re the only product that’s exempt. So what they say is, if there are injuries, we’ll capture them afterward.”

However, “they have a system that doesn’t capture them. In fact, CDC’s own study of its own system said it captures fewer than 1% of vaccine injuries,” Kennedy said. “It’s worthless, and everybody agrees it’s worthless.”

“Why have we gone for 39 years and nobody’s fixed it?” he wondered, promising, “We’re gonna fix it.”

“We have DOGE (which) knows how to manage data. We’re going to be able to get into these databases and give answers to the American public,” Kennedy predicted.

“We’re going to do replication of all of our studies, which CDC has never done. We’re going to publish our peer review, which CDC has never done,” Kennedy vowed. “So people are going to have real answers for the first time.”

The new HHS head also discussed more broadly his mission after taking over the department’s helm, the mess created by the Biden administration, his job’s challenges, and recent developments thanks to DOGE.

“HHS is a $1.9 trillion agency. It’s the biggest agency in the government. And during the Biden administration, President Biden increased its budget by 38% and increased the workforce by 17%.”

“And by every metric by which we measure public health, health accelerated its decline.”

“When I came to HHS, what I found was a sprawling bureaucracy,” with functional duplication of departments, rampant redundancy and overstaffing, with various sub-agencies often acting in a territorial, self-protecting manner rather than a synergistic one.

“Perverse incentives” sometimes drive employee’s work,” he noted.

Despite his short tenure at HHS, with the help of DOGE, Kennedy has already released 20,000 “bureaucrats” from the department’s ranks.

“We’re going from 82,000 personnel to 62,000,” said Kennedy, carefully pointing out, “We’re keeping the scientists and frontline providers.”

Kennedy said that it has been really hard to fight against the problems at HHS and NIH over the last 40 years from “the outside.”

But “now I’m on the inside,” he declared. “This is the purpose of my life. It’s what I’m going to do over the next four years.”

He concluded:

President Trump promised to return the American dream to Americans.

A healthy person has a thousand dreams. A sick person only has one.

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