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One of President Donald Trump’s top Democratic foes running for the Senate is taking a page from his and conservatives’ playbook in their pitch to reform the filibuster.

Democratic Maine Gov. Janet Mills, who is running to unseat longtime Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, released her policy platform in recent days. Among several pitches to voters is a call to reform the filibuster. 

Mills, if elected, said in the 19-page document that she would require “Senators to remain on the Senate floor and actually speak, rather than simply threatening a filibuster to delay action.”

The filibuster has become a flashpoint in the Senate, particularly for Republicans, given that its current 60-vote threshold requires legislation to be bipartisan in nature. And Mills’ position, which has been previously supported by Democrats, is one Trump and some in the GOP are pushing for to pass a massive election integrity bill.

GRAHAM EYES ‘DOWN PAYMENT’ ON TRUMP-BACKED SAVE ACT WITHOUT DEMOCRATIC SUPPORT

Her desire to change the filibuster echoes one made by Trump and conservatives, both in Congress and online, that have demanded Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., launch a talking filibuster to pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act.

“Washington is broken, and Maine people are paying the price,” Mills said in a statement introducing the platform. “Donald Trump and Washington Republicans are undermining our fundamental rights and driving up costs, all while Congress fails to solve the big problems facing Maine people. Enough is enough. Maine people deserve better than what D.C. is giving them.”

Mills and Trump have an adversarial relationship that reached a chaotic crescendo in 2025 when, during a meeting of governors at the White House, she declared, “We’ll see you in court,” over the president’s executive order to deny federal funding to states that allowed transgender athletes to participate in sports.

THUNE ACCUSES CRITICS OF ‘CREATING FALSE EXPECTATIONS’ AMID BACKLASH OVER STALLED SAVE AMERICA ACT

The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), the Senate GOP’s main campaign arm, warned that Mills’ desired change to the filibuster was a dog whistle for Democrats’ plan to slow-walk Trump’s agenda.

“Janet Mills is saying the quiet part out loud: If she goes to Washington, she will use every tool at her disposal to push her radical anti-Trump agenda on Americans,” NRSC spokesperson Samantha Cantrell told Fox News Digital.

Trump has asked Republicans to go a step further and nuke the filibuster altogether — an unlikely scenario in the Senate, given the lack of support to do away with the guardrail in its current form.

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A talking filibuster, as Mills suggested, would require senators to debate a bill rather than falling back on the typical 60-vote threshold.

The Senate is currently doing a version of the talking filibuster in the GOP’s bid to shine a light on Senate Democrats’ refusal to support the SAVE America Act. But it won’t lead to the legislation passing because the GOP isn’t unified to block Democratic amendments that could drastically alter the bill.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who handpicked Mills to run in Maine against Collins, has dubbed the legislation “Jim Crow 2.0” and rallied his caucus behind defeating the measure.

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Before Mills has a chance to square off against Collins, she’ll first have to survive a tough primary battle against insurgent candidate Graham Platner, an oyster farmer who has the backing of Schumer’s left flank.

Fox News Digital reached out for comment from Mills, Platner and Collins, but did not hear back by publication.

California Republicans this weekend will vote to endorse their pick for California governor in the race to succeed term-limited Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The vote, this Sunday in San Diego at the California GOP’s annual convention, comes a week after President Donald Trump took sides between the two major Republican candidates in the race, backing conservative commentator and former Fox News Channel host Steve Hilton over Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco.

Trump, whose endorsements are extremely influential in GOP primaries, argued in his endorsement statement that California had “gone to hell” and that “Steve can turn it around, before it is too late, and, as President, I will help him to do so!”

The president’s support for Hilton is expected to pay immediate dividends at the state GOP convention.

HERE’S WHO TRUMP IS BACKING IN THE GOLDEN STATE GUBERNATORIAL SHOWDOWN

“I think it definitely can help rally the base behind a candidate and generate some noise and some enthusiasm,” California Republican Party chairwoman Corrin Rankin told Fox News Digital.

Bianco is a loyal Trump supporter who has plenty of friends and support among California Republican insiders. But Trump’s endorsement of Hilton, a top adviser to then-British Prime Minister David Cameron a decade and a half ago before moving to the U.S. and becoming an American citizen in 2021, may boost him at the GOP convention, where backing from 60% of delegates is needed to land the party’s endorsement.

But Bianco, the sheriff who recently grabbed plenty of national attention for seizing ballots in Riverside County, appeared defiant.

“For too long, politicians and insiders from Sacramento to Washington have tried to pick our leaders for us. That’s not leadership, that’s a coronation, and it’s exactly how we ended up with the failed leadership Californians are living with today,” he said in a social media video. “This election belongs to the people, not the political class.”

TOUGH ON CRIME REPUBLICAN SHERIFF LAUNCHES BID FOR CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR

Trump’s endorsement may have another unintended consequence.

Candidates from both major political parties appear on the same ballot in the left-leaning state’s June primary, with the top two finishers advancing to November’s general election.

Some Democrats were concerned that with nine candidates in the race, support among Democratic voters would be so badly divided in the primary that no contender would reach the general election. Hilton and Bianco had been the top two candidates in some public opinion polls, giving some in the GOP hope of a final face-off between two Republicans.

That scenario may be less likely now, as Hilton’s support is expected to rise and Bianco’s drop in light of the president’s endorsement. Polling in the past week gave a hint of a Hilton surge.

“Trump kills any GOP hopes of an R vs R runoff in the California governor’s race,” Rob Pyers of California Target Book, which describes itself as a non-partisan and unbiased political almanac, wrote last week in a social media post.

MEDIA PERSONALITY STEVE HILTON ENTERS CALIFORNIA GUBERNATORIAL RACE

But Hilton dismissed as a pipe dream talk of shutting out the Democrats from the general election ballot.

“That scenario of two Republicans [making the general election ballot], I’ve been saying this for months, was always a fantasy,” Hilton said on Fox Business’ “The Bottom Line.” “The idea that the Democrat machine in California was just going to hand over the state to two Republicans was never serious. It was never, never going to happen.”

He further argued, “What was more likely was actually…you were going to have two Democrats in the top two and then we’ll have no chance of change. So this really makes sure that we have a Republican in the top two.”

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No Republican has won a statewide election in California since then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s 2006 re-election victory.

And with the president’s approval rating in California hovering in the 30s, Trump’s endorsement will likely do Hilton no favors if he makes it onto the November ballot.

This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

The nation’s second-largest school district is under federal scrutiny for a policy allowing staff to hide students’ gender identity from parents, after federal officials cited allegations tied in part to a student’s suicide.

The Los Angeles Unified School District, comprising hundreds of K-12 schools and more than a half a million students according to public data, recently received notice from the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division indicating that it had come under investigation for the policy.

The investigation follows a broader parental rights battle that the Supreme Court recently weighed in on. The high court found last month that California must give school districts the option to have policies that require education administrators to notify parents if their child engages in gender transition, which dealt a massive religious freedom win to the parents who sued, and sent a warning shot to other states and school districts across the country.

PARENTS, NOT BUREAUCRATS, RAISE AMERICA’S CHILDREN AND THE SUPREME COURT AGREES 

The Civil Rights Division sent a letter on March 25 to the school district informing it of the investigation and that division head Harmeet Dhillon had authorized it, the New York Times reported this week. The DOJ “will not tolerate policies that deny parents’ fundamental rights,” Dhillon told the newspaper.

Reached for comment by Fox News Digital, Dhillon said some allegations against the school were confidential and that she could not provide additional information.

The letter from the Civil Rights Division reportedly cited a lawsuit brought by parents of a high school student who died by suicide, which the parents directly attributed to the controversial policy.

The letter, according to the New York Times, also cited a female student’s sexual harassment claim.

FBI RAIDS HOME AND OFFICES OF MAJOR LOS ANGELES SCHOOL DISTRICT SUPERINTENDENT

The lawsuit was brought by the parents of Dylan Parke, who said their son suffered from serious depression and that they had been pursuing professional help for him when his school intervened without telling them.

“These harmful actions by employees and agents of Palisades Charter High School and Los Angeles Unified School District included referring Dylan to a counselor not employed by Palisades Charter High School without notifying Plaintiffs or seeking their consent or involvement,” lawyers for the parents wrote in the complaint. “These policies and practices promoted the intentional withholding of material information from parents regarding their child’s gender identity in furtherance of gender-affirming care.”

Parke disclosed to the school that he was “coming out publicly as transgender,” and “school personnel engaged in gender affirming care to facilitate Dylan’s social gender transition at school without parental knowledge, involvement, or consent,” the parents’ lawyers alleged.

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When asked for comment about the DOJ probe, a school district spokesperson said, “Because this matter involves a pending investigation, we are unable to comment on the specifics.” 

Israel Flores Ortiz, an 18-year-old illegal immigrant accused of groping more than a dozen high-school girls in Fairfax County, Virginia, was found guilty on nine counts Thursday. The guilty verdict came after critics of Soros-funded Democratic Commonwealth Attorney Steve Descano accused him of flubbing the case by not subpoenaing witnesses until the day before. 

After an all-day hearing in which a dozen victims testified, a judge found Flores Ortiz guilty of nine misdemeanor counts of assault and battery and not guilty of three other counts, reported local outlet WUSA9. One charge was thrown out by the judge, according to WJLA reporter Nick Minock. 

Flores Ortiz, 18, was facing 13 counts of assault and battery for allegedly inappropriately touching female classmates at a Fairfax County, Virginia, school, according to police. 

Flores Ortiz is an illegal immigrant from El Salvador who was released into the U.S. under the Biden administration in 2024, according to the Department of Homeland Security. He was attending 11th grade. 

‘VIRGINIA FATHER’ CHARGED WITH MURDERING INFANT DAUGHTER IS ILLEGAL ALIEN, SAYS DHS

Local police were alerted March 5 by Fairfax High School about reports of multiple assaults on campus. An arrest warrant was issued, and Flores Ortiz turned himself in March 7.

His sentencing is set for April 21. 

During the hearing, Sean Kennedy, president of Virginians for Safe Communities, accused Descano of intentional “incompetence” and of reducing the charges so that it would be harder to deport Flores Ortiz. Descano’s entry into political office was propelled by a massive $627,653 donation from the Soros family’s Justice and Public Safety PAC which made up roughly 70 percent of his 2019 campaign budget. 

“DESCANO DOES IT AGAIN(,) Fairfax HS illegal alien groping case collapsing TODAY because FFX Soros DA Steve Descano only subpoenaed victims & witnesses yesterday!” Kennedy wrote on X Thursday. “This IS NOT incompetence—it’s intentional.” 

A spokesperson for Descano’s office called Kennedy’s claims “blatantly untrue” and clarified that charges are set by a magistrate, not the commonwealth attorney. She also said that subpoenas were sent weeks in advance with “some additional subpoenas” being sent closer to the trial.

After the hearing, Kennedy, who was present in court during the hearing, told Fox News Digital that Descano’s office “deserves no credit for this verdict — a Pyrrhic victory as it is.” 

“First, Descano undercharged the illegal alien groper with simple assault and battery instead of sexual battery which would have entailed registering as a sex offender or the more serious charge of aggravated sexual battery carrying a felony sentence of 20 years,” he said. “Then, Descano sought to release the offender on bail which the judge rightly rejected. Next, prosecutors sent out the witness and victims subpoenas only the day before — imperiling the case altogether.” 

Despite this, he credited the guilty verdict to the victims, saying, “the girls showed up in force and forced Descano to try the case.”

“Disgustingly, Descano’s chief deputy diminished Flores Ortiz’s sexual assaults as ‘grabbing butts’ in her opening statement supposedly advocating on behalf of victims after having tried to block the media from covering the case,” he said. “This victory belongs entirely to the courageous and relentless victims who got themselves a modicum of justice.”

“Fortunately,” he concluded, “despite the likely light sentence Flores Ortiz will get ICE will provide him with free transportation home to El Salvador.” 

WATCH: ICE IMPERSONATOR BRUTALLY BEATEN BY STREET MOB, DHS SAYS MAN NOT ASSOCIATED WITH AGENCY

In response, Descano told Fox News Digital, “Today, my office went to trial on all 13 assault charges, giving each victim the opportunity to share their experiences with the court. After listening to the testimony and reviewing other evidence, the judge ultimately convicted the defendant of nine of those charges.”

Descano shared, “I was concerned when I learned of the defendant’s pattern of assault against minors in school – a place where all children should feel safe.” He added, “I’d like to extend my appreciation to all the victims for their bravery in sharing their testimony publicly, which is always a daunting task, but was made even more so in the face of the significant attention on this case.”

Additionally, Laura Birnbaum, a spokesperson for Descano’s office, dismissed Kennedy as “a political hack who regularly lies about Fairfax cases.” 

Birnbaum added that, “Each of the claims here are blatantly untrue.”

She clarified that charges in Virginia are set by a magistrate, saying, “Our office was not involved in determining them” and “any claims that we downplayed the facts reflect a lack of understanding of the Virginia legal system.” 

Birnbaum further stated that prosecutors “have never requested to release” Flores Ortiz and that the case “was never ‘in peril.’” According to Birnbaum, subpoenas were sent weeks ago, while “some additional subpoenas were sent closer to trial, and all of the people who received them came to court.” 

She asserted that “It’s clear that Sean Kennedy will find any excuse to criticize our office, including making up facts when the facts don’t fit his narrative.” 

This comes as Fairfax County, Virginia’s most populous county and a major suburb of Washington, D.C., is facing increased national scrutiny for a spate of crimes and violence by criminal illegal immigrants. The Trump administration has appealed to the county’s Democratic leadership, as well as new Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger, to not release illegal immigrants being charged with serious crimes.

During the hearing, the Department of Homeland Security revealed that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were prepared to arrest Flores Ortiz for deportation if he was released Thursday. 

“If Fairfax County’s sanctuary politicians choose to release this predator back into our communities, (ICE) stands ready to take him into custody and deport this sexual deviant,” DHS posted on X. 

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said a detainer has been filed and that he could face removal from the country.

CHILD OF CHINESE ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS CHARGED WITH PLANTING EXPLOSIVE AT US MILITARY BASE

Virginia parents expressed disgust, frustration and fear about Fairfax High School’s handling of complaints alleging Flores Ortiz groped several girls from behind on school grounds.

Parent Stacy Langton told Fox News Digital recently, that “it’s terrifying as a parent, because when I send my daughters to school, I think they’re safe in the care of the school.”

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“And in this case, they absolutely were not safe, and I don’t know what parent wouldn’t be completely distraught at the idea that their daughters could be getting sexually battered while they’re changing classes,” Langton said.

Fox News Digital reached out to Descano’s office for comment. Public defenders representing Flores Ortiz declined to comment, citing the case having not yet concluded. 

Before The Baltimore Sun published a word of its reported investigation into Maryland Gov. Wes Moore’s record, the Democrat state leader and his team were already blasting the paper’s new ownership as “right-wing” and cozy with President Donald Trump. 

The Baltimore Sun, which was purchased by Sinclair executive chairman David D. Smith in 2024, is reportedly examining Moore’s military record, scholastic sports tenure and other parts of his background, Semafor reported earlier this week, citing the Sun has brought on investigative reporters from sister outlets under the Sinclair umbrella. 

“It’s actually a very sad day because the Baltimore Sun used to be our paper of record. It’s now become the paper of the right wing,” Moore told former Biden spokeswoman Jen Psaki in a recent interview, after Psaki noted the Sun was purchased in 2024 by Smith.

Moore, who has downplayed talks of a 2028 presidential bid, has previously faced scrutiny for listing a Bronze Star on a Bush-era White House fellowship application before he received the award, as well as questions about the depth of his Baltimore roots during his 2022 race against then-Gov. Larry Hogan. Moore ultimately received the Bronze Star in 2024.

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“[Y]ou’ve had a MAGA billionaire who is now currying favor for [President Donald Trump] and utilizing what used to be a prized paper for our region and now turning it to something that is not much more than right-wing drivel,” Moore said.

The governor added that Army members he served with don’t question his integrity in the same way and that Smith is the “canary in the coalmine” for wealthy conservatives trying to use their resources to please Trump, including using the media.

The interview elicited a lengthy rebuttal from the managing editor of the Smith-linked outlet investigating Moore: Spotlight on Maryland. The outlet is a collaboration between the Sinclair-owned FOX affiliate in Baltimore, ABC affiliate in Washington and the Sun.

“Democrats sure are putting in a lot of work to discredit a series before it’s even started running. That alone should raise a question: why?,” Spotlight on Maryland managing editor Candy Woodall tweeted, captioning Moore’s interview.

Woodall claimed Moore’s office threatened to disseminate files to “every media reporter” to try to discredit her investigation.

“We saw the same playbook in 2022 when a FOX-45 reporter asked why Moore allowed claims that he had received a Bronze Star that he didn’t have at the time. His team accused the reporter and media outlet of bias and a smear campaign,” she wrote.

“Two years later, after the New York Times wrote about the Bronze Star Moore hadn’t received, the narrative changed, and the governor said it was ‘an honest mistake’. In an August 2024 statement on his military record, Moore acknowledged he knew before leaving Afghanistan that he had not received the award.”

In that statement, Moore said his deputy brigade commander encouraged him to apply for a White House fellowship and simultaneously recommended him for a Bronze Star and told him to include that on his application.

He added that in his officer evaluation, his superiors ranked him in the top 1% of Operation Enduring Freedom officers and called him “the best lieutenant I’ve encountered…” before later noting he “sincerely wish[ed he] had gone back to correct the note on my application.”

Woodall pushed back again in her tweet, saying that her journalists’ loyalties aren’t to officials but to Marylanders and that her team sent “hundreds” of questions to Moore and his staff to scant responses.

She claimed a Moore official admitted Spotlight doesn’t deserve to be treated like a news outlet and “nothing that comes out of Sinclair should be taken seriously.”

“If you want to know more, keep reading The Baltimore Sun, a 200-year-old newspaper that has survived many governors,” she quipped.

When asked for a response, Moore press secretary Ammar Moussa told Fox News Digital that “in light of revelations that Sinclair owner and Trump-donor David Smith is personally involved in Spotlight on Maryland’s reporting, what is the extent of Sinclair owner and Donald Trump ally David Smith’s influence in the FOX-45 and Baltimore Sun newsrooms?”

He also said Spotlight reporter Gary Collins is “not a journalist,” directing Fox News Digital to an X response to Collins, criticizing him as a former Maryland Republican Party official “working at the direction of your Trump-supporting boss.”

ANTI-ICE LEGISLATION HEADS TO DESK OF RISING STAR DEMOCRAT GOVERNOR, TESTING HIS PRESIDENTIAL AMBITIONS

“I will continue to report facts, just like my colleagues do,” Collins said.

Collins had also published a March 26 report on a roundtable Moore participated in near a Washington County warehouse rumored to be destined as an ICE facility.

Collins’ piece noted Moore’s complaint about the feds’ “lack of transparency” and contrasted it with what he said was a similar dynamic in Annapolis.

“[Moore’s] administration has yet to release full documentation tied to his military record, academic history, and prior credentials — records Spotlight On Maryland has requested for months,” Collins wrote, going on to scribe that Sun co-owner and Moore friend Armstrong Williams penned a column calling on the governor to “tell the truth and release the facts.”

Moussa also took aim at Woodall, asking her if Smith was behind her lengthy tweet.

“Did your Trump-supporting boss write this? Or does he only monitor your emails?” Moussa said.

Smith previously ruffled feathers on the left when Sinclair pulled “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” from its lineup following the controversial comic’s reaction to Charlie Kirk’s murder. Sinclair is reportedly the largest owner of affiliates of ABC – the network that employs Kimmel.

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Fox News Digital reached out to Sinclair and Smith for additional comment on Friday. 

Vice President JD Vance is set to arrive in Pakistan early Saturday, where he will lead high-stakes negotiations with Iran aimed at preserving a fragile ceasefire and preventing a broader regional war.

Vance is joined by U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, as part of a senior delegation engaging Iranian officials in Islamabad.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Speaker of Parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf will be negotiating for Iran. 

The talks, scheduled for Saturday, come over a month after the U.S. launched Operation Epic Fury Feb. 28 — a sweeping military campaign targeting Iran’s military infrastructure following the collapse of nuclear negotiations.

IRAN REVEALS 10-POINT PLAN FOR PEACE WITH THE US – HERE’S WHAT’S IN IT

That operation pushed the U.S. and Iran to the brink of a ground war before a tenuous diplomatic breakthrough in recent days. 

Trump announced a two-week ceasefire Tuesday, agreeing to suspend further U.S. strikes on the condition that Iran reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a critical global shipping route.

While Iran signaled it would allow passage through the strait as part of the agreement, traffic remains severely disrupted, with shipping companies hesitant to resume normal operations amid ongoing security concerns and uncertainty over enforcement.

Vance struck a cautious tone before departing, warning Iran not to test the U.S. negotiating posture.

“If they’re gonna try and play us, then they’re gonna find that the negotiating team is not that receptive,” Vance said, adding he still expects the talks to be “positive.”

The outcome of the talks could determine whether the ceasefire holds or collapses into renewed hostilities, as both sides remain deeply divided after weeks of conflict.

Iranian officials have struck a cautious and conditional tone ahead of the talks. 

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said it accepted the two-week ceasefire but warned “this does not signify the termination of the war,” adding that “our hands remain upon the trigger” if the agreement is violated.

Vance described the agreement Wednesday as a “fragile truce.”

Iran also has tied the success of the ceasefire to developments in Lebanon, insisting that Israeli strikes on Hezbollah must stop as part of any broader agreement. Tehran has warned that continued attacks could jeopardize the talks, highlighting a key dispute with Israel and the U.S., which have argued Lebanon is not covered by the truce.

VANCE WARNS IRAN WILL ‘FIND OUT’ TRUMP IS ‘NOT ONE TO MESS AROUND’ IF CEASEFIRE DEAL FALLS APART

Pakistan has emerged as a key intermediary, positioning itself as a neutral venue between Washington and Iran after helping broker the initial truce. But that role is already facing scrutiny.

Pakistan’s defense minister, Khawaja Asif, sparked backlash recently after calling Israel’s actions a “curse on humanity” in a now-deleted X post and, in a separate exchange, saying critics should “burn in hell.”

The remarks drew a sharp response from Israeli officials, who questioned Pakistan’s credibility as a neutral broker. Israeli leaders described the comments as “outrageous” and warned such rhetoric was incompatible with serving as a mediator, while Israel’s ambassador to India publicly said, “we don’t trust Pakistan.”

Pakistani officials have not directly addressed the controversy surrounding Asif’s remarks but have defended their broader role, emphasizing Islamabad’s efforts to broker the ceasefire and facilitate talks. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has called for “dialogue and diplomacy,” while officials say both Washington and Iran have expressed confidence in Pakistan’s mediation.

The talks are also unfolding against a challenging security backdrop.

U.S. officials have long treated Pakistan as a high-threat environment for official travel, with strict movement controls and layered security measures typically required for American personnel.

Bill Gage, a former Secret Service agent who traveled to Islamabad with President George W. Bush, told Fox News Digital the threat environment in Pakistan historically has ranked among the most severe faced by U.S. protective teams, requiring constant coordination and heightened precautions.

“The threat environment in Pakistan was one of the worst the Secret Service had ever operated in,” Gage said of his experience in 2006. “We were briefed that al-Qaeda wanted to kidnap an agent, so we always had to be in pairs.”

Pakistan continues to grapple with persistent terrorism threats. 

The State Department currently classifies the country as a Level 3 travel risk, warning of potential attacks, crime and kidnapping, and noting that extremist groups have carried out strikes in major cities, including Islamabad.

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Still, U.S. officials view the Islamabad meeting as a rare opening for diplomacy, with discussions expected to include nuclear restrictions, sanctions relief and broader regional security issues.

Whether the talks produce a lasting breakthrough or plunge the Middle East back into conflict may hinge on whether both Washington and Iran are willing to move beyond decades of mistrust.

The fate of the President Donald Trump-touted 250-foot Triumphal Arch will be decided next week at a White House Commission of Fine Arts (CFA) meeting after the official proposed designs of the monument were filed by the Trump administration and released for the first time Friday.

“I am pleased to announce that TODAY my Administration officially filed the presentation and plans to the highly respected Commission of Fine Arts for what will be the GREATEST and MOST BEAUTIFUL Triumphal Arch, anywhere in the World,” Trump said in Truth Social post. 

“This will be a wonderful addition to the Washington D.C. area for all Americans to enjoy for many decades to come!”

TRUMP ADMIN OFFICIALS REVEAL DETAILS OF FREEDOM 250 GRAND PRIX IN DC

Speculation has swirled about the final look of the proposed arch since late last year, with many iterations making the rounds on social media before the official mock-ups were shared earlier today.

The mock-up, designed by architecture firm Harrison Design, is a 12-page addendum shared on the Commission of Fine Arts official meeting page.

According to those mock-ups, the arch rises to 250 feet, evoking the nation’s 250th anniversary and more than double the height of the nearby 99-foot Lincoln Memorial.

The central opening of the arch in the provided designs is roughly 110 feet high, providing a picture frame effect for both the Lincoln Memorial across the Potomac River and Arlington National Cemetery.

The arch’s location would be roughly equidistant from both landmarks, sitting at the roundabout between Memorial Bridge and Memorial Avenue near the Arlington Cemetery Metro Stop.

The scale would be unlike any monument in Washington, D.C., with the arch theoretically dwarfing nearby memorials and towering above the roadway.

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Friday’s released designs revealed a golden, winged Lady Liberty-style figure atop the arch flanked by two bald eagles crowning the monument and adding even more height to the structure. This is in contrast to previous possible designs Trump posted to social media in January, which had no ornamentation atop the arch.

The most iconic detail released in Friday’s design, emblazoned across the top of the large central archway, are golden letters that say “ONE NATION UNDER GOD” centered on its white stone facade.

Harrison Design confirmed to Fox News Digital that the principal architect behind the arch is Nicolas Charbonneau, the award-winning director of Harrison Design’s Sacred Architecture Studio. He is known primarily for his work on churches.

“The world is ordered so that there’s a harmony to everything,” Charbonneau told The Arlington Catholic Herald. “And we’ve been designed to know that there should be an ordering to what we do. A lot of modern architecture flies in the face of that.”

RARE AND ORIGINAL AMERICAN FOUNDING DOCUMENTS TO FLY ON FREEDOM PLANE ACROSS NATION

According to the mock-ups reviewed by Fox News Digital, there appear to be internal staircases within the arch’s pedestals leading to what is implied to be a viewing deck for visitors to the monument. Four golden lions sit at each corner of the monument, renderings show.

The White House reiterated its goals for the monument in a statement it had previously shared with Fox News Digital earlier this year when asked for comment.

“The Triumphal Arch in Memorial Circle is going to be one of the most iconic landmarks not only in Washington, D.C., but throughout the world,” White House spokesperson Davis Ingle reiterated in a statement to Fox News Digital.

AMERICA 250 ORGANIZERS UNVEIL SWEEPING PLANS FOR THE COUNTRY’S HISTORIC BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION

“It will enhance the visitor experience at Arlington National Cemetery for veterans, the families of the fallen and all Americans alike, serving as a visual reminder of the noble sacrifices borne by so many American heroes throughout our 250-year history so we can enjoy our freedoms today. President Trump will continue to honor our veterans and give the greatest nation on earth — America — the glory it deserves.”

Trump has previously touted the arch, saying he’d “like it to be the biggest one of all,” adding, “We’re the biggest, most powerful nation.”

The Commission of Fine Arts, founded in 1910, consists of members who are personally selected by the sitting president and describes itself as “an independent federal agency charged with giving expert advice to the President, the Congress and the federal and District of Columbia governments on matters of design and aesthetics.”

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The White House Commission of Fine Arts is scheduled to meet Thursday morning in D.C.

The entire packet of renderings of the arch can be viewed here.

Harrison Design did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on the arch’s design.

Some Jeffrey Epstein abuse survivors are pushing back on first lady Melania Trump’s call for public congressional testimony, as House Oversight Committee Chair Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., confirmed Friday “we will have hearings,” following a rare public statement Thursday by Trump at the White House where she came out swinging at those who have linked her to Epstein.

The first lady also called on Congress to conduct hearings “specifically centered around the survivors.”

“Give these victims their opportunity to testify under oath in front of Congress with the power of sworn testimony,” Trump said. “Each and every woman should have her day to tell her story in public if she wishes, and then her testimony should be permanently entered into the Congressional Record.”

But a group of 15 Epstein victims released a joint statement Friday against the move.

“First Lady Melania Trump is now shifting the burden onto survivors,” they said. “Survivors of Jeffrey Epstein have already shown extraordinary courage by coming forward, filing reports, and giving testimony,” they added. “Asking more of them now is a deflection of responsibility, not justice.”

MELANIA TRUMP DENOUNCES ‘LIES’ CONNECTING HER WITH DISGRACED FINANCIER JEFFREY EPSTEIN IN WHITE HOUSE EVENT

Comer said such hearings have always been on his radar.

“I agree ​with the first lady and appreciate what she said. We will have ⁠hearings,” Comer told Fox News’ Sandra Smith. “I’ve always planned on having hearings with the victims.

“My attorneys on the Oversight Committee have been communicating on a constant basis for months with the attorneys representing Epstein victims,” he added. “There are some victims who are willing to come in, [but] most victims aren’t, and I completely understand that, but we have always planned on having a hearing with Epstein’s victims once the depositions have been completed.”

Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were both deposed by the Oversight Committee earlier this year for questioning related to Epstein in February, with planned depositions forthcoming for Microsoft founder Bill Gates in June.

EPSTEIN’S LAWYER ‘NOT AWARE’ OF ANY RELATIONSHIP TRUMP HAD WITH LATE CONVICTED SEX OFFENDER, COMER SAYS

“The first lady accomplished three things [Thursday] as it relates to the disgraceful Epstein,” the first lady’s senior advisor, Marc Beckman, told “Fox & Friends” Friday. “First, she cleared her record; she set the record straight, she debunked all of the lies surrounding her and Epstein.”

MELANIA TRUMP ADVISOR SAYS SHE’S HAD ‘ENOUGH’ AFTER BREAKING SILENCE TO DENY JEFFREY EPSTEIN CONNECTION

“Second, she became a champion for these women, for the victims, and finally, third, she’s a real leader in Washington, D.C. She’s calling on Congress to act now.”

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It is unclear when or how many of the survivors will come forward to testify.

“Survivors have done their part. Now it’s time for those in power to do theirs,” the survivors said in the statement.

Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., was forced to make an emergency landing Friday after experiencing an in-flight engine failure while piloting a plane.

According to Sheehy’s chief of staff, Mike Berg, the senator was conducting a routine flight training exercise that he completes twice a year.

“This afternoon, Sen. Sheehy was engaged in a routine flight training exercise which he completes twice a year,” Berg said in a statement. “The aircraft experienced a mechanical engine failure.”

Berg said Sheehy and his co-pilot made an emergency landing in a field.

EMERGENCY LANDING ENDS IN TRAGEDY AS PLANE CRASHES ON NEW MEXICO GOLF COURSE

Neither pilot was injured,” he added.

PLANE DOOR OPENS IN MIDAIR MOMENTS AFTER TAKEOFF, LEAVING FLIGHT PASSENGERS STUNNED AND SOCIAL MEDIA BUZZING

The plane landed in a field in Ennis, Montana, according to KBZK.

The outlet reported that Sheehy is an FAA-certified commercial pilot and certified flight instructor.

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Reached for comment, Sheehy’s office referred Fox News Digital to Berg’s statement.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

A group of at least seven law professors have mounted a campaign to challenge the longstanding interpretation of birthright citizenship, arguing in favor of former President Donald Trump’s effort to narrow the constitutional provision, even as Supreme Court justices signal skepticism.

The legal scholars’ arguments aim to persuade the Supreme Court and opponents of Trump’s efforts that there are serious originalist and historical arguments for narrowing birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment that deserve consideration rather than dismissal as a fringe political theory.

Ilan Wurman, a law professor at the University of Minnesota, told Fox News Digital the recent wave of support is intended to reinforce the point that birthright citizenship is not a settled matter despite the institutional consensus on it.

“That several prominent law professors have come out over the past year, including a few in the past month, in varying degrees of support for the Trump Administration’s birthright citizenship executive order, shows that their position is serious,” Wurman said. “The Supreme Court cannot simply rely on the conventional wisdom. It will have to show its work.”

TRUMP ELEVATES IMMIGRATION FIGHT AT SUPREME COURT, TURNING UP HEAT ON DEMOCRATS AHEAD OF MIDTERMS

Wurman, who specializes in constitutional law, was one of dozens who also weighed in on the case by submitting amicus briefs to the high court ahead of April 1 oral arguments on birthright citizenship, which grants automatic citizenship to most babies born on U.S. soil under the 14th Amendment.

He argued, in part, that the amendment never intended to grant illegal immigrants’ babies citizenship, saying that in the 19th century, parents who were residents of a country owed allegiance to the country in exchange for protections from its government.

“This exchange of allegiance and protection was often described as a ‘mutual compact,’” Wurman wrote. “Lawful aliens generally fell within the scope of the rule, while foreign soldiers and ambassadors did not. … Illegally present aliens would likely have fallen outside the scope of the rule.”

The other law professors include Randy Barnett of Georgetown University, Kurt Lash of University of Richmond, Richard Epstein of New York University, Tom Lee of Fordham University, Adrian Vermeule of Harvard University and, most recently, Philip Hamburger of Columbia University, each of whom has argued in varying degrees that Trump’s birthright citizenship order is constitutionally defensible.

SCOTUS SLATED TO WEIGH FUTURE BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP PROTECTIONS FOR MILLIONS — HERE’S WHAT AT STAKE

Trump’s order, signed soon after he took office, would prevent children born to mothers who are illegal immigrants or legal temporary visitors from gaining automatic citizenship. While all the justices, aside from Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, appear poised to toss out Trump’s order, the case has nevertheless invited polarizing debate. If approved by the high court, it could strip citizenship from those ineligible for it under Trump’s new interpretation and broadly shift immigration policy.

The Trump administration has contended that temporary visitors and illegal immigrants are not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States and that that phrasing in the amendment was intended to apply to freed slaves in the Civil War-era. The administration has argued that birth tourism companies have illegally exploited the generous citizenship policy and that it also incentivizes illegal immigration.

Chief Justice John Roberts challenged Solicitor General John Sauer during oral arguments on the small exceptions built into the 14th Amendment, such as children born to foreign diplomats, saying they were not comparable to a wide category of illegal immigrants.

JUSTICE JACKSON SPARKS ONLINE UPROAR AFTER LINKING BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP TO STEALING A WALLET IN JAPAN

“The examples you give to support that strike me as very quirky,” Roberts said. “You know, children of ambassadors, children of enemies during a hostile invasion, children on warships, and then you expand it to a whole class of illegal aliens. … I’m not quite sure how you can get to that big group from such tiny and sort of idiosyncratic examples.”

The American Civil Liberties Union lawyer who argued against the executive order told the Supreme Court the policy was enshrined in the 14th Amendment to “put it out of reach of any government official” and that its exceptions were intentionally narrow.

“It excludes only those cloaked with a fiction of extraterritoriality because they are subject to another sovereign’s jurisdiction even when they’re in the United States, a closed set of exceptions to an otherwise universal rule,” ACLU lawyer Cecillia Wang said.

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Wurman noted that the professors siding with Trump’s executive order have been met with “swift and vicious” reactions. David Bier, immigration expert at the libertarian CATO Institute, said the bloc of dissenters was unserious.

“Oh SEVEN!? That’s remarkable given that to qualify as a judge or appointee you need to align yourself with the president,” Bier wrote on X. “The case is a joke. It’s sad that these people are debasing themselves in a losing effort for an ignoble cause.”

Sexual harassment allegations have been amplified online by Democrat-aligned politicos targeting Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., one of the leading Democratic candidates in California’s gubernatorial race.

Amid repeated denials and cease and desist letters sent by Swalwell’s lawyer, one of the alleged victims shared her story publicly for the first time, accusing Swalwell of taking advantage of her while she was intoxicated on multiple occasions, according to a bombshell report published by the San Francisco Chronicle Friday. The alleged victim’s story also included claims that Swalwell pressured her to send naked pictures of herself and sent sexually explicit photos of his own, pulled out his private parts while driving in a car with her and requesting she perform oral sex on him, among other incidents the victim said exposed how Swalwell treated her.

The unnamed female accuser, who spoke to the San Francisco Chronicle, reportedly worked for Swalwell for about two years and revealed that he started pursuing her, despite being married, shortly after she was hired as a young 21-year-old staffer in his district office. On multiple occasions, the young staffer recalls blacking out from alcohol consumption, before waking up naked in Swalwell’s hotel bed with signs she had engaged in intercourse. Swalwell allegedly distanced himself after the incident, and their relationship faded, before reuniting when she no longer worked for him, during which another incident allegedly took place. 

DEM SENATOR RIPPED FOR ‘SMEAR’ OF FEMALE ACTIVIST ADVOCATING FOR SWALWELL’S ACCUSERS 

“Eric Swalwell should immediately drop out,” Democratic strategist Bhavik Lathia said after the San Francisco Chronicle’s report dropped. “It is damning.” 

Former San Jose Mayor and fellow Democratic Party gubernatorial candidate in California, Matt Mahan, also called on Swalwell to “drop out.”

“To the survivor who risked everything to come forward – I believe you,” he said. “To the Democratic Party – you’d better hold him accountable,” Mahan said.

 “If we don’t, we have no credibility asking anyone else to do the same,” he continued.

Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., a longtime friend of Swalwell who faced backlash earlier this week for trying to discredit allegations against the California Democrat, posted on Friday that he “regret[s] having come to his defense on social media prior to knowing all the information. I am equally as shocked and upset about what has transpired.”

“What is described is indefensible. Women who come forward with accounts like this deserve to be heard with respect, not questioned or dismissed,” Gallego said. “I am withdrawing my endorsement of Congressman Swalwell, effective immediately.”

Swalwell’s team did not respond to Fox News’ request for comment, but he recently said during a press gaggle that the allegations are “false,” including allegations that Swalwell previously pressured female staffers to sign non-disclosure agreements so they cannot speak out, or that he was involved in an alleged hush money settlement. 

“It’s false. And also some of the allegations I’ve seen, which is that we’ve had NDAs in the office – never. There’s never been an allegation, and there’s never been a settlement,” Swalwell insisted this week.

“This false, outrageous rumor is being spread 27 days before an election begins by flailing opponents who have sadly teamed up with MAGA conspiracy theorists because they know Eric Swalwell is the frontrunner in this race,” Micah Beasley, a spokesperson for Swalwell, also said on Tuesday.

Cheyenne Hunt, a former Capitol Hill staffer who is currently a nonprofit director at the group Gen-Z for Change, is among the voices acting as a proxy for alleged Swalwell accusers and has been helping amplify their stories. On Friday, she blasted Swalwell for “tak[ing] a page out of the Trump playbook by attempting to silence women,” with cease and desist letters he allegedly sent out late Thursday night ahead of the San Francisco Chronicle’s report sharing a first-hand account from one of Swalwell’s alleged accusers. 

Fox News Digital  has not independently verified the allegations from the report.

The alleged victim, who began working for Swalwell during his short-lived presidential campaign in 2019, said a married Swalwell, who was 38, began pursuing her, including through messages on Snapchat, which allows users to send photos that subsequently disappear after someone has looked at them. She claimed the relationship rapidly progressed as Swalwell began asking for pictures of her face, then her naked body and eventually her genitalia. When messaging, the victim alleged Swalwell would sometimes send shirtless selfies or other images of his own genitalia.

SWALWELL THREATENS FBI WITH LEGAL ACTION AS PATEL REPORTEDLY WEIGHS ‘FANG FANG’ FILES RELEASE

Swalwell tried to kiss the alleged victim in her car when she drove him home from a donor meeting one night, and on another occasion he allegedly pulled out his penis while in the vehicle and asked her to perform oral sex on him. She admitted to doing so in a parking lot, but soon stopped out of fear someone might see them.  

Meanwhile, in September 2019, the alleged victim, who was then working in Swalwell’s Castro Valley district office, reportedly said Swalwell invited her out for dinner and drinks when she drank too much and blacked out. She claimed to have not even remembered leaving the restaurant, but was woken up in Swalwell’s hotel room the next day with vaginal soreness indicative of sexual intercourse. She also reportedly had a brief memory of Swalwell sucking her toes.

After the September 2019 incident at Swalwell’s hotel, the victim said the pair’s relationship faded as Swalwell distanced himself from her and began treating her more formally during public interactions. She eventually stopped working for Swalwell, but stayed in politics and noted Swalwell would occasionally remain in touch with her, including reaching out when she was looking for a job. 

However, she claimed that five years later, while attending an April 2024 charity event Swalwell was being honored at, the pair reunited. She was not working for Swalwell at this later date, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The woman indicated that she and Swalwell went out for drinks after the event, during which, once again, she became inebriated and could only remember bits and pieces about the night. 

“Even though he had hurt me in the past, I felt like he was someone I could trust,” the alleged victim said, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. “Because we shared this secret together, it pulled me closer to him.”

According to the San Francisco Chronicle’s reporting on the alleged victim’s experiences, one moment she did remember from the night was pushing Swalwell away and telling him “no” as he allegedly tried to force her to have sex with him. The woman reportedly texted a friend after the incident telling her she had been sexually assaulted by Swalwell. Other messages reviewed by the San Francisco Chronicle reportedly showed the victim indicating she had “blacked out” but “woke up once during it and even told him to stop at one point.”

“This happened one other time when I was working with him, but I convinced myself I was an equal party in it even though same pattern: I blacked out and he had sex with me,” the alleged victim wrote, referring to the 2019 incident, according to the San Francisco Chronicle’s reporting.

ERIC SWALWELL CAMPAIGN SETS OFF ALARM BELLS AFTER ACCEPTING $25K DONATION FROM CCP-TIED LAWYER: ‘OUTRAGEOUS’ 

The outlet also indicated it spoke with the friend the victim was allegedly texting, as well as the woman’s then-boyfriend who she reportedly told about the assault the next day. The boyfriend reportedly encouraged her to report Swalwell at the time. 

However, she did not go to the authorities at the time, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, because she was afraid she would not be believed. Medical records reportedly showed she did obtain a pregnancy and STD test a week following the incident.

Swalwell subsequently messaged the alleged victim after the 2024 incident and told her not to tell anyone about their interaction that night, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. “He even sent me a message: you said you didn’t remember anything last time i hope you do now,” the alleged victim reportedly texted her friend three days after the incident. “And i said: yeah I’m trying to forget thanks.” 

“He was sending messages like we just had a romantic encounter like he knows what he’s doing,” the alleged victim also allegedly wrote to her friend at the time. “He was gaslighting me into thinking it was consensual.”

Swalwell’s alleged victim began talking to the San Francisco news outlet roughly a month ago, as she was weighing whether to go public with her allegations as they began anonymously surfacing online. 

The victim was confused how the rumors began, considering she only told family and a small group of friends about the incident. The victim reportedly called the Swalwell campaign in March to see if her name had surfaced among the rumored victims, to which one of Swalwell’s staffers reportedly asked her to vouch for Swalwell. 

“He was so confident that I would stay silent that he wasn’t scared,” she said of Swalwell.

“I have no skin in the game of who becomes governor of California, but I feel people have a right to know whether the person who leads a state that is a safe haven for so many women actually treats women with dignity and will protect their rights,” continued the woman, who still works on Capitol Hill, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. “No one protected me from him, and so I have to protect the other young women like me who aspire to work in this field and he could prey upon.”

Late Thursday night, Swalwell’s attorney, Elias Dabaie, sent a cease-and-desist letter that Hunt, one of the individuals amplifying Swalwell’s accuser’s claims, argues is an effort to intimidate those trying to speak up about Swalwell’s history with women. 

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“Today we learned [Swalwell] is intimidating survivors, serving cease and desist letters on those coming forward with stories of sexual harassment and abuse. He sent this threat in the dead of night — another attempt to delay the truth,” Hunt wrote on social media, attaching a copy of the first letter of the cease and desist letter she claimed to have obtained.

“This is what it looks like when powerful men get caught,” Hunt continued. “These cease and desists are a disgusting abuse of power against brave women who are courageously working together to share their stories. It begs the question: if Swalwell has done nothing wrong, as his campaign claims, why not let the women tell their stories in the light of day? Our team remains steadfast. We will not relent. The women will not recant.”

The Los Angeles Times reported Friday that it had confirmed the authenticity of the letter. Fox News Digital reached out to the attorney who sent the letter to confirm the authenticity of the letter independently, but did not immediately receive a response. 

A Senate Republican wants federal funding revoked from Yale for a forthcoming speech from a controversial streamer who once called for him to be “killed.”

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., blasted an upcoming event at the Ivy League university featuring Twitch streamer and political commentator Hasan Piker, who has become a flashpoint for Democrats and fodder for conservatives because of his views and alignment with the far-left of the party.

Piker, who has come under fire for his previous comments that “America deserved 9/11” and for excusing sexual violence committed on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas launched a surprise attack against Israel, is set to appear at the Yale Political Union for an event dubbed “Resolved: End the American Empire” Tuesday.

SENATE GOP VOWS TO ‘GO IT ALONE’ ON ICE FUNDING AS DEMS DOUBLE DOWN ON SHUTDOWN

“This is WILD,” Scott said on X. “I spoke at the Yale Political Union last year on why we need to buy made in America products. Now, they are hosting a guy who said I should be killed.”

“Yale receives billions from the federal government — President Trump and Congress need to IMMEDIATELY revoke it,” he continued. “An elite private university that hosts an antisemite who says a Senator should be killed, capitalists should be killed, and the U.S. deserved 9/11, shouldn’t get ONE CENT from taxpayers.”

The Yale Political Union did not respond to a request for comment on Scott’s push to nix funding for the university.

Scott and Piker have had a run-in, indirectly, before.

MICHIGAN DEMOCRAT DEFENDS APPEARING WITH HASAN PIKER, DISTANCES HIMSELF FROM PODCASTER’S CONTROVERSIAL REMARKS

When Republicans were crafting President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” in 2025, Piker said during a stream — in reaction to comments from House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., that Republicans were targeting Medicaid fraud — that Scott should be killed.

“The reason why I’m saying, if you cared about Medicare or Medicaid fraud, you would kill Rick Scott is because — and not make him a prominent part of the Republican Party — is because he, to this day, is still also known as committing the largest Medicare fraud in U.S. history,” Piker said.

At the time, Republicans were trying to include several provisions in the budget reconciliation process that they pitched as reforms to Medicaid designed to cut costs and root out fraud in the system.

SQUAD MEMBER SUMMER LEE CALLS ‘UPPER CLASS’ THE ‘ENEMY’ AT EL-SAYED RALLY

A provider rate crackdown; denying states Medicaid funding for having illegal immigrants on the benefit rolls; preventing illegal immigrants from participating in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP); and preventing Medicaid and CHIP funding from going toward gender-affirming care were all on the table.

However, those provisions were gutted from the bill for not complying with the strict guardrails that dictate the reconciliation process. Still, Republicans were able to include stringent work requirements for the healthcare program.

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Scott’s office didn’t comment on Piker’s Medicare fraud accusation but told Fox News Digital that “no Democrat elected official calls this guy out and the press seems to give all the Democrats a pass for actively campaigning with him.”

Piker’s management team and Yale did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Nerdeen Kiswani, a Palestinian-American activist, blasted what she called Zionist aggression after investigators foiled a Molotov cocktail plot against her life — but refused to condemn political violence across the board.

In the past, Kiswani’s organization, Within Our Lifetime (WOL), has drawn scrutiny for refusing to condemn U.S.-designated terror organizations.

“For years, I and so many other Palestinian organizers have been the targets of coordinated harassment, threats, stalking,” Kiswani said at a press event.

Undercover investigators prevented Alexander Heifler, 26, from carrying out a plan to make and use Molotov cocktails against Kiswani late last month. According to court filings, Heifler had made as many as 12 incendiary devices and was preparing to throw them at Kiswani’s car and home.

NURSE FIRED FOR RANT AGAINST ISRAELIS IN TIMES SQUARE AS SPIDER-MAN TRIES TO STOP CONFRONTATION

She also said she believed Palestinians had the right to act in their own interests.

“I believe that in accordance with international law, the victims of a genocide have the right to defend themselves, and I also believe the American people should be concerned about Zionist terrorist organizations attempting to assassinate their critics on the streets of American cities.”

She did not clarify if self-defense also included acts of violence.

CONTRIBUTOR FOR FAR-LEFT OUTLET CALLS FOR ‘WIPING OUT ISRAEL,’ SAYS ISRAELIS ‘MUSTN’T FEEL SAFE’

NYC MAYOR MAMDANI’S WIFE LIKED POSTS CELEBRATING OCT 7 TERROR ATTACKS BUT GETS SOFT TREATMENT FROM THE PRESS

Reacting to Kiswani’s statement, Yuval David, a fellow with the Middle East Forum, a pro-Israel research group, said Kiswani’s framing did not come as a surprise.

“She refuses to condemn political violence, and she also refuses to condone terrorism because she tries to manipulate the narrative to justify terrorism by calling it resistance,” David said.

David noted that Kiswani’s organization has shied away from condemning violence against Israel in the past.

WOL made headlines in the wake of Hamas’ terror attack on Israel in October 2023 for its anti-Israel support, stating in online messaging that “we are anti-Zionists” and that the “liberation of Palestine requires the abolition of Zionism.”

David recalled WOL’s messaging to its followers at the outset of the Israel-Hamas war.

“A month after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad attacks [Kiswani] and her organization published maps of Jewish organizations across New York City, labeled them as having, quote, ‘blood on their hands.’ And told followers to, quote, ‘know your enemy.’ She said that the map should serve as a call for every struggle to act,” David said.

The Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism has said WOL demonstrates “very explicit support for violence against Israeli civilians in support of terrorist organizations like Hamas, Hezbollah, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.”

For its part, WOL has said it is anti-Zionist, not antisemitic.

After news of the plot against Kiswani broke, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani called on viewers to denounce violence across the board.

“We do not tolerate any kind of violent extremism in this city. No one should face violence for their political beliefs or for their advocacy. And I am relieved she is safe,” Mamdani said in a press event.

NYC BOOSTS PATROLS AMID ‘HEIGHTENED THREAT ENVIRONMENT,’ AFTER GUNMAN RAMS TRUCK INTO MICHIGAN SYNAGOGUE

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When asked if she would condemn political violence in the wake of the foiled plot, Kiswani blasted the inquiry.

“Since its inception, Fox News has not only cheerled the Israeli occupation of Palestine, it has spread lies that launched the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, which led to the deaths of over a million people, and it presently supports Trump and Israel’s war on Iran,” Kiswani told Fox News Digital.

“It is ironic that a news network that glorifies violence when carried out in the interest of American imperialism puts the burden on me, the Palestinian victim of a Zionist terrorist plot, to explain my position on political violence,” she continued.

The Court of International Trade on Friday appeared skeptical of President Donald Trump‘s use of a little-known emergency trade law to justify his sweeping, 10% global tariffs — teeing up a familiar, if technically new, legal fight focused on when and how a sitting president can act to unilaterally impose steep import fees on most U.S. trading partners.

During nearly two hours of arguments, a three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of International Trade grappled with Trump’s use of Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 — an emergency provision designed to address “large and serious” balance-of-payments problems — and its applicability in today’s economy.

Under Section 122, a president has the authority to unilaterally impose import fees of up to 15% on U.S. trading partners for a period of 150 days, to respond to large and serious “balance of payments deficits,” or instances that risk immediately depreciating the power of the dollar.  

Arguments before the court hinged on interpretation of the “balance of payments deficits” phrase, and whether the persistent U.S. trade deficits cited by Trump in invoking Section 122 aligned with the kind of crisis that Congress had envisioned when it passed the trade law in the mid-1970s. 

TRUMP WARNS SUPREME COURT TARIFF SHOWDOWN IS ‘LIFE OR DEATH’ FOR AMERICA

Members of the three-judge panel appeared skeptical of the Trump administration’s arguments, and questioned whether Congress intended the statute to apply to specific instances of international currency pressures, rather than long-running trade imbalances.

“Are you really saying that a large trade deficit alone is sufficient?” the judge asked Justice Department lawyer Brett Shumate, adding, “I don’t think it is, and I think Congress didn’t think it is.”

Congress, Shumate argued, had provided presidents with broad discretion to assess economic conditions, and to identify what “balance of power” deficits warrant emergency intervention. 

Shumate also ticked through a list of other economic indicators Trump cited in his proclamation — including the current account deficit, and the “net international investment” position, among other things.

“The important point,” Shumate said, “is that Congress provided the president [with] discretion.”

FEDERAL JUDGE BLOCKS 5 TRUMP TARIFF EXECUTIVE ORDERS 

The arguments come weeks after a group of 24 attorneys general sued the administration over Trump’s use of Section 122, arguing that the move was an illegal attempt to “sidestep” the Supreme Court’s ruling in February that blocked Trump’s use of an emergency economic powers law to unilaterally impose his so-called “Liberation Day” tariffs. 

Shumate said Friday that both authorities — IEEPA and Section 122 — were available to Trump, and told the court that Trump could have invoked Section 122 earlier.

Lawyers for the challenges told the court Friday that upholding the administration’s broader view of the law would effectively turn Section 122 into an all-purpose trade weapon. 

TRUMP TARIFF PLAN FACES UNCERTAIN FUTURE AS COURT BATTLES INTENSIFY

Jeffrey Schwab, a lawyer representing one set of challengers in Friday’s case, said the government’s theory was “very, very, very broad,” adding that it could allow the president to act “at any point, at any moment that he wants, forever.”

Trump is the first president to attempt to use both IEEPA and Section 122 to unilaterally impose tariffs. 

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The case is seen broadly as one that could help define the outer bounds of presidential tariff authority.

If nothing else, the novelty of both cases, and the skepticism on display by the trade court Friday suggests the new Section 122 tariffs might follow a legal fight that is similar to his first.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell summoned Wall Street bank heads to Washington, D.C., on Tuesday for a flash meeting to warn them of cybersecurity threats posed by AI giant Anthropic, according to a Thursday night report from Bloomberg.

Bessent and Powell convened the last-minute meeting at Treasury’s D.C. headquarters in order to ensure the banks were ready to guard against risks from Anthropic’s latest model, Claude Mythos Preview, a powerful new AI model that experts warn marks a profound shift in the technology.

Each bank summoned is marked by the Fed as “structurally important” to the global financial system. The attendees included chief executives from Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and Wells Fargo.

Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan was in attendance, a source with knowledge of his schedule told Fox News Digital. Spokespeople for Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo declined to comment. Citigroup and Morgan Stanley did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

PENTAGON’S AI BATTLE WILL HELP DECIDE WHO CONTROLS OUR MOST POWERFUL MILITARY TECH

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon was also summoned but was unable to attend, Bloomberg reported, citing sources familiar. JPMorgan, notably, is a member of Anthropic’s “Project Glasswing,” an initiative to use Mythos as a defense against future similar models. JPMorgan did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mythos has garnered a swell of intrigue online thanks to Anthropic’s claims that the AI can autonomously identify and exploit software weaknesses.

The company touted Mythos as a “frontier model” that can outperform “all but the most skilled humans at finding and exploiting software vulnerabilities.” It claimed the model has already identified thousands of software flaws previously unknown to their developers, including some that were decades old inside companies widely considered to be security strongholds.

“This could make cyberattacks of all kinds much more frequent and destructive, and empower adversaries of the United States and its allies,” Anthropic wrote in a blog post. “Addressing these issues is therefore an important security priority for democratic states.”

ANTHROPIC’S DEMOCRATIC TIES UNDER FIRE AS TRUMP ADMIN SEVERS PENTAGON CONTRACTS

In light of the security risks, a source close to Anthropic told Fox News Digital that the company has briefed senior U.S. government officials about Mythos, though did not specify which agencies.

The increasingly relevant AI titan was once a core partner of the U.S. military, securing a $200 million contract with the Pentagon in July 2025.

However, the partnership split open in February after the company drew redlines against the War Department using its technology for autonomous weapons and domestic surveillance. After issuing the company an ultimatum, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth designated Anthropic as a supply chain risk, barring federal contractors from using its products.

Anthropic sought to appeal that designation, but a federal appeals court rejected their plea Wednesday.

When asked to comment on the Treasury’s Tuesday meeting, the Department of War referred Fox News Digital to a statement in support of the Wednesday ruling from Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.

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“Today’s D.C. Circuit stay allowing the government to designate Anthropic as a supply chain risk is a resounding victory for military readiness,” Blanche posted on X Wednesday. “Our position has been clear from the start — our military needs full access to Anthropic’s models if its technology is integrated into our sensitive systems. Military authority and operational control belong to the Commander-in-Chief and Department of War, not a tech company.”

The Department of Treasury and the Federal Reserve Board did not immediately return requests for comment.

An immigration appeals board has issued a final order of removal for anti-Israel protester Mahmoud Khalil, advancing the Trump administration’s effort to deport the Columbia University graduate, according to his legal team.

The Justice Department’s Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) ruled Thursday to deny Khalil’s bid to dismiss the case, marking a significant development in the administration’s push to deport him from the U.S.

Khalil, a 31-year-old lawful permanent resident, has been at the center of a broader federal crackdown on noncitizens involved in anti-Israel campus protests tied to the war in Gaza. He was the first person whose arrest became publicly known as part of the crackdown.

His legal team blasted the decision as “baseless and politically motivated,” arguing the government is retaliating against his speech and lacks evidence to support the case.

MAHMOUD KHALIL AVOIDS EXPLICIT HAMAS CONDEMNATION, CRITICIZES ‘SELECTIVE OUTRAGE’ AMID PALESTINIAN SUFFERING

“In all my decades as an immigration lawyer, I have never seen such a baseless and politically motivated decision,” Khalil’s lead attorney, Marc Van Der Hout, said in a statement issued by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). “The BIA’s decision has absolutely no support in the record, violates a federal court order, and we’ll be fighting it until the end.”

The Trump administration has argued Khalil’s protest activity was “aligned with Hamas,” a claim cited by the Department of Homeland Security and other officials, though authorities have not publicly detailed specific evidence linking him to the terrorist group.

Khalil has also denied allegations of antisemitism. Officials have also cited a rare foreign policy provision of U.S. immigration law, sometimes referred to as a “Rubio determination,” as well as alleged issues tied to his green card application.

Despite the ruling, Khalil’s attorneys say he cannot be deported while his separate federal habeas case continues to play out in court.

A federal judge in New Jersey previously found the government’s justification for detaining Khalil was likely unconstitutional and ordered his release.

After his arrest, Khalil spent 104 days in immigration detention, missing the birth of his first child before a federal judge in New Jersey ordered his release.

Khalil later suffered a setback in his federal case when a U.S. appeals panel ruled that the New Jersey judge overstepped his authority by ordering his release. In a 2-1 decision, the panel found the case must proceed through the immigration court system before it can be challenged in federal court.

His lawyers are now requesting the full appeals panel reconsider that decision and have asked one of the judges to step aside over his prior role as a Justice Department official involved in investigating student protesters.

Khalil has denied wrongdoing and said the case is an attempt to silence him.

“I am not surprised by this decision from the biased and politically motivated Board of Immigration Appeals. I have committed no crime. I have broken no law. The only thing I am guilty of is speaking out against the genocide in Palestine — and this administration has weaponized the immigration system to punish me for it,” Khalil said in a statement released by the ACLU.

DHS FIRES BACK AFTER MAHMOUD KHALIL TARGETS TRUMP ADMIN FOR $20M OVER DETENTION

“My family is here. My life is here. I reject any attempt to intimidate me out of my home based on lies and ideological attacks,” he said. “This is not justice. This is just another attempt to retaliate against me.”

Khalil, a prominent organizer of anti-Israel protests at Columbia University in 2024 who the Trump administration is seeking to deport, was initially arrested in 2025 at his university-owned apartment in New York City.

Homeland Security Investigations, a division of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), told him at the time they were revoking his green card, according to his attorney, Amy Greer. He was later transferred to a detention center in Louisiana.

Khalil played a major role in protests against Israel that rocked Columbia University in 2024 and met with school officials on behalf of Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a coalition of student groups pushing the university to divest from Israel. He completed the requirements for a Columbia master’s degree in late 2024.

Born in Syria, he is the grandson of Palestinians who were forced to leave their homeland, his lawyers said in a legal filing. His wife, a U.S. citizen, gave birth to the couple’s child while he was in detention.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt previously defended the Trump administration’s actions following Khalil’s arrest in March, saying he allegedly distributed pro-Hamas propaganda fliers on campus.

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“This administration is not going to tolerate individuals having the privilege of studying in our country and then siding with pro-terrorist organizations that have killed Americans,” Leavitt told reporters at a White House press briefing at the time, noting that on her desk were the “pro-Hamas propaganda fliers with the logo of Hamas” on them that Khalil allegedly was distributing.

“We have a zero-tolerance policy for siding with terrorists, period,” she said.

Fox News Digital has contacted the Justice Department for comment.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Congressional Democrats want President Donald Trump ousted through extraordinary measures, despite previously dismissing similar calls targeting former President Joe Biden.

More than 50 Democratic lawmakers have called on Trump’s Cabinet to effectively depose him using the 25th Amendment, arguing that the president is unfit to serve over his comments and actions regarding Iran. Their demands were sparked by his social media declaration that a “whole civilization will die” unless the Iranian government agreed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

“I certainly think the president should be removed,” Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., said. “I mean, he’s unfit for office. I think the 25th Amendment, and if not, then impeachment.”

But less than two years ago, Republicans made the same argument against Biden that Democrats ignored.

SENATE DEM ACCUSES TRUMP OF BEING ‘UNFIT FOR OFFICE,’ JOINS GROWING CALL TO IMPEACH, OUST PRESIDENT

Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., at the time wrote a letter to then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken calling for him, along with Vice President Kamala Harris, to invoke the 25th Amendment.

“If President Biden is unwilling to resign, for the sake of our great nation, you must do your duty to relieve him of his constitutional powers and duties,” Schmitt wrote.

Now, only a small group of Senate Democrats have made the case for Trump’s ouster, while most of the enthusiasm has come from the House.

Democrats’ calls to remove Trump through impeachment and conviction or the 25th Amendment cannot happen without widespread GOP support. House Democratic leadership, however, continues to provide a platform for those discussions.

House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin, D-Md., will hold a caucus-wide briefing on the workings of the 25th Amendment Friday afternoon.

EX-TRUMP ALLY MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE JOINS LEFT-WING CALLS FOR THE 25TH AMENDMENT AS IRAN DEADLINE NEARS

In the summer of 2024, Republicans demanded that Biden be removed from office after a disastrous debate performance against Trump and following a report from former Special Counsel Robert Hur that called into question the then-president’s cognitive ability and handling of classified documents.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said at the time, “There’s a lot of people asking about the 25th Amendment, invoking the 25th Amendment right now, because this is an alarming situation.”

GOP INFIGHTING REPLACES CLASH WITH DEMS, DERAILS PATH TO END HISTORIC DHS SHUTDOWN

“Our adversaries see the weakness in this White House, as we all do,” Johnson added. “I take no pleasure in saying that. I think this is a very dangerous situation.”

Democrats quickly closed ranks and disputed accusations that Biden’s mental acuity was rapidly declining. Some, however, did call for Biden to drop out of the race against Trump over fears he would not be able to beat his political foe in a rematch after stumbling during their only debate.

Top congressional Democrats, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and then-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., reportedly urged Biden privately to step aside, and dozens of Democrats publicly called on him to exit the race while there was still time to find a replacement.

Neither, however, called for the 25th Amendment to be invoked against Biden. Pelosi did, however, renew her call to see Trump ousted through that process in recent days. 

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“Donald Trump’s instability is more clear and dangerous than ever,” Pelosi said on X. “If the Cabinet is not willing to invoke the 25th Amendment and restore sanity, Republicans must reconvene the Congress to end this war.”

Schumer has so far stopped short of calling for Trump’s removal from power.

Trump, when pressed on next moves in Iran, joked in April during a Cabinet meeting that if he revealed what comes next, his own Cabinet would oust him.

“I can’t say what we’re going to do because if I did, I wouldn’t be sitting here for long. They’d probably — what is it called? The 25th Amendment — They’d institute the 25th Amendment,” Trump said. “Which they didn’t do with Biden, which is shocking.”

It’s only 2026, but the first major cattle call of potential Democratic presidential contenders in the 2028 White House race is underway.

Eight Democrats who may launch presidential campaigns are speaking in New York City at the National Action Network’s 35th Anniversary Convention.

The gathering, hosted by the civil rights organization’s founder, the Rev. Al Sharpton, gives White House hopefuls an opportunity to speak directly to an influential group of Black leaders and activists who are key players in the Democratic Party’s base.

Govs. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, JB Pritzker of Illinois and Wes Moore of Maryland, along with Rep. Ro Khanna of California, spoke over the past two days, while Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky and Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona are scheduled to appear Saturday.

KAMALA HARRIS’ TRAVELS AND COMMENTS CLEARLY POINT TO 2028

On Friday, two veterans of former President Joe Biden’s administration are in the spotlight: former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and the convention’s biggest draw, former Vice President Kamala Harris.

The preseason moves in the next race for the Democratic presidential nomination have been underway for a year, with the potential contenders making stops in the early voting nominating states, such as New Hampshire, South Carolina, Nevada and Iowa, as well as in other key electoral battlegrounds.

The showdown for the 2028 Democratic nomination is expected to draw a crowded and competitive field.

“We have a pretty good bench. In fact, you’ve invited so many of them to come right here, they’ve been on this stage, or they’re going to be,” Pritzker told Sharpton on Thursday.

HARRIS, NEWSOM, STIR 2028 SPECULATION AT MAJOR DEMOCRATIC PARTY MEETING

Sharpton said earlier this week that when it comes to the potential contenders, he wants to “know what their vision is now, and what they’re doing now. So I’ve invited all of the people that could run.”

Black voters have long played a very influential role in Democratic Party presidential politics.

Case in point: the 2020 White House race.

After fourth and fifth place finishes in the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, a battered and bruised Joe Biden finished a distant second to Sen. Bernie Sanders in the Nevada caucuses.

21 DEMOCRATS WHO MAY RUN FOR THE WHITE HOUSE IN 2028

But a major backing from Black voters fueled Biden’s landslide victory in the next contest, the South Carolina primary, which launched him towards the Democratic nomination and eventually the White House.

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The Republican National Committee (RNC) is giving thumbs down to the White House hopefuls appearing at Sharpton’s confab.

“Democrats are kicking off the 2028 primary by parading Kamala Harris and a roster of failed governors trying to outrun their own records,” RNC national press secretary Kiersten Pels told Fox News.

Fox News’ Alexis McAdams contributed to this report

The Navy is canceling a long-delayed overhaul of the USS Boise after costs ballooned toward nearly $3 billion, with War Secretary John Phelan saying the submarine no longer made financial or strategic sense to repair.

In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, Phelan said the Los Angeles-class attack submarine already had consumed roughly $800 million and would require another $1.9 billion to complete — despite offering only about 20% of its remaining service life. Instead, the Navy plans to redirect funding and skilled labor toward building and delivering newer Virginia- and Columbia-class submarines, part of a broader push to accelerate ship production and overhaul troubled acquisition programs.

“At some point, you just cut your losses and move on,” Phelan said.

The Navy originally awarded a roughly $1.2 billion contract in 2024 under the Biden administration to overhaul the submarine, nearly a decade after it was first slated for repairs, but updated estimates later showed the total cost to complete the work had surged far beyond initial projections.

“The Boise has been pier-side since 2015, cost nearly $800 million already and it’s only 22% complete—the math really does not work,” he added.

TRUMP UNVEILS MARITIME ACTION PLAN AS CHINA DOMINATES GLOBAL SHIPBUILDING

The decision comes as the Navy faces mounting pressure to expand and maintain its fleet amid growing competition with China, which has built the world’s largest navy by number of ships. U.S. officials increasingly have emphasized the need to speed up shipbuilding and submarine production to keep pace with rising global demands.

The Boise’s problems long predate the canceled contract.

The submarine last deployed in 2015 and was slated to begin a routine overhaul the following year, but delays at Navy shipyards left it waiting years for an available dry dock.

As maintenance was pushed back, the situation worsened. The submarine lost its full operational certification in 2016 and its ability to dive in 2017, effectively sidelining it from combat operations.

Despite being a frontline attack submarine, Boise remained tied up at port for years as the Navy struggled with a growing backlog of repairs across its fleet, driven by limited dry dock space, workforce shortages and competing maintenance priorities.

The overhaul originally was planned to begin in 2016 but was repeatedly delayed for nearly a decade before the Navy finally awarded a contract in 2024 — by which point the submarine had already spent years out of service.

US TO EXPEDITE NUCLEAR-POWERED SUBS TO AUSTRALIA THAT WILL SIT NEAR CHINA’S DOORSTEP

Even after work began, the timeline stretched further, with repairs not expected to be completed until 2029 — meaning the submarine would have spent roughly 15 years inactive by the time it returned to sea.

Over time, the Boise became one of the clearest examples of the Navy’s broader maintenance and shipyard challenges, frequently cited by lawmakers and defense analysts as a case study in delays, rising costs and declining readiness.

Phelan said a key factor in the decision was freeing up scarce shipyard labor and engineering talent currently tied up in the Boise overhaul, which he said could be better used to accelerate construction of newer submarines.

“One of our big constraints in our shipyards, particularly in submarine building, is labor and engineering talent,” Phelan said. “We have a lot of that dedicated to this, which we could free up and put onto the Virginia-class submarine or Columbia and try to shift the schedule left on those.”

He argued the overhaul no longer made sense from a return-on-investment perspective, comparing the cost of repairing the aging submarine to building a new one.

“The Boise represents 65% of the cost of a new Virginia-class submarine, yet it only delivers 20% of the remaining service life,” Phelan said, adding that equates to roughly three deployments.

The Boise, commissioned in 1992, is a Cold War-era attack submarine designed primarily for open-ocean combat, while newer Virginia-class submarines are quieter, more versatile and better suited for modern missions, including intelligence gathering, special operations and operating in contested coastal environments.

“Is it time we just simply pull the plug on that one?” Sen. Mike Rounds, R-N.D., asked during a confirmation hearing in June 2025.

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle called the situation “an unacceptable story” and “like a dagger in the heart” for the submarine force.

No public criticism immediately surfaced after the decision was announced Friday.

Phelan described the program’s failure as the result of multiple factors over more than a decade, including engineering challenges, shifting priorities and strain on the Navy’s industrial base.

“I can’t point to one thing that killed it,” he said. “I think it was a combination … the complexity of the engineering, COVID impacts, and pressure on the industrial base.”

The cancellation is part of a broader effort by Navy leadership to reevaluate underperforming programs and change how the service approaches acquisitions, Phelan said.

“We’re reviewing every program,” he said, adding the Navy is pushing for “radical transparency” and a shift away from what he described as a culture of accepting delays and rising costs.

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Phelan said the decision reflects a broader push to prioritize speed and efficiency in delivering war-fighting capability to the fleet.

“We need to be more disciplined and move out faster,” he said. “The president wants things yesterday.”

House Democrats are weighing a long-shot scenario to remove President Donald Trump using the 25th Amendment but are declining to say whether they’ll act before the November midterm elections.

House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin, D-Md., will brief congressional Democrats Friday afternoon on the constitutional mechanism that would rely heavily on Trump’s Cabinet agreeing to push him out of office.

The 25th Amendment has never been used before to involuntarily remove a president and is effectively moot without widespread Republican buy-in. But a bevy of House Democrats have embraced that scenario following the president’s escalating conflict with Iran.

“Donald Trump’s deranged threat to destroy ‘a whole civilization’ in Iran is a threat to commit war crimes and genocide,” Raskin wrote on social media Tuesday. “Republicans in Congress must prevail upon Vice President Vance, now campaigning for Putin’s puppet Viktor Orban in Hungary, to return to the U.S. and invoke Section 4 of the 25th Amendment.”

MASSIE-LED PUSH TO HANDCUFF TRUMP ON IRAN GETS JEFFRIES’ BACKING

“The 25th Amendment should be invoked to spare our country and the world from his increasingly unhinged behavior,” Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., a member of the Judiciary Committee, also said Tuesday. 

Dozens of House Democrats have continued to press for the president’s ouster despite the announcement of a two-week ceasefire.

“All options should be on the table,” Rep. Sara Jacobs, D-Calif., said Thursday.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., has offered support for the briefing and ongoing discussions about the president’s removal, saying Democrats are considering a “range of accountability mechanisms.”

The lead Democrat, however, has remained ambiguous about his personal views despite signaling that all options remain on the table. That is largely in keeping with Jeffries’ efforts over the past year to keep the focus away from impeachment talk while leaning into policy fights over health care costs, tariffs and immigration enforcement. 

Fox News Digital reached out to members of House Democratic leadership but did not receive a response before publication.

A spokesperson for the House Judiciary Committee declined to comment on the 25th Amendment briefing. 

LONGTIME TRUMP CRITIC REVEALS WHY SHE THINKS HIS IRAN ACTIONS ARE WRONG, WARNS IT’S A ‘MUCH BIGGER WAR’

Jeffries largely sidestepped a question Thursday regarding why Democrats are having conversations about removing Trump during a news conference in New York City.

“We have a responsibility as a separate and co-equal branch of government to defend the American people, and we want to be able to do it in an informed way,” Jeffries said before pivoting to criticizing Republicans over the cost of living.

“We’ve ruled nothing out, and we’ve ruled nothing in,” Jeffries told MS NOW when asked about whether he thought the 25th Amendment should be invoked.

In both appearances, Jeffries did not acknowledge that Democrats, who are effectively powerless in Washington, lack the numbers to successfully push impeachment or constitutional mechanisms to oust Trump. 

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In the 25th Amendment scenario, the power rests with Vice President JD Vance and Trump’s Cabinet, who would have to agree the president is unfit to serve. Assuming Trump were to challenge that decision, two-thirds of the House and Senate — meaning a significant number of Republicans in Congress — would have to vote in support of that judgment.

At present, Democrats also have a math problem when it comes to impeachment and conviction, which requires a two-thirds majority in the Senate. Congressional Democrats failed twice to convict Trump in his first term.