NationalWatch

A day after U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro announced she had directed her office to close its investigation into the Federal Reserve over a building project, President Donald Trump said he wants to know what happened.

“Well, I want to find out,” the president told reporters before boarding Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport in Florida on Saturday, after a journalist asked if he agreed with Pirro’s decision.

“You know, it’s not dropped,” he continued. “They’re looking into the whole thing about the crisis. What I want, with the IG, what I want to look at is how can a building that I could have done for $25 million cost $4 billion? That’s a big thing.”

Trump also mentioned Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, saying, “he was in charge.”

TRUMP ADMIN URGES RESTORING BALLROOM CONSTRUCTION IN EMERGENCY MOTION: ‘TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE’

“So we’ll get to the bottom of it,” he added. “Yeah, I think Jeanine is fantastic. And she worked with other people on that. I tell you, I want to find out, I have an obligation to find that — this was done during Biden, but I have an obligation to find out how does it — I would have done that building for $25 million and had money left over. And it would have been open a long time ago.”

The Fed had an approved budget of $2.46 billion for the renovations, but went over budget because of things like more asbestos than expected and costs going up during the course of the renovation, the Fed says on its website.

Pirro said Friday the Fed’s inspector general, Michael Horowitz, would take over the investigation, moving it from the hands of federal prosecutors into those of a longtime government watchdog.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S FEDERAL RESERVE HQ PROBE ESCALATES WITH UNANNOUNCED SITE VISIT BY PROSECUTORS

Powell was under investigation over statements he made to Congress related to the management of the renovation costs.

Powell revealed in a video announcement in January that the Department of Justice had opened an investigation into the Fed, calling it an unprecedented attempt to use “intimidation” to force him to lower interest rates.

In the lead-up to the investigation, Trump and Powell’s relationship had grown increasingly rocky, as Trump became frustrated over interest rates and began targeting Powell, whom he nominated in 2017. Trump called Powell a “fool” and demanded in March that he drop rates “immediately.”

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who has a background in finance and sits on the Senate Banking Committee, had vowed to block Kevin Warsh’s confirmation because of the DOJ’s investigation, after Trump nominated Warsh to replace Powell, whose term was set to expire on May 15.

Tillis had claimed the DOJ’s investigation was political and would improperly interfere with markets, and he accused Pirro of seeking “brownie points” with Trump by opening it. “It’s not cute,” Tillis said during a television interview in February.

During his confirmation hearing this week, Tillis told Warsh, who previously served on the Fed’s Board of Governors, that he had “extraordinary credentials” but that he could not vote to advance his nomination in the Senate until the DOJ ended its investigation.

Horowitz, who will now investigate the Fed building renovation costs, has drawn a mix of praise and criticism from Republicans while serving as DOJ inspector general for more than a decade. He was one of the few high-profile inspectors general spared during Trump’s historic cull of government watchdogs last year and has found allyship in key figures like House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio.

Pirro closing the investigation could pave the way for Warsh’s nomination.

Trump said he wanted to see the investigation through “for the country.”

“It’s much tougher, much more expensive to build a hotel than an office,” the president said, mentioning his Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., that he sold in 2022 and was renamed the Waldorf Astoria.

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He continued, “I want to find out how can a building of that size cost for whatever it’s going to be. Nobody knows, by the way, what it’s going to be. Kevin is going to be fantastic. Kevin Warsh, he may never get to be in that building.”

Trump told reporters that his nomination should now going smoothly, “but whether it is or not, somebody has to find out why that building that should have cost $25 million is costing billions of dollars. And you know why they have to find it out? For other buildings, because that’s not the only one. I think that’s the most egregious example.”

Fox News’ Ashley Oliver and Alex Nitzberg contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump revealed to Fox News on Saturday that he unilaterally canceled U.S. negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner’s planned trip to Pakistan for talks with Iran. 

The president said in an exclusive interview with Fox News’ White House correspondent Aishah Hasnie that it’s not worth the U.S. delegation making the 18-hour flight to Pakistan when the U.S. holds all the cards in the conflict with Iran. 

“I’ve told my people a little while ago they were getting ready to leave, and I said, ‘Nope, you’re not making an 18-hour flight to go there. We have all the cards. They can call us anytime they want, but you’re not going to be making any more 18-hour flights to sit around talking about nothing’,” Trump said. 

“And I canceled the trip, and I said, anytime they want to phone us, we’re ready, willing and able, but we’re not going to waste a lot of time,” Trump told Fox News.

LIVE UPDATES: TRUMP CANCELS US TRIP TO PAKISTAN FOR IRAN NEGOTIATIONS

Then in a post on Truth Social, Trump said Iran is suffering from “tremendous infighting and confusion within their ‘leadership.’” 

“Nobody knows who is in charge, including them,” Trump wrote. 

U.S. special envoy Witkoff and Kushner, who is Trump’s son-in-law, were supposed to travel to Pakistan this weekend for the second round of U.S.-Iran negotiations during Operation Epic Fury.

US TURNS TO DRONES AFTER RETIRING MINESWEEPERS TO REOPEN STRAIT OF HORMUZ

Prior to the cancellation, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Friday that “We’ve certainly seen some progress from the Iranian side in the last couple of days” regarding a potential deal to end the conflict. 

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was in Islamabad, Pakistan, on Saturday to meet with Pakistan’s prime minister.

“Very fruitful visit to Pakistan, whose good offices and brotherly efforts to bring back peace to our region we very much value,” he said on X following the trip.   

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“Shared Iran’s position concerning workable framework to permanently end the war on Iran. Have yet to see if the U.S. is truly serious about diplomacy,” he added. 

Vice President JD Vance was supposed to travel to Pakistan earlier this week for a second round of talks, but he was called back to the White House for meetings, and the trip was postponed indefinitely.

Vance, Witkoff and Kushner were in Pakistan earlier this month for the first round of talks with the Iranian, but no deal was reached after their in-person meeting.

As redistricting battles are reaching a boiling point, Democrats said President Donald Trump “started this” while defending their own party’s response ahead of the 2026 midterms.

“Donald Trump started this battle, and if people thought Democrats were going to sit on their hands while this happened, that was not the case,” Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., said. “We’re going to fight back.”

“Democrats did not want this,” Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., added.

On Tuesday night, Virginia voters narrowly passed a congressional redistricting referendum backed by Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger, securing a victory for Democrats and shifting momentum in the race for the U.S. House of Representatives.

NEWSOM TURNS VIRGINIA REDISTRICTING VICTORY INTO WARNING SHOT FOR TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

The Virginia referendum, which comes after Trump’s push for redistricting in Republican-controlled states, could give Democrats four more House seats.

“It all starts with Donald Trump asking Gov. Abbott to do an unusual mid-decade redistricting,” Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., said.

Aguilar said that President Trump’s push in Texas may have sparked the nationwide map fights, but “Democrats and the American people are going to end it.”

“Republicans engaged in redistricting discussions in Indiana and in Kansas and in all these other places. It’s incredibly frustrating,” Aguilar said. “Republicans started this fight, but Democrats and the American people are going to end it.”

Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Pa., called the move “a grab by the president.”

BETO ENCOURAGES DEMOCRATS TO FIGHT ‘FIRE WITH FIRE’ IN TEXAS REDISTRICTING BATTLE

“Mr. Trump said in Texas he was owed five seats, and that’s what triggered redistricting with no transparency,” Dean said. “Just a grab by the president.”

Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., said states following Trump’s lead are “doing the bidding” of the president and escalating the fight.

“I think that Trump started a slippery slope that we’re sliding down,” Johnson said. “Democrats have to match the overreach of complicit Republicans doing the bidding of Donald Trump.”

Democrats justified their response as a strategic “play.”

“What Democrats have done is just play defense,” Takano said. “We’re not going to roll over and just allow this to happen.”

Some Democrats said they had no choice but to join the gerrymandering efforts. Both parties hope to win the House using this strategy.

“No one should be interfering with the democratic process, but Mr. Trump was the one who initiated it,” Shri Thanedar, D-Mich., said.

TRUMP FORCES INDIANA GOP INTO REDISTRICTING REVERSAL IN RACE TO DRAW NEW MAGA MAP

Johnson said he believes gerrymandering goes beyond politics and could also impact voter representation.

“Partisan gerrymandering is a fig leaf for what’s really happening, which is the racialized redistricting meant to make America great again by excluding Black folks from being able to elect the representatives of their choice, Black and brown people,” he said.

One Democrat suggested redistricting could wind down soon.

“I think we may have seen the end of any viable redistricting right now before the election,” Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., said.

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However, Takano said Democrats would not back down.

“You can’t bring a knife to a gunfight and say, ‘Hey, Republicans can just change districts mid-decade without a response,’” he said.

President Donald Trump will attend the White House Correspondents‘ Dinner on Saturday, marking his first appearance at the annual event as commander in chief after skipping it throughout his first term.

The decision puts Trump back at a Washington ritual long tied to his fraught relationship with the press and political establishment. His return also revives memories of the 2011 dinner, when then-President Barack Obama and comedian Seth Meyers mocked him from the dais at a moment that later became a widely discussed part of Trump’s political story.

“Donald Trump is here tonight,” Obama said at the 2011 dinner. “Now, I know he’s taken some flak lately, but no one is happier, no one is prouder to put this birth certificate matter to rest than The Donald.”

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“And that’s because he can finally get back to focusing on the issues that matter — like, did we fake the moon landing? What really happened in Roswell? And where are Biggie and Tupac?” he continued. Trump had publicly called for the release of Obama’s birth certificate, which the State of Hawaii did release that year. 

The exchange underscored longstanding tensions between Trump and the Washington establishment that predated his entry into politics. 

Speculation mounted that the jabs helped fuel Trump’s eventual decision to launch a presidential run, culminating in a stunning upset victory in 2016. Trump had denied that Obama’s 2011 jokes prompted his candidacy, telling The Washington Post in 2016 that “there are many reasons I’m running, but that’s not one of them.” 

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“Donald Trump has been saying that he will run for president as a Republican, which is surprising since I just assumed he’d be running as a joke,” comedian Seth Meyers added when he took the podium that night.

Trump told Fox News’ “The Five” earlier this year he was treated “rudely and crudely” during the dinner, which he said influenced his decision not to attend while he was first in office.

“The press was so nasty, I just – so I didn’t do it,” said Trump.

TRUMP SAYS TRANSGENDER BATHROOM DEBATE LESS IMPORTANT THAN OTHER ISSUES

He once again denied it was the 2011 dinner that sparked his interest in running for office.

“There is this theory: I was there while Barack Hussein Obama was speaking, and he was hitting me a little bit. Actually, it was very nice, and I was actually – I loved it. I really loved it,” said Trump.

WHCA PRESIDENT OPENS DINNER HIGHLIGHTING TRUMP’S ABSENCE AND ‘EXTREMELY DIFFICULT’ YEAR FOR THE PRESS

Trump announced he would attend this year’s dinner as part of America’s 250th birthday celebration. The first lady will join him.

“The White House Correspondents Association very nicely asked the President to join them at their annual dinner this year as the Honoree, which he gladly accepted,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle previously told Fox News Digital.

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Trump did not attend during his first term due to a contentious relationship with the media at the height of coverage of the Russia investigation.

The banquet was paused during the COVID-19 pandemic and revived in 2022 during President Biden’s administration. Trump also did not attend last year.

President Trump is attending the White House Correspondents’ Dinner Saturday for the first time as commander-in-chief — after boycotting the annual event last year and each year during his first term.

The dinner will take place on Saturday, April 25, at the Washington Hilton.

“The White House Correspondents Association has asked me, very nicely, to be the Honoree at this year’s Dinner, a long and storied tradition since it began in 1924, under then President Calvin Coolidge,” Trump posted on his Truth Social last month, adding that it would be his “Honor to accept their invitation.” 

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The White House Correspondents’ Association’s president, Weijia Jiang said that they were “happy” with the president’s decision to attend.

“For more than 100 years, the journalists of the White House Correspondents’ Association have enjoyed an evening with the president,” Jiang said in a statement last month. “We’re happy the president has accepted our invitation and look forward to hosting him.”

DAN RATHER AMONG 200 JOURNALISTS DEMANDING TRUMP BE CALLED OUT AT WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS’ DINNER

The president had skipped the event in years past, saying that decision was due to the press being “extraordinarily bad” to him.

Despite the annual invitation and Trump’s acceptance, hundreds of journalists are going after the president, having signed an open letter urging the White House Correspondents’ Association to call out the president and “forcefully demonstrate opposition” to his “efforts to trample freedom of the press.”

“The dinner has long served as a symbol of the vital and irreplaceable role of a free press in American democracy and a celebration of the First Amendment and the journalists who uphold it. President Trump’s systematic, sustained, and unprecedented attacks on the free press… render his presence at such an event a profound contradiction of its purpose,” the open letter reads.

“The collective weight of the administration’s actions — retaliatory access bans, coercive regulatory investigations, frivolous lawsuits against the press, defunding of public broadcasting, dismantling of international broadcasting, physical restrictions on journalists, personal verbal attacks on reporters, assaults on the media in official White House press releases and social media posts, the arrest of journalists, and the pardoning of those who committed violence against the press — represent the most systematic and comprehensive assault on freedom of the press by a sitting American president.”

TRUMP ACCEPTS WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS’ ASSOCIATION DINNER INVITATION FOR THE FIRST TIME AS PRESIDENT

Notable signatories on the letter are former CBS News anchor Dan Rather, former ABC News White House correspondent Sam Donaldson, former NBC News anchor Ann Curry and PBS NewsHour correspondent Stephanie Sy.

A spokesperson for the White House simply pointed to Trump’s Truth Social post announcing he was attending the dinner when previously asked about the open letter. 

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Trump did attend the event as a private citizen in 2011 during the Obama administration. Then-President Barack Obama made a joke about Trump during that event saying: “Say what you will about Mr. Trump, he certainly would bring some change to the White House. Let’s see what we’ve got up there.”

Obama then featured an image of the White House with a neon sign that said “Trump White House Hotel Casino Golf Course” with gold columns and a chandelier.

But during his second term, Trump has actually taken to remodeling the White House— with a new ballroom under construction and his addition of gold molding to the Oval Office.

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Fox News’ Joseph Wulfsohn contributed to this report. 

Washington, D.C.’s homicide count has dropped sharply this year, falling by roughly half compared to the same period in 2025, as the Trump administration points to an aggressive federal crackdown in the nation’s capital.

The administration has credited the appointment of U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, a surge of federal agents and the deployment of National Guard troops with driving the decline. But criminologists say similar drops are playing out nationwide and caution that it is difficult to tie the improvement to any single policy, setting up a debate over what is actually behind the shift.

There have been 20 murders at this point in 2026, compared to 42 in the same timeframe in 2025, alongside Pirro’s tough enforcement posture and an increased visible law enforcement presence. The nation’s murder rate overall is at its lowest since 1900, which President Donald Trump has credited to his border policies.

As for D.C., the White House said that Trump’s crime task force has yielded “tremendous results for the community.”

SCOOP: WHITE HOUSE TOUTS GUNS AND DRUG HAUL REMOVED FROM DC STREETS AS TRUMP’S CRIME BLITZ NETS 550 ARRESTS

“Crime has dropped across the board, dangerous criminals have been removed from the streets, missing children have been recovered, illegal weapons have been confiscated, and more,” said spokeswoman Abigail Jackson, crediting the president’s “bold actions in D.C.” for reducing crime and saying “residents are thankful.”

But Thaddeus Johnson, a senior fellow at the Council on Criminal Justice and a criminology professor at Georgia State University, said it is difficult to attribute the decline to any single factor.

“Crackdowns can have an effect,” Johnson said in an interview, though he noted that Washington, D.C., has struggled with court backlogs and delayed cases in recent years, which may have contributed to higher crime rates. He said recent progress in clearing the backlog has allowed prosecutions to move forward and taken offenders off the streets.

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Johnson acknowledged that aggressive prosecutions by Pirro and others have likely deterred some crime.

“If you’re prosecuting cases, you know that the deterrence is not only the severity of punishment, but it’s the celerity or the swiftness of punishment and the certainty of it — the certainty of punishment is more important than the severity.”

He emphasized that he is not discounting Pirro or the National Guard deployment, but said it is difficult to identify any single action as a “magic bullet,” particularly as other cities across the country are also seeing declines.

Johnson added that Washington was still grappling with elevated robbery rates as recently as 2024, including incidents occurring outside traditionally high-crime areas in Southeast and shifting into neighborhoods such as the Wharf and Navy Yard, a revitalized nightlife corridor across the Anacostia River.

“I haven’t seen anything per se, evidence directly, where I can say, ‘well, yeah, it’s due to the prosecutions and the judges’ as to why these crimes are going down when we started seeing that many of the crimes had started going down already,” he said.

“It’s hard to say that it didn’t play a part … particularly when we see similar patterns across the nation.”

TRUMP’S DC PUBLIC SAFETY SWEEP RESULTS IN 23 ARRESTS INCLUDING MURDER SUSPECT ON OPENING DAY

The White House’s claims of success in reducing crime in Washington contrast with earlier warnings from critics that the National Guard deployment would backfire.

District of Columbia at-large Councilmember Robert White Jr. warned at the outset that it is abnormal to see armed guardsmen in an American city:

“It’s hard to explain to my kids, who are 6 and 9, what’s happening here. It’s an occupation because it’s both unwelcome and unwarranted. It’s also unhelpful. But I don’t think it’s meant to be helpful in any way,” White told Governing News in September.

The Democrat added local officials “have an obligation to be clear that this is going to make crime worse in the coming years.”

Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Democrat from adjacent Takoma Park, Maryland, similarly predicted the surge was a bad idea:

“No one in Washington is asking Trump to deploy the National Guard or take over the MPD. This is a phony, manufactured crisis if I’ve ever seen one,” Raskin said in August. “Since taking office, Trump has repeatedly undermined public safety in our nation’s capital.”

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House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries also said last fall that Trump was acting like a “wannabe king” whose “unleash[ing of] the national guard on the city’s youth and homeless population has no basis in law and will put the safety of the people of our nation’s capital in danger.”

Fox News’ Elise Oggioni contributed to this report.

EXCLUSIVE — Despite facing a rough political environment, Republican National Committee Chair Joe Gruters remains optimistic the GOP will successfully defend its slim Senate and razor-thin House majorities in this year’s midterm elections.

“I think we’re on track. I still think that we have a chance to defy history and win the midterms,” Gruters said this week in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital.

Republicans — as the party currently in power — were already up against traditional political headwinds that lead to a loss of congressional seats. Add to that the challenging climate fueled by persistent inflation, rising gas prices tied to what polls show is an unpopular war with Iran, and President Donald Trump’s underwater approval ratings.

“I know it’s all doom and gloom out there, but we have the best messenger in President Trump that’s ever existed in the party.”

The GOP is facing a low-propensity problem: MAGA voters who don’t always go to the polls when Trump’s name isn’t on the ballot.

WHAT THE LATEST FOX NEWS NATIONAL POLL SAYS ABOUT DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS

The RNC chair, a longtime Trump ally who the president picked last summer to steer the national party committee, said Trump will be “barnstorming the country” later this year, adding, “I think what he’s doing is rallying people. I think he could deliver these low propensity voters over and over again.”

The RNC currently holds a massive fundraising and cash-on-hand advantage over the rival Democratic National Committee (DNC).

Gruters, who was a certified public accountant (CPA) before taking over the RNC and who still serves as a Florida state senator, touted his party’s “superior resources.”

“If we focus on what’s important to us, and that’s the making sure we have the resources, making sure we have good candidates, following the president and his messaging, I think we will be successful,” he predicted.

Deep concerns over inflation boosted Trump and Republicans to sweeping victories at the ballot box in 2024, as they won back the White House and Senate and kept their House majority.

DEMOCRACY ’26: STAY UP TO DATE WITH THE FOX NEWS ELECTION HUB

But Democrats say their decisive victories in November’s 2025 elections, and their overperformances in special elections and other ballot box showdowns last year and, so far this year, were fueled by their laser focus on affordability amid persistent inflation.

The latest Fox News national poll indicates that just 28% of voters give Trump a thumbs up on handling inflation, which voters rank as the most pressing issue. The survey also says Democrats have an eight point advantage over Republicans when it comes to handling high prices.

During his first year back in the White House, Trump regularly touted lower gas prices when asked about his administration’s efforts on affordability.

But the surge in gas prices – the national average for regular is hovering slightly above $4 per gallon – due to the Trump-ordered attacks on Iran, has given the Democrats plenty of political fuel.

“Donald Trump started a war that no one wanted, and now Americans are paying the price. Gas prices are soaring and families who were already struggling in Trump’s economy are forced to stretch their budgets even further while footing the bill for this war,” DNC Chair Ken Martin said in a statement.

Martin charged that Trump “stuck everybody else with higher costs with no relief in sight. Americans literally can’t afford the Trump presidency.” 

TRUMP HITS KEY BATTLEGROUNDS TO SELL TAX CUTS, BOOST GOP AHEAD OF MIDTERMS

But Gruters told Fox News Digital, “This conflict is temporary. I think the President knows exactly what he’s doing…I think by the time we hit November, I think we’re going to be in stride.”

Democrats are energized, thanks to their ballot box victories and overperformances.

“Nearly every week, we’re seeing red districts go blue with historic, game-changing victories up and down the ballot,” Martin emphasized. “We have momentum on our side, but we refuse to take a single day for granted. Democrats are all hands on deck ahead of November, because it’s time to send the Republicans packing.”

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Gruters isn’t buying the Democrats’ messaging.

“These special elections are special for a reason,” he said. “The Democrats are motivated because of anger, because every time the president does something good, they get angrier.”

And the RNC chair predicted, “by the time we hit the midterms, I think we’re going to be in full stride. We have great candidates, we have the right messaging, and I think we’ll be successful.”

Senate Republicans are forging ahead with a two-step plan to end the record-breaking Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown, but their House counterparts tell Fox News Digital they are not on board with the strategy.

A swath of House Republicans have voiced growing frustration that a forthcoming GOP-only funding package does not include other policy priorities beyond funding immigration enforcement ahead of November’s midterm elections. 

“I think we’ve got one last opportunity for reconciliation,” Rep. Pat Harrigan, R-N.C., told Fox News Digital in an interview. “I know some people are talking about two, but I think we’ve got one guaranteed shot.”

“I like the idea of making it bigger,” he added, mentioning defense funding and affordability concerns. “We’ve got a lot of important stuff to do and we need to get it done.”

ICE SHUTDOWN FIGHT MIGHT RESTRICT FEMA, COAST GUARD TO ‘LIFE-THREATENING’ EMERGENCIES

“I’m undecided,” Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., a member of the House Freedom Caucus, told Fox News Digital, referring to the Senate’s approach. “I’ve got issues with it. We believe it should be more expansive.”

The Senate approved a budget resolution early Thursday largely along party lines that would fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) for the rest of President Donald Trump’s term. 

Republicans are pursuing the partisan budget reconciliation process to bypass Democrats and fund immigration enforcement with GOP votes after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., refused to fund the department without sweeping reforms added to the proposal.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is racing to pass the Senate’s budget resolution as early as next week, at which point he can afford to lose only a handful of votes. President Donald Trump has set a June 1 deadline to fully fund immigration enforcement through a GOP-only bill, forcing Republicans to act quickly with little room for error.

Before the DHS shutdown House Republican leadership teased a budget reconciliation sequel to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that would incorporate a diverse set of priorities, such as a defense supplemental package, spending cuts targeting fraud and policies aimed at lowering the cost of living.

Concerns among rank-and-file Republicans that a forthcoming budget bill will not include those provisions threaten to jeopardize that timeline.

House conservatives have also fiercely objected to the Senate passing a bipartisan partial DHS bill carving out ICE and the Border Patrol from the normal appropriations process and keeping those two agencies unfunded.

After Democrats in the upper chamber repeatedly filibustered DHS funding bills, the Senate approved legislation funding parts of the department that Democrats would support. The House has yet to take up that legislation.

“The bill the Senate sent over is totally unacceptable to conservatives,” House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., said Thursday, referring to the upper chamber’s partial DHS bill. “We will never vote or support in any way a bill that puts in a zero” for immigration enforcement, he added.

“The very premise of needing a reconciliation bill to pass funding for ICE and CBP is repulsive to me,” Higgins told Fox News Digital. “That sort of thing has never been done up here, to take an appropriations bill and sort of cherry pick what you don’t want in it and isolate whole agencies … I’m against that whole premise.”

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

Senate Republicans are largely unified on keeping the package as narrow as possible out of concern that adding more to the pot could stall lawmakers’ progress.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has sought to expedite the passage of a forthcoming budget bill by involving in the process just two panels —  the Senate Judiciary and the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committees.

“The vast majority of Republicans stuck together to do something Democrats are refusing to do: Fully fund the Border Patrol and ICE for three and a half years through the Trump presidency,” Graham said Thursday after the upper chamber adopted the budget blueprint. “As Senate Budget Committee Chairman, I am very proud of my colleagues.”

Still, some Senate Republicans agree with their House colleagues who want to super-size the forthcoming package out of fear that they may not get another shot before the midterms.

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., argued that Republicans should try to beef up the package despite promises from leadership that there could be a third bite at the apple later in the year.

“I’m not saying anybody’s lying, they’re not. People probably intend to do a third reconciliation bill,” Kennedy said on the Senate floor. “But you’re not looking at Bambi’s baby brother here. There won’t be a third reconciliation bill. You know it … and I know it. This is it. This is the last train leaving the station.”

It is unclear whether the House will ultimately modify the Senate’s budget blueprint funding immigration enforcement.

Any changes to the resolution would kick it back to the Senate for reconciliation and require another marathon vote series before Congress could officially unlock the reconciliation process.

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DHS, meanwhile, has warned this week it is short on funds to continue paying its employees through May.

Earlier in April, Trump ordered the department to use existing funds to provide backpay to federal employees, who had been furloughed or reporting to work without their salary during the funding lapse, which began in mid-February.

All eyes are on Florida next week, as it is likely the final battleground in the high-stakes fight between President Donald Trump and Republicans versus Democrats over congressional redistricting.

A special session of the Florida legislature, called earlier this year by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis to redraw the right-leaning state’s U.S. House districts, kicks off on Tuesday.

At stake is which party will control the House of Representatives during the final two years of Trump’s second term in the White House.

Republicans and Democrats over the past nine months have been redrawing the House district maps in states they control to gain partisan advantages heading into this year’s midterm elections, when the GOP will be defending its razor-thin congressional majority.

DESANTIS AND JEFFRIES TRADE SHOTS OVER FLORIDA CONGRESSIONAL REDISTRICTING

Lawmakers in the GOP-dominated Florida legislature are meeting one week after voters in Virginia narrowly passed a referendum that, if it clears legal hurdles, will give the state’s Democratic-controlled legislature — rather than the current nonpartisan commission — temporary redistricting power through the 2030 election. It could result in a 10-1 advantage for Democrats in Virginia’s congressional delegation, up from their current 6-5 edge.

The vote in Virginia put more pressure on DeSantis to deliver a new map in Florida that could create between three and five more right-leaning congressional districts.

“Florida has the right and the intention to do it. And my view is that they should,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters on Wednesday when asked if Florida’s maps should be redrawn in time for the midterms.

A Florida-based Republican in the governor’s wider political circle who asked for anonymity to speak more freely told Fox News Digital, “Gov. DeSantis is under tremendous pressure to deliver an answer to Virginia for Trump and Speaker Johnson.”

But that source added that despite pressure from the president’s political team, the map DeSantis may unveil on Monday on the eve of the special legislative session will likely aim for three rather than five additional right-leaning districts.

The road ahead for DeSantis is not easy: the governor already pushed through a new House map four years ago, which helped secure the GOP’s current 20-8 majority in Florida’s U.S. House delegation. Redrawing the map again just four years later is harder.

VIRGINIA VOTE GIVES DEMOCRATS MIDTERM MAP EDGE – SPARKS GOP BLAME GAME

There are also legal hurdles DeSantis faces: It is illegal under Florida’s constitution to redraw maps for partisan gain, known as gerrymandering. Democrats have vowed lawsuits against any new map that may come out of Tallahassee.

U.S. House Democratic leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries last week took aim at what some are dubbing “dummymander,” a play on words of “gerrymander,” and argued that redrawing the maps in Florida — where the GOP suffered setbacks earlier this spring in special legislative elections — would harm Republican members of Congress.

“Our message to Florida Republicans is, ‘F around and find out,’” Jeffries told reporters as he referenced next week’s redistricting legislative session. Jeffries said the redistricting move would lead Democrats to increase their target list of vulnerable Florida House Republicans.

He warned DeSantis and Republicans that “the electoral tide is turning in Florida.”

DEMOCRATS NARROWLY WIN CONGRESSIONAL REDISTRICTING SHOWDOWN IN VIRGINIA

Pushing back, DeSantis said “Please. Be my guest. I will pay for you to come down to Florida to campaign.”

“I’ll put you up in the Florida governor’s mansion. We will take you fishing,” the governor added.

DeSantis has argued that the last U.S. Census was full of flaws and claimed that it robbed Florida of an extra congressional seat. And the governor has also pointed to the major influx of new residents this decade who moved to Florida from other states in the wake of the COVID pandemic.

Not all Florida Republicans are on board with the effort, due to concerns it may backfire.

A Florida-based GOP strategist told Fox News Digital some Florida members of Congress “don’t want this.”

And pointing to the legislature, where there are some grumblings, the strategist, who asked to remain anonymous to speak clearly, said “some don’t want to do it, but their hands will be forced.”

Florida has already moved the filing deadline for congressional candidates back from April to June, but for candidates already running for Congress, the late-in-the-game map redraw brings plenty of complications.

“Changing the map changes the race. Candidates have been interview for a job description that just got a requirement change,” veteran Florida-based GOP donor and bundler Dan Eberhart told Fox News Digital.

Eberhart noted that “these candidates are going to have to call an audible really soon – changing districts and probably new competitors.”

Florida may be the final battlefield in a political war that started a year ago.

Aiming to prevent what happened during his first term in the White House when Democrats reclaimed the House majority in the 2018 midterms, Trump last spring first floated the idea of rare, but not unheard of, mid-decade congressional redistricting.

The mission was simple: redraw congressional district maps in red states to pad the GOP’s fragile House majority to keep control of the chamber in the midterms, when the party in power traditionally faces political headwinds and loses seats.

When asked by reporters last summer about his plan to add Republican-leaning House seats across the country, the president said, “Texas will be the biggest one. And that’ll be five.”

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas called a special session of the GOP-dominated state legislature to pass the new map.

But Democratic state lawmakers, who broke quorum for two weeks as they fled Texas in a bid to delay the passage of the redistricting bill, energized Democrats across the country.

Among those leading the fight against Trump’s redistricting was Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom of California.

DEMOCRACY ’26: STAY UP TO DATE WITH THE FOX NEWS ELECTION HUB

California voters in November overwhelmingly passed Proposition 50, a ballot initiative that temporarily sidetracked the left-leaning state’s nonpartisan redistricting commission and returned the power to draw the congressional maps to the Democratic-dominated legislature.

That is expected to result in five more Democratic-leaning congressional districts in California, which aimed to counter the move by Texas to redraw their maps.

The fight quickly spread beyond Texas and California.

Republican-controlled Missouri and Ohio and swing state North Carolina, where the GOP dominates the legislature, have drawn new maps as part of the president’s push.

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In blows to Republicans, a Utah district judge late last year rejected a congressional district map drawn by the state’s GOP-dominated legislature and instead approved an alternate that will create a Democratic-leaning district ahead of the midterms.

Republicans in Indiana’s Senate in December defied Trump, shooting down a redistricting bill that had passed the state House. The showdown in the Indiana statehouse grabbed plenty of national attention.

The U.S. is racing to reopen the Strait of Hormuz as Iran threatens one of the world’s most critical shipping lanes, testing a Navy that has recently retired most of its dedicated minesweepers and is now relying on a smaller fleet of unmanned systems to do the job.

President Donald Trump has warned Tehran against further escalation and signaled the U.S. is prepared to act to keep the strait open, while Iranian forces have laid mines and threatened commercial traffic in the narrow waterway that carries a significant share of global oil.

The confrontation is now testing a weakness in the Navy’s mine-warfare posture. As the U.S. moves to reopen the Strait of Hormuz after Iranian mining threats, it is doing so after retiring most of the ships once dedicated to that mission and while still relying on a limited mix of legacy vessels and newer unmanned systems to clear one of the world’s most critical shipping lanes.

At the current moment, any mine-clearing effort is unfolding amid an active standoff in the strait. The U.S. has imposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports, while Iran has responded with attacks on commercial vessels, seizures of ships and threats to close the waterway entirely.

HEGSETH BLASTS BRITS, SAYS IRAN’S CHAOTIC RETALIATION HAS DRIVEN ITS OWN ALLIES ‘INTO THE AMERICAN ORBIT’

At least several commercial ships have come under fire in recent days, and both sides have intercepted vessels as they attempt to move through the chokepoint, underscoring the risks facing any operation to restore traffic.

Iran has tied further negotiations to the lifting of the U.S. naval blockade, while Washington has insisted on security guarantees and reopening the strait, leaving little immediate path to a deal.

The operation comes after a major shift in how the Navy handles mine warfare. The service retired its four Bahrain-based minesweepers last year, ending a decades-long presence of dedicated mine-hunting ships in the Middle East.

At the start of the current crisis, the Navy’s remaining minesweepers were based in Japan, not the Persian Gulf, and newer littoral combat ships equipped for mine countermeasures were not all positioned in the region.

Multiple news outlets have reported Iran has laid at least a dozen mines in the strait, citing intelligence assessments, though some estimates put the number higher.

Now, as the U.S. moves to reopen the strait, some of those assets are being brought back in. Two Avenger-class mine countermeasure ships, USS Chief and USS Pioneer, were tracked sailing west from Southeast Asia toward the Middle East in recent days as preparations for mine-clearing operations ramp up.

DESTROY THE REGIME’S POWER WITHOUT OCCUPYING IRAN: A SMARTER WAR PLAN

The shift has left the Navy relying on a mix of legacy ships being surged into theater and newer unmanned systems designed to detect and neutralize mines.

“To be honest, that the minesweepers retired was never a concern to me, because we had brought in newer technology,” retired Vice Adm. Kevin Donegan, who previously commanded the Navy’s 5th Fleet, told Fox News Digital.

But analysts say the Navy is still working through a transition as it replaces its older minesweepers with newer systems.

“We’re sort of at this nadir of the Navy’s mine sweeping capacity,” Bryan Clark, a defense analyst at the Hudson Institute, told Fox News Digital.

Clark said the Navy has spent years developing unmanned systems to replace legacy ships, but currently has a limited number of those systems available for large-scale operations.

U.S. forces are not sending ships blindly into minefields. Instead, the operation begins with a wave of unmanned systems scanning the seabed to identify potential threats.

Underwater drones — some torpedo-shaped — are deployed in grid patterns to map the ocean floor and detect objects that could be mines, using high-resolution sonar to distinguish them from debris.

“They kind of look like torpedoes and they map the bottom,” Donegan said.

In parallel, surface drones tow sonar systems through narrow lanes, while helicopters equipped with sensors scan for mines closer to the surface, allowing the Navy to build a detailed picture of what is actually in the water.

TRUMP VOICES FRUSTRATION WITH NATO, SAYS IRANIAN NAVY ‘DESTROYED’ AS US PREPS FOR BLOCKADE

But identifying mines is only the first step.

“The mine neutralization part is really the long leg of the process,” Clark said.

Once a mine is located, operators deploy remotely controlled systems to disable it — either by detonating it in place or puncturing it so it sinks. Even then, the danger is not fully removed.

“You’ve got to then retrieve this thing with EOD personnel,” Clark said, referring to explosive ordnance disposal teams tasked with clearing debris that can still pose a hazard to passing ships.

Clearing mines remains a slow and methodical process that can stretch timelines depending on how many devices are in the water and how they are deployed.

The Pentagon has told Congress the effort could take as long as six months, according to a Washington Post report.

Clark said recent war-gaming suggests U.S. forces could identify and begin neutralizing mines within weeks, but fully removing them from key shipping lanes could take significantly longer.

“The finding part, you could do within a couple of weeks,” he said, adding that neutralizing mines could take additional time and that removing debris and ensuring lanes are completely safe could extend operations into months.

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Donegan cautioned that timelines are difficult to predict, in part because U.S. forces must first confirm whether mines are actually present in the areas Iran has claimed.

“When somebody says they mined it, you have to go validate if that’s even true, and that takes time,” he said.

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s campaign hit back at Republican attacks Friday after the state GOP demanded answers from the Democratic gubernatorial front-runner on her past work with the federally-indicted Southern Poverty Law Center.

Benson is a former volunteer and later board member of the SPLC, which was indicted Tuesday on 11 counts over accusations it fraudulently paid members of extremist groups like the KKK and those tied to the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the SPLC paid members of these extremist groups so it could create a “work product that reported on these activities.”

“Jocelyn Benson regularly touted her experience as a leader of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a group that the Department of Justice says secretly funneled money to the KKK and other hate groups they were purportedly tracking,” the Michigan Republican Party posted on its official X account on Friday.

“What did Jocelyn know, and when did she know it?”

JAY JONES TARGETED AS AGS URGE NATIONAL GROUPS TO DENY MEMBERSHIP OVER SCANDALS: ‘STAIN ON OUR INSTITUTION’

After her 2004 graduation from college in Massachusetts, Benson moved to Alabama to work for the SPLC where she aided investigations of hate groups and hate crimes, according to the Harvard Law Review.

She also visited the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma where civil rights figures like the late Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., marched and were badly beaten by law enforcement.

An official with the Benson campaign confirmed she served as a volunteer researcher for the SPLC after college and later served on the Montgomery-based group’s board from 2014-2018.

But when pressed on what Benson knew about the allegations in the DOJ’s indictment, her campaign pushed back on the Republican Party’s attacks.

“Jocelyn Benson has spent her career advancing the unfinished work of the civil rights movement and expanding economic opportunity, including helping dismantle white supremacist and neo-Nazi extremist networks responsible for hate crimes across the country,” the campaign told Fox News Digital on Friday.

“And while Donald Trump is trying to use his Justice Department to distract from his reckless economic policies that are driving up costs for Michiganders, Jocelyn remains focused on lower costs, raising wages, and protecting the rights and freedoms of the people in this state.”

Republicans continued to press Benson for answers.

MIGOP chairman Jim Runestad told Fox News Digital that Benson’s tenure on the SPLC board coincided with the timeframe in which the DOJ alleged the group began “paying the KKK and other extremist groups.”

DEM GOV’S NEW CAMPAIGN MESSAGE MAN ONCE SAID ‘RELIGIOUS RIGHT’ UNITED BY ‘WHITE SUPREMACY’

“Benson owes an explanation to the public in what she knows about the SPLC’s alleged criminal behavior, considering the criminal activity started around the same time Benson was named to the Board,” Runestad said.

Benson has previously described her early work at the SPLC as focused on investigating extremist groups.

In a 2025 interview with “Keen on America,” Benson recounted researching groups “claiming to be the reincarnation of [Adolf] Hitler,” saying she once sat alone in a hotel room in Spartanburg and feared those people “were going to find out who I was and come and kill me and no one would ever know about it and all the rest.”

“And that was an act of courage, small and no one saw it, but it helped me build a bravery muscle that and several other points throughout my life so that 20 years later, 25 years later, when I’m standing up to the president of the United States, it wasn’t the first time I’ve had to take on those harrowing fights,” Benson went on in the interview.

In prior comments, an SPLC official named Penny Weaver described Benson as coming to Montgomery “straight out of college as an unpaid intern, then worked for us.”

“Benson worked as a waitress to support herself so she could continue to volunteer at the center,” Weaver said, adding that Benson begged to be able to volunteer for the SPLC.

BLACK LIVES MATTER OKC LEADER CHARGED WITH WIRE FRAUD, MONEY LAUNDERING IN ALLEGED $3.15M EMBEZZLEMENT SCHEME

The SPLC is a longstanding left-wing nonprofit that claims to fight white supremacy and racial hatred by reporting on extremist groups and conducting research to inform law enforcement about them with the goal of dismantling the groups. SPLC’s CEO, Bryan Fair, addressed the probe in a video message posted online, arguing the Trump administration has “made no secret who they want to protect and who they want to destroy.”

“We are reviewing the charges,” a subsequent statement from Fair sent to Fox News Digital added. “However, after today’s Department of Justice press conference, we are outraged by the false allegations levied against SPLC – an organization that for 55 years has stood as a beacon of hope fighting white supremacy and various forms of injustice to create a multi-racial democracy where we can all live and thrive. Taking on violent hate and extremist groups is among the most dangerous work there is, and we believe it is also among the most important work we do. To be clear, this program saved lives.”

The complete list of these groups, according to a Justice Department press release, includes the Ku Klux Klan, United Klans of America, Unite the Right, National Alliance, the National Socialist Movement, Aryan Nations affiliated Sadistic Souls Motorcycle Club, National Socialist Party of America (American Nazi Party), and the American Front.

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Blanche and FBI Director Patel also argued Tuesday that the SPLC tried to hide its payments to groups the SPLC told its donors it was trying to combat, leading to several of the charges in the indictment.

Fox News Digital’s Alexandra Koch and Alec Schemmel and Fox News’ Jake Gibson and David Spunt contributed to this report.

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves on Friday said he will call a special legislative session to redraw district lines after the U.S. Supreme Court issues a ruling in a key redistricting case.

Reeves said the session would take place 21 days after the court rules in Louisiana v. Callais, a case that could reshape how states apply the Voting Rights Act.

The case centers on Louisiana’s 2024 congressional map, which added a second majority-Black district and is being challenged as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.

The outcome could influence redistricting battles nationwide, particularly in Republican-led states, ahead of this year’s midterms.

SCOTUS CONSERVATIVES SIGNAL READINESS TO CURB LATE-ARRIVING MAIL BALLOTS

Reeves said the ruling could also affect a separate Mississippi case requiring the state to redraw its Supreme Court district lines.

That lawsuit, filed by groups including the Southern Poverty Law Center and the American Civil Liberties Union, argues the current map dilutes the voting strength of Black voters in violation of federal law, according to WLBT.

The state appealed the decision to the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which paused the ruling pending the outcome of Callais.

JUDGE SET TO CHOOSE NEW CONGRESSIONAL MAP IN FIGHT THAT COULD RESHAPE HOUSE CONTROL

“It is my belief, and federal law requires, that the Mississippi Legislature be given the first opportunity to draw these maps,” Reeves said on X. “And the fact is, they haven’t had a fair opportunity to do that because of the pending Callais decision.”

He added that he is using his authority to allow lawmakers to redraw maps once the Supreme Court provides clarity.

“For those reasons, I am using my constitutional authority to allow the Mississippi Legislature to use their constitutionally recognized right to draw these maps once the new rules of the game are known following Callais,” Reeves said.

REPUBLICANS APPEAL JUDGE’S DECISION REJECTING NEW YORK CITY GOP DISTRICT LINES

Reeves said the decision could “forever change the way we draw electoral maps.”

In October, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority appeared open to weakening a key Voting Rights Act provision that bars states from diluting minority voting power. Critics have warned such a ruling could further erode protections for minority voters.

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The Supreme Court is expected to issue a decision by the summer.

Fox News Digital’s Breanne Deppisch contributed to this report.

More than a dozen Democratic lawmakers have signed onto a letter urging President Donald Trump’s administration to protect Iranians living in the U.S. who could not safely return to Iran.

“We write to urge the Trump administration to immediately institute protections for Iranian nationals currently in the United States who cannot return home safely,” the letter states.

“The Administration must not forcibly return Iranian families in the United States to Iran — where they face the dual threat of the regime’s humanitarian abuses and dangers a resumption of the war poses — and should therefore pause deportation flights and designate Iranians for temporary protection, such as Temporary Protected Status (TPS) or Deferred Enforced Departure (DED),” it continues.

US-IRAN CEASEFIRE DEAL HANGS IN THE BALANCE AS ISRAEL, LEBANON SLATED FOR RARE WASHINGTON TALKS

The letter accuses the Trump administration of launching “attacks on Iran unlawfully, without the constitutionally required congressional authorization, plunging millions of innocent civilians into a state of insecurity, with the human cost of the conflict mounting daily.”

“Having initiated the current war with Iran, the Trump administration bears a moral and humanitarian responsibility to provide Iranian nationals with an immediate shield from removal,” the message asserts.

“The Administration should also provide assistance to Iranians in the United States while they are unable to return home, by resuming the processing of immigration benefits and expediting the issuance of work authorization documents,” the letter states.

ONCE TRUMP-ALIGNED PODCASTS ARE WARNING HE’S LOSING HIS COALITION OVER BROKEN PROMISES

The April 23 letter is directed to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Todd Lyons, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Joseph Edlow.

The letter is signed by Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Rep. Yassamin Ansari of Arizona, Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware, Sen. Alex Padilla of California, Sen. Jacky Rosen of Nevada, Sen. Adam Schiff of California, Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont, Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, and Reps. Dan Goldman of New York, Hank Johnson of Georgia, Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, Dave Min of California, Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, Brad Sherman of California, Lateefah Simon of California, and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton of Washington D.C.

FOX NEWS POLL: MODEST BOOST IN SUPPORT FOR IRAN CONFLICT, BUT CONCERNS PERSIST

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Fox News Digital reached out to the White House to request comment on Friday.

Rubio has yanked the lawful permanent resident status of multiple individuals with ties to the Iranian regime. For example, the State Department announced earlier this month that “the niece and grand niece of deceased Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Major General Qasem Soleimani were arrested by federal agents following Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s termination of their lawful permanent resident (LPR) status.”  

“Hamideh Soleimani Afshar and her daughter are now in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. As identified by both press reporting and her own social media commentary, Soleimani Afshar is an outspoken supporter of the totalitarian, terrorist regime in Iran,” the department noted in the April 4 notice.

It’s time for spring cleaning.

Specifically, House spring cleaning.

As in the House of Representatives.

Former Reps. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, and Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., resigned last week amid allegations of sexual harassment — and even sexual assault in the case of Swalwell. An aide with whom Gonzales had an affair set herself on fire and died.

HOUSE DEMS DEFY JEFFRIES, VOTE TO REBUKE PROGRESSIVE OVER CONTROVERSIAL ELECTION MOVE

Former Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla., resigned this week moments before the House Ethics Committee was slated to recommend expulsion as the panel found she violated 25 House rules. The Florida Democrat faces trial next winter for allegedly bilking FEMA out of $5 million in pandemic relief — and then funneling it to her campaign.

“She was put in an absolutely terrible position by the Ethics Committee. This was not a fair process,” argued Cherfilus-McCormick’s attorney, William Barzee. “But she was left with no choice (but to resign).”

Barzee asserted that the ethics panel shouldn’t prescribe punishment for his client until her separate criminal trial is complete. The House used to sit out on launching ethics inquiries for members facing criminal charges.

INDICTED DEMOCRAT SHEILA CHERFILUS-MCCORMICK FACES RARE HOUSE ETHICS HEARING

However, that changed in late 2023 when the House voted to expel former Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., after he was accused of a host of fraud allegations — including his contrivance of his life story in order to win election.

The House voted to expel Santos before his criminal trial where he was later convicted and jailed. He was sentenced to 87 months but released after only serving three after President Donald Trump commuted his sentence.

But kicking out Santos before his conviction in court established a new House precedent.

“It was setting a standard that we’re going to have and keep and it’s going to apply to every Member from now on,” said Rep. Greg Meeks, D-N.Y., the top Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee.

LEARNING CURVE: THE NEW PLAYERS IN CONGRESS

“Just because one person before (Cherfilus-McCormick) experienced this, it doesn’t make it right. We’re on a very slippery slope here with what we’re doing,” said Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio.

Let’s say the Ethics Committee recommended expulsion and then the House voted to expel Cherfilus-McCormick — that could have helped prejudice a jury against the former Congresswoman. That may be the very reason she stepped down just before the Ethics Committee acted.

“I made a joke that my level of tolerance was at $6 million for stealing from the public,” said Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn. “What will happen is we’ll clean up our act up here for a little while, and then the dirt bags are going to dirt bag.”

Cherfilus-McCormick was the third House Member to resign in an eight-day stretch.

“Why are we in this period now? Are there just more unethical people or is there something else going on?” yours truly asked Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va.

“I don’t think we have more unethical people. We’ve had unethical people everywhere in our society for a long time,” replied Beyer.

As they say, we absolutely have representative government in the United States. Congress mirrors America.

Questions now swirl about Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., and whether he should step aside — or even face expulsion. He’s accused of domestic violence and campaign finance abuses.

INDICTED DEMOCRAT SHEILA CHERFILUS-MCCORMICK TO RESIGN FROM CONGRESS AMID EXPULSION THREAT

“If he had done things, similar to what the other two (Swalwell and Gonzales) did, then he shouldn’t be here,” said Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis. “If you treat women that poorly, you have no business being here. Just matter of fact, you need to get your a** whooped.”

For the record, an “a** whooping” is not among the three historic forms of discipline in the House. Sanctions are typically reprimand, censure and expulsion.

Mills contends he’s not going anywhere.

“I do not plan to resign,” said Mills. “I’ve never been indicted for anything. I’ve never been found guilty of any open cases that involve criminal or civil cases.”

But one Republican believes the House should possibly take action against Mills.

“I mean, who hasn’t denied allegations?” asked Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo. “You had three resignations. The swamp is kind of draining itself right now.”

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., has threatened to trigger an expulsion resolution for Mills — but hasn’t forced the issue yet. In retaliation, Mills drafted an expulsion measure for Mace.

“This is a woman who continues to try and go after and attack people because she thinks it’s good for clickbait on social media and for the simple concept of sensationalizing something that she can fundraise off of,” charged Mills of Mace. “If, by her own definition, that you only need to be alleged or accused of something, and or investigated, then by her admission, she herself should be expelled.”

NANCY MACE CALLS ON CONGRESS TO RELEASE SEXUAL HARASSMENT RECORDS, WANTS AN ‘AVALANCHE OF RESIGNATIONS’

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., seems exasperated by the chatter about resignations and expulsions.

“I’ve talked about this ad nauseam. We’re going to allow due process to play out here,” said Johnson. “That’s all I’m going to say about it.”

But some lawmakers believe that the current House ethics process demands changes.

“It should be sped up,” said Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., of the Mills inquiry. “It seems like that’s been taking a long time. I think that’s a long for the American people. Why is an investigation taking two years?”

“Candidly, (investigations) should be taking days and weeks. Not months and years,” said Rep. Johnny Olszewski, D-Md.

Republicans are now focusing on someone else.

“I want (Rep.) Ilhan Omar to resign next when she’s admitted to lying on her financial disclosure form,” said Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., of the Minnesota Democrat. “Cory (Mills) denies all the charges against him. She’s admitted to lying on a financial disclosure. That’s a much bigger deal.”

“Make no mistake, if Ilhan Omar is discovered to have been involved in any or to have benefited in any way from any fraud, she must be held accountable to the fullest extent. And by the way, that includes marriage fraud,” said House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn.

ILHAN OMAR NOT OUT OF THE WOODS DESPITE FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE REVISION, TOP REPUBLICAN WARNS

The House Oversight Committee — not the ethics panel — is probing how Omar’s personal wealth skyrocketed from as little as $18,000 to as much as $30 million, according to Congressional financial disclosure reports. Omar said much of that income came from her husband’s businesses. The Minnesota Democrat has now amended her financial disclosure.

That said, there’s been no official push to remove Omar.

The week came and went without Mace attempting to expel Mills.

But nearly every day over the past two weeks featured a change in the size of the House. Swalwell, Gonzales and Cherfilus-McCormick resigned. Rep. David Scott, D-Ga., died. The House swore-in Reps. Clay Fuller, R-Ga., and Analilia Mejia, D-N.J., after they won special elections.

The House witnessed everything but an expulsion in recent days.

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But spring cleaning, might not be over.

Spring runs until June 21st.

The Treasury Department is tightening Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax-exempt reporting requirements in an effort to uncover nonprofit funding being used for “extremist activity” and “hiding fraud.”

The move comes days after the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a nonprofit known for civil rights litigation and racial justice, was indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly funneling millions to members of violent extremist groups like the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations and the National Socialist Party of America (American Nazi Party). 

“Public money and tax-exempt status demand public accountability,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wrote in a statement. “We are ending the days of hiding fraud, abuse and extremist activity behind complicated nonprofit arrangements.

“When bad actors misuse charitable structures, directors and officers should understand that transparency can lead to scrutiny, accountability and liability under the law.”

PHILANTHROPY GROUP RIPPED FOR BANKROLLING ‘RADICAL’ DEFUND THE POLICE, ANTI-ICE GROUPS: ‘LESS SAFE’

The indictment against the SPLC was announced Tuesday, with Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche saying the nonprofit “was doing the exact opposite of what it told its donors it was doing — not dismantling extremism but funding it,” at a subsequent news conference.

According to the SPLC’s Form 990 filing with the IRS, the 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charitable organization posted roughly $129 million in total revenue in fiscal year 2024 with nearly $800 million in total assets. 

The organization pushed back against the federal indictments, claiming the money given to extremist groups was spent “to gather credible intelligence” by using paid informants who operate within groups like the KKK.

PATEL, CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST RIP SPLC AFTER DOJ ALLEGES GROUP FUNDED THE ‘VILLAINS’ THEY CLAIMED TO FIGHT

“The federal government has been weaponized to dismantle the rights of our nation’s most vulnerable people,” SPLC interim president and CEO Bryan Fair said in a video statement. “And any organization like ours that tries to stand in the breach.”

“While we no longer work with paid informants, we continue to take their safety seriously,” Fair added. “These individuals risked their lives to infiltrate and inform on the activities of our nation’s most radical and violent extremist groups.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the SPLC for comment.

UC BERKELEY’S BLOODY PROTEST OF TPUSA ALLEGEDLY FUNDED BY FAR-LEFT NONPROFIT

The Treasury Department plans to rein in the lack of transparency that exists surrounding 501(c)(3)s through revisions to Form 990 to clarify sponsorship arrangements that do not clearly show who is operating a project and how funds are being used. 

The Treasury noted increased reporting can make it more difficult for organizations to hide behind opaque arrangements. 

“Tax-exempt status is not immunity from scrutiny,” Treasury assistant secretary and acting IRS chief counsel Ken Kies wrote in a statement. “If an organization receives public funds or tax-deductible donations, it should be prepared to show who controls the money and where it goes.”

Under current Form 990 rules, nonprofits generally do not have to disclose the names of individual donors and can provide vague descriptions of entities to which payments are routed.

OVERSIGHT DEMANDS DOJ ANSWERS ON FOREIGN FUNDING OF AGITATOR GROUPS AS IRAN, ANTI-ICE PROTESTS CONTINUE

Rogue actors, like Shanghai-based American tech tycoon Neville Roy Singham, are able to use nonprofits to mask flows of money. 

In the case of Singham, a known Chinese Communist Party sympathizer, a Fox News Digital investigation uncovered millions of dollars had flowed from him directly to organized agitator groups across the country.

With limited reporting requirements, Singham’s money trail was difficult to trace because nonprofits are not mandated to disclose individual donor names.

In the case of the SPLC, federal authorities allege payments were originally made to fake entities, like “Fox Photography” or “Rare Books Warehouse.” 

Still, those payments to the fraudulent organizations are not required to be disclosed under current Form 990 rules as individual recipients are not required to be reported.

JD VANCE’S TASK FORCE FLAGS NEARLY $6.3B IN GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS GOING TO POTENTIALLY FRAUDULENT BUSINESSES

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The gap in reporting is one of the key ways “dark money” nonprofits hide their money, which the Trump administration said is a central reason behind the plans to revise the Form 990 requirements.

“This is an important case brought by President [Donald] Trump’s administration, and we’re thankful to the president for his leadership and funding of not just the FBI and DOJ, but his commitment to go out there and wipe out fraud, conspiracy, and waste and abuse wherever it occurs, including the Southern Poverty Law Center,” FBI Director Kash Patel said on Tuesday. 

Texas Democrat James Talarico slammed a court ruling this week allowing Texas to enforce a law requiring classrooms to display the 10 Commandments, calling it a “deeply un-Christian decision.”

He decried “Christian nationalism,” saying, “I’m a Christian, but I know that the most dangerous form of government is theocracy.”

Talarico, a Democratic Texas state representative, is running to flip one of Texas’ Senate seats blue for the first time in decades. Democrats believe Talarico has a real shot at defeating either incumbent GOP Sen. John Cornyn or current state Attorney General Ken Paxton. A Talarico victory would be devastating to the GOP’s hopes of retaining or expanding its Senate majority this November.

Speaking on CNN this week, Talarico condemned the decision by the federal Fifth Circuit Court. He suggested the law requiring the 10 Commandments to be displayed poses an affront to individuals in Texas who are Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh, agnostic and atheist.

TEXAS AG PAXTON SUES DEM FUNDRAISING PLATFORM ACTBLUE, ALLEGING ‘FRAUDULENT AND FOREIGN DONATIONS’

“I don’t want anyone forcing their religion down my throat, and I certainly don’t want the government forcing a religion down my throat. So why would I do that to any of my neighbors?” he told CNN. “I think this is an unconstitutional decision, I also think this is a deeply un-Christian decision, because we are supposed to be loving all of our neighbors, particularly our neighbors of other faiths.”

In a 9–8 ruling on Tuesday, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the Texas law requiring public schools across the state to display the Ten Commandments. The court ruled the law does not violate either the Constitution’s Establishment Clause or the Free Exercise Clause.

The court’s majority opinion stated that “because Plaintiffs fail to show that [Texas law] S.B. 10 substantially burdens their right to religious exercise, their Free Exercise claims must be dismissed.”

However, Talarico, who is a Presbyterian seminarian in addition to a former middle school teacher, asserted that the law runs afoul of the Christian imperative to love God and love neighbor.

“My faith teaches me to love my neighbor as myself. Not just my neighbors who look like me, not just my neighbors who vote like me, not just my neighbors who pray like me. I’m called to love all of my neighbors the way I love myself. That includes my Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh, agnostic and atheist neighbors,” he said.

He also decried what he referred to as “Christian nationalism,” saying, “the only thing worse than a tyrant is a tyrant who thinks they’re on a mission from God.”

WATCH: HOUSTON FACES $110M HIT AS TEXAS GOV LAYS DOWN LAW ON ‘SANCTUARY’ POLICIES

As a member of the Texas House of Representatives, Talarico has opposed the 10 Commandments bill as “idolatrous” for years.

While speaking on CNN, he ripped into Paxton for praising the ruling. Smiling, he said, “I’m not sure that Ken Paxton is in a place to lecture us on moral values.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Paxton for comment.

Paxton, who is currently locked in a bitter primary runoff with Cornyn, had called the ruling a “major victory for Texas and our moral values.”

He said the 10 Commandments “have had a profound impact on our nation, and it’s important that students learn from them every single day,” adding, “My office was proud to defend SB 10 and successfully ensure that the Ten Commandments will be displayed in classrooms across Texas.”

After Talarico’s dig, Paxton responded on X, writing, “James Talarico says God commands us to believe in six genders, support late-term abortion, and abuse children by ‘transitioning’ them. He’s completely and totally morally bankrupt.”

GOP ZEROS IN ON SOUTH TEXAS DEM WHO URGED TRUMP TO ‘ALLOW PEOPLE TO CROSS FREELY’

Paxton was not the only one to slam Talarico’s take on the ruling. Turning Point USA spokesman Andrew Kolvet posted on X, “Imagine being a Christian who goes on CNN to condemn putting the Ten Commandments in schools. Imagine James Talarico.”

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In response, Talarico doubled down, telling Fox News Digital, “Jesus taught us to love God and love neighbor, because there is no love of God without love of neighbor. My faith teaches me to love my neighbor as myself. I don’t want the government forcing a religion down my throat.”

Talarico added that “the separation of church and state is a sacred boundary that doesn’t just benefit the state — it also benefits the church, because when the church gets too cozy with political power, it loses its prophetic voice.”

A spokesperson for Cornyn responded to Fox News Digital’s request for comment by saying, “We support the ruling.”

DEATH THREATS: DHS lawyer says UCLA ‘utterly failed’ to stop protest chaos at law school appearance

CAMPUS CHAOS: WATCH: Mayhem erupts as leftists interrupt conservative group’s UCLA event featuring DHS lawyer

TERROR TIES: UC Berkeley slammed after anti-Israel group hosts failed suicide bomber as guest event speaker: ‘cesspool’

BACKLASH BUILDS: Harvard reportedly investigating Republican Club over social media post about Muslim group’s campus event

SECURITY ALARM: Trump DEI crackdown ‘misses core ideology’ and must target lingering danger on campuses, watchdog warns

VIOLENT DISPLAY: Severed Trump head painting displayed at Utah Pride event; kids invited to hit Mike Lee piñata

CURRICULUM CHANGE: Texas Tech to recognize only two sexes, freezes gender programs

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The Department of Justice joined forces with Elon Musk on Friday by backing a lawsuit his xAI company brought against Colorado alleging a state law regulating artificial intelligence developers was a masked effort to force them to adopt diversity, equity and inclusion on their platforms.

DOJ Civil Rights Division head Harmeet Dhillon said DOJ’s intervention was the department’s first constitutional challenge in an AI case. 

Colorado faces allegations from the DOJ and xAI that its state law, set to take effect in June, violates the First and 14th amendments by forcing AI developers to inadvertently discriminate, an allegation familiar to Colorado, which has faced a string of legal losses in other high-profile culture war cases in recent years. 

“We join @xai’s landmark suit, and stand against woke DEI standards being imposed by Colorado,” Dhillon said.

COLORADO’S LATEST SUPREME COURT LOSS ADDS TO GROWING STRING OF CULTURE WAR DEFEATS

The lawsuit arose from a controversial consumer protection bill the Colorado legislature passed in 2024 that required “high-risk” developers like xAI, which built the popular platform Grok, to exercise “reasonable care” to protect consumers from “algorithmic discrimination,” saying AI tools must not result in discrimination based on protected classes in the state, such as race and religion. Musk founded xAI in 2023. 

The Colorado law also targeted entities that deploy the AI platforms, like hospitals or banks, saying the law was intended to make sure consumers in those areas were treated fairly.

Democratic Gov. Jared Polis reluctantly signed the bill into law in 2024 but has raised concerns over whether it would alienate tech innovators in his state because of the slate of burdensome regulations it imposed on them. Fox News Digital reached out to Polis’ office for comment on DOJ’s intervention in the lawsuit.

The DOJ lawyers argued in their lawsuit that Colorado’s bill actually “fosters further discrimination,” citing language in the bill that allowed AI developers to favor certain classes of people in their AI tools “to increase diversity or redress historical discrimination.”

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The law “jeopardizes the United States’ position as the global AI leader by requiring AI systems to incorporate discriminatory ideology that prioritizes preferred demographic characteristics and outcomes over accurate and merit-based outputs,” government lawyers wrote.

The DOJ’s lawsuit focused on what it alleged were equal protection violations, while Musk’s xAI lawsuit alleged numerous violations, including unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination. Lawyers for xAI contended in their complaint, brought earlier this month, that the law would force AI developers to output “progressive ideology.”

“By requiring ‘developers’ and ‘deployers’ to differentiate between discrimination that Colorado disfavors and discrimination that Colorado favors, SB24-205 compels Plaintiff xAI — a ‘developer’ under the law — to alter Grok, forcing Grok’s output on certain State-selected subjects to conform to a controversial, highly politicized viewpoint,” xAI lawyers wrote.

One law firm said Colorado would become a “national test case” for AI consumer protection, saying it was the first state to pass such a law, suggesting the state would once again become a case study on how far it could push constitutional bounds.

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court ruled 8-1 that Colorado’s conversion therapy ban, signed into law by Polis in 2019, violated the First Amendment because it only restricted certain types of speech, in this case talk therapy when the therapy aimed to prevent minors from embracing being transgender or gay.

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That ruling followed a broad free speech decision in 303 Creative related to a website designer’s right to deny creating a wedding page for a gay couple based on religious beliefs and a narrower 2018 decision in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission.

The libertarian CATO Institute observed a trend in Colorado, citing the trio of recent landmark Supreme Court cases.

“This law will inevitably result in developers restricting lawful speech from their AIs in the name of compliance, especially given Colorado’s view of what constitutes harmful discrimination,” CATO fellow David Inserra wrote. 

“And Colorado clearly has strong views on what kinds of speech are harmful and discriminatory, as seen in its multiple losses at the Supreme Court.”

Fox News Digital reached out to an xAI attorney on Friday. 

A congressman in a competitive district in Pennsylvania said he’d leave the Republican Party if his state conducted open primary elections.

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., a moderate who has bucked party lines on some of President Donald Trump‘s key initiatives, including voting against the One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act, is seeking re-election in a purple district he has controlled for eight years.

Fitzpatrick shared in an interview with Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman and Anna Palmer his “disdain for ideologues and partisans” and said it was “ignorant to subscribe to a party.”

“Countless people go to the floor saying I really want to vote for this, but I got to worry about my primary,” Fitzpatrick said. “It’s killing our country. It’s killing good policy, and we got to fix that.”

NEW POLL REVEALS HOW PENNSYLVANIA DEMS FEEL ABOUT FETTERMAN BUCKING HIS PARTY

Sherman asked why he does not just run as an independent. Fitzpatrick said his state has a closed primary, meaning only registered party voters can vote in primaries, which he deemed a disadvantage. If Pennsylvania’s primary system were open, Fitzpatrick said he would “100%” leave the GOP.

“But you can run as an independent,” Sherman asked. “There’s some way to do it, isn’t there?”

Fitzpatrick said it wasn’t possible in Pennsylvania.

FETTERMAN RECEIVES NO SUPPORT FOR RE-ELECTION FROM PENNSYLVANIA HOUSE DEMOCRATS: REPORT

“Do you want to forfeit your right to vote in 50% of elections?” Fitzpatrick said, referring to what would happen if voters registered as Independent.

Fitzpatrick also mentioned that he was “upset” when people criticized Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., who has often voted with Republicans on key issues. Fetterman has been vocal about his criticism of his Democratic colleagues, such as their strategy to shut the government down to push for healthcare negotiations last fall.

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In the 119th Congressional legislative session, there is only one U.S. House of Representatives member who identifies as an Independent — Kevin Kiley, I-Calif. However, when Kiley was first elected, he ran as a Republican.

Meanwhile, in the Senate, there are two Independents — Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Sen. Angus King, I-Maine. While they both maintain an Independent status, both senators caucus with the Democratic Party.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is sparking backlash after using his first veto to derail a bipartisan bill aimed at combating antisemitism by expanding protest security safeguards for places of education.

“This could impact workers protesting ICE, or college students demanding their school divest from fossil fuels or demonstrating in support of Palestinian rights,” Mamdani said in a statement Friday.

“It is a piece of legislation that has alarmed much of the labor movement, reproductive rights groups and immigration advocates, among others, across this city,” he continued.

New York’s former Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who ran as an independent against Mamdani in the mayoral race last year, slammed Mamdani’s decision on X, saying he “chose the whims of his radical, extreme-left DSA base over the safety of students and Jewish New Yorkers at a time of rising antisemitism.”

MAMDANI IS AN EXISTENTIAL THREAT TO JEWISH NEW YORKERS

“Instead of governing for all NYers, Mamdani has repealed the very definition of antisemitism from the city’s books, changed how antisemitic crimes are counted and now vetoed these commonsense security measures when they are needed most,” Cuomo continued. “I proudly stand shoulder to shoulder with my Jewish brothers and sisters — just as the Cuomos always have, and always will.”

The bill, Int. 175-B, requires New York law enforcement to develop a plan to contain the risk of physical obstruction, physical injury, intimidation and interference at educational facilities while still allowing for freedom of assembly and First-Amendment events. The plan would then apply to “any building, structure, or place where educational programming takes place.”

Julie Menin, the speaker of the New York City Council, had framed the bill as key to warding off threats of antisemitism.

“The legislation is part of the Council-led Five-Point Action Plan to Combat Antisemitism,” Menin had said in March.

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“According to the NYPD, antisemitic incidents accounted for 57% of reported hate crimes in 2025, although only approximately 10% of New York City residents are Jewish. Jewish New Yorkers were the targets of hate crimes more than all other groups combined.”

The bill passed the New York City Council by a 30-19 vote late last month.

Commentators online criticized the veto, citing a need for enhanced protections. 

“We are deeply disappointed by Mayor Mamdani’s veto of legislation designed to help protect students from intimidation and disruption outside schools. The right to protest and the right to an education can and must coexist. We urge the City Council to override this veto and reaffirm a basic principle: protecting students is not politics; it is a civic responsibility,” the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a pro-Jewish group, said in a post to X.

“Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D- HAMAS) vetoed a bill for buffer zones around schools because it ‘could impact workers protesting ICE, or college students demanding their school divest from fossil fuels, or demonstrating in support of Palestinian rights.’ All the bill would have done was require clear safety plans around schools with law enforcement,” Ari Hoffman, a political commentator, wrote in his own post. 

Notably, Mamdani approved a very similar bill that applied to religious sites. He explained that he was concerned by the expansive range of what the second bill meant by “educational facilities.”

“The problem is how widely this bill defines an educational institution and the constitutional concerns it raises regarding New Yorkers’ fundamental right to protest. As the bill is written, everywhere from universities to museums to teaching hospitals could face restrictions,” Mamdani said in a statement.

NYC RABBI WARNS ZOHRAN MAMDANI ‘POSES A DANGER’ TO JEWISH COMMUNITY’S SAFETY

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The city council could override a mayoral veto with a two-thirds vote, according to New York City’s charter. Doing so would require 33 of the chamber’s 50 members.

Assuming the bill retains the support of the legislators that originally advanced it out of the council, it would require just three more votes to secure its implementation over Mamdani’s objection.