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President Donald Trump on Monday questioned California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s fitness for higher office, citing his learning disability. 

Trump was speaking with reporters in the Oval Office when he talked about requiring identification to vote in elections and the resistance from Newsom and other Democratic elected officials. 

“That’s how crazy it’s gotten with a low IQ person, you know, because Gavin Newsom has admitted…that he has learning disabilities,” Trump said. “Honestly, I’m all for people with learning disabilities. But not for my president…I think a president should not have learning disabilities.”

GAVIN NEWSOM SPOX TELLS REPORTER ‘F— OFF’ WHEN ASKED FOR RECORDS OF HIS DYSLEXIA DIAGNOSIS

“I know it’s highly controversial to say such a horrible thing,” he added. “Gavin Newsom admitted that he has learning disabilities, dyslexia. Everything about him is dumb.”

Newsom, who is widely believed to have White House ambitions, has spoken about his dyslexia, a neurologically-based learning disability that makes it difficult to read, according to the International Dyslexia Association. 

“You’ve never seen me read a speech, because I cannot read a speech,” Newsom said in Atlanta last month while promoting his memoir: “Young Man in a Hurry.” “I haven’t overcome dyslexia. I’m living with it.”

Trump also criticized Newsom for his remarks at that same Atlanta event.

“I’m not, you know, I’m not trying to impress you, I’m just trying to impress upon you, I’m like you. I’m no better than you,” Newsom told Mayor Andre Dickens at a book tour event.

NEWSOM RIPPED FOR ‘RACIST’ VIRAL CLIP TELLING BLACK MAYOR ‘I’M LIKE YOU’ BEFORE TOUTING POOR SAT SCORE

“You know, I’m a 960 SAT guy. And, you know, and I’m not trying to offend anyone, you know, ‘trying to act all there if you got 940,’” he continued. “Literally a 960 SAT guy, you’ve never seen me read a speech. Because I cannot read a speech. Maybe the wrong business to be in.”

Republicans criticized the governor for allegedly talking down to a mostly Black audience. 

“So now, on top of everything else, I call him a racist because it happened to be a black audience,” Trump said Monday. “I will tell you this, I think it was the worst interview I’ve ever seen of any human being in my life.”

At the time, Newsom’s office defended his comments in a previous statement to Fox News Digital.

“First MAGA mocked his dyslexia and now they’re calling him racist for talking about his low SAT scores. This is MAGA-manufactured outrage,” Newsom spokesperson Izzy Gardon said. 

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“The Governor has said this publicly for years — including with Charlie Kirk and dozens of other audiences. The same people who excused or ignored Trump’s racist ape video can go f— themselves.”

Fox News Digital has reached out to Newsom’s office. 

President Donald Trump’s former defense lawyer received swift backing from conservative legal figures online after facing pushback at a recent American Bar Association (ABA) conference for praising the Trump Department of Justice.

Attorney John Lauro, who defended Trump in special counsel Jack Smith’s 2020 election case, said the DOJ was “in a better place” under Trump, causing fellow panelists and audience members to shudder, according to a Bloomberg Law report of the event. 

Lauro told Fox News Digital in a brief phone call on Monday that the event “was a highly triggered environment.”

“I called out the ABA and other elite legal organizations for not condemning the prior administration in holding political sham trials and show trials, particularly the one directed at President Trump, where the Biden administration wanted to put him on trial in 90 days, which is shorter than it takes for a traffic ticket to get worked through in D.C.,” Lauro said.

LABOR DEPARTMENT ORDERS LAWYERS TO CUT TIES WITH ABA, SLAMS GROUP AS ‘RADICAL’ ACTIVIST FORCE

The tense panel put a spotlight on the Trump administration’s ongoing fight with the ABA as it spurred DOJ officials and lawyers to voice their disdain for the organization.

“The ABA is trash and I’m proud to never have been a member,” Civil Rights Division head Harmeet Dhillon said. “Its stunt trashing Judge [Robert] Bork did it for me.”

“As if we needed anymore proof of the absolute disgrace that is the ABA,” wrote Associate Deputy Attorney General Diego Pestana. “John Lauro, one of the best trial attorneys in the country and patriot, treated terribly for simply daring to voice a view contrary to the liberal white collar bar.”

Lauro said during the panel, held at a conference in San Diego, that he had “the unique experience of representing a political figure who was probably more abused by the criminal justice system in America than any other political figure ever.”

“Everything that has gone on in the current administration must be looked at from the eyes of a man who was victimized by the criminal justice system,” Lauro said.

Among those rallying behind Lauro was also Iowa Solicitor General Eric Wessan, who said the ABA “represents a hyperpartisan faction.”

“That’s fine! But they should play no role in law school accreditation (or judicial selection),” Wessan said.

Former DOJ official Jeff Clark, an un-indicted co-conspirator in the 2020 election case, called Lauro “a bold man of principle.”

WHO ARE THE 6 CO-CONSPIRATORS NAMED IN TRUMP’S JAN. 6 INDICTMENT? HERE’S WHAT WE KNOW

Another social media user, an anonymous Georgia-based legal commentator, said that while he disagreed with Lauro’s comments, he was “jealous” that Lauro “had the opportunity to tell a room of the type of haughty, effete defense lawyers who hang around at ABA conferences to go f— themselves. He should have taken it.”

Lauro’s remarks had elicited pushback from participants. Nancy Gertner, a Harvard University law professor and retired federal judge, responded that any issues surrounding Trump’s prosecutions did not “justify the fracture of American democracy.”

Former federal prosecutor Mitchell Epner said: “I wanted to thank Mr. Lauro for admitting the emperor has no clothes. The rule of law is dead because the people in this room and the Department of Justice pissed off President Trump.”

“I can’t believe that you think that that’s normal or good that one person can dictate who the Department of Justice investigates and indicts,” lawyer and panel moderator Sandy Weinberg said.

Republicans have long argued the ABA promotes Democrat-aligned viewpoints and that its institutional presence in the legal world is a disadvantage to conservatives. The ABA’s website showcases work that includes support for “LGBTQ+” initiatives, abortion access, stricter gun control measures, and diversity, equity and inclusion.

The ABA has also taken a stance against Trump, condemning what its president described as the administration’s “wide-scale affronts to the rule of law.”

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT TELLS AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION IT WILL NO LONGER COMPLY WITH RATINGS FOR JUDICIAL NOMINEES

The ABA has for decades wielded enormous power, weighing in on nominations of federal judges, engaging in litigation and helping firms across the legal industry with recruitment. One arm of the ABA also handles law school accreditation.

Under Trump, several departments and agencies, including the DOJ and Department of Labor, have told political appointees they cannot affiliate with the ABA in their official capacity.

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The DOJ, meanwhile, moved to terminate more than $3 million in federal grants to ABA programs, though a judge ruled the move was unconstitutional. Attorney General Pam Bondi told the ABA last year that the DOJ would not give advanced notice to the organization about judicial nominees, a reversal of a decades-long practice of allowing the organization to rate the nominees before they advance in the Senate.

Fox News Digital reached out to the ABA for comment.

Plans to shutter the Trump Kennedy Center were made official through a board of trustees vote on Monday afternoon, setting up a two-year renovation process that some Democratic lawmakers believe should have required more congressional input.

The board unanimously approved the changes, according to a source familiar with the vote.

The source also said the board had set July 6 as the official closure date, installed Matt Floca, the center’s vice president of facilities operations, as the new president of the Trump Kennedy Center and ended its exclusive affiliation with the Washington Opera.

The overhaul will include fixes to the building’s heating, ventilating, air-conditioning systems and elevators, among other structural renovations, according to plans for the project submitted to Congress.

BOARD VOTES KENNEDY CENTER TO BE RENAMED ‘TRUMP-KENNEDY CENTER,’ LEAVITT SAYS

Allocations for the project, set aside in Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill, are set to cost $257 million.

Last year, Trump installed a hand-picked set of board members, leading Democratic critics to condemn the center’s management and its renovation as direct control from the White House.

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., an ex officio member of the board, blasted Monday’s vote, arguing the renovations were made unilaterally.

“Unfortunately, recent actions by the president and certain board members have treated the center like a personal vanity project, including firing career management staff, removing trustees and sidelining ex officio members who are meant to provide congressional oversight,” Warner said on Monday.

GRAMMY WINNER ACCUSED OF CAVING TO ‘WOKE MOB’ AFTER KENNEDY CENTER CANCELLATION

Ex officio members provide lawmakers input on the management of the Kennedy Center.

Ric Grenell, the now-former Kennedy Center president, pushed back on characterizations from Democrats, stating that lawmakers have had multiple opportunities to speak into the process.

EXCLUSIVE: TRUMP-LED KENNEDY CENTER NEARLY DOUBLES FUNDRAISING FROM BIDEN ERA, SMASHING RECORD WITH $23M HAUL

“We gave all that information to Congress. It was in the Big Beautiful Bill. We didn’t just come up with the $257 million number. We actually gave them specifics as to what needed to be fixed,” Grenell said.

“My reaction is — last summer we gave you this information, you could have joined any number of the tours we were giving to members of Congress.”

Earlier this year, President Donald Trump framed the renovations as key restorations.

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“Subject to board approval, I have determined that the fastest way to bring The Trump Kennedy Center to the highest level of success, beauty, and grandeur, is to cease entertainment operations for an approximately two-year period of time,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post in February.

Trump promised the center would return with a “grand reopening” after the renovations are complete.

You’ll hear volumes from congressional Republicans about the importance of passing the SAVE America Act in the coming days. The bill requires proof of citizenship to vote.

“We need to make it easy to vote and hard to cheat in America,” said Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio.

“The SAVE America Act is an important bill,” said Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., on Fox News. “So we’ve got to figure out how to get it passed.”

TRUMP-BACKED VOTER ID BILL FACES GOP RESISTANCE AS TILLIS VOWS TO STOP IT

And that is the conundrum facing Senate Republicans — figuring out how to get it passed.

The SAVE America Act is the touchstone of President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda. In fact, the president warned he wouldn’t sign any other bill into law — except perhaps a DHS funding measure — until Congress aligns with his demands.

Republicans agree on the importance of the SAVE America Act, but Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. is promising everything but passage.

“I will be bringing the SAVE America Act to the floor, and we will be having a full and robust debate,” said Thune.

That’s because Republicans can’t break a Democratic filibuster.

“This is one of the worst things we’ve seen in America in a very long time,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

SCHUMER SWINGS AT HEGSETH OVER KING CRAB MEALS FOR THE TROOPS, BUT BIDEN-ERA RECEIPTS SHOW SIMILAR TAB

“The real reason this president wants this bill to pass is to reduce the number of people voting in the November election,” said Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill. 

It takes 60 votes to break a filibuster. Republicans only have 53 votes in the Senate. So some Republicans advocate parliamentary ballistics to obliterate the filibuster.

“I would nuke the filibuster to pass the SAVE America Act,” said Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan. 

Cold War rhetoric permeates this entire debate. In fact, conservatives implored Thune to launch a pre-emptive first strike to terminate the filibuster before Democrats again win control of the Senate — be it this fall or a decade from now.

“It’s really about the only way I can see preventing them from nuking the filibuster once they gain the majority in the Senate,” said Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis.

Other Republicans want to force Democrats to filibuster the old-fashioned way — until they’re exhausted. 

“They should have to go hold the floor like it used to be in the old days. They can go and talk as much as they want. But sooner or later they’re going to run out of time,” said Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo.

If everyone finally fades after days or weeks of debate, then the Senate doesn’t need a test vote to break a filibuster — needing 60 yeas. That means they can pass the bill with a simple majority: 51.

Lots of Republican senators are now invoking the 1930s Frank Capra classic “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.” That’s where Jimmy Stewart plays an idealistic senator who filibusters until he collapses in the Senate chamber.

“They should have to go out there, hours on end, like a Jimmy Stewart moment,” said Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo.

But most Republicans reject the Jimmy Stewart approach. They’re not so much worried about unlimited debate during a talking filibuster, but the unlimited amendment process.

“The talking filibuster, I think will be a goat rodeo. I mean, it could take two or three weeks. The Democrats will tee up all kinds of problematic votes,” predicted a skeptical Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C. “I haven’t had anybody describe to me the project plan. Here are the number of days. This is how we counter people. We’ve got all of our political flanks covered. And this is how we succeed at the end.”

But there won’t be an unlimited amendment process. While Thune will allow the debate to go on for a while (Fox is told perhaps a week or more, perhaps around the clock), he will maintain “ball control.” Thune won’t immediately tee up a test vote to end debate, needing 60 yeas. But Thune will immediately block all amendments from both sides.

Like everything on Capitol Hill, it’s about the math. And while there will be a lot of talking about the SAVE Act and the talking filibuster, there’s not enough support on the GOP side of the aisle to unspool the Senate’s filibuster rules and precedents. 

“Many of us don’t believe that we should undo the filibuster because it holds the rights of the majority. And one day we’ll be back in the minority,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va. “It’s a real splitter here.”

Capito added that there was a “will” to deal with the SAVE America Act. But the parliamentary machinations it would take to blow up the filibuster to pass the bill do not exist.

“There’s not enough numbers to get it done,” observed Capito.

Trump and other conservatives are starting to dial up pressure on Thune.

THUNE GUARANTEES VOTER ID BILL TO HIT THE SENATE DESPITE SCHUMER, DEM OPPOSITION: ‘WE WILL HAVE A VOTE’

“I think he’s a wonderful person. I do,” the president said of the South Dakota Republican on Fox News Radio. “But it’s not that he doesn’t want to do it. He doesn’t think he can do it. And that’s bad.”

Despite criticism directed at Thune, some Republicans are defending him.

“It’s not John Thune that’s killing it. It’s members of the Republican Party that are not convinced that a talking filibuster can be used to pass this,” said Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo. “It will be an infliction of tremendous delays on other matters before the U.S. Senate without the positive results of passage of the SAVE Act.”

It’s significant that the president has not called out Thune over his reluctance to end the filibuster to pass the SAVE America Act. However, Trump routinely demanded that former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., do just that during his first term. The president often lambasted McConnell’s stewardship of the Senate, despite the Kentucky Republican establishing a new precedent to inhibit filibusters of Supreme Court nominees. McConnell’s maneuver on the filibuster assured the confirmations of Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.

But so far, no sharp criticism of Thune.

Still, some Republicans believe Senate magic could salvage the SAVE America Act.

“I’ve seen John Thune pull rabbits out of his hat before,” said Lummis. “And I’m hoping there’s a rabbit in his hat on this one.” 

The Senate takes a test vote just to start debate on the bill Tuesday afternoon. That needs a simple majority. It’s possible that Vice President JD Vance may need to break a tie to launch debate on the bill.

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But the Senate doesn’t have the votes to blow up the precedents like McConnell did with the Supreme Court in order to pass the SAVE America Act, nor are there the votes to execute a full-blown “talking filibuster,” bypassing the need for 60 yeas. 

Consider the firestorm that could rain down on Senate Republicans from their base if the GOP fails to pass the SAVE America Act. Trump has held his tongue so far, but it’s possible there could be recriminations from him, too.

FIRST ON FOX: A House GOP lawmaker is unveiling new legislation aimed at easing airport chaos that’s hitting travelers across the country during the ongoing partial government shutdown.

Rep. Nick Langworthy, R-N.Y., introduced a bill on Monday to ensure Transportation Security Administration (TSA) workers are paid during shutdowns by creating a Transportation Security Trust Fund to help operations and personnel wherever needed.

It would be funded by the Aviation Passenger Security Fee, also called the 9/11 passenger security fee in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. It’s a small cost collected by airlines — $5.60 for a one-way trip and up to $11.20 for a round-trip — for flights that originate in the U.S. and is meant to go toward passenger security.

Langworthy’s proposal comes days after TSA agents missed their first full paychecks of the shutdown, which has now gone on roughly a month with no end in sight.

‘YOU CAN CRY ABOUT IT’: TEMPERS FLARE IN SENATE AS DHS SHUTDOWN DEBATE ERUPTS, STALEMATE DIGS DEEPER

While they are entitled to back pay when the shutdown is over, the lack of a consistent paycheck and uncertainty over its duration has forced scores of TSA agents to call out sick and look for other ways to earn income to pay bills and feed their families.

Travelers in places like Louisiana and Texas have been asked to arrive hours early for flights to accommodate longer wait times for security.

Delays have also been exacerbated by bad weather in parts of the country, including up and down the East Coast.

HOMELAND SECURITY REACTIVATES MAJOR GLOBAL ENTRY PROGRAM FOR TRAVELERS AMID SHUTDOWN

“This is now the third time in just six months that TSA agents have been forced to work without receiving a paycheck,” Langworthy told Fox News Digital. “Morale and recruitment are taking a profound hit, and we’ve already lost more than 300 agents, putting the agency’s mission at grave risk.”

He said his bill “will help ensure that our hardworking agents get paid, and that we retain the vigilant, professional workforce necessary to protect the traveling public.”

“Doing nothing is a national security crisis waiting to happen,” Langworthy warned.

Democrats walked away from bipartisan funding negotiations earlier this year after Congress passed federal budgets for all aspects of the federal government except for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Democratic leaders are protesting the Trump administration’s handling of illegal immigration and withholding support from any spending bill that funds Trump’s crackdown, turning down multiple compromise offers for guardrails from the White House.

DHS oversees a wide variety of federal agencies, including the TSA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the U.S. Secret Service, and others.

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House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., announced Monday that Democrats would try to force a vote on funding all of DHS except for immigration-related agencies — likely a nonstarter for Republicans.

The standoff has seen new significance as more and more TSA agents are forced to choose between working without pay and finding second jobs to make ends meet. Concerns have also been exacerbated by the U.S. and Israel’s operation in Iran, which has raised the national security threat level within the country.

FIRST ON FOX: An Afghan national let into the country during the Biden administration has been arrested by the Department of Homeland Security following a conviction for indecent exposure to a minor.

Basir Ahmad Safi, who is in his 30s, was, was arrested by DHS on March 11, according to the agency. Before his conviction for indecent exposure to a minor, Safi was charged with lewd or lascivious exhibition, soliciting a child via computer, unlawful use of a two-way communications device and child abuse.

He was admitted to the country in 2021 under former President Joe Biden’s “Operation Allies Welcome,” according to the agency. Two years later, in September 2023, Safi was arrested in Florida by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office on those charges.

In an emailed statement to Fox News Digital, DHS Deputy Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis slammed the Biden administration for having allowed “this unvetted Afghan pedophile” in the U.S.

ANGEL MOM WHOSE 13-YEAR-OLD SON WAS EXECUTED BY ILLEGAL GANG MEMBER URGES INCOMING DHS CHIEF TO ACT

“He should NEVER have been allowed into our country or given the opportunity to prey on innocent children,” wrote Bis.

DHS said that Safi was arrested as part of a joint investigation by Homeland Security Investigations Jacksonville and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. By the time of his arrest, Safi’s status had been revoked, and he was unlawfully residing in the U.S., DHS said. Safi is being held in ICE custody pending removal.

This comes after Rahmanullah Lakanwal, another Afghan national allowed into the country under Biden’s Operation Allies Welcome, shot two U.S. National Guard soldiers in Washington, D.C. One of the service members, Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, of the West Virginia National Guard, died from her injuries. The other, Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, was critically wounded but survived.

GOP LAWMAKERS WOULD STRIP CITIZENSHIP FROM TERRORISTS AFTER ATTACKS TIED TO NATURALIZED CITIZENS

According to DHS, the Biden-era Operation Allies Welcome relied on “unvetted referrals” to allow nearly 190,000 Afghan nationals into the country. The agency said those admitted into the U.S. included terrorists, sexual predators, pedophiles, domestic abusers and kidnappers

DHS said that “understanding this massive threat to American national security,” President Donald Trump halted Biden’s Afghan refugee resettlement program almost immediately after returning to the Oval Office. Months later, Trump suspended the entry of all Afghan nationals into the U.S.

ICE BUSTS HUMAN SMUGGLING RING THAT KIDNAPPED FAMILY, SEXUALLY ASSAULTED PREGNANT WOMAN

Bis said that “under President Trump’s leadership, DHS has been focused on identifying, arresting, and removing public safety threats like Basir Ahmad Safi from our country.”

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A spokesperson for former President Biden did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Fox News Digital’s Stephen Sorace contributed to this report.

Americans’ opinions regarding Israel have dramatically soured in recent years, fueled by a surge in negative views among Democrats and independents, according to a new national poll.

The results of the survey, by NBC News, come amid sharp political debates among Democrats over support for Israel two and a half years after the start of the war between Israelis and Hamas in Gaza.

Just 32% of Americans view Israel positively, with 39% seeing the Jewish state in a negative light, according to the poll, which was conducted Feb. 27-March 2. That’s a sea change from three years ago, when Americans held a positive view of Israel by a 47%-34% margin.

Much of that decline in positive views is due to Democrats and independents, according to the survey.

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Democrats were divided in 2023, with 34% viewing Israel positively and 35% negatively. Now, the poll indicates just 13% of Democrats hold a positive view of Israel, with 57% seeing it in a negative light.

And independents went from 40%-22% positive-negative to 21%-48%.

But according to the NBC News poll, Republican views of Israel have only declined slightly, from 63%-12% positive-negative in 2023 to 54%-18% now.

JOHN FETTERMAN SLAMS ANTI-ISRAEL ‘ROT’ IN DEMOCRATIC PARTY, REJECTS AOC CLAIMS OF GAZA ‘GENOCIDE’

The survey, which was conducted as the U.S. and Israel began their strikes on Iran, also indicates Americans are now split on whether they are more sympathetic to Israel or the Palestinians.

Americans, who by a 45%-13% margin were more sympathetic to Israel in 2013, are now divided, with 40% more sympathetic to Israel and 39% more sympathetic to the Palestinians.

There’s been a massive switch among Democrats, from more sympathetic to Israel 34%-18% margin in 2013 to more sympathetic to Palestinians by a 67%-17% margin now.

SHARP PARTISAN DIVIDE EMERGES OVER IRAN STRIKE, TRUMP’S STRATEGY: POLLS

Independents went from more sympathetic to Israel by a 37%-10% margin 13 years ago to more sympathetic to Palestinians by a 37%-27% margin now.

But Republicans, according to the poll, stayed much more sympathetic to Israel, from a 67%-8% margin in 2013 to a 69%-13% margin now.

The poll also spotlights a generational divide, with a greater deterioration of positive views and sympathies for Israel among younger Americans.

Roughly 1,200 people were killed during the October 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel, with 251 captured.

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Israel’s ensuing military campaign in Gaza over the past two and a half years has resulted in more than 72,000 people being killed, according to health officials in the Palestinian territory.

While most Republicans remain supportive of Israel, the war in Gaza has sparked sharp debates among Democrats which are currently playing out in the party’s 2026 primaries.

White House chief of staff Susie Wiles has been diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer and will begin treatment immediately, President Donald Trump said Monday.

Trump said Wiles has an “excellent” prognosis and plans to continue working at the White House while undergoing treatment.

“Her Strength and her Commitment to continue doing the job she loves, and does so well, while undergoing treatment, tells you everything you need to know about her. Susie, as one of my closest and most important advisors, is tough and deeply committed to serving the American People,” the president wrote on his Truth Social account.

“She will soon be better than ever! Melania and I are with her in every way, and we look forward to working with Susie on the many big and wonderful things that are happening for the benefit of our Country!”

This is a breaking news story; check back for updates.

Libertarian-minded Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky is leaving the door wide open to a possible 2028 White House run.

“We’ll decide after 2026,” Paul said in an interview that posted this weekend.

Paul ran for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination, but dropped out after a distant fifth-place finish in Iowa’s Republican caucuses. He won re-election later that year in the Senate, and was re-elected again in 2022.

The senator, who for years has been a leading voice inside the GOP for fiscal conservatism, civil liberties, and a non-interventionist foreign policy for America, has lamented the declining number of Republicans embracing such an agenda in a party dominated by President Donald Trump. And he’s pledged to try and bring such an agenda back.

EARLY MOVES IN 2028 WHITE HOUSE RACE ALREADY UNDERWAY 

“The most important thing to me isn’t necessarily me or what my role is, but that there is someone who’s advocating that international trade is good and makes us rich. That big is not bad,” Paul said in an interview on “Sunday Night with Chuck Todd.“

Paul argued that “the populists also want to break up big business. They want to break up Google because they’re liberal or Meta because it’s liberal. I’m not one of those people, but that is sort of the Trump-Vance populist wing.”

VANCE AMPLIFIES HIS 2026 MESSAGE WHILE LANDING KEY 2028 BACKING

Pointing to Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance, who is perceived as the GOP front-runner in the race to succeed the term-limited Trump, Paul emphasized that “there needs to be a free-market wing of the Republican Party. And I want to be part of trying to ensure that still exists.”

Paul, who is a vocal GOP critic of Trump’s unprecedented use of tariffs and who voted last year against the president’s massive domestic policy measure because it added to the national debt, has been leaving the door open to a potential 2028 run in interviews since last summer.

“I think in the Republican Party, though, there needs to be someone representing that international trade is good for America, that we get richer and more prosperous in the world we trade,” he told Kentucky’s Courier Journal newspaper last July. He added that it was “too early to tell” if he would run again for the White House.

SUCCEEDING TRUMP IN 2028: SIX REPUBLICANS TO KEEP YOUR EYES ON

In a September interview with Spectrum News, he said, “We’ll see over time what happens,” regarding another presidential bid.

And Paul, in a December interview on ABC’s “This Week,” said he didn’t see Vance as the hypothetical heir to Trump and the 2028 GOP front-runner.

While any decision from Paul regarding a 2028 White House run won’t come until after this year’s midterm elections, the senator did generate some buzz last year by making stops in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, three crucial early voting states in the Republican Party’s presidential nominating calendar.

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“He’s keeping options open and looking at the landscape,” a strategist in the senator’s political orbit who asked to remain anonymous to speak more freely, told Fox News Digital.

Rhode Island Democrats have introduced a bill that would bar police departments from hiring ICE agents brought on during President Donald Trump’s second term, escalating the state’s pushback against federal immigration enforcement.

Immigration enforcement agents, including those within ICE, have come under fire in recent months from Democratic lawmakers and governors opposed to the tactics involved in Trump’s mass deportation agenda, which the president has said are necessary due to the open-border effects of the Biden era.

In Rhode Island, companion bills in the House and Senate dubbed the ICE OUT Act would amend the Law Enforcement Officers’ Due Process Accountability and Transparency Act to add a section denoting the new restriction.

CALIFORNIA DEMOCRATS PROPOSE LEGISLATION PROHIBITING CAR RENTAL COMPANIES FROM SERVING ICE AGENTS

“A law enforcement agency… shall not employ any individual who was hired as a sworn officer of the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency on or after January 20, 2025,” the bill reads.

The policy would take effect in October 2026 and would not affect any officers already hired out of ICE’s ranks.

The bill’s top sponsor in the House, Democratic state Rep. Karen Alzate of Pawtucket, said during a recent hearing that the policy would help bolster public-police relationships in Rhode Island, according to the Providence Journal.

ANTI-ICE LAW SET TO TAKE EFFECT IN MAINE AS GOVERNOR FACES INCREASED CRITICISM FOR ALLOWING IT AMID SENATE RUN

An official with the Rhode Island Women’s Bar Association, which supports the bill, also told the paper that the alleged “relaxed hiring standards” of Trump-era DHS would not suffice in the Ocean State.

Meanwhile, Rhode Island police officials warned in recent state legislative testimony on a broader group of Democrat-led police reform bills, which include the ICE OUT Act, that officer recruitment will take a hit, according to the Fall River Reporter.

Another such bill from state Rep. Joshua Giraldo, D-Central Falls, would ban ICE from being within 200 feet of a polling place. During session, Giraldo said that when conjecture about stationing federal immigration enforcement near polls arises, “particularly in the current climate; immigrant communities hear a message that is aimed at intimidation.”

DHS officers on duty are already banned from the city proper in the state capital under a January executive order from Providence Mayor Brett Smiley that makes parking lots, schools, parks and government buildings restricted areas.

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“[Providence] has the responsibility to manage such property in a manner that ensures public trust, access and delivery of essential city services for all residents,” the mayor’s order read in part.

Fox News Digital reached out to Gov. Dan McKee for indication as to whether he will sign the ICE OUT Act if it reaches his desk, and to DHS for comment.

President Donald Trump said Sunday the United States is “locked and loaded” to destroy Iran’s Kharg Island oil export hub, but has chosen not to do so.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump referenced previous U.S. strikes on the island, which he described as the country’s “crown jewel,” leaving only the section that handles oil pipelines intact.

“We can do that on five minutes’ notice. We have it all locked and loaded and ready to go if we want to do it,” he said. “We chose not to do it. I chose not to do it again. We’ll see what happens.”

Trump suggested the threat is intended to pressure Iran into talks, saying Tehran wants to “negotiate badly” but is not yet ready to make the concessions the United States expects.

TRUMP’S MIDDLE EAST ENVOY REVEALS WHAT LED TO BREAKDOWN IN IRAN TALKS BEFORE OPERATION EPIC FURY

“I don’t think they’re ready to do what they have to do. But I think they will be at some point,” he told reporters.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in an interview with CBS News on Sunday that his country has not asked for a ceasefire or negotiations in the now three-week conflict.

“We are ready to defend ourselves as long as it takes,” Araghchi explained. “And this is what we have done so far, and we continue to do that until President Trump comes to the point that this is an illegal war with no victory.”

TRUMP SAYS IT’S AN ‘HONOR’ TO KEEP STRAIT OF HORMUZ OPEN FOR CHINA AND OTHER COUNTRIES

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) struck Kharg Island on Friday in a large-scale precision attack as part of Operation Epic Fury.

The strikes hit more than 90 military targets, including naval mine storage facilities and missile bunkers, while leaving the island’s oil infrastructure intact, according to CENTCOM.

Axios reported that Trump has discussed the possibility of seizing Kharg outright, which one U.S. official reportedly said would amount to “an economic knockout of the regime” by effectively cutting off a key source of Iran’s oil revenue.

IRAN WAR JEOPARDIZES TRUMP ECONOMIC BOOM BEFORE KEY MIDTERM ELECTIONS

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Seizing the island could require deploying U.S. troops and risk Iranian retaliatory strikes on oil infrastructure across the Gulf, especially in Saudi Arabia.

“There are big risks. There are big rewards. The president isn’t there yet and we’re not saying he will be,” the official told Axios.

Bobby Pulido, a Latin Grammy winner and music star, once said he would pursue Mexican citizenship and described himself as a “winter Texan” for spending much of the year south of the U.S. border, drawing scrutiny for his time spent internationally as he pursues a seat in Congress.

“It gets hot here, bro. Like real hot — like real hot. I’m a summer Mexican,” Pulido told interviewers in 2023.

“It sounds better: winter Texan. It sounds better to say, ‘I’m a winter Texan.’”

His comments, which Pulido says he made in jest, run counter to statements he made to NBC News earlier this month.

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“I live in Texas. We’ve always lived in Texas. Since COVID, really — that’s just not true,” Pulido said, responding to accusations that he only sometimes lived in the district he is running to represent.

Pulido is best known for his Tejano and Mexican–Spanish folk-style songs, such as “Desvelado” and “Se Murió de Amor,” and has received five nominations for a Latin Grammy Award.

He won Best Tejano Album in 2022 and 2025.

Pulido’s career still takes him south of the border on a regular basis, leading him to tell local newspapers in Mexico that he was considering dual citizenship in 2015.

“I’m going to be Mexican because I want the same Mexican passport you have,” Pulido told El Norte, a Mexican outlet.

His last five concerts have been in Mexico, according to his tour website.

Pulido made headlines last fall when he announced a congressional bid in one of the country’s most competitive districts. Shortly afterward, he also drew scrutiny for a resurfaced history of posting links to explicit websites on his personal X account — as well as for a social media post of what appeared to be him urinating on President Donald Trump’s Hollywood Walk of Fame star.

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He has also received backlash over his past vulgar attacks against Trump, including posting the Spanish translation of “f— your mother.”

“I’d like to give you the biggest ‘f— you” you piece of s—, a–hole, d— head, son of a bit–,” Pulido said to Trump in another post. 

Despite those controversies, Pulido recently captured the Democratic nomination to run in Texas’ 15th Congressional District — a seat currently held by Rep. Monica De La Cruz, R-Texas.

De La Cruz, a two-term incumbent, needled Pulido over his time spent in Mexico through a post to X. She quipped that Pulido “only belongs at quinceañeras,” referring to the lavish, coming-of-age parties traditionally thrown for girls turning 15 in Latin cultures.

“Don’t threaten me with a good time,” Pulido shot back.

His campaign said Pulido asked local quinceañeras if he could attend them, drawing nearly 1,000 invites to parties in the district.

Pulido’s ties to Mexico extend beyond his music career.

A person familiar with Pulido’s background said his wife still lives in Mexico along with children from previous marriages. He also owns a house there and told interviewers in 2025 that he goes to Mexico for healthcare.

“We live on the border. My wife and I have a house in Mexico. So, we travel there, and we spend time over there. And I’ve had a pretty unique perspective of experiencing healthcare over there and healthcare here,” Pulido said.

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His campaign confirmed that Pulido does not have dual citizenship.

“Bobby has one citizenship — American, and he’s proud of it. And, frankly, there’s nothing wrong with people having ties to family and heritage across borders,” Pulido’s spokesperson told Fox News Digital.

Rep. Jill Tokuda, D-Hawaii, said she had no hesitations about remaining in her seat at the 2026 State of the Union when President Donald Trump challenged lawmakers to stand if they agreed the U.S. government should prioritize its citizens’ safety over that of illegal aliens.

Like every single one of her Democratic colleagues, Tokuda, a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, stayed put as Republicans stood for over a minute and a half, applauding in a show of support for the president’s statement.

A voter approached Tokuda about the moment two weeks later, pressing her on why she didn’t stand.

“The statement was: ‘The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.’ I noticed you did not stand,” a voter who identified herself as Arline said.

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“I’d like to know your reasoning why you did not stand.”

After a brief smattering of applause from the audience, Tokuda thanked Arline for the question, noting that lawmakers don’t always get easy questions at town hall events.

“But that decision was easy for me,” Tokuda said.

She said her reaction was based on her interpretation of Trump’s challenge, stating that she believed the president had no intention of fielding the support for the statement.

“If it had been a genuine question, a true question — not a ploy to be able to put on some commercial later on to say ‘look at all those Democrats who don’t believe in protecting Americans’ — I absolutely would have stood,” Tokuda said.

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Tokuda did not reference the moment in her immediate reactions to the State of the Union.

Instead, on her website, she focused on Trump’s tariffs.

“If you consider tariffs and the hundreds of billions of dollars that tariffs have taxed on everyday Americans … the hundreds of billions of dollars he’s collecting in tariffs have been a tax on everyday people,” Tokuda said, highlighting comments made to a local outlet.

In the past, Tokuda has criticized Trump’s immigration crackdown efforts for hitting close to home.

“We’re all one degree of separation from knowing somebody who is right now living in fear, worried that they could be picked up off the streets or they could be deported, even if they have no grounds to,” Tokuda told the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) last year.

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“There [are] too many looking over their shoulder and fearing for their lives right now.”

Tokuda’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The United States is left vulnerable even by its own naturalized U.S. citizens from hostile foreign lands, proving a free country can be exposed to security risks by the very freedoms the Constitution endows, an expert warned on Fox News.

“That’s partially because of legal reasons: They can’t just monitor constitutionally protected free speech and opinions after they become a naturalized citizen, indefinitely, just to keep tabs on them,” Mauro Institute president Ryan Mauro told Fox News on Saturday.

“They legally can’t do it, and they also don’t have the resources to do it.”

Just this month alone, the U.S. has experienced four attacks with ties to naturalized citizenship.

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• March 1 – Austin, Texas, bar shooting
• March 7 – New York City attempted bombing (parents of suspects were naturalized citizens)
• March 12 – Old Dominion University shooting
• March 12 – West Bloomfield, Michigan, synagogue attack

“There’s a bit of a jihad olympics going on, which is where you have the Sunni radicals like ISIS competing with the Shiite radicals of the Iranian regime because they need attention in order to survive and in order settle the argument of who has Allah’s blessing so that they can trigger the apocalypse,” Mauro said.

“That’s what they both want to do,” Mauro said.

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The process of citizenship revocation has been a hotly debated topic during the second Trump administration, and the spate of four terror attacks amid the latest Israel-U.S. war on Iran may increase scrutiny on the vetting process.

“A person is subject to revocation of naturalization if the person becomes a member of, or affiliated with, the Communist party, other totalitarian party, or terrorist organization within five years of his or her naturalization,” the U.S. Grounds for Revocation of Naturalization reads.

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Mauro’s institute is not constrained by federal law in vetting potential terrorist ideology of naturalized citizens like the Justice Department is, he noted.

“That’s why I personally have set up a civilian intelligence team that does do that type of thing,” Mauro said. “And why we’ve been so successful is because whereas the government has to be very careful not to launch investigations based off of just a mere suspicion or an unpopular opinion, civilians are free to comb through social media and just find people and report them.”

U.S. freedoms even protect suspected terrorists, he added.

“If they do come across someone who is expressing support for a terrorist organization, it still gets tricky,” he lamented. “You would think, oh, at that point you can revoke it and just get rid of the people because that would make sense, but the question is membership and affiliation.

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“I mean, there’ll be a lot of headaches just over those words. At what point does it go from, oh, I agree with them, versus actually being affiliated with them as like a unit?”

Fox News Digital reached out to the State Department, the FBI and multiple agencies within the Department of Homeland Security for comment on this story. The State Department redirected us to the latter two federal departments.

California State Librarian Greg Lucas is facing scrutiny from lawmakers after roughly $650,000 tied to a statewide literacy program connected to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library could not be accounted for.

The issue surfaced during a Thursday Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Subcommittee No. 1 on Education hearing, which examined how funds were distributed for California’s participation in the book-gifting program.

Documents shared by the subcommittee as part of its hearing agenda claim that a nonprofit created to help administer the program reported spending roughly $1.2 million, while bank statements provided to Senate budget staff showed $555,000 in expenditures, leaving about $649,000 without supporting documentation.

“I find this to be incredibly concerning,” said state Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez, D-Pasadena, chair of the subcommittee. “There’s $650,000 that’s been unaccounted for in a program, a bipartisan effort that was intended to increase literacy amongst children. This is incredibly serious.”

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State Sen. Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield, also criticized the lack of documentation, saying the situation raised serious concerns about transparency and oversight.

“That makes no sense,” Grove said during the hearing. “And that reeks of horrific no transparency and potential fraud.”

The California state library did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Lawmakers said Senate budget staff had requested financial records from the Strong Reader Partnership, the nonprofit created to help administer the program, multiple times, including receipts, invoices and bank statements to corroborate expenses.

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According to the subcommittee, those requests were made on several occasions between November 2025 and February 2026 but the documentation had not been provided.

During the hearing, Lucas acknowledged that lawmakers had received bank statements accounting for roughly $555,000 in spending but disputed the claim that the funds were unaccounted for.

“I don’t believe that’s correct,” he said. “I mean, we received a final report on the disposition of the money by the Strong Reader Partnership, which has expressed, and we’ve passed this on to you as well, the difficulty in obtaining some of this information because they no longer have any money or members of the partnership since the money was transferred to the Imagination Library.”

He added that his agency has repeatedly asked the nonprofit for additional records and pledged to continue requesting the information.

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A spokesperson for the state library told ABC10 in a statement: “The California State Library takes seriously its responsibility to ensure transparency and accountability in the taxpayer dollars entrusted to it. The State Library has provided the Legislature with all documentation in its possession and has repeatedly requested additional records from the Strong Reader partnership. The California State Library remains committed to cooperating fully with all legislative oversight and maintaining accountability in the administration of public funds.”

Pérez gave Lucas seven days to produce the financial records, saying the subcommittee expected invoices and receipts detailing how the money was spent.

Ahead of the 2026 midterms, Televisa Univision President Ignacio Meyer is calling for a revamping of political priorities with the key Latino voting bloc, “a sleeping giant that is no longer sleeping.”

“Hispanic voters are largely sophisticated, are largely independent, and they want to be swayed by issues,” Meyer told Axios publisher Nicholas Johnston on Saturday at a SXSW event in Texas, urging both major political parties to “look at how they’re speaking to Hispanic voters.”

“They do not want to be spoken to about partisan politics.”

With the 2026 midterms prepped to set the table for the U.S., Congress and the White House, Meyer added the Latino vote is “largely up for grabs” and there is a “big disconnect” with it.

DEMOCRATS HAD MAJOR ELECTION VICTORIES IN 2025, BUT WINS DON’T ERASE PARTY’S CRITICAL WEAKNESSES

“The Hispanic population has been called the great sleeping giant,” he added. “It’s no secret that it’s no longer sleeping. They’re awake. They’re influential, the largest growing demographic in the United States across culture, sports, news, any one of the segments.”

President Donald Trump‘s border security and legal immigration policies are a lot more popular with Latino voters than Democrats might have imagined. Trump won more than 48% of the vote in his sweeping 2024 presidential election, winning all of the key battleground states.

Meyer pointed to the recent Texas primaries, saying addressing Hispanic voters in their language is key, urging spending early and often – a boon for his network.

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“Those that did their homework won,” he said, adding those that didn’t “lost, and they lost big.”

“I’m not a huge expert on politics,” he admitted, trying to play both sides to keep the campaign funds flowing in the political battlegrounds, but “balance of power in both the House and the Senate is going to be swung by very few races this year.”

“Out of all of those races, every single one has a high-density Hispanic population. Every single one of those voting blocs is up for grabs, and they want to be spoken to about the issues that are important to them.”

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Univision is the largest American Spanish-language television network, targeting Latino audiences, and is the way to speak to Hispanic voters “in their language,” which politicians do not do enough, according to Meyer.

“Why would our civil servants not speak to us in the language and the culture that we deserve to be spoken to, and talk to us about the issues that we deserve to be spoken to?” he asked.

“I think people would like to oversimplify what it’s like to be a U.S. Hispanic in the United States. When you come from another country, you have to fight for your place with different circumstances, different language.”

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Latinos should not be a “check-the-box” voting bloc to reach.

“Big growing population, check the box, spend X amount of money, spend it late – only in that window – and let it go: It’ll work,” he said of miscalculating political campaigns. “Well, there’s no magic.”

“It takes commitment.”

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Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, who also spoke on the panel, said Democrats’ losses among Latino voters reflect a broader disconnect with working-class concerns. He argued the party must focus on economic issues such as lowering prices and improving household finances to regain support.

Republicans sharply criticized former President Joe Biden over rising prices at the gas pump, but a spike in energy prices amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict in Iran threatens to scramble the party’s affordability messaging.

The Iran conflict has led to a surge in gas prices for Americans, leading to an average 50 cents a gallon increase since Operation Epic Fury began on Feb. 28.

The average price of gas reached $3.63 per gallon on Friday, according to AAA. Diesel prices have also risen to $4.89 per gallon. The increases have been mostly fueled by volatility in oil prices, which closed above $100 per barrel Thursday for the first time since 2022 as the Strait of Hormuz remained effectively shuttered from the conflict.

The president characterized the gas price hike amid the Iran conflict as “a very small price to pay” in a Truth Social post Sunday.

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That statement represented a sharp break with Trump’s typical messaging touting low gas prices prior to Operation Epic Fury.

“Gasoline, which reached a peak of over $6 a gallon in some states under my predecessor — it was quite honestly a disaster — is now below $2.30 a gallon in most states. And in some places, $1.99 a gallon,” President Donald Trump said during his Feb. 27 State of the Union address. “And when I visited the great state of Iowa just a few weeks ago, I even saw $1.85 a gallon for gasoline.”

The surge in gas and diesel prices threatens to undermine the economic message of President Trump and congressional Republicans, who have touted low gas prices as a major win in the lead-up to November’s midterm elections. Cost of living issues are expected to be a key concern among voters as both parties claim to be laser-focused on making everyday life more affordable.

Trump directed the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to release 172 million gallons of crude oil Wednesday in an effort to lower oil prices.

“I filled it up once, and I’ll fill it up again, but right now, we’ll reduce it a little bit, and that brings the prices down,” Trump told Cincinnati news station WKRC.

During the 2024 presidential contest, Trump frequently campaigned on ending Biden’s “war on American energy” and pledged to reverse a surge in gas prices that occurred under his predecessor’s tenure.

Gas prices averaged $3.45 per gallon across all fuel grades during Biden’s four-year term, surging to a record high of more than $5 per gallon in June 2022 after the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

“Starting on Day 1, we will drive down prices and make America affordable again,” Trump said during a speech at the Republican National Committee convention in July 2024. “People can’t live like this.”

Democrats have seized on rising prices at the pump amid the conflict in Iran.

“I wish the administration thought about this before they started this unnecessary war,” Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, who caucuses with Democrats, said Monday when asked about the gas price hike.

“Donald Trump’s war has sent gas prices skyrocketing through the roof,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wrote on social media Monday. “What contempt. What cluelessness.”

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Republicans have voiced confidence that the rise in gas prices would be temporary. GOP lawmakers have frequently cited their efforts to roll back Biden-era energy regulations and boost domestic production as evidence that their policies are working to lower energy prices.

“It’s going to be probably volatile for a period of time. I think what’s going to be key is ensuring we can get safe access to the Strait of Hormuz,” Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., said Monday, adding that he was confident the disruption would be short-lived.

Daines, who abruptly suspended his re-election campaign last week, highlighted that average gas prices were under $3 per gallon prior to Trump’s State of the Union speech. 

“That’s an important win for the American people,” the retiring Montana lawmaker said. “Something you’re reminded of usually weekly when you’re gassing up your vehicle.”

Some Republicans and Trump administration officials are also arguing that a defeated Iran will ultimately spur lower gas prices, even if there is pain in the short run.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt characterized the recent increase in oil and gas prices as “temporary” during a briefing Tuesday.

“Once the national security objectives of Operation Epic Fury are fully achieved, Americans will see oil and gas prices drop rapidly, potentially even lower than they were prior to the start of the operation,” Leavitt said.

“At the end of the day, we’re going to destroy this regime, and their ability to disrupt oil is going to be less, and we’re going to have more production, not less,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told reporters Monday. “Once you take the largest state sponsor of terrorism off the planet, who depends on oil for their revenue, that’s a more stable world.”

However, some Republicans are warning that high oil and gas prices could be catastrophic for the party’s midterm prospects.

“I think if you add in high gas prices, high oil prices, and if we are still bombing Iran with kinetic action … I think you’re going to see a disastrous election,” Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., told Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo on Tuesday.

Nearly seven in 10 Americans — including 44% of Republicans — expect gas prices to keep increasing in the coming months, according to a Reuters-Ipsos poll released Monday.

Trump has threatened Iran with unprecedented force if the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz is further restricted.

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“Death, Fire, and Fury will reign upon them — But I hope, and pray, that it does not happen!” Trump wrote Monday on Truth Social.

The Pentagon has identified six U.S. service members who were killed when a KC-135 refueling aircraft crashed in western Iraq during a combat mission in support of Operation Epic Fury.

The incident, which occurred on Thursday, took place in “friendly” airspace during an unspecified incident involving another aircraft. While the other plane landed safely, the KC-135 crashed. Military officials said the incident was not due to hostile or friendly fire and remains under investigation.

The airmen were assigned to the 6th Air Refueling Wing at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida and the 121st Air Refueling Wing at Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base in Columbus, Ohio, according to U.S. government and state officials.

Those killed were Maj. John “Alex” Klinner, 33; Capt. Ariana Savino, 31; Tech. Sgt. Ashley Pruitt, 34; Capt. Seth Koval, 38; Capt. Curtis Angst, 30; and Tech. Sgt. Tyler Simmons, 28. 

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Maj. John ‘Alex’ Klinner

Maj. John “Alex” Klinner, 33, leaves behind three small children — 7-month-old twins and a 2-year-old son, his brother-in-law, James Harrill, confirmed.

A graduate of Auburn University and an eight-year U.S. Air Force veteran from Birmingham, Alabama, Klinner had recently moved with his family into a new home, according to his wife, Libby Klinner.

“It’s kind of heartbreaking to say: He was just a really good dad and really loved his family a lot — like a lot,” Harrill said.

An outdoorsman who enjoyed hiking, Klinner was also known for helping others. Harrill recalled that when he last saw him in January during a family wedding, Klinner helped shovel Harrill’s vehicle out of the snow.

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“Alex was one of those guys that had this steady command about him,” Harrill said. “He was literally one of the most kind, giving people.”

Libby Klinner said her heart is broken for their children, who will grow up not knowing their father.

“They won’t get to see firsthand the way he would jump up to help in any way he could,” she wrote in a post. “They won’t see how goofy and funny he was. They won’t witness his selflessness, the way he thought about everyone else before himself. They won’t get to feel the deep love he had for them.”

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Klinner was assigned to the 6th Air Refueling Wing at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida, though Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said he was stationed in Birmingham.

Capt. Ariana Savino

Capt. Ariana Savino, 31, of Covington, Washington, was also assigned to the 6th Air Refueling Wing at MacDill Air Force Base.

Savino was among the crew members aboard the KC-135 refueling aircraft when it crashed in western Iraq.

Tech. Sgt. Ashley Pruitt

Tech. Sgt. Ashley Pruitt, 34, of Bardstown, Kentucky, was the third member of the MacDill-based crew killed in the crash.

Pruitt served with the 6th Air Refueling Wing and was deployed as part of the mission when the aircraft went down.

Capt. Seth Koval

Capt. Seth Koval, 38, served as a KC-135R Stratotanker Instructor Pilot with the 166th Air Refueling Squadron at the 121st Air Refueling Wing in Columbus, Ohio.

The Ohio National Guard said Koval was an aircraft commander with 19 years of service. While the Ohio National Guard listed his home in Stoutsville, Ohio, the U.S. government listed his hometown as Mooresville, Indiana.

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A graduate of Purdue University, Koval first enlisted in 2006 as a machinist with the Indiana National Guard’s 122nd Fighter Wing before transferring to the Ohio Air National Guard in 2017. He earned his commission in 2018 and completed instructor pilot upgrade in 2024. Over the course of his career, Koval logged 2,076 total flight hours, including 443 combat hours.

Capt. Curtis Angst

Capt. Curtis Angst, 30, served as a KC-135R pilot with the 166th Air Refueling Squadron at the 121st Air Refueling Wing in Columbus, Ohio.

While the Ohio National Guard listed his home as Columbus, the U.S. government listed his hometown as Wilmington, Ohio. A graduate of the University of Cincinnati with a degree in aerospace engineering, Angst initially enlisted in the Ohio Air National Guard in 2015 as a vehicle maintenance technician with the 123rd Air Control Squadron.

He earned his commission in 2021, completed undergraduate pilot training in 2023, and qualified as a KC-135R pilot in April 2024. During his career, Angst logged 880 total flight hours, including 67 combat hours.

Tech. Sgt. Tyler Simmons

Tech. Sgt. Tyler Simmons, 28, of Columbus, Ohio, served as a KC-135R Boom Operator with the 166th Air Refueling Squadron. He was responsible for transferring fuel from the tanker to receiver aircraft during missions.

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Simmons entered the Air Force in 2017 and initially served in security forces before transitioning to aviation in 2022. He became a mobility force aviator in 2023 and reached the rank of Technical Sergeant on May 1, 2023. During his career, Simmons logged 779 total flight hours, including 230.4 combat hours.

Simmons’ family told WCMH-TV in Columbus they were devastated by the loss.

“Tyler’s smile could light up any room, his strong presence would fill it. His parents, grandparents, family and friends are grief stricken for the loss of life,” they said.

Ohio Adjutant General Maj. Gen. Matthew S. Woodruff said the state is mourning the loss of the three “remarkable” Ohio airmen.

“Today we mourn the loss of three remarkable Airmen whose service and commitment embodied the very best of our Ohio National Guard,” Woodruff said.

U.S. Central Command said the aircraft crashed during a combat mission over western Iraq in “friendly” territory. Military officials stated that the incident involved an unspecified interaction with another aircraft that landed safely and that the crash was not caused by hostile or friendly fire.

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The KC-135 Stratotanker refuels other aircraft in midair, allowing them to fly longer distances and sustain operations without landing. The aircraft can also be used to transport wounded personnel and conduct surveillance missions.

The Congressional Research Service says the Air Force had 376 KC-135 aircraft last year, including 151 on active duty, 163 in the Air National Guard and 62 in the Air Force Reserve. The aircraft has been in service for more than 60 years.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

A new wave of Republican women running in competitive congressional races is aiming to chip away at Democrats’ long-held advantage with female voters — and flip key seats that could determine control of the House this November.

In an interview with Fox News Digital, one of these candidates, Laurie Buckhout, a former cattle rancher, U.S. Army veteran and mother, knocked the Democratic Party for trying to “pigeonhole” female voters into a single category.

“The Democrats try way too hard to pigeonhole us women in a certain role while they still can’t define what a woman is,” she quipped.

She believes that despite the rhetoric, Democrats are “really out of touch when it comes to women voters.”

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“They try to own that gender and try to stuff them in a box,” she went on. “’This is how you’re going to vote. Don’t tell your husband. This is how you are going to think.’ Republicans don’t do that.”

This midterm election, Buckhout is running to unseat Democratic Rep. Don Davis in North Carolina’s Congressional District 1. The district stretches across the northeastern corner of the state from the border with Virginia to the Atlantic coast. After narrowly losing to Davis in the 2024 election, Buckhout’s campaign has already garnered significant momentum this time around. She defeated a field of four other Republican candidates in the March 3 primary and, just this week, was further bolstered by an endorsement from President Donald Trump.

As the dominant party in an off-year midterm cycle, many expect that Republicans will take a beating at the ballot box this November. Buckhout, however, thinks it will be a very different story in North Carolina. With the GOP barely grasping onto a razor-thin majority in the House of Representatives, every seat matters.

“I can tell you the people of North Carolina, especially eastern North Carolina, they want to live their lives with a minimum of government interference, they don’t want big government leaning in, telling them how to live their life, what to do, taking their money out of their pockets for more and more taxes for programs that they don’t need and they didn’t vote for,” she said. “So, I can tell you that we feel very good about this being a Republican election, taking this, adding another seat to the House.”

Buckhout is not the only female Republican candidate who stands a good shot at flipping a blue district red this year.

In one of the GOP’s top targeted districts, Carrie Buck, a former school principal and self-described minivan mom, is angling to unseat Rep. Dina Titus in Nevada Congressional District 1 in Las Vegas. As of the latest Federal Election Commission filings, Buck has significantly outraised Titus, further signaling the incumbent’s vulnerability.

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Buck told Fox News Digital that after serving in Congress since 2013, Titus has “had her chance, and Nevada families are still waiting for results.”  

“I spent 30 years in classrooms — teaching, running schools, and working to fix problems. During that same time, Dina Titus was in public office, unable and unwilling to address the challenges Nevadans face: rising inflation, soaring crime rates, an open border, and failing schools,” she said.

On the East Coast, Tiffany Burress, a New Jersey attorney who is a newcomer to the political scene, is running to unseat Democratic Rep. Nellie Pou, who is considered vulnerable.

If the GOP could pick up the seat, it would be a huge boon in retaining the majority.

“Voters are ready for something different, and that’s how I know we’re going to win,” Burress told Fox News.

She knocked Pou, saying she has “spent decades living on the taxpayers’ dime,” and “puts extreme progressive agendas ahead of the priorities of our district” by voting with the likes of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez nearly 94 percent of the time.

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Similarly, Barb Regnitz in Indiana’s first congressional district is running to flip a long-held Democratic seat currently filled by Rep. Frank Mrvan.

Regnitz, who is a former software engineer and current Porter County commissioner, told Fox News Digital that “for almost 100 years, Republicans have been powerless to stop the failed policies of the far-left that have resulted in falling incomes, struggling industry, and increasingly unsafe communities right here in Northwest Indiana.”

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“I’m running for Congress because I believe our district deserves serious, principled leadership focused on results, not rhetoric,” she said.

Down in Texas, another Republican woman, Jessica Steinmann, is fighting to retain a Republican seat north of Houston, being left vacant by Rep. Morgan Luttrell, who opted not to seek re-election.

Steinmann formerly served in President Donald Trump’s Justice Department during his first term as director of the Office for Victims of Crime.

She told Fox News Digital she is running for Congress “because the next two years of President Trump’s administration are critical for our country.”

“I was proud to serve in the first Trump Administration, where I saw firsthand what strong, America First leadership can accomplish,” she said, adding, “I’m confident that message will carry us to victory in November.”

Repairs have been completed following the historic Potomac River sewage spill in Washington, D.C., less than a month after President Donald Trump approved a disaster declaration that allowed the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to help.

“Emergency repairs to the Potomac Interceptor are complete,” DC Water said Saturday. “Full flow has been restored and the C&O Canal has been fully drained as part of site restoration. Since Jan 19, crews worked around the clock to stabilize the site and protect the Potomac River.”

The declaration came after a sewage pipe interceptor ruptured on Jan. 19, releasing more than 240 million gallons of raw sewage into the Potomac River. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser declared a disaster emergency over the Potomac sewage spill and requested federal assistance with the cleanup.

Trump said he was worried the Potomac River would still stink when America250 celebrations kick off this summer, according to the White House.

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The president had directed his ire toward Democratic Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and other local leaders in Virginia and Washington, D.C., on the issue, claiming incompetence led to the disaster.

Moore and his office, however, pushed back on Trump’s assertions, claiming the federal government has oversight over the sewer utility.

“This is a Washington, D.C., pipe on federal land,” Moore told Fox News Digital last month. “Maryland has nothing to do with this. In fact, the only thing Maryland did was when we saw a neighbor who was in need. That’s why I ordered people, our people to go support them, and that’s what we’ve been doing the past month.”

“We’ve been doing essentially the federal government’s job because it’s the federal government’s job to be able to protect the Potomac interconnector because that’s federal land,” Moore said. “For the president now to come and attack me on this, I find that to be … absurd.”

The sewage pipes are managed by DC Water, an independent utility based in the District of Columbia.

A class action lawsuit was filed by a Virginia resident on March 6 that accused DC Water of negligence.

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The plaintiff, Nicholas Lailas, who is a recreational boater, is seeking compensation for people “whose property interests in and use and enjoyment of the Potomac River … have been impaired by Defendant’s conduct,” the lawsuit said.

He is seeking unspecified damages.

Fox News’ Stephen Sorace and Jasmine Baehr and The Associated Press contributed to this report.