NationalWatch

Mexican drug cartels are getting help from the Chinese to build their drug empire that feeds off American consumers. 

Border patrol officials intercepted 50,000 kilos of precursor chemicals this week used in the process of manufacturing methamphetamines, sent from China and intended for members of the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico. In addition to providing the cartels with the chemicals needed to make illicit drugs, Chinese entities are also one of the foremost actors in helping them launder their proceeds, according to the Treasury Department.

“For far too long, the Mexican drug cartels have raked in billions of dollars at the expense of our local communities leaving nothing but addiction, death and despair in their wake,” said Chad Plantz, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent in Charge in Houston. “This initiative provides HSI with a game-changing method to stay one step ahead of the cartels by disrupting the flow of chemicals that they depend on to produce illicit narcotics.”

‘COMING FOR US’: EXPERT SOUNDS ALARM ON CCP’S MISSION TO ‘KILL AMERICANS’ AFTER FBI MAKES SHOCKING ARRESTS

The seizure was part of an ongoing initiative launched in 2019 to identify suspicious shipments of precursor chemicals from China, India and other countries that are destined for Mexican drug cartels. Since the initiative was established, officials have interdicted more than 1,700,000 kilograms of chemicals used to manufacture methamphetamines and fentanyl, including a seizure this past March of 44,000 kilograms of precursor chemicals at the Port of Houston, destined for the Sinaloa Cartel.

Immigration officials’ bust comes amid news of a spate of other incidents involving Chinese nationals or individuals working for China who have engaged in espionage efforts, ranging from agroterroism and selling military secrets, to infiltrating U.S. universities and utilizing American-based products to sow political divisions online.

In the latest incident, two Chinese nationals were charged with allegedly smuggling a “dangerous biological pathogen” into the U.S. to study at a University of Michigan laboratory. This happened amid controversy over the Trump administration’s effort to intensify visa scrutiny for Chinese nationals trying to enter the United States.

CHINESE OFFICIAL REPORTEDLY SEEKING TALKS WITH TRUMP ON FENTANYL INGREDIENTS AMID TRADE WAR

Last month, an expansive investigation by a group of Stanford students detailed how there is a culture of students and faculty at their school doing work for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The report highlighted how some students want to work with the Chinese government, such as through sharing intellectual property or aligning their research priorities with Chinese interests, while others are sometimes coerced into doing work for the CCP, particularly if they have family back in Beijing.

Meanwhile, just this week, reports of Chinese efforts to steal U.S. state secrets or sow political divisions have surfaced. 

On Friday, the Department of Justice indicted two Chinese nationals and a lawful permanent resident for conspiring to traffic sensitive American military technology to the CCP. 

Over the weekend, a British businessman was arrested for attempting to smuggle sensitive U.S. military components to China. 

American artifical intelligence company OpenAI this week also shutdown a Chinese-linked influence operation that was utilizing its ChatGPT product to generate social media posts and sow political division related to U.S. politics online.

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“The new visa policy is long overdue,” Congresswoman Michele Steel said. “After four years of willful ignorance – or gross incompetence – under the Biden administration, President Trump has wasted no time in directing his administration to take the decisive, necessary action to finally thwart the pervasive and growing threat of Chinese communist espionage.”

Harvard filed an amended complaint in federal court on Thursday arguing that the Trump administration’s decision to ban entry to foreign students with F and J visas if they plan to attend the Ivy League is unconstitutional.

Over 7,000 students at Harvard hold F-1 or J-1 visas. Without those certifications, they can’t study, teach, or conduct research in the U.S. The ban also affects their families and dependents.

According to the university’s lawsuit, the proclamation “lacks any lawful basis” and does not apply to any broad group of immigrants.

“Nonimmigrants may enter the country unabated, as long as they do not attend Harvard,” the complaint states.

TRUMP IS DOWN BUT NOT OUT IN COURT BATTLE OVER HARVARD’S FOREIGN STUDENT VISAS

Harvard argues the measure does not target a “class of aliens,” but instead singles out Harvard-bound students, calling it a “government vendetta” rather than a national security measure.

In April, a federal task force led by the Trump administration sent the university a list of demands, including ideological screening of students and faculty, “viewpoint diversity” quotas in hiring and admissions, and punishment of student activist groups. 

The administration also demanded Harvard report foreign funding sources and allow government oversight of internal policies.

When Harvard refused, the government froze $2.2 billion in research funding. Trump later posted on Truth Social that Harvard should lose its tax-exempt status if it continued to “push radical ideology.” In another post, he accused the school of hiring “woke, Radical Left, idiots” and claimed it was no longer a great university.

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

The Department of Homeland Security revoked Harvard’s SEVP (Student and Exchange Visitor Program) certification a few days later, which allows the school to sponsor international students, but a federal judge blocked that decision.

Harvard now says that the administration is using Trump’s proclamation to do what the courts have already stopped.

The government claims Harvard failed to provide complete information on its international student population, but the university says it has submitted all records required by law and that the revocation is a pretext. 

“There is no lawful justification for the government’s unprecedented actions,” the university said in Thursday’s filing.

The amended complaint also reveals that Harvard is being represented by Robert Hur, the former special counsel who interviewed former President Joe Biden.

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin responded to the lawsuit by saying it “seeks to kneecap the President’s constitutionally vested powers under Article II. It is a privilege, not a right, for universities to enroll foreign students.

“The Trump administration is committed to restoring common sense to our student visa system; no lawsuit, this or any other, is going to change that. We have the law, the facts, and common sense on our side.”

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International students now face uncertainty as the legal battle wages on. Jing, a 23-year-old Chinese graduate student interning in Asia, told The Associated Press: “It is tiring; we all feel numb now.” 

Another student, Yonas Nuguse from Ethiopia, who was accepted after surviving war and a school shutdown, also told The AP, “I hope the situation is temporary and I can enroll on time.”

Fox News’ Louis Casiano and David Spunt contributed to this report.

House GOP lawmakers are accusing Elon Musk of going “too far” after he suggested President Donald Trump was “in the Epstein files.”

“Hopefully we never have to answer questions about tweets like that from Elon again,” said Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Texas, calling Musk’s comments “not helpful.”

“Elon crossed the line today,” Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital,

Musk referenced late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein in relation to Trump Thursday as part of a larger tirade against the president and Republican leaders over their budget reconciliation bill.

HOUSE GOP TARGETS ANOTHER DEM OFFICIAL ACCUSED OF BLOCKING ICE AMID DELANEY HALL FALLOUT

The tech billionaire accused Republicans of adding to the national debt — currently nearing $37 trillion — with legislation they’ve called Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.”

“Time to drop the really big bomb. [Trump] is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!” Musk wrote on X. “Mark this post for the future. The truth will come out.”

Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, said Musk had “gone too far.”

NATIONAL DEBT TRACKER: AMERICAN TAXPAYERS (YOU) ARE NOW ON THE HOOK FOR $36,214,501,400,213.64 AS OF 6/5/25

“There’s just no need for this,” Nehls said. “Those conversations should be taking place behind closed doors.”

Some Republicans argued that any damning information about Trump and Epstein would have already been revealed if it existed.

“What I would say is, if Joe Biden had Donald Trump in the Epstein logs, there’s no question it would have come out during the campaign,” Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., told Fox News Digital. “So, I don’t know what’s prompting it. I think it’s all unfortunate.”

Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., questioned why Musk would let his young son, nicknamed “X,” around Trump if he believed he was closely associated with a pedophile.

“The Biden administration would have put it out. There’s nobody that Democrats hate more than Donald J. Trump, and he’s handing them their lunch every day. So, I don’t put much faith into it,” Burchett said.

“Why would he let his kid hang out with the president if that was true? That just doesn’t make any sense. And now he’s calling for his impeachment. I mean, it’s just going off to the deep end.”

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla.,  who is leading a task force on declassifying federal investigations, including Epstein’s, told reporters she did not think Musk’s suggestion held water.

“Speaking to Jeffrey Epstein, I will be very specific that I do believe that if President Trump was in the Epstein files, they would have released it during the primary, and they didn’t,” Luna said.

MEET THE TRUMP-PICKED LAWMAKERS GIVING SPEAKER JOHNSON A FULL HOUSE GOP CONFERENCE

“So, the fact is, is that I do not believe that President Trump is in the Epstein files, the way that it’s being implied, but either which way, this is why we continue to push for transparency.”

Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., however, stood apart in his answer in calling for more transparency into the Epstein files.

“Facts will bear out whatever they will,” Norman said. “The Epstein files are bound to come out, and let it come out. We ought to see it. America has a right to know, just like they do with the John F. Kennedy files, the Bobby Kennedy files.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt attributed Musk’s tirade to Trump’s bill, which is focused on working- and middle-class tax relief and not benefiting Musk and his companies enough.

“This is an unfortunate episode from Elon, who is unhappy with the One Big Beautiful Bill because it does not include the policies he wanted. The President is focused on passing this historic piece of legislation and making our country great again,” Leavitt said.

Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., told Fox News Digital, “I could not tell you what Elon Musk’s motivations are, but I can tell you what we’re going to do, which is avoid a $4 trillion tax increase on the American people.

And while it’s well-known the two men were acquainted, a source familiar with the matter pointed out that Trump had kicked Epstein out of his Palm Beach Golf Club.

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Trump had permanently banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago for hitting on a teenage daughter of a club member, according to a book, “The Grifter’s Club.” 

“The administration itself released Epstein files with the President’s name included. This is not a new surprise Elon is uncovering. Everyone already knew this,” the source said. “If Elon truly thought the President was more deeply involved with Epstein, why did he hang out with him for six months and say he ‘loves him as much as a straight man can love a straight man?'”

Fox News Digital has also reached out to Musk for comment via his office at Tesla.

Maverick Democratic Sen. John Fetterman dissed members of his own party Thursday for suddenly backing Elon Musk during his feud with President Donald Trump. 

Democrats have found an unlikely ally in Musk this week, given his public rejection of Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” and a subsequent call for Trump’s impeachment. 

The president has championed the legislation as fulfilling his key campaign promises, including border security, American energy production and tax cuts. 

The megabill is under consideration by both a Republican-led White House and Congress. But it has faced hiccups in the Senate this week as Republicans, including some who helped pass the bill through the House, have indicated they do not support the bill in its current form. Every House Democrat voted against the bill. 

ELON MUSK WARPATH AGAINST TRUMP’S ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’ RATTLES HOUSE GOP

The national debt is at $36,214,501,400,213.64 as of June 5, according to the latest numbers published by the Treasury Department.

GOP SENATORS EXPRESS ‘CONCERNS,’ ‘SKEPTICISM’ OVER TRUMP’S SPENDING BILL AFTER MUSK RANT

Amid the setbacks, Musk has thrown a wrench into the Republican’s reconciliation process through a series of fiery posts on X, the platform he bought in 2022. And Democrats were quick to coalesce behind Musk‘s rejection of the bill, seizing on the GOP’s intraparty conflict despite their outright rejection of Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) this year. 

In the first of several posts targeting the bill, and then Trump directly, Musk said, “I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.”

Fetterman, who has built a reputation for bucking his own party on issues like immigration and support for Israel, was quick to call out the inconsistency of his fellow Democrats Thursday. 

“The Dems, we’ve been dumping all over Musk and vandalizing Teslas or whatever, and now, suddenly, we might be more back into him,” Fetterman said. 

Democrats began staging protests at Tesla dealerships early into Trump’s second term. Tesla vehicles and dealerships have also been targeted this year in a string of violent attacks against the company, another business owned by Musk. Trump’s Justice Department labeled the attacks “domestic terrorism.”

And while the Pennsylvania Democrat said Musk is right for rejecting Trump’s megabill, Fetterman said Thursday Democrats have to decide what they think of Musk and stick with it. 

“It wasn’t that long ago that Tesla was like the virtue-signaling kind of accessory for Dems,” Fetterman said. “I would never want to vandalize Teslas, and the ‘big, beautiful bill’ is wrong for America. So, from my perspective, I’ve just tried to be consistent through that.”

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., was one Democrat who acknowledged this week that Democrats should work with Musk on their shared objective to stop Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.”

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And GOP Rep. Tim Burchett piled on the criticism of Democrats’ inconsistencies, telling Fox News Digital, “It’s kind of ironic to me that, a week ago, the Democrats hated Elon Musk’s guts … and now they’re basing everything they have on him.”

Fox News Channel’s Chad Pergram and Fox News Media’s Dan Scully contributed to this report. 

Democrats are moving to embrace former Department of Government Efficiency leader Elon Musk as he publicly spats with President Donald Trump, despite many party voters and lawmakers railing against Musk for months as a “fascist” or “dictator” for taking a hatchet to the federal government’s overspending and fraud within the Trump administration.

“If Biden had a big supporter criticize him, Trump would have hugged him the next day,” Democrat California Rep. Ro Khanna posted to X on Thursday of Musk’s criticisms of the “big, beautiful bill.” “When we refused to meet with @RobertKennedyJr, Trump embraced him & won. We can be the party of sanctimonious lectures, or the party of FDR that knows how to win & build a progressive majority.”

Khanna told Politico on Wednesday that Democrats should “ultimately be trying to convince [Musk] that the Democratic Party has more of the values that he agrees with.”

WHITE HOUSE STANDS BY TAX BILL AFTER MUSK CALLS IT A ‘DISGUSTING ABOMINATION’

“A commitment to science funding, a commitment to clean technology, a commitment to seeing international students like him,” he added. 

Democrat New York Rep. Ritchie Torres told the outlet on Wednesday, “I’m a believer in redemption, and he is telling the truth about the legislation.” 

Torres said Musk has “done an enormous amount of damage” and “there are Democrats who see his decimation of the federal workforce and the federal government as an unforgivable sin.”

“Couldn’t agree with Elon more: kill the bill,” Jon Favreau, who served as former director of speech writing for former President Barack Obama, posted to X in response to Musk calling on lawmakers to “kill” the legislation.

JONATHAN TURLEY WARNS DEMOCRATS ‘SHREDDING’ THEIR OWN BELIEFS WITH ‘DANGEROUS’ ANTI-MUSK CAMPAIGN

Musk is in the midst of publicly trading barbs with Trump over the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which is sweeping legislation currently making its way through Congress and aims to fund the president’s agenda. 

“I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore,” Musk posted to X on Tuesday. “This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.” 

In addition to Democrats who don’t support the bill, Musk has also found himself aligned with members of the House Freedom Caucus, which is considered the most conservative voting bloc within the lower chamber, as well as staunch fiscal conservatives in the Senate, such as Republicans Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and Wisconsin Sen. Ron. Johnson, who have publicly rebuked the legislation. 

Some Democrats posting messages favorable of Musk’s comments on the “big, beautiful bill” come after many left-wing voters and lawmakers, as well as federal employees, slammed Musk for months as an unelected billionaire who was helping shape White House policy. Many also took issue with Musk on inauguration day for delivering what dozens of media outlets described as a “Nazi-style salute” to Trump supporters. 

“If you’re cool and want to defend the ‘Sieg Heils’ and the Nazi salutes … whatever you want to do, that’s on you,” Democrat New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Coretz said in January following the gesture. “I’m on the opposite side of that. I’m not with the Nazis.”

“I never imagined we would see the day when what appears to be a Heil Hitler salute would be made behind the Presidential seal,” New York Rep. Jerry Nadler tweeted in January. “This abhorrent gesture has no place in our society and belongs in the darkest chapters of human history. I urge all of my colleagues to unite in condemning this hateful gesture for what it is: antisemitism.”

“He’s incompetent. He’s a thief. He’s a Nazi. And people don’t trust him,” former Democrat New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman said of Musk in March. 

“He’s a Nazi nepo baby who breaks everything he touches,” Massachusetts Democrat Rep. Ayanna Pressley said in February as Musk announced cuts to the federal government via DOGE. “And right now he’s locked himself in a room with grandpa’s Social Security check.”

Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey referred to Musk as a “dictator” at an anti-DOGE rally in February.

TESLA HYPOCRISY: DEMS CONTINUE INVESTING IN ELON MUSK COMPANY DESPITE PAINTING HIM AS VILLAIN

Fiscal conservatives in Congress have spoken out against the One Big Beautiful Bill Act as one that will increase the U.S. debt ceiling by trillions, including Senate Republicans bucking support for the legislation after its passage in the House last month. 

“I want the tax cuts to be permanent. But at the same time, I don’t want to raise the debt ceiling $5 trillion,” Paul told CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “The GOP will own the debt once they vote for this.”

Trump has admonished the criticism from fiscally conservative Republicans, arguing that Paul, for example, was on the verge of siding with the “Radical Left Democrats” and encouraging a 68% tax hike on Americans if he voted against the legislation. 

Musk, since stepping down from his DOGE role in May after his 130 predetermined days as a special government employee ended, ramped up his criticism of the bill on Wednesday, including encouraging lawmakers to “kill the bill.”

On Thursday, Trump directly addressed Musk’s comments, saying in an Oval Office meeting with the chancellor of Germany that he was “disappointed” by Musk’s attacks on the legislation and said he was unsure how their friendly relationship would fare through the criticisms. Trump added that Musk’s disapproval of the bill was allegedly tied to its cuts to electrical vehicle mandates. Musk is the CEO of electric vehicle company Tesla. 

MUSK SAYS TRUMP WOULD HAVE LOST 2024 ELECTION WITHOUT HIM AS ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’ FEUD CONTINUES

“I’m very disappointed because Elon knew the inner workings of this bill better than almost anybody sitting here, better than you people. He knew everything about it. He had no problem with it,” Trump said Thursday. “All of a sudden, he had a problem. And he only developed the problem when he found out that we’re going to have to cut the EV mandate.”

“Elon and I had a great relationship. I don’t know if we will anymore,” Trump added.

The pair later launched attacks on one another on social media.

“Elon was “wearing thin,” I asked him to leave, I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!” Trump posted to X on Thursday. 

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“Such an obvious lie. So sad,” Musk responded on X.

EXCLUSIVE: A former top aide in New York Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office is the daughter of a former Chinese journalist whose archived biography says he worked for the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “Education Department of the News Bureau of the Central Propaganda Department” as a deputy director and served in multiple leadership roles at state-run media outlets, a Fox News Digital investigation found.

Fan Xiaojiang, or Elaine, is currently serving as the chief of staff for Democrat Scott Stringer’s mayoral campaign and has been involved in Democrat politics in New York for more than a decade, including serving as Hochul’s director of Asian affairs between October 2021 and November 2023, according to her Linkedin profile.

The latest campaign finance filing shows that she has been paid more than $120,000 by the Stringer campaign since last August. Stringer’s campaign declined to comment for this story.

Fan, who is originally from Beijing, was recognized by the City University of Hong Kong’s Centre for Communication Research in a 2021 press release promoting her role in the Hochul administration. The press release called her an “alumnus” and boasted about her being “one of the very few Asian-American leaders who hold a senior position in the state’s government.” 

BOMBSHELL REPORT SUGGESTS ‘CHINESE SPIES’ INFILTRATING PRESTIGIOUS US UNIVERSITY: ‘WIDESPREAD CAMPAIGN’

The press release went on to quote professor Jonathan Zhu, a former supervisor, who said that “Elaine is the third generation of a journalist’s family in China, with her grandfather and father each playing a distinguished role in the respective eras of the nation’s history.”

Fox News Digital can now exclusively confirm that this press release was referring to Fan Dongsheng, her father, and Fan Changjiang, her late grandfather.

When reached for comment on whether Elaine’s father influenced her to go into the media, Zhu confirmed to Fox News Digital that Dongsheng was her father and said, “Although I have never eyewitnessed what Fan Dongsheng told his daughter about career choice, his influence on her is obvious and imaginable.” 

He went on to say that Dongsheng visited the university that his daughter attended a “few times, including a talk to our faculty members and graduate students on his experience in launching and operating Huasheng Monthly, one of the earliest online news websites in China.”

Prior to jumping into state government in 2014 as the “Queens Borough Director & Citywide Asian American Affairs” for Stringer’s comptroller office, Elaine was the “Chief Reporter” for Ming Pao Daily News for almost a decade between 2005 and 2015, according to her Linkedin profile.

A few years before she joined the media outlet, the Jamestown Foundation, a nonpartisan defense policy think tank, sounded the alarm about the media outlet being “heavily influenced” by the Chinese government and revealed that sources told them that the Chinese Consulate in New York was their “true boss.”

This would not be the first time that someone from the Fan family would work for a media outlet influenced by the Chinese government. Fan’s father served as the president and editorial director of China Press, or Qiaobao, in New York between 1999 and 2005, according to multiple archived online bios.

COZY TIES BETWEEN TOP NEWSOM ALLY AND CCP OFFICIAL UNEARTHED ON NETWORKING SITE: ‘SHE HELPED ME A LOT’

China Press was not only designated by the State Department during President Donald Trump’s first term as “state-backed propaganda” and a “foreign mission,” but the Hoover Institution also sounded the alarm, saying in a 2020 report that the “state-owned China News Service and the Overseas Chinese Office of the State Council dispatched editorial personnel to the United States” to found Qiaobao.

The elder Fan also served as the “director of the Special Editorial Department of the Chinese News Agency,” which now refers to the Xinhua News Agency, a top state-run propaganda outlet, according to the Hoover Institution. Multiple bios said he was also the deputy director of the “Education Department of the News Bureau of the Central Propaganda Department.”

According to a Chinese government website reviewed by Fox News Digital, the CPD is the “organization primarily responsible for monitoring content to ensure that China’s publishers, in particular its news publishers, do not print anything that is inconsistent with the Communist Party’s political dogma.”

After leaving state-owned media, Dongsheng held multiple leadership roles at the Cheung Kong School of Journalism and Communication at Shantou University, a Chinese university that has sections on their website that promote the CCP “Party Building Work” and hosted a themed life meeting a few years ago on “Strive like an outstanding Communist Party member”

The editor of China Brief at the Jamestown Foundation expressed deep concerns when Fox News Digital reached out about Fan’s familial ties to the CCP, saying she “comes from an illustrious family of CCP journalists.”

“Her grandfather was one of the more prominent propagandists of the CCP’s struggles from the 1930s onwards, while her father worked for a range of party publications managed under the central propaganda department in Beijing,” Arran Hope told Fox News Digital. “This included a stint in the United States, where her daughter now works as chief of staff to mayoral candidate Scott Stringer, following a stint as a reporter for another party outlet here. Fan has not distanced herself from her family legacy, quite the opposite. In 2017, for example, she delivered a speech at a journalism school in the PRC (People’s Republic of China) named in her grandfather’s honor.”

SCHUMER SPOTTED POSING FOR PHOTO WITH CCP OFFICIAL AS WARNINGS SWIRL ABOUT CHINA INFLUENCE

“More concerning for New York City’s voters, she appears to be actively involved in the party’s United Front system, which seeks to promote the party’s preferences and control both within and without the PRC. She has given speeches at events organized by the PRC Consulate in New York that celebrate United Front organizations in the city,” he continued. “These events call for promoting reunification with Taiwan as well as advocating for the ‘motherland’ and its interests. To have somebody whom PRC diplomats clearly view favorably in such a senior role in New York politics should be cause for concern.”

Elaine Fan’s late grandfather joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1939 and had leadership roles at multiple state-owned media outlets, including as the editor-in-chief of the Xinhua News Agency, deputy director of the General Administration of Information and president of the People’s Daily News Agency, according to multiple bios on Baidu. In addition to her father and grandfather, Fan’s uncle, Fan Xiaojian, joined the CCP in 1976 and has held multiple roles in the CCP, including as the chief economist and director of the finance department of the ministry of agriculture between 1998 and 2000.

He was also a delegate to the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and was a member of the 11th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, which Fox News Digital previously reported was “designed to liaise with non-Communist Party members – and ultimately see them work with the CCP to advance its interests,” according to a 2021 report from The Diplomat.

During her tenure in the Hochul administration, Elaine attended several events hosted by the Chinese Consulate in New York City and multiple groups that make up China’s United Front, which works to “co-opt and neutralize sources of potential opposition to the policies and authority of its ruling,” according to a U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission report.

Elaine was a guest of honor at an event last September at the consulate in New York City to celebrate the 27th anniversary of the U.S.-Fujian Western Overseas Chinese Association, which is a United Front group, according to the Chinese government. 

She also attended an event called “An Evening of Chinese Culture” hosted by the New York Mets and Sino-American Friendship Association in 2023, which received backlash. According to an August 2022 op-ed from the Washington Post’s deputy opinion editor, “China experts have identified” SAFA as “being involved in United Front work – a global effort to propagandize on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party.”

In 2021, Hochul gave a shout-out to Fan while announcing that Chinatown was a $20 Million New York City region winner for revitalization, saying she “forgot to mention Elaine Fan is now my Director of Asian Affairs.” She then told the crowd to “Make sure you get to know Elaine Fan as well.”

Hudson Institute Fellow Michael Sobolik spoke to Fox News Digital about the totality of Fan’s links to the CCP, saying, “This isn’t complicated.”

“If Elaine Fan ever worked for CCP-controlled state media, she shouldn’t be welcome in U.S. electoral politics. If Scott Stringer lacks discernment to insulate a campaign from potential vectors of CCP influence, how can he protect New York City from that malign influence in public office?”

In September 2023, Chinese Consul General Huang Ping in New York hosted a reception at the consulate to celebrate the 74th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, which included several officials, including Fan, who delivered remarks at the reception. 

Hochul’s ties to Elaine Fan aren’t the first time that her office has faced scrutiny over concerns about CCP influence. Hochul faced backlash last year after it was revealed that her former deputy chief of staff, Linda Sun, was indicted on charges of “violating and conspiring to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act, visa fraud, alien smuggling, and money laundering conspiracy,” according to a Department of Justice press release in September.

Sun’s lawyers have repeatedly denied the charges, but the indictment revealed some damning communications between Sun and Huang Ping, who left his role as the consul general of the New York City Chinese consulate weeks after the indictment against Sun was announced.

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Fox News Digital has extensively reported on Ping, who was spotted making visits to top universities, speaking with elected officials and carousing with top media outlets despite his long history of pushing CCP narratives and publicly denying human rights violations against China’s Uyghur population. The unsealed indictment revealed that a speechwriter for then-Lt. Gov. Hochul wanted to mention the “Uyghur situation” in China for her 2021 Lunar New Year message, but the plight of the minority group being persecuted by the Chinese government was ultimately omitted after Sun overruled the speechwriter. 

The indictment says Sun revealed to Ping what the speechwriter wanted to include but insisted that she would not let her boss mention Uyghurs after admitting that she was “starting to lose her temper” with the speechwriter. Ping appeared to chalk up the speechwriter’s suggestion as a clueless American who had never visited China and that U.S.-China relations could “sour” because of “people like the speechwriter,” the indictment said, prompting Sun to concur that the speechwriter had never visited China. Ping would go on to post Hochul’s Lunar New Year message days later on his Facebook page, which did not mention Uyghurs.

Fox News Digital reached out to Fan and Hochul’s office but did not receive a response. 

Democrat lawmakers and social media critics are accusing President Donald Trump of rolling out a “bigoted” travel ban they say is riddled with “Islamophobia.”

“This discriminatory policy, which limits legal immigration, not only flies in the face of what our country is supposed to stand for, it will be harmful to our economy and communities that rely on the contributions of people who come to America from this wide range of countries,” Democratic Washington state Rep. Pramila Jayapal said in a Wednesday statement posted to her social media accounts. “Banning a whole group of people because you disagree with the structure or function of their government not only lays blame in the wrong place, it creates a dangerous precedent.”

Trump signed a proclamation Wednesday restricting travel to the U.S. from a total of 19 countries. Twelve countries, such as Afghanistan, Iran, Somalia, Libya and Yemen, were deemed “very high risk” due to terrorist activity, weak or hostile governments, and high visa overstay rates. While seven other countries, such as Venezuela, Cuba and Laos, faced partial restrictions under the proclamation. 

“The recent terror attack in Boulder, Colorado, has underscored the extreme dangers posed to our country by the entry of foreign nationals who are not properly vetted, as well as those who come here as temporary visitors and overstay their visas,” Trump said in video posted Wednesday to social media. “We don’t want them.” 

TRUMP BANS TRAVEL TO US FROM SEVERAL COUNTRIES TO BLOCK ‘DANGEROUS FOREIGN ACTORS’

“In the 21st century, we’ve seen one terror attack after another carried out by foreign visa overstayers from dangerous places all over the world,” he added. “Thanks to Biden’s open-door policies, today there are millions and millions of these illegals who should not be in our country.”

Officials charged terrorist attack suspect Mohamed Sabry Soliman Monday with a hate crime, attempted first-degree murder, crimes against at-risk adults/elderly and other charges after he allegedly threw Molotov cocktails at a pro-Israel group, “Run for Their Lives,” in Boulder, Colorado, Sunday. The Egyptian national was living in the United States illegally after entering on a work visa two years ago that has since expired, according to federal officials.

TRUMP BANS TRAVEL TO US FROM SEVERAL COUNTRIES TO BLOCK ‘DANGEROUS FOREIGN ACTORS’

Trump’s travel restriction announcement sparked widespread backlash among Democratic lawmakers and critics on social media, who slammed Trump for allegedly promoting Islamophobia. 

“Just now, Trump has re-issued his disgusting, bigoted, and Islamophobic travel ban,” Democratic California Rep. Judy Chu posted to X. “This goes against our core American values while doing nothing to make us safer. We can do better, we must do better.” 

“The immigration dictatorship just announced a ban on immigration for 12 nationalities with 7 more facing draconian discrimination as well. Horrible policies with no justification,” libertarian think tank Cato Institute Director of Immigration Studies David Bier posted to X Wednesday. 

“We’ve seen this horror show before,” Democratic Arizona Rep. Yassamin Ansari posted Wednesday. “It’s not about security. The travel ban is cruel, racist, and un-American.” 

TRUMP VISA POLICY ‘FAR MORE RESTRAINED’ THAN BIDEN POLICY TARGETING ISRAELIS THAT FLEW UNDER THE RADAR: EXPERT

The U.S.’ largest Muslim civil rights group, the Council on American Islamic Relations, also released a statement denouncing the travel bans. 

“Automatically banning students, workers, tourists, and other citizens of these targeted nations from coming to the United States will not make our nation safer,” Nihad Awad, the executive director of CAIR, said in a Wednesday statement. “Neither will imposing vague ideological screening tests that the government can easily abuse to ban immigrants based on their religious identity and political activism.”

“Make no mistake: Trump’s latest travel ban will NOT make America safer,” Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey posted to X. “We cannot continue to allow the Trump administration to write bigotry and hatred into U.S. immigration policy.” 

“From his first Muslim Ban, Trump’s travel bans have always betrayed of the ideals and values that inspired America’s Founders,” Democratic Virginia Rep. Don Beyer posted to X. “Trump’s use of prejudice and bigotry to bar people from entering the U.S. does not make us safer, it just divides us and weakens our global leadership.”

The CEO of Oxfam America, which is an international group of nongovernmental organizations that work to end hunger and poverty, also issued a blistering response to Trump’s announcement. 

TRUMP ADMIN MULLS NEW TRAVEL BAN, BUT NO DECISIONS MADE YET

“By once again targeting individuals from Muslim-majority countries, countries with predominantly Black and brown populations, and countries in the midst of conflict and political instability, this executive order deepens inequality and perpetuates harmful stereotypes, racist tropes, and religious intolerance,” Oxfam America CEO Abby Maxman said in a statement. “This policy is not about national security — it is about sowing division and vilifying communities that are seeking safety and opportunity in the United States.”

The White House defended that the new proclamation is “commonsense” and targeted at countries that “lack proper vetting, exhibit high visa overstay rates, or fail to share identity and threat information,’ Fox Digital reported Wednesday. 

“President Trump is fulfilling his promise to protect Americans from dangerous foreign actors that want to come to our country and cause us harm,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Abigail Jackson told Fox News Digital. 

Trump came under fire from liberals and activist groups during his first administration when he signed an executive order banning travel and implementing “extreme vetting” for countries such as Iran, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Libya in January 2017. Critics of the executive order derided it as Trump’s “Muslim ban.” 

 “To be clear, this is not a Muslim ban, as the media is falsely reporting. This is not about religion — this is about terror and keeping our country safe,” he said in a statement in 2017. 

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“There are over 40 different countries worldwide that are majority Muslim that are not affected by this order.” Trump added at the time. 

Fox News Digital’s Jasmine Baehr, Brooke Singman and Patrick Ward contributed to this report. 

The Trump administration on Thursday imposed sanctions on four judges at the International Criminal Court over allegations against Israel. 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced sanctions against Solomy Balungi Bossa of Uganda, Luz del Carmen Ibáñez Carranza of Peru, Reine Adelaide Sophie Alapini Gansou of Benin, and Beti Hohler of Slovenia.

“These individuals directly engaged in efforts by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute nationals of the United States or Israel, without consent from the United States or Israel,” Rubio said. 

TRUMP UNVEILS SANCTIONS AGAINST INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT FOR NETANYAHU ARREST WARRANT

The sanctions against the Hague-based court are related to Trump Feb. 6 executive order. 

He signed the executive order punishing the ICC in response to its May 2024 arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel’s former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, accusing them of war crimes and crimes against humanity amid Israel’s ongoing conflict against Hamas. 

Rubio said the four ICC judges “actively engaged in the ICC’s illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America or our close ally, Israel.”

“The ICC is politicized and falsely claims unfettered discretion to investigate, charge, and prosecute nationals of the United States and our allies,” he said. “This dangerous assertion and abuse of power infringes upon the sovereignty and national security of the United States and our allies, including Israel.”

TRUMP SANCTIONS ON ICC PROTECTS US MILITARY AND GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS, FORMER NSC OFFICIAL SAYS

He said the United States will take “whatever actions we deem necessary” to protect its sovereignty, that of Israel, and other U.S. allies from “illegitimate actions by the ICC.”

Rubio noted that member states of the court, “many of whose freedom was purchased at the price of great American sacrifices” and to push back against the court for its “disgraceful attack” against the U.S. and Israel.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the ICC. 

The ICC only prosecutes cases when domestic law enforcement authorities cannot or will not investigate. Israel is not a member of the court. 

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Despite the warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, the court has no police powers to enforce warrants, instead choosing to rely on cooperation from its member states.

FIRST ON FOX: A House fiscal hawk wants to create a payment plan for congressional emergency spending to create accountability for the “no rules apply” funding stream.

Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., is set to introduce the Emergency Spending Accountability Act that would add guardrails to last-minute funding meant for national emergencies, like natural disasters, the COVID-19 pandemic or other spending meant to fill the gaps in the appropriations process.

SENATE WEIGHS TRUMP’S ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’ AS POLICY GROUP BACKS CBO, PROJECTS $3 TRILLION DEBT INCREASE

Stutzman told Fox News Digital that lawmakers will go about the usual budgeting process, passing stopgap spending bills or colossal, omnibus spending packages, but that “somewhere in between” there’s always extra money pushed out the door for emergencies.

“Whenever there’s an emergency, Congress always overreacts,” he said. “And I believe they pass these big spending bills under the guise of an emergency, national emergency, and spend money that we don’t take into consideration through our budget process.”

WHITE HOUSE INSISTS FEMA IS TAKING HURRICANE SEASON ‘SERIOUSLY,’ BLASTS ‘SLOPPY’ REPORTING

He said that when he first came to Washington in 2010, the national debt was $9 trillion. After leaving the House and returning during last year’s election cycle, that number has since ballooned to more than $36 trillion.

And since the early 1990s, more than $12 trillion in emergency spending has added to the ever-growing deficit. The lawmaker said that the money dedicated for emergency use was rarely ever paid back, and he argued that the taxpayer dollars were sometimes not used for actual emergencies.

‘HE’S NOT A BIG FACTOR’: TRUMP’S SENATE ALLIES DISMISS ELON MUSK’S CALLS TO ‘KILL THE BILL’

Stutzman’s legislation, which so far has seven House Republican co-sponsors, would require the federal government to pay off the balance of future emergency spending by 20% each year for five years after an emergency following a green-light from lawmakers to open up the cash flow.

His bill would also stipulate that any emergency spending would have to comport with the criteria laid out by the Balance Budget and Emergency Control Act of 1985, which laid out a five-point roadmap to justify that emergency spending be necessary, sudden, urgent, unforeseen and not permanent.

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He understood that there is always a need for emergency spending, giving the examples of the pandemic and of Hurricane Sandy, which blasted through the East Coast more than a decade ago, but he noted there should be offset cuts to account for the spending and better planning on how the taxpayer dollars would be used.

“Most companies and family budgets, they always have a rainy-day fund or an emergency fund that they can tap into if they need it for unexpected costs and expenses, but that’s not the way Washington works,” Stutzman said. “So that’s the idea.”

Tech tycoon and former DOGE chief Elon Musk‘s political evolution has shifted to the right after he jumped into the election fray as a staunch ally of President Donald Trump on the campaign trail and ultimately as the leader of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). 

Musk’s conservative genesis on the public stage has put him at odds with the president as he rails against the One Big Beautiful Bill, which Trump has touted as legislation that would translate into big tax breaks for Americans across the pay brackets and subsequently called on Republican lawmakers to swiftly pass it. 

Musk, who is considered America’s wealthiest resident, is publicly criticizing the sweeping legislation just days after his departure from DOGE and the federal government. The “big beautiful bill” is currently making its way through the Senate and would fund Trump’s agenda, including strengthening border policies and ending taxes on overtime and tips. 

“I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore,” Musk posted to X Tuesday. “This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.” 

ELON MUSK WARNS EXCESSIVE SPENDING WILL PLUNGE US ‘INTO DEBT SLAVERY’

He added the next day that the bill’s “immense level of overspending will drive America into debt slavery!” This was followed by a stream of X posts calling on Americans to encourage their lawmakers to “kill the bill” as well as a “KILL BILL” meme of the 2003 movie with the same name. 

Musk has found himself aligned with members of the House Freedom Caucus, which is considered the most conservative voting bloc within the lower chamber, as well as staunch fiscal conservatives in the Senate, such as Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and Wisconsin Sen. Ron. Johnson, who have publicly rebuked the legislation. 

ELON MUSK ‘DISAPPOINTED’ BY TRUMP’S SPENDING BILL, SAYS IT UNDERMINES WHAT DOGE IS DOING 

Paul said Monday that its potential passage would increase the debt ceiling by $5 trillion, calling the bill a “terrible idea” that bucks conservative ideas. 

The national debt currently stands at about $36 trillion. The Congressional Budget Office, an independent government agency, published a June report that the bill would increase the deficit by $2.4 trillion throughout the next decade. 

“I want the tax cuts to be permanent. But at the same time, I don’t wanna raise the debt ceiling five trillion,” Paul told CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “The GOP will own the debt once they vote for this.”

Trump has admonished the criticism from fiscally conservative Republicans, arguing that Paul, for example, was on the verge of siding with the “Radical Left Democrats” and encouraging a 68% tax hike on Americans if he votes against the legislation. 

“Rand will be playing right into the hands of the Democrats, and the GREAT people of Kentucky will never forgive him! The GROWTH we are experiencing, plus some cost cutting later on, will solve ALL problems. America will be greater than ever before!” Trump posted to Truth Social Saturday of Paul. 

Musk, in an earlier public rebuke of the bill, remarked that he was “disappointed” it passed the House in May as it “undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday that Trump is aware of Musk’s views on the bill, but that the legislation still has the president’s full endorsement, when asked by Fox News’ Peter Doocy about Musk’s X post claiming the bill was a “disgusting abomination.”

“The president already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill,” Leavitt said. “It doesn’t change the president’s opinion. This is one big, beautiful bill and he’s sticking to it.”  

Leavitt also pushed back in the briefing Tuesday that the Congressional Budget Office’s prognostication for the bill is likely wrong, citing a history of missing the mark on budget predictions. 

“The Congressional Budget Office has been historically wrong,” Leavitt said. “In fact, they predicted the Trump tax cuts from the president’s first term in 2017. Their prediction was wrong by half a trillion. Those tax cuts had nearly a half trillion dollars more of revenue than the Congressional Budget Office scored. And I would also point out, I don’t think many people know this, there hasn’t been a single staffer in the entire Congressional Budget Office that has contributed to a Republican since the year 2000. But guess what? There have been many staffers within the Congressional Budget Office who have contributed to Democrat candidates and politicians every single cycle.” 

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., also slammed the report for employing static scoring as opposed to dynamic scoring, which in “layman’s terms is they don’t give us any credit for the extraordinary economic growth that will be spurred along by this bill.”

Static scoring evaluates the fiscal impact of a policy change without considering how the change will affect the economy overall, while dynamic scoring broadens the scope of a study to include how a policy change would affect the economy. 

FURTHER RIGHT

A White House official told Fox News Digital that Musk and Trump have historically seen eye-to-eye on political issues more than they differ, adding they continue to share many political views when asked if Musk has gone further to the right than Trump since his work within the administration. 

Trump spoke publicly about Musk’s criticisms Thursday from the Oval Office during a meeting with the chancellor of Germany, remarking he was “disappointed” with Musk’s rebukes. 

“I’m very disappointed, because Elon knew the inner workings of this bill better than almost anybody sitting here, better than you people,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “He knew everything about it. He had no problem with it. All of a sudden he had a problem, and he only developed the problem when he found out that we’re going to have to cut the EV mandate, because that’s billions and billions of dollars, and it really is unfair.”

“Elon and I had a great relationship,” Trump added. “I don’t know if we will anymore.” 

Musk’s leadership of DOGE came to an official end May 28 as his time as a special government employee ran dry of its 130 predetermined days. While in the role, Musk became a common target of liberal ire as he led efforts to remove fraud, corruption and overspending from federal departments and agencies across the government, which included cutting government programs and mass layoffs. 

All in, the Department of Government Efficiency touts that it has saved an estimated $180 billion through initiatives such as grant or contract cancellations, workforce reductions or stamping out fraud. Musk’s efforts on DOGE have been celebrated by conservatives and Republicans, who frequently campaign on cutting government fat. 

“It is time to cut red tape, hold the unchecked federal workforce accountable, ensure programs are efficient, & work with @DOGE to tackle waste, fraud, & abuse,” House Oversight Chair James Comer, R-Ky., Comer posted on X in December 2024 ahead of DOGE’s official launch. 

“Iowans elected me with a mandate to cut Washington’s pork!” Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, said in December 2024. “From billion-dollar boondoggles to welfare for politicians and trillion-dollar slush funds, my decade-long investigations have exposed levels of abuse that are almost too insane to believe.”

GOP SENATORS EXPRESS ‘CONCERNS,’ ‘SKEPTICISM’ OVER TRUMP’S SPENDING BILL AFTER MUSK RANT

POLITICAL SHIFT

The tech billionaire behind Tesla and Space X previously described himself as a Democrat and centrist before making a public political shift to the right amid Trump’s run for the presidency and inauguration – including repeatedly taking stances that fall in line with conservative ideology. 

Musk endorsed Trump for the presidency in July 2024, after Trump faced his first assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania. He later joined the political fray through campaign events promoting Trump’s candidacy in key battleground states. 

Before Trump’s win, Musk railed from the campaign trail that the federal government had become bloated with overspending and red tape that he said hampers private sector innovation. 

“Tomorrow, I will tell the story of how SpaceX was forced by the government to kidnap seals, put earphones on them and play sonic boom sounds to see if they seemed upset,” Musk posted to X in October 2024, teasing he would elaborate on his government overregulation experiences from a campaign event. 

Trump touted during the election cycle that Musk would likely serve as his “Secretary of Cost-Cutting” if he won re-election, teeing up fanfare around Musk’s anticipated efforts to take a hatchet to the federal government’s budget.

Musk’s political evolution, most notably when it comes to fiscal issues, followed the tech tycoon touting in 2018 on X, “True socialism seeks greatest good for all.” 

He added in 2020 that “socially,” he is “very liberal,” continuing that he is “economically right of center, maybe, or center,” the New York Times previously reported. 

WHITE HOUSE STANDS BY TAX BILL AFTER MUSK CALLS IT A ‘DISGUSTING ABOMINATION’

In addition to slamming the “big beautiful bill” in recent days, Musk has posted a handful of X messages celebrating free market champion Milton Friedman and beloved conservative economist Thomas Sowell. 

As Trump’s tariff policies were rolled out in April, Musk posted a video clip of Friedman explaining that an item as simple as a pencil is the result of free market economics and supply chains across the world. Musk shared the video with no caption. 

“Literally thousands of people cooperated to make this pencil,” Friedman, who died in 2006, was seen saying in the video. “People who don’t speak the same language, who practice different religions, who might hate one another if they ever met. When you go down the store and buy this pencil, you are, in effect, trading a few minutes of your time for a few seconds of the time of all those thousands of people.” 

“The operation of the free market is so essential, not only to promote productive efficiency, but even more to foster harmony and peace among the peoples of the world,” he said. 

Musk also recently shared a quote from Sowell on the history of slavery in the U.S. 

“It’s one of many evils that the Left tries to localize when it’s a universal evil,'” Sowell was seen saying in a video post on X that was reshared by Musk on Jan. 11 with the caption “True.”

ELON MUSK CRITICISM OF TRUMP TAX BILL FRUSTRATES SOME REPUBLICANS: ‘NO PLACE IN CONGRESS’

Musk also doubled down on strong endorsements of the Second Amendment while on the campaign trail, posting on X in October 2024 that “tyrannical government” works to take guns from citizens in an effort to snuff out free speech. 

“The right to bear arms is there to protect free speech and stop a tyrannical government from taking your rights away! That’s why the first thing that all tyrants do is disarm the people, just like Chavez did when he was first elected. After that, no more real elections in Venezuela,” Musk posted to his X account in October 2024.

Musk had previously praised America’s Second Amendment, including in 2022 when he said he “strongly (believes) that the right to bear arms is an important safeguard against potential tyranny of government.” 

His comments while on the campaign trail rallying support for Trump, however, found renewed praise among conservatives in 2024 as they found additional common ground with the tech billionaire. 

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DOGE is still operating following Musk’s departure. The temporary cross-departmental organization will be dissolved on July 4, 2026, according to Trump’s executive order that established the organization in January. 

Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Elkind and Eric Revell contributed to this report. 

EXCLUSIVE: The Department of Homeland Security is ending the Quiet Skies program, which left some Americans subject to additional screenings at airport security.

The department says the agency was overly politicized to either benefit or hurt specific people and ran a bill of roughly $200 million annually. According to DHS, the program kept a watchlist as well as a list of people exempted. The department says Quiet Skies has not prevented any terrorist attacks but will continue to use other methods to assure safe air travel.

“It is clear that the Quiet Skies program was used as a political rolodex of the Biden Administration—weaponized against its political foes and exploited to benefit their well-heeled friends. I am calling for a Congressional investigation to unearth further corruption at the expense of the American people and the undermining of US national security,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement.

GABBARD SLAMS ‘POLITICALLY MOTIVATED’ SURVEILLANCE AS EFFORT TO ‘INTIMIDATE’ HER FOLLOWING CRITICISM OF HARRIS

DHS says that the list of exemptions of people who avoid “security policies” included “foreign royal families, political elites, professional athletes, and favored journalists.”

The program that started in 2010 was seen as a terror prevention method, and it faced escalating scrutiny from the left and right, including groups like the American Civil Liberties Union.

“TSA’s critical aviation and security vetting functions will be maintained, and the Trump Administration will return TSA to its true mission of being laser-focused on the safety and security of traveling public. This includes restoring the integrity, privacy, and equal application of the law for all Americans,” Noem continued.

FEDERAL AIR MARSHALS SURVEILLED TRUMP CABINET MEMBER GABBARD IN 2024, RAND PAUL SAYS

In 2018, the ACLU asked the Transportation Security Administration for more information about the program.

“The TSA is engaging in covert surveillance of travelers and raising a host of disturbing questions in the process. While the program’s existence is now public, the TSA has kept nearly everything else about the program secret,” Hugh Handeyside, senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s National Security Project, said in a 2018 news release.

“Travelers deserve to know how this surveillance is being implemented, what its consequences are for Americans, and for how long the TSA is retaining the information it gathers. What we’ve seen so far is troubling, which is why we’re demanding that the TSA hand over records it’s been hiding from the public. This is a much needed step towards transparency and accountability for an agency with a track record of using unreliable and unscientific techniques, such as ‘behavior detection,’ to screen and monitor travelers who have done nothing wrong,” he added.

REPUBLICANS LOOK TO ABOLISH TSA IN FAVOR OF PRIVATE SECURITY AT AIRPORTS

DHS pointed out a specific situation in which William Shaheen, the husband of New Hampshire Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, was removed from the list after reaching out to the former head of TSA during the Biden administration in 2023, according to CBS News. DHS said that he “traveled with a known or suspected terrorist” three times.

The senator’s office confirmed to CBS News she had reached out to TSA after her husband dealt with intense security obstacles while flying, but was unaware of any specific lists her husband was or was not on. The outlet reported that he was flying with an attorney was subject of the terrorism flag. 

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The department also cited Tulsi Gabbard’s past placement on the Silent Partner Quiet Skies list. 

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

House Republicans in Democrat-controlled states are firing a warning shot at the Senate as it considers President Donald Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill.”

GOP lawmakers in New York and California have been demanding that senators leave the House’s increased state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap in the bill, even as members of the upper chamber eye it as low-hanging fruit for saving taxpayer dollars.

But those blue state Republicans have made raising the current $10,000 SALT deduction cap an existential issue, arguing it provides much-needed tax relief to people in high-cost-of-living areas. The SALT deduction allows people living in areas with high state and local taxes to deduct those penalties in their federal tax filings, up to a point.

“When did taxing income that’s already been taxed become a Republican ideal? Our party has always stood for lower taxes and a fair, commonsense tax code. We worked in good faith with House leadership to secure a fair deal that provides our constituents with much-needed SALT relief,” SALT Caucus co-chairs Reps. Young Kim, R-Calif., and Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., said in a statement.

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

“Hardworking families we represent are penalized by the SALT cap, and this deal keeps the President’s commitment to fix this issue and has the support of firefighters, police, small businesses and working Americans who keep our country moving.”

House Republicans can afford little dissent with their razor-thin majority to still pass the bill again, if the Senate returned a modified version – something the SALT caucus pointed out.

“The Senate would be remiss to forget that the path to 218 — and delivering for the American people — runs through the SALT Caucus,” the statement read.

The House-passed budget reconciliation bill – aimed at advancing Trump’s priorities on tax, energy, defense, immigration, and the national debt – raises the SALT deduction cap to $40,000.

Republicans are working on the bill as the national debt climbs past $36 trillion.

Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., a SALT Caucus member and one of the House’s GOP tax-writers, sent in a statement to Fox News Digital, “The State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction negotiated in the House should NOT be altered by the Senate. It’s a Republican principle to allow taxpayers to keep more of their hard-earned money and taxpayers in New York and other SALT states deserve not to be double taxed by their government, especially when we also supported significant savings by rooting out waste, fraud & abuse in our states.”

Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., who also fought for the increased cap, signaled he would not support the bill if the Senate reinstated the lower number.

SCOOP: HOUSE GOP MEMO HIGHLIGHTS REPUBLICAN WINS IN TRUMP’S ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’

“NY, NJ, and CA have and continue to subsidize many of the states represented in the Senate Republican conference. Furthermore, SALT has been used as a payfor for other provisions in the bill, including the doubling of the standard deduction, which is to the benefit of all Americans,” Lawler wrote on X.

“Since the last tax bill, 29 states have blown past the 10k cap. This isn’t a red vs blue issue, it’s an issue of double taxation. Since when do Republicans advocate for taxing you on top of taxes already paid? No SALT. No Deal.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., met with Trump to shore up support for the tax portion of the budget reconciliation bill, and said he recognized SALT was a key issue for blue-state Republicans in the House – but it was one that didn’t really move the needle for Republican senators.

“We also start from a position that there really isn’t a single Republican senator who cares much about the SALT issue,” Thune said. “It’s just not an issue that plays. Most of our states, we’re states that are low-tax states, and we don’t think that low-tax states ought to be subsidizing high-tax states.”

Indeed, no Senate Republican hails from a blue state, making the issue for many lawmakers in the upper chamber a moot point. And Thune’s position echoes that of many in the House GOP who were wary of increasing the SALT cap. 

Still, Thune and Senate Republican leadership acknowledge that whatever tweaks and changes to the budget bill that they make have to pass muster with their colleagues in the House.

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Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters Thursday morning that he is still keeping SALT lawmakers “calm.”

The speaker added that he had been urging the Senate to keep the House’s bill intact.

“Look, the Senate Republicans are from red states, right? They feel the same way that I do about SALT, but I’m being very deliberate in reminding them that we have, again, this very delicate balance to maintain over here, and you’ve got to address the issue so that our members can take something home,” Johnson said.

FIRST ON FOX: Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts, Democrat Sen. John Fetterman and others are teaming up on legislation to codify oversight on foreign countries buying American farmland.

The bipartisan Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure (AFIDA) Improvements Act seeks to implement recommendations published by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in January 2024, which found the AFIDA was ill-equipped to combat foreign ownership of American agricultural land. 

“American farmland should remain in the hands of American farmers and ranchers, not foreign adversaries,” Ricketts of Nebraska shared first with Fox News Digital. “The neighbors who feed us should benefit from land ownership, not Communist China. Food security is national security.”

The bill, also co-sponsored by Sens. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, John Cornyn of Texas, Roger Wicker of Mississippi and Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska introduced legislation, requires AFIDA reporting for foreign persons holding more than one percent interest in American agricultural land.

GOP GOVERNOR HOPEFUL PUSHES ANTI-CHINA POLICY AFTER YEARS OF CHINESE INVESTMENTS

“Over the past several decades, China has been buying up American farmland in an attempt to infiltrate our agriculture supply chains. Food security is national security, and we cannot give the CCP a foothold,” Tuberville said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

SENATE REPUBLICANS LAUNCH EFFORT TO BAN CHINESE NATIONALS FROM BUYING LAND IN US

The AFIDA Improvements Act aims to increase information-sharing between the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). It also requires updates to the AFIDA’s handbook and establishes a deadline for USDA to set up an online AFIDA system. 

The bill’s House sponsor, Bacon, told Fox News Digital that “having actual processes in place will strengthen the security of our nation in the event nefarious foreign agents, such as the CCP, try to purchase agricultural lands within our nation.” 

Based on the GAO’s recommendations, the bill seeks to update the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978 to better equip the USDA to combat foreign adversaries’ ownership of American agricultural land.

Under AFIDA, foreign entities must disclose to the USDA transactions of American agricultural land. 

Foreign investors own over 40 million acres of agricultural land in the United States, and between 2010 and 2021, Chinese ownership of American agricultural land increased from 13,720 acres to 383,935 acres, according to the USDA. 

The AFIDA Improvements Act is the latest attempt by Congressional Republicans to track foreign ownership of American farmland and strengthen national security. It was first introduced by Bacon and Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc., in 2024. 

China owned around 350,000 acres of farmland across 27 states as of last year, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture

The movement to ban China from buying U.S. farmland located near military bases has been gaining steam in the Senate this year. The PASS Act, led by Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., has the backing of Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and would prevent any entity from a “covered country,” which includes China, North Korea, Russia and Iran, from purchasing agricultural land near military bases or sensitive sites. 

Republican Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Kevin Cramer of North Dakota and Katie Britt of Alabama, proposed The Not One More Inch or Acre Act, earlier this year to ban China from buying U.S. land entirely. 

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On the presidential campaign trail in 2024, President Donald Trump indicated he would ban China from buying American farmland. 

The Senate passed an amendment with bipartisan support in 2023 that would ban China, Russia, North Korea and Iran from buying American farmland and agricultural businesses, but it did not become law. 

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

The Supreme Court ruled Thursday in favor of seven U.S. gun manufacturers who were sued by the Mexican government over allegations they aided and abetted illegal gun sales to Mexican cartels.

The high court’s decision in Smith & Wesson Brands v. Estados Unidos Mexicanos was unanimous, finding that the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, a statute that protects gun makers from lawsuits, did not include exceptions that gave the Mexican government the ability to sue.

“The kinds of allegations Mexico makes cannot satisfy the demands of the statute’s predicate exception,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the court.

Kagan noted the exceptions in the law would allow a lawsuit against the gun makers if they “proximately caused” Mexico harm.

SUPREME COURT TO CONSIDER LAWSUIT AGAINST US GUN MANUFACTURERS

“Mexico’s complaint, for the reasons given, does not plausibly allege such aiding and abetting,” Kagan wrote. “So this suit remains subject to PLCAA’s general bar: An action cannot be brought against a manufacturer if, like Mexico’s, it is founded on a third party’s criminal use of the company’s product.”

The justices concluded that the “proximate cause” standard meant the U.S. manufacturers could not be sued when the complex commerce pipeline goes from them to wholesalers, distributors, rogue retail dealers, straw purchasers, smugglers, and then to the Mexican cartels.

The case came before the high court during a delicate time for both countries, politically and diplomatically.

The Trump administration has pushed the Mexican government to better patrol its border to block drugs and migrants from entering the United States, while Mexican officials have demanded the U.S. stop military-style firearms from ending up in Mexico – fueling the very drug crisis both sides seek to end.

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During the proceedings, attorneys for Mexico, which has strict gun sale restrictions, argued the country should be allowed to file a $10 billion civil suit in U.S. courts. 

The gun makers countered that their standard business practices were being unfairly targeted and that they had no awareness that their products have been illegally transported into Mexico.

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

The Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday sounded the alarm on alleged Transportation Security Administration (TSA) “corruption,” accusing a longtime Democratic senator of lobbying the Biden administration to have her husband removed from a watchlist despite him allegedly flying with a “known or suspected terrorist.” 

New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen’s husband, William “Billy” Shaheen, “traveled with a known or suspected terrorist three times in a single year,” DHS said in a statement. 

The Trump administration on Wednesday cited evidence “detailing the politicization of TSA’s watchlisting program under the Biden administration.” DHS says that evidence includes discovered documents, correspondence and timelines that clearly highlight the Biden administration’s “inconsistent application of Silent Partners Quiet Skies and watchlisting programs, circumventing security policies to benefit politically aligned friends and family at the expense of the American people.”

DHS claims Sen. Shaheen “directly lobbied” former TSA administrator David Pekoske. Pekoske afterward allegedly “gave repeated, explicit direction” to exclude the senator’s husband from the Silent Partner Quiet Skies list. Fox News Digital reached out to Sen. Shaheen’s office, but they did not immediately provide a response to the allegations.

GABBARD SLAMS ‘POLITICALLY MOTIVATED’ SURVEILLANCE AS EFFORT TO ‘INTIMIDATE’ HER FOLLOWING CRITICISM OF HARRIS

“Pekoske granted Billy Shaheen a blanket Silent Partners Quiet Skies exemption despite Shaheen flying with a Known or Suspected Terrorist on three occasions,” DHS said Wednesday. “All the while, Tulsi Gabbard, and many other Americans, were placed on the Silent Partners’ Quiet Skies list with little to no visibility, awareness, explanation or oversight.” 

President Donald Trump tapped Gabbard as his director of national intelligence during his second term. 

The Trump administration claims Billy Shaheen “was hardly the only high-profile individual that was placed on this exclusion list,” which also allegedly included members of foreign royal families, political elites, professional athletes, and journalists. 

DHS said Billy Shaheen’s “blanket exemption has since been revoked.” 

“It is clear that this program was used as a political rolodex of the Biden Administration – weaponized against its political foes and to benefit their well-heeled friends,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement. “This program should have been about the equal application of security, instead it was corrupted to be about political targeting. The Trump Administration will restore the integrity, privacy, and equal application of the law for all Americans, including aviation screening.”

FEDERAL AIR MARSHALS SURVEILLED TRUMP CABINET MEMBER GABBARD IN 2024, RAND PAUL SAYS

DHS said the program has for far too long “yielded little to no measurable security impact and lay at the expense of the American traveler.” 

According to DHS’s timeline of events, Billy Shaheen was a “TSA Random Selectee” on his flights from Boston Logan International Airport to Washington-Reagan International Airport and then from Washington Dulles International Airport back to Boston on July 20, 2023. “Billy Shaheen was flagged for the first time as Co-Traveler with a Known or Suspected Terrorist (KST),” DHS said. 

Shortly after his trip, Sen. Shaheen’s office “made an inquiry to TSA about the senator’s husband receiving enhanced screening on these two flights,” DHS said.

He was flagged a second time as a co-traveler of a known or suspected terrorist again on Oct. 18, 2023, and Sen. Shaheen afterward met with Pekoske about her husband “being on a watchlist,” according to DHS. 

“TSA did not disclose any information on watchlisting,” DHS noted. 

On Oct. 20, 2023, Nancy Nykamp, then-assistant administrator for intelligence and analysis, approved Billy Shaheen to be added to the “Secure Flight Exclusion List.” That means he was “excluded from any future TSA Random Selectee designation, and Rules-based Selectee designation, such as Quiet Skies, Association Based Rule Selectee designation, or Silent Partner Selectee designation,” according to the Trump administration. Nykamp notably departed TSA in March 2025. 

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DHS said TSA Legislative Affairs communicated with Nykamp on Oct. 24, 2023, and referred to the action taken to add Shaheen to the Secure Flight Exclusion List.

Billy Shaheen stayed on the Secure Flight Exclusion List for 18 months until current TSA leadership removed him. 

Shaheen, the highest-ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, announced in March that she is not seeking re-election in 2026, but her daughter, Stefany Shaheen, just last week announced that she’s running for a key House seat. 

FIRST ON FOX: A top NAACP official in Cleveland, Ohio was captured on video explaining how her organization will be giving “justice” awards to school board members in the state who openly defy the Trump administration’s federal push to ban DEI in schools. 

“We have some school board members all over the country, but especially in Ohio, we have school board members who understand what their job is and that’s to put students first and so some school board members in Ohio have defied that, what I call, an immoral suggestion from the president, to sign anti-DEI, anti Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion directives,” Meryl Johnson, NAACP Cleveland education committee chair, said during a Teach Truth Day of Action briefing earlier this month in Zoom footage obtained by Ohio.News.

“And so at our Teach Truth Day of Action, we’re calling it a finding joy teach-in, we are going to be giving what we call Guardian of Justice Awards to school board members who stood up and said no, we’re not signing that. Who believe that their students are the most important thing and that they are going to look out for their students because that’s their job.”

Several school districts in Ohio have joined districts across the country in signing a statement to the federal government stating that they are not complying with “illegal DEI practices,” Fox News Digital previously reported, likely assuring they are not at risk of losing federal funding as part of Trump’s executive orders prohibiting DEI. Other districts have not and are being praised by the NAACP for that action. 

HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS IN TAX MONEY GOES TO CONTRACTS FOR DEI GROUPS, WATCHDOG FINDS: ‘TOTAL RACKET’

The NAACP will host, along with the Zinn Education Project, its Teach Truth Day of Action on June 7 and as part of its promotion of the event, has advertised the award given to “Ohio school board members who refused to sign the anti-DEI pledge.”

“So, I’m wearing the pin now,” Johnson said on the Zoom call. “I hope you can see it, it’s the Guardian of Justice award. We’re going to be giving awards to school board members along with a certificate. So long we have three districts that are going to be showing up, including Cincinnati, Shaker Heights school district, and the Cleveland Heights, University Heights district. They are going to come to our event on June 7, and we’re going to hold onto the awards and as we continue to hear from more school board members we will mail them their Guardian of Justice Awards and certificates.”

“We want to encourage people, don’t be intimidated, don’t be afraid, okay? We have a democracy to protect and it’s our job to do that.” 

Fox News Digital reached out to the NAACP and Zinn Education Project for comment.

“As a mother, an attorney, and Ohioan, I am appalled by this disturbing new video showing Meryl Johnson, a representative of the NAACP Cleveland, openly encouraging school board members to defy a binding executive order aimed at eliminating divisive DEI mandates from our classrooms,” attorney Mehek Cooke told Fox News Digital. 

‘LOVE BREAKING RULES’: RED STATE DEAN OUSTED AFTER ADMITTING ON HIDDEN CAM SHE WAS SECRETLY PUSHING DEI

“This is not just reckless—it’s a direct attack on our children’s future.”

The Trump Department of Education has warned state education departments in all 50 states that they must remove diversity, equity and inclusion policies or risk losing federal funding if not in compliance with Trump’s previous executive orders.

​In January, Trump issued the “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling,” executive order, which prohibits K-12 schools from teaching materials considered anti-American or promoting “gender ideology” and critical race theory. The order mandates that law enforcement investigate educational institutions suspected of promoting such content and criminally prosecute educators who assist in the social transition of minors.

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“Defying federal law puts critical funding—like Title I for disadvantaged students and IDEA for children with disabilities—at serious risk,” Cooke told Fox News Digital. “That money isn’t political, it’s essential. It keeps the lights on in struggling schools, pays for reading intervention, and supports the very students DEI ideologues claim to protect. Pulling that rug out just to virtue signal is sheer negligence in my book.”

“This isn’t about equity—it’s about control. And playing politics with children’s education is a guaranteed path to generational failure. It’s time to hold every defiant district accountable: strip their funding, notify parents, and demand a return to academics—not activism—in our schools.”

Elon Musk’s diatribe against President Donald Trump‘s “one big, beautiful bill” continued Wednesday as Senate Republicans embarked on their own course to tweak and reshape the gargantuan legislative package.

The former head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) rehashed a similar talking point from his takedown of a previous House GOP government funding bill in December, which, after his input, was gutted and reworked.

The nation’s debt sits at over $36 trillion, according to FOX Business’ National Debt Tracker.

GOP SENATORS EXPRESS ‘CONCERNS,’ ‘SKEPTICISM’ OVER TRUMP’S SPENDING BILL AFTER MUSK RANT

“Call your Senator, Call your Congressman,” Musk said among a flurry of posts on X. “Bankrupting America is NOT ok! KILL the BILL.”

Though Musk’s continued tirade against the bill sent House Republicans into a tizzy, on the other side of the Capitol, senators were busy hashing out the finer points of the legislation.

This time around, Musk, who just ended his four-month tenure as a special government employee rooting out waste, fraud and abuse, may not have the same level of impact, given that senators want their chance to shape the bill.

“I mean, if Elon was going to give me advice on how to get to the moon, I’d listen,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D. “You know, if he was going to give me advice on how to raise several billion dollars from other billionaires, I’d listen.”

“But… he doesn’t govern, you know, and so, to be honest, Elon, he’s not that big a factor,” he continued. “I know he’s a glamorous sort of celebrity, but he’s not a big factor.”

ELON MUSK WARPATH AGAINST TRUMP’S ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’ RATTLES HOUSE GOP

Cramer’s comments came after Senate Republicans heard from the chairs of the Senate Banking, Armed Services and Commerce committees on how they would approach their respective portions of the megabill in a closed-door meeting.

After that meeting, members of the Senate Finance Committee, which will handle the tax portion of the package, met with Trump later to shore up support for the tax package.

Sen. Roger Marshall, R.-Kan., said that the president’s main message during the meeting was to “pass the damn bill” with as few changes as possible. When asked if Trump seemed concerned about Musk’s impact on the bill’s fate, the lawmaker said “absolutely not.”  

“It was almost laugh— more of a laughing conversation for 30 seconds,” he said. “It was very much in jest and laughing, and I think he said something positive about Elon, appreciating what he did for the country.”

ELON MUSK POSTS ‘KILL BILL’ MEME IN LATEST PUSH TO NIX TRUMP’S BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL

Congressional Republicans intend to use the budget reconciliation process to skirt the Senate filibuster, meaning they do not need Senate Democrats to pass the package. However, they do need at least 51 Senate Republicans to get on board.

The Senate’s shot at tinkering with the reconciliation package comes after months of deliberations and negotiations in the House that culminated in a package that Trump has thrown his full support behind.

Some lawmakers want higher spending cuts to the tune of $2 trillion, others want a full rollback to pre-pandemic spending. Then there are pockets of resistance solidifying around cuts to Medicaid and green energy tax credit provisions baked into the House’s offering.

Among the green energy provisions on the chopping block are electric vehicle tax credits. Speculation has swirled that their proposed demise could be the driving force, in part, behind Musk’s anger toward the bill.

“Any senator with a brain sees Elon’s comments for what they are, a CEO worried about losing business,” a Senate Republican source told Fox News Digital. “The only reason he’s causing a fuss is because we’re getting rid of pork that benefits his electric car company.”

Musk had been pushing for deeper spending cuts until his new demand that the bill be nuked. Currently, the House GOP’s offering sets a goal of $1.5 trillion in spending cuts over the next decade that, coupled with expected growth, would help offset the roughly $4 trillion price tag of making the president’s first-term tax cuts permanent.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, engaged with some of Musk’s posts on Tuesday and appeared to agree with the tech billionaire’s position that the bill had to go further to cut spending.

“I think most of what he’s saying is he would like it to do more and be more aggressive to try to address the debt and deficit problem,” Lee said.

However, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found in its latest report that the bill would only cut $1.3 trillion, reduce revenues by roughly $3.7 trillion and add in the neighborhood of $2.4 trillion to the deficit.

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Some lawmakers who had found common ground with Musk’s earlier anger with the “big, beautiful bill” still found a common ally on the second day of his rant.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., reiterated to Fox News Digital that he shared Musk’s “skepticism” of the bill. He would not say whether he agreed that congressional Republicans should start from scratch, but noted that his main objection to the bill was a plan to increase the nation’s debt limit by $5 trillion.

“My main goal is to say, take the debt ceiling and make it a separate vote, and then vote on a separate bill, and then there’s still a need for less spending,” he said. “But I would be very open to supporting the bill if we had more spending cuts and the debt ceiling was a separate vote.”

Former President Joe Biden doubled down on his use of an autopen on Wednesday, insisting that he was in control of the White House during his term in office.

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

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

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

EXCLUSIVE: COMER HAILS DOJ’S BIDEN PROBE AS HOUSE INVESTIGATION HEATS UP

Trump called on Attorney General Pam Bondi to open investigations into top Biden officials on Wednesday, arguing they may have conspired to deceive the public about his mental state and exercised presidential authority through use of the autopen.

TRUMP SAYS BIDEN DIDN’T FAVOR HIS ADMIN’S LAX BORDER SECURITY POLICY, SUGGESTS AUTOPEN PLAYED A ROLE

Trump wrote in a Wednesday memo that the U.S. president has a tremendous amount of power and responsibility through his signature. Not only can the signature turn words into laws of the land, but it also appoints individuals to some of the highest positions in government, creates or eliminates national policies and allows prisoners to go free.

“In recent months, it has become increasingly apparent that former President Biden’s aides abused the power of Presidential signatures through the use of an autopen to conceal Biden’s cognitive decline and assert Article II authority,” Trump wrote. “This conspiracy marks one of the most dangerous and concerning scandals in American history. The American public was purposefully shielded from discovering who wielded the executive power, all while Biden’s signature was deployed across thousands of documents to effect radical policy shifts.”

“Given clear indications that President Biden lacked the capacity to exercise his Presidential authority, if his advisors secretly used the mechanical signature pen to conceal this incapacity, while taking radical executive actions all in his name, that would constitute an unconstitutional wielding of the power of the Presidency, a circumstance that would have implications for the legality and validity of numerous executive actions undertaken in Biden’s name,” he added.

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House Republicans, led by Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, launched an investigation earlier last month aimed at determining whether Biden, who was in declining health during the final months of his presidency, was mentally fit to authorize the use of the autopen. Comer said last week he was “open” to dragging Biden before the House to answer questions about the matter if necessary. 

Fox News’ Greg Wehner contributed to this report.

EXCLUSIVE: Smarter, not harder, is the theme Congress should follow to pass tax relief in its budget efforts, according to the top Republican running in one of only two gubernatorial races this year.

Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, seeking to succeed term-limited Gov. Glenn Youngkin, unveiled her “Axe the Tax” framework, identifying consensus areas where people across the political spectrum can support it.

Her plan would end taxes on tips in Virginia, mirroring President Donald Trump’s policy proposal and seeking to give a break to residents in a state known for its nightlife and tourist meccas like Alexandria, Williamsburg, Virginia Beach and Roanoke.

Food service workers, personal service workers, hospitality and other gratuity-based industry employees would pay 0% statewide under her plan, which she said gives working families a break they’re clamoring for on both the state and federal levels.

WINSOME EARLE-SEARS ANNOUNCES VA GOV BID TO BUILD ON YOUNGKIN RECORD: IT’S ‘ALL ABOUT BUSINESS’

It also repeals the automobile tax and vehicle-based property taxes, which residents of 27 out of the 50 states pay.

“The ‘Axe the Tax’ plan is rooted in a simple truth: Working Americans shouldn’t be punished for earning a living or driving to work,” Sears told Fox News Digital in exclusive remarks.

“Conservatives in Congress get that, and they should follow Virginia’s lead. … Real working families deserve to keep more money in their pockets, and, as governor, I’ll make sure they do.”

TOP DEMS CLAIM 51K PEOPLE WILL DIE ANNUALLY FROM ‘BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL’

Sears said ending taxes on tips on a national and state level recognizes that a tip is a “recognition of great service,” not another avenue for the government to take its share.

With most middle-class people either working service industry jobs and/or owning a car, Sears said her initial tax plan is evidence that a surgical approach is what is needed to properly address what the people are asking for, rather than trying to do too much at once.

“Virginia’s economy is powered by a thriving service sector and thousands of hardworking commuters made up of families like mine,” Sears said. “Tip earners are stretched to the limit. Working parents depend on their cars, not a METRO line, to get through the day. This isn’t just Virginia’s story. It’s the reality for families across the country.”

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Respecting the political process and “actually listen[ing] to people” and responding in kind is how a politician should lead, she said.

Like Congress, where Republicans hold narrow majorities in both chambers and have often seen similarly closely split governance, the “Axe the Tax” plan includes provisions that “prove you can work within a divided chamber and still put taxpayers first,” Earle-Sears said.

“Virginia is leading the way.”

Democrats in Florida face an uphill climb as they work to win the governor’s office in next year’s elections.

It’s been more than three decades since a Democrat won a gubernatorial election in the Sunshine State. You have to go all the way back to Democrat Gov. Lawton Chiles’ 1994 re-election.

But former Rep. David Jolly, when asked how the Democrats could end their losing streak, told Fox News Digital, “It’s been even longer since we had an affordability crisis like we’re experiencing right now. That’s how.”

Jolly, who, as a Republican a decade ago, won election and re-election to Congress, on Thursday announced his Democrat candidacy for governor in the 2026 race to succeed term-limited GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis.

THIS TOP TRUMP ALLY APPEARS TO BE GEARING UP FOR A GUBERNATORIAL RUN IN A KEY STATE

“We have an affordability crisis in Florida driven by an insurance crisis that continues to worsen in the face of complete neglect by Tallahassee. We have abandoned public education, and we’ve allowed corruption to run rampant. It’s time for a change,” Jolly said in a statement.

And in his Fox News interview, Jolly argued that the state’s affordability crisis has “largely been caused by Republican neglect that I don’t believe Republicans will address and that our campaign will.”

REPUBLICAN GOVERNORS CAMPAIGN CHAIR REVEALS ELECTION BATTLE PLAN

Jolly, who left the Republican Party seven years ago and became an independent and a cable news political analyst on MSNBC, pointed to the GOP’s voter registration advantage in Florida.

“Let’s be honest about the math,” he said. “There aren’t enough Democratic votes in Florida for a Democratic governor to just win with their own party. We have to build a coalition that includes independents and commonsense Republicans. But here’s the good news, it’s already there.”

Jolly, pointing to the recent town halls he’s been holding ahead of his campaign launch, said, “Republicans are turning out. Independents are coming out. There’s a perfect storm for legacy Republicans right now. We have an affordability crisis in Florida that’s hitting every family, every voter, every walk of life, and it doesn’t care what your partisan affiliation is, Republican, Democrat or independent.”

“This is a race much like you’ve seen with Andy Beshear in Kentucky and Steve Bullock in Montana, a coalition for change can win next November. But that coalition is going to have to be led by today’s Democratic Party,” he added.

The mentions of GOP-dominated Kentucky’s current Democrat governor and red-state Montana’s former Democrat governor were intentional. Jolly recently hired as an adviser Democrat political strategist Eric Hyers, who helped steer Beshear and Bullock’s successful campaigns.

Four years ago, former governor and former Rep. Charlie Crist, another Republican-turned-Democrat, was trounced by DeSantis as the conservative governor cruised to re-election by 19 points.

Jolly highlighted that Crist (who defeated Jolly as the then-congressman ran for re-election in 2016) quickly transitioned from Republican to Democrat.

“It was transactional for running for office. He would always say, ‘I didn’t leave the party. The party left me,'” Jolly noted.

“David Jolley left the party,” he said. “I’ve grown. I’ve changed.”

“Over the last 10 years, my values haven’t changed,” Jolly said. “This is very important. When I was a Republican in Congress, I supported marriage equality, gun control, climate change, campaign finance reform. Republicans didn’t want me. Democrats didn’t need me, but those values were already there then. I am a person of deep faith. I grew up a preacher’s kid in a Christian church. I belong to a Christian church today.”

But Florida Republicans predict Jolly will become the latest in a line of defeated Democrat gubernatorial candidates.

“It’s good to know Never Trumper and failed MSNBC analyst has found his true home in the irrelevant @FlaDems,” Republican Party of Florida Chair Evan Power said after Jolly joined the Democratic Party. “I welcome him to run for Governor, the nearly 40% of the electorate that voted for @CharlieCrist deserve an equally bad choice this cycle.”

Making the Democrats’ climb to win back the governor’s office next year even steeper is last month’s announcement by state Sen. Jason Pizzo, the former state Senate Democrat leader, to run for governor as an independent. Weeks earlier, Pizzo argued the Florida Democratic Party was “dead.”

“I have enormous respect for Jason Pizzo. He followed his political conviction, just as I did. I disagree with his decision,” Jolly said.

But Jolly also said, “Jason was right when he said you’ve got millions of disaffected independent voters” and added that “my job as the Democratic candidate, and perhaps the Democratic nominee, is to build a coalition that says [to] those independent voters, ‘We want you in this coalition.’”

In the race for the Republican gubernatorial primary, Rep. Byron Donalds appears to be on an early glide path to the nomination as speculation of a possible bid by first lady Casey DeSantis cools.

Donalds enjoys the support and endorsement of Florida’s most famous resident: President Donald Trump.

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“This race is not about Donald Trump. You’ll never hear me talk about Donald Trump. It’s about the affordability crisis and how Republicans in Tallahassee have created it,” Jolly said.

But Jolly argued that “Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis are the scene-setters for an earthquake-of-a-change election environment in the state of Florida, because if voters in Florida are demanding change, I’m not sure they could look at Trump’s endorsed candidate in Byron Donalds and see change. If it’s Casey DeSantis, you’re not seeing change. You’re seeing the third term of Ron DeSantis.”