President Donald Trump’s second-term agenda is a bold roadmap for American renewal, aggressively implementing conservative ideas to drive economic growth and energy self-sufficiency. It’s squarely focused on delivering for what Trump terms the "forgotten Americans" — the working men and women whose interests have long been ignored by elites from both political parties. This agenda is exactly what Trump ran on last year. Yet today, a group of Democrat trial lawyers are trying to short-circuit Trump on issue after issue — working to achieve through lawfare what they failed to at the ballot box.

TRUMP FACES MULTIPLE LEGAL SETBACKS AS FEDERAL COURTS QUESTION BROAD PRESIDENTIAL POWERS

Weaponizing the law against political opponents — known as lawfare — is most commonly associated with the actions of the FBI against President Trump during the Obama and Biden years. We now see this playbook being used by activist attorneys to systematically block key elements of the Trump agenda from being enacted – all while collecting big legal fees.

Most recently, lawfare has come for an executive order Trump signed in August that aims to democratize access to alternative assets in 401(k) plans. The EO aims to allow the 90 million-plus everyday Americans who save for retirement through traditional 401(k) plans to invest in assets typically reserved for the wealthy and well-connected - namely, private equity and cryptocurrencies. These investments have regularly outperformed the public stock market and help diversify investors’ portfolios, which many believe are too heavily exposed to the "Magnificent 7" Big Tech stocks. This is why major investors like large state pension funds tend to hold around one-third of their assets in private market investments.

The order directs the Department of Labor (DOL) to reexamine fiduciary duties under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and propose rules that could include a legal safe harbor for plan sponsors choosing to include high-quality alternative investment options. A few days later, the DOL rescinded Biden-era language that had discouraged such options, opening the door for American savers to these asset classes, which are typically limited to so-called "accredited investors," with high income and net worth.

Yet trial lawyers are already plotting lawsuits to cancel this reform before it can start, and aim to win a big payday in doing so. As a prominent plaintiffs’ lawyer stated recently to Bloomberg Law: "I would joke and say that I hope employers add alternative investments, because I have some kids I need to put through college." Indeed, unless the Trump administration insists on strong rulemaking and clear safe harbor in place, these lawyers plan to use the court system to extract multimillion dollar settlements that benefit themselves, while denying average Americans the wealth-building tools that have long been reserved for the elite.

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On energy, President Trump made a decisive move with his executive order unleashing American energy, encouraging exploration on federal lands, eliminating burdensome electric vehicle mandates, revoking outdated climate-related directives, and streamlining permitting processes. Yet, environmental trial lawyers have mounted a fierce counteroffensive, using lawfare to hold up these vital changes, resulting in delays that keep energy prices higher, stifle job growth in America’s heartland, and prolong reliance on America’s adversaries for energy resources.  

The pattern continues with Trump’s drive for a smaller, more efficient federal workforce. In March, he signed an executive order to address workforce efficiency, instructing agencies to terminate collective bargaining agreements - some of which were signed in the final days of the Biden Administration to hamstring President Trump. Labor union lawyers have deployed lawfare to preserve the entrenched system and challenge the order in multiple federal courts, securing court stays. Their efforts delay essential efficiencies, perpetuating a bloated federal workforce that drains taxpayer dollars and slows government responsiveness.

This well-coordinated effort shows the threat to Trump’s agenda from those trying using the courts to override the will of the American voter. These trial lawyers, motivated by both ideology and profit, seek to accomplish through the courts what they couldn’t in the 2024 election: Stop Trump at any cost. Our movement’s challenge is to fight back, reclaiming policy-making from the courts and restore it to the people’s representatives.

In the aftermath of conservative activist Charlie Kirk's assassination, a debate about political rhetoric and its impact on recent spates of political violence has taken hold on Capitol Hill and across the country. 

While both Republicans and Democrats have condemned political violence of all kinds, their views vary on how much inflammatory political rhetoric plays a role. Some Republicans have accused the left's rhetoric of fostering an "assassination culture" on the left, while Democrats have accused Republicans of attacks on free speech. 

One member of Congress, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., attempted to steer the conversation towards gun control as opposed to rhetoric as the cause for the increase in political violence.

"This isn't just about what happened to Charlie Kirk. At the same time his tragic killing was happening, three kids were getting shot in school, and that was one or two weeks after another couple of kids were getting shot, in church, at mass, at a Catholic school," Ocasio-Cortez said. 

EXPERTS WARN LEFTIST CELEBRATIONS OF CHARLIE KIRK'S DEATH SIGNAL A DANGEROUS MAINSTREAM SHIFT IN POLITICS

But GOP firebrand Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., did not mince words about those who continue to foment hatred for conservatives with inflammatory rhetoric.

"We need to shame these people out of polite society, shame them out of existence. They need to be fired from their jobs. They are putting lives in danger," Mace said. "They are denying that they're celebrating the political assassination and murder of Charlie Kirk, but they're liars. They're lying through their teeth."

Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have called on others to "turn down the heat" in the wake of Kirk's assassination. Americans from all walks of life have been facing repercussions over their decision to mock, or praise, Kirk's death, including K-12 education officials, college professors, healthcare professionals, political pundits, writers and a list of other professionals from various sectors and major companies, such as the law firm Perkins Coie, the company behind the New York Stock Exchange, NASDAQ, and Office Depot, among others.

FOLLOWING KIRK’S ASSASSINATION, LAWMAKERS REACT TO LETHAL POLITICAL CLIMATE: 'VIOLENT WORDS PRECEDE VIOLENT ACTIONS'

Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., said that everyone should have "the right to speak freely, otherwise America's democratic tradition could be threatened. 

"Look, there's a limit to what Congress can do, because, you know, we have the First Amendment, which protects all forms of speech, including hate speech, but we should have a culture of condemning any rhetoric that glorifies violence. I see violence as the downfall of American democracy," Torres said. "We all should have the right to speak freely, to think freely, without fear of harassment or intimidation or violence. And once we lose the ability to speak freely in the public square then democracy as we know it has come to an end."

Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., suggested possible remedies Congress could take to help reduce inflammatory rhetoric and its potential impact on violence. 

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"You have to look at the role that social media companies play in allowing violent rhetoric to be on their sites. And what more can we do so that law enforcement can see these attacks sooner?" Swalwell asked. "I wait, and stand ready to learn, where there are signs that were missed by law enforcement. Because if that's the case, we have to do better, because the temperature is only increasing."