House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., has noted that he plans to attend President Donald Trump's Tuesday night address before a joint session of Congress.
"Given my responsibilities in the House, I plan to attend the speech, along with other members of the Democratic leadership, to make clear to the nation that there is a strong opposition party ready, willing and able to serve as a check and balance on the excesses of the administration," Jeffries said in a message to colleagues.
"The decision to attend the Joint Session is a personal one and we understand that members will come to different conclusions," Jeffries noted.
"However, it is important to have a strong, determined and dignified Democratic presence in the chamber. The House as an institution belongs to the American people, and as their representatives we will not be run off the block or bullied," he continued.
Some Democratic lawmakers have announced that they will skip the event.
"The State of the Union is that the President is spitting in the face of the law," Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., asserted in a Monday post on X. "He is letting an unelected billionaire fire cancer researchers and wreck federal agencies like the Social Security Administration at will. I won't be attending tomorrow's Joint Address."
Then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi famously ripped up pages of Trump's speech in 2020 after the president delivered his State of the Union address.
"Our focus remains on driving down the high cost of living for everyday Americans and pushing back against the far-right extremism that Republicans have unleashed on the country," Jeffries said. "Thank you all for your continued leadership on behalf of the people and in defense of the American way of life."
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, granted clemency to a fired police sergeant just days after the officer was sentenced to prison in connection with shooting and killing an unarmed man accused of stealing sunglasses.
Wesley Shifflett, 36, was sentenced Friday to three years in prison after he was found guilty of recklessly handling a firearm in the Feb. 22, 2023, killing of 37-year-old Timothy McCree Johnson. He was acquitted of involuntary manslaughter in Johnson's death.
Youngkin granted Shifflett clemency on Sunday, allowing the officer to be freed from prison, although his felony conviction will remain.
"I am convinced that the court's sentence of incarceration is unjust and violates the cornerstone of our justice system—that similarly situated individuals receive proportionate sentences," Youngkin said in a statement. "I want to emphasize that a jury acquitted Sgt. Shifflett of the more serious charge of involuntary manslaughter, a conviction for which the sentencing guidelines recommend no jail time or up to six months’ incarceration."
"In this case, the court rejected the Senior Probation and Parole Officer’s recommendation of no incarceration nor supervised probation and instead imposed a sentence of five years’ incarceration with two suspended and an additional five years of probation," the governor continued. "Sgt. Shifflett has no prior criminal record, and was, by all accounts, an exemplary police officer. It is in the interest of justice that he be released immediately."
Youngkin also noted that his clemency does not limit Shifflett’s right to appeal his conviction for reckless discharge of a firearm.
Johnson’s mother, Melissa Johnson, said Youngkin's decision felt as if it validated Shifflett's killing of her son.
"Why now do we find it necessary to vacate or not consider the jury’s verdict, and to think that this honorable and fair judge did not sentence within the guidelines that he was afforded to?" she said at a news conference on Monday. "I don’t know where everyone’s coming from — if it's because my son was Black, or because it was attempted shoplifting, or because he’s not here to defend himself."
Fairfax County Commonwealth Attorney Steve Descano, a Democrat whose office prosecuted the case, said at the news conference that the governor "stuck his face in where it didn't belong."
"If you care about having a fair justice system of Virginia that’s untainted by outside influence, Glenn Youngkin just spit your face," Descano said.
Descano also argued that the governor was siding with a "White officer that was convicted of a crime that ended in a Black man being killed."
During the trial, prosecutors argued that Shifflett, who at the time was a sergeant with Fairfax County police, acted recklessly when he shot and killed Johnson after a short foot pursuit outside Tysons Corner Center. Police had received a report from security guards that Johnson had stolen sunglasses from a Nordstrom department store.
Shifflett and another officer chased Johnson into a densely wooded area near the mall before Shifflett shot twice at Johnson, who was unarmed.
The former sergeant testified that he shot Johnson in self-defense after he believed Johnson reached into his waistband once he fell.
Body camera video played during the trial showed Shifflett yelling "Get on the ground" before firing two shots at Johnson two seconds later. After firing his weapon, Shifflett immediately shouted, "Stop reaching," and purported to other officers that he observed Johnson putting his hand in his waistband.
Shifflett testified that his "motor functions were operating more quickly than I could verbalize."
Johnson was heard in the footage saying, "I’m not reaching for nothing. I don’t have nothing."
Melissa Robey, executive director of the police advocacy group We Black Blue, said Monday that Shifflett's mother called her three weeks ago about her son's upcoming sentencing hearing to ask for help.
Robey, who previously worked in Youngkin's administration, said she contacted Shifflett's attorneys, who ultimately lobbied the governor for clemency.
"Somebody's got to say 'Enough is enough,'" Robey said. "These guys put that uniform on every single day — they're there for your worst day. When is it time to stand up for them?"
President Donald Trump is expected to showcase the avalanche of activity during his first six weeks in the White House when he heads to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to deliver a primetime address to Congress and the nation.
"Best Opening Month of any President in history," Trump wrote in a social media post last week, as he touted his accomplishments - many of them controversial - since his Jan. 20 inauguration.
Trump, on the eve of his first major speech to Congress during his second presidential administration, vowed that "TOMORROW NIGHT WILL BE BIG. I WILL TELL IT LIKE IT IS!"
However, the latest polls indicate Americans are divided on the job he's done so far in the White House.
Trump stands at 45% approval and 49% disapproval in one of the latest polls, a Marist College for PBS News and NPR. Additionally, a CNN survey, also conducted last week, put the president's approval rating at 48%, with 52% disapproving.
Meanwhile, Trump's approval ratings were slightly above water in other new polls, including one for CBS News that was also in the field in recent days and released over the weekend.
With the president an extremely polarizing and larger-than-life politician, it is no surprise that the latest polls indicate a massive partisan divide over Trump's performance. The surveys spotlight that the vast majority of Democrats give the president a big thumbs down, while Republicans overwhelmingly approve of the job he is doing in office.
While Americans are split on Trump's performance, the approval ratings for his second term are an improvement from his first tour of duty, when he started 2017 in negative territory and remained underwater throughout his four-year tenure in the White House.
One reason - Trump nowadays enjoys rock solid Republican support.
"He never had support among Democrats in the first administration, but he also had some trouble with Republicans," Daron Shaw, a politics professor and chair at the University of Texas, noted.
Shaw, who serves as a member of the Fox News Decision Team and the Republican partner on the Fox News Poll, emphasized "that’s one acute difference between 2017 and 2025. The party’s completely solidified behind him."
Trump has been moving at warp speed during his opening six weeks back in the White House with a flurry of executive orders and actions. His moves not only fulfilled some of his major campaign trail promises, but also allowed the returning president to flex his executive muscles, quickly put his stamp on the federal government, make major cuts to the federal workforce and also settle some long-standing grievances.
Trump as of Monday had signed 81 executive orders since his Jan. 20 inauguration, according to a count from Fox News, which far surpasses the rate of any recent presidential predecessors during their first weeks in office.
Expect Trump in his address to Congress and the nation to showcase the moves – many of them controversial – that he has taken so far. That includes a high-profile crackdown on immigration, threatening tariffs on major trading partners, including Canada and Mexico, and upending the nation's international agenda and freezing foreign aid.
"It’s been a flooding-of-the-zone here every day, often multiple times a day," Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion, told Fox News Digital. "We’re just seeing a lot of things happening with little time for the public to digest. The net effect of it all is there’s a sense, on the part of the public, that some things are moving just a little too fast."
While an improvement over his first term, Trump's approval ratings are lower six weeks into his presidency than any of his recent predecessors in the White House.
Shaw noted that neither Trump nor former President Joe Biden "started out with overwhelming approval. This is not like the honeymoon period that we historically expect presidents to enjoy….Historically the other side gives you a little bit of leeway when you first come in. That just doesn’t happen anymore."
Biden's approval rating hovered in the low to mid 50s during the first six months of his single term as president, with his disapproval in the upper 30s to the low to mid 40s.
However, Biden's numbers sank into negative territory in the late summer and autumn of 2021, in the wake of his much-criticized handling of the turbulent U.S. exit from Afghanistan and amid soaring inflation and a surge of migrants crossing into the U.S. along the nation's southern border with Mexico.
Biden's approval ratings stayed underwater throughout the rest of his presidency.
"He just got crippled and never recovered," Shaw said of Biden.
An average of all the most recent national polls indicates that Trump's approval ratings are just above water. However, Trump has seen his numbers edge down slightly since returning to the White House in late January, when an average of his polls indicated the president's approval rating in the low 50s and his disapproval in the mid 40s.
"The honeymoon is over, and he's actually governing, and that typically does bring numbers down," veteran political scientist Wayne Lesperance, the president of New Hampshire-based New England College, told Fox News Digital. "I expect the numbers to continue to slip as the changes in Washington really do begin to impact people's everyday lives."
Shaw noted that Trump's "rating on the economy is about minus four, which is 25 points better than Biden. He’s above water on immigration. His best issue right now is crime. He’s plus ten on crime."
However, Shaw emphasized that inflation, the issue that helped propel Trump back into the White House, remains critical to the president's political fortunes.
"If prices remain high, he’s going to have trouble," Shaw warned.
Former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., is fundraising off Friday's explosive Oval Office meeting last week that left Europe and other U.S. allies shaken and frustrated.
Cheney's group, Our Great Task, emailed donors suggesting that President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Department of Government Efficiency leader Elon Musk were "tools of the Kremlin."
"Too many leaders in Washington are afraid to speak the truth, afraid to stand up for the fundamental values and institutions that safeguard our Republic. And now, Donald Trump is attempting to put America on Putin’s side as he continues his brutal assault on Ukraine," the message read.
"Here’s some truth: Putin invaded Ukraine. NATO is the most successful military alliance in history. Since 1945, American leadership has ensured freedom and security for ourselves and millions of others around the world. Together with our allies, we defeated the Soviet Union — an evil empire that had to build gulags and walls to keep its own people in."
She accused Trump of "appeasement" tactics with Russia's strongman president, Vladimir Putin.
"Donald Trump, JD Vance and Elon Musk have made clear who they are. Only naive fools—or tools of the Kremlin—would abandon NATO, side with Russia, and demand Ukraine surrender in the face of Putin’s brutal aggression," her email continued.
"We all have an obligation at this moment to be the guardrails of democracy, to speak truth to power to defend the rule of law, American freedom, and the Constitution itself."
It ended with the appeal, "Please join me today — donate now to help elect leaders of courage and honor, to show that the determination of those who love freedom is greater than the dedication of those who would destroy it."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was kicked out of the White House by Trump's top foreign affairs officials on Friday after an intense meeting where he and U.S. leaders traded verbal jabs in front of dozens of journalists and the rest of the world.
He had been in Washington to sign an anticipated deal giving the U.S. access to profits from Kyiv's rare earth mineral deposits.
Instead, the meeting devolved into Zelenskyy and Vance talking over each other, with Trump accusing Zelenskyy of toying with World War III.
The Ukrainian leader wanted more assurances of security guarantees beyond the vague contours of the deal, which Trump officials criticized.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on "Sunday Morning Futures" over the weekend of Zelenskyy's demands, "It’s just ridiculous. His requests were ridiculous. They were not reasonable."
There is still no public resolution as of Monday afternoon, but the sit-down fractured the continuously shrinking bloc of Republicans who support continued aid to Ukraine.
Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., compared Trump and Vance to Democrats of the late 20th century who favored Soviet appeasement and said the U.S. was now "on the wrong side" of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Others, like Reps. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., and Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., lamented that Russia came out the winner in the fight but did not place blame on Trump.
And Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., known as both a top Trump ally and Ukraine supporter, praised the president's handling of the situation and called on Zelenskyy to step away from leadership.
When Fox News Digital reached out for comment on Cheney's email, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly simply replied, "Who?"
FIRST ON FOX: The advocacy group Concord Coalition has tapped former Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux, D-Ga., to lead its new "fiscal responsibility" group aimed at lowering the country's $36 trillion in national debt.
Concord Action said they will lead a grassroots effort to achieve a "sustainable" national budget. In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital ahead of the launch, Bourdeaux, the group's president and executive director, previewed Concord Action’s plan to pressure Congress to balance the budget.
"We are getting ready to launch Concord Action, which will complement the Concord Coalition and is intended to build on all the grassroots energy out there around the debt and deficit, to try to start moving the needle in Congress to bring fiscal responsibility and fiscal discipline to Washington," Bourdeaux said.
Bordeaux, who represented Georgia’s 7th Congressional District for one term beginning in 2021, worked on bipartisan legislation to tackle the national budget crisis during her tenure.She was a member of the Blue Dog Task Force on Fiscal Responsibility and Government Reform, a national group that says it's committed to reducing the federal deficit through bipartisan policy development.
Georgia had a Republican-led legislature while Bourdeaux led Georgia's Senate Budget and Evaluation Office from 2007 to 2010. Bourdeaux played an advisory role to the Georgia State Senate in balancing the budget during the 2008 economic downturn.
"I was director of Georgia's Senate Budget and Evaluation Office during the Great Recession," Bourdeaux said. "I helped Georgia balance its budget during the worst fiscal crisis in modern memory. One message coming out of that is it can be done. I was working largely with the Republican leadership to balance the budget. But when we did that, those budgets passed by broad and bipartisan majorities. So this can be done through our regular democratic processes. I want to bring that sensibility to what we're working on here in Concord."
Bordeaux said to expect a digital campaign with a newsletter to get the public involved in Concord Action’s grassroots efforts. There will also be a town hall element to build energy on the ground.
A 2024 Fox News Voter Analysis found the economy was the top issue for Americans, with 4 in 10 voters saying inflation was the most important factor in their vote. Voters had a negative view of the economy, with almost two-thirds rating the economy as not good, 40%, or downright poor, 24%.
As the country approaches another government shutdown deadline and Congress begins budget negotiations for fiscal 2026, Bordeaux said it’s a necessary time to launch Concord Action.
"I think the issue of the debt and deficit is particularly salient to everyone," Bordeaux said. "We've obviously just been through inflation. We've seen interest rates rise. So it really is top of mind for lots of Americans right now."
Concord Action said they will pressure Congress to stop adding to the federal debt and create a "sustainable budget" through "fiscal responsibility."
"We just experienced some pretty serious inflation, and it was driven in part by the deficit in the growing debt," Bordeaux said.
"We are $36 trillion in debt right now just based on our current trajectory. The Congressional Budget Office thinks we will add another $25 trillion to that," she said. "We are spending more on just the interest on debt than we spend on national defense, more than we even spend on Medicare. It's really starting to put a lot of pressure on a lot of big priorities that we have for this country. It is extremely important that we address this now."
Former NCAA athlete Riley Gaines, Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, and a state-level DOGE official are just some of the faces Americans will get a glimpse of inside the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday night.
Members of Congress spoke with Fox News Digital about their guests for President Donald Trump's first address to a joint session of Congress for his second term.
Rep. Marianette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa, said she invited Gaines after they both attended a White House event where Trump signed an executive order aimed at limiting transgender athletes' participation in school sports. Girls' sports was a top issue for Miller-Meeks during her close House race in 2024.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., told Fox News Digital he would be bringing Ross Ulbricht, founder of the darkweb platform Silk Road.
His operation of the site, which was known for facilitating the trafficking of firearms and narcotics, saw him get arrested by the FBI and hit with a sentence of double life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
Ulbricht was pardoned by Trump, who called him a victim of a weaponized government.
In another nod to the Trump administration's work so far, Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, is attending the speech with the chair of her home state's own DOGE task force.
Emily Schmitt, who works as chief administrative officer and general counsel for Sukup grain manufacturing company, was appointed to the role by Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds following Trump's own Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) efforts, led by Elon Musk.
Hinson herself is a member of the House DOGE Caucus.
Among the guests of House GOP Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., are U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame honorees Buzz Schneider and Rob McClanahan. The Minnesota natives were part of the Gold Medal-winning 1980 U.S. Olympic men's hockey team.
Their victory over the Soviet Union that year inspired the sports film, "Miracle on Ice."
Guests invited by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and Main Street Caucus Chairman Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., were a nod to Republicans' backing of law enforcement, Fox News Digital learned.
Roy's guest is Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman Lt. Chris Olivarez.
Johnson is bringing Meade County Sheriff Pat West, who solved a sex trafficking case involving a 13-year-old girl who was abducted by a 33-year-old male sex offender, the congressman's office said.
The border also remains a top issue for Republicans, which Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, is reflecting by inviting the father of Sarah Root, an Iowa native who was killed by an illegal immigrant. A provision known as "Sarah's Law" made it into the Laken Riley Act, the first bill Trump signed when he returned to office.
On the other side of the aisle, Democrats are using their guest tickets to message against Trump's policies.
Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Mark Warner of Virginia, and Rep. April McClain Delaney of Maryland, are bringing former federal workers who lost their jobs during Trump and Musk's DOGE housecleaning efforts.
Warner's office told Fox News Digital the senator was "bringing a laid-off park ranger from the Fredericksburg national battlefield."
"She is a cancer survivor who now has no health insurance," Warner's office said of his guest.
Not all Democrats are following suit, however. Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia is attending with Al Lipphardt, commander in chief of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), from Stone Mountain.
President Donald Trump will make the first address of his second term to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday. His first six weeks were dominated by ongoing executive actions, redefining international relations and government efficiency efforts. Political strategists shared with Fox News Digital what to expect from Trump’s big speech.
Republican strategists say Trump should tell the story of his first six weeks, drawing contrast with former President Joe Biden’s administration. Meanwhile, Democrats are focused on what they say is Trump’s failure to lower prices.
Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., is tasked with the party's rebuttal.
"Trump is going to contrast himself with the previous administration. The previous administration was weak and directionless. No one knew who was in charge. No one really understood what the Biden administration stood for. There couldn’t be a more dramatic change from Biden to Trump," political columnist Kristin Tate said.
Republicans say Trump should highlight the themes of his first six weeks and explain how his executive actions reflect his greater vision for the country.
"He needs to tell a story. He needs to weave in all the things he's done, all this progress over the last month into a story and a theme and tell it," Republican strategist Matt Gorman said. "He did it really well during his inauguration. It's a status update. I think it's really important that he weaves all of these actions and all the things he's done into one big story about what it means for us as Americans but also what it means for his vision for the next three and four years."
Republican strategists told Fox News Digital that Trump should tell Americans how he has already delivered on key campaign promises, including slowing illegal border crossings, reversing Biden’s green energy policies, his "de-weaponization" of the Justice Department and his work to eliminate DEI.
"I expect, and he will, take a victory lap on some of those items because it represents promises made, promises kept. But then he needs to cast the forward-facing vision: Where do we go from here? What are the big-ticket legislative items? How do we get past this legislative debate over one big bill or two separate initiatives and focus on what those bills contain, because time is fleeting," said Republican strategist Colin Reed.
Reed said Trump should focus on "the legislative priorities and go beyond just the executive orders." And as leaders grapple with the fallout of Trump’s heated meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday, Reed said Trump could reset the narrative on Tuesday night.
"For everything that's happened over the last few days on foreign policy, I think it's an opportunity for him to reset the narrative on what he wants to do domestically," Reed said. "The events of Friday are going to obviously cast a shadow over tomorrow. But look, President Trump is in many ways dealing with the leftover mess [of] his predecessor on the global front. In his mind, the issues he's facing, the challenges that happened in Ukraine would not have happened on his watch. He still has the residue of the Biden administration to deal with. That's going to be an overarching narrative for the foreseeable future," Reed added.
TUNE IN: LIVE COVERAGE OF TRUMP'S ADDRESS TO CONGRESS TUESDAY NIGHT ON FOX NEWS
To contrast Trump’s speech, the Democratic National Committee argues that Trump is failing to deliver on his campaign promise to lower costs and boost the economy. DNC Chair Ken Martin has been traveling the country leading up to Tuesday night, telling Americans about the chaos Trump and Elon Musk are creating throughout the U.S.
During Trump’s fifth address to a joint session of Congress, Democrats and Republicans agreed that he is unlikely to invite new Americans into the fold.
"He's president for everyone, but I don't expect Democrats to suddenly have a change of heart. They're trying to figure out less what they think about Trump and more what they're going to do about him. And they don't have an answer for the latter at all. They're very much in an era of confusion right now in their party, trying to figure out what they stand for and how they're going to adjust to actually get a majority of voters, again, just to support them," Gorman added.
Brad Bannon, president of Bannon Communications Research, said Trump has done very little in his first few weeks to appeal to anyone beyond his "base MAGA vote."
"I don't see any sign that he's trying to appeal to anybody who didn't vote for him last year," Bannon said. "He has control of Congress, a compliant Supreme Court. It seems to me everything he's done … has been to appeal to the people who already support him, and he's not making any effort to reach out. I would be very surprised if he does Tuesday night."
Tate, however, urged Trump to extend an olive branch to moderate Democrats during his speech.
"I even believe that he is going to reach out across the aisle and throw some compliments to some of the more moderate Democrats. He really needs to do this. Sen. [John] Fetterman from Pennsylvania would be a great first choice to highlight as a Democrat who is not blinded by hateful partisanship but is rather looking to find common ground to help everyday Americans," she said.
"Trump has a lot to be proud of, and rest assured he will shine a light on all of those grand achievements which have taken place in such a short period of time, and he is going to paint a grand vision for the future of America, including not just what America represents, but what it can be at its finest," Tate continued.
Trump has the headlining speech Tuesday night, but Democrats also have an opportunity with Slotkin's response to frame their own message about what the Democratic Party stands for. Bannon said Trump won because Americans believed the country was headed in the wrong direction.
"Democrats would be making a mistake if their response to Trump is just trying to preserve the status quo," he said. "I think Democrats have to be bold and go bold. Not only a need to defend the worthiness of programs that Trump is arbitrarily cutting, but they need to go beyond that and define the Democratic Party version of what they would do to change the status quo. That's Trump's biggest appeal. He appeals to people who are unhappy with the status quo, and Democrats will fall into a trap if they just say, 'Well, we have to preserve what we already have.'"
Fox News Digital spoke to two political analysts on where President Trump stands grade wise with the American public on some of the top issues heading into his address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night.
Rob Bluey, president and executive editor of the Daily Signal, and Julian Epstein, longtime Democratic operative, attorney, and former chief counsel to the House Judiciary Committee, gave Trump grades of A-F on some of the top issues he is expected to touch on in his speech.
Immigration:
BLUEY: A
"Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and border czar Tom Homan are among the most visible members of the Trump administration," Bluey told Fox News Digital.
"Their work is paying off. Customs and Border Protection is encountering a record-low number of illegal aliens at the southern border. Thanks to combination of increased enforcement and the threat of deportation, President Trump is delivering on his promise to end illegal immigration. He’ll need more resources from Congress to finish the job and finally secure the border."
EPSTEIN: A
"Promises made, promises kept, the public is strongly behind him on this, and Democracies don't survive too long under the Biden open borders approach," Epstein said.
Foreign Policy:
BLUEY: B
"President Trump promised to end the war between Russia and Ukraine in 24 hours. That’s proving to be more difficult, mostly because of Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s unrealistic demands," Bluey said. "After Friday’s blowup in the Oval Office, it’s unclear when peace talks will resume. In the Middle East, Trump is hoping to replicate the success of the Abraham Accords negotiated during his first term. Trump set the tone with his ultimatum for Hamas to release hostages, although there are approximately 59 still in captivity. With the first phase of the ceasefire coming to an end, it’ll take more U.S. diplomacy to get a deal done."
EPSTEIN: B
"The Zelenskyy Presser meltdown didn't make anyone look good on the global stage, Epstein said. "Rule #1: get your act together before you go public. And where are our hostages in Gaza? On the other hand, Trump is playing three-dimensional chess in each theater, where Biden was playing checkers and never made much meaningful progress."
Culture wars (DEI, trans issue):
Bluey: A+
"Using his executive powers, President Trump ordered an end to DEI throughout the federal government—and exposed its deep roots across the bureaucracy," Bluey told Fox News Digital. "By eliminating DEI jobs, he’s ensuring that taxpayers no longer subsidize this Marxist idea. He also signed an executive order banning men from women’s sports, an iconic moment with young athletes cheering him on. His confrontation with Maine Gov. Janet Mills over the issue shows he’s serious about enforcing it."
Epstein: A
"The American people never wanted the cultural revolution that the far left was trying to impose on race and gender, the president will have a super majority of public support on this," Epstein said.
TRUMP SET TO CONTINUE UNPRECEDENTED LEVEL OF ACTIONS, ADDRESS CONGRESS IN 7TH WEEK BACK IN OFFICE
DOGE:
Bluey: A
"Elon Musk and the DOGE team are on the hunt to save taxpayers $1 trillion, which would cut the budget deficit in half," Bluey told Fox News Digital. "They’ve already found $65 billion and showcased the results on a public website. But that represents just 6.5% of Musk’s goal, revealing what a daunting task it will be. Fortunately, there’s finally someone in Washington with the guts to cut spending and bring accountability to federal agencies. Musk shows no signs of slowing down, buoyed by recent polls showing support for spending reductions."
Epstein: B+
"Trump, must, will have public support to rid the bureaucracy of all its flab, self dealing and cultural revolutionary ideology," Epstein said. "But they're acting like they are in a breathless race against father time on this, when in fact they have time to make sure they don't cut off important things like cancer research."
"President Trump acknowledged that inflation will be hard to tame, placing the blame on his predecessor," Bluey explained. "It’s true that the Biden administration’s spending spree got us into this mess. And it doesn’t help that Trump is also facing a bird flu outbreak causing a spike in egg prices. Voters, however, expect Trump to deliver on his promise to help with the cost of living. His efforts to reduce regulatory burdens and provide tax relief are important steps. He’ll need to keep a watchful eye on Americans’ views of their personal finances to measure his success."
Epstein: B
"Biden made a lot of mistakes and did a lot of dumb things, probably the dumbest was back shelving inflation," Epstein said. "For all of the whirlwind, we've seen very little in the way of Trump tackling inflation in the first month. This has to change."
TUNE IN: LIVE COVERAGE OF TRUMP'S ADDRESS TO CONGRESS TUESDAY NIGHT ON FOX NEWS
Trump will address Congress on Tuesday night in a speech expected to tout his accomplishments to date while previewing his agenda in the months and years ahead.
President Donald Trump is set to address a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night for the first time in his second term and is expected to deliver a speech to outline his plans for the nation under the theme of "The Renewal of the American Dream."
The president is scheduled to speak before all members of Congress on Tuesday at 9 p.m. EST.
The speech is not officially called the "State of the Union" because Trump has not been in office for a full year, though it operates in a similar fashion. The yearly presidential address is intended to showcase the administration's achievements and policies.
The president has been working at a breakneck pace to align the federal government with his "Make America Great Again" policies. The president took more than 200 executive actions on his first day in office on Jan. 20 and has not slowed the pace since.
White House officials exclusively told Fox News Digital that the speech, themed "The Renewal of the American Dream," will feature four main sections: accomplishments from Trump's second term thus far at home and abroad; what the Trump administration has done for the economy; the president's renewed push for Congress to pass additional funding for border security; and the president's plans for peace around the globe.
Trump’s joint address "will be must-see TV," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Digital.
"President Trump has accomplished more in one month than any president in four years, and the renewal of the American Dream is well underway," Leavitt said. "In his joint address to Congress, President Trump will celebrate his extraordinarily successful first month in office while outlining his bold, ambitious and commonsense vision for the future."
The president will review his administration’s "accomplishments from his extraordinarily successful first month in office, both here at home and abroad," White House officials told Fox News Digital.
Officials said the president will also discuss what his administration has done and continues to do to "fix the economic mess created by the Biden administration and end inflation for all Americans."
The president is expected to highlight the more than $1.7 trillion in investments made since he took the oath of office to bring manufacturing back to the United States, including increases in energy production, investments in the private sector on AI and more.
Also in the address, the president will push Congress to pass more border security funding to fund deportations and the continued construction of the border wall along the U.S. southern border.
On foreign policy, the president is expected to outline his plans "to restore peace around the world." A White House official told Fox News Digital that he will lay out his plans to end the war in Ukraine. He will also focus on the work of his administration to ensure the release of all hostages from Gaza.
The president posted on his Truth Social account on Monday morning teasing his address, saying, "Tomorrow night will be big. I will tell it like it is!"
When asked for comment on the president’s post, a White House official told Fox News Digital, "As always, President Trump will keep it real and speak the truth."
Fox News Channel, Fox News Digital and Fox News Go will have live coverage of the event Tuesday evening.
Fox News Channel will also preview the speech during its prime-time and afternoon programming.
Most of the media are blaming Donald Trump for the shocking shouting match that led to him kicking Volodymyr Zelenskyy out of the White House.
The result, these journalists and commentators say, is to put America’s relationship with Ukraine on life support as its people continue to fight and die in an invasion launched by Russia, even as Trump continues to tout his good relationship with Vladimir Putin. It’s the Kremlin leader who is the dictator, not Zelenskyy, and it is Russia, not Ukraine, that started the war to restore its smaller neighbor to Soviet satellite status – as Trump well knows.
There is no question that Trump, prodded by JD Vance, lost his temper in the Oval Office and that derailed the meeting, leaving the lunch that had been prepared for their teams to be eaten by staffers.
But Trump also makes a fair point that he can’t do a deal with Russia if he’s constantly attacking its leader (something he’s obviously not inclined to do, given their history, including the Helsinki summit).
At the same time, Zelenskyy was justified in asking for security guarantees, saying that Putin has a history of violating agreements, from the 2014 invasion of Crimea to the brutal war – including the deliberate targeting of civilians – that he launched three years ago.
But Zelenskyy had one job: Manage the meeting with Trump and sign the expected rare minerals agreement. And he utterly failed. He took the bait. And while he might have gotten some sympathy – Britain and France embraced him and promised to send peacekeeping troops after a settlement – the Ukrainian leader may have irreparably damaged his relationship with Trump.
The president was blunt in saying that without U.S. aid, Zelenskyy doesn’t have "the cards" to play – but he is right.
I did a lengthy "Media Buzz" interview with Karoline Leavitt, Donald Trump’s press secretary, leading off with the White House fireworks. She is very skilled at pushing back.
She told me Zelenskyy was "antagonistic, and frankly, he was rude. He picked a fight with the Vice President of the United States." (It was kinda the other way around.) "He repeatedly interrupted President Trump." (That’s true.)
"President Zelenskyy wouldn't even agree to a ceasefire. If you want a war to end. How can you not agree to stop the fighting? You have the greatest deterrent in the Oval Office in President Trump, and you need to trust his ability to deter Russia's aggression."
Well, Zelenskyy doesn’t trust Trump because he believes a ceasefire would lock in Russia’s territorial gains from the invasion. But what choice does he have?
The thing that struck me most is that I can’t imagine this meltdown would have happened if the meeting was held behind closed doors – the usual venue for finalizing agreements. So as much as I support journalistic access, it’s 40 minutes of press questions that framed the dialogue.
So I asked Leavitt why, even though Trump ended things by pronouncing it "great television," he did the meeting in public.
"Because President Trump is the most transparent president in history," she responded. "And as he said, it was great for the cameras to be in there because the American people and the world were able to see what the president and his team has seen behind the scenes in negotiating with President Zelenskyy's team."
Will Zelenskyy come back to the White House when, as Trump said, he’s ready to make peace? Who the hell knows at this point? But it’s a huge setback.
David Sanger, the veteran diplomatic correspondent for the New York Times, has the most penetrating big-picture take.
What the president wants "is a normalization of the relationship with Russia. If that means rewriting the history of Moscow’s illegal invasion three years ago, dropping investigations of Russian war crimes or refusing to offer Ukraine long-lasting security guarantees, then Mr. Trump, in this assessment of his intentions, is willing to make that deal."
Sanger suggests that Trump, a constant critic of NATO, is walking away from the Atlantic alliance that has thrived for 80 years.
The president "makes no secret of his view that the post-World War II system, created by Washington, ate away at American power."
To Trump, "such a system gave smaller and less powerful countries leverage over the United States, leaving Americans to pick up far too much of the tab for defending allies and promoting their prosperity.
"While his predecessors – both Democrats and Republicans – insisted that alliances in Europe and Asia were America’s greatest force multiplier, keeping the peace and allowing trade to flourish, Mr. Trump viewed them as a bleeding wound."
Look, Trump ran as the America First candidate who kept us out of wars. Many Americans, especially Republicans, have lost patience with U.S. aid to Ukraine when the money could be spent at home. The aid, I should add, is nowhere near the $350 billion that Trump keeps claiming, but it’s been substantial.
The rare minerals deal at least would have given the United States an economic incentive to keep backing Ukraine and partially paid our country back for its generosity.
But there is, in my view, a far stronger argument for supporting Ukraine. If Putin succeeds in dismembering part of the country, he will have been rewarded for launching the illegal invasion, and its barbaric practice of deliberately bombing apartment buildings and train stations.
And does anyone seriously believe he would stop there? Isn’t it extremely likely that Putin would attack another neighboring country?
Trump’s approach, aligning ourselves with Russia at the expense of Europe, may well be popular. But if he stands by that plan, the shouting in the White House may be remembered as a turning point for the old world order.
Footnote: Zelenskyy said something monumentally dumb yesterday that vindicated Trump’s stance that he’s not ready to reach a settlement with Russia. Zelenskyy predicted that the end of the war was "still very, very far away," the AP reports.
The president quickly took to Truth Social: "This is the worst statement that could have been made by Zelenskyy, and America will not put up with it for much longer!...What are they thinking?" And Trump later told reporters: "Now maybe somebody doesn’t want to make a deal, and if somebody doesn’t want to make a deal, I think that person won’t be around very long."
What are they thinking? I don’t have a clue. This is clearly self-destructive.
New York City officials are making it easier for illegal aliens to acquire a city residency ID card, in turn making it easier for them to obtain housing and free healthcare, according to reports.
City Council members passed a change backed by Mayor Eric Adams that opens up 23 additional types of IDs that immigrants can provide to obtain a New York City residency card.
The New York Post reported that some of the examples of identification that immigrants can provide include an expired driver’s license; documents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or the Federal Bureau of Prisons; and about 100 other forms of identification to obtain an IDNYC card.
Former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration first introduced the city IDs in 2015 to help migrants access free healthcare, enroll in school, open accounts at banks and more.
The program is open to all New Yorkers who are 10 and older, no matter what their immigration status is.
To date, nearly 1.7 million people have acquired the ID card. Last year there were 132,054 IDs handed out, while the previous year there were 127,859, according to the city.
Not everyone thinks it is a good idea to ease the process for obtaining a city ID. In fact, Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., told The Post it was a "terrible idea."
"To provide a legitimate government ID to individuals in the country illegally then gives them access to government buildings and services is just another incentive [to come here]," she told the publication. "Most disturbing is that there is no vetting, no process to ensure documents provided to prove identity are not fake and, to boot, they destroy these documents that could be helpful in an investigation."
Still, a representative from the city told The Post they vigorously vet applicant backgrounds for criminal issues.
In an Op-Ed published in Harlem World Magazine, Adams highlighted his administration’s accomplishments with immigration.
"New York City is a city built by immigrants, and we are not just stronger because of our diversity – we are the greatest city on the globe because of it," he said.
Beginning in 2022, the city faced what he referred to as an "unprecedented influx of asylum seekers," which his administration tackled head-on.
"Thanks to our efforts, over 189,100 of the 232,600 of the migrants – or 81 percent – who requested services from the city in the last three years have taken the next step in their journeys toward self-sufficiency," Adams said, adding that his administration’s support to asylum seekers while they pursued the American Dream resulted in 84 % of the adults receiving or applying for work authorization.
Adams also highlighted that the city purchased over 53,000 tickets to help those seeking asylum reach their "preferred destinations," reducing the long-term costs of keeping them in the city for taxpayers.
Adams announced last week that the Roosevelt Hotel migrant shelter in Manhattan will be shutting down in the next few months.
The hotel, which was converted into a migrant shelter with about 1,000 rooms, has processed over 173,000 migrants since May 2023. It was set up as a migrant shelter in response to the wave of migrants that began coming to the city in 2022 in search of asylum.
The Roosevelt Hotel’s shelter, along with the Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Center located on the site, will now be closed by June, a source told the New York Post.
"While we’re not done caring for those who come into our care, today marks another milestone in demonstrating the immense progress we have achieved in turning the corner on an unprecedented international humanitarian effort," Adams said in a statement last week.
This week, he continued to address the city’s efforts.
The New York City Department of Small Business Services connected the migrant population to hundreds of job opportunities, he noted, and other parts of his administration continued to search for ways to assist new arrivals, providing things from direct outreach and resource fairs to onsite English as a Second Language courses at shelters.
"Our actions have shown an entire nation what can be accomplished when we lead with compassion and resourcefulness," Adams said. "Because of the work we have done, we will emerge from this crisis stronger than ever before. We are all New Yorkers together: anything that affects one of us, affects us all. I have faith in our great city to continue to be a beacon of hope, and a place where people from every corner of the world can build a new life."
The Department of Defense could save up to $80 million in wasteful spending by cutting loose a handful of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, the agency said Monday.
The Defense Department has been working with the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in slashing wasteful spending, DOD spokesman Sean Parnell said in a video posted to social media.
Parnell listed some of the initial findings flagged by DOGE, much of it consisting of millions of dollars given to support various DEI programs, including $1.9 million for holistic DEI transformation and training in the Air Force and $6 million to the University of Montana to "strengthen American democracy by bridging divides."
Among the initial findings were $1.6 million to the University of Florida to study the social and institutional detriment of vulnerability in resilience to climate hazards in Africa.
"This stuff is just not a core function of our military," Parnell said. "This is not what we do. This stuff is a distraction from our core mission."
"We believe these initial findings will probably save $80 million in wasteful spending," he added.
In an effort to gut spending, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth directed the DOD's civilian workforce to comply with Musk's DOGE productivity email, listing five things they accomplished after initially telling them not to reply.
Last week, Hegseth said his agency would work with DOGE, which has conducted reviews of the Treasury, Labor, Education and Health departments, as well as at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Office of Personnel Management and Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
He added that many DOGE workers are veterans, and it is a "good thing" that they will find deficiencies.
"They care just like we do, to find the redundancies and identify the last vestiges of Biden priorities — the DEI, the woke, the climate change B.S., that's not core to our mission, and we're going to get rid of it all," Hegseth said.
DOGE has come under scrutiny, with some accusing President Donald Trump of giving Musk too much leeway and access to sensitive data.
FIRST ON FOX: Linda McMahon, in her first act as Secretary of Education, is informing all employees that she will lead a "momentous final mission" to send education back to the states, according to a letter obtained by Fox News Digital.
McMahon is sending a letter to all Department of Education (DoEd) employees on Monday evening, informing them of a "new era of accountability" as she oversees President Donald Trump's promise to dissolve the department.
"Our job is to respect the will of the American people and the President they elected, who has tasked us with accomplishing the elimination of bureaucratic bloat here at the Department of Education—a momentous final mission—quickly and responsibly," McMahon wrote to employees in the letter that was shared first with Fox News Digital.
The secretary said that the reconstruction of the department will "profoundly" impact staff, budgets and agency operations.
Under McMahon, the department will work from three base convictions, according to her letter: that parents are the primary decision makers in their children’s education, that taxpayer-funded education should refocus on "meaningful learning in math, reading, science, and history—not divisive DEI programs and gender ideology," and that post-secondary education should be a path to a well-paying career aligned with workforce needs.
"Removing red tape and bureaucratic barriers will empower parents to make the best educational choices for their children," the letter reads. "An effective transfer of educational oversight to the states will mean more autonomy for local communities. Teachers, too, will benefit from less micromanagement in the classroom—enabling them to get back to basics. "
Trump has said that his goal is to "immediately" close the DoEd and that, in the process, he wants McMahon to "put herself out of a job."
"My vision is aligned with the President’s: to send education back to the states and empower all parents to choose an excellent education for their children," McMahon told employees on Monday evening. "The Department of Education’s role in this new era of accountability is to restore the rightful role of state oversight in education and to end the overreach from Washington."
The Trump administration would need congressional approval in order to eliminate the federal department, and McMahon said that she will be partnering with the legislative branch "to determine the best path forward to fulfill the expectations of the President and the American people" in an effort to "eliminate unnecessary bureaucracy so that our colleges, K-12 schools, students, and teachers can innovate and thrive."
"As I’ve learned many times throughout my career, disruption leads to innovation and gets results," the secretary wrote. "We must start thinking about our final mission at the department as an overhaul—a last chance to restore the culture of liberty and excellence that made American education great."
The letter also applauded recent orders by the Trump administration to eliminate critical race theory (CRT), gender ideology, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), while "restoring patriotic education and civics" in schools.
"This review of our programs is long overdue," McMahon said. "The Department of Education is not working as intended. Since its establishment in 1980, taxpayers have entrusted the department with over $1 trillion, yet student outcomes have consistently languished."
"American education can be the greatest in the world. It ought not to be corrupted by political ideologies, special interests, and unjust discrimination. Parents, teachers, and students alike deserve better," McMahon wrote in the letter.
The secretary, who was confirmed by the Senate on Monday evening, encouraged employees to join the mission.
"This is our opportunity to perform one final, unforgettable public service to future generations of students," she said. "I hope you will join me in ensuring that when our final mission is complete, we will all be able to say that we left American education freer, stronger, and with more hope for the future."
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for further comment but did not immediately hear back.
The top official at the FBI New York Field Office was forced to retire on Monday and apologized to his colleagues for not being able to fulfill his commitment to serve in his position for at least two years.
Former FBI director Christopher Wray appointed James Dennehy as the assistant director in charge at the FBI field office in September 2024.
"Late Friday, I was informed that I needed to put my retirement papers in today, which I just did. I was not given a reason for this decision," Dennehy said in a letter to his colleagues. "Regardless, I apologize to all of you for not being able to fulfill my commitment to you to serve as ADIC NY for at least two years.
"But as I leave today, I have an immense feeling of pride – to have represented an office of professionals who will always do the right thing for the right reasons; who will always seek the truth while upholding the rule of law; who will always follow the facts no matter where they lead and be unapologetic about it; who will never bend, break, falter, or quit on your integrity; who will always handle cases and evidence with an overabundance of caution and care for the innocent, the victims, and the process first; and who will always remain independent," he added.
Dennehy provided a top 10 list of things he will miss about working for the FBI, though his commute was not one of them.
But among the items on his list were the investigations, the intensity, the FBI brand, the camaraderie, the badge, the independence, and everyone he worked with.
"I've been told many times in my life, ‘When you find yourself in a hole, sometimes it's best to quit digging,’" he wrote. "Screw that. I will never stop defending this joint. I'll just do it willingly and proudly from outside the wire."
Dennehy's departure is the latest in a series of oustings under President Donald Trump's new administration.
A Democratic Rep. drew criticism on social media Monday when she told DOGE Chief Elon Musk to "Go back to South Africa" and asked "What the hell" he is doing in the United States.
"It was interesting yesterday I was watching a video of an interview of Elon Musk with someone where he said that the Italians should stay in Italy and the Chinese should stay in China, my question to Elon Musk is what the hell are you doing here in America?" Democratic Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez (N.Y.) said outside the HUD Department on Monday evening.
"Go back to South Africa," Rep. Velazquez said.
Velazquez was repeating a claim promoted on social media about an Elon Musk interview in 2023 that liberal fact-checker Snopes deemed to be "false."
Velazquez, who was born in Puerto Rico, added that the fight against DOGE is the fight "for the soul of our nation."
Conservatives on social media blasted Velazquez for her comments on Musk's immigration status.
"Unhinged," Bobby LaValley, Rapid Response Director for House Speaker Mike Johnson, posted on X.
"Completely unhinged…," the White House Rapid Response team added in a post on X.
"Elon has broken their brains so much that Democrats are now embracing nativism," White House Rapid Response’s Greg Price posted on X.
"Nydia Velasquez has finally found an immigrant she doesn't like," Claremont Institute Senior Fellow Jeremy Carl posted on X. "Not the tens of thousands of illegals in her district who live off of our tax dollars – but America's greatest entrepreneur, a White immigrant. When the left tells you who they are believe them."
"Imagine if any Republican said this about any liberal," Right Turn Strategies President Chris Barron posted on X.
Fox News Digital reached out to Velazquez’s office for comment.
Velazquez had gathered outside the HUD building with fellow Democrats in the latest protest of Musk’s DOGE efforts which they argue is making cuts to programs that are vital to the everyday needs of Americans, a criticism the Trump administration has pushed back on.
The controversial comment follows a similar sentiment expressed by Dem. Rep. Marcy Kaptur last week where she questioned Musk’s loyalty to the United States due to his immigrant status.
"Mr. Musk has just been here 22 years," Kaptur said outside the Capitol on Wednesday in a comment that received blowback from conservatives. "And he’s a citizen of three countries. I always ask myself the question, with the damage he’s doing here, when push comes to shove, which country is his loyalty to? South Africa? Canada? Or the United States? And he’s only been a citizen, I’ll say again, 22 years."
Fox News Digital's Kyle Schmidbauer contributed to this report
Linda McMahon, the former World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) CEO, was offically sworn in to serve as the next Secretary of Education under President Donald Trump, who seeks to "immediately" close the department during his term.
The Senate confirmed McMahon to head the Department of Education on Monday evening 51-45, along party lines, the final hurdle of her confirmation process.
McMahon was sworn in shortly after the vote and will begin her official duties on Tuesday morning.
"I am deeply grateful to President Trump for his trust in me to serve in his Cabinet as Secretary of Education. I am prepared to lead the Department in this transformational time and embrace the challenge to improve the education system for the more than 100 million children and college students who deserve better," McMahon said in a statement after being confirmed.
"Education is the issue that determines our national success and prepares American workers to win the future. Every decision made at the Department will be driven by a commitment to support meaningful learning and empower our most important stakeholders: students, families, and teachers," McMahon added. "We will empower states and districts to have more say in what is working on the ground for students instead of bureaucratic edicts from Washington, D.C."
Trump has said he wants to close the Education Department, and McMahon, in a letter to Democratic lawmakers, said she supports his position on the issue.
"President Trump believes that the bureaucracy in Washington should be abolished so that we can return education to the states, where it belongs. I wholeheartedly support and agree with this mission,"McMahon wrote to members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) in February.
McMahon served as the former head of WWE, which she founded with her husband, Vince McMahon.
The former WWE mogul launched two separate Senate bids in Connecticut in 2010 and 2012 but lost both general elections to Democratic nominees.
The secretary also served as the administrator of the Small Business Association (SBA) during Trump's first term.
A Republican-led Senate bill to prevent boys from participating in girls' sports failed to overcome the legislative filibuster on Monday night after it did not reach the necessary 60-vote threshold to advance.
The Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act would require Title IX to treat gender as "recognized based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth," and would disallow any adjustment for it to apply to gender identity.
The bill was introduced by Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-AL, and has over 40 cosponsors in the Senate. It would also codify one of Trump's many recent executive orders, giving the policy better longevity.
Last month, Trump issued an executive order titled, "Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports."
"It shall also be the policy of the United States to oppose male competitive participation in women’s sports more broadly, as a matter of safety, fairness, dignity, and truth," it read.
In a statement shared by Tuberville's office prior to the Monday vote, the White House said, "The Administration strongly supports passage of S. 9, the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2025."
"Through an amendment to Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, this bill would expressly recognize what is already federal law—that it is an illegal act of discrimination for a man to participate in a federally funded athletic program or activity designated for women or girls," the statement said.
"This bill also recognizes that ‘sex,’ as used in the statutory scheme, is based solely on reproductive biology and genetics," it continued. "Men participating in women’s sports not only is demeaning and dangerous to women and girls, but it erodes the integrity of our Nation’s civil rights laws. Congress’s affirmative vote on this bill would complement both federal court rulings and President Trump’s February 5, 2025, Executive Order, ‘Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.'"
Tuberville's effort to advance the bill has been years in the making, with the senator first introducing it during President Joe Biden's administration, during which there were no such executive orders.
Like the executive order, the measure would ban federal funding from going toward sports programs that allow biological men to participate in women's and girls' sports.
"Female athletes who work extremely hard should not have their future in athletics hindered because they are forced to compete against biological males. Instead of standing up for women and girls, Democrats voted to cosign Joe Biden’s attempted assault on Title IX," said Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Chairman Bill Cassidy, R-La., in a statement. "I will continue working with President Trump and my Republican colleagues to preserve Title IX, ensuring every woman and girl has the chance to succeed."
The bill and executive order come amid growing concerns about biological men and boys who identify as transgender participating in and winning in events and leagues for women and girls.
"President Trump ran on the issue of saving women’s sports and won in a landslide," Tuberville said in a statement to Fox News Digital in January when he reintroduced the bill for the 119th Congress. "70% of Americans agree—men don’t belong in women’s sports or locker rooms. I have said many times that I think Title IX is one of the best things to come out of Washington. But in the last few years, it has been destroyed."
"While I’m glad that the Biden administration ultimately rescinded the proposed rule, Congress has to ensure this never happens again. I am welcoming my first granddaughter this spring and won’t stop fighting until her rights to fairly compete are protected. I hope every one of my colleagues will join me in standing up for our daughters, nieces, and granddaughters by voting for this critical bill."
At the time, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., had signaled his plan to move forward with Tuberville's bill, foreshadowing the early March vote.
The Senate's consideration of the bill comes as the Democratic Party faces an identity crisis, with many pointing to candidates' unpopular position in favor of transgender participation in women's sports as an example.
Last year, Rep. Seth Moulton, D-MA, received backlash from the party after saying in an interview, "Democrats spend way too much time trying not to offend anyone rather than being brutally honest about the challenges many Americans face."
"I have two little girls. I don’t want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a Democrat I’m supposed to be afraid to say that," he told the New York Times.
Soon after the comments, his campaign manager resigned and Moulton faced protests.
The Senate has confirmed former World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) CEO Linda McMahon to serve as President Donald Trump's Secretary of Education, heading the department that he intends to close "immediately."
The Senate held a full floor vote on Monday evening, confirming McMahon 51-45, along party lines.
McMahon, who co-founded WWE with her husband, Vince McMahon, served as the administrator of the Small Business Administration (SBA) during Trump's first term but exited her post early to return to the private sector in 2019.
In November, the president tapped McMahon to serve in another top post during his second term. But this time, he said he wanted her to "put herself out of a job."
"It’s a big con job," the president said of the Education Department. "They ranked the top countries in the world. We’re ranked No. 40, but we’re ranked No. 1 in one department: cost per pupil. So, we spend more per pupil than any other country in the world, but we’re ranked No. 40."
In a letter to Democratic members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), McMahon said that she "wholeheartedly" agreed with Trump's plan to abolish the department.
"President Trump believes that the bureaucracy in Washington should be abolished so that we can return education to the states, where it belongs. I wholeheartedly support and agree with this mission," McMahon wrote.
In the opening remarks of her confirmation hearing, McMahon said that "many Americans today are experiencing a system in decline," but that "the opportunity before us these next four years is momentous."
"If I am confirmed, the department will not stand idly by while Jewish students are attacked and discriminated against," McMahon said in her opening remarks, shared first with Fox News Digital. "It will stop forcing schools to let boys and men into female sports and spaces. And it will protect the rights of parents to direct the moral education of their children."
President Donald Trump touted his record pardoning several service members accused of war crimes during his first term as president, and shared details about how now-Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth played a role securing those pardons.
Trump told The Spectator in a Thursday interview that Hegseth would call him to advocate on behalf of service members facing war crime charges who "did what they were trained to do" during his first administration.
"What he wanted to talk about was military," Trump said of Hegseth. "In fact, whenever he called me, it was always to get somebody that was in trouble because he was too aggressive militarily out of a jail. You know, I got numerous soldiers out of jails because they did what they were trained to do."
In November 2019, during his first administration, Trump issued pardons to Army 1st Lt. Clint Lorance, Army Maj. Mathew Golsteyn and Navy Special Warfare Operator Chief Eddie Gallagher. Lorance was serving a 19-year sentence in prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, for murder for ordering his soldiers to open fire on unarmed Afghan civilians in 2012 when Trump issued the pardon.
Golsteyn also faced charges for murdering an alleged Taliban bomb maker in 2010 and then burning the remains in a pit.
Gallagher also faced murder charges for stabbing an Islamic State prisoner in 2017, and was acquitted in July 2019. However, he was convicted for posing in a photo next to the corpse and subsequently was demoted one rank. Trump’s pardon restored him to his previous rank.
"The liberals within the military put them in jails," Trump told The Spectator. "They teach him to be a soldier. They teach him to kill bad people, and when they kill bad people, they want to put them in jail for thirty years. And Pete was really into that."
Hegseth, a former host with Fox News and member of the U.S. Army National Guard, was vocal about these cases ahead of their pardoning, and previously said Lorance, Golsteyn and Gallagher were not "war criminals, they’re warriors" during a 2019 segment with "Fox & Friends." Hegseth also interviewed Golsteyn in May 2019 on "Fox & Friends."
The Department of Defense referred Fox News Digital to the White House for comment. The White House did not provide additional comment, and it’s unclear if the Trump administration is considering pardons for other service members accused of war crimes.
During Hegseth’s confirmation hearing for Secretary of Defense in January, Hegseth told lawmakers on the Senate Armed Services Committee he wanted to ensure lawyers "aren’t the ones getting in the way" of service members serving on the frontlines from having "opportunity to destroy... the enemy."
"We follow rules, but we don't need burdensome rules of engagement that make it impossible for us to win these wars," Hegseth said.
Lawmakers cited Hegseth’s comments on the cases during his confirmation hearing, and Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member Jack Reed, D-R.I., noted that fellow service members who served alongside Lorance and Gallagher spoke out against them and reported their actions.
"They did their duty as soldiers to report war crimes," Reed said in January. "Your definition of lethality seems to embrace those people who do commit war crimes, rather than those who stand up and say, 'This is not right.'"
Hegseth served as an infantry officer in the U.S. Army National Guard, completing deployments to Guantanamo Bay, Afghanistan and Iraq.
He earned two Bronze Star Medals, awarded to those who displayed heroic achievement or service in a combat zone.
