NationalWatch

FIRST ON FOX: The Trump administration launched a new website boasting the URL “MerryChristmas.gov” to celebrate the federal government’s contributions that have helped weave the fabric of the nation. 

“Over twelve days, we’re highlighting moments of design, innovation, and public work initiated by the federal government that helped shape the nation. Consider it a small holiday reminder of what America can build together,” the new Merry Christmas website states. 

The site launched Sunday, with its first post celebrating the Works Progress Administration’s poster program, which was launched during the Great Depression to cultivate positive and encouraging messages for the nation amid the strife. 

“Created during the Great Depression under the Works Progress Administration, the Federal Art Project’s poster program employed artists to design uplifting messages promoting parks, public health, education, and cultural events. Its bold shapes and clear typography helped define American public communication, and the surviving posters remain some of the most iconic federal designs of the 20th century,” the website states, showing a copy of the poster with deep blues outlining a cave to promote U.S. parks and travel.

MELANIA TRUMP’S WHITE HOUSE CHRISTMAS IS A SHINING BEACON OF AMERICA

The website will reveal additional government highlights each day through Dec. 25, Fox Digital learned. The website includes a live weather tracker at the North Pole and at the White House. 

The website follows President Donald Trump vowing from the 2024 campaign trail to bring back Christmas, which he said liberals have historically sidelined in favor of more politically correct and all-encompassing messages to celebrate the holiday season. 

“We’re going to have Merry Christmas just like we got for everybody seven years ago, we brought it back, it was in deep trouble but we brought it back,” Trump said at the height of the election cycle in August 2024. 

DAVID SPADE SLAMS MALL TREE-LIGHTING CEREMONY FOR AVOIDING WORD CHRISTMAS 

Fast-forward to the second Trump administration. The White House stated on its official X account earlier in December that Trump declared, “We’re saying MERRY CHRISTMAS again!,” accompanied by a photo of him in the Oval Office standing next to a Christmas tree. 

The Trump administration’s social media accounts have increasingly leaned into posting Christmas-focused memes as they relate to the administration’s policies, including playing off the movie “Polar Express” to encourage illegal immigrants to return to their native nations. 

DHS OFFICIAL SAYS CHURCH’S NATIVITY SCENE DEPICTS WHAT ‘NEVER HAPPENS’ IN IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT

“BELIEVE YOU CAN GO HOME!” the White House X post states. “It doesn’t matter where they’re going. What matters is deciding to get on.” CBP Home App to self-deport today!“

Another White House meme shows the Grinch with the caption, “How the Illegals Stole Healthcare.”

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The Department of Homeland Security also has joined in the Christmas-focused memes, including photoshopped images of federal law enforcement donned in festive lights and Santa hats with the caption, “YOU’RE GOING HO HO HOME.” The images were followed by another edited video showing Trump driving Santa’s sleigh. 

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lee Zeldin disclosed that he had skin cancer removed from his face, using his personal experience as an opportunity to urge people to wear sunscreen and regularly visit a dermatologist.

“PSA: Wear sunscreen and get your skin checked. I’m grateful to the incredible medical team at Walter Reed Medical Center who recently fully removed basal cell carcinoma (BCC) from my face,” he wrote in a post on X. “It started as a small, pearl-colored, dome-shaped lesion on my nose. After a biopsy, it came back positive for BCC.”

He noted that he is “relieved to be cancer-free,” and explained that his “dermatologist removed it using Mohs surgery, a precise technique that ensures all cancerous tissue is eliminated.”

LEE ZELDIN: TRUMP’S EPA CLEARING THE REGULATORY PATH FOR AMERICA TO DOMINATE THE GLOBAL AI REVOLUTION

Zeldin divulged that a plastic surgeon reconstructed a portion of his nose.

“Following the surgery, a plastic surgeon reconstructed part of my nose using cartilage from behind my ear and a local skin flap to restore the area,” he explained, including a photo of himself in the post.

He recognized the “mistake” he made by spending time out in the sun sans sunscreen.

ZELDIN, MCCAIN HAMMER CROCKETT ON EPSTEIN DONATIONS CLAIM

“Like many people, there were plenty of moments in my life when I spent time in the sun without sunscreen. That was a mistake. Consistently using SPF 30 or higher and getting regular skin checks can go a long way in preventing this,” he wrote.

“Please encourage your friends and family to wear sunscreen and see a dermatologist regularly. Early detection matters,” he asserted.

COMMON VITAMIN SHOWN TO SLASH SKIN CANCER RISK IN SOME GROUPS, STUDY SUGGESTS

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Zeldin lost the 2022 New York gubernatorial race to Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul. He served four terms in the U.S. House of Representatives from early 2015 until early 2023.

It appears to be game on in the race for the next Democratic presidential nomination, as two of the party’s most high-profile politicians, who are considered potential top-tier 2028 contenders, stirred more speculation at a major Democratic Party summit.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrats’ 2024 standard-bearer after then-President Joe Biden exited the race, showcased an edgier stump speech as she railed against both major parties and the political status quo in an address at the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) winter meeting this past weekend.

And California Gov. Gavin Newsom landed the red carpet treatment, as he mingled with delegates during the opening day of the DNC’s confab, which was held this year in Los Angeles, home turf to both Harris and Newsom.

The main focus for the hundreds of committee members and party officials who attended the summit was reviewing the party’s decisive victories in last month’s 2025 elections and better than expected performances in this year’s special elections, and training sessions to prepare for next year’s crucial midterm contests.

21 DEMOCRATS WHO MAY RUN FOR THE WHITE HOUSE IN 2028

But with the unofficial start of the next White House race less than a year away, and what’s likely to be a bruising battle among Democrats over the party’s presidential nominating calendar getting underway, 2028 was also in the spotlight.

“Obviously, we must focus on the midterms,” Harris said in her Friday speech. “But Democrats, we must also have a clear vision for what comes after the midterms. And then after Trump. We need to answer the question. We need to answer the question: what comes next for our party and our democracy?”

Harris argued that “both parties have failed to hold the public’s trust” and that “people are done with the status quo, and they’re ready to break things to force change.”

2028 LOOMS LARGE: HARRIS, NEWSOM, PRITZKER CONVERGE AT MAJOR DNC MEETING

And Harris, who was swept by President Donald Trump in all key battleground states in the 2024 election, said that Trump is representative of a bigger problem plaguing the nation’s politics.

“He and the rise of the MAGA movement, I believe, are a symptom of a failed system that is the result of years of outsourcing and offshoring, financial deregulation, growing income inequality, a broken campaign finance system and endless partisan gridlock all contributing to how we got here today,” she emphasized.

“The vice president received a very warm and enthusiastic reception,” a committee member told Fox News Digital.

And when she alluded to who would be in contention for the 2028 nomination, some in the room shouted “you.”

According to those in the room, Harris also landed a warm welcome less than 24 hours earlier as she spoke at the United Farm Workers annual gala.

Expect to see more of Harris in the new year, helping Democrats from coast to coast as the party works to win back congressional majorities in the midterms.

And Harris has added more 2026 stops to her book tour promoting “107 Days,” her reflections on her abbreviated 2024 presidential campaign. Among the stops is one in South Carolina, a crucial early-voting primary state in the Democratic Party’s presidential nominating calendar.

SUCCEEDING TRUMP IN 2028: SIX REPUBLICANS TO KEEP YOUR EYES ON

While Newsom didn’t address the delegates at Friday’s general session, he was treated like a VIP on Thursday as he held meetings and mingled with delegates during the opening day of the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) annual winter meeting, which this year is being held in Los Angeles.

A DNC committee member who witnessed the commotion told Fox News Digital, “Newsom received a rock star reception as he was mobbed by party leaders and activists alike while he attempted to walk from meeting to meeting.”

Newsom on Thursday met with the Democratic Party chairs from New Hampshire, the first-in-the-nation presidential primary state, and Nevada, another crucial early voting state.

“We had a great discussion on a wide range of issues,” longtime New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Ray Buckley told Fox News Digital.

Newsom’s stature in his own party has soared this year, thanks to his very vocal and visual pushback against the president, including his viral social media trolling of Trump and his successful California push to counter the Republican congressional redistricting effort.

“Newsom has shown an ability to stand up to Trump in a bold and highly effective manner without shying away from core democratic values,” veteran Democratic strategist Joe Caiazzo told Fox News Digital.

While both Newsom and Harris made a splash at the DNC winter meeting, they’ve both got plenty of detractors who worry that neither would be electable in 2028 when the Democrats try to win back the White House.

And if one or both of them launch presidential campaigns, they’ll likely be joined by a large crowd of other contenders.

One of those possible White House hopefuls is Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who was also making the rounds during the opening day of the DNC meeting.

Fox News Digital confirmed that the billionaire governor helped raise over $1 million for the DNC at a fundraiser Thursday night.

A DNC insider said the appearances by Harris, Newsom and Pritzker gave “them an opportunity to start honing in on a winning message for Democrats in 2028.”

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There are more than a dozen other Democrats thought to be potential 2028 White House contenders. And most of them have also been paying visits to the early voting states, as well as parachuting onto the 2025 campaign trail.

Among them are Govs. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Andy Beshear of Kentucky, Wes Moore of Maryland and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan; senators Cory Booker of New Jersey, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly of Arizona, and Chris Murphy of Connecticut; progressive superstar Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Rep. Ro Khanna of California, another leading progressive; and two moderate Democrats, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and former Chicago mayor and former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.

The top police official in Washington, D.C., pressured commanders to lower classifications of crime and retaliated against those who reported spikes, creating a widespread culture of fear and distorted public data, according to a new congressional report.

An interim report from the House Oversight Committee released on Sunday claims that outgoing Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) Chief Pamela Smith, who announced her resignation on Dec. 8, oversaw an unprecedented system of intervention in crime reporting.

The Republican-led committee alleges that Smith, who is expected to remain in the position through the end of the year, pressured commanders on numerous occasions, and at times instructed them to downgrade offenses and avoid classifications that would appear on the city’s Daily Crime Report.

“By pressuring her command staff to alter classifications for the sole purpose of artificially reducing crime numbers reported out to the public, Chief Smith incentivized the manipulation of crime numbers, which do not adequately account for the crime taking place in D.C.,” the report reads in part.

TRUMP PRAISES DEMOCRATIC DC MAYOR FOR WORKING WITH HIS ADMINISTRATION ON CRIME CRACKDOWN

The findings, based on eight transcribed interviews with MPD district commanders, describe a toxic management environment in which accuracy was sacrificed for optics, and career officials faced public humiliation or demotion for presenting Smith with unfavorable crime statistics.

MPD did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment about the report.

“Briefings with Chief Smith involved public chastisement to the point commanders expressed feeling like they were being treated as if they had committed the crimes themselves,” the report stated.

THREE DC HOMICIDES IN SIX HOURS TEST TRUMP’S CLAIM OF SAFER WASHINGTON

“On two occasions I had… robbery sprees, and I think I had, like, 13 robberies in over a night period, a day period,” said one MPD commander who is identified only as “Commander E” in the report. “And, yeah, I was – usually you have, there’s – an order of how you brief out, but at the very beginning of the crime briefing, the chief said, ‘I need to see [Commander E] up front to brief first.’ So I got up there and I was basically admonished. I was like, ‘How could I let these robberies happen?’ It was embarrassing, but it happened. And then it stemmed other meetings after that to sit down and kind of drill down to what’s happening. I did feel like I did the robberies after I left. I literally was, like, I swear I did not commit them.”

The committee’s investigation unfolded against the backdrop of President Donald Trump’s federal crime crackdown in the nation’s capital. In August, Trump issued an executive order to address the “epidemic of crime” in the district and deployed federal law enforcement personnel, including the National Guard.

DC ARRESTS SURPASS 1,000 AS TRUMP-BACKED CRACKDOWN ENTERS 12TH HOMICIDE-FREE DAY 

Several commanders told the committee the surge had been helpful in supplementing the department’s resources.

Mayor Muriel Bowser noted last week that D.C. homicides are down 30% this year.

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Bowser told Fox News Digital in a statement: “The men and women of the Metropolitan Police Department run towards danger every day to reduce homicides, carjackings, armed robberies, sexual assaults, and more. The precipitous decline in crime in our city is attributable to their hard work and dedication and Chief Smith’s leadership.”

“I thank Chief Smith for her commitment to the safety of DC residents and for holding the Metropolitan Police Department to an exacting standard, and I expect no less from our next Chief of Police,” she added.

FIRST ON FOX: A Senate Republican wants to nix the tax-exempt status of a national Muslim advocacy group that both Texas and Florida have designated as a terrorist organization.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, intends to introduce legislation that would remove the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ (CAIR) tax-exempt status. Currently, an organization’s tax-exempt status is suspended if it is designated by the State Department as a terrorist organization.

Cornyn’s bill would lump CAIR in with designated federal terrorist organizations, like Hamas, Hezbollah and al Qaeda, by extending that prohibition to include groups that provide material support or resources, such as finances, services or training to a terrorist organization.

TEXAS GOV ABBOTT DECLARES CAIR, MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD AS TERRORIST GROUPS, PREVENTING LAND PURCHASES

The Texas Republican said in a statement to Fox News Digital he was moving ahead with the legislation, “because no organization who bankrolls terrorists should get a tax break, period.”

“CAIR is a radical group of terrorist sympathizers with a long history of undermining American values and trying to unconstitutionally impose Sharia law on Texas, which is why I stand behind Gov. Abbott’s decision to designate it as a foreign terrorist organization,” he said. “I also call on President Trump to do so at the federal level to ensure this breeding ground for anti-American hate is starved of funding and forced to close its doors once and for all.”

Cornyn’s bid to revoke the organization’s tax-exempt status comes after both the governors of Texas and Florida designated CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist and transnational criminal organizations earlier this year. CAIR has long argued that it is not connected to the Muslim Brotherhood, which is affiliated with offshoot federally designated terrorist organizations, like Hamas.

COTTON CALLS ON IRS TO PULL MUSLIM ADVOCACY GROUP’S NONPROFIT STATUS

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott took executive action last month to prevent the organizations from “acquiring any real property interest in Texas.”

His proclamation charged that “CAIR and its members have repeatedly employed, affiliated with, and supported individuals promoting terrorism-related activities,” and that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) considered the organization a “front group” for Hamas.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis similarly ordered that all Florida agencies “undertake all lawful measures to prevent unlawful activities by these organizations, including denying privileges or resources to anyone providing material support.”

MUSLIM GROUPS, OTHER LEADERS DEMAND ABBOTT RESCIND CAIR’S ‘TERRORIST’ DESIGNATION: ‘DEFAMATORY’

Neither CAIR nor the Muslim Brotherhood have been designated as foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) at the federal level by the State Department.

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However, President Donald Trump, in an executive order late last month, ordered that Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent determine which chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood, specifically in Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan, be designated as FTOs and Specially Designated Global Terrorists.

Fox News Digital did not immediately hear back from CAIR for comment on Cornyn’s legislation.

Former top Biden administration decision makers were silent on whether they stand by the vetting procedures deployed for “Operation Allies Welcome,” the Afghan resettlement program that was utilized by the alleged National Guard attacker to get to the U.S.

The heinous incident that claimed the life of one West Virginia National Guard member and gravely wounded another on Thanksgiving Eve sprung back to the forefront last week when House Homeland Security Committee ranking member Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., infuriated Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem when he referred to it as an “unfortunate accident.”

The attack renewed questions over whether Democrats still stand by the vetting processes put in place by the previous administration — and whether officials involved in the Afghanistan withdrawal and refugee resettlement would revise those decisions today.

Fox News Digital has reached out to several members of the Biden administration with roles directly or tangentially related to the Afghanistan withdrawal and the resettlement of Afghan refugees.

SENATOR RENEWS PUSH TO MANDATE VETTING FOR AFGHAN EVACUEES AFTER NATIONAL GUARD SHOOTING

Inquiries to former President Joe Biden’s office, former Vice President Kamala Harris and a second request to an individual listed as Harris’ literary agent were not returned within a week.

Messages sent to former Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley [Ret.], as well as via an official at the Princeton University School of Public and International Affairs – where he is listed as a visiting professor – also went unanswered.

Milley, though a general, was not in a command position – as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is an advisory role.

In that regard, he did not make any operational decisions, but instead was in the president’s ear when it came to military advice. Milley later told senators on Capitol Hill that he recommended maintaining a small, 2,500-troop force in Afghanistan.

Fox News Digital also reached out to former Central Command (CENTCOM) commander, Gen. Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie via his new role at the University of South Florida, for comment – which was not returned. 

AFGHAN EVACUEE ARRESTED BEFORE DC SHOOTING FEDERALLY CHARGED WITH THREATENING TERROR ATTACK

CENTCOM covers the Middle East and was tasked with overseeing security and evacuation operations out of Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.

Messages sent to addresses listed for National Security Adviser Jacob Sullivan and Deputy National Security Adviser Jon Finer were not returned. Finer is now a visiting fellow at Columbia University’s School of Public and International Affairs, and Sullivan’s wife – Rep. Maggie Goodlander, D-N.H., is in her first term in Congress.

Sullivan was a key adviser to Biden during the withdrawal and was later pressed by CNN whether he feels “personally responsible for the failures” therein.

He replied that the “strategic call President Biden made, looking back three years, history has judged well and will continue to judge well. From the point of view that, if we were still in Afghanistan today, Americans would be fighting and dying; Russia would have more leverage over us; we would be less able to respond to the major strategic challenges we face.”

A woman who answered a line listed for former Secretary of State Antony Blinken redirected Fox News Digital to a press liaison. That request was not returned.

Blinken, as leader of the State Department, was the point person for the diplomatic aspect of the withdrawal. He advised Biden on what to do about the Taliban’s “Doha Agreement” that was forged by the previous Trump administration, while the department coordinated overflight rights, temporary housing and other issues regarding the refugee outflow from Kabul.

SENATE REPUBLICANS LAUNCH INVESTIGATION INTO BIDEN IMMIGRATION PROGRAMS AFTER DC NATIONAL GUARD SHOOTING

A woman who answered an extension listed for former Pentagon chief Gen. Lloyd Austin III [Ret.] said she would take a message and that Austin would return the call if he wished.

As Pentagon chief, Austin was the top bureaucrat in the U.S. military structure at the time of the withdrawal.

After the Thanksgiving Eve attack, U.S. Citizenship for Immigration Services administrator Joe Edlow announced a review of the green card system, citing suspect Rahmanullah Lakanwal’s situation.

His predecessor, Biden-appointed Ur Jaddou, did not respond to a request for comment.

AFGHAN EVACUEES WITH CHILD-FONDLING, TERROR ARRESTS SWEPT UP IN DHS CRACKDOWN AFTER BOTCHED VETTING EXPOSED

Fox News Digital also reached out to alleged addresses linked to former Homeland Security Adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall, but did not receive responses. Fox News Digital also reached out to the Belfer Center at Harvard, which recently cited that Sherwood-Randall would be rejoining their ranks to lead their “Initiative on Bioconvergence, Biosecurity, and Bioresilience.”

Fox News Digital also attempted to reach Harris’ national security adviser, Phil Gordon, via his new role at a global advisory firm, but did not receive a response.

Efforts to reach Biden confidants Ronald Klain and Jeffrey Zients were unsuccessful.

FBI PROBES POSSIBLE TIES OF NATIONAL GUARD SHOOTER TO TABLIGHI JAMAAT, A ‘CATALYST’ FOR JIHAD

Tracey Jacobson, now the chargé d’affaires for the U.S. in Dhaka, Bangladesh, led the administration’s Afghanistan coordination task force charged with processing and relocating Afghan allies. She did not respond to an inquiry.

During the Afghan withdrawal, Jacobson was named by the Biden administration to lead an Afghanistan coordination task force as part of its “whole-of-government effort to process, transport and relocate Afghan Special Immigrant Visa applicants and other Afghan allies,” according to Biden.

2021 AFGHAN REMARKS HAUNT GOP LAWMAKER’S SENATE BID AFTER DC GUARD SHOOTING

Former U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Chris Magnus was asked by DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to resign in 2022 or risk being the first Biden administration official fired, according to The New York Times.

DHS officials ultimately cut his access to the agency’s social media accounts, according to the paper, and a report from Heritage Foundation fellow Simon Hankinson cited that he ultimately left the job soon after.

His role would have also placed him in the midst of the orchestration of Operation Allies Welcome and Operation Allies Refuge. He was also unable to be reached for comment.

Another Mayorkas deputy, then-FEMA Director Robert Fenton Jr., was reportedly tasked with setting up Operation Allies Welcome centers to help evacuees “integrate successfully and safely into new communities.”

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Fenton remains the Region 9 administrator for the agency, tasked with an area covering the west coast and South Pacific protectorates. An inquiry to Fenton was not returned.

Mayorkas himself could not be reached directly for comment. Efforts to reach him via a law firm he was or is connected to, as well as the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he is a visiting scholar, were either unsuccessful or not returned.

Minnesota is facing threats that the federal government may pull its funding for Minnesota’s Medicaid program until it cleans up its act amid investigations into multiple alleged fraud schemes plaguing the state’s social services system. 

Minnesota is coming under heightened scrutiny as President Donald Trump has labeled Minnesota a “hub of fraudulent money laundering activity,” due to several key fraud schemes targeting the state’s Medicaid program, and other federally funded programs that feed children. More than 80 people have faced charges in the state in connection with these schemes. 

Chris Edwards, the Kilts Family Chair in Fiscal Studies at the libertarian think-tank the Cato Institute, said that federal-state funding programs are ripe grounds for fraudulent activity. 

“Federal aid-to-state programs are especially vulnerable to fraud and scams because the Feds mainly pay for them,” Edwards said in a Tuesday email to Fox News Digital. “The states administer and they care little about waste because the Feds are paying. The states would have more incentive to run efficient programs if they were funded by state taxes. The states must balance their budgets every year, so politicians must make tradeoffs and focus on efficiency.” 

“By contrast, the federal government runs massive deficits, so the politicians don’t care much about waste,” Edwards said. “There’s a double-problem with aid-to-state programs: the states don’t care about waste because it’s federal money, and the Feds don’t care either because they run massive deficits.”

MINNESOTA FRAUD SCHEME UNEARTHS MILLIONS IN LUXURY PROPERTY, CARS: DOJ 

Included in this series of alleged fraud schemes is one stemming from a new program known as the Housing Stability Services Program, which offered Medicaid coverage for housing stabilization services in an attempt to help those with disabilities, mental illnesses, and substance-use disorders receive housing.

The Justice Department so far has charged less than a dozen people for allegedly defrauding the program that runs through Minnesota’s Medicaid service, but more charges are expected. 

Additionally, the Trump administration and lawmakers have launched probes into Minnesota’s “Feeding Our Future” $250 million fraud scheme that allegedly targeted a children’s nutrition program the Department of Agriculture funded and that Minnesota oversaw during the COVID-19 pandemic. At least 77 people have been charged in that scheme, which took advantage of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s decision to waive certain Federal Child Nutrition Program requirements. 

Some fraud cases in Minnesota have collapsed though, and Hennepin Country judge overturned a guilty verdict for Abdifatah Yusuf in a Medicaid fraud case in November. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced in August that Yusuf was found guilty of six counts of aiding and abetting theft by swindle, and claimed that Yusuf used his agency Promise Health Services, LLC to fraudulently obtain Medicaid funds for services that were not provided or were billed based on inaccurate documentation. 

Minnesota is dependent on the federal government for a significant portion of its funding. In 2023, federal funding toward Minnesota’s Medicaid program totaled $11 billion — amounting to roughly 58% of all federal funding Minnesota receives, according to the House’s Energy and Commerce Committee. Ultimately, the federal government covers approximately 51% of Minnesota’s Medicaid costs. 

In every state, the federal government splits Medicaid costs using the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage formula, which is calculated by comparing the state’s per capita income to U.S. per capita income. Percentages determining how much the federal government covers vary by state, with the federal government absorbing between 50% of Medicaid costs in states like California and Colorado, and up to nearly 77% in Mississippi, according to the Congressional Research Service. 

MINNESOTA TAXPAYER DOLLARS FUNNELED TO AL-SHABAAB TERROR GROUP, REPORT ALLEGES 

It’s unclear exactly how many federal dollars went toward fraudulent providers in Minnesota. The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid told Fox News Digital Tuesday that an audit will further examine how federal funds were used.  

“CMS is using all our resources to investigate and address this egregious fraud scheme in Minnesota…As part of a comprehensive audit, CMS will isolate how much of these funds were misused,” CMS spokeswoman Catherine Howden said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “Given the complexity of this situation, along with Minnesota’s lack of transparency, this review will be complex and time intensive.” 

Minnesota’s Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital by deadline. 

Edwards said that it is easier than ever for criminal gangs to partake in these fraudulent schemes, due to the fact that benefits and subsidies are now paid automatically by federal computers, rather than through paper forms. 

“The only solution is to devolve these federal-funded programs to the states and let them fund,” Edwards said. “There is no magic money tree in Washington. Welfare programs should be funded and administered at the state level.”

TIM WALZ CALLED OUT BY WASHINGTON POST FOR REFUSING TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR MINNESOTA FRAUD SCANDAL 

In September, the Justice Department announced that it had charged eight defendants with wire fraud for their roles in the Housing Stability Services Program Medicaid fraud scheme. Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson said in a statement that the charges marked the “first wave” expected in connection with the case. 

“I want to be clear on the scope of the crisis,” Thompson said in a statement in September. “What we see are schemes stacked upon schemes, draining resources meant for those in need. It feels never ending. I have spent my career as a fraud prosecutor and the depth of the fraud in Minnesota takes my breath away.”

In July 2022, Minnesota stood up its Housing Stability Services Program, which offers Medicaid coverage for housing stabilization services. But instead, those charged in September obtained and “misappropriated millions of dollars in program funds that were intended as reimbursements for services provided to those people,” according to the Justice Department.

MINNESOTA’S $70 MILLION FRAUD EXPOSES HOW DEMOCRATS BUILT A SYSTEM DESIGNED TO BE ROBBED 

Although the Housing Stability Services Program was expected to cost $2.6 million annually, the program paid out $42 million in 2022, $72 million in 2023, and $104 million in 2024. 

Ultimately, a federal investigation found that many program providers had defrauded the system by acquiring names of program-eligible beneficiaries from addiction treatment centers and other facilities, and then used those individuals’ information to send in bogus reimbursement claims — ultimately raking in taxpayer money fraudulently, per the Justice Department. 

Among those charged in September in connection to the Housing Stability Services Program were Moktar Hassan Aden, 30; Mustafa Dayib Ali, 29; Khalid Ahmed Dayib, 26; and Abdifitah Mohamud Mohamed, 27. Together, they allegedly enrolled Aden’s company Brilliant Minds Services LLC as a Housing Stability Services Program provider in April 2022 and then claimed that they provided program-reimbursable consultation services, the Justice Department said. 

Altogether, Brilliant Minds submitted reimbursement claims racking up to $2.3 million between September 2022 and April. Each defendant allegedly pocketed between $300,000 and $400,000 between April 2023 and May 2025 through Brilliant Minds, according to the Justice Department. 

TREASURY SECRETARY LAUNCHES PROBE INTO MINNESOTA TAX DOLLARS ALLEGEDLY FUNDING AL-SHABAAB TERRORISTS 

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Mehmet Oz issued a stern warning to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz Friday, and threatened to slash federal Medicaid funding unless Minnesota restored the “integrity” of its program. 

Specifically, Oz said that more than $1 billion had been stolen through the alleged fraud scheme within Minnesota’s Somali community, and asserted that some of the funds “may have even made its way to the Somalian terrorist group (al-Shabab).” 

“Our staff at CMS told me they’ve never seen anything like this in Medicaid — and everyone from Gov. Tim Walz on down needs to be investigated, because they’ve been asleep at the wheel,” Oz said.

WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT MINNESOTA’S ‘FEEDING OUR FUTURE’ FRAUD AT THE CENTER OF TRUMP’S LATEST CRACKDOWN

Walz’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. 

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As a result, Oz said that Walz must send weekly updates on anti-fraud measures to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services freeze enrollment of high-risk providers for six months, verify all current providers as “legitimate” or remove them, and send CMS a corrective action plan to prevent fraud in the future within the next 60 days. 

“If we’re unsatisfied with the state’s plans or cooperation, we’ll stop paying the federal share of these programs,” Oz said.

Fox News’ Sophia Compton and Breanne Deppisch contributed to this report. 

FIRST ON FOX: Seeking to tackle persistent cost pressures on American families and small firms, the Small Business Administration (SBA) is unveiling a new initiative that will review and roll back federal rules the administration says have driven up prices in sectors ranging from housing to food production.

The Deregulation Strike Force, led by the SBA’s Office of Advocacy, will coordinate a government-wide review aimed at identifying regulations that hinder economic growth.

FROM MORTGAGES TO CAR LOANS: AFFORDABILITY RISES AND FALLS WITH THE FED

Trump administration officials say the effort is intended to eliminate what they describe as excessive Biden-era regulations that have imposed an estimated $6 trillion in cumulative compliance costs on American families and small businesses.

“Bidenomics brought historic new highs in inflation that crushed working families and small businesses, driven in part by the massive bureaucracy that heaped trillions in new federal regulations onto the backs of hardworking Americans,” SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler wrote in a statement.

TRUMP INSISTS PRICES ARE ‘COMING DOWN,’ BLAMES BIDEN — BUT VOTERS SAY THEY’RE STILL GETTING SQUEEZED

“Through our Deregulation Strike Force, SBA is leveraging its unique authority to deregulate across the federal government and cut senseless red tape that drove up costs for small businesses and consumers, especially in industries hit hardest by Bidenflation,” Loeffler said, adding that the initiative will build on President Trump’s push to reduce costs across the country.

Citing what it describes as four years of excessive regulatory overreach, the SBA said its strike force will target cuts across key small-business sectors, including housing and construction, healthcare, agriculture and food production, energy and utilities, transportation and other goods and services across the supply chain.

They also argue the latest deregulation campaign reinforces President Donald Trump’s economic message heading into the new year, positioning regulatory relief as a central tool for tackling high prices.

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The SBA said it has already played a key role in eliminating an estimated $98.9 billion in federal regulations since Trump’s return to office.

Some of these actions include changes to reporting rules, energy-efficiency standards and diesel exhaust fluid requirements, which the agency says have contributed to nearly $200 billion in total regulatory savings.

President Donald Trump offered condolences to the victims of attacks across the globe on Sunday, from the mass shooting at Brown University to the Hanukkah terrorist attack in Australia.

Trump addressed the tragedies while speaking at a Christmas reception at the White House on Sunday, saying his thoughts and support are with the victims of the shooting at Brown. He also condemned the “pure antisemitism” of the terrorist attack in Sydney, Australia, as well as the killing of three Americans in Syria on Saturday.

“I want to just pay my respects to the people – unfortunately, two are no longer with us – at Brown University. Nine injured, and two are looking down on us right now from heaven,” Trump said.

“And, likewise, in Australia, as you know, there was a terrible attack. Eleven dead, 29 badly wounded. And that was an antisemitic attack, obviously. And it, I just want to pay my respects to everybody,” he continued.

SYRIANS MARK FIRST YEAR SINCE ASSAD’S FALL AS US SIGNALS NEW ERA IN RELATIONS

“We’re here for a different reason. We’re here to celebrate Christmas and to celebrate,” Trump told the crowd gathered. “And I think today we can very say loudly that we celebrate Hanukkah because there was such a horrible attack that was a purely antisemitic attack.”

ISRAELI OFFICIALS HEAP BLAME ON AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT AFTER BONDI BEACH SHOOTING: ‘COUNTLESS WARNING SIGNS’

Trump went on to discuss the killing of two U.S. soliders and a U.S. civilian interpreter in Syria. He reiterated that the perpetrators of the attack will face serious consequences.

“I can tell you in Syria there will be a lot of damage done to the people that did it. They got the person, the individual person. But there will be big damage done,” he said.

Three additional soldiers were wounded in the Syria attack, but they are recovering.

Chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said the attack occurred as the soldiers were conducting a key leader engagement, part of their mission in support of ongoing counter-ISIS/counter-terrorism operations in the region.

The gunman was killed by partner forces, according to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.

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The Pentagon is withholding the identities of the soldiers until at least 24 hours after their families have been notified.

Fox News’ Greg Norman, Ashley Oliver, Jennifer Griffin, Benjamin Weinthal and Ashley Carnahan contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump said American Jews celebrating Hanukkah should not be worried about their safety following the Bondi Beach attack. 

“Celebrate proudly – be proud of who you are,” Trump said to Fox News on Sunday.

The president’s comments come after Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese condemned the mass shooting at a “Hanukkah by the Sea” celebration at Bondi Beach as a “targeted attack on Jewish Australians.”

“An attack on Jewish Australians is an attack on every Australian and every Australian tonight will be, like me, devastated on this attack on our way of life,” said Albanese at a press conference. “There is no place for this hate, violence and terrorism in our nation. Let me be clear. We will eradicate it.”

CHRISTIAN PASTORS, INFLUENCERS JOIN 1,000-STRONG ISRAEL MISSION BACKING JEWISH STATE, FIGHTING ANTISEMITISM

Police said at least 11 people were killed and dozens more were injured.

AUSTRALIAN BYSTANDER DISARMS MASS SHOOTER IN AUSTRALIA HANUKKAH ATTACK

At a government meeting in Dimona, Israel, on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had warned Albanese in an August letter that the Australian government’s policies were encouraging antisemitism. 

Netanyahu accused Albanese of failing to act as antisemitism spread and said inaction had helped foster a climate of rising hostility toward Jews.

“We saw an action of a brave man – turns out a Muslim brave man, and I salute him – that stopped one of these terrorists from killing innocent Jews. But it requires the action of your government, which you are not taking,” Netanyahu said at the meeting. “And you have to, because history will not forgive hesitation and weakness. It will honor action and strength.”

ANTISEMITIC ATTACKERS VIOLENTLY TARGET SYNAGOGUE, ISRAELI RESTAURANT IN AUSTRALIA

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Yael Eckstein, president of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, said the attack was a wakeup call for Jews. 

“Terror doesn’t stop in America or in Europe or in Australia. It’s not only targeting the Jews, it’s also targeting the Christians,” Eckstein said on “Fox & Friends Weekend.” “The answer to this darkness is light.”

Fox News’ Peter Doocy contributed to this report.

Omer Shem Tov was dancing with friends at the Nova Music Festival in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists launched a devastating attack, killing hundreds and loading Shem Tov and dozens of others onto the backs of pickup trucks bound for Gaza.

The 20-year-old Israeli spent the next 505 days in Hamas captivity, serving as a slave in the terrorist group’s elaborate tunnels until “fear” filled their eyes on Nov. 5, 2024 — when President Donald Trump won the presidential election, he told Fox News Digital.

Shem Tov recounted his months living in Hamas’ captivity in Gaza as war raged between the terrorist group and Israel during a recent Zoom interview with Fox News Digital. He was released from captivity in February and traveled to the U.S. shortly afterward to meet with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office.

“As soon as Trump was elected, I saw the fear in their eyes,” Shem Tov said. “They knew that everything on ground is gonna change, that something else is gonna happen, and they were scared. They were very scared.”

AMERICAN-ISRAELI HELD HOSTAGE IN GAZA FOR OVER 580 DAYS SENDS MESSAGE TO HAMAS: ‘I’LL GIVE YOU HELL’

Shem Tov said that for roughly the last five months of his captivity, he lived in Hamas’ tunnel system beneath the Gaza Strip, where he was worked mercilessly.

“I was digging for them, and I was cleaning for them, and I was moving around bombs from place to places, and (carrying) food. I can tell you,  just so you know, crazy amounts of food. Amounts of food that I’ve never seen before,” he recounted. 

Shem Tov learned about the American presidential election from his Hamas captors, who watched Al Jazeera on a TV kept in the tunnels.

“The last five months, the terrorists, they brought TV to the tunnel and most of the time they watched Al Jazeera. That’s the only thing they watch. And … they wouldn’t let me watch TV, yeah, but sometimes I would overhear the TV,” he said.

He said he overheard the terrorists discussing the election and “how they want Kamala to win.”

Once the election was decided, Shem Tov said, the terrorists changed the way they treated him, even offering him more food. He said he mostly survived on small biscuits throughout his captivity, despite Hamas controlling large amounts of food.

IDF ANNOUNCES TRANSFER OF DECEASED ISRAELI HOSTAGE REMAINS THROUGH RED CROSS

“So everything changed,” he said of how Hamas changed following Trump’s win. “The amount of food that I got changed. The way they treated me changed. I could see just them preparing for something bigger.”

Shem Tov recounted that he spent his 21st birthday in captivity, just weeks after he was first kidnapped. He said that between Oct. 7 and Oct. 30 of 2023, he did “not cry once,” but that he felt a swell of emotion when remembering his family on his birthday. 

“At my birthday, it was the thirty-first of October, it was the first time that I broke down, I cried. It’s for me, thinking of my family, that’s something that really hits me. Understanding that my family, they’re back home, they’re safe, yeah, but but they have to worry about me. … They don’t know if if I’m alive, if I’m starving … they had no idea. And I can tell you that while I was there, I suffered. I truly suffered. I was abused, I was starved in the most extreme way,” he said. 

Since his release, Shem Tov has praised Trump for his role in freeing the hostages and pursuing peace in the Middle East. He told Fox News Digital that he had long heard Trump’s name and knew he was a “big supporter of Israel,” but had largely stayed out of politics before his kidnapping.

There is currently a cease-fire between Israel and Gaza after Trump rolled out a 20-point plan to secure peace in the region in September. The plan included the release of all the hostages. All hostages have been released from Hamas captivity except one, slain police officer Ran Gvili, whose body remains in Gaza.

TRUMP MEETS FREED ISRAELI HOSTAGES, CALLS THEM ‘HEROES’ IN WHITE HOUSE CEREMONY

Shem Tov was among a handful of hostages who traveled to the White House to meet with Trump earlier in 2025, where he relayed that he and other hostages are “so grateful to him.”

“I personally told him that me and my family, and I would say all of Israel, believe that he was sent by God to release those hostages and to help Israel,” Shem Tov recounted of what he told Trump during his meeting in February. “And he made that promise. He made that promise, he said that he will bring back all the hostages.”

For Shem Tov, freedom after captivity has meant keeping close ties with fellow hostage survivors.

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“I would say they become like my family, like my brothers and sisters. We have many group chats and we see each other every once in a while and there are some who really become like brothers of mine,” Shem Tov said. 

MINNEAPOLIS, MN – In the aftermath of the massive Feeding Our Future scandal and broader allegations of systemic fraud in Minnesota’s social programs, a troubling theme has emerged: accusations of racism repeatedly used to deflect scrutiny, intimidate investigators and stall accountability. 

Rumors and reports of fraud in Minneapolis, primarily within the city’s exploding Somali community, have been circulating for at least a decade, but criticism of the fraud has been largely dismissed by elected Democrats as “racist” or being underpinned by animosity towards foreigners. News stories focused on Somali fraudsters in recent years were shot down as “racist.”

“The whole story kind of died under these accusations that people were being racist,” Bill Glahn, policy fellow with Center of the American Experiment, told Fox News Digital. “Oh, maybe somebody stole a little bit here, a little bit there, but there’s nothing systemic going on.”

Former assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Teirab, who helped lead federal prosecutions in the Feeding Our Future case, described to Fox News Digital how individuals implicated in fraud leaned on racial accusations as a shield. According to Teirab, suspects explicitly invoked race during a secretly recorded meeting with Attorney General Keith Ellison, asserting that investigators were targeting them “only because of race.”

OMAR ACCUSED BY GOP OPPONENT OF OPENING UP THE DOOR TO MASSIVE MINNEAPOLIS FRAUD: ‘DEEP, DEEP TIES’

Teirab called this tactic both deliberate and cynical. In one trial, a juror was even approached with a $120,000 cash bribe, allegedly accompanied by messaging intended to frame the investigation as racially motivated. The goal wasn’t just to escape prosecution, it was to taint the system itself by threatening anyone pursuing the truth with the specter of racial bias.

“It provided cover,” Teirab told Fox News Digital. “Fraudsters knew the issue of race and racism was something they could use as a cudgel…It’s disrespectful to use those terms when they’re not appropriate, especially in a case where fraud clearly happened.”

Minnesota Republican State Senator Mark Koran echoed Teirab’s concerns, emphasizing that investigators followed the evidence, not demographics. Fraud prosecutions disproportionately affected one community simply because that’s where significant fraud was uncovered, not because investigators targeted anyone based on race.

“The average Minnesotan, average legislator, doesn’t care who’s committing the fraud,” Koran said. “All right, the evidence will lead you either to or from the perpetrator. And so, if the evidence leads to the perpetrator, we need to prosecute all of them.”

Koran noted that public officials and agencies pursuing fraud were routinely branded racist for doing so. Some perpetrators were so “emboldened,” he said, that they sued the state to force the continuation of payments, even after red flags signaled massive irregularities.

The scale, Koran argued, dwarfs what many Minnesotans understand. While federal authorities may ultimately prosecute around $2 billion in fraud, he suggested that the true annual losses across state programs could reach much higher when factoring in both blatant fraud and poor service delivery.

Meanwhile, many families participated in related schemes by receiving kickbacks from fraudulent autism service providers, further complicating enforcement. Investigators simply lack the resources to chase every case, creating an environment where fraud becomes a low-risk, high-reward enterprise.

MINNESOTA’S FRAUD SCANDAL WAS ‘SHOCKINGLY EASY’ TO PULL OFF, IS LIKELY WORSE THAN REPORTED: EX PROSECUTOR

“For the average hardworking legal U.S. citizen doing everything right,” Koran said, “it’s a disgusting disservice…knowing there’s such blatant disregard for the value of that dollar.”

Koran suggested that the racism claims so emboldened supporters of the status quo that it contributed to Feeding our Future suing the state of Minnesota accusing state officials of racism for investigating the alleged fraud.

Glahn told Fox News Digital that state agencies were “cowering in fear” over being called racist and local politicians were acutely aware that the “racist label” is a “career kiss of death.”

A legislative auditor’s report found Minnesota Department of Education officials felt they had to handle the nonprofit “carefully” because of these racism allegations and the risk of negative media coverage,  and that this influenced which regulatory actions MDE did or did not take, CBS News reported.

Political commentator and Townhall columnist Dustin Grage highlighted another factor enabling the fraud: media hesitation. Conservative reporters, he said, described to him hitting internal roadblocks when pitching stories about the Feeding Our Future scandal because editors feared being accused of racism.

“In newsrooms, they’re told, ‘We can’t run that because we’re going to be accused of being racist,’” Grage explained. That fear, combined with political pressure, allowed the scandal to grow largely unchecked until federal indictments forced it into the spotlight.

MINNESOTA LAWMAKERS VOW NEW CRACKDOWN AFTER $1B FRAUD MELTDOWN THEY SAY WALZ LET SPIRAL

Grage pointed to an early pivotal moment: Minnesota’s Department of Education detected signs of fraud and briefly halted payments. Immediately, Minneapolis political figures Omar Fateh and Jamal Osman pushed back, claiming the stop was racially motivated. They even took the state to court, though their case was eventually thrown out.

Yet the damage was done. Payments resumed, and crucially, Governor Tim Walz declined to use his subpoena power to obtain Feeding Our Future’s bank records, despite having the authority to do so. That inaction, Grage noted, further delayed the exposure of the fraud.

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Glahn told Fox News Digital that in addition to fear of the “racist” label, politicians in Minnesota understand that it is difficult to win elections without the support of the Somali community.

“The Somali community is very concentrated in Minnesota and very concentrated in Ilhan Omar’s congressional district, and a few other pockets where the Somali vote swings elections, and at the state level, they’re big enough that we’ve had some super close elections at the state level, and the Somali vote is very monolithic, votes Democrat,” Glahn explained. “They provided the difference in statewide elections, and then in local elections, where it’s all Democrats, they’re providing the difference in the primary. So if you’re running in a primary against other Democrats, if you don’t have the Somali vote on your side, you’re not making it to the general election.”

The result of the fear to fully investigate the fraud was predictable: fraudsters exploited that hesitation, taxpayers lost billions, and the vulnerable communities the programs were meant to serve suffered most.

As the state continues to grapple with accountability and reform, one lesson stands out starkly. According to those who spoke to Fox News Digital, combating fraud requires courage, not only to follow the evidence wherever it leads, but to withstand the inevitable attempts to distort legitimate scrutiny into something it is not.

A former FBI agent and COVID-era whistleblower who was recently reinstated under President Donald Trump was fired Friday, according to a report.

The FBI dismissed Steve Friend for “unprofessional conduct and poor judgment,” according to a copy of the termination letter posted on X by New York Post columnist Miranda Devine. An FBI source confirmed the firing, but would not elaborate, c biting that it is a personnel matter.

The FBI stated in the letter that Friend “participated in unauthorized interactions with the media, publicly disseminated media sources, and commented publicly on FBI matters and ongoing FBI investigations.”

HOUSE REPUBLICANS ACCUSE BIDEN’S FBI OF RETALIATING AGAINST WHISTLEBLOWER WHO EXPOSED MISCONDUCT

Friend was first suspended by the FBI in August 2022 and resigned in February of 2023. He was reinstated last September.

In the letter, the FBI stated that in November, Friend “disseminated media sources and photographs identifying an alleged subject and discussed the alleged subject on your podcast, despite the lack of credible, verifiable evidence necessary to publicly identify the subject.”

When reached for comment by Fox News Digital, Friend said his ouster was retaliation by FBI Director Kash Patel and that it had to do with criticism over the bureau’s recent arrest in the January 6, 2021 pipe bomb case.

EX-FBI AGENTS SAY BUREAU USED INTERNAL PROBES TO PUNISH WHISTLEBLOWERS

Friend’s dismissal from the Bureau came after his attorneys at Empower Oversight Whistleblowers & Research dropped him as a client on Dec. 5. 

The non-profit organization said in a letter to Friend that he had ignored its advice by commenting publicly on FBI matters, “risking further adverse administrative action” by the Bureau.

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“In light of your apparent unwillingness to follow the free professional advice we have given you, we are even more convinced that our previously expressed inability to represent you regarding any legal matters other than your reinstatement was warranted,” the non-profit wrote. ” We are no longer willing or able to expend further time and resources representing your interests or providing counsel moving forward.”

The Trump administration’s latest offensive move against Venezuela, the seizure of a tanker carrying U.S.-sanctioned oil, has triggered predictable outrage from Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s government. 

But behind the rhetorical fire, analysts say the regime has few practical ways to hit back without doing even more damage to itself.

Experts say that Maduro could target U.S. oil interests in Venezuela, but doing so would almost certainly inflict more pain on his own cash-starved regime than on the United States.

Maduro could also halt U.S.-chartered deportation flights, but again, would be harming his own interests, experts say. 

MADURO’S FORCES FACE RENEWED SCRUTINY AS US TENSIONS RISE: ‘A FORTRESS BUILT ON SAND’ 

“Venezuelans are just leaving the country because of the terrible conditions the regime has created,” said Connor Pfeiffer, a Western Hemisphere analyst at FDD Action. “By having people come back, even if they’re on U.S. charter deportation flights, it kind of counters that narrative.”

Western oil firms have significantly decreased their presence in Venezuela, home to world’s largest proven oil reserves, in recent years due to sanctions. 

But U.S.-owned Chevron does still maintain a license to operate there, on the condition that the Maduro regime does not financially benefit from its operations. Instead, Chevron hands over to Maduro half of its oil production as payment, according to multiple reports.

“Chevron’s operations in Venezuela continue in full compliance with laws and regulations applicable to its business, as well as the sanctions frameworks provided for by the U.S. government,” a Chevron spokesperson told Fox News Digital.  

Imports of Venezuelan crude have declined to roughly 130,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 150,000 bpd in recent months, below the nearly 300,000 bpd seen under the prior petroleum licensing regime under the Biden administration. Most of Venezuela’s exports are now routed to Asia, with the bulk ultimately landing in China through intermediaries, according to data from Kplr. 

Despite that flow of crude, analysts say the idea of Caracas striking back at Chevron is more potent as a talking point than as a viable policy option.

VENEZUELA ACCUSES US OF ‘PIRACY’ AFTER SEIZING MASSIVE OIL TANKER

Shutting down or seizing the company’s operations would instantly cut off one of the few lifelines still feeding Venezuela’s collapsing oil sector. It also would risk triggering a swift and politically difficult American response, including a full reinstatement of the sanctions relief the regime has quietly relied on.

Pfeiffer noted that the Maduro government has been “very supportive of Chevron continuing to operate” because the arrangement provides tens of thousands of barrels a day of oil with minimal investment from Venezuelan-owned Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. Other analysts say that reality sharply limits Maduro’s room to maneuver: any attack on Chevron would strike at his own revenue stream first.

Another theoretical lever — military or maritime escalation — is widely viewed as even less credible. Venezuela has taken delivery of small Iranian-built fast attack craft equipped with anti-ship missiles, a fact that has fueled speculation Maduro could threaten U.S. or allied vessels.

But Venezuela’s navy suffers from years of maintenance failures and lacks the ability to sustain operations against American forces deployed in the Caribbean. Any aggressive move at sea would almost certainly invite a U.S. military response the regime is in no position to absorb.

Diplomatically, Caracas could suspend remaining channels with Washington, or file legal challenges in U.S. courts or international forums. Yet previous efforts to contest sanctions-related seizures have gone nowhere, and Venezuela’s relationships in the hemisphere offer limited leverage. 

Regional bodies have little sway over U.S. sanctions law, and even supportive governments in Russia, China, or Iran are unlikely to intervene beyond issuing critical statements. Beijing, now the primary destination for Venezuelan crude, has economic interests at stake but few practical avenues to challenge U.S. enforcement actions.

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Absent direct military strikes, cracking down on sanctioned oil exports is one of the most potent ways the U.S. can weaken the regime, according to Pfeiffer. 

“This is one of his main sources of revenue keeping the regime afloat.”

President Donald Trump sent a strong message to those accused of killing two U.S. Army soldiers and an American interpreter in Syria on Saturday, noting the U.S. will retaliate against ISIS if forces are attacked again.

As Trump departed the White House for the Army-Navy football game Saturday afternoon, he said the country is mourning the loss of the soldiers and a civilian U.S. interpreter, who were ambushed by a lone ISIS gunman.

Three other soldiers were wounded, but are “doing well,” according to the president. 

They were taken by helicopters to the al-Tanf garrison, which is near the border with Iraq and Jordan, The Associated Press reported, citing Syrian state media.

SYRIANS MARK FIRST YEAR SINCE ASSAD’S FALL AS US SIGNALS NEW ERA IN RELATIONS

Trump later posted to Truth Social adding “there will be very serious retaliation.”

“This was an ISIS attack against the U.S., and Syria, in a very dangerous part of Syria, that is not fully controlled by them,” he wrote in the post. “The President of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa, is extremely angry and disturbed by this attack. There will be very serious retaliation. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

Chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said the attack occurred as the soldiers were conducting a key leader engagement, part of their mission in support of ongoing counter-ISIS/counter-terrorism operations in the region.

TRUMP TO HOST SYRIAN PRESIDENT IN HISTORIC WHITE HOUSE MEETING AMID PUSH FOR REGIONAL PEACE

The gunman was killed by partner forces, according to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.

The soldiers’ names, as well as identifying information about their units, are being withheld until 24 hours after the next of kin notification.

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

As of June, roughly 1,500 U.S. troops remained in Syria following Pentagon-directed withdrawals, with the force expected to decline to a few hundred personnel by year’s end, according to Fox News’ Jennifer Griffin.

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The U.S. initially operated eight bases in Syria to monitor ISIS after intervening in 2014 to prevent the group from establishing a caliphate. Three of those bases have since been closed or transferred to the Syrian Democratic Forces.

Fox News’ Greg Norman, Ashley Oliver, Jennifer Griffin, Benjamin Weinthal and Ashley Carnahan contributed to this report.

Elon Musk is in a battle with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s press office over the Tesla CEO’s transgender daughter, who goes by Vivian Jenna Wilson.

The spat started when Musk’s America PAC reposted a clip of Newsom on “The Ezra Klein Show” in which he says that “There’s no governor that’s done more pro-trans legislation than I have.” The governor made the comment while discussing his stance on transgender athletes competing in women’s sports, an issue where Newsom has broken away from other prominent Democrats.

While interviewing Turning Point USA CEO Charlie Kirk in the inaugural episode of his podcast, “This is Gavin Newsom,” the California governor made waves by saying it was “deeply unfair” to have transgender athletes in women’s sports.

Newsom’s press office responded to America PAC’s commentary on the clip from “The Ezra Klein Show” by taking a jab at Musk.

GAVIN NEWSOM TELLS DEMOCRATS THEY ‘WALKED AWAY’ FROM MASCULINITY CRISIS IMPACTING MEN AND BOYS

“Correct. We’re sorry your daughter hates you, Elon,” the governor’s press office wrote on X, a platform that Musk owns.

The SpaceX CEO came back with a blistering response, doubling down on his refusal to call Wilson his daughter.

“I assume you’re referring to my son, Xavier, who has a tragic mental illness caused by the evil woke mind virus you push on vulnerable children. I love Xavier very much and hope he recovers,” Musk wrote. “My daughters are Azure, Exa (she goes by Y) and Arcadia, and they do indeed love me very much.”

MUSK SAYS TRANS CHILD WAS FIGURATIVELY ‘KILLED BY THE WOKE MIND VIRUS,’ VOWS TO DESTROY IT: ‘MY SON IS DEAD’

The X owner then pinned a post on his profile in which he wrote, “If you have a womb, you are a woman. Otherwise, you are not.”

Musk opened up about his thoughts on minors receiving gender-affirming care during a 2024 interview with Dr. Jordan Peterson. The Tesla CEO said he was “essentially tricked” into giving consent for Wilson to go on puberty blockers.

“It happened to one of my older boys, where I was essentially tricked into signing documents for one of my older boys, Xavier. This is before I had any understanding of what was going on. COVID was going on, so there was a lot of confusion and I was told Xavier might commit suicide if he doesn’t…,” Musk told Peterson.

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He went on to talk about the concept of “deadnaming,” or calling a transgender person by their birth name.

“I lost my son, essentially. They call it deadnaming for a reason,” Musk said. “The reason it’s called ‘deadnaming’ is because your son is dead. So, my son Xavier is dead, killed by the woke mind virus.”

Musk added that after what happened, he “vowed to destroy the woke mind virus.”

Fox News’ Yael Halon contributed to this report.

EXCLUSIVE: Bipartisan House lawmakers are actively lobbying the Senate to take action on a bill reversing President Donald Trump’s executive order on federal worker unions, a moderate Democrat said.

Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, successfully forced a vote on his legislation Thursday evening despite little appetite from the majority of House Republicans. It passed, however, with 20 GOP lawmakers’ support — a significant number at a time when few in the party are willing to publicly butt heads with Trump.

“When I said on the House floor that union collective bargaining rights are not a partisan issue, I meant it,” Golden told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview. “The greatest evidence of that is union members themselves. They vote Democrat, they vote Republican. They don’t all vote, but they might vote if they knew that someone supported their collective bargaining rights.”

Golden introduced his bill in April and a companion was brought forward in the Senate in September. It has support from two Republicans as of now — Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Susan Collins, R-Maine — the latter of which appeared to sign on after House passage on Thursday evening.

MODERATE REPUBLICANS STAGE OBAMACARE REBELLION AS HEALTH COST FRUSTRATIONS ERUPT IN HOUSE

“I didn’t talk to her last night, but I’m really glad to see her on. It’s not a surprise to me. She’s supported unions on certain issues in the past, so she’s obviously a very important senator,” said Golden, who worked for Collins before coming to Congress himself.

He did say he spoke with “a few” senators after the bill passed but added, “the real push is gonna be coming in the days and weeks ahead.”

And Golden is not lobbying senators alone — he said Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., a moderate Republican who championed the bill in the House, is working alongside him.

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

“As you probably saw, it was a long process in the House, so you’ve got to stay dogged and be patient. It’s important to do it in a way that’s bipartisan, to create space for members of both parties to work together,” Golden said. “I made sure all along that the Republican co-sponsors of the bill were comfortable with our messaging and also the steps that we were taking, so it’s gonna need to be just like that in the Senate, too.”

Golden said he expected more Republican senators to sign on in the coming days.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., for instance, has not backed the legislation as of Friday afternoon, but Golden said he was a “great example” of someone who’s “shown himself to be pro-labor.”

58 HOUSE DEMS VOTE AGAINST RESOLUTION HONORING ‘LIFE AND LEGACY’ OF CHARLIE KIRK

Hawley has also previously introduced his own bipartisan pro-union legislation earlier this year that would speed up the labor contract process for new unions. That bill is endorsed by Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien, a friend of the lawmaker’s. 

Fox News Digital reached out to Collins, Murkowski and Hawley’s offices for further comment.

Golden got his bill passed by filing it as a discharge petition, which is designed to force a vote on legislation over the wishes of leadership, provided it gets support from a majority of House lawmakers.

Discharge petitions are rarely successful in the House but have been used more frequently this year as Republicans grapple with a razor-thin majority.

In Golden’s case, five House Republicans had signed onto the petition along with 213 Democrats — Fitzpatrick and Reps. Rob Bresnahan, R-Pa., Don Bacon, R-Neb., Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., and Nick LaLota, R-N.Y.

Meanwhile, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., introduced the companion version of Golden’s legislation in September. He said in a statement to Fox News Digital, “The bipartisan momentum in the House only strengthens our hand in the Senate, and I intend to build on it.”

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Collins, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Golden have a relationship that dates back to his first time in Washington, D.C., not as a lawmaker, but as a staffer for the longtime Maine senator. They’re also both known to buck their respective parties.

Just before Golden’s successful vote, Collins joined Senate Democrats to back their three-year extension of expiring Obamacare subsidies. 

But Warner’s bill has sat in the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, chaired by Sen. Rand Paul, for several months. Whether it survives committee is unclear, given that Paul has introduced several right-to-work bills over the years.

Republican opponents of the bill have said federal workers’ unions are not the same as labor unions in the private sector, arguing that collective bargaining is a different scenario when working against Americans’ own elected officials rather than for-profit companies.

Almost a year after record heights of illegal border crossings, Republican lawmakers unveiled plans to construct a memorial honoring Americans who had lost loved ones to violence caused by illegal immigrants at a press event on Friday afternoon.

Rep. Abe Hamadeh, R-Ariz., the lawmaker spearheading the effort, said it would serve as a reminder of the costs of bad policy.

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“Now, this bill authorizes a permanent national memorial in Washington, D.C. honoring U.S. citizens and lawful residents whose lives are taken by individuals unlawfully present in the United States,” Hamadeh said.

“But in many ways, it also shames the politicians who allowed this situation to happen,” he added.

Hamadeh was joined Friday by several angel families who had experienced personal loss and by members of The American Border Story (TABS), an organization dedicated to documenting the U.S. southern border crisis.

TABS Executive Director Nicole Kiprilov thanked President Donald Trump for his efforts to tamp down immigration-related crime.

“I’d like to thank President Trump for leading an historic administration that has put these victims and families at the center of our immigration agenda,” Kiprilov said. “Secretary Kristi Noem, border czar Tom Homan and the entirety of the Trump administration has been working night and day tirelessly to ensure that our border is secure and that these tragedies that the Biden administration allowed to happen will never happen again.”

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Hamadeh said his proposal would serve as a contrast between the Biden and Trump administrations. His announcement comes as the Trump administration’s DHS announced this past week that it had deported more than 2.5 million illegal immigrants in under a year. 

According to data collected by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, encounters at the U.S. Southern Border peaked last year with over 300,000 encounters in December 2024. Almost a year later, encounters have dropped precipitously with just 11,600 encounters this past September.

Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., one of the lawmakers who also attended Friday’s event, said those numbers demonstrate two different postures towards enforcing the country’s laws.

“They ended the remain in Mexico policy, restarted catch and release,” Biggs said of the Biden administration’s decision to bring immigrants with pending asylum claims inside the United States before adjudicating them.

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Angel families of victims at the event expressed outrage that the remnants of those policies persisted in some cases. 

In particular, they decried efforts to protect illegal immigrants with criminal records.

Jennifer Boss, one of the parents there, said that after authorities discovered her daughter’s remains in a trash can mixed with bleach, the man suspected of having committed the crime had been let go.

“He was let go the day after he was arrested. Illinois gave him grace and freedom in the name of fairness with their policies. And let him go. They also protected him from being picked up from ICE. Again, because of their policies,” Boss said.

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Kiprilov said that in addition to pointing back to a chapter in American history, the memorial proposed by Hamadeh would serve as a reminder going forward of the importance of strong immigration policy.

“Today’s legislation, the American Border Story Memorial, is about truth, memory and accountability,” Kiprilov said.

EXCLUSIVE: After decades of strained relations, Bolivia is seeking a new partnership with the U.S. as it repositions itself in the region and works to reduce its dependence on China. 

The country’s pro-business conservative President, Rodrigo Paz, was sworn in last month, and made quick work of pivoting his country away from alliances with China and Venezuela and toward Western nations.  

Foreign Minister Fernando Aramayo spoke with Fox News Digital as he visited Washington this week to sign an agreement reestablishing diplomatic ties with Israel, which had been cut off during the war in Gaza by the previous government.

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“We are looking for a long-term relationship with U.S., relations based on the same values and interests that we share, for democracy and to create a new alliance in South America,” Aramayo said.

Paz’s victory followed the unraveling of nearly two decades of leftist rule under Evo Morales and Luis Arce, whose MAS party fractured amid economic crises, corruption scandals and mounting public anger over alleged narcotrafficking networks embedded in the state. The collapse of that political machine opened the door for a conservative, pro-business candidate — a dramatic turn for a country that had been one of China and Venezuela’s closest ideological allies in the region.

Aramayo said his nation would institute new laws and regulations to attract U.S. investment and break up China’s “monopoly” on mining its natural resources, particularly lithium. 

The “U.S. has a lot of technology and has a lot of experience and sustainable extraction of resources,” Aramayo said. “We want to take advantage of that. Of course, we want to receive some technology transfers and to be part of the whole chain of production.”

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Aramayo said he “of course” shares U.S. concerns that China uses its investments in Latin America to extract leverage. “We want to diversify our portfolio and we want serious investors.”

Aramayo said one of the region’s most urgent challenges is the growing influence of transnational criminal organizations, which he argues have flourished amid years of political instability. He warned that cartels have embedded themselves across South America and that Bolivia is still grappling with the legacy of what he described as “narco authorities” governing the country over the past two decades.

“We’re very concerned about the presence of these cartels in South America,” he said, noting that criminal networks undermine confidence in state institutions and fuel cross-border instability.

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The interview comes as the U.S. steps up pressure on Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, striking what U.S. officials describe as narco-trafficking vessels linked to his regime and seizing an oil tanker allegedly used to evade sanctions. Aramayo did not criticize or oppose the U.S. actions, saying instead that Washington — like any government — “has the right to represent their own interests.” He added that South American nations broadly share concerns about Venezuela’s trajectory and are open to diplomatic efforts to defuse the crisis.

Bolivia’s new administration, he said, intends to support a “democratic transition” in Venezuela and work with regional partners to help restore the “legitimacy and reliability” of its institutions after years of political repression and economic collapse.

A slate of progressive powerhouses rushed to endorse Durham County Commissioner Nida Allam upon launching a Democratic primary challenge against Rep. Valerie Foushee, D-N.C., on Thursday — the latest sign that the party’s far-left flank is gearing up to push the Democratic establishment further left ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

While the Democratic Party has claimed to be “on the offense” heading into the midterms — buoyed by two gubernatorial wins, success in California’s redistricting fight and an upset victory in Miami’s mayoral race — the growing docket of progressive primary challengers threatens to once again expose the party’s widening generational and ideological rift.

Allam entered the Democratic primary for North Carolina’s 4th Congressional District on Thursday with support from progressive star Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and endorsements from a slew of progressive groups, including Justice Democrats, Leaders We Deserve, Sunrise Movement, Indian American Impact and the Working Families Party.

“I’m not here to stay quiet while Washington fails us,” Allam said in her campaign launch video. “I’m here to fight for the people who built this district. This seat doesn’t belong to lobbyists and billionaires. It belongs to us. To use every dollar, resource and tool to fight back against Trump’s authoritarianism and corporate greed, and to build a brighter future for every North Carolinian.”

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Allam accused Foushee of being “silent” this year while North Carolina’s 4th Congressional District faced federal funding cuts, especially in research grants, tied to President Donald Trump’s second-term agenda and Elon Musk’s mandate to slash government waste, fraud and abuse.

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

Former Democratic National Committee Vice Chair David Hogg, a 25-year-old activist and founder of Leaders We Deserve, said Thursday that he was “proud” to support Allam’s primary campaign.

Hogg sparked an intra-party rift earlier this year when he announced he would invest millions through his super PAC, Leaders We Deserve, to primary older, incumbent Democrats who he said are “asleep at the wheel.”

Leaders We Deserve has led a nationwide effort to elect young, progressive candidates to Congress and statewide legislatures across the U.S.

The group endorsed high-profile progressive Democrats this year, including New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and congressional candidate and Gen Z activist Deja Foxx, who lost a special election to Rep. Adelita Grijalva, D-Ariz., this year.

Hogg resigned from his vice chair position earlier this year after DNC Chair Ken Martin gave him an ultimatum to either forego his involvement with Leaders We Deserve or resign from his vice chair role. Amid a procedural challenge to his election, Hogg resigned, arguing party politics were at play in pushing him out — an accusation the DNC has rejected.

The 25-year-old’s plan to primary challenge Democrats in safe, blue districts triggered a debate about the party’s future as Democrats spent much of 2025 without a clear message or leader following losses up and down the ballot last year.

On the heels of Mamdani’s success in New York City — a race that took national politics by storm as a socialist millennial was elected to lead the largest city in the U.S. — more progressive, anti-establishment House candidates have been jumping into races across the U.S.

As California redraws its congressional map ahead of next year’s midterms, Leaders We Deserve is supporting progressive Planned Parenthood leader Lauren Babb Tomlinson for California’s 6th Congressional District and educator Randy Villegas for California’s 22nd.

And while Texas finalizes representation under its new congressional maps, Leaders We Deserve is backing Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee in the race for Texas’ 18th Congressional District, even as longtime Rep. Al Green, who currently represents the 9th District, also prepares to run for the seat in 2026.

The progressive group is also supporting Menefee this January in the 18th District’s special election.

Leaders We Deserve has also endorsed Michigan state Rep. Donavan McKinney in his Democratic primary challenge against Rep. Shri Thanedar, D-Mich., and Tennessee state Rep. Justin J. Pearson’s bid for longtime Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen’s seat in the 2026 Democratic primary.

In San Francisco, two high-profile Democratic challengers announced campaigns for former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s congressional seat before she had confirmed her plans to retire from the seat she has held since 1987 at the end of next year.

Saikat Chakrabarti, former chief of staff to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and state senator Scott Wiener, are running to Pelosi’s left, part of a broader coast-to-coast battle for the Democratic Party’s progressive base.

Chakrabarti is also a co-founder of Justice Democrats, a super PAC focused on recruiting a new generation of leaders to Congress who endorsed Allam this week.

Like Leaders We Deserve, Justice Democrats has thrown its support behind a slew of progressive Democratic primary challenges, including McKinney in Michigan and Pearson in Tennessee.

Justice Democrats is also supporting former Rep. Cori Bush’s comeback campaign for Missouri’s 1st Congressional District, now held by a comparably more moderate Rep. Wesley Bell, who defeated Bush in a Democratic primary last year.

The group has also endorsed Angela Gonzales-Torres for California’s 34th Congressional District, which is currently represented by Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-Calif.; Melat Kiros for Colorado’s 1st Congressional District against incumbent Democratic Rep. Diana DeGette; and Darializa Avila Chevalier for New York’s 13th Congressional District, challenging longtime Rep. Adriano Espaillat, D-N.Y.

And just this week, Brad Lander secured his own high-profile endorsements in his primary challenge against Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., who refused to endorse Mamdani’s mayoral campaign.

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Lander is considered the more progressive candidate for his outright condemnation of the war in Gaza, while Goldman told CBS New York’s Marcia Kramer that he feared Mamdani wouldn’t do enough to protect Jewish New Yorkers.

Since launching his campaign, Lander has secured endorsements from Mamdani, Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and the New York Working Families Party.