From the right: Trump Delivered for Los Angeles

Democrats warned that “President Trump would punish California rather than help it recover” from the devastating Los Angles fires”; instead, notes the Los Angeles Times’ Scott Jennings, Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency spearheaded a “record-breaking cleanup.” The LA cleanup took 28 days, vs. 112 days for Maui after the 2023 fire. Contra Democrats’ doomsaying, “the Trump administration is showing extreme governing competence: and “and no signs at all of punishing a deeply blue state.” This cleanup “was a massive test for Trump, and he passed it with flying colors.”

Conservative: How Dems Can Win Again

“The future of the Democrats is uncertain,” as progressives battle moderates, but “it’s important that the Democrats get their house in order, as the MAGA movement may be more short-lived than many anticipate,” argues Spiked’s Joel Kotkin. The main hurdle: “Many Democrats still foolishly see their often hysterical resistance to Trump — and the populist policies that got him elected — as the ticket to a political comeback.” Yet “Ultra-woke policies and disruptive protest tactics will not make for a popular alternative to Trumpism.” Happily, “parts of the Democratic coalition seem to be moving away from progressive politics” on issues like crime and identity. “As the GOP becomes more vulnerable, Democratic messaging must move away from race and climate, and instead focus on issues like inflation, rising crime, poor schools” and ending “draconian green policies.”

Libertarian: Hey, DOGE — Cut Corporate Welfare

While “DOGE is off to a respectable start,” oberves Reason’s JD Tuccille, “there’s a lot more wasteful and damaging spending that could benefit from a dose of chainsaw.” Namely, corporate welfare: composed of countless grants, subsidies and tax breaks that total “$181 billion a year” in outlays. “A functioning, healthy economy is one in which businesses compete to be the best at providing what customers want at competitive prices.” But now “the government shovels money in the direction of favored businesses to reward friends and to mold the economy into a shape desired by whoever currently holds power in government.” Biden showered Intel and renewable energy companies with billions; time will tell which corporations get similar treatment under the aegis of Trump-Musk. Yet real businesses “don’t need taxpayer money to do well — such money only distorts the market, breeds corruption, and politicizes the economy.”

From the left: Carl & Dolly’s Private Love

“In the age of the Power Couple, there’s something deeply moving” about Carl Dean, Dolly Parton’s husband, “choosing to live in obscurity” until his death this week, muses The Free Press’ Batya Ungar-Sargon. “Everywhere we look, we’re taught to want a partner who shares not only our values but our goals, our aspirations — for fame and fortune and power.” But Dean “continued to run his asphalt-paving business as his wife became the most well-known country music star in the world . . . and was so reclusive that people began to speculate that Parton had made him up.” In short, “Parton and Dean shared something deeply private, which remained so for 60 years.” “We should all be so lucky to find someone whose interests and success aren’t commodifiable to us, like Carl Dean did.”

Legal beat: KO’ing the Administrative State

City Journal’s Ilya Shapiro expects the Supreme Court to eventually uphold “the president’s ability to remove principal officers of so-called independent agencies, which themselves are a contradiction in constitutional terms.” For 15 years, the court’s been “refusing to let Congress restrict the president’s personnel power,” leaning ever more toward Justice Antonin Scalia’s view in a 1988 dissent “that the presidential removal power was essential to checking government abuses and ensuring political accountability.” Simply put: Since “the Constitution vests the president, alone, with executive power, it is the president, alone, who wields power over all executive agencies” — including the power to fire.

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board