Donald Trump Poll News

President Trump’s border czar Tom Homan is touting the administration’s dramatic drop in illegal immigrant encounters at the southern border compared to the Biden administration.

Homan took to X to say that Border Patrol “has encountered a total of 229 aliens across the entire southwest border.”

“That is down from a high of over 11,000 a day under Biden,” he said. “I started as a Border Patrol Agent in 1984, and I don’t remember the numbers ever being that low.”

HOMAN, AOC CLASH OVER WEBINAR TO HELP IMMIGRANTS’ ‘EVADE’ ICE RAIDS: ‘I THOUGHT I EDUCATED HER’ 

Border czar Tom Homan speaks to reporters at the White House, Feb. 6, 2025.  (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)

“President Trump promised a secure border and he is delivering,” he said.

The Trump administration has come in with an agenda to launch a historic mass deportation campaign and to provide additional border security. Trump signed orders on day one restarting border wall construction, limiting the ability to claim asylum, declaring a national emergency and ending Biden-era parole programs.

Army Maj. Gen. Henry S. Dixon, left, talks with Marines near San Ysidro, California, Jan. 28, 2025. U.S. Northern Command is working with Homeland Security to add additional security to curtail illegal border crossings. (Department of  Defense )

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His administration has expanded expedited removal, removed limits on “sensitive places” on ICE agents, and launched raids across the country – while also suing “sanctuary” jurisdictions.

Fox News Digital reported last week that illegal immigrant arrests have soared. According to Department of Homeland Security data, obtained by Fox News Digital, there were 11,791 interior ICE arrests from Jan 20 to Feb 8., compared to 4,969 during the same period in 2024. That’s a 137% increase.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT ARRESTS SKYROCKET UNDER TRUMP ICE COMPARED TO BIDEN LEVELS LAST YEAR

Arrests of aliens with criminal histories have soared by nearly 100% from 4,526 in the same period in 2024 to 8,993 under Trump this year. Arrests of fugitive aliens at-large, meanwhile, have gone up from 2,164 to 5,538 – a 156% increase. Arrests of criminal aliens in local jails have gone up 59%.

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Fox News also reported that the daily average number of known gotaways – illegal migrants who successfully entered the U.S. without apprehension – at the southern border since the beginning of February has plummeted to just 132 per day, down 93% from the highest numbers when former President Joe Biden was in office.

On “America’s Newsroom,” Homan was asked when he is likely to run out of criminal illegal immigrant targets.

“We got almost 600,000 illegal aliens in the United States with a criminal conviction. So I won’t be happy till we eradicate every one of those,” he said.

FIRST ON FOX: A conservative group is suing the Department of Homeland Security as part of an effort to get what it says is “maximum transparency” about the agency’s handling of criminal illegal immigrants during the Biden administration.

The Center to Advance Security in America (CASA) is suing DHS for records it requested in October during the Biden administration about the release of data on noncitizens on Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s non-detained docket with criminal backgrounds.

The data, released to lawmakers in September, stated that there were 425,431 convicted criminals on ICE’s non-detained docket, and an additional 222,141 with pending criminal charges.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT ARRESTS SKYROCKET UNDER TRUMP ICE COMPARED TO BIDEN LEVELS LAST YEAR: ‘WORST OF THE WORST’ 

This photo shows migrants at the southern border encountered in Arizona. (U.S. Border Patrol)

Those include 62,231 convicted of assault, 14,301 convicted of burglary, 56,533 with drug convictions and 13,099 convicted of homicide. An additional 2,521 have kidnapping convictions, and 15,811 have sexual assault convictions. 

There were an additional 1,845 with pending homicide charges, 42,915 with assault charges, 3,266 with burglary charges and 4,250 with assault charges.

At the time, the Biden DHS said the data was being misinterpreted, noting it goes back decades, and includes those who are not only free but also those who are incarcerated by federal, state or local authorities but who are not in ICE custody.

CASA requested internal communications and records from ICE and Customs and Border Protection related to the data and the release of the data, including meeting requests, call logs and communications with media outlets. It requested the documents via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

TENS OF THOUSANDS OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS WITH SEXUAL ASSAULT, MURDER CONVICTIONS IN US: ICE DATA

Alejandro Mayorkas is pictured next to a sighting of a drone in New Jersey. (AP Images/Doug Hood/Asbury Park Press)

The group did not receive a response and so has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colombia to compel compliance from the agency.

“Through DHS’s failure to make a determination within the time period required by law, CASA has constructively exhausted its administrative remedies and seeks immediate judicial review,” the lawsuit says.

“The American people deserve maximum transparency regarding the government’s handling of all illegal aliens, but particularly about those aliens with serious criminal convictions,” CASA director James Fitzpatrick told Fox News Digital. 

“This lawsuit will force DHS to provide records and communications related to the release of these illegal alien criminals into communities throughout the country,” he said.

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It is unclear how DHS under the Trump administration will handle the request, given the administration’s significantly different attitude to the release of illegal immigrants. DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Trump administration has largely stopped the release of migrants into the U.S., in part due to President Trump’s order declaring a national emergency at the southern border. That, in turn, has meant that migrants can be removed without being offered the ability to claim asylum.

In addition, the administration has launched a mass deportation campaign and has been making significant steps to not only conduct arrests, but also to house illegal immigrants without releasing them and to increase the rate of deportations.

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Fox News Digital reported last week that the arrests of illegal immigrants have skyrocketed in the first weeks of the Trump administration compared to the same period last year under former President Biden.

The Trump administration’s potential plan to exclude European allies from negotiations to end the war in Ukraine has caused panic among the continent’s leaders but may be the only way to finally resolve the conflict, an expert tells Fox News Digital.

“Trump’s likely rationale for excluding European allies out of direct Russia-Ukraine negotiations is this. First, there’s no agreement among NATO members on the NATO membership for Ukraine. Some are for it and some are against. So it would be a waste of time to add this obstacle to the talks. Second, the Europeans don’t add anything to the talks,” Rebekah Koffler, a strategic military intelligence analyst, former senior official at the Defense Intelligence Agency and author of “Putin’s Playbook,” told Fox News Digital. 

“They [Europeans] are not decision-makers here. The only ‘deciders’ – using George Bush’s famous phrase – here are Putin and Trump. And even more accurately it’s Putin,” Koffler added. “He holds all the cards, given the realities on the battlefield and outside of it.”

The comments come as French President Emmanuel Macron hosts an “emergency meeting” of European leaders Monday to discuss President Donald Trump’s potential plan to largely exclude them from negotiating an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine, a move that has caused anxiety on a continent that believes it has a vital stake in determining the terms of any settlement.

Despite the uncertainty for European leaders, Trump has insisted that Ukraine will be involved in any talks to end the conflict.

TRUMP ADDRESSES UKRAINE-RUSSIA PEACE TALKS, SAYS ZELENSKYY WILL BE INVOLVED

Macron has reportedly called a special meeting about Trump. (Getty Images/ AP Images)

“He will be involved, yes,” Trump said Sunday of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. 

Meanwhile, Politico reported Monday that Macron and Trump had a “frank” 20-minute discussion just before the meetings in Paris were held, though the details of that discussion are still unclear.

The emergency meeting is being held after a security conference over the weekend in Munich, Germany, where Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Keith Kellogg, hinted European leaders may not be allowed to take part in a deal the U.S. helps broker between Ukraine and Russia.

Asked about Europe’s potential role in resolving the conflict during the conference, Kellogg indicated such involvement “is not going to happen,” arguing he was “from the school of realism” and that adding the Europeans to the mix may only serve to add too many voices to the discussion.

“What we don’t want to do is get into a large group discussion,” Kellogg said, adding that Trump is hoping to have a resolution to the conflict within “days and weeks.”

“You got to give us a bit of breathing space and time, but when I say that, I’m not talking six months,” he said.

Koffler believes that Trump shares a similar realism, a dose of reality she believes has been lacking from media coverage of the war.

NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR SAYS PUTIN, ZELENSKYY AGREE ‘ONLY PRESIDENT TRUMP COULD GET THEM TO THE TABLE’

“President Trump is a realist and he understands that Ukraine has lost the war. In fact, Ukraine lost the war before it started,” Koffler said. “Russia holds massive, massive combat potential advantage over Ukraine. Always has, always will. I’ve been saying it for three years. It’s a shame that the Biden administration, assisted by the mainstream media, has created a alternate reality, lying to the American people that Ukraine was winning or could win, just like they lied about so many other things.”

“But any serious and honest military intelligence analyst who is not on the payroll of the U.S.-NATO military-industrial complex or of the Zelenskyy’s regime, and who isn’t afraid to go against the media’s party line, known as the editorial line, has known from the very start how this war will end,” she added.

Trump said Ukraine President Zelenskyy would be involved in talks to end the conflict. (Viktor Kovalchuk/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)

But Joel Rubin, a former deputy assistant secretary of state for the Obama administration, cautioned against excluding European allies from the discussions, arguing that a deal without their involvement is “unlikely to foster a sustainable end to this conflict.”

“President Trump is right to seek an end to the Russia-Ukraine war, and he should be applauded for his efforts. Yet by staking out a role for the United States to be the indispensable negotiator in the war, he risks creating major commitments, as this is not America’s war and we are now being inserted directly into it,” Rubin told Fox News Digital. “In analogous diplomatic situations, such as the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt, we clinched a deal only after providing major commitments to both parties in the form of economic assistance and military aid, totaling well past $100 billion so far.”

While Rubin acknowledged that inclusion of European leaders would be more “complex initially,” the payoff would be to “spread the costs” of any guarantees that arise from negotiations.

EMMANUEL MACRON CALLS ‘EMERGENCY MEETING’ FOR EUROPEAN LEADERS TO DISCUSS TRUMP: REPORT

“And of course, because Europe is directly impacted by Russia’s belligerence, any deal that’s finalized will need their support (in addition to Ukraine’s), otherwise it’s unlikely to foster a sustainable end to this conflict, instead turning these negotiations into just one more stalled diplomatic effort of the many that have taken place in this war since it truly began in 2014,” Rubin said.

Macron’s emergency meeting in Paris is expected to be attended by a host of European leaders, according to Politico, including Germany’s Olaf Scholz, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, Spain’s Pedro Sánchez, the United Kingdom’s Keir Starmer, Denmark’s Mette Frederiksen, Poland’s Donald Tusk and Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof.

But Koffler believes Trump is the only leader in a position to handle what are sure to be difficult negotiations, where none of the world’s leaders will have any leverage over Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers his address to the nation in Moscow on March 23, 2024. (Mikhail Metzel/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

“Trump is the only U.S. leader who has the courage to acknowledge the obvious – he is not afraid of being blamed for losing the war and handing Putin victory. Which the Democrats and the neocons will almost certainly do,” Koffler said.

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“It is why Trump is offering to Putin pretty much everything Putin wanted – no NATO for Ukraine, Russia keeps the eastern portion of Ukraine and Crimea, no U.S. boots on the ground in Ukraine, and even potentially membership in G-8 – all to save whatever is left of Ukraine and Ukrainians, to entice Putin to the negotiating table,” she added. “Putin doesn’t have to stop the war. In fact, I don’t rule out the possibility that he will not accept anything Trump has to offer.”

“The negotiations will be super complicated to begin with. Putin will almost certainly be playing hard ball. And we’ve got very little leverage over Russia. Inviting Europeans would serve no purpose and would only make an already tenuous peace deal impossible to achieve.”

The acting head of the Social Security Administration (SSA) quit her job over the weekend after butting heads with the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), over efforts to access certain sensitive government records, according to reports.

The Washington Post reported that three people familiar with Michelle King’s departure said on Monday that she stepped down from her position after the disagreement.

In response to King’s departure, President Donald Trump reportedly appointed Leland Dudek to lead the agency as the president’s nominee to serve as commissioner of the SSA, Frank Bisignano, is vetted by federal lawmakers.

Principal Deputy Press Secretary at the White House, Harrison Fields, said they expect Bisignano to be “swiftly confirmed in the coming weeks.”

ELON MUSK SAYS MILLIONS IN SOCIAL SECURITY DATABASE ARE BETWEEN AGES OF 100 AND 159

The logo of the US Social Security Administration is seen outside a Social Security building, November 5, 2020, in Burbank, California. (Photo by VALERIE MACON / AFP) (Photo by VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images) (VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images)

“In the meantime, the agency will be led by a career Social Security anti-fraud expert as the acting commissioner,” Fields said without naming the replacement. “President Trump is committed to appointing the best and most qualified individuals who are dedicated to working on behalf of the American people, not to appease the bureaucracy that has failed them for far too long.”

The three individuals who spoke to the Washington Post on the condition of anonymity, reportedly told the publication that Dudek posted positive remarks about DOGE’s efforts to seek out fraud and cut costs across federal agencies.

The SSA did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on the matter.

DEMOCRATS LOVED IDEA OF DOGE BEFORE TRUMP, WHITE HOUSE QUIPS

Elon Musk speaks during an event in the Oval Office with President Donald Trump at the White House, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025, in Washington. (Photo/Alex Brandon) (AP Images)

Musk is leading DOGE to aggressively slash government waste when it comes to federal spending under President Trump. The department was created via executive order and is a temporary organization within the White House that will spend 18 months carrying out its mission.

One of the department’s most recent targets is the SSA, which was created by the Social Security Act under President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935 and tasked with establishing a federal benefits system for older Americans.

As DOGE continues to find fraud and wasteful spending at SSA, Musk turned to X on Monday to say millions of people listed in a Social Security database are recorded as centenarians “with the death field set to FALSE!”

TREASURY DEPARTMENT RECOUPS $31 MILLION IN IMPROPER GOVERNMENT PAYMENTS TO DEAD PEOPLE

“According to the Social Security database, these are the numbers of people in each age bucket with the death field set to FALSE! Maybe Twilight is real and there are a lot of vampires collecting Social Security,” Musk posted, adding a couple of rolling on the floor laughing emojis.

His post features a chart indicating there are more than 20 million listed with ages 100 and higher, including more than 3.9 million in the 130-139 age range, more than 3.5 million in the 140-149 range and more than 1.3 million in the 150-159 range.

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While the U.S. population count in the 2020 census was more than 331 million, the count of people ages 100 and older was more than 80,000, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

Fox News Digital’s Alex Nitzberg contributed to this report.

The Department of Education last week said it canceled nearly $350 million in “woke” spending, purportedly addressing the most pressing problems of education policy and practice.

The agency canceled 10 contracts with Regional Educational Laboratories (REL), totaling $336 million, after a review of the contracts uncovered “wasteful and ideologically driven spending not in the interest of students and taxpayers,” a news release states.

It’s not clear if the cuts were related to the Department of Government Efficiency slashing the Education Department’s activities related to DEI. 

DOGE SLASHES OVER $100M IN DEI FUNDING AT EDUCATION DEPARTMENT: ‘WIN FOR EVERY STUDENT’

The Department of Education has canceled various grants and contracts since President Donald Trump took office last month. (Getty Images)

RELs have been around for nearly 60 years, according to the Institute of Education Sciences, which administers the 10 RELs across the country, which are divided by region.

The programs “contribute to the growing body of research on how experiences within the nation’s education system differ by context and student group, thereby impacting outcomes and identifying potential solutions,” the IES website states. 

However, a review found instances where DEI initiatives were being funded, the Department of Education said. 

“For example, the Regional Educational Laboratory Midwest has been advising schools in Ohio to undertake ‘equity audits’ and ‘equity conversations,’” the agency said. “The Department plans to enter into new contracts that will satisfy the statutory requirements, improve student learning, and better serve school districts, State Departments of Education, and other education stakeholders.”

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION WARNS THAT PUBLIC SCHOOLS MUST REMOVE DEI POLICIES OR LOSE FEDERAL FUNDING

President Donald Trump and Elon Musk (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Also terminated were $33 million in grant funds to four Equity Assistance Centers, which supported training in DEI, critical race theory and gender identity for state and local education agencies as well as school boards, the Education Department said. 

On Monday, the department announced the termination of more than $600 million in grants to institutions and nonprofits that were using taxpayer funds to train teachers and education agencies on allegedly divisive ideologies.

“Training materials included inappropriate and unnecessary topics such as Critical Race Theory; Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI); social justice activism; ‘anti-racism,’ and instruction on white privilege and white supremacy,” a news release states. “Additionally, many of these grants included teacher and staff recruiting strategies implicitly and explicitly based on race.”

President Donald Trump has said he wants to abolish the Department of Education, calling it a “con job” that has failed to properly educate American students. 

Elon Musk and the Department of Education (Getty Images)

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“Oh, I’d like it to be closed immediately. Look at the Department of Education. It’s a big con job,” he said last week. “They ranked the top countries in the world. We’re ranked No. 40, but we’re ranked No. 1 in one department: cost per pupil.”

“So, we spend more per pupil than any other country in the world, but we’re ranked No. 40,” he added. 

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem sent a stern warning on behalf of President Donald Trump, to those planning on entering the U.S. illegally, saying, “Don’t even think about it.”

Noem announced Monday that she is launching a major multi-million-dollar ad campaign targeting illegal immigrants.

“Tonight, I’m announcing a nationwide and international multimillion-dollar ad campaign warning illegal aliens to leave our country NOW or face deportation with the inability to return to the US,” the DHS secretary said in a post on X. “This serves as a strong warning to criminal illegal aliens to not come to America. If they do, they will be hunted down and deported.”

Noem also shared a video of her delivering a message to illegal aliens thinking about coming to the U.S. illegally.

“Let me deliver a message from President Trump to the world. If you are considering entering America illegally, don’t even think about it,” she said. “Let me be clear. If you come to our country and you break our laws, we will hunt you down. Criminals are not welcome in the United States. For too long, weak leadership has left our borders wide open, flooding our communities with drugs, human trafficking, and violent criminals. Well, those days are over.

DHS SECRETARY NOEM APPEARS TO ACCUSE ‘CORRUPT’ FBI OF LEAKINGLA ICE RAIDS

“Under President Trump, we are defending American families and restoring their safety. If you try to enter illegally, you will be caught, you will be removed and you will never return,” Noem added. “Follow the law and you’ll find opportunity. If you break it, you’ll find consequences. Strong borders mean a stronger America. President Trump is making America safe again.”

Noem was the fourth member of the Trump administration to gain approval from the Senate, and she has taken the role to lead the department at a time when securing the border and tackling illegal immigration are top priorities for the new administration.

The administration has taken a number of actions to secure the border, including deploying the military, restarting wall construction and ending Biden-era parole programs. 

LARGEST LAPD UNION SLAMS ANTI-TRUMP PROTEST DIRECTIVES, SAYS ARRESTS ‘SHOULD BE A NO-BRAINER’ IN ALTERCATIONS

Then-Gov Kristi Noem helps construct border fencing on May 16, 2024 (Fox News Digital )

Meanwhile, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been launching deportation operations throughout the country to fulfill Trump’s promise of a “historic” operation.

At her confirmation hearing, Noem pointed to other parts of the DHS mission, including cybersecurity, disaster relief and counterterrorism. However, she emphasized that border security is a “top priority.”

BORDER CZAR TOM HOMAN SENDS MESSAGE TO FAR-LEFT OFFICIALS PUSHING BACK AGAINST MASS DEPORTATIONS: ‘GAME ON’

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, left, and White House border czar Tom Homan speak with reporters at the White House, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025, in Washington.  (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

As governor, she pledged in 2021 not to take any more migrants from the Biden administration and also deployed the National Guard to the border in Texas. She also had experience with disaster response, working with federal officials to tackle floods that hit the state in June.

At her hearing, Noem was also asked about how she would work with border czar Tom Homan, who has been tapped to lead the deportation effort and secure the border.

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Noem responded by saying that she and Homan “work very well together and talk and communicate all the time. And we’ll be working together on a daily basis when we’re in our positions under the new administration. And I would say there’s no authority being planned to be taken away from the department or myself if I’m in the role.”

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

“Profanity is the parlance of the fool.” — President Teddy Roosevelt 

“Be on time. Never criticize a teammate. Never use profanity.” — UCLA 10-time NCAA Basketball Champion Head Coach John Wooden 

“I’ve been accused of vulgarity. I say that’s bulls—.” – Filmmaker Mel Brooks 

Do members of Congress curse?

GOP REP WHO RETURNED TO CONGRESS AFTER EIGHT-YEAR BREAK CREDITS TRUMP WITH UNIFYING PARTY

The House of representatives. (Chip Somodevilla)

Of course. 

Democrats aren’t fussing about President Trump and Elon Musk. 

They’re cussing about President Trump and Elon Musk. 

It’s customary for members of Congress to express their views on the president of the United States. 

They may request a concrete step on domestic policy. A healthcare issue. Suggest an approach on dealing with China or the Middle East. Maybe an initiative to improve the economy, bolster jobs or increase productivity.

But congressional Democrats have very specific ideas about President Trump — and what should happen to him. And in some cases, Musk.

COMER, LEE ROLL OUT BICAMERAL BILL TO FAST-TACK TRUMP’S GOVERNMENT REORGANIZATION PLANS THROUGH CONGRESS

“F— Donald Trump and Elon Musk,” said Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wisc., at a Capitol Hill rally for the union which represents many federal employees.

Rep. Donald Norcross, D-N.J., spoke about working as a construction worker and electrician for the International Brotherhood of Electoral Workers in Atlantic City. 

Rep. Donald Norcross (D-NJ) listens during a hearing called “Calling for Accountability: Stopping Antisemitic College Chaos” before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce on Capitol Hill on May 23, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Michael A. McCoy)

“We had a guy called Donald Trump. We fought with him for ten years,” said Norcross. “I’m from Jersey. So we speak a little differently. I say f— Trump!” 

Rep. Maxine Dexter, D-Ore., is a freshman and a pulmonologist. 

“I don’t swear in public very well,” conceded Dexter. 

But the congresswoman proved she could cuss like a sailor. 

“We have to f— Trump!” fulminated Dexter. 

It’s unclear what rubric Dexter relied on to judge if she swore “very well” or failed in her lexical mission. But just six weeks into her first term in Congress, Dexter had cussed out the president of the United States. It’s a feat her predecessor, former Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., never matched in his nearly three decades in Congress. 

Rep. Maxine Dexter, D-Ore., speaks during a news conference with the Congressional Progressive Caucus in the Capitol Visitor Center to oppose Elon Musk gaining access to the Treasury Department’s federal payment system, on Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Cheese and crackers! 

Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., took a slightly different approach. She didn’t issue a verbal disposition to the president. She issued a slightly sanitized call to action.

“It’s time to push back on the bullies. Are you guys ready to fight? Let’s effing go!” yelled Sachez at the protest with federal employees. 

Rep. Brendan Boyle, D-Penn., did not direct his obscenities at the president. Instead, Boyle was more general in his characterization about what has gone down during the first month of the Trump administration.

“I’m from the home of the Super Bowl champion Eagles,” bragged Boyle. “The great Super Bowl run was actually a welcome distraction for me and all of us in Philly from the sort of bulls— that’s been going on.” 

Fly Eagles, fly. 

But for the record, Boyle did not give the president the bird. 

Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., parroted Boyle’s profanity. 

Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., arrives for a meeting of the House Democratic Caucus at the Democratic National Committee on Tuesday, July 9, 2024.  (Getty Images)

“Bulls—. Bulls—. That is why we’re here to fight them,” said Frost, focusing on Musk. “We can’t allow this unelected billionaire to come in and to eviscerate the things we fought so hard to get right. This isn’t about protecting the system.” 

Son of a biscuit eater! 

I don’t know where you went to school, but where I grew up in rural Ohio, a teacher might threaten to wash out a student’s mouth with soap if they used salty language. Hey. It was the 1970s. It’s unclear if there’s a remedy to pasteurize the vulgar language now directed toward the president from congressional Democrats.

But apparently to the Democrats, desperate times call for #*&@?+&! measures. 

In fact, if Democrats kept a “swear jar,” it’s possible their regular contributions could offset some of the proposed cuts by DOGE. 

Major League Baseball players returned to the diamond for an abbreviated season in the summer of 2020 — cut short by the pandemic. With no fans cheering and the games unfolding inside cavernous, empty stadiums, field microphones truly picked up the “sounds of the game.” The experience put an entirely new spin on “color commentary.”

Turns out there were more than just foul balls in the national pastime. 

Elon Musk speaks during an event in the Oval Office with President Donald Trump at the White House, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025, in Washington.  (Alex Brandon)

So for Democrats, perhaps cursing is the new vernacular. It may be helpful to let off steam. The language may rile up the base. It may even pep up a crowd of government workers who fear for their jobs under DOGE. Does it make a difference in the policy? Probably not. Does it persuade the president? No. Does it capture the attention of those aligned with President Trump — whom Democrats need to bring into their fray? Doubtful.

YOU’RE HIRED! HERE’S WHO PASSED CONGRESS’ TRUMP CABINET TEST AND HOW STORMY THEIR HEARINGS WERE

Democrats may think some of that’s balderdash. 

“We have to start liberating politicians to speak to the truth,” said former Democratic presidential candidate and Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., on Fox. 

Phillips just left Congress last month. Democrats are certainly speaking. It’s just unclear if their cussing boosts the message. 

Or, is the swearing the message. It might underscore just how frustrated Democrats are with what President Trump is doing — to say nothing of the fact that he’s in office for a second term. 

The language replicates what Democrats did in 2017 during Mr. Trump’s first term. 

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., leaves the Senate Democrats lunch in the Mansfield Room in the Capitol on Wednesday, March 15, 2023. ( Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc )

“We should go the f— home,” said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., eight years ago if Democrats weren’t tangibly helping people. 

Granted, President Trump’s expletives shifted the political linguistic paradigm when he first campaigned in 2015 and 2016. A 2019 New York Times article referred to Mr. Trump as the “profanity President.” Part of the president’s political appeal was that he spoke “everyday” language. That resonated with large swaths of voters who wanted answers to their problems and were fatigued by sterilized bromides.

Clean language was usually the default of public officials until recent years. Now everyone seems to have a case of political potty mouth. 

But politicians have long relied on expletives. 

Former President Biden was captured on mics in a stage whisper when he leaned in to tell President Obama that passing Obamacare was “a big f—ing deal” in 2010.

A CNN reporter was accused of promoting President Joe Biden’s campaign merch on X Wednesday. (Kevin Lamarque)

Then-Vice President Dick Cheney told former Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., to “go f— yourself” when he visited the Capitol in 2004.

In 2000, President George W. Bush spotted the late New York Times political reporter Adam Clymer in the crowd while campaigning in Naperville, Illnois. The future president observed to Cheney that Clymer was a “major league a–hole.”

So for now, Democrats are trying to calibrate their response to President Trump. 

“We can’t always be at a 10,” said Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla. “We’re going to have to find degrees of outrage here.”

Representative Jared Moskowitz, a Democrat from Florida, during a House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, July 22, 2024.  (Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg)

That’s the elusive recipe for Democrats. President Trump, Musk and congressional Republicans give Democrats a lot to work with. But they have yet to make a significant impact in their opposition.

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As Phillips suggests, Democrats must figure this out. 

Otherwise, they’re f—ed.

New York City Comptroller Brad Lander (D) on Monday called on Mayor Eric Adams to prove he can still govern the city amid calls for his resignation after the Justice Department dropped bribery charges against him and four deputy mayors submitted their intent to resign. 

In a letter to Adams, Lander said the potential resignations of the deputy mayors could “create an unprecedented leadership vacuum at the highest levels of City government and wreak havoc on the City’s ability to deliver essential services to New Yorkers.”

“Given the gravity of this situation and the chaos it has unleashed among New Yorkers, I formally request that your office promptly develop and present a detailed contingency plan outlining how you intend to manage the City of New York during this period of leadership transition,” he wrote. 

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

New York City Mayor Eric Adams departs Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse in New York City on Friday, November 1, 2024. Adams’ lawyers are seeking to have a bribery charge, one of the five federal corruption charges that have been filed against the mayor, dropped. (Adam Gray for Fox News Digital )

“Specifically, please provide immediate confirmation of your plan for appointing interim Deputy Mayors and key managerial staff, along with an anticipated timeline for stabilizing the administration, no later than Friday, February 21, 2025,” Lander added. 

If Adams fails to provide a plan, Lander said he would seek to convene a meeting of the Inability Committee. Fox News Digital has reached out to Adams’ office. 

In a letter last week to Attorney General Pam Bondi, acting U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon said Adams was being granted special treatment by the Trump administration after receiving a memo drafted by Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove directing the case against the mayor to be dropped.

Rather than carry out the directive, Sassoon and several others resigned instead. Adams was charged last year with bribery, soliciting campaign contributions from foreign nationals, wire fraud and conspiracy. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

NYC MAYOR ERIC ADAMS PROMISES TO REOPEN ICE OFFICE ON RIKERS ISLAND AFTER MEETING WITH TRUMP BORDER CZAR

Former U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon pictured in an undated official portrait. (Reuters)

Critics say Adams has cozied up to the Trump administration, and offered to cooperate on Trump’s illegal immigration crackdown in an effort to get a pardon. 

“These resignations come in the wake of deeply concerning actions by the U.S. Justice Department, asking the U.S. District Court to drop the indictments against you, so long as you comply with the White House on matters of immigration and criminal justice policy, which call into question your ability to continue to comply with your duties to New Yorkers under the City Charter,” Lander wrote in his letter. 

On Sunday, Adams told churchgoers in Queens that he is refusing to resign. 

New York City Mayor Eric Adams has rebuffed calls for him to resign after the Justice Department dropped a bribery case against him.  (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

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“I have a mission to finish, the mission that God put me on many years ago,” Adams said, adding that “God has fortified me.”

Adams told “Fox & Friends” in an interview on Friday that he plans to run for re-election as a Democrat.

The Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) discovered an identification code linking U.S. Treasury payments to a budget line item, which accounts for nearly $4.7 trillion in payments which was oftentimes left blank.

“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 their work in identifying the optional field.

WHAT HAS DOGE CUT SO FAR?

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 is also referred to as the “account.”

All financial transactions made by the federal government are classified by TAS when reporting to the Treasury and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

The discovery was announced on the same day DOGE appeared to have populated the DOGE.gov Savings page, which, as of Monday evening, said the total estimated savings since the establishment of the department total about $55 billion.

DOGE PUTS DEI ON CHOPPING BLOCK WITH TERMINATION OF OVER $370M IN EDUCATION DEPARTMENT GRANTS

President Donald Trump and DOGE head Elon Musk address attempts to portray a rivalry between the pair on a ‘Hannity’ exclusive, airing Tuesday, February 18. (Fox News)

The savings are a combination of “fraud detection/deletion, contract/lease cancellations, contract/lease renegotiations, asset sales, grant cancellations, workforce reductions, programmatic changes, and regulatory savings.”

“We are working to upload all of this data in a digestible and fully transparent manner with clear assumptions, consistent with applicable rules and regulations,” DOGE wrote on the site, adding that the data will be updated twice per week until eventually becoming real-time.

Musk is leading DOGE to aggressively slash government waste when it comes to federal spending under President Donald Trump.

DOGE SLASHES OVER $100M IN DEI FUNDING AT EDUCATION DEPARTMENT: ‘WIN FOR EVERY STUDENT’

The Congressional DOGE Caucus now has over 100 members, Fox News Digital was told (House of Representatives/Getty)

The department was created via executive order and is a temporary organization within the White House that will spend 18 months carrying out its mission.

The group has faced criticism over its access to federal systems, including the Treasury Department’s payment system, as well as moves to cancel federal contracts and make cuts at various agencies.

Attorneys general from 14 states are suing to block DOGE from accessing federal data, arguing Musk and Trump’s administration have engaged in illegal executive overreach.

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The newly formed cost-cutting agency scored a win on Friday when a federal judge in Washington declined a request to temporarily block it from accessing sensitive data from the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Fox News Digital’s Hillary Vaugh and Stephen Sorace contributed to this report.

Democrat-appointed Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox is echoing Mayor Michelle Wu’s pledged resistance to the Trump administration’s deportations, saying on a local news station on Sunday that “we don’t enforce” civil immigration detainers filed by ICE.

While speaking on a segment of WCVB’s “On the Record” show, Cox, who was appointed as police commissioner by Wu in 2022, said that in line with state and city laws, Boston police officers “don’t have authority to enforce federal immigration law.”

Pressed on whether this policy conflicts with federal immigration law, Cox said that “the Boston Police Department has pretty defined rules and we abide by the law here in the state.”

“We just don’t do that,” he said. “We don’t enforce civil detainers regarding federal immigration law. It’s defined here in the state, and that’s just how it works.”

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT ARRESTS SKYROCKET UNDER TRUMP ICE COMPARED TO BIDEN LEVELS LAST YEAR

Trump Border Czar Tom Homan across from Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox.

Both the Boston “Trust Act,” passed in 2014, and a 2017 Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruling known as Lunn vs. Commonwealth both limit law enforcement entities in the city and state from cooperating with ICE “detainer” requests to hold illegal immigrants for potential deportation.

Speaking on the same show shortly after the presidential election, Wu said: “Elections have consequences, and the federal government is responsible for a certain set of actions, and cities, no individual city, can reverse or override some parts of that. But what we can do is make sure that we are doing our part to protect our residents in every possible way, that we are not cooperating with those efforts that actually threaten the safety of everyone by causing widespread fear and having large scale economic impact.”

ICE has said that such policies endanger local communities by forcing the agency to track down illegals and to make often high-risk arrests in public spaces.

ICE ARRESTS ‘PREDATOR’ MIGRANT CONVICTED OF SECRETLY RECORDING OTHERS IN BATHROOM

ICE Boston arrests Salvadoran national, on January 30th, 2025 charged with sexually assaulting a Massachusetts resident.  (ICE Boston)

Despite this, and repeated criticisms by the Trump administration and border czar Tom Homan, Cox insisted that his department “abides by Boston law and Massachusetts law,” saying: “We don’t have the authority to enforce federal immigration law.”

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“From our perspective and what we tell anyone who comes to visit our city, lives in our city, is that we don’t care about your immigration status, but what we do care about is: Are you a victim of crime in our city or are you a victimizer, right? We will hold you accountable for that, and that doesn’t matter what your immigration status is,” he said.

Asked what he would say to Massachusetts residents who are concerned that the Boston Police Department’s policy does not protect them, the commissioner tripled down, saying: “We just don’t have the authority to enforce federal law.” He also went on to say that “what people don’t understand is that there is a difference between criminal warrants and civil detainers” and that “if it’s a warrant involved, we will absolutely enforce it.”

TRANS MIGRANT FINDING SANCTUARY IN NYC ACCUSED OF RAPING 14-YEAR-OLD

Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks at a news conference regarding immigration enforcement at the Justice Department, Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025, in Washington. (Ben Curtis/AP)

Homan, meanwhile, has warned jurisdictions that refuse to comply with federal immigration enforcement authorities, telling them: “Don’t cross that line.” On her first day in office, Trump’s U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi ordered a 60-day pause on federal funding to migrant “sanctuary cities.”

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In response to the possibility of Boston having its federal funding cut or removed, Cox said, “We could not be as safe as we are without the help of the federal government. They are partners with us, so I don’t know why that would be undone. But when it comes to financing and income flows into our city, I can only control what we can control, whether it’s the city council, through a budget process every year, or however, the way people talk about funding the police department.”

The Fox News Politics newsletter for Monday, Feb. 17, 2025, with the latest updates on the Trump administration, Capitol Hill and more Fox News politics content.

Here’s what’s happening…

-Trump chooses team of four to negotiate end of the Russia-Ukraine war

–Elon Musk says there are millions in the Social Security database between the ages of 100 and 159

-Iran says Israel and US ‘can’t do a damn thing’ to thwart Tehran’s nuclear ambitions

Clinton Clash Continues

SpaceX workers will visit the Air Traffic Control System Command Center on Monday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy noted in a Sunday post on X, in which he also mentioned former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, with whom he recently engaged in a social media spat.

“America deserves safe, state-of-the-art air travel, and President Trump has ordered that I deliver a new, world-class air traffic control system that will be the envy of the world,” Duffy declared, noting that he’d welcome assistance from American developers or businesses.

“Tomorrow, members of @elonmusk’s SpaceX team will be visiting the Air Traffic Control System Command Center in VA to get a firsthand look at the current system, learn what air traffic controllers like and dislike about their current tools, and envision how we can make a new, better, modern and safer system.”

He then brought up Clinton… Read more

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy mentioned former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, with whom he recently engaged in a social media spat, in an X post discussing SpaceX workers’ upcoming visit to the Air Traffic Control System Command Center. (Left: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images; Right: Lexie Moreland/WWD via Getty Images)

White House 

‘JIM CROW 2.0’: Biden DOJ’s lingering ‘Jim Crow 2.0’ Georgia election lawsuit should be ‘immediately dismissed’: expert… Read more

YOU’RE FIRED: Trump admin aims for a fatal blow to the independence of ‘Deep State’ agencies… Read more

FAB FOUR: Meet the team Trump picked to negotiate ending the Russia-Ukraine war… Read more

President Donald Trump chose a team of four to lead negotiations with Russia and Ukraine on ending the war between them. (Getty Images)

Capitol Hill

TO THE STREETS: Academic unions plan demonstrations outside HHS building, at med schools, to protest Trump research cuts… Read more

‘TDS’ BACKLASH: California Democratic congressman faces social media backlash for post tying Trump to Georgia small plane crash… Read more

‘VAMPIRES’: Elon Musk says millions in Social Security database are between ages of 100 and 159… Read more

Elon Musk made a post on X featuring a chart indicating there are more than 20 million recipients listed in a Social Security database aged 100 and higher. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK: DOGE puts DEI on chopping block with termination of over $370M in education department grants… Read more

Across America

SHOCKING MOVE: VA Dems spurn antisemitism expert from GMU board… Read more

SECESSION!: Effort in ‘red’ swath of Oregon to join Idaho gets new life, as political secession has had mixed results… Read more

‘STEPPING UP,’ NOT DOWN: NYC Mayor Adams refuses to resign in sermon: ‘I have a mission to finish’… Read more

New York City Mayor Eric Adams told Fox News that he plans to run for re-election as a Democrat. (Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)

‘RADICAL AND LAWLESS’: Department of Education probing some Virginia school districts over gender identity policies… Read more

DEI BOYCOTT: NAACP urges Black consumers to steer buying power away from companies that have ditched DEI… Read more

READY FOR LAUNCH: Vivek Ramaswamy to launch Ohio gubernatorial campaign one week from today… Read more

World Stage

FIRST ON FOX: GOP leaders rally to revoke China’s ‘most favored nation’ status after 20-year run… Read more

‘DESERVE TO BE RECOUPED’: Zelenskyy not yet signing US economic agreement ‘short-sighted,’ White House official says… Read more

‘COLLAPSE HAMAS’: Israeli military experts weigh in on Trump’s ‘all hell’ threat to Hamas and what it could look like… Read more

‘READY FOR NEGOTIATIONS’: Putin sending foreign minister to Saudi Arabia for talks with Trump officials… Read more

Russian President Vladimir Putin has dispatched a group of senior officials to Saudi Arabia for meetings with the U.S. about a potential peace deal for Ukraine, the Kremlin announced Monday. (Sputnik/Alexei Danichev/Pool via REUTERS/Leah Millis/Alina Smutko)

‘SENDS A WRONG SIGNAL’: China outraged after Trump state department deletes key phrase on Taiwan relations… Read more

‘DM ME’: Illegal-smuggling coyotes now advertising at Canada border amid Trump migrant crackdown: report… Read more

IRAN GOES NUCLEAR: Iran warns Israel and US ‘can’t do a damn thing’ to thwart Tehran nuclear ambitions as tensions escalate… Read more

Get the latest updates on the Trump administration and Congress, exclusive interviews and more on FoxNews.com.

EXCLUSIVE: In commemoration of Presidents Day, a top DOGE senator is seeking to claw back $400 million sitting in a “slush fund” set up to help presidential candidates that hasn’t borne fruit since Y2K.

Through the Eliminating Leftover Expenses for Campaigns from Taxpayers (ELECT) Act, Sen. Joni Ernst said she hopes to defund an account she calls “welfare for politicians.”

“This Presidents Day I am fighting for the integrity of the office because the last thing we need to spend tax dollars on is more political attack ads,” said Ernst, R-Iowa.

“There is no better way to pay down the $36 trillion debt than by defunding welfare for politicians. Washington should be working to benefit all Americans instead of itself.”

DRAIN THE SWAMP ACT SEEKS TO MOVE DC BUREAUCRACY OUT OF CRAZYTOWN, DOGE LEADER SAYS

Ernst, the chair of the DOGE caucus in the upper chamber, remarked the fund has not been successfully utilized in decades.

The last winning presidential candidate to pull from the fund was Texas Gov. George W. Bush in 2000, and later in 2004.

Since then, a handful of unsuccessful candidates have utilized it, including former Vice President Mike Pence and Green Party candidate Jill Stein; both in the 2024 cycle.

Pence’s campaign reportedly received more than $1 million from the fund amid his GOP primary bid, while Stein utilized $380,000.

The late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., also received $84.1 million from the fund in 2008. An FEC release from that time said nominees of major parties are entitled to $20 million plus a cost-of-living adjustment back to 1974. 

Defunding the account was first floated as one of several proposals in a DOGE-centric November letter from Ernst to Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.

Stein told Fox News Digital the candidates’ fund was “raided” of $375 million, and that Democrats too have tried to moot the effectiveness of the fund by trying to put public funding “out of reach of grassroots candidates” through their H.R.-1 (the For the People Act) during the Biden era.

TOP DOGE LAWMAKER SAYS ISSUES THAT SPURRED DOGE’S GENESIS CAME FULL CIRCLE WITH TRUMP FIXES

Sen. Joni Ernst (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

A checkbox on the IRS’ 1099 tax form asks filers whether they would like to pay $3 into the fund, which Stein said showed it is different than other public monies.

“It’s outrageous,” Stein said, calling the effort to end the fund “part of a bipartisan, anti-democratic effort to stifle competition in presidential elections – specifically by denying voters the option to support publicly financed candidates who refuse the legalized bribery of big corporate contributions.”

Stein added that a majority of voters have called for presidential candidates outside the two major parties, citing a Gallup survey showing they “do such a poor job” of representing Americans.

“Publicly funded campaigns are the antidote to the massive legalized corruption that puts more money in the hands of billionaires than ever… the American people abhor the corporate buyout of our elections,” Stein said.

“As life becomes increasingly unlivable for everyday Americans, while billionaire wealth skyrockets, the demand to end the sale of our democracy will be unstoppable, through simple reforms including publicly funded elections, inclusive debates, ranked choice voting, ending obstructive ballot access laws and voter suppression, and more.”

“Eliminating public funding denies voters the option to support candidates who refuse pay-to-play politics.”

A source familiar said FEC rules also allow candidates to continue seeking public funds for campaign debt.

IRS Code 9006, with footnotes dating the fund to at least the 1970s, allows for eligible candidates to be paid out of the fund “upon receipt of a certification from the [Federal Election] Commission.”

“Amounts paid to any such candidates shall be under the control of such candidates.”

In 2014, the portion of the Presidential Election Campaign Fund allocated to assist political parties with their conventions was redirected to pediatric cancer research through an act of Congress.

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Then-Rep. Gregg Harper, R-Miss., drafted a bill later signed by President Barack Obama that diverted such funds to an NIH research initiative.

Then-House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., gave the measure a major leadership push after he heard the case of a young Leesburg girl afflicted with the disease and decided to name the legislation the Gabriella Miller Kids First Research Act in her name.

Fox News Digital reached out to a representative for Pence for comment.

A tough-on-crime Republican sheriff who was a supporter of President Donald Trump in last year’s election on Monday launched a campaign for California governor.

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco announced his candidacy at an event Monday in Riverside, California, about 50 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles, in the 2026 race to succeed term-limited Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.

“As Californians we want leadership that actually cares about the cost of living …and leaders who will do something about it,” Bianco said in his address, according to prepared excerpts.

He emphasized that “we want homes we can afford. We want air conditioning when it’s hot, not rolling blackouts. We want water for the crops and animals that feed us. We want the opportunity to achieve the California Dream, not be prevented from it because of red tape and regulation from government. We want honesty and transparency from our elected officials. We want lower taxes and less government waste. We want sanity restored and common sense to prevail.”

TOP TRUMP OFFICIAL TEASES CALIFORNIA GUBERNATORIAL BID IF FORMER VP HARRIS RUNS

Sheriff Chad Bianco of Riverside County speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol on May 15, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)

Bianco, a vocal critic of Newsom and other state Democratic leaders when it comes to the issues of crime and punishment, was one of the leaders who helped push California’s Proposition 36 ballot measure to a landslide victory in last November’s elections. The measure, which took effect in December, mandates stiffer penalties and longer sentences in California for certain drug and theft crimes.

“I am running for Governor because our beautiful state – which I absolutely love – is heading down the wrong track and has been for years. Everyone knows it, except those sitting in the Sacramento echo chamber. For decades the party in complete control of our state government has tried the same failed ideas and implemented the same failed policies,” Bianco argued, as he took aim at Newsom and the Democratic majorities in the state legislature.

Bianco, who has worked in law enforcement for more than three decades, was first elected sheriff in 2018. He’s been openly flirting with a 2026 gubernatorial run since at least last spring.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana., center, listens to Sheriff Chad Bianco of Riverside County, Calif., speak during a news conference in the U.S. Capitol to recognize law enforcement as part of Police Week on Wednesday, May 15, 2024. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

It’s been nearly two decades since a Republican won statewide office in heavily blue California. You have to go all the way back to former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 2006 re-election victory.

There has been plenty of speculation since former Vice President Kamala Harris’ election defeat last November to Trump regarding her next political move, with the two potential options likely being launching a 2026 gubernatorial run in her home state of California or seeking the presidency again in 2028.

MAJOR CALIFORNIA DEMOCRAT PREEDICTS FORMER VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS WOULD CLEAR GUBERNATORIAL FIELD

Harris served as San Francisco district attorney, California attorney general and U.S. senator before becoming vice president.

Sources in the former vice president’s political orbit say no decisions have been made about any next steps.

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign rally, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024, at the PNC Music Pavilion in Charlotte, N.C.  (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

The Democrats’ field for governor in the heavily blue-leaning state is already crowded.

Among the more than half-dozen candidates already running for governor are Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, a Harris ally, and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

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Former Rep. Katie Porter, who unsuccessfully ran for the Democratic Senate nomination last year, has expressed interest in launching a campaign.

Additionally, former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, who served in Congress and as California attorney general before joining the Biden administration, is also seen as a potential contender.

Former Fox News Channel host and conservative commentator Steve Hilton is considering a Republican run for California governor.

And one of Trump’s top aides is floating a potential bid for California governor if Harris also runs.

Ric Grenell, U.S. envoy for special missions in President Trump’s second administration, speaks on stage on the third day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum on July 17, 2024 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Richard Grenell, a longtime Trump loyalist who is serving as U.S. envoy for special missions in the president’s second administration, told reporters late last week, “If Kamala Harris runs for governor, I believe that she has such baggage and hundreds of millions of dollars in educating the voters of how terrible she is, that it’s a new day in California and that the Republican actually has a shot.”

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Grenell, who served as ambassador to Germany and as acting director of national intelligence during Trump’s first term, considered a run for California governor during the 2021 recall election that Newsom eventually ended up easily winning, but he ultimately decided against launching a campaign.

In California, unlike most other states, the top two finishers in a primary, regardless of party affiliation, advance to the general election.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Saudi Arabian officials Monday ahead of planned talks in the country between United States diplomats and their Russian counterparts meant to negotiate an end to the Ukraine war. 

Rubio was joined by U.S. National Security Advisor Michael Waltz and Steve Witkoff, the U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, in a meeting with Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman at his palace in the capital city of Riyadh. Rubio also met with Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud earlier Monday after traveling to Riyadh from Israel during his first trip to the Middle East as secretary of state.

Talks are scheduled for Tuesday in Saudi Arabia between the U.S. and Russia. Ukrainian officials are notably expected to be absent from the negotiating table. 

Rubio, Waltz and Witkoff will meet the Russian delegation, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said.

NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR SAYS PUTIN, ZELENSKYY AGREE ‘ONLY PRESIDENT TRUMP COULD GET THEM TO THE TABLE’

Secretary of State Marco Rubio meets with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh on Feb. 17, 2025.  (EVELYN HOCKSTEIN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Putin’s foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov set off for the Saudi capital on Monday, according to Russian state TV.  

Addressing reporters in Moscow on Monday, Lavrov said he looked forward to putting an “absolutely abnormal period” of estrangement between the U.S. and Russia behind them, according to the Washington Post. 

“We want to listen to our partners,” Lavrov reportedly said. 

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the talks will be primarily focused on “restoring the entire range of U.S.-Russian relations, as well as preparing possible talks on the Ukrainian settlement and organizing a meeting of the two presidents.” 

Bruce said the meeting is aimed at determining how serious the Russians are about wanting peace and whether detailed negotiations can be started.

Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud receives Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the Saudi Foreign Ministry headquarters in Riyadh on Feb. 17, 2025.  (EVELYN HOCKSTEIN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

“I think the goal, obviously, for everyone is to determine if this is something that can move forward,” she told reporters traveling with Rubio in Riyadh, according to the Associated Press.

Bruce said that even though Ukraine would not be at the table for Tuesday’s talks, actual peace negotiations would only take place with Ukraine’s involvement. 

Tuesday’s talks are expected to lay the groundwork for the summit between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump said he spoke to Putin on the phone last week and they “agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately.” The call upended years of U.S. policy, ending the isolation of Moscow over its Feb. 24, 2022, invasion of Ukraine. Trump phoned Zelenskyy afterward to inform him about their conversation.

Trump on Sunday told reporters that Zelenskyy “will be involved” but did not elaborate. 

ZELENSKYY NOT YET SIGNING US ECONOMIC AGREEMENT ‘SHORT-SIGHTED,’ WHITE HOUSE OFFICIAL SAYS

Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron is convening an emergency meeting between the main European powers in Paris on Monday to discuss the Russia-Ukraine conflict. 

Speaking on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” Witkoff said he and Waltz will be “having meetings at the direction of the president,” and hope to make “some really good progress with regard to Russia-Ukraine.”

Witkoff didn’t directly respond to a question about whether Ukraine would have to give up a “significant portion” of its territory as part of any negotiated settlement. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said last week that NATO membership for Ukraine was unrealistic and suggested Kyiv should abandon hopes of winning all its territory back from Russia. 

The Ukrainian president said Monday his country had not been invited to the upcoming talks and won’t accept the outcome if Kyiv doesn’t take part. The U.S.-Russia talks would “yield no results,” given the absence of any Ukrainian officials, Zelenskyy said on a conference call with journalists from the United Arab Emirates, according to the AP. Zelenskyy said he would travel to Turkey on Monday and to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, but that his trip was unrelated to the U.S.-Russia talks.

Rubio meets with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh on Feb. 17, 2025. On a separate couch are Waltz and U.S. charge d’affaires Alison Dilworth. Witkoff, not pictured, was on another couch in the room.  (EVELYN HOCKSTEIN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

In an appearance on “Fox News Sunday,” Waltz rejected the notion that European allies are not being consulted on negotiating an end to the Russia-Ukraine war, noting how Rubio, Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent spent last week in Europe meeting with allies. Bessent, in particular, traveled to Kyiv, while Vance met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. 

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Waltz said one of the key tenants in negotiating a peace deal would be ensuring “a permanent end to the war,” describing how the conflict has devolved “into a World War I-style meat grinder of human beings.” He said long-term military security guarantees have to be European-led, criticizing how a third of NATO countries are not contributing what they agreed upon a decade ago. 

As for the billions in U.S. aid sent to Ukraine during the Biden administration, Waltz said the American people “deserve to be recouped, deserve to have some type of payback for the billions they have invested in this war.” 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

A federal judge has ruled against federal employees who sued the Trump administration over privacy and security concerns around a government workforce email distribution system.

The new computer server was used to send deferred resignation “Fork in the Road” emails to more than 2 million federal employees, offering them to leave their government jobs and get paid through September, or risk being laid off.

DC-based federal Judge Randolph Moss denied a request for a temporary restraining order (TRO) that would have blocked the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) from continuing to use the email address HR@opm.gov and is known as the “Government-Wide Email System.”

The lawsuit claimed that in the rush to adopt this new system, OPM violated security safeguards for federal workers, known as a Privacy Impact Statement (PIA).

But in denying emergency legal relief, the judge said, “Plaintiffs have failed to carry their burden of demonstrating that their .gov email addresses (which reveal their names and, possibly, their places of employment) are at imminent risk of exposure outside the United States government— much less that this risk is a result of OPM’s failure to conduct an adequate PIA. Rather, their arguments ‘rel[y] on a highly attenuated chain of possibilities.’”

According to the lawsuit, soon after Trump took office, federal employees received emails from the email address HR@opm.gov that indicated the agency was running tests for a new “distribution and response list.”

“The goal of these tests is to confirm that an email can be sent and replied to by all government employees,” one of the emails said, according to the lawsuit. Workers were asked to acknowledge receipt of the messages.

The case will continue on the merits in the courts, but for now the new communications system will remain in place, pending any appeal.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

The NAACP is calling on Black consumers to direct their nearly $2 trillion in buying power toward companies that have kept their commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

In a “Black Consumer Advisory” memo released Saturday, the NAACP said that Black consumers have purchasing power exceeding $1.8 trillion annually. The memo included a “Call To Action” for these consumers to begin steering that power away from specific companies that have begun cutting back on DEI-related positions, programs, investments and hiring practices. According to the group, such rollbacks “reinforce historical barriers to progress under the guise of protecting ‘meritocracy,’” which they said was “a concept often used to justify exclusion.” 

Some of the companies the group is urging Black consumers to steer clear of are listed on its website and include Walmart, Meta and McDonald’s. Others were reportedly referenced in a separate buying guide provided exclusively to The Associated Press, which listed Lowe’s, Amazon, Tractor Supply and Target as others to avoid. 

Delta Air Lines, Apple and Ben & Jerry’s are some of the companies the NAACP listed on its website as having “recommitted to DEI.” Meanwhile, e.l.f. Cosmetics, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Costco are other companies the NAACP is suggesting are wise for consumers to support because they have kept strong to their DEI commitments, according to The Associated Press.    

WALMART FACING BACKLASH OVER DEI POLICY REVERSAL AS SHAREHOLDERS AND DEM OFFICIALS URGE THEM TO RECONSIDER

The effort to steer consumers away from these companies comes amid pressure from the Trump administration and GOP officials to peel back DEI commitments in both the public and private sectors. In addition to an executive order from President Donald Trump calling for an end to “Illegal DEI and DEIA policies,” which he says violate currently established civil rights law, newly appointed Attorney General Pam Bondi sent a memo earlier this month to all Justice Department employees, indicating the agency would be investigating, eliminating and penalizing DEI preferences, mandates, policies and programs occurring in the private sector and at educational institutions.

Missouri filed a lawsuit earlier this month challenging Starbucks’ DEI policies. (Fox News Digital)

Recently, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr ordered an investigation into Comcast’s DEI practices, while the state of Missouri filed a lawsuit earlier this month challenging Starbucks’ DEI policies, as well. 

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“The NAACP recognizes that the rollback of DEI initiatives is a direct attack on Black economic progress, civil rights, and the principles of equity and fairness,” the Saturday consumer advisory memo stated. “These actions are part of a broader effort to reverse gains made in civil rights and social justice. We urge Black consumers to remain vigilant, informed, and intentional in their economic decisions, using their collective power to demand accountability from corporations and institutions.”

The consumer guidance provided by the NAACP will reportedly be amended as companies make changes to their DEI commitments, according to The Associated Press, and the group is currently in discussions with executives at companies that have reversed their DEI pledges. 

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Fox News Digital reached out to the NAACP for comment and to receive a full list of companies it was urging Black consumers to steer cleer of but did not receive a response by publication time. 

“We have the power to choose where we spend our money,” NAACP CEO and President Derrick Johnson said in a statement posted on X. “I am confident that this framework will support our community as we make difficult decisions on where to spend our hard-earned money.”

Elon Musk indicated in a post on X that millions of people listed in a Social Security database are recorded as centenarians “with the death field set to FALSE!”

“According to the Social Security database, these are the numbers of people in each age bucket with the death field set to FALSE! Maybe Twilight is real and there are a lot of vampires collecting Social Security,” Musk posted, adding a couple of rolling on the floor laughing emojis.

His post features a chart indicating there are more than 20 million listed with ages 100 and higher, including more than 3.9 million in the 130-139 age range, more than 3.5 million in the 140-149 range and more than 1.3 million in the 150-159 range.

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Elon Musk delivers remarks as he joins President Donald Trump during an executive order signing in the Oval Office at the White House on Feb. 11, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Fox News Digital reached out to the Social Security Administration for comment on Monday.

While the U.S. population count in the 2020 census was more than 331 million, the count of people ages 100 and older was more than 80,000, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

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“The logic flow diagram for the Social Security system looks INSANE. No one person actually knows how it works. The payment files that move between Social Security and Treasury have significant inconsistencies that are not reconciled. It’s wild,” Musk declared in a post on X.

In another post, Musk said, “There are FAR more ‘eligible’ social security numbers than there are citizens in the USA. This might be the biggest fraud in history.”

TREASURY DEPARTMENT RECOUPS $31 MILLION IN IMPROPER GOVERNMENT PAYMENTS TO DEAD PEOPLE

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President Donald Trump tapped Musk to spearhead the Department of Government Efficiency, an effort to uncover waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government.

Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., is facing backlash online after suggesting President Donald Trump is to blame for a small plane crash in Georgia this weekend.

Swalwell took to social media Monday morning to declare that Trump has had “more planes crash” in his first month in office than any other U.S. president. He then doubled down on the comment with a blunt statement to Fox News Digital.

“Trump is President. President Trump is in charge of air safety. All crashes are Trump’s fault,” he said.

The lawmaker made his initial comment in reaction to a small private plane crash that took place this weekend in Covington, Georgia, which left two people dead.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Social media users began to pile on immediately, calling out Swalwell for what they saw as an unfair connection to Trump.

“Are you suggesting the catalysts for those crashes were all caused by policies changed in the last month?” one user wrote.

“You really do have TDS. Grab some coffee and take a walk,” wrote another user who goes by the name of SouthernRepublicanMomma.

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Georgia’s crash saw a single-engine airplane take off from the Covington Municipal Airport at 11 p.m. on Saturday. Ground control lost communication with the plane roughly 20 minutes later, at which point police officers located the plane crashed near the runway.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has addressed the public multiple times regarding recent plane crashes in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and elsewhere. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

The plane’s two occupants were immediately announced dead at the scene.

“On February 15, 2025, the Covington Police Department officers responded to the Covington Municipal Airport at approximately 11:21 p.m. after receiving a call from the FAA in reference to a single-engine aircraft that had taken off at approximately 11:00 p.m. There was no further communication from the aircraft after takeoff,” the Covington Police Department said in a statement.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has confirmed they are investigating the crash.

Wreckage is seen in the Potomac River near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, on Thursday, Jan. 30.  (Petty Officer 1st Class Brandon Giles, U.S. Coast Guard via AP)

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The incident comes in the wake of multiple other plane crashes in recent weeks, the most dramatic being the collision of a helicopter and a commercial airliner in the skies over Washington, D.C. last month.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams told churchgoers on Sunday that he’s on a mission from God and won’t resign from office as he faces allegations of a quid pro quo with President Donald Trump’s administration.

Adams made the remarks during a sermon at Maranatha Baptist Church in Queens, telling the gathering, “I am going nowhere,” the New York Post reported.

“I have a mission to finish, the mission that God put me on many years ago,” Adams said, adding that “God has fortified me.”

Adams told “Fox & Friends” in an interview on Friday that he plans to run for re-election as a Democrat.

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

New York City Mayor Eric Adams told Fox News last week that he plans to run for reelection as a Democrat. (Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images, File)

Adams, a Democrat who said he was targeted by the Biden administration, was indicted in September on charges including bribery, soliciting campaign contributions from foreign nationals, wire fraud and conspiracy. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The decision to drop the case against Adams came as part of Trump’s effort to overhaul the Justice Department, which he said has been weaponized against political opponents.

Attorney General Pam Bondi defended the decision to drop the case, telling Fox News in an interview Friday that Adams was targeted after he criticized the Biden administration’s immigration policies.

Several senior Justice Department officials resigned in protest Thursday rather than comply with an order to drop a bribery case against Adams.

After the charges were dropped, Adams was accused of a quid pro quo over his willingness to work with the Trump administration crackdown to curb illegal immigration, and has faced calls to resign.

“I just find it so amazing — the most sanctified among us are calling for me to step down,” Adams told the church gathering. “I’m not going to step down. I’m going to step up.

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New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Thursday evening that she was considering removing Adams from office amid the allegations of a quid pro quo.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has faced pressure to fire Adams amid the allegations. (Howard Schnapp/Newsday RM via Getty Images, File)

“The allegations are extremely concerning and serious, but I cannot as the governor of this state have a knee-jerk, politically motivated reaction like a lot of other people are saying right now,” she said.

Hochul is the only state official who has the power to remove Adams from his position.

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Hochul further stated, “I have to do what’s smart, what’s right and I’m consulting with other leaders in government at this time.”

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

President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice is seeking to overturn a landmark Supreme Court case in an effort to give the president greater control over independent three-letter agencies.

In a move that could allow Trump to more easily fire officials who refuse to implement his policies, the acting U.S. solicitor general sent Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin a letter on Wednesday, notifying him of the Justice Department’s plans to ask the Supreme Court to overturn a key precedent that limits the president’s power to remove independent agency members. 

The letter, penned by Acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris, says the DOJ has determined “that certain for-cause removal provisions” that apply to certain administrative agency members are unconstitutional, and the department would “no longer defend their constitutionality.”

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Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, the case in question, is a 1935 Supreme Court case that narrowed the president’s constitutional power to remove agents of the executive branch. 

Earlier this month, a former NLRB member sued President Donald Trump over her termination, arguing that federal law protects her from being arbitrarily dismissed. (Evan Vucci/AP)

Harris cited a previous case, Myers v. United States, which held that the Constitution granted the president sole power to remove executive branch officials. 

“The exception recognized in Humphrey’s Executor thus does not fit the principal officers who head the regulatory commissions noted above,” Harris wrote in the letter. 

“To the extent that Humphrey’s Executor requires otherwise, the Department intends to urge the Supreme Court to overrule that decision, which prevents the President from adequately supervising principal officers in the Executive Branch who execute the laws on the President’s behalf, and which has already been severely eroded by recent Supreme Court decisions,” Harris continued. 

Durbin called the letter a “striking reversal of the Justice Department’s longstanding position under Republican and Democratic presidents alike,” in a statement to Fox News Digital. He added that the request is “not surprising from an administration that is only looking out for wealthy special interests – not the American people.” 

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However, conservative legal theorists supported the Trump administration’s move, arguing that overturning Humphrey’s Executor would move the federal government closer to the original intent of the Constitution’s framers. Trump notably posed his presidential campaign against former President Joe Biden as a contest between the “deep state” and democracy, saying at the time, “Either we have a deep state or we have a democracy. We’re going to have one or the other. And we’re right at the tipping point.”

“Congress makes the laws, it’s the president’s duty to carry out and enforce those laws under the unitary executive theory,” Hans von Spakovsky, Senior Legal Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told Fox News Digital. “That means that the president, since he’s the head of the executive branch, has complete control over the executive branch, and that includes the hiring and firing of everyone in the executive branch, most particularly, and most importantly, the heads of all the different offices and departments within the executive branch.”

The Acting U.S. Solicitor General sent Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin a letter on Wednesday, notifying him of the Justice Department’s plans to ask the Supreme Court to overturn a key precedent limiting the president’s power to remove independent agency members.  (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Von Spakovsky says the exception carved out by the Court in Humphrey’s Executor “does not apply to these federal agencies.” In her letter, Harris specifically mentioned the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). 

Earlier this month, a former NLRB member sued Trump over her termination, arguing that federal law protects her from being arbitrarily dismissed. The Trump administration has also become the target of various other lawsuits involving federal employee dismissals. 

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“My take on what’s going on with the Trump agenda right now is that they’re itching to get up to the higher federal court level, including the Supreme Court, to press just this kind of question,” Ronald Pestritto, Graduate Dean and Professor of Politics at Hillsdale College, told Fox News Digital. 

Pestritto says some of the administration’s actions “contradict existing civil service law, existing protections, for example, against removing the NLRB commissioners.”

“And so the real tale of the tape will be when these initial rulings get appealed up the appellate ladder and ultimately up to the Supreme Court, which certainly has many justices who I think understand Article II of the Constitution properly and may be open to a reconsideration of Humphrey’s,” Pestritto said.  (Photo by Olivier DoulieryAFP via Getty Images)

“And so, clearly, they know they’re going to lose a lot of that at the lower court level. And they want to push them up into the Supreme Court, because they think they might get a reconsideration of it,” Pestritto said. 

Von Spakovsky stated that independent agencies are “unaccountable” as a result of Humphrey’s Executor, saying “you make them accountable to voters by putting them back where they belong, which is under the authority of the president.”

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Trump’s lawyers are likely to lose in the lower court, Pestritto says, where he expects judges to apply the Supreme Court’s precedent in their own decisions. But even so, the Trump administration can appeal higher and higher to attempt to get Supreme Court review, where Humphrey’s Executor could be overturned. 

“[Democrats] are going to win injunctions very often, first of all, because they know it’s easy to judge-shop for sympathetic district judges. And number two, the district judges are basically going to go by the existing Supreme Court precedent,” Pestritto said. “And so the real tale of the tape will be when these initial rulings get appealed up the appellate ladder and ultimately up to the Supreme Court, which certainly has many justices who I think understand Article II of the Constitution properly and may be open to a reconsideration of Humphrey’s.”