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Gov. Gavin Newsom of California has long been a leading adversary, and target, of President Donald Trump.

But the governor of the nation’s most populous state, one of the Democratic Party’s leaders in the resistance against the second Trump administration and a potential White House contender in 2028, is leaving politics aside as he feverishly works to secure more federal assistance for people and businesses devastated by last month’s deadly wildfires in metropolitan Los Angeles.

“Thank you, President Trump, for coming to our communities to see this firsthand and meeting with me today to continue our joint efforts to support people impacted,” Newsom said in a statement on Wednesday evening after his huddle with the president at the White House.

In a video posted on social medial, the governor said, “So, here at the White House. Just finished a meeting with President Trump. Had a very successful day up on Capitol Hill as well, meeting in a bipartisan manner with Republican and Democratic leaders about disaster aid and disaster recovery for people impacted by the fires in Southern California.”

FRENEMIES: NEWSOM COMES HAT IN HAND TO MEET TRUMP AT WHITE HOUSE

Newsom described his meetings with Trump and members of Congress as “the spirit of collaboration and cooperation … defined.”

The governor’s trip was his first to Washington, D.C., since Trump took over in the White House and is part of his effort to secure additional federal funding to aid in wildfire recovery from the destructive blazes that killed 29 people, destroyed over 12,000 homes and forced tens of thousands to evacuate.

TRUMP MEETS WITH CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS, FIRE AND LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIALS TO SEE LA WILDFIRE DAMAGE FIRST HAND

Late last month, the governor approved $2.5 billion for fire recovery work, which he hopes will be reimbursed by the federal government. 

And the state will likely need much more help from the federal government because the bill to cover rebuilding costs is expected to reach into the tens of billions of dollars.

The aftermath of a wildfire in Pacific Palisades and along Pacific Coast Highway Jan. 10, 2025, in Los Angeles. (David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images)

Newsom, after his meeting with Trump and his crisscrossing of Capitol Hill, emphasized that “we continue to cut red tape to speed up recovery and cleanup efforts as well as ensure rebuilding efforts are swift. We’re working across the aisle, as we always have, to ensure survivors have the resources and support they need.”

Relations between Newsom and Trump haven’t always been so harmonious.

Their animosity dates back to before Trump was elected president the first time in 2016, when Newsom was California’s lieutenant governor.

NEWSOM CALLS TRUMP’S CLAIMS ‘PURE FICTION’ AFTER HE POINTED FINGER OVER CALIFORNIA FIRE TRAGEDY

And while they did seek common ground at times during Trump’s first term in the White House, the verbal fireworks resumed over the past two years as Newsom served as a top surrogate on the campaign trail for former President Joe Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris, who replaced Biden as the Democrats’ 2024 standard-bearer last summer. 

Newsom regularly criticized Trump, and the former and future president handily returned the favor, treating Newsom and heavily blue California as a political punching bag.

After Trump’s convincing election victory over Harris in November, Newsom moved to “Trump-proof” his heavily blue state. 

“He is using the term ‘Trump-Proof’ as a way of stopping all of the GREAT things that can be done to ‘Make California Great Again,’ but I just overwhelmingly won the Election,” Trump responded.

But Newsom followed through, and earlier this week, California lawmakers approved $25 million in legal funding proposed by the Democratic governor to challenge actions by the Trump administration. And the legislature also allocated another $25 million for legal groups to defend undocumented immigrants facing possible deportation by new Trump administration efforts.

President Donald Trump and California Gov. Gavin Newsom walk to speak to reporters after the president arrived on Air Force One at Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles Jan. 24, 2025. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP)

After the outbreak of the fires early last month, Trump repeatedly criticized Newsom’s handling of the crisis. He has accused the governor of mismanaging forestry and water policy and, pointing to intense backlash over a perceived lack of preparation, called on Newsom to step down.

“Gavin Newscum should resign. This is all his fault!!!” Trump charged in a social media post Jan. 8, repeating a derogatory name he often labels the governor.

Trump also placed blame for the deadly wildfires on Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, another Democrat, and the policies approved by state lawmakers. In an executive order issued last month, he described management of the state’s land and water resources as “disastrous.”

Newsom pushed back. Disputing Trump, the governor noted that reservoirs in the southern part of California were full when the fires first sparked, and he has argued that no amount of water could tackle fires fueled by winds of up to 100 miles per hour.

Newsom also claimed Trump spread “hurricane-force winds of mis- and disinformation.”

But when Trump arrived in Los Angeles late last month to survey the first damage — just four days after his inauguration as president — the governor greeted him at the airport.

“Thank you first for being here. It means a great deal to all of us,” Newsom told Trump as he greeted the president upon his arrival in Los Angeles last month. “We’re going to need your support. We’re going to need your help.” 

The president declared that “we’re looking to get something completed. And the way you get it completed is to work together.”

Ahead of his stop in Los Angeles, Trump had threatened to withhold wildfire aid until certain stipulations were met in California, including changes to water policy and requiring an ID to vote.

President Donald Trump talks with California Gov. Gavin Newsom after arriving on Air Force One at Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles Jan. 24, 2025.  (Mark Schiefelbein/AP)

“It wasn’t discussed, and I hope we can move beyond that,” Newsom said Thursday when asked in a CNN interview about any conditions for federal aid Trump may have demanded.

“Some of the conditions that were being bandied about just seemed to be, for me, a little bit of noise, a little bit political. At the end of the day, we’re all in this together.”

Newsom has also stepped back in recent weeks in pushing back against Trump’s zingers.

Following Trump’s orders, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers last week opened two dams in Central California, letting roughly 2.2 billion gallons of water flow out of reservoirs.

Trump celebrated the move in posts on Truth Social Friday and Sunday, declaring, “the water is flowing in California,” and adding the water was “heading to farmers throughout the State, and to Los Angeles.”

But water experts argued that the newly released water won’t flow to Los Angeles, and it is being wasted by being released during California’s normally wet winter season.

Newsom, apparently aiming to rebuild the working relationship he had with Trump during the president’s first term in the White House, didn’t raise any objections to the water release.

“For Newsom, it’s not just the last disaster, it’s the next one. Because when you are governor of California, you know in the not too distant future there will be more wildfires, or floods or earthquakes, and he’s going to need help from the federal government,” Jack Pitney, a veteran California-based political scientist at Claremont McKenna College, emphasized.

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Pitney argued that “whatever [Newsom] thinks about Trump, he needs the president’s help.”

But looking ahead, he noted that Newsom is “termed out in two years. So, once he’s no longer governor, he can be as partisan and anti-Trump as he wants. But, for now, that has to be on hold.”

Former GOP Congresswoman Liz Cheney was ripped by conservatives on social media after she defended her previous work at USAID, which became the most prominent target of DOGE in recent days, in an exchange on X that drew the attention of DOGE’s leader, Elon Musk.

“Damn right, @Elon,” Cheney said on X in response to Musk, tagging an account that does not belong to Musk, on Wednesday. “I’m proud of what America did to win the Cold War, defeat Soviet communism, and defend democracy. Our nation stood for freedom. You may be unfamiliar with that part of our history since you weren’t yet an American citizen.”

Musk had written “interesting” in response to a post from Foundation For Freedom Online Executive Director Mike Benz, who had written that Cheney was “spawned” out of USAID, citing her previous position as an officer for the embattled and now seemingly shuttered agency.

Cheney spent time at USAID working within embassies related to efforts in Poland, Hungary, Russia and Ukraine.

MEET THE YOUNG TEAM OF SOFTWARE ENGINEERS SLASHING GOVERNMENT WASTE AT DOGE: REPORT

Former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney was criticized on social media after responding to Elon Musk regarding the USAID controversy. (Getty Images)

Several conservatives on social media took issue with Cheney’s comment and defended Musk against any implication that he is “unfamiliar” with U.S. history.

“He is an American by choice instead of by birth, which is a weird thing to insult someone over, but more importantly, he didn’t commit so many crimes against the country that he had to be pardoned by Joe Biden, so he’s got that going for him,” Federalist Editor-in-Chief Mollie Hemingway posted on X.

“You care more about illegals coming to this country stealing from this country than @elon giving to this country,” former Georgia state Rep. Vernon Jones posted on X.

“Ya, but he was around when your daddy was making the military industrial complex billions sending me and my buddies to die chasing the ghosts of WMDs in Iraq,” Fox News contributor Joey Jones posted on X. 

WHO IS SAMANTHA POWER? MEET THE BIDEN-ERA USAID LEADER FACING BACKLASH AMID MUSK’S DOGE CRACKDOWN

The flag of the U.S. Agency for International Development flies in front of its office in Washington, D.C., Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

“Love the anti-immigrant sentiment from Liz,” Right Turn Strategies President Chris Barron posted on X. “Funny how they always end up being everything they claim their opponents are.”

“The fact Elon said a single word and was able to set you off tells me a lot, Liz,” Twitchy.com editor Samantha Janney posted on X. “What’s also revealing is your connection to USAID. Damn proud of WY for firing you.”

“What a xenophobe,” Breitbart senior editor Joel Pollak posted on X. “Pure bigotry.”

“From Liz Cheney to Barack Obama, a lot of people still don’t appreciate how much of America’s political aristocracy class grew up in USAID families,” Benz posted on X earlier this week.

The online debate about Cheney’s time at USAID comes after Musk’s DOGE efforts have resulted in the agency being effectively shut down over what the Trump administration argues is wasteful spending. 

“For decades, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has been unaccountable to taxpayers as it funnels massive sums of money to the ridiculous — and, in many cases, malicious — pet projects of entrenched bureaucrats, with next-to-no oversight,” the White House said Monday. 

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Vice President Kamala Harris campaigns with former Rep. Liz Cheney on Oct. 21, 2024, in Brookfield, Wisconsin. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

The future of USAID remains unclear, though the doors to its headquarters were closed Monday, and thousands of employees across the globe sat waiting to hear whether they still had jobs after the apparent Musk takeover.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been named the acting director, and he agreed Monday with the White House that the agency needed an overhaul.

“The president made me the acting administrator,” he told Fox News. “I’ve delegated that power to someone who is there full time, and we’re going to go through the same process at USAID as we’re going through now at the State Department.”

Fox News Digital’s Caitlin McFall contributed to this report

Former Rep. Liz Cheney emphatically acknowledged her past work for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) when responding to a tweet by Elon Musk.

Musk, who is spearheading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) effort to slash government waste and fraud, has the agency in his crosshairs.

“Interesting,” Musk wrote in response to a post in which Mike Benz, founder and executive director of the Foundation for Freedom Online, said Cheney had been “spawned out of USAID.” Benz shared a screenshot from an article that said Cheney had worked at the agency.

“Damn right, @Elon. I’m proud of what America did to win the Cold War, defeat Soviet communism, and defend democracy. Our nation stood for freedom. You may be unfamiliar with that part of our history since you weren’t yet an American citizen,” Cheney declared when retweeting Musk.

USAID STAFFERS STUNNED, ANGERED BY TRUMP ADMIN’S DOGE SHUTDOWN OF $40B AGENCY

Left: Former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., appears on “Meet the Press” in Washington D.C., Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024; Right: Elon Musk arrives to the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 20, 2025 in Washington, D.C.  (Left: William B. Plowman/NBC via Getty Images; Right: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Benz shared screenshots of Cheney’s post and of Musk’s post, and wrote, “‘Damn right I was spawned out of USAID.’ – Liz Cheney.”

“No kidding,” Musk replied when retweeting Benz.

President Donald Trump shared a screenshot of Musk’s post on Truth Social.

The Biographical Directory of the United States Congress notes that Cheney was a staffer at USAID from 1989-1992.

She was one of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot. 

BIDEN AWARDS LIZ CHENEY, JAN 6 COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN A MEDAL: US ‘IS BETTER BECAUSE OF THEIR DEDICATION’

Former Vice President Kamala Harris, speaks with former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., at a town hall at the Royal Oak Music Theatre on Oct. 21, 2024, in Royal Oak, Mich. (Sarah Rice/Getty Images)

Last year she endorsed, and even campaigned with, former Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate who lost to Trump.

During her congressional tenure, Cheney served on the House Select Committee that probed the Jan. 6 episode.

President Joe Biden, who awarded Cheney the Presidential Citizens Medal, pardoned lawmakers and staffers who served on the committee out of concern that they could be targeted in “politically motivated prosecutions.”

WHAT IS USAID AND WHY IS IT IN TRUMP’S CROSSHAIRS?

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During a recent X spaces, Musk said that unlike an apple contaminated by a worm, USAID is “a bowl of worms.”

“There is no apple,” he said. “It’s beyond repair.”

The Office of Civil Rights within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced investigations into four medical schools over alleged antisemitic incidents during their 2024 commencement ceremonies. 

While HHS did not identify the schools subjected to these investigations, the Wall Street Journal reported that Harvard, Columbia, Brown and Johns Hopkins medical schools were the targets. The investigations will come after a school year riddled with what critics have described as antisemitic incidents after Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel. 

“After October 7, we saw Jew-hatred explode not just on college campuses and city streets, but in the medical profession. This has caused a lot of concern that anti-Jewish bias in medicine endangers the lives of Jewish patients – and these concerns have not been conclusively addressed to date,” said Gerard Filitti, senior counsel at The Lawfare Project, which provides pro bono legal services to protect the civil rights of the Jewish community. “The investigations announced by HHS are a crucial first step towards addressing these concerns.”

ISRAELI HARVARD STUDENT SPEAKS OUT ON ANTISEMITISM BEHIND LATEST SETTLEMENT

Protesters demonstrate near Columbia University on Feb. 2, 2024 in New York City. (Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images)

Harvard’s 2024 commencement ceremony was ridiculed over the school’s decision to tap media CEO Maria Ressa as the school’s commencement speaker following a year of incidents that included an assault against an Israeli student by pro-Palestinian protesters, scores of alleged antisemitic displays and chants, including some that praised Hamas, and numerous civil rights allegations from Jewish students. In addition, Harvard was accused by its own students of turning a blind eye to antisemitism.  

Ressa, not long after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, penned an op-ed comparing Israel to Nazi Germany, and during her commencement address complained that she had been attacked over her pro-Palestinain advocacy “by power and money because they want power and money,” which people construed as promoting antisemitic stereotypes. Ressa was also accused of praising pro-Hamas demonstrations happening on campus during her address.

JEWISH COMMUNITY RESPONDS TO TRUMP EXECUTIVE ORDER VOWING TO DEPORT PRO-HAMAS ACTIVISTS WITH STUDENT VISAS

The commencement ceremony was allegedly so bad that a campus Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi felt compelled to confront Ressa during the event and subsequently walked offstage. According to media reports, Zarchi later described the ceremony as a “really vile program.”

Former Harvard University President Larry Summers claimed that the school has not been “swift” enough in combating the antisemitism spreading throughout campus. (JOSEPH PREZIOSO / Contributor)

Harvard Medical School spokesperson Ekaterina Pesheva said in a statement to Fox News Digital that the school “condemns antisemitism and remains committed to combating all forms of discrimination and harassment.” Pesheva added that Harvard would “continue to advance our efforts to ensure that all community members feel they belong” and said the school is currently reviewing HHS’s civil rights request and will cooperate to address the agency’s questions regarding the 2024 commencement ceremony. 

Columbia, Johns Hopkins and Brown similarly faced a slew of complaints over alleged antisemitism on their campuses and the universities’ failure to address them. The environment at these schools was so hostile, reportedly, that some Jewish students who were admitted to these Ivy League schools decided to go somewhere else. A rabbi at Columbia went so far as to tell Jewish students to leave campus for their safety.

President Donald Trump has moved quickly to challenge antisemitism in the U.S., with news of the investigations coming the same day the Trump administration’s Department of Justice announced the formation of a multi-agency task force to combat antisemitism. News of the probe also came after Trump signed an executive order several days after taking office seeking to combat antisemitism, particularly on college campuses. 

“HHS has been so quick to implement President Trump’s Executive Order is tacit recognition of the failure on the part of these universities to address antisemitism, despite several lawsuits and congressional investigations,” Filitti said. “The Biden Administration, for all its rhetoric, failed to do nearly as much as President Trump has in only one week to address Jew-hatred, and we now have a President clearly willing to use the power of the executive branch to take concrete action to stamp out antisemitism and protect the civil rights of Jewish Americans – and all Americans.”

PATRIOTS OWNER ROBERT KRAFT LAUNCHING ‘NO REASON TO HATE’ SUPER BOWL AD, COMBATING ANTISEMITISM

Witnesses from various universities testify during a House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government hearing on antisemitism on college campuses at the Rayburn House Office Building on May 15, 2024 in Washington, D.C. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)

In addition to facing potential consequences over the school’s failure to address antisemitism on their campuses, Trump has also threatened to withhold millions of federal dollars in research grants if they do not comply with new orders quashing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. 

“Antisemitism has no place in American society, least of all in medical schools,” said Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, chairman of the nonprofit Do No Harm, which seeks to root out identity politics in medical education. “Medical schools, especially those who push a DEI agenda have become hotbeds of antisemitism, the department of Health and Human Services is right to raise concerns about blatantly antisemitic protests.”

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On Monday, the Department of Education also launched a slew of additional civil rights investigations into Columbia, Northwestern, the University of California – Berkeley, the University of Minnesota and Portland State universities. 

Fox News Digital reached out to Harvard, Columbia, Brown and Johns Hopkins for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.

A federal judge indicated that he is “likely” to release immigration files on Prince Harry after the first hearing in the royal’s high-profile case since President Donald Trump took office.

U.S. District Court Judge Carl J. Nichols said Harry’s files should be released “to the maximum extent possible,” during Wednesday’s hearing in Washington, D.C., according to a report from the New York Post, with the judge reasoning that he is “required to make public everything that can be made public” but would take care not to violate any privacy laws.

“I’m going to take this in stages,” Nichols said, noting that the government will have the ability to propose potential redactions.

The Wednesday hearing marked the first in the case since the inauguration of Trump, who has been pressed in recent weeks to step in and unseal Harry’s immigration records.

PRINCE HARRY, MEGHAN MARKLE SLAMMED BY JUSTINE BATEMAN FOR BEING ‘DISASTER TOURISTS’ AMID CALIFORNIA FIRES

Prince Harry’s immigration paperwork is under scrutiny over allegations he lied on some key documents. (Getty Images)

“I’ll be urging the president to release Prince Harry’s immigration records and the president does have that legal authority to do that,” Nile Gardiner of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank behind the lawsuit to unseal Harry’s records, told the New York Post.

“It’s important because this is an issue of the rule of law, transparency and accountability. No one should be above the law,” Gardiner added. “Donald Trump is ushering in a new era of strict border control enforcement, and you know, Prince Harry should be held fully to account as he has admitted to extensive illegal drug use.”

PRINCE HARRY, MEGHAN MARKLE, VISIT SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA TO SUPPORT WILDFIRE VICTIMS, RECOVERY EFFORTS

At issue in the case is whether Harry lied on immigration forms or was provided with special treatment when he initially moved to the U.S. in 2020, a question that arose after the royal admitted to using illegal drugs in his memoir “Spare,” which was released in 2023.

The admission by Harry sparked a lawsuit by the Heritage Foundation, which sued the Department of Homeland Security in an attempt to have the royal’s immigration records released.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle (Chris Jackson/Getty Images)

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For his part, Trump indicated on the campaign trail that he is open to deporting Harry and has in the past been critical of the royal’s move to the United States.

“He has been so disrespectful to the country, and I think he’s an embarrassment,” Trump said in a 2022 interview with Piers Morgan.

The Senate is poised to vote on whether to confirm Russell Vought to a top administration role after Democrats held a rare overnight session to oppose his nomination.

Vought was tapped by President Donald Trump to lead the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the office that helps create and manage the federal budget.

While many Trump nominees have received bipartisan support, Vought’s nomination has been controversial among Democratic lawmakers who are opposed due to his stance on the Impoundment Control Act – a 1974 law that reinforces Congress’ power of the purse. 

LEADER THUNE BACKS SENATE GOP BID TO SPEED PAST HOUSE ON TRUMP BUDGET PLAN

Russell Vought, President Donald Trump’s choice for director of the Office of Management and Budget, speaks during a Senate Budget Committee hearing on his nomination, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)

On Wednesday, the Senate voted to advance Vought’s nomination to a final vote on the floor, prompting a 30-hour, overnight debate period that Democrats vowed to use entirely for protest.

Democrats scheduled speakers to hold the floor throughout the entire night in an effort to delay Vought’s confirmation.

DEMS’ ‘DELAY TACTIC’ TO ‘MALIGN’ PATEL AND STALL FBI CONFIRMATION DISMISSED AS ‘BASELESS’ BY TOP SENATE LEADER

However, the Senate is likely to hold a confirmation vote for Vought on Thursday evening once the debate period ends.

Sen. Gary Peters said Democrats are going to “do everything we can” to make sure Russell Vought does not get confirmed. (Umit Bektas)

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“We’re gonna do everything we can to make sure he doesn’t get confirmed,” Sen. Gary Peters, D-Michigan, said in a video posted on X. “We know that Republicans have the votes, but we’re going to fight every step of the way.”

President Donald Trump’s nominee for Office of Management and Budget director, Russell Vought, testifies during the Senate Banking Committee nomination hearing in the Dirksen Senate Building on Jan. 22, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)

Fox News’ Diana Stacey and Julia Johnson contributed to this report.

FIRST ON FOX: The federal government under the Biden administration doled out more than $174 million in grants and contracts to promote “radical ideas” on gender ideology, including to study menstrual cycles in transgender men and to “shield” the gay community in the Western Balkans, a new database dubbed ​​”Funding Insanity” found. 

“When Americans pay their taxes every year, they expect that money to go towards projects that help them: strengthening our national defense, building and upgrading infrastructure, protecting our natural resources, etc.,” American Principles Project President Terry Schilling said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital. 

“However, in recent years Democrats have been using public funds to instead push their radical gender agenda here at home and around the world,” he said. “Hundreds of millions of dollars have been squandered on programs promoting the idea that human biology doesn’t matter. Nothing could better exemplify the disgusting corruption that has taken hold of Washington.”

The American Principles Project, a conservative nonprofit that bills itself as “America’s Top Defender of the Family,” published a new database Thursday morning called “Funding Insanity,” which details various initiatives — both domestic and abroad — that received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the federal government to promote left-wing gender ideology. 

‘VIPER’S NEST’: USAID ACCUSED OF CORRUPTION, MISMANAGEMENT LONG BEFORE TRUMP ADMIN TOOK AIM

President Donald Trump and Elon Musk (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

The funds examined by the AAP were doled out across the past four years under the Biden administration. 

In one of the priciest examples on AAP’s database, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) obligated $1,929,783 to the American Bar Association as part of a mission to “shield” members of “the LGBTQI+ population in the Western Balkans” by “strengthening human rights, information integrity, equality, and democracy.”

‘SESAME STREET IN IRAQ’: USAID’S ‘WASTEFUL AND DANGEROUS’ SPENDING EXPOSED BY SENATOR

The Western Balkans includes nations such as Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro and Albania. The Balkans region overwhelmingly does not recognize gay marriage, though nations such as Montenegro recognize “life partnerships” between gay couples.

A protester holds a sign reading, “Homosexuality is not a choice, hate is a choice,” in Croatia. (Getty Images)

The grant began on Oct. 1, 2024, and was set to run until Sept. 30. The Trump administration, however, paused foreign assistance in January, and USAID is in the midst of an apparent dismantling at the hands of the Department of Government Efficiency. 

USAID CLOSES HQ TO STAFFERS MONDAY AS MUSK SAYS TRUMP SUPPORTS SHUTTING AGENCY DOWN

In another example, the Department of Agriculture granted $600,000 to Southern University A&M in Louisiana to study menstrual cycles, including for transgender men and nonbinary people.

The Department of Agriculture granted $600,000 to Southern University A&M in Louisiana to study menstrual cycles, including for transgender men and nonbinary people. (Getty Images)

“The first occurrence of menstruation occurs at approximately 12 years of age and ends with menopause at roughly 51 years of age,” the description for the grant states. “A woman will have a monthly menstrual cycle for about 40 years of her life averaging to about 450 periods over the course of her lifetime. 

“It is also important to recognize that transgender men and people with masculine gender identities, intersex and non-binary persons may also menstruate,” it continues. “At any given moment about 26% of the world’s population is menstruating.” 

The grant began in April 2024 and is described as a study to “address the growing concerns and issues surrounding menstruation,” including the use of natural fibers, such as hemp, for feminine hygiene products. 

Fox News Digital reached out to the university and the American Bar Association regarding these respective grants but did not immediately receive replies. 

GOP HARDLINERS RALLY AROUND TRUMP, MUSK SCALING BACK USAID

The Department of Agriculture spent an additional $229,637 to a natural resource management firm on contracts for “Brazil Forest and gender consultant services,” according to the database. 

Gender consultants in forestry services work to promote gender-equality and women’s empowerment in the industry. The forestry contract began on Jan 15, 2024, and ended in January, a review of its award profile shows. 

The Department of Agriculture spent an additional $229,637 to a natural resource management firm on contracts for “Brazil Forest and gender consultant services.”  (Getty Images)

The State Department, in another example, spent nearly $25,000 in funds to “miscellaneous” foreign groups to premiere a theater production of “The Vagina Monologues” translated to the Gujarati language in India. 

“To support social change towards women empowerment and ending gender-based violence through theatre, world premier of the Vagina Monologues in Gujarati language in Mumbai and Ahmedabad,” the description of the grant reads. 

USAID EMPLOYEE SAYS STAFFERS HID PRIDE FLAGS, ‘INCRIMINATING’ BOOKS WHEN DOGE ARRIVED 

“The Vagina Monologues” is a feminist play that first premiered in the U.S. in 1996 that focuses on personal monologues involving topics such as rape, menstrual periods, genital mutilation and prostitution. 

In another pricey grant, USAID sent $1,065,702 to a Bangladesh welfare group to “support gender diverse people (gdp) through the new shomota (a Bangla word meaning “equality” in English),” the description for the grant reads. 

Another State Department grant delivered $2,315 to a nongovernmental agency in Nepal to teach English to “professional transgender women makeup entrepreneurs.”

The State Department grant delivered $2,315 to a nongovernmental agency in Nepal to teach English to “professional transgender women makeup entrepreneurs.” (Getty Images)

Schilling continued in his statement provided to Fox Digital that “corruption” involving the federal government using taxpayer funds for left-wing gender initiatives “is finally coming to an end.”

In November 2024, “the American people gave Donald Trump a clear mandate to drain the swamp, and since taking office he has acted decisively to do so along with Elon Musk and the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency,” he said. “We hope President Trump, Musk and DOGE will find this information useful as they work to root out the far left’s ideological waste and instead return our government to its true purpose: service for the good of all Americans.” 

Musk and his team of auditors at DOGE are poring through federal databases to identify overspending, fraud and corruption, with their main focus right now involving USAID. 

FLASHBACK: BIDEN ADMIN REPEATEDLY USED USAID TO PUSH ABORTION IN AFRICA

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday that he is now the acting director of USAID. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein/Pool)

Secretary of State Marco Rubio reported on Monday that he is now the acting director of USAID, telling the media that the agency needs to be brought in line with Trump’s “America First” policies, which include heightened scrutiny over the distribution of taxpayer funds overseas. 

USAID’s website, since Tuesday evening, notifies readers that staff would be placed on leave globally, except “designated personnel responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership and specially designated programs.”

Democrat lawmakers have slammed the Trump administration’s apparent dismantling of the agency and targeting of other agencies, such as the Treasury Department, including holding protests in Washington, D.C.

WHAT IS USAID AND WHY IS IT IN TRUMP’S CROSSHAIRS?

“This is the most corrupt bargain we’ve ever seen in American history: Elon Musk gives $250 million to elect Donald Trump, and Donald Trump turns over the keys to United States government to Elon Musk and his billionaire friends and his cronies,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said during a protest outside the Treasury Department in Washington on Tuesday. 

“Are we going to let that stand? Hell no, we are not going to let that stand,” Van Hollen added, later vowing, “We have to fight this in the courts, we have to fight this in the Congress, we have to fight this in the streets. We need to fight this all over America.” 

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt slammed such rhetoric as attempts to “incite violence” during a press conference on Wednesday. 

Elon Musk is leading the Department of Government Efficiency. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

“It’s unacceptable, the comments that have been made by these Democrat leaders, and frankly, they don’t even know what they’re talking about because President Trump was elected with a mandate from the American people to make this government more efficient,” Leavitt responded. 

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“He campaigned across this country with Elon Musk, vowing that Elon was going to head up the Department of Government Efficiency and the two of them with a great team around them were going to look at the receipts of this federal government and ensure it’s accountable to American taxpayers. That’s all that is happening here,” Leavitt continued. “And for Democrat officials to incite violence and encourage Americans to take to the streets is incredibly alarming, and they should be held accountable for that rhetoric.”

A Navy SEAL veteran-turned-congressman is fighting to pull back the curtain on the growing threat of Mexican drug cartels and other organized crime groups, introducing legislation Thursday aimed at providing Americans with transparency about the dangers they pose.

“Thanks to the Biden administration’s open-border policies, dangerous cartels have been running our borders and profiting from human and drug trafficking,” Rep. Morgan Luttrell, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital.

Luttrell introduced the CARTEL Act, which mandates that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) report whether individuals listed in the Terrorist Screening Database were released into the United States.

MEXICAN CARTELS TARGETING BORDER PATROL AGENTS WITH KAMIKAZE DRONES, EXPLOSIVES AMID TRUMP CRACKDOWN: REPORT

Rep. Morgan Luttrell, R-Texas, is introducing the CARTEL Act to provide the public with information about whether individuals listed in the Terrorist Screening Database were released into the U.S. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

The legislation also mandates the transparent tracking of individuals associated with cartels who have attempted illegal crossings.

The bill comes just a few weeks after President Donald Trump signed an executive order that moved the U.S. toward designating drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. The order says the organizations “threaten the safety of the American people, the security of the United States, and the stability of the international order in the Western Hemisphere.”

“The Cartels have engaged in a campaign of violence and terror throughout the Western Hemisphere that has not only destabilized countries with significant importance for our national interests but also flooded the United States with deadly drugs, violent criminals, and vicious gangs,” the order adds.

President Donald Trump has signed a number of executive orders related to border security in the early days of his second administration. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

MEXICO AGREES TO DEPLOY 10,000 TROOPS TO US BORDER IN EXCHANGE FOR TARIFF PAUSE

The order highlighted both Mexican cartels and other gangs throughout Latin America, such as Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua and El Salvador’s MS-13, which have raised alarms in recent years after reports of gang activity spreading to the United States.

Luttrell, who served seven years as a Navy SEAL, believes the legislation will offer Americans transparency on just who is trying to enter the country, while also mandating that CBP provide a comprehensive report to Congress showing which terrorist organizations and cartels are working to enter the country.

The CARTEL Act is co-sponsored by representatives Bryan Steil, R-Wis., Daniel Webster, R-Fla., Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., Jen Kiggans, R-Va., and Randy Weber, R-Texas.

Members of violent Latin American gangs such as Tren de Aragua and MS-13 are a key concern in Luttrell’s legislation.  (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

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“Americans deserve to know exactly who is trying to enter our country,” Luttrell said. “The CARTEL Act will provide critical transparency and accountability in the fight to secure our borders and protect our communities.”

A subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives will hold a hearing on Thursday on how regulatory policy impacts the prevention of natural disasters, with a focus on the deadly wildfires that ravaged Southern California last month.

The GOP-led House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform and Antitrust will kick off the hearing, titled “California Fires and the Consequences of Overregulation,” at 10 a.m. on Thursday.

Not only will the hearing examine how regulatory policy in the Golden State has affected the prevention of natural disasters, specifically wildfires, it will also address how “excessive regulation” on insurance and permitting slows down recovery.

Days after the fires began, California Gov. Gavin Newsom suspended regulations related to rebuilding, waiving permitting requirements based on the California Coastal Act and the California Environmental Quality Act to allow for a quicker rebuilding process.

CALIFORNIA GOV. NEWSOM TO SEEK MORE FEDERAL FUNDS FOR LA FIRE RECOVERY DURING DC MEETING WITH TRUMP

Firefighters work from a deck as the Palisades Fire burns a beachfront property in Malibu, California, Jan. 8, 2025.  (AP Photo/Etienne Laurent)

In the wake of the fires, a March 2024 announcement from California’s largest private insurer, State Farm, stating that it was discontinuing coverage for 72,000 home and apartment policies resurfaced, generating backlash and questions surrounding the accessibility of insurance in that area specifically.

The insurer said a letter sent to the California Department of Insurance (CDI) shortly after that announcement was an “alarm signaling the grave need for rapid and transformational action.”

Now, State Farm is asking the CDI to “immediately approve” a 22% rate increase for non-tenant homeowners, a 15% increase for renters and condo owners, and 38% for rental dwellings.

Smoke from the Palisades Fire rises over residences in Mandeville Canyon Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

ESSENTIAL PHONE NUMBERS FOR LOS ANGELES-AREA RESIDENTS AND HOW YOU CAN HELP THEM

The increased rates are to help “avert a dire situation,” State Farm said, and would go into effect on May 1, 2025.

“As of February 1st, State Farm General (Fire only) has received more than 8,700 claims and has already paid more than $1 billion to customers,” the insurer wrote in a release on its website. “State Farm General will ultimately pay out significantly more, as collectively these fires will be the costliest disasters in the history of State Farm General.”

An aerial photo shows multiple charred homes after the Eaton Fire in Altadena, California, on Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

KELSEY GRAMMER SAYS CALIFORNIA LAWMAKERS ‘TOOK THEIR EYE OFF THE BALL’ IN WILDFIRES CATASTROPHE

The hearing comes a day after Newsom traveled to Washington, D.C., to meet with President Donald Trump and Congressional members in efforts to secure more federal funding for wildfire recovery. 

The Secretary of the California Natural Resources Agency, Wade Crowfoot, who oversees water and fire policy across the state, also attended the meeting.

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Witnesses at the hearing include Steve Hilton, founder of Golden Together; Steven Greenhut, R Street Institute resident senior fellow and western region director; and Edward Ring, who oversees Water and Energy Policy at the California Policy Center.

Fox Business’ Rachel Wolf contributed to this report.

Defense Minister Israel Katz said Thursday he welcomes President Donald Trump’s proposal for large numbers of Palestinians to leave the Gaza Strip as he instructed the IDF to prepare a plan in line with the controversial plan. 

Katz said Trump’s “bold plan” could “create extensive opportunities for those in Gaza who wish to leave.”

Trump’s plan initially stated that Gaza’s population would be “permanently” relocated while the United States rebuilds the territory, but U.S. officials later walked back those comments, saying the relocation would only be temporary.

TRUMP’S PROPOSED US TAKEOVER OF GAZA STRIP ELICITS POSITIVE RESPONSE ACROSS ADMINISTRATION

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, November 7, 2024.  (REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun)

“The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it, too,” Trump said Tuesday evening in a joint press conference with Netanyahu. “We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous, unexplored bombs and other weapons on the site.”

“Level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out, create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area,” he said. “Do a real job. Do something different. Just can’t go back. If you go back, it’s going to end up the same way it has for 100 years.”

ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER LAUDS TRUMP’S LEADERSHIP WHEN ASKED IF BIDEN SHOULD TAKE CREDIT FOR CEASEFIRE

 Israelis protestors set a fire as they block a road in Tel Aviv on November 5, 2024, after the dismissal of the defense minister, amid the ongoing war between Israel and the militant Hamas group.  (JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images)

Katz said he believes that the plan should include multiple exit options for any country willing to receive them.

“The plan will include exit options via land crossings, as well as special arrangements for departure by sea and air. Countries such as Spain, Ireland, Norway, and others, which have falsely accused Israel over its actions in Gaza, are legally obligated to allow Gazans to enter their territory. Their hypocrisy will be exposed if they refuse,” said Katz.

Displaced Palestinians return to their homes in the northern Gaza Strip on Monday. (AP/Abdel Kareem Hana)

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As of now, the plan has been rejected by the Palestinians as well as many in the international community who believe it is forcible displacement and violates international law. Rights groups said it would amount to forcible displacement in violation of international law.

Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Tom Cotton was instrumental in pushing Tulsi Gabbard’s controversial nomination to be Director of National Intelligence (DNI) past its first hurdle in the upper chamber this week, and it took a full court press to do so. 

Gabbard successfully advanced out of the Intel Committee this week, with all Republican members voting in her favor, despite concerns they would not. 

Cotton led the effort with a makeshift Gabbard confirmation “war room” and the enlisted assistance of former rebel Democrat-turned-independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, as well as former Intel Committee Chairman Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, according to a GOP Senate source with knowledge of Cotton’s efforts.

The “cordial and calculated” campaign to confirm President Donald Trump’s nominee for DNI saw close work between Gabbard’s confirmation sherpa team, the White House’s legislative affairs team and Vice President JD Vance, a former senator, the source told Fox News Digital.

SENATORS LEAPFROG HOUSE REPUBLICANS ON ANTICIPATED TRUMP BUDGET BILL

Tom Cotton carried out a calculated effort to get Tulsi Gabbard past the Intel committee. (Reuters/ Getty Images)

The group assisted Gabbard in each step of the process. They helped with questions for the nominee submitted to the committee, queries from lawmakers, hearing preparation and even strategized on a last-minute op-ed to address any lingering concerns, the source said.

Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman, penned an op-ed in Newsweek following her hearing, detailing, “Why I Am the Right Choice to Lead the Office of National Intelligence.”

The article addressed a significant point of concern for some undecided Republicans: Her refusal to call NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden a traitor. 

FORMER GOP LEADER MCCONNELL FALLS WHILE EXITING SENATE CHAMBER AFTER TURNER CONFIRMATION VOTE

Nomiee for Director of National Security Tulsi Gabbard, left, and whistleblower Edward Snowden in Moscow Russia, right  (AP/Getty)

“Given the interest by committee members about whether Edward Snowden should be called a ‘traitor,’ here’s what I shared with the Senate Intelligence Committee in the closed session about why I do not casually throw around that term: Treason is a capital offense, punishable by death, yet politicians like former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former US Senator Mitt Romney have slandered me, Donald Trump Jr. and others with baseless accusations of treason,” she wrote. 

SENATE TEES UP TRUMP BUDGET CHIEF PICK RUSSELL VOUGHT FOR FINAL CONFIRMATION VOTE

Cotton is chairman of the intel committee. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Cotton also reportedly advised the White House on how to be particularly persuasive when it comes to courting senators for their crucial votes. He remained in close touch with Trump’s administration throughout Gabbard’s process leading up to the Intel Committee’s pivotal vote, according to the GOP Senate source.

Sinema, who recently retired from the Senate, spoke to two of her former Senate colleagues, Sens. Todd Young, R-Ind., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, who both ultimately voted to advance Gabbard despite concerns they may not, the source said. Also deployed to speak with committee members was former Trump National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien. 

FORMER NFL PLAYER SCOTT TURNER CONFIRMED TO LEAD HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT

Sen. Young came out in support of Gabbard hours before the committee vote. (Reuters)

Cotton also kept in contact with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and his office during the process, which appeared precarious for Gabbard at times, as well as held meetings with the intel committee’s Republican members, the source told Fox News Digital.

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Before Gabbard’s committee hearing, Cotton met with the nominee, along with Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, committee member Mike Rounds, R-S.D., and Burr, during which they prepared her for more than an hour to address specific committee Republicans’ concerns, the source said.

Now, Trump’s DNI pick will need to overcome a procedural vote in the full Senate before moving on to a final confirmation vote. However, Gabbard’s success in committee bodes well for her, given she locked down the support of several more hesitant Senate Republicans who are expected to continue supporting her on the chamber floor. 

The climate change movement was issued a massive blow on Wednesday after a trial judge permanently closed a Democrat-charged lawsuit claiming that big oil was to blame for climate-caused damages in the state.

In 2022, New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin filed a lawsuit against the country’s largest oil companies, ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Phillips 66, Shell, as well as the American Petroleum Institute, claiming that the fossil fuel industry was worsening the effects of climate change, and therefore, causing damage to the state.

However, the case was tossed out on Wednesday by New Jersey Superior Court Judge Douglas Hurd, who ruled that lawful oil companies could not be held liable for worldwide emissions. The case was dismissed with prejudice, meaning it cannot be reopened.

“Plaintiffs seek to regulate the nationwide—and even worldwide—marketing and distribution of lawful products on which billions of people outside of New Jersey rely to heat their homes, power their hospitals and schools, produce and transport their food, and manufacture countless items essential to the safety, wellbeing, and advancement of modern society,” said Hurd, who issued the ruling.

ENERGY SECRETARY WARNS AGAINST TREATING CLIMATE CHANGE AS ‘POLITICAL FOOTBALL’: SLOW-MOVING PROBLEM’

The Chevron logo is displayed at a Chevron gas station in Los Angeles, California. (Mario Tama)

Hurd said that the plaintiffs could not justly claim damages caused by nationwide emissions.

ENERGY SEC. WRIGHT OUTLINES DAY 1 PRIORITIES: REFILLING SPR, PROMPTING ‘ENERGY ADDITION, NOT SUBTRACTION’

“Because Plaintiffs seek damages for alleged harms caused by interstate and international emissions and global warming, their claims cannot be governed by state law. Under our federal constitutional system, states cannot use their laws to resolve claims seeking redress for injuries allegedly caused by out-of-state and worldwide emissions,” Hurd said in the decision.

NJ AG Matthew Platkin sued big oil on claims that they were causing climate change. (Getty Images)

Energy experts told Fox News Digital that the dismissal sends a clear message that “energy policy should be set by elected officials, not litigated into existence by activist lawyers.”

“This ruling is a major victory for common sense and the rule of law. Climate activists have been using the courts to push their radical agenda, but judges are increasingly rejecting these baseless lawsuits that threaten energy security and economic stability,” Jason Isaac, CEO of the American Energy Institute and former Texas representative, said in a statement shared with Fox News Digital.

An Exxon gas station is seen on Aug. 5, 2024 in Austin, Texas. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

Steve Milloy, senior fellow at the Energy & Environment Legal Institute and former Trump EPA transition team member, said that similar lawsuits could face the same fate because “the climate controversy is a political, not a legal one.”

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“Although Democrats don’t really understand this, political issues are on the ballot box, not the courtroom,” Milloy said.

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

Social media users are slamming a Democratic senator’s impassioned speech opposing a halt to millions of taxpayer dollars being funneled to controversial, DEI-aligned programs overseas.

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., spoke at a rally outside the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday in protest of Elon Musk’s sweep of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

“We will fight their violation of civil service laws. We will fight their violation of civil rights laws. We will fight their violations of separation of powers. We will fight their violations of our Constitution of the United States of America,” Booker said. “We will not shut up. We will stick up. We will rise up.”

Trump’s rapid response team called out Booker for opposing cuts to the agency funding controversial programs, which, according to the White House, gave $1.5 million to “advance diversity, equity and inclusion in Serbia’s workplaces and business communities.”

‘SESAME STREET IN IRAQ’: USAID’S ‘WASTEFUL AND DANGEROUS’ SPENDING EXPOSED BY SENATOR

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., speaks at a rally in support of USAID on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

“Why is Cory Booker so angry at the idea of making sure American tax dollars are spent to further the national interest of the United States and not on things like ‘LGBT activism’ in Guatemala?” Team Trump wrote in a post on X. 

“Cory Booker is having an absolute meltdown because we don’t want American tax dollars to be wasted on bizarre projects in foreign countries,” LibsofTikTok wrote.

WHITE HOUSE FLAGS TOP USAID BOONDOGGLES UNDER ELON MUSK’S MICROSCOPE

New Jersey state Sen. Mike Testa, a Republican, wrote that Booker is “grandstanding on behalf of foreign pet projects” instead of “standing up for the will of his constituents.”

“New Jerseyans have been kicked in the face and forgotten by their United States Senators for years,” Testa said on X. “We deserve a hell of a lot better.”

“Sen. Cory Booker is BIG MAD that lesbian dance therapy for Ethiopians will no longer be paid for by US tax dollars Why are Democrats like this?” wrote another user, Nick Sorter.

The White House released a detailed report outlining USAID spending over the past few years, including $15 million on contraceptives and condoms that ended up in the hands of the Taliban and another $20 million allocated to fund “Sesame Street” in Iraq.

The funds were awarded by the Biden administration to a nonprofit called Sesame Workshop to produce a show called “Ahlan Simsim Iraq” in an effort to reportedly “promote inclusion, mutual respect, and understanding across ethnic, religious, and sectarian groups.” 

Protesters gathered outside the Capitol in Washington, D.C., rally against Elon Musk’s crackdown on USAID spending. (Fox News Digital)

Musk has been leading the charge to expose and cut funding from USAID as part of his spending crackdown at the newly-formed Department of Government Efficiency. 

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Hundreds of activists, including several Democratic members of Congress, gathered Wednesday to protest the USAID cuts and criticize Musk’s role in the Trump administration.

FIRST ON FOX: Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., came out in support of a GOP effort in the upper chamber to get moving on legislation to advance President Donald Trump’s agenda.

It would be a significant departure from current plans for the House to pass a bill first, amid infighting by House Republicans over spending levels.

“I appreciate Chairman Graham’s leadership in crafting a budget resolution that will unlock the ability to pass a reconciliation bill to secure the border, rebuild our military, and deliver a much-needed down payment on energy security,” Thune told Fox News Digital in an exclusive statement. 

“I am supportive of Chairman Graham’s efforts to advance the president’s priorities in the Senate, and I look forward to continuing our conversations with our House colleagues,” he said. 

SENATORS LEAPFROG HOUSE REPUBLICANS ON ANTICIPATED TRUMP BUDGET BILL

Thune said he supports Graham’s effort to move on the President’s agenda in the Senate. (Getty Images)

Earlier on Wednesday, ahead of a lunch with key Republicans, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., unveiled his plan to advance the bill through a key procedural hurdle next week. The House planned to move a bill this week, but leaders were forced to punt after conservatives balked at what they saw as a low threshold for spending cuts to offset the cost of new funding to implement Republican border and defense policies.

Now, with Thune’s blessing, Graham’s plan is primed to quickly maneuver through the Senate, getting a significant advantage over any competing House GOP efforts. 

Republicans in Washington, D.C., are preparing to use the budget reconciliation process to achieve a wide range of Trump proposals from border security to eliminating taxes on tips and overtime pay.

The reconciliaiton process lowers the threshold to advance a bill in the Senate from 60 votes to just 51. And with a 53-vote majority in the upper chamber, Republicans are poised to push policies through with only support from the GOP conference.

FORMER GOP LEADER MCCONNELL FALLS WHILE EXITING SENATE CHAMBER AFTER TURNER CONFIRMATION VOTE

U.S. Capitol Building  (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

At the same time, with razor-thin margins in the House and Senate, the party can afford very few defectors. 

The first step in the crucial budget reconciliation process is marking up and advancing a bill through the Senate and House budget committees.

The budget that is headed to the Senate’s committee would be part of a two-pronged approach, with the first bill including Trump’s priorities for border security, fossil fuel energy and national defense.

This plan would see a second bill focusing on extending Trump’s tax policies from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) later in the year. 

In a statement, Graham confirmed his plan to move forward on the two-bill plan. His office advised that next week there would indeed be a committee vote on a Fiscal Year 2025 budget resolution, which “will be the blueprint that unlocks the pathway forward for a fully paid for reconciliation bill to secure the border, bolster our military and increase American energy independence.”

SENATE TEES UP TRUMP BUDGET CHIEF PICK RUSSELL VOUGHT FOR FINAL CONFIRMATION VOTE

Graham chairs the Budget committee. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

“To those who believe that Republicans should fulfill their promises on border security, mass deportation of criminal illegal aliens: I agree,” Graham said. 

“That is why the Senate Budget Committee will be moving forward next week to give the Trump Administration’s Border Czar, Tom Homan, the money he needs to finish the wall, hire ICE agents to deport criminal illegal immigrants, and create more detention beds so that we do not release more dangerous people into the country. This will be the most transformational border security bill in the history of our country. It’s time to act,” he continued. 

While many Senate Republicans have espoused a preference for two bills to be passed this year through the key budget reconciliation process, they have faced significant opposition in the House, where the House Ways & Means Committee and House GOP leaders have pushed for one large bill with all of Trump’s priorities. 

FORMER NFL PLAYER SCOTT TURNER CONFIRMED TO LEAD HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT

A plan to leapfrog House Republicans on the reconciliation process was unveiled to senators on Wednesday.  (Reuters)

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House leaders had intended to make the first move in the process. But the Senate passing their own bill first could essentially force the lower chamber to contend with whatever product comes from the other side of Capitol Hill, instead of dictating their starting point themselves. 

Trump has previously said he preferred one large bill, but avoided demanding it. Rather, the president has left it with Congress, urging them to employ whichever strategy can be carried out quickest.

The Trump administration’s plan to detain some of the most dangerous illegal immigrants arrested in the United States in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, could raise legal concerns and challenges, which could slow efforts to deport them to their home countries, experts say. 

President Donald Trump has instructed the Pentagon to prepare the facility to house up to 30,000 “criminal illegal aliens” at the U.S. military base. Flights to the facility began this week. 

Around 150 Marines are at the Naval Station and have set up tents for around 1,000 migrants in the other part of the installation. But those facilities with latrines and showers are not yet ready for an onslaught of 30,000 migrants as promised by Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

TRUMP-ERA SOUTHERN BORDER SEES MIGRANT ENCOUNTERS PLUMMET BY OVER 60% AS NEW POLICIES KICK IN

A migrant prepares to board a flight to Guantanamo Bay. The detention of illegal immigrants at Guantanamo could raise legal challenges, experts say.  (Department of Homeland Security)

Among the uncertainties of the plan, what’s inevitable is that those detained will most likely file petitions for a writ of habeas corpus, which asks a judge to review the legality of the prisoner’s detention, said Eugene Fidell, a visiting lecturer at Yale Law School who teaches a course on military law and Guantanamo Bay. 

“Nothing has changed in terms of that basic guideline, which means that the writ of habeas corpus, which is protected by the U.S. Constitution in so many words, applies there,” Fidell told Fox News. “And what that means is that the people who are being taken to Guantanamo as part of the administration’s current effort are going to have access to the United States District Court.”

The first 10 criminal migrants who arrived this week will be held under U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) control in a separate wing of the detention facility where the 15 remaining 9/11 military combatants, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the principal architect of the 9/11 terror attack, are housed.

TRUMP ADMIN DEPORTING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS CONVICTED OF A CRIME IS WILDLY POPULAR AMONG NEW YORK VOTERS: POLL

In this photo reviewed by U.S. military officials, the control tower of Camp VI detention facility is seen on April 17, 2019, in Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

The arrival of illegal immigrants to Guantanano will almost certainly result in legal challenges, wrote John B. Bellinger III, adjunct senior fellow for international and national security law at the Council on Foreign Relations.

“Unauthorized immigrants transferred (or threatened with potential transfer) from the United States to Guantánamo will file a vast array of legal challenges, providing a lot of business for the courts,” he wrote in an article published Tuesday. “Haitian and Cuban refugees previously held on Guantánamo—as well as many of the terrorism suspects—filed numerous suits challenging the detention and conditions, several of which were ultimately heard by the Supreme Court.”

Hegseth said the administration knows there will be legal challenges but that securing the border requires bold measures. 

“You’ve got the hardened facility for Tren de Aragua, violent gang member types who need that kind of lock down. And then you have on the other side of the island of Guantanamo Bay Naval Station, a place built for migrants, for those who peacefully are going to be extricated out of the United States,” he said. “We know there will be legal challenges.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, right, pats Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., on his shoulder as he answers questions from reporters after arriving at the Pentagon on Monday. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)

“Here’s what we know. What President Trump knows is that border security and internal enforcement is national security. Because we were invaded for the last four years under Joe Biden,” Hegseth added. “Tens of millions of people entered our country. We have no idea who they are. We’re going to find those here illegally, prioritizing those with violent or sketchy past and use Guantanamo Bay as a transit way to remove them and send them back to their home country.”

Bellinger noted that all the prior cases by those detained at Guantanamo involved people detained outside the U.S. Those arrested in the U.S. will be able to file additional claims, he said. 

“Unauthorized immigrants detained in the United States also have a right to counsel and to be visited by a consular official from their country of nationality,” he said. “Such immigrants may claim that their transfer to Guantanamo will interfere with their ability to exercise these rights.”

DOZENS OF ILLEGALS ARRESTED IN TRUMP’S HOME COUNTY IN FLORIDA

In 2008, a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision gave anyone sent to Gitmo the right to habeas corpus, meaning anyone at Guantanamo can challenge the legality of their detention. The ruling has played a factor that has slowed the government’s ability to complete the prosecution of Mohammed and the other 9/11 planners.

“This is not a convenient venue,” said Fidell. “It’s not a venue that insulates the government’s activities from the oversight of the federal courts.”

Fidell noted that previous administrations have resisted efforts to get the federal court to exercise oversight of Guantanamo, resulting in a series of court cases, notably the U.S. Supreme Court case of Zadvydas v. Davis, noting that those cases dealing with the indefinite detention of illegal immigrants could apply.  

“What you’re going to see is an intersection of habeas corpus law generally with the very robust body of law that has grown up over the years in the immigration field,” he said. “And the notion that people can be held for prolonged periods of time is one that I think is going to meet with a lot of resistance in the courts.”

TOM HOMAN CALLS DESIGNATING CARTELS AS TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS A ‘GAME CHANGER’

This image shows migrants boarding a flight to Guantanamo Bay. (Department of Homeland Security)

In the Zadvydas case, the high court ruled that the plenary power doctrine doesn’t allow the indefinite detention of immigrants under order of deportation whom no other country will accept. The case stems from Kestutis Zadvydas, who was a resident alien in the U.S. and was ordered deported in 1994 because of his criminal record. Zadvydas was born to Lithuanian parents in Germany, but was not a citizen of either country, neither of which would accept him. 

In 1995, he filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in a federal court, which was eventually granted and he was released under supervision. The government appealed and the ruling was overturned.  

From 1991 to 1993 and from 1994 to 1996, part of the base at Guantanamo was used to house large numbers of Haitians and Cubans who fled their countries on boats and rafts to claim asylum in the U.S.

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In addition to legal challenges that could slow the deportation process, housing these migrants could cost taxpayers millions of dollars. 

“There’s a theatrical dimension to this. But this is it. This is an operetta for which the seats are extremely expensive,” Fidell said. “We know that it is costing the taxpayers a fortune to keep Guantanamo open for the handful of people being tried by the military commission, as well as the even smaller handful of people who are simply being held pending repatriation or being sent somewhere that will accept them who are long-term detainees.”

“Congress is going to have to appropriate some money because it’s not going to be free for the taxpayers,” he added. “I think this is a battle that’s going to be fought out not at Guantanamo. It’s going to be fought out at John Marshall Place in Washington, D.C., where the federal court sits.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is refusing to attend the Group of 20 (G-20) summit in Johannesburg this year, in protest of the South African government’s controversial land seizure bill.

The bill, which was signed last week, permits South African authorities to expropriate land “for a public purpose or in the public interest,” promising “just and equitable compensation” to those impacted by the bill. Although the majority of South African citizens are Black, most landowners are White — and this disparity has been a topic in South Africa for years.

The law also allows expropriation of land without compensation, but only in circumstances where it is “just and equitable and in the public interest.”

The G-20 summit is scheduled to kick off on Nov. 22 — but in a social media post on Wednesday, Rubio wrote definitively that he “will NOT” be there.

US FOREIGN AID IS SUPPOSED TO SERVE AMERICAN INTERESTS, SAYS MARC THIESSEN

Marco Rubio is refusing to go to South Africa for G-20. (iStock / Getty)

“South Africa is doing very bad things,” Rubio’s X post read. “Expropriating private property. Using G20 to promote ‘solidarity, equality, & sustainability.'”

“In other words: DEI and climate change,” the Republican added. “My job is to advance America’s national interests, not waste taxpayer money or coddle anti-Americanism.”

President Donald Trump‘s administration has been vocally critical of the land seizure bill. In a Truth Social post, Trump called the situation a “massive Human Rights VIOLATION, at a minimum.”

RUBIO HEADS TO PANAMA, LATIN AMERICA TO PURSUE TRUMP’S ‘GOLDEN AGE’ AGENDA

Secretary of State Marco Rubio boards a plane en route to El Salvador at Panama Pacifico International Airport in Panama City on Monday. Rubio is in Panama on a two-day official visit.  (Mark Schiefelbein/Pool AP/AFP via Getty Images)

“It is a bad situation that the Radical Left Media doesn’t want to so much as mention,” Trump wrote in a post. “The United States won’t stand for it, we will act. Also, I will be cutting off all future funding to South Africa until a full investigation of this situation has been completed!”

The South African government has coolly responded to the Trump administration’s accusations, denying that any unjust confiscation has occurred.

“We look forward to engaging with the Trump administration over our land reform policy and issues of bilateral interest,” South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a statement. “We are certain that out of those engagements, we will share a better and common understanding over these matters”.

In an interview with Fox News Digital, South African analyst Frans Cronje proposed that Trump alluded to the ongoing killing of farmers in South Africa when he talked about certain classes of people being treated “very badly.” The attacks have been perpetuated against both White and Black farmers.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, left, and President Donald Trump, who has criticized the country’s new land laws. (Evan Vucci/AP/Rajesh Jantilal/AFP via Getty Images)

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“President Trump’s recent comments on land seizures in South Africa cannot be divorced from his past comments on violent attacks directed at the country’s farmers,” Cronje said. “Whilst these comments have often been dismissed as false, the latest South African data suggests that the country’s commercial farmers are six times more likely to be violently attacked in their homes than is the case for the general population.” 

Fox News Digital’s Paul Tisley contributed to this report.

The former chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., announced Wednesday his intention to run against Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., calling the Democratic Party “paralyzed and unprepared” for President Donald Trump’s second term in office. 

In a lengthy message on X, Saikat Chakrabarti said he decided to run against the former House speaker, who is seeking a 21st term, after “watching Trump and Elon (Musk) freely unleash chaos in their illegal seizure of government.”

“It’s become clear to me that the Democratic Party needs new leadership,” he wrote. “I don’t understand how DC’s Democratic leaders are so paralyzed and unprepared for this moment after living through President Trump’s first term — and after Trump and Elon warned us exactly what they planned to do.”

PELOSI DEMURS ON IF ‘EVERYTHING IS OK’ BETWEEN HER AND BIDEN: ‘YOU’D HAVE TO ASK HIM’

Saikat Chakrabarti, chief of staff for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., works on a computer in his office in the Cannon House Office Building June 26, 2019, in Washington, D.C. (Mary F. Calvert For The Washington Post via Getty Images)

While Chakrabarti said he respects the Democratic leader, the country has dramatically changed since her early days in Washington. He noted that Pelosi intervened to block Ocasio-Cortez from becoming chair of the powerful House Committee on Oversight and Reform.

“When Nancy Pelosi was first elected to Congress, you could buy a home on a single income. A summer job could pay for college,” he wrote. “Republicans believed in climate change and respected election results. Now, the things that defined the American Dream — being able to afford health care, education, a home, and raise a family — are impossible for most people.”

He added that the Republican Party is “overtly conspiratorial and anti-democracy.” 

AOC’S ‘RED LIGHT DISTRICT’ PLAGUED BY CRIME AS DEMOCRAT WHO HELPED HER RISE TO POWER SAYS SHE ‘DISAPPEARED’

AOC texted that she felt “completely transformed” after Pelosi stepped down as House Speaker, according to an insider. (Getty Images)

“The Democratic Party needs to stop acting like it’s competing against a normal political party that plays by the rules, and it needs a bold vision for how to raise living standards, quality of life and security for all Americans,” he said. “America is stuck, and Americans want real solutions that are as big as the problems we face.”

In his campaign, Chakrabarti said he plans to talk about problems that need solving for San Francisco, the U.S. and the Democratic Party. 

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Chakrabarti, who helped manage Ocasio-Cortez’s upstart 2018 campaign, left his chief of staff position in 2019 after drawing the ire of Democrats when he publicly criticized party moderates during policy spats between progressive members and party leadership.

That year, he tweeted that Rep. Sharice Davids, D-Kansas, one of the first two Native American women to serve in Congress, enabled a racist system after she voted in favor of a Senate border bill not backed by progressives. A month later, Chakrabarti described centrist Democrats who blocked a liberal-backed emergency border bill as the “new Southern Democrats.”

Saikat Chakrabarti and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., leave a news conference in the Capitol Visitor Center July 15, 2019.  (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)

They “certainly seem hell bent to do to black and brown people today what the old Southern Democrats did in the 40s,” he wrote in a now-deleted post.

Fox News Digital has reached out to Pelosi. 

The U.S. State Department on Wednesday announced a new deal with the government of Panama that will eliminate charge fees for U.S. government vessels.

“The government of Panama has agreed to no longer charge fees for U.S. government vessels to transit the Panama Canal,” the State Department wrote in an X post Wednesday night.

The new agreement will save the U.S. government millions of dollars a year, officials noted.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, right, waves after being welcomed by Panama’s Foreign Minister Javier Martinez-Acha, left, upon his arrival at the presidential palace in Panama City, on Sunday, Feb. 2. Panama is Rubio’s first trip abroad as Secretary of State. (AP/Mark Schiefelbein)

CHINA’S INFLUENCE ON PANAMA CANAL POSES ‘ACUTE RISKS TO US NATIONAL SECURITY,’ SEN CRUZ WARNS

Panama President José Raúl Mulino promised on Sunday to end a key development deal with China after meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio. 

During his visit, former Florida Senator Rubio wrote in a post on X that “the United States cannot, and will not, allow the Chinese Communist Party to continue with its effective and growing control over the Panama Canal area.” 

President Donald Trump, who has openly criticized the six-figure premiums imposed on U.S. ships traveling through, has suggested repurchasing the canal.

Two cargo ships enter the Miraflores Locks of the Panama Canal in Panama City on Jan. 22. (Martin Bernetti/AFP via Getty Images)

‘TAKING IT BACK’: INTERNAL HOUSE GOP MEMO OUTLINES CASE FOR TRUMP TO Y PANAMA CANAL

It was built over decades by the U.S., but was later handed over to Panama during the Carter administration.

A newly introduced bill called the “Panama Canal Repurchase Act” would give Trump and Rubio the authority to negotiate with Panama to repurchase the canal.

FILE – President Jimmy Carter speaks next to his wife Rosalynn upon arrival to Panama City to sign the Panama Canal Treaty, June 16, 1978.  (AP Photo)

HOUSE REPUBLICANS INTRODUCE BILL TO REPURCHASE PANAMA CANAL AFTER TRUMP RAISES CONCERNS OF CHINESE CONTROL

More than 70 percent of all vessels traveling through the canal are inbound or outbound to U.S. ports, according to the State Department. It is also a key transit point for U.S. Coast Guard and Department of Defense vessels. 

Ships would need to travel 8,000 additional miles around South America to avoid using the pathway.

TOPSHOT – US Secretary of State Marco Rubio boards a plane en route to El Salvador at Panama Pacifico International Airport in Panama City on February 3, 2025. Rubio is in Panama on a two-day official visit.  (MARK SCHIEFELBEIN/Pool AP/AFP via Getty Images)

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Fox News Digital requested comment from the State Department, but did not immediately receive a response as of Wednesday night.

Fox News Digital’s Danielle Wallace and Stepheny Price contributed to this report.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi is seeking to reverse the last-hour commutations for death row murderers last month by former President Joe Biden, directing state officials to pursue the death penalty against the inmates.

Bondi, who was confirmed Wednesday, sent out a letter about the commutations to Department of Justice (DOJ) employees Wednesday, accusing Biden of “undermin[ing] our justice system and subvert[ing] the rule of law” by granting the commutations.

“The commutations also robbed the victims’ families of the justice promised — and fought hard to achieve — by the Department of Justice,” Bondi wrote. “The Department of Justice is directed to immediately commence the following actions to achieve justice for the victims’ families of the 37 commuted murderers.”

Bondi said the DOJ will move to first “explore opportunities to provide a public forum for the victims’ families to express how the commutations affected them personally,” calling it an “important step” in building trust and achieving accountability.

FBI AGENTS GROUP TELLS CONGRESS TO TAKE URGENT ACTION TO PROTECT AGAINST POLITICIZATION 

New U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi called out former President Joe Biden in an email Wednesday. (Getty Images)

Then Bondi said she would direct U.S. attorney’s offices to pursue death sentences against the commuted inmates using state law rather than federal law. She said this step would take place “after consultation with the victims’ families and other interested parties” and only “where appropriate and legally permissible.”

“The Capital Case Section shall assist the United States Attorney’s Offices in implementing this directive,” Bondi’s letter stated. 

TRUMP’S ULTIMATUM TO FEDERAL WORKERS: RETURN TO OFFICE ‘OR BE TERMINATED’

“Third, the Federal Bureau of Prisons is directed to ensure that the conditions of confinement for each of the 37 commuted murderers are consistent with the security risks those inmates present because of their egregious crimes, criminal histories, and all other relevant considerations,” she added.

In a late-December decision, Biden removed 37 inmates from federal death row and reclassified their sentences to life without the possibility of parole. 

At the time, the White House said the move would prevent President-elect Donald Trump’s administration from “carrying out the execution sentences that would not be handed down under current policy and practice.”

Pam Bondi speaks during the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Md., Feb. 23, 2024.  (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

“The President’s criminal justice record has transformed individual lives and positively impacted communities, especially historically marginalized communities,” the White House statement said at the time. “In the coming weeks, the President will take additional steps to provide meaningful second chances and continue to review additional pardons and commutations.”

Biden only left three mass murderers on death row: Charleston, South Carolina, church shooter Dylann Roof; Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev; and Robert Bowers, the gunman responsible for the Pittsburgh Tree of Life Synagogue shooting in 2018.

Bondi, a former prosecutor and Florida state attorney general, has previously said her main goal as AG is to root out political influence and weaponization from the DOJ.

“America will have one tier of justice for all,” she said at the time.

Pam Bondi is sworn in before the Senate Judiciary Committee for her confirmation hearing Jan. 15 in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

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Fox News Digital reached out to the DOJ for comment.

Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Pritchett and Breanne Deppisch contributed to this report.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has recently become the target of Elon Musk’s DOGE efforts to slash government waste and spending, bringing increased scrutiny to the record of Samantha Power, the agency’s administrator during almost the entire Biden administration.

Power, who previously served as the United States ambassador to the United Nations from 2013 to 2017 in the Obama administration after serving on his National Security Council, took the reins of USAID in the early days of the Biden administration and was tasked with overseeing the tens of billions of dollars budgeted for foreign aid. 

“One of the most pressing challenges facing our nation is restoring and strengthening America’s global leadership as a champion of democracy, human rights, and the dignity of all people,” then-Vice President-elect Kamala Harris said in a statement at the time of Power’s appointment. “Few Americans are better equipped to help lead that work than Ambassador Samantha Power.”

Power was directly involved in the Obama administration’s surveillance of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and sought to obtain Michael Flynn’s redacted identity using an “unmasking” request on at least seven occasions, Fox News Digital previously reported, despite testifying under oath before the House Intelligence Committee that she had “no recollection” of ever making such a request even once.

USAID CLOSES HQ TO STAFFERS MONDAY AS MUSK SAYS TRUMP SUPPORTS SHUTTING AGENCY DOWN

Samantha Power led USAID from 2021-2025. (Getty Images)

Fox News reported in 2017 that Power was “unmasking” at such a rapid pace in the final months of the Obama administration that she averaged more than one request for every working day in 2016, and she even sought information in the days leading up to President Trump’s inauguration, according to multiple sources close to the matter.

Power’s tenure at USAID was also not without controversy, even from her own party, including an incident in which she faced a public revolt from current and former staff in 2024 over her support of Israel.

Critics also took issue with her repeatedly meeting with influential liberal foundations while serving in her role at USAID, which Fox News Digital reported in 2023, included George Soros’ Open Society Foundations at least two times, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation at least five times, and meetings with several other powerful groups like Ford and Rockefeller foundations. 

Power’s supporters say she has played a critical role in providing U.S. assistance to war-torn areas like Ukraine and Gaza along with aiding the relief of humanitarian crises that have developed in places like Haiti, Armenia and Sudan. 

“The best testament to USAID’s contribution is the surge in PRC-backed and Russian-backed propaganda maligning USAID and our work around the world,” Power said in an exit interview with Politico last month. “And it’s really picked up a lot over the last year and a half. We counted 81 malicious and false propaganda campaigns, really dedicated campaigns, aimed at denigrating USAID and our reputation. So we’re doing something that is getting on their nerves.”

USAID HAS ‘DEMONSTRATED PATTERN OF OBSTRUCTIONISM,’ CLAIMS TOP DOGE REPUBLICAN IN LETTER TO RUBIO

Samantha Power, administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, delivers a speech during a visit to El Salvador on June 14, 2021. (REUTERS/Jose Cabezas)

Power, who is married to former Obama administration official and professor Cass Sunstein, added, “We are an agency that has thousands of people around the world representing the United States, both because it’s in the interests of the American people to have health systems that are more secure and can spot infectious diseases and tackle them, to change regulations so it’s easier for American businesses to invest, but also to show up and to show the importance of investing in the partnership — and not investing in a manner that just leaves countries saddled with debt.”

USAID has been increasingly questioned by Republicans over its alleged funding of research relating to the coronavirus at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China, as well as millions in aid that supports LGBT rights abroad and dozens of millions of dollars for migrant crises in other countries, like the nearly $45 million slated to provide emergency food assistance and economic support for Venezuelan migrants in Colombia.

MEET THE YOUNG TEAM OF SOFTWARE ENGINEERS SLASHING GOVERNMENT WASTE AT DOGE: REPORT

Elon Musk speaks during an America PAC town hall on Oct. 26, 2024, in Lancaster, Pa. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

Democrats counter that the agency plays a vital role in U.S. national security interests and say it should remain independent. They point to the work USAID did to counter Soviet influence during the Cold War, a sphere of influence that could remain a concern amid China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

Tech billionaire and DOGE Chair Elon Musk has been on a warpath against USAID, which is an independent U.S. agency that was established under the Kennedy administration to administer economic aid to foreign nations, as he leads DOGE’s mission of cutting government fat and overspending at the federal level. 

Musk announced in an audio-only message on X over the weekend that “we’re in the process” of “shutting down USAID.”

“On Friday, February 7, 2025, at 11:59 pm (EST) all USAID direct hire personnel will be placed on administrative leave globally, with the exception of designated personnel responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership and specially designated programs,” USAID’s website currently says. “Essential personnel expected to continue working will be informed by Agency leadership by Thursday, February 6, at 3:00pm (EST).”

A Fox News Digital review of USAID’s recent history shows that it has repeatedly been accused of financial mismanagement and corruption long before Trump’s second administration, with spending that took place under Power’s reign likely to continue to be a focus of conversation with Republicans.

The USAID flag flies in front of the USAID office in Washington on Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., sent a letter to Power in October 2024, sounding the alarm on the “likely misuse of more than one billion dollars in U.S. humanitarian aid sent to Gaza since October 2023,” Fox Digital reported at the time. 

A Syrian national named Mahmoud Al Hafyan, 53, was charged in November 2024 for allegedly diverting more than $9 million in U.S.-funded humanitarian aid to terrorist groups, including the Al-Nusrah Front. The Al-Nusrah Front, also known as Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, is a designated terrorist organization with ties to al-Qaeda, according to the State Department.

The Government Accountability Office published a report in 2023 finding that both USAID and the National Institutes of Health directed taxpayer funds to American universities and a nonprofit organization before the money found its way to Chinese groups, including the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Eight auditors and employees for the USAID inspector general’s office sounded the alarm to the Washington Post in 2014 that negative findings surrounding the agency’s work were removed from final reports and audits.

Trump repeatedly proposed slashing the nation’s foreign aid budget for USAID and the State Department during his first administration, including proposing in his first year in office to slash the budgets by 37%, which Congress rejected. 

“With $20 trillion in debt, the government must learn to tighten its belt,” Trump said in 2017 while advocating for the cuts.

Elon Musk leads the Department of Government Efficiency. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

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Power sat down with late-night host Stephen Colbert on Tuesday night and defended USAID’s work and warned against shutting it down, claiming that children overseas in line for tuberculosis treatment were told to go home as a result of Trump’s executive order.

“Programs that were running, the people we’re depending on, in some cases, for life-saving medicine, like medicine, if you have HIV, that keeps you alive, quite literally,” Power told Colbert. “Or if you’re in Sudan and you have a child who’s wasting away because of malnutrition, a miracle paste, a peanut paste that USAID provides brings that kid back from the brink of death. All of those programs are shuttered.”

Democrat lawmakers took part in a rally against DOGE on Tuesday outside the Treasury Department, arguing that Musk’s actions are unconstitutional and a threat to Democracy. 

“My heart is with the people out on the street outside USAID, but my head tells me, ‘Man, Trump will be well satisfied to have this fight,’” veteran strategist David Axelrod, who served with Power in the Obama administration, said this week. “When you talk about cuts, the first thing people say is: Cut foreign aid.”

Fox News Digital’s Caitlin McFall, Emma Colton and Gregg Re contributed to this report