The famed conservative historian Victor Davis Hanson is recovering from a “successful” cancer surgery.

However, his recovery is ongoing and hel has some way to go until he can return to work.

Jack Fowler, who co-hosts Hanson’s podcast, said that Hanson had had part of his lung removed and suffered “post operation issues.”

“It was cancer surgery and Victor had a part of his lung removed and that is major surgery. I think it is fair to say the surgery was successful. It got what it was looking for.”

”However there were serious post op issues. So Victor is recovering from major surgery and post operation issues. He is near where he had the surgery at Stanford, so he is recovering.”

”He is deeply appreciative, I think millions of people were praying for Victor. I know tons of priests were saying masses for him, so he is deeply appreciative.

“And he’ll be back soon. Not soon enough. But he’ll be back soon to his audio and video home.”

Watch the clip below:

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON HEALTH UPDATE:

We know many of our audience members have been waiting eagerly to hear how Victor is doing following his major surgery on Dec. 30. Here’s a @jackfowler with the latest.

Full Episode: https://t.co/9k1FLz4v0E pic.twitter.com/iANAYtbDXM

— The Daily Signal (@DailySignal) January 14, 2026

Speaking about his upcoming operation last month, Hanson admitted he had been reluctant to discuss his illness in public and the “nine-month odyssey” he has been on.

“The problem I had for a nonsmoker and nondrinker was a rare type and very hard to diagnose, so it’s no one’s fault other than my own, perhaps for not realizing why I was not getting well.”

As a fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and a longtime former professor of classics at California State University, Hanson is widely considered one of leading scholars of Greek and ancient military history.

He has written over a two dozen books, including The Western Way of War and Carnage and Culture, and was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2007 for his contributions to the humanities.

Despite advances in modern medicine, cancer remains a fatal disease.

Just this week, the conservative movement lost Scott Adams, a famed cartoonist, author and political thought leader who passed away after a long battle with prostate cancer.

Adams broke ground in 2015 when he explained to the world how Donald Trump is a “master of persuasion” and became an advocate for the MAGA movement.

Until his dying day, Adams hosted a daily podcast, Coffee With Scott Adams, in which he offered his interesting and innovative takes on the news.

Among those paying tribute to him included President Trump, Vice-President J.D. Vance and Elon Musk.

BREAKING: Legendary Cartoonist and MAGA Thought Leader Scott Adams Passes Away at 68 After Cancer Battle — Tributes Pour In

The post Victor Davis Hanson’s Co-Host Provides Encouraging Update After Famed Historian Underwent ‘Major’ Cancer Surgery appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Regime change is becoming unavoidable in several authoritarian states. Venezuela’s president has already been arrested and removed, while Iran and Cuba now face mounting pressure that could lead to collapse. History shows that outcomes depend less on whether regimes fall than on how transitions are managed.

Postwar Germany and Japan demonstrated that regime change can succeed when institutions are preserved, while failures in Afghanistan and Iraq resulted from misguided nation-building and external interference, not from regime removal itself.

Claims that the United States is inherently bad at regime change conflate military performance with political outcomes.

Militarily, the United States has been effective, removing Noriega in 1989, the Taliban in 2001, Saddam Hussein in 2003, Gaddafi in 2011 with NATO support, and Maduro in 2026. Strategically, results have varied.

Afghanistan absorbed $2.3 trillion over two decades before the Taliban returned to power.

Iraq lost more than 4,400 Americans and hundreds of thousands of civilians after its military was disbanded, creating the conditions for ISIS and sectarian war.

Libya descended into lawlessness, a failure Barack Obama later called his biggest mistake.

Earlier regime change efforts produced even deeper instability. The 1953 coup against Mohammad Mosaddegh succeeded tactically but led to decades of blowback, including the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Guatemala’s 1954 coup triggered 36 years of civil war and 200,000 deaths. Chile’s 1973 coup installed Pinochet, who killed thousands and tortured many more.

Political scientists Alexander Downes and Stephen Gent distinguish between overthrowing regimes and creating stability, noting that the latter requires domestic legitimacy and internal political participation.

Economist Jeffrey Sachs documented roughly 100 regime change operations since 1947, most of which produced chaos or unintended consequences.

Germany and Japan after 1945 stand out as rare successes due to intact bureaucracies, total Allied commitment under existential threat, and Cold War pressure.

Panama in 1989 also succeeded because legitimate civilian authority was empowered quickly after Noriega’s removal.

Donald Trump’s Venezuela strategy is the model most likely to succeed because it separates leadership removal from state collapse.

Maduro was removed while the civilian government remained intact, preserving institutional continuity rather than dismantling the state.

Elections are intended to follow as a condition for U.S. aid, allowing political change through the ballot box rather than external engineering.

This approach should have been applied in Iraq and possibly Libya, but it likely would have failed in Afghanistan because the entire state apparatus was Taliban.

Trump has maintained pressure without immediate political rupture by removing Maduro while keeping Vice President Delcy Rodríguez as interim leader and leaving most of the government in place.

He has said Venezuela is being run through pressure on Rodríguez and that elections must wait until stabilization, estimating reconstruction could take up to 18 months.

According to Senators Lindsey Graham and Tom Cotton, the United States will rebuild Venezuela before transitioning to elections, which they say should follow a period of stabilization rather than occur immediately.

Nation-building is always risky, and this strategy, while sound, carries real dangers.

Trump sidelined Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado and worked with Maduro’s vice president instead of the opposition that won Venezuela’s 2024 election, in which Edmundo González defeated Maduro two-to-one based on tally sheets.

Analysts warn this increases the risk of domestic rejection, international fragmentation, and internal sabotage due to the lack of democratic legitimacy.

In Iran, regime change now appears possible as widespread anti-regime protests openly call for the return of exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi.

Claims that something worse would inevitably replace the current system function largely as deterrence narratives meant to preserve a collapsing regime.

Avoiding regime change risks reinforcing repression and alienating a population that is broadly pro-American.

The unrest began on December 28, 2025, amid economic collapse and soaring inflation, and quickly spread nationwide into demands for the end of the Islamic Republic.

Protests have been reported in roughly 185 to 190 cities across all 31 provinces. The currency has lost more than 40 percent of its value, with inflation estimated at up to 60 percent.

At least 2,000 people have been killed and between 18,000 and 20,000 arrested as the regime responded with extreme violence, mass trials, and a near-total internet blackout.

Demonstrators have stormed government buildings and openly called for the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Iranian officials have privately described the government as operating in survival mode, and analysts suggest the country may be entering an early stage of regime crisis.

If Khamenei flees or is killed, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps could fracture or require a purge. Either outcome would open space for Iranians to elect and build a secular government of their choosing.

Cuba’s collapse has been predicted for decades, but the current economic crisis is more severe than in the past. Venezuela was once the regime’s main supporter, but with Maduro in U.S. custody and Caracas unable to provide assistance, Cuba has lost its primary lifeline.

China abandoned Venezuela and is unlikely to risk war or economic sanctions by intervening, while Russia is tied down in the Ukraine war and Iran is consumed by internal unrest. Cuba is now effectively on its own.

The government is nearing failure amid an energy and economic crisis it can no longer manage.

Nationwide blackouts, decaying infrastructure, the loss of Venezuelan oil subsidies, and the advanced age of the ruling Communist leadership have pushed the system toward breakdown.

Mass emigration has drained human capital, and collapsing state revenues raise doubts about the government’s ability to continue paying its security forces.

Public sentiment inside Cuba remains difficult to measure. Independent polling is not allowed, and a 2024 survey showing widespread dissatisfaction cannot be verified due to unknown methodology and sample size.

Since 2020, an estimated 1 to 2 million Cubans, roughly 10 to 18 percent of the population, have left the country, suggesting deep dissatisfaction, though emigrants are self-selecting and tend to be those with the means or opportunity to leave.

Many who remain may be exhausted or fearful rather than supportive, while others, particularly among the older generation, retain revolutionary loyalty.

Cuba has experienced unrest before. July 2021 saw the largest protests since 1959, resulting in more than 1,400 arrests and prison sentences of up to 30 years.

Protests also occurred in March 2024 in Santiago and other cities, followed by crackdowns. Despite worsening conditions, January 2026 has seen no major nationwide anti-government protests.

Analyst Bert Hoffmann has noted that deteriorating living conditions do not necessarily translate into rebellion.

A Havana resident summarized prevailing attitudes by saying people focus first on food, electricity, housing, and work, and only then on politics.

Exiled Cubans are overwhelmingly anti-regime, but sentiment on the island likely ranges from support to resignation to opposition, with the proportions unknowable.

The post Venezuela, Iran, and Cuba: Trump Remaking the Global Political Landscape appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday delivered an epic rebuke of a leftist reporter after he accused an ICE agent of “recklessly” and “unjustifiably” killing crazed leftist Renee Good when she tried to run the agent over with her vehicle. 

Good was fatally shot last week by an ICE agent in self-defense, sparking outrage in Minneapolis, Minnesota, when she tried to kill an ICE agent. This sparked nationwide outrage from left-wingers and rioting in Minnesota.

President Trump has threatened to invoke the insurrection act, stating on Thursday, “If the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job, I will institute the INSURRECTION ACT, which many Presidents have done before me, and quickly put an end to the travesty that is taking place in that once great State.”

However, the leftist reporter in the White House on Thursday attempted to justify the ensuing violence following Good’s attempt to murder a federal agent by claiming the agent “acted recklessly and killed her unjustifiably.”

This prompted Leavitt to go off, calling him out for showing his extreme bias and refusing to acknowledge the truth about illegal aliens or the insane leftists assaulting law enforcement.

“You’re a left-wing hack, you’re not a reporter, you’re posing in this room as a journalist, and it’s so clear by the premise of your question,” Leavitt said.

“You and the people in the media, who have such biases but fake like you’re a journalist, you shouldn’t even be sitting in that seat, but you’re pretending that you’re a journalist, but you’re a left-wing activist.”

After noting that countless American citizens have been murdered by “heinous” criminal illegal aliens, she continued, “Shame on people like you in the media who have a crooked view and have a biased view and pretend like you’re a real, honest journalist.”

WATCH:

Reporter: 32 people died in ICE custody last year, 170 US citizens were detained by ICE, and Renee Good was shot in the head and killed by an ICE agent. How does that equate to them doing everything correctly?

Leavitt: Why was Renee Good unfortunately and tragically killed?

Reporter: Are you asking me my opinion? Because an ICE agent acted recklessly and killed her unjustifiably.

Leavitt: Okay, so you’re a biased reporter with a left-wing opinion—

Reporter: What do you want me to do?

Leavitt: Yeah, because you’re a left-wing hack, you’re not a reporter, you’re posing in this room as a journalist, and it’s so clear by the premise of your question. And you and the people in the media, who have such biases but fake like you’re a journalist, you shouldn’t even be sitting in that seat, but you’re pretending that you’re a journalist, but you’re a left-wing activist. And the question that you just raised and your answer proves your bias. You should be reporting on the facts. You should read reporting on the cases.

Do you have the numbers of how many American citizens were killed at the hands of illegal aliens who ICE is trying to remove from this country? I bet you don’t. I bet you didn’t even read up on those stories. I bet you never even read about Laken Riley, or Jocelyn Nungary, or all of the innocent Americans who were killed at the hands of illegal aliens in this country. And the brave men and women of ICE are doing everything in their power to remove those heinous individuals and make our communities safer. And shame on people like you in the media who have a crooked view and have a biased view and pretend like you’re a real, honest journalist.

The Gateway Pundit has reported extensively on Renee Good’s effort to kill an ICE agent with her vehicle and her death.

In addition to other footage exonerating the agent, recently unveiled cell phone footage from the scene shows Good accelerating her vehicle as her wife cheered her on, shouting, “Drive, baby! Drive!”

MORE:

BREAKING: “Drive, Baby! Drive!” – New POV Footage From ICE Agent’s Phone Shows Confrontation with Renee Good and Her Wife Shortly Before Fatal Shooting (VIDEO)

The post WATCH: “YOU’RE A LEFT-WING HACK” – Karoline Leavitt UNLOADS on Reporter for Accusing ICE Agent of “Recklessly” and “Unjustifiably” Killing Renee Good appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

The skies over Iran are empty.  It’s now looking like Venezuela before Maduro’s capture.  (Above snapshot taken at 8pm eastern on Wednesday, Jan 14, 26 at FlightAware.) The crowds in … Read more

The post Iranian Airspace Empties – Only Flights from China and Russia Identified Over Iran appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

A daycare worker murdered a baby boy and tried to strangle another infant to death at the Rocking Horse Ranch daycare facility in Savage, Minnesota.

11-month-old Harvey Muklebust was suffocated to death by Theah Russell in September 2025.

According to reports, a worker at the Rocking Horse Ranch child care facility dialed 911 on September 22, 2025 to report that a baby, later identified as Muklebust, was not breathing.

The baby boy was transported to a hospital where he died.

Three days prior to Muklebust’s death, authorities responded to the same daycare and found a 4-month-old infant with blood under their nose and mouth.

On Wednesday, police announced they arrested Russell and charged her with second-degree murder. Russell was also charged with attempted murder for strangling another infant at the daycare center.

Savage Police Chief Brady Juell said Russell has a history of “erratic behavior” toward children and confessed to “intentionally suffocating” Muklebust “in an attention-seeking act.”

“Authorities investigated Russell’s background, finding “a documented history of attention-seeking behavior,” including “nonsensical” 911 calls, firestarting and “erratic behavior toward other children,” Juell said,” CBS reported.

The Rocking Horse Ranch’s license has been suspended.

The Savage Police Department announced the arrest of 18-year-old Theah Russell.

Muklebust’s family tearfully delivered remarks at the presser:

SAY HIS NAME: Harvey Mucklebust (1)

MN daycare worker Loudemia Russell was just arrested for kiIIing Harvey & trying to strangIe another infant. pic.twitter.com/Attqphsbsv

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) January 15, 2026

Last year, a Georgia daycare worker was arrested and charged with severely beating a one-year-old boy at Little Blessings Child Care in Bainbridge.

Heartbreaking and shocking photos posted to social media show the precious baby boy suffered a black eye and lacerations to his face.

“This is every parent’s worst nightmare, and we had to live it and are still living it,” the boy’s father, Cory Weeks, wrote on Facebook.

“We were told another child in Clay’s class did this type of damage with a plastic toy,” he said. “Nothing we saw was for the faint-hearted, especially happening to such an innocent soul,” he said.

Thurston’s bond was set for a measly $44,000, and she bonded out of Decatur County Jail.

The post HORROR: Minnesota Daycare Worker with History of “Erratic Behavior” Toward Children Murders Baby Boy and Tries to Strangle Another Infant to Death appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.