Happy Golden Escalator Day.

Jun 17, 2026

Wednesday: June 17, 2026

Dear Patriot,

Well, it was actually Tuesday, June 16th, but we wanted to take a moment to recall the day, eleven years ago, when Donald and Melania descended the escalator inside Trump Tower to announce he was running as a Republican for the Presidency.

It was a feisty speech. It was America First before there was such a label.

Almost everyone in the NY-DC corridor thought it was a wild joke.

But….he struck a cord. He said things that normal, tax-paying voters had not heard from a politician …ever. He revived the grass root spirit of the Tea Party Movement that had been beaten up and thrown out the Republican Party window.

It has been over a decade now, and that famous ride down to the people has changed EVERYTHING.

And the best is yet to come.

If you would like to watch the speech, go here on YouTube.

It is fascinating to watch again knowing what we know.

Considerations for Wednesday include….

Can Republicans turn fraud into a winning issue?
Can we keep Americans safe with so many crazy people?
Can we right more small wrongs?
Can we shut down an entire agency?
Can we keep moving away from leftist insanity?

Grab a great deal on a national bestselling book often recommended by Rush Limbaugh and great DTR swag at a big discount for America250!

1- We think in the coming months that fraud will become the number one election issue.

It is so rampant. It touches every single aspect of American life. It is almost exclusively done by Demoncrats.

How fun to think about a country where we are not constantly having our tax money stolen on the back end. Think of all the amazing things we could be doing with that money if they manage to stop the fraud. We could substantially reduce if not eliminate the outrageous national debt if we could recoup and eliminate all the fraud.

It SHOULD be a major winning issue for the next two election cycles. But, only if the Trump Administration and Vance can find it all and stop it.

Real Clear Politics

Vance and GOP’s Golden Political Issue: Federal Fraud

QUOTE: “Border Czar” was among Vice President Kamala Harris’ greatest liabilities; “Fraud Czar” could be VP JD Vance’s biggest asset.
If Vance and Republicans are smart, they will ensure that it is.
On March 16, President Trump created the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud. He made the vice president its chairman and explicitly included representatives from ten Cabinet agencies, OMB, and “other agencies, inspectors general, or components within the Executive Office of the President, as determined by the Chairman.”
Making Vance the fraud czar is no “dead ending” of an issue Republicans want to ignore. It should be just the opposite. Defrauding the federal government is big business. It is an even bigger political issue.
How big a business is defrauding the federal government? According to GAO: “In FY 2025, 15 federal agencies reported a total estimate of about $186 billion in improper payments across 64 programs, an increase of $24 billion from the prior fiscal year. Most of these improper payments were a result of overpayments.” Nor do these numbers represent the full extent of the fraud perpetrated: “The $186 billion does not include certain programs that agencies have determined are susceptible to significant improper payments, such as the Department of Health and Human Services’ Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.”
And while GAO acknowledges that it has not captured all the federal fraud out there, it found 19 programs had improper payment rates of at least 10%, and six had rates exceeding 25%.
When the actual fraud cases are revealed, the details are even more alarming. In Minnesota’s vast fraud network alone, an estimated $9 billion was stolen – $250 million by one nonprofit (Feeding Our Future), and some of the money funneled abroad and possibly to a terrorist group.
Further, whistleblowers testified before a House committee “that Governor Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison were aware of widespread fraud in Minnesota’s social service programs, lied about their knowledge of the fraud, and retaliated against state employees who bravely raised concerns.”
And more swindling is being uncovered all the time. Already, California, Illinois, New York, Colorado, Maine, and Ohio appear to have versions of Minnesota’s scandal. Undoubtedly, more will be uncovered if investigations continue. VP Vance should ensure that they do.
Republicans should run against corruption because Democrats have given them the issue. Literally, in the case of Minnesota’s Lt. Governor Karen Flanigan: Her first reaction to the state’s burgeoning scandal was not to rush and announce cooperation with investigations; instead, she donned a hijab in support of the Somali community, some of whose members were at the scandal’s epicenter.
Democrats have also given Republicans the issue figuratively. Federal fraud is about big government running uncontrollably amuck. It is about wasteful spending. It is about crime not being prosecuted at the local level. If the allegations of turning a blind eye to favored groups are true, it implicates the DEI mindset.
It goes directly at Democrats’ perceived weaknesses: over-spending, over-taxing, favoritism, big government, coddling criminals, and condoning criminality for favored groups. These types of failures fan out into other Democrat policies: identity politics, Defund the Police, Abolish ICE, etc.
It also builds on longstanding Republican themes: reducing spending, opposing tax hikes, cutting the deficit and debt, enforcing the law, and eliminating unnecessary programs. Republicans can advance them all under the rubric of fighting fraud.
Fighting fraud gives Republicans a resonant message of getting government’s house in order. It also parries the inevitable Democrat push to run for the White House on implementing expensive new programs.
It also allows Republicans to blunt coming Democrat attacks of Trump and DOGE’s government cuts, and the inevitable attempts to paint Republicans as heartless and hurting the poor. Wasteful spending is money not going to the poor and programs should be scoured for wasteful spending being diverted from them.
Americans hate to feel cheated, that they have been taken. The administration should spend the next two years building its case, and VP Vance should spend the next two years ensuring it does.