Donald Trump Poll News

Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine is faced with a crowded field of candidates vying to fill Vice President-elect JD Vance’s seat in the Senate, but a new poll shows some candidates are going into the battle with an advantage.

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose leads fellow candidates in a hypothetical GOP primary for Vance’s seat conducted by WPA Intelligence. LaRose’ closest competitor is Lieutenant Gov. Jon Husted, who was favored by 10% of respondents compared to LaRose’s 17%.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, another contender for the seat, received 9% support. Meanwhile, Rep. Mike Carey, R-Ohio, is in the midst of aggressively pitching himself for Vance’s role, but he received just 2% support in the poll.

Attorney Mehek Cooke, a Republican attorney who served as a surrogate for the Trump campaign in 2024, received 1% support in the poll. 

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Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose is among the leading candidates to replace JD Vance in the Senate. (AP Photo/Paul Vernon, File)

A large number of voters, 39%, remain undecided in the race, however.

WPA conducted the poll from Nov. 17-20, surveying 1,028 Ohio likely voters statewide via phone interviews and online. The poll advertises a margin of error of 3.1%.

LaRose also leads the pack when filtering for candidates who have received an endorsement from President-elect Trump in the past. LaRose received 30% support under those parameters, with his closest competitor being former Ohio Rep. Jim Rennaci.

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Carey has also received a Trump endorsement prior to the current contest, and he received 7% support.

Rep. Mike Carey, R-Ohio, is pushing for the appointment to replace JD Vance in the Senate. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Both Trump and Vance have so far been silent when it comes to filling the vacant Senate seat, and their endorsements are likely to be the deciding factor in the contest.

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DeWine has confirmed that he is deliberating about whom to select for the seat, telling local media on Tuesday that he wants to have a candidate ready for whenever Vance formally resigns his seat.

“We want someone who’s going to be fighting for Ohio every single day,” he said.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine will appoint JD Vance’s replacement in the Senate. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

WPA concluded from its polling that LaRose would “clearly be the strongest GOP choice” both to replace Vance and to defeat a Democratic challenger in the next election.

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As Ohio’s secretary of state, LaRose has led efforts to combat illegal voting. His office purged hundreds of thousands of wrongful voter registrations, including hundreds of non-citizen registrations, prior to Election Day. He also sued President Biden’s administration in October in an effort to force the administration to assist in cleaning up voter rolls. 

The Republican National Committee (RNC) said it has filed national lawsuits to stop several states from counting mail-in-ballots after Election Day, as California has taken nearly a month to certify some races.

“It is absurd for California to accept ballots by mail up to 7 days after Election Day and take almost a month to count them,” RNC Chairman Michael Whatley wrote on X. 

Whatley said the RNC, alongside the California Republican Party, “will continue to fight aggressively to force all states to stop accepting ballots after Election Day.” 

Republicans on the ground in California are working with attorneys and observers “throughout the process of voting, curing, and counting,” he added. The RNC has also partnered with the National Republican Congressional Committee and Elon Musk’s PAC to launch a new statewide ballot curing operation. 

“The RNC, NRCC, and CAGOP’s election integrity operation was on the ground in California before Election Day, on Election Day, and has continued working ever since November 5th. Our attorneys and trained volunteers are in place to ensure transparency throughout the election process,” Gates McGavick, senior adviser to Whatley, told Fox News Digital in a statement. 

CALIFORNIA COASTAL ENCLAVE NEAR SANCTUARY CITY TRIES TO ‘NEWSOM-PROOF’ ITSELF

Voters cast ballots during the Super Tuesday primary at a polling station in an American Legion post in Hawthorne, California, on March 5. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)

California’s vote-counting process has been prolonged due to the high volume of mail-in-ballots, with a majority of Californians opting to vote by mail. In the state’s 2022 election, nearly 90% of votes were cast via mail-in ballots.

State law also permits mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted if they arrive up to a week later. Mail-in ballots are typically put through a verification process that can also lengthen the amount of time they are tallied. The election certification deadline is Dec. 16. 

As of Wednesday, several races remain undecided in the Golden State, including for the 13th Congressional District, where Republican Rep. John Duarte is being challenged by Democrat Adam Gray. 

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The California Capitol in Sacramento is seen on July 17, 2022. (Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

“Every vote in every state matters, and the RNC will work with our state parties and candidates to ensure Election Integrity across the country,” Whatley said. “It is clear that we need real election reforms to Protect the Vote in California.”

Liberal Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed several laws during his term to expand mail-in voting. In 2021, Newsom signed AB 37, making California one of the first states to require that all active registered voters automatically receive absentee ballots, codifying a temporary COVID-era emergency measure passed in 2020. Two laws signed in 2023, AB 626 and AB 545, require a curbside voting option at all polling places and permit voters to drop off their mail-in ballots at polling stations to have them counted immediately. 

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California Gov. Gavin Newsom greets people in Hooksett, New Hampshire, on July 8. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

California is one of 14 states where voters are not required to show voter ID at polling stations. In March, officials in Huntington Beach — a conservative hotspot on the southern coastal line — passed a local measure requiring voter ID to vote in elections, which Newsom quickly bucked through state legislation in September that prohibited local governments from enforcing laws that require voter ID.

“The right to freely cast your vote is the foundation of our democracy and Huntington Beach’s voter ID policy flies in the face of this principle,” state Attorney General Bob Bonta said in a statement at the time.

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Republican criticism of extended vote-counting periods has intensified this election cycle, including in Pennsylvania and North Carolina. Prior to Sen. Bob Casey’s concession last week in Pennsylvania’s Senate race to his Republican opponent, Dave McCormick, national and state Republican parties went to court arguing counties should not count mail-in-ballots where the voter either didn’t write a date on the return envelope or wrote the wrong one, The Associated Press reported. 

President-elect Trump has also taken notice of California’s voter ID laws, writing on his Truth Social account he would demand proof of citizenship and voter ID in elections. Meanwhile, Newsom is gearing up to “Trump-proof” the state and has called an emergency special legislative session on Dec. 2. 

“California is ready to fight,” Newsom wrote on X after the election. “Whether it be our fundamental civil rights, reproductive freedom, or climate action – we refuse to turn back the clock and allow our values and laws to be attacked.”

A federal appeals court on Wednesday ruled that Texas has the right to build a razor wire border wall to deter illegal immigration into the Lone Star State. 

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced the ruling on X, saying President Biden was “wrong to cut our razor wire.” 

“We continue adding more razor wire border barrier,” the Republican leader wrote. 

Wednesday’s 2-1 decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals clears the way for Texas to pursue a lawsuit accusing the Biden administration of trespassing without having to remove the fencing.

TRUMP SAYS MEXICO WILL STOP FLOW OF MIGRANTS AFTER SPEAKING WITH MEXICAN PRESIDENT FOLLOWING TARIFF THREATS

It also reversed a federal judge’s November 2023 refusal to grant a preliminary injunction to Texas as the state resisted federal efforts to remove fencing along the Rio Grande in the vicinity of Eagle Pass, Texas.

U.S. Border Patrol agents cut an opening through razor wire after immigrant families crossed the Rio Grande from Mexico in Eagle Pass, Texas, Sept. 27, 2023. (John Moore/Getty Images)

Circuit Judge Kyle Duncan, a Trump appointee during the president-elect’s first term, wrote for Wednesday’s majority that Texas was trying only to safeguard its own property, not “regulate” U.S. Border Patrol, and was likely to succeed in its trespass claims.

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Duncan said the federal government waived its sovereign immunity and rejected its concerns that a ruling by Texas would impede the enforcement of immigration law and undermine the government’s relationship with Mexico.

A Venezuelan immigrant asks Texas National Guard troops to let his family pass through razor wire after they crossed the Rio Grande from Mexico in Eagle Pass, Texas, Sept. 27, 2023. (John Moore/Getty Images)

He said the public interest “supports clear protections for property rights from government intrusion and control” and ensuring that federal immigration law enforcement does not “unnecessarily intrude into the rights of countless property owners.”

Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton called the ruling a “huge win for Texas.” 

“The Biden Administration has been enjoined from damaging, destroying, or otherwise interfering with Texas’s border fencing,” Paxton wrote in a post on X. “We sued immediately when the federal government was observed destroying fences to let illegal aliens enter, and we’ve fought every step of the way for Texas sovereignty and security.”

Migrants attempt to cross the southern border in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, in February. (David Peinado/Anadolu via Getty Images)

The White House has been locked in legal battles with Texas and other states that have tried to deter illegal immigration. 

In May, the full 5th Circuit heard arguments in a separate case between Texas and the White House over whether the state can keep a 1,000-foot floating barrier on the Rio Grande.

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The appeals court is also reviewing a judge’s order blocking a Texas law that would allow state officials to arrest, prosecute and order the removal of people in the country illegally.

President-elect Trump said he spoke with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, saying she has agreed to “stop Migration through Mexico, and into the United States” following threats this week to significantly tariff goods from Mexico.

Trump vowed to impose 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada if both nations failed to do more to stop the flow of illegal immigrants and drugs into the U.S. Sheinbaum, who recently took office, said on Wednesday that Mexico would retaliate if Trump followed through on his promise. 

TRUMP LIKELY TO MAKE SEVERAL BORDER SECURITY MOVES ON FIRST DAY, SAYS EXPERT

President Claudia Sheinbaum (Left) President-elect Donald Trump (Right.) (Getty Images)

“If there are U.S. tariffs, Mexico would also raise tariffs,” Sheinbaum said during a press conference. 

On Wednesday, Trump said he spoke with his Sheinbaum about the matter. 

“Just had a wonderful conversation with the new President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo,” he wrote on Truth Social. “She has agreed to stop Migration through Mexico, and into the United States, effectively closing our Southern Border. We also talked about what can be done to stop the massive drug inflow into the United States, and also, U.S. consumption of these drugs. It was a very productive conversation!”

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

Claudia Sheinbaum, former mayor of Mexico City and presidential candidate for the Morena party, during a campaign launch event in Mexico City, Mexico, on Friday, March 1, 2024. Sheinbaum launched her campaign with a series of proposals to build out the welfare programs that underpin the popularity of the current president, pitching herself as someone who would build on his legacy.  (Victoria Razo/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

In a subsequent post, he said that: “Mexico will stop people from going to our Southern Border, effective immediately. THIS WILL GO A LONG WAY TOWARD STOPPING THE ILLEGAL INVASION OF THE USA. Thank you!!!”

Sheinbaum and Trump spoke by phone later on Wednesday, the Mexican president said on social-media platform X, adding the two discussed “strengthening collaboration on security issues” and that the conversation was “excellent,” Reuters reported. 

Trump has long complained that Mexico has failed to do enough to stop the flow of migrants on its side of the southern border.  

Trump also threatened to impose an additional 10% tariff on China over the massive amounts of fentanyl coming into the U.S. from Mexico. 

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In response, the China Daily newspaper – which is run by the Chinese Communist Party – published an editorial Tuesday saying, “The excuse the president-elect has given to justify his threat of additional tariffs on imports from China is far-fetched,” according to Reuters.

Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has signed a bill into law that will prevent schools from allowing students of the opposite sex into restrooms and locker rooms. 

The legislation, the Protect All Students Act, dubbed the “bathroom bill,” was sent to DeWine’s desk earlier this month after the state Senate passed the bill 24-7 on a party-line vote. The House version of the bill was passed before the chamber went on summer break in June. 

The law will take effect in 90 days and will restrict transgender students from using facilities associated with their gender identities.

Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has signed a bill into law that will prevent schools from allowing students of the opposite sex into restrooms and locker rooms.  (Kyle Robertson/USA TODAY NETWORK | Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

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It applies to public K-12 schools and institutions of higher education. It requires schools to designate separate bathrooms, locker rooms and overnight accommodations “for the exclusive use” of either males and females, based on one’s gender assigned at or near birth, in both school buildings and facilities used for a school-sponsored event.

DeWine’s signature was not guaranteed and Democrats, teachers unions and civil rights groups had hoped that his veto earlier this year to a ban on sex changes for minors and hormone therapies for transgender individuals under 18 would yield a similar course of action. In the end, the state’s Republican-dominated Senate voted to override that veto and the ban came into force.

DeWine did not release a statement announcing he signed the bathroom bill on Wednesday.

“Common sense is on a winning streak in America today,” said Aaron Baer, president of the Center for Christian Virtue, which backed the bill, in a statement.

“No student should be forced to go into the bathroom or locker room with a student of the opposite sex, and Ohio’s kids are better protected now because of Governor DeWine’s decision to sign this bill.”

Riley Gaines, a former 12-time All-American swimmer at the University of Kentucky and an advocate of keeping biological males out of female sports, echoed those words.

TRANSGENDER ACTIVISTS URGE SUPPORTERS NOT TO ‘VILIFY’ CRITICS AFTER TRUMP WIN, DIP IN PUBLIC SUPPORT: REPORT

The “bathroom bill” will take effect in 90 days and will restrict transgender students from using facilities associated with their gender identities. (iStock/gerenme)

“Common sense is making a comeback nationwide,” Gaines wrote on X.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost thanked DeWine “for siding with biology, history, safety and common sense.”

The ACLU of Ohio was among the groups that had lobbied for a veto and condemned the measure as a violation of the right of privacy of transgender Ohioans that would make them less safe.

“We will always have the backs of our trans community,” the organization wrote on X. “Every Ohioan deserves the freedom to be loved, to be safe, to be trusted with decisions about healthcare and to access the facilities that align with their gender identity. We will not leave anyone behind. Trans Ohioans belong.”

School employees, emergency situations and people assisting young children or someone with a disability are exempted from the restrictions, and schools can still offer single-use or family bathrooms.

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The ACLU of Ohio was among the groups that had lobbied for a veto and condemned the measure as a violation of the right of privacy of transgender Ohioans that would make them less safe. (Allison Dinner/AFP via Getty Images)

Various battles regarding the issue of transgender people using bathrooms that align with their gender as well as participating in female sports are playing out across the nation. President-elect Trump has repeatedly vowed to keep men out of women’s sports.

At least 11 states have adopted laws barring transgender girls and women from girls’ and women’s bathrooms in public schools and, in some cases, other government facilities.

The laws are in effect in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Utah. A judge’s order putting enforcement on hold is in place in Idaho.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Incoming Trump border czar Tom Homan reacted to news of death threats against Trump nominees on Wednesday and said he now takes the death threats he has previously received seriously. 

“I have not taken this serious up to this point,” Homan told Fox News anchor Gillian Turner on “The Story” on Wednesday, referring to previous death threats made against him and his family. 

“Now that I know what’s happened in the last 24 hours. I will take it a little more serious. But look, I’ve been dealing with this. When I was the ICE director in the first administration, I had numerous death threats. I had a security detail with me all the time. Even after I retired, death threats continued and even after I retired as the ICE director. I had U.S. marshals protection for a long time to protect me and my family.”

Homan explained that what “doesn’t help” the situation is the “negative press” around Trump. 

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President-elect Donald Trump and Tom Homan (Getty)

“I’m not in the Cabinet, but, you know, I’ve read numerous hit pieces. I mean, you know, I’m a racist and, you know, I’m the father of family separation, all this other stuff. So the hate media doesn’t help at all because there are some nuts out there. They’ll take advantage. So that doesn’t help.”

Homan’s comments come shortly after Fox News Digital first reported that nearly a dozen of President-elect Trump’s Cabinet nominees and other appointees tapped for the incoming administration were targeted Tuesday night with “violent, unAmerican threats to their lives and those who live with them,” prompting a “swift” law enforcement response.

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Former President Trump pumps his fist as he arrives to speak at a campaign event at Nassau Coliseum, Sept.18, 2024, in Uniondale, New York. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

The “attacks ranged from bomb threats to ‘swatting,’” according to Trump-Vance transition spokeswoman and incoming White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

“Last night and this morning, several of President Trump’s Cabinet nominees and administration appointees were targeted in violent, unAmerican threats to their lives and those who live with them,” she told Fox News Digital on Wednesday. “In response, law enforcement acted quickly to ensure the safety of those who were targeted. President Trump and the entire Transition team are grateful for their swift action.” 

Sources told Fox News Digital that John Ratcliffe, the nominee to be CIA director, Pete Hegseth, the nominee for secretary of defense, and Rep. Elise Stefanik, the nominee for U.N. ambassador, were among those targeted. Brooke Rollins, who Trump has tapped to be secretary of agriculture, and Lee Zeldin, Trump’s nominee to be EPA administrator, separately revealed they were also targeted. 

Threats were also made against Trump’s labor secretary nominee, GOP Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, and the family of former Trump attorney general nominee Matt Gaetz. 

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Former President Trump is surrounded by Secret Service agents after being shot at a campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania, July 13, 2024. (Rebecca Droke/AFP via Getty Images)

Homan told Fox News that he is “not going to be intimidated by these people” and “I’m not going to let them silence me.”

“What I’ve learned today I’ll start taking a little more serious.”

Homan added that he believes “we need to have a strong response once we find out who is behind all this.”

“It’s illegal to threaten someone’s life. And we need to follow through with that.”

The threats on Tuesday night came mere months after Trump survived two assassination attempts.

Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman contributed to this report

Republican Iowa Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks has successfully fended off Democratic challenger Christina Bohannan in the race for the state’s 1st Congressional District, The Associated Press reported Wednesday. 

Miller-Meeks has served in the U.S. House since 2021, and currently represents the state’s 1st Congressional District, which includes cities such as Davenport and Iowa City in the southeastern portion of the state. 

She flipped her seat from blue to red in 2020 and saw this year’s race move from a “likely” victory for Republicans to a toss-up. She won her 2020 race by a slim margin of just six votes but expanded that advantage in 2022.

REP. MILLER-MEEKS BEATS BACK CONSERVATIVE PRIMARY CHALLENGE IN IOWA RACE

Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa, speaks during a town hall event in Washington, D.C. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

Miller-Meeks fended off a GOP primary challenger earlier in the cycle who accused her of voting “against you and the Republican platform over 40% of the time,” while she pitched herself to voters as a “proven conservative.”

The Iowa Republican received endorsements from the Trump orbit amid her election cycle, including former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell and former Trump Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

“There is no better conservative fighter for Iowa’s First Congressional District than Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks. I am proud to endorse and serve beside Mariannette to deliver for the American people and help claw back disastrous policies from the Biden administration,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said in his endorsement of Miller-Meeks earlier in the election cycle. 

Miller-Meeks is a doctor and military veteran who served in the U.S. Army for 24 years before retiring as a lieutenant colonel. 

Former Iowa state Rep. Christina Bohannan. (Iowa Legislature )

Democratic challenger Bohannon is a law professor at the University of Iowa College of Law, who previously served in the Iowa state House of Representatives from 2021 to 2023. She campaigned on making the Iowa public school system top-rate nationally, instituting “common-sense gun laws,” fighting to “put Roe v. Wade back into federal law” and vowing to “work with anyone to secure the border.”

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The pair sparred during a debate last month that included exchanges on abortion and the economy, as well as immigration reform. Miller-Meeks, similar to Republicans across the nation, pinned blame for the illegal immigration crisis on the Biden-Harris administration following former President Donald Trump’s White House border policies. 

“Trump-era policies that reduced the amount of illegal immigrants coming across our border, that helped to keep down the amount of illegal drugs, illegal fentanyl, that our customs and border protections agents actually felt like they were doing their job,” Miller-Meeks said during the debate.

Bohannan argued that a bipartisan piece of legislation this year that would have addressed the border but argued Republicans “killed it.” Republicans have said the immigration bill would have further worsened the crisis, and that the legislation was essentially dead on arrival. 

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The U.S.-Mexico border wall in Sasabe, Ariz. (Valerie Macon/AFP via Getty Images)

“We had a golden opportunity recently to pass the strictest border security bill that we have seen in this country in a very long time, maybe ever. And Rep. Miller-Meeks and her party in the House killed it,” Bohannan said last month.

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Miller-Meeks previously defeated Bohannan in the 2022 general election, 53% to 47%. The 1st district as a whole went for Trump in the 2020 election, voting for him by about three percentage points over President Biden.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Fox News Digital’s Adam Shaw contributed to this report. 

First-time Democratic candidate and Army veteran Derek Tran has won California’s 45th Congressional District, unseating Trump-endorsed Rep. Michelle Steel in what was considered one of the Golden State’s closely watched races, per The Associated Press. 

Tran challenged Steel in what was a traditionally conservative district, although in recent years it has become somewhat of a swing district. The district covers parts of Orange County, including Fountain Valley, Westminster and Garden Grove. 

The voting demographic is predominately Asian American. 

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GOP Rep. Michelle Steel, left, and challenger Derek Tran, right (Getty Images)

Steel was first elected to Congress in 2020 in the neighboring 48th District, in which she defeated incumbent Democrat Harley Rhouda, flipping the district red. 

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In 2018, Democrat Katie Porter flipped the district blue after defeating Republican incumbent Mimi Waters. 

Steel reclaimed the seat in 2020 and held onto it in 2022 by a narrow lead, making CA-45 one of the Republican-dominated districts that President Biden won in 2020 by around 6%.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Business magnate Elon Musk, who has been sounding the alarm about America’s gargantuan, ever-expanding national debt, claimed that many people are unaware of the problem.

“A significant % of people don’t even know that there is such a thing as a national debt!” Musk declared in a post on X.

“Those that do often don’t know how big it is or that our interest payments now exceed what we spend on our military. Only a small % understand that government overspending causes inflation,” he added.

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President-elect Trump and Elon Musk watch the launch of the sixth test flight of the SpaceX Starship rocket on Nov. 19, 2024 in Brownsville, Texas. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

The national debt has soared past $36 trillion.

“America is going bankrupt fast,” Musk warned in another post.

“The excess government spending is what causes inflation! ALL government spending is taxation. This is a very important concept to appreciate. It is either direct taxation, like income tax, or indirect via inflation due to increasing the money supply,” he asserted in a tweet earlier this month.

US NATIONAL DEBT HITS A NEW RECORD: $36 TRILLION

Elon Musk speaks at a rally for former President Trump at Madison Square Garden in New York, Oct. 27, 2024. (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)

In another post, Musk said, “If we don’t tackle the national debt, all tax revenue will go to paying interest and there will be nothing left for anything else.”

If the issue isn’t addressed “the dollar will be worth nothing,” Musk warned in a tweet earlier this year.

President-elect Donald Trump tapped Musk and former GOP presidential primary candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to helm the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an effort meant to root out government waste.

ELON MUSK AND VIVEK RAMASWAMY APPROVE THE ‘VERY REASONABLE PROPOSAL’ TO ABOLISH DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

Elon Musk listens as President-elect Trump addresses a House Republicans Conference meeting at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill on Nov. 13, 2024 in Washington, D.C. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Trump said in a statement that DOGE “will provide advice and guidance from outside of Government, and will partner with the White House and Office of Management & Budget to drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to Government never seen before.”

In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece, Musk and Ramaswamy noted that they will work “as outside volunteers, not federal officials or employees.”

A top aide to Vice President Kamala Harris during her presidential campaign revealed in a new podcast appearance that internal polls never saw her defeating President-elect Trump. 

“We didn’t get the breaks we needed on Election Day,” said Harris senior adviser David Plouffe on “Pod Save America,” a show hosted by staffers of former President Barack Obama.  

“I think it surprised people because there was these public polls that came out in late September, early October, showing us with leads that we never saw.”

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Harris campaign senior advisor David Plouffe said Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss to President-elect Trump was due to the electoral weaknesses in the battleground states. (Getty Images)

Plouffe, along with other top Harris aides Jen O’Malley Dillon, Stephanie Cutter and Quentin Fulks, joined the podcast to share why they believed they lost the election. 

Harris had rivaled Trump and even defeated him in numerous respected public polls across the country, which Plouffe acknowledged.

ILHAN OMAR BLASTS HARRIS-WALZ CAMPAIGN FOR COURTING LIZ CHENEY: ‘HUGE MISSTEP’

As President Barack Obama holds a news conference, staffers, from left, communications director Dan Pfeiffer, deputy communications director Jen Psaki, senior adviser David Plouffe and press secretary Jay Carney listen in the East Room of the White House on June 29, 2011. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)

“When Kamala Harris became the nominee, she was behind. We kind of, you know, climbed back, and even post-debate, you know, we still had ourselves down, you know, in the battleground states, but very close. And so, I think, by the end, it was a jump-ball race.”

While the top advisers on the campaign were apparently aware of Harris’ polling deficit, this information was seemingly obscured to other relevant parties, including those soliciting capital from donors. 

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Jen O’Malley Dillon, campaign manager for Vice President Kamala Harris, before Harris gives her concession speech at Howard University in Washington, D.C., Nov. 6, 2024. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

“That’s not what we were told,” DNC National Finance Committee member and Harris campaign fundraiser Lindy Li shared with Fox News Digital. 

“We were told definitely that she had a shot at winning – it wasn’t even a shot. I was even told that Pennsylvania was looking good, that we would win 3-4 swing states.”

“And on the night of election night… we were told that we were going to win Iowa.”

CONGRESS HAS JUST WEEKS TO AVOID A PARTIAL GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN AFTER THANKSGIVING

DNC member Lindy Li speaks to Fox & Friends Weekend about why the Harris campaign ended in such “disaster.” (Fox News)

According to Li, it is “absolutely not” normal for a campaign to obscure this type of information. 

“I’ve been doing this since I graduated from college more than a decade [ago]. Absolutely not.”

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She also shared that donors’ trust will need to be gained back because of the daylight between what the campaign was telegraphing about its situation and the reality. “But like for some casual donors, they’re going to be like, no f—ing way,” Li said. 

“It’s not that he’d beat her that’s a shock. It’s the extent to which he beat her. It wasn’t even close. It was a decisive defeat.” 

President-elect Trump has nominated a Vietnam War veteran and retired general for a potential new post focused on ending the Russia-Ukraine war.

Trump has created the position of special envoy for the Ukraine conflict, according to Reuters, and picked Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg for the post.

Kellogg served as former Vice President Mike Pence’s national security adviser and was spotted at the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago club on Tuesday, according to the New York Post.

KELLOGG ON ISRAEL’S ‘STUNNING’ ERADICATION OF TERROR LEADERS

“”I am very pleased to nominate General Keith Kellogg to serve as Assistant to the President and Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform. “Keith has led a distinguished Military and Business career, including serving in highly sensitive National Security roles in my first Administration. He was with me right from the beginning! Together, we will secure PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH, and Make America, and the World, SAFE AGAIN!”

Three sources familiar told Reuters that Kellogg presented Trump with a plan to end the conflict, and in April co-authored a research document that presented the idea of using weapons supplied to Ukraine as leverage for armistice negotiations with Russia.

Kellogg is currently the co-chair of the Center for American Security at the America First Policy Institute – which is led by several now-nominees within the new Trump administration.

AFPI’s chairwoman-of-the-board is Education Secretary-designate Linda McMahon and its president is Agriculture Secretary-designate Brooke Rollins.

THIS CONFLICT SHOULD’VE BEEN SOLVED YEARS AGO: KELLOGG

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Fox News Digital reached out to Kellogg via AFPI for comment.

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo joined Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s legal defense team this week, as the Jewish leader and his former defense chief Yoav Gallant face arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court (ICC) over their ongoing response to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack.

Cuomo, a three-term Democrat who resigned in 2021 amid harassment allegations, also railed against antisemitism at a recent dinner with leaders of New York’s Jewish community.

Cuomo condemned what he characterized as whitewashing Hamas kidnappings and murders in Israel, telling the National Committee for Furtherance of Jewish Education he is proud to join Netanyahu’s defense.

He condemned the “denial” that too many people and “institutions” have about the scourge of antisemitism.

Cuomo said one Jewish leader, Rabbi Zvi Kogan, who had been reported as “missing” in the United Arab Emirates was not so, and instead was kidnapped and murdered by Hamas. Cuomo suggested such incorrect characterizations should be considered antisemitic.

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Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaks in Mount Vernon, New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, Pool)

“This is the moment that is going to be in the history books. This is a pivotal moment and this is the moment when true friends stand shoulder to shoulder and fight for the state of Israel,” Cuomo said.

“I am proud to be on the legal defense team of the prime minister against the arrest warrant at the ICC – and I’m proud to stand against antisemitism.”

The ICC charged Netanyahu and Gallant with crimes against humanity and war crimes, setting off a global firestorm as signatories to the court’s jurisdiction found themselves at odds with non-party allies like the U.S.

In recognizing the ICC, member nations have a sworn duty to uphold its edicts. Netanyahu’s warrant therefore presented the swath of Western nations – including the entire European Union – with a predicament that placed them counter to the U.S. and Israel.

Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts told Britain’s GB News there would be “hell to pay for any international leader buying into this bulls—.” That nation’s leader, left-wing Prime Minister Keir Starmer, faces pressure from some members of his Labour Party who have cited an “obligation” to arrest Netanyahu, according to the outlet.

The Macron administration in France signaled Netanyahu will be treated as immune to the ICC because – while the French are signatories – Israel is not. 

CUOMO RESIGNS FROM NEW YORK GOVERNORSHIP

Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (AP/Sebastian Scheiner)

Separately, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot was asked if France would arrest Netanyahu, and responded that Paris is “very committed to international justice and will apply international law,” according to the Jerusalem Post.

The warrants caused bipartisan outrage on Capitol Hill as Sens. John Fetterman, D-Pa., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and Reps. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., and Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., found rare agreement.

Graham told “Hannity” that he and Cotton seek to pass a law sanctioning any country aiding the ICC in arresting Netanyahu, while the other listed lawmakers all condemned the warrant.

Cuomo is also rumored to be considering a 2025 mayoral run in New York City – which is home to the largest Jewish community in the U.S. 

During his remarks, he cited the 1.6 million Jews in the Big Apple and said Hamas is demonstrating in the streets with masks while Jewish people are afraid to wear yarmulkes or Stars of David in public.

“That cannot happen in the state of New York,” he said, adding a relevant law he signed as governor should be properly enforced.

In 2019, Cuomo approved antisemitic-hate-crimes legislation sponsored by state Sen. Todd Kaminsky, D-Long Beach, and launched a “No Hate In Our State” campaign soon after.

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Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin meets with Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. (Alberto Pizzoli/AFP via Getty Images)

A Cuomo spokesman directed Fox News Digital to video of the governor’s speech and said in a statement the Democrat is proud to be part of a legal “dream team” for Netanyahu.

“As governor, Cuomo made fighting antisemitism and supporting Israel a top priority, passing landmark hate crime legislation, prioritizing security upgrades to religious institutions, creating a new hate crimes unit in the State Police and leading a state delegation to Israel when it was under attack,” he said.

The ideological potpourri of the U.S., Russia, Cuba, Turkey, Vatican City and Malaysia are some of the more major nations who do not recognize the ICC.

Major U.S. allies Canada, Mexico, Australia and the United Kingdom recognize the Holland-based bench.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Netanyahu administration for comment.

U.S. Reps. James McGovern, D-Mass., and Thomas Massie, R-Ky., wrote a letter to President Biden calling on him to pardon WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to “send a clear message” that his administration will not target journalistic activity.

Assange, an Australian publisher, pleaded guilty in June and was sentenced to time served as part of a deal he reached with the U.S. Justice Department to end his imprisonment in London over charges for publishing classified U.S. military documents leaked to him by a source. Assange had spent years attempting to avoid extradition from the U.K. to the U.S.

“We write, first, to express our appreciation for your administration’s decision last spring to facilitate a resolution of the criminal case against publisher Julian Assange and to withdraw the related extradition request that had been pending in the United Kingdom,” the lawmakers wrote to Biden. “This brought an end to Mr. Assange’s protracted detention and allowed him to reunite with his family and return to his home country of Australia.”

Before his plea deal, Assange, 53, was facing 17 counts under the Espionage Act for allegedly receiving, possessing and communicating classified information to the public, as well as one charge alleging conspiracy to commit computer intrusion. The agreement helped him avoid the potential of spending up to 175 years in an American maximum security prison.

WIKILEAKS’ JULIAN ASSANGE SAYS HE PLEADED ‘GUILTY TO JOURNALISM’ IN ORDER TO BE FREED

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, center, his wife Stella Assange, right, and editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks Kristinn Hrafnsson raise their fists as they arrive at the Council of Europe, in Strasbourg, eastern France, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024.  (AP Photo/Pascal Bastien)

The charges were brought by the Trump administration’s Justice Department over WikiLeaks’ 2010 publication of cables leaked by U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, and the Biden administration had continued to pursue prosecution until the plea deal. The cables detailed alleged war crimes committed by the U.S. government in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, detention camp, as well as instances of the CIA engaging in torture and rendition.

WikiLeaks’ “Collateral Murder” video showing the U.S. military gunning down civilians in Iraq, including two Reuters journalists, was also published 14 years ago.

The lawmakers told Biden, who is set to leave office in January, that they are “deeply concerned that the agreement that ended the case required Mr. Assange to plead guilty to felony charges under section 793 of the Espionage Act,” highlighting that the decision to prosecute Assange under the Espionage Act “set off alarms” among members of Congress, as well as advocates for freedom of expression and freedom of the press.

In 2013, the Obama administration decided not to indict Assange over WikiLeaks’ 2010 publication of classified cables because it would have had to also indict journalists from major news outlets who published the same materials.

President Obama also commuted Manning’s 35-year sentence for violations of the Espionage Act and other offenses to seven years in January 2017, and Manning, who had been imprisoned since 2010, was released later that year.

“Put simply, there is a long-standing and well-grounded concern that section 793, which criminalizes the obtaining, retaining, or disclosing of sensitive information, could be used against journalists and news organizations engaged in their normal activities, particularly those who cover national security topics. This risk reportedly informed the Obama administration’s decision not to prosecute Mr. Assange,” McGovern and Massie wrote.

JULIAN ASSANGE SECURES FREEDOM FOLLOWING PLEA DEAL WITH US, SENTENCED TO TIME SERVED

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, center, arrives at the United States courthouse to enter a plea deal in Saipan, Mariana Islands, Wednesday, June 26, 2024. (AP)

Assange had been held at London’s high-security Belmarsh Prison since being removed from the Ecuadorian Embassy on April 11, 2019, for breaching bail conditions. He had sought asylum at the embassy since 2012 to avoid being sent to Sweden over allegations he raped two women because Sweden would not provide assurances it would protect him from extradition to the U.S. The investigations into the sexual assault allegations were eventually dropped over lack of evidence.

He was the first journalist to be charged under the Espionage Act.

“The terms of Mr. Assange’s plea agreement have now set a precedent that greatly deepens our concern,” the letter reads. “A review of prosecutions under the Espionage Act makes clear that Mr. Assange’s case is the first time the Act has been deployed against a publisher.”

The congressmen said they share the view of Jodie Ginsberg, the chief executive of the Committee to Protect Journalists, who reacted to the plea agreement by saying: “While we welcome the end of his detention, the US’s pursuit of Assange has set a harmful legal precedent by opening the way for journalists to be tried under the Espionage Act if they receive classified material from whistleblowers.”

“We therefore urge you to consider issuing a pardon for Mr. Assange,” the lawmakers wrote. “A pardon would remove the precedent set by the plea and send a clear message that the U.S. government under your leadership will not target or investigate journalists and media outlets simply for doing their jobs.”

Last year, as Assange was still in prison in London fighting extradition to the U.S., McGovern and Massie led a letter to Biden signed by a bipartisan group of congressional colleagues urging the president to drop the case against Assange.

Assange’s brother, Gabriel Shipton, is returning to Washington, D.C., in January as part of a campaign calling on Biden to pardon the WikiLeaks founder before leaving office.

JULIAN ASSANGE, WIKILEAKS FOUNDER, REACHES PLEA DEAL TO AVOID PRISON IN US

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, left, is escorted as he arrives at the United States courthouse to enter a plea deal, in Saipan, Mariana Islands, Wednesday, June 26 2024. (AP)

Shipton and Assange’s wife, Stella, have asked Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who before the plea deal had called for an end to Assange’s prosecution and said he had raised the case with Biden, to urge the president to issue a pardon in his farewell phone call with the outgoing commander in chief.

As a condition of his plea, Assange was required to destroy classified information provided to WikiLeaks.

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During his sentencing hearing in June in federal court in Saipan, the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. commonwealth in the Pacific, U.S. District Judge Ramona Manglona noted that the U.S. government admitted that there is no evidence that WikiLeaks’ publications put anyone in harms way.

“The government has indicated there is no personal victim here. That tells me the dissemination of this information did not result in any known physical injury,” the judge said at the time. “These two facts are very relevant. I would say if this was still unknown and closer to [2012] I would not be so inclined to accept this plea agreement before me. But it’s the year 2024.”

President-elect Donald Trump last week announced the nomination of Florida’s former attorney general, Pam Bondi, to head up the Justice Department, touching off a flurry of speculation as to how Bondi, a longtime prosecutor and close ally of Trump, might lead the department.

Former colleagues who knew her best during her time as a Florida prosecutor, including a Democrat opponent for state attorney general who she later tapped to be her drug czar, described Bondi in a series of interviews as an experienced litigator whose leadership style is more consensus-builder than bridge-burner and whose tenure may generate less friction among rank-and-file career staff at the Justice Department than early critics might fear. 

If confirmed, those close to Bondi told Fox News Digital that she will likely espouse many of the same priorities she did in her years as a prosecutor in Florida, primarily in cracking down on drug trafficking, illicit fentanyl imports and in running a Justice Department that enforces fair treatment of both political and career appointees alike.

“From a lawyer’s standpoint, this woman knows how to be a lawyer and a trial lawyer,” Nicholas Cox, Florida’s statewide prosecutor, told Fox News Digital of Bondi’s record. “There’s just not a question about it.” 

Here are some of the ways her time in Florida could inform her tenure as attorney general. 

President-elect Donald Trump and nominee for AG Pam Bondi (AP | Getty)

Drug crackdown: 

In Florida, Bondi quickly earned a reputation for cracking down on opioids and the many “pill mills” operating in the Sunshine State when she was elected as the state’s attorney general in 2010. At the time, Florida “was the epicenter of the opioid crisis,” Florida statewide prosecutor Nicholas Cox said in an interview.

It was also a hub for so-called drug tourism: Out-of-state residents traveled to Florida from across the country to purchase opioids in bulk, relying on the state’s many-house pharmacies, “cash-only” clinics and a lack of statewide prescribing laws to purchase the addictive medications, largely without restriction.

When Bondi took office, opioids were killing around seven people each day, Dave Aronberg, the state attorney for Palm Beach County, who formerly served as Bondi’s drug czar, said in an interview. 

There were also “more pain clinics than McDonald’s locations” in Florida at the time, he said, illustrating the magnitude of the problem. 

Aronberg, a Democrat who ran against Bondi for attorney general in 2010 before she appointed him to the post, credits his former boss as being the person “most responsible for ridding the state of Florida of destructive pill mills.”

He and others point to Bondi’s push for legislation that helped eliminate pill mills in the state, her crackdown on doctors and clinics responsible for prescribing the pain pills en masse, and her work in enforcing Florida’s “Statewide Prescription Drug Diversion and Abuse Road Map” to best coordinate federal, state and local efforts as helping end the crisis. 

Later, she served in Trump’s first presidential term as a member of his Opioid and Drug Abuse Commission.

If confirmed as U.S. attorney general, Bondi has made clear she plans to remain focused on cracking down on illicit drugs—albeit on a national scale.

Bondi’s former colleagues told Fox News Digital they expect she will bring the same playbook to Washington—this time with an eye to cracking down on drug trafficking, illicit fentanyl use, and the cartels responsible for smuggling the drugs across the border. 

‘UNLIKELY COALITION’: A CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM ADVOCATE SEES OPPORTUNITIES IN A SECOND TRUMP TERM

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi displays a court order granting Trump’s campaign more access to vote counting operations in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Working across the aisle:

Bondi has spent years as a prosecutor in Florida, first as a prosecutor in the Hillsborough County State Attorney’s Office before being elected in 2010 as the state’s attorney general. 

Cox, the Florida state prosecutor, noted that Bondi’s career was also heavily shaped by her 18 years working in the Florida District Attorney’s Office, a career position that was not informed by politics. 

There, the main focus was “cooperation”— a mentality that Cox said extended to “prosecutors, law enforcement, and public defenders, for that matter.”  “We all worked together and it made for a really strong criminal justice system,” Cox said. 

 “We all worked together, and it made for a really strong criminal justice system,” Cox said.

Aronberg echoed this assessment. The state attorney for Palm Beach county had formerly served as a Democrat in the state senate before running for attorney general. He later dropped out endorsed her Democratic opponent. 

But afrer her election, Bondi tapped him to be her drug czar— an unorthodox move that Aronberg and others said demonstrates Bondi’s commitment to solving problems and working across the aisle on top priorities. 

“It really said a lot about her because she got a lot of criticism, withering criticism, from some members of her own party” who were upset she would choose a Democrat for the role, Aronberg said. 

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In Florida, Bondi “was not seen as a very partisan person,” he added, citing her “strong working relationship with Democrats,” which continued even after being sworn in as state attorney general. 

“She would support legislation regardless of whether it was supported by Democrats or Republicans,” Aronberg said, and in return, she was well-liked across the aisle. 

Pam Bondi (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images)

Trump ‘enemies’ 

In announcing Bondi as his nomination for attorney general, Trump again took aim at the Justice Department, which he characterized as being “weaponized” against him.

“Pam will refocus the DOJ to its intended purpose of fighting Crime, and Making America Safe Again,” Trump said in the statement.

But those close to Bondi said they do not think of her as an overly political person, saying they believe the many years she spent as a litigator and state attorney general will help her deftly navigate the unique political pressures in the role, including Trump’s calls to go after his so-called “enemies” within the Department of Justice.

Though Bondi herself has echoed calls to “investigate the investigators” involved in the special counsel investigations into Donald Trump, former colleagues said they think she has learned from former Justice Department leaders before her, including former Attorney General Bill Barr and former Special Counsel John Durham, who was tapped by Barr to investigate alleged misconduct in the Trump-Russia probe. 

“I’ve told my Democratic friends not to overreact because we have been through this before,” Aronberg said, citing the special counsel probe led by Durham.

In the next four years, he said, “I think we will see more of that.”

But Aronberg sees a difference between Bondi and others, including Trump’s former attorney general nominee, Matt Gaetz. 

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Bondi “is not going to burn the house down,” Aronberg said. “She’s not going to manufacture evidence as a way to walk Trump’s enemies out in handcuffs.”

A runoff election for the state Supreme Court in Mississippi is too close to call between state Sen. Jenifer Branning and incumbent Justice Jim Kitchens as of Wednesday morning. 

Although Mississippi judicial candidates run without party labels, Branning had the endorsement of the Republican Party, while Kitchens had several Democratic Party donors but did not receive an endorsement from the party. 

Branning, who has been a state senator since 2016, led Kitchens by 2,678 votes out of 120,610 votes counted as of Wednesday morning. Kitchens is seeking a third term and is the more senior of the court’s two presiding justices, putting him next in line to serve as chief justice. Her lead had been 518 just after midnight Wednesday.

Mississippi state Sen. Jenifer Branning and Justice Jim Kitchens. (Lauren Witte/Clarion Ledger / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images | Barbara Gauntt/Clarion Ledger / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)

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Around midnight Wednesday, The Associated Press estimated there were more than 11,000 votes still to be counted. In the Nov. 5 election, 7% of votes were counted after election night.

Branning had a substantial lead in the first round of voting with 42% compared to Kitchens’ 36%. Three other candidates split the rest.

The victor will likely be decided by absentee ballots that are allowed to be counted for five days following an election in Mississippi, as well as the affidavit ballots, according to the Clarion Ledger.

Voter turnout typically decreases between general elections and runoffs, and campaigns said turnout was especially challenging two days before Thanksgiving. The Magnolia State voted emphatically for President-elect Donald Trump, who garnered 61.6% of the vote compared to Vice President Harris’ 37.3%.

Branning and Kitchens faced off in District 1, also known as the Central District, which stretches from the Delta region through the Jackson metro area and over to the Alabama border.

Mississippi Supreme Court justices including Justice Jim Kitchens, seated at right, fourth from top, listen to arguments on July 6, 2023 in Jackson, Mississippi. (Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

Branning calls herself a “constitutional conservative” and says she opposes “liberal, activists judges” and “the radical left.” The Mississippi GOP said she was the “proven conservative,” and that was why they endorsed her. 

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She has not previously held a judicial office but served as a special prosecutor in Neshoba County and as a staff attorney in the Mississippi Secretary of State’s Division of Business Services and Regulations, per the Clarion Ledger.

Branning voted against changing the state flag to remove the Confederate battle emblem and supported mandatory and increased minimum sentences for crime, according to Mississippi Today.

Kitchens has been practicing law for 41 years and has been on the Mississippi Supreme Court since 2008, and prior to that, he also served as a district attorney, according to the outlet.

The Magnolia State voted emphatically for President-elect Donald Trump, who garnered 61.6% of the vote compared to Vice President Kamala Harris’ 37.3%. (Getty Images)

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He is endorsed by the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Action Fund, which calls itself “a catalyst for racial justice in the South and beyond.” Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., also backed Kitchens.

In September, Kitchens sided with a man on death row for a murder conviction in which a key witness recanted her testimony. In 2018, Kitchens dissented in a pair of death row cases dealing with the use of the drug midazolam in state executions.

Elsewhere, in the state’s other runoff election, Amy St. Pe’ won an open seat on the Mississippi Court of Appeals. She will succeed Judge Joel Smith, who did not seek re-election to the 10-member Court of Appeals. The district is in the southeastern corner of the state, including the Gulf Coast.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

A Texas Democrat believes President-elect Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on Mexico will get the country to come to the table “so we can solve the problem about immigration and fentanyl.” 

Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas’ 28th Congressional District – which borders Mexico in the southern part of the state – made the comment Tuesday during an interview on NewsNation. 

“If it means a 25 percent tariff to potentially fix the border, would you favor that?” Cuellar was asked. 

“Well, let me put it this way: Laredo’s the largest port; we handle 40 percent of all the trade between the U.S. and Mexico. I know this is a way to negotiate, get some leverage. I know that Mexico will come to the table,” he responded. 

TRUMP LIKELY TO MAKE SEVERAL BORDER SECURITY MOVES ON FIRST DAY, SAYS EXPERT

President-elect Donald Trump, left, and Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas. (AP/Allison Robbert/Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

“But nobody wants a 25 percent tariff on them, and the Mexicans are threatening to do the same thing, and we don’t want to get into that,” Cuellar added. “But I think this will definitely get Mexico to the table so we can solve the problem about immigration and fentanyl.” 

Trump has vowed to impose tariffs on Mexico when he returns to the White House in January. 

“As everyone is aware, thousands of people are pouring through Mexico and Canada, bringing Crime and Drugs at levels never seen before,” Trump wrote Monday on Truth Social. “Right now a Caravan coming from Mexico, composed of thousands of people, seems to be unstoppable in its quest to come through our currently Open Border.”

“On January 20th, as one of my many first Executive Orders, I will sign all necessary documents to charge Mexico and Canada a 25% Tariff on ALL products coming into the United States, and its ridiculous Open Borders. This Tariff will remain in effect until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country!” Trump continued. 

“Both Mexico and Canada have the absolute right and power to easily solve this long simmering problem,” he declared. “We hereby demand that they use this power, and until such time that they do, it is time for them to pay a very big price!” 

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

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum gives a media briefing from the National Palace in Mexico City on Oct. 2. (AP/Fernando Llano)

A source told Reuters that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had a “good discussion” with Trump regarding trade and border security following that Truth Social post.

Trump also said Monday, “I have had many talks with China about the massive amounts of drugs, in particular Fentanyl, being sent into the United States – But to no avail.”

“Until such time as they stop, we will be charging China an additional 10% Tariff, above any additional Tariffs, on all of their many products coming into the United States of America,” he added.

In response to that, the China Daily newspaper – which is run by the Chinese Communist Party – published an editorial Tuesday saying, “The excuse the president-elect has given to justify his threat of additional tariffs on imports from China is far-fetched,” according to Reuters.

Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, right, arrives for a meeting of House Democrats on Capitol Hill on Nov. 19. (AP/Mark Schiefelbein)

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The editorial added: “There are no winners in tariff wars. If the U.S. continues to politicize economic and trade issues by weaponizing tariffs, it will leave no party unscathed,”

The University of Austin (UATX) welcomed its first cohort of students this fall, and instead of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, the private liberal arts university is touting freedom of speech, open debates and merit-based admissions.

“They talk about safe spaces. We want to create an environment that’s safe for ideas to be explored and where there’s not risks to the student for taking positions as they explore,” UATX Vice President Michael Shires told Fox News Digital. 

The university, which is currently unaccredited, was founded in 2021 by a group of academics and public figures, including former New York Times reporter Bari Weiss, who were concerned about the decline of free speech across college campuses.

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UATX accepts students based on merit, not DEI initiatives. (iStock | University of Austin)

While its inaugural students are not eligible for federal financial aid, the university has had significant support from private donors, including billionaire Bill Ackman and activist Harlan Crow, allowing it to offer free tuition to its first cohort. 

“As we look ahead, obviously this is a time when people are trying to figure out how to foster free speech on campus,” Shires said. “Oct. 7 was a critical juncture in the last year and a half that really showed some of the holes in the environment we’re in.”

While the university was founded prior to Donald Trump’s re-election, Shires said the “Trump administration is an exciting time for us to build an institution in an environment where there’s value on open discourse and dialogue.” 

Trump has signaled he would also roll back DEI and “woke” policies within federal agencies, including dismantling the Department of Education, signaling a potential for more schools to adopt UATX’s model. He has also said he would sue and tax “excessively large private universities” who implement “woke” policies.

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The threat of what constitutes hate speech has been a major concern for many public universities in recent years – leading to the rise of what critics call censorship and cancel culture – but Shires said defining the term depends “what are the value systems you’re applying to those.” 

“And you know, for us, that’s our goal, is to create an environment where there’s civil discourse and where, basically, respect for the other person, and you’re debating and maybe even disagreeing on ideas,” he said.

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(Dzmitry Dzemidovich/File)

UATX employs the Chatham House Rule to encourage open classroom discussions. Under the rule, students can share ideas or information they hear in class but cannot attribute them to specific individuals.

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At institutions like Harvard, only 3% of faculty identify as conservative, while more than 75% identify as liberal, undergirding the ideological gap that UATX founders aim to address.

According to Shires, while the school has an admissions constitution that accepts students based on a variety of merit measures, he said UATX’s “students are all over the place, ideologically, politically, philosophically.”

“We are an institute, so we don’t believe the institution should have a position or an orthodoxy or an ideology,” he said.

Over the last four years, several universities have faced legal challenges concerning their DEI policies, including the California Community College system, Northwestern University Law School, Stanford University and Fordham University. In March, the University of Florida announced its plan to eliminate the chief diversity officer position and DEI staff, earmarking the funds to be spent elsewhere in the university.

Sen. Mike Lee of Utah is convening training for Republican congressional staffers aimed at preparing them to smoothly steer segments of key parts of President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda next year through Congress – specifically by mastering a crucial procedural tool known as budget reconciliation. 

Republicans are expected to use budget reconciliation to pass much of Trump’s tax and economic policies because it is not subject to the legislative filibuster and its 60-vote threshold. This means Republicans will be able to move it along with their Senate majority alone. 

On Nov. 18, Lee hosted the first of several trainings with the Economic Policy Innovation Center (EPIC) that featured presenters such as EPIC’s Director of Budget Policy Matthew Dickerson, Executive Vice President Brittany Madni and President and CEO Paul Winfree.

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Sen. Mike Lee, left, and the GOP steering committee are holding trainings for GOP staff ahead of reconciliation. (Reuters)

A GOP senate aide told Fox News Digital that the trainings for staffers are meant to familiarize them with the budget reconciliation process, which they noted can be complicated. 

In order for provisions to be included in reconciliation, they must meet the Senate rules governing the process. In order to be done through reconciliation, policies must be budgetary in nature, usually having to do with spending or the debt limit, for example. 

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Sen. Mike Lee and the GOP steering committee are holding trainings for GOP staff ahead of budget reconciliation so that they can quickly move President-elect Donald Trump’s policies through. (Getty Images)

In the past, Republicans have criticized their Democratic counterparts for stretching the interpretation of what can be included in reconciliation in order to pass their policies without 60 votes. However, the GOP has also signaled that they may look to find a way to include other conservative policies in the procedure now that they will have control of Congress. 

The GOP will have a 53-seat majority in the Senate in 2025 and 2026. They will be able to pass some policies through the reconciliation process, namely an extension to expiring parts of Trump’s signature Tax Cuts and Jobs Act from 2017. 

However, if Republicans are unable to fit other policy priorities into the budget reconciliation because they don’t meet the requirements for inclusion, they will need to attempt to get some Democrats on board in order to beat the legislative filibuster for normal bills. 

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Sen. Mike Lee is chairman of the steering committee. (Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)

The first training was attended by 116 Republican congressional staffers representing more than 70 offices on Capitol Hill, per the Senate Republican Steering Committee. There will be additional events with different groups co-hosting as well. 

The aide explained that Lee and the committee wanted to make sure staff were prepared to take on reconciliation and pass Trump’s policies as fast as possible. 

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President-elect Donald Trump is expected to extend his hallmark tax cuts from his first term. ( Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

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This effort by Lee and the committee is also to make sure that the resulting budget reconciliation process represents a wide swath of congressional Republicans and not just leadership. By equipping staff with the knowledge and understanding they need about it, priorities of Republicans across the board can be considered and their input acknowledged. 

Experts expect President-elect Donald Trump to take aim at federal agencies and Biden-era regulations after campaigning on deregulation of the administrative state. 

“The first thing is that on day one of [Trump’s] presidency, we’ll see a lot of executive orders, which will order agencies to review the administration regulations to determine whether they should be retained, amended or repealed,” Robert Glicksman, J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Professor of Environmental Law at George Washington University Law School, told Fox News Digital. 

Mark Chenoweth, president of the New Civil Liberties Alliance, particularly pointed to Biden-era regulations, saying they could be on the chopping block once Trump takes office, telling Fox News Digital, “the Biden administration did a lot of things that lacked statutory authority completely.”

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Chenoweth noted that the Biden administration has already been the target of lawsuits over its regulations and said that if Trump were to take those regulations on, “I think they’ll enjoy a lot of success.”

Trump has already been vocal about his intentions of cutting back on federal agency power and slashing the flow of federal dollars. The president-elect has also announced he has tapped Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to head the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). 

The entity will act as an advisory panel, not a government agency, and will be aimed at suggesting ways to dismantle government bureaucracy and restructure federal agencies in order to save costs and improve efficiency, according to Trump’s transition team.

Experts expect President-elect Donald Trump, right, to take aim at federal agencies and legislation after campaigning on deregulation of the administrative state. (Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)

Regarding DOGE, Glicksman stated the Trump administration will “certainly take seriously” DOGE’s guidance on “cutting back on regulations, streamlining executive agencies, possibly even eliminating some agencies.” 

Both Chenoweth and Glicksman said they can foresee labor regulations becoming a target come January. Glicksman said climate change and environmental regulations could also come under fire.

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“In the labor area, because [the Biden administration has] been so radical, they really reached well beyond what the statutory authority that was given to NLRB or the Department of Labor with a lot of what they’ve done. So that’s one area that I could foresee,” Chenoweth said. 

President-elect Donald Trump announced Elon Musk, left, and Vivek Ramaswamy, right, would be leading the Department of Government Efficiency on Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (Getty Images)

Likewise, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to overturn the Chevron doctrine in June of this year in its Loper Bright decision. The doctrine previously gave deference to an agency’s interpretation of a federal regulation. In its holding, the Supreme Court effectively scaled back administrative power in holding that “Courts must exercise their independent judgment in deciding whether an agency has acted within its statutory authority.”

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Chenoweth, whose organization litigated on the matter, applauded the Loper Bright ruling, saying it “goes back to empowering Congress rather than the administrative agencies.”

“For the last 40 years, the administrative state has been burgeoning because of this ability to, kind of, write law and create law itself when there’s a gap or ambiguity in the statute,” Chenoweth said. “Now, they’re not going to able to do that so much. And so it’s going to throw it back to Congress if we need to have reform in an area or new legislation.”

Glicksman, however, said Loper Bright could “boomerang” on the Trump administration instead. 

“Had Chevron remained in effect, it would be Trump administration initiatives that would get the benefit of Chevron deference, but that’s no longer the case,” Glicksman said. “And so it’s possible that courts will look more rigorously or apply greater scrutiny to Trump administration initiatives in administrative law issues in administrative ones than they would have done had Loper Bright not been decided.”

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled to overturn the Chevron doctrine in June of this year in its Loper Bright decision. (Getty Images)

Glicksman said he can foresee such legal challenges unfolding specifically in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which notably tends to lean conservative in its rulings. Likewise, Glicksman predicts Democrat-led challenges to appear in the Ninth and D.C. Circuits. 

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“I think you’ll see blue states led by California challenging those regulations, starting off probably in the Ninth Circuit and the D.C. Circuit, which are more friendly to agency authority than the Fifth Circuit and some other circuits. So you’ll see a skewing of litigation,” Glicksman said. 

Chenoweth stated that because so many Biden-era regulations “are so lacking in authority,” the circuit in which the lawsuit is started may very well not make much of a difference. 

The White House turkey pardoning ceremony, a long-held Thanksgiving tradition formalized 77 years ago, traces its origins back decades further.

Since the 1800s, it has been customary for the sitting president to be gifted a turkey as a festive gesture, with several presidents hinting that the bird would be featured on their holiday menu.

However, in recent decades, sitting presidents launched a new tradition of “pardoning” the bird, essentially sparing its life and ensuring it will spend the remainder of its time on a farm.

The turkey is brought to Washington, D.C., during the week of Thanksgiving, gets a room at the five-star Willard Hotel and is eventually “pardoned” by the president. However, the history of exactly when the pardon began “gets tricky,” as described by the Obama White House archives.

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President George H.W. Bush participates in the presentation and pardoning of the National Thanksgiving Turkey in the Rose Garden of the White House. (HUM Images)

According to the George Bush national archives, former President Lincoln spared the life of the Thanksgiving turkey upon request from his son, Tad Lincoln. 

The White House turkey was again spared in 1947, when former President Truman began an annual tradition of the animal being gifted by the National Turkey Federation. 

However, the Truman Library and Museum said they have “found no documents, speeches, newspaper clippings, photographs, or other contemporary records in our holdings which refer to Truman pardoning a turkey that he received as a gift in 1947, or at any other time during his presidency.” 

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In 1963, former President Kennedy also decided to spare the life of that year’s Thanksgiving turkey, saying “we’ll just let this one grow.” 

First lady Melania Trump looks on as President Trump gives the National Thanksgiving Turkey “Corn” a presidential pardon during the traditional event in the Rose Garden of the White House on Nov. 24, 2020. (Chip Somodevilla)

Former President Reagan did it informally during the ceremony in 1987. Reagan was asked by reporters about potentially pardoning individuals from the Iran-Contra affair, but he pointed at the turkey and said he would “pardon him” instead.

However, it wasn’t until 1989 when former President George H. W. Bush officially presented the turkey with a presidential “pardon,” an annual tradition that has been honored in the decades since.

“Let me assure you and this fine Tom Turkey that he will not end up on anyone’s dinner table, not this guy. He’s granted a presidential pardon as of right now and allow him to live out his days on a children’s farm not far from here,” Bush said in 1989.

Since Bush, every president has participated in the turkey pardoning ceremony as part of the White House Thanksgiving week celebration.

President Biden has been pardoning two turkeys for the last three years. He participated in the 77th annual turkey pardon on Monday, the last one of his presidency, sparing “Peach” and “Blossom” in the Rose Garden on the South Lawn of the White House.

President Obama pardons a turkey named “Courage” at the North Portico of the White House on Nov. 25, 2009. (Alex Wong)

“This event marks the official start of the holiday season here in Washington. It’s also my last time to speak here as your president during the season,” Biden said during the ceremony. “It’s been the honor of my life. I’m forever grateful that today my wife, Jill, and I will travel to Staten Island, New York, for a ‘friendsgiving’ with members of the Coast Guard and their families to demonstrate our gratitude for their service and sacrifice, like my son.”

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Some critics, such as animal rights group Farm Sanctuary, have called the tradition “little more than a photo op.”

However, presidents and spectators have enjoyed the ceremony as a fun event for the holidays.