NationalWatch

Iran has a short window to agree to a deal with the U.S., President Donald Trump said Thursday, before warning that the situation could soon shift if negotiations fail.

The talks focus largely on curbing Tehran’s advancing nuclear program, which U.S. officials say has moved closer to weapons-grade enrichment.

The U.S. and Israel also want Iran to give up its long-range ballistic missiles, stop supporting groups around the Middle East and stop using force against protesters inside Iran.

“We’re going to make a deal, or we’re going to get a deal one way or the other,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, signaling determination to secure an agreement.

VANCE WARNS IRAN THAT ‘ANOTHER OPTION ON THE TABLE’ IF NUCLEAR DEAL NOT REACHED

While declining to specify whether the ultimate goal is the complete dismantling of Iran’s nuclear program, Trump made clear there would be consequences if diplomacy falls short.

“We’re either going to get a deal, or it’s going to be unfortunate for them,” he said.

Trump suggested the window for a breakthrough is narrowing, indicating Iran has no more than “10, 15 days, pretty much maximum” to reach an agreement.

Trump spoke as negotiation efforts with Tehran remain ongoing.

MORNING GLORY: WHAT WILL PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP DECIDE TO DO WITH IRAN?

Although Trump has repeatedly expressed hope for a deal, indirect talks in Geneva have yielded mixed feedback.

Trump said “good talks are being had,” and a senior U.S. official said Iran would make a written proposal on how to address U.S. concerns, Reuters reported.

“I believe we made good progress,” said Abbas Araghchi, the head of the Iranian delegation in Geneva. “The path toward an agreement has started, but we will not reach it quickly.”

Vice President JD Vance, however, said in an interview with Fox News that “red lines” were set.

IRAN SIGNALS NUCLEAR PROGRESS IN GENEVA AS TRUMP CALLS FOR FULL DISMANTLEMENT

“In some ways, it went well. They agreed to meet afterward,” Vance said. “But in other ways, it was very clear that the president has set some red lines that the Iranians are not yet willing to actually acknowledge and work through. So, we’re going to keep on working it.”

According to The Associated Press, Iran has resisted broader U.S. and Israeli demands to curb its missile program and cut ties with armed regional groups.

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Trump’s comments also coincided with Iran’s annual military drills with Russia on Thursday as a second U.S. aircraft carrier moved closer to the Middle East.

Similarly, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned of military action despite ongoing talks.

President Donald Trump’s top House GOP critic admitted in a recent interview that he once offered Republican leaders his vote in exchange for a public expression of gratitude for his role in forcing the disclosure of the federal government’s Jeffrey Epstein files.

It’s a move that has drawn backlash from at least one of his fellow House Republicans and others in the right-wing sphere.

“Anyone who uses the victims of Epstein’s horrific sexual abuse to advance a political agenda or chase public recognition should seriously reconsider their line of work,” said Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis.

In an interview with Politico earlier this week, Massie said he had made the offer when the speaker had approached him for his support on a key vote.

LAWMAKERS ESCALATE EPSTEIN PROBE WITH POSSIBLE BILL GATES SUBPOENA

“One day, they needed my vote, and I offered to give them my vote if [Johnson] would issue a press release thanking me for my good work on the Epstein Files Transparency Act. That’s all I required to get my vote. And I think he probably went and gave somebody else a bill to pass instead of doing the public statement,” Massie said.

He told Fox News Digital that it was a test of whether Johnson would take responsibility for opposing his effort to force the vote — but said Johnson refused. 

“I wanted to see if the speaker would admit that it was a mistake to oppose the [bill], but even with all the new revelations about depraved and illegal activity of rich and powerful men, the speaker refused to acknowledge the success of the Epstein Files Transparency Act,” Massie said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

But the move also caught blowback from others in the Republican social media sphere, which has erupted into a civil war of sorts between Massie and Trump’s supporters.

“Coming soon to a campaign ad: Thomas Massie requires that he be praised publicly in order to secure his vote in Congress,” right-wing influencer Ryan Saavedra wrote on X.

Sean Davis, who founded conservative outlet “The Federalist,” wrote on social media, “Good grief. It really is all ego-driven.”

Some defended him, however, like an X account tied to someone only identified as “Jeremy”: “You really can’t blame the guy who’s constantly getting crapped on my conservatives for wanting the speaker of the house to say something positive about the Epstein files coming out and giving him the credit. It is childish on the surface, but this is also how their games work.”

Massie last year led a handful of Republicans to join with Democrats to force consideration of the Epstein Files Transparency Act over the objections of House leadership and Trump, who argued the legislation did not come with sufficient protections for the identities of Epstein’s sex-trafficking victims. 

The bill was aimed at forcing the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release nearly all information on Epstein’s case, and Massie maintained its language did provide for sufficient coverage for the late pedophile’s victims.

But Johnson and Trump both affirmed they supported efforts for government transparency but maintained they could not support Massie’s bill. 

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

Notably, however, all House members except for Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., wound up voting for the bill.

In the view of Matthew Green, professor of politics at The Catholic University of America, Massie’s ask — and its denial — underscores how reliant Johnson is on the president for support. 

Republicans currently hold just a one-vote majority in the chamber amid the recent resignation of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and the sudden death of Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Calif, both of which happened in January. Republicans will likely win back a seat in March when Georgia holds a special election to fill Greene’s vacancy.

But until then, Johnson has battled against a vanishingly small margin of error to pass GOP-led priorities, a margin Massie has made consistently smaller.

In this case, Green believes Massie was asking for something that would threaten one of the key things holding the party together: Trump’s support.

“What he was actually asking for, to my mind, was illustrating how closely Republican leadership is or has to be aligned with President Trump,” Green said.

“You know, to just say ‘I support a bill’ or ‘I think this bill is a good idea,’ you’d think would be a relatively harmless ask, but with the Epstein files, you had the president, until the very end, saying, ‘Do not vote to release these,’ and the speaker agreeing.”

GOP MUTINY FORCES HOUSE SPEAKER MIKE JOHNSON TO DELAY VOTE ON KEY PIECE OF TRUMP’S AGENDA

In the lead-up to a vote on the Epstein Files Transparency Act, Trump slammed the effort, calling on Massie to abandon his push and condemning the “Democrat Epstein Hoax” in a post to Truth Social.

It’s the president’s opposition to Massie’s Epstein transparency push that makes Green think the Kentucky lawmaker knew his request would go unfulfilled. 

“He knew the answer would be no,” Green said. “If Johnson said yes, it would be not only going against what he had said about the bill himself, but also potentially upsetting President Trump.” 

Despite the improbable nature of the request, Green thinks it’s noteworthy Massie was willing to negotiate at all.

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“What is interesting, though, is that he suggests that he actually was willing to vote yes in exchange for something,” Green said.

Massie’s office did not address Van Orden’s statement about his vote offer.

Kentucky’s Republican auditor Allison Ball spoke to Fox News Digital this week about a report she put out flagging concerns about lavish spending in the state’s executive branch headed up by Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, who is widely believed to have presidential ambitions down the road.

Ball issued a report earlier this month outlining spending by the executive branch in fiscal year 2025 entered into the state’s system and flagging issues she believes demonstrate extravagant spending of tax dollars that “needs to stop.”

The “concerning expenditures” listed include $183,576 in out-of-state travel costs, including $7,632 for a limousine in Germany; a $17,013 dinner at a Kentucky distillery; and $360,000 for 75 people to attend a two-day conference within the Commonwealth. 

DEM GOVERNOR IN DEEP-RED STATE CALLS FOR ICE PULLOUT, TRIGGERING CLASH OVER ENFORCEMENT AUTHORITY

“We saw some really excessive, really worrying and questionable expenditures,” Ball told Fox News Digital. 

“For example, one of the things we saw is that the governor and the tourism cabinet spent about $338,000 on a nonprofit called First Saturday in May. So, for people who are not from Kentucky, the first Saturday in May is when the [Kentucky] Derby happens. So, that money actually went to events for VIPs to come in and celebrate and observe the Derby.”

Ball says the spending data was all entered by the executive branch into the Commonwealth’s eMARS system, and while she understands elected officials need to spend more on security than typical citizens, she categorized much of the spending she flagged as “luxury items.”

“I absolutely think the governor needs security. We want people to be safe. We don’t want anything to happen to our elected officials,” Ball explained. “But this is the time when you look at, OK, are you spending an excessive amount? And I think $7,000 for limo services in Germany, $5,000 to navigate the airport in Switzerland, hotels like in Beverly Hills, Aspen. 

“We even found an expenditure in the hundreds of dollars for something called the Caribou Club, which is a private club in Aspen. So, these expenses are essentially luxury items when you’re looking at where they’re at and the amount of money that’s being paid.”

KENTUCKY GOVERNOR TAKES HEAT FOR CITING BIBLE TO DEFEND TRANSGENDER TREATMENTS FOR CHILDREN

Fox News Digital reached out to Beshear’s office for comment but did not receive a response. 

“They never asked us any questions, and you have to do that if it’s an audit report,” Beshear recently told local media. “All they did was take lines, and they didn’t ask questions because if they had gotten the answers, they couldn’t have done the political attack that it was.”

Ball said it’s “no surprise” when elected officials push back on reports like hers, “but my job is about transparency.” 

Ball’s report noted $39 million in spending by the executive branch’s advertising arms in various departments, over $7 million in out-of-state travel, over $23 million on in-state travel and over $16 million in trainings, conferences, food and trade shows.

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“It’s a budget year, and this is when the General Assembly is actually crafting what money they’re going to appropriate through all levers of state government. And that’s why they asked us, this is early in the process, and they wanted to know, ‘OK, what is the executive branch spending its money on?” Ball explained. 

“And they specifically asked us about travel. They asked about conferences. They ask us about food and beverage because those are the things usually that can get out of control quick if you’re not paying close attention. So, we’re here just to provide information.”

Beshear told CNN last summer he was weighing a 2028 presidential bid, and many predict he would be a formidable candidate given his popularity governing as a Democrat in deep red Kentucky. 

In another CNN interview Thursday, The Hill reported that Beshear said he is still weighing a run but that he won’t make a final decision until his term as governor ends in late 2017.

“We have got to do more than just beat [President] Trump,” Beshear said. “We have got to end this division. We have got to restore the American dream. We have got to bring hope back to the American people about a brighter future.”

MANCHESTER, N.H. – Former Transportation Secy. Pete Buttigieg tops the list of potential 2028 Democratic presidential contenders in a new poll conducted in New Hampshire, which has traditionally held the first primary in the race for the White House for over a century.

Twenty percent of Democratic primary voters in New Hampshire said they would vote for Buttigieg if the 2028 presidential nomination contest was held today. California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York were tied for second at 15%, with former Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrats’ 2024 nominee, and Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona each at 10%, with everyone else in single digits.

The University of New Hampshire Survey Center poll was released Thursday, a couple of hours before Buttigieg arrived in New Hampshire to campaign with Democrats running in this year’s midterm elections.

Asked about the survey by Fox News Digital, Buttigieg noted,” I’m not on any ballot right now.”

EARLY MOVES ALREADY WELL UNDERWAY IN 2028 WHITE HOUSE RACE

“Obviously it feels good to be well received,” added Buttigieg, who made plenty of friends in the Granite State as he came in close second in the 2020 New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary, slightly behind Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

Buttigieg’s stop in New Hampshire was his third in an early voting state in the Democratic nominating calendar since stepping down as Transportation secretary following the end of former President Biden’s administration, following trips last year to South Carolina and Iowa. While he mostly avoids 2028 talk, Buttigieg has said he would consider what he brings “to the table” in regards to another White House run.

As he kicked off a three-day swing in key New England swing state, Buttigieg teamed up with Rep. Chris Pappas, the clear frontrunner for the Democratic Senate nomination in the race to succeed retiring Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a fellow Democrat. Shaheen’s seat is a top GOP target in the midterms.

Later Thursday, Buttigieg joined the state’s other Democratic House member, Rep. Maggie Goodlander. And he was scheduled to hold more events on Friday and Saturday, including a grassroots mobilization event that was expected to draw some top New Hampshire supporters from his 2020 presidential campaign.

Buttigieg is heading next week to battleground Nevada, and a source familiar told Fox News Digital Buttigieg has plans to campaign for candidates in Ohio, Georgia and Pennsylvania in the weeks ahead.

“I’m a big believer in going everywhere across the media landscape and geographically. Some are well known places on the political map. Some are a little bit off the beaten path. All of them deserve attention,” Buttigieg told Fox News Digital.

NEWSOM’S UPCOMING STOP IN KEY PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY STATE SPARKS MORE 2028 BUZZ

He added that he’ll “continue to go wherever I think I can be useful in elevating attention to issues and working with candidates I believe in and Chris Pappas is a great example of a candidate I am proud to be supporting and speaking up for.”

Newsom will be next up in New Hampshire.

The California governor’s tour for his new book, “Young Man in a Hurry,” will bring him to Portsmouth, New Hampshire on March 5. It will be his first stop in the state in two years.

Newsom grabbed headlines this past weekend, as he was one of a handful of potential Democratic presidential contenders to speak at the high-profile Munich Security Conference in Germany.

TRUMP HAMMERS AOC MUNICH STUMBLES AS ‘NOT A GOOD LOOK FOR THE UNITED STATES’

Ocasio-Cortez was among the other Democrats in Munich. But the progressive champion, who has long been laser focused on affordability and other domestic issues, has faced intense criticism for nearly a week over a gaffe in Munich, when she asked during a panel discussion whether the U.S. should send troops to defend Taiwan from a possible invasion by China.

The four-term lawmaker appeared to stall for nearly 20 seconds before offering that the U.S. should try to avoid reaching a clash with China over Taiwan.

Social media posts on the right slammed her for offering up a world salad.

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But it wasn’t just Republicans who critiqued Ocasio-Cortez.

A veteran Democratic strategist who asked to remain anonymous to speak more freely told Fox News Digital, “It is abundantly clear that AOC is not ready for prime time given her remarks in Europe.”

The Trump administration has repeatedly assigned additional job roles to Cabinet members and other officials and one of his top health officials is the latest to begin pulling double-duty for the president. 

On Wednesday, National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Jay Bhattacharya became the latest Trump official assigned an additional role. The NIH chief and staunch COVID contrarian will temporarily run the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) until a new permanent director is appointed by President Donald Trump and subsequently confirmed by the Senate, while continuing to lead the NIH.

Bhattacharya’s move to the CDC followed the departure of Jim O’Neill, who was also deputy secretary of the Health and Human Services Department amid a broader restructuring of the Trump administration’s public health agencies. O’Neill is now reportedly expected to lead the National Science Foundation.

Fox News Digital looked back on the various Trump Cabinet members and officials wearing multiple hats as the president adjusts during the second year of his second term.

TRUMP TOUTS ‘MOST SUCCESSFUL’ FIRST 100 DAYS IN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORY DURING MICHIGAN RALLY  

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya

A physician, former Stanford professor of medicine and senior fellow at the university’s Institute for Economic Policy Research, Bhattacharya was a leading voice during the COVID-19 pandemic against lockdown measures and vaccine mandates. He was one of the co-authors of the Great Barrington Declaration, a document published in October 2020 by a group of scientists advocating against widespread COVID lockdowns and promoting the efficacy of natural immunity for low-risk individuals as opposed to vaccination.

Under Bhattacharya’s tenure, he has been forced to defend certain funding cuts tied to academic research and staffing. One of the core components Bhattacharya indicated that he wanted to pursue following his confirmation was to usher in a new age of “gold standard science.”

“I think fundamentally what matters is do scientists have an idea that advances the scientific field they’re in?” Bhattacharya said during his March confirmation testimony. “Do they have an idea that ends up addressing the health needs of Americans?”

Marco Rubio

Rubio and the Trump administration came under fire from Democrats for the Secretary of State holding as many as four high-profile roles in the second Trump administration. As of today, he currently remains in two of those roles.

He was first confirmed as Secretary of State hours after Trump was inaugurated, a role that Rubio remains in today. 

About a month later, amid a massive reorganization at the U.S. Administration for International Development (USAID), Rubio was named director and held that role until handing it off a few months later.  

Around the same time, Rubio was tapped to be the Acting Archivist of the United States (NARA), a role he stopped serving in earlier this month.

Rubio does still serve as the interim National Security Advisor, a role he has held since May following the departure of Michael Waltz.   

“There’s no way he can do that and do it well, especially since there’s such incompetence over at DOD with Pete Hegseth being secretary of defense and just the hollowing out of the top leadership,” Illinois Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth said of Rubio’s multiple jobs. “There’s no way he can carry all that entire load on his own.”

CRITICS WARNED TRUMP’S DEPORTATIONS WOULD SPARK BLOODSHED – PROGRESSIVE GROUP REPORTS POLICE KILLINGS FELL

“I don’t know how anybody could do these two big jobs,” Democratic Virginia Sen. Mark Warner added.

When asked about the trend of Trump officials wearing multiple work hats in May, the White House reflected in a comment to Fox News Digital on former President Joe Biden’s “disaster of a Cabinet.” 

“Democrats cheered on Joe Biden’s disaster of a Cabinet as it launched the botched Afghanistan withdrawal, opened the southern border to migrant criminals, weaponized the justice system against political opponents and more,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told Fox News Digital in May. “President Trump has filled his administration with many qualified, talented individuals he trusts to manage many responsibilities.” 

The Trump administration has repeatedly brushed off concerns over Rubio holding multiple roles, most notably juggling both his State Department leadership and serving as acting national security advisor. Similarly, former President Richard Nixon in 1973 named National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger to simultaneously serve as Secretary of State.

TRUMP NOMINATES WALTZ FOR HIGH-LEVEL POST AFTER OUSTING HIM AS NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR 

“You need a team player who is very honest with the president and the senior team, not someone trying to build an empire or wield a knife or drive their own agenda,” an administration official told Politico. “He is singularly focused on delivering the president’s agenda.” 

Despite Democratic rhetoric that Rubio was taking on too many roles, the former Florida senator helped oversee successful U.S. strikes on Iran in June, which destroyed a trio of nuclear sites and decimated the country’s efforts to advance its nuclear program.

Kash Patel

FBI Director Kash Patel, who railed against the “deep state” and vowed to strip corruption from the federal law enforcement agency ahead of his confirmation, was briefly charged with overseeing the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) in February after the Biden-era director resigned in January 2025. 

Patel was later replaced by Secretary of the Army Daniel Driscoll as acting ATF director in a job change that was reported publicly in April. 

ARMY SECRETARY DAN DRISCOLL TO LEAD ATF, REPLACING FBI DIRECTOR KASH PATEL

“Director Kash Patel was briefly designated ATF director while awaiting Senate confirmations, a standard, short-term move. Dozens of similar re-designations have occurred across the federal government,” the White House told Reuters in April. “Director Patel is now excelling in his role at the FBI and delivering outstanding results.”

Sean Duffy 

Duffy, a former Republican congressman from Wisconsin, was tapped to oversee the Department of Transportation and was confirmed by the Senate Jan. 28. Duffy has been forced to juggle a handful of crises related to tragic plane crashes, including the Potomac River midair collision Jan. 29 and air traffic control issues that plagued New Jersey’s Liberty International Airport last year. 

In July, President Trump announced Duffy would also serve as interim chief of NASA. Duffy remained in that position until mid-December, when commercial astronaut Jared Isaacman took over.

Prior to Trump’s inauguration in January 2025, the president announced he would be nominating Isaacman but later withdrew his nomination in May before the full Senate confirmed him. Trump said the decision followed a review of Isaacman’s “prior associations,” pointing to money he has given to Democrats. However, Isaacman suggested at the time that the recission of his nomination may have been due to his connections to Elon Musk, who was running the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) at the time. 

Duffy replaced Janet Petro, who had served as acting NASA administrator since Trump’s inauguration.

Daniel Driscoll 

Driscoll was sworn in as the 26th secretary of the Army in February. The secretary of the army is a senior-level civilian official charged with overseeing the management of the Army and also acts as an advisor to the secretary of defense in matters related to the Army. 

It was reported in April that Driscoll was named acting ATF director, replacing Patel in that role. 

NEW ARMY SECRETARY PRAISES TRUMP, HEGSETH FOR CREATING ‘A LANE FOR CHANGE’ AS HE ZEROES IN ON CUTTING WASTE

“Mr. Driscoll is responsible for the oversight of the agency’s mission to protect communities from violent criminals, criminal organizations, and the illegal trafficking of firearms, explosives, and contraband,” his ATF biography states. “Under his leadership, the ATF works to enforce federal laws, ensure public safety, and provide critical support in the investigation of firearms-related crimes and domestic and international criminal enterprises,”

Ahead of Trump taking office, Republican representatives Eric Burlison of Missouri and Lauren Boebert of Colorado introduced legislation to abolish the ATF, saying the agency has worked to strip Second Amendment rights from U.S. citizens. 

The ATF has been tasked with assisting the Department of Homeland Security in its deportation efforts under the Trump administration. 

Driscoll remains listed as the agency’s acting director as of February 2026. 

Doug Collins 

Former Georgia Republican Rep. Doug Collins was sworn in as the Trump administration’s secretary of Veterans Affairs in February, a Cabinet-level position tasked with overseeing the department and its mission of providing health, education and financial benefits to military veterans. 

Days after his confirmation as VA secretary, Trump tapped Collins to temporarily lead two oversight agencies, the Office of Government Ethics and the Office of Special Counsel. 

VA SECRETARY ACCUSES REPORTER OF SPREADING ‘RUMORS’ ABOUT DOGE THAT HURT VETERANS IN TENSE CLASH

The Office of Government Ethics is charged with overseeing the executive branch’s ethics program, including setting ethics standards for the government and monitoring ethics compliance across federal agencies and departments. 

The Office of Special Counsel is charged with overseeing and protecting the federal government’s merit system, most notably ensuring federal whistleblowers don’t face retaliation for sounding the alarm on an issue they’ve experienced. The office also has an established secure channel to allow federal employees to blow the whistle on alleged wrongdoing. 

The Office of Special Counsel also enforces the Hatch Act, which bans executive branch staffers, except the president and vice president, from engaging in certain forms of political activity. 

Jamieson Greer

Trump’s trade representative, Jamieson Greer, has also been tapped for multiple roles within the administration, in addition to helping lead the administration’s tariff negotiations to bring parity to the chronic U.S. trade deficit with other nations. 

Greer took on Collins’ roles as acting director of the Office of Government Ethics and as acting special counsel of the Office of Special Counsel April 1. 

Trump nominated conservative attorney Paul Ingrassia to lead the Office of Special Counsel in May, but he subsequently withdrew his nomination amid concerns about his rhetoric and other accusations the young conservative was facing at the time.  

Russell Vought 

Trump named his former director of the Office of Management and Budget under his first administration, Russell Vought, to the same role in his second administration. Vought was confirmed as the federal government’s budget chief in February. 

Days later, Vought was also named the acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), a position he still remains in.

RUSS VOUGHT, TAPPED AS CFPB’S ACTING DIRECTOR, DIRECTS BUREAU TO ISSUE NO NEW RULES, STOP NEW INVESTIGATIONS  

The CFPB is an independent government agency charged with protecting consumers from unfair financial practices in the private sector. It was created in 2010 under the Obama administration after the financial crash in 2008. Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren originally proposed and advocated for the creation of the agency.

The CFPB came under fierce investigation from the Department of Government Efficiency in February, with mass terminations rocking the agency before the reduction in force initiative was tied up in court. 

Ric Grenell 

President Donald Trump’s former ambassador to Germany and acting director of national intelligence under his first term, a pair of roles held at separate times in the first administration, currently serves as president of the Kennedy Center and special presidential envoy for special missions of the United States. 

GRENELL DEVELOPING ‘COMMONSENSE’ PLAN TO TURN KENNEDY CENTER FINANCIALS AROUND

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts serves as the national cultural center of the U.S. Trump notably serves as the center’s chair of the board, and Grenell said the center will see a “golden age” of the arts during Trump’s second administration through productions and concerts that Americans actually want to see after years of the performing arts center running in the red. 

Trump named Grenell as his special presidential envoy for special missions to the United States in December 2024 before his inauguration, saying Grenell will “work in some of the hottest spots around the world, including Venezuela and North Korea.”

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In this role, Grenell helped lead the administration through its response to the wildfires that tore through Southern California in the last days of the Biden administration through the beginning days of the Trump administration. 

Fox News Digital’s Jasmine Baehr contributed to this report. 

FIRST ON FOX: Last year when President Donald Trump helped broker a ceasefire agreement between Thailand and Cambodia, he took a victory lap.

“Who else could say, ‘I’m going to make a phone call and stop a war between two very powerful countries, Thailand and Cambodia?'” he said.

Now, that agreement appears under strain, as Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet told Fox News Digital that Thai forces have pushed into long-held Cambodian territory beyond the line of dispute. Thai soldiers have sealed off villages with barbed wire and shipping containers, leaving 80,000 Cambodian locals unable to return home, according to Cambodian officials.

“The occupation is beyond even Thailand’s unilateral claim,” Manet said. “Many of the villagers cannot go back to their hometowns.”

US ALERTS TOURISTS OF ‘UNPREDICTABLE SECURITY SITUATION’ IN POPULAR HOLIDAY DESTINATION

Cambodia and Thailand have sparred for decades over sections of their 500-mile land border, much of which was drawn during the French colonial era and later interpreted differently by Bangkok and Phnom Penh. The dispute has periodically flared into armed clashes, particularly around areas near historic Khmer temple sites and rural villages where demarcation remains incomplete.

Tensions escalated again last year, with fighting breaking out along contested stretches of the frontier and displacing thousands of civilians on both sides. The clashes prompted diplomatic intervention and culminated in a ceasefire agreement brokered with U.S. involvement during an ASEAN summit in Kuala Lumpur.

Images and local reporting from the most recent fighting show damage to structures near the frontier, including at or near the UNESCO-listed Preah Vihear temple complex — raising concerns about the safety of cultural heritage sites caught in contested zones. Cambodian officials have blamed Thai forces for the damage, while Thai officials have denied deliberately targeting religious or cultural landmarks, saying military operations were limited to contested security areas.

The Thai embassy could not be reached for comment on this interview.

TRUMP’S PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH IN 2025: WHERE WARS STOPPED AND RIVALS CAME TO THE TABLE

Still, Manet declined to threaten military retaliation. “Our position is to always stick to peaceful resolutions,” he said. “We don’t believe that using war to stop a war is sustainable or practical.”

Thailand, with a population of more than 70 million — roughly four times Cambodia’s 17 million — maintains a significantly larger and better-equipped military, raising the stakes of any renewed conflict.

With fighting again threatening fragile stability along the frontier, Manet traveled to Washington this week for the inaugural meeting of Trump’s Board of Peace.

“The Board of Peace can play an active role in promoting peace, stability and normalcy between Cambodia and Thailand,” he said.

TRUMP CONVENES FIRST ‘BOARD OF PEACE’ MEETING AS GAZA REBUILD HINGES ON HAMAS DISARMAMENT

Hun Manet took office in 2023, succeeding his father, Hun Sen, who ruled Cambodia for nearly four decades. The leadership transition marked the first formal handover of power in decades, though the ruling Cambodian People’s Party has maintained firm control over the country’s political system amid longstanding criticism from rights groups about limits on opposition activity.

A graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Manet has sought to maintain close ties with China while cautiously reopening channels with Washington, including restoring joint military exercises that had been suspended in 2017.

As Cambodia navigates tensions with Thailand, it is also balancing relations between Washington and Beijing.

Manet said navigating ties with competing world powers “doesn’t have to be a zero-sum game” and that Cambodia, as a smaller nation, cannot afford to “choose one country against the other.”

That balance has centered in part on Ream Naval Base, a strategic facility on Cambodia’s southern coast rebuilt with Chinese financing.

The USS Cincinnati docked at Ream in late January, marking the first U.S. warship visit since the base was renovated with Chinese funding and technical support. The visit was marked by a striking visual: the USS Cincinnati docked roughly 150 meters from a Chinese naval vessel already moored at the base. For years, U.S. officials have raised concerns that Cambodia had granted China exclusive access.

But Manet insisted the base remains under Cambodian control. “Our constitution says that no foreign military base [can] be situated on Cambodian soil.”

The U.S. visit, he said, “clearly shows that Cambodia is not exclusively used as a naval base for cooperation with China.”

Manet also confirmed that annual U.S.-Cambodia military exercises known as Angkor Sentinel, suspended in 2017, are set to resume this year — signaling warming defense ties. “We hope to have expanding cooperation with the U.S.”

In recent years, Cambodia has emerged as a hub for large-scale online scam operations, including so-called “pig butchering” schemes that have defrauded victims worldwide — including Americans — out of billions of dollars. U.S. authorities have sanctioned Cambodian-linked entities tied to crypto fraud and pressed Phnom Penh to intensify enforcement efforts amid concerns about trafficking and forced labor linked to some compounds.

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Manet said his government has stepped up cooperation with U.S. authorities and recently worked with the FBI to dismantle a major operation.

“We have recently worked with the FBI cracking on a major case involving one of the Oknyaks,” he said, referring to an influential Cambodian figure. “We arrested him, and we closed down one of the big compounds.”

Dan Osborn, a Nebraska “independent” Senate hopeful with deep ties to Democrats, has faced criticism for funneling a significant amount of campaign funds to his family members, amounting to almost $250,000 to just his wife and her political consulting firm. 

Across both his failed bid in 2024 and his current bid in the 2026 cycle, Osborn, his wife, daughter and sister-in-law have raked in north of $370,000, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings reviewed by Fox News Digital. The money stems from both Osborn’s campaign and his affiliated political action committee, the Working Class Heroes Fund. 

In July, Osborn, who is trying to oust incumbent Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., faced heat over his FEC filings that showed his campaign made six payments to his wife, Megan, amounting to roughly $19,000 between April and June. “If you’re James Carville and you’re running and you hire your wife Mary Matalin, that’s one thing,” Perre Neilan, a longtime Nebraska political strategist and former Executive Director of the Nebraska Republican Party said after the payments came to light. “But this one, I think – this one stinks.” 

SANDERS-ENDORSED SENATE CANDIDATE KNOCKED FOR ALLEGED FLIP-FLOP TO ‘HAVE IT BOTH WAYS’ ON KEY ISSUE

Meanwhile, several months later, it was uncovered that Osborn also funneled over $100,000 to a shadowy political consulting firm co-owned by his wife last year as well. 

The FEC made it easier for candidates to pay themselves in 2023, a move meant to give less wealthy folks an easier shot at running. 

Osborn, who has been endorsed by leaders of the Nebraska Democratic Party and has received campaign cash from multiple Democratic campaigns, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., has not been the only candidate to take advantage of this. However, while the payments are not illegal, critics have taken issue with the lack of political experience from Osborn’s wife, a former restaurant manager.

Across both Osborn’s 2024 and 2026 campaigns, his wife, who previously managed an Omaha sports pub, per the Lincoln Journal Star, has raked in at least $246,000 via money directly from the campaign and from the Working Class Heroes Fund, FEC filings reviewed by Fox News Digital show. The money is going both to Megan directly and her Wyoming-based political consulting firm, which has faced transparency concerns. Her affiliation was only uncovered after Osborn filed an amended financial disclosure after the press started asking questions.   

When reached for comment, an Osborn campaign spokesperson referred Fox News Digital to comments Osborn made last year to local Nebraska news outlet, the Lincoln Journal Star. 

Megan “has been instrumental in recruiting, preparing and supporting multiple working-class candidates across Nebraska and the country who share Dan’s vision to fix our broken politics,” an Osborn campaign spokesperson said in November to the Lincoln Journal Star.

“I work 40, 50 and even 90 hours per week on the campaign trail,” Osborn added last year when he was facing heat over the matter. “Megan does too. Most Senators have millions, even billions. But we’ve learned that it’s almost impossible to run for Senate as a regular person who needs to pay the bills and put food on the table. That’s why the Senate has become a country club full of millionaires, and it’s why less than 2 percent of our politicians come from the working class.” 

TRUMP CALLS FOR INVESTIGATION INTO ILHAN OMAR’S WEALTH, SAYS IT SHOULD START ‘NOW’

Osborn himself, a former steamfitter and industrial mechanic, has raked in a salary from his campaign of around $120,000, financial filings reviewed by Fox News Digital also show.

Meanwhile, Georgia, Osborn’s daughter, and Jodi, his sister-in-law, have raked in thousands from Osborn’s campaign and political action committee too. Georgia, a part-time dancer who Osborn says still needs help paying her bills, was given $4,200 following Osborn’s first campaign, and before launching his 2026 bid, for “assistant services” from the then-dormant campaign.

Osborn’s sister-in-law, Jodi, received $1,400 for “treasurer services” at the end of 2025, according to campaign disclosures which also show that she is listed as the Working Class Heroes Fund’s Treasurer.

In addition to questions about how Osborn is paying his loved ones, critics of the candidate have also balked at his decision to run as an Independent. Osborn has indicated he has no plans to caucus with either major party if elected, and says on his website that as an Independent he is “uniquely positioned” to get things done in Congress. 

However, Osborn’s decision to cash in on national Democratic Party support, including utilizing the party’s main fundraising platform, ActBlue, have led to questions about how independent he really will be.

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In December, Osborn was slammed for hiring an anti-cop staffer seen at an anti-police event featuring severed pig heads, and the agency creating Osborn’s ads, Fight Agency, was also behind building ads for the likes of Zohran Mamdani, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, and other Democrats. One of the firm’s leaders said they were struck by Osborn’s “over performance” in 2024, leading him to surmise “that Democrats need to run a lot of different kinds of campaigns.”

The consulting firm co-owned by Osborn’s wife, Independent Campaigns, has also worked with Democrat candidates. FEC filings show Nathan Sage, a Democrat running for Senate in Iowa, has paid thousands to Osborn’s wife’s consulting firm.

President Donald Trump said aboard Air Force One that former President Barack Obama revealed classified information by suggesting aliens are real, calling the remarks a “big mistake” and accusing Obama of disclosing secrets about possible non-human visitors to Earth.

Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy asked Trump about Obama’s claim during a gaggle aboard Air Force One, pressing the current sitting president on whether he has seen evidence of non-human visitors on Earth.

“He gave classified information. He’s not supposed to be doing that,” Trump said. “I don’t know if they’re real or not. I can tell you, he gave classified information. He’s not supposed to be doing that – he made a big mistake. He took it out of classified information.”

Former President Barack Obama appeared on Brian Tyler Cohen’s podcast Saturday, where he was asked point-blank whether aliens are real.

JD VANCE SAYS UFOS, ALIENS COULD BE ‘SPIRITUAL FORCES’ AS VP VOWS TO ‘GET TO THE BOTTOM’ OF MYSTERY IN SKIES

“They’re real, but I haven’t seen them,” Obama said.

The 44th president also dismissed the idea that extraterrestrials are being held at Nevada’s Area 51, saying there is no secret underground facility “unless there’s this enormous conspiracy and they hid it from the president of the United States.”

After his comments sparked buzz online, Obama sought to clarify his remarks on Instagram.

TULSI GABBARD TELLS PODCASTER ALIENS MAY BE REAL: ‘WE’RE CONTINUING TO LOOK FOR THE TRUTH’

“I was trying to stick with the spirit of the speed round, but since it’s gotten attention, let me clarify,” he wrote. “Statistically, the universe is so vast that the odds are good there’s life out there. But the distances between solar systems are so great that the chances we’ve been visited by aliens are low, and I saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us. Really!”

Cohen also asked what Obama’s first question was after taking office, prompting another alien reference.

“Uh, where are the aliens?” Obama joked.

PILOT REPORTS UFO HOVERING BESIDE JET, LEAVING AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL STUNNED: ‘GOOD LUCK WITH THE ALIENS’

Saturday’s appearance was not the first time Obama addressed the topic. During a 2021 interview on “The Late Late Show with James Corden,” he said that after entering office, he looked into whether aliens were being studied in a secret lab and was told they were not.

Still, Obama noted that officials are investigating aircraft exhibiting unusual flight patterns.

“There is footage and records of objects in the skies that we don’t know exactly what they are,” he said. “We can’t explain how they moved, their trajectory. They did not have an easily explainable pattern. I think people still take seriously trying to investigate and figure out what that is.”

UFO DOCUMENTARY PULLS BACK CURTAIN ON ‘PSYCHOLOGICAL OPERATION’ AFTER DECADES OF GOVERNMENT COVER-UP: EXPERT

Doocy later asked President Joe Biden about Obama’s remarks, referencing unidentified aerial phenomena, or UAPs.

“What do you think that it is?” Doocy asked.

“I would ask (Obama) again,” Biden responded.

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Interest in UAPs has intensified in recent years, drawing attention from federal lawmakers and defense officials. Congress passed the Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Disclosure Act in 2023, and the Department of Defense established the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office to further examine such incidents.

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

A federal judge in California on Thursday tossed out a lower court ruling that supported broad detention powers of migrants by the Trump administration.

Judge Sunshine Sykes, a Biden bench appointee, said the government’s claim it was taking the “worst of the worst” criminal illegal immigrants for deportation was “inaccurate.”

“‘Worst of the worst’ is an inaccurate description of most of those affected by DHS and ICE’s operations,” Sykes wrote. “Perhaps in utilizing this extreme language DHS seeks to justify the magnitude and scope of its operations against non-criminal noncitizens.”

AMERICANS COULD PAY TO BRING BACK ALLEGED MEMBERS OF ‘FOREIGN TERRORIST CARTEL’ TO US

“Maybe that phrase merely mirrors the severity and ill-natured conduct by the Government,” Sykes added. “Even though these press releases might contain an inkling of truth, they ignore a greater, more dire reality.”

The ruling could block mass deportations and guarantee bond hearings for many non-criminal migrant detainees.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been allowed to deny bond hearings to those arrested by federal immigration authorities who had been in the United States for years. 

Recent migrant arrivals have traditionally not been guaranteed an immediate bond hearing. In June, the Trump administration singled out California and launched a mass detention policy focusing on migrants in the Los Angeles area in an effort to arrest criminal illegal immigrants. 

JUDGE ORDERS MIGRANT DEPORTED IN ‘ERROR’ FREE FROM ICE CUSTODY WITH CRIMINAL CASE LOOMING

Several people detained sued, alleging they had been denied bond hearings. Sykes said the administration’s policies swept too broadly.

“Americans have expressed deep concerns over unlawful, wanton acts by the executive branch,” Skyes said.  “It is not the ‘worst of the worst’ that are swept into the nationwide and reckless violations of the law by the executive branch. In the past weeks, the Government detained Adrian Conejo Arias and his five-year-old son without a valid warrant.”

“Beyond its terror against noncitizens, the executive branch has extended its violence on its own citizens, killing two American citizens— Renée Good and Alex Pretti—in Minnesota,” the judge added. “The threats posed by the executive branch cannot be viewed in isolation.”

A federal appeals court based in New Orleans last week ruled for the administration, concluding the current DHS detention and bond policy was legal.

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The Justice Department had no immediate comment on the latest ruling but is expected to appeal the decision and request the detention policies be allowed to continue temporarily while the issue is being litigated.

Fox News Digital has also reached out to the White House. 

President Donald Trump welcomed leaders from around the world on Thursday as he hosted the inaugural meeting of the Board of Peace in Washington, D.C. 

One country that would not be joining the board, but will be hosting a related event is Norway.

The U.S. president announced the plan for Norway to host a meeting on Palestinian aid during the inaugural meeting of the board on Thursday. However, as he announced Norway’s plans, he joked about getting the Nobel Peace Prize.

“I’m excited to announce that Norway has agreed to host an event bringing together the Board of Peace — Oh, I thought when I saw this note, ‘I’m excited to announce that Norway,’ I thought they were going to say that they’re giving me the Nobel Prize. Oh, this is less exciting,” Trump quipped. “Oh, it says, ‘I’m excited to announce that Norway,’ and I’m saying, ‘Oh, great, I’m getting the Nobel Prize. Finally, finally, they got it right.’ But I don’t care, I don’t care about the Nobel Prize. I care about saving lives.”

TRUMP CONVENES FIRST ‘BOARD OF PEACE’ MEETING AS GAZA REBUILD HINGES ON HAMAS DISARMAMENT

Trump received several nominations for the prize. However, they were declared past the Nobel Committee’s nomination deadline. In the end, the award was given to then-exiled Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado.

Following the capture of Venezuela’s dictatorial leader Nicolás Maduro, Machado came to the U.S., where she met with Trump and presented him with her Nobel Peace Prize.

“I presented the President of the United States the medal… the Nobel Peace Prize, and I told him, ‘Listen to this, 200 years ago, General Lafayette gave Simón Bolívar a medal with George Washington’s face on it,” Machado said while speaking at the U.S. Capitol in January. “He kept that medal for the rest of his life. Actually, when you see his portraits, you can see the medal.”

She said Lafayette gave the medal to Bolívar as a symbol of the partnership between the people of the U.S. and the people of Venezuela and their shared fight for freedom against tyranny.

TRUMP ANNOUNCES $5 BILLION PLEDGE IN GAZA AID FROM BOARD OF PEACE MEMBERS

Trump thanked Machado for the medal in a post on Truth Social on Thursday evening.

“It was my Great Honor to meet María Corina Machado, of Venezuela, today,” Trump wrote. “She is a wonderful woman who has been through so much. María presented me with her Nobel Peace Prize for the work I have done. Such a wonderful gesture of mutual respect. Thank you María!”

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Norway has said that it would not join the Board of Peace. However, it is set to convene its Ad-Hoc Liaison Committee (AHCL) for Palestinian aid, according to The Times of Israel. The outlet noted that Norway has led the AHCL for decades, as it was established in the wake of the Oslo Accords, which were also aimed at ending the Israel-Hamas conflict.

A spokesperson for the Norwegian Foreign Ministry told The Times of Israel that Norway “remains firm” in its position against joining the Board of Peace.

One year after critics warned President Donald Trump’s mass deportation push would spark bloodshed in America’s largest sanctuary cities, new data from a leading progressive police-reform group shows police-involved killings actually declined — the first drop in five years.

Lawmakers and activists from Los Angeles to New York predicted that Trump’s surge into largely sanctuary-city communities would lead to more violence against innocent residents, which recently reached a fever pitch with the shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis.

However, data from progressive advocacy project Mapping Police Violence, a subsidiary of the Harlem-based Campaign Zero police reform group, found that police-involved killings actually went down in that timespan.

In its police violence report for 2025, the 1,314 police-involved killings marked a decline for the first time in five years.

NOEM DIGS AT AGITATORS, SANCTUARY POLITICIANS IN TOUTING ICE MISSION CONTINUES 1 YEAR INTO TRUMP’S SECOND TERM

In 2024, that figure was 1,382, reportedly a record high, and in 2023, 1,362 people died at the hands of police, whether justified or otherwise.

“If they are so violent, why did police kill 68 fewer people in 2025 than 2024? Certainly, that’s not what I expected to happen,” wrote columnist David Mastio in the Kansas City Star.

“These facts complicate the political narrative that Trump has unleashed ‘violent and sometimes deadly tactics … by federal immigration officers in communities across the country’.”

Mastio also pointed out that recent complaints from the left about an uptick in police-involved violence since George Floyd’s death in the Twin Cities left out the detail that any increase would have occurred under a Democratic administration in Washington.

During the immigration enforcement surge in Los Angeles, Sen. Alex Padilla told PBS that the situation is a “crisis of Trump’s own making” and voiced concern over the repercussions of any violence.

Padilla, D-Calif., famously appeared to try to accost Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem when he barged into a press conference during the surge — a claim the senator denied after he was briefly detained by security.

FEDERAL IMMIGRATION OFFICIALS PRIVATELY FUME OVER DHS CLAIMS AFTER DEADLY MINNESOTA SHOOTING

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said in a statement during the height of the Minneapolis surge that people were being “racially profiled, harassed, terrorized, and assaulted. Schools have gone into lockdown.”

“Minneapolis didn’t ask for this operation, but we’re paying the price,” claimed Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.

St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her expressed concerns that violence indeed would increase against innocent people as DHS honed in on his metro region.

“Our residents are scared, and as local officials, we have a responsibility to act. Today we’re standing side by side with Minneapolis and the attorney general to fight back,” Her said.

In his column, Mastio noted that the latest figures come from an “unimpeachable ‘defund-the-police’ source” that would not “gift” credible data to its ideological opponents.

Meanwhile, DHS has routinely highlighted data showing that it is violence against law enforcement that is up.

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin recently told Fox News Digital of a four-figure percentage increase in threats against ICE and federal immigration officers.

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“Our ICE law enforcement officers are now facing an 8,000% increase in death threats against them and a more than 1,300% increase in assaults against them while they risk their lives every single day to remove murderers, pedophiles, rapists, terrorists, and gang members from American neighborhoods,” McLaughlin said.

“Make no mistake, threatening rhetoric and this unprecedented violence against our law enforcement is incited by sanctuary politicians through their repeated vilification and demonization of law enforcement.”

Republican lawmakers called it “insane” that the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court appointed to a key advisory panel a lawyer with past ties to the Biden administration’s controversial Disinformation Governance Board.

Judges on the FISC appointed Jennifer Daskal this month to serve as an amicus curiae, meaning Daskal is now among a small group of lawyers designated to advise the court, which approves warrants for federal authorities to surveil targets for foreign intelligence purposes. The GOP lawmakers said Daskal’s history with the disinformation board raises worries about her ability to discern whether warrants are appropriate.

“The same person who helped to build a board to censor American speech now advises judges on how to protect American liberties,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, told Fox News Digital in a statement. “That’s ridiculous — and exactly why Congress must continue our oversight.”

HOUSE PASSES FISA RENEWAL WITHOUT ADDED WARRANT MANDATE FOR US DATA

Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., echoed Jordan’s concerns, saying Daskal’s appointment was “insane” and calling for reforms to the FISC.

Schmitt shared a video of himself on X questioning Daskal during a hearing about what he called the Biden administration’s “censorship enterprise,” referencing Daskal’s role in aiming to dispel what the Biden administration viewed as inaccurate information about COVID-19 masks and vaccines and information about election security.

FISC proceedings are classified and “ex parte,” meaning a judge reviews the federal government’s warrant application and the target of the warrant has no awareness of the proceedings. A judge reviewing the application can, however, turn to an amicus curiae to present counterpoints to the government’s application, meaning Daskal is among a handful of lawyers who could be tapped to argue for or against allowing the government to wiretap a person’s phones or otherwise surveil them.

Under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the government has access to these powerful spy tools for foreign intelligence purposes, but it has sometimes, whether inadvertently or intentionally, improperly targeted U.S. citizens.

Building more guardrails into the legislation has long been a point of contention for privacy hawks. Republicans, in particular, became highly critical of the FISC after finding that the court approved the FBI’s warrant applications, which contained flimsy and inaccurate evidence, to surveil Trump campaign aide Carter Page beginning in 2016.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, told the Washington Free Beacon, which first reported on Daskal’s appointment, that the “American people need to have confidence in the people tasked to serve as amici” before the FISC. Grassley pointed to a bill he introduced, the FISA Accountability Act, which would allow Congress to have a say in who is chosen as an amicus curiae.

Jordan and Grassley have been some of the most vocal proponents of reining in the federal government’s use of FISA after identifying instances in recent years of intelligence officials allegedly abusing their authority and infringing on U.S. citizens’ Fourth Amendment right to privacy. In the case of Page, DOJ inspector general Michael Horowitz released a report in 2019 that identified more than a dozen “significant errors or omissions” across the FBI’s four warrant applications used to surveil the former Trump aide. Daskal, in her new role, could offer confidential, weighty legal arguments to a FISC judge that support or oppose intelligence officials’ requests to surveil someone.

Daskal served as a top lawyer in the Department of Homeland Security when she helped launch the Disinformation Governance Board. Conservatives heavily criticized it, describing the board as a “Ministry of Truth” that sought to censor their viewpoints in violation of the First Amendment.

Daskal chartered the board, while Nina Jankowicz was named its executive director, an appointment that fueled Republicans’ fury over it after finding Jankowicz’ past social media posts that they said revealed she was too partisan.

Jankowicz, for instance, cast doubt on the New York Post’s bombshell story in 2020 about Hunter Biden’s laptop, which she said fit a pattern of Russian “information laundering.” Biden administration officials vehemently objected to the claims in the New York Post’s story about Joe Biden’s handling of Ukrainian foreign policy, though the authenticity of the laptop itself has been verified through court proceedings.

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Republicans put so much pressure on DHS about the board — calling it an “abuse of taxpayer dollars” and raising alarm that it painted policy disagreements over COVID-19, election security and immigration as mis- or dis- information — that it disbanded just a few months after its launch.

In Daskal’s hearing exchange with Schmitt, Daskal said “it’s not appropriate for the government to censor any points of view.” Daskal did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

Democratic Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland says he didn’t seek a political scrap with President Donald Trump.

“I don’t have any personal desire to go back and forth with the President of the United States. That’s not why I ran for office,” the Democratic governor of the solidly blue state emphasized in a Fox News Digital interview.

But like it or not, that’s where Moore finds himself.

Trump refused to invite Moore to a traditionally bipartisan dinner of all the nations’ governors later this week at the White House, saying Moore was “not worthy” of attending the event.

DC MAYOR BOWSER DECLARES EMERGENCY OVER POTOMAC SEWAGE SPILL, ASKS FOR FEDERAL HELP

And earlier this week, Trump heavily criticized Moore for a massive sewage spill in the Potomac River, blaming him and local leaders for “gross mismanagement.”

The governor, a former U.S. Army officer, businessman and author, who, as a first-time candidate, overwhelmingly won election four years ago and is expected to cruise to a second term victory this year, is seen by pundits as a possible 2028 White House hopeful, even though he’s repeatedly said he’s not running for president.

But Moore has not been as aggressive as other Democratic governors — such as California’s Gavin Newsom and Illinois JB Pritzker — in taking aim at Trump during his first year back in the White House.

The governor said he “wanted to get away” from “these political games that we see in Washington, D.C.”

TRUMP SLAMS MARYLAND GOVERNOR, LAUNCHES FEDERAL EFFORT TO PROTECT POTOMAC AFTER HISTORIC SEWAGE SPILL

But Moore says it’s “absurd” that Trump is blaming him after a pipe bust on federal land resulted in an ecological disaster as hundreds of millions of gallons of sewage spilled into the Potomac River a few miles upstream from the nation’s capital.

Trump, on Monday, took to social media to warn of a “massive Ecological Disaster” that he blamed on “Gross Mismanagement of Local Democrat Leaders, particularly, Governor Wes Moore, of Maryland.”

A day later, the president argued that “Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., who are responsible for the massive sewage spill in the Potomac River, must get to work, IMMEDIATELY.”

“If they can’t do the job, they have to call me and ask, politely, to get it fixed. The Federal Government is not at all involved with what has taken place, but we can fix it,” Trump added.

And on Wednesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt highlighted that the “federal government wants to fix it,” and added “we hope that the local authorities will cooperate with us in doing so.”

The sewage pipes are managed by D.C. Water, an independent utility based in the District of Columbia, which has made emergency repairs, but says it will take four to six weeks to completely fix what’s known as a broken interceptor.

“This is a Washington, D.C., pipe on federal land. Maryland has nothing to do with this. In fact, the only thing Maryland did was when we saw a neighbor who was in need. That’s why I ordered people, our people to go support them, and that’s what we’ve been doing the past month,” Moore told Fox News Digital.

And he argued, “We’ve been doing essentially the federal government’s job, because it’s the federal government’s job to be able to protect the Potomac interconnector, because that’s federal land.”

JEFFRIES VOWS PRESSURE ON DEMOCRATIC MARYLAND SENATE PRESIDENT URGING AGAINST PARTY’S REDISTRICTING PUSH

“For the president now to come and attack me on this, I find that to be … absurd,” Moore charged.

Moore was interviewed a couple of hours after meeting with House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries in Annapolis as Democrats continue to push for mid-decade congressional redistricting to counter efforts by Trump and Republicans in other states to draw more right-leaning districts.

Jeffries held a meeting with Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson, a fellow Democrat, who is opposed to redrawing Maryland’s map in order to create another left-leaning congressional district.

REDISTRICTING FIGHT ERUPTS AS MARYLAND DEMOCRATS MOVE TO REDRAW LONE GOP HOUSE SEAT

Moore has led the push for redistricting in Maryland, and the effort has already passed through the state House. But Ferguson, to date, has declined to put the measure up for a vote in his chamber, saying that legal repercussions could cause the redistricting push in Maryland to backfire. And the meeting with Jeffries didn’t change his mind.

The governor says his “ask” is “to simply vote.”

“And as someone who fought for this country and someone who fought for democracy, I just believe in fighting for democracy, and I think that requires a vote, no matter how the vote turns out, it frankly, doesn’t matter, but just vote.”

Republicans have blasted as “partisan gerrymandering” the move by Moore, which, if passed, could result in Rep. Andy Harris, the lone Republican in Maryland’s congressional delegation, losing his seat through redistricting.

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Asked if what he’s advocating is partisan gerrymandering, Moore said, “The reason we’re even having this conversation about mid-decade redistricting is it is because the president has introduced this, that the president when he first started calling Texas and then Florida and then Missouri and Ohio and North Carolina saying, ‘I want you all to look at the maps in the middle of a decade.’ I just don’t see how a real or responsible answer for anyone else to be well, that’s okay, just let them do it.”

“We’re just asking for the Maryland Senate to just do your democratic duty and debate, discuss, make changes if necessary, but then vote,” the governor insisted.

EXCLUSIVE: The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) overseeing the well-being of children, eliminated thousands of pages of regulatory guidance that had been languishing on the books as far back as 1976, Fox News Digital learned. 

The Administration for Children and Families is a Health and Human Services agency charged with promoting the economic and social well-being of kids and their families via overseeing programs such as the Head Start school readiness program, child support enforcement, foster care and adoption services, and managing unaccompanied minors. 

The office rescinded 35,781 pages of guidance documents after an agencywide review found 74% of its “sub-regulatory footprint” was obsolete. The documents included technical bulletins, program instructions, action transmittals and dear colleague letters — letters from federal agencies or members of Congress that typically inform colleagues on new guidance or legislation — that had accumulated across the past 50 years. 

The Administration for Children and Families emphasized that the rescinded documents were not erased, but instead archived online along with a detailed list of current guidance documented on the Department of Health and Human Services’ website. 

DOGE ERA OVERHAUL: GSA TOUTS $60B IN SAVINGS AS TRUMP SHRINKS GOV’T FOOTPRINT: ‘RESULTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES’

The Administration for Children and Families officially was established in 1991, but its origins and work stretch back decades, inheriting programs and guidance from earlier Health and Human Services offices — including major initiatives that date to the mid-1970s. 

“President Trump’s regulatory reform agenda is unparalleled in U.S. history,” the Administration for Children and Families Assistant Secretary Alex J. Adams said in a statement to Fox News Digital. 

“ACF is proud to do our part to advance the President’s agenda by taking the first of many planned actions, namely removing 36,000 pages of obsolete sub-regulatory guidance that had quietly accumulated over decades and shining a brighter spotlight on what remains,” he added. “In essence, ACF has brought our regulatory dark matter to light.” 

SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION UNVEILS NEW INITIATIVE TO ROLL BACK FEDERAL REGULATIONS

The rescinded guidance included program-specific documents such as a memo on filing the June 1999 Child and Family Services Plan and Final Report, 2005 avian flu guidance and a 2010 staffing-change notice for the now-defunct Division of Energy Assistance.

The Administration for Children and Families directed its Office of Legislation and Budget to compile a comprehensive list of guidance documents considered active — a process that took three weeks just to catalog the files, the agency said. The inventory produced more than 4,000 documents totaling about 55,776 pages, dating back to 1976. 

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION BANS ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS FROM TAXPAYER-FUNDED SERVICES, INCLUDING HEAD START

Each program office was required to justify whether the individual documents were still needed, and ordered to provide written rationale if guidance was deemed obsolete or necessary. Obsolete documents were considered ones that related to old funding cycles, guidance superseded by newer rules, duplicate statutes or documents related to programs that no longer list, Fox News Digital learned. 

The Administration for Children and Families said the goal of cleaning up the office with outdated guidance is to reduce confusion and allow grant recipients to focus resources on “delivering outcomes for American children and families,” rather than navigating tens of thousands of pages of outdated documentation.

The move aligns with the Trump administration’s broader push to pare back regulations and cut what it calls bureaucratic red tape.

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The Federal Communications Commission, for example, took a hatchet to outdated policies in a sweeping deregulation effort in 2025, including doing away with outdated guidance on the use of telegraphs, rabbit-ear TV receivers and phone booth rules in July 2025. 

EXCLUSIVE: President Donald Trump‘s Make D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force has made more than 10,000 arrests since it launched in August 2025, and recovered more than 1,000 illegal firearms from the streets of the nation’s capital, Fox News Digital learned. 

“President Trump’s federal surge in Washington, D.C. has saved lives and helped restore our Nation’s beautiful capital city for all Americans to enjoy,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a comment to Fox News Digital. “Thanks to the brave work of Gady Serralta’s Marshals, our other DOJ components, and our great federal partners, we have proven that tolerating crime is a policy choice — we choose public safety.”

As of Thursday morning, the task force has carried out 10,018 arrests and recovered 1,036 illegal firearms, Fox News Digital learned. 

Officials with the Metropolitan Police Department, as well as the National Guard and personnel from federal agencies such as the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, Capitol Police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, have taken to the streets of D.C. to conduct sweeps and root out crime since August 2025 as part of Trump’s crackdown on rampant crime. 

TRUMP TASK FORCE RACKS UP 500 ARRESTS IN JANUARY AS PRESIDENT BRANDS CARTELS ‘ISIS OF THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE’

Trump signed the Making the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful executive order in March 2025, which established a task force. U.S. Marshals Service Director Gadyaces S. Serralta leads the law enforcement partnership of the task force that brings together 3,100 personnel from 28 agencies to carry out the crime crackdown in the city. 

Trump took a hard line against a spate of high-profile attacks and killings that unfolded in the city earlier in 2025, which followed the District reeling from sky-high crime trends from the COVID-19 pandemic era, including a disturbing wave of young adults carrying out violent crimes such as armed carjackings. 

Now, crime has fallen as the administration champions Trump’s law and order crackdown. 

All in, murders in the district have fallen by 68% compared to the same time period in 2025, robberies by 47%, sexual abuse down by 64%, and violent crime across the board is down by 31%, according to data provided to Fox News Digital. 

The task force notably recovered or located 19 missing children amid the crackdown. 

The “era of unchecked violence is over,” U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said in a statement to Fox News Digital. 

“President Trump’s decisive no-nonsense strategy to restore law and order, the federal surge of law enforcement resources, combined with aggressive prosecution of violent offenders, is delivering real, measurable results,” Pirro said. “I came here to fight street crime in the nation’s capital and since then homicides have fallen to historic lows, and violent crime has dropped dramatically. Those who prey on our communities are being arrested, prosecuted, and convicted.”

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The task force’s arrests include 28 for homicide, 1,693 for narcotics, 874 for weapons offenses, 34 for sex offenses and arrests of 52 known gang members. 

Among top arrests include nabbing a trio of teenagers who allegedly shot and killed 21-year-old congressional intern Eric Tarpinian-Jachym in June 2025. Tarpinian-Jachym was shot while walking near D.C. Convention Center when he was hit by a bullet not intended for him, according to investigators. 

His shocking death served as a catalyst ahead of Trump’s crime crackdown. 

Another pair of teenagers, Laurence Cotton-Powell, 19, and Anthony Taylor, 18, were arrested in October 2025 for the alleged attempted carjacking, robbery and beating of a former Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staffer in August 2025. 

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Task force leader Serralta said in comment to Fox News Digital that the 10,000th arrest marks a “monumental achievement.” 

“By removing 1,000 illicit firearms from D.C. streets and making 10,000 arrests, we have achieved unprecedented results, not just for the Task Force, but for all the residents, commuters, students, and visitors to Washington, D.C.,” Serralta said. “But rest assured, our work is not done.  Washington, D.C“is the beating heart of our great Nation, and we will not stop until we fulfill President Trump’s promise to make its communities safe again.” 

Other arrests include the apprehension of Alvin Young, 47, who was charged with first-degree murder while armed following a fatal shooting in March 2022. There also was the December 2025 arrest of a man named Christopher Watts, who had a warrant out of Florida for cruelty toward a child, promoting sexual performance and solicitation of a child via computer, Fox News Digital learned. 

WHITE HOUSE SAYS MURDER RATE PLUMMETED TO LOWEST LEVEL SINCE 1900 UNDER TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

Another man, Richard Brown, was arrested earlier in February for a lengthy list of alleged offenses, including possession of a machine gun, carrying a pistol without a license, possession of an unregistered firearm and ammunition, possession of a large capacity feeding device, unauthorized use of a vehicle, two counts of receiving stolen property, unlawful entry of a vehicle, fleeing from a law enforcement officer in a vehicle and reckless driving, Fox News Digital learned. Brown fled task force members during a routine traffic stop, drove to Maryland while being pursued and jumped out of his car before he was ultimately nabbed by officials, according to details on the task force. 

Removing 1,000 guns from the violent offenders “is not symbolic, it is decisive action to restore law and order in our nation’s capital,” Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives Deputy Director Rob Cekada told Fox News Digital. 

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“President Trump made it clear that Washington, D.C. will not be surrendered to criminals, and ATF is fully committed to relentlessly pursuing those who traffic, possess, and use illegal firearms,” Cekada said. “10,000 arrests are just the beginning. We will continue to dismantle violent networks and ensure the safety of everyone who lives, works, and visits here.” 

Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser declared a disaster emergency over the Potomac sewage spill on Wednesday and requested federal assistance with the cleanup.

The sewage spill has now become the largest in U.S. history, dumping over 240 million gallons of raw sewage into the Potomac River. President Donald Trump has already lashed out at Maryland Gov. Wes Moore for his handling of the spill, saying he is concerned the river winding around the nation’s capital will still stink when America250 celebrations kick off this summer.

Bowser wrote a letter to Trump on Wednesday formally requesting that he issue an emergency disaster declaration, freeing up federal resources to help deal with the spill.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt emphasized Trump’s concerns in a press conference on Wednesday. Fox News’ Peter Doocy asked Leavitt if Trump is concerned the nation’s capital will “smell like poop.”

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“Yeah, he is worried about that,” Leavitt said. “Which is why the federal government wants to fix it. And we hope that the local authorities will cooperate with us in doing so.”

Leavitt called on leaders in Maryland, Virginia and D.C. to “step forward and to ask the federal government for help and to ask for the Stafford Act to be implemented here so that the federal government can go and take control of this local infrastructure that has been abandoned and neglected by Governor Moore in Maryland for far too long.”

“It’s no secret that Maryland’s water and infrastructure have been in dire need of repair,” Leavitt said. “Their infrastructure has received a nearly failing grade in the 2025 report card from the American Society of Civil Engineers. This is the same grade they’ve received, five years earlier. There has been no improvement under the leadership of Governor Moore. He’s clearly shown he’s incapable of fixing this problem, which is why President Trump and the federal government are standing by to step in.”

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Moore’s office has pushed back on the administration’s rhetoric surrounding the leak, claiming the federal government has oversight over DC Water, the District’s water and sewer utility. 

“Since the last century, the federal government has been responsible for the Potomac Interceptor, which is the origin of the sewage leak. For the last four weeks, the Trump Administration has failed to act, shirking its responsibility and putting people’s health at risk,” a representative from Moore’s office said on Monday. “Notably, the president’s own EPA explicitly refused to participate in the major legislative hearing about the cleanup last Friday.”

Leavitt continued Wednesday that environmentalists should “pray” that local jurisdictions call on Trump to step in and shore up infrastructure and carry out clean up.

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“For all of the environmentalists in the room and across the District of Columbia, let’s all hope and pray that this governor does the right thing and ask President Trump to get involved, because it will be an ecological and environmental disaster if the federal government does not step in to help,” she said. “But of course, we need the state and local jurisdictions to make that formal request.”

Read Bowser’s letter to Trump below (App users click here)

President Donald Trump heads south to Georgia on Thursday, as he stops in a crucial midterm battleground state to showcase his administration’s efforts to boost the economy.

White House Press Secretary Karolina Leavitt said on the eve of the trip that Trump “will visit two local businesses and give a speech on his efforts to make life affordable for working people.”

But Trump’s visit to Rome, Georgia, in the northwest part of the state, comes with early voting underway in the special election to replace former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. Once a MAGA firebrand, she had a major falling out with the president before stepping down from Congress at the beginning of the year.

A jam-packed field of 18 candidates are vying to succeed Taylor Greene in Georgia’s solidly red 14th Congressional District.

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“We have a lot of people that want to take Marjorie ‘Traitor’ Greene’s place, and many, many candidates, and I have to choose one,” the president told reporters aboard Air Force One Monday, as he used a derogatory nickname for the former lawmaker.

“They say whoever I endorse is going to win. But we have a lot of good candidates that want to take her place.”

The president earlier this month did make an endorsement in the race, backing Clay Fuller, who is a former local district attorney.

TRUMP HITS ROAD TO SELL ECONOMIC WINS AS MIDTERMS HEAT UP

With so many candidates in the race, it’s likely no candidate tops 50% in the March 10 election, which would then force an April 7 runoff.

Trump’s stop in Georgia, where he’s expected to spotlight inflation, energy costs, and unemployment, comes two days after top members of the president’s political team huddled in a closed-door strategy session with Trump administration Cabinet members and their top aides on how best to sell the president’s agenda to voters in this year’s midterm elections.

The meeting, which sources familiar confirmed to Fox News, was hosted by White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and deputy chief of staff James Blair, who is steering Trump’s political strategy.

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According to sources, the message during a slide presentation by chief pollster and strategist Tony Fabrizio was that the economy will be the top issue on the minds of voters, and that the White House needs to spotlight its efforts on easing affordability.

“Team Trump will deploy every resource necessary to win the midterms, protect our majorities, and ensure President Trump keeps delivering results for America’s working families,” a source in the president’s political orbit told Fox News Digital.

The meeting was held as the GOP works to defend their control of the Senate and their razor-thin House majority in November’s midterms. Republicans are facing traditional political headwinds in the midterms, when the party in power usually loses House and Senate seats.

Republicans are also dealing with the president’s continued underwater approval ratings, and a slew of surveys, including the latest Fox News polling, that indicates Americans are pessimistic about the economy and say things have not improved in the year since Trump returned to the White House.

Meanwhile, Democrats have scored a series of ballot box victories and overperformances in off-year elections and special elections during Trump’s second administration, thanks to their laser focus on affordability amid persistent inflation.

Republicans see the president as their best tool to motivate low-propensity MAGA voters, who don’t always vote when Trump’s not on the ballot, to motivated them to show up at the polls during the midterms.

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Republican National Committee chair Joe Gruters told Fox News Digital last month that Trump was the GOP’s “secret weapon” that will help Republicans “defy history” in the midterms.

“We got to make sure we turn our voters out, and we got to make sure that we have people energized. And there’s nobody that can energize our base more than President Trump,” Gruters said.

Trump made stops in December and last month in the key battleground states of Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Michigan to highlight his accomplishments on the economy.

And after Wiles said that Trump would start making weekly stops, he rallied supporters late last month in Iowa, a one-time Midwestern battleground turned red-leaning state the president carried by double digits in 2024 where Republicans are now playing defense as they defend open Senate and gubernatorial seats and three competitive GOP-controlled House districts.

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But Trump’s stop in Georgia on Thursday is his first campaign-style event since the Iowa trip three weeks ago.

The Democratic National Committee, in a statement ahead of Trump’s visit, argued, “Because of Donald Trump, tens of thousands of Georgians have lost their jobs, hardworking families are paying over $1,000 more per year for the basics, and thousands of GA-14 residents are facing skyrocketing health care premiums. While Trump tries to spin his record and lie about the state of his economy, Democrats won’t stop fighting to lower costs for Georgia families and protect their healthcare.”

As Democrats continue to withhold funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), former agency leaders argue their demands for new guardrails would mark the most direct congressional intervention in the agency’s operations — a turn for a post-9/11 agency that has largely defined its own operations.

John Sandweg, a former acting director of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and a former general counsel for DHS, said Congress has occasionally given ICE instruction but stayed away from managing its operations.

“There had been some congressional mandates, some of them through appropriations, some through authorizing statutes that compelled the creation of this system,” Sandweg said.

Sarah Saldaña, former director of ICE from 2014 to 2017, believes it’s unusual for Congress to get into the weeds of how any agency carries out its mission.

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“Congress has a legitimate role in oversight in the expenditure of any taxpayer funds, including ICE’s expenditure, whether it’s proper or not. It has nothing to do with dictating specific operations or tactics,” Saldaña said, while noting she’s not surprised by the attention the agency’s recent tactics have received from lawmakers.

“But Congress doesn’t operate anything. They pass statutes.”

ICE’s operational autonomy has led to its enforcement to look different through the years since its founding in 2003. Especially at its outset, this allowed the agency to wander from its focus, according to Sandweg. But it’s also that flexibility that he believes has allowed President Donald Trump to aggressively push its immigration enforcement operations.

In response to Trump’s ICE crackdown and two deadly encounters between immigration enforcement and civilians, Democrat demands include an end to roving patrols, a ban on mask use and visible identification for agents.

Democrats say they won’t vote to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which includes ICE, until those changes are made.

DHS funding lapsed at the end of last week.

ICE originally stemmed from the Homeland Security Act of 2002 — the bill that created DHS as a whole in response to the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Although the agency and its operations were new, the laws ICE was tasked with enforcing had been on the books long before that.

“We’re statutory,” Saldaña said. “We were created after September 11th as a part of all that confusion with respect to intelligence regarding the visa overstays that ended up blowing up the World Trade Center.”

That law charged DHS with assuming many of the country’s existing immigration functions: the Border Patrol program, detention and removal, intelligence, investigations and inspections. But it also came without any operational framework and didn’t even mention ICE by name.

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In 2004 spending legislation, lawmakers gave the agency $2.1 billion in funding along with its first congressional directives.

ICE was told to set aside $100,000 for public awareness of a child pornography tipline, $500,000 for reimbursing other federal agencies and their work on recovering smuggled illegal aliens, $3 million for enforcing laws against child labor and a handful of other instructions.

Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, a conservative immigration policy group, explained that ICE officials back then wanted to stay clear of immigration enforcement.

“They wanted to devote resources to child sex trafficking and counterfeit goods and gangs and things like that while not doing routine immigration enforcement,” Vaughan said.

“The ex-customs people in charge, they were like, ‘Yeah, we’re not doing this immigration stuff anymore.’ They wanted to do stuff that was not as politically sensitive,” she said.

Sandweg agreed and described the culture as a kind of internal conflict that stretched into the Obama years.

“It was a bit of a culture war, right?” Sandweg said. “Is it going to be more of this immigration-focused stuff, looking at worksite enforcement and employers who might be cheating? Or is it gonna be more investigating banks for not having adequate money laundering controls and things like that?”

“That second culture took over, the customs culture,” Sandweg recalled.

However, Saldaña disagrees that the agency really ever had another focus other than immigration enforcement.

“There’s always been a clear mandate,” Saldaña said.

“Now, every administration has its own enforcement priorities, which it’s entitled to do. And so there will be memos, executive orders, et cetera, et cetera to shape the mission,” she added.

But it was a frustration with ICE’s operations that eventually got Congress a little more involved.

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Frustrated with the lack of enforcement, lawmakers began filling in some of the blanks of what they wanted to see. In 2009, for instance, Congress passed a mandate that ICE had to accommodate no fewer than 34,000 beds for detainees when lawmakers grew concerned the agency was releasing too many people.

In Vaughan’s view, the agency has only recently been asked to flex its muscles to pursue its original goal.

“There has never been a president before Donald Trump who openly valued the immigration enforcement mission as much as he does,” Vaughan said. “There’s no question that ICE has been allowed to do its job the way Congress wrote the laws for them to be able to do it. And they have not had that kind of support and backing before.”

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For now, portions of DHS remain unfunded as lawmakers wrestle over the 10 Democratic demands.

ICE itself, which received $75 billion in funding when Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act was signed into law in July, is continuing operations in the midst of the government shutdown.

On Sunday in a busy stretch of restaurants and boutiques in the West Village, hundreds of New Yorkers queued up outside a pop-up shop offering free groceries. 

“New Yorkers are in pain,” Nick from Queens, New York, one of several people Fox News Digital interviewed outside the pop-up, said as he waited to grab pasta sauce, bath soap and a bag of Tide Pods. 

The scene was underscored by the city’s cost of living woes and anxiety over who would get a yellow ticket granting entry to the small shop before they “sold out” of goods. 

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The pop-up was opened Feb. 12 as a five-day store by cryptocurrency-based prediction market Polymarket. It comes as Democratic New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani advances a proposal for city-run grocery stores aimed at easing rising food costs and broader affordability pressures. 

It was billed as New York City’s first free grocery store, with critics casting it as a stunt riffing on Mamdani’s proposal as the prediction-market company faces heightened scrutiny from regulators in various states, including New York. 

Shoppers characterized The Polymarket — which was separate from Mamdani-led efforts to unveil city-owned, subsidized grocery stores in each of the five New York City boroughs — as a learning moment for the mayor as residents cited concerns with security, running out of food and people cutting lines. 

The giveaway drew residents from across the five boroughs — some arriving before sunrise, others showing up mid-morning in the hopes of getting a yellow ticket and a spot in the line wrapped around the block.

Rushing for tickets 

As the crowd grew, however, so did the tension. 

People in line told Fox News Digital Sunday that they were worried they’d made the trip for nothing.

“I literally got here at 9 o’clock … and basically what they said is that they ran out of tickets,” a woman named Fatima told Fox News Digital. 

Another man, Sherrod from Jamaica, Queens, said the same happened to him. 

“They told me that they ran out of tickets,” he said. “I couldn’t get no more food. … I couldn’t get access to the store.”

Fatima and Sherrod spoke after security guards began pushing people off the block shortly after 9 a.m., when the first batch of tickets was gone. Several shoppers said they were told to leave the area and come back around 1:30 p.m. for another chance — and not to linger on the sidewalk as ticket-holders moved through the store.

“Let’s go people, let’s go. Go home,” one security guard positioned outside The Polymarket was heard shouting to the crowds just after 9 a.m. Sunday. “Do not linger, do not look, do not watch. Please go home.”

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Shoppers were told the pop-up would open at noon and close at 3 p.m., or until supplies ran out. Ticket-holders were let inside a couple at a time and paired with a staffer to fill a blue tote bag at no cost.

Polymarket funded and operated the pop-up, a company representative told Fox News Digital, and the prediction market also donated $1 million to Food Bank for New York City as part of the effort.

The representative said Polymarket also gave $50 gift cards to some shoppers who ended up in the back of the line and were turned away, in an effort to “be as accommodating as possible.”

Some shoppers slammed the setup — and the mad dash for tickets — while early arrivals said security kept the line safe.

“Security’s been phenomenal,” said Nick, who was fourth in line and received a ticket without problems. “This morning, there was a drunk guy over here harassing a lady. And I was telling him to go. And the head security guy, he saw that we were in trouble, and he did his job and got him out of here. Protecting us.”

Another local, Michael, told Fox News Digital: “I’ve seen a mix of things, like security needs to work on their presentation, dealing with the customers who are of florid backgrounds … because they don’t have the customer service expertise.” 

Michael set up a chair outside the grocery store, and watched shoppers file in and out of the shop all morning, but was not positioned in line. He told Fox News Digital that he only had three cups of soup left in his cupboard but was doubtful there would be enough groceries left at The Polymarket at the end of the day for him to stock up his pantry. 

The line drew all walks of life — people on disability, working New Yorkers looking for a financial boost, residents shopping for the homeless, New Yorkers living in shelters, and others who did not speak English. 

Brooklynite Sumayah said she visited the pop-up earlier in the week and managed to grab “two dozen eggs and some butter” before items started running out. Out of work for more than two months and currently on disability, she said a free grocery trip could spare her from spending roughly $600 a month on food and household essentials.

Sumayah said the process inside could feel uncomfortable to some, citing shoppers are paired with someone who moved them through the aisles. 

“Someone shops with me and I’m kind of uncomfortable with that,” she said. “I also understand because sometimes you might have some people that want to overdo it and grab like 10 of something… but the person that I was with, they kind of rushed me through things and I couldn’t get all the stuff that I wanted.”

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Even so, Sumayah said her overall experience was “pretty calm and quiet,” and called the pop-up “very much needed in New York.” She said the turnout alone showed how wide the need spreads — and how quickly word of free groceries travels.

“I even met a woman that came from India yesterday and she was like, ‘Oh my God, I’m in line. I’m coming to get free food,’” Sumayah said. “I’m thinking like, how should I get back on the plane with that?”

Sumayah called on local leaders contemplating installing city-run stores to ensure such shoppers are safe as they wait in line for the goods — including from neighbors unhappy with the lines — while Sherrod called for a potential city-run effort to be better “organized” and “learn from this.” 

Nick added that such stores should be directly located in impoverished areas and food deserts far from the wealthy streets of Manhattan. 

Hammering costs

Almost everyone in line — no matter if they got a ticket or not — sounded off that food costs in the city were sky-high, and they needed an assist. 

“Shoot, I used to spend on average $300 to $500 on groceries,” said Jaquan, who caught the A train to get to the market Sunday morning. “I used live with my mom, so that made it even worse. Right now I’m homeless, I live in a drop-in center.” 

Another Big Apple resident, Monique, said she spent $200 on groceries “the other day” and “didn’t even get much.” Sherrod, who said he has a family of four, put his monthly grocery spending at around $400 to $500 and described the free groceries as a real help.

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Nick said choosing to wait for hours to get a ticket was worth it, noting it would save him as other expenses build up. 

“I’ve switched to fast food and it’s taking a hit on my health,” he said, adding he was already a month behind on his phone bill because grocery costs came first.

For the more than 300 individuals who did get tickets moved through the door, they were thrilled with the haul. 

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“I got the spaghetti. I got orange juice. I like orange juice,” Nick from Queens said after making it through the store. “I also got some ground beef. They had grass-fed ground beef, they had lean ground beef and the regular ground beef so I’m glad I got that. I’m really glad I got the grass-fed.”

A pair of House Republicans could soon mount an effort to force a chamber-wide vote on sanctioning Russia for its war in Ukraine after months of back-and-forth between the House, Senate and White House yielded little movement on the issue.

“This coming week, Brian Fitzpatrick’s sanctions bill … ripens, so we can actually submit it as a discharge petition on Monday or Tuesday, and I’ll sign that,” Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., told Fox News Digital. 

“But it’s got to start from scratch,” he added. “We’ve got to get 218 signatures on it, and so that has a lot more work to do there, but it’s a really good bill that Brian has worked on both sides of the aisle to get it right. And I think it’s one that could have support in the Senate.”

A discharge petition is a mechanism for forcing a vote on legislation over the objections of House majority leadership. Historically, they’re a rarely used measure given the petition needs signatures from a majority of House lawmakers, and most members of the party in power are traditionally wary of crossing their leaders in that way.

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But for Bacon, it’s a matter of right versus wrong that he believes will be remembered for years to come.

“Someday in the history books, it’s going to read which leaders stood up, which ones were [Winston Churchills] and which ones were [Neville Chamberlains]. Chamberlain gave away land in Czechoslovakia to appease Hitler. And Hitler said all he wanted was the Sudetenland. And then, a year later, he invaded the rest of Czechoslovakia. Then, a year later, he invaded Poland,” Bacon said.

“We’ve got to know a bad guy when we see one, and [Russian President Vladimir Putin] is a bad guy. He’s made clear, it’s not just about Ukraine. He wants to regain the rest of what the Soviet Union had. And so history is being written, and I want to be on the right side. I hope every Republican does.”

Fitzpatrick introduced a bill in December aimed at sanctioning the Russian Federation if it refuses to negotiate a peace agreement with Ukraine or violates any existing peace agreement that may have been instituted.

The latest congressional record, dated Tuesday, appears to show Fitzpatrick introduced a resolution geared toward fast-tracking that bill onto the floor. His office did not respond to requests for an interview.

A source familiar with the lawmakers’ planning told Fox News Digital, however, that he and Bacon would give House GOP leaders “one last chance” to hold a vote on Russia sanctions. The source said Fitzpatrick was also directly communicating with the White House regarding a House vote on the measure.

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

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has said on multiple occasions he supports sanctioning Russia for its war on Ukraine but that any sanctions bill must originate in the Senate. However, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said earlier this year that the process must start in the House.

The Trump administration has already imposed some sanctions on Russian entities, primarily targeting its vast oil and gas sector, but Ukraine advocates have said it’s not enough to significantly hamstring Moscow’s war machine.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who is leading the sanctions effort in the Senate, told Semafor that Congress was still waiting on the green light from President Donald Trump.

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Bacon also acknowledged that a discharge petition is inherently an uphill battle, telling Fox News Digital, “There’s two things working against us.

“One, you know, it’s not normal for members of the majority to do a discharge petition because we have the majority, but I also know the political realities that Mike Johnson is under,” Bacon said, noting the slim House GOP majority and Trump’s influence. “Second, I know a lot of folks don’t want to get in front of President Trump, but I think he’s failing in this area.

“I mean, [former President Joe Biden] was weak on Ukraine-Russia. I mean he sent a lot of aid. It was always late, tardy … and they had rules of engagement. He was trying to make Ukraine fight with one arm tied behind its back, but I find Trump has done even less. When you look at the amount of aid that we’ve provided, it’s like 1% of what we were doing under Biden. Now, granted, I know he’s selling weapons to NATO countries, and they’re giving it to Ukraine, but we should be doing so much more.”

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But he sounded optimistic that the discharge petition — and another similar measure on sending more aid to Ukraine that both he and Fitzpatrick have joined Democrats on — will get enough GOP support to prevail. The Democrats’ bill, led by Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., needs just one more GOP signature to force a vote.

“We’ve got one [Republican] on the fence, thinking about it, and we have one that wants to wait until the primary is done. So, we’re talking a month or two months. But I wish we had it tomorrow. Ukrainians are dying every day. And so, to me, the necessity of getting this done soon is very clear to me,” Bacon said.