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Trump v. California: Sanctuary cities to EV bans, Trump puts left-wing state under repeated scrutiny

President Donald Trump and his administration have taken a hatchet to left-wing policies that infiltrated the federal government, which has included directly combating policies originating in the state of California, where local leaders repeatedly have sparred with the president since even before Inauguration Day. 

"Governor Gavin Newscum is trying to KILL our Nation’s beautiful California," Trump posted to Truth Social just days after his November 2024 election win. "For the first time ever, more people are leaving than are coming in. He is using the term ‘Trump-Proof’ as a way of stopping all of the GREAT things that can be done to 'Make California Great Again,' but I just overwhelmingly won the Election." 

California's embrace of sanctuary status designations to protect illegal immigrants from deportation efforts, environmental and education policies, and its handling of anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement riots and massive wildfires that rocked Southern California have all fallen under Trump's ire, Fox Digital found. 

WHITE HOUSE MOCKS NEWSOM ADDRESS, ACCUSES GOVERNOR OF HIRING HARRIS', BIDEN'S CAMPAIGN MANAGER

Trump's long battle with California Gov. Gavin Newsom, which stretches back to his first presidential administration, regarding his handling of wildfire prevention and response was resurrected in the waning days of the Biden administration when massive fires broke out in the Los Angeles area ahead of Trump reclaiming the Oval Office. 

"Governor Gavin Newscum refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water, from excess rain and snow melt from the North, to flow daily into many parts of California, including the areas that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way," Trump posted to Truth Social as the fires raged just weeks ahead of his inauguration. 

NEWSOM UNDER FIRE FROM TRUMP WORLD, BUT DEMOCRATS HOPE HIS SPEECH RESETS HIS IMAGE

"He wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish called a smelt, by giving it less water (it didn’t work!), but didn’t care about the people of California. Now the ultimate price is being paid. I will demand that this incompetent governor allow beautiful, clean, fresh water to FLOW INTO CALIFORNIA! He is the blame for this. On top of it all, no water for fire hydrants, not firefighting planes. A true disaster!"

Newsom's office shot back that "there is no such document as the water restoration declaration – that is pure fiction. The Governor is focused on protecting people, not playing politics, and making sure firefighters have all the resources they need."

Trump has a long history of putting Newsom’s handling of wildfires under the microscope across his first four years in the White House, including in January 2019 when he threatened to cut off federal funds to California if reforms were not made to the state’s forest management services. 

Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office in 2025, titled "Putting People over Fish: Stopping Radical Environmentalism to Provide Water to Southern California," that ordered water resources to be re-routed to the Los Angeles area. 

"The water is flowing in California," Trump posted to Truth Social in February. "These once empty ‘halfpipes’ are now brimming with beautiful, clean water, and heading to farmers throughout the State, and to Los Angeles. Too bad they refused to do this during my First Term - There would have been no fires!" 

When asked about the repeated barbs between Newsom and Trump since Inauguration Day, the White House said the governor should stop "daydreaming about his 2028 presidential campaign" and focus on leading California. 

"Gavin Newscum has turned the California Dream into a nightmare – violent illegal immigrants invade communities, enabled criminals destroy small businesses, and men compete in women’s sports," White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers told Fox Digital Thursday when asked about Trump and Newsom repeatedly trading barbs. "President Trump will always prioritize people over politics because he wants to see the entire country succeed. Gavin should stop daydreaming about his 2028 presidential campaign and prove that he can successfully run just one of fifty states." 

The governor's office directed Fox News Digital to a Wednesday press conference where Newsom touted a $750 million tax credit for films and TV programs made in California.

"How did you get this thing through considering everything else that's happening?" a reporter asked Newsom during the press conference of the tax credit. 

"I think because of everything else happening this year," Newsom responded. "I think, frankly, the conditions only further the imperative of this. From October when we announced this, to the devastation of these fires, to the reality of what we're up against in the headwinds in Washington, DC, that we're on our own in many respects, and we've got to step things up. And we've got to be more intentional. We've got to be more targeted. And we've got to knit together different economic strategies." 

Newsom's woes grew larger on the national stage in June when riots broke out in Los Angeles in response to federal law enforcement converging on the city to conduct raids to deport illegal immigrants. 

Riots formed in the left-wing city in early June as local leaders such as Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Newsom, quickly denounced the immigration raids in public statements while offering words of support for illegal immigrants in the state. 

Protests over the raids soon devolved into violence as rioters targeted federal law enforcement officials, including launching rocks at officials, as well as videos showing people looting local stores, setting cars on fire and taking over a freeway. 

Trump announced shortly after violence broke out in the city that he would deploy 2,000 National Guard members to help quell the violence, bypassing the governor, who typically activates the National Guard. California subsequently filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration for efforts to allegedly "federalize the California National Guard." 

"Governor Gavin Newscum and 'Mayor' Bass should apologize to the people of Los Angeles for the absolutely horrible job that they have done, and this now includes the ongoing L.A. riots. These are not protesters, they are troublemakers and insurrectionists," Trump posted to Truth Social on June 8 amid the riots. 

The riots quieted in mid-June following the "No Kings Day" protests June 14, the same day Trump held a military parade in Washington, honoring the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army. 

The Trump administration's Department of Justice Monday filed a lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles for its sanctuary city policies, which the DOJ said discriminates against federal immigration law enforcement officials. 

NEWSOM FILES EMERGENCY MOTION TO 'IMMEDIATELY BLOCK' TRUMP’S USE OF MILITARY TO STOP LA RIOTS

"Sanctuary policies were the driving cause of the violence, chaos, and attacks on law enforcement that Americans recently witnessed in Los Angeles," Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News of the suit. "Jurisdictions like Los Angeles that flout federal law by prioritizing illegal aliens over American citizens are undermining law enforcement at every level — it ends under President Trump." 

The suit follows Trump signing an April executive order that works to withhold federal funding from jurisdictions that identify as sanctuaries for illegal immigrants and fail to comply with federal law enforcement.  

Newsom slammed Trump again in June when reports spread the Trump administration was considering revoking national monument status from two natural areas in the Golden State enshrined into protection by former President Joe Biden.

"This is just getting petty. Grow up," Newsom said on X June 13 in response to reports Trump was considering abolishing the Chuckwalla and Sattitla Highlands National Monuments. 

'GROW UP': NEWSOM SLAMS TRUMP AFTER DOJ RULES IT CAN STRIP BIDEN-ERA PROTECTIONS FROM CA LANDS

"If it’s a day ending in Y, it’s another day of Trump’s war on California," Newsom’s office said in a separate X post.

The Trump Justice Department issued a July memo ruling that the president’s power to revoke national monument status is reversible by future administrations. The White House told Reuters that the U.S. needs to "liberate our federal lands and waters to oil, gas, coal, geothermal, and mineral leasing."

Trump signed a trio of congressional resolutions June 12 ending California's restrictive rules for diesel engines and mandates on elective vehicle sales, with Trump celebrating that his signature "will kill the California mandates forever."

"Under the previous administration, the federal government gave left-wing radicals in California dictatorial powers to control the future of the entire car industry all over the country, all over the world, actually," Trump said Thursday from the White House ahead of singing the resolutions. 

"They approved Governor Gavin 'Newscum's' ridiculous plan to impose a 100% ban on all new gas-powered cars within a very short period of time," he said. "Think of this, you can't buy any other car except an electric powered car, and in California they have blackouts and brownouts. They don't have enough electricity right now."

The resolutions work to end California's plan to end the sale of gasoline-only vehicles by 2035, including one ending a waiver issued by the Biden-era EPA that mandated at least 80% of vehicles be electric vehicles in California by 2035, as well as another resolution ending the Biden-era EPA's approval of a plan to increase the number of zero-emission heavy-duty trucks in California, and another on California's low-nitrogen oxide regulations for heavy-duty vehicles, including off-road vehicles. 

Trump was able to revoke the state's rules as they were based on the Biden administration granting the state special permission to exceed federal standards related to pollution. Trump's signature overturned the Biden administration's approval of California's rules.  

Newsom called the resolutions an ongoing "all-out assault on California," and announced the state filed a suit against the Trump administration over the resolutions. 

"Trump’s all-out assault on California continues — and this time he’s destroying our clean air and America’s global competitiveness in the process," Newsom said in a press release. "We are suing to stop this latest illegal action by a President who is a wholly-owned subsidiary of big polluters." 

TRUMP DARES NEWSOM TO RUN IN 2028, SLAMS RECORD ON LA WILDFIRES

Trump's resolutions follow him signing a bevy of executive orders that aim to "unleash American energy" as part of his 2024 campaign vow to again make the U.S. energy independent, including by revitalizing the coal industry by cutting red tape and regulations, and unleashing oil and gas development in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska. 

The Trump administration's Department of Justice announced a federal probe into California over potential Title IX violations regarding its policy allowing trans athletes in girls' sports earlier in June, following the Department of Education finding the California Department of Education and the California Interscholastic Federation were in violation of Title IX and failed to protect women and girls from sex-based discrimination. 

"A Biological Male competed in California Girls State Finals, WINNING BIG, despite the fact that they were warned by me not to do so. As Governor Gavin Newscum fully understands, large scale fines will be imposed!" Trump wrote on Truth Social in June after a biological male trans athlete won multiple girls' state titles in track and field. 

The office of California Attorney General Rob Bonta told Fox Digital in June that the state was working to ensure all students were free from discrimination and harassment. 

"We’re very concerned with the Trump Administration’s ongoing threats to California schools and remain committed to defending and upholding California laws and all additional laws which ensure the rights of students — including transgender students — to be free from discrimination and harassment. We are reviewing the letter and closely monitoring the Trump Administration’s actions in this space," the statement read. 

The Trump administration also gave California's federally funded sex education program 60 days June 20 to remove all references to gender identity or face potential termination of its funding. 

California's Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) grant has been under scrutiny by the Trump administration since at least March, when the HHS's Administration for Children and Families (ACF) requested the federally funded state-operated program send copies of its curriculum and other relevant course materials to them for review. 

HHS GIVES CALIFORNIA DEADLINE TO OVERHAUL FEDERALLY-FUNDED SEX ED PROGRAM 'INDOCTRINATING' KIDS

"The Trump administration will not tolerate the use of federal funds for programs that indoctrinate our children," said ACF's acting Assistant Secretary Andrew Gradison. "The disturbing gender ideology content in California’s PREP materials is both unacceptable and well outside the program’s core purpose. ACF remains committed to radical transparency and providing accountability so that parents know what their children are being taught in schools."

Among the materials ACF found, which it now wants to be removed, was a lesson for middle school-aged students that seeks to introduce them to the concepts of transgenderism.

"We’ve been talking during class about messages people get on how they should act as boys and girls—but as many of you know, there are also people who don’t identify as boys or girls, but rather as transgender or gender queer," the lesson states to students. "This means that even if they were called a boy or a girl at birth and may have body parts that are typically associated with being a boy or a girl, on the inside, they feel differently."

Trump's administration put California's high-speed rail proposal, which had been in the works for nearly two decades but with very little progress to show, on notice in February when the administration called for an audit of the multibillion dollar project. 

"It's been 17 years and $16 billion and no rail has been built," Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in February. 

Newsom had touted just in January that California was on the verge of launching a high-speed rail that would ultimately stretch from Los Angeles to San Francisco. The project is expected to cost $106 billion, with federal taxpayers already spending nearly $3 billion on the project, Fox Digital previously reported.

"No state in America is closer to launching high-speed rail than California — and today, we just took a massive step forward," Gov. Gavin Newsom said in January. "We’re moving into the track-laying phase, completing structures for key segments, and laying the groundwork for a high-speed rail network." 

The Department of Transportation proposed in a 300-page report in June that $4 billion in grants for the proposed line be terminated.

"We’re not going to fund that … it’s out of control," Trump said of the project in June. 

"It doesn’t go where it’s supposed to. It’s supposed to go from LA to San Francisco now, because they don’t have any money ... and they made it much shorter," he added. 

Fox News Digital's Cameron Arcand, Alec Schemmel, Charles Cretiz and Jackson Thompson contributed to this report. 

Bukele mocks Abrego Garcia's torture claims with prison highlight reel

El Salvador President Nayib Bukele has released a video highlight reel showing Kilmar Abrego Garcia apparently thriving during his imprisonment, in an attempt to refute the migrant’s claims that he was tortured while in custody.

Abrego Garcia, who was erroneously deported by the Trump administration to El Salvador and then returned after a court order, is seen in the video gardening, playing soccer, fishing and enjoying other leisurely activities while imprisoned in his home country.

The video appears at odds to Abrego Garcia's claims in legal filings that he was severely beaten, deprived of sleep and psychologically tortured while detained in the country’s Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, a notorious anti-terrorism prison.

According to court documents, Abrego Garcia’s physical condition deteriorated quickly upon arrival there and, within two weeks, he lost roughly 31 pounds. 

ABREGO GARCIA SAYS HE ENDURED BEATINGS, TORTURE IN SALVADORAN PRISON AHEAD OF CRIMINAL TRIAL

But Bukele pushed back against those claims on Thursday, claiming he actually put on weight and released video evidence to refute claims of torture. 

The video shows Abrego Garcia in seemingly good spirits, playing chess and soccer, working out with fellow inmates, doing gardening and relaxing while watching a widescreen television in his cell, among other leisurely activities. 

"If he’d been tortured, sleep-deprived, and starved, why does he look so well in every picture?" Bukele wrote on X. "Why would he gain weight? Why are there no bruises, or even dark circles under his eyes?"

"The man wasn’t tortured, nor did he lose weight. In fact, photos show he gained weight while in detention. There’s plenty of footage from different days, including his meeting with Senator Van Hollen, who himself confirmed the man seemed fine."

Bukele went on to rip the mainstream media for seemingly believing the claims.

TRUMP'S REMARKS COULD COME BACK TO BITE HIM IN ABREGO GARCIA DEPORTATION BATTLE

"Apparently, anything a criminal claims is accepted as truth by the mainstream media and the crumbling Western judiciary," Bukele wrote.

Under Bukele’s state of emergency, the government has detained more than 1% of the Central American nation’s population in its war on the country’s gangs. The president has turned what was once the most dangerous country in the world -- with a homicide rate of 103 per 100,000 people in 2015 -- into one of the safest in the Western Hemisphere, with 1.9 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2024. The U.S. rate was 5.5 per 100,000 people in 2023, which are the most recent records available.

Hundreds of people have died in the El Salvador prisons, according to the Associated Press, citing human rights groups, which have also documented cases of torture and deteriorated conditions.

Abrego Garcia, who was living in Maryland after coming to the U.S. illegally, was deported to El Salvador in March 2025. He became a prominent face of the Democrats' resistance to the Trump administration’s mass deportation plans. 

The Trump administration accuses them of being an MS-13 gang member, a human trafficker and a serial domestic abuser amid police reports by his wife that he used violence against her. 

Abrego Garcia's lawyers claimed when he arrived at the prison he was immediately frog-marched to his cell by prison guards, who kicked him with boots and struck him with wooden batons along the way, leaving visible bumps and bruises across his body. 

He and other detainees in the cell slept on metal mattresses, with minimal access to food and satiation. They were also forced to kneel for approximately nine hours, from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., "with guards striking anyone who fell from exhaustion," per the filings. 

They claim he was also psychologically tortured and received threats of violence during his time at CECOT where prison guards repeatedly told him they would transfer him to other prison cells housing violent gang members, whom they assured him would "tear" him apart.

Fox News’ Breanne Deppisch and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Trump touts 'very popular' domestic policy bill ahead of White House signing

President Donald Trump says that his sweeping domestic policy bill that squeaked through both houses of Congress this week along near-party-line votes is "very popular" with Americans.

Asked about a slew of national polls conducted last month which indicated that most Americans were far from thrilled with the massive spending and tax cut bill, the president told reporters early Friday morning, "I think it's very popular. It does many things, but one of them is the biggest tax cuts in our country's history. And that alone makes it very popular."

The president spoke as he returned home from a July 4th-eve event at the Iowa State Fairgrounds where he headlined a kickoff celebration of next year's 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

'BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL ON WAY TO WHITE HOUSE AFTER NARROWLY PASSING FINAL HURDLE IN CONGRESS

"There could be no better birthday present for America than the phenomenal victory we achieved just hours ago," Trump told the large crowd in Des Moines, Iowa, as he referred to the move by House Republicans in a 218-214 vote hours earlier to lift the so-called "One Big Beautiful Bill" to final congressional passage.

Earlier in the week, Vice President JD Vance broke a tie in the Senate to pass the measure 51-50.

WHAT'S ACTUALLY IN TRUMP'S ‘BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL’

Trump noted that "not one Democrat voted" for the bill in either chamber of Congress, adding that "they hate Trump. But I hate them too."

The president had repeatedly insisted to the Republicans who control Congress that the bill reach his desk by July 4th, and Trump got his way. He's expected to sign the measure at the White House at 5pm ET. 

The bill is stuffed full of Trump's 2024 campaign trail promises and second-term priorities on tax cuts, immigration, defense, energy and the debt limit. 

It includes extending his signature 2017 tax cuts and eliminating taxes on tips and overtime pay. 

By making his first-term tax rates permanent - they were set to expire later this year - the bill will cut taxes by nearly $4.4 trillion over the next decade, according to analysis by the Congressional Budget Office and the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. 

HOW MUCH THE ‘BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL’ WILL CUT YOUR TAXES

The measure also provides billions for border security and codifies the president's controversial immigration crackdown.

As Democrats criticize the bill, they’re highlighting the GOP’s restructuring of Medicaid — the nearly 60-year-old federal program that provides health coverage to roughly 71 million low-income Americans. Additionally, Senate Republicans increased cuts to Medicaid over what the House initially passed in late May.

The changes to Medicaid, as well as cuts to food stamps, another one of the nation's major safety net programs, were drafted in part as an offset to pay for extending Trump's tax cuts. The measure includes a slew of new rules and regulations, including work requirements for many of those seeking Medicaid coverage.

Ken Martin, chair of the Democratic National Commnitte, called the measure "one of the worst bills in our nation’s history." 

"Today, Donald Trump and the Republican party sent a message to America: if you are not a billionaire, we don’t give a damn about you," Martin argued.

Overall, the $3.4 trillion legislative package is projected to surge the national debt by $4 trillion over the next decade.

By a 21-point margin, voters questioned in the most recent Fox News national poll opposed the bill (38% favored vs. 59% opposed).

HEAD HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS POLLING 

The bill was also underwater in other national surveys conducted last month by the Washington Post (minus 19 points), Pew Research (minus 20 points) and Quinnipiac University (minus 26 points).

About half of respondents questioned in the Fox News poll said the bill would hurt their family (49%), while one quarter thought it would help (23%), and another quarter didn't think it would make a difference (26%).

Sixty percent felt they had a good understanding of what is in the measure, formally known as the One, Big, Beautiful Bill, and while those voters were more likely to favor the legislation than those who are unfamiliar with it, more still think it will hurt rather than help their family (45% vs. 34%).

The latest surveys all indicated a wide partisan divide over the measure.

According to the Fox News poll, which was conducted June 13-16, nearly three-quarters of Republicans (73%) favored the bill, while nearly nine in ten Democrats (89%) and nearly three-quarters of independents (73%) opposed the measure.

But Republicans are shining a spotlight on a poll conducted by a GOP-aligned public policy group that indicates strong support for the bill due to the tax cut provisions.

A release earlier this week from the group, One Nation, argued that "polling shows that the public supports the Republican plan to cut taxes for families, eliminate taxes on Social Security, overtime, and tips, and reign in waste and abuse in the federal budget."

Fox News' Dana Blanton contributed to this report.

President Trump to honor Iran strike flight team at the White House

Speaking to a crowd of supporters in Iowa on Thursday night, President Donald Trump announced that the military flight team that launched the strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities will be honored at the White House on Independence Day.

Trump said that he took issue with early media reports suggesting that the strikes on Iran only partially damaged the targets because he considered it an insult to the "great" American military members who executed the mission.

"Remember when CNN said it wasn't obliterated? It was maybe damaged or damaged badly, but obliterated is too strong a word. No, it was obliterated. That's now been proven," said Trump.

"They were trying to demean me by saying that, but they were really demeaning those great pilots and people and mechanics that got those planes over there and were able to shoot from high up in the air, going very, very fast, with potentially a lot of things being shot at them, and hit every single one," he said. "They're trying to demean me, but to me, they were demeaning them. And they got out of the plane, and they said, ‘What? We hit every single target.’ They know better than anybody."

TRUMP TOUTS CONGRESSIONAL APPROVAL OF MAJOR BILL AHEAD OF WHITE HOUSE SIGNING

"These people did one of the greatest military hits and maneuvers in the history of our country, and I want them to be appreciated for it," the president went on. "So, they're coming. They're coming to the White House tomorrow night."

"They're going to be in Washington tomorrow at the White House, and we're going to be celebrating."

Trump said the White House will host not only the pilots, but the entire flight crew, including "the people that flew the other planes" and "the mechanics that had these planes going for 37 hours without a stop."

"China, Russia, they were all watching. Everybody was watching," he said. "We have the greatest equipment anywhere in the world. We have the greatest people anywhere in the world, and we have the strongest military anywhere in the world."

TROOPS AT THE BORDER: HOW THE MILITARY’S ROLE IN IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT HAS EXPLODED UNDER TRUMP

During his address on Thursday, Trump also claimed that Iran called ahead of their retaliatory strike on the U.S. military base in Qatar to clear the attack with the White House.

"They called me to tell me they have to take a shot at us. This was Iran. Very respectful. That means they respect us because we dropped 14 bombs. They said we'd like to take 14 shots at you. I said, ‘Go ahead, I understand,’" he said.

"They said where they would do it. I said, ‘Good.’ We emptied out the fort. It was a beautiful military base in Qatar who treated us really fantastically well," he said.

SAUDI DEFENSE MINISTER SECRETLY MEETS WITH TRUMP TO DISCUSS IRAN DE-ESCALATION, ISRAEL: SOURCES

Trump claimed that Iran went so far as to ask what time of day would be acceptable for their retaliatory strike.

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"They said, ‘Sir, is 1:00 okay?’ I said it was fine, [they said], ‘We could make it later.’ And we had nobody but four gunners," he said. "So, all of a sudden, they said, ‘We're ready.’ And they were a little nervous about doing it. I want to tell, you can you imagine, they were nice enough – this is Iran – to call me and tell me that they would like to shoot me at 14 times, so they want to shoot us. And I said, go ahead. And they shot 14 high grade, very fast missiles every single one of them was shot down routinely by these four unbelievable gunmen. And they did their job. And that was the end of that."

Trump pitches plan allowing farmers to vouch for illegal immigrant workers facing deportation

The Trump administration plans to implement a process whereby farmers in Iowa can vouch for hard-working, law-abiding migrant farmworkers who may be facing deportation, so that they can remain in the U.S.

The proposed process was shared by President Donald Trump during an event at the Iowa State Fairgrounds on Thursday night, kicking off a year of patriotic celebrations meant to honor the nation's 250th birthday. Trump said the new plan will take place in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security and that legislation for the measure is currently being drafted, while speaking Thursday evening from Iowa. 

"You know, they've had people working for them for years. And we're going to do something … we're going to sort of put the farmers in charge," Trump told the crowd of people in attendance. "If a farmer has been with one of these people that worked so hard – they bend over all day, we don't have too many people that can do that, but they work very hard, and they know him very well, and some of the farmers are literally, you know, they cry when they see this happen – if a farmer is willing to vouch for these people, in some way, Kristie, I think we're going to have to just say that's going to be good, right?"

TRUMP 'WORKING ON' DEPORTATION EXEMPTIONS FOR ILLEGAL FARM AND HOSPITALITY WORKERS 

"We don't want to do [border security] where we take all of the workers off the farms," Trump added. "We want the farms to do great."

According to the Office of the United States Trade Representative, Iowa is the nation's second-largest agricultural exporting state. 

While announcing the new plan, Trump cited cases he had heard of when migrants who have worked on farms for 15 years "get thrown out pretty viciously."

DAVID MARCUS: AMERICANS GET IT. TRUMP'S MOVES TO CLEAN UP BIDEN'S OPEN BORDER CHAOS WILL BE MESSY

"We can't do that," Trump added. "We got to work with the farmers and people that have hotels and leisure properties."

Earlier this week, when Trump previously hinted at the new immigration exemption for farmers, he also suggested the move could be implemented for workers in the hospitality industry, as well. 

While sharing the new immigration proposal with the crowd at the Iowa State Fairgrounds on Thursday night, Trump spoke to potential criticisms of the move by "serious radical-right people" within the GOP, asking the crowd rhetorically if they think these folks "will understand."

After the president first brought up the proposal earlier this week, critics have already started sounding off.

"So, if I’m to understand this correctly, we should look the other way regarding illegal immigration as long as it’s in the construction, hotel, or restaurant industries? This is far beyond disappointing, it’s infuriating," California Republican state Sen. Melissa Melendez wrote on X.

The president noted Thursday evening that the move will put farmers "in charge" and ultimately the responsibility for any problems that arise will fall to their feet.  

"If the farmers don't do a good job, we'll throw them the hell out of the country. We'll let the guys – we'll let the illegals stay, and we'll throw the farmers the hell out," Trump said. "Okay, get ready, farmer, I'm telling you."

NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani identified as Black, Asian on Columbia application: report

Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, identified as "Black or African American" on his 2009 Columbia University application even though he now says he does not consider himself Black, The New York Times reported Thursday.

According to The Times, the internal data came from a leaked database of past Columbia applications which was part of a recent hack targeting the Ivy League school.

Mamdani, then a high school senior, also checked "Asian" and reportedly wrote in "Ugandan" in the space for additional background. He was ultimately not accepted to Columbia even though his father is a professor at the elite school.

Now 33, Mamdani told The Times he identifies as "an American who was born in Africa," and said checking multiple boxes was an effort to reflect his "complex background," not to gain an edge in the competitive admissions process.

FORMER CLINTON ADVISOR SOUNDS '9-1-1' ALARM FOR DEMOCRATS AFTER SOCIALIST'S NYC MAYORAL VICTORY

But at the time, Columbia, like many elite universities, used race-conscious admissions, a system the Supreme Court struck down in 2023.

"Even though these boxes are constraining," Mamdani said, "I wanted my college application to reflect who I was."

Mamdani told The Times that aside from those college forms, he doesn’t recall ever identifying as Black or African American. 

SHARPTON URGES NYC MAYORAL HOPEFUL TO MEET JEWISH LEADERS, TAKE ANTI-ISRAEL RHETORIC 'OFF THE TABLE'

His parents are both of Indian descent. His father, Columbia professor Mahmood Mamdani, has lived in East Africa for generations, but Mamdani said there had been no intermarriage in the family with native African groups.

Mamdani has leaned into his South Asian and Muslim identity on the campaign trail. During a June speech at Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, he also stressed his African roots: "I was born in Kampala, Uganda... I was given my middle name, Kwame, by my father, who named me after the first Prime Minister of Ghana."

President Donald Trump brought up Mamdani at a rally Wednesday, saying if he interferes with immigration laws "we’ll have to arrest him." 

"Look, we don’t need a communist in this country, but if we have one, I’m going to be watching over them very carefully on behalf of the nation," Trump added.

Mamdani, a self-identified democratic socialist, dismissed the remarks, accusing Trump of "an attempt to send a message to every New Yorker who refuses to hide in the shadows: if you speak up, they will come for you. We will not accept this intimidation."

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Fox News Digital has reached out to the Mamdani campaign for comment.

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