NationalWatch

The U.S. is preparing to withdraw all roughly 1,000 troops from Syria, ending a decade-long military mission as President Donald Trump reshapes America’s posture in the Middle East, according to a report.

Three American officials familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal that U.S. forces are expected to depart the country within the next two months, completing a full withdrawal after the military already vacated several key positions earlier this year.

The move would mark the end of a U.S. ground presence that began in 2014 under Operation Inherent Resolve, the coalition campaign aimed at dismantling ISIS.

American troops remained in Syria after the terrorist group’s territorial defeat in 2019 to support partner forces, prevent an ISIS resurgence and counter Iran-backed militias operating across the region.

TOP GOP SENATOR SAYS SYRIA CEASEFIRE WELCOME BUT ACTIONS MUST MATCH WORDS

U.S. forces previously withdrew from al-Tanf Garrison, a strategic outpost near the borders of Syria, Jordan and Iraq, as part of a broader posture adjustment announced earlier this year. At the time, U.S. Central Command said American forces would remain prepared to strike ISIS targets and safeguard long-term stability.

Officials told the Journal the broader withdrawal is not tied to the current buildup of U.S. naval and air assets in the Middle East amid tensions with Iran over its nuclear program. Tehran has threatened retaliation against American troops in the region if the U.S. launches airstrikes.

The Trump administration has determined a continued military footprint in Syria is no longer necessary following shifts in control on the ground, including the integration of Kurdish-led forces into the Syrian army after the ouster of Bashar al-Assad, the officials told the Journal.

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Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently met with Syria’s foreign minister to discuss counterterrorism coordination and maintaining a fragile cease-fire.

The change in posture comes just weeks after U.S. forces transferred 150 ISIS fighters from a detention facility in Hasakah, Syria, to a secure location in Iraq.

US FORCES COMPLETE WITHDRAWAL FROM STRATEGIC AL-TANF GARRISON IN SYRIA

Officials indicated in late January that thousands more detainees could also be moved as part of the broader effort to maintain long-term security in the region.

Syria became the 90th member of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, a U.S.-led alliance formed to coordinate international efforts against the extremist group, in November.

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Tom Barrack, the U.S. ambassador to Turkey and special envoy for Syria, said Damascus – under interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa – is prepared to assume security responsibilities, including control of ISIS detention facilities and camps, following the 2024 ouster of al-Assad.

Fox News Digital’s Ashley Carnahan contributed to this report.

A Washington, D.C., grandmother who lost her grandson to gun violence delivered a fiery defense of President Donald Trump during a Black History Month celebration Wednesday at the White House.

Forlesia Cook’s grandson, Marty William McMillan Jr., was killed in 2017 at the age of 22. Cook has since spoken publicly about the loss, including testifying before Congress about his killing.

After Trump invited Cook to say a few words at the event, she used the moment to defend him, urging critics to “get off the man’s back.”

“I love him, I don’t want to hear nothing you got to say about that racist stuff,” she said. “And don’t be looking at me on the news, hating on me because I’m standing up for somebody that deserves to be standing for.”

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Cook’s voice grew louder as she continued.

“Get off the man’s back,” she said. “Let him do his job. He’s doing the right thing. Back up off him.”

She ended her remarks by declaring, “And grandma said it.”

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The East Room crowd erupted in applause and cheers.

Trump appeared to welcome the praise, joking that she should run for public office.

“Wow, that’s pretty good,” Trump said. “When is she running for office? Forlesia, when are you running for office? You have my endorsement.”

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Cook also thanked Trump for calling the National Guard to the capital and praised his tough-on-crime approach.

“One thing I like about him, he keeps it real, just like grandma,” she said. “I appreciate that because I can trust him.”

The White House event marked the annual celebration of Black History Month.

Trump also addressed the death of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, saying, “I wanted to begin by expressing a sadness at the passing of a person who was, I knew very well, Jesse was a piece of work. He was a piece of work, but he was a good man.”

“I just want to pay my highest respects to Reverend Jesse Jackson,” Trump added, calling him “a real hero” and saying, “he really was special, with lots of personality, grit and street smarts.”

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The president also announced that former Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson would receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

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

FIRST ON FOX: The president of a Florida insurance brokerage firm and the CEO of a marketing company were sentenced Wednesday to 20 years each in prison for leading a sprawling, $233 million Affordable Care Act fraud scheme that preyed on Florida’s most vulnerable residents — including homeless and jobless individuals and newly displaced hurricane victims — to pocket millions in unearned commissions.

Cory Lloyd, 46, of Stuart, Florida, and Steven Strong, 42, of Mansfield, Texas, were convicted of conspiracy and fraud for their roles in the scheme, which involved lying and falsifying government forms to obtain coverage for individuals and lying to or bribing would-be enrollees to sign up for plans even when they knew doing so would cost them their existing insurance coverage. In addition to their prison time, the pair were ordered to pay $180.6 million in restitution to their victims. 

Lloyd and Strong profited handsomely for years from the scheme, Justice Department officials said, using the proceeds to purchase luxury vehicles, an 80-foot yacht and an oceanfront home in the Florida Keys.

“Preying upon medically compromised consumers to rob hundreds of millions of taxpayer-funded programs is evil and unforgivable,” Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News Digital in a statement. 

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“Fraud schemes like this rob citizens and shake faith in our institutions. Today’s sentencing is the latest example of this DOJ’s commitment to fighting fraud nationwide,” Bondi said.

An estimated 35,000 individuals were fraudulently enrolled in Affordable Care Act plans during the years-long scheme led by Lloyd and Strong, Justice Department officials with knowledge of the case told Fox News Digital. The two sought more than $233 million in fraudulent payments, including about $180 million in federal Affordable Care Act funding.

“These defendants were sophisticated, licensed insurance brokers,” Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said in a statement. 

“They had everything and intentionally took advantage of people who had nothing. The message from these sentences is simple: Those who seek to line their own pockets with taxpayer dollars, victimize our most vulnerable and deplete federal programs will be held accountable.”

The two intentionally targeted people in the state who were experiencing homelessness and people experiencing mental health disorders, including addiction to opioids or other drugs, according to materials reviewed by Fox News Digital. 

Prosecutors said at trial that Lloyd and Strong conspired to circumvent federal income and eligibility verification safeguards. They also intentionally submitted Medicaid applications designed to trigger denials, allowing them to steer those same individuals into fully subsidized Affordable Care Act plans outside the open enrollment period, maximizing commissions year-round.

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Their lavish lifestyle contrasted starkly with that of the individuals they lied to and scammed. 

“One of the really awful things about the case is that it’s not only a scheme that’s taking money from the elderly and the disabled and defrauding the taxpayers, but that it actually resulted in real harm to the patients as well,” one Justice Department official said in an interview.

That harm included individuals losing access to life-saving treatments for opioid use disorders, mental health disorders and serious infectious diseases.

Text messages introduced at trial showed Strong and Lloyd discussing sending “street marketers” into Florida hurricane shelters to recruit enrollees.

In one text exchange, Strong suggested sending their team of “street marketers” into Florida hurricane shelters to recruit enrollees. Lloyd responded enthusiastically, stating, “It’s a killer idea, if we could pull it off!”

Prosecutors said the efforts were particularly harmful because they disrupted existing coverage plans and jeopardized access to treatment for serious conditions.

Many of the victims were experiencing homelessness or unemployment or qualified for Medicaid coverage — an insurance option for low-income or vulnerable populations that, in many cases, best suited their needs.

Jurors heard from a Jacksonville-based psychiatrist who treats homeless individuals and testified about the harm some of his patients suffered as a result of the fraud, which caused them to lose their Medicaid coverage.

This included an individual “living in the woods behind Walmart” who was suffering from schizoaffective disorder, a person familiar with the case told Fox News Digital.

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Like others, this individual had previously been enrolled in Medicaid, which covered the entirety of a $2,000 shot used to treat the schizoaffective disorder. Enrollment in an Affordable Care Act plan caused the individual to lose that coverage.

The sentencing comes as the Justice Department has moved aggressively to crack down on healthcare fraud, including through its ongoing “strike force” program that operates across 25 federal districts and has resulted in criminal charges against about 5,000 individuals, according to information shared with Fox News Digital.

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It also comes as the DOJ’s Health Care Fraud Unit secured the largest national healthcare fraud takedown in its history in 2025, officials said, charging more than $15 billion in alleged losses and forfeitures and returning more than $560 million to the public.

Justice Department officials noted the amount is “many, many, many times our annual budget.”

President Donald Trump praised civil rights activist Jesse Jackson as a “real hero” during a White House Black History Month event Wednesday, just a day after Jackson’s death.

“I wanted to begin by expressing a sadness that the passing of a person who was. I knew very well Jesse was a piece of work. He was a piece of work. But he was a good man. He was a real hero,” Trump said Wednesday, earning cheers from the audience. 

Trump hosted leaders from the Black community at the White House Wednesday to honor Black History Month. He remarked as the event kicked off that there was a “sold-out crowd” and that the White House ballroom under construction would accommodate far more people. 

VANCE, HARRIS, OBAMA ISSUE TRIBUTES TO REV JESSE JACKSON

Trump had lamented Jackson’s death in a prior Truth Social post Tuesday, elaborating on Wednesday that their relationship got “better and better all the time.”

“A lot of people you get to know, they get worse and worse. Jesse got better and better. But I knew him well long before becoming president, and he really was special with lots of personality, grit and street smarts,” Trump continued. 

Jackson, 84, died Tuesday. His cause of death has not been publicly released, but he had suffered from health issues, including living with a rare neurological condition.

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Jackson was a two-time Democratic presidential candidate and longtime civil rights leader who joined Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s before King’s assassination and was the founder of civil rights group Rainbow/PUSH Coalition. 

CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER REV JESSE JACKSON DEAD AT 84 AND MORE TOP HEADLINES

“I will tell you, he was gregarious and someone who truly loved people and a force of nature who is somebody that we’re going to greatly miss. And on behalf of everyone here today, I know you join me in sending our condolences to the entire family,” Trump continued. 

Wednesday’s event included celebrating the legacy of Black Americans and economic wins under the Trump administration and Trump reigniting his 2025 announcement that former Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, who served during Trump’s first term, would receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom.  

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“Ben’s getting the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It’s the highest award you can have outside of the Congressional Medal of Honor,” Trump said.

EXCLUSIVE: The partial government shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security could have a critical impact on local disaster response without assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, a public safety expert warned.

In an interview with Fox News Digital, Jeffrey Halstead, the director of strategic accounts at Genasys, a communications hardware and software provider to help communities during disasters, said the DHS shutdown could impact emergency response and recovery efforts now that FEMA support has been restricted.

“Every time that the government enters into one of these shutdowns, there’s a distinctive part of the federal government that is impacted, both reviewing the grant program or distributing funds from pre-awarded grant programs. This is exactly the area of DHS as well as FEMA that affects emergency managers, emergency response and recovering different cities, counties, and regions should they face a weather and/or disaster-related event,” Halstead said.

Halstead, also a retired chief of police in Fort Worth, Texas, with more than 30 years in law enforcement, explained that government shutdowns delaying federal funds “drastically impacts” the local response to disasters.

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“I know personally, I was in Arizona for over 21 years, in Texas as chief of police for over seven, and then I was in Nevada for a long time, and I worked directly with a few states in the Western United States,” he said.

“The last government shutdown pretty much ended their grant application process, meaning the grants would not be approved, not even be assigned and/or funds not released,” he continued. “This drastically impacts their ability to plan and to coordinate a lot of their planned response events. In Arizona, the central UASI region or the Urban Area Security Initiative, they have none of their grants being reviewed, which replaces outdated equipment, vehicles and funds training so that every quarter they can meet the standards and then be ready should something happen.”

This comes as the Trump administration ordered FEMA to suspend the deployment of hundreds of aid workers to disaster-torn areas across the country during the DHS shutdown.

More than 300 FEMA disaster responders were preparing for upcoming assignments, but were told to halt their travel plans. Grant systems are also not fully operational until lawmakers can reach a deal to fund the department.

“The biggest impact is funding, the grants being distributed and then getting all that equipment and training aligned so that they can actually have a very successful year getting ready for a disaster,” Halstead said.

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“Should there be a traumatic weather event, critical incident or something that would require FEMA support, FEMA staff or FEMA resources, those may not be available,” he added. “This drastically impacts the city, county, state and federal collaboration efforts that literally are immediately engaged, aligned and resources deployed, sometimes within 12 hours. So this greatly inhibits their ability to plan effectively should a critical event, disaster event, or weather-related event come their way. They won’t have all these federal assets and resources that they have come to depend on, rely on, and work with in both their planning as well as training events or previous disasters where they responded and provided support.”

As part of the move to end FEMA deployments, staffers currently working on major recovery efforts will remain on the sites and cannot return home unless their assignment ends, but no new personnel can join or relieve them without DHS approval.

Recovery efforts are still ongoing in places like North Carolina, where Hurricane Helene devastated the region in the fall of 2024.

As Halstead noted, the recovery effort is the “final piece for the emergency management cycle to get back to normalcy for that region.”

“When that is dramatically impacted, you still see some areas of North Carolina a couple of years later still struggling in the recovery phase being completed,” he said. “That is directly related to all of these stalls and delays in FEMA, FEMA funding and the financial support needed to get the recovery phase completed.” 

PARTIAL GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN DRAGS ON AS DHS FUNDING TALKS STALL

Asked about the importance of federal funding given recent extreme weather across the U.S. such as snow on the East Coast, flooding in California and fire disasters in the High Plains that forced evacuations, Halstead said it is “extremely critical” and that the delay in funds can impact the safety of local residents.

“It’s absolutely extremely critical for emergency managers, your fire departments as well as law enforcement, to utilize not just these partnerships and the resources, but the funding allocations so that they can plan effectively in responding, operational control of the disaster, and then getting into that recovery mode … Then sometimes that delay, it’s going to impact the safety and the welfare of Americans,” Halstead explained.

Republicans and Democrats in Congress have yet to reach a deal to end the partial shutdown, in large part due to Democrats’ demand for stricter oversight and reforms of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) following the fatal shootings last month of two U.S. citizens by federal agents in Minneapolis, which the GOP has thus far resisted.

President Donald Trump argued earlier this week that it is a “Democrat shutdown” and “has nothing to do with Republicans.”

Halstead said he would like lawmakers on Capitol Hill to negotiate in good faith to end the shutdown so that first responders will have “effective means to do our jobs safely and very, very efficiently.”

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“I know a lot of people are really upset because they leverage a significant political issue over a common funding agreement that should have been approved very quickly,” he said. “This has happened a lot in the last two to three years. We’ve seen shutdown after shutdown after shutdown. What a lot of citizens don’t realize is that when the government is shut down, all of this work — grant reviews, proposals, funding, disbursements — those are all delayed. Then there is a significant lag time getting back to an open government.”

“They’re still negotiating all these extremely politically sensitive topics that are really divisive within not just Capitol Hill, but really our country,” Halstead added. “Then all of that backlog is now taking even longer to get approved, funded and funds being dispersed. So it’s a compounding effect on all of our emergency managers and our first responders to do their jobs effectively.”

Halstead highlighted that a deal to reach the shutdown is unlikely before Trump’s State of the Union address next week, in which the president affirmed he would give the speech regardless, and that the ongoing delays in FEMA funding could last weeks.

“It may be another two weeks at least until we can get this funded and get it back open,” Halstead said. “But then we still have these significant backlogs. It will take a significant amount of time.”

The Trump Justice Department on Wednesday launched investigations into three Michigan public school districts over gender-related classroom instruction and sought to intervene in a federal lawsuit challenging a race-based admission and funding program in Los Angeles — intensifying the administration’s push into school policy disputes nationwide.

The Civil Rights Division said it is examining whether the Detroit Public Schools Community District, Godfrey-Lee Public Schools and the Lansing School District included “sexual orientation and gender ideology (SOGI) content in any class for grades pre-K-12.”

If such instruction is provided, investigators will assess whether parents were notified of their right to opt their children out and whether the districts “limit access to single-sex intimate spaces, such as bathrooms and locker rooms, based on biological sex.”

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said the department is focused on enforcing parental rights and Title IX.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION THREATENS TO PULL FEDERAL FUNDS FROM VIRGINIA SCHOOL DISTRICTS IN GENDER POLICY DISPUTE

“This Department of Justice is fiercely committed to ending the growing trend of local school authorities embedding sexuality and gender ideology in every aspect of public education,” Dhillon said.

She added that “Supreme Court precedent is clear: parents have the right to direct the religious upbringing of their children,” including exempting them from instruction that conflicts with their beliefs.

Dhillon also said Title IX requires protecting “the safety, dignity, and innocence of our youngest citizens… by ensuring that they have unfettered access to bathrooms and locker rooms of their biological sex.”

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The department noted the Michigan districts receive “hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer funding” and said investigators will evaluate compliance with Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and the Supreme Court’s 2025 decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor. Officials emphasized the Civil Rights Division “has not reached any conclusions about the subject matter of the investigations.”

In a separate action, the Justice Department said it is seeking to intervene in a lawsuit filed by the nonprofit 1776 Project Foundation challenging the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Predominately Hispanic, Black, Asian, and Other (PHBAO) Program.

According to the department’s proposed complaint, the program categorizes students by race and neighborhood demographics for funding and magnet school admissions, separating students into “Anglo,” meaning White, and other racial categories. Neighborhoods with fewer than 30% White residents are designated as disadvantaged, and certain schools receive additional funding, a reduced student-teacher ratio by 5.5 students, and magnet admissions preferences.

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT SUES PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT OVER ALLEGEDLY DISCRIMINATORY POLICIES

The complaint states LAUSD treats attending school with non-White students “as a disadvantage equal to attending an overcrowded school.”

Attorney General Pam Bondi said the federal government is intervening to enforce equal protection guarantees.

“Treating Americans equally is not a suggestion — it is a core constitutional guarantee that educational institutions must follow,” Bondi said.

Dhillon said students “should never be classified or treated differently because of their race,” adding that “Racial discrimination is unlawful and un-American.”

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said LAUSD’s desegregation program has “outlived its usefulness to the point of being unconstitutional.”

The Michigan investigations remain ongoing, and the LAUSD case is pending in federal court.

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Representatives for the Michigan districts did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.

“Because this matter involves pending litigation, we are unable to comment on the specifics,” LAUSD said in a statement. “However, Los Angeles Unified remains firmly committed to ensuring all students have meaningful access to services and enriching educational opportunities.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has reportedly been holding secret talks with the grandson of Raul Castro, the former President of Cuba. 

The talks between Rubio and Raul Guillermo Rodriguez Castro are bypassing official Cuban government channels, Axios reported. 

“Our position — the U.S. government’s position — is the regime has to go,” a senior official told the news outlet. “But what exactly that looks like is up to [President Trump] and he has yet to decide. Rubio is still in talks with the grandson.”

TRUMP SAYS CUBA IS ‘READY TO FALL’ AFTER CAPTURE OF VENEZUELA’S MADURO

“I wouldn’t call these ‘negotiations’ as much as ‘discussions’ about the future,” the official added.

Earlier this month, Cuban despot Miguel Díaz-Canel warned his country is “close to failing” as the U.S. shuts off commercial valves vital to its survival, such as fuel and food, followed by nearly 70 years of one-party communist rule.

Cuba’s power grid is failing, hospitals are short of necessary supplies and garbage has piled up on the streets. 

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The Trump administration has ratcheted up pressure on the communist-run island in recent weeks, following the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, a Cuban ally. The administration has accused Havana of cozying up to U.S. adversaries and terrorist groups. 

Fox News Digital has reached out to the State Department. The White House referred Fox News Digital to press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s remarks on Tuesday, in which she said Havana needs to make serious changes. 

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“They are a regime that is falling,” she said. “Their country is collapsing, and that’s why we believe it’s in their best interest to make very dramatic changes very soon. And we’ll see what they decide to do.”

Senate Democrats and the White House remain locked in a standoff over proposed reforms to immigration operations nationwide — a dispute that could carry unintended consequences for disaster response efforts.

Without a fresh infusion of funding, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) could soon face constraints on its disaster relief operations. As hurricane season approaches, limited funding could hamper the agency’s ability to respond to major storms and other emergencies.

The partial government shutdown — affecting FEMA’s parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) — entered its fifth day with no resolution in sight.

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Before the shutdown began last week, a top FEMA official warned lawmakers that shuttering DHS could significantly strain the agency’s disaster response capabilities.

Office of Response and Recovery Associate Administrator Gregg Phillips told a House panel examining the effects of a DHS shutdown that while FEMA’s disaster relief fund currently holds roughly $7 billion — enough to sustain emergency responses for the “foreseeable future” — a catastrophic event could quickly exhaust those resources.

“That said, if a catastrophic disaster occurred, the [disaster relief fund] would be seriously strained,” Phillips said.

For comparison, the federal government spent more than $50 billion on disaster relief during the last fiscal year. Phillips also noted that during his nearly two-month tenure, FEMA had already spent $3 billion in 45 days across roughly 5,000 projects.

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Earlier this week, President Donald Trump said that FEMA would play a “key role” in responding to a sewage spill into the Potomac River, where roughly 200 million gallons of raw sewage have poured into the waterway that runs through the nation’s capital.

The cost of FEMA’s involvement in that cleanup effort has not yet been determined, a DHS spokesperson told Fox News Digital.

Meanwhile, the current DHS funding bill, which Senate Democrats rejected last week, includes roughly $26 billion for FEMA’s disaster relief fund. But negotiations remain stalled as Democrats push for reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

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There has been little progress this week. Congressional Democrats sent a counterproposal to the White House late Monday, responding to an offer from the administration made last week.

A White House official told Fox News Digital that “the parties are still pretty far apart.”

“The administration remains interested in good-faith conversations to end the Democrat shutdown before more Americans feel the impacts,” the official said. “But the administration also remains committed to carrying out the president’s promise to enforce federal immigration law.”

Spokespeople for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said congressional Democrats have “been clear for weeks about the reforms needed to rein in ICE and stop the violence.”

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“We’ve continued working through language and additional issues to make progress, but Republicans have largely ignored the core guardrails Americans are demanding,” they said. “Dems are negotiating in good faith. It’s time for Republicans to do the same.”

Unless a deal is reached before next week, the Senate is expected to vote Monday on the original full-year DHS funding bill — a measure likely to be blocked again by Schumer and his caucus.

A philanthropic organization known as Coefficient Giving, which is mainly funded by liberal billionaire Dustin Moskovitz and his wife Cari Tuna, is being knocked for quietly funding a slate of “radical projects” and donating millions to defund the police groups, anti-ICE initiatives and other progressive causes over the course of several years.

Before changing its name from Open Philanthropy to Coefficient Giving and divesting from its “criminal justice reform” initiatives to a split-off group called “Just Impact,” Open Philanthropy awarded hundreds of grants to primarily far-left groups in that category over six years.

Among the groups that Open Philanthropy donated to were JustLeadershipUSA, a group that compares the criminal justice system to slavery, Color of Change, a staunch defund the police advocate, People’s Action, which has claimed law enforcement was waging a “war against Black people,” and Fair and Just Prosecution, an advocate for eliminating cash bail.

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The group also made donations to the Free Migration Project, which has called for the abolition of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the National Bail Fund Network, a coalition of groups that helped bail participants of the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. After Minnesota activist Renee Good was killed by an ICE agent earlier this year, Free Migration Project posted on their Instagram that “ICE and Border Patrol cannot be reformed. They must be abolished.”

Remarking on the donations, Curtis Schube, director of research and policy at the Center to Advance Security in America, slammed Open Philanthropy, saying the group “quietly funds all kinds of radical projects, including those that eliminate bail demands for criminals and that seek to defund the police.”

“These aims are the opposite of social welfare,” said Schube. “They make society less safe and harm the very communities they claim to be concerned about.”

The group that Open Philanthropy awarded the highest amount of money to was the Alliance for Safety and Justice, a progressive organization that advocates for replacing incarceration with community-led safety strategies and trauma recovery services. The group received a total of $11,750,000.00 from Open Philanthropy through just three donations between 2016 and 2018.

Open Philanthropy gave $4,440,000.00 to JustLeadershipUSA, whose president, DeAnna Hoskins, previously emphasized the need to defund the police, framing it as a “divestment from law and order to an investment in protection in thriving communities.”

A spokesperson for Coefficient Giving clarified that the group’s donations “supported a variety of projects designed to improve public safety, reduce government spending, and keep families together.” The spokesperson said the group ceased these types of donations in 2021.

The group’s website states that the criminal legal system is “part of a much larger system of oppression that disproportionately plagues Black, Brown, and poor communities.” Further, JustLeadershipUSA’s website states that the carceral system “is in fact a dumping ground for the country’s other failed systems” and “contains strong remnants of slavery.”

FOREIGN BILLIONAIRES FUNNEL $2.6B TO US ADVOCACY GROUPS TO INFLUENCE POLICY, WATCHDOG REPORT CLAIMS

The website states the group is committed to “disrupting” the carceral system that it says, “like slavery, is based on the subjugation of those under its control.”

Open Philanthropy gave $3,259,100 to Color of Change and its affiliated entities. In 2021, a Color of Change campaign director advocated for “no more police and no more mass incarceration,” and pressed New York City to cut $1 billion from the police. The group has advocated to “defund the police,” also supporting diverting police funds in Minneapolis. In 2021, the Color of Change also released a statement urging Facebook to “permanently ban” President Donald Trump from the platform and to “take action against his enablers.”

People’s Action, meanwhile, received $1,927,640 from Open Philanthropy. In 2020, People’s Action declared its endorsement of the Movement for Black Lives, a self-proclaimed “anti-capitalist” group. In its statement announcing the endorsement, People’s Action called for “an end to the war against Black people” and demanded schools, colleges, universities and “all public institutions cut ties with the police.”

The group wrote that “police do not keep us safe, and incremental reforms cannot change a pervasive culture of police violence against Black people.”

In Jan. 2026, the People’s Action sent out a press release urging “immediate action to defund ICE & border patrol and get ICE & border patrol out of Minnesota, Maine, and communities across the country.”

Open Philanthropy donated $3 million to Fair And Just Prosecution, a criminal justice reform group that in 2018 co-developed a training model geared towards the offices of newly elected prosecutors that is said was “committed to a justice system that moves away from past incarceration-driven practices and towards principles of equity, fairness, and compassion.”

The group has praised state legislation ending cash bail. In 2021, the group lauded an Illinois bill ending cash bail as a “necessary and long overdue” change.

A spokesperson for Fair and Just Prosecution told Fox News Digital that the group “supports a peer-driven community of local elected prosecutors working toward a justice system that prioritizes public safety grounded in fairness, equity, fiscal responsibility, and humanity.”

Open Philanthropy also seeded the National Bail Fund Network with a $404,800 grant. The network went on to raise millions after the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. The Chronicle of Philanthropy reported in 2023 that some of the defendants helped by bail funds from the group went on to commit violent crimes.

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Open Philanthropy donated $24,000 to the Free Migration Project, a group whose executive director, David Bennion, has previously stated that “ICE should not only be abolished, but its core function of imprisoning and deporting non-citizens must also be eliminated.” 

Bennion has argued that deportation is “not just cruel and economically counterproductive,” but also claimed it is “inconsistent with basic justice and has no place in a legal system predicated on coherent moral principles.”

Though the $130 million donated by Open Philanthropy for criminal justice reform was primarily awarded to progressive groups, the amount includes several donations to conservative groups as well, including the American Conservative Union, which received a total of $612,000.00.

In 2021, Open Philanthropy divested its criminal justice reform program into a split-off group called Just Impact. Open Philanthropy gave Just Impact a seed funding of $50 million spread over three and a half years.

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A spokesperson for Coefficient Giving told Fox News Digital that “until late 2021, Open Philanthropy supported a variety of projects designed to improve public safety, reduce government spending, and keep families together, including funding the American Conservative Union, host of CPAC, to run its Center for Criminal Justice Reform, headed by Pat Nolan.”

The spokesperson said that “among the reforms enacted while Open Philanthropy was funding this work was 2018’s First Step Act, first introduced by then-Congressman and current Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins, passed with bipartisan support, and signed into law by President Trump.”

President Donald Trump announced that former Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom during a White House event marking the 100th anniversary of Black History Month, as attendees at one point broke into chants of “four more years.”

“Ben’s getting the Presidential Medal of Freedom,” Trump said. “It’s the highest award you can have outside of the Congressional Medal of Honor.”

Trump said Carson would receive the nation’s top civilian honor at a future ceremony, telling him, “Ben, I’ll be seeing you back here pretty soon. I think you’re going to get the award.”

The announcement came as Trump mixed tributes and cultural references with policy and political claims including criminal justice reform, crime reduction and border enforcement while hosting what he described as “many exceptional African American leaders and patriots” at the White House.

NICKI MINAJ BROKE FREE FROM IDENTITY POLITICS — AND THE LEFT CAN’T STAND IT

Trump opened the event by noting, “we celebrate the 100th anniversary of Black History Month.”

He then addressed the death of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, saying, “I wanted to begin by expressing a sadness that the passing of a person who was. I knew very well Jesse was a piece of work. He was a piece of work. But he was a good man.”

“I just want to pay my highest respects to Reverend Jesse Jackson,” Trump added, calling him “a real hero,” and saying “he really was special, with lots of personality, grit and street smarts.”

Trump introduced HUD Secretary Scott Turner and brought Carson to the front of the room, noting Carson had recommended Turner. Carson praised Turner’s role in opportunity zones, saying “he was really the driving force behind the Opportunity zones,” and described Trump’s approach as “public private partnerships, and had everybody with skin in the game.”

TRUMP ALLY BEN CARSON SWORN IN AS NATIONAL ADVISOR FOR NUTRITION, HEALTH, AND HOUSING WITH USDA

Moments later, Trump returned to Carson and elaborated on the award.

“It’s better because, you know, a lot of people get the Congressional Medal of Honor, and they’re not around,” Trump said. “But it’s the highest award [for] a civilian.”

After remarks from Leo Terrell whom Trump thanked, saying, “Leo, that was very good,” the crowd assembled broke into a chant of “four more years.”

Later, while listing Black artists and athletes, Trump singled out rapper Nicki Minaj.

NICKI MINAJ DOUBLES DOWN ON TRUMP SUPPORT AFTER BACKLASH, CALLS HERSELF HIS ‘NUMBER ONE FAN’

“I love Nicki Minaj. She was here a couple of weeks ago.”

“So beautiful,” he added, before saying, “and she gets it. And more importantly, she gets it.”

Trump connected Wednesday’s celebration to a broader national moment, saying, “Black History Month is really all about American history,” and referencing upcoming America250 programming.

The President outlined a series of policy accomplishments for the black community, saying he “single handedly secured record long term funding for” historically Black colleges and universities and reiterated, “we got criminal justice reform done,” adding, “Nobody thought it can be done.”

‘MELANIA’ WORLD PREMIERE: PRESIDENT TRUMP, FIRST LADY, RFK JR., NICKI MINAJ AND MANY MORE LIGHT UP RED CARPET

Trump tied those policies to electoral performance, saying, “it’s no wonder that in 2024, we won more African-American votes than any Republican president in history.”

Trump also cited economic indicators, saying, “Earlier this month the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose above 50,000 for the first time ever,” and adding, “The S&P broke 7000.”

“More Americans are working today than at any time in American history,” he said, before stating, “Since I took office, African American employment has increased by 182,000.”

The president also promoted a tax proposal, inviting a small business owner from Arkansas to speak. She told the audience, “no tax on tips has been amazing blessing for me.”

Trump later pivoted to crime and border enforcement, arguing “we need order,” and claiming, “Washington DC is amazing. It was a crime capital. It was a horror show a year ago. It was really dangerous. And now it’s one of the safest cities anywhere in the country.”

“We have the lowest murder numbers in 125 years since 1990,” he said, adding, “just one year ago, we had the absolute worst border that we’ve ever had, and now we have the safest border that we’ve ever had.”

He also said he had “deployed the National Guard to bring back safety to Memphis and to New Orleans and Washington,” calling the Guard “incredible.”

He also gave the floor to Alice Johnson, whom he described as the White House “pardon czar,” recounting her case: “We got her out. We did a commutation… I said, full pardon.”

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Johnson credited Trump with the First Step Act, saying, “President Trump did something historic in his first term. He signed the First Step act into law,” and adding, “Over 40,000 individuals have come home to their families early.”

Trump closed by calling the gathering “a very special group of people,” and said, “So happy Black History Month, happy black history year, and happy black history century.”

The debate over U.S. missile defense is increasingly focused on space, as defense experts argue that stopping threats in the earliest moments after launch could determine whether the homeland remains protected against Russia and China’s expanding arsenals.

At a policy discussion marking roughly a year since the rollout of the “Golden Dome” homeland defense initiative, former senior defense officials said the United States can no longer rely primarily on deterrence and retaliation to shield the country from missile attacks.

“I think geography is no longer” a shield, former Air Force Undersecretary Kari Bingen said during a C-SPAN panel Friday. “There are different types of threats that can reach the homeland.”

TRUMP UNVEILS ‘GOLDEN DOME’ MISSILE SHIELD, BLINDSIDES KEY SENATORS

The Golden Dome initiative stems from a January 2025 executive order signed by President Donald Trump directing the Pentagon to accelerate development of a next-generation homeland missile defense architecture. The order calls for integrating existing ground-based interceptors with advanced tracking networks, new space-based sensors and potentially space-based interceptors capable of detecting and defeating ballistic, cruise and hypersonic missile threats earlier in flight.

Administration officials have framed the effort as a response to rapid modernization by Russia and China. 

Russia has fielded new intercontinental ballistic missiles and hypersonic glide vehicles designed to penetrate missile defenses, while China has expanded its nuclear arsenal and constructed hundreds of new missile silos in recent years. 

Both countries have invested heavily in maneuverable reentry vehicles and countermeasures intended to complicate U.S. interception efforts.

Stopping missiles early

Supporters of a stronger space layer argue that intercepting a missile early in flight — before it can deploy warheads or countermeasures — simplifies the defensive challenge and reduces the strain on systems closer to U.S. territory.

“It gives the ability to neutralize before they manifest here at home,” missile defense expert Thomas Karako said, referring to space-enabled capabilities that could track and potentially intercept threats sooner in their trajectory.

Karako said there is “a compelling case” for space-based interceptors “not just against nonnuclear attack but even limited nuclear attacks,” arguing that raising the threshold for adversaries contemplating a strike strengthens deterrence overall.

“If you raise the threshold for having enough capability to meaningfully invest in enemies … there’s goodness in there,” he said.

Panelists emphasized that the objective is not absolute protection against thousands of intercontinental ballistic missiles, but improving the odds of defeating smaller or more limited attacks — including those that could involve large salvos or advanced countermeasures.

Threats are evolving

Melissa Dalton, a former senior Pentagon official, said missile and drone use has become increasingly normalized in recent conflicts, lowering the perceived threshold for employment.

“They don’t respect the boundaries,” Dalton said, noting the growing frequency of missile and drone attacks.

Bingen argued that the U.S. historically leaned heavily on the threat of retaliation to deter attacks, but that changing technologies and adversary capabilities require a broader approach.

“Americans would be surprised how reliant we have been on vulnerability and retaliation,” she said.

Space and integration challenges

While space-based missile defense once drew skepticism due to cost and technical hurdles, Karako said advances in commercial launch and satellite technology have changed the feasibility calculus.

“This is not the Soviet Union in the ’80s or the ’90s,” he said. “The technology has evolved quite a bit.”

Still, experts acknowledged that integration — linking sensors, interceptors and command-and-control systems at machine speed — may be the most difficult challenge.

“We have to remember this is a layered defense system,” Bingen said. “We’re not asking the space layer to do it all.”

PENTAGON WARNS FUTURE WARS MAY HIT US SOIL AS ‘DIRECT MILITARY THREATS’ GROW

Participants also stressed that any major expansion of homeland missile defense will require bipartisan political support to endure through election cycles and shifting budget priorities.

“If you don’t persuade people what it’s about, it will never be built,” Karako said.

Officials have floated an aggressive timeline — including a three-year push to stand up initial capabilities — but Golden Dome is still in early development, with much of the work focused on planning, prototypes and initial contracts. Significant technical and acquisition hurdles remain, particularly for any space-based interceptor layer, which defense officials acknowledge would take years to fully field.

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The effort marks a broader shift in how the U.S. approaches homeland defense. Rather than relying mainly on midcourse interceptors and the threat of retaliation, Golden Dome is designed to push defenses earlier in a missile’s flight — and further into space — with the goal of stopping threats before they can deploy countermeasures or overwhelm existing systems.

A state-commissioned review of Minnesota’s Medicaid program uncovered sweeping financial vulnerabilities across 14 high-risk service areas, finding systemic weaknesses that allowed questionable billing to go undetected and estimating that clearer policies and stronger pre-payment safeguards could save taxpayers more than $1 billion.

A vulnerability assessment by Optum State Government Solutions analyzed nearly four years of claims data, identifying widespread financial risks and specific weaknesses in 14 high-risk service areas — including housing stabilization and personal care assistance.

While more than a dozen high-risk areas were identified, the actual descriptions of the vulnerabilities found within each program are redacted, along with references to “recurring vulnerabilities” that appeared across nearly all services.

GOP SENATORS LAUNCH TASK FORCE TO CRACK DOWN ON FRAUD TIED TO MINNESOTA SCANDAL

The high-risk service and program areas identified, in order of priority, are:

1. Housing Stabilization Services (HSS)

2. Peer Recovery Support Services (PRSS)

3. Early Intensive Developmental and Behavioral Intervention (EIDBI)

4. Integrated Community Supports (ICS) (Home and Community Based Service)

5. Non-Emergency Medical Transportation (NEMT)

6. Adult Rehabilitative Mental Health Services (ARMHS)

GOP SENATOR PUSHES TO CREATE ANTI-FRAUD SPECIAL INSPECTOR GENERAL AFTER MINNESOTA FRAUD REVELATIONS

7. Personal Care Assistance (PCA) / Community First Services and Supports (CFSS)

8. Adult Day Services (ADS)

9. Recuperative Care (RS)

10. Individualized Home Supports (IHS) (covers services without training, with training, and with family training)

11. Adult Companion Care (ACC)

12. Night Supervision (NS)

13. Assertive Community Treatment (ACT)

14. Intensive Residential Treatment Service (IRTS)

The report also withholds specific “tactical issues” and methods related to how claims are adjudicated and audited.

A notice at the beginning of the document states it contains “trade secret information,” which seemingly covers Optum’s proprietary analytic models and fraud-detection methods.

State Rep. Steve Elkins, DFL-Bloomington, told The Minnesota Star Tribune he was disappointed by the redactions.

“They’re identifying, in the parts that you can read, that there are a combination of technical issues and policy issues,” Elkins told the outlet. “So if a lot of it is policy-related, there’s probably things in state law that need to be corrected.”

DR OZ DETAILS ‘WEAPONIZATION OF FRAUD’ IN MINNESOTA, ESTIMATES TOTAL MEDICAID FRAUD TO BE $100 BILLION

Despite the redactions, the report outlines a roadmap for the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) to recover improper payments and modernize its fraud detection infrastructure. 

While state officials said they are reviewing the findings, some lawmakers, including State Rep. Patti Anderson, R-Dellwood, said the guidance is unclear.

“It’s frustrating that the Walz administration redacted almost the entire report,” Anderson told the Minnesota Star. “It makes you wonder what they’re hiding… We’re all frustrated. Unfortunately, it’s not a surprise.”

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The report comes a month after the Trump administration announced it will start auditing Minnesota Medicaid receipts and defer payments to the 14 high-risk programs.

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) administrator Mehmet Oz told Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz that CMS will begin reviewing the state’s quarterly Medicaid spending reports and defer funding based on findings of fraud, waste and abuse. 

Optum did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on the redactions.

The U.S. took aim at Nicaragua’s regime over alleged human rights violations, announcing a designation against a prison official.

“Today I’m designating Nicaraguan Prison Director Roberto Clemente Guevara Gómez for his involvement in gross violations of human rights,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a post on X. “We continue to call for accountability for the crimes committed by the Murillo-Ortega dictatorship and urge for the immediate, unconditional release of all unjustly detained political prisoners in Nicaragua.”

The U.S. Embassy in Nicaragua also announced the designation, clarifying that it was done under Section 7031(c) of the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2024 “for his involvement in a gross violation of human rights of a political prisoner.” The embassy added that the U.S. was calling for “the immediate, unconditional release of all unjustly detained political prisoners in Nicaragua.”

NICARAGUA BLOCKS KEY ROUTE FOR CUBAN MIGRATION INTO THE US

In December, the embassy announced actions taken by the United States Trade Representative (USTR) under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 in response to “Nicaragua’s acts, policies, and practices related to abuses of labor rights, abuses of human rights and fundamental freedoms, and dismantling of the rule of law.” In making the decision, the USTR considered more than 2,000 public comments and consulted with government agency experts and USTR cleared advisors.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION FILES SEIZURE WARRANTS TARGETING SHIPS TIED TO VENEZUELAN OIL TRADE: REPORT

The move meant that starting Jan. 1, 2026, the U.S. would impose a phased-in tariff over the course of two years that would impact all Nicaraguan goods that “are not originating under the Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR).” The tariff started at 0% on Jan 1., 2026, and is set to grow to 10% by Jan. 1, 2027 and then 15% by Jan. 1, 2028, the embassy said, adding that any tariff would be imposed in addition to the existing 18% reciprocal tariff.

“Should Nicaragua show a lack of progress in addressing these issues, this timeline and these rates may be modified,” the embassy added.

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The Trump administration has taken tougher action in the Western Hemisphere in recent months, starting with the Jan. 3, 2026, capture of Venezuela’s dictatorial leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. 

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

FIRST ON FOX: Illinois could lose millions in federal funding if it does not clean up its driver’s licensing system after the U.S. Department of Transportation warned Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker and the state’s top licensing official that one in five commercial licenses issued to noncitizens were issued illegally.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy issued a written ultimatum to both the Hyatt Hotels heir and Kevin Duesterhaus, the state director of driver services under Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, and listed several cases of drivers from El Salvador to Ukraine who were in violation of the law.

“I need our state partners to understand that they work for the American people, not illegal immigrants who broke the law illegally entering our country and continue to break it by operating massive big rigs without the proper qualifications,” Duffy said in a statement obtained by Fox News Digital.

DUFFY SAYS ‘TIME’S UP’ FOR NEWSOM AS FEDS WITHHOLD $160M OVER ILLEGAL TRUCKING LICENSES

“[Joe] Biden and [Pete] Buttigieg forced Americans to share their roads with unqualified and unvetted foreign drivers, but the Trump administration is putting the needs of American families first where they belong.”

Duffy warned Duesterhaus and Pritzker that $128 million in federal highway funding, including Illinois’ share of the National Highway Performance Program and Surface Transportation Block Grants for FY-2027, would be held up if fixes are not made within 30 days and noncompliance continues.

“In addition, if the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) issues a final determination of substantial noncompliance, the agency may decertify Illinois’ CDL program,” Duffy wrote.

SOME STATES HAVE LET UNQUALIFIED FOREIGN DRIVERS ON THE ROAD AND AMERICANS PAY THE PRICE

Non-domiciled CDLs are commercial licenses issued to noncitizens who are not green card holders. The only exceptions to the non-domicile rule are truckers from Mexico and Canada, whose licensing systems the U.S. Department of Transportation has determined are in compliance with American standards, in deference to the reciprocal relationship between the two countries.

Duffy took issue with two main categories of illegally held licenses: drivers whose license validity dates exceeded their lawful presence in the U.S., and drivers who were given licenses without Illinois verifying their lawful presence.

The audit was also conducted as part of President Donald Trump’s executive order declaring English the official language of the U.S.

Pritzker and Duesterhaus must immediately pause issuances of all non-domiciled CDLs, identify noncompliant ones in circulation, revoke and reissue all compliant ones, and conduct their own internal audit.

Audited examples of CDL scofflaws include two Kyrgyz nationals who presented expired employment authorizations (EAD) and USCIS applications for new EADs, which Illinois should not have accepted.

A Nigerian national and a Moldovan national were found in similar situations.

TRUMP THREATENS TO CUT $75M FROM PENNSYLVANIA OVER ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT CDL SCANDAL

A Singaporean national was provided a license after presenting only partial documentation, and several drivers “whose citizenship is unknown” were among those scrutinized.

Fox News Digital reached out to Pritzker for comment, as well as Duesterhaus via Giannoulias’ office.

Giannoulias condemned what he called a “threat” to Springfield’s funding in a statement provided to Fox News Digital.

“A strong economy depends on strong logistics,” Giannoulias said. “If trucks don’t move, supply chains fail, prices rise, and families feel it in their pocketbooks. We can see the actions by the Trump administration taking their toll on our truckers and our farmers, both of whom are essential to Illinois’ economy.”

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Giannoulias’ office said it believes its CDL issuance policies are “substantially compliant” with U.S. Department of Transportation and Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration requirements and that it will conduct its own review of Duffy’s findings.

Giannoulias said the Illinois Agricultural Association raised concerns over the pause in issuing non-domiciled CDLs and that “Illinois agriculture depends on timely, practical, and legally sound regulatory decisions. Continued uncertainty places employers, workers, and food production systems at unnecessary risk.”

With November’s elections less than nine months away, Democrats finally have a major candidate to take on Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte as she seeks a second term steering swing-state New Hampshire.

Cinde Warmington, a former member of New Hampshire’s elected Executive Council, on Wednesday officially launched her second straight campaign for governor.

Republicans have controlled the governor’s office in the crucial northern New England battleground for nearly a decade — first under former Gov. Chris Sununu and now under Ayotte, who succeeded Sununu 13 months ago — and Democrats are aiming to finally win back what’s known in New Hampshire as “the corner office” in the Statehouse.

In her campaign release and launch video, Warmington took aim at Ayotte over affordability, which has been a winning issue for Democrats amid persistent inflation in the year since President Donald Trump returned to the White House.

STRATEGY SESSION: TRUMP’S POLITICAL TEAM HUDDLES ON MIDTERM MESSAGING

“The prices of groceries, housing, electricity, and property taxes are crushing working families. And Kelly Ayotte is making life in New Hampshire even more expensive,” Warmington charged.

And Warmington knocked Ayotte for not more forcefully pushing back against Trump’s unprecedented second-term agenda, which includes an ongoing attempt by the administration to open an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in the state.

NEW HAMPSHIRE BECOMES FIRST NEW ENGLAND STATE TO BAN SANCTUARY CITIES

“I’ll stand up to Trump when he jacks up healthcare costs and tariffs. I’ll say no to ICE’s warehouse, and I’ll work for our small businesses and make sure we don’t have a sales or income tax,” she emphasized.

Ayotte, a former U.S. senator who previously served as state attorney general, has had some friction with the Trump administration over the past year, and criticized Washington over a lack of transparency surrounding the ICE facility. The governor also forced the resignation of a state official who had been in communication with Trump’s team without telling Ayotte.

Ayotte’s approval ratings are in positive territory — 50%-45% in the most recent University of New Hampshire poll conducted last month — and her fundraising has been formidable.

While Democrats have controlled the state’s federal delegation in Congress for a decade, they haven’t won a gubernatorial election since 2014. But Democrats are energized, as Republicans in New Hampshire and across the country face a rough political climate, and the GOP, as the party in power both in Washington and in Concord, the Granite State’s capital city, will deal with the traditional political headwinds that incubents typically face.

Ayotte’s campaign quickly blasted Warmington over her past lobbying for the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries.

“Cinde Warmington spent her career as a lobbyist for the opioid industry, promoting OxyContin and defending New England’s most notorious pill mill. Cinde chose to make money off big pharmaceutical companies who hurt Granite Staters, and she is absolutely disqualified from serving as our Governor,” Ayotte spokesman John Corbett charged in a statement.

Warmington first ran for governor two years ago, losing the Democratic primary to former Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig, who lost to Ayotte in the general election by nearly 10 points.

The Republican Governors Association communications director Courtney Alexander argued that “the fact that an already failed candidate is all New Hampshire Democrats could come up with speaks to their desperation.”

Warmington may not have the Democratic primary field to herself.

Democratic Mayor Deaglan McEachern of Portsmouth, who is mulling a gubernatorial run, said in a statement, “With everything happening in Concord and Washington, DC, the stakes are too high to risk losing this race, and I believe it’s time that New Hampshire Democrats look to the future as we work to beat Kelly Ayotte.”

“I look forward to saying more soon,” he added.

Senate Republicans are hoping to move full steam ahead on Trump-backed voter ID legislation, but there’s one problem — the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is still shut down.

Though negotiations between Senate Democrats and the White House are still ongoing, albeit at a molasses-like pace, there is no clear sign that a deal will be struck before lawmakers return to Washington, D.C., next week.

Reopening the agency will be front and center in the Senate, meaning other priorities, like the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act, will be sidelined.

MIKE LEE CALLS SCHUMER’S ‘JIM CROW 2.0’ ATTACK ON VOTER ID BILL ‘PARANOID FANTASY’

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, who has led the charge in the Senate to build support around the SAVE America Act, hoped the bill would be on the floor as soon as the day after President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address next week.

But he acknowledged that ending the partial shutdown would likely take precedence.

“That’s the problem with taking a weeklong recess when they’ve shut down not just a department, but an entire department — and a particularly big department,” Lee said.

“That’s valuable time lost. As far as the objective of getting us to turn to this next week shortly after we get back, that seems less possible in light of the fact that that happened,” he continued.

THUNE GUARANTEES VOTER ID BILL TO HIT THE SENATE DESPITE SCHUMER, DEM OPPOSITION: ‘WE WILL HAVE A VOTE’

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., guaranteed that the voter ID legislation would get a vote. It’s just a matter of when, given the uncertainty surrounding DHS.

“My job is to try and do the best to ensure that we’re making the most, doing, getting the most we can out of the opportunity we have here,” Thune told Fox News Digital.

The SAVE America Act is riding high on a fresh wave of momentum in the Senate, with 50 Republicans, including Thune, backing it. That means it can move through at least one key procedural hurdle.

“If we’re still in a shutdown, that obviously will have some bearing on what we decide, how we decide to schedule the floor,” he continued.

The most valuable asset in the upper chamber is floor time, given the number of procedural hoops any legislation or nominee has to jump through to get passed or confirmed.

DHS SHUTDOWN DRAGS INTO 4TH DAY AS SENATE DEMOCRATS BLOCK FUNDING OVER ICE REFORMS

And one of the first actions lawmakers will take when they return — unless a deal is struck between now and Monday — is to again vote on a full-year DHS funding bill, according to the current floor schedule in the upper chamber.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and nearly every Senate Democrat blocked that bill and a short-term funding extension before lawmakers left town last week.

Trump told reporters earlier this week that the current DHS closure was a “Democrat shutdown, Republicans have nothing to do with it.”

He also suggested that Democrats were in their shutdown posture because, among other issues, they rejected voter ID and proof of citizenship to vote. 

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“If you have voter ID, if you have proof of citizenship, they could never get elected, and they know that,” Trump said. 

There are other issues in the Senate that need attention, too, Thune noted. Confirming more of Trump’s judicial nominees and putting a raft of bipartisan housing legislation that passed through the House on the floor are top of mind for the top Senate Republican.

Still, Lee was hopeful that once the DHS situation was resolved, the SAVE America Act would be next in line.

“What I hope we’ll do is get back, turn — perhaps immediately — to DHS funding and make [Democrats] continue to vote, continue to object to unanimous consent requests to pass some kind of funding mechanism, and keep making them vote over and over again until we get something like that passed,” Lee said. “And then as soon thereafter as possible, turn to SAVE America.”

President Donald Trump will deliver his 2026 State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, Feb. 24, beginning at 9 p.m. ET.

Viewers hoping to watch the speech live will have no shortage of options. All major news networks, including Fox News, will feature live coverage of Trump’s address.

Fox News coverage is slated to begin shortly before Trump’s remarks begin, at 8:50 p.m. ET, and will end shortly after the conclusion of the annual address at 11 p.m.

Follow Fox’s coverage on Fox News Channel, FoxNews.com, the Fox News App, Fox Nation and the Fox One app.

RNC MOCKS ‘FORGOT SOMEONE AGAIN’ AFTER DEMS’ PRESIDENTS DAY POST LEAVES OUT BIG NAME

Most networks, including Fox, have links to livestream the State of the Union, and the event will be streamed live on the White House’s website and YouTube page as well.

Start your State of the Union afternoon with Martha MacCallum on “The Story” at 3 p.m. ET, featuring the latest preview of Trump’s address.

TRUMP RALLIES HOUSE GOP AT KENNEDY CENTER DAYS AFTER MADURO CAPTURE

Then at 4 p.m., Will Cain will offer a fresh perspective on the issues at hand in this year’s address on “The Will Cain Show.”

At 5 p.m., don’t miss “The Five,” where Greg Gutfeld, Jesse Watters and Dana Perino offer their take on the news of the day and what might happen when Trump takes the dais at the Capitol.

Afterward, Fox News chief political anchor Bret Baier offers America’s favorite nightly newscast on “Special Report,” where he and his panel will preview the State of the Union.

Laura Ingraham picks up preview coverage at 7 p.m. with “The Ingraham Angle.”

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Expect Jesse Watters to continue that trend at 8 p.m. on “Jesse Watters Primetime,” where he will preview what to expect.

Then, at 8:50 p.m. ET, Bret and Martha return to introduce Trump’s address to the Fox News audience and will host up-to-the-second reaction afterward with Fox analysts, including Perino and Brit Hume.

FIRST ON FOX: A newly proposed bill by House Republicans would cement President Donald Trump’s energy agenda by taking a sledgehammer to a vast array of his Democrat predecessor’s regulations.

Rep. Craig Goldman, R-Texas, is introducing legislation that would give all future energy-related regulations a five-year sunset window, while requiring many existing rules to be amended with a one-year expiry pending a review process.

It comes after Trump levied a similar executive order that would target energy red tape imposed by former President Joe Biden during his first year in office.

But if Goldman’s bill becomes law, it would significantly hamstring the ability of future Democratic administrations to impose new long-term energy policies like Biden’s, many of which Republicans have panned as burdensome and unnecessary.

TRUMP ADMIN TO REPEAL OBAMA-ERA GREENHOUSE GAS FINDING IN LARGE-SCALE DEREGULATION

He argued to Fox News Digital that those regulations were compounding the rising costs Americans have seen in their daily lives.

“It is going through and looking at every single cost, basically from start to finish, of energy costs, and how it affects every single American taxpayer,” Goldman said of his legislation.

“All anyone has to do is look at where they were a year and a half ago with costs of certain things. It was all based on regulations passed by the Biden administration, and that’s exactly what we hope to cut and codify.”

The Texas Republican pointed out that increased energy costs, including prices at the gas pump, bled into other facts of Americans’ daily lives.

“My dad and I owned a wine and food store and, yeah, when gas prices went up, the guy who drove the 18-wheeler full of cheese from Chicago, Illinois, charged us an extra $2,000 for that delivery because his gas prices were up tremendously. And so we couldn’t afford to eat that cost, so the cheese prices went up,” he said as an example. 

“Everything that every single American taxpayer touches — whether they know it or not, when energy prices are high, their cost of living is in turn going to be high.”

TRUMP ADMIN’S ENERGY AGENDA HAILED FOR CRUCIAL ‘WINS’ AS GREEN ACTIVISTS LASH OUT

His legislation would primarily target regulations issued under major energy and land laws overseen by the Department of Energy and Department of the Interior.

The House has already voted to roll back a number of Biden-era regulatory policies so far this term and with bipartisan support.

Last month, 11 Democrats voted with Republicans to overturn Biden administration regulations on showerhead pressure.

Both the House and Senate passed resolutions early last year to overturn Biden-era regulations targeting water heaters, with six Democrats joining Republicans in the House on that measure.

Rising energy costs have been targeted by both parties as they make competing arguments ahead of the November 2026 midterms.

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But Goldman is arguing that Democrats have less of a footing to talk about affordability with select goods like gas seeing a decrease in prices this year.

“We pushed back, and we made people realize, ‘No, wait a minute. Let’s talk about affordability. Let’s talk about where the cost of things were just over a year and two months ago, before Donald Trump came into office and before Republicans could push through good legislation that President Trump signed,” Goldman said. “I kind of find it quite interesting that all of a sudden the buzzword affordability isn’t much talked about anymore.”

Co-sponsors of Goldman’s bill include Republican Study Committee Chairman August Pfluger, R-Texas, and Reps. Beth Van Duyne, R-Texas, Randy Weber, R-Texas, Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., Pat Harrigan, R-N.C., and Barry Moore, R-Ala. 

A Senate counterpart was introduced by Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho.

A senior U.S. official offered new details Tuesday night about an alleged nuclear bomb test conducted by China in June 2020.

Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Yeaw spoke at a Hudson Institute event in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, and said evidence of the explosion came from a seismic station in Kazakhstan. The station detected a magnitude 2.75 explosion located at China’s Lop Nur test grounds on June 22, 2020.

“I’ve looked at additional data since then. There is very little possibility I would say that it is anything but an explosion, a singular explosion,” Yeaw said, adding that data was not consistent with mining detonations.

“It’s also entirely not consistent with an earthquake,” he added. “It is … what you would expect with a nuclear explosive test.”

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China’s embassy in Washington has rejected the Trump administration’s claim, telling NBC News that the report is “political manipulation,” and the U.S. is “evading its own nuclear disarmament responsibilities.”

“China urges the U.S. to reaffirm the five nuclear-weapon states’ commitment on refraining from nuclear tests, uphold the global consensus against nuclear tests, and take concrete steps to safeguard the international nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation regime,” spokesperson Liu Pengyu told the outlet.

U.S. officials warned that Beijing may be preparing tests in the “hundreds of tons” range — a scale that underscores China’s accelerating nuclear modernization and complicates efforts to draw Beijing into arms control talks.

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Thomas DiNanno, undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, said recently that the United States has evidence China conducted an explosive nuclear test at its Lop Nur site.

“I can reveal that the U.S. government is aware that China has conducted nuclear explosive tests, including preparing for tests with designated yields in the hundreds of tons,” DiNanno said during remarks at the United Nations Conference on Disarmament.

He added, “China conducted one such yield-producing nuclear test on June 22 of 2020.”

DiNanno also accused Beijing of using “decoupling” — detonating devices in ways that dampen seismic signals — to “hide its activities from the world.”

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China’s foreign ministry has denied the allegations, accusing Washington of politicizing nuclear issues and reiterating that Beijing maintains a voluntary moratorium on nuclear testing.

The accusation has sharpened questions about verification, deterrence and whether the U.S. stockpile stewardship program — which relies on advanced simulations rather than live detonations — remains sufficient in an era of renewed great-power nuclear competition.

A Democratic Senate candidate endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is being slammed for allegedly flip-flopping on one of his primary campaign issues.

Abdul El-Sayed, the progressive candidate who previously ran an unsuccessful bid for Michigan governor, has made “Medicare-for-all” a hallmark of his Senate campaign.

However, as the Michigan Senate primary race heats up, El-Sayed’s Democratic opponent, state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, is accusing him of backing down from a full “Medicare-for-all” stance and of “rewriting definitions to have it both ways.”

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Roxie Richner, an El-Sayed campaign spokesperson, responded by telling Fox News Digital, “Dr. El-Sayed is and has always been for ‘Medicare-for-all’ — guaranteed public health insurance for every American. Cradle to grave. No premiums, deductibles, or co-pays.” 

“Dr. El-Sayed would be the first Democratic doctor elected to the U.S. Senate since 1969, and he looks forward to passing ‘Medicare-for-all’ into law,” added Richner.

El-Sayed’s campaign website page on “A Healthier America” cites a book he co-authored in 2021 in which he wrote that limiting private alternatives to “Medicare-for-all” would be important to ensuring providers accepted the insurance. The book advocates for “Medicare-for-all” as a type of “monopsony” in healthcare, in which there is only a single buyer of medical services, the government. 

“By insuring all Americans, M4A becomes a monopsony in healthcare. This is different from a monopoly, where there’s only one seller of a good; in a monopsony there’s only one buyer of a good. That gives the single buyer considerable negotiating leverage, which Medicare could use to rein in the cost of drugs, hospital stays, and physician services,” the book reads. 

In a November post on X, El-Sayed explained that this monopsony “would instantaneously create a disciplining feature against rising prices,” because it “takes out the profit motive on the payer end of the transaction.” 

The book further states that “because alternatives to M4A [Medicare-for-all] would be limited, participation of providers would be virtually guaranteed.” 

“Instead of spending time and money dealing with the arcane requirements of hundreds of different health plans […] providers could use one streamlined system that would free up resources to focus on clinical care,” the books reads. 

The latest version of the federal “Medicare-for-all” Act, introduced in the Senate by Sanders, includes language that would effectively ban most comprehensive private insurance plans and relegate private insurers to providing limited supplemental care. 

The legislation would make it unlawful for “a private health insurer to sell health insurance coverage that duplicates the benefits provided under this Act; or (2) an employer to provide benefits for an employee, former employee, or the dependents of an employee or former employee that duplicate the benefits provided under this Act.”

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El-Sayed testified before the Senate in support of the “Medicare-for-all” Act in 2022, calling it “the clearest pathway to universal, durable healthcare insurance, bar none” and saying that “cradle to grave coverage would do away with the premiums, co pays, deductibles that leave even privately insured Americans rationing their healthcare today.” 

The year before, in an interview with NerdWallet, El-Sayed said that under a “Medicare-for-all” plan, the government would be “buying you out” of your private insurance plan but would allow “a few insurance companies that offered a sort of concierge-level service for folks who wanted to pay for that.”

In a 2024 episode of the “America Dissected” podcast, El-Sayed emphasized that “we don’t really need private health insurance in this country.”

He said that “private health insurance is a system by which you have a middleman in our healthcare system making a tremendous amount of money that is leading to a number of the biggest problems in American healthcare whether that’s the fact that our costs continue to spiral upward, whether that’s the fact that nearly ten million people in our country don’t get health insurance at all, or it’s the fact that we are consistently in this country, unable to guarantee, even people who are insurance access to the health care they need.”

In October, El-Sayed knocked McMorrow for advocating for allowing a public option under universal healthcare, writing on X, “a public option can’t deliver healthcare to every Michigander. Medicare for All can.” Politico, in December, reported El-Sayed slamming McMorrow’s call for universal healthcare with a public option as “incoherent.”

“Now a public option is exactly that; it’s just an option. There is no reason why it would actually address any of the foundational problems in our system. It wouldn’t bring down the rising costs. It wouldn’t guarantee people healthcare, and we don’t really know how much it would cost,” he said. 

Yet, while speaking on the Brian Tyler Cohen podcast in January, El-Sayed suggested that under “Medicare-for-all,” “if you like your insurance from your employer or from your union, that can still be there for you.”

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Days later, speaking on radio channel WDET, he again said, “‘Medicare-for-all’ is government health insurance guaranteed for everyone, regardless of what circumstances you’re in. If you like your insurance through your employer or through your union, I hope that’ll be there for you. But if you lose your job, if your factory shuts down, you shouldn’t be destitute without the healthcare that you need and deserve.” He also said, “If you have a public option, what happens is, the private health insurance system will try to dump all of the most expensive patients onto that public option, vastly increasing the cost of that public option and making it unsustainable.” 

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El-Sayed’s campaign website states that he “believes in expanding Medicare to cover every single American from cradle to grave while sustaining the option for workers to keep supplemental private insurance their unions or employers may provide.” Amid criticism from McMorrow, El-Sayed doubled down on his “Medicare-for-all” messaging in a January fundraising message, in which he wrote that “private insurance could supplement or duplicate Medicare.”

Meanwhile, McMorrow has accused him of not being honest on “Medicare-for-all.” 

“On an issue as important as healthcare, you have to be honest about what you’re fighting for,” McMorrow wrote in a public reply to El-Sayed, adding, “The ‘Medicare-for-all’ legislation that you’ve championed completely eliminates private health insurance as it exists today.”

Sanders’ office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.