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EXCLUSIVE: Former United Kingdom Prime Minister Liz Truss is ready to bring the “conservative revolution” home from the 2025 Conservative Political Action Conference, telling Fox News Digital her plan to “Make the West Great Again.”

World leaders took center stage at CPAC this week, telling the crowd of American conservatives they’re ready to see President Donald Trump’s agenda on the world stage. Truss, the shortest-serving prime minister in British history, said world leaders are envious of Trump’s second term and his Department of Government Efficiency. 

“There’s a lot of momentum, and people are very envious of what’s happening in the U.S. We’d love to be able to get the truth from government departments about what’s actually being spent,” Truss told Fox News Digital. 

Truss praised Elon Musk’s DOGE as a “playbook for what needs to happen” in the United Kingdom, but she said that a DOGE UK would be unrealistic under Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s leadership. 

‘MR. BREXIT’ ADVOCATES FOR UK DOGE OVER ‘COMPLETE WASTE’ OF TAXPAYER MONEY

Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Liz Truss speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Gaylord National Resort Hotel And Convention Center on February 20, 2025, in Oxon Hill, Maryland.  (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

“What Musk is doing, going straight to the payment system, is a fantastic idea that we need to adopt in Britain, but the reality is that is not going to happen under the current government, because the current government are part of the problem. They are defenders of the deep state. They’re not going to be investigating themselves. I think this is something that has to happen when there’s a change of government. We are watching very closely what Elon Musk is doing. It’s a fantastic playbook for what needs to happen in the U.K.”

DOGE’s revelations about America’s federal funding and the mass layoffs of government employees have shaken up Washington this past month. Truss said that Musk is even holding the British government accountable. 

CHAINSAW-WIELDING ELON MUSK MAKES ‘DARK MAGA’ APPEARANCE WITH JAVIER MILEI AT CPAC

Liz Truss said during a Fox News Digital interview that she often says that “Elon Musk is the leader of the opposition in Britain, because he’s the one actually on X, challenging Keir Starmer’s policies.” (Musk: Reuters / Money: iStock / Trump: Getty)

“Sometimes I say that Elon Musk is the leader of the opposition in Britain, because he’s the one actually on X, challenging Keir Starmer’s policies, talking about issues like the grooming gangs, the appalling gangs who have been raping girls as young as 12. It’s Elon Musk that’s been taking the fight to Keir Starmer,” she said. 

Musk and Trump’s ability to seize the social media narrative and America’s growing independent media space inspired Truss to establish a “new free speech media network” in the United Kingdom. 

“We have a massive problem with free speech in Britain,” Truss said. “People are being locked up for posts on Facebook and on X, which is extraordinary. We’re the country that invented freedom of the press back in 1695. It was almost 100 years before the First Amendment. And now we are, as a country, locking people up for saying things online.” 

“This needs to change. So, what I’m establishing is a new free speech media network, which will enable people in Britain to hear what is actually going on, and people across Europe to hear what’s going on.” she continued. “I think that’s really important. If you look at the Trump revolution, independent media was a major part of that.”

Trump leaned on new media during his 2024 presidential campaign, posting TikTok videos from the campaign trail, spending nearly three hours with the widely popular podcaster Joe Rogan and using Truth Social as a direct line to his core base. 

Truss said that Trump is leading a “conservative revolution” and attended CPAC this year to learn how she can model his American success back in the United Kingdom. 

“What we’re seeing happening in America is a revolution. It’s a conservative revolution. All of the problems we have in our societies in the West, the leftist ideology that’s taken over, whether it’s wokeism or extreme environmentalism or anti-capitalism, all of those are being taken on by President Trump. And I want to see a similar revolution in Britain, which is why I’m here to learn about how they’re doing it, to talk about how we build that kind of movement in Britain,” Truss said. 

Liz Truss, former UK prime minister, during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland, on Friday, Feb. 21, 2025.  (Aaron Schwartz/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The former prime minister said she agrees with Trump on “everything from deporting illegal migrants; to cutting taxes; to drill, baby, drill; to being clear that men can’t be in women’s bathrooms.” She said Britain needs to implement these policies and fire the “permanent bureaucrats who are part of the problem.”

“The big difference with Britain is our bureaucracy is more powerful than the American bureaucracy. Most people working in government are career bureaucrats, and that’s what I think we need to learn from America. We need to change,” Truss added. 

Truss said she has had productive conversations with European and world leaders this week, strategizing about how to broaden their conservative coalition and create policies to bring energy prices down and boost the economy. Truss even said she had plans for a British CPAC. 

Britain’s Prime Minister Liz Truss addresses the media in Downing Street in London, Thursday, Oct. 20, 2022. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

Truss resigned as British prime minister after 49 days in office in 2022 after her large tax cut plan destabilized the economy. She was one of three prime ministers in the United Kingdom within a four-month period in 2022. 

“I recognize that, given the situation, I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party,” Truss said in her resignation.

The United Kingdom’s current prime minister and leader of the Labour Party, Keir Starmer, ended 14 consecutive years of Conservative party rule when he was elected in 2024. 

There is a UK DOGE movement gaining traction on social media for revealing wasteful British spending. The Procurement Files is an X account that combs through more than 300,000 contracts on the United Kingdom’s public government database to reveal mismanagement of British taxpayer money, much like the official US DOGE account does.

FEBRUARY 6: Prime Minister Keir Starmer gives an interview during a visit to Springfields (Preston Lab), National Nuclear Laboratory facility on February 6, 2025, in Preston, England.  (Photo by Oli Scarff – WPA Pool/Getty Images)

Nigel Farage, the Reform UK party leader who initiated Britain’s departure from the European Union, has explicitly called for a UK DOGE. Despite the discontent from conservative leaders on British government efficiency, the prime minister’s office said that it has created initiatives to cut government waste.

“The Chancellor has asked all departments to deliver savings and efficiencies of 5% of their current budget as part of the first zero-based Spending Review in seventeen years,” an HM Treasury spokesperson said in a statement to Fox News Digital. 

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“Every pound of government spending is being interrogated, to root out waste and get the best value for taxpayers as we deliver on their priorities set out in the Plan for Change. We have also created an Office for Value for Money that is underpinning our work driving out waste and inefficiency, alongside cutting out hundreds of millions of pounds worth of consultancy spending in government over the next few years,” the spokesperson added. 

Sacked United States Agency for International Development (USAID) staffers left their Washington, D.C., offices for the last time on Friday, with some carrying boxes scrawled with messages that seemed to be directed at President Donald Trump, who is slashing the agency’s workforce.

Thousands of staffers were notified weeks ago of their pending dismissals, while a federal judge on Friday cleared the way for the Trump administration to follow through with the mass layoffs as it aims to eliminate waste throughout the federal bureaucracy.

“We are abandoning the world,” read one message on a box being hauled out by a grinning staffer as she walked out of USAID’s Bureau of Humanitarian Affairs office.

‘WASTEFUL AND DANGEROUS’: DOGE’S TOP FIVE MOST SHOCKING REVELATIONS

Another smiling staffer’s box had a more upbeat tone, with her message reading: “You can take the humanitarians out of USAID but you can’t take the humanity out of the humanitarians.”

Recently fired U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) staff carry boxes with a message as they leave work and are applauded by former USAID staffers and supporters during a sendoff outside USAID offices in Washington, D.C., on February 21, 2025.  (Reuters/Brian Snyder)

The staffers were greeted outside the offices by a small group of well-wishing supporters and former USAID workers who carried signs reading, “We love USAID” and “Thank you for your service, USAID.”

Other workers were seen leaving the offices in tears.

The Trump administration plans to gut the agency and intends to leave fewer than 300 staffers on the job out of the current 8,000 direct hires and contractors. 

They, along with an unknown number of 5,000 locally hired international staffers abroad, would run the few life-saving programs that the administration says it intends to keep going for the time being.

Recently fired USAID staffers leave the USAID offices in Washington, D.C., on February 21, 2025.  (REUTERS/Brian Snyder)

USAID has come in for particular criticism under the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) for alleged wasteful spending. 

For instance, Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, the Senate DOGE Caucus Chairwoman, recently published a list of projects and programs she says USAID has helped fund over the years, including $20 million to produce a Sesame Street show in Iraq. 

Several more examples of questionable spending have been uncovered at USAID, including more than $900,000 to a “Gaza-based terror charity” called Bayader Association for Environment and Development and a $1.5 million program slated to “advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in Serbia’s workplaces and business communities.”

SECRETARY OF STATE RUBIO CONFIRMS BECOMING ACTING USAID CHIEF

Trump has moved to gut the agency after imposing a 90-day pause on foreign aid. He also has appointed Secretary of State Marco Rubio as the acting director of USAID.

Government employee unions had sued to stop the mass layoffs, but U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols on Friday lifted a temporary restraining order he had issued at the outset of the case and declined to issue a longer-term order keeping the employees in their posts.

Tearful staffers leave USAID building in Washington, D.C. (REUTERS/Brian Snyder)

Nichols, who was appointed by President Trump during his first term, also wrote that because the affected employees had not gone through an administrative dispute process, he likely did not have jurisdiction to hear the unions’ case or consider their broader arguments that the administration is violating the U.S. Constitution by shutting down an agency created and funded by Congress.

The judge said the issue was jurisdictional, that federal district courts should not be involved at this stage, and that the matter should be handled administratively under federal employment laws.

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“In sum, because the Court likely lacks jurisdiction over plaintiffs’ claims, they have not established a likelihood of success on the merits,” the judge‘s ruling stated, in part.

“The court concludes that plaintiffs have not demonstrated that they or their members will suffer irreparable injury absent an injunction; that their claims are likely to succeed on the merits; or that the balance of the hardships or the public interest strongly favors an injunction.”

Retired United States Agency for International Development worker Julie Hanson Swanson, left, joins supporters of USAID workers outside the USAID’s Bureau of Humanitarian affairs office in Washington, Friday, Feb. 21, 2025. (Manuel Balce Ceneta)

The unions can now go to the Washington, D.C., federal appeals court for emergency relief to have the TRO put back into place, or possibly a preliminary injunction.

Fox News’ Bill Mears, Andrew Mark Miller, Aubrie Spady, Deirdre Heavey, Morgan Phillips and Emma Colton as well as Reuters contributed to this report.

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) spent another week slashing hundreds of millions in spending by the federal government, while dodging various legal attempts to block its cost-cutting efforts.

Here are some of DOGE’s big wins this week:

1. Judge shoots down request to stop federal worker firings 

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, an Obama appointee, shot down a request from several federal labor unions, including the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), to pause the mass firings of federal workers by the Trump administration.

NTEU and four other labor unions representing federal employees filed a complaint Feb. 12 challenging the firing of probationary employees and the deferred resignation program, which gives workers the option to agree to work from an office or resign. 

EXPERT REVEALS MASSIVE LEVELS OF WASTE DOGE CAN SLASH FROM ENTITLEMENTS, PET PROJECTS: ‘A LOT OF FAT’

Elon Musk’s DOGE claimed victory in several battles this week. (Getty)

Cooper denied the request to stop the firings, saying the court lacked jurisdiction over the unions’ claims.

Instead, Cooper ruled the unions must pursue their challenges through the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute, which provides for administrative review by the Federal Labor Relations Authority.

2. Judge says DOGE can keep digging

DOGE was handed another victory by U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, who denied a request to issue a temporary restraining order preventing Musk and DOGE from accessing data systems at the Department of Education, Office of Personnel Management (OPM), Department of Labor, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Energy, Department of Transportation and Department of Commerce. 

The agencies were asking Chutkan to forbid both Musk and DOGE from terminating, furloughing or putting on leave any of their employees. 

Chutkin ruled that DOGE can continue to operate as it is now.

The judge also issued a court briefing schedule for plaintiffs and defendants to file motions for discovery, preliminary injunctions and dismissals, which stretches through April 22.

The White House on Wednesday outlined where the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency dividend checks could go after President Donald Trump floated the idea of giving 20% of savings back to Americans.   (Musk: Reuters / Money: iStock / Trump: Getty)

3. Judge allows DOGE access to data on 3 federal agencies

DOGE scored a win in court after a federal judge declined a request to temporarily block Elon Musk’s government efficiency team from accessing sensitive data from at least three federal agencies.

Unions and nonprofits attempted to stop Musk’s DOGE from accessing records at the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The efforts were blocked by District Judge John Bates, who wrote in an opinion that the government was likely correct in categorizing DOGE as an agency, thereby allowing it to detail its staff to other government departments. 

Musk praised the decision on X with the caption: “LFG,” an abbreviation for “Let’s [expletive] go.” 

DEFENSE SECRETARY HEGSETH WORKING WITH DOGE TO CUT THE ‘BS’

4. DOGE finds a nearly untraceable budget line item responsible for $4.7T in payments

Earlier this week, DOGE announced it had discovered an identification code linking U.S. Treasury payments to a budget line item, which accounts for nearly $4.7 trillion in payments, that was oftentimes left blank.

Elon Musk listens as President Donald Trump speaks with reporters in the Oval Office at the White House Feb. 11, 2025, in Washington.  (Alex Brandon)

“The Treasury Access Symbol (TAS) is an identification code linking a Treasury payment to a budget line item (standard financial process),” DOGE wrote in a post on X. 

“In the Federal Government, the TAS field was optional for ~$4.7 Trillion in payments and was often left blank, making traceability almost impossible. As of Saturday, this is now a required field, increasing insight into where money is actually going.”

The agency thanked the U.S. Treasury for its work in identifying the optional field.

According to the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, which is under the Treasury, TAS codes are used to describe any one of the account identification codes assigned by the Treasury and are also referred to as the “account.”

5. Caesars Palace, MLB stadium, an ice cream truck: DOGE reveals how schools spent billions in COVID relief funds

Schools spent hundreds of billions of COVID relief funds on expenses that had “little” impact on students, such as Las Vegas hotel rooms and the purchase of an ice cream truck, according to the Trump administration’s cost-cutting department.

DOGE reveals how COVID relief funds have been spent by schools. (Getty Images)

DOGE revealed Thursday that schools have spent nearly $200 billion in COVID relief funds “with little oversight or impact on students.”

WHITE HOUSE OUTLINES WHERE DOGE SAVINGS COULD GO AFTER TRUMP FLOATS RETURNING 20% TO AMERICANS

Granite Public Schools in Utah spent COVID relief funds on $86,000 in hotel rooms at Caesars Palace, a ritzy Las Vegas Casino, while Santa Ana Unified spent $393,000 to rent a Major League Baseball stadium, according to a report by Parents Defending Education and shared by DOGE.

The cost-cutting department also revealed that schools spent $60,000 in COVID relief funds on swimming pool passes, while a California district used its funds to purchase an ice cream truck.

6. Hegseth working with DOGE to cut the ‘BS’

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is working with DOGE to make cuts within his department, saying he believes it will find waste “not core to our mission.”

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth delivers a press statement after a meeting at the Ministry of Defense. (Omar Marques)

“They’re here, and we’re welcoming them,” Hegseth said in a recent video released Thursday. “They’re going to have broad access, obviously, with all the safeguards on classification.

“They care just like we do, to find the redundancies and identify the last vestiges of Biden priorities — the DEI, the woke, the climate change B.S., that’s not core to our mission, and we’re going to get rid of it all.”

Hegseth, who said many DOGE workers are veterans, met with Musk’s team and said they have already started their review of the Department of Defense.

7. DOGE uncovers over 4M government credit cards responsible for 90M transactions

DOGE revealed on Tuesday that the U.S. government has more than 4 million active credit cards on its books.

“The US government currently has ~4.6M active credit cards/accounts, which processed ~90M unique transactions for ~$40B of spend[ing] in FY24,” DOGE said in a post on X.

President-elect Donald Trump greets Elon Musk as he arrives to attend a viewing of the launch of the sixth test flight of the SpaceX Starship rocket Nov. 19, 2024, in Brownsville, Texas (Brandon Bell)

The cost-cutting department broke down multiple federal agencies and their credit card use, with the DOD leading the way in both the number of transactions, about 27.2 million, and the number of individual accounts, roughly 2.4 million.

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Musk delivered a speech to conservatives Thursday in which he touted the accomplishments of DOGE and, at one point, stood on the stage holding a golden chainsaw given to him by Argentina’s President Javier Milei, symbolizing the cuts being made to government spending, to the delight of the crowd of conservatives at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland. 

“We’re fighting Matrix big time here,” Musk said. “It has got to be done.”

Fox News’ Alex Nitzberg, Emma Woodhead, Michael Lee, Greg Wehner, and Michael Dorgan contributed to this report.

Democrats proved on Thursday during a press conference about protecting Medicaid that Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has become an inevitable policy discussion under President Donald Trump’s second term.  

Ahead of the National Governors Association’s winter meeting in Washington, D.C., this week, Democratic and Republican governors huddled within their respective parties to strategize and discuss policy. Democratic governors held a press conference on Tuesday, sounding the alarm on Trump’s threat to Medicaid and signaling a Democratic messaging priority. 

“This is a life-and-death situation for so many of our citizens in all of our states. I’m more worried about DOGE,” Gov. Ned Lamont, D-Conn., said. “I find the Department of Government Efficiency is leaking its way into HHS and everyplace else.”

DOGE headlines dominated Trump’s first month back in the White House as Democrats protested weekly and called his executive orders a “constitutional crisis.” When asked by Fox News Digital whether there’s a consensus among Democratic governors that its a “constitutional crisis,” Lamont said, “It’s a budgetary crisis.”

WHITE HOUSE OUTLINES WHERE DOGE SAVINGS COULD GO AFTER TRUMP FLOATS RETURNING 20% TO AMERICANS

President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk pose for a photo during the UFC 309 event at Madison Square Garden on November 16, 2024, in New York City. (Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC)

Lamont said it’s impossible to plan for unpredictable and last-minute budget cuts, adding that cutting Medicaid would cost $2 billion. 

“It’s not DOGE. It ought to be called dodge, a way to just push the costs on to our people,” Lamont said. 

The Connecticut governor said he supports rooting out fraud in the federal government, but he said that if DOGE expects states to pick up the costs on things like Medicare or Medicaid, then it would put people at risk. 

DOGE UNCOVERS OVER 4M GOVERNMENT CREDIT CARDS RESPONSIBLE FOR 90M TRANSACTIONS

“DOGE is pretty cruel. Let’s be blunt about that,” Gov. Josh Green, D-Hawaii, added. “These are people in our states that have worked long careers, very dedicated servants, and they’re getting kicked out of their lives.”

Green said he launched an initiative in Hawaii yesterday to hire employees who have been fired by the federal government. 

Hawaii Gov. Josh Green speaks at the 2024 summer meeting of the National Governors Association, Thursday, July 11, 2024, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

“We’re hoping to bring good people into the fold and help them heal through this process, and we will hire them. But at the end of the day, if there are deep cuts in budgets, we will all suffer and struggle to do that. There’s a lot of great human capital out there, and this is just not the right way to go about things,” Green said. 

Fox News Digital asked the governors whether they had agreed on a messaging strategy to combat DOGE. 

“It’s just not American. Honestly, I don’t know how they came up with the plan to slash trillions of dollars in order to pay for tax breaks. Most Americans are going to be really upset when they lose fundamental services. My message is, we can be caring about our country and not just play to bombastic news moments,” Graham said. 

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) talks with actor Esai Morales as CEO of Grandave Capital Ruben Islas launches a social justice in film initiative at the New Mexico State Capitol on January 30, 2024, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. (Sam Wasson/Getty Images)

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, D-N.M., said that governors work to make government more efficient every day.

“I think another unified message is we all want efficient, effective government,” Grisham said. “I predict it will spend more on itself than it actually saves or finds cost savings or fraud. You know who finds fraud in health care and any number of other things? Governors do! And then we work with the federal government to make sure that we stamp that out across the country. If they were really interested in that, they would be working with us.”

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The Democratic governors urged more Republicans to stand up against Trump’s agenda. In the meantime, Grisham said that Democratic governors will continue to hold them accountable. 

“They’re not telling us the truth. They’re using this effort to line the pockets of one or a few Americans and companies, and they have not found any significant waste or fraud. They have to keep correcting, or at least we’re going to hold them accountable, and correcting those numbers. You want help making government meaningful and effective and efficient? You’re looking at a team that delivers on that every single day,” Grisham said. 

New York City filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on Friday seeking to wrestle back more than $80 million previously sent to the city via the Federal Emergency Management Agency to house migrants.  

The suit argues that the funds were previously approved and then paid out by FEMA, only to be removed from a city bank account on Feb. 11 without notice or administrative process.

The funding had been revoked after Elon Musk claimed that the Department of Government Efficiency found a $59 million FEMA payment to New York City that was being used on luxury hotels to house illegal migrants. Trump later repeated Musk’s claim and argued that “massive fraud” was happening.

New York City was awarded two separate grants during the Biden administration – one for $58.6 million and another for $21.9 million – as the city attempted to pay to house migrants, many of whom were sent by Texas officials who were frustrated with the Biden administration’s handling of the influx of migrants entering the U.S. through the southern border.

NEW YORK CITY MAYOR ERIC ADAMS SAYS HE WILL RUN FOR RE-ELECTION AS A DEMOCRAT

New York City filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on Friday seeking to wrestle back more than $80 million previously sent to the city via FEMA to house migrants. Mayor Eric Adams left, President Donald Trump, right, and migrants outside the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images, left | Stephen Maturen/Getty Images, right | Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Daily News via Getty Images, inset)

The payments were made under the Shelter and Services Program (SPP) that Congress appropriated $650 million for last year to help local governments respond to the migrant crisis. There are currently fewer than 45,000 migrants staying at taxpayer-funded shelters in New York City, up from a high of 69,000 more than a year ago.

Friday’s lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York by the city’s law department, which handles the city’s legal affairs, against President Donald Trump, the U.S. Treasury, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The lawsuit accuses the federal government of violating federal regulations and the terms of the SSP grant, as well as abusing the federal government’s authority and obligations to implement congressionally approved and funded programs. ­

Elon Musk, advisor to President Donald Trump, is leading the government efficiency push. (AP Images)

The suit argues that on Feb. 19, the federal government belatedly provided the city with a “noncompliance” letter that did not identify any noncompliance by the city. 

“Rather, it announced ‘concerns,’ which are unfounded and do not comport with how the city has managed the unprecedented crisis brought to its doorstep,” the law department said.

Citing the government’s actions as a “money grab,” the law department said the letter was a “mere cover” to mask the federal government’s real purpose, which is to permanently withhold the funds because it opposes their use on migrants.

The city is looking to recoup the funds and is seeking a motion for a preliminary and permanent injunction, and motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO).

New York City Mayor Eric Adams defended and supported the lawsuit in a series of posts on X late Friday, writing that the $80 million was approved, paid for and then rescinded – all while the city spent more than $7 billion of its own taxpayer money to tackle the crisis over the last three years.

Mayor Eric Adams said the city has housed more than 231,000 migrants during the crisis. (Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Daily News via Getty Images, left, Fatih Aktas/Anadolu via Getty Images, right.)

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT MOVES TO DROP CASE AGAINST NYC MAYOR ERIC ADAMS

“We are going to work to ensure our city’s residents get every dollar they are owed,” Adams wrote in on post. 

“Without a doubt, our immigration system is broken, but the cost of managing an international humanitarian crisis should not overwhelmingly fall onto one city alone. We have skillfully shouldered the cost of this humanitarian crisis almost entirely on our own, with more than 231,000 people entering our city seeking shelter.”

Meanwhile, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander claimed the suit came about after he forced Adams’ hand on the matter. Adams has come under fire from New York Democrats over his decision to be more cooperative with federal immigration agencies in apprehending criminal illegal migrants amid the Justice Department efforts to dismiss corruption charges against him.

“After my office discovered that Elon Musk and his DOGE goon squad stole $80 million out of the City’s coffers, we successfully pressured Mayor Adams to allow the City’s lawyers to sue the federal government to get our money back,” Lander said in a statement. 

“The lawyers who are standing up to President Trump and Eric Adams’ collusion deserve praise and we look forward to Donald Trump returning the money he stole from New York.”

Lander is running against Adams in the mayoral election later this year.

READ THE LAWSUIT BELOW: APP USERS CLICK HERE.

Fox News’ Landon Mion, Maria Paronich and Jennifer Johnson contributed to this report. 

New exclusive video obtained by Fox News reveals intense moments from a high-speed vehicle chase as law enforcement pursued two illegal immigrants suspected of carrying fentanyl through a cornfield in Grundy County, Illinois, late last year. 

A Grundy County official told Fox News that Illinois sanctuary state policies allowed the two Honduran illegal immigrants to travel through the county unchecked. 

Grundy is a primarily rural county northwest of Chicago. 

The footage, taken Oct. 24, shows the two immigrants, Roybin Barahona, 18, and Cristhian Anahel Erazo Velasquez, 23, swerving in a vehicle through the cornfield, and authorities rammed a vehicle into their car to get them to stop. After their car was rammed, the two men fled their sedan, and officers continued their pursuit. 

ACTIVISTS IN MEXICO REPORT FLOW OF MIGRANTS HAS ‘ENORMOUSLY DECREASED’ ONE MONTH INTO TRUMP ADMIN

Two immigrants, Roybin Barahona, 18, and Cristhian Anahel Erazo Velasquez, 23, traveled through an Illinois cornfield, and authorities rammed their vehicle to get them to stop. (Adobe Stock/ Fox News)

Footage taken later shows law enforcement discovering a deadly payload of seven pounds of fentanyl in the immigrants’ burned-out vehicle. Both were charged with controlled substance trafficking, possession with intent to deliver fentanyl and resisting arrest, according to local outlet WSPY News. 

Due to the Illinois SAFE-T Act, which abolished Illinois’ cash bail system in 2023, Barahona was released without bail, after which he allegedly fled to California. 

CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE

Velasquez, meanwhile, remains in custody, and the Department of Homeland Security has filed a detainer against him. Despite the detainer, Illinois sanctuary laws continue to prevent local law enforcement from sharing information with federal immigration officials about Velasquez. 

Speaking with Fox News, Grundy County Board Chairman Drew Muffler voiced his frustration with the Illinois sanctuary law. He said that “because we are a sanctuary state, it allowed for illegal bad actors to be traveling with seven pounds of fentanyl through our county.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: FOUNDING FATHERS ‘SPINNING IN THEIR GRAVES’ BECAUSE OF BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP ABUSE

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, right, is criticizing the ICE operations that began Sunday in his city. (Getty Images)

“I don’t agree with putting handcuffs on law enforcement and preventing them from working effectively with federal authorities,” he said. “By restricting law enforcement’s ability to enforce the law, we are undermining public safety.” 

Grundy County was the first of several dozen counties in Illinois that defied the state by enacting a non-sanctuary ordinance. This comes after an influx of over 51,000 immigrants were bussed to Chicago since the summer of 2022.

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During the migrant crisis, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has doubled down on the city’s sanctuary policies, saying in a recent ABC 7 Chicago interview, “We will always remain a welcoming and sanctuary space.”

Johnson vowed to resist the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration and called the decision to allow ICE to carry out enforcement and removal operations on church and school properties “unconscionable and reprehensible.” 

Call it Sen. Tim Scott’s 55-seat strategy.

Scott, the conservative senator from South Carolina, told Fox News Digital soon after taking over late last year as chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) he aimed to expand the GOP’s current 53-47 majority in the Senate.

And Scott, in a Fox News Digital interview this week on Capitol Hill, is standing by his goal.

“One hundred percent. It’s my stretch goal,” the senator reiterated. “The bottom line is, I believe that we can defend our current seats while adding at least two more seats to our numbers.”

TOP POLITICAL HANDICAPPER REVEALS DEMOCRATS CHANCES OF WINNING BACK THE SENATE MAJORITY

Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., waves as he sits with former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, during a Fox News town hall at the Greenville Convention Center Feb. 20, 2024, in Greenville, S.C. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Scott, who last month became the longest-serving Black senator in the nation’s history, launched a campaign two years ago for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination before dropping out and endorsing Donald Trump.

The senator, who was a top Trump surrogate on the campaign trail last year, emphasized that “the good news is, with President Donald Trump leading this country, the field is wide open, which means that we have more places to play, and the game is on.”

Scott added the NRSC needs “to focus on the mechanics of making sure that the Donald J. Trump brand is reflected in our candidates.”

Senate Republicans enjoyed a favorable map in the 2024 cycle as they flipped four seats from blue to red to win back control of the chamber.

But the party in power — clearly the Republicans right now — traditionally faces political headwinds in the midterm elections. Nevertheless, an early read of the 2026 map indicates the GOP may be able to go on offense in some key states.

FIRST ON FOX: SENATE GOP CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE SPOTLIGHTS ‘TEAM EFFORT’

Republicans will be targeting battleground Michigan, where Democratic Sen. Gary Peters recently announced he won’t seek re-election next year, as well as Georgia, another key battleground state, where first-term Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff is considered vulnerable.

And in swing state New Hampshire, longtime Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen has yet to say whether she’ll seek another term in the Senate when she’s up for re-election next year.

Days before Scott was interviewed by Fox News Digital, Democratic Sen. Tina Smith in blue-leaning Minnesota announced she wouldn’t run again in 2026.

Democratic Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota recently announced she won’t seek re-election in the 2026 midterms. (Getty Images)

“Minnesota is an open seat. That’s a four-point state,” Scott said as he pointed to Trump’s better-than-expected performance in the state in November’s presidential election.

“We can actually make gains there and bring home another red seat in Minnesota for the first time in a long time,” Scott predicted.

Asked about GOP recruitment efforts in Minnesota, Scott responded, “I’m pleasantly surprised. We’ve already talked to two very highly qualified candidates and more to come.”

Pointing to the current political landscape across the country, Scott touted that “we have a map that is wide open. All we need is time. Time is on our side right now. So, we’re excited about what’s going to happen over the next several weeks.”

But Republicans are also playing defense in the 2026 cycle.

Democrats plan to go on offense in blue-leaning Maine, where GOP Sen. Susan Collins is up for re-election, as well as in battleground North Carolina, where Republican Sen. Thom Tillis is also up in 2026. 

Scott acknowledges that the GOP will have to spend big bucks to defend those two seats, as well as in Ohio, where Republican Lt. Gov. Jon Husted was appointed last month to succeed Vice President JD Vance in the Senate. Husted will run next year to finish out Vance’s term.

SENATE REPUBLICANS JUMP OUT TO FAST START IN THIS KEY CAMPAIGN METRIC

Pointing to a likely price tag of well over $1 billion in those three races, Scott acknowledged that “we need to continue to have strong fundraising numbers and support our candidates as we defend our seats.”

The NRSC recently announced a record $8.5 million in fundraising in January, which the committee says is its best ever off-year January haul.

Asked if the NRSC could keep up the pace, Scott said, “Absolutely we can. The good news is we’re already on pace for February to have another record-breaking month.”

Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina speaks during the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee July 15, 2024.  (Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

And pointing to the president, Scott argued that “Trump brings a lot of enthusiasm. He made promises on the campaign trail, and now, as president, he’s keeping those promises. What does that convert to? Cash is king. People love a man who says what he’s going to do, he gets a job, he goes to work doing those things. It makes our job infinitely easier at the NRSC.”

In the 2022 election cycle, when the Republicans blew a chance to win back the majority, NRSC Chair Rick Scott of Florida was criticized for a hands-off approach in the GOP Senate primaries. 

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Last cycle, NRSC Chair Sen. Steve Daines of Montana got involved in Senate Republican nomination battles.

Asked what he’ll do when it comes to contested GOP Senate primaries this cycle, Scott answered, “Whatever is in the best interest of the voters in each state, I will make a state-by-state decision on how we play and where we play.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Senate Democrats who spoke with Fox News Digital said they do support cutting some wasteful spending from the federal government, but not by Elon Musk.

“Of course there’s some wasteful spending, but you don’t use a meat ax and cut everything,” Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Wednesday after Fox News Digital asked whether there was some waste worth cutting. 

“We need to look at each program. We need to go through Congress and see what’s wasteful and move to eliminate it,” he said.

Democrats have been critical of Elon Musk’s efforts at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to slash “wasteful” federal spending, as the newly formed cost-cutting department rescinds hundreds of millions of dollars dished out by the previous administration.

Democratic lawmakers told Fox News Digital on Capitol Hill they are generally in favor of cuts to federal spending but aren’t in support of how DOGE is conducting its sweep. 

VOCAL OPPOSITION TO ELON MUSK’S CUTS IS A ‘TERRIBLE’ STRATEGY, WARNS EX-DEMOCRAT ADVISOR

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. (J. Scott Applewhite)

“DOGE is turning the country over to the billionaires. They’re looking to make money for themselves,” said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn. “They’re not interested in government efficiency.”

Murphy told Fox “there’s plenty of money to be cut,” such as on prescription drugs, but “that’s not what DOGE is doing.”

“We spent way too much money on prescription drugs. We pad the pockets of the drug industry every single year. We should be negotiating all of our prescription drug costs. We waste a ton of money on overspending,” Murphy said.

JUDGE DENIES DEMOCRAT-LED EFFORT TO BLOCK DOGE ACCESS, CITING LACK OF PROVEN HARM

Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., laughed, saying, “There’s always things that can be improved.”

Sen. Chris Murphy said, “DOGE is turning the country over to the billionaires.” (Anna Moneymaker)

Democratic Sen. Andy Kim of New Jersey said, “There’s certainly waste and efficiencies that we can get better at,” but “the way in which it’s happening right now is not the right way to do it.

“I mean, you’re having federal employees getting kicked out, and then we realize that we need them for bird flu or nuclear regulation and other things like that,” Kim told Fox News Digital. “It’s causing way too much chaos. But I would have been prepared to work in a bipartisan way. I still am.”

Senators Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., told Fox they think there should be cuts to wasteful spending but did not elaborate on where that should be.

DOGE has spent the past month entering federal agencies and uncovering billions in spending from the federal government that the Trump administration considers wasteful.

Democratic lawmakers tell Fox News they do not support how Elon Musk is going about making cuts to federal spending. (Fox News Digital/Getty Images)

The method sparked opposition from critics such as Schumer, who claimed DOGE “went after community health centers in Medicaid” and “many things that American families need, want and approve of.”

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Trump on Wednesday floated the idea of delivering 20% of the DOGE savings to taxpayers directly through personal checks to taxpaying households, while another 20% would be used to pay down the national debt. 

President Donald Trump and his administration continued to advance negotiations with Ukraine and Russia his fifth week in office in an attempt to reach a peace deal to end the conflict between the two countries. 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz met with Russian officials in Riyadh Tuesday to discuss ways to end the war, while U.S. Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia Keith Kellogg met with Ukrainian officials in Kyiv about a peace deal Wednesday. 

The meetings increased tension between the U.S. and Ukraine when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters in Turkey that “nobody decides anything behind our back,” claiming Ukraine wasn’t invited to the meeting between the U.S. and Russia. Zelenskyy has said that Ukraine won’t agree to a deal unless Ukraine is part of the talks. 

TRUMP’S FRUSTRATIONS WITH ZELENKSYY ESCALATE AS US TURNS UP PRESSURE ON UKRAINE TO REACH PEACE DEAL 

President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy sparred amid negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.  (Getty Images )

In response, both Trump and Zelenskyy exchanged barbs. Although Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Trump insinuated that Ukraine started the war and called Zelenskyy a “dictator.” Meanwhile, Zelenskyy claimed Trump was dispersing Russian “disinformation.” 

Even so, the Trump administration has defended its decision to meet with Russia, claiming it’s necessary to advance the negotiations. 

“How are you going to end the war unless you’re talking to Russia?” Vice President JD Vance said at the Conservative Political Action Conference near the nation’s capital Thursday. “You’ve got to talk to everybody involved in the fighting. If you actually want to bring the conflict to a close.”

Here’s what also happened this week at the White House:

Weeding out unconstitutional regulations

Trump signed an executive order Wednesday requiring federal agencies to assess regulations that could violate the Constitution as the administration seeks to cut red tape. 

Senior administration officials told Fox News Digital the order is first of its kind and an attempt to ensure the government isn’t weaponized against the American people. It will require agencies to submit a list to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) within the next 60 days of all regulations that could be unconstitutional.

OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) and the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) will oversee the effort and examine federal agencies’ regulations. 

TRUMP TO SIGN EXECUTIVE ORDER INSTRUCTING AGENCIES TO HUNT DOWN REGULATIONS THAT VIOLATE THE CONSTITUTION

President Donald Trump speaks as Elon Musk, joined by his son X Æ A-Xii, listens in the Oval Office at the White House, Feb. 11, 2025, in Washington.  (Alex Brandon/The Associated Press)

DOGE officials at federal agencies will compose an inventory of regulations that could violate the Constitution and deliver the list to OMB. After the 60 days, the OIRA will go through the list of regulations and make individual decisions on which are unconstitutional and will launch the process of repealing the regulations on a case-by-case basis. 

OIRA oversees executive branch regulations, while the newly created DOGE aims to eliminate government waste, fraud and spending.

Expanding IVF coverage 

Trump signed an executive order Tuesday requesting the Domestic Policy Council to examine ways to make in vitro fertilization, known as IVF, more affordable and accessible for Americans. 

“Americans need reliable access to IVF and more affordable treatment options, as the cost per cycle can range from $12,000 to $25,000,” the executive order said. “Providing support, awareness, and access to affordable fertility treatments can help these families navigate their path to parenthood with hope and confidence.”

‘PROMISES KEPT’: TRUMP SIGNS EXECUTIVE ORDER TO ‘AGGRESSIVELY’ MAKE IVF MORE AFFORDABLE AND ACCESSIBLE 

President Donald Trump signed an executive order making IVF more affordable and accessible. (Getty Images)

The assistant to the president for domestic policy will provide policy recommendations with the goal of “protecting IVF access and aggressively reducing out-of-pocket and health plan costs for IVF treatment” within 90 days. 

Ending taxpayer funding for illegal immigrants 

Trump also signed an executive order that ensures taxpayer benefits do not go toward illegal immigrants, in an attempt to better protect the interests of American citizens. 

The directive requires federal agencies to determine if any federally funded programs are providing financial benefits to illegal immigrants and immediately take “corrective action” so that these federal funds don’t bolster illegal immigration. Likewise, the order instructs agencies to implement stricter eligibility verification to ensure that these benefits don’t go to those in the U.S. illegally. 

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The order did not identify specific benefits, and notes that illegal immigrants are largely barred from qualifying for welfare programs. However, the order states without providing evidence that past administrations have “repeatedly undercut the goals of that law, resulting in the improper expenditure of significant taxpayer resources.”

“My Administration will uphold the rule of law, defend against the waste of hard-earned taxpayer resources, and protect benefits for American citizens in need, including individuals with disabilities and veterans,” the order states.

“President Trump is committed to safeguarding Federal public benefits for American citizens who are truly in need, including individuals with disabilities and veterans,” a White House fact sheet on the executive order said.

A high school female track and field athlete is praising President Donald Trump for doing what she said state lawmakers won’t: protect women from biological males competing against them in sports.

Zoe, who competed in shot put at Maine’s Class B state indoor championship meet on Monday, said she is “grateful” for the president’s announcement that he will be cutting federal funding to Maine over its defiance of Trump’s order to keep men out of women’s sports, adding that leaders in the state “have failed our female athletes.” 

“State leaders have failed our female athletes and there needs to be repercussions for their neglect,” Zoe said. “We feel seen and heard because of this announcement and hope that steps will continue to be made to protect women’s sports in Maine.”

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During the state championship meet, Katie Spencer, who competed as a male named John Rydzewski in pole-vaulting as recently as June 2024, out-jumped every other female by half a foot. Spencer’s winning pole vault was pivotal in helping Spencer’s track and field team at Greely High School in Cumberland, Maine, win the Class B state championship meet by just a single point.

Following news of what happened, Trump announced that Maine would lose public funding until “they clean that up.”

Republican Maine state Rep. Laurel Libby began sounding the alarm after Spencer won the women’s pole-vaulting state championship on Monday.

In an interview with Fox News Digital, she reiterated Zoe’s concern that without some sort of federal intervention nothing was going to change. 

Several years ago, the state amended its state Human Rights Act to include protections for gender-identity, and since Democrats control both chambers of the legislature and the governor’s office, Libby said there is “a 0% chance” they will repeal it.

CA LAWMAKERS INTRODUCE BILL PROTECTING GIRLS FROM TRANS ATHLETES AFTER STATE REFUSES TO FOLLOW TRUMP’S ORDER

Following Trump’s Feb. 5 executive order threatening to end public funding to schools that do not keep men out of women’s sports, the Maine Principals’ Association, the primary governing body for high school athletics in the state, said that the president’s order conflicts with state law aimed at protecting human rights. As a result, the association said it will defer to the latter when it comes to determining athletic eligibility.

Sarah Perry, a civil rights attorney who has extensive experience litigating Title IX issues, said that in addition to Trump’s executive order, the association is also flouting directives from the Department of Education and previously established precedent from a slew of cases that challenged former President Joe Biden’s Title IX regulations allowing athletic eligibility to be determined by one’s preferred gender identity. Perry noted that besides the obvious risk of losing funding, these states also open themselves up to federal Title IX investigations, something she said could potentially force them to comply with Trump’s demands.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Maine Principals’ Association for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.

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“It is absolutely reprehensible that people in a position of power would allow this against children who are trying to compete,” Libby said. “There will not be enforcement from the state level, that is absolutely clear. So the only mechanism of enforcement that we have is for the administration to intervene.”

Libby noted that after posting about Spencer’s state championship title on social media, a young female competitor at the meet commented that she and her teammates did not even know they would be competing against a biological male until they arrived at the state championship meet on Monday. “It was so disheartening to find out, because, you immediately know the result,” Libby told Fox News Digital. 

Libby also pointed out that it was illustrative of a larger problem in Maine when it comes to protecting women’s rights in athletics.

TRANS ATHLETE AND ‘UNCOMFORTABLE’ OPPONENT SPEAK OUT AFTER ALLEGED INCIDENT PROMPTS CIVIL RIGHTS COMPLAINT

“This is not a first-time scenario here,” she said. “There is another boy who has been running girls’ cross-country for several fall seasons now. He was a mediocre athlete as a boy, but as a girl he is doing extremely well. This is increasing in Maine. And unless something is done at the federal level, I think we’re just going to see more and more of it.” 

Due to the win, Spencer has now automatically qualified for the multistate regional championships, taking the spot that would have been awarded to the female athlete who garnered second place had Spencer competed in the boys’ division.

A demonstrator waves a trans pride flag during the Rise Up for Trans Youth rally against President Donald Trump’s executive actions targeting transgender people at Union Square in New York on Feb. 7. (Stephanie Keith/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Trump on Thursday said that Maine will not receive federal funding until it complies with his executive order requiring schools and athletic associations to ensure biological males do not compete on women’s sports teams. 

“I heard men are still playing in Maine,” the president said Friday during a speech at the annual National Governors Association conference in Washington, D.C. “I hate to tell you this, but we’re not going to give any federal money. They are still saying, ‘We want men to play in women’s sports,’ and I cannot believe they are doing that… so we’re not going to give them any federal funding, none whatsoever, until they clean that up.” 

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Trump met with governors at the White House on Friday, including Maine’s Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, amid the conference taking place in the nation’s capital. For a brief moment, Trump and Mills got into a verbal skirmish over his move to slash the state’s federal funding due to its defiance against Trump’s executive order barring men from competing in women’s sports.

“You better do it because you’re not going to get federal funding,” Trump said to Mills, to which she responded: “We’re going to follow the law, sir. We’ll see you in court.”

“Enjoy your life after governor, because I don’t think you’ll be an elected official afterward,” Trump shot back. 

In a statement to Fox News Digital, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “Partisan elected officials and judicial activists who seek to legally obstruct President Trump’s agenda are defying the will of 77 million Americans who overwhelmingly re-elected President Trump,” and added that “their efforts will fail.”

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“All of President Trump’s executive actions are lawful, constitutional and intended to deliver on the promises he made to the American people,” Leavitt said. “The Trump Administration is prepared to fight these battles in court and will prevail.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt offered words of wisdom to young women across the nation from the stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference Friday evening, urging them to “stay strong, speak the truth,” and believe in themselves. 

Leavitt sat down for a fireside chat hosted by former White House communications director Mercedes Schlapp, who served during the first Trump administration. 

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Schlapp said young women across the country admire Leavitt, who is the youngest White House press secretary in United States history and are inspired by her. 

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks during a press briefing at the White House, Friday, Jan. 31, 2025, in Washington.  (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Schlapp asked Leavitt what her message to young women is. 

“Stay strong, speak the truth and don’t let anybody tell you that you can’t achieve your dream, or you can’t get to that next step. Just believe in yourself,” Leavitt said. 

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“Because there will be a lot of people who don’t believe in you—who cast doubt on you, who talk bad about you,” Leavitt said. 

“Screw ‘em,” she said, drawing laughter and applause from the CPAC audience. “It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter.” 

Leavitt, 27, served in the first Trump administration as a White House press aide. She then worked for Rep. Elise Stefanik, and later launched her own campaign for New Hampshire’s 1st congressional district in 2022. Leavitt served as national press secretary for the 2024 Trump campaign. 

But Leavitt also praised the “amazing” women working in the second Trump administration. 

FILE – President Donald Trump speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One en route from Miami to Joint Base Andrews, Md., Jan. 27, 2025, as White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt listens. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)

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“Look at the White House and look at the exceptional Cabinet President Trump has put together,” Leavitt said. “While we don’t care about identity politics…the president has appointed Susie Wiles, our first female chief of staff in United States history; Brooke Rollins heading up as our secretary of agriculture—look across the entire Cabinet. There are incredible women—Linda McMahon, leading the Department of Education—the list goes on and on.” 

“The White House is full of working women,” she continued. “In fact, I was going up the staircase in the West Wing today and saw two of my female colleagues, both of whom are pregnant having babies this year and they are working and they are saving America because President Trump believes in the best people for the job—the brightest people for the job.” 

Leavitt is also a new mother to a seven-month-old baby boy. 

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“It is the best thing ever,” Leavitt said of being a mother.

When asked why she is doing what she is doing, Leavitt replied: “For him and for all of the other children in this country.” 

“We have a country to save,” Leavitt said. “I want my son to grow up in a free and patriotic America that we can be proud of.” 

President Donald Trump on Friday night nominated Air Force Lt. Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. 

“General Caine is an accomplished pilot, national security expert, successful entrepreneur, and a ‘warfighter’ with significant interagency and special operations experience,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social announcing the nomination.

Trump said during his first term, the three-star lieutenant general was “instrumental” in the “complete annihilation” of the ISIS caliphate.

Trump has nominated Air Force Lieutenant General Dan “Razin” Caine to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (U.S. Air Force)

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“It was done in record setting time, a matter of weeks. Many so-called military ‘geniuses’ said it would take years to defeat ISIS,” the president wrote. “General Caine, on the other hand, said it could be done quickly, and he delivered.”

Trump said despite Caine “being highly qualified and respected,” he was “passed over for promotion by Sleepy Joe Biden.”

“But not anymore! Alongside Secretary Pete Hegseth, General Caine and our military will restore peace through strength, put America First, and rebuild our military,” Trump wrote. “Finally, I have also directed Secretary Hegseth to solicit nominations for five additional high level positions, which will be announced soon.”

President Donald Trump poses for his official White House portrait. (Trump-Vance Transition Team)

“General Caine embodies the warfighter ethos and is exactly the leader we need to meet the moment. I look forward to working with him,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote in a statement to Fox News Friday night. 

While it is typical for Joint Chiefs chairmen to remain in their positions during shifts of power, Trump made the decision to find a replacement. 

Both Trump and Hegseth gave a nod to the departing chairman, four-star fighter pilot General Charles “CQ” Brown.

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“I want to thank General Charles ‘CQ’ Brown for his over 40 years of service to our country, including as our current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,” Trump wrote. “He is a fine gentleman and an outstanding leader, and I wish a great future for him and his family.”

Hegseth added Brown served with “distinction in a career spanning four decades of honorable service.”

“I have come to know him as a thoughtful adviser and salute him for his distinguished service to our country,” he wrote. 

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth attends a NATO Defence Ministers meeting at the Alliance’s headquarters in Brussels, Belgium Feb. 13, 2025. (REUTERS/Yves Herman)

The Secretary of Defense has been outspoken about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) policies adversely affecting military operations, and previously suggested firing Brown and other top leaders.

Prior to becoming defense secretary, Hegseth wrote about Brown several times in his book, “The War on Warriors,” once questioning if Brown deserved his promotion to America’s highest general.

“The military standards, once the hallmark for competency, professionalism, and ‘mission first’ outcomes, have officially been subsumed by woke priorities,” he wrote. “You think C.Q. Brown will think intuitively about external threats and internal readiness? No chance. He built his generalship dutifully pursuing the radical positions of left-wing politicians, who in turn rewarded him with promotions.”

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. CQ Brown speaks during a press briefing, April 26, 2024, at the Pentagon in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)

He also said Brown “made the race card one of his biggest calling cards.”

Prior to his appointment, Brown served as the 22nd chief of staff of the Air Force from 2020 to 2023. He logged more than 3,000 flight hours as a fighter pilot, including 130 hours in combat.

Caine has logged more than 2,800 hours in the F-16, including more than 100 combat hours.

OFFICIALS PUSH BACK ON CLAIMS OF ‘LIST’ OF GENERALS HEGSETH PLANS TO FIRE AT PENTAGON

Hegseth said he is also requesting nominations for the positions of Chief of Naval Operations and Air Force Vice Chief of Staff.

“The incumbents in these important roles, Admiral Lisa Franchetti and General James Slife, respectively, have had distinguished careers,” Hegseth wrote. “We thank them for their service and dedication to our country.”

Admiral Lisa Franchetti (U.S. Navy)

Hegseth also previously mentioned Franchetti in his book, criticizing her lack of combat experience and mocking her master’s degree from the University of Phoenix online college.

“If naval operations suffers, at least we can hold our heads high. Because at least we have another first! The first female member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — hooray. For social justice ideologues, PR matters more than reality,” he wrote.

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Caine was commissioned in 1990 through the ROTC program at the Virginia Military Institute and has a Master of Arts in Air Warfare from the American Military University.

Brown was visiting Fort Bliss to discuss border operations on Friday, Fox News has learned. Franchetti was in Europe when she got the news. She is now returning home.

Hegseth said the department is also seeking nominations for the Judge Advocates General for the Army, Navy and Air Force.

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“Under President Trump, we are putting in place new leadership that will focus our military on its core mission of deterring, fighting and winning wars,” he wrote.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has sent a written complaint about U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes to the Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Sri Srinivasan, following a tense case between the Trump administration and two LGBTQ groups.

The letter, signed by Attorney General Pam Bondi’s Chief of Staff, Chad Mizelle, concerns what the DOJ characterized as Reyes’ “misconduct” during the proceedings in Nicolas Talbott et al. v. Donald J. Trump et al., a case brought by two LGBTQ groups challenging the Trump Administration’s Executive Orders barring transgender individuals from serving in the U.S. military. 

According to the complaint, the transcript “reveals multiple instances where Judge Reyes’ misconduct compromised the dignity of the proceedings and demonstrated potential bias, raising serious concerns about her ability to preside impartially in this matter.” 

JUDGE GRANTS 19 AGS PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION AGAINST DOGE ACCESS TO TREASURY PAYMENT SYSTEM

U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes is pictured with a group of protesters (Getty Images / YouTube / SenatorDurbin)

During the proceedings, Judge Reyes listed off executive orders signed by President Trump since taking office, including recognizing only two sexes, blocking school funding from promoting the idea that gender can be fluid, directing the State Department to stop issuing documents allowing a third gender marker, and revoking the ability of trans federal employees to receive a sex change. She also called out the Trump administration for revoking an earlier regulation concerning trans people having equal access to homeless shelters. 

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The letter says Judge Reyes asked DOJ attorney Jason Lynch, “What do you think Jesus would say to telling a group of people that they are so worthless … that we’re not going to allow them into homeless shelters? Do you think Jesus would be, ‘Sounds right to me?’ Or do you think Jesus would say, ‘WTF? Of course, let them in?'”

DOJ attorneys asserted that the line of questioning was “deeply problematic for several reasons” – including placing DOJ counsel in an untenable position of either appearing unresponsive or speculating about how an incoherent hypothetical aligns with Reyes’ personal religious beliefs.

President Donald Trump sits down with Fox News anchor Bret Baier for an interview. (Fox News / Special Report)

The letter highlighted another incident in which Judge Reyes engaged in a rhetorical exercise to draw parallels to trans people being barred from military service. The judge instructed DOJ counsel, “My new standing order says that no one who graduated from UVA Law School can appear before me. So, I need you to sit down, please. I need you to sit down.” 

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When counsel complied with this directive, the judge continued her hypothetical about UVA law graduates being banned from her courtroom because “they’re all liars and lack integrity.” The letter alleged that only after Judge Reyes used counsel as a physical prop did she allow him to continue the proceedings. She then asked counsel if he saw how unfair the reasoning was. 

The Department of Justice seals is seen during a news conference at the DOJ office in Washington, May 16, 2023.  (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Still, the DOJ asserted in its complaint that such treatment “undermines the dignity of counsel and the decorum of the courtroom.” 

There were times when Judge Reyes commended DOJ lawyer Jason Lynch, telling him and the gallery that he was doing a credible job arguing for the government in a difficult situation.

The letter closes by requesting that “appropriate action be taken to address these violations,” saying that, at a “minimum, this matter warrants further investigation to determine whether these incidents represent a pattern of misconduct that requires more significant remedial measures.”

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U.S. District Court judges sit on the bench as a lifetime appointment. However, it is possible that Chief Judge Srinivasan could reprimand Judge Reyes, or possibly suggest she recuse herself from the case.

President Donald Trump on Friday said his administration is “pretty close” to striking a deal with Ukraine for rights to access its natural resources in exchange for the United States’ billions of dollars in support for the country against Russia. 

“You know, I think they want it, and they feel good about it,” Trump told reporters on Friday in the Oval Office after the swearing-in ceremony of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. “And it’s significant. It’s a big deal. But they want it, and it keeps us in that country. And they’re very happy about it.

“We get our money back. They should have been signed long before we went in. They should have been signed by Biden. But Biden didn’t know too much about what he was doing. The war should have never happened, No. 1. When it did happen, it could have been settled. 

“The first week or two weeks after that, it got bad. It got really bad, but it should have been, it should have never happened. And it should have been settled, and it could have been settled very easily at the beginning. Now it’s tougher, but we’ll get it settled.”

TRUMP CALLS UKRAINE’S ZELENSKYY A ‘DICTATOR WITHOUT ELECTIONS’ AS RIFT WIDENS 

During his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Friday, Trump’s National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz, said, “Here’s the bottom line: President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is going to sign that deal, and you will see that in the very short term.” 

Waltz also told “Fox & Friends” this week that Ukraine should “tone down” its criticism of Trump and “come back to the table” to work out an economic deal with the U.S.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and President Donald Trump are “pretty close” to striking a deal with Ukraine to access its natural resources. (Kay Nietfeld/picture alliance/Curtis Means/Daily Mail/Bloomberg)

The deal for U.S. access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals is part of broader negotiations to end the war in Ukraine after Russia invaded the country in 2022. 

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News Wednesday Trump is creating a “win-win” partnership between the United States and Ukraine with the deal days after meeting with Zelenskyy in Kyiv.

“Part of my trip was to go and tell the Ukrainian people that we wanted an economic partnership with them,” Bessent told Bret Baier on “Special Report.” 

“So, President Trump’s vision is [to] bring the Ukrainian people and the American people closer together economically, show the Ukrainian people that we support them, show the American people that the money that is going into Ukraine, that there is going to be a return, that there’s going to be a long-term partnership.”

REPUBLICAN SENATORS BACK TRUMP’S DEMAND FOR UKRAINE ELECTIONS, BUT WON’T CALL ZELENSKYY ‘DICTATOR’ 

The Trump administration is seeking to recoup the cost of aid sent to the war-torn country by gaining access to rare earth minerals like titanium, iron and uranium.

The delay also comes amid rising tensions between Trump and Zelenskyy as the U.S. works with Russian officials to broker a peace deal in the ongoing war. 

Trump argued on Fox News Zelenskyy has “no cards” to negotiate leverage for a deal as the pair have publicly hurled insults at one another in recent days. 

“I’ve been watching this man for years now as his cities get demolished, as his people get killed, as his soldiers get decimated,” Trump told Fox News co-host Brian Kilmeade.

U.S. Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent, left, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speak during a news conference in Kyiv Feb. 12. (Tetiana Dzhafarova/AFP via Getty Images)

“I’ve been watching him negotiate with no cards. He has no cards, and you get sick of it,” he added. “You just get sick of it, and I’ve had it.”

Trump argued Zelenskyy is a poor negotiator, noting Bessent traveled to Ukraine last week to broker a mineral agreement, worth hundreds of billions of dollars, but said the pair “couldn’t even come close” to a deal.

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The president said the trip was dangerous for Bessent and a waste of time. 

The deal would have helped U.S. investment in the war-torn nation and also provided “the best security guarantee they could ever hope for,” according to Waltz.

Fox News’ Bailee Hill contributed to this report.

A federal judge on Friday granted a preliminary injunction over parts of the Trump administration’s executive orders on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).

The injunction largely blocks the sections of President Donald Trump’s orders that seek to end federal support for programs deemed to be DEI-related, and prevents the Trump administration from canceling contracts that they believe promote diversity, equity or inclusion. 

U.S. District Judge Adam Abelson in Baltimore, a Biden nominee, ruled that parts of the executive orders likely violate the Constitution and free speech.

“The harm arises from the issuance of it as a public, vague, threatening executive order,” Abelson said in a hearing this week, adding that it would discourage businesses working with the government from openly supporting DEI. 

FEDERAL JUDGE TEMPORARILY STOPS TRUMP ADMIN FROM FIRING 11 INTELLIGENCE OFFICERS ASSIGNED TO DEI PROGRAMS

President Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

The ruling comes after the city of Baltimore, the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education, the American Association of University Professors and the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United – which represents restaurant workers – sued the Trump administration over the executive orders, calling them presidential overreach and anti-free speech. 

“Ordinary citizens bear the brunt,” attorneys for the plaintiffs wrote in the complaint. “Plaintiffs and their members receive federal funds to support educators, academics, students, workers, and communities across the country. As federal agencies make arbitrary decisions about whether grants are ‘equity-related,’ Plaintiffs are left in limbo.”

They argued that Trump was encroaching on Congress’ powers in order to champion his personal beliefs. 

“But the President simply does not wield that power,” they wrote in the complaint. “And contrary to his suggestions otherwise, his power is not limitless.”

TRUMP SCORES BIG LEGAL WIN AGAINST PULITZER PRIZE BOARD MEMBERS AS LAWSUIT MOVES TO DISCOVERY

Trump signed an order on his first day in office directing federal agencies to terminate all “equity-related” grants or contracts. He signed a follow-up order requiring federal contractors to certify that they don’t promote DEI. 

A federal judge on Friday granted a preliminary injunction over parts of the Trump administration’s executive orders on diversity, equity and inclusion. (Fox News)

The Trump administration argued in a Wednesday hearing that the president was only banning DEI programs that violate federal civil rights laws. 

“What’s happening is an overcorrection and pulling back on DEI statements,” attorney Aleshadye Getachew said in a hearing. 

A second federal lawsuit was also filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Wednesday targeting Trump’s DEI executive orders. The new complaint was filed by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and Lambda Legal on behalf of nonprofit advocacy organizations. 

The lawsuit is aimed at Trump’s executive orders: “Ending Radical and Wasteful DEI Programs and Preferencing,” “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” and “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity.” 

President Trump with members of his Cabinet in the Oval Office.  (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

White House spokesman Harrison Fields said both lawsuits represented “nothing more than an extension of the left’s resistance,” adding in a statement to the New York Times that the administration was “ready to face them in court.”

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“Radical leftists can either choose to swim against the tide and reject the overwhelming will of the people, or they can get on board and work with President Trump to advance his wildly popular agenda,” Fields said.

Fox News’ Danielle Wallace and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday paused the Trump administration’s efforts to dismiss the head of an independent agency charged with investigating whistleblower claims as the president seeks to remake the federal government. 

The decision allows Hampton Dellinger, a Biden appointee, to remain as head of the Office of Special Counsel at least through Feb. 26. The high court kept that deadline in place and won’t take any further action until then.

The Trump administration asked the court to overturn a lower court’s temporary reinstatement of Dellinger. A district court hearing is scheduled to consider whether to extend the pause on Dellinger’s firing. 

 FEDERAL JUDGE ORDERS TRUMP ADMIN TO RESTORE PUBLIC HEALTH WEB PAGES

President Donald Trump and Hampton Dellinger. Trump is trying to dismiss Dellinger, the head of the Office of Special Counsel. (AP; Reuters)

Liberal justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson voted to outright deny the administration’s request to OK the firing.

Conservative justices Neil Gorsuch and Samuel Alito dissented, saying the lower court overstepped, and they cast doubt on whether courts have the authority to restore to office someone the president has fired. While acknowledging that some officials appointed by the president have contested their removal, Gorsuch wrote in his opinion that “those officials have generally sought remedies like backpay, not injunctive relief like reinstatement.” 

The dispute over Dellinger is the first legal challenge to reach the Supreme Court after several firings under the Trump administration.

HOUSE DEMS ORGANIZE RAPID RESPONSE TASK FORCE AND LITIGATION GROUP TO COMBAT TRUMP AGENDA

The U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)

Dellinger sued the Trump administration in Washington, D.C., federal court after his Feb. 7 firing.

“I am glad to be able to continue my work as an independent government watchdog and whistleblower advocate,” Dellinger said in a statement after Friday’s proceedings. “I am grateful to the judges and justices who have concluded that I should be allowed to remain on the job while the courts decide whether my office can retain a measure of independence from direct partisan and political control.”

He has argued that, by law, he can only be dismissed from his position for job performance problems, which were not cited in an email dismissing him from his post.

Trump began his second term in the White House with a flurry of executive orders and directives that have since been targeted by a flood of legal challenges.

The Trump administration dismissed multiple federal officials (Donald Trump/Truth Social)

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Since Jan. 20, dozens of lawsuits have been filed over the administration’s actions, including the president’s birthright citizenship order, immigration policies, federal funding freezes, federal employee buyouts, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency and legal action against FBI and DOJ employees.

A federal judge on Friday granted an injunction requested by 19 attorneys general to prevent the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from having access to the Treasury Department’s central payment system.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas extends the pause by issuing a preliminary injunction, a legal step that blocks access to the records while the case is litigated on the merits.

In her 64-page decision, Vargas noted she was granting the preliminary injunction preventing DOGE from accessing the payment records because of the possible disclosure of the states’ bank records. However, she also said the plaintiffs “have not demonstrated that they are entitled to the broad and sweeping relief they seek, which would far exceed the scope of the present TRO (Temporary restraining order).”

TRUMP ISSUES WARNING ABOUT WASTEFUL SPENDING, ORDERS ‘RADICAL TRANSPARENCY’ AMID DOGE PROBES, REVELATIONS

The White House on Wednesday outlined where Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) dividend checks could go after President Donald Trump floated the idea of giving 20% of the savings back to Americans. (Reuters | iStock | Getty Images)

Vargas is giving Trump administration attorneys the chance to fix any defects so that the sensitive information will be protected.  

A report is due March 24. Last week, a federal judge extended a temporary order to block DOGE from accessing Treasury payment systems. 

A lawsuit filed by the 19 AGs claims DOGE illegally accessed the Treasury Department’s central payment system at the Trump administration’s behest. The payment systems have information about Americans’ Social Security, Medicare and veterans’ benefits; tax refund information; and much more. 

Lawyers for the administration argued that the temporary restraining order “causes ongoing constitutional harm to the Treasury Department’s ability to make management decisions within its lawful discretion.”  

TREASURY ‘MISTAKENLY’ GAVE MUSK DOGE WORKER ABILITY TO CHANGE PAYMENTS SYSTEM: COURT DOCS

The U.S. Treasury building in Washington, D.C. (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo)

Defense attorneys argued that there is nothing unlawful about the Treasury Department’s actions. Treasury officials have denied violating privacy laws, saying only two members of the DOGE team had been given “read-only” access to information in the payment systems. 

The lawsuit was filed in New York by the office of New York Attorney General Letitia James, a vocal Trump critic. 

It includes attorneys general from Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin. 

“We just won a court order stopping DOGE and unauthorized, unelected, and unvetted individuals like Elon Musk from accessing people’s private data and blocking federal funds,” James wrote Friday on X. “We will keep fighting to protect all Americans from this administration’s destruction.”

The AGs argue that granting DOGE access to the payment system puts Americans’ sensitive, personal information, such as bank account details and Social Security numbers, at risk.

Fox News’ William Mears and Maria Paronich contributed to this report. 

“It shouldn’t take longer to approve an [energy] project than it takes to build it,” said National Governors Association Vice Chair Kevin Stitt at Friday’s conference in Washington.

That, the Oklahoma Republican said, is the collective picture painted of all the problems with government bureaucracy at all levels that imperils the U.S.’ ability to stay ahead of China in terms of cyberthreat-prevention and energy dominance.

Permitting reform is one of the most important things to address with a new administration and new state government sessions beginning, the governors collectively expressed.

There was bipartisan consensus at the NGA that America must move responsibly toward a future secure from malign foreign actors in both cybersecurity and energy development.

NJ RESIDENTS HIT WITH DOUBLING BILLS AS LAWMAKERS FUME OVER MURPHY’S ‘ENERGY DISASTER PLAN’

Govs. Kevin Stitt (R-OK) and Josh Shapiro (D-PA) found common ground on energy development and permitting reform (Getty)

“Permitting reform is one of those issues where both Republicans and Democrats recognize the problem, we largely agree on solutions,” Stitt said, adding it is a national security issue that the U.S. must streamline permitting.

“Our allies need affordable, reliable energy and the US has the resources to provide that,” he said.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum spoke at length on that matter, saying America is in competition with foreign rivals like Russia, China, Iran and North Korea whether they like it or not.

“It’s key that we win the AI arms race with China,” he said, citing bot-powered attacks that can be much more effective than human hackers.

“They would have the ability to take down the electric grid. They have the ability to disrupt everything that we know in our country. And they wouldn’t have to put a single soldier on the ground, but it could completely disrupt us and our economy. So, winning that AI arms race doesn’t just take software developers, it takes more electricity.”

“We’re in a competition… against other countries that aren’t slowing themselves down with the level of bureaucracy that we have,” Burgum said, citing the threat of cyberattacks from Russia, China, Iran and North Korea.

Burgum and the governors discussed the promise of nuclear energy and new technology that allows for the portability of such operations, where plants that generate power can be placed much closer to where that power is needed.

Stitt remarked that when Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro issued an order mandating his own government to rule on infrastructure permit applications within two weeks or give the applicant their money back, he didn’t want to get “beat by a Democrat” in that idea so he quickly issued his own order.

HOCHUL DOES APPARENT ABOUT-FACE ON NATURAL GAS AS NYC UTILITY SIGNALS MAJOR RATE HIKES

An oil pumpjack operates in the drive-thru area of a McDonald’s in Bradford, Pennsylvania, U.S. 2017. (Reuters)

Shapiro also said Pennsylvania conducted an audit of permit applications earlier in his term and found 3,400 – leading him to order there be cataloging going forward.

Despite Bethlehem Steel’s stacks laying dormant 25 years on, and the massive St. Nicholas Breaker coal processor long gone, Pennsylvania remains the nation’s second-largest energy net-exporter – a fact noted by the governor.

The first North American discovery of oil occurred in the mid-1800s in Venango County, and some of the longest-producing wells remain active in Pennsylvania, though the Commonwealth has been far surpassed in that regard by Texas, Alaska and other states.

“We’re proud of our legacy as a national energy leader,” Shapiro said. “We’ve got to get to-market quickly [regarding] energy projects.”

Pennsylvania produced more than 7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in 2023. But there has been a push-pull effect of former Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell banning fracking on state parkland, Republican Gov. Tom Corbett reversing that, and Shapiro’s Democratic predecessor Tom Wolf then restoring Rendell’s moratorium.

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Shapiro indicated Friday he would be taking a more measured approach to responsibly developing the Commonwealth’s resources. 

He cited the bipartisan SPEED Act out of Harrisburg, which provides for third-party permitting review while also accelerating the overall process.

Burgum called the work of a governor one of the hardest, but remarked that it is about to “become more fun than it’s ever been” with the accessibility of the Trump administration.

In that regard, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster described how cabinet secretaries had shared their own personal contact information following a Friday White House meeting – and that President Donald Trump invited calls as well but did not share his own number.

“I’ve got it, but I’m going to hold onto it,” he joked.

Colorado lawmakers spent hours Friday afternoon considering a Democrat-led resolution to condemn President Donald Trump’s pardons of Jan. 6 prisoners while the state grapples with an estimated $1.2 billion budget shortfall for the 2025-26 fiscal year. 

“With skyrocketing costs, a $1 billion budget deficit, rising crime and an affordability crisis pushing families to the brink, it is appalling that the majority is more focused on passing meaningless, partisan resolutions instead of addressing the real concerns of Coloradans,” Republican minority leader Rep. Rose Pugliese told Fox News Digital in a statement. 

Pugliese also called the resolution “political theater” to “divide rather than deliver results for our communities.”

The measure passed by a 41-23 vote in the Democrat-controlled state House of Representatives. Rep. Lisa Feret, a Democrat, voted against the resolution.

COLORADO POISED TO BAN SALE OF AR-15S, OTHER RIFLES AND SHOTGUNS WITH EXTENDED MAGS

Colorado Republicans turned their chairs around in protest Friday when the assembly considered a resolution to condemn President Donald Trump’s Jan. 6 pardons. (Rep. Jarvis Caldwell; Getty Images)

Republicans, who spent time providing public comment against the bill, also turned their chairs around to face away from the assembly speaker during the hearing. Lawmakers tried to introduce several amendments to the resolution to change some of the phrasing used in the bill, but they were rejected.

“To Hell with your concerns about cost of living, crime, and other important issues,” Republican state Rep. Jarvis Caldwell wrote on X. “Democrats are running another January 6th resolution. We turned our chairs in protest, and now we’re having a debate about it.”

State Republican Rep. Ryan Gonzalez also posted on X, saying, “The majority, instead of addressing issues the voters sent us to do—are instead passing messaging resolutions aimed *indirectly* at the sitting President.”

The Colorado House GOP X account posted that “not one life in Colorado will be saved by this resolution.”

Another X post said, “Democrats could be working on real solutions to our 1 BILLION dollar budget deficit. Instead, they are playing political games.”

Rep. Lauren Boebert, a Republican who represents Colorado’s 4th Congressional District in the U.S. House, tweeted, “Will Colorado Dems playing partisan politics lower the cost of eggs?”

The measure, sponsored by state Democratic senators Nick Hinrichsen and Matt Ball, passed along party lines in the state Senate earlier this month in a 21-12 vote. The Democratic lawmakers condemned Trump’s pardons and the mass firings of FBI agents assigned to investigate the Jan. 6 Capitol riots. 

Democratic representatives Sean Camacho and Michael Carter were the sponsors of the state House version.

“Colorado House Republicans have now launched a full-throated defense of the January 6th rioters,” state Rep. Steven Woodrow, a Democrat, wrote on Bluesky Social, an X-like social media platform favored by progressives. “They can turn their backs on America—but we see them, and we know the truth.”

DAS MAY TRY TO CHARGE JAN. 6 PARTICIPANTS GRANTED CLEMENCY BY TRUMP WITH NEW CRIMES ON STATE, LOCAL LEVELS

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Democratic state Rep. Lorena Garcia also wrote on Bluesky Social saying, “While this resolution will pass, today is a wake up call to all Coloradans who believe in freedom, that the republican party is not a party that believes in freedom. It is the party of authoritarianism, it’s the party of fascism.”

All the Jan. 6 defendants — more than 1,500 — were pardoned by Trump as one of his first executive actions in January. 

Kash Patel, President Donald Trump’s pick to head the FBI, was sworn in on Friday after a narrow Senate confirmation vote Thursday. 

Patel was sworn in at the Eisenshower Executive Office Building by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi after being confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the ninth-ever FBI director, succeeding Christopher Wray. Patel, who is Indian-American, is the first person of color to become FBI director. 

“I am living the American dream,” Patel said after taking his oath of office. “And anyone that thinks the American dream is dead: just look right here. You’re talking to a first-generation Indian kid who’s about to lead the law enforcement community of the greatest nation on God’s green earth. That can’t happen anywhere else.” 

FBI NOMINEE KASH PATEL CONFIRMED IN NARROW SENATE VOTE

Kash Patel, President Donald Trump’s pick to head the FBI, was sworn in on Friday after a narrow Senate confirmation vote Thursday.  (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Patel also made a promise to the lawmakers who confirmed him and those who opposed his nomination.

“There will be accountability within the FBI and outside of the FBI, and we will do it through rigorous constitutional oversight starting this weekend.” 

Patel has been a longtime Trump ally and a fierce opponent of the investigations into the president. During his confirmation hearing last month, Patel vowed he would not engage in political retribution against agents who worked on the Trump classified documents case and other politically sensitive matters.

He faced a rocky path to confirmation – similar to other fellow Trump picks – despite the Republican-majority chamber. Democrats on the panel used their political weight to delay Patel’s confirmation vote earlier this month. 

TRUMP FBI DIRECTOR NOMINEE KASH PATEL PICKS UP SUPPORT FROM KEY GOP SENATOR

On the Senate floor, top Judiciary Democrat Dick Durbin claimed Patel had been behind recent mass firings at the FBI. Durbin cited what he described as “highly credible” whistleblower reports that indicated Patel had personally directed the ongoing FBI employee purge prior to his confirmation.

On the Senate floor, top Judiciary Democrat Dick Durbin claimed Patel had been behind recent mass firings at the FBI.  (AP/Reuters)

Patel brings to the office an extensive background in national security and intelligence. He previously engaged in personally carrying out dangerous missions in the Middle East in an effort to bring home U.S. hostages and also implemented counterterrorism strategies against America’s most-wanted terrorists. 

4 OF THE BIGGEST CLASHES BETWEEN PATEL, SENATE DEMS AT HIS CONFIRMATION HEARING

Current and former U.S. national security officials and lawmakers told Fox News Digital previously that he, “objectively,” is “one of the most experienced people ever to be nominated” to lead the bureau. 

Patel’s confirmation to head the office comes at a time when the FBI’s activities are under extreme scrutiny for possible political motivations, including its own leadership and decisions. 

Patel’s confirmation to head the office comes at a time when the FBI’s activities are under extreme scrutiny for possible political motivations, including its own leadership and decisions.  (AP/Ben Curtis)

Previously, thousands of FBI agents as well as their superiors were ordered to fill out a questionnaire detailing their roles in the Jan. 6 investigation, prompting concerns of retaliation or retribution. 

“There will be no politicization at the FBI,” Patel said during his confirmation hearing. “There will be no retributive action.”

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Patel previously served as deputy assistant to the president and as senior director for counterterrorism under the first Trump administration, wherein he worked on presidential missions aimed at decimating al-Qaeda senior leadership and ISIS command and control.

Patel was also involved in planning the mission to take out Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, among others. 

Fox News Digital’s Breanne Deppisch, Morgan Phillips, and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.