NationalWatch

As the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, or ICE, continues to crackdown on illegal immigration, about half of voters say the department is too aggressive in its deportation efforts. Furthermore, while support for deportation is high, it depends on who is being targeted.

The latest Fox News survey, released Monday, finds 3 in 10 back deporting all illegal immigrants, while 6 in 10 supports only deporting those charged with crimes but would allow others to stay and apply for citizenship. One in 10 favors letting all illegal immigrants remain in the U.S.

Since 2015, a majority has generally favored the deportation of illegal immigrants.

FOX NEWS POLL: THE GOP IS SEEN AS MORE LIKELY TO HAVE A CLEAR PLAN FOR THE COUNTRY

Republicans (54%) are about eight times more likely than Democrats (7%) to say all illegal immigrants should be deported, and one-quarter of independents agree (25%).

Roughly 8 in 10 Democrats, 6 in 10 independents, and 4 in 10 Republicans agree that at least illegal immigrants charged with crimes should be deported, while others should be offered a path to stay.

On the current approach to deportation, however, views are divided. Half, 49%, feel ICE has been too aggressive in its efforts to deport illegal immigrants while a quarter (24%) say it has not been aggressive enough. Nearly 3 in 10 say deportation efforts are about right (27%).

Most Democrats think ICE is too aggressive (81%), while Republicans are split between saying its actions are about right (43%) or not aggressive enough (40%). Some 17% of Republicans think ICE has been too aggressive.

Independents are more likely to say the agency is too aggressive (49%) than about right (28%) or not aggressive enough (23%).

FOX NEWS POLL: TRUMP FACING HEADWINDS AT SIX-MONTH MARK  

When asked what concerns them about illegal immigration, the largest number of voters say that it overburdens government programs (39%). Fewer worry whether it leads to an increase in crime (16%) or terrorism (10%), takes jobs from U.S. citizens (14%), or changes the country’s culture (9%).

Concerns about illegal immigration have shifted somewhat compared to 15 years ago. At that time, by a 10-point margin, a greater share were worried about economic issues like overburdening government programs or taking away jobs from citizens (63% in 2010 vs. 53% now), and fewer were concerned about increasing crime (6% in 2010 vs. 16% now). 

Meanwhile, majorities oppose immigration-related elements included in the new budget legislation, the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” as 55% are against increasing spending on the border wall and 59% oppose spending more on immigrant detention centers.

By a 6-point margin, voters think the Republican Party is better able to handle immigration than the Democratic Party, and President Donald Trump’s best job ratings are on border security (56% approve, 44% disapprove) and immigration (48%, 51%). Fewer voters approve on foreign policy (45%, 54%), the economy (44%, 55%), and inflation and tariffs (36%, 62% for both). Overall, 46% approve of his job performance, while 54% disapprove. 

One reason Trump does so well on border security is that 1 in 5 Democrats approve of the job he’s doing – their highest rating on any issue tested. The same is true of independents as more than half approve, making border security his best issue.

A look at Hispanic voters…

On illegal immigration, attitudes among Hispanic voters look similar to those among voters overall: 60% support deporting illegal immigrants charged with crimes while 15% support deporting all those here illegally (23% say let all stay).

The majority thinks ICE has been too aggressive (57%) with a quarter (24%) saying about right, and 1 in 5 not aggressive enough (19%).

More than half of Hispanic voters like Trump’s performance on border security (54% approve) but dislike it on immigration (60% disapprove).  Overall, 42% approve and 58% disapprove.

And like voters overall, the biggest concern on illegal immigration among Hispanic voters is overburdening government (35%). Otherwise, concern spreads across other issues such as crime (15%), jobs (14%), culture (14%), and terrorism (11%).

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Conducted July 18-21, 2025, under the direction of Beacon Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R), this Fox News survey includes interviews with a sample of 1,000 registered voters randomly selected from a national voter file. Respondents spoke with live interviewers on landlines (114) and cellphones (636) or completed the survey online after receiving a text (250). Results based on the full sample have a margin of sampling error of ±3 percentage points. Sampling error for results among subgroups is higher (among Hispanic voters it is ±9 percentage points). In addition to sampling error, question wording and order can influence results. Weights are generally applied to age, race, education, and area variables to ensure the demographics of respondents are representative of the registered voter population. Sources for developing weight targets include the American Community Survey, Fox News Voter Analysis and voter file data. 

FIRST ON FOX: After Belmont University in Tennessee was accused of attempting to rebrand its DEI initiatives in an effort to skirt President Donald Trump’s demands to get rid of them, the university denied the allegations, telling Fox News Digital that the school was “in compliance with federal laws.” 

But, according to an email sent to faculty and staff last week, from Belmont’s Office of the President, the school has decided to tap an “external partner” to ensure its compliance with President Donald Trump’s executive orders demanding diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives be terminated across all institutions of higher education. The review also aims to ensure the university is abiding by all state and federal immigration laws, after evidence was also uncovered that the school was allegedly admitting illegal immigrants and hiding such information from outside entities.

“I am reaching out to update you about next steps in response to the concerns raised by elected officials regarding Belmont’s compliance with state and federal immigration laws, as well as executive orders addressing DEI in higher education,” the letter, penned by Belmont University President Greg Jones, stated. “While we make every effort to ensure compliance and continue to maintain our belief that Belmont complies with all applicable laws, we take these concerns seriously. With this in mind, we are bringing in an external partner to initiate an independent compliance review.”

WATCH: DEI EFFORTS WERE REBRANDED AT 2 RED-STATE COLLEGES TO SKIRT TRUMP ORDERS, STAFFERS ADMIT

The effort to hold Belmont accountable for allegedly maintaining its DEI policies in light of federal directives to terminate them has been spearheaded by Tennessee Republican Rep. Andy Ogles, who has been receiving information from whistle-blowers at the school. 

Ogles sounded the alarm earlier this month, after obtaining undercover recordings showing a student services faculty member in Belmont’s “Division of Student Success and Flourishing” admitting the school has maintained its DEI initiatives but “just change[d] on how we talk about it.”

“The HUB is hope, unity and belonging. That’s DEI. Let’s be real,” Jozef Lukey, Belmont’s assistant director of student success and flourishing, says in the recording. “We always try to just adapt to what’s happening around us. But that doesn’t mean, like, what we’re focusing on completely stops. We just changed the terminology and the language that we keep moving forward.”

In the same recording, Lukey can also be heard admitting that Belmont enrolls illegal immigrants and hides that information from external entities, which Ogles suggested could violate state law against knowingly harboring illegal aliens for profit.

FEDERAL JUDGE SLAPS TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER ON MISSISSIPPI DEI BAN

“I want to be clear — I think the world of Belmont. My daughter applied to Belmont. She was accepted at Belmont,” Ogles said in a recorded video updating folks on the ongoing situation at the Christian university based in Nashville. “Nashville is unique — we have Vanderbilt, we have Belmont, we have David Lipscomb, we have Meharry [Medical College], we have TSU — we have all these amazing institutions, to include Belmont, which now has a new medical school, so I want to sing their praises, but I also have to hold them accountable, and this wokeness is in violation of President Trump’s executive order.”

Ogles also likened Belmont to Harvard in the video, adding that the school will be “held accountable if they don’t correct course.”

Besides the undercover recordings, Ogles has received other whistle-blower documents and information about Belmont’s continuance of its DEI initiatives under Trump. For example, Ogles has cited official documents from Belmont he received, which show that professors must fill out a mandatory form if they wish to revise or propose a new course, which requires a “Diversity Impact Statement” outlining how the course supports “historically underrepresented populations.”

Another source, according to Ogles’ office, shared screenshots of an email chain showing Belmont intends to keep its faculty DEI committee for the next academic year. Ogles also received a document outlining Belmont’s faculty hiring procedures for deans, which compels the completion of multiple DEI “assessment[s]” when engaging in “pre-search activities.” 

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The hiring document adds that search committees tasked with seeking out new potential hires must be “diverse across race and gender and preferably include faculty of color.” 

A litany of other DEI requirements, such as required discussions among search committees about “ways to advertise and attract candidates from a diverse population” and “paying special attention to recruiting minority candidates,” are required as well. The document also instructs search committees to engage in a post-mortem for any positions for which a “diverse candidate” does not apply to “revisit how to best advertise the position to attract qualified, diverse applicants.”

The amount of whistle-blower tips that Ogles office has been getting has prompted the congressman to launch a new web page on his congressional website that will provide an easy avenue for people to continue providing his office with inside information about the DEI efforts at Belmont. The website has not launched yet, but is expected to be live soon.

When reached for comment, officials at Belmont pointed Fox News Digital to its July 22 email sent to faculty and staff, indicating the expected compliance review.

The Trump administration is reportedly blocking Taiwan’s president from stopping over in New York City, en route to a diplomatic meeting in Central America, following pressure from China.

The Financial Times reported Monday that the administration has denied Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te the opportunity to stop over in New York City during a planned trip to Paraguay, Guatemala and Belize — all countries that recognize Taiwan as its own independent country.

However, on Monday, the office of the president in Taiwan released a statement indicating that Lai “currently has no plans to go on an overseas visit,” according to Taiwan-state media. A source familiar with the matter at the State Department confirmed that no formal travel plans for President Lai have been announced.

TAIWAN ENVOY URGES CONGRESSIONAL ACTION, WARNS OF RISING CHINA THREAT AFTER MEETING LAWMAKERS

“In consideration of the ongoing rehabilitation efforts in southern Taiwan following a recent typhoon and regional developments including the United States’ tariffs, the president currently has no plans to go on an overseas visit,” the statement from President Lai said.

According to the Financial Times, which spoke with unnamed sources said to be intimately familiar with the alleged trip, Lai’s decision not to travel came after he was informed that he would not be able to stop in New York City on his way to Central America. 

Lai’s trip was also reportedly supposed to include a stop in Dallas, but it is unclear if the Trump administration was also planning to bar Lai from stopping there as well, according to the Financial Times.

PILLSBURY: TRUMP TO HOLD ‘TENSE’ TRADE TALKS WITH CHINA

The White House did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. However, a State Department source familiar with the matter indicated that the Trump administration continues to be committed to the government’s long-standing one China policy, rooted in the Taiwan Relations Act, joint diplomatic agreements with China and longstanding pledges crafted by the government in regard to Taiwan and China.

Despite being in line with longstanding government policy, the move still garnered criticism from some Asia policy experts and critics of Trump. 

Lyle Morris, a senior fellow on foreign policy and national security at the Asia Society’s Center for China Analysis, said the “first concrete move” under Trump’s second term regarding Taiwan is “a cause for concern.” 

“The assumption is this decision was made in the context of ongoing US-China trade negotiations and a possible Trump-Xi meeting,” Morris said on X. “Still, not a good sign for enduring US-Taiwan relations.”

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“Denying President Lai a transit is a deeply concerning break with bipartisan precedent and sends a reckless signal to Beijing that our partnership with Taiwan is on the negotiating table,” added Democrat Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., in a post on X following the news about President Lai’s alleged travel. 

“American leadership is now seen as deeply unreliable, with Trump’s fits and starts with Ukraine, NATO allies, and other key partners. I urge President Trump to reverse course and do what presidents of both parties have done and allow a transit, and ask my colleagues in Congress to join me in that call.”

News of the Trump administration’s decision to prohibit the Taiwanese president from stopping in New York City comes as the president is reportedly feeling out a potential trip to Beijing himself, alongside major U.S. CEOs. Nothing so far has been set in stone regarding Trump’s trip, however.

The Department of Justice has filed an official complaint alleging misconduct by US District Court Chief Judge James Boasberg. Fox News has reviewed the complaint which was written by Attorney General Pam Bondi’s Chief of Staff Chad Mizelle and addressed to the Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Sri Srinivasan.

Fox News has learned that the complaint was written and filed at the direction of Attorney General Pam Bondi.

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

“The Department of Justice respectfully submits this complaint alleging misconduct by U.S. District Court Chief Judge James E. Boasberg for making improper public comments about President Donald J. Trump to the Chief Justice of the United States and other federal judges that have undermined the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary,” says Mr. Mizelle.

Judge Boasberg is presiding over a high-profile case involving the deportation of several migrants to El Salvador and has talked about holding DOJ lawyers in contempt because of his assertion that his order to turn airborne planes around was not followed. President Trump has also made critical comments about Judge Boasberg.

The complaint details two occasions on which Judge Boasberg made comments the Justice Department alleges undermine the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary.

“On March 11, 2025, Judge Boasberg attended a session of the Judicial Conference of the United States, which exists to discuss administrative matters like budgets, security, and facilities. While there, Judge Boasberg attempted to improperly influence Chief Justice Roberts and roughly two dozen other federal judges by straying from the traditional topics to express his belief that the Trump Administration would “disregard rulings of federal courts” and trigger “a constitutional crisis.” Although his comments would be inappropriate even if they had some basis, they were even worse because Judge Boasberg had no basis—the Trump Administration has always complied with all court orders. Nor did Judge Boasberg identify any purported violations of court orders to justify his unprecedented predictions.”

TRUMP FOE BOASBERG ORDERS DOJ TO DETAIL STATUS OF CECOT MIGRANTS SENT TO VENEZUELA

“Within days of those statements, Judge Boasberg began acting on his preconceived belief that the Trump Administration would not follow court orders. First, although he lacked authority to do so, he issued a temporary restraining order preventing the Government from removing violent Tren de Aragua terrorists, which the Supreme Court summarily vacated.

“Taken together, Judge Boasberg’s words and deeds violate Canons of the Code of Conduct for United States Judges, and, erode public confidence in judicial neutrality, and warrant a formal investigation.” 

JUDGE BOASBERG ORDERS RUBIO TO REFER TRUMP OFFICIALS’ SIGNAL MESSAGES TO DOJ TO ENSURE PRESERVATION

The DOJ is asking Chief Judge Srinivasan to refer the complaint to a special investigative committee as an inquiry is essential to determine whether Judge Boasberg’s conduct constitutes “conduct prejudicial to the effective and expeditious administration of the business of the courts.” The complaint also asks that Judge Boasberg be taken off the case involving Venezuelan migrants who were deported to El Salvador, “to prevent further erosion of public confidence while the investigation proceeds.”

The case in question is J.G.G. v Trump.

This is the second time the Bondi DOJ has filed an official complaint against a federal judge. In late February, the DOJ filed a complaint about US District Judge Ana Reyes, concerning what the DOJ calls Judge Reyes’ “misconduct” during the proceedings in Nicolas Talbott et al. v. Donald J. Trump et al., which is a case brought by two LGBTQ groups challenging the Trump Administration’s Executive Orders barring transgender individuals from serving in the US military.

News of the complaint comes at a time when the Trump administration has excoriated dozens of so-called “activist” judges who have blocked or paused some of Trump’s sweeping executive orders from taking force in his second White House term.

Judge Boasberg in particular found himself at the center of Trump’s ire and attacks on so-called “activist” judges this year, following his March 15 temporary restraining order that sought to block Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to quickly deport hundreds of Venezuelan nationals to El Salvador.

Boasberg had ordered all planes bound for El Salvador to be “immediately” returned to U.S. soil, which did not happen.

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

His emergency order touched off a complex legal saga that ultimately spawned dozens of federal court challenges across the country – though the one brought before his court on March 15 was the very first – and later prompted the Supreme Court to rule, on two separate occasions, that the hurried removals had violated migrants’ due process protections under the U.S. Constitution.

Boasberg, as a result, emerged as the man at the center of the legal fallout. 

Trump administration officials have repeatedly excoriated Boasberg both for his order and his attempt to determine whether they acted in good faith to comply with his orders, and Trump himself has floated the idea that Boasberg could be impeached earlier this year – prompting Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to issue a rare public warning. 

The complaint, focused on months-old behavior and allegations surrounding Judge Boasberg— first tapped as a judge by then-President George W. Bush in 2002, comes at a time when he could again have a say in a major class action case brought by lawyers representing the former CECOT migrants. 

Lawyers for the ACLU and others in the class asked Judge Boasberg earlier this month to reopen discovery in the case, citing allegations from a United Nations report regarding custodial status of migrants at CECOT, and the recent decision to remove the 252 migrants sent from the U.S. to El Salvador to Venezuela under the prisoner exchange.

Asked at a status hearing in court last week whether the Justice Department would comply with the court’s orders, DOJ lawyer Tiberius Davis said they would, “if it was a lawful order.”

They also said they would likely seek an appeal from a higher court.

In April, Judge Boasberg also ruled that the court had found “probable cause” to hold the Trump administration in contempt for failing to return the planes to U.S. soil, in accordance with his March 15 emergency order, and said the court had determined that the Trump administration demonstrated a “willful disregard” for his order.

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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit stayed his original motion in April, and has yet to move on the matter.

The Senate confirmed its first nominee of the week ahead of what is expected to be a jam-packed schedule to ram through as many of President Donald Trump’s picks as possible.

David A. Wright, Trump’s pick to lead the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for a five-year term, was confirmed in the upper chamber on a 50 to 39 vote on Monday. It’s not Wright’s first time as chair of the commission, having first served in the role beginning in 2020.

KEY TRUMP NOMINEES STALLED BY SENATE DEMS PUTS PRESSURE ON GOP LEADERS

Trump had previously tapped Wright during his first term, and again selected him to lead the NRC earlier this year. His new term is set to end in 2030.

The NRC is an independent regulatory agency tasked with regulating commercial nuclear power plants, reactor licensing and renewal and other elements related to protecting public health and safety when it comes to nuclear energy. Wright’s confirmation comes on the heels of Trump’s announcement that the U.S. and European Union were entering a trade deal that would see the bloc purchase $750 billion of U.S. energy over the next three years. 

While the commission is independent from other arms of the government, Senate Democrats have balked at recent attempts to make the regulatory body, in their view, more partisan.

‘ALL THE OPTIONS’: GOP EYES CUTTING AUGUST RECESS TO MOVE DOZENS OF TRUMP NOMINEES STALLED BY DEMS

Earlier this year, Trump signed an executive order that demanded the agency consider making its safety standards less stringent, shortening the timelines for environmental reviews and a quadrupling of the nation’s nuclear power capacity by 2050: all part of the president’s quest to ensure America’s energy dominance. 

Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chair Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.V., argued that over the last seven years that Wright has been a part of the commission, first as a commissioner beginning in 2018 and then as chair, he would fulfill the president’s wishes. 

“Achieving this will require experienced and highly qualified Commissioners who are empowered to lead the Agency through a period of high expectations,” she said in a statement. “Well, David Wright meets that mark.”

Then Trump fired a Democratic member of the commission last month, and a staffer from the president’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was reportedly detailed from the Department of Energy to the regulatory agency.  

That prompted Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, the top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, to warn of a “hostile takeover” of the commission by the Energy Department.

The move hurt what began as bipartisan support for Wright’s nomination — Whitehouse initially backed him but changed his position.

GOP LAWMAKERS CLASH OVER STRATEGY TO AVERT GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN CRISIS

“I hoped to see Chairman Wright rise to the occasion, but circumstances right now at the NRC continue to deteriorate,” he said in a statement. “I cannot presently support his renomination.”

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Still, Wright’s confirmation is a win for both Senate Republicans and the White House after Trump called on the Senate GOP to ram his nominees through blockades set up by Senate Democrats.

There are now over 140 pending “civilian” nominations for positions across the gauntlet of federal agencies, ambassadorships and judgeships. The Senate has moved at a blistering clip over the last six months to confirm nominees—they’ve clocked nearly 100 so far — the president has called on Senate Republicans to consider canceling the forthcoming August break to get more done. 

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., warned that if his colleagues across the aisle continued to slow walk the process in the upper chamber for the slew of remaining “uncontroversial” nominees, or be prepared to stick around Washington. 

“Or they can rein in their reflexive anti-Trump sentiment and allow some of his rank-and-file nominees to proceed by unanimous consent or voice vote — just as Republicans did when the roles were reversed,” he said. “And I’d remind my colleagues about the dangerous and ugly precedent that they’re setting here. But the choice is theirs. But whether it’s the slow way or the fast way, we’re getting President Trump’s nominees confirmed.”

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem criticized U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., on Monday, after he and other lawmakers tried to inspect a migrant detention facility, accusing the lawmaker of prioritizing the rights of criminal illegal immigrants over Americans. 

Van Hollen, a vocal critic of the Trump administration’s illegal immigration raids, was part of a Maryland congressional delegation that was denied entry to inspect a Baltimore U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility.

The lawmakers, which included Van Hollen and Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, and U.S. Reps. Glenn Ivey, Johnny Olzewski Jr., Sarah Elfreth and Kweisi Mfume, staged a sit-in upon being denied entry. 

DEMOCRATS CELEBRATE RETURN OF SUSPECTED HUMAN TRAFFICKER KILMAR ABREGO GARCIA

“President Trump lied to the American people when he said the Trump administration was simply going to focus on the worst of the worst,” Van Hollen said outside the facility. 

In response to the sit-in, Noem posted the image of four unidentified illegal immigrants arrested for various crimes, including rape, possession of child pornography, sexual abuse of a minor and murder. 

“These are the monsters that @ChrisVanHollen is protecting over American victims,” she wrote on X. 

U.S. Rep. Johnny Olszewski, D, Md., who was part of Monday’s delegation, said they were denied entry despite following the legal requirements to enter. 

“Congress has a legal right to inspect ICE facilities,” he wrote on social media. “Amid reports of inhumane conditions, this refusal is alarming. We won’t stop fighting for accountability.”

NOEM DISMISSES JEFFRIES’ WARNINGS AS DHS CONSIDERS ARRESTS OF DEMOCRATIC LAWMAKERS AFTER ICE FACILITY CLASH

A post in response by the Department of Homeland Security accused the lawmaker of wanting a “photo op.”

“Congressman, if you need a photo op with the violent criminal illegal aliens you are protecting—schedule a TOUR,” the post states. “As for visits to detention facilities, requests should be made with sufficient time to prevent interference with the President’s Article II authority to oversee executive department functions—a week is sufficient to ensure no intrusion on the President’s constitutional authority. To protect the President’s Article II authority, any request to shorten that time must be approved by the Secretary.”

Van Hollen has come under heavy criticism for his advocacy for suspected gang member Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia.

Van Hollen was the first of several Democratic lawmakers to fly to visit Abrego Garcia after he was deported to a high-security prison in his home country, El Salvador, in March.

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Abrego Garcia, 29, has been returned to the U.S. and is facing charges in a sealed federal indictment in Tennessee for alleged conspiracy to unlawfully transport illegal aliens for financial gain and unlawful transportation of illegal aliens.

Though many Democrats claim Abrego Garcia is an innocent man who was wrongly deported, the administration has pointed to considerable evidence that he is a member of the MS-13 gang. According to court records filed by his wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, he also allegedly physically abused her on multiple occasions.

“As I have repeatedly said, this is not about the man. It’s about his constitutional rights, and the rights of all,” Van Hollen told Fox News Digital in June about the case. “The administration will now have to make its case in the court of law, as it should have all along.”

President Donald Trump’s new deadline for Russia to end the conflict with Ukraine is an additional “step towards war,” according to former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.  

Medvedev, now the deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia, cautioned that Trump’s announcement Monday that Russia must end the conflict with Ukraine in 10 to 12 days would not end well for the U.S. 

“Trump’s playing the ultimatum game with Russia: 50 days or 10… He should remember 2 things: 1. Russia isn’t Israel or even Iran. 2. Each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war. Not between Russia and Ukraine, but with his own country,” Medvedev said in a post on X on Monday. “Don’t go down the Sleepy Joe road!”

TRUMP MEETS WITH UK PRIME MINISTER STARMER ON HEELS OF EU TRADE DEAL

While Trump announced on July 14 that he would sign off on “severe tariffs” against Russia if Moscow failed to agree to a peace deal within 50 days, Trump said Monday that waiting that period of time was futile amid stalled negotiations. 

“I’m going to make a new deadline, of about 10 — 10 or 12 days from today,” Trump told reporters from Scotland. “There’s no reason for waiting. It was 50 days. I wanted to be generous, but we just don’t see any progress being made.”

Trump’s remarks come as his frustration with Putin has grown in recent weeks amid no progress toward peace between Russia and Ukraine, and just a day after Russia launched more than 300 drones, four cruise missiles and three ballistic missiles into Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian air force.

TRUMP ‘DISAPPOINTED’ IN PUTIN, SAYS HE’LL REDUCE 50-DAY DEADLINE 

Trump called out Putin for providing lip service during their discussions while not taking proactive steps to end the war. As a result, Trump said he’s grown “disappointed” in the Russian leader and that he’s “not so interested in talking anymore” with Putin. 

“He talks — we have such nice conversations, such respectful and nice conversation. And then, people die the following night,” Trump said Monday. 

Following Trump’s announcement about whittling down the deadline for a peace deal, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked Trump for his “clear stance and expressed determination” to resolve the conflict.

“I thank President Trump for his focus on saving lives and stopping this horrible war,” Zelenskyy said in a post on X on Monday. “Ukraine remains committed to peace and will work tirelessly with the U.S. to make both our countries safer, stronger, and more prosperous.”

ZELENSKYY POINTEDLY THANKS TRUMP, AMERICA FOR UKRAINE SUPPORT MONTHS AFTER VANCE’S JAB ABOUT LACK OF GRATITUDE 

Zelenskyy previously came under scrutiny from Vice President JD Vance in February during an Oval Office meeting for not voicing more gratitude for U.S. support for Kyiv as it battles Moscow.

Although Trump has historically boasted about having a solid relationship with Putin, he has publicly voiced increased frustration with Putin in recent weeks as the war rages on between Russia and Ukraine. 

“We get a lot of bulls— thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth,” Trump said during a Cabinet meeting on July 8. “He’s very nice to us all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.”

Fox News Digital’s Caitlin McFall contributed to this report.

EXCLUSIVE: Hispanics living in Democratic-run jurisdictions are frustrated with sanctuary policies, which they feel are allowing criminal illegal aliens to prey on their communities, according to a Latino congressman from Colorado.

While some Democrats and media outlets attempt to portray Hispanics as universally opposed to President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration, Rep. Gabe Evans, R-Colo., said the reality in his district is very different.

Both Colorado and Denver have sanctuary policies in place that limit local law enforcement’s ability to cooperate with ICE and other federal immigration enforcement agencies. Evans said that this has led to a marked increase in crime and violence in his community.

Earlier this year, then-acting DEA Administrator Derek Maltz said sanctuary policies had allowed Colorado to become “ground zero for some of the most violent criminals in America,” including Tren de Aragua’s leadership.

TRUMP DOJ SUES NEW YORK CITY OVER LONG-STANDING SANCTUARY IMMIGRATION POLICIES

Tren de Aragua — also known by its acronym “TdA” — is a violent Venezuelan criminal group that has been linked to some of the most high-profile crimes in America in recent years, including the murder of nursing student Laken Riley and the capturing of an apartment building in Aurora, Colorado.  

In an interview with Fox News Digital, Evans, a young Latino and former police officer who represents a district just north of Denver, further confirmed that sanctuary policies in his district are wreaking havoc on both Hispanic lives and businesses.

“In my district, we had one of the first big raids that we saw of the new administration, where over 40 Tren de Aragua gang members and their affiliates were all apprehended by the DEA working in conjunction with other agencies,” he said. “We’re talking guns and drugs and human trafficking and child abuse … these are the people that have been festering in our society under the sanctuary state policies in Colorado.”

As the only Latino member of the Colorado delegation in Congress, Evans said the sanctuary policies are personal.

TRUMP’S ICE ROUNDS UP HUNDREDS OF DANGEROUS CRIMINAL IMMIGRANTS IN DENVER SWEEP

“We don’t want these people in our community,” he said.  

“I have conversations with my local Hispanic business owners with people that are not just major pillars of the Hispanic community, but these are also husbands and wives and moms and dads. And they don’t want Tren de Aragua in their communities. They don’t want their local businesses, Hispanic-owned businesses, to be burglarized or to have violence.”

Evans shared that one constituent who owns a Hispanic grocery store told him he was regularly losing thousands of dollars a day during the Biden administration because of illegal immigrant crime.

“He said the previous several years under the Biden administration were horrible because he would have illegal immigrants come into his store on a routine basis – we’re talking daily or weekly – and stealing thousands of dollars of goods from him,” he explained. “But because of the sanctuary state policies and because the previous administration had zero desire to enforce the law, there was nothing he could do about it.”

ICE DETAINERS IN TOP SANCTUARY CITY HAVE SKYROCKETED UNDER TRUMP COMPARED TO BIDEN’S 4-YEAR TERM: DHS

“There was nothing that state or local law enforcement could do because they were prohibited by these sanctuary laws and the feds weren’t interested. So, he watched thousands of dollars of merchandise walk out of his store on a weekly, sometimes a daily basis as a direct result of these policies. That hurts him. That hurts the Hispanic community.”

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“We don’t want drug dealers and cartels and criminals and gangbangers in our community,” he went on. “So, this emphasis on cracking down on these criminal elements who are not only illegally present in the United States but are committing other crimes is long overdue, and there’s a lot of support for that in the Hispanic community.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the office of Denver Mayor Mike Johnston for comment but did not receive a response by time of publication.

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…

-Bass, Newsom more interested in ‘sheltering’ illegal immigrants than rebuilding from fires: Stephen Miller

-GOP lawmakers clash over strategy to avert government shutdown crisis

-Game on in North Carolina as Democratic former Gov. Roy Cooper launches Senate bid for GOP-held seat

DOJ Digging in on Schiff Mortgage Dealings as Legal Peril Looms

The Department of Justice is likely digging into Sen. Adam Schiff’s mortgage paperwork trail stretching back to a Maryland home purchase from the early 2000s as it weighs whether it has an airtight case to potentially prosecute the longtime political foe of President Donald Trump, according to a Cornell Law School professor.

“The one thing they don’t want to do is to bring a case that fails,” William Jacobson told Fox Digital in a Zoom interview, referring to the DOJ potentially investigating Schiff’s alleged mortgage fraud. Jacobson is a clinical professor and the Director of the Securities Law Clinic at Cornell. 

“Either it fails legally, or it fails in court. They don’t want to lose that case if you’re going against a major political opponent. And that’s part of the calculation that will take place.”…READ MORE.

Immigration

‘OVERWHELMING SURGE’: ICE arrests over 200 illegal alien child sex offenders in Houston area in past 6 months

White House

SOCAL OIL FIGHT: Trump admin rebuffs Schiff, reopening massive Pacific oil reserve capable of 80% of regional production

BANNED: Jeffrey Epstein thrown out of Mar-a-Lago for hiring the help: Trump

MIND THE BORDER: Trump praises Starmer on turning around migrant boats: ‘Fantastic thing’

RATE WATCH: After Scotland, Trump enters crucial trade week and eyes Fed’s decision on rate cuts

World Stage

SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP: Trump meets with UK Prime Minister Starmer on heels of EU trade deal

‘NO JUSTIFICATION’: Obama issues rare statement on foreign policy issue

NO MORE WAR: Thailand, Cambodia reach ceasefire deal to end conflict that has displaced 260K, Trump says

ON NOTICE: Trump ‘disappointed’ in Putin, says he will reduce 50-day deadline by half

CYBER SABOTAGE: Russia’s Aeroflot hit with ‘hacker attack’ by pro-Ukrainian group, cancels dozens of flights

CONFERENCE SHAKEUP: Trump rejects Macron move as US skips UN summit on Palestinian state

Capitol Hill

BAD BRAND: DNC chair admits ‘brand problem’ as party hits historic low ratings

SWING STATE SHOWDOWN: Trump ally Mike Collins jumps into race for battleground Senate seat GOP aiming to flip

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

EXCLUSIVE: U.S. intelligence had credible foreign sources indicating that the FBI would play a role in spreading the salacious Trump-Russia collusion narrative—before the bureau ever launched its controversial Crossfire Hurricane probe, sources familiar with the intel told Fox News Digital.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe is expected to declassify the underlying intelligence, including a classified annex, related to former Special Counsel John Durham’s investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe.

EXCLUSIVE: BRENNAN DIRECTED PUBLICATION OF ‘IMPLAUSIBLE’ REPORTS CLAIMING PUTIN PREFERRED TRUMP IN 2016, HOUSE FOUND

A source familiar with the contents of the classified annex told Fox News Digital that while it may not have been exactly clear in the moment what the intelligence collection meant, with the benefit of hindsight, it predicted the FBI’s next move “with alarming specificity.”

“Ultimately, the release of the classified annex will lend more credibility to the assertion that there was a coordinated plan inside the U.S. government to help the Clinton campaign stir up controversy connecting Trump to Russia,” the source, who was granted anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence matters that have not yet been made public, told Fox News Digital.

“Mere days after this intelligence was collected, the FBI launched Crossfire Hurricane,” the source said. “It’s really hard to see how Brennan, Clapper and Comey are going to be able to explain this away.”

In 2020, Fox News Digital exclusively reported that former CIA Director John Brennan, in the summer of 2016, briefed former President Barack Obama and administration officials on intelligence that then-Democratic nominee former Secretary of State Clinton was stirring up a plan to tie Trump to Russia.

Ratcliffe, as director of national intelligence, declassified Brennan’s handwritten notes memorializing that meeting, which were exclusively obtained by Fox News Digital in October 2020.

EXCLUSIVE: OBAMA OFFICIALS ADMITTED THEY HAD NO ‘EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE’ OF TRUMP-RUSSIA COLLUSION: HOUSE INTEL TRANSCRIPTS

On July 28, 2016, Brennan briefed Obama on a plan from one of Clinton’s campaign foreign policy advisors “to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by the Russian security service.” 

Comey, then-Vice President Joe Biden, former Attorney General Loretta Lynch and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, were at the Brennan-Obama briefing.

After that briefing, the CIA properly forwarded that information through a Counterintelligence Operational Lead (CIOL) to Comey and then-Deputy Assistant Director of Counterintelligence Peter Strzok, with the subject line: “Crossfire Hurricane.”

Fox News Digital exclusively obtained and reported on the CIOL in October 2020, which stated: “The following information is provided for the exclusive use of your bureau for background investigative action or lead purposes as appropriate.”

“Per FBI verbal request, CIA provides the below examples of information the CROSSFIRE HURRICANE fusion cell has gleaned to date,” the memo continued. “An exchange (REDACTED) discussing US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s approval of a plan concerning US presidential candidate Donald Trump and Russian hackers hampering US elections as a means of distracting the public from her use of a private email server.”

The FBI on July 31, 2016, opened a counterintelligence investigation into whether candidate Trump and members of his campaign were colluding or coordinating with Russia to influence the 2016 campaign. That investigation was referred to inside the bureau as “Crossfire Hurricane.”

EXCLUSIVE: OBAMA ADMIN ‘MANUFACTURED’ INTELLIGENCE TO CREATE 2016 RUSSIAN ELECTION INTERFERENCE NARRATIVE, DOCUMENTS SHOW

The source told Fox News Digital on Monday that the declassification and release of the classified annex is being done with close coordination between Ratcliffe, FBI Director Kash Patel, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and acting National Security Agency Director William Hartman— along with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, who will ultimately release the document to the public.

A source familiar told Fox News Digital that the CIA and NSA have signed off on declassifying their sensitive intelligence that serves as the basis for the classified annex’s findings.

Meanwhile, while Ratcliffe was director of National Intelligence in 2020, he provided intelligence to Durham as part of a larger trove of more than 1,000 documents.

FLASHBACK: RATCLIFFE SAYS ODNI HAS PROVIDED NEARLY 1,000 DOCUMENTS TO DOJ TO SUPPORT DURHAM PROBE

A former senior Trump official told Fox News Digital that Ratcliffe advocated for releasing the intelligence publicly then, but that Durham, who, at the time, was expected to release an interim report prior to the 2020 election, declined on the basis that it could negatively impact his investigation, which had not yet reached a determination on potential prosecutions.

“Durham said he wanted to preserve his investigation but was going to release an interim report,” the former official told Fox News Digital. “Then he said he was afraid he’d get accused of politicization and disappeared.” 

The source added: “Thankfully the real politicization is all coming to light now.”

Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller was appointed to take over the FBI’s original “Crossfire Hurricane” investigation. After nearly two years, Mueller’s investigation, which concluded in March 2019, yielded no evidence of criminal conspiracy or coordination between the Trump campaign and Russian officials during the 2016 presidential election.

EXCLUSIVE: FBI LAUNCHES CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS OF JOHN BRENNAN, JAMES COMEY: DOJ SOURCES

Shortly after, John Durham was appointed as special counsel to investigate the origins of the “Crossfire Hurricane” probe.

Durham found that the FBI “failed to act” on a “clear warning sign” that the bureau was the “target” of a Clinton-led effort to “manipulate or influence the law enforcement process for political purposes” ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

“The aforementioned facts reflect a rather startling and inexplicable failure to adequately consider and incorporate the Clinton Plan intelligence into the FBI’s investigative decision-making in the Crossfire Hurricane investigation,” Durham’s report states.

“Indeed, had the FBI opened the Crossfire Hurricane investigation as an assessment and, in turn, gathered and analyzed data in concert with the information from the Clinton Plan intelligence, it is likely that the information received would have been examined, at a minimum, with a more critical eye,” the report continued.

Durham, in his report, said the FBI “failed to act on what should have been—when combined with other incontrovertible facts— a clear warning sign that the FBI might then be the target of an effort to manipulate or influence the law enforcement process for political purposes during the 2016 presidential election.”

EXCLUSIVE: DURHAM FINDS DOJ, FBI ‘FAILED TO UPHOLD’ MISSION OF ‘STRICT FIDELITY TO THE LAW’ IN TRUMP-RUSSIA PROBE

On Sunday, during an interview with Maria Bartiromo on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” Ratcliffe previewed the declassification and the release of the “classified annex” to the Durham report. Ratcliffe said it would be an overview of Durham’s findings.

“What the intelligence shows..is that part of this was a Hillary Clinton plan, but part of it was an FBI plan to be an accelerant to the fake Steele dossier, to those fake Russia collusion claims by pouring oil on the fire, by amplifying the lie and burying the truth of what Hillary Clinton was up to,” Ratcliffe said.

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The expected release of the declassified annex comes after Ratcliffe and Gabbard released declassified records revealing that Obama administration officials “manufactured” intelligence to push the Trump-Russia collusion narrative.

FBI Director Kash Patel has opened criminal investigations into Brennan and Comey, and Gabbard sent criminal referrals to additional Obama-era officials.

Republican Rep. Nancy Mace is moving closer to launching a campaign for governor in her home state of South Carolina.

“I will be making a decision in the coming days,” Mace said this past weekend in a Fox News Digital interview. “We’re definitely leaning towards running for statewide office in South Carolina for governor.”

And Mace gave a similar response in a Fox News Channel interview Sunday, telling host Jon Scott that “I will be making a decision over the next couple of days about my future.”

Mace, a three-term congresswoman who represents a coastal district in the state’s Lowcountry, gave what appeared to be a big hint of her next political steps as she delivered a speech Friday at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics.

HOUSE FREEDOM CAUCUS MEMBER RALPH NORMAN JUMPS INTO SOUTH CAROLINA GOVERNOR’S RACE

Delivering an address at the Politics and Eggs speaking series, which for a quarter-century has been a must-stop for White House hopefuls, Mace told the crowd that “not only do you pick presidents, maybe you can pick the next South Carolina governor too while were here today, because we’re going to be announcing a run very shortly potentially for that as well.”

Mace told Fox News Digital that there were a number of reasons why she would bid for South Carolina governor.

“We have the highest state income tax in the southeast, making us not competitive with other neighboring states, and a growing, booming economy under Donald Trump,” Mace said.

NANCY MACE ARGUES RUSSIAGATE A ‘POLITICAL HIT JOB’

“But also law and order. My state has been run over by illegals and our leaders have turned a blind eye. And I want to protect women and kids. We’ve got this gender bending ideology in colleges and universities across South Carolina, and we’ve got to end it,” she argued.

Mace would be entering a crowded GOP primary field in the 2026 race to succeed term-limited Republican Gov. Henry McMaster, who is the Palmetto State’s longest-serving governor.

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, and state Sen. Josh Kimbrell are all seeking the GOP nomination in the reliably red state. They were joined on Sunday by Republican Rep. Ralph Norman, who declared his candidacy.

SOUTH CAROLINA ATTORNEY GENERAL ALAN WILSON LAUNCHES BID FOR GOVERNOR

Mace said that if she launches a gubernatorial campaign, “we’re starting out front, in the lead, and it’s a two-man race” between her and Wilson.

And she pledged that “if I get in, I will fight to the finish, and I will take out South Carolina’s Attorney General, because he’s turned a blind eye on women and on children and on the state for a lot of reasons. He might force me to do this.”

Mace, in a bombshell speech on the U.S. House floor in February, alleged that Wilson ignored evidence of sexual assault against her and other women. In her hour-long speech, Mace accused four men, including her ex-fiance, of sexual crimes and said she was among the victims.

Wilson vehemently denied Mace’s accusations, saying at the time “that allegation was never made to me — no one in my office.”

Wilson, in a statement to Fox News on Monday, argued that “Nancy Mace is a liar who will do anything to get attention to distract from her liberal voting record. I’ve served our country and dedicated my civilian career to protecting children.”

“Her attacks are, again, categorically false and are just a distraction from her liberal agenda,” he added. “South Carolina families need a Governor who will fight for our values, not someone who will compromise them for political gain and social media clicks.”

And Wilson’s campaign highlighted that every sheriff in Mace’s congressional district has endorsed his campaign for governor.

Mace, who dropped out of high school at age 17, and worked at a Waffle House before eventually becoming the first female graduate of the Citadel’s Corps of Cadets, won election to Congress in 2020. She defeated Democratic Rep. Joe Cunningham, to become the state’s first Republican woman elected to the House.

Mace, who worked on President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, strongly criticized his actions surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, when Trump supporters attempted to upend congressional certification of now-former President Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.

Trump backed a primary challenger against Mace when she was up for re-election in 2022, but she successfully won re-nomination and re-election.

Mace later came to Trump’s defense after the then-former president was indicted for mishandling classified documents. And she endorsed Trump in the 2024 Republican presidential primaries.

Trump’s grip over the GOP, thanks to his 2024 victory to win back the White House, is stronger than ever, and his endorsements in GOP nomination races are extremely influential.

Asked if she could land the president’s endorsement if she ran for governor, Mace told Fox News Digital, “I’ll be working very hard if I get in to earn his support.”

Mace, who has leaned hard into cultural issues in recent years, didn’t disappoint in her speech in New Hampshire.

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“I love being here in the Granite State, because this is where real men protect women,” Mace said in her opening remarks.

“I’ve learned in my fight in Congress that we, as women, still have a war to wage with the far left, who want men in women’s spaces. They want men in our locker rooms. They want men showering next to our 12-year-old daughters,” she argued. “And they think men can get pregnant. I’m just here to say the biological truth is not that.”

President Donald Trump praised British Prime Minister Keir Starmer for curbing boats of illegal immigrants crossing the English Channel, telling the United Kingdom’s leader he’s doing a “fantastic thing.” 

Trump stopped for questions with Starmer and his wife, Victoria Starmer, ahead of their meeting at Trump Turnberry golf club in Scotland on Monday.

“Immigration is a big, a big factor. And I think, frankly, if they’re coming from other countries, and you don’t know who they are, and, are they coming from prisons? We have them where they came in from prisons who are moving them all out,” Trump began. “Last month, we had zero people come into the country, zero other than coming through legal means.”

“You’re doing not a good thing, you’re doing a fantastic thing,” Trump added. So I know nothing about the boats. But if the boats are loaded up with bad people, and they usually are, because, you know, other countries don’t send their best, they send people that they don’t want, they’re not stupid people. And they send the people that they don’t want. And I’ve heard that you’ve taken a much stronger stance on.”

TRUMP MEETS WITH UK PRIME MINISTER STARMER ON HEELS OF EU TRADE DEAL

In June, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported the lowest monthly total of illegal border encounters in the agency’s history. Border Patrol made 6,072 apprehensions along the southwest border, reflecting a 93% decrease in illegal encounters recorded during the same month last year under former President Joe Biden’s administration. The Trump administration released zero illegal aliens for parole into the U.S. interior – compared to 27,766 released in June 2024 under Biden. 

Starmer told reporters on Monday that the Labour government has facilitated the removal of approximately 35,000 people from the United Kingdom since taking power in July 2024. 

“We’re very pleased that we’re getting on with returning people who’ve got no right to be here,” Starmer said. 

“That’s great. As somebody that loves this country – I love this country,” Trump responded, noting that his mother was born in Scotland. “And it’s an incredible place, a beautiful place. And, if that be the case, I congratulate you.”

Trump said Europe is a “much different place” than it was five to 10 years ago due to mass migration. 

“And they’ve got to get their act together. If they don’t, you’re not going to have Europe anymore as you know it. And you can’t do that. This is a magnificent part of the world. And you cannot ruin it,” Trump said. 

“You cannot let people come in here illegally,” Trump continued. “And what happens is there’ll be murderers, there’ll be drug dealers, there’ll be all sorts of things that other countries don’t want. And they send them to you, and they send them to us, and you’ve got to stop them. And I hear that you’ve taken a very strong stand on immigration and taking a strong stand on immigration is imperative.” 

TRUMP ANNOUNCES TRADE DEAL WITH EUROPEAN UNION

Their meeting on Monday comes on the heels of Trump striking the framework of a major trade deal with the European Union. The deal does not center on immigration but has broader implications regarding U.S. economic pressure on the bloc.

At a press conference in London earlier this month, Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron announced a “one in, one out” deal intended to deter migrant channel crossings. The “pilot” scheme would allow the U.K. to detain and send back migrants who arrived on its shores in small boats from France. In return, Starmer agreed to accept the same number of migrants from France who have not tried to enter the U.K. illegally and who are deemed to have legitimate asylum claims.

Starmer is facing increased political pressure to deliver on his campaign promise of deterring tens of thousands of migrants from coming across the English Channel. 

Small boat crossings are up by more than 50% since January compared to the same time period last year, according to data from the British Home Office. 

Last week, Starmer’s government unveiled what it deemed the “world’s first” sanctions regime targeting migrant-smuggling gangs and other entities facilitating small boat crossings. British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the scheme targeting the flow of money and suppliers of small boats and fake passports provides authorities with a toolkit to freeze assets, cut offenders off from the U.K. financial system and ban offenders from traveling to the U.K. 

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After a landslide Labour election win last year, Starmer ended a controversial policy under the previous Conservative government that allowed deportations to Rwanda for migrants who made illegal channel crossings. To replace it, British Home Secretary Yvette Cooper launched a new U.K. Border Security Command. It’s intended to take an enforcement and intelligence-based approach to better protect borders, identify new small boat routes and disrupt migrant smuggling operations. 

Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Ken Martin isn’t sugar-coating his party’s problems.

“We do have a brand problem,” the DNC chair said in a recent Fox News Digital interview.

And in what’s starting to sound like a broken record, the Democratic Party hit another historic low in a national poll this past weekend.

Only a third of those questioned in a Wall Street Journal survey said they held a favorable view of the party, with 63% holding an unfavorable opinion of the Democrats.

WHAT THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY CHAIR TOLD FOX NEWS DIGITAL

That’s the highest unfavorable rating for the party in a Wall Street Journal poll dating back 35 years.

While the favorable ratings for President Donald Trump (45%-52%) and the Republican Party (43%-54%) in the poll were nothing to brag about, they weren’t as deeply underwater as the Democrats’ favorability.

“The Democratic brand is so bad that they don’t have the credibility to be a critic of Trump or the Republican Party,” said longtime Democrat pollster John Anzalone, who conducts Wall Street Journal polling along with veteran Republican pollster Tony Fabrizio.

POLL POSITION: DEMOCRATIC PARTY’S NUMBERS SINK TO NEW LOWS

The Wall Street Journal survey, which was conducted July 16-20, is the latest this month to indicate the plunge in Democratic Party polling.

Just 28% of Americans viewed the party favorably, according to a CNN poll conducted July 10-13. That’s the lowest mark for Democrats in the entire history of CNN polling, going back over 30 years.

And just 19% of voters questioned in a Quinnipiac University national poll in the field July 10-14 gave Democrats in Congress a thumbs up on how they’re handling their duties, with 72% disapproving.

That’s an all-time low since Quinnipiac University first began asking congressional approval questions in their surveys 16 years ago.

The Democratic Party has been in the political wilderness since last year’s elections. Not only did the party lose control of the White House and Senate and failed to win back the House majority, but Republicans made gains among Black, Hispanic and younger voters, all traditional members of the Democratic Party’s base.

Since Trump’s return to power earlier this year, an increasingly energized base of Democrats is urging party leaders to take a stronger stand in pushing back against the president’s sweeping and controversial second-term agenda. Their anger is directed not only at Republicans, but at Democrats they feel aren’t vocal enough in their opposition to Trump.

RNC CHAIR SAYS ‘BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL’ KEY TO GOP’S MESSAGING EFFORT HEADED INTO MIDTERMS

That has fueled a plunge in the Democratic Party’s favorable ratings, which have hit historic lows in several surveys this year.

“When you hit rock bottom, there’s only one direction to go, and that’s up, and that’s what we’re doing,” Martin said last week in his Fox News Digital interview.

Martin said “people have bought into this idea that Donald Trump and the Republicans best represent their interests for the future.”

And that’s reflected in the Wall Street Journal poll. Even though Trump’s overall approval ratings and his numbers specifically on how he’s handling the economy are in negative territory, the survey indicates voters still trust Republicans over Democrats on the economy by 10 points.

But there is a silver lining in the poll for Democrats.

By a 46%-43% margin, voters questioned in the survey said they would back a Democrat for Congress over a Republican.

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Democrats are aiming to win back the House and Senate majorities in next year’s midterm elections.

In Wall Street Journal polling eight years ago, Democrats held an eight-point advantage, a year ahead of a blue wave that swept the party back into power as they grabbed the House majority in the 2018 midterms during the first Trump administration.

Republican Rep. Mike Collins on Monday announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate in Georgia, in a crucial race for the GOP as the party aims to expand its Senate majority in next year’s midterm elections.

Collins is aiming to challenge Democrat Sen. Jon Ossoff, who is running for re-election in the key southeastern battleground state that President Donald Trump narrowly carried in last year’s election. And Republicans view Ossoff as the most vulnerable Senate Democrat incumbent on the ballot in 2026.

“Jon Ossoff does not represent Georgia’s values and has attacked our state’s best interests at every opportunity. He’s voted to raise taxes on Georgia families, supercharge inflation, open our Southern Border, and allow men to play women’s sports,” Collins argued in a statement as he launched his campaign.

Collins highlighted that “this is Georgia’s moment. This is the people’s time to take back control of this Senate seat, deliver on President Trump’s America First agenda, and kick Jon Ossoff to the curb—and together, that’s exactly what we will do next November.”

FIRST ON FOX: TRUMP ALLY TO LAUNCH SENATE CAMPAIGN IN KEY BATTLEGROUND

The announcement by Collins came as no surprise. Fox News Digital learned on Friday that the congressman would launch his Senate campaign early this week.

Collins, a businessman who founded a trucking company, is in his second term representing Georgia’s 10th Congressional District, which includes a large swath of urban, suburban, and rural areas between Atlanta and Augusta.

The conservative lawmaker, who’s the son of the late Republican Rep. Mac Collins of Georgia, has been moving closer to launching a Senate campaign for weeks.

TRUMP TEAM ‘PISSED OFF’ WITH REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR IN KEY BATTLEGROUND STATE SENATE NOMINATION RACE

“Tires kicked. Fueling up,” Collis wrote Monday in a social media post that was accompanied by a video where he showcased his ties to President Donald Trump.

“Congressman Mike Collins, he loves this state,” Trump said in a clip in the video.

And Collins’ launch video, which he posted on social media on Monday morning, also includes a clip of the president praising the congressman, as well as visuals of Collins and Trump standing together.

Collins was an early backer of the president, supporting him as Trump first ran for the Republican presidential nomination in the 2016 cycle.

In the 2024 presidential campaign, when Trump won back the White House, Collins traveled on behalf of Trump to the crucial early-voting primary and caucus states of Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina.

He also appeared at multiple Trump rallies during the 2024 cycle and opened three Trump campaign offices in Georgia.

POPULAR GOP GOVERNOR PASSES ON SENATE BID IN 2026

And Collins, not facing a difficult re-election in his solidly red House seat, campaigned in ten congressional districts across the country to help elect Trump-aligned candidates as the GOP defended its razor-thin majority in the chamber.

Collins at the beginning of this year reintroduced the Laken Riley Act, which mandates that undocumented immigrants charged with burglary or theft be detained. It’s named after a Georgia nursing student killed by a man who had illegally entered the U.S. The case grabbed national attention.

The bill, which quickly passed the Republican-controlled House and Senate, became the first legislation signed into law by Trump as he started his second tour of duty in the White House.

A Republican source said that Collins has a “great relationship” with the president and his political team.

And a Georgia-based Republican consultant told Fox News that “the lane that Mike is going to run in is the America First fighter who’s been with President Trump.”

Trump, who is the ultimate kingmaker in GOP politics and whose endorsements in Republican primaries are extremely powerful, has yet to weigh in on whom he may back in Georgia’s burgeoning Senate race.

National Republicans were hoping to recruit popular two-term GOP Gov. Brian Kemp to take on Ossoff. But Kemp, who is term-limited, announced earlier this year that he would pass on a 2026 Senate run.

Republican Rep. Buddy Carter, who for a decade has represented a district in coastal Georgia, launched a Senate campaign in the spring. Carter is also courting a Trump endorsement in the GOP primary.

Georgia Insurance Commissioner John King was also running for the Republican nomination, but ended his bid on Thursday.

Former University of Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley, who is the son of former longtime University of Georgia football coach Vince Dooley, is also considering a Senate bid. The younger Dooley is close with Kemp, who’s a longtime friend.

Sources in Trump’s political orbit and Republican sources in Georgia confirmed to Fox News on Friday that there was an agreement between the president’s political operation and Kemp’s political team that they would work together to find a candidate that they could all unify behind to take on Ossoff in the Senate race.

Those sources also confirmed that Kemp and Trump met a couple of weeks ago to discuss the Senate race in Georgia.

But when the governor floated Dooley’s name, a source close to the president’s political team said “they were told to stand down.”

And when Kemp and his team did move forward with Dooley, it upset Trump’s advisers, who, according to sources, were “already pretty annoyed” that Kemp had passed earlier this year on taking on Ossoff in the Senate race.

“We had a deal to work together,” a top political source in the Trump orbit told Fox News on Friday.  “Kemp went out on his own – which has frustrated and pissed off Trump orbit.”

But a source close to the governor told Fox News that it’s factually not true that they were told to stand down on Dooley.

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And the source added that Kemp meant what he said that he wants to work with the president and his team and remains that way.

A campaign announcement by Dooley could come as early as this week.

The Department of Justice is likely digging into Sen. Adam Schiff’s mortgage paperwork trail stretching back to a Maryland home purchase from the early 2000s as it weighs whether it has an airtight case to potentially prosecute the longtime political foe of President Donald Trump, according to a Cornell Law School professor.

“The one thing they don’t want to do is to bring a case that fails,” William Jacobson told Fox Digital in a Zoom interview, referring to the DOJ potentially investigating Schiff’s alleged mortgage fraud. Jacobson is a clinical professor and the Director of the Securities Law Clinic at Cornell. 

“Either it fails legally, or it fails in court. They don’t want to lose that case if you’re going against a major political opponent. And that’s part of the calculation that will take place.”

Jacobson talked about the ins and outs of the Democratic California senator’s potential legal woes following the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency sending a letter to the DOJ this year claiming that Schiff falsified banking and property documents by listing two homes – on two separate coasts – as his primary residence out of an effort to allegedly get more favorable loans. 

The DOJ has not yet said whether it would take up the case, but is likely digging into Schiff’s paper trail as it weighs whether to move forward, Jacobson explained.  

TRUMP ACCUSES ‘SCAM ARTIST’ SCHIFF OF LYING ABOUT MARYLAND HOME TO COMMIT MORTGAGE FRAUD

“I would expect that the first thing the Department of Justice is going to do is to gather documents. There will be a paper trail here. There will be many things that are documentable, and not ‘he said, she said,’ as to where Adam Schiff was actually living,” he said. 

As investigators go through the documents, they will ask questions such as: What was his actual primary residence? What did he sign? Who was present when he signed? Did he have conversations with people about it?

The law professor, who founded the popular conservative legal blog Legal Insurrection, said that there will likely be a “significant paper trail” to go through due to the case stretching back more than 20 years and due to companies keeping tight records following the 2008 financial crash. 

“Mortgage companies preserve all of these things because of the financial crisis and other things. They have to maintain these records. . . . And I would expect that that would be the first thing the Department of Justice would look at is the paper trail and the circumstantial evidence as to where Adam Schiff was, in fact, living,” he continued, remarking that there are “no shrinking violets” at the Trump DOJ. 

Schiff first fell under scrutiny this year in May, when the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) sent a letter to the Department of Justice sounding the alarm that, in “multiple instances,” Schiff allegedly “falsified bank documents and property records to acquire more favorable loan terms, impacting payments from 2003-2019 for a Potomac, Maryland-based property.”

At the heart of the issue are two properties purchased by Schiff: a home purchased in 2003 in Potomac, Maryland, for $870,000 under a Fannie Mae-backed mortgage agreement for $610,000 at a rate of 5.625% over a term of 30 years, and a 2009 Burbank, Calif., condo. Schiff reaffirmed the Potomac property as his principal residence in mortgage refinancing paperwork in 2009, 2011, 2012, and 2013, according to the FHFA letter to the DOJ.

Over the same time frame, Schiff took a homeowner’s tax exemption on the Burbank condo while also claiming that home as his primary residence for a $7,000 reduction off of the 1% property tax, FHFA Director William Pulte wrote in the letter to the DOJ, citing media reports. 

In 2023, the letter continued, a spokesperson for Schiff asserted that “Adam’s primary residence is Burbank, California, and will remain so when he wins the Senate seat.”

FHFA is an independent federal agency that oversees Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Bank System. 

TRUMP INVOKES RUSSIA COLLUSION HOAX WHILE CALLING FOR LONGTIME FOE SCHIFF TO FACE JAIL TIME

In 2020, Schiff refinanced his mortgage, listing his Maryland home as his secondary residence.

Trump publicly slammed Schiff over his mortgages in July on Truth Social, accusing him of fraud and putting the issue back on the public’s radar following 2023 news reports on Schiff’s homes in Maryland and California. 

“I have always suspected Shifty Adam Schiff was a scam artist,” Trump posted to Truth Social Tuesday. “And now I learn that Fannie Mae’s Financial Crimes Division have concluded that Adam Schiff has engaged in a sustained pattern of possible Mortgage Fraud.” 

“Adam Schiff said that his primary residence was in MARYLAND to get a cheaper mortgage and rip off America, when he must LIVE in CALIFORNIA because he was a Congressman from CALIFORNIA. I always knew Adam Schiff was a Crook. The FRAUD began with the refinance of his Maryland property on February 6, 2009, and continued through multiple transactions until the Maryland property was correctly designated as a second home on October 13, 2020.”

FOX NEWS POLITICS NEWSLETTER: SCHIFF FLAGGED FOR POTENTIAL MORTGAGE FRAUD BY TRUMP OFFICIAL 

Schiff has repeatedly denied and brushed off the accusations, including refusing to answer questions from Fox News Digital about his alleged mortgage fraud when confronted in the nation’s capital on July 16. 

“Since I led his first impeachment, Trump has repeatedly called for me to be arrested for treason. So in a way, I guess this is a bit of a letdown. And this baseless attempt at political retribution won’t stop me from holding him accountable. Not by a long shot,” he posted to X in July following Trump’s initial Truth Social attack on Schiff’s mortgages. 

“This is just Donald Trump’s latest attempt at political retaliation against his perceived enemies. So it is not a surprise, only how weak this false allegation turns out to be. And much as Trump may hope, this smear will not distract from his Epstein files problem,” he added. 

Schiff’s primary residence discrepancies first hit the public’s radar in 2023, when Schiff launched an ultimately successful campaign to serve in the Senate after decades in the U.S. House. CNN published the first news article detailing that Schiff had claimed the Maryland home as a primary residence while also taking a homeowner’s tax exemption on the Burbank condo.

The campaign said at the time that Schiff’s two properties were listed as primary residences “for loan purposes because they are both occupied throughout the year and to distinguish them from a vacation property.”

Trump and Schiff have long been political foes, which was underscored during Trump’s first administration when Schiff served as the lead House manager during the first impeachment trial against Trump in 2020, and when Schiff repeatedly promoted claims that Trump’s 2016 campaign colluded with Russia. 

WATCH: ADAM SCHIFF SILENT AFTER TRUMP ACCUSED HIM OF MORTGAGE FRAUD

Days after Trump first posted about Schiff’s mortgages in Maryland and California, the president’s Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, declassified documents that reportedly show “overwhelming evidence” that then-President Barack Obama and his national security team laid the groundwork for what would be the yearslong Trump–Russia collusion probe after Trump’s election win against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016. 

Schiff was an incredibly vocal lawmaker amid the Russian collusion claims, most notably when the House censured him in 2023 over his promotion that Trump’s 2016 campaign colluded with Russia. Schiff served in the House representing California from 2001 to 2024, when he was sworn-in as a senator after his successful 2024 campaign to serve in the nation’s upper chamber.

Schiff served as the ranking member of the House intelligence committee from 2015 to 2019, before becoming the committee’s chair from 2019 to 2023. In that role, he was kept up to date on classified materials surrounding the Russian collusion claims. 

Trump also recently invoked Gabbard’s alleged revelations while attacking Schiff over his mortgages in another Truth Social post.

FEDERAL HOUSING OFFICIAL SUBMITTED SCHIFF CRIMINAL REFERRAL TO DOJ OVER MORTGAGE DOCUMENTS

Trump went on to ominously warn during a White House event last week that Schiff has “a lot of other things far worse than” his mortgage inquiry. 

“He defrauded banks and insurance companies and the federal government, but it’s, very simple. It’s mortgage loan fraud … But he has a lot of other things far worse than that. So no Adam Schiff, they have him 100% on mortgage fraud,” Trump said last Tuesday from the White House while hosting a meeting with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

Jacobson said that Democrats have boxed themselves out of attempting to claim that Trump is targeting a political foe over the mortgage criminal referral because the party had spent the last decade launching “lawfare” at Trump. 

“One of the ironies here that I think everybody understands, is that Democrats launched a lawfare campaign against Donald Trump. And it didn’t just start once he took office this year. It’s been going on for a decade,” he said. 

“They have used every tool available to try to destroy him, including through criminal prosecutions, including through federal investigations. . . .  They’ve really tried to get him. And for them now to say, ‘oh, just because we did that to you for 10 years doesn’t give you the right to do it to us.’ Legally, that’s sound. I mean, you have to prove your case in court. But politically, I don’t think that’s going to fly. Democrats screaming that Donald Trump is weaponizing prosecutors against them is not going to really impress a lot of people.”

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Jacobson speculated that there will likely be more woes for Schiff in the coming days, but that potential legal cases hinge on prosecutors. 

“We don’t know where this is going ahead, of course, but it does appear that Adam Schiff is in the sights of Donald Trump. No surprise about that, because Donald Trump has been in the sights of Adam Schiff for a decade. So, I fully expect that there will be more here. The question is going to be really though, once it moves into the realm of prosecution, what are the prosecutors going to do?” 

The Department of Justice declined comment when approached about potentially investigating and taking up the Schiff case. Schiff’s office did not respond to Fox Digital’s request for comment.

Fox News Digital’s Danielle Wallace and Peter Doocy contributed to this report. 

Former two-term Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper is running for the Senate in battleground North Carolina.

Cooper announced his candidacy on Monday morning in the open-seat race to succeed Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, who announced late last month that he wouldn’t run for re-election in the 2026 midterm elections. 

“I have thought on it and prayed about it, and I have decided: I am running to be the next U.S. Senator from North Carolina,” Cooper said in a social media post.

Cooper’s campaign launch is seen as a major coup for the Democratic Party, as he was the party’s top recruit in next year’s elections, bolstering their chances of flipping a key GOP-held seat as they try to take a big bite out of the Republicans’ 53-47 Senate majority.

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His announcement was expected, as numerous news organizations, including Fox News, recently reported that the former governor would launch a campaign in the coming days.

And this past weekend, at the North Carolina Democrats “Unity Dinner,” Cooper teased his run during his speech.

He grabbed cheers when he asked people to stand up if they were running for office in 2026 and said, “Hey, I’m not sitting down, am I.”

Ahead of his launch, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), which is the Senate GOP’s campaign arm, targeted Cooper in a digital ad.

“Roy Cooper is a Democrat lapdog who spent his time as Governor sabotaging President Trump, doing Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ bidding, releasing violent illegal aliens into North Carolina streets, and championing radical transgender ideology,” National Republican Senatorial Commitee communications director Joanna Rodriguez charged in a statement Monday morning.

While Cooper isn’t the only Democrat to announce their candidacy – former one-term Rep. Wiley Nickel launched a campaign in April – he will instantly be considered the clear front-runner for the party’s nomination in North Carolina.

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Cooper, who was a popular governor during his eight years steering North Carolina, was floated last year as a possible running mate for then-Vice President Kamala Harris after she succeeded then-President Joe Biden as the Democrats’ 2024 presidential nominee. 

Cooper is likely to face off in next year’s general election with Republican National Committee (RNC) chair Michael Whatley, in what would be one of the most competitive, bruising, and expensive Senate battles of 2026.

President Donald Trump, who is the ultimate kingmaker in GOP politics and whose endorsements in Republican primaries are extremely powerful, on Thursday gave Whatley his “Complete and Total Endorsement.”

“Mike would make an unbelievable Senator from North Carolina. He is fantastic at everything he does, and he was certainly great at the RNC,” Trump added, in a social media post.

And NRSC chair Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina called Whatley “a strong America First conservative who will be a champion for North Carolina in the U.S. Senate.

RNC CHAIR WHATLEY TO SEEK OPEN GOP-HELD SENATE SEAT IN KEY BATTLEGROUND STATE

Scott noted that “the Tar Heel State has supported President Trump in all three of his elections and elected Republicans to both its U.S. Senate seats for over a decade. With Michael as our candidate, we will win it again in 2026!”

Trump called Tillis’ announcement last month that he wouldn’t seek a third six-year term in the Senate “great news.”

Tillis is a GOP critic of the president, and Trump torched the senator last month for not supporting his so-called “big, beautiful” spending and tax cut bill.

Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law and a North Carolina native who served last year alongside Whatley as an RNC co-chair, was considered to be Trump’s top choice to run for Tillis’ seat.

But in a statement on Thursday, Lara Trump said “after much consideration and heartfelt discussions with my family, friends, and supporters, I have decided not to pursue the United States Senate seat in North Carolina at this time.”

Whatley, who served as chair of the North Carolina GOP before being elected last year as RNC chair, said recently in a Fox News Digital interview that the Senate showdown in the Tar Heel State is “going to be one of the marquee races in the country.”

President Donald Trump is meeting with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday, just a day after Trump secured a trade deal with the European Union. 

Trump will hold a bilateral meeting with Starmer in Turnberry, Scotland. In May, the U.K. became the first to announce a trade deal with the U.S. following Liberation Day, when Trump announced widespread tariffs for multiple countries earlier this year.

It is unclear what details the pair will hash out on Monday, but according to Alan Mendoza, executive director of the London-based think tank the Henry Jackson Society, the earlier deal was more of a “head of terms,” essentially stating both nations’ intent to move forward with new trade terms.

“Now we expect to see more detail to be hammered out and specific rates on various industries to be specified,” Mendoza explained to Fox News Digital.

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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also told reporters last week that Trump and Starmer will meet “to refine the great trade deal that was brokered,” though the White House did not answer Fox News Digital’s questions about what specifically will be discussed over the weekend.

“The U.K. is the only country to have secured this deal with the U.S., reducing car export tariffs from 27.5% to 10%, saving manufacturers hundreds of millions each year and protecting hundreds of thousands of jobs,” the British government said in a statement. “At the same time, the aerospace sector has seen the removal of 10% tariffs on goods such as engines and aircraft parts, helping make companies such as Rolls Royce more competitive and allow them to continue to be at the cutting edge of innovation.”

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Starmer championed his relationship with Trump in a BBC interview earlier this month and said that it was “in the national interest” for the two men to get along.

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“We are different people, and we’ve got different political backgrounds and leanings, but we do have a good relationship and that comes from a number of places,” Starmer told BBC podcast “Political Thinking.” “I think I do understand what anchors the president, what he really cares about.”

Fox News’ Caitlin McFall contributed to this report

Florida Sen. Rick Scott flew an aerial ad across the skies of New York City on Saturday with a message encouraging residents to relocate to the Sunshine State to escape socialism, should Zohran Mamdani become mayor of the Big Apple.

The banner was seen above Coney Island and Jones Beach as beachgoers soaked up the sun. 

“Hate socialism?” read Scott’s aerial ad. “Us too! Move 2 FL.”

Scott addressed the aerial banner in a statement provided to Fox News Digital.

“While many New Yorkers are out enjoying the beach this weekend, we will be giving them a friendly reminder that in addition to our world class beaches, Florida is the state where you can escape socialism,” said Scott, who headed the state as governor from 2011-2019.

UNEARTHED VIDEO EXPOSES MAMDANI’S ‘UNABASHED’ COMMITMENT TO SUPPORTING ANTI-ISRAEL SANCTIONS AS LAWMAKER

The Republican senator slammed New York City and the politics of Mamdani.

“New York City once represented the American Dream – a city where anything was possible,” Scott said. “Today, it has now become the city where only billionaires can prosper, Jewish students are attacked on campus, capitalism is shunned and radical socialists like Zohran Mamdani are celebrated.”

Mamdani handily won New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary last month against former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Mamdani is seen as a frontrunner in the race for City Hall, though many in the Democratic establishment have yet to fully embrace the socialist nominee.

NYC COUNCILWOMAN WARNS MAMDANI VICTORY WILL DRIVE AWAY KEY VOTING BLOC: ‘AFRAID TO LIVE HERE’

Scott said New York City reaped the rewards of capitalism, “the best system in the world,” which is now “being villainized by the Democrats all across this country.”

“Democrats are working around the clock to discredit President Trump and tear down our country and rebuild it in their woke, radical image through socialist policies,” the Republican said. “But, this isn’t new.  It’s just an old, barbaric, discredited idea that’s failed every time it’s been tried.  Just look at Cuba and Venezuela and the many families who fled those brutal regimes to live in Florida.”

Scott said that during his time in political office he worked to ensure that families in Florida could achieve the American Dream, including good jobs, education and safe communities.

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“That is the American Dream and it is deeply unfortunate that it is completely slipping away in New York,” he said. “New York families deserve better.”

Fox News Digital’s Brie Stimson contributed to this report.

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., joined with progressive Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., in calling for subpoenas against Jeffrey Epstein’s estate on Sunday.

Massie and Khanna announced the move and accompanying legislation during a joint appearance on ABC News’ “This Week” with host Jonathan Karl. In addition to the call for subpoenas, the pair’s legislation would force a House vote on the release of the government’s Epstein files.

“Well, I think we should get a lot more than just the book. Let’s get the financial records of the estate. Where is it – follow the money, as they say up here,” Massie said. “We should look at the plea bargain. Open that up. See what was the deal. What was the deal that was cut? I think there’s a lot more than just that letter.”

Massie also said Americans should see the supposed birthday letter President Donald Trump wrote to Epstein in 2003. The letter was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, but Trump denies that it exists and has sued the paper for defamation.

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The lawmakers say their legislation would force the Epstein estate and the federal government to release all files relating to Epstein’s crimes. 

“It would force a full release of the files. It has the force of law. It’s not a subpoena. It’s not a ‘Pretty please, would you release the files?’ It’s the force of law and it’s got protections to redact victims’ names and to prevent, you know, release of child pornography,” Massie said.

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House Speaker Mike Johnson avoided a scheduled vote on the legislation last week by beginning the August recess one day early. Johnson appeared on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” on Sunday and called Massie and Khanna “reckless” for pushing the legislation.

He argued that he is in favor of “maximum disclosure” for the Epstein files, but claimed that Massie and Khanna’s legislation lacks safeguards.

Many Republicans have criticized Democrats for focusing so heavily on the Epstein case, now that it has become an issue for the White House. Critics say Democrats are latching onto the topic after years of showing little interest in the issue, though Khanna denies those claims.

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“We have been pushing for transparency during the Biden administration. Both in 2021 and 2024, the court ordered release of documents, but Donald Trump raised the stakes, and he did it in a way in the campaign that was justified. He said, ‘Look, when I get there, I’m going to release the files,'” Khanna told ABC.

A lawmaker in the conservative House Freedom Caucus is launching his campaign to be governor of South Carolina.

Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., who came to Congress in 2017, kicked off his Palmetto State bid with a Rock Hill campaign rally on Sunday.

“I am running for governor to shake things up, clean up Columbia, and finally take down the corrupt political establishment once and for all,” Norman is telling voters, according to prepared remarks obtained by Fox News Digital. “I owe nothing to the lobbyists. I owe nothing to the Columbia bureaucratic elite. My allegiance is to you, the people of South Carolina.”

As part of his campaign platform, Norman is promising to establish a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) “commission” in the state “that roots out waste, fraud, and abuse.”

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Norman is also running on the promise of fixing South Carolina’s infrastructure, implementing term limits for state lawmakers, tort reform, and pledging to “let the people vote on judges.”

Currently, a majority of state judgeships in South Carolina are decided by the General Assembly. Some positions, including magistrate judges, are appointed by the governor.

Norman is also promising “to use the bully pulpit to bring my case directly to the people” and to “use the veto pen.”

His campaign speech also touches on socially conservative goals like advocating for school choice, and restricting school bathrooms by gender at birth.

“And if that all doesn’t work, I’m telling you now that any so-called “Republican” RINO legislator that doesn’t stand for reforms the people are calling for doesn’t deserve to be in office and we’ll beat them in Republican primaries if that’s what it takes,” Norman’s speech says.

Norman is joining a crowded Republican primary field with his Sunday announcement. South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette and state Sen. Josh Kimbrell are also in the race.

Meanwhile, Norman’s House colleague, Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., is also said to be considering a campaign for governor.

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And in a state that President Donald Trump won by nearly 20 points in 2024, the commander-in-chief’s endorsement – both in the primary and general election – will likely be critical.

Norman pointed out in his speech that both he and Trump have a background in real estate; both men led development companies that were founded by their fathers.

“We need business leaders – people who have signed both the front and the back of a paycheck. Folks who have built something, taken risks, made money, and yes, lost money too,” Norman said. “Thankfully, we have a great businessman – and fellow developer – back in the White House! Just look what a difference President Trump has made in six months.”

He also cast himself as a disruptor who helped move “the needle by making our budget more conservative,” in reference to the House Freedom Caucus’s push to move Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” to the right.

And while the group was successful in doing that in the House, the Senate watered down several of those wins during its time considering the bill. The Senate version ultimately passed the House, with Norman and other Freedom Caucus members voting in support.

“Some say I have earned a reputation of being uncompromising, always trying to make a bill more conservative,” Norman’s speech says. “Well folks, I’ll take that as a compliment and I am proud of it.”

As a member of Congress, Norman sits on the House Committee on Financial Services, House Budget Committee, and House Rules Committee.

A longtime ally of former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Norman was the only House Republican to formally endorse her before Haley dropped out of the race, after which Norman backed Trump.

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He told Fox News Digital of his endorsement in January 2024, “When I supported Nikki Haley, I had the respect of Donald Trump to call him, and I told him what I was gonna do, and I decided I was going to do it.”

It’s worth noting, however, that Norman had been a vocal supporter of Trump since Haley’s exit – and unlike other House Freedom Caucus allies, he did not incur Trump’s wrath for his loyalty to Haley.

He was most recently at the White House earlier this week with other House Republicans for a reception celebrating their legislative successes.

The South Carolina gubernatorial general election will take place in November 2026.