Wyoming was among the first states to enact a citizenship verification law and to ban foreign funding of ballot measures during the 2025 session, along with other election reform bills.
“Wyoming’s been a leader. We’ve had very clean elections, and you can always improve them, so I’m very proud of our integrity,” Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon
, a Republican, told The Daily Signal.
Gordon and Secretary of State Chuck Gray–who oversees elections in the state–have been on the same page on most fronts regarding election integrity bills. But the two Republican officials have clashed on a key measure.
Wyoming
became the first state in the nation to require proof of citizenship for registering to vote for national and state elections, Gray said. The bill also institutes a 30-day residency requirement. House Bill 156 passed the Wyoming House 51-8 and passed the Senate 26-4. The legislation was Gray’s first priority.
“Only U.S. citizens and Wyoming residents should vote in our elections,” Gray told The Daily Signal. “We need to create a procedure to keep illegal aliens from voting. I wanted to do a SAVE Act at the state level.”
The SAVE Act
is a bill in Congress, short for the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility, which would require proof of citizenship for voter registration. The measure passed the Republican-controlled U.S. House last year but did not come to a vote in the U.S. Senate.
The Wyoming proof of citizenship bill became law without Gordon’s
signature, as the governor said he is concerned about “unintended consequences” of the measure he opted not to sign.
An alleged illegal immigrant, Christian Lopez in Campbell County, Wyoming, was reportedly removed from the voter rolls
after voting in Wyoming in 2020. He remained on the state’s voter rolls as a registered Republican until he was removed in August 2023. Last September, Gordon issued an executive order directing state agencies and election officials to take steps to prevent noncitizen voting.
Gray said this had been a “two-year standoff” with the governor.
“I’m glad he backed down from the outrageously leftwing position he had,” Gray said of the governor.
Gordon said it was a laudatory goal, but said he was concerned the 30-day residency requirement wouldn’t hold up in court. Gordon noted that 52 U.S. Code 10502
says no citizen who has otherwise qualified to vote in any election for president or vice president shall be denied the right to vote.
“I’ve mentioned that over and over again, our [state] constitution provides for a year of residency. But that federal statute is the one that could prove problematic,” the governor said.
My book “The Myth of Voter Suppression
” details the impact of voter registration fraud in other states, including noncitizens and illegal immigrants voting.
Gordon signed a slew of other bills that Gray had pushed for, including banning private funding of election administration, prohibiting foreign funding of ballot initiatives, and a ban on ranked choice voting.
“This session, I think we have taken the lead on election integrity in 2025,” Gray said. “A lot of red states have Republican parties that are infiltrated by the Left. But we have a Freedom Caucus majority in the Legislature now.”
House Bill 337 prohibits foreign funding of state ballot initiatives
, closing a loophole to block indirect foreign funding of ballot initiatives. It is already illegal in most states for foreign residents and entities to contribute to U.S. political candidates. Ohio was the first state in the nation to ban direct and indirect foreign contributions for ballot measures. Wyoming was the first state this year to do so. Kentucky and Kansas followed, and other states are expected to pass bans.
“We banned foreign funding of elections, just the second state in the nation to close that loophole created from an FEC decision,” Gray said.
Gray was referring to an issue that emerged from a neighboring state. The Federal Election Commission
dismissed a 2021 complaint that Australian mining company Sandfire Resources contributed over $280,000 to defeat a Montana ballot initiative that would have increased the power of state mining regulators.
Dark money sources are a concern for every state, Gordon said.
“So much of our elections at this point I think are affected by the contributions that come in and the dark money. So yes, I think that was a very, very important issue for us to take on,” Gordon said.
House Bill 165 banned ranked choice voting
. This is a method adopted by some cities and counties, including for the New York City primary elections. Both Alaska and Maine also have a statewide system for primary and general elections. It allows voters to rank multiple candidates, with lowest performing candidates being eliminated. After multiple rounds of counting votes, a winner is determined. Under this system, the candidate who led in the first round of voting could end up losing.
“Ranked choice voting really is a bad scheme,” Gray said. “It has been talked about for local elections. We nipped it in the bud.”
This system would not be a good fit for the state, Gordon said,
“I don’t think ranked choice really has much of a role to play here in Wyoming, and I think it just kind of would confuse a lot of voters,” Gordon said. “So, yeah, I think … we’re not going to see that.”
“Ranked-choice voting is nothing more than a gimmick that undermines our democratic process, disenfranchises voters, and makes it harder for Americans to have their voices heard. And Wyoming voters should be the ones determining the outcome of its constitution, not foreign nationals,” Catherine Gunsalus, former Kansas assistant secretary of state and now the Heritage Action director of state advocacy, said in a public statement.
“Ranked-choice voting is nothing more than a gimmick that undermines our democratic process, disenfranchises voters, and makes it harder for Americans to have their voices heard. And Wyoming voters should be the ones determining the outcome of its constitution, not foreign nationals.”
House Bill 228 prohibited private funds from financing election administration. This practice is sometimes referred to as “Zuckerbucks,” because Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg spent about $400 million to aid local election offices in 2020–and many critics said the money went disproportionately to Democrat areas.
House Bill 318 strengthens voter list maintenance laws. The bill specifies drivers licensing information be used to determine if a noncitizen is listed on Wyoming voter lists.
Senate File 78 prohibited the distribution of unsolicited ballot forms. The bill specified that no one other than a state or county election official can distribute absentee ballots. Senate File 33, signed by the governor, required a driver’s license to specify if a resident is not a U.S. citizen.
President Donald Trump
says U.S. officials will engage in a direct, “very high-level” meeting with Iranian leaders on Saturday.
“We’re dealing with them directly, and maybe a deal’s going to be made. That’d be great. It’ll be really great for Iran, I can tell you that,” Trump said while sitting next to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
in the Oval Office after a meeting between the two world leaders.
If the U.S. and Iran
can’t come to an agreement on a nuclear deal, Trump said he thinks “Iran is going to be in great danger,” but did not go as far to say that the U.S. would take military action to destroy Iran’s nuclear sites.
“You know, it’s not a complicated formula: Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” the president said.
Trump on U.S. meeting with Iran:
“I think if the talks aren’t successful with Iran, I think Iran is going to be in great danger.” pic.twitter.com/Ins4Pt2Ld2
The news of the talks was a surprise announcement as Trump took questions alongside Netanyahu after the leaders met to discuss Trump’s new tariffs and negotiations for a deal to release the remaining hostages still being held in Gaza by Hamas.
Israel will eliminate its trade deficit with the United States, Netanyahu pledged, adding that the Jewish state will eliminate “trade barriers that have been put up unnecessarily, and I think that this will serve as a model for many countries who ought to do the same.”
President Trump meets with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House to discuss tariffs.
Netanyahu’s visit to Washington comes less than a week after what Trump called “liberation day,” in which the president announced a minimum 10% tariffs on all nations
across the globe. One day before Trump officially announced the new tariffs, Netanyahu said Israel had “canceled all of the customs duties levied on products from the U.S., Israel’s largest trading partner.”
Israel has charged a 33% tariff on goods coming into its country from the U.S. In turn, the U.S. announced a new 17% tariff on goods coming to the U.S. from Israel.
Netanyahu called himself a “free-trade champion
” and said he understands the position the U.S. is in and why Trump has imposed the tariffs.
“We have been ripped off and taken advantage of by many countries over the years and can’t do it anymore,” Trump said after thanking Netanyahu for his comments.
When a reporter asked whether Trump would consider pausing the new tariffs imposed on countries around the world, he said, “Well, we’re not looking at that.”
Reporter: “Would you be open to a pause in tariffs to allow for negotiations?”
Trump has made clear he is using the tariffs to bring American manufacturing back to the U.S. with the aim of revitalizing the U.S. economy and putting an end to trade policies that “take advantage” of the U.S.
WATCH: President Trump on Tariffs
“We have been ripped off and taken advantage of by many countries over the years and [we] can’t do it anymore. We just can’t do it anymore. We can’t be the stupid people anymore.” pic.twitter.com/GJ4uX1YCae
“No other president is going to do this,” Trump said of the tariffs.
The Israeli prime minister is the first world leader to meet with Trump since the new tariffs went into effect.
The two leaders also told reporters they are working to secure the release of the hostages that remain in Gaza following Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
“The hostages are in agony, and we want to get them all out,” Netanyahu said. There are 24 hostages still believed to be alive in Gaza. Hamas is also holding the bodies of an additional 35 hostages.
“We are trying very hard to get the hostages out,” Trump told reporters. “We’re looking at another ceasefire. We’ll see what happens.”
Hello, this is Victor Davis Hanson for The Daily Signal. I’d like to talk about the economy and politics very quickly. Whether you like it or I like it or whether the administration likes it or whether the Congress or the American people like it, the success or failure of President Donald Trump will hinge on the status of the economy
.
It will overshadow the miraculous achievement on the border, where he went from a rate of about 2 million people a year to almost zero illegal immigration. It will even outrank the question of peace and stability in Ukraine or the Middle East. It’ll outrank everything.
So, here’s my question. There is now outrage, hysteria over the last 24 hours to 48 hours that Donald Trump has outlined his tariff program to bring down the nearly $1 trillion trade deficit
, and the stock market has taken hits.
So, here’s my question, though, when Sen. Cory Booker stands up for 25 hours, does he give an alternate agenda on the economy? Does Rep. Nancy Pelosi talk about the economy? She used to. Does The Wall Street Journal, when they criticize Donald Trump, why don’t they get a columnist and say, “These are the 10 points that are preferable in addressing our economic challenges”?
Now, what are our economic challenges? Well, the first is debt. We owe $37 trillion. We’re paying $3 billion a day in interest. We’re running a $1.7 trillion deficit.
So, if you were on the left and you were part of the machine that borrowed $7 trillion under President Joe Biden
, created these huge new programs, why don’t you make an argument? Just say, “I believe in modern monetary theory. I believe, if we can just get down to 1% or 2% interest, you can service any debt because the bondholders, they’re wealthy anyway. So, that’s what we’ve been doing. And I don’t—I believe money’s a construct. It’s just an idea. So, there is no such thing as, you know, red or blue ink—any of that. So, just keep spending. There’s no problem—$37, $40 trillion.”
Say that.
Or, if you’re on the right, say, “I prefer to look at the debt in a different way. If you’re going to cut, why select particular fraud, waste, and abuse areas? Why not just go across the board and treat everybody the same with a 4% or 5% or 10% cut?”
Or, if you don’t believe in cutting government to reduce the debt, then say, “Let’s just go completely laissez-faire and let’s grow the economy so it’s growing at 4% or 5% gross domestic product. And it will solve the problem.”
Or, if you’re in the middle and you’re an independent, why don’t you just say, “We had three balanced budgets. We were reducing the debt because former House Speaker Newt Gingrich controlled taxes and former President Bill Clinton controlled spending. And he was able to find an incentive plan to increase revenue and Bill Clinton decreased spending. OK? Why not we go back and follow their model?”
But the problem is none of these areas—right, center, and left—nobody in these disciplines is offering any alternative agenda. It’s just attack Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump.
Let’s go to trades. So, we have, again, about a trillion-dollar trade deficit. We haven’t had balanced trade for 50 years. Our opponents, challengers, allies, whatever you want to call them, feel that protected tariffs in China, in India, in Europe, in South Korea, in Japan have been very conducive to their economic miracle—postwar miracles. And they feel that there must be some wisdom in them because they continue to perpetuate them. They have not run deficits for a half-century. They’re not, in terms of GDP, debt, quite like we are.
So, maybe you can argue that tariffs are just an American problem. An obsession. And they don’t really matter. Or you can say that we should have reciprocal tariffs based on each one. But tell us what you want to do.
Why don’t you just say that if you—and I have read this from scholars as diverse as the American Enterprise Institute, the Cato Institute. This is just a construct, trade deficits, they don’t matter. Because the people, if they run up a surplus, they buy our bonds or they invest, and it’s a circular process—just say that. Or, if you believe that trade deficits matter, then you say, “Well, the answer is not through tariffs. It’s through greater productivity. And here’s how I want to do it.”
But again, there’s nothing.
And then we get, finally, into foreign investment. Donald Trump
is bragging, I think justifiably so, that he may have $3 to $5 trillion in foreign investment. Nobody says a word about it. Nobody says this many trillion dollars will result in this many new jobs created. No, they just kind of ignore it.
So, give us a reason why. Just say, “You know, the new massive amounts of foreign aid will have no effect on either our trade deficit or our budget deficit. It’s just a construct that Trump says.” Or say that it will but it won’t nullify the pernicious effects of tariffs
.
But what I’m getting at, in conclusion, is what if Cory Booker had said, “I’m going to speak for 25 hours on why Donald Trump’s trade, debt, and federal workforce investment are all wrong. And here’s da, da, da, da”? Or what if House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said, “Here is our contract for America on the economy. The economy”?
No one is giving any alternatives. No one is talking in any way that they have an antithetical and a better plan than Donald Trump. So, what we’re left with is just naysaying, nihilism, criticism. And the American people are confused.
If you don’t believe that what Donald Trump is trying to do on debt, budget, workforce, trade, then come up with a better agenda. And show why it will work and why his will fail. But don’t just scream and yell and cause all hysteria and go to street theater because that’s no answer. It only amplifies the problem.
We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.
Feeling flogged by sticks, Wall Street greeted President Donald Trump’s
“Liberation Day” with a bellowing Bronx cheer.
On Wednesday, Trump unveiled 10% across-the-board tariffs
on all imports, plus reciprocal taxes tailored to foil foreign tariffs on U.S. goods. Financial markets opened Thursday and swiftly wilted.
After China
slapped a retaliatory 34% tariff on American products early Friday, the key indexes dropped like bombs from a B-52. The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 2,231 points (5.50%). The S&P 500 plunged 322 points (5.97%). The NASDAQ plummeted 962 points (5.82%).
By this measure, the contrast between Trump-45’s and Trump-47’s early days could not be more stark. While the DJIA rose 4.3% between Jan. 20 and April 4, 2017, it slipped 13% from Jan. 21 to April 4, 2025. The S&P advanced 3.9% for those 2017 dates, but sagged 16.1% in 2025’s like period. NASDAQ’s analogous figures: 2017, up 6.2%; 2025m, down 21.1%.
All told, these exchanges just suffered their worst week since March 2020, just as the curtain rose on America’s COVID-19 catastrophe. Callie Cox, Ritholtz Wealth Management’s chief market strategist, told The Wall Street Journal: “We are in a period of self-induced vomiting.”
Everyday Americans are queasy. The Conference Board’s Consumer Expectations Index fell from 74.8 in February to 65.2 in March—down 12.8% to that metric’s lowest level since 2013.
Such pessimism can make recession jitters a self-fulfilling prophecy.
If Trump wants to impose import taxes on a reciprocal basis, to dragoon countries into lowering them on U.S. goods, fine. Trump also has threatened tariffs to improve behavior abroad. Thus, Canada
, Mexico
, Colombia, and Venezuela saw the light and now help America seal our borders and export illegal-alien criminals.
Beyond such tactical deployment, however, tariffs are taxes. And taxes are theft.
If the USA must absorb tariffs as long-run expenses (rather than watch Trump use them, short-term, to lean on foreign leaders), they should strike a vibrant, very special economy—like nothing you ever have seen. Instead, tariffs are smacking Americans still anemic from Bidenomics
.
Nonetheless, Trump predicted Wednesday in the Rose Garden: “We will supercharge our domestic industrial base.” He pledged, “Jobs and factories will come roaring back into our country,” along with “more production at home.”
Hooray!
But where will companies find the cash to repatriate foreign assembly lines, expand domestic operations, and otherwise reinvigorate U.S. manufacturing—especially after $6.6 trillion in market value evaporated on Thursday and Friday?
Trump’s stick-heavy recipe needs one key ingredient to prevent widespread regurgitation:
Carrots.
The all-American industrial renaissance that Trump rightly envisions would arrive sooner, if lower taxes, instant amortization, and other catalysts were humming within days, not whenever congressional Republicans get around to them.
From twisting arms on Capitol Hill to rallying taxpayers across America, Trump should push tax cuts as hard as he presses tariffs. Indeed, tax cuts should have come first.
What a pity that Trump did not promote these policies in reverse order:
First, slash taxes and let embattled American citizens and companies keep more of their money. A boom promptly would have erupted.
Second, as output soared, Trump should have invited world leaders to the White House and proposed 0% tariffs among these trade partners. If they agreed, Hallelujah! The world would enjoy pure, free trade. The ghosts of Milton Friedman and Adam Smith would weep with joy. Trump could have declared victory and posed for his avatar on Mount Rushmore.
Third, if those countries rebuffed Trump’s offer, however, he then could have hurled reciprocal tariffs like lightning bolts from atop the moral highlands.
Instead, uncertainty remains the enemy of growth. This suggested timetable would have furnished answers, not today’s burning questions:
What tax rate will corporations pay after Jan. 1? How quickly may a factory amortize a brand-new boiler? Will Canadian aluminum prices include a 25%, 10%, or 0% tariff?
As of second quarter 2025, nobody knows.
Type a question mark into a business plan’s spreadsheet. Watch your laptop smolder.
But as question marks yield to clear incentives, the economy will climb.
Congressional Republicans appear to be coalescing around One Big, Beautiful Bill, brimming with permanently low Trump-45 tax rates, a new 15% corporate tax (down from 21%) for domestic manufacturers, and other vital reforms. Alas, Republicans lack the urgency that this moment demands. Senators, in particular, discuss tax cuts by Memorial Day or “later this year.” Others would postpone Trump’s proposed repeal of taxes on tips, overtime, and Social Security benefits until 2026.
That’s dangerous.
Those tax cuts should be passed and signed by May Day, short-sheeting socialists everywhere. Tax relief should take effect that morning, if not retroactively to Jan. 20 or even Jan. 1, 2025. At once, that would leave additional money in American wallets. Businesses would bloom among lower tax rates, more generous deductions, and, ideally, immediate depreciation for factory construction and equipment.
A burgeoning economy would position Republicans to keep Congress. However, GOP dithering on tax reduction could delay prosperity and buoy Democrats’ midterm prospects.
A House Speaker Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., would wield a three-item to-do list: Strangle the America First agenda, repeatedly impeach Trump, and enact the Democrat version of MAGA: Make Abortion Great Again.
Meanwhile, some Republicans reportedly are considering hiking tax rates up to 40% on $1-million-plus earners. It is abominable that any Republican would parrot Sen. Bernie Sanders’ chief talking point: Tax millionaires and billionaires—good and hard.
No, no, no. Hell, no!
God created Republicans to cut taxes, not raise them—especially when the GOP controls the House, Senate, and Oval Office.
What the hell are these boneheads thinking?
Every Republican who even whispers such apostasy should become a pillar of salt.
For better or worse, Trump’s tariffs are no surprise. Promise made. Promise kept.
That policy also is an audacious wager.
Best-case scenario: Scores of nations mirror Israel’s and Vietnam’s ambitions to negotiate with Trump and set reciprocal tariffs at 0%. Goods and services would traverse borders as freely as phone calls and love letters.
Worst-case scenario: Trade War I explodes, nations dig financial trenches, and attack each other with tariff gas. Impoverished Americans would wander through a Weimaresque fog and eventually seek a new leader to restore our former glory.
Mr. President, let’s avoid that second destination.
More carrots, please!
President Donald Trump should offer the economy more carrots and fewer sticks, says commentator Deroy Murdock. (Sheila Sund/Wikimedia Commons)
We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.
The next mission to the moon will advance the “America First” agenda through space exploration, rather than the Biden administration’s diversity, equity, and inclusion goals, a NASA spokeswoman told The Daily Signal.
While the Biden administration infused DEI
into NASA’s operations, President Donald Trump’s nominee for NASA director, Jared Isaacman, will use his background as an entrepreneur, commercial astronaut, and business owner to refocus the agency on its founding mission statement, which was “to explore the unknown in air and space, innovate for the benefit of humanity, and inspire the world through discovery.”
Isaacman’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee is scheduled for Wednesday.
Under the Biden administration, the public emphasis of the 2026 mission to the moon, Artemis III, was taking the first woman and first person of color there.
But astronaut selection should be about merit, expertise, and experience, NASA press secretary Bethany Stevens said. Under the Trump administration, NASA has refined its public messaging to reinforce that Artemis is primarily about advancing space exploration.
Artemis III will be the first crewed lunar landing since Apollo 17 in December 1972. The crew has not yet been announced.
“NASA is committed to engaging the best talent to drive innovation and achieve our mission for the benefit of all. We’re working to adhere to guidance on DEI in a timely manner,” Stevens said. “This includes ensuring hiring and promotion opportunities are based on merit alone, aligning our agency’s workforce practices with President Trump’s directive to remove DEI considerations.”
On Day One of his presidency, Trump signed an executive order to terminate “diversity, equity, and inclusion
(DEI) discrimination in the federal workforce and in federal contracting and spending.”
In 2023, however, NASA proclaimed that it would “land the first woman, first person of color, and first international partner astronaut on the moon using innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before.” That language was removed from the website on March 16, the Orlando (Florida) Sentinel first reported.
“We look forward to expanding exploration at the moon and Mars for the benefit of all,” Stevens said.
NASA spent more than $20 million in DEI grants
and contracts during the Biden administration, according to conservative watchdog OpenTheBooks. NASA invited left-wing author and professor Ibram X. Kendi to give a speech to NASA employees in August 2020 titled “Mission to Inclusion: Cultivating an Antiracist Workplace,” email records
obtained by the Open the Books reveal.
The Biden-era NASA instituted “workplace gender” plans that placed “transitioning” NASA workers in “the restroom, locker room, or other facility that they feel most comfortable using.”
The government agency also spent hefty sums on DEI-related contracts between 2021 and 2024, such as shelling out $2,366,122 to LMI Consulting to “incorporate and deeply [ingrain]” DEI and accessibility “in the culture and business” of NASA, alongside an additional $182,281 for “diversity training
.” Another contract to the Neuroleadership Institute provided $90,000 for “diversity training,” the report found.
NASA awarded a $74,000 grant to Cook Ross Inc. for “Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Training,” OpenTheBooksfound.
Trump nominated Isaacman on Dec. 4 to lead NASA in a different direction.
“I am delighted to nominate Jared Isaacman, an accomplished business leader, philanthropist, pilot, and astronaut, as administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA),” the then-president-elect wrote on TruthSocial. “Jared will drive NASA’s mission of discovery and inspiration, paving the way for groundbreaking achievements in space science, technology, and exploration.”
If confirmed by the Senate, Isaacman will bring years of experience as a billionaire businessman, aviator, and astronaut to the agency.
The father of two started the payment-processing company Shift4 Payments at the age of just 16. In 2011, he co-founded Draken International, which specializes in providing military-grade aircraft for training purposes.
Isaacman became the first commercial astronaut to walk in space during the private Polaris Dawn mission. He launched the Polaris Program, a series of private space missions, in 2024. The now 42-year-old also led and funded Inspiration4 in 2021, the first all-civilian space mission aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon.
Isaacman is a jet pilot with multiple aviation world records, including for fastest flight around the world in a light jet.
The NASA nominee’s extensive experience in commercial space exploration and innovation uniquely prepare him to accomplish Trump’s ambitious America First agenda in space, according to Stevens.
Trump said in his inaugural address: “We will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars.”
