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Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is calling for Republicans to provide Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with enough funding to last a decade.

He believes Republicans can do that without the support of a single Democrat.

“We can do it with just 50 votes,” Cruz said.

Lawmakers in the Senate agreed early on Friday to advance funding for DHS that includes the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the Coast Guard, the Secret Service and seven other agencies — even as gridlock over ICE remains firmly in place.

SCHUMER, DEMS BLOCK DHS FUNDING AGAIN, TRUMP INTERVENES TO PAY TSA AGENTS

Cruz believes that Democrat opposition to funding the agency will only continue, promoting the possibility of future shutdowns.

“I think we may very well be in a world where these Senate Democrats will never again vote to fund ICE, that they’re simply saying, ‘shut down,’” Cruz said.

Like the rest of DHS, funding for ICE lapsed on February 14 when Democrats made their support for the agency conditional on a set of 10 operational reforms.

Among other items, Democrats had called for a ban on masks for ICE agents, stiffer warrant requirements for apprehending suspects in public, a ban on roaming patrols and requirements for clearly visible identification — demands Republicans argued would handcuff Trump’s immigration enforcement goals.

Cruz believes Republicans can still advance funding without meeting any of those demands through a process called “reconciliation” that would allow Republicans to get around a filibuster.

“You need 60 votes to pass funding for the government. We only have 53 Republicans, and so we need at least seven Democrats. Reconciliation, which is how we passed the [Big Beautiful Bill] last year, we can do with just Republicans,” Cruz said.

DHS SHUTDOWN BREAKTHROUGH COMES AT COST FOR REPUBLICANS AS FUNDING FIGHTS NEARS END

THUNE, GOP BLAST DEMS IN DHS STANDOFF AS LANKFORD SAYS THEY FEAR ICE OVER IRAN

“And so, what I’ve argued to my colleagues is let’s take up reconciliation, and let’s fund ICE for the next decade, because the Democrats are going to vote against ICE funding for the foreseeable future, I think, potentially forever,” Cruz said.

While lawmakers can’t use that vehicle to change existing policies or set new ones, Cruz argues Republicans can certainly use it to add to ICE’s existing provisions, putting the agency’s funding beyond the influence of another shutdown.

In some ways, it’s a plan Republicans have already done once before.

Republicans funded ICE to the tune of $75 billion last year through Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill. Cruz’s plan would take the same principle and extend it. At levels from 2025, base funding ICE and its removal operations for 10 years would cost roughly $100 billion.

Cruz believes passing those appropriations is consistent with the mandate Republicans received when they won over a governing trifecta in the 2024 elections.

SENATE REPUBLICANS MOVE TO REOPEN DHS WITH NEW PLAN, WAIT FOR DEMOCRATIC BUY-IN

“The American people said, enough. President Trump and Republican Congress have an incredible record of success on securing the border. We have seen illegal border crossings drop 99%. We’ve seen the murder rate across the country drop 20%. We’ve seen the drug overdose rate nationally drop 20%.

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“It is literally the case that there are thousands of Americans alive today because President Trump was reelected, and because we have a Republican House and Senate.”

Instead of passing the Senate’s plan, the House advanced its own package late Friday night, which would extend DHS funding at current levels for two months, buying more time for lawmakers to continue negotiations over ICE.

Gas prices are surging as the ongoing conflict with Iran drives up crude oil costs, fueling higher prices at the pump nationwide.

The national average now stands at $3.98 per gallon, up $1 from a month ago, according to AAA.

Prices are climbing across nearly every region, with some states already well above the national average. 

BEFORE-AND-AFTER SATELLITE IMAGERY OFFERS A RARE LOOK AT DAMAGE INSIDE IRAN

On the West Coast, drivers are seeing the highest costs, with prices reaching $5.87 per gallon in California and $5.32 in Washington.

Along the East Coast, gas prices are approaching or exceeding $4.00 in several areas, including $4.16 in Washington, D.C., and $3.93 in New York.

In the Midwest, Illinois stands out at $4.21 per gallon, while much of the region remains closer to the mid-$3 range. 

Southern states are generally lower, though still rising, with Texas at $3.60 and South Carolina at $3.64, while Florida is higher at $3.96.

THE UNLIKELY TOOL TRUMP IS EYEING TO TACKLE RISING OIL PRICES AMID THE IRAN CONFLICT

Diesel prices are climbing faster than gasoline, reflecting their close ties to freight and industry—meaning increases can ripple through supply chains and raise costs across the economy. 

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Diesel averaged $5.41 a gallon, up $1.65 over the same period, according to AAA, surpassing $5 for the first time since December 2022 as the war in Iran continues to disrupt global energy supplies.

Amid a funding standoff that went into overtime on Friday, Sen. John Fetterman is stressing the need for lawmakers to end travel delays and support the country’s weakened airport security as he warns that security preparations are “significantly behind” for the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup.

“I could never justify this from the start, but here we are day 39, 40? It’s like, how long are you gonna continue that?” Fetterman told Fox News Digital earlier this week.

Fetterman raised concerns that the shutdown — the second for TSA workers have endured in just three months — has wreaked havoc on the country’s transportation security workforce that won’t be easily undone ahead of high-profile U.S.-based events.

“Preparations are significantly behind and now we’re 77 days out and this is still shut down. And you have millions of people from abroad coming and millions of Americans joining these two,” Fetterman said, referring to the World Cup.

SCHUMER GAMBIT FAILS AS DHS SHUTDOWN HITS 36 DAYS AND AIRPORT LINES GROW

Fetterman’s comments come as the Senate advanced most of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) funding in the early hours of Friday morning. Their bill looked to supply the many agencies that operate under DHS such as the Secret Service, the Coast Guard, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), TSA and more — but at the exclusion of funding for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Funding DHS first ran dry on February 14, when Democrats made their support for the agency conditional on a set of reforms to rein in President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. 

The Senate’s bill didn’t include any of the Democrats’ reform, but also didn’t include funding for ICE, either. That proposal ran into fierce resistance in the House of Representatives, where even U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson blasted the attempted resolution.

“This gambit that was done last night is a joke. I’m quite convinced — it can’t be that every Senate Republican read the language of this bill. It’s pretty alarming. It says, quote: ‘the contents printed under the headings of this bill: U.S. immigrations and customs enforcement and border security operations … an amount specified in the final bill shall be zero’,” Johnson said, reading from the Senate bill’s text.

“We’re not doing that,” Johnson added.

The agency has, however, already received $75 billion through Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill in July of 2025 — enough to fund the agency’s operations at least through 2026. House Republicans stressed that it’s unclear if those funds can legally be used to fund all of ICE’s operations. 

Instead of passing the Senate’s plan, the House advanced its own package late Friday night, which would extend DHS funding at current levels for two months, buying more time for lawmakers to continue negotiations over ICE.

The House version is likely dead on arrival in the Senate.

TSA CALLOUTS HIT HOUSTON, ATLANTA, NEW ORLEANS HARDEST, 450 OFFICERS HAVE QUIT NATIONWIDE

As lawmakers continue the back-and-forth over the ICE funding standoff, spokespersons from DHS also echoed Fetterman’s calls to restore travel operations, slamming the compounding effects of the repeated shutdowns.

“Now, 366 TSA officers have left the force. Because of this DHS shutdown, Americans are facing HOURS long waits at airports across the country. Democrats must reopen DHS now,” Lauren Bis, a spokesperson for the agency said in a press release.

Although Trump signed an executive order on Friday that looks to fund the salaries of TSA workers, the agency also noted that even with the resolution to the shutdown looking hopeful, the country’s travel security would take time to recover.

“TSA does not have the luxury of time. The FIFA World Cup is kicking off on June 11 – less than three months away. We are anticipating a significant influx in passenger volume as fans travel through our airports to see the games,” DHS said in a press release.

“Even if TSA were to hire new officers upon the conclusion of the DHS shutdown, those officers would not be able to work on the checkpoint until well after the World Cup has concluded.”

DHS DEAL IN LIMBO AS DEMOCRATS DEMAND TOUGHER ICE CRACKDOWN DESPITE GOP COMPROMISE

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Fetterman urged members of his own party to focus on the country’s outstanding travel needs instead of continuing to pursue their demands.

“[It’s] just getting harder and harder to justify extending this shutdown,” Fetterman said.

The Supreme Court is poised to answer a fundamental constitutional question largely ignored for more than a century: Who qualifies as an American citizen?

The justices on Wednesday will hold oral arguments to review President Donald Trump’s efforts to limit birthright citizenship in the U.S., a landmark case with the potential to upend the lives of millions of Americans and lawful residents.

At issue is the executive order the president signed on his first day back in office, which would end automatic citizenship for nearly all persons born in the U.S. to undocumented parents, or parents with lawful temporary status in the country — a seismic legal, political, and social shift that critics note would break with more than 150 years of legal precedent. 

A ruling is expected within three months but until then, Trump’s plans remain on hold.

HOW TO MAKE PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP’S IMMIGRATION PAUSE STICK IN COURT

The case is the fourth of a five-part series of appeals the Supreme Court will consider this term on the merits of Trump’s sweeping executive agenda.

The nine-member bench has already tossed out his reciprocal tariffs on most other countries, which relied on an economic emergency law. A separate dispute over ending protections for migrants with temporary protected status will be argued later in April.

Still pending are rulings on the president’s ability to fire members of independent agencies, including Federal Reserve governors.

But the administration has been winning most of the emergency appeals at the Supreme Court since Trump took office again, which dealt only with whether challenged policies could go into effect temporarily, while the issues play out in the lower courts– including immigration, federal spending cuts, workforce reductions, and transgender people in the military.

Constitutional Meaning

Trump’s order now before the high court for final review would reinterpret the 14th Amendment, which states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside” — a provision the president argues has been misinterpreted.

Executive Order 14160, entitled “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship,” would deny it to those born after February 19, 2025 whose parents are illegal immigrants, or those who were here legally but on temporary non-immigrant visas.

And it bans federal agencies from issuing or accepting documents recognizing citizenship for those children.

“The privilege of United States citizenship is a priceless and profound gift,” says part of the order. “But the Fourteenth Amendment has never been interpreted to extend citizenship universally to everyone born within the United States.”

A Supreme Court ruling on the issue could have sweeping national implications for an issue Trump officials argue is a crucial component of his hardline immigration agenda, which has become a defining feature of his second White House term.

BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP SUPPORTERS GET THE LAW WRONG BY IGNORING OBVIOUS EVIDENCE

In its high court petition, the Trump Justice Department said all lower court decisions handed down last year striking down the executive order had relied on a “mistaken view” with potentially “destructive consequences.”

“The lower courts’ decisions invalidated a policy of prime importance to the president and his administration in a manner that undermines our border security,” said John Sauer, U.S. Solicitor General, who will make the case in person at oral arguments.

“Those decisions confer, without lawful justification, the privilege of American citizenship on hundreds of thousands of unqualified people,” he added.

Opponents argue the effort is unconstitutional and “unprecedented,” and would threaten some 150,000 children in the U.S. born annually to parents of non-citizens, and an estimated 4.6 million American-born children under 18 who are living with an undocumented immigrant parent, according to data from the Pew Research Center.

Separate coalitions of about two dozen states, along with immigrant rights groups, and private individuals — including several pregnant women in Maryland — had filed a class-action lawsuit.

The plaintiffs — including those originally from Taiwan and Brazil — seek to preserve access to citizenship-related benefits including Social Security, SNAP, and Medicaid.

To date, no court has sided with the Trump administration’s interpretation of the 14th Amendment, and blocked the order from taking force.

The ACLU and other immigrant advocacy groups in the U.S., have accused Trump of attempting to “unilaterally rewrite the 14th Amendment.”

“The federal courts have unanimously held that President Trump’s executive order is contrary to the Constitution, a Supreme Court decision from 1898, and a law enacted by Congress,” said ACLU legal director Cecillia Wang, who will argue for the plaintiffs in the courtroom session. “We look forward to putting this issue to rest once and for all in the Supreme Court this term.”

The Arguments

Much of the public session is expected to focus on a phrase in the Constitution that the government asserts limits the citizenship right.

“The Fourteenth Amendment has always excluded from birthright citizenship persons who were born in the United States but not ‘subject to the jurisdiction thereof,'” said Trump’s original order, which the Justice Department essentially interprets as “being subject to U.S. law” — which would give the government discretion to exclude those whose parents are in the country illegally.

But lawyers for the plaintiffs say a century-old Supreme Court ruling affirmed the phrase only excluded automatic citizenship to children born to foreign diplomats or hostile forces.

Supporters of a broad, traditional interpretation point to the 14th Amendment’s origins — passed after the Civil War to end the practice of excluding individuals of African descent, including slaves and free persons, from ever becoming U.S. citizens.

TRUMP ADMIN PUTS KEY BIDEN-ERA IMMIGRATION POLICY ON NOTICE: ‘UNSUSTAINABLE CYCLE’

Thirty-one years after its enactment, the Supreme Court for the first time decided the status of children born in the U.S. to alien parents, creating the precedent of how the Citizenship Clause would be applied in future cases.

Plaintiff Wong Kim Ark was born in San Francisco and became a cook, but was subject to the Chinese Exclusion Act and denied reentry to the U-S after a trip abroad.

In its landmark ruling, the high court concluded, “A child born in the United States, of parents of Chinese descent, who, at the time of his birth, are subjects of the Emperor of China, but have a permanent domicil and residence in the United States… becomes at the time of his birth a citizen of the United States, by virtue of the first clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution.”

The Impact

A recent Pew Research poll asked Americans whether they wanted children of immigrants, temporary immigrants or any immigrants lawfully present in the United States to be citizens, and 94% said yes.

Critics of the administration’s plans fear a chaotic and unfair patchwork of enforcement that would apply in some states and not others, some families and not others, and that it could be sweeping in scope.

“Under the executive order, that child is born a non-citizen,” Amanda Frost, director of the Immigration, Migration and Human Rights Program at the University of Virginia School of Law. “Denied all the benefits and privileges of citizenship and theoretically deportable on day one of their life. And then every single American family having a child will now have to prove their status before that child is considered a citizen by the U.S. government. And that doesn’t matter if they go back to the Mayflower. That’s what everyone will have to prove going forward.”

But immigration reform advocates point to what they call abuses in the system.

JUSTICE JACKSON AUTHORS UNANIMOUS SCOTUS OPINION HANDING TRUMP AN IMMIGRATION WIN

“That is the exploitation of America’s birthright citizenship policy… particularly those by nationals of the People’s Republic of China,” Peter Schweizer, president of the Government Accountability Institute. “Birth tourism is essentially an industry that provides concierge service at every step of the way for a foreign national, in this case China, to pay the firm roughly $100,000, they will transport them to the United States, arrange medical care, arrange citizenship for the child,” he added. “And as soon as the child is old enough to travel, they will return back to China.”

In oral arguments last May when the Supreme Court first looked at Trump’s birthright citizenship order, many on the bench were skeptical of the Trump administration.

The government’s position “makes no sense whatsoever,” said Justice Sonia Sotomayor, saying it could leave some children “stateless.”

“So as far as I see it, this order violates four Supreme Court precedents,” added Sotomayor. “And you are claiming that not just the Supreme Court, that both the Supreme Court and no lower court can stop an executive from universally violating those holdings by this Court.” 

“On the day after it goes into effect — it’s just a very practical question of how it’s going to work,” asked Justice Brett Kavanaugh. “What do hospitals do with a newborn? What do states do with a newborn?” when it comes to determining citizenship on the birth certificate.

“I don’t think they do anything different,” replied Sauer. “What the executive order says in Section Two is that federal officials do not accept documents that have the wrong designation of citizenship from people who are subject to the executive order.”

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“How are they going to know that?” asked Kavanaugh, shaking his head.  

The case is Trump v. Barbara (25-365), a pseudonym for a Honduran citizen who fears for her and her family’s safety. Her child was born in the U.S. in October, months after she joined the lawsuit as the named plaintiff.

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz is staying neutral in the combustible GOP Senate nomination showdown in Texas between longtime Sen. John Cornyn and state Attorney General Ken Paxton.

“I like John. I like Ken. They’re both friends of mine. I have supported both of them in the past. I’ve worked closely with both of them. I’ve endorsed both of them. I’ve campaigned with both of them, and so I’m staying out,” the conservative firebrand three-term senator said in a Fox News Digital interview on Wednesday.

The winner of the May 26 Republican runoff election will face off with Democratic nominee state Rep. James Talarico in this autumn’s general election in a race that’s among a handful which may decide if the GOP keeps its Senate majority in the midterms. The GOP currently controls the chamber, 53–47.

BRUISING GOP SENATE PRIMARY SHOWDOWN HEADS INTO OVERTIME

Cornyn edged Paxton by a point in the March 3 primary, as they were the top two contenders among a crowded field of Republican candidates. But since neither of the heated rivals cracked the 50% threshold to win the nomination, the race headed into overtime.

While some of Cruz’s top outsider political advisers are supporting Paxton, the senator is declining to take sides.

“I trust the voters of Texas to make this decision,” the senator said.

‘OPEN BORDERS, TRUMP-HATING RADICAL’—REPUBLICANS QUICKLY POUNCE ON TALARICO

Talarico, who is considered a Democratic Party rising star, topped progressive firebrand Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a vocal Trump critic, in their party’s primary. Talarico is trying to become the first Democrat in nearly four decades to win a Senate election in right-leaning Texas.

The Cornyn campaign and aligned super PACs have spent big bucks to run ads attacking Paxton, arguing that Democrats will flip the seat in the general election if Paxton’s the GOP’s nominee.

Cornyn, his allies, and the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), the campaign arm of the Senate GOP, repeatedly pointed to the slew of scandals and legal problems that have battered Paxton over the past decade, as well as his ongoing messy divorce.

Paxton, a longtime supporter and ally of President Donald Trump and a MAGA firebrand who grabbed significant national attention by filing lawsuits against the Obama and Biden administrations, has pushed back by repeatedly questioning Cornyn’s conservative credentials and past support for Trump.

The president, whose sway in Republican nomination battles remains immense, stayed neutral during the primary campaign.

Hours after Cornyn and Paxton advanced to the runoff, Trump took to social media to announce, “I will be making my Endorsement soon.”

Trump added that Trump added that he would “be asking the candidate that I don’t Endorse to immediately DROP OUT OF THE RACE!”

All signs at the time pointed to Trump backing Cornyn.

But more than three weeks since his social media post, Trump still remains neutral. And that has the MAGA faithful, many of whom are backing Paxton, hopeful that the president will stay out of the race, which would be a major victory for the Texas attorney general.

Paxton traveled to the president’s Mar-a-Lago residence last weekend for a Palm Beach County GOP dinner, where he briefly met with President Trump, two sources with knowledge of the encounter confirmed to Fox News Digital. One of the sources called it a ‘check in’ between Trump and Paxton. The news was first reported by Politico.

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There’s been a dearth of public opinion polling in the runoff, but the two surveys that have been released suggest Paxton holds a single-digit lead.

The race between Cornyn and Paxton is viewed by many Republicans as a battle between MAGA world and the grassroots versus the party establishment for the soul of the GOP.

President Donald Trump’s second-term agenda is hitting repeated roadblocks in Washington, D.C., federal court, where judges have halted major policies — fueling a growing clash over whether the judiciary is checking executive power or overstepping into it.

The rulings have halted key parts of Trump’s agenda on immigration, policing and federal authority, intensifying debate over whether courts are acting as a constitutional check or obstructing elected leadership.

Here are some of the biggest court clashes Trump is facing in D.C. federal court.

Alien Enemies Act: A centuries-old statute becomes the focus of a modern fight

One of the biggest fights is also one of the earliest lawsuits filed against the Trump administration in D.C. federal court  — centered on the Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 wartime law, to deport certain migrants to El Salvador’s CECOT prison.

Civil rights groups and immigration advocates have argued the Trump administration is stretching the law beyond its intended use case, including the three previous times it was used in U.S. history — most recently, during World War II. The Trump administration has defended the move as a lawful exercise of executive authority over national security and immigration enforcement.

The case quickly landed in D.C. federal court and has since moved up on appeal, with higher courts now weighing the scope of the president’s authority under the centuries-old statute. The outcome could have sweeping implications for how rarely used emergency powers are applied in modern immigration policy.

EX-JUDGES BLAST TOP TRUMP DOJ OFFICIAL FOR DECLARING ‘WAR’ ON COURTS
 

Who controls DC streets: Washington or the White House?

The scope of federal power over states and localities has also been tested. Courts have imposed limits on Trump’s efforts to assert control over National Guard units, raising federalism concerns about the balance between state and federal authority.

The standoff began in August 2025. Trump moved to expand federal control over policing in Washington, D.C., including deploying National Guard troops to respond to crime. 

A related lawsuit, District of Columbia v. Trump, challenges what city officials describe as an unprecedented federal intrusion into local policing. The case remains a key test of presidential authority over the nation’s capital.

Protected status for Haitian migrants: Temporary or ‘de facto amnesty’?

The Supreme Court agreed to hear a pair of appeals from the Trump administration seeking to immediately halt Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designations for Haitian migrants. Haitians were first granted TPS status in 2010 after a devastating earthquake. Previously, a lower court judge in D.C., U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes, had blocked the Trump administration from lifting the TPS designation.

U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer urged the high court to take up the broader issue of whether the Trump administration can revoke TPS protections for other migrants living in the U.S. — citing the Justice Department’s appeal of a similar case centered on TPS protections for Syrian migrants that was kicked to the high court earlier this year.

“Unless the court resolves the merits of these challenges — issues that have now been ventilated in courts nationwide — this unsustainable cycle will repeat again and again, spawning more competing rulings and competing views of what to make of this court’s interim orders,” Sauer said last week. “This court should break that cycle.”

The appeal comes as the Trump administration has sought to wind down most TPS designations, arguing the programs have been extended for too long under Democratic presidents.

“Haiti’s TPS was granted following an earthquake that took place over 15 years ago,” said then-spokesperson for DHS Tricia McLaughlin. “It was never intended to be a de facto amnesty program, yet that’s how previous administrations have used it for decades.”

SCOTUS TO REVIEW TRUMP EXECUTIVE ORDER ON BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP

USAID: Judges pump the brakes on agency cuts

Early in the term, the administration’s effort to rapidly scale back the U.S. Agency for International Development was halted by a federal judge, who blocked mass leave orders and the dismantling of the agency’s workforce.

The Supreme Court eventually intervened in the case. Last March, the high court denied the Trump administration’s request to block a lower court’s order for the administration to pay nearly $2 billion in foreign aid money for previously completed projects, and leaving to the lower court judge the details of how those contracts should be paid out. That suit was eventually appealed to a higher court, where litigation remains pending.

BIDEN-APPOINTED FEDERAL JUDGE RULES TRUMP’S ‘THIRD COUNTRY’ DEPORTATION POLICY IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL

Can the White House reshape the Fed?

The independence of the Federal Reserve is also an issue before the courts.

Lawyers for the Trump administration asked U.S. District Judge James Boasberg earlier this month to reconsider an earlier order that quashed grand jury subpoenas of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, appearing to make good on a vow from U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro to appeal the order to a higher court.

In the Justice Department’s motion for reconsideration that was submitted Monday, prosecutors argued that the court “applied an incorrect legal standard, erred with respect to certain facts, and overlooked other relevant facts.” 

They argued that a subpoena should be allowed when there is even a “reasonable possibility” that the category of materials the government seeks will produce information “relevant to the general subject of the grand jury’s investigation,” and even where a subpoena recipient “proposes a plausible theory of an ulterior motive.”

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a separate case, Trump v. Cook, earlier this year. That case centered on whether Trump has the power to fire Lisa Cook from the Fed’s board of governors — without notice and largely without the ability for courts to challenge the “for cause” provision underpinning her removal.

Cook remains in her position for now, following an order from U.S. District Court Judge Jia Cobb. 

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Meanwhile, White House officials have railed against the “activist” judges who they have accused of overstepping their agenda or acting with a political agenda to halt or pause Trump’s policies from taking force.  

While discussing the mystery surrounding UFOs, Vice President JD Vance, who is Catholic, said he believes what people think of as aliens are actually “demons.”

While interviewing Vance, conservative commentator Benny Johnson asked the vice president, “You gonna release all the UFO files?”

“Ah, we’re workin’ on it,” Vance said. 

He explained that when he took office he “was obsessed with the UFO files” but ended up being busy with other issues.

Vance asserted that he will “get to the bottom” of the matter.

JD VANCE SAYS UFOS, ALIENS COULD BE ‘SPIRITUAL FORCES’ AS VP VOWS TO ‘GET TO THE BOTTOM’ OF MYSTERY IN SKIES

“I don’t think they’re aliens. I think they’re demons anyway,” Vance noted.

Prompted by Johnson, Vance later elaborated on his view.

“Well, look, I, I think that celestial beings who fly around, who do weird things to people — I think that the desire to describe everything celestial… to describe it as aliens — I mean every great world religion, including Christianity, the one that I believe in, has understood that there are weird things out there, and there are things that are very difficult to explain,” he said.

“And I naturally go — when I hear about, sort of, extra-natural phenomenon — that’s where I go to is the Christian understanding that, you know, there’s a lotta good out there, but there’s also some evil out there,” he continued.

UFO SECRET FILES, DRONE SWARMS AND NUCLEAR-LINKED SIGHTINGS STUN EXPERTS IN 2025

He added that he believes that among “the devil’s great tricks is to convince people he never existed.”

Last month, President Donald Trump said he would order the release of files pertaining to the issue of aliens and UFOs.

EXPLOSIVE NEW DOCUMENTARY PROBES ‘80-YEAR GLOBAL COVERUP’ OF UFO SECRETS

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“Based on the tremendous interest shown, I will be directing the Secretary of War, and other relevant Departments and Agencies, to begin the process of identifying and releasing Government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs), and any and all other information connected to these highly complex, but extremely interesting and important, matters. GOD BLESS AMERICA!” the president declared in a February Truth Social post.

“No Kings,” a decentralized protest movement that crystallized in opposition to President Donald Trump’s second term, will hold thousands of events on Saturday morning, according to Sarah Parker, an organizer for one of the events in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The protests mark the most recent development for the amorphous group, which has prompted similar events in the past.

“Tomorrow we’re going to have over 3,500 events across the country,” Parker said. “I think it’s important to be out in the streets at this moment in time to save our country. The events will be overwhelmingly peaceful, and there are going to be millions of Americans from different affiliations, different ages and different ethnic backgrounds coming together to be in community.”

Parker did not describe how “No Kings” works with local figures to organize events but said the protests aim to build on local displeasure with the administration.

LIZ PEEK: DEMOCRAT FURY FUELS ‘NO KINGS’ PROTESTS BUT ENDGAME IS ELUSIVE

“I think this is organic. This is a people-powered movement. We have different local hosts that are volunteers who have stepped up to host an event in their areas, even in rural areas. We have hundreds of events in rural and deep-red states,” Parker said.

Unlike other organized organizations, “No Kings” is not a non-profit, a business, or a formal organization, making its structure a mystery. Because of its lack of centralization, it has little to no financial reporting requirements and no easily identifiable leadership.

“No Kings” first burst onto the scene through “No Kings Day” in June 2025, an event that, in the words of their website, inspired “a nationwide uprising 14 times larger than both of Trump’s inaugurations combined.”

‘NO KINGS’ PROTESTERS FILMED HAVING CHILDREN BASH TRUMP PIÑATA

Almost a year later, the protests scheduled for Saturday hope to continue their opposition, touting opposition to Trump’s recent actions in Iran and debates over immigration enforcement.

“Masked secret police terrorizing our communities. An illegal, catastrophic war putting us in danger and driving up our costs. Attacks on our freedom of speech, our civil rights, our freedom to vote. Costs pushing families to the brink,” their website’s description reads.

Despite Parker’s framing of a decentralized movement, No Kings provides a highly-structured document for organizers titled “March 28 Toolkit,” instructing viewers on how to recruit their own speakers, delegate roles, register their event and use No Kings branded media materials. It also lays out best practices for logistics as well as how to avoid permitting and insurance requirements for event-holders.

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN DOUBLES DOWN ON ANTI-TRUMP, ANTI-ICE STANCE, SAYS ‘BLOWBACK IS JUST PART OF IT’

Notably, the document also includes a “host hotline,” providing a number with a Maryland area code.

A map of events scheduled for Saturday shows organizational activity in the vast majority of urban centers across the country. Parker said that no one center will play a lead role, but that Minneapolis will act as a “flagship.” 

Parker isn’t affiliated with No Kings directly. Instead, she described herself as a part of 50501 — another decentralized organization that partners with No Kings. She did not describe the nature of the partnership or how they interacted amid their similarly decentralized structures.

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

Asked what 50501 meant, Parker said the name originally stood for “50 states, 50 capitols, one day.”

It, too, is not registered as a non-profit or business.

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When asked who should be listening to No Kings’ messaging, Parker said she believes its lawmakers that should pay attention.

“I think it’s for any elected official that is not listening to their constituents again. It should be a message for any, any elected officials, regardless of their political affiliation,” Parker said.

Scouting America, the Texas-based national organization founded as the Boy Scouts of America, is working to shed claims it has gone “woke” in recent years as it renews its focus on training young people with life skills, providing fun and educational outdoor experiences and revitalizing its partnership with the U.S. military.

Since its inception by Lt. Gen. Robert Baden-Powell in February 1910, what is now Scouting America has remained dedicated to providing the key life tenets of faith, character and service to young people, as in one example it eliminated an otherwise recently conceived “DEI” merit badge and replaced it with a military-centric one.

Chief Scout Executive Roger Krone told Fox News Digital that scouts have been central to key moments in history, a testament to the program’s values, importance and longevity.

“In fact, I think all but one of the men that walked on the moon were Scouts. There is [also] a tendency for a certain percentage of membership to want to trade their Scout uniforms for military uniforms: we have a long tradition with the military,” Krone said.

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In 1915, professional scouter E. Urner Goodman founded Scouting America’s own honor society, the Order of the Arrow, at Treasure Island Scout Reservation in the middle of the Delaware River to recognize scouters who excel in their life of service.

John F. Kennedy was the first scout president, and Gerald Ford is the only one to date who has earned Eagle Scout. President Jimmy Carter, though never a scout, earned the BSA’s Silver Buffalo Award for service to Georgia scouts.

As part of its reaffirmation of American values, Scouting America will waive registration fees for military families’ children and participate in the America250 program.

“Just as it has for 116 years, Scouting America is dedicated to shaping patriotic Americans grounded in faith, character and service,” Krone said. “Our relationship with the United States Military reflects a shared belief that leadership, service, and love of country are not abstract ideals—they are values forged through action, discipline, and commitment. The Scouting program is uniquely positioned to instill these values in our future leaders.”

Fifteen percent of military academy cadets are Eagle Scouts, and more than 130 million Americans have been trained by the Boy Scouts since 1910.

He noted that Baden-Powell, a British military hero, conceived the idea in the wake of the Industrial Revolution to instill merit and values in wayward children in London.

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“There were kids in London that were getting in trouble because they had too much time on their hands. And so we started using these military tactics, learning how to track animals and using compasses and these things, to keep kids occupied they go on camp out some things like that. And that was the birth of the scouting program. So we have a proud tradition with the military.”

Scouts continue wearing the American flag on their Class-A uniforms from their time as Cub Scouts through earning Eagle, and, as Krone noted, their meetings also begin with the Pledge of Allegiance and the Scout Oath, which include pledges to honor God, country and law.

“There’s a deep connection between what we teach with character and leadership … to the military so it’s probably just natural.”

Krone pushed back on Scouting America being called woke, noting that about 70 percent of sponsoring organizations are churches. The Catholic Church is said to be the largest holder of unit charters, Krone said, while across the country other houses of worship, from Methodist to Episcopal to the United Church of Christ, sponsor troops.

“We are a very faith-based, faith-driven organization, very patriotic, we love God and country and so yeah, we strive very hard to be apolitical these days.”

Scouting received blowback for allowing girls to join in the past decade. Krone said that Scouting remains a meritocracy and rank requirements aren’t changed by gender.

“Whether you’re a young man in a program or a young woman in a program, you do the same exact thing. And it all is about using the outdoors as a classroom where you learn leadership and grit and resilience and you put the ideals of Scout … to practice in the outdoors and it is an amazing teacher. It’s an amazing program.”

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The Scouting program also takes kids away from their screens and away from potentially “woke” influences online and reconnects them with serving their community and working or camping outdoors.

“We know one of the challenges I think our kids in our country face today is that they’re glued to the devices, they’re indoors or on a couch,” Krone said.

“And I think there’s a lot of authors out there have written about the fact that it’s toxic, right? We’ve got to get kids back outdoors and get them off devices, you know, moving around. “We say it’s ‘social without the media’.”

Scouting America’s youth leaders recently visited Capitol Hill, where they met with congressional leaders who included scouters among them.

“Great day with [the] Boy Scouts. I enjoyed meeting Ricky Mason, Chair of the Scouts Executive Board, and outstanding young leader Joshua Nero, Chief of the Order of the Arrow (the highest ranked Scout), and taking him to meet Speaker Mike Johnson,” Rep. Michael Baumgartner, R-Wash., said in a statement.

“Scouts is a great program and more parents should get their kids off of their phones and out into the wilderness learning life skills and confidence with Scouting for America.”

The Hill also hosts its own Congressional Scouting Caucus led by Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., and Reps. Glenn “GT” Thompson, R-Pa., and Sanford Bishop, D-Ga.

To be awarded the Eagle Scout rank, a scout must earn at least 21 merit badges, including 10 from a specific list that includes three “Citizenship” badges — Community, Nation and World — through which they learn civics and about America’s founding principles and are required to write their congressman or senator about an issue important to them.

Other required skills include Personal Management, First Aid, Swimming, Cycling or Hiking, Family Life and Environmental Science. Most scouts earn many more than required.

The Scout Law, which all scouts agree to, hosts 12 tenets for daily life:

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“Trustworthy; Loyal; Helpful; Friendly; Courteous; Kind; Obedient; Cheerful; Thrifty; Brave; Clean; Reverent.”

Scouting’s motto remains “Do a Good Turn Daily,” and it is most recognized by its 116-year-old slogan: “Be Prepared.”

A group fighting to get Virginia voters to approve an April 21 referendum to let Democrats in the state redraw its congressional maps is being pumped with liberal cash, receiving over $38 million from less than a dozen left-wing entities over the last three months, including from the George Soros-backed Fund For Policy Reform Inc.

The Virginia Public Access Project (VPAP) tracks state spending in Virginia and, according to its database, Virginians for Fair Elections has received $5 million from the Soros-funded and founded entity, which is within his Open Society Foundations Network of groups known for pushing liberal causes. 

Soros’ latest cause is a massive gerrymandering effort in Virginia, where the state’s congressional delegation could go from effectively 6 Democrats and 5 Republicans, to 10-Democratic-leaning districts and one Republican-leaning district, per VPAP. Virginians for Fair Elections is one of the main vehicles pushing Virginia voters to vote “yes” on April 21 to redraw the state’s maps. Virginia’s decision to redraw its maps came after mid-decade redistricting efforts by Republicans in Texas, which significantly changed the state’s electoral maps.

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Tens of millions of dollars have been pumped into the state of Virginia ahead of the April 21 referendum vote, with the vast majority going to the Democratic side of the issue.

Besides money from Soros’ network, in 2026, Virginians for Fair elections received $20 million from the nonprofit counterpart of House Democrats’ House Majority PAC, $100,000 from Sen. Tim Kaine’s, D-Va., leadership PAC, a little over $10 million from the progressive nonprofit that funds ballot initiatives nationwide, The Fairness Project, almost $500,000 from the Democratic Party of Virginia, $1 million from the Global Impact Social Welfare Fund, $1 million from a group called American Opportunity Action, and then several other smaller donations from wealthy liberal backers.

The main group opposing redistricting, Virginians For Fair Maps, has only raised a little over $3 million from just two donors in 2026. $560,000 came from the Republican Party of Virginia while the remaining $2.5 million came from a group by the same name, Virginians for Fair Maps, according to VPAP. 

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Despite the fundraising advantage, the referendum is still expected to be close. Since polls opened March 6 for early voting, turnout in Republican-heavy counties has been high compared to the state’s election turnout in November, when Democrats performed very well and Spanberger took over the Governor’s mansion, while Jones took over the attorney general’s Office.

Democrats in the state have reportedly been urging Spanberger to get more assertive in the redistricting effort.

Democrat Beth Macy, who is running for Congress in one of the five House districts currently held by Republicans, said Virginia Democrats “gotta stop bringing a spork to a knife fight,” according to Politico. She added that it would be “helpful” for Spanberger “to be the spokesperson on redistricting because she did so well and won by so much.”

Soros’ network of groups and PACs has also been a powerful force behind supporting dozens of far-left district attorneys, such as the formerly recalled San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, Chicago’s Kim Foxx, and L.A.’s George Gascon. In 2022, 1 in 5 Americans were represented by a Soros-linked prosecutor, according to data from the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund. 

In Virginia, Soros’ Democracy PAC donated at least $500K to help Spanberger become governor and to help Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones, who fantasized about killing his Republican rival and his family, get elected. His PACs have also donated millions to the campaign coffers of far-left district attorneys in Virginia.

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Fox News Digital reached out to Soros’ Open Society Foundations and the other top donors pumping millions into the redistricting battle, but did not receive a response from Soros’ group ahead of publication.

“No one wanted to take this action, but in a democracy, we can’t let entire states rig their congressional maps just to bend to the will of one person. We have to respond. This amendment is a temporary, one-time exception that gives Virginia voters a voice and meets the needs of the current moment, while ensuring Virginia’s bipartisan redistricting process will resume after the 2030 census,” Alexis Magnan-Callaway, a spokesperson for The Fairness Project, told Fox News digital. 

“The ballot measure allows Virginia voters, not politicians, to decide for themselves whether they want new, temporary districts,” she continued. “This isn’t about favoring one party over another. This is about restoring fairness across the board by temporarily changing Virginia’s congressional districts.”

NASA is racing to establish a permanent human presence on the moon as the U.S. looks to beat China’s ambitions on the lunar surface amid intensifying competition in space.

The Trump administration’s push for a roughly $20 billion moon base marks a major shift in NASA’s strategy, moving away from plans for a lunar-orbiting space station and toward building infrastructure directly on the moon as a long-term foothold for deep space exploration.

“This time, the goal is not flags and footprints,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said as he outlined the plan. “This time, the goal is to stay.” 

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“The reason you want to have a lunar base is that it acts as a focal point of our ongoing efforts to not just be around the Earth, but go into deep space,” Casey Dreier, chief of space policy at The Planetary Society space exploration nonprofit, told Fox News Digital. “It’s like the reason that we have our base stations in Antarctica.”

Dreier said a sustained presence on the moon would allow the U.S. to store supplies, build out infrastructure and expand its capabilities over time in ways that are not possible with a station orbiting the moon.

The shift also reflects a recalibration of NASA’s earlier plans, which centered on the Gateway program — a proposed space station in orbit around the moon that had been a cornerstone of the Artemis program but faced delays, funding uncertainty and growing questions about its necessity.

Originally envisioned as a staging point for astronauts traveling to and from the lunar surface, Gateway was designed to serve as a communications hub and transfer point in orbit. NASA is now redirecting resources toward building infrastructure directly on the lunar surface instead.

While the new approach sharpens NASA’s focus, Dreier cautioned that the administration’s timeline and budget remain highly ambitious.

“Probably not,” he said when asked whether $20 billion would be enough to build and sustain a lunar base. “It’s an ambitious level.”

Dreier added that the roughly seven-year timeline is aggressive, particularly given the technical challenges of operating on the moon, suggesting the effort may begin with a limited initial presence that expands over time.

China is aiming to land astronauts on the moon by around 2030, a milestone that would mark its first crewed lunar mission and significantly expand its presence beyond Earth orbit.

The push for a lunar base comes as China also rapidly advances its own capabilities, conducting increasingly complex robotic missions and laying the groundwork for a long-term presence on the moon.

“They have gone from launching one or two satellites or space science satellites to launching dozens,” Dreier said. “They have landed huge amounts of mass now on the moon, on the far side of the moon.”

He noted that China has also successfully carried out robotic sample return missions, launching material from the lunar surface back to Earth — a technically demanding feat that underscores its growing capabilities.

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“They’re developing their capability very fast,” Dreier said. “That is more capability than the United States has at the moon right now.”

“At the Moon, China actually has the advantage right now,” he added.

China is working with international partners, including Russia, on plans for a long-term presence near the lunar south pole — a region believed to contain water ice and other key resources.

“We find ourselves with a real geopolitical rival, challenging American leadership in the high ground of space,” Isaacman said.

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Dreier said the push to build sustained operations on the moon could also strengthen broader U.S. capabilities in space, particularly as orbit becomes more contested.

“The moon is the ultimate high ground,” he said. “If we have to have space contested, let’s make it a race to the moon … rather than something far more direct and destructive in the Earth orbit.”

Fox News Digital reached out to NASA for comment. 

Neither party escaped travelers’ ire as some estimated they had to walk miles to reach the back of the security line and wait several hours to catch their flights at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport. 

Fox News Digital asked travelers waiting in line at Bush who they believed was to blame for the massive wait times. One traveler named Tim simply responded: “The politicians.”

On Thursday, lines at Bush snaked through check-in, baggage claim, out the doors and through underground subway tunnels. One traveler, who did not share his name, estimated that he and his family had to walk two miles to reach the back of the line. While many arrived several hours ahead of their scheduled departure times, those who did not could be seen frantically searching for terminals with smaller lines.

When it comes to who bears the blame, another traveler, who did not identify herself, answered: “All congressmen.”

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“All of them, regardless of their party,” she added. “They just need to do their jobs.”

Another, named Lancet, singled out the Democrats, who have demanded reinstating funding for the Department of Homeland Security contingent on broad reforms to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol.

“I mean, honestly, look, the Democrats are not voting on the DHS being reinstated. And they’re the ones who pay for TSA from what I know,” said Lancet. “So, without paying the people, they obviously can’t work.”

Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport has been among the airports most heavily impacted by the partial government shutdown, which has led to TSA agents missing paychecks for more than 40 days. Nearly 500 TSA agents have quit, and as of Friday, the agency has missed out on $1 billion in pay.

The partial shutdown was caused by disagreements in Congress over ICE and Border Patrol’s enforcement of immigration law in cities across the U.S., with Democrats making funding contingent on major changes in tactics and policy. Late Thursday night, the Senate passed a bill to fund most of DHS, including TSA, but it is not final. The House still needs to approve the measure and send it to the president before funding resumes and workers are paid.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday directing federal officials to ensure TSA employees are paid, calling the ongoing shutdown an “emergency,” 

One traveler named Kevin, who was waiting in a security line in an underground subway corridor with hardly functioning air conditioning, did not hold back.

“Anybody who votes for a Democrat after this should be shipped out of the country,” said Kevin. “This is a Democrat mess.”

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At the front of the same line, which stretched halfway across the airport’s subway corridor, a traveler named April answered, “I have no idea to be honest with you, but also the construction doesn’t help either.”

“Having to go to Terminal A and Terminal E and going back and forth, yeah, it’s not been great,” she added.

One traveler named Maria, who despite the line bore a large smile and a chipper attitude, told Fox News Digital, “You know what? I would only blame myself for not getting to the airport sooner.”

“I’ve been flying for many, many years, so I know. Got to get to the airports soon, guys. Get your Subway, get your Starbucks, and get to airports,” she quipped, smiling.

“I don’t know, man, I don’t get political about these things,” answered a traveler named Pinal. “It is what it is, and we all are just going through the motions right now.”

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“There’s a lot of people to blame,” said a woman who did not identify herself. “But at least I think the important part is everybody’s working together to try to be as efficient as possible. I got here at 10, and my flight is at 1:30, so I got there in enough time, hopefully.”

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“It’s just the division,” remarked a young man named Nick. “Everybody should be unified, working together, instead of just picking teams, fighting against each other, you know?” 

“People rather be on a team than rather just focus on a solution,” Nick continued. “If we could just focus more on the problem and working together rather than focusing on the differences, I think that would be a major change. But it’s tough, man.”

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger flatly denied any deal was made in crafting the new boundaries of the Second Congressional District on the Eastern Shore and Virginia Beach after former Rep. Elaine Luria was followed out of an event by an individual demanding answers.

Luria, a Democrat who previously represented the Second District, is challenging Rep. Jennifer Kiggans, R-Va., in a race considered “Even” under the current map but that would skew Democratic under newly drawn boundaries that pull in heavily liberal Newport News and the city of Franklin while carving out more moderate parts of Chesapeake.

An individual filmed Luria this week as she left an evening event in Hampton Roads and asked twice: “Did you make a backroom deal with your best friend Abigail Spanberger to redraw the district?”

Luria ignored the man, but the video spread on social media as observers raised questions, given the tone of the redistricting effort led by Senate President L. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth.

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Luria’s campaign formally declined comment and Spanberger’s camp flatly denied the allegation.

“There was no deal,” Spanberger’s top spokeswoman Libby Wiet told Fox News Digital.

Meanwhile, Kiggans campaign spokesman Joe Link said the clip of the confrontation “speaks for itself.”

“Virginians should keep this in mind when they vote on April 21,” Link told Fox News Digital, referring to the date of the special election on the Democrats’ redistricting amendment.

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Lucas did not respond to a request for comment but has been vocal online about the redistricting effort, mocking opponents like former Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va., and swearing at Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, by telling him she is “f—ing finish[ing]” what he purportedly started.

In January, Lucas took aim at Kiggans, suggesting she is intentionally trying to push her out of office. The 82-year-old progressive posted an image of Kiggans wearing a McDonald’s uniform and asking if a customer “want[s] fries with that.”

Meanwhile, across the commonwealth, Republicans continue expressing outrage at the new map being put to voters as “restor[ing] fairness” on April 21, with the Prince William County GOP posting an image of their exurban county “sliced” into five pieces next to an image of deli salami.

Prince William, Arlington and Fairfax counties appear to be anchors for most of Virginia’s congressional districts, which critics say will suppress, if not dilute, the reported 45% of the population that votes Republican or lives in rural areas.

In Rockingham County, which surrounds Harrisonburg and sits in the Shenandoah Valley and is currently represented in whole by GOP Rep. Ben Cline of Botetourt, Fairfax-based Del. Dan Helmer was pictured campaigning for the newly drawn 7th District, according to the local GOP.

Helmer dismissed claims he also helped draw his own district, saying he is doing what Democratic leaders assigned him to do in “electing a Democratic majority” in his caucus role, according to the Virginia Mercury.

Del. Joe McNamara, R-Cave Spring, told the outlet he still believes Helmer “craft[ed] maps for his benefit, and he’s just the next one.”

“My role was electing a Democratic majority two years ago so we could fight back against what Trump is doing and reelect it this year,” Helmer told the Mercury in response. Helmer, who authored the state’s new sweeping gun ban, has two previously unsuccessful congressional bids under recent maps.

The Rockingham County GOP took issue with his previous campaign pledge to be a “voice for Fairfax,” hinting, as in Kiggans’ district, that Democrats are intentionally drawing seats for themselves.

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“They have no shame,” the party said in captioning a photo of Helmer campaigning locally.

Former first lady Dorothy McAuliffe, who also does not live in the majority-rural confines of the newly drawn “lobster-shaped” district, is also running for the seat.

JP Cooney, a prosecutor who worked under much-maligned special counsel Jack Smith, is the third Democrat to seek the newly drawn district, further increasing Republicans’ ire at the process.

Earlier this week, Rep. Donald Beyer, an Alexandria Democrat, admitted that his party’s redistricting effort is aimed squarely at rebuking President Donald Trump.

That comment led to outrage on the right, including from Virginia House Minority Leader Terry Kilgore.

Kilgore, of Gate City in Scott County along the Tennessee line, represents one of the few areas rendered safe under the new map – if not simply because the aforementioned 45% of Republicans had to be collected somewhere.

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“This is manifestly unfair for the Commonwealth of Virginia. We’re a 51-49 state, not a 90-10 state. If they’re willing to silence nearly half of the Commonwealth’s voters in the name of ‘fairness’ what else are they willing to do?” Kilgore told Fox News Digital.

His area is represented by Rep. Morgan Griffith, a Republican who collects a swath of mountainous communities from Galax, Martinsville and Independence in the east to Cumberland Gap, Wise and coal-filled Grundy in the west.

The House of Representatives passed a stopgap measure that would temporarily fund the Department of Homeland Security late Friday, but the 43-day shutdown could drag on for several more weeks.

The two-month funding extension approved by the House is likely dead on arrival in the Senate, where any funding bill needs to overcome a 60-vote threshold, meaning buy-in from a handful of Democrats. That hurdle has not stopped House GOP leadership from arguing that their rejection of a Senate-passed deal — and pitching a subsequent rival DHS funding proposal — is the way out of the shutdown.

“We’re not going to split apart two of the most important agencies in the government and leave them hanging like that,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters leaving the U.S. Capitol on Friday night. “We just couldn’t do it.”

“House Republicans will have no part in reopening the border and stopping illegal immigration enforcement,” Johnson said earlier Friday on “The Ingraham Angle,” in a scathing takedown of the Senate-passed deal that stopped short of funding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and portions of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

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But the full-court press launched by House Republicans aimed at persuading the Senate to return to Washington to take up their bill is likely to fall on deaf ears in the upper chamber.

A GOP aide told Fox News Digital that “the easiest way to end this shutdown is for the House to pass the Senate-passed bill.”

“We know the Democrats are not going to support a CR, in fact the Senate tried to pass CRs for the last 40 days and Dems have blocked Every. Single. One,” they said.

Senators left Washington, D.C., for a two-week Easter recess after unanimously approving a DHS funding measure in the early morning hours Friday with some traveling abroad on congressional delegations.

“I would suggest that the Senate does come back and at least take a vote,” House Republican Conference Chairwoman Lisa McClain said Friday. “That is what they were elected to do. So they’re going to stay out on recess for two weeks and not come back while people don’t get paid. That’s pretty sad.”

Republican Study Committee Chairman August Pfluger, R-Texas, also called on the Senate to return to Washington “immediately” to take up the House-passed measure in a statement late Friday. 

House lawmakers are also scheduled to be in recess for the next two weeks.

Left holding the tab in the cross-chamber feud are the tens of thousands of DHS employees working unpaid during the shutdown.

President Donald Trump moved Friday to shield TSA agents from further financial distress by taking executive action directing DHS to pay those employees with existing funds. 

The roughly 50,000 agents have missed two full paychecks during the ongoing funding lapse, leading hundreds to quit their jobs and forcing others to grapple with mounting financial distress.

The president’s move is likely to alleviate lengthy wait times at TSA security checkpoints, though senior officials have warned of long-term impacts due to more than 500 agents quitting during the funding lapse.

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However, other DHS personnel, such as those employed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the U.S. Coast Guard and certain support staff working for ICE and CBP will still have their paychecks withheld until the department’s funding is restored. 

“Anybody who shows up to work deserves to get a paycheck, and the Senate needs to come back and at least do their job,” McClain told Fox News on Friday. 

Democratic lawmakers are sure to spend the next several weeks blaming Republicans for the impasse after Johnson’s decision to reject the Senate deal. 

“We’re here dealing with a partisan spending bill that the Senate has already indicated is dead on arrival,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said on the House floor Friday. “And so Republicans have taken the decision to own this shutdown decisively. There is no doubt.”

The short-term DHS funding patch passed by the House is a clean extension of government funding and has no partisan policy riders.

Trump also came out against the bill Friday afternoon in an interview with Fox News.

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The bill notably does not include any of the reforms that Democrats have demanded for six weeks to rein in immigration enforcement, including tightening warrant requirements and prohibiting agents from wearing masks.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., who warned throughout the funding stalemate that nobody wins in a shutdown, has indicated that Democrats are less likely to get those demands met than when the funding lapse first started.

“I mean, I think that ship has sailed, and they kind of kissed that opportunity goodbye by failing to provide funding for those agencies,” Thune said.

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz insists that President Donald Trump will be “impeached over and over and over again” if the Democrats win back control of the House in this year’s midterm elections.

And the conservative firebrand and three-term senator from Texas, in a sit-down interview this week with Fox News Digital, argued that if Democrats win both the House and Senate majorities in the midterms, “they will do whatever they can to burn it down,” as he pointed to the agenda passed by Trump and Republicans in Congress.

As they fight to hold their slim majorities in both the House and Senate, Republicans are battling stiff political headwinds as the party in power in the nation’s capital traditionally loses seats in the midterms. And they also face a rough political climate fueled by economic concerns over persistent inflation, an unpopular war with Iran and Trump’s underwater approval ratings.

“I think these midterm elections are unbelievably consequential,” said Cruz, who won re-election in 2024 and isn’t on the ballot this year.

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And the senator pledged, “I am all in fighting for us to win in the midterms, fighting for us to hold the House, fighting for us to hold the Senate and, ideally, grow our majorities in both houses.”

“If the Democrats take the House, no meaningful legislation will pass for the next two years, and we will see the president impeached over and over and over again. And by the way, it won’t matter what for. They will impeach President Trump just because they hate him, because he is Donald Trump,” Cruz claimed.

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And he argued, “We will see investigations attacking the administration in every House committee if they take the House.”

Cruz said implications for Trump and the GOP are even worse if Democrats also win back the Senate.

“If they take the Senate, we would see an almost complete halt of Senate confirmations — Cabinet members. I think these radical Democrats would leave cabinet offices empty, leave them vacant, rather than confirm President Trump’s nominees. I think judicial nominations. If the Democrats took the Senate, they would essentially halt judicial nominations,” he claimed.

And he charged, “I think Chuck Schumer and the radicals are so extreme that if they get a majority, they will do whatever they can to burn it down.”

But Democrats argue it’s President Trump who’s lighting the match due to what Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee chair Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York called Trump’s “hurtful and harmful agenda.”

“President Trump is creating a toxic agenda that’s harming people, and they’re looking for Democratic leadership to take them out of this nightmare,” Gillibrand argued in an interview last month with Fox News Digital.

And Democratic National Committee Rapid Response Director Kendall Witmer told Fox News Digital: “If Democrats take Congress, the Republicans won’t be able to give massive tax breaks to billionaires, shutter nursing homes and rural hospitals, bomb foreign countries instead of feeding kids, or turn a blind eye to Trump’s open and egregious corruption.”

Cruz heads back home to Texas this weekend, where he’ll address the crowd Saturday in Dallas at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, better known by its acronym CPAC.

But it’s a stop on May 1 in Iowa — the state whose caucuses for half a century have kicked off the race for the Republican presidential nomination — that’s sparking speculation that Cruz is gearing up for a second White House run.

Cruz was runner-up to Trump in the combustible 2016 GOP presidential primaries, and he took a look at making another run in the 2024 cycle before deciding to seek re-election to the Senate.

“There will be plenty of time to make those decisions. I don’t have an announcement for you today,” Cruz answered when asked by Fox News Digital if seriously considering another White House campaign.

But he appears to be laying the groundwork for a possible bid, as he positions himself as a conservative alternative to Vice President JD Vance, who is currently the odds on favorite to be Trump’s MAGA and America First heir.

Cruz has grabbed plenty of attention with his clashes with far-right figures, such as Tucker Carlson, and he’s enhanced already strong standing among conservative leaders and donors. And he’s bolstered his grassroots outreach with his popular and widely downloaded podcast, ‘Verdict with Ted Cruz.’

In his Fox Digital interview, Cruz also shared what seemed to be the beginnings of a possible 2028 stump speech.

“I look back to the last year with President Trump in the White House and with a Republican Senate in the house, we have accomplished more in the last year than I’ve seen Congress and the president accomplish in the preceding 13 years that I was here. It is an incredible record of success that we’ve been able to produce. And so my focus is, number one, keep delivering results, keep delivering big wins for the American people,” Cruz said.

Cruz spotlighted that he was “the author of no tax on tips. I wrote that law.” The cuts were one of the tax provisions in the GOP’s massive domestic policy bill that was passed nearly entirely along party lines last summer.

The senator also pointed to the so-called “school choice” provisions in the measure, as well as the Trump Accounts, tax-advantaged, IRA-style investment accounts for children under 18 that were also included in the law.

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“Both of those provisions I wrote, both of them are in the bill,” he noted.

And Cruz predicted that in “10, 20, 30 years from now, those two provisions, school choice and the Trump accounts, will be, by an order of magnitude, the most consequential provisions in the entire bill. So we’ve got a record of wins, of victories for the American people to run on.”

While Republican senators, like Texas’ Ted Cruz and Florida’s Rick Scott, were quick to condemn the policies that kept the illegal immigrant killer of 18-year-old Sheridan Gorman from being deported, Democratic senators dodged questions on whether Gorman’s killer should have previously been deported prior to this month’s murder.

Gorman, who was a student at Loyola University of Chicago at the time of her death, was allegedly killed by an illegal immigrant from Venezuela, Jose Medina, 25. Medina was apprehended by U.S. Border Patrol on May 9, 2023, but was subsequently released into the U.S. under the Biden administration, according to Trump’s Department of Homeland Security. 

A short time later, Medina was arrested for shoplifting in Chicago, but was again released on June 19, 2023, DHS said. A judge put a warrant out on Medina after he failed to appear in court for his shoplifting charge, which was still active at the time of Gorman’s killing, according to the Chicago Sun Times. 

“Shoplifting in and of itself is not a violent crime. It’s not an indicator of a person that’s leaning toward violent crime,” said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., when asked about Medina’s case and whether he should’ve been deported prior to Gorman’s murder. 

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT ACCUSED OF KILLING CHICAGO COLLEGE STUDENT TO FACE COURT AFTER TUBERCULOSIS DELAY

“You’re asking me to speculate on a bunch of things and I can’t answer that,” said Sen. Catherine Cortez-Masto, D-Nev., when asked if Gorman’s killer, and other illegal immigrant murderers who had significant criminal records at the time of their arrests, should have been deported before people got hurt. “I don’t know the cases. I trust our justice system to do the right thing and hold people accountable.”

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., responded that the Trump administration’s broad deportation crackdowns have prevented federal law enforcement from targeting genuinely dangerous people, an argument pushed by other top Democrats in Congress. “I think that if Trump cleared out Chicago and if ICE did their job, he wouldn’t be here, right?” Duckworth said as she got onto an elevator on Capitol Hill. “But they deported people who are not… [unintelligible].”

Meanwhile, Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., offered a more judicious response, but also suggested the style by which the Trump administration is deporting people is problematic. 

“Do I think violent criminals should be deported? Yes,” Slotkin said, adding it is an “easy” call to deport someone who has been “accused and properly prosecuted.” But, Slotkin added, “Innocent civilians who are protesting their government and using their freedom of speech should not be fingered and booted out.” 

Democrats who spoke with Fox News Digital did quickly agree that violent criminals who entered and are residing in the country unlawfully should be deported.

SHERIDAN GORMAN’S UNIVERSITY NEWSPAPER TOUTS ICE TRACKER AFTER FRESHMAN ALLEGEDLY MURDERED BY ILLEGAL ALIEN

“Anybody who violates, or creates crime in this country – particularly kills somebody – should not only be held accountable in the United States, but, yes, there should be immigration enforcement against that individual,” Cortez-Masto said. 

“Every community deserves to feel safe, and I think people who commit violent crimes should not be allowed to either be in our country, or to be among our communities,” added Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md. 

Durbin, meanwhile, qualified his comments about Medina’s shoplifting charge by admitting “We ought to do a careful examination of people coming into this country and those who want to stay in this country,” adding that, “If they are dangerous to the community, they need to be denied entry or taken out of the country later.”

But Republican Senators Cruz and Scott were quick to bash Democrats for allegedly caring more about illegal immigrants than American citizens.

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“It’s tragic and it was avoidable,” Cruz said when approached about Gorman’s death and Medina not being deported. “The Democrats are so radical they prioritize illegal immigrants over American citizens.”

“It’s disgusting that these people say, ‘Oh, they act like they care about Americans.’ But then you look at their actions – they care about people who are here violently hurting Americans,” Scott complained.

Congressional Democrats consider the Senate-passed plan to end the Homeland Security shutdown a victory, but they’re walking away empty-handed with none of their sought-after reforms to immigration enforcement.

Pushing for sweeping changes to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the wake of a pair of fatal shootings in Minnesota is why Democrats blocked more than a half-dozen attempts to prevent or end the second-longest shutdown in U.S. history.

But the window of opportunity to secure any reforms slammed shut just after 2 a.m. Friday.

DHS SHUTDOWN BREAKTHROUGH COMES AT COST FOR REPUBLICANS AS FUNDING FIGHTS NEARS END

“I mean, I think that ship has sailed, and they kind of kissed that opportunity goodbye by failing to provide funding for those agencies,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said.

At the onset of the shutdown in early February, Schumer and Democrats presented 10 categories of reforms they wanted to be implemented for ICE and immigration enforcement in order to earn their votes to fund DHS.

The proposals were in response to the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good and were designed to drastically rein in the power of ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents.

HOUSE CONSERVATIVES RAGE AGAINST SENATE DHS SHUTDOWN DEAL

Among them were requiring judicial warrants for agents, forcing agents to unmask, requiring agents to display identification, ending roving patrols, preventing agents from operating in certain areas like schools and hospitals, requiring body-worn cameras, increasing oversight of detention centers tied to funding, and several more.

The warrant requirements and unmasking were hard red lines for Republicans and the White House, but throughout negotiations, the GOP made concessions on several others, including limiting immigration enforcement at sensitive locations, allowing congressional oversight of DHS detention facilities, and enforcing the use of visible identification for DHS agents.

Democrats walked away with none of those offers that were on the table, aside from $20 million to purchase body-worn cameras, which was already in the original Homeland Security funding bill.

SCHUMER, DEMS BLOCK DHS FUNDING AGAIN, TRUMP INTERVENES TO PAY TSA AGENTS

“The Dems wanted reforms. We tried to work with them on reforms. They ended up getting no reforms,” Thune said.

Still, Schumer and congressional Democrats scored a political victory of sorts, with the legislation carving out funding for ICE and the border protection arm of CBP.

Republicans, however, front-loaded immigration enforcement funding last year with $75 billion over the next several years and plan a similar move using the same budget reconciliation process to extend funding for up to a decade.

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And with a rebellion against the legislation fomenting among House Republicans — who are widely unhappy with immigration enforcement not being funded right away — all parties could be taken back to square one.

“This is exactly what we wanted,” Schumer said after the Senate advanced the bill. “This is what we asked for, and I’m very proud of my caucus. My caucus held the line.”

President Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive order directing federal officials to ensure Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees receive pay during the ongoing Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown.

Calling the situation an “emergency,” Trump warned that mounting disruptions at airports have pushed the system to a breaking point.

“As the Democrat-caused shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security continues well into its sixth week, America’s air travel system has reached its breaking point,” Trump wrote. “This is an unprecedented emergency situation.”

TRUMP DECLARES NATIONAL EMERGENCY AT AIRPORTS, TO SIGN ORDER INSTRUCTING DHS TO “IMMEDIATELY PAY” TSA OFFICERS

More than 60,000 TSA employees have gone without pay, fueling absenteeism and forcing some officers to quit. Nearly 500 TSA workers have already left their jobs, while thousands more have called out sick, according to the order.

“As a result, security wait times at some airports have reached untenable lengths of three or more hours,” Trump said. 

He warned the combination of longer lines and declining morale is “unacceptably” heightening security risks and disrupting travel nationwide.

Trump said he is instructing DHS, in coordination with the Office of Management and Budget, to tap available funds connected to TSA operations to cover employee pay and benefits.

TSA OFFICERS LOSE HOMES, CAN’T PAY MEDICAL BILLS, CAN’T AFFORD EASTER BASKETS FOR THEIR CHILDREN

“Accordingly, I hereby direct the Secretary of Homeland Security, in coordination with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, to use funds that have a reasonable and logical nexus to TSA operations to provide TSA employees with the compensation and benefits that would have accrued to them if not for the Democrat-led DHS shutdown, consistent with applicable law, including 31 U.S.C. 1301(a),” Trump said.

In a post on X, DHS said TSA has begun steps to resume paying its workforce, with officers expected to see paychecks as early as Monday.

“President Trump has made the decision that echoes what TSA’s frontline employees and the millions of Americans enduring terrible wait times at our airports are saying: the Democrat DHS shutdown has become an emergency,” DHS wrote.

Trump previewed the action Thursday, vowing to address airport disruptions. 

HOUSE DEMOCRATS VOTE TO KEEP DHS SHUTTERED AS FUNDING LAPSE HITS DAY 40

A senior administration official told Fox News that funding from Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” will be used to ensure TSA officers are paid during the disruption.

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“Not unlike actions taken during the first Democrat-shutdown (i.e., paying the troops), President Trump has determined that congressional Democrats have created an emergency situation that cannot be allowed to continue,” White House Office of Management and Budget Communications Director Rachel Cauley said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

Fox News Digital’s Jasmine Baehr and Michael Sinkewicz contributed to this report.

Top White House aide Stephen Miller joined Vice President JD Vance to launch the White House anti-fraud task force Friday, pledging to “demolish” the kind of corruption that unfairly burdens taxpayers and gives a free ride to bad actors.

Earlier this month, President Donald Trump launched the task force via executive order, saying the administration will “use all available resources and authorities to fight fraud, close loopholes, enforce eligibility rules, and protect benefits for eligible Americans, while ensuring States administering Federal benefits programs do the same.”

Vance serves as its chairman and kicked off the White House event Friday, while FTC Commissioner Andrew Ferguson serves as vice chair.

Miller said the panel could not come at a better time, with Medicaid and other fraud rings making national headlines in Minnesota and beyond.

MINNESOTA HUMAN SERVICES OFFICIALS SKIP FRAUD HEARING AS WALZ PROMISES REFORM

“I think what’s important for Americans to understand about how pervasive and widespread the fraud is, [and] that all of our systems were set up and established for a high-trust society. I think that most citizens probably assume that there’s some verification process that takes place for the receipt of most federal benefits. The reality is, is that there is not,” Miller said.

The outspoken aide added that the high-trust framework in place for decades is woefully inadequate for Democrat-run states, where verification processes are “willfully” lacking and often run on the honor system.

“Imagine in a community, a working-class community in the Twin Cities, say a native Minnesotan who works as a lineman or works as a construction worker; works in any job that requires hard work, dedication, focus; who’s worried about his ability to support for or provide his family,” Miller said.

“And then imagine that he has a neighbor who’s a Somali refugee who arrived two years ago and has a Mercedes, and no financial stress and no worries at all in the entire world that never seems to ever go to work at all because he just went to an office in the state, lied on a piece of paper and got unlimited free money forever for life.”

“That situation repeats itself innumerable times across the country,” he said, “and is exactly what the task force aims to take on.”

DEPUTY AG TODD BLANCHE SHEDS LIGHT ON NEW DOJ FRAUD DIVISION TO ADDRESS ‘INSANE’ PROBLEM

“That is the corruption that this task force under the leadership of the vice president is going to demolish.”

Vance agreed with Miller in earlier comments, saying that Somali-born fraudsters have operated at “an industrial scale” to steal Americans’ tax dollars.

“We think fraud has been a problem for a long time,” he said. “We’re going to do a number of things. First of all, we’re going to turn back on those anti-fraud protections so that all of these cabinet officials are looking at what’s going on and focusing on it.”

He said the key to the task force will be communications between cabinet offices, so that, in his example, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins can communicate on shared concerns with a colleague like HUD Secretary Scott Turner.

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“This is not just theft of the American people’s money. This is also theft of critical services that the American people rely on,” Vance said.

“Some of you have heard me tell the story before, but I think that the autism scam that we’ve seen in the Somalian parts of Minnesota really illustrates well what’s been going on across whole layers of our government.”

House Republicans passed a short-term funding patch for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) over the fierce objections of Democratic lawmakers late Friday evening.

But the 42-day shutdown that has snarled air travel and left tens of thousands of federal employees without pay is far from over.

House lawmakers voted 213-203 largely along party lines to approve a two-month funding extension for the beleaguered department, which has been operating without full-year appropriations since the funding lapse began on Feb. 14. 

Reps. Don Davis, D-N.C., Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., and Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, crossed party lines to support the measure. More than a dozen lawmakers did not vote.

DEMOCRATS RIP TRUMP’S ICE AIRPORT MOVE AS SHUTDOWN NEARS 40 DAYS: ‘NO REASON’

The House-passed DHS measure faces an uphill battle in the Senate, where Democrats have filibustered GOP-authored legislation that includes immigration funding for the past six weeks. 

Both chambers are scheduled to leave Washington for an Easter recess without ending the funding standoff, paving the way for the partial government shutdown to become the longest in history. 

“In those eight weeks, we will figure this out with Democrats and figure out a couple of reforms or whatever they need to make sure that we do this right, but we are going to protect the homeland. We have to,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said on the Ingraham Angle on Friday evening. “It’s the most important and most basic function of Congress, and Democrats don’t want to do that.”

Democratic lawmakers, who have repeatedly voted against DHS spending bills funding President Donald Trump’s illegal immigration crackdown absent reforms, echoed the same position Friday. 

“House Republicans have decided that they would rather inconvenience you, create chaos for you and for your families so that they can continue to jam their extreme right-wing ideology down the throats of the American people so they can continue to spend billions of dollars for ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] to brutalize and kill American citizens,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said during a news conference Friday. 

The vote came after House GOP leadership and the conservative House Freedom Caucus unequivocally rejected a Senate-passed deal earlier on Friday. The agreement, which passed the Senate unanimously, would have funded the vast majority of DHS sub-agencies minus ICE and parts of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The National Border Patrol Council endorsed the House bill late Friday, arguing the Senate’s failure to fund all of DHS is “completely unacceptable and should not stand.”

JAYAPAL DOUBLES DOWN ON ANTI-ICE TERROR CLAIMS AS DHS SHUTDOWN TRIGGERS HISTORIC TRAVEL CHAOS

Senate Republicans have teased a second “big, beautiful” bill to give additional funding to ICE and the Border Patrol, though that could be a difficult feat in an election year with slim majorities in both chambers.

“It wasn’t good. It wasn’t appropriate,” Trump told Fox News in an interview Friday, referring to the Senate agreement. “You can’t have a bill that’s not going to fund ICE.”

House GOP leadership has also voiced concern about funding ICE and the Border Patrol through a second budget reconciliation package.

“That’s a very difficult task. It is a high-risk gamble for us to assume that we could do that,” Johnson told the Ingraham Angle. “And in the meantime, people are still going unpaid in this. We’ve got to make sure that we take care of those who take care of ourselves.”

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The most pressing pain point of the shutdown — a shortage of Transportation Security Administration employees at airports nationwide — is set to be alleviated. The staffing constraints had created hours-long wait times at TSA security checkpoints, leading to travel disruptions and missed flights.

Trump, through an executive order, directed DHS to pay the more than 50,000 TSA personnel who had been reporting to work without compensation since the start of the shutdown to cover their salaries. The agents are expected to receive their first full paychecks in more than six weeks on Monday.