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Victor Davis Hanson: What We Were Told About January 6 Doesn’t Add Up As the fifth anniversary of January 6 approaches, the Left’s carefully constructed narrative is starting to crack. On today’s episode of "Victor Davis Hanson: In a Few Words," Hanson explains how branding January 6 an “insurrection” drove impeachment efforts, investigations, and years of specifically framed media coverage. He also examines the arrest and confession of Brian Cole Jr., the alleged January 6 pipe bomber, and why the delayed investigation and lingering questions surrounding his background cast doubt on many of the conclusions Americans were first told to...

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice posted a statement from Hoover Institution Senior Fellow Victor Davis Hanson on Sunday revealing Hanson had a cancerous tumor removed after an operation. Hanson told the audience of his podcast, “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words,” on Dec. 26 that he would be having an operation to address a “serious” medical condition that doctors could not at the time diagnose. Rice posted a statement from Hanson on X in which he said he was “hopeful” after the procedure. “Please find an update from my dear friend and colleague, Hoover Institution Senior Fellow Victor...

Artificial intelligence is being used to steal voices, faces, and reputations. Victor Davis Hanson knows this firsthand. Hanson explains the growing problem of AI-generated deepfake videos that falsely use his image, voice, and setting to promote ideas he has never expressed and often strongly disagrees with.

A warning from Victor Davis Hanson warning from Victor Davis Hanson: somebody has been producing and posting elaborate and well-made AI-generated videos purporting to originate from Prof. Hanson himself. They have been posted on both YouTube and X, and perhaps elsewhere. They’re very convincing at first glance, and appear to have been filmed in the same book-lined setting that VDH uses for his Daily Signal videos. (I actually watched one of these last week, and a minute or two passed before I was certain that this was not Victor David Hanson.) The producers of the videos are as yet unknown....

Hoover Institution senior fellow Victor Davis Hanson announced Friday that he was undergoing a major medical operation after discovering a “serious” health issue. Hanson made the announcement on his show, “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words,” and stated that he was presented with a “serious problem” that was difficult to diagnose. He will undergo surgery on Tuesday and take a break from hosting his show during his recovery. “I’m having a major operation, and I’ve got a major problem and I’m gonna have a major effort to solve it and that’s all I can do,” Hanson said. “And I...

Ping! Out to the Victor Davis Hanson list FR Index of his articles: Victor Davis Hanson on FRTown Hall: Victor Davis Hanson on Town HallAmerican Greatness: Victor Davis Hanson on American GreatnessHis website: Victor Davis Hanson The Sword of PerseusOne of his sponsors' website: The Daily SignalPlease let me know if you want on or off this new VDH ping list. As a reminder, Professor Hanson has asked that we do not post the full article of his writings. Thank you for following the link to finish his article.Content created by the Center for American Greatness, Inc. is available without...

Not all “civil” behavior is harmless. Some actions, cloaked in sophistication or authority, can be far more destructive than overtly crude ones. From Donald Trump’s press interactions to the actions of journalists, university leaders, and political officials, Victor Davis Hanson distinguishes between crass and refined crudity—showing how the latter misleads the public under the guise of authority or expertise—on today’s episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In a Few Words.”

Clinton won in 1992 by selling a recession that was already over; the lesson for 2026 is simple—ignore real economic gains, and a fake downturn can still decide an election. As the 1992 campaign approached, incumbent president George H.W. Bush was seen as a shoo-in for reelection. The First Gulf War ended in 1991 with a spectacular U.S. victory at the head of a coalition that had expelled Saddam Hussein from Kuwait with few losses. For much of 1991, Bush’s approval ratings hovered between 90 and 70 percent. By February 1992, an obscure Arkansas governor, Bill Clinton, emerged as the...

As leaders equivocate and extremists unite left and right, open season on Jews spreads across the West—unchecked, unnamed, and certain to grow deadlier. Jews celebrating Hanukkah were just slaughtered by Muslim gunmen on an Australian beach, in an imitation of the October 7 massacres. At Brown University, two students were killed and nine wounded by an allegedly Muslim shooter. An inert Europe is canceling Christmas celebrations out of fear of threats of violence from Muslim minorities. In the West, when an Islamist shoots a Jew, politicians often offer two bizarre remedies: gun control or a task force to tackle Islamophobia....

People living in “an Islamic country” must “at least have to profess [they’re a] devout Muslim.” Those living in “the United States or a Western Europe,” however, can believe and do whatever they want. Hanson breaks down the difference between “a Judeo-Christian country” and “an Islamic country” where it’s “almost impossible” to be “an apostate, an atheist, [or an] agnostic” in those countries, on today’s episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words.”

History suggests civilizations fall when complacency, debt, and tribalism replace unity, discipline, and reform—prompting fears the West may be nearing a familiar decline. Western civilization arose in the 8th century B.C. Greece. Some 1,500 city-states emerged from a murky, illiterate 400-year-old Dark Age. That chaos followed the utter collapse of the palatial culture of Mycenaean Greece. But what reemerged were constitutional government, rationalism, liberty, freedom of expression, self-critique, and free markets—what we know now as the foundation of a unique Western civilization. The Roman Republic inherited and enhanced the Greek model. For a millennium, the Republic and subsequent Empire spread...

The criticisms against Sec. of War Pete Hegseth are “entirely political,” and anyone could have said the same things about “the Obama and Biden administration—and much more egregiously.” Hegseth has turned the U.S. military around in ways no one thought was possible, like getting the military back to meeting all of its recruiting quotas, explains Hanson during today’s episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In a Few Words.” Recruitment under the Biden administration fell “some 40 to 50,000 recruits,” and former Sec. of Defense Lloyd Austin’s Pentagon used excuses like “people are out of shape, in gangs, using drugs, etc.”

The recent Democratic cry of “affordability” is ironic in many ways. The left-wing narrative of Trump hyperinflation was one of desperation and came only after previous memes had failed to resonate. The 2025 generic “dictator,” “fascist,” and “Nazi” smear points never helped the left much. Nor did the nihilist government shutdown over the “Obamacare crisis” work other than perhaps to depress fourth-quarter GDP. Nor did the earlier spring 2025 melodramatic predictions of an impending “Trade War,” “Recession,” and stock-market “Meltdown resonate.” Nor did the “Gestapo,” “SS,” and “Nazi” ICE smears become effective talking points. The “illegal orders” and “unconstitutional use...

America warns Europe that only one of them is truly fighting to reverse the West’s decline—and the clock is running out for the other to follow suit. Nothing bothers the European elite as much as American conservatives praising the European foundations of their shared, but threatened, Western civilization. Europeans especially resent having their social-welfare state system critiqued by upstart, crass Americans. Their pique only increases as they push back against the condescending American idea that the U.S. could possibly offer any constructive advice, much less help a more civilized Europe follow the “American model.” Americans, in turn, are worried that...

A border abandoned and laws ignored have turned public frustration into a sweeping backlash that now threatens even legal immigration. It is hard now even for Democrats to defend illegal immigration, given that the Biden administration allowed in more than 10 million entrants. Among them were an estimated 500,000 criminals. No one believes that was wise or should ever be repeated. Worse, the message went out that there would be few, if any, deportations and no real ICE kinetic activity beyond the border. The world’s poor, sick, both law-abiding and criminal, young and old, understood that anyone could now enter...

Putin gambled on Western hesitation, and now a war born of miscalculation grinds on because neither Moscow nor NATO is willing—or able—to force a decisive end. Why did the war in Ukraine start in 2021?As in 2008 and 2012, but unlike 2017 to 2021, Vladimir Putin sensed an American president would not or could not deter him, so he invaded a former Soviet republic. Under past presidents, Putin saw no downside to grabbing Ossetia, the Donbas, and Crimea. Putin was also led to believe the West or Joe Biden would not challenge him following the recent humiliating U.S. withdrawal from...

Why does America support Israel? The answer isn’t rooted in theology or special-interest politics but is grounded in strategic national interest. Victor Davis Hanson explains how Israel’s status as the Middle East’s only stable democracy, its alignment with U.S. security priorities, and its role in countering Iran’s decades-long campaign of terror against Americans make it an essential ally on today’s episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In a Few Words." “ There's only one government that is truly a free democratic government, and that's Israel. So, it has affinities with the United States and interest with the United States that transcends...

A generation sidelined by debt, ideology, and stalled adulthood is drifting—but it won’t stay lost if society restores real opportunity, accountability, and purpose. TA generation sidelined by debt, ideology, and stalled adulthood is drifting—but it won’t stay lost if society restores real opportunity, accountability, and purpose. Zoomers rarely date, supposedly out of fear that they would have to grow up, take charge, and head a household. Yet the opposite, sympathetic generalization of Gen Z seems more accurate. All through K-12, young men, particularly white males, have been demonized for their “toxic masculinity” that draws accusations of sexism, racism, and homophobia....

A generation sidelined by debt, ideology, and stalled adulthood is drifting—but it won’t stay lost if society restores real opportunity, accountability, and purpose. The current generation “Z”—those now roughly between 13 and 28 years old—is becoming our 21st-century version of the “Lost Generation.” Members of Gen Z are often nicknamed “Zoomers,” a term used to describe young adults who came of age in the era of smartphones, social media, and rapid cultural upheaval. Males in their teens and twenties are prolonging their adolescence—rarely marrying, not buying a home, not having children, and often not working full-time. The negative stereotype of...

Democrats now celebrate the very nullificationist tactics they once decried, embracing a neo-Confederate defiance of federal authority to undermine a president they despise. Is Jeff Davis the Model?Who is the real, or fictional, inspiration for the new insurrectionary wing of the Democrat Party? The fictitious Hollywood insurrectionist, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, “James Mattoon Scott” (Burt Lancaster), who in the 1964 film Seven Days in May attempted to overthrow the presidency? Or perhaps Jefferson Davis? He ultimately ordered the attack by South Carolina state forces against the federal garrison at Fort Sumter, which ignited the Civil War. Or...