NationalWatch

President Donald Trump reacted to a social media post joking about Secretary of State Marco Rubio becoming the president of Cuba, replying, “Sounds good to me.”

Trump posted the response Sunday on his Truth Social account after a user wrote, “Marco Rubio will be president of Cuba.”

Rubio’s broad portfolio in the Trump administration has fueled online jokes portraying him as being placed in charge of an ever-expanding list of roles.

MADURO’S ARREST IS GOOD NEWS FOR ALL AMERICANS AND LEAVES DEMOCRATS LOOKING FOOLISH

Officially, he serves as secretary of state, national security advisor, and acting archivist of the United States.

He also previously served as acting administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, before the agency’s remaining functions were discontinued or absorbed into the State Department as part of a reorganization finalized in July.

RUBIO SPEARHEADS MASSIVE STATE DEPT REORGANIZATION SET TO ELIMINATE, MERGE MORE THAN 300 OFFICES

Social media users on X have turned a photo of Rubio from a White House meeting into a viral “realizing” meme, joking that his growing responsibilities make him the administration’s go-to official for a widening range of positions.

Users have posted AI-generated photos of Rubio that depict him in a range of imagined roles, from the Shah of Iran and the president of Venezuela to the manager of Manchester United.

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Rubio has leaned into the humor himself, writing on X last week that he wouldn’t be a candidate for the vacant head coach or general manager positions with the Miami Dolphins.

“While you never know what the future may bring right now my focus must remain on global events and also the precious archives of the United States of America,” he wrote.

A Massachusetts federal judge on Saturday temporarily blocked the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) planned termination of Family Reunification Parole (FRP) programs for migrants from seven countries, ruling the agency likely failed to give individuals proper notice before stripping their legal status.

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani said in a five-page order that an emergency stay was warranted and granted a 14-day temporary restraining order blocking the termination of multiple country-specific FRP programs.

FRP allows certain relatives of U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents to enter the United States temporarily while they wait for an immigrant visa, a process that can take years.

DHS said in December that it was terminating all FRP programs for migrants from Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti and Honduras, and their immediate family members.

LEFT-WING COURT HANDS KRISTI NOEM BIG WIN IN ‘UNVETTED IMMIGRATION’ CASE

“This administration is ending the abuse of humanitarian parole which allowed poorly vetted aliens to circumvent the traditional parole process. Parole was never intended to be used in this way, and DHS is returning parole to a case-by-case basis as intended by Congress. Ending the FRP programs is a necessary return to common-sense policies and a return to America First,” read a press release from the agency.

DHS said it would provide individual notice to parole recipients, informing them that their parole and related work authorization were being terminated.

It noted that the terminations, set to take effect Jan. 14, would not apply to parole recipients who had filed a Form I-485, an application for permanent residency, by Dec. 15, 2025, and whose applications remain pending.

JUDGE ORDERS RFK JR’S HHS TO STOP SHARING MEDICAID DATA WITH IMMIGRATION OFFICIALS

Talwani wrote that DHS likely failed to provide the individualized written notice required before ending recipients’ status, finding little evidence that people were actually notified through U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) online accounts or by mail.

“The Federal Register Notice opined that ‘all FRP parolees under the modernized programs should have a USCIS online account’ and that ‘DHS will . . . provide individual notice to each parolee through their USCIS online account,’” the federal judge explained.

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“But nothing in the record before the court suggests that most, let alone all, parolees do in fact have such accounts or when notice via such accounts was provided to the parolees.”

Talwani ordered DHS to produce records explaining its decision by Jan. 13. She then set an expedited schedule for the government to file its legal response by Jan. 15, with plaintiffs given until Jan. 20 to reply.

Tens of thousands of anti-ICE protesters took to the streets of major cities across the country this weekend in a raft of demonstrations largely organized by a coalition of left-wing groups.

The ICE Out for Good coalition called for a “weekend of action” starting Saturday, organizing more than 1,000 events nationwide. The coalition was largely organized by Indivisible, the same left-wing group that pushed “No Kings” protests against President Donald Trump in 2025.

Protests focus on the death of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis last week. She was killed in a confrontation with ICE agents after federal authorities say she attempted to run over one of the officers.

“Renee Nicole Good was a wife, a mother of three, and a member of her community. She, and the dozens of other sons, daughters, friends, siblings, parents, and community members who have been killed by ICE, should be alive today,” said Indivisible co-executive director Leah Greenberg.

MINNEAPOLIS MAYOR DEMANDS STATE BE INCLUDED IN ICE-INVOLVED SHOOTING PROBE, SLAMS PAM BONDI’S DOJ

“This weekend, people across the country are coming together to grieve, honor those we’ve lost, and demand accountability from a system that has operated with impunity for far too long. ICE’s violence is not a statistic, it has names, families, and futures attached to it, and we refuse to look away or stay silent,” she added.

Protests led to scuffles with police and arrests in several states on Saturday. Austin Police detained at least three anti-ICE agitators as protests escalated there.

Footage also shows Los Angeles police facing down protesters outside an ICE detention center.

PORTLAND AGITATORS CLASH WITH POLICE AFTER 2 SHOT BY FEDERAL IMMIGRATION AGENT

Multiple arrests were made after a dispersal order was issued and protesters refused to leave the area as instructed, according to LAPD. Multiple agitators were seen on video being detained just before 7 p.m. local time.

“You must leave the area,” police wrote in a statement on X.

Members of the Trump administration have reiterated that the ICE operations are targeting criminal illegal aliens. Vice President JD Vance highlighted a list of individuals arrested in Minnesota that includes convicted child rapists and murderers.

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“Arresting and deporting these people is absolutely critical to national security. National democrats are going to get our law enforcement killed if they don’t stop lying about this issue and the people working to keep us safe,” Vance wrote on X.

President Donald Trump said Saturday that Venezuela has begun releasing political prisoners “in a BIG WAY,” crediting U.S. intervention for the move following last week’s American military operation in the country.

“Venezuela has started the process, in a BIG WAY, of releasing their political prisoners,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Thank you! I hope those prisoners will remember how lucky they got that the USA came along and did what had to be done.”

He added a warning directed at those being released: “I HOPE THEY NEVER FORGET! If they do, it will not be good for them.”

The president’s comments come one week after the United States launched Operation Absolute Resolve, a strike on Venezuela and capture of dictator Nicolás Maduro as well as his wife Cilia Flores, transporting them to the United States to face federal drug trafficking charges.

US WARNS AMERICANS TO LEAVE VENEZUELA IMMEDIATELY AS ARMED MILITIAS SET UP ROADBLOCKS

Following the military operation, Trump said the U.S. intends to temporarily oversee Venezuela’s transition of power, asserting American involvement “until such time as a safe, proper and judicious transition” can take place and warning that U.S. forces stand ready to escalate if necessary.

At least 18 political prisoners were reported freed as of Saturday and there is no comprehensive public list of all expected releases, Reuters reported.

Maduro and Flores were transported to New York after their capture to face charges in U.S. federal court. The Pentagon has said that Operation Absolute Resolve involved more than 150 aircraft and months of planning.

TRUMP ADMIN SAYS MADURO CAPTURE REINFORCES ALIEN ENEMIES ACT REMOVALS

Trump has said the U.S. intends to remain actively involved in Venezuela’s security, political transition and reconstruction of its oil infrastructure.

The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

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Fox News Digital’s Morgan Phillips and Greg Norman-Diamond contributed to this reporting.

HEDGESVILLE, W.V. – EXCLUSIVE: As governor of West Virginia, Jim Justice in 2021 signed the Save Women’s Sports Act – prohibiting transgender girls from competing in women’s sports. Now that he represennts the state in the U.S. Senate, his law faces Supreme Court scrutiny next week with national implications.

Justice spoke Saturday to Fox News Digital – after he coached the Greenbrier East High School girls’ basketball team to a win over Hedgesville — about the high stakes of the case, and why banning states from keeping biological males out of female scholastic sports would unfairly disadvantage young women.

A transgender girl from the Bridgeport area named in court documents as “B. P. J.” sued to overturn it and be able to play on girls’ sports teams, and the case has made its way up the chain to the nation’s highest court.

A trial court upheld the law in 2023, but it was overturned on appeal in April 2024 and the Supreme Court agreed in July to hear the case, scheduling arguments for Tuesday.

STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL INVOLVED IN SCOTUS TRANS ATHLETE CASE RESPONDS AS 130 DEMS BACK MALES IN WOMEN’S SPORTS

“Why in the world don’t we step up and stand behind all the young girls and all the women who are trying to participate in athletics?” Justice told Fox News Digital courtside at the Spartans’ match near Berkeley Springs.

“It is unbelievable what they’ve done, and I am so proud of them — And to absolutely just walk away, turn our back and say, ‘Oh, well, it’s OK for us to [let] boys participate against their girls” —  I am off-the-chart absolutely standing with our women.”

Citing his own experience coaching girls from Greenbrier East in Lewisburg, Justice said he sees every day how hard they work and maintained “they absolutely don’t deserve to be disadvantaged.”

SUPREME COURT TO REVIEW STATE BANS ON TRANSGENDER ATHLETES’ PARTICIPATION IN SCHOOL SPORTS

“This court case is hugely important,” he said, accompanied by his celebrity canine companion Babydog. “At the end of the day, if we can’t stand up for our girls; stand up for our women; I don’t know what in the world is wrong with us.”

Justice was one of several lawmakers who filed an amicus brief in support of West Virginia and Attorney General JB McCuskey as he and Justice’s successor, Gov. Patrick Morrisey, bring the case before the bench.

The brief signaled Justice’s assertion that Congress must be the one to offer any expansion of Title IX – the 1972 civil rights law prohibiting sex-based discrimination – beyond biological sex to include gender identity.

TRANS ATHLETE’S FAMILY FILES RESPONSE IN SUPREME COURT WOMEN’S SPORTS CASE

“I think absolutely that Congress should be the one to expand it, but beyond that, I don’t know why we’d even consider it,” Justice said.

“You should see how hard our girls work all the time to perfect what they’re doing, to absolutely have a dream of going to college and playing ball. My daughter played college basketball. I’ve been there,” Justice said.

“We’ve seen a situation where a man basically is competing against our girls or our women and absolutely prevails. And then we see the tragedy of how… tough that is on our girls and women,” he said.

Always quick to tout the virtues of his home state, Justice also spoke about how important it is to see Mountaineers leading the charge on the transgender sports issue.

ATTORNEY GENERAL LEADING THE SUPREME COURT TRANS ATHLETE CASE DEFENSE SPEAKS OUT

“West Virginia is so good in so many ways,” the famed Greenbrier proprietor said, adding that the arguments McCuskey’s team is preparing to make on Tuesday fit right into the state’s modus operandi:

“I’ve said it over and over, we are bound with logic, common sense, goodness, good neighbors, people that are appreciative and loving — It is absolutely unbelievable how we stepped up during COVID, all the different things we did, we led the nation over and over.”

“Now the nation is awakening, the world is awakening just how great West Virginia truly is. But our people are the real deal. That’s all there is to it,” he said.

130 DEMOCRAT CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVES URGE SCOTUS TO SIDE WITH TRANS ATHLETE IN TITLE IX LEGAL BATTLE

On the other side of the case, B.P.J. is seeking to play on her high school sports teams with girls.

This past year, B.P.J. qualified for the West Virginia girls high school state track meet, finishing third in the discus-throw and eighth in the shot-put in the Class AAA division.

She has identified as female since third grade and has been taking puberty-blocking medication. The plaintiffs have complained of harassment and intimidation over their lawsuit.

The Supreme Court will formally decide on both West Virginia’s law and an Idaho policy. The Justice Department supports the laws and will be allotted time during oral arguments.

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The Save Women’s Sports Act was spearheaded in the West Virginia legislature by GOP Dels. Evan Worrell of Barboursville, Wayne Clark of Charles Town and Jonathan Pinson of Ravenswood.

Fox News Digital’s Olivia Palombo and Fox News’ Shannon Bream and Bill Mears contributed to this report.

The State Department declared Saturday that the U.S. is “rejecting the outdated model of multilateralism,” saying the system turned American taxpayers into “the world’s underwriter for a sprawling architecture of global governance.” 

Additionally, it said that President Donald Trump‘s recent order withdrawing the U.S. from 66 international organizations showed that “the era of writing blank check to international bureaucracies is over.”

The move marks the latest in Trump’s broader “America First” agenda aimed at cutting spending that the administration deems wasteful, ineffective or contrary to U.S. interests.

“What we term the ‘international system’ is now overrun with hundreds of opaque international organizations, many with overlapping mandates, duplicative actions, ineffective outputs, and poor financial and ethical governance,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote in a memo posted on the State Department’s Substack.

TRUMP ORDERS US WITHDRAWAL FROM 66 ‘WASTEFUL’ GLOBAL ORGANIZATIONS IN SWEEPING ‘AMERICA FIRST’ CRACKDOWN

“Even those that once performed useful functions have increasingly become inefficient bureaucracies, platforms for politicized activism or instruments contrary to our nation’s best interests. Not only do these institutions not deliver results, they obstruct action by those who wish to address these problems,” Rubio added.

Rubio did not hold back in his criticism of the organizations, saying that the U.S.’s continued participation “would be an abandonment of our national duty.” Additionally, the secretary emphasized that this did not mean that the U.S. was retreating from global leadership, rather that it was rejecting what the administration sees as an outdated model of multilateralism.

On Wednesday, Trump signed a presidential memorandum directing the U.S. to withdraw from 66 international organizations, ordering executive departments and agencies to cease participation in and funding of entities the administration says no longer serve U.S. interests.

The memo came just under a year after a Feb. 4, 2025, order that directed Rubio, along with the U.S. representative to the United Nations, to conduct a review of “all international intergovernmental organizations of which the United States is a member and provides any type of funding or other support, and all conventions and treaties to which the United States is a party, to determine which organizations, conventions, and treaties are contrary to the interests of the United States,” according to the White House.

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The findings were presented to the president, who deliberated with his Cabinet before moving forward with the withdrawals.

In the January 2026 memorandum, Trump said Rubio’s findings showed it was “contrary to the interests of the U.S. to remain a member of, participate in, or otherwise provide support” to the listed groups. 

The U.N.-affiliated organizations included U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, U.N. Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women and the U.N. Democracy Fund, among others. The non-U.N. groups included the International Solar Alliance and the Global Forum on Migration and Development as well as others.

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

Four tankers that left Venezuela in early January with their transponders off, also known as “dark mode,” have reportedly returned to the country’s waters. The news comes after several U.S. tanker seizures and amid the Trump administration’s push to acquire Venezuelan oil following the arrest of dictator Nicolás Maduro.

Most of the four tankers were loaded, according to Reuters, which noted that Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), a state-owned company, and monitoring service TankerTrackers.com had reported the vessels’ return.

A flotilla of approximately one dozen loaded vessels as well as at least three empty ships left Venezuelan waters last month, despite a U.S. blockade that has been imposed since mid-December, according to Reuters.

PRESIDENT TRUMP REDRAWS THE GLOBAL OIL MAP

One of the vessels, the supertanker M Sophia, which had the Panamanian flag, was intercepted by the U.S. earlier this week, as was the Olina, which had the flag of Sao Tome And Principe, according to Reuters. The outlet reported, citing PDVSA, that the Olina was released to Venezuela on Friday.

The Olina had been seized by U.S. forces in a pre-dawn mission on Friday. The U.S. Southern Command said that Marines and sailors from Joint Task Force Southern Spear worked on the mission in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security.

“Apprehensions like this are backed by the full power of the U.S. Navy’s Amphibious Ready Group, including the ready and lethal platforms of the USS Iwo Jima, USS San Antonio, and USS Fort Lauderdale,” the U.S. Southern Command wrote in a post on X. “The Department of War’s Operation Southern Spear is unwavering in its mission to defend our homeland by ending illicit activity and restoring security in the Western Hemisphere.”

The Olina, previously named the Minerva M, was sanctioned by the United States for its role in transporting Russian oil, according to The Wall Street Journal.

FROM SANCTIONS TO SEIZURE: WHAT MADURO’S CAPTURE MEANS FOR VENEZUELA’S ECONOMY

Three other vessels that departed Venzuela in the flotilla, Panama-flagged Merope, Cook Islands-flagged Min Hang and Panama-flagged Thalia III, were spotted late Friday in Venezuelan waters by TankerTrackers.com, Reuters reported.

On Friday, Trump hosted nearly two dozen oil executives at the White House to discuss investment in Venezuela after the U.S. military’s successful capture of Maduro. The executives represented several major companies, including Chevron, Exxon, ConocoPhillips, Continental, Halliburton, HKN, Valero, Marathon, Shell, Trafigura, Vitol Americas, Repsol, Eni, Aspect Holdings, Tallgrass, Raisa Energy and Hilcorp.

“You have total safety, total security. One of the reasons you couldn’t go in is you had no guarantees, you had no security, but now you have total security,” Trump said during the meeting. 

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“It’s a whole different Venezuela and Venezuela is going to be very successful, and the people of the United States are going to be big beneficiaries because we’re going to be extracting, you know, numbers of in terms of oil, like, you know, few people have ever seen actually. So, you’re dealing with us directly. You’re not dealing with Venezuela at all. We don’t want you to deal with Venezuela,” the president added.

The president also predicted that the acquisition of Venezuelan oil would lead to massive wealth, lower taxes and “lots of jobs for Americans and for Venezuelans.”

Days before the meeting with oil executives, Trump said that Venezuela would be turning over between 30 million and 50 million barrels of “high-quality,” sanctioned oil to the U.S. He made the announcement on Truth Social and said that the oil would be sold at market price and that he would “control the proceeds to ensure it is “used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States!”

Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton and Sophia Compton contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order blocking U.S. courts from seizing Venezuelan oil revenues held in American Treasury accounts.

The order states that court action against the funds would undermine U.S. national security and foreign policy objectives.

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This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

EXCLUSIVE: As protests erupted in Iran and a dramatic U.S. operation unfolded in Venezuela, the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) moved quickly to push information into some of the world’s most tightly controlled media environments, the agency’s head, Kari Lake, told Fox News Digital in an interview.

In the early morning hours of Jan. 3, reports began to trickle out about a law enforcement operation carried out by the U.S. military to remove Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, prompting USAGM, the agency responsible for broadcasting U.S. news in areas where press freedom is restricted, to take immediate action. 

“I found out about the situation in Venezuela, the incredible bravery of our service members who extracted Maduro,” Lake said. “And the minute I heard about it, I had the team down in Miami that operates our office of Cuba broadcasting on the phone.”

Lake described a rapid expansion of coverage, with the agency ramping up broadcasts, expanding language services and surging personnel within hours to reach audiences via Radio Martí and Martí Noticias out of Miami, broadcasting directly into Cuba, Venezuela, and across Latin America.

TRUMP DISCUSSES EXPANSION OF DRUG CARTEL CRACKDOWN, ISSUES GRIM WARNING TO IRAN

“They were immediately deployed into the newsroom and they started coverage right away, bringing out exactly what was happening,” Lake explained. “They were covering it in Spanish to the folks in Cuba, and then we also have affiliates all around the Caribbean. We’re taking our broadcast and pushing it in and pumping it in so that more people in Cuba were able to hear it.”

“When people in Cuba hear that Maduro has been taken down, it gives them hope that they too can one day have that freedom. What we want to see is the people rising up and saying, we want freedom, we want conditions that are improved. We don’t want to live this way any longer. So we’ve been doing incredible nonstop coverage.”

USAGM’s Voice of America carried Trump’s major addresses on Venezuela live while covering the latest developments, congressional reaction, and responses within Venezuela, reaching more than 6.6 million global audience impressions.

IRAN REGIME CUTS NATIONWIDE INTERNET ACCESS AS PROTESTS CLAIM 44 LIVES ACROSS MAJOR CITIES

Roughly a week before explosions rocked Venezuela during the Maduro extraction, USAGM sprung into action in another global crisis when protests erupted on the streets of Iran as citizens mobilized against the Khomeini regime in one of the world’s most media-restricted regions.

Lake spoke to Fox News Digital about how her team took action in that instance as well and immediately began trying to reach as many Iranians as possible with U.S.-backed coverage.

“Think about the people on the ground in Iran,” Lake said. “Iranian people have been subjected to such horrible conditions with a dictator and a regime that has been just cruel for 47 years. They don’t get fair media. They don’t get honest coverage over there. We’ve been able to provide them with honest coverage.”

“We’re working to get more of it in. We’re hiring contractors to up our coverage and add more additional hours to coverage. What we’re watching on the streets in the country of Iran is historic. The people are rising up saying we don’t care anymore. We have to get our freedom back and we’re there to do that coverage.”

After protests erupted in Iran, the USAGM moved quickly to expand coverage through Voice of America’s Persian-language service, significantly increasing satellite television programming aimed at Iranian audiences. Over the first 12 days of unrest, the service added seven additional hours of live broadcasts, including two hour-long primetime breaking newscasts on Jan. 3 and Jan. 4, while extending its regular evening newscasts from one hour to two as demonstrations spread.

IRANIAN MILITARY LEADER THREATENS PREEMPTIVE ATTACK AFTER TRUMP COMMENTS

As the unrest continued, VOA’s Persian-language service also ramped up its digital and social media footprint, publishing 52 web stories focused on the protests by Jan. 7. During that same period, the service pushed more than 1,700 pieces of content across six social media platforms, including over 170 user-generated videos sent from inside Iran that showed demonstrations and documented the regime’s crackdown.

The surge in coverage, according to the agency, resulted in a surge in audience engagement in the form of VOA’s Persian website recording a record 1.69 million daily visits on Dec. 28. Over the first 12 days of protests, video views jumped more than 160 percent and article views rose nearly 80 percent, driving a total of roughly 13 million visits to the site during that period representing a 15% increase.

Lake told Fox News Digital that there is overlap between their Iran and Cuba coverage, explaining that they are pumping information about what’s happening in Venezuela to the people of Iran.

“People in Iran are very interested in what happened in Venezuela, and so we’re using both our Office of Cuba broadcasting with our Persian Farsi language services, and we’re kind of combining forces and making sure that everyone realizes, everybody living under these regimes realizes that the people are rising up all over the world right now.”

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“This is such a historic moment and the people in Cuba know what’s happening in Venezuela. The people in Cuba now know what is happening in Iran and vice versa. Iran realizes what happened in Venezuela and what’s happened in Cuba as well. It’s amazing. We’re at the precipice, I believe, of not only just a peaceful world, but one where the people are free in places where they haven’t experienced that lovely feeling of freedom for a long time. I’m happy with the work that we’re doing. We’re doing it with a smaller staff and it shows that the federal government doesn’t have to be bloated, slow-moving dinosaur anymore.”

Lake’s reference to the agency no longer being a “dinosaur” stems from her efforts to streamline an agency she says was wasting taxpayer dollars and not delivering a message across the world that was defending America’s interests.

“We came into the agency and I had a very tough job to go in and right-size the agency,” Lake explained, telling Fox News Digital that the previous administration’s USAGM was inefficient and at times put out messaging that was not “aligned” with the best interests of American foreign policy.

“It was bloated. The president put out an executive order saying, ‘bring this agency down to its statutory minimum,’ which means, go back to what is statutorily required and not more than that. Get rid of the bloat and just do what’s statutorily required and we were able to do that, and our detractors sued us and said, oh, you’ll never be able to cover the news. What happens if a big story breaks?”

“Well, I worked in the media for 30 years,” Lake said. “I know that when a big story breaks, you ramp up coverage and that’s exactly what we’ve done.”

A coalition of anti-Trump state attorneys general met “daily” during 2025 to brainstorm and organize ways to foil the administration, according to George Soros-backed New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, who has been an active member of the group.

In an interview with Source New Mexico published on Dec. 31, Torrez said that he and other Democratic attorneys general “were meeting on a daily basis for the first 90 or so days” of President Donald Trump’s second term. Since then, Torrez told the outlet, “We have since taken that down to every other day.”

According to Source New Mexico, the result has been that Torrez has led or signed onto 36 legal challenges against the Trump administration since January 2025. This has included a challenge to the Trump administration’s deployment of National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., as well as contesting the Department of Government Efficiency and opposition to some of the administration’s immigration actions.   

In the interview, Torrez described this opposition to Trump as an enormous undertaking and an “ever-growing resource challenge to track and monitor the pending status of all that litigation.”

TRUMP FOE LETITIA JAMES LEADING CHARGE ON NEW MULTISTATE LAWSUIT OVER HHS CUTS

Torrez has been New Mexico’s attorney general since 2023. He got his political start in 2016 when he successfully ran for Bernalillo County district attorney. During his 2016 campaign, he received the support of left-leaning super PAC New Mexico Safety & Justice, which was bankrolled by Soros.

According to a June 2016 expenditures and contributions report publicly available on the New Mexico Secretary of State’s website, New Mexico Safety & Justice received a $107,000 donation from Soros. The same filing shows the group spent $92,526.84 on media buys and media production costs in support of Torrez. The group also spent $9,555.00 on “In-Kind Polling to Progressive Champions NM PAC” and $1,951.40 on “polling.”

Torrez’s Republican opponent, Simon Kubiak, dropped out of the race after the contribution. According to 2016 reporting by the New Mexico Political Report, Kubiak cited Torrez’s campaign finances as the reason for his dropping out.

The outlet reported Kubiak saying that “New Mexicans cannot afford to challenge anyone who has unlimited resources and support from a multibillionaire from another country,” in an apparent reference to Soros, who is originally from Hungary and lives in New York.

After serving two terms as Bernalillo County district attorney, Torrez was elected attorney general of New Mexico in 2022. He took office in 2023.

DEMOCRAT AGS SUE TRUMP FOR ‘UNCONSCIONABLE’ FREEZE ON $6.8B IN K-12 SPENDING

Torrez launched his first lawsuit against the administration one day after Trump returned to the Oval Office. On Jan. 21, Torrez joined 17 other state attorneys general and the attorney general of D.C. in challenging Trump’s executive order restricting birthright citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants.

In a statement released at the time, Torrez called Trump’s order “a direct attack on the Constitution and the fundamental rights it guarantees to every child born on American soil.” The order is currently blocked while the case is ongoing.

The next month, Torrez led a lawsuit against the Trump administration over DOGE, arguing that Elon Musk and the department were unlawfully granted authority to carry out the planned budget cuts.   

In April, Torrez joined 19 other attorneys general in a lawsuit challenging Trump’s executive order requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections.

Then in September, Torrez filed an amicus brief in support of another lawsuit challenging the administration’s deployment of troops to D.C.

‘DANGEROUS AND ILLEGAL’: DEMOCRAT AGS SUE TRUMP OVER EFFORT TO USE SNAP TO LOCATE MIGRANTS

According to the interview, Torrez and others in the coalition began preparing for a Trump administration in “early 2024.” Since then, Torrez said, “We have kept our foot on the gas.”

At the same time, Torrez lamented that “the sad part” is that “some of these actions that were pursued by the administration through executive orders are now being built into the ‘Big, Beautiful Bill,’ so even if we win on the restoration of funding from the first fiscal year, we’ll be overtaken by federal legislation.”

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Torrez told the outlet that “none of the institutions in our government have been built to respond and react to the scale and speed of the destruction that’s being wrought by the Trump administration.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Torrez’s office and campaign and Soros’ Open Society Foundation for comment, but did not immediately receive a response. 

A new report from the Heritage Foundation argues the American family is in crisis and that strengthening marriage and family formation should be a core focus of U.S. federal policy.

The conservative think tank calls for sweeping policy changes to reverse declining birth and marriage rates, including a proposed $2,500 investment account for every newborn child, as well as other proposals.

The report says government policies “should encourage and protect the formation of families, not mere fertility.”

“The country should not seek a mere boost in the number of children born or in the monetary support that parents receive, the report says. “Yes, the country needs more children. But it matters how and to whom children are born. Society depends on men and women who want to form families, that is, who freely want to marry, and then freely bear and nurture children.”

‘SEX & THE CITY’ REPUBLICANS WANT INTO THE CONSERVATIVE TENT. ALEX CLARK HAS SOMETHING TO SAY ABOUT IT

The think tank assesses that decades of cultural change and public policy have contributed to the erosion of family formation, pointing to historically low fertility and marriage rates and a growing share of children raised outside married-parent households. The report ties the decline of the family to broader social and economic problems facing the country.

The report argues that traditional family structure remains essential, describing the family as “the foundation of civilization” and defining marriage — one man and one woman — as the ideal environment for raising children.

Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts warned that the country is nearing a point of no return when it comes to family breakdown.

“The family is the foundation of every healthy society, and, tragically, the American family is on the brink,” Roberts said in a statement. “We are dangerously close to being unable to reverse the decline. Our country will not survive if families continue to crumble at this rate.”

Roberts said the stakes extend beyond family life to the nation’s future itself.

SCHOLAR WARNS FEMINISM HAS BECOME A ‘MEGACHURCH’ REPLACING FAITH, FAMILY AND CHRISTIAN VIRTUE

“If we want to secure the Golden Age of America, we must have bold solutions like those in this report that lay the foundation for stronger families,” he said. “Strong families build strong communities, churches, schools, and businesses. Without them, freedom cannot last.”

The report also criticizes welfare and government programs, arguing they often “punish marriage and family formation” by creating financial incentives that make marriage less attractive. It frames family decline not as inevitable, but as the result of policy choices and calls for a “culture-wide Manhattan Project” to rebuild family norms.

To reverse the trend, the report recommends eliminating so-called marriage penalties in welfare programs, requiring federal agencies to review policies for their impact on marriage and family and encouraging policies that strengthen traditional families at all levels of government.

It also proposes financial incentives, including baby investment accounts seeded with $2,500 at birth, which the report says could help families build long-term financial stability. 

Other proposed incentives include expanded adoption and child tax credits.

The report also advocates for efforts to discourage online dating and the creation of marriage “bootcamp” classes aimed at supporting long-term relationships.

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“‘Online’ has become the most common way couples meet in America today,” the report says. “While there are plenty of dating app success stories, studies show that couples who meet online and subsequently marry are six times more likely to get divorced within the first three years of marriage than are those who meet through in-person methods. Beyond higher divorce rates, couples who meet online are also less likely to get married in the first place.”

The report also calls for a minimum age of 16 for social media platforms and certain A.I. chatbots, arguing that digital culture has contributed to declining family formation.

Despite large protests erupting in Minneapolis and throughout the country, an immigration expert said that the left’s attempt to paint slain anti-ICE protester Renee Nicole Good as “George Floyd 2.0” is “just not sticking.”

Leading Democrats have responded with outrage after an ICE officer killed Good in a Wednesday confrontation. The Trump administration has said the agent fired in self-defense in response to Good allegedly attempting to run him over with her vehicle.

Democrats have rushed to portray it as an example of unjust violence by the Trump administration.

Hillary Clinton posted on X on Thursday that “last night, at the corner where an ICE agent murdered Renee Good, thousands of Minnesotans gathered in the frigid dark to protest her killing.”

RENEE GOOD’S WIFE CLAIMED MINNEAPOLIS SHOOTING WAS ‘MY FAULT’ IN VIDEO AMID ANTI-ICE FURY

Clinton said that “in the face of this administration’s lawless violence, solidarity is the answer,” adding, “They want to mold America to their cruelty. We refuse.”

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey told ICE to “get the f— out of Minneapolis” during a Wednesday press conference, a sentiment that was echoed by Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., who also posted to the Department of Homeland Security, “Get out of our city.”

Amid widespread protests, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said the state’s National Guard was prepared to deploy if necessary, saying, “We’ve never been at war with our federal government.”

In an interview with Fox News Digital, Lora Ries, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Border Security and Immigration Center, said that a lot has changed in the several years since Floyd’s killing, including a decline in trust of the mainstream media and a subsequent surge in independent journalism.

VANCE DEMAND DEMOCRATS ANSWER WHETHER ICE OFFICER IN MINNEAPOLIS SHOOTING WAS ‘WRONG IN DEFENDING HIS LIFE

“This isn’t 2020 anymore, and a lot of Americans’ eyes have opened during 2020 from the COVID shutdowns, the mandates, the censorship, the nightly riots, the election fraud, and it’s just not going to work anymore,” said Ries. “People can see what’s really happening and decide for themselves, not just take mainstream media’s word for it or mainstream media omission of facts as the truth.”

Ries said that as soon as the fatal shooting happened on Wednesday, she knew “the left is going to try to make this George Floyd 2.0.”

“But within 24 hours, even less, that hasn’t come to pass,” she said.

Ries believes this is because of both a general “distrust of the left,” but also “the opportunity to see these videos, to know that this same agent had been subject to a different car dragging him and having to go to the hospital mere months ago, providing all the context that what the left is trying to push, it’s just not sticking.”

Vice President JD Vance said during a Thursday news conference that the ICE agent who fired the shots was involved in a harrowing incident six months prior in which he was dragged by a car and required 33 stitches to his leg. He might be “a little bit sensitive about somebody ramming him with an automobile,” Vance said.

Despite this, Ries said that “the left is aiming all of its ire and even literally its fire at ICE, not any other federal agency, not the DEA going after drugs or fentanyl, not the FBI, not even defund the police anymore. It is solely ICE.”

AG PAM BONDI WARNS MINNESOTA PROTESTERS AFTER ICE SHOOTING: ‘DO NOT TEST OUR RESOLVE’

“Why? Because ICE is deporting their political base,” she said. “The left has built their political house of cards on mass migration, immigration fraud. Now it seems welfare fraud for political kickbacks, for votes, for headcount, for the census, which determines congressional districts, which in turn determines electoral college votes for the presidency. This is all about politics and if we had valid elections and valid censuses that only counted U.S. citizens for congressional apportionment, how different would the political map look right now? That’s the question.”

“The left is trying to paint this woman who was killed yesterday as a victim,” she went on. “She came from out of state. What was she doing there? There are accounts where she had been in her car, leading, harassing, tracking, stalking ICE agents all day long. The agents seemed to know her, and when they told her to get out of the car, she didn’t obey … So, this is on her, unfortunately.”

Ries said it is the same deal with illegal immigration.

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“If people come here and break the law, then that’s their choice. That is their decision, and they should be personally responsible for that,” she said. “We, as a sovereign nation, enforcing our laws, should deport them. And there’s nothing wrong with that. We shouldn’t apologize for it.”

“For too long, we’ve not held people personally responsible,” Ries concluded. “We need to make personal responsibility great again and stop trying to make the perpetrators the victim.”

Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton, Louis Casiano and Ashley Oliver contributed to this report.

FIRST ON FOX: Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley is demanding answers on the process of how the FBI determines code names for its investigations after receiving records that show agents “renaming” the investigation into President Donald Trump Arctic Frost and the senator calling the move “anything but random.” 

Grassley penned a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel raising questions about the process after Patel’s team transmitted records the committee requested pertaining to the FBI’s Arctic Frost probe into Trump and the 2020 election.

Documents revealed that the investigation was first named Hyperbolic Frost and later changed to Arctic Frost.

JACK SMITH TARGETED THEN-HOUSE SPEAKER MCCARTHY’S PRIVATE PHONE RECORDS IN J6 PROBE, FBI DOCS REVEAL

“In response to our document requests, your agencies produced a document that shows that edits were made to an early version of a draft Arctic Frost opening document,” Grassley wrote. “This document has several handwritten edits, including the crossing out of the initial name of the investigation, ‘Hyperbolic Frost,’” and renaming it ‘Arctic Frost.’”

Grassley said the document “calls into question the accuracy of the testimony” former FBI Director James Comey gave during a May 3, 2017, Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.

“At this hearing, I asked, ‘Was the Clinton investigation named Operation Midyear because it needed to be finished before the Democratic National Convention? If so, why the artificial deadline? If not, why was that the name?” Grassley shared.

Grassley was referring to Midyear Exam, which was the FBI’s code name for the bureau’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server.

Comey replied, “Certainly not because it had to be finished by a particular date.”

“There’s an art and a science to how we come up with code names for cases,” Comey said at the time. “They assure me it’s done randomly. Sometimes I see ones that make me smile, so I’m not sure.

“But I can assure you that it was called Midyear Exam, was the name of the case. I can assure you the name was not selected for any nefarious purpose or because of any timing on the investigation.”

JACK SMITH TRACKED PRIVATE COMMUNICATIONS, CALLS OF NEARLY A DOZEN GOP SENATORS DURING J6 PROBE, FBI SAYS

But Grassley said “the renaming of the Trump investigation from Hyperbolic Frost to Arctic Frost via handwritten notes is clearly anything but random.”

Sources believe the investigation’s title could hint at the probe’s intended target: Trump. 

Sources say Arctic Frost is also the name of a variety of orange tree. Opponents of the president have mocked him and called him an “orange man.” 

Grassley is asking that Bondi and Patel “produce all records relating to the naming of Operation Midyear Exam, including former Director Comey’s emails.”

The records produced by the FBI this week also show handwritten notes discussing the subjects of the Arctic Frost investigation.

HAGERTY PRESSES VERIZON OVER FBI’S ACCESS TO HIS PHONE RECORDS DURING JACK SMITH PROBE

“Subjects of the investigation include members of Donald J. Trump for President, INC., both identified and yet to be identified,” the document reads.

Beside that paragraph is a handwritten note that says “Add DJT.”

Grassley and Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., have been investigating the origins of the Arctic Frost probe since July 2022.

The senators have made whistleblower records public that they say “have exposed how partisan FBI agents and Department of Justice prosecutors opened, approved and advanced the investigation against President Trump and expanded its scope to other Republican groups and individuals.”

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“The recent records produced by the FBI contain even more damning evidence of the Biden administration’s unapologetic abuse of power during the Arctic Frost investigation,” Johnson told Fox News Digital. “The American people deserve to know the full extent of Jack Smith’s massive partisan dragnet, which targeted law-abiding U.S. citizens.

“Chairman Grassley and I will continue to fight to ensure that the complete truth is revealed.” 

As new protests erupt and Democrats express outrage over another shooting involving an immigration agent in Portland, Oregon, on Thursday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is setting the record straight on the two victims’ suspected gang affiliation.

In a Friday X post, DHS said that the two shooting victims, Luis David Nico Moncada and Yorlenys Betzabeth Zambrano-Contreras, are Venezuelan criminal illegal aliens and suspected members of the foreign terrorist organization Tren de Aragua (TdA).

According to the agency, Moncada and Zambrano-Contreras were shot by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agent after the two attempted to run him and others over with their vehicle.

The incident occurred at approximately 2:19 p.m. local time, when Border Patrol agents stopped a vehicle and identified themselves as law enforcement, DHS said.

“[Thursday], two suspected Tren de Aragua gang associates—let loose on American streets by Joe Biden—weaponized their vehicle against Border Patrol in Portland,” DHS wrote, explaining that “the agent took immediate action to defend himself and others, shooting them.”

TWO WOUNDED IN PORTLAND SHOOTING INVOLVING FEDERAL AGENTS AFTER DHS SAYS VEHICLE ‘WEAPONIZED’ AGAINST THEM

Both individuals fled the scene and were later found by Portland Police Bureau (PPB) officers and administered first aid and taken to a hospital.

According to DHS, Moncada, who was driving the vehicle, entered the U.S. illegally in 2022, and was released into the country by the Biden administration. In addition to his suspected TdA affiliation, Moncada has been previously arrested for driving under the influence and unauthorized use of a vehicle, per DHS. He has a final order of removal.

Zambrano-Contreras, the passenger, also entered the U.S. illegally in the El Paso, Texas, area in 2023. DHS said she was released into the country by the Biden administration. 

The agency said that Zambrano-Contreras has “played an active role in a Tren de Aragua prostitution ring” and was previously involved in a shooting in Portland.

DHS called reporting that the two injured were a married couple “REVOLTING LIES,” writing in a separate X post that “the two criminal illegal aliens who attacked Border Patrol in Portland are a gang member and his prostitute, NOT an innocent ‘married couple.’”

PORTLAND AGITATORS CLASH WITH POLICE AFTER 2 SHOT BY FEDERAL IMMIGRATION AGENT

PPB Chief Bob Day confirmed during a news conference Friday that both individuals had ties to TdA.

“What I can say is there is an association with the two folks [Thursday] and TdA,” he said. “I hesitated to even share this information initially, because I’m very aware of the historic, injustice of victim blaming oftentimes portrayed by law enforcement.”

Day emphasized that “this in no way draws a through line to the actions or the behaviors that occurred [Thursday].”

Leading Democrats were quick to condemn federal law enforcement after the shooting on Thursday.

Following the incident, Portland Mayor Keith Wilson called on ICE to “halt all operations” in the city until a full and independent investigation can take place.

“We know what the federal government says happened here,” Wilson said Thursday. “There was a time when we could take them at their word. That time has long passed.”

Wilson added that ICE agents and DHS leadership “must fully be investigated and held responsible for the violence inflicted on the American people in Minnesota, in Portland, and in all the communities across America.”

Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek reacted to the shooting, claiming it was “instigated by the reckless agenda of the Trump administration.”

“While the details of the incident remain limited, one thing is very clear: when a president endorses tearing families apart and attempts to govern through fear and hate rather than shared values, you foster an environment of lawlessness and recklessness,” she said.

Kotek said Oregon’s attorney general and other leaders have raised concerns about the excessive use of force by federal agents in Portland, adding that “today’s incident only heightens the need for transparency and accountability.”

CROCKETT WARNS OF NATIONWIDE PROTESTS OVER ICE SHOOTING: ‘STATE-SANCTIONED EXECUTION’

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., reacted to the shooting on X, blaming the Trump administration for “inflaming violence.”

“I’m monitoring the first awful reports of two people shot in Portland by federal law enforcement,” Wyden wrote in the post. “I’ll keep you updated, but Trump’s deployment of federal agents in my hometown is clearly inflaming violence–and must end.”

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This comes on the heels of anti-ICE protester Renee Nicole Good being fatally shot in Minneapolis in similar circumstances. 

The Trump administration has said that while obstructing immigration enforcement operations, Good attempted to run over an ICE agent who fired in self-defense, resulting in Good later being pronounced dead.

Both shootings have led to mass anti-ICE protests across the country and strong condemnations by many leading Democrats.

Fox News Digital’s Michael Dorgan, Alexandra Koch, Michael Sinkewicz and Fox News’ Bill Melugin contributed to this report.

Of the five Senate Republicans who voted to curb President Donald Trump’s war powers, one has closely aligned himself in rhetoric with the president, but has a history of breaking with him in a variety of policy areas.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., often touts his relationship with Trump and regularly vouches for many of his policy desires in the Senate. But he has a tendency to buck the president, be it on key votes or policy pushes, and ends up on the receiving end of a digital tongue-lashing from Trump.

Thursday’s vote to rebuke future military action against Venezuela was another instance where Hawley was at odds with a furious Trump, who charged that he and his colleagues, Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, Todd Young, R-Neb., Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Rand Paul, R-Ky., “should never be elected to office again.” 

TRUMP BLASTS GOP WAR POWERS DEFECTORS, SAYS THEY ‘SHOULD NEVER BE ELECTED TO OFFICE AGAIN’

Hawley quickly sought to do damage control while explaining his vote.

“I love the president. I think he’s doing a great job,” he told reporters afterward. “I just think, when it comes to Venezuela, which is what we’re voting on today — I think that if the president should determine that he needed to put troops on the ground in a country, Venezuela, I just think in Article I, we would need to vote on that.”

But Hawley has broken with Trump in several other areas, like on healthcare, unions and his push to ban stock trading in Congress.

The last time the president publicly berated the lawmaker was in July, when Hawley broke away from Republicans in a bid to get his Honest Act, originally named the PELOSI Act after the former House Speaker and her infamous stock portfolio, out of committee.

‘NOT READY FOR PRIME TIME’: TRUMP, REPUBLICANS SLAM GOP LEADER’S STOCK TRADE BAN BILL

Trump at the time called him a “second-tier Senator,” and questioned why he would “pass a Bill that Nancy Pelosi is in absolute love with — He is playing right into the dirty hands of the Democrats.”

The president’s anger in that situation was directed toward a version of the legislation that would have included himself and Vice President JD Vance as part of the stock trade ban, which he and Hawley later cleared up after the lawmaker made clear that the latest iteration of the bill explicitly exempted him.

There are other, quieter areas where Hawley has strayed from Trump’s policy desires.

Most recently, Hawley voted for Senate Democrats’ three-year extension of since-expired Obamacare premium subsidies. Though not a direct rebuke of the president, Trump made clear that he did not support a simple extension of the subsidies.

TWO KEY SENATE REPUBLICANS JOIN PUSH TO OVERTURN TRUMP’S FEDERAL UNION ORDER

Hawley also has differing views on unions compared to Trump, who signed two executive orders last year targeting federal labor unions. Still, he was skeptical of supporting a bill from Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, that would’ve reversed those orders.

“I don’t know,” Hawley told Fox News Digital at the time. “The public sector unions and private sector unions seem to be two different things.”

Then there was Hawley’s public dissatisfaction with Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” over deep cuts to Medicaid that he and a handful of other Senate Republicans argued would have shuttered several rural hospitals throughout the country.

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His anger was directed toward the lawmakers who crafted the healthcare portion, but in the moment, he threatened to vote against the legislation, which ultimately squeaked through the Senate with a single vote to spare.

“I think it was a huge mistake,” Hawley said at the time. “I think this has been an unhappy episode here in Congress, this effort to cut Medicaid.”

“And I think, frankly, my party needs to do some soul-searching,” he continued. “If you want to be a working-class party, you’ve got to get delivered for working-class people. You cannot take away healthcare from working people.”

Two Republicans running for Illinois governor this year are calling for Springfield to clean up its act in the wake of Minnesota’s rampant fraud scandal, citing multiple areas of alleged vulnerability under incumbent Gov. JB Pritzker.

The Democrat and Hyatt Hotels heir defended Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz after Walz declined a third term amid his state’s fraud scandal, calling Walz a “friend” and saying he was “thankful for his service and sacrifice.”

Current GOP frontrunner Darren Bailey announced plans for a “DOGE for Illinois,” and fellow Republican Ted Dabrowski publicly demanded that Pritzker submit to a full audit of social services, including SNAP.

“At the bottom of all these crazy budgets, all these deficits, all these tax hikes are everyday Illinoisans who are just getting whacked,” Dabrowski said at a recent press conference on the matter of Illinois’ tax woes and Pritzker’s oversight of state programs.

TRUMP ADMIN PUTS MINNESOTA ON NOTICE, MOVES TO AUDIT MEDICAID AND CLAW BACK FUNDS TO PROTECT TAXPAYERS

Dabrowski, the former president of Chicago-based financial research firm Wirepoints, said Illinois has seen disbursements to childcare social services funding spike nearly 300% since 2019, and wondered aloud, “Is that fair?”

“They were just burning their tax bills on the West and South Side [of Chicago],” he said, referencing reports of people literally lighting their tax forms on fire in November after witnessing 100% increases at times.

Calling for a true forensic audit of Springfield’s books, Dabrowski said Illinois cannot print money like the U.S. Treasury can, but may only keep borrowing on the backs of taxpayers.

VP VANCE SAYS TIM WALZ SHOULD RESIGN’ OVER MASSIVE MINNESOTA WELFARE FRAUD SCANDAL INVESTIGATION

Similarly, Bailey announced this week that his running mate, Palatine city legislator Aaron Del Mar, will also be named “Illinois DOGE Czar” if his ticket is successful against Pritzker in November.

“This will be a transparency-first project,” Bailey, a recently departed state senator for the Effingham area, said in a statement.

Del Mar would be in charge of “putting waste, fraud and abuse on public display,” he said.

JASON CHAFFETZ: DEMOCRATS TURNED OUR TREASURY INTO A ‘PIGGY BANK FOR FRAUDSTERS’

Nodding to how former federal DOGE chief Elon Musk opened his office, Bailey said Illinois DOGE would not be done with a chainsaw but with “an X-Acto knife.”

“It needs to be audited. It needs to be opened up so that people know where the money’s coming from. I am very confident there is going to be a lot of waste discovery in that,” he told Peoria’s CBS affiliate.

Pritzker campaign spokesman Alex Gough rejected the premise, telling the outlet that Bailey “echoes Trump’s lies, copies Trump’s dangerous ideas and wants to bring Trump’s chaos to Illinois.”

GOP LAWMAKER DEMANDS MINNESOTA FRAUD BE TREATED AS ‘ORGANIZED CRIME’ SCHEME

Gough also returned a Fox News inquiry about Pritzker’s comment on Dabrowski’s plan by quipping, “Good luck with that.”

“Just so we’re clear, Ted Dabrowski is saying he does not want the state to provide support to and care for people with disabilities?” Gough said of Dabrowski’s audit plan.

“This is such an extreme, ludicrous position that members of his own party don’t even support it.”

BESSENT BLAMES WALZ AS TREASURY PROBES WHETHER MINNESOTA FRAUD FUNDS REACHED TERROR GROUP AL-SHABAB

After the federal Department of Health and Human Services froze funding for childcare services in Illinois, Pritzker defended Springfield’s existing controls, saying state agencies “operate within robust procedures and protocol to prevent, report and address alleged fraud,” according to the Jacksonville Journal-Courier.

Other Illinois lawmakers also chimed in on the thought of pursuing fraud in Illinois to curb any Minnesota-like issues.

Rep. Mary Miller, R-Ill., was asked by St. Louis’ FOX News Radio affiliate how much fraud she believes can be found “in the Land of Lincoln.”

‘TIP OF THE ICEBERG’: SENATE REPUBLICANS PRESS GOV WALZ OVER MINNESOTA FRAUD SCANDAL

“I think it would be stunning,” Miller replied.

“And I think the fact that JB Pritzker refuses to release the voter rolls, the SNAP rolls, the Medicaid rolls [shows] he doesn’t want us to uncover the layers of corruption and abuse of taxpayers that is going on in Illinois.”

Miller said she hopes state Republicans’ plans come to pass, saying she will also put pressure on the Hyatt Hotels heir.

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“We control the purse — Congress does. We are going to cut off funding to any states that refuse to comply,” Miller said.

USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins also previously called for every state to allow the feds to audit their SNAP rolls, in particular. Most Democratic governors balked at the demand.

There is a nexus between congressional spending, the Minnesota ICE shooting and military operations related to Venezuela.

It is argued that the power of the purse is one of the most hallowed powers of Congress. This is why a number of progressives are imploring Democrats to use the next government funding round to defund ICE or impose strictures to hamstring ICE in the next government funding round. 

Some liberal Democrats even want to force a government shutdown over the shooting in Minnesota. That’s to say nothing of some Democrats wanting to use the power of the purse to hem in the administration on maneuvers in Venezuela or potential future operations in Cuba, Mexico, Colombia or Greenland.

Congress has not yet addressed the funding bills for the Pentagon or State Department for fiscal year 2026.

KAINE TELLS CONGRESS TO ‘GET ITS A– OFF THE COUCH,’ RECLAIM WAR POWERS

Funding for nine distinct sections of the federal government expires at the end of the day on Jan. 30. One of those sections is DHS. It’s possible the House could debate that bill in the coming days. This comes as an increasing number of Democrats are demanding that the House impeach Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

The House this week approved a “minibus” spending package, tackling appropriations for energy and water programs, the Department of Interior and the departments of Commerce and Justice and science programs. The plan is for the Senate to align with the House on these bills. But, regardless, Congress would probably have to approve another continuing resolution (CR) to keep the lights on in all other quarters of the federal government after Jan. 30. 

A CR simply renews all federal funding at present levels. So, it’s likely Congress would OK whatever spending bills they’ve worked out and put everything else in the CR to avoid a shutdown.

CROCKETT WARNS OF NATIONWIDE PROTESTS OVER ICE SHOOTING: ‘STATE-SANCTIONED EXECUTION’

But some progressives have other ideas. They want to use this government funding deadline as “leverage” over ICE and operations related to Venezuela.

“We should use every means at our disposal to do it, including the appropriations process,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md.

But there is a schism inside the Democratic Party. The House and Senate Democratic leadership made a decision not to push for a shutdown this time. They know that a tentative agreement on all of this is fragile as Jan. 30 approaches.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., sidestepped my question when I asked him about using appropriations to undercut ICE.

“Our focus right now, in terms of the appropriations bill, are getting the three bills that are going to be on the floor today over the finish line, and then we’ll turn to the Homeland Security,” said Jeffries.

I pressed further.

AOC ACCUSES VANCE OF BELIEVING ‘AMERICAN PEOPLE SHOULD BE ASSASSINATED IN THE STREET’

Jeffries snapped back at me about ICE and DHS funding.

“No, what I’m focused on right now, Chad, is to make life better for the American people,” said an angry Jeffries.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is in a similar boat.

“I have lots of problems with ICE,” said Schumer.

“Why is there resistance to use the appropriations process, either for Venezuela or now certainly for ICE? I mean, are you afraid of another government shutdown?” I asked.

Schumer ignored the question.

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Even Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., gave Jeffries and Schumer some slack on not taking up the cause to handcuff ICE through the appropriations process.

“They’re responsible for leading an entire caucus that elects members from across their country. So they’re in a different position,” Ocasio-Cortez said of the Democratic leaders.

But she noted that funding for ICE “exploded virtually overnight, and we are seeing the ramifications of it in terms of the abuse of power that is happening.” 

Ocasio-Cortez noted that Democrats could pursue cutting ICE funding in another funding round.

House Speaker Mike Johnson met on Thursday at the Capitol with Ahmed Al-Ahmed, a Syrian-born Australian Muslim, who disarmed one of the attackers during the deadly shooting at a Hanukkah event at Sydney’s Bondi Beach.

“Ahmed is the brave hero who stopped the vicious antisemitic terrorist attacker in Australia on the first night of Hanukkah. He is still recovering from his wounds,” Johnson wrote on X. “Antisemitism must be confronted and defeated wherever it appears, and we continue to pray for those who grieve the loss of their loved ones because of the horrific attack at Bondi Beach.”

Johnson posted a photo of himself with Al-Ahmed and three other individuals, including Rabbi Levi Shemtov, a longtime Chabad-Lubavitch leader in Washington, D.C. Chabad-Lubavitch, often referred to as “Chabad,” has emissaries across the globe who aim to strengthen Jews’ connection with their own faith. Another individual in the photo was Rabbi Yehoram Ulman of Sydney, Australia, a senior rabbi who lost his son-in-law, Rabbi Eli Schlanger, in the Hanukkah attack at Bondi Beach.

FUNDRAISER FOR ‘AUSTRALIAN HERO’ WHO DISARMED TERRORIST DURING BONDI BEACH MASS SHOOTING SURPASSES $2.6M

A Chabad spokesperson told Fox News Digital that Ulman invited Al-Ahmed to accompany him to the U.S. so they could promote shared community values and tell stories of the heroes of the day, many of whom did not survive their confrontations with the gunmen.

During their visit to the U.S., Ulman and Al-Ahmed visited the Ohel Chabad Lubavitch in Queens, N.Y., where the late leader of the movement, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, is buried. The site has been visited by numerous politicians, including President Donald Trump.

Ulman presided over many of the funerals for the Bondi Beach victims, as they were members of his community. In the weeks since the tragedy, he has become a prominent voice for the Jews of Australia..

Chabad was the organization hosting the Dec. 14 Hanukkah event that turned deadly when two gunmen opened fire at the crowd of people gathering to celebrate the Festival of Lights. At least 15 people were killed in the attack.

ISRAELI DIASPORA MINISTER SAYS AUSTRALIA SHOULD HAVE SEEN ‘WRITING ON THE WALL’ BEFORE TERROR ATTACK

As details of the attack emerged, a video of Al-Ahmed confronting the gunmen surfaced and quickly went viral. During the confrontation, Al-Ahmed was shot and was later hospitalized. He is still wearing a sling nearly one month after the attack. As word of Al-Ahmed’s story spread, he garnered praise from people across the globe for his act of heroism. A GoFundMe set up in his honor raised more than $2.6M with donations from nearly 45,000 people.

“In a moment of chaos and danger, Ahmed al-Ahmed stepped forward without hesitation,” the fundraiser states. “His actions were selfless, instinctive, and undeniably heroic, taken without regard for his own safety. Early reports indicate he was shot twice in the process while protecting others.”

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Al-Ahmed was in attendance at the annual Colel Chabad where he was honored by the organization. Al-Ahmed was introduced by Ulman, who hailed him as a hero. Additionally, Al-Ahmed received an award at the gala, which was a Hanukkah menorah in a glass case with a plaque that read “Light Will Win.” It was presented to Al-Ahmed by billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman.

Fox News Digital reached out to Johnson’s office for comment.

The NAACP took to social media Thursday to share a contentious split image of a masked ICE agent and a hooded Ku Klux Klan (KKK) member, comparing the government agency to a White supremacist terrorist group.

Along with the shocking photo, the NAACP posted, “Different mask, same agenda.” “Fear. Terror. Division. Unlawful arrests. No due process. Now Murder. Quit hiding. Your agenda is being exposed,” the post read. “The PEOPLE have a clear response: No Fear. No Failure. No Division.”

Nearly 70,000 people reacted to the photo on Facebook, which garnered nearly 10,000 comments and 30,000 shares.

The KKK was founded in 1865 in Pulaski, Tennessee, following the South’s defeat in the Civil War, and targeted Black freedmen and their allies.

CROCKETT WARNS OF NATIONWIDE PROTESTS OVER ICE SHOOTING: ‘STATE-SANCTIONED EXECUTION’

Members used threats and violence in an attempt to restore White supremacy, spreading terror across the South with little risk of prosecution, according to the National Park Service (NPS) website.

Congress took action to prosecute Klansmen in the 1870s, but there was a resurgence in 1915, near Atlanta, Georgia, with a new focus on anti-immigration, anti-Catholicism, prohibition and antisemitism.

Researchers estimate that there are as many as 150 Klan chapters currently active in the U.S., with between 5,000 and 8,000 members nationwide, according to the NPS.

PHILADELPHIA SHERIFF RIPS ICE AS ‘FAKE, WANNABE LAW ENFORCEMENT,’ THREATENING ARRESTS: ‘DON’T WANT THIS SMOKE’

The NAACP’s post came amid protests related to the death of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, a mother of three, who was shot and killed by an ICE agent Wednesday after allegedly attempting to drive into the officer during an immigration operation.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials described the shooting as an act of “self-defense,” noting Good was a member of the immigration activist group “ICE Watch,” which aims to monitor, track, interfere and oppose ongoing federal immigration enforcement operations.

ICE Watch-style networks have been linked to multiple confrontations with federal law enforcement, including incidents where vehicles were used to block or strike officers.

JONATHAN TURLEY SLAMS MINNEAPOLIS MAYOR’S ‘RECKLESS’ RESPONSE TO ICE SHOOTING

Footage taken by the agent who was allegedly targeted by the SUV showed another ICE agent approaching Good’s stopped SUV, attempting to open the driver’s side door, before the car lunged forward toward him.

“After nearly 10 vehicle rammings targeting ICE and CBP officers this week, the NAACP is smearing and demonizing ICE law enforcement, likening them to the KKK,” DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin wrote in a statement to Fox News Digital. “Our officers wear masks to protect themselves from being doxxed and targeted by known and suspected terrorist sympathizers. Not only is ICE law enforcement facing a more than 1,300 percent increase in assaults against them, but we’ve also seen thugs launch websites to reveal officers’ identity.” 

“The men and women at CBP, ICE, and all of our federal law enforcement agencies put their lives on the line every day to arrest violent criminal illegal aliens to protect and defend the lives of American citizens,” McLaughlin added. “Make no mistake, this type of demonization is contributing to the surge in assaults of law enforcement officers.”

Democrats initially claimed the woman was not trying to hit the federal agent, labeling the shooting a “murder.”

“[The ICE agent] properly defended himself from being run over by organized leftist protesters who were impeding an active law enforcement operation,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote in a social media post, referencing the newly released video. “The reason trust in the media is at an all-time low is because they intentionally lie to the public to advance the Democrats’ narrative. That’s exactly what they did in this case in Minnesota.”

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The NAACP did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Fox News Digital’s Julia Bonavita and Alexic McAdams contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump warned Friday during a meeting with nearly two dozen oil executives that Russia and China will not move in on the nations of Venezuela or Greenland on his watch. 

“We are going to do something on Greenland, whether they like it or not,” Trump said Friday. “Because if we don’t do it, Russia or China will take over Greenland, and we’re not going to have Russia or China as a neighbor.”

Trump’s comments came as he hosted nearly two dozen oil executives at the White House to discuss investments in Venezuela after the capture of dictatorial president Nicolás Maduro Saturday morning.

“We don’t want to have Russia there,” Trump said of Venezuela Friday when asked if the nation appears to be an ally to the U.S. “We don’t want to have China there. And, by the way, we don’t want Russia or China going to Greenland, which, if we don’t take Greenland, you can have Russia or China as your next-door neighbor. That’s not going to happen.” 

SENATE DEM JOHN FETTERMAN SUPPORTS PROSPECT OF US GREENLAND PURCHASE, CITING ‘MASSIVE STRATEGIC BENEFITS’

Trump added that he would like to make a deal with Denmark, saying, “if we don’t do it the easy way, we’re going to do it the hard way.” 

Greenland is an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark. 

“And, by the way, I’m a fan of Denmark, too, I have to tell you. … But, you know, the fact that they had a boat land there 500 years ago doesn’t mean that they own the land. I’m sure we had lots of boats go there also,” he said. 

The U.S. military carried out a successful operation in Veneuzla Saturday morning, capturing Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, on sweeping narco-terrorism conspiracy and drug trafficking charges.

The operation was swiftly followed by Trump putting “anyone who would threaten American sovereignty or endanger American lives” on notice. Trump has for years floated the U.S. acquiring Greenland due to its strategic position between North America and Europe in the Arctic Circle, and he was pressed about revisiting such plans after the Venezuela operation. 

Both nations are also rich in resources, including oil and rare earths. Trump defended the desire to own Greenland even when the U.S. already has a military presence on the island, saying, “When we own it, we defend it.”

US MAY BE INVOLVED IN VENEZUELA FOR YEARS, TRUMP SAYS

“We need Greenland from a national security situation. It’s so strategic. Right now. Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place,” Trump said from Air Force One Sunday as he traveled back to Washington from his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida. 

China has shown a growing ambition in the Arctic, including publishing its first Arctic policy white paper in 2018, when it labeled itself a “near-Arctic state.” Greenland played a pivotal role during the Cold War because it was along the shortest routes between North America and the Soviet Union and conducted missile detection. 

“If you take a look outside of Greenland right now, there are Russian destroyers, there are Chinese destroyers and bigger. There are Russian submarines all over the place. We’re not going to have Russia or China occupy Greenland, and that’s what they’re going to do if we don’t. So, we’re going to be doing something with Greenland either the nice way or the more difficult way,” he added. 

Trump told the media Sunday that “we’ll worry about Greenland in about two months,” but global discussions surrounding the Danish territory have intensified since. 

European leaders, including in Denmark, have recoiled at Trump’s calls to acquire Greenland, arguing that NATO allies work together to ensure the Arctic is secure. 

WHITE HOUSE SAYS US WILL SHAPE VENEZUELA’S FUTURE AS TRUMP EMBRACES ‘AMERICAN DOMINANCE’

Arctic security must be “achieved collectively, in conjunction with NATO allies, including the United States, by upholding the principles of the U.N. Charter, including sovereignty, territorial integrity and the inviolability of borders. These are universal principles, and we will not stop defending them,” the top leaders from the U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and Denmark said in a joint statement. 

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“Greenland belongs to its people. It is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland.”

Trump added Friday that “NATO has got to understand” that “we’re not going to allow Russia or China to occupy Greenland, and that’s what’s going to happen if we don’t.”