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President-elect Trump tapped longtime ally and crusader against the “deep state,” Kashyap “Kash” Patel to lead the FBI, where he will work to snuff out America’s “crime epidemic,” bust up migrant gangs, and stymie drug and human trafficking, the upcoming president declared in his announcement. 

“Kash did an incredible job during my First Term, where he served as Chief of Staff at the Department of Defense, Deputy Director of National Intelligence, and Senior Director for Counterterrorism at the National Security Council. Kash has also tried over 60 jury trials,” Trump posted to Truth Social on Sunday evening. 

“This FBI will end the growing crime epidemic in America, dismantle the migrant criminal gangs, and stop the evil scourge of human and drug trafficking across the Border. Kash will work under our great Attorney General, Pam Bondi, to bring back Fidelity, Bravery, and Integrity to the FBI.”

Following Trump’s massive win over Vice President Kamala Harris at the ballot boxes last month, speculation mounted that Patel was a top contender to serve as the FBI chief – an agency Trump and conservatives have repeatedly slammed as “weaponized” against Republicans. 

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Patel, 44, is a New York native who grew up on Long Island in Garden City, and was raised by Indian immigrant parents. He earned his law degree in 2005 from Pace University, before serving as a public defender in Florida’s Miami-Dade area, where he tried “scores of complex cases ranging from murder, to narco-trafficking, to complex financial crimes in jury trials in state and federal courts,” according to his Defense Department biography. 

Patel hit the national radar during Trump’s first administration, including when he worked as the national security adviser and senior counsel for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence under the leadership of then-Committee Chair Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif.

KASH PATEL’S NOMINATION SPARKS ENTHUSIASM, ANXIETY; FUTURE OF THE FBI APPEARS UNCERTAIN

“Kash is a brilliant lawyer, investigator, and ‘America First’ fighter who has spent his career exposing corruption, defending Justice, and protecting the American People. He played a pivotal role in uncovering the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, standing as an advocate for truth, accountability, and the Constitution,” Trump continued in his announcement of Patel as FBI chief. 

Patel’s name spread across news reports as he became known as the man behind the “Nunes Memo,” a four-page document released in 2018 that revealed improper use of surveillance by the FBI and the Justice Department in the Russia investigation into Trump. 

“If they had gotten it right in the first place, when Devin and I and so many others were actually putting out the truth, instead of serving as a disinformation machine for the left-wing agenda, there would be no reassessment,” Patel told Fox News Digital of the memo last year. “They could not have done their work in the deep state without their partners in the mainstream media, who are part of that deep state.”

Patel’s role in the investigation and memo elevated his career status in the Trump orbit, and he was named senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council in 2019 under the first Trump administration. In that role, he assisted the White House in eliminating foreign terrorist leadership, such as ISIS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdad in 2019 and al-Qaeda militant Qasim al-Raymi in 2020, according to his biography. 

In November 2020, as Trump squared off against Joe Biden at the ballot boxes, the 45th president named Patel chief of staff to acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller. The administration shake-up followed Trump firing Secretary of Defense Mark Esper after the Cabinet member said he did not support invoking the Insurrection Act in order to send the U.S. military to quell violent protests that rocked cities nationwide in 2020. 

Patel has been a staunch Trump ally, including joining the 45th president during his trial in Manhattan in the spring, and echoing that the United States’ security and law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, need to be overhauled. Patel published a book last year called “Government Gangsters,” where he railed against the “deep state,” the weaponization of the federal government and the Russia investigation into Trump. 

Trump called the book a “roadmap” to exposing bad actors in the federal government and said it is a “blueprint to help us take back the White House and remove these Gangsters from all of Government.”’

In his book, Patel explicitly called for the revamp of the FBI in a chapter dubbed “Overhauling the FBI,” where he did not mince words about the state of the law enforcement agency.

TRUMP NOMINATES KASH PATEL TO SERVE AS FBI DIRECTOR: ‘ADVOCATE FOR TRUTH’

“Things are bad. There’s no denying it. The FBI has gravely abused its power, threatening not only the rule of law, but the very foundations of self-government at the root of our democracy. But this isn’t the end of the story. Change is possible at the FBI and desperately needed,” he wrote. 

“The fact is we need a federal agency that investigates federal crimes, and that agency will always be at risk of having its powers abused,” he continued, advocating the firing of “corrupt actors,” “aggressive” congressional oversight over the agency, complete overhauls to special counsels, and moving the FBI out of Washington, D.C., 

“Most importantly, we need to get the FBI the hell out of Washington, D.C. There is no reason for the nation’s law enforcement agency to be centralized in the swamp. Keeping the FBI in its behemoth Washington HQ building only allows for institutional capture and incentivizes senior leadership in the FBI to lose focus on their mission and learn how to play political games instead, currying favor with politicians and cultivating relationships with the press to advance their career.”

KASH PATEL SAYS DOJ PUT HIM AT PERSONAL RISK BY INCLUDING NAME IN TRUMP AFFIDAVIT: ‘THEY’RE SHAMELESS’

Following the 2020 election, Patel has spoken out against a number of high-profile investigations and issues he sees within the DOJ, potentially previewing what voters could expect from him as FBI director. He slammed the Justice Department, for example, for allegedly burying evidence related to the identity of a suspect who allegedly planted pipe bombs outside the headquarters of the Democratic and Republican parties in Washington, D.C., a day ahead of Jan. 6, 2021.

Patel has also said Trump could release both the Jeffrey Epstein client list and Diddy party attendee lists, which could expose elites allegedly involved in sex and human trafficking crimes. 

“I look forward to working with Kash Patel as FBI Director to release Epstein’s flight logs and black book,” Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn posted to X following Patel’s nomination.  “Under the Trump administration, the American people are going to get answers.”

Similar to Blackburn, other conservatives have celebrated Trump tapping Patel for FBI chief, remarking that the FBI’s alleged targeting of Catholics in the U.S. – which was underscored when the FBI arrested a Pennsylvania dad in 2022 who frequently prayed outside of abortion clinics – would likely end under Patel’s leadership, and that he would likely put a focus on prosecuting crimes, as opposed to policing thoughts or beliefs. 

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“Patel is somebody with a fresh set of eyes who has a chance to identify and cure the abuses of an FBI that has become too often an enemy, not a friend of liberty and freedom. For example, Patel would be taking over an FBI that has targeted Catholics. The FBI has decided that traditional Catholics need to be watched carefully because we might be adjacent to extremism,” columnist David Marcus wrote in an op-ed for Fox Digital this weekend. 

Former Trump administration national security adviser Robert O’Brien added on X that Patel “handled some of the nation’s most sensitive issues with care and discretion. From assisting President Trump in the take-down of ISIS and bringing justice to Kayla Mueller’s murderer – al Baghdadi – to risking his life in Syria for hostage Austin Tice, Kash Patel fought for America. I have no doubt that Kash Patel will inspire our line FBI agents who want to fight crime, destroy the cartels, capture spies, and jail mobsters, thugs, fraudsters and traffickers.”

Democrats and liberal members of the media have slammed Trump’s choice of Patel as FBI chief, calling him as a “danger” to the U.S. and “unqualified” for the role. 

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“It’s a terrible development for the men and women of the FBI and also for the nation that depends on a highly functioning, professional, independent Federal Bureau of Investigation. The fact that Kash Patel is profoundly unqualified for this job is not even, like, a matter for debate,” former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe said on CNN this weekend. “The installation, or the nomination, I guess we should say at this point, of Kash Patel as FBI director can only possibly be a plan to disrupt, to dismantle, to distract the FBI, and to possibly use it as a tool for the president’s political agenda.”​​

The criticisms of Patel follow him outlining in his book that Democrats should “be very afraid” as a battle between “the people and the corrupt ruling class” plays out on the national stage. 

“While Democrats might enjoy watching the Deep State do battle against President Trump and the America First movement, they – and all Americans – should be very afraid. The shocking and terrible details of what the Deep State has already done to increase its power fill this book. Suffice to say, there are no depths to which the Deep State will not descend, crimes they will not commit, or lives they will not destroy to get their way,” he wrote in his book. 

“But that doesn’t mean they are invincible.” 

THE BIDEN ADMIN HAS BEEN ‘DEAFENINGLY SILENT’ SINCE WHISTLEBLOWER TESTIMONY: KASH PATEL

Patel currently sits on the board of Trump Media & Technology Group Corp., the parent company of Truth Social, and founded the nonprofit The Kash Foundation, which works to “support educational and legal efforts needed to facilitate government transparency,” according to its website. 

Patel faces a couple of hurdles before he can become FBI director, including not only the Senate confirming his nomination, but also the removal of the current FBI director. FBI Director Christopher Wray, whom Trump nominated in 2017, is in the midst of a 10-year appointment that does not end until 2027. Wray would need to resign or be fired in order for Patel to take the position. 

Firing Wray has earned support from conservatives and elected Republican officials, including Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who could reclaim his position as chair of the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee next year. 

“Chris Wray has failed at fundamental duties of FBI Dir He’s showed disdain for cong oversight & hasn’t lived up to his promises It’s time 2 chart a new course 4 TRANSPARENCY +ACCOUNTABILITY at FBI,” Grassley posted on X. “Kash Patel must prove to Congress he will reform &restore public trust in FBI.” 

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The FBI released a statement Saturday evening following Trump’s announcement, stating: “Every day, the men and women of the FBI continue to work to protect Americans from a growing array of threats. Director Wray’s focus remains on the men and women of the FBI, the people we do the work with, and the people we do the work for.”

For Patel, he vowed to restore integrity to the FBI if he is confirmed. 

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“It is the honor of a lifetime to be nominated by President Trump to serve as Director of the FBI,” Patel said in a statement. “Together, we will restore integrity, accountability, and equal justice to our justice system and return the FBI to its rightful mission: protecting the American people.” 

President-elect Trump tapped his daughter Tiffany Trump’s father-in-law, Lebanese-American businessman Dr. Massad Boulos, to join his Cabinet as senior adviser on Arab and Middle Eastern affairs.  

“I am proud to announce that Massad Boulos will serve as Senior Advisor to the President on Arab and Middle Eastern affairs,” the president-elect wrote on TRUTHSocial. “Massad is an accomplished lawyer and a highly respected leader in the business world, with extensive experience on the International scene. He has been a longtime proponent of Republican and Conservative values, an asset to my Campaign, and was instrumental in building tremendous new coalitions with the Arab American Community. Massad is a dealmaker, and an unwavering supporter of PEACE in the Middle East. He will be a strong advocate for the United States, and its interests, and I am pleased to have him on our team!” 

Boulos led efforts to engage the Arab American community, organizing dozens of meetings across Michigan and other areas with large Arab populations. 

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Some sessions also featured Richard Grenell, former acting director of national intelligence, who was well-regarded by those who met with him.

Trump campaign officials and supporters told Reuters that Boulos helped flip some of the 300,000 Arab Americans and Muslims in Michigan who largely backed Biden in 2020 but later grew frustrated with Biden’s policies in Israel, Gaza and Lebanon. 

ISRAELI MILITARY SAYS HEZBOLLAH IS SMUGGLING WEAPONS INTO LEBANON DURING CEASEFIRE

Boulos’ son, Michael, and Tiffany Trump were married in November 2022 at Mar-a-Lago. Trump revealed during a speech to the Detroit Economic Club in October that Tiffany is pregnant. 

Boulos is a billionaire with extensive business connections to Nigeria. He was born in Lebanon but moved to Texas as a teenager. He attended the University of Houston and later became a U.S. citizen. 

According to Reuters, Boulos’ father and grandfather were involved in Lebanese politics, and his father-in-law backed the Free Patriotic Movement, a Christian party affiliated with Hezbollah. 

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Three sources told Reuters that Boulos’ appeal centers on his ability to engage with different factions within Lebanese politics, as he’s even maintained relations with Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Shi’ite Muslim party and terrorist group that largely controls the parliament. Boulos is friends with Suleiman Frangieh, a Christian politician backed by Hezbollah for the presidency, and has been in communication with the Lebanese Forces Party, a Christian faction that staunchly opposes Hezbollah. 

This is a developing story. Check back for updates. The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Biden administration national security adviser Jake Sullivan dodged answering whether he’s concerned over President-elect Trump naming Kash Patel as his pick to lead the FBI after Patel listed Sullivan as a member of the “deep state” in a book published last year. 

“Kash Patel also published a book where he listed people who are part of the deep state. Your name is on that list. Would it concern you to have him have all the powers of federal investigations. And would you fear personal retribution?” CNN’s Kasie Hunt asked Sullivan Sunday during an interview on “State of the Union.” 

Sullivan brushed off being listed in Patel’s book, “Government Gangsters,” and instead said he’s focused on his final days in office before Trump is sworn in as president on Jan. 20. 

TRUMP NOMINATES KASH PATEL TO SERVE AS FBI DIRECTOR: ‘ADVOCATE FOR TRUTH’

“Look, I wake up every day to try to defend this country and protect the national interest. I got 50 days left. I’m going to stay totally focused on every single one of those days to make sure that we have a smooth handoff to the next team, and we put them in the best strategic position possible. And I can’t spend my time worrying about other things at this point,” Sullivan said. 

Patel published “Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy” last year, which Trump lauded as a “roadmap” to exposing bad actors in the government and a “blueprint to help us take back the White House and remove these Gangsters from all of Government.”

KASH PATEL’S NOMINATION SPARKS ENTHUSIASM, ANXIETY; FUTURE OF THE FBI APPEARS UNCERTAIN

“Things are bad. There’s no denying it. The FBI has gravely abused its power, threatening not only the rule of law, but the very foundations of self-government at the root of our democracy. But this isn’t the end of the story. Change is possible at the FBI and desperately needed,” Patel wrote in the book, detailing the state of the FBI. 

Within the book, Patel provided an alphabetical list of alleged “deep state” members who are either currently or formerly employed in the executive branch. Sullivan is included on the long list, as are other Biden officials such as Attorney General Merrick Garland, Vice President Kamala Harris and FBI Director Christopher Wray. Wray served under both the Trump and Biden administrations. 

Trump named Patel as his pick for FBI chief on Saturday. Hunt asked Sullivan for his reaction the following morning while noting that Patel is a “fierce Trump loyalist” who has vowed to target the deep states. Sullivan brushed off the question by focusing on Wray’s work as FBI chief. 

“I’m not going to speak to President-elect Trump’s nominees. I’ll let him speak for his own rationale. What I will say is how the Biden administration has approached the position of FBI director. We inherited Director Chris Wray, who has done a very good job in the role, from President-elect Trump, who appointed him to a 10-year term. And what makes the FBI director different from most other nominees, is they’re not just appointed for one term of a president,” he said. 

DAVID MARCUS: KASH PATEL IS THE FUMIGATOR THE FBI NEEDS

“They’re appointed for enough time to last past two terms of a president, because they’re supposed to be insulated from politics. President Biden scrupulously adhered to that long-standing bipartisan tradition and for a good reason, because the FBI director should not be subject to the whims of the tos and fros of politics,” he continued. 

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Wray would need to resign or be fired from the FBI in order for Patel to actually assume the position. The Senate would also need to confirm Patel before he could move into the new role. 

China’s foreign ministry lashed out at the U.S. and Taiwan on Sunday after the U.S. State Department approved a $385 million arms sale to the island.

Chinese officials also criticized the U.S. for approving Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te to visit Hawaii and Guam, a U.S. territory. China considers Taiwan to be its sovereign territory and routinely objects to any validation of the island’s democratically-elected government.

The arms deal approved late last week sees Taiwan purchasing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of spare parts for F-16 fighter jets as well as components for radars.

Chinese officials said the deal sent the “wrong signal” about relations in the Indo-Pacific. A separate statement said China “strongly condemns” Lai’s travel to the U.S.

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The U.S. has repeatedly signaled its support for Taiwan through military deals, operations and diplomatic interactions with Taiwanese officials.

Recent years have found a cadence of U.S. officials, such as former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, meeting with Taiwanese officials only for Beijing to react with saber-rattling.

Pelosi made a rare trip to the island in 2021, and China reacted by holding live-fire military drills surrounding Taiwan. Those drills occurred again in 2023 when then-Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen met with former Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California.

President-elect Trump has signaled that his administration will continue America’s strong relationship with Taiwan. Trump’s nominees to serve as United Nations ambassador, national security adviser, and most importantly, secretary of state are regarded by many as “China Hawks.”

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Trump nominated Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., to be secretary of state last month. Rubio has been a leading voice in the Senate for cracking down on China and imposing sanctions.

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Rubio has said he will work with Trump to “continue to support Taiwan.” He is also allied with Trump on insisting Taiwan increase defense spending, a view shared by security experts, but not necessarily the majority of Taiwanese people. 

Reuters contributed to this report.

EXCLUSIVE: A group of former United Nations officials fed up with its inefficiency launched “DOGE-UN,” an investigative effort that will highlight waste by the world body.

The effort, similar to Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), will culminate in a report online ahead of the 2026 secretary-general selection, in hopes that the next leader will prioritize making the agency run more efficiently. 

“Why stop at this country’s federal agencies?” said Hugh Dugan, a longtime member of the U.S. delegation to the U.N. and former National Security Council adviser on international organizations.

“We need to centralize our understanding of our cash flow to and from the U.N. and the results we’d like to see from our participation in international organizations,” he told Fox News Digital. 

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Dugan is working with a group of former presidents of the U.N. General Assembly who meet regularly to discuss agency issues. He’s recruited “insiders and outsiders who used to be insiders” to identify where the U.N. is ineffective at its mission and where funds are going to waste. 

“Unfortunately, the mindset there over the years prefers to look at outputs over outcomes,” said Dugan. “How many meetings did we hold, how many pencils did we buy, instead of outcomes. Like, was there an opportunity to get peace underway more quickly in conflict settings, or to what extent are we ameliorating the rate of hunger in the world?” 

Dugan says his team will ask two questions: “Is the U.N. working?” and “Is it working for us?” 

The U.N. has an Office of Internal Oversight Services, but unlike the inspectors general for other government agencies, that office is internal, not independent, Dugan pointed out. 

Last month, a former high-ranking U.N. official was ordered to pay back $59 million the agency lost in deals he made with a British businessman who gave him interest-free loans, a Mercedes and other gifts for his sons. 

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“Usually, there is no consequence for bad behavior, and that’s a rare thing that they caught this one,” said Dugan. 

He recalled the U.N.’s oil-for-food program, where former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein siphoned off more than $10 billion through illegal oil smuggling, according to a 2004 CIA report. 

“I’m hoping this will serve to really crack open this dark chamber there that seems to just perpetuate itself on the goodwill of the charter, but actual performance is not serving the peoples of the world.”

Founded with a mission to promote global peace, development and respect for human rights after World War II, the U.N. relies on the U.S. for about a third of its budget. President Biden increased U.S. financial contributions to the U.N. and its sister agencies, boosting it from $11.6 billion in 2020 to $18.1 billion in 2022.

The U.S. gave about three times as much that year as the next-highest contributors, Germany, at $6.8 billion and Japan, at $2.7 billion. 

That amount of funding gives a new administration wiggle room to withhold funds to the U.N. if its global interests do not align with those of the U.S., a notion some Republicans have already pushed for.

President-elect Trump will be in office when the international body elects its next secretary-general in 2026, and the U.S. will have veto power over any candidate. 

The U.N. particularly relies on the U.S. for global aid programs. 

In 2022, it provided half of all contributions to the World Food Programme, and about a third of all contributions to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), and the International Organization for Migration.

Dugan said his report would also highlight ways to prevent China from “hijacking” the U.N. “deep state” to divert aid for its own Belt and Road Initiative.

China doubled the number of its nationals employed at the U.N. to nearly 15,000 from 2009 to 2021. 

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Musk and Ramaswamy outlined their efforts for DOGE in a Nov. 20 Wall Street Journal op-ed: “The DOGE Plan to Reform Government.”

They said they would focus on driving change through “executive action based on existing legislation” rather than “passing new laws.” They would work to claw back regulations put forth by government agencies that were never passed by Congress, backed by newfound authority under the Supreme Court’s West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency (2022), which stated agencies can’t impose regulations that touch on major economic or policy questions unless Congress allows them to do so. 

President-elect Donald Trump, President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, and the billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk were among just some of the well-known political figures who were ordered to court in 2024. 

The year saw a flurry of election-related lawsuits play out in swing states across the country, the winding down special counsel Jack Smith’s investigations into the president-elect, and a July Supreme Court decision that expanded the view of presidential immunity–among many other things. 

As this year comes to a close, here is a look at some of the top political courtroom moments of 2024.

Trump trial in Manhattan

President-elect Donald Trump was found guilty by a Manhattan jury in April on 34 charges of falsifying business records stemming from payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels— which he railed against at the time as a “corrupt trial” and a “disgrace.” 

Trump’s sentencing hearing, originally planned for July 11, was delayed by Manhattan Judge Juan Merchan in light of the 2024 election and Trump’s status as the presumptive Republican Party presidential nominee, four days ahead of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. 

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His decisive victory in November added further pressure on Merchan to dismiss the charges. 

Last week, Merchan granted Trump’s request to file a motion to dismiss the charges, giving the president-elect’s legal team until Dec. 2 to submit the motion for dismissal—and giving Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and his team of prosecutors until Dec. 9 to respond.

Merchan also adjourned the sentencing date for Trump from the schedule, which Trump spokesperson and incoming White House communications director Steven Cheung describing it as a “decisive win” for the president-elect.

Still, the trial dominated news headlines throughout the 2024 campaign, including Trump’s repeated characterizations that the case was politically motivated and that the presiding judge was “corrupt.” 

Federal cases in D.C., Florida 

Special Counsel Jack Smith moved to drop two federal cases against president-elect Donald Trump this week— acknowledging Trump’s return to the White House, and long-held Justice Department policy that precludes the department from investigating a sitting president. 

Smith was tapped by Attorney General Merrick Garland in 2022 to investigate both the alleged effort by Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 election, as well as Trump’s keeping of allegedly classified documents at his residence in Florida after leaving the White House in 2020. 

Prosecutors are guided by an Office of Legal Counsel memo first filed in 2000, which upholds a Watergate-era argument that asserts it is a violation of the separation of powers doctrine for the Justice Department to investigate a sitting president. Such proceedings, the memo states, would “unduly interfere in a direct or formal sense with the conduct of the Presidency.”  

In their filing, Smith and his team made clear that their winding down of both cases is based solely on these protections afforded sitting presidents, rather than a reflection of the cases themselves. “That prohibition is categorical and does not turn on the gravity of the crimes charged, the strength of the Government’s proof, or the merits of the prosecution, which the Government stands fully behind,” prosecutors said in a filing.

Trump, however, took to social media to revel in the outcome. “I persevered, against all odds, and WON,” he said in a post on Truth Social.

Supreme Court expands presidential immunity 

The Supreme Court ruled in July that Trump should be granted absolute immunity from prosecution for actions taken while exercising any of his “core constitutional powers” as president. The 6-3 decision, which split justices along party lines, expanded the notion of presidential immunity not only in Trump’s case, but for past and future presidents as well. 

A presumption of immunity also applies to other actions taken while holding office, the justices said.

Still, the decision did not specify whether a president is to be afforded the same level of constitutional protection for state convictions, however, and the matter has never been tested in court.

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Elon Musk sued over pro-Trump PAC’s $1m daily giveaways 

Philadelphia’s top prosecutor, Larry Krasner, sued Elon Musk in an effort to stop his Trump-backed PAC from conducting daily, $1 million giveaways to swing state voters in the run-up to the Nov. 5 elections, describing them as an “illegal lottery” that violated Pennsylvania law.

The civil lawsuit claimed that both Musk and his political action committee, America PAC, were “lulling Philadelphia citizens” and others in the Commonwealth to “give up their personal identifying information and make a political pledge in exchange for the chance to win $1 million,” through its daily giveaway scheme. It also argued that the giveaways violated consumer protection laws in Pennsylvania, citing “deceptive” and “misleading” statements Musk made about the nature of the contest.

Krasner’s office and Musk’s attorneys sparred over whether the case should be held in federal or state court, and when the proceedings should take place (Musk lost his bid to have the case heard in federal court).

Earlier this month, Musk’s legal team admitted to Judge Angelo Foglietta that there “is no prize to be won” and winners “are not chosen at random.” Rather, Musk’s attorneys said they selected registrants who could best serve as spokespeople for the pro-Trump America PAC, and described the $1 million payments as a “salary” given to these people. 

Krasner, in response, described the scheme as a “political marketing masquerading as a lottery,” and a “grift.” 

Ultimately, though, the D.A.’s office requested last week that lawsuit against Musk and his America PAC be dropped.

 ​​AN ‘ILLEGAL LOTTERY’: PHILADELPHIA DA SUES TO STOP MUSK’S $1 MILLION VOTER GIVEAWAYS

Hunter Biden case: Testimony from exes, familial support 

Hunter Biden’s criminal trial in Wilmington, Delaware, dominated headlines this summer. A jury ultimately found Hunter guilty on all charges in the case, which centered on whether he made false statements in his 2018 purchase of a firearm—but it also laid bare some personal family moments, such as the testimony of Hunter’s daughter, Naomi Biden, as well as several ex-girlfriends. Throughout the trial, Jill Biden was a fixture in the courtroom, and sat behind her son as he faced days of painful testimony.  

Three of Hunter Biden’s ex-girlfriends took the stand as part of that trial: A long list of witnesses that included Hunter’s ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle, with whom he shares three children. The two called it quits in 2017 after Buhle found a crack pipe on the side porch of their home, she recounted during her testimony.

The court also heard testimony from Hallie Biden, Hunter’s former sister-in-law-turned-girlfriend, whom Hunter began dating in 2015, after Hunter’s brother and Hallie’s husband, Beau, died from brain cancer. The two had an on-and-off romantic relationship until around 2019, and during her testimony, Hallie recounted how Hunter had introduced her to crack cocaine (she became sober in 2018.)

“It was a terrible experience I went through, and I was embarrassed and ashamed. … I regret that period of my life,” Hallie Biden told the court on Thursday about her use of crack cocaine. 

Flurry of election-related court cases 

Lawyers for the Republican Party and the Democratic Party filed a flurry of lawsuits in major swing states in the run-up to Election Day, with the majority of legal challenges centered in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin—or the battleground states considered most likely to help pick the president.

High-profile cases were also seen in Virginia and Pennsylvania, prompting two Supreme Court decisions in the days before the election.

In Virginia, the Supreme Court granted the state’s emergency appeal to halt a lower court decision ordering it to restore the names of 1,600 voters to its voter rolls, delivering a temporary victory to Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin and the state’s attorney general, who had appealed the case to the Supreme Court. 

In Pennsylvania, the Supreme Court upheld a Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision that allowed for the counting of certain provisional ballots, in a blow to the state GOP and Republican National Committee. 

As a whole, lawsuits filed by political parties are not uncommon, analysts told Fox News Digital, though this year saw an uptick in preliminary lawsuits, which served as “placeholder” of sorts for each party to note a preexisting complaint in a swing state and possibly revisit, post-election.

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That was not the case this year, however, as Trump saw decisive victories in the 2024 race. Republicans also wrested back and maintained majorities in both the Senate and House, respectively.

“In the five presidential elections I’ve covered, I don’t think any pre-election challenge had a huge impact,” George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley told Fox News Digital in the run-up to Election Day.

 Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton contributed to this report.

Theodore Roosevelt is best known as the 26th President of the United States and the legendary “rough-rider” of the Spanish-American War. But much less is known about his deep connection and love for North Dakota, a state that was instrumental in shaping his larger-than-life persona, adventuring spirit and immense love for the outdoors.

Now, nearly 106 years after his death, the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library Foundation plans to celebrate and honor that connection between the man and the land that shaped him by opening a massive state-of-the-art presidential library built on over 90 acres in the North Dakota Badlands.

“IN THE ARENA” BOOK BY PETE HEGSETH USES THE TIMELESS TRUTHS OF TEDDY ROOSEVELT’S ICONIC ‘MAN IN THE ARENA’ SPEECH

The project is founded on the three Roosevelt values of citizenship, leadership and conservation. The library, built on the edge of Medora, North Dakota, will overlook Theodore Roosevelt National Park, which is the only national park named after a person.

In the spirit of Roosevelt, the foundation behind the project is not building just any ordinary library. The Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library will harness the power of both technology and nature to give visitors a highly immersive experience that rather than shutting one in, inspires and pushes you to experience the joy of the outdoors as Roosevelt did.

The library will not just seek to educate people about Roosevelt. Instead, it will use immersive storytelling methods, the latest technology, including augmented reality, and the surrounding nature in Medora, North Dakota, to show people of all ages what they can learn from the life and experiences of the man and president.

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY, OCTOBER 14, 1912, TEDDY ROOSEVELT SHOT IN CHEST, MAKES CAMPAIGN STOP MINUTES LATER

Citizenship

In a message announcing the project, Edward O’Keefe, CEO of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library Foundation, said, “TR famously balked at the critic, and encouraged everyone to ‘get in the arena’ of life.”

O’Keefe, a North Dakota native, explained that the vision for the library is to serve as a hub for civic engagement, learning, and research. The library will include a large auditorium which the foundation envisions as a space that could host future presidential debates.

Above all, O’Keefe said that the library will seek to connect people with what Roosevelt used to describe as the “strenuous life” of the North Dakota wilderness.  

“North Dakota is the fulcrum of the hero’s journey in TR’s almost unbelievable life story,” said O’Keefe.

“[Roosevelt] wrote that if all his memories were to be taken from him, and he was forced only one memory from his incredible life he would choose to remember ‘my life on the ranch with its experiences close to nature and among the men who lived nearest her,’” he explained. “He did not choose the memory of the Roughriders or the charge up Kettle Hill; he would not recall McKinley’s assassination and his rise from the vice presidency to the Oval Office … TR chose to remember North Dakota, and so North Dakota chooses to remember TR.”

Leadership

Roosevelt, who served two transformative presidential terms from 1901 to 1909, moved to the North Dakota Badlands in 1884 in his early twenties. He was suffering from a broken heart after both his wife and mother died on the same fateful day. It was in North Dakota that the broken man found comfort in the solitude and beauty of the wilderness.

He later wrote that he “would not have been president had it not been for my experience in North Dakota.”

With this in mind, O’Keefe said that the library “will not be a box in the Badlands with artifacts under glass,” but “like TR’s life, will be an experience.”

“We want every visitor to the TR presidential library and museum to walk out understanding the role of nature as a restorative force in TR’s life, and that each of us can be the change we want to see in the world,” said O’Keefe. “This museum can be a platform for embracing civic dialogue, thoughtful debate, and inspiration around the globe.”

Conservation

After receiving the approval of Congress and then-President Donald Trump, the foundation completed its purchase of the land for the library from the U.S. Forest Service in 2022. The land is situated close to Theodore Roosevelt National Park and Roosevelt’s famous Elkhorn Ranch.

The building is designed to be able to live off the land, just as Roosevelt did.

The project website states that just as “through his action, passion, and foresight, Roosevelt ushered in a new era of conservation and stewardship of the American natural landscape,” the library’s design “will reflect and expand upon those values, setting an ambitious new standard for environmental conservation and sustainability leadership.”

The foundation is utilizing local contractors and constructing the library with materials that will allow the building to minimize waste and emissions as well as water and energy usage.

MEET THE AMERICAN WHO WAS THE ‘WORKING MAN’ FOUNDING FATHER, IRISH IRONSMITH GEORGE TAYLOR

Instead of disrupting the sloping, grassy North Dakota “burning hills,” the library’s design team from the U.S.-Norwegian architecture firm Snøhetta envisioned a building that blended in naturally with the landscape. The building has an earthen roof that curves with the nearby butte. The grounds and roof will be made up of native plants and grasses so as to help restore the biodiversity of the region which has been degraded over time.

Pictures shared exclusively with Fox News Digital by the foundation show that the library interior is already taking shape. Natural light flows down from glass ceiling panels, coloring a set of already completed massive, rammed-earth walls, composed of a mixture of gravel, sand, silt and clay.

Right in front of the library will be a large circular hiking trail surrounding the butte with several unique viewpoints along the way that encourage visitors to explore and reflect.

A new chapter

The library is expected to open on July 4, 2026, the 250th anniversary of America and the Declaration of Independence.

Theodore Roosevelt V, a great-great-grandson of the 26th president and ally of the project, has said through the library “North Dakotans have ensured a legacy not just for their state but also for our nation and the world.”  

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But beyond North Dakota, Roosevelt said that all Americans can be inspired by the continuing legacy of his great-great-grandfather.

“My great great grandfather’s legacy of citizenship, leadership, and conservation are as relevant today as they were during the height of his presidency,” he said in a statement on the library website. “When you focus on people interested in solutions rather than divisive rhetoric, it becomes clear that there is much more that unites us than divides us – just as there was at the turn of the 20th century.”

“Like Theodore Roosevelt, a man of paradoxes – Republican and progressive, crusader against monopolies and capitalist, hunter and conservationist, partisan and rogue independent – our country is many different things. Finding the commonality among them may just be the key to America’s future.”

President-elect Trump’s nomination of Kash Patel as FBI director evoked strong reactions from supporters and critics Saturday night.

Patel’s nomination hints at massive changes the agency will likely undergo during the second Trump administration. As a staunch supporter of Trump, Patel is a fierce critic of government corruption and the so-called “deep state” and has blasted the bureau in the past.

In a September interview with “The Shawn Ryan Show,” Patel said the FBI’s footprint “has gotten so frickin’ big.”

“I would shut down the FBI Hoover Building on day one and reopen the next day as a museum of the deep state,” Patel said.

TRUMP NOMINATES KASH PATEL TO SERVE AS FBI DIRECTOR: ‘ADVOCATE FOR TRUTH’

Trump has not historically been a fan of the FBI, which raided his Florida estate in 2022 and years earlier investigated false claims he was a Russian asset. Most observers expect Trump will demand an agency overhaul by his director.

“Kash is a brilliant lawyer, investigator, and ‘America First’ fighter who has spent his career exposing corruption, defending Justice, and protecting the American People,” Trump said in a statement. “He played a pivotal role in uncovering the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, standing as an advocate for truth, accountability, and the Constitution.”

Patel’s nomination was met with instant praise from Republicans. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., Trump’s pick for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, called Patel an “America First fighter.” Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., also praised the pick.

“Great choice by @realDonaldTrump,” Donalds wrote on X. “Kash is a patriot and 100% America First.”

Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, also issued his congratulations.

NEW YORK JUDGE GRANTS TRUMP REQUEST TO FILE MOTION TO DISMISS CHARGES, CANCELS SENTENCING INDEFINITELY

“Kash was INSTRUMENTAL in President Trump’s first term and will be EVEN GREATER in his second!” the former White House physician wrote. “Time to clean this place up, and Kash is the man to do it!!! MAGA!”

Commentators on the left, however, panned the pick. MSNBC’s Morning Joe previously called Patel the “personification of MAGA rage about the Justice Department and the FBI.”

On Saturday night, far-left commentator Mehdi Hasan accused Patel of being a “deeply strange and alarming and sycophantic figure.” Andrew McCabe, who briefly served as acting FBI director under Trump in 2017 before being fired for allegedly leaking to the media and a “lack of candor,” called Patel’s nomination “a plan to disrupt, to dismantle, to distract the FBI.”

“It’s a terrible development for the men and women of the FBI and also for the nation that depends on a highly functioning, professional, independent Federal Bureau of Investigation,” McCabe said on CNN. “The fact that Kash Patel is profoundly unqualified for this job is not even, like, a matter for debate.”

TRUMP NOMINATES CHARLES KUSHNER TO SERVE AS US AMBASSADOR TO FRANCE: ‘STRONG ADVOCATE’

Tom Nichols, a staff writer for The Atlantic, told MSNBC Patel is “as dangerous as it gets.”

“I suppose if we still have the ability to be shocked, it’s shocking,” Nichols said. “But I think this is something … many of us saw it coming and, you know, shouldn’t be that surprising. But it’s an incredibly dangerous development.”

Two conditions will need to be met for Patel to take office. Current FBI Director Christopher Wray will either need to resign or be fired, and Patel will need to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

Wray has not signaled an intent to resign. On Saturday night, the FBI told Fox News Digital Wray is focused on his work at hand.

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“Every day, the men and women of the FBI continue to work to protect Americans from a growing array of threats,” an FBI spokesperson said. “Director Wray’s focus remains on the men and women of the FBI, the people we do the work with and the people we do the work for.”

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

President-elect Trump on Saturday nominated Florida sheriff Chad Chronister as administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).

“For over 32 years, Sheriff Chad Chronister has served the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, and received countless commendations and awards for keeping his community SAFE,” Trump wrote in his announcement moments before he nominated Kash Patel to replace Christopher Wray as FBI director. 

“A proud graduate of the FBI National Academy’s 260th Session, Chad is Co-Chairman of the Regional Domestic Security Task Force for Region IV Tampa Bay, Council Member of the Florida Attorney General’s Statewide Council on Human Trafficking, Chairman of the Criminal Justice Sub-Committee, Vice-Chairman of the Hillsborough County Public Safety Coordinating Council, and Vice-Chairman of the Hillsborough County Public Schools Citizen Oversight Committee,” he continued.

TRUMP NOMINATES KASH PATEL TO SERVE AS FBI DIRECTOR: ‘ADVOCATE FOR TRUTH’

Trump said Chronister would work with Pam Bondi, his nominee for attorney general after Rep. Matt Gaetz withdrew as nominee, to “secure the Border, stop the flow of Fentanyl, and other Illegal Drugs, across the Southern Border, and SAVE LIVES.”

Congratulations to Chad, his wife Nikki, and two wonderful sons!” he added. 

Chronister called his nomination the “honor of a lifetime” in a statement posted to social media. 

“I am deeply humbled by this opportunity to serve our nation,” he added. 

TRUMP NOMINATES CHARLES KUSHNER TO SERVE AS US AMBASSADOR TO FRANCE: ‘STRONG ADVOCATE’

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Chronister was appointed by then-Florida Gov. Rick Scott to head the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office in 2017, and has been re-elected twice. 

President-elect Donald Trump has named longtime ally Kashyap “Kash” Patel to serve as the next director of the FBI in the new administration.

Patel, 44, is an attorney with experience in national security, intelligence and counterterrorism. He has been a member of Trump’s transition team, advising the administration on other appointments.

Trump announced Patel’s appointment in a Truth Social post on Saturday.

NEW YORK JUDGE GRANTS TRUMP REQUEST TO FILE MOTION TO DISMISS CHARGES, CANCELS SENTENCING INDEFINITELY

“Kash is a brilliant lawyer, investigator, and ‘America First’ fighter who has spent his career exposing corruption, defending Justice, and protecting the American People,” Trump’s statement read. “He played a pivotal role in uncovering the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, standing as an advocate for truth, accountability, and the Constitution.”

This story is developing. Check back with us for more updates.

President-elect Trump has nominated Charles Kushner, the father of Jared Kushner, to serve in his new administration as the U.S. ambassador to France.

“I am pleased to nominate Charles Kushner, of New Jersey, to serve as the U.S. Ambassador to France,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Saturday. “He is a tremendous business leader, philanthropist, & dealmaker, who will be a strong advocate representing our Country & its interests.”

In 2020, Kushner was pardoned by Trump 15 years after being found guilty of falsifying tax returns, witness tampering and illegal campaign contributions.

Kushner, the founder of Kushner Companies, served a two-year sentence for his conviction. The witness tampering charge stemmed from an incident where he paid a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law into an encounter that was recorded on video. Kushner then sent the footage to the man’s wife, Kushner’s sister, in order to prevent her from testifying before a grand jury.

NEW YORK JUDGE GRANTS TRUMP REQUEST TO FILE MOTION TO DISMISS CHARGES, CANCELS SENTENCING INDEFINITELY

Kushner was prosecuted by then-U.S. Attorney General Chris Christie in 2005. Christie later called the case “one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes that I prosecuted when I was U.S. attorney,” during a 2019 PBS interview.

Trump touted Kushner’s accomplishments in his statement on Saturday, calling Kushner Companies “one of the largest & most successful privately held Real Estate firms in the Nation.”

“He was recognized as New Jersey Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young, appointed to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, & served as a Commissioner, & Chairman, of the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, as well as on the Boards of our top institutions, including NYU,” Trump said.

TRUMP APPOINTS TULSI GABBARD AS DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: ‘FEARLESS SPIRIT’

“His son, Jared, worked closely with me in the White House, in particular on Operation Warp Speed, Criminal Justice Reform, & the Abraham Accords,” his statement concluded. “Together, we will strengthen America’s partnership with France, our oldest Ally, & one of our greatest!”

In 2018, Jared Kushner worked to get the First Step Act passed by Congress, which focused on reforming federal prisons. Kushner became passionate about the issue after witnessing how his father had been treated in prison.

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“President Trump promised to fight for the forgotten men and women of this country — and that includes those in prison,” Jared Kushner wrote in the Wall Street Journal at the time.

Fox News Digital’s Ronn Blitzer contributed to this report.

President-elect Trump says he had a “very productive meeting” with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at his Mar-a-Lago club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Friday. 

Trudeau jetted into Mar-a-Lago unannounced on Friday just days after Trump threatened to impose sweeping tariffs on Canadian products. Trump is threatening to impose 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico over failures by both nations to curb the flow of illegal immigrants and illicit drugs from those countries into the U.S. 

“We discussed many important topics that will require both countries to work together to address, like the fentanyl and drug crisis that has decimated so many lives as a result of illegal immigration, fair trade deals that do not jeopardize American workers and the massive trade deficit the U.S. has with Canada,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Saturday.

MUSK, STALLONE AMONG STAR-STUDDED NAMES PARTYING AT TRUMP’S MAR-A-LAGO CLUB FOR THANKSGIVING

“I made it very clear that the United States will no longer sit idly by as our citizens become victims to the scourge of this drug epidemic, caused mainly by the drug cartels, and fentanyl pouring in from China. Too much death and hardship!”

Trump wrote that Trudeau, who has been serving as prime minister of Canada since 2015, made a commitment to work with the U.S. to “end this terrible devastation of U.S. families.”

U.S. customs agents seized 43 pounds of fentanyl at the Canadian border last fiscal year, compared with 21,100 pounds at the Mexican border. On immigration, Border Patrol made 56,530 arrests at the Mexican border in October alone and 23,721 arrests at the Canadian border between October 2023 and September 2024 — and Canadian officials say they are ready to make new investments in border security.

MEXICAN PRESIDENT MIGHT BE CHANGING VIEW ON US AS TRUMP WIN SENDS WARNING TO RULING SOCIALISTS 

Trump said the pair also spoke about many other important topics, including energy, trade and the Arctic, although he did not go into further detail. 

“All are vital issues that I will be addressing on my first days back in office, and before,” Trump concluded, without saying whether tariffs were still on or off the table. 

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, after speaking with Trump on the telephone, said Thursday she was confident a tariff war with Washington would be averted.

Sen.-elect Dave McCormick, R-Pa., posted a picture to X late Friday showing him at a Mar-a-Lago dinner table along with President-elect Trump, Trudeau, and Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick, among others. The ritzy club has been a hive of activity since President-elect Trump’s historic election win over Vice President Harris earlier this month as the 45th president co-ordinates his transition back to the Oval Office. 

Tech billionaires Elon Musk and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg have also met Trump at the famous location, along with many of those nominated for top roles in the incoming administration. Trump selected Musk to lead an outside advisory panel known as the “Department of Government Efficiency” to slash waste in the federal government.

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As he was leaving his West Palm Beach hotel, Trudeau stopped briefly to answer a reporter’s question about the dinner meeting, saying it had been “an excellent conversation.”

An official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said it had been a “positive, wide-ranging dinner that lasted three hours.” 

The official said other topics included defense, Ukraine, NATO, China, the Middle East and pipelines, as well as the Group of Seven meeting in Canada next year.

Fox News’ Louis Casiano and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

As Democratic Denver Mayor Mike Johnston says he would be willing to go to jail over his opposition to the Trump mass deportation plan, a new study claims the mayor’s Blue city has spent a whopping $356 million of taxpayers’ hard-earned money on migrants.

The eye-popping sum, which amounts to $7,900 per foreign national in the city, was revealed by an updated analysis last week by the Common Sense Institut (CSI), a non-partisan research organization dedicated to protecting and promoting the U.S. economy. 

The group says it used city data to land on the stunning sum which equates to 8% of the city’s 2025 budget of $4.4 billion. The figures combine the city’s budget as well as regional education and healthcare organizations.

DENVER MAYOR MIKE JOHNSTON SAYS TRUMP’S MASS MIGRANT DEPORTATIONS WILL CREATE ‘TIANANMEN SQUARE MOMENT’

Denver has seen an unprecedented influx of migrants arrive in the city under the Biden-Harris administration and Johnston has already slashed city services to house and feed those migrants. Cuts included reducing services at recreation centers and stopping the planting of spring flower beds, while the city tapped into a contingency fund to pay for the spiraling costs. 

The CSI claims that the bulk of the $356 million spent on migrants was through education, with the city also splashing out on healthcare, hotels, transportation and childcare. Denver is a sanctuary city, meaning it does not enforce immigration law, nor does the city cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

The group says that about 45,000 migrants have arrived in the Denver metro area since December 2022 with 16,197 migrant students enrolling in Denver metro schools.

DENVER MIGRANT ADVOCATES SAY SIX MONTHS OF FREE RENT, FOOD NOT ENOUGH: ‘A SLAP IN THE FACE’ AND ‘OFFENSIVE’

“The total cost to Denver metro schools related to new migrant students is $228 million annually, which would equate to 1-2% of the total state K-12 education budget for the 2024-25 academic year,” the group writes.

“Previous CSI reporting estimated the per-student cost of instruction and support in the Denver metro to be $14,100 per year. Assuming this cost across all recent migrant students totals $228 million.

Meanwhile, Denver doctors earlier this year said that the migrant crisis had pushed the state’s hospital system to its breaking point and was causing a humanitarian crisis. 

The CSI study estimates that emergency departments in the Denver metro area have delivered an estimated $49 million in uncompensated care to migrants. 

“With 16,760 [migrant] visits to Denver metro emergency departments from December 2022 to the present, providers would have delivered $49,124,029 of uncompensated care to migrants.

The study reports that at the height of the migrant influx in January 2024, officials estimated Denver was going to spend $180 million through 2024. Actual expenditures tracked by the city now show it will spend about $79 million.

“Of the total, 34.5% has been spent on facilities including hotels, 29.4% on personnel, 14% on services, and 11% on food,” the report finds. 

Johnston said during a recent interview that he was prepared to protest against anything he believes is “illegal or immoral or un-American” in the city – including the use of military force – and was then asked if he was prepared to go to jail for standing in the way of policies enacted by the administration.

“Yeah, I’m not afraid of that, and I’m also not seeking that,” Johnston said. “I think the goal is we want to be able to negotiate with reasonable people [on] how to solve hard problems.”

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Tom Homan, Trump’s “border czar” designate, told Fox News’ Sean Hannity this week that he would jail Johnston if he broke the law in shielding illegal migrants. 

 “All he has to do is look at Arizona v. U.S. and he would see he’s breaking the law. But, look, me and the Denver mayor, we agree on one thing. He’s willing to go to jail, I’m willing to put him in jail.”

Fox News’ Hanna Panreck contributed to this report. 

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the public face of the federal government’s coronavirus pandemic response, is facing criticism on social media over a manuscript published in a top journal where he maintains his position that the virus originated in nature and cites a debunked claim that President-elect Trump told Americans to inject themselves with bleach to stop the virus.

Fauci, along with researcher Gregory Folkers, published a paper in the Clinical Infectious Diseases journal this week with the title, “HIV/AIDS and COVID-19: Shared Lessons from Two Pandemics.”

Fauci, who faced intense criticism for his handling of the pandemic, was critical of Trump’s handling of the pandemic in the paper.

“With COVID-19, the role of political leadership at the highest level — or the lack thereof — was again shown to be critical,” the authors wrote. “As COVID-19 exploded globally and in the United States, President Donald Trump frequently minimized the seriousness of the pandemic, repeatedly claiming that COVID-19 would just ‘go away’ In the first full year of the pandemic (2020, the last year of his presidency) he failed to use his bully pulpit to encourage people to use available ‘low-tech’ tools such as masks/respirators, better ventilation, and physical distancing to reduce the risk of infection.”

FAUCI SAYS WEST NILE VIRUS WAS A ‘HARROWING’ EXPERIENCE: ‘AFRAID I WOULD NEVER RECOVER’

“Trump also gave credence to unproven and potentially dangerous substances for COVID-19 prevention and treatment such as bleach injections, the antimalarial hydroxychloroquine and the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin. Many of his hundreds of communications during the COVID-19 pandemic were missed opportunities for political leadership in promoting policies and practices to mitigate the impact of a raging pandemic.”

The paper also says that “abundant evidence from top evolutionary virologists and leading scientists in other fields strongly suggests that the virus jumped species from an animal reservoir to humans in the Huanan market in Wuhan, China, and then spread throughout China and the rest of the world.” 

LAURA INGRAHAM: WE CAN NEVER LET A FAUCI HAPPEN TO THE US AGAIN

Several media outlets have fact-checked and debunked the claim that Trump instructed people to inject themselves with bleach including Politifact who called President Biden’s accusation “mostly false.”

“Fauci is an embarrassment,” conservative communicator Steve Guest posted on X.

“Oy vey,” National Review contributor Pradeep Shanker posted on X.

“Fauci is out with a new scientific paper on HIV/AIDS & COVID-19 where he falsely claims Trump told people to inject bleach & where he argues COVID-19 has a natural origin (Wuhan lab leak not even mentioned) by citing the same authors who wrote the infamous Proximal Origins paper,” author and journalist Jerry Dunleavy posted on X. 

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Fox News Digital reached out to the NIH for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Immigration and border security were hot topics in 2024 as the Biden administration continued to tackle the historic migrant crisis at the southern border, migrant crime made headlines across the country, and both topics were top priorities for voters ahead of the November election.

In 2025, those topics are likely to remain key issues. Here are five things to watch in 2025:

BORDER STATE OFFERS TRUMP MASSIVE PLOT OF LAND TO AID MASS DEPORTATION OPERATION

 

Does Trump deliver?

President-elect Trump has promised to launch a historic mass deportation program next year. He has expressed openness to declaring a national emergency and using military assets in order to get it done. His team have already started looking at how to expand detention near major metropolitan areas.

His border czar, Thomas Homan, has promised that national security and public security threats will be the priority, but no illegal immigrant is off the table. The Trump administration increased deportations significantly up until 2019 before COVID-19 hit the U.S., so it is expected to move in that direction again.

Trump may need to rally Congress for additional resources, a task made easier by Republican control of the House and Senate, and will need to overcome potential lawsuits filed against any policies he introduces.

At the congressional level, expect a push for a sweeping bill like H.R.2 — the Republican border bill passed in 2023 that would limit asylum significantly while providing additional resources at the border. 
 

Will Democrats resist?

Officials in multiple Democratic states have already previewed their resistance to the deportation push by the Trump administration. Denver Mayor Mike Johnston said recently he was prepared to go to jail over his opposition to Trump’s deportation plan.

Meanwhile, governors in Massachusetts, Illinois and Arizona have all said that they won’t co-operate with deportations. 

Trump officials say they don’t need their assistance, only for them to step aside as federal authorities do their job. But it will be something to watch to see if Democratic officials merely do not assist the administration, or if that turns to active resistance.

 

Mexican co-operation?

Mexico plays a crucial role in securing the U.S.-Mexico border, with lower levels of encounters at the U.S. border often coinciding with crackdowns at Mexico’s southern border. 

That was on display in 2024, as numbers lowered at the border after Biden administration officials met with Mexican officials in December 2023. The two countries had previously come to an agreement by which the U.S. would allow in migrants via parole programs, while Mexico would consequently accept a certain number of non-Mexican returns back from the U.S.

But with President-elect Trump having promised to end those programs, it is unclear to what extent Mexico will continue to co-operate.

Trump has promised to impose a significant 25% tariff on goods from Mexico if it does not halt the flow of illegal immigrants across the border. It’s a similar tactic by which Trump got Mexico to agree to the 2019 expansion of the remain-in-Mexico policy.

But will it work? Will Mexico keep the traffic heading north low, or will it reduce its enforcement? That will be a question answered in 2025.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF THE BORDER SECURITY CRISIS
 

What will Congress do?

Congress has struggled to find consensus on border security and immigration, something that has frustrated multiple administrations. President Biden and former President Barack Obama were thwarted in their efforts to get Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform, while President-elect Trump struggled to get lawmakers to provide funding for the wall at the southern border.

Now, Republicans hold the House and Senate, but by thin margins. So it is unclear if Trump will ever see a sweeping bill similar to the House Republicans’ border bill that passed the chamber in 2023 come to his desk.

Trump can do a great deal by executive action, but his mass deportation plan will require additional funding from Congress. To what extent Congress acts on those requests could determine how successful that effort, along with additional security at the southern border to stop migrants from entering the U.S. in the first place, will be. 

 

Legal immigration?

While illegal immigration is in the spotlight after the historic crisis at the southern border, it will likely be a key issue in the next administration, with some keen for additional restrictions on not only the use of humanitarian parole but also visas like the H-1B visa tech worker program and the H-2A agricultural worker program.

Additionally, whether the administration will have another go at trying to re-implement its public charge rule, which limited legal immigrants from receiving green cards if they had been reliant on some forms of welfare and are deemed to be likely to be reliant on welfare if they receive permanent residency. The administration is expected to reduce the numbers coming in via parole, which was expanded significantly under the Biden administration, and is also expected to reduce the annual refugee cap.

President-elect Trump and others in his future administration — including billionaire Elon Musk — have said at times they want more immigration, but only legal immigration.

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“I want a lot of people to come into our country, but I want them to come in legally,” Trump said in October.

 But some in Trump’s base want lower levels of immigration overall, including legal immigration. Which side of the argument wins will become clearer as 2025 rolls on.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – President-elect Donald Trump announced Karoline Leavitt will return to the White House next year as his press secretary, making the 27-year-old the youngest White House press secretary in U.S. history and notching another massive career benchmark. 

Leavitt has been a fierce defender of Trump throughout his hard-fought campaign against Vice President Kamala Harris, which included Democrats and the Harris campaign lobbing attacks at Trump that he is a “fascist” and on par with Nazi Germany dictator Adolf Hitler, two assassination attempts and crisscrossing the nation to rally support for the former president. 

“Karoline Leavitt did a phenomenal job as the National Press Secretary on my Historic Campaign, and I am pleased to announce she will serve as White House Press Secretary,” Trump said in a statement announcing Leavitt as his press secretary this month. 

“Karoline is smart, tough, and has proven to be a highly effective communicator. I have the utmost confidence she will excel at the podium, and help deliver our message to the American People as we, Make America Great Again.”

TRUMP PICKS KAROLINE LEAVITT TO SERVE AS WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY

Ahead of her appointment as the youngest press secretary in the nation’s history – unseating President Richard Nixon’s press secretary Ron Ziegler, who was 29 when he took the same position in 1969 – Leavitt had long been in Trump’s orbit and also made her own political mark with a congressional run in 2022. 

TRUMP’S SPEEDY CABINET PICKS SHOW HIS ‘PRIORITY TO PUT AMERICA FIRST,’ TRANSITION TEAM SAYS

Leavitt served in Trump’s first administration as assistant press secretary before working as New York Rep. Elise Stefanik’s communications director following the 2020 election. Leavitt launched a congressional campaign in her home state of New Hampshire during the 2022 cycle, winning her primary, but losing the election to a Democrat. 

During her time on the campaign trail for Trump this cycle, Leavitt sparred with liberal media outlets about Trump’s candidacy, fielded media inquiries about the 45th president’s policies and vision for the U.S., served as one of Trump’s top defenders amid legal battles and political landmines lobbed by both the Biden and Harris campaign, and maneuvered an unprecedented campaign cycle that saw President Biden drop out of the running in July amid heightened concerns over his mental acuity and age. 

She was among the dozens of Republican elected officials and Trump supporters who joined Trump in Manhattan court over the spring as he faced trial over 34 counts of falsifying business records, which Trump repeatedly slammed as a “sham” case. She also reported that with the job as the campaign’s national press secretary, she became accustomed to Trump’s “sleep schedule” – which has famously only consisted of roughly four or five hours of rest before getting to work – and joined him at rallies across the nation and at the campaign’s headquarters in Florida. 

Leavitt currently serves as the Trump-Vance transition spokeswoman ahead of Jan. 20, when Trump will be sworn in as president. 

Leavitt made national headlines in June, before Biden dropped out of the race, when CNN’s Kasie Hunt cut her microphone off as she argued on air that CNN hosts Jake Tapper and Dana Bash would be politically biased against Trump while moderating a debate between Biden and the now president-elect. Biden ultimately performed terribly during the debate, which opened the floodgates to traditional Democrat allies calling on him to drop out of the presidential race and pass the torch to a younger generation. 

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“That’s why President Trump is knowingly going into a hostile environment on this very network, on CNN, with debate moderators who have made their opinions about him very well known over the past eight years. And their biased coverage of him,” Leavitt said to Hunt during the interview previewing the debate. 

“So I‘ll just say my colleagues, Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, have acquitted themselves as professionals as they have covered campaigns and interviewed candidates from all sides of the aisle. I‘ll also say that if you talk to analysts of previous debates, that if you’re attacking the moderators, you’re usually losing,” Hunt responded.

As Hunt tried to redirect the interview back to previewing the debate, Leavitt said it would take just a few minutes to pull up examples of Tapper’s anti-Trump rhetoric across the years. 

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“Ma’am, I’m going to stop this interview if you’re going to continue to attack my colleagues,” Hunt said, before Leavitt continued that she was “stating facts” about what CNN hosts had previously said about Trump. 

“I’m sorry, guys, we’re going to come back out to the panel,” Hunt said. “Karoline, thank you very much for your time. You are welcome to come back at any point. She is welcome to come back and speak about Donald Trump, and Donald Trump will have equal time to Joe Biden when they both join us later this week in Atlanta for this debate.”

Following the mic getting cut, Leavitt told Fox News Digital at the time that, “CNN cutting off my microphone for bringing up a debate moderator’s history of anti-Trump lies just proves our point that President Trump will not be treated fairly in Thursday’s debate. Yet President Trump is still willing to go into this 3-1 fight to bring his winning message to the American people, and he will win.”

As Leavitt juggled the media, she also spent the first six months in her role as Trump campaign national press secretary while pregnant with her first child. Ahead of Mother’s Day this year, Leavitt touted the importance women and mothers have within the Trump orbit and celebrating that in July, she would welcome her own baby. 

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“Joe Biden can’t even define what a ‘woman’ is, and his Administration disrespectfully refers to mothers as ‘birthing people.’ Joe Biden has left working moms and families behind by creating the worst inflation crisis in decades, welcoming millions of illegal immigrants into our country to commit crimes, and allowing violent protests to erupt on college campuses,” Leavitt exclusively told Fox News Digital in May. 

The campaign touted that it employed dozens of moms during the election cycle, including Leavitt and recently-announced White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. He has also hired hundreds of working moms since 2016, including high-profile names such as Kellyanne Conway, Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Kayleigh McEnany. RNC and Trump campaign senior adviser Danielle Alvarez and Trump legal spokeswoman Alina Habba are also both mothers of young kids. 

“We have a really welcoming environment for children at the office, the headquarters in West Palm Beach,” Leavitt told the Conservateur in October. “You know, we joke that on Saturdays, it’s bring-your-kid-to-work day.”

Months following the article touting the women and moms on the campaign, Democrats came under fire in October after Harris campaign surrogate Mark Cuban said “you never see [Trump] around strong, intelligent women.”

“This is extremely insulting to the thousands of women who work for President Trump, and the tens of millions of women who are voting for him,” Leavitt shot back at Cuban. “These women are mothers, entrepreneurs, and industry leaders, and they are, indeed, strong and intelligent, despite what Mark Cuban and Kamala Harris say.” 

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Leavitt gave birth to her son in July and had planned to take maternity leave before a would-be assassin opened fire on Trump and his supporters at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, just days ahead of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. Trump was injured on the side of his head, while two other rally-goers were also injured, and local dad and Trump supporter Corey Comperatore was fatally shot. 

Leavitt said the assassination attempt sparked her to jump back into the campaign just days after giving birth. 

“I had just brought my newborn, my three-day-old baby home from the hospital. And I said, ‘I’m going to turn on the television and watch the rally today,’” Leavitt recounted to the Conservateur of watching the tragic and shocking rally on July 13. 

“I looked at my husband and said, ‘Looks like I’m going back to work.’”

She also recounted that following the birth of her son, she received a call from Trump congratulating her before having her chat with former first lady Melania Trump.

“It was incredibly warm and kind,” she said of Trump’s call. “He wanted to check in. He asked me how I was doing.” Trump then passed the phone to his wife, the Conservateur reported. 

“Mrs. Trump and I talked about how wonderful it is to be a mother to a boy. They spoke about their love for Barron, and the president cracked a joke: ‘We have a little boy, but he’s not so little now!’” she said. 

Leavitt predicted Trump would notch a win this cycle, repeatedly pointing to his message of unity and uplifting Americans of all races and creeds, his vow to secure the border and strengthen the economy following spiraling inflation under the Biden-Harris administration. 

Trump was declared the victor in the race late into the evening on Election Day, after sweeping battlegrounds such as Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia. He ultimately secured 312 electoral votes and locked down the popular vote. 

Leavitt celebrated the win as the “Greatest political comeback in HISTORY!” where Trump “defeated the big tech oligarchs who tried to silence him, the weaponized system of justice against him, and the fake news that has lied about him and his supporters for years.”

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Just over a week after his win at the ballot boxes, Trump named Leavitt as his White House press secretary pick. 

“Thank you, President Trump, for believing in me. I am humbled and honored,” she posted to her X account following the announcement.  

“Let’s MAGA!”

In the past couple of years the Texas National Guard and state authorities have placed over 100 miles of razor wire at some of the most critical migrant crossing points along the southern border. The state, which makes up over 60 percent of the U.S. border with Mexico, has spent well over $10 million erecting and maintaining these border barriers as part of its larger multi-billion-dollar border enforcement campaign “Operation Lonestar.”

This week, a federal appeals court ruled against the Biden administration’s attempt to block Texas from continuing to place walls of razor wire – also called concertina or “c-wire” – along the border. This comes after U.S. Border Patrol agents under the Biden administration cut down Texas’ wire on a 26-mile stretch of the border in September 2023.

Earlier this year, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, said that “Biden should be thanking Texas, not obstructing our efforts to secure the border.”

“Joe Biden completely abandoned his constitutional duty to secure the border. Texas stepped up in his absence to build the wall, repel illegal crossings, and protect our country,” said Abbott.

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But does razor wire really keep migrants from entering the country illegally, and is it worth the cost?

Andrew Arthur, a law and policy expert at the Center for Immigration Studies, says the answer is an emphatic “Yes.”

He pointed to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection that shows illegal migrant encounters in Texas’ five border sectors dropped by nearly two-thirds in January after the state finished placing wire.

Arthur told Fox News Digital that Texas began placing wire fortifications in May 2023 after the COVID-era measure Title 42 expired. Then, after the migrant surge in December, Texas deployed additional guard personnel, state troopers and resources to the border.

“Based on the numbers that we’re looking at here, it is most definitely effective,” he said. 

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“What the wire did from my reading of this is it shifted that flow west,” he explained. “And that’s important, because that’s a much longer route. You’re adding hundreds of miles to that smuggling journey.”

While effective, razor wire is not without drawbacks. More than a traditional border wall, wire needs to be constantly monitored. It also requires regular upkeep and additional wire being laid down after old wire is damaged or destroyed.

“It’s a temporary solution, because you’re going to have to replace the concertina wire that they have and, at some point, they’re not going to be able to keep sending wave after wave of troopers, because a lot of those guys are hundreds of miles from their homes, because Texas is a big state,” he explained. “When I was embedded with a trooper down there, he was from Abilene, which is nowhere near the border, and he had been there for six weeks.”

There are also humanitarian considerations.

Arthur said that by being an effective deterrent, razor wire protects migrants from attempting the dangerous crossing over the Rio Grande.

Meanwhile, Dylan Corbett, who runs an El Paso-based migrant aid and advocacy group called the Hope Border Institute, said that the presence of c-wire along the border has increased migrant injuries and deaths.

Corbett told Fox News Digital that doctors working with the Hope Border Institute have had to treat the wounds of families injured by the wire, as well as “wounds caused by projectiles fired by the National Guard.”  

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“In El Paso, nearly our entire border has been fortified by layers of concertina wire, including part of our border with New Mexico,” he explained. “While the numbers of border deaths along the whole border appear to have gone down over the past year, in El Paso they have increased. That increase has been sharp over the past couple years and coincides with the presence of the Guard and the concertina wire, because it is forcing border crossers just to the west of the city, where they die in the desert or crossing the river.”

He called for the federal government to finally step in and “assert its supremacy over managing migration at the border and fix our overall system.”

“More people are dying here than ever before,” he said. “The longer we wait, states will continue to engage in uncoordinated and irresponsible enforcement actions on their own, unnecessarily putting lives at risk and needlessly diverting millions of dollars in taxpayer resources.”  

It’s long been said that Congress is a lot like school.

What’s the first thing they do in school? Take attendance.

That is one thing which they usually don’t do in Congress.

But they might next year.

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Figuring out who is present and accounted for and who is out will emerge as one of the most dramatic daily events on Capitol Hill.

It is always about the math on Capitol Hill.

But the 119th Congress will really be about the math.

Every day in the House will hinge on who’s sick. Who has a parent/teacher conference. Whose plane was delayed due to snow. Who is just playing hooky and isn’t reliable. Who was giving a speech downtown, got caught in traffic and just didn’t make it back in time. Whose kid is starring in the school play. Whose aunt died.

President Trump and House Republicans have big plans for their 2025 legislative agenda. But the miniscule size of the GOP majority could temper those expectations on a daily basis.

It will be interesting to see what Republicans can execute.

Republicans will likely begin the new year with a 219-215 majority. So 434 seats. There is one vacancy as former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., resigned. That’s a margin of four seats. But it in reality, it means the GOP majority can only tolerate one Republican defector on each roll call vote without needing help from the other side. One Republican “nay” is 218-216. But two Republican rebels produces a 217-217 tie. By rule, ties lose in the House.

But the beginning of the new Congress on January 3 could represent the Halycon days for the House Republican Conference.

Reps. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., and Michael Waltz, R-Fla., intend to resign in January to join the Trump Administration. Stefanik is up for United Nations Ambassador and requires confirmation for that post. The President-elect tapped Waltz to serve as National Security Advisor. That position is not subject to Senate confirmation. So the Republican majority will dwindle to 217-215. At that point, Republicans can’t lose any votes to pass their agenda.

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That is a problem for House Republicans who regularly had a squadron of defectors – ranging from keeping the government open to even impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. This could even spell problems for House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., returning to the Speaker’s suite. Johnson must win an outright majority of all House members voting when the new Congress convenes on January 3 to become Speaker. He’ll have a bit of a cushion when the new Congress starts. But it won’t be much. House Republicans still suffer from political PTSD after the 15 rounds it took to elect former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., early last year.

Yes. There will be special elections to fill the seats of Gaetz, Stefanik and Waltz. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has already called a special election for the Gaetz seat for April 1.

You can’t make this stuff up.

The other special elections are months away because Stefanik and Waltz haven’t resigned yet. In fact, if Stefanik is confirmed and resigns in late January, it may be May before there’s a special election in her seat – based on New York law and discretion afforded New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D).

The results in special elections sometimes produce “special” results. The usual electorate periodically stays home and the opposite party captures those seats in off-cycle elections. So, even though these are “Republican” seats, there’s no guarantee that Republicans will automatically prevail.

But if things go according to plan, Republicans will have those seats back in a few months, with a comparatively robust 220-215 majority. That means Republicans can lose up to two votes on any major issue.

But there are always absences. Always resignations.

And this isn’t limited to the Republican side of the aisle.

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There have long been concerns about the health and attendance of 79-year-old Rep. David Scott, D-Ga., the top Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee. Scott faced criticism earlier this year over a lack of public appearances and interviews.

76-year-old Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., is the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee. Grijalva vowed that this term would be his last after suffering from cancer. The illness sidelined Grijalva for months. He missed more than 300 roll call votes on the floor between February and this fall and did not conduct interviews.

Late Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Tex., Bill Pascrell, D-N.J. and Donald Payne Jr., D-N.J., were all in office when they passed away this year. Late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., died in 2023.

Democrats make a lot of noise right now about the agenda of President-elect Trump. It will be incumbent on Democrats to have full attendance to oppose Republicans and generally make life miserable for the majority. But Democrats can only do that if they show up. All the time.

Such was the case when House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., had the votes of every House Democrat on each roll call for Speaker in January and October of last year. Only Rep. David Trone, D-Md., missed a couple of votes because he underwent a surgical procedure. But Trone returned to Capitol Hill later that evening to vote.

Rep. Al Green, D-Tex., was hospitalized this past February. But Green came to the Capitol in a wheelchair in February to help torpedo the initial effort to impeach Mayorkas. Republicans had three defectors on their side. Green’s vote fresh from a hospital gurney forced the GOP effort to fail on the floor and try again.

One factor which was a challenge for the GOP was the health of House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La. Scalise was diagnosed with cancer last year and was out the first part of 2023. Scalise has now recovered. But his absence hamstrung the GOP on big votes like the initial Mayorkas impeachment.

Unfortunately – and inevitably – there will be absences due to health. And God forbid, death. Rarely does a Congress pass without the death of a lawmaker – sometimes unforeseen. Late Rep. Jackie Walorski, R-Ind., and two aides died in a traffic accident during the summer of 2022.

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So listen for the attendance bells in the House next year. Check the weather forecast and the flight schedule at Reagan National Airport. Better look at Waze if they’re flying into Dulles. See if the flu or another round of COVID burns through Congress.

Yes. Understanding whether someone is for or against a given bill or amendment is always important in Congress. But what supersedes that is whether they’re actually present.

President Biden on Friday picked up a copy of a book that described Israel as a colonial power in the face of Palestinian resistance despite his repeated support for the Jewish state. 

Biden was spotted by the press leaving Nantucket Bookworks holding a copy of “The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017” by Columbia University professor emeritus Rashid Khalidi, the New York Post reported. 

“I do not speak to the Post (or the Times for that matter), so this is not for publication, but my reaction is that this is four years too late,” Khalidi told the Post of Biden holding his book. 

The newspaper noted it did not agree to any terms conditioning Khalidi’s response as off the record or on background.

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Fox News Digital has reached out to Khalidi and the White House.

The book argues that “the modern history of Palestine can best be understood in these terms: as a colonial war waged against the indigenous population, by a variety of parties, to force them to relinquish their homeland to another people against their will.” 

It was not clear if Biden purchased the book or if it was given to him. 

Khalidi, who is of Palestinian and Lebanese descent, called the first Trump administration a “mouthpiece” for Israel and has criticized Israel over the humanitarian toll in Gaza after Hamas killed about 1,200 people inside Israel Oct. 7, 2023, in addition to kidnapping hostages, including Americans. 

“It’s perfectly unclear, reading the Israeli press, what their political objective is. I mean, ethnic cleansing. That’s not a political objective. They’re doing that. They’re driving the population of the Northern Gaza Strip into the Southern Gaza Strip. But what their political objective is, is, to me, entirely unclear, in the writings of, as far as one can tell, from the Israeli press,” he said on the “Intercepted” podcast in November 2023.

Biden has repeatedly declared his support for Israel but has been criticized by Israeli supporters for putting conditions on U.S. aid to the Middle East ally and pausing shipments of heavy munitions to Israel earlier this year.

Meanwhile, pro-Palestinian supporters, who nicknamed Biden “Genocide Joe,” have increasingly criticized him and Netanyahu over civilian casualties in Gaza. Biden has also reportedly criticized his Israeli counterpart behind closed doors, the Post reported. 

The book, published in 2020 before Trump brokered relationships between Israel and five Muslim countries, criticized Trump for moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem and recognizing Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights, which it captured from Syria during the 1967 Six-Day war. 

In the book, Khalidi wrote about Israel’s alleged discriminatory policies against Palestinians.

“Settler-colonial confrontations with indigenous peoples have only ended in one of three ways: with the elimination of full subjugation of the native population, as in North America; with the defeat and expulsion of the colonizer, as in Algeria, which is extremely rare; or with the abandonment of colonial supremacy, in the context of compromise and reconciliation, as in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Ireland,” he wrote.

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He also praised the first intifada by Palestinians against Israel, which occurred from 1987 to 1993 and left more than 2,000 people dead, the Post wrote. 

“The First Intifada was an outstanding example of popular resistance against oppression and can be considered as being the first unmitigated victory for the Palestinians in the long colonial war that began in 1917,” the book says.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries condemned several threats, mostly focused on lawmakers from Connecticut, targeting members of his caucus, just days after numerous threats were made against President-elect Trump’s Cabinet selections.

Jeffries, D-N.Y., confirmed in a statement Friday that several Democrats were targeted with threats ranging from pipe bombs in their mailboxes to “swatting” — or filing a false police report on another person’s behalf that often results in a SWAT team being dispatched.

All of the threatening messages were signed “MAGA,” Jeffries said, adding law enforcement found no ordnance at any of the targeted lawmakers’ homes.

“America is a democracy. Threats of violence against elected officials are unacceptable, unconscionable and have no place in a civilized society. All perpetrators of political violence directed at any party must be prosecuted to the full extent of the law,” he said. “House Democrats will not be deterred or intimidated from serving the people by violent threats. We have been in close communication with the Sergeant at Arms office and it is imperative that Congress provide maximum protection for all Members and their families moving forward.”

Later Friday, President Biden told reporters on Nantucket, Massachusetts, that his administration is working “hard” with the FBI on the threats to lawmakers and Trump nominees.

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After Jeffries spoke out, Rep. Seth Magaziner, a Democrat from neighboring Rhode Island, announced on Friday afternoon that his home had been targeted, as well. Magaziner said Providence police responded quickly and no one was harmed.

Sen. Christopher Murphy, D-Conn., had his home targeted by a bomb threat. A spokesperson said it appeared to be part of a “coordinated effort.”

Five other Democrats from the Constitution State received similar threats, including Reps. Joe Courtney, John Larson, Rosa DeLauro, Jahana Hayes and James Himes.

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“There is no place for political violence in this country, and I hope that we may all continue through the holiday season with peace and civility,” said Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee who replaced Sen.-elect Adam Schiff, D-Calif.

Prior to that spate of threats, Trump’s U.N. ambassador-designate Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., said she was traveling home to her North Country district for Thanksgiving when she was informed of a threat against her home.

Former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla. — Trump’s initial choice for attorney general — also received a threat.

Former Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y. — Trump’s nominee to lead the Environmental Protection Agency — said his home was subjected to a “pro-Palestinian-themed” pipe bomb threat. Zeldin is Jewish.

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Former Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, R-Ore., whom the president-elect tapped for Labor secretary, said her Oregon home was targeted, as was that of former San Diego Chargers cornerback Scott Turner, whom Trump named to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Trump nominees including Cantor-Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick, America First Policy Institute President Brooke Rollins and former Fox News host Pete Hegseth also received threats.

In a statement, the FBI said it is aware of “numerous bomb threats and swatting incidents targeting incoming administration nominees and appointees, and we are working with our law enforcement partners.”

“We take all potential threats seriously and, as always, encourage members of the public to immediately report anything they consider suspicious to law enforcement,” it said.

Fox News’ Kevin Ward contributed to this report.