NationalWatch

The Trump administration is dramatically expanding a policy requiring some foreign travelers to post bonds of up to $15,000 before entering the United States.

The State Department on Tuesday added 25 countries to its visa bond list, nearly tripling the total shortly after adding seven more as part of the Trump administration’s moves to tighten immigration enforcement.

There are now 38 countries subject to the requirement, most of them in Africa with others in Latin America and Asia, a move that could make obtaining a U.S. visa unaffordable for many travelers.

The bond requirement for the latest additions, including Venezuela, will take effect Jan. 21.

TRUMP STATE DEPARTMENT ORDERS GLOBAL VISA CRACKDOWN UNDER REVIVED ‘PUBLIC CHARGE’ RULE

Travelers eligible for a B1/B2 visa from countries on the list must post a bond of $5,000, $10,000 or $15,000, with the amount set during the visa interview, according to a notice posted on the State Department’s website.

Paying the bond will not guarantee a visa’s approval, but the amount will be refunded should the visa be denied, or when a visa holder demonstrates compliance with the terms of the visa.

The expansion follows a pilot program launched by the State Department in August that requires certain visa applicants from countries with high overstay rates and deficient document security controls to post a bond.

HOMELAND SECURITY MOVES TOWARD SCRUTINIZING FOREIGN TOURISTS’ SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS BEFORE ENTRY

The Trump administration rolled out numerous immigration policy changes last year, impacting the way people travel, obtain visas and become citizens in the United States, with some measures scheduled to take effect in 2026.

The Trump administration requires citizens from all countries that require visas to sit for in-person interviews and disclose years of social media history, along with information about their families’ previous travel and living arrangements.

STATE DEPARTMENT YANKS VISAS FROM MEXICAN EXECUTIVES IN MIGRANT SMUGGLING CRACKDOWN

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) implemented a new rule on Dec. 26, 2025, expanding facial recognition for non-citizens entering and leaving the United States. 

President Donald Trump also recently announced the launch of the much-anticipated “Trump Gold Card,” an immigration initiative designed to provide a new, streamlined path to U.S. citizenship, which he has said could generate billions of dollars.

The new countries added to the visa bond requirement beginning Jan. 21 are Algeria, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Bangladesh, Benin, Burundi, Cape Verde, Cuba, Djibouti, Dominica, Fiji, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Nigeria, Senegal, Tajikistan, Togo, Tonga, Tuvalu, Uganda, Vanuatu, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.

Countries already on the list include Bhutan, Botswana, the Central African Republic, the Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Malawi, Mauritania, Namibia, São Tomé and Príncipe, Tanzania, Turkmenistan and Zambia.

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Fox News Digital has reached out to the State Department for comment.

Fox News Digital’s Greg Norman, Greg Wehner and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Vice President JD Vance shared a meme of congressional Democrats attending a candlelight vigil Tuesday marking the fifth anniversary of Jan. 6, reposting content that added sombreros to images of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., as they held candles on the steps of the U.S. Capitol.

Vance posted the image from his verified X account without commentary, showing Democratic leaders, including Schumer and Jeffries, prominently from a video clip below.

The original video clip was posted by the “End Wokeness” X account, which had the caption: “BREAKING: Congressional Dems just held a candlelit vigil to honor the 5th January 6th anniversary.”

The vigil itself featured remarks from Schumer and Jeffries, who described the ceremony as an effort to remember the events of the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol, and honor law enforcement officers and others who died in connection with the riot.

WHITE HOUSE TORCHES DEMOCRATS’ JAN 6 ‘GASLIGHTING’ CLAIMS IN ANNIVERSARY TAKEDOWN

“We are here today because we must never forget what happened on Jan. 6 five years ago,” Schumer said, adding that future generations should remember it. “The day democracy was placed at greater risk than it has been in a century, and more than a century.”

Schumer recalled being evacuated during the breach, saying he and others were “within 20 feet of those rioters of those insurrectionists” as they were moved to safety.

“On Jan. 6, our Capitol Police officers were heroes. Our DC police were heroes,” Schumer said. “…We will make sure that your sacrifices that day are never forgotten, nor will we ever, ever forget the lives of those we lost in the connection with the attack.”

Jeffries called Jan. 6 a “violent insurrection incited by Donald Trump to overturn the results of a free and fair election” and praised law enforcement who defended the Capitol.

“We owe these heroes an eternal debt of gratitude and will never forget their service and their sacrifice,” Jeffries said.

JD VANCE RESPONDS TO HAKEEM JEFFRIES’ CLAIM SOMBRERO MEME IS ‘RACIST’

Jeffries later asked attendees to observe a moment of silence “to remember those whose lives were lost as a result of the tragic and horrific events of Janu. 6, 2021.” 

Following the moment of silence, attendees sang “God Bless America,” with Schumer’s voice carrying above the group.

Vance did not reference the victims or the vigil’s remarks in his repost, instead sharing the altered image without commentary.

Some social media users who supported the repost framed it as criticism of what they described as political theater rather than an attack on the victims of Jan. 6.

“These people and their theater antics are so embarrassing,” one user wrote in response to the post. “I’d laugh more often at them were it not for the very real authoritarian danger they pose which hides in plain sight.”

Another commenter criticized Democratic leadership for focusing on symbolic gestures rather than governance, writing, “I wish they put the same effort into their states and cities.”

Democrat leaders have previously faced criticism from conservative commentators over what they described as performative displays during moments of national tension.

In 2020, several lawmakers, including then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., drew attention for kneeling while wearing traditional Ghanaian Kente cloth stoles during Capitol events following the death of George Floyd; actions that were praised by supporters and criticized by opponents as political theater.

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Variations of the sombrero meme targeting Jeffries have circulated online since the federal government shutdown last year amid criticism of Democratic leadership. The imagery has since reemerged periodically in online political satire.

Vance’s, Schumer’s and Jeffries’ offices did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

The Trump administration’s plans to revitalize the Venezuelan oil market puts the United States at an advantage over Canada and serves to weaken China, according to energy experts.  

Conservative politicians, including the leader of Canada’s conservative opposition party, are calling on Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to approve a new Pacific coast pipeline to help aid the country’s oil exports to overseas markets, amid fears that the United States’ involvement in Venezuela’s market will significantly impact the competitiveness of Canadian oil. Canadian lawmakers are concerned that increased oil exports from Venezuela to the United States, which is Canada’s largest oil purchaser, will displace oil from Canada, forcing the country to drop its prices in order to stay competitive. 

Meanwhile, experts have added that the U.S. involvement in Venezuela’s oil market will also serve to weaken China. 

“This is going to be bad for all petrostates, and Canada is basically a petrostate,” Energy and Environment Legal Institute’s Steve Milloy, a former fossil fuel industry lobbyist, told Fox News Digital. 

TRUMP TELLS SCARBOROUGH US WILL KEEP VENEZUELA OIL WHEN PRESSED ON IRAQ COMPARISONS

A “petrostate” is a term used to describe a nation whose government and economy heavily rely on revenue from oil and natural gas exports. 

“Canada, like all petrostates — Iran, all of OPEC, all those people — are going to be at our mercy,” Milloy added. 

The leader of Canada’s conservative opposition party, Pierre Poilievre, said in a letter to Carney Tuesday, that the country needs to “move millions of barrels a day to overseas markets” in order to reduce Canada’s “dependence” on the United States’ oil market. 

“Venezuela’s re-entry to American markets means time is running out,” Poilievre told Carney in his letter, arguing “our sovereignty depends” on buffering the Canadian oil markets from the United States’ influence amid its plans to go into Venezuela and overhaul its oil. 

“Recent events surrounding Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro emphasize the importance that we expedite the development of pipelines to diversify our oil export markets, including a new Indigenous co-owned bitumen pipeline to BC’s northwest coast to reach Asian markets,” Alberta Premier Danielle Smith also said Monday.

But, according to Carney, Canadian oil will remain “competitive,” citing its “clearly low risk” and “low cost” due to the country’s stable governance, Reuters reported Tuesday. “That makes Canadian oil competitive for the medium and long term,” Carney said. “We welcome the prospect of greater prosperity in Venezuela, but we also see the competitiveness of Canadian oil.”

3 KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM TRUMP’S PUSH TO PUT US OIL FIRMS BACK IN VENEZUELA

However, Milloy argued that if Canada is “forced to sell cheaper oil” it will significantly impact the country’s ability to generate revenue. But, Milloy also noted, it is also slightly “premature to say what’s going to happen just yet” as it will take time for the impact of the United States’ intervention in Venezuela’s oil market to take shape.

“There’s a lot yet to be worked out,” Milloy said.   

In addition to Canada, Milloy suggested that President Donald Trump’s decision to go into Venezuela and take over its oil market also helps the United States’ leverage over China.

“Another important factor is that a lot of Venezuelan oil went to China,” he pointed out. 

“China is basically oil poor, and that’s why China has been trying to electrify everything. They have a lot of nuclear power there, they’re running as much solar and wind as they can because they’re oil poor, they don’t have natural gas and and they need to insulate themselves when they do something stupid like invade Taiwan,” Milloy said. “If they’re dependent on oil and gas, the global market will just shut down. There will be an embargo, and they’ll be screwed. So they’re trying to electrify everything as much as possible — the trucks, the cars, just everything. And this is just another lever on China … They were buying their oil from Venezuela, probably at a cut-price, and that’s going to end. Trump said he would sell oil in China, but it’s not going to be a cut-price.”

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That sentiment was also echoed by U.S. Oil and Gas Association President Tim Stewart.

“Long term, what this does now, is it puts 40% of the entire production in the world under the U.S. security umbrella — that’s from Alberta to Argentina. And it completely resets the global geopolitical world in terms of the U.S.’s ability to project its interests across the world. We can do things internationally without having an immediate price spike in crude,” Stewart told Fox News. 

“Venezuela is the poster child for the Belt and Road Initiative. The numbers I saw with Venezuela now is about $20 billion to China over just the course of the last few years, and that’s largely backed by crude shipments,” Stewart continued. “What this says to China is ‘I’m sorry, but your failure to plan with good borrowing partners does not constitute our financial obligation.’ It also sends a message to China, ‘Hey get out of our hemisphere.’ …  (China) takes about 80% of Venezuela’s crude right now so it’s going to have a big impact on them.”      

President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that the interim authorities in Venezuela will be turning over between 30 and 50 million barrels of “high quality,” sanctioned oil to the U.S.

The move comes after U.S. forces on Saturday captured Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro and his wife, hauling them to New York City to face criminal drug charges.

Trump said the oil will be sold at market price, and he will control the proceeds to ensure it is “used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States!” 

The oil will be transported directly to unloading docks in the U.S. via storage ships, the president said.

TRUMP OUSTING OF MADURO DRAWS PARALLELS TO US RAID IN PANAMA – BUT THERE ARE SOME MAJOR CONTRASTS

Energy Secretary Chris Wright has been tasked with executing the plan, “immediately.”

Following strikes on the capital and Maduro’s subsequent capture, Trump said the U.S. will run Caracas, Venezuela, until a safe transition can occur, warning he was “ready to stage a second and much larger attack” on Caracas if needed.

In an interview with MS NOW host Joe Scarborough on Tuesday, Trump said the difference between the disaster in Iraq and the recent action in Venezuela was that former President George Bush “didn’t keep the oil.”

TRUMP EMBRACES US INTERVENTION IN VENEZUELA, OPENS DOOR TO BROADER LATIN AMERICA PUSH

“We’re going to keep the oil,” Scarborough said, quoting Trump. “We’re going to rebuild their broken-down oil facilities, and this time we’re going to keep the oil.”

Venezuela holds more than 300 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, nearly quadruple those of the U.S.

Though the country in the late 1990s was capable of pumping about 3.5 million barrels a day, mismanagement, corruption and the rising cost of extraction caused production to fall to roughly 800,000 barrels a day, according to energy analytics firm Kpler.

SWITZERLAND IMPOSES 4-YEAR ASSET FREEZE LINKED TO MADURO, ASSOCIATES FOLLOWING VENEZUELAN LEADER’S CAPTURE

Trump said he plans to mobilize major U.S. oil companies to invest billions in fixing Venezuela’s broken oil infrastructure.

“We are going to have our very large United States oil companies go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken oil infrastructure and start making money for the country,” Trump said.

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American firms have not yet confirmed plans to return to Venezuela.

Fox News Digital’s Amanda Macias contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday backed Republican challenger Tano Tijerina against Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, just weeks after pardoning the longtime Democrat in a corruption case Trump said was driven by Biden-era political retaliation.

Trump pardoned Cuellar in December after the Department of Justice, under the Biden administration, indicted him and his wife for allegedly taking roughly $600,000 in bribes from an Azerbaijan-owned energy company and a Mexican bank.

“Nobody knows Henry Cuellar better than Donald J. Trump,” Trump wrote in a fiery Truth Social post Tuesday afternoon. “I studied his records, learned about his financing, and listened to his two wonderful daughters beg me to help the mother and father that they love.”

Trump described Cuellar’s daughters’ letters as “heart-wrenching and beautiful,” noting only he could “solve” their father’s “problems.”

HOUSE DEM PARDONED BY TRUMP REVEALS WHETHER HE WILL SWITCH POLITICAL PARTIES

“He and his wife were headed to jail for up to 20 years because he was ‘stupid’ in what he did but, above all, because the Biden Administration practiced Political Weaponization on Cuellar and his wife because they didn’t agree with his policies on the Southern Border,” Trump wrote. “He was a weak and incompetent version of me, who wanted the Border closed to criminals, drug dealers, people from mental institutions and, above all, murderers and heavy-handed criminals that were sitting in jails and mental institutions, and should never have been given the right to be released into our Country.”

The president added Cuellar’s views were “not strong,” but alleged Democrats retaliated against him in an effort to jail him for life.

“Being an expert on Political Weaponization, based on what the Biden Losers had done to me, and without having ever met Henry Cuellar, and in particular because of the magnificence of the letter drawn by his daughters asking me to help ‘Mom and Dad,’ I gave him and Mrs. Cuellar a full and unconditional Pardon,” Trump wrote. “In doing so, I never assumed he would be running for Office again, and certainly not as a Democrat.”

WATCH: DEM LAWMAKER THANKS TRUMP FOR PARDON, SAYS IT CAME AS A SURPRISE AMID RE-ELECTION BID

Trump said “despite doing [Cuellar] by far the greatest favor of his life, 20 years of FREEDOM,” he will endorse Tijerina for Congress because Cuellar’s views are “not nearly as good or strong.”

The Justice Department previously said Cuellar’s alleged bribe payments were laundered through a series of front companies and middlemen into shell companies owned by his wife, Imelda, who performed “little to no legitimate work under the contracts.”

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In exchange, the DOJ said Cuellar allegedly agreed to use his office to influence U.S. foreign policy in favor of Azerbaijan.

Tijerina, who was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in 1993, served three terms as Webb County judge after retiring from baseball.

One of the groups organizing protests against President Donald Trump’s capture of Venezuelan socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro is a group funded by the George Soros-linked Open Society Foundation.

Trump’s invasion of Venezuela’s capital city, Caracas, and subsequent arrest of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, on Saturday drew quick condemnation from a handful of groups, including some calling themselves the No War on Venezuela Coalition.

In a flyer posted by the Soros-funded Alliance for Global Justice (AFGJ), the coalition called for global protests at U.S. embassies, military bases, city halls and other sites to “defend Venezuelan sovereignty and right to resist.”

The AFGJ flyer stated, “We, the undersigned anti-imperialist and anti-war organizations, condemn the U.S. violent attacks on the rights of Venezuelans, and violations of Venezuela’s sovereignty.”

SECOND FRONT: HOW A SOCIALIST CELL IN THE US MOBILIZED PRO-MADURO FOOT SOLDIERS WITHIN 12 HOURS

The coalition urged “mass resistance” against the administration’s actions, telling people to “take to the streets, organize rallies and teach-ins on your university campuses, mobilize in your unions to demonstrate solidarity and shut down the supply chains of imperialism, including resolutions, pickets and protests outside of arms factories and ports that are providing the weapons for this aggression.”

It especially urged those outside the U.S. to target “U.S. embassies, U.S. military bases and diplomatic installations around the world.”

According to the website of the Open Society Foundations, a philanthropic network founded by Soros and led by his son, Alex Soros, the group donated $250,000 to AFGJ in 2020.

The description listed for the donation on the website was “to catalyze Black communities into the global movement for climate justice.”

AFGJ has been a staunch critic of the Trump administration. In a statement Tuesday, the group wrote that the “War against Venezuela is against Us All.”

MADURO’S WIFE SUFFERED ‘SIGNIFICANT INJURIES’ IN DRAMATIC CAPTURE, ATTORNEY ALLEGES

In the statement, AFGJ drew a line between the administration’s actions in Venezuela and its deployment of National Guard troops to major U.S. cities “occupying our streets as part of a hemispheric repression of resistance.”

“In his first press conference following the January 3 invasion, Trump specifically referenced Washington, D.C., Memphis, and other U.S. cities that have been occupied by federal troops. He knows full well that these are connected,” AFGJ continued.

“People of color, immigrants, all those who resist are designated as internal enemies, and international solidarity movements are targets of the hybrid war.

“The strategies of war and repression against Venezuela are united in a single strategy, not only toward other nations, but here at home. Memphis or Caracas — to the Pentagon, we’re all the same.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

MADURO’S SON GIVES ‘UNCONDITIONAL SUPPORT’ TO NEWLY SWORN IN INTERIM VENEZUELA PRESIDENT

Following months of U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean, Trump authorized a military strike on Caracas that resulted in Maduro and his wife being apprehended and transported to New York City to stand trial.

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Maduro and his wife have since been charged in U.S. federal court with conspiracy to traffic large quantities of cocaine into the country and related crimes, including narco-terrorism and weapons offenses. Both have pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Fox News Digital also reached out to AFGJ and the Open Society Foundations for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

President Donald Trump has adopted an interventionist posture to justify toppling dictator Nicolás Maduro’s regime in Venezuela — and has signaled he’ll take the same approach with other Latin American countries next as his administration seeks to assert dominance in the Western Hemisphere.

While Trump previously blasted previous administrations for actions in the Middle East and vowed he would bring an end to “endless wars” and has ushered in an “America First” agenda prioritizing U.S. interests, Trump signed off on conducting a “large scale strike” against Venezuela and capturing Maduro Saturday — prompting concern primarily from Democrats about starting another lengthy conflict. 

The strikes in Venezuela come on the heels of several other major military operations from the Trump administration — including conducting strikes in Nigeria on Christmas Day against Islamic State militants in response to attacks against Christians in the region; strikes in Syria in December against Islamic State operatives following an ambush against U.S. troops there; and conducting strikes in June against the Iranian nuclear facilities of Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. 

TRUMP’S MADURO TAKEDOWN RESETS THE GLOBAL CHESSBOARD AND REASSERTS AMERICAN POWER

But unlike the strikes in the Middle East, the operations in Venezuela require additional U.S. involvement. Trump said Sunday that the U.S. will run Caracas until a safe transition can occur — thrusting the U.S. into the most significant military intervention of Trump’s presidencies as he wages a campaign to “reassert American dominance in the Western Hemisphere.”

“Trump has never been an advocate of regime change, but that is what he has on his hands now. Unlike the Fordow strikes where Trump acted and then said, ‘The fight is over,’ he will not have that luxury here in Venezuela,” retired Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery, now a senior fellow with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, said in a statement Saturday. 

Most Republicans have backed Trump’s actions in Venezuela, although some from the more anti-interventionist camp of the GOP have voiced skepticism, including outgoing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who said in a social media post Saturday: “This is what many in MAGA thought they voted to end.”

Meanwhile, Democrats have issued caution that the U.S. may be entangling itself into another complicated conflict. For example, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., claimed that the U.S. is on the path to another “endless war.”

TRUMP TELLS SCARBOROUGH US WILL KEEP VENEZUELA OIL WHEN PRESSED ON IRAQ COMPARISONS

“The American people are worried that this is creating an endless war,” Schumer said in an interview with ABC News Sunday. “The very thing that Donald Trump campaigned against over and over and over again was no more endless wars. And right now, we’re headed right into one, with no barriers, with no discussion.”

Trump announced Saturday that U.S. special forces conducted a strike against Caracas, Venezuela, and seized Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. The two were taken to New York and appeared in a Manhattan federal court on Monday on drug charges. Both pleaded not guilty. 

In addition to running Venezuela, Trump also said that the U.S. was “ready to stage a second and much larger attack” if needed in Caracas. Likewise, he signaled on Sunday that other Latin American countries could also face a regime change, singling out Cuba and issuing a word of caution to Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro.

AFTER MADURO, VENEZUELA POWER VACUUM EXPOSES BRUTAL INSIDERS AND ENFORCERS

“Cuba only survives because of Venezuela,” Trump said.

“Colombia is very sick too — run by a sick man who likes making cocaine and sending it to the United States, and he’s not going to be doing it very long,” Trump said. 

Meanwhile, Trump’s words and actions come as he’s revived the Monroe Doctrine, rebranded as the “Don-roe Doctrine,” that originally sought to limit European influence in Latin America and to protect U.S. influence in the region.

SCHOEN, GREEN: WE BACK TRUMP ON MADURO — AND URGE A BETTER PLAN TO GOVERN VENEZUELA

The Monroe Doctrine, first introduced in 1823 by then-President James Monroe, specifically cautioned European nations against further colonization in Central and South America. Later, it was used to justify U.S. actions in the region as an “international police power” under former President Theodore Roosevelt, according to the National Archives.

“The Monroe Doctrine is a big deal. But we’ve superseded it by a lot, by a lot,” Trump said Saturday. “They now call it the ‘Don-roe Doctrine’ … We sort of forgot about it. It was very important, but we forgot about it. We don’t forget about it anymore. Under our new national security strategy, American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again.”

Katherine Thompson, a senior fellow in defense and foreign policy studies at the libertarian think tank the Cato Institute, told Fox News Digital Tuesday that it’s too early to tell if Trump’s future approach to the Western Hemisphere will include more interventionist activity.

‘NOT EVEN IN MY MOST OPTIMISTIC FANTASIES’: VENEZUELAN REFUGEE WHO FLED PERSECUTION PRAISES MADURO’S CAPTURE

However, she said the “expansive” definition of what America’s core interests are “opens the administration up to risk of strategic drift away from the “America First” framework, diminishes the principle of prioritization, and allows greater tolerance for an interventionist approach.” 

Interventionism is a foreign policy approach where one country intervenes in another state’s affairs. The U.S. has engaged in several interventions abroad – including launching an invasion of Iraq in 2003 that led to the toppling of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s regime. 

So far, Trump has claimed his actions in Venezuela are complementary to his “America First” priorities because he wants the U.S. to have “good neighbors.” 

Retired Vice Adm. Robert Harward, a Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA) 2022 General and Admirals Program participant and a member of JINSA’s Iran Policy Project, said that Trump’s actions in Venezuela are on the same page as the president’s “America First” agenda.

SEN TIM KAINE: TRUMP’S VENEZUELA STRIKE TRAMPLED CONGRESS’ WAR POWERS. CONGRESS MUST STOP IT

That means holding other nations who mistreat their people accountable for their own benefit, and for the benefit of the American people, he said. 

“They’re clearly aligned. This is exactly what he’s talked about…this is an accountability for them,” Harward said.

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For those concerned about the U.S. military’s actions in Venezuela, Vice President JD Vance has attempted to soothe their fears. Vance leans toward the non-interventionist wing of the Trump administration, and historically has backed a foreign policy doctrine that supports minimal interference with other nations’ affairs.

“I understand the anxiety over the use of military force, but are we just supposed to allow a communist to steal our stuff in our hemisphere and do nothing?” Vance said in a social media post Sunday. “Great powers don’t act like that.” 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed that the U.S. did not require approval from Congress to conduct the strike, since it wasn’t an “invasion,” and claimed actions in Caracas were part of a “law enforcement function to capture a drug trafficker.” 

The Trump administration repeatedly stated that it did not recognize Maduro as a legitimate head of state and insisted he was the leader of a drug cartel. 

But lawmakers, especially Democrats, have called into question the legality of the operation in Venezuela, which was conducted without Congress’ approval. 

“This has been a profound constitutional failure,” the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., said in a statement on Saturday. “Congress – not the President – has the sole power to authorize war. Pursuing regime change without the consent of the American people is a reckless overreach and an abuse of power.”

“The question now is not whether Maduro deserved removal – it is what precedent the United States has just set, and what comes next,” Reed said. 

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is pushing back, claiming that anti-ICE protests last year didn’t devolve into riots, and likening the vandalism and clashes between protesters and police with the actions of fans after a Los Angeles Lakers championship.

Bass was on the “At Our Table with Jamie Harrison” podcast when she remarked on the federalization of National Guard troops and the deployment of several hundred Marines to the city amid several days of anti-ICE demonstrations. 

While some protesters voiced their anger at ICE lawfully, others set cars, including law enforcement vehicles, on fire and violently fought with police, while elected officials maintained that the demonstrations were peaceful. 

PENTAGON SCALING DOWN NATIONAL GUARD DEPLOYMENT TO LA

“Nothing was going on. OK, we have some protests,” Bass told Harrison. “You want to know the protests, in my opinion, equaled a Lakers championship.”?

“You know what happens after a championship right? A few knuckleheads hang around. They’re drunk, they start vandalizing things. There was no riot here.”

Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House and the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union that represents rank-and-file officers with the Los Angeles Police Department. 

The protests were in response to the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration in and around Los Angeles. Suburbs like Paramount and Compton saw vehicles set on fire, objects thrown at authorities and vandalism. 

NEWSOM ESCALATES TRUMP IMMIGRATION FEUD WITH FOUL-MOUTHED INSULT

The violence prompted President Donald Trump to call in the military to restore order and assist local authorities, prompting a rebuke from many Democratic officials, including Bass and California Gov. Gavin Newsom. 

Protesters gathered in downtown Los Angeles for several days near the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse, where local law enforcement fired less-lethal projectiles, tear gas and flash bangs to disperse crowds. 

Demonstrators responded by blocking a major freeway, setting vehicles ablaze, and hurling rocks, Molotov cocktails and other projectiles at the police, authorities said.

Bass noted that the protests happened in an area that was about 1-square-mile. 

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“That majority of the city didn’t even know anything was happening. That warrants 4,000 troops?” Bass said. 

In December, a federal judge ordered Trump to return the National Guard troops deployed to Los Angeles to Newsom’s control, ending the federalization used for immigration enforcement and protests.

U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro announced Tuesday that “we are prosecuting crime in the District like never before” as she hailed the impact of President Donald Trump’s “surge in federal law enforcement resources.” 

Pirro spoke after the U.S. Marshals Service said last week that “as of December 31, the Operation Make D.C. Safe & Beautiful Task Force has arrested more than 8,152 violent fugitives, including 20 for homicide, 1,343 for narcotics, 633 for weapons offenses, 29 for sex offenses, and 48 known gang members.” 

“As a result of the surge to date, there have been 8,406 arrests and 856 guns that have been taken off the street, which prevents them from being used in a homicide or an assault with a deadly weapon, or any other kind of crime,” Pirro said. 

“We are prosecuting crime in the District like never before with real consequences, real cases, real accountability,” she added. “And for the first time in years, violent offenders are being prosecuted aggressively instead of being released back onto the streets.”

JUDGE ORDERS ACCUSED JAN 6 PIPE BOMBER TO REMAIN IN CUSTODY PENDING TRIAL

“Prosecution rates are at historic highs in the district. We are prosecuting crime like never before in the District of Columbia. Fewer than 10% of the cases go unprosecuted, compared to almost 70% of the cases that went unprosecuted in the last administration. So as a direct result of the increase in prosecution, tougher enforcement, crime is coming down in D.C.,” Pirro continued. 

“And since the enhanced federal partnership and the surge as well, as you can see, homicide is down 60% and robbery is down 49%. Carjackings are down 68%,” Pirro said. “Overall crime [is] down 32%.” 

“As we step into 2026, I wanted to take this opportunity to reflect on what I think is a remarkable progress that we made in 2025 here in the District, a year that I believe truly marked a turning point in the fight against crime here in the nation’s capital,” Pirro also said, noting, “I want to extend my deepest gratitude to President Trump for his unwavering commitment to law and order, his surge in federal law enforcement resources, bolstering our teams with additional agents, advanced tools, and a no-nonsense mandate has been nothing short of transformative for the people in the District.” 

NEW CHARGES AGAINST DC NATIONAL GUARD SHOOTING SUSPECT OPEN DEATH PENALTY DOOR

“And under his leadership, we have seen a renewed focus on cracking down on violent offenders, dismantling criminal networks and restoring safety to our streets. This isn’t just rhetoric, it is reality, and it is real action that is delivered tangible results for the people of the District,” Pirro added. 

The U.S. Marshals Service said the task force operation began in early August at the direction of President Donald Trump, with its Director Gadyaces Serralta “leading a task force of more than 3,100 people from 28 agencies.”

In his March 28 executive order establishing the D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force, Trump said, “It is the policy of the United States to make the District of Columbia safe, beautiful, and prosperous by preventing crime, punishing criminals, preserving order, protecting our revered American monuments, and promoting beautification and the preservation of our history and heritage.” 

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“America’s capital must be a place in which residents, commuters, and tourists feel safe at all hours, including on public transit. Its highways, boulevards, and parks should be clean, well-kept, and pleasant. Its monuments, museums, and buildings should reflect and inspire awe and appreciation for our Nation’s strength, greatness, and heritage,” Trump wrote. “Our citizens deserve nothing less.” 

More than two weeks have passed since the Dec. 19 deadline to release the trove of files related to the late disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, and the Justice Department says it still has millions of documents to review.

The department said in a letter to U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer of the Southern District of New York that “there are more than 2 million documents potentially responsive to the Act that are in various phases of review.” 

In its letter, the DOJ laid out the key steps in its review process, including identifying the documents, uploading them to a data review platform, manually reviewing the documents for victim information, making redactions, engaging global and “SDNY-specific” quality control checks, posting responsive materials and responding to requests from victims and members of the public.

NEW BATCH OF EPSTEIN FILES RELEASED BY DOJ

Under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which President Donald Trump signed in November, the DOJ was required “to publish (in a searchable and downloadable format) all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials in DOJ’s possession that relate to the investigation and prosecution of Jeffrey Epstein.”

So far, the DOJ has released approximately 12,285 documents comprising around 125,575 pages, which is less than 1% of all records potentially related to the case, according to Axios. While there are stacks of unreleased files remaining, the DOJ said in the letter that it believes “a meaningful portion” of the documents are duplicates.

HERE IS WHAT‘S IN THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE’S LATEST EPSTEIN FILES DROP

“The Department’s identification and collection efforts span documents that remain to be reviewed vary widely. As a result, and in light of its experience to date in order to facilitate the prompt release of materials under the Act while continuing to protect victim privacy to the maximum extent practicable, it is appropriate for the Department to modify its procedures for their review based on various factors including, without limitation, document type and likelihood that the document contains victim identifying information or privileged information,” the letter read.

As the department looks to release more documents while complying with privacy standards and court orders, it is overhauling its review process by eliminating duplicate materials, prioritizing responsive records, categorizing documents based on sensitivity, and assigning experienced SDNY attorneys to oversee reviews and redactions involving victim-identifying information.

“Currently, and anticipated for the next few weeks ahead, in the range of over 400 lawyers across the Department will dedicate all or a substantial portion of their workday to the Department’s efforts to comply with the Act,” the letter read. “These efforts include over 125 lawyers in the Southern District of New York as well as dozens of lawyers from each of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Florida, the Criminal Division of the Department, and the National Security Division of the Department.”

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The DOJ did not propose a new timeline for releasing the documents nor did it estimate when it would complete its review.

Fox News Digital reached out to the DOJ for comment.

A San Francisco Democrat demanded the impeachment of President Donald Trump, accusing him of carrying out a “coup” against Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro.

California state Sen. Scott Wiener, seen as the likely congressional successor to Rep. Nancy Pelosi, also took a swipe at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Wiener has frequently drawn national attention for his progressive positions, including his legislation signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom designating California as a “refuge” for transgender children and remarks at a San Francisco Pride Month event referring to California children as “our kids.”

In a lengthy public statement following the Trump administration’s arrest and extradition of Maduro to New York, Wiener said the move shows the president only cares about “enriching his public donors” and “cares nothing for the human or economic cost of conquering another country.”

KAMALA HARRIS BLASTS TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S CAPTURE OF VENEZUELA’S MADURO AS ‘UNLAWFUL AND UNWISE’

“This lawless coup is an invitation for China to invade Taiwan, for Russia to escalate its conquest in Ukraine, and for Netanyahu to expand the destruction of Gaza and annex the West Bank,” said Wiener, who originally hails from South Jersey.

He suggested that the Maduro operation was meant to distract from purportedly slumping poll numbers, the release of Jeffrey Epstein-related documents, and to essentially seize another country’s oil reserves.

“Trump is a total failure,” Wiener said. “By engaging in this reckless act, Trump is also making the entire world less safe … Trump is making clear yet again that, under this regime, there are no rules, there are no laws, there are no norms – there is only whatever Trump thinks is best for himself and his cronies at a given moment in time.”

GREENE HITS TRUMP OVER VENEZUELA STRIKES, ARGUES ACTION ‘DOESN’T SERVE THE AMERICAN PEOPLE’

In response, the White House said the administration’s actions against Maduro were “lawfully executed” and included a federal arrest warrant.”

“While Democrats take twisted stands in support of indicted drug smugglers, President Trump will always stand with victims and families who can finally receive closure thanks to this historic action,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said.

Supporters of the operation have pushed back on claims of “regime change” – an accusation Wiener also made – pointing to actions by Maduro-aligned courts that barred top opposition leader María Corina Machado from running, even as publicly reported results indicated her proxy, Edmundo González Urrutia, won the vote.

“Trump’s illegal invasion of Venezuela isn’t about drugs, and it isn’t about helping the people of Venezuela or restoring Venezuelan democracy,” Wiener added. “Yes, Maduro is awful, but that’s not what the invasion is about. It’s all about oil and Trump’s collapsing support at home.”

EX-ESPN STAR KEITH OLBERMANN CALLS FOR IMPEACHMENT OF TRUMP OVER VENEZUELA STRIKES THAT CAPTURED MADURO

Around the country, a handful of other Democrats referenced impeachment or impeachable offenses, but did not go as far as Wiener in demanding such proceedings.

Rep. April McClain-Delaney, D-Md., who represents otherwise conservative “Mountain Maryland” in the state’s panhandle, said Monday that Democrats should “imminently consider impeachment proceedings,” according to TIME.

McClain-Delaney said Trump acted without constitutionally-prescribed congressional authorization and wrongly voiced “intention to ‘run’ the country.”

SCHUMER BLASTED TRUMP FOR FAILING TO OUST MADURO — NOW WARNS ARREST COULD LEAD TO ‘ENDLESS WAR’

One frequent Trump foil, Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., cited in a statement that she has called for Trump’s impeachment in the past; blaming Republicans for letting the president “escape accountability.”

“Today, many Democrats have understandably questioned whether impeachment is possible again under the current political reality. I am reconsidering that view,” Waters said. 

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“What we are witnessing is an unprecedented escalation of an unlawful invasion, the detention of foreign leaders, and a president openly asserting power far beyond what the Constitution allows,” she said, while appearing to agree with Trump that Maduro was involved in drug trafficking and “collaborat[ion] with… terrorists.”

Wiener’s upcoming primary is considered the deciding election in the D+36 district, while a handful of other lesser-known candidates have reportedly either filed FEC paperwork or declared their candidacy, including San Francisco Councilwoman Connie Chan.

FIRST ON FOX: A House Republican is seeking to tighten the screws on the U.S. immigration system in the wake of multiple investigations into alleged fraud within Minnesota’s social services system.

Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas, introduced a bill on Tuesday that would terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for people from Sudan, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and Somalia.

Immigrants from those countries currently in the U.S. on refugee status would be forced to self-deport within 180 days of the bill’s enactment.

“It’s important that we ensure that those entering our country are properly vetted, and they clearly have not been properly vetted. So what we are trying to do is ensure that we address this, we stop this,” Hunt told Fox News Digital.

MAGNITUDE ‘CANNOT BE OVERSTATED’: FEDS SAY MINNESOTA FRAUD MAY BE MORE THAN $9B

Part of his impetus for introducing the bill now, Hunt said, was the increased scrutiny on Minnesota’s Somali community as federal prosecutors investigate what they believe could be billions of dollars of fraud targeting social programs in the Midwestern state.

Federal prosecutors in Minnesota have charged multiple people with stealing more than $240 million from the Federal Child Nutrition Program through the Minnesota-based nonprofit Feeding Our Future.

The probe has since widened to multiple state-run programs being investigated for potential fraud, however.

MINNESOTA FRAUD COMMITTEE CHAIR CLAIMS WALZ ‘TURNED A BLIND EYE’ TO FRAUD WARNINGS FOR YEARS

Childcare providers receiving state funding, mainly within the Somali community, are also under scrutiny.

Pressure from the growing scandal pushed Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to drop his bid for a third term. He said Monday that he did not want to distract from efforts to shield his residents from both fraudsters and people seeking to politicize the situation.

“Every minute that I spend defending my own political interests would be a minute I can’t spend defending the people of Minnesota against the criminals who prey on our generosity, and the cynics who want to prey on our differences,” Walz said.

Walz previously said his administration has taken steps to crack down on the fraud, but argued federal officials are over-inflating the scope of the damage.

“I mean, looking at Tim Walz’s decision not to seek reelection — where there’s smoke, there’s fire. There certainly is more to come out of this situation,” Hunt said. “He was clearly complicit in what was going on. That’s why he’s not seeking reelection, and so there’s a lot of ‘there’ that’s there, and it needs to be exposed, needs to be investigated.”

He added, “Making sure that we revoke these TPS designations is the beginning of cleaning up this mess.”

HOUSE GOP WHIP URGES CITIZENSHIP REVOCATIONS TIED TO MINNESOTA FRAUD SCHEMES

Hunt argued that his bill would help hasten the timeline for President Donald Trump’s move to end TPS for foreign-born Somalis in Minnesota.

He added that the wider purpose of the bill was also to block Sharia law from spreading in the U.S., noting it was something he experienced firsthand as a member of the military.

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“As somebody that has lived under Sharia law, somebody that has deployed to the Middle East, this is also a broader conversation about keeping people that hate our country out of here,” Hunt said. “And so what we’re going to do is try to pass legislation that codifies what President Trump is trying to do.”

Hunt is currently running for U.S. Senate in Texas.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani admitted he has no federal security clearance on Monday, just a day after claiming he had been “briefed” about the U.S. capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

Mamdani was asked directly about his security clearance during a Monday press briefing, ultimately saying that he had not yet received it. The freshly-inaugurated mayor had been the butt of viral jokes on social media from users suggesting he had inflated his access to information about the strike in his initial statement.

“You don’t have federal security clearance yet, and has anyone from a federal agency reached out to you or members of your team to begin the vetting to get federal security clearance?” a reporter asked.

“That briefing, yes, was conducted by my team,” Mamdani responded. “And the question of federal security clearance is one that’s on and on.”

US MILITARY DETAILS TIMELINE OF OPERATION TO CAPTURE MADURO, REVEALING MORE THAN 150 AIRCRAFT INVOLVED

“So you do have it?” the reporter pressed.

“No, not as yet,” the mayor admitted.

The exchange came after Mamdani’s initial statement on the Venezuela raid appeared to suggest he had received inside information on the operation.

JONATHAN TURLEY: MADURO OPERATION WAS LEGAL, BUT TRUMP MAKES IT COMPLICATED

“I was briefed this morning on the U.S. military capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, as well as their planned imprisonment in federal custody here in New York City,” Mamdani wrote on X after news of Maduro’s capture broke.

He went on to condemn the move by President Donald Trump, but some users on social media called him out for inflating his access.

“Called it,” wrote one user whose post on the topic received over 140,000 “likes.”

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Mamdani’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

Republicans and Democrats sharply disagree over support for the military operation President Donald Trump ordered to arrest Venezuelan leader Nicholas Maduro, according to a new national poll.

Sixty-five percent of Republicans questioned in the survey by Reuters/Ipsos said they backed the strike, carried out by the U.S. military before dawn on Saturday, in which Maduro was captured and handed over to federal authorities for prosecution on drug trafficking charges.

But only 23% of Independents and just 11% of Democrats questioned in the survey, which was conducted Sunday and Monday, approved of the military operation in Venezuela.

WHO’S WHO IN THE MADURO CASE, AS JUDGE, PROSECUTORS, AND DEFENSE FACE OFF

Nearly two-thirds of Democrats and 35% of Independents, but just 5% of Republicans said they didn’t approve of the strike.

Overall, a third of those questioned approved of the mission, a third had no opinion or didn’t answer the question, and 34% disapproved.

AG BONDI TELLS FOX NEWS ‘NOTHING IS OFF THE TABLE’ AFTER MADURO ARREST

Trump, who has long criticized foreign interventions by his predecessors in the White House, has said that the U.S. will “run” Venezuela. “We’re in charge,” the president reiterated to reporters.

But 72% of all adults questioned in the survey, including 90% of Democrats, 74% of Independents, and 54% of Republicans said they worry the U.S. will get too involved in Venezuela.

RUBIO DEFENDS VENEZUELA OPERATION OVER LACK OF CONGRESSIONAL APPROVAL FOR MADURO CAPTURE

The president on Monday said that he’s prepared to send U.S. ground troops to Venezuela if leaders in the South American nation don’t cooperate. And vowing to overhaul and rebuild Venezuela’s oil industry, Trump said the U.S. needs “total access” to the country’s expansive oil fields.

Sixty percent of Republicans surveyed said they supported sending U.S. troops to Venezuela, compared to just 30% of all adults.

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But reflecting concerns among those in the GOP who advocate an America First agenda, only 43% of Republican respondents agreed with the statement, “The United States should have a policy of dominating affairs in the Western Hemisphere,” with 19% disagreeing and the remainder unsure or not answering the question.

The president’s approval rating in the survey stood at 42%, up three points from the previous Reuters/Ipsos survey, which was conducted in December.

George Conway, longtime critic of President Donald Trump, launched a bid for New York’s 12th Congressional District running as a Democrat focused on taking the heat to Trump on Tuesday.

Conway, a former conservative lawyer, was married to top Trump ally Kellyanne Conway until their divorce in 2023. He joins a crowded field in the Democratic primary race for the Manhattan congressional seat. Conway is relying on his familiarity with Trump to set him apart.

“We have a corrupt president, a mendacious president, a criminal president whose masked agents are disappearing people from our streets, who’s breaking international law, and he’s running our federal government like a mob protection racket,” Conway said in his announcement ad.

“I know how to fight these people. They are corrupt, amoral people,” he said. “They will stop at nothing to rig the system for themselves. I’ve been fighting Trump for years, and nothing will stop me.”

PARKLAND SURVIVOR JUMPS INTO CROWDED NYC HOUSE RACE AS GEN Z PROGRESSIVES CHALLENGE PARTY ELDERS

New York’s 12th district is open season for Democrats following the announcement from Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., that he will not seek re-election in 2026.

Conway’s split from conservative politics has been dramatic since the rise of Trump in 2016. He helped found the anti-Trump Lincoln Project in 2019 alongside other erstwhile Republicans.

WHITE HOUSE HITS BACK AFTER JFK’S GRANDSON CALLS RFK JR A ‘RABID DOG’

“I get how people can be upset how I once supported Trump,” Conway told The New York Times in an interview. “But I think if people really listen, my views, my philosophy, my values, have always been the same.”

Conway told the Times that he “cried tears of joy” when Trump won the White House in 2016. He and Kellyanne moved to Washington, D.C., after the victory, both with prospective spots in the administration.

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That story ended with Conway blasting Trump as a narcissist and Trump likewise calling him a “stone-cold loser and husband from hell.”

A Miami-area congressman whose district is home to a significant number of Venezuelan refugees says the failed communist state should hold new elections sooner rather than later.

“It can’t be years, I’ll tell you that right now,” said Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla. “This is what these regimes do, they just negotiate for time, try to wait you out, so you weaken your will. So it can’t be — I’m talking months, I am not talking years.”

Gimenez is the sole Cuban-born member of Congress, having fled the communist dictatorship as a child and settled in Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood.

He was also among the first members of Congress to speak with Secretary of State Marco Rubio after the U.S. government executed strikes on Caracas before capturing Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife Celia Flores.

RUBIO DEFENDS VENEZUELA OPERATION AFTER NBC QUESTIONS LACK OF CONGRESSIONAL APPROVAL FOR MADURO CAPTURE

Maduro was flown to the U.S. by the military to face trial on terrorism charges at the hands of federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York.

President Donald Trump, meanwhile, said the U.S. would “run” Venezuela until the country could hold fair democratic elections — which Gimenez warned its people needed to see in the relatively near future.

“Now the number of months, you know, I don’t know what the number would be, but certainly not years,” the Florida Republican said. “And the people inside Venezuela need to see changes happening pretty quickly. People out here that live in the diaspora need to see that also.”

MADURO’S CAPTURE IS ‘BEGINNING OF THE END’ FOR CUBA’S REGIME, HOUSE INTELLIGENCE CHAIR SAYS

Gimenez said there were “millions of Venezuelans” outside the country “that are waiting to go back home.”

“The faster that we can transition to democracy and freedom, the faster they can go back,” he said.

The former Miami-Dade County mayor is a supporter of Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, who Trump recently said, “doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country.”

Meanwhile, Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, was recently sworn in as acting leader in his place.

But Gimenez said that he believed Machado could win a free and fair election in Venezuela while downplaying the distance between himself and Trump on the issue.

“I think the president is saying, and kind of rightly so, that at this point nobody in the opposition has the security apparatus needed to maintain order on the country. So you’ve got to deal with what you got right now,” he said. “I’m not happy about it, but it’s just reality. But I do think that in the end, if I were to bet right now, yeah, I think she’d win.”

FLORIDA GOP LAWMAKER BLASTS DEMOCRATS’ VENEZUELA RESPONSE AS ‘TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME’

He did concede, however, that a democratic Venezuela would likely have Maduro’s communist supporters — nicknamed “Chavistas” still within the government.

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“Look, there’s going to be, what, 30% are Chavistas, right? So yeah, I’m sure there’s gonna be 30%, but you can’t ever let it get to the point where they control everything, control elections, control the counting of elections, etc.,” Gimenez said.

“These Chavistas have already demonstrated that they will use democracy against democracy, so there has to be safeguards in place so that what happened 25 years ago never happens again.”

President Donald Trump on Monday continued trashing GOP Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, targeting the incumbent lawmaker for ouster in a Truth Social post while seeking to boost challenger Ed Gallrein, the former Navy SEAL he backed for the congressional seat last year.

The president, who referred to Massie as “the Worst ‘Republican’ Congressman we have had in many years,” said that Gallrein “officially filed to run for Congress” on Monday.

“I have heard that there are other Candidates exploring a run for this seat, but I am asking all MAGA Warriors to rally behind Captain Ed Gallrein, the Candidate who is, far and away, best positioned to DEFEAT Third Rate Congressman Thomas Massie, a Weak and Pathetic RINO from the beautiful Commonwealth of Kentucky, a place I love, and won BIG, ALL THREE TIMES,” the president asserted.

HOUSE GOP CRITICS BREAK WITH TRUMP OVER VENEZUELA OPERATION THAT CAPTURED MADURO

Massie has been a critic of Trump’s move to depose Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro. 

“Wake up MAGA. VENEZUELA is not about drugs; it’s about OIL and REGIME CHANGE. This is not what we voted for,” Massie asserted in a post on X.

But Trump noted in his Truth Social post that Gallrein “is a big fan of our recent attack on Nicolas Maduro, the Dictator of Venezuela.”

THESE HOUSE MAVERICKS DEFIED THEIR OWN PARTIES MORE THAN ANYONE ELSE IN 2025

The president claimed that Massie “only votes AGAINST the Republican Party, making life very easy for the Radical Left,” asserting, “Unlike ‘lightweight’ Congressman Massie, a true hater of Israel, and a totally ineffective LOSER who has failed us so badly, CAPTAIN ED GALLREIN IS A WINNER WHO WILL NOT LET KENTUCKY DOWN!”

Massie solicited campaign donations while highlighting Trump’s attack against him.

PATRIOT OR ‘PATHETIC RINO’? MAVERICK REPUBLICAN THOMAS MASSIE TRADES ‘AMERICA FIRST’ LABEL FOR ‘AMERICA ONLY’

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“It happened again today! Why do I get attacked weekly? Because I’m the only Republican who refuses to rubber stamp foreign aid, endless deficits, and unnecessary wars. I’m also exposing sex traffickers. My primary is in May. Please help if you can,” he wrote in a post on X, adding a link where people can donate.

A Florida Republican is arguing that Democrats’ largely negative response to the U.S. government’s operation in Venezuela is the “definition of Trump Derangement Syndrome.”

Rep. Mike Haridopolos, R-Fla., represents a part of Florida that includes a significant chunk of the state’s central coastline.

“It doesn’t take much research to find speech after speech of Democrat House members and Senate members who said that this guy is a bad guy, he should be taken out of power,” Haridopolos told Fox News Digital.

“Sometimes in politics, you’ve just got to say to the other side, politically, ‘Hey, we’re all Americans. This is in the best interest, clearly, of the United States.’ But they’re in a position where they’re so afraid of a Democrat primary that they will say anything to avoid having the extreme left attack them.”

GOP LAWMAKER SAYS DEMOCRATS HAVE ‘EGG ON THEIR FACE’ AFTER TRUMP’S CAPTURE OF VENEZUELA’S MADURO

He pointed out that it was the previous Democratic commander-in-chief, President Joe Biden, who raised the federal government’s bounty for Maduro’s capture to $25 million.

“What did they expect was then going to happen? You think this guy was just going to voluntarily give up? He clearly was not. He was getting into bed with the Cubans, the Russians, the Chinese, the Iranians, even Hezbollah, as I understand. I mean, this guy was trying to create a group of enemies in an oil-rich state at our footstep,” Haridopolos said.

Democrats and Republicans have been largely divided in their responses to the strikes in Venezuela.

KAMALA HARRIS BLASTS TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S CAPTURE OF VENEZUELA’S MADURO AS ‘UNLAWFUL AND UNWISE’

Lawmakers on the left have mostly criticized the president and his officials, accusing them of illegal actions that ran afoul of the U.S. Constitution. Some progressives have even said Trump could be guilty of impeachable offenses.

The majority of GOP lawmakers praised Trump’s move as a necessary law enforcement action to get rid of a hostile actor threatening both the U.S. and the region writ large.

Haridopolos is no different, pointing out that the operation was carried out with no U.S. fatalities and relatively few among Maduro supporters in Venezuela.

He said his district is home to a number of Venezuelan refugees who were elated by President Donald Trump’s decision to strike Caracas and capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

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“I have a large population of Venezuelans within my community, and they are absolutely overjoyed,” the congressman said. “They were in essence kicked out of their own country or fled through fear … because they lost their ability to make a living, or they were being terrorized by the government because they were anti-Maduro.”

Following the U.S. strikes, Maduro and his wife were both taken to New York City, where they will be prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York.

Maduro pleaded not guilty during his first court appearance on Monday.

Democrats in Minnesota are urging longtime Sen. Amy Klobuchar to jump into the blue-leaning state’s race for governor in the wake of Monday’s blockbuster move by Democratic Gov. Tim Walz to end his 2026 re-election bid amid political fallout from a massive fraud scandal.

Klobuchar, who was re-elected in 2024 to a fourth six-year term in the U.S. Senate, is receiving calls urging her to run for governor, sources in Minnesota confirmed to Fox News Digital.

And sources are telling FOX 9 in Minnesota that Klobuchar is considering making a gubernatorial bid but has yet to make any final decision.

Walz met Sunday with Klobuchar to discuss his decision to drop his re-election bid, a source familiar confirmed to Fox News.

FRAUD FALLOUT FORCES WALZ TO ABANDON GUBERNATORIAL RE-ELECTION BID

Klobuchar didn’t comment on her future political plans in a statement Monday. But the senator, commenting on the governor’s move to combat the fraud scandal full time rather than to seek another term in office, said, “Walz made the difficult decision to focus on his job and the challenges facing our state rather than campaigning and running for re-election.”

The senator has won all four of her Senate elections by wide margins, including a nearly 16-point re-election in 2024.

But Klobuchar, who is currently number three in Senate Democratic leadership, faces hurdles to rise higher in party leadership in the chamber.

WILL MINNESOTA FRAUD SCANDAL FORCE RESIGNATIONS?

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is the top Democrat in the upper chamber and isn’t expected to leave his post. But Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., is retiring from Congress, leaving an opening to fill in the leadership pecking order. Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, is the expected heir apparent for that position, however.

Before serving in the Senate, Klobuchar was elected twice as county attorney in Hennepin County, Minnesota’s most populous. She also ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic Party’s 2020 presidential nomination.

The announcement by Walz, the 2024 Democratic vice presidential nominee, came amid stinging criticism over his handling of his state’s massive welfare assistance fraud scandal.

“As I reflected on this moment with my family and my team over the holidays, I came to the conclusion that I can’t give a political campaign my all,” Walz wrote in a statement. “Every minute I spend defending my own political interests would be a minute I can’t spend defending the people of Minnesota against the criminals who prey on our generosity and the cynics who prey on our differences.”

“So I’ve decided to step out of this race and let others worry about the election while I focus on the work in front of me for the next year,” the governor added in his statement and in front of cameras a couple of hours later. The governor didn’t take any questions but said on Tuesday he would return to “take all your questions.”

GOP LAWMAKER UNVEILS WALZ ACT AFTER BILLIONS LOST IN MINNESOTA FRAUD SCANDAL

Walz launched his bid for a third four-year term as Minnesota governor in September, but in recent weeks has been facing a barrage of incoming political fire from President Donald Trump and Republicans, and some Democrats, over the large-scale theft in a state that has long prided itself on good governance.

More than 90 people — most from Minnesota’s large Somali community — have been charged since 2022 in what has been described as the nation’s largest COVID-era scheme. How much money has been stolen through alleged money laundering operations involving fraudulent meal and housing programs, daycare centers and Medicaid services is still being tabulated. But the U.S. attorney in Minnesota said the scope of the fraud could exceed $1 billion and rise to as high as $9 billion.

Prosecutors said some of the dozens that have already pleaded guilty in the case used the money to buy luxury cars, real estate, jewelry and international vacations, with some of the funds also sent overseas and potentially into the hands of Islamic terrorists.

“This is on my watch, I am accountable for this and, more importantly, I am the one that will fix it,” Walz told reporters last month, as he took responsibility for the scandal.

The governor took actions to stop some of the suspected fraudulent payments, and ordered an outside audit of Medicaid billing in the state.

But Trump repeatedly blasted Walz as “incompetent” and, during Thanksgiving, used a slur for developmentally disabled people to describe the governor.

The scandal, which grabbed plenty of national attention over the past two months, went viral the past two weeks following the release of a video by 23-year-old YouTube content creator Nick Shirley, who alleged widespread fraud at Somali-run daycare centers. Days later, the Trump administration froze federal childcare funding to Minnesota.

Republican Governors Association communications director Courtney Alexander charged in a statement that “Walz’s failed leadership is emblematic of Minnesota Democrats’ agenda and whoever Democrats choose to replace Walz with at the top of the ticket will need to defend years of mismanagement and misplaced priorities.”

But the Democratic Governors Association (DGA) chair, Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky, said in a statement, “No matter who decides to run or how much national Republicans want to spend, the DGA remains very confident Minnesotans will elect another strong Democratic governor this November.”

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And Beshear praised Walz, a former DGA chair, as “a true leader who has delivered results that will make life better for Minnesota workers and families for years to come.”

Roughly a dozen Republicans are vying to be the GOP’s gubernatorial nominee, including Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth, state Rep. Kristin Robbins, former state Sen. Scott Jensen, and healthcare technology executive Kendall Qualls, a past congressional and gubernatorial candidate.

Robbins, in a social media post, argued: “If Tim Walz is going to handpick Klobuchar, Minnesotans deserve to know what she promised him. Senator? Something else? Despite any shady backroom deals cut by Walz, voters will decide who is our state’s next Governor and Senator.”

President Donald Trump flipped the script on Democrats’ “no one is above the law” mantra after years of hearing it aimed at him, invoking the phrase after news broke Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz would not seek re-election as a sweeping fraud scandal rocks his state.

“Governor Walz has destroyed the State of Minnesota, but others, like Governor Gavin Newscum, JB Pritzker, and Kathy Hochul, have done, in my opinion, an even more dishonest and incompetent job. NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW!” Trump posted to Truth Social Monday afternoon. 

The message followed Walz announcing Monday that he was withdrawing his re-election effort to continue serving as governor. Walz was first elected the state’s top leader in 2018 in a political career that also included him campaigning coast-to-coast in 2024 as former Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate. 

“As I reflected on this moment with my family and my team over the holidays, I came to the conclusion that I can’t give a political campaign my all,” Walz wrote in a statement. “Every minute I spend defending my own political interests would be a minute I can’t spend defending the people of Minnesota against the criminals who prey on our generosity and the cynics who prey on our differences.”

KEVIN MCCARTHY SAYS MINNESOTA’S ‘ENTIRE DEMOCRAT ADMINISTRATION’ WILL HAVE TO RESIGN OVER FRAUD SCANDAL

Minnesota has come under fierce scrutiny in recent weeks as a sprawling fraud scandal that has led to dozens of arrests, mostly from the state’s large Somali community, since 2022 comes to light. Minnesota was allegedly home to a massive COVID-era scheme that allegedly involved money laundering operations related to fraudulent meal and housing programs, daycare centers and Medicaid services, according to investigators. 

The Minnesota fraud is still being tabulated, with local officials speculating it could exceed $1 billion and rise to as high as $9 billion.

NICK SHIRLEY GLOATS HE ‘ENDED TIM WALZ’ AFTER MINNESOTA GOVERNOR SCRAPS RE-ELECTION BID AMID FRAUD SCANDAL

Trump’s use of the phrase “no one is above the law” follows years of Democrats employing the same rhetoric against him as he faced a barrage of charges and court cases in between his first and second administrations. 

“No one is above the law,” President Joe Biden said after Trump was found guilty on 34 counts of falsified business records in a Manhattan court in May 2024. 

Trump faced four criminal indictments, which resulted in accusations of “lawfare” on the national stage as Trump maintained his innocence and slammed the cases as efforts by the Democratic Party to hurt his political chances for re-election in 2024. 

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“As I’ve said before, no one is above the law, including Donald Trump,” then-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in 2023 after the Biden administration’s Department of Justice announced Trump had been indicted on 37 counts related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents.

Even during Trump’s first administration, Democrats championed the phrase as they combated MAGA Republicans and Trump policies. 

“Everybody wants the president to be held accountable in the most serious way,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said of Trump in 2019 amid a discussion at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, underscoring that Democrats believe “no one is above the law.” “And everybody believes, now I’m talking on the Democratic side, that no one is above the law, especially the president of the United States.”

“We must be clear: no one, not even the president, is above the law,” Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said in a statement in 2019 when introducing articles of impeachment against Trump. 

COMER WARNS WALZ ABSENCE AT MINNESOTA FRAUD HEARING WOULD BE ‘ADMISSION TO GUILT’ BY GOVERNOR

Upon his victory over the Harris–Walz presidential ticket in 2024, Trump has taken a victory lap for allegedly snuffing out the weaponization of government. 

“We have ended weaponized government, where, as an example, a sitting president is allowed to viciously prosecute his political opponent, like me. How did that work out?” he said during his joint address to Congress in 2025. “Not too good. Not too good.” 

Trump added in his Monday Truth Social post that “Minnesota’s Corrupt Governor will possibly leave office before his Term is up,” and that he’s confident the fraud investigations “will reveal a seriously unscrupulous, and rich, group of ‘SLIMEBALLS.'”

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson added in comment to Fox Digital on Monday afternoon when asked about the Truth Social post: “It shouldn’t take an education from the Quality Learing Center for Democrats to understand this: Tim Walz and his Somali friends have been caught ripping off hardworking Minnesota taxpayers and now they will face the consequences. President Trump is right, no one is above the law.”

Walz has taken ownership of correcting the fraud. He said his administration had been taking action to stop some suspected fraudulent payments over the summer and that his office referred some for prosecution. The governor, however, has said that multibillion figures were “sensationalized” by Republicans.

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“This is on my watch, I am accountable for this and, more importantly, I am the one that will fix it,” Walz told reporters in December. 

Fox Digital reached out to Walz’s office for a response to Trump’s Truth Social but did not immediately receive a reply. 

Fox News Digital’s Amanda Macias contributed to this report.