NationalWatch

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul faces new legal and political challenges over a law restricting local law enforcement cooperation with ICE after her Republican gubernatorial opponent warned it was “written in the blood” of crime victims.

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, whose county borders sanctuary New York City, warned more New Yorkers will be hurt by Hochul’s move, pointing to recent cases of people maimed by illegal immigrants.

“I want to be very clear about this law: This law is written in the blood of the victims, past, present and future,” Blakeman said.

“This law is completely misguided and will make our communities less safe,” Blakeman said. “We have a governor and a legislature [wherein] every major criminal justice initiative makes it easier for criminals to prey on our communities.”

DEM GOVERNOR IN THE HOT SEAT AFTER TESTING LIMITS OF AUTHORITY WITH MAJOR MOVE AGAINST ICE

Blakeman’s warning came as a coalition of 15 sheriffs representing counties from the shore of Lake Champlain to the Massachusetts line filed a lawsuit challenging the ban on 287(g) ICE agreements.

His campaign referred Fox News Digital to his remarks when asked for additional comment.

In a memo outlining the “Local Cops, Local Crimes Act,” Hochul argued that “current federal immigration efforts have made communities less safe” and that using local officers and assets for federal civil immigration enforcement draws resources away from local public-safety functions.

A Hochul spokesperson told Fox News Digital that Blakeman’s “understanding of New York’s bail and immigration laws is incorrect,” and said the governor’s top priority remains public safety.

BLAKEMAN CUTS INTO HOCHUL’S NEW YORK GOVERNOR’S RACE LEAD IN NEW POLL, AS LIKELY VOTERS GIVE DSA JUDGMENT

“The Local Cops, Local Crimes Act does not tie the hands of our police or stop them from apprehending dangerous criminals, and local law enforcement can and will continue to work with federal authorities on criminal investigations and violent crime just as they always have,” the spokesperson said, adding that the law doesn’t prevent cooperation on “ordinary criminal investigations.”

EXCLUSIVE: LEGAL GROUP TELLS NYPD COPS THEY CAN CONTACT ICE DIRECTLY DESPITE BLUE CITY’S SANCTUARY RULES

Hochul recently signaled she’d enlist Attorney General Letitia James to take action against counties that do not comply with the law, while quipping that police should not be converging on churches and schools to help “Stephen Miller reach his quotas.” Miller is a White House aide credited with crafting much of President Donald Trump’s immigration policy.

“We have reviewed this law with the county attorneys and we looked for every possible way not to comply with this law,” Blakeman said in his recent remarks. “However, it was concluded that we would have to abide by the law. I am a law-and-order county executive. I believe in the rule of law, even when it’s a bad law,” he said.

ICE EYES $20M PURCHASE OF ELECTRIC SHOCK GLOVES AS HOCHUL WARNS OF LEGAL CONSEQUENCES

Blakeman said the law makes it harder for police to keep communities safe, pointing to the recent killing of Westchester County resident Sheridan Gorman, which authorities have attributed to an illegal immigrant, while she was attending college in sanctuary Chicago.

Blakeman cited Illinois’ restrictions on state and local participation in federal immigration enforcement as he argued that New York was moving in a similar direction.

Closer to home, Blakeman said an illegal immigrant from Honduras was charged days ago in his county with second-degree rape and endangering the welfare of a 14-year-old.

Rep. Michael Lawler, the Rockland County Republican who has often warred with Hochul, tweeted this latest law shows she is “the worst governor in America” and “doesn’t give a s— about public safety or the rule of law.”

Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin opposed the 287(g) ban before it took effect, calling the agreements “common sense.”

McLaughlin, whose Capital Region county is one of the 15 challenging the law, invited Hochul to follow through:

“We don’t really care what this legislature did, we are not going to let them endanger our citizens,” he told ABC’s Troy affiliate in June. “I dare you to confront me on this, governor. We’re not stopping.”

Late Thursday, Hochul announced a countersuit against Rensselaer County’s sheriff for noncompliance.

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Blakeman said he similarly sought a route to noncompliance, pointing to the recent seizure of dozens of illegal handguns and several kilograms of drugs, as well as one of the “largest gang takedowns” in the U.S., which netted 42 gang members in 2025.

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Blakeman argued Wednesday that ICE involvement allowed authorities to keep some suspects in custody who otherwise might have been released under New York’s cashless bail and other laws. The law-and-order debate is also playing out elsewhere on the statewide GOP ticket, where former Brooklyn federal prosecutor Saritha Komatireddy, who is vying against James, is in a faceoff over criminal justice policies.

Fox News Digital’s Kiera McDonald contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive order to establish the U.S. Space Academy.

Trump said the location of the academy was yet to be determined but compared its significance to that of the United States Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., and the United States Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut.

The U.S. Space Academy will be for students looking to enter the U.S. Space Force, a new branch of the military Trump created during his first term. The president said it will also serve NASA and the civilian spaceflight industry.

OUT-OF-THIS-WORLD FIX FOR DATA CENTER BACKLASH COULD BE ON NASA’S HORIZON

“We’re going to have an academy for what the people in this room love the most. That’s exciting. That’s really exciting. And I’m going to be choosing a location very shortly,” Trump said during remarks at NASA’s Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

The other purpose of the event was to award the four Artemis II astronauts with the Congressional Space Medal of Honor. More than a dozen astronauts stood behind Trump throughout his remarks.

After signing the executive order, Trump presented the vaunted award, which was first given to Neil Armstrong in 1978, to all four members of the Artemis II crew.

The crew consists of NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman, the mission commander; NASA astronaut Victor Glover, the pilot; NASA astronaut Christina Koch, a mission specialist; and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, also a mission specialist.

“We gather here on these storied grounds to celebrate the immense courage and service of four intrepid space heroes whose sense of daring and adventure led them further from Earth and anyone has ever traveled before. Incredible,” Trump said.

Trump called the crew members “great people,” also thanking the engineers and scientists who worked on the Artemis II mission.

“Mr. President, it means a lot that you are here at the Johnson Space Center. It underscores the important work that is going on here in Mission Control, in furthering human exploration,” Wiseman said when he was called up to speak. “Thank you for coming here today.”

NASA MOON BASE: ADMINISTRATOR JARED ISAACMAN DETAILS PLANS FOR LONG-TERM PRESENCE

The Artemis II astronauts launched aboard the Orion spacecraft April 1, 2026, and spent nearly 10 days traveling around the moon before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean April 10. Their trajectory took them as far as 252,756 miles from Earth, farther than any humans had traveled before.

Unlike past missions to the moon, the Artemis II team did not touch down on the lunar surface. Its mission was to fly around the moon while testing the spacecraft and systems NASA plans to use for future lunar landings.

NASA says the mission served as a stepping stone for Artemis III, which is scheduled for 2027 and will involve a series of challenging tests in Earth’s orbit. Artemis IV, slated for early 2028, is then expected to send astronauts to the lunar South Pole for the first time.

The Artemis program’s overall goal is to establish a long-term human presence on the moon and eventually send astronauts to Mars.

NASA OPENS FIRST MAJOR NEW WIND TUNNEL IN MORE THAN 40 YEARS AT VIRGINIA FACILITY

“America has always been a frontier nation, and space is the highest of all the frontiers. Our manifest destiny is to explore and settle this great unknown,” Trump said. “Americans were the first in flight, the first to the moon and will certainly be the first in space, no matter where it is. And I know we’re going to be looking at Mars very shortly.”

Trump also revealed NASA has begun to work on the first ever nuclear-powered “interplanetary spacecraft” that the space agency will use for the planned 2028 mission to Mars.

“They have to go nuclear because they have essentially unlimited fuel. You don’t have to fill up the tanks,” he said. “This ship will be among the first of what will ultimately be a massive American Star fleet, making space travel almost as common as ocean travel today and bringing our military to a new level of excellence.”

Throughout his speech, Trump blamed his predecessors for letting U.S. space programs languish.

“In particular, the Obama administration, we even lost our ability to send astronauts into orbit at all. We had no ability in space whatsoever. We totally lost it with everything we spent, with all of the talent and all of the genius and all of the money, we had nothing,” the president said.

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“Before the end of my term, American astronauts will return to the lunar surface,” he said. “And when we do, they’ll plant this very important flag to mark the site of the first permanent American settlement on the moon.”

The first arrest in what a Trump administration prosecutor says will be a broader election fraud crackdown was announced Friday in Los Angeles, and the White House seized on the case to hit back at longtime critics.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli announced a Honduran national was charged with two felony counts and could face deportation if convicted, while criticizing California’s current voter registration safeguards and renewing DOJ demands for a voter roll audit. 

“Today’s arrest is the first of many to come. Unfortunately, because states like California allow non-citizens to easily register to vote and receive a ballot by mail, there’s no telling how many non-citizens are currently registered to vote,” Essayli said in a statement announcing the capture of Darwin Jonathan Rivera Flores.

CALIFORNIA ACCUSED OF BLOCKING FEDERAL VOTER ROLL AUDIT AS DOJ ESCALATES PROBE OF ELECTION FRAUD CLAIMS

“We again renew our request that California immediately comply with our requests to audit their voter rolls so that all voters can have confidence in our elections.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Gov. Gavin Newsom for comment.

Rivera Flores, of the Winnetka neighborhood west of Van Nuys, was charged with fraudulent voter registration and false claim of U.S. citizenship. He did not vote in an election, according to the DOJ. 

Rivera Flores entered the U.S. during the George W. Bush administration and was a green card holder, but was not a U.S. citizen, according to an affidavit.

FOUR NONCITIZENS CHARGED WITH ILLEGALLY VOTING IN 2020, 2022 AND 2024 FEDERAL ELECTIONS IN NEW JERSEY

He was previously charged with a misdemeanor for “disrupting immigration law enforcement operations” at a federal building in Camarillo, California, and sentenced to one year of probation.

Rivera Flores also allegedly sent a Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agent a slew of taunting text messages, calling the officer “not the good guy” and saying he could not “wait until the midterms” because he believed the agent would not have qualified immunity, legal protection that can shield law enforcement officers from certain civil claims arising from their official conduct.

Text messages between Rivera Flores and the agent reviewed by Fox News show several profane jabs directed at the officer, including, “How you f—ing treat people … that’s not f—ing protecting, you’re hurting these people,” and, “Chris, you know you’re a b—-, right.”

CLICK BELOW TO READ THE AFFIDAVIT

Rivera Flores obtained the agent’s number after the agent unblocked it on his government-issued phone to contact him during an investigation, according to the affidavit.

The White House said Rivera Flores’ case indicates mainstream media and political critics are off base in their countervailing reporting and allegations about the existence of voter fraud.

“Despite the media and Democrats claiming it never happens, the evidence of noncitizens registering to vote in our elections continues to pile up,” White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis told Fox News Digital.

“Any non-citizens found registering to vote and voting in our elections will be held accountable. Only Americans should be electing American leaders.”

WATCH: TRUMP DOJ VOWS TO PURSUE ‘EVERY SINGLE’ VOTING VIOLATION AFTER NJ ROLL SHOCKER

CNN HOST ADMITS HE WAS WRONG TO SAY ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT VOTING ‘NEVER HAPPENS’ AFTER NEW JERSEY ERROR

Essayli said the case bolsters the DOJ’s demand that California comply with Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon’s request for a comprehensive voter roll audit.

Dhillon said in a statement that noncitizens who “commit fraud so they can vote in American elections” violate federal law and should expect to be prosecuted.

“Let this criminal complaint serve as a reminder that the Justice Department stands ready to enforce the laws Congress enacted to ensure only American citizens vote in federal elections.”

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Californians will decide in November whether to impose additional voter ID and citizenship-verification requirements. Under current law, people registering to vote must state, under penalty of perjury, that they are U.S. citizens and provide identifying information. 

The initiative is being led by state Sen. Tony Strickland, R-Huntington Beach, and Assemblyman Carl DeMaio, R-San Diego.

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Fox News’ Matt Finn contributed to this report.

The Trump administration filed lawsuits against four states Thursday over laws allowing illegal immigrants to receive financial benefits offered to state residents, including in-state tuition, state grants and state-funded student loans.

The Justice Department argued that laws in Oregon, Washington, New Mexico and Arizona allowing illegal immigrants to receive benefits are in violation of a federal law that states an illegal immigrant is ineligible to receive higher education in-state benefits unless those same benefits are available to every U.S. student.

“This is a simple matter of federal law: Colleges cannot provide benefits to illegal aliens that they do not provide to U.S. citizens,” Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division said in a statement. 

“This Department of Justice will not tolerate American students being treated like second-class citizens in their own country.”

DOJ SUES NEW JERSEY OVER LAWS GIVING ILLEGAL ALIENS IN-STATE TUITION, SAYS CITIZENS TREATED AS ‘SECOND-CLASS’

The latest lawsuits bring the number of states facing legal challenges over laws granting illegal immigrant students the same benefits as lawful residents to 21. The Justice Department has won its cases in Texas, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Illinois.

“Our efforts will not cease until President Trump’s promise is fulfilled: Illegal aliens will not receive benefits denied to American citizens,” Associate Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward, Jr. said in a statement.

The difference between in-state and out-of-state tuition costs at public universities in the four states is significant. The complaint showed that for the 2026-2027 school year, Washington residents would pay $13,406, compared with $44,460 for out-of-state students at the University of Washington.

This means illegal immigrants could receive a $31,054 discount if they earned a high school diploma or equivalent in the state, lived there for at least one year for reasons other than attending college and signed an affidavit saying they would seek permanent residency when eligible.

TRUMP’S JUSTICE DEPARTMENT SUES NEW YORK, OTHER BLUE STATES OVER TUITION FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

The Justice Department’s lawsuit against Arizona also showed a significant difference between in-state and out-of-state tuition costs, with the largest gap at Arizona State University totaling $24,448.

The lawsuit alleged that in fall 2025, 432 illegal immigrants received in-state tuition benefits at Arizona State University amounting to $10.5 million in reduced tuition.

The lawsuit also cites a report from the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting that estimates more than 3,600 illegal aliens per year could qualify for in-state tuition under Arizona’s law.

A spokesperson for the Arizona Board of Regents, a plaintiff in the lawsuit, said the school system follows state law.

“We are reviewing the lawsuit and will work closely with Arizona leaders on the appropriate next steps,” a spokesperson said.

The benefits extend beyond tuition costs.

COURT CHECKS PRITZKER AS TRUMP ADMINISTRATION SCORES ANOTHER IMMIGRATION WIN

In Oregon, only in-state students enrolled at Oregon Health & Science University can receive a Rural Nurse Scholars Scholarship, which covers the full cost of tuition and a $1,500 travel stipend. The Justice Department alleges that illegal immigrants are eligible for the scholarship under state law.

In Washington, not only do illegal immigrants qualify for in-state tuition and grants, but the state also created a financial aid program for illegal immigrants living in the state who are unable to obtain federal financial aid. The program is known as the Undocumented Student Support Loan Program, and it was created under a bill passed in 2020. 

Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson said in a statement to Fox News Digital that he stands by the state’s laws. 

“Washington state won’t be bullied into changing how we provide opportunities for young people in our state,” Ferguson said. “We’ll see them in court, and we expect to win.”

A June 2024 report estimated that roughly 408,000 illegal immigrants were enrolled in higher education, with 29.1% arriving in the United States at age 17 or older.

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Lawsuits are pending in Minnesota, Virginia, California, New Jersey, Kansas, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maryland, Colorado, New York, Connecticut and Vermont.

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Fox News Digital reached out to Oregon, New Mexico and Arizona’s governors’ offices for comment.

President Donald Trump on Friday spoke with American astronauts aboard the International Space Station from Houston, where he honored the Artemis II crew moments earlier.

Trump joked at the beginning of the phone call that many Americans would love to travel to space.

“I wouldn’t do it,” he said from NASA’s Johnson Space Center. “I hate to admit it. I would not want to do it. But some people love it more than anything.”

TRUMP TO TRANSFORM SPACEFLIGHT FROM SPECTACLE TO STATUS QUO TARGETING 3 LAUNCHES PER DAY

The astronauts said they were “thrilled” to speak with Trump and that they were “in the middle of several spacewalks,” with another one planned for next week.

Trump called the crew a group of “pioneers” for their efforts in space exploration.

He welcomed other officials to speak to the ISS crew and offered to welcome the astronauts to the White House when they return.

‘WOKE’ MILITARY ACADEMIES TARGETED IN NEW BLUEPRINT FOR SWEEPING WARFIGHTING OVERHAUL

“We’re going to see you when you get back,” he said. “In fact, if you want Oval Office time, right?”

A short time earlier, Trump honored the crew of the Artemis II with the Congressional Space Medal of Honor and signed an executive order establishing the U.S. Space Force Academy.

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“It will be at that same level when you serve West Point, Air Force, Coast Guard, Navy, Annapolis,” Trump said, comparing it to the other U.S. military academies. “It’s going to be at that level.”

As the Trump administration’s efforts have choked off federal funding for LGBTQ groups, Keisha Lance Bottoms, former mayor of Atlanta and Georgia’s Democratic gubernatorial nominee, is sponsoring an upcoming Halloween event open to children that will include drag shows.

“From 5-8, the little monsters roam free trick-or-treating through spooky trails and glowing Halloween worlds, and when night falls — the hallo queen show explodes with music, costumes and pure Halloween spectacle,” ColGay Pride, an LGBTQ+ group based in Columbus, Georgia, said in a video.

Notably, the group’s programming states that the “adults-only” portion of the night, which includes the drag shows, will begin after 9 p.m.

Even so, Lance Bottoms’ support of the Halloween event, which includes a haunted walk, s’mores, an adult-and-kids costume contest — all centered around gender expression — adds to her record of supporting LGBTQ-related content around children.

POWERFUL LGBTQ+ GROUP’S ENDORSEMENTS COULD TANK VULNERABLE DEMS OVER RADICAL YOUTH TRANS AGENDA

ColGay Pride describes its goal as “promoting diversity, inclusion and equality for the LGBTQ community in Columbus and the surrounding areas and create a supportive and affirming environment through our programs and events.”

The group, which is throwing its final Halloween celebration after 13 years, said that Trump’s federal funding cuts had made it dependent on individual contributions.

“We are closing our doors next year,” the group wrote.

“It has become far too difficult to raise money when our financial aid was cut off completely under Trump, when our own citizens — the very people we have served for twenty years — do not donate. Sometimes you simply reach a point where enough is enough,” the post read.

The group thanked Lance Bottoms for her support in a post to Facebook with a “digital sponsorship certificate.”

It’s unclear how much she contributed to the event.

Bottoms’ gubernatorial bid has been complicated by political liabilities. The Campaign Finance Commission fined her $37,000 in 2021 for accepting over $60,000 in contributions that exceeded legal limits as well as $110,000 that exceeded debt caps. She also announced that she would not pursue re-election as mayor of Atlanta amid a COVID-19 crime wave that spiked homicides by 58% over levels from the year before.

In addition to those controversies, Bottoms has also received criticism from conservatives for her stances on gender policy.

GOP FRONTRUNNER IN KEY GUBERNATORIAL RACE FORCED TO ANSWER ABOUT HIRING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS: ‘I DON’T KNOW’

Recently, in a gubernatorial debate, the former mayor said she would have vetoed the Riley Gaines Act — a piece of legislation that banned biological men from competing in women’s sports.

“I believe that decisions about who competes and how people compete shouldn’t be happening at the state capitol. I don’t support the government making decisions about who should compete in athletics. I believe that decision should be left to respective athletic associations,” Bottoms said.

That comment, in particular, has become a key campaign quote for her opponent, Rick Jackson, a businessman and the Republican nominee to replace outgoing Gov. Brian Kemp, as they set out to attack Bottoms’ far-left positions on issues of gender and sexuality.

“Keisha Bottoms and the other Democrats said they’d have vetoed the Riley Gaines Act. They won’t protect girls’ sports, but they will open the floodgates for woke ideology in our schools. We’re going to make sure they don’t get the chance,” the campaign said in a post to X, highlighting the debate moment.

Notably, Bottoms’ sponsorship of the upcoming Halloween event isn’t the first time she has supported drag-themed activities.

In 2019, as mayor, she invited Ms. Terra Cotta Sugarbaker, a drag queen, to host a story hour after the Fulton County library system removed a scheduled “drag queen story time” from its events.

“Ms. Terra Cotta Sugarbaker and all our LGBTQ friends are always welcome at Atlanta City Hall. How about we host your next story hour? Let’s make it happen!” she wrote in a post to X.

RILEY GAINES AND MYKAYLA SKINNER SEND MESSAGE TO SIMONE BILES ON WOMEN’S SPORTS DEBATE AFTER SCOTUS RULING

The Bottoms campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the upcoming event, what was included in her sponsorship, or whether it was appropriate to have children present for events centered around sexuality and gender expression.

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Having cleared her primary, Bottoms will face off against Jackson in the state’s Nov. 3, 2025, general election.

Websites tied to Portland’s Rose City Antifa and the militant abortion-rights group Jane’s Revenge began going dark in the days after the State Department designated their Italy-based technology provider a global terrorist entity.

Fox News Digital first reported this week that the State Department had designated Autistici/Inventati, known as the A/I Collective, as a specially designated global terrorist over its alleged support for violent far-left networks.

“Today’s news demonstrates the extent to which the A/I Collective was the digital infrastructure of the global Antifa terror network,” a State Department official told Fox News Digital.

RUBIO PUTS ENTIRE WORLD ON NOTICE AGAINST RISE OF ‘POISONOUS’ FAR-LEFT TERROR ‘MASKED AS EQUALITY’

“Just one day after the extremist collective was designated as a specially designated global terrorist, an untold number of servers and websites — used by far-left extremists to plot violent attacks, target federal agents, and conceal their crimes from law enforcement — have been shut down,” the official said.

Among them was Rose City Counter-Info, a Portland-based website the State Department says Rose City Antifa used to publish personal information about Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel and organize violent activity against federal agents.

15 ANTIFA RADICALS INDICTED, 12 ARRESTED IN SWEEPING FEDERAL PROBE INTO MINNEAPOLIS ANTI-ICE OPERATIONS

The State Department said the group used the site to distribute an online flyer urging supporters to use laser pointers against Customs and Border Protection helicopters. Federal records show one man later pleaded guilty to aiming a laser at a CBP helicopter, forcing the aircraft to abort a planned landing.

Jane’s Revenge also used A/I services to publish communiqués claiming responsibility for attacks on pregnancy centers and to incite copycat violence, according to the State Department. The group claimed responsibility for the May 2022 firebombing of a crisis pregnancy center in Madison, Wisconsin.

The NoBlogs platform, which is hosted by A/I and contains thousands of sites, was intermittently unavailable Friday. Some individual pages remained accessible while others returned errors or timed out.

The State Department has not said whether any U.S. agency directly disabled A/I infrastructure or whether the outages resulted from decisions by the collective, its vendors or its users after the designation.

FBI SAYS NEW MISSION CENTER HAS IDENTIFIED ‘NEFARIOUS’ PROTEST FUNDING AND SUBJECTS

The sanctions action blocks Americans and U.S. financial institutions from doing business with A/I and freezes any assets it holds under U.S. jurisdiction.

The State Department says A/I provided encrypted chat and email services, web hosting, secure video tools and anonymity services to violent left-wing groups in the United States and Europe. The department also said a media organization using A/I services disseminated material from Hamas, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Hezbollah and other designated terrorist groups.

A/I denied the allegations in a statement posted on a NoBlogs-hosted page.

The collective described itself as “a small, volunteer-run, technology collective from Italy” that provides tools for “digital self-defense.”

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“We will not back down,” the group said. “Antifascism and anticapitalism are not terrorism. Protesting is not terrorism.

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“The terror designation of the A/I Collective dealt a devastating blow to the transnational far-left networks that have plagued America and our allies for years,” the State Department official said.

The woman accused of vandalizing the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., was formally indicted on Friday, Fox News Digital has learned.

Melissa Farris has been charged on two counts, including destruction of a veterans’ memorial and destruction of government property.

The Kentucky woman allegedly spray-painted the words “Clean hands, dirty money,” in bright-pink paint and dumped bubble soap into the fountain at the center of the memorial, according to authorities.

WORLD WAR II MEMORIAL ON NATIONAL MALL VANDALIZED WITH PINK SPRAY; FOUNTAIN OVERFLOWING WITH BUBBLES

Federal prosecutors allege that cleanup and restoration costs already exceeded $1,000.

Farris did a Facebook live before turning herself in and her arrest on Aug. 14, in which she admitted to the alleged vandalism the day before. 

“It’s me. I am going to turn myself in,” she said. “I’m outside district federal court. I am just trying to do the right thing … I was trying to get people to listen… I tried to reach the media, I tried to fight back. I tried to ignore it.”

Farris claimed she lived in a paper-thin camper that she “boarded up with cardboard in the winter to feel a little bit warmer.”

Fox News Digital has reached out to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for comment.

WWII MEMORIAL VANDALISM SUSPECT IN CUSTODY, CHARGED WITH TWO FELONIES, PIRRO SAYS

U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said in a statement after Farris was charged: “Vandalizing our World War II Memorial is a despicable attack on a sacred monument honoring the Americans who fought and died for our freedom. Those Americans include my father and grandfather.”

Pirro said the charges carry penalties of up to ten years in prison.

“Our beautiful World War II Memorial was just hit by Spray Painting Vandals,” President Donald Trum wrote earlier this month on Truth Social. “THERE CAN BE NO GREATER INSULT TO THOSE AMERICAN HEROES WHO DIED IN WORLD WAR II. First the Reflecting Pool, now this. We are on their trail! Where do these animals come from???”

Several people, including Olympic canoeist David Hearn, were arrested in June for allegedly vandalzing the newly renovated Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, but the charges were dropped earlier this month.

TRUMP BLAMES VANDALS FOR DEAD GRASS ON NATIONAL MALL WHERE HE HOSTED 4TH OF JULY CELEBRATION

Prosecutors cited evidence indicating the damage may have stemmed from a botched renovation rather than vandalism.

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U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche on Aug. 16 said he “absolutely” supported Pirro’s decision to drop the charges, “as does President Trump,” he told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Trump has spoken out against the decision this month, saying he “disagrees 100%” with Pirro’s decision.

Fox News’ Robert McGreevy, Bonny Chu and Ashley J. DiMella contributed to this report.

A former Reagan administration national security official is sounding the alarm over what he calls a growing “red-green alliance” between radical Islamists and far-left socialists, warning the unlikely ideological partners are joining forces around a shared anti-American agenda.

Frank Gaffney sat down with Fox News Digital to discuss the growing influence of the Democratic Socialists of America and what he believes are the true intentions and potential threats to U.S. national security.

“One can argue that the Sharia supremacists are pursuing communism with a God, or at least a patina, a veneer of religiosity to it,” Gaffney explained. “Fundamentally, they’re at the hip in totalitarianism. Yes, with different outcomes in mind, but still perfectly willing to make common cause for the immediate shared objective of destroying the United States, which stands in the way of either of their ambitions.”

DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS SEIZE THE MOMENT WITH EXTREME, ANTI-AMERICAN VIEWS THAT BADLY TARNISH THE PARTY

“So that’s where we find ourselves at the moment — with a red-green axis that seeks the destruction of our country and is making that a goal being pursued now in the Democratic Party.”

Gaffney served as assistant secretary of defense for international security policy under former President Ronald Reagan and graduated from Georgetown University with a Master of Arts in international studies from Johns Hopkins University. He founded the Center for Security Policy think tank in Washington, D.C., in 1988 and currently serves as the president of the Institute for the American Future.

The “red-green alliance” describes the political cooperation between far-left movements, represented by the color red, and Islamist movements, represented by green.

ISRAEL, JEWS TARGETED WORLDWIDE AS WELL-FUNDED LEFTIST, ISLAMIST GROUPS JOIN FOR ‘NAKBA 78’ PROTESTS

The Reagan-era official argued that while the far left and Islamists have different ultimate goals, they share a common adversary in the American constitutional system, which he said stands in the way of both movements’ ambitions.

These concepts were recently debated during a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing titled “Hidden in Plain Sight: Confronting the Muslim Brotherhood Network in America” that took place earlier this month.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, questioned Kyle Shideler, director and senior analyst for homeland security and counterterrorism at the Center for Security Policy, about whether the Muslim Brotherhood partners with groups such as the Democratic Socialists of America and characterized that relationship as the “Red-Green Alliance.”

COUNTERTERRORISM EXPERT WARNS ABDUL EL-SAYED SENATE BID RAISES HOMELAND SECURITY CONCERNS

Shideler agreed with Cruz’s characterization and said he has seen evidence that the “red-green alliance” shares a “revolutionary objective” to squash Americanism, including the Constitution.

“This threat cannot be ignored because it is politically inconvenient,” Cruz posted to X. “A counterterrorism expert testified that the Muslim Brotherhood and the DSA are united by a shared hatred of America — and a revolutionary objective to overthrow the U.S. Constitution.”

AGITATORS UNITED BY CHINESE MONEY, HATE FOR AMERICA TARGET DATA CENTERS, EXPERTS WARN

Gaffney agreed with the sentiment during his interview with Fox News Digital, taking it one step further to say the two movements are “perfectly willing to make common cause” around what he described as an “immediate shared objective of destroying the United States.”

TRUMP ADMIN ACCUSES HAMAS OF BACKING GAZA FLOTILLA, SANCTIONS ACTIVIST AND MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD NETWORKS

“What they have in common is much more important than their differences,” Gaffney explained.

The “red-green alliance” has also been scrutinized by some Muslim critics of radical Islamism.

In May, Fox News Digital spoke with Dalia Ziada, a Muslim scholar who was forced to flee Egypt after criticizing Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel. She said that the nexus of radical Islamism with the radical left in the “red-green alliance” threatened the U.S., American politics and Western society.

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“For five or seven years now, we have been seeing some kind of a ‘sinful marriage’ between the radical left and radical Islamism, the groups that hate Western liberal democracies and desire to destroy them,” she told Fox News Digital.

A Fox News Digital investigation found roughly 425 organizations spanning communist groups, Muslim advocacy organizations and anti-Israel activist coalitions are part of a coordinated transnational protest network that collectively brings in about $1 billion in annual revenue.

The Abdul-El Sayed campaign on Thursday launched an attack aimed at White House aide Natalie Harp just a week after attacking second lady Usha Vance in a similarly vicious manner.

After President Donald Trump’s edict renaming Lake Ontario to Lake America during a heated trade battle with Canada the El-Sayed campaign waded into the fray on X.

“If we’re just renaming everything now… When are we making this official?” the campaign said in its post, adding a doctored image of the official White House webpage for first lady Melania Trump, crossing out her name and replacing it with Harp’s.

The post was quickly criticized by conservatives on social media.

HOUSE DEM’S ‘LAKE NATALIE’ JAB AT TRUMP AIDE SETS SOCIAL MEDIA ABLAZE: ‘STAY CLASSY’

“This is just such a weak, phoned-in effort,” GOP communicator Matt Whitlock posted on X. “My four year-old could come up with better burns than this.

“Weird how much time this campaign spends talking about other people‘s wives. When Abdul’s not talking about (and clearly thinking a lot about) the vice president and his wife, apparently he’s thinking about President Trump and his wife?”

“That boy Abdul is drowning, and his team keeps throwing him bricks,” journalist James David Dickson posted on X.

“So this is just gross, right?” Conservative advocacy group Michigan Forward posted on X.

SECOND LADY USHA VANCE FIRES BACK AT POINTED JAB FROM DEMOCRATIC SENATE NOMINEE ABDUL EL-SAYED

“A lil more sexism and misogyny from the Left,” political commentator Melik Abdul posted on X. “This time, it’s from the Guy who plays foootsie with Hasan Piker.”

Harp is a longtime Trump supporter who credited his first-term “right to try” order for saving her life after a serious battle with bone cancer. She then joined the second Trump administration as an aide to the president.

In recent weeks, Harp has become the subject of intense media scrutiny and online speculation about the nature of her relationship with Trump.

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In a post over the weekend responding to Vice President JD Vance’s comments that his grandfather, whom he called Pawpaw, would be shocked to know that El-Sayed is a serious U.S. Senate contender, the socialist-aligned candidate from Michigan responded by invoking second lady Usha Vance, who is of Indian descent.

“So do we think JD is taking Usha with him back in time to meet Papaw, or no…,” El-Sayed wrote on X.

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Fox News Digital reached out to El-Sayed’s campaign.

The Trump administration has started construction of a section of a border wall in Arizona despite objections from a Native American tribe.

The wall is part of a $46 billion effort to shore up the southern border with 30-foot steel bollard walls, vehicle barriers, and technology designed to stop illegal immigration and smuggling.

However, the Tohono O’odham Nation has said the construction will damage land sacred to the tribe, The Associated Press reported.

MULLIN TELLS CONGRESS PRIMARY BORDER WALL WILL BE DONE BY JUNE 2027, SECONDARY WALL BY SUMMER 2028

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said the desert spanning the Tohono O’odham Nation, which sits on both sides of the border, is a major corridor for drug smuggling.

“The project will close one of the most dangerous smuggling and trafficking corridors on the Southwest border: remote desert that has facilitated decades of drug loads, migrant deaths, and cartel activity,” said CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott.

TRUMP TO SHRINK 2 UTAH NATIONAL MONUMENTS BY 90%

The tribe, which has 37,000 members, including many who live in Mexico, sued the federal government in June in an attempt to halt the project.

The lawsuit argued the construction would cause “significant devastation” on the reservation, including the destruction of mountain peaks sacred to the tribe.

TRUMP SCORES MAJOR IMMIGRATION VICTORY AS JUDGE CLEARS WAY TO END TPS PROTECTIONS FOR THOUSANDS OF SOMALIS

A federal judge rejected the argument, siding with the government and noting that the border wall would be built on a 60-foot-wide buffer zone of federally owned land called the Roosevelt Reservation.

“Defendants have not yet articulated plans to construct outside the Roosevelt Reservation,” U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington, D.C., wrote in his opinion.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION NAMES ROSARIO ‘PETE’ VASQUEZ TO SERVE AS NEXT US BORDER PATROL CHIEF

The tribe said the construction still constitutes trespassing, even if the project is contained to the Roosevelt Reservation. The tribe set up “No Trespassing” signs this week and said masked CBP agents set up a vehicle blockade to stop tribal police from removing the contractors.

“The contractors, who are on the Nation illegally, were accompanied by agents as they worked on three separate locations near the border with drill trucks to conduct soil sampling and other activities,” tribal officials said in a statement.

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The tribe said it was exploring other legal means to remove the contractors.

Fox News Digital has reached out to CBP and the Tohono O’odham Nation for comment.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom is making affordability a focal point of his agenda as the potential 2028 Democratic presidential contender moves to tackle housing costs — seizing on an issue that hurt Democrats politically while converging with pieces of President Donald Trump’s deregulatory housing agenda before the midterms.

Newsom’s biggest recent housing reforms in California came before Trump’s March 2026 executive order on regulatory barriers, but the two are pushing some of the same ideas, including faster approvals, fewer regulatory hurdles and more housing construction.

“This is a pattern that we’ve seen a couple times with Democrats, where they will fight tooth and nail against economic common sense, but if it starts pulling the wrong way for them, then they’ll come around to reality. So you know he’s focusing on a lot of things that Trump has been championing,” economist Peter St. Onge told Fox News Digital. “…These are things that the free-market economists have been championing for decades.”

St. Onge said while Newsom’s “transformation has been certainly striking,” California’s struggle to rebuild after the Palisades fire underscores whether that shift will translate into results.

THE KEY STRATEGY RED STATES ARE USING TO LOWER HOUSING COSTS REVEALED

“We saw this with the Palisades fires where thousands of houses were burned. And people go through… and look at exactly how many houses are under construction and it’s pretty close to zero. The regulatory blockade is insurmountable,” said St. Onge.

Newsom has embraced some of the same supply-side housing tools Trump has pushed nationally, including faster approvals, fewer regulatory barriers and efforts to reduce construction costs. California enacted its major recent reforms in June 2025, before Trump issued a housing-specific executive order targeting regulatory barriers in March 2026.

The push comes after Democrats notched big wins in 2025 by campaigning on affordability, reclaiming ground on an issue that had worked in Trump’s favor in 2024.

The Golden State governor signed a housing package in June 2025 to exempt certain projects from California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and streamline environmental review for qualifying housing and infrastructure development. Some Coastal Commission housing appeals were limited and new residential building standards through 2031 were placed on hold.

Newsom followed those changes in July by signing another housing package aimed at streamlining affordable-housing financing and project reviews.

“We can’t speak to the Trump administration’s approach, because he hasn’t done anything. Trump’s failed economic policies and tariffs (also called taxes on Americans) have increased prices and shut down supply chains – slowing building across the country,” Newsom director of communications Tara Gallegos told Fox News Digital when approached for comment.

“In contrast, in California, Governor Newsom has enacted historic reforms in California to boost affordability, accelerate housing production, and hold local governments accountable for planning and building the housing their communities need,” Gallegos added.

$104,200 SALARY IN ORANGE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA CONSIDERED ‘LOW-INCOME’ BY STATE OFFICIALS

Trump already made reducing regulatory barriers to home construction part of his federal housing agenda. He signed an executive order in March directing agencies to identify ways to speed permitting, reduce regulatory costs and encourage state and local governments to ease barriers to new construction.

The White House’s Economic Report of the President, published in April, went further by recommending specific state and local reforms, including by-right approval for code-compliant projects, deadlines of no more than 60 days for a right-to-build decision and 30 days for later permits and inspections, limits on certain fees, third-party inspections and fewer green-energy mandates.

“Unlike incompetent Governor Gavin Newscum, President Trump has been laser-focused on making housing more affordable. The President signed an Executive Order prohibiting large Wall Street firms from purchasing single-family homes, directed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to purchase $200 billion in mortgage bonds that helped drive rates to four-year lows, and cut unnecessary red tape at a historic pace to boost supply, speed construction, and lower costs,” White House spokesperson Davis Ingle told Fox News Digital .

“The President will not stop fighting until the American Dream of homeownership is within reach for every American, which is why he continues to sign bold new executive orders and calls on Congress to pass further legislation,” added Ingle.

John Gibbs, Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies Director at The Heritage Foundation, told Fox News Digital that housing is better handled by state and local governments.

.TRUMP SCORES MAJOR WIN AS CONGRESS PASSES HOUSING CRACKDOWN ON WALL STREET INVESTORS

“While California’s recent efforts to streamline approvals and limit local barriers to development reflect policies to increase housing supply that many economists across the political spectrum support, it is important to recognize that housing supply is ultimately governed primarily by state and local governments, not Washington,” said Gibbs.

The president and governor both have different powers in their pockets they can use.

Newsom can directly use state power to override local zoning, streamline CEQA/permitting and pressure cities to build. Trump’s levers are largely federal — mortgage finance, federal regulation, GSEs and incentives/guidance to states.

“Federal policymakers have far greater control over demand-driven housing policies such as mortgage guarantees, federal mortgage insurance programs, the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs), and monetary policy, than they do over local zoning and land-use decisions,” Gibbs explained.

Manhattan Institute senior fellow Judge Glock also Fox News Digital there are contrasts to the president and Newsom’s plans.

TRUMP’S AFFORDABILITY PLAN FACES CONSERVATIVE PUSHBACK AS POCKETBOOK ISSUES LOOM OVER MIDTERMS

“One problem is that many of Newsom’s housing laws contain handouts to unions or to environmental groups that further drive-up housing prices, such as requirements for union labor or for solar-paneled roofs,” said Glock. “The Trump administration, by contrast, has tried to limit such requirements for new housing.”

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“The Trump administration has also focused more on trying to expand cities outward and allowing more single-family homes, while Newsom has focused on densifying existing areas and building more apartments,” he added.

The social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, has uncovered a massive suspected Chinese bot farm conducting “influence operations” online in the United States, including pushing an anti-artificial intelligence and anti-data center narrative.

This comes as a national debate rages over the costs and benefits of continuing to develop artificial intelligence at breakneck speed and the massive data centers required to power it. The debate also has immense political implications, dividing parties internally as many members of the GOP break with President Donald Trump on AI and data centers.

As this national conversation unfolds, X’s Global Government Affairs account said the platform’s safety team identified a bot farm of approximately 200,000 inauthentic Chinese accounts “involved in influence operations.”

The X team said that within the bot farm, 200 accounts were found posting “in a manner that could manipulate a legitimate debate about American AI and energy policy.”

BLANCHE URGED TO INVESTIGATE ALLEGED FOREIGN INFLUENCE IN FIGHT AGAINST DATA CENTERS

According to the platform, posts by these accounts contained claims that AI data centers are driving up household electricity prices and straining the grid. The X team said other accounts also posted AI-generated cartoons depicting data center developers enriching themselves at the public’s expense.

One image shared by the team depicted horrified citizens across from data center developers with bags of cash with the caption, “Data centers get subsidized while we foot the bill!” Another image read that “the AI industry is booming, but the costs are being borne by ordinary people.”

Earlier this summer, OpenAI announced that it had banned a “cluster of ChatGPT accounts that likely originated in China” that were being used to generate a “covert influence operation” primarily targeting U.S. audiences. OpenAI said the accounts generated short comments and images similarly claiming that data centers and AI were increasing electricity demand and causing higher costs.

The influence campaigns were discovered as debate rages over AI. Critics of AI development say the data centers required to power it harm the environment, drive up electricity costs and decrease neighborhood property values. Proponents, meanwhile, say AI data center development is critical to national security and boosts local economies by creating jobs.

REPORT: CHINESE PROPAGANDA, SINGHAM NETWORK, FOREIGN DARK MONEY LINKED TO CAMPAIGNS AGAINST DATA CENTERS

Speaking at the White House earlier this week, Trump suggested that the AI industry needs “a little public relations help,” pointing to a May Gallup poll that showed a majority of Americans oppose data centers being built in their communities.

He said that local communities and states should want to welcome data centers because “the jobs are enormous, and the money paid, the taxes paid are just enormous.”

“And if you don’t take it, you’re going to be left behind because there are plenty of places that want it,” he added.

Meanwhile, Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., has warned that China benefits from “overreaction” to “AI doomsdaying” in the U.S. as the two countries compete for dominance in the industry.

Fetterman wrote that “AI supremacy and energy dominance underpins our national security.”

FETTERMAN ALIGNS WITH TRUMP ON AI PUSH, WARNS CHINA BENEFITS FROM US ‘OVERREACTION’

Following the discovery of the Chinese influence campaign, X’s Global Government Affairs team wrote that “we take seriously any attempts to undermine the integrity of the global town square and suspend accounts that violate our Authenticity policy.”

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The platform said it remains “committed to maintaining an open and authentic platform where people debate topics of public interest.”

Fox BUSINESS‘ James Cirrone and Fox News Digital’s Michael Sinkewicz contributed to this report.

A House Democrat’s jab at one of President Donald Trump’s most loyal aides prompted a firestorm on social media.

Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., is getting heat from the right and praise from the left after she quipped about Trump’s decision to rename Lake Ontario. 

“Let’s just call it Lake Natalie so we know you’ll start protecting our Great Lakes,” she wrote on X.

Trump signed an order on Thursday renaming one of the five Great Lakes “Lake America” amid an ongoing trade dispute with Canada.

HOUSE DEM DEBBIE DINGELL PLACES TRUMP’S LAKE ONTARIO NAME CHANGE IN THE CROSSHAIRS

Dingell’s comment appears to be aimed at Trump aide Natalie Harp, a close confidante of the president, whom Democrats have seized on after she was reportedly one of the small group of people who joined Trump on a separate plane after a potential Iranian plot to take down Air Force One.

The comment has prompted fierce backlash from Trump allies who accuse Democrats of unfairly targeting a White House aide trying to do her job — a sentiment that was on full display online this week.

JON OSSOFF DODGES ON WHY HE INVOKED TRUMP AIDE’S NAME DURING GEORGIA CAMPAIGN RALLY

“You’re being exactly who I said Democrats were all along. You don’t care about protecting women from sexism/misogyny. You just care if they have an R behind their name,” GOP commentator Melik Abdul wrote on X.

Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Robert “Buzz” Patterson said, “Wow. Stay classy, Michigan.”

OBAMA STRATEGIST TURNS ON RISING DEM STAR OVER VIRAL TRUMP ATTACK: ‘GRATUITOUS AND UNNECESSARY’

“Ouch! Not so nice to a young woman staffer .. i suspect your target is the President but it is not nice to the young staffer.. why does she deserve this ? …this all started with a snarky comment by a dem senator,” veteran news anchor Greta Van Susteren wrote.

Van Susteren was referencing a comment by Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., that kicked off the frenzy over Harp in the first place. Ossoff said during a rally that Trump would rather “build his ballroom and travel with Natalie” than do the job of president.

CNN, MS NOW HAVE MENTIONED TRUMP AIDE NATALIE HARP HUNDREDS OF TIMES SINCE OSSOFF’S VIRAL JAB

“Is this the new move when a dem wants to pretend they’re relevant?” former Trump spokeswoman Elizabeth Pipko wrote on X.

Pundit Rich Baris wrote, “We’re starting to see glimmers of the Ole’ Democrat crazy we all have come to know in the Trump Era.”

But left-wing social media circles cheered Dingell on.

“Debbie wins the Internet today, full stop,” wrote former conservative lawyer and failed congressional candidate George Conway.

Democrat Janice Hough wrote, “Rep. Debbie, I was not familiar with your game.”

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“Debbie hits a grand slam,” quipped Norman Ornstein, contributing editor for The Atlantic.

Former secretary of state and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton found herself on the wrong end of social media criticism after taking issue with President Donald Trump’s move to rename Lake Ontario amid a heated trade war with Canada.

“It’s Lake Ontario,” Clinton posted on Thursday, inserting herself into the debate stemming from Trump’s executive order instructing the Department of Interior to refer to the lake as “Lake America” from now on.

Clinton, whose X account does not allow replies, was immediately mocked by conservatives over her failed presidential run against Trump as the post surpassed 3 million views in just a few hours.

“It’s not President Hillary Clinton…and never will be,” conservative commentator CJ Pearson posted on X.

CLINTON’S EYEBROW-RAISING SOCIALISM TAKE SPARKS BRUTAL MOCKERY: ‘DEFINITION OF INSANITY’

“Trump Controls the News Cycle Volume 87187585124782,” former Trump DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin posted on X.

“It’s President Donald J. Trump,” the Republican National Committee (RNC) posted on X.

“And you’ll never be President,” Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., posted on X.

‘CAPTAIN CANADA’ FIREBRAND UNLOADS ON TRUMP WITH PROFANE ONE-LINER AS TRADE WAR ESCALATES

“Loser says what?” conservative commentator Jillian King Anderson posted on X.

“Democrats preferring Canada to America is the least surprising thing I’ve seen all day,” conservative commentator Michael Knowles posted on X.

“Hillary’s out here shooting blanks ,” conservative radio host Vince Coglianese posted on X.

Trump’s move to rename the lake, which sits on the U.S.-Canada border, came amid a breakdown in trade between both nations, with Trump accusing Ottawa of unfair trade practices.

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The U.S. imposed new 50% tariffs on Canadian goods such as wine, furniture and dairy products, while Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said U.S. trade demands proved Washington wanted to “destroy our major industries,” including autos, steel and aluminum.

“Canada has been ripping us off for a long time on trade,” Trump said Thursday. “Very sadly, even the military, you know, we defend Canada for nothing. We don’t get anything. They don’t pay us to defend Canada.”

Trump previously used geographic names to make political statements, ordering the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America in January 2025.

“The Lake of America was something I’ve been thinking about for a long time, actually. As you know, we took something called the Gulf of Mexico — we changed it — and now it’s very routinely the Gulf of America,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Thursday.

Several prominent Democrats have come out against the name change, including New York’s Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul who said New York, which borders the lake’s southern side, “won’t be calling it that.”

Fox News Digital’s Louis Casiano contributed to this report

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One year ago this week, Texas passed a new congressional redistricting map, giving President Donald Trump his first major victory in his push to give Republicans a big boost heading into the midterm elections by drawing more right-leaning districts.   

One year later, as they fight to hold their razor-thin House majority, Republicans are the big winners, with partisan redistricting netting them at least 10 additional right-leaning congressional seats in time for the midterms.

Democrats and left-leaning pundits repeatedly railed against Trump’s efforts and charged they would “shred our country’s democracy.”

Top Democrats aimed to fight fire with fire but fell short. Their efforts to keep pace with the GOP were derailed following major court rulings by the Supreme Court and Virginia’s top court earlier this year, which were seen as major legal victories for Republicans. And the GOP scored another redistricting win earlier this month in Missouri, when a judge allowed a new map, backed by Trump and passed last year by Republican state lawmakers, to be used in November’s elections.

BLOCKBUSTER SUPREME COURT RULING IGNITES REDISTRICTING WARS ACROSS SOUTHERN STATES

Progressive pundits that cast Trump’s push for Texas to redraw its congressional map before the 2026 midterms as a threat to voting rights and democracy. Among them was former MSNBC anchor Joy Reid.

She branded the fight a “Voting Rights 911” and later titled a segment on “The Joy Reid Show” as “Texas’s War on Democracy Through Gerrymandering.”

John Oliver, host of “Last Week Tonight” on HBO, was also among a group of pundits that criticized the redistricting push as a power grab by Trump and the GOP.

Oliver said gerrymandering was the practice of manipulating maps “to get the outcome you want,” and called it “putting a heavy thumb on the scale of who gets elected.”

Fox News Digital reached out to representatives for Reid and Oliver to see if they continue to stand by their criticism, but didn’t receive responses by the time this story was published.

It wasn’t just pundits who spoke out.

Top Democrats also took action, after Trump, aiming to prevent what happened during his first term in the White House when Democrats reclaimed the House majority in the 2018 midterms, first floated the idea of rare, but not unheard of, mid-decade congressional redistricting.

After Texas led the way last summer, Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin called a ruling by the conservative-dominated Supreme Court to greenlight the redistricting a victory for a “rigged map” meant to protect the GOP from midterm accountability.

“But it will backfire,” Martin predicted.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who led a successful redistricting effort in his Democrat-dominated state last year to negate the GOP gains in Texas, emphasized, “California will not sit idle as Trump and his Republican lapdogs shred our country’s democracy before our very eyes.”

TWIN COURT RULINGS RESHAPE HOUSE BATTLEFIELD AS DEMOCRATS FIGHT UPHILL REDISTRICTING BATTLE

And Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York, who considered but decided against redrawing congressional maps in the blue-leaning state, charged that Trump and Republicans were aiming to “erode our democracy and drag us toward authoritarianism.”

A veteran Republican strategist sees the Democrats’ arguments as hypocritical.

“The left’s overcharged political rhetoric is undermined by Governor Gavin Newsom’s willingness to spearhead a power grab in his state that eliminated at least 5 GOP congressional seats,” Colin Reed told Fox News Digital.

Reed argued that “Democratic leaders had the same goal as Republicans with mid-decade redistricting; they just weren’t as successful, but their intent makes any complaints about democracy ring hollow.”

But Democrats stand by their resistance.

“Elected leaders in every state should respond aggressively to this unAmerican attempt to rig control of congress for a generation,” John Bisognano, executive director of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, told Fox News Digital.

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While Texas and California were the first major battlegrounds in the redistricting war, the fight quickly spread from coast-to-coast.

Republican-controlled Florida, Missouri, and Ohio and swing state North Carolina, where the GOP dominates the legislature, drew new maps as part of the president’s push.

But in blows to Republicans, a Utah district judge late last year rejected a congressional district map drawn by the state’s GOP-dominated legislature and instead approved an alternate that created a Democratic-leaning district ahead of the midterms.

And Republicans in Indiana’s state Senate in December defied Trump, shooting down a redistricting bill that had passed the state House.

But Democrats were dealt a major blow this spring when the Virginia Supreme Court struck down the Democrat-controlled state’s congressional redistricting ballot measure, which would have produced up to four more left-leaning House seats.

DEMOCRACY ’26: STAY UP TO DATE WITH THE FOX NEWS ELECTION HUB

Concurrently, a blockbuster decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that gutted key portions of the landmark Voting Rights Act – ruling that race should not dictate the redrawing of legislative districts – gave a handful of GOP-dominated Southern states the greenlight to move forward with redistricting.

The legal rulings locked in an advantage for Republicans in this year’s battle for the House. Now it’s up to voters to decide which party will control Congress.

But the redistricting fight is far from over.

Democrat-controlled New York is taking steps toward redistricting in time for the 2028 elections.

So is blue state Maryland, but a court ruling on Wednesday dealt Democrats a setback. A Maryland court blocked Democrats from adding a congressional redistricting initiative to the November ballot on Wednesday. The Democrat-backed effort would have allowed Maryland residents to vote on an amendment to the state constitution to let lawmakers redraw district maps ahead of the 2028 elections.

Meanwhile, battleground Georgia, where Republicans currently control the governor’s office and state legislature, is also mulling a move.

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“The gerrymandering crisis Trump started last year is is not over. We expect him to continue demanding new congressional maps that manipulate voting districts to protect Republicans despite what American voters want,” Bisognano told Fox News Digital.

He urged state leaders to speak out and draw “responsive maps to ensure the national congressional map reflects the make up and the will of the American people.”

A Los Angeles councilwoman’s celebration of a newly painted neighborhood crosswalk has drawn online mockery after critics seized on the months-long timeline and glossy “street infrastructure” rollout for what they said amounted to a basic city service.

Los Angeles Councilmember Nithya Raman, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, is facing online mockery after celebrating the completion of a neighborhood crosswalk project, which was first raised by the Los Feliz Neighborhood Council late last year, in a post on X. The post featured before-and-after images and thanked her field team for “continuing to problem-solve, push for solutions, and make our streets safer.”

“Dear Lord, Nithya. Your standards are so incredibly low,” responded Richard Grenell, Presidential Envoy for Special Missions amid Donald Trump’s second term. “They didn’t even fix the street, they painted over cracks. And it took them a year…..”

“Holy s—t, my sides…Nithya Raman’s big accomplishment is taking 9 months to paint 7 yellow stripes over a cracked street?” quipped former L.A. mayoral candidate and reality television star Spencer Pratt. “How dumb do you have to be to post this? BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA”

DEM’S MELTDOWN OVER ‘TERRORIST SYMPATHIZER’ HASAN PIKER TRIGGERS INSTANT CONSERVATIVE MOCKERY: ‘YIKES’

“This is beyond parody,” responded conservative commentator Ben Shapiro. “Eight months to paint some yellow lines. Huge infrastructure victory! Make her mayor!”

“They’re calling it the most ambitious infrastructure project since the Golden Gate Bridge,” added the Manhattan Institute’s Chris Rufo.

AOC’S SOCIALIST CREDENTIALS FACE FRESH SCRUTINY AFTER GLARING 7-YEAR GAP SURFACES: ‘VERY CONVENIENT’

Fox News Digital reached out to Raman’s office and Pratt for comment but did not receive a response before publication.

Raman’s announcement labeled the work “Improving Our Neighborhood Street Infrastructure” and included before-and-after photos showing yellow crosswalk markings across the cracked roadway. She said the Los Feliz Neighborhood Council had brought the issue to her office in late 2025.

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The post did not specify the project’s cost, when physical work began, which city department performed it or whether the work involved safety improvements beyond the painted markings.

The race to build the infrastructure behind artificial intelligence is creating a new boom for America’s blue-collar workforce, as construction firms scramble to fill jobs building data centers, power systems and the facilities that keep the technology running.

The rapid buildout is putting a new premium on skilled trades, with data centers requiring armies of workers to prepare sites, pour concrete, install electrical systems and handle the infrastructure needed to bring them online.

“For many years, there’s been a lack of focus just in general from what is the benefit of a career in the trades,” explained Cole Renken, general manager of Merlo America, the U.S. division of Italian construction equipment manufacturer Merlo Group.

“It’s a very stable income, very stable lifestyle that you can provide for,” he added.

ONE OF AMERICA’S OLDEST MANUFACTURERS SAYS AI IS CREATING JOBS — NOT REPLACING THEM

Now, the AI infrastructure boom could bring renewed attention to those careers.

U.S. construction spending is projected to climb from $2.22 trillion in 2026 to $2.85 trillion by 2031, according to a new report from Merlo America developed with predictive sales intelligence firm BiltData.ai. Industrial construction, which includes factories and data centers, is projected to reach $684 billion by 2031, representing 24% of total U.S. construction spending.

Much of that growth is being driven by the infrastructure needed to power AI, cloud computing and 5G, with data centers emerging as a major source of construction and industrial activity. And building those facilities requires skilled workers at nearly every stage of a project.

Renken said large projects require heavy-equipment operators to prepare sites and logistics workers to coordinate materials, followed by concrete workers, electricians, plumbers and other skilled trades as construction progresses. Electrical workers, he said, could face particularly high demand.

A SOUTHERN STATE JUST TOOK THE TOP SPOT IN ONE OF THE WORLD’S FASTEST-GROWING INDUSTRIES

And the jobs don’t necessarily disappear once construction is complete.

Brittany Kaiser, CEO of AI infrastructure company Alpha Compute, told Fox News Digital that data centers require workers not only to build the facilities and energy infrastructure, but also to install equipment, monitor operations, perform maintenance and support future expansion.

“These are projects that can provide hundreds or thousands of jobs over many, many years,” Kaiser said. “It’s not a quick construction project.”

She described data centers as “a constant construction project,” requiring workers across construction, electricity, energy development, monitoring and maintenance as facilities grow and expand.

That ongoing demand could create opportunities for surrounding communities, particularly for workers who can be trained for specialized positions.

“It’s jobs that can also be taught and trained,” Kaiser said. “So it’s very possible to engage with the community on education and training initiatives to allow people to get access to these higher paying jobs that they didn’t have a skill set for before.”

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But as projects multiply, finding enough skilled workers could become a challenge.

Renken said shortages in the trades have persisted throughout much of his career and could intensify as more projects come online.

The boom, he said, is also a reminder that even the most advanced technology depends on physical infrastructure and the skilled workers needed to build and maintain it. That need, he said, could bring new attention to skilled trades that have long been overshadowed by the focus on high-tech jobs.

“To me, it has been kind of an overshadowed market that hasn’t gotten the attention that it needs,” he said.

President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order renaming Lake Ontario to Lake America, a move that came amid a trade war with Canada. 

“The Lake of America was something I’ve been thinking about for a long time, actually. As you know, we took something called the Gulf of Mexico — we changed it — and now it’s very routinely the Gulf of America,” Trump said in the Oval Office.

The president said he has directed Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and the department to update the Geographic Names Information System to reflect the name change. 

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The order called Lake Ontario a “tremendous asset” to the United States. 

“The United States is the greatest protector of the Great Lakes, including the body of water currently known as Lake Ontario,” the order states. “Without the security and investment provided by the United States, this freshwater system would not be open for shipping, recreation, and responsible use to the same extent as it is today.”

The order said the U.S. Coast Guard supplies nine of the 11 ice-breaking vessels on the Great Lakes, securing commercial shipping lanes free of charge. The U.S. has also invested nearly $4 billion in protecting the Great Lakes freshwater ecosystem in the last decade, while Canada “has invested far less in similar initiatives over the same period.”

On X, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Lake Ontario comes from the “Wendat word Ontari’io, which, appropriately, means ‘the lake is beautiful, the lake is big.'”

“The name is more than 400 years old, predating both the Confederation of Canada and the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America,” Carney wrote. “We know that America is changing. Their trading relationships, their foreign policies, their national monuments, their hydronyms. Canadians also know that naming reality means calling it Lake Ontario – then, now and always.”

The move to rename the lake, which sits on the U.S.-Canada border, came amid a breakdown in trade between both nations, with Trump accusing Ottawa of unfair trade practices.

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Trump floated renaming Lake Ontario, one of the Great Lakes, hours before Carney’s announcement of reciprocal tariffs on U.S. imports. 

The U.S. imposed new 50% tariffs on Canadian goods such as wine, furniture and dairy products, while Carney said U.S. trade demands proved Washington wanted to “destroy our major industries,” including autos, steel and aluminum, FOX Business previously reported.

“Canada has been ripping us off for a long time on trade,” Trump said Thursday. “Very sadly, even the military, you know, we defend Canada for nothing. We don’t get anything. They don’t pay us to defend Canada.”

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He said that Canada wants to “be treated like a state” and “we just can’t do that anymore.” Trump angered Canadian officials last year when he advocated for Canada to become the 51st U.S. state. 

Trump even jokingly floated renaming the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

“So, if you think about it, we have a gulf and we have a lake,” he said. “Now, all we need is an ocean. So maybe we’ll have to change the name of the Atlantic and or the Pacific. Maybe we’ll change them both.”

Trump previously used geographic names to make political statements, ordering the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. 

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman is backing a once-futuristic answer to America’s fight over AI data centers: Move them into Earth’s orbit.

Isaacman said Wednesday that solar-powered facilities in space could tap the sun’s energy without competing for the land, water and grid capacity required by sprawling data centers proposed across the country.

“Let’s take our data centers, put them in Earth orbit, take advantage of that free fusion reactor that’s out there for us and use that to ensure we do win the space race for sure, but the AI race, too,” Isaacman said in an interview with Nexstar DC.

Isaacman’s idea comes as voters push back on the data center boom. A Fox News poll this summer found 70% of voters oppose building AI data centers in their own area, while 79% said construction should slow to address environmental and community concerns rather than move as quickly as possible to maintain a competitive edge over China.

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Half of those opposed said environmental issues, including energy and water use, pollution and noise, were their chief concern.

The idea comes with its own engineering problems. AI chips produce immense heat, and satellites would have to release it through large radiators. Operators would also need cheap, reliable launches, radiation-resistant hardware and laser links fast enough to connect thousands of computers spread across orbit.

That has not stopped companies from trying to turn the concept into a business. Google has called Project Suncatcher a “moonshot” to place its TPU chips on solar-powered satellites linked by lasers. It plans to launch two prototype satellites by early 2027 to test its hardware in orbit and determine whether the satellites can share data fast enough for AI workloads.

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SpaceX is pursuing a more aggressive version. Its proposed AI1 satellite would stand about 98 feet tall, have a wingspan of roughly 246 feet and carry up to 175 kilowatts of average AI computers, according to the company. SpaceX says it is building a Texas factory intended to produce thousands of the satellites as early as late 2027.

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Small-scale tests are already underway. Startup Starcloud launched a satellite carrying a Nvidia H100 chip in November and says it later ran a version of Google’s Gemini model and trained a small language model in space. Starcloud plans its first commercial mission, Starcloud-2, for 2027.

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SpaceX has also asked the Federal Communications Commission for authority to deploy as many as 1 million orbital data-center satellites between 500 and 2,000 kilometers above Earth. The satellites would use optical links to communicate with one another and SpaceX’s Starlink network. The FCC has accepted the application for review but has not approved the constellation.