U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Roberts on Wednesday paused a federal judge’s order that required the Trump administration to pay around $2 billion in foreign aid funds to contractors by midnight.
The ruling comes after the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court for an emergency order to block the release of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) funding, which the federal judge had required by midnight. Officials had said they would not be able to comply with the judge’s order.
The Trump administration said U.S. District Judge Amir H. Ali's order had created "an untenable payment plan at odds with the President’s obligations under Article II to protect the integrity of the federal fisc and make appropriate judgements(sic) about foreign aid – clear forms of irreparable harm."
Any response from the groups that are fighting the Trump administration is due before Friday at 12 p.m., meaning the pause could potentially be relatively short-lived.
The Trump administration said it was eliminating more than 90% of USAID's foreign aid contracts and $60 billion in overall U.S. assistance around the world, putting numbers on its plans to eliminate the majority of U.S. development and humanitarian help abroad.
The cuts detailed by the administration would leave few surviving USAID projects for advocates to try to save in what are ongoing court battles with the administration.
Wednesday's disclosures also give an idea of the scale of the administration's retreat from U.S. aid and development assistance overseas, and from decades of policy that foreign aid helps American interests by stabilizing other countries and economies and building alliances.
The memo said officials were "clearing significant waste stemming from decades of institutional drift." More changes are planned in how USAID and the State Department deliver foreign assistance, it said, "to use taxpayer dollars wisely to advance American interests."
President Donald Trump and ally Elon Musk have hit foreign aid harder and faster than almost any other target in their push to cut the size of the federal government. Both men say USAID projects advance a liberal agenda and are a waste of money.
The administration has filed an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court in one other case so far, arguing that a lower court was wrong to reinstate the head of a federal watchdog agency after Trump fired him.
Attorney General Pam Bondi made an explosive revelation on Wednesday when she told Jesse Watters on "Jesse Watters Primetime" that some information about Jeffrey Epstein would be released by the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Thursday.
She told Watters there are over 250 alleged victims, and her office needs to ensure all of their identities are protected.
"What you’re going to see, hopefully tomorrow, is a lot of flight logs, a lot of names, a lot of information," Bondi said when asked about the type of information that will be released Thursday. "But, it’s pretty sick what that man did, along with his co-defendant."
Bondi's revelation comes after Republican lawmakers pressed the Department of Justice (DOJ) for the release of classified documents and records related to Jeffrey Epstein and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, among other federal secrets, received a response, though it fell a bit flat.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order last month calling on agencies to create plans to release and distribute top-secret documents, including those pertaining to the assassinations of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., is leading the House Oversight Committee’s Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, and, after sending letters to the DOJ Feb. 11 and Feb. 19, said she finally heard back.
"My office just received a formal response from the DOJ on the Jeffrey Epstein, JFK, MLK, & RFK files," Luna wrote in a post on X, attaching a copy of the letter.
In the letter, the DOJ thanked Luna for the two letters, in which she requested briefings and any documents in the department’s possession relating to the classified investigations.
The DOJ also acknowledged Luna’s request for written confirmation of the date and location of the release of those records.
"The integrity of criminal investigations and prosecutions is essential to every component of the Department’s mission to uphold the rule of law, keep our nation safe, and protect civil rights," Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Patrick D. Davis wrote.
"The Department remains committed to meeting its legal recordkeeping obligations as it pursues that mission. We are reviewing your requests and look forward to engaging further to accommodate your oversight and legislative needs.
"We hope this information is helpful," Davis added. "Please do not hesitate to contact this office if we may provide additional assistance regarding this or any other matter."
The response came two days after Luna said she had faced silence from the DOJ.
"On Feb 11 & Feb 19, house oversight sent a letter to the DOJ asking for status on releasing the Epstein files as well as JFK etc.," Luna said in a post on X Monday. "The DOJ has not responded. Reaching out on X because we can’t seem to get a response from the AG. @AGPamBondi what is the status of the documents? These documents were ordered to be declassified."
Luna also sent a letter to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Attorney General Pam Bondi, National Security Advisor Michael Waltz and White House Counsel David Warrington requesting a briefing by Thursday on plans for the release of the documents.
Trump’s executive order instructed the Department of Justice to coordinate with Gabbard, Waltz and Warrington to establish a plan by Feb. 7 for the release of the JFK files and to create a plan for the release of the MLK and Robert F. Kennedy files by March 9.
Additionally, Luna is pushing the Justice Department to share details regarding Jeffrey Epstein’s client list. The American financier died in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Bondi previously said Epstein’s client list was awaiting review and that she was looking over the Kennedy and King files.
Fox News Digital’s Diana Stancy and Haley Chi-Sing contributed to this report.
Republican lawmakers pressing the Department of Justice (DOJ) for the release of classified documents and records related to Jeffrey Epstein and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, among other federal secrets, received a response, though it fell a bit flat.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order last month calling on agencies to create plans to release and distribute top-secret documents, including those pertaining to the assassinations of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., is leading the House Oversight Committee’s Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, and, after sending letters to the DOJ Feb. 11 and Feb. 19, finally heard back.
"My office just received a formal response from the DOJ on the Jeffrey Epstein, JFK, MLK, & RFK files," Luna wrote in a post on X, attaching a copy of the letter.
In the letter, the DOJ thanked Luna for the two letters, in which she requested briefings and any documents in the department’s possession relating to the classified investigations.
The DOJ also acknowledged Luna’s request for written confirmation of the date and location of the release of those records.
"The integrity of criminal investigations and prosecutions is essential to every component of the Department’s mission to uphold the rule of law, keep our nation safe, and protect civil rights," Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Patrick D. Davis wrote.
"The Department remains committed to meeting its legal recordkeeping obligations as it pursues that mission. We are reviewing your requests and look forward to engaging further to accommodate your oversight and legislative needs.
"We hope this information is helpful," Davis added. "Please do not hesitate to contact this office if we may provide additional assistance regarding this or any other matter."
The response came two days after Luna said she had faced silence from the DOJ.
"On Feb 11 & Feb 19, house oversight sent a letter to the DOJ asking for status on releasing the Epstein files as well as JFK etc.," Luna said in a post on X Monday. "The DOJ has not responded. Reaching out on X because we can’t seem to get a response from the AG. @AGPamBondi what is the status of the documents? These documents were ordered to be declassified."
Luna also sent a letter to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Attorney General Pam Bondi, National Security Advisor Michael Waltz and White House Counsel David Warrington requesting a briefing by Thursday on plans for the release of the documents.
Bondi was a guest on "Jesse Watters Primetime" Wednesday and said her office plans to release information about Epstein tomorrow.
She told Watters there are over 250 alleged victims, and her office needs to ensure all of their identities are protected.
"What you’re going to see, hopefully tomorrow, is a lot of flight logs, a lot of names, a lot of information," Bondi said when asked about the type of information that will be released Thursday. "But, it’s pretty sick what that man did, along with his co-defendant."
Trump’s executive order instructed the Department of Justice to coordinate with Gabbard, Waltz and Warrington to establish a plan by Feb. 7 for the release of the JFK files and to create a plan for the release of the MLK and Robert F. Kennedy files by March 9.
Additionally, Luna is pushing the Justice Department to share details regarding Jeffrey Epstein’s client list. The American financier died in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Bondi said Friday that Epstein’s client list was awaiting review and that she was looking over the Kennedy and King files.
Fox News Digital’s Diana Stancy and Haley Chi-Sing contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday requiring government payments and travel expenses to be justified and made public where possible.
The requirement is part of Trump’s executive order to implement the cost efficiency initiative for the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Using modern technology, the order aims to transform spending by putting all federal grants and contracts through rigorous standards to justify their existence. Trump’s order will have federal agencies acting immediately, reviewing all contracts and grants for waste, fraud and abuse.
Travel expenses and government payments are also being analyzed closely, as they must be justified and made public if possible.
The order also tells agencies to treat their credit cards as if they were frozen for 30 days.
"To the maximum extent permitted by law, all credit cards held by agency employees shall be treated as frozen for 30 days from the date of this order, except for any credit cards held by employees engaged in, or charges related to employees utilizing such credit cards for, disaster relief or natural disaster response benefits or operations or other critical services as determined by the Agency Head, and subject to such additional individualized or categorical exceptions as the Agency Head, in consultation with the agency’s DOGE Team Lead, deems appropriate," Trump's executive order reads.
Working with DOGE, agency heads will review and terminate any contracts deemed unnecessary.
Additionally, the executive order will look at how the government manages property, requiring the General Services Administration to submit a plan for disposing of unnecessary owned or leased properties.
Trump’s order is being implemented to add "discipline to a wasteful system."
"The existing system fails to safeguard taxpayer dollars or promote merit among contractors and grant recipients," White House officials said in a fact sheet, noting that the government spends large sums of money on contracts and grants.
The sheet also notes that in fiscal year 2023, the government committed about $759 billion in contracts.
"This flood of spending historically had minimal safeguards," the fact sheet read. "In the Biden Administration, GSA directed its efforts to promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) rather than merit and efficiency."
Since his return to the Oval Office, Trump has set sort of a wildfire on federal government spending, unleashing DOGE, which is led by billionaire Elon Musk.
According to the DOGE website, the total estimated savings as of Tuesday were $65 billion, which is a combination of fraud detection and deletion, contract and lease cancelations, contract and lease renegotiation, asset sales, grant cancelations, workforce reductions, programmatic changes and regulatory savings. The site is updated two times a week.
The DOGE site also has a "Wall of Receipts," showing a breakdown of how much was saved and where the savings were found.
Former Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti spoke to staff after the Trump administration ousted her and other top leaders at the Pentagon Friday, asserting that the Navy's mission will continue "unabated and undisrupted."
Franchetti, the first woman to serve as the chief of naval operations and on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, described leading the sea service as the "honor of a lifetime" and thanked Navy sailors for their service supporting the U.S.
"We are America’s Warfighting Navy and America is counting on us to deter aggression, defend our National security interests, and preserve our way of life," Franchetti, who had served as the Navy's top officer since 2023, said in a Tuesday LinkedIn post that has since been deleted. "We operate from seabed to space, around the globe and around the clock. Our mission continues, unabated and undisrupted…There is no time to waste."
After publication, the Navy clarified that the post was not intended to be shared on social media. A U.S. official with knowledge of the situation told Fox News Digital that the message was sent to a "small group" of staff and senior Navy leaders, but it was not intended to be shared with a wider audience.
"She did not post or direct the message to be posted on LinkedIn," the U.S. official said in a statement. "The message was improperly posted by a junior staffer who had access to the LinkedIn account but did not have authorization to post the content of Admiral Franchetti’s Friday email."
Franchetti joined the Navy Reserve Officer Training Corps as a student at Northwestern University and was commissioned in 1985. She told Navy Times in 2023 that she met other ROTC students at a barbecue during freshman orientation week, who notified her about the scholarship opportunities ROTC provided.
At the time of her commissioning, women were barred from serving on combatant ships and aircraft and were instead assigned to ships like oilers and destroyer tenders. However, Congress repealed the law in 1993 — paving the way for women like Franchetti to serve in top leadership positions in the Navy.
"I joined for free college and books, but I stayed for our mission, the opportunity to serve something greater than myself, and the chance to be part of amazing teams in the world’s most lethal fighting force: America’s Warfighting Navy," Franchetti wrote on LinkedIn.
Ultimately, Franchetti went on to command two carrier strike groups, and served as the deputy commander of U.S. Naval Forces Europe and Africa and the commander of the U.S. 6th Fleet, which falls under U.S. Naval Forces Europe and Africa.
Other leaders the Trump administration removed Friday included Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. CQ Brown and Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Jim Slife.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth requested nominations to replace Franchetti and Slife, and said that both had "distinguished careers."
"We thank them for their service and dedication to our country," Hegseth said in a Friday statement.
Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. James Kilby announced that he would take over responsibilities as the top officer in the Navy until a permanent replacement was found for Franchetti.
"The work of our Navy continues without disruption," Kilby said in a statement Saturday. "We will sustain forward-deployed lethal forces that enhance the peace and deter our adversaries."
The Navy did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. It remains unclear where Franchetti will be reassigned.
Hegseth didn’t provide any additional comment on Franchetti or her career, but previously described her as a "DEI hire" in his 2024 book, "The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free."
Hegseth also announced Friday that President Donald Trump plans to nominate retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Dan "Razin" Caine to replace Brown, claiming that Caine embodies the "warfighter ethos" the U.S. military needs.
"Under President Trump, we are putting in place new leadership that will focus our military on its core mission of deterring, fighting and winning wars," Hegseth said.
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) issued a letter ordering New York City's Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) to eliminate its controversial congestion pricing tolls by mid-March.
The letter, dated and signed by Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Executive Director Gloria Shepherd on Feb. 20 and released Wednesday, notes that the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) and its project sponsors "must cease" the collection of tolls on Federal-aid highways in New York's Central Business District Tolling Program by March 21.
It noted the program's implementation was initially approved by the FHWA prior to DOT Secretary Sean Duffy sending a letter on Feb. 19 terminating the program.
Shepherd called for agencies and project sponsors to "terminate operations" in an "orderly manner," according to the letter.
Last week, the Trump administration issued a federal order halting the program, which began Jan. 5 and aimed to limit traffic and fund mass transit by adding a $9 toll on "most" vehicles entering Manhattan's core south of Central Park.
Despite Trump's action, the tolls have continued due to a federal lawsuit filed by the MTA, a state agency that runs public transit in New York City.
"Our position is clear: this is not a lawful order. We have already filed a lawsuit and now it’s up to the courts to decide," John J. McCarthy, MTA chief of policy and external relations, wrote in a statement on Wednesday.
Critics say the tolling negatively impacts suburban commuters or those without access to the subway system, causing increased costs for working-class Americans and small business owners. The "cordon pricing" method of tolling means drivers are required to pay a toll regardless of which roads they use, as there are no toll-free options.
Advocates argue the fees will limit traffic congestion and reduce air pollution.
The MTA on Monday announced tolls from the Congestion Relief Zone (CRZ) generated $48.66 million in revenue, with a net of $37.5 million, from Jan. 5 to Jan. 31.
The figures show the program is on track to generate the $500 million that the MTA initially projected.
"We are on track for the projected $500 million in net revenue, especially as we get into warmer months when traffic will increase which provides confidence in the forecast," said MTA co-chief financial officer Jai Patel. "All indicators show the program is reducing traffic but also projecting the revenue to be on target for what we had in 4,000 pages of studies and what we were looking at in the fall."
Of the nearly $50 million generated from the program's start in January, 22% came from taxis and for-hire vehicles ($10.6 million), 68% came from passenger vehicles, 9% came from trucks, and 1% came from buses and motorcycles, according to the MTA.
About 85% of non-taxi and for-hire vehicles revenue was generated from passenger vehicles, and 15% was generated from trucks, buses, and motorcycles, the agency reported. And 95% of revenue was generated during peaking tolling hours.
Expenses from the program, which include operating camera infrastructure and customer service, amounted to $9.1 million. Factoring in another $2 million for mitigation efforts, the results were a net surplus of $37.5 million.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a proponent of the program, met with Trump to discuss the issue.
The Democrat claimed the city is "paralyzed with gridlock," and the program could "make the city move again."
"The people in my state need to know I'm willing to take the fight wherever I have to," Hochul said.
As the situation unfolds, Hochul said she expects the state's case to be won in court and the program will continue.
The Federal Highway Administration and NYSDOT entered into an agreement on Nov. 21, 2024, approving the Central Business District Tolling Program (CBDTP) under the Value Pricing Pilot Program (VPPP).
The VPPP, which was approved by Congress in 1991, is an exception to the general rule outlawing tolling on highways as a pilot to test congestion reduction techniques.
New York is one of about a dozen states allowed to implement the program.
Fox News Digital's Danielle Wallace, Charles Creitz and Stephen Sorace contributed to this report.
Democrats in the Senate failed to pass a resolution that would have reversed President Donald Trump’s executive order on "Unleashing American Energy" in a 53-47 party-line vote.
The White House argued that scrapping the emergency would endanger nearly 900,000 jobs and have a negative $3.6 trillion impact. The order encourages domestic energy production on federal lands and nixed a Biden-era push to strive for more electric vehicles on the road.
"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," deputy press secretary Anna Kelly said in an exclusive statement to Fox News Digital on Tuesday.
The resolution was introduced by Democratic Sens. Tim Kaine and Martin Heinrich as they argued the emergency declaration made by the president would "benefit big oil" but harm Americans, according to a statement provided by the lawmakers to Fox News Digital on Tuesday.
"The Trump Administration is living in a fantasy land," the Democratic senators stated. "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."
Earlier on Wednesday, Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., slammed the resolution as Democrats ‘trying to block common-sense measures" to tackle "painfully high prices."
"After four years of reckless regulations and restrictions, energy prices have jumped 31 percent. Families are feeling it all across the country. To most Americans, this is the definition of an energy emergency. To Senate Democrats, it’s an inconvenient truth," he said in a floor speech.
"This National Energy Emergency is part of President Trump’s swift actions, actions to unleash American energy. It’s part this broader vision of affordable, reliable, available American energy. Democrats oppose that," the Republican continued.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., also slammed the Democrat effort: "Thanks in substantial part to a movement to shut down fossil-fuel-fired power plants before reliable sources of clean energy are available to replace them, America is running out of power even as we face huge new power demands. … If we don’t take action, we are going to be facing some very serious problems in the very near future, so I’m grateful to have a president who recognizes and acknowledges the energy emergency facing our nation."
Senate Energy Committee Chairman Mike Lee, R-Utah, said, "Senate Democrats are yet again attempting to block President Trump's efforts to secure cheaper, more reliable energy—just when America needs it most. Their message to families is clear: pay more, expect less."
The Trump administration emphasized that ending the emergency would bring back Biden-era policies. A White House document obtained by Fox News Digital stressed that under those policies, during Biden's first two years, families spent an extra $10,000 in energy costs on average, citing a study published by the Committee to Unleash Prosperity.
The document cited that estimates of liquefied natural gas (LNG) 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.
Welcome to the Fox News Politics newsletter, with the latest updates on the Trump administration, Capitol Hill and more Fox News politics content.
Here's what's happening…
-FBI investigating claims of Comey-era 'honeypot' operation against Trump 2016 campaign
-Ratcliffe shrugs off concerns about potential threat of fired agents armed with CIA's secrets
-States fire back against 'sanctuary' resistance as they rally around Trump's deportation efforts
President Donald Trump tapped Elon Musk to speak at the top of the first full Cabinet meeting Wednesday to discuss the progress made by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Musk, standing in his signature black suit jacket with a T-shirt underneath, spoke at the meeting in which the media was present and made some clarifications about what he and DOGE are doing, as well as a recent email sent to government employees.
"I think that email was perhaps interpreted as a performance review, but actually it was a pulse check review. Do you have a pulse?" Musk said. "And if you have a pulse and two neurons, you could reply to an email." Read more
READ IT:Trump admin directs agency heads to prep for ‘large-scale reductions in force’
IMMUNE TO ORDERS?: CDC seems to defy Trump executive order by participating in WHO vaccine conference
EXCLUSIVE: Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard recalled the energizing atmosphere inside President Donald Trump's first Cabinet meeting on Wednesday at the White House, as his team comes together in record time.
"What I got was a high level of energy and really just a positive outlook," Gabbard told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview at the White House after the meeting.
"We have a Cabinet full of great Americans who are dedicated to serving our country and the American people, ensuring safety, security, freedom and prosperity," the national intelligence director added, noting the inspiration that billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has already sparked in Trump's administration.
Per Gabbard, part of what makes Trump's Cabinet so special is that "most of us have known each other for a long time. We've worked together. We're actually friends."
She went as far as calling this level of collaboration "unprecedented" in a president's Cabinet.
Trump's second-term Cabinet has accomplished several firsts, including appointing Gabbard as the first Pacific Islander director of national intelligence, Secretary of State Marco Rubio as the first Hispanic in his role and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent as the first Republican Cabinet member who is openly gay.
But, "you don't hear anything about it," Gabbard pointed out.
"I experienced this from my former party, even when I ran for president in 2020, that they were all about [Diversity, Equity and Inclusion] unless they didn't like what a woman of color had to say, for example."
Arkansas is the first state in the nation that forced a Chinese-connected company to divest farmland, and now says it is taking additional action against the CCP.
Sanders is introducing new legislation that adds further measures to stop China state-owned businesses from operating in her state and shut down programs sponsored by China.
The measures include banning CCP-linked companies from buying or leasing property, blocking ownership near critical infrastructure sites, scraping Sister City partnerships and cutting funding for universities and colleges that have Chinese-funded programs.
"We've seen a number of cases where China is trying to infiltrate things that matter to our critical infrastructure, buying up land around our military bases, our substations. These are things that we're taking strong action against here in Arkansas, expanding existing legislation so that we can continue to hold their feet to the fire and push them out," says Sanders.
In 2023, the state ordered Syngenta Seeds, whose parent company is a Chinese conglomerate, to divest farmland used for seed production.
The company said that "the suggestion that China is using Syngenta to purchase land or conduct operations for any purpose other than supporting the company's commercial business in North America is simply false." But the state fined the company $280,000 for not initially disclosing its foreign ownership by the deadline.
"Syngenta is foreign-owned — ultimately by the Chinese Communist Party," said Arkansas Attorney General Tim Miller in announcing the penalty.
"This serves as a warning to all other Chinese state-owned companies operating in Arkansas."
"Agriculture is the number one industry here in the state of Arkansas and so protecting our agricultural security and protecting the components that make it so strong, are one of the things that are really important," says Sanders.
Two other firms are being investigated for possible ties to China, but in December a Federal Judge issued a preliminary injunction to halt the probe of one of them.
At least 22 states have enacted some form of restrictions on Chinese-owned companies.
"The CCP has aggressive intent and has become more aggressive and threatening, both at home as well as abroad, and we need to be aware of these threats," says Congressman John Moolenaar, (R) Michigan, Chairman of House Select Committee on the CCP. He says more states should follow Sanders' lead.
"She is taking a leadership role and protecting farmland and green spaces in Arkansas and making sure the CCP doesn't gain a foothold in Arkansas. We want to see more states taking this kind of action," he says.
For several years, officials have been warning about China's entry into the U.S., through businesses and other organizations that they say pose a national security threat.
Michael Pillsbury, a former top U.S. government official on China matters and Senior Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, has been sounding the alarm. He authored "The One Hundred Year Marathon, China’s Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower" a decade ago and says not much has changed since then.
"What Governor Sanders is launching is pretty important," he says, "part of building the long-term foundation to protect ourselves against the CCP, but it is not the end of the story unless she is successful in persuading Homeland Security and the FBI to make this a federal issue."
"The state of Arkansas doesn't have a CIA or FBI to do this. The intelligence collection that triggers the alarm is what the federal government has to do."
Experts say it can be difficult to determine if a company is really owned by a Chinese firm, which is part of the CCP's strategy.
"There really is no such thing as a private company in China," says Rep. Moolenaar. "All the companies are affiliated in some way and directed in some way by the Chinese Communist Party. And secondly, it is important to note that they have something called military fusion, where technologies, even in the civil area, are used for military purposes."
He says Chinese-funded programs that operate under the guise of educational programs also serve to further the CCP's interests, which is one target of Sanders' push. Moolenaar points to a recent case in his state of Michigan that raised alarms.
"The Chinese Communist Party will leverage people," he says. "Five Chinese national students were caught spying at Camp Grayling. Camp Grayling is a military facility, where according to public reports, we train military leaders, including Taiwanese military leaders. So when you consider the threat of the leverage of the Chinese Communist Party, we need to be vigilant and protect American universities and American taxpayer dollars."
The five Chinese students were charged last fall with lying to the FBI after they claimed to be observing meteor showers at midnight at the base, but instead were found to have taken photos of the installation. The FBI said all five graduated last spring from the University of Michigan, and were part of a joint program between the university and the Shanghai Jiao Tong University in Shanghai, China.
This is exactly the type of suspicious scenario Sanders is trying to address.
"We know that so often China is looking for any way possible into and developing a relationship for the purpose of exploiting it, and for the purpose of taking that information back and using it against us," she says. "We want to make sure that we are protecting against that."
China's embassy in Washington has accused the U.S. of "politicizing and weaponizing economic and trade issues." Embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu says U.S. officials "deliberately obstruct normal economic and trade exchange for (a) political agenda."
But critics charge that is exactly what the CCP is doing under the guise of commerce and friendship.
"We need to be proactive," warns Rep. Moolenaar. "We need to not so much look for a smoking gun, we need to look for a loaded gun that is actually a threat to America."
Moore, who has directed a score of highly politically-charged documentaries, published a lengthy blog post on Tuesday titled, "Our Muslim Boy Wonder," in which he warned that by deporting illegal immigrants, the U.S. may miss out on the person who could cure cancer, the next equivalent of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, or the person who will save the world from "the asteroid that’s gonna hit us in 2032."
"Who's really being removed by ICE tonight?" Moore asked. "The child who would've discovered the cure for cancer in 2046? The 9th grade nerd who would’ve stopped that asteroid that’s gonna hit us in 2032? Do we care?"
The filmmaker declared, "For every time I have heard a negative word or blatant hatred spewed toward those who came from afar, I have felt that I should pause, get down on one knee, and thank all of those who gave up their lives elsewhere to come here and be with us."
In response, the White House released a statement on Wednesday saying that illegal immigrant killers and rapists "aren’t scholars — they’re criminals."
"In a strong contender for dumbest statement of the year, disgraced ‘filmmaker’ Michael Moore lamented illegal immigrant criminals being apprehended because they might’ve ‘discovered the cure for cancer’ or ‘stopped that astroid [sic],’" the White House statement said. "The only thing more foolish than that statement are the politicians who oppose the deportations."
The statement included a listing of some of the worst criminal illegal immigrants arrested thus far. The list included nine child sex predators and rapists as well as kidnappers, murderers and gang members.
One of those listed was a documented member of the bloodthirsty gang MS-13, Salvadoran national Sergio Arquimides Pineda, who was arrested by ICE Homeland Security Investigations Corpus Christi and convicted of driving while intoxicated and aggravated assault with bodily injury.
Another illegal, Guatemalan national, Edilio Agustin-Orellana, was arrested by ICE Boston and is facing five counts of assault with a dangerous weapon, three counts of kidnapping, intimidation and armed home invasion.
A third arrested migrant listed by the White House was Turkish national Gokhan Adriguzel, who is a known or suspected terrorist, according to officials.
"Michael Moore is free to visit the quantum computing and particle physics labs that MS-13, TDA [Tren de Aragua], and the cartels are now going to have to set up back home in El Salvador, Venezuela, and Mexico," quipped White House deputy press secretary Kush Desai.
In the meantime, Desai said, "the Trump administration will remain focused on putting our own citizens first by mass deporting illegal migrant rapists, murderers, and other criminals out of American communities."
Fox News Digital reached out to Moore for comment but did not hear back by publication time.
Fox News Digital writers Adam Shaw and Alexander Hall contributed to this report.
Nearly a year after his speech was disrupted by an angry mob of student protesters, Kyle Rittenhouse will return to the University of Memphis on Wednesday evening to talk about the Second Amendment and his controversial 2021 trial.
The University of Memphis chapter of Turning Point USA re-invited Rittenhouse to speak after the university and Rittenhouse's lawyers worked out a deal to ensure an adequate security presence this time, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) attorney Mathew Hoffmann told Fox News Digital.
"The bottom line is universities cannot allow hostile students and other people to shut down speakers that they don't like," Hoffmann said. "That's enshrined in Tennessee law and the First Amendment. The mob forced him to cut his speech short, and he left not being able to communicate his message."
Intervening on Rittenhouse's and TPUSA's behalf, ADF sent a demand letter in October asking the university to reschedule the event and "reimburse TPUSA an unconstitutional security fee it was forced to pay after the event was shut down." The university did reschedule it, but did not refund the $1,600 fee "for security that stood idly by and allowed the mob to shut down the event."
"They did change their security fee assessment system. The university has committed in advance of the event to give a short statement about promoting respectful dialogue and how disruption will not be tolerated," Hoffmann said.
Rittenhouse was acquitted during a high-profile case in 2021 of five charges after fatally shooting two people and injuring a third during unrest in Kenosha on Aug. 25, 2020. His defense attorneys argued he acted in self-defense after being attacked. The decedents, Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, both had criminal records, including allegations of domestic abuse, child molestation and disorderly conduct.
Legal experts are pointing out what they say is hypocrisy as Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., faces an ethics complaint over a potential conflict of interest that resulted in millions of dollars in federal grants for a nonprofit associated with his wife.
"Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, who has made his political career accusing others of dark money corruption, appears to be throwing stones in his glass house," said Mike Davis, the former chief counsel for nominations to former Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.
"This is the height of hypocrisy," Brett Tolman, former U.S. attorney and executive director of Right On Crime, told Fox News Digital. "Sen Whitehouse is a former US attorney and the self-proclaimed watchdog of dark money."
Whitehouse spokesperson Stephen DeLeo told Fox News Digital in a statement, "The ‘legal experts’ at Fox News should review the bipartisan dismissal issued by the Senate Ethics Committee the last time a dark-money group attempted these same kinds of smears."
Whitehouse voted for legislation that ultimately provided millions of dollars in funding for grants to environmental nonprofit group Ocean Conservancy, which works with his wife, Sandra Whitehouse, and pays her through a consulting firm.
The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT), an ethics watchdog, wrote to Senate Select Committee on Ethics Chair James Lankford, R-Okla., and Vice Chair Chris Coons, D-Del., this week, asking them to investigate Whitehouse "to determine whether he violated the Senate ethics rules on conflicts of interest." The group works primarily to draw attention to potential Democrat lawmaker ethics violations.
"This is not just a careless ethical lapse in judgment," Tolman added. "This is corruption, Washington, D.C., style. This is literally what many public officials have been prosecuted for by DOJ (Department of Justice). I’m aware of multiple cases DOJ is pursuing right now with less egregious facts."
Thomas Jipping, senior legal fellow with the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at the Heritage Foundation, told Fox News Digital the Ethics Committee should investigate the allegation against Whitehouse.
"Of course, that's what they exist to do," he said.
"I was struck by the fact that they are arguing" and that the complaint from FACT has "specific facts that back up a claim that there’s an ethical violation," Jipping said.
As he referenced, FACT provided information to support a potential conflict of interest.
Ocean Conservancy has notably received over $14.2 million in federal grants since 2008, per USASpending.gov. In 2024 alone, it was given two sizable grants, one for $5.2 million from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for marine debris cleanup in September, and another for $1.7 million from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), also to assist with marine debris cleanup.
The grants were funded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and the EPA’s annual appropriations bill. Whitehouse voted for both.
Per her LinkedIn page, Whitehouse's wife, Sandra, is employed as president of consulting firm Ocean Wonks LLC and has been since 2017. She was previously a direct employee of Ocean Conservancy, as its senior policy advisor starting in 2008.
Jipping said the senator never provided sufficient evidence for his various ethical claims against conservative Supreme Court justices.
Whitehouse has long crusaded against conservative Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, accusing them of ethical wrongdoing. The Democrat has even spearheaded an effort to put a Supreme Court ethics code into law, which has drawn serious criticism as some warn it would effectively allow the legislature to govern the court.
"The irony here absolutely takes my breath away," Jipping remarked. "He now appears to be embroiled in such an obvious conflict of interest."
However, not everyone agreed. Attorney Bradley P. Moss told Fox News Digital, "from what is described in the media report, this seems like a considerable stretch to find even the appearance of a conflict of interest."
He said he was more concerned about engineers from billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX assisting the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to modernize air traffic control.
According to the Department of Transportation (DOT), the engineers are part of Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team at the FAA and are special government employees. Their work in this capacity is being kept separate from the FAA's Office of Commercial Space Transportation, they said.
Jipping said Whitehouse's situation is an "opportunity for the ethics committee to show that they are in fact nonpartisan."
Lankford and Coons did not provide comment to Fox News Digital in time for publication.
Former Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti is speaking out after the Trump administration ousted her and other top leaders at the Pentagon Friday, asserting that the Navy's mission will continue "unabated and undisrupted."
Franchetti, the first woman to serve as the chief of naval operations and on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, described leading the sea service as the "honor of a lifetime" and thanked Navy sailors for their service supporting the U.S.
"We are America’s Warfighting Navy and America is counting on us to deter aggression, defend our National security interests, and preserve our way of life," Franchetti, who had served as the Navy's top officer since 2023, said in a Tuesday LinkedIn post. "We operate from seabed to space, around the globe and around the clock. Our mission continues, unabated and undisrupted…There is no time to waste."
Franchetti joined the Navy Reserve Officer Training Corps as a student at Northwestern University and was commissioned in 1985. She told Navy Times in 2023 that she met other ROTC students at a barbecue during freshman orientation week, who notified her about the scholarship opportunities ROTC provided.
At the time of her commissioning, women were barred from serving on combatant ships and aircraft and were instead assigned to ships like oilers and destroyer tenders. However, Congress repealed the law in 1993 — paving the way for women like Franchetti to serve in top leadership positions in the Navy.
"I joined for free college and books, but I stayed for our mission, the opportunity to serve something greater than myself, and the chance to be part of amazing teams in the world’s most lethal fighting force: America’s Warfighting Navy," Franchetti wrote on LinkedIn.
Ultimately, Franchetti went on to command two carrier strike groups, and served as the deputy commander of U.S. Naval Forces Europe and Africa and the commander of the U.S. 6th Fleet, which falls under U.S. Naval Forces Europe and Africa.
Other leaders the Trump administration removed Friday included Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. CQ Brown and Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Jim Slife.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth requested nominations to replace Franchetti and Slife, and said that both had "distinguished careers."
"We thank them for their service and dedication to our country," Hegseth said in a Friday statement.
Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. James Kilby announced that he would take over responsibilities as the top officer in the Navy until a permanent replacement was found for Franchetti.
"The work of our Navy continues without disruption," Kilby said in a statement Saturday. "We will sustain forward-deployed lethal forces that enhance the peace and deter our adversaries."
The Navy did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. It remains unclear where Franchetti will be reassigned.
Hegseth didn’t provide any additional comment on Franchetti or her career, but previously described her as a "DEI hire" in his 2024 book, "The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free."
Hegseth also announced Friday that President Donald Trump plans to nominate retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Dan "Razin" Caine to replace Brown, claiming that Caine embodies the "warfighter ethos" the U.S. military needs.
"Under President Trump, we are putting in place new leadership that will focus our military on its core mission of deterring, fighting and winning wars," Hegseth said.
Legislation that would quadruple the pensions of Medal of Honor recipients passed the House unanimous bipartisan support on Wednesday.
The bill sailed through the House 424-0. If passed by the Senate and signed by the president, would boost pay for those who receive the nation's highest military award from $16,880 per year to $67,500 per year.
Proponents of the bill, led by Reps. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, and Chris Pappas, D-N.H., say the pay would ease the financial burden for medal recipients who often traverse the country for speaking engagements on their own dime.
The increased pensions are paid for through disability compensation out of Veterans’ Affairs funding. Costs associated with the pay boost would be offset by extending a limitation on pensions for veterans with no spouses or dependents from 2031 to 2033.
The legislation would affect the 60 living Medal of Honor recipients. Some 3,500 have been awarded the medal since its inception in 1863.
Pension rolls for Medal of Honor recipients were first created in 1916, with pensioners receiving $10 per month from the federal government. The monthly stipend was raised to $100 in 1961 and $1,000 in 2002.
The legislation comes as a national Medal of Honor museum is set to open in Arlington, Texas next month to share the stories of Americans who took heroic actions in battle.
President Donald Trump has not yet awarded the medal in his second term, but veterans and members of congress are lobbying for him to extend it to Maj. James Capers, a black Vietnam War veteran who saved seven fellow Marines when his recon group was ambushed and outnumbered by North Vietnamese troops in Phú Lộc in 1967.
According to the sworn testimony of the surviving Marines, then-Lt. Capers’ unit was ambushed in the jungle, with blasts from claymore mines inflicting devastating injuries on him and his men. Despite the blasts ripping open his stomach and breaking his leg, a heavily bleeding Capers kept command of his Marines and together with two others held off the enemy long enough for the medevac flight to arrive.
When the overloaded aircraft struggled to take off, Capers attempted to sacrifice himself by jumping from the helicopter and insisting he be left behind until he was pulled back on board by the medevac crew chief.
Capers received multiple gunfire wounds and 19 pieces of shrapnel in the firefight. He continues to suffer from the wounds to this day. But due to his heroic actions, Capers and all of his Marines survived.
Fox News' Peter Pinedo contributed to this report.
The White House will now oversee which news outlets will be part of the White House press pool, rather than the White House Correspondents Association (WHCA), the White House press secretary said Tuesday.
While the WHCA customarily has had the authority to choose the rotation of news outlets that have access to the president in the Oval Office and other areas with limited access, the Trump administration is upending that policy.
"Legacy outlets who have participated in the press pool for decades will still be allowed to join, fear not," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters during a briefing Tuesday. "But we will also be offering the privilege to well-deserving outlets who have never been allowed to share in this awesome responsibility."
But President Donald Trump's White House isn’t the only one to roll out controversial policies regarding press access.
In 2023, more than 440 reporters lost press credentials after President Joe Biden’s White House modified its rules for eligibility for permanent passes.
Credentialed White House press members dropped from 1,417 members to 975 members after the White House unveiled new standards requiring an annual renewal of hard passes, Politico reported in 2023. Journalists without hard passes were still authorized to apply for day passes to the White House.
The Biden White House policy was launched in May 2023 and required reporters to prove employment with "an organization whose principal business is news dissemination" and show that they have "accessed the White House campus at least once during the prior six months for work, or have proof of employment within the last three months to cover the White House."
The Biden White House defended its decision to cut off routine access to these reporters, claiming many of the journalists whose passes expired hadn’t accessed the White House in the previous three months.
"At the time we initiated this process in early May, roughly 40% of hard pass holders had not accessed the White House complex in the prior 90 days," the White House said in a 2023 statement to Politico. "We think this demonstrates we’ve led a thoughtful and thorough process that preserves robust media access to campus for everyone who needs it — whether that be with a hard pass or a day pass."
Leavitt announced in January that the Trump White House would work to "restore the press passes of the 440 journalists whose passes were wrongly revoked by the previous administration."
On Tuesday, Leavitt said the White House’s decision aimed to "give the power back to the people" in an attempt to ensure that "all journalists, outlets and voices deserve a seat at this highly coveted table."
In response, WHCA President Eugene Daniels said the WHCA did not receive any notice in advance of the White House’s decision and said the move "tears at the independence of a free press in the United States."
"It suggests the government will choose the journalists who cover the president," Daniels said. "In a free country, leaders must not be able to choose their own press corps."
Fox News' Gabriel Hays contributed to this report.
FIRST ON FOX: Conservative CNN pundit Scott Jennings is being privately and publicly encouraged to run for Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell’s open Senate seat in 2026, sources, including a Republican operative familiar with the race, told Fox News Digital Wednesday.
Some conservative personalities floated the possibility publicly on X. The pundit is known for his advocacy of the Trump administration on the airwaves, and he regularly goes viral for debating liberal pundits on the cable television network.
He served as a longtime advisor to the outgoing Kentucky senator and previously worked in the George W. Bush administration.
"Could I nominate [Scott Jennings] for the United States Senate from the Commonwealth of Kentucky? He'd be a hell of a McConnell replacement," pundit Erick Erickson tweeted.
"I would absolutely support my friend [Scott Jennings] for U.S. Senate. But he’d also make a fine governor for the great state of Kentucky as well," Republican strategist Dustin Grage tweeted.
As for McConnell, the former Senate majority leader said last week he would not seek another term, leaving the door wide open for contenders in 2026.
"Seven times, my fellow Kentuckians have sent me to the Senate," McConnell, who first took office in 1985, said on the Senate floor while announcing his retirement.
"Every day in between, I’ve been humbled by the trust they’ve placed in me to do their business here. Representing our commonwealth has been the honor of a lifetime. I will not seek this honor an eighth time. My current term in the Senate will be my last," he added.
Former Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron has already entered the race, and Rep. Andy Barr is also mulling a bid. Cameron ran for governor in 2023, but he narrowly lost to Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear.
In a recent campaign video, Cameron mentioned McConnell by name for voting against the nominations of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
"You should expect a senator from Kentucky to vote for those nominees to advance the ‘America first’ agenda," Cameron said.
House and Senate Republicans are heading for a messy showdown over how long to extend President Donald Trump’s tax cuts.
The two chambers are at odds over how to advance Trump’s agenda via the budget reconciliation process, a maneuver that will allow Republicans to advance their agenda without Democratic support.
As part of that, GOP lawmakers are aiming to extend the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) before its provisions expire at the end of 2025, as well as implement more recent Trump tax priorities.
House Republicans adopted a resolution on Tuesday evening that would provide roughly $4.5 trillion for Trump’s tax priorities over the next 10 years, with a goal of working to eventually make them permanent. The Senate adopted a narrower competing resolution earlier this month that would leave taxes for a second bill to come later.
But Senate GOP leaders are pushing to make the tax cuts permanent while Republicans are working through the reconciliation process.
Senate Republicans are signaling they would rewrite the House’s product significantly, a push that’s irked Republicans in that chamber.
"The Senate resolution punted on accomplishing the majority of President Trump’s agenda, and now they are further delaying and endangering it by announcing they will rewrite what narrowly passed the House," a senior House GOP aide told Fox News Digital.
Nevertheless, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., congratulated House Republicans on passing their resolution but added, "A key part of that agenda is making the pro-growth Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent, which is why we’ll work closely with our House colleagues to ensure the final package includes all of the president’s key tax priorities, including permanency, which will create long-term certainty for working families in America."
Trump himself even weighed in on the matter. He wrote on his Truth Social app on Wednesday morning, "I hope the House and Senate are able to agree on making the Tax Cuts PERMANENT!"
But Republicans are also dealing with razor-thin margins in both chambers of Congress. In the House, they can currently only lose one Republican vote with full attendance, while Senate Republicans can afford three defectors.
Getting the House resolution across the line proved dramatic on Monday night, with Republican leaders working up until the final moments to convince conservative fiscal hawks who were wary of how much the legislation would add to the federal deficit.
It could prove more difficult if they did the exercise again, but with even more funding allocated toward Trump’s tax priorities.
"The Senate can push all they want to. This is being driven by the House," Ways & Means Committee member Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., told Fox News Digital.
"I don’t see how it can be permanent," another House Republican on Ways & Means told Fox News Digital.
Murphy denied that Trump’s earlier Truth Social post made the situation more difficult for their side, however, explaining the ultimate "goal is" to make those provisions permanent.
The Senate advanced its own narrower version of the plan that would split Trump’s priorities into two parts earlier this month. The resolution that passed would repeal some progressive Biden administration policies and provide new funding for defense and border security, while leaving taxes for a second bill.
A significant number of House Republicans balked at that plan, worried that tax cuts could expire for millions of Americans if two reconciliation bills prove too heavy a lift.
But Senate Republicans want to spend more time cobbling together a tax plan they believe is closer to what Trump wants, and that this reconciliation opportunity is the best lane to do it.
"A short-term extension of President Trump’s signature tax cuts would potentially leave future extensions vulnerable to Democrat presidents and Democrats in Congress, where we risk losing them forever and undoing President Trump’s legacy," a senior Senate GOP aide told Fox News Digital.
"We have to give greater certainty for working families. With President Trump in the White House, we have a unique opportunity to make the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent. The Senate will have to rewrite House Republicans’ budget resolution in order to do so."
The senior House GOP aide who spoke with Fox News Digital said, however, "Republicans in both chambers want to deliver on President Trump’s promise and the American people’s mandate for a lengthy extension of the Trump tax cuts."
"Congress can do this quickly by passing the only resolution that has already passed through one chamber of Congress – the House resolution – that has the capacity to implement the full Trump agenda," they said.
President Donald Trump wants to recover billions of dollars' worth of equipment U.S. troops left in Afghanistan following their 2021 withdrawal from the country.
"We left billions, tens of billions of dollars worth of equipment behind, brand new trucks," Trump said during his first Cabinet meeting Wednesday. "You see them display it every year, or their little roadway, someplace where they have a road and they drive the, you know, waving the flag and talking about America ... that’s all the top of the line stuff. I think we should get a lot of that equipment back."
The Taliban seized most of the more than $7 billion worth of equipment U.S. troops left in Afghanistan at the time of the withdrawal in August 2021, according to a Department of Defense report released in 2022.
Although U.S. troops removed or destroyed much of the major equipment that forces used during the drawdown, military equipment including aircraft, ground vehicles and other weapons were left in Afghanistan. The condition of these items remains unknown, but the Pentagon said in the report it would likely fail operationally without maintenance from U.S. contractors.
More details about how the U.S. would retrieve the equipment left in Afghanistan were not immediately available, and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
President Joe Biden moved to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan in 2021, building upon plans from the first Trump administration in 2020 with Taliban leaders to end the war in the region.
Thirteen U.S. service members were killed during the withdrawal process due to a suicide bombing at Abbey Gate, outside of Hamid Karzai International Airport, and the Taliban quickly seized control of Kabul.
Trump’s comments Wednesday came in response to questions about whether he was considering firing military leaders who oversaw the withdrawal. While Trump said he wouldn’t instruct Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on what actions the Pentagon should take ousting those leaders, Trump said he would "fire every single one of them."
Even so, several key leaders involved in the withdrawal are no longer serving in the military. The commander of U.S. Central Command at the time of the withdrawal, Marine Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., has since retired, and in 2024 took full ownership for the loss of U.S. troops.
"I was the overall commander, and I and I alone bear full military responsibility for what happened at Abbey Gate," McKenzie told the House Foreign Affairs Committee in March 2024.
Additionally, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, retired Army Gen. Mark Milley, told lawmakers at the same hearing that he believed the evacuation should have occurred sooner and that multiple factors contributed to failures in the withdrawal. Both McKenzie and Milley told lawmakers they advised Biden to keep some U.S. troops in Afghanistan after pulling most U.S. forces.
"The outcome in Afghanistan was the result of many decisions from many years of war," Milley told lawmakers. "Like any complex phenomena, there was no single causal factor that determined the outcome."
U.S. Central Command oversees military operations in the Middle East.
President Donald Trump’s plan to offer a "gold card" visa to wealthy immigrants is similar to policies in use in more than three dozen countries, although the U.S. proposal would come with the highest price tag, an expert tells Fox News Digital.
"What you’re doing is you’re bringing in wealthier individuals, clearly job creators, consumers," Anthony Esposito, founder and CEO of Island Capital Investments, told Fox News Digital.
Esposito’s comments come after Trump said Tuesday that he planned to offer a "gold card" visa that gives recipients a path to U.S. citizenship for $5 million, telling reporters such a program would be "extremely successful."
"They’ll be wealthy and they’ll be successful, and they’ll be spending a lot of money and paying a lot of taxes and employing a lot of people, and we think it’s going to be extremely successful," Trump said Tuesday from the Oval Office, according to a report from The Associated Press.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said that the new gold card would replace the current EB-5 Immigrant Investor visa program within two weeks, a program that was created by Congress in 1990 and offers residency to people who spent about $1 million on a business while employing at least 10 people, the report notes.
Trump has also touted the program as a way of trimming the national debt.
"Companies can go and buy a gold card, and they can use it as a matter of recruitment," Trump told reporters Wednesday. "At the same time, the company is using that money to pay down debt. We’re going to pay down a lot of debt with that."
Esposito shares Trump’s view for how the money can be used, noting that 1 million gold card recipients would result in $5 trillion for the U.S. Treasury.
"A million individuals coming in would be $5 trillion in payment to the government, off the bat, that doesn’t include the derivative growth of those individuals being here," Esposito said.
Nearly 40 other countries have similar so-called "citizenship by investment" programs, according to Henley & Partners, a law firm who represents clients looking to use such arrangements. However, the U.S. investment of $5 million proposed by Trump would make the U.S. the most expensive of the group.
Esposito believes allowing such investments would benefit the U.S. economy.
"The job growth, the job creation, the taxes paid, the consumer spending, 10 million cards would be $50 trillion. The numbers are real walking in, and the numbers are real as of derivative benefits of these individuals being here," Esposito said.
While some critics have expressed fears that the program could be abused or lead to threats to national security, Esposito argued that the Trump administration should be trusted to put the right vetting procedures in place.
"It’s the exact opposite of the Biden administration’s policy. On one side of the curve, we had the mass migrations of unvetted, undocumented immigrants coming in the southern border that were essentially living on the taxpayer dime," Esposito said, adding that Trump’s policy would call for "a program where we have fully vetted the individuals on a personal basis and on an economic basis."
Ultimately, Esposito says, Trump’s program will cause a "mutually beneficial" partnership between the U.S. and gold card holders.
"It is the greatest nation in the world. It is the greatest economy in the world," Esposito said. "This is just simply a way of vetting people and having people come in that will create a mutually beneficial relationship between the United States, and the United States economy, and those gold card holders."
The White House did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.
