NationalWatch

President Donald Trump honored fallen American heroes and praised God during a Memorial Day address at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia on Monday, vowing to “fix” the republic founded nearly 250 years ago. 

“We gathered today to honor the incredible service members who rest in glory in this cemetery and burial grounds around the world, and in a thousand lonely places known only to God in every hour of peril and every moment of crisis,” Trump said. “American warriors have left behind the blessings of home and family to answer their nation’s call. They’ve offered all that they had within them and given their last breaths to each and every one of us, that we might live safe and breathe free.

“This morning we pay tribute to their immortal deeds. We share in the sorrow of their beloved families, and as one nation, we give thanks for the ultimate gift they have so selflessly given to all of us, these warriors. And that’s what they are as great, great warriors picked up their mantle of duty and service, knowing that to live for others meant always that they might die for others.” 

TRUMP FIRES OFF MEMORIAL DAY MESSAGE TARGETING ‘SCUM’ WHO SOUGHT TO ‘DESTROY’ THE US

President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance salute during the 157th National Memorial Day Observance at Arlington National Cemetery, Monday, in Arlington, Va.  (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

The president said Memorial Day 2025 “is especially significant as we commemorate 250 years since the first American Patriots fell on the field of battle two and a half centuries ago.”

“At Lexington Green, Concord Bridge, Bunker Hill, brave minutemen and humble farm boys became the first to give their lives for a nation that did not yet have a name,” Trump said. “Those young men could never have known what their sacrifice would mean to us, but we certainly know what we owe to them. Their valor gave us the freest, greatest and most noble republic ever to exist on the face of the earth.” 

He added: “A republic that I am fixing after a long and hard four years. That was a hard four years we went through. Who would let that happen? People pouring through our borders unchecked. People doing things that are indescribable and not for today to discuss, but the republic, that is now doing so very well. We’re doing so very well right now, considering the circumstances, and we’ll do record-setting better with time.

“We will do better than we’ve ever done as a nation, better than ever before. I promise you that.”

Trump recognized the surviving family members in attendance of several fallen soldiers who he mentioned by name, including veterans who died in the line of duty in Vietnam, Iraq and Syria. 

President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Maj. Gen. Trevor Bredenkamp attend a Memorial Day wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, at Arlington National Cemetery, Monday.  (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

TRUMP ACCUSES HARVARD OF BEING ‘VERY SLOW’ TO TURN OVER FOREIGN STUDENT INFO

In remembering their stories, the president also promised a “big, big celebration” next year commemorating the 250th anniversary of the nation and thanked God that he would be in office to celebrate the significant milestone. 

“These extraordinary American heroes and their immense and ultimate sacrifices. They offer only the faintest glimpse at the infinite grace we have received from all who laid down their lives for America over the past 250 years. We’re going to have a big, big celebration. As you know, 250 years,” Trump said. 

“In some ways, I’m glad I missed that second term where it was because I wouldn’t be president for that,” he added, drawing some laughter. “Most important of all, in addition, we have the World Cup and we have the Olympics. Can you imagine? I missed that four years. And now look what I have. I have everything amazing. The way things work out.”

President Donald Trump at the 157th National Memorial Day Observance at Arlington National Cemetery, Monday, in Arlington, Va. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

“God did that. I believe that too. He did that,” Trump said, crediting divine intervention after he lost re-election in 2020 and later was reelected in 2024. 

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“In any corner of this cemetery, at any resting place for our war dead, anywhere on Earth, you’ll find untold stories of equal heroism, heroism and heartbreak, unmatched patriotism and devotion, and acts of selflessness and courage so enormous they defy comprehension,” Trump said. “We salute them in their eternal and everlasting glory. And we continue our relentless pursuit of America’s destiny as we make our nation stronger, prouder, freer and greater than ever before.

“May God bless our fallen heroes. May God bless our Gold Star families, and may God bless the United States of America.”

President Donald Trump issued one of his signature spicy holiday greetings on Memorial Day. 

The president, who posted the all-caps tirade on Monday morning, called out the “SCUM” who he said had attempted to destroy the nation.

“HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY TO ALL, INCLUDING THE SCUM THAT SPENT THE LAST FOUR YEARS TRYING TO DESTROY OUR COUNTRY THROUGH WARPED RADICAL LEFT MINDS, WHO ALLOWED 21,000,000 MILLION PEOPLE TO ILLEGALLY ENTER OUR COUNTRY, MANY OF THEM BEING CRIMINALS AND THE MENTALLY INSANE, THROUGH AN OPEN BORDER THAT ONLY AN INCOMPETENT PRESIDENT WOULD APPROVE, AND THROUGH JUDGES WHO ARE ON A MISSION TO KEEP MURDERERS, DRUG DEALERS, RAPISTS, GANG MEMBERS, AND RELEASED PRISONERS FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD, IN OUR COUNTRY SO THEY CAN ROB, MURDER, AND RAPE AGAIN — ALL PROTECTED BY THESE USA HATING JUDGES WHO SUFFER FROM AN IDEOLOGY THAT IS SICK, AND VERY DANGEROUS FOR OUR COUNTRY,” he declared in the first portion of the post.

TRUMP SAYS HE’S ‘NOT HAPPY’ WITH PUTIN AFTER MASSIVE UKRAINE STRIKE

President Donald Trump departs the White House on May 22, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Trump, who took office a little more than four months ago, asserted that significant progress has been made.

He also appeared to refer to some judges as “MONSTERS.” 

AMERICANS SHOULD HONOR MEMORIAL DAY IN THIS WAY, MILITARY SERVICE MEMBERS SUGGEST

“HOPEFULLY THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT, AND OTHER GOOD AND COMPASSIONATE JUDGES THROUGHOUT THE LAND, WILL SAVE US FROM THE DECISIONS OF THE MONSTERS WHO WANT OUR COUNTRY TO GO TO HELL. BUT FEAR NOT, WE HAVE MADE GREAT PROGRESS OVER THE LAST 4 MONTHS, AND AMERICA WILL SOON BE SAFE AND GREAT AGAIN! AGAIN, HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY, AND GOD BLESS AMERICA!” he declared.

The president has been frustrated as aspects of his agenda have been hampered amid legal wranglings. 

TRUMP TO BUILD NATIONAL CENTER FOR HOMELESS VETERANS WITH FUNDS PREVIOUSLY SPENT ON HOUSING FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS

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A little less than an hour before firing off the lengthy Memorial Day greeting on Monday morning, the president issued another post that simply read, “HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!”

President Donald Trump has accused Harvard University of being “very slow” to turn over information on foreign students. 

“We are still waiting for the Foreign Student Lists from Harvard so that we can determine, after a ridiculous expenditure of BILLIONS OF DOLLARS, how many radicalized lunatics, troublemakers all, should not be let back into our Country,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Monday. 

“Harvard is very slow in the presentation of these documents, and probably for good reason!” Trump wrote. “The best thing Harvard has going for it is that they have shopped around and found the absolute best Judge (for them!) – But have no fear, the Government will, in the end, WIN!” 

JUDGE TEMPORARILY PAUSES TRUMP MOVE TO CANCEL HARVARD STUDENT VISA POLICY AFTER LAWSUIT

President Donald Trump arrives for a House Republican meeting at the U.S. Capitol on May 20, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

In a separate post, Trump added Monday, “I am considering taking Three Billion Dollars of Grant Money away from a very antisemitic Harvard, and giving it to TRADE SCHOOLS all across our land.”

“What a great investment that would be for the USA, and so badly needed!!!” he wrote.

Fox News Digital reached out to Harvard for comment.

Judge Allison D. Burroughs – who was appointed by former President Barack Obama – granted Harvard University a temporary restraining order on Friday, preventing the government from revoking the Ivy League school’s certification in the Student and Exchange Visitor Program. The program permits the university to host international students with F-1 or J-1 visas to study in the U.S.

In a letter Thursday, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem informed Harvard’s leadership that the university had lost its “privilege” of enrolling foreign students as a result of the institution’s “refusal to comply with multiple requests to provide the Department of Homeland Security with pertinent information while perpetuating an unsafe campus environment that is hostile to Jewish students, promotes pro-Hamas sympathies, and employs racist ‘diversity, equity and inclusion’ policies.” 

“This action should not surprise you and is the unfortunate result of Harvard’s failure to comply with simple reporting requirements,” Noem wrote. 

Anti-Israel protesters gather outside Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on April 25, 2025. (JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images)

Noem said she requested records pertaining to “nonimmigrant students” enrolled at Harvard, “including information regarding misconduct and other offenses that would render foreign students inadmissible or removable,” on April 16. 

Harvard’s counsel responded twice, but both responses were insufficient, according to the letter. 

TRUMP SAYS HARVARD’S FOREIGN STUDENTS ARE FROM COUNTRIES PAYING ‘NOTHING’ FOR THEIR EDUCATION

“Consequences must follow to send a clear signal to Harvard and all universities that want to enjoy the privilege of enrolling foreign students, that the Trump administration will enforce the law and root out the evils of anti-Americanism and antisemitism in society and campuses,” Noem wrote.

The requested records include any and all audio or video footage in Harvard’s possession regarding threats to other students or university personnel, “deprivation of rights” of other classmates or university personnel, and “dangerous or violent activity, whether on or off campus” by a nonimmigrant student enrolled at Harvard in the last five years. Noem is also asking for any and all disciplinary records and audio or video footage of any protest activity involving nonimmigrant students.

A pedestrian with an umbrella walks by Harvard Yard in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on May 22, 2025. (Danielle Parhizkaran/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

The letter gave Harvard another 72 hours to comply and send the requested information in order to regain its certification, but instead, Harvard filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts early Friday. 

In its court filing, Harvard said the revocation impacts more than 7,000 visa holders – more than a quarter of its student body – and “is a blatant violation of the First Amendment, the Due Process Clause, and the Administrative Procedure Act.” 

“It is the latest act by the government in clear retaliation for Harvard exercising its First Amendment rights to reject the government’s demands to control Harvard’s governance, curriculum, and the ‘ideology’ of its faculty and students,” the lawsuit says. 

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Burroughs set another hearing on the matter for Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. in Boston federal court.

A House Republican sharply criticized comments President Donald Trump made regarding the Russia-Ukraine war, flatly calling some of them “dumb.”

In a Truth Social post, Trump first called out Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying the foreign leader “has gone absolutely CRAZY!” and is “needlessly killing” — but then the president pivoted to slam Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, declaring, “Everything out of his mouth causes problems, I don’t like it, and it better stop.”

In a statement to Fox News, Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., opined, “The first half of this message is perfect, the rest is dumb. Trump is attacking President Zelensky while Putin bombs Ukrainian cities and it is misguided. Moral ambiguity while one nation invades another is hurting Trump’s credibility. Putin is making a mockery of Trump, and Trump keeps attacking Zelensky.”

TRUMP SAYS HE’S ‘NOT HAPPY’ WITH PUTIN AFTER MASSIVE UKRAINE STRIKE

Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., left, and President Donald Trump. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images | Chris Kleponis/CNP/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.

Bacon, an outspoken supporter of Ukraine, has asserted that the U.S. and “Allies must arm Ukraine to the teeth,” slap Russia with maximum sanctions and seize Russian assets.

RUSSIA, UKRAINE SWAP HUNDREDS OF PRISONERS HOURS AFTER MOSCOW LAUNCHES MASSIVE AERIAL ASSAULT

“It is a time for honesty. Peace talks are having zero effect on Putin. His goal is to dominate Ukraine & he won’t stop until he realizes he cannot win. The U.S. & Allies must arm Ukraine to the teeth, sanction Russia to the max, & confiscate the $300B in overseas Russian assets,” Bacon posted Sunday morning.

Zelenskyy discussed Russian attacks in a Monday post on X.

REPUBLICAN USES GEORGE WASHINGTON, AMERICAN REVOLUTION TO REJECT NOTION UKRAINE SHOULD SURRENDER TO RUSSIA

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“Our air defense forces and rescuers were working all night. The Russian army launched the largest number of drones against our cities and communities since the beginning of the full-scale war — 355 attack UAVs, mostly ‘Shaheds.’ There were also 9 cruise missiles. Sadly, there are injured people and damage to civilian infrastructure,” Zelenskyy noted in the Monday post.

“Like any criminal, Russia can only be constrained by force. Only through strength — the strength of the United States, of Europe, of all nations that value life — can these attacks be stopped and real peace achieved,” he declared.

Fox News’ Jennifer Griffin contributed to this report

Despite assurances from Trump administration officials that farmers will not be impacted by its attempts to reduce environmental chemical exposure from foods, agricultural leaders have been expressing concern that the move will explode costs for farmers and more than double the cost of food. 

The administration’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission, made up of many of President Donald Trump’s political appointees and closest policy advisors, released an assessment strategizing how they will tackle childhood chronic diseases, such as obesity and mental health challenges. Part of the report’s focus is on children’s chemical exposure from our foods, which the report says is linked to developmental issues and chronic diseases.   

Amid the report’s release, farm groups have expressed concern over the MAHA agenda’s focus on pesticides. They have said that if the administration starts clamping down on widely used pesticides, crop yields would decline, input costs would surge and food costs would more than double.

DOCTOR TAKES AIM AT ‘CANCER-CAUSING’ PESTICIDES IN RESPONSE TO MAHA REPORT

Some farmers are clapping back at a recent Make America Healthy Again report from the Trump administration, arguing it will upend decades of science by going after widely used pesticides.  (Stephen Goin)

“Farmers are already facing a host of challenges—uncertainty about their access to critical crop protection products shouldn’t be added to the list,” said Elizabeth Burns-Thompson, Executive Director of the Modern Ag Alliance. “Crop protection tools are not only safe, they are essential to food security, affordability, and the survival of family farms all across this country. Losing access to these critical inputs would be a devastating setback to American agriculture.”

Officials from the MAHA Commission sought to reassure farmers at an event releasing their assessment on childhood chronic diseases on Thursday. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said that “at the center” of the MAHA agenda is “making American agriculture great again.”

“We love our farmers, and we want to pay respect to our farmers. And we always will,” President Trump added at the Thursday event from the White House. “We won the farmers by a lot in the election, and every election, all three elections – and we won by a lot. I will never forget that. And they are foremost in our thought.”

But some farmers are still expressing concern.

MAHA REPORT LAYS OUT ‘CHRONIC DISEASE CRISIS’ FACING AMERICA 

A soybean field is sprayed in Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

“The Make America Healthy Again Report is filled with fear-based rather than science-based information about pesticides. We are deeply troubled that claims of this magnitude are being made without any scientific basis or regard for a long history of EPA expert evaluations of these products,” the National Corn Grower’s Alliance (NCGA) said. “We call on the administration to respect the existing body of science on pesticides and, moving forward, to include America’s farmers in discussion as this process evolves.” 

According to a statement put out by the Modern Ag Alliance, pesticides are “rigorously tested” by the federal government, noting that in the case of glyphosate – mentioned multiple times in the MAHA report – it is one of the most thoroughly studied pesticides of its kind. 

They said that if the MAHA report drives future policy decisions it would hurt farmers and more than double the cost of food.

EX-YANKEES COACH RUNS FARM THAT VOWS TO ‘MAKE MEAT GREAT AGAIN’

“Without glyphosate—the most widely used weed-fighting tool by U.S. farmers—crop yields would decline, input costs would surge by 150%, and food inflation would more than double,” the group said. “When Sri Lanka prohibited the use of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers in 2021, crop yields fell by over 50%, forcing the government to import massive amounts of food just to meet basic needs. We should be focused on moving American agriculture—and the country—forward.”

The Modern Ag Alliance, a coalition of farmers, has said that policy decisions from the Trump administration clamping down on pesticides could more than double the cost of food.  (iSTOCK)

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has been a vocal opponent against the dangerous health impacts of under-regulated pesticides even before he was the MAHA Commission’s leader, said last week in a Senate hearing that “we cannot take any step that will put a single farmer in this country out of business.”

“There’s a million farmers who rely on glyphosate,” he said. “100% of corn in this country relies on glyphosate. We are not going to do anything to jeopardize that business model.” 

FARMERS COME FIRST AS INITIATIVE AIMS TO LOWER THEIR COSTS, GET FRESH FOOD TO AMERICANS MORE EFFICIENTLY

The MAHA report reiterates the economic importance of protecting farmers, but it also lists glyphosate in an infographic of “Chemical Classes and Common Exposure Pathways” and says research studies have shown it can cause a range of health effects. It also lists atrazine and other chemicals as dangerous to childhood health.   

MAHA Commission officials have said that part of the administration’s focus will be a return to the gold standard of science, but the NCGA said the focus on certain widely-used pesticides, such as atrazine and glyphosate, goes against “decades of extensive research and testing.”

“If the administration’s goal is to bring more efficiency to government, then why is the secretary of Health and Human Services duplicating efforts by raising questions about pesticides that have been answered repeatedly through research and reviews by federal regulatory bodies?” the group questioned.

Both President Donald Trump and Health and Secretary of Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have sought to reassure farmers that they will not be negatively impacted by the Make America Healthy Again agenda.  (Getty Images/Greg Nash/Pool/AFP/Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg/Sebastian Gollnow/picture alliance)

Jennifer Galardi, a senior policy analyst focused on health and wellness issues at the Heritage Foundation, took a more balanced view of the MAHA commission’s strategy towards pesticides like glyphosate, noting that it appeared to thread the needle between supporting farmers and trying to ensure America’s food supply is safe and free of chemicals that could impact child health. 

“The MAHA Commission Report seems to carefully examine competing issues in a very complex agricultural debate: the potential that crop protection tools as they’re referred to in the report may cause adverse health outcomes and the desire to protect the economic interests of farmers and the country,” Galardi said. “However, everyone should agree that the companies that manufacture products such as glyphosate and GMO’s shouldn’t have undue influence over the research upon which sound policy is based. The American public should demand transparency around these decisions.”

Galardi posited that, due to the tension around the issue of pesticides, the MAHA Commission may decide to go after “low-hanging fruit,” such as improving children’s diets and lack of physical activity, which, she said, are big drivers of obesity and metabolic dysfunction.

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In response to this article, a USDA spokesperson sent the following statement from Secretary Rollins:

“We must do more to improve the health outcomes of our kids and families, and President Trump knows agriculture is at the heart of the solution. America’s farmers and ranchers dedicate their lives to the noble cause of feeding their country and the world, and in doing so have created the safest and most abundant and affordable food supply in the world. We are working to make sure our kids and families are consuming the healthiest food we produce. I look forward to continuing to work with Secretary Kennedy and other members of the MAHA Commission to improve our nation’s health.”

White House spokesman Kush Desai, in a separate statement, echoed Rollins’ sentiment about the importance of agriculture and farmers when it comes to executing the MAHA mission. He also reiterated that the MAHA movement is grounded in “Gold Standard of Science.”

“The guiding principle of President Trump’s movement to Make America Healthy Again is the Gold Standard of Science, and everyone from America’s farmers to everyday parents are critical for the success of this movement,” Desai said. “The MAHA Commission’s report is a historic step by our government to, for the first time, comprehensively review the latest evidence and research of what we know – and what we don’t know – is driving the health crisis afflicting America’s children.”

Marine veteran Anthony Longo is acutely aware of the inner battles many veterans face long after leaving the combat zone. He has also experienced the healing that can come from having “man’s best friend” as a companion.

That is why Longo, who served in Fallujah, Iraq, and earned the Department of State’s Medal of Heroism in Afghanistan, founded the Warriors Choice Foundation in 2016 with the mission of helping fellow veterans heal.

In an interview with Fox News Digital, Longo explained that rather than relying solely on medications or a one-size-fits-all approach to treatment, his foundation tailors care to individual veterans through counseling, wellness retreats and a truly unique treatment called “cognitive K9 rehabilitation.”

Through Warriors Choice K9 rehabilitation program, the group matches veterans with Belgian Malinois breed service dogs specially bred and trained to help people suffering from PTSD and other combat-related mental health challenges.

AMERICANS SHOULD HONOR MEMORIAL DAY IN THIS WAY, MILITARY SERVICE MEMBERS SUGGEST

Through Warriors Choice K9 rehabilitation program, the group matches veterans with service dogs specially bred and trained to help people suffering from PTSD and other combat-related mental health challenges. (U.S. Army National Guard photo by Spc. Matthew A. Foster and Warriors Choice Foundation)

Since 2018, Warriors Choice has helped 72 veterans and matched 46 with their own service dog.

The group has even bred a service dog named “Trump,” who Longo said was “the best” and the hardest one to let go.” “Trump,” the service dog, is now the companion to a 20-year special operations veteran, and Longo said he feels “blessed” to be a part of “what that dog has helped that man through.”

“You’re seeing complete lives transferring 180 degrees into a new direction,” he said. “It’s man’s best friend for a reason. I can appreciate my dog sometimes a lot more than humans. And to have that connection and the ability to work through complicated issues together, it was a good fit.”

While the K9 treatment program is not for everyone, Longo said that he has seen incredible results, transforming veterans’ lives.

FLORIDA VETERAN NONPROFIT SEES BEST-IN-STATE SUICIDE REDUCTIONS

Pictured on the left and right is “Trump” the service dog. Longo said Trump was “the best” and the hardest one to let go.” Trump the service dog is now the companion to a 20-year special operations veteran, and Longo said he feels “blessed” to be a part of “what that dog has helped that man through.”

Sitting by him during the interview was his own K9 companion, “Bourbon,” who he said has “set the tone” in his own healing journey as well as laid the foundation for Warriors Choice’s K9 program.

“That dynamic between handler and canine, I think it adds just a sense of more responsibility beyond ourselves,” he explained. “There are times when I wanted to be just completely left alone and isolated and not have to do anything, but someone’s got to take the dog out. Someone’s got to put food on the table. There are things that have to be done, I have to go do the training, I have to go maintain a level or a standard that I’ve imposed on myself to essentially hold myself accountable for my actions and what I’m doing in my day-to-day.”

Beyond that, Longo explained that Bourbon has helped him gain a “true understanding of what I needed to do for myself.”

Though Longo said that fighting against issues like veteran PTSD and suicide can feel like “trying to move a mountain,” he explained that the need could not be more urgent. According to Warriors Choice, veterans are 1.5 times more likely to die by suicide.

WHAT IS PTSD? SYMPTOMS THAT CAN EMERGE AFTER EXPERIENCING A TRAUMATIC EVENT

A Warriors Choice Foundation service dog in action. Longo said that “at the end of the day, you’re here not for yourself, you’re here for your brother.” “You’re here to provide somebody with an opportunity and a chance who’s reaching out for help.”

“At the end of the day,” said Longo, “you’re here not for yourself, you’re here for your brother.”

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“You’re here to provide somebody with an opportunity and a chance who’s reaching out for help. And all you got to do is just grab on, hang on, and give your best effort in assisting them in a time of need because you’ve been there with them. You understand what it’s like to be in those situations. You know the – I hate to say it – the cognitive fog of what it’s like to be overseas and to be here and to be more comfortable overseas than you are at home.”

“I wouldn’t be able to do it unless there was success involved with it. And that’s seeing guys staying out of the ground.”

Longo urged any veteran struggling with PTSD to reach out, saying, “We’ll be happy to communicate with you and assist you in mapping out what is going to be the best path and direction forward.”

FIRST ON FOX: A slew of veterans’ groups, along with Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins, are criticizing Senate Democrats for delaying key agency nominations over what some have called unserious or “DOGE-type” concerns.

One top nominee currently facing the collective procedural roadblock ahead of Memorial Day is wounded warrior Sam Brown, a former Nevada senatorial candidate and Army captain who was burned over more than one-third of his body when the Humvee he was riding in in Helmand, Afghanistan, hit a roadside IED that incinerated its fuel tank.

He was nominated by President Donald Trump as undersecretary for memorial affairs, which maintains cemeteries and facilitates veterans’ burial ceremonies – about 100,000 per year.

A letter from about two dozen veterans’ groups addressed to Senate VA Committee Chairman Jerry Moran, R-Kan., ranking member Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and caucus leaders was obtained Friday by Fox News Digital.

Doug Collins, left, Sam Brown, right (Getty)

The groups note that they respect the Senate’s advise-and-consent role, but object to the current situation. They note that the VA has the fewest presidentially nominated positions and that other agency nominees receive overnight and weekend considerations at times.

“We will be happy to bring the senators coffee and donuts during such late night and weekend sessions, of course in compliance with the Senate’s gift and ethics rules,” the groups wrote.

Brown and all other nominees since April have been held up by Blumenthal and Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz. – but the lawmakers say their move is not personal and instead aimed to halt mass firings and other Trump-era actions.

Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, indicated that he would join the two Democrats, after a confirmation hearing for Brown, Marine Lt. Col. James Baehr for general counsel and Army veteran Richard Topping for VA CFO, was mooted in April by the procedural hold.

“We’ve had 2,400 firings so far,” King said, according to Stars & Stripes.

Vietnam Veterans of America, in a separate letter obtained by Fox News Digital, demanded Brown, Baehr and Topping be confirmed summarily.

“All three of these veterans received favorable reports following the April 9th nominations process from the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee,” wrote VVA President Jack McManus.

NEW GOP SENATOR TEARS INTO DEMS ‘SEEKING TO DELAY’ PETE HEGSETH DOD CONFIRMATION

Senate VA Chair Jerry Moran of Kansas (Getty)

McManus said that many Vietnam Vets are concerned about the hold-up and agree that Brown and the others are eminently qualified, blaming “two members of the US Senate Veterans Affairs Committee” for “affecting services to our veterans.”

Another letter from the Independence Fund, which provides resources, including trackchairs, to severely wounded veterans, said a fully staffed VA central office is crucial to its mission.

Last week, when Moran again attempted to confirm Brown by unanimous consent – a voice vote that must have no audible objections – Blumenthal rose to block him.

“The chairman and I share a bipartisan commitment to putting our veterans first. . . . I think we also share a respect for Sam Brown [and] his service to our nation as a decorated veteran,” said Blumenthal. 

Blumenthal, whose own service was criticized by Trump with the nickname “Da Nang Dick” after a Vietnamese province, said that Brown’s nomination lacked unanimous support in committee, citing a 10-9 vote.

TRUMP VA PICK DOUG COLLINS ADVANCES TO FULL SENATE VOTE

“This issue is bigger than Sam Brown. It is about information that has been denied to our committee and to us as senators. The secretary of the VA is actively working to undermine our bipartisan oversight efforts.

Blumenthal told Fox News Digital he had a message for Collins: “Before you hire new top VA bureaucrats, you should be rehiring the dedicated veterans you fired.”

“Secretary Doug Collins is denying us essential information that is necessary for our oversight, and we want accountability. All Americans, especially veterans, deserve votes by the full Senate on top nominees—not rubber stamp unanimous consents,” he said, adding Collins can ask the Senate to hold floor-debate on the nominees through regular order.

In comments to Fox News Digital, Collins rejected Blumenthal’s claims and lambasted the delays.

“Imagine how much better off America’s veterans would be if Senators Blumenthal and Gallego cared as much about fixing the department’s broken bureaucracy as they do about preventing wounded combat veterans from coming to work at VA,” he said.

“Despite their obstruction, we will reform the department to make it work better for veterans, families, caregivers and survivors.” 

Gallego said he also does not object to Brown personally, and that he is instead seeking agency accountability – saying in a recent statement he wants to reverse “hack-job firings.”

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Primaries were held on Tuesday night to fill the seat being vacated at the end of this year by Rep. Ruben Gallego. (Getty Images)

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Gallego said Collins is “more concerned with three political appointees than the thousands of veterans who are going to lose their jobs and care.”

“I served this country and received care at the VA. I know how important it is for veterans. Abandoning them, like Secretary Collins wants to do, is reckless and un-American. Show Congress the plan on how care won’t be impacted. Anything short of that is political posturing,” he said.

In Gallego’s Arizona, the Phoenix VA hospital is letting go 800 employees, and a 2024 inspector general report found that the site already faced staffing shortages.

Recent surveys of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans show an elevated concern that VA cuts could impact benefits and health care.

Fox News reached out to King for comment for purposes of this story. 

President Donald Trump backed several House Republicans for reelection in Truth Social posts on Sunday, expressing support for Reps. Andrew Garbarino of New York, Troy Downing of Montana, Guy Reschenthaler of Pennsylvania, and Bryan Steil of Wisconsin.

Each lawmaker received an individual post from Trump, and each post declared that the given lawmaker has Trump’s endorsement.

Republicans currently hold the majority in the House, but the 2026 midterms will determine whether the GOP maintains control of the chamber during the tail end of Trump’s second term in office.

TRUMP ENDORSES JACK CIATTARELLI FOR NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR: ‘A WINNER’

Left: President Donald Trump arrives for a House Republican meeting at the U.S. Capitol on May 20, 2025 in Washington, DC; Right: Rep. Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., makes his way to a House Republican Conference meeting with President Donald Trump on the budget reconciliation bill in the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, May 20, 2025. (Left:Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images; Right: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Trump’s show of support for Garbarino comes after the congressman failed to cast a vote on the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” that passed the House last week. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson said that “Garbarino did not make it in time,” but had fallen asleep.

“I am proud to have been the leading voice on Long Island during negotiations on this key reconciliation bill. I fought to lift the cap on SALT and ensure hardworking Long Island families see the benefits of this important legislation. I was moments away from the House floor, to vote ‘yes,’ when the vote was closed,” Garbarino said in a statement, according to reports. 

HOUSE GOP LEADERSHIP TAKES VICTORY LAP AFTER PASSING TRUMP’S ‘ONE BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’

“While I am frustrated that the vote was closed before I was able to cast my vote, I am proud of the work we accomplished to deliver huge results for Long Island. I congratulate President Trump on getting this bill passed and look forward to voting ‘yes’ when it comes back to the House floor from the Senate,” Garbarino said in a statement.

Fox News Digital reached out to Garbarino’s office on Monday morning but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

BY DAWN’S EARLY LIGHT: BATTLES TRUMP’S ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’ WILL FACE IN THE SENATE

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“Thank you, Mr. President, it’s an honor to serve NY-02,” Garbarino said in a Sunday night post on X in response to the president’s endorsment.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday evening.

Noem met the Israeli leader in Jerusalem, where she voiced “strong appreciation for the Prime Minister’s policies, particularly the construction of the border fence with Egypt and the conduct of the ongoing war,” Netanyahu’s office said. 

Others who attended the meeting were Israeli Military Secretary Maj. Gen. Roman Gofman; Foreign Policy Advisor Dr. Ophir Falk; Prime Minister’s Spokesperson Dr. Omer Dostri; and U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee.

NETANYAHU ACCUSES THE UK, FRANCE AND CANADA OF ‘ENABLING HAMAS’

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Sunday in Jerusalem. (Kobi Gideon / GPO)

Earlier in the day, Netanyahu met with Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nv.

“The U.S.-Israel alliance is strong and steadfast. The United States stands with the people of Israel!” Huckabee wrote on X.

The visit came on the eve of Jerusalem Day, which celebrates the reunification of East Jerusalem, which includes the Old City, with West Jerusalem. It also came days after a Chicago man shot and killed two Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington D.C., last week. 

Yaron Lischinsky, 31, was an Israeli citizen who had been granted “official guest” status by the U.S. State Department. The other victim, Sarah Milgrim, 26, was also employed by the Israeli Embassy. The young couple was set to be engaged.

TRUMP EYES ABRAHAM ACCORDS EXPANSION, GAZA REBUILD WITH NETANYAHU MEETING ON DECK

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with American officials, including Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, in Jerusalem.

Netanyahu has vowed to continue to go after Hamas and its leadership amid the terror group‘s failure to agree to a ceasefire and return its hostages. 

In a video statement released Thursday, he criticized U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney after all three countries issued a joint statement demanding that Israel end its military campaign in Gaza.

Netanyahu said Hamas does not want a Palestinian state; rather, the terror group wants the destruction of the state of Israel. 

Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meet. (Kobi Gideon / Israeli Government Press Office)

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He questioned how this “simple truth evades the leaders of France, Britain, Canada and others.” 

President Donald Trump told journalists that he was “not happy” with Russia’s recent large-scale strike against Ukraine while speaking to the press on Sunday.

Speaking to reporters at Morristown Municipal Airport in New Jersey, Trump accused Putin of “killing a lot of people” in the attack, which was launched on Sunday afternoon.

“I’m not happy with what Putin is doing,” Trump explained. “He’s killing a lot of people, and I don’t know what the hell happened to Putin.” 

“I’ve known him a long time, always gotten along with him, but he’s sending rockets into cities and killing people, and I don’t like it at all,” he added.

FEDERAL JUDGE BLOCKS TRUMP ADMINISTRATION FROM TERMINATING INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS’ LEGAL STATUS

President Donald Trump speaks to journalists before boarding Air Force One from Morristown Municipal Airport in Morristown, New Jersey, May 25, 2025. (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

Trump said that Putin was “shooting rockets into Kyiv and other cities” in the middle of negotiations.

“I don’t like what Putin is doing. Not even a little bit,” the president emphasized. “He’s killing people. And something happened to this guy.”

Trump’s comments came after Russian forces launched hundreds of drones and missiles at Ukrainian cities overnight. The attack, which has been called the largest aerial attack of the war so far, targeted the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION BEGINS NEW WAVE OF INTERNATIONAL STUDENT VISA REVOCATIONS: ‘NO ONE HAS A RIGHT TO A VISA’

President Donald Trump walks to speak to journalists before boarding Air Force One from Morristown Municipal Airport in Morristown, New Jersey, May 25, 2025. (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

Ukrainian officials said that at least 12 people were killed and dozens more were injured.

Though past strikes have proven more deadly, the attack is the largest-scale aerial assault of the war in terms of the number of weapons: 298 drones and 69 missiles were launched.

In a post on Telegram, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for an international response to the attack.

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President Donald Trump steps off Marine One in Morristown Municipal Airport in Morristown, New Jersey, May 25, 2025. (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

“The silence of America, the silence of others in the world only encourages Putin,” he wrote on Telegram. “Every such terrorist Russian strike is reason enough for new sanctions against Russia.”

Reuters and Fox News Digital’s Brooke Curto and Kyle Schmidbauer contributed to this report.

House Speaker Mike Johnson went to battle with Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., over spending cuts and the national debt in President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” this weekend. 

Johnson made the comments during an appearance on “Fox News Sunday” with host Shannon Bream, after Paul had called the spending cuts in the current version of the bill “wimpy.”

“It sounds like his biggest objection is the fact that we are extending the debt ceiling. That’s a critically important thing to do. We have to do it. We’re not going to get any Democrats to assist on that,” Johnson said Sunday.

“So to get it through the Senate and make sure we don’t crash the U.S. economy and default on our debts for the first time in history, it has to be part of the reconciliation package. And that’s why President Trump and all the other Republicans in Congress, House and Senate understand the necessity of this,” he added.

MIKE JOHNSON, DONALD TRUMP GET ‘BIG, ‘BEAUTIFUL’ WIN AS BUDGET PASSES HOUSE

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks during a news conference at the Capitol, May 6, 2025, in Washington.  (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr., File)

Paul himself also appeared on “Fox News Sunday” later in the show, and he continued to blast what he said was a lack of real spending cuts.

GOP HOLDOUTS SOUND ALARM ON $36T DEBT CRISIS AS TRUMP’S ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’ PASSES HOUSE VOTE

“I supported the tax cuts in 2017. I support making them permanent, so I support that part of the bill. I support spending cuts. I think the cuts currently in the bill are wimpy and anemic, but I still would support the bill, even with wimpy and anemia cuts, if they weren’t going to explode the debt. The problem is the math doesn’t add up. They’re going to explode the debt. The House’s is $4 trillion. The Senate’s actually been talking about exploding the debt by $5 trillion,” Paul said.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is standing in the way of passing President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.” (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

He went on to say that there is no way he can vote for a version of the bill that raises the debt ceiling by $5 trillion.

“There’s got to be someone left in Washington who thinks debt is wrong and deficits are wrong and wants to go in the other direction,” he said.

Paul instead proposed raising the debt ceiling for a period of three months, or $500 billion, on a rolling basis. He argued that voting on the issue every three months would force leadership to take the issue seriously by placing the lack of progress center stage in U.S. politics.

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“The deficit is a threat to our country. I think it’s the greatest threat to national security. And so I think you can’t do this,” Paul said.

President Donald Trump on Sunday criticized foreign countries for paying “nothing” toward the education of their citizens who are attending college at Harvard and other U.S. institutions.

This comes amid the fight between the Trump administration and Harvard for its plans to revoke the university’s ability to enroll foreign students.

“Why isn’t Harvard saying that almost 31% of their students are from FOREIGN LANDS, and yet those countries, some not at all friendly to the United States, pay NOTHING toward their student’s education, nor do they ever intend to,” Trump wrote early Sunday morning on Truth Social. “Nobody told us that!”

JUDGE TEMPORARILY PAUSES TRUMP MOVE TO CANCEL HARVARD STUDENT VISA POLICY AFTER LAWSUIT

President Donald Trump criticized foreign countries for paying “nothing” towards the education of their citizens who are attending college at Harvard and other U.S. institutions. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

“We want to know who those foreign students are, a reasonable request since we give Harvard BILLIONS OF DOLLARS, but Harvard isn’t exactly forthcoming,” he continued. “We want those names and countries. Harvard has $52,000,000, use it, and stop asking for the Federal Government to continue GRANTING money to you!”

On Friday, a judge temporarily blocked the administration from canceling Harvard’s student visa program after the university filed a lawsuit against the federal government.

Harvard argued that the policy would affect more than 7,000 visa holders — nearly a quarter of the student body — and that the administration’s effort is a “blatant violation of the First Amendment, the Due Process Clause, and the Administrative Procedure Act,” according to its court filing.

“It is the latest act by the government in clear retaliation for Harvard exercising its First Amendment rights to reject the government’s demands to control Harvard’s governance, curriculum, and the ‘ideology’ of its faculty and students,” Harvard wrote in its complaint.

A Graduate School of Arts and Sciences flag on the Harvard University campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, on Wednesday, April 16, 2025. (Getty Images)

FEDERAL JUDGE BLOCKS TRUMP ADMINISTRATION FROM TERMINATING INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS’ LEGAL STATUS 

The Department of Homeland Security moved to terminate Harvard’s visa program after the university allegedly failed to provide extensive behavioral records of student visa holders the agency had requested.

The records sought include any footage of protest activity involving student visa holders, even if it’s not criminal, and the disciplinary records of all student visa holders in the past five years. 

Requested records also include footage or documentation of illegal, dangerous or violent activity by student visa holders, any records of threats or the deprivation of rights of other students or university personnel.

DHS had moved to terminate Harvard’s visa program after the university allegedly failed to provide extensive behavioral records of student visa holders the agency had requested. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Harvard called the new policy “pernicious” and accused the administration of departing from “decades of settled practice” and coming “without rational explanation.” The university also said the policy was “carried out abruptly without any of the robust procedures the government has established to prevent just this type of upheaval to thousands of students’ lives.”

At least a dozen Harvard students have had their student visas revoked over campus protest activity. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said before Congress on Tuesday that the administration has probably revoked thousands already and would “proudly” revoke more.

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The administration has already frozen close to $3 billion in federal funding to the university, largely dedicated to research, over claims that Harvard has not adequately responded to alleged campus antisemitism in protests and has not moved to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion practices.

Fox News’ Morgan Phillips contributed to this report.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth denied China’s claim the Golden Dome would turn space into a “war zone.”

“All we care about is protecting the homeland,” Hegseth told Fox News Digital while departing from a trip to Fort Bragg, North Carolina. 

President Donald Trump has said for a long time defense of the homeland is critical to his “America First” policy, and the Golden Dome is a generational investment. 

Chinese Foreign Minister Mao Ning claimed this week the Golden Dome has a “strong offensive nature and violates the principle of peaceful use in the Outer Space Treaty.”

CHINA ACCUSES US OF ‘TURNING SPACE INTO A WARZONE’ WITH TRUMP’S GOLDEN DOME MISSILE DEFENSE PROJECT

“The project will heighten the risk of turning space into a war zone and creating a space arms race and shake the international security and arms control system,” Mao said. “We urge the U.S. to give up developing and deploying global anti-missile system.”

Trump, alongside Hegseth, released some details about the project earlier in the week, explaining there’s an ambitious plan to complete the missile defense shield in three years for $125 billion. 

Hegseth also responded to pushback over his decision to kick off a monthly Christian prayer service at the Pentagon, which sparked a debate over religious freedom and the separation of church and state. 

“Appealing to heaven, to God, is a longstanding tradition in our military,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said of his monthly Pentagon prayer service.  (Petty Officer 1st Class Alexander Kubitza/Navy)

“We’ve said it very publicly, and we’ve said it very proudly. Appealing to heaven, to God, is a longstanding tradition in our military,” Hegseth said, adding that George Washington got on bended knee alongside his continental Army forces. 

“I appeal to Jesus Christ for that protection, to speak that word and be open and willing to talk about it at the Pentagon. If they want to criticize that, they’re on the wrong side,” he said. 

His remarks came after he addressed the 82nd Airborne Division of Army paratroopers during “All-American Week.” 

There, he celebrated the name change of the North Carolina base from Fort Liberty back to Fort Bragg.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks as he makes an announcement with President Donald Trump regarding the Golden Dome missile defense shield in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., May 20, 2025. (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)

“It is Fort Bragg again,” Hegseth said to cheers from the crowd. 

“Nothing wrong with Fort Liberty. Give me liberty or give me death. I love it,” Hegseth said. “But give me Fort Bragg every day of the week.” 

He also addressed critics who said he didn’t have the strategic experience to serve as secretary of defense, and took a shot at the media. 

“Our friends in the fake news media are here,” Hegseth said. “Some of them said, ‘Critics might say you can’t choose an Army major to be the secretary of defense. It has to be, well, one of our many distinguished generals or congressmen or business leaders or corporate leaders.’

TRUMP, HEGSETH ANNOUNCE ‘GOLDEN DOME,’ A ‘GAME CHANGER’ TO PROTECT AMERICAN HOMELAND

“One of the critiques was we need somebody that can think strategically, big picture. We can’t have a guy who thinks like the troops, to which I say ‘Hell, yeah, we can have a guy that thinks like the troops.’”

He told a crowd of Army paratroopers, “I’ve been in that formation, loosening my knees, taking a deep breath, gazing over the horizon, sweating and wondering what time it is, but I can’t move my arm. I’ve been in your boots — not yours. The 101st is not the 82nd. I’ll admit that on a day like today. Not quite your boots or your beret, but close.” 

Paratroopers perform a pass in review drill while Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth visits. (Petty Officer 1st Class Alexander Kubitza/Navy)

Hegseth announced an increase in jump pay for paratroopers to more cheers from the crowd. 

Hazardous duty incentive pay, known as “jump pay” for Army troopers who jump out of airplanes, will increase from $150 a month to $200. 

Jump masters, the senior paratroopers who train and lead jump operations, will see their pay increase from $150 to $300. 

“Here’s to our paratroopers, our jumpmasters, who do the difficult things in difficult places that most Americans can never imagine,” Hegseth said.

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Since 2006, the Army has maintained 56,756 paid parachutist positions, according to Gen. Gregory Anderson, head of the 18th Airborne Corps. That number will decrease by 20,000, allowing for the increase in pay for those who do maintain their jump status.

Limited aircraft ability and resources has meant a “degradation in proficiency,” Anderson told reporters. “The goal has to be really good quality over quantity.”

Former President Joe Biden’s decision to run for re-election divided longtime Democratic advisors, a new book about Biden’s cognitive decline and his administration’s alleged cover-up revealed. 

Biden’s former Chief of Staff, Ron Klain, shut down former President Barack Obama advisor David Axelrod for repeatedly calling Biden’s age an issue. 

“The presidency is a monstrously taxing job and the stark reality is the president would be closer to 90 than 80 at the end of a second term, and that would be a major issue,” Axelrod told The New York Times. 

Soon after the Times’ story was published in June 2022, Klain called Axelrod fuming, CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios political correspondent Alex Thompson revealed in their book, “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again.”

BIDEN STRUGGLED TO FILM 2024 CAMPAIGN VIDEOS AMID DECLINING HEALTH, NEW BOOK CLAIMS: ‘THE MAN COULD NOT SPEAK’

Advisors to President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama disagreed on whether Biden should run for re-election in 2024.  (REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY)

“Who’s going to beat Trump? President Biden is the only one who has done it. You better have a lot of certainty about a different candidate before you say the president should step aside. The future of the country depends on it!” Klain told Axelrod on the phone, according to Thompson and Tapper. 

FOX NEWS’ PETER DOOCY REVEALS HISTORY OF QUESTIONING BIDEN’S MENTAL FITNESS

Klain believed it was “sloppy thinking” that anyone other than Biden could beat Trump, the journalists said in the book. 

But Axelrod, like most Americans, worried about the first octogenarian president’s age and his ability to serve four more years. 

The chief strategist for Obama’s back-to-back winning campaigns, Axelrod was one of the last advisers to meet with Biden before Obama chose him as his running mate in 2008. Axelrod told Tapper and Thompson that they didn’t expect Biden to run for president at 73 and eventually discouraged Biden from running for president in 2015. 

They certainly didn’t expect Biden to run for president at 77. 

President Barack Obama presents Vice President Joe Biden with the Presidential Medal of Freedom during a ceremony in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 12, 2017.  (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

After Axelrod made some friendly comments about Biden to a reporter in 2018, Biden invited him to his rental home in Virginia, according to the book. 

“He was stunned by how much Biden had aged,” Tapper and Thompson wrote.

Axelrod told Biden that age would be an issue for his campaign but encouraged him to lean on his experience and wisdom, the journalists said. 

Axelrod’s apprehension about Biden’s age only grew, and when it came time for Biden to make a decision about his re-election, he knew Biden shouldn’t run in 2024. The longtime political advisor told Tapper and Thompson he wished someone in the White House had “come to their senses and [convinced] Biden and his family that this just wasn’t tenable.”

Joe Biden speaks during an Inflation Reduction Act event on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, on Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2022. (Samuel Corum/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Pointing to unfavorable battleground polls from 2023, Axelrod encouraged Biden to drop out of the race in a series of social media posts. He said the “stakes of miscalculation here are too dramatic to ignore.”

“Only @JoeBiden can make this decision. If he continues to run, he will be the nominee of the Democratic Party. What he needs to decide is whether that is wise; whether it’s in HIS best interest or the country’s?” Axelrod questioned on social media. 

Klain fired back, this time for the public to see: “Man who called Biden ‘Mr Magoo’ in Aug 2019 is still at it,” in reference to Axelrod’s comments following the 2019 Democratic presidential primary debate. 

Ron Klain, former White House chief of staff, speaks during a chief of staff transition event in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023.  (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

An excerpt from the book reads: “In response to Axelrod’s 2023 post, Biden called Axelrod a ‘prick’ – a private insult until someone leaked it to Jonathan Martin of Politico. Axelrod received confidential messages of agreement from prominent Democrats who remained silent, they explained, because they were resigned to Biden’s candidacy and did not want to weaken him as a looming rematch with Trump approached.”

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Fox News Digital has written extensively, dating back to the 2020 presidential campaign, about Biden’s cognitive decline and his inner circle’s role in covering it up.

“There is nothing in this book that shows Joe Biden failed to do his job, as the authors have alleged, nor did they prove their allegation that there was a cover-up or conspiracy,” a Biden spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “Nowhere do they show that our national security was threatened or where the president wasn’t otherwise engaged in the important matters of the presidency. In fact, Joe Biden was an effective president who led our country with empathy and skill.”

The Supreme Court heard a case this month centered on President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to end so-called birthright citizenship, in one of the most closely watched and potentially impactful cases heard by the court in recent years.  

Though the case itself was used largely as a means of challenging lower court powers to issue so-called universal or nationwide injunctions, justices on the high court did inquire about the merits of the order itself, “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship,” which Trump signed on the first day of his second White House term.

The order, which was slated to take force Feb. 20, directed all U.S. agencies to stop issuing citizenship documents to children born to illegal immigrants or children born to mothers living in the country on a temporary visa, if the father is not a permanent resident or U.S. citizen.

Despite the Supreme Court’s focus on universal injunctions in hearing the case, deep and unyielding concerns persist about Trump’s attempt to undo more than 100 years of legal precedent. 

JUDGES V TRUMP: HERE ARE THE KEY COURT BATTLES HALTING THE WHITE HOUSE AGENDA

U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts (R) as Melania Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump look on after being sworn in during inauguration ceremonies in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol on January 20, 2025, in Washington, D.C. Chip Somodevilla/Pool via Reuters/File Photo (Reuters)

The ACLU included in its lawsuit the story of one couple from Indonesia but living in New Hampshire whom they said would be affected by the order.

“They arrived in 2023, applied for asylum, and their application awaits review,” ACLU attorneys said of the couple. “The mom-to-be is in her third trimester. 

“Under this executive order, their baby would be considered an undocumented noncitizen and could be denied basic health care and nutrition, putting the newborn at grave risk at such a vulnerable stage of life,” they added.

And such problems would persist throughout their lives, lawyers for the group noted. These persons would not be able to obtain necessary identification, such as drivers’ licenses, and would not be able to vote, hold some jobs or serve on juries.

Though Trump had spoken in detail in his first term and on the campaign trail about wanting to end birthright citizenship, his executive order sent shockwaves through the nation. It was met by a wave of lawsuits from Democrat-led states and immigrants’ rights groups. 

WHO IS JAMES BOASBERG, THE US JUDGE AT THE CENTER OF TRUMP’S DEPORTATION EFFORTS?

Demonstrators hold up signs during a “Hands Off!” protest against President Donald Trump at the Washington Monument in Washington, Saturday, April 5, 2025.  (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

One lawsuit, brought by 18 Democratic attorneys general, warned that ending birthright citizenship would strip hundreds of thousands of U.S.-born children of their citizenship as the result of a circumstance completely outside a child’s control.

Statistics also bear this out. Roughly 150,000 children are born annually in the U.S. to parents of noncitizens.  If the order were to take force as Trump envisioned, experts warned the impact would be catastrophic.

​​”President Trump’s attempt to unilaterally end birthright citizenship is a flagrant violation of our Constitution,” New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin, who joined 17 other Democrat-led states in suing to block the order, said earlier this year.

TRUMP FACES ANOTHER DEPORTATION SETBACK WITH 4TH CIRCUIT APPEALS COURT

The U.S. Supreme Court is at the center of fresh debate over the interpretation of a core clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

“For more than 150 years, our country has followed the same basic rule: Babies who are born in this country are American citizens,” Platkin added.

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More than 22 U.S. states and immigrants’ rights groups sued the Trump administration to block the change to birthright citizenship prior to the Supreme Court’s decision to take up the case, arguing in court filings that the executive order is both unconstitutional and “unprecedented.”

To date, no court has sided with the Trump administration in upholding the executive order.

The Texas House gave initial approval on Saturday to a bill that would require sheriffs to collaborate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement by serving federal immigration warrants at local jails.

Senate Bill 8 received preliminary approval with an 89-50 vote in the lower chamber after GOP state Rep. David Spiller, a sponsor of the legislation, amended the bill so it applies to all counties rather than just counties with populations over 100,000 as was the case in the original version, according to FOX 7 and The Texas Tribune.

“This bill is not immigration reform,” Spiller said Saturday. “This bill is the strongest border security bill — indirectly — that we could have this session.”

ALLEGED HUMAN SMUGGLERS ARRESTED IN TEXAS AFTER HIDING INSIDE HOLLOWED HAY BALES

The Texas House gave initial approval to a bill that would require local law enforcement to collaborate with ICE. (David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)

The measure needs another House vote before it can return to the Senate, where the upper chamber must agree to the changes or both chambers must straighten out their differences before the bill can be sent to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk.

“Gov. Abbott has made it clear that cities and counties across Texas must fully cooperate with the federal government efforts to arrest, jail, and deport illegal immigrants,” Abbott’s Deputy Press Secretary Eduardo Leal said in a statement to The Texas Tribune. “The Governor will review this legislation, as he does with any legislation sent to his desk that helps achieve that goal.”

Under the bill, sheriffs would be required to request partnerships with ICE, known as 287(g) agreements.

The agreements allow ICE to authorize local authorities to perform certain types of immigration enforcement in local jails, including allowing local law enforcement to question inmates about their immigration status and serve administrative warrants.

Senate Bill 8 received preliminary approval with an 89-50 vote in the lower chamber. (Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)

Local officers could also be authorized by ICE to question people about their immigration status during “routine police duties,” including DUI checkpoints, through a model the Trump administration has revived after it stopped being used over allegations that it led to racial profiling.

The bill would also allow the Texas attorney general to sue sheriffs who do not adhere to the agreement. Sheriffs would need to at least enter the “warrant service” agreement. They can choose to enter into other agreements to meet the requirement.

Additionally, the proposal would offer grants to sheriffs to help offset the costs of participating that are not reimbursed by the federal government.

TEXAS LAWMAKERS SEEK TO GET FEDERAL REIMBURSEMENT FOR BIDEN-ERA BORDER CONTROL EXPENSES

The bill needs another House vote before it can go back to the Senate, where the changes must be approved before it can be sent to Gov. Greg Abbott. (AP Photo/LM Otero, File)

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As of Friday, 72 Texas law enforcement agencies had signed 287(g) agreements with ICE, according to data published by ICE. Another four sheriff’s offices had pending agreements.

Roughly 20% of the agreements in place between Texas law enforcement agencies and ICE were for the “task force model,” which extends immigration authorities to officers performing routine police duties.

The legislation, filed by GOP state Sen. Charles Schwertner, could help the Trump administration’s mass deportation plans, but immigrants’ rights advocates say the requirement would lead to racial profiling of black and brown people and prompt fear among undocumented Texans who may be reluctant to report a crime or seek help from authorities who are collaborating with ICE, according to The Texas Tribune.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday that a federal court order requiring the U.S. government to maintain custody of deportees on a flight meant for South Sudan will cause “significant and irreparable harm to U.S. foreign policy.” 

The Trump administration late Friday filed two court documents after U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy of Massachusetts said the deportation flight violated his previous April injunction that allows deportees time to challenge an order to be sent to a country other than their own. 

“This Department of Justice believes that this situation urgently requires judicial intervention to restore President Trump’s full Article II authority to conduct foreign policy,” a U.S. Department of Justice official told Fox News Digital.

Rubio noted the order has already complicated U.S. diplomacy with Libya, South Sudan and Djibouti and presents a serious threat to the president’s Article II authority to conduct foreign policy. 

FEDERAL JUDGE ORDERS TRUMP ADMINISTRATION TO TRACK DEPORTED IMMIGRANTS TO SOUTH SUDAN

The Trump administration late Friday filed two court documents after a judge said a deportation flight violated his previous injunction that allows deportees time to challenge an order to be sent to a country other than their own.  (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Rubio said in his filing that the court’s orders had “already interfered with quiet diplomatic efforts and exacerbated internal political and security divisions” in Libya. 

The order also threatens to “derail efforts to quietly rebuild a productive working relationship with Juba,” the capital of South Sudan, he said. 

Rubio said before the court’s intervention that the South Sudan government had refused to accept a South Sudanese national but had since “taken steps to work more cooperatively with the U.S. government.” 

DHS EXPOSES CRIMES BY MIGRANTS DEPORTED TO SOUTH SUDAN AS JUDGE THREATENS TO ORDER THEIR RETURN

Thirdly, Rubio said the order “causes harm” in Djibouti, which is “strategically located in the Horn of Africa” with the only U.S. military base on the African continent. 

The deportees are being temporarily held at a U.S. Naval base in Djibouti. 

A deportation flight headed for Guatemala in January.  (AP Photo/Christian Chavez, File)

In the second filing, the administration asked the court to “reconsider” its order and “highly burdensome requirements.”

“Because of this Court’s Orders, [the U.S. government is] currently detaining dangerous criminals in a sensitive location without clear knowledge of when, how, or where this Court will tolerate their release,” the filing said.

JUDICIAL HALT OF DEPORTATION FLIGHTS PUTS US FOREIGN POLICY AT RISK, CAREER STATE DEPT OFFICIAL CLAIMS

“This development has put impermissible, burdensome constraints on the President’s ability to carry out his Article II powers, including his powers to command the military, manage relations with foreign nations, and execute our nation’s immigration authorities.” 

The deportees “enjoyed the benefit of full process under the laws of the United States and were lawfully removed from the country,” the filing claimed, calling for a stay if not a reconsideration of the order. 

“These criminal aliens needed only state that they had a fear of removal to South Sudan to receive the other procedures required by the Court’s April 18, 2025 injunction,” the administration wrote. “The aliens did not do so. Therefore, DHS attempted to remove these aliens — who have committed the most reprehensible violations of our nation’s laws — to a place where they no longer pose a threat to the United States.” 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday that a court order requiring the U.S. government to maintain custody of deportees on a flight meant for South Sudan will cause “significant and irreparable harm to U.S. foreign policy.”  (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

The flight left from Texas earlier this week with eight migrants from Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Cuba, Mexico and South Sudan. 

Murphy issued the ruling Tuesday night after lawyers for the immigrants from Myanmar and Vietnam accused the Trump administration of illegally deporting their clients to third-party countries. They argue there is a court order blocking such removals.

Murphy’s ruling said the government must “maintain custody and control of class members currently being removed to South Sudan or to any other third country, to ensure the practical feasibility of return if the Court finds that such removals were unlawful.”

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Rubio announced in April that the U.S. would revoke visas held by South Sudanese passport holders and no others would be issued, attributing the change to “the failure of South Sudan’s transitional government to accept the return of its repatriated citizens in a timely manner,” according to a statement posted on X at the time. 

The U.S. has third-party deportation agreements with a handful of countries, the most prominent being El Salvador, which has accepted hundreds of Venezuelan deportees from the Trump administration.

Fox News’ Brooke Singman contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin about ending the war in Ukraine, hosted the president of South Africa at the White House and threatened more stringent tariffs against the European Union this week. 

During South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Oval Office visit on Wednesday, Trump got into a testy exchange with the South African leader about the treatment of White farmers there. Specifically, Trump aired a video that showed white crosses that Trump said were approximately 1,000 burial sites of White Afrikaner South African farmers. 

Trump has repeatedly asserted these farmers are being killed and pushed off of their land.

TRUMP TO MEET LEADER OF ‘OUT OF CONTROL’ SOUTH AFRICA AT WHITE HOUSE

President Donald Trump, right, and Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa’s president, meet in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., on May 21. (Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Trump told Ramaphosa at the White House that the burial sites by the side of the road are visited by those who want to “pay respects to their family member who was killed.” 

“Now this is very bad. These are burial sites right here. Burial sites — over a thousand — of White farmers. And those cars are lined up to pay love on a Sunday morning. Each one of those white things you see is a cross. And there is approximately a thousand of them,” Trump said. “They’re all White farmers. The family of White farmers. And those cars aren’t driving, they are stopped there to pay respects to their family member who was killed. And it’s a terrible sight. I’ve never seen anything like it. On both sides of the road, you have crosses. Those people are all killed.”

“Have they told you where that is, Mr. President?” Ramaphosa said. “I’d like to know where that is. Because this I’ve never seen.” 

“I mean, it’s in South Africa, that’s where,” Trump said. 

“We need to find out,” Ramaphosa said.

The White House defended showing the clip and said that the video was “substantiated,” following reports that emerged after the encounter that said the crosses were from a memorial demonstration following the murder of a White farming couple, not actual burial sites.

Here’s what also happened this week:

Call with Putin 

Trump and Putin spoke over the phone on Monday to advance peace negotiations ending the war between Moscow and Kyiv. The call occurred just days after Russia and Ukraine met in Turkey to conduct their first peace talks since 2022. 

After the call, Trump said both countries would move toward a ceasefire and push discussions to end the war. But, Trump indicated that the U.S. would let Moscow and Kyiv take the lead on negotiations after his call with Putin. 

“The conditions for that will be negotiated between the two parties, as it can only be, because they know the details of a negotiation that nobody else would be aware of,” Trump said in a Monday post on Truth Social. 

TRUMP SAYS HE COULD ‘WALK AWAY’ FROM RUSSIA-UKRAINE TALKS, CITES ‘TREMENDOUS HATRED’ ON BOTH SIDES

President Donald Trump, left, and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke over the phone on Monday to advance peace negotiations ending the war between Moscow and Kyiv.  (Contributor/Getty Images; Bonnie Cash/UPI/Bloomberg via Getty Images; Fox News Digital)

Additionally, Trump has continued to distance the U.S. from the conflict this week, describing the conflict as a “European situation.” 

“Big egos involved, but I think something’s going to happen,” Trump told reporters on Monday. “And if it doesn’t, I’ll just back away and they’ll have to keep going. This was a European situation. It should have remained a European situation.”

Trump expressed similar sentiments on Wednesday when Ramaphosa visited and stated: “It’s not our people, it’s not our soldiers… it’s Ukraine and it’s Russia.” 

‘Evils of antisemitism’

The White House condemned the fatal attack against two Israeli Embassy employees in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, labeling that incident an act of antisemitism. 

A gunman opened fire and killed Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim as they were leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum. The two were planning to get engaged next week in Jerusalem, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a press briefing.

Authorities arrested a pro-Palestinian man identified as 31-year-old Elias Rodriguez of Chicago in connection with the attack, according to officials.

In response, Trump and other leaders of his administration said attacks like these must stop and said that those responsible will face justice. 

WHITE HOUSE DECRIES ‘EVILS OF ANTISEMITISM,’ VOWS JUSTICE AFTER FATAL SHOOTING OF ISRAELI EMBASSY STAFFERS

Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, who were shot and killed as they left an event at the Capital Jewish Museum, pose for a picture at an unknown location in this handout image released by the Embassy of Israel to the U.S. (Embassy of Israel to the USA via X/Handout via Reuters)

“These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. “Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA. Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen! God Bless You ALL!”

Leavitt later told reporters she’d spoken with Attorney General Pam Bondi and that those who conducted the attack would face prosecution. 

“The evil of antisemitism must be eradicated from our society,” Leavitt told reporters on Thursday. “I spoke to the attorney general this morning. The Department of Justice will be prosecuting the perpetrator responsible for this to the fullest extent of the law. Hatred has no place in the United States of America under President Donald Trump.”

EU tariff threats

Trump threatened to slap a 50% tariff on imports from the European Union on Friday amid ongoing trade negotiations and after locking down a trade deal with the U.K. 

The deal with the U.K. is the first historic trade negotiation signed following Liberation Day, when Trump announced widespread tariffs for multiple countries on April 2 at a range of rates. 

The administration later adjusted its initial proposal and announced on April 9 it would immediately impose a 145% tariff on Chinese goods, while reducing reciprocal tariffs on other countries and the EU to a baseline of 10% for 90 days. 

TRUMP SIGNALS CHINA ‘VERY MUCH’ INTERESTED IN SECURING TRADE DEAL AHEAD OF SWITZERLAND NEGOTIATIONS 

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent later said in an interview with Fox News he hoped the warning would “light a fire under the EU” and signaled Trump’s threats stemmed from frustration negotiating with European countries on trade deals.  (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

“Their powerful Trade Barriers, Vat Taxes, ridiculous Corporate Penalties, Non-Monetary Trade Barriers, Monetary Manipulations, unfair and unjustified lawsuits against Americans Companies, and more, have led to a Trade Deficit with the U.S. of more than $250,000,000 a year, a number which is totally unacceptable,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Friday about the EU. 

“Therefore, I am recommending a straight 50% Tariff on the European Union, starting on June 1, 2025,” he said. 

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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent later said in an interview with Fox News he hoped the warning would “light a fire under the EU” and signaled Trump’s threats stemmed from frustration negotiating with European countries on trade deals. 

“EU proposals have not been of the same quality that we’ve seen from our other important trading partners,” Bessent said. 

Fox News Digital’s Greg Norman contributed to this report. 

Earlier this year, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) uncovered $4.7 trillion in untraceable Treasury Department payments. 

Prior to the discovery, Treasury Account Symbol (TAS) identification codes were optional for $4.7 trillion in Treasury Department payments, so they were often left blank and were untraceable. The field is now required to increase “insight into where the money is actually going,” the Treasury Department and DOGE announced in February. 

“Of the 1.5 billion payments that we send out every year, they are required to have a TAS, a Treasury Account Symbol. We discovered that more than one third of those payments did not have a TAS number,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government earlier this month. 

Fox News Digital asked Republican senators on Capitol Hill to respond to the approximately 500,000 in untraceable payments made by the Treasury Department each year. 

DOGE SAYS IT FOUND NEARLY UNTRACEABLE BUDGET LINE ITEM RESPONSIBLE FOR $4.7T IN PAYMENTS

GOP Sens. Dan Sullivan (left) and Roger Marshall railed against the Treasury Department’s untraceable payments.  (Nicholas Ballasy/Fox News Digital)

“I’m not surprised at all, unfortunately,” Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kansas, said before adding, “They were leaving complete fields undone when they were filling out their financials, so this is a common theme. I’m not surprised.”

TOP 5 MOST OUTRAGEOUS WAYS THE GOVERNMENT HAS WASTED YOUR TAXES, AS UNCOVERED BY ELON MUSK’S DOGE

Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Missouri, called for an investigation into where those payments actually went. 

“There’s so much waste. There’s so much fraud, There’s so much abuse in our government,” Schmitt told Fox News Digital. “I’m glad there was a laser-like focus on it. We ought to make many of those reforms permanent, but there probably ought to be some investigations here about where this money actually went. I mean this is taxpayer money. People work hard.”

President Donald Trump and Elon Musk have worked to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).  (Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC)

After DOGE and the Treasury Department uncovered $4.7 trillion in untraceable funds, Marshall and Sen. Rick Scott of Florida introduced a bill in March requiring the Treasury Department to track all payments. 

The Locating Every Disbursement in Government Expenditure Records (LEDGER) Act seeks to increase transparency in how the Treasury Department spends taxpayer money. 

“When you hear about this story that they didn’t know where the money was going, it makes you mad because this is somebody’s money, this is taxpayers’ money when we have almost $37 trillion in debt, so this makes no sense at all,” Scott said. 

Elon Musk shows off his t-shirt reading “Tech Support” while speaking at the first cabinet meeting hosted by President Donald Trump, at the White House in Washington, D.C., Feb. 26, 2025. (REUTERS/Brian Snyder)

The Congressional Budget projects that interest payments on America’s national debt will total $952 billion in fiscal year 2025. That’s $102 billion more than the United States’ defense budget at $850 billion. 

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“We paid out more last year on our debt, $36 trillion in debt, with $950 billion in interest going to bondholders all over the world, including in China. That $950 billion didn’t go to build a bridge or an F-35. We paid more on the interest on debt than we did to fund our military,” said Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska. 

“That is an inflection point that when most countries hit, you look at history, that’s when great powers start to decline. So we have to get those savings.”

FIRST ON FOX: A group of House Republicans are requesting Fiscal Year 2026 spending bills to include language prohibiting federal funding for transgender experiments on animals. 

Republican Reps. Paul Gosar, Elijah Crane, Abraham J. Hamadeh of Arizona, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Brandon Gill of Texas, Nancy Mace of South Carolina, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Pete Stauber of Minnesota and Troy E. Nehls of Texas are urging the chairman and ranking member of the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies to prohibit transgender experiments on animals in its FY2026 appropriations bill. 

House Republicans have requested the committee include the following language: “None of the funds made available by this or any other Act thereafter may be used for research on vertebrate animals for the purpose of studying the effects of drugs, surgery, or other interventions to alter the human body (including by disrupting the body’s development, inhibiting its natural functions, or modifying its appearance) to no longer correspond to its biological sex.”

The letter, addressed to Chairman Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Ala., and Ranking Member Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., points to the dozens of National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants issued during former President Joe Biden’s administration that are funding “wasteful and disturbing experiments to create ‘transfeminine’ and ‘transmasculine’ lab animals using invasive surgeries and hormone therapies.”

TRUMP ADMIN CUTS ADDITIONAL $1M IN FEDERAL FUNDING FOR ‘TRANSGENDER ANIMAL’ EXPERIMENTS

House GOP Reps. Nancy Mace (left) and Paul Gosar have spoken out against “transgender animal” experiments.  (Getty Images)

$10M IN TAXPAYER FUNDS SPENT CREATING TRANSGENDER ANIMALS: REP. NANCY MACE

“The transgender animals are then wounded, shocked, injected with street drugs and vaccines, and subjected to other disturbing procedures,” the House Republicans said in the letter, as Fox News Digital reported earlier this year. 

“President Trump has personally criticized these experiments on several occasions, and the Department of Government Efficiency has canceled millions in NIH grants funding transgender animal testing. However, many of these NIH grants funding gender transitions for lab animals are still active,” House GOP members said. 

President Donald Trump’s National Institute of Health quietly cut over $1 million in federally funded research evaluating if rats going through hormone therapy were more likely to overdose on a popular party drug. (Getty/AP)

President Donald Trump condemned transgender animal experiments during his joint address to Congress in March. The White Coat Waste Project, a government watchdog group that testified about transgender animal experiments on Capitol Hill earlier this year, told Fox News Digital there are still “29 active taxpayer-funded grants that have been used to fund transgender animal tests.”

“We urge you to include the language above in the FY26 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies bill to ensure no more taxpayer dollars are wasted to fund transgender animal tests,” the Republicans said in the letter. 

The White Coat Waste Project, in a statement to Fox News Digital, touted their role in halting taxpayer-funded “transgender animal tests,” and celebrated the House Republicans’ bill, led by Gosar, to stop more federally funded experiments. 

The White Coat Waste project has spotlighted transgender animal experiments this year.  (iStock)

“Thanks to White Coat Waste’s viral investigations and collaboration with Rep. Paul Gosar and others in Congress, the Trump Administration has slashed spending on wasteful experiments that subject lab animals to invasive surgeries and hormone therapies to crudely mimic gender transitions in kids and adults and then wound, shock and inject the animals with vaccines and overdoses of sex party drugs,” Justin Goodman, Senior Vice President of White Coat Waste Project, said. 

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“These Trump cuts have already saved thousands of lab animals and millions of tax dollars, but dozens more NIH grants that funnel tax dollars to disturbing transgender animal tests are still active. Taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to foot the bill for wasteful and cruel transgender animal tests, and Rep. Gosar’s commonsense effort to permanently defund them will ensure they won’t have to.”