NationalWatch

EXCLUSIVE: A prominent former fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee (DNC) revealed that donors are fed up with the Democratic Party, claiming that it is in “shambles” following the presidential election.

Lindy Li, a well-known fundraiser who raised money for the Democrats’ 2024 presidential campaign, announced her exit from the party in December after being ostracized for criticizing then-Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris.

Speaking to Fox News Digital after President Donald Trump assumed office, Li, who has raised tens of millions of dollars for Democrats over the years, said the party she once stumped for is now “completely rudderless.”

“Democratic donors absolutely, without a single exception, they are so angry and upset with the state of the party. They think the party is in complete shambles,” Li told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview. 

FORMER DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE SAYS HIS PARTY IS ACTING ‘PATHETICALLY’ TO THWART MUSK’S DOGE

Lindy Li spoke with Fox News Digital about the state of the Democratic Party. (Fox News Digital)

“I don’t know how they’re going to get out of this wilderness,” Li said, adding that the party has been “hijacked” by “woke” ideology.

HOUSE DEMOCRATS ANGRY AT LIBERAL GROUPS FOR STIRRING UP DIVISION IN PARTY: REPORT

“It’s their religion, it’s their god, woke is their god. This trans, woke insanity – they are enthralled by it,” Li said. 

“Companies are running as fast as they can from this toxic agenda, yet the Democratic Party is doubling down time and time again on this,” the former Democratic fundraiser added. “Honestly, it’s gender hysteria. It’s almost like a social contagion.”

A ‘Day in the Life’ profile of then-congressional candidate Lindy Li on August 8, 2015, in Philadelphia. (Charles Ommanney/The Washington Post)

Celebrities, such as Beyoncé and Cardi B, were criticized for reportedly accepting payments from the Harris campaign to appear and speak at events. 

The artists have denied accepting payments from the campaign, but Li said that they “lied about not getting paid.”

“All their production companies were getting compensated,” Li told Fox.

After Beyoncé did not perform during her appearance at a Harris campaign event in October, critics claimed attendees had been intentionally misled.

Beyoncé and Harris embrace as they attend a Harris campaign rally in Houston on Oct. 25, 2024.  (Reuters/Marco Bello)

“I honestly believe that the campaign used that to generate attention and publicity for their event,” Li said in an interview.

After suffering defeat in the 2024 presidential election, Li said there is “no one on the horizon” to lead the Democratic Party into the next election cycle.

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The former DNC official said the “humanity and kindness” she has received from Republicans has been “unbelievable” and that she is “optimistic” that she will retain her donors after leaving the Democratic Party, as she will now raise money for Republican candidates.

The White House slammed Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy as a “moron” on social media after the Connecticut lawmaker posted an expletive-riddled admonishment against a Lara Trump parody account he seemingly believed belonged to the president’s daughter-in-law. 

“You are a moron, Chris. It is obvious this page is not affiliated with President Trump, his family, or the administration. We do, however, support your right to make such a statement, no matter how imbecilic it makes you look,” the White House’s X account, Rapid Response 47, said in a message posted on Friday. 

The rapid response account is a new White House account that was launched in January to hold “fake news accountable.” 

The White House was responding to Murphy singling out a social media post he ostensibly believed Lara Trump posted regarding border czar Tom Homan potentially arresting Rep. Alexandira Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. Murphy included a screenshot of the alleged Lara Trump tweet, showing the handle for the account belongs to an X page called the “Lara Trump Page,” a parody fan account  – not her official X account. 

HOMAN, AOC CLASH OVER WEBINAR TO HELP IMMIGRANTS ‘EVADE’ ICE RAIDS: ‘I THOUGHT I EDUCATED HER’

Sen. Chris Murphy speaks during a press conference at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 21, 2025. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

“If you support Border Czar Tom Homan arresting AOC for giving illegal aliens instructions on how to avoid deportation, post a [thumbs up emoji] in the comments,” the fan page account posted on Thursday. “Make your voice heard.”

Murphy responded to the social media post by arguing the Trump administration has “some f—ing gall” discussing free speech when advocating for the arrest of a Democrat. 

‘STUNNING AND BRAVE’: DEM SENATOR MOCKED AFTER HYPING ALL-NIGHTER STUNT IN PROTEST OF TRUMP NOMINEE

“It takes some f—ng gall to have Vance lecturing Europe on ‘free speech’ when at the exact same time the Trump regime is threatening Democrats back home with arrest if they even explain people’s rights to them,” Murphy posted to X on Friday. 

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT ARRESTS SKYROCKET UNDER TRUMP ICE COMPARED TO BIDEN LEVELS LAST YEAR

Murphy’s tweet was hit with a community note, detailing that he was responding to a parody fan account and that Lara Trump did not issue such a tweet. 

 President Donald Trump smiles during a Hispanic roundtable at Beauty Society on Oct. 12, 2024, in North Las Vegas. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

“This is a screenshot of a parody account of Lara Trump. Her real account is below and no such post exists,” the community note states.

AOC’S OFFICE ADVISES MIGRANTS ON HOW TO AVOID DEPORTATIONS IN LIVE WEBINAR

Fox News Digital reached out to Murphy’s office for comment Sunday morning, but did not immediately reply. 

Border czar Tom Homan speaks with Fox News. (Fox News)

The parody account’s message was likely referring to Ocasio-Cortez’s office posting a webinar “Know Your Rights” guide about how illegal immigrants can avoid deportation amid the Trump administration’s border crackdown following the immigration crisis that rocked the U.S. under the Biden administration. 

Homan, former acting director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and current border czar under the second Trump administration, told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham last week that he asked the Justice Department if Ocasio-Cortez’s guide crossed a legal line. 

Sen. Chris Murphy speaks during a news conference at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Feb. 13, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)

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“Is that impeding our law enforcement efforts?” Homan said on the “Ingraham Angle.”  “If so, what are we going to do about it? Is she crossing the line? So I’m working with the Department of Justice and finding out. Where is that line that they cross? So maybe AOC is going to be in trouble now.”

Fox News Digital’s Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report. 

As the Trump administration moves to negotiate the end of the Ukraine-Russia war, national security advisor Michael Waltz rejected the notion that European allies are not being consulted on the matter. 

Talks between the U.S. and Russia are reportedly to begin in Saudi Arabia this week, while French President Emmanuel Macron is reportedly to host what is being billed as an emergency summit on Ukraine between European leaders in Paris starting Monday. Trump said he spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin last week, reportedly doing so without consulting NATO members. 

In an appearance on “Fox News Sunday,” Waltz said that in back-to-back calls, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Putin separately agreed that “only President Trump could get them to the table, only President Trump could drive peace.” 

Waltz noted that Trump spoke to Macron last week and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has an upcoming trip to the United States. 

TREASURY SECRETARY BESSENT OFFERS ZELENSKYY AN ECONOMIC INVESTMENT DEAL

President Donald Trump, accompanied by national security advisor Michael Waltz, speaks during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office of the White House on Feb. 4, 2025. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

“We had no less than our vice president, our secretary of state, our secretary of defense, our secretary of treasury, who was in Kyiv personally, and our special envoy {Keith} Kellogg all in Europe this week, all engaging our allies,” Waltz said. “Now, they may not like some of the sequencing that is going on in these negotiations, but I have to push back on any notion that they aren’t being consulted. They absolutely are.” 

“At the end of the day though, this is going to be under President Trump’s leadership that we get this war to an end,” he added. 

Among the critics of the Trump administration’s handling of the negotiations was Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who said the president’s inability to “even identify Ukraine as an equal bargaining power, after the blood Ukraine has shed, [is] just a shocking surrender of American values and interests.” Noting how Zelenskyy said he would not be bound by any deal negotiated between Russia and the U.S., “Fox News Sunday” host Shannon Bream asked Waltz if Kyiv would have a seat at the table. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during the Munich Security Conference on Feb. 15, 2025, in Germany. (Johannes Simon/Getty Images)

In response, Waltz said Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Vice President JD Vance stressed in talks with Zelenskyy “entering into a partnership with the United States,” and being “co-invested with President Trump, with the American people going forward.” 

UKRAINE FUNDING WILL COME WITH NEW LEVEL OF ‘TRANSPARENCY,’ TREASURY SECRETARY BESSENT SAYS

“The American people deserve to be recouped, deserve to have some type of payback for the billions they have invested in this war,” Waltz said. “I can’t think of anything that would make the American people more comfortable with future investments than if we were able to be in a partnership and have the American people made whole. And I’ll point out that much of the European aid is actually in the form of a loan. That is repaid. It’s repaid with interest on Russian assets. So President Trump is rethinking the entire dynamic here. That has some people uncomfortable, but I think Zelenskyy would be very wise to enter into this agreement with the United States. There’s no better way to secure them going forward, and further, there was a question of whether Putin would come to the table. He has now done so under President Trump’s leadership, and we’re going to continue those talks in the coming weeks at President Trump’s direction.”

Trump said he had a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week. (Contributor/Getty Images)

Asked why Ukraine won’t be directly part of the Saudi Arabia talks, Waltz said, “The Ukrainian people have fought valiantly. They have seen entire cities destroyed. The United States and Europe have supported this effort, but the United States unquestionably has borne the brunt of that support over the years, but now President Trump is clear it needs to come to an end.” 

Waltz added that the negotiations will be driven by “key tenants,” including ensuring that there’s a “permanent end to the war” and that the conflict “can’t be ended on the battlefield.” 

“This has turned into a World War I-style meat grinder of human beings,” he said, adding that economic integration going forward would be the “best arbiter of peace” and long-term military security guarantees have to be European-led. 

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“When a third of NATO members still are not contributing – a third – are still not contributing the minimum they all committed to a decade ago, I think that leaves a lot of Americans questioning the level of their commitment to back the rhetoric we’re seeing,” Waltz said. 

President Donald Trump spoke about his plans to end the Russo-Ukrainian War during a press gaggle on Sunday, stating that he believes the leaders of both countries “want to stop fighting.”

Speaking on the tarmac at Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sunday afternoon, Trump said that he’s currently in the process of “trying to get peace with Russia, Ukraine.”

“And we’re working very hard on it,” he said. “It’s a war that should have never started.”

When asked if Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to be involved in the conversations, Trump replied in the affirmative.

NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR SAYS PUTIN, ZELENSKYY AGREE ‘ONLY PRESIDENT TRUMP COULD GET THEM TO THE TABLE’

President Donald Trump speaks to reporters upon arrival in West Palm Beach, Fla., U.S., Sunday. (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)

“He will be involved, yes,” Trump said. When asked by a reporter, Trump also said he would allow Europeans to purchase American-made weapons sold to Ukraine.

The Republican president went on say that he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin, who began the war in February 2014 with the annexation of Crimea and escalated it in February 2022 by invading Ukraine, wants to bring the war to an end.

“I think he wants to stop fighting,” Trump said. “They have a big, powerful machine, you understand that? And they defeated Hitler and they defeated Napoleon. You know, he’s been fighting a long time…I think he would like to stop fighting.”

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President Donald Trump steps from Air Force One upon arrival in West Palm Beach, Fla., Sunday. (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)

“Zelenskyy wants to end it, too.”

Talks between the U.S. and Russia are expected to begin in Saudi Arabia this week, though it was previously reported that Ukraine was not expected to be directly involved. Trump’s national security advisor Michael Waltz said on “Fox News Sunday” that negotiations will involve “key tenants,” in order to guarantee a “permanent end to the war.”

“The United States and Europe have supported [the Ukrainian] effort, but the United States unquestionably has borne the brunt of that support over the years, but now President Trump is clear it needs to come to an end,” Waltz said Sunday. 

 Trump’s comments came shortly after a “Meet the Press” interview with Zelenskyy aired on NBC, in which the Ukrainian leader discussed Putin and claimed that he “fears” Trump.

President Donald Trump speaks to reporters in West Palm Beach, Fla, Sunday. (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)

“I said that [Putin] is a liar,” Zelenskyy said of a recent phone call to Trump. “And he said, ‘I think my feeling is that he’s ready for these negotiations.’ And I said to him, ‘No, he’s a liar. He doesn’t want any peace.'”

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“But I think he’s really a little bit scared about the President Trump,” Zelenskyy added. “And I think the president has this chance, and he’s strong. And I think that really, he can push Putin to peace negotiations. Yes, I think so. I think he can, but don’t trust him. Don’t trust Putin. Don’t trust just words about ceasefire.”

Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton, Danielle Wallace and Brooke Curto contributed to this report.

The Trump administration has filed an appeal with the Supreme Court, hoping to get permission to fire the head of the federal agency dedicated to protecting whistleblowers.

The emergency appeal, obtained by The Associated Press on Sunday, could likely be the start of a steady stream of court filings by lawyers of President Donald Trump and his administration aimed at reversing lower court rulings that have delayed his priorities for his second term in office.

The appeal seeks to prevent Hampton Dellinger from resuming his role as the head of the Office of Special Counsel.

A lower court judge previously temporarily reinstated Dellinger to his position, which he was appointed to by former President Joe Biden. Now, the Department of Justice is calling on the high court to lift the judge’s order.

AS DEMOCRATS REGROUP OUTSIDE DC, GOP ATTORNEYS GENERAL ADOPT NEW PLAYBOOK TO DEFEND TRUMP AGENDA

United States Supreme Court (front row L-R) Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts, Associate Justice Samuel Alito, and Associate Justice Elena Kagan, (back row L-R) Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch, Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Dellinger has argued that by law, he can only be dismissed from his position for job performance problems, which were not cited in an email dismissing him from his post.

The Trump administration’s petition came hours after an appeals court refused to lift the order on procedural grounds, which was filed last Wednesday and is expected to expire on Feb. 26.

The case is not expected to be placed on the docket until the Supreme Court returns after the Presidents’ Day holiday weekend. Once filed, the earliest the justices will be able to act will be Tuesday.

 FEDERAL JUDGE ORDERS TRUMP ADMIN TO RESTORE PUBLIC HEALTH WEB PAGES

The Trump administration filed an appeal with the Supreme Court with hopes of getting permission to fire the head of the Office of Special Counsel. (Donald Trump 2024 campaign)

Dellinger sued the Trump administration in D.C. federal court last Monday following his firing on Feb. 7. 

The Trump administration has been met with a wave of lawsuits since Inauguration Day, and legal experts say many of them will likely end up in the Supreme Court’s hands. 

“President Trump is certainly being aggressive in terms of flexing executive power and not at all surprised that these are being challenged,” John Malcolm, vice president of the Institute for Constitutional Government at the Heritage Foundation, told Fox News Digital last week.

HOUSE DEMS ORGANIZE RAPID RESPONSE TASK FORCE AND LITIGATION GROUP TO COMBAT TRUMP AGENDA

President Donald Trump’s second term kicked off with a flurry of executive orders and directives that have since been targeted by legal challenges, some of which will likely end up in the Supreme Court’s hands. (AP Photo)

Trump kicked off his second term with a flurry of executive orders and directives that have since been targeted by a flood of legal challenges.

Since Trump’s first day back in the Oval Office, more than 40 lawsuits have been filed over the administration’s actions, including the president’s birthright citizenship order, immigration policies, federal funding freezes, federal employee buyouts, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and legal action against FBI and DOJ employees.

In one of the most recent developments, a Rhode Island federal judge ordered the Trump administration to unfreeze federal funds, claiming the administration did not adhere to a previous order to do so. The Trump administration appealed the order to the First Circuit shortly thereafter, which was ultimately denied. 

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Many of these lawsuits have been filed in historically left-leaning federal court jurisdictions, including D.C. federal court. Various challenges have already been appealed to the appellate courts, including the Ninth and First Circuits, which notably hand down more progressive rulings. The Ninth Circuit, in particular, has a higher reversal rate than other circuit courts.

Fox News Digital’s Haley Chi-Sing and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The Trump administration dismissed fewer than 50 workers from the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) over the weekend after fears of wider layoffs that caused chaos among staff were quickly rescinded.

Reuters learned from sources on Friday that 325 NNSA workers were sent notices that they had been laid off from the agency, which is responsible for maintaining the country’s nuclear weapons arsenal.

The NNSA reportedly employs about 2,000 people and works around the world to secure nuclear materials, including in Ukraine, despite its ongoing war with Russia.

Hours after receiving the notices on Friday, some of the layoffs were rescinded, creating a chaotic situation at NNSA offices in Washington, D.C., and other places around the country as many employees were worried about their employment status, sources told the wire service.

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U.S. Department of Energy headquarters in Washington, D.C. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

On Sunday, a spokesperson for the Department of Energy confirmed with Fox News Digital that fewer than 50 employees were actually dismissed from their positions.

“Less than 50 NNSA employees were dismissed. These staff members were probationary employees and held primarily administrative and clerical roles,” the DOE spokesperson said. “The Energy Department will continue its critical mission of protecting our national security and nuclear deterrence in the development, modernization, and stewardship of America’s atomic weapons enterprise, including the peaceful use of nuclear technology and nonproliferation.”

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION FIRES MORE THAN A DOZEN IMMIGRATION JUDGES

President Donald Trump and DOGE head Elon Musk are shown during an exclusive “Hannity” interview, which is scheduled to air Feb. 18 on Fox News Channel. (Fox News)

The cuts are the result of the Trump administration’s push to cut wasteful spending across the federal government.

President Donald Trump has tasked the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) with seeking out and producing a solution to cut wasteful spending, and part of that has included the reduction of workforce in places like the Departments of Interior, Energy, Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, and Health and Human Services.

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The P tunnel in Area 12 of the Nevada National Security Site (National Nuclear Security Administration)

An NNSA source told Reuters that managers were called on Thursday evening to inform employees they had been let go, though on Friday they received emails saying things had suddenly changed.

Democratic lawmakers have blasted the NNSA layoffs, calling them “shocking.”

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“Until such time as we are briefed on these developments, we will not know the damage to our country and the world as a result of these haphazard and thoughtless firings,” Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, said in a release.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr slammed former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg for claiming Trump administration “incompetence” is putting Americans “at risk,” pointing to a multi-billion dollar project under the Biden administration that he said yielded no results. 

“You worked for an Administration that got $42 billion to connect millions of Americans to the Internet,” Carr said in an X post on Saturday responding to Buttigieg. “1,163 days later, that Admin exited without connecting even 1 person & without turning even 1 shovel worth of dirt.”

“If we need expertise in incompetence, will reach out,” he added, accompanied by the peace sign emoji. 

Carr was responding to a message Buttigieg posted on Friday that took issue with the Department of Government Efficiency, which has become a common target of Democrats as Elon Musk and the DOGE team work through federal government agencies in its quest of extinguishing government fraud and overspending. 

FCC COMMISSIONER HITS BIDEN ADMIN FOR $42 BILLION IN UNSPENT HIGH SPEED INTERNET FUNDS

Federal Communication Commission chairman Brendan Carr has opened an investigation into radio station controlled by left-wing billionaire George Soros. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

“Incompetence in Washington puts every American at risk, no matter how you voted. No one should be happy that the DOGE team – the same folks who randomly published classified U.S. security information online today – wants access to your bank account & Social Security numbers,” Buttigieg posted to X on Friday, referring to accusations DOGE posted classified information to its website, which the White House has refuted. 

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The Biden administration in 2021 approved a $42.5 billion provision in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that was directed to a program intended to deliver internet to underserved and rural areas of the nation. Four years later, however, the program has not connected users to the internet, the Washington Policy Center found in a report last year. 

Former President Biden, FCC chair Brendan Carr, and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.  (Getty Images)

States were required to submit plans to the federal government by 2023 related to the investment and deployment of the internet services. Former President Joe Biden, upon the states submitting their plans, celebrated the internet initiative as similar to former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s 1936 Rural Electrification Act, which brought electricity to homes nationwide. 

“What we’re doing is, as I said, not unlike what Franklin Delano Roosevelt did when he brought electricity to nearly every American home and farm in our nation. Today, Kamala and I are making an equally historic investment to connect everyone in America — everyone in America to high-speed Internet by — and affordable high-speed Internet — by 2030,” Biden said at the White House in June of 2023. 

Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg speaks during a press conference on June 28, 2021, in New York City. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images) (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

Carr has frequently taken issue with the $42.5 billion program, including citing it in X posts before President Donald Trump’s election win in November, and the president subsequently appointing the Republican FCC commissioner as chair of the government agency. 

FCC CHAIR SAYS IT’S ‘REALLY CONCERNING’ THAT A SOROS-BACKED RADIO STATION EXPOSED UNDERCOVER ICE AGENTS

“In 2021, the Biden Administration got $42.45 billion from Congress to deploy high-speed Internet to millions of Americans,” wrote on X back in June “Years later, it has not connected even 1 person with those funds. In fact, it now says that no construction projects will even start until 2025 at earliest.”

President Joe Biden speaks about his administration on Dec. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Carr explained to Fox Business back in June that while the funds were allocated to states to deliver internet services through the program, the Biden administration was at fault for the lack of progress. 

“There’s no question that the 2021 law put some process in place, but the Biden administration decided to layer on top of that a Byzantine additional set of hoops that states have to go through before the administration will approve them to actually get these funds and start completing the builds,” Carr told FOX Business in an interview in June. 

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He added that while some high-speed internet projects had connected people during the Biden administration, none were funded through the $42.5 billion allocation from the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program. 

Fox News Digital’s Breck Dumas contributed to this report. 

President Donald Trump announced three new members of his administration on Sunday, including Judge Jason Reding Quiñones, who the president has nominated as the next U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida.

“A former Federal prosecutor and Justice Department National Security Official, Judge Reding Quiñones currently serves as a highly respected State Trial Judge in Miami, and a Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force Reserve,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “As the next U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Judge Reding Quiñones will restore Law and Order, prosecute violent crimes and, MAKE AMERICA SAFE AGAIN.”

Along with Quiñones, the president announced that Jim Byron will serve as the senior advisor to the acting national archivist, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

Having already worked with the NARA, Trump said Byron understands the responsibility that goes into preserving the country’s history.

TRUMP LANDS KEY TULSI GABBARD CONFIRMATION FOLLOWING UPHILL SENATE BATTLE

President Donald Trump nominated Judge Jason Reding Quiñones to serve as the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida on Sunday. (Florida Courts)

In his role, Byron will manage the archives on a day-to-day basis as the Trump administration continues its search for a full-time archivist.

Trump also nominated John Jovanovic to serve as the chairman and CEO of the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM).

TRUMP’S NOMINEE FOR SMALL BUSINESS CHIEF PRIMED FOR FINAL VOTE AFTER CLEARING PROCEDURAL HURDLE

President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at Mar-a-Lago, Jan. 7, in Palm Beach, Fla.  (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

“John will utilize his extensive experience in finance, investments, and business building across the Energy, Commodities, and Critical Infrastructure sectors to Make America Energy and Manufacturing DOMINANT Again,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Jovanovic is a graduate of The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned his master’s in business administration in finance and management.

He also attended Princeton University, where he earned his undergraduate degree in politics.

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“He will work tirelessly to protect all of the gains from our strong Tariff Policies, guarantee that our Exports receive fair treatment, and always put American companies, and our Energy exports, FIRST,” Trump said. “Congratulations John!”

President Donald Trump and his administration are set to have another busy week as negotiations over ending the Russia-Ukraine war get underway. 

Trump is sending a handful of U.S. officials to Saudi Arabia this week to begin negotiating a potential peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine. Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, told Fox News on Sunday morning that he and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz will travel to Saudi Arabia on Sunday evening, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio is also set to travel to Saudi Arabia after his attendance of the international Munich Security Conference last week and meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Sunday. 

The meeting in Saudi Arabia comes after Trump announced last Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to “immediately” begin peace talks.

“Next week, there’s a meeting in Saudi Arabia,” Trump told the media during a press conference on Thursday. “Not with myself nor President Putin, but with top officials. And Ukraine will be a part of it, too. And we’re going to see if we can end that war. That was a horrible war. It’s a vicious, bloody war. We want to end it.”

Russia and Ukraine have been at war since February 2022, when Russia first invaded its neighboring nation. Trump had said while on the 2024 campaign trail that he would end the war if re-elected, while claiming it would never have begun if he had been in the Oval Office at the time. 

TRUMP WILL DETERMINE IF PUTIN IS ‘SERIOUS ABOUT NEGOTIATIONS’ TO END UKRAINE WAR, RUBIO SAYS

Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump (Contributor | Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)

Trump charged his team of U.S. officials to hold the peace meetings at his direction in Saudi Arabia, Witkoff said on Sunday to Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo. 

HOW SAUDI ARABIA’S CROWN PRINCE BECAME A CENTRAL PLAYER IN US-BROKERED PEACE TALKS BETWEEN RUSSIA AND UKRAINE

“I am going tonight. I’ll be traveling there with the national security advisor, and we’ll be having meetings at the direction of the president. And hopefully we’ll make some really good progress with regard to Russia, Ukraine,” Witkoff said. 

Waltz, Ratcliffe, Rubio and Witkoff (Getty Images)

RUSSIA CLAIMS TRUMP, PUTIN TALK BROUGHT WORLD FROM ‘BRINK OF APOCALYPSE,’ EU WARNS OF ‘DIRTY TRICKS’

Stateside, Trump spent his weekend in Mar-a-Lago in Florida before heading to the Daytona 500, where fans erupted into cheers when Air Force One flew over Daytona International Speedway. Trump is the first sitting president to attend two Daytona 500 races at Daytona International Speedway, previously attending the 2020 race.

President Donald Trump shakes hands with NASCAR Hall of Fame driver Richard Petty at the Daytona 500 on Feb. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

Trump’s schedule this week could also include meeting with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who requested a visit with the president at the White House. 

Trump told the media on Friday that he did speak with the U.K. prime minister and that he accepted a request to meet at the White House. 

“We’re going to have a friendly meeting, very good. We have a lot of good things going on. But he asked to come and see me, and I just accepted his asking,” Trump said. 

NASCAR FANS CHEER AS TRUMP ARRIVES FOR DAYTONA 500 IN AIR FORCE ONE

Trump said the meeting would be held “very soon,” suggesting it would happen either this coming week or the following week. No details have been revealed as to what the upcoming meeting will focus on, though it comes on the heels of Trump announcing a “reciprocal tariff” plan on Thursday that will impose “fair and reciprocal” tariffs on all major U.S. trading partners. 

“On trade, I have decided for purposes of fairness that I will charge a reciprocal tariff, meaning whatever countries charge the United States of America, we will charge them, no more, no less. In other words, they charge us a tax or tariff, and we charge them the exact same tax or tariff, very simple,” Trump said at the White House of the tariff plan. 

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer (AP)

On the energy policy front, Trump created the National Energy Dominance Council on Friday, which is expected to “unleash” energy independence. 

TOP TRUMP AGENCY RECOVERS EYE-POPPING SUM AFTER LAUNCHING DOGE TASK FORCE

“We have more energy than any other country, and now we are unleashing it,” Trump said Friday from the Oval Office when he signed an executive order establishing the energy council. “I call it liquid gold under our feet, and we’re going to utilize it.”

Kevin Hassett, the director of the National Economic Council under the second Trump administration, previewed that the council will quickly work to make the U.S. energy dominant, even with actions as early as this coming week. 

“What I expect you to see, sir, is action as early as next week that is going to shock people about how good it is for Americans,” Hassett told Trump from the Oval Office on Friday. 

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Trump’s fourth week in office follows him already signing 65 executive orders, including 26 on his first day in office alone.

President Donald Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia hinted that there might not be a place at the table for Europe during peace negotiations with Russia.

Asked if Europeans had a role in talks between Russia and Ukraine, Trump’s envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Keith Kellogg, said at a security conference in Germany over the weekend that he was “from the school of realism, and that is not going to happen.”

The comments come as Trump presses ahead with plans to negotiate peace between Ukraine and Russia, which includes planned meetings between U.S. and Russian officials in Saudi Arabia this week.

But European allies might not be included in future talks, Kellogg made clear during his remarks in Munich, arguing that too many voices adds to the risk of derailing negotiations for peace.

EMMANUEL MACRON CALLS ‘EMERGENCY MEETING’ FOR EUROPEAN LEADERS TO DISCUSS TRUMP: REPORT

Retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg (Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“What we don’t want to do is get into a large group discussion,” Kellogg said, noting that Trump is pressing to have a deal done within “days and weeks” and not on a longer timetable.

“You got to give us a bit of breathing space and time, but when I say that, I’m not talking six months,” he said.

The comments come just a day after Vice President JD Vance ripped into European leaders during a speech at the same conference, arguing that European domestic policies limiting free speech were a bigger threat to the continent than Russia.

“The threat that I worry the most about vis-à-vis Europe is not Russia, it’s not China. It’s not any other external actor,” he said. “What I worry about is the threat from within the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values, values shared with the United States of America.”

The remarks by U.S. leaders at the conference have left their European counterparts in shock, according to a report from Reuters, which noted that many European delegates were left worrying about continued U.S. military protection of the continent and the details of a deal brokered in Ukraine with little European involvement.

‘BREATHTAKING SPEED’: TRUMP’S PARIS TRIP MARKS RETURN TO GLOBAL STAGE AS LEADERS TURN ‘THE PAGE’ ON BIDEN

Speaking to Newsweek, Icelandic Prime Minister Kristrún Frostadóttir said she was still “trying to decipher” the meaning of Kellogg’s remarks over the weekend, though admitted that she found them a “concern.”

“This is about Russia, but this is also about Europe,” she said. “It’s also difficult for foreign leaders to be reacting constantly to unsure comments.”

“We feel like Ukraine has to be at the table, and Europe does, too,” she added.

That sentiment was echoed by Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna, who argued that Europe will have to “act more strongly” in response to the U.S. push.

“If Trump is negotiating with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin about Europe, then it is impossible to talk about Europe without us,” he told NewsWeek.

Macron has reportedly called a special meeting about Trump. (Getty Images | AP Images)

DAVID MARCUS: TRIUMPHANT TRUMP AT NOTRE DAME SIGNALS AMERICA AND THE WEST ARE BACK

French President Emmanuel Macron responded to the developments by calling on European leaders to convene an emergency meeting in Paris, which is expected to center on U.S. efforts to exclude European countries from peace talks between Ukraine and Russia.

Those expected to be in attendance at the Paris meeting include NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, and the leaders of Germany, Italy, the U.K. and Poland, according to a report from the Guardian.

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer is expected to attend the meetings, though he stressed the importance of keeping the European and U.S. alliance together.

“The U.K. will work to ensure we keep the U.S. and Europe together. We cannot allow any divisions in the alliance to distract from the external enemies we face,” Starmer said, according to the Guardian report.

Prospects for a peace deal to end Russia’s nearly three-year-old invasion in Ukraine have seemingly intensified in recent weeks, most notably after Trump held separate phone calls with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Keith Kellogg is the U.S. special envoy to Ukraine and Russia. (Getty Images)

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At a later event at the conference, Kellogg made clear that European interests would still be considered at the bargaining table, noting that the U.S. would simply hope to serve as an intermediary in talks between Russia and Ukraine, the two main protagonists in the conflict.

Meanwhile, Rutte urged European leaders to get serious if they hope to be involved in the peace process.

“And to my European friends, I would say, get into the debate, not by complaining that you might, yes or no, be at the table, but by coming up with concrete proposals, ideas, ramp up (defense) spending,” the NATO secretary-general said at the conference.

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

The White House is taking aim at Democratic critics of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), highlighting that the new agency’s work was once championed by prominent Democrats.

“To all of the Democrats who are planning to protest this week, here’s an explanation on DOGE, from your party’s own beloved leaders,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a post on X Sunday while sharing a video of former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden calling for reforms similar to those being made by DOGE.

“Budget reform is not an option, it’s a necessity,” Obama says in the video. “We can’t sustain a system that bleeds billions of taxpayer dollars on programs that have outlived their usefulness or exist solely because of the power of politicians, lobbyists or interest groups.”

“The American people are entitled to transparency,” Biden says in the video. “They’re entitled to be able to figure out where their dollars are going, and they’re entitled to accountability to make sure that we’re using the dollars for what we said it was for.”

TOP TRUMP AGENCY RECOVERS EYE-POPPING SUM AFTER LAUNCHING DOGE TASK FORCE

President Donald Trump and Elon Musk attend a viewing of the launch of a SpaceX Starship rocket on Nov. 19, 2024, in Brownsville, Texas. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

Democrats have ramped up their attacks on DOGE and its leader, billionaire Elon Musk, over the past week, arguing that Trump’s project is a violation of the Constitution and filing several lawsuits in an effort to bring the new department’s momentum to a halt.

But Leavitt pointed out that many of DOGE’s priorities used to be the same across the aisle, especially for the two most well-known Democratic leaders.

“We are going to go through our federal budget… page by page, line by line, eliminating those programs we don’t need, and insisting that those that we do need operate in a sensible, cost-effective way,” Obama says during a speech in one portion of the video.

Elon Musk speaks during an event in the Oval Office with President Donald Trump, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025. (AP Images)

EXPERT REVEALS MASSIVE LEVELS OF WASTE DOGE CAN SLASH FROM ENTITLEMENTS, PET PROJECTS: ‘A LOT OF FAT’

“What should be easy is getting rid of the pointless waste and stupid spending that doesn’t benefit anybody,” Obama says during another point of the video from the Oval Office, where the then-president is seated next to a large stack of papers. “No amount of waste is acceptable, not when it’s your money.”

“We hope to be instilling an entire new culture, that not only our administration, but every succeeding administration will in fact pursue,” Biden says at another point in the video.

Former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden (Getty Images)

Recent polling shows Americans may side with Trump and Musk on DOGE. In one poll conducted by the Trafalgar Group, 49% of respondents said they approve of DOGE’s efforts compared to 44% who indicated they disapprove.

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Similar numbers were seen in a recent Economist/YouGov poll, which shows 42% of respondents view DOGE favorably, while 38% indicated they had an unfavorable opinion of the department.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is a “little bit scared” of President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an interview that aired Sunday.  

Zelenskyy joined NBC’s “Meet the Press,” recounting that when he spoke to Trump by phone about a potential peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, he told the president that he believes Putin fears the American leader. 

“I said that [Putin] is a liar,” Zelenskyy recounted of his phone call to Trump. “And he said, ‘I think my feeling is that he’s ready for these negotiations.’ And I said to him, ‘No, he’s a liar. He doesn’t want any peace.’ 

“But I think he’s really a little bit scared about the President Trump. And I think the president has this chance, and he’s strong. And I think that really he can push Putin to peace negotiations. Yes, I think so. I think he can, but don’t trust him. Don’t trust Putin. Don’t trust just words about ceasefire,” Zelenskyy told NBC’s Kristen Welker on “Meet the Press.” 

Zelenskyy’s interview follows Trump announcing last Wednesday that Putin had agreed to “immediately” begin peace negotiations to end the war. Trump tapped Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, National Security Advisor Michael Waltz and special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff to lead negotiations with Russia and Ukraine. 

TRUMP SAYS RUSSIA AGREES TO ‘IMMEDIATELY’ BEGIN NEGOTIATIONS TO END WAR IN UKRAINE

Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (Sputnik/Alexei Danichev/Pool via Reuters/Leah Millis/Alina Smutko)

PUTIN VIEWED AS ‘GREAT COMPETITOR’ BUT STILL A US ‘ADVERSARY’ AS UKRAINE NEGOTIATIONS LOOM, LEAVITT SAYS 

Zelenskyy said during his interview that he trusts Trump’s leadership amid negotiations to end the war that has raged between Russia and Ukraine since 2022, but that he won’t accept a deal that did not include talks with Ukraine. 

“I believe and trust only in real steps. And I trust President Trump because he’s the president of the United States, because your people, your people voted for him, and I respect their choice, and I will work with President Trump with trust, which I have to the United States,” Zelenskyy told Welker when asked if he feels Trump values Ukraine at the same level as Russia. 

FREED AMERICAN HOSTAGE MARC FOGEL LANDS IN US AFTER YEARS IN RUSSIAN CAPTIVITY

Russian President Vladimir Putin holds a meeting with members of the Security Council via videoconference at the Kremlin in Moscow, May 13, 2024. (Aleksey Babushkin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo)

“But of course, I want to have [a] real meeting, productive, without just words, with concrete steps, and to hear us, to hear President Trump, to make a common plan, and to share it with allies, then with Russians, and stop this war. I think we need it urgently. We have to do it without basic things, where there are concrete steps.”

Zelenskyy added in his interview that he will not accept any negotiation hashed out by just the U.S. and Russia.

‘NO REASON’ FOR NEW NUKES: TRUMP FLOATS DISARMAMENT TALKS WITH CHINA, RUSSIA

“I will never accept any decisions between the United States and Russia about Ukraine. Never.… The war in Ukraine is against us, and it is our human losses. And we are thankful for all the support, unity between USA – in USA around Ukraine support, bipartisan unity, bipartisan support, we’re thankful for all of this. But there is no… leader in the world who can really make a deal with Putin without us about us,” he said. 

Former President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meet at Trump Tower in New York City, Sept. 27, 2024. (Reuters/Shannon Stapleton/File Photo)

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Witkoff joined Fox News earlier on Sunday and reported that he and Waltz are heading to Saudi Arabia on Sunday evening to begin negotiations on ending the war between Russia and Ukraine. 

President Donald Trump’s prowess as a negotiator will help determine if Russian President Vladimir Putin is serious about negotiations to end the war in Ukraine, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday.

Rubio appeared on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” where host Margaret Brennan asked if he could trust that potential negotiations with Russia would be forthright considering how Putin “likes to use diplomacy as a cover to distract while he continues to wage war.”

“I don’t think in geopolitics anyone should trust anyone,” Rubio responded. “I think these things have to be verified through actions. I said yesterday that peace is not a noun, it’s a verb. It’s an action. You have to take concrete steps towards it.”

Rubio added that there is “no better negotiator in American politics” than Trump, saying that the president “will know very quickly whether this is a real thing or whether this is an effort to buy time.”

HOW SAUDI ARABIA’S CROWN PRINCE BECAME A CENTRAL PLAYER IN US-BROKERED PEACE TALKS BETWEEN RUSSIA AND UKRAINE

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday said that he believes Trump is America’s best political negotiator. (MARK SCHIEFELBEIN/Pool AP/AFP via Getty Images, File)

“But I don’t want to prejudge that,” Rubio said. “I don’t want to foreclose the opportunity to end the conflict that’s already cost the lives of hundreds of thousands and continues every single day to be increasingly a war of attrition on both sides.”

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly three years ago. The fighting has produced heavy casualties on both sides, becoming Europe’s largest military conflict since World War II. 

Trump had repeatedly said while on the campaign trail that if he was president in 2022, the war would not have broken out — vowing to end it if re-elected.

RUSSIA CLAIMS TRUMP, PUTIN TALK BROUGHT WORLD FROM ‘BRINK OF APOCALYPSE,’ EU WARNS OF ‘DIRTY TRICKS’

Trump spoke to Putin in a phone call on Wednesday, telling reporters that he and Putin would likely meet soon to negotiate a peace deal over Ukraine. Trump later assured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy he also would have a seat at the table. 

While some officials have indicated that European nations wouldn’t be involved in talks, Rubio on Sunday said that should the leaders reach the point of “real negotiations,” both Ukraine and Europe would be involved.

“Ultimately, it will reach a point when you are – if it’s real negotiations, and we’re not there yet – but if that were to happen, Ukraine will have to be involved, because they’re the one that were invaded, and the Europeans will have to be involved because they have sanctions on Putin and Russia as well, and they’ve contributed to this effort.”

Volodymyr Zelenskyy President of Ukraine talks with media during the European Council Meeting on Dec. 19, 2024, in Brussels, Belgium. (Pier Marco Tacca/Getty Images)

Rubio emphasized that the phone call between Trump and Putin was only a small step in the process towards opening a negotiation to end the war, and that “we have a long way to go.”

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“We’re just not there yet,” he said. “We really aren’t, but hopefully we will be, because we’d all like to see this war end.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Agents with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will no longer wear body cameras during field operations after a social media post publicized how to identify individual agents.

“All U.S. Border Patrol Agents will cease the use of body-worn cameras (BWC) in all operational environments,” CBP said in a statement to NewsNation, which originally reported the news.

The directive comes after a post on Reddit claimed that the mobile application BLE Radar, which uses Bluetooth to scan for low-energy devices such as phones, smartwatches and speakers, can also track CBP body cameras from a distance of 100 yards and can also trigger improvised explosive devices.

FRUSTRATED CHICAGOANS BACK ICE DEPORTATIONS, APPLAUD DOJ LAWSUIT TARGETING SANCTUARY POLICIES

A Border Patrol agent stands on a cliff looking for migrants that crossed the border wall between the U.S. and Mexico near the city of Sasabe, Arizona. (Salwan Georges/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

CBP officials sent out a directive following the post informing agents of a “potential security risk” while immediately pulling body cameras from use in the field.

“Pending completion of investigation and risk mitigation, all Agents will stand down the use of their BWCs [body worn cameras] until further notice. Additional guidance and information will be disseminated as it is received,” the directive said.

Sources told NewsNation that the cameras used by CBP agents are Avon body cams, which the social media post claims are devices BLE Radar, which was developed by F-Droid, can detect.

Border Patrol agents rescue a migrant child abandoned by smugglers. (U.S. Border Patrol)

DAILY AVERAGE OF KNOWN GOTAWAYS AT SOUTHERN BORDER PLUMMETS, DOWN 93% FROM BIDEN ADMINISTRATION HIGHS

The directive comes as both CBP and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have ramped up enforcement efforts in the weeks since President Donald Trump took office, an effort that was a cornerstone of the president’s campaign to return to the White House.

Since the beginning of February, the daily average of gotaways, or illegal immigrants who successfully enter the U.S. without being apprehended, at the southern border has fallen to just 132 per day, a 93% drop from highs seen under former President Joe Biden, a senior Department of Homeland Security source told Fox News.

President Donald J Trump signs an executive order in the Oval Office at the White House on Jan 31, 2025. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Data obtained by Fox News showed that during FY 2023, 670,674 known gotaways were recorded by the agency, or more than 1,800 per day.

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CBP did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.

Fox News’ Bill Melugin and Greg Wehner contributed to this report.

FIRST ON FOX: President Donald Trump’s tariffs will be a boon for an Ohio-based steel mill and its employees, the CEO of JSW Steel USA, a subsidiary of a massive India-based steel manufacturer, told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview. 

“It’s a good piece of the formula that results in our company increasing utilization in the next 12 months, from 68% to probably 84%, and beyond that in years to come. So it’s a very exciting time for us,” JSW Steel USA CEO Robert Simon told Fox News Digital of Trump’s tariff plan in a phone interview on Thursday evening. 

Simon has served as the CEO of JSW Steel USA since March of last year, bringing with him more than 30 years of experience in the steel industry. He spoke to Fox News Digital following Trump announcing his administration’s “fair and reciprocal plan on trade,” which he celebrated during a press conference as a project that will flood the U.S. with jobs as trading partners move their industries to U.S. soil to avoid tariffs. 

JSW USA is a subsidiary of Mumbai-headquartered JSW Group, which owns India’s second-largest private steel company, JSW Steel. JSW USA has two steel locations in the U.S., one at Mingo Junction, Ohio, and another operation in Baytown, Texas. 

TRUMP DETAILS HIS RECIPROCAL TARIFF PLANS, ASKS FOREIGN COUNTRIES TO ‘TREAT US FAIRLY’: ‘DELIVER RECIPROCITY’

JSW Steel USA CEO Robert Simon spoke with Fox Digital in an exclusive interview. (JSW Steel USA )

Simon told Fox News Digital that across his more than 30 years in the industry, U.S. steel manufacturers have complied with strict environmental and safety practices, and paid their employees fairly, while foreign steel manufacturers could skirt U.S. regulations while exporting their goods to the U.S. 

“We, as steel producers, we paid our employees fair wages, treated them fairly, met some of the most – if not the most strict – environmental requirements in the world, and those practices in our markets, with the simple supply-demand equation establishes market pricing.”

The JSW Steel USA facility in Mingo Junction, Ohio. (JSW Steel USA )

“The frustration is, how is it fair that others that don’t treat their employees the same way, don’t follow the same rules, don’t follow environmental practices… they get government subsidies. How is it fair that they can come into our markets and take market share when it’s not an equal playing field?” he said. 

Simon said the Ohio plant alone will likely see a minimum increase of 100 jobs in the next year under Trump’s tariff plan. 

“As you look at that increase in utilization coupled with the overall increase in production that we foresee in the next three to five years, we estimate, at a minimum, a 100 jobs increase in the next 12 plus months associated with that utilization rate increase,” he said. 

WHO GETS HIT HARDEST BY STEEL AND ALUMINUM TARIFFS?

Trump’s administration issued a fact sheet last week restoring a 25% tariff on steel, which detailed “domestic steel and aluminum industries and achieving sustainable capacity utilization of at least 80%.” JSW Steel USA told Fox News Digital that they are already on track to increase their utilization rate from 68% to 84% – higher than Trump’s target number of 80%. 

Under the first Trump administration, JSW Steel USA notably sued the federal government in 2019 over tariffs regarding imported steel-slab materials. The company now makes all domestic steel-slab materials as part of the JSW Group’s belief that its facilities both make products and supply the product in the communities they serve.

President Donald Trump speaks at a rally at Circa Resort & Casino on Jan. 25, 2025, in Las Vegas. (Ian Maule/Getty Images)

Simon celebrated in his comments to Fox Digital that Ohio families that had long worked in the steel industry are making a return to the factory as the industry reinvigorates under the first and second Trump administrations. JSW USA purchased the Ohio factory in 2018, after it had operated as a Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel plant, but sat dormant for years. 

TRUMP ADVISOR TEASES NEW ‘GOLDEN AGE’ OF U.S. STEEL AND ALUMINUM

“This is a company that had been shut down for over seven years, when we acquired it. We hired a workforce, trained a workforce, all from the local area. What’s really cool to see is we’ve got employees whose grandparents and great-grandparents worked in this same company, which ended up being shut down, and they’re part now of reviving that company and bringing it to an offering of products that’s extremely competitive and extremely impressive in terms of its value added products,” Simon said. 

Trump announced a reciprocal tariff plan on Thursday, tapping Howard Lutnick, his nominee for commerce secretary, to produce a report on reciprocal trade relations within 180 days. Lutnik said Thursday that he will have the report ready for Trump by April 1. 

Howard Lutnick, commerce secretary nominee, joins President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House on Monday, Feb. 10, 2025. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

WHAT ARE TARIFFS, HOW DO THEY WORK AND WHO PAYS FOR THEM?

​​”On trade, I have decided for purposes of fairness, that I will charge a reciprocal tariff – meaning whatever countries charge the United States of America, we will charge them no more, no less. In other words, they charge us a tax or tariff and we charge them the exact same tax or tariff. Very simple,” he said at the White House on Thursday. 

Trump touted that the plan will lead to a job boon in the U.S. as foreign trading partners move operations stateside to avoid the reciprocal tariffs. 

“They can build a factory here, a plant or whatever it may be, here,” Trump said Thursday afternoon from the Oval Office. “And that includes the medical, that includes cars, that includes chips and semiconductors. That includes everything. If you build here, you have no tariffs whatsoever. And I think that’s what’s going to happen. I think our country is going to be flooded with jobs.”

Simon told Fox News Digital that Trump’s business and deal-making abilities are “obvious to everybody” as he whips through dozens of executive actions and orders in just a few weeks back in the Oval Office, remarking that it’s “pretty amazing.” 

“It’s become obvious to everybody that Mr. Trump is not a politician, right, but, more of a business person stepping in and leading our country, from much more of a business perspective than as a career politician. Like it or not, for those folks that have different opinions, this results in very quick negotiations. I don’t think I’ve ever in my time here seen so much movement, so much decision-making, so many decisions being made in this shorter period of time since he’s been in office. It’s pretty, pretty amazing,” he said. 

JSW USA purchased the Ohio factory in 2018, after it had sat dormant for years. (JSW Steel USA )

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Trump also met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday, and the two discussed trade, the economic relationship between India and the United States and military sales. The pair also “committed to drive opportunities for U.S. and Indian companies to make greenfield investments in high-value industries in each other’s countries,” including naming JSW’s operations at Texas and Ohio as a prime ongoing investment in the U.S., according to a joint statement from the two nations. 

President Donald Trump and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi shake hands during a news conference at the White House, Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

“The steel tariffs enacted by President Trump are a necessary step in leveling the playing field for American steelworkers and manufacturers. Foreign competitors fail to protect their workforce at the same safety standards, do not compensate them fairly, and produce steel that contributes to environmental degradation, all the while, seeking to flood the U.S. market, taking advantage of our strong economy, driving a collapse of our markets in the process,” Simon added in comment provided to Fox Digital.

A transgender woman wanted by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is accused of stalking and raping a 14-year-old boy in New York City.

Nicol Suarez, a 30-year-old trans migrant from Colombia, was arrested Wednesday after allegedly following the child into the bathroom of a bodega across the street from Thomas Jefferson Park and attacking him, according to a report in the New York Post.

The boy was able to leave the bathroom and flag down witnesses after the attack, resulting in Suarez’s arrest the next day.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT ARRESTS SKYROCKET UNDER TRUMP ICE COMPARED TO BIDEN LEVELS LAST YEAR: ‘WORST OF THE WORST’

Thomas Jefferson Park in East Harlem, New York CIty. (Google Street View)

Suarez was already wanted in both New Jersey and Massachusetts at the time of the crime, the report notes, while ICE had a detainer on the Colombian migrant, the agency’s way of requesting that any law enforcement agencies that arrest the suspect hold him to be turned over to federal authorities. 

That detainer means ICE could quickly deport the individual if local authorities cooperate, a source told the New York Post.

“It just goes to show that Donald Trump and [border czar] Tom Homan are correct that you need to get the violent people out of New York City and Eric Adams, Letitia James and Kathy Hochul should all cooperate because this person has an ICE detainer,” the source said.

TRUMP’S ICE LIMITS ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT RELEASES AMID MOVES TO SHAKE OFF BIDEN ‘HANGOVER’ 

New York City mayor Eric Adams (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

“ICE could just pick this person up and deport them back,” the source continued, adding that New York City’s “sanctuary laws” will mean local police “can’t do anything.”

Prosecutors asked for $500,000 bail and $1.5 million bond for Suarez, according to the report, a number that was shot down by Judge Elizabeth Shamahs, who settled on a $100,000 bail or $250,000 bond.

But the source believes the amount shows that the city is still not concerned with the true victims of migrant crimes.

Migrants line up outside a re-ticketing center on Jan. 5, 2024, in Manhattan. (Barry Williams/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

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“I feel really bad for the kid that has to go through this because his life will never be the same,” the source said. “We worry about the migrants but what about the victim? This is a true victim.”

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Scott Turner announced a new Department of Government Efficiency task force on Thursday to “eliminate waste, fraud and abuse” at his federal agency.

DOGE revealed that $1.9 billion in HUD money had been recovered as of Friday, saying the funds were misplaced during the Biden administration and were “earmarked for the administration of financial services, but were no longer needed.” 

DOGE said it worked with Turner to release the funds, and they are now available for use by the U.S. Department of Treasury. 

Turner said HUD launched its own DOGE Task Force to review how the agency is spending taxpayer money. HUD employees will lead the task force with a mission to maximize their budget and efficiency, reporting their findings directly to Turner. 

EXPERT REVEALS MASSIVE LEVELS OF WASTE DOGE CAN SLASH FROM ENTITLEMENTS, PET PROJECTS: ‘A LOT OF FAT’

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner was confirmed Feb. 5, 2024.  (Getty Images)

“HUD will be detailed and deliberate about every dollar spent to serve rural, tribal and urban communities. Thanks to President Trump’s leadership, we are no longer in a business-as-usual posture, and the DOGE task force will play a critical role in helping to identify and eliminate waste, fraud and abuse and ultimately better serve the American people,” Turner said. 

TRUMP TEAM DIGS IN, FINDS MILLIONS OF WASTED DOLLARS AT EPA, HUD WITH DOGE HELP

Turner said he established the task force to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order to “maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.” 

The HUD DOGE Task Force will work to “ensure all programs, processes and personnel are working together to advance the purpose of the department.”

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner launched a Department of Government Efficiency Task Force to review how HUD is spending taxpayer dollars. (Getty/AP)

HUD is responsible for national housing policy and urban development, and its programs include affordable housing programs, community development, homeowner support, fair housing and anti-discrimination enforcement, homelessness services, and affordable housing programs. 

Turner said during his announcement Thursday that the DOGE Task Force had already identified over $260 million in savings. 

“We have already identified over $260 million in savings, and we have more to accomplish,” Turner said. 

As Elon Musk and DOGE comb their way through the federal bureaucracy, some agencies are conducting their own investigations to meet DOGE halfway. 

Administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency Lee Zeldin announced on Thursday he had canceled a $50 million environmental justice grant. 

Elon Musk listens as President Donald Trump speaks with reporters in the Oval Office at the White House Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025, in Washington.  (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

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“I canceled a $50 million grant to an organization called the Climate Justice Alliance. They say that climate justice runs through a free Palestine. I think that the American taxpayer wouldn’t want $50 million going to this left-wing advocacy group. It’s canceled,” Zeldin said. 

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has also committed to cooperating with DOGE to cut wasteful spending at the Department of Defense. 

“We will partner with them. It’s long overdue. The Defense Department’s got a huge budget, but it needs to be responsible,” Hegseth told Fox News. 

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has responded after a prominent ex-official endorsed him to run for mayor of New York City against incumbent first-termer Eric Adams. 

Former state comptroller Carl McCall, 89, released an open letter backing Cuomo on Saturday. Cuomo has not formally declared his candidacy in the race, though he is polling as the top potential challenger to Adams in June’s primary.

In response to the letter, Cuomo, who resigned as governor in 2021 amid scandals connected to COVID-19 nursing home deaths and sexual harassment claims, acknowledged the history that he and his family share with McCall.

“Carl and I have a special bond that starts before me.  I first had the pleasure of meeting Carl when I was in my early 20s when he worked with my father, the late Mario Cuomo, as the state’s human rights commissioner and together the two fought to make New York a fairer, more just place for all who live here.” 

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Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo arrives to testify before the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic in the Rayburn House Office Building at the U.S. Capitol on Sept. 10, 2024, in Washington, D.C.  (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)

“In these divisive and troubling times, his voice is needed more than ever – for his is one of moral clarity, experience and guided by what is right for the people above all else,” Cuomo wrote Saturday. 

“Today, in these uncertain times, and after more than four decades of friendship and counsel, I thank him for his faith in me and for his advice, trust and confidence,” Cuomo said. “His sentiments are both humbling and deeply meaningful.”

In his letter, McCall did not cite Adams by name, but he appeared to indirectly slam how the Justice Department on Friday asked a court to dismiss corruption charges against Adams that were filed during the Biden administration. Adams met with President Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, last week, agreeing to work together as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) cracks down on criminal illegal immigrants.

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“Donald Trump wants us to fail as a community. For that reason, the leadership of New York City has rarely, if ever, been as vital as it is today,” McCall wrote. “The Mayor of New York must not only have the competence and capacity to manage the City’s real challenges, but the mayor must have the ability to defend our city and demonstrate a powerful counterbalance to President Trump. The people of New York cannot be represented by someone whose loyalty to the city is compromised — we deserve a Mayor of New York to be for New York.” 

New York Democratic gubernatorial candidates Carl McCall and Andrew Cuomo at an event supporting the raising of the state minimum wage on May 2, 2002. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

McCall, a Black elder statesman who once ran in a contentious gubernational primary against Cuomo in 2002, turned on Adams, who is New York City’s second Black mayor. McCall endorsed Adams’ 2021 mayoral campaign. 

“I have never publicly urged a candidate to run for office. But I have never before felt it so necessary to use my voice,” McCall wrote Saturday. “For these reasons, I urge Governor Andrew Cuomo to run for Mayor of the City of New York and I offer my full support.”

“I’ve known Andrew for over 40 years. Some might be surprised that I am supporting Andrew so strongly and so early,” the letter continued. “But despite how it is sometimes framed in the press, we were never political adversaries: twenty years ago, we were competing candidates who shared then and share now the same core values of what is right and wrong and sought to make New York a better place.”

“More than anyone else, Andrew is the leader we need and the leader we deserve,” McCall wrote. 

Despite still not having declared a mayoral bid, Cuomo released a campaign-style video on Valentine’s Day, in which he told senior citizens, “I missed you,” and declaring that “the strongest four-letter word is not hate, it’s love.” 

Democratic politician Carl McCall was elected as New York Comptroller in 1994.  (Bob Berg/Getty Images)

Albany politicians have questioned Adams’ independence from Trump after the DOJ asked that the corruption charges be dropped, and some prosecutors resigned amid allegations of a quid pro quo agreement. 

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In response, Adams said Friday on X, “I want to be crystal clear with New Yorkers: I never offered — nor did anyone offer on my behalf — any trade of my authority as your mayor for an end to my case. Never.” 

President Donald Trump derided former Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., as “not equipped mentally” after he went from being the face of the GOP in the upper chamber to opposing his entire conference and voting with the Democrats on Trump’s key Cabinet nominations in just a matter of months. 

“He wasn’t equipped ten years ago, mentally, in my opinion,” Trump told reporters at the White House after McConnell refused to vote in favor of confirming his controversial Health and Human Services (HHS) pick, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 

“He’s a, you know, very bitter guy,” Trump added of McConnell, with whom he has had a strained relationship with over the years, including during his previous presidency. 

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The GOP’s recent and longest-serving Senate party leader has stood in opposition to his conference multiple times, demonstrating the party’s significant transformation in the age of Trump.  (Reuters)

While such a shift from GOP leader to defiant Republican might be optically jarring, the move was unsurprising to Jim Manley, former senior communications advisor and spokesman for former Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and the Senate Democratic Caucus. 

“He was living on borrowed time the last couple of years,” he told Fox News Digital of McConnell. Manley speculated that if he hadn’t decided to step down from leadership voluntarily before the 119th Congress, he would have had significant trouble being re-elected. “[I]t’s evident just how exactly out of step he is with the caucus,” he said, noting that it has become “much more conservative.”

In three pivotal Senate votes on Trump’s most vulnerable Cabinet nominees in the last few weeks, McConnell bucked his party. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s nomination was confirmed by a razor-thin margin, 51-50, after Vice President JD Vance was called in to break the tie. 

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McConnell and Trump have had a thorny relationship.  (Reuters)

Moderate GOP Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, joined him in voting against the controversial defense pick.

However, McConnell was the only Republican to vote against the similarly controversial Director of National Intelligence (DNI) nominee Tulsi Gabbard and HHS pick Kennedy. Even Collins, Murkowski, and several other senators with reputations for being somewhat hesitant got behind them.

“If Senator McConnell was looking to accelerate the deterioration of his legacy as the former Republican Senate leader, he’s succeeded,” a Senate GOP source remarked. They described the Kentucky Republican’s actions as “an attempt to embarrass the president and the Republican Party” and evidence “of why he was no longer fit to lead our conference.” 

McConnell released lengthy statements following each vote, explaining his reasoning. He also wished each of them well and committed to working with them.

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Hegseth was confirmed after JD Vance cast a tie-breaking vote. (Omar Marques/Getty Images)

A defense hawk and chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, McConnell was unconvinced that Hegseth or Gabbard were the best national security selections. 

As for Kennedy, McConnell recalled his childhood experience with polio and touted the effectiveness of vaccines, of which the now-HHS secretary has been consistently critical. 

McConnell did vote in favor of Trump’s other, less-controversial and lesser-known Cabinet nominees. 

Republican strategist Matt Dole called the former leader “an enigma.” 

“[H]e sought to rule the Republican Caucus with an iron fist when he was leader,” he pointed out. 

“That makes his own, lonely, votes stand out as all the more egregious.”

McConnell’s successor, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., reacted to the “no” votes in an interview with Fox News Digital. “I think he knows better than anybody how hard it is to lead a place like the United States Senate, where it takes 60 votes to get most things done, and that you got to have everybody, sort of functioning as a team,” he said. 

According to Thune, McConnell “is still active up here and still a strong voice on issues he’s passionate about, including national security, and so when it comes to those issues, he has outsized influence and a voice that we all pay attention to.”

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Thune succeeded McConnell as Senate GOP leader.  (Reuters)

He explained that while the conference doesn’t necessarily agree with him, “we respect his positions on these, some of these [nominations], and I know that a lot of big stuff ahead of us, he’s going to be with us. He’s a team player.”

One former top Senate Republican strategist explained the former leader has “nothing to lose” at this point. In fact, they said, the feelings he is expressing about Trump’s most controversial selections actually reflects those of a number of other senators. But they can’t oppose the picks themselves “for fear of retribution by Trump or primary voters that will make a difference on whether or not they remain in power.”

“Not being in leadership can be quite liberating,” GOP strategist John Feehery added. 

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According to Grant Reeher, a political science professor at Syracuse University, “I think he wants to make a symbolic statement in favor of an older Reagan-era type of conservatism and a more traditional Republican Party—this is the way he wants to be remembered.”

McConnell’s office declined to comment to Fox News Digital.

Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., has spent the better part of the last decade in Indiana, running various businesses and coaching his sons’ baseball team. 

Before that, he had a front-row seat for most of the Obama administration, followed by the meteoric and unprecedented rise of now-President Donald Trump. Stutzman was a part of political history himself, having been one of the original members of the House Freedom Caucus — a group that has grown to be known as a bastion of ideological conservatism and, at times, a thorn in the side of House GOP leaders.

Now he’s back as one of several first-term House Republicans, succeeding Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., as a member of a perilously thin House GOP majority.

But according to Stutzman, who previously served in Congress from 2010 to 2017, he sees Republicans as more aligned with each other than before.

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Rep. Marlin Stutzman of Indiana served in Congress from 2010 to 2017 and is back for another term. (Getty Images)

“I feel like it’s different. I don’t think the GOP conference is as far apart — you know, moderates to conservatives — as it was back in 2010,” he told Fox News Digital in an interview.

“I was looking at the membership in 2010, and there were true moderates. I think we’re actually much closer together now than what we were back then. And, of course, we had large majorities. So that creates other challenges. So having a tight majority is not a bad thing at all. It actually makes you unify.”

He credited that re-alignment in large part to Trump, pointing out that he and other Republicans were first elected in 2010 as a backlash against former President Barack Obama rather than in support of the leading party’s agenda.

“We won the 2010 election because it was a reaction to Obama. And in 2020 — I mean, you could say every election is a reaction to the incumbent party, but I think in this case, after the Biden years, the American people elected Trump because they believed he could move the country forward,” Stutzman said.

Stutzman with former House speakers Paul Ryan and Kevin McCarthy in 2012. (Getty Images)

“And so we have a leader that is casting a vision and is clear in his messaging, and it gives us the chance to, you know, coalesce behind his leadership. So that’s a huge help, compared to 2010.”

He also disputed the notion that the Freedom Caucus was founded to be “obstructionist” to House GOP leaders, despite members of the group leading well-known coups against senior Republicans in the past.

“There’s a lot of smart people that wanted to just be part of a group that looked at things from every angle and was really being productive. And so that’s why I wanted to join it, because I wanted to be at a place that I could learn, I could really dive deep and learn from other people and staff that were part of the caucus to really understand the policy, but also talk through the strategy,” he said.

“It was never designed to be an obstructionist caucus. There have been times that it’s definitely been labeled that and accused of that . . . any obstruction was to stop bad things from happening. Not to obstruct the good things from moving forward.”

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Stutzman credits President Trump with unifying Republicans. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

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Stutzman said that being a private citizen running businesses for eight years gave him perspective on the value of consensus-building, allowing him to return to Congress with an emphasis on the “big picture.”

“You’re never going to get everything you want. You know, find a way to support the team and find a way to support us to a yes,” Stutzman reflected. 

“Now, look, there’s going to be times when you just say no, And that’s just part of negotiating. But I think the main thing is just fight hard, offer everything you have. But then at the end of the day, let’s take a win and then move on to the next fight.”