Lara Trump is praising California gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton in his Republican campaign to lead one of the country’s bluest states, saying the GOP shouldn’t give up on California.
“He wants desperately to fix things in this state,” Ms. Trump, former chair of the Republican National Committee, said this week of Mr. Hilton on her “The Right View” podcast.
Mr. Hilton aims to bring back to California people who left because of high taxes and costly regulations, said Ms. Trump, who is married to President Trump’s son Eric.
Born and raised in Great Britain, Mr. Hilton is an ex-Fox News host and former adviser to British Prime Minister David Cameron. He is running against Democrat Xavier Becerra, former health and human services secretary under President Joseph R. Biden.
“The No. 1 state where we raised the most money in all three elections — 2016, 2020 and 2024 — was California and the most Trump merchandise sold to the state of California,” Ms. Trump said. “There are a ton of people there that get it.”
She said California voters are awake now and Mr. Hilton is reminding people that the last Republican governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, was also an immigrant with an accent.
CJ Pearson pushes for ’good bullying’
Conservative influencer CJ Pearson, who has garnered more than a million followers across social media platforms, praised frat boys who have challenged pro-Hamas activists on college campuses since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
He said those frat guys, some of whom took down a Palestinian flag from a campus flagpole at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and protected the American flag in April 2024, were “good bullying” the antagonists.
“I think we should bring back bullying — maybe that is a hot take,” he told The Washington Times. “They were saying, ’No, we love this country.’”
“That is what we need more of,” he added.
Mr. Pearson, former co-chair of the Youth Advisory Council at the Republican National Committee, discussed Republican strategies ahead of the midterm elections. He says talking about Democrats’ desire to gender-transition children is a winning message to reach young voters — even young females who tend to vote for Democratic issues.
“At the end of the day, what we have to realize — and what we’ve kind of failed at for a while — is that we allowed the left to define us as the people who were out of touch and weird and not normal,” Mr. Pearson said. “It is not normal to think that a 6-year-old should be able to chop off his genitals, and I think we should make that case every single day.”
He said he wasn’t thinking about becoming a girl when he was 4, mocking parents who move to gender-transition their children at young ages.
“I probably had musings of being a fire truck when I was 4 years old, and my mother never took me in to get an oil change. God bless her for it,” he said.
Washington Times’ ’Threat Status’ draws hundreds to U.S. Navy Memorial
The Washington Times hosted more than 300 people Wednesday at a forum where military experts spoke about maritime power in the Indo-Pacific as competition with China intensifies.
The IndoPac 2026 forum explored shipbuilding, technology, AI and other innovations to bolster national security.
Current and retired officials from the Navy, the Senate and the Trump administration shared their takes on the increasing use of technology in the military.
White House Budget Director Russell Vought; Adm. Daryl Caudle, chief of naval operations; GOP Sens. Todd Young of Indiana and Deb Fischer of Nebraska; GOP Rep. Pat Harrigan of North Carolina; and leaders from think tanks spoke to more than 300 attendees packed into the U.S. Navy Memorial auditorium.
Backstage, some speakers chatted about ongoing wars — particularly Russia versus Ukraine. One former military official mentioned traveling in May to Ukraine, where he witnessed 3,500 bodies of Russian soldiers piled up and noted the smell.
The war, which started in February 2022, has resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths. According to the Council on Foreign Relations Global Conflict Tracker, roughly half a million Russian soldiers died and tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers were killed.
The former military official also said there’s “no quarter” in the Russia-Ukraine war, meaning those who surrender are shown no mercy.
President Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week at the Group of Seven summit, and reports surfaced soon after that Mr. Zelenskyy believes he has Mr. Trump’s support to act more boldly against Russia.
Correction: A previous version of this column incorrectly described C.J. Pearson’s involvement with the RNC. He is a former youth co-chair.
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