Trump

DOT Secretary Sean Duffy Officially Favors Marriage and Fertility in Federal Policy

Newly-seated Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Sean Duffy has already gotten busy improving his department, and America by ensuring the nation’s traffic policy protects and promotes families.

A new order issued by Secretary Duffy requires all DOT policies, programs and activities, as much as possible, to be determined and executed relative to their “benefits for families and communities.”

To this end, Secretary Duffy declares DOT “shall prioritize projects and goals” focusing on helping “families and family-specific difficulties, such as the accessibility of transportation to families with young children, and give preference to communities with marriage and birth rates higher than the national average [emphasis added].”

This is a profoundly wise federal policy development that Focus on the Family strongly supports.

Communities with higher than average marriage and birth rates are clearly some of the strongest communities in our nation because they are more likely to capitalize on the protective and life-enhancing benefits of marriage. Decades of university-based social science and medical research consistently demonstrate that children benefit in every important measure of well-being when they are born to and raised by their own married mother and father.

Growing, healthy, thriving children are the future of our nation.

For any country to grow, its citizens must have enough babies to boost that nation over basic replacement level of 2.1 children per family. The U.S. has fallen under this important marker, to 1.7 births per woman.

Economists demonstrate this decline has been particularly dramatic in the last two decades.

Simply put, America cannot sustain itself with this level of natality without aggressively importing citizens from other nations. The world has already passed what demographers call “peak child” – a truly ominous milestone where fewer and fewer babies will be born each and every year.

So this is extremely wise national policy incentivizing marriage and married fertility. The Institute for Family Studies has explained, in great detail, many of the compelling reasons why such policies like the DOT’s will benefit families and the nation.

Brad Wilcox of the University of Virginia, one of the world’s leading sociologists of marriage and family, explains, “Secretary Duffy’s move … is a very big deal.”

He notes “we don’t typically think of DOT spending as family policy, but it is.” This is because,

DOT transportation spending has often been directed toward large, urban transportation projects that end up favoring denser and more urban communities. From a family-friendly perspective, the problem is that such denser development is associated with lower family formation — less marriage and fewer children.

Professor Wilcox adds,

Insofar as Duffy’s policy prioritizes communities with higher marriage and birth rates, it is likely to reorient transportation dollars to lower-density communities where there are more single-family homes, family life is often more affordable, and family formation is higher.

The Secretary’s order also states that “DOT shall ensure comprehensive public engagement … with families” and other vital community stakeholders. This is more productive than attacking and becoming suspicious of concerned parents as we saw in the previous Presidential administration.


Let us hope that more heads of federal departments follow Secretary Duffy’s wise and bold approach to make it easier for married mother and fathers to build and maintain every nation’s greatest resource: families.

Image from Getty.

President Trump: ‘Without Faith in God, There Would Be No American Story’

President Donald J. Trump participated in two separate prayer breakfast events in Washington, D.C., on Thursday – one at the Capitol and a second one at the Washington Hilton.

“We have to bring religion back,” the President told those gathered on Capitol Hill. “We have to bring it back much stronger. It’s one of the biggest problems that we’ve had over the last fairly long period of time. We have to bring it back.”

As one means to do so, the 47th chief executive announced plans to establish a presidential commission on religious liberty.

Trump also told those gathered that new Attorney General Pam Bondi will be overseeing a task force designed to “eradicate anti-Christian bias” and weed out or prevent “all forms of anti-Christian targeting and discrimination within the federal government.”

President Trump pledged:

“While I’m in the White House, we will protect Christians in our schools, in our military, in our government, in our workplaces, hospitals and in our public squares,” he said. “And we will bring our country back together as one nation under God.”

In the opening minutes of his address on Capitol Hill, Trump, speaking softly and slowly, referenced the harrowing Saturday back in July of 2024 when he narrowly escaped the would-be assassin’s bullet.

“It changed something in me,” he said. “I feel even stronger. I believed in God, but I feel, I feel much more strongly about it. Something happened.”

During his remarks, Trump referenced the various giants of the Christian faith who are memorialized in stone and statue not far from where he was speaking in the Capitol.

John Winthrop, who served twelve terms as governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, was a devout Puritan and worked tirelessly to cast a vision for a culture and country that held high Jesus Christ.

Ronald Reagan, whose birthday was February 6, often quoted Winthrop when declaring America was “a shining city on a hill.” That phrase came from the Puritan’s famous message, “A Model of Christian Charity.”

“We must delight in each other, make others’ conditions our own, rejoice together, mourn together, labor, and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in the work, our community as members of the same body,” urged Winthrop. “So shall we keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.”

President Trump also mentioned the statue of Roger Williams, another Puritan, who is credited with founding the state of Rhode Island.

“How frequent, how constant ought we to be, like Christ Jesus our example, in doing good,” urged Williams. “Especially to the souls of men and especially to the household of faith (yea, even to our enemies), when we remember that this is our seed time, of which every minute is precious, and that as our sowing is, so shall be our eternal harvest.

President Trump rightly observed, “Without faith in God, there would be no American Story.”

Over the years, the National Prayer Breakfast has been a bipartisan gathering, though not always without some metaphorical fireworks.

Many of a certain age will never forget a stooped Mother Teresa addressing those gathered inside the Capitol, including President Clinton. It was February 3, 1994. The diminutive nun boldly and courageously raised the subject of abortion.

“I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child, a direct killing of the innocent child, murder by the mother herself,” she said. “And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another? How do we persuade a woman not to have an abortion?”

Mother Teresa was right.

Timothy Goeglein, Focus on the Family’s Vice President of External Relations who heads up the ministry’s Washington, D.C. office, has attended nearly every prayer breakfast over the last three decades, including this year’s gathering.

“The encouraging and heartening narrative of this year’s National Prayer Breakfast was a rededication to our fundamental religious liberty and conscience rights,” Goeglein reflected. “Over and again, religious freedom as foundational to our constitutional republic was being discussed by this year’s attendees, and after the regular breakfast, there were a number of breakout sessions and forums where religious liberty was being discussed and celebrated yet again.”

Goeglein concluded, “What a good thing, and what a refreshing subtext to this year’s gathering where there were 2500 of us praying for our nation, for our leaders, and for the next chapter of the American experience.”

Image from Getty.

RFK Jr: ‘Sometimes Love means saying No’

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., President Donald J. Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services, was back before members of the Senate yesterday to make his case to be head of the critical government department.

In an exchange with Senator Josh Hawley, Kennedy expressed his opposition to sexually confused minors being allowed to mutilate their bodies.

“We don’t let children drink,” he told the Missouri lawmaker. “We don’t let them drive an automobile. Because they have bad judgment. They are flooded with hormones. Their brains are still in formation. Their sexuality is still in formation. To allow them to make judgements about, that are going to have life-changing, forever implications for the rest of their life at that age are unconscionable.” 

Inexplicably, the American Medical Association has supported the destructive policy of permitting children to maim their bodies. They claim doing so will help reduce the risk of suicide.

Dr. Jay Greene, senior research fellow at Heritage’s Center for Education Policy, suggests fair research demonstrates the exact opposite.

“Increasing minors’ access to cross-sex interventions is associated with a significant increase in the adolescent suicide rate,” writes Dr. Greene. “Rather than facilitating access by minors to these medical interventions without parental consent, states should be pursuing policies that strengthen parental involvement in these important decisions with life-long implications for their children.”

Predictably, Dr. Greene’s research elicited a firestorm of opposition from radical academics and activists committed to the popular narrative claiming puberty-blockers and cross-sex hormone treatments are necessary to preserve the mental and physical health of sexually confused children.

Referring to the rule issued by the Biden administration calling for youth treatments, Kennedy said:

“That rule is anti-science. Even more, just from a common sense – if you’re a patient, do you really want somebody performing surgery on you who is morally opposed to that surgery? It doesn’t make any sense.”

Robert F. Kennedy’s nomination has drawn intense interest from a broad spectrum of watchers. Although originally seeking the Democrat nomination for president, the son of the slain United States Attorney General endorsed President Trump in the closing days of the campaign.

At Thursday’s hearing on Capitol Hill, Kennedy made clear he believes every child, especially those who are sexually confused, should be shown dignity and respect.

“They should be loved,” Kennedy said. “Sometimes love means saying no to people.”

For time immemorial, mothers and fathers have followed this fundamental principle. Only fools enable destructive behavior, which is precisely what it is when a child is allowed to mutilate their own body.

This is why Focus on the Family’s Jim Daly strongly supports President Trump’s executive order protecting children from so-called transgender medical interventions:

President Trump’s executive order blocking the mutilation of children is a compassionate and common sense response to the reckless and destructive social reengineering experiments of recent years.

Studies have shown that upwards of 90% of young people who express sexual confusion will eventually self-correct and re-embrace their biological sex. 

It’s our obligation as adults to protect our nation’s children, especially those who are vulnerable and often silently crying out for help. It’s unconscionable to exploit them for political gain. Instead, we’re called to nurture, defend and provide them with strong and wise counsel.

Critics of President Trump are claiming this withholds ‘care’ but the exact opposite is happening. To enable and allow physicians to maim young bodies is the ultimate act of heartless carelessness. 

While we grieve the necessity of this order, we applaud its implementation. We call upon our Christian brothers and sisters to pray for those suffering from such fundamental and foundational confusion. And may our leaders continue to demonstrate courage and resolve in the face of strong opposition.

Robert F. Kennedy’s testimony before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee wrapped up two days of questioning. A vote on the nominee is expected sometime next week.  

Trump Ends Radical Indoctrination, Promotes Education Freedom

President Donald J. Trump signed two significant education-related executive orders on January 29. The first aims to increase educational freedom for families, while the second is designed to stop the indoctrination of children into “radical, anti-American ideologies while deliberately blocking parental oversight.”

The Executive Order Expanding Educational Freedom and Opportunity for Families directs the Department of Education to “issue guidance regarding how States can use Federal formula funds to support K-12 educational choice initiatives,” and it directs the DOE to prioritize education freedom “in discretionary grant programs.”

The directive explains the need for greater freedom for parents to improve their children’s academic success and provide “the best education for their children”:  

Too many children do not thrive in their assigned, government-run K-12 school.

According to this year’s National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 70 percent of 8th graders were below proficient in reading, and 72 percent were below proficient in math.

When only 30% of students are mastering basic subjects like reading and math, something is desperately wrong.

The order goes on to state that when schools fail to educate students, “It hinders our national competitiveness and devastates families and communities.”

The executive order provides more momentum for the growing educational freedom movement. The goals of this movement include giving teachers and schools freedom to innovate, encouraging school transparency, holding schools accountable for educational outcomes, safeguarding parental rights in education, and expanding school choice.

School choice is a vital aspect of educational freedom, offering parents a variety of options for how and where to educate their children. Options include traditional public schools, magnet schools, homeschooling opportunities, charter schools, online learning, private schools and hybrid models, which combine several alternatives.

States that support parents’ rights in education provide funding for these choices through different means, such as scholarships, vouchers, educational savings accounts, tax credits and tax deductions. The best option for parents is when states allow funds to follow students to their schooling choice.

While the federal government doesn’t control state legislatures or boards of education, which set policies, regulations and guidelines in each state, it does provide education dollars to states through a variety of programs. States can’t be forced to increase educational freedom, but the order offers incentives to improve educational freedom through funding from different federal departments.

The second order, Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling, first explains some of the activist ideologies that have swept across our educational system and why they are damaging. The order states that parents entrust their children to schools to provide them “with a rigorous education and to instill a patriotic admiration for our incredible Nation and the values for which we stand.”

Instead, the directive explains, “Parents have witnessed schools indoctrinate their children in radical, anti-American ideologies while deliberately blocking parental oversight. Such an environment operates as an echo chamber, in which students are forced to accept these ideologies without question or critical examination.”

The order indicts false, immoral and divisive ideologies like critical race theory and gender ideology, explaining their effect on students:

In many cases, innocent children are compelled to adopt identities as either victims or oppressors solely based on their skin color and other immutable characteristics. In other instances, young men and women are made to question whether they were born in the wrong body and whether to view their parents and their reality as enemies to be blamed.

These practices not only erode critical thinking but also sow division, confusion, and distrust, which undermine the very foundations of personal identity and family unity.

The order goes on to direct several agencies to collaborate with the attorney general to develop a strategy to end “federal funding or support for illegal and discriminatory treatment and indoctrination in K-12 schools.”   

In addition, federal agencies must monitor schools that receive federal monies, ensuring that they hold an annual educational program, teach students about the U.S. Constitution on September 17, Constitution Day.

Finally, the executive order reestablishes the President’s Advisory 1776 Commission, which Trump launched in September 2020, appointing Hillsdale College President Dr. Larry P. Arnn to serve as chairman.

One goal for the revived commission is to promote patriotic education, while a second is “to advise and promote the work of the White House Task Force on Celebrating America’s 250th Birthday (“Task Force 250”) and the United States Semiquincentennial Commission.”

Related articles and resources:

Focus on the Family’s free parenting resource Equipping Parents for Back to School explains issues like educational freedom, parental rights in education, and religious freedom and free speech in schools. It’s a terrific resource for parents who want to advocate for their children and guide them toward academic success.

Department of Education Blew $1 Billion on DEI – Here’s Why It Matters

Focus on the Family: Putting Children First in Education

Focus on the Family Parenting: Thriving Student

Is ‘Critical Race Theory’ Being Taught in Public Schools? CRT Deniers Claim it Isn’t

Is it ‘Book Banning’ to Keep Sexually Explicit Books out of Schools?

Lawmakers Introduce Bill to Protect Parental Rights: ‘Parents Know Their Children Best’

Monique Duson: Responding to Critical Race Theory with Grace and Truth

The National Education Association Wants to Indoctrinate Children Across the Country

President Trump Ends Radical DEI Programs, Fires All DEI Personnel

President Trump Signs Order Protecting Children From Transgender Medical Interventions

Students’ Test Scores Tank After School Consults ‘Woke Kindergarten’

Trump’s Promise to Shutter Dept of Education Could End Woke Agenda in Schools

What’s Happening in Schools? Why We Need Educational Freedom

Image from Getty.

Trump Signs Executive Order Limiting Taxpayer Funds for Abortion

Shortly after addressing last Friday’s March for Life via video, President Donald J. Trump signed  an executive order enforcing the Hyde Amendment and a presidential memorandum reinstating the Mexico City Policy, both of which limit taxpayer funding for abortion.

The Hyde Amendment was passed in 1976, forbidding any federal funding for abortion. It was later amended to include exceptions to save the life of the mother and to allow for cases of incest and rape.

The Mexico City policy prohibits funds from federal departments going to organizations or programs that perform or promote abortions. The policy was first enacted by in 1984 by President Ronald Reagan.

In his video address last Friday, the President thanked marchers “for turning out once again to show your extraordinary love and compassion for the unborn.”

He added, “To all of the very special people marching today in this bitter cold, I know your hearts are warm and your spirits are strong because your mission is just very, very pure: to forge a society that welcomes and protects every child as a beautiful gift from the hand of our Creator.”

The executive order Enforcing the Hyde Amendment states, “For nearly five decades, the Congress has annually enacted the Hyde Amendment and similar laws that prevent Federal funding of elective abortion, reflecting a longstanding consensus that American taxpayers should not be forced to pay for that practice.”

It explains that the previous administration “disregarded this established, commonsense policy by embedding forced taxpayer funding of elective abortions in a wide variety of Federal programs.” The order revoked Biden administration executive orders that violated the Hyde Amendment.

Then, the executive order says, “It is the policy of the United States, consistent with the Hyde Amendment, to end the forced use of Federal taxpayer dollars to fund or promote elective abortion.”

The executive memorandum reinstating the Mexico City policy states:

I direct the Secretary of State, in coordination with the Secretary of Health and Human Services, to the extent allowable by law, to implement a plan to extend the requirements of the reinstated Memorandum to global health assistance furnished by all departments or agencies.

I further direct the Secretary of State to take all necessary actions, to the extent permitted by law, to ensure that U.S. taxpayer dollars do not fund organizations or programs that support or participate in the management of a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization.

A White House fact sheet about the executive order and the memorandum explained the significance of these two policies, saying, “Federal overreach and taxpayer dollars will no longer force violations of faith and conscience or impede the ability of states to determine life policies through a vote of the people.”

Pro-life groups praised the president’s actions. Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Erin Hawley said in a press release:

Every innocent life deserves to be protected. Ensuring that taxpayer dollars don’t pay for abortions has saved lives, and it’s a policy that continues to receive bipartisan support from a majority of Americans. Government-compelled participation in abortion has no place in our country. American taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to fund abortions or to export and promote them abroad.

Religious freedom legal advocacy group Liberty Counsel also applauded the actions. Founder and Chairman Matt Staver stated, “Through these pro-life executive actions, President Trump is protecting the most vulnerable and returning the federal government to the side of pro-life.”

Every child is made in God’s image and precious. The Daily Citizen is grateful that federal funds will no longer be used to pay for abortions at home or abroad.

Related articles and resources:

House Passes Born-Alive Bill to Protect Babies Who Survive Abortions  

New Poll: 67% of Americans Support Limits on Abortion

Thank you, Jeanne Mancini

Trump, Vance, Other Republican Leaders All Speak at March for Life

VP Vance Addresses March for Life: ‘Every Child is a Gift From God’ WATCH: Teens Sing Hymn to Babies Lost From Abortion at Illinois State Capitol

Image from Shutterstock.