NationalWatch

The nomination of Gov. Kristi Noem, R-S.D., to be the next Homeland Security secretary defeated a key hurdle in the confirmation process on Friday night, advancing to a final vote later this weekend. 

Her confirmation vote is expected to take place early Sunday morning. 

PETE HEGSETH CONFIRMED TO LEAD PENTAGON AFTER VP VANCE CASTS TIE-BREAKING VOTE

If confirmed, Noem will become the fourth of President Donald Trump’s picks to be advanced out of the Senate, behind Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and incoming Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. 

Votes that are expected soon after Noem’s are those for Treasury Secretary nominee Scott Bessent, followed by Transportation Secretary pick Sean Duffy. 

MODERATE REPUBLICAN MURKOWSKI WON’T BACK TRUMP PICK HEGSETH FOR DEFENSE SECRETARY

The South Dakota governor is expected to receive bipartisan support for her confirmation to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Her nomination advanced out of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC) by a vote of 13-2. Only two Democrats voted against her. 

TIM SCOTT EMPHASIZES ‘RESULTS’ OVER RECONCILIATION PROCESS AS HE STAYS OUT OF DEBATE

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“I was the first Governor to send National Guard troops to Texas when they were being overwhelmed by an unprecedented border crisis,” Noem told the committee during her confirmation hearing last week. 

“If confirmed as Secretary, I will ensure that our exceptional, extraordinary border patrol agents have all the tools and resources and support they need to carry out their mission effectively.”

The Senate voted to confirm President Donald Trump’s nominee, Pete Hegseth, as defense secretary on Friday night after a high-tempered battle to sway lawmakers in his favor that was almost derailed by accusations about his behavior. 

The final vote came down to the wire: three Republicans opposed, making for a 50 to 50 vote. Vice President JD Vance was needed to break the tie in the upper chamber. 

The Senate’s two moderate Republican women: Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Susan Collins, R-Maine, voted no. As did Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the former GOP leader. 

North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis’ support was not a given, and he did not reveal his stance until the vote was already underway. He ultimately said he would back Trump’s pick, giving him enough support to be confirmed with Vance’s tie-breaking vote. 

MODERATE REPUBLICAN MURKOWSKI WON’T BACK TRUMP PICK HEGSETH FOR DEFENSE SECRETARY

In her reasoning, Murkowski cited infidelity, “allegations of sexual assault and excessive drinking” and Hegseth’s previous comments on women serving in the military. 

The behaviors he has admitted to alone, she said, show “a lack of judgment that is unbecoming of someone who would lead our armed forces.”

Concerned Veterans for America (CVA), the nonprofit advocacy group at the center of many of the accusations brought up during Hegseth’s confirmation hearing, praised his confirmation in a statement. 

“The confirmation of Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense presents a real opportunity to prioritize the security and prosperity of our citizens, champion prudence and effectiveness in our defense strategy, and focus our Department of Defense on America’s most vital interests,” the statement read. 

The New Yorker reported in December that Hegseth was forced out of CVA, the group he once ran, over allegations of financial mismanagement, sexual impropriety and personal misconduct. 

All Democrats opposed the confirmation, a far cry from an earlier vote this week, when Secretary of State Marco Rubio was confirmed unanimously, 99-0.

Hegseth will now lead the government’s largest agency, having long promised to root out Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) measures across each branch. 

HEGSETH CLEARS SENATE HURDLE AND ADVANCES TO A FINAL CONFIRMATION VOTE

The Pentagon under Trump, however, has not waited for a confirmed secretary. 

This week, the commander of the Air Force‘s 613th Air Operations Center in Hawaii, who had advocated for more women in roles like her own, was removed from her position. Gen. Kevin Schneider, commander of Pacific Air Forces, relieved Col. Julie Sposito-Salceies from the Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, “due to loss of confidence in her ability to command the organization.”

Shortly after Trump took office, Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Linda Fagan, the first uniformed woman to lead any military branch, was removed from her position. 

Trump this week also nominated former Space Force Lt. Col. Matthew Lohmeier and former Marine Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller to top Defense Department posts – both men who were deeply critical of the Biden administration’s policies at the Pentagon. 

Lohmeier, who had been nominated to serve as undersecretary of the Air Force, was fired as commander of the 11th Space Warning Squadron at Buckley Air Force base, after he wrote a book and appeared on podcasts claiming Marxism had infiltrated the armed forces and criticizing diversity policies.

Scheller made headlines for posting videos in uniform criticizing senior military leaders over the Afghanistan withdrawal. Scheller, the new senior advisor to the Department of Defense Under Secretary for personnel and readiness, was sent to the brig and court-martialed over the clips. 

Hegseth’s nomination was dealt a last-minute hurdle earlier this week when reports emerged that his ex-sister-in-law alleged he had abused his second wife. 

On Tuesday, Fox News obtained an affidavit from Hegseth’s former sister-in-law, Danielle Hegseth, which alleged he had an alcohol abuse problem and at times made his ex-wife, Samantha, fear for her safety. Danielle Hegseth was previously married to Pete Hegseth’s brother and has no relation to Samantha.

KEY SENATE CHAIRMAN CRITICIZES ‘ANONYMOUS SOURCES WITH ULTERIOR MOTIVES,’ STANDS BY HEGSETH NOMINATION

But Danielle Hegseth added that she never witnessed any abuse herself, physical or sexual, by Pete against Samantha. 

Samantha Hegseth has also denied any physical abuse in a statement to NBC News.

Senate Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker said in a statement Wednesday night that reports “regarding a confidential briefing on the FBI background investigation of Pete Hegseth that I received last week are starkly and factually inaccurate,” and that he stands by Hegseth’s nomination.

Earlier Thursday, Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., urged Republicans to join him in opposing the former Fox News host and Army national guardsman. 

HEGSETH LAWYER SLAMS ‘FLAWED AND QUESTIONABLE AFFIDAVIT’ FROM EX-SISTER-IN-LAW

“Hegseth is so utterly unqualified, he ranks up there [as] … one of the very worst nominees that could be put forward,” Schumer said.

Hegseth, who has been married three times, has admitted he was a “serial cheater” before he became a Christian and married his current wife, Jenny. 

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The 44-year-old Army National Guard veteran, who did tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, is relatively young and inexperienced, compared to defense secretaries in the past, retiring as a major. But Republicans say they don’t want someone who made it to the top brass who’s become entrenched in the Pentagon establishment. 

President Donald Trump declared a national emergency after touring the devastation of the Los Angeles fires with residents who were personally impacted by the disastrous event.

Trump traveled to Southern California on Friday to survey the damage from the recent wildfires that destroyed over 10,000 structures in the Los Angeles area and tragically took the lives of nearly 30 people. 

Trump took an aerial tour of the area before his landing, with images showing the once ritzy neighborhood in ashes.

The president and first lady Melania Trump then experienced the damage up close, meeting with local law enforcement and members of the community for a tour of the destroyed Pacific Palisades neighborhoods.

‘FEMA IS NOT GOOD’: TRUMP ANNOUNCES AGENCY OVERHAUL DURING VISIT TO NORTH CAROLINA

“Not even believable,” Trump told reporters on site.

Trump sat down for a roundtable with LA Mayor Karen Bass and other state officials. When the president entered the room, individuals were heard chanting “USA, USA, USA!” Bass greeted the president and said that his presence was welcomed.

“This is an honor to be with you,” during the meeting, saying that homeowners told him that they want to rebuild their homes in the area. 

Trump said he would sign an executive order to open up the water valves in the area.

“I don’t think you can realize how rough, how devastating it is until you see it,” Trump said of the wildfire damage. “The federal government is standing behind you, 100%.”

Trump said that he is going to waive federal permits for rebuilding in the area. “I’m gonna be the president to help you fix it,” he said. “We’re going to waive all federal permits… Because a federal permit can take 10 years… we don’t want to take 10 days.”

LOS ANGELES AGENCY REVEALS ESTIMATED ECONOMIC IMPACT OF DEADLY WILDFIRES AS INFERNOS STILL RAGE

After the fires broke out, Trump blamed Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democratic city policies for the damage, citing their forest and water management policies. 

Newsom was waiting for Trump on the tarmac when he exited Air Force One and was seen shaking hands with the president in their first face-to-face encounter since the inauguration. 

“Thank you first for being here. It means a great deal to all of us,” Newsom told Trump after they met on the tarmac of LAX in Los Angeles just after 3 p.m. local time. “We’re going to need your support. We’re going to need your help.” 

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Speaking about his meeting with Newsom, Trump said that “we had a good talk, a very positive talk.”

Trump traveled to North Carolina to tour the hurricane damage, before heading to California for his first visit to the state since becoming president.

The Department of Education has dismissed 11 complaints related to “book bans” and eliminated a Biden-era position tasked with investigating school districts and parents, the agency announced Friday. 

The department said it was ending Biden’s “Book Ban Hoax” regarding complaints that alleged that the removal of age-inappropriate, sexually explicit or obscene materials from school libraries created a hostile environment for students.

It also eliminated the “book ban coordinator,” which investigated school districts and parents “working to protect students from obscene content.”

GOP SENATOR DEBUTS BILL TO ABOLISH DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION FOLLOWING TRUMP CAMPAIGN PROMISE

“By dismissing these complaints and eliminating the position and authorities of a so-called ‘book ban coordinator,’ the department is beginning the process of restoring the fundamental rights of parents to direct their children’s education,” said Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor. 

“The department adheres to the deeply rooted American principle that local control over public education best allows parents and teachers alike to assess the educational needs of their children and communities.

“Parents and school boards have broad discretion to fulfill that important responsibility,” Trainor added. “These decisions will no longer be second-guessed by the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education.”

Six pending allegations were also dismissed. 

TRUMP WANTS TO DISSOLVE THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION. EXPERTS SAY IT COULD CHANGE PUBLIC SCHOOLS

The DOE called the book removals “meritless” and based “upon a dubious legal theory.” The agency began investigating the complaints Jan. 20, finding that school districts and parents have “established commonsense processes by which to evaluate and remove age-inappropriate materials.”

The first complaint was filed with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) Feb. 23, 2022, against the Forsyth County School District in Georgia. The complainant alleged the district violated Title IX and Title VI by removing eight books from the school library because they contained sexually explicit content, the DOE said. 

The OCR’s office in Atlanta sought to have the complaint dismissed, but the Biden administration overruled a determination that the complaint had no merit, the agency said. The school district agreed to a resolution under threat of further federal intervention, officials said.

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“This included requiring the district to post a statement in all of its middle and high schools that embraced Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion,” the OCR said. “The department will terminate the agreement and any obligations under it.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom thanked President Donald Trump on Friday for coming to Southern California to tour the devastation left by the fires this month, marking their first face off since starting an ongoing online feud over the wildfire damage.

Trump traveled to Southern California on Friday to scope out damage from the recent wildfires that destroyed thousands of acres and more than 10,000 structures in the Los Angeles area, and claimed the lives of nearly 30 people.

Newsom was seen waiting on the tarmac for Trump before he exited Air Force One. The two shook hands, and Trump appeared to tug on his arm – a power move he has been known to pull on world leaders.

“Thank you first for being here. It makes a great deal to all of us,” Newsom told Trump after they met on the tarmac of LAX in Los Angeles just after 3 p.m. local time. “We’re going to need your support, we’re going to need your help.” 

TRUMP TO VISIT CALIFORNIA AFTER RIPPING ‘IDIOT’ NEWSOM ON WILDIFRE; CRITICS BASH CRIME, HOMELESSNESS, SPENDING

He added that Trump was with California “during COVID, I don’t forget that.” 

The encounter marked the first face-to-face interaction Newsom and Trump have had since he was sworn in as president on Monday. 

‘FEMA IS NOT GOOD’: TRUMP ANNOUNCES AGENCY OVERHAUL DURING VISIT TO NORTH CAROLINA

Trump said he believed he appreciated Newsom coming out to greet him after he arrived, adding “I think you’re going to see some very good progress” on the fire recovery.

“We want to get the problem fixed,” Trump said. “It’s like you got hit by a bomb.”

Making reference to some of the blame he had placed on Newsom and other California Democrats for not being properly prepared to handle the fires, he added, “We’ll get it permanently fixed so it can’t happen again.”

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Trump has spent the last several weeks blaming Newsom and Democratic leadership for the extent of the wildfire damage, citing fire management and water policies. 

“Gavin Newscum should resign. This is all his fault!!!” Trump charged in a social media post on Jan. 8.

FIRST ON FOX: Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is leading a bipartisan amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to validate a lower court ruling preventing nuclear waste from being deposited in his state.

Cruz, along with Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, wants the top court to uphold a lower court ruling that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) lacks authority to license nuclear waste storage facilities. 

They argue the proposed location of the nuclear waste sites poses “an enormous threat to the country’s security and economic well-being.”

The case, NRC v. Texas, will decide “whether the Commission has authority to issue the license under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 or the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982.”

TOP TRADE ASSOCIATION SENDS LETTERS CALLING ON BIG CHANGES IN THREE KEY DEPARTMENTS: ‘UNLEASH AMERICAN ENERGY’

The Supreme Court in October agreed to take up the case after the Biden administration appealed a Fifth Circuit decision holding that the NRC lacked authority to license nuclear waste storage facilities. The license, which was granted to the Biden administration and a company to build a waste storage facility in western Texas, was challenged by Texas and New Mexico.

Interim Storage Partners planned on operating the nuclear storage facility in Andrews County, Texas, a decision that spurred backlash because of the facility’s location within the Permian Basin. 

“The Permian Basin is our nation’s leading oil- and gas-producing region and a critical pillar of America’s energy security,” Cruz told Fox News Digital in a statement. “I support the State of Texas in opposing the NRC’s federal overreach and will keep fighting to ensure West Texas remains the energy power house it is today.”

The brief argues that placing the storage facilities near the Permian Basin makes the area “an enticing target for adversaries,” therefore threatening the oil-producing region. The brief says neither the parties hoping to operate the facilities nor the NRC are “equipped to consider the broader ramifications” of placing the facilities in the area. 

ALASKA LEADERS CHEER TRUMP OIL AND GAS DRILLING EXECUTIVE ORDER

Texas Democratic Rep. Henry Cueller and Republican Reps. August Pfluger and Ronny Jackson have also joined Cruz’s brief. 

“Energy independence is national security, which is why I support the scale-up of all reliable and economical energy sources, including nuclear, to meet our rising energy demand,” Arrington said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “However, I will not allow Washington to impose its will on West Texas regarding the temporary disposal of high-level nuclear waste simply because the Nuclear Regulatory Commission can’t — or won’t — finalize permanent storage elsewhere.”

Arrington said Texas “and the people of Andrews should make the decision” rather than “some nameless, faceless bureaucrat in Washington, D.C.”

The amicus brief states that the location of the waste sites — while “remote” — “present an enormous threat to the country’s security and economic well-being.”

“Energy security is national security. That adage remains as true now as it did in the 1970s, when OPEC strategically curtailed its oil supply to the United States,” the filing continues. 

BIDEN HAD NO IDEA HE SIGNED NATURAL GAS EXPORT PAUSE, JOHNSON SAYS

“And although we’ve come a long way since then — building up domestic energy production capacity and decreasing dependence on fossil fuels — recent events are a vivid reminder of the importance of energy independence,” the amicus continued. “They’ve also shown that the Permian Basin has global importance.”

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The high court is set to hear oral arguments in the case in early March.

An order barring commuted Jan. 6 defendants from entering Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Capitol could raise constitutional challenges, one legal expert says. 

In a filing Friday, Judge Amit P. Mehta specified the order applied to “Defendants Stewart Rhodes, Kelly Meggs, Kenneth Harrelson, Jessica Watkins, Roberto Minuta, Edward Vallejo, David Moerchel, and Joseph Hacket,” whose sentences were commuted. Those pardoned are not subject to the order.

Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers, was previously seen in the Capitol complex’s Longworth House Office Building. He was convicted of seditious conspiracy.

PRO-LIFE PROTESTERS PARDONED BY TRUMP, FOX CONFIRMS

The order states, “You must not knowingly enter the District of Columbia without first obtaining the permission from the Court.” It adds, “You must not knowingly enter the United States Capitol Building or onto surrounding grounds known as Capitol Square.”

The filing says the order is effective as of Friday at noon. Later that day, the Justice Department filed a motion seeking to lift the order.

“If a judge decided that Jim Biden, General Mark Milley, or another individual were forbidden to visit America’s capital — even after receiving a last-minute, preemptive pardon from the former President— I believe most Americans would object. The individuals referenced in our motion have had their sentences commuted — period, end of sentence,” Acting U.S. Attorney Edward Martin said in a statement.

“This is a very unusual order,” Jonathan Turley, Fox News Media contributor and the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University, told Fox News Digital. “The judge is relying on the fact that the sentences were commuted, but the defendants did not receive full pardons.”

COMMUTED JAN. 6 DEFENDANTS BARRED FROM DC, CAPITOL BUILDING BY FEDERAL JUDGE

Ron Coleman, counsel at Dhillon Law Group, called the order “novel.”

“It is unclear what basis the court would have to assert jurisdiction over someone who has been pardoned for the conviction that is presumably the basis for the order or what the legal grounds are for making Washington, D.C., the kind of national capital, like Moscow in the old USSR, that a citizen needs permission to enter,” Coleman said.

NANCY PELOSI SLAMS TRUMP’S ‘SHAMEFUL’ PARDONS OF JAN. 6 DEFENDANTS

Turley said that although the new order could “prove a factor” in President Donald Trump extending a full pardon to those with commuted sentences, “it’s not clear whether an order will prompt Trump to reconsider his decision to offer only commutations.”

Turley noted that the order could raise constitutional challenges, including First Amendment implications. 

“I think the court is effectively barring these individuals from being able to associate or petition government officials without the prior approval of the court,” Turley said. “That could raise questions under the First Amendment.

“I expect this will be challenged by these individuals.”

Trump pardoned nearly all Jan. 6 defendants earlier this week after promising to do so at his inaugural parade.

DOJ CONSIDERS CHARGING 200 MORE PEOPLE 4 YEARS AFTER JAN. 6 CAPITOL ATTACK

Trump signed off Monday on releasing more than 1,500 people charged with crimes from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the U.S. Capitol. The order required the Federal Bureau of Prisons to act immediately on receipt of the pardons.

Those pardoned in his initial order included Enrique Tarrio, the former Proud Boys chairman who faced a sentence of 22 years in prison for seditious conspiracy.

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Fox News’ David Spunt, Diana Stancy and Jamie Joseph contributed to this report. 

FIRST ON FOX: When Joan Bell, 76, was given the news she was one of the pro-life activists pardoned by President Donald Trump Thursday afternoon, she was in disbelief.

“I didn’t know if that meant we would get out in a few weeks or a few months, or what. I didn’t really know, but I knew we got pardoned,” Bell, a grandmother of eight, told Fox News Digital Friday. “Well, then I ran upstairs because I had a rosary every evening.”

After finishing her prayers and Bible study with other inmates, Bell, a lifelong pro-life advocate, was told by several other inmates that her husband, Christopher Bell, was on Laura Ingraham’s Fox News show saying she was indeed one of the 23 others pardoned.

PRO-LIFE PROTESTERS COULD FACE UP TO 10 YEARS IN PRISON: ‘POLITICAL WITCH HUNT’

“That was overwhelmingly beautiful,” Bell recalled. “Everyone was clapping.” She was then told by a guard to pack up her things for her release later that evening. 

“We are so grateful to Trump. And to just feel the fresh air, God’s beautiful air, just wonderful,” Bell said. “Just being out and being with my husband, my son, just glorious. There are no words to describe that kind of freedom.” 

She added that she and her husband will take a “second honeymoon” soon. 

Bell, who lives in New Jersey, was sentenced to more than two years in prison in November 2023 for participating in a “blockade,” conspiring with other activists at a Washington D.C. abortion clinic in October 2020, according to President Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ). 

PRO-LIFE ACTIVISTS FOUND GUILTY ON CONSPIRACY CHARGES FOR 2020 ‘RESCUE ACTION’ AT DC CLINIC

Prosecutors from the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division and U.S. attorney’s office for the District of Columbia argued the pro-life activists violated the 1994 FACE Act, a federal law that prohibits physical force, threats of force or intentionally damaging property to prevent someone from obtaining or providing abortion services.

The activists were sentenced by Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, a Clinton appointee, and immediately detained.

While signing the pardons Thursday, just a day before Friday’s annual March for Life rally, Trump said, “They should not have been prosecuted.” 

PRO-LIFE PROTESTERS PARDONED BY TRUMP, FOX CONFIRMS

“Many, many of them are elderly people,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “They should not have been prosecuted. This is a great honor to sign this. They’ll be very happy.”

Bell, along with Paula Paulette Harlow, Jean Marshall and John Hinshaw, were all around 70 years old when they were imprisoned.

“That he personally knew our case is so touching,” Bell said of Trump. “I want to give him a hug.”

Attorneys from the Thomas More Society formally requested pardons from the Trump administration earlier this month for the 21 pro-life advocates the law firm was representing. 

“The heroic peaceful pro-lifers unjustly imprisoned by Biden’s Justice Department will now be freed and able to return home to their families, eat a family meal and enjoy the freedom that should have never been taken from them in the first place,” Steve Crampton, senior counsel of the Thomas More Society, said in a statement. 

“These heroic peaceful pro-lifers were treated shamefully by Biden’s DOJ, with many of them branded felons and losing many rights that we take for granted as American citizens.”

In a previous interview with Fox News Digital, Crampton said it was hard to find a “fair jury” and that most of the jurors were either Planned Parenthood donors or pro-choice advocates in the cases. He called Washington, D.C., the “most pro-abortion city in America.” 

“She can say her pro-death words, but we weren’t allowed to say pro-life words,” Bell said of the judge in the trial. Nonetheless, she said it was more “heartbreaking” to be prosecuted for her religious beliefs.

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This week, Trump also took action to pardon over 1,000 Jan. 6 rioters who were imprisoned, along with numerous other executive orders related to immigration and cryptocurrency and orders to declassify the MLK and JFK files.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division for comment. 

When President Donald Trump lands in California on Friday to survey the devastating wildfires that have ravaged metropolitan Los Angeles this month, the state’s Democratic governor will be among the officials greeting him.

But Gov. Gavin Newsom is showing up uninvited.

“I look forward to being there on the tarmac to thank the president, welcome him, and we’re making sure that all the resources he needs for a successful briefing are provided to him,” Newsom told reporters on the eve of Trump’s stop in Los Angeles.

Since the fires, which have killed nearly 30 people and forced tens of thousands to flee their homes, broke out earlier this month, Trump has repeatedly criticized Newsom’s handling of the immense crisis. He has accused the governor of mismanaging forestry and water policy, and pointing to intense backlash over a perceived lack of preparation, he has called on Newsom to step down.

UNINVITED NEWSOM SAYS HE’LL BE ON TARMAC TO GREET AND BRIEF TRUMP

“Gavin Newscum should resign. This is all his fault!!!” Trump charged in a social media post on Jan. 8, as he repeated a derogatory name he often labels the governor.

And in his first Oval Office interview since returning to power in the White House, Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity this week, “This fire was just raging, and then it would catch to another area, another area, another area.”

“It took a week and a half — and I’ve never seen anything like it. We look so weak,” Trump argued in the appearance on Fox News’ “Hannity,” as he pointed towards his repeated claim that a main reason the blazes raged was because firefighters didn’t have access to water.

TRUMP PLEDGES FEMA OVERHAUL DURING STOP IN HURRICANE RAVAGED WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA

Trump and some top Republicans in Congress have pushed toward placing conditions on continuing the massive federal wildfire aid to California in order to force policy changes.

Newsom on Thursday signed a $2.5 billion state relief package. But California will need much more help from the federal government.

“I don’t think we should give California anything until they let water flow down from the north to the south,” Trump said in his Fox News interview.

Newsom, the governor of the nation’s most populous state, one of the Democratic Party’s leaders in the resistance against the returning president, and a potential White House contender in 2028, has pushed back, as the two larger-than-life politicians trade fire.

The governor has noted that reservoirs in the southern part of California were full when the fires first sparked, and has argued that no amount of water could tackle fires fueled by winds of up to 100 miles per hour.

Newsom has also charged Trump has spread “hurricane-force winds of mis-and-disinformation.

And in a letter to Congress last week, Newsom emphasized that “our long national history of responding to natural disasters, no matter where they occur, has always been Americans helping Americans, full stop.”

The wildfires are far from the first time Newsom and Trump have taken aim at each other. Their animosity dates back to before Trump was elected president the first time in 2016, when Newsom was California’s lieutenant governor.

The verbal fireworks continued over the past two years, as Newsom served as a top surrogate on the campaign trail for former President Biden and then former Vice President Kamala Harris, who replaced Biden as the Democrats’ 2024 standard-bearer last summer.

Following Trump’s convincing election victory over Harris in November, Newsom moved to Trump-proof his heavily blue state.

“He is using the term ‘Trump-Proof’ as a way of stopping all of the GREAT things that can be done to ‘Make California Great Again,’ but I just overwhelmingly won the Election,” Trump responded.

While pushing back against Trump’s attacks amid the wildfires, Newsom also knows he needs to work with the president.

Newsom, who two weeks ago invited Trump to come to California to survey the damage, said in a statement on Monday following the inauguration ceremony, “I look forward to President Trump’s visit to Los Angeles and his mobilization of the full weight of the federal government to help our fellow Americans recover and rebuild.”

He emphasized “finding common ground and striving toward shared goals” with the Trump administration.

“In the face of one of the worst natural disasters in America’s history, this moment underscores the critical need for partnership, a shared commitment to facts, and mutual respect – values that enable civil discourse, effective governance, and meaningful action,” the governor said.

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Veteran California-based political scientist Jack Pitney at Claremont McKenna College noted that “this is a very difficult balance” for Newsom.

“As a governor of California, he needs to work with the president to get federal aid for the state. As a national political figure, he feels pressure to attack Trump. It’s hard to do both of those at the same time,” Pitney told Fox News.

Louisiana State Treasurer John Fleming, who aims to unseat Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., during the Bayou State’s 2026 U.S. Senate contest, assailed the incumbent as a “RINO Republican” during an interview with Fox News Digital, using the acronym that abbreviates the phrase “Republican in name only.”

Fleming, who served as a U.S. House lawmaker from early 2009 through early 2017, was one of the founding members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus. 

He ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate in 2016 and held several posts during the first President Donald Trump administration. In 2023, with Trump’s endorsement, he won election to serve as the Pelican State’s treasurer.

When asked by Fox News Digital to name some lawmakers he largely aligns with ideologically, Fleming mentioned GOP Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris of Maryland, as well as Republican Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah.

RFK JR. ‘WRONG’ ABOUT VACCINATIONS, GOP SENATOR SAYS

When asked whether there are any federal departments or entities that he would like to see fully abolished, Fleming replied that if there are any federal entities he thinks should be eliminated, he said, “First on my list would be the Department of Education.”

Regarding the debt ceiling, he said if he were in office, he would seek to “leverage” debt ceiling increases to lower spending, adding, “I don’t think we should raise the debt ceiling.”

Fleming indicated that he supports foreign aid in some cases.

“I do believe in some level of foreign aid, particularly military foreign aid, when it’s in the best interest of the people of the United States,” he noted, suggesting that the U.S. should assist Taiwan and Israel. 

Fleming said that America must “be careful about” involving itself in affairs abroad. Pointing to Afghanistan and Iraq, he said, “We seem to win the wars but lose the peace.”

Fleming indicated that he is supportive of the TikTok ban that passed last year, because he does not believe it is “wise for us to allow the Chinese or any other foreign power, or even our own government, to spy on us through our social media.” He opined that the social media platform should be banned until it is no longer under the influence of the Communist Chinese Party government of China.

PRO-TRUMP IMPEACHMENT REPUBLICAN SEN BILL CASSIDY TARGETED FOR OUSTER BY FREEDOM CAUCUS FOUNDING MEMBER

In Louisiana’s jungle primary system, candidates of various parties run against each other, and if any candidate wins the majority, they win election to the role — but if no candidate gets the majority, the top two finishers compete in a runoff.

When Cassidy ran in 2014, he placed second in a field that included seven other candidates, advancing along with incumbent Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu to a runoff, which Cassidy won.

When Cassidy was re-elected in 2020, he won the majority and avoided a runoff, defeating a field of more than a dozen other candidates.

Cassidy was one of the seven GOP senators who voted to convict President Trump after the 2021 House impeachment in the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Trump had already departed from office by the time of the February Senate vote, and the number of senators who voted to convict ultimately fell short of the threshold necessary for conviction.

During a CNN appearance that the outlet shared on social media in 2023, Cassidy said he thought Trump should drop out of the presidential contest, though the lawmaker noted that the decision was up to Trump, who he said would lose to President Joe Biden based on the polls at the time.

HEGSETH BACKED BY LOUISIANA SEN. BILL CASSIDY TO LEAD THE PENTAGON UNDER TRUMP

After Trump had become the presumptive GOP presidential nominee last year, Kristin Welker asked Cassidy on “Meet the Press” whether he would endorse Trump. The senator responded by saying that he planned to vote for a Republican for president.

Cassidy in June pledged to work with Trump if the candidate returned to the White House. 

“Just met with my colleagues and President Trump. I was elected to work for Louisiana and the United States of America. I commit to working with President Trump if he is the next president—and it appears he is going to be—to make things better for all,” the senator said in a statement at the time.

He congratulated Trump and Vice President JD Vance on their inaugurations earlier this week.

“Today, the American people start winning again. Republicans are going to secure the border, unleash American energy, and protect American manufacturing,” he noted in the statement. “Congratulations to President Trump and Vice President Vance. Let’s get to work!”

The lawmaker, who has served in the U.S. Senate for just over a decade, previously served in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Trump endorsed Cassidy when the senator sought re-election in 2020, thanking him for supporting the Make America Great Again agenda, and praising his “outstanding” work representing Louisianans and Americans at large.

“THANK YOU @BillCassidy for all of your support with our #MAGA Agenda. You are doing an outstanding job representing the people of Louisiana & the U.S.A. You have my Complete and Total Endorsement!” Trump declared in a post.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, a Cassidy campaign spokesman said of Fleming, “He came in 5th place last time he ran for Senate in 2016 and currently has $500k in campaign debt.”

According to a Cassidy campaign press release, the senator “raised another $1 million across his reelection, leadership, and joint fundraising committees in the fourth quarter of 2024, bringing his campaign cash-on-hand to over $6.5 million.”

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The Fleming campaign responded to the Cassidy spokesperson’s comment in a statement to Fox News Digital.

“The senate campaign loan is 100% owed to Treasurer Fleming, personally,” Fleming’s campaign noted. “With regard to placement, Sen Cassidy ran against a weak Republican and a politically-wounded Democrat who had voted for Obamacare among other things. And, he had the backing of the entire Republican Party.” 

“Treasurer Fleming ran in an open seat against 23 opponents of all parties, some of whom divided his political base geographically as well as ideologically,” the statement continued. “Sen. John Kennedy ultimately won Fleming’s senate race as he was also the Louisiana State Treasurer and had run for the Senate before as Fleming is currently. What truly matters at this time is that Senator Cassidy voted to convict President Trump in the second impeachment trial during Trump’s first term. Had Trump been convicted, it would have foreclosed any possibility to reelect Trump leading to either a second Biden term or a Kamala Harris Presidency.”

President Donald Trump confirmed on Friday that he has terminated the security detail provided to Dr. Anthony Fauci at the taxpayer’s expense.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) requested security for Fauci in 2020 to protect him from threats he received as the top health official and public spokesperson during the COVID-19 pandemic. But that detail was pulled on Thursday night, CNN first reported.

Trump was asked about the decision Friday while visiting Asheville, N.C., to tour areas impacted by Hurricane Helene.

“I think, you know, when you work for government, at some point your security detail comes off and, you know, you can’t have them forever,” Trump said.

“We took some off other people too, but you can’t have a security detail for the rest of your life because you work for government,” he added.

Trump earlier revoked the security clearances of 51 intelligence officials who had wrongly claimed that Hunter Biden’s laptop had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation,” as well as the details provided to former national security advisor John Bolton and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. 

This is a breaking story and will be updated.

This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, voted in favor of 19 out of 21 of former President Joe Biden’s Cabinet nominees in 2021, a Fox News Digital analysis shows.

Murkowski voted against the confirmation of former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and did not vote on former Labor Secretary Marty Walsh’s appointment.

She did vote in favor of Biden’s Supreme Court nominee, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

SENATE CHAIRMAN CRITICIZES ‘ANONYMOUS SOURCES WITH ULTERIOR MOTIVES,’ STANDS BY HEGSETH NOMINATION

Alaska’s senior senator is facing a barrage of attacks from President Donald Trump‘s supporters over her opposition to his nominee to lead the Department of Defense, Pete Hegseth.

“I commend Pete Hegseth’s service to our nation, including leading troops in combat and advocating for our veterans. However, these accomplishments do not alleviate my significant concerns regarding his nomination,” Murkowski said in a lengthy statement posted to X this week.

She expressed concerns about his lack of relevant experience on Pentagon policy, as well as allegations that he mismanaged two veterans organizations he previously led, and accusations of sexual assault and excessive drinking – all of which Hegseth has denied.

“While the allegations of sexual assault and excessive drinking do nothing to quiet my concerns, the past behaviors Mr. Hegseth has admitted to, including infidelity on multiple occasions, demonstrate a lack of judgment that is unbecoming of someone who would lead our armed forces,” Murkowski wrote.

MODERATE REPUBLICAN MURKOWSKI WON’T BACK TRUMP PICK HEGSETH FOR DEFENSE SECRETARY

Among those who criticized her stance was Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., a former Navy SEAL. Van Orden targeted Murkowski for voting for Biden Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin over his leadership during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

“You voted for the two men responsible for the murder of these 13 heroes. The internet is forever, your time in office is not,” Van Orden wrote on X, in reference to the service members killed during a suicide bombing in Kabul.

“I strongly encourage you to fire the staff that gave you this horrible advice and wrote your X post.”

However, some on the right agree with Murkowski. One GOP lawmaker previously told Fox News Digital about Hegseth, “The military fired people who behaved like Hegseth. Him being [Defense Secretary] will cause issues with discipline.”

Murkowski told Politico in 2020 that “all presidents have right to their Cabinet” but it was the Senate’s responsibility to make sure those people “are good, qualified credible candidates.”

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Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who is also opposing Hegseth, voted in favor of all of Biden’s Cabinet nominees in 2021.

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

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is allowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials to review the parole status of migrants who were brought in under a dramatic expansion of humanitarian parole by the Biden administration, opening the door for their quick removal from the country.

In an internal memo signed Thursday, and obtained by Fox News Digital, acting DHS Secretary Benjamine Huffman noted moves he made this week to take limits off expedited removal, which allows for the rapid removal of recently-arrived migrants if they do not claim asylum or fail to meet an initial standard. The power can now be used anywhere in the U.S. for migrants in the U.S. for less than two years.

The new memo says that with those expanded powers, any immigrant whom DHS knows who could be put on expedited removal, but has not, should have their case reviewed and “consider, in exercising your enforcement discretion, whether to apply expedited removal.” The memo was first reported by The New York Times.

TRUMP DHS REPEALS KEY MAYORKAS MEMO LIMITING ICE AGENTS, ORDERS PAROLE REVIEW
 

“This may include steps to terminate any ongoing removal proceeding and/or any active parole status,” it says.

It also says that for any immigrant who has been granted parole under a policy paused, modified or terminated by the Trump administration, officers can decide whether they should be placed in removal proceedings and “review the alien’s parole status to determine, in exercising your enforcement discretion, whether parole remains appropriate in light of any changed legal or factual status.”

TRUMP’S ICE NABS CHILD SEX OFFENDERS AMONG 530+ ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS CAUGHT IN SINGLE DAY

The memo also notes that parole is a “positive exercise of enforcement discretion to which no alien is entitled and that parole ‘shall not be regarded as an admission of the alien.’”

This would mean that migrants who were granted parole at ports of entry after making an appointment via the CBP One app, or who were given travel authorization to be paroled under the parole processes for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans (CHNV), could be eligible for removal. The administration also launched parole programs for nationals from Ukraine and Afghanistan.

Nearly 1.5 million migrants were allowed in under CBP One and CHNV, and both parole channels were closed by President Donald Trump on his first day in office. The Biden administration said the expanded “lawful pathways” were part of an effort to reduce illegal crossings, but Republicans accused the administration of abusing limited parole power and allowing in migrants who should not legally have entered.

Huffman’s memo follows a memo from earlier this week in which he ordered a review of the use of parole. The memo notes that the statute demands the authority be used on a “case by case basis,” something that Republican critics claim the administration has abused. It emphasizes that parole is “a limited use authority, applicable only in a very narrow set of circumstances.”

It also claims that “it has been repeatedly abused by the Executive Branch over the past several decades in ways that are blatantly inconsistent with the statute.”

“Most important, the parole statute does not authorize categorical parole programs that make aliens presumptively eligible on the basis of some set of broadly applicable criteria,” it says.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE

The memo directs the heads of (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection to compile a list of instructions, policies and procedures related to parole, review them and formulate a plan to phase out any that are not in accord with the statute.

The latest memo comes amid a flurry of moves by the administration on illegal immigration and immigration, including moves to send military to the border, end refugee resettlement, build the border wall and launch a massive deportation operation. 

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ICE on Thursday arrested more than 530 illegal immigrants in another day of raids across the U.S. Agents have focused on public safety threats, but officials have said that no-one is off the table if they are in the country illegally.

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and a slew of other House Republicans are pushing a proposal that would compel states to allow Americans to carry guns in public areas.

The measure, dubbed the “National Constitutional Carry Act,” would prohibit states and localities from limiting U.S. citizens from carrying firearms in public if they are eligible to have the weapons under state and federal law. 

“By prohibiting state or local restrictions on the right to bear arms, H.R. 645 upholds the original purpose of the Second Amendment—to ensure the security of a free state—while safeguarding individual liberties against government infringement,” Massie noted, according to a press release.

MASSIE DROPS COLORFUL ANALOGY OPPOSING FOREIGN AID, MOCKS SPEAKER JOHNSON WITH AI-GENERATED IMAGE

Specifically, the text of the measure stipulates that “No State or political subdivision of a State may impose a criminal or civil penalty on, or otherwise indirectly limit the carrying of firearms (including by imposing a financial or other barrier to entry) in public by residents or nonresidents of that State who are citizens of the United States and otherwise eligible to possess firearms under State and Federal law.”

“Any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage of a State or a political subdivision of a State that criminalizes, penalizes, or otherwise indirectly dissuades the carrying of firearms (including by imposing a financial or other barrier to entry) in public by any resident or nonresident who is a United States citizen and otherwise eligible to possess firearms under State and Federal law, shall have no force or effect,” the measure reads.

The measure would not apply to locations “where screening for firearms is conducted under state law,” and it would not block the owners of privately-owned facilities from banning guns on their premises. 

Massie and others had previously pushed such a proposal last year as well.

IN ONE U.S. TOWN, RESIDENTS ARE LEGALLY REQUIRED TO OWN GUNS AND AMMO

In 2021, Massie shared a family Christmas photo in which each person was holding a gun.

“Merry Christmas!” the staunch gun rights advocate wrote when sharing the photo, adding, “ps. Santa, please bring ammo.”

In a 2022 post, he criticized the term “Gun Violence,” asserting that it “is part of the language leftists use to shift blame away from evil perpetrators of violence” and that it “suggests that guns are to blame instead of people, which sets the table for their anti-second amendment agenda.”

“There’s a reason you never see a Communist, a Marxist, or even a Socialist politician support the right of common people to keep and bear arms: Those forms of government require more submission to the state than armed citizens would tolerate,” Massie also tweeted in 2022.

REP. MASSIE LAUNCHES ‘MAXIMUM TRIGGERING’ WITH FAMILY CHRISTMAS PHOTO: ‘SANTA, PLEASE BRING AMMO’

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The congressman’s press release lists dozens of House Republicans as original cosponsors, including: Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma, Tim Burchett of Tennessee, Eric Burlison of Missouri, Ben Cline of Virginia, Michael Cloud of Texas, Mike Collins of Georgia, Eli Crane of Arizona, Brandon Gill of Texas, Paul Gosar of Arizona, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Andy Harris of Maryland, Clay Higgins of Louisiana, Nick Langworthy of New York, Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, Mary Miller of Illinois, Barry Moore of Alabama, Nathaniel Moran of Texas, Andrew Ogles of Tennessee, John Rose of Tennessee, Chip Roy of Texas, Keith Self of Texas, Victoria Spartz of Indiana, Claudia Tenney of New York, Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin, Randy Weber of Texas and Tony Wied of Wisconsin.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday pushed Republican state lawmakers to take urgent action on illegal immigration, voting to fight like a “junkyard dog” and warning of political consequences for defiance.

The governor leaned on the Florida legislature ahead of a special session next week, during which he wants legislators to pass new bills to crack down on illegal immigration in sync with President Donald Trump’s administration at the federal level. But GOP leaders have called the session “premature” and signaled that they may gavel out without taking action on the governor’s agenda items.

DeSantis warned that would be a costly mistake. “It would be very, very hazardous politically,” he told reporters during a roundtable discussion at the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office. He also suggested that he will call for another special session of the legislature if GOP leaders delay action.

BORDER ENCOUNTERS DROP SHARPLY AS TRUMP LAUNCHES CRACKDOWN ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

“I have my constitutional authority to wield in this process and I will continue to wield it as appropriate so that we’re able to get the job done,” he said, adding that he would fight like a “junkyard dog” to get his immigration policies enacted. 

“You don’t let go.” 

DeSantis wants Republicans to enact laws that would require state and local officials to comply with the new immigration orders issued by the White House and provide funding for them to do so. He has also called for legislation that would penalize state and local officials who violate Florida’s “anti-sanctuary policies,” WPTV reported. 

The governor also directed lawmakers to consider additional hurricane aid, crack down on ballot initiative signature fraud and address rising HOA fees. 

DESANTIS CITES ‘GULF OF AMERICA’ IN WINTER STORM ORDER AFTER TRUMP REBRANDING

House Speaker Daniel Perez and Senate President Ben Albritton reacted coolly when the governor called for a special legislative session starting on Jan. 27. In a joint statement on Jan. 13, they called it “irresponsible” for the legislature to act ahead of any announcements Trump may make on immigration and criticized DeSantis, stating the governor had offered only “fragmented ideas” and had not released any bill language or details for legislators to consider.

Lawmakers “will decide when and what legislation we consider,” the Florida House and Senate leaders said. 

Trump has already issued a flurry of executive orders to begin promised “mass deportations” of illegal immigrants present in the United States. On Monday, Trump declared an emergency on the southern border, deployed 1,500 soldiers to the border and ended the Biden administration’s CBP One app program to process migrants at ports of entry via humanitarian parole. 

His administration then launched a mass deportation operation, with ICE agents active in multiple cities and states across the U.S.

DESANTIS’ CHOSEN RUBIO REPLACEMENT MOODY WANTS TO TACKLE INFLATION, SPENDING, BORDER: ‘AUDIT THE FED!’

The Department of Homeland Security has also issued memos rescinding limits placed on ICE by the Biden administration, ordering a review of parole and expanding the use of expedited removal for recently-arrived illegal immigrants.

And Trump’s administration has moved to restore border wall construction and reinstate the Remain-in-Mexico policy, which requires migrants to stay in Mexico for the duration of their asylum cases.

These combined policies have resulted in a sharp 35% drop in illegal immigrant encounters at the southern border, multiple Department of Homeland Security sources told Fox News Digital. 

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DeSantis rejected the concerns of the legislature, telling reporters Thursday, “we’ve been waiting years for this moment. It’s not premature.” 

“We can’t drag our feet. We can’t wait for something to go into effect in July. We need something immediately and we need to get everything moving, and we need to do what we told the people that elected us that we would do.” 

Fox News Digital’s Adam Shaw contributed to this report.

A New Jersey mayor and other leading Democrats have blasted an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid on a worksite which they say resulted in undocumented residents as well as a U.S. citizen being “detained.”

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka slammed the operation as an “egregious act” and a violation of the Fourth Amendment after agents reportedly swooped in to raid a business establishment “without producing a warrant.”

Baraka said that one of those detained is a U.S. military veteran who “suffered the indignity of having the legitimacy of his military documentation questioned.” 

TRUMP BORDER CZAR TOM HOMAN REVEALS ICE TEAMS ARE ALREADY ARRESTING ‘PUBLIC SAFETY THREATS’

“This egregious act is in plain violation of the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees ‘the right of the people be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures….’” Baraka wrote in a statement.

“Newark will not stand by idly while people are being unlawfully terrorized,” Barak said, adding that he is “ready and willing to defend and protect civil and human rights.”

It is not clear if the U.S. citizen in the Newark case was taken into custody, with an ICE spokesperson telling Fox News that the U.S. citizen was asked to produce identification. 

“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement may encounter U.S. citizens while conducting field work and may request identification to establish an individual’s identity as was the case during a targeted enforcement operation at a worksite today in Newark, New Jersey,” an ICE spokesperson told Fox News in relation to Thursday’s Newark operation. “This is an active investigation, and, per ICE policy, we cannot discuss ongoing investigations.”

ICE raids have ramped up across the country this week as President Donald Trump looks to clamp down on illegal immigration, a key campaign promise. Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan has said ICE agents will focus on the “worst first, public safety threats first, but no one is off the table. If they’re in the country illegally, they got a problem.”

CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE

New Jersey senators Cory Booker and Andy Kim joined Baraka in condemning the raid. 

“We are deeply concerned about the news of an ICE raid in Newark today. Our offices have reached out to the Department of Homeland Security to demand answers,” the senators said in a joint statement.

“Actions like this one sow fear in all of our communities — and our broken immigration system requires solutions, not fear tactics. We will continue to work with Mayor Baraka and other local officials to gather more information to ensure all New Jerseyans are safe and their dignity and rights are protected.”

Baraka, a progressive Democrat, has been mayor of Newark since 2014 and is running for New Jersey governor this year. He has called for a “progressive overhaul” of the blue state and his campaign agenda includes reparations, sanctuary state laws, baby bonds, and a universal basic income.”

Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., also slammed the raid in a statement. 

“Already, Trump’s attacks on immigrant communities are hitting home and we will not back down,” she said. “We will always fight for the dignity and rights of everyone in our district and across the country.”

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In the first days of the Trump administration, ICE has made more than 460 arrests of illegal immigrants, including those with criminal histories that include sexual assault, domestic violence and drugs and weapons crimes. Arrests took place across the U.S., including Illinois, Utah, California, Minnesota, New York, Florida and Maryland. 

Agents arrested nationals from a slew of countries, including Afghanistan, Angola, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Senegal and Venezuela.

Fox News’ Bill Melugin, Stephen Sorace and Adam Shaw contributed to this report.

Welcome to the Fox News Politics newsletter, with the latest updates on the Trump administration, exclusive interviews and more Fox News politics content.

Here’s what’s happening…

–Karine Jean-Pierre reveals mom’s cancer diagnosis — and why she kept it secret

-Illegal immigrant suspect in fatal hit-and-run arrested 800 miles from crime scene on bus headed to Mexico

-Top 5 moments from Trump’s ‘Hannity’ interview 

‘Everything Will Be Revealed’

President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order to declassify files on the assassinations of former President John F. Kennedy, and civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. 

Trump had promised to declassify the previously-classified documents during his 2024 campaign.

“Everything will be revealed,” Trump told reporters as he signed the order in the Oval Office of the White House…Read more

White House

RIGHTING A WRONG: Trump expected to pardon pro-life activists convicted under FACE Act…Read more

‘FORGOTTEN ABOUT’: Anti-CCP group debuts ad with dire call for GOP lawmakers to back Trump on saving US farms…Read more

TWO DOWN: John Ratcliffe confirmed as next CIA director, becomes second Trump cabinet pick to gain congress’s approval…Read more

World Stage

BRACING FOR INFLUX: Mexico scrambles to build tents to handle mass deportations from US…Read more

‘FALSELY SMEARED’: Benjamin Netanyahu comes to defense of Elon Musk…Read more

MONEY PROBLEMS: Putin reportedly concerned over Russia’s economy ahead of possible Trump tariffs…Read more

Capitol Hill

STATUS REVOKED: GOP leaders rally to revoke China’s ‘most favored nation’ status after 20-year run…Read more

SPREADING THE WORD: New Republican leader Lisa McClain talks messaging ‘playbook’ in the Trump era…Read more

RESULTS OVER PROCESS: Tim Scott emphasizes ‘results’ over reconciliation process as he stays out of debate…Read more

‘FACTUALLY INACCURATE’: Key Senate chairman criticizes ‘anonymous sources with ulterior motives,’ stands by Hegseth nomination…Read more

‘GODFATHER OF THE ULTRA-RIGHT’: Trump budget chief pick Russell Vought faces fire from Dem senators…Read more

SENATE SHOWDOWN: Hegseth clears Senate hurdle and advances to a final confirmation vote…Read more

‘CONCERNED’: Moderate GOP senator says she will vote against nomination of Pete Hegseth for Defense Secretary…Read more

‘RIDICULOUS’: Lawmakers refuse to say how many genders there are when confronted on Capitol Hill…Read more

Across America

SHOCKING MOVE: VA Dems reject Youngkin’s antisemitism expert pick from George Mason Univ board amid troubling incidents…Read more

EXCLUSIVE: Medal of Honor recipients would see their pensions increase six-fold under new proposal…Read more

‘I’M A FIGHTER’: House GOP firebrand invokes Trump while mulling run for South Carolina governor’s mansion…Read more

‘INFANTICIDE’: Pro-lifers pounce on Fetterman for opposing ‘Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act’…Read more

‘WE’RE GOING TO FIND THEM’: First images of ICE mass deportation efforts show arrests of MS-13 gang members, murder suspects…Read more

Get the latest updates on the Trump administration and Congress, exclusive interviews and more on FoxNews.com.

In one of the first moves of his administration, President Donald Trump signed an executive order taking drastic steps to crack down on the violent Venezuelan migrant gang “Tren de Aragua,” which has been terrorizing American cities in recent months.

Also known as “TdA,” Tren de Aragua is a Venezuelan criminal group present in over a dozen U.S. cities. The group has ties to the socialist Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro and according to experts, is being used as a tool of asymmetric warfare to sow chaos and discord in the U.S.

Jose Gustavo Arocha, a former high-ranking Venezuelan military official and senior fellow at the U.S.-based Center for a Secure Free Society, told Fox News Digital that Trump’s order was an “extraordinary move” that is the “first good step in the route to neutralize TdA.”

The order – which is titled “Designating Cartels And Other Organizations As Foreign Terrorist Organizations And Specially Designated Global Terrorists” – instructs newly confirmed Secretary of State Marco Rubio to move to designate Tren de Aragua, as well as Mexican gang MS-13 and other migrant gangs as “foreign terrorist organizations.”

WHO IS TREN DE ARAGUA? VICIOUS VENEZUELAN GANG ‘FOLLOWING IN THE PATH OF MS-13’ IN AMERICA

A foreign terrorist designation expands the government’s ability to crack down on criminal groups operating in the U.S., allowing all government agencies, including the Department of the Treasury, to target that group from every angle.  

The order states that these groups “present an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States,” and invokes the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEP) to declare a national emergency to “deal with those threats.”

“It is the policy of the United States to ensure the total elimination of these organizations’ presence in the United States and their ability to threaten the territory, safety, and security of the United States through their extraterritorial command-and-control structures, thereby protecting the American people and the territorial integrity of the United States,” reads the order.

The order gives Rubio 14 days to make policy recommendations – in consultation with the secretaries of the Treasury and Homeland Security as well as the U.S. attorney general and director of National Intelligence – to make a recommendation regarding the designation of TdA, MS-13 and any other group as a foreign terrorist organization.

TEXAS GOV. ABBOTT DESIGNATES VENEZUELAN GANG, TREN DE ARAGUA, AS A FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATION

According to Arocha, this move could spell the beginning of the end for TdA’s reign of terror in the United States.

“This executive order that Trump signed is perfect to neutralize unconventional tools that were made by the Venezuela regime,” he said. “The TdA is an asymmetrical and unconventional tool to harm the United States, [and] not only the United States, all the region … [so] you have to use unconventional tools, too.”

Joseph Humire, executive director of the Center for a Secure Free Society who in 2024 authored a report on how to dismantle TdA, explained to Fox News Digital that designating these groups as foreign terrorist organizations places them “at the highest level” of U.S. national security interest, meaning their funding and any organizations enabling them can be targeted as well.

“Trump just put all of them on notice,” said Humire. “This said: ‘We know you’re here; we know you’re up to no good and we’re going to come after you.'”

TREN DE ARAGUA BELIEVED TO BE BEHIND MURDER OF IMMIGRATION OFFICIAL NEAR BORDER

“Now critics may say, well, he’s going to create a war on terror or drugs, and it’s really a reaction of fear. They say: ‘Oh, you know, these guys are so dangerous.’ And what you know about criminality, whether it’s terrorism or any kind of criminality, is that they only respond to strength. They prey on fear. If they think you’re scared to attack you more,” he said. “So, by showing this strength, it’s the first action of deterrence.”

In addition to sending a message of strength, Humire said the executive order signals that there will be “meaningful action taking place really, really soon to start to arrest and dismantle” TdA’s presence in the U.S.

Andrew Arthur, a law and policy expert at the Center for Immigration Studies, told Fox News Digital that one of the most important aspects of designating TdA a foreign terrorist organization is enabling the U.S. government to target TdA’s funding, which he said can essentially “bleed them dry.”

CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE

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“Money is the lifeblood of these organizations,” he said. “It’s really the funding element of all this that is crucial to going after a terrorist organization, because if you cut them off from the money, they’re not going to be able to pay people. They’re not going to be able to pay bribes to corrupt officials, they are not going to be able to pay their foot soldiers, are not going to be able to buy the big guns and the things that they used to operate.“

“It’s not just the guy with the AK-47 or the guy with the IED that’s a terrorist. It’s all those people that helped to make that possible,” he went on. “So, when you designate them as terrorist organizations, in addition to going after the keepers or the kingpins of these organizations and the various foot soldiers that they employ, you can also go after the individuals who provide material support.”

If President Donald Trump’s personnel moves are any tell, he may come out of the gate toward Iran with a tone that is more diplomatic than combative. 

And Trump on Thursday evening suggested he was open to a nuclear deal with Iran.

Asked if he would support Israel striking Iran’s nuclear facilities, Trump told reporters, “We’ll have to see. I’m going to be meeting with various people over the next couple of days. We’ll see, but hopefully that could be worked out without having to worry about it.”

“Iran hopefully will make a deal. I mean, they don’t make a deal, I guess that’s OK, too.”

Iran, at least, is hoping for just that. The Tehran Times, a regime-linked English language newspaper, questioned in a recent article whether the firing of Brian Hook, the architect of the “maximum pressure” policy on Iran during Trump’s first term, could “signal a change in [Trump’s] Iran policy.”

In November, news outlets reported that Hook was running the transition at the State Department. But Hook was relieved from the transition team shortly after in December, sources familiar with the move confirmed to Fox News Digital. 

UN URGES DIPLOMACY AS IRAN HITS NUCLEAR ‘GAS PEDAL,’ CONSERVATIVE COMMENTATOR TELLS TRUMP ‘DO NOT APPEASE’

This week, Trump knocked Hook back a step further by posting on social media that he’d be removed from his position at a U.S. government-owned think tank.

“Brian Hook from the Wilson Center for Scholars… YOU’RE FIRED!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

And after taking office, Trump removed the government-sponsored security details of former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a source familiar confirmed to Fox News Digital. 

Former National Security Advisor John Bolton told CNN his detail was also pulled, as was Hook’s.

“You can’t have [protection] for the rest of your life. Do you want to have a large deal of people guarding people for the rest of their lives? I mean, there’s risks to everything,” Trump said.

Trump recently put his Middle East envoy, Steven Witkoff, in charge of addressing U.S. concerns about Iran, according to a Financial Times report.

Witkoff most recently helped seal negotiations on a ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel, suggesting he may test Iran’s willingness to engage at the negotiating table on nuclear issues before ramping up pressure, sources told the Financial Times. 

Experts warn that Iran is enriching hundreds of pounds of uranium to the 60% purity threshold, shy of the 90% purity levels needed to develop a nuclear bomb.

At the same time, the president hired Michael Dimino as deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East, a foreign policy expert who has said the Middle East doesn’t “really matter” to U.S. interests any longer. 

IRAN’S WEAKENED POSITION COULD LEAD IT TO PURSUE NUCLEAR WEAPON, BIDEN NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER WARNS

Dimino is cut from the same cloth as undersecretary of defense for policy Elbridge Colby, who has argued for the U.S. to focus military resources on countering China and devote fewer resources to other regions. 

Dimino, a former expert at the Koch-funded restraint advocacy think tank Defense Priorities, has strongly advocated for pulling U.S. resources out of the Middle East.

“The core question is: Does the Middle East still matter?” Dimino said during a panel last February. “The answer is: not really, not really for U.S. interests. What I would say is that vital or existential U.S. interests in the Middle East are best characterized as minimal to non-existent.”

“We are really there to counter Iran and that is really at the behest of the Israelis and Saudis,” he added.

“Iranian power remains both exaggerated and misunderstood. Its economy continues to underperform, and its conventional military is antiquated and untested. Tehran simply doesn’t have the financial capital or hard power capabilities to dominate the Middle East or directly threaten core U.S. interests,” he wrote in a 2023 article.

Dimino has also argued the U.S. does not need to focus resources on an offensive campaign against the Houthis amid attacks on shipping lanes in the Red Sea. 

“Put simply, there are no existential or vital U.S. national interests at stake in Yemen and very little is at stake for the U.S. economically in the Red Sea.”

Instead, he argued in a 2023 op-ed that working to increase aid into Gaza would rid the Houthis of their stated reason for their attacks in the Red Sea, which they’ve said are a means of fighting on behalf of Gaza.

“Working to increase aid shipments to Gaza would not just help to alleviate the humanitarian crisis there but would deprive the Houthis of their claimed justification for attacks in the Red Sea and provide the group with an off-ramp for de-escalation that would also serve to prevent indefinite U.S. participation in a broader regional war.”

Others in Trump’s foreign policy orbit historically have struck a more hawkish tone toward Iran, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and Israel Ambassador Mike Huckabee. 

Rubio has already said he will work to bring back the snapback sanctions that were suspended in the 2015 Iran deal, as indicated by written responses he provided to Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. 

“A policy of maximum pressure must be reinstated, and it must be reinstated with the help of the rest of the globe, and that includes standing with the Iranian people and their aspirations for democracy,” Gen. Keith Kellogg, Trump’s envoy to Russia and Ukraine, recently said. 

The Dimino hiring – along with other recent personnel moves – has caused rumblings from prominent Iran hawks. 

Mark Levin, a radio host who has the ear of Trump, has posted on X multiple times in opposition to Dimino: “How’d this creep get a top DoD position?” he asked in one post. 

“While Dimino and Witkoff are very different issues, Witkoff is Trump’s best friend, [it] seems difficult to detangle, very concerning,” said one Iran expert. “Dimino is a mystery and does not align with Hegseth or Trump values on Iran or Israel.”

“There is an ongoing coordinated effort by Iran’s regime and its lobby network in the West to cause divisions in President Trump’s administration over policy towards Tehran,” Kasra Aarabi, director of research on Iran’s Revolutionary Guard at the group United Against a Nuclear Iran, told Fox News Digital. 

“Having spent the past four years trying – and failing – to assassinate President Trump, the ayatollah has now instructed his propagandists to cause fissures between President Trump and his advisors so as to weaken the new administration’s policy towards [the] Islamist regime.”

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Aarabi warned, “In the past 48 hours, Ayatollah Khamenei-run entities in Iran’s regime – such as the “Islamic Propaganda Organization” – have been celebrating certain appointments across the broader administration in the same way as they praised some of former president Biden’s appointments.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is requesting that the federal government reimburse his state more than $11.1 billion for taxpayer money spent on securing the southern border during former President Joe Biden’s administration.

Abbott, who sent letters to U.S. Congressional members on Thursday, said the Biden administration’s “refusal to do its job the last four years” resulted in the crisis at the southern border that has spilled into the rest of the country.

“President Biden’s policies left Texas and the rest of America defenseless against an unprecedented infiltration of violent criminals, known terrorists, and other hostile foreign actors, like the dangerous Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua,” the governor wrote.

HOUSE REPUBLICAN INTRODUCES BILL TO REIMBURSE TEXAS FOR BILLIONS SPENT TO SECURE BORDER

In response to the federal government’s lack of action at the border, Abbott took matters into his own hands and launched Operation Lone Star in March 2021, which deployed the Texas National Guard and Texas Department of Public Safety to the US-Mexico border.

Operation Lone Star has reduced illegal immigration into Texas by 87% over the past four years, proving the “effectiveness of President Donald Trump’s border measures,” according to Abbott, who added that his efforts have shone a national spotlight on the crisis.

The governor outlined that the operation has also resulted in the apprehension of more than half a million illegal immigrants, stopped more than 140,000 illegal attempts to enter the US, made more than 50,000 criminal arrests, seized more than half a billion lethal doses of fentanyl, built more than 240 miles of border barriers and established the only National Guard base along the Texas-Mexico border.

“In short, Texas stepped up where the federal government refused and in doing so, protected all Americans from President Biden’s dangerous policies,” Abbott wrote.

HOUSE REPUBLICANS RENEW PUSH TO REIMBURSE TEXAS FOR ‘OPERATION LONE STAR’ BORDER SECURITY PUSH

Though he is proud of the operation, Abbott noted that its success came with a high price tag of more than $11.1 billion, which has been, and continues to be, paid by Texas taxpayers when it “should have been the federal government’s responsibility.”

In a document breaking down the costs, Abbott said that prior to the Biden administration, the state of Texas spent approximately $800 million every two years to supplement federal efforts at the border.

“The burden that our State has borne is a direct result of a refusal by the federal government to do its job,” Abbott wrote. “The work that Texas has done through Operation Lone Star has protected and will continue to benefit the entire country.”

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House Republicans have introduced bills in the past requesting Texas be reimbursed for the billions spent on border security, but legislation has never been passed.