NationalWatch

The FBI raid on John Bolton’s home last month led to the seizure of multiple computers, cell phones, USB drives and documents in folders labeled “Trump,” among other items, court documents revealed Thursday.

The list of over a dozen items seized from the Bethesda, Md., home of President Donald Trump’s former national security advisor was included in search warrant documents filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.

Among the technology seized from Bolton’s home were two iPhones – a red one with two camera lenses and a black one in a black case – and three computers, including a silver Dell XPS laptop with cables, a Dell Precision Tower computer model 3620 and a Dell Inspiron 2330 computer. One Seagate hard drive and two Sandisk 64 gigabyte USB drives were also seized.

The list shows the FBI also took a white binder labeled, “Statements and Reflections to Allied Strikes…” and typed documents in folders labeled “Trump I-IV.”

BOLTON MAY BE IN HOT WATER AS FBI INVESTIGATION EXPANDS BEYOND CONTROVERSIAL BOOK

Four boxes containing what federal officials called “printed daily activities” were also hauled from Bolton’s home.

The FBI raid on Aug. 22 is reportedly linked to a probe of mishandling classified documents.

During Trump’s first administration, a probe into classified documents was launched but later shut down by the Biden administration. The Justice Department argued that Bolton’s 2020 memoir, “The Room Where It Happened,” contained classified material and attempted to block it from being published.

Days after the raid on his home, Bolton unleashed a blistering critique of Trump’s Ukraine policy in an op-ed published in the Washington Examiner, claiming it is marked by “confusion, haste and disarray.” 

THE HISTORY OF HOW TRUMP AND BOLTON’S RELATIONSHIP FELL TO TATTERS

Bolton said Trump’s attempt to fast-track a peace deal was “inevitably” doomed, arguing the Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Aug. 15 was arranged at a pace “almost surely unprecedented in modern history.”

When reporters asked Trump about the raid shortly after it unfolded, the president didn’t hold back his disdain for his former adviser.

“I’m not a fan of John Bolton. He’s a real lowlife,” Trump told reporters, adding that he did not know about the raid ahead of time, claiming he saw it on television. He went on to call Bolton “not a smart guy” and said “he could be very unpatriotic.”

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Bolton was Trump’s national security advisor in 2018 and 2019, until the pair had a falling out. Trump revoked Bolton’s security clearance and Secret Service detail in January 2025.

Fox News Digital’s Rachel Wolf and Morgan Phillips contributed to this report.

Three Democratic governors on the West Coast are banding together to sidestep President Donald Trump’s health agenda – a move the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) blasted as rooted in the “failed politics of the pandemic.”

The governors have decided to reject Trump’s CDC rules and create their own vaccine guidelines, potentially putting state policies at odds with federal guidance.

“Democrat-run states that pushed unscientific school lockdowns, toddler mask mandates, and draconian vaccine passports during the COVID era completely eroded the American people’s trust in public health agencies,” HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon told Fox News Digital on Thursday. 

Nixon added the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) “remains the scientific body guiding immunization recommendations in this country,” and that the health department “will ensure policy is based on rigorous evidence and Gold Standard Science.”

HHS SECRETARY ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR. TO FACE SENATE PANEL AFTER CDC TURMOIL

All 17 members of the ACIP were dismissed in June as HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. vowed to “restore public trust” in vaccine guidance.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, and Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson launched the West Coast Health Alliance Wednesday, just a day before Kennedy testified on vaccines before the Senate Finance Committee. The hearing comes just a month after CDC Director Susan Monarez was fired. 

“President Trump’s mass firing of CDC doctors and scientists — and his blatant politicization of the agency — is a direct assault on the health and safety of the American people,” the governors said in a joint statement. “The CDC has become a political tool that increasingly peddles ideology instead of science, ideology that will lead to severe health consequences. California, Oregon, and Washington will not allow the people of our states to be put at risk.”

BIPARTISAN FURY AT CDC: SENATORS DEMAND PROBE, REJECT VACCINE GUIDANCE AS ILLEGITIMATE

The governors plan to disregard CDC guidelines under Trump and will issue their own coordinated vaccine and health guidelines in their states, grounded in medical groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. If finalized, the alliance could create dueling health systems, where millions of residents in California, Oregon, and Washington follow state vaccine recommendations that may conflict with federal guidance.

“Through this partnership, the three states will start coordinating health guidelines by aligning immunization recommendations informed by respected national medical organizations,” a news release on Newsom’s website said.

Tribal nations will continue to exercise full sovereignty over vaccine programs, according to the news release, noting the alliance will not interfere with federally recognized tribes’ authority to set their own health policies.

RFK JR. PICKS EIGHT FOR VACCINE PANEL AFTER FIRING ALL 17 MEMBERS

The CDC has been in turmoil for months after the Trump administration moved to clean house at the agency, firing hundreds of staffers and dismantling divisions long accused of political bias. In late August, CDC Director Susan Monarez was ousted less than a month into the job after resisting new vaccine directives, triggering a wave of resignations by senior officials.

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According to the Washington Post, anonymous CDC officials said HHS leaders, including Kennedy Jr., pressed Monarez to withdraw approvals for certain COVID-19 vaccines. When she refused to go along, administration officials told her she had to resign or face termination. Monarez has since retained attorneys Mark Zaid and Abbe Lowell, who previously said she “has neither resigned nor yet been fired.”

The blue states say the new policies will be finalized in the coming weeks. 

First lady Melania Trump is hosting an artificial intelligence meeting with top industry leaders, including Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Thursday, as she stresses the importance of managing AI’s growth “responsibly.” 

The White House Task Force on Artificial Intelligence Education will meet for the second time in the East Room of the White House Thursday afternoon. The first lady will host the meeting alongside members of the task force and private sector leaders.

AI MELANIA: FIRST LADY EMBARKS ON ‘NEW FRONTIER’ IN PUBLISHING WITH AUDIOBOOK OF MEMOIR

“I predict AI will represent the single largest growth category in our nation during the Trump Administration — and I won’t be surprised if AI becomes known as the greatest engine of progress in the history of the United States of America,” the first lady said.

But the first lady warned that “as leaders and parents we must manage AI’s growth responsibly.”

“During this primitive stage, it is our duty to treat AI as we would our own children — empowering, but with watchful guidance,” the first lady said. “We are living in a moment of wonder, and it is our responsibility to prepare America’s children.”

The meeting is expected to feature remarks by the first lady and task force members, along with private sector leaders who have pledged to support AI education across the nation.

TRUMP HAILS COOPERATIVE EFFORT AT ANTI-REVENGE PORN BILL SIGNING: ‘BIPARTISANSHIP IS STILL POSSIBLE’

Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai, Code.org President Cameron Wilson and CEO and Chairman of IBM Arvind Krishna will attend the Thursday meeting. 

Members of the task force include director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Michael Kratsios; Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins; Education Secretary Linda McMahon; Energy Secretary Chris Wright; Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer; and White House Special Advisor for AI and crypto czar David Sacks.

Hayley Harrison, an assistant to the president and chief of staff to the first lady also will attend, along with assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser Robert Gabriel Jr. and assistant to the president for domestic policy Vince Haley.

MELANIA TRUMP LAUNCHES PRESIDENTIAL AI CHALLENGE FOR STUDENTS

The meeting is expected to take place hours before President Donald Trump hosts a dinner in the White House Rose Garden for nearly two-dozen Big Tech leaders, including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and OpenAI founder Sam Altman.

Meanwhile, the first lady has been a champion of online protection of children and youth through her “Be Best” initiative launched during the first Trump administration.

In 2025, the first lady garnered support on Capitol Hill for the passage of the Take it Down Act, which was signed into law by the president on May 19. The law punishes internet abuse involving nonconsensual, explicit imagery.

CHINA’S AI INNOVATION IS ‘ACCELERATING’ BUT US REMAINS DOMINANT, WHITE HOUSE SAYS

The meeting also comes after the first lady, in August, launched a nationwide Presidential Artificial Intelligence Challenge, which invited every student and educator across the nation to “unleash their imagination and showcase the spirit of American innovation” by visiting AI.gov to sign up.

The first lady also recently launched an audiobook of her memoir, using AI audio technology in multiple languages.

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The first lady told Fox News Digital that her partners developed “an AI-generated replica of my voice under strict supervision, which will establish an unforgettable connection with my personal story, in multiple languages for listeners worldwide.”

Immigrant rights lawyers asked a federal judge in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to block the Trump administration from deporting hundreds of Guatemalan minors, arguing they could face neglect or persecution at home.

The migrants’ attorneys said their clients, who ranged from 10 to 17 years old, were at imminent risk of removal despite some having pending asylum cases or other legal claims that had not fully been vetted by the courts.

The attorneys said trafficking and immigration laws “prevent unaccompanied children from being whisked off under cover of darkness at the whim of any government.” The minors in question are currently in Health and Human Services custody and have no legal guardians in the United States, the attorneys said.

BIDEN JUDGE HALTS ‘SURPRISING’ ILLEGAL ALIEN MINOR REPATRIATION PLAN AFTER ADVOCACY GROUPS SUE

The migrants’ legal team is now seeking a longer-term injunction to replace Judge Sparkle Sooknanan’s emergency order over the holiday weekend blocking the deportations for up to two weeks. Sooknanan granted the order after learning that more than six dozen of the minors had been transferred from HHS to Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody overnight and placed on a plane bound for Guatemala. 

The case has drawn attention both because it involves what lawyers say could be about 600 minors at risk of being abruptly removed from the country and because Sooknanan, the judge initially presiding over the case, imposed an immediate restraining order on the Trump administration to halt the removals.

Sooknanan’s order came after a separate judge in D.C. gave a controversial oral order in March to return alleged Tren de Aragua gang members to the United States, which the Trump administration argued was ambiguous and not binding. Seeking to avoid such a dispute, Sooknanan, a Biden appointee, left no room for interpretation.

Sooknanan gave quick, unequivocal orders over Labor Day weekend to deplane the minors and return them to the HHS Office of Refugee Resettlement. The judge demanded status updates from the Department of Justice every few hours until the process was complete. The DOJ complied with her orders.

TRUMP DHS SUES ENTIRE BENCH OF FEDERAL JUDGES IN MARYLAND DISTRICT COURT OVER AUTOMATIC INJUNCTIONS

The lawsuit was brought by ten underage Guatemalan migrants who were living in the country without a guardian or documentation. Their attorneys described them in court papers as “vulnerable children” entitled to “enhanced protection and care.” The attorneys said the Trump administration was blowing past laws and the Constitution in an effort to illegally deport them.

Sooknanan granted a class action lawsuit so that the case would cover not just the ten plaintiffs but all other minors similarly situated in the custody of HHS.

After Labor Day, the case was reassigned to Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee. Kelly has set a hearing for next week over the migrants’ new request for a preliminary injunction.

The migrants’ attorneys said they had learned from media reports that ICE was planning to “imminently” deport them to Guatemala, where they “may face abuse, neglect, persecution, or even torture.”

Federal authorities “woke children in the night and subjected them to the trauma of imminent removal,” the attorneys wrote in court papers.

“But for this Court’s intervention while the plane sat on the tarmac in Texas, those children would have been expelled to Guatemala,” they said.

A DOJ lawyer told the judge during the last-minute hearings over the weekend that the Guatemalan government had requested the return of the migrant youths and that “all of these children have their parents or guardians in Guatemala who are requesting their return.”

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A Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman called the initial temporary restraining order from the judge “disgusting,” contending that the DHS was simply aiming to reconnect the young migrants with their parents.

“Judge Sparkle [Sooknanan] is blocking flights to *reunify* Guatemalan children with their families,” DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin wrote. “Now these children have to go to shelters. This is disgusting and immoral.”

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is set to testify on Capitol Hill on Thursday, a week after turmoil engulfed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Lawmakers on the Senate Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over the HHS, will hear from Kennedy on President Donald Trump’s healthcare agenda, dubbed by the secretary as the Make America Healthy Again movement.

While the committee does not directly oversee the CDC, the recent firing of former CDC Director Susan Monarez, the wave of high-level officials departing and other moves at the agency taken under Kennedy’s tenure are expected to dominate the line of questioning from both Republicans and Democratic lawmakers on the panel.

SENATORS DEMAND OVERSIGHT, REJECT VACCINE GUIDANCE AS ILLEGITIMATE AS CDC TURMOIL RAGES

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who is a member of the panel, told reporters that Kennedy would face “hard questions” from committee members, particularly over frustrations over Monarez, who was confirmed by the Senate less than a month before her ouster.

“He’s gotta take responsibility… we confirm these people,” the South Dakota Republican said. “We go through a lot of work to get them confirmed. And they’re in office a month?”

Speculation has swirled over the reason behind Monarez’s firing given her differing stance on vaccines compared to Kennedy, who spent much of his presidential campaign and tenure as secretary going after the efficacy and safety of vaccination, particularly those for COVID-19.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., who chairs the Senate health committee and was the deciding vote that propelled Kennedy to a role in the Trump administration, is also set to question the secretary.

Last week, he demanded that the federal government’s vaccine advisory panel, which was filled with Kennedy’s handpicked replacements after he recently booted the original panel members, postpone its scheduled meeting in September until “significant oversight” was carried out by his committee, and charged that any recommendations made by the advisory panel should be rejected until then.

RFK JR. DETAILS HOW HE PLANS ON RESTORING PUBLIC TRUST IN THE CDC IN NEW OP-ED

Cassidy told Fox News Digital that he was working on just what the oversight measures would look like and expected to announce his plans soon. In the meantime, he noted that he was supportive of Kennedy and Trump’s commitment to “radical transparency,” but noted that his main concerns were about children’s health.  

“It isn’t about R versus D. It isn’t about, you know, internecine fights within the Republican Party. It is about children and grandchildren, and will they die or be at risk of dying from vaccine-preventable disease,” Cassidy said. “Now we’ve got to get to the truth of this.”

He also argued that members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices are supposed to receive materials to review before making vaccine recommendations and decisions, but questioned where the information would be coming from in the wake of several senior members of the CDC making their exit after Monarez’s firing.

“We’ve got to have some sort of radical transparency into what scientific justification is being used for that,” he said. “Is it a political appointee? Well, to say a political appointee is making scientific recommendations. Who’s a political appointee? I mean, are they a doctor, a PhD, or are they a political appointee? Our concern is they might just be political appointees, but we’re going to find that out.”

PREVIOUS CDC DIRECTORS ACCUSE RFK JR. OF ENDANGERING ALL AMERICANS IN NY TIMES ESSAY

Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., another member of the Senate Finance Committee, told Fox News Digital that his line of questioning would focus on the abortion drug Mifepristone and its safety, but added that it was “fair” for lawmakers to have debate over Kennedy’s leadership of the CDC and HHS.

“It’s typical for any secretary that comes up, but I’m sure many of these issues that have been raised are related to some concerns. These questions are going to be asked, and I’m grateful that the Secretary will be there to explain what he sees going on and the path forward,” he said.

Meanwhile, Kennedy defended his moves at the CDC in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece on Tuesday and contended that “President Trump has asked me to restore that trust and return the CDC to its core mission.”

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He wrote that steps have already been taken to “eliminate conflicts of interest and bureaucratic complacency” at the agency, and that leaders who “resisted reform” had already been replaced.

“Most CDC rank-and-file staff are honest public servants,” Kennedy said. “Under this renewed mission, they can do their jobs as scientists without bowing to politics. The agency will again become the world authority on infectious-disease policy.”

“First, the CDC must restore public trust — and that restoration has begun,” he continued. “It won’t stop until America’s public-health institutions again serve the people with transparency, honesty and integrity.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the HHS for comment but did not hear back immediately. 

The high-stakes political fist fight between Republicans and Democrats over congressional redistricting ahead of next year’s midterm elections shifted to a new battleground this week.

A special session of Missouri’s legislature to redraw the solidly red state’s congressional districts and give the GOP control of one additional House seat kicked off on Wednesday with public hearings scheduled for Thursday.

“Missouri’s conservative, common-sense values should be truly represented at all levels of government, and the Missouri First Map delivers just that,” Republican Gov. Matt Kehoe argued, as he announced the special session and unveiled a proposed map.

MAJOR REPUBLICAN REDISTRICTING VICTORY IN THIS KEY STATE

Kehoe’s move came hours after GOP Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas on Friday signed into law a redistricting bill passed by the Republican super majority in the state legislature that aims to create up to five right-leaning congressional districts at the expense of currently Democrat-controlled seats in the reliably red state.

The Republican push in Texas, which came at the urging of President Donald Trump, is part of a broad effort by the GOP across the country to pad their razor-thin House majority to keep control of the chamber in the 2026 midterms, when the party in power traditionally faces political headwinds and loses seats.

WATCH: CALIFORNIA DEMOCRATS AIM TO COUNTER TEXAS REDISTRICTING

Trump, in a social media post, argued that Missouri voters will have “the tremendous opportunity to elect an additional MAGA Republican in the 2026 Midterm Elections.”

Trump and his political team are aiming to prevent what happened during his first term in the White House when Democrats stormed back to grab the House majority in the 2018 midterm elections.

Democrats are fighting back against the rare, but not unheard-of mid-decade redistricting.

State lawmakers in heavily blue California last week approved a special ballot proposition this November to obtain voter approval to temporarily sidetrack the state’s non-partisan redistricting commission and return the power to draw the congressional maps to the Democrat-dominated legislature.

TRUMP NOT ON BALLOT BUT FRONT-AND-CENTER IN 2025 ELECTIONS

The effort in California, which aims to create five more Democrat-leaning congressional districts and counter the shift in Texas, is being spearheaded by two-term Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is seen as a likely 2028 Democratic presidential contender.

In Missouri, the new map proposed by Kehoe targets longtime Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s Kansas City area district by shifting it eastward to include rural right-leaning voters. 

If passed by the GOP-controlled legislature, the new map would likely flip Cleaver’s seat and give Republicans a 7-1 advantage in the state’s U.S. House delegation.

The Missouri legislature’s special session will also tackle another top Republican priority – a proposed constitutional amendment making it more difficult to approve citizen-driven ballot initiatives. Abortion-rights and marijuana legalization amendments, opposed by many Republican leaders in the state, have passed in recent years.

Missouri state House Minority Leader Ashley Aune on Monday charged that Kehoe and Republican state lawmakers are pushing to “rig our maps and eliminate our representation in Congress.”

Former Rep. Russ Carnahan, the chair of the Missouri Democrats, warned there are political consequences for Republicans pushing to redistrict.

“They’re choosing to bow down to Washington demands to do some things that I think are going to stir the ire of Missouri voters, and they’re about to see what pissed off Missouri voters look like,” Carnahan told Fox News Digital.

But Democrats in the Missouri state house have limited options to stop the legislature from passing the new map. Unlike in Texas, where Democratic state representatives fled the state for two weeks to delay passage of redistricting, a similar move by Missouri Democrats wouldn’t prevent a quorum needed to conduct business.

And any filibuster by Democrats in Missouri’s state Senate would likely be quickly shutdown by the majority Republicans.

Cleaver, whose seat is threatened, has vowed to take legal action if the new map is signed into law by the governor.

With Democrats currently needing just a three-seat pick-up in next year’s midterms to win back the House majority, Missouri and Texas are far from the only states where Trump and his political allies are urging Republicans to re-write the maps to create more right-leaning congressional districts.

Top Republican state lawmakers in Indiana, which, similar to Missouri, is a former battleground state that’s now red, visited the White House last week to discuss redistricting.

Republicans in GOP-controlled South Carolina and Florida are also mulling redistricting ahead of the 2026 elections. And right-leaning Ohio is under a court order to draw new maps ahead of the midterms.

Democrats, as they push back, are looking to New York, Illinois, and Maryland, in the hopes of creating more left-leaning congressional seats.

But they have less attractive options than Republicans. 

They control fewer states than the GOP and face constitutional limitations or non-partisan redistricting commissions, which is the case in New York.

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In Illinois and Maryland, where Govs. JB Pritzker and Wes Moore are discussing redistricting, Democrats hope to pick up to three more left-leaning seats.

And they could pick up a seat in right-leaning Utah, where a judge recently ordered the GOP-controlled legislature to draw new maps after ruling that lawmakers four years ago ignored an independent commission approved by voters to prevent partisan gerrymandering. 

Fox News Digital reached out to Kehoe’s office to request an interview but did not immediately hear back. 

Senate Republicans are grappling with President Donald Trump’s move to cancel $4.9 billion in foreign aid funding and what the ramifications could be on the looming deadline to fund the government.

Senate Democrats previously warned after the GOP’s first go-round with clawbacks that any further attempt to gut congressionally approved funding would be a red line, and that it could lead to Democratic lawmakers withholding their support for a short-term government funding extension, known as a continuing resolution (CR).

The Trump administration’s decision last week to go forward with a pocket rescission, which skirts the 45-day window needed for a typical clawback package, rattled Senate Democrats and has alarmed some Republicans about finding a path forward to keep the government open.

GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN, EPSTEIN FILES, DC CRIME: CONGRESS RETURNS TO MOUNTAIN OF DRAMA

“The last thing in the world we need to do is to give our Democrat colleagues any reason not to try to move forward with the appropriations process,” Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said.

“That does concern me, and once again, we need to get the appropriations process back on track,” he continued. “We’re going to do whatever we can to get this thing through this year. We’re committed to it. It’s better if Congress takes back its authority on this. Quit doing continuing resolutions, do the appropriations process.”

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., on the other hand, was all for the move and wasn’t worried about the impact it could have on a shutdown.

“I’m concerned about more spending from those negotiations,” he told Fox News Digital. “Again, you’re not going to get me concerned about anything that cuts spending or reduces the size and scope across government. I’m all for it, no matter how we do it.”

Still, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., will likely need Democratic support to advance any spending bills, let alone a CR by Sept. 30, through the upper chamber’s filibuster threshold, given that a handful of Republicans never vote for funding extensions.

WHITE HOUSE MOVE TO CANCEL $4.9B FOREIGN AID WITH ‘POCKET RESCISSION’ BLASTED AS ILLEGAL

Rounds and other members of the Senate Appropriations Committee are in favor of barreling forward with passing spending bills, and have so far been successful in advancing three with bipartisan support.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who in July warned that Trump’s first $9 billion clawback package would have “grave implications” on the appropriations process, has maintained that congressional Democrats were united in their desire to continue working on spending bills with Republicans.

He warned that Republicans would “face their greatest test under the Trump administration,” to either work across the aisle or face a shutdown.

“However, as near the funding deadline, Republicans are once again threatening to go at it alone, heading our country towards a shutdown,” Schumer said.

Thune has also remained committed to seeing lawmakers pass the dozen bills needed to fund the government, but acknowledged “inevitably, it looks like [we] need a CR for some time for the foreseeable future.”

And he warned that Democrats may try to use the latest clawback package “as an excuse” to not fund the government.

GRIDLOCK CRUMBLES AS SENATE ADVANCES SPENDING BILLS IN RACE AGAINST SHUTDOWN

“That’s all it’ll be is an excuse, because they know that I’m committed, Sen. [Susan] Collins is committed, our conference is committed to working constructively to try and fund the government through the normal appropriations process,” he said.

Meanwhile, some Republicans questioned if turning toward clawbacks was the best way to tackle spending cuts and argued that such measures were already baked into the annual appropriations process.

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When news of the package surfaced, Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, charged that efforts to claw back “appropriated funds without congressional approval is a clear violation of the law.”

Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., told Fox News Digital he wasn’t worried about the legality of the move so much as whether turning to the clawbacks was “the most efficient way to get at spending cuts.”

“I think the appropriations process is a better way, and we’ve had some success, and I’d like to keep that momentum going and try to, you know, avoid a shutdown and get back to regular order,” he said.

FIRST ON FOX: The Department of Homeland Security and Secretary Kristi Noem are ending a 2021 designation of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Venezuela, the agency told Fox News Digital on Wednesday.

Under President Biden, two designations of TPS were established for Venezuela. The first was established in 2021, which is being terminated today, and the second in 2023, which the Trump administration terminated on April 7,2023. 

“Given Venezuela’s substantial role in driving irregular migration and the clear magnet effect created by Temporary Protected Status, maintaining or expanding TPS for Venezuelan nationals directly undermines the Trump Administration’s efforts to secure our southern border and manage migration effectively,” a DHS spokesperson told Fox News Digital. 

HEGSETH ISSUES STARK WARNING TO DRUG TRAFFICKERS FOLLOWING US MILITARY STRIKE ON VENEZUELAN VESSEL

“Weighing public safety, national security, migration factors, immigration policy, economic considerations, and foreign policy, it’s clear that allowing Venezuelan nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is not in America’s best interest,” the spokesperson added.

With the termination of the 2021 TPS designation, 268,156 Venezuelan nationals currently in the U.S. will lose their status and will no longer be legally allowed to reside in the United States, according to figures shared by Fox News Digital from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

3,738 pending initial applications to be eligible for TPS and 102,935 pending renewal applications will also be terminated as of today. 

ICE DIRECTOR ACCUSES CBS OF TRYING TO ‘STOP SECRETARY NOEM FROM TELLING THE TRUTH’

USCIS recommends those no longer protected by TPS use the CBP Home Mobile App to facilitate leaving the U.S. 

The TPS designation will expire September 10, 2025, and termination will be effective 60 days after the publication of the Federal Register notice. 

After the April termination of the 2023 TPS designation, roughly 348,000 Venezuelan nationals lost their protected status and were required to make arrangements to leave the U.S. 

HEGSETH DETAILS TRUMP ADMIN’S CARTEL CRACKDOWN, STRIKE ON DRUG BOAT IN CARIBBEAN

The move comes after Fox News Digital reported that the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) found that some Venezuelan officials “likely facilitate” migration for members of the violent, criminal Tren De Aragua gang from the South American country to the U.S.

On Monday, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro accused President Donald Trump and the U.S. of “seeking a regime change through military threat,” after the Trump administration increased naval presence in the region. 

“Venezuela is confronting the biggest threat that has been seen on our continent in the last 100 years,” Maduro told journalists. “A situation like this has never been seen.”

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On Wednesday, Department of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth revealed to “Fox & Friends” that the U.S. had successfully carried out a military strike in the Caribbean that destroyed a Venezuelan drug boat and killed 11 alleged Tren De Aragua narco-terrorists. 

Preston Mizell is a writer with Fox News Digital covering breaking news. Story tips can be sent to Preston.Mizell@fox.com and on X @MizellPreston

Former Florida House Speaker Paul Renner, a Republican, launched a Sunshine State gubernatorial bid on Wednesday, jumping into the race after President Donald Trump backed U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds for the job earlier this year.

“As a legislator and Speaker of the House, I stood with Ron DeSantis to brand our state the Free State of Florida,” Renner said in social media posts. “I’m running for Governor so that when the DeSantis era comes to an end, we can defend our victories and solve the challenges that remain.”

Current Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is serving his second-consecutive term and is consequently not permitted to be elected again in 2026, said that he is not backing Renner, noting, “I think it was an ill-advised decision to enter the race.”

SCHOOL VACCINE MANDATES MAY GO AWAY IN SOUTHERN STATE, SURGEON GENERAL ANNOUNCES

Florida’s state constitution stipulates, “No person who has, or but for resignation would have, served as governor or acting governor for more than six years in two consecutive terms shall be elected governor for the succeeding term.”

Renner added in his posts, “As a military veteran of two wars, a state prosecutor, and Speaker of the House, I’ve fought the tough battles, and I will never back down from the fight for our conservative values.  As a father, I am committed to securing Florida’s safety and prosperity for the next generation.”

SEN. RICK SCOTT ENDORSES TRUMP-BACKED FLORIDA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE

Donalds announced a gubernatorial bid earlier this year after Trump strongly backed him for the role, urging him to run.

“Byron Donalds would be a truly Great and Powerful Governor for Florida and, should he decide to run, will have my Complete and Total Endorsement. RUN, BYRON, RUN!” Trump declared in a Truth Social post.

DESANTIS FIRES BACK AFTER DEM DECRIES FLORIDA’S MOVE TO DITCH LGBT RAINBOW COLORS FROM CROSSWALK IN ORLANDO

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Former Florida Gov. Rick Scott, who is now serving as a U.S. Senator, has also endorsed Donalds.

The 2020-era defund the police movement is echoing across the nation yet again as Democratic lawmakers and activists decry the Trump administration’s efforts to snuff out crime in cities such as Washington, D.C., while readying similar efforts in jurisdictions long notorious for violent crimes. 

Democrats in blue strongholds such as Chicago and Baltimore have bucked President Donald Trump‘s plans to send in National Guard troops to help deter crime, including calling plans to incarcerate criminals a lost cause that would not lead to a more peaceful community.

Fox News Digital spoke with Crime Prevention Research Center founder John Lott, who said resistance to Trump’s anti-crime blitz echoes the defund the police movement since both narratives reject the idea that tougher consequences for criminals leads to fewer crimes.

TRUMP CLAIMS ‘WE’RE AGAINST CRIME. DEMOCRATS LIKE CRIME’

“I think they’re the same type of argument. Maybe it’s a matter of degree in terms of the difference,” Lott said in a phone interview Wednesday. “But the notion is: Will higher arrest rates, higher conviction rates, longer prison sentences, will that make it riskier for criminals to commit crime and deter crime? 

“You have people like Brandon Johnson, the mayor of Chicago, saying that prison doesn’t work, that that doesn’t deter crime. He just calls it racist to go and put people in jail for committing crimes.

“The attorney general for (Washington, D.C.) says that having more police is unneeded, and it’s unnecessary for that. And so they don’t see a connection between making it riskier for criminals to go and commit crime and the amount of crime that’s occurring,” he continued, explaining the similarities between the 2020 defund movement and 2025’s opposition to Trump’s anti-crime initiative. 

Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign heavily focused on cleaning up crime-riddled cities after the violent wave of 2020 that left an excess of Americans dead as anti-police and Black Lives Matter protests and riots broke out in cities nationwide.

After roughly seven months back in the Oval Office, those campaign promises are becoming reality, with Democrat lawmakers and liberal activists decrying the crime crackdowns with protests and legal challenges along the way. Fox News Digital took a look back at the 2020 defund narrative and its consequences and how the era stacks up compared to the recent rhetoric against Trump’s crime crackdown. 

‘An obligation’ 

Trump federalized Washington, D.C.’s police department in August, which included the National Guard flooding the capital’s streets to patrol the area and federal law enforcement agents from departments, such as the Drug Enforcement Administration, FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives assisting in arrests. 

Trump is in the midst of determining when to send the National Guard to help patrol chronically crime-addled Chicago, he said Tuesday, while other cities such as Baltimore are anticipated to see similar crackdowns. 

“I have an obligation,” Trump said Tuesday of his law and order initiative in crime-filled cities. “This isn’t a political thing.”

LIZ PEEK: TRUMP PRANKS DEMOCRATS INTO OPPOSING SOMETHING THEY’VE ALWAYS CLAIMED TO SUPPORT

Democrats have resisted Trump’s crime plan, with Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker scoffing at the idea of sending the National Guard to Chicago and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore inviting Trump to walk the streets of Baltimore to ostensibly show him the city is safe. 

“I would love to have Gov. Pritzker call me. I’d gain respect for him. And say, ‘We do have a problem, and we’d love you to send in the troops because, you know what, the people, they have to be protected,'” Trump said Tuesday while fielding questions from the media at a White House event. 

Chicago and Baltimore are two of the nation’s most notoriously violent cities, with Baltimore ranked as the fourth most dangerous city to live in the U.S., according to a U.S. News and World Report study published in 2025. Chicago is reeling from a bloody Labor Day weekend that left at least 58 people shot and eight killed. In 2021, Chicago recorded its deadliest year since 1996, with data published by the city showing crime has ticked down in the Windy City since about 2023. 

“No, I will not call the president asking him to send troops to Chicago,” Pritzker said Tuesday. “I’ve made that clear already.” 

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson argued locking criminals up is “racist” and “immoral.” 

“We cannot incarcerate our way out of violence; we’ve already tried that, and we’ve ended up with the largest prison population in the world without solving the problems of crime and violence,” Johnson said during an August press conference, the New York Post reported. 

“The addiction on jails and incarceration in this country, we’ve moved past that,” he said. “It is racist, it is immoral, it is unholy, and it is not the way to drive violence down.”

The sentiment echoes the rhetoric of 2020, when activists and supporters of the defund the police movement championed cutting police budgets and redirecting the funds to community services such as housing, education, mental health services and community-based responders who would manage certain emergency calls such as a mental health crisis instead of police officers. Proponents of the movement argued such reallocation of police funds would wipe out crime and foster peace, as opposed to arresting and prosecuting criminals. 

BLUE CITIES IN TRUMP’S CROSSHAIRS AFTER DC POLICE TAKEOVER

The year 2020 was a whirlwind underscored by a massive federal election, the COVID-19 pandemic that upended society with unprecedented government-mandated lockdowns that kept American workers and school children at home and a bloody crime wave that rocked the nation from coast to coast as activists heralded the “defund” narrative. 

Nationwide, murders increased by nearly 30% in 2020 compared to 2019, which notched the largest single-year increase in killings since the FBI began tracking the crimes, according to agency data at the time. The spike in murders came as activists nationwide took to the streets that summer to protest police departments in response to the police-involved killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis on Memorial Day 2020. 

Floyd’s death, as well as the deaths of other Black Americans during police stops or interactions, reignited the Black Lives Matter movement, founded in 2013, which has called for defunding police departments stretching back more than a decade concerning claims the U.S. justice system and policing overall are rooted in systemic racism. 

Cities from Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco to Atlanta saw repeated protests demanding police departments be defunded, while riots broke out amid the protests that led to businesses being destroyed and an increase in attacks on police officers as the sentiment in the U.S. toward the officers in blue soured. 

Portland, Oregon, saw 100 nights of protests and riots that summer, while Seattle rioters took over a police precinct and declared it the “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone,” which was fortified by barriers and established as a cop-free zone. At least two teenagers were shot dead and others were injured as violence broke out that summer. 

Lawmakers such as former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and other top Democrats like New York Sen. Chuck Schumer voiced support for police reforms and others took a knee on the Capitol’s floor while wearing Kente cloth stoles in support of a police reform package introduced in response to Floyd’s death. 

Other lawmakers openly called for police departments to be defunded, most notably members of the House’s left-wing faction of the party known as the “Squad.” 

“The ‘defund the police’ movement is one of reimagining the current police system to build an entity that does not violate us, while relocating funds to invest in community services,” Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, a member of the “Squad,” posted to X in June 2020. “Let’s be clear, the people who now oppose this, have always opposed calls for systematic change.” 

‘RADICAL’ DC OFFICIALS TREATED OFFICERS ‘LIKE CRAP,’ POLICE LEADER SAYS – 7 ATTACKS THAT LED TO TRUMP TAKEOVER

“Defunding the police has to happen,” former Democratic “Squad” member and Missouri Rep. Cori Bush told CBS News in August 2021. “We need to defund the police and put that money into social safety nets because we’re trying to save lives.”

Cities such as New York and Seattle slashed police budgets in response to the calls, with local leaders soon after reversing course as violent crimes such as carjackings and murders soared. 

Amid the defund the police rhetoric and protests, police morale cratered as lawmakers and locals backed away from supporting them. Cops retired en masse, while others moved from cities witnessing repeat protests to departments in states offering continued support for the police. 

Departments nationwide were left with persistent understaffing issues, including in large departments such as Philadelphia and Chicago. 

‘Unprecedented’

In 2025, in response to Trump’s anti-crime initiative in cities such as D.C., protests have formed to denounce the mission, in addition to some Democratic lawmakers vocally rejecting National Guard members from patrolling the streets. 

Protesters have marched from DuPont Circle to the White House in opposition to the federal takeover of the Metropolitan Police Department and held “Free DC” gatherings aimed at removing the National Guard from the capital and ending the current federal control of the police department. 

D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb additionally filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration for federalizing D.C. under Section 740 of the D.C. Home Rule Act and against Attorney General Pam Bondi’s order to install the DEA head as the emergency commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Force. Schwalb called the moves “brazenly unlawful” that could “wreak operational havoc” on the Metropolitan Police Department.

Washington, D.C., leaders initially disapproved of Trump federalizing the local police department Aug. 11, with Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser calling the move “unprecedented,” “an intrusion on our autonomy” and characterizing it as an “authoritarian push” before changing her tune and earning the praise of the president. 

The city saw a 13-day period free of homicides after Trump’s crackdown, with Bowser rattling off how other crimes have dropped since Aug. 11 during a press conference Tuesday supporting the president’s mission to clean up the city. 

WASH POST EDITORIAL SEES POSSIBLE SHORT TERM SUCCESS IN TRUMP’S DECISION TO SEND NATIONAL GUARD TO DC

“For carjackings, the difference between this period, this 20-day period of this federal surge and last year represents an 87% reduction in carjackings in Washington, D.C.,” she said. “We know that when carjackings go down, when use of gun goes down. When homicide or robbery go down, neighborhoods feel safer and are safer. So, this surge has been important to us for that reason.

“This is what we think in just a couple of weeks of experience has worked,” Bowser added. “Having more federal law enforcement officers on the street — we think having more stops that got to illegal guns has helped. We think that there is more accountability in the system, or at least perceived accountability in the system, that is driving down illegal behavior. We know that we have had fewer gun crimes, fewer homicides, and we have experienced an extreme reduction in carjackings.”

She did take issue with facets of the federalization, such as the use of masked ICE agents in neighborhoods and said relying on out-of-state National Guard troops in D.C. communities was inefficient. 

Trump on Tuesday lauded Bowser for her assistance, calling her and other local leaders such as the police commissioner a “great team.”

MASSIVE INCREASE IN BLACK AMERICANS MURDERED WAS RESULT OF DEFUND POLICE MOVEMENT: EXPERTS

Lott told Fox Digital that even if the federalization of D.C. ends Sept. 11, after the predetermined 30-day time period runs dry, the initiative will have lasting effects as many criminals have already been removed from the streets. There have been at least 1,669 arrests in D.C. since the federal crackdown began.

“It’s a mystery to me how Democrats can take that side of that issue, given that even Mayor Bowser now is saying what a success it’s been,” Lott said. “But you do have some longer-lasting effects that will be there, and one of them is the fact that you’ve already arrested and taken off the street a lot of these criminals. You’ve also arrested and caught, you know, a lot of illegal aliens that were there committing crimes.

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“I assume some of the illegals have moved out of the area, because it’s no longer effectively, or at least for a period of time, been a sanctuary area,” he said. “Now, whether some of them move back again when these, if these policies are allowed to change back, I don’t know. But at least you’re going to have some longer run impact from from this, even if, even if it were to end” Sept. 11. 

Fox News Digital’s Breanne Deppisch and Diana Stancy contributed to this report. 

A U.S. judge in Boston on Wednesday blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to terminate roughly $2.2 billion in federal research funding for Harvard University — marking a major victory for the nation’s oldest college, which has sparred with Trump officials for months over federal funding.

U.S. District Judge Allison D. Burroughs rejected the Trump administration’s assertion that it was attempting to strip Harvard of the billions in federal funding due to allegations of antisemitism, or the university’s failure to comply with the recommendations of a federal antisemitism task force. 

“A review of the administrative record makes it difficult to conclude anything other than that defendants used antisemitism as a smokescreen for a targeted, ideologically-motivated assault on this country’s premier universities,” Burroughs said in the 84-page decision. 

HARVARD PRESIDENT SAYS HE HAS ‘NO CHOICE’ BUT TO FIGHT TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

“We must fight against antisemitism, but we equally need to protect our rights, including our right to free speech, and neither goal should nor needs to be sacrificed on the altar of the other,” she said in her order.

“Harvard is currently, even if belatedly, taking steps it needs to take to combat antisemitism and seems willing to do even more if need be,” she added.

The decision by Burroughs is a major victory for the university. It comes months after lawyers for Harvard sued the Trump administration in April over the administration’s attempts to freeze more than $2.2 billion in federal funding and block off other grant money, which lawyers for the university argued in court amounted to an unconstitutional “pressure campaign” to influence and exert control over its academic programs.

The Trump administration, for its part, accused Harvard of “fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus.” 

CONTINUED COURT FIGHTS COULD PUT HARVARD IN UNWINNABLE POSITION VS TRUMP

Lawyers for the Trump administration also told Burroughs that they had “every right” to cancel the funding after Harvard refused to comply with the demands made by a federal antisemitism task force, which they sought to frame in court as a mere contract issue, and one that should be heard in a different court. 

Both the Justice Department and lawyers for Harvard University had requested that Burroughs, an Obama appointee, decide the case via summary judgment by early September — a timeline that allowed them to avoid a lengthy trial before the start of the new school year.

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

Burroughs had ordered both sides to court for lengthy arguments in July, and ended the hearing by saying she would issue a ruling after she had sufficient time to weigh the matters presented before her in court.

The ruling Wednesday is a victory for Harvard in its months-long legal fight with the Trump administration.

“In an unsurprising turn of events, the same Obama-appointed judge that ruled in favor of Harvard’s illegal race-based admissions practices — which was ultimately overturned by the Supreme Court — just ruled against the Trump administration’s efforts to hold Harvard accountable for rampant discrimination on campus.” Madi Biedermann, a senior communications official for the Department of Education, told Fox News Digital in a statement. “Cleaning up our nation’s universities will be a long road, but worth it.” 

Since Trump took office in January, the Trump administration has targeted Harvard with investigations from six separate federal agencies — prompting lawyers for the university to argue this year that the efforts were nothing more than a pressure campaign designed to coerce them into compliance with the administration’s policies.

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To date, Harvard is the only major university to take the Trump administration to court over these efforts.

A federal appeals court approved Illinois’ ban on carrying firearms on public transit, reversing a lower court ruling that found the gun restrictions passed more than a decade ago violated the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

The Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals handed down its decision on Tuesday, with Judge Joshua Kolar writing for the majority that the ban “is comfortably situated in a centuries-old practice of limiting firearms in sensitive and crowded, confined places.”

“The Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to self-defense. It does not bar the people’s representatives from enacting laws—consistent with our nation’s historical tradition of regulation—that ensure public transportation systems remain free from accessible firearms,” Kolar wrote.

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

“We are asked whether the state may temporarily disarm its citizens as they travel in crowded and confined metal tubes unlike anything the Founders envisioned,” the judge continued. “We draw from the lessons of our nation’s historical regulatory traditions and find no Second Amendment violation in such a regulation.”

Last year, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois sided with four plaintiffs who claimed that restricting people from carrying guns on public buses and trains was unconstitutional.

The district court relied on a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen, in which a new standard to determine whether a gun restriction is unconstitutional was established. To meet that standard, the government must show there is a “historical tradition of firearm regulation” that supports the law. The court said there were no analogous conditions justifying the gun restrictions on public transit.

But the appeals court found the ban was constitutionally protected.

“Our concern is whether the law aligns with the nation’s tradition,” the majority opinion reads. “We hold that [the law] is constitutional because it comports with regulatory principles that originated in the Founding era and continue to the present.”

The case, started by several Illinois gun owners and backed by gun rights groups, is expected to be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. 

While plaintiffs argued that the transit restrictions flouted the high court’s 2022 Bruen decision, the Seventh Circuit said the state had shown a sufficient historical basis for treating crowded public transport as a “sensitive place.”

The public transit firearm ban was implemented in 2013, when Illinois became the last state in the country to approve carrying concealed weapons in public.

FEDERAL APPEALS COURT RULES CALIFORNIA AMMUNITION BACKGROUND CHECKS UNCONSTITUTIONAL

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On top of prohibiting guns on buses and trains, the measure restricted gun possession in hospitals and some other public spaces.

Kolar, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden, was joined in the majority opinion by Judge Kenneth Ripple, who was appointed by former President Ronald Reagan. Judge Amy St. Eve, who was selected by President Donald Trump during his first term, wrote a separate concurring opinion.

“I write separately to highlight a difficult jurisdictional question that today’s opinion prudently reserves for a future case: how to assess redressability where a plaintiff defines her injury as the inability to engage in protected activity—not the threat of prosecution for doing so—and an unchallenged law also prohibits that precise activity,” St. Eve wrote.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he was giving serious thought to stripping actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell of her U.S. citizenship, a move he had threatened in the past but cannot legally do.

“As previously mentioned, we are giving serious thought to taking away Rosie O’Donnell’s Citizenship. She is not a Great American and is, in my opinion, incapable of being so!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Trump had made similar statements in recent months, including in July when he said he was considering pulling O’Donnell’s citizenship because she “is not in the best interests of our Great Country” and is a “Threat to Humanity.”

O’Donnell responded to the president’s post in July with a reference to the character King Joffrey from “Game of Thrones,” saying: “Go ahead and try, king joffrey with a tangerine spray tan. i’m not yours to silence
i never was.”

ROSIE O’DONNELL, DONALD TRUMP’S CITIZENSHIP FEUD CAPS DECADES OF TAUNTS AND JABS

The Constitution does not allow a president to strip citizenship of someone born in the U.S. The 14th Amendment grants citizenship to anyone born in the U.S., and O’Donnell was born in Commack, New York.

O’Donnell, who has Irish grandparents, moved to Ireland with her daughter earlier this year following Trump’s electoral win and is in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship to become a dual citizen. She cited the current political climate as a reason for her move.

“When it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America, that’s when we will consider coming back,” she said in a TikTok.

In March, when a reporter asked the Irish prime minister during a visit to the White House why he would allow O’Donnell to move to Ireland, Trump jumped in and said he was better off not knowing who she was.

TRUMP THREATENS TO STRIP ROSIE O’DONNELL’S U.S. CITIZENSHIP AS HE SAYS SHE’S A ‘THREAT TO HUMANITY’

“Do you know who she is? You’re better off not knowing,” Trump said at the time.

Trump’s feud with O’Donnell has spanned nearly two decades, sparked by O’Donnell criticizing him on “The View” in 2006 about his decision to be lenient toward a Miss USA winner who had been accused of drug use and other controversies.

In 2015, during a Republican primary debate, a moderator asked Trump about his past use of derogatory terms to describe women.

“Only Rosie O’Donnell,” then-candidate Trump responded.

Last month, after a Minneapolis Catholic school shooting that left two children dead and more than a dozen wounded, O’Donnell posted a video purporting that the shooter was a MAGA supporter, a Republican and a white supremacist.

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“What do you know? It was a white guy, Republican, MAGA person. What do you know? White supremacists,” she said.

O’Donnell later took down the video and apologized.

“I knew a lot of you were very upset about the video I made before I went away for a few days,” she said. “You are right. I did not do my due diligence before I made that emotional statement, and I said things about the shooter that were incorrect.

“I assumed, like most shooters, they followed a standard MO and had standard, you know, feelings of… you know, NRA-loving kind of gun people,” O’Donnell continued. “Anyway, the truth is I messed up, and when you mess up, you fess up. I’m sorry. This is my apology video and I hope it’s enough.”

Chelsea Clinton is not considering a run for Rep. Jerry Nadler’s soon-to-be-vacant New York congressional seat, her spokesperson confirmed to the Washington Examiner on Wednesday, dismissing “rumors” to the contrary.

Meanwhile, John F. Kennedy’s grandson, Jack Schlossberg, told The New York Times Tuesday a campaign for Nadler’s Manhattan seat is “certainly a possibility.”

Nadler’s decision to retire after more than three decades in Congress opens up one of the most influential Democratic strongholds in Manhattan. 

The speculation that heirs from two of America’s most prominent Democratic political dynasties could seek the seat sets the stage for a high-profile primary fight.

DEMOCRATIC REP. JERRY NADLER WILL NOT SEEK REELECTION

Nadler, 78, announced Monday that “this term in Congress will be my last,” citing the need to “pass the torch to a new generation.” 

In an interview with The New York Times, Nadler said “watching the [Joe] Biden thing really said something about the necessity for generational change in the party.”

Chelsea Clinton, vice chair of the Clinton Foundation and daughter of former President Bill Clinton, has previously batted down speculation about running for office.

REP. NADLER CONDEMNS TRUMP ADMIN AFTER STAFF MEMBER HANDCUFFED DURING CONGRESSIONAL OFFICE SECURITY SWEEP

In 2019, she told ABC News she was not interested in seeking Rep. Nita Lowey’s seat when rumors swirled at that time. Her denial Wednesday to the Washington Examiner makes clear she is not entering this race.

Jack Schlossberg, 32, an attorney and writer, has occasionally hinted at political ambitions. His comment to The New York Times that a congressional run is “certainly a possibility” is his clearest public signal yet that he may consider following in his family’s political footsteps.

Schlossberg has turned heads on social media for his comedic antics and satirical videos of figures like first lady Melania Trump.

Early reporting suggests a wide Democratic field may emerge, including progressive activists and perhaps local elected officials, though no major announcements have been made yet.

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The open race for Nadler’s Manhattan seat is expected to draw national attention and big-name donors. Whether a Clinton or a Kennedy ultimately runs, the contest is already shaping up as a test of Democratic Party power in one of its safest districts.

Representatives for Chelsea Clinton and Jack Schlossberg did not immediately return Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Fox News’ Louis Casiano contributed to this report.

FIRST ON FOX—The Restoration of America Foundation (ROAF) is calling on the Senate Finance Committee to hold Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. accountable at Thursday’s 10 a.m. hearing, demanding answers about the removal of safety protocols for the abortion pill mifepristone.

In a letter provided exclusively to Fox News Digital, ROAF argues the rollback leaves women more vulnerable and shifts costs to taxpayers.

ROAF argues that the Biden-era rollback of Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) requirements, safeguards in place for more than two decades, endangers women by allowing abortion pills to be prescribed via telehealth and delivered through the mail.

FDA LIMITS NEW COVID VACCINE BOOSTERS TO HIGH-RISK AMERICANS ONLY

“The removal of key Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) requirements for mifepristone has eliminated essential safeguards that protected women’s health for over two decades,” said Doug Truax, founder and CEO of the Restoration of America Foundation. “We urge the Senate to demand clear answers about why these safety protocols were removed and when they will be reinstated.”

The Food and Drug Administration originally required mifepristone to be dispensed in person to ensure women were screened for potential complications such as ectopic pregnancy. That changed under the Biden administration, when telehealth prescribing and mail-order delivery were permitted for the first time.

MORE THAN 20 GOP ATTORNEYS GENERAL CALL ON RFK JR, FDA TO REINSTATE SAFEGUARDS FOR ABORTION DRUGS

Truax warned that “allowing these powerful drugs to be ordered online and sent through the mail without proper medical screening puts women at serious risk.” He added, “Women deserve to know about potential complications and have immediate access to emergency care if needed.”

ROAF points to recent studies and media reports, including a New York Post investigation published in April, which found that nearly 11 percent of chemical abortions resulted in serious complications such as hemorrhage, infection or sepsis. That rate is more than 20 times higher than what the FDA has previously cited. 

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The hearing where Kennedy is scheduled to appear is expected to spotlight broader debates over abortion and medical safety under the Trump administration.

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

The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court Wednesday to quickly make a decision on whether President Donald Trump has the authority to impose his sweeping tariffs under federal emergency law.

This appeal is a result of a federal appeals court ruling 7-4 that a vast majority of Trump’s tariffs were illegal according to the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act even though it allowed the duties to remain until the case was resolved.

Many states and small businesses challenged Trump’s tariffs in a lawsuit saying they were causing serious economic harm.

FEDERAL COURT STRIKES DOWN TRUMP TARIFFS AS ILLEGAL UNDER FEDERAL LAW IN APPEALS RULING

“These unlawful tariffs are inflicting serious harm on small businesses and jeopardizing their survival,” said Jeffrey Schwab, an attorney with the Liberty Justice Center.

The Trump administration, however, countered the appeal, arguing that striking down the tariffs could cause serious economic harm.

“That decision casts a pall of uncertainty upon ongoing foreign negotiations that the President has been pursuing through tariffs over the past five months, jeopardizing both already negotiated framework deals and ongoing negotiations,” the Trump administration argued in its appeal. “The stakes in this case could not be higher.”

Officials also pointed out that the levies have raised $159 billion since late August, a figure that has more than doubled from the previous year.

Although the Constitution does give Congress the power to set tariffs throughout the years many lawmakers have delegated those authorities to the White House. Although Trump has been seen to use this to his advantage, some of his duties on steel, aluminum, autos, and earlier tariffs on China were left in place by President Joe Biden and are not part of this case.

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Legal experts have noted that the government has also warned that if the courts strike down these tariffs, the U.S. Treasury could be forced to refund billions that have already been collected.

The Supreme Court is expected to decide soon on whether they will take up the case directly, which will potentially set up a major ruling on the limits of presidential power over trade.

The U.S. military is strengthening its Navy presence near Venezuela, as President Donald Trump seeks to stop the flow of drug trafficking from the Latin American country.

U.S. naval and air assets have been sent to the region to take on drug trafficking and protect regional maritime routes, with some already used this week to target alleged narco-terrorists.

A Marine strike on Tuesday struck a vessel in the southern Caribbean Sea while allegedly carrying members of Tren de Aragua smuggling narcotics headed for the U.S.

TRUMP TOUTS US STRIKE AS MADURO SLAMS MILITARY ‘THREAT’ OFF VENEZUELA

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has deployed several assets to the region, including USS Iwo Jima, USS Lake Erie, USS Jason Dunham, USS Gravely and USS Sampson, to target criminal organizations and narco-terrorism, Fox News can confirm.

“In support of the President’s directive to dismantle Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs), Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs), and counter narco-terrorism to defend the homeland, the Secretary of Defense directed the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group/22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit and the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Lake Erie (CG 70) to the U.S. Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM) area of responsibility (AOR),” Col. Chris Devine, a spokesman for the Defense Department, told Fox News.

“Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers USS Jason Dunham (DDG 109), USS Gravely (DDG 107), USS Sampson (DDG 102) and embarked U.S. Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment teams are currently operating in the region,” he continued.

Hegseth also sent air assets “to strengthen U.S. whole-of-government detection, monitoring, and interdiction capabilities to sustain pressure on TCO networks throughout the region,” according to Devine.

HEGSETH ISSUES STARK WARNING TO DRUG TRAFFICKERS FOLLOWING US MILITARY STRIKE ON VENEZUELAN VESSEL

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“The enhanced U.S. force presence in the USSOUTHCOM AOR  will bolster U.S. capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States homeland and our security in the Western Hemisphere,” he said. “These forces will enhance and augment existing Joint Interagency Task Force – South and USSOUTHCOM capabilities to disrupt narcotics trafficking and degrade and dismantle TCOs and FTOs.”

Welcome to the Fox News Politics newsletter, with the latest updates on the Trump administration, Capitol Hill and more Fox News politics content. Here’s what’s happening…

-Bowser pushes police recruitment, says DC needs ‘hundreds more’ cops as Trump federal takeover nears end

-Duffy expands air traffic control training program to fight nationwide shortage

–Epstein victims press lawmakers to support bill to release hidden files, say Americans will be ‘appalled’

House moves to expose Epstein files, authorizes Oversight probe

The House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a resolution formally authorizing the Oversight Committee’s ongoing probe into Jeffrey Epstein.

The legislation also authorized the committee’s release of “all unclassified committee records received from the Attorney General, the Secretary of the Treasury, and the Epstein estate, and any other custodians related to the investigation described in this resolution, as well as any written declarations, or other evidence that relates to the investigation described in this resolution,” according to its text.

It’s a largely symbolic move that’s been done to quell a burgeoning war of words in the House over how to pursue transparency in Epstein’s case…READ MORE.
 

White House

DIPLOMATIC SHOWDOWN: Rubio recommends denying visas to Palestinian leaders for UN General Assembly, citing terror support

PRIORITIZING MERIT: ‘Good riddance’: Hegseth praises Army dumping Biden-era promotion boards aimed at eliminating bias

HEALTH DATA PURGE: Trump admin settles lawsuit, agrees to restore deleted DEI, gender health web pages

EXECUTE OR OUST: Trump assassination attempt suspect Ryan Routh challenges president to round of golf

World Stage

POISON PIPELINE: FBI’s Operation Box Cutter indicts 22 Chinese nationals and companies for fentanyl precursors

PRESS PUSHBACK: Trump hits back at reporter who said he’s taken ‘no action’ against Russia

Capitol Hill

PLAYING OFFENSE: Thune speaks with Sununu about Senate bid to flip blue seat in key swing state

WELFARE WATCHDOGS: SCOOP: House GOP eyes more Medicaid reforms in second budget reconciliation bill

‘IT’S DETESTABLE’: Johnson calls Newsom’s remark on Catholic school attack ‘evil,’ ‘sick’

ROAD RULES: ‘English isn’t optional’: Senate GOP bill takes aim at illegal immigrant truckers after Florida crash

DEM UNDER FIRE: Rashida Tlaib hit with House censure threat, accused of ‘celebrating terrorism’ in pro-Palestinian speech

Across America 

KEY ENDORSEMENT: Marsha Blackburn lands key conservative endorsement in Tennessee governor’s race

DANGER ZONE: ‘Rogue states’ risk federal funding for illegal immigrant driver’s licenses

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The White House has remained silent after a new report is claiming advisors to President Donald Trump have discussed offering New York City Mayor Eric Adams a position within the Trump administration in the hopes it would hurt mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s election odds. 

Trump advisors reportedly had a discussion with Adams’ associates about dipping out of the race and potentially coming on to the Trump administration in order to pave the way for former Gov. Andrew Cuomo to secure a victory in November’s election, the New York Times reported Wednesday. 

It remains unclear if specific positions for Adams have been talked about or if Adams would be inclined to accept such an offer, the report said. 

The White House did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. 

SANDERS ENDORSES SOCIALIST MAMDANI IN MOVE TO BLOCK CUOMO IN NYC MAYORAL RACE

Mamdani is a Ugandan-born Muslim and Democratic socialist who won the Democratic Party’s primary for New York City mayor in June. Meanwhile, Cuomo is a moderate Democrat who is now running in the race as an independent after losing to Mamdani in the Democratic primary race in June. 

Adams’ campaign said that the mayor has not had discussions with Trump on the matter. 

“Mayor Adams has made it clear that he will not respond to every rumor that comes up,” Todd Shapiro, a spokesperson for Adams’ campaign, said in a Wednesday statement. “He will remain focused, not be distracted, and grind for New Yorkers.” 

WASHINGTON POST BASHES SOCIALIST ZOHRAN MAMDANI AS POTENTIAL DISASTER FOR NEW YORK CITY

“He has had no discussions with, nor has he met with, President Donald Trump regarding the mayoral race,” Shapiro said. “The Mayor is fully committed to winning this election, with millions of New Yorkers preparing to cast their votes. His record is clear: crime is down, jobs are up, and he has consistently stood up for working families. Mayor Adams is focused on building on that progress and earning four more years to continue delivering for the people of New York.”

Trump historically has railed against Mamdani, and has cautioned New Yorkers against voting for the New York State assemblyman from Queens. 

“No. 1, you have a communist running, and you shouldn’t vote for him,” Trump said during a July Cabinet meeting. “He’s a disaster. He’s leading. He’s got the Democrat nomination because that shows you where the Democrats have gone.”

“I’m not getting involved, but I can tell you this: I used to say we will not ever be a socialist country. Right. Well, I’ll say it again. We’re not going to have — if a communist gets elected to run New York, it can never be the same.”

‘GLOBALIZE THE INTIFADA’ PHRASE STIRS TENSIONS ON NYC CAMPAIGN TRAIL AS MIDDLE EAST CONFLICT RAGES

President Donald Trump lauded the U.S. military strike against an alleged drug-laden Venezuelan boat in the southern Caribbean that took out 11 suspected Tren de Aragua narco-terrorists Tuesday. 

Trump’s comments came after he shared a video on social media depicting the U.S. military strike against the Venezuelan vessel in the U.S. Southern Command’s area of responsibility, just days after he deployed three U.S. Navy guided missile destroyers to bolster the administration’s counternarcotics efforts in the region. 

“You had massive amounts of drugs,” Trump told reporters Wednesday about the recent strike. “We have tapes of them speaking. It was massive amounts of drugs coming into our country to kill a lot of people. And everybody fully understands that fact. You see it, you see the bags of drugs all over the boat and they were hit. 

“Obviously, they won’t be doing it again. And I think a lot of other people won’t be doing it again. When they watch that tape, they’re going to say, ‘Let’s not do this.’ We have to protect our country, and we’re going to. Venezuela has been a very bad actor.” 

MADURO CLAIMS US SEEKS ‘REGIME CHANGE THROUGH MILITARY THREAT’ AMID CARIBBEAN BUILDUP

Trump said Monday that U.S. forces had determined those on the vessel were members of Tren de Aragua and said Tuesday that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro oversees the group. 

However, a declassified assessment from the National Intelligence Council in April determined that there is no coordination between Tren de Aragua and the Venezuelan government. 

According to Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., the vessel belonged to the Cartel of the Suns, a Venezuelan drug trafficking group led by Venezuela’s military leaders. 

The Trump administration has taken an aggressive approach to drive down the influx of drugs into the U.S., and designated drug cartel groups like Tren de Aragua, the Sinaloa cartel and others as foreign terrorist organizations in February.

In response to the Trump administration’s decision to dispatch the destroyers to U.S. Southern Command, Maduro said Venezuela was prepared to respond to any attacks and said the move amounted to “an extravagant, unjustifiable, immoral and absolutely criminal and bloody threat.”

HEGSETH ISSUES STARK WARNING TO DRUG TRAFFICKERS FOLLOWING US MILITARY STRIKE ON VENEZUELAN VESSEL

“In the face of this maximum military pressure, we have declared maximum preparedness for the defense of Venezuela,” Maduro said Monday during a press conference.  

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth signaled the U.S. military would launch future strikes on other drug vessels attempting to smuggle narcotics into the U.S. 

“We’ve got assets in the air, assets in the water, assets on ships because this is a deadly serious mission for us, and it won’t, it won’t stop with just this strike,” Hegseth told Fox News Wednesday.

CHINA CONDEMNS US MILITARY BUILDUP OFF VENEZUELA COAST AS FOREIGN INTERFERENCE IN REGIONAL AFFAIRS

“Anyone else trafficking in those waters who we know is a designated narco-terrorist will face the same fate,” Hegseth said. 

Fox News Alexandra Koch contributed to this report. 

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