NationalWatch

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has released additional evidence it says confirms that a staffer for Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, lied about being an attorney for detainees at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in an effort to meet with them and sneak in smuggled cell phones.

In March, Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons informed Escobar in a letter about Benito Torres, a senior caseworker on the congresswoman’s staff, who he said lied about being a lawyer for detainees in ICE custody at the Camp East Montana facility at Fort Bliss in El Paso.

Lyons requested that Escobar answer several questions about Torres’ alleged actions.

“Rep. Escobar refused to respond honestly. Instead, she took to X to defend Torres and gaslight the public,” DHS said Thursday.

ILHAN OMAR KICKED OUT OF ICE FACILITY AFTER DHS REQUIRES WEEK’S ADVANCE NOTICE

Initially, DHS released an image of a sign-in log showing Torres allegedly claiming to be a “lawyer” visiting a “client.” ICE records show that he first misrepresented himself as a legal professional in September 2025, Lyons said.

A Feb. 18 memo states that on a Jan. 23 visit to the facility, Torres falsely claimed to be an attorney while requesting to see 22 detainees. It was determined that he was not a legal professional, the memo said.

The most recent incident allegedly happened on Jan. 30.

ICE DIRECTOR STANDS HIS GROUND AFTER SWALWELL BLOWUP, SAYS DEMOCRATS ARE ‘MISLEADING THEIR CONSTITUENTS’

“Torres lied about being an attorney in order to gain access to an ICE detention facility,” a DHS statement said. “He misrepresented himself repeatedly over the course of several months, talking directly to detainees even though he was NOT their legal counsel. He even passed a phone around multiple detainees during a January 2026 visit, a dangerous violation of security protocols.”

“Actions like Mr. Torres’ are meant to undermine ICE’s statutory mission to enforce immigration laws and remove illegal aliens from the interior,” the statement continued.

Fox News Digital has reached out to DHS and Escobar’s office.

SHUTDOWN FLIPS ICE OVERSIGHT FIGHT AS DHS MOVES TO BLOCK SURPRISE LAWMAKER VISITS

At the time of the initial allegations by DHS, Escobar described Torres as “a dedicated public servant” and “Army veteran,” saying the accusations against him were “unfounded.”

She also criticized the facility and accused the Trump administration of retaliatory tactics.

“It is worth noting that ICE has refused to respond to multiple letters I’ve sent about Camp East Montana regarding deaths, including a homicide; outbreaks of diseases including COVID-19, measles, and tuberculosis; waste, fraud, and abuse; a lack of legal representation or medical care; and so much more,” she said. “This administration has a history of engaging in intimidation tactics against Members of Congress as well as continuously attempting to obstruct our ability to provide oversight.”

ICE DIRECTOR REFUSES TO RESIGN UNDER PRESSURE FROM ERIC SWALWELL NOT TO ‘SIDE WITH KILLERS’

“I stand proudly by the members of my team who have demonstrated nothing but dedication and integrity to serving our nation and our community,” Escobar added.

The congresswoman has previously demanded the Camp East Montana facility be shut down, describing it as “disastrous and inhumane.”

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“The United States already has the largest immigration detention network in the world, and these added facilities serve only as tools for the administration’s inhumanity,” she wrote in a March post on X.

Torres has been banned from ICE facilities.

War Secretary Pete Hegseth asked Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George to step down and take immediate retirement Thursday in a sweeping leadership shakeup as the U.S. military remains engaged in combat with Iran. 

A senior War Department official told Fox that Hegseth called George Thursday and asked for his immediate retirement, saying, “It was time for a leadership change in the Army.”

Chief spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a statement on X, “General Randy A. George will be retiring from his position as the 41st Chief of Staff of the Army effective immediately. The Department of War is grateful for General George’s decades of service to our nation. We wish him well in his retirement.” 

PENTAGON CITES ‘MERITOCRACY’ AS REPORTED OFFICER PROMOTION REMOVALS DRAW DEMOCRATIC CRITICISM

An Army official told Fox News Hegseth did not give George any reason for asking him to step down.

George, the Army’s top uniformed officer and a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was nominated by President Joe Biden and confirmed by the Senate in 2023. He had been expected to serve a four-year term through roughly 2027.

Prior to becoming Army chief, George, a career infantry officer with combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, served as senior military assistant to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin from 2021 to 2022, according to his official biography. 

Gen. Christopher LaNeve, the Army’s vice chief of staff, will serve as acting chief, according to a senior War Department official.

The move underscores growing tensions between Hegseth and Army Secretary Dan Driscoll. 

Hegseth recently intervened to remove multiple Army officers from a promotion list after Driscoll refused to do so, an unusual step, a U.S. official told Fox News.

PETE HEGSETH SLASHES MILITARY ‘FAITH CODES’ FROM OVER 200 TO 31 IN PENTAGON CHAPLAIN CORPS OVERHAUL

The disagreement caught the attention of the White House, which reviews senior military promotion lists before they are sent to the Senate, the official said.

The abrupt removal also marks the latest in a series of high-level military leadership changes under Hegseth, who has moved aggressively to reshape senior ranks.

The shakeups have included the removal or sidelining of several top uniformed leaders across the services, such as former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. and Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti, both of whom were pushed out earlier in the second Trump administration.

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Other moves have reached deep into the military’s senior leadership pipeline. Hegseth replaced the Army’s vice chief of staff earlier in 2026 and removed Lt. Gen. Jennifer Short from her role as senior military assistant, installing close allies in key advisory positions. 

Democrats are jubilant over the sudden ouster of Pam Bondi as head of the Department of Justice, with leading party members taking to social media to say “good riddance.”

Democrats rejoiced on X after President Donald Trump took to Truth Social on Thursday to confirm reports that Bondi was leaving her position as U.S. attorney general.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wrote, “Good riddance. Pam Bondi was the wrong choice from the start.”

He went on to assert that “the rot at the Department of Justice begins and ends with Donald Trump,” writing, “As long as his focus is on using DOJ as a tool for revenge and not law enforcement, the cover-up of the Epstein files, along with the countless other problems at DOJ, will continue.”

PAM BONDI ALREADY FIRED AS ATTORNEY GENERAL, CABINET OFFICIAL TEED UP AS REPLACEMENT: SOURCES

Prominent Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., a former Democratic presidential candidate, claimed that Bondi “will be remembered for blocking the release of the Epstein files, weaponizing the DOJ to go after Trump’s political opponents, and handing out merger approvals as political favors.”

“Under AG Pam Bondi, the DOJ became a cesspool of corruption,” she asserted, piling on another, “Good riddance.”

Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who during his time in the House of Representatives oversaw the Jan. 6 hearings, reacted by writing that Bondi “oversaw an unprecedented weaponization of the Justice Department that brought our nation’s rule of law to its knees.”

“Countless and baseless political investigations, hundreds of career law enforcement professionals purged, a massive cover-up of the Epstein files, and a wholesale effort to turn the department into a criminal law firm representing the person of the president instead of the American people,” Schiff alleged, adding, “But Pam Bondi was merely a symptom of Donald Trump’s chronic allergy to our nation’s laws.”

On the House side, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., wrote, “Pam Bondi is a partisan, petulant, political hack. And now she’s GONE.”

“Pam Bondi has been fired. Good riddance,” Jeffries wrote in another post, adding, “Pete Hegseth is next.”

“Keep the pressure on every single one of these extremists,” he wrote.

House Democratic firebrand Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, who recently lost her bid for the party’s Senate nomination in Texas, went on a profane rant after the news broke.

“Well… first it was Kristi Noem, now it’s Pam Bondi… it would be too much like right that Pete be next,” she gloated. “I see a theme. He will throw the incompetent women under the bus a lot faster than the incompetent men.”

“Let’s just agree that America needs a ‘do over,’” wrote Crockett. “The President nominated these awful people, the Republican controlled Senate confirmed them, and well… too many people thought we should give this much power to the P—- grabbing, 6x bankruptcy filing, 34 count convicted felon bestie of Epstein. WE NEED A DO OVER… but only if America would do better.”

Rep. Yassamin Ansari, D-Ariz., said Bondi “must still comply with our subpoena and testify before the [House] Oversight Committee about her criminally botched Epstein Files release.”

“She may be fired, but she is not above the law,” wrote Ansari. “We won’t stop fighting until every victim gets justice and everyone complicit in this cover up is held accountable, no matter how powerful they are.”

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT SECURES DENATURALIZATION OF CONVICTED GUN TRAFFICKER AND HEALTH CARE FRAUDSTER

Democrats were not the only ones happy about Bondi’s firing.

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., who has in recent months defied both her party and the administration, accused Bondi of having “handled the Epstein Files in a terrible manner and seriously undermined President Trump.”

Mace claimed that Bondi “has stonewalled every effort to hold the guilty accountable,” adding that “the American people deserve an Attorney General who is transparent and delivers real accountability.”

Following reports that Trump is considering replacing Bondi with current Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, Mace wrote if these reports are true, “I welcome it.”

“I look forward to a new Attorney General committed to getting justice for the victims of Jeffrey Epstein,” she wrote.

However, Bondi was not universally reviled following the news.

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., defended Bondi, calling her “a great friend and one of the best lawyers I’ve ever met.”

“She did an incredible job as Florida’s Attorney General when I was Governor, and she has been an incredible U.S. Attorney General,” wrote Scott. “Ann and I are proud of all Pam has accomplished to make America safe again and restore the rule of law. Thank you, [Pam Bondi]!”

Former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz also came to Bondi’s defense. Gaetz resigned from Congress to be Trump’s attorney general before withdrawing his nomination amid mounting resistance, clearing the way for Bondi.

Gaetz wrote, “Pam Bondi will be known as one of the great crime fighters of our time. She is a patriot who has all of our appreciation.” 

SENATE CONFIRMS DOJ FRAUD CHIEF AS MINNESOTA DAYCARE SCANDAL DRAWS NATIONAL SCRUTINY

He predicted that Todd Blanche, who Trump announced will be temporarily filling in for Bondi as interim U.S. attorney general, will likewise “do a great job for the Trump/Vance Administration and us all.”

Blanche himself took to social media to write, “Pam Bondi led this Department with strength and conviction and I’m grateful for her leadership and friendship.”

“Thank you to President Trump for the trust and the opportunity to serve as Acting Attorney General,” he continued. “We will continue backing the blue, enforcing the law, and doing everything in our power to keep America safe.”

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Political analyst Jonathan Turley wrote that “the news of the departure of Pam Bondi hit with a thunderclap in Washington.”

“There were some recent rumors, but nothing concrete in the prior week. Bondi is the ultimate loyalist who, like Todd Blanche (the new acting AG), earned her bones in the trenches with the President in impeachment and criminal trials,” he wrote.

Turley predicted that “the move to Blanche will be seamless” and said that if Zeldin is selected, he “has the advantage of being a known and popular figure on Capitol Hill.”

The House is primed to end the record-breaking Homeland Security shutdown, but Republicans are still fuming over a “s— sandwich” deal from the Senate. 

The Senate again advanced its partial Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding bill on Thursday after being derailed by a House GOP rebellion. The frustration among House Republicans hasn’t gone anywhere, however, with lawmakers railing against House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., during a members-only call on Thursday afternoon.

The simmering anger comes after Johnson made a swift reversal, spurred by President Donald Trump, and backed Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s, R-S.D., on a two-track approach Wednesday that would pass the Senate’s partial DHS bill while funding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in a forthcoming party-line reconciliation package.

A senior GOP aide told Fox News Digital that House Republicans wanted to see action from their Senate counterparts on reconciliation and were frustrated with how the upper chamber handled the DHS deal, which the source said amounted to a “s— sandwich.”

BEHIND THE SCENES OF CONGRESS’ ELEVENTH-HOUR RUSH TO FUND THE DHS

House Republicans are incensed at the Senate plan, which carves out funding for ICE and CBP. Still, the bill is expected to pass with bipartisan support.

“People are mad at Johnson,” one source familiar with the call told Fox News.

But for now, House Republicans are in no hurry to return to Washington, D.C., to end the 48-day shutdown. The House is next scheduled to return on April 14. A source familiar with the call told Fox News Digital that leadership is not expected to ask members to return to Washington early to vote on the measure. 

A source told Fox News that there was “a lot of frustration” with the situation.

“Does feel like whiplash,” the source said.

“Not happy,” another person familiar with the call said. “Not willing to vote for anything that defunds law enforcement absent tangible action from Senate. Thune should call Senate back today.”

Some House Republicans argued the chamber must fund the president’s immigration and border security efforts through reconciliation before considering the Senate bill — despite the budget reconciliation process expected to take months.

This viewpoint was expressed by a broad group within the conference, not just the conservative flank, according to a source familiar with the call.

If Johnson proceeded first with the Senate bill, conservative opposition could determine how he brings the legislation to the floor. In the event he lacks conference-wide support for the upper chamber’s partial DHS bill, he could be forced to call up the Senate bill under suspension of House rules.

That strategy — requiring a two-thirds majority to pass — risks upsetting conservatives if the DHS bill relies on Democratic votes to clear the chamber.

HOUSE REPUBLICANS PASS RIVAL DHS PLAN, SETTING UP SENATE FIGHT AS SHUTDOWN SET TO BECOME LONGEST IN HISTORY

House lawmakers could have used the same fast-track process Thursday to pass the DHS bill that was done in the Senate, but opted not to. 

Thune said Thursday that he didn’t know when the House would move on the bill, but noted that when they did, Republicans would begin a sprint to complete the budget reconciliation process.

“My assumption is, at some point, hopefully they’ll move it,” Thune said. “And you know, [with] the understanding that we’re going to come behind it with the Recon bill. I mean, I think this whole — where we are is just a regrettable place.” 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s, D-N.Y., demanded that the House GOP immediately take up the bill and accused them of now owning “the longest government shutdown in history.” 

“The deep division and dysfunction among House Republicans is needlessly extending the DHS shutdown and hurting federal workers who are missing another paycheck,” Schumer said. “The Senate did its work twice to fund key parts of DHS without funding the lawlessness of ICE and Border Patrol.”

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But Trump has already teed up a counter, and plans to pay DHS employees through an executive order.

“Because the Democrats are fully and 100% committed to the Radical Left Policy of Open Borders and Zero Immigration Enforcement (which will hopefully cost them dearly in the Midterms!), allowing Murderers and Criminals of all types into our Country, totally unchecked and unvetted, I will soon sign an order to pay ALL of the incredible employees at the Department of Homeland Security,” Trump said on Truth Social.

New York House Republicans are ramping up a pressure campaign against Gov. Kathy Hochul, D-N.Y., citing her failure to combat rising utility costs in the Empire State.

The group of lawmakers, led by Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., is calling on Hochul to scrap the state’s 2019 climate law that they blame for “skyrocketing” energy prices.

“Utility bills are at the center of the affordability crisis with New York,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Hochul Thursday, citing a study that found electricity prices in New York were the sixth highest in the nation in December and 59% higher than the national average. 

“Given these significant cost burdens, we strongly urge that the CLCPA [Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act] be repealed.”

FROM ‘JUMP ON A BUS’ TO TAX CRACKDOWNS: BLUE STATES CHASE WEALTHY RESIDENTS FLEEING TO RED HAVENS

The letter comes as Hochul, who is up for re-election in November and appears to be branding herself as a pragmatist on affordability issues, has acknowledged the “cataclysmic” costs for households and businesses if the law is implemented on schedule. 

That acknowledgment comes despite her long-standing support for the law, which passed under former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, D-N.Y.

“Put simply, something has got to give,” Hochul wrote in an op-ed in March. “[T]he undeniable fact is we cannot meet the Climate Act’s 2030 targets without imposing new and additional crushing costs on New York businesses and residents.”

A Feb. 26 memo released by the Hochul administration found that households would pay $4,000 in additional energy costs per year if the state penalizes oil and gas producers as called for by the law. It also found the climate mandate would increase gas prices by $2.23 a gallon.

However, she has stopped short of backing a full repeal. In March, Hochul proposed delaying enforcement targets while keeping the law’s 2050 target of net-zero emissions in place.

Republicans, who see an opening to go on offense on affordability issues in deep-blue states, have ripped the governor’s efforts to move the enforcement goalposts while keeping the law in place. 

“The basic fact is this: the 2019 Climate Law was based on faulty assumptions and was enacted using wishful thinking instead of hard facts,” the GOP lawmakers wrote. 

“It is time to inform the citizens of our state about the realities of the 2019 Climate Law and acknowledge that its goals are unattainable, its costs are too high, and it is overall destructive to our state’s economy.”

TRUMP FLIPS DEMS’ ‘AFFORDABILITY’ SCRIPT, TURNING BUZZWORD INTO MAGA MATERIAL AS MAMDANI VISIT LOOMS

The debate over New York’s climate law comes as Democrats across the country are walking back aggressive environmental and climate policies amid surging electric bills and growing voter concern about the cost of living.

“It is essential that the implementation of the energy transition move forward on an affordable and practical basis to protect ratepayers from skyrocketing energy costs,” the GOP lawmakers wrote.

The group is also demanding that Hochul provide “immediate relief” to New Yorkers by redirecting several billion dollars in unspent ratepayer-collected funds back to residents facing high electric bills as utility bill credits.

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More than 60% of New Yorkers said keeping energy costs affordable is more important than lowering greenhouse gas emissions, according to an April 2025 Siena College poll. 

A spokesperson for Hochul did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris drew a sharp rebuke from conservatives on social media Wednesday where she previewed President Donald Trump’s address to the nation on Iran. 

“He brought America into a war that people don’t want, he has put American troops in harm’s way, costs are rising by the day, and meanwhile he has done nothing to address the needs of the people of America,” Harris posted on X before Trump’s Wednesday night speech to the nation, a speech Harris says in the video she “won’t be able” to watch. 

Harris predicted Trump would attempt to “claim victory” in Iran but the “reality is we’re watching what he does instead of listening to what he says.” 

The video, viewed almost 3 million times on X, was widely panned by conservatives who pointed to high prices during the Biden administration, other criticisms of the administration, and Harris’s political ambitions.

KAMALA HARRIS HARSHLY CRITIQUES PRESIDENT TRUMP’S SOTU SPEECH WHICH TRIGGERS RESPONSE FROM WHITE HOUSE

“It’s pretty disgraceful for you to claim President Trump has done nothing to meet the needs of the American people,” Republican Rep. Tom Emmer posted on X. “Here’s the truth: He’s cleaning up the chaos YOU caused here in the United States and across the globe, and is making America great again. On top of that, he has the guts to confront the Iranian regime, the largest state sponsor of terrorism in the world!”

“The time off hasn’t made her any smarter,” America First Legal senior adviser Ian Prior posted on X.

“She wants to run for President,” former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows posted on X.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: 5 KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM TRUMP’S IRAN ADDRESS

“Bullet dodged,” conservative radio host Larry O’Connor posted on X.

“‘Don’t.’ Your plan to handle Iran was letting them spend Obama’s pallets of cash on missiles and nukes,” Republican candidate for Oklahoma Lt. Gov. T.W. Shannon posted on X.

“You let in 15M illegal aliens into this country,” Gokhshtein Media CEO David Gokhshtein posted on X. “Sit this one out.”

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Trump delivered his address to the nation later that night declaring Iran is “essentially really no longer a threat” after a 32-day U.S. military campaign, telling Americans that the country has been “eviscerated” following weeks of strikes.

Even so, Trump said the United States is preparing additional attacks in the coming weeks even as diplomatic discussions continue.

“I can say tonight that we are on track to complete all of America’s military objectives shortly. Very shortly, we are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks,” Trump said. “We’re going to bring them back to the Stone Ages where they belong. In the meantime, discussions are ongoing.”

Fox News Digital’s Morgan Phillips contributed to this report.

More than a dozen Democratic-led states are accusing the Trump administration of violating a federal court order by sharing Medicaid data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, asking a judge to enforce the ruling.

The states’ complaint asks the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to enforce its existing injunction blocking HHS from sharing Medicaid data with ICE. 

“The Trump Administration appears to be defying a direct court order blocking it from sharing the personal, sensitive data of individuals including U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents. It’s invasive — and deeply troubling,” said California Attorney General Bonta, who led the coalition of 22 states. “When Californians signed up for Medi-Cal, they did so with the understanding that their data would not be used for purposes unrelated to administering this program. I urge the court to enforce its earlier order and make clear that these guardrails exist for anyone who is lawfully residing in the United States.”

The complaint stems from a lawsuit spearheaded by California in July 2025 against the Trump administration. The lawsuit accused Health and Human Services of violating federal law through its “mass transfer of sensitive Medicaid data” of both lawful permanent and temporary residents. The lawsuit also argued that the sharing of the personal information will likely create a “chilling effect on individuals’ willingness to enroll in Medicaid programs” for which they are legally eligible.

SECOND FEDERAL JUDGE BLOCKS IRS FROM SHARING ADDRESSES WITH ICE

A federal judge ruled last December that the Trump administration is not allowed to collect the personal information of lawful permanent residents or citizens, but that it can continue to collect basic information from individuals such as addresses, birthdates and immigration status for residents with temporary status. However, the scope of data that can be collected is limited and cannot include sensitive health information. 

The attorneys general accuse Health and Human Services of sharing “a large and complex” set of data on Medicaid recipients with ICE, which is in violation of a federal court ruling allowing the exchange of limited personal information but excluding the information of legal permanent residents. The complaint also accuses the Trump administration of failing to share its criteria for determining if a resident is being “lawfully present.”

CATO Institute Senior Legal Fellow Dan Greenberg told Fox News Digital there is “a strong possibility” that HHS and ICE violated the district court’s order.

LETITIA JAMES SUES HHS OVER TYING FEDERAL FUNDS TO TRANSGENDER POLICY

“The reason this is a strong possibility is that DHHS communications apparently indicate that it shared a ‘large and complex’ dataset of Medicaid recipients with ICE,” Greenberg said. “That phrase suggests that the dataset that was shared with ICE may have included information that is outside the scope of the court order. That is a question of fact: that is why the states are now asking the court to compel the federal government to explain just what was shared and how it is now being used.”

Greenberg also pointed out that the Transformed Medicaid Statistical Information System database does not “appear to have any simple or direct way to identify/single out immigrants who are undocumented,” making “information-sharing that complies with that court order difficult or impossible.”

“The TMSIS identifies people who are only eligible for emergency Medicaid services, but the problem is that this class of people includes both undocumented and lawfully present immigrants,” Greenberg said. “In short, it is as if the court order said that only some of the information in one particular file should be disclosed, but there is reason to believe that DHHS decided that — because they can’t figure out how to separate out this particular type of information – they may have handed over the whole filing cabinet.”

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In addition to California, attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and the governor of Kentucky signed on to the complaint.

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House and Health and Human Services for comment.

President Donald Trump reportedly has already fired Attorney General Pam Bondi, according to two sources familiar with the matter who spoke with Fox News Digital. 

Bondi met with Trump in the Oval Office Wednesday night ahead of his speech to the nation on the war in Iran, where she reportedly was informed of her ouster, according to two sources familiar with the meeting. 

One of those sources said that by the time Trump took his place behind the podium for the address, Bondi already lost her job and was on her way back to Florida.

HOUSE OVERSIGHT SUBPOENAS AG BONDI IN PROBE OF EPSTEIN CASE ‘MISMANAGEMENT’

Trump is reportedly considering replacing Bondi with Environmental Protection Agency Director Lee Zeldin, according to the sources familiar with the matter. Trump held a meeting with Zeldin at the White House Tuesday to discuss wildfire and prevention, where talks of the transition also unfolded, according to an individual familiar with the meeting. 

That source relayed to Fox News Digital that Zeldin would be a plausible replacement, adding that Trump could change his mind at any point. 

A Justice Department spokesperson denied the reporting when reached for comment. “The AG was with [Trump] for the speech last night,” they added. 

When asked about the alleged meetings and Bondi’s ouster, a White House source stopped short of confirming the information, but relayed it was “not cold.” 

The alleged ouster follows a recent New York Times report detailing that Trump was preparing to replace Bondi with Zeldin as the president had become increasingly dissatisfied with her performance in the role. 

WHY KRISTI NOEM’S FIRING TOOK SO LONG AS SHE WRECKED DHS AND DAMAGED DONALD TRUMP

Asked about the meetings and Bondi’s alleged ouster Wednesday evening, the White House directed Fox News Digital to the same comment defending Bondi that the office provided to the Times.  

“Attorney General Pam Bondi is a wonderful person and she is doing a good job,” Trump’s comment states. 

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The alleged ouster came the same day Bondi accompanied Trump to the U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday morning for oral arguments on the high-stakes birthright citizenship case. 

This is a breaking news story and will be updated. 

Illegal immigrants will no longer receive in-state tuition at Kentucky’s public colleges after a federal judge ruled the policy violated U.S. law and permanently blocked its enforcement.

The ruling, issued by U.S. District Judge Gregory F. Van Tatenhove, hands a win to the Trump administration and Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman after they challenged the policy as giving benefits to those in the country illegally that federal law does not allow.

The decision forces Kentucky’s higher education system to end the discounted rates after a months-long legal fight.

The lawsuit argued the policy violated federal law, which states that, “an alien who is not lawfully present in the United States shall not be eligible on the basis of residence within a state for any post-secondary education benefit unless a citizen or national of the United States is eligible for such a benefit … without regard to whether the citizen or national is such a resident.”

TRUMP’S JUSTICE DEPARTMENT MOVES TO BLOCK BLUE STATE FROM GIVING FINANCIAL AID TO ILLEGALS

On Wednesday, Coleman celebrated the ruling by Tatenhove, who wrote that the Kentucky education regulation violated the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause and “permanently enjoins the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education… from enforcing [it].”

“Federal law is clear: illegal immigrants don’t get preferential treatment at Kentucky’s public universities, and Kentucky taxpayers certainly shouldn’t be footing the bill. As Kentucky’s chief law officer, I was proud to join the Trump Administration to make sure our Commonwealth is upholding federal law and fundamental fairness for American citizens,” Coleman exclusively told Fox News Digital.

“We’ll continue focusing on helping Kentucky students reach for their full potential.”

In August, Bondi’s lawsuit led Kentucky officials to forge a consent decree, or legal agreement, instead of fighting to defend the policy.

OVER 100 CALIFORNIA COLLEGES ACCUSED OF DISCRIMINATING AGAINST US-BORN STUDENTS IN NEW DOJ COMPLAINT

The DOJ originally named Kentucky Gov. Andrew Beshear as the defendant, but Beshear’s office previously told Fox News Digital that Kentucky’s KCPE education agency is independent of his office.

While Coleman and others celebrated that development as potentially ending the policy, a court found the judiciary still needed to act on the constitutionality of the law, according to the first page of Van Tatenhove’s ruling.

“Here, despite the [education] council’s agreement with the United States that its regulation is preempted, it continues to enforce the regulation. As such, a justiciable controversy remains present,” Van Tatenhove wrote.

In his 22-page decision, Van Tatenhove wrote that his ruling was “precipitat[ed]” in part by a February 2025 executive order “ending taxpayer subsidization of open borders.”

After the consent decree was forged in late August, a student advocacy group attempted to intervene, and the court allowed it but rejected its arguments in favor of the policy.

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The ruling also said that states do have the right to extend certain benefits to illegal immigrants but must do so through law and not agency-based regulations.

Fox News Digital reached out to Beshear for comment.

As a Homeland Security shutdown drags on, the top Senate Republican says Democrats are getting “zero” of the reforms they demanded.

Congressional Democrats have taken victory laps, viewing the outcome as a key win in their push for reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). They have also accused congressional Republicans of caving to their demands.

While the Senate’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) deal includes funding for ICE and much of CBP, it does not include the structural reforms Democrats spent the last 48 days pushing.

SENATE PASSES BILL TO FUND MOST OF DHS AFTER HOUSE GOP CAVES

When asked whether Republicans gave in, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom,” “No, we didn’t cave.”

“I mean, ultimately, what the Democrats did, you could say … this was all about ‘reforms,’ restrictions on ICE and CBP agents and what they could or couldn’t do,” Thune said. “They got none of that. They got zero of the reforms they were advocating for.”

Thune was responding to accusations from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who argued that “House Republicans caved” after backing down from their push for a 60-day funding extension for the agency.

HOUSE CONSERVATIVES RAGE AGAINST SENATE DHS SHUTDOWN DEAL

Schumer argued that divisions in the GOP “derailed a bipartisan agreement” and said Democrats were clear in their objectives to “fund critical security, protect Americans, and provide no blank check for reckless ICE and Border Patrol enforcement.”

“We were united, held the line, and refused to let Republican chaos win,” Schumer said.

Thune countered, “In the end, this was all about their left-wing base demanding that no funding be provided.”

HOUSE GOP RAMS THROUGH NEW DHS FUNDING PLAN WITH SHUTDOWN FAR FROM OVER

“The good news for us is we saw this coming, and we pre-funded this last summer, so ICE and CBP are funded through the end of the fiscal year. Then we’ll add to those accounts and make sure they’re funded in future years,” Thune said.

Republicans, now with the backing of President Donald Trump, are eyeing the budget reconciliation process to fund immigration enforcement operations for the foreseeable future. It’s a tricky maneuver that would require full buy-in from Senate Republicans.

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In the meantime, the shutdown is still ongoing. The Senate’s redo of its funding plan Thursday morning sets up another vote in the House, where there is still significant resistance among some hardline Republicans, and the House is not expected to return to Washington, D.C., until April 13.

President Donald Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants appears to be in jeopardy following Supreme Court oral arguments on Wednesday. 

Supreme Court justices pursued what Amy Swearer, a senior legal fellow at Advancing American Freedom, described as a “disappointing” line of questioning. Liberal and conservative Supreme Court justices appeared skeptical of Trump’s order, which the president has argued is necessary to end a “magnet” for illegal immigration and “birth tourism,” in which foreign nationals travel to the U.S. to give birth so their child gains citizenship.

Lawyers for the Trump administration argued that the 14th Amendment’s stipulation that individuals must be subject to U.S. jurisdiction to be American citizens means children of illegal immigrants are excluded from automatic citizenship. The administration pointed to “striking” numbers of illegal immigrants abusing current law through a type of birth tourism. Meanwhile, opposing lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union argued that Supreme Court precedent, particularly the Wong Kim Ark case, supports a broader interpretation that all those born on U.S. soil are automatic citizens.

In an interview with Fox News Digital, Swearer said that while the oral arguments went “a little bit better than anticipated” for the administration in some regards, the day was a mixed bag for the government.

SAUER CITES ‘STRIKING’ FIGURES ON SECRETIVE BIRTH TOURISM IN HIGH-STAKES SCOTUS CASE

“Most people understood coming into this, and I suspect even the government understood coming into this, that this was probably going to be a bit of an uphill battle,” Swearer said.

She said conservative and liberal justices seemed hesitant about how the government would apply Trump’s order.

Swearer said, “We did see a lot of those types of questions,” adding, “I’m not sure are actually that important to the overall doctrinal questions of, ‘What does the 14th Amendment citizenship clause actually mean?’”

Meanwhile, she said it was “a bit disappointing” not to see more pushback from the justices on the ACLU’s broad interpretation of the 14th Amendment.

While there was much discussion of the Wong Kim Ark case, which revolved around the citizenship of a child of legal Chinese immigrants, Swearer said she “was disappointed” not to see discussion of other legal precedent she believes is crucial.

ALITO INVOKES SCALIA ANALOGY IN BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP FIGHT OVER ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

“The ACLU’s argument is essentially no one up until Donald Trump ever thought that this was a viable way of framing birthright citizenship. And the reality is when you look at decisions by other presidents during the 19th century, you actually did have executive branch decisions saying, ‘No, we’re not going to issue passports to this person, even though they were born in the United States because they weren’t born subject to our jurisdiction, because their parents weren’t lawfully or permanently present in the United States.’ And I think that’s important,” she said.

“I think that was one of the missed opportunities to really push back on the ACLU’s position, and it just didn’t come up in the same way that Wong Kim Ark did,” she added.

What does this mean for the future of Trump’s order? Swearer said that while the three liberal justices’ stances are obvious, she admitted “it’s hard to know what to make of” the six other justices’ lack of questioning on what she believes are the more “foundational questions about the history and tradition” of the citizenship issue.

Despite this, Swearer said, “I do think there’s a path forward” for a Trump victory, though it would likely be narrow and partial.

INSIDE SUPREME COURT: HOW TRUMP HEARD BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP ARGUMENTS

“I would not quantify it, but I wouldn’t be shocked to see some sort of plurality of opinions splitting the baby somewhere,” she said.

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Swearer speculated that possible routes the court could take include differentiating between illegal immigrants and temporary visa holders, delivering a partial victory for the administration, or deciding the question based on existing statute rather than attempting to interpret the language of the 14th Amendment, which would cut against Trump’s order.

“Maybe they split the baby that way,” she said, adding, “I think at the end of the day, there are just so many options for what this could look like.” 

Former National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent — who quit his government role last month over his opposition to the Iran war — suggested in a Wednesday night post on X that President Donald Trump will only be able to declare victory in Iran if he “restrains” Israel.

“The purpose of POTUS’s speech this evening was to show that we can declare victory when we choose. This is only possible if POTUS restrains the Israelis 1st. Israel needs us committed indefinitely, we are seeking a quick end to the war. We have drastically different goals than Israel & must act accordingly,” Kent asserted in the post.

Kent made the comments after Trump — who launched the controversial U.S. war against Iran last month in conjunction with Israel — delivered an address to the nation about the ongoing conflict on Wednesday night.

TRUMP SAYS IRAN ‘NO LONGER A THREAT’ AFTER 32 DAYS — OUTLINES NEXT PHASE OF US WAR

“Thanks to the progress we’ve made, I can say tonight that we are on track to complete all of America’s military objectives shortly, very shortly. We are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks. We are going to bring them back to the stone ages where they belong. In the meantime, discussions are ongoing,” he said.

“Because of the actions we have taken, we are on the cusp of ending Iran’s sinister threat to America and the world. And I’ll tell you, the world is watching. And when we do… the United States will be safer, stronger, more prosperous and greater than it has ever been before,” Trump said during his remarks. 

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: 5 KEY TAKEAWAYS FRM TRUMP’S IRAN ADDRESS

Kent indicated that the U.S. should exit the war immediately.

“We do not honor our fallen by getting more of our best men & women killed in the Middle East. We honor our fallen by learning from our past & only shedding American blood in defense of our nation. The best time to get out of a war of choice is now, before we lose more lives,” he wrote in a post on X.

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment on Thursday.

FORMER REP MTG VENTS THAT SHE’S ‘SO BEYOND DONE,’ CHARACTERIZING TRUMP’S ADDRESS AS ‘WAR WAR WAR’

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In a Thursday morning post on X, Kent wrote, “The purpose of a system is what it does: Israel is targeting the negotiators to ensure we can’t end the war & to ensure that the Iranian leaders who come next will be more extreme, thereby ensuring that the war goes on. The 1st step to end the war must be restraining Israel.”

The 48-day Department of Homeland Security shutdown is one step closer to ending after the Senate moved to fund most of the department Thursday morning.

The Senate agreed via voice vote to send a bipartisan deal funding the whole department except for President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement and border security efforts to the House for consideration.

The chamber is not expected to vote on the legislation until House lawmakers return to Washington on April 13. 

The Senate vote follows GOP leaders endorsing a two-track approach to funding DHS on Wednesday, with President Donald Trump giving lawmakers a hard deadline to end the record-breaking funding lapse. 

HOUSE CONSERVATIVES RAGE AGAINST SENATE DHS SHUTDOWN DEAL

The Senate bill accomplishes the first phase of the plan by working with Democrats to fund as much of DHS as possible on a bipartisan basis. However, it would zero out funding for ICE and much of the Border Patrol, save for $11 billion in customs funding going to the agency. Additionally, $10 billion teed up for ICE won’t be funded under the measure.

As for ICE and the Border Patrol, Republicans have said they will seek three full years of funding for both of these agencies in a party-line budget reconciliation package that will bypass Democrats’ opposition. Trump says he wants the forthcoming bill on his desk by June 1.

“We are going to work as fast, and as focused, as possible to replenish funding for our Border and ICE Agents, and the Radical Left Democrats won’t be able to stop us,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday. 

The Senate bill’s passage on Thursday was a déjà vu moment for Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., who helped steer the same measure through the upper chamber last week.

But House GOP leadership sharply rejected it, calling the measure’s exclusion of ICE and CBP money a “crap sandwich” and warning about the risks of funding those entities using the budget reconciliation process. The chamber then put forward a rival proposal that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., made clear was “dead on arrival” in the Senate. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., appeared to relent Wednesday after Trump issued a statement outlining an end to the shutdown that appeared to side with Thune’s two-part approach to funding the department. 

GOP INFIGHTING, DEMOCRATS’ UNMET DEMANDS AND A CLEAR WINDFALL: WHO’S WINNING AND LOSING THE DHS SHUTDOWN

As the DHS shutdown drags on, Trump and congressional Republicans are gambling that budget reconciliation will be the way to fund immigration enforcement for several years to come. Some Republicans have floated funding ICE not just through Trump’s term, but up to a decade.

The GOP used the same process to fund ICE last year, teeing up $75 billion for enforcement operations for the next four fiscal years.

But the party-line process comes with a host of challenges that could test Republican unity in an election year.

GOP lawmakers will have to identify spending cuts to pay for it. When Republicans used the process to pass Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act in July 2025, lawmakers nearly stumbled at the finish line over disagreements on cuts to federal Medicaid spending and food assistance programs.

Without a looming deadline like the expiration of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts that Republicans extended in July 2025 through the “big, beautiful bill,” some GOP lawmakers have voiced concern that the party will stay unified.

Republicans have proposed adding other issues into the reconciliation mix, including supplemental funding for the Iran war, affordability measures, the president’s tariff regime and pieces of the election integrity-focused SAVE America Act.

The budget reconciliation process allows a party with control of the White House and both chambers of Congress to pass tax and spending priorities with a simple majority threshold, though the process is governed by stringent requirements for what is eligible to be included.

Punting ICE and CBP money to a future spending bill could also negatively affect support staff employed by both agencies who have not been paid during the seven-week shutdown.

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Democrats have repeatedly blocked funding for ICE and the Border Patrol in the Senate since the beginning of the shutdown in mid-February. Though none of their proposals to reform immigration enforcement have been adopted, Democratic leaders claimed victory on Wednesday. 

“Throughout this fight, Senate Democrats never wavered,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Wednesday. “We were clear from the start: fund critical security, protect Americans, and no blank check for reckless ICE and Border Patrol enforcement. “We were united, held the line, and refused to let Republican chaos win.”

The Senate deal funding most of DHS could still face roadblocks in the House. A handful of conservatives have already said they will vote “no” while using the same messaging employed by House GOP leadership to oppose the bill last week.

“Let’s make this simple: caving to Democrats and not paying CBP and ICE is agreeing to defund Law Enforcement and leaving our borders wide open again,” Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., wrote on social media Wednesday. “If that’s the vote, I’m a NO.”

Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote on X that all she heard from President Donald Trump’s address to the nation on Wednesday night “was WAR WAR WAR.”

“I wanted so much for President Trump to put America First. That’s what I believed he would do. All I heard from his speech tonight was WAR WAR WAR,” Greene wrote.

“Nothing to lower the cost of living for Americans. Nothing to reduce our near $40 trillion in debt. Nothing to save Social Security, which goes bankrupt in just a few years. Nothing to lower the cost of insurance. Nothing to address jobs for Americans. Nothing about education for our children. Nothing about our children’s future. Nothing for America’s future,” she continued.

“I’m so beyond done. I pray for our military and their families. I pray for innocent people all over the world. I pray for peace and prosperity for all,” she concluded.

MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE SAYS TRUMP, GOP ‘GOVERNED AMERICA LAST,’ PREDICTS MIDTERM LOSSES

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

President Trump delivered the speech on Wednesday night, more than four weeks after launching U.S. military action against Iran alongside Israel.

“Because of the actions we have taken, we are on the cusp of ending Iran’s sinister threat to America and the world. And I’ll tell you, the world is watching. And when we do … the United States will be safer, stronger, more prosperous and greater than it has ever been before,” Trump said during his remarks. 

TRUMP SAYS IRAN REQUESTED CEASEFIRE

“Thanks to the progress we’ve made, I can say tonight that we are on track to complete all of America’s military objectives shortly, very shortly. We are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks. We are going to bring them back to the stone ages where they belong. In the meantime, discussions are ongoing,” he said.

Americans have been facing surging fuel prices amid the war – the AAA national average for regular gas has soared to $4.081 as of April 2. 

The president said that when the conflict ends, the Strait of Hormuz “will open up naturally” and “gas prices will rapidly come back down.”

TRUMP SAYS IRAN ‘NO LONGER A THREAT’ AFTER 32 DAYS — OUTLINES NEXT PHASE OF US WAR

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“Our economy is strong and improving by the day, and it will soon be roaring back like never before,” he said.

President Donald Trump addressed the nation Wednesday night, saying the United States’ “core strategic objectives” in Iran are “nearing completion”—just a month after “Operation Epic Fury” began, and warned that the U.S. will hit Tehran “extremely hard” over the next several weeks.

“Tonight, I’m pleased to say that these core strategic objectives are nearing completion,” the president said, touting the United States military and their “extraordinary” efforts.

Here are the top five takeaways from the president’s address: 

Trump says Operation Epic Fury is ‘nearing completion’

President Trump told Americans Wednesday night that after 32 days of Operation Epic Fury, Iran is “essentially really no longer a threat.” 

The president, upon the announcement of Operation Epic Fury, detailed the United States’ objectives. Trump said, “We are systematically dismantling the regime’s ability to threaten America or project power outside of their borders.”

“That means eliminating Iran’s Navy, which is now absolutely destroyed, hurting their Air Force and their missile program at levels never seen before, and annihilating their defense industrial base,” the president said Wednesday night.

INSIDE IRAN’S MILITARY: MISSILES, MILITIAS AND A FORCE BUILT FOR SURVIVAL

“We’ve done all of it,” he continued. “Their Navy is gone. Their Air Force is gone. Their missiles are just about used up or beaten. Taken together, these actions will cripple Iran’s military, crush their ability to support terrorist proxies and deny them the ability to build a nuclear bomb.” 

“Our Armed Forces have been extraordinary,” the president said. “There’s never been anything like it militarily. Everyone is talking about it.” 

“And tonight, I’m pleased to say that these core strategic objectives are nearing completion,” he said.

Meanwhile, the president thanked U.S. allies in the Middle East— “Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, Kuwait and Bahrain.”

“They’ve been great and we will not let them get hurt or fail in any way, shape or form,” he said.

“I’ve made clear from the beginning of Operation Epic Fury that we will continue until our objectives are fully achieved, thanks to the progress we’ve made,” he said. “I can say tonight that we are on track to complete all of America’s military objectives shortly. Very shortly.”

The president warned that the U.S. is “going to hit them extremely hard over the next 2 to 3 weeks.”

“We’re going to bring them back to the Stone Ages where they belong,” he said. “In the meantime, discussions are ongoing. Regime change was not our goal. We never said regime change, but regime change has occurred because of all of their original leaders’ deaths. They’re all dead. The new group is less radical and much more reasonable.”

Trump says rising gas prices in the US are ‘short term’

Since Operation Epic Fury began, gas prices in the United States have increased. The president acknowledged that development, and expressed confidence that those increases are “short term.”

The average price of a gallon of gas surpassed $4 Tuesday, a first since 2022. 

“Many Americans have been concerned to see the recent rise in gasoline prices here at home,” the president said. “The short-term increase has been entirely the result of the Iranian regime launching deranged terror attacks against commercial oil tankers and neighboring countries that have nothing to do with the conflict.”

WHY TRUMP, IRAN SEEM LIGHT-YEARS APART ON ANY POSSIBLE DEAL TO END THE WAR

“This is yet more proof that Iran can never be trusted with nuclear weapons. They will use them and they will use them quickly. It would lead to decades of extortion, economic pain, and instability worse than we can ever imagine,” the president said. “The United States has never been better prepared economically to confront this threat. You all know that we built the strongest economy in history.”

The president touted the economy under his leadership, saying that he has “taken a dead and crippled country—I hate to say that, but we were dead and crippled country after the last administration—and made it the hottest country anywhere in the world by far, with no inflation, record-setting investments coming into the United States, over $18 trillion and the highest stock market ever with 53 all-time record highs in just one year.”

The president said those economic gains “all positioned us to get rid of a cancer that has long simmered.”

“It’s known as the nuclear Iran, and they didn’t know what was coming. They’ve never imagined it,” he said. “Remember, because of our drill baby drill program, America has plenty of gas. We have so much gas.”

The president said that, under his leadership, the U.S. is the “number one producer of oil and gas on the planet without even discussing the millions of barrels that we’re getting from Venezuela because of the Trump administration’s policies. We produce more oil and gas than Saudi Arabia and Russia combined.”

“Think of that— Saudi Arabia and Russia combined,” he continued. “And that number will soon be substantially higher than that. There’s no country like us anywhere in the world.”

The president stressed that “the hard part is done.”

“When this conflict is over, the strait will open up. Naturally. It’ll just open up naturally. They’re going to want to be able to sell oil because that’s all they have to try and rebuild,” he said. “It will resume the flowing and the gas prices will rapidly come back down.”

The president said it was necessary to “take that little journey to Iran to get rid of this horrible threat with our historic tax cuts, where people are just now talking about receiving larger refunds than they ever thought possible, they are getting so much more money than they thought. That’s from the great big, beautiful bill.”

He added: “Our economy is strong and improving by the day and it will soon be roaring back like never before. It will top the levels that it was a month ago.”

Trump thanks US troops for work in Middle East, Venezuela

The president began his address Wednesday night by thanking U.S. troops for “the massive job they did in taking the country of Venezuela in a matter of minutes.”

“That hit was quick, lethal, violent and respected by everyone all over the world,” Trump said, referring to the January operation.

“We’re working along with Venezuela are, in a true sense, joint venture partners,” Trump said. “We’re getting along incredibly well in the production and sale of massive amounts of oil and gas—The second largest reserves on Earth after the United States of America.”

POLL POSITION: WHERE TRUMP STANDS AMONG AMERICANS AS HE FACES THE NATION IN PRIMETIME

Shifting to Operation Epic Fury and the progress made, the president honored “the 13 American warriors who have laid down their lives and this fight to prevent our children from ever having to face a nuclear Iran.”

“Twice this past month, I have traveled to Dover Air Force Base, and it’s been something I wanted to be with those heroes as they return to American soil,” he said. “And I was with them and their families, their parents, their wives, their husbands.”

“We salute them, and now we must honor them by completing the mission for which they gave their lives,” the president said. “And every single one of the people, their loved one said, please, sir, please finish the job, every one of them, and we are going to finish the job and we’re going to finish it very fast. We’re getting very close.”

Trump urges Americans to keep the Iran conflict ‘in perspective’

“It’s very important that we keep this conflict in perspective,” the president said. “American involvement in World War One lasted one year, seven months and five days.”

“World War Two lasted for three years, eight months and 25 days,” He continued. “The Korean War lasted for three years, one month and two days. The Vietnam War lasted for 19 years, five months and 29 days.”

“Iraq went on for eight years, eight months and 28 days,” the president said.

“We are in this military operation, so powerful, so brilliant against one of the most powerful countries for 32 days,” he said. “And the country has been eviscerated and essentially is really no longer a threat.”

FOX NEWS LIVE UPDATES ON THE U.S. WAR WITH IRAN

Trump said that Iran was “the bully of the Middle East, but they’re the bully no longer.”

“This is a true investment in your children and your grandchildren’s future,” he said. “The whole world is watching and they can’t leave the power, strength and brilliance. They just can’t believe what they’re seeing. They leave it to your imagination, but they can’t believe what they’re seeing—The brilliance of the United States military.”

He added: “Tonight, every American can look forward to a day when we are finally free from the wickedness of Iranian aggression and the specter of nuclear blackmail. Because of the actions we have taken, we are on the cusp of ending Iran’s sinister threat to America and the world. And I’ll tell you, the world is watching.”

Trump rips into Obama’s Iran Nuclear Deal

President Trump said ending former President Barack Obama’s Iran nuclear deal was among his top achievements as president, telling the nation he was “honored” to do it.

“I terminated Barack Hussein Obama’s Iran nuclear deal disaster,” Trump said. “Obama gave them $1.7 billion in cash. Green, green cash took it out of banks from Virginia, DC and Maryland. All the cash they had.”

The president went on to say that Obama “flew it by airplanes in an attempt to buy their respect and loyalty. But it didn’t work.”

“They laughed at our president and went on with their mission to have a nuclear bomb,” Trump said. “His Iran deal would have led to a colossal arsenal of massive nuclear weapons for Iran, and they would have had them years ago, and they would have used him, would have been a different world.”

The president said, “There would have been no Middle East and no Israel right now, in my opinion, the opinion of a lot of great experts, had I not terminated that terrible deal that I was so honored to do it.”

“I was so proud to do it It was so bad right from the beginning,” he said. “Essentially, I did what no other president was willing to do.”

He added: “They made mistakes and I am correcting them.”

The president said his “first preference was always the path of diplomacy, yet the regime continued their relentless quest for nuclear weapons and rejected every attempt at an agreement.”

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“For this reason, in June, I ordered a strike on Iran’s key nuclear facilities and Operation Midnight Hammer. And nobody’s ever seen anything like it. Those beautiful B-2 bombers performed magnificently,” he said. “We totally obliterated those nuclear sites.”

But the president said the Iranian regime “then sought to rebuild their nuclear program at a totally different location, making clear they had no intention of abandoning their pursuit of nuclear weapons.”

President Donald Trump made an extraordinary appearance Wednesday for Supreme Court arguments — an American presidential first — as his administration seeks to unwind birthright citizenship during two hours of dramatic oral arguments.

The Supreme Court voiced strong pushback against efforts to restrict who can be called an American, a politically divisive case over automatic citizenship for some children born in the United States to foreign nationals.

Trump, wearing a red tie and dark suit, entered the courtroom around nine minutes before the court gaveled into session and did not speak during the session, per court rules.

He closed his eyes for brief times during the session, but looked alert and focused throughout his time in the courtroom, staying for the entire oral presentation by his Solicitor General John Sauer, which lasted about 65 minutes.

THE SUPREME COURT IS GOING TO GIVE PRESIDENT TRUMP A MAJOR OPENING ON IMMIGRATION

Chief Justice John Roberts did not acknowledge the president’s appearance.

Trump, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Attorney General Pam Bondi were in the front row of the public section and passed some notes to one another before Trump left the courtroom around 11:19 a.m. ET, seven minutes or so into the ACLU lawyer Cecilia Wang’s oral presentation. Trump left without commenting.

Trump later issued a Truth Social post saying, “We are the only Country in the World STUPID enough to allow ‘Birthright’ Citizenship!”

Trump heard a majority of justices taking turns expressing varying levels of skepticism at the administration’s claim that the citizenship “privilege” has been historically abused and wrongly granted to those whose mother gave birth while in the country illegally or temporarily.

At issue is the executive order the president signed on his first day back in office to redefine birthright citizenship, part of a broader crackdown on immigration that has led to increased deportations and decreased admittance of refugees and asylum seekers at the border.

JOHN YOO: SUPREME COURT SHOWDOWN EXPOSES SHAKY CASE AGAINST BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP

In the first Supreme Court argument appearance by a sitting president, most of the bench appeared to agree with the post-Civil War’s 14th Amendment — and subsequent congressional laws and Supreme Court precedent — all support the idea of making citizens of everyone born in the country, regardless of immigration status.

Roberts, appointed by Republican George W. Bush, questioned the government’s legal position when it came to the 14th Amendment’s limited exceptions to citizenship.

“The examples you give to support that strike me as very quirky,” Roberts said. “You know, children of ambassadors, children of enemies during a hostile invasion, children on warships — and then you expand it to a whole class of illegal aliens who are here in the country.

“I’m not quite sure how you can get to that big group from such tiny, and sort of idiosyncratic, examples.”

Liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wondered how determining citizenship would be applied in practical terms if immigrant mothers gave birth.

SUPREME COURT’S SHOWDOWN ON BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP DECISION COULD RESHAPE AMERICA

“How does this work?” Jackson asked U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer. “Are you suggesting that when a baby is born, people have to have documents present? Documents? Is this happening in the delivery room?

“How are we determining when or whether a newborn child is a citizen of the United States under your rule?”

Conservative Justices Clarence Thomas and Sameul Alito — both confirmed to the bench before Trump’s first administration — sounded mostly likely to back Trump’s position.

“How much of the debates around the 14th Amendment had anything to do with immigration?” Thomas asked early in the argument, saying it was designed to give newly freed slaves citizenship, and does not necessarily apply to children of newly arrived immigrants.

All lower federal courts that have heard various challenges to the birthright citizenship order have ruled against the administration.

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An expected definitive high-court ruling against Trump by early summer could have sweeping national implications — and possibly slow momentum — for Trump’s get-tough immigration agenda, which has become a defining feature of his second White House term.

Republican leaders are rallying around President Donald Trump’s new approach to end the 47-day Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding lapse — a plan that could make the agency shutdown-proof for the rest of Trump’s term.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said Wednesday that DHS will be funded along “two parallel tracks,” meaning that the president’s immigration and border security agenda will receive an influx of money through a party-line reconciliation bill. The rest of DHS is funded through the normal appropriations process.

“We operated under a belief that while our country is in the midst of an international armed conflict, Democrats might finally come to their senses and understand that defunding our homeland security agencies is beyond reckless and very dangerous,” Johnson and Thune wrote in a joint statement. “We cannot allow Democrats to any longer put the safety of the American public at risk through their open border policies, so we are taking that off the table.”

The GOP leaders added that a forthcoming budget reconciliation package will include three years of immigration enforcement and border security funding. That move could prevent Democrats from using the appropriations process as leverage over the president’s immigration agenda for the remainder of his term.

HOUSE CONSERVATIVES ERUPT OVER SENATE GOP, WHITE HOUSE DEAL AMID SAVE ACT FIGHT

The GOP leaders’ budget reconciliation push comes as Republican efforts to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) through regular order have stalled in the Senate due to widespread opposition from Democrats.

With the Senate’s 60-vote legislative threshold in place, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., effectively has veto power over DHS appropriations if he keeps his caucus in line.

To end the stalemate, Trump asked Republicans Wednesday to draft a budget reconciliation package funding immigration enforcement and border security that could pass both chambers without any Democratic support.

“We are going to work as fast, and as focused, as possible to replenish funding for our Border and ICE Agents, and the Radical Left Democrats won’t be able to stop us,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “We will not allow them to hurt the families of these Great Patriots by defunding them.”

The president added that he wants the legislation on his desk by June 1.

The budget reconciliation process would allow Republicans to steer around Democratic opposition and pass a DHS funding bill at a simple majority threshold. Republicans narrowly passed Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act using reconciliation in June 2025 after months of intraparty squabbling.

Though ICE and the Border Patrol received an unprecedented infusion of money through Trump’s “big, beautiful” bill, certain support staff employed by both agencies have not been paid during the seven-week shutdown.

The U.S. Coast Guard, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the U.S. Secret Service have seen a more significant lapse in appropriations, though Trump took executive action to provide back pay to TSA agents reporting to work during the funding lapse.

HOUSE REPUBLICANS PASS RIVAL DHS PLAN, SETTING UP SENATE FIGHT AS SHUTDOWN SET TO BECOME LONGEST IN HISTORY

Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., indicated to reporters Monday that Trump would ultimately get behind the Senate’s preferred approach. 

“The Democrats can’t create another shutdown like they did this time,” Hoeven said, if the DHS budget reconciliation bill were to be signed into law.

The North Dakota lawmaker also disputed that a reconciliation package would take several months to put together.

“We’ll get it done as quick as you can,” Hoeven said. “I hope it’s certainly not months.”

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A second reconciliation package could prove more difficult in an election year when lawmakers will have to identify spending cuts to pay for the border security and immigration funding. The strategy could also extend the funding lapse for ICE and the Border Patrol for several more months.

Amid both chambers’ planned two-week recesses, Trump told the New York Post on Tuesday he is considering calling Congress back to Washington to find a solution to the DHS shutdown.

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Wednesday that a “skinny reconciliation bill” funding the department would pass both chambers once Congress resumes session in mid-April if a deal has not been reached.

House GOP leadership has previously voiced skepticism about funding immigration enforcement through a budget reconciliation package. Some conservatives have also complained about the precedent of letting Democrats decide which agencies receive funding through the normal appropriations process.

“The problem is that what they’re doing is they’re placing the burden on the Republican Party entirely to make sure that we have border security funding and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, because they’re going to try to force it into a reconciliation bill,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade on Friday. “That’s a very difficult task. It is a high risk gamble for us to assume that we could do that.”

President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he was working to clean up the “filthy” Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on the National Mall, blaming the Biden administration for neglecting the Washington, D.C., landmark. 

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said he was working with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum on the project, the latest in a series of beautification initiatives targeted by the Trump administration. 

SEWAGE SPILL SENDS E COLI SURGING IN THE POTOMAC RIVER NEAR DC

“Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum and I are working on fixing the absolutely filthy Reflecting Pool between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument,” Trump wrote. 

“This work was supposed to be done by the Biden Administration, but Sleepy Joe doesn’t know what ‘CLEAN’ or proper maintenance is — The President and Secretary do!” he added. 

Burgum confirmed the project on X.

TRUMP TELLS MEXICO TO FIX CROSS-BORDER SEWAGE PROBLEM FLOWING INTO US COMMUNITIES ‘IMMEDIATELY’

“Unlike the Biden administration, @POTUS knows how to get things done! @Interior is working to Make D.C. Safe and Beautiful! Proud to work with you on this important task, Mr. President,” he wrote in a post accompanied by images of himself at the pool. 

In 2022, the National Parks Service posted a video on X showing a “Super-Scrubber” and vacuum cleaning the pool area. 

“Our facilities team cleaning up a year’s worth of trash, algae, and goose poop in the Reflecting Pool,” the post read. 

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The pool is drained and cleaned once per year before being refilled with water. Fox News Digital has reached out to the NPS and Interior Department. 

On Tuesday, a federal judge ordered Trump to halt construction of his ambitious White House ballroom project. The ruling came amid a lawsuit by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which argued the project required congressional authorization before moving forward.

Iran is pushing back on President Donald Trump’s claim that it requested a ceasefire, with an official calling the statement “false and baseless in a blunt public denial.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Esmail Baghaei, made the remarks rejecting Trump’s claim on Wednesday, according to a report on Iranian state television.

Trump made the claim about Iran requesting a ceasefire in a Truth Social post Wednesday morning. But the president indicated that the U.S. will only entertain the prospect once the Strait of Hormuz is open for ships.

“Iran’s New Regime President, much less Radicalized and far more intelligent than his predecessors, has just asked the United States of America for a CEASEFIRE! We will consider when Hormuz Strait is open, free, and clear. Until then, we are blasting Iran into oblivion or, as they say, back to the Stone Ages!!!” Trump asserted in the post.

KAROLINE LEAVITT FIRES BACK AT NBC NEWS REPORTER WHO ASKED IF TRUMP’S IRAN THREAT AMOUNTS TO A ‘WAR CRIME’

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, however, issued its own statement saying the Strait of Hormuz “is firmly and decisively under the control” of its forces.

“This strait will not be opened to the enemies of this nation through the ridiculous spectacle by the president of the United States,” it said.

Iran has effectively shut the critical oil choke point, through which about one-fifth of the world’s oil passes, sending oil prices soaring.

TRUMP ORDERS WAR DEPT TO POSTPONE STRIKES ON IRANIAN ENERGY SITES, CITING ‘PRODUCTIVE’ TALKS TO END WAR

U.S. gas prices jumped past an average of $4 a gallon for the first time since 2022 on Tuesday. Analysts say that high fuel costs will trickle into groceries as businesses’ transportation and packaging costs pile up.

Trump also told Reuters in a telephone interview ahead of his televised address Wednesday night that the U.S. would be finishing its war in Iran soon, but he wouldn’t give a timeline.

“I can’t tell you exactly. … We’re going to be out pretty quickly,” he said.

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But once the U.S. leaves, he said, “We’ll come back to do spot hits” on targets, as needed.

Fox News Digital’s Alex Nitzberg and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday celebrated NASA’s Artemis II mission, which is set to send U.S. astronauts beyond low-Earth orbit for the first time in more than five decades.

“Tonight at 6:24 P.M. EST, for the first time in over 50 YEARS, America is going back to the Moon!,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Artemis II, among the most powerful rockets ever built, is launching our Brave Astronauts farther into Deep Space than any human has EVER gone. We are WINNING, in Space, on Earth, and everywhere in between — Economically, Militarily, and now, BEYOND THE STARS. Nobody comes close!

“America doesn’t just compete, we DOMINATE, and the whole World is watching,” he added. “God bless our incredible Astronauts, God bless NASA, and God bless the Greatest Nation ever to exist, the United States of America!”

The Artemis program was established during President Donald Trump’s first term in 2017 as part of a broader push to return American astronauts to the moon.

NASA RACES TO BUILD MOON BASE AS US CHALLENGES CHINA IN NEW SPACE RACE

Artemis II was previously targeted for an earlier launch but faced delays following technical issues identified during testing, including fuel and helium leaks that required additional repairs to the Space Launch System rocket.

The four astronauts assigned to Artemis II — Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch of the U.S., and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen — are expected to travel around the moon and back, marking the first crewed mission beyond low-Earth orbit since 1972.

While the mission will not land on the lunar surface, it is designed to carry astronauts farther from Earth than any crewed mission since the Apollo era.

NASA BEGINS INFRASTRUCTURE OVERHAUL UNDER ISAACMAN AS TRUMP PUSHES AMBITIOUS SPACE EXPLORATION GOALS

The mission is scheduled to launch from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39B aboard NASA’s Space Launch System rocket, which the agency describes as the most powerful it has ever built.

Standing about 322 feet tall, the rocket will send the Orion spacecraft and its crew into deep space for the first time, testing critical systems ahead of future lunar landing missions.

NASA RETURNS HUMANS TO DEEP SPACE AFTER 50 YEARS WITH FEBRUARY ARTEMIS II MOON MISSION

After launch, the crew is expected to spend several days in space, including a multi-day journey around the far side of the moon before returning to Earth for a planned splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

Artemis II follows the uncrewed Artemis I test flight and is considered a key step toward future missions, including Artemis III, which aims to land astronauts on the lunar surface.

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NASA has said the Artemis program is intended to support long-term lunar exploration and lay the groundwork for eventual human missions to Mars.

Fox News Digital’s Michael Sinkewicz contributed to this report.