Individual federal agencies are in control as to what actions will be taken against government employees who did not respond to an Office of Personnel Management email asking for a bullet-point list of what they accomplished during the previous work week, a White House official told Fox News Digital. 

"Agencies should consider any appropriate actions regarding employees who fail to respond to activity," a White House official told Fox News Digital Tuesday. "It is agency leadership’s decision as to what actions are taken." 

Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Chair Elon Musk announced Saturday that federal employees would receive an email directing them to list their accomplishments from the week prior, with the DOGE leader adding later that day that the assignment should take less than five minutes to accomplish. 

Employees had until 11:59 p.m. Monday to send the list or risk losing their employment, according to emails regarding Musk's directive that were sent by the Office of Personnel Management.

TRUMP OFFICIALS LIST 5 WEEKLY ACCOMPLISHMENTS AHEAD OF MUSK MIDNIGHT DEADLINE

"Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week," Musk wrote on X Saturday. "Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation." 

"To be clear, the bar is very low here," Musk wrote. "An email with some bullet points that make any sense at all is acceptable! Should take less than 5 mins to write." 

Musk added to X on Monday evening that, "subject to the discretion of the President, (federal employees) will be given another chance. Failure to respond a second time will result in termination."

FLASHBACK: MUSK USED HIS 'WHAT DID YOU GET DONE THIS WEEK' DIRECTIVE BEFORE GUTTING TWITTER

"The email request was utterly trivial, as the standard for passing the test was to type some words and press send!" he wrote in a separate post. "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?" 

A handful of federal departments that deal with sensitive and classified information told staffers to ignore the order to list their accomplishments, which President Donald Trump said on Monday was a "friendly" rejection due to the sensitive materials some government employees handle on a regular basis. 

FBI Director Kash Patel, the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security were among the agencies and departments that informed staff to not respond to the email. 

"That was done in a friendly manner," Trump said Monday while speaking with the media alongside French President Emmanuel Macron. "Only things such as, perhaps Marco at State Department, where they have very confidential things. Or the FBI, where they're working on confidential things. And they don't mean that in any way combatively with Elon. They're just saying there are some people that you don't want to really have them tell you what they're working on last week."

MUSK'S DEMAND THAT FED EMPLOYEES LIST THEIR ACCOMPLISHMENTS ROILS WORKFORCE: 'MASS CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE'

Other Trump officials, such as Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, Small Business Association Administrator Kelly Loeffler and Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins, publicly reported their accomplishments for the previous work week on social media or in comments to Fox News Digital. 

Following the deadline, Musk posted a meme on X showing Greek mythology warrior Achilles and an arrow piercing his heel. A caption over the Greek figure reads, "Largest most entrenched bureaucracy on earth," while a caption over the arrow reads, "What did you get done last week?"  

Trump lauded the directive Monday, arguing that it will expose government employees who aren't actually carrying out tasks.

"There was a lot of genius in sending it," Trump said Monday from the White House. "We're trying to find out if people are working. And so we're sending a letter to people. Please tell us what you did last week. If people don't respond, it's very possible that there is no such person or they're not working." 

Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro announced Monday that $2.1 billion in federal funds had been unfrozen and restored to Pennsylvania, as Democratic governors rely on the courts to challenge President Donald Trump's executive actions. 

Shapiro sued the Trump administration on Feb. 13, joining the initial 22 states and the District of Columbia with lawsuits challenging Trump's allegedly "illegal" federal funding freeze. Shapiro said legal action was necessary to restore Pennsylvania’s federal funding. 

Shapiro, who was in Washington for the National Governors Association (NGA) last week, said he urged senior members of the Trump administration to unfreeze the federal funds. 

"When I was at the White House on Friday, I again raised the issue of our frozen federal funding to President Trump's senior team and members of his Cabinet," Shapiro told reporters Monday. "I urged them to follow the law and to honor their agreements with Pennsylvania. As a result of that direct engagement last week, our funding is unfrozen. They are now following the law, and we will continue to press our case."

SHAPIRO LATEST DEMOCRAT SUING 'UNCONSTITUTIONAL' TRUMP ADMIN

Shapiro said his directness earned Pennsylvania access to the funds "duly owed to us."

"I was very direct with them. They were very responsive to me. And as a result, Pennsylvania now has what is duly owed to us," Shapiro added. 

The White House Office of Management and Budget directed agencies to halt federal funding on Jan. 27 in compliance with Trump's executive orders. Federal judges had issued a temporary restraining order to block the funding freeze ahead of Shapiro's lawsuit, but only states with litigation against the Trump administration were able to access the unfrozen funds. 

JUDICIAL PUSHBACK ON TRUMP 'HURTING AMERICAN PEOPLE,' SAYS GOP REP LEADING IMPEACHMENT CHARGE

"As a result of our lawsuit and our continued pressure and engagement with the Trump administration, in which we demanded that the administration comply with the legal injunctions currently in place, we made clear that we were ready to seek immediate relief from the courts. Every dollar that we identified at the filing of our lawsuit is currently unfrozen and, once again, accessible to all Pennsylvania state agencies," Shapiro said. 

The $2.1 billion in federal funding restores what Shapiro described as "critical programs and infrastructure projects that have been jeopardized by this illegal freeze." Those programs include plugging abandoned wells, cleaning waterways, protecting farmers from runoff water, repairing mines and delivering clean water to Pennsylvanians, Shapiro said. He said several projects that were halted have been restored and dozens of federal employees are now back to work. 

Shapiro said it is his responsibility as governor to take legal action against the federal government when necessary to deliver for Pennsylvania.

"It is my job to protect Pennsylvania's interests, and I will use every tool at my disposal, from legal action to my direct engagement, to make sure that Pennsylvanians are protected, and that the funds Pennsylvanians rely on every day, the funds that Pennsylvanians pay in federal taxes make their way back to our Commonwealth, and we receive every federal dollar that we are owed," Shapiro said. 

The legal dance of Trump’s executive actions is on full display in Shapiro’s litigation as the governor said suing the Trump administration was the only way to unfreeze Pennsylvania’s federal funds. Shapiro’s legal win is the latest in ongoing litigation between the state and federal governments. 

During the Governor's Working Session at the White House on Friday, when Shapiro told senior Trump officials to restore his state’s federal funding, Gov. Janet Mills, D-Maine, was telling Trump, "We’ll see you in court." 

Trump told Mills, in a moment NGA Vice Chairman Kevin Stitt, R-Okla., described as "uncomfortable," that Maine would not receive any federal funding if she did not comply with his executive order to prevent transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports. 

Mills said in a statement that Maine would "not be intimidated by the president’s threats."

"If the president attempts to unilaterally deprive Maine school children of the benefit of federal funding, my administration and the attorney general will take all appropriate and necessary legal action to restore that funding and the academic opportunity it provides," Mills added. 

As Trump continues to implement part of his agenda through executive action, Democrats are relying on federal litigation to challenge the Trump administration’s executive authority, that many call a "constitutional crisis."

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Pennsylvania's unfrozen federal funds. 

FIRST ON FOX: A group of Republican lawmakers is turning up the heat on President Donald Trump to recognize the West Bank as Israeli territory after the president suggested he was looking into such a change. 

A new letter to Trump, led by Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., frames the fraught territory, occupied by both Palestinians and Israelis, as the heartland of the U.S. and Israel’s "shared Judeo-Christian heritage." 

"This region is the heart of our shared Judeo-Christian heritage and recognition of the right of Israel to declare sovereignty over this region would build upon your previous recognition of the importance of this heritage," the letter reads.

"In anticipation of a potential policy announcement regarding Judea and Samaria in the next few weeks, we want to express our strong support for recognizing Israel’s right to declare sovereignty over this historically and biblically significant region. We also wish to express our strong opposition to the recognition of any hostile Arab state in Judea and Samaria that supports terrorism and fails to recognize Israel."

ISRAEL MOVES TANKS INTO WEST BANK FOR FIRST TIME SINCE 2002

The letter also applauds Trump for lifting sanctions on Israeli settlers in the West Bank, imposed under the Biden administration. 

The order was meant to punish Israeli settlers accused of perpetrating violence against Palestinians in the West Bank after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks. 

Five other members of the Friends of Judea and Samaria Caucus signed on to the letter: Reps. Mary Miller, R-Ill., Randy Weber, R-Texas, Andy Harris, R-Md., Barry Moore, R-Ala., and Nick LaLota, R-N.Y. 

Trump teased a new announcement on West Bank policy earlier this month.

HAMAS RELEASES MORE HOSTAGES IN EXCHANGE FOR MORE THAN 600 PALESTINIAN PRISONERS AS PART OF CEASEFIRE DEAL

"We're discussing that with many of your representatives," he said. "People do like the idea, but we haven’t taken a position on it yet. But we will be making an announcement on that very specific topic in the next four weeks."

Trump is expected to have a far more permissive view of Israeli expansion into the West Bank than the Biden administration. He reversed long-standing U.S. policy during his first administration that deemed Israeli settlements in the West Bank a violation of law. 

For the first time in two decades, Israel moved tanks into the West Bank, turning its attention to militants hiding there after the signing of the ceasefire in Gaza. 

Palestinians see the effort as Israel setting up an effort to retake the areas currently run by the Palestinian Authority. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israeli forces would stay in the West Bank "as long as needed." 

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said troops would be in urban areas of the West Bank at least "for the coming year" and the 40,000 Palestinians who fled would not be able to return to their homes. 

"We will not allow the return of residents, and we will not allow terrorism to return and grow," he said.

The White House is pushing back against a report from the Associated Press claiming that nearly 40% of the federal contracts that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) canceled aren’t expected to save the government any money. 

The AP first reported that 40% figure on Tuesday, saying it was derived from the Trump administration's own data. 

DOGE, run by Elon Musk, published an initial list last week of 1,125 contracts that President Donald Trump's signature cost-saving program terminated in recent weeks across the federal government. 

The AP said the data published on DOGE's "Wall of Receipts" shows that more than one-third of the contract cancelations, 417 in all, are expected to yield no savings. The publication assesses that, in most cases, that's because the total value of the contracts has already been fully obligated, meaning the government has a legal requirement to spend the funds for the goods or services it purchased and in many cases has already done so.

FEDERAL AGENCY TELLS STAFF RESPONSES TO MUSK'S DOGE PRODUCTIVITY EMAIL MAY BE READ BY 'MALIGN FOREIGN ACTORS'

A White House official told Fox News Digital, however, that many of the contracts were on auto-renewal, suggesting DOGE would still be saving taxpayers money in the long run by canceling the contracts it deems wasteful. 

"DOGE is identifying waste that most Americans never knew existed. That is a good thing," the official said. "Also, many of these contracts were also on auto-renew – so DOGE is preventing tax dollars from being wasted on these scams in the future."  

The AP cited an unnamed administration official as saying on condition of anonymity that it made sense to cancel contracts that are seen as potential dead weight, even if the moves do not yield any savings. 

A government contracting law expert was more critical. 

"It’s like confiscating used ammunition after it’s been shot when there’s nothing left in it. It doesn’t accomplish any policy objective," Charles Tiefer, a retired University of Baltimore law professor, told the AP. "Their terminating so many contracts pointlessly obviously doesn’t accomplish anything for saving money."

"It's too late for the government to change its mind on many of these contracts and walk away from its payment obligation," added Tiefer, who served on the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Tiefer told the AP that DOGE appeared to be taking a "slash and burn" approach to cutting contracts, which he said could damage the performance of government agencies. He said savings could be made instead by working with agency contracting officers and inspectors general to find efficiencies, an approach the administration has not taken.

HOW MUCH DOGE HAS SAVED THE AMERICAN TAXPAYER SO FAR AND MORE TOP HEADLINES

It's not the first time the White House has clashed with the AP in recent weeks.

A federal judge on Monday declined to immediately order the White House to restore the AP's access to presidential events. U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden allowed to stand the two-week ban implemented over the AP continuing to refer to the "Gulf of America" as the "Gulf of Mexico" despite Trump's executive order renaming the body of water. The judge did warn government attorneys the law was not on the administration's side in the long term. 

Of the listed contracts canceled by DOGE, dozens were for already-paid subscriptions to the AP, Politico and other media services that the administration said it would discontinue. The AP assessed that other canceled contracts "were for research studies that have been awarded, training that has taken place, software that has been purchased and interns that have come and gone." 

In all, DOGE data says the 417 contracts in question had a total value of $478 million. The AP said dozens of other canceled contracts are expected to yield little if any savings.

The canceled contracts were to purchase a wide range of goods and services.

For example, the Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded a contract in September to purchase and install office furniture at various branches. While the contract does not expire until later this year, federal records show the agency had already agreed to spend the maximum $567,809 with a furniture company, according to the AP. 

The U.S. Agency for International Development negotiated a $145,549 contract last year to clean the carpet at its headquarters in Washington. But the full amount had already been obligated to a firm that is owned by a Native American tribe based in Michigan. Another already-spent $249,600 contract went to a Washington, D.C., firm to help prepare the Department of Transportation for the recent transition from the Biden to the Trump administration.

Some of the canceled contracts were intended to modernize and improve the way the government works, according to the AP. 

One of the largest, for instance, went to a consulting firm to help carry out a reorganization at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, which led the agency’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The maximum $13.6 million had already been obligated to Deloitte Consulting LLP for help with the restructuring, which included closing several research offices.

DOGE has estimated that the overall contract cancelations are expected to save more than $7 billion so far – a figure that some critics have challenged.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The Supreme Court has tossed out the murder conviction and death sentence of Oklahoma's Richard Glossip, ordering a new trial.

Glossip was convicted and sentenced to death in the 1997 killing in Oklahoma City of his former boss, motel owner Barry Van Treese, in what prosecutors have alleged was a murder-for-hire scheme.

The justices heard arguments in October in a case that produced a rare alliance in which lawyers for Glossip and the state argued that the high court should overturn Glossip’s conviction and death sentence because he did not get a fair trial.

The justices found that Glossip's trial violated his constitutional rights. Meanwhile, the victim’s relatives had told the Supreme Court that they wanted to see Glossip executed.

Oklahoma’s top criminal appeals court had repeatedly upheld the conviction and sentence, even after the state sided with Glossip.

Glossip has always maintained his innocence. Another man, Justin Sneed, admitted robbing Van Treese and beating him to death with a baseball bat but testified he only did so after Glossip promised to pay him $10,000. Sneed received a life sentence in exchange for his testimony and was the key witness against Glossip.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Fox News' Shannon Bream contributed to this report. 

EXCLUSIVE: House Republicans are getting an update on the Trump administration’s probe of billionaire George Soros’ influence on local radio, a source familiar with planning told Fox News Digital.

The Republican Study Committee (RSC), the 175-strong caucus led by Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, is hosting Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr at its annual closed-door lunch on Wednesday.

The source familiar with planning said Carr is expected to brief GOP lawmakers on the FCC’s investigation into Soros, including an investment firm he’s linked to purchasing over 200 Audacy radio stations nationwide.

Carr and Republicans are also expected to more widely discuss strategy for pushing back against media deemed to be biased against the GOP.

KEY CONSERVATIVE CAUCUS DRAWS RED LINE ON HOUSE BUDGET PLAN

The RSC is the largest grouping of lawmakers within the House GOP and traditionally acts as an informal think tank for the conference.

It’s also been a conduit for several top Trump administration officials to Capitol Hill so far this year.

Trump deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller addressed the RSC on immigration and Trump’s plan for executive action last month. And earlier in February, the group heard from Energy Secretary Chris Wright.

NONCITIZEN VOTER CRACKDOWN LED BY GOP AHEAD OF 2026 MIDTERMS

An investment firm linked to Soros, a left-wing businessman who has sunk billions of dollars into liberal causes, became the largest stakeholder in radio giant Audacy at the tail end of the Biden administration late last year.

The Soros Investment Fund acquired roughly 40% of Audacy’s debts after the company filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Republican lawmakers blasted the deal, including Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., both of whom called for intense scrutiny.

Carr signaled he wanted to set his sights on Soros late last year during an interview on "Mornings with Maria."

"There's a petition for reconsideration pending at the FCC right now. And I want to take a very hard look at that," he said in late November.

Fox News Digital reached out to the FCC and Audacy for comment.

In an ad promoting herself as a tough on crime judge, and her opponent as "too extreme," the Democrat-aligned candidate in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race touted the endorsement of a local sheriff who has a long history of promoting sanctuary immigration policies and opposing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). 

"Take it from a sheriff," Dane County Sheriff Kalvin Barrett said in a recent 15-second ad, paid for by candidate Susan Crawford, criticizing the Republican-aligned candidate Brad Schimel of being too "extreme" for the Wisconsin Supreme Court and for "letting rapists walk free" in a claim involving a backlog of rape kits being processed that Schimel has pushed back on. 

Barrett has faced his own share of criticism for policies labeled soft on crime, specifically on illegal immigrant crime, where his office has a history of refusing to cooperate with ICE.

Earlier this year, Barrett withdrew Wisconsin from the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program that ICE uses to locate criminal illegal immigrants in jail, which earned him praise from the ACLU. 

TOM HOMAN TELLS MIGRANT TERROR GROUPS TRUMP WILL ‘WIPE YOU OFF THE FACE OF THE EARTH’

"At this point, we will no longer be taking part in the SCAAP grant program, and it is due to the recent change in administration and our understanding, listening, and hearing our community here in Dane County," Barrett told Channel 3000 at the time. 

Barrett has also pledged that his department will "not be proactively involved in any sort of round-ups, any sort of immigration enforcement."

ICE listed Dane County as a jurisdiction that was "non-cooperative" in a June 2024 report, as Barrett’s office released individuals suspected of being illegal immigrants out on bail after committing crimes that were in some cases violent. 

In 2024, two Republican congressmen in Wisconsin released a statement demanding answers from Barrett on Alejandro Jose Coronel Zarate, a suspected member of the Venezuelan street gang Tren de Aragua, having a warrant for his arrest in Dane County when he was then arrested for allegedly sexually and physically assaulting a woman and her child.

BRETT FAVRE HAS 1-WORD RESPONSE TO WISCONSIN GOV'S PROPOSAL THAT WOULD REPLACE WORD 'MOTHER' IN STATE LAW

"Sanctuary policies undermine both the rule of law and the safety of American communities," Matt O’Brien, director of investigations at the Immigration Reform Law Institute, told Fox News Digital. "To begin with, states, counties, and municipalities cannot simply ignore any federal laws they dislike. But that’s exactly what sanctuary jurisdictions are doing."

"Secondly, law enforcement officials who are tough on crime and serious about protecting their communities seize every available opportunity to neutralize threats to public safety. Police chiefs and sheriffs in sanctuary jurisdictions actually do the exact opposite. They shield foreign criminals from federal immigration enforcement. And, in so doing, they encourage criminals to take up residence in the very communities they are responsible for protecting. Simply put, it is impossible to be a sanctuary police chief or sheriff and be tough on crime – because the very essence of being a sanctuary jurisdiction is giving preferential treatment to illegal alien bad guys."

Another sheriff featured in the ad, former Dane County Sheriff David Mahoney, has also publicly pushed back against ICE raids. 

Schimel, who has been endorsed by over 80 Wisconsin sheriffs and previously served as the state’s attorney general, will face Crawford in an election on April 1 for a 10-year term on the state’s supreme court to replace retiring Judge Ann Walsh Bradley. 

Although the Supreme Court seats are considered nonpartisan, Crawford, currently a circuit court judge, has earned the endorsement of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, which received $1 million from George Soros in January before then sending $2 million to Crawford and various liberal activist groups. 

Schimel, currently a Waukesha County judge, has the backing of the Wisconsin GOP, several top Republican donors, including Chicago Cubs co-owner Joe Ricketts and Elon Musk’s Building America’s Future PAC. 

MUSK'S DEMAND THAT FED EMPLOYEES LIST THEIR ACCOMPLISHMENTS ROILS WORKFORCE: 'MASS CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE'

The race is expected to have significant implications on the future of Wisconsin politics given that the court’s current 4-3 liberal majority would essentially be set in stone through 2028 or, if Schimel were to win, become a conservative-leaning court with Justice Brian Hagedorn serving as a key swing vote. 

"In November, Wisconsin voters chose common sense above a far-left agenda. Now, Dangerous Democrat Susan Crawford, wants to be a liberal activist from the bench of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Crawford and Democrats are already plotting to redraw Congressional seats to attack President Trump’s America First Agenda," Wisconsin GOP Executive Director Andrew Iverson told Fox News Digital in a statement. 

"While Brad Schimel has a record of protecting Wisconsin’s most vulnerable, Crawford has a record of coddling criminals and has attached herself at the hip with anti-ICE and defund-police Democrats. On April 1, Wisconsin voters will flock to the ballot box to vote for Schimel — to save Wisconsin and save America."

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Schimel campaign spokesperson Jacob Fischer said, "Susan Crawford is backed by George Soros, and she’s not trying to hide it."

"If Crawford wins, she would continue to force-feed us her dangerous, Soros-backed agenda. We must stop her from destroying Wisconsin." 

Fox News Digital reached out to both Barrett and Crawford for comment but did not receive a response. 

President Donald Trump’s quick work to crack down on illegal immigration has already paid off in the nation’s largest city, according to a New York State lawmaker.

"This is a victory for taxpayers and a disaster for the progressives that have set up policies that have hurt New Yorkers," Republican New York Assemblyman Jake Blumencranz told Fox News Digital in reaction to New York Mayor Eric Adams’ announcement on Monday that the Roosevelt Hotel migrant shelter in Manhattan will be shutting down in the next few months.

The hotel, which was converted into a migrant shelter with about 1,000 rooms, has processed over 173,000 migrants since May 2023, a response to the wave of migrants that began coming to the city in 2022 in search of asylum.

The Roosevelt Hotel’s shelter, along with the Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center located on the site, will now be closed by June, a source told the New York Post.

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

"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," Adams said in a statement.

Adams also touted how his administration "skillfully managed the crisis," in part thanks to "sound policy decisions" and the ability to continue helping "asylum seekers take the next steps in their journeys as they envision an even brighter future."

However, Blumencranz believes much of the credit should go to Trump, whose executive actions on immigration have stemmed the flow entering the country and New York City.

"We’re not seeing the same volume of numbers as we saw during the Biden administration," Blumencranz said.

Blumencranz believes that even Democrats were caught off guard by the "sheer volume" of migrants entering the country as a result of the policies of the Biden administration, but the strain of the pressure on cities like New York has begun to alleviate with the new administration.

"We’re finally seeing some sort of rescue to that problem," Blumencranz said.

NYC SUES AFTER TRUMP ADMINISTRATION CLAWS BACK $80 MILLION MIGRANT HOUSING GRANT 

Adams highlighted as much in his statement, noting that "there are currently fewer than 45,000 migrants in the city’s care, down from a high of 69,000 in January of 2024 and out of the more than 232,000 that have arrived in New York City seeking city services since the spring of 2022."

Blumencranz now believes it is time for judicial reforms aimed at removing criminals who have entered the country and New York City over the last few years.

"What we need to see now is a system in place that reforms the judicial process, that we can make sure that those 60,000 some odd individuals who have come here and committed crimes are removed," he said. "That needs to be step one."

Nevertheless, Blumencranz viewed the closure of the Roosevelt shelter as a positive start, representing a "realignment" of thinking among government leaders on how to better manage the crisis.

Still, there is more work to be done to reassure New Yorkers who have seen the handling of the crisis stretch tax dollars thin and threaten government services.

"Our state budget has ballooned to $250 billion, the largest in state history and one of the largest in the United States of America, more than most countries," Blumencranz said.

"What we’re seeing is a continuation of services being cut because we’re dealing with prices that are created through bad policies from the state legislature and from City Hall. It’s time we start to put our money where our mouth is, fully fund programs that matter to taxpayers, and stop playing this game where compassionate services should matter more than making sure your kids get a world class education when you’re paying top dollar to live here in New York."

The percentage of Americans identifying as LGBT has risen to record highs, especially among Generation Z, a new Gallup poll released on Thursday shows, but that trend could see a departure under President Donald Trump, according to one expert, as the administration pushes back against gender treatments for minors.

The poll found that 23% of Generation Z Americans, those born between 1997 and 2006, identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. For comparison, 14.2% of millennials, those born between 1981 and 1996, identify the same way. Both groups identify as non-heterosexual compared to older generations, like Generation X and "Baby Boomers."

The Gallup poll surveyed more than 14,000 U.S. adults last year – collected through phone interviews with adults 18 and older – and found that 9.3% identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or another non-heterosexual identity. This marks a significant increase from 2020, when the figure was about half that, and a sharp rise from 2012, when Gallup first started tracking sexual orientation and gender identity, recording only 3.5%. 

LGBT ACTIVISTS MOBILIZE TO CHALLENGE TRUMP'S 'EXTREME GENDER IDEOLOGY' EXECUTIVE ORDERS

"The rate of LGBTQ+ identification is likely to continue to grow, given the generational shifts underway," Gallup senior editor and researcher Jeffrey M. Jones wrote in the study. 

"One reason for higher LGBTQ+ identification among younger generations of adults is that they are much more likely to consider themselves bisexual than are older people," Jones wrote.

The study also found differences among those with political ideologies, as people identifying as LGBT were more likely to be female, liberal, White, and live in urban areas. Among them, 21% identified as liberal, 8% as moderate, and 3% as conservative. The rate of LGBT identification has nearly tripled over more than a decade, with a growing number of Americans in their teens, 20s and 30s identifying as bisexual, particularly more women compared to men, researchers noted.

TRUMP SIGNS EXECUTIVE ORDERS BANNING 'RADICAL GENDER IDEOLOGY,' DEI INITIATIVES IN THE MILITARY

However, Heritage Foundation senior legal fellow Sarah Parshall Perry said the findings are a snapshot in time – due to the "onslaught" of the Biden administration's rulings on sex and gender over the last four years– but will likely begin to reverse under the Trump administration's crackdown on transgender medical procedures for minors.

"I think now that we're seeing this return to common sense, we are going to see fewer and fewer young people begin to identify as LGBTQ," Perry told Fox News Digital in an interview. "I would be very curious what the numbers look like four years into the future, after some of these policies have trickled down to the granular level."

"It was entirely unsurprising to me that it was the Generation Z who experienced the most precipitous increase, because they are the younger ones they are currently, right now, in the throes of sort of this battle between reality and cultural conformity," Perry said. "That's exactly where these kids are, and I think it's exactly why we're seeing these level of increases."

While the poll found 85.7% of respondents identified as straight, 5.2% identified as bisexual, 2.0% as gay, 1.4% as lesbian and 1.3% as transgender. Fewer than 1% of participants identified with other non-traditional LGBT labels, including pansexual, asexual or queer. Five percent of respondents declined to answer.

FEDERAL JUDGE HALTS PLANNED MOVE OF TRANS INMATES TO FACILITIES FOR THEIR BIOLOGICAL SEX

Trump has signed a slew of gender-related executive orders during his first 100 days in office which have already racked up multiple lawsuits. One of those orders, "Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government," mandates that federal agencies recognize gender strictly as male or female, based on biological sex, and prohibits the use of gender pronouns on federal documents. It also directs agencies to cease funding for transgender medical treatments for transgender federal inmates and to remove policies promoting radical "gender ideology."

FIRST ON FOX: GOP Rep. Darrell Issa has introduced a bill aimed at preventing federal judges from issuing nationwide injunctions with the sole purpose of derailing a president’s political agenda, which Issa says has been the case since President Donald Trump was sworn in. 

The legislation, known as the No Rogue Rulings Act (NORRA), amends Chapter 85 of title 28, United 5 States Code by adding a "Limitation on authority to provide injunctive relief."

"Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no United States district court shall issue any order providing for injunctive relief, except in the case of such an order that is applicable only to limit the actions of a party to the case before such district court with respect to the party seeking injunctive relief from such district court," the legislation states. 

Dozens of activist and legal groups, elected officials, local jurisdictions and individuals have launched more than 50 lawsuits against the Trump administration since Jan. 20 in response to his more than 60 executive orders, as well as executive proclamations and memos, Fox News Digital reported earlier this month.

LAWSUIT TRACKER: NEW RESISTANCE BATTLING TRUMP'S SECOND TERM THROUGH ONSLAUGHT OF LAWSUITS TAKING AIM AT EOS

Issa says NORRA would limit the scope of nationwide injunctions by preventing federal judges from issuing injunctions that extend beyond parties directly involved in a case, while also ensuring that any injunction restricts only the specific parties requesting relief, regardless of whether the injunction involves outright enforcement of actions or policy actions. 

"The founders could never have envisioned judges and part of the legislative branch teaming up to tie down the executive and disempower the people," Issa told Fox News Digital, adding that the current judge-shopping climate in the United States amounts to "judicial tyranny" and a "weaponization of courts."

Issa's office told Fox News Digital they are optimistic that this is a bill that will pass through Congress with Republican support and be signed by President Trump, adding that the bill has "maximum momentum."

DEMS LIKELY TO 'WASTE MILLIONS' ON DELUGE OF LAWSUITS BUT COULD COST TRUMP PRECIOUS TIME: EXPERT

"Nowhere in our Constitution is a single federal judge given absolute power over the President or the people of the United States," Issa posted on X last week. 

Issa's bill comes as the Trump administration has publicly pushed back against the flurry of injunctions from courts across the country. 

"Many outlets in this room have been fear mongering the American people into believing there is a constitutional crisis taking place here at the White House," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a press briefing last week. "I've been hearing those words a lot lately, but in fact, the real constitutional crisis is taking place within our judicial branch, where district court judges in liberal districts across the country are abusing their power to unilaterally block President Trump's basic executive authority."

"We believe these judges are acting as judicial activists rather than honest arbiters of the law and they have issued at least 12 injunctions against this administration in the past 14 days, often without citing any evidence or grounds for their lawsuits," she continued. "This is part of a larger concerted effort by Democrat activists, and nothing more than the continuation of the weaponization of justice against President Trump."

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 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.

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.

OBAMA FIRED TOP MILITARY OFFICERS TO ALIGN PENTAGON WITH HIS POLICY VISION, NOW TRUMP SET TO DO THE SAME

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.

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

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."