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Senators on Capitol Hill were split on Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates’ warning that artificial intelligence (AI) could lead to “a billion deaths” amid growing controversy over the technology’s direction and rapid growth.

Gates is one of several industry giants who have sounded the alarm on AI’s advancements, including Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. President Donald Trump has pushed back on calls to slow down AI development, arguing a rollback could give an advantage to competitors in the AI race like China.

Gates made the claim on NBC’s “Meet the Press” last week when he was asked whether AI could wipe out humanity — as some in the industry have warned is a possibility that could happen within a decade.

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“I think that’s incredibly irresponsible,” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas told Fox News Digital.

“That’s not as dire as some of the AI officials who have suggested that there was a 10 percent chance of wiping out all of humanity,” Sen. Angus King, I-Maine said. “This is something we have to take very seriously.”

“What worries me about that prediction is that the Republicans who are in control of the House and the Senate say ‘everybody go home and let AI do whatever they want to do,’” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said.

Cornyn claimed that Gates’ warning risks fueling calls for regulations that could ultimately benefit the biggest players in the AI industry while crowding out smaller competitors.

“I mean, he’s fear-mongering,” Cornyn said. “And I worry that it’s in pursuit of what’s sometimes called regulatory capture, that the government and the public will demand regulation while a handful of prime AI companies are in control and crowd out any competitors.”

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King, however, argued the competition between tech companies gives reason why the government should implement safeguards.

“The president seems to think, well, industry will regulate itself. The government shouldn’t be involved,” King said. “The problem with that is that these companies are engaged in an intense competition.”

He claimed that companies could then be reluctant to voluntarily slow development or impose their own safeguards if doing so risks allowing competitors to pull ahead in the industry.

“They’re gonna be forced to make a decision: Should we slow down and put in our own safeguards?” King explained. “But if we do, our competitor across the street won’t and [will] get ahead of us, or China will get ahead of us.”

Republican senators also warned about another concern surrounding the rapid development of AI: Could China pull ahead?

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“Look, I think we need to use common sense,” Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., said. “So we want to develop it. Obviously, we need to stay ahead of adversaries like China, but we need to do it safely. “

“I think the administration is generally on the right track in not trying to put a heavy hand on this technology, which is going to be fundamental to our economy and our national security,” Cornyn said.

The conversations around AI ramped up this month, shortly before both the House and Senate went on recess leading up to the midterm elections. Many Democrats called for Congress to stay in session to address the concerns around AI and work to get legislation that enacts safeguards.

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“We have a responsibility, but not the Republicans,” Warren said. “They say ‘send everybody home,’ because Donald Trump doesn’t want to do anything about AI.”

Southern Baptist Convention President and Pastor Willy Rice called on pastors across the country to “step up” into the political process as midterm elections near.

While some Christian leaders advise against wading into politics from the pulpit, Rice argues pastors have long played a key role in American politics.

Members of the theological and political left have shown no hesitance to mix religion with their politics and evangelicals should not either, he says.

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“Should pastors engage in the political process? They absolutely should. Because there are many political issues that are, at their heart, theological issues and moral issues that strike at the very center of what we believe to be true and what we believe people need to know in order to flourish personally and as a culture.”

“I think the pastors need to step up. I think throughout American history, pastors have had a strong voice at key moments in American political history,” Rice said.

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Rice lamented that many Christians have been encouraged in recent decades, from both external and internal forces, to “be more quiet” and “withdraw from the political process.”

“Now, the interesting thing is that those on the theological and political left did not [withdraw], and they had no intention of doing so. And in fact, statistics show that people on the political and theological left are actually more politically engaged than those on the right,” Rice said. “So what you had was, for a period of time, I felt like you had an almost a vacuum that kind of developed, a silence that was there with a lack of Christian leaders leaning in.”

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Rice highlighted abortion, the definition of marriage, gender identity and immigration as issues where Christians should feel compelled to vote in a certain way.

“These issues are deeply, profoundly theological issues. They go back to the creation; they go back to Genesis 1 and 2. They go back to our understanding of what it means to be a human being, and our understanding of what God’s creative purpose is for us as human beings,” he said.

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Rice argued that Christians also face “manipulative” arguments when it comes to immigration. He admits that the immigration issue does present a “challenge” for Christians but argues there is nothing wrong with enforcing America’s laws.

“There is a value of compassion, a value of wanting to care for the least of these people who are poor and oppressed and wanting to help,” Rice said, noting that Christians do more of that charity than any other group in the U.S.

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“But there is also the importance of the rule of law,” he continued. “The protection of people who are in this country. And what you’ve had is sometimes a very cynical use by some people in power of trying to manipulate Christians by saying, since you must demonstrate compassion, therefore you must embrace open immigration, or you must not insist on the enforcement of the immigration laws.”

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“That is very, very manipulative. No one would say that because you love people or care for people, you should leave the doors of your house unlocked, or you should open up the jail cells in your own community,” he said.

The FlyDubai stabbing is contributing to concerns that Iran could increase covert and deniable attacks as the conflict with the United States and Israel drags on.

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham, meanwhile, said there are “strong indications” Iran played a role in a suspected terror plot near RAF Fairford, the British air base used by U.S. forces during operations against Iran. Counterterrorism police have since arrested a dual U.K.-Iranian national on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts.

The two suspected attacks are raising questions over whether Iran’s war strategy is shifting, but experts caution not to treat the incidents as equally indicative of Iranian involvement — or evidence yet that Tehran has changed its tactics.

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President Donald Trump said early information he has received points to a possible Iranian connection to the attack aboard an Israel-bound FlyDubai flight, where a co-pilot allegedly stabbed the captain and attempted to crash the aircraft with more than 180 people aboard.

The United Arab Emirates and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have described the FlyDubai incident as terrorism, but UAE authorities have not publicly attributed the attack to Iran. Neither investigation has publicly established that the Iranian government directed the attacks, and Iran has denied involvement in the Fairford case.

Daniel Byman, director of the Warfare, Irregular Threats and Terrorism Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the Fairford case fits more closely with Iran’s recent use of hired operatives and other intermediaries.

“The attack on the airbase in the United Kingdom does fit more recent patterns,” Byman told Fox News Digital, while stressing how much remains unknown about the investigation.

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The FlyDubai attack would be a more significant departure.

“That is quite different, and that is something that Iran in the past, at least we haven’t seen Iran do,” Byman said. “It is plausible to me that Iran is involved, but that seems like much more of a stretch based on Iran’s traditional way of operating.”

But the uncertainty surrounding the attacks also illustrates part of the appeal of the broader strategy Iran has spent decades developing: using proxies, covert operatives, criminal networks and other intermediaries to threaten adversaries far beyond its borders while making Tehran’s own role more difficult to establish.

Matthew Levitt, a former Treasury and FBI counterterrorism official who now directs the Reinhard Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence at the Washington Institute, said Iran has increasingly sought to put more distance between itself and the people carrying out overseas operations.

“Typically Iran does not admit that it’s involved in these types of attacks because it wants reasonable deniability,” Levitt said.

“There are several advantages for Iran to using terrorism,” Byman said. “One is that there is often a degree of deniability.”

“Terrorism gives Iran a lot more reach,” he added. Levitt, however, put the distinction with conventional warfare more bluntly.

“If Iran shoots a drone or a missile at you, you know where it came from and you know where to shoot back,” he said. “But if Iran uses proxies, and recruits people and does things in a covert manner, it might not be so easy to point a finger back at Iran or to know exactly who did it.”

That capability matters in part because Iran does not have the conventional military strength to match the United States and its allies directly, Levitt said.

“They just don’t have the capability to fight soldier to soldier, airplane to airplane in an all-out kinetic war, but they’re extremely effective at asymmetric warfare, at covert terrorist activity, if that’s what this proves to be,” he said.

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Recent U.S. prosecutions have shown how far that playbook can extend. Federal cases have accused Iranian operatives of seeking to recruit hitmen to kill U.S. officials and using Eastern European organized crime figures in a murder-for-hire plot targeting Iranian-American journalist and dissident Masih Alinejad in New York.

Those operations relied on the same basic advantage: Tehran could pursue targets overseas without launching a conventional attack that immediately identified Iran as the aggressor.

The question now is whether the current conflict gives Iran reason to push that strategy further.

Levitt said Tehran could pursue overseas plots in an effort to pressure Western governments to end the conflict by demonstrating that Iran can impose costs far beyond the conventional battlefield.

And if Fairford and FlyDubai are ultimately tied to Tehran, he said, they would stand out because they involve harder targets and potentially more ambitious tactics than the assassinations, kidnappings, shootings and smaller-scale bombings Iran has more commonly pursued overseas.

“Perhaps this is the new normal, and Iran wants to demonstrate that it can exact a higher cost,” Levitt said.

Byman, however, pointed to several reasons Tehran could exercise restraint.

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Iran already has other ways to pressure Washington and its allies, while a terrorist attack against Americans could backfire by uniting U.S. public opinion behind further escalation against Tehran, he said. U.S. and Israeli strikes against senior Iranian intelligence and security officials may also have disrupted some of the networks Tehran would need for overseas operations.

“If Iran wants to go further, then terrorism does become more of an option,” Byman said.

It’s June 2026 and the summer’s intense heat is slowly creeping across the East Coast. In Florida, a different kind of heat is threatening to burn Republicans — a firestorm of political backlash that could at best force the GOP to spend millions more in the midterms, and at worst cost the party what should be a safely red House seat.

Rep. Mike Haridopolos, R-Fla., was one of the first to sound the alarm publicly about embattled Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., and the scandals that could have sandbagged his re-election chances. It’s an unusually bold move for a first-term congressman, particularly when the House GOP leadership and the White House were still publicly backing Mills.

But Haridopolos’ plan was well-executed — and with the help of Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., Mills went down as one of only four Republican incumbents to lose a primary in the 2026 midterm cycle. Republican election watchers saw the loss with some relief, privately feeling better about their chances with former journalist Ryan Elijah, who Haridopolos recruited to run, against Democratic former NASA official Bale Dalton.

And Haridopolos was there with Elijah both figuratively and literally. The former local news anchor said he was “right there in the front row” during the primary debate.

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“Not only was he there, he was kind of like the spin room. He did a lot of the media interviews, and that was huge for us,” Elijah told Fox News Digital.

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Haridopolos told Fox News Digital, “I recognized that Cory Mills was absolutely going to lose a general election against a solid Democrat candidate. And so I went to the leadership and, of course, the president’s team and said, ‘Look, we need to find a way for Mills to step aside.’”

“Unfortunately, Mr. Mills was not willing to step aside. And so I let the leadership and the president know that I’d be helping someone else in the primary,” he continued. “It was not the easiest thing to do, taking on a colleague. But… this is a team sport and all of us need to work together.”

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“Team sport” is an analogy that the Florida Republican has used frequently, and one that he’s used to try and define his tenure in the House.

It’s paid off for him so far, with Haridopolos forging close relationships with both House GOP leaders and his peers.

“He’s a trusted ally and somebody you can count on. He delivers. You never have to worry about where he’s going to be,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., who has known Haridopolos for roughly two decades, told Fox News Digital.

The two politicos first forged a relationship in their respective state houses. When Haridopolos said he would launch a campaign for Congress, Scalise said he told him, “I want to be your first check… I want to support you.”

And in his short time so far, he’s already been entrusted to lead a House panel. Haridopolos is chair of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee’s space subcommittee, a fitting position for someone whose district is home to the Kennedy Space Center despite his junior status.

The Florida freshman said space has long been a passion of his, dating back to his efforts as a state lawmaker to bring the shuttle program back to his backyard.

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“So many people were concerned that we’d go back to the post-Apollo days, which are very detrimental to the economy of Central Florida. And so at that time, Rick Scott was governor… We decided that we needed to not just rely on NASA but start pushing for public-private partnerships,” Haridopolos said.

The U.S. has seen an unprecedented resurgence of success in space in the last two years, partly propelled by the public-private partnerships that Haridopolos is pushing. NASA completed its historic Artemis II mission just this year, sending four astronauts around the moon and back in the first such mission in decades.

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“I’m really confident that in two years we’ll be landing back on the moon,” Haridopolos said.

That’s also due in no small part to the federal government investing in the new space race, after the Trump administration initially proposed a roughly 24% cut to NASA’s budget in May 2025.

Haridopolos, seeing space as another frontier for national security, was alarmed. He told Fox News Digital at the time that he would seek a “constructive conversation with the White House” about a higher figure.

“I’m not sure what that number will be in the end, but in my conversations with the president about space, he’s absolutely committed to it,” he said in May 2025.

Eventually, President Donald Trump signed into law a spending bill that included $24.4 billion for NASA — rather than the initial $18.8 billion proposal — and approved an additional $9.9 billion in the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman told Fox News Digital that Haridopolos “understands that so much of America’s future in space runs through Florida and Kennedy Space Center.”

“He is serious about the mission, willing to engage on the hard issues, and always focused on how we can move the ball forward,” Isaacman said.

Before his political career began, Haridopolos was a history professor at what is now Eastern Florida State College. He was born to an American mother and Greek immigrant father, and is currently married to Stephanie Haridopolos — a physician by profession who has spent the last several months as acting surgeon general.

But despite his accomplishments and connections, Haridopolos’ name is not one that has garnered headlines in the way that more bombastic House Republicans have in their public defiance of GOP leaders or criticism of Trump.

That’s because he prefers to settle disputes behind closed doors, a hallmark of politics that has largely been abandoned in an age where attention is seen as political currency.

“When you hear members of Congress saying, like, ‘Oh, I want you to get me on TV,’ it’s usually like, ‘Uh-oh, someone’s about to do something crazy here to get on TV.’ He was like… I’m going to earn my spot on there legitimately by being a good, reliable messenger for the party,” a Republican aide familiar with Haridopolos’ operation told Fox News Digital.

The aide said that could pose a challenge in times when television networks were looking for dramatic tales of discord, but that his communication skills still got him a “high volume” of press.

That aide said they also witnessed Haridopolos turn down media interviews that did not fit his schedule, but offer to help fellow House Republicans secure that spot instead.

“He was just finding ways to help out leadership, but also just his fellow members, especially his fellow freshman members,” the aide said.

Haridopolos told Fox News Digital of the chaos that’s become a regular facet of Republicans’ majority, “One of my goals is to tell those folks who always stand [in front of cameras] after we finish the session, you know, what we need to do more is spend time in the caucus having these knock-down, drag-outs. Not through the press, but as a family, and come out there unified. I think it’s the best way to solve problems.”

He’s also been known to offer help on the fundraising side — as Scalise put it, “He raises a lot of money.”

The political maneuvering has raised questions for some about where Haridopolos sees his future and what he’s looking to get out of the relationships he is building in a largely transactional world.

“He knows how to work with people and how to advance what he wants,” the Republican aide said. “I could see him in senior leadership… and sooner than people expect.”

Scalise said, “Mike has a bright future, because he’s a natural leader.”

But Haridopolos has insisted that his efforts are all dedicated to the greater good of the Republican Party.

“A lot of people have asked me if I’m going to pursue a leadership position after the elections this year. I’m absolutely not going to pursue one of those leadership positions,” he said. “There’s people who have been in Congress for three, four, or five terms who I think have really put that effort in.”

He named members like fellow freshman Rep. Brian Jack, R-Ga., Republican Study Committee Chairman August Pfluger, R-Texas, and Rep. Rudy Yakym, R-Ind.

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“If I’m focused on the team, I think great things could happen in the future,” Haridopolos said.

LEWISTON, MAINE – Rep. Tom Emmer, on the first stop of a 56 district blitz across the country rallying Republican voters, spoke to Fox News Digital about what he describes as an “anti-American” sentiment in the Democratic Party and his party’s message on the economy.

“We’re not talking about socialists, these are communists, Marxists and anarchists,” Emmer, the Republican House majority whip, told Fox News Digital this week about the rise of far-left candidates in the Democratic Party.

“You got to be kidding. They want us to call them democratic socialists, there’s nothing democratic about these people.”

Emmer, who was in Maine campaigning for Republican House candidate Paul LePage, specifically took issue with Democratic Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed.

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“This guy says ridiculous things like U.S. NFL football is an example of toxic masculinity, he supports a terrorist who believes that America deserved to lose 3,000 people on 9-11, and he’s got this Piker guy who’s just shooting his mouth off on everything anti-American,” Emmer said. “These people are anti-American more than anything else. It’s time that we have great candidates like Paul LePage, which is why I’m here, who loves his state, loves this country and believes in the promise of America. We should be out there celebrating it and defending it, not tearing it down, that’s why you vote for Paul.”

With six weeks to go until Election Day and early voting already underway in a handful of states, the conventional wisdom is that Republicans may be in for some setbacks in the midterms.

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As it defends its fragile House and Senate majorities, the GOP is fighting political history, which has traditionally seen the president’s party lose congressional seats during the midterms. It’s also battling high costs at the grocery stores and gas pumps tied to what polls show is an unpopular war with Iran, as well as President Donald Trump‘s underwater approval ratings.

But Democrats are saddled with their own issues, from an ideological civil war between the party’s left wing and the establishment that has handed Republicans plenty of political ammunition, to a brand image that’s nothing to brag about. Add to that the Democrats’ major disadvantage as the GOP floods the airwaves with attack ads.

Fox News Digital asked Emmer what he would say to Republican voters in the current political climate in terms of defending the administration’s record.

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“First off, remember, the Biden administration put this economy in the ditch, literally,” Emmer said. “Inflation we hadn’t seen in 40 years. Donald Trump and Republicans in the House and the Senate have been putting this economy back on track. We can talk about all the investment and everything else, but we have to be very sensitive to the fact that $4 gas, $6 diesel is unacceptable, but I would argue it still isn’t enough to vote for a communist.”

Latino voters are swinging away from President Donald Trump and Republicans ahead of the midterm elections, according to new polling from NBC News and Telemundo.

The poll surveyed 800 registered Latino voters across the U.S. from Sept. 21-28, finding that 69% say they disapprove of Trump’s performance, compared to just 27% who approve.

Meanwhile, roughly 66% say Trump’s deportation policies have gone too far, and 75% say Trump has mishandled the economy and cost of living, the poll found.

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The poll likewise found that Democrats hold a huge advantage over the GOP among Latino voters, despite Republicans making gains with the demographic in 2024.

Asked which party they would like to see in control of Congress, 59% of Latino voters said Democrats, compared to 35% who wanted Republicans.

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Democrats had just a 12-point lead among Latino voters going into the 2024 elections, showing that Trump and the GOP have lost some of the ground they gained with the voting group.

The GOP still shows drastic improvement among Latino voters over the last decade, however. In 2016 and 2018, Latino support for a GOP Congress sat at just 21% and 26% respectively.

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NBC News and Telemundo conducted the poll via phone interviews and online surveys via text message. The poll advertises a margin of error of 3.5%.

The data is the latest in a series of polls showing Democrats have a large advantage over Republicans heading into the midterm elections.

Trump argued at a political rally in Dayton, Ohio, on Saturday night that the bad polling numbers have failed to account for his influence on the elections.

“These fake polls, they don’t account for one thing. They don’t account for the fact that Trump is out campaigning. They never thought this was good. They never thought this was going to happen,” Trump told a cheering crowd.

“With you at my side, we have always prevailed and prevailed by a lot and got record-setting votes and record-setting victory,” Trump said. “We’ve won every battle. We’ve defeated every hope. We’ve overcome every threat. And now we are on the cusp of beating the communists, socialist, radicalized lunatics and villains once and for all. We’re going to put them down once and for all.”

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In the House of Representatives, Democrats are projected to win 215 seats compared to 201 for the GOP, meaning the left only needs three more victories out of the 19 possible toss-up races to clinch a majority. Republicans would need to win at least 17 of those races.

Anthropic, the artificial intelligence company behind the Claude chatbot, has pushed for greater government regulation of AI in ways that echo elements of the Washington playbook employed by convicted fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried during his time as a cryptocurrency entrepreneur, a review of public records shows.

Both Anthropic and Bankman-Fried poured millions of dollars into Washington influence campaigns while publicly arguing that government rules were needed to make their respective industries safer, although the money flowed through notably different channels. Critics in both industries have accused them of using regulation to strengthen their competitive positions. Bankman-Fried’s political operation later became part of a criminal case involving illegal campaign contributions, while Anthropic’s spending has consisted of disclosed lobbying and advocacy efforts.

Anthropic, for its part, denies this characterization. Bankman-Fried, meanwhile, later said his public posture on regulation was essentially “just PR” in a social media direct-message exchange published days after FTX collapsed.

Anthropic has been pushing Washington to put guardrails around the fast-moving AI industry, warning that increasingly powerful models could pose serious national security and public safety risks. CEO Dario Amodei has called for mandatory testing and auditing of advanced models, while the company has spent millions lobbying policymakers and backing groups that support tougher AI rules.

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The push comes as Anthropic is increasingly engaging with a Trump administration that has made rapid AI development and U.S. dominance in the technology a major priority, warning that falling behind could carry economic and national security consequences. Amodei joined other major tech executives at the White House on Sept. 29, where they signed a voluntary agreement outlining safety standards for companies developing powerful AI systems.

Before being convicted of fraud, Bankman-Fried lobbied Washington for a regulatory system for crypto led by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, presenting it as necessary to protect customers and bring clarity to the industry. He was a prominent supporter of the Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act (DCCPA), legislation that would have created such a framework — with campaign finance records showing that he cut checks to the bill’s sponsors in the Senate.

At the time, some crypto advocates opposed the DCCPA as overly favorable to centralized exchanges such as FTX. Prosecutors later alleged that Bankman-Fried and his co-conspirators flooded the political system with tens of millions of dollars in illegal contributions as part of an effort to increase FTX’s influence in Washington and help advance favorable legislation.

Bankman-Fried justified his efforts on the grounds that public safety was at stake, using similar rhetoric to that employed by Anthropic in its quest to regulate AI development.

“We need regulatory oversight and customer protection,” he said on social media weeks before FTX collapsed. Testifying before Congress, he argued that crypto regulation should provide “system safety and soundness.”

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Anthropic has also pursued a lobbying strategy that calls for government regulation, warning lawmakers that advanced AI poses serious national security and public safety risks.

Amodei told the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2023 that AI poses “extraordinarily grave threats to U.S. national security” and called for a mandatory “testing and auditing regime” with the power to block deployment of models found unsafe.

“Do you guys remember what Sam Bankman-Fried was doing when he was caught red-handed? Aggressively lobbying Washington to ban his competitors,” Brian Chau, the founder of a news platform that leverages AI to aid in investigations, said in response to a piece written by Amodei calling for federal AI regulation. “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

Anthropic’s pro-safety rhetoric, much like Bankman-Fried’s, is backed by large amounts of cash. The firm has spent close to $7 million on lobbying efforts from 2025 through the middle of 2026, per federal disclosures, and has set aside $40 million to Public First Action, a 501(c)(4) tied to the super PAC Public First, which is being spent to advance pro-regulation talking points.

“Anthropic is running a sophisticated regulatory capture strategy based on fear-mongering. It is principally responsible for the regulatory frenzy that is damaging the startup ecosystem,” former Trump administration AI advisor David Sacks posted to X in October 2025, responding to Anthropic’s strategy.

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Much like some crypto advocates argued that the Bankman-Fried-backed DCCPA would have harmed his smaller competitors, Anthropic has been accused of supporting bills, namely California’s SB 53, that allegedly would harm less established AI labs.

In the face of criticism, Anthropic has maintained that its commitment to public safety is genuine and pushed back against claims that its legislative activity is disadvantageous to smaller competitors.

“Some have suggested that we are somehow interested in harming the startup ecosystem. Startups are among our most important customers,” Amodei wrote in October 2025, noting that SB 53 exempted companies with gross revenues below $500 million. While labs with revenue below the threshold are partially exempted, lower-income firms that use a certain amount of computational resources are still subject to transparency requirements under SB 53.

Brian Chau, founder and CEO of the AI-assisted investigative publication Effort News, has also compared Anthropic’s public messaging about unreleased models to Bankman-Fried’s messaging as FTX unraveled.

“I remember when FTX was going down SBF would make up a new cope narrative every week and all the FTX stans would instantly believe him,” Chau wrote in response to an article about an unreleased Anthropic model.

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Anthropic and representatives for Bankman-Fried did not respond to multiple requests for comment when reached by Fox News Digital.

Sen. Ted Cruz accused Vice President JD Vance of “feeling insecure” after Vance suggested the Texas Republican was already running for president in 2028, escalating a public clash between two possible contenders for the GOP nomination.

“In my experience, people engage in political bomb-throwing when they’re feeling insecure,” Cruz told Politico in a phone interview Saturday, responding to Vance’s claim in an interview with NBC News that it was “really obvious” Cruz was already running for president.

“So he’s welcome to make whatever comments he likes,” Cruz told Politico. “I’m going to keep focusing on the midterms and helping us win on Election Day in the next 30 days.”

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Vance made the accusation in an NBC News interview on Thursday.

“It is really obvious to me that, at this very moment, Ted Cruz is running for president,” Vance told the outlet. “At this moment, I’m not. I’m trying to help elect Republicans. That’s what I’m going to keep on doing.”

Vance is considered a possible contender for the 2028 Republican presidential nomination. Cruz, who ran for the GOP nomination in 2016, has left open the possibility of another White House bid.

“I’ll certainly be part of the discussion,” Cruz told MS NOW in August when asked about the 2028 race.

EXCLUSIVE: INSIDE VANCE’S INTIMATE CAPITOL HILL HUDDLE AS REPUBLICANS CONFRONT TOUGH MIDTERM TERRAIN

Cruz told Politico on Saturday that he remains focused on helping Republicans keep control of the House and Senate in November, pointing to his campaign travel on behalf of GOP candidates in Georgia, Iowa, Nebraska, South Carolina and his home state of Ohio. He told the outlet he also plans to travel to Alaska, Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina this month.

“Over the last 10 years, there’s no Republican in the country who has campaigned for more Senate candidates, more House candidates, more gubernatorial candidates than I have, and this year will be no exception,” Cruz told the outlet.

That campaigning has included helping Vance during his successful 2022 Senate run in Ohio.

“Indeed, ironically, I spent a full day on the road with JD Vance, campaigning with him when he was running for Senate in Ohio,” Cruz told Politico. “I was very glad he won that race. I was very glad to help him.”

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Vance has also been campaigning for Republican candidates, with appearances in Texas and Florida last week. He is scheduled to hold a rally in Alaska on Monday.

Former Chicago Mayor and White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel urged his fellow Democrats not to attempt to impeach President Donald Trump if they win control of the House of Representatives next month.

Emanuel made the statement during a Sunday appearance on NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” saying Democrats should instead pursue ethics reform.

“Short answer: No, because it’s not going anywhere, and it’s going to be a food fight, and it’s just going to be we return to the politics of fighting,” Emanuel said when asked about impeaching Trump.

HOUSE DEMS PLOT TRUMP INVESTIGATION BLITZ IF THEY SEIZE MAJORITY

“You’re never going to get an impeachment,” he added. “Then if you do that, you just basically prove all Washington is what the American people think. It’s Disneyland on the Potomac. Deliver the change. Deliver a comprehensive ethics package that uses the investigations to then deliver change.”

The statement comes as Democrats hold a significant advantage over Republicans heading into the final weeks before the midterm elections.

REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: DEMOCRATS FACE AN IMPEACHMENT TRACTOR BEAM THAT COULD DERAIL THEIR AFFORDABILITY MESSAGE

In the House, Democrats are projected to win 215 seats compared to 201 for the GOP, meaning the left only needs three more victories out of the 19 possible toss-up races to clinch a majority. Republicans would need to win at least 17 of those races.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., has declined to say whether he would support impeachment proceedings against Trump, though appeared to suggest this summer that it would not be a top priority.

STEWART EXPECTS SCHUMER, JEFFRIES TO DISAPPOINT IF THE DEMS WIN BACK THE HOUSE AND SENATE

 “We haven’t ruled anything in or ruled anything out in terms of accountability. What we have said is that our focus is going to be to make life more affordable for the American people. We have to drive down the high cost of living,” Jeffries told NBC in June when asked about impeachment.

Emanuel, who served two terms as mayor of Chicago and then serves as chief of staff for former President Barack Obama, is one of several prominent Democrats rumored to be eyeing a 2028 presidential run.

RAHM EMANUEL LAYS OUT FIVE-POINT ETHICS PLAN, SAYS DEMOCRATS SHOULD LEARN FROM GOP-LED STATES ON EDUCATION

Emanuel has styled himself as a moderate Democrat opposed to infiltration by the Democratic Socialists, but that hasn’t stopped him from expressing support for far-left candidates like Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan.

“You think people wanna support defunding the police? You think they wanna support open borders, open prisons? Run on it. I don’t, and that’s not the party’s position,” Emanuel told Fox News Digital in an interview last week. “Now, we will have healthy debate among progressive and pragmatic wing of the party. That’s what a coalition party looks like. But that is it. You had a party convention!”

RAHM EMANUEL WARNS ‘BERNIE BROS’ COULD SINK DEMOCRATS BY SADDLING MODERATES WITH SOCIALIST AGENDA

While speaking at the Texas Tribune Festival, Emanuel didn’t hesitate to praise Democratic Texas Senate nominee James Talarico, calling him “strong” and admiring Talarico for being “comfortable” about discussing his faith.

But when asked by Fox News Digital moments later whether he supports El-Sayed’s candidacy, Emanuel initially hedged.

2026 MIDTERMS STATE OF PLAY: KEY RACES UNFOLD AS STEVENS, EL-SAYED BATTLE IN MICHIGAN

“Look, I mean, it doesn’t matter what I do … it matters what the Michigan voters think,” he told Fox News Digital. “And that’s what’s gonna determine this in this effort. And I support the Democrats winning the Senate.”

“So, in effect, you do hope that he wins that race for Democrats,” Fox News Digital followed.

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“Yeah,” Emanuel answered.

Fox News’ Joseph Wulfsohn contributed to this report.

A national security push to expand the infrastructure behind America’s technological ambitions is running into resistance from the communities being asked to host it, pitting Washington’s race to stay ahead of China against mounting local backlash.

Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, D-Va., who represents America’s “Data Center Alley,” warns that backlash could obstruct the very buildout Washington considers a national priority unless Congress steps in — arguing that community buy-in is necessary to keep expansion moving.

“The communities are being steamrolled by the industry,” Subramanyam told Fox News Digital. “They’re not feeling like anyone’s listening to them.”

Subramanyam is pitching a four-part federal plan aimed at breaking what he sees as a false choice between unchecked development and outright moratoriums. The proposal addresses siting, power costs, energy and water measurement, and security for the facilities and surrounding communities.

TRUMP’S DATA CENTER PUSH FRACTURES CONGRESS AS LOCAL ANGER EXPLODES: ‘GRASPING AT STRAWS’

“If you are concerned about a race with China, when it comes to building data centers and AI, you should want to work with us on a plan to get community buy-in for where to build data centers,” Subramanyam said.

His Fair Share Act would push states to require large power users to cover more of the infrastructure costs needed to serve them, according to the plan.

HOMEOWNERS IN THE HEART OF AMERICA’S AI BOOM ARE GETTING AN UNEXPECTED PAYOFF

“At the federal level, if we say that we’re going to take away some of your federal funding if you do this, then it will be a no-brainer,” he said, arguing data centers should “pay their fair share for the infrastructure that needs to be built because of them.”

The tension surfaced again this week as Fox News Digital reported on complaints of noise and encroachment from a massive data center built against an Ashburn cul-de-sac.

Subramanyam said many residents in his district understand the need for the infrastructure but object to how he says its costs and burdens are distributed.

Loudoun County says data center revenue has helped it lower its real-property tax rate, from $1.145 per $100 of assessed value in 2016 to $0.805 in 2026, according to the county.

But Subramanyam argued residents must weigh those benefits against costs he says can appear elsewhere, particularly on utility bills.

“What’s not OK is feeling like they come in, jack up utility costs and we pay for their power infrastructure,” he said, also citing water, air quality and other community concerns.

The industry disputes that data centers are driving higher residential power bills. The Leesburg-based Data Center Coalition has cited a recent analysis by energy consulting firm E3 that found no historical evidence that data centers increased residential electricity costs under existing rate structures.

Fox News Digital reached out to the trade group, which is based in Data Center Alley, for comment on the package.

Subramanyam argues infrastructure with national implications cannot continue developing “ad hoc” under a patchwork of state and local rules.

CHINA ‘THROWING GASOLINE ON THE FIRE’ IN AI DATA CENTERS RACE, SAY LAWMAKERS

Other pieces of the plan would establish federal standards for siting and measurement and develop protections against security threats, including attacks on critical infrastructure overseas.

“I know that localities do zoning, states do energy policy and other related things, but Congress and the federal government need to get involved,” Subramanyam said.

AMERICA’S REDDEST STATE CHASES BILLION-DOLLAR BOOM AS OTHERS SOUR ON MASSIVE EMERGING INDUSTRY

Those concerns have also become a focus of state action. Gov. Abigail Spanberger unveiled a September framework aimed at strengthening local control, shifting more infrastructure costs onto major power users and setting new standards for water use and grid reliability.

“In the years before I took office, data centers came to Virginia, and the commonwealth did not have a clear or coordinated plan to address their impacts on Virginians — on their electric bills, their water, their land, their air, or their quality of life,” Spanberger told Fox News Digital.

Leaders across the political spectrum, from Spanberger to Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, have crafted plans and emphasized the issue’s importance on multiple fronts.

Just across the Blue Ridge, West Virginia has taken a different approach, creating a microgrid program designed to attract large projects. Critics have raised concerns about limits on local government powers, while proponents have mapped out potential property tax elimination.

Jefferson County stakeholders recently debated the issue with the state’s data-economy liaison at a forum in Shepherdstown, where county Commissioner Cara Keys criticized the potential loss of local control while the liaison maintained that project approvals would be handled judiciously, according to WVMetroNews.

“Two things can be true: You can support data centers, and you can be against the guardrails lacking in [the law],” Keys said.

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For Subramanyam, the sharply different approaches on either side of the Blue Ridge illustrate the patchwork he says Washington must address before local resistance hardens further.

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“The only plan I’ve seen is either to do nothing or a full moratorium,” he said. “And to me, neither of those is a viable option moving forward.”

DALLAS — As companies and capital flow away from traditional financial hubs like New York and California, one southern state is making an increasingly aggressive bid to become America’s next financial powerhouse.

Speaking with Fox News Digital from the Texas Stock Exchange’s Dallas headquarters, former Congressman Jeb Hensarling, a strategic advisor to the exchange, said Texas is already becoming “the economic center of gravity in America.”

“Texas is really becoming the economic center of gravity in America,” Hensarling said.

“As New York is increasingly shoving capital out, Texas is saying, ‘You’re welcome.’ We put out the welcome mat, whereas New York, capital isn’t really made to feel at home, and capital wants to go where it’s made to feel at home.”

AMERICA’S NEXT ECONOMIC POWERHOUSE MAY BE RISING IN RED-STATE TERRITORY

The Texas Stock Exchange, which received Securities and Exchange Commission approval last year, is designed to compete with the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq by giving companies another venue to go public and list their shares.

Supporters say the exchange is the latest sign the Lone Star State is evolving from a destination for corporate relocations into a financial center capable of challenging Wall Street.

“Texas has been a great place to do business for decades,” Hensarling said. “But increasingly, it’s a great place to headquarter your business. Over the last couple of legislative sessions, because of laws passed, it’s a great place to incorporate your business. And really the last piece of that puzzle was the Texas Stock Exchange, which is now making Texas the best place to list your company and to go public.”

THIS STATE ISN’T JUST GROWING — ITS ECONOMY IS GETTING RICHER PER RESIDENT

The exchange has already secured primary listings from companies such as Energy Transfer, Dillard’s, Sunoco and Texas Capital Bank. Hensarling said backing from major financial firms such as JPMorgan and BlackRock, along with executives recruited from competing exchanges, demonstrates the venture is more than a branding exercise.

“They don’t put their capital in places where they think it’s going to lose money,” Hensarling said. “It’s a lot of validation from the market already.”

Hensarling also dismissed criticism that “Y’all Street” is little more than a catchy slogan.

“If it was gimmicky, I’m not really sure the competition would be all of a sudden setting up offices here,” he said.

Hensarling pointed to the exchange’s financial backers, executives recruited from rival exchanges and companies that have chosen Texas as their primary listing as evidence that it has quickly become a credible competitor.

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Hensarling said the exchange is simply the latest chapter in Texas’ broader economic ascent.

“People are coming to Texas because, again, capital is made to feel welcome,” he said. “It’s an economic juggernaut… all in all, they’re coming here because this is where, economically, the action is.”

Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, is urging health insurers to work only with brokers who record their conversations with ObamaCare applicants, escalating the Trump administration’s crackdown on unauthorized enrollments that officials say have cost taxpayers billions.

Vice President JD Vance announced Tuesday that the administration’s anti-fraud task force will be removing 750,000 fraudulent recipients enrolled in ObamaCare, saying the move will save American taxpayers $2.2 billion.

“These [ObamaCare enrollees] are phantom accounts,” Oz told Fox News Digital. “There are no human beings involved in these accounts.

BOMBSHELL REPORT EXPOSES HEALTHCARE FRAUD SCHEMES AS TAXPAYERS LOSE UP TO $521 BILLION ANNUALLY

He continued, “Why do I think that? We reached out to them. We wanted to know, have you filed any claims? We don’t see anything. Have you ever responded to any questions we’ve asked you? Do you have a Social Security number? Without that, I can’t tell if you made enough money to be on Obamacare or maybe too much to be.”

Oz told Fox News Digital that the administration is encouraging health insurance companies to get involved in the anti-fraud push.

“From now on, we’re asking insurance companies to work with brokers who record the conversations,” Oz said.

“Why wouldn’t you?” he said. “What are you nervous about? What are you worried about? Why don’t you want me to hear what you discussed?”

OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT UNCOVERS $500M IN FRAUD AND WASTE IN FEDERAL HEALTH BENEFITS PROGRAMS

The move would help create transparency among the recipients who are applying to receive aid through Obamacare, ideally showing that the customer authorizing the transaction is verifiable and actually qualifies for the program.

“I’m trying to make sure you had a real discussion to explain the policies and truly tried your best to get the right people in the right programs,” Oz said about the administration’s proposal. “Otherwise, we have massive corporate fraud.”

Oz also told Fox News Digital the administration discovered 1.1 million people receiving benefits from ObamaCare that did not have a social security number.

“The 760,000 accounts that we terminated, we took out because the American taxpayers should not be paying fraudulent brokers to lie about people who don’t exist, collect premiums and run away with the money,” Oz said.

VANCE TO HOST CONGRESS AT WHITE HOUSE TO DISCUSS LEGISLATIVE ACTION ON FRAUD

The Treasury Department has begun handing out refund checks of $500 to roughly 1 million Americans, along with a letter from President Donald Trump slamming the Biden administration for overcharging taxpayers “to fund the operation of HealthCare.gov.”

“I don’t know what’s driving this desire to hurt our ability to regulate,” Oz said.

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“But I can tell you, for sure, we have other tricks up our sleeve to make sure we don’t let the American people get taken advantage of.”

Texas state Sen. Angela Paxton is addressing the “elephant in the room,” saying she’ll vote Republican this November without mentioning one GOP candidate by name: her estranged husband, Ken Paxton.

Angela Paxton, who filed for divorce from the Texas Republican Senate candidate last year on “biblical grounds,” says in a new political ad that she will back the Republican ticket on Nov. 3, arguing that keeping the seat in GOP hands outweighs concerns about any individual candidate.

“People have asked my thoughts about this election, and turns out, I have some,” she says in the ad. “Let’s talk about the elephant in the room.”

GOP FORTRESS IS UNDER THREAT IN ONE KEY RED STATE, AND THESE VOTERS COULD DECIDE WHETHER IT FALLS

“In a general election, it’s not as much about the individual players on the team; it’s about getting the whole team across the finish line,” she continues. “Either we hold every Republican seat, or we hand the future of Texas to the other team.”

“That’s why I’m voting for the Republican ticket on Nov. 3,” she adds. “Let’s hold the line together.”

The ad does not mention Ken Paxton by name, but its message comes as the Republican Senate candidate faces a tight general election contest against Democrat James Talarico.

The latest Fox News Poll, released Thursday, found Talarico with 51% support among Texas likely voters and Paxton with 49%, a difference within the poll’s margin of sampling error. The same poll found 50% of likely voters preferred Republican control of the U.S. Senate, compared with 49% who preferred Democratic control.

Angela Paxton has previously signaled that maintaining Republican control of the seat takes precedence over her feelings about the individual candidate.

During an address to the Texas Federation of Republican Women in September, she similarly framed the issue as the “elephant in the room” and told the audience that “it’s not the people, it’s the seat.”

REPUBLICAN CAVALRY ARRIVES FOR KEN PAXTON AS BIG-BUCKS TEXAS OFFENSIVE OPENS CASH FLOODGATES

“We have more control over that seat and the future when we control the seat, when it’s still in the family, even if we’re mad at them,” she said at the time, drawing laughter from the audience.

“If we lose it to the other team, the nuances that we want to fix with maybe a certain candidate are nothing compared to what it’s going to take to get it back,” she added.

GEORGE W BUSH RAISES MONEY FOR REPUBLICANS, BUT NOT KEY SENATE CANDIDATE

Angela Paxton filed for divorce from her husband in July 2025 after 38 years of marriage. In the filing, she alleged that Ken Paxton had “committed adultery” and said their marriage had “become insupportable because of discord or conflict of personalities.”

She separately announced the divorce on social media, saying she had filed “on biblical grounds.”

“I believe marriage is a sacred covenant and I have earnestly pursued reconciliation,” she wrote. “But in light of recent discoveries, I do not believe that it honors God or is loving to myself, my children, or Ken to remain in the marriage.”

The new ad was funded by Texas PAC, a political action committee affiliated with Senate Majority Leader John Thune.

Ken Paxton also has the support of President Donald Trump and financial backing from the president’s MAGA Inc. political action committee as well as Elon Musk’s America PAC.

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Fox News Digital’s Peter Pinedo contributed to this report.

Senate Democrats’ recent rejection of voter ID is giving Republicans fresh ammunition in the midterm fight, putting them on the opposite side of a practice that is common across the country and broadly popular with voters in both parties.

Republicans have developed a cynical view of why Democrats won’t play ball with voter ID, arguing that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and his caucus don’t want to give the GOP a win heading into the midterm elections.

“Democrats are gonna vote against it because they don’t want to give the president a win,” Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., told Fox News Digital. “They don’t want to give Republicans a win. They’ll screw the country and stuff.”

DOZENS OF HOUSE DEMOCRATS REJECT BILL FUSING CONGRESSIONAL STOCK BAN WITH FEDERAL VOTER ID

Republicans’ latest attempt to pass a federal voter ID law, which was paired with another popular issue to ban insider trading in Congress, comes months after initially launching their push to pass the SAVE America Act, a high priority for President Donald Trump that Schumer and Democrats have time and again rejected.

Earlier this year, Democrats argued that voter ID isn’t so bad, it’s just how Republicans were approaching it that they disagreed with — Schumer dubbed the SAVE America Act “Jim Crow 2.0” and contended it would disenfranchise Black and Brown voters.

“Democrats support voter ID,” Schumer said on a press call earlier this year. “In fact, we included it, and it is included, in our Freedom to Vote legislation several years ago.”

INSIDE THE SENATE’S CHAOTIC ALL-NIGHTER THAT LEFT TRUMP’S SAVE AMERICA ACT ON THE SHELF

But as the months have dragged on, an issue that voters overwhelmingly support has become a place for Democrats to dig their heels into the dirt against.

Requiring identification to vote is already a practice in 36 states. Of those, 23 require photo ID, while 13 accept another form of identification, such as a bank statement. Nine of those states have Democratic senators.

“We already have it,” Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., told Fox News Digital. “I mean, Virginia has a voter ID law that our citizens really like.”

“Virtually every state has a voter ID law,” he continued. “So, what, there has to be a one size fits all federal thing for states [that[ are already doing this?”

SCHUMER, DEMOCRATS SAY THEY SUPPORT VOTER ID, THEN BLOCK GOP AMENDMENT TO REQUIRE IT

Republicans say that the Democratic resistance has a more nefarious intent. Requiring voter ID would allegedly nuke some of their voter base, illegal immigrants, and therefore lower their chances of winning in federal elections.

“Well, it’s evident Democrats want to make it easier to cheat,” Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., told Fox News Digital. ” Republicans want to make it easier to vote, make sure nobody’s cheating. And that’s where we are on this voter ID, an 80/20 issue or not even more.”

Barrasso argued that identification is required in several mundane instances of life, from boarding a plane to buying a beer — and even to get into some rallies held by Democratic candidates during this election cycle.

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“They’re complete hypocrites on this,” Barrasso said. “But [what] we need to do is elect more Republicans to be able to win these elections and make sure we have people here that see what the American people see, which is, you have to have a photo ID to vote.”

President Donald Trump announced Sunday the creation of a new federal “Super Intelligence Force” tasked with coordinating the government’s efforts to keep the United States at the forefront of rapidly developing artificial intelligence technology.

The new force, known as SIF, will coordinate federal engagement with consumers, public-interest and religious groups, critical infrastructure providers and technology companies, Trump said in a Truth Social post.

“The Super Intelligence Force is tasked with coordinating the effort of the Federal Government to ensure that America continues to lead the World in Super Intelligence,” Trump wrote.

This is a developing story; check back for updates.

President Donald Trump vowed that Republicans will overcome their disadvantage in the polls now that he is on the campaign trail on Saturday night.

Trump held a rally in Dayton, Ohio, on Saturday and told a cheering crowd that the polls hadn’t accounted for him campaigning personally.

“On election night, Ohio is going to prove that America does not belong to those who hate it. America belongs to those who love it,” Trump said.

TRUMP TOUTS ‘GOLDEN AGE’ AT OHIO RALLY, URGES VOTERS TO DELIVER GOP MIDTERM WINS

“These fake polls, they don’t account for one thing. They don’t account for the fact that Trump is out campaigning. They never thought this was good. They never thought this was going to happen,” he added.

A recent Fox News Poll found Democrats have a wider path to victory than Republicans in the House of Representatives. Democrats are projected to win 215 seats compared to 201 for the GOP, meaning the left only needs three more victories out of the 19 possible toss-up races to clinch a majority. Republicans would need to win at least 17 of those races.

10 DEMOCRAT-HELD HOUSE SEATS REPUBLICANS COULD FLIP TO SAVE THEIR MAJORITY

“With you at my side, we have always prevailed and prevailed by a lot and got record setting votes and record setting victory,” Trump said. “We’ve won every battle. We’ve defeated every hope. We’ve overcome every threat. And now we are on the cusp of beating the communists, socialist, radicalized lunatics and villains once and for all. We’re going to put them down once and for all.”

A new memo being sent to Republicans across the country, first obtained by Fox News Digital, revealed four key topics that the House GOP is focusing on in the final four weeks before Election Day: the border, fraudulent use of taxpayer dollars, the economy and public safety.

Republicans are also seeing political opportunity in the far-left insurgency that’s gripped the Democratic Party during its primary cycle, warning that socialists are pushing the party further left than the majority of Americans.

SOCIALISTS ARE HELPING GOP CAMPAIGNS HEADING INTO NOVEMBER

The economy, including high grocery and gas prices, has become a central issue in the 2026 election cycle.

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Democrats have seized on Americans’ struggle with cost-of-living as a political cudgel against Republicans, particularly using Trump’s tariffs on allies like Canada and his war in Iran as arguments against the GOP.

Fox News’ Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.

The Supreme Court begins its new term Monday, with renewed public and political concern over their recent rulings, the justices’ personal safety and even their future makeup.

Chief Justice John Roberts, surrounded by his eight colleagues, will call the court into public session precisely at 10 a.m. EDT with a pair of scheduled oral arguments. Their first case from the bench will be a major one: a federal-state environmental dispute over holding oil and gas companies liable for climate change harms.

Other high-profile appeals are already on the argument docket:

• Religious liberty and whether states can exclude religious schools from a taxpayer-funded preschool choice program
• Gun rights and state bans on certain semi-automatic rifles like AR-15s
• Voting rights and efforts to require proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote

NEWSOM PROMISES NEW LEGAL FIGHT AFTER TRUMP GETS SUPREME COURT VICTORY ON MAIL-IN VOTING

But the Supreme Court under Roberts’ leadership continues to struggle against negative public attitudes over their reputation as a non-political actor upholding the law and Constitution.

“The chief justice is in a tough position in that he is an institutionalist and a traditionalist at a time in our nation’s history where a lot of institutions and traditions have come under pressure like they haven’t in a long time,” said Thomas Dupree, a leading appellate attorney and former top Justice Department official. “And so in many ways, he is trying to kind of buck a lot of the tide right now by really insisting and hewing to these traditions of the institutions that have governed Washington for a long time.”

Trump on the docket

The new term will feature more constitutional disputes over the power of the executive, with current or anticipated fights over immigration, federal bureaucracy reforms and possibly the White House ballroom and Kennedy Center construction projects.

And if recent history is any predictor, the justices are likely to offer a mixed, nuanced series of rulings both for and against President Donald Trump’s ambitious agenda.

The last term saw him and his allies lose over sweeping reciprocal tariffs, birthright citizenship and removal of Federal Reserve governors; but prevail on various immigration policies, mid-decade redistricting and political gerrymandering, and federal campaign spending.

For the most part, the 6-3 conservative majority has greenlighted the administration’s power, especially in a series of preliminary decisions from its so-called “shadow docket” that allow Trump to move ahead – for now – on a range of issues.

The Trump Justice Department has won over 70-percent of its emergency cases before the Supreme Court since 2025 – applications that ask a challenged executive policy be enforced temporarily, while the larger issues are further litigated in the lower courts.

Those included new federal rules for verifying a voter’s citizenship status ahead of the November midterms; and approval for continued construction of the ballroom.

Court legitimacy and public perception

Decisions in Trump’s second term have him and Republican lawmakers sharply criticizing their judicial losses on one hand, and Democratic leaders sounding the alarm when their side does not prevail.

The judiciary has always weathered such criticism, but the personal tone of the attacks has only increased, as have the calls for sweeping accountability.

Those on the right have demanded impeaching federal judges who block White House policies, while those on the left have renewed calls for drastic changes to the court’s structure.

The president himself amped up the tensions dramatically, after losing a key decision over federal efforts to restrict mail ballots for the midterm elections.

In a wild Truth Social post, he took aim at the three members he appointed to the bench – Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.

“These are not the people I interviewed to serve on the United States Supreme Court, they are merely a shell of their original selves,” wrote Trump after the September 14 ruling, adding, “The Court’s inability and unwillingness to do the right thing for our Country will go down, in a very negative way, in the annals of History.”

Those on the left have their own beefs. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries told the National Association of Black Journalists that “dramatic Supreme Court reform is necessary…there’s a variety of different options that are on the table and I think that we can’t foreclose any single one of them.”

As the midterms approach, angry and energized Democrats hoping to take control of the House and maybe the Senate have tried to rally the base during the midterm races.

Among their proposals are renewed calls for 18-year term limits for the justices, expanding the number on the bench to 13 or more from the current nine and an independently-enforced code of ethics.

All this has added to increasing public perception the high court is motivated by something other than its constitutional obligations.

A Washington Post/Ipsos poll in July found 46-percent of Americans think the justices rule on Trump administration policies based on their political views, while just 25 percent see the court as ruling based on the law.

Gallup’s July poll showed the Supreme Court’s job approval slumped to a record low of 33 percent and a record high 61-percent disapproval, driven by a steep drop in Republicans’ backing of the court since last year.

And the most-recent Fox News survey revealed a 38-percent public job approval for the court, and a record high 45-percent believing the justices are too conservative.

That was up from 34-percent in 2022, and a low of 16-percent in 2015 and 2010.

Safety matters

Numbers aside, the amplified partisan rhetoric is having real-world consequences.

Several federal judges have told Fox News that budget shortfalls have compromised their physical security, at a time when they say threats against members of the bench have become more concerning.

The U-S Marshals report 370 threats made to federal judges as of July 1, a 31-percent year-over-year increase.

“Extraordinary safety measures” have been taken in some cases by federal law enforcement, one federal judge told Fox News, without offering details.

While “criticism is fair game, intimidation is a different thing entirely,” Justice Elena Kagan told a congressional panel in July. “When political figures of any stripe are trying to intimidate judges and justices to do things that they like rather than the things that they don’t, that’s where we really have crossed a line.”

Justice Barrett told the same House committee, “The threat level is really high.”

On at least one occasion, she has had to wear a bulletproof vest away from the court, and was a victim of a swatting incident over the summer at her home.

TRUMP’S WHITE HOUSE BALLROOM CONSTRUCTION GETS ANOTHER LIFELINE FROM SCOTUS AMID HEATED LEGAL FIGHT

Roberts’ rules

The job of managing the court’s docket falls to Roberts, who has faced bipartisan criticism for perceived partisanship.

Appointed by a Republican president, he more than any conservative on this current bench has been willing to rule against Trump and his Republican supporters.

That mixed record has been especially acute in recent days, where his influence was apparent in a series of decisions on midterm election matters, separately favoring both political parties.

That includes fights over congressional redistricting, mail ballots, a DHS database for voter eligibility and campaign ad spending.

More such emergency disputes are expected to reach the high court in coming weeks, pre- and post-election.

His colleagues have come to the chief justices’ defense.

“I don’t see this as a court that is just like: We’re just going to rubber stamp what the current administration does. You know, quite the opposite,” Kagan said at a judicial conference in July. “I think that that is a bad rap.”

Roberts himself in May defended the court against accusations of partisanship.

“We’re not simply part of the political process, and there’s a reason for that, and I’m not sure that people grasp that as much as is appropriate,” he said at a judicial conference.

Looking ahead

The Court’s new term will continue to be defined by various Trump executive actions being challenged by progressive states and private groups.

That includes pending appeals over transgenders in the military, tariffs, private data access and federal agency cuts.

Other upcoming challenges include mandated Ten Commandments displays in public schools, free speech fights and abortion access.

Much of what the court decides to tackle will likely turn on whether Democrats can gain control Congress after November, and their ability to legislatively tame Trump’s aggressive assertion of presidential power.

“This term is once again, set to deliver us a series of decisions concerning some of the most fundamental aspects of our government, including the relationship among the three branches of our federal government, and the relationships between the federal government and the states,” said legal analyst Dupree. “I think we’re also going to see in the near future a lot of election-related cases about the right to vote, how you protect it, and how we ensure the integrity of our election. So this is a term that promises a lot of big decisions and frankly, something for everyone.”

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Add to that the possibility of a Supreme Court vacancy in coming months, with much of the speculation centered on 76-year-old Justice Samuel Alito.

Fox News was the first to report earlier this spring he would stay on for another term that effectively ends in late June, and he plans to be on the bench Monday.

This despite public and private pressure from many Republicans – aware they may lose the Senate in November – that he step aside now to give the president a chance to name a fourth member to the court.

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Sources close to Alito tell Fox News considerations of his future are driven more by personal practicality rather than politics. They say for now he enjoys the work, and feels he is able to serve with commitment and focus.

CINCINNATI, OH – A young man killed by an Uzbek truck driver earlier this year in Ohio, along with several instances of illegal immigrant truck drivers involved in fatal crashes, has sparked a larger conversation in southwest Ohio about fraud, crime, immigration and how gaps in trucking industry oversight are putting Americans at risk.

Tobias “Toby” Forsythe, a 21-year-old goalkeeper from Ohio on the University of Massachusetts Lowell men’s soccer team, was killed July 5 when authorities say a semi-truck driven by 42-year-old Uzbek national Bekhzod Asrarov, who entered the country under the Biden administration’s diversity visa lottery program, rear-ended Forsythe’s Honda Accord on Interstate 71 in Madison County, Ohio.

It was later determined, according to court documents, that Asrarov could not speak or understand English well enough to communicate with responding state troopers without the use of Google Translate, despite holding an Ohio commercial driver’s license, and that he allegedly removed a dashboard camera from his truck after the fatal crash in an effort to conceal or destroy evidence.

“We cannot let truckers like Asrarov, who can’t read our road signs or speak to law enforcement, drive 80,000-pound rigs on America’s highways,” Transportation Secretary Sean posted on X after the crash.

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In southwest Ohio, a researcher known as Nodawolf has been sounding the alarm to his growing follower count about a vast network of trucking companies, many of them owned or operated by Uzbek nationals, that have popped up in communities like Loveland, Middletown, and Maineville, where Asrarov resides, in recent years and could be contributing to the unsafe practices that took the life of Forsythe, and many others across the country.

Nodawolf, who Fox News Digital granted anonymity due to the death threats he’s received from his online reporting, said his research has focused on what he describes as an interconnected network of Uzbek-linked trucking companies in southwest Ohio, including companies that have donated money toward construction of a local Islamic center, according to the center’s own website. 

“All of them have English violations and have manipulated ELDs,” Nodawolf said, referring to electronic logging devices that track a trucker’s driving hours and are intended to enforce federal limits on how long drivers can stay behind the wheel.

The Islamic Center, located in Maineville, told Fox News Digital that a “charitable contribution or participation in a community fundraising activity, by itself, should not be interpreted as evidence of an ownership, employment, contractual, commercial, or other business relationship with the Islamic Center or its leadership.”

A Fox News Digital review identified hundreds of trucking companies and other trucking entities registered in Maineville and surrounding southwest Ohio communities, including dozens that were registered in recent years. A separate review of companies identified as connected to the local Uzbek community found serious FMCSA safety violations, including drivers cited for failing English-proficiency requirements and other federal trucking violations.

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“This really concerns me, you know, as a father,” Nodawolf told Fox News Digital. “I mean, it’s clearly obvious that they either don’t understand our laws, they don’t care about our laws, or they know our laws and they’re taking advantage of it.”

Nodawolf has reported on Uzbek trucking networks communicating on the social media platform Telegram. One of those Telegram channels, named “UzbegimAmerica,” has routinely mentioned the Uzbek community in Maineville. Court documents show the owner of that channel, Farkhod Faiziev, is a suspected illegal immigrant from Uzbekistan.

The Trump administration has made significant progress on the issue of removing foreign truck drivers who pose a danger being removed from the road – including a recent multi-agency operation in Arizona’s Yuma Sector, which led to the arrest of 95 illegal alien truck drivers earlier this month – striking at the heart of human and drug smuggling operations at the U.S. southern border.

The Departments of Homeland Security, Transportation and Justice recently announced a coordinated crackdown on trucking and CDL fraud targeting fraudulent licensing, unauthorized employment, identity-document fraud, shell companies and other criminal activity. The effort includes inspections at more than 200 driving schools across 23 states, investigations based on more than 1,000 leads, enforcement operations targeting illegal immigrants with commercial licenses and a new multi-state DOJ task force focused on trucking-related fraud and roadway safety.

A trucking-industry veteran with decades of experience who spoke to Fox News Digital under the condition of anonymity for his safety described a developing fraud scheme popular with immigrant communities known as “chameleon carriers”, a network of trucking companies that appear separate on paper but, he said, share the same drivers, trucks and operations. The arrangement starts when operators establish one company that is “quote-unquote legitimate,” he said, then create additional carriers and authorities while using the same underlying assets across them.

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The point, the industry expert said, is to “spread out their safety liability across multiple companies.” Rather than allowing inspections and violations to pile up under one carrier, he said, the operation can distribute them among multiple motor-carrier authorities.

“If they have 10 inspections and 10 violations across 10 different companies, that doesn’t hurt the safety rating as much,” he said. “But if it was one company that had 10 inspections and 10 violations, that one company is going to get hammered.”

The separate companies can also serve as a contingency plan, he said. If one carrier is shut down, loses insurance or becomes too damaged by safety problems, “they’re able to immediately move all of the equipment and drivers and everything under one of the different companies,” the industry veteran said. “Their operation never stops. There’s no way to shut them down.”

He further alleged the structure can facilitate cargo theft, with a company disappearing after obtaining a high-value shipment while the broader network continues operating through its remaining entities. “They lost one of their shell companies, basically, but they just got $5 million in iPads,” he said.

The industry expert said the model can be particularly dangerous, in his view, because it allows companies to keep operating despite safety problems while allegedly using drivers who may not be legally authorized to work in the United States. He said operators can make that harder to detect by classifying drivers as independent contractors rather than employees, potentially avoiding the ordinary employee I-9 verification process.

“If you’re using a bunch of people from a third-world country that just showed up in the United States as drivers, whether they’re here legally or not, how well do you think they’re going to maintain their equipment and be able to follow the laws?” he said.

Seven of the trucking schools targeted by the Department of Transportation last month are located in Ohio, DOT told Fox News last month.

A Notice of Proposed Removal was recently issued by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration for Turan CDL School, a Middletown-based company that has advertised CDL training to Uzbek speakers, including advertisements suggesting students could obtain a CDL without first learning English, as well as Google reviews from customers claiming they earned their licenses in as little as one week.

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“There’s ‘what do the rules say’ and then ‘what’s happening on the ground,” Andrew Poliakoff, vice president of the Commercial Vehicle Training Association, told Fox 28 Columbus shortly after the crash that killed Forsythe. “We’re seeing now is that there are a lot of people committing fraud, and engaging in a variety of bad actions issuing commercial driver’s licenses.”

Victor Louis, whose Cincinnati based company Load Secure verifies the identities of drivers entering its network, told Fox News Digital that he has seen local advertisements promising prospective truckers a CDL in as little as a week immediately raise red flags.

“Trucking is such an inherently dangerous activity. Essentially, you’re driving a 40-ton missile down the road,” Louis said. “To think that someone is going to be certified to do that within a week, that may or may not speak English, like that doesn’t make any sense.”

Louis said his company is also seeing a significant number of non-domiciled drivers, foreign drivers who hold commercial licenses issued by a U.S. state despite not having their permanent residence in that state. He said roughly 15% to 20% of drivers entering Load Secure’s network fall into that category and estimated the figure could be around 20% among long-haul truckers nationwide.

“Whether they’re here legally or not, I don’t know, but they are essentially foreign nationals,” Louis said. He argued that long-haul trucking can be particularly attractive to migrants because drivers can spend weeks at a time living on the road rather than maintaining a permanent home near their workplace.

Louis said cargo theft and the security of the broader supply chain are among his biggest concerns.

“What we see with that market of non-domiciled drivers is a high propensity of cargo theft, an extremely high propensity,” he said. “It’s wreaking havoc on our supply chain. Number one, it’s extremely dangerous and number two, it is very unsecure. We don’t know if things are being tampered with. This exposes our supply chains.”

The Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles told Fox News Digital that it is reviewing the state’s nondomiciled commercial driver’s license holders in coordination with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Of the roughly 5,000 nondomiciled credentials originally issued, about 3,500 remain active, meaning approximately 1,500 are no longer active as the review continues.

On Sept. 16, Fox News reported that ICE arrested two Uzbek illegal alien truck drivers in New Jersey as part of nationwide crackdown on fraudulent CDLs.

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“We are starting to go into those thousand leads of fraud, waste and abuse into our trucking industry,” Mullin said in a press conference last month. “We’re going to prioritize going after employees that are suspected of accepting payments to help illegals bypass driver’s license and CDL requirements.”

In Brown County, Ohio, on Sept. 2, an Indian national with a CDL out of California crashed his semi-truck head-on into the car of 50-year-old Brenda Watson, who died at the scene. The driver, Manjit Singh , was later determined to be an illegal immigrant and ICE announced in a press release that a detainer was placed along with a charge of aggravated vehicular homicide.

“One state’s regulatory failure becomes every state’s highway threat,” Ohio attorney Mehek Cooke told News Digital. “Republican governors cannot assume their states were insulated from Biden’s border crisis simply because they opposed his policies.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Ohio Governor Mike DeWine’s office for comment.

Last month, ICE launched a tip-line for reporting fraudulent CDL licenses.

“Too many American lives have been lost or permanently changed because illegal aliens who have no business being on our roads have been granted CDLs,” Mullin said in a press release. “ICE and our federal partners, including the Department of Transportation, will be cracking down on CDL fraud so that not one more American life is lost to a reckless illegal alien behind the wheel of a semi-truck.”

President Donald Trump swept into Ohio Saturday night promoting what he calls a new “golden age” for America, pointing to billions of dollars in investment and new jobs in the Buckeye State as he urged voters to help keep Republicans in power in November.

For the third time in as many nights, Trump rallied supporters outside Dayton for Republicans Sen. Jon Husted and gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, casting the midterms as a chance to extend the economic and political gains he said the GOP has delivered since his return to the White House.

And with his own name absent from the ballot, Trump gave voters gathered a simple instruction.

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“Just pretend that I’m running,” Trump said. “When I run, we win.”

Trump, who carried Ohio in all three of his presidential campaigns, later echoed the same message as he sought to rally his political coalition behind Republicans fighting to maintain control of Congress.

“If you don’t mind, please pretend that I’m on the ballot,” Trump said. “And you need to turn out for a midterm victory.”

The president used much of the rally to make an economic case for the Republican ticket, declaring Ohio is “booming” as he hailed investments he credited to both his trade and tariff policies.

Trump pointed to a $400 million Stellantis investment in Toledo and an $850 million Electra aerospace investment near Springfield.

Weaving in an anecdote about his daily aspirin habit, the president also featured Bayer’s plans for a $2.2 billion pharmaceutical manufacturing campus near Columbus, which the company says will support approximately 600 permanent jobs and 1,500 construction jobs.

“Your state is booming,” Trump told the gathered crowd. “Every state is booming.”

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Trump credited the investments to his tariff agenda, arguing the U.S. is finally leveling the playing field after years of other countries using tariffs against American products while giving companies a powerful incentive to build at home.

The president also threw his support behind Husted’s Ratepayer Protection Act, legislation aimed at shielding consumers from additional electricity costs associated with data centers.

“We want them,” Trump said of data centers. “There’s so much money to be made for Ohio. You can’t just turn them off. They’ll go to China.”

Husted brought the legislation to the Senate floor days before the rally, where it failed to advance. President Trump pledged to sign it if Congress can send it to his desk.

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“I will sign this Ratepayer Protection Act into law immediately,” Trump said.

Trump broadened his victory lap from Ohio to the country as a whole, hailing stock market records, manufacturing growth, investment and employment while contrasting his own administration’s economic record with former President Joe Biden’s.

“Our nation is doing better now than ever before,” Trump said.

He also praised GOP-backed tax provisions, including no tax on tips and overtime, and reiterated his previously announced proposal for $5,000 payments to adult Americans if Republicans retain the House and Senate.

Trump then shifted to immigration and Springfield, Ohio, dedicating his recitation of the poem “The Snake” to the city that became a national flashpoint during the 2024 presidential campaign over an influx of Haitian nationals into the community.

“I dedicate this to Springfield, Ohio,” Trump said. “They went through hell.”

After finishing the poem, which the president has long admired as an immigration allegory, he told the crowd, “That’s what happened at our border,” before hailing his administration’s immigration crackdown.

The president also briefly touched on Venezuela, claiming the U.S. had more than recouped the costs of its military operation against former Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro through the country’s vast oil resources.

“We paid for the cost of the war many, many times over,” Trump said. “We’re making a fortune with it.”

Trump repeatedly weaved the election 31 days away into his remarks, urging Ohioans to support Husted, Ramaswamy and Republican congressional candidates.

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He also pitched Ohio as a potential home for the U.S. National Space Academy, citing both the state’s aviation history and the Wright brothers.

“If we win the midterms, Ohio will be very, very strongly considered for this,” Trump said. “I really want you to go out and vote again for John Husted and for Vivek.”

As rapper Macklemore draws controversy for his activism against Israel, rock stars Bruce Springsteen and Dave Matthews headline a “Power To The People” music festival today that features a partisan network of nonprofits and activists mobilizing against President Donald Trump ahead of the midterms.

Performers from a hip-hop band, The Neighborhood Kids, launched the festival with Macklemore’s anthem of protest, chanting “Free, free Palestine!” and continuing with a declaration about protesting from “the belly of the beast,” against the “funding of genocide” and the “terrorist organization” Immigration and Customs Enforcement.” It dedicated its performance to “the martyrs” railed against “Western imperialism.”

The marketing language on the “Power To The People” festival’s official website speaks to activating “the power everyday human beings have” to “shape” the world “on, and beyond, Election Day.”

The festival bears clear signs of alignment with the Democratic Party and spotlights the intersection of pop culture, nonprofit fundraising and partisan politics, revealing how celebrity drawing power translates into money, visibility and voters for organizations advancing a political agenda.

In the chat, awaiting a livestream broadcast on the Democratic-aligned MS NOW, a user wrote: “BLUE WAVE,” symbolizing a anticipated Democratic Party victories in upcoming elections. Others peppered their comments with blue wave and blue heart emojis.

By combining performances with voter registration, activist organizing and charitable donations, “Power To

The People” offers participating groups a platform to turn fans’ enthusiasm for music into political engagement – and votes – ahead of the midterms. Festival organizers didn’t respond to a request for comment.

With musical artists passionately urging festival goers to vote Democratic, the event raises questions about whether participating nonprofits cross the line from permissible voter engagement into partisan campaign intervention, which federal tax law prohibits for 501(c)(3) organizations.

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A “Freedom Village,” set up on the festival grounds of the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Md., outside the nation’s capital, features a roster of nonprofit organizations, including Indivisible, which is funded by billionaire George Soros, Third Act, the ACLU and other groups that have been at the heart of coordinating “No Kings,” “Tesla Takedown” and “Hands Off” protests against Trump over almost two years.

Last year, Springsteen performed at a “No Kings” protest at the state capitol in St. Paul, Minn., organized by Indivisible and featuring anti-Trump activist Jane Fonda. He also headlined a “No Kings” event at the Target Center in Minneapolis.

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Many of the festival’s performers and organizers bring a documented history of campaigning for Democrats and far-left activism. Festival organizer Tom Morello, guitarist of the band Rage Against the Machine, has called socialism a “necessity.”

Opening the concert after the hip-hop group The Neighborhood Kids, Morello blasted the “fascists and the would-be dictators” and the “oligarchs,” symbolic references that protesters have used for almost two years of protests against Trump.

According to an online fundraising form, the “Power To The People Festival Fund” is identified as a fiscally sponsored project of Catalyst Philanthropy Fund, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit established in 2024 in Nashville with $6.5 million in annual revenue, according to its latest tax filing.

Springsteen endorsed the Democratic presidential ticket in 2024, declaring: “I’m supporting Kamala Harris for president and Tim Walz for vice president.” He also called Trump “the most dangerous candidate for president in my lifetime.”

Artist Dave Matthews participated in the 2020 “I Will Vote” concert, which his official website promoted as supporting Biden, Harris and Democrats down the ballot. Earlier, Matthews backed socialist presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, writing: “When it comes down to it, Bernie Sanders represents what I want from my government.”

Artist and festival DJ Shepard Fairey created the iconic Obama “Hope” poster and the “Forward” image supporting Harris in 2024.

“I believe VP Kamala Harris and her VP pick Tim Walz are our best chance to move forward,” Fairey wrote on his website. He offered the image for grassroots activism and linked readers to Head Count Inc., a nonprofit receiving proceeds from the festival, to “help fans register to vote and learn more about how to participate in upcoming elections.”

Based in New York City, Head Count Inc. has about $14 million in revenues, according to its latest IRS tax filing.

The other nonprofit receiving proceeds from the festival is VoteRiders, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Washington, D.C., with $7.8 million in revenues, based on its last tax filing.

The festival’s “community partners” include Ben & Jerry’s, the ice cream company whose co-founder Ben Cohen, a far-left activist, was a guest at the wedding of communist tech tycoon Neville Roy Singham and Jodie Evans, co-founder of CodePink, a fierce anti-Trump nonprofit that has received $1.33 million from Singham.

Another community partner is Red Emma’s, a bookstore in Baltimore with a “Marxism, Socialism & Communism” tab on its website, selling t”Teachings of Karl Marx” by communist philosopher Vladimir Lenin, “Black Marxism” and “Flowers for Marx.”

The political leanings extend to younger performers. Musician “Grandson,” whose real name is Jordan Benjamin, has described using his platform to advance climate advocacy, voter registration and youth empowerment through his XX Resistance Fund. In a September 2020 interview, he praised Biden’s policy platform and made his electoral preference explicit: “We should elect that dude.”

At the festival, he blasted “the AI apocalypse” and sang from a trademark song celebrating the self-immolation of a U.S. service member, Aaron Bushnell, in 2024 at the Embassy of Israel in Washington, D.C., protesting Israel’s military response to the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas.

“Martyrdom is meditation, self-immolation!” the musician sang, bouncing on stage.

At “Power to the People,” the concept of “solidarity” comes with a VIP upgrade. The festival pairs its message of collective action with a familiar concert-business model: tiered admission, exclusive viewing areas and premium hospitality. Fans can choose between “People’s Park” lawn admission, “People’s Pavilion” access and the “Solidarity Circle” VIP package, which offers reserved seating, expedited entry and an “exclusive VIP deck with premium bar and food available for purchase.”

The top-tier “Robinhood Package,” branded a “VIP SUPER SUITE,” adds an exclusive suite, a dedicated viewing area at the second stage and an elevated balcony advertised as offering “the very best view of the stage and the festival.” Buyers also receive a commemorative poster and laminate, a phone-charging station and a “VIP host with concierge service for bar/food available for purchase.” Even at the highest tier, the advertised refreshments cost extra.

Organizers say the premium packages serve a charitable purpose, but the website uses differing descriptions of the donation pledge. Its overview promises a portion of all ticket proceeds and “100% of the net proceeds from VIP tickets” to VoteRiders and Head Count.

The package descriptions instead promise “all proceeds from VIP sales” to nonprofits supporting human rights and social justice.

The commercial offerings extend beyond the venue. The festival’s website promotes a paid membership with its livestream partner, MS NOW, advertising access to “daily live interactions and Q&As” with personalities including Democratic-aligned hosts Rachel Maddow, Jen Psaki, Al Sharpton and Joe Scarborough and Jen Psaki, a former Biden spokeswoman.

Alongside calls for “grassroots organizing” and “mutual aid,” the event offers a marketplace of upgraded access, media subscriptions and “hospitality.”

Back on stage with the Neighborhood Kids, the hip-hop artists continued their blast of ICE and pumped their fists in the air to inspire the concertgoers. “Power to the people!” they shouted.

“Rest in peace to all the martyrs,” one member of the group yelled. “Free the world! Free Palestine! Free Congo! Free Armenia! Free Sudan! And free everywhere in the world from Western imperialism.”

“And we got merch in that tent!” the member of the group continued, pointing toward the “Freedom Village,” as another yelled “¡Viva la revolución!”

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