News of the Week for September 27th, 2026
- 2026 Election
- Abortion
- Gun Rights
- Hide the Decline
- Socialized Medicine
- War & Terror
- National News
- Economy & Taxes
- International News
- Opinion
2026 Election
Republican group slashes ad spending in NC Senate race
A key Republican super PAC has removed $6.5 million in ad reservations from North Carolina’s Senate race for the month of October, according to media tracker AdImpact.
Byron Donalds strips Trump references from his campaign website
Florida Republican gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds launched an updated campaign website this week stripping away numerous prominent references to his endorsement from Donald Trump as the president’s approval ratings hit new lows.
The Republican Abandonment of Donald Trump Begins
Republicans like to believe they’re the party that is more supportive of law enforcement, and these days they’re quoting The Police when it comes to President Trump: “Don’t Stand So Close to Me.” GOP candidates running for office could only appear connected to a president with a high-30-something job approval rating for so long. This week, everywhere you look, Republicans are emphasizing that they want the war against Iran to end, and will do whatever it takes to bring down unleaded gasoline prices and diesel prices. Whether or not you believe the current public polls suggesting GOP doom accurately represent the mood of the electorate, Republicans who want to win in November are acting like their internal polling matches those public polls.
GOP Candidates Step Back From Trump and an Unpopular War
Midwest Republicans are feeling the weight of the president’s unpopularity.
The Democrats’ 2026 Midterm Freak Show
If, as not just the polls but the behavior of Republican candidates suggest, the voters in this year’s midterm elections are on the verge of sending a lot of Democrats to Washington, they will not be sending sensible moderate types. They will instead be sending a freak show, a circus, a motley crew of extremists and outliers who were carried along by a dyspeptic national mood, not a genuine public enthusiasm for their agenda. The Democratic candidates shrugging off their old statements and positions as “Woke 1.0” are the same people they’ve always been, ready and willing to enact “Woke 2.0” at the first opportunity.
My Trump sources say the president’s worst nightmare imaginable has arrived… panicked texts and emails from GOP insiders are blowing up my phone.
I have an investment banker friend who once offered this sage advice: ‘Sometimes the appropriate response to a crisis is, in fact, to panic.’ Republicans are not quite at that stage yet, but prudence suggests they should at least consider it.
Why the Republicans Started Panicking This Week
Conservative talk-show host Steve Deace wrote earlier this week, “Iowa House Republicans were informed by their own pollsters that if you are in a +15 district you’re within the margin for error, if you’re in a +10 district you’re underwater, and that this might end up being an even worse midterm environment than 2006.”
Supreme Court allows Trump administration to use expanded database for potential voter purges
Critics have said the data could lead to U.S. citizens being kicked off the voter rolls, but the justices noted the law prohibits broad voter purges in the weeks leading up to an election.
185 would-be illegal Nevada voters were actually citizens, Nevada officials tell DHS
Nevada officials said this week that a Trump administration assertion that it confirmed finding 185 noncitizens in the state’s voter rolls was inaccurate.
On the issues: Lombardo, Ford have differing approach to data center expansion
Joe Lombardo and Aaron Ford are taking differing approaches in response to the growing demand and rising unpopularity of data center development in Nevada.
Abortion
Court Cases & Legislation
Lawsuit challenging Arkansas’ abortion ban will get first hearing; state arguing for dismissal
In September 2024, when Washington Regional hospital denied emergency abortion care to Emily Waldorf of Fayetteville, a friend contacted attorney Molly Duane.
Gun Rights
Fifth Circuit Strikes Down Interstate Handgun Sales Ban
“We reject the Second Circuit’s approach. … Broad similarities between historical precedents and modern regulations are insufficient at Bruen Step 2.”
Hide the Decline
Environment &“Green Energy”
Sacrificing Human Thriving on the Altar of Environmentalist Earth Religion
Environmentalism continues its radical shift from reasonable conservationism to environmentalist earth religion. This growing faith was most recently preached in an op-ed published by the New York Times that quite literally proselytizes for nature animism.
Socialized Medicine
Government in Healthcare
Another Canadian Euthanasia Horror
Euthanasia has become a way of life in Canada (he wrote ironically). More than 100,000 people have been killed by doctors and nurse practitioners. At least one hospice lost funding for refusing to kill patients. Doctors with religious and moral objections were told by Ontario’s highest court to either kill qualified patients wanting to die, procure a doctor who will (“effective referral”), or get out of medicine. Euthanasia has been described in the media as a splendid source of organs.
Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother was euthanised against her will under Canada’s assisted dying system – she died covered in blood with her hands clasped in prayer
Two days before her Christian grandmother’s assisted dying procedure in Ontario, Canada, Brigitte Kranendonk sat her down to make sure she knew exactly what was going to happen.
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The Philadelphia Department of Public Health is notifying travelers and others of a possible measles exposure that is unrelated to the recent measles exposures at CHOP.
War & Terror
‘We Hacked the FBI:’ Hackers Say They Have Data on All FBI Employees
A sample of 5,000 alleged agents seen by 404 Media includes names, addresses, phone numbers, and details on FBI employees’ spouses.
Weapons of mass decentralization
Iron weaponry brought down the empires of the Bronze Age. Could technologies like drones do the same today?
Russia Is Going to Do Something Really Stupid and Dangerous
Why would the Trump administration invite Vladimir Putin back onto American soil? “We think it’s an opportunity for him to engage not just with the president, but with other world leaders,” Marco Rubio said of the White House’s offer to host Putin in Miami for this year’s G-20 summit. For its part, the Kremlin remains noncommittal.
U.S. Troops Are Now Fighting the Drug War on the Ground in Ecuador
Dozens of American military personnel joined Ecuadorean police in raids, marking a new level of direct U.S. involvement
Examining think tank proposal that US cut and run in Asia-Pacific
Shifting US military focus to the Second Island Chain would undercut the entire basis for protecting US national interests
War-wounded military veterans peddling cheap patriotic merch are actually AI fakes out of China: report
War-wounded UK military veterans hawking supposedly “handmade” patriotic items in emotional social media videos are nothing but AI-generated phonies selling cheap junk from China, according to a new report.
National
Salem Media announces landmark deal with Donald Trump Jr. and Lara Trump
Salem Media Group, fresh off eliminating all corporate long-term debt and growing the #1 conservative news show in America, is making its boldest move yet. Today, Salem announces a historic, multi-dimensional deal that not only adds two of the most influential voices in American media, Donald Trump Jr. and Lara Trump, but launches the company into an entirely new era of scale, relevance, and cultural power.
Anthropic’s Wet Lab Raises Questions as AI Safety Warnings Mount
Meanwhile, Anthropic goes forward with plans for a massive IPO.
Central New Mexico keeps DEI leadership under new office name
The new office continues to oversee equity initiatives and identity-based cultural groups, while developing an institute incorporating ‘anti-racist pedagogies.’ The college said the former DEI office’s executive director and leadership team would continue in their roles after the name change.
President Trump’s Lawsuit Against Iowa Pollster Ann Selzer Thrown Out
From today’s long decision by Iowa state trial court judge Scott Beattie in Trump v. Selzer
Short Circuit: An inexhaustive weekly compendium of rulings from the federal courts of appeal
Bogus traffic stops, cell-site simulating, and chain refoulment.
California Passes New Law Requiring Booster Seat For Children Up To Age 16
California is putting teenagers as old as 15 through a state-mandated seat-belt fit test—and those who fail it will have to remain in a child restraint such as a booster seat.
Economy & Taxes
Oren Cass Makes An Economically Weak Case for Protectionism Against China
The Chinese government is indeed a bad actor and, therefore, a case can be made for certain trade restrictions with that country. Cass’s case, however, isn’t it. A credible case would, unlike Cass’s, be free both of misleading statistics and dubious claims, such as this one:
How Warsh can be a Fed chair of few words
Adopt a simple rule: Create a total dollar spending target, and keep it steady year over year.
Free Trade Is Ancient Wisdom
My predecessor, Dominic Pino, wrote for NR last year that “free trade is how you live your life,” since international commerce is simply the economic specialization that people experience every day on a much larger scale. As Adam Smith elucidated in 1776, individuals in modern societies don’t grow their own food, make their own clothes, or build their own houses. We are driven by self-interest to do what each of us does best for others, and then we trade our work for the different fruits of everyone else’s labor.
Rare-earth mineral finds near border will ‘bust’ China’s monopoly, land commissioner says
Texas General Land Office Commissioner Dawn Buckingham says rare-earth minerals used in cellphones and other devices have been found in state lands in West Texas near the border, which they’ve begun mining.
How to Become America’s Next Boomtown
My jaunt to Austin, Texas, to interview Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt and appear on a panel at the Texas Tribune Festival offers a good opportunity to examine why Austin has enjoyed a multi-decade economic boom while so many other major American cities have stagnated.
International
Carney vows to press ahead with Bill C-34 online safety law
Prime Minister Mark Carney says his government will move ahead this fall with legislation imposing new rules on social media platforms, including restrictions aimed at children and requirements dealing with content deemed harmful.
Opinion
The Left Loves Populism Now
It wasn’t that long ago that Democrats and their allies in the media would expectorate the word “populist” with unbridled contempt. But that was when “populism” was a right-wing phenomenon. By insisting that his policy preferences had no tradeoffs and the only obstacle to their implementation was the idiots Americans had been electing to high office, Donald Trump cracked populism’s exceedingly simple code. The rogue!
Delicate Demagogues and fragile “Foundationalism”
Claremont fellows excel at three things: daydreaming about dictatorship, spewing invective at their enemies, and threatening to sue anyone who notices the first two things.
In Defense of Guilt by Association
The wisdom of judging politicians by the company they keep
The Republican Tent Is Not That Large
White Nationalism and Other Critical Race Theories Remain on the Outside Looking In
Bad Timing for Another Trump Kumbaya Session with Mamdani
President Trump is all smiles as he meets with Zohran Mamdani again, just as New York Republicans are trying to use the New York City mayor as a cautionary tale; what to expect from this week’s presidential summit with China’s Xi Jinping; and the state of Missouri still isn’t 100 percent sure what the district lines for November’s House elections will be.
The Scourge of Obsessive Positioning in the Right’s Media and Politics
Right-of-center media and politics are suffering from a glut of obsessive positioning. Once you start noticing this, you can’t stop.
The Lonely Optimist
The macroeconomic numbers are good. America is near full employment. The stock market is doing well. Inflation is high, but down from where it was with Joe Biden. Americans do not care. They hate both parties. Republican operatives on the ground in state after state tell me the same story. Voters are enraged at the GOP.
The Right doesn’t need to remake itself. It just needs courage
In conservative and largely online circles, the term “NETTR” has gained traction. It stands for “no enemies to the right.” The underlying thinking is that those to one’s left are the enemies, and those to one’s right, just by mere placement, can’t be. It sounds good in theory: that “owning the Libs” matters most of all. In practice? It’s destructive in both the short and long term.
The Right doesn’t need to remake itself. It just needs courage
The Right doesn’t need to remake itself. It just needs courage
In conservative and largely online circles, the term “NETTR” has gained traction. It stands for “no enemies to the right.” The underlying thinking is that those to one’s left are the enemies, and those to one’s right, just by mere placement, can’t be. It sounds good in theory: that “owning the Libs” matters most of all. In practice? It’s destructive in both the short and long term.
For Conservatives, There’s a Disconnect Between Principle and Party — Yet Again
Today’s internecine battles in the GOP are reminiscent of those in the postwar years.
Only Congress Can Intervene on Trump’s Truth Social Profiteering
What the president and his associates are doing is probably illegal. Whether any legal action could successfully be brought is another matter.
What Is and Isn’t Illiberalism
Defending classical liberalism begins with defining it and its enemies.
