House Republicans' mammoth budget resolution survived its final hurdle late Monday night before heading for a chamber-wide vote.

The legislation passed the House Rules Committee on a party-line vote in a measure combining several bills that are expected to get a full House vote this week.

House GOP leaders aim to have it pass on Tuesday evening, Fox News Digital was told, but various concerns about spending cut levels could put that goal out of reach.

Under the current margins, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., can only lose one Republican vote to pass a bill without Democrats. 

KEY CONSERVATIVE CAUCUS DRAWS RED LINE ON HOUSE BUDGET PLAN

Rep. Victoria Spartz, R-Ind., announced over the weekend that she is against the current text, while several other fiscal hawks suggested their support is still up in the air.

Two other conservatives, Reps. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., and Thomas Massie, R-Ky., signaled they would oppose the resolution as well.

Some Republicans are worried about potentially damaging cuts to Medicaid and other federal benefit programs that their constituents rely on. Johnson met with some of those potential holdouts on Monday night for what he called a "very productive conversation."

The speaker sounded optimistic leaving the Capitol late on Monday, telling reporters, "We’re on track. We got the resolution through rules, and we're expecting to vote tomorrow evening."

The bill aims to increase spending on border security, the judiciary and defense by roughly $300 billion, while seeking at least $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion in spending cuts elsewhere.

As written, the bill also provides $4.5 trillion to extend President Donald Trump's 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) provisions, which expire at the end of this year.

An amendment negotiated by House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, and conservatives on his panel would also force lawmakers to make $2 trillion in cuts, or else risk the $4.5 trillion for Trump's tax cuts getting reduced by the difference. 

That agreement alarmed Republicans on the House Ways & Means Committee, like Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y.

"I don't think that is doable without affecting beneficiaries, and I've expressed that concern to leadership and in talking to some of my colleagues," Malliotakis told Fox News Digital last week.

Johnson met with Malliotakis and other members of the Congressional Hispanic Conference, a House GOP group, on Monday night to discuss their concerns about spending cuts in the bill.

The New York Republican was more optimistic when leaving the meeting late on Monday night, telling reporters that GOP leaders had eased her concerns.

"I'd say now I've shifted from undecided to lean yes," Malliotakis told reporters. "This is moving in the right direction."

GOP lawmakers are working to pass a broad swath of Trump policies – from investments in defense and border security to eliminating taxes on tipped and overtime wages – via the budget reconciliation process. 

BLACK CAUCUS CHAIR ACCUSES TRUMP OF 'PURGE' OF 'MINORITY' FEDERAL WORKERS

The mechanism allows the party in control of both houses of Congress to pass a tax and budget bill without help from the opposing party. To do so, it lowers the threshold for passage in the Senate from two-thirds to a simple majority, where the House already sits.

The Senate advanced a narrower version of the plan last week, which does not include Trump's tax cut priorities. Because the president favors all of the issues being wrapped up into one bill, however, it's been relegated to a de facto backup plan if the House fails to pass its plan on a reasonable timeline.

The House Rules Committee is the final gatekeeper for most pieces of legislation before a chamber-wide vote. 

The committee will normally debate a set of bills, not necessarily related ones, before setting terms for amendments and debate and advancing those terms out of committee as a single "rules package."

House lawmakers will then vote on the rules package before the final reconciliation framework.

Once this bill passes the House, the relevant committees will get to work filling the framework out with detailed policy priorities, which will then be returned as a final bill that will need to face House passage again.

Johnson said at the Americans for Prosperity event Monday that he wants that to happen sometime in April.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced encounters at the southern border hit a record 15-year low on Saturday.

"On Saturday, CBP encountered just 200 aliens at the US Southern Border. That’s the lowest single apprehension day in over 15 years," Noem posted to X on Monday afternoon.

"Thank you to President [Donald Trump] and our brave men & women of [Customs and Border Protection]," she continued. "Make America Safe Again."

The low figure comes amid sweeping changes in border policy since President Donald Trump took office last month, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids and sending more service members down to the border.

MAYOR ERIC ADAMS SAYS NYC'S ROOSEVELT HOTEL MIGRANT SHELTER WILL SOON CLOSE

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) apprehended just 29,116 illegal immigrants along the southern border during the month of January, down from 47,000 in December and hitting a low mark not seen since May 2020, when 32,349 arrests were made at ports of entry, according to a White House press release.

Overall, CBP apprehended 61,465 illegal immigrants at the southern border in January, down 36% from the prior month, the release notes, citing new data.

Last week, border czar Tom Homan touted how only 229 illegal immigrants were caught by federal authorities during a 24-hour timeframe, which was also considered to be a jaw-dropping number.

"That is down from a high of over 11,000 a day under Biden," he posted to X on Feb. 17. "I started as a Border Patrol Agent in 1984 and I don’t remember the numbers ever being that low. President Trump promised a secure border and he is delivering."

TRUMP ADMIN OUSTS TOP ICE OFFICIAL OVER CONCERNS ABOUT PACE OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT DEPORTATIONS

The swift policy changes resulted in a ripple effect nationwide.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced on Monday that the Roosevelt Hotel will no longer be used as a shelter for people who came to the country hoping to obtain asylum.

"While we’re not done caring for those who come into our care, today marks another milestone in demonstrating the immense progress we have achieved in turning the corner on an unprecedented international humanitarian effort," the Democrat said in a statement on Monday.

NOEM MAKES AGGRESSIVE NEW MOVE TO RAMP UP ARRESTS, DEPORTATIONS OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

"Now, thanks to the sound policy decisions of our team, we are able to announce the closure of this site and help even more asylum seekers take the next steps in their journeys as they envision an even brighter future, while simultaneously saving taxpayers millions of dollars," he continued.

Still, this could just be the tip of the iceberg for the administration, as Trump swapped out the acting leader of ICE in hopes of increasing deportation numbers even higher. 

Michael Lee contributed to this report.

FIRST ON FOX: Border czar Tom Homan is firing back against attacks from local politicians in a major "sanctuary city" while warning illegal immigrants that they need to be "looking over their shoulder" in the days and weeks ahead.

Fox News Digital asked Homan about comments made by Boston City Councilor Sharon Durkan, who responded to comments made by Homan at CPAC, who said he was "bringing hell" with him to Boston and criticized the police commissioner for not working with ICE.

"She needs to put her U.S. citizen taxpayer constituency ahead of illegal aliens who rape children," Homan told Fox News Digital. "I'm not coming for her, she shouldn't be afraid of me. Who should be afraid of me are those in the country illegally. They need to be looking over their shoulder, because we’re coming."

BOSTON COUNCILWOMAN SOUNDS OFF AFTER TOM HOMAN'S CPAC PROMISE TO ‘BRING HELL’ 

"You're not a police commissioner," Homan said about Commissioner Michael Cox last week. "Take that badge off your chest. Put it in the desk drawer. Because you became a politician. You forgot what it’s like to be a cop."

Durkan responded by mocking Homan for serving as a police officer in the village of West Carthage, New York, in the 1980s before eventually heading Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and serving as a Border Patrol agent.

"Laughable that someone who spent their career policing a town smaller than a Fenway Park crowd thinks they can lecture Boston on public safety," Durkan's post on X read.

"Commissioner Michael Cox serves with distinction and earns trust with integrity," the city official continued. "Tom Homan should know, we don’t scare easy."

"Yes, I understand that Tom Homan spent his career as a federal agent within Border Patrol & ICE, but that’s a world away from the realities of policing a major city," she later clarified. "His background is in immigration enforcement, not community policing—where trust and accountability are key."

Speaking to Fox News Digital, Homan said Durkan should be grateful for ICE’s involvement.

"ICE has recently arrested nine illegal aliens, sexual predators in Mass., and removed them from the streets of Mass. She ought to be thanking ICE for making the streets safer," he said.

"And me coming there saying, ‘I'm going to bring some law enforcement resources to keep removing sexual predators from their communities and protect their children.’ She ought to be applauding ICE. She ought to support us. She ought, as the representative of a community, ought to be begging the governor and state legislature to end the sanctuary city policies and help ICE remove significant public safety trust from the communities," he said.

Boston is one of a number of "sanctuary" cities that limits state and local law enforcement cooperation with ICE, meaning that illegal immigrants with convictions or pending charges will be released back onto the streets rather than being turned over to ICE custody. Proponents of sanctuary policies argue it encourages cooperation with police from otherwise law-abiding illegal immigrants.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE

The Trump administration has ramped up interior ICE enforcement, with arrests skyrocketing compared to the same period last year. The administration has made international agreements to increase deportations and has taken certain Biden-era limits off ICE officers. Homan has been leading the charge.

Homan has said repeatedly that the target of the operations are public safety threats but that no one in the U.S. illegally is off the table. Speaking to Fox, Homan said critics of ICE’s work should speak to the victims of illegal immigrant crime.

"She ought to sit down and talk to a mother of one of these children that were raped by an illegal alien. This child will never be the same again. You would think she'd be putting them ahead of illegal aliens," he said.

He also dismissed the criticism of his background from Durkan.

"As far as me starting my career as a town cop, I truly believe it’s the community that raises you, it takes a community to raise a child, and the community that raises you, the first thing you do is to serve that community," he said. "I think it's the right thing to do. It's an American thing to do, and for a kid that grew up in a small community to become the ICE director – an agency of 21,000 law enforcement officers – I consider that the biggest honor of my life."

He also noted that ICE enforces hundreds of laws, many that have nothing to do with immigration enforcement, including drug smuggling, firearms trafficking and weapons of mass destruction. 

"I want her to understand that ICE is a well-rounded federal enforcement agency, one of the biggest agencies," he said. "We’ve got over 400 statutes we enforce."

Fox News' Andrea Margolis and Bill Melugin contributed to this report.

The five largest parties in England were due to meet this week - but the BBC has learned the talks have been cancelled.

The deadline for federal workers to respond to Elon Musk's request to verify their weekly work output passed on Monday night, but the consequences of declining to respond remain vague.

Musk confirmed shortly before Monday's deadline that federal workers would be given another chance to respond, and that failure to do so "will result in termination."

Several government agencies, including those led by loyalists to President Donald Trump, told their employees not to respond to the original request from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). While Musk himself suggested on social media that refusing to respond to the email would be "taken as a resignation," the actual email from OPM made no mention of such consequences.

"Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager," the OPM request read, making no threats of termination.

ELON MUSK SAYS FEDERAL EMPLOYEES MUST FILL OUT PRODUCTIVITY REPORTS OR RESIGN

The FBI and Department of Defense, led by Trump allies Kash Patel and Pete Hegseth, also instructed their employees not to respond, citing the confidential nature of their work.

"When and if further information is required, we will coordinate the responses. For now, please pause any responses," Patel wrote to FBI employees.

TRUMP RATTLES OFF ‘FLAGRANT SCAMS’ UNCOVERED BY DOGE, TAKES AIM AT FORT KNOX IN CPAC SPEECH

Trump argued there was no rift in his administration despite the conflicting orders, however.

"They don’t mean that in any way combatively with Elon," he told reporters late last week. "Everyone thought it was a pretty ingenious idea."

"What he’s doing is saying, ‘Are you actually working?’" Trump said in the Oval Office on Monday. "And then, if you don’t answer, like, you’re sort of semi-fired or you’re fired, because a lot of people aren’t answering because they don’t even exist."

Musk nevertheless appeared angry at the lack of response to the request, turning to X to express his frustration just hours before the 11:59 p.m. Monday deadline.

"The email request was utterly trivial, as the standard for passing the test was to type some words and press send!" he wrote. "Yet so many failed even that inane test, urged on in some cases by their managers. Have you ever witnessed such INCOMPETENCE and CONTEMPT for how YOUR TAXES are being spent? Makes old Twitter look good. Didn’t think that was possible."

Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is in the midst of auditing various federal agencies in search of wasteful spending, corruption and mismanagement. 

DOGE’s work comes as President Donald Trump ordered the federal workforce to return to the office after five years of remote work stemming from the coronavirus pandemic, and has vowed to clean house of bad actors within the government and ax overspending.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced that state authorities working with the Department of Homeland Security are conducting an immigration and law enforcement operation in Colony Ridge, a huge development known for attracting masses of illegal immigrants.

"Colony Ridge is being targeted today," Abbott, a Republican, announced on X on Monday.

Colony Ridge, which is less than an hour's drive from Texas’ biggest city, Houston, is a housing development that advertises in Spanish for quality land for low down payments. There are believed to be thousands of illegal immigrants living in the community, which also reportedly has significant cartel activity and very little police presence.

DEM AND GOP GOVERNORS URGE TRUMP TO ‘LET THE STATES PLAY A ROLE’ IN IMMIGRATION DECISIONS

The governor said Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) troopers and special agents were cooperating with Homeland Security Investigations in an operation in Colony Ridge this morning, "targeting criminals & illegal immigrants."

Abbott said he has been working on this operation with President Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, "for months."

In response to concerns that his post would endanger law enforcement’s operation in Colony Ridge, Abbott said the operation began hours before his post and that "long before my post anyone in the area would’ve known about the operation."

A spokesperson for DHS, however, declined to comment on the operation, citing the need to preserve secrecy about the details of the operations and concerns for the safety of the agents involved.

ALLEGED FENTANYL-SMUGGLING IMMIGRANTS LEAD POLICE ON DANGEROUS CORNFIELD CHASE

Local outlet ABC13 reported that officials at the nearby Liberty County Sheriff’s Office further confirmed that DPS and ICE operations were underway.

Another outlet called The Vindicator reported that at least one local man, Roberto Alfaro, 24, saw "undercover" agents he believed to be from ICE "forcefully" arresting a Mexican national outside his house.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE

Alfaro told The Vindicator he had never seen anything like the operation underway in Colony Ridge before and that it "feels scary." He mentioned his concern that his mother and father would be deported back to Honduras and El Salvador. He also said he and some others were "chasing" ICE so "we could go behind them and warn others."

TRUMP FREEZES APPLICATIONS FOR BIDEN-ERA MIGRANT PROGRAMS AMID FRAUD, NATIONAL SECURITY CONCERNS

The Trump administration has unleashed a slew of immigration enforcement actions since taking office last month, one of the most notable being a string of ICE raids in cities across the country.

Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday, Homan announced that in Trump’s first month in the Oval Office, ICE arrested 21,000 illegal aliens.

"I'm happy with the numbers," he said. "But I'm not going to be satisfied until every criminal alien gang member, every criminal alien, every Tren de Aragua [gang member] is eradicated from this country and [we've] sent their a-- to Gitmo, where they belong."

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is cutting more than 1,400 probationary workers occupying "non-mission critical positions," according to a Monday news release.

"Those dismissed today are bargaining-unit probationary employees who have served less than a year in a competitive service appointment or who have served less than two years in an excepted service appointment," the VA noted.

The cuts will save over $83 million annually, the VA indicated.

TRUMP ADMIN ORDERS AGENCIES TO LAY OFF PROBATIONARY WORKERS IN LATEST PUSH TO SHRINK GOVERNMENT

As a result of the financial savings, the VA said it will be able to "redirect all of those resources back toward health care, benefits and services for VA beneficiaries."

"As an additional safeguard to ensure VA benefits and services are not impacted, the first Senior Executive Service (SES) or SES-equivalent leader in a dismissed employee’s chain of command can request that the employee be exempted from removal," the VA noted.

MUSK OFFERS ‘ANOTHER CHANCE’ TO RESPOND TO PRODUCTIVITY EMAIL, BUT WARNS FAILURE AGAIN MEANS TERMINATION

This newly announced round of cuts comes after the VA previously announced the elimination of more than 1,000 workers earlier this month.

"These and other recent personnel decisions are extraordinarily difficult, but VA is focused on allocating its resources to help as many Veterans, families, caregivers, and survivors as possible," VA Secretary Doug Collins said in the Monday news release. 

VETERANS AFFAIRS HOSPITAL CHAPLAIN ALLEGEDLY SANCTIONED OVER SERMON, FIGHTS BACK WITH DEFENSE OF FREE SPEECH

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The VA specifically said these decisions to let some employees go "will not hurt VA health care, benefits or beneficiaries" and even noted that veterans will "notice a change for the better."

"In the coming weeks and months, VA will be announcing plans to put these resources to work helping the department fulfill its core mission: providing the best possible care and benefits to Veterans, their families, caregivers and survivors," Collins said.

Her departure comes less than a month after two House of Commons committees discussed her suitability to lead the NHS.

The PM suggests Trump has "created an opportunity" to end the war, ahead of a trip the the US.

Jonathan Reynolds denies "misrepresenting" his legal career after saying he worked as a solicitor.

It comes after the government rejected compensation for women hit by changes to the state pension age.

FIRST ON FOX: President Donald Trump's White House is warning that a key Democrat's move to end the president's energy national emergency would kill hundreds of jobs and cost $3.6 trillion in higher prices and lost energy output. 

"Tim Kaine wants to impoverish Americans. President Donald Trump’s executive order brings America into the future and unleashes prosperity. Senator [Tim] Kaine wants to cost the economy trillions and risk losing nearly a million jobs," said deputy press secretary Anna Kelly in an exclusive statement to Fox News Digital. 

The White House's statement is in response to Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., and ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., filing a joint resolution to end Trump's energy national emergency and teeing up a vote on the Senate floor this week.

ETHICS WATCHDOG FLAGS SENATOR HELPING MAKE MILLIONS FOR WIFE'S GREEN NONPROFIT

Ending the energy emergency would lead to the loss of 869,800 jobs, according to a White House document obtained by Fox News Digital. 

The White House emphasized that ending the emergency would usher back in the Biden administration's policies. The document stressed that under those policies, during Biden's first two years, families spent an additional average of $10,000 in energy costs, citing a study published by the Committee to Unleash Prosperity. 

The document cited that estimates of liquefied natural gas growth in the new administration were projected to bring in half a million jobs annually and boost U.S. GDP by $1.3 trillion through 2040, per a study by S&P Global in December. 

TRUMP TAX CUT PLAN HITS TURBULENCE AHEAD OF HOUSE VOTE AS REPUBLICANS SPLIT

"The Trump Administration is living in a fantasy land," Kaine and Heinrich told Fox News Digital in a joint statement. "Energy demand is high and only getting higher, which is why it’s great that America is producing more energy than at any other point in our history. Decreasing the supply of American-made energy when demand is high is the quickest way to raise prices—and that’s exactly what President Trump’s sham energy emergency will do. By tampering with the market to favor some forms of energy over others and making it easier for fossil fuel companies to take Americans’ private property, Trump’s emergency declaration will benefit Big Oil, but leave American consumers with fewer choices and higher bills."

"At the same time, Trump’s decision to illegally halt investments appropriated by Congress in energy projects that are creating jobs in communities across the country is costing Americans valuable, good-paying jobs," they added. 

The two Democrats unveiled their privileged legislation against Trump's order earlier this month.

FOLLOWING KEY WINS, TRUMP POISED FOR CABINET COMPLETION IN RECORD TIME

"Senate Democrats are yet again attempting to block President Trump's efforts to secure cheaper, more reliable energy—just when America needs it most," Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Mike Lee, R-Utah, said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

"Their message to families is clear: pay more, expect less. Luckily, President Trump is committed to unleashing American energy and rescuing the country from the energy crisis that they have perpetuated. Senate Republicans won't let Democrats delay and obstruct any longer and will ensure the President has the tools necessary to deliver the results the American people expect."

SENATE BORDER BUDGET TRIUMPHS AFTER ALL-NIGHT SESSION WHILE TRUMP-BACKED HOUSE BILL LAGS

Kaine and Heinrich's introduction of the resolution will force a vote on the Senate floor, which is expected to occur on Wednesday. 

The measure is likely to fail, with Republicans vocally supportive of Trump's energy agenda. The GOP has a 53-seat majority in the upper chamber.

Georgia Republican Rep. Andrew Clyde, who earlier this month announced he was drafting articles of impeachment against a Rhode Island judge overseeing one of President Donald Trump's legal challenges, condemned judges who continue to bar Trump's agenda from being implemented. 

Clyde is working in conjunction with Rep. Eli Crane, R-Ariz., who is also preparing impeachment articles against U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer. The Georgia Republican said the real victims of judicial pushback against Trump's policies are the American people. 

"You're not just hurting the president," Clyde told Fox News Digital. "You're hurting the American people because they're the ones who elected him, and they're the ones who want him to do this – to exercise these specific authorities. And these judges are really denying the American people their rights."

IMPEACHMENT THREAT HITS JUDGE WHO BLOCKED TRUMP FEDERAL FUNDING FREEZE

Clyde threatened to file articles of impeachment against District Judge John McConnell who, at the time, filed a motion ordering the Trump administration to comply with a previous restraining order. The order temporarily blocked the administration’s efforts to pause federal grants and loans. 

McConnell has since come under fire from Trump supporters and conservatives who have accused him of being a liberal activist after a 2021 video of him saying courts must "stand and enforce the rule of law, that is, against arbitrary and capricious actions by what could be a tyrant or could be whatnot" resurfaced online.  

"You have to take a moment and realize that this, you know, middle-class, White, male, privileged person needs to understand the human being that comes before us that may be a woman, may be Black, may be transgender, may be poor, may be rich, may be – whatever," McConnell said in the video, according to WPRI.

KEY HOUSE DEMOCRAT RIPS MUSK FOR USURPING PRESIDENTIAL POWERS, SAYS SOME HAVE DISCUSSED IMPEACHMENT

Clyde acknowledged that judges have their own opinions and "they're certainly entitled to them, but they're not overt and political in mentioning them," saying "they don't want to be seen as potentially having a conflict of interest."

"And I think that's very, very much the case when it comes to both Judge Engelmayer and Judge McConnell," the lawmaker said. 

Since taking office in January, activist and legal groups, along with elected officials, local jurisdictions and individuals, have launched more than 70 lawsuits against the administration. The legal challenges cover Trump's executive order on birthright citizenship, the Department of Government Efficiency's (DOGE) efforts to slash unnecessary government spending, and Trump's removal of various federal employees. 

DOJ ISSUES COMPLAINT ABOUT FEDERAL JUDGE’S ‘MISCONDUCT’ WHILE PRESIDING OVER MILITARY TRANS BAN COURT CASE

With regard to the specific suits over DOGE's actions, Clyde told Fox News Digital he expects the president to "prevail on the merits of his case."

"I think the president will certainly prevail on the merits of his case. He has the authority under Article II of the Constitution," Clyde said. "But yet for the entire time of the restraining order, the judge will have prevented this duly elected authority from being exercised by the president. And also, they will have prevented the American people from dealing with waste, fraud and abuse in their government."

Clyde said he hopes other members of Congress join his and Crane's efforts to continue holding judges accountable, saying those barring Trump's agenda from being implemented "need to understand that they're not going to get away with it."

"They can't just stop the president from doing what the Constitution gives him the authority to do, and the people have given him the authority to do," Clyde said. 

Fox News Digital's Elizabeth Elkind and Diana Stancy contributed to this report. 

The Trump administration's Friday evening shakeup at the Pentagon saw the firing of six senior officers as Secretary Pete Hegseth made good on promises to upend the agency's leadership. 

President Donald Trump and Hegseth fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. C.Q. Brown, and replaced him with a relatively unknown figure in Lt. Gen. Dan Caine. 

The choice of Caine shows the president’s preference for irregular warfare and special operations: Caine was among a group of military leaders who met with the president in December 2018 at the Al Asad airbase in Iraq. Trump was there to deliver a Christmas message and hear from commanders on the ground, and there Caine told Trump they could defeat ISIS quickly with a surge of resources and a lifting of restrictions on engagement. 

"'We’re only hitting them from a temporary base in Syria,'" Trump said Caine told him. "'But if you gave us permission, we could hit them from the back, from the side, from all over – from the base that you’re right on, right now, sir. They won’t know what the hell hit them.'" 

TRUMP NOMINATES AIR FORCE LT. GEN. DAN 'RAZIN' CAINE FOR JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF CHAIRMAN

"It was a different message than [Trump] had gotten from leadership at the Pentagon, and I think that really made an impression," according to Rob Greenway, a former National Security Council official who was on the trip and has known Caine since they graduated from Virginia Military Institute together. 

Trump, on picking Caine Friday, lauded him as "an accomplished pilot, national security expert, successful entrepreneur, and a ‘warfighter’ with significant interagency and special operations experience."

He’d plucked the retired general from relative obscurity to serve as his senior military adviser after accusing his predecessor, C.Q. Brown of pushing a "woke" agenda at the Pentagon. Brown had been behind a 2022 memo laying out diversity goals for the Air Force. 

Caine does not meet the position's prerequisites, such as being a combatant commander or service chief, and will require a waiver to be confirmed to the position. 

But the choice leaves Pentagon watchers curious on what direction Caine will take at his new high-level post. 

"Caine hasn’t written much, we’re sort of trying to read the tea leaves here," said Mark Cancian, a senior defense advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. 

Greenway called Caine "an absolutely inspired pick, a tremendous officer with a remarkable background, and he has the confidence in the president." 

Trump was undoubtedly attracted to his reputation as an aggressive fighter pilot that earned him the nickname "Razin" Caine. But Caine’s nontraditional path throughout the military ranks and the business world was surely a selling point, according to Greenway.

$1,300 COFFEE CUPS, 8,000% OVERPAY FOR SOAP DISPENSERS SHOW WASTE AS DOGE LOCKS IN ON PENTAGON

"It’s a priority of the president to have the Pentagon pass an audit, to have someone who knows what a balance sheet looks like, and can hopefully help the department get to the right side of it."

The Pentagon has failed seven straight audits and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has set its sights on budget cuts at DOD. 

Caine, an F-16 pilot by background, spent time as the top military liaison to the CIA, an Air National Guard officer and regional airline founder in Texas. He was a White House fellow at the Agriculture Department and a counterterrorism specialist on the White House’s Homeland Security Council.

From 2018-19, he was deputy commander of Special Operations Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve, which has been fighting the Islamic State since 2014, though little is publicly known about his role in that operation. The role of airstrikes, however, grew during that time, including clandestine ones, and Trump designated airstrike approval to commanders rather than the White House. 

But critics say Caine, like Hegseth, does not have the command experience for the role as Trump's top military advisor. 

"Trump sees [the role] as somebody who has the ability to move forces and direct funding, and it just doesn't work that way. That's not what the role is. So now you have a president who has people around him who are his principal advisors, [Hegseth] and this new chairman, who really have limited qualifications at the more senior levels," said Gene Moran, former advisor to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs and founder of lobbying firm Capitol Integration. 

The administration also relieved Adm. Lisa Franchetti, chief of naval operations – who Hegseth believed had been given the job because she was a woman – Gen. Jim Slife, Air Force vice chief of staff, and the judge advocates general of the Army, Navy and Air Force. 

"If naval operations suffer, at least we can hold our heads high. Because at least we have another first! The first female member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff – hooray," Hegseth wrote in his 2024 book, "The War on Warriors." 

"The Navy, in particular, has been unable to complete a procurement program on time and on budget and notoriously has decommissioned more ships than it’s made," said Greenway. "So I think the message there was accountability has to be restored." 

FORMER CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF BIDS FAREWELL IN HEARTFELT SOCIAL MEDIA POST: ‘DISTINCT HONOR’

The switch-up of judge advocates general could be the biggest signal of policy change, where Hegseth has looked to grant greater authority to forces on the ground without having to worry about legal constraints. 

The judge advocates general, the top uniformed attorneys of the Army, Air Force and Navy, oversee the legal advisors for each branch and the defense counsel and prosecutors for courts-martial. 

Hegseth has spoken out against what he sees as an "obsessive" prosecution of war crimes. "He wants to give the benefit of the doubt to the warfighter, if there’s not, you know, an absolute massacre," one source familiar with the defense secretary’s thinking said.  

"Ultimately, we want lawyers who give sound constitutional advice and don’t exist to attempt to be roadblocks to anything that happens," the Pentagon chief told Fox News on Sunday. 

"Hegseth has said the troops should do what they need to achieve victory and not feel constrained by the lawyers," said Cancian. "But then you could have some actions that are contrary to international law or treaties, that could make a huge controversy, both domestically and with our allies."

But the advancement of Caine, with his covert operations background, and the removal of the top lawyers would signal a new focus on covert operations – a push that would line up with new terrorism designations for cartels in Latin America – and could set the military up for covert counter-narcotics strikes south of the border. 

"We could definitely see a change in troop postures in some of these regions we've been in for too long, and new missions in Mexico going after the cartels," another Hegseth ally said. 

President Donald Trump’s decision to fire several high-ranking military leaders is a first step in helping the president achieve his goal of a military more focused on lethality.

"It’s a bold move… you could even say it’s fairly aggressive," William Ruger, the President of the American Institute for Economic Research (AIER) and a former Trump nominee for ambassador to Afghanistan, told Fox News Digital. "There’s a sense that I get that this isn’t merely a challenge to one or two individuals, but that there needed to be a greater push to change the direction the Pentagon has been going… in terms of lethality, warrior ethos."

Ruger, who serves as an officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve, was "a prominent advocate for ending America’s participation in the Afghanistan War," according to his AIER profile page.

The comments come after Trump fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force Gen. C.Q. Brown, as well as several other top military officers over the weekend, a list that also included the U.S. Navy's top officer, Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead one of the military branches.

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The dramatic move reportedly caused "upheaval" at the Pentagon, according to a Reuters report, while critics were quick to pounce on Trump’s decision.

"Firing uniformed leaders as a type of political loyalty test, or for reasons relating to diversity and gender that have nothing to do with performance, erodes the trust and professionalism that our service members require to achieve their missions," the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. Jack Reed, of Rhode Island, told Reuters, whose report called the firings "unprecedented."

But Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pushed back against that characterization, arguing during an appearance on "Fox News Sunday" that Trump "deserves to pick his key national security advisory team."

"Nothing about this is unprecedented," Hegseth said, noting that there have been "lots of presidents who made changes," specifically citing Franklin D. Roosevelt, George H.W. Bush and Barack Obama, who Hegseth argued "fired or dismissed hundreds" of military officials.

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In the most recent example, Obama made the decision to relieve Army Gen. David McKiernan as the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan five months into the president’s term in office in 2009, marking the first time a wartime commander had been dismissed since 1951.

According to Ruger, the main point of the firings will be to allow Trump to have trusted military advisors to carry out his vision for the future of the force.

"The president had good reason for trying to do this, believing that the military was not led by the admirals and generals that were necessary to implement his vision of our defense structure," Ruger said. "We should have some caution here in thinking that there’s anything amiss."

Ruger also noted that the moves align more closely to Hegseth’s vision for the military, which he believes will "focus on lethality and the warrior ethos, as opposed to some of the more… identitarianism that we had seen creeping into the military."

Perhaps more importantly, Ruger stressed that Trump’s ability to shake up military leadership as he sees fit is critical to the U.S.’s time-tested tradition of civilian leadership over the military.

"It’s important that for good civil military relations purposes, that it’s clear who is the decision maker, and that should be the civilians, and that what they say will be faithfully implemented," Ruger said. "That’s the hallmark of good civil military relations."

Among the critics who posted on X Sunday after my Fox News show was one who made an argument that surprised me.

Don’t pay attention to what President Trump says, this person wrote. Pay attention to what he does.

Now that’s a novel idea. What the President of the United States says is unimportant and should be ignored. I doubt that this person applied the same standard to President Joe Biden.

And yet there’s an interesting thought exercise here. Trump says a lot of things, especially since he talks to journalists at length virtually every day. Not everything rises to the same level of seriousness. I say this as someone who has interviewed him many times over the years, including our sitdown two weeks before the election.

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Sometimes the president says things just to rile up the press. Sometimes he says things that aren’t true, or are exaggerations or taken out of context.

But more often he says the quiet part out loud, signaling what he plans to do or insulting those with whom he disagrees, the kind of stuff that reporters used to have to attribute to unnamed aides, and he does it in front of the cameras.

At the top of the list right now would be Ukraine. Donald Trump is a smart guy, he knows that Russia invaded its much smaller sovereign neighbor with the aim of wiping it off the map and putting it under Moscow’s control. But he has chosen to blame Ukraine for starting the war, and to insult Volodomyr Zelenskyy as a dictator when everyone knows that label perfectly describes Vladimir Putin.

The most charitable interpretation is that Trump believes the only way to end the war is through an alliance with Putin for a settlement that could then be sold to Ukraine. (The United States voted with Russia yesterday against a U.N. resolution condemning the invasion.) 

Of course, Trump has cozied up to Putin for a long time. During their Helsinki summit in the first term, the president accepted Putin’s denial that the Kremlin had hacked into Democratic emails, despite the evidence gathered by his own intelligence agencies.

Trump has repeated again and again that Zelenskyy bears responsibility for the war that just marked its three-year anniversary. Is this aimed at the American public or at Moscow or Kyiv (to put pressure on Ukraine)?  

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Journalists keep asking Trump aides and Republican supporters if they agree with the president’s blame-Ukraine approach, and many have simply tried to deflect the question.

In my "Media Buzz" interview with Jason Miller, the longtime Trump confidante and senior adviser to the Trump transition team, he deftly avoided contradicting the president.

"What President Trump has done," he said, "is he has forced the sides to the table to actually stop the killing and come up with a peace deal. For the last several years. Joe Biden has sat there completely incompetent, doing nothing but fueling and funding more killing and more death." 

When I tried again, Miller said of his boss that "his legacy really will be as a peacemaker."

I came back a third time, quoting conservative radio host Mark Levin as saying, "This is sick. Ukraine didn't start this war. What were they supposed to do? Roll over and play dead? They're just trying to survive." 

And I asked: "Why is President Trump blaming Zelenskyy for the beginning of the war?"

"Well, Zelenskyy has a lot of blame. I think that would go to this as well. But again, you want to look into the past, I want to look into the future, what we do to save lives." 

Jason Miller was doing his job. A similar scenario played out on the other Sunday shows.

On "Fox News Sunday," my colleague Shannon Bream asked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth whether it was fair to say that Russia was unprovoked when it attacked Ukraine. He replied that it was "fair to say it’s a very complicated situation."

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Stressing that Trump wants to end the war, Hegseth said: "‘You’re good, you’re bad; you’re a dictator, you’re not a dictator; you invaded, you didn’t.’ It’s not useful. It’s not productive."

Another part of my Sunday interview also shed light on Trump’s use of language.

The president had told reporters: "I think we should govern the District of Columbia, make it absolutely flawlessly beautiful." 

The District has enjoyed home rule for 50 years, although Congress retains the power to overturn its laws. The capital, like most cities, grapples with crime, poverty and other urban ills.

I asked point blank: Is the president ready to end home rule in D.C.?

Miller said Mayor Muriel Bowser is largely doing a good job, adding: "I think part of the reason why President Trump won is because he said he was going to clean up our cities to make them safe. Of course he's going to put pressure on the District of Columbia."

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So Trump’s words in this instance had a different meaning, as a warning signal to the District.

Oh, I also wondered why Trump keeps referring to Canada as the 51st state when that’s not going to happen.

"The president's having a little bit of fun with it. But he's also making some very serious points."

My online detractor was wrong. It’s important to pay attention to the president’s words, especially for the media, which have a tendency to overreact to some of his language. The challenge is deciphering when he’s dead serious, when he’s sending signals, and when he’s just trolling. 

The Crime and Policing Bill will give officers powers to make Britain's cities safer, the home secretary says.

The Runcorn and Helsby MP was jailed by magistrates on Monday after he admitted the assault.

Laws in the Isle of Man to let terminally ill adults end their own lives are in the last stages of debate.

The five largest parties in England were due to meet this week - but the BBC has learned the talks have been cancelled.