NationalWatch

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., is taking heat from southern conservatives after she delivered a fiery speech in Montgomery, Alabama, last week, demanding that northern progressives “pull up to the South.”

Speaking at the “All Roads Lead to The South” rally May 16, the prominent “Squad” member claimed the U.S. was not a true democracy until the 1960s when the Voting Rights Act was passed, and took direct aim at the Supreme Court, accusing the high court under Chief Justice John Roberts of being “part of that long history of regression and repression in America.”

Ocasio-Cortez then issued a highly controversial call to action, demanding that “the North” travel to red states like Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Tennessee and Mississippi to fight what she described as political injustice.

She doubled down on social media following the event, writing, “If you’re not from these states, it’s time to pull up.”

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Her rhetoric was quickly slammed by conservatives on social media, with many pointing out the irony of the congresswoman urging people to “pull up” while she stood heavily protected during her speech behind bulletproof glass.

Conservative podcaster Todd Spears went viral with a TikTok reaction video that racked up 1 million views, mocking Ocasio-Cortez’s security setup.

“[Pull up] and do what? Help us get the boat off the trailer, like cut the grass, track a deer in the woods?” Spears said. “Roll up and do what exactly? Because you’re standing behind, like, pope glass in your own hometown. You come down here starting that s—, you better bring a tank. That’s not a good idea. You stay where you’re at.”

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Spears also criticized the divisive nature of her remarks, writing in the video caption that “AOC talking about the North ‘rolling up’ on the South and Alabama, like this is still the 1860s, is wild.”

“Maybe politicians should spend less time trying to divide Americans and more time fixing the mess we already have,” he added.

Another TikTok creator, Kei Bennett, whose video garnered more than 800,000 views, warned Ocasio-Cortez’s supporters not to take the bait.

“I want to issue a stern warning so you do not take her advice and pull up on Alabama,” Bennett said, jokingly citing local dangers ranging from wild hogs and bayou gators to locals who “will not hesitate to unite and get you the f— up out of here.”

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Bennett, who has more than half a million followers on the platform, warned the congresswoman’s followers that “down here in the South we don’t call cops, we call coroners,” adding, “Stay your a– up there, leave us alone. We ain’t bothering nobody.”

Ocasio-Cortez’s office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

FIRST ON FOX: Federal officials have served subpoenas to Marxist political influencer Hasan Piker and CodePink cofounder Susan Medea Benjamin as part of a wider investigation into whether U.S. organizations and leaders violated U.S. laws and sanctions in supporting Cuba’s communist regime, Fox News Digital has learned.

Piker and Benjamin are among those caught in a federal inquiry into whether activists who traveled to Cuba in March violated U.S. sanctions laws through the financing, coordination or delivery of goods to Cuba, including potential contacts with Cuban government personnel or entities on the island. The administrative subpoenas were sent to the pair by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control

The administrative subpoenas — called “Requests for Information,” or RFI — seek financial, logistical and communications information revolving around trips the two widely bragged about making to the island nation in March with delegations of the “Nuestra América Convoy,” or “Our America Convoy,” from a global network of communist sympathizers, activists and influencers who brought supplies to the country’s ruling Communist Party of Cuba, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The investigation is part of a broader effort by officials at Treasury, State and Justice departments to curb malign foreign influence operations inside the United States, particularly activities tied to support for political violence, extremist movements or acts the U.S. government classifies as terrorism. The scrutiny reflects growing concern among federal authorities and lawmakers over whether foreign actors and aligned organizations are attempting to shape American political discourse, mobilize activists, sow discord and normalize rhetoric that could encourage violence or undermine U.S. national security interests.

According to a Fox News Digital investigation, Singham has pumped $278 million into nonprofit groups that have pushed pro-China, pro-Cuba, anti-U.S. narratives and street protests for almost a decade, since his marriage in February 2017 to CodePink co-founder Jodie Evans, who is also being investigated for her role in the March trip. CodePink received $1.33 million from Singham after he married Evans.

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In mid-March, organizations in the Singham network — from the Venceremos Brigade to People’s Forum, a hub for communist causes in New York City — were leaders of the Nuestra American Convoy, which included an estimated 650 delegates from 33 countries and 120 organizations. The organizations included Democratic Socialists of America, a U.S. nonprofit that promotes Piker as a headline member.

The investigation by the Office of Foreign Assets Control is part of a broader dragnet that includes as many as 40 American citizens who joined foreign nationals, including a controversial Brazil activist, Thiago Avila, who are part of a global network of anti-U.S. Marxists, communists and socialists. Additional subpoenas are expected.

The administrative subpoenas mark a serious escalation by the Trump administration against a far-left nonprofit activist network that has spent years defending communist regimes, from Cuba to China, while presenting its work as humanitarian aid, anti-war organizing and “solidarity” with people “oppressed” by the “imperialist” U.S “colonial power.”

As reported, a Fox News Digital investigation has identified 145 U.S. nonprofits and activist groups with $1 billion in collective revenues that Justice and Treasury Department officials are investigating as part of a wider influence campaign by Cuba’s communist regime and other foreign actors. According to public statements, it’s believed that delegation members stayed at a hotel the U.S. State Department has put on a “Cuba Restricted List,” as businesses directly tied to the communist government of Cuba, designated a state sponsor of terrorism.

U.S. law imposes broad restrictions on financial transactions involving Cuba, primarily through the “Cuban Asset Control Regulations,” administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control. Those rules generally prohibit unlicensed travel-related transactions and the export of goods or services to Cuba, with limited exceptions for journalism, humanitarian projects, educational programs and certain activities meant to support the Cuban people.

WHO IS HASAN PIKER? MEET THE FAR-LEFT STREAMER WHO IS STIRRING UP CONTROVERSY ONLINE AND DIVIDING DEMOCRATS

Piker, one of the most influential political streamers on Twitch, has built a massive online following with a mix of Marxist politics, anti-American commentary and inflammatory statements that have repeatedly drawn public backlash.

On March 10, Piker posted a photo of himself on Instagram with the message: “I’M GOING TO CUBA.”

In an Instagram post from the trip, Singham’s wife, Evans, smiled widely in Havana, wearing a red-and-white Palestinian scarf, or kefiyyeh, around her neck, while standing beside Piker, who looked seriously into the camera.

On a livestream this week, Piker said that the Justice Department’s indictment of Cuban leader Raúl Castro is a “sham” with “no legal standing,” designed to create a pretext for escalating U.S. pressure on the island. Piker argued that Trump is acting like a “playground bully.”

Fox News Digital recently observed Piker outside his Los Angeles home escorting his dog, Kaya, outside the house for a bathroom break early one morning. Kaya, a large-breed dog that is a mix of Tibetan Mastiff, Chow Chow, and St. Bernard, has been the beloved subject of an online campaign, dubbed “Free Kaya,” over allegations Piker trained Kaya with a shock collar that transmits painful stimuli as part of behavior training. At one moment, Piker silently stood over Kaya and gestured with a finger for her to return to the house after relieving herself. Later, Kaya was observed being walked and driven by a woman leaving Piker’s home.

Benjamin has made her mark as an activist gadfly who stages media spectacles at Congressional hearings, defense industry trade conferences and the homes of government officials, yelling invectives, chants and slogans, branding herself as “anti-war,” but actually running a pattern of messages denouncing the U.S. and uplifting communist and authoritarian regimes from the Islamic Republic of Iran to the Chinese Communist Party and the Communist Party of Cuba.

Fox News Digital recently observed Benjamin outside her colorful home in Washington, D.C., with her partner and fellow activist Tighe Barry, who accompanied her on the trip to Havana.

Piker has been criticized for saying that “America deserved 9/11,” a remark he later said was poorly phrased, and for past comments about former Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, a Navy SEAL veteran who lost an eye in Afghanistan. More recently, critics, including Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., have accused Piker of amplifying anti-Semitic rhetoric after Oct. 7, while Piker has denied antisemitism and said his criticism is aimed at Israel, not Jews.

FAR-LEFT STREAMER HASAN PIKER DEFENDS HIMSELF FROM ANTISEMITISM ACCUSATIONS IN INTERVIEW WITH JEWISH OUTLET

The larger group under scrutiny includes Isra Hirsi, the daughter of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., according to sources, with investigators examining whether Omar may have funded her daughter’s travel to Cuba. Omar didn’t respond to an earlier request for comment about her daughter’s trip.

Piker, Benjamin, Singham, Evans and CodePink didn’t respond to requests for comment.

According to sources, the Office of Foreign Assets Control is also investigating CodePink’s DC Coordinator, Olivia DiNucci, a former Division I basketball star from Emerson College in Boston. Her unassuming, girl-next-door persona often gains her entry into coveted spaces that she then disrupts with loud theatrics. She joined a convoy led by the Brazilian activist, Avila.

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Federal investigators are examining whether the caravan’s financing, logistics, coordination or delivery of goods crossed legal lines under U.S. sanctions law, sources said.

Legal experts told Fox News Digital that the subpoenas could determine whether prosecutors pursue a criminal case under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, known as IEEPA, or whether the matter remains a civil enforcement issue handled by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, which administers U.S. sanctions programs.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control can impose civil penalties under a “strict liability” standard, meaning the government does not have to prove intent. The Justice Department, by contrast, generally must show that a defendant willfully violated the law in a criminal case, often through evidence of concealment, evasion or knowing participation in prohibited transactions.

In a long livestream on Saturday, Piker interviewed another influencer, Ashley St. Clair, about having a baby with billionaire Elon Musk, railed against Trump, defended the communist leaders of Cuba and free-associated about other topics in the news, including a shooting outside the White House, decrying the chaos in America. “It’s f@*&ing terrifying,” he said.

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President Donald Trump announced on Saturday an agreement has been “largely negotiated” with Iran and several allied nations, signaling a nearing end to the controversial 84-day war.

The president wrote in a Truth Social post that following a “very good call” with leaders from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Pakistan, Türkiye, Egypt, Jordan and Bahrain, the deal is nearing finalization.

“An Agreement has been largely negotiated, subject to finalization between the United States of America, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the various other Countries, as listed,” Trump wrote in the post. “Separately, I had a call with Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, of Israel, which, likewise, went very well.”

He added final aspects and details of the deal are “currently being discussed and will be announced shortly.”

Trump also indicated a key provision of the deal involves opening the Strait of Hormuz.

The breakthrough announcement follows intense diplomatic efforts and military pressures surrounding the war with Iran.

Earlier in the day, Trump reportedly told Axios that he was a “solid 50/50” on whether he would sign a deal or resume combat operations to “blow them to kingdom come.” 

However, following the conference call with Arab leaders, a regional diplomat told Fox News the discussions were “very positive” and that regional leaders were highly supportive of “the breakthrough President Trump achieved with the talks.”

The impending diplomatic agreement comes amid significant U.S. military action in the region. 

U.S. Central Command recently announced a milestone of redirecting 100 commercial vessels during a weeks-long maritime blockade of Iranian ports aimed at squeezing the country economically. 

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Secretary of State Marco Rubio previously signaled negotiators were making progress, emphasizing that any resolution would require Iran to keep the Strait of Hormuz open without tolls and surrender its enriched uranium.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Wealthy Democrats eyeing higher political aspirations are leaning into stories of childhood hardship and family trauma as privilege becomes a political liability on the left, according to J.P. De Gance, founder of the nonprofit Communio.

“Privilege is one of the worst things you can have within progressive ideology,” De Gance told Fox News Digital.

Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom has become one of the clearest examples of that tension, DeGance explained. 

In his recent memoir and media profiles, Newsom has framed his upbringing as a study in contrasts: elite access through his family’s close ties to the Getty fortune, but also a childhood marked by divorce, dyslexia, financial strain, odd jobs and his mother taking in foster children to help pay the rent.

GOV GAVIN NEWSOM: FROM PRIVILEGE TO HEARTBREAK, MY LIFE BEHIND THE HEADLINES

“They really were leaning into family trauma, resentment, arguments from their childhood background. These are guys trying to introduce themselves on a national stage and, traditionally, you would have a candidate introduce himself by telling you his hardscrabble story and maybe being a busser,” he said.

De Gance said that kind of personal storytelling could become more common as Democrats with elite backgrounds try to connect with voters shaped by economic strain, family breakdown and addiction, most notably as the nation inches closer to the next presidential election in 2028. 

“Governor Newsom’s book was a chance to tell the complete and unvarnished story about his family and upbringing, which he has repeatedly acknowledged spanned two worlds: one in which his father worked for a family with a great fortune and the other with a ‘rock star’ mom who raised two children and worked multiple jobs,” a spokesperson for Newsom told Fox News Digital. 

“He’s not running from any one narrative nor favoring another. This is the accurate and complete story of his childhood.”

De Gance, whose nonprofit works with churches to strengthen marriages and families, collaborated on a new study from the nonprofit Austin Institute and argued that figures such as Newsom or Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, another Democrat who comes from a wealthy family, reflect a broader shift in Democratic political messaging toward emotional struggle and childhood trauma that resonates with more voters.

“This reflection on childhood resentment, childhood trauma and, I think, in a certain sense, we should expect more of this, because I think, in a sense, Pritzker, Newsom and others are reflecting what they’re seeing in a lot of in a lot of the electorate,” he added.

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Voters whose parents stayed continuously married were 67% more likely to identify as conservative or very conservative compared to those whose parents never married, while only 46% of Americans under 30 grew up in an intact family, according to the Austin Institute’s 2025 Relationships in America Survey.

“A majority of Americans now under age 30 … have grown up in a home where mom and dad didn’t stay married through childhood,” said De Gance.

De Gance said the survey found former Vice President Kamala Harris performed better among 2024 voters whose parents did not remain married during childhood, while President Donald Trump performed better among voters whose parents stayed married.

NEWSOM’S GETTY DYNASTY TIES COLLIDE WITH HIS CLAIMS OF A STRUGGLING CHILDHOOD

Newsom has spoken publicly about his parents’ divorce, dyslexia and difficult upbringing — including eating Wonder Bread sandwiches and mac and cheese — despite his elite political connections. 

“By relating themselves as victims of past family resentment and trauma, it’s also a desire to associate with elements of victim groups,” said De Gance.

Newsom’s father, Bill, was a longtime close friend and advisor to billionaire Gordon Getty, helping manage parts of the Getty family fortune, while the Getty scion brought a young Gavin Newsom and his sister on vacations to Kenya and Canada, The New Yorker reported in 2004. 

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A Vogue profile of Newsom, published in February ahead of the release of his memoir, renewed backlash over characterizing his childhood as financially difficult despite cozy ties to one of the most prominent and wealthy families in the world. 

“People assume Newsom comes from money. He doesn’t. Access, yes. Privilege, yes. Money, no. The most compelling aspect of Newsom’s biography is his schizophrenic upbringing, vis-à-vis wealth,” said the profile published in Vogue. “After his parents’ divorce, his father seems not to have provided much financial support. Tessa Newsom, née Menzies, scrambled to keep the family afloat.

“Young Gavin chipped in, picking up a newspaper route and a job as a busboy. They took in foster kids because the government stipend helped pay the rent. Meanwhile, there were the Gettys,” Vogue continued before launching into the Newsom family ties to the powerful Getty family, an American dynasty built on oil. 

Pritzker, another wealthy Democratic governor viewed as a possible 2028 contender and an heir to the Hyatt hotel fortune, has also spoken publicly about early family trauma, including the death of his father when he was a child, his mother’s alcoholism and the sense that he was “robbed” of a normal childhood.

Pritzker has compared himself to an orphan, saying he grew up faster and that life as an orphan feels like “a sense of being robbed,” he told The New Yorker.

Pritzker has touted his hard work beginning as a busboy at one of his family’s hotels as a teenager.

“The hotel business had made the family wealthy enough that Pritzker and his siblings would never have to have real jobs, but [Pritzker’s mother] had gone out of her way to instill in them the value of work,” The New Yorker reported of Pritzker in a 2023 profile. “When Pritzker was a teenager, he had been a busboy at Rickey’s Hyatt House, the hotel that launched the family fortune.”

“You have to work twice as hard as the guy next to you, because you didn’t earn this,” Pritzker told the New Yorker, sharing his mother’s advice as a child.

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Fox News Digital reached out to Pritzker for comment.

The Trump administration’s decision to indict former Cuban leader Raúl Castro is fueling comparisons to the pressure campaign President Donald Trump previously used against Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro, as the White House ramps up economic pressure, direct appeals to Cubans and military visibility in the Caribbean.

The indictment — tied to Cuba’s 1996 shootdown of two civilian aircraft that killed three U.S. citizens — has raised questions about whether the administration is testing a Venezuela-style pressure strategy against Havana’s communist regime.

The USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group has been operating in the Caribbean under U.S. Southern Command authorities, providing a visible military backdrop to the administration’s increasingly confrontational posture toward Havana. Publicly announced assets include fighter aircraft, electronic warfare aircraft and guided-missile destroyers.

The broader posture has drawn comparisons to the administration’s earlier campaign against Maduro, which similarly began with criminal charges against a longtime anti-American strongman before expanding into a wider regime-pressure effort involving sanctions, diplomatic isolation and heightened U.S. military activity in the Caribbean.

OBAMA’S BASEBALL OUTING WITH CASTRO REIGNITES FURY AFTER TRUMP DOJ DROPS HAMMER ON CUBAN LEADER

Federal prosecutors charged Castro and several former Cuban officials Wednesday in connection with the 1996 shootdown of two Brothers to the Rescue civilian aircraft that killed four men, including three U.S. citizens. Castro was Cuba’s defense minister at the time of the attack. 

U.S. prosecutors allege Castro helped authorize the operation after the civilian planes repeatedly entered Cuban airspace while conducting missions linked to the Miami-based Brothers to the Rescue organization, which searched for Cuban migrants at sea and opposed the communist government in Havana.

Cuban fighter jets ultimately shot down two unarmed aircraft over international waters in 1996, according to the indictment, triggering international condemnation and one of the most severe crises in U.S.-Cuba relations since the Cold War. 

“At the very least, it means symbolically that he is now set up just as Nicolás Maduro was,” Christine Balling, a Cuba expert at the Institute of World Politics and former adviser to U.S. Special Operations Command South, told Fox News Digital.

During Trump’s earlier pressure campaign against Maduro, the U.S. indicted the Venezuelan leader on narcoterrorism charges, tightened sanctions on the country’s oil sector, backed opposition efforts to remove him and increased military operations in the Caribbean.

The campaign ultimately culminated in a U.S.-backed operation that removed Maduro from effective power and reopened channels of American influence inside Venezuela through energy negotiations and cooperation involving senior figures including Vice President Delcy Rodríguez.

RUBIO LAYS OUT THREE-PHASE PLAN FOR VENEZUELA AFTER MADURO: ‘NOT JUST WINGING IT’

Balling cautioned that she did not believe the U.S. was necessarily preparing the same type of operation against Castro or Cuba itself.

“I don’t think that we are necessarily going to conduct the same operation,” she said. “Raúl Castro is 94 years old. It might not be worth the trouble.”

Still, Balling argued, the indictment sends “a very straightforward message that we are 100% behind the fall of the Castro regime.”

The White House could not immediately be reached for comment. 

RUBIO SAYS CUBA NEEDS ‘NEW PEOPLE IN CHARGE’ AS BLACKOUTS, UNREST GRIP ISLAND

Secretary of State Marco Rubio reinforced that message this week with a direct appeal to the Cuban people, accusing the communist government of blaming the island’s collapse on the U.S. “blockade” while enriching military-linked elites who dominate the Cuban economy. Rubio also highlighted the success of Cubans living abroad, arguing the Cuban people — not the regime — were capable of prosperity.

Balling described Rubio’s remarks as a deliberate attempt to undermine Havana’s domestic propaganda and convince Cubans that the regime, rather than the United States, bears primary responsibility for the island’s economic collapse.

“Rubio wants them to understand that the regime is acting against their own interests,” she said.

Trump further fueled speculation this week when asked whether tensions with Cuba would escalate following the Castro indictment.

“There won’t be escalation,” Trump said. “We won’t have to.”

Some analysts interpreted Trump’s comments — combined with Rubio’s direct appeals to ordinary Cubans — as a sign the administration may believe internal pressure against the regime could eventually accomplish what direct military escalation would not.

“It’s sowing the seeds of a counter-revolutionary feeling,” Balling said.

But Balling warned that any serious destabilization of Cuba could trigger consequences far beyond the island itself, particularly a potential mass migration crisis just 90 miles from Florida.

“If we go so far as to engage militarily, we are probably looking at thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of refugees,” she said.

Cuba has already been suffering through rolling blackouts, fuel shortages and a worsening economic crisis as the administration increases pressure on the island’s energy lifelines.

Despite the increasingly confrontational rhetoric, Washington has also kept open limited channels of communication with Havana.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe traveled publicly to Cuba on May 14 for talks with senior Cuban security officials, delivering what U.S. officials described as a warning that Cuba could no longer serve as a “safe haven for adversaries” while also offering the prospect of deeper economic and security engagement if Havana makes “fundamental changes.” 

The visit came as the Trump administration pressed a $100 million humanitarian aid proposal aimed at addressing Cuba’s worsening blackout and fuel crisis. Cuban officials signaled they were open to accepting assistance distributed through independent humanitarian and religious organizations rather than directly through the government.

Analysts say Cuba’s armed forces are far weaker than during the Cold War, when the island fielded one of Latin America’s largest militaries with Soviet backing. Today, experts describe the Cuban military as severely degraded by decades of economic collapse, fuel shortages and aging equipment.

“Cuba had a First World military in a Third World country,” Frank Mora, former deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Western Hemisphere under President Barack Obama, told The Wall Street Journal this week. “It’s a shell of a shell of what it used to be.”

Still, analysts caution that Cuba’s weakness does not necessarily make the island easy to pressure or destabilize.

Unlike Venezuela, where the U.S. has at times maintained limited economic engagement despite sanctions on Maduro’s government, Cuba’s military-linked conglomerate GAESA controls large portions of the island’s economy, including tourism, retail and infrastructure.

Balling argued that the deep integration between the regime and the broader Cuban state could complicate any attempt to isolate Havana’s leadership without further destabilizing the country itself.

The administration also has increasingly framed Cuba as a broader national security concern beyond the island’s deteriorating conventional military capabilities. Rubio this week accused Havana of hosting Chinese and Russian intelligence infrastructure.

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For now, administration officials have stopped short of outlining any military plans toward Cuba. 

But the combination of criminal charges, economic pressure, information campaigns and visible U.S. military assets in the region has convinced many Cuba watchers that the White House is exploring whether the Maduro pressure model can be adapted just 90 miles from American shores.

The United States Army reached its recruiting goals for 2026 four months early, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth revealed during a Saturday commencement speech at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York.

“Recruitments are up across the joint force, and I’m pleased to announce that just two days ago, the U.S. Army met its 2026 recruiting goals four months early,” Hegseth said.

“A second record year in a row. That means you’re about to train this group right here and lead 61,500 new soldiers. And next year, when we grow the size of the army, it will be even more when you’re out there in your formations as platoon leaders at the tip of the spear, you will be at the tip of the spear of their snapback,” he continued.

In 2025, the Army set a goal of 61,000 and exceeded it with 62,050, according to the Pentagon.

DEFENSE SECRETARY PETE HEGSETH REVEALS WHY MILITARY RECRUITMENT HAS SOARED UNDER TRUMP

“The men and women who chose to serve our nation are actively showing their commitment to something larger than themselves,” Command Sgt. Maj. Danny Basham, United States Army Recruiting Division command sergeant major, said in a statement. “The nation depends on their strength, character and commitment.”

During Hegseth’s speech, the war secretary also criticized previous military policy of focusing on diversity goals and “anti-American ideologies.”

“They embraced the DEI craze and tried to introduce diversity and inclusion studies, and they hired professors who advocated for anti-American ideologies right here in these halls. But no more. West Point is set apart. It’s special. It’s above politics. Success here is based on merit. It’s how you perform that matters. This is the United States Military Academy,” he said.

WEST POINT DISBANDS GENDER-BASED, RACE CLUBS IN TRUMP’S DEI SWEEP

“The single dumbest phrase in military history was peddled in our army only a few short years ago. You’ve all heard it, maybe in your first two years at West Point. Our diversity is our strength. The single dumbest phrase in military history,” he said.

“We had generals saying this with a straight face on national television. It was absolute nonsense. Now, these sorts of silly things can be laughed at when they occur in a civilian lounge or civilian faculty lounge, or debated in graduate seminars, but they cannot be tolerated in our formations. These ideas are what get people killed. Diversity is not our strength. Unity is our strength,” Hegseth said, garnering applause.

He continued to praise the graduating cadets and painted a picture of a dangerous world confronting them.

HEGSETH VOWS TO REBUILD MILITARY DETERRENCE SO ENEMIES ‘DON’T WANT TO F— WITH US’

“You’re in a dangerous line of work, and there is no world in which high intensity conflict exists without great pain, agony, sickness, and human tragedy. In this War Department, we raise up warriors. Purpose built, not for good weather, blue skies or fancy parades. We’re built to load up on the back of helicopters, C-17s or Strykers in the dead of night, in fair weather or foul, to go to dangerous places, to engage those who would do our nation and our citizens harm and deliver justice in close and brutal combat on behalf of the American people,” he continued.

“But what makes us different is that we don’t fight because we hate what’s in front of us. We fight because we love what’s behind us. Our family, our freedom and our flag. The battlefield does not grade on a curve, and you can’t throw your pronouns at the enemy. Combat is the ultimate test, and our best Americans must ace it,” Hegseth said.

Hegseth’s speech touched heavily upon faith as he read a verse from Isaiah 6:8. “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying ‘whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ and I said ‘Here I am! Send me,'” Hegseth read.

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“Send me is the timeless, selfless call to service,” he said.

He also invoked Charlie Kirk while imploring the cadets to seek God always.

“As Charlie Kirk often said, ‘Remember always, this too shall pass.’ The good times will pass. The bad times will pass. You’re never as good as you think you are, nor are you as bad as you think you are. Seek God in every circumstance,” he said.

Hegseth delivered his speech Saturday as the U.S. considering resuming fresh military actions against Iran as a peace deal hangs in the balance. The war secretary discussed what was asked of the U.S. military during Operation Epic Fury.

“Your soldiers must be ready for anything because the world is only getting more complex. Just look at what our soldiers have done in just the last few months alone, we’ve asked our airborne and rapid reaction forces to deploy at a moment’s notice to the Middle East, standing as an iron shield to protect American bases and American lives from Iranian proxies. This includes American Army units using HIMARS to help sink the Iranian Navy. I know the Army loves sinking the Navy. That’s the only name navy you’re currently allowed to sink,” Hegseth joked, referencing the known friendly rivalry between the U.S. Army and the U.S. Navy.

President Donald Trump is holding a conference call on Saturday afternoon with Arab leaders to get their opinions on a draft agreement with Iran. The president reportedly told Axios earlier Saturday he’s a “solid 50/50” on whether a “good” deal could be reached or else “blow them to kingdom come.”

FIRST ON FOX: A Texas congressional race already marred by scandal is facing new controversy after veterans condemned political ads sent ahead of Memorial Day weekend that mock a President Donald Trump-backed veteran over his military disability.

With days left in a bitter Republican primary runoff election between John Lujan and Carlos De La Cruz in Texas’ 35th Congressional District, a mail ad sent this week by the Lujan-aligned political action committee Protect and Serve knocked De La Cruz over his disability status, referring to him as “the ‘100% disabled’ kickboxer.”

The ad rips into De La Cruz, an Air Force veteran who was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, suggesting he “claims a 100% disability to avoid paying any property taxes.” The ad goes on to say that though the “VA defines 100% disabled as for veterans whose ‘conditions are so severe that they result in total impairment,’” De La Cruz “was physically fit enough to train in and operate a kickboxing gym and lists himself as a volunteer carpenter.”

Charlotte Neiner, an Air Force veteran and Wounded Warrior Project member, told Fox News Digital that as a disabled veteran herself, “This is the most shameful thing I have ever pulled out of my mailbox.”

She emphasized that “to do this days before Memorial Day is a disgrace.”

REPUBLICANS GET ‘AGGRESSIVE’ IN FIGHT TO WIN TOP COP SPOTS IN BATTLEGROUND STATES

“Career politician John Lujan’s team is doing his dirty work, attacking a fellow veteran’s wounds,” she posited, adding, “He never wore the uniform a single day. He has no idea what these injuries cost, and he never will.”

In Neiner’s opinion, “a man with this little honor has no business anywhere near Congress.”

She said that after this episode, Lujan “will not get my vote, he will not get the vote of a single veteran I know, and I will personally make sure every veteran in this district knows exactly what he did.”

Neiner added, “I am proudly voting for Carlos De La Cruz, and John Lujan should be ashamed of himself.”

WARREN TORCHED OVER ‘MY KIND OF MAN’ PRAISE FOR PLATNER AFTER DEATH-WISH POST FOR WOUNDED VETERAN RESURFACES

The Lujan campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Under Texas law, veterans deemed 100% disabled or individually unemployable by the Department of Veterans Affairs can receive a total exemption from property taxes on their primary residence homestead. More than 164,000 Texas veterans with 100% disability ratings are estimated to receive the state’s full homestead property-tax exemption, according to Texas disabled-veteran property tax advocates citing 2024 VA data.

De La Cruz owned and operated a kickboxing gym in the San Antonio area.

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Lujan and De La Cruz are set to face off again on Tuesday after neither candidate was able to reach the required 50 percent vote threshold to earn the GOP nomination. In their first matchup, Lujan had an edge, finishing with roughly 32 percent of the vote and De La Cruz placing second with roughly 27 percent.

Both candidates have garnered top-name endorsements, with De La Cruz being backed by Trump and Lujan being backed by Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.

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This comes as the Democratic primary in the same district has been equally controversial. Democrat Maureen Galindo stirred up national outrage by vowing in a social media post to imprison and castrate “American Zionists.”

Fox News Digital also reached out to Protect and Serve PAC for comment.

A Democratic gubernatorial hopeful in Maine, who is scheduled to campaign with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., on Sunday and Monday, has been pitching himself to voters as a pro-choice candidate for governor, but his track record indicates that wasn’t always his stance.

As a state lawmaker, he received a 100% rating from the Maine Right to Life — a designation indicating a voting record wholly consistent with pro-life policies.

Jackson’s reversal demonstrates the fallout of the Dobbs v. Jackson Supreme Court decision that ended a constitutional right to an abortion and made the issue, previously a federal debate, a state-driven consideration.

In their 2022 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that no guarantee of a right to an abortion existed in the Constitution, meaning that individual states would have to decide on a case-by-case basis where to draw the line under what circumstances residents could legally end a pregnancy.

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Maine, with Jackson’s help, immediately passed expansions to abortion access, removing restrictions on late-term abortions.

The move prompted praise for Jackson from Planned Parenthood, the country’s largest abortion provider.

“We applaud President Jackson and the 20 state senators and 76 representatives acting in the best interest of Mainers today,” Planned Parenthood wrote in a press release.

Just 10 years earlier, Jackson had voted for a bill in 2011 that would have affirmed personhood in the womb.

Two years later, in 2013, Jackson also voted to advance counseling requirements for women considering an abortion, providing them with second-opinion resources designed to explore alternatives to ending a pregnancy.

Both of those efforts failed.

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Even so, they garnered enough attention to put Jackson on the radar of abortion rights groups — and not in a good way.

In 2014, EMILY’s List, a pro-abortion group, launched a six-figure TV ad campaign against Jackson, according to local reporting.

“Politicians should not be involved in a woman’s personal medical decisions about her pregnancy. Period,” Emily Cain, Jackson’s primary opponent in 2014, told the Portland Press Herald.

As recently as October 2022, just four months after the Dobbs decision, Jackson told local reporters he was struggling with the issue.

Since declaring his candidacy for governor last May, Jackson seems to have left that struggle behind.

“The right to decide if and when to start a family is fundamental to our freedom and to who we are as Americans. It is a deeply personal decision that should not be made by politicians or justices,” Jackson said in a post to Instagram last year.

“On the anniversary of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, I will continue to fight back against efforts to undermine abortion rights and stand up for reproductive freedom in Maine,” Jackson wrote.

Sanders, who has supported abortion and has run as a pro-choice candidate for decades, officially endorsed Jackson on Friday, calling him the governor “that working Mainers need.”

“Troy is different,” Sanders said. “Fighting for the working class of Maine is not something new for Troy. That’s what he has done for his entire life as a logger and as a member of the Maine state legislature. Troy knows what’s going on with the working class of Maine because he’s part of that working class.”

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“Troy has also been part of our progressive working class movement from the beginning,” he continued. “He has always stood with those of us who understand that health care is a human right, that workers deserve a living wage, and that we need a government that works for all-not just the ultra-wealthy and well-connected.”

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Notably, Jackson does not list abortion access as a top priority on his campaign website.

In Maine, there is no strict cutoff that prevents abortion at any point in a pregnancy, although some protections apply after viability, around the 24 to 26 week mark. Late-term abortions are permissible with the approval of a licensed physician.

Fox News Digital reached out to Sanders and Jackson’s campaign.

In November 2017, Chief Petty Officer Kenton Stacy was injured in Raqqa, Syria, while clearing the second floor of a hospital that ISIS had booby-trapped with explosives. Now a quadriplegic, Stacy, his wife Lindsey and their four children are part of a lawsuit brought by military families against the French cement company Lafarge recently found guilty by a French court of paying millions of dollars in bribes to ISIS to keep their factory open in ISIS-controlled territory in Syria.

“I mean, they were essentially funneling money to fund terrorists and ISIS and all these heinous crimes and evil acts,” Lindsey Stacy told Fox News while standing by the side of her husband, the former Navy Explosives Ordnance Disposal (EOD) specialist, who just had another surgery to deal with injuries sustained in Syria nine years ago.

“It’s very overwhelming, Kenton struggles mentally and physically with his own battles and the kids and I, we have our own struggles,” she said. “It’s hard to juggle, especially when our oldest son has cerebral palsy and he requires his own 24-7 care.”

President Donald Trump praised Stacy’s service to the nation in his 2018 State of the Union Address to Congress. Army Staff Sgt. Justin Peck bounded into a booby-trapped building to rescue Kenton and then gave him more than two hours of CPR while medics worked to save his life.

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“Kenton Stacy would have died if not for Justin’s selfless love for a fellow warrior. Tonight, Kenton is recovering in Texas. Raqqa is liberated… All of America salutes you,” Trump said.

In a landmark ruling in April, a French court convicted Lafarge, the world’s largest cement manufacturer, of providing material support to a terror group and sentenced its former CEO to six years in prison. Eight former Lafarge employees were found guilty. Lafarge is appealing.

The company acknowledged the court’s finding describing the issue as a “legacy matter,” which was “in flagrant violation of Lafarge’s Code of Conduct.”

Nearly 1,000 plaintiffs, most of them military families, are part of earlier litigation in the Eastern District of New York.

“They were killed, in Syria, by a gruesome terrorist organization that was funded in part by Lafarge. And that’s not an allegation. That is undisputed fact. Lafarge [pleaded] guilty to doing that in 2022,” said Todd Toral, the lawyer from Jenner & Block representing Stacy and about 25 other families.

Toral, who is also a U.S. Marine, is seeking compensation for those families from the $777 million Lafarge paid to the Justice Department as part of the settlement. The Justice Department has had that money since October 2022.

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“I think the ruling by the court in France is significant generally, because it’s the first time in many, many years that a corporation, and not just the corporation, but executives at a corporation have been held to account for their misconduct in aiding terrorism,” Toral said in an interview with Fox News.

In order to operate in ISIS-controlled areas of Syria, Lafarge paid more than $6.5 million to ISIS from 2013–2014 through its Syrian subsidiary to keep production facilities running. The cement produced at its factory in Jalabiya, a factory which was bought for $680 million months before the Syrian uprising began in 2011, was also used for tunnels and bunkers, which helped the terrorist group.

The lawsuit is significant because it marks the first time a company has faced U.S. charges for supporting a terrorist group.

In October 2022, Lafarge settled with the U.S. Justice Department before the French ruling, paying more than $777 million into an asset forfeiture fund currently controlled by the DOJ, funds which are supposed to compensate victims of the ISIS attacks, many of them American Gold Star families like Hailey Dayton, whose father was the first American killed by ISIS in Syria on Thanksgiving Day 2016.

“I was 15 when my dad was killed,” Hailey Dayton told Fox News from her home in Florida. “I saw six guys in Navy white step out of the van. I got so excited because I thought my Dad came back to surprise us. I remember opening the door, huge smile on my face, and I was looking at the men, trying to find my dad and I didn’t find, I didn’t see him, but instead I saw six guys with tears in their eyes.”

The Biden Justice Department denied requests to distribute the Lafarge funds while the case was still pending before a French court. Lafarge was found guilty by that court in April. In February, Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., pressed then-Attorney General Pam Bondi on when the DOJ planned to release the funds to the families.

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“In February 2025, my colleagues and I sent you a letter urging the department to review the petitions for remission submitted by the families of those fallen service members, including several of my constituents. The previous administration ignored these victims and our requests and left their petitions unresolved,” Biggs said to Bondi during a congressional hearing.

“Congressman, we are aware of that and we’re committed to doing everything we can to support the victims and work with you. Thank you for that question,” Bondi replied. That was more than a year ago and still DOJ has not distributed the compensation funds.

Now the plaintiffs, most of them military families, say the decision to release the funds rests with Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.

“I don’t know why. I don’t know why they’re ignoring us. To me, it feels like being a pawn. My dad, he went in when he was 19, he served 23 years,” Dayton, the Gold Star daughter of Chief Petty Officer Scott Dayton, said. “To the current Department of Justice, I would, say, make things right.”

Lindsey Stacy says she and her family have difficulty making ends meet given Kenton Stacy’s severe injuries.

“There’s a lot of families out there that could benefit from these funds. I mean, it’s been almost nine years. It would be nice to, you know, for justice to be served. They have been convicted recently in their own country, guilty. It has been a long battle, but it’d be nice just for it to come to an end, get some closure and be able to just take care of our family,” Stacy added. “I mean he made a huge sacrifice for our country and it would just be nice if they’d stand right by us and all the other co-plaintiffs.”

“We can think of no group of people who are more worthy of receiving compensation from that victim’s compensation fund than these families who lost a son, lost a brother, lost a husband, and they deserve to be treated better by the United States of America,” Toral, who continues to press his clients’ case, said in an interview ahead of Memorial Day weekend.

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The DOJ, which controls the $777 million dollars in penalties forfeited by Lafarge, issued the following statement: 

“The Department is committed to compensating all victims to the maximum extent permitted by law.  While we cannot comment on a pending matter, the Department will always engage in the appropriate process to evaluate claims and ensure that our brave servicemembers receive any amount of compensation to which they are entitled.”

This article is Part I of a Fox News Digital investigative series examining allegations that the communist government of Cuba built an influence network inside the United States that federal authotiries are now investigating. Part I focuses on the network’s rapid response following the indictment of Cuban leader Raúl Castro.

Just nine minutes after U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche announced murder charges against Cuban leader Raúl Castro for the 1996 shootdown of two civilian aircraft flown by exile group Brothers to the Rescue, a coordinated rapid response network was already mobilizing across the U.S. to defend Castro and the Communist Party of Cuba.

At 1:54 p.m. on Wednesday, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, a Marxist political organization deeply embedded in a “Hands Off Cuba” campaign, published six pre-produced graphics denouncing the indictment as a “BASELESS INDICTMENT OF RAUL CASTRO” and “A PRETEXT FOR ANOTHER WAR.”

Hours later, at 3:18 a.m. early Thursday morning, Vijay Prashad, executive director at Tricontinental, a Marxist think tank, wrote on X, “Cuba is not a menace to the world. The United States is a menace to the world. The world stands with Raúl Castro, hero of the Cuban Revolution. The world turns its back on Donald Trump, clown of human destruction.” Manolo De Los Santos, executive director of the People’s Forum, a New York-based nonprofit, shared the message without a word, as did leaders from CodePink, another leftist organization.

Then, 24 hours after Blanche’s announcement, at 1:46 p.m. on Thursday, BreakThrough News, a media platform aligned with the same activist ecosystem, published a video featuring defiant Cubans, with one man declaring, “We won’t hand over Raúl.”

Fox News Digital has learned that Justice and Treasury Department officials are investigating U.S. nonprofits and activist groups for allegedly coordinating lobbying, messaging, fundraising, delegations and political organizing efforts with Cuban government officials as part of a possible foreign influence campaign operating inside the United States.

A Fox News Digital investigation has identified 145 nonprofits, labor groups, advocacy organizations and activist collectives across the U.S. that are mobilizing in support of the Cuban government and the Communist Party of Cuba. Together, the organizations report about $1 billion in combined annual revenue.

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To U.S. national security officials examining the influence of foreign governments in the U.S., the rapid-response messaging campaign offers a striking example of how quickly the nationwide Cuba “solidarity” infrastructure synchronizes political messaging across nonprofits, media platforms, labor organizations and activist coalitions following major geopolitical developments involving the Cuban regime.

Making the alleged influence campaign even more complicated, the ANSWER Coalition, Party for Socialism and Liberation, BreakThrough News, CodePink, People’s Forum and Tricontinental are all part of a network funded by American expatriate tech tycoon Neville Roy Singham, who lives in Shanghai, supporting the Chinese Communist Party and its global agenda, including its defense of the communist regime in Cuba.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, a spokeswoman for the Embassy of Cuba in Washington denied any improper activity and said the country’s diplomats operate within the bounds of the Vienna Convention, where Article 41 states that diplomats “have a duty not to interfere in the internal affairs” of a state.

“Cuban diplomats strictly comply with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations,” the embassy spokeswoman said, noting that “part of diplomatic work” is to “promote friendly relations” and “interact with organizations and institutions of civil society in the State to which one is accredited.”

The embassy added that “it is neither extraordinary, nor a violation of any international or U.S. law, for Cuban diplomats to engage with civil society,” and said it doesn’t encourage Americans “to overthrow or act against the constitutional order of the United States.”

Sources familiar with the probe said investigators are also examining the activities of several prominent activists and organizers connected to the Cuba solidarity movement, including Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin and CodePink D.C. coordinator Olivia DiNucci.

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Federal investigators are also probing about 40 Americans who allegedly coordinated with Cuban government officials to bring goods and supplies to Cuba in “convoys” and “flotillas” earlier this year, sources told Fox News Digital.

The organizations under scrutiny span labor unions, activist nonprofits, solidarity campaigns, travel networks, socialist political groups and media operations.

The pro-communist Cuba ecosystem includes seven clear communities:

• Singham network: ANSWER Coalition; BreakThrough News; CodePink; International People’s Assembly and its affiliates; Liberation News and Party for Socialism and Liberation; People’s Forum and its fiscally-sponsored projects, Venceremos Brigade and Hatuey Project; Tricontinental Institute; IFCO and its Pastors for Peace project,
• Labor unions and labor activists: AFL-CIO-affiliated organizers, International Association of Machinists Local 1484, Labor/Community Strategy Center, Service Employees International Union, Teamsters tied to Amazon labor campaigns, United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers Local 36
• Cuba travel brigades, convoys and delegations: Activist flotilla and humanitarian caravan organizers; Global Exchange; Hands Off Cuba Committees; National Network on Cuba; Nuestra América Convoy organizers
• Socialist, Marxist, Communist organizations: African People’s Socialist Party, Communist Party USA, Democratic Socialists of America, Peace and Freedom Party, Socialist Unity Party, Socialist Workers Party
• Media and propaganda ecosystem: activist social media amplification campaigns, anti-imperialist podcasts and livestream networks, BreakThrough News, BT News, Liberation News, Tricontinental
• Legal, academic and institutional networks: National Lawyers Guild; church and faith-based solidarity organizations, educational outreach organizers working in schools and campuses, , professors tied to Cuba delegations and anti-sanctions campaigns, university-based Cuba solidarity groups
• Humanitarian and aid infrastructure: agricultural solidarity campaigns, Global Health Partners, medical supply campaigns, “people-to-people” exchange organizers, solar panel fundraising drives

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Investigators are also scrutinizing travel and delegation infrastructure tied to the network, including organizations coordinating labor trips, educational exchanges, people-to-people tours, activist brigades and humanitarian convoys to Cuba.

Under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, Americans who engage in political activities in the United States at the direction or control of a foreign government may be required to register with the Justice Department. Advocacy itself is protected under the First Amendment, and registration under FARA doesn’t prohibit political activity. Investigators are examining whether any organizations crossed the line from independent activism into coordinated activity directed by Cuban government officials.

Investigators are examining whether some organizations and activists are coordinating lobbying, messaging, delegations, fundraising and political organizing efforts with Cuban government officials without registering under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, known as FARA, according to sources familiar with the inquiry.

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, enforces the decades-old U.S. sanctions regime against Cuba, including restrictions on financial transactions, material support, shipping and the transfer of goods and services to the island.

While humanitarian exemptions and licensed travel categories exist, investigators are examining whether some activists and nonprofit groups coordinated shipments, fundraising, “convoys,” flotillas and aid campaigns in ways that may have violated sanctions regulations or evaded reporting requirements.

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Investigators are also scrutinizing whether organizations used intermediary nonprofits, fiscally sponsored projects or generic donation language in ways that obscured Cuba-related transactions that otherwise could have triggered additional compliance scrutiny under OFAC regulations.

One fundraising page soliciting solar panel donations for Cuba instructed donors: “Please do not write ‘Cuba’ in donation comments or on the memo line of checks. Simply write ‘Urgent Aid.’”

Sources familiar with the probe said investigators are also examining the activities of several prominent activists and organizers connected to the Cuba solidarity movement, including Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, CodePink cofounder Medea Benjamin and CodePink D.C. coordinator Olivia DiNucci.

“Cuba is 100% operating a foreign influence operation in the U.S.,” said Heritage Foundation senior fellow Mike Gonzalez, a Cuban-born author who has written extensively on communist influence operations in Latin America.

He described Cuba as “ground zero for anti-American revolutionary organizing in the Western Hemisphere.”

Gonzalez told Fox News Digital, “Cuba is a prep school for revolutionaries.”

“The Cuban regime has spent decades building influence networks inside universities, labor groups, activist nonprofits, churches and solidarity organizations in the U.S.,” Gonzalez said. “The key question for investigators is whether these organizations crossed the line from protected activism into coordinated political activity directed by a foreign government.”

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FIRST ON FOX: Vulnerable border Democrat Rep. Gabe Vasquez, D-N.M., is being slammed for “hypocrisy” on his pro-law enforcement stance after a Black Lives Matter post and interview calling to “deconstruct” and “defund” the police resurfaced.

Vasquez, who is widely reported as a “moderate Democrat” and is a self-described “bipartisan player,” also recently voted against a House resolution expressing support for law enforcement officers and condemning defund the police efforts and sanctuary policies.

With Republicans currently holding a razor-thin majority in the House of Representatives, every congressional seat considered competitive is critical to both parties in this midterm election. Vasquez’s New Mexico swing district in particular is considered highly vulnerable and is a top target for the GOP this cycle.

This week, Vasquez published an opinion piece in the Las Cruces Sun News in which he argued police officers “deserve thanks, support and funding.” In the piece, Vasquez pointed to the funding streams he helped secure for local law enforcement and wrote that “no amount of public recognition can ever fully express the gratitude they deserve.”

However, a National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman said, “Defund the police Gabe Vasquez’s shameless hypocrisy isn’t fooling anyone.”

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On June 1, 2020, exactly a week after the death of George Floyd and in the midst of widespread anti-police riots, Vasquez, a Las Cruces city council member at the time, posted on social media, “Black lives matter. Until we deconstruct and rebuild the systems of oppression that keep black people in perpetual harm, justice will not be served.”

He added, “that includes law enforcement, the economy, and the disgusting wealth inequality that keeps white rich men in power.”

Further, a 2022 article published by The Washington Free Beacon resurfaced a local news interview with a masked man resembling Vasquez but named “James Hall” at a 2020 George Floyd protest.

In the interview, the man says, “We need serious police reform in this country,” and “it’s not just about defunding police, it’s about defunding a system that privileges white people over everyone else.” 

The outlet reported that deleted screenshots of social media posts showed Vasquez present at that same rally.

The Free Beacon wrote that a Vasquez spokesperson confirmed he was the man who made those statements, saying, “the name was attributed to him by the news station when he declined to give his name as he wanted the focus to be on the organizers.”

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More recently, during National Police Week last week, Vasquez voted against a resolution expressing support for law enforcement officers. The measure praised police officers’ service and sacrifice, condemned “defund the police” rhetoric, criticized sanctuary city policies, and credited Trump-era “law and order” policies with helping reduce violent crime.

Democrats argued the resolution was overly partisan and politicized.

This week, Vasquez published an opinion piece in which he detailed recent visits with local law enforcement leaders and wrote, “I will always stand with our law enforcement officers.”

He also touted a $250,000 cutout he secured for the Carlsbad Police Department, as well as a $1.06 million investment for Albuquerque’s Real Time Crime Center and a $500,000 investment for technology and training upgrades at the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office.

Vasquez emphasized in his opinion piece that “in addition to our thanks and admiration, they also need and deserve resources, investments, and funding.”

A Vasquez campaign spokesperson responded to the new criticisms by telling Fox News Digital, “If you want to know where Vasquez stands on public safety, look at the receipts.”

“This year alone, Vasquez singlehandedly brought $1.8 million home for local police departments from Albuquerque to Carlsbad to pay for technology, station upgrades and facilities for more officers to keep themselves and New Mexicans safe,” the spokesperson said.

The campaign also pointed to a recent speech Vasquez delivered on the House floor honoring Doña Ana County Deputy Sheriff Antonio Aleman, who was killed in the line of duty in 2025. 

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His critics, however, believe his prior statements will come back to haunt him this November.

Richardson told Fox News Digital that “New Mexicans know Vasquez is firmly anti-law enforcement, which is why they’ll elect long-time Albuquerque Police Officer Greg Cunningham to replace him this fall.”

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A Marine veteran and 20-year New Mexico law enforcement officer, Cunningham is running unopposed in the GOP primary for the seat.

In a statement shared with Fox News Digital, Cunningham asserted that Vasquez “wants New Mexicans to forget who he really is.”

“He spent years parroting the same anti-police rhetoric that gutted morale and hollowed out departments across this country. Now, six months out from an election, he writes a love letter to law enforcement and hopes nobody remembers the rest,” he said.

“I remember. So do the officers I served alongside for years on the streets of Albuquerque. I know what it’s like to work a drug case at three in the morning. I know what these drugs are doing to New Mexico families, because I spent my career going after the people pushing them. And I know the difference between a politician who shows up for a Police Week photo op and a leader who has his officers’ backs the other 51 weeks of the year.”

He added that “when I get to Washington, the men and women wearing the badge in NM-02 will finally have something they have not had in this seat. One of their own.”

Americans traveling this Memorial Day weekend will face some of the highest gas prices in history.

Despite the soaring costs due to the ongoing conflict in Iran causing shipping bottlenecks and blockades, AAA expects more than 39 million people to hit the roads over the holiday weekend.

Meanwhile, the White House has attempted to build rapport with Americans ahead of the 2026 midterms by rolling out a series of extraordinary measures aimed at easing pain at the pump amid an economic squeeze causing rising prices and stubborn inflation.

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The fuel cost surge persists amid renewed turmoil in global energy markets as escalating tensions in Iran have disrupted oil supplies and driven crude prices higher after the war broke out in late February.

National gas prices are now hovering near record territory, eclipsing levels seen during previous summer travel seasons and raising fears of even higher costs ahead.

President Donald Trump has released record amounts of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve as a way to ease prices and has called for a federal gas tax holiday. His administration also temporarily waived a century-old shipping law known as the Jones Act to move fuel more quickly between U.S. ports.

Despite those efforts, drivers across the country are continuing to see sharp increases at the pump.

West Coast drivers are facing the steepest costs, with gas hitting $6.14 per gallon in California and $5.70 in Washington state, according to data compiled by AAA.

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On the East Coast, prices have climbed above $4.50 in several areas, including $4.67 in Washington, D.C., and $4.62 in Pennsylvania.

In the Midwest, Illinois stands out at $5.01 per gallon, while much of the region remains in the mid-$4 range. Southern states continue to see comparatively lower costs, though prices are climbing there as well, reaching $4.03 in Georgia, $4.09 in Texas and $4.51 in Florida. Mississippi currently has the nation’s cheapest gas at $4.01 per gallon.

Beyond gasoline, other fuel costs are rising even faster.

Diesel has climbed to $5.65, up about $2.10 over the past year. As a key fuel for freight, shipping and public transportation, it is especially sensitive to supply disruptions and its rising cost can quickly ripple through the broader economy, pushing up prices on everything from groceries to goods.

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The surge underscores the broader economic risks tied to the standoff, as uncertainty around the Strait of Hormuz continues to rattle energy markets.

With midterm elections looming, rising gas prices are once again becoming a major political vulnerability as frustrated Americans watch the cost of filling up climb higher.

As pervasive fraud schemes continue to sweep across the U.S., a group that seeks to preserve economic freedoms at the state level says that former President Joe Biden‘s policies were a main driver for the proliferation of the issue.

OJ Oleka, CEO of the State Financial Officers Foundation, said “relaxed controls” during the last administration opened the door to widespread fraud and misuse of taxpayer dollars. And state treasurers are now leading the fight to strengthen oversight and reclaim funds for the American people.

“This isn’t a partisan statement, but it is a true statement to say that this kind of exploded during the Biden administration,” Oleka told Fox News Digital. “A lot of the controls were turned off. A lot of states who have the philosophy that ‘more government is good’ just simply turned on the spigots and allowed anybody to get access to any benefit.”

Speaking from SFOF’s annual conference in Clearwater, Florida, Oleka said fraud has become so deeply embedded in government programs that it’s now “a feature in the system, not a bug.”

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SFOF’s first-ever Oversight Report for 2025 found that affiliated state financial officers protected and returned $28 billion to taxpayers last year, uncovering $5.7 billion in waste, fraud and abuse. They, meanwhile, generated or returned another $22.3 billion through investment earnings and unclaimed property programs.

“We say that fraud actually has an industry in this country,” Oleka said. “What we’re trying to do is root out the fraud industrial complex that exists within our government programs. That’s the biggest challenge.”

He pointed to weak eligibility requirements during Biden’s time in office — and sometimes no requirements at all — exploding the instances of fraud.

“Then practically anybody can have access to the benefits — people who don’t need them, people who don’t deserve them, people who aren’t even eligible for them,” he lamented.

President Donald Trump this year tapped Vice President JD Vance to lead a nationwide “War on Fraud.” It stemmed from the highly scrutinized Minnesota “Feeding Our Future” scheme, which allegedly defrauded the government out of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Oleka praised the Trump administration’s anti-fraud efforts, and in a February letter to the White House told Vance that SFOF members are “allies already on the battlefield” ready to help protect taxpayer dollars.

“The beauty of what’s happening now is you’ve got the Vice President and the task force and our state financial officers rooting to get this stuff out,” he said. “That’s the goal: you get it out root and branch, you stop it from being in the system, and you make a benefit system that actually works again for the American people.”

But, he said, future administrations need to continue the crack-down if Americans want to see lasting change.

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The SFOF is also working directly with members of Congress, including House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., and state officials to ensure fraud is addressed beyond the Trump administration, according to Oleka.

He also would like to see some of the changes cemented through executive order.

“You’ve got a system that is allowing you to do the things that you’re doing, but it’s clearly unethical, it’s clearly wrong, and you saw a lot of this actually take off during the Biden-era,” Oleka said.

Massive fraud was recently exposed in California, Maine and Ohio, where he said Democratic leaders failed to act because they “don’t have the political will to stop the fraud.”

A multi-million dollar hospice fraud scheme in California was uncovered, while a Maine health services company was accused by a whistleblower of misusing millions in Medicaid funds in December. In Columbus, Ohio, hundreds of home health companies that shared the same addresses and operated out of vacant or poorly maintained properties were found to have billed the federal government more than $250 million in Medicaid spending.

HOUSE GOP LAUNCHES NEW TASK FORCE, PROBES ALLEGED $250B MEDICAID FRAUD IN OHIO

“We’ve seen it in Minnesota, we’ve seen it in California, Maine and Ohio, all across the country,” Oleka said. “But what you also see are state financial officers who are standing up for the American people. What you also see is Chairman Comer standing up for the American people. You also see the Vice President and the task force and the President of the United States standing up for the American people.”

He insisted that taxpayers should not be on the hook to foot the bill for fraud.

“The American people do not benefit when there is a system that’s giving out their money to people who don’t deserve it and who don’t need it,” he said.

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Oleka argued that the push to end fraud goes hand-in-hand with lowering costs for Americans.

“Our folks not only talked about fraud, but also about how they can help lead the fight to make things more affordable for the American people,” he said. “As a result, the tone of the conference was hopeful.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Biden’s office for comment.

Cuban despot Raul Castro’s federal indictment is likely sparking paranoia inside the regime as officials look at what has happened to other despots this year, the one member of Congress who personally experienced the dictatorship’s terror told Fox News Digital.

Though no longer Cuba’s formal leader since Miguel Diaz-Canel took over in 2021, Raul Castro still holds a tighter grip on the levers of power in Havana than the island’s established government, House Homeland Security Committee member Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., said.

Gimenez said the indictment, while long overdue, could bring some measure of justice to the families of Americans killed in the 1996 downing of two humanitarian aircraft in the Strait of Florida.

Gimenez said Castro intentionally targeted a group that searched the sea almost daily for Cuban refugees attempting the 90-mile trip to the congressional district he now represents, spanning South Dade to the Keys.

OBAMA’S BASEBALL OUTING WITH CASTRO REIGNITES FURY AFTER TRUMP DOJ DROPS HAMMER ON CUBAN LEADER

“We have him on tape saying [he did it],” Gimenez said of Castro — indicted on Cuban Independence Day.

“We cannot tolerate any regime murdering American citizens wherever they may be.”

Asked whether Cuba may see a mission similar to the one in Venezuela, where U.S. forces extracted an indicted dictator, Gimenez said every situation is different even if the actors are ideologically and criminally similar.

“I think that the president’s going to let this kind of percolate for a while and also continue the pressure on the regime that we’ve been exerting,” he said, agreeing with fellow Miamian Secretary of State Marco Rubio that the Castro/Diaz-Canel regime is collapsing under its own failure.

The suspense — coming amid additional arrests of regime allies stateside and Castro’s charges Wednesday — is proverbially killing the Cuban government, he said.

“The island goes dark for hours and so I think [President Donald Trump’s] going to let it percolate for a while. I’m sure that he is drawing up plans for every contingency. He now has the legal authority to come in and try to arrest him, but I don’t think he is going to do that right away.”

Unlike Venezuela or Iran, America has a home base in Cuba — Guantanamo Bay.

But Gimenez — who recently visited the compound, and therefore his homeland, for the first time in more than 60 years since fleeing at age 6 — said the geopolitics are such that Gitmo is helpful but not the end-all.

CUBAN OFFICIAL REVEALS MILITARY ‘PREPARING’ FOR CONFLICT AFTER TRUMP CONSIDERS ‘TAKING’ ISLAND

Guantanamo lies on the opposite side of Cuba from Havana, so U.S. assets would need to be positioned closer in the event of any incursion.

“Just in case,” he said. “If something were to happen and the people rise up – so that Raul Castro doesn’t sleep very well at night; not knowing if our helicopters are coming for him.”

He said the best idea at present is creating an environment of constant psychological pressure for the regime — so that they are “looking out and [not] inward as much – thinking that somehow, Uncle Sam is just outside there, floating in the water with a big aircraft carrier.”

Gimenez said the U.S. government appears “actually serious this time – the first time any administration is taking the kind of action against one of the Castros.”

In prior comments, Gimenez referenced an Orange Bowl event attended by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright shortly after the murders, where the Clinton administration promised a response.

Therefore, protesters risking their lives in the streets may feel real change is afoot, Gimenez said, and that unlike in past administrations, the feds will “have their back.”

RUBIO SAYS CUBA NEEDS ‘NEW PEOPLE IN CHARGE’ AS BLACKOUTS, UNREST GRIP ISLAND

“[The regime doesn’t] wholesale kill thousands of people [like Iran] but they do put thousands of people in prison; torture them … Let’s see what’s going to happen inside the island with the Cuban people themselves.”

The administration also has a vocal Havana hawk in Rubio, the son of Cuban emigres.

Shortly after the interview, the feds in Miami detained the head of GAESA, Cuba’s public-private military-led entity that Gimenez said is the true lever of power in Havana. DHS then revoked Adys Lastres-Morera’s green card.

Diaz-Canel is a figurehead, Gimenez said, noting Castro leads GAESA and therefore is the end-all.

Gimenez quipped that his Miami colleague Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart made the point that “presidents” of Cuba essentially mean nothing – when he asked another interviewer if they had heard of a past president not named Castro.

Diaz-Balart also noted that his brother, former Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., wrote to the Clinton administration in 1996 demanding action, but none came.

POST-MADURO, PRESSURE BUILDS ON MEXICO OVER CUBA’S NEW OIL LIFELINE

“So, in the case of GAESA, it is run by military officers under the control of [the] Castros [and] controls 70% of Cuba’s economy… It shows you that there is a government inside a government,” Gimenez said.

He argued the estimated $16 billion held by GAESA self-enriches the regime while ordinary Cubans face economic collapse and private industry fails.

In a Spanish-language statement, Rubio noted GAESA is the reason the island has been “plundered” by its government – not from any alleged U.S. oil blockade.

As Gimenez and Rubio spoke, congressional support for the indictment was already building.

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., told Fox News military intervention in Havana should never be off the table.

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“Raul Castro – he’s killed Americans, and I’m so glad he’s indicted,” Scott said, adding that a 16-year-old was recently imprisoned for complaining his family lost electricity — agreeing an uprising may be in the offing.

Rep. Maria Salazar, R-Fla., who represents the U.S.-Cuban diaspora in Calle Ocho, said her community waited 65 years and 10 U.S. presidents to express this “message to the Castros.”

“It’s time for you guys to go.”

Now, with Castro’s indictment and the predictions of Gimenez, Diaz-Balart and others, Cuban Independence Day may have new meaning by the next time it passes on the calendar.

President Donald Trump isn’t backing down from his administration’s latest move that has blown up his agenda in Congress. 

Trump on Friday stood by the newly created “anti-weaponization” fund that some Republicans have described as a slush fund launched by the Department of Justice (DOJ) earlier this week. He argued that what could have been a massive payday for himself was converted into “justice” for others. 

“I gave up a lot of money in allowing the just announced Anti-Weaponization Fund to go forward,” Trump said on Truth Social. “I could have settled my case, including the illegal release of my Tax Returns and the equally illegal BREAK IN of Mar-a-Lago, for an absolute fortune.” 

SENATE GOP ERUPTS OVER TRUMP DOJ ‘ANTI-WEAPONIZATION’ FUND, PUNTS ICE, BORDER PATROL FUNDING

“Instead, I am helping others who were so badly abused by an evil, corrupt, and weaponized Biden Administration, receive, at long last, JUSTICE! President DJT,” he continued.

The fund stemmed from an agreement among Trump, his family and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to settle his $10 billion lawsuit against the government over the leak of their tax returns. 

The nearly $1.8 billion fund would “provide a systematic process to hear and redress claims of others who suffered weaponization and lawfare,” according to the DOJ. 

But its creation foiled his agenda in Congress to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Border Patrol throughout his term. Republicans contended that the timing could have waited.

REPUBLICANS RECOIL AS TRUMP’S BILLION-DOLLAR DOJ ‘SLUSH FUND’ FOR ALLIES THREATENS ICE, BORDER PATROL PLAN

“Well, it would have been nice if they had consulted, and I think they probably would have gotten plenty of advice from lots of folks about it, but it’s water under the bridge now,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said. 

“And you play the hand you’re dealt, and we’ll sort it out from here, but obviously it became a more complicated and bumpy path than we hoped,” he continued. 

That’s because the majority of Senate Republicans on Thursday took issue with a lack of clear guardrails on whether those convicted of assaulting police officers during the riots on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6, 2021, could make a claim and get a taxpayer-funded payout.

The announcement of the settlement and subsequent creation of the fund earlier this week derailed what was meant to be the last sprint to pass the massive, $72 billion package. The goal was to have the legislation on Trump’s desk by June 1. 

SENATE REPUBLICAN THREATENS TO DERAIL ICE, BORDER PATROL PACKAGE OVER TRUMP’S BILLION-DOLLAR REQUEST

But Republicans, facing severe political headwinds, weren’t satisfied with the explanations of how the fund would work and what guardrails could be installed. 

And despite the administration’s argument that the fund has nothing to do with the reconciliation process, it is inextricably tied to the maneuver because the Senate Judiciary Committee oversees the DOJ and has played a major role in crafting the broader package.

The Senate doesn’t return until Trump’s deadline, and the likelihood that lawmakers solve the issue and finish their work is low. 

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Meanwhile, Senate Democrats cheered the result.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., accused Republicans of “fleeing” from Washington, D.C., on Thursday, and charged that “they’re at each other’s throats.”

“Trapped in a corner by their own president, Republicans have their backs to the wall with no way out. Nowhere to hide. No end in sight,” Schumer said. “The only way for Republicans to get out of this box is to stop backing the slush fund. Stop pushing the ballroom.”

Republican attorney general candidates are betting that crime, border security and public safety will drive voters to the polls in November as they position themselves as frontline fighters against Democratic policies on immigration and law enforcement.

The Republican Attorneys General Association and its affiliated groups are launching an aggressive $11 million television offensive across key battleground states this fall, with initial ad purchases targeting attorney general races in Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Georgia and Kansas.

“I think we have learned that being aggressive is a good thing,” RAGA Chairman Austin Knudsen, who also serves as Montana attorney general, told Fox News Digital. “Being aggressive works.”

Republicans say the effort reflects a broader push to put Democrats on defense over crime and public safety issues in some of the country’s most competitive statewide contests.

END OF DEFUND POLICE ERA? CRIME, PROSECUTORIAL CRACKDOWN IN BLUE AND PURPLE STATES SIGNALS SHIFT, EXPERTS SAY

“I don’t think there’s any question that the winning message for AG races around the country in 2026 is public safety,” Knudsen said. “Americans care about public safety, they care about law enforcement, they care about border security.”

Knudsen argued attorney general races have become increasingly nationalized because they can quickly challenge federal policies through lawsuits and multistate legal coalitions.

Republican attorneys general scored major victories against the Biden administration, including a successful challenge to Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan that ended with the Supreme Court striking down the program in Biden v. Nebraska. GOP attorney general coalitions also sued to block the administration’s revised SAVE repayment plan, winning court orders delaying parts of the program.

Republican-led states also challenged Biden administration efforts to expand Title IX protections to include gender identity, turning attorney general offices into a major front in the nation’s culture wars.

“Congress talks. Attorneys generals act,” Knudsen said. “When we see something bad coming out of Washington, D.C., we can quickly mobilize. We can file lawsuits.”

REPUBLICAN AGS DOUBLE DOWN ON BIDEN ADMINISTRATION LAWSUITS AS PRESIDENT PREPARES TO LEAVE OFFICE

The ad reservations build on a broader Republican expansion effort already underway. Iowa Republican Attorney General Brenna Bird’s campaign has already reserved more than $2 million in fall television advertising, while RAGA says it raised a record $29.3 million across affiliated entities in 2025.

RAGA Executive Director Adam Piper said Republicans intend to capitalize on what they view as voter frustration over progressive criminal justice policies pushed by Democrats in battleground states.

“RAGA has a good map in 2026 and will be on offense because the reality is voters prioritize public safety and prefer Republican AGs who fight crime and win at the courthouse over Democrat AGs who pander to criminals with cashless bail idiocracy,” Piper said in a statement.

“These early TV reservations and direct candidate investments are merely a down payment on the resources RAGA will marshal this fall,” Piper added. “Democrats should understand that Republican AGs are not playing defense. We are taking the fight directly to them.”

The GOP is making Michigan a centerpiece of that argument.

Democrats there nominated Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit, whose office became the first in Michigan to stop seeking cash bail and announced it would no longer prosecute certain low-level drug offenses.

TUDOR DIXON RETURNS TO MICHIGAN POLITICS WITH NEW PAC AIMED AT BOOSTING REPUBLICANS IN KEY BATTLEGROUND

Michigan Republican attorney general candidate Doug Lloyd, the longtime Eaton County prosecutor, told Fox News Digital he believes public safety concerns cut across party lines in the battleground state.

“People want to feel safe in their communities, and they’re not feeling that safe right now,” Lloyd said. “That’s an 80-20 issue.”

Lloyd also accused Democratic prosecutors of selectively refusing to enforce laws, an issue Republicans increasingly plan to elevate nationally.

“I believe that when you start making that statement that ‘I refuse to enforce the laws that our legislature has created and which are constitutional’, then you’re on the road to anarchy,” Lloyd told Fox News Digital. “We’ve seen how that’s gone for the last eight years and I believe that our citizens are actually tired of it.”

In Georgia, Republicans are targeting Democratic attorney general nominee Tanya Miller over her vote against HB 1105, a post-Laken Riley immigration enforcement law requiring local officials to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.

Knudsen said Republicans learned important lessons during the Biden administration about how aggressively voters want attorneys general to challenge Democratic policies in court.

“We’ve seen the fentanyl, cartel fentanyl and methamphetamine flood in from the southern border during Joe Biden and flood every state,” Knudsen said.

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Knudsen said Republicans learned important lessons during the Biden administration about how aggressively voters want attorneys general to confront Democratic policies in court.

“People have figured out that attorney general’s races matter, I think we’ve gotten a lot more attention because of what we’ve been able to do,” Knudsen said. “As attorneys general, we can move quickly and our bread and butter is going to court. That’s what we do.”

“So when we see something bad coming out of Washington, D.C. or something big on the national scale, we can quickly mobilize.”

Fox News Digital has contacted the Democratic Attorneys General Association for comment.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) vowed to appeal a federal judge’s decision Friday to dismiss human smuggling charges against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who initially entered the U.S. illegally and allegedly had suspected ties to MS-13, slamming the ruling as “wrong and dangerous.”

U.S. District Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw Jr. on Friday threw out a two-count indictment in Tennessee against Abrego Garcia, ruling the DOJ’s actions amounted to “vindictive and selective prosecution” in violation of the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause.

Abrego Garcia was facing charges after allegedly conspiring to smuggle roughly 600 illegal immigrants into the U.S. annually, between 2016 and 2025, according to a cooperating witness.

FEDERAL PROSECUTOR ADMITS ‘EXTRAORDINARY’ TIMING IN ABREGO GARCIA SMUGGLING CASE CHARGES

“Another activist judge has placed politics above public safety,” a DOJ spokesperson told Fox News. “The judge’s order is wrong and dangerous, and we will appeal.”

The federal investigation was initially sparked by a November 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee and included suspected ties to the MS-13 gang and human trafficking.

The case became a constitutional standoff after the executive branch deported Abrego Garcia to El Salvador in March 2025 due to an alleged “administrative error.”

MARYLAND IMMIGRANT WRONGLY DEPORTED TO EL SALVADOR MUST RETURN TO US, SUPREME COURT RULES

Abrego Garcia sued the government, and the judicial branch — ultimately backed by the Supreme Court — unanimously ordered his return be “facilitate[d]” to the U.S.

Crenshaw, an Obama appointee, noted that just days after the Supreme Court’s ruling, the Department of Homeland Security suddenly reopened a closed investigation into Abrego Garcia’s 2022 traffic stop.

TENNESSEE BODYCAM OF ‘MARYLAND MAN’ TRAFFIC STOP SHOWS TROOPERS’ HANDS TIED DESPITE SMUGGLING CLUES

Top Justice Department officials, under the leadership of Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, then pushed for an indictment, according to court documents.

In his 32-page memorandum opinion, Crenshaw determined the DOJ’s rapid pivot from closing the case to prosecuting Abrego Garcia was a direct retaliation for his successful civil lawsuit.

Calling it an “abuse of prosecuting power,” the judge concluded “absent Abrego’s successful lawsuit challenging his removal to El Salvador, the Government would not have brought this prosecution.”

As a result of the finding, Crenshaw formally dismissed the indictment and vacated Abrego Garcia’s conditions of release.

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Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., who flew to El Salvador in April 2025 to meet with Abrego Garcia after he was deported to the country’s “Terrorism Confinement Center” (CECOT) megaprison, hailed Friday’s decision.

“Today, a federal judge made clear what we have long known: the Department of Justice was engaged in a vindictive prosecution against Kilmar Abrego Garcia,” Van Hollen said in a statment. “This decision is a strong repudiation of Trump’s lawless DOJ and a win for the Constitutional rights of everyone in our nation.”

The parents of Sheridan Gorman, the college freshman who was killed in Chicago earlier this year, appeared Friday at a New York rally hosted by President Donald Trump, where they demanded that leaders oppose sanctuary policies, saying the fight to protect children shouldn’t belong “to only one party.”

Trump was at Rockland Community College in Suffern, New York, when he introduced Gorman’s family. Jessica Gorman said her daughter’s life was “stolen” by someone who should have never been in the United States.

“At every step the system had a chance to stop him. At every step, it failed. And my daughter paid for those failures with her life,” she said. “No mother should ever have to wonder if her child called out for her in her final moments. No mother should ever have to imagine her baby left alone and bleeding on the cold pavement, and no family should ever have to bury a child because public officials failed to put innocent American lives first.”

CHICAGO MAYOR ASKED ABOUT CITY’S IMMIGRATION POLICIES AFTER ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT ALLEGEDLY KILLED COLLEGE STUDENT

Gorman, an 18-year-old Loyola University Chicago student, was shot and killed on March 19. She was walking along a lakefront pier at Tobey Prinz Beach with a group of friends when they encountered a masked man hiding behind a lighthouse structure.

Jose Medina, 25, an undocumented immigrant from Venezuela, was arrested the following day and charged with first-degree murder. He has pleaded not guilty.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Medina was released from custody months earlier despite an active Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainer. DHS released a statement confirming that Medina was released from custody twice. In 2023, the U.S. Border Patrol apprehended the suspect before releasing him, according to DHS. Later that year, he was arrested and released again following a shoplifting arrest.

“This is what failed policies have done to our family,” Tom Gorman said about his daughter’s death. “No family should have to become experts in immigration failures, release policies, warrants, sanctuary laws, and enforcement breakdowns because their daughter was killed by someone who should not have been here and should not be free.”

CHICAGO MAYOR JOHNSON UNVEILS ‘ABOLISH ICE’ SNOWPLOW DAYS AFTER STUDENT ALLEGEDLY MURDERED BY ILLEGAL MIGRANT

Days after Gorman was killed, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, a vocal Trump critic, unveiled a snowplow named “Abolish ICE,” infuriating the Gorman family.

“When they’re naming trucks and laughing and joking several days after our daughter was murdered, we’re waiting in Chicago to claim her body,” Jessica Gorman told “The Story” at the time. “It was more than infuriating. I don’t have—the vitriol that I felt was overwhelming.”

At Friday’s rally, Gorman’s father, Tom Gorman, thanked Trump and criticized leaders who oppose immigration enforcement.

ANGEL PARENTS SLAM ILLINOIS SANCTUARY LAWS AFTER ‘PREVENTABLE’ TRAGEDY IN STUDENT’S DEATH

“But I do not understand why this is a fight that belongs to only one party,” he said. “Protecting our people is not politics. It is the first responsibility of government.”

Many Democrats have expressed opposition to Trump’s deportation policies and targeting of undocumented immigrants, despite many suspects having been accused of or convicted of committing violent crimes while in the U.S.

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Gorman’s death has taken a tool on her family, but Friday’s rally comforted her sister, Madelon Gorman.

“I have to say you are just so funny,” she said of Trump. “My family has laughed more, smiled more in the past hour than we have since March 19th,” she said.

President Donald Trump announced during a rally in New York that he was posthumously awarding the nation’s highest civilian honor to Welles Remy Crowther, the 9/11 hero remembered as the “Man in the Red Bandana” after he repeatedly led victims to safety from the burning South Tower before dying in the terrorist attacks.

Trump revealed the Presidential Medal of Freedom honor during a Rockland County stop on Friday with Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., who had urged the president to recognize Crowther’s heroism ahead of the 25th anniversary of Sept. 11. Crowther, a 24-year-old equities trader who also worked as a volunteer firefighter, became a symbol of American courage after survivors recounted being guided through smoke and wreckage by a man wearing a red bandana over his face.

“At the request of Bruce, and Mike, and some of the political — great political people we have, and we are approaching the 25th anniversary of September 11th, 2001, a dark day that will live in infamy. We are posthumously awarding Welles the Presidential Medal of Freedom,” Trump told the Rockland County crowd, earning a resounding applause.

FOX NATION, TUNNELS TO TOWERS EXPLORES HOW AMERICA’S PASTIME HELPED A GRIEVING NEW YORK HEAL AFTER 9/11

“It’s the highest award outside of the Congressional Medal of Honor — those are the two biggies and Welles has one of them. I just want to congratulate his great mother in doing a phenomenal job in raising that young man. Boy, what bravery, saved those people and became a legend in a sense, nobody else would have done what he did. So he’s going to be getting the Presidential Medal of Freedom.”

The president subsequently brought up Welles’ mother, Alison Crowther, who addressed the pro-Trump crowd momentarily, describing the award bestowed on her son as a “huge honor.” 

“It’s such a beautiful thing that even 25 years later, Welles’ light still shines brightly,” she told the crowd, noting she has traveled the world telling her son’s story to places as far away as Jordan. Alison Crowther remarked that in these travels, when she tells children Welles’ story, “They’re tremendously moved and inspired … to be better people.”

NEW 9/11 MUSEUM EXHIBIT AIMS TO CONNECT YOUNGER AMERICANS TO THE ATTACKS THROUGH POWERFUL ARTIFACTS

Welles, an equities trader who worked on the 104th floor of the South Tower, was in his office when the first aircraft hit the North Tower that morning. He left his mother a voicemail shortly after the towers were struck, letting her know he was okay, but his body was later found amid the rubble.

According to the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, Welles “made three trips to the sky lobby, saving as many people as he could, until the burning building collapsed,” with some reports indicating he saved up to 18 lives that day. As he did so, Welles covered his nose and mouth with a red bandana he kept at his desk.

That red bandana is currently displayed at the 9/11 museum in New York City. The Tunnels to Towers Foundation, a nonprofit that supports first responders and their families, including those who became victims after 9/11, said Welles always kept a red bandana at his desk.

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The foundation recounted how, when he was asked why he always carried the red bandana, Welles replied: “With this red bandana, I’m going to change the world.” His father, the foundation said, told Welles to always carry a red bandana on him for “messy jobs.”

“People can live 100 years and not have the compassion, the wherewithal to do what he did,” a survivor rescued by Crowther has said.

In November 2017, Chief Petty Officer Kenton Stacy was injured in Raqqa, Syria while clearing the second floor of a hospital that ISIS had booby trapped with explosives. 

Now a quadriplegic, Stacy, his wife Lindsey, and their 4 children are part of a lawsuit brought by military families against the French cement company, Lafarge, recently found guilty by a French Court of paying millions of dollars in bribes to ISIS to keep their factory open in ISIS-controlled territory in Syria. 

“I mean, they were essentially funneling money to fund terrorists and ISIS and all these heinous crimes and evil acts,” Lindsey Stacy told Fox News while standing by the side of her husband, the former Navy Explosives Ordnance Disposal (EOD) specialist, who just had another surgery to deal with injuries sustained in Syria 9 years ago. 

“It’s very overwhelming, Kenton struggles mentally and physically with his own battles and the kids and I. We have our own struggles,” she continued. “It’s hard to juggle, especially when our oldest son has cerebral palsy, and he requires his own 24-7 care.”

SENATORS CALL ON BIDEN TO BRIEF UPPER CHAMBER ON EFFORTS TO RETURN AUSTIN TICE FROM SYRIA

President Trump praised Stacy’s service to the nation in his 2018 State of the Union Address to Congress. Army Staff Sergeant Justin Peck bounded into a booby-trapped building to rescue Kenton and then gave him more than 2 hours of CPR while medics worked to save his life.

“Kenton Stacy would have died if not for Justin’s selfless love for a fellow warrior. Tonight, Kenton is recovering in Texas. Raqqa is liberated.…All of America salutes you.”

In a landmark ruling in April, a French court convicted Lafarge, the world’s largest cement manufacturer, of providing material support to a terror group and sentenced its former CEO to 6 years in prison. Eight former Lafarge employees were found guilty. Lafarge is appealing.

The company acknowledged the court’s finding describing the issue as a “legacy matter,” which was “in flagrant violation of Lafarge’s Code of Conduct.”

Nearly 1,000 plaintiffs, most of them military families, are part of earlier litigation in the Eastern District of New York.

“They were killed in Syria by a gruesome terrorist organization that was funded in part by Lafarge. And that’s not an allegation. That is undisputed fact. Lafarge pled guilty to doing that in 2022.”

Todd Toral, the lawyer from Jenner & Block, is representing Stacy and about 25 other families.

Toral, who is also a US Marine, is seeking compensation for those families from the $777 million Lafarge paid to the Justice Department as part of the settlement. The DOJ has had that money since Oct 2022.

“I think the ruling by the court in France is significant generally, because it’s the first time in many, many years that a corporation, and not just the corporation, but executives at a corporation have been held to account for their misconduct in aiding terrorism,” Toral said in an interview with Fox.

In order to operate in ISIS-controlled areas of Syria, Lafarge paid more than $6.5 million to ISIS from 2013–2014 through its Syrian subsidiary to keep production facilities running. The cement produced at its factory in Jalabiya, a factory which was bought for $680 million months before the Syrian uprising began in 2011, was also used for tunnels and bunkers, which helped the terrorist group.

The lawsuit is significant because it marks the first time a company has faced U.S. charges for supporting a terrorist group.

DOJ ACCELERATES SETTLEMENT OFFERS IN CAMP LEJEUNE WATER CONTAMINATION CASES

In October 2022, Lafarge settled with the DOJ before the French ruling, paying more than $777 million into an asset forfeiture fund currently controlled by the DOJ, funds which are supposed to compensate victims of the ISIS attacks, many of them American Gold Star families, like Hailey Dayton, whose father was the first American killed by ISIS in Syria on Thanksgiving Day 2016.

“I was 15 when my dad was killed,” Hailey Dayton told Fox from her home in Florida. “I saw six guys in Navy white step out of the van. I got so excited because I thought my dad came back to surprise us. I remember opening the door, huge smile on my face, and I was looking at the men, trying to find my dad and I didn’t find, I didn’t see him, but instead I saw six guys with tears in their eyes.” 

The Biden Justice Department denied requests to distribute the Lafarge funds while the case was still pending before a French Court. Lafarge was found guilty by that court in April. In February, Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., pressed then-Attorney General Pam Bondi on when the DOJ planned to release the funds to the families.

“In February 2025, my colleagues and I sent you a letter urging the department to review the petitions for remission submitted by the families of those fallen service members, including several of my constituents. The previous administration ignored these victims and our requests and left their petitions unresolved,” Biggs asked Bondi during a Congressional hearing.

“Congressman, we are aware of that and we’re committed to doing everything we can to support the victims and work with you. Thank you for that question,” Bondi replied. That was more than a year ago and the DOJ has still not distributed the compensation funds.

Now the plaintiffs, most of them military families, say the decision to release the funds rests with Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.

“I don’t know why. I don’t know why they’re ignoring us. To me, it feels like being a pawn. My dad, he went in when he was 19, he served 23 years,” Dayton, the Gol Star daughter of Chief Petty Officer Scott Dayton, said.

“To the current Department of Justice, I would, say, make things right.” 

Lindsey Stacy, who says she and her family have difficulty making ends meet given Kenton Stacy’s severe injuries, added, “There’s a lot of families out there that could benefit from these funds. I mean, it’s been almost nine years. It would be nice to, you know, for justice to be served.”

FREEDOM ISN’T FREE: HONOR THOSE WHO NEVER CAME HOME ON THIS MEMORIAL DAY

 “They have been convicted recently in their own country, guilty. It has been a long battle, but it’d be nice just for it to come to an end, get some closure and be able to just take care of our family,” she added. “I mean he made a huge sacrifice for our country and it would just be nice if they’d stand right by us and all the other co-plaintiffs.”

“We can think of no group of people who are more worthy of receiving compensation from that victim’s compensation fund than these families who lost a son, lost a brother, lost a husband, and they deserve to be treated better by the United States of America,” Toral, who continues to press his clients’ case said in an interview ahead of Memorial Day Weekend.

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The Department of Justice, which controls the $777 million dollars in penalties forfeited by Lafarge, issued the following statement: 

“The Department is committed to compensating all victims to the maximum extent permitted by law. While we cannot comment on a pending matter, the Department will always engage in the appropriate process to evaluate claims and ensure that our brave servicemembers receive any amount of compensation to which they are entitled.”