This story originally was published by Real Clear Wire

By Guy Ciarrocchi
Real Clear Wire

Donald Trump’s Pennsylvania victory was a story within a story. He not only won the state but also changed the GOP path to winning it. His 2024 county map looks nothing like the 1988 winning map of George H. W. Bush, the last Republican to win here before Trump did in 2016. Trump’s 2024 map barely resembles the near-miss 2004 map for George W. Bush, or even the maps of local GOP winners Gov. Tom Corbett (2010) and U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey (2016).

I was raised in South Philly’s 26th ward and am now a resident of Tredyffrin, in Chester County. The political evolution of both places sheds light on Trump’s victory and the changes in both the Republican and Democratic parties.

In 1995, my wife and I moved with our baby daughter from South Philly to the suburbs – Paoli, in Chester County. When we arrived here, the political climate was ruby red. Our township board of supervisors was 7-0, Republican. Our school board was 9-0. Our state representative, state senator, and congressman were Republicans. The GOP controlled our county courthouse from top to bottom, but for a statutorily required “minority” (Democrat) commissioner. It was customary for Democrats not even to field candidates in local races.

Back home, South Philly’s 26th ward was the prototype of “Reagan Democrat” territory. Usually, my ward voted Republican for President, Governor, and U.S. Senator – but Democrat for Congress, state senate, statehouse, and city council.

In Tredyffrin, 1996 represented the high-water mark for the GOP in presidential elections. U.S. Sen. Bob Dole won 64.5% of the vote running against President Bill Clinton. On the other hand, “centrist” Democrat Clinton carried our former precinct in South Philly – just as he had in 1992 – with 51.1% of the vote.

Since then, both places have moved in different directions.

In 2000 – just four years after Dole defeated Clinton by 35 points – Bush carried our home precinct (Tredyffrin West-3) by less than 7 points. The change we already saw happening to the east, in Lower and Upper Merion Townships and Montgomery County, was coming our way. Bush carried our township and the county, but he lost the state by 4.1 points.

In 2003, I was asked to run for supervisor. Seeing Democratic momentum building, I raised money to make yard signs, sent out postcard mailers, and knocked on doors – though no Democrats had filed to run against me. Many in the local GOP were taken aback at my fundraising and my being so “aggressive.”

In 2004, Bush lost our Tredyffrin precinct by 2%. He held the county but lost the state by 2.5 points. It was the best GOP margin statewide until Trump won in 2016.

I stepped down from my supervisor position in 2005, when President Bush appointed me as a HUD official. A special election was held, and the Democrats won my district seat – and one at-large seat. So, 7-0 had become 5-2. These were the first major cracks in the armor of the GOP stronghold. Ruby red was becoming pastel.

In 2006, the state senate held a special election. In a battle between two county commissioners, the Democrat prevailed. A big crack. That fall, the statehouse seat to our south – for the county seat in West Chester – fell to the Democrats, by 28 votes. Another crack.

By 2019, we were living the mirror image of when we arrived in 1995. Our board of supervisors was now 7-0, Democrat. The school board was 9-0. And our state legislators and member of Congress were Democrats. County offices were all won by Democrats, but for the statutorily required “minority” commissioner, now a lone Republican.

The 21st century Democratic Party counts among its base college graduates and upper-income earners. Chester is the state’s wealthiest county. It’s home to the highest percentage of college graduates and those with advanced degrees. Here you’ll see lots of lawn signs with messages like Hate has no home here and In this house, we believe in science. And lots of Ukrainian flags.

Meantime, among residents back “home” in the 26th ward, crime, failing public schools, and a sense that Washington – and City Hall – didn’t care about them created resentment toward Democrats. GOP victories at the top of the ticket continued – and now expanded to statewide offices. In 2016, Josh Shapiro, the Democratic nominee for attorney general – and now Governor – lost my former precinct by nearly 17 points. This despite Democrats’ huge registration advantage.

In the 26th ward, GOP support grew down-ballot, too. They started carrying candidates for district attorney and even for mayor – when the Philadelphia GOP actually bothered to field candidates.

In 2016, Trump carried my South Philly precinct by 3 points. In 2024, he won by 8.5 points. That was part of the math that got Trump to reach a “historic” 20% of the vote across Philadelphia, on his way to winning Pennsylvania. He used a very different map to do it.

The Democrats have become the party of higher incomes, advanced degrees, and virtue-signaling. The GOP are now the party of the forgotten, wondering why “their” Democratic party stopped focusing on fighting crime, etc.

Our daughter just moved back to South Philly, a few blocks from where she was born. Two homes across the street still have Trump signs in the windows. The flags are red, white, and blue.

The post Seeing PA Go From Blue to Red–Through Two Precincts appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Hours after President Trump called on DOGE chief Elon Musk to “get more aggressive,” Musk announced on Saturday afternoon that an email would be going out soon to federal employees asking them to explain what they had done last week.

Musk ominously stated, “Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation” However, there is some doubt as to whether federal rules for resignations cover the failure to respond to an email.

Musk posted on X, “Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump ’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week. Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”

Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week.

Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 22, 2025

Earlier Saturday morning (around 8 a.m. EST), Trump posted in all caps to Truth Social, “ELON IS DOING A GREAT JOB, BUT I WOULD LIKE TO SEE HIM GET MORE AGGRESSIVE. REMEMBER, WE HAVE A COUNTRY TO SAVE, BUT ULTIMATELY, TO MAKE GREATER THAN EVER BEFORE. MAGA!”

Saturday afternoon, copies of the email, sent from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), started being posted online by reporters The emails do not include the resignation threat mentioned earlier by Musk:

Subject: “What did you do last week?”

Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager.

Please do not send any classified information, links, or attachments.

Deadline is this Monday at 11:59pmEST.

Civil servants across the government are getting hit with an email this evening asking them to justify their jobs

Subject: What did you do last week?

“Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager.” pic.twitter.com/wI2r2c19Gl

— Allan Smith (@akarl_smith) February 22, 2025

The Trump White House Rapid Response Team chimed in, “Just got this email. Where do we begin?” The post was followed by five of the many things President Trump and his administration accomplished last week:

President Trump signed an executive order to expand access to IVF. https://t.co/iofzyeHUNF

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) February 22, 2025

The Border Patrol chief announced President Trump’s policies have led to a 94% drop in illegal border crossings. https://t.co/gdA3sCsyab

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) February 22, 2025

The Trump Administration is ensuring that Maine does not allow men in girls’ locker rooms and sports. https://t.co/KAsmHRk2MB

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) February 22, 2025

American Federation of Government Employees union (AFGE) President Everett Kelley slammed Musk’s email questionnaire in a statement issued Saturday:

“Once again, Elon Musk and the Trump Administration have shown their utter disdain for federal employees and the critical services they provide to the American people.

“It is cruel and disrespectful to hundreds of thousands of veterans who are wearing their second uniform in the civil service to be forced to justify their job duties to this out-of-touch, privileged, unelected billionaire who has never performed one single hour of honest public service in his life.

“AFGE will challenge any unlawful terminations of our members and federal employees across the country.”

Politico reported the email has been received by workers across the government, “The email appears to have been sent broadly across the government. Employees in the State Department, the National Institute of Health, the General Services Administration, Veteran Affairs, the Food and Drug Administration and other agencies all received a copy.”

The post “What Did You Do Last Week?” Elon Musk Announces DOGE Email Questionnaire to Federal Workers With Ominous Deadline appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Trans activist Blossom C. Brown joined Piers Morgan to push the bizarre idea of a gender-neutral Olympics.

But her bizarre take did not stop there.

Fellow guest Riley Gaines, who has been a champion of protecting women’s sports, asked a question so outlandish she probably thought Blossom would finally admit how ridiculous her premise is.

Should the Paralympics and the Olympics also then be combined if we are going to ignore physical advantages?

Her answer, while bizarre, should not come as a surprise to anyone who has watched efforts to have women canceled from many areas of society, including sports.

Riley Gaines: People like Blossom are exactly why Donald Trump won on November 5th. People, I believe….

Blossom C. Brown: Oh, girl, please.

(Crosstalk)

Blossom C. Brown: Donald Trump rigged the election, which is why he’s sitting in office now.

Piers Morgan: Mute Blossom, please, because you can’t stop talking. Reilly, you respond.

Riley Gaines: People turned out, I believe, in masses to the polls on November 5th to embrace Donald Trump, to embrace the America First agenda, to embrace his cabinet picks.

But more so, I believe people turned out to the polls to reject absurdity.

And that is exactly what the past 30 minutes have been on this program, Piers, is totally, entirely, and thoroughly absurd from top to bottom, saying there should be a gender-neutral Olympics? Are you serious?

 Piers Morgan:Madness.

Riley Gaines:Do you also believe, Blossom, that we should combine the Paralympics and the Olympics? I would love to hear an answer to that.

Piers Morgan: Okay, I’ll ask her. Bring back Blossom. Blossom, should we combine the Paralympics with the regular Olympics? Have them all compete with each other?

Blossom C. Brown: I mean, why not? To go back to Reilly’s point to that last point……

Riley Gaines:  Oh, my Gosh.

Piers Morgan: You are completely insane.

Riley Gaines: Oh, my Gosh.

Blossom C. Brown: Go back to that last point. No, because she actually said something that I wanted to respond to.

Piers Morgan: So no Paralympian will win a medal.

So your diversity, equity, and inclusion turns out to be unequal and doesn’t include any Paralympian or any woman.

Watch:

“People like Blossom are why Donald Trump won!”

Riley Gaines and Piers Morgan are shocked as trans activist Blossom C Brown says ‘why not?’ to combining the Paralympics and Olympics.

https://t.co/aonGLengMl@piersmorgan | @Riley_Gaines_ | @BlossomCBrown pic.twitter.com/7MwQHOkZKB

— Piers Morgan Uncensored (@PiersUncensored) February 20, 2025

You can watch the full segment here:

The post Bizarre: Trans Activist Says “Why Not?” to Combining Paralympics and Olympics appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

It sounds too good to be true: Al Pacino has joined team MAGA, narrating a short viral video regarding the political comeback of President Donald Trump.

And, just like all things that sound too good to be true, it is, fitting though the voiceover may seem.

The video gained traction because it was reposted by Juanita Broaddrick — the now-conservative activist who got embroiled in the political world after she accused former President Bill Clinton, under oath, of raping her when he was governor of Arkansas.

“I woke up to this video. Al Pacino joins MAGA. WOW!!!” she said.

The video begins with Trump walking down a hallway and Pacino narrating: “Three minutes to the biggest battle of our professional lives, all comes down to today. Either we heal as a team, or we’re going to crumble, inch by inch, play by play, ’til we’re finished.”

Then, Trump getting hit by a would-be assassin’s bullet in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Pacino: “We’re in hell right now.” A montage of clips regarding those talking about the assassination and an insinuation of who might have been behind this all (Chuck Schumer, on an unrelated subject: “You take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday of getting back at you”). There’s also Elon Musk praising him for pumping his fist “with blood streaming down his face.”

“This is instinctual courage,” Musk says.

Pacino again: “We can stay here, get the s*** kicked out of us, or we can fight our way back into the light. We can climb out of hell.” Footage of Trump at his trials and his mug shot.

Then, a photo showing how close the bullet came. Pacino: “One inch at a time.”

“Now, I can’t do it for you,” Pacino says. “I’m too old. The inches we need are everywhere around us.” Trump walking with ear bandaged out to the Republican National Convention.

“They’re in every break of the game, every minute, every second,” Pacino’s narration continues. “On this team, we fight for that inch. On this team, we tear ourselves and everyone else around us to pieces for that inch. We claw with our fingernails for that inch because we know when we add up all those inches, that’s going to make the f***ing difference between winning and losing! Between living and dying!”

“I’ll tell you this, in any fight, it’s the guy who’s willing to die, who’s going to win that inch,” Pacino says, along with text on the screen that says “Our fight has just begun.”

And it continues, with triumphal footage of Trump. It’s an inspiring speech, although it doesn’t quite match the material. And the first sign that something is off, if you aren’t familiar with the source material or didn’t see the community notes on it, is the appearance of (sigh) Alex Jones and the Infowars.com logo on screen — with Jones talking about “taking our country back,” presumably one bottle of overpriced vitamins at a time:

WARNING: The following video contains graphic language that some viewers will find offensive.

I woke up to this video. Al Pacino joins MAGA. WOW!!! pic.twitter.com/LJIRoeXPds

— Juanita Broaddrick (@atensnut) February 19, 2025

As for Pacino himself, it’s worth noting he’s largely stayed out of politics in his public life.

Even his choice of projects could give you one impression or another. Take his role as a whistleblower on police misconduct (“Serpico”) or a man robbing a bank to pay for his male lover’s gender-reassignment surgery at a time when such subjects were far more taboo (“Dog Day Afternoon”) and you could get the impression he’s a progressive. Or, look at his role as a sympathetic blind Vietnam veteran and retired colonel (“Scent of a Woman”) or as Satan in a movie that argues supernatural evil is very real and all-too-tempting (“The Devil’s Advocate”), and you could cast him as a conservative.

The point is, nobody knows, but he’s definitely not on team MAGA.

And the words he’s speaking were at least partially penned, and in a movie directed by, a man who definitely isn’t: ultra-progressive Oliver Stone, who has put out a hagiographical documentary about his friendship with brutal Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez (“Mi Amigo Hugo“), among other more well-known leftist cinematic detritus.

In this case, it’s from one of his less-political works — although still pretty meh, if you’ve never seen it — 1999’s “Any Given Sunday,” which takes on the brutal, cutthroat world of professional football, and comes to the conclusion that it is (get ready for this hot cinematic take), in fact, brutal and/or cutthroat.

Given that the NFL obviously wasn’t going to hand over the rights to Oliver freaking Stone, this monologue comes before a championship game — which is definitely not modeled on the Super Bowl in any way — in which Pacino, coach of the fictional Miami Sharks, gives a speech even Vince Lombardi would have been envious of, because it was written by Hollywood people making a big-budget movie:

Whatever the case, if the appearance of Alex Jones at the end didn’t tip you off to the veracity of this, no, this wasn’t Pacino going all-in with MAGA. It’s also interesting to see Jones — a man who is not wholly unfamiliar with the interiors of civil courtrooms — tempting the lawyers of a guy almost too liberal for Hollywood with a video that certainly, shall we say, may raise some questions about fair use doctrine.

So, no, Pacino isn’t going to be on stage with Trump, J.D., Melania and Elon anytime soon. Sorry to disappoint you.

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.

The post Fact Check: Did Al Pacino Just Join MAGA? Dramatic Pro-Trump Video Has Everyone Talking appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

President Trump addressed the crowd at CPAC 2025 on Saturday telling the American people that the United States has been liberated from the past four years of chaos.

“We fought through hell together, but in the end, we achieved the great liberation of America. We are liberating our country right now,” President Trump said.

Watch:

“We achieved the great liberation of America!” – President Trump at CPAC 2025 in Washington, D.C. pic.twitter.com/pDTQpLni5Q

— RSBN (@RSBNetwork) February 22, 2025

President Trump told the crowd of the changes that are occurring under his new administration.

“The fraudsters, liars, cheaters, globalists and deep state bureaucrats are being sent packing. The illegal alien criminals are being sent home. We are draining the swamp, and we are restoring government by the people, for the people,” President Trump said.

“We must be doing something right because we’ve got the highest poll numbers that I’ve ever had and that any Republican President has ever had,” President Trump continued.

Watch:

“We must be doing something right because we have the highest poll numbers that I’ve ever had and that any Republican President has ever had.” – President Trump delivers remarks in Washington, D.C. pic.twitter.com/ysu9yqZhDq

— RSBN (@RSBNetwork) February 22, 2025

President Trump also told the crowd of patriots what his administration has accomplished in the first month of taking office.

“I’ve ended all of the so-called diversity, equity and inclusion programs across the entire Federal Government and the private sector, and notified every single government DEI officer that their job has been deleted. They’re gone, they’re fired,” Trump said.

“I’ve made it the official policy of the United States Government that there are only two genders, male and female,” Trump said.

“We banned the use of puberty blockers, hormone injections and other chemical and surgical mutilation of your youth,” President Trump continued.

“I banned government censorship from your voices, and brought back free speech in America,” Trump continued.

The President also talked about firing radical prosecutors within the DOJ after taking office.

“I ended his whole weaponization of our government and removed his handpicked radical left Marxist prosecutors from the Department of Justice,” Trump said of the Biden regime.

“I pardoned hundreds and hundreds of Biden’s political prisoners including Christians, pro-life activists and the J6 hostages who were treated terribly for years,” Trump said.

Watch:

WATCH: President Trump shares the accomplishments of his White House Administration in their first month of office. pic.twitter.com/FG5D0AjMEd

— RSBN (@RSBNetwork) February 22, 2025

The post President Trump Addresses CPAC 2025 – “We Achieved the Great Liberation of America!” (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.