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Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. grabbed a pair of black North American racer snakes with his barehands as his wife Cheryl Hines watched on in apparent horror in a video Kennedy Jr. posted to his X account Tuesday.

“Honey, honey… why?” Hines yelled as Kennedy Jr. cornered the reptiles on Oz’s patio.

Kennedy Jr. then crouched down and lunged at the frenzying creatures, struggling for a moment before grasping the pair by their tails.

Throughout the roughly 50 second video the serpents repeatedly bit Kennedy Jr., who appeared unfazed. “Black snakes, they’re biting me,” he said while revealing a wry smile.

ACTRESS CHERYL HINES CLASHES WITH ‘THE VIEW’ OVER HER HUSBAND RFK JR’S RECORD SERVING AMERICANS

The snakes continued to nip at Kennedy Jr.’s hands while wife Cheryl chimed in “you are nuts.”

“Bobby, please! Bobby, Bobby, please,” Hines pleaded as Kennedy proudly displayed his trophies.

Kennedy Jr. was clearly amused, posting the photo to his X account with the caption “Cheryl cheerleads the removal of a pair of Black Racers from Dr Oz’s patio.”

While Hines expressed dismay, it was likely not her first time watching her husband wrangle wild creatures, as the HHS Secretary has a long and documented history of herding feral beasts.

RFK JR TARGETED BY ENVIRONMENTAL GROUP AFTER DEAD WHALE HEAD STORY RESURFACES

In addition to being an avid falconer, Kennedy Jr. has manhandled a wide assortment of creatures. News wires lit up in 2024 after the former environmental lawyer admitted to dumping a bear carcass in Central Park.

In another wild tale, Kennedy Jr. allegedly cut the head off of a dead whale, strapped it to the hood of his car and drove it from a Massachusetts beach to Mount Kisco, New York.

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While the black snake duo repeatedly bit Kennedy Jr. during his short video, they don’t pose nearly as much of a risk to the 72-year-old as a bear might.

The creatures are, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History, nonvenomous and harmless to humans. They will, however, “readily bite to defend themselves,” the museum wrote. The museum also added (as Kennedy Jr. found out) “virtually all bites occur when the snakes are intentionally molested.”

Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt said he opposes federal immigration enforcement operations in the city, but argued the controversy exists because of his top challenger.

Since last year, when ICE conducted raids in Los Angeles that spurred violent counterdemonstrations, federal immigration enforcement has focused on Los Angeles and California more broadly because of the state’s general aversion to coordinating with federal immigration officials and honoring detainer requests for imprisoned illegal immigrants.

Pratt, meanwhile, has risen to political prominence after launching a mayoral bid based partially on how he and his Pacific Palisades have been ignored or worse by the Bass administration.

“I don’t want ICE in LA, nobody wants ICE in L.A. — except Karen ‘Basura’ apparently,” he said in a recent social media post, referring to Mayor Karen Bass by using the Spanish term for “garbage.”

LA COUNTY EYES ‘ICE-FREE ZONES’ ON GOVERNMENT PROPERTY DESPITE $1B IN FEDERAL FUNDING AT RISK

“Because the way you keep ICE out of L.A. is by enforcing the law, not defying it,” Pratt said.

Pratt contrasted Bass’ approach to the Trump administration with that of California’s fourth-largest city, San Francisco, where President Donald Trump recently appeared to reach an immigration-enforcement détente with fellow Democratic Mayor Daniel Lurie.

“Look at what Mayor Lurie did in San Francisco, [he’s] clearly no friend of the Trump administration, but he called the president and made a deal. He vowed to have SFPD crack down on crime, and the president vowed to keep ICE out of the city,” Pratt said.

“Notice what you don’t see — No riots. No crazy videos of ICE agents having chaotic arrests. That’s how it’s done.”

In October, DHS reportedly converged on a U.S. Coast Guard installation in the Bay Area, after which Lurie successfully tried to lower tensions and connected with the White House, according to Trump.

Trump said in a statement at the time he spoke to Lurie and said he would give San Francisco a chance to “turn it around” — notably declining to disparage Lurie or Democrats in the message.

MAYOR KAREN BASS’ HANDLING OF LA RIOTS ADDS TO DECADES OF POLITICAL BAGGAGE

Reports also cited Big Tech allies of Trump telling him about progress being made against crime in the city, helping convince the president to let it ride.

In his message, Pratt pointed to San Francisco and other liberal-led cities like Memphis that he said lack the “chaos” seen in Los Angeles.

“It’s not a Democrat or Republican thing…” he said. “So what’s the common denominator? It’s activist mayors using their city, their residents, their businesses as fodder for their political grandstanding, and people suffer as a result.”

Referring to her again as “Karen Basura,” Pratt said Bass is therefore “guaranteeing” future ICE escapades.

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“Adults put their egos aside,” he said. “That’s exactly how I will end the ICE raids in L.A. Our city is not a political playhouse; it’s our home.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Pratt, Bass and DHS for comment.

Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner blasted Jeff Bezos for opposing higher taxes on billionaires, rejecting the Amazon founder’s argument that raising taxes on the wealthy would hurt economic growth amid a broader political fight over wealth inequality and taxation ahead of the 2026 elections.

During a Monday appearance on MS NOW alongside Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Platner argued Bezos’ opposition to higher taxes reflected the interests of billionaires seeking to preserve their wealth, rather than a serious economic concern about the impact of higher tax rates.

“I think it’s abject nonsense,” Platner said Monday. “I think that’s what somebody says when they don’t want to see their taxes go up.”

PLATNER IN THE HOT SEAT AS MAINE VOTERS RIP HIS ‘HORRIBLE’ COMMENTS AMID REDDIT SCANDAL

Platner went on to argue that directing more tax revenue from the wealthy into public programs would improve the lives of working Americans and strengthen society overall.

“There is absolutely no question if we target the wealth where it has been hoarded and we pull it back into our system and put it into social programs like health care, child care and paying teachers what they are worth, we will absolutely improve the lives of working Americans and, quite frankly, improve our society as a whole,” Platner said.

He went on to accuse Bezos of promoting arguments designed to protect the wealthy from higher taxes.

“I think what he [Bezos] is pitching is propaganda,” Platner said. “It’s meant to protect himself and protect his crony friends. And we’re going to come after them for it.”

MAINE PROGRESSIVE SAYS HE WON’T BACK SCHUMER EVEN AFTER DEMOCRATS UNITE BEHIND COLLINS CHALLENGER

Platner was responding to comments Bezos made during a CNBC interview last week, where the Amazon founder argued that raising taxes on the ultrawealthy would not solve systemic income inequality. Instead, Bezos suggested eliminating federal income taxes for lower-income Americans while warning that politicians often oversimplify economic problems by targeting wealthy individuals.

“If people want me to pay more billions, right, then let’s have that debate, but don’t pretend you know that that’s going to solve the problem,” Bezos said. “You could double the taxes I pay and it’s not going to help that teacher in Queens. I promise you.”

The world’s fourth-richest person also accused politicians of using an “age-old technique” of “picking a villain and pointing fingers,” arguing that government overspending — not insufficient tax revenue — is the root cause of the nation’s fiscal challenges.

MAINE SENATE CANDIDATE CITES COMBAT TRAUMA WHEN CONFRONTED ON ‘TERRIBLE’ POSTS ABOUT SEXUAL ASSAULT

The exchange underscores a growing divide between progressive Democrats pushing for higher taxes on corporations and billionaires to fund social programs and reduce income inequality, and business leaders and conservatives who argue such policies would discourage investment, slow economic growth and fail to address underlying government spending issues.

Tax policy is expected to remain a central issue heading into the 2026 midterm elections as lawmakers continue to debate the future of Trump-era tax cuts, the national debt and proposals targeting high earners and large corporations.

Platner has leaned heavily on progressive economic policy in his Senate campaign, centering his platform on affordability issues such as housing, healthcare and wages.

He has also aligned himself closely with Sanders, whose political brand has long focused on criticizing the “billionaire class” and advocating for higher taxes on the wealthy.

In April, Platner unveiled a tax proposal that would impose a 5% tax on wealth exceeding $1 billion while exempting working- and middle-class Americans from paying federal income taxes, according to Maine Public Radio. The Democrat is challenging longtime incumbent Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, in one of the cycle’s closely watched Senate races.

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Platner’s message mirrors a broader push from progressive candidates nationwide, including New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Seattle mayoral candidate Katie Wilson, who have campaigned on raising taxes on wealthy Americans and expanding affordability-focused policies.

The exchange underscores how fights over wealth, taxation and affordability are becoming defining issues in the 2026 election cycle, particularly in competitive races where Democrats are leaning into populist economic messaging.

FIRST ON FOX: A group of House Republicans are demanding answers after a recent mail-in ballot error resulted in some Maryland voters receiving primary ballots for the wrong party.

House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil, R-Wis., and Vice Chair Laurel Lee, R-Fla., sent a letter to the Maryland State Board of Elections (SBOE) on Tuesday scrutinizing the ballot-printing snafu and whether the state has adequate safeguards in place to verify the accuracy of mail-in ballots.

The letter came after the SBOE disclosed last week that a vendor error led to an unverifiable number of Maryland residents receiving incorrect mail-in ballots ahead of the state’s June 23 gubernatorial primary election. Officials said they would resend ballots to more than 500,000 voters who could have been affected and claimed that proactive measures were in place to ensure that only one vote would be counted.

The GOP lawmakers said additional transparency from the state elections board is warranted.

MARYLAND BALLOT BLUNDER TRIGGERS GOP PUSH FOR FEDERAL REVIEW OF BLUE STATE’S VOTER ROLLS

“While the SBOE is taking precautions to void the initial batch of ballots, distributing over half a million additional replacement ballots risks creating immense logistical strain and potentially undermines public confidence in the nation’s elections,” they wrote. 

The House Administration Committee Republicans asked Maryland State Administrator of Elections Jared DeMarinis to respond to the committee’s questions by June 9.

Reps. Morgan Griffith, R-Va., Greg Murphy, R-N.C., Stephanie Bice, R-Okla., Mike Carey, R-Ohio, and Mary Miller, R-Ill., also signed the letter.

DeMarinis has defended the state’s response to the vendor error and its mail-in voting practices, arguing they are “an integral facet of the electoral process.” 

“With over 500,000 voters requesting mail-in ballots, we want to eliminate any doubt in their integrity or accuracy; that is why I have arranged the sending of replacement ballots,” he said in a statement last week.

DeMarinis said Friday that replacement ballots had started to be mailed. 

DEM STATE ELECTION BOARD UNDER FIRE AFTER ICE-ARRESTED SUPERINTENDENT SURFACES ON VOTER ROLLS

The mail-in ballot issue has attracted the scrutiny of President Donald Trump, who has called on the Justice Department to investigate Maryland’s State Board of Elections. The president also called Gov. Wes Moore, D-Md., “corrupt” in a post on Truth Social and asserted, without evidence, that the ballot error was done intentionally to benefit Democrats.

The Republican National Committee (RNC) has also sharply criticized the ballot printing error as “election mismanagement” and deployed its election integrity unit.

“In response, the RNC and Maryland GOP are expanding our Protect the Vote operations with voter hotlines, legal oversight, and voter education statewide,” RNC Chairman Joe Gruters previously told Fox News Digital.

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Trump has long sought to restrict no-excuse mail-in voting and signed an executive order earlier this year to crack down on the practice.

Spokespersons for the state elections board and Moore did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A Senate Republican ousted by President Donald Trump took a veiled shot at the president and is poised to become a foil to his agenda during Cassidy’s waning time in office.

Trump may have vanquished Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., from the upper chamber when he endorsed Rep. Julia Letlow, R-La., in his primary race, but the lawmaker is not going quietly into the sunset of his political career in Congress.

Since the dust settled on Cassidy’s primary race, which is now headed to a runoff between Letlow and Louisiana state Treasurer John Fleming, the lawmaker has already dug his heels in against some of Trump’s key policy and spending desires.  

RETIRING SENATOR WARNS IF TRUMP CONTINUES TO DO ‘STUPID THINGS’ IT WILL KILL GOP IN NOVEMBER

In a lengthy post on X, Cassidy wrote of America’s future and called for unity. And though he did not explicitly name Trump, his viewpoint on leadership appeared to take a jab at the president.

“At its best, America has renewed itself through leaders who understood that public office is a responsibility, not a performance,” Cassidy said. “The American people do not expect perfection from their leaders, but they do expect seriousness.” 

“Leaders who are steady, not erratic. Thoughtful, not impulsive,” he continued. “Their words should lower the temperature rather than inflame division. Their actions should place the long-term interests of the country above short-term political or personal gain.”

SENATE GOP ERUPTS OVER TRUMP DOJ ‘ANTI-WEAPONIZATION’ FUND, PUNTS ICE, BORDER PATROL FUNDING

Those messages came after Cassidy publicly broke with Trump on both the Iran war and the surprise nearly $2 billion “anti-weaponization” fund announced by the Department of Justice earlier last week.

When asked about the post, Cassidy told Fox News Digital in a statement, “If trust is destroyed, whether in marriage, business, or politics, it’s harder to get things done.”

“It is an observation of life,” he said. “Conversely, if you want to get things done, build trust.”

It all comes after Trump made Cassidy one of his targets in his so-called revenge tour.

Cassidy, along with a handful of other Republicans, voted to convict him during the last impeachment proceedings following the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on Capitol Hill. And he doesn’t regret that vote, telling reporters last week shortly after his loss that he “voted to uphold the Constitution.”

SENATE DEMOCRATS FINALLY CRACK GOP UNITY ON TRUMP’S IRAN WAR AS MURKOWSKI FLIPS

“It may have cost me my seat, but who cares? I had the privilege of voting to uphold the Constitution,” Cassidy said. “Isn’t that a great thing?”

The White House, when asked for comment Tuesday on Cassidy’s apparent barb toward the president, told Fox News Digital to review the slew of Trump’s Truth Social posts about the lawmaker.

Trump celebrated Cassidy’s loss in his primary, and painted the lawmaker as being disloyal because of his impeachment vote.

“Bill Cassidy, after falsely using his ‘relationship’ with me during his political career, and winning Elections because of it, voted to impeach me on preposterous charges that were fake then, and now, are criminally insane,” Trump said. “His disloyalty to the man who got him elected is now a part of legend, and it’s nice to see that his political career is OVER!”

Shortly after, Cassidy bucked Trump on the Senate floor, joining nearly every Senate Democrat to handcuff the president’s war powers in Iran. He provided the pivotal vote to advance the resolution, which is expected to fail when brought to the floor once more.

And he, like several other Republicans, is outright rejecting the “anti-weaponization” fund, which, after a tense, closed-door meeting last week, has temporarily derailed the GOP’s push to fund immigration enforcement for the remainder of Trump’s term.

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Cassidy, like several of his colleagues, wanted Congress to have a say on the fund.

“People are concerned about making their own ends meet, not about putting a slush fund together without a legal precedent,” Cassidy said. “We’re a nation of laws. If there needs to be a settlement, let’s consider it, and Congress should come together and decide on that.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment.

A federal judge delayed former FBI Director James Comey’s trial until October as he fights federal charges accusing him of threatening to harm President Donald Trump through the “86 47” seashell photo he posted to Instagram in 2025. 

Comey’s attorneys are preparing “multiple motions on constitutional grounds” that they argue could lead to the case being thrown out, according to their motion filed earlier in May. The trial was initially set to begin in July, and prosecutors did not object to the schedule change to Oct. 21. 

The delay gives Comey’s defense team more time to challenge whether the post amounted to a criminal threat or protected political speech, a First Amendment fight likely to shape the case before it reaches a jury.

Comey has been a central figure in Trump-era political fights since the 2016 election, from his handling of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private email investigation to his role overseeing the early Russia probe before Trump fired him in 2017. 

JAMES COMEY TELLS COLBERT WHAT LED TO HIM POSTING CONTROVERSIAL ’86 47′ INSTAGRAM POST

Comey’s indictment stems from a May 2025 Instagram post where he shared an image of seashells arranged on a beach to display the message “86 47.” 

“86” is common restaurant slang for “nix” or “get rid of. Prosecutors allege that Comey’s post amounted to a threat, as it was paired with “47,” a reference to Trump’s tenure as the 47th president. 

After backlash last year, Comey deleted the post and denied that he intended it as a threat, saying he did not know “86” could be interpreted as a call for violence.

LEGAL EXPERTS WARN COMEY ‘86 47’ INDICTMENT FACES FIRST AMENDMENT HURDLES

The decision to delay was made by District Judge ⁠Louise Wood Flanagan, who was appointed to the federal bench by President George W. Bush in 2003.

Critics of the president have alleged that the Comey indictment is an example of the Trump administration weaponizing the government to attack his enemies.

JAMES COMEY INDICTED FOR ALLEGED THREATS AGAINST TRUMP: DOJ

“Donald Trump has made clear that he intends to turn our justice system into a weapon for punishing and silencing his critics,” Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, a Democrat, said of the indictment after it was announced. “Our system depends on prosecutors making decisions based on evidence and the law, not on the personal grudges of a politician determined to settle scores.”

Supporters, meanwhile, maintain that Comey’s behavior crosses the line from protected constitutional speech to an illegal threat.

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“It’s not a very difficult line to look at, and it’s not, in my mind, a difficult line for one to cross over, one way or the other,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said of the case in March. “We cannot, you are not allowed to threaten the President of the United States of America. That’s not my decision. That’s Congress’s decision, and a statute that they passed that we charge multiple times a year.” 

Moments after President Donald Trump made his pick in the Texas Senate race, the mood among Senate Republicans immediately shifted. 

Several were already en route to their weekly, closed-door lunch preparing to debate the now-stalled immigration funding package and lay out the road ahead for what was set to be a blistering week in the upper chamber. 

But Trump’s decision to pick Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over longtime incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, turned even the chattiest of lawmakers stone-faced. And some worry that the choice will jeopardize a seat that has been safely Republican for decades.

TRUMP FLEXES MAGA MUSCLE IN TEXAS SENATE RUNOFF CLASH BETWEEN CORNYN AND PAXTON

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said that she was “supremely disappointed” by the move.

“I think that this puts that seat in jeopardy,” Murkowski said. 

“Based on the numbers that I’ve seen, yeah,” she said. “How does that help strengthen the president’s hand when we lose a state like Texas?”

The runoff winner will face insurgent Texas state Rep. James Talarico, who easily toppled Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, earlier this year and has been racking up endorsements from high-profile Democrats, including former President Barack Obama.

RISING STAR TALARICO TOPPLES PROGRESSIVE FIREBRAND CROCKETT IN HIGH-STAKES TEXAS SENATE DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY

History is on the side of Paxton should he come out on top. Texas hasn’t sent a Democrat to the Senate since 1988. Still, many Republicans believed Cornyn was the better option. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., who chaired the Senate GOP’s campaign arm that clinched the majority in 2024, told Fox News Digital that he was still backing Cornyn. 

“I do believe we are going to pull Texas, but I think John Cornyn was the safest bet,” Daines said. 

Cornyn has long thrashed Paxton for the scandals that followed him into the race, like his impeachment and alleged affair, and warned that should Paxton win, he’ll be an “albatross” for the GOP heading into November.

“It is now time for Texas Republican voters to decide if they want a strong nominee to help our GOP candidates down-ballot and defeat Talarico in November, or a weak nominee who jeopardizes everything we care about. I trust the Republican voters of Texas,” Cornyn said. 

Paxton campaign strategist Nick Maddux told Fox News Digital that Paxton was a proven winner, having come out on top of three statewide elections. 

“This is the only talking point the Cornyn campaign has because, after 42 years of accomplishing nothing, Cornyn has no record to run on,” Maddux said. “The bottom line is that Ken Paxton will be the Republican nominee for this fall, and we are ready to unite the party.”

DEMS SEE OPENING IN KEY SENATE RACE AS BITTER GOP INFIGHTING CONTINUES: ‘LAST REMAINING STRATEGY’

“The GOP is up against the most radical Democrat who’s ever run statewide in Texas, and Republicans need to come together to save our state from his extremist views,” he continued.

Still, Trump’s endorsement of Paxton a week ahead of the primary runoff battle between him and Cornyn sent a jolt through Senate Republicans, who were already still reeling from Sen. Bill Cassidy’s, R-La., primary loss to Trump-backed Rep. Julia Letlow, R-La.

Now that Election Day has arrived, Cornyn and Paxton will square off one last time this cycle. And many of Cornyn’s colleagues refused to jump ship and back Paxton, who several warned carried baggage that could imperil the seat.

“I thought Ken Paxton was a felon,” Cassidy told reporters.

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Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., who heavily lobbied Trump to back Cornyn, said that ultimately the Paxton endorsement was Trump’s call.

“Senator Cornyn is a principled conservative,” Thune said. “He is a very effective senator for the state of Texas. None of us control what the president does. He made his decision about that. That doesn’t change the way I feel, and I am certainly supportive of and will continue to be supportive of Senator Cornyn in his re-election.”

A federal appeals court blocked a proposed GOP-friendly Alabama congressional map on Tuesday, dealing a temporary setback to Republicans’ redistricting efforts ahead of November’s midterm elections.

Alabama Republicans sought to use a 2023 congressional map following the Supreme Court’s ruling curbing the use of race in the drawing of electoral districts earlier in May. Under that map, Republicans were slated to gain one electoral seat by erasing a Black-majority seat held by Democrats.

However, the three-judge panel said Republicans must use a map that has two majority Black districts where Democrats hold significant advantages. 

“Ultimately, we cannot see our way clear to requiring Alabamians to cast their votes in the 2026 elections under a districting plan tainted by intentional race-based discrimination,” the federal judges wrote. “We again cannot understand the 2023 Plan as anything other than intentionally discriminatory.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

This is the second article in a series examining the Communist Party of Cuba’s alleged malign foreign influence campaign in the U.S., using Americans to bolster its communist regime.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — As the Treasury Department investigates Marxist streamer Hasan Piker for potentially breaking laws barring doing business with Cuba’s communist regime, Fox News Digital has learned that the Piker probe is part of a wider federal inquiry into a possible Cuban influence operation: this one on U.S. soil, led, in part, by a charming senior diplomat.

The U.S. operation is part of a global transnational pro-Cuba network that brought Piker to Cuba in March as part of the Nuestra América Convoy, or “Our America” Convoy. Piker told a podcast that “the Cuban government actually hit my contact from the embassy” and promised him “consistent internet access,” if he’d make a trip to Cuba. He didn’t name his embassy “contact.”

The federal probe is being conducted jointly by the Justice, State and Treasury departments, according to sources. Fox News Digital’s own investigation of the matter led to a worn building, marked “Machinists Hall” in big letters outside, facing Avalon Boulevard in Wilmington, Calif., outside Los Angeles.

On the night of May 9, pro-communism activists walked through the doors of Machinists Hall, past folding tables lined with pins lionizing communist leader Che Guevara, copies of philosopher Karl Marx’s “Communist Manifesto” and stacks of “The Militant” newspaper, quickly taking their seats on folding chairs in a tight room that filled up to about 50 people.

Across the front of the room hung a banner, essentially proclaiming Cuba’s foreign policy and national security priorities: “U.S. HANDS OFF CUBA! Remove Cuba from state sponsors terrorism list! END THE BLOCKADE, TRADE, TRAVEL BANS & SANCTIONS!” At the bottom in smaller print was the sponsor for the night’s strategy session: the U.S. Hands Off Cuba Committee, a collection of 23 organizations, including CodePink, whose co-founder Susan Medea Benjamin was also sent a subpoena by the Treasury Department for her trip to Cuba in March, sources said.

They had assembled to hear from a special guest: David Ramírez Álvarez, second secretary at the Embassy of Cuba. Ramírez Álvarez has drawn the attention of U.S. officials for allegedly coordinating a malign foreign influence campaign in the U.S., sources told Fox News Digital.

A spokesperson for the Embassy of Cuba in Washington, D.C., denied any improprieties. The embassy didn’t make Ramírez Álvarez available for an interview.

“Cuban diplomats strictly comply with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. In the United States, our diplomatic work has been categorically aligned with its principles and purposes,” the spokesperson said.

The Vienna Convention states explicitly that diplomats must “respect the laws and regulations of the receiving State.” It also states: “They also have a duty not to interfere in the internal affairs of that State.”

FEDS SUBPOENA HASAN PIKER, MEDEA BENJAMIN OVER CUBA TRIPS

A Fox News Digital investigation found the U.S. Hands Off Cuba Committee is part of a wider pro-communist Cuba network that numbers 145 organizations with $1 billion in collective annual revenues, spanning labor unions, university groups, anti-war coalitions, socialist organizations, racial justice nonprofits, legal advocacy groups and religious organizations. The network includes at least 123 key leaders.

The network is led by a number of groups – including the People’s Forum, CodePink, BreakThrough News, Tricontinental Ltd., ANSWER Coalition, Party for Socialism and Liberation and Inter Religious Foundation For Community Organization Inc. – funded and supported by Neville Roy Singham, an American expatriate tech tycoon, living in Shanghai, supporting the Chinese Communist Party and its alliance with the Communist Party of Cuba.

Investigators are examining how Ramírez Álvarez and other Cuban officials build relationships between U.S.-based activists and the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples, or ICAP, as it’s known by the acronym for its Spanish name, Instituto Cubano de Amistad con los Pueblos. After taking over the country in a communist revolution in 1959, Cuban leader Fidel Castro founded the group in 1960 to manage foreign delegations and solidarity campaigns.

The organization is today led by Fernando González Llort, one of five former Cuban intelligence officers, known as the “Cuban Five,” convicted in the U.S. years ago on espionage-related charges and released after spending time in jail. ICAP is understood to be a gateway for revolutionaries from around the world to get embedded in the propaganda, organizing tactics and strategic goals of the Communist Party of Cuba. In the past, U.S. officials have identified it as a proxy for Cuban intelligence services. It has denied wrongdoing and says it’s a civil society organization.

A representative from the leftist group CodePink moved through the crowd alongside nonprofit labor activists from the Service Employees International Union, the United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers Local 36 and the International Association of Machinists Local 1484. Other participating nonprofit groups included Jewish Voice for Peace, the National Lawyers Guild, Venceremos Brigade and Democratic Socialists of America, which helped elect Zohran Mamdani as New York City’s first Muslim mayor.

The Embassy of Cuba spokesperson noted that “diplomatic work in any context,” as stated in Article 3(e) of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, is to “‘promote friendly relations,’ and consequently to interact with organizations and institutions of civil society in the State to which one is accredited.”

“It is neither extraordinary nor a violation of any international or U.S. law, for Cuban diplomats to engage with civil society, just as diplomats do in any country and as the diplomatic corps accredited in the United States does,” the spokesperson added, noting that the Vienna Convention also includes “ascertaining by all lawful means conditions and developments in the receiving State, and reporting thereon to the Government of the sending State.”

CHINA’S AMERICAN MAO: INSIDE Bingham’s BLUEPRINT TO ‘WAGE WAR’ FOR A ‘NEW WORLD ORDER’

The widening federal investigation into Cuba-linked activist and nonprofit networks closely mirrors the investigative framework laid out in National Security Presidential Memorandum 7, dubbed “NSPM-7,” issued by President Donald Trump on Sept. 25, 2025, after the brutal assassination of conservative leader Charlie Kirk. What officials are exploring is how malign actors from overseas are allegedly influencing and stoking Americans to hate, anger, agitation and, most lethally, political violence.

The order explicitly called for a “comprehensive national strategy to investigate, prosecute and disrupt entities and individuals engaged in acts of political violence and intimidation” and directed authorities to investigate “all participants in these criminal and terroristic conspiracies — including the organized structures, networks, entities, organizations, funding sources, and predicate actions behind them.”

NSPM-7 further ordered Treasury Department officials to “identify and disrupt financial networks that fund domestic terrorism and political violence,” “deploy investigative tools,” “examine financial flows” and “trace illicit funding streams.” The memorandum also instructed the IRS to ensure that “no tax-exempt entities are directly or indirectly financing political violence or domestic terrorism.”

Those directives align with the current Cuba-related probe, in which the Justice, Treasury and State departments and other federal agencies are examining activist organizations, nonprofit funding pipelines, foreign coordination networks, travel logistics, communications and potential sanctions violations tied to Cuba’s communist regime, which the U.S. has designated a state sponsor of terrorism.

Investigators are scrutinizing whether organizations and influencers functioned as part of broader ideological or financial networks connected to foreign state interests, according to sources, precisely the type of “organized structures, networks, entities” and “funding sources” NSPM-7 instructed agencies to investigate.

DHS, WAR DEPT JOIN PROBE INTO SINGHAM NETWORK ALLEGEDLY SOWING DISCORD IN US

Back in southern California, Fox News Digital attended the recent Saturday night meeting in person and on Zoom. Mwezi Odom, a leader from the African People’s Socialist Party, moderated the discussions, wearing a beret with a red star, welcoming the “comrades” in the room.

After waiting patiently for technical problems to be resolved, Ramírez Álvarez greeted activists by first name.

“Happy to see Paul, happy to see Bob, Brandy, many friends, many friends that we have all around the US,” Ramírez Álvarez said, his face broadcast into the room on a wide-screen TV hanging in the front. “Quite a few friends and obviously people that have done so much for Cuba throughout the years.”

Over the next hour, Ramírez Álvarez briefed activists on congressional legislation, lobbying strategy, political allies in Washington and nationwide organizing efforts to pressure lawmakers to lift sanctions and oppose U.S. policy toward Cuba. Investigators are examining whether years of recurring coordination between Ramírez Álvarez and activist organizations, from church meetings to podcasts, crossed the line from constitutionally protected advocacy into political activity directed by a foreign government.

One attendee asked Ramírez Álvarez what activists should demand from legislators.

Odom, from the African People’s Socialist Party, repeated the question: “What are some of the asks that they should relay to legislators around the demands of Cuba?”

‘AFTER YOUR BOY’: HASAN PIKER LASHES OUT OVER FED PROBE INTO CUBA TRIP

Ramírez Álvarez initially said he didn’t fully understand the question, then proceeded to answer the question in detail.

“What I can do is give you an update of what’s happening in Congress right now,” he said.

Ramírez Álvarez outlined congressional legislation, Senate votes, lobbying campaigns and ongoing “action days on the Hill every week.”

“Right now, currently, it’s ironic,” he said, “but it’s one of the most active moments in, you might say, the past 10 years in regards to Cuba, regarding, you know, legislations and legislative actions.”

He highlighted S. 136, the “United States-Cuba Trade Act of 2025,” introduced by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., with Sens. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., which would repeal major portions of the U.S. embargo in place on Cuba since 1961 and normalize trade relations with the country.

He also pointed to the House companion bill, H.R. 7521, introduced by Rep. James McGovern, D-Mass., to dismantle statutory sanctions and travel restrictions on the island. Ramírez also referenced Rep. Nydia Velázquez’s “New Good Neighbor Act,” H.R. 1056, which calls for formally annulling the Monroe Doctrine and criticizes U.S. interventionism in Latin America, including policy toward Cuba.

Ramírez Álvarez additionally cited a recent War Powers resolution introduced by Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., opposing potential military escalation involving Cuba, noting that Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, joined Democrats in support.

FAR-LEFT ACTIVISTS STAY IN 5-STAR CUBAN HOTEL AS ISLAND SUFFERS TOTAL BLACKOUT

“There are many initiatives being put out there, many actions being put out there,” he said.

Ramírez Álvarez continued by discussing Senate votes and Democratic Party positioning.

He then escalated his rhetoric, calling the U.S. embargo “an act of war,” “collective punishment” and “genocidal action against a society and a people,” all language the nonprofits and pro-communist Cuba network use.

Throughout the evening, speakers repeatedly discussed expanding organizing efforts, building activist infrastructure, increasing labor coordination and broadening outreach campaigns throughout the U.S. on behalf of the Communist Party of Cuba.

Mark Friedman, an International Association of Machinists representative and leader in the Los Angeles Hands Off Cuba Committee, described the strategic importance of U.S. delegations traveling to Cuba.

“The job now is defending Cuba in whatever way we can,” Friedman told attendees.

The spokeswoman for the Embassy of Cuba said that it was appropriate for Cuban government officials to engage with pro-Cuba groups, “Therefore, staying informed about developments related to Cuba in the United States and engaging with organizations that have shown solidarity with the Cuban people during these difficult times falls completely within the functions established by international instruments,” the Embassy of Cuba spokeswoman said.

The spokeswoman concluded, “Our diplomats do not encourage any citizen or organization in the United States to overthrow or act against the constitutional order of the United States.”

Today’s activation is part of a long historical relationship between far-left groups and Cuba’s government — including its intelligence agency, according to historical records. 

For more than six decades, since Fidel Castro’s communist takeover of the nation in 1959, the Cuban government has cultivated a sophisticated American solidarity infrastructure that evolved from Cold War-era revolutionary movements into a modern network of nonprofits, labor groups, activist collectives, student organizations and political campaigns.

The roots stretch back to the early 1960s. Intelligence reports and defectors later alleged Cuba’s intelligence apparatus cultivated relationships with American radicals through the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples, or ICAP. Today, investigators say many of the same pathways remain active — labor delegations, student exchanges, activist brigades, humanitarian campaigns, political education projects and coordinated media outreach.

In late 1969, members of Students for a Democratic Society, or SDS, as the group is known, traveled to Havana and launched the Venceremos Brigade, a program organized with the Cuban government to bring American activists to Cuba for political solidarity work and labor brigades.

In the years that followed, factions of the SDS splintered into the Weather Underground, the militant anti-war group responsible for bombings across the U.S. during the 1970s.

At the center of the recent organizing push is Ramírez Álvarez, the senior Cuban Embassy official who has spent the last several years crisscrossing the United States appearing alongside labor unions, Democratic Socialists of America organizers, Green Party activists, National Lawyers Guild chapters, church groups, anti-war coalitions, podcasts, universities and activist nonprofits, including modern-day versions of the Students for a Democratic Society and the Venceremos Brigade.

Public records place Ramírez Álvarez at events in Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Kentucky and Washington, D.C., where he has advocated lifting the embargo, removing Cuba from the State Sponsors of Terrorism list and expanding solidarity campaigns with American activists.

At the Wilmington meeting, a local organizer, Destiny Rivera-Gome, urged attendees to bring organizers into schools, churches, unions and community organizations.

“If you’re a teacher, invite us to the classroom,” Rivera-Gome said. “[Cuban] President Miguel Díaz-Canel had shared that what they need is not only permanent massive campaigns, but they also need a network to counter the propaganda against the Cuban people.”

Federal investigators are examining whether activities described publicly at events like the Wilmington meeting crossed into coordinated foreign political activity requiring registration with the Justice Department under a federal law called the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

CUBAN EXILES IN MIAMI SAY ‘THIS IS THE END’ FOR COMMUNISM AS ISLAND TEETERS ON COLLAPSE

The organizations involved publicly describe their work as “solidarity” activism, “humanitarian” aid, labor organizing, “anti-imperialist” advocacy and opposition to U.S. sanctions.

But investigators are examining the extent of coordination between activists and Cuban diplomatic officials.

The Venceremos Brigade is currently operating as a fiscally sponsored project of the People’s Forum, the nonprofit funded by Singham.

The People’s Forum and its affiliated organizations have sponsored campaigns supporting communist Cuba, communist Venezuela, Palestine activism and anti-police organizing, including the caravan earlier this year that is under investigation.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass previously participated in Venceremos Brigade trips to Cuba during its early decades, and her opponent, Spencer Pratt, published a video drawing attention to her past affiliation.

Donation pages tied to Cuba aid efforts raise additional questions for investigators because they often tell donors to hide the fact that the donations are going to Cuba.

For example, a People’s Forum fundraising page soliciting solar panel donations for Cuba instructs donors: “Please do not write ‘Cuba’ in donation comments or on the memo line of checks. Simply write ‘Urgent Aid.’”

The People’s Forum also sponsors the Hatuey Project, named after a Taíno chief executed by Spanish colonizers in Cuba in 1512.

Several organizations at the Wilmington event openly discussed material support campaigns aimed at helping Cuba’s energy and medical sectors.

Rachel, an organizer affiliated with CodePink who didn’t share her last name, proposed agricultural delegations and aid campaigns to support Cuban food production.

“We grow food,” she said.

The Wilmington gathering was only one node in a much broader network.

National Lawyers Guild leader Anna Capati described revitalizing a Cuba subcommittee within the organization and coordinating resolutions opposing U.S. sanctions.

The ideological messaging at the event extended beyond Cuba. One activist group tied to the network, Anti-Racist Action, describes itself online as having “over 35 years of experience in antifa activism.”

Speakers praised the Soviet Union’s communism, denounced capitalism, defended the Palestinian cause, condemned U.S. imperialism and advocated what several called “working-class revolution.”

Estee Chandler, a member of Jewish Voice for Peace, delivered a video message praising Cuba’s historical support for Palestinian causes and highlighting Cuba’s participation in international legal actions against Israel.

Throughout the night, speakers repeatedly framed Cuba not merely as a foreign policy issue, but as part of a broader ideological struggle against capitalism and American power.

Groups involved in the Cuba solidarity movement deny acting as foreign agents and characterize their work as constitutionally protected activism opposing sanctions and supporting “humanitarian” engagement.

CodePink, the People’s Forum, Democratic Socialists of America, the National Lawyers Guild, and other organizations contacted by Fox News Digital didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment.

The southern California meeting provides a rare public glimpse into a network that has spent decades quietly building relationships between American activist groups and the Cuban state.

As one organizer told attendees near the end of the night: “Please put us in front of a group, and we got you.”

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Far-left political influencer Hasan Piker identified American Marxist tech tycoon Neville Roy Singham as a major financier behind a network of pro-communist U.S. nonprofits engaged in “political advocacy” and “a lot of political movements,” marking the first public acknowledgment from a figure inside the far-left network that organizations in the Singham network are operating with an explicitly political agenda.

The comments are significant because congressional investigators and watchdog groups have long argued that nonprofits connected to Singham are functioning as overt political operations while enjoying tax-exempt charitable status. Critics argue such activity may violate nonprofit tax laws, which place strict limits on the amount of political activity charities can conduct.

As Fox News Digital reported exclusively on Saturday, Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control issued an administrative subpoena to Piker and far-left CodePink co-founder Susan Medea Benjamin for possibly violating sanctions against doing business with the Communist Party of Cuba when they traveled to the island nation in March for an ideologically-charged transnational convergence of communists in an international “convoy.”

Piker and Benjamin haven’t responded to requests for comment, but they have publicly defended their trips to March as “humanitarian” missions to help the people of Cuba.

FEDS SUBPOENA HASAN PIKER, MEDEA BENJAMIN OVER CUBA TRIPS

At about 37 minutes in a six-hour livestream on Monday, headlined, “FEDS ARE AFTER ME,” punctuated with two cursing emojis, Piker stunned listeners knowledgeable about the intricacies of far-left networks by saying that he believes federal investigators are ultimately targeting Singham and the organizations he supports, including CodePink and the self-declared communist organizations ANSWER Coalition and Party for Socialism and Liberation, for the “political” work they do.

Together, these groups and others in the Singham network have organized, coordinated and staffed most of the divisive anti-U.S. street protests the nation has seen over the past decade. Party for Socialism and Liberation is called “PSL” by far-left activists.

“I think that ultimately the target is probably Singham and his operation from PSL to ANSWER Coalition to CodePink — like anything that he has ever financed,” Piker said during the stream.

POWER COUPLE OF CHAOS: HOW A TYCOON AND ACTIVIST BUILT A ‘REVOLUTIONARY BASE’ AT THE HOUSE OF SINGHAM

A five-part Fox News Digital investigation published in March, the week of the Cuba convoy, documented how Singham funneled $278 million, starting in 2017 after his marriage to CodePink co-founder Jodie Evans, into a network of six nonprofits that, in turn, have financially supported dozens of organizations globally and operationally participated in a transnational network of about 2,000 organizations, most of them promoting pro-China messaging and causes aligned with the Chinese Communist Party.

The investigation also documented for the first time Singham’s appearance at a Shanghai conference in November 2025 at the Golden Tulip Hotel, where he praised Chinese President Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party’s vision for a “new world order.”

Piker defended Singham during the livestream, arguing the federal government was attempting to suppress activism financed by Singham, a wealthy ideological donor.

“And it’s not new, it’s been around for a while,” Piker said.

Piker continued. “It’s like totally f—ing ridiculous to try and stop the political advocacy of an American citizen.”

He continued: “Roy Singham is an American citizen. He lives in China now and he’s a centimillionaire. I think he has almost a billion dollars.” A centimillioniare is a rich person with a net worth of at least $100 million.

In 2017, Singham sold his technology company, Thoughtworks, for an estimated $785 million, and began establishing a new network of shell corporations and nonprofit organizations in the U.S., from his adopted base in Shanghai, according to the Fox News Digital investigation.

Piker then described Singham as “funding vehicle” for “a lot of political movements.” The Singham network has deployed rapid-response teams to protest U.S. actions, including demonstrations that support the Islamic Republic of Iran, with professional protesters like CodePink D.C. Coordinator Olivia DiNucci painting her hands red to vilify U.S. military action in Iran. She protested beside Benjamin outside the White House.

HOUSE HEARING RAISES RED FLAGS OVER FORMER TECH MOGUL’S ‘CCP NETWORK’ ALLEGEDLY FUNDING OF FAR-LEFT GROUPS

Piker said, “Not sure how much money he has now, but he’s been a funding vehicle for a lot of political movements in the country, like a lot of activism, and they hate that s—, so they’re trying to jam them up.”

“They’re trying to hit him on anything and everything they possibly can. That’s it, that’s the goal here. That’s the broader goal.”

Monday’s comments were especially notable because they marked the first time a prominent figure within the network openly characterized Singham’s role as supporting “political movements” and “political advocacy” operations in the United States.

According to Fox News Digital’s investigation, Singham has pumped the $285 million into six organizations: $22.44 million to the People’s Forum, a hub for communist organizing in New York City; $1.33 million to CodePink; $68.7 million to Justice and Education Fund Inc., a nonprofit that funnels money to anonymous projects overseas; $1.098 million to BreakThrough BT Media, a propaganda arm; and $16.76 million to Tricontinental Ltd., a pro-communist think tank. The Party for Socialism and Liberation and ANSWER Coalition share office space at the People’s Forum and share leadership with the People’s Forum.

Multiple congressional committees — including the Senate Judiciary Committee, the House Judiciary Committee, House Oversight Committee and House Ways and Means Committee — have examined aspects of Singham’s funding network, particularly questions surrounding foreign influence, nonprofit compliance and political advocacy activities.

Investigators have increasingly focused on whether organizations receiving charitable tax benefits engaged in political activism beyond the scope permitted under federal law. Piker’s description of Singham as financing “political movements” may now intensify the investigations.

WHO IS HASAN PIKER? MEET THE FAR-LEFT STREAMER WHO IS STIRRING UP CONTROVERSY ONLINE AND DIVIDING DEMOCRATS

Piker is the Turkish-born nephew of a Turkish-American socialist political operative Cenk Uygur, founder of the Young Turks YouTube channel and a co-founder of Justice Democrats, a socialist organization that helped elect far-left lawmakers including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rep. Ilhan Omar and Rep. Rashida Tlaib.

In recent years, Piker has risen to national prominence as one of the country’s most influential left-wing online commentators, espousing Marxism even though critics call him a “champagne socialist,” because of his penchant for wearing designer clothes, driving expensive vehicles and living a high-end lifestyle. Piker drew criticism in even socialist circles for living in a $2 million home in West Hollywood, California.

Piker has monetized these hours-long livestreams on a platform called Twitch, popular with young online gamers. He talks for hours on end, mostly without a script, free associating in a stream of conscious that often includes rants, curses and condemnations of the very nation where he has built his wealth, repeating the talking points of U.S. adversaries including Russia, China, Cuba and Hamas, the terrorist organization. In his livestream on Monday, Piker bragged about buying a suit from a photoshoot he just completed in New York City over the weekend.

News of the subpoena against Piker and Benjamin triggered widespread reaction across activist and political circles, with far-left figures and organizations rallying behind Piker, while even Democratic leaders and influencers mocked Piker for turning his back on Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and now facing scrutiny from the Trump administration.

Piker himself has devoted two livestreams since the news broke to condemning the investigation, describing it as politically motivated and characterizing himself as a victim.

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control enforces U.S. sanctions laws and restrictions involving foreign governments, organizations and individuals under Treasury Department sanctions programs. In Washington policy circles, “OFAC” has become a verb and getting “OFAC’ed” is widely viewed as a serious escalation because it can indicate potential sanctions or foreign transaction violations.

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Fox News Digital’s Sophia Compton contributed to this report.

By NATO’s traditional metrics, the alliance appears transformed.

After years of pressure from President Donald Trump and growing alarm over Russia’s war in Ukraine, NATO allies are spending more on defense than at any point since the Cold War. NATO leaders have agreed to move toward a new framework approaching 5% of GDP by 2035.

For years, Trump accused NATO allies of relying too heavily on U.S. military protection while underinvesting in their own defense. His repeated threats to reconsider U.S. commitments to allies that failed to meet spending targets transformed what had once been an obscure alliance benchmark into one of NATO’s central political metrics.

“What really woke everyone up were two things,” Jim Townsend, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for Europe and NATO policy now at CNAS, told Fox News Digital. “One was the 2022 invasion by Putin … and the second was Trump, who came in and whether he scared them or he shamed them or whatever he did, that certainly added fuel to the fire as well.”

TRUMP PRAISED FOR GETTING NATO ALLIES TO BOLSTER DEFENSE SPENDING: ‘REALLY STAGGERING’

Countries closest to Russia moved fastest.

Poland now spends a larger share of its economy on defense than any other NATO member. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania all have sharply increased military budgets since 2022. 

Germany, long viewed as a symbol of Europe’s post-Cold War military decline, launched a major rearmament push and created a 100 billion euro special fund aimed at rebuilding the Bundeswehr.

On paper, the numbers look like a historic turnaround.

European allies and Canada increased defense spending by 20% in 2025 compared with the previous year, according to NATO’s latest annual report. The alliance says European members and Canada have added hundreds of billions of dollars in defense spending since 2014.

UK, GERMAN DEFENSE OFFICIALS DEFEND MILITARY BUILDUP UNDER RUSSIAN THREATS

Across Europe, governments are buying tanks, air defenses, fighter jets and artillery systems while racing to replenish stockpiles depleted by the war in Ukraine.

But the spending surge also has exposed the limits of the ledger.

“You have to start off with spending more, and you’re not going to see the capability results for a while,” Townsend said.

EXAMINING NATO: INSIDE THE ‘COMMITMENT GAP’ AS US CARRIES ALLIANCE DETERRENCE

Ukraine exposed how quickly a major war can drain ammunition stockpiles, strain production lines and overwhelm peacetime defense industries.

A defense budget can show political commitment. It does not show how many brigades are ready to deploy, how much ammunition is on hand, how quickly weapons can be produced or whether a country can sustain combat once a war begins.

That is the gap now facing NATO.

For years, the alliance measured burden-sharing largely through the 2% benchmark. It was simple, public and easy to compare. Countries that hit it could claim they were doing their part. Countries that missed it became targets for U.S. criticism.

But Ukraine showed that a higher defense budget is only the first step.

A country can meet the benchmark while still lacking enough deployable forces. Another can announce a major weapons purchase that will not arrive for years. A third can spend heavily on personnel, pensions or infrastructure without immediately adding battlefield power.

Even NATO leaders increasingly acknowledge the distinction.

“This is not just about more spending,” NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said earlier in 2026, calling for “smarter investment in the right capabilities.” 

Rutte has also warned that rising defense budgets must be matched by expanded production capacity as the alliance scrambles to replenish stockpiles and prepare for long-term competition with Russia.

Townsend said both Europe’s and America’s defense industries shrank after decades of lower military spending following the Cold War.

“The defense industrial capability in Europe and the United States has atrophied,” he said. “They lost the scale to be able to surge a lot more production.”

Now, he said, governments are running into the reality that factories cannot instantly produce the weapons NATO says it needs.

“While the money is there and the orders are coming in, the producers are struggling to meet the requirements,” Townsend said.

The war in Ukraine exposed how quickly modern industrial warfare can overwhelm peacetime production systems. European governments that announced major procurement plans after 2022 have frequently encountered long delivery timelines, strained supply chains and shortages in key sectors ranging from artillery ammunition to air defense interceptors.

A recent McKinsey analysis warned that “structural constraints could slow the path from spending to military capabilities,” pointing to fragmented procurement systems, industrial bottlenecks and long production timelines across Europe’s defense sector.

Those delays have also highlighted how heavily Europe still depends on American military technology and production capacity.

NATO CHIEF WARNS EUROPE CAN’T DEFEND ITSELF WITHOUT US AS TENSIONS RISE OVER GREENLAND

“Europe right now is dependent on the United States and U.S. industry to provide a lot of the capabilities they know they need,” Townsend said.

Among the most difficult capabilities for Europe to rebuild quickly, he said, are air defense systems, long-range strike weapons, logistics networks, intelligence capabilities and deep ammunition stockpiles.

“Air defense is what they need, and they need long-range fires,” Townsend said, pointing to systems such as Patriot missiles and High Mobility Artillery Rocket System launchers that European governments are scrambling to acquire.

But as demand for those systems surged following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, production timelines stretched longer.

That has already pushed some NATO countries to look elsewhere. Poland, for example, turned to South Korea for major weapons purchases as governments searched for faster delivery timelines.

At the same time, European governments are trying to expand domestic production capacity to reduce dependence on U.S. suppliers. Germany has ramped up ammunition production, while some civilian industrial firms have begun shifting portions of their operations toward defense manufacturing.

Still, Townsend said, rebuilding Europe’s military capacity will take years.

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The larger question, he said, is whether NATO can close the gap quickly enough.

“Will the Russians take advantage of this gap?” Townsend said.

Rep. Thomas Massie —  who lost the Republican primary in Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District to President Donald Trump-backed challenger Ed Gallrein —  is leaving the door open to the possibility of running for office again in the future.

“I filed with FEC for the 2028 House race. This allows me to raise funds to continue my political operations supporting my position as a current office holder and as a potential candidate for federal office,” the congressman wrote in a Monday post on X.

“I haven’t made a final decision about which office to seek, if I run,” he added.

OUSTED MASSIE SIDES WITH TRUMP ON IRAN DEAL AMID GOP BACKLASH, CONFIDENTLY EXCLAIMS, ‘HECK YES!’

Speaking at a University of Louisville College Republicans event on April 6, Massie said “if I lose on May 19th, I am not doing any more government ever.”

In a statement provided to Fox News Digital on Tuesday, Massie said, “I’m keeping every option open, and there’s still an undisclosed paid social media campaign to rewrite history and diminish the platform the Epstein class gave me when they spent tens of millions of dollars to buy the seat. I won’t be going away silently.”

Gallrein, a former Navy SEAL, decisively won the GOP U.S. House primary in Kentucky, defeating Massie, an incumbent who has served in Congress since late 2012.

MTG SAYS GOP’S FUTURE ‘DESTROYED’ AFTER TRUMP-BACKED PRIMARY CHALLENGER DEFEATS THOMAS MASSIE

“There’s a quiet all out war for the future of our country. Let us not misdirect our precious resources. I do not believe I lost due to fraudulent votes, mail-in ballots, hacking, or mistabulated results. I respect those who want to make sure, but I won’t be requesting a recount,” Massie wrote in a post on X last week.

“Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker asked Massie on Sunday if he is considering a 2028 presidential run.

TRUMP-BACKED CANDIDATE ED GALLREIN CALLS KENTUCKY WIN A ‘DAVID VS. GOLIATH’ VICTORY AFTER DEFEATING MASSIE

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“I will not rule out anything. And right now I’m not gonna rule in anything,” he said, later noting, “I think I will stay engaged in some way or shape. Maybe it’s from the outside. I’ve been exposing what’s going on Washington D.C. for years” he said, noting that he’ll “keep doing it.”

FIRST ON FOX — A deep-pocketed super PAC working to elect AI-friendly candidates is making major investments in upcoming Senate and House primaries ahead of November’s midterm elections.

Leading the Future, a pro-AI group with a sizable war chest that is backed by industry executives, is pledging to spend $2 million in Senate races in Louisiana, Montana and Oklahoma, with $1.5 million to be deployed immediately.

And the super PAC, which is powered by donors including Greg Brockman, president of OpenAI, and his wife Anna, in addition to venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, will dish out $750,000 in upcoming House primaries in California and Washington state. The developments were reported first by Fox News Digital.

The group’s new round of spending comes after it claimed victories in North Carolina, Texas, Illinois and Georgia, where it poured money into key primaries to elect candidates in both parties who oppose a patchwork of state AI regulations and are more supportive of the industry. And it comes as AI industry money has been increasingly shaping political primaries amid fighting over federal and state regulations.

AI POWER PLAYERS POUR CASH INTO COMPETITIVE PRIMARIES AS 2026 MIDTERMS HEAT UP

In Louisiana, Leading the Future is backing Republican Rep. Julia Letlow, who is facing off against state Treasurer John Fleming, a former congressman, for the GOP Senate nomination, in a June 27 runoff election, in the race to succeed Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy.

Cassidy, who was targeted by President Donald Trump as he ran for re-election, was ousted last week as he came in third in the GOP primary, with Letlow and Fleming advancing to the runoff.

Letlow, who is backed by Trump, is considered the frontrunner for the nomination and for the general election in the solidly red state.

TEXAS GOP COULD STALL TRUMP’S BOLD AI VISION WITH RED TAPE AS CHINA RACES AHEAD: ‘INVESTORS ARE NERVOUS’

Leading the Future is backing former U.S. Attorney in Montana Kurt Alme, who resigned last March to launch a Republican Senate campaign in Montana in the race to succeed retiring GOP Sen. Steve Daines. Montana’s primary will be held on June 2.

Daines withdrew from the Republican primary minutes before the filing deadline last year, and endorsed Alme, who is also backed by Trump.

In Oklahoma, Leading the Future is backing Rep. Kevin Hern, the frontrunner in the June 16 GOP primary in the race to fill the final two years of the term of former Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin, who stepped down earlier this year to serve as Homeland Security Secretary in the Trump administration. Hern is also backed by the president.

Leading the Future says it plans to “implement a fully integrated paid strategy, including broadcast, cable, streaming/digital, direct mail, and texting to ensure our candidates are defined early and supported across the most effective voter contact channels.”

The group is also supporting Republican Rep. Jay Obernolte in the June 2 primary in California’s 23rd Congressional District, which is anchored in San Bernardino County but includes slivers of Los Angeles and Kern counties.

Leading the Future said their investment “reflects the importance of standing behind proven legislative champions who have already demonstrated leadership on artificial intelligence, innovation, and the broader pro-growth technology agenda.”

FOX NEWS AI NEWSLETTER: ‘TRUMP WILL BE VERY GOOD AT’ AI INFRASTRUCTURE

The group is also backing Republican Angela McKinney in Washington state’s 4th Congressional District — in the central part of the state — in the race to succeed retiring GOP Rep. Jim Newhouse. Washington state’s primary will be held on Aug. 4.

Both California and Washington state hold nonpartisan, “jungle” primaries, where all candidates are on the same ballot, with the top two finishers advancing to the general election.

Leading the Future raised more than $125 million in 2025 and reported more than $70 million in the bank at the beginning of this year. It hauled in another $25 million during the first three months of this year.

Zac Moffat, a veteran Republican consultant who serves as a co-strategist for Leading the Future, said the group is “identifying opportunities where our resources can help cultivate a deep bench of pro-innovation leaders in Congress who understand both the enormous economic benefits of AI and the importance of establishing a clear national framework. Building that coalition now is critical to our mission at Leading the Future and we’re proud to announce our support.” 

Leading the Future has also targeted candidates who support more guardrails on the industry, which critics argue could stifle innovation and cede growth to China. The group is pledging to spend millions to shut out Democratic New York state legislator Alex Boros from Congress.

The group’s aggressive midterm presence comes as the Trump administration is pushing for a single federal AI framework and the buildout of supporting infrastructure, including data centers.

FOX NEWS POLL: VOTER SENTIMENT ON AI IMPROVES, BUT SKEPTICISM REMAINS

Trump has prioritized American innovation in AI and maintaining a competitive edge over China over increased regulation of the burgeoning industry.

The Trump administration has pushed back against restrictive state-level regulations and last week the president postponed an expected executive order that would have boosted federal oversight of the industry after apparent pushback from AI leaders.

But the latest public opinion polls indicate that Americans are increasingly concerned about the use of AI in daily life, with worries about job displacement, data privacy and the weakening of human skills.

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In the most recent Fox News national poll, voters had negative views on AI by 50 points when it comes to privacy (63% hurts, 13% helps), by 35 points on U.S. job creation (56-21), by 15 points on the national economy (42-27), by 5 points on people’s daily lives (38-33), and by 4 points on their own personal lives (30-26).

The poll spotlighted a partisan divide, with Democrats and independents by double-digits more likely to say AI hurts rather than helps in each area, and a majority of Republicans supportive of AI.

AUSTIN, TX – President Donald Trump has a new target this week as he takes aim at Republican critics — longtime GOP Sen. John Cornyn of Texas.

Trump is targeting Cornyn as “VERY disloyal” as he backs Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a major Trump ally and MAGA firebrand, in Tuesday’s combustible and expensive runoff election for the GOP Senate nomination in the right-leaning state. The ballot box showdown serves as the latest tests of Trump’s immense grip over the Republican Party and the strength of his endorsements in GOP nomination races.

The winner of the runoff will face off against rising Democratic Party star state Rep. James Talarico in the general election in a race that is among a handful that may decide if the Republicans hold their slim 53-47 majority in the Senate. Talarico, who topped progressive star Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a vocal Trump critic, in the March primary, is trying to become the first Democrat in nearly four decades to win a Senate election in Texas.

The Senate contest is the most high-profile showdown on a ballot that also includes Democratic and Republican runoffs for Texas Attorney General, as well as key primary battles for four U.S. House seats, including a Democratic Party runoff in the 35th Congressional District where one of the two candidates in a social media post proposed converting an ICE detention center into a prison for American supporters of Israel.

TRUMP BACKS MAGA ALLY PAXTON IN TEXAS SHOWDOWN WITH CORNYN

Trump’s targeting of Cornyn comes three weeks after the purging five state senators in Indiana’s primary who had opposed his push for congressional redistricting, a week and a half after helping to oust Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana — who five and a half years ago voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial – and one week after defeating vocal GOP critic Rep. Tom Massie of Kentucky.

The Texas runoff is also being held one week after Trump endorsed Paxton, after sitting on the sidelines in the race for months.

“Ken is a true MAGA Warrior who has ALWAYS delivered for Texas, and will continue to do so in the United States Senate,” Trump wrote in a social media post last Tuesday.

The two heated rivals topped a crowded field of contenders in the early March primary, with Cornyn edging Paxton. But since neither cleared the 50% threshold, the nomination race headed into overtime.

Trump, in backing Paxton, said that “John Cornyn is a good man, and I worked well with him, but he was not supportive of me when times were tough.”

DEMOCRACY ’26: STAY UP TO DATE WITH THE FOX NEWS ELECTION HUB

Pointing to the senator’s past criticism of him, Trump added, “John was very late in backing me in what turned out to be a Historic Run for the Republican Nomination, and then, the Presidency.”

Cornyn, in a Fox News Digital interview on the eve of the runoff, emphasized his support for the president and his agenda.

“President Trump has called me a friend and a good man, and we’ve worked with him closely for both terms of office,” the senator said.

Paxton, who grabbed significant national attention the past dozen years by filing lawsuits against the Obama and Biden administrations, disagreed.

“John Cornyn fought Trump on the border. And you can go back over about a decade and see that he was not for the border wall,” Paxton charged in an interview on Fox News’ “The Big Weekend Show.”

CONTENTIOUS REPUBLICAN SENATE PRIMARY IN TEXAS HEADED INTO OVERTIME

Paxton also argued that the senator “fought the president’s reelection. He fought him in 2024, said his time had passed, and he fought him in 2016. So this is not a pro-Trump guy. I don’t know if we could be more different on the Republican issues than John Cornyn and me. So there is a vast difference between the two of us.”

Cornyn pushed back.

“I don’t know how much more with him I could be than 99.3% of the time,” the senator told Fox News Digital.

“I want him to be successful. I want America to be successful, and I want Republicans to be successful. But you know, in the end, as I said, Texans are the only ones going to be able to make a choice, and I think Texans can be pretty independent,” Cornyn added.

Paxton has faced a slew of scandals and legal problems that have battered him over the past decade. In 2023, the Texas House of Representatives voted to impeach Paxton, but he was eventually acquitted of all charges by the state senate.

And Paxton is dealing with a very messy divorce, with his wife citing “biblical grounds” based on “recent discoveries” in filing last year to end their marriage.

Cornyn, who is supported by Senate Majority Leader Sen. John Thune and the National Republican Senatorial Committee, has repeatedly argued that if Paxton is the GOP’s nominee, the party will be forced to spend millions of dollars to keep the seat from flipping and that Republicans down-ballot will suffer.

“He’s gotten more and more emboldened as he’s gotten away with all the scandal and mischief that now is very well known, but were he to be the nominee and be exposed to general election voters, especially independents, I think it’s going to be a very rocky time,” the senator predicted.

TRUMP OWNS THE GOP – BUT WILL REPUBLICANS PAY A PRICE IN THE MIDTERMS?

And pointing to Talarico, who hauled in an eye-popping $27 million in fundraising during the first three months of this year, Cornyn said “there will be an incredible tsunami of Democratic funds coming in against Paxton, were he the nominee. Conversely…if I am the nominee…we’ll be able to shoulder the burden pretty much on our own. I won my last general election by 10 points. I think I can do similarly against somebody who’s as far left and radical as James Talarico.”

While Paxton has shifted his ads to target Talarico in the wake of the Trump endorsement, Cornyn and allied groups continue to blast Paxton.

“I don’t think anybody could honestly argue that we haven’t fought hard to make the case here,” Cornyn said of his campaign.

And he emphatically said he’s “worked too long and too hard to help build the Republican Party in Texas, and in the United States Senate, and to keep Texas the envy of the nation when it comes to opportunities and pursuing the American dream, to let that go, to squander it, and let it go without a fight. So I’m still optimistic on the outcome, but obviously it depends on who shows up.”

The other statewide runoff in Texas is for attorney general, in the race to succeed Paxton.

In the expensive GOP showdown, four-term Rep. Chip Roy is battling state Sen. Mayes Middleton, the president of an independent oil and gas company.

Middleton, who edged Roy in the March primary, has dished out roughly $17 million of his own money to back his campaign. But Roy, a former Texas assistant attorney general and former chief of staff to conservative Sen. Ted Cruz, received a late surge in fundraising from major backers.

“We’ve gotten the financial support necessary to compete with my self-funder opponent, who’s got his inheritance money that he can just spend,” Roy highlighted in a Fox News Digital interview on the eve of the runoff.

Roy has argued that Middleton’s lack of courtroom experience would make him a poor attorney general.

“Having been the first assistant attorney general makes me ready on day one, but it’s also that I’ve been a prosecutor, I’ve been in court, I’ve sat in front of a judge, stood in front of a judge, argued cases, and he has never done any of those things. And we think those things should matter,” Roy emphasized.

Middleton has pushed back, questioning Roy’s conservative credentials and run ads claiming Roy’s “betrayed MAGA” as he’s pointed to the times the congressman has broken with Trump over policy.

“Chip Roy has someone that has spent a decade fighting the president. He actually said President Trump committed impeachable conduct on the House floor,” Middleton told Fox News Digital. “Instead of spending 10 years fighting President Trump, what have I done? I’ve spent 10 years, fighting to defeat the left, which is what matters the most in this race.”

But Roy, responding, said “everyone knows that I’m a longtime defender and supporter of the president’s agenda, of the America First agenda, the MAGA agenda, but I’m also an independent thinker who will stand up and make the case. And pointing to Middleton, Roy charged, “MAGA is not something you just buy. My opponent thinks you can buy the brand.”

Middleton returned fire, arguing “Chip Roy is putting out there that he is a top ally to President Trump when the exact opposite is the case.”

Roy, showcasing his electability, said “I beat Democrats before in a tough race” and that he “knows how to win.”

The winner of the GOP runoff will likely face Democratic state Sen. Nathan Johnson, who came close to clinching his party’s nomination in the primary. Johnson is facing off against former Galveston Mayor Joe Jaworski.

Also in the spotlight are Democratic and GOP runoffs in the redrawn majority-Latino 35th Congressional District,

Democratic Party leaders are slamming housing activist and sex therapist Maureen Galindo for her Instagram post on imprisoning American Zionists at an ICE detention center. She added that the prison would have a castration facility for pedophiles, which she claimed would likely include “most of the Zionists.

She also said that her rival in the runoff, Bexar County Sheriff’s Deputy Johnny Garcia, should be tried for treason over his support for Israel.

The comments have spurred support for Garcia, who’s running as a moderate. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the Texas Democratic Party, Talarico, and even progressive champion Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have backed Garcia.

The winner of the Democratic primary will face off against either Republican state Rep. John Lujan or Carlos De La Cruz, an Air Force veteran and brother of Rep. Monica De La Cruz of Texas.

In the solidly blue, Houston-based 18th Congressional District, 78-year-old Democratic Rep. Al Green will face off with recently-elected 38-year-old Rep. Christian Menefee, for a seat redrawn last year by Republicans as part of their congressional redistricting push.

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Democratic Rep. Julie Johnson is running against former Rep. Colin Allred in the Democratic-dominated, Dallas-based, 33rd Congressional District.

And in the newly drawn 9th Congressional District, a right-tilting seat in the Houston area, Trump-endorsed Army veteran Alex Mealer faces Abbott-endorsed state Rep. Briscoe Cain.

President Donald Trump is pressuring Muslim-majority nations to join the Abraham Accords if they want to participate in a developing Iran agreement, according to multiple reports.

The Abraham Accords are a series of agreements aimed at normalizing diplomatic relations between Israel and several Arab and Muslim-majority nations.

PRESIDENT TRUMP SAYS DEAL WITH IRAN IS ‘LARGELY NEGOTIATED’

Trump said Saturday that he urged Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Pakistan, Turkey and Jordan to normalize relations with Israel during a phone call with regional leaders.

“I stated that, after all the work done by the United States to try and pull this very complex puzzle together, it should be mandatory that all of these Countries, at a minimum, simultaneously, sign onto the Abraham Accords,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

TRUMP SAYS MORE NATIONS LINING UP TO JOIN ABRAHAM ACCORDS AFTER KAZAKHSTAN

The president also said he planned to speak with the leaders of the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

The UAE and Bahrain became the first two nations to sign the accords in 2020.

Trump also floated the idea that Iran could eventually become part of the Abraham Accords.

US MILITARY IS ‘IRON SHIELD’ PROTECTING AMERICAN BASES, LIVES FROM IRAN PROXIES: HEGSETH

“In speaking to numerous of the Great Leaders mentioned above, they would be honored, as soon as our Document is signed, to have the Islamic Republic of Iran as part of the Abraham Accords. Wow, now that would be something special,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

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U.S. and Israeli officials do not expect the UAE to move forward on the issue until after Israel’s elections in September.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio pushed back against criticism of President Donald Trump’s immigration reform as Indian officials and media raised concerns that U.S. visa and immigration reforms may curb migration from India.

“What I want to leave clear is that the changes, while they may be having a disproportionate impact on a place like India that provides so many high-skilled workers to the U.S. economy, it is not a system that is targeted at India,” Rubio said during a Sunday news conference in New Delhi, India. “It is one that’s being applied globally.”

India’s foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar pushed back in his remarks.

THIS JULY 4TH, HERE’S HOW MY FAMILY EARNED THE RIGHT TO BE CALLED ‘AMERICANS’ – LEGALLY

“I apprised Secretary Rubio of challenges that legitimate travelers face in respect of visa issuance,” Jaishankar said.

“While we cooperate to deal with illegal and irregular mobility, our expectation is that legal mobility would not be adversely impacted as a consequence.  After all, this is very relevant to our business, technology, and research cooperation,” he said.

Ultimately, Rubio – a son of Cuban immigrants – stressed that the U.S. values India as a “strategic ally” and vital trade partner, but immigration policy must be America First under Trump.

AMERICA NEEDS WORKERS, BUT TRUMP’S POLICIES ARE SHARPLY CUTTING LEGAL IMMIGRATION

“Everything that you do as a country needs to be in your national interest, and that includes your immigration policy,” Rubio continued. “The United States, I believe, is the most welcoming country in the world on immigration.”

“Every single year, a million people, roughly, become permanent residents of the United States and contribute greatly,” he said.

“Modernization” was the keynote to Rubio’s reply to concerns about the “contribution that Indians have made to the U.S. economy,” noting “over $20 billion have been invested in the U.S. economy by Indian companies.”

‘AMERICA FIRST’ IMMIGRATION OVERHAUL BILL WOULD CODIFY TRUMP’S CAMPAIGN PROMISES ONCE AND FOR ALL

“The changes that are happening now or the modernization of our migration system into the United States is not focused – it’s not India-specific; it is global,” Rubio stressed. “It’s being applied across the world.”

“We are in a period of modernization, and I’ll be frank and honest with you, because it’s important to talk about this: We’ve had a migratory crisis in the United States,” he said. “This is not because of India, but broadly, we had over 20 million people illegally enter the United States over the last few years, and we’ve had to address that challenge.”

THEIR PLAN WAS A FLOOD OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION. OUR ANSWER IS AN IMMIGRATION MORATORIUM

The reforms were “long overdue,” he added.

“It has to be a process that’s adjusted in every era to the realities of the modern times in which you live, and we are, and it’s long overdue,” Rubio added. “So the United States is currently undergoing a process of reforming the system by which we choose how many people come into our country, who comes in, when they come in, et cetera.”

HOUSE REPUBLICAN GREG STEUBE INTRODUCES BILL TO NIX CONTROVERSIAL H-1B VISA PROGRAM

Rubio urged India to give the reform process time during the period of deepest adjustment.

“Anytime you undertake a reform, anytime you undertake a change in the system by which you admit people, or frankly, anytime you undertake a reform in any system – not just on immigration – there are going to be – there’s going to be a period of transition that’s going to create some friction points and some difficulties and so forth,” he said. “Ultimately, we think when this process is in place, once this process has been modernized – and that’s really what it is – we are modernizing the U.S. immigration system for the 21st century so that it is an immigration system that’s not just good for America but it’s also good for the people that are coming.”

JENNIFER WELCH TARGETS RUBIO IN RANT ABOUT HOW ‘BROWN-SKINNED’ MAGA SUPPORTERS ARE WHITE NATIONALISTS

The U.S. and India will be stronger in the end, according to Rubio.

“We’re going to wind up with a system that’s more efficient and even better than the previous system, and in some ways may prove to be even more beneficial than the previous system was to people from India that seek to enter the United States to work and innovate,” he concluded. “But obviously, there’s going to be a period of adjustment along the way. 

“We’re in a period of transition, and like any period of transition there’s going to be some bumps on that road.  But we think ultimately our destination is going to be a better system, a more efficient system, one that works better than the one that we had in place previously, and more sustainable, by the way,” Rubio said.

Rubio also addressed allegations of anti-India racism in America, urging India to not listen to the “stupid people.”

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“I’ll take that very seriously about the comments,” Rubio said. “Look, I’m sure that there are people that have made comments online and other places, because every country in the world has stupid people. I’m sure there are stupid people here.”

“There are stupid people in the United States that make dumb comments all the time. I don’t know what else to tell you other than the United States is a very welcoming country,” Rubio said. “Our nation has been enriched by people who come to our country, have come from our country from all over the world, have become Americans, have assimilated into our way of life, and have contributed greatly.”

EXCLUSIVE: Ryan Mehaffey, a Marine veteran and Virginia prosecutor, is taking a hard-line stance against what he believes is an “unconstitutional” new gun ban signed by Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger.

Spanberger, who has been slipping in the polls amid criticisms of her progressive policy agenda, signed a new bill last week banning the future sale and manufacture of “assault weapons,” including many semiautomatic rifles, pistols and shotguns. The law also bans the future sale of magazines with a capacity of more than 15 rounds.

The move caused immediate backlash from many Virginians and raised new Second Amendment violation concerns. Rather than protest, however, Mehaffey, who serves as the commonwealth attorney for Spotsylvania County, is drawing a line in the sand and flatly refusing to enforce the ban.

With the bill set to take effect this July ahead of America’s 250th anniversary of independence, Mehaffey sent a letter to Spotsylvania Sheriff Roger Harris, instructing him that the ban is “unconstitutional and cannot be lawfully enforced.”

LEGAL EXPERT UNLEASHES ON SPANBERGER’S NEW EXECUTIVE ORDER TARGETING ICE: ‘POLITICAL THEATER’

A statement released by Spanberger’s office called the assault weapons ban a “critical step toward protecting families, communities, and the law enforcement officers who serve them.”

Spanberger remarked she signed the bill into law “because firearms designed to inflict maximum casualties do not belong on our streets.”

She added that “while the General Assembly chose not to adopt my amendment that specifically carves out certain firearms frequently used for hunting, I will work with the patrons to clarify this language.”

In response, Mehaffey said in an interview with Fox News Digital that the law “is striking at the core of the militia system that existed in Virginia.”

According to Mehaffey, the Second Amendment is not just an assurance of personal freedoms, but also a safeguard for a community’s ability to defend itself through a “well-regulated militia.”

“Our founders were careful to make sure when they drafted our founding document, that the ultimate right of the people was preserved to defend themselves and to defend their community,” he explained. “So, the linchpin of the constitutional analysis is going to be does this instrument have some reasonable relationship to the preservation or efficiency of a regulated militia.”

‘BACKYARD BRAWL’ IGNITES AS WEST VIRGINIA’S MORRISEY MOVES TO POACH BLUE STATE RIVAL SPANBERGER’S JOBS

Mehaffey argues that in Virginia, historical tradition and case law precedent not only allow citizens to own firearms but even require them to arm themselves with the weapons of a basic infantryman for common defense. In the Founding Fathers’ time, Mehaffey said the standard issue was a musket and 20 rounds. Today, the basic infantry weapon in the U.S. military is the M4A1 carbine equipped with a 30-round magazine.  

“The second amendment may not mean that you are allowed to have a nuclear weapon,” he laughed. “But what it does allow you to have is a basic infantry weapon.”

“That sort of weapon is the core of what’s protected by the Second Amendment. Not necessarily a nuclear warhead, but a rifle that you can take out and form either a fire team or a company to defend yourself and to defend your community.”

Mehaffey is not alone in his stance. In addition to what he characterized as the “overwhelmingly positive” response from his community, Smyth County Commonwealth’s Attorney Phillip Blevins, an Air Force veteran, has also refused to enforce the bill, arguing it is unconstitutional. The ban is also facing lawsuits from gun-rights groups, including the NRA, Firearms Policy Coalition and Second Amendment Foundation.

Blevins told Fox News Digital that “ultimately, courts will continue to address these issues, and I respect the role of the judiciary. But as the elected Commonwealth’s Attorney for Smyth County, I will continue to stand for what I believe the Constitution requires, without apology or hesitation.”

“My position is not based on politics. It is based on constitutional fidelity,” he continued, adding, “The Bill of Rights either means something, or it does not.”

“As Commonwealth’s Attorney, I took an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of Virginia. That oath is not situational, and it does not change based on politics, headlines, or pressure from either side of an issue.”

Mehaffey believes he and those standing beside him on this issue will ultimately prevail.

“The Second Amendment is the supreme law of the land, both in the U.S. Constitution and the analog in the Virginia Constitution,” he explained. “So, whatever law is passed by the General Assembly is not going to have the ability to supersede the Constitution.”

POWERFUL DEM’S JABS AT TRUMP COME BACK TO HAUNT HER AFTER OFFICE RAIDED BY FBI: ‘AGED WELL’

While he has gotten a lot of personal attention for his stance, Mehaffey emphasized that, “I want nothing more than to fulfill my office with honor and to be a good servant to the people that elected me to represent them and to stick up for their rights.”

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“That’s what I’m trying to do,” he continued, adding, “I would expect any government official to remain faithful to the Constitution and to discharge their duties as servants of the people in the same way that I have.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Spanberger for additional comment.

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., appeared unbothered when asked about the newly proposed GOP resolution barring anyone foreign-born from serving in Congress.

“Good luck to her,” Omar told Fox News Digital when asked her opinion on the potential legislation. 

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., announced Wednesday that she is proposing a constitutional amendment that would require any member of Congress, federal judges, or Senate-confirmed officers to be a natural-born citizen. This amendment would impose the same natural-born citizen standard required for presidents and vice presidents in the U.S. 

DR. PHIL EXCORIATES ILHAN OMAR, CALLS HER BASHING OF AMERICA ‘ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING’

Omar was one of three targets that Mace specifically pointed out when she posted to X on Wednesday to announce her new “long overdue” joint resolution. Omar was born in Somalia and became a naturalized citizen in 2000.

“Ilhan Omar. Shri Thanedar. Pramila Jayapal,” Mace posted to X “All born in foreign countries, none were citizens by birth. All sitting in the United States Congress. All making clear every single day their loyalty is not to America.”

There are currently 26 individuals serving as members of Congress that are not natural born citizens — 19 Democrats and seven Republicans.

Omar told Fox News Digital that she is not concerned about this legislation having the legs to pass.

“If you hold power in the American government, you should be a natural-born American citizen,” Mace told Fox News Digital in a statement. “For too long we have allowed foreign-born members to hold seats in this government, while making clear their loyalty is not here. We see it every day.”

MACE FILES RESOLUTION TO EXPEL HOUSE DEMOCRAT AFTER HER ARREST AT ICE DETENTION FACILITY PROTEST

Changing the Constitution is not an easy feat, requiring approval from two-thirds of both the House and Senate before an additional ratification of three-fourths of U.S. states. 

The proposal has not yet drawn widespread public backing from House GOP leadership or  any large group of Republican co-sponsors.

Omar was also asked about Rep. Randy Fine’s, R-Fla., “Disqualifying Dual Loyalty Act,” which he introduced in October. This legislation would ban anyone from serving in Congress who has dual citizenship in another country. It would force individuals to renounce their foreign citizenship in order to serve or be considered for Congress.

NIKKI HALEY’S SON SAYS ‘THIS ISN’T THE COUNTRY FOR YOU’ IF YOU CAN’T CHOOSE YOUR LOYALTY

“Who’s that?” Omar said when asked about Fine’s proposed legislation.

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“I think it’s a fair argument to say you can only swear allegiance to one country, and if you’re in Congress, that allegiance should be to America,” Fine said in a statement. “This bill ensures that the people making laws for our citizens are themselves fully committed to our country, not divided between two.” 

Fine’s legislation has not shown significant movement in Congress since being referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary last year.

Marxist political influencer Hasan Piker is lashing out over a federal inquiry into his recent trip to communist Cuba, calling it an “intimidation tactic” prompted by his harsh stance on Israel and the U.S.

The response by Piker — echoed by other leaders from Democratic Socialists of America and pro-communist and anti-Israel leaders — illustrates how quickly the Cuba “solidarity” movement, pro-communist influencers and anti-Israel activist networks converged online to frame the federal inquiry not as a sanctions or foreign influence investigation, but as political repression aimed at broader anti-capitalist, anti-Western, anti-Israel activist movements.

Piker told followers during a livestream on Twitch Sunday afternoon that he is being targeted for being a “loudmouth” and “rabble-rouser,” criticizing Israel and the “fascist” United States.

Fox News Digital reported Saturday that the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control has sent administrative subpoenas to Piker and leftist CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin to get documents about the financial, logistical and communications details of their March trips to Cuba, in possible violation of laws and regulations about doing business with the government of Cuba.

“It’s not great,” Piker told his followers in the early minutes of his livestream on Sunday afternoon. “The news is not great, okay? Um, I mean, it’s bulls—. But still not great…I mean it’s bulls— but still not great that they’re after your boy. They’re up my a–.”

Piker didn’t respond to requests for comment, although he acknowledged receiving the queries as he spoke to his followers during his livestream. He said that he got his trip cleared by the Office of Foreign Assets Control, saying, “Everything we did was cleared by Treasury.”

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control didn’t respond to a request for comment.

By the end of his segment on the federal inquiry, Piker pivoted from the Cuba sanctions inquiry to argue that the scrutiny was really driven by backlash to his comments on Israel.

“A lot of this, by the way, does still have a lot to do with Israel,” he said, charging that his critics “don’t like that I talk s— about Israel” and “don’t like that I am a loudmouth, a rabble-rouser.”

He claimed the investigation was not “just about Cuba” but also about his role in boosting anti-Israel voters and candidates.

“They recognize that Democrats and young people are against Israel” and see him “campaigning with candidates who are anti-Israel, and they are winning their races,” he said.

FEDS SUBPOENA HASAN PIKER, MEDEA BENJAMIN OVER CUBA TRIPS

Piker’s response followed a pattern that has become common among online activist influencers under scrutiny: reframing a legal or regulatory inquiry as political persecution while broadening the issue into a sweeping ideological struggle. Rather than focus narrowly on the sanctions questions surrounding the Cuba trip, Piker repeatedly cast himself as the victim of a coordinated campaign by “Israel first” Democrats, pro-Israel activists, mainstream media figures and the “fascist” Trump administration.

He frequently shifted the conversation away from the specifics of Treasury’s inquiry and toward a larger narrative in which the federal government is allegedly criminalizing anti-Israel activism, anti-capitalist politics and opposition to U.S. foreign policy. He sought to portray the investigation as evidence that powerful political and media institutions are targeting dissenting voices who challenge establishment positions on Israel, Cuba and American foreign policy.

At one point, Piker said he created a mini-documentary about life in Cuba during his March trip, saying he was serving as a journalist. In other moments, he has described the mission as a “humanitarian” effort, framing his trip as providing “humanitarian aid” to the people of Cuba.

Piker also characterized the controversy using language increasingly emerging from socialist, communist and anti-capitalist movements online, where activists have used the phrase “Epstein class” as shorthand for wealthy elites and the supposed moral corruption of American capitalism. The rhetoric repeats the propaganda of U.S. adversaries, including Cuba, China, the Islamic Republic of Iran and Russia.

He read a comment from a fan, who wrote, “We’ll free you, my brother.”

POWER COUPLE OF CHAOS: HOW A TYCOON AND ACTIVIST BUILT A ‘REVOLUTIONARY BASE’ AT THE HOUSE OF SINGHAM

Piker responded, “I’m seemingly going to be made an example of…in America’s galloping toward fascism.”

He batted away suspicions that Elon Musk made a “boss call” to subpoena Piker after he did an interview yesterday with Ashley St. Clair, the mother of a baby with Musk. The two are going through a custody dispute.

“I haven’t gotten anything yet,” said Piker.

“Yes, I’ll get lawyered up,” he said, in response to a follower.

He said he needed a lawyer with expertise on the First Amendment and “knowledgeable on OFAC.”

“I haven’t had anything happen to me yet,” he said. “And it’s not like anything I’ve done.”

Saturday evening, Piker posted on X that “the American govt would rather try to criminalize delivering aid to a country we’d starved, than punish the Epstein class.”

MEDIA TAPS TWITCH STAR WHO TOLD VIEWERS TO ‘KILL’ REPUBLICANS FOR COMMENT ON CHARLIE KIRK’S ASSASSINATION

At 10:51 p.m., CodePink’s Benjamin posted: “Taking medical supplies to pediatric hospitals in Cuba is now a crime? Saving the lives of babies is a crime? The administration is beyond grotesque.”

Benjamin repeated the movement’s broader framing of the Cuba trips as “humanitarian” missions, even as organizers and participants repeatedly paired the aid campaigns with overt political rhetoric condemning the Trump administration, U.S. sanctions policy and what activists described as “imperialism” and “settler colonialism” in Cuba and Latin America.

Piker’s uncle, far-left commentator Cenk Ugyur, the co-founder of Justice Democrats, a socialist organization that helped elect Ilhan Omar, Rashida Talib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Congress in 2018, defended him online Saturday night.

“Government apparently sent some bullshit subpoena to Hasan,” Ugyur wrote. “They’re tightening the noose on speech. Remember, they’ll always have an excuse or some technicality. It’s not like they’re going to tell you, ‘We did it because we don’t like what you’re saying.’”

Uygur then linked the investigation to broader left-wing claims about suppression of pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel speech, arguing the government was using legal and procedural mechanisms to target political dissent rather than directly censoring viewpoints.

WHO IS HASAN PIKER? MEET THE FAR-LEFT STREAMER WHO IS STIRRING UP CONTROVERSY ONLINE AND DIVIDING DEMOCRATS

Piker called CodePink co-founder Jodie Evans a “wonderful person.” He took a photo in Havana with Evans, which she shared on her Instagram account from Cuba.

A little after 3 p.m., one hour and 12 minutes into his livestream, Piker acknowledged, “I would much rather not have to deal with this.”

Half an hour later, he insisted that he was being targeted for his strong opposition to the existence of the state of Israel, playing a clip of Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., as they spoke about the growing tide of anti-semitism, including from Piker.

At one point, Piker scoffed as the two lawmakers discussed increasing reports of antisemitism in the U.S.

Piker later moved on to a segment supporting the the Islamic Republic of Iran in its talks with the U.S. and Israel to end the war in Iran, mocking the Israel delegation’s “chirping,” critiquing U.S. foreign policy for allegedly letting “Israel take control over our entire Middle East policy” and moving the focus of his monologue to a critique of the “Zionist” state of Israel and the “rogue” United States.

Fox News Digital’s Sophia Compton contributed to this report.

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The 41-year prison sentence handed to the ringleader of Minnesota’s massive Feeding Our Future fraud scandal is renewing scrutiny of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., over her ties to convicted figures in the $250 million scheme. 

Aimee Bock, the founder and former executive director of Feeding Our Future, was sentenced Thursday after prosecutors said she oversaw a network of fake meal sites that stole federal nutrition funds meant to feed low-income children during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The convicted fraudster alleged, without evidence, that Omar was likely aware of restaurant owners billing the government for falsified or inflated claims in an explosive interview with The New York Post. 

“I struggle to believe that she wouldn’t have known,” Bock told the outlet, referring to Omar.

OMAR ACCUSED BY GOP OPPONENT OF OPENING UP THE DOOR TO MASSIVE MINNEAPOLIS FRAUD: ‘DEEP, DEEP TIES’

More than 60 individuals, most of whom are members of the Somali immigrant community, have been convicted in the Feeding Our Future scandal in which fraudsters pocketed hundreds of millions of dollars from a federally funded child nutrition program.

Federal prosecutors have not charged Omar or accused her of participating in the fraud. 

However, Republicans have accused Omar of weakening guardrails around the program that allowed a network of fake meal sites to fraudulently bill the government and have zeroed in on her alleged ties to individuals convicted of pilfering taxpayer dollars, according to an 84-page report released by a Minnesota fraud committee earlier this month.

Omar has denied wrongdoing and told Fox News Digital this week that “any claim that I had knowledge of this scheme is flat-out false.” 

“As I stated from the beginning, stealing millions of dollars under the guise of feeding hungry children to bankroll lavish lifestyles and extravagant expenses is reprehensible,” the Minnesota Democrat continued. “I’m grateful that Aimee Bock and every individual involved in this abhorrent scheme are being held accountable for defrauding taxpayers and betraying vulnerable children.”

Omar declined a request from Minnesota’s Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Committee to hand over her communications with Feeding Our Future defendants and records related to promoting the program with state officials and constituents. Democrats on the panel subsequently blocked an attempt to subpoena those communications.

SEE IT: FEEDING OUR FUTURE FRAUDSTERS BOUGHT MANSIONS AND MERCEDES WITH $250M IN STOLEN MEAL FUNDS

The Minnesota House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Committee report pointed to several “direct ties” between Omar and individuals later convicted in the scheme. 

Omar’s one-time staffer, Guhaad Hashi Said, who has been described as the “enforcer” of the Minnesota Democrat’s prior congressional campaigns, is one of the convicted defendants.

Said pleaded guilty in August to conspiring to commit wire fraud and money laundering after establishing a fraudulent food program site called Advance Youth Athletic Development to siphon off taxpayer dollars for personal use. The entity submitted claims for serving more than 1 million meals, but prosecutors allege he served just a “fraction” of those meals while receiving nearly $3 million in reimbursements.

In May 2020, Omar also spotlighted a Somali-owned restaurant as a meal distribution site where low-income children could receive meals during the pandemic, in a Somali-language video.

Salim Said, the since-defunct restaurant’s co-owner, was ultimately convicted in the Feeding Our Future scheme alongside Bock. Federal prosecutors allege the site received more than $16 million in fraudulent child nutrition funds used for self-enrichment. 

“I’m very thankful for Safari for being part of those places where food is being given out,” Omar said in the promotional video, claiming the restaurant gave out 2,300 meals daily. “That’s a very important thing.”

The restaurant hosted Omar and her supporters at a 2018 election-night watch party, according to the report.

‘SCHEMES STACKED UPON SCHEMES’: $1B HUMAN-SERVICES FRAUD FUELS SCRUTINY OF MINNESOTA’S SOMALI COMMUNITY

“A lot of the sites were working directly with her, being that a lot of the operators were from the same Somali community,” Bock told The Post.

“There were a lot of people that had been reaching out to her office and staff — and I presume her personally — to work through some of those gaps with the waivers,” the convicted fraudster added.

State lawmakers allege Omar helped “create the conditions that led to Feeding Our Future” by “removing the guardrails” from the federal nutrition program through her MEALS Act, which passed Congress as part of a sweeping pandemic relief package.

Her provision allowed a broad range of “off-site” locations, including restaurants, to participate in the child nutrition program and waived requirements that made it difficult to verify billing claims from meal sites, according to the report.

When waivers allowing restaurants to participate in the meal program were set to expire, Omar urged the Trump administration to extend them.

That advocacy “undoubtedly helped the fraud expand,” state lawmakers alleged.

Omar pointed out her provision was signed into law by President Donald Trump and implemented by his administration, in a statement to Fox News Digital. 

“The MEALS Act was signed into law by President Trump and passed with bipartisan support as part of a broader legislative package,” she added. “Trump’s USDA Secretary set the regulatory framework during the rollout of the program.”

Omar also contended that after she learned about the fraud she “immediately sent a letter to the USDA secretary demanding answers and accountability.” 

“She only sent a letter once the fraud was exposed,” state Rep. Kristin Robbins, R-Minn., previously told Fox News Digital in response to Omar’s statement.

“Prior to that, she sent letters urging the administration to keep the waivers in place — allowing the fraud to continue. Sounds like revisionist history. I don’t buy it at all.”

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The “Squad” lawmaker has also come under recent scrutiny over alleged immigration fraud and her family’s finances. 

Vice President JD Vance said earlier this week that the Department of Justice is investigating Omar, though the department has yet to confirm the probe.

“You read the things about Ilhan Omar and about who she married and whether she didn’t marry this person or that person,” Vance told reporters. “It certainly seems like something fishy is there.” 

Omar fired back in an interview with Fox News Digital saying Vance is “saying stupid s—.”

“That is not something that is happening. That man is delusional,” she added.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Department of Justice and the White House before publication.