Peter Van Buren's Blog, page 3

Biden’s Missing Children

The loss of even one child is a tragedy. The loss of over 7,000, some potentially to sex traffickers, due to Joe Biden’s immigration policies, is a national shame. As part of its open borders policy, the Biden administration failed to investigate more than 7,300 reports of human trafficking involving child migrants and tens of […]

The Wages of DEI at Thomas Jefferson High School

The results are in for one school — after four years of DEI-driven, basically race-based admissions, Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, known as T.J., in Alexandria, Virginia has seen its national ranking fall to 14th place and its number of National Merit Scholar semi-finalists cut nearly in half. And according to the […]

Et Tu, Bruce Springsteen? TDS Rides the Backstreets

I love Bruce Springsteen. I love his music. I saw my first Springsteen concert in 1977. I’ll never stop listening to “Born to Run” or the “Ghost of Tom Joad,” but I will do so saddened that my hero succumbed to Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) and has switched in performance from righteously talking about political […]

A Victory Speech Over Neoconservative Foreign Policy

In what can be called a victory speech over failed neoconservative foreign policy, President Donald Trump proclaimed the end of 30-some years of existing foreign policy in the Mideast. The thing which dragged the U.S. through pointless wars from Libya to Yemen, is now done. At an investment conference in Riyadh, in a speech little-commented […]

The Trump Doctrine

The deranged left claims Donald Trump’s foreign policy is chaotic, that it has no broad goal. So it is good to see Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in a little-noticed statement, lay out the broad outlines of Trump’s foreign policy, and thus his State Department’s own marching orders. Rubio managed to work in some “inside […]

No Tears for Mr. Garcia

There are no tears for Ammar al-Baluchi, aka Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, as there are for Kilmar Abrego Garcia. They languish in prisons abroad, yet only for one does the Left weep. Mr. Garcia (as the New York Times insists on calling him), the Maryland father (as his senator insists on calling him) is an […]

Embassies to Close

A draft internal State Department memo (denied by Secretary of State Marco Rubio) shows the Trump administration is considering closing 10 embassies and 17 consulates and to consolidate staff in Japan and Canada. Key “can’t do without them” functions of closed posts will be transferred to nearby surviving embassies. Whether the eventual closures involve these […]

Tough Times Ahead at Foggy Bottom?

If you had “State Department” on your DOGE bingo card as the next agency teed up, mark yourself a winner. But are tough times ahead for Foggy Bottom? Secretary of State Marco Rubio on April 22 unveiled the beginnings of a reorganization of the State Department, calling the diplomatic agency “bloated, bureaucratic” and “beholden to […]

It’s 2-0 for Trump on Immigration

With one quasi-win at the Supreme Court and one still evolving at a lower immigration court, it is safe to call it a soft 2-0 for Trump on immigration matters. The courts did not curtail significantly Trump’s power as desired by the Left, but also did not allow the creation of a Constitutional black hole […]

Chinese Honeypots, Sex, and American Diplomats

The U.S. government recently banned American personnel in China, as well as family members and contractors with security clearances, from any romantic or sexual relationships with Chinese citizens. The policy was put into effect by departing Ambassador Nicholas Burns in January shortly before he left China. The danger of a honeypot scheme, romantically entrapping a […]