President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy sparred during their meeting at the White House to end the Russia-Ukraine War, including Trump telling the Ukraine leader that he's "talked too much."
Amid Zelenskyy's visit to the White House, Vance said that a path to securing peace between Russia and Ukraine was through the U.S. engaging in diplomacy, including speaking with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to White House pool notes of the meeting.
"We signed a deal with Putin. He did not keep it, what kind of diplomacy are you talking about?" Zelenskyy told Vance.
"Very disrespectful," Vance said of Zelenskyy's comment, while Trump remarked that Ukraine is "not in a good position" and gambling with World War III.
"Have you said thank you once?" Vance asked Zelenskyy, according to the notes.
"You've talked too much," Trump said to Zelenskyy.
Zelenskyy traveled to the U.S. Friday to meet with Trump at the White House after Trump said Thursday that a peace negotiation to end the war between Ukraine and Russia is in its final stages. The Trump administration is also working to ink an agreement with Ukraine that would allow the U.S. access to Ukraine’s minerals in exchange for support the U.S. has offered the nation since war broke out in 2022, as part of the peace deal.
Trump also remarked during his remarks to the media that a trilateral meeting between Russia and Ukraine, as well as the U.S., would be no "love match" and likely difficult.
"They don't like each other, I can tell you that, it's not a love match," Trump told the media when asked how he envisions a trilateral meeting between the U.S.-Russia-Ukraine.
Virginia became the latest in a handful of mostly GOP states that are compelling their law enforcement officers to work with federal authorities to deport illegal immigrants.
Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin issued Executive Order 47 on Tuesday afternoon, mandating that state law enforcement and correctional agencies enter into formal agreements with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), pledging "full cooperation" when it comes to helping them identify and deport undocumented illegal immigrants. The governor cited federal law under the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which allows state and local law enforcement officials to enter into agreements that "federally deputize" them to perform certain actions in support of federal immigration enforcement.
"Dangerous criminal illegal immigrants should not be let back into our communities to assault, rape and murder," Youngkin said in an announcement about the new mandate. "They should be sent back where they came from."
While Virginia is just the latest among a handful of mostly GOP states to compel its law enforcement to work with ICE, the scope of these new cooperation requirements varies slightly from state to state.
Some states, like Tennessee, have implemented compelled cooperation to focus specifically on pursuing criminal undocumented immigrants. Others, like Virginia, are instructing their police to assist with apprehending and deporting any undocumented immigrants living illegally in their state.
Under Youngkin's new order, Virginia State Police will enter into a "287(g) Task Force Model Memorandum of Understanding" with ICE, creating a "State Police Task Force" to help with identifying and apprehending "criminal illegal immigrants" who pose a risk to the public.
The agreement gives these federally deputized officers special authority to perform immigration enforcement functions under ICE's supervision that they typically would not otherwise engage in.
In addition to mandating compliance from state law enforcement officials, Youngkin's Executive Order tasks the state's secretary of public safety and homeland security, Terrance Cole, to request "certification" from local and regional jail authorities that they will provide full cooperation with ICE and the newly deputized state task force. This agreement will allow Virginia Department of Corrections facilities to be used for immigration matters, such as processing and detention.
Cole is also required under the new order to contact every director, sheriff or other official in charge of a local or regional jail in Virginia to certify that they will fully cooperate with ICE and the newly deputized Virginia State Police task force supporting them.
"I am a legal immigrant and now a naturalized citizen. Working together, the Governor, Attorney General, and I have made Virginia safer. We supported more funding for law enforcement and tackled violent crimes in our cities. Now, working with President Trump, we can take on the scourge of dangerous and violent illegal immigrants," said Lt. Governor Winsome Earle-Sears, who is running for governor to succeed Youngkin, who is term-limited.
"We’ve seen too many tragic stories after dangerous criminals in this country illegally were put back on the streets, and this executive order will make sure we send them back to where they came from," Earle-Sears concluded.
Former United States Agency for International Development (USAID) employees were seen collecting their belongings and exiting the federal building a final time following a slew of layoffs, video obtained by Fox News Digital showed.
Dozens of individuals gathered outside the USAID building in Washington, D.C., on Thursday to support the ex-USAID employees who were recently placed on leave, holding signs that read "you're not the federal worker that should be fired" and "make America compassionate again."
The ex-USAID employees were met by supporters outside protesting the layoffs, carrying their belongings and flowers as they left the building together in a line.
"DOGE fired me illegally, and all I got was this stupid sign," one employee's poster read.
Workers and supporters were seen getting emotional as the former employees left the building, images captured by Fox News Digital showed.
The slew of layoffs came after the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by billionaire Elon Musk, conducted a sweep of the agency and recommended cuts after identifying "wasteful" spending on programs and initiatives around the world.
Following the DOGE probe, the Trump administration placed nearly 1,600 USAID employees on administrative leave globally on Sunday.
Those fired or placed on administrative leave were given two days, Thursday and Friday, to enter the building and collect their belongings, according to instructions from USAID.
Employees were given about 15 minutes to collect personal belongings from their workspaces.
"Staff will be given approximately 15 minutes to complete this retrieval, and must be finished removing items within their time slot only," USAID stated in their instructions.
"Staff with a significant amount of personal belongings to retrieve must be cognizant of time; however, flexibility may be granted in select circumstances with the approval of the Office of Security," the agency said.
USAID did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries warned Friday that children, families, seniors and everyday Americans with disabilities will be "devastated" after House Republicans this week "passed the budget resolution that sets in motion the largest Medicaid cut in American history."
"Children will be devastated in the city of New York and beyond. Families will be devastated. Seniors will be devastated. Everyday Americans with disabilities will be devastated," the New York Democrat said. "Hospitals will potentially close here in New York state, in rural America and across the country. And nursing homes will certainly be shut down.
"Every single House Democrat from New York City, from New York State and across the country oppose this reckless Republican budget, and we will continue to do so as long as the health care of the American people is being targeted, as long as nutritional assistance for children and families is being targeted by the extreme MAGA Republicans," Jeffries added.
Jeffries spoke Friday as Republicans in Congress searching for a way around the $880 billion budget shortfall needed to be covered in order to extend President Donald Trump’s tax cuts are considering changing the way Medicaid is funded, according to Politico.
As it stands, states must contribute their own matching funds to qualify for federal Medicaid dollars, but Republicans are weighing whether to prevent states from taxing insurers and healthcare providers as a way to raise that cash, a Politico report said Wednesday. Doing so would leave states with a $612 billion hole in their budgets over the next 10 years, the report said.
GOP leaders argue that states are inflating Medicaid costs because they are kicking back the taxes to those sources through higher payment rates, the report added.
"States and providers scheme so that the provider gets an enormous flow of federal dollars with no state cost exposure," Brian Blase of the Paragon Health Institute think-tank told the outlet.
However, the American Hospital Association is calling on Congress to "reject changes to states’ use of provider taxes, which help fund their Medicaid programs," as "Even small adjustments in the use of this financing source would result in negative consequences for Medicaid beneficiaries as well as the broader health care system."
"States’ approaches to financing their share of the program are subject to federal rules and oversight, including limits on the amount of revenue that states can generate through provider taxes. Congress is contemplating further restrictions on states’ ability to finance their share of Medicaid spending through such taxes," it said earlier this month.
"Most states would be unable to close the financing gap created by further limiting states’ ability to tax providers," it warned. "States would need to make significant cuts to Medicaid to balance their budgets, including reducing eligibility, eliminating or limiting benefits, and reducing already low payment rates for providers."
"States can use various sources to finance the non-federal share and would look to other sources if Congress limited their ability to use provider taxes," it also said. "This means that some states would have to consider increasing other forms of taxes, including income and sales tax, levied on all state residents."
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Democrats in Congress are fighting mad about Elon Musk’s email to federal workers asking them to name five things they accomplished in a week, with one representative saying the DOGE chief’s demands are "illegal" and another claiming Musk "has no idea what he’s doing."
"It's only controversial because it's against the law, and we're a country of laws, so you just have to follow the law," said Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass. told Fox News Digital. "The bottom line is Elon Musk and Trump don't seem to care about following the law, as you and I are expected to follow."
At Musk’s direction, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) sent an email titled, "What did you do last week?" to federal employees. The message called on workers to submit five accomplishments over the past week or face possible termination.
This week, the American Federation of Federal Workers and several other groups launched a lawsuit against the OPM, arguing that the office cannot fire workers who do not comply with the email’s demands.
Fox News Digital spoke with Democrats and Republicans from the House and Senate to ask why the email ended up being so controversial.
"Who is Elon Musk to be sending out something like that?" said Rep. Jesus Garcia, D-Illinois.
"Someone who hasn't been vetted or who hasn't come before Congress trying to intimidate people into doing things they don't want to do. It's illegal. It's probably unconstitutional," he went on. "And that's why workers are pushing back."
Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vermont, said that in her view, "it's clear that Elon Musk has no idea what he's doing."
"He has no idea, he's incompetent," Balint said. "He sends out emails that contradict each other, sometimes within a 24-hour period. He sends out information that contradicts the people that Trump has appointed to be Cabinet secretaries. So, I think the sort of this mystique around him as being some kind of a genius is very quickly being shown to be actually just an illusion."
Musk called the email a "pulse check" to see if any supposed government employees were fraudulently collecting paychecks without actually working. President Donald Trump backed the message, saying it was "great" and that if you don’t answer the email "you’re fired."
Washington State Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal said the consequences of Musk and DOGE firing anyone who does not reply to email would be significant.
"The havoc that it would wreak on people to not answer an email and have that constitute termination is extreme for Americans across this country," she told Fox News Digital. "If people can't control air traffic in the skies, it makes Americans unsafe. If veterans don't have staff to actually give them benefits, and federal workers are fired in our National Parks, and Medicaid and Medicare and Social Security means average Americans are not going to get their checks."
"This is not a software company that you can blow up and nobody notices," she went on. "This is the federal government that provides critical benefits to American people everywhere."
Offering a slightly different take, Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., said that the email was an example of "cancel culture," and that Musk’s goal was to "have federal employees who are professionals be replaced by loyal minions who won't serve the people."
"His email was all about the cancel culture, canceling professionals in the government, delivering good services, and replacing them with loyalists who have no interest in sustaining the vision of our ‘We the People’ democracy," he said.
Republicans, meanwhile, stood firmly behind DOGE and said Musk’s email was a perfectly reasonable request.
"I think we should be very, very thankful for what Musk is doing," Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital. "We've got the most entrenched bureaucracy in all of world history, and if we're actually going to fight back against waste, fraud and abuse, you've got to do things a little bit differently."
"Asking federal employees a simple question of, ‘What did you do today? What did you accomplish this past week?' I think it's about as basic as it gets," he went on. "I'm thrilled that he's doing it. I think that every single employee who didn't respond to him the first time should be fired, but they're being gracious and giving them a second chance."
"Bottom line is everybody who works for the government ought to be responsive," said Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas.
"I understand why it's disruptive if it's not the way things have been done," he added. "But it's the president who calls the shots, and the president yesterday reiterated that he thought it was important for the people who work for him, who work up through the government to the president to respond to what they're doing."
Roy noted that he believed Musk was "doing a great job with DOGE," and that the average American understands the email, "because they certainly have to answer for what they're doing in their real job."
"The president has the ability and the determination to decide whether people are upholding their job and doing the work that they're supposed to do and they're hired to do," he explained. "It's kind of sending a shock to the system because it's forcing people to do what they should be doing all the way down the branches of government."
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House's DOGE spokesperson but did not receive comment.
Vice President JD Vance promised the Trump administration would advocate for Christians and serve as the "biggest defenders of religious liberties" during Friday's National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C.
"While you're certainly not always going to agree with everything that we do in President Trump's administration, I feel very confident in saying that between protecting the rights of pro-life protesters, between ensuring that we have an opportunity to protect the rights of the unborn in the first place, and importantly, protecting the religious liberty of all people, but in particular Catholics," Vance said.
"I think that we can say that President Trump, though not a Catholic himself, has been an incredibly good president for Catholics in the United States of America," said Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Feb. 6 to stand up the Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias, which seeks to end the "anti-Christian weaponization of government and unlawful conduct targeting Christians," according to the White House.
Members of Trump’s Cabinet and other key agencies are part of the task force, which will conduct a review of any "anti-Christian" policies, practices or conduct within the federal government.
A White House fact sheet on the executive order claimed the Biden administration engaged in "an egregious pattern" of targeting peaceful Christians, while turning a blind eye to "violent, anti-Christian offenses." Former President Joe Biden was the second Catholic president in the U.S., after President John F. Kennedy.
Specifically, the fact sheet pointed to pro-life Christians who were "praying and peacefully demonstrating" outside abortion clinics.
In January, Trump pardoned more than 20 people convicted of illegally blocking the entrance of abortion clinics and violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act. The law prohibits anyone from attempting to obstruct or interfere with others receiving reproductive health services.
As a result, Vance said that the Trump administration was headed in the "exact opposite direction" of the Biden administration.
Vance also said that, historically, one of the "biggest impediments" to religious liberty around the world has been the result of mistakes from U.S. foreign policy that have resulted in the "eradication" of Christian communities globally.
As a result, Vance said that peacekeeping efforts from the Trump administration are a policy geared toward "saving lives and carrying out one of Christ's most important commandments."
"Perhaps the most important way in which Donald Trump has been a defender of Christian rights all over the world is he has a foreign policy that is oriented toward peace," said Vance, who received standing ovations before and after his speech. "We have done it already so much in the past 30 days, and I'm proud that we will work for peace all over the world in the remaining four years of President Trump's term, and I think that's an important thing."
Vance’s comments coincide with the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to end the conflict in Ukraine, following Russia’s invasion in February 2022. On Friday, Trump is scheduled to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to negotiate terms of a peace deal.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is making moves to detain illegal immigrants as the Trump administration looks to expand its arrest and deportation operations throughout the United States.
ICE announced the "imminent reopening" of the Delaney Hall facility in Newark, N.J. The agency said it has reached an agreement with the facility’s owner to re-establish a processing and detention center, which can accommodate up to 1,000 beds.
"This detention center is the first to open under the new administration," acting ICE Director Caleb Vitello said in a statement.
"The location near an international airport streamlines logistics and helps facilitate the timely processing of individuals in our custody as we pursue President Trump’s mandate to arrest, detain and remove illegal aliens from our communities," he said.
The agency said the facility will expand the capacity in the Northeast and increase the agency’s ability to manage a "growing" enforcement and removal operation in the region.
It comes after interior ICE arrests have skyrocketed compared to Biden-era numbers as the agency seeks to launch a "historic" deportation campaign promised by the Trump campaign.
Fox reported this month that Department of Homeland Security data showed 11,791 interior ICE arrests from Jan 20 to Feb 8, compared to 4,969 during the same period in 2024. That is a 137% increase.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has since said that over 20,000 illegal immigrants were arrested in a single month under the new administration.
The administration has sought to unleash ICE agents by removing restrictions placed on them by the Biden administration, and ending Temporary Protected Status for some nationalities.
It has also taken off limits on the use of expedited removal and allowed for ICE to review the parole status of migrants brought in via humanitarian parole, opening them up for deportation.
The administration has been making agreements with other nations to take back their illegal immigrants or ramp up their own border security efforts.
Fox News Digital reported earlier this month that ICE has just under 42,000 beds available to it and that it has been exceeding capacity under the current administration.
The Trump administration has been pushing hard to obtain more beds and detention space, but sources told Fox News Digital that it typically takes around 30 days for contractors to deliver, due to the time necessary to identify buildings, hire people and conduct background checks and related requirements.
EXCLUSIVE: New York City workers slammed the city’s congestion traffic pricing in a new ad from the Department of Transportation.
"I think with raised toll prices, raised train fares, now you want to add like tolls on the streets, I think it’s definitely borderline stealing," one man said in the clip.
"It’s ridiculous, it’s gonna.. it’s destroying the city," another New York worker said.
"It makes it more expensive for me to come to work," one man stated.
The video is part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to crack down on the fee that proponents argue is an important method to curbing Manhattan traffic.
"Hard-working New Yorkers aren’t pissed off at the White House. They’re pissed off about being charged $9 to use their own streets. Don’t take it from me, listen to what the people have to say about New York’s congestion pricing cash grab. End the disconnect. End congestion pricing. Now," Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told Fox News Digital in an exclusive statement on Friday.
The Federal Highway Administration Executive Director Gloria Shepherd wrote a letter asking the tolls to end on March 21.
The tolls, although technically a pilot program, have proven to be a money boon, as they netted $37.5 million in January. In addition to the letter from Shepherd, Duffy also scrapped the Biden-era agreement between the department and New York for the program.
Despite the request, New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul vowed for "orderly resistance" in response to the FHWA's request for ending the program in an "orderly manner," according to ABC News.
"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, stated earlier this week about the request.
The tolls are in effect in Manhattan on and south of 60th Street daily.
Fox News' Alexandra Koch contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump is set to sign an executive order that will make English the official language of the U.S., Fox News Digital confirmed on Friday morning.
Trump will sign the executive order later on Friday, which rescinds a mandate issued by former President Bill Clinton in 2000 that required federal agencies and recipients of federal funding to provide language assistance to non-English speakers, a White House official shared with Fox Digital.
The U.S. has never had an official language across its nearly 250-year history, though every major document such as the Constitution and Declaration of Independence has been written in English. About 180 countries of the 195 countries across the globe have official languages, leaving the U.S. as one of the few countries that has not officiated a language, a White House official shared.
Trump previously had previewed potentially officiating English as the nation's language, including in 2024 as he railed against the Biden administration's immigration policies.
"We have languages coming into our country. We don’t have one instructor in our entire nation that can speak that language," Trump said while speaking before the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2024. "These are languages—it’s the craziest thing—they have languages that nobody in this country has ever heard of. It’s a very horrible thing."
The order is intended to celebrate multilingual Americans who have learned English and passed it down to their family members, while also "empowering immigrants" to reach the American dream via a common language, Fox Digital learned.
Five former defense secretaries issued a scathing letter on Thursday assailing President Donald Trump for firing the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other senior officers.
In an open letter published Thursday, former Defense Secretaries James Mattis, Leon Panetta, Lloyd Austin, Chuck Hagel, and William Perry urged Congress to hold immediate hearings on Trump's recent firings of Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. CQ Brown and several other senior military leaders.
They said senators should "refuse to confirm" any new DOD nominations in response to the firings.
In the letter, they alleged that Trump’s actions undermined "our all-volunteer force and weaken our national security" and they accused the president of trying to turn the apolitical U.S. military into an instrument of partisan politics and using firings, which extend to the top Army, Navy and Air Force lawyers, to do so.
All defense secretaries but one, James Mattis, served under Democratic administrations.
Trump announced the firings late on Friday, but his administration has yet to clarify in any detail what caused the unprecedented shakeup, which also included the dismissal of the head of the Navy, Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first female officer to lead a military service.
Air Force General C.Q. Brown was only the second Black officer to become Joint Chiefs chairman and he was less than halfway through his four-year term when he was let go.
"Mr. Trump's dismissals raise troubling questions about the administration's desire to politicize the military," they wrote. "We, like many Americans - including many troops - are therefore left to conclude that these leaders are being fired for purely partisan reasons."
Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for comment on the letter.
The former defense secretaries called on Congress to hold hearings to "assess the national security implications" of Trump's dismissals. Republicans hold a majority in both chambers.
The letter cautioned that the actions at the Pentagon could deter Americans from choosing a life in the military, should their careers be judged through the lens of partisan politics. It could also have a chilling effect on speaking "truth to power," they cautioned.
"We write to urge the U.S. Congress to hold Mr. Trump to account for these reckless actions and to exercise fully its Constitutional oversight responsibilities," they wrote.
Fox News’ Liz Friden and Reuters contributed to this report.
"The great people of Iraq of all religions and ethnicities are the inheritors of an amazing civilization," he said in another post. "They deserve more than to be ruled by the terrorist regime in Iran. Biden abandoned the nonsectarian protest movement in Iraq. We must empower the Iraqi people to Make Iraq Great Again and Free Iraq from Iran."
"Defund Iraq," he declared in another post.
In another post Wilson advocated several policies, one of which is to "Cut all aid to Iraq as long as Iran runs Iraq."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy isn’t backing down from seeking NATO membership for Ukraine despite the fact that President Donald Trump has said the Ukrainian leader "could forget about" joining the military alliance.
Still, Zelenskyy is all in on securing NATO membership for his country, and he said Sunday he would step down as president if it meant NATO adopted Ukraine. Zelenskyy reiterated his position Wednesday and told the BBC, "I want to find a NATO path or something similar."
"If we don’t get security guarantees, we won’t have a ceasefire, nothing will work, nothing," Zelenskyy said.
Zelenskyy is slated to visit the White House on Friday, and Trump told reporters on Thursday that a peace negotiation to end the war between Ukraine and Russia is in the final stages. Even so, no deal is secured, and Trump hesitated to discuss plans regarding a peacekeeping force in the region until one was signed.
Although Trump said on Thursday he believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin will uphold his end of a peace deal, several experts claim Zelenskyy remains adamant about pushing for Ukraine to become a NATO member because it reduces the likelihood that Putin could resume hostilities, and it means that other security guarantees are more likely.
Article 5 of the NATO treaty stipulates that if a member country is attacked, it will be considered an attack against all NATO members and requires other NATO countries to take action, including the use of armed forces.
Peter Rough, a senior fellow and director of the Center on Europe and Eurasia at the Hudson Institute think tank, said that with backing from the West, Ukraine becomes bigger than Russia.
"Putin would have to think twice about restarting a war if he thinks the major Western powers are obligated to defend Ukraine," Rough said in a Thursday email to Fox News Digital. "Of course, bringing Ukraine into NATO would put American (and European) skin and credibility in the game. That explains Trump’s hesitation, even resistance to such a concept."
Rough said Zelenskyy’s "fallback position" if NATO membership isn’t possible is to secure support from Western troops to promote a ceasefire. For example, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced on Feb. 16 that the U.K. was ready to send troops to Ukraine if necessary to ensure peace between Ukraine and Russia.
"If all else fails, then, Zelenskyy may have to settle for continued financing and military assistance," Rough said. "But he isn’t going to negotiate with himself, which is why he remains adamant about security guarantees in public."
John Hardie, the deputy director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Russia program, said another conflict between Russia and Ukraine is likely and that the "hard truth" is the negotiations from the Trump administration won’t "resolve the fundamental question at stake in this war."
"Putin’s goal isn’t just to grab some more territory in eastern Ukraine," Hardie said in an email to Fox News Digital. "He remains determined to make Ukraine itself into a vassal state and to rewrite the broader security order in Europe."
As a result, Hardie said NATO membership for Ukraine provides the best option for preserving Ukraine’s safety against Russian aggression. Although that’s a no from Trump, Hardie said the U.S. does need to articulate just how much support it can offer for European troops who will provide a post-war security presence in the region.
For example, Starmer told reporters on Feb. 17 that any reassurance force would require a "U.S. backstop because a U.S. security guarantee is the only way to effectively deter Russia from attacking Ukraine again."
"The Trump administration needs to provide Europe with clarity on what U.S. contribution it can expect," Hardie said. "Ukraine will also need a continued supply of military aid from the West, including the United States, though there are ways to reduce the burden on American taxpayers, such as the use of frozen Russian assets."
Zelenskyy told reporters Wednesday he is prepared to broach "very important questions" with Trump during their Friday visit, including whether the U.S. will continue to provide aid to Ukraine. Congress has appropriated $175 billion since 2022 for aid to Ukraine, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.
To recoup some of these costs, Trump said Zelenskyy is expected to sign a rare-earth minerals deal that will allow the U.S. and Ukraine to partner on developing resources like oil and gas.
The agreement will permit the U.S. access to Ukraine’s minerals and will also help Ukraine rebuild from the war, Trump said.
"We're going to be signing really a very important agreement for both sides, because it's really going to get us into that country," Trump told reporters Thursday. "We'll have a lot of people working there and so, in that sense, it's very good."
President Donald Trump filled two more roles within his administration late Thursday by announcing who will be serving as deputy secretary of commerce and under secretary of the Navy.
Trump selected former Virginia congressional candidate, Hung Cao, to serve as the next under secretary of the Navy and former under secretary of energy for science, Paul Dabbar, to serve as deputy secretary of commerce.
The president congratulated both men, who are Navy veterans and graduates of the United States Naval Academy, in separate Truth Social posts Thursday night.
Cao, who came to the U.S. in 1975 after his family escaped Vietnam shortly before the fall of Saigon, most recently ran for U.S. Senate in Virginia against Democrat Sen. Tim Kaine during the 2024 election, losing to the incumbent senator. He was endorsed by Trump during the race.
He retired from the Navy as a captain after 25 years in Special Operations. While Cao served in combat roles, he also worked at the Pentagon and was assigned to balancing the Navy's $140 billion budget.
"Hung is the embodiment of the American Dream. As a refugee to our Great Nation, Hung worked tirelessly to make proud the Country that gave his family a home. He went to our amazing United States Naval Academy, and later earned his Master’s Degree in Physics. Hung served in combat as a Special Operations Officer for twenty five years. With Hung’s experience both in combat, and in the Pentagon, he will get the job done. Congratulations to Hung, and his wonderful family!" Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Cao thanked the president for selecting him in a post on X and said "let's get to work."
Dabbar, who worked in Trump's Department of Energy during his first term, served in the Navy as a submarine officer and spent years after his military career working in the energy sector as a managing director at J.P. Morgan.
Trump said Dabbar will work with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to "bring back American Leadership in Global Commerce, Trade, and Technology."
"Paul served as my Under Secretary of Energy for Science, where he lead the National Labs that started as the Manhattan Project, helping to drive semiconductors, AI, quantum, Energy Dominance, and our War-fighting capabilities," Trump wrote on Truth Social, in part.
The president still has to announce his picks for hundreds of smaller positions, but has nearly rounded out his Cabinet. Of the 22 nominations made that require Senate confirmation, 19 have been confirmed as of Thursday.
Illinois taxpayers paid out $1.6 billion for healthcare programs for illegal immigrants since 2020, well above the spending projections estimated by Democrat Gov. JB Pritzker’s administration, per a new state audit released this week at the request of GOP legislators.
The audit also found that, in many cases, state money was spent on people who were actually U.S. citizens or otherwise eligible for federal programs.
"This audit shows that the governor, that the program was rampant in overspending. It spent well in excess of 200% more than what was estimated in budgets and in appropriations," state Senate Republican leader John Curran told Fox News Digital in an interview.
"And it also showed that the governor was unable to manage this program," he said. "Thousands of people were allowed to sign up for free healthcare for years on the state taxpayer dime that should not have been eligible under the parameters laid out for this program, and the governor failed to even seek federal reimbursement when eligible on certain services for years, leaving federal dollars on the table."
Illinois Auditor General Frank J. Mautino flagged more than 6,000 people listed as "undocumented" in the programs but who had Social Security numbers, and some of those individuals may actually be legal permanent residents who are eligible for Medicaid, meaning the state could get federal funding for them. The state reviewed 94 cases and found that 19 should have been classified as legal residents instead of noncitizens.
There were also nearly 700 people in the senior health program who were under 65. A review confirmed that many of the errors were due to incorrect birth dates, which were corrected later.
Nearly 400 enrollees appeared to have been in the country for more than five years and should have qualified for Medicaid, the audit also found. The state acknowledged that some of those people were enrolled incorrectly, which cost the state federal matching funds. The report recommended that the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services seek federal reimbursement for the lost funds.
The auditor's report, which Curran dubbed "gross mismanagement" in a press conference, was released just one week after Pritzker suggested cutting funding for a program that offers Medicaid-like coverage to illegal immigrants under 65 or legal immigrants without a green card. The proposed reduction, expected to save $330 million, was a key part of Pritzker's strategy to address a more than $3 billion budget shortfall.
"The governor was papering over this large spending with tax increases over the last several years, as well as COVID relief funds being spent on this rather than actually trying to rein in spending in the state of Illinois," Curran said. "Now that federal dollars have tapered off, we have a large budget deficit in Illinois this year and the governor is now being forced to try to end the program for all working adults."
"We cannot afford this," Curran continued. "The state of Illinois, state taxpayers, should not be burdened with providing free healthcare, especially for [the] working-age population. People that should be out and working in paying taxes and getting healthcare in the marketplace, just like every other Illinois state taxpayer is doing, so we want to bring the program to an end."
As of December, 41,505 individuals were enrolled in the two programs, part of the Health Benefits for Immigrant Adults program, which Pritzker has proposed cutting starting July 1.
Despite Pritzker's plan to cut funding for healthcare programs, he said during a Wednesday press conference that he supports some kind of universal health coverage: "The broader context is people need to get health care."
He added, "It’s some evidence, anyway, that there are an awful lot of people out there that need coverage who aren’t getting it or who will do anything to get it, and I think that’s a sad state of affairs in our society."
Curran said "Pritzker, from day 1, is taking an adversarial approach to President Donald Trump and his administration, and that has really put Illinois and really the city of Chicago in focus."
"What we would like to see is a more cooperative tone," he said.
Hundreds of illegal immigrants in Chicago, which is deemed a sanctuary city, have been detained by U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement since Trump took office.
Both Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson bucked Trump's mass deportation move, vowing in January to protect residents regardless of their immigration status.
