NationalWatch

Another House Republican has announced he is retiring from Congress at the end of this year, adding to the mass exodus of lawmakers heading for the exit halfway through President Donald Trump’s second term.

Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., who won his seat in Montana’s 1st congressional district in November 2022, served as Secretary of the Interior during Trump’s first White House stint.

He served as Montana’s only member of the House from 2015 to 2017 before redistricting added a second seat to its delegation.

Zinke is the 35th House Republican elected in 2024 not running for another term in the 2026 midterms. Another House GOP lawmaker re-elected in 2024, the late Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Calif., died in office earlier this year.

On the Democratic side, 23 House lawmakers are not running for re-election.

Many of those members are running for another office. But some, including those who left before the end of their terms, like former Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and Mark Green, R-Tenn., have not made any further public plans in politics.

Zinke had a decades-long career in the U.S. Navy before coming to Congress, achieving the rank of commander before retiring in 2008.

FLORIDA REPUBLICAN REP NEAL DUNN ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT FROM CONGRESS AFTER FIVE TERMS

He cited medical reasons for his decision not to run again in November, according to a letter shared on X.

“While my belief in term limits for elected office is a consideration, I have quietly undergone multiple surgeries since I returned to Congress and unfortunately face several more immediately after leaving office,” Zinke said in his statement.

“The injuries sustained from a career in Special Operations are not immediately life-threatening, but the repair cannot be deferred any longer and recovery will require considerable time with my wife Lola and my family. My judgment and experience tell me it is better for Montana and America to have full-time representation in Congress than run the risk of uncertain absence and missed votes.”

He said serving Montana in his various military and political roles has been the “highest honor.”

JOHNSON WARNS HOUSE REPUBLICANS TO ‘STAY HEALTHY’ AS GOP MAJORITY SHRINKS TO THE EDGE

Rep. Troy Downing, R-Mont., also confirmed Zinke’s retirement in his own statement shared with media.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

“For over 30 years, Commander Zinke has served his country with integrity, responsibility, and honor,” Downing said. “It has been the privilege of a lifetime to serve alongside Ryan while fighting for Montanans in Washington—from protecting our public lands to supporting our farmers and ranchers.”

The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates Zinke’s seat R+5, meaning it’s likely to stay in Republican hands but within striking distance for Democrats hoping to flip the district this year.

Related Article

WACO, TX – In the aftermath of a shooting rampage in Texas by a gunman who was a naturalized citizen from Africa, state Attorney General Ken Paxton says that authorities “have to do a better job vetting people when they come here.”

Paxton, who’s challenging longtime Sen. John Cornyn for the Republican Senate nomination in Tuesday’s primary, was commenting about this weekend’s shooting in Austin, Texas, that left three people, including the gunman, dead, and more than a dozen injured.

The suspect, identified as Ndiaga Diagne, was a 53-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in Senegal and lived in Pflugerville, Texas, multiple federal law enforcement sources told Fox News.

Diagne was wearing a sweatshirt that read “Property of Allah” and an undershirt featuring an Iranian flag when he carried out the attack, according to law enforcement sources. And authorities also said they found an Iranian flag and photos of regime leaders in Diagne’s apartment.

“There’s no system that’s perfect. If we have immigration, there’s going to be no system that’s perfect.  We do need to do a better job of vetting people, and Congress is going to have to figure out how to do that,” Paxton emphasized.

With the shooting taking place during heated campaign trail showdowns in Texas just a couple of days ahead of the primary, reactions quickly turned political, with Republicans criticizing former President Joe Biden’s handling of the country’s naturalization process and Democrats calling for stricter gun reform laws.

Asked about the shooting, Cornyn said in a Fox News Digital interview in San Antonio on Sunday, “What it does emphasize to me is the importance of vetting people before they come across the border.”

“Part of the problem is that the Biden administration, for four years, had open border policies and let who knows what into the country,” Cornyn charged. “This isn’t about people continuing to come into the country, because we know President Trump has secured the border. This is about what happens with people already here.”

AUSTIN SHOOTING SUSPECT WORE IRANIAN FLAG SHIRT DURING ATTACK, SOURCES SAY

He said the shooting was an example of “what happens when people become radicalized.”

The Department of Homeland Security said that Diagne entered the United States on a tourist visa in 2000, and in 2006 became a lawful permanent resident after marrying a U.S. citizen in 2006. He was naturalized seven years later.

“I think that the burden on the system has been all the illegal immigration, which makes it harder for law enforcement to keep track of everyone,” Paxton said. “We’ve got so many people here that are from other countries. It’s very difficult for law enforcement, with the resources that we have to keep track of everybody.”

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

The third major candidate in the GOP Senate primary, Rep. Wesley Hunt, took to social media after the shooting to emphasize that “Radical Islam has NO place in Texas.”

Hunt, a West Point graduate and veteran who flew Apache helicopters during his military service, added that he “engaged it in combat.”

Related Article

President Donald Trump bestowed the Medal of Honor to three U.S. Army soldiers Monday in a White House ceremony honoring their “unsurpassed courage.” 

The president touted the “three really incredible American heroes — one living and two no longer with us.”

The president posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor to Master Sgt. Roderick (Roddie) W. Edmonds; posthumously awarded the medal to Staff Sgt. Michael H. Ollis and awarded the medal to Command Sergeant Major Terry P. Richardson.

The president, Monday, first introduced the award for Edmonds.

“In 1941, Roddie Edmonds of Knoxville, Tennessee, enlisted in the US Army and soon rose to one of the youngest master sergeants in the military,” the president said. “In 1944, he sailed to Europe vim and vigor, Roddie soon found himself on the front lines of the Battle of the Bulge. That was a big one, massively outnumbered by enemy forces, his 1,200 soldier unit fought valiantly until they were completely overrun. The force was massive on the other side. … After a four-day death march, one that was covered very well by the history books, through bitter cold, they were put into a German POW camp.”

The president said Edmonds “was the top ranking infantryman and the camp he was number one, meaning he was responsible for the lives of his fellow service members.”

“On July 26th, 1945, a Nazi SS officer issued an order over the camp loudspeaker, loud and strong, he said that only American Jews were to show up to roll call. Following this morning, he added ‘all who disobey this order will be shot immediately,’” the president explained. “There were more than 200 Jewish American soldiers in the camp, and Roddie knew their separation from the group would mean certain death. So that night he summoned his team and devised a plan. The next morning, all 1,200 American men fell in line together, shoulder to shoulder. 

“Enraged, the Nazi commandant rushed forward, drew his Luger pistol, and pressed the barrel between Sgt. Edmond’s eyes. He barked at Roddie, ‘They cannot all be Jews!’ He screamed loud and again and again. And, staring straight back into the raging face of evil, Sgt. Edmonds replied fearlessly, ‘We are all Jews here.’ The Nazi officer lowered his weapon and the soldiers erupted in cheers.”

The president said that “with total disregard for his own life, Roddie had saved over 200 of his fellow service members.”

“Their camp was liberated two months later,” the president said.

The award was accepted by Edmonds’ son, Chris.

Next, the president honored Richardson.

“On Sept. 12, 1968, 102 brave men of Terry’s Alpha Company were tasked with securing Hill 222 deep behind the enemy’s line in Vietnam,” Trump said. 

“They didn’t know it at the time, had no idea, but the area was totally infested with nearly 300 enemy bunkers and many, many enemy soldiers, far outnumbering them by at least 4- or 5-, even 6-to-1,” the president said. “As Terry led Lima Platoon up Hill 222, the enemy launched an ambitious and violent attack, unleashing a withering fire of machine guns and rocket propelled grenades. Just didn’t stop. They just kept coming, pinned down and hell on Earth.”

The president said, “Terry summoned unimaginable courage. Three times. He exposed himself to enemy fire to rescue severely wounded comrades, and three times he dragged them back to the group.”

“Terry soon realized that the 82 remaining men had one chance of survival. That was air support. Acting without regard of his own life, he grabbed the radio and charged up hill 222 alone. He needed to be there. It was the only place you’d get reception,” the president explained. “He withstood a storm of enemy bullets, eventually reaching the top where he spent the next eight hours calling in tactical strikes, completely exposed. … An enemy sniper shot rang out and the bullet tore through his right leg violently. He was in bad shape, but Terry disregarded that and pushed through. And after seven more hours of calling in American fire from above, the enemy retreated.”

“Later that day, his team found him with both eardrums totally ruptured and a mangled right leg and foot, but still barely living but living nevertheless,” the president said. “Due to Terry’s actions above and beyond the call of duty, 82 men, Alpha Company survived this battle, including two in this room.”

The president invited Norm Meyer and Dave Hemmer to stand up.

IN MEMORY OF WORLD WAR II VETERAN LESTER TANNER: ‘WE ARE ALL JEWISH’

The president congratulated Richardson, and told him that “today you entered the ranks of the bravest warriors ever to strike the face of the earth.”

Finally, the president posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor to Staff Sgt. Michael H. Ollis for gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty, while serving in Afghanistan.

“On Aug. 28, 2013, terrorists detonated a 400-pound car bomb on the east wall of the Forward operating base Kinzie, ripping open a 60 foot-wide breach into a compound that housed NATO coalition forces,” the president explained. “A lot of them, ten Taliban fighters wearing suicide vests swarm through from across the compound.”

“Michael saw the pillar of white smoke rising and ran to join the fight, rushing without his gear, wearing almost no gear, no Kevlar helmet, no body armor. Just one magazine in his rifle,” the president continued. “Along the way, he encountered a Polish soldier, and together they advanced under heavy fire. Very, very heavy fire. At one point, shrapnel ripped through the Polish soldier’s legs, rendering him unable to walk very, very severely hurt. In that chaos of gunfire, explosions and charred human remains, a terrorist insurgent appeared rounding a corner with his suicide vest, fully armed. And you could see it. It was going to happen.”

The president said the terrorist “charged the wounded Polish soldier without hesitation.”

“Michael raised his gun and forced himself between the insurgent and the man he just met, shielding him with his own body. He knew what was going to happen,” the president said. “He shielded him with his own body.”

“You know, bravery is amazing. You never really know who’s brave, who’s not until they’re really tested,” the president said. “We think some people are brave, and they’re not. We think others aren’t. And they are. You never know.”

But Trump said Ollis “was tested.”

“That’s called the ultimate test, right? And it perhaps his final heartbeat,” the president said. “Michael fired his weapon, and the terrorist detonated his vest. Simultaneously, staff Sergeant Ollis was killed just weeks before his 25th birthday. And nobody was any more brave than that.”

The president added: “And his final act on earth, Michael, absorbed the blast, sparing the life of that Polish warrior who we are grateful to have in the room with us today.”

The president invited Polish 2nd Lt. Carol Sarah Piqua to come to the podium.

The Medal of Honor is awarded to members of the Armed Forces who, according to the White House, “distinguish themselves conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of their own lives above and beyond the call of duty.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

The White House said the honorees are individuals who “engaged in an action against an enemy of the United States; engaged in military operations involving conflict with an opposing foreign force; or serving with friendly foreign forces engaged in an armed conflict against an opposing armed force in which the United States is not a belligerent party.”

The White House said the conduct “must involve great personal bravery or self-sacrifice so conspicuous as to clearly distinguish the individual above his or her comrades and must have involved risk of life.”

“There must be incontestable proof of the performance of the meritorious conduct, and each recommendation for the award must be considered on the standard of extraordinary merit,” the White House said.

Related Article

Former President Bill Clinton told lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee last week that he couldn’t recall President Donald Trump saying anything that would link him to Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes.

As Democrats pressed Clinton on his relationship with Trump and the pair’s numerous mentions in the Epstein files, Clinton paused to clarify his stance.

“I hate this because I don’t think I should inject anything, but I do not want to leave the impression… He, the president, never — this is 20-something years ago — never said anything to me to make me think he was involved with anything improper with regard to Epstein,” Clinton told investigators last week.

At another point in the deposition, Clinton again clarified his stance on Trump’s relationship with Epstein.

“As I said earlier, the only conversation I had with President Trump about this was in the early 2000s and I have no information that he did anything wrong,” Clinton said. 

Lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee deposed the former president as a part of the group’s ongoing probe into Epstein and his crimes.

Epstein, a former financier with a robust social circle that included Clinton, Trump, Bill Gates, the United Kingdom’s Prince Andrew and other famous figures, died while incarcerated in 2019 on charges of sex trafficking minors.

CLINTONS AGREE TO TESTIFY AFTER HOUSE THREATENS CONTEMPT IN JEFFREY EPSTEIN PROBE

Lawmakers are investigating whether Epstein used his expansive social connections to facilitate illegal sexual encounters for his contacts.

Democrats, in particular, have sifted through the files with an eye for any connections to Trump.

Clinton, who was repeatedly asked by Democrats about Trump throughout his deposition, continued to affirm that he had only limited knowledge of Trump’s relationship with Epstein and that his primary concern was about government transparency on the matter.

“I just want it all out there. I want everybody to get it all out there and let everybody see where we are,” Clinton said.

Notably, Clinton is pictured in several materials released by the Department of Justice. One places him in a pool with Ghislaine Maxwell, an accomplice of Epstein, and a third person whose identity has been redacted. 

RO KHANNA’S STATE OF THE UNION GUEST RECRUITED OVER 20 UNDERAGE GIRLS FOR EPSTEIN: ‘LIKE HEIDI FLEISS’

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

Asked again about his communications with the president, Clinton said he had not spoken to Trump in the years since the “early 2000s” about Epstein.

“It’s the truth,” Clinton added.

Related Article

The Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for California schools to notify parents if their children want to change their gender identity without approval from the student amid a challenge against the Golden State’s ban on so-called forced outing of transgender students.

The court granted an emergency appeal from a conservative legal group, the Thomas More Society, blocking, at least for now, a state law that prohibited automatic parental notification requirements if students change their gender expression or pronouns at school.

The Thomas More Society praised the decision as “the most significant parental rights ruling in a generation.” Two sets of Catholic parents represented by the legal group argued that the state law, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2024, caused schools to mislead them and secretly facilitate the students’ gender transitions.

But California contended that students have the right to privacy about their gender expression, particularly if they fear rejection from their families who may not support their decision to adopt a new gender identity. The state also said school policies and state law sought to balance student privacy with parental rights.

Last year, state education officials told school districts that the state’s policy “does not mandate nondisclosure.” Newsom’s office also previously said that “parents continue to have full, guaranteed access to their student’s education records as required by federal law.”

The Supreme Court sided with the parents on Monday and reinstated a lower-court order blocking the law and school policies while the case continues.

“The parents who assert a free exercise claim have sincere religious beliefs about sex and gender, and they feel a religious obligation to raise their children in accordance with those beliefs. California’s policies violate those beliefs,” the majority wrote in an unsigned order, adding that state policies also burden the free exercise of religion.

Conservative Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas also said they would have gone a step further and granted the teachers’ appeal to lift restrictions for them. The three liberal justices dissented, saying the case is still working its way through lower courts and there was no need to take action now.

“If nothing else, this Court owes it to a sovereign State to avoid throwing over its policies in a slapdash way, if the Court can provide normal procedures. And throwing over a State’s policy is what the Court does today,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote.

A federal judge ruled in December 2025 that schools cannot prevent teachers from sharing information about a student’s gender identity with their parents, but an appeals court blocked that ruling last month, leading the plaintiffs to ask the nation’s highest court to step in.

TRUMP ADMIN FINDS CALIFORNIA BAN ON NOTIFYING PARENTS OF GENDER TRANSITIONS VIOLATED FEDERAL LAW

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

The high court has been weighing whether to hear arguments in cases out of other states such as Massachusetts and Florida filed by parents who say schools facilitated gender transitions without notifying them.

The U.S. Department of Education also announced last month that the California law violates federal law. The findings of the federal investigation could put at risk the nearly $8 billion in education funding the federal government gives the state each year if state officials do not work with the Trump administration to resolve the violations.

The Trump administration is also pursuing legal action against California and threatening to withhold funding over a policy allowing biological males to compete in girls’ sports.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Related Article

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., described the recent U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran as a defensive measure, saying, “Israel was determined to act with or without us” following a classified briefing on Monday evening.

Johnson told reporters after the briefing that Israel viewed Iran’s capabilities as an existential threat and was prepared to conduct operations regardless of U.S. participation. He said Israel’s assessment shaped American deliberations, and it was “determined to act in their own defense here, with or without American support.”

The speaker said administration officials had to weigh risks to U.S. forces, regional assets and interests before supporting the operation. 

“They had to evaluate the threats to the U.S., to our troops, to our installations, to our assets in the region and beyond. And they determined, because of the intelligence that we had, that a coordinated response was necessary,” Johnson said.

Johnson said he guarantees that if the U.S. had not acted, the Trump administration would have been hauled in by Congress and asked why they waited if they had “existential intelligence, knowing that that would happen.”

“I am convinced that they did the right thing,” he said.

Rubio confirmed that Israel was prepared to act against Iran and said the president “made a very wise decision.”  

“We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action. We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces,” he told reporters. “And we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties.”

FIRES RAGE AT IRAN’S BANDAR ABBAS NAVAL HEADQUARTERS, STRAIT OF HORMUZ TRAFFIC STALLED

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., a top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, emerged from the briefing and said he did not believe there was an “imminent threat” prior to Saturday’s strikes. 

“There was no imminent threat to the United States of America by the Iranians. It was a threat to Israel,” he said. “We equate a threat to Israel is the equivalent of an imminent threat to the United States. Then we are in uncharted territory.” 

“We have seen the goals for this operation change now, I believe 4 or 5 times,” he went on.

US SURGES FORCES TO MIDDLE EAST AS PENTAGON WARNS IRAN FIGHT ‘WILL TAKE SOME TIME’

Rubio insisted the operation was not about Iranian regime change but about taking out its capabilities as a threat to the region – focused on ballistic missiles and naval capacity. 

He did not say whether strikes would extend to nuclear facilities.

“I do believe there is more than adequate justification for our American and Israeli actions,” Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., told reporters he believes there is “more than adequate justification for our American and Israeli actions,” without saying more.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast, R-Fla., told Fox News Digital in an interview afterward that he felt administration officials did a good job of illustrating the threat level faced by the U.S. in the days leading up to the strikes.

“I think that’s largely been very open source. The president laid that out, you know, very clearly. It does go beyond that to what I can’t get into, but it goes beyond that. I’m sure it’ll come out in the administration’s good time, but it’s not for me to say,” Mast said.

“But the more immediate nature of threats — I’m going through the negotiations with [Special Envoy Steve Witkoff], [Jared Kushner], Rubio, others that were a part of having those conversations and throughout that 10-day window of, you know, let’s call it countdown to make a deal, the threats that were going on in that window is probably the high-side information that you have.”

He also said there was a lot of daylight between what Democrats and Republicans in the briefing considered an “imminent threat.”

“It’s like, for me as a soldier, right, if I see an enemy machine gun nest, that to me, given that it’s an enemy machine gun nest, is an imminent threat,” Mast said. “To Democrats, unless that machine gun is burning up its barrels firing at you, it’s not yet an imminent threat. And those are the two separate ways that we’re looking at it.”.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

On February 26th, the U.S. launched Operation Epic Fury against Iran in coordination with Israel. The offensive campaign has resulted in the death of 49 top Iranian leaders, including the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Six U.S. service members have lost their lives in Iranian counterattacks. 

The opening phase of the conflict struck more than 1,000 targets in the first 24 hours, according to Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. American B-2 bombers flew 37-hour round-trip missions from the continental United States to hit underground facilities with penetrating munitions, he added.

Related Article

President Donald Trump on Monday sent an official notification to Congress about the U.S. strikes against Iran, in which he attempted to justify the military action in the now expanding conflict in the Middle East.

In a letter obtained by FOX News, Trump told Senate President Pro Tempore Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, that “no U.S. ground forces were used in these strikes” and that the mission “was planned and executed in a manner designed to minimize civilian casualties, deter future attacks, and neutralize Iran’s malign activities.”

This comes after joint U.S.-Israeli strikes against Iran on Saturday, triggering a response from Tehran and a wider conflict in the region.

“Although the United States desires a quick and enduring peace, not possible at this time to know the full scope and duration of military operations that may be necessary,” Trump wrote. “As such, United States forces remain postured to take further action, as necessary and appropriate, to address further threats and attacks upon the United States or its allies and partners, and ensure the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran ceases being a threat to the United States, its allies, and the international community.”

“I directed this military action consistent with my responsibility to protect Americans and United States interests both at home and abroad and in furtherance of United States national security and foreign policy interests,” he added. “I acted pursuant to my constitutional authority as Commander in Chief and Chief Executive to conduct United States foreign relations.”

Trump said he was “providing this report as part of my efforts to keep the Congress fully informed, consistent with the War Powers Resolution.”

Fox News’ Tyler Olson contributed to this report.

X’s artificial intelligence chatbot Grok has begun rolling out its first beta version of Grok 4.20, which Elon Musk and X say will provide not only better performance and new features but also the least “politically correct” platform in terms of liberal bias. 

Over the past week, users on X, including Musk, have been touting search results from Grok showing “non woke” answers to questions about popular cultural issues and figures compared to results from Anthropic’s Claude, Open AI’s ChatGPT, and Google’s Gemini. 

“Grok 4.20 is BASED,” Musk also posted on X last week. “The only AI that doesn’t equivocate when asked if America is on stolen land. The others are weak sauce.”

Musk’s post included screenshots of ChatGPT saying the “short answer” is “yes”, Claude ultimately saying “yes” and Gemini saying the answer is “complex” while Grok responds with “No.”

In another post shared by Musk, the AI platforms are asked for a “yes” or “no” if President Donald Trump is “racist.”

Grok responded with “No” while Gemini responded by saying the answer is not as simple as “yes” or “no.” Claude and ChatGPT also declined to respond with a “yes” or “no”: arguing it’s a more nuanced issue. 

ELON MUSK POURS A STAGGERING $10M INTO KENTUCKY SENATE RACE, BACKING PRO-TRUMP BUSINESS OUTSIDER\

“Grok 4.20 is the only non-woke AI in existence, engineered to pursue maximum truth, and deliver unfiltered, evidence-based answers where every other major model has been lobotomized by the woke mind virus,” an xAI spokesperson told Fox News Digital. 

The recent attack on Iran by the United States and Israel also provided examples on social media of Grok results appearing less “biased” than other platforms, including a post showing what happened when each platform was asked a “yes” or “no” question about whether Trump was “right” to authorize the strike. 

Grok responded with “yes” while ChatGPT said “no” and both Gemini and Claude argued that the situation was too nuanced to respond definitively one way or the other. 

“In times of split second decision making by our nation’s top leaders — it’s clear which AI our military should be using,” ‘The Katie Miller Show’ host and former DOGE adviser Katie Miller posted on X. “Truth-seeking is @grok’s best feature.”

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

Various websites have attempted to track the political leanings of artificial intelligence platforms, including Dartmouth College’s Polarization Research Lab, last updated in 2025, which ranked Gemini as the least political. In early 2025, a Manhattan Institute report concluded Grok was a close second to Gemini in terms of political bias. 

An OpenAI spokesperson pointed Fox News Digital to its public ModelSpec which defines how ChatGPT should behave and “assume an objective point of view” and said “we actively test and measure political bias in ways that mirror real-world use and publish our findings, including evaluations across hundreds of prompts and real production traffic, where detectable political bias is rare (fewer than 0.01% of responses show any detectable political bias) and continues to decline with newer models.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Anthropic and Google for comment.

Related Article

Two United States-based mosques that have faced scrutiny for their ties to Iran held formal events to “honor” Ayatollah Khamenei after U.S. military forces took out the Islamic leader of Iran this weekend, including one mosque in Northern Virginia that referred to Khamenei as “our leader.” 

Located in Manassas, Virginia, and Dearborn Heights, Michigan, the mosques both publicly advertised events eulogizing the slain leader. In a flyer for the “Potluck Iftar” honoring Khamenei, which is a ceremony where Muslims break their Ramadan fast, the Manassass Mosque, which has faced questions over alleged ties to Iran, referred to Khamenei as “our leader.” Meanwhile, at the Islamic House of Wisdom (IHW) in Dearborn Heights, which has also faced scrutiny over its ties to Iran, the center’s Imam Mohammad Ali Elahi called the U.S. military offensive “evil” and argued that it was based on false-pretenses. 

“You promised that America First, and now we ended up to have Netanyahu first,” the Michigan-based Imam told his congregants after the attacks this weekend. “Now we realize that all their talk about nuclear [unintelligible] was a joke, it didn’t even exist. From the beginning talking about regime change, we want to change, because we don’t like it. So, starting an illegal – illegal war – and then go and bomb the house of the leader of the country. Where is justification for this? Where is their reason for this, at all?”

The Michigan-based Islamic worship center and its Imam also touted talking points from Iranian state media and officials that have not yet been confirmed, claiming hundreds of young girls were killed by a missile strike on a school in Iran. Hossein Kermanpour, a spokesperson for Iran’s health ministry, said Saturday that 60 young children were killed and 80 injured, but by Sunday Iranian officials were saying the death toll had risen to about 150, according to the Wall Street Journal. The Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) posted on X on Monday that the alleged death toll was now as high as 168. 

According to The Guardian, Captain Tim Hawkins, a spokesperson for U.S. Central Command, indicated they were “aware of reports concerning civilian harm resulting from ongoing military operations,” adding that, “We take these reports seriously and are looking into them.”

CHASING THE APOCALYPSE: RADICAL SIITE CLERICS ON AMERICAN SOIL PREACH PROHETIC SHOWDOWN WITH US

“Why a school? Why not a military base or a missile base? They attack children first. It’s a form of their – again, call me crazy – but child sacrifice,” said a speaker at the IHW’s Ramadan program, who gave a speech alongside Imam Mohammad Ali Elahi. “This is a war against justice, against morality, against legality, against truth,” Imam Mohammad Ali Elahi added as he was speaking to his followers.  

“Now we realize that all their talk about nuclear [unintelligible] was a joke, it didn’t even exist. From the beginning talking about regime change, we want to change, because we don’t like it,” the Imam continued.

IRAN’S SECURITY CHIEF ACCUSES TRUMP OF ‘ISRAEL FIRST’ POLICY, ‘DELUSIONAL FANTASIES’ IN REGION

Both the Manassas Mosque and the IWH were listed in a July 2023 letter that Congressional Republicans sent to former Attorney General Merrick Garland and former Director of National Intelligence during the Biden administration, Avril Haines.  The letter called out a network of U.S.-based mosques throughout the country that have received financial funding from the Alavi Foundation, which lawmakers said “is a large foundation that has been in litigation for years because of allegations it operates on behalf of the Iranian regime, a state sponsor of terrorism,” or have other close ties to the Iranian regime.    

“The Imam of IHW, Mohammad Ali Elahi, served as the head of ‘political ideology’ for the Iranian Navy in the 1980s, according to a publicly available Central Intelligence Agency report.” the letter asserts. “He personally claims to be ‘friends’ with three former Iranian Presidents, and since moving to the US, he has had seemingly non-stop contact with senior regime officials.”

The letter, which included concerns also laid out in a report drafted by the George Washington University Program on Extremism, adds that IHW has been “a significant purveyor of extremist propaganda, in line with the Iranian regime’s views.”

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

The Manassas Mosque was among the groups that received financial funding from the Alavi Foundation, reportedly totaling around $200,000. The mosque has also reportedly been gifted expensive relics from the Iranian regime, and alleged video of the inside reportedly shows the worship center filled with pictures of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) “martyrs” killed in Syria, a life-size cut-out of Khamenei and Iranian flags or other symbols.

Fox News Digital reached out to both mosques, but neither returned requests for comment in time for publication.  

Related Article

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz joined the chorus of Democrats criticizing the Trump administration’s strikes on Iran, leading to brutal mockery on social media, including from those on the left.

Walz has been one of the most visible state leaders and Trump critics of the past year, as Minnesota became embroiled in a Somali-linked childcare fraud problem that metastasized to other sectors, while repeatedly condemning the Department of Homeland Security’s immigration enforcement efforts in his state.

As missiles rained down on Iranian targets and took out 86-year-old theocratic dictator Ali Hosseini Khamenei, Walz posted his objection to X: “No new wars.”

That missive set off a whirlwind of blowback, including innumerable memes targeting the controversial Democrat and 2024 vice presidential nominee.

Comedian Michael Rapaport, who has been vocal against New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani but is known for his anti-Trump commentary, slammed Walz by retweeting a response to the governor from an Israeli diplomat.

“Iran started this war 47 years ago when they took Americans hostage Honestly, can people to crack open a book before posting nonsense?” wrote Aviva Klompas, whose bio includes time at the Israeli mission to the United Nations.

FETTERMAN BLASTS IRAN STRIKE CRITICS, AYATOLLAH’S APOLOGISTS: ‘LET’S SEE WHO GRIEVES FOR THAT GARBAGE’

Rapaport went on to take issue with critics of the Iranian strikes and condemned those who remained silent as Khamenei oversaw mass-murders of tens of thousands of dissidents in recent months.

“I’m glad that old bag of s— and his entire regime are gone,” he said of Khamenei. “Ding dong that old bag of s— is dead. 72 virgins have got to deal with that bull— now; good luck ladies,” he added in a message on Monday.

“Will this affect your Somali kickbacks?” asked Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., a top pro-Israel voice in Congress.

“Didn’t you just try to start a war with Trump a month ago?” another response from conservative videographer Cam Higby – who has tweeted videos of his stringer-type visits to Minneapolis unrest.

“No kings,” another critic retorted, as the left has latched onto the idea that President Donald Trump is a monarch.

“Just be thankful this is changing the headlines from the Somali fraud in Minnesota,” said another.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

Others criticized alleged hypocrisy involving Walz’ prior meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his tweet at the time that “Minnesota stands with the people of Ukraine as they fight to defend freedom and democracy.”

Late Monday, reports surfaced that Khamenei’s wife Mansoureh Khojasteh Bagherzadeh succumbed to her injuries from the missile strike that killed her husband.

Related Article

President Donald Trump’s personal doctor on Monday said he was using a cream after a rash was spotted on his neck, which drew criticism online.

The redness on the right side of Trump’s neck was imposed during Monday’s Medal of Honor ceremony at the White House.

It appeared just above his shirt collar. 

“President Trump is using a very common cream on the right side of his neck, which is a preventative skin treatment, prescribed by the White House Doctor,” Dr. Sean Barbabella, Trump’s physician, told Fox News. “The President is using this treatment for one week, and the redness is expected to last for a few weeks.”

Questions about Trump’s health began last year after swelling and bruising was seen on his hands and swelling on his ankles. 

DOCTORS REACT TO ALLEGED TRUMP HEALTH CONCERNS AS PHOTOS SHOWING SWELLING AND BRUISING

“At the time, the White House announced that he had been diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency, which occurs when leg veins fail to send blood back to the heart properly.”

White House Press secretary Karoline Leavitt characterized the diagnosis as “benign and common, particularly in individuals over the age of 70.”

Regarding Trump’s hand bruises, Leavitt said it was from “minor soft tissue irritation from frequent handshaking and the use of aspirin.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

“This is a well-known and benign side effect of aspirin therapy,” she said. “The president remains in excellent health, which I think all of you witness on a daily basis here.”

In October, Barbabella said Trump was in “excellent overall health” after a follow-up evaluation at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. 

Related Article

As Democrats line up to denounce President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s joint strikes on Iran’s ruling regime, Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., is doing the opposite, forcefully defending the operation and rebuking members of his own party who call it reckless.

The Pennsylvania Democrat, who has increasingly staked out unapologetic pro-Israel positions, has openly questioned why critics from both the far-right and far-left are making hay over the strikes, arguing the operation was necessary to counter Tehran’s aggression. His stance is widening a visible fracture inside the party over how far to back Israel amid escalating regional tensions.

On Monday, Fetterman wrote that he’s “not sure why it’s controversial to anyone to appreciate and celebrate wiping out 49 leaders of one of the most evil regimes in recorded history,” after Trump announced the potentially four-week mission was ahead of schedule after discovering several top Iranian officials being targeted were reportedly in the same area and could be taken out at once.

After the initial strike on Saturday, Fetterman reposted an image from the “Israel War Room” that showed a Wanted-style poster of Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei with the word “Eliminated” burned across it.

“Let’s see who grieves for that garbage,” Fetterman captioned.

The former Pennsylvania lieutenant governor later credited Trump, saying in a statement that he “has been willing to do what’s right and necessary to produce real peace in the region.”

“God bless the United States, our great military, and Israel.”

He also openly questioned members of his own caucus, who have otherwise agreed that Iran cannot be permitted to nuclearize.

“Every member in the U.S. Senate agrees we cannot allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon,” he wrote on X.

IRAN DIDN’T ADAPT TO AMERICA’S PLAYBOOK. RUSSIA AND CHINA ALREADY HAVE

“I’m baffled why so many are unwilling to support the only action to achieve that. Empty sloganeering vs. commitment to global security — which is it?”

He said Saturday he would be a “hard no” if Democrats forced a war powers resolution vote to claw back Trump’s authority.

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., told Richmond press on Monday that he intends to press for a vote on a War Powers Resolution he filed in January focused on Iran.

Kaine wondered aloud in a separate public statement whether Trump is “too mentally incapacitated to realize we had a diplomatic agreement with Iran…”

“The Senate should immediately return to session and vote on my War Powers Resolution to block the use of U.S. forces in hostilities against Iran. Every single Senator needs to go on the record about this dangerous, unnecessary, and idiotic action,” Kaine said.

Fetterman was not the only Democrat to sound off on critics of the Iran strike. Former New York Mayor Eric Adams, who is also a former NYPD officer, lambasted what he called the political fringes for ignoring the human rights abuses, mass murder and attacks on Americans committed by Khamenei, 86, and his predecessor, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

Rep. Gregory Landsman, D-Ohio, also praised the operation against Iran and compared the killing of Khamenei to taking out Usama bin Laden, but stopped short of endorsing Trump’s broader plans.

“There’s a lot of folks in Congress who don’t trust this president and I’m one of those people. In the end I trust the generals and I trust our military,” he told the Cincinnati Enquirer.

Related Article

Iran’s secretary for its Supreme National Security Council on Sunday said President Donald Trump’s “delusional fantasies” have plunged the region into chaos while putting Israel above American interests. 

Ali Larjani posted on X that Trump’s actions against the Islamic Republic have now prompted fears of American troop casualties. 

“With his delusional actions, he turned his self-made ‘America First’ slogan into ‘Israel First’ and sacrificed American soldiers for Israel’s power-hungry ambitions and with new fabrications, it is once again imposing the cost of assassinating its own character on American soldiers and families,” he wrote of Operation Epic Fury. 

Larijani stated that Iran was defending itself against American and Israeli aggression.

He added that Iran will not negotiate with the United States, denying a Wall Street Journal report that said he reached out to the U.S. through Omani mediators regarding resuming talks on Iran’s nuclear program.

Iran responded to U.S. attacks that killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei by launching strikes of its own targeting U.S. military bases in Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arab, as well as against Israel. 

AYATOLLAH’S ARSENAL VS. AMERICAN FIREPOWER: IRAN’S TOP 4 THREATS AND HOW WE FIGHT BACK

“He is rightly worried about more American casualties,” he said. “It is indeed very sad that he is sacrificing American treasure and blood to advance Netanyahu’s illegitimate expansionist ambitions.”

Meanwhile, Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said more U.S. troops were headed toward the Middle East amid escalations with Iran. ,

“I don’t want to talk specifics, because that would tip the enemy off,” Caine told reporters during a Pentagon briefing. “We have more tactical aviation flowing into theater just based on the time it took to get it out there.”

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

The U.S. mission in Iran, Caine said, is to “prevent Iran from (the) ability to project power outside its borders.”

Related Article

President Donald Trump said he authorized the strike that killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei before Tehran could act on alleged plots against him, telling ABC: “I got him before he got me. They tried twice … I got him first.”

The president’s blunt remark appears to link Khamenei’s killing to previously reported Iranian-backed assassination plots targeting Trump during the 2024 election cycle — plots that U.S. prosecutors tied to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

The U.S.-Israeli operation that killed Khamenei marked the most dramatic escalation in years of tensions between Washington and Iran. Iranian state media confirmed the longtime supreme leader’s death after coordinated strikes targeted senior regime figures and key facilities around Tehran, Iran. 

Trump has framed the strike as both a strategic blow to the Iranian regime and a personal reckoning with a government he says sought his life.

Federal prosecutors in 2025 unsealed criminal charges against individuals accused of acting on behalf of the IRGC in alleged efforts to surveil and assassinate Trump. One case involved an Afghan national, Farhad Shakeri, whom authorities said was directed by Iranian contacts to track Trump’s movements and develop a plan to kill him in the closing weeks of the 2024 campaign.

In a separate case, prosecutors charged a Pakistani national, Asif Merchant, in what officials described as another Iranian-linked murder-for-hire plot connected to U.S. political figures, including Trump.

Iran has denied orchestrating assassination attempts against the president.

TRUMP SAYS IRAN WANTS TO TALK BUT WHO WILL LEAD AFTER KHAMENEI?

U.S. officials long have warned that Iran vowed revenge after Trump ordered the 2020 drone strike that killed IRGC Quds Force commander Gen. Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad. Iranian leaders publicly pledged retaliation at the time, and U.S. intelligence agencies repeatedly have assessed that threats against Trump from Iranian actors remained elevated.

Trump’s comments suggest he views the killing of Khamenei as the culmination of that yearslong shadow conflict.

While the administration has not publicly detailed specific imminent threats tied to the strike, Trump’s statement underscores his argument that the move was justified not only as a matter of national security but also as a response to direct threats against him.

The fallout from Khamenei’s death remains uncertain. Iran’s succession process is opaque, and regional tensions are high as Tehran weighs its response. Security officials have historically warned that Iran is more likely to retaliate through proxy groups or asymmetric operations rather than through direct conventional confrontation.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

For Trump, however, the message was simple: Tehran tried — and failed.

“I got him first,” the president said.

Fox News Digital has reached out to Iran’s permanent mission to the United Nations for comment.

Related Article

President Donald Trump Monday said the United States and Israel’s joint military operation against Iran was “our last, best chance to strike” to “eliminate the intolerable threats” posed by Tehran.

The United States and Israel launched the operation against Iran Saturday known as Operation Epic Fury. The attacks left major Iranian leaders dead, including its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The U.S. will continue the operation with “ferocious, unyielding resolve,” Trump said, adding that the U.S. already has sunk 10 of Iran’s naval vessels in addition to eliminating 49 of its top leaders.

The operation is expected to carry on for days, as the U.S. military continues to target military targets and ballistic missile sites that pose an “imminent threat.”

Trump warned against Iranian retaliation, saying that if Iran were to “hit very hard,” it would be met with “a force that has never been seen before.”

During a Medal of Honor ceremony at the White House Monday, the president touted his success in combating the threats posed by Iran —during both his second administration and his first.

“I was very proud to have knocked out the Iran nuclear deal by President Barack Hussein Obama,” Trump said. “That was a horrible, horrible, dangerous document. They would have had nuclear weapons three years ago.” 

The president said that Iran, “for almost 47 years” has been “attacking the United States and killing Americans.”

“Every time you see someone with missing arms and legs or a face that’s been absolutely shattered violently — it was almost certainly caused by an Iran roadside bomb,” Trump said. “They were put there by General Soleimani, who was the father of the roadside bomb … But I terminated him in my first term.” 

HEGSETH LAYS OUT ‘CLEAR’ 3-PART MISSION AGAINST IRAN, SAYS WAR ‘IS NOT ENDLESS’

Trump was referring to Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani. Trump ordered the January 2020 strike that killed Soleimani at Baghdad International Airport

Soleimani was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American and coalition service members and the wounding of thousands more, according to the State Department.

Soleimani was the long-running leader of the elite intelligence wing called Quds Force — which itself has been a designated terror group since 2007 and is estimated to be 20,000 strong. Considered one of the most powerful men in Iran, he routinely was referred to as its “shadow commander” or “spymaster.”

“This was our last, best chance to strike what we’re doing right now and eliminate the intolerable threats posed by this sick and sinister regime,” the president said Monday. “And they are indeed sick and sinister.”

Trump declared that the United States’ “objectives are clear.”

“First, we’re destroying Iran’s missile capabilities, and you see that happening on an hourly basis and their capacity to produce brand new ones and pretty good ones they make,” the president said. “Second, we’re annihilating their Navy. We’ve knocked out already ten ships. They’re at the bottom of the sea.”

“Third, we’re ensuring that the world’s number one sponsor of terror can never obtain a nuclear weapon,” he said. “They are never going to have a nuclear weapon. I said that from the beginning. They’re never going to have a nuclear weapon. They were on the road to getting one legitimately through a deal that was signed foolishly by our country.”

FLASHBACK: TRUMP SAYS SOLEIMANI SHOULD HAVE BEEN KILLED ‘YEARS AGO,’ WAS ‘HATED’ WITHIN IRAN

Finally, the president said, the United States is “ensuring that the Iranian regime cannot continue to arm, fund and direct terrorist armies outside of their borders.”

“And we thought we had a deal, but then they backed out and and they came back and we thought we had a deal and they backed out,” Trump said. “I said, you can’t deal with these people. You got to do it the right way.”

The Pentagon confirmed that the United States deployed B-2 stealth bombers armed with 2,000-pound bombs as part of the Operation Epic Fury campaign.

The president Monday also honored the lives of four “heroic” American service members.

IRAN’S NEAR HALF CENTURY WAR ON AMERICANS

“Today we grieve for the four heroic American service members who have been killed in action and send our love and support to their families,” the president said. “In their memory, we continue this mission with ferocious, unyielding resolve to crush the threat this terrorist regime poses to the American people and a threat, indeed it is.”

The president said the United States has “the strongest and most powerful by far military in the world, and we will easily prevail.”

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

“We’re already substantially ahead of our time projections, but whatever the time is, it’s okay. Whatever it takes, we will always, and we have, right from the beginning, we projected 4 to 5 weeks, but we have capability to go far longer than that,” Trump continued. “We’ll do it.”

He added: “Please join me in thanking every American service member who bravely is standing in harm’s way. They really are incredible.”

Related Article

Americans could soon see higher gas prices as escalating tensions in the Middle East threaten a critical global oil choke point, raising fears of supply disruptions that could quickly reverberate across U.S. energy markets.

After joint U.S.–Israeli strikes, dubbed Operation Epic Fury, targeted Iranian sites over the weekend and killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, concerns quickly shifted to how Tehran might respond and whether oil infrastructure or tanker traffic could become collateral damage.

Any disruption to global crude supplies could translate into higher costs for American drivers at the pump.

“Every time we’ve had flare-ups in the Middle East like we’re seeing right now — and we’ve seen this kind of situation periodically over the last 50 years — it has caused significant disruption to energy markets,” economist Stephen Moore told Fox News Digital. 

“I would expect we could see anywhere from 25 to 50 cents a gallon increase in gas prices in the short term,” he said.

Market data already shows prices moving higher.

Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, said oil prices were up $5 per barrel, while wholesale gasoline prices had risen 11 cents per gallon.

He expects retail gas prices to begin climbing immediately, especially in areas where stations tend to adjust prices in sharp, periodic jumps.

The national average could hit $3 per gallon as soon as Monday, De Haan said, with some stations increasing prices by 10 to 30 cents this week and potentially more in markets that see larger price swings.

Moore warned that prices could climb further and remain elevated if vital transit routes or oil facilities are disrupted.

TRUMP PLEDGES TO ‘AVENGE’ FALLEN US SERVICE MEMBERS AS TENSIONS WITH IRAN INTENSIFY

“Huge amounts of global oil travel through the Strait of Hormuz, so this could be incredibly disruptive, delaying delivery of oil and gas,” he said.

“The Iranians have already knocked out some oil facilities in the Middle East, and who knows what they’re up to next. When you have less supply, prices go up. The big question is whether this will be a temporary bump or something more prolonged.”

The ongoing conflict sits near the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most strategically important energy corridors.

“This shipping route represents around 25% of global oil trade and 23% of liquefied natural gas trade,” explained Jaime Brito, executive director of refining and oil products at OPIS.

The Strait of Hormuz, a narrow shipping lane between Iran and Oman that has long been a flash point during regional crises, serves as a vital artery for global energy markets.

Roughly 20 million barrels of crude oil and petroleum products — about one-fifth of global oil supply — transit the strait each day, underscoring how disruption there can quickly send shock waves through international energy markets.

HORMUZ ERUPTS: ATTACKS, GPS JAMMING, HOUTHI THREATS ROCK STRAIT AMID US-ISRAELI STRIKES

Highlighting the growing concern, Maersk, widely regarded as a bellwether for global ocean freight, said it will suspend all vessel crossings through the Strait of Hormuz until further notice and cautioned that services to Arabian Gulf ports may be delayed.

Still, not all price movements are immediate.

“Developments over the weekend in the Middle East should hypothetically take time to ripple into the global supply chain. An initial assessment would suggest no specific price impacts should be seen in the gasoline market across the world, including the U.S.,” Brito told Fox News Digital.

However, Brito said prices could climb quickly if markets expect trouble ahead, even before supplies are actually affected.

As a result, Brito said, developments in Iran may have already translated into higher gasoline, diesel and other fuel prices in parts of the U.S., depending on regional supply dynamics and individual company pricing strategies.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

From a domestic standpoint, Brito added that gasoline prices follow a seasonal pattern, typically climbing during the summer travel months.

“March prices are not expected to be significantly high,” he said, noting that spring break travel could support demand in certain areas — but not at the level seen during peak summer driving season.

Ultimately, the direction of gasoline prices will depend less on seasonal demand and more on how the geopolitical situation unfolds in the days ahead.

Related Article

About one in four Americans, but a majority of Republicans, say they approve of the U.S. military strikes on Iran ordered by President Donald Trump, according to a new poll.

The national survey, conducted Saturday and Sunday by Reuters/Ipsos in the hours after the start of “Operation Epic Fury” by American and Israeli forces on Iran that resulted in the killing of the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, also indicates about half believe Trump is too willing to use military force.

Twenty-seven percent of those surveyed said they approved of the strikes, with 43% disapproving and nearly three in 10 not sure.

But there’s a partisan divide, with Republicans by a 55%-32% margin supportive of the military action. The vast majority of Democrats, 73%, disapproved of the strikes, with only seven percent saying they approved. A plurality of independents, 44%, disapproved of the military attack, with 19% supportive and nearly four in 10 unsure.

IRAN’S NEAR HALF CENTURY WAR ON AMERICANS

The poll was conducted before the U.S. military announced on Sunday the first U.S. casualties in the operation — three service members killed and five more seriously wounded.

“I think that the polling is very good, but I don’t care about polling. I have to do the right thing. I have to do the right thing. This should have been done a long time ago,” Trump said in an interview Monday with the New York Post when asked about the new survey.

The joint U.S.-Israeli operation is expected to carry on for days, with officials telling Fox News that Israel is targeting Iranian leadership, while the U.S. is attacking military targets and ballistic missile sites that pose an “imminent threat.”

The attack has plunged the volatile Middle East into a new and unpredictable conflict. Iran has retaliated against Israel and other nations in the region. Trump on Sunday warned against Iranian retaliation, saying that if Iran were to “hit very hard,” they would be met with “a force that has never been seen before.”

OIL PRICES SURGE AFTER TANKERS STRUCK NEAR STRAIGHT OF HORMUZ

The attack on Iran follows strikes Trump has ordered in recent months against Venezuela, Syria, and Nigeria.

According to the poll, 56% of Americans think the president is too willing to use military force to advance U.S. interests. Nearly nine in 10 Democrats, six in 10 independents, and nearly a quarter of Republicans said Trump was too willing to use military force.

Trump, in his interview with the New York Post, emphasized that “it’s not a question of polling. You cannot let Iran, who’s a nation that has been run by crazy people, have a nuclear weapon.”

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

“I think people are very impressed with what is happening, actually,” Trump insisted. “I think it’s a silent — if you did a real poll, the silent poll — and it’s like a silent majority,” the president added.

Trump’s overall approval in the new survey stands at 39%, down a point from the previous Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in mid-February.

MANASSAS, Va. – FIRST ON FOX: For many, the war with Iran — and the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — might seem like the climactic end to a long, brutal reign of terror by the theological clerics who have run the country since 1979.

But a Fox News Digital investigation reveals that, for certain hardline Shiite ideologues, including in the U.S., this is not an ending but a prophetic showdown that will usher in the arrival of the “Mahdi,” a messiah, according to Islamic eschatology, or the theology of end times. 

In this prophecy, Mahdi will emerge to battle Dajjal, the Islamic equivalent of the Antichrist, in a final battle of Armageddon. For many of these ideologues, President Donald Trump is Dajjal.

At a recent Friday sermon at a local Shiite mosque in northern Virginia, an imam closed prayer with an earnest plea, before war broke out in Iran: “May Allah destroy all the nonbelievers – or kafiroon or munafiqoon,” he said, using Arabic words that refer to “nonbelievers” and “hypocrites.” 

He asked for this victory “before the arrival of Imam Mahdi.”

Fox News Digital observed the sermon and also witnessed a special table of honor in the middle of the mosque’s main prayer hall, featuring framed photos of Khamenei embracing Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrullah, also killed by Israel for orchestrating terrorist attacks.

The Friday service at the Manassas Mosque reveals a theological dynamic that Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned about in early February, noting that the Islamic Republic of Iran’s leaders are guided not merely by geopolitics and national security considerations, but by “pure theology.”

“We have to understand that Iran ultimately is governed, and its decisions are governed by Shiite clerics — radical Shiite clerics — who make policy decisions on the basis of pure theology,” Rubio said.

In its investigation, Fox News Digital conducted a digital analysis of hours of sermons and scores of pages of pro-regime protest slogans, messaging and social media posts, using large-language models, and found clerics, community leaders and media platforms in the U.S. framing tensions with Iran in explicitly apocalyptic terms rooted in eschatology, or Islamist end-times theology. 

The investigation found that precepts shaping Tehran’s worldview, from its clerics to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, are also being preached on American soil by proxies for Iran’s propaganda.

From the mosque in northern Virginia to religious institutions in Michigan and Texas, clerics aligned with the Islamic Republic are advancing a doomsday interpretation of faith that casts geopolitical and military confrontation with the U.S. as part of a prophetic destiny tied to the return of the Mahdi.

After war broke out Friday night, Fox News Digital witnessed pro-regime chats on messaging platforms, like Telegram, filled with prayers, awaiting “the arrival” of Mahdi. 

“We need Al Mahdi…His return with Jesus will be the final win permanently,” one read.

“The saviour the warrior the dominator ‘ imam mahdi ’ [sic] will arrive,” read another.

Last summer, the Manassas Mosque co-organized a White House protest with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, the ANSWER Coalition, CodePink and other far-left groups to support the Iranian regime. The groups are now again protesting Trump’s military action against Iran. 

One demonstrator, wearing a black-and-white Palestinian keffiyeh scarf over her face, carried a flag last summer that read “Labayk ya Mahdi” in Arabic, meaning, “At your service, oh, Mahdi.” 

In Farsi, Arabic and English, the flag also had the message, “I dedicate every single of my steps to your reappearance.” 

DEADLY AUSTIN SHOOTING THAT KILLED 3 MAY BE ‘ACT OF TERRORISM,’ FBI SAYS

Pro-regime mosques, K-12 schools and local community organizations in the U.S. are “producing messaging that mirrors Tehran’s talking points almost word for word,” warned Andrew Ghalili, policy director at the National Union for Democracy in Iran, an advocacy group led by Iranian Americans who oppose the theocratic regime running Iran.

In an upcoming report, “The Ayatollahs’ Influence Network in the United States,” reviewed by Fox News Digital, the group’s researchers conclude the Islamic Republic of Iran spreads “Tehran’s messaging” in a network of institutions it supports in the U.S., for example, pitting Trump as the Dajjal fighting defenders of the Mahdi, like Khamenei and now his successors.

“What we’re seeing is years of deliberate investment by the Islamic Republic inside the United States,” Ghalili told Fox News Digital. 

“This is happening on American soil, and it’s just another way in which the regime poses a direct threat to the United States, this time not with missiles but through infiltration,” he said.

A gunman just killed three in Austin, Texas, wearing a sweater that said, “PROPERTY OF ALLAH.” According to media reports, law enforcement officials found the flag of the Islamic Republic of Iran and photos of its leaders in his home.

ENEMY WITHIN: COUNTERTERRORISM EXPERTS FEAR SLEEPER CELLS COULD BE POISED INSIDE US

After the recent Friday service, two community leaders at the Manassas mosque declined to speak for attribution but told Fox News Digital that the rhetoric of destroying “nonbelievers” and the photos of Khamenei and the terrorist group leaders are meant to challenge “injustice” before the Mahdi appears.

A Harvard University report on “The Hidden Imam and the End of Time” recognizes the world’s two billion Muslims hold a range of beliefs regarding eschatology and many reject strict or literal interpretations.

In the majority Sunni sect and the minority Shiite sect of Islam, clerics describe the Mahdi’s army traveling from modern-day Iran to Damascus, Syria, where Jesus would appear at the Umayyad Mosque and pray behind the Mahdi. The Mahdi’s forces would battle Dajjal in Syria and kill him in Lod, Israel, conquering the world.

Days ago, Iran’s state-run Islamic Republic News Agency repeated the end-times narrative, quoting Hezbollah Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem, claiming the regime is the “government of Imam Mahdi” and its anti-U.S. “resistance is the path to hastening his reappearance.”

IRAN OPERATING SECRET ‘BLACK BOX’ SITES HOLDING THOUSANDS IN DETENTION: REPORTS

For women’s rights activist Sara Ghorbani, a writer who fled Iran’s rigid theocratic rule in 2010, the regime’s death grip on power is disturbing.

“We’re fighting an evil that the world doesn’t truly comprehend in its belief that it has a divine mandate to usher in a day of apocalypse,” Ghorbani told Fox News Digital. 

“Our brave people in Iran are fighting a tyranny that believes it is God’s salvation for this earth when, in fact, it is a cruel and ungodly regime that is actually their own prophecy of Dajjal,” added Ghorbani, who created a short video of children the Iranian regime allegedly killed in recent weeks.

In Dearborn, Michigan, Usama Abdulghani, imam at the Hadi Institute, recently posted a controversial video on a YouTube channel for “Light of Guidance,” which says on its YouTube page that its content isn’t connected to any other organization. 

Before war broke out, he warned congregants that “the empire is now right outside the door” of Iran, in the form of U.S. forces. The Hadi Institute and the Light of Guidance didn’t respond to requests for comment about the cleric’s statements.

In another lecture, he reassured congregants, “Iran has been waiting for the mother of all battles for 47 years,” since 1979. He said Americans shouldn’t fight “for this empire.”

He urged congregants to engage in a “clarification jihad” and convert Americans to Islam “before Imam Mahdi returns.”

In its report, the National Union for Democracy in Iran alleges that the Hadi Institute is a “rhetorically aggressive node in the pro-Iran ecosystem.” It has a publishing enterprise that says on its website that its staff “deliver an unfiltered message in promoting an Islamic worldview in preparation of the Mahdi.” The Hadi Institute and its publishing initiative didn’t respond to questions about the criticisms about its work.

It alleges anti-U.S. propaganda, like the doomsday scenario, is often expressed at venues supported by a pro-regime New York-based 501(c)(3) organization, the Alavi Foundation, which it alleges has built “durable, institution-based influence networks operating inside the United States through religious, educational and nonprofit structures.” 

In its latest IRS Form 990 filing, the Alavi Foundation, headquartered on Fifth Avenue in midtown Manhattan, reported $58 million in assets. The Alavi Foundation didn’t respond to a request for comment about the allegations that it promotes propaganda that supports the regime in Iran. 

At one point, Abdulghani reassured his congregation that Iran would defeat U.S. forces, saying, “Iran has something for these guys. Don’t be worried about Iran. Iran has been waiting for the mother of all battles for 47 years. They’ve been waiting for this. Iran is prepared. Don’t worry about that. Iran’s going to be able to handle its business.”

In a new report, researchers at the National Contagion Research Institute, based in Princeton, N.J., analyzed regime narratives alleging the CIA and Israel’s Mossad spy agency, fomented January’s protests against the regime, an allegation that Abdulghani repeated. They found “decentralized influence networks,” including in the U.S., “operationalize and amplify” pro-regime narratives.

The pro-regime messaging even invokes the end-times narrative to children. In late December, the “Muslim Student Association Persian-Speaking Group of North America” shared a video showing children coloring paper masks, swords and shields labeled “Ya Mahdi, Labayk,” or “Oh Mahdi, come.” The children staged mock attacks with their paper weapons amid Legos and glitter.

A few years ago, a video from the Islamic Education Center of Houston went viral in Iran, featuring students saying they would be soldiers for Imam Mahdi, singing, “I make an oath to be your martyr.” The center didn’t respond to requests for comment, but an academic told the local media the video was metaphorical allegiance to a religious figure.

The messianic messaging also extends to pro-regime media platforms. Earlier this month, a media website, TMJ News Network, published an article headlined, “The Promise of Justice Amid Corruption,” featuring an image of convicted child sex predator Jeffrey Epstein alongside a green-cloaked silhouette and images of other figures referenced in documents released by the Justice Department. Only Epstein co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell has been implicated in illegal conduct in connection with the Epstein case. 

The article stated that “against this backdrop, the Mahdist movement represents a promise of justice.”

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

On the anniversary of the 1979 Revolution, the pro-regime Light of Guidance hosted an assistant imam, Hassan Salamey, who invoked “the Epstein list” to denounce “the Satanic” West.

“The Islamic Republic is the system that is working to prepare the grounds for the saviors who will come side by side: Jesus, the son of Mary, and the Mahdi from the final prophet’s line,” he said. “This is the transitional government that will lead the fight to save us all.”

Back at the Manassas Mosque in northern Virginia, congregation members closed their prayers seeking to “destroy all the nonbelievers,” the portraits of Khamenei, Sinwar and Nasrullah over their shoulders.

Fox News Digital’s Hannah Brennan, Tessa Hoyos and Nikos DeGruccio contributed to this report.

Related Article

The wife of U.S. Rep. Jim Baird, R-Ind., has died after suffering serious injuries in a January hit-and-run accident, the congressman’s office announced Sunday.

Danise Baird died following complications from her injuries in the Jan. 5 car crash, Baird’s office wrote in a post on X.

“Congressman Baird and Danise were married for 59 years, building a life centered on faith, family, and service,” the post read. “A devoted wife and loving mother of three, she was the foundation of their family and will be deeply missed. We ask that you keep the Congressman and his family in your prayers during this difficult time.”

The congressman was also injured in the crash as the couple drove back to the nation’s capital. He was discharged after less than 24 hours in the hospital, though missed some time on Capitol Hill.

Baird, 80, and his wife were both originally expected “to be okay,” President Donald Trump said a day after the crash while making remarks at the recently renamed Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.

The couple’s son, Beau Baird, wrote in a Jan. 15 update on Facebook that his mother had “a long recovery ahead of her after suffering nearly 15 breaks and fractures” in the “serious hit-and-run accident.”

On Feb. 1, he wrote that his mother “has taken her first assisted steps,” adding that “while we’re hopeful, we know there’s still a road ahead, and family is at the center of all we do.”

Baird and his wife were high school sweethearts and shared three children together, according to the congressman’s House biography.

GOP REP MAST SAYS US MILITARY OBJECTIVE IN IRAN IS TO ‘ELIMINATE’ THREAT TO AMERICANS

Lawmakers took to social media to share their condolences with the Baird family following the devastating loss of their matriarch.

“This is incredibly sad news from our dedicated colleague Jim Baird,” Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., wrote. “Jim’s wife Danise was often by his side as he worked so hard in Congress on behalf of his constituents. They are salt of the earth people and Jim and his family have sacrificed so much for our country.”

Rep. Pete Stauber, R-Minn., asked the public to “join me in lifting up my colleague Rep. Jim Baird and his family in prayer,” adding, “May God wrap them in His comfort through the difficult days ahead.”

Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Mich., wrote that she and her husband Mike were praying for the Baird family to “find comfort, strength, and peace in the days ahead.”

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

Baird, a U.S. Army veteran who served during the Vietnam War and is known on Capitol Hill for veterans and farming issues, has represented Indiana’s 4th Congressional District since 2019. The district is a largely rural, agriculture-heavy area in western and north-central Indiana.

Fox News’ Michael Dorgan, Alex Nitzberg and Chad Pergram contributed to this report.

Related Article

Most congressional precedents emanate from Capitol Hill.

Most presidential precedents emerge from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

But a precedent which may echo around the halls of Congress and the White House for years materialized in recent days in the snow-covered, wooded village of Chappaqua, New York.

That’s where former President Bill Clinton testified under subpoena to the House Oversight Committee as part of its investigation into Jeffrey Epstein. Lawmakers said the panel’s ability to compel testimony from a former president could establish a new precedent going forward — including in matters involving President Trump and the Epstein files.

According to congressional historians, never before has a congressional committee deposed a former president. It was rare enough to have former First Lady and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testify the day before. Republicans noted that former President Clinton had previously acknowledged knowing Epstein and traveling on trips that included him.

“I do not recall ever encountering Mr. Epstein. I never flew on his plane or visited his island, homes or offices,” said Hillary Clinton after nearly six hours of closed-door testimony before the panel.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., said Hillary Clinton declared “‘You’ll have to ask my husband,’” more than “a dozen” times during her deposition ahead of Bill Clinton’s the following day.

There are no accusations of wrongdoing against either of the Clintons in connection with Epstein. But the former president’s past ties to Jeffrey Epstein have spurred questions from lawmakers.

REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: BONDI’S BINDER STRATEGY TURNS HOUSE HEARING INTO POLITICAL FIRESTORM

“It’s very difficult to get people in for these depositions of great power and great wealth,” said Comer. “It took seven months, seven months to get the Clintons in here. But we’ve got them in here.”

“Here” was Chappaqua, about an hour north of New York City. The Clintons have resided in Chappaqua since President Clinton left office in 2001 and when Hillary Clinton ran for Senate from New York in 2000. Hillary Clinton served as a senator from New York from 2001 until 2009, when she became President Obama’s first Secretary of State.

More specifically, the “here” for the Clintons’ testimony was not a bland office in the Rayburn House Office Building. House members questioned the Clintons at the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center, known locally as “ChappPAC,” a white structure with simple arcades and Greek columns atop a hillside above the Saw Mill River.

The Epstein inquiry is serious, and the unusual venue underscored the extraordinary nature of the proceeding.

Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., appeared to snap a photo of Hillary Clinton during the deposition, then shared it with conservative media outlets.

“I admire (Hillary Clinton’s) blue suit. So I wanted to capture that for everyone,” said Boebert outside the venue.

“Why did you send the picture?” asked a reporter.

“Why not?” retorted Boebert.

“We are sitting through an incredibly unserious, clown show of a deposition, where Members of Congress and the Republican Party are more concerned about getting their photo op of Secretary Clinton than actually getting to the truth and actually holding anyone accountable,” charged Rep. Yassamin Ansari, D-Ariz.

BILL CLINTON SAYS HE DIDN’T KNOW WOMAN IN INFAMOUS JACUZZI PHOTO DURING CLOSED-DOOR EPSTEIN TESTIMONY

After concluding her testimony, Hillary Clinton told reporters she found the “end” of the deposition to be “quite unusual because I started being asked about UFOs and a series of questions about Pizzagate, one of the most vile, bogus conspiracy theories that was propagated on the internet.”

That is a reference to a conspiracy theory that emerged during the 2016 presidential campaign between Hillary Clinton and President Trump. Proponents falsely claimed Democrats operated a child sex trafficking ring out of the Comet Ping Pong pizza shop in Washington. A North Carolina man later drove to Washington, D.C., and fired shots inside the restaurant, telling authorities he was there to rescue children.

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-N.C., asserted that Hillary Clinton was “screaming” at lawmakers during the deposition.

“She was unhinged,” said Mace. “And I hope that President Clinton is less unhinged today than his wife was yesterday.”

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., emerged from the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center about 90 minutes into former President Clinton’s deposition to speculate about what may have been behind Epstein and his sex trafficking operation. Luna noted she was speaking only for herself and not other members of the committee.

“It has become very evident even in the last 24 hours in lines of questioning that Jeffrey Epstein was running an intelligence gathering operation,” said Luna. “I do believe it was a honey pot operation.”

Luna added that it was possible a U.S. intelligence ally was involved, though she provided no evidence for the claim.

One of the five agreed-upon areas of questioning for the Clintons was how Epstein used his connections with powerful figures to hide his crimes. That is why individuals such as former President Clinton and President Trump have surfaced in previously released Epstein-related documents.

The presidency is a unique office, and even President Trump expressed some sympathy for Bill Clinton’s appearance before the Oversight Committee.

“I don’t like seeing him deposed. But they certainly went after me a lot more than that,” said the president.

When pressed on Friday, President Trump said he was unfamiliar with the Epstein files.

“I don’t know anything about the Epstein files. I’ve been totally exonerated,” said President Trump.

Oversight Committee Republicans were asked whether they agreed with that claim.

“From all the evidence I’ve seen he’s been exonerated for a long time,” replied Comer.

“The Epstein victims have exonerated President Trump. This is a trope that you guys are — a rabbit hole you guys are going down. But he’s been exonerated over and over again by Epstein victims,” said Mace.

But Democrats questioned why the committee sought testimony from former President Clinton and not President Trump.

“There is a lot of email correspondence that included President Clinton,” said Comer.

Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., the top Democrat on the Oversight panel, argued the move set a broader standard.

“There’s a precedent now,” said Garcia. “We now want President Trump to come in and to testify under oath in front of the Oversight Committee. We want the First Lady, who we know had a relationship as well with Jeffrey Epstein, to come under oath and testify to the Oversight Committee. That is the new precedent that Republicans wanted to set here.”

Garcia added that President Trump “has not been exonerated, and we have serious questions for President Trump.”

Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, D-Va., argued that the committee spoke “to the wrong president.”

It is unclear whether the panel will seek testimony from President Trump. Democrats have indicated they would consider doing so if they gain control of the House in the fall midterm elections.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Separation of powers is a key component of America’s constitutional system. Only a handful of presidents have ever testified before Congress — and none had previously been deposed as a former president.

The nation’s history includes small communities that have taken on outsized political significance. Lawmakers and legal observers say Chappaqua could now join that list if presidential testimony before Congress becomes more common.

Related Article