The White House’s outgoing cyber czar, Harry Coker, called for three key things to meet the growing threat of digital attacks: more funding, deregulation and opening up cyber jobs to those without college degrees.
As adversaries like Iran, China and Russia lob near-constant attacks on the U.S. digital infrastructure, "we have to prioritize cybersecurity within federal budgets" President Joe Biden’s national cyber director said at an event with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington, D.C.
"I would love for the incoming administration, or any administration, to recognize the priority of cybersecurity," Coker said.
He added that he understands the U.S. is in a "tough budget situation."
"I get that, and I support making progress towards reducing the deficit, but we have to prioritize cybersecurity within our current budgets," he said.
At the same time, the Biden appointee railed against "duplicative federal regulation" and said he’d heard from those working to protect the nation’s online infrastructure that they spend "a staggering 30 to 50%" of their time working to comply with regulation, rather than ensuring protection from hacks.
"Armed with the industry's call to streamline, we worked with Congress to write bipartisan legislation that would bring all stakeholders, including independent regulators, to the table to advance the regulatory harmonization," he went on.
"Many of us were disappointed that this has not become law yet, but we have laid the groundwork for the next administration in Congress to do the right thing for our partners in the private sector."
His urging comes as the U.S. is grappling with the fallout of one of China’s biggest attacks on American infrastructure in history, dubbed Salt Typhoon.
A Chinese intelligence group infiltrated nine U.S. telecommunications giants and gained access to the private text messages and phone calls of Americans, including senior government officials and prominent political figures.
The Salt Typhoon hackers also gained access to an exhaustive list of phone numbers the Justice Department had wiretapped to monitor people suspected of espionage, granting them insight into which Chinese spies the U.S. had caught onto and which they had missed.
China was also behind a "major" hack of the Treasury Department in December, gaining access to unclassified documents and the workstations of government employees.
And earlier this year, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo’s communications were intercepted by Chinese intelligence, just as she was making determinations about new export controls on semiconductors and other key technologies. The same hacking group also targeted officials at the State Department and members of Congress.
Amid this onslaught of attacks, Coker said the cyber industry is suffering a recruitment issue.
"Today there are nearly 500,000 open cyber jobs in this great nation," he said.
"The federal government is leading by example… removing federal employee and contractor hiring from a focus on college degrees to a focus on what we're really after: skills.
"When we do away with the four-year college degree requirement, we expand our talent pool," Coker went on. "Many Americans don't have the time or the means to go to college for four years, but they can do it for two years or less."
-Laken Riley Act passes House with 48 Dems, all Republicans
-Trump threatens to tap allies for military shipbuilding if US can't produce
Canada's Justin Trudeau announced his resignation as prime minister Monday, with his Liberal Party in turmoil amid declining poll numbers and an election on the horizon.
Whoever assumes leadership in the unpopular governing party will become the next prime minister, and that person must tackle rising costs of living, an immigration crisis and aggressive economic pressure from President-elect Trump – not to mention the challenge from Canada's ascendant Conservative Party in the next election, to be held no later than October.
The next Liberal Party leader will be chosen in a national leadership contest, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Party President Sachit Mehra said Monday he would call a meeting "to be held this week to begin the nationwide democratic process of selecting a new leader of the party."…Read more
CURTAIN CALL: Pardons, Israel, domestic terrorism and more: Biden's plans for final days of presidency…Read more
'BIG MISTAKE': Trump: Carter was a 'very fine' person but Panama Canal moves were 'a big mistake'…Read more
NOT FOR SALE: Danish prime minister has blunt message for Trump: Greenland is not for sale…Read more
'DEAL THAT MUST HAPPEN': Donald Trump Jr arrives in Greenland as his father says Denmark ‘give it up’…Read more
BLUE STATE BEHEMOTH: Trump trolling Canada as 51st state could boost Democrats with 'blue-state behemoth'…Read more
'POINT OF NO RETURN'?: Iran's nuclear program is nearing 'a point of no return,' France's Macron says…Read more
BIG GUNS: Kim Jong Un’s big guns spotted on Russian front lines: report…Read more
'A BAD IDEA': Physician governor urges Capitol Hill to block RFK Jr.'s confirmation: 'Our children's lives depend on it'…Read more
'PLAYING WITH THE COURTS': Trump blasts ongoing 'lawfare' in first public remarks since Congress certified his election…Read more
STOPPING TRAFFIC: House Republican's bill would rip federal funds from states that give illegal immigrants driver's licenses…Read more
'QUIT PLAYING AROUND': Ex-Obama adviser calls out Schumer for 'foolish' claim Dems didn't mislead on Biden…Read more
DEFINING DOGE: What to know about DOGE and its quest to slash government waste, spending…Read more
'COME A LONG WAY': Trump says Meta has ‘come a long way’ after Zuckerberg ends fact-checking on platforms…Read more
'BEAUTIFUL NAME': Trump announces Gulf of Mexico will get new, pro-America revamp…Read more
Get the latest updates on the Trump presidential transition, incoming Congress, exclusive interviews and more on FoxNews.com
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's newly unveiled freedom of speech policies signal a major shift in the Facebook social media platform's content moderation strategy, following years of congressional clashes over alleged "censorship" and the regulation of political information.
"We’re going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies and restoring free expression on our platforms," Zuckerberg said in a video posted Tuesday morning. "More specifically, we’re going to get rid of fact-checkers and replace them with Community Notes similar to X, starting in the U.S."
Zuckerberg's shift in content moderation comes amid a history of being grilled by politicians on both sides of the aisle on Capitol Hill.
In January 2024, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., confronted Zuckerberg during a heated exchange about the harmful impact of social media on users, particularly young girls. The questioning followed revelations from internal Meta studies that indicated a significant number of teenage girls were exposed to harmful content, including unwanted nudity, sexual advances, and material promoting self-harm, within just one week.
"So, you didn’t take any action, you didn’t fire anybody, you haven’t compensated a single victim. Let me ask you this. There are families of victims here today. Have you apologized to the victims? Would you like to apologize now?" Hawley said, drawing applause from the audience.
In response, Zuckerberg rose from his seat and addressed the crowd directly, saying, "I’m sorry for everything you’ve all been through. No one should have to go through the things that your families suffered."
Zuckerberg added, "This is why we’ve invested so much… and will continue through industry-leading efforts to make sure that no [one has] to go through what your families have had to suffer."
In that same hearing, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, delivered a scathing rebuke of the tech giant CEO.
"Mr. Zuckerberg, you and the companies before us. I know you don't mean it to be so, but you have blood on your hands," Graham said. "You have a product that's killing people."
Graham's remark came in light of South Carolina state Rep. Brandon Guffey suing Instagram following the suicide of his 17-year-old son, Gavin. Gavin took his own life after falling victim to an extortion scheme run by a group operating through the Meta-owned app.
In 2018, then-House lawmakers grilled Zuckerberg over the site’s failure to protect the personal information of 87 million users. Zuckerberg, who co-founded Facebook in 2004 from his Harvard dorm room, said in a Facebook post at the time, "Looking back, it’s clear we were too slow identifying election interference in 2016, and we need to do better in future elections."
In November 2020, then-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Zuckerberg both faced the Senate Judiciary Committee in a hearing titled "Breaking the News: Censorship, Suppression, and the 2020 Election." The session put the spotlight on the tech giants' controversial content moderation decisions, including the suppression of the New York Post story about Hunter Biden just weeks before the presidential election.
Testifying remotely, both CEOs acknowledged missteps and outlined how they'd handle similar challenges in the future. Zuckerberg highlighted Facebook's expansive voting initiatives, which he called "the largest voting information campaign in American history." According to his testimony, over 140 million users visited the Voting Information Center on Facebook and Instagram, with 33 million accessing it on Election Day alone. The campaign reportedly helped 4.5 million people register to vote.
To combat misinformation and voter suppression, Zuckerberg detailed measures like partnerships with election officials, the removal of false claims, and warnings applied to over 150 million pieces of content reviewed by independent fact-checkers. Facebook also implemented "policies prohibiting explicit or implicit misrepresentations about how or when to vote as well as attempts to use threats related to COVID-19 to scare people into not voting," according to Zuckerberg’s testimony.
Meta’s third-party fact-checking program was put in place after the 2016 election and had been used to "manage content" and misinformation on its platforms, largely due to "political pressure," executives said, but admitted the system has "gone too far."
Last year, Zuckerberg sent a letter to the House Judiciary Committee, in which he admitted that he felt pressure from the Biden administration, particularly with regard to COVID-19 content, and even subjects like satire and humor.
"The thing is, as American companies, when other governments around the world that don’t have our tradition or our First Amendment, when they see the United States government pressuring U.S. companies to take down content, it is just open season then for those governments to put more pressure [on their companies]," explained Meta’s chief global affairs officer, Joel Kaplan. "We do think it is a real opportunity to work with the Trump administration and to work on free expression at home."
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Liz Huston, Trump-Vance transition spokesperson said, "President Trump has always been a champion of free speech, and his landslide victory put an end to the Biden era of oppressive censorship."
'President Trump's return to the White House is a signal to Americans that their fundamental right to free speech is once again safe," she added.
Fox News Digital's Brooke Singman and Adonis Hoffman contributed to this report.
During a press conference at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday, President-elect Donald Trump renewed his criticisms of the Biden administration for selling off border wall materials at "five cents on the dollar," saying: "These people either hate our country or they’re stupid."
He also slammed the private company managing the border wall sales for attempting to sell the materials back to his incoming administration at a significant upcharge.
"You know what they were doing. They were calling us up and saying: ‘We'll sell it back to you at 200 cents.’ In other words, double what we paid for it," he said. "So, they were going to buy it from this guy [President Joe Biden] for five cents on the dollar. They were making deals."
The Biden administration has been auctioning off border wall parts since at least 2023, with parts listed for sale on auction marketplaces, after it abruptly shut down most border wall construction in 2021.
An official at the Department of Defense told Fox News Digital in December that the materials being sold through online auctions were already sold off by the federal government earlier in 2024, with a large percentage of the materials being sold to a government surplus retailer called Gov Planet.
Speaking in December, Trump said the Biden administration’s border wall sales were "almost a criminal act" that would cost American taxpayers "hundreds of millions of dollars."
Trump said on Tuesday the private retailer was "calling us, asking us to pay them 200 cents because it's a good deal because we can have it immediately."
But to this, Trump said: "You know what ‘immediately’ is? Just leave it in place."
"Fortunately, we had a very smart judge that stopped it cold," he went on. "But think of it. They were selling the wall. That was exactly the wall that the Border Patrol wanted that was designed by them: steel, concrete, rebar… Everything was top of the line, very expensive. It would be double what we paid for it then, six years ago."
Speaking of the Biden administration, Trump said: "These people either hate our country or they’re very stupid."
"They were selling the wall for five cents on the dollar and trying to resell it back to us for 200 cents, or less, but for 200 cents on the dollar." he said. "That deal is like all the other things that these people do."
Jimmy Carter, the centenarian former president who lived long enough to see Donald Trump elected again but died just before the start of the new year, has a foreign policy legacy that wasn't just defined by his four years in the White House.
Over the term of his presidency, the former Georgia governor could boast of helping to establish peace between Israel and Egypt and reestablishing relations with China. But by the time he suffered one of the nation's most decisive defeats by President Ronald Reagan in 1980, Carter still had ambitions that he was not ready to stop pursuing.
Carter is largely celebrated for the altruistic nature of his post-presidency, volunteering with Habitat for Humanity well into his 90s. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his peace negotiations, but some accused the former president of meddling in international affairs without any official title.
Here's a look Carter's forays on the world stage, both as president and beyond:
In 1994, Bill Clinton was in office in the midst of a standoff with North Korea over the communist country's nuclear program. The U.S. was floating the idea of sanctions – and even considered a preemptive strike on North Korea's nuclear facilities to destroy their capabilities.
Carter had received invitations from North Korea to visit, and was eager to try his hand at defusing the situation and hashing out an agreement to unify the north and the south. As Clinton weighed his options, Carter called. He had negotiated the framework of a peace agreement, without authorization.
Carter had flown to North Korea with a CNN crew and hashed out the deal. He called Clinton to warn him he was about to go on CNN to announce the deal, which infuriated the Clinton White House, according to Carter biographer Douglas Brinkley's book, "The Unfinished Presidency."
Carter also accepted a dinner invitation from Kim Il-Sung, where he stated the U.S. had stopped pursuing sanctions at the U.N., which was untrue. Backed into a corner, Clinton had to accept the peace deal and stop pursuing sanctions.
Carter’s discussions with leader Kim Il-Sung may have averted conflict with North Korea in the 1990s. The nation, of course, continued pursuing nuclear weapons and acquired them in 2006.
In the Middle East, Carter declared he could have resolved the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians in a second term, a prospect that has still not been achieved by any president.
"Had I been elected to a second term, with the prestige and authority and influence and reputation I had in the region, we could have moved to a final solution," he told The New York Times in 2003.
Throughout the 1990s, Carter befriended Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) leader Yasser Arafat and coached him on how to appear more moderate to the west, even as Arafat continued to lead attacks on Israel and led the Second Intifada in 2000.
When President George H.W. Bush decided to launch the Persian Gulf War after Iraq's Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, Carter was vehemently opposed to the idea. Five days before Bush's deadline for Hussein to withdraw, Carter wrote to leaders of nations on the U.N. Security Council and key Arab states – Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Syria – imploring them to abandon the U.S. and its war efforts.
"I urge you to call publicly for a delay in the use of force while Arab leaders seek a peaceful solution to the crisis. You may have to forego approval from the White House, but you will find the French, Soviets, and others fully supportive. Also, most Americans will welcome such a move."
The move prompted former national security adviser Brent Scowcroft to accuse Carter of violating the Logan Act, which says private citizens cannot negotiate with foreign governments.
In 2008, President George W. Bush's secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, publicly tore into Carter for meeting with Hamas, a designated terrorist group, after the administration explicitly told him not to.
Rice told reporters Carter's meeting could confuse the message that the U.S. would not work with Hamas.
"I just don't want there to be any confusion," Rice said. "The United States is not going to deal with Hamas and we had certainly told President Carter that we did not think meeting with Hamas was going to help" further a political settlement between Israel and the Palestinians.
Carter, a strong advocate of the Palestinians after his presidency, claimed that Israel's policies amounted to an apartheid worse than South Africa's.
In 1978, the groundbreaking possibility of Egypt and Israel normalizing relations had screeched to a halt. President Anwar Sadat of Egypt suggested ceasing contact with the Israelis.
In September of that year, Carter brought Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to Camp David, where Carter spent more than a week mediating negotiations on an agreement between the two sides. A framework of a treaty known as the Camp David Accords came out of that meeting, and six months later, Egypt became the first Arab state to establish relations with Israel.
The agreement included the return of the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt and a "pathway" for Palestinian self-rule in Gaza. Sadat was assassinated in 1981 after Arab fury over the peace agreement.
In 1978, following months of secret negotiations, Carter established formal U.S. relations with China, breaking decades of hostility between the two nations. That meant rescinding a defense treaty with Taiwan, where Carter remains a controversial figure.
It also prompted Congress to pass the Taiwan Relations Act to continue to provide arms to Taiwan and "maintain the capacity to resist" any attempts to take it over.
In 1979, the Iranian regime’s shah, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, and Carter had a strategic relationship, with Carter quiet on his questionable human rights record even as the shah’s grip on power was slipping.
Protests had kicked up in Iran over the shah’s oppressive policies, but Carter continued to support him, fearing the alternative: Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Pahlavi fled into exile in January 1979, and Carter initially resisted requests to grant him refuge in the U.S. before allowing him to seek cancer treatment in New York City in October of that year. And on Nov. 4, Iranian students angry at the decision stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran, taking 52 hostages.
The hostage crisis spanned the rest of Carter’s term and, for many, defined his legacy on the world stage. Without any resolution, in April 1980, Carter moved to a military rescue.
The mission ended in tragic failure: several helicopters were grounded outside Tehran in a sandstorm, and eight special forces members were killed when their helicopter crashed. Iran then captured U.S. equipment and intelligence.
The hostages were not released until Jan. 20, 1981 – minutes after President Ronald Reagan was inaugurated.
President-elect Trump has brought Carter's Panama Canal treaties back into the spotlight, musing on Tuesday that offering control of the canal to Panama lost Carter the 1980 election.
Despite fierce opposition from the right, Carter believed returning the canal would improve U.S. relations in Latin America and ensure peace between U.S. shipping lanes, fearing that opposition to U.S. control could lead to violence on the waterway.
"It’s obvious that we cheated the Panamanians out of their canal," Carter wrote in a diary. But he'd also received intelligence that it could take up 100,000 troops to defend the canal in the event of an uprising.
In recent days, Trump has suggested taking the canal back – claiming the U.S. is paying too much to use it, and it is controlled by China.
"Giving the Panama Canal to Panama was a big reason why Jimmy Carter lost the election, even more so than the hostages," Trump said.
FIRST ON FOX:Republican lawmakers in the House and Senate are renewing a push to crack down on noncitizen voting in federal elections, reintroducing a bipartisan bill that was repeatedly touted last year by the GOP.
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, are reintroducing the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which looks to ensure that noncitizens cannot vote in federal elections.
While only citizens can vote in federal elections, Republicans have claimed that it is impossible to enforce because noncitizens and illegal immigrants are eligible for driver’s licenses and other benefits in states, which can lead them to being registered to vote.
The bill requires states to obtain documentary proof of U.S. citizenship and identity in person when registering an individual to vote. It also requires states to establish a program to remove noncitizens from the voter rolls, and allows citizens to bring suits against officials that fail to uphold the law.
The bill was passed in the House last year, with five Democrats voting in favor, but stalled in the Senate – where the Democrat-controlled chamber passed a spending bill without the SAVE Act being included, as Republicans had hoped. President Biden had promised to veto the bill.
The bill has gained increasing importance among Republicans amid a surge of migrants into the U.S. during the Biden administration, as well as recent announcements by states that they had identified thousands of noncitizens on their rolls.
But now Republicans control the Senate and soon the White House, where President-elect Trump has voiced support for legislation to prevent noncitizens from voting.
"Republicans must pass the Save Act, or go home and cry yourself to sleep," he said in July.
Roy, who is introducing the bill in the House with Rep. Andrew Garbarino, R-NY., said, "American elections belong to American citizens, and the public's confidence in those elections is the cornerstone of our republic,"
"We in Congress have a duty to our fellow citizens to provide that confidence. We must have concrete enforcement mechanisms in place to ensure that our elections and our sovereignty cannot be hijacked and influenced by foreign nationals who have no business voting in this country," he said.
"The House passed this critical bipartisan bill last year – we must do it again. I look forward to working with the Republican Senate to put this policy on President Trump's desk," he said.
Lee said public trust in election integrity "is absolutely essential for the legitimacy of our democratic institutions."
"A vast majority of our countrymen agree: only American citizens should be able to register and vote in American elections. The SAVE Act gives states the ability to prevent illegal voter registration and protect the ballot box from foreign election interference," he said.
Garbarino, meanwhile, criticized New York City for disregarding the principle of American citizens deciding their elections by allowing noncitizens to vote in local elections.
"The SAVE Act upholds the integrity of our elections by requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote, ensuring this fundamental right is reserved exclusively for American citizens," he said.
The bill also has the support of groups including the Only Citizens Vote Coalition, Tea Party Patriots Action and the Immigration Accountability Project. It has 59 co-sponsors in the House. The bill was introduced in the lower chamber on Friday and is expected to be introduced in the Senate next week.
The bill comes as Congress is expected to have immigration-related issues as a top priority. On Tuesday, the House passed the Laken Riley Act, which would require federal immigration authorities to detain illegal immigrants found guilty of theft-related crimes. It also would allow states to sue the Department of Homeland Security for harm caused to their citizens because of illegal immigration.
Fox News’ Julia Johnson and Liz Elkind contributed to this report.
President-elect Donald Trump, fed up with the U.S.' lagging ship-building capabilities, offered an out-of-character solution to the problem: Outsource production if the U.S. can’t keep up.
"We’re going to do something with ships. We need ships. And we may have to go a different route than you would normally go," the incoming president suggested to radio host Hugh Hewitt.
"We don’t build ships anymore. We used to build a ship a day. We don’t build ships anymore. We want to get that started. And maybe we’ll use allies, also, in terms of building ships. We might have to."
"China’s building, from what I’m hearing, every four days, they’re knocking out a ship. We’re sitting back and watching, and we’ve suffered tremendously."
Trump’s stance is sure to put the domestic shipbuilding industry and labor groups on alert. But it comes as China’s shipbuilding capacity is more than 232 times greater than that of the U.S., and the Navy has for decades struggled to build ships on time.
And it's a divergence from his campaign promise to bring manufacturing back to the U.S., and trigger a blanket tariff on global imports into the U.S., along with a 60% tariff on all goods imported from China.
China’s navy is the largest in the world, with more than 370 ships and submarines. The U.S.' battle force includes 295 vessels, including 11 active aircraft carriers. In 2017, Congress passed a law requiring the Navy to keep and maintain 355 ships.
Without disclosing details, Trump hinted at a plan to grow the Navy's ship fleet.
"We’re going to be announcing some things that are going to be very good having to do with the Navy. We need ships. We have to get ships. And you know, everybody said, ‘Oh, we’ll build them.’ We may have to go to others, bid them out, and it’s okay to do that. We’ll bid them out until we get ourselves ready," he said.
The U.S. also lags in nuclear submarines, according to military experts. The U.S.’ nuclear submarines reached a Cold War high of 140, according to Jerry Hendrix, retired Navy captain and senior fellow at the Sagamore Institute, in an op-ed for American Affairs.
"The bottom line is that the American submarine force, the ‘point of the spear’ of American power, upon which so many military plans depend, is unprepared to meet the current threat environment, and there are no quick fixes. It has taken decades—and a sequence of bad assumptions and poor decisions—to fall into the current state of unpreparedness," he wrote.
The most recent figures show the U.S. submarine flight at 68, only 50 of which are classified in the hunter-killer "fast attack" category.
Currently, China controls 46.59% of the global shipbuilding market. South Korea comes in second at 29.24%, and Japan third with 17.25%. The U.S. has a relatively insignificant control of the market at 0.13%. And it costs roughly twice as much to build a ship in the U.S. as it does elsewhere in the world.
Congress' $895 billion annual defense policy bill authorized $33.5 billion for new ships and submarines.
According to a Navy report last year, several key shipbuilding programs are years behind schedule, in large part due to a lack of workers.
Trump also called out management of the Navy’s Constellation-class frigate program, blaming Biden-era officers for "playing around and tinkering," adding to costs.
Speaking with Hewitt, Trump seemed to refer to a deal the Pentagon struck with the American arm of Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri for the new class of ships in 2020.
"And they were going and really doing a good job, and the generals, you know, the Biden admirals and generals and all of the people that are involved, they started playing around and tinkering and changing the design, and this, you know, that costs. That costs a lot of money," Trump said.
"But the generals or the admirals went in, and they said, ‘Oh, why don’t we make it a little bit wider? Why don’t we do this? Why don’t we do that?’ And it was designed specifically for speed and other things. When you start making it wider, you start making it slower," Trump continued.
"We had it down, and they made changes. They always have to make changes. You know, these guys get in there, and they think they’re smart, and in many cases, unfortunately, they’re not smart, and they take something, and they make it worse for a lot more."
Then-President Ronald Reagan had a 600-ship goal for the Navy when he assumed office, dedicated to rebuilding the nation's fleet after the Vietnam War. But his administration also terminated a subsidy for shipbuilding that decimated the commercial market, meaning U.S. shipyards were solely dedicated to meeting the needs of the military.
President-elect Trump will meet with Republicans in the Senate on Wednesday as he prepares to take office again at the end of the month and hit the ground running on his agenda.
The Trump transition team confirmed the meeting with the Senate GOP, who are now in control of the upper chamber, to Fox News Digital.
The president-elect is being hosted for the huddle by the chairwoman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., her office said.
Trump will be in Washington, D.C., this week for the funeral of former President Jimmy Carter, who passed away this month at 100 years old after being in hospice care.
The meeting, which will include Senate Republican leadership, among others, will be held in the Mansfield room of the Capitol at 6 p.m. The room is used for weekly Senate caucus lunches and other large meetings.
The group will address plans for a budget reconciliation bill, or two, in the coming months. Trump has said he wants "one powerful Bill," as opposed to the proposal initially put forth by Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., for two different reconciliation bills, one addressing the border and another to tackle taxes.
The reason this process is so integral to Republicans' work in this Congress is that it allows them to bypass the Senate's legislative filibuster, lowering the 60-vote threshold. This way, the GOP can push through legislation with the support of their conference alone.
"Members of Congress are getting to work on one powerful Bill that will bring our Country back, and make it greater than ever before. We must Secure our Border, [Unleash] American Energy, and Renew the Trump Tax Cuts, which were the largest in History, but we will make it even better - NO TAX ON TIPS. IT WILL ALL BE MADE UP WITH TARIFFS, AND MUCH MORE, FROM COUNTRIES THAT HAVE TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF THE U.S. FOR YEARS. Republicans must unite, and quickly deliver these Historic Victories for the American People. Get smart, tough, and send the Bill to my desk to sign as soon as possible. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!" Trump wrote on Truth Social this week.
However, Trump has not ruled anything out, including the two-bill strategy, he told radio host Hugh Hewitt.
It's unclear exactly which GOP senators will be attending the meeting with Trump on Wednesday night, but Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., is planning on going, according to his office.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., will also attend the discussion, telling Fox News Digital in a statement that he was "[l]ooking forward to meeting with President Trump tomorrow. It’s important that we work together to pass a conservative, Pro-American agenda."
Hawaii's Democratic Governor and practicing physician, Josh Green, is visiting Capitol Hill this week to lobby lawmakers against the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary. In a Tuesday op-ed for The New York Times, he argued that "our children's lives depend" on preventing Kennedy from leading the agency.
Green, who worked as a physician before entering politics, has continued practicing emergency room medicine throughout his legislative career. In 2019, as Hawaii's lieutenant governor, Green helped spearhead efforts to increase vaccination rates in Samoa amid a measles outbreak in the region. Green arrived in the nation's capital on Sunday evening to begin his meetings that will go until he returns to Hawaii on Thursday.
"As the only physician governor, I need to explain what are good picks and what maybe aren't so good picks for the cabinet," Green said in a video ahead of his planned trip to Washington, noting that his lobbying against Kennedy is not anything personal or politically motivated. "[RFK Jr's] appointment to be the head of Health and Human Services is not consistent with safety for our children," he said.
During his trip to Washington, Green said that he would be discussing with lawmakers and other leaders to explore "a better place for [RFK Jr.] to be" rather than HHS, calling his potential confirmation "a bad idea."
Questions over the likelihood of Kennedy's confirmation took a turn this week after Sen. Bill Cassidy, R–La., the incoming chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, called out the potential future HHS Secretary for being "wrong" on the issue of vaccines. The criticism follows concerns that Kennedy may seek to get rid of the polio vaccine, after news broke that one of his previous colleagues at Childrens Health Defense, a health-focused nonprofit Kennedy previously chaired, petitioned the government in 2019 to revoke its approval.
Green's criticism of Kennedy has largely revolved around his anti-vaccine views as well, in particular Kennedy's response to a measles outbreak in Samoa, during which the potential future HHS Secretary promoted doubts around vaccine efficacy, according to Green and others, such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. Those efforts included a letter Kennedy sent to the country's prime minister, as chairman of Children's Health Defense, suggesting that the measles vaccine could have potentially exacerbated the outbreak.
The Democratic governor penned an op-ed published in The New York Times on Tuesday, continuing to drill at Kennedy's anti-vaccine efforts in 2019 amid Samoa's measles outbreak. According to Greene, Kennedy "used misinformation to scare all the people of Samoa away from being vaccinated" and served to "torpedo" the country's vaccination efforts.
"Too much depends on our commitment to truth and the lifesaving power of vaccines to entrust Mr. Kennedy with the direction of these programs. Our children’s lives depend on it," Green wrote.
Kennedy's team has not responded to repeated efforts by Fox News Digital to get in touch, but in 2023, Kennedy said during an appearance in a short film that he "never told anybody not to vaccinate" and that he "didn't go [to Samoa] with any reason to do with that." Furthermore, amid concerns about how Kennedy might approach the polio vaccine, he told reporters on Capitol Hill last month that he is "all for the polio vaccine."
Proponents of Kennedy's nomination have suggested his proposed plans, if confirmed, will be rooted in logic and science.
"I think that Kennedy has aimed to stand for evidence-based changes to policy," said Nina Teicholz, a nutrition expert and founder of The Nutrition Coalition, a New York-based nonprofit organization.
"Right now, the media is covering RFK Jr. poorly and unfairly, giving him no credit for ideas that are well within the bounds of discussion," added Dr. Vinay Prasad, in an article published by The Free Press. "Many of RFK Jr.'s ideas have a logic."
Fox News Digital reached out to Green's office for comment but did not hear back by publication time.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen emphasized that Greenland is not for sale, as President-elect Trump has ramped up calls for the U.S. to acquire the island.
Frederiksen's comments to a Danish TV station come as the president's son, Donald Trump Jr., paid a visit to Greenland on Tuesday. The trip is a personal one and Trump Jr. is not expected to meet with any government officials.
The Danish prime minister said in an interview that Greenlandic Prime Minister Múte Egede "has been very, very clear – that there is a lot of support among the people of Greenland that Greenland is not for sale and will not be in the future either," according to The Hill.
She reportedly told Danish television station TV 2 that Greenland will choose its own future and said, "We need to stay calm and stick to our principles," while praising the U.S. as a key Danish ally.
In a Truth Social post on Monday, Trump said he was "hearing that the people of Greenland are ‘MAGA'." The Republican attached a video that purportedly shows a Greenlander asking the U.S. to buy his country.
Trump's son arrived Tuesday in Nuuk, the Arctic territory's capital. He met with locals, visited cultural sites and shot video for a podcast. The president-elect posted a video showing a plane emblazoned with the word "TRUMP" landing in Nuuk.
"Don Jr. and my Reps landing in Greenland," Trump wrote. "The reception has been great. They, and the Free World, need safety, security, strength, and PEACE! This is a deal that must happen. MAGA. MAKE GREENLAND GREAT AGAIN!"
Trump also spoke with locals over speakerphone in video that supporters shared online.
A source familiar told Fox News Digital on Monday that Trump Jr. is "popping in for a quick day-long trip to shoot some fun video content for podcasting. He will not be meeting with any government officials or political figures."
Trump has previously flirted with the idea of buying the territory from Denmark, claiming it is of vital national security interest to the United States.
At a press conference at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate Tuesday afternoon, the president-elect again said, "Denmark should give it up."
The newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is preparing to roll out once the Trump administration is sworn in with the stated goal of slashing government waste and providing increased transparency when it comes to government spending.
DOGE is not a Cabinet-level department but rather a blue-ribbon committee outside of the government that will be tasked with examining issues of government spending, waste, efficiency and operations.
Proponents of DOGE, headed by Tesla and Space X CEO Elon Musk and tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, have suggested that $2 trillion dollars in government waste can be cut from the federal budget through the reduction of spending, eliminating government programs and trimming the federal workforce.
Although the commission does not have formal authority, it has pledged to work closely with the Office of Management and Budget to reform regulatory recissions, administrative reductions and cost savings.
In addition to a working relationship with certain government agencies, DOGE will likely suggest executive actions that may be taken by President Trump.
Several House Committees and caucuses have already expressed the intention and willingness to work with DOGE until it ceases operations on July 4, 2026, the 250th anniversary of 1776’s Independence Day, to accomplish the goal of slashing government waste.
"Our national debt has surpassed a staggering $36 trillion and should be a wakeup call for all Americans," House Delivering Outstanding Government Efficiency Caucus Co-Chair Rep. Aaron Bean (R-Fla.) has explained. "We must take action to avoid diving headfirst off the cliff of fiscal ruin. I’m thrilled with President-elect Trump’s appointment of Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead DOGE, but taking on Crazy Town will be no easy task—they will need partners.
"Our DOGE Caucus, will work closely with the Department of Government Efficiency to help rein in reckless spending and stop the abuse of taxpayer dollars."
House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) intends to establish a new subcommittee next, led by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) that will oversee Delivering on Government Efficiency. The subcommittee will be tasked with coordinating with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) through investigating wasteful spending, looking at how to reorganize federal agencies with an eye to improving efficiency and identifying solutions to eliminate bureaucratic "red tape."
"It is time to cut red tape, hold the unchecked federal workforce accountable, ensure programs are efficient, & work with@DOGE to tackle waste, fraud, & abuse," Comer posted on X in December.
On the Senate side, GOP Sen. Joni Ernst will chair the Senate Delivering Outstanding Government Efficiency Caucus.
"’Iowans elected me with a mandate to cut Washington’s pork!" Ernst said about the DOGE efforts. "From billion-dollar boondoggles to welfare for politicians and trillion-dollar slush funds, my decade-long investigations have exposed levels of abuse that are almost too insane to believe.
"The tables are finally turning, the knives are out, and waste is on the chopping block. As President Trump, Elon Musk, and Vivek Ramaswamy prepare to take action, the Senate DOGE Caucus is ready to carry out critical oversight in Congress and use our legislative force to fight against the entrenched bureaucracy, trim the fat, and get Washington back to work for Americans.’"
Several historical examples exist in American history, with mixed results and less ambitious goals, of government-led efforts to cut back on unnecessary spending and staffing.
President Theodore Roosevelt, in 1905, set up the Keep Commission, which attempted to "place the conduct of the Government on the most economical and effective basis in the light of the best modern business practice" and has been hailed as the "first of the orderly examinations into [Federal] administrative problems."
Five years later, President William Howard Taft was appropriated $100,000 by Congress to "inquire into the methods of transacting the public business of the government in the several executive departments and other government establishments, with the view of… changing old methods…so as to attain greater efficiency… and recommend to Congress what changes in law may be necessary."
President Bill Clinton’s administration launched the National Partnership for Reinventing Government (NPR), led by Vice President Al Gore, with the goal to make the federal government "work better, cost less, and get results Americans care about."
Gore said, "We are turning some of today’s agencies into smaller, sleeker organizations that won’t look like government at all. They will be like private companies, with a real CEO on contract to cut costs, and a free hand when it comes to the remaining government rules."
President Obama signed an executive order in June 2011 establishing the Campaign to Cut Government Waste that created an 11-member Oversight and Accountability Board with a stated mission to give "taxpayers the same ability to track where their dollars are going and to have the same confidence that the dollars are not being lost to waste, fraud, or abuse, not just for Recovery Act dollars, but more broadly."
Steve Davis, president of Boring Co., Musk’s tunneling operation, and Michael Kratsios, former US chief technology officer, are among those leading interviews of potential DOGE employee candidates, according to people familiar with the effort.
DOGE is believed to have hired roughly 10 individuals so far and is seeking software engineers as well as people with experience in artificial intelligence. Other high-profile names believed to be associated with getting DOGE off the ground include Palantir co-founder and investor Joe Lonsdale, investor Marc Andreessen, hedge fund manager Bill Ackman and former Uber chief executive Travis Kalanick.
For now, DOGE is operating out of glass-walled office space in Washington leased by SpaceX, another Musk-owned company, about four blocks away from the White House.
Some other key areas that DOGE hopes to make progress in, Musk and Ramaswamy have previously outlined, include simplifying the U.S. tax code, auditing the Department of Defense, returning National Institutes of Health money to taxpayers and foreign aid transparency.
"I expect DOGE to operate in ‘founder mode’ — lean, decisive and led by two great people in Vivek and Elon who are obsessed over every detail," said James Fishback, a Ramaswamy confidant, and the co-founder of investment firm Azoria Partners.
President-elect Trump said on Tuesday that negotiating away the Panama Canal was a "very big mistake" by former President Jimmy Carter – ahead of Carter's state funeral later this week.
Trump said at a press conference that he believes the canal, which he would like the the U.S. to reclaim, is why Carter lost the 1980 presidential election to Ronald Reagan, who also opposed the treaty Carter negotiated to hand over the canal.
"It's a bad part of the Carter legacy," Trump said.
"He was a good man. I knew him a little bit, and he was a very fine person. But that was a big mistake."
"Giving the Panama Canal to Panama was a very big mistake. We lost 38,000 people. It cost us the equivalent of a trillion dollars, maybe more... They say it was the most expensive structure… ever built. And giving that away was a horrible thing. And I believe that's why Jimmy Carter lost the election, even more so than the hostages," he said.
Speaking in Palm Beach, Florida, Trump lamented the fact Carter purportedly "gave" the canal lands back to the Panamanians "for $1." According to reports, no part of the treaty mentioned a $1 sale.
"I thought [giving the canal back] was a terrible thing to do," Trump said.
When reporters pressed Trump on criticizing Carter on the day of his Washington wake, the president-elect said he was a "very fine person" but that his politics left something to be desired.
Trump has also sparred verbally with Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino about his plans for the canal.
However, more than a century ago, another Republican – Theodore Roosevelt – celebrated the way the United States spearheaded the canal project in part through some diplomatic maneuvering.
In the early 1900s, as the Colombian Senate balked at a treaty favoring U.S. control, Panama was in the process of declaring its independence from Bogota – and America quickly recognized the new nation and effectively circumvented the Colombians.
In 1903, President Roosevelt boasted of the accomplishment.
"Fortunately, the crisis came at a period when I could act unhampered [by Congress]. Accordingly, I took the Isthmus, started the canal and then left Congress not to debate the canal, but to debate me," he said.
Trump’s plans to retake the canal have earned him praise from otherwise regular critics.
Meghan McCain, daughter of the late Sen. John McCain – with whom Trump often sparred – backed the man she otherwise tends to critique.
"Trump is right about the Panama Canal. This is very personal – my dad was born in the Panama Canal Zone."
The elder McCain was born in 1936 at the then-Coco Solo U.S. Navy installation – as a U.S. citizen since the canal zone was controlled by Americans.
The late Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina also expressed reservations about canal negotiations in the 1970s.
In a letter to then-President Ford, Thurmond warned the Panamanians were cozying up to the Communist Cuban government, and that "any action on the part of the United States that indicates the slightest position of weakness or a willingness to accommodate anti-American sentiment in Panama, would result in many other Latin American countries moving in the same leftward direction."
Thurmond led 35 senators in crafting a resolution opposing what he called the surrender of U.S. sovereignty in the PCZ.
"Any loss of control of the Canal would be extremely detrimental to our vital interests, especially in Latin America. We should make it clear that U.S. vital interests there are not negotiable."
Carter's negotiations led to Panama taking full control of the canal by 1999. His other major diplomatic negotation – peace accords between Egypt and Israel – also remain intact today.
FIRST ON FOX – Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., introduced a bill that would pull federal highway funding from states such as New York that issue driver's licenses and identification cards to illegal immigrants.
Tenney, who co-chaired the House Election Integrity Caucus amid the 2024 race that ended in President-elect Trump's victory, re-introduced her bill – named the Red Light Act – at the start of the new Congress.
The proposal says it aims to "withhold federal highway funds from States that provide drivers licenses or identification cards to aliens who are unlawfully present in the United States, and for other purposes."
"Our nation is grappling with an unprecedented migrant crisis, yet some states, like New York, are incentivizing and rewarding criminals with driver's licenses and identification cards," Tenney said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "In New York, the Green Light Law has given licenses to illegal immigrants, allowing these dangerous individuals to roam freely in our country, brutally attacking, raping, and murdering members of our community. In addition, this law also restricts law enforcement from accessing DMV records, preventing the enforcement of our nation's immigration laws. This legislation ensures states that refuse to comply with our nation's immigration policies are not rewarded with federal funding."
Passed by the state legislature in 2019 and signed by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the Green Light Law allows New York to issue driver's licenses to undocumented individuals. As part of a sanctuary policy intended to block deportations, it also directed the state Department of Motor Vehicles to withhold records from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or other federal law enforcement without a court order or judicial warrant signed by a judge for such information.
Trump's incoming border czar Tom Homan, a native of upstate New York, floated the idea of blocking vehicles with New York license plates from entering the U.S. from the Canadian border if the state does not repeal the Green Light Law.
"To me, this is a high priority," Homan told the Buffalo News. "I grew up in New York state, I still own a home in the state. What happens in New York means a lot to me."
"That would be bizarre to me that anyone thinks that stopping our vehicles from coming in and out of our country, keeping New Yorkers in a foreign country, is a smart path forward," New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said at an unrelated press conference on Monday, responding to Homan's proposal. "I'd like to sit down and have that conversation."
Tenney's bill would grant the secretary of transportation authority to withhold 100% of the amount required to be apportioned to a state's federal highway system for fiscal year 2025 and each fiscal year afterward.
The measure also allows the secretary to reapportion the funding to states that repeal any such laws that provide driver's licenses or identification cards to aliens who are unlawfully present in the U.S.
"We're going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, which has a beautiful ring. That covers a lot of territory," Trump said on Tuesday. "The Gulf of America. What a beautiful name. And it's appropriate."
Trump made the announcement in his first press conference since Congress certified his election win over Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday from Mar-a-Lago. He opened the press event announcing DAMAC Properties will invest $20 billion in new data centers across the country in addition to previewing a bevy of policy issues ahead of his inauguration this month.
Trump did not detail how his administration will go about renaming the body of water, but went on to slam Mexico for the immigration woes in the U.S. under the Biden White House.
"Mexico has to stop allowing millions of people to pour into our country. They can stop them. And we’re going to put very serious tariffs on Mexico and Canada, because Canada, they come through Canada too, and the drugs that are coming through are at record numbers, record numbers. So we’re going to make up for that by putting tariffs on Mexico and Canada, substantial tariffs," he said.
Trump has referred to Canada as the nation's "51st state," while his son and other Trump allies traveled to Greenland this week following Trump repeatedly called for the U.S. to acquire the autonomous territory under the Kingdom of Denmark.
"As someone who has traveled to some fascinating places across the globe as an outdoorsman, I’m excited to stop into Greenland for a little bit of fun this week," Donald Trump Jr. told Fox News Digital of his trip to Greenland.
A source familiar told Fox News Digital that Trump Jr. is "popping in for a quick day-long trip to shoot some fun video content for podcasting." Trump Jr. is not meeting with government officials while in Greenland, Fox Digital previously reported.
Fox News Digital's Anders Hagstrom and Brooke Signman contributed to this report.
The Laken Riley Act passed the House of Representatives on Tuesday afternoon, the first piece of federal legislation approved by the 119th Congress after the House agreed to its rules for the term.
All voting Republicans supported the bill, along with 48 Democrats – more than the total left-wing lawmakers who voted for it last year. It passed on a 264 to 159 margin and will now be sent to the Senate.
The bill is named after a nursing student who was killed by an illegal immigrant while jogging on the University of Georgia's campus.
The bill would require federal immigration authorities to detain illegal immigrants found guilty of theft-related crimes. It also would allow states to sue the Department of Homeland Security for harm caused to their citizens because of illegal immigration.
Jose Ibarra, who was sentenced to life in prison for Riley's murder, had previously been arrested but was never detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, the agency previously said.
The bill passed the House along bipartisan lines last year after it was first introduced by Rep. Mike Collins, R-Ga.
All voting Republicans plus 37 Democrats voted for the bill by a margin of 251 to 170. All the "no" votes on the bill were Democrats.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said of the Democrats who opposed it last year, "I think they put politics ahead of principle. And we're going to find out where they stand on this now."
"We have every intention of doing, really important, bipartisan work," Johnson said hours before the vote on Tuesday. "We welcome with open arms any Democrat who wants to help us solve these problems because the American people demand and deserve it, it's overdue. And, we'll be looking for that and we'll see how it shakes out."
It was not taken up in the Senate, however, which at the time was controlled by then-Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
"[T]he Laken Riley Act, sponsored by Rep. Mike Collins, holds the Biden Administration accountable for their role in these tragedies through their open border policies, requires detention of illegal aliens who commit theft and mandates ICE take them into custody, and allows a state to sue the Federal government on behalf of their citizens for not enforcing the border laws, particularly in the case of parole," House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said in his daily House floor lookout.
"House Republicans won’t stop fighting to secure the border and protect American communities. When will Democrats finally decide enough is enough?"
The Senate is also poised to vote on the bill this week.
It is one of several border security bills House Republicans have reintroduced this year as they prepare to take over all the levers of power in Washington, D.C.
Republicans held the House and took over the Senate in the November elections. President-elect Donald Trump will take office on Jan. 20.
Donald Trump Jr. arrived in Greenland on Tuesday as his father, President-elect Trump, made remarks that sparked speculation that the U.S. may seek to acquire the Danish territory.
Trump Jr. landed in Nuuk, the Arctic territory's capital, to meet with locals, visit cultural sites and shoot video for a podcast. The president-elect posted a video showing a plane emblazoned with the word "TRUMP" landing in Nuuk.
"Don Jr. and my Reps landing in Greenland," Trump wrote. "The reception has been great. They, and the Free World, need safety, security, strength, and PEACE! This is a deal that must happen. MAGA. MAKE GREENLAND GREAT AGAIN!"
Trump also spoke with locals over speakerphone in video that supporters shared online.
A source familiar told Fox News Digital on Monday that Trump Jr. is "popping in for a quick day-long trip to shoot some fun video content for podcasting. He will not be meeting with any government officials or political figures."
The trip comes as President-elect Trump seeks to buy the mineral-rich, geographically important territory.
At a press conference at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate on Tuesday afternoon, the president-elect again said that "Denmark should give it up."
President Biden’s recent move to award the prestigious Medal of Freedom to progressive megadonor George Soros has sparked criticism both on social media and from one crime expert who spoke to Fox News Digital.
"President Biden’s decision to award George Soros the Medal of Freedom is a slap in the face to the citizens and crime victims suffering under the policies and politicians he has promoted," Zack Smith, Heritage Foundation legal fellow and co-author of "Rogue Prosecutors: How Radical Soros Lawyers Are Destroying America's Communities," told Fox News Digital after a weekend ceremony awarding the Medal of Freedom to Soros, via his son Alex, who has taken over the family's $25 billion empire.
"Soros has been a major donor to far-left politicians and has promoted policies that undermine the rule of law in our country. Given Biden’s embrace of these policies and the funding Soros has provided, this looks like nothing more than an effort to reward and keep happy one of the Left’s major donors (and his family). It cheapens what should be a prestigious award and gives everyday Americans yet another reason to be disgusted by the current Administration’s actions."
The award, the nation’s highest civilian honor, is given to individuals who have made exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values or security of the United States, world peace or other significant societal, public or private endeavors, the White House said in a statement.
Soros, a mega-Democrat donor, runs a web of non-profits that bankroll various candidates around the world who align with his progressive agenda, including his Open Society Foundations. Soros has given over $32 billion to Open Society Foundations since 1984, according to its website.
The White House said that Soros’ philanthropy across the world has strengthened democracy, human rights, education and social justice.
Conservatives on social media disagreed and made the case that giving the medal to Soros sent the wrong message given the alleged effects Soros-backed policies have had on crime.
"Police officers deserve the Medal of Freedom for dealing with violent criminals set free by Soros prosecutors," GOP Sen. Tom Cotton posted on X.
"George Soros is responsible for the breakdown of American society," conservative lawyer Marina Medvin posted on X. "His goal is the destruction of the West. He supports illegal immigrants, Antifa, Palestinian terror enthusiasts, campus disrupters, etc. Of course this is all wonderful in Biden’s world. So he’s giving Soros the highest civilian honor."
"A travesty that Biden is giving Soros the Medal of Freedom," Tesla and Space X CEO Elon Musk posted on X.
"A clear sign Joe Biden lost his mind or he's not in control, for awarding George Soros a Presidential Medal of Freedom," political commentator Richie Greenberg, who led the effort to recall Soros-backed San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin from office, posted on X.
"Few have risen to the level of criminal justice arch-nemesis as Soros has. This is a slap to countless victims of crime enabled by Soros DAs. Truly disgusting."
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House and Open Society Foundations but did not receive a response.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was also awarded the Medal of Freedom on Saturday, prompting similar outrage from conservatives.
Clinton, the White House said, made "history many times over decades in public service," becoming the first female senator from New York and the first first lady to hold elected office.
Fox News Digital’s Michael Dorgan contributed to this report
President-elect Donald Trump railed against the ongoing "lawfare" against him during his first public remarks since Congress certified his decisive election win over Vice President Kamala Harris.
"They're playing with the courts, as you know, they've been playing with the courts for four years. Probably got me more votes because I got the highest number of votes ever gotten by a Republican by far, actually, by a lot. And, you know, we had a great election, so I guess it didn't work. But even to this day, they're playing with the courts and they're friendly judges that like to try and make everybody happy .. It's called lawfare, it's called weaponization of justice," Trump said Tuesday during a press conference at Mar-a-Lago.
Trump held the press conference, which was his first since Congress certified his election win on Monday, to announce DAMAC Properties will invest $20 billion in new data centers across the country. DAMAC's owner, Hussain Sajwani, said the investment is aimed at facilitating the development of AI and cloud-based technologies.
Trump took aim at the legal battles he has faced in the last four years during the address, slamming special counsel Jack Smith as well as New York Judge Juan Merchan.
"I call it the Injustice Department. What they've done is so bad, the whole world has watched that. And, it took work, but it got me a lot of votes, because when explained, we have a judge in New York is a very crooked judge," he said, referring to Justice Juan Merchan who presides over the New York v. Trump case. "I'm under a gag order. I can't even talk about aspects of the case that are the most vital aspects I'm going to do. You know that I'm the president-elect of the United States of America. I'm a former very successful president."
Merchan announced earlier this month that he will sentence Trump in the New York v. Trump case on Jan. 10, ahead of his inauguration as president on Jan. 20. Trump's legal team filed a motion to delay sentencing, which Merchan denied on Monday afternoon.
"Today, President Trump’s legal team moved to stop the unlawful sentencing in the Manhattan D.A.’s Witch Hunt. The Supreme Court’s historic decision on Immunity, the state constitution of New York, and other established legal precedent mandate that this meritless hoax be immediately dismissed," Trump spokesperson and incoming White House communications director Steven Cheung told Fox Digital on Monday morning.
"The American People elected President Trump with an overwhelming mandate that demands an immediate end to the political weaponization of our justice system and all of the remaining Witch Hunts. We look forward to uniting our country in the new administration as President Trump makes America great again," Cheung continued.
Trump was found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records in the Manhattan case in May. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office worked to prove that Trump falsified business records to conceal a $130,000 payment to former porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election to quiet her claims of an alleged affair with Trump in 2006. Trump has maintained his innocence in the case.
Smith, who led the investigation into Trump's handling of classified documents after his first term in the White House, is set to release a final report on the investigation. Two of Trump's former co-defendants in the classified documents case, Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, filed an emergency motion on Monday in an effort to block the report's release.
"These Defendants will irreparably suffer harm as civilian casualties of the Government’s impermissible and contumacious utilization of political lawfare to include release of the unauthorized Report," Nauta and De Oliveira's attorneys wrote in an emergency motion filed on Monday. "The Final Report relies on materials to which Smith, as disqualified special counsel, is no longer entitled access— making his attempt to share such materials with the public highly improper."
The judge presiding over the case blocked Smith's efforts to release the report on Tuesday.
Trump slammed Smith as "deranged" during his Tuesday remarks while taking a victory lap that the court cases brought against him since the 2020 election have fizzled out since the 2024 election. Trump has maintained his innocence in the various state and federal cases brought against him, arguing they were examples of "lawfare" intended to hamper his campaign to reclaim the White House.
"I defeated deranged Jack Smith. He's a deranged individual. I guess he's on his way back to The Hague. And we won those cases. Those were the biggest ones. And, the press made such a big deal out of them. But we did nothing wrong. We did nothing wrong on anything. And the people saw that, you know, when they vote to when you went to Republicans," he said.
Fox News Digital's Anders Hagstrom and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
President-elect Donald Trump is keeping up his taunts of referring to Canada as the United States' 51st state.
"Many people in Canada LOVE being the 51st State," Trump argued in a social media post on Monday.
Trump emphasized that "if Canada merged with the U.S., there would be no Tariffs, taxes would go way down, and they would be TOTALLY SECURE from the threat of the Russian and Chinese Ships that are constantly surrounding them. Together, what a great Nation it would be!!!"
In recent weeks, the former and now president-elect has trolled the United States' neighbor to the north, musing about it becoming the 51st state, and posting a doctored photo of him standing beside a Canadian flag high atop a mountain.
Additionally, his recent mocking of longtime Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, repeatedly referring to him as "governor," along with his threat to impose massive tariffs on Canada, was likely a contributing factor in Trudeau's resignation announcement this week.
Trump's fixation on Canada comes as he also turns up the volume on his calls for Denmark to sell the sparsely populated but massive North Atlantic island of Greenland to the U.S.
However, what if the unlikely expansionist scenario of Canada joining the U.S. actually came to fruition?
Hypothetically, it could be a massive political boon for Democrats at the expense of Republicans.
Canada's modern political history points to the left.
"The Liberals have been in charge of the Canadian federal government for the majority of the time since World War Two," longtime Republican strategist Dave Carney noted to Fox News.
It is likely the voters supporting those governments would vote for Democrats rather than Republicans if Canada became the 51st state.
With a population of slightly more than 40 million, Canada would become the most populous state in the U.S., edging out blue-state California for the honors.
Canada's addition to the U.S. as the nation's largest state could give a big boost to the Democrats in the battle for Congressional majorities and the electoral vote count in presidential elections.
Rich Lowry, editor-in-chief of the prominent conservative magazine National Review, warned in an opinion piece for the New York Post that "Canada would be a blue-state behemoth, matching California in population…and, presumably, in reliably Democratic politics."
"We might think we’d annex Canada and make it more like us, but — with two Democratic senators and a huge tranche of electoral votes for Democratic presidential candidates — Canada would surely make us more like it," Lowry predicted.
Veteran political scientist Wayne Lesperance agreed, noting that "Canada as a state would bring millions of voters more likely to align with the Democrats' agenda and ideology. And with 40 million voters, the new 51st state would be the largest state in the union with a congressional delegation much more likely to oppose Trump and his party's political agenda."
Lesperance, president of the New Hampshire-based New England College, said if Trump "is serious, and does bring a proposal forward, I would expect tremendous support for his initiative…especially from Democrats."
Democratic strategist and political analyst Van Jones, on CNN, said that Canada would "be a huge blue state" and that "if Canada wants to come here and rescue us, I am more than happy."
However, Carney, noting that the likelihood of Canada joining the U.S. is extremely slim, said that it is a great negotiating strategy by Trump when it comes to negotiations with America's northern neighbor.
"He has an ability to use tools that no one would have ever thought of," Carney said. "He has the ability and the willingness to use every tool in his toolbox."
Carney, the top political adviser to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a veteran of numerous Republican presidential campaigns, added that Trump "uses the soft power of the presidency to get people to pay attention and get what he wants."
