NationalWatch

A small group of Republican lawmakers who did not feel their leaders were pushing a conservative enough agenda first began meeting in secret a decade ago, huddling in small rooms both inside and outside the U.S. Capitol, while closely guarding their membership for fear of punishment by top House GOP leaders.

Fast-forward to Thursday morning, and the House Freedom Caucus (HFC) was welcoming its members, top GOP donors, Trump administration officials and even Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to an ornate room inside Washington, D.C.’s Willard Hotel to mark its decade anniversary and its first annual policy summit.

“It’s a big celebration and an anniversary for them, and I want to be a part of it,” Johnson told Fox News Digital just before addressing the group. “Some of my closest friends are in this room.”

The caucus that former House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, once called “legislative terrorists” are now at the center of key Republican policy fights in Washington. And while they’re still a source of frustration for many GOP lawmakers – who find the group to be disruptive to Republicans’ agenda – HFC is hiding no more and has the ear of some of the most powerful people in D.C.

GOP LAWMAKERS CLASH OVER STRATEGY TO AVERT GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN CRISIS

“This was never our goal, you know, but we wanted to have an impact,” Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., a founding member of HFC who left Congress and returned in 2025, told Fox News Digital of the event at the Willard. “There’s always a lot of agreement in the conference, like, ‘Oh yeah, we would like to get there,’ but…sometimes you kind of need the difficult people to help move it a little bit further to the right than what you thought you might be able to.”

And rather than being a thorn in the side of Republican leaders, HFC is trying to work hand-in-hand with President Donald Trump to push for conservative policies.

They are not going against the grain any longer, House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris, R-Md., told Fox News Digital.

“We’re driving the grain,” he said. “We work with the president to advance his agenda in the most conservative way possible, and we’ve been successful.”

Border czar Tom Homan, who also addressed the event along with Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought, told Fox News Digital that HFC was key to advancing Trump’s border agenda.

“They’re on the right side,” Homan said. “They want to secure the border because they know a secure border, a strong border, gives us strong national security…they want us to enforce the laws.”

In late 2023, a group of HFC members were key to successfully pushing out a House speaker mid-congressional term for the first time in U.S. history.

They’ve also played significant roles in pushing Republican spending bills and the recent One Big, Beautiful Bill Act to the right – at least in the House.

Even in the middle of their two-day event on Thursday, some HFC members threatened to sink a GOP-led spending bill as a warning shot to House leaders to keep on a conservative path.

The approach has been seen as divisive for years, and this year is no different.

“They act as if they are the only principled conservatives in the conference. It’s almost as if they would rather be in the minority,” one House Republican, granted anonymity to speak freely, told Fox News Digital. “They love the attention they get when they hold out, only to fold in the end. It’s why no one respects them.”

Another GOP lawmaker said, in the context of current talks to avert a government shutdown, “The Freedom Caucus is not what it was two years ago or even four years ago. I don’t know what you call them, but Andy Harris speaks for himself.”

GOP GOVERNOR NOMINEE PUSHES REDISTRICTING TO OUST STATE’S LONE HOUSE DEM

“What is the goal of the Freedom Caucus? Is it to win? Is it to fold?” they asked. “I mean, have they lost their teeth? From an outside perspective, no, I still think they get heard.”

Current HFC members brushed off the criticism.

“We’re willing to negotiate with Donald Trump and the Senate to beat Democrats with the most conservative bill possible, so please keep assuming that we’re dead, and please keep writing that obituary, because we’re winning,” HFC Policy Chair Chip Roy, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital.

Harris said of the critics, “If winning is folding, then I’ll fold every time.”

Indeed, the group does have the ear of the White House.

Former HFC Chair Scott Perry, R-Pa., who gave opening remarks during a portion of the summit exclusively viewed by Fox News Digital, revealed that White House aides attended the group’s recent meeting with conservative senators.

“Last night, with representatives from the White House, we were asked, ‘What is the plan?’ I’m not exaggerating, this is your Freedom Caucus, the ‘legislative terrorists’ in the room where it happened,” Perry told the audience.

But the group is expected to see some high-profile departures in the next congressional term: Roy is running for Texas Attorney General, and Reps. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., and Byron Donalds, R-Fla., are both running for governor, among others.

Roy told Fox News Digital of the turnover, “We’ve had a conversation. We have things we want to do to help kind of make sure and ensure the longevity. Right now, we’ve got to make sure the good people are running. We have to make sure we continue to grow the ranks of the Freedom Caucus.”

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And newer members have signaled they’re ready to fill the ranks of those left behind.

“Now that I’ve been here, and it’s my third year, and I get comfortable with this, it gives me a lot more confidence to know what is the right path or what’s the wrong path,” said Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., whose profile in HFC has risen in his short time in Congress. “And I think there’s other members like me that are – as these guys step away, there’s plenty of really talented members to step in their shoes.”

Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky strongly objected after Vice President JD Vance asserted in a Saturday post on X that “Killing cartel members who poison our fellow citizens is the highest and best use of our military.”

“JD ‘I don’t give a s[—]’ Vance says killing people he accuses of a crime is the ‘highest and best use of the military.’ Did he ever read To Kill a Mockingbird? Did he ever wonder what might happen if the accused were immediately executed without trial or representation??” Senator Paul wrote. “What a despicable and thoughtless sentiment it is to glorify killing someone without a trial.” 

In a Truth Social post last week, President Donald Trump shared video footage of what he said was “a kinetic strike against positively identified Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists” who he said “were at sea in International waters transporting illegal narcotics, heading to the United States.”

SEN. RAND PAUL FAVORS THE PROSPECT OF ABOLISHING THE FEDERAL RESERVE

Someone responded to Vance by writing that, “Killing the citizens of another nation who are civilians without any due process is called a war crime.” 

But the vice president swiftly fired back.

DEM SEN JOHN FETTERMAN BACKS USE OF MILITARY FORCE TO COMBAT DRUG TRAFFICKING INTO US

“I don’t give a s[—] what you call it,” Vance declared.

GOP Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio pushed back against Paul.

RUBIO SAYS TRUMP ‘WANTS TO WAGE WAR’ ON VENEZUELAN DRUG TRAFFICKERS: ‘BLOW THEM UP IF THAT’S WHAT IT TAKES’

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“What’s really despicable is defending foreign terrorist drug traffickers who are *directly* responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans in Kentucky and Ohio. JD understands that our first responsibility is to protect the life and liberty of American citizens,” Moreno wrote on on X.

President Donald Trump said Sunday that while U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was right to arrest South Korean immigrants working illegally at a Hyundai battery plant in Georgia, the U.S. should consider letting foreign experts temporarily stay to train Americans in advanced industries.

Homeland Security Investigations said 475 people — mostly South Koreans — were arrested at the under-construction battery plant. Hyundai said it owns the site but insisted none of the workers were directly employed by the company.

When asked about the ICE operation on Sunday, Trump told reporters the U.S. needs experts who know how to build batteries to help train Americans with no such experience. 

“If you don’t have people in this country right now that know about batteries, maybe we should help them along…,” Trump said, adding that industries like shipbuilding and computer manufacturing also need skilled trainers. “So, we’re going to look at that whole situation. We have a lot of industries that we don’t have any more, and we’re going to have to train people.”

SOUTH KOREA REACHES DEAL WITH US TO RELEASE WORKERS DETAINED AFTER IMMIGRATION RAID

He continued to explain that the best way to train people is to bring people in who know what they are doing, while also letting them stay in the U.S. for a little while to help.

Still, Trump said ICE was right to arrest those in the country illegally. “We do have to work something out where we bring in experts so that our people can be trained so that they can do it themselves,” he said.

Later on Truth Social, Trump urged foreign companies investing in the U.S. to respect immigration laws while pledging to make it “quickly and legally possible” for them to bring in skilled workers. 

SOCIAL MEDIA FIRESTORM AFTER MASSIVE GEORGIA IMMIGRATION RAID: ‘TAKING BOLD ACTION’

“Your Investments are welcome, and we encourage you to LEGALLY bring your very smart people, with great technical talent, to build World Class products, and we will make it quickly and legally possible for you to do so,” he wrote. “What we ask in return is that you hire and train American Workers. Together, we will all work hard to make our Nation not only productive, but closer in unity than ever before. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

On Sunday, the South Korean government reached a deal with the U.S. to secure the release of hundreds of migrant workers detained at the factory.

MASSIVE DHS RAID HITS GEORGIA HYUNDAI FACTORY THAT BIDEN TOUTED AS MAJOR VICTORY FOR ‘NEW AMERICAN JOBS’

President Lee Jae Myung’s office said South Korea will send a charter plane to bring the workers back to South Korea in the coming days.

Still, South Korea’s government expressed “concern and regret” over the raid.

Homeland Security Investigations chief Steven Schrank said some workers had crossed the border illegally, while others overstayed visas or entered under waivers that barred them from working. Many were employed by subcontractors at the site.

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The Georgia raid marked one of the largest workplace enforcement actions of Trump’s presidency, part of a broader crackdown on illegal immigration.

Fox News Digital’s Anders Hagstrom, Cameron Arcand and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Zohran Mamdani is taking heat for using school kids in his online campaign ads even after noting how “fortunate” he was to enjoy a childhood free of social media.

The 33-year-old New York City mayoral candidate, who has built his brand on viral content, was criticized by Instagram followers after he featured interviews with two kids promoting his bid for City Hall. 

The criticism also came as New York City launched a statewide classroom cellphone ban aimed at protecting student mental health, and ahead of the mayoral election. On Thursday, Mamdani appeared outside I.S. 5 in Queens, praising the new cellphone ban while welcoming families back for the first day of the school year. 

On Instagram, he also shared a post and contrasted his own childhood with today’s digital reality, writing:

EX-MAYOR DE BLASIO TOUTS SOCIALIST MAMDANI AS NEW YORK CITY’S ANSWER TO TRUMP POLICIES

“I consider myself fortunate—when I was a student, it was before social media had cannibalized the way that kids interact with one another,” he wrote. The post was paired with a back-to-school message about “hope and new beginnings.”

But just days later, Mamdani’s campaign accounts featured the two young kids speaking directly to Mamdani and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. 

MAMDANI APPEALS TO NON-DEMOCRATS WITH GENERAL ELECTION PUSH, VOWS GOVERNMENT CAN MEET VOTERS’ ‘MATERIAL NEEDS’

In one clip, a girl confidently endorsed him; in another, a boy offered support while Warren sat nearby.

“How old is she? So articulate, but she’s so tiny,” one follower said about the little girl.

Critics wondered why Mamdani was using children in his social media ads even as he decried the effects of cellphones and social media on children.

“Why are you using kids to promote your political agenda?” complained another follower commenting on the post featuring the boy’s interview.

One critic wrote: “He can express his personal opinion and promote whomever he wants, using the kids to do it is unacceptable.” 

Mamdani’s posts featuring the two children also came days before New York Governor Kathy Hochul defended the new cellphone restrictions, arguing they will reduce distractions, improve mental health and even protect children during emergencies by preventing location-sharing. 

Hochul discussed the state’s ban on cellphone use in public schools on “Fox News Sunday.”

The new law prohibits smartphones and smartwatches during school hours, except for medical or educational use.

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Mamdani, who unseated a longtime incumbent in the Democratic primary, is campaigning on sweeping progressive promises, from a $30 minimum wage to a rent freeze. 

Fox News Digital reached out to Mamdani for comment.

President Donald Trump issued his “last warning” to Hamas to either release the remaining hostages or face the consequences.

“Everyone wants the hostages HOME. Everyone wants this War to end,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “The Israelis have accepted my Terms. It is time for Hamas to accept as well.”

“I have warned Hamas about the consequences of not accepting,” he continued. “This is my last warning, there will not be another one! Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

Last month, Trump said the remaining hostages would only be returned when Hamas is “confronted and destroyed.” At the time, Hamas was citing alleged progress in ceasefire talks.

WHITE HOUSE DEMANDS ALL GAZA HOSTAGES RETURN HOME ‘THIS WEEK’ AMID STALLED TALKS

In July, the U.S. and Israel pulled negotiators from Qatar after Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff said Hamas showed a “lack of desire to reach a ceasefire” and was likely not negotiating in good faith.

On Aug. 26, Witkoff told Fox News’ Bret Baier on “Special Report” that he and Trump wanted the hostages home that week. 

“There’s been a deal on the table for the last six or seven weeks that would have released 10 of the hostages out of the 20 who we think are alive,” he said, noting that he believes Hamas is “100%” to blame for the hold-up.

TRUMP ON WHAT IT WILL TAKE TO BRING ISRAELI HOSTAGES HOME: HAMAS MUST BE ‘CONFRONTED AND DESTROYED’

Witkoff did not elaborate on what is delaying the hostages’ return, nearly two years after they were taken in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

Fifty hostages continue to be held by Hamas, only 20 of whom are assessed to still be alive. 

Trump previously predicted in late August that there would be a “conclusive” end to the war in Gaza within the next “two to three weeks,” though he did not say how this would be accomplished. 

TRUMP: HAMAS SURRENDER, HOSTAGE RELEASE IS ‘FASTEST WAY’ TO END GAZA WAR

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted that only a comprehensive ceasefire — one that ensures the return of all hostages and ends the war on Israel’s terms — will be considered.

Israel is preparing a new offensive in Gaza targeting Hamas, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said, as it expanded ground operations under Operation Gideon’s Chariots II.

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IDF spokesperson Col. Avichay Adraee warned Palestinians in parts of Gaza City to leave ahead of an expected escalation. The warning included a map marking the area and highlighting one building the IDF planned to strike, citing “the presence of Hamas terrorist infrastructure inside or nearby.”

Fox News Digital’s Rachel Wolf and Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.

EXCLUSIVE – Republican Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is touting support from a growing list of prominent donors who once backed Democrat Tim Ryan, a development his campaign says underscores a major political shift in the Buckeye State.

According to Ramaswamy’s team, nearly $220,000 of the contributions raised in his first months as a candidate came from individuals who previously gave to Ryan, the former congressman from Youngstown who is weighing a bid for governor. Ryan has not officially declared a gubernatorial bid and has said he will make a decision by the end of the year. 

Some of the best-known business leaders in Youngstown and Northeast Ohio, long part of Ryan’s donor network, have now switched sides, Fox News Digital has learned. 

Ramaswamy’s campaign highlights names including Caryn and Sam Covelli, a major business leader in Mahoning Valley who gave the Republican candidate $10,000 after donating more than $59,000 to Ryan over multiple cycles; and Bruce Zoldan, a Youngstown-area business leader who gave Ramaswamy $5,000 after contributing more than $53,000 to Ryan. 

EXCLUSIVE: RAMASWAMY DECRIES ‘ANTI-LAW ENFORCEMENT CULTURE’ IN WAKE OF BRUTAL CINCINNATI BEATING

Another business leader, Adam Thomarios, gave $10,000 and is hosting an upcoming fundraiser after contributing nearly $17,000 to Ryan. Anthony Manna contributed $10,000 after donating nearly $25,000 to Ryan between 2005 and 2021, according to Ramaswamy’s campaign. Regina Mitchell hosted a fundraiser and gave more than $13,600 to Ramaswamy after a prior $2,700 contribution to Ryan in 2017.

Jeff Edwards, the president and CEO of Edwards Companies and Installed Building Products in the Columbus area, and his wife,Lisa, gave roughly $33,000 to Ramaswamy this cycle after contributing $5,800 to Ryan in 2022.

Jai Chabria, Ramaswamy’s chief strategist, told Fox News Digital that the donor movement is about more than campaign finance. He said Ohioans who once trusted traditional Democratic leadership are embracing Ramaswamy’s message of economic growth and new ideas after decades of disappointment. In his view, voters are leaving behind “a tired model” that did not deliver and are backing someone who represents prosperity and reform. 

“It’s a very interesting thing where people who have been – who have donated to Democrats, and especially someone like Tim Ryan, and they’re flocking to Vivek,” Chabria told Fox News Digital. “There’s actually a movement where people are actually moving over not just to Republicans, but to Vivek specifically because he’s got such a message of growth, of economic growth.” 

He argued that the momentum is visible not only in financial reports but also in grassroots enthusiasm across the state.

“I think, like many people in Ohio who were promised one thing under these institutions, and by institutions I mean people that have been elected over and over and over again and didn’t deliver for people, I think people are coming to see that someone else with fresh ideas is what they need to invest in rather than the tired old model that didn’t deliver for the state,” Chabria told Fox News Digital. 

Ohio Republican Party Chairman Alex Triantafilou echoed that point, calling the donor shifts “impressive” and a sign of Ramaswamy’s strength as a candidate. He said former Ryan backers now see in Ramaswamy a leader committed to workers, reshoring manufacturing, and strengthening Ohio’s energy independence. 

Triantafilou also emphasized the GOP’s early endorsement of Ramaswamy in May – more than a year before the primary – as unprecedented. He said it helped solidify a coalition that has powered Republican victories statewide.

Fox News Digital reached out to Ryan for comment.

After spotlighting the defections from Ryan’s ranks, the Ramaswamy campaign is also underscoring its own financial milestones. Ramaswamy reported raising $9.7 million between February and June, which his team calls the largest sum ever collected by an Ohio gubernatorial candidate in the year before a general election. An allied super PAC has added $17 million more. 

RAMASWAMY PLEDGES ‘RULE OF LAW’ REVIVAL AFTER VIRAL CINCINNATI MOB ATTACK

Chabria described that first report as only the “tip of the iceberg,” predicting that the next filing will show an even bigger number.

Both strategists portrayed the fundraising and donor flips as part of a broader coalition that cuts across traditional political lines. Chabria said Ramaswamy’s background in business appeals to donors because he understands their perspective, while his detailed policy agenda shows he is prepared to govern without a steep learning curve. He pointed to priorities such as energy independence, improving Ohio’s schools and tackling crime in cities as issues resonating with small and large donors alike.

“The crime in our cities is – it’s appalling. And it’s something that Vivek wants to bring all leaders together to actually try to address because people need to be able to be safe in their own homes. And in too many places, they don’t feel that way,” Chabria told Fox News Digital. “I mean, Democrats, Republicans, independents, they all need to feel safe in their homes, in their cities. So it’s definitely not a partisan issue, but sometimes it becomes one. But Vivek, I think he’s gonna try to rise above it and try to bring all people together and really listen to everybody and then try to offer real concrete solutions to this issue.” 

Triantafilou stressed that Ramaswamy’s agenda has broad working-class appeal, citing his proposals on manufacturing, education and eliminating the state income tax to make Ohio more competitive. He said those ideas speak directly to middle-class Ohioans, including union workers, postal employees and delivery drivers, who could benefit from lower taxes and better economic conditions.

Generational change is also part of the message. At 40, Ramaswamy represents “a new era of leadership,” Triantafilou said, contrasting him with Ryan, whom he described as emblematic of Democrats focused on cultural debates rather than the economic concerns of ordinary voters. He argued that Ryan, who lost a Senate race to then-first-time candidate JD Vance in 2022, is “yesterday,” while Ramaswamy represents “tomorrow.”

Republicans are already previewing the contrast if Ryan enters the governor’s race. Triantafilou criticized him as “inauthentic,” accusing him of posturing as a moderate in Ohio while voting with the left in Washington. He said Democrats are out of step with voters on issues ranging from crime to education, and predicted Ryan would be outspent, outworked and ultimately defeated if he jumped in.

“Tim Ryan represents kind of what’s wrong with the Democratic Party,” Triantafilou told Fox News Digital. “Tim Ryan will put on a hunting jacket and be on TV, and then he goes to D.C. and votes with AOC and with the left of party.” 

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For now, the Ramaswamy campaign is focused on consolidating early momentum. Events are scheduled into the fall, including an October fundraiser hosted by Thomarios in Akron, as the campaign works to expand its base across Columbus, Cincinnati, Toledo, and beyond. With record fundraising, defections from Ryan’s donor network, and the Ohio GOP’s early endorsement, Republicans say Ramaswamy has positioned himself as the front-runner in 2026.

The South Korean government has reached a deal with the U.S. to secure the release of hundreds of migrant workers detained at a Hyundai automobile factory in Georgia.

Homeland Security Investigations said 475 people who were in the country illegally, primarily from South Korea, were arrested as part of the operation at the under-construction battery plant. Hyundai owns the plant, but claimed none of the workers were directly employed by the company.

President Lee Jae Myung’s office says the country will send a charter plane to bring the workers back to South Korea in the coming days.

South Korea’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement last week to express “concern and regret” at the raid.

LOUISIANA RACETRACK ICE RAID NETS MORE THAN 80 ILLEGAL MIGRANTS DURING WORKSITE ENFORCEMENT OPERATION

HSI Georgia chief Steven Schrank said some of the detained workers had illegally crossed the U.S. border, while others had entered the country legally but had expired visas or had entered on a visa waiver that prohibited them from working.

HSI said some of the workers arrested were employed by subcontractors on the construction site, which has since been paused. Fox News Digital reported that ICE and other law enforcement agencies were part of the operation.

16 IN CUSTODY AFTER IMMIGRATION RAID AT LA HOME DEPOT, DHS SAYS

“As of today, it is our understanding that none of those detained is directly employed by Hyundai Motor Company,” Hyundai told Fox News Digital in a statement. “We prioritize the safety and well-being of everyone working at the site and comply with all laws and regulations wherever we operate.”

CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE

Workplace raids have become an increasingly common operation for immigration enforcement under President Donald Trump’s administration.

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Last month, federal authorities butted heads with some Democratic officials in California at a cannabis farm, which resulted in the discovery of children working at the plant.

Fox News’ Cameron Arcand and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Senate Republicans are getting closer to changing the upper chamber’s rules to allow for a slew of President Donald Trump’s lower-level nominees to be confirmed, and they’re closing in on a revived proposal from Democrats to do it.

The hope among Republicans is that using a tool that Senate Democrats once considered would allow them to avoid turning to the “nuclear option,” meaning a rule change with a simple majority vote.

“The Democrats should support it, because it was their original proposal that we’re continuing on,” Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., told Fox News Digital. “And I wouldn’t be surprised if they won’t. This historic obstruction by the Democrats is all playing to their far-left liberal base, who hate President Trump.”

REPUBLICAN DOCTORS CLASH WITH RFK JR OVER VACCINES IN TENSE SENATE SHOWDOWN

Republicans met throughout the week behind closed doors to discuss their options and have begun to coalesce around a proposal that would allow them to take one vote to confirm a group of nominees, also known as “en bloc,” for sub-Cabinet level positions.

So far, the only nominee to make it through the Senate with ease was Secretary of State Marco Rubio in January. Since then, various positions throughout the bureaucracy have stacked up and have not received a voice vote or gone through unanimous consent — two commonly-used fast-track procedures for lower-level positions in the administration.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said that before Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., was in charge of the Democrats, “this was always done in a way where, if you had some of the lower-level nominees in the administration, those were all voted en bloc, they were packaged, they were grouped, they were stacked.”

“This is the first president in history who, at this point in his presidency, hasn’t had at least one nominee clear by unanimous consent or voice vote,” he said. “It is unprecedented what they’re doing. It’s got to be stopped.”

TOP SENATE REPUBLICAN READY TO GO NUCLEAR, ‘ROLL OVER’ DEMOCRATS WITH RULE CHANGE TO CONFIRM TRUMP NOMINEES

And the number of nominees on the Senate’s calendar continues to grow, reaching 149 picks awaiting confirmation this week. The goal would be to make that rule change before lawmakers leave town for a week starting Sept. 22.

The idea comes from legislation proposed in 2023 by Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Angus King, I-Maine, and former Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md. Republicans are eyeing their own spin on it, such as possibly not limiting the number of en bloc nominees in a group or excluding judicial nominees.

Republicans would prefer to avoid going nuclear — the last time the nuclear option was used was in 2019, when then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., lowered debate time on nominees to two hours — but they are willing to do so, given that Democrats haven’t budged on their blockade.

They may only be making a public display of resistance, however.

“Democrats privately support what Republicans are talking about,” a senior GOP aide familiar with negotiations told Fox News Digital. “They’re just too afraid to admit it.”

Sen. James Lankford, who worked with Thune and Barrasso over the recess to build a consensus on a rule change proposal, told Fox News Digital that his Democratic colleagues acknowledged that they’ve “created a precedent that is not sustainable.”

TRUMP THREATENS LAWSUIT OVER ‘BLUE SLIPS’ AS TOP GOP SENATOR BUCKS DEMAND TO BEND SENATE RULES FOR NOMINEES

“But then they’ll say, ‘but my progressive base is screaming at me to fight however I want to. I know I’m damaging the Senate, but I got to show that I’m fighting,’” the Oklahoma Republican said.

“We feel stuck, I mean, literally,” Lankford continued. “Some of my colleagues have said, ‘We’re not the ones going nuclear. They’re the ones that are going nuclear.’”

Klobuchar told Fox News Digital that she appreciated the prior work she’s done with Lankford on “ways to make the Senate better” but wasn’t ready to get behind the GOP’s version of her legislation.

“When I proposed that, it was meant to pass as legislation, which means you would have needed bipartisan votes, and the reason that’s not happening right now is because the president keeps flaunting the law,” she said.

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Not every Senate Democrat is on board with the wholesale blockade, however.

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., told Fox News Digital that lawmakers should all behave in a way in which administrations, either Republican or Democratic, get “those basic kinds of considerations” for nominees.

“That’s not the resistance,” he said. “I just think that’s kind of unhelpful to just move forward. I mean, you can oppose people like the big ones, whether it’s [Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F.] Kennedy or others.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Schumer’s office for comment but did not immediately hear back. 

As U.S. forces carry out strikes abroad and policymakers prepare to release a new national defense strategy, the Trump administration has chosen to revive a name not heard in Washington since 1947: the Department of War. 

Friday’s executive order has opened a debate over whether words shape policy, or whether the symbolism matters less than the capabilities behind them.

Supporters argue the shift restores honesty to the Pentagon’s identity, acknowledging that America’s armed forces have long been engaged in conflicts that stretch beyond “defense.” Critics counter that the change risks glorifying war, unsettling allies and giving adversaries new propaganda lines at a sensitive moment in global security.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, who proudly assumed the new title, described the move as a cultural reset. “Words matter. Titles matter, cultures matter,” Hegseth told Fox News Digital. “George Washington founded the War Department.”

HEGSETH VOWS TO REBUILD MILITARY DETERRENCE SO ENEMIES ‘DON’T WANT TO F— WITH US’

Jennifer Kavanaugh, a senior fellow at Defense Priorities, said recent strikes have emboldened Trump to lean more heavily on military power. She pointed to U.S. attacks on Iranian targets earlier this summer and, more recently, a strike on a Venezuelan drug-smuggling boat, which she said the administration clearly views as both policy successes and strong political points. 

“These two strikes, as well as other small things, are maybe pushing Trump to be more aggressive than he was on the campaign trail, or even than he planned to be coming in,” Kavanaugh said.

Others were more skeptical of the name’s practical impact. Frank Rose, a former Defense Department and Nuclear Security Administration official, said the change does little to address real challenges. “I have no problem with the [new] name,” he said. “The real question is this: Will this name change allow us to get capability faster to the warfighter and stay ahead of Russia and China? I’m skeptical. Names don’t deter. Capabilities deter.”

Some observers worry the debate over symbolism is overshadowing substantive developments. “This story is overshadowing more important news,” said John Byrnes, strategic director for Concerned Veterans for America. “The overdue National Defense Strategy seems about to be published, and sources are reporting that it outlines a pivot towards focusing more resources on defense here in North America.”

The Pentagon’s strategy document, released once per administration, is expected soon. A recent report in Politico suggested it will center on homeland defense and the Western Hemisphere, underscoring a shift in priorities as the U.S. faces threats closer to home.

The executive order allows the Pentagon to continue using “Department of Defense” as a secondary name, a concession that may ease the daunting task of changing countless seals, emblems, and bureaucratic references.

TRUMP TO RENAME PENTAGON, RESTORING HISTORIC ‘DEPARTMENT OF WAR’ IN LATEST MILITARY MOVE

For most of the nation’s history, the U.S. military was overseen by the Department of War. Created in 1789 as one of the first executive departments, it managed the Army, fortifications, and the nation’s defenses. The Navy, established separately in 1798, was not folded into the War Department.

By the mid-20th century, policymakers were rethinking the military’s role. The devastation of World War II and the onset of the Cold War spurred the 1947 National Security Act, which merged the War Department and the Navy Department into the National Military Establishment. 

In 1949, that structure was renamed the Department of Defense. The new title was meant to signal a mission of deterrence and stability rather than aggressive war-making, aligning with America’s Cold War role as a global protector.

For more than seventy-five years, the Department of Defense has symbolized that mission. Restoring the “War” name represents a striking departure from that framework.

Modern governments have largely abandoned the blunt language of “war” in naming their defense bureaucracies. The United Kingdom once had separate War and Air ministries, which were merged after World War II into today’s Ministry of Defence. In Germany, pre-1945 governments relied on a War Ministry, but postwar leaders created a Federal Ministry of Defense to emphasize collective security within NATO. Russia maintains a Ministry of Defense, headquartered in Moscow, even as it wages wars abroad. 

The trend reflects a 20th-century shift toward language that frames militaries as protectors rather than aggressors. America’s decision to move in the opposite direction stands out globally.

Kavanaugh noted that the rhetorical turn may resonate differently with U.S. audiences. For some, she said, it will emphasize the military’s lethality — a theme Trump and Hegseth have repeatedly embraced. 

For others, it will serve as a reminder that the United States spends far more time intervening abroad than defending its own borders. 

“Department of War is sort of a much more accurate description of what the military does,” she said. “The homeland itself is actually very secure: we have oceans on two sides, weak neighbors to the north and south … so I do think it calls attention to what is the fundamental role of the military here, which is fighting wars abroad, which hasn’t always advanced U.S. interests.”

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It remains unclear whether Trump can make the change permanent without congressional approval. His order directs Hegseth to propose both legislative and executive measures to enshrine the name. Democrats have already voiced opposition.

“Totally something my 8-year-old would come up with,” Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., wrote on X. “Americans want to prevent wars, not tout them.”

“Only someone who avoided the draft would want to rename the Department of Defense to the Department of War,” added Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz.

Democrats are criticizing President Donald Trump for a social media post that appeared to threaten Chicago with deportations and the U.S. military.

Trump posted on Truth Social an AI image of himself styled as Robert Duvall’s character in “Apocalypse Now,” a Vietnam War epic about a decorated U.S. officer who has gone rogue deep in the Cambodian jungle. The words “Chipocalypse Now” were also seen on the image.

“‘I love the smell of deportations in the morning…'” Trump wrote in the post on Saturday morning, a play on a famous quote from the 1979 film.

“Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR,” he added, referring to his recent executive order renaming the Department of Defense to the Department of War.

TRUMP ROILS CHICAGO DEMOCRATS WITH APOCALYPSE NOW MEME HINTING AT NATIONAL GUARD DEPLOYMENT

Several Democrats blasted the president for his threats of “war” against U.S. cities, which comes as the federal government is potentially considering deploying the National Guard to Chicago to deal with crime – a move Illinois leaders have repeatedly criticized.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom responded to the post by saying Trump was “using our troops like political pawns.”

“The President of the United States is deploying the military onto US streets and using our troops like political pawns,” Newsom wrote on X. “DO NOT ALLOW YOURSELF TO BECOME NUMB TO THIS.”

Newsom butted heads with Trump over the summer after National Guard troops and Marines were deployed to Los Angeles to respond to anti-ICE demonstrations and support federal immigration enforcement.

CHICAGO MAYOR CALLS TRUMP’S FEDERALIZATION THREATS ‘BENEATH THE HONOR OF OUR NATION,’ PROTESTS PLANNED

Both Illinois senators pushed back on the president’s “disgusting” post suggesting he would wage war on the Windy City.

“No Donald, Chicago is not your war zone,” Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth wrote on X.

Duckworth is also a combat veteran and retired Army National Guard lieutenant colonel.

CHICAGO RESIDENT GOES AFTER CITY’S ‘PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRATIC GANG’ FOR REFUSING TRUMP’S FEDERAL HELP ON CRIME

Sen. Dick Durbin wrote on X that Trump should be focused on his “weak jobs reports,” “record measles cases,” “tariffs hurting American farmers and businesses” and “hidden Epstein files” instead of “asking ChatGPT to make him memes and threatening to turn our brave armed forces against American cities.”

“This tweet this morning was disgusting to suggest that the troops are coming into Chicago or that the Department of War is going to be engaged is an embarrassment,” Durban said during remarks before a parade in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood, according to FOX 32 Chicago.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson have been feuding with Trump in recent weeks over the potential deployment of National Guard troops to Chicago.

“The President of the United States is threatening to go to war with an American city,” Pritzker wrote on X on Saturday. “This is not a joke. This is not normal. Donald Trump isn’t a strongman, he’s a scared man. Illinois won’t be intimidated by a wannabe dictator.”

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Johnson has previously cited data showing that violent crime in Chicago has declined in the last year, including homicides and robberies dipping by more than 30%, and shootings dropping by nearly 40%.

“The President’s threats are beneath the honor of our nation, but the reality is that he wants to occupy our city and break our Constitution,” Johnson wrote on Saturday. “We must defend our democracy from this authoritarianism by protecting each other and protecting Chicago from Donald Trump.”

Vice President JD Vance stopped short of confirming a 2028 White House run during an appearance on The View with Lara Trump Saturday night, but he acknowledged the possibility—noting if he does his job well, “the politics will figure itself out.”

Vance, whose resilience amid an upbringing marked with family turmoil and economic hardship won over the nation, said he “doesn’t like thinking about” a potential presidential bid and insisted his attention remains on his current role.

“If we do a good job in 2025 and 2026, then we can talk about the politics in 2027,” Vance said. “I really think the American people are so fed up with folks who are already running for the next job, seven months into the current one.”

2028 LOOKS LIKE TROUBLE FOR DEMOCRATS — AND REPUBLICANS ARE POISED TO CAPITALIZE

The second-in-command added if he ends up running, he knows he will have to work for it.

“There are a lot of great people,” Vance said. “If I do end up running, it’s not going to be given to me—either on the Republican side or on the national side. I’m just going to keep on working hard. … [This] may be the most important job I ever had, outside of being a father to those three beautiful kids. So I’m going to try to do my best job, and I think if I do that, the politics will figure itself out.”

When asked specifically about potential 2028 Democratic candidates, he noted most of them “obviously have very bad records.”

JD VANCE SHUTS DOWN MAGA SUCCESSION CHATTER AFTER MUSK REPORT

Vance mainly focused on discussing his own ticket, praising President Donald Trump’s relentless work ethic and trusting leadership style and explaining the president “doesn’t have an off switch.”

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“Sometimes, the president will call you at 12:30 or 2 a.m., and then call you at 6 a.m. about a totally different topic,” Vance said. “It’s like, ‘Mr. president, did you go to sleep last night.’ … What’s made this so much fun is the president, all the time, just saying, ‘JD you go and do this,’ or ‘JD you go and talk to these leaders about this particular issue.’ That ability to delegate and trust his people has been really amazing.”

The Department of Homeland Security blasted a federal judge’s order preventing the Trump administration from scrapping temporary protected status for more than a million Venezuelan and Haitian nationals in the United States.

The temporary protected status, or TPS, applies to over 1 million people from the two countries, allowing them to remain in the U.S. for the time being, according to The Associated Press. 

The outlet reported that it applies to 600,000 Venezuelans and 500,000 Haitians. 

FED COURT OF APPEALS GRANTS TRUMP ADMIN PAUSE ON PROTECTIONS FOR 60K IMMIGRANTS

“For decades, the TPS program has been abused, exploited, and politicized as a de facto amnesty program. Its use has been all the more dangerous, given the millions of unvetted illegal aliens the Biden Administration let into this country,” a DHS spokesperson said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

“While this order delays justice, [DHS] Secretary [Kristi] Noem will use every legal option at the Department’s disposal to end this chaos and prioritize the safety of Americans,” the statement continued. “Under God, the people rule. Unelected activist judges cannot stop the will of the American people for a safe and secure homeland.”

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Judge Edward Chen, of the Northern District of California, wrote in his ruling that ending the TPS was “unprecedented” and that Noem’s actions broke the law.

VENEZUELAN MIGRANTS, PROGRESSIVE GROUP SUE TRUMP ADMIN AFTER NOEM NIXES BIDEN-ERA ‘PROTECTED STATUS’

“This case arose from action taken post haste by the current DHS Secretary, Kristi Noem, to revoke the legal status of Venezuelan and Haitian TPS holders, sending them back to conditions that are so dangerous that even the State Department advises against travel to their home countries,” the judge wrote.

TPS for Venezuelans and Haitians was granted under the Biden administration, as the qualifiers for immigrants from a country to get the status include an active war or a major public health crisis in their homeland. 

FEDERAL JUDGE FINDS ‘RACIAL AND DISCRIMINATORY ANIMUS’ IN TRUMP MOVE TO CANCEL TEMPORARY PROTECTED STATUS

Immigrants who fall under TPS cannot be deported because of their legal status and are able to work in the U.S, according to the DHS website. 

“The environmental situation in Haiti has improved enough that it is safe for Haitian citizens to return home,” a DHS spokesperson said of Haiti in July. “We encourage these individuals to take advantage of the Department’s resources in returning to Haiti, which can be arranged through the CBP Home app. Haitian nationals may pursue lawful status through other immigration benefit requests, if eligible.”

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District-level federal judges have repeatedly been at odds with the Trump administration on a wide range of legal battles, especially on immigration-related cases. The administration has successfully appealed many of the cases.

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

JD Vance pushed back against an anti-Trump social media personality Saturday after he criticized a post the vice president made on X. 

The clash between Vance and Brian Krassenstein began when Vance wrote, “Killing cartel members who poison our fellow citizens is the highest and best use of our military.” 

Vance made the remark following a U.S. military strike against an alleged drug-laden Venezuelan boat in the southern Caribbean. Officials said 11 suspected Tren de Aragua narco-terrorists were killed on Tuesday. 

When Krassenstein responded that “killing the citizens of another nation who are civilians without any due process is called a war crime,” Vance told him, “I don’t give a s— what you call it.” 

TRUMP CAPS WEEK WITH BOLD MILITARY MOVES FROM PENTAGON NAME CHANGE TO CARTEL CRACKDOWN 

Krassenstein later claimed that Vance “should be impeached for this tweet.” 

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth told “Fox & Friends” Wednesday, “It’s a new day. It’s a different day, and … this is an activity the United States is not going to tolerate in our hemisphere.” 

Hegseth described the strike as a direct hit against a “narco-terrorist organization” that aims to “poison” the U.S. with illicit drugs. 

TRUMP’S STRIKE ON CARTEL VESSEL OFF VENEZUELA SENDS WARNING TO MADURO: ‘NO SANCTUARY’ 

President Donald Trump shared footage of the fiery explosion, declaring that the strike should serve as notice to anyone attempting to traffic narcotics into the United States. He also emphasized that no U.S. forces were harmed in the operation. 

The president later confirmed the blast occurred in the U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) area of responsibility while the alleged terrorists were in international waters transporting illegal narcotics to the U.S. 

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“It won’t stop with just this strike. Anyone else trafficking in those waters, who we know is a designated narco-terrorist, will face the same fate, and it’s important for the American people to protect our homeland and protect our hemisphere,” Hegseth said. 

Fox News Digital’s Taylor Penley and Diana Stancy contributed to this report. 

Social media erupted across the political spectrum following Thursday’s federal immigration raid at a Hyundai mega plant in Georgia that resulted in the arrests of about 475 suspects, most of whom were Korean nationals.

The raid, about 20 miles outside of Savannah, was part of a long-term investigation and is one of many notable worksite operations that have occurred amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. Hyundai officials said they do not believe any of their direct employees were arrested but said it would “comply with all laws and regulations.” 

LG Energy Solution, which also plays a role in the plant, also said it will work with authorities.

Some took aim at the fact that the factory was touted by former President Joe Biden, as both Democratic and Republican politicians have hailed the project as a win for American manufacturing. The EV manufacturing part of the facility is not believed to have been impacted, but the battery factory under construction was the focus of the multi-agency effort.

MASSIVE DHS RAID HITS GEORGIA HYUNDAI FACTORY THAT BIDEN TOUTED AS MAJOR VICTORY FOR ‘NEW AMERICAN JOBS’

“Even when Democrats pretend to be America-First, they are secretly America Last. Every. Single. Time. That is truly unbelievable,” scientist Matt Van Swol posted to X.

“We as an American company with legal workers are always cut out of those mega projects, because we are too expensive. Finally this problem gets addressed,” Maik Peters, CEO of Pitco Engineering, posted.

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“Time to pull the licenses of these construction companies for hiring illegals,” another user wrote.

FEDERAL AGENTS ARREST HUNDREDS AT HYUNDAI PLANT CONSTRUCTION SITE IN GEORGIA

Others criticized the Trump administration, as the South Korean government also expressed concerns about the operation.

“Completely incredible. Lutnick and Trump brag about getting South Korea to invest billions in the U.S., then turn around and arrest South Koreans who were here temporarily in the U.S. to help Hyundai set up a factory in Georgia. The stupidity burns,” writer James Surowiecki posted.

Rep. Nikema Williams, D-Ga., wrote that the raid was an “act of cruelty and injustice” by the Trump administration.

“Reportedly, U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents have also been wrongfully detained,” she posted. “This administration is actively working to instill fear and chaos within our most marginalized communities. Due process is not optional, it is the law. The administration needs to follow it and abide by the constitutional rights of every worker affected.”

FEDERAL AGENTS CONDUCT IMMIGRATION RAID IN LOS ANGELES DESPITE FIERCE OPPOSITION FROM DEMOCRAT MAYOR

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga., said Democrats enabled the illegal immigration issues in the U.S. “for far too long.”

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“That’s no longer the case under President Trump and Operation Take Back America. I applaud the Trump Administration and our brave law enforcement officers for taking bold action to put American workers first and protect our communities from the scourge of illegal immigration,” Carter wrote. 

“For anyone who thinks they can take jobs from hardworking Americans and give them to illegal immigrants, take note: not under Donald Trump’s watch.”

President Donald Trump on Saturday gave possibly his strongest hint yet that he may deploy federal troops to Chicago by posting a parody meme of himself as a commander at war with Chicago – drawing a swift rebuke from Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and other officials who said the post amounted to a threat.

In the image, Trump, known to provoke his opponents with his savvy use of social media, is styled as Robert Duvall’s character in “Apocalypse Now,” a Vietnam War epic about a decorated U.S. officer who has gone rogue deep in the Cambodian jungle.

“I love the smell of deportations in the morning…” Trump wrote above the image, a play on the famous quote from the hit 1979 film.

“Chicago is about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR,” he wrote, followed by three helicopter emojis. It came a day after he signed an executive order changing the Defense Department’s name to the Department of War.

‘SLAP IN THE FACE’: MAJOR BLUE STATE GOVERNOR SIGNS BILL OPENING FINANCIAL AID TO ILLEGALS

The post appeared aimed at provoking Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, who have both strongly opposed Trump’s threats to activate the National Guard in the Windy City to clamp down on crime and to help enhance immigration enforcement efforts. 

In the image, Trump is shown dressed in military fatigues resembling Duvall’s character, Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore, a flamboyant and fearless air cavalry officer who leads a helicopter air assault on a Vietnamese village.

Helicopters fly over the Chicago skyline in a fiery background, evoking Vietnam War scenes.

The text “Chipocalypse Now” is scrawled on the bottom of the image, a riff on Apocalypse Now, with “Chi” referring to Chicago.

Trump’s goading appeared to work as within an hour, Pritzker shot back, with Johnson also weighing in.

ILLINOIS GOV CALLS FOR MASS PROTESTS AGAINST TRUMP ADMIN: GOP ‘CANNOT KNOW A MOMENT OF PEACE’

“The President of the United States is threatening to go to war with an American city,” Pritzker wrote on X “This is not a joke. This is not normal. Donald Trump isn’t a strongman, he’s a scared man. Illinois won’t be intimidated by a wannabe dictator.”

Johnson conveyed similar words of warning. 

“The President’s threats are beneath the honor of our nation, but the reality is that he wants to occupy our city and break our Constitution,” Johnson wrote. “We must defend our democracy from this authoritarianism by protecting each other and protecting Chicago from Donald Trump.”

As well as Pritzker and Johnon, another outspoken Trump critic, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., also decried the post on Saturday during remarks before a parade in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood.

“This tweet this morning was disgusting, to suggest that the troops are coming into Chicago or that the Department of War is going to be engaged is an embarrassment,” Durban said, according to Fox 32 Chicago. 

Trump has repeatedly floated the idea of deploying the National Guard in Chicago, replicating operations in Washington, D.C., which has also seen the federal government take control of the local police. 

National Guard units sent without state approval are generally restricted to defending federal property and personnel. When Guard troops were deployed to Los Angeles in June over anti-U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) protests, they were confined to federal buildings and escort duties for immigration agents. In Washington, D.C., which is under federal jurisdiction, Guard units have conducted armed patrols alongside local police.

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Chicago recorded 573 homicides in 2024, marking the 13th straight year Chicago has led the nation in total murders, according to Chicago Police Department data compiled by Wirepoints.

According to the Council on Criminal Justice’s year-end 2024 update, aggravated assaults declined by 4% compared to 2023 but remained 4% higher than in 2019. The council reported that gun assaults fell 15%, though they were still 5% above 2019 levels, and that carjackings dropped 32% year-over-year, yet were 25% higher than in 2019.

Top Biden administration officials questioned and criticized the way the former president’s team handled pardons and made use of an autopen in the waning days of his White House term, a report said, citing internal emails.

A person familiar with the clemency process told Axios that after President Joe Biden pardoned his son Hunter on Dec. 1, 2024, “There was a mad dash to find groups of people that he could then pardon — and then they largely didn’t run it by the Justice Department to vet them.” 

The news agency reported Saturday that several senior Justice Department officials raised concerns with the White House Counsel’s office regarding the process to pardon individuals.

Three days before Biden left office, the president announced that he was “commuting the sentences of nearly 2,500 people convicted of non-violent drug offenses who are serving disproportionately long sentences compared to the sentences they would receive today under current law, policy, and practice.” 

BIDEN’S AUTO-PEN PARDONS DISTURBED DOJ BRASS, DOCS SHOW, RAISING QUESTIONS WHETHER THEY ARE LEGALLY BINDING 

“With this action, I have now issued more individual pardons and commutations than any president in U.S. history,” Biden said in a statement on Jan. 17. 

However, Axios reported that the following day, senior Justice Department ethics attorney Bradley Weinsheimer argued in a memo that describing those who were pardoned as nonviolent was “untrue, or at least misleading.” 

“Unfortunately and despite repeated requests and warnings, we were not afforded a reasonable opportunity to vet and provide input on those you were considering,” Weinsheimer wrote, according to Axios. 

The news agency said Weinsheimer mentioned a man who pleaded guilty to murder-related charges. 

Weinsheimer described how the Justice Department labeled the man as “problematic,” yet Biden commuted his sentence, Axios reported. 

“I have no idea if the president was aware of these backgrounds when making clemency decisions,” Weinsheimer reportedly added. 

Ed Siskel, the former head of the White House Counsel’s office, and representatives for Biden did not immediately respond Saturday to requests for comment from Fox News Digital.

‘SHOULD BE PROSECUTED’: HOUSE REPUBLICANS ZERO IN ON BIDEN AUTOPEN PARDONS AFTER BOMBSHELL REPORT 

Senior Biden White House officials also pushed back internally on requests to use the autopen, according to Axios, which cited emails it obtained. 

It said Biden White House staff secretary Stef Feldman repeatedly asked for more information and confirmation of Biden’s intentions with the autopen. 

“When did we get [Biden’s] approval of this?” Feldman reportedly wrote in a Jan. 7 email regarding the use of autopen to sign an executive order. 

“I’m going to need email from… original chain confirming [Biden] signs off on the specific documents when they are ready,” she was cited by Axios as writing in a Jan. 16 email about using autopen to commute cases linked to crack-cocaine sentences. 

The developments come as President Donald Trump has ordered an investigation into Biden’s administration, alleging that top officials used autopen signatures to cover up the former president’s cognitive decline. 

“I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations. Any suggestion that I didn’t is ridiculous and false,” Biden said in a statement in June.  

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“This is nothing more than a distraction by Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans who are working to push disastrous legislation that would cut essential programs like Medicaid and raise costs on American families, all to pay for tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy and big corporations,” he added at the time. 

Fox News Digital’s Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report. 

The National Rifle Association (NRA) has sounded off on reports that the Trump administration is mulling a way of limiting transgender people’s ability to purchase firearms.

The gun lobby group, the largest in the U.S. with 5 million members according to its website, released a statement Friday reinforcing its commitment that all law-abiding Americans have a right to bear arms. 

It comes as Department of Justice officials have had several internal meetings about placing restrictions on trans people in the wake of Annunciation School shooter Robin Westman, who identified as trans, killing two people and injuring 18 others late last month. Westman’s firearms were purchased legally, according to the Associated Press.

FEDERAL APPEALS COURT APPROVES ILLINOIS RESTRICTIONS ON CARRYING GUNS ON PUBLIC TRANSIT

“The NRA supports the Second Amendment rights of all law-abiding Americans to purchase and use firearms,” the statement reads.

“NRA does not, and will not, support any policy proposals that implement sweeping gun bans that arbitrarily strip law-abiding citizens of their Second Amendment rights without due process.”

As well as the NRA, Gun Owners of America (GOA) issued a clear, uncompromising stance on the issue. 

“GOA opposes any and all gun bans. Full stop,” the GOA wrote on X.

In another post, the group quoted senior vice president Erich Pratt as saying: “Gun Owners of America does not compromise with our support for the right of all People to keep and bear arms.”

The National Association for Gun Rights (NAGR), another major gun lobby group, has not formally weighed in on the issue, but its president, Dudley Brown, said he opposes the idea. He argued on X that labeling people “mentally defective” to strip them of gun rights would be a due-process violation.

The DOJ officials’ conversations are in an early stage and no concrete steps have been taken, multiple sources told Fox News. One source pointed to a “pattern” of shootings carried out by transgender people, including Westman’s attack. 

Audrey “Aiden” Hale, who identified as transgender, killed six at The Covenant School in Nashville in 2023. Alec McKinney, a transgender teen, was one of two shooters at STEM School in Colorado, where one person was killed, and eight others were wounded. 

Another source said the DOJ’s discussions about banning transgender people from buying or owning guns have involved the Office of Legal Counsel, which provides legal advice to the executive branch. 

APPEALS COURT BLOCKS NEW MEXICO’S 7-DAY WAITING PERIOD FOR GUN PURCHASES, SAYING IT VIOLATES 2ND AMENDMENT

The source indicated that the DOJ officials are currently thinking through a feasible legal framework. Such discussions would likely rope in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), which is part of the DOJ and has authority over federal rules related to firearms. 

When asked about the talks, a DOJ spokesperson downplayed the discussions targeting transgender people, telling Fox News the department has been examining numerous options to address the correlation between shootings and mental health but that it has not come up with anything specific. 

“The DOJ is actively evaluating options to prevent the pattern of violence we have seen from individuals with specific mental health challenges and substance abuse disorders,” the spokesperson said. “No specific criminal justice proposals have been advanced at this time.” 

One of the sources said DOJ officials “are reviewing ways to ensure that mentally ill individuals suffering from gender dysphoria are unable to obtain firearms while they are unstable and unwell.” 

People with mental health conditions are typically not banned from purchasing guns under current laws, which the Supreme Court reaffirmed as recently as 2024 in United States v. Rahimi. But in some instances, such as a court deeming someone mentally incompetent, that information is supposed to crop up during a background check and block a customer from obtaining a gun license.

LGBTQ advocates called the idea of a ban misguided and dangerous, arguing that the vast majority of mass shootings in the U.S. are carried out by men and do not involve transgender people.

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“Transgender people are less than 2 percent of the overall population, yet four times as likely to be victims of crime,” GLAAD said. “Everyone deserves to be themselves, be safe, and be free from violence and discrimination. We all deserve leaders who prioritize keeping all of us safe and free.”

Since President Donald Trump returned to office, his administration has removed transgender people from military service, scrubbed some federal websites of mentions of them and is trying to bar changing the sex marker on passports. The administration has also been vehemently opposed to allowing biological males to compete in female sports and curtailed access to so-called gender-affirming care.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Congress wasn’t in session in August. But the Epstein files certainly were.

The Epstein files dominated Congress before the summer recess. But when lawmakers returned to Capitol Hill in recent days, the first thing lawmakers wrestled with were the Epstein files again.

Note: If you want something to go away, do not make it among the first orders of business.

The Epstein issue gurgled through the summer. And House Republicans did little to tamp down the embers by adjourning the body a day early in July – because they struggled to pass unrelated bills without delving into a complicated and sticky discussion of the Epstein files. Then, when the House returned, GOP leaders immediately prepped a resolution to formally bless an Epstein investigation by the Oversight Committee. The panel released some 32,000 pages of Epstein-related documents.

Just hours after returning to session, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and others met with Epstein accusers.

‘NOT GOING AWAY’: INSIDE THE EPSTEIN DRAMA THAT’S THROWN HOUSE GOP INTO CHAOS

That explains why the issue isn’t ebbing any time soon.

“It is very much a possibility that Jeffrey Epstein was an intelligence asset working for our adversaries,” declared Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., after talking to the Epstein victims at the Capitol. “I think this is going to be a criminal investigation for sure. I will say that what’s been released, obviously, the American people have wanted for a long time.”

Before the recess, Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif., teamed up to potentially bypass Johnson and compel the House to vote on releasing the Epstein files. The Epstein milieu quickly infected virtually every single legislative effort in Congress, effectively hamstringing the body. So Johnson cut everyone loose a bit early.

But the issue festered over the recess. Massie and Khanna were back with their parliamentary gambit to go over Johnson’s head and force an Epstein vote.

Lawmakers from both sides routinely convene press conferences at a spot just outside the Capitol called the “House Triangle.” Lawmakers often use this venue to feature non-members or people specific to the legislation they’re pushing at the news conference.

Sometimes members bring a throng of people with them. A crowd occasionally gathers, depending on the issue.

But I had never before witnessed the multitude of people who showed up at the House Triangle on Wednesday morning to hear Massie, Khanna and victims talk about their effort to pry open the files. People spilled out onto the walkways and plaza. That forced U.S. Capitol Police to restrict access to the area.

Some of the victims recounted their Epstein stories in harrowing detail.

“When I got into the massage room, Jeffrey Epstein undressed and asked me to do things to him, my eyes welled up with tears. And I have never been more scared in my life,” said Epstein accuser Haley Robson.

“I was even taken on a trip to Africa with former President Bill Clinton and other notable figures. In those moments, I realized how powerless I was,” said Epstein victim Chauntae Davies.

EPSTEIN VICTIMS SET TO BREAK SILENCE AMID BIPARTISAN PUSH TO RELEASE FILES: ‘PEOPLE ARE GOING TO BE OUTRAGED’

Massie and Khanna are deploying what’s called a “discharge petition.” It’s a rarely successful gambit to go over the head of the Speaker and force a debate and vote on your issue – provided one can engineer 218 House signatures. If Massie and Khanna cobble together enough signatories, they may be able to force a vote later this month.

House GOP leaders are concerned about this. That’s why Johnson hoped to intervene with his own measure to formalize the House Oversight Committee’s inquiry into Epstein. But Johnson designed the measure in a way that the House could approve it – without taking a direct vote on it. That way, Republicans could point to angry constituents that they were in fact taking the Epstein files seriously – without an actual roll call vote documenting their position and perhaps infuriating President Donald Trump. Or, they could tell other constituents who wouldn’t want them to cross the President on Epstein to say they never directly voted on it at all. After all, it was buried in an unrelated measure.

Make sense?

But there was another motive behind the leadership’s unique parliamentary maneuver on Epstein: They wanted to give Republicans cover to say that the House was in fact addressing the Epstein issue. The move might coax fewer members to support the Massie/Khanna effort. That would prevent the House from taking a concrete vote tied to Epstein. But otherwise, the House may need to directly wrestle with it.

Massie called this a “political cover” to block his plan with Khanna to release the files.

Johnson fired back at Massie.

“I would not put much stock into what Thomas Massie says. The House Republicans have been very consistent about maximum disclosure and maximum transparency,” said Johnson.

Trump long promised to release the files. But Trump’s position this week was to blame Democrats.

“This is a Democrat hoax that never ends. You know, it reminds me a little of the [President John F.] Kennedy situation. We gave them everything over and over again. More and more and more and nobody’s ever satisfied,” said Trump. “But it’s really a Democrat hoax because they’re trying to get people to talk about something that’s totally irrelevant to the success that we’ve had as a nation since I’ve been president.”

Massie suggested that Johnson is just trying to stay on Trump’s good side by walking a political tightrope.

HOUSE OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE RELEASES THOUSANDS OF EPSTEIN DOCUMENTS

“The Speaker is wrestling with [whether] he’s going to have to choose between supporting Donald Trump’s new position that the files shouldn’t be released, or finding justice for these victims and survivors. The Speaker probably doesn’t appreciate that he’s going to have to choose one,” said Massie. “The Speaker’s position depends on him not just rubber-stamping but reinforcing anything Donald Trump wants, even if Donald Trump is wrong. So the Speaker is in a tough spot.”

The materials coughed up by the Oversight panel did include a new video of the so-called “missing minute.” It fills in absent footage from Epstein’s New York jail cell on the night he died.

But Massie insists on the release of more material.

“What’s clear is they’re not redacting, just to protect victims. They are redacting to protect the reputations of people,” said Massie.

One Republican aligned with the President threatened to out those linked to Epstein.

“I’m not afraid to name names,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., at the press conference. “So if they want to give me a list, I will walk into that Capitol on the House floor, and I’ll say every damn name that abused these women.”

Khanna was buoyed by the support of Greene.

“I’ve never done a press conference with Marjorie Taylor Greene before,” said the progressive Khanna. “I don’t think Marjorie Taylor Greene would be part of a stunt against President Trump.”

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We’ll know soon if the House has the votes to thwart the GOP leadership and consider the Massie/Khanna resolution. And tangling with the Epstein matter could even start to impact the ability of the House to wrestle with routine legislation again.

And so, the Epstein saga continues. The same as it was before the August recess.

NEW YORK – Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett hasn’t seen The Handmaid’s Tale. But she was well-prepared to be interrupted by any number of red-draped protesters, should they storm in to interrupt her confirmation hearing, the same way they did for her colleague, Brett Kavanaugh, several years prior. 

As she recounted in an interview at the Lincoln Center Thursday night, the preparation had been for naught. Her confirmation took place behind closed doors, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic and the social precautions in place at the time. It also made the lengthy confirmation process and her first days as a justice on the nation’s highest court “awkward,” she said, to laughter. “Very awkward.” 

That revelation was just one of many Barrett made during a wide-ranging interview Thursday, just days before the publication of her forthcoming memoir, “Listening to the Law.” 

Like her book, Barrett’s appearance proved to be as telling for what she didn’t say as for what she did. 

JUSTICE BARRETT DEFENDS JACKSON JABS AS ‘WARRANTED’ IN RARE PUBLIC APPEARANCE

Barrett, 53, spoke easily about her family, her faith and the kindness of her newfound colleagues on the Supreme Court, whom she says lent her not only the use of their office supplies and bench memos during her first days on the job, but also temporarily dispatched their own staff to help her answer phones and restock supplies. 

“There is an indispensable human element to judging,” Barrett observes in her memoir, something she says is all the more true when serving on a nine-person bench.

“Thinking in categories of left and right — it’s just the wrong way to think about the law,” she said Thursday night to the jam-packed audience at Alice Tully Hall. 

Even so, Barrett artfully dodged some of the more polarizing issues the court has faced in the past eight months. 

She was demonstrably less candid on questions involving the so-called emergency, or “shadow” docket, the vehicle by which President Donald Trump has sought to temporarily stay lower court decisions that would have paused or halted some of his most sweeping executive orders from taking force.

The Supreme Court has presided over a record blitz of emergency appeals and orders filed by the administration and other aggrieved parties during Trump’s first eight months back in office. Justices on the 6-3 conservative bench have ruled in Trump’s favor in the majority of emergency applications, allowing the administration to proceed with its ban on transgender service members in the military, its termination of millions of dollars in Education Department grants and its firing of probationary employees across the federal government, among many other actions.

The court has sided with Trump in the majority of these requests, prompting a fresh level of scrutiny — and rare public criticism from some of her colleagues on the bench.

The Supreme Court “is at its best when it can review cases that have been fully adjudicated” by the lower courts, she offered, before the conversation moved on. 

BARRETT EVISCERATES JACKSON, SOTOMAYOR TAKES ON A ‘COMPLICIT’ COURT IN CONTENTIOUS FINAL OPINIONS

Barrett also sought to defend the court as a body that operates beyond the politics of a given moment, and (ideally) outside the reach of public opinion. She noted that public perceptions of what a judge ought to do is, at times, at odds with what the Constitution and existing Supreme Court precedent prescribe. 

“I think everyone expects the court to deliver the results it likes,” Barrett said Thursday night. There’s a “disconnect between what people want in the moment” and what the court should deliver, she said.

People “want what they want,” and will inevitably be disappointed by the results, she said.

Like other justices who have authored memoirs while on the bench, Barrett offered a lofty and, at times, idealistic view of the court. 

Pressed by journalist Bari Weiss about her majority opinion in Trump v. CASA earlier this year, Barrett insisted that her “spicy” remarks toward Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson were nothing more than an attempt to “set the calibration right.”

“I thought Justice Jackson had made an argument in strong terms that I thought warranted a response,” Barrett said.

CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS SOUNDS ALARM ON DANGEROUS RHETORIC AIMED AT JUDGES FROM POLITICIANS

Thursday night’s interview was the first of many public appearances Barrett is slated to give in coordination with her book release next week. It offered at times a refreshingly personal glimpse into her nearly five years on the Supreme Court, a job she says she wasn’t quite sure she wanted when the offer finally came. 

Barrett recounted what her husband told her at the time, when she was weighing whether to go through with the confirmation process. Should she choose to move forward, he told her, “We have to burn the boats.”

The phrase, adopted from Alexander the Great, refers to the notion that one must eliminate all options for backup plans or retreat.  

It was one she held onto during the confirmation process, when media outlets pilloried her as an out-of-touch and hyper-religious mother of seven, when quips from lawmakers, such as then-Sen. Dianne Feinstein — “the dogma lives loudly within you” — might have rattled her further. 

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“To do the job well, you have to have thick skin,” she told the audience Thursday night.

She also dismissed fears of a constitutional crisis.

“I don’t think that we are currently in a constitutional crisis,” Barrett said. “I think that our country remains committed to the rule of law. I think we have functioning courts.”

FIRST ON FOX: President Donald Trump’s D.C. crime crackdown has led to 1,914 arrests since Aug. 7, including dozens Thursday night. Among them was an illegal immigrant on a terrorist watch list and a person of interest tied to a gun found abandoned on school property, Fox News Digital has learned.

Hundreds of National Guard members, the Metropolitan Police Department and personnel from federal agencies, such as the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, Capitol Police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, have taken to the streets of D.C. to conduct sweeps and root out crime since August as part of Trump’s crackdown on rampant crime. 

Law enforcement officials arrested 73 individuals Thursday evening, including an illegal immigrant from El Salvador who is on the terrorist watch list; an illegal immigrant from Colombia and confirmed Florencia 13 gang member with prior arrests for grand theft, carjacking and bringing narcotics/alcohol in detention facility; an individual arrested on a warrant for attempted first-degree murder (knife), first-degree assault; another arrested on warrant for assault with intent to kill while armed; and an illegal immigrant from Bolivia arrested with prior criminal arrests for domestic batter/abuse, felonious assault, abduction by force without justification and driving while intoxicated. 

TRUMP DECLARES DC A ‘CRIME FREE ZONE’ AMID HIS FEDERAL CRACKDOWN

Another unnamed individual was arrested Thursday evening for carrying a firearm without a license and a violation of the National Firearms Act. That individual was identified as a person of interest in an incident involving an abandoned gun found at a school Sept. 3, Fox News Digital learned. 

Law enforcement contacted the suspect via phone, and the suspect agreed to surrender to officers, according to the White House. 

Law enforcement notably rescued a child who was reported missing during Thursday’s operation. The crime crackdown in D.C. has led to the rescue of six missing children since Aug. 7, Fox Digital learned. 

“Thanks to President Trump, some of the most dangerous criminals who have committed heinous crimes have been removed from the streets of Washington, D.C.,” White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers told Fox News Digital Friday. “For far too long, these criminals have been able to commit crime after crime without any accountability, but President Trump has restored law and order to our nation’s capital.

“As a result of President Trump’s tough-on-crime policies, federal law enforcement operations have removed nearly 2,000 dangerous criminals, lethal drugs and deadly weapons from the city, which is a win for all D.C. residents and visitors.” 

The White House provided Fox Digital with a handful of photos showing handguns and illegal substances recovered during the arrests this week. 

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

The crime crackdown has yielded 17 arrests of alleged violent gangbangers, including members of MS-13 and Tren de Aragua, while a total of 198 guns have been seized. The operation has also led to the clearance of 50 different homeless encampments across the city. 

Trump federalized the Metropolitan Police Department Aug. 11 in response to a spate of high-profile killings and attacks in the city after a dangerous crime wave that washed over the country, including D.C., beginning in 2020. Trump federalized the local police department under section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, which allows the president to assume emergency control of the capital’s police force for 30 days. 

Army Secretary Dan Driscoll published a memo Wednesday extending the National Guard’s presence specifically in D.C. through Nov. 30. The memo stated the extension is “to continue supporting the President’s ongoing efforts to restore law and order in the District of Columbia,” Fox News previously reported. 

SCOOP: WHITE HOUSE TOUTS GUNS AND DRUG HAUL REMOVED FROM DC STREETS AS TRUMP’S CRIME BLITZ NETS 550 ARRESTS

D.C. recorded 13 days of zero homicides in August shortly after Trump federalized the city, with law enforcement racking up a lengthy list of suspected criminals stretching from drug distributors to illegal immigrants to those carrying illegal firearms in the city. 

Trump has since floated deploying the National Guard to other cities to help curb crime, including Chicago and Baltimore, which has gotten a strong rebuke from local leaders who have said the crackdown is unnecessary as crime data show violent trends have slowed since the 2020 era and that Trump is promoting authoritarianism. 

“This is exactly the type of overreach that our country’s founders warned against,” Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker told the media in August while slamming Trump’s suggestions of National Guard deployment. 

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“What Trump is doing is unprecedented and unwarranted. It is illegal. It is unconstitutional. It is un-American.”