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There’s no such thing as hazing in Congress.

You won’t find “fraternity row,” with each house festooned with a trifecta of deltas, gammas and epsilons.

No drinking games here.

At least not officially.

WHCD SHOOTING SHOWS DEMS ARE ‘PLAYING’ WITH AMERICANS’ SAFETY BY WITHHOLDING DHS FUNDING, GOP LAWMAKER SAYS

But get ready for something on Capitol Hill with which many Greek pledges are all too familiar:

“I’m going to say next week is hell week,” warned Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, last Thursday. “Next week is going to be hell week.’

And this was all before the harrowing episode Saturday night at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington.

HOUSE GOP PUSHES BACK ON SENATE’S ‘SKINNY’ PLAN TO END RECORD-BREAKING DHS SHUTDOWN

To wit about the week facing Capitol Hill:

House Republicans face a devil of a week. They must get on the same page as the Senate to pass a budget framework – to prospectively fund ICE and the Border Patrol. FISA, the nation’s controversial spy program expires early Friday morning. That’s to say nothing of trying to pass the farm bill.

If they don’t get all of this done, “Dean Wormer” (of Animal House fame) might just place House Republicans on “double secret probation” before the week is through.

So let’s examine what got House Republicans in this bind.

Let’s start at 3:36 a.m. last Thursday.

We begin there, because in the past several weeks, the most important moments in Congress have unfolded at 2:12 on a Friday morning, 2:16 on a Friday morning and now 3:36 on a Thursday morning.

3:36 a.m. is when the Senate approved a budget framework to possibly fund ICE and CBP. Republicans are running a special legislative gambit called “reconciliation” to bypass a filibuster. That’s because Democrats won’t help. They’ve never secured the reforms they need to support ICE. So Republicans are going it alone.

“We’re trying to use the reconciliation process to get money to secure the border,” said Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

Democrats have balked about funding ICE since the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis over the winter.

“They want to give $140 billion for ICE and Border Patrol without any reforms,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. “(They’re) adding $140 billion to an agency that nobody – well, two groups, Border Patrol and ICE – that nobody respects in this country.”

That prompted an explosive response from Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin during an appearance on Fox.

“It makes my ears red. It takes a lot to get me upset. But Chuck Schumer, no one respects you. The definition of a lying scumbag politician. That is you,” said Mullin of his former Senate colleague.

ICE SHUTDOWN FIGHT MIGHT RESTRICT FEMA, COAST GUARD TO ‘LIFE-THREATENING’ EMERGENCIES

Perhaps this why the white-hot rhetoric on both sides may have contributed to the mayhem of Saturday night.

Mullin says emergency DHS money is about to expire. So pressure is intensifying on the House to align with the Senate with no changes to the outline adopted by the Senate.

“It has to be clean, because it’s got to be quick,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. “The last paychecks go out at the end of this month.”

But remember, this is just the House lining up with the Senate on a blueprint to address the funding lapse at ICE and CBP. The assassination attempt at the White House dinner only amplified the need to fund DHS. And fast. However, Johnson refused to pick up a bill to fund everything else at DHS which the Senate passed twice. Then Johnson agreed to pass the bill after dissing it. But the House has never synced up.

Johnson says the Senate funding package – not the reconciliation framework – “has some problematic language” because it was “haphazardly drafted.”

And now Johnson is suggesting there may be yet another DHS funding bill in the works.

That may be inevitable, considering the chaos of the weekend.

REPUBLICANS EYE ENDING GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWNS FOREVER OVER FEARS DEMS WILL DO IT AGAIN

Budget reconciliation takes a while.

“Reconciliation is still a little ways off,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. “They’re running out of runway to fund a lot of those agencies.”

But here’s the other problem with reconciliation: Many conservatives insist on add-ons.

“We should be taking a broader approach to reconciliation,” said Rep. Chip Roy R-Texas.

Here’s what they’re mulling: Maybe money to cover the cost of the war in Iran. Perhaps a suspension of the federal gasoline tax. Additional tax cuts. You name it.

Many on the right demand the inclusion of the SAVE America Act. The bill requires proof of citizenship in order to vote.

“I think you’d see a lot more folks on our side jump on board with it if they had that,” said Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., about the SAVE America Act.

However, even advocates of the SAVE America Act doubt the GOP can stuff that into a Senate bill which must be fiscal in nature. Many demand an additional, expansive reconciliation bill which is not limited to DHS.

“This is probably the only reconciliation we’re going to have before the break. That’s a poor excuse for the work we’re doing up here,” complained Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C. “One bill with that limited amount.”

“People probably intend to do a third reconciliation bill. But you’re not looking at Bambi’s baby brother here,” said Sen. John Kennedy, R-La. “This is the last train leaving the station.”

All aboard?

SENATE TAKES FIRST STEP TO FUND ICE, BORDER PATROL IN BID TO CUT DEMS OUT OF THE FUNDING PROCESS

For the moment, President Trump is still focused on the reconciliation outline.

“We need all Republicans to join together and support this Budget Blueprint, which will allow us to bypass Democrat obstruction in the Senate, and fund Immigration Enforcement with only Republican Votes. The Senate passed this Blueprint last week on Thursday morning, and now, House Republicans must UNIFY, and pass the same Blueprint to get the Bill done,” wrote the President on Truth Social.

The President added that he wants a “FAST and FOCUSED” bill by June 1.

That’s nearly five weeks from now.

Hence the challenge of the week.

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“This is so difficult. Up here, we can’t agree with much,” fumed Nehls.

But here’s a little secret. Every week on Capitol Hill in recent memory has morphed into a political inferno. A failed exercise to fund the government which lingered since last summer. Fights over the Epstein files. Resignations amid dark political scandals. Efforts to expel other lawmakers. You name it.

“If you’re going through hell, keep going,” said Winston Churchill.

Which is maybe why Congress goes through the same hellish, legislative landscape nearly every week.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom hopes that Florida’s redistricting plan brings with it the end of the “saga” that has led states across the country to try to find untapped partisan advantages in redrawn congressional boundries.

“It’s a predictable outcome, but hopefully it’ll be the end of this era and this saga,” Newsom told Fox News Digital.

“Trump got beat at his own game. It was a terrible mistake he made for the Republican Party. A lot of good Republicans are going to be districted out,” Newsom continued. “They’re going to serve as collateral damage.”

His comments underscore confidence from Democrats that the redistricting push will play into their hands come the November midterms — despite a numbers game that would tip the scales towards Republicans if Florida carries out proposed changes of its own.

TRUMP HAILS TEXAS REDISTRICTING APPROVAL THAT COULD ADD FIVE GOP CONGRESSIONAL SEATS NATIONWIDE

A Republican National Committee spokesperson fired back at Newsom’s comments, telling Fox News Digital that “Gavin Newsom is attempting to spin fantasies about a ‘blue wave’ after Democrats dumped tens of millions into a gerrymandering scheme to barely crawl across the finish line with a three-point margin in a state Abigail Spanberger won by 15.”

“Meanwhile, California voters are fed up and fleeing in droves due to Gavin Newsom’s deranged quest to drive his state into the ground by sending taxpayer dollars to give sex change surgeries to illegal aliens,” RNC National Press Secretary, Kiersten Pels, continued.

Newsom’s confidence was echoed by Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin.

“Republicans decided to start this and we’re going to finish this for them, right?” Martin said, referring to the first redistricting effort in 2025, spearheaded by Republicans in Texas.

“We’re going to meet them every step of the way. We’re not bringing a pencil to a knife fight anymore,” Martin said.

So far, California, Missouri, North Carolina, Texas, Utah, Ohio and Virginia have adopted new congressional maps, electing to re-shuffle districts ahead of the 2030 census — the time at which state lawmakers would normally reevaluate areas of representation.

REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR SIGNS INTO LAW TRUMP-BACKED CONGRESSIONAL REDISTRICTING MAP

Republicans expect to gain up to nine seats across redistricting efforts in Ohio, North Carolina, Missouri and Texas.

Democrats hope to net nine of their own from changes in California, Virginia and Utah.

Florida is looking to change the calculus by creating as many as four additional Republican-leaning districts by stretching historically Democratic areas over Republican strongholds.

The change would require the support of Florida’s state legislature, which currently holds a Republican majority in the state House and Senate.

Newsom believes Republicans are creating a liability for themselves by stretching their support too thin in some areas.

VIRGINIA DEM ADMITS REDISTRICTING PUSH AIMS TO ‘STOP TRUMP’, NOT ABOUT ‘FAIRNESS’

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“They’re going to put a lot at risk, and I think it’s going to be a big blue wave election,” Newsom said. “So, you know, this thing could be — I’m not here to give DeSantis advice on this — it could be a bad mistake.”

Lawmakers are expected to consider the maps in a special session that begins on Tuesday.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is drawing scrutiny for cozying up to Chinese AI governance officials while championing policies that critics say would hamper America’s ability to compete with Beijing in the global artificial intelligence arms race.

Sanders is expected to be speaking at a panel discussion on Capitol Hill Wednesday alongside Xue Lan, a professor at the CCP-funded Tsinghua University and chairman of the Ministry of Science and Technology-backed New Generation Artificial Intelligence Governance Professional Committee. 

In attendance will also be Zeng Yi, who is the Dean of the Beijing Institute of AI Safety and Governance and is also tied to the New Generation Artificial Intelligence Governance Professional Committee chaired by Lan. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Max Tegmark, who will also be speaking at the event, indicated the event will focus on “AI existential risk and international cooperation.”

Critics from the White House, the data center industry, and major tech-policy think tanks have argued Sanders is proposing policies that would slow the construction of the very infrastructure needed to keep the United States ahead in the race for AI dominance. Now, Sanders is facing more heat for holding an event on Capitol Hill with two Chinese Ministry of Science-linked officials who support China’s preferred AI governance model.

CHINA RACES AHEAD ON AI —TRUMP WARNS AMERICA CAN’T REGULATE ITSELF INTO DEFEAT

“I think Senator Sanders’ concerns about AI are overstated, but I respect them. We should be asking questions about child safety, community impact, and economic displacement,” China policy expert at the Hudson Institute, Michael Sobolik, said. “What we shouldn’t do is partner with foreign adversaries like the Chinese Communist Party in those discussions.”

Rep. Pat Harrigan, R-N.C., pointed out that Tsinghua University is “one of China’s top universities with direct ties to the Chinese Communist Party.”

“This is the same China that just blocked Meta’s $2 billion deal to acquire Manus AI, a startup whose founders had already moved to Singapore and whose deal was already done and closed. Beijing decided it did not matter. They stepped in, killed the deal, and restricted the founders from leaving the country while it was under review,” Harrigan wrote in a Monday post on X ahead of the slated panel discussion on Capitol Hill. 

“China is aggressively locking down their most powerful AI assets and shutting American companies out,” he continued. “Bernie Sanders wants to hand them a seat at the table to help decide how America handles the same technology.”

“Holy sh–,” Ruthless Podcast co-host Comfortably Smug posted on X.

“It’s a bit on the nose that communist Bernie Sanders is looking to the Chinese Communist Party for their ‘leadership’ on AI,” conservative commentator Steve Guest posted on X.

Fox News Digital reached out to Sanders’ office but did not receive a response in time for publication.

AI TECHNOLOGY RACE IS NEW ‘COLD WAR’ BETWEEN US AND CHINA THAT COULD HAVE DEVASTATING CONSEQUENCES: REPORT

In March, Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez unveiled the Artificial Intelligence Data Center Moratorium Act, which would impose an immediate federal ban on the construction or upgrading of new AI data centers until Congress passes a broader regulatory framework. Sanders’ own office said the bill is designed to “slow down the development of AI,” and Sanders has separately argued that AI threatens jobs, privacy, democracy, the environment and “maybe the human race.”

Even Democrats have balked at the policy proposal with Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., calling the moratorium “idiocy” at an artificial intelligence summit in D.C. last month, warning it would give China an edge in the AI race.

Cy McNeill, the senior director of federal affairs at the Data Center Coalition, a pro-industry group, said a freeze would risk “rationing access to digital services,” impair U.S. competitiveness and hit Americans’ daily lives. The Center for Data Innovation, a tech-policy think tank, similarly argued the bill relies on “well-worn anxieties” and does not justify halting data-center construction.

US TARGETS CHINESE ROBOTS OVER SECURITY FEARS

Lan, as chair of China’s national expert committee for AI governance, and Li, who told TIME last year that he is “highly involved in policymaking through national governance committees” in China, both have championed governance models that would expand China’s role in writing global AI rules that clash with a freer, more competition-driven U.S. strategy.

Yi has argued that China and the world need mandatory safety and ethics frameworks and more international cooperation, according to comments he made to TIME. He helped develop UNESCO’s Recommendation on the Ethics of AI, the first-ever global standard on AI ethics.

Lan, meanwhile, helped establish a CCP-backed national AI safety body to help “bridge” the gap between technical experts and policymakers, according to TIME.

“China has chosen the path of top-down government control to drive its AI industry. While this strategy affords the CCP some advantages, the American model of bottom-up, free-market capitalism has long been the engine of innovation for the world, and it is more efficient in the long run,” House Energy and Commerce Chairman Brett Guthrie wrote in a February policy review for the Hatch Center.

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“The stakes couldn’t be higher,” Guthrie continues. “China already deploys next-generation technologies to advance many of the regime’s most sinister goals focused on enhancing the power of its Orwellian surveillance state utilizing advanced computing. Even more concerning to the American public is the threat of an adversary’s technology stack serving as the building blocks for future advancements or as a strategic chokehold.”

“The way to beat China in the AI race is to outrace them in innovation, not saddle AI developers with European-style regulations,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has also said. Growth and development of new AI technologies will bolster our national security, create new jobs, and stimulate economic growth”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., doubled down on his inflammatory rhetoric toward Republicans during a fiery news conference Monday, telling critics, “I don’t give a damn.”

“I stand by it,” Jeffries told reporters, when asked about his vow last week to unleash “maximum warfare” on the GOP to counter the party’s redistricting efforts ahead of November’s midterm elections. “You can continue to criticize me for it. I don’t give a damn about your criticism.”

Jeffries’ messaging sparked backlash from Republicans following the third apparent assassination attempt on President Donald Trump’s life at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner Saturday.

The top Democrat defended his choice of words by pointing to a report from The New York Times last year in which an anonymous White House staffer used the same phrase to threaten Democrats.

HAKEEM JEFFRIES’ CALL TO FIGHT TRUMP AGENDA ‘IN THE STREETS’ SPARKS BACKLASH AS A ‘MAXINE WATERS MOMENT’

“That phrase ‘maximum warfare everywhere, all the time’ came from the White House in the summer of 2025, when they started this redistricting battle, and now they’re big mad,” Jeffries continued. “Why? Because Democrats have decided to finish it. Get lost.”

The top Democrat insisted that he denounced political violence in all of its forms.

Jeffries also had harsh words for White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who he labeled a “disgrace” and a “stone-cold liar” after she criticized Democrats’ rhetoric that frequently labels Trump as an existential threat.

“This so-called White House press secretary wants to lecture America and lecture us about civility. Get lost,” Jeffries said. “Clean up your own house before you have anything to say to us about the language that we use.”

DEM LEADER CONDEMNS THANKSGIVING BOMB THREATS AGAINST LIBERAL LAWMAKERS AFTER TEAM TRUMP TARGETED

Leavitt hammered top Democrats’ embrace of hostile messaging toward Trump during a news conference Monday.

“This hateful, constant and violent rhetoric directed at President Trump, day after day after day for 11 years, has helped to legitimize this violence and bring us to this dark moment,” Leavitt said.

“When you have mentally disturbed individuals across the country who are listening to this crazed rhetoric about the president day after day after day, it inspires them to do crazy things,” she added.

The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) sharply criticized Jeffries’ defense of his comments.

“Democrats are playing with fire and pretending they don’t smell the smoke,” NRCC spokesman Mike Marinella said in a statement. “If they can’t bring themselves to put an end to this kind of rhetoric, it proves they’ll do anything to appease their far-left base.”

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Jeffries on Monday also blasted a proposed new congressional map that Florida’s Republican legislature is expected to pass in the coming days that is aimed at erasing Democrats’ gains in Virginia, where voters approved a gerrymander targeting four Republican-held seats last week. 

“The so-called map, which is a DeSantis dummymander actually, is blatantly unconstitutional,” Jeffries said. “Florida is not going to make a meaningful difference as it relates to their efforts to rig the midterm elections. That effort has failed.”

EXCLUSIVE: Heiress of the Gucci family and founder of the purpose-driven luxury brand AGCF, for Alexandra Gucci Creative Framework, Alexandra Gucci Zarini has launched a new handbag for Mother’s Day, designed in support of first lady Melania Trump’s Fostering the Future initiative, Fox News Digital has learned.

The handbag is a limited edition of Zarini’s “UNITY Bag,” which she launched in December 2025. 

That bag was the first dedicated to supporting the first lady’s Fostering the Future initiative, which provides scholarships and educational opportunities for children in the foster-care community. That purse sold out within one week of launch.

GUCCI HEIRESS LAUNCHES NEW ‘UNITY’ HANDBAG WITH PROCEEDS BENEFITING MELANIA TRUMP’S ‘FOSTERING THE FUTURE’

The Mother’s Day edition Bag will directly support Fostering the Future initiatives, funding scholarships and opportunities for foster children.

Zarini’s AGCF, a U.S.-based luxury accessories brand with a mission to protect and empower children, will donate 20% of all proceeds from the special edition “UNITY Bag” to benefit Fostering the Future.

AGCF says protecting the most vulnerable children is “in its truest sense, an act of collective motherhood.”

“Motherhood is one of the most powerful forces for good in the world,” Zarini told Fox News Digital. “This special edition is dedicated to every woman who carries a child in her heart — whether by birth, by choice, or by the extraordinary grace of fostering.”

FIRST LADY MELANIA TRUMP SCORES WIN FOR AMERICA’S FOSTER YOUTH WITH $25M INVESTMENT

“Some of us find our mothers. Some of us become them for others,” Zarini continued. “And some of us learn that family is something you have to build yourself, from love that had nowhere else to go.”

She added: “It is an honor to celebrate the mothers and mother figures who give their unconditional love and devotion to their children with this special edition.”

Like every Unity Bag, the Mother’s Day edition bears AGCF’s signature gold oval plaque, hand-stitched into the interior and engraved with its unique edition number, which the company says is a “hallmark of authenticity and lasting collectability.”

Zarini’s first Unity Bag, which Fox News Digital exclusively reported on in December 2025, was a tribute to Fostering the Future, with Zarini saying the initiative is “the purest expression of everything AGCF stands for.” 

“Giving back to protect and empower vulnerable children is the highest form of luxury — it is the heart of our brand and AGCF’s reason for being,” Zarini told Fox News Digital in December 2025. 

Zarini, during that interview, praised the first lady.

“I have always admired her quiet yet unwavering devotion to children—especially the foster youth who are so often overlooked,” Zarini told Fox News Digital. “Her vision for Fostering the Future is truly inspiring, and it is an extraordinary honor to support her initiative.”

President Donald Trump, alongside the first lady, in March signed the Fostering the Future executive order, which secures commitments for new educational and employment pathways for youth transitioning out of foster care.

MELANIA TRUMP CHALLENGES CONGRESS TO MAKE HER FOSTER CARE EXECUTIVE ORDER PERMANENT LAW: ‘THEIR BIRTHRIGHT’

The first lady in September 2025 also launched Fostering the Future Together — a global coalition of nations committed to enhancing the well-being of children through the promotion of education, innovation and technology.

AGCF told Fox News Digital that the “UNITY Bag” carries a “quiet yet powerful message of hope and shared vision: that we must come together — in unity for our children — to protect and uplift them toward a brighter future.”

The purse is available exclusively at AGCF.com and at the AGCF Boutique on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, California. The purse retails for $2,800. 

Zarini created AGCF in 2020, and her nonprofit Alexandra Gucci Children’s Foundation, to raise awareness about child abuse.

Zarini, in 2025, won a civil lawsuit against her former stepfather who sexually abused her beginning when she was 6 years old and through early adulthood.

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“Alexandra’s own childhood story drives her personal commitment to protecting children has shaped her vision of building a brand that transcends exquisite luxury fashion, championing meaningful social change,” AGCF said.

AGCF donates 20% of all of its profits to causes related to empowering and protecting children. 

The company aims to create “sophisticated and enduring pieces that combine ethical artisanal craftsmanship with contemporary vision.”

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, called on Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico to “condemn” his pastor’s Sunday sermon, claiming that Talarico’s pastor “made light” of the assassination attempt on President Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner this past Saturday.

Talarico, a Presbyterian seminarian, has centered his campaign and progressive policies — which include anti-ICE and open borders messaging — on his faith background. At the same time, he has railed against Christian nationalism and called for the separation of church and state.

“James Talarico claims to be campaigning on love and kindness, but his Pastor made light of an assassination attempt on the President of the United States in Washington, DC this weekend where a Secret Service officer was seriously injured,” Cornyn posted on X. “All Texans should be outraged and Talarico must condemn it.”

On Sunday, Talarico’s minister, Dr. Jim Rigby, mentioned the assassination attempt during his sermon, saying that he knows “a lot of people have mixed feelings” about the third attempt on Trump’s life. His comment garnered light laughter from the audience.

WATCH: DEMS AND REPUBLICANS CLASH ON HOUSE FLOOR FOLLOWING MOMENT OF SILENCE FOR CHARLIE KIRK

“But it’s really important that if we’re going to be the healing agents of the world to realize that violence is not going to get rid of the problem we have,” Rigby said.

He went on to say that the Confederacy is the “heart of the MAGA movement” and that it’s a “fascistic movement.”

The White House Correspondents Dinner on Saturday was cut short after an armed gunman rushed the doors leading to the ballroom at the Washington Hilton Hotel. He fired several shots before being apprehended by law enforcement.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said that the alleged attempted assassin Cole Thomas Allen, 31, was “set out to target folks that work in the administration, likely including the president,” according to a preliminary review of evidence.

CROCKETT DISMISSES CRITICS WHO THINK ‘HITLER’ AND ‘FASCIST’ COMPARISONS CONTRIBUTE TO POLITICAL VIOLENCE

Fox News Digital reached out to Rigby and Talarico for comment.

National Republican Senate Committee Regional Press Secretary Samantha Cantrell slammed Talarico’s silence.

“It’s hard to believe James Talarico is serious about condemning political violence while he stands by and helps his pastor radicalize an entire congregation,” Cantrell said.

Republican National Committee spokesman Zach Kraft called Talarico’s “self-proclaimed mentor’s” remark “disgusting.”

DEMOCRAT RISING STAR CALLED OUT FOR ‘CREEPY’ COMMENT ABOUT TRANSGENDER CHILDREN

“But it is nothing new,” Kraft said. “Democrats have fanned the flames of radical left-wing violence for years and gleefully put targets on the back of President Trump, Charlie Kirk and conservatives, and conservatives across America. To Talarico and Democrats, murder is simply the cost of doing business in their conquest for power.” 

Rigby is a vocal supporter of leftist causes. The Washington Examiner reported in March that Rigby spoke at a pro-Palestinian protest in 2009.

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“If there is to be hope for humankind, then we must all realize that the true jihad is the struggle for peace and justice,” Rigby said during his speech.

In the Islamic faith, jihad is understood by some to be an inner struggle meant to bring an individual closer to God, but the term has been invoked by terrorists and Islamic extremists to commit acts of violence in broader political contexts.

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., broke party lines again after the close call at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner this weekend, siding with President Donald Trump’s push to build a ballroom at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Fetterman, who has repeatedly shown he is willing to defy his party, posted on X that he was “there front and center” at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner when the shooting occurred Saturday night. The alleged shooter, 31-year-old California resident Cole Allen, broke through multiple layers of Secret Service security at the Washington Hilton and nearly opened fire in a room where the president, vice president and other key administration and federal officials were present.

“After witnessing last night,” Fetterman called for people to “drop the TDS [Trump derangement syndrome] and build the White House ballroom.”

He said the purpose of the ballroom would be to host events “exactly like these.”

HOW DID SUSPECTED GUNMAN GET WEAPONS INTO CORRESPONDENTS’ DINNER? EX-DETECTIVE QUESTIONS SECURITY FAILURES

“We were there front and center,” he wrote. “That venue wasn’t built to accommodate an event with the line of succession for the U.S. government.”

Though construction is continuing on the $400 million privately funded White House ballroom, the project is currently bogged down in a legal challenge by the nonprofit National Trust for Historic Preservation (NTHP). After the shooting, the Justice Department pressed NTHP to drop its lawsuit, citing concerns about the safety and security of the president and other key personnel.

“[Y]our lawsuit puts the lives of the president, his family, and his staff at grave risk,” Brett Shumate, assistant attorney general in DOJ’s Civil Division, wrote in a Sunday letter to opposing counsel, shared on X by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.

“Enough is enough,” Shumate continued. “Your client should voluntarily dismiss this frivolous lawsuit today in light of last night’s assassination attempt on President Trump.”

“As history proves, that venue is demonstrably unsafe for the President of the United States because its size presents extraordinary security challenges for the Secret Service.

“[Saturday’s] assassination attempt on President Trump proves, yet again, that the White House ballroom is essential for the safety and security of the President, his family, his cabinet, and his staff.”

SECURITY UNDER SCRUTINY AS WHCD ATTENDEES CITE INCONSISTENT SCREENING BEFORE SHOOTING

Raquel Debono, a conservative influencer who attended the dinner, told Fox News Digital, “No ballroom no matter how grand, matters if we can’t keep people safe first.”

“Everyone’s debating architecture while a shooter got into what should have been the most heavily secured event in America – it’s a ridiculous distraction,” said Debono. “The security failures are the story. It was too easy to get in.”

Debono shared on X that she left the dinner early prior to the shooting due to an “uneasy feeling.” She noted that their bags were not checked and that people were “shoved through doors.”

Trump himself pointed to the incident as evidence that the hotel venue was “not a particularly secure building,” arguing that a new White House ballroom — equipped with features like bulletproof materials — would offer a safer alternative.

“It’s really what you need,” Trump said on Fox News on Sunday. “You can’t have a thousand [hotel] rooms or whatever it is, I mean, it’s a very big hotel, on top of the ballroom. And people come down the elevator, and they’re right next to the ballroom.”

WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS’ DINNER SHOOTING: TIMELINE TRACES HOW SUSPECT’S ALLEGED CROSS-COUNTRY PLAN UNFOLDED

Though the shooting prompted widespread calls for a White House ballroom, Fetterman stood out as a lone Democrat willing to join in on the push.

On Sunday, Fetterman admitted on CNN, “I never really had a strong opinion on the ballroom to be honest, but this clearly demonstrated [the need].”

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He emphasized the need to ensure not only the president’s protection but also that of those in the line of succession, should anything happen to the president.

“I just walked away from that still kind of stunned how lucky we were that no one was seriously hurt,” said Fetterman. “And when we have the significant majority of our leadership in a very small, clustered area, it could have been much more catastrophic for our nation that day.”

Fox News Digital’s Eric Mack and Amanda Macias contributed to this report.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, delaying her maternity leave after Saturday’s shooting at the White House Correspondents Association Dinner, praised the “fearless” leadership of President Donald Trump blaming a “left-wing cult of hatred” for political violence.

“Those who constantly falsely label and slander the president as a fascist, as a threat to democracy, and compare him to Hitler to score political points, are fueling this kind of violence,” Leavitt told reporters Monday at the White House. “The left wing cult of hatred against the president and all of those who support him and work for him has gotten multiple people hurt and killed, and it almost did so again this weekend.”

This is breaking news. Check back for more updates.

The Virginia Supreme Court heard arguments Monday on a Republican challenge to a congressional redistricting plan approved by voters last week that could help Democrats win as many as four additional U.S. House seats and turn a 6-5 delegate edge to 10-1.

“The proposed amendment is invalid for several reasons, any one of which is sufficient to invalidate the proposed amendment and require invalidation of the vote,” Thomas McCarthy, lawyer for the Republican challenge, concluded in the hour-long hearing on Monday.

The Republicans contend that the Democrat-led General Assembly violated procedural requirements by placing a constitutional amendment before voters to authorize mid-decade redistricting. If the court agrees that lawmakers broke the rules, it could invalidate the amendment and render last week’s statewide vote meaningless.

“It’s often said ours is a government of laws, not of men,” McCarthy continued. “Sadly, that’s not the case if a bare partisan majority can circumvent the constitutional amendment process and undermine the rights of the people in whom all government power ultimately rests – also, that partisan majority can transform our system from a nonpartisan one where the voters elected representatives into a partisan one where the representatives select their voters.”

GOP FRACTURES OVER VIRGINIA REDISTRICTING MAP HANDING DEMOCRATS 10-1 EDGE

“We ask that the court enforce the constitutional amendment process by affirming the decision below, declaring the proposed amendment invalid and enjoin certification of the election,” he added.

Lawyers for Democratic legislative leaders urged the Virginia Supreme Court to uphold the amendment and clear the way for the new map, arguing voters and lawmakers followed every step required by the state Constitution. In rebuttal, attorney Matthew Seligman said, “The people did, in fact, validly ratify the proposed amendment last Tuesday,” and argued challengers were trying to undo a democratic process that had already been completed through legislative approval and a statewide vote.

Notably, the justices acknowledged the courts in Virginia only permitted the vote to be held amid the legal challenge.

DEMOCRATS’ CHAIR VOWS TO FIGHT ‘TOOTH AND NAIL’ TO STOP TRUMP, REPUBLICANS, IN REDISTRICTING BATTLE

Seligman also argued to the justices the challengers’ case depended on reading limits into the Constitution that are not actually there. He argued the General Assembly controls its own procedures, that nothing in the Constitution barred lawmakers from acting as they did in special session, and that the legal meaning of “election” supports the state’s position that the amendment was passed before the relevant November election.

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He closed by saying that federal law and court precedent back the view that Election Day is a single day in November, defeating the challengers’ argument.

The Virginia court proceedings mark the latest twist in a national redistricting battle between Republicans and Democrats seeking an advantage in a November election that will determine whether Republicans maintain their narrow majority in the House.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

FIRST ON FOX: A new pair of reports is shedding fresh light on how teachers unions across the country have quietly poured more than $1 billion into political causes over the past decade, with a top education watchdog warning the spending reflects a growing focus on activism rather than classroom priorities.

According to research from Defending Education, national teachers unions alone have directed roughly $669 million toward left-wing political groups, advocacy organizations and campaigns since 2015. When state and local affiliates are included, that figure balloons to more than $1 billion in total political spending.

The reports track spending from the two largest unions, the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), as well as their state-level affiliates, using federal filings and campaign finance records.

“These entities are a political machine,” Rhyen Staley, research director at Defending Education, told Fox News Digital.

NATION’S 2 LARGEST TEACHERS UNIONS FUNNELED NEARLY $50M TO LEFT-WING GROUPS, WATCHDOG REPORT SAYS

“Show me your budget and I will show you what you value; and what the teachers unions value is political power and advancing a left wing, social justice agenda. Parents, families, and communities have little to no counter to the influence that teachers union dollars have on state and local campaigns. Gone are the days of unions just advocating for higher wages, better working conditions, and good health insurance; they are a political machine focused on fomenting a ‘political revolution.’”

The Defending Education report found the unions’ political spending stretches across a vast network of progressive organizations and political committees, including the State Engagement Fund, which received more than $60 million, and For Our Future Action Fund and its affiliates, which pulled in more than $40 million.

Unions also directed tens of millions toward major Democratic-aligned political committees, including the Senate Majority PAC and House Majority PAC.

MOST RADICAL COURSES, CURRICULUM THAT RECEIVED FEDERAL FUNDING IN 2025

In addition, the report found more than $85 million went directly to Democratic Party entities at the federal, state and local levels, not including individual candidate contributions.

At the same time, unions funded a wide range of progressive causes, from climate initiatives to ballot campaigns opposing school choice, often routing money through nonprofit groups and political action committees.

Some of the progressive groups in the report who took money from the nation’s most powerful teachers unions include: Color of Change + PAC, Indivisible, National Center for Transgender Equality, Planned Parenthood, Sixteen Thirty Fund, New Venture Fund and the Human Rights Campaign Foundation.

Defending Education President Nicole Neily argued the findings challenge long-standing assumptions about how union dues are used.

“It’s time to dispense with the myth that unions care whatsoever about teachers’ best interests. Educators are victims of a bait-and-switch: instead of their dues going to advocate for increased pay or improved working environments, they’re being spent advancing a hard-left political agenda, underwriting causes such as climate change, gender activism, and abortion (as well as supporting progressive politicians at all levels),” Neily said.

“Given the outsized role that unions have played in the education system over the past fifty years, greater transparency on union spending is absolutely critical so that policymakers and teachers themselves can make informed decisions about the role that these entities should — or should not — play in the future.”

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The spending revelations come as unions and allied organizations ramp up mobilization efforts ahead of May Day protests, which critics have previously warned could serve as a major political organizing push.

As Fox News Digital previously reported, teachers unions have played a role in preparing for large-scale demonstrations, with activists framing the events as part of a broader “political revolution.”

“It’s very clear that teachers unions seek to destroy our country by turning our students against it,” Teacher Freedom Alliance CEO Ryan Walters told Fox News Digital earlier this year.

Fox News Digital reached out to the NEA and AFT for comment.

Former President Barack Obama sparked an online firestorm over the weekend after his X post discussing the “motive” of the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner shooter went viral.

“Although we don’t yet have the details about the motives behind last night’s shooting at the White House Correspondents Dinner, it’s incumbent upon all us to reject the idea that violence has any place in our democracy,” Obama posted on X on Sunday evening, roughly 24 hours after President Trump and top officials were whisked out of the Washington Hilton Hotel when shots rang out from a man who stormed security during the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner.

“It’s also a sobering reminder of the courage and sacrifice that the U.S. Secret Service Agents show every day. I’m grateful to them — and thankful that the agent who was shot is going to be okay.”

Obama’s post has been viewed nearly 52 million times and sparked outrage from conservatives, who pointed to a manifesto left by the shooter and other details of the attack that they say show the motive was to harm Trump and his Cabinet.

WHCD SHOOTING SUSPECT PLANNED TO TARGET TRUMP OFFICIALS, MANIFESTO REVEALS

“Let’s not pretend to be this clueless about motive, @BarackObama,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin posted on X. “The attempted assassin put out an anti-Trump manifesto about wanting to kill Trump Admin officials, minutes before trying to storm a ballroom filled with the President, VP, Cabinet, and many others from his Admin.”

Former FBI Co-Deputy Director Dan Bongino simply replied, “Are you kidding?”

“There is a manifesto, and this is why you are the problem,” Rep. Abe Hamadeh, R-Ariz., posted on X. 

“Oh come on,” reacted former Department of Homeland Security press secretary Tricia McLaughlin. “There is no ambiguity. It was a politically motivated attack driven by anti-Trump and anti-Christian bile. It’s wrong to downplay or obscure the obvious motive.”

Journalist Emma-Jo Morris posted on X, “It’s crazy how irrelevant Obama has become. Just reduced to posting bluesky-tier cope and meaningless cliches, ‘incumbent upon all’ etc.”

WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS’ DINNER SUSPECT CHECKED INTO HILTON HOTEL ONE DAY BEFORE THE SHOOTING: SOURCES

The Republican National Committee commented, “You are so SICK! Law enforcement officers confirmed this radicalized Leftist was targeting President Trump and his administration last night. Why are you lying?”

Popular independent journalist Nick Shirley also joined in, urging Obama to “call it out for what it is.”

“Wdym by ‘although’? It’s obvious what the motive was,” wrote Shirley.

Heritage Foundation media fellow Tim Young took a similar line, telling the former president, “Don’t pretend you don’t know.”

“The details were out early this morning and it was clear he was a leftist trying to harm as many people in Trump’s cabinet as possible,” Young wrote.

WHO IS COLE ALLEN? CALIFORNIA MAN NAMED AS SUSPECT IN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS’ DINNER SHOOTING

“Agreed on condemning political violence, but you know what his motives were,” “Charlie Kirk Show” Executive Producer Andrew Kolvet posted on X.

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“This is a lie—the gunman’s manifesto was published six hours ago,” political commentator Batya Ungar-Sargon posted on X. “But it’s also a confession—an admission that the motive is damning to President Obama’s side, hence the need to lie.”

Authorities have identified Cole Allen, a 31-year-old California resident, as the suspect who allegedly opened fire during the annual event attended by Trump and senior administration officials. Federal law enforcement officials confirmed to Fox News Digital that after Allen’s arrest, he said he intended to target Trump administration officials and had prepared a manifesto detailing his intent, while also sharing anti-Trump and anti-Christian rhetoric on social media.

U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro told reporters at a news conference after the shooting that Allen has been charged with two counts of using a firearm during a crime of violence and assault on a federal officer using a dangerous weapon. Pirro also said more charges are expected. 

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

Just days before an apparent assassination attempt on President Donald Trump’s life, one of the Democratic Party’s leaders called for “maximum warfare” against Republicans.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., made the inflammatory remark while warning Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., against redrawing the state’s congressional map ahead of November’s midterm elections.

Jeffries said that if DeSantis attempted to counter Democratic gains in Virginia following the state’s aggressive gerrymander, Democrats would continue to ratchet up pressure on Republicans nationwide.

“We are in an era of maximum warfare. Everywhere, all the time,” Jeffries said Wednesday at a news conference.

DALLAS MAYOR WARNS RISING POLITICAL VIOLENCE COULD MEAN ICE FACILITY ATTACK ‘WON’T BE THE LAST’

Three days later, a California man allegedly attempted to assassinate the president Saturday evening at the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner at the Washington Hilton in Washington, D.C.

Cole Allen, 31, is accused of storming a Secret Service checkpoint while armed and intending to enter the hotel ballroom to kill Trump and administration officials. The alleged assassin was armed with a shotgun, handgun and several knives and opened fire on federal agents before being subdued.

A Secret Service officer wearing a ballistic vest, whom Allen allegedly shot at close range, was released from the hospital Sunday.

The gunman allegedly prepared a manifesto before the attack that included anti-Trump and anti-Christian messages, several law enforcement officials told Fox News. He is expected to be arraigned on several federal gun charges Monday.

After the shooting, Republicans called on Democratic lawmakers to refrain from using warlike rhetoric to criticize Trump that could incite violence. The GOP made similar pleas in 2024 after two attempts on the president’s life in Butler, Pa., and at his golf club in Doral, Fla.

But top Democrats have argued that Republicans, too, have used plenty of inflammatory statements to describe their opponents.

“America will not be lectured about civility by far-right extremists in Congress,” Jeffries wrote on social media Sunday, adding that “now is a time to unify.”

A White House aide notably used the same “maximum warfare” language toward Democrats during an interview with The New York Times last year.

When asked to describe the White House’s midterms strategy, the anonymous staffer said, “Maximum warfare, everywhere, all the time.”

EXPERT WARNS DEMOCRATS RISK BACKLASH OVER FAILURE TO CONDEMN VIOLENT RHETORIC IN THEIR RANKS

Fox News Digital reached out to Jeffries’ office before publication.

Jeffries’ defiant social media post came after he unequivocally denounced political violence during an interview with Fox News Sunday.

“It is certainly the case that violence is never the answer, whether it’s targeted at the right, the left or the center,” Jeffries told Fox News’ Shannon Bream.

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When asked how leaders can combat increasing political violence, Jeffries said elected officials must “set the most appropriate example” in their rhetoric. 

“Whatever your ideological perspective is, we all love America, and we all want to make sure that this country is the best that it can possibly be,” he added.

Some Democrats have issued clear appeals to the left to refrain from using violence to achieve their political aims.

“Please stop trying to murder the president,” Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., wrote on social media.

As Xavier Becerra looks to move up the polls in the California Democratic primary for governor, one of the biggest controversies shadowing his record is the scandal involving missing migrant children during his tenure as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

The scandal reportedly stemmed from the massive surge of immigrants, specifically unaccompanied minor children. Shelters became so full that these children were forced to stay in jail-like facilities run by federal immigration officials and eventually in massive tent cities set up in major metropolitan areas. 

The images of these children put pressure on the Biden administration to do something, so they reportedly began imposing demands on staffers to begin moving kids quickly out of the shelters and to their sponsors meant to protect the kids from human trafficking or other forms of exploitation, according to a scathing investigation by the New York Times published in Feb. 2023.

“If Henry Ford had seen this in his plants, he would have never become famous and rich. This is not the way you do an assembly line,” Becerra told HHS staff, according to the Times, even as HHS was beginning to peel back longstanding protections that had been in place for years, such as certain background checks and reviews of children’s files.

EXCLUSIVE: NEW ‘GAVIN NEWSOM FILES’ REVEAL CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR’S ‘EXTREME’ AGENDA

The comment from Becerra to ramp up the efficiency also came after nearly a dozen officials within the HHS division responsible for unaccompanied migrant children expressed concern that child labor trafficking was increasing, adding the system is “one that rewards individuals for making quick releases, and not one that rewards individuals for preventing unsafe releases,” according to the Times.

Data the Times obtained showed, over a period of two years, more than 85,000 children became unable to be tracked by federal officials. 

However, Becerra contested that unaccompanied minors had been “lost,” arguing they were in the custody of vetted sponsors, but just did not pick up the phone when officials made their follow-up calls. Becerra and his supporters also pointed out, amid push back over the matter, that HHS’s legal authority over a child ends once they are placed with a sponsor.

A campaign staffer with Becerra’s team added that the HHS Secretary worked diligently to fix a broken immigration system inherited by Trump, suggesting the blame did not fall at Becerra’s feet.

Meanwhile, in February 2024, HHS’s Office of Inspector General indicated it had indeed found gaps in sponsor screening and follow-up, including missing documentation for required safety checks in 16% of sampled case files and untimely or undocumented follow-up calls in many cases. 

At the time those findings were released, the HHS OIG already found in 2022 that guidance issued to speed releases had removed safeguards and may have increased the risk of releases to unsafe sponsors.

COULD RFK JR BE A DISRUPTOR AND REFORMER AT HHS?

“Xavier Becerra failed those kids, failed the country, and failed to do his job,” a longtime Democratic Party campaign strategist told Fox News Digital.

“Becerra was horrible at HHS, and thinking he can become Governor of California after that record is delusional,” the strategist continued. “Voters deserve better than a recycled cabinet secretary who couldn’t manage his own department.”

A few months after the Times’ reporting, Republicans in the House subpoenaed Becerra and HHS for records and documents related to the “vetting, screening and monitoring” of sponsors for migrant children. Republicans received hundreds of pages of documents, but argued none were responsive to their concerns before eventually hauling him to Capitol Hill for a hearing.

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After House Republicans ordered HHS to produce records by Oct. 3, 2024, the dispute never culminated in a clean public resolution — committees kept complaining the production was incomplete, Becerra was called back to testify, and later watchdog reports — rather than Congress’ subpoena — became the clearest answer on whether the government was reliably tracking unaccompanied minors entering the United States.

FIRST ON FOX: A billionaire gubernatorial candidate in Georgia, who has said there is “no bigger supporter of Trump right now than I am,” is facing questions after a healthcare company within his business empire criticized President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Rick Jackson has spent months trying to cast himself as the race’s most pro-Trump candidate who will be Trump’s “favorite governor” despite Trump’s endorsement of Lt. Gov. Burt Jones. However, one of his companies has repeatedly criticized the OBBBA, a landmark GOP legislative package that Trump endorsed and signed into law last year.

Jackson Physician Search, a subsidiary of Jackson Healthcare, said on its website in September 2025 that the bill’s “sweeping cuts to Medicaid and ACA programs raise serious concerns about access, equity, and sustainability,” and warned that some hospitals may need to “adapt or close their doors.”

In a February 2026 recruitment report, the company also said the law was projected to cause “between 10 and 15 million people” to lose health coverage, while Medicare and Medicaid cuts were creating “significant financial pressure” across healthcare organizations and considerable “fear and uncertainty” about what lies ahead.

EXPERT REVEALS HOW COMPANIES ARE REBRANDING ‘TOXIC’ DEI POLICIES TO SKIRT TRUMP-ERA BANS: ‘NEW WRAPPER’

“Rick supports the Big Beautiful Bill. Period,” Mike Schrimpf, a spokesperson for Jackson’s campaign told Fox News Digital. “Growing up in the projects, Rick believes in the dignity of work and is a strong proponent of work requirements for that reason. He has long opposed Obamacare and regularly touts President Trump’s healthcare policies, like TrumpRx, on the campaign trail. That’s why Rick Jackson will be Donald Trump’s favorite governor.”

Schrimpf added that “for months” Democrats have been attacking Jackson for his support of the OBBBA, noting “this attack makes about as much sense as accusing a pilot of hating to fly.”

At a campaign event last month in Thomasville, Georgia, Jackson told constituents that he thought there were “many parts” of the OBBBA that were “great,” and said he would be paying “40 percent more in taxes” if it had not passed, and defended work requirements in the bill by saying they motivate people to be productive and get off Medicaid.

“The worst thing that we can do is tell people — is get people relying on government where they have no incentive to work,” Jackson told constituents. 

“It’s the most dehumanizing thing that you can do,” he continued. “God made us to be productive.”

VULNERABLE DEM’S SUPPORT FOR ALEX PRETTI COLLIDES WITH LAKEN RILEY ACT ANNIVERSARY

Jackson has also drawn himself closer to Trump by praising his tariff policies. “I believe in fairness,” Jackson said in March. “Don’t want somebody to take advantage of us in a business transaction. That’s what he’s trying to do. So I support.”

Meanwhile, Jackson, who reportedly modeled his campaign launch after Trump with a celebratory elevator descent, said he can’t name a single White House policy he disagreed with, according to the Atlanta-Journal Constitution.

But, despite these assertions from Jackson on the campaign trail, his remarks stand at stark odds with his physician search firm warning in a February white paper about “considerable fear and uncertainty” for what is to come as the result of the OBBBA.

 “The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) is projected to cause between 10 and 15 million people to lose health coverage,” the white paper notes, citing new public healthcare work requirements implemented by the OBBBA. “Medicare and Medicaid cuts are creating significant financial pressure across healthcare organizations,” it continues.

The same report, which includes comments from the firm’s senior leadership and other content on the search firm’s website, also slammed H-1B visa provisions in the OBBBA aimed at restoring integrity to the immigration program that has reportedly been rife with fraud, arguing it would be a net negative for the healthcare industry.

GOP BILLIONAIRE TRYING TO WOO TRUMP’S SUPPORT IN KEY GEORGIA RACE BANKROLLED HIS 2024 PRESIDENTIAL RIVALS

The materials and resources also said OBBBA would promote physician burnout, would likely force rural hospitals to shut down, would discourage hopeful physicians from going to school, thus exacerbating the existing doctor shortage, and briefly emphasized the negative impact of Trump’s tariffs on physician recruitment.

“My team works with clients throughout the Midwest who are facing department closures if they can’t hire a physician or advanced practice provider. For proof, just look at the number of labor and delivery departments forced to close in the past few years,” said Senior Vice President of Recruiting at Jackson Physician Search, Tara Osseck. “Now, recent policy changes — including provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) and increased fees affecting international visas — are adding new layers of complexity to an already challenging physician recruitment environment.”

“The implications are significant,” Osseck adds. “Coverage losses can lead to increases in uncompensated care, placing additional strain on already thin operating margins. When financial pressure mounts, healthcare organizations may delay service expansions, reduce hiring plans, or freeze recruitment altogether.”

The OBBBA, a wide-ranging bill, included reforms to the federal student loan program aimed at making education more affordable. However, Regional Vice President of Recruiting at Jackson Physician Search, Tonya Hamlin, warned the reforms will actually make it harder for hopeful physicians to get to college.

TRUMP ALLY CLAY FULLER ADVANCES IN GEORGIA FIGHT FOR MTG’S FORMER SEAT

“These reforms could force students to absorb the difference through private loans or personal resources,” Hamlin wrote in a blog post on the search firm’s website. “They could also cause lower-income students to reconsider attendance altogether.”

Hamlin went on to warn that with less people able to go to medical school, the shortage of physicians will only get worse for hospitals and clinics.

“Despite these additional hurdles, clinicians and trainees must not be deterred,” Hamlin encouraged. “Stay focused on the higher purpose of your calling while staying informed, planning ahead financially, and engaging in ongoing advocacy.”

The Republican primary race for Georgia governor has been a messy one between Jackson and other frontrunner candidates, including Jones, Attorney General Chris Carr, and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. In particular, Jones and Jackson, have been sparring over who is more aligned with Trump.

“This Primary Election is very simple,” Jones says on his campaign website. “There is one authentic conservative who has fought for President Trump.”

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Jackson, meanwhile, donated $1 million to the president’s political action committee, MAGA Inc. less than two months before he jumped into the race in February and has faced backlash for cutting 6-figure checks to the presidential campaigns of Trump’s former GOP rivals during the 2024 Republican primary. 

Jackson also reportedly ran an ad against Raffenspeger portraying him as the Biblical character Judas in an attempt to portray him as a traitor for defying Trump’s efforts to challenge Georgia’s 2020 election results.

The Republican primary to see who will move on to the general election in Georgia’s gubernatorial fight will take place on May 19. The first and only debate between the candidates is scheduled for Monday.

Fox News Digital reached out to Jackson Physician Search.

King Charles III will head to the White House Tuesday afternoon to meet with President Trump after a man opened fire at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner (WHCD) on Saturday evening.

“Following discussions on both sides of the Atlantic through the day, and acting on advice of Government, we can confirm the State Visit by Their Majesties will proceed as planned,” said a Buckingham Palace spokesperson on Sunday.

Secret Service chief of communications Anthony Guglielmi told Fox News Digital that “the protective model for [Saturday] night’s event proved effective, the key takeaway for future events is that enhancements should be expected at every level, as that is how the model is designed to function.”

“Every protective decision is driven by intelligence amid a dynamic and currently elevated threat environment. We are actively focused on identifying the trigger for this incident and fully understanding the factors that led to it,” he added.

President Donald Trump, the first lady, and administration officials were evacuated from the Washington Hilton ballroom shortly after the WCHD began when a suspect rushed a security checkpoint and opened fire on Secret Service agents. The investigation is ongoing, and the agent is expected to recover.

PRINCE HARRY, MEGHAN MARKLE EXCLUDED FROM TROOPING THE COLOUR AS ROYALS PREPARE TO SHOW UNITED FRONT: EXPERT

King Charles’ first U.S. visit remains on track, officials close to the matter told Fox News Digital.

“It’s been 87 years since King George VI became the first king to ever step foot on American soil, and next week King Charles III will become the second British king to ever visit the Land of the Free,” former advisor to Prime Minister Boris Johnson Thomas Corbett-Dillon told Fox News Digital.

The four-day trip aims to mark America’s 250th birthday—which celebrates the nation’s freedom from British rule. Charles’ visit comes against the backdrop of the war with Iran and criticism from Trump of Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

The visit will kick off Monday morning with a formal ceremony at the White House and a ceremonial military review. The King and Queen will participate in several events, including a private tea.

“This is a monumental occasion, coming 250 years since the revolutionaries declared themselves free from the rule of the British crown. They now welcome that same crown with love, adoration, and open arms,” said Corbett-Dillon.

Charles will deliver an address to Congress after his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, first delivered a speech at the Capitol during a state visit to the U.S. in 1991.

The last king to visit the U.S. was King George VI in 1939, when he traveled with Queen Elizabeth to strengthen ties prior to World War II.

KING CHARLES URGES ‘DIGITAL DETOX,’ RECONCILIATION IN CHRISTMAS SPEECH AFTER YEAR OF ROYAL DRAMA

“The King is making one of the most politically sensitive trips of his life, visiting a White House that has publicly denounced his own Prime Minister on multiple occasions,” said Corbett-Dillon.

While the visit will celebrate the U.S.-U.K. alliance, it also unfolds at a politically sensitive moment, with tensions lingering over Iran and Trump’s public criticism of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

“This is not Winston Churchill we are dealing with,” said Trump on March 3. “By the way, I’m not happy with the U.K. either,” the president continued, referring to Starmer blocking the United States’ use of U.K. bases to launch attacks on Iran. 

Trump’s frustration with Starmer stems from Britain’s refusal to fully join the U.S. campaign against Iran, and has urged U.S. allies to get involved militarily or operationally, particularly around protecting oil shipments in the Strait of Hormuz.

KING CHARLES WON’T MEET PRINCE HARRY DURING MONARCH’S US STATE VISIT: EXPERTS

“The President may be tempted to push the King to back him in Iran,” Corbett-Dillon said.

The monarch’s visit follows Trump’s state visit to the U.K. in September.

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“The special relationship remains above the day-to-day politics of our two nations and is cemented in our shared heritage and history,” said Corbett-Dillon.

Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman, Stephanie Nolasco, and Ashley Papa contributed to this repor

New York City’s socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani is “moving the goalposts” on poverty in the nation’s largest city with his newly unveiled racial equity plan to justify a massive expansion of government intervention, a top city policy analyst warns.

Mamdani released his “Preliminary Citywide Racial Equity Plan” earlier this month, which quickly received pushback from President Donald Trump’s Justice Department as well as from the Manhattan Institute’s Santiago Vidal Calvo, who told Fox News Digital that when the report uses a “true cost of living” to claim 62% of New Yorkers can’t make ends meet in the city, it’s a ploy to declare a crisis that needs more government.

“What he’s essentially doing is moving the goalposts,” Vidal Calvo explained. “He’s essentially saying that what the federal government qualifies as somebody below the poverty line — which is essentially like $34,000, $35,000 a year, those might be like 2024 numbers, but it’s pretty close to that — we’re essentially moving the goalposts so anybody under $160,000 with children cannot afford to live in New York City.”

“Those numbers, in reality, if you live in New York City, they don’t sound crazy, they don’t sound, you know, high. But in all of reality, for any single person across America, $160,000 is, you know, a breadwinner. It’s essentially enough money to raise a family and to have children and to have a good life. So when we move the goalposts into that direction, without actually recognizing what are the underlying issues of the disease, what are the actual problems that make New York City expensive, then we’re just attributing a problem and throwing a dart at the board and saying, ‘This is it.'”

MAMDANI RIPPED AFTER CONCEDING KEY CAMPAIGN PLEDGE WON’T HAPPEN THIS YEAR

The “reality” of the situation, Vidal Calvo says, is that you “don’t make a place more affordable by making people earn more” but instead the city needs to “ask the right questions” about policies that drive wage growth and new housing development. 

“So the issue here is that we are focusing on a problem that the socialists in City Hall want to believe—that if you give people more money, they essentially can access more things,” Vidal Calvo said. “But you’re not asking what is the tradeoff of giving people more money. And just by placing that the ‘True Cost of Living’ in New York City is $160,000 a year for people with children, that doesn’t necessarily mean that people, first, can afford that life or, second, they are able to get those salaries.”

MAMDANI’S RESPONSE TO TRUMP’S IRAN STRIKE SPARKS CONSERVATIVE BACKLASH: ‘ROOTING FOR THE AYATOLLAH’

The high cost of living in New York City is driven by several factors, including housing, which is an area where Vidal Calvo says City Hall needs to “encourage more housing being built around the city.”

“That’s how you lower the price of housing,” he said. “It’s not by freezing rent, it’s not by stabilizing markets—normally what that leads is to more and higher prices.”

Rather than a giant administrative effort to grow government with more departments and staffers, Vidal Calvo explained that the city should instead be reforming zoning to build faster, slash permitting delays, make it easier to establish child care facilities, reduce administrative barriers, and create opportunities for employers to hire more people and recruit talent from across the United States.

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Mamdani’s racial equity plan has drawn intense scrutiny from conservatives over its conclusions on race and efforts to base government action to address racial disparities, including from DOJ Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon who said she will “review” the matter.

Vidal Calvo, who recently published a New York Post op-ed on Mamdani’s plan, told Fox News Digital, “I feel like this is just another way to put DEI on the table without calling DEI.”

“And we have now found that in academia, in many government programs, in many existing architectures of social structures, DEI does not work, and unfortunately, this might be just another case in which it fails, and not because of the well-intended reason of trying to make everybody earn a living, because I feel like that’s a good intention that everybody can have,” Vidal Calvo explained. “But it’s about the solutions that they’re trying to actually approach. It’s about methodology of how they’re actually trying to approach this method. You cannot argue that just because somebody is a different race, it’s become insanely more unaffordable to make a living in New York City. That’s not how it works.”

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

The Pentagon on Sunday announced that a lethal strike was conducted on another vessel allegedly carrying suspected narco-traffickers in the Eastern Pacific, killing three people on board.

The U.S. Southern Command said it conducted a “lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations” at the direction of the leader of the Southern Command, Gen. Francis L. Donovan of the Marine Corps.

“Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations,” the Southern Command claimed in a press release.

US MILITARY KILLS TWO SUSPECTED NARCO-TERRORISTS IN STRIKE ON DRUG-TRAFFICKING VESSEL IN THE PACIFIC

Three men on the vessel were killed, but no U.S. forces were harmed in the attack on the ship, according to the Southern Command.

This was the 55th strike since the U.S. began targeting boats in the Caribbean and the Eastern Pacific in early September.

The latest strike brings the death toll in the Trump administration’s attacks on ships carrying people it accuses of drug smuggling to at least 186.

US CONDUCTS STRIKE ON ANOTHER BOAT CARRYING SUSPECTED NARCO-TRAFFICKERS, KILLING 6 PEOPLE

The Pentagon has refused to release the identities of those killed in the strikes since last fall or provide evidence of drugs on board.

Last month, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth argued, “Going on offense with Operation Southern Spear has restored deterrence against the narco-terrorist cartels that profited from poisoning Americans.”

The administration has been scrutinized in recent months over the strikes by Democrats and even some Republicans, including Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who has raised concerns about killing people without due process and the possibility of killing innocent people.

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“I look at my colleagues who say they’re pro-life, and they value God’s inspiration in life, but they don’t give a s‑‑- about these people in the boats,” Paul said in January. “Are they terrible people in the boats? I don’t know. They’re probably poor people in Venezuela and Colombia.”

The senator previously cited Coast Guard statistics that show a significant percentage of boats boarded on suspicion of drug trafficking are innocent.

Former President Barack Obama said the motive behind the shooting outside the White House Correspondents’ Dinner remains unclear, even as investigators review writings from the suspect outlining plans to target President Donald Trump and members of his administration.

Obama’s statement on X focused first on the lack of confirmed details about what drove the attack before condemning violence more broadly and praising the Secret Service. 

“Although we don’t yet have the details about the motives behind last night’s shooting at the White House Correspondents Dinner, it’s incumbent upon all us to reject the idea that violence has any place in our democracy,” Obama wrote on X. “It’s also a sobering reminder of the courage and sacrifice that U.S. Secret Service Agents show every day.

“I’m grateful to them – and thankful that the agent who was shot is going to be okay,” he added.

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Fox News Digital has reached out to Obama’s team for clarification on his comments.

Authorities have identified the suspect as 31-year-old Cole Allen of California, who allegedly opened fire at the Washington Hilton during the annual event attended by Trump and senior administration officials.

Federal law enforcement officials confirmed to Fox News Digital that after Allen’s arrest, he said he intended to target Trump administration officials and had prepared a manifesto detailing his intent, while also sharing anti-Trump and anti-Christian rhetoric on social media.

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The writings identified administration officials as potential targets and expressed grievances tied to the Trump administration, with investigators examining those statements as part of what may have driven the attack.

Law enforcement officials have not formally confirmed a definitive motive as the investigation remains ongoing.

During an interview with “60 Minutes” host Norah O’Donnell that aired Sunday evening, Trump took issue after she read a portion of the alleged manifesto.

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O’Donnell referenced passages in which the suspect appeared to outline a motive, writing that administration officials were “targets” and making inflammatory accusations against Trump before asking for the president’s reaction.

“I was waiting for you to read that because I knew you would…you’re horrible people,” Trump told O’Donnell.

“You read that crap from some sick person? I got associated with all stuff that has nothing to do with me,” he continued, adding he was exonerated.

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Trump then took direct aim at the host.

“I’m not any of those things,” he said. “You should be ashamed of yourself reading that. You shouldn’t be reading that on ‘60 Minutes.’ You’re a disgrace, but, go ahead, let’s finish the interview.”

Suspected gunman Cole Allen checked into the Hilton Hotel hosting the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Friday, just one day before the event, sources told Fox News.

Allen, 31, a computer scientist from Torrance, California, is accused of opening fire at the event where President Donald Trump was in attendance. Initial reports say Secret Service agents fired 3-4 shots, and Allen fired at least one.

The FBI is conducting a ballistics investigation at its lab in Quantico, and authorities are also working with credit card companies to go through purchases going back in time.

Authorities said Allen was initially talking with police, but he began refusing to speak as of Sunday morning.

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Sources say Allen is scheduled for his initial court appearance sometime Monday.

Allen told law enforcement after his arrest Saturday night that he was targeting Trump administration officials, according to senior federal law enforcement sources.

Allen said he planned to “shoot Trump administration officials,” the sources said.

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Authorities have said Allen rushed a Secret Service checkpoint at the event at the Washington Hilton while armed with multiple weapons. He allegedly then opened fire, striking a Secret Service officer in his ballistic vest.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said on Sunday that authorities do not believe Allen worked with any accomplices. Trump said Saturday night that the shooter was a “lone wolf.”

“Well, what President Trump said is that as of now we think that, that’s what the police chief said as well,” Blanche told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday. “But this is an investigation that is 12 hours, 13 hours old, and so those facts can change, and they often do change. And if there’s anybody else involved we will leave no stone unturned to find out everything we can about that.”

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“But from what we know right now, from what we know given what happened last night, and the evidence we’ve gathered so far, we don’t believe anybody else was involved, but again, we have a lot of work left to do, and a lot of evidence left to go through and to collect,” Blanche added.

Fox News’ David Spunt contributed to this report.

A Wisconsin brewery and taproom known for promising “free beer” when President Donald Trump dies is drawing renewed scrutiny for posting on Facebook “we almost got #freebeerday.”

The Minocqua Brewing Company is owned by Wisconsin Democrat Kirk Bangstad, a former state Assembly candidate who has repeatedly used the brewery’s brand to attack Trump and Republicans. The brewery’s social media lamented Saturday night’s foiled attack at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

“Well, we almost got #freebeerday,” the company’s post read, although Fox News could not immediately identify the poster’s tie to the owner. “Either a brother or sister in the Resistance needs to work on their marksmanship or he faked another assassination to get a positive news cycle. We’ll never know.”

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“Regardless, we stand at the ready to pour free beer the day it happens,” the post concluded.

Bangstad was the Democrat nominee for Wisconsin’s 34th Assembly District in 2020, according to Ballotpedia, but lost the general election.

Minocqua Brewing sells politically themed merchandise, including shirts saying, “I wish it was free beer day,” and pitches its progressive brand that pairs beer with activism and “snarky progressive merch.”

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Fox News Digital previously reported on the brewery’s “free beer day” vow. In January, Fox News highlighted a Minocqua Brewing message offering “free beer, all day long, the day he dies,” and noted Bangstad’s comment that he would welcome people to celebrate Trump’s “impending death” with one caveat: “no red hats allowed.”

Fox News also identified Bangstad as the founder of the Minocqua Brewing Company super PAC, which targets Trump and Republicans. Also, Bangstad once sued to keep Trump off the Wisconsin ballots before the 2024 presidential election.

The fresh backlash followed Saturday night’s security scare at the WHCA dinner in Washington, where Trump and first lady Melania Trump were evacuated after shots were fired outside the ballroom.

Fox News reached out Sunday to Bangstad, the brewery and the Wisconsin Democratic Party. In a January statement to Fox News, Bangstad welcomed the celebration of the “impending death” of Trump.

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Bangstad and Minocqua Brewing have drawn repeated scrutiny beyond their anti-Trump messaging. Wisconsin Public Radio reported Bangstad was charged last year in a harassment case tied to a dispute with a local newspaper publisher, and Wisconsin newspaper reporting said he later entered a no-contest plea in a disorderly conduct case and was found guilty earlier this month.

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Trump-backed House candidate Michael Alfonso called out the normalization of Bangstad’s rhetoric in the state.

“This brewery is owned by a man named Kirk Bangstad, and he’s not just some random crazy guy,” Alfonso posted on X. “Kirk is friends with current Democratic gubernatorial frontrunner Francesca Hong. He previously employed Rebecca Cooke, the Democrat currently running against Derrick Van Orden, and was himself the Democratic nominee against my father-in-law, Sean Duffy, in Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District—where I am now running for office.”

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Wisconsin Republicans and the Republican National Committee are calling out the ties to Bangstad.

“Wisconsin Democrats are so sick in the head that an attempted murder is funny to them,” RNC spokeswoman Delanie Bomar told Fox News Digital on Sunday morning.

“All Wisconsin Democrats, including Rebecca Cooke, must immediately condemn this disgusting behavior.”

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Fox News also reached out to Cooke’s campaign for comment.

Fox News’ Lindsay Kornick contributed to this story.