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Secretary of State Marco Rubio is going viral — not for diplomacy, but for stepping behind a DJ booth at a family wedding and hyping up the crowd in a clip shared online that’s quickly gaining attention.

The video, posted by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino on X, shows Rubio wearing headphones and standing behind a DJ setup, leaning over the controls as music plays and guests dance nearby.

At several points, he pumps his fist, nods along to the beat and appears to cue up the next track, drawing cheers from people gathered around the booth.

“MOMENTS AGO, BEHIND THE SCENES—Our Great Secretary of State @MarcoRubio DJ’s weddings too! Here he is in action tonight at a family wedding… Let’s goooooo!!!” Scavino wrote in the post.

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The track playing in the video is “Shiver” by John Summit and Hayla, a high-energy dance song known for its pulsing beat and dramatic drop — a fitting backdrop as the crowd moves in sync and reacts to the music.

The unexpected scene has set social media on fire, with users reacting to the unusual sight of a sitting U.S. secretary of state taking on DJ duties at what appears to be a family celebration.

ONE-MAN CABINET: MARCO RUBIO WENT FROM RIVAL TO TRUMP’S POINT MAN, BUT CAN HE HANDLE IT?

One user wrote, “Marco becoming the official White House DJ,” while sharing an AI photo of Rubio dressed in black, wearing sunglasses and headphones and standing beside DJ equipment. The image shows Rubio in a club-like setting, with lighting and staging that mirrors a professional DJ setup.

Other X users shared AI images of Rubio mixing it up behind two turntables and a microphone.

MARCO RUBIO EMERGES AS KEY TRUMP POWER PLAYER AFTER VENEZUELA OPERATION

Another user wrote, “Marco can do it all!” posting another AI image showing Rubio at the turntables as Vice President JD Vance sits nearby on an ottoman, surrounded by haze and lighting effects.

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Rubio, who is also serving as acting national security advisor and has held several other roles, has taken on a wide range of responsibilities over the course of his career — and now, at least for one night, he can add DJ to the list.

The California man accused of attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner was highly educated and had worked as a tutor, a profile one university president said raises an unsettling question about the role of education in shaping character.

Cole Allen, 31, earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 2017 and a master’s degree in computer science from California State University, Dominguez Hills last year. That doesn’t match the typical resume of a would-be presidential assassin, but a disturbing shift appears to be underway, according to Cornerstone University President Gerson Moreno-Riaño.

“A troubling trend that appears to be emerging is that of the ‘educated assassin,’ individuals who do not fit the typical profile of people who commit such heinous acts,” Moreno-Riaño said. “These individuals are often schooled in some of America’s most elite institutions and act out of a perverted philosophical conviction that sees the killing of others not as evil, but as justified.”

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“My concern has been for many, many years that some of these not just activists, but violent activists, are perhaps some of the most highly educated ones in our country,” he said. “When education ceases to educate, when it’s ideological, when it’s brainwashing, when it’s indoctrination, it’s no longer education… It’s something very different.”

Prosecutors say Allen, who remains in federal custody, targeted Trump and Cabinet officials in the April 25 incident. He allegedly had authored a damning manifesto and left what authorities described as an extensive digital trail showing weeks of planning.

In addition to his advanced schooling, Allen joined tutoring company C2 Education in March 2020, according to his LinkedIn profile. A Dec. 30, 2024, Facebook post from the company congratulated “Cole Allen of C2 Education Torrence” as a teacher of the month.

CHARLAMAGNE BLAMES TRUMP FOR HEATED RHETORIC AMID WCHA DINNER FALLOUT

Secret Service Director Sean Curran told Fox News Thursday that Allen shot an agent in the chest while “charging through security,” with the round stopped by the agent’s bulletproof vest.

Curran said the agent returned five shots that missed, adding the agent was the only person other than Allen who discharged a weapon during the incident. Allen is believed to have tripped and fallen, prompting Secret Service agents to surround and subdue him.

Defense attorneys claim prosecutors lack key physical evidence and dispute aspects of how the incident has been characterized. A defense memo described Allen as a “devout Christian,” a highly educated man with no criminal history and a “loved and respected teacher.”

But Moreno-Riaño warned that credentials and professional roles do not necessarily reflect deeper moral grounding.

“The universities have rejected the centrality of God, a theistic Christian worldview, but nothing has taken its place,” he said.

“There is no moral compass for universities and for education today. It just doesn’t exist.”

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He added that parents should take a more active role in understanding what their children are being taught.

“Parents can no longer… simply drop off their student” and assume responsibility ends there, Moreno-Riaño said.

Moreno-Riaño also said people who carry out acts like this can hide their intentions, making them difficult to identify ahead of time.

“Our entire life as a whole, whatever we do in private, whatever we’re doing in secret, does have a significant impact on what we do in public,” he said.

Allen’s next hearing is scheduled for May 11.

For Moreno-Riaño, the case points to a moral concern.

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“There’s a crisis of morality, a crisis of faith,” he said. “Without it, all we’re giving to students is just information then. And that’s not giving them guidance and moral direction.”

Fox News Digital’s Alex Koch, Asra Q. Nomani, Jake Gibson, Julia Bonavita and Peter D’Abrosca contributed to this reporting.

This is part 2 of a series on California’s troubled Ivanpah Solar Power Plant in the Mojave Desert. 

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. – More than a decade after it opened, an Obama-era taxpayer-backed “clean energy” solar plant in California still burns fossil fuels and kills thousands of birds each year.

The Ivanpah Solar Power Plant, a massive facility in the Mojave Desert near the California-Nevada border, uses hundreds of thousands of mirrors to reflect sunlight into three towering structures, generating intense heat to produce electricity.

But those same beams have proven deadly.

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Federal researchers and monitoring reports have documented thousands of birds being killed after flying through the plant’s concentrated solar rays — a phenomenon known as “solar flux.”

The plant also relies on natural gas to start up each day – producing tens of thousands of metric tons of carbon dioxide annually – an amount comparable to the energy use of thousands of homes, raising questions about how “clean” the facility really is.

Standing near the site, its footprint is unmistakable. The towers glow intensely as beams of reflected sunlight converge at their tops, creating an almost surreal scene against the desert landscape.

Once promoted as a symbol of the future of renewable energy, Ivanpah is now drawing scrutiny over whether its environmental costs outweigh its benefits, with critics saying the project raises broader concerns about how “clean energy” is evaluated.

“If oil and gas spills a drop, literally a drop, the entire operation is shut down. And to an extent that’s a good thing,” Daniel Turner, founder of the energy advocacy group Power The Future, told Fox News Digital.

“But you label something ‘green’ or ‘clean’ and all regulations are waived.”

TRUMP’S UN SPEECH REVEALS INCONVENIENT TRUTH OF MASSIVE GREEN ENERGY COSTS

Despite the documented wildlife impacts, the plant continues to operate — with California regulators declining efforts to shut it down and instead arguing it is still needed to support the power grid. Officials under both the Trump and Biden administrations have supported shutting the facility down, citing the high cost of its electricity compared to newer alternatives.

The project was built with more than $1.6 billion in federally backed loans and additional taxpayer-funded incentives, leaving hundreds of millions of dollars still outstanding — even as environmental concerns continue to mount. In addition, the U.S. Department of the Treasury provided a $539 million grant to help build the facility, covering about 30% of construction costs.

Bird deaths and wildlife impacts

The facility spans more than 4,000 acres of the Mojave Desert and uses roughly 350,000 mirrors — mounted on more than 170,000 heliostats — to reflect sunlight toward three central towers.

That same concentrated light has had unintended consequences.

Researchers say insects are drawn to the bright towers, which in turn attract birds. Some then fly through the plant’s concentrated solar beams — known as solar flux — where they can be injured or killed.

Researchers dubbed the phenomenon “streamers,” with video released by the U.S. Geological Survey showing birds trailing smoke as their feathers burn.

A 2016 federal study by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found evidence of birds suffering feather damage and trauma consistent with exposure to intense heat near the towers.

Monitoring reports filed with California regulators and reviewed by Fox News Digital continue to document bird and bat deaths at the site, with hundreds of birds found dead each year.

Environmental reviews conducted before construction anticipated some level of wildlife impact, including bird deaths linked to mirror collisions and concentrated solar beams, according to California Energy Commission documents.

“Bird mortality is still a significant concern at concentrated solar plants like Ivanpah,” Lewis Grove, director of wind and energy policy at the American Bird Conservancy, told Fox News Digital.

“Public estimates are that thousands of birds are killed every year by this single facility,” he said, adding that the trade-off is “generally not worth it for birds.”

CALIFORNIA’S POLITICIANS DIDN’T START THE FIRES. THEY MADE THEM WORSE

He noted that newer photovoltaic solar systems have significantly lower impacts on wildlife, underscoring how the industry has shifted away from the technology used at Ivanpah.

“The Ivanpah plant was a financial boondoggle and environmental disaster,” Julia Dowell of the Sierra Club said in a previous Fox News Digital report. She added the project “killed thousands of birds and tortoises” and showed that “not all renewable technologies are created equal.”

Habitat impact

Beyond bird deaths, the project has reshaped the surrounding desert.

The site was once considered a high-quality habitat, according to federal environmental reviews conducted before construction. Development cleared large areas of land, displacing tortoises and other wildlife and raised concerns about long-term survival.

Early monitoring reports showed dozens of protected desert tortoises went unaccounted for during initial operations — including animals held in controlled enclosures — according to California Energy Commission documents reviewed by Fox News Digital.

Critics have also questioned whether efforts to relocate tortoises away from the site have been effective.

Burning fossil fuels

The plant’s environmental footprint extends beyond wildlife.

Ivanpah relies on natural gas to start up operations each day — a requirement that has raised questions about how “clean” the facility really is.

While the original design assumed limited gas use, actual operations often require several hours of gas-burning to bring the system online. The plant also lacks large-scale energy storage, meaning it cannot generate electricity at night — a limitation newer solar projects increasingly address.

Project documents show the facility was originally approved to use significantly less natural gas than it ultimately required, with operators later seeking approval to increase usage by roughly 60% to maintain reliable operations, according to California Energy Commission filings reviewed by Fox News Digital.

The plant has burned natural gas to support daily startup and operations, producing roughly 25,000 to 30,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually — roughly equivalent to the emissions from several thousand U.S. homes.

That level of emissions is enough to place the plant under California’s cap-and-trade program, which requires major polluters to pay for their emissions — effectively placing the “solar” facility alongside traditional fossil fuel plants when it comes to emissions.

While Ivanpah produces fewer emissions than a conventional natural gas plant, its carbon footprint remains significantly higher than that of modern solar farms, which generate electricity without burning fossil fuels.

NRG Energy, which operates the facility, said in a previous statement that it remains committed to providing renewable electricity but declined to provide additional comment regarding environmental issues.

The California Energy Commission told Fox News Digital the project remains in compliance with its environmental requirements, with wildlife impacts addressed through ongoing monitoring and coordination with federal and state agencies.

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More than a decade after it opened, Ivanpah now stands as a symbol of the trade-offs in the push for clean energy — where efforts to reduce emissions can also bring real-world environmental costs.

For now, the plant continues to operate because regulators say the power it provides is still needed — even as questions remain about its cost, environmental impact and whether it still makes sense to keep it running.

Those questions extend beyond the plant itself, raising broader concerns about how projects like Ivanpah were approved — an issue Fox News Digital will examine in the next part of this series.

Republicans are calling out Democratic Senate primary candidate Sherrod Brown for being disingenuous on illegal immigration just days before Tuesday’s Ohio primary election.

“I support closing the border to people so they just can’t cross the border at will, but I also say we, of course, should be deporting people that have committed a crime, surely,” Brown said in an interview last month, prompting reviews of his voting record to the contrary.

That remark has raised concern about Brown trying to rewrite his voting record that showed longtime opposition to border security and deportation of criminal aliens since the first Trump administration.

Brown served in the Senate for three terms (2007-2025), nearly two full decades, before losing in 2024 to Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio. Now, Brown is seeking the seat of Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, who was appointed to Vice President JD Vance’s seat at the start of the second Trump administration.

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Brown had been squarely on the side of the left against President Donald Trump’s border security and enforcement actions as a senator. Not only did he vote at least 10 times to protect federal funding for sanctuary cities from his time in the House in 2001 through his third Senate term in 2024, he has also:

• Co-sponsored the 2019 End Mass Deportation Act, which sought to rescind Trump’s executive order to prioritize deporting criminal illegals and withhold funding for sanctuary cities.
• Voted against ensuring ICE has “sufficient resources to detain and deport a higher number of illegal aliens who have been convicted of a crime.”
• Voted against funding to stop criminal aliens from securing amnesty.
• Voted to stop funding for deportation of criminal aliens in 2001.

Brown’s voting record shows a discrepancy between his latest comments and his past votes and public positions.

Brown has repeatedly opposed construction of a southern border wall “that doesn’t work,” calling the idea “stupid,” “wrong” and “ludicrous.” In the past he has voted:

Fox News Digital reached out to Brown’s campaign for comment, but they did not immediately respond. 

The Ohio Senate race figures to be a very competitive one this summer, drawing massive campaign dollars from both sides in the pursuit of the Senate majority, with immigration remaining a top issue.

“This November, Ohioans will have a clear choice between the past and the future,” Husted campaign manager Drew Thompson told Signal Cleveland, which reported a $1 million ad campaign for his Senate race this week, despite running unopposed in the primary. “Jon Husted is getting an early start by taking his story directly to voters who are ready for a fresh, common-sense approach in Washington.”

HUSTED FILES FOR 2026 SENATE RACE, LAUNCHING AGGRESSIVE STATEWIDE RE-ELECTION PUSH

Brown’s 32-year record of voting for sanctuary cities and illegal immigration will come back to haunt him in the state, Thompson added in a statement.

“After shocking Ohioans in 2024 by claiming he only hears about illegal immigration from the far Right, Sherrod Brown is now desperate to return to Washington and continue the same Biden-era open border policies he supported for 32 years,” the statement read. “Jon Husted, on the other hand, is working to clean up Sherrod Brown’s mess by funding border security, supporting border agents, and standing for the rule of law.”

Ohio is one of three races considered a toss-up by The Cook Political Report. The re-election campaign of Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and the open Michigan seat vacated by retiring Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., being the other two.

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Senate seats in Alaska (lean GOP), Georgia (Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga.), North Carolina (lean Democrat) and New Hampshire (lean Democrat) are the other close races drawing attention and campaign dollars.

“Sherrod Brown’s lies aren’t going to trick Ohioans,” NRSC regional press secretary Nick Puglia said in a statement. “They know Brown has fought for over half a century alongside liberals like Kamala Harris to open our borders and protect dangerous criminal illegals from deportation.”

Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue is suing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, accusing the Republican of using his office for “retaliation” to punish the group for its political work and asking a federal judge to block his investigations and litigation against the organization.

“ActBlue is trying to take me down,” Paxton, who is running for Senate in Texas, wrote on X. “I sued the fundraising platform for deceiving Americans by lying about its donation processes that allow fraudulent and foreign donations.

“I will hold those who break the law accountable.”

The ActBlue lawsuit, filed Friday in federal court in Boston, seeks to counter the case Paxton brought last month in Texas state court accusing ActBlue of misleading Congress and the public about its donation practices. ActBlue said Paxton’s actions are part of an unlawful retaliation campaign targeting the nation’s leading small-dollar Democratic fundraising platform.

TEXAS AG PAXTON SUES DEM FUNDRAISING PLATFORM ACTBLUE, ALLEGING ‘FRAUDULENT AND FOREIGN DONATIONS’

“Ken Paxton has spent more than two years using the power of his office to investigate, harass, and sue ActBlue,” Lawrence Oliver, ActBlue’s chief legal officer, said in a statement.

“The timing of Paxton fighting for his political life in his run for U.S. Senate and his use of the Attorney General’s  office to attack ActBlue, should not be lost on anyone. He is wasting taxpayer dollars to benefit his political ambitions.

“That is not law enforcement. It is retaliation against constitutionally protected speech and association, and it is exactly what the First Amendment forbids.”

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ActBlue also argues selective prosecution, noting Paxton has never investigated WinRed — the Republican fundraising counterpart to ActBlue — alleging in the lawsuit that “Paxton has a history of targeting Democratic-aligned entities.”

“During his tenure as Texas Attorney General, Paxton has signaled an emphasis on enforcement against entities enabling voting and political speech that he perceives as aligned with the Democratic Party,” the lawsuit reads. “He has consistently sought to suppress speech with which he disagrees and hobble his political opponents by abusing the powers of his Office.”

ActBlue cited a New York Times report that Talarico “had posted strong fundraising numbers for the first quarter of 2026,” in potentially being the nexus for Paxton’s opening his investigation.

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The timing of his investigation shows a political motive, ActBlue’s lawsuit argues. The group says Paxton’s investigators began conducting undercover transactions on ActBlue’s platform Feb. 18, one day after Talarico announced he had raised $2.5 million in 24 hours, including more than $2.2 million through ActBlue.

The lawsuit said Paxton filed his Texas case five days after national reporting described Talarico as a major fundraising threat who had raised more than $36 million through the platform.

The lawsuit marks an escalation in a broader Republican-backed campaign targeting ActBlue and other online fundraising platforms. President Donald Trump last year directed his Department of Justice to investigate the groups, and Paxton has pursued ActBlue through a series of inquiries dating back to December 2023.

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The issue comes as the Democratic National Committee reportedly carried more than $17.5 million in debt this winter, according to the FEC.

The House Administration, Judiciary and Oversight committees have been investigating ActBlue for more than a year and issued a 2025 report titled “Fraud on ActBlue.”

“ActBlue has engaged in good faith at every turn,” the group wrote in a statement after sending a letter to the committees last week before filing the Paxton lawsuit.

TOP HOUSE COMMITTEES ACCUSE DEM FUNDRAISING GIANT OF FACILITATING ‘BAD ACTORS’ IN BOMBSHELL DOJ LETTER

“We are asking the Committees to do the same: engage with us directly before sending accusatory public correspondence, and answer unresolved questions about the relationship between their oversight work and a DOJ investigation ordered by a President who has made no secret of his hostility towards ActBlue.

“We see what this is,” the statement added. “And we’re going to keep showing up, keep correcting the record — because that’s what transparency actually looks like. Not as a talking point. As a practice.”

Paxton’s Texas lawsuit, filed April 20, seeks financial penalties and asks a state court to stop ActBlue from allowing donations through gift cards and prepaid debit cards. Paxton alleged those payment methods could obscure a donor’s identity and enable illegal contributions, including from foreign nationals. His suit also claimed ActBlue continued to process gift card donations after saying in 2024 that it would stop doing so.

DEMOCRAT PLATFORM ACTBLUE SUBPOENAED BY HOUSE COMMITTEE AMID CONCERNS FOREIGN DONORS EXPLOITED SECURITY FLAWS

ActBlue denied the allegations.

“This is a thinly veiled attempt to distract from Ken Paxton’s numerous legal and ethical issues ahead of next month’s runoff,” ActBlue spokeswoman De’Andra Roberts-LaBoo told Fox News in an April 20 statement via email. “If he and his Republican allies actually cared about donor fraud, they would work to strengthen security standards across the board, including within their own operations, rather than targeting ActBlue.

“Our platform has done more than any other, regardless of party, to prevent improper donations and protect donors. Full stop.”

SCOOP: DEM FUNDRAISING GIANT ACTBLUE HIT WITH SUBPOENA BY TOP HOUSE COMMITTEES

Investigators from Paxton’s office attempted three times to use an American Express gift card on ActBlue’s platform, and all three attempts were rejected by the platform’s automated fraud-prevention tools, according to the complaint.

ActBlue said Paxton nevertheless filed a lawsuit accusing the group of having “secretly resumed” accepting gift cards and failed to disclose the failed test transactions to the Texas court, calling the allegations “false and inflammatory.”

“Paxton’s decision to use his government office to target ActBlue with legal sanctions as retribution for its protected speech and political association is an affront to the Constitution and must not be tolerated,” ActBlue’s lawyers wrote in the federal lawsuit.

Since its founding in 2004, ActBlue said it has helped raise $19 billion for Democratic campaigns and progressive organizations, including more than $568 million in the first quarter of 2026, acting as a conduit for individual donors.

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The lawsuit asks a federal judge to declare Paxton’s investigation and Texas civil case unconstitutional violations of ActBlue’s First and 14th Amendment rights and to bar him from continuing to pursue them.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is reportedly planning to travel to the Vatican and Italy this week for meetings aimed at steadying relations after public spats between President Donald Trump, Pope Leo and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

Rubio, a Catholic, is expected to meet with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s top diplomatic official, Reuters reported, citing Italian newspapers La Repubblica and Corriere della Sera.

Rubio is also expected to hold talks with Italy’s foreign and defense ministers, the Italian newspapers reported.

The visit would come at a tense moment for U.S.-European relations. The Pentagon on Friday announced a drawdown of 5,000 U.S. troops from Germany, the largest American base presence in Europe, as disagreements over Iran and tariffs deepen strains between Washington and several European capitals.

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Trump added he “probably should” weigh a drawdown of U.S. troops for NATO in Italy, too.

“Why shouldn’t I? Italy has not been of any help to us, and Spain has been horrible,” Trump said Friday from the Oval Office.

“I didn’t need the help, but I said, ‘yeah, we’d love to have your help, because I want to see if they’d do it. And they, in all cases, they said, ‘We don’t want to get involved.’ And you know the amazing thing is they use the Strait of Hormuz, and we don’t. We don’t use it. We don’t need it. We have a lot of oil.”

Trump has praised Rubio for his peacemaking and diplomatic efforts.

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“People like you,” Trump said of Rubio during his State of the Union address earlier this year. The president even joked he might consider firing Rubio after the Munich Security Conference for being so likable and effective on the world stage.

“You have done a great job, a great Secretary of State. I think he’ll go down as the best ever.”

Italy remains one of the largest hosts of U.S. forces in Europe, with nearly 13,000 active-duty American troops stationed across six bases at the end of 2025.

It is uncertain whether Rubio will also meet with the pope, who has been critical of the Trump administration’s peacemaking efforts in the Middle East.

Rubio and Vice President JD Vance attended Pope Leo’s inaugural Mass in St. Peter’s Square and held a private meeting with him the following day in May 2025.

TRUMP ACCUSES POPE LEO OF BEING ‘TERRIBLE’ ON FOREIGN POLICY OVER PONTIFF’S ANTI-WAR COMMENTS

The reported trip also comes weeks after Trump drew criticism from Christians across the political spectrum for attacking Leo on social media, including at one point calling the pontiff “terrible.”

“I have no fear of the Trump administration,” Pope Leo said last month before backing down and saying “I will not enter into debate.”

Trump had repeatedly blasted the pope for criticizing the war on Iran and the Trump administration’s hard-line immigration policies.

POPE LEO SLAMS THOSE WHO ‘MANIPULATE RELIGION’ FOR MILITARY OR POLITICAL GAIN, TRUMP RESPONDS

“Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy,” Trump wrote in a scathing Truth Social post.

“Leo should get his act together as Pope, use Common Sense, stop catering to the Radical Left, and focus on being a Great Pope, not a Politician. It’s hurting him very badly and, more importantly, it’s hurting the Catholic Church,” he concluded.

Fox News reached out to the White House, State Department, Holy See press office and the Italian government for comment.

The trip is aimed in part at easing tensions between Washington and Rome after Trump publicly criticized Meloni, one of his closest European allies, over her stance on the Iran war and her defense of the pope.

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Corriere reported that Rubio’s schedule has not been finalized. La Repubblica said a meeting with Meloni has not been ruled out.

Reuters contributed to this report.

After a month on the sidelines, the 2026 primary season is back with a vengeance.

A dozen states from coast to coast hold primaries or runoffs in May, and the results of those nomination contests may ultimately determine the outcomes of November’s midterm elections, when Republicans will be defending their slim Senate and razor-thin House majorities.

Also on the line in some of the ballot box showdowns: President Donald Trump’s immense sway over the GOP, as his endorsements in key races will be tested.

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Indiana and Ohio kick off the action on May 5, with Nebraska and West Virginia holding primaries a week later, on May 12. Louisiana’s nominating contest follows on Saturday, May 16. Three days later marks the busiest day of the month, with Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Oregon and Pennsylvania holding primaries. Texas wraps up May with runoff showdowns on May 26.

Here’s a closer look at some of the top races.

MAY 5 – Indiana and Ohio

The first major test of Trump’s grip on the GOP comes in Indiana.

Five months ago, Republicans in the GOP-dominated state Senate withstood immense pressure from Trump and his allies and voted down congressional redistricting, which would have given solidly red Indiana two more right-leaning U.S. House seats ahead of the midterms. Seeking retribution, the president endorsed challengers to eight GOP state senators who voted against the redistricting bill.

The president’s allies have spent millions of dollars to try to oust the state lawmakers who opposed Trump’s redistricting push. Among those in the political fight on behalf of the president are Turning Point USA’s political wing and the Club for Growth.

WHAT THE LATEST FOX NEWS NATIONAL POLL SAYS ABOUT DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS

The intra-party battle is seen not just as a test of fealty to Trump but rather a fight between MAGA forces and more traditional conservatives for the future of the GOP.

“We’ve got to change those old-style Republicans, put in people who will fight, fight against the Democrat gerrymandering,” Club for Growth President David McIntosh told Fox News Digital.

McIntosh, a former congressman from Indiana, said “I want to see my state do the right thing.”

In neighboring Ohio, there’s a lot less drama.

Vivek Ramaswamy, the multimillionaire biotech entrepreneur and business leader who grabbed national attention during his bid for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination before dropping out and becoming a top Trump surrogate, is all but certain to capture the Republican gubernatorial nomination in his home state. Ramaswamy, who is backed by Trump, will face off in November against Dr. Amy Acton, a doctor and researcher who served as director of the state Department of Health from 2019 to 2020. Acton is unopposed in the Democratic primary. The winner will succeed term-limited GOP Gov. Mike DeWine.

DEMOCRACY ’26: STAY UP TO DATE WITH THE FOX NEWS ELECTION HUB

It’s the same story in Ohio’s Senate primary, where appointed Republican Sen. Jon Husted, a former lieutenant governor, is unopposed in the GOP primary. Former longtime Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown is expected to cruise to his party’s nomination. The winner will serve the final two years of the term of Vice President JD Vance, who stepped down from the Senate after the Trump-Vance ticket won the 2024 presidential election.

Once a top general election battleground state, Ohio has shifted to the right over the past decade, with Trump carrying the state by 11 points in the 2024 election. But this year’s races for the Senate and governor are expected to be very competitive. And the Senate race is one of a handful across the country that may determine if the GOP holds the majority or if the Democrats flip the chamber.

 

May 16 – Louisiana

Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana is facing primary challenges from two Republicans: Rep. Julia Letlow and former Rep. John Fleming, who is currently the state treasurer. Trump earlier this year weighed into the race by endorsing Letlow.

Cassidy was one of only seven Senate Republicans who voted in early 2021 to convict Trump after he was impeached by the House for his role in the violent Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters who aimed to upend congressional certification of former President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory. Trump was acquitted by the Senate.

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But since the start of Trump’s second term 15 months ago, Cassidy has been supportive of the president’s agenda and his nominees.

If no candidate cracks 50% of the primary vote, the top two finishers will face off for the nomination in a June 27 runoff election.

 

May 19 – Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Oregon, Pennsylvania

The third major test of Trump’s endorsement power this month is in Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District, where Rep. Thomas Massie is facing a challenge from Trump-backed Ed Gallrein.

Massie has long been one of Trump’s most vocal GOP critics in Congress, repeatedly taking aim at the president over the Epstein files and foreign policy.

Trump allies have spent big bucks to boost Gallrein, a former Navy SEAL, and to take aim at Massie.

The president’s endorsement is also being tested in Georgia’s GOP gubernatorial nomination, in the 2026 race to succeed popular conservative Gov. Brian Kemp, who is term limited.

Trump has endorsed Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who is trading fire in a competitive and combustible battle with healthcare executive and mega GOP donor Rick Jackson, who has infused millions of his own money in his bid. Among the others battling for the nomination in a crowded Republican field are state Attorney General Chris Carr and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who later served in then-President Joe Biden’s administration, is the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination. Among the other contenders in the crowded field of candidates are Mike Thurmond, a former DeKalb County CEO and former state Labor Commissioner, and former Republican lieutenant governor turned Democrat Geoff Duncan.

Republicans are hoping to flip the U.S. Senate seat up for grabs this year in Georgia. The GOP views first-term Sen. Jon Ossoff as the most vulnerable Senate Democrat seeking re-election this year. But beating Ossoff, who has built a massive war chest, won’t be easy in the southeastern battleground state.

Making matters worse for the GOP: There’s a nasty primary between major contenders Reps. Mike Collins and Buddy Carter, and former college football coach Derek Dooley, who is backed by Kemp. Trump has remained neutral to date in the Senate primary in Georgia.

May 26 – Texas

Longtime GOP Sen. John Cornyn is fighting for his political life as he faces off in a runoff election against state Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is a MAGA firebrand and major Trump supporter.

Trump has stayed neutral in the showdown between the two Republican titans in right-leaning Texas.

Cornyn narrowly edged Paxton in an early March GOP primary that also included Rep. Wesley Hunt, but with no candidate topping 50%, Cornyn and Paxton advanced to the runoff.

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The winner of the runoff will face off in November with Democratic nominee James Talarico, a state representative and rising Democratic Party star who hauled in an eye-popping $27 million in fundraising the first three months of this year.

Democrats are confident, and Republicans are concerned, that if Paxton wins the GOP nomination, Republicans will have a harder time in the general election holding the seat. And similar to the Senate race in Ohio, the showdown in Texas is one of a handful across the country that may determine if the GOP holds the majority.

The legal battle over abortion pills escalated to the Supreme Court on Saturday, as the manufacturer of mifepristone filed an emergency request warning a lower court ruling is already causing “immediate confusion and upheaval” across the country.

Danco Laboratories is asking the high court to quickly block a 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that blocked mail-order access and reinstated in-person requirements for the drug, arguing the ruling is disrupting access and creating nationwide uncertainty about legality.

The ruling directly affects the distribution of mifepristone, Danco’s primary product.

Mifepristone is one of two drugs commonly used in medication abortions.

The application was directed to Justice Samuel Alito, who handles emergency matters from the 5th Circuit and can either act on his own or refer the request to the full court. The Supreme Court could act at any time.

ABORTION PILL MIFEPRISTONE SPARKS NEW PRO-LIFE DEBATE AS SOME DOCTORS STRESS SAFETY CONCERNS

In its filing, Danco warned the appeals court’s order is already creating “chaos” in real-world medical settings.

“The panel’s ruling injects immediate confusion and upheaval into highly time-sensitive medical decisions,” the company wrote, adding it is forcing “providers, patients, and pharmacies all to guess at what is allowed and what is not.”

The filing raises immediate questions, including what happens to existing abortion pill prescriptions, pharmacy dispensing and access to in-person visits.

PRO-LIFE GROUP FINDS BIDEN-ERA FDA POLICY IS DRIVING 500 ABORTIONS PER DAY, SAYS TRUMP HAS POWER TO END IT

“What happens when patients arrive for scheduled appointments this weekend… or walk into pharmacies… to obtain [the drug] that was prescribed… yesterday?” the filing states.

Danco is asking the court to immediately pause the ruling through an administrative stay, then block it longer term while litigation continues. The company also suggested the justices could take up the case on an expedited schedule before the end of the term, a move that could reshape the court’s already packed 2026 docket.

The emergency appeal comes just one day after the 5th Circuit issued its ruling, which blocked the mailing of mifepristone and effectively barred pharmacy distribution under the challenged FDA rules, requiring women to obtain the drug in-person from a medical provider.

PRO-LIFE MOVEMENT CONFRONTS HIGH ABORTION RATES THREE YEARS AFTER DOBBS

“Of course they filed an emergency petition. Big Pharma has gotten extremely rich after the unprecedented and radical deregulation of these dangerous abortion pills,” 40 Days for Life President Shawn Carney told Fox News Digital.

“No abortion advocate or anyone from Big Pharma was pushing to send these drugs through the mail just a few years ago, and now they act as if they’re entitled to do so with zero regulation and zero oversight,” Carney added. “This is more evidence the FDA needs to reevaluate how these drugs were approved after years of ER visits from women who take them.”

Abortion-rights advocates said the ruling has “upended” access to care nationwide, particularly for patients relying on telemedicine, while legal groups warned it is creating confusion for providers trying to comply with rapidly changing rules.

New York Attorney General Letitia James said the decision is “yet another cruel attack on abortion access,” adding that “mifepristone is safe, effective, and essential.”

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The underlying case is still ongoing in lower courts, but the emergency filing now places the dispute squarely before the Supreme Court in what could become the next major legal showdown over abortion policy.

The justices could choose to pause the ruling immediately, allowing the current system to remain in place while the case proceeds, or let the restrictions take effect nationwide.

Danco Laboratories did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

NEW YORK CITY — A group financed by a pro-Chinese Communist Party tech tycoon was one of the first on the scene for Friday’s May Day demonstrations and socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s remarks.

The People’s Forum, which received funding from Shanghai-based Neville Roy Singham, was a key player in organizing protesters at Union Square ahead of the May Day events, working closely with leaders from the Party for Socialism and Liberation.

A self-identified speaker from the Party for Socialism and Liberation announced a People’s Forum spokesperson who was the second to speak at the microphone. The speaker rallied the crowd of demonstrators, asking them to repeat chants and later bashing capitalism. Shortly before the remarks began, members from the Party for Socialism and Liberation arrived with equipment and dozens of pre-made anti-Trump signs packed in a van, unloading the signs and equipment from the van parked next to Union Square Park.

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A Fox News Digital investigation found that the People’s Forum has received $22.4 million from Singham.

Communism was a recurring theme on May Day in New York, with the Revolutionary Communists of America, the Revolutionary Communist Party and the Communist Workers of America present, their signs held by several demonstrators.

Pro-communism advocates were canvassing the crowd, hawking communist newspapers and encouraging participation in upcoming organized events.

‘ABSOLUTELY A COMMUNIST’: MAMDANI DODGES LABEL, BUT HIS RECORD AND EXPERT SAY OTHERWISE

“The existing capitalist-imperialist system and institutions of government in this country must be abolished and dismantled – and replaced by a new, socialist system based on the constitution for the new socialist republic of America,” one paper read.

Fox News Digital interviewed a Revolutionary Communists of America member, who went only by Tom and said that capitalism “is in crisis in the U.S.”

“The small farmer has been killed off by capitalism,” Tom told Fox News Digital. “The small businessman has been killed off by capitalism. Big corporations dominate society. So America is very proletarianized. And therefore, the working classes has more of a, let’s say, the class balance of forces. It’s more on the side of the working class now than it ever has been.”

NYC MAYOR TOUTS ‘SOCIALIST’ WINS IN FIRST 100 DAYS ALONGSIDE BERNIE SANDERS

Teamsters and union members gathered downtown at Washington Square Park while the People’s Forum and the Party for Socialism and Liberation marched from Union Square Park several blocks away. The union workers’ rally ended shortly after the Singham-connected groups arrived. 

May Day is historically focused on advocacy for pro-workers, but once New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani began speaking, a significant number of teamsters and union employees had already left as calls for their cheers were dull, and the presence of other organizations dominated the crowd. 

Mamdani stood in front of billboards labeled “NO ICE, NO WAR” and “NO BILLIONAIRES,” and pushed his commitment to taxing the rich, and noted “faster buses” instead of his usual commitment to making bus transportation in the city free. 

The crowd cheered loudly for Mamdani, whose appearance was not publicized and seemingly not expected from many of the demonstrators.

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“That is why we continue to fight for those who power this city as we look to deliver universal child care,” Mamdani told the crowd. “Faster buses, cheaper groceries, protecting our neighbors from the cruelty of ice. And yes, working to tax the wealthiest and the most profitable corporations in New York City.”

Crowds dispersed following Mamdani’s brief address, but some roads remained closed as demonstrators continued the march, and one ambulance with flashing lights was forced to turn around earlier in the day on the march from Union Square to Washington Square.

The chair of the California Republican Party and other conservatives on social media are calling for the vice mayor of Los Altos, California, Larry Lang, to resign after he posted “86 47” on social media multiple times, including in response to one of the state Republican Party’s Facebook posts.

The now-deleted posts, screenshots of which were shared by the California Republican Party and reviewed by Fox News Digital, show that at some point this week Lang updated his Facebook “cover photo” so it was the same image of a “86 47” seashell formation reading that resulted in former FBI Director James Comey getting indicted in federal court last month for threats against the president. 

Meanwhile, Lang also commented “86 47” on a post shared by the California Republican Party earlier this week on Facebook. The clip included a news segment featuring California GOP Chairperson Corrin Rankin talking about a recent debate between California’s current gubernatorial candidates. She argued during the segment that Democrats in the state “have no solutions,” adding that Californians are ready for new leadership after 16 years of Democratic Party rule in the state.

“This death threat directed at Donald Trump is unacceptable. Either this elected ‘leader’ is completely unaware of recent events, or he is somehow fueling the violence that erodes our political system,” Rankin said Friday in a post on X that included calls for Lang to resign. “Los Altos deserves leaders who unite the community and focus on solutions.”

Kentucky school official resigns after allegedly calling to ‘shoot Republicans’ on social media

The California GOP also echoed Rankin’s remarks, pleading with Democrats to “stop advocating for the death of Donald Trump and Republicans.”

When reached for comment about the “86 47” posts, Lang’s email address returned an automatic response indicating he was “traveling” until May 4. His Facebook “cover photo” indicated it had been changed Friday.

Lang is the vice mayor of the Los Altos City Council and also sits on over half-a-dozen regional boards of directors. Fox News Digital also reached out to city council members in Los Altos for comment, but did not receive a response in time for publication.

JONATHAN TURLEY: COMEY’S SHELL POST MAY BE CRASS, BUT CHARGING HIM IS A FREE SPEECH TRAP

“He needs to resign as vice mayor!” conservative social media account Libs of TikTok said after uncovering the posts.

Nick Poche, spokesperson with the Republican National Committee, added that Democrats “must immediately dial back their unhinged rhetoric” or risk encouraging “deranged” supporters who might wish to kill the president, such as the suspect from the recent White House Correspondents Dinner shooting that was stymied by the Secret Service.  

“We suggest he resign to check into a mental hospital,” Poche said of Lang. 

Former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director James Comey was indicted for a second time by the Justice Department last month, which stemmed from a May 2025 Instagram photo of an “86 47” shell formation on a beach — the same shell formation that appeared in Lang’s Facebook “cover photo” until it was deleted.

In slang, often used in certain industries and in various cultures, “86” typically means to get rid of something. Meanwhile, Donald Trump is currently the 47th President of the United States.

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Comey removed the post the same day it was uploaded, claiming he had misinterpreted the shells as a general political message.

The former FBI director is facing charges of making threats to harm the president and transmitting a threat in interstate commerce. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of up to 10 years in prison, according to the Justice Department.

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – Communist and socialist groups called for a “revolution” at a May Day rally in Minneapolis Friday, highlighting the growing influence of far-left organizations at an event traditionally centered on workers’ rights.

Some of those demonstrators denounced capitalism and pushed for the seizure of private property and the means of production, marking a shift in tone from past May Day rallies that primarily focused on labor issues.

Protesters on the ground outlined a range of demands, including rent caps tied to income, a reduced work week and the redistribution of wealth from billionaires. The rally, which drew well over 1,000 people, was organized as an immigrant rights demonstration but brought together a broad mix of labor unions, activist organizations and far-left political groups marching side by side.

Among the groups present were the Communist Party USA, the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO), the Revolutionary Communists of America (RCA), the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), and members of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), with numerous participants carrying flags and signage featuring socialist imagery like the hammer and sickle.

MAY DAY PROTESTS TO TAKE PLACE FRIDAY AS AGITATORS ACROSS THE US PUSH ‘WORKERS OVER BILLIONAIRES’ MOTTO

Members of the Communist Party USA were seen handing out newspapers and leaflets, including a publication titled The Communist with the headline “Down with Trump’s War!”

Demonstrators carried signs reading “F–k ICE,” “Abolish ICE,” “Fight Trump’s Agenda,” “No Kings” and “Stop the War,” while others waved red flags associated with the Communist Party USA and held banners featuring the hammer and sickle, including signage from the Revolutionary Communists of America.

A Fox News Digital investigation previously identified U.S.-born tech entrepreneur Neville Roy Singham, who lives in China, as a key figure in a network tied to some far-left groups involved in protests, part of a broader mobilization involving roughly 600 organizations nationwide.

REVOLUTIONARY TOURISM:: INSIDE THE $600M MARRIAGE OF DARK MONEY AND FAR-LEFT AGITPROP

But demonstrators interviewed in Minneapolis said they were largely unaware of him or dismissed concerns about funding.

Andy Koch, a member of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, told Fox News Digital the U.S. is “run by billionaires” and should instead be run by working people. He said support from a a wealthy donor would be acceptable if it advanced the cause.

“If one billionaire… wants to donate to progressive pro-worker causes, that’s great,” Koch said.

When asked for examples of successful socialist systems, Koch pointed to China, saying “China’s doing pretty good right now,” and praised the former Soviet Union for having “done a lot for its people.

Members of the Revolutionary Communists of America were also present, with one protester saying he was “radicalized” in 2020 following the death of George Floyd.

“We’re calling for down with Trump and down with the Democrats,” the protester said.

Demonstrations in Minneapolis come months after large-scale anti-ICE protests with Friday’s May Day events reflecting similar themes tied to immigration enforcement and broader economic concerns.

The march was organized as an immigrant rights demonstration, promoted under the slogan “Immigrants Rise! Workers Unite!” and led by groups including the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC).

A speaker with MIRAC led chants of “No one is illegal” and “All power to the people,” with large sections of the crowd repeating the slogans.

The event began with organizers and speakers affiliated with the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC) leading chants and addressing the crowd from a makeshift stage, while dancers in indigenous regalia were also present. Socialist and communist groups initially gathered toward the back of the crowd but later joined the march, falling in line behind the immigrant rights organizers as demonstrators moved through the city.

A significant contingent of socialist and communist groups marched alongside the organizers, underscoring the ideological overlap at the event.

WATCH: Protesters march through South Minneapolis, carry political signs

Flags throughout the march reflected a wide mix of causes and affiliations, including Palestinian flags, LGBTQ pride imagery and banners associated with socialist and communist groups.

High-visibility marshals affiliated with protest groups directed the march and blocked side streets, with little to no visible police presence along much of the route.

Another protester who identified as a communist said the current system is a “dead end” and argued that “the workers create all the value in society and we get to own none of it under capitalism.” She said the group supports policies including rent caps tied to income and limiting rent to 10% of wages.

When asked about rent-control policies in cities like New York and California, where such measures have faced criticism, one woman said those efforts failed because they were not “under workers’ control.”

SOCIALIST NYC MAYORAL CANDIDATE MAMDANI ONCE CALLED TO ‘SEIZE’ LUXURY HOMES TO HOUSE HOMELESS DURING COVID

“Under capitalism, it won’t work. We need a society under control of the workers,” she said.

Owen Phernetton, a member of the Revolutionary Communists of America, said the group is “building a party of class fighters” and argued that “we need a revolution… on a socialist basis.”

He said the organization supports seizing property, including factories, mines and office spaces and placing them under the ownership of the working class.

“We argue for decreasing the workday to only 20 hours a week without any loss in pay,” he said.

He added that billionaire wealth should be “expropriated and put in use for the working class,” pointing to the Soviet Union as an example.

Several Minneapolis City Council members, most affiliated with the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL), attended the rally and read out a non-binding resolution recognizing May 1 as International Workers Day. During the remarks, one speaker told the crowd “we must abolish ICE,” linking labor issues with immigration policy.

WATCH: Communist Party presence noted at Minneapolis May Day demonstration

Jason Chavez read parts of the resolution alongside fellow council members Elliott Payne, Aurin Chowdhury, Soren Stevenson and Jamal Osman. Council member Robin Wonsley was also present.

Not all observers supported the messaging.

Sedonia Meyers, who said she was watching from the sidewalk, described herself as “a very centrist individual” and said immigration should follow a legal process.

“If you want to be a citizen… you should work hard… and do the proper steps,” she said, adding that the U.S. must “vet the people that come into this country” to ensure public safety.

Two other elderly women observing nearby welcomed the presence of communist and socialist groups, describing the rally as a “big tent,” and inisting that there was “room for everyone,” though they did not support calls to abolish ICE.

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The protest concluded without major disruption, with demonstrators marching through the city in largely good spirits. A marching band played upbeat music as participants moved along the route, though speakers delivered more forceful rhetoric as they outlined their demands.

Earlier in the day, smaller gatherings drew limited turnout, including a union-led rally at Government Plaza that a union leader described a union gathering with “no connection to broader protests.”

President Donald Trump’s effort to broadly pull U.S. troops from key NATO allies over resistance to the Iran war could run into new limits imposed by Congress, but the administration may have a way around them. 

Trump ordered the withdrawal of 5,000 troops from Germany Friday, a drawdown which will happen over the next six to 12 months, according to Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell. 

Lawmakers have restricted large-scale troop reductions in Europe below 76,000. 

But Trump still retains broad authority as commander in chief to move forces between countries, opening the door to shifting troops away from allies like Germany, Spain or Italy without reducing the overall U.S. presence.

Pentagon orders withdrawal of 5,000 U.S. troops from Germany as Trump escalates feud with Merz

The warning follows pushback from allies including Spain and Italy, which have limited how U.S. forces can use key bases for Iran-related missions, highlighting tensions inside NATO as Washington presses partners for support during the escalating conflict.

Trump said Wednesday the U.S. is “studying and reviewing the possible reduction of troops” in Germany, comments that came after Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the U.S. was “being humiliated” by Iran.

Merz downplayed the spat between Washington and Berlin in a statement Thursday. 

“On all these issues, we maintain close and trusting contact with our partners, including — and especially — those in Washington. We do so in the shared transatlantic interest. We do so with mutual respect and a fair sharing of burdens.”

German foreign minister Johann Wadephul said in his own statement: “The Ramstein Air Base serves an irreplaceable function for both the US and us.”

Asked on Thursday whether he’d consider pulling troops out of Italy and Spain, Trump said, “Yeah, probably… Why shouldn’t I?”

The comments come as both countries have resisted U.S. requests tied to operations in Iran.

“Italy has not been of any help to us,” the president said, adding that Spain has been “horrible, absolutely horrible” and citing their refusal to allow the U.S. to use jointly operated bases for missions related to the conflict.

Any major withdrawal, however, would face hurdles in Congress. 

Under the latest defense bill, the Pentagon cannot reduce U.S. troop levels in Europe below 76,000 without submitting an assessment and certifying to lawmakers that the move would not harm U.S. or NATO security interests.

“The provision does not prohibit the administration from going below 76,000, but it does establish hurdles it would have to clear,” Jeff Rathke, president of the American-German Institute at Johns Hopkins University and a former State Department official, told Fox News Digital.

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Congress cannot directly veto a troop withdrawal, but lawmakers can impose conditions and restrict funding, effectively slowing or blocking any significant drawdown if those requirements are not met.

The provision reflects recent concern in Congress over potential troop reductions, rather than a long-standing requirement in defense legislation. The restriction applies to total U.S. troop levels in Europe, not deployments in individual countries.

NATO itself does not have veto power over U.S. troop deployments, which remain a national decision, though basing agreements depend on cooperation with host countries.

The U.S. currently has about 36,000 troops in Germany, about 13,000 in Italy and around 4,000 in Spain — three of the largest American military footprints in Europe.

Germany and Italy host key U.S. bases that serve as logistics hubs for operations in the Middle East, meaning any significant drawdown could complicate efforts tied to the Iran conflict itself.

That has raised the stakes for how Trump responds to allied resistance.

Seth Jones, a defense analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the president likely has the authority to reposition or even withdraw forces, but warned that doing so raises broader questions about military strategy during an ongoing conflict.

“My issue is less the legal authority, but rather the strategic rationale behind a withdrawal — especially if it is done for political, rather than strategic, reasons,” Jones said.

He pointed to the role of key bases in Europe, including Rota in Spain, which supports rapid-response operations into North Africa, and Germany, which serves as a hub for deployments across both European and African theaters.

“The Russian threat to Eastern Europe remains serious,” Jones added, noting that some U.S. bases in Germany are positioned outside the range of certain Russian missiles and drones.

Jones also warned that relocating forces could carry significant costs and logistical challenges, adding to the complexity of any decision to scale back the U.S. presence.

The administration has pressed European allies to provide more direct support for operations tied to the Iran conflict, including broader access to bases and participation in efforts to secure key waterways such as the Strait of Hormuz.

But several countries have stopped short. Spain has imposed restrictions on how U.S. forces can use jointly operated bases, while Italy has allowed American troops to continue operating from its territory but limited how those facilities can be used for certain missions.

Germany has taken a more mixed approach, allowing operations from bases like Ramstein while publicly criticizing the administration’s strategy.

That dynamic has raised the possibility of alternatives to a full withdrawal, including shifting troops within Europe rather than reducing overall force levels.

Rathke said such a shift could avoid triggering the congressional threshold, since it applies to overall troop levels rather than deployments in specific countries.

But he cautioned that major relocations would be difficult in practice, noting that key infrastructure — including Ramstein Air Base and the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center — cannot easily be replicated elsewhere.

“Even the most willing European country would not be able to offer that in the short term,” he said.

Even if troop levels remain above 76,000, major relocations would likely require funding and infrastructure changes that would bring Congress back into the process.

Lawmakers have stepped in before to block troop withdrawals from Europe, and a new push could trigger scrutiny on Capitol Hill, especially if it’s seen as weakening U.S. positioning during an ongoing conflict.

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A similar clash played out during Trump’s first term, when he ordered the withdrawal of roughly 12,000 U.S. troops from Germany in 2020, arguing that Berlin was not contributing enough to NATO defense. Congress imposed conditions through the annual defense bill, requiring the Pentagon to certify that any drawdown would not undermine NATO or U.S. operations. The effort ultimately stalled and was never fully implemented.

Lawmakers have not yet publicly responded to Trump’s latest comments. The White House did not return a request for comment.

Power the Future, a pro-energy advocacy group, is asking Congress to take a closer look at the opposition to data centers that is springing up across the country.

In a letter to Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., the group asked lawmakers to open formal investigations into millions of dollars in funding they believe is incentivizing nonprofits and local groups to take up an environmental stance against data centers.

In their view, it’s a movement that’s trying to look more grassroots than it actually is.

“We request that your committees open a formal investigation into a coordinated, billionaire-funded, and potentially foreign-backed political campaign designed to block the construction of data center and AI infrastructure across the United States, which sits among the most important economic and national-security buildouts of President Trump’s second term,” the letter reads.

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The letter highlights fears that American laws surrounding nonprofits, which shield donors from public disclosures, could be enabling wealthy ideologues to make donations that are difficult to track.

The group pointed to environmentally-minded nonprofits like the Sierra Club, Food and Water Watch, Earthjustice, Goods Jobs First, Piedmont Environmental Council, the Southern Environmental Law Center, MediaJustice and the Athena Coalition that have received — and spent millions — opposing their expansion.

New Venture Fund, the Sierra Club Foundation and the Sixteen Thirty Fund collectively received over $13 million from pro-environmental donors, according to grant reporting.

It’s unclear if those donations were made for the express intent of opposing data center constructions.

Even so, across the board, the groups affirm that data centers are costing more resources than they are worth — at the expense of local communities’ environmental wellbeing.

Power the Future disagrees.

RAPID RISE OF AI PUTS NEW URGENCY ON CONGRESS TO UNLEASH AMERICAN ENERGY

Beyond generating tax revenue for local communities and creating employment opportunities, Power the Future argued that the data centers enable the U.S. to stay competitive with foreign powers.

“Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has called opposition to that buildout a ‘surrender’ to China,” Power the Future wrote in its datacenter report.

“The compute infrastructure that trains AI models, processes intelligence data and powers the next generation of American economic and military advantage has to be built somewhere.”

Although the group’s founder, Daniel Turner, believes that part of the opposition may well come from legitimate local concerns about unwanted development in rural areas, he’s skeptical of the money being pumped into the picture.

‘BAD IDEA’: CONSERVATIVES WARN RED STATE DATA CENTER BILL WILL DERAIL TRUMP’S VISION OF ENERGY ‘GOLDEN AGE’

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“There is certainly a lot for communities to discuss around data centers. But is it a paid operation by radical green groups who see banning data centers as the new banning the gas stove or banning the leaf blower?” Turner said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

Power the Future has found 188 local opposition groups across 24 states that oppose data center expansion, according to their research.

Senate Republicans are eyeing the chance to go after Graham Platner now that Maine’s Senate race is locked in.

Platner’s position as the Democratic nominee against Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, was all but cemented Thursday when Maine Gov. Janet Mills dropped out of the race over a lack of cash flow.

Mills’ exit is two-pronged. It could signal that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and the Democratic establishment are losing their grip, given that Mills was handpicked by Democratic Party bosses to challenge Collins.

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It also opens up a new line of attack for Republicans, who plan to lean into Platner’s past progressive views and his connection to his main backers: Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.

“This is the new Democrat Party,” Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., told Fox News Digital.
”I don’t know how to, I don’t even know how to digest all that nonsense. This is crazy.”

Scott, who chairs the Senate’s campaign arm, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, painted Platner as the “extreme” candidate compared to Mills’ more centrist image.

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He previewed points of attack against Platner, including his insults of rural White voters, old Reddit posts where he blamed women for rape, and his “absolute condescension towards minorities, and Black people specifically.”

“Schumer … went after Mills, and what do you find yourself with? Exactly the opposite,” Scott said.

Still, Platner, who has never held elected office, is polling ahead of Collins, who is seeking a sixth term in the Senate.

RealClearPolitics has Platner ahead by an average of nearly eight points. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., who chaired the NRSC when Republicans flipped the Senate in 2024, told Fox News Digital that the last time Collins ran, she was behind in early polling as well.

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“Every poll, going right up to Election Day, and she ended up winning by eight points,” Daines said. “Susan Collins is a tough out and she’s going to win Maine.”

Republicans also see Platner’s ascension as the continuation of a shift in the Democratic Party from the old-guard establishment to more progressive candidates, following the success of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani — another victory story from Sanders’ and Ocasio-Cortez’s stable of candidates.

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They’re hoping to tie Platner to Mamdani, whom Republicans have painted as a proverbial boogeyman in contrast to more centrist Democratic candidates.

“The Democrats continue to nominate far-left candidates,” Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., told Fox News Digital. “This is the Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, AOC, wing of the party that is in control.”

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz is zeroing in on five states as the Trump administration escalates its crackdown on fraud, waste, and abuse, he told Fox News Digital. 

“We’ve written letters to Minnesota, California, a letter to Florida because we’re worried about the durable medical equipment fraud, New York, Maine, and there are more coming,” Oz told Fox News Digital in a Zoom interview, adding that his concern expands to all 50 states, as well. 

Oz has escalated federal pressure on states to tighten anti-fraud enforcement following Minnesota’s $250 million “Feeding Our Future” scheme. CMS is leaving no stone unturned, he said, looking at programs such as Medicaid and hospices also revealing foreign influence in the fraud scheme. 

READ: DR. OZ PUTS ALL 50 GOVERNORS ON NOTICE OVER BILLIONS LOST TO MEDICAID FRAUD

“We know the Cuban government seems to be implicated in some issues in South Florida, where you have twice as many durable medical equipment suppliers selling wheelchairs and knee braces than McDonald’s,” said Oz.

The anti-fraud task force, led by Vice President JD Vance, announced in February that durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics, and supplies (DMEPOS) suppliers will be targeted through a nationwide moratorium.

“The Vice President’s task force continues to work closely with Dr. Oz and CMS to track down and root out fraud,” said a Vance spokesperson to Fox News Digital. “The task force is committed to ensuring that American tax dollars are used for the benefit of the American people, and will continue to successfully do exactly that.”

Oz said that he suspects a lot of foreign governments are involved in the fraud schemes taking place across the country targeting specific areas.

“We have evidence that foreign nationals certainly are involved in a lot of this fraud. There’s a Russian mafia presence in Los Angeles. There’s Chinese mafia presence, for example, in Flushing Queens [New York,]” Oz said.

MINNESOTA ‘ON THE CLOCK’ AS HHS THREATENS PENALTIES OVER CHILDCARE FRAUD SCANDAL

Four hundred hospices in Los Angeles were suspended after officials flagged an unusually high concentration of providers in the area.

The programs, designed for people in the final six months of their life, had very high survival rates – where in some cases everyone survived.

“We also began to notice that there were some folks who were probably not honorable doctors who were designated to supervise patients in multiple hospices,” said Oz. “A lot of hospitals had foreigners that owned them, or they were able to cheat by keeping the numbers of their membership low enough that they don’t have to actually report their outcomes.”

Oz said the auditor of California informed Gov. Gavin Newsom of hospice fraud evidence in 2022.

MINNESOTA FRAUD WHISTLEBLOWER SAYS ‘LACK OF GUARDRAILS WAS PRETTY SHOCKING’

“The fact that we can suspend more than 400 hospices from getting paid in just a few weeks highlights the reality that no one was watching the till for the last several years,” said Oz. 

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

“In 2021, Governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation placing a moratorium on new hospice licenses – a policy that remains in effect today, preventing bad actors from entering the system while strengthening oversight of existing providers,” a spokesperson for Newsom previously told the New York Post of hospice fraud in the state. 

SENATE REPUBLICAN EXPANDS CHILD CARE FRAUD CRACKDOWN TO MORE BLUE STATES

Oz recently put all 50 states on notice ordering governors to identify and remove noncompliant Medicaid providers.

Oz gave governors and state Medicaid leaders 10 business days in April to tell CMS whether they will commit to conducting a swift “revalidation” of high-risk Medicaid providers and provide a proposed timetable, alongside a separate 30-day deadline for a broader provider-revalidation strategy, escalating federal pressure on states to tighten anti-fraud enforcement.

“We can audit states that don’t want to comply with the revalidation request,” said Oz.

“Let’s revalidate, which means double check that everyone is providing services within Medicaid, especially for these high-risk services where these are the things your family would normally do for you,” he said.

Oz pointed to examples of autism babysitters, non-emergency transport to clinics, and services such as carrying and delivering groceries that may fall outside of Medicaid scope, possibly revealing fraud.

“Like what do these people actually have as credentials to allow them to be able to this? And so we asked this question of all the states and all 50 now are charged within 10 days of telling us whether they want to work with us,” he said. 

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Officials suspect the fraud costs Americans billions of dollars each year.

“This is an important issue for Americans to recognize because the states run Medicaid, but the federal taxpayer foots the bill,” said Oz.

Democrats who rallied with liberal activists at nationwide “No Kings” protests just weeks ago were widely mocked for pivoting to offer the United Kingdom’s King Charles III a royal welcome in Congress and elsewhere.

Charles’ speech highlighted a contradiction between anti-monarchy rhetoric and public protests involving Democrats and the raucous welcome extended to the British monarch during his address to Congress.

Rep. Mike Collins, R-Ga., criticized Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., whom he said hypocritically cheered Charles several months after speaking at a “No Kings” protest in Savannah.

“Hold on a minute, wasn’t this the same Jon Ossoff who was just out there a few weeks ago hooting and hollering about ‘No Kings’ at his rally… He’ll shout ‘No Kings’ all day, but once the king comes around, man, he’s got him a front-row seat,” the Jackson lawmaker said.

TIM ALLEN TROLLS ‘NO KINGS’ LAWMAKERS FOR FAWNING OVER ACTUAL KING CHARLES

“I was on my way to hear an actual King speak,” Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., said in a statement after Charles’ address. “Funny how the ‘No Kings’ crowd is nowhere to be found. Guess the outrage depends on who’s talking?”

At a March 29 “No Kings” protest in Minnesota, Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minneapolis spoke at an event headlined by Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, telling the crowd that the U.S. pledges allegiance to the “Constitution, not a King.”

The day prior, Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., spoke to the press at a “No Kings” protest in his area, saying that the crowd was exercising its freedom of speech against Trump while titling the clip on his social media page “No Kings, not now, not ever.”

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., authored the “No Kings Act” in 2024 in rebuke of the Supreme Court’s ruling that presidents have absolute immunity from criminal prosecution stemming from actions taken under their constitutional authority while in office.

“‘No Kings’ protest leaders welcome KING CHARLES with a standing ovation; you can’t make this up,” quipped former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, as press cutaway shots of Charles’ address to Congress showed multiple ‘No Kings’ Democrats like Beyer smiling or clapping.

‘NO KINGS’ CALLS ITSELF LEADERLESS BUT ITS OWN INTERNAL DOCUMENTS TELL A VERY DIFFERENT STORY

“Look who was elated to see the king – Ms. No Kings,” quipped liberal pro-Israel actor Michael Rapaport, who included photos of a grinning Omar taking photographs of Charles on her phone.

Sen. Ashley Moody, R-Fla., also called out alleged hypocrisy from the royals’ trip:

“Why did I just watch every Democrat in Congress stand and clap for an actual King?” she said, featuring screenshots from Fox News Channel’s House chamber feed.

“‘No Kings’ crowd greets King Charles with a standing ovation,” added right-wing X commentator “EndWokeness.”

“Biggest bull**** artists of the century,” added commentator Robby Starbuck.

Former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli shared another clip from b-roll of Charles’ speech, characterizing Democrats’ position as “No Kings +/- 1.”

Trump himself weighed in on the “No Kings” aspect during an interview with CBS’ Norah O’Donnell after she asked him about Hilton assassination suspect Cole Allen attending such a protest in California.

TRUMP REACTS TO ‘NO KINGS’ PROTESTS BY SAYING ‘I’M NOT A KING, I WORK MY ASS OFF’

“No Kings, yeah… If I was a king, I wouldn’t be dealing with you,” Trump retorted.

After Charles departed for London, the Democrat representing former President George Washington’s longtime home lambasted Trump for what he characterized as a concession to the king.

Trump announced Friday he agreed to an apparent request from Charles to remove trade restrictions on whiskey to help Scotland work with Kentucky’s liquor businesses, as the former utilizes the latter’s used barrels.

“Now we’re taking orders from the King of England,” said Virginia Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Mount Vernon.

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“George Washington just rolled over.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Beyer, Ossoff and Omar for comment.

Democratic lawmakers are defending redistricting efforts across the country, calling their efforts a necessary foil to similar Republican-led plans, while arguing vulnerable Republicans should have fought harder to prevent the “arms race” reshuffling district lines nationally.

“I feel like the system is fundamentally broken, but let’s be clear, Republicans began the redistricting arms race. And so, Democrats are left with no choice but to level the playing field for the sake of democracy,” Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., told Fox News Digital.

Lawmakers’ comments come as the Supreme Court handed down a decision on Wednesday, reshaping the framework of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and opening the door to the possibility of fresh redistricting efforts ahead of the 2026 midterms.

In its 6-3 decision delivered along ideological lines on Wednesday, the court struck down Louisiana’s 6th Congressional District, which was redrawn in 2024 to have a predominantly Black electorate. The court also ruled that states may not use race to either draw districts that disenfranchise voters or help minority communities support their preferred candidates.

SUPREME COURT ORDERS NEW ARGUMENTS IN PIVOTAL ELECTIONS CASE

It’s unclear which states may re-evaluate their maps in light of the decision.

“This is a very nefarious thing that the Supreme Court has done, and it’s a very desperate thing that Republicans are doing to cling to unearned power,” Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., said.

Since President Donald Trump urged state lawmakers to expand the GOP’s 217-213 majority by eliminating five Democratic seats in Texas, states including California, Utah, Missouri, Louisiana, Ohio, Virginia and North Carolina have followed suit.

Most recently, the Florida legislature approved a plan to eliminate up to four Democratic districts.

DESANTIS LAUNCHES FLORIDA REDISTRICTING PUSH TO POTENTIALLY ADD MORE GOP HOUSE SEATS

While most Democrats have laid blame for the avalanche of redistricting efforts on Trump, others believe a desire to use redistricting to carve out partisan advantages goes back much farther.

“I put this all on Democrats,” Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Texas, said.

“In 2003, when Tom DeLay was majority leader, and he said that he wanted to get rid of five Democrats in Texas, we didn’t respond. We let him slap us around, we let him come around and slap us, and we didn’t do anything about it,” Veasey said, referring to another mid-decade Republican redistricting effort that went unchallenged by Democrats in other states.

Veasey believes this time around, vulnerable Republicans in Democratic-leaning states invited their own demise by not voicing opposition to the Republican efforts in Texas.

“They didn’t say anything. The time to speak up, especially the Republican members from California, the time for them to speak was back then and they didn’t,” Veasey said.

BETO ENCOURAGES DEMOCRATS TO FIGHT ‘FIRE WITH FIRE’ IN TEXAS REDISTRICTING BATTLE

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Rep. Christian Menefee, D-Texas, like many of his Democratic colleagues, lamented the redistricting struggle but argued that pretending that the situation didn’t exist was unrealistic.

“Look, in a perfect world, we would not have any political gerrymandering. We wouldn’t have folks trying to draw black and brown people out of their districts and then putting the partisan cover over the top. But because we don’t live in that world, we’ve got to fight fire with fire,” Menefee said.

FIRST ON FOX: The educational background of the alleged White House Correspondents’ dinner Correspondents dinner shooter Cole Allen is generating renewed scrutiny from critics about the current state of academia and bias in the teaching profession, as well as questions about far-left politics and rhetoric on college campuses, including the specific institutions the alleged shooter attended.

Allen graduated from Cal State University Dominguez Hills in May 2025 with a Master’s Degree in computer science, according to his LinkedIn page. He spent a few years at the Carson, California, institution that multiple university employees who spoke to Fox News Digital said is rife with far-left ideology and antipathy toward countering views to that.

“I was not shocked,” a CSU Dominguez employee, granted anonymity to protect against retribution, told Fox News Digital about the news that Allen was a former student at the university. “Campus policy treats ICE like it is an invading army. There is constant talk of ‘the community under threat.’”

“I hope no one here approves of violence, but continually talking about the government as a threat to the community isn’t healthy.”

UNEARTHED VIDEO REVEALS COLE ALLEN AS QUIET INVENTOR YEARS BEFORE ALLEGED BID TO ASSASSINATE TRUMP

Some professors and administrators at CSUDH emphasize race and division in their teaching, and while they may not be the majority, they are highly visible and appear to be well supported, another employee said. 

For example, the employee explained that the university maintains three separate ethnic studies departments, Chicana/o studies, Africana studies and Asian Pacific studies, even though these programs have relatively few majors and graduates. Despite the university facing a serious financial crisis, there are no plans to consolidate them into a single department, which could reduce costs. 

“Faculty who spearheaded the push for an ‘ethnic studies’ requirement in the CSU were almost uniformly rewarded with deanships and administrative positions throughout the CSU,” the employee said.

Additionally, the Chicana/o Studies Department publicly supported Gaza on Nov. 3, 2023, weeks after the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre, but did not face any official consequences or requests to apologize, the employee said. 

“Conservative and independent professors and lecturers can expect scorn and insult when they try and actually voice their viewpoints, if not outright censure,” one of the employees told Fox News Digital. 

“Conservative students can realistically expect retaliation from faculty for disagreeing with said faculty member’s political views. I’ve heard a member dismiss a rather good student as being libertarian, ‘And, therefore, he can’t be that smart.’”

ASRA NOMANI: I WATCHED HATE CONSUME DEMOCRATS’ ‘NON-VIOLENT’ #NOKINGS RALLIES

One of the employees suggested that “regular folks from 20 years ago likely “keep their mouths shut” in order to not be branded a “right-wing bigot.”

“If you aren’t ‘anti-racist’ you are part of the problem to many of the most vocal people here. Certainly I’m not comfortable letting my views be fully known and I’m a lifelong Democrat.”

One of the most prominent voices on campus during Allen’s tenure was the school’s president, who often talked about race and labeled the Trump administration as racist.

“We need to be cognizant of how our minds and spirits, minds and spirits, have been contaminated by the residuals of racism and white supremacy,” Thomas A. Parham, former president at Cal State University Dominguez Hills, said during a webinar last fall titled, “Liberation Psychology: Unlocking the Shackles of Conceptual Incarceration,” first reported by Gateway Pundit.

Parham served as the president of CSU Dominguez Hills from March 2018 through this past December, when he stepped down after the school’s Academic Senate passed a resolution of “no confidence” over his leadership during his tenure.

Parham said during the webinar that it was his goal to “disrupt” and “dislodge” individuals who feel “comfortable” with the “way things are” when it comes to race.

“I want to dislodge them from that comfortable category of intellectual, emotional, and behavioral apathy that has been stuck in the way things are and then acting in the way that happens,’ Parham explained in the webinar, which was hosted by the American Psychological Association (APA) Leadership Development Institute.

 “If I need to adjust or disrupt that fragility in order to do that, that is the only thing that is going to instigate change. If I make them too comfortable, then all they do is receive information and passively go about doing it as if everything they’re doing is okay. So, I have to be one that’s unapologetic about being able to confront the fragility.”

Parham also offered criticism of Trump in the webinar, saying, “When you can brag about grabbing women by the privates, that is sexual assault that would wind everybody else up in jail. And 53% of the women still vote for you. Mostly White. You know this is something more than just a political issue.”

At another point in the webinar, Parham claimed the Trump administration doesn’t like minorities, saying, “Everybody knew this current federal administration was not liking Black folk, was not liking Latino folk, and was not down with immigrants. Everybody knew that.” 

One of the CSU Dominguez employees told Fox News Digital, “That’s Parham.”

“He centered race in everything, but only in a Black-White binary despite campus being 2/3s Latino,” the employee said. “He was defiant about not following DOE/admin rules on DEI and always made it feel like if you weren’t far-left, you didn’t share the values of the ‘Toro Family.’ A lot of professors, especially the loudest voices on campus, are the same way. I’m sure a lot of professors aren’t pushing an agenda, but the dominant narrative on campus, including from administration, that the mission of the university is race-conscious, Leftist, and activist.”

MICHAEL SHELLENBERGER: THE LEFT IS GETTING PEOPLE KILLED

On April 17, 2025, a month before Allen graduated, CSUDH faculty and staff joined a press conference and rally as part of the National Day of Action for Higher Education. This was coordinated with other Southern California campuses to protest what organizers called the Trump administration’s “attacks on higher education.”

Dr. Rick Addante, a neuroscientist who spent years working in the Cal State University system and was present during Parham’s webinar, which he posted online, told Fox News Digital he was “shocked and appalled at the kind of vile hate and discrimination that he [Parham] was spewing,” and made the case that the political climate at CSU Dominguez was one that could easily radicalize an impressionable student.

Addante, who has been sounding the alarm on X over alleged liberal radicalization on college campuses over the last few years after being fired from Florida Tech after blowing the whistle on DEI, argues that the rhetoric found in the shooter’s manifesto is indistinguishable from the official “ideological breeding ground” established by Parham. He believes the shooter was “indoctrinated” by an institutional culture that explicitly targets the Trump administration and its supporters.

“When you look at that, and you ask yourself, why is this person willing to run through a gauntlet of Secret Service people to attack the entire line of succession of the United States government and the President of the United States, where do his ideas, where do his thoughts and this drive come from?” Addante said. “Well, to me, you can draw a straight line connecting the two dots because this is clearly what he was indoctrinated with.”

“As far as I’m concerned, they should be yanking funding from all of these places and treating them like the madrasas for the terror breeding grounds that they are,” Addante added.

Beginning in March 2020, Allen’s LinkedIn profile says, he joined C2 Education, a tutoring company, enrolling at California State University, Dominguez Hills, in 2022 to pursue an MS in computer science, graduating in May 2025. That school also confirmed that a person by the same name graduated with a master’s degree that year.

A Dec. 30, 2024, Facebook post from C2 Education congratulated “Cole Allen of C2 Education Torrence on being honored as December teacher of the month.” A photo matching that of Allen was attached to the post.

According to law enforcement officials, Allen’s past includes descending into anti-Trump hate, attending at least one of the three “No Kings” protests organized over the past year by groups including Democratic-leaning nonprofits, like Indivisible, MoveOn and American Federation of Teachers, and a network of socialist organizations.

In the days following the high-profile shooting authorities say was carried out by Allen, social media users began pointing to his educational background and his leftist commentary on social media, while highlighting the allegations in recent years that the education system in the United States has been increasingly promoting and funding far-left ideologies.

“If you’re surprised that the wannabe Trump assassin is a teacher, you haven’t been paying attention,” political commentator Riley Gaines posted on X on Monday in response to a Fox News Digital report highlighting the over $1 billion teachers’ unions have sent to far left causes over the last decade.

“The elephant in the room is that a left wing teacher just tried to assassinate multiple members of the Trump administration after teachers unions spent more than $1 billion on left-wing causes,” Republican communicator Steve Guest posted on X in response to the same report.

In addition to attending CSU Dominguez, in September 2013, according to his online profile, Allen enrolled in the highly competitive California Institute of Technology, known as Caltech, to pursue a BS in mechanical engineering, graduating in 2017.

Caltech has had its own issues with perceptions of far-left curriculum and ideology, highlighted most notably by a National Association of Scholars report that concluded DEI, widely viewed by conservative critics as a key tenet of far-left ideology on college campuses,  is not just administrative at Caltech, it’s inserted into scientific research culture itself. 

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The report explains that “Caltech’s administration is thoroughly saturated with DEI’s broader ideological agenda” and that “DEI was established to operate at every level of campus work.” 

DEI was also a top priority of Parham during his tenure at CSU Dominguez, according to his own words in an exit interview where he took a shot at the Trump administration’s efforts to rein back race-based hiring and curriculum.

“We are acutely aware of the federal government’s hostility toward anything that looks like it wants to be diverse,” Parham said. “Not a surprise to us, but we try to delicately dance, not to skirt the law, but really to be in tune with the law as it is written, and separate out what is someone’s opinion and perspective about what they like and don’t like, versus technically what is legal.”

In the same interview, Parham expressed his reverence for anti-colonialist writer and activist Frantz Fanon, a French political philosopher who died in 1961, who was labeled the “Patron Saint of Political Violence” by The Atlantic in 2024. 

“They become mantras and symbols of possibility. When I see Fannie Lou Hamer talking about — I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired — it sometimes creates the mood and the ambiance that allows me to kind of move forward,” Parham said when asked about the “black intellectuals” that are “meaningful in his life.” “When I see Fanon, which is kind of my daily mantra, say that Each generation, out of relative obscurity, must reach out and seek to fulfill its legacy or betray it — I go to work every day and go to bed every night deciding, have I fulfilled or betrayed the legacy that I’ve been blessed to inherit by my ancestors and my elders?”

In his farewell email to the university, obtained by Fox News Digital, Parham said he hoped his “lasting legacy” was his “commitment” to DEI measures. 

CSUDH’s interim president, Mary Ann Villarreal, appears to have made racial “equity” a key part of her resume as well, joining the university after serving as “vice president for institutional excellence at the American Association of Colleges and Universities, a global membership organization dedicated to advancing equity, innovation, and educational excellence,” according to her bio.

Before that, Villarreal served as the vice president for equity, diversity and inclusion.

MS NOW HOSTS CALL OUT ‘DISTURBING’ LEFT-WING THEORIES THAT WHCD SHOOTING WAS A ‘FALSE FLAG’

“I am excited to join CSUDH in advancing its vital mission of serving California students in all their diversity and promise,” Villarreal said after her appointment in a press release on the school website. “Dominguez Hills is a beacon of inclusivity and a vital anchor for its community.” 

A spokesperson for CSU Dominguez pointed Fox News Digital to their previous statement on April 27 that said, “CSUDH reiterates its condemnation for the act of violence at the WHCA dinner. The university community is grateful for law enforcement’s swift response and greatly relieved that no one was seriously injured.”

In response to questions about the climate on campus, the spokesperson said, “CSUDH is committed to creating a safe, healthy environment in which our campus community can thrive and exchange ideas. Our mission is to provide a transformative educational experience that helps students in their academic and career journeys.”

The statement continued, “CSUDH upholds the tenets of the First Amendment: our staff, faculty, and students, each of whom has their own perspectives and life experiences, are free to engage in dialogue and debate. No one is discouraged from speaking their mind, and the university cannot and will not intervene in individual expression unless it violates the law. CSUDH urges anyone experiencing retaliation or harassment to make a report so that the university can respond appropriately and provide any necessary supports.”

A Caltech spokesperson told Fox News Digital the shooting incident is “deeply troubling” and that “we unequivocally denounce all forms of political violence and extend our concern and support to all those impacted by this incident.”

“Caltech is firmly committed to—and solely focused on—advancing knowledge; promoting critical, data-driven inquiry; and providing the next generation of scientists and engineers with access to research and learning experiences that drive discovery, innovation, and technological advancement.”

The spokesperson also pointed to reporting on community members and classmates who have said Allen was  actively involved with the Caltech Christian Fellowship club and fencing during his time at Caltech.

Nicole Neily, president of the education watchdog Defending Education, pointed to a 2024 report her organization released highlighting the “activist pipeline” on college campuses.

HOW UNIVERSITY INDOCTRINATION TURNED DEADLY, AND WHY ONE SCHOLAR SAYS IT’S ONLY GETTING WORSE

“Colleges of education have strayed far from their mission of providing best practices and tactics for teachers, instead focusing on leveraging pupils to combat a so-called ‘oppressor-oppressed matrix,’” Neily said. 

“For far too long, teachers have viewed their role as ‘agents of social change’ rather than of educators – and the results of this sea change are obvious when looking at test scores. America’s students deserve to learn reading, writing, and arithmetic – not be enlisted as child soldiers in progressives’ war on our country’s values.” 

Skeptic Research Center, a project of The Skeptics Society, released a study in 2025 suggesting a correlation between a high level of education and being more open to supporting political violence.

“Americans with the highest level of formal education were also the most supportive of political violence,” the study stated, adding, “[Thirty-six] percent of those with a graduate or professional degree agreed at least somewhat with the statement ‘If you are protesting something unjust, it is reasonable to damage property,’ while 40 percent agreed that ‘Violence is often necessary to create social change.’”

Addante told Fox News Digital that Saturday’s shooting should be a wakeup call to the threat of radical ideology on college campuses nationwide. 

“Where did the manifesto come from? Where did the ideas that drove the manifesto and the actions and the threats, where did they come from? They didn’t come from Reddit, they didn’t come from social media,” Addante said.

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“They might have been exacerbated by Reddit and social media and Bluesky, and sure, blame them too. But we’re not going to solve anything by blaming BlueSky and Reddit. We’re going to solve things by addressing the root cause, which is actually the ideological breeding grounds and where he was trained to think this way by the actual employed people receiving federal funds who specifically spent five — four years, five years teaching him literally this. That is what we’re not doing as a country in focusing and that’s why it’s going to continue to happen over and over again because there are a thousand of these institutions around America.”

Fox News Digital’s Peter D’Abrosca and Asra Q. Nomani contributed to this report.

EXCLUSIVE: The Department of Homeland Security lambasted Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and the state’s refusal to cooperate with ICE after an illegal immigrant convicted of child sexual abuse was released from jail despite calls for state officials to turn him over to federal authorities.

Both Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson have repeatedly criticized the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement posture, with the mayor comparing President Donald Trump’s America to Jefferson Davis’ Confederacy.

Johnson has accused Trump of “declar[ing] war on Chicago” and using DHS as a “private, militarized, occupying force,” while pledging to fight them in the streets, the legislature and the judiciary. The state operates under the Illinois TRUST Act, a law championed by Springfield Democrats and signed by former Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner that prohibits the use of state and local resources for most civil immigration enforcement purposes.

“Governor Pritzker continues to refuse to do his job to protect his citizens from illegal alien crime and instead chooses to smear our law enforcement,” Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis told Fox News Digital.

NOEM, IN ILLINOIS, CALLS OUT GOV. PRITZKER, CHICAGO’S MAYOR OVER THEIR HANDLING OF CRIMINAL ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

“Where is the investigation into his own policies that allowed this pedophile to be released from jail and be loose in Illinois communities?” she added of the Hyatt Hotels heir and potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate.

Bis called on Pritzker to “end this insanity and stop releasing pedophiles into our communities.”

DHS told Fox News Digital exclusively that ICE officers went to Chicago and arrested Guatemalan national Erik Giovanni-Quiroa, who had been released from jail after his ICE detainer was ignored following a conviction for aggravated sexual abuse of a five-year-old child.

DUFFY GIVES ILLINOIS 30-DAY ULTIMATUM AFTER AUDIT FINDS 1 IN 5 NONCITIZEN TRUCK LICENSES ISSUED ILLEGALLY

Giovanni-Quiroa, who also had a 2011 firearm-battery conviction, was given a three-year sentence on the pedophilia charge but ICE instead encountered him on the streets.

Last week, ICE conducted a targeted vehicle stop and arrested Giovanni-Quiroa after his detainer was denied, forcing agents to locate him themselves.

Officials said Giovanni-Quiroa refused to stop and briefly fled before being placed in federal custody.

Bis said “sanctuary” politicians in Illinois and elsewhere continue to wrongly protect criminal illegal immigrants and allow them to reoffend and perpetrate additional crimes against Americans.

ICE previously called on Illinois law enforcement to begin honoring ICE detainers, as Director Todd Lyons wrote to Attorney General Kwame Raoul noting that DHS says more than 4,000 illegal immigrants are in state custody.

Giovanni-Quiroa illegally entered the U.S. under the second Bush administration and has been essentially a beneficiary of the aforementioned TRUST Act.

In the heat of “Operation: Midway Blitz” in June, Raoul published a memo reiterating key provisions of the law as a “refresher for Illinois law enforcement agencies.”

“It is important to note, however, that although the Illinois TRUST Act prevents the use of state and local resources for civil immigration enforcement purposes, it does not prevent law enforcement officers from taking action to maintain peace and ensure public safety within their jurisdiction,” Raoul wrote.

“Although some provisions of federal immigration statutes are criminal, deportation and removability are matters of civil law, not criminal law [and] whether an individual is lawfully present in the United States is a question of federal civil immigration law.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Raoul for comment on the current case, as well as Pritzker and Johnson.

When Rauner signed the TRUST Act in 2017, he said it would “continue Illinois’ history of welcoming immigrants and help law enforcement focus on stopping violent crime and protecting Illinois residents.”

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In that statement, Rauner also cited a federal court decision from the Chicago-based Northern District of Illinois in which an Obama-appointed judge whom President Joe Biden later promoted to an appeals court found flaws in ICE’s detainer process.

Judge John Z. Lee said in his 2019 order in Jimenez-Moreno v. Napolitano that immigration detainer orders exceeded DHS’ statutory authority but he also acknowledged a Philadelphia federal court ruling that ICE detainer requests do not violate the Tenth Amendment as alleged.

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito pushed back on claims this week that ending deportation protections for Haitian migrants was racially motivated, pressing an attorney to explain how that argument works when the policy has been applied broadly to migrants from many countries.

“You have a really large — you have a really broad definition of who’s White and who’s not White,” Alito, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, said during oral arguments, challenging a claim leveled by the migrants’ lawyer that the Trump Department of Homeland Security (DHS) intentionally targeted non-White migrants when it decided to terminate their temporary protected status (TPS).

The exchange came as the Supreme Court weighed a high-stakes case over the Trump administration’s authority to end TPS protections for tens of thousands of Haitian and Syrian migrants. 

The high court’s decision could strip their legal protections and have similar implications for hundreds of thousands of other migrants, meaning DHS could then move to detain and deport them.

TRUMP FOES MELT DOWN THAT SCOTUS IS UNLEASHING ‘RACIAL TERROR’ ON US WITH ICE RAID RULING

Congress created temporary protected status as a form of protection for migrants fleeing war and natural disaster, and the law requires DHS officials to periodically review whether an origin country qualifies under those terms.

Attorney Geoffrey Pipoly, representing the migrant plaintiffs during oral arguments, argued the courts had some authority to review the government’s TPS decisions and that the decision to end the protected status for Haitians, in particular, did not follow the law because it was driven by racial bias against “non-White immigrants.”

“The president has disparaged Haitian TPS holders specifically as undesirables from a ‘s—hole country,’ and days after falsely accusing them of ‘eating the dogs and eating the cats of Americans,’ he vowed that he would terminate Haiti’s TPS, and that is exactly what happened,” Pipoly said.

Alito grilled the lawyer over the claim, noting the government’s TPS terminations applied to a range of countries.

“Do you think that if you put Syrians, Turks, Greeks and other people who live around the Mediterranean in a lineup, do you think you could say those people, that all of them, are they all non-White?” Alito asked.

“I don’t like dividing the people of the world into these groups.”

Alito began to test Pipoly on which bucket he would sort various nationalities into, White versus non-White, leading Pipoly to argue that the bar for finding racial animus was low.

SCOTUS TO REVIEW TRUMP EXECUTIVE ORDER ON BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP

“Irrespective of how you do the classification … bare dislike of an unpopular group is a sufficient basis,” Pipoly said.

The case is centered on whether courts can review the government’s TPS decisions and the processes that went into reaching those decisions. Migrants’ lawyers have also made arguments that DHS officials failed to properly assess a country’s conditions or relied on unlawful factors, such as whether termination was of national interest.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) told the Supreme Court those decisions are not subject to judicial review and fall solely under the purview of the executive branch. The DOJ warned that allowing challenges could open the door to widespread litigation over immigration policy. 

The migrants’ lawyers, meanwhile, argued in court papers that the DOJ had taken an “extreme position that would insulate flagrantly unlawful executive action from judicial review.”

COURT OF APPEALS TO HEAR ORAL ARGUMENTS IN HIGH-PROFILE DEPORTATION SUIT INVOLVING VENEZUELAN NATIONALS

The conservative justices appeared largely sympathetic to the Trump administration’s arguments, while the liberal justices zeroed in on whether the government’s alleged racial bias could be unconstitutional.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, an Obama appointee, suggested Trump’s public claim that migrants are “poisoning the blood of America” would be a violation of constitutional prohibitions on discrimination by the government, since it was “showing that a discriminatory purpose may have played a part in this decision” to end temporary protected status. 

Homeland Security has already terminated the legal status of migrants from six countries, including Venezuela and Honduras, moves that the Supreme Court temporarily greenlit through previous emergency requests. The high court is making a decision on the merits regarding the Haitians and Syrians, meaning it will carry finality and could apply more broadly.

The status of migrants from seven other countries remains on hold while the case is pending, including more than 6,000 Syrian and almost 350,000 Haitian migrants, as well as those from Ethiopia, Myanmar, Yemen, Somalia and South Sudan.

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The Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling by the end of June.

Fox News’ Bill Mears contributed to this report.