Emotions are running high on both sides of the aisle on Capitol Hill as Elon Musk makes his way for the exit.

Musk is stepping back from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which President Donald Trump appointed the tech billionaire to run for the first 130 days of his new administration.

He's been a polarizing figure in Washington, and that has extended to his announcement earlier this week that he's returning to the private sector. Republicans cheered Musk's work, while Democrats celebrated the end of it.

"Exposing reckless, wasteful government spending isn’t about one individual—it’s about a lasting overhaul of Crazy Town," House DOGE Caucus Chair Aaron Bean, R-Fla., told Fox News Digital. "That’s why we’re working closely with the White House to ensure recession packages reflect DOGE’s critical findings."

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And the White House has begun that work already, preparing a $9.4 billion package of spending cuts that's expected to hit Congress on Tuesday. But Bean's comments imply Republicans are going to seek more.

It was a sentiment that appeared to be shared by Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., who said that Musk "did a lot of what he came to do."

"A lot of the savings that he identified are things hopefully that we’ll be able to incorporate into bills that Congress passes. The work that he did was really important. It’s long overdue," Thune said.

Senate DOGE Caucus Chair Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, said she was "honored" to work with Musk but signaled he should not be needed for lawmakers to cut government waste.

"It has been wonderful having a willing partner in my decade-long work to make Washington squeal, but I was DOGE before DOGE was cool, and I’m not slowing down," Ernst told Fox News Digital in a statement.

Other Republicans were more lavish in their praise, like Rep. Mike Haridopolos, R-Fla., who hailed Musk as an "American hero."

"I'm absolutely sad to see him go," Haridopolos told Fox News Digital. "He has given up a lot of time and wealth in order to bring the fiscal house of the United States in order, and he has done a great service to our country by bringing a heck of a lot more transparency of how we're spending money."

And Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., compared the billionaire to the nation's revered first leaders.

"He's kind of half Benjamin Franklin and half Thomas Jefferson. He had the inventiveness of Benjamin Franklin and the vision of a Thomas Jefferson, and I just remember all of our founding fathers were patriots, and they left their regular jobs. They gave up everything to come help found this country. And that's what Elon's [done]," Marshall told Fox News Digital.

On the other side of the aisle, Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., pointed out that as much as Republicans lauded Musk, he also dealt a blow to the House GOP earlier this week by criticizing their "big, beautiful" tax and spending bill.

"They brought Musk to DC to fight the deficit, and he left DC calling out how the reconciliation bill will blow the biggest hole in the deficit ever – adding more than $3 trillion in debt," Suozzi told Fox News Digital.

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., told Fox News Digital he believed DOGE's efforts were misplaced in the end.

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"Initially, I said we should work with Musk to find common ground where there is real waste — like defense contractors, Medicare Advantage overpayments, and prescription drugs. It is sad that DOGE faced opposition in focusing on those issues, and that agencies like USAID and NIH are being dismantled," Khanna said.

Others on the left unleashed on Musk directly. 

Democrats have held up the Tesla CEO as a boogeyman since he began campaigning for Trump, using him as a living example of the wealthy, out-of-touch people they believed the Republican White House was benefitting.

"Elon came to Washington thinking he could run the government like one of his companies—firing people left and right, gutting essential services, and tearing this s--t up from the ground up," Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, wrote on X, calling for an investigation into Musk's work.

House Progressive Caucus Chairman Greg Casar, D-Texas, meanwhile, took credit for Musk leaving despite his fixed tenure.

"Musk’s exit is an enormous victory for Democrats and working people. This is a sign of how powerful the anti-corruption, anti-billionaire movement in American politics can be," Casar said in a statement. "Musk did not choose to leave because Elon Musk likes to follow the rules. Musk will leave because the American people built enough political pressure that he had no choice."

And Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J. considered a potential 2028 presidential candidate, wrote on X, "Musk failed others and served himself."

"But there’s an irony in his failure: in his quest to destroy government, he reminded us why it matters. To look out for hungry kids, to keep planes safe, to deliver Social Security checks, and to do the quiet work to serve the common good," Booker said.

When reached for comment on this story, White House spokesman Harrison Fields told Fox News Digital, "DOGE is integral to the federal government’s operations, and its mission, as established by the President’s executive order, will continue under the direction of agency and department heads in the Trump administration. DOGE has delivered remarkable results at an unprecedented pace, and its work is far from complete." Fox News Digital also reached out to Tesla for comment from Musk.

Trump, for his part, heaped praise on Musk at a joint press conference on Friday.

"Elon’s service to America has been without comparison in modern history. He's already running one of the most innovative car companies in the world, if you look at his factories and compare them with some of the old factories we have, and it's a big difference. And the most successful space company, I guess in history, you would have to say. The largest free speech platform on the internet," Trump said.

"Yet, Elon, willingly, with all of the success, he willingly accepted the outrageous abuse and slander and lies and attacks because he does love our country."

U.S. Customs and Border Protection confirmed to Fox News Digital that it is no longer operating any "soft-sided" facilities, following the closure of a migrant processing center near San Diego in March.

The Biden administration used the facilities to process migrants who entered the country illegally at multiple sites in California, Texas, and Arizona, amid a surge of millions crossing the border.

"Due to the unprecedented drop in apprehensions of illegal aliens as a result of the President’s recent executive actions, CBP is not operating any temporary, soft-sided processing facilities where illegal aliens have been held in specific locations along the southwest border. CBP no longer has a need for them as illegal aliens are being quickly removed," a CBP spokesperson confirmed to Fox News Digital on Thursday.

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"The U.S. Border Patrol has full capability to manage the detention of apprehended aliens in USBP’s permanent facilities. Manpower and other resources dedicated to temporary processing facilities will be redirected toward other priorities and will speed CBP’s progress in gaining operational control over the southwest border," the spokesperson said. 

On March 13, CBP said that they were closing three Texas and two Arizona facilities, but one California and one Texas location were still open.

In March, Fox News Digital reported that CBP had shuttered the Otay Mesa facility that was launched in January 2023 as the border crisis raged on.

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U.S. Border Patrol’s San Diego Sector posted a video to X on Sunday showing that the sector’s soft-sided facility has been decommissioned.

"The world has heard President Trump and Secretary Noem’s message. America’s borders are CLOSED to lawbreakers," Homeland Security posted in response to the clip.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE

According to CBP, the facilities cost taxpayers between $5 million and $30 million per month. 

Since President Donald Trump took office, southern border crossings marked by CBP have gone down. In April, there were just over 8,300 "apprehensions," which is a 93% drop from the year before, the agency said.

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"For the first time in years, more agents are back in the field—patrolling territories that CBP didn’t have the bandwidth or manpower to oversee just six months ago," Pete Flores, Acting Commissioner of CBP, said in a statement on May 12. "But thanks to this administration’s dramatic shift in security posture at our border, we are now seeing operational control becoming a reality—and it’s only just beginning." 

Former President Joe Biden honored fallen service members and Gold Star families Friday at a Memorial Day service in Delaware, marking his first public remarks since announcing he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

"We come together and remember the debt we owe to the American military," Biden said at the event, sponsored by the Delaware Commission of Veteran Affairs. 

"The military is a solid spine, the spine of our nation," Biden said. "Our troops, our veterans, our military families, and our Gold Star families in particular. Only around 1% of all Americans defend 99% of us — 1%. Just 1% of Americans risk the ultimate sacrifice. We owe them so much more than we can ever repay them."

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A Gold Star family is the immediate family of service members who died while serving in the line of duty. 

For the Biden family, the day is deeply personal as May 30 marks 10 years since Biden’s son Beau died of brain cancer. Beau Biden served in the Delaware Army National Guard for more than 10 years, completing a tour in Iraq where he earned the Bronze Star for his service, and became the state’s attorney general before his death. 

Biden said that his son’s proudest moment was wearing his uniform and said appearing at the event eased the pain of the loss of his son. He also offered some words of encouragement to others suffering loss as well. 

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"Everyone who came here today to grieve, who was grieving in your heart, please know you're not alone," Biden said. "You'll never be alone. And your loved one will never be forgotten. Period." 

Biden said that Beau Biden’s son, Hunter, 19, was present at the event, while he reminisced about attending the exact same Memorial Day event as a senator with Beau Biden around the same age. 

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The former president also said that politics has become divided — but that the sacrifices of those in the military to defend democracy should unite everyone. 

"Our troops don't wear a uniform that says I'm a Democrat or a Republican, says I'm an American," Biden said. "I'm an American. That's who I am." 

Biden announced May 18 that he had been diagnosed with an "aggressive form" of prostate cancer. The former president's office later said he had never received a prostate cancer diagnosis.  

The announcement came amid heightened scrutiny about Biden's mental fitness for office, following the publication of multiple books this year chronicling the deterioration of Biden's mental faculties. 

Likewise, leaked audio recordings of Biden's October 2023 interview with former special counsel Robert Hur were released in May, showing that Biden struggled to not slur his words and even appeared to forget the year his son died. 

As Elon Musk, the world's richest person, put it, his role in steering President Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has come "to an end."

However, the president, in a social media post on Thursday night announcing that he and Musk would team up for a 1:30 p.m. ET White House news conference on Friday, teased that Musk would continue to help the Trump administration.

"This will be his last day, but not really, because he will, always, be with us, helping all the way. Elon is terrific!" he wrote.

Musk's political impact on national politics and on next year's midterm elections — for better or for worse — is far from over and is likely to live on well past his official departure from the Trump administration.

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Trump, after winning back the White House in last November's election, created DOGE with marching orders to overhaul and downsize the federal government. Trump named Musk, the chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX and Trump's biggest political donor in the 2024 election, to steer the organization.

"Elon Musk made the most serious attempt at reducing the size and scope of government in modern political history. It was at times chaotic but impactful," veteran GOP strategist Ryan Williams told Fox News.

Williams predicted that Musk's "efforts will continue to linger as a political football, but also a guide for Republicans if they're serious about limiting the growth of the federal government."

After returning to the White House in January, Musk and DOGE quickly swept through federal agencies, rooting out what the new administration argued was billions in wasteful federal spending. Additionally, they took a meat cleaver to the federal workforce, resulting in a massive downsizing of employees. 

Nothing symbolized Musk's controversial moves more than his brandishing of a chainsaw during a February appearance at the MAGA-dominated Conservative Political Action Conference, where he touted "how easy" it was to "save billions of dollars sometimes in… an hour."

The moves by DOGE grabbed tons of national attention and triggered a slew of lawsuits in response. Many of DOGE's cuts in government staffing were stymied or reversed by federal court orders.

While DOGE was originally tasked with slashing $2 trillion from the federal government's budget, the DOGE website earlier this week said that its efforts to date had led to roughly $175 billion in savings due to asset sales, contract cancellations, fraud payment cuts, in addition to other steps to eliminate costs.

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Musk's arrival in the nation's capital came with a bang.

Thanks to a direct pipeline to the president and his powerful mouthpiece on the social media site X, Musk instantly and repeatedly made headlines with his provocative moves and the targeting of people he did not like, often to the chagrin of Trump administration officials and Republicans on Capitol Hill.

Trump repeatedly praised Musk and DOGE's efforts. 

"The vast majority of people in this country really respect and appreciate you, and this whole room can say that very strongly; you have really been a tremendous help," the president said during a Cabinet meeting four weeks ago, when Musk announced that he would be cutting back on his time spent with DOGE and the Trump administration.

However, behind the scenes, there was a lot less harmony.

"People got really sick of him really quickly," a veteran Republican strategist with ties to the administration and Capitol Hill who asked to remain anonymous to speak more freely told Fox News.

"He was fun to begin with," the strategist noted, before adding that "people inside and around the administration and people outside" were tired of Musk "by the end, when he's sitting in a meeting wearing multiple hats on his head."

Additionally, Musk's recent criticism of Trump's sweeping "big beautiful bill," which passed a major congressional hurdle, did not help matters.

While a slew of public opinion polls, including national surveys from Fox News, indicated that Americans like the idea of downsizing the federal government, those same surveys highlighted that the public was far from thrilled with how Musk and DOGE carried out cuts to the federal bureaucracy.

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Musk, who spent nearly $300 million in support of Trump's 2024 White House victory, quickly became a lightning rod in the handful of off-year and special elections held early this year.

Through aligned political groups, Musk dished out roughly $20 million in battleground Wisconsin's high-profile state Supreme Court race, in support of Trump-backed judge Brad Schimel, the conservative-leaning candidate in the election.

Musk, in a controversial move, handed out $1 million checks at a rally in Green Bay two nights ahead of the election to two Wisconsin voters who had already cast ballots in the contest and had signed a petition to stop "activist judges."

Musk, at the rally, donned a cheesehead hat — a foam wedge which resembles a chunk of cheese — that is traditionally worn by devout Green Bay Packers football fans in Wisconsin and across the country.

However, Schimel ended up losing by 10 points to the Democratic-aligned candidate in what was supposed to be a close contest. Musk ended up getting tagged with plenty of blame in a race that partially turned into a referendum on his efforts at DOGE.

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Democrats repeatedly made Musk the bogeyman in their messaging in Wisconsin's election and in other contests, and they pledged to continue to target him heading into next year's midterm elections, when Republicans will be defending their razor-thin House majority and their modest Senate majority.

"Top of mind for voters are the pocketbook issues. Democrats are going to win by highlighting the fact that Republicans are failing at lowering costs because they are too busy pushing tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy and big corporations, while making the rest of us pay for them," Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee national press secretary Viet Shelton told Fox News.

Shelton emphasized that "Elon is, and forever will be, an instantly-recognizable manifestation of the fact that House Republicans don’t work for the American people, they work for the billionaires."

So, were Musk's potential political risks to Republicans behind his departure from the nation's capitol?

A GOP strategist close to GOP lawmakers, when asked if Musk's welcome was wearing out among congressional Republicans, said "yes to a point."

"But I think the larger question about whether Musk and DOGE are liabilities in the midterms, I would say emphatically no," added the strategist, who asked for anonymity to speak more freely.

The strategist noted that GOP lawmakers "who have talked about waste, fraud, and abuse, and have talked about the savings generated by DOGE, they've done quite well. It's the folks who don't want to message on it and have not put Democrats on defense, who are tired of Musk."

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Additionally, veteran Republican strategist Matt Gorman disagrees with the Democrats' argument about Musk's lasting impact on the campaign trail.

"I don't think that in any way Elon Musk will be a factor one way or another in the year-plus that we have until Election Day 2026," Gorman, a veteran of numerous presidential and statewide campaigns, told Fox News.

Kentucky state Democratic Sen. Robin Webb, who represents Kentucky’s rural 18th Senate district, is switching her party affiliation to Republican after she says the Democrat Party "left me." 

"First and foremost, I’m a mother, a rancher and a lawyer with deep personal and professional roots in Kentucky’s coal country," Webb explained. "As the Democratic Party continues its lurch to the left and its hyperfocus on policies that hurt workforce and economic development in my region, I no longer feel it represents my values."

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"It has become untenable and counterproductive to the best interests of my constituents for me to remain a Democrat."

Webb was originally elected to the Kentucky State House after defeating Republican Ramona Gee in 1998.

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This comes as a major blow to Kentucky Democrats, who have historically held a stronghold in rural regions of the state largely due to union workers and the coal industry. 

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear told a local Louisville news outlet that he "would consider" a run as the Democratic nominee for president in 2028, and the newly elected Democratic governor and potential presidential candidate now faces an additional challenge to mobilize his state's party ahead of the 2026 midterms. 

"Like countless other Kentuckians, [Webb] has recognized that the policies and objectives of today’s Democratic Party are simply not what they once were, and do not align with the vast majority of Kentuckians," Republican Party of Kentucky Chairman Robert Benvenuti added.

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"I always respected that [Webb] approached issues in a very thoughtful and commonsense manner, and that she never failed to keenly focus on what was best for her constituents," Benvenuti added. "It is my pleasure to welcome Sen. Robin Webb to the Republican Party."

Despite Beshear serving in the governor's office, the attorney general's office, secretary of state and both chambers of the state legislature have a Republican majority. 

"While it’s cliché, it’s true: I didn’t leave the party — the party left me," Webb said.

Fox News Digital reached out to Governor Andy Beshear's office but did not receive a response.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch accuses Lord Hermer of "calling people who disagree with him Nazis".

The shadow justice secretary filmed himself confronting fare dodgers on the London Underground.

Fox News embedded exclusively with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the greater Boston area this week, where agents were carrying out the arrests of hundreds of egregious criminal migrants in what the agency said is the largest operation it has undertaken since President Donald Trump returned to office.

The sweeping operation, called "Patriot," is expected to hit 1,500 arrests and is targeting migrants like a Salvadoran illegal migrant convicted of child rape who went to prison and was deported in 2017. He was nabbed by ICE living right next to a children’s playground.

ICE also swooped on another illegal migrant who is on El Salvador’s most wanted list and has an Interpol Red Notice for aggravated murder, aggravated kidnapping and robbery.

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Both arrests were captured exclusively on camera by Fox News. 

ICE deployed 19 teams across Massachusetts this week and the agency brought in ICE teams from other parts of the country to assist. 

It's in direct response to Massachusetts and Boston’s sanctuary policies, where officials do not fully enforce or assist with federal immigration laws, as border czar Tom Homan has promised to surge ICE to these areas. 

Fox News is told that about 70% of the arrests are criminals with convictions or pending charges.

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Patricia Hyde, the head of ICE Boston, said it’s not uncommon to have migrants convicted of child rape to be roaming public streets close to where children play. 

"It's not unusual. Due to the open border policies, we are finding that plenty of people who have been previously deported and committed heinous crimes and were removed from the country are now back here, just living among us," Hyde said. "And now that's our job to go round them up."

Fox News also joined ICE as they arrested a Colombian illegal migrant facing pending charges for sexual assault of a child, as well as a Dominican illegal migrant with a drug trafficking conviction who is now facing local charges for fentanyl distribution. 

Meanwhile, other arrests included a Guatemalan illegal migrant who's facing charges in Massachusetts for aggravated child rape but was released from state custody. They also arrested Honduran alien, who's facing local charges for rape and was also released from local custody.

ICE Boston told Fox News that local ICE activists have been interfering in their operations. 

For instance, on Thursday, activists tried to grab onto a migrant who had been handcuffed by ICE, and in another incident, agents were stalking out a migrant murderer's home and a crowd gathered and blew their cover.

Hyde said sanctuary jurisdictions are starting to escalate against ICE. 

"I think the lack of cooperation is getting worse and worse and it’s putting law enforcement lives in danger," Hyde said.

Hyde said that ICE agents will continue to round up dangerous criminal illegal migrants, despite pushback from local lawmakers and activists.  

"We're not going away. It might take us longer. It might be harder, but we're not going away, we're here," Hyde said. "We know what the American people voted for. We understand that we work for the American people and we're going to be here until we send everyone home."

The Supreme Court on Friday stayed a lower court order that blocked the Trump administration from deporting roughly 500,000 migrants from Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. The decision is a near-term victory for President Donald Trump as he moves to crack down on border security and immigration priorities in his second term. 

The order stays, for now, a lower court ruling that halted Trump's plans to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) protections for some migrants living in the U.S., which allows individuals to live and work in the U.S. legally if they cannot work safely in their home country due to a disaster, armed conflict or other "extraordinary and temporary conditions." 

The stay, like many emergency orders handed down by the high court, was unsigned, and did not provide an explanation for the justices' thinking. 

Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson did lay out their criticisms in a blistering dissent. 

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Jackson said that, in their view, the court "plainly botched" its assessment, and failed to properly weigh the "devastating consequences of allowing the government to precipitously upend the lives and livelihoods of nearly half a million noncitizens while their legal claims are pending."

"While it is apparent that the government seeks a stay to enable it to inflict maximum predecision damage, court-ordered stays exist to minimize — not maximize — harm to litigating parties," she added.

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The TPS program is typically extended to migrants in the U.S. on 18-month increments, most recently under the Biden administration towards the end of his presidency. 

But they were abruptly upended by the Trump administration in February, when Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem attempted to end protections for a specific group of Venezuelan nationals, arguing they were not in the national interest. 

U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer asked justices earlier this month to allow the administration to proceed with its decision to revoke the status for the migrants, accusing U.S. District Judge Edward Chen of improperly intruding on the executive branch’s authority over immigration policy.

"The district court’s reasoning is untenable," Sauer told the high court, adding that the program "implicates particularly discretionary, sensitive, and foreign-policy-laden judgments of the Executive Branch regarding immigration policy."

The update comes after the Supreme Court also allowed the Trump administration earlier this month to revoke the protected status of 350,000 Venezuelan migrants, clearing the way for the Trump administration to move forward with their plans to remove them. 

It was nearly 10 p.m. on a Sunday night when House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., surprised reporters in the hallway of the Cannon House Office Building.

The top House Republican was making a low-key — but high-stakes — visit to the House Budget Committee before the panel’s second meeting on President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill." The first meeting on May 16 had blown up without resolution when four fiscal hawks balked at the legislation and voted against advancing it to the full House.

"The real debate was, is when [we] voted not to approve the budget. And the reason I did that, along with the others, was we needed to make the provisions better," Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., told Fox News Digital.

"It was our opportunity to make a bill that overall was good, better. And that was the impetus to stop the budget, and then get some concessions. And then when it reached Rules Committee, there really wasn't that much dissension."

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The committee meeting continued with little fanfare, save for Democratic objections to the bill, before one more visit from Johnson, when he signaled the deal was sealed.

"I think what is about to happen here is that every member, every Republican member, will give a vote that allows us to proceed forward, and we count that as a big win tonight," Johnson said. 

He was right, with the legislation advancing exactly along party lines.

Fox News Digital was told that conservatives were anticipating what is called a manager's amendment, a vehicle with wide flexibility to change legislation, before the House Rules Committee’s vote to advance the bill to the full chamber. 

The House Rules Committee acts as the final gatekeeper to most bills before a House-wide vote. Trump himself made a rare visit to Capitol Hill the morning of May 20 to urge Republicans to vote for the bill.

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House leaders again signaled confidence late on May 21, informing Republicans that they would likely vote soon after the House Rules Committee’s meeting was over. However, that meeting alone had already dragged on for hours, from just after 1 a.m. on May 21 to finally voting on Trump’s tax bill just after 2:30 a.m. on May 22. Lawmakers and reporters alike struggled to stay awake as Democratic lawmakers forced votes on over 500 amendments, largely symbolic, in a bid to drag out the process.

Meanwhile, at some point overnight, talks with GOP holdouts went south.

The House Freedom Caucus held an impromptu press conference directly after Chair Andy Harris, R-Md., met with Johnson.

"The leadership’s going to have to figure out where to go from here," Harris said. "I think there is a pathway forward that we can see…I’m not sure this can be done this week. I’m pretty confident it could be done in 10 days. But that’s up to leadership to decide."

Harris also said the Freedom Caucus had struck a "deal" with the White House, something a White House official denied. "The White House presented HFC with policy options that the administration can live with, provided they can get the votes," the official said.

However, the manager’s amendment, which finally came out just after 11 p.m. on May 21, eased the concerns of at least several of the fiscal hawks.

It bolstered funding to states that did not expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), included additional tax relief for gun owners, and quickened the implementation of Medicaid work requirements, among other measures.

Meanwhile, a small group of those House Freedom Caucus members had also been meeting with a small group of conservative senators who assured them they would seek deep spending cuts in the bill when it landed in the upper chamber, Norman said.

MIKE JOHNSON, DONALD TRUMP GET ‘BIG, 'BEAUTIFUL’ WIN AS BUDGET PASSES HOUSE

"It was our hope that the Senate would come back and even make the cuts deeper, so that the deficit could be cut," Norman said.

The moves were not enough to ease everyone’s concerns, however. Roughly three hours after the amendment’s release, Freedom Caucus Policy Chair Chip Roy, R-Texas, was the only Republican member of the House Rules Committee to miss the key vote.

Fox News Digital inquired via text message why Roy missed the vote and was told he was "actually reading the bill…"

Nevertheless, it passed by an 8 to 4 vote — prompting House leaders to warn their members to return for what would be an all-night series of voting and debates. Democratic leaders, recognizing they would be sidelined completely if Republicans had enough support on their side, again moved to delay the proceedings.

A whip notice sent to House Democrats, obtained by Fox News Digital, warned left-wing lawmakers that "House Republicans are planning to finish debate and vote on final passage of H.R. 1 late tonight."

The notice advised that House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., would force a vote on adjourning the House and that "additional procedural votes are expected."

In a bid to keep Republicans close to the House floor for what was an hourslong night, the speaker set up a side room with snacks and coffee for lawmakers to wait out proceedings. In the House Appropriations Committee room just down the hall, more Republicans were huddled over cigars and other refreshments. The smell of tobacco smoke wafted out as increasingly haggard lawmakers shuffled between the two rooms.

Fox News Digital even heard from several lawmakers inquiring when the final vote was expected to be — and wondering whether they had time for a nap themselves. Meanwhile, Fox News Digital spotted Harris and Roy walking the opposite way from the hullabaloo of the House floor, toward the much quieter Longworth House Office Building.

Both said they were leaving for more conversations with White House staff before the final vote.

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"The manager’s amendment gets us a little closer, but we're still in discussions with the executive branch to see whether we can achieve the objectives that we seek, which is support the president's goals on waste fraud and abuse in Medicare and Medicaid and, you know, making sure that we've got all we can out of the Inflation Reduction Act," Harris said.

Roy said he hoped Republicans would go further against states that drastically expanded their Medicaid populations under the ACA. He also signaled that leaders suggested at the time some further Medicaid reform could come from the White House.

"The speaker alluded to this afternoon…that there are things in the executive space, executive actions, that we think could take care of some of the concerns that we were having about — again, it's not what we want, but it does ameliorate some of our concerns on the Medicaid expansion front," Roy said.

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House and the speaker’s office for comment.

When it came time for the final vote, it appeared enough was done to get Roy on board. Harris, however, voted "present."

Neither made themselves available for an interview for this story.

The final vote saw just two Republican defections — Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., long a critic of Johnson, and Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio.

"While I love many things in the bill, promising someone else will cut spending in the future does not cut spending. Deficits do matter and this bill grows them now. The only Congress we can control is the one we’re in. Consequently, I cannot support this big deficit plan. NO," Davidson posted on X just before the vote began.

Two other Republicans, Reps. David Schweikert, R-Ariz., and Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., both fell asleep before the final vote — but both said they would have voted to pass the bill.

In the end, it advanced by a 215-214 vote — with Republicans erupting in cheers when they realized the victory was locked.

"The media, the Democrats have consistently dismissed any possibility that House Republicans could get this done. They did not believe that we could succeed in our mission to enact President Trump's America First agenda. But this is a big one. And once again, they've been proven wrong," Johnson said during a press conference after the vote.

Now, the bill is expected to be considered by the Senate next week — when senators are already signaling they are gearing up to make changes.

"I encourage our Senate colleagues to think of this as a one-team effort as we have, and to modify this as little as possible, because it will make it easier for us to get it over the line ultimately, and finish and get it to the president's desk by July fourth," Johnson said.

Federal authorities are probing a scheme to impersonate White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, according to individuals familiar with the issue, the Wall Street Journal reported.

"The White House takes the cybersecurity of all staff very seriously, and this matter continues to be investigated," a White House official noted.

Senators, governors, American business executives and other people have gotten texts and calls from an individual claiming to be Wiles, individuals familiar with the messages noted, according to the outlet.

WHO IS SUSIE WILES, TRUMP'S WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF? 5 THINGS TO KNOW

FBI officials informed the White House that they do not think another country is involved, some of the people noted, according to the report.

Fox News Digital reached out to the FBI for comment on Friday morning, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

TRUMP CHIEF OF STAFF SUSIE WILES ONCE HELPED NFL BROADCAST LEGEND FATHER PAT SUMMERALL BEAT ALCOHOLISM

"The FBI takes all threats against the president, his staff, and our cybersecurity with the utmost seriousness," FBI Director Kash Patel delcaerd in a statement, according to the Journal. "Safeguarding our administration officials’ ability to securely communicate to accomplish the president’s mission is a top priority."

The chief of staff informed associates that her phone contacts had been hacked, according to some of the people, the Journal reported. The phone is her personal device, not a government phone, the individuals noted, according to the outlet.

Some calls involved a voice which sounded like the chief of staff, individuals who heard them noted, according to the report. Government officials believe the impostor utilized artificial intelligence to mimic her voice, some of the individuals noted.

TRUMP NAMES SUSIE WILES AS FIRST FEMALE WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF IN HISTORY

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In some cases involving texts, individuals got requests which they at first thought were official, according to the outlet, which noted that one legislator received a request to develop a list of people who could be pardoned by Trump.

But it became evident to some legislators that the asks were suspect when the impostor started posing questions about the president, for which Wiles should have been privy to the answers — and in one instance, when the impostor requested a cash transfer, some of the people noted, according to the outlet. 

In many instances, the impostor used broken grammar and the messages were too formal compared to how Wiles normally communicates, individuals who received the messages noted, according to the outlet. The calls and texts did not emanate from Wiles's phone number, according to the report.

Fragments of toppled Civil War monuments still lie in a lot beside Interstate 95, near the Richmond Wastewater Treatment Plant—just a stone’s throw from the iconic "Marlboro Cigarette" in South Richmond, the onetime capital of the Confederacy.

While Richmond’s tobacco-trading past remains symbolized by that roadside oddity at the Philip Morris plant, it and other cities across the south took swift action to erase reminders of the Civil War and slavery.

A report Thursday in the Richmond Times-Dispatch looked back at what has, or moreso hasn’t, transpired as those who had sought the culling of the monuments had hoped in the heat of the George Floyd riots of five years ago this week.

Virginia State Del. Mike Jones, D-Richmond, a reported opponent of the monuments, told the paper that "s—t didn’t change when they came down," and that "real progress" was what was sought in erasing the South’s pro-slavery and secessionist past.

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"As abhorrent as [they] are, give me life, give me real justice. You can keep your monuments." Jones told the paper.

One statue did find a new home, as Davis is now on display at the city’s Valentine Museum. It still has paint marks on it from when it was besieged by protesters in 2020.

Jones told the paper that gun violence and education-related issues still plague minority communities and also took a swipe at President Donald Trump in regard to the lack of change since the Floyd riots and monumental upheaval.

VA GOVERNMENT GRINDS TO A HALT AS HOSPITALS, RESIDENTS HIT BY COLOSSAL WATER PLANT FAILURE

"We didn’t really get the monuments because the spirit of [them] is in the White House right now," he told the Times-Dispatch.

While monuments have either been toppled by protesters or removed by municipalities across the South, Richmond – as expected due to its past as the C.S.A. capital – had many in prominent places.

The city’s tree-lined Monument Avenue was reduced to a series of traffic circles around unremarkable granite pedestals after the removal of effigies of Gens. Robert E. Lee, James Ewell Brown "Jeb" Stuart, President Jefferson Davis, and local scientist-turned-Confederate Naval officer Matthew Maury.

Then-Gov. Ralph Northam’s efforts to remove the last of the monuments, Lee’s, were briefly blocked by a court – as it was originally constructed through private donations and the help of then-Democratic Gov. Fitzhugh Lee; the general’s nephew.

While efforts to rename Robert E. Lee Bridge on U.S. 301 – the major pre-I-95 crossing of the James River – have appeared to stall, signage that once greeted travelers bound for Petersburg is now muted.

Fox News Digital reached out to lieutenant governor candidate Levar Stoney—who, as Richmond’s mayor, led the effort to remove the monuments—for comment on reports that the removal has brought little meaningful change.

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During his mayorship, Stoney said in a video statement that protesters attempted to take down monuments themselves while the coronavirus raged, and that in response to the risk of "serious illness, injury or death."

"It is past time, as the capital city of Virginia, we have needed to turn this page for decades," Stoney said, adding the city and "residents of color" had been "burdened" by its historical role as CSA capital.

Fox News Digital also reached out to Gov. Glenn Youngkin, as well as Republicans in the greater Richmond area, for their response to the current sentiments, but did not hear back by press time.

One Republican lawmaker told Fox News Digital the situation shows the focus should have been, and should be, on directly addressing crime and pressing issues like the city's water shortage crisis, which reemerged this week after Richmond and even the State Capitol were stopped in their tracks due to a catastrophic utility failure earlier this year.

Former President Joe Biden's Cabinet meetings were overly "scripted," CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios political correspondent Alex Thompson reveal in their book, "Original Sin," an outline of Biden's cognitive decline and his administration's alleged cover-up. 

"The Cabinet meetings were terrible and at times uncomfortable – and they were from the beginning," a Cabinet member told the authors. "I don't recall a great Cabinet meeting in terms of his presence. They were so scripted."

The White House's speechwriters shortened Biden's remarks and shrank his vocabulary to adapt to "Biden's diminished capabilities," according to Tapper and Thompson. During his one-term presidency, Biden's aides told the journalists that he became increasingly reliant on teleprompters and note cards, even for private conversations and in Cabinet meetings. 

Four Cabinet members who spoke with Tapper and Thompson described Biden's meetings as overly scripted. One Cabinet secretary said he hated "the scripts" for Cabinet meetings, while another doubted in 2022 that he could run for re-election. 

CREDIBILITY CRISIS: WHITE HOUSE REPORTERS SPEAK OUT ON WHETHER BIDEN'S MENTAL DECLINE WAS DELIBERATELY HIDDEN

"You want people to tell you the truth and have a real dialogue, and those meetings were not that," a Cabinet member told Tapper and Thompson. 

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However, as Biden's bad speeches and reliance on note cards became common practice, a speechwriter told Tapper and Thompson that over time, "they just got used to it."

The story behind closed doors was inconsistent with the White House's narrative, according to "Original Sin."

In January 2024, the White House convened a meeting with Biden, his national security advisers and congressional leadership to urge Congress to continue financially supporting Ukraine against Russia's invasion. 

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries described Biden as "incredibly strong, forceful, and decisive," and the official White House readout said Biden was "clear" about protecting national security and "underscored the importance of Congress ensuring Ukraine has the resources it needs." 

However, a House Democrat who attended the meeting said, "That's not true," Tapper and Thompson wrote. A second House Democrat described the meeting as a "disaster," and a "s---show."

"For the first twenty minutes of the meeting, the president listlessly read bullet points out of a binder. For many at the table, he was difficult to hear. He stumbled over words; he started sentences and then stopped abruptly; he trailed off," Tapper and Thompson said. 

A House Democrat said he was "not capable of making a strong, forceful argument," and deferred to National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and National Intelligence Director Avril Haines to answer questions, as outlined in "Original Sin."

Tapper and Thompson described a concerning event for senior administration officials on the anniversary of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision. After reading a "weak, slurry" speech from a teleprompter, Biden confused Alabama with Texas and then his own Cabinet members, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra. 

"I blame his inner circle, and I blame him," an official who found the event "crazy" told the authors a year later. 

As Cabinet members observed concerning practices that accompanied Biden's day-to-day meetings, Tapper and Thompson described how the president's circle grew smaller and smaller in 2023 and 2024. 

"Access dropped off considerably in 2024, and I didn't interact with him as much," a Cabinet secretary told the authors. "I didn't get an explanation."

The Cabinet secretary said they briefed senior White House aides who would then communicate the information to the president themselves. They questioned if it was the White House's way of filtering information to shape his decisions. 

"I think the people around him had their own agenda, and they didn't want more people around him," another Cabinet member told Tapper and Thompson. 

The Cabinet members who spoke to Tapper and Thompson described a "weird period" when they didn't have any access to Biden for months between 2023 and 2024. They described it as a "deliberate strategy by the White House to have him meet with as few people as necessary." When they did see him, they said they were shocked at how "disoriented" and "out of it" he seemed, mumbling and "not making much sense."

Fox News Digital has written extensively dating back to the 2020 presidential campaign about Biden's cognitive decline and his inner circle’s alleged role in covering it up.

A Biden spokesperson did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment. 

The U.S. Army is preparing to retire its iconic Black Hawk helicopters — the workhorses of its air assault fleet for nearly five decades — in favor of a faster, more versatile aircraft built for the challenges of 21st-century warfare.

Bell Aircraft's V-280 Valor, a cutting-edge tiltrotor aircraft, has been selected to begin phasing out the Black Hawk by the 2030s. Once fully deployed, it will be designated the MV-75, though a common nickname has yet to emerge. The Valor combines the vertical lift capabilities of a helicopter with the speed and range of a fixed-wing airplane, cruising at 320 mph — nearly double the Black Hawk’s top speed of 175 mph.

This hybrid design, enabled by tiltrotor technology, allows the MV-75 to hover, land vertically in tight spaces, and then shift into high-speed horizontal flight. It’s tailor-made for operations in the Indo-Pacific region, where U.S. forces must be able to travel long distances over the ocean and conduct rapid insertions into constrained environments, such as jungle clearings or island terrain without runways.

Fox News Digital recently took a tour of Bell's Advanced Vertical Lift Center in Crystal City, Virginia. 

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"The Army recognized that the battlefield has changed," Rob Freeland, Bell’s director of government relations and public affairs, said in an interview with Fox News Digital. "The enemy now has long-range fires, advanced sensors, and robust networks. You have to move faster and strike before they do."

Speed and range are at the heart of this transformation. As Freeland put it: "If you can move at twice the speed and range of your adversary, you can change the outcome before they can react."

The MV-75 is designed to carry up to 14 troops and haul payloads of 10,000 pounds, making it ideal for rapid troop deployments, heavy resupply and surprise assault missions. It will also feature autonomous and semi-autonomous capabilities, a leap forward in reducing pilot workload and enabling future unmanned operations.

The V-280 Valor beat out a proposed joint Sikorsky-Boeing compound helicopter platform dubbed the SB-1 Defiant-X in 2019 for the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) program.

The Army has contracted Texas-based aerospace company Bell to build six prototypes, conduct the first test flight by 2026 and begin full-scale production by 2028, with delivery targeted for 2030. However, leadership has expressed interest in accelerating that schedule under the Army Transformation Initiative.

"We’re not waiting for a distant out-year to make this thing real," said Gen. James Mingus, Vice Chief of Staff of the Army, speaking at the Mission Solutions Summit earlier this month. "We are driving to get this aircraft online years ahead of schedule."

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The "MV" designation reflects the aircraft’s multi-mission and vertical takeoff capabilities. It’s built for a broad range of missions, including air assault, maritime interdiction, medical evacuation (MEDEVAC), combat search and rescue, and tactical resupply. 

The first unit to receive the MV-75 will be the 101st Airborne Division, the Army’s elite air assault force.

One of the Army’s priorities in selecting a replacement was reliability. After years of dealing with aging helicopters requiring frequent maintenance, the Army is demanding aircraft that can stay in the fight with minimal downtime.

"Because it’s inherently reliable, you don’t need a mountain of gear next to you just to keep the aircraft flying," said Freeland.

The MV-75 program is part of a broader Pentagon push to modernize U.S. military capabilities in an era defined by strategic competition with China. 

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Since entering service in the late 1970s, the UH-60 Black Hawk has been the backbone of Army aviation. It has flown in nearly every major U.S. military operation over the past 40 years, from evacuating wounded troops in Grenada and Panama, to supporting combat and logistics missions in Somalia, Iraq and Afghanistan. 

The Black Hawk was infamously involved in the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu, and became a household name through its depiction in the 1999 book and 2001 movie "Black Hawk Down." Its versatility, durability and ability to perform under fire made it a symbol of American air power — but after decades of use, its replacement will need to adapt to the evolving battlefield. 

FIRST ON FOX: Two powerful committees in the House of Representatives are opening an investigation into another Democratic official accused of blocking federal immigration authorities.

House Homeland Security Committee Chair Mark Green, R-Tenn., is leading a probe into Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell alongside Nashville-area Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn, Fox News Digital learned Friday.

Ogles had been petitioning leaders for weeks to look into O’Connell after the Democratic leader publicly denounced Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations in his city and signed an executive order aimed at tracking ICE movements in the area.

The probe is being supported by the House Judiciary Committee, which is led by Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., chair of the subcommittee for immigration enforcement.

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"The Committee on the Judiciary and the Committee on Homeland Security of the U.S. House of Representatives are conducting oversight of state and local jurisdictions that endanger American communities through efforts aimed at thwarting the work of federal immigration officials," the four leaders wrote in a letter to O’Connell.

"While the state of Tennessee has outlawed sanctuary policies, recent actions from your office threaten to chill immigration enforcement in the City of Nashville and Davidson County. Accordingly, we write to request information about how your recent actions, including a directive to Nashville and Davidson County employees to disclose their communications with federal immigration officials, affects the robust enforcement of immigration law."

The lawmakers said O’Connell’s executive order, which mandated that government employees report interactions with federal immigration authorities, "could have a chilling effect on the ability of local law enforcement to communicate freely and candidly with federal immigration employees."

"In fact, your chief lawyer recently admitted that it was an ‘open question’ whether an individual could legally ‘announce in advance that there’s an impending enforcement activity,’" they wrote. 

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"This statement, when viewed in context of your order requiring all Metro law-enforcement officers to report about communications with ICE personnel, raises the prospect that Metro employees may use nonpublic information to warn criminal aliens of planned ICE enforcement operations. In other words, there is the real potential that your Executive Order could have the effect of diminishing ICE enforcement operations."

It comes after ICE agents working with the Tennessee Highway Patrol arrested nearly 200 people the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said were illegal immigrants – many of them criminals with gang affiliations or other sordid pasts.

The DHS news release targeted O'Connell by name over comments he made in early May. "What's clear today is that people who do not share our values of safety and community have the authority to cause deep community harm."

MCCAUL TOUTS MONEY IN TRUMP TAX BILL TO PAY TEXAS BACK FOR FIGHTING BIDEN BORDER POLICIES

After the arrests, O'Connell signed an executive order aimed at tracking peoples' interactions with federal immigration authorities, according to WSMV4.

He said of ICE's work in his city, "It’s important for us to get this right, and it’s very frustrating to see a failure in the process."

O’Connell also helped launch the Nashville government’s nonprofit, "The Belonging Fund," to help illegal immigrants pay for urgent care needs. The fund’s website states that "donations to the fund are made possible solely by individual donors and private organizations - no government dollars are included. That means no taxpayer dollars are being used in the administration or distribution of this fund."

Republicans, however, have questioned whether that is true.

"The recipients of these funds are untraceable, and the purpose seems crystal clear: help illegal foreigners evade the law," Ogles told Fox News Digital. "I refuse to sit back while our communities are overrun — while our neighborhoods are destroyed and our daughters are assaulted. And I doubly refuse to stay silent while blue city mayors aid and abet this invasion."

O’Connell is now one of several Democratic leaders locked in an immigration fight with the Trump administration.

House Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., was charged by the Justice Department with assaulting an officer after she and two other House Democrats forced their way into a Newark ICE detention center, charges McIver has dismissed as political.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Nashville mayor’s office for comment on the letter.

Former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama were seen in public for the first time in six months, via new photos captured by BackGrid outside the Lowell Hotel & Restaurant in Lenox Hill, Manhattan.

While Michelle Obama has refuted rumors of a separation amid solo appearances by the former president, the Lowell sighting was the first for the 44th first family since December 2024.

Guarded by the Secret Service, the Obamas stepped out into a car but with markedly different expressions and body language, an observation seconded by The Human Behavior Lab President Susan Constantine.

"Definitely a completely different [public] appearance than we’ve seen in the past," Constantine told Fox News Digital in a Wednesday interview.

MICHELLE OBAMA SLAMS DIVORCE RUMORS DURING PODCAST INTERVIEW

As someone who has observed and analyzed the Obamas for many years, Constantine said their body language was concerning when it comes to the relationship rumors.

"When I’m looking at the photos, the distance between the two; with the two Secret Servicemen in between them [it] is showing that there’s literally a separation," she said. "Almost like the two [USSS officers] inside are drawing a line between President and Missus Obama."

"She’s out front-and-center and very joyful; very empowered; a real pep in her step," Constantine added.

"She’s feeling quite confident in wherever she is at in her headspace, but you wouldn’t even think the two of them are together."

Constantine remarked that the former president looked more like a Secret Service agent guarding Michelle Obama than her husband.

The former president appeared distraught, distracted and distant, she added.

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"You can see the stress in his face."

While the two appear different on the surface, there are clues that the two are indeed a longtime couple. In several photos, the Obamas appear to have the same gait, and their heels lift off the ground in incidental tandem, the body language expert continued.

"That’s typical of being somebody who has been with you for a long time."

However, as the rumors swirl, the body language seen may beget some of that conjecture.

"There is definitely something emotional – something internal between the two of them that is going on… He’s a shadow in her path."

"It’s sad to see that – she is putting him through the ringer – there is certainly something serious going on in their relationship – I can say that with professional certainty."

Fox News Digital reached out to a representative for the Obamas for comment.

Michelle Obama was noticeably absent from recent public events with her husband – including former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral.

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Executive branch couples from President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump back to former Vice President Dan Quayle and former second lady Marilyn Quayle were in attendance.

The only such dignitary without a mate was Obama – who spent much of the time instead of joshing with his otherwise political foe: Trump.

The former president was his jovial self as seen in the pool feed of that event.

The Obamas have been married for 32 years, but the former first lady has spoken about the tribulations of her marriage, including on her "IMO" podcast that she co-hosts with brother and former New York Knicks/Milwaukee Bucks Vice President Craig Robinson.

Darren Jones says the pension top-up should only be "targeted to those that need it the most".

The government says its overhaul of retirement savings will boost growth and pension pots.

A former high-ranking officer in the Venezuelan military is contesting a recent report by the U.S. intelligence community about the massive Tren de Aragua gang present throughout the country. 

Jose Arocha, who is a former lieutenant colonel in the Venezuelan military, told Fox News Digital that the recent intel community report denying Tren de Aragua is linked to the Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro is missing a key aspect: the socialist regime's animosity towards the United States and penchant for asymmetric warfare.

Tren de Aragua, also known simply as TdA, is a violent Venezuelan gang that has been terrorizing U.S. cities over the last several years. The group is linked to high-profile murders such as the killing of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley and the seizure of an entire apartment building in Aurora, Colorado.

As one of his first moves back in the Oval Office, President Donald Trump directed the State Department to designate TdA a "foreign terrorist organization."

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Speaking with Fox News Digital via Zoom, Arocha, a national security expert at the Center for a Secure Free Society, said he agrees with the Trump administration’s moves against Tren de Aragua, which he believes is an "asymmetrical warfare" tool of the Maduro regime to sow discord in the United States and other countries in the Western Hemisphere.

"The Maduro regime doesn't need to send troops to the USA. It sends criminals instead," he said. "TdA is a plug-and-play insurgency – assembled in prison, deployed abroad."

Arocha’s statements, however, contrast with a new public memo released by U.S. intelligence agencies last month that denied any solid connection between the Maduro government in Caracas and the gang.

"While Venezuela’s permissive environment enables TDA to operate, the Maduro regime probably does not have a policy of cooperating with TDA and is not directing TDA movement to and operations in the United States," the report states.

The report says that the intelligence community based its conclusion "on Venezuelan law enforcement actions demonstrating the regime treats TDA as a threat; an uneasy mix of cooperation and confrontation rather than top-down directives [that] characterize the regime's ties to other armed groups; and the decentralized makeup of TDA that would make such a relationship logistically challenging."

Arocha, meanwhile, said that "the missing point here is that the intelligence report is too narrow a lens about the TdA."

"It's about crime and migration, but they're missing the warfare dimension," he said. "They are missing that for the Maduro regime, the United States is the enemy, has been the enemy for years."

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"The TdA is not a gang," he went on. "It's the enabler arm of the Venezuelan regime in the hybrid warfare strategy, the asymmetrical tour of war. That's the missing point. And that is the point that explains how a local gang is right now in more than 10 countries, including the United States. That's incredible, and that is not possible without a state sponsor behind them."

While the report points to law enforcement actions the Maduro government has taken against TdA, Arocha explained that in reality Venezuelan prisons, including the "Tocorón" prison where the gang started, are more like resort hotels.

"Tocorón, [which] they said is the epicenter of the crime in Venezuela, it wasn't a prison, it was a palace for organized crime. Full equipment, we have a zoo, nightclubs and even a pool for the prisoners there," he said.

Arocha also posited that the 2023 raid the Venezuelan government conducted on Tocorón "appears choreographed" and that key TdA leadership was able to escape through pre-made tunnels.

"While the regime gained optics of cracking down on crime, TdA’s mobility remained intact," Arocha told Fox News Digital.

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The intel report admitted that the escaped TdA members were "possibly assisted by low-level Venezuelan military and political leaders." But to Arocha, the connection goes straight to the top.

He pointed to the kidnapping and murder of Venezuelan political dissident Ronald Ojeda in Chile, which, according to Reuters, is being investigated by the Chilean government as a possible Tren de Aragua operation sponsored by the Maduro government.

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Reuters reported in March that Chilean Attorney General Angel Valencia said that Ojeda's murder "doesn't have the characteristics of a normal crime" and "all the evidence we have at this state of the investigation lets us conclude that a cell or group linked to the Tren de Aragua that was politically motivated that originated from an order of a political nature."

The outlet also reported that the Venezuelan government denied the accusations as baseless.

Arocha further pointed to former Maduro Vice President Tareck El Aissami, who has alleged ties to Hamas and Hezbollah, as evidence that the Venezuelan government is embedded with America’s worst enemies.

VENEZUELAN ILLEGAL ALIEN, ALLEGED TREN DE ARAGUA LEADER IN CALIFORNIA, ARRESTED ON IMMIGRATION CHARGES

El Aissami was arrested on corruption charges and is currently in prison.

"He has a strong influence with Iran and China and Russia, too. Right now, he's in prison, which means that he's living in the palace in prison," Arocha remarked, smiling.  

"The Venezuelan regime is a proxy of Russia, China and Iran, especially China right now," he went on. "They use Venezuela [to] create chaos in Latin America especially … not confronting directly the United States, but indirectly, using criminals, using disinformation, using every single tool they have."

In response, Arocha urged the Trump administration to continue to take a whole-of-government approach in combating TdA. He urged the administration to "increase our scope" by reaching out to Latin American countries with experience with TdA, such as the Chilean government.

"They have a knowledge right now about the TdA. We have to understand what they’ve learned about, and we have to put all the pieces together to have the big picture instead of the local one," he said. "And then I'm very sure that we are going to realize the missing and the main link is in Caracas."

In a statement responding to the inclusion of Montgomery County Maryland on a list of sanctuary jurisdictions in the U.S., County Executive Marc Elrich accused the Trump administration of seeking to criminalize immigrants and "create fear."

President Donald Trump issued an executive order calling for a list of sanctuary jurisdictions. DHS issued the list on Thursday, the department noted in a post on X.

"We are not in violation of federal law, and we will not be making changes based on political headlines. Montgomery County has always cooperated with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in cases involving violent crimes, serious felonies, and threats to public safety. That has been and remains our policy," Elrich said in his statement.

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"This designation, like many other actions taken by this administration, is about criminalizing immigrants, not protecting public safety. We will not be complicit in efforts to stigmatize or target our immigrant communities," the Democrat declared. "These types of announcements are designed to create fear. But we do not govern by fear in Montgomery County. We govern by the law and by our values."

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced the arrest of an MS-13 member in a press release earlier this month, noting multiple instances of the Montgomery County Detention Center failing to honor immigration detainers for the individual over the years, including just last month.

"The Montgomery County Circuit Court in Rockville convicted Amaya of attempted motor vehicle theft April 4, and sentenced him to three years of confinement with two years, five months and 11 days suspended," the release noted of Salvadoran national Nelson Vladimir Amaya-Benitez. "On April 18, the Montgomery County Detention Center again declined to honor ICE’s immigration detainer and released Amaya from custody."

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Montgomery County Department of Correction and Rehabilitation Director Ben Stevenson acknowledged the "error."

"This individual met the criteria we use to notify and coordinate with ICE due to a prior felony conviction and validated gang membership in the DOCR records. We failed to make this notification. We take full responsibility for this error," he said in a statement. "Montgomery County has stated consistently that we cooperate with ICE in cases involving individuals convicted of violent crimes, verified gang members, drug distributors & traffickers and other felony convictions. That policy remains in place."

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION SETS NEW GOAL OF 3,000 ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT ARRESTS DAILY

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Elrich said during a media briefing that "we goofed on our part. We did not make a policy decision to let this person go."

The Trump administration has been aiming to crackdown on illegal immigration and is seeking to remove many individuals from the country after massive numbers of people flowed across the U.S. border during President Joe Biden's administration.