A group of Minnesota Republican lawmakers plan to propose legislation requiring the state to include "Trump derangement syndrome" under its definition of mental illness.
Five GOP lawmakers are set to introduce the bill in the state's Senate on Monday and refer it to the Health and Human Services committee, according to Fox 9. The bill aims to specifically add "Trump derangement syndrome" to the state's definition of mental illness.
"Trump derangement syndrome" is defined as "acute onset of paranoia in otherwise normal persons that is in reaction to the policies and presidencies of President Donald J. Trump," according to the bill.
"Symptoms may include Trump-induced general hysteria, which produces an inability to distinguish between legitimate policy differences and signs of psychic pathology in President Donald J. Trump's behavior," the proposal reads.
With a split state legislature, the bill is unlikely to be approved.
Mental illness is defined as a disorder or other issue that is included in a diagnostic codes list. "Trump derangement syndrome" is not recognized as a mental illness anywhere.
President Donald Trump and his supporters have used the term "Trump derangement syndrome" to criticize political opponents who they believe have a biased obsession against the president and his policies.
While the "derangement syndrome" as a political phrase has been made popular in recent years to mock critics of Trump, the term was actually coined in 2003 by the late political commentator Charles Krauthammer to describe critics of then-President George W. Bush.
The Minnesota proposal features the same phrasing Krauthammer used to describe "Bush derangement syndrome," which was defined as "the acute onset of paranoia in otherwise normal people in reaction to the policies, the presidency—nay—the very existence of George W. Bush."
President Donald Trump said he will likely be speaking with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday while speaking with reporters on Air Force One Sunday night.
The president was returning to Washington, D.C., from Florida when he told the reporters of the upcoming discussion.
"We will see if we have something to announce maybe by Tuesday," Trump said, sharing that the possibility of divvying up land, power plants and other assets has been discussed in an attempt to end Russia's war in Ukraine.
This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.
The White House criticized a federal judge's attempt to halt the Trump administration's recent deportation flights, a move that was deemed "too late" by the Central American leader who accepted the deportations over the weekend.
On Friday, President Donald Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which allows deportation of natives and citizens of an enemy nation without a hearing. The act had only been successfully invoked three times in U.S. history: during the War of 1812, World War I and World War II.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg recently ordered an immediate stop to the deportations in order to determine whether Trump's invocation of the 1798 act was legal – but a Trump administration official told Fox News that the planes carrying the migrants had already left U.S. airspace when the judge issued his order.
In a statement to Fox News on Sunday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the Trump administration "did not ‘refuse to comply’ with a court order."
"The order, which had no lawful basis, was issued after terrorist [Tren de Aragua] aliens had already been removed from U.S. territory," Leavitt said. "The written order and the Administration’s actions do not conflict."
"Moreover, as the Supreme Court has repeatedly made clear – federal courts generally have no jurisdiction over the President’s conduct of foreign affairs, his authorities under the Alien Enemies Act, and his core Article II powers to remove foreign alien terrorists from U.S. soil and repel a declared invasion," Leavitt added. "A single judge in a single city cannot direct the movements of an aircraft carrier full of foreign alien terrorists who were physically expelled from U.S. soil."
On Sunday, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele responded to Boasberg's order by joking, "Oopsie… too late," in an X post. He also shared footage of heavily-armed Salvadorean authorities escorting the alleged gang members off the planes, shaving their heads and rounding them up in their prison cells.
A total of 261 illegal aliens were deported from the U.S. to El Salvador yesterday – 137 of which were through the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, 101 others were Venezuelans removed via Title 8 and another 21 were Salvadoran MS-13 gang members. Two others were MS-13 ringleaders and "special cases" for El Salvador.
A senior Trump administration official confirmed the numbers to Fox News on Sunday, explaining that the migrants' alleged crimes included kidnapping, sexual abuse of a child, aggravated assault, prostitution, robbery and aggravated assault of a police officer.
Fox News Digital's Emma Colton contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump trolled former President Joe Biden in a social media post on Sunday, highlighting the controversy surrounding his alleged "autopen signatures" during his presidency.
On Truth Social, Trump posted three images side-by-side – his official portrait from his first term, a picture of Biden's autopen and then finally his official portrait for his second term.
Trump then pinned the post.
"The person who was the real President during the Biden years was the person who controlled the Autopen!" Trump wrote in another post on his account.
Trump spoke about the autopen signature issue while speaking from the Oval Office on Friday about NATO spending.
"The man was grossly incompetent. All you have to do is take a look, he signs by autopen. Who was signing all this stuff by autopen? Who would think to sign important documents by autopen?" Trump asked reporters.
"These are major documents you're signing, you're proud to sign, yet you have your signature on something and in 300 years, they say ‘oh look.’ Can you imagine everything was signing by autopen? Almost everything. Nobody has ever heard of such a thing. It should have never happened," Trump continued.
The post sparked a firestorm on social media with many backing Trump as Democrats have faced backlash over accusations that they dismissed Biden's health concerns and engaged in a cover-up throughout the end of his term.
"President Trump JUST POSTED the AUTOPEN that ran the White House from 2021-2025 next to his portraits," one X user commented.
"Biden was an illegitimate president. Who controlled the auto pen?" another X used commented.
Vice President JD Vance also shared the image on X without any comment.
"Corrupt establishment was running the country from 2021-2025. Who controlled the auto pen for Biden?" Missouri Lieutenant Governor David Wasinger commented, sharing Vance's post.
Elon Musk also chimed in on the photo, posting on X, with two emojis – a bullseye and laughing face.
Fox News Digital reached out to Biden's team about Trump's post featuring the autopen image, but did not receive a response.
In a new report published by an arm of the Heritage Foundation, it was revealed that the majority of official documents signed by Biden allegedly used the same autopen signature, reinvigorating concerns over the former president’s mental acuity and if he "actually ordered the signature of relevant legal documents."
"WHOEVER CONTROLLED THE AUTOPEN CONTROLLED THE PRESIDENCY," the Oversight Project, which is an initiative within the conservative Heritage Foundation that investigates the government to bolster transparency, posted to X on Thursday.
"We gathered every document we could find with Biden's signature over the course of his presidency. All used the same autopen signature except for the announcement that the former President was dropping out of the race last year. Here is the autopen signature," the group claimed on X, accompanied by photo examples.
The Oversight Project posted three examples showing Biden’s signature, including two executive orders and the president’s announcement he was bowing out of the 2024 presidential race. The signature on the two executive orders, one of which was signed in 2022 and the other in 2024, showed the same signature that included what appeared to be a line, followed by "R. Biden Jr."
Fox News Digital reached out to Biden’s office for comment on the Oversight Project’s findings on the autopen investigation, but did not immediately receive a reply.
Fox News Digital also examined the signatures on President Donald Trump’s executive orders, which are often signed in public or in front of the media, during his first administration and second administration and found the signatures were also the same.
The Oversight Project continued in its findings that investigators should determine "who controlled the autopen" during the Biden administration.
Fox News Digital's Emma Colton contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump thanked El Salvador on Sunday after the country's president shared dramatic video of hundreds of alleged migrant criminals landing in Central America after being deported from the U.S.
Trump, who recently invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which allows the deportation of natives and citizens of an enemy nation without a hearing, thanked Nayib Bukele on social media.
"Thank you to El Salvador and, in particular, President Bukele, for your understanding of this horrible situation, which was allowed to happen to the United States because of incompetent Democrat leadership," Trump wrote. "We will not forget!"
Trump also referred to the apprehended migrants as "the monsters sent into our Country by Crooked Joe Biden and the Radical Left Democrats."
A senior Trump administration official confirmed to Fox News that a total of 261 illegal aliens were deported to El Salvador yesterday – 137 were via the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, 101 were Venezuelans removed via Title 8, 21 were Salvadoran MS-13 gang members and two were MS-13 ringleaders and "special cases" for El Salvador, according to the official.
The rap sheets for those removed included kidnapping, sexual abuse of a child, aggravated assault, prostitution, robbery and aggravated assault of a police officer.
A Trump administration official also confirmed to Fox News that the planes carrying the migrants were already outside of U.S. airspace when a federal judge ordered the planes to return.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ordered an immediate stop to Trump's efforts to deport the alleged gang members so he could have more time to consider if Trump's use of the Alien Enemies Act was illegal.
"We did not defy a court order. The order came too late, and illegals were already in international airspace," the official said, as first reported by Axios.
In an X post, Bukele said the migrants arrived in El Salvador and were transferred to a "terrorism confinement center," where they will stay for at least a year.
The intense video showed heavily-armed Salvadorean authorities surrounding the alleged gang members, forcing their heads down and transporting them into facilities one by one.
The video also depicted the suspects getting their hair shaven and walking with their hands behind their necks as they were rounded up into their prison cells.
"Over time, these actions, combined with the production already being generated by more than 40,000 inmates engaged in various workshops and labor under the Zero Idleness program, will help make our prison system self-sustainable," Bukele wrote. "As of today, it costs $200 million per year."
He also said that the apprehension of the MS-13 members "will help us finalize intelligence gathering and go after the last remnants of MS-13, including its former and new members, money, weapons, drugs, hideouts, collaborators, and sponsors."
"As always, we continue advancing in the fight against organized crime," he added. "But this time, we are also helping our allies, making our prison system self-sustainable, and obtaining vital intelligence to make our country an even safer place. All in a single action."
"May God bless El Salvador, and may God bless the United States."
Bukele's post was also warmly received by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who thanked the Salvadorean leader for his "assistance and friendship."
"President @nayibbukele is not only the strongest security leader in our region, he’s also a great friend of the U.S.," Rubio said in an X post. "Thank you!"
Fox News Digital's Brooke Curto and Kyle Schmidbauer contributed to this report.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended President Donald Trump’s airstrikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen, arguing that the U.S. is "doing the world a favor" by targeting the militant group.
"We're doing the entire world a favor by getting rid of these guys and their ability to strike global shipping. That's the mission here, and it will continue until that's carried out," Rubio said during an appearance on CBS’ "Face the Nation" on Sunday.
The comments come after Trump announced on social media Saturday that he had ordered "decisive and powerful" airstrikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen, arguing that that terrorist group has "waged an unrelenting campaign of piracy, violence, and terrorism against American, and other, ships, aircraft, and drones."
"It has been over a year since a U.S.-flagged commercial ship safely sailed through the Suez Canal, the Red Sea, or the Gulf of Aden," Trump said in the post. "The last American Warship to go through the Red Sea, four months ago, was attacked by the Houthis over a dozen times…. These relentless assaults have cost the U.S. and World Economy many BILLIONS of Dollars while, at the same time, putting innocent lives at risk."
"To all Houthi terrorists, YOUR TIME IS UP, AND YOUR ATTACKS MUST STOP, STARTING TODAY. IF THEY DON’T, HELL WILL RAIN DOWN UPON YOU LIKE NOTHING YOU HAVE EVER SEEN BEFORE!"
The strikes come in response to the Houthis' continued disruption of transit in the Red Sea, something Rubio said Sunday would come to an end with the strikes.
"This is not a message," Rubio said. "This is an effort to deny them the ability to continue to constrict and control shipping."
Rubio noted that the militant group, which is backed by Iran, had "struck or attacked 174 Naval vessels of the United States" over the last year, a time period that also saw the group launch 145 attacks on commercial shipping vessels.
"So we basically have a band of pirates, you know, with guided precision anti-ship weaponry and exacting a toll system in one of the most important shipping lanes in the world," Rubio said. "That's just not sustainable."
The secretary of state said the strikes would continue until the Houthis "no longer have the capability" to continue to carry out such attacks.
"We're not going to have people sitting around with the missiles attacking the U.S. Navy," Rubio said. "It's not going to happen. Not under President Trump."
Former Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., has died at age 87, according to her family.
Lowey, who represented New York in the U.S. House of Representatives for 32 years and was the first woman to chair the House Appropriations Committee, died Saturday after a long battle with metastatic breast cancer, according to a report from the New York Post.
"Nita’s family was central to her life as she was to all of ours," the longtime lawmaker’s family said in a statement. "We will miss her more than words can say and take great comfort in knowing that she lived a full and purposeful life."
The New York lawmaker was born Nita Sue Menikoff in the Bronx in 1937, later graduating from Bronx High School of Science before going on to receive a degree from Mount Holyoke College in 1959, the Post report noted.
She married attorney Stephen Lowey in 1961, and was first elected to Congress in 1988 to represent New York’s 17th Congressional District.
A longtime ally of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Clinton family, Lowey became chair of the House Appropriations Committee in 2019. She frequently clashed with President Donald Trump during his first term in office in her time as chair, telling Lohud in 2019 that the president was an "embarrassment."
"The president is an embarrassment and as a member of the Congress and as the leader of the Appropriations Committee, we have the responsibility to serve the people," she said at the time.
Lowey announced her retirement that same year, with House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., telling the New York Post that the longtime lawmaker was a "principled, passionate and powerful public servant."
"Over the course of her historic career, Congresswoman Lowey courageously served her constituents and stood up for New Yorkers while shattering multiple glass ceilings along the way," Jeffries said Sunday, adding that Lowey was a "mentor and friend."
Lowey is survived by her husband, three children and eight grandchildren.
The acting administrator of DOGE detailed that Elon Musk is not an employee of the United States DOGE Service and does not report to the acting DOGE chief, a court filing shedding additional light on the internal workings of the office shows.
"Elon Musk does not work at USDS. I do not report to him, and he does not report to me. To my knowledge, he is a Senior Advisor to the White House," Amy Gleason, the acting administrator of DOGE, wrote in a declaration included in a court filing on Friday.
Musk has been the public face of DOGE for months, as President Donald Trump celebrates the billions of dollars in savings his administration has secured through DOGE's work to gut the federal government of overspending, mismanagement and fraud. Musk, however, "has no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself" and is working as a senior advisor to the president, a White House official said in a separate court filing in February.
The White House identified Gleason as the official acting chief of DOGE last month. Gleason, a little-known government employee who also worked in the first Trump administration, provided a declaration in a court filing involving a lawsuit against DOGE last week that further explains how the government office operates.
"In my role at USDS, I oversee all of USDS’s employees and detailees to USDS from other agencies," Gleason wrote in her declaration. "I report to the White House Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles."
Gleason previously worked for the United States Digital Service, which was founded in 2014 by former President Barack Obama as a technology office within the Executive Office of the President. Trump signed an executive order in January that renamed the office to the United States DOGE Service, establishing DOGE.
In addition to overseeing USDS, Gleason also oversees the U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization – an office established by Trump in January that sits under the USDS umbrella and will expire on July 4, 2026.
Gleason explained in her declaration that under Trump's executive order establishing DOGE, agency chiefs were charged with creating their own DOGE teams to find and eliminate overspending. Gleason said the respective agency DOGE teams are comprised of agency employees or detailees who do not report to her.
"Every member of an agency’s DOGE Team is an employee of the agency or a detailee to the agency. The DOGE Team members – whether employees of the agency or detailed to the agency – thus report to the agency heads or their designees, not to me or anyone else at USDS," she wrote.
"In some instances, members of agency DOGE Teams are detailees from USDS to the agency. Where USDS detailees are assigned to an agency DOGE Team and acting in their capacity as a detailee to the DOGE Team, they are supervised by personnel of the agency to which they are detailed," she added.
Gleason has been described by former colleagues as "world-class talent" who frequently works long hours and is apolitical.
DOGE has saved an estimated $115 billion in government spending in the form of workforce reductions, contract cancellations, regulatory savings and other initiatives, according to its website. Trump has touted DOGE's work repeatedly in public remarks, including rattling off a list of government grants that were axed since his inauguration during his first address to a joint session of Congress earlier this month.
"Forty-five million dollars for diversity, equity and inclusion scholarships in Burma," Trump said as he provided examples of federal waste on March 4 after thanking Musk and DOGE for its work. "Forty million to improve the social and economic inclusion of sedentary migrants. Nobody knows what that is. Eight million to promote LGBTQI+ in the African nation of Lesotho, which nobody has ever heard of. Sixty million dollars for indigenous peoples and Afro-Colombian empowerment in Central America. Sixty million. Eight million for making mice transgender."
Democrats and federal employees have railed against DOGE since the investigations and mass terminations at various agencies got underway following Trump's inauguration, including staging protests outside federal buildings in Washington, D.C., and specifically protesting Musk for his involvement with DOGE.
Houthi rebels in Yemen posted an animation online that depicted American flag-draped coffins floating near destroyed Navy ships.
"These terrorists really cannot tell the difference between delusions and reality," Hussain Abdul-Hussain, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), said in a post on X along with the Houthi animation.
The animation starts out with somber music and depicts a coffin draped in an American flag floating in water, then slowly zooms out to reveal dozens of similar flag-draped coffins floating away from destroyed warships.
The animation comes after President Donald Trump ordered "decisive and powerful" airstrikes against Houthi terrorists in Yemen on Saturday, arguing on Truth Social that the group has "waged an unrelenting campaign of piracy, violence, and terrorism against American, and other, ships, aircraft, and drones."
"It has been over a year since a U.S.-flagged commercial ship safely sailed through the Suez Canal, the Red Sea, or the Gulf of Aden," Trump said in the post. "The last American Warship to go through the Red Sea, four months ago, was attacked by the Houthis over a dozen times…. These relentless assaults have cost the U.S. and World Economy many BILLIONS of Dollars while, at the same time, putting innocent lives at risk."
"To all Houthi terrorists, YOUR TIME IS UP, AND YOUR ATTACKS MUST STOP, STARTING TODAY. IF THEY DON’T, HELL WILL RAIN DOWN UPON YOU LIKE NOTHING YOU HAVE EVER SEEN BEFORE!"
The White House on Sunday released photos of Trump watching the strikes on the Iran-backed terrorist group along with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security advisor Mike Waltz.
"President Trump is taking action against the Houthis to defend US shipping assets and deter terrorist threats," the White House wrote in a post on X. "For too long American economic & national threats have been under assault by the Houthis. Not under this presidency."
U.S. Central Command said in a statement Saturday that it "initiated a series of operations consisting of precision strikes against Iran-backed Houthi targets across Yemen to defend American interests, deter enemies, and restore freedom of navigation."
Meanwhile, the Houthi-run Health Ministry in Yemen told the Associated Press that the strikes killed at least 31 people.
Fox News’ Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.
U.S. special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff said Sunday that President Donald Trump will likely speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin this week.
In an appearance on CNN’s "State of the Union," Witkoff was asked when a deal to end the war in Ukraine could be anticipated.
"The president uses the timeframe weeks, and I don't disagree with him. I am really hopeful that we're going to see some real progress here," Witkoff said. "Nobody expected progress this fast. This is a highly, very complicated situation, and yet we're bridging the gap between two sides. So, lots of things that remain to be discussed, but I think the two presidents are going to have a really good and positive discussion this week."
Trump's special envoy met with Putin in Moscow on Thursday, days after U.S. and Ukrainian officials in Saudi Arabia agreed to the terms of a potential ceasefire with Russia.
Witkoff said he met with Putin for between three and four hours and had a "positive" and "solution-based" discussion.
"Before this visit, there was another visit, and before that visit, the two sides were miles apart," Witkoff told CNN host Jake Tapper. "The two sides are, today, a lot closer. We had some really positive results coming out of the Saudi Arabia discussion led by our national security advisor, Mike Waltz, and our secretary of state, Marco Rubio."
"I describe my conversation with President Putin as equally positive," Witkoff said. "The two sides have… we’ve narrowed the differences between them, and now we’re sitting at the table. I was with the president all day yesterday, I’ll be with him today, we’re sitting with him, discussing how to narrow it even further."
It was the second time Witkoff had met with Putin in the last month. The first sit-down in mid-February resulted in the Russians releasing U.S. prisoner Marc Fogel.
Witkoff said he briefed Trump, Vice President JD Vance, chief of staff Susie Wiles and Waltz from the U.S. embassy within five to 10 minutes of meeting with Putin last week.
"President Trump has been involved in every aspect and dimension of these discussions," Witkoff said. "The president is getting updates in real time on everything that’s happening, and he’s involved in every important decision here. I expect that there will be a call with both presidents this week, and we’re also continuing to engage and have conversations with the Ukrainians. We’re advising them on everything we’re thinking about."
"The four regions are of critical importance here," Witkoff said of the terms of the deal. "And we’re in discussions with Ukraine, we’re in discussions with all these stakeholder European countries, so that includes France, Britain, Norway, Finland… the whole host.… And we’re in discussions with the Russians too about those regions. We’re also in discussion with all other elements that would be encompassed in a ceasefire."
Witkoff flew to Moscow last week from Doha, Qatar, where he mediated negotiations between Israel and Hamas on a potential extension of their ceasefire agreement.
Several prominent Democrats have taken aim at Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., over his decision to side with Republicans and vote for a continuing resolution to keep the federal government open.
"I believe that’s a tremendous mistake," Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., told CNN’s Jake Tapper Thursday in response to Schumer’s decision. "It is almost unthinkable why Senate Democrats would vote to hand the few pieces of leverage that we have away for free when we’ve been sent here to protect Social Security, protect Medicaid and protect Medicare."
The progressive lawmaker was just one of several prominent Democratic figures to lash out at Schumer, who opted to vote in favor of a House-approved government funding bill that averted a government shutdown.
Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., were the only other Democrats in the Senate to vote in favor of the bill, while Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., was the only Republican senator to vote against the legislation, which passed 54 to 46.
Schumer, the most prominent of the trio of Democrats to support the bill, is now facing heat for that decision, including from some longtime allies.
"Let’s be clear: neither is a good option for the American people. But this false choice that some are buying instead of fighting is unacceptable," former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said of the decision.
Anne Caprara, the chief of staff for Democratic Illinois Gov. J.B. Prtizker, appeared to pile on, arguing on social media that Democrats should unify around resisting President Donald Trump.
"The fight going on in the Democratic Party right now is not between hard left, left and moderate. It’s between those who want to fight and those who want to cave," Caprara said in the post. "Misread this at your own peril."
Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., refused repeated questions about whether he had confidence in Schumer at a Friday press conference urging Senate Democrats to vote against the continuing resolution.
"We do not want to shut down the government. But we are not afraid of a government funding showdown," Jeffries said.
Democratic allies on television also lashed out at the Schumer decision, with CNN political commentator Van Jones arguing that the Democratic Party had to do more to push back against Trump.
"We want some alpha energy. And that’s not what we’re seeing. This party is tired of watching Donald Trump and Elon Musk run over this party, run over this country, run over the Constitution," Jones said during a Friday appearance on the network. "And if you only have one opportunity to take a stand, and you don’t take it, it’s very difficult."
Meanwhile, MSNBC political commentator Symone Sanders said she was "p---ed" that Schumer "folded like a paper napkin" and threatened to change her party registration to independent.
Nevertheless, some Democrats tempered their criticism of the longtime Democratic leader, noting that the party was put in a no-win situation.
"We’re stuck with two bad choices presented by a unified Republican front," Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., who voted against the bill, said, according to a report in WTTW. "These are tough, tough calls."
Schumer’s office did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.
President Donald Trump ordered the dismantling of news agency Voice of America, the U.S.'s state-funded media outlet that Trump has railed against for promoting biased media reports.
"Voice of America has been out of step with America for years. It serves as the Voice for Radical America and has pushed divisive propaganda for years now," a senior White House official told Fox News Digital.
Trump signed an executive order on Friday that commands the dismantling of seven government offices, including the United States Agency for Global Media, which is the parent company of Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
"The non-statutory components and functions of the following governmental entities shall be eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law, and such entities shall reduce the performance of their statutory functions and associated personnel to the minimum presence and function required by law," the EO reads.
Kari Lake, whom Trump named as the VOA's next chief in December, is currently serving as senior advisor at the U.S. Agency for Global Media and told employees to "check your email" for more information on their employment futures.
"The President has issued an Executive Order titled Continuing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy. It affects USAGM and its outlets VOA and OCB. If you are an employee of the agency please check your email immediately for more information," Lake, who is also a former news anchor and Republican Arizona political candidate, posted to X. OCB refers to the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, which is a Spanish language, government-funded radio and TV broadcaster that operates Radio and TV Martí in Miami, Florida.
Employees received an email on Saturday detailing that their employment was terminated, the Wall Street Journal reported, though it is unclear how many employees were affected.
The U.S. Agency for Global Media and Lake issued a press release on Saturday saying the agency is "not salvageable."
"From top-to-bottom this agency is a giant rot and burden to the American taxpayer—a national security risk for this nation—and irretrievably broken. While there are bright spots within the agency with personnel who are talented and dedicated public servants, this is the exception rather than the rule," the press release said.
The seven government agencies targeted in the order include: the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service; the U.S. Agency for Global Media; the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in the Smithsonian Institution; the Institute of Museum and Library Services; the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness; the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund; and the Minority Business Development Agency.
Voice of America has come under scrutiny for promoting biased content, including for allegedly "sanitizing" Hamas when the outlet neglected to note in an article in January that residents in Gaza cheered the terrorist group when it brought out coffins holding the remains of Israeli hostages, including children.
"Let’s get the facts straight: Hamas paraded the dead bodies of innocent Israelis, including two children, in front of cheering crowds. American taxpayers should not be paying the salaries of Hamas apologists who spout terrorist propaganda," House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast, R-Fla., told National Review at the time of VOA's coverage.
Just days after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, VOA told its employees to "avoid calling Hamas and its members terrorists, except in quotes," National Review reported that year.
The government-funded news outlet has also come under fire for other stories across the years, including running an article in 2020 that asked, "What Is 'White Privilege' and Whom Does It Help?" It was also criticized over publishing a story and video that was compared to a Biden campaign video in 2020, and downplaying the Hunter Biden laptop controversy that rocked the 2020 presidential campaign in its waning days.
"I have monitored the agency’s bureaucracy along with many of its reporters and concluded that it has essentially become a hubris-filled rogue operation often reflecting a leftist bias aligned with partisan national media," a former VOA employee wrote in an op-ed last year calling for the outlet's dismantling. "It has sought to avoid accountability for violations of journalistic standards and mismanagement."
The president of El Salvador announced his country has accepted hundreds of Venezuelan gang members who were illegally living in the United States, as a U.S. judge moved to block deportations of illegal immigrants under a wartime law invoked by President Donald Trump.
"Today, the first 238 members of the Venezuelan criminal organization, Tren de Aragua, arrived in our country. They were immediately transferred to CECOT, the Terrorism Confinement Center, for a period of one year (renewable)," El Salvador President Nayib Bukele posted to X on Sunday morning, accompanied by video footage of planes on a tarmac.
"On this occasion, the U.S. has also sent us 23 MS-13 members wanted by Salvadoran justice, including two ringleaders. One of them is a member of the criminal organization’s highest structure," he added.
Tren de Aragua is a Venezuelan-connected gang that has infiltrated communities in states such as Colorado and Texas, while MS-13 is a Los Angeles-founded gang with ties to El Salvador that has deep roots in California and other states such as Maryland. The State Department designated both gangs as foreign terrorist organizations last month.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio celebrated the Salvadoran president as "the strongest security leader in our region" and "a great friend of the U.S." for accepting the criminal illegal aliens.
"We have sent 2 dangerous top MS-13 leaders plus 21 of its most wanted back to face justice in El Salvador. Also, as promised by @POTUS, we sent over 250 alien enemy members of Tren de Aragua which El Salvador has agreed to hold in their very good jails at a fair price that will also save our taxpayer dollars. President @nayibbukele is not only the strongest security leader in our region, he’s also a great friend of the U.S. Thank you!" Rubio posted to X.
The deportations of the gang members come as U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ordered the Trump administration to halt its deportations of illegal immigrants under a wartime powers act that President Donald Trump invoked on Friday to target Tren de Aragua members in the U.S.
The Alien Enemies Act of 1798 allows deportation of natives and citizens of an enemy nation without a hearing, and has been invoked three times before, including, during the War of 1812, World War I and World War II.
Boasberg ordered on Saturday that the Trump administration is barred from using the wartime powers act to deport the illegal aliens. He added that he heard "flights are actively departing" and ordered them to return.
The planes of the violent gang members, however, arrived in El Salvador this weekend, with Bukele responding to news of Boasberg's order, "Oopsie… too late," accompanied by a laughing emoji.
Bukele offered to take illegal immigrants of any nationality facing deportation in the U.S. back in February, offering to book the illegal aliens in his country's notorious prison system.
"We can send them, and he will put them in his jails," Rubio told reporters back in February of Bukele's offer "And, he’s also offered to do the same for dangerous criminals currently in custody and serving their sentences in the United States, even though they’re U.S. citizens or legal residents."
El Salvador's CECOT prison is known as the nation's most notorious prison. The prison, which can hold 40,000 inmates, was built to house gang members in a country that held one of the highest murder rates in the world before the violence dropped in recent history. Prisoners at CECOT are blocked from receiving visitors, can only attend hearings virtually, while the prison itself blocks any cell signal to ensure gang members cannot contact criminals still on the street, various media reports have detailed.
"The United States will pay a very low fee for them, but a high one for us. Over time, these actions, combined with the production already being generated by more than 40,000 inmates engaged in various workshops and labor under the Zero Idleness program, will help make our prison system self-sustainable. As of today, it costs $200 million per year," Bukele added on X on Sunday.
"As always, we continue advancing in the fight against organized crime. But this time, we are also helping our allies, making our prison system self-sustainable, and obtaining vital intelligence to make our country an even safer place. All in a single action. May God bless El Salvador, and may God bless the United States."
Fox News Digital's Alexandra Koch contributed to this report.
The Democratic Party's favorable ratings are falling to new lows, according to two new national polls.
Just 29% of those questioned in a CNN poll released on Sunday say they have a favorable view of the party, with 54% holding an unfavorable view.
That's a record low in CNN polling dating back more than three decades.
The Democrats' favorability has dropped four points since early January, ahead of the start of President Donald Trump's second tour of duty in the White House, and it's a plunge of 20 points from January 2021, just ahead of the start of former President Joe Biden's term in office.
Just 63% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents questioned in the survey said they hold a favorable view of the party, down from 72% in January and down from 81% four years ago, at the start of the Biden administration.
It was a similar story in an NBC News national poll also released on Sunday.
Just 27% of registered voters said they had a positive view of the Democratic Party, which was the party's lowest rating in NBC News polling dating back to 1990. The NBC News poll was conducted March 7-11.
The Democratic Party is in the political wilderness, following last November's election setbacks, when Republicans won back control of the White House and the Senate, and defended their fragile House majority. And Republicans made gains among Black and Hispanic voters, as well as younger voters, all traditional members of the Democratic Party's base.
According to the CNN poll - which was conducted March 6-9 by SSRS - the favorable rating for the GOP stands at 36%, with 48% holding an unfavorable view of the Republican Party.
The GOP's favorable rating is unchanged from January, with the unfavorable rating up four points.
The Republican Party was also underwater in the NBC News poll, with a 39% favorable and 49% unfavorable rating.
The new surveys, released Sunday, follow a Quinnipiac University national poll last month that made headlines by indicating the Democrats' favorability had also hit an all-time low in their surveys dating back to 2009.
The new CNN survey also indicates that by a 57%-42% margin, Democrats say their leaders should mostly work to stop the GOP agenda rather than to try and find common ground with Republicans.
That's a shift from polling at the start of Trump's first term in office, when nearly three-quarters of Democrats said their party should work with Republicans.
There was a similar finding in the NBC News poll, with almost two-thirds of Democrats wanting their lawmakers in Congress to stick to their positions rather than to make compromises with Trump. The numbers in the NBC News poll are also a switch from their findings during the initial months of the first Trump administration.
Both polls were conducted before the move last week by 10 Democrats in the Senate, including Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to vote in favor of a GOP-crafted federal government spending bill that averted a government shutdown.
The move infuriated many on the left, who want their party to take a tougher stand in resisting Trump's agenda.
The poll also asked respondents to name the political leader who they feel "best reflects the core values" of the party.
Ten percent of Democratic-aligned adults name Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, with 9% saying former Vice President Kamala Harris, 8% offering progressive champion Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and 6% naming Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the top Democrat in the House. More than three in 10 did not offer a response.
The early moves in the next White House race, at least among the Democrats, have begun.
Pete Buttigieg on Thursday ruled out a run for an open Democrat-held Senate seat in his adopted home state of Michigan.
And the announcement by the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, who served four years as transportation secretary in former President Biden's administration, appears to clear the path for a potential 2028 White House bid by Buttigieg.
"While my own plans don’t include running for office in 2026, I remain intensely focused on consolidating, communicating and supporting a vision" that is an alternative to the "cruel chaos" of President Donald Trump's administration, Buttigieg said.
A source familiar with Buttigieg's thinking told Fox News the former transportation secretary is in a strong possible position to run for president in 2028 and that running for either senator or Michigan governor "in 2026 would have taken that off the table."
Across the country, term-limited California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has long been suspected of harboring national ambitions, is grabbing lots of attention and millions of YouTube hits, thanks to a new and high-profile podcast series.
The first two guests of the podcast were MAGA world superstars Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon.
But that didn't sit well with two-term Gov. Andy Beshear, the Democrat in red state Kentucky who is also seen as a potential 2028 contender.
"I think that Gov. Newsom bringing on different voices is great," Beshear told reporters this past week. "We shouldn’t be afraid to talk and to debate just about anyone. But Steve Bannon espouses hatred and anger, and, even at some points, violence. And I don’t think we should give him oxygen on any platform — ever, anywhere."
Meanwhile, Democrat JB Pritzker, the billionaire two-term governor of blue state Illinois and one of his party's leaders in opposing President Donald Trump's second-term agenda, will head to New Hampshire next month to headline the state party's annual fundraising gala, sparking plenty of 2028 speculation.
Trips to New Hampshire, which, for over a century, has held the first primary in the race for the White House, are seen as an early indicator of a politician's interest in running for the presidency in the next election.
But there's more.
There is plenty of focus on former Vice President Kamala Harris, who replaced Joe Biden as the Democratic Party's 2024 presidential nominee last summer after he dropped out of the race amid mounting questions over his physical and mental stamina.
Harris, who lost November's White House race to Trump, is considering a 2026 bid to succeed Newsom in her home state of California. But a run for governor in 2026 would likely derail a 2028 White House bid.
A source in the former vice president's political orbit recently confirmed to Fox News Digital that Harris has told allies she will decide by the end of the summer whether to launch a gubernatorial campaign.
And Harris earlier this month made a stop in Nevada, an early voting state on the Democrats' primary calendar.
Harris' 2024 running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, is not ruling out a White House run of his own in 2028. Walz on Friday kicked off a high-profile town hall tour of red congressional districts. His first stop was in Iowa, the state that, through the 2020 cycle, kicked off the Democrats' presidential nominating calendar.
Three other prominent Democrats considered potential 2028 contenders — governors Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Beshear — addressed the House Democrats' annual policy retreat Thursday.
Even Rahm Emanuel, the former congressman from Illinois, White House chief of staff in President Obama's administration and Chicago mayor who most recently served as U.S. ambassador to Japan, is potentially mulling a 2028 run. Emanuel this week was the topic of a feature report by Politico.
While 2028 seems like a very long way away, the early moves in the next White House race begin early for the party out of power.
That was the case for the Republicans in the 2024 cycle.
Iowa continues to kick off the GOP's presidential nominating schedule, and the first stop there during the 2024 cycle by a potential White House contender was in March 2021, just weeks after Biden assumed the presidency.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who eventually decided not to run for president, grabbed plenty of attention as he spoke to the Westside Conservative Club in suburban Des Moines that year.
"There's no sense in waiting," New Hampshire-based political strategist Lucas Meyer told Fox News. "If anyone is serious about running for president, they would probably be well served in getting after it now."
Meyer, a former president of the New Hampshire Young Democrats who chairs the advocacy group 603 Forward, called it a "wide-open field" for Democrats.
"The crowd of leadership at the top of the Democratic Party isn't very deep at the moment," he observed. "There's oxygen there for someone."
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said she is skipping the White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA) dinner slated for April 26.
Leavitt made the announcement during a podcast appearance with Sean Spicer, who served as President Donald Trump's White House press secretary for the first six months of 2017.
"I will not be in attendance at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, and that's breaking news for ‘The Sean Spicer Show,’" Leavitt said.
Leavitt said the WHCA "has truly become a monetized monopoly over the White House and the coverage of the president of the United States in America."
"This is a group of journalists who’ve been covering the White House for decades," she said on the podcast published Friday. "They started this organization because the presidents at the time were not doing enough press conferences. I don’t think we have that problem anymore under this president, so the priorities of the media have shifted, especially with this new digital age."
Leavitt said the WHCA has been an "exclusive group of journalists who cover this White House, they have not really welcomed other people, new media, independent journalists, with open arms, and so we thought it was time to expand the coverage and determine who gets to be part of that 13-person press pool, who gets to ask the president of the United States questions in the Oval Office, aboard Air Force One."
"Since we have started this new process of determining the daily rotation, so many new voices and outlets who have never been part of this small and privileged group of journalists have been able to access those very unique and privileged spaces and cover this presidency and that’s very important," Leavitt added, revealing that the White House has received more than 15,000 applications for the new media seat in the press briefing room.
In late February, the White House said it would decide which journalists would be a part of the 13-member pool covering Trump in limited spaces, such as the Oval Office or Air Force One, breaking from the century-old tradition of the WHCA independently selecting which news outlets go where the president does when the full press corp cannot be accommodated.
Eugene Daniels, the president of WHCA’s board and a Politico correspondent, said the decision "tears at the independence of a free press in the United States," but the White House championed the move as modernizing the press pool to expand past solely legacy media. The Trump administration said the three traditional wire services – the Associated Press, Bloomberg and Reuters – would no longer have a permanent spot in the pool and would instead rotate a single spot in the 13-member group.
The White House later barred the AP from the press pool for ignoring Trump's executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. The ban was temporarily upheld in federal court, though U.S. District Court Judge Trevor N. McFadden warned that case law did not favor the White House and scheduled another hearing for March 20.
Trump did not attend the WHCA annual dinner during his first term. Last month, the association tapped comedian Amber Ruffin, a writer for the "Late Show with Seth Meyers," to headline this year's dinner. Ruffin told CNN's Jake Tapper that "no one wants" Trump to show up, though the president "should" go to the event traditionally attended by the president and the first lady.
EXCLUSIVE: Former General Services Administration (GSA) head Emily Murphy, who served all of President Donald Trump’s first term, told Fox News Digital that the GSA will "rightsize its portfolio" by selling or leasing unused government buildings – saving money to help the government run more efficiently.
"I think that there's an incredible opportunity right now for GSA to save the government substantial amounts of money by rightsizing its portfolio," Murphy told Fox News Digital about Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) working with GSA to identify "vacant or underutilized federal spaces" as part of the Trump administration’s plan to cut wasteful spending.
"Right now, GSA is losing money," Murphy said. "The federal buildings that they own have over $370 billion in deferred maintenance. That's a liability that is just growing and growing and growing because the buildings haven't been maintained. So getting rid of owned space that hasn't been maintained and that isn't occupied, first of all, takes that off the government's books, gets rid of that liability. But it also creates opportunities in communities. Having a building that's unoccupied isn't good for a city. It isn't good for the state. It isn't good for anyone."
Murphy said those empty buildings are often in ideal downtown, "heavy utilization areas" that can be a real asset to building up the community and returning funds to the Treasury Department.
"GSA has to rightsize its lease portfolio. Otherwise, it's going to be paying rent on buildings it's not occupying, and it doesn't have the funding necessary to do that," Murphy said.
The GSA's cost-cutting efforts have already resulted in 794 lease terminations with a total of over $500 million of lease obligations being canceled, a source familiar with the GSA's actions told Fox News Digital.
Murphy said terminating leases and selling unused office space will benefit the government twofold. First, it can shore up money to fund government agencies in the short term. Second, it will reduce long-term financial obligations.
"No taxpayer should want the government to be paying for space it doesn't use," Murphy said. "It's billions of dollars a year [that] go out in rent and real estate payments from the federal government. This is a substantial amount of money, and it's a real chance for GSA to do a great job for the American people and reduce the long-term financial obligations of the government and, frankly, free up money for agencies in the short term as well."
Murphy told Fox that GSA exists to "cut down on waste" and during her tenure, they managed to return about $21.6 billion in savings. She embraced DOGE’s efforts to cut wasteful spending and increase government efficiency, telling Fox News Digital those issues should have bipartisan support.
"Prioritizing efficiency and minimizing waste in our government really should be a bipartisan issue. Government contracting, government real estate doesn't have a Republican side or a Democratic side of the coin," Murphy said. "What DOGE is doing right now is just pushing forward and trying to make sure that taxpayers can have confidence that every dollar being spent is really in their best interest.
Murphy explained that GSA was created to manage the federal government’s portfolio of properties and procurement and welcomed the renewed focus on efficiency.
"GSA is essentially the government's management arm. It handles the real property, the procurement, many of the shared services the government has, the vehicles in the government's fleet. It runs a lot of the back office functions of the government. It was created about 75 years ago to specifically take on that challenge, so that agencies didn't have to all be doing the same repetitive tasks again and again," Murphy said.
Stephen Ehikian was sworn in as acting administrator and deputy administrator of the GSA on Inauguration Day.
"Under the Trump-Vance administration, I will return the GSA to its core purpose of making government work smarter and faster," said Ehikian. "Moving forward, GSA will be laser-focused on driving an efficient government and enabling our sister agencies to provide better service to taxpayers at lower costs."
GSA has produced the most savings across federal agencies, according to the official DOGE website. A webpage titled "Non-core property list (Coming Soon)" on the GSA’s website outlines the agency’s ongoing effort to save on government buildings.
"We are identifying buildings and facilities that are not core to government operations, or non-core properties, for disposal. Selling ensures that taxpayer dollars are no longer spent on vacant or underutilized federal spaces. Disposing of these assets helps eliminate costly maintenance and allows us to reinvest in high-quality work environments that support agency missions," it says on GSA’s website.
The Associated Press reported that dozens of federal office and building leases will be terminated by June 20, with hundreds more expected in the coming months. AP also reported last weekthat GSA published a list of more than 440 federal properties the government was planning to offload. The list was then revised to include only 320 buildings before the webpage was ultimately updated to its current "coming soon" language.
Musk has lamented about unused office buildings on his personal X account and DOGE’s official account.
"Still *way* too many leases on unused buildings," Musk posted on Feb. 25.
"Agreed! Today, lease cancellations on vacant/underutilized buildings are up from ~257 to ~440, with annual rent savings increasing from ~$100M to ~$171M. Still plenty of available office space for the current workforce," DOGE replied to Musk the following day.
"Today, the Federal Government exceeded $100M in annual rent savings through cancellations of 250+ vacant/underutilized leases totaling 3M+ square feet. With ~7,250 current leases, there is plenty of available office space for the current workforce," DOGE announced in a post on Feb. 25.
"Crazy that the government was just renting and paying for upkeep services of hundreds of empty buildings!" Musk replied.
The White House released photos of President Donald Trump watching strikes on Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen on Saturday, as the large-scale U.S. operation against the terrorist group continues.
"President Trump is taking action against the Houthis to defend US shipping assets and deter terrorist threats," the White House wrote on X, sharing photos of Trump, as well as Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz. "For too long American economic & national threats have been under assault by the Houthis. Not under this presidency."
Trump appeared to be dressed in golf attire and was wearing his signature red baseball cap with his name emblazoned on the back while watching video of the strikes on a television screen.
Another photo showed the president from the front with a black headset on.
Trump wrote in a Saturday TRUTHSocial post that he had "ordered the United States Military to launch decisive and powerful Military action against the Houthi terrorists in Yemen."
"Our brave Warfighters are right now carrying out aerial attacks on the terrorists’ bases, leaders, and missile defenses to protect American shipping, air, and naval assets, and to restore Navigational Freedom," Trump said. "No terrorist force will stop American commercial and naval vessels from freely sailing the Waterways of the World."
U.S. Central Command said Saturday it "initiated a series of operations consisting of precision strikes against Iran-backed Houthi targets across Yemen to defend American interests, deter enemies, and restore freedom of navigation."
State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said in a statement that Rubio spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Saturday.
"The Secretary informed Russia of U.S. military deterrence operations against the Iran-backed Houthis and emphasized that continued Houthi attacks on U.S. military and commercial shipping vessels in the Red Sea will not be tolerated," Bruce wrote. "Secretary Rubio and Foreign Minister Lavrov also discussed next steps to follow up on recent meetings in Saudi Arabia and agreed to continue working towards restoring communication between the United States and Russia."
The Houthi-run Health Ministry in Yemen said the strikes killed at least 31 people, according to the Associated Press.
The Houthis have repeatedly targeted international shipping in the Red Sea and launched missiles and drones at Israel in what the terrorist group said were acts of solidarity with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where Israel has been at war with Hamas, another Iranian ally. The attacks stopped when a fragile Israel-Hamas cease-fire took hold in Gaza in January. The Houthis then threatened to renew them after Israel cut off the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza this month following the Hamas rejection of a U.S. framework for continuing the cease-fire and hostage releases.
The U.S. and others have long accused Iran of providing military aid to the Houthis, and the U.S. Navy has seized Iranian-made missile parts and other weaponry it said were bound for the terrorist group, which controls Yemen's capital of Sanaa and the country's north. Gen. Hossein Salami, head of Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, denied his country was involved in the Houthis' attacks.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, in a post on X, urged the U.S. to halt the strikes and said Washington cannot dictate Iran's foreign policy.
Trump said, "The Houthi attack on American vessels will not be tolerated. We will use overwhelming lethal force until we have achieved our objective. The Houthis have choked off shipping in one of the most important Waterways of the World, grinding vast swaths of Global Commerce to a halt, and attacking the core principle of Freedom of Navigation upon which International Trade and Commerce depends."
Trump charged that the Houthis "have waged an unrelenting campaign of piracy, violence, and terrorism against American, and other, ships, aircraft, and drones."
"Joe Biden’s response was pathetically weak, so the unrestrained Houthis just kept going," he wrote on TRUTHSocial.
Trump said it has been more than a year since a U.S.-flagged commercial ship safely sailed through the Suez Canal, the Red Sea, or the Gulf of Aden.
"The last American Warship to go through the Red Sea, four months ago, was attacked by the Houthis over a dozen times. Funded by Iran, the Houthi thugs have fired missiles at U.S. aircraft, and targeted our Troops and Allies. These relentless assaults have cost the U.S. and World Economy many BILLIONS of Dollars while, at the same time, putting innocent lives at risk," Trump wrote.
"To all Houthi terrorists, YOUR TIME IS UP, AND YOUR ATTACKS MUST STOP, STARTING TODAY. IF THEY DON’T, HELL WILL RAIN DOWN UPON YOU LIKE NOTHING YOU HAVE EVER SEEN BEFORE!" Trump said.
The president added, "To Iran: Support for the Houthi terrorists must end IMMEDIATELY! Do NOT threaten the American People, their President, who has received one of the largest mandates in Presidential History, or Worldwide shipping lanes. If you do, BEWARE, because America will hold you fully accountable and, we won’t be nice about it!"
The Houthis have targeted over 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two and killing four sailors, during their campaign targeting military and civilian ships between the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023 and January of this year, when the ceasefire in Gaza took effect, according to the AP.
The U.S., Israel and Britain have previously hit Houthi-held areas in Yemen, but Saturday’s operation was conducted solely by the U.S. It was the first strike on the Houthis under the second Trump administration.
It comes two weeks after Trump sent a letter to Iranian leaders offering a path to restarting bilateral talks between the countries on Iran’s advancing nuclear program. Trump has said he will not allow it to become operational.
The Trump administration re-designated the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization earlier this month, after the Biden administration had lifted the group's designation in 2021.
Long before Democrats and liberal activists accused Trump of trampling on the rights of pro-Hamas visa holders in the U.S., the Biden administration rolled out a visa-restriction policy targeting Israelis that was riddled with political bias and vague language, but received little resistance or protest, a legal expert told Fox News Digital.
"One is a valid judgment," legal expert and senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, Eugene Kontorovich, explained of President Donald Trump’s restrictions and revocations of visas belonging to pro-Hamas students in the U.S.
"The other was just using the visa system to punish one's political enemies," he continued of a 2023 Biden visa policy.
The Trump administration is in the midst of working to revoke visas and green cards belonging to pro-Hamas students in the U.S. who participated in the widespread anti-Israel protests and riots that rocked college campuses during the last school year. The effort has been met with backlash from Democrats who say Trump is attacking the First Amendment rights of individuals who protested Israel.
Kontorovich spoke to Fox News Digital Wednesday in a phone interview where he explained that Trump’s actions are not only within his legal bounds but also "far more restrained" than previous administrations’ "politicized visa" policies, including a Biden policy that restricted Israelis.
The Biden administration announced in December 2023, just months after war broke out in Israel on October 7, 2023, that it would restrict visas to those believed to have undermined peace and stability in the West Bank. The restriction was a part of the Biden administration’s efforts to achieve a two-state solution for peace in Israel and Palestine, the New York Times reported at the time.
"Today, the State Department is implementing a new visa restriction policy targeting individuals believed to have been involved in undermining peace, security, or stability in the West Bank, including through committing acts of violence or taking other actions that unduly restrict civilians’ access to essential services and basic necessities," the State Department said in a press release in December 2023. "Immediate family members of such persons also may be subject to these restrictions."
In February 2024, Biden signed an executive order imposing sanctions on "persons undermining peace, security, and stability in the West Bank" as he decried "extremist settler violence" in the West Bank. Under the order, sanctioned individuals had their bank accounts frozen and their credit cards canceled and were restricted from conducting basic life activities.
Kontorovich explained that the language of the announcement was vague and allowed for the Biden administration to punish individuals who disagreed with the administration’s policies on a two-state solution.
"The executive order of Biden says, we can ban people who disagree with our notion, even if they don't encourage or participate in violent activities. Whereas there is nothing in U.S. law that says the two-state solution is the be-all and end-all."
"Half the congressmen in Congress probably don't support the two-state solution, whereas Hamas is a designated foreign terror," he continued. "Opposing the two-state solution, not a designated terror organization. Hamas kidnaps and rapes people, murders people. Opponents of the two-state solution don't do that."
Despite the alleged political motivation behind the policy, it was within Biden’s legal bounds, as presidents have broad power to deny entry to foreign nationals.
Kontorovich called the Biden-era visa policy a "Jew ban" — which plays off of the "Muslim ban" title for the travel ban policies under the first Trump administration — as it targeted "Israeli Jews based on political viewpoints that are extremely common amongst Israeli Jews."
The international law expert and George Mason Antonin Scalia Law School professor continued that Democrats and activist groups did not sound the alarm or speak out against the Biden visa policy at the time, noting that the "Biden administration was doing so many bad things to Israel, this was kind of not at the top of the list" for rebuke.
He added that despite the silence in 2023, Democrats this year are "going to bat for a guy who was working with a group that openly and actively supported murderous foreign terrorist organizations," referring to Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil, who was a top pro-Hamas protest organizer on campus in 2024.
"It just shows you how much this outrage is manufactured," he said. "Also, how what Trump is doing is not some kind of new wild, crazy Trumpian thing. It's actually far more restrained than politicized visa policies of prior administrations. Those just didn't get the manufactured outrage."
Democrats and activists have slammed the Trump administration over the ICE detention of Khalil at his Columbia University-owned apartment in Manhattan March 8. The Department of Homeland Security said he was a former Columbia graduate student who "led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization."
Khalil helped lead the anti-Israel protest that plagued the campus in April 2024, including as a negotiator for radical agitators students on campus as they set up a tent encampment and took over an academic building, Hamilton Hall.
He served as a leader of a group called Columbia United Apartheid Divest, which demanded that Columbia completely divest from Israel amid the country's war with Hamas that began on Oct. 7, 2023. The group said its main goal was to "challenge the settler-colonial violence that Israel perpetrates with the support of the United States and its allies," according to an op-ed published in the Columbia Spectator in November 2023.
DHS additionally reported that Khalil "led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization."
The 47th president signed an executive order in January, putting pro-Hamas protesters in the U.S. on student visas on notice that they will be deported.
"To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you," the president said in a Jan. 30 fact sheet on the executive order. "I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before."
Khalil was born in Syria in 1995 and has been in the U.S. on a green card, according to various reports. He is under investigation as a possible threat to U.S. national security, with investigators reportedly finding "antisemitic and hateful" posts on Khalil’s social media accounts, White House sources told Fox News Tuesday.
Liberal lawmakers and activists have described his arrest as an attack on the First Amendment, which protects the freedom of speech and assembly. The administration and legal experts, however, argue that the case is not focused on First Amendment rights but on national security and immigration.
Kontorvich explained that the Trump administration is not targeting students on visas who said "bad or scary things," the administration is instead targeting foreign nationals with suspected ties to a longstanding designated terror organization.
"It's not like they just went out and designated some group they didn't like," he added. "It's not like designing BLM a terror organization."
The legal scholar also noted that the Trump administration likely took on its most difficult revocation and deportation case first, as Khalil holds a green card, which permits permanent residence to foreigners, while visas allow for temporary residence.
"The test for revoking permanent status is harder than just a visa holder," he said. "And the government is going to have to show evidence that he supported Hamas, sort of actively, openly endorsed violence. From what I've seen, all that's true, and that's probably enough to revoke his visa. But by focusing on that, the pro-Hamas, Democrats have basically conceded that for visa holders, this will be totally fine. I think Trump is dealing with the hardest case first with permanent residence."
A senior State Department official told Fox News that Khalil is deportable under Section 237(a)(4)(C) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. The section of the immigration law states: "An alien whose presence or activities in the United States the Secretary of State has reasonable ground to believe would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States is deportable."
There is no requirement that a crime be committed under this section of the law. Instead, it provides broad power to the secretary of state to declare an alien deportable.
Tennessee state lawmakers introduced a bill to allow school districts and law enforcement agencies to deny enrollment to illegal migrant students.
S.B. 836 states that a law enforcement agency or public charter school "may enroll, or refuse to enroll, a student who is unlawfully present in the United States."
Republican Sen. Bo Watson, who sponsored the bill, said the proposal aims to save the state money. The bill was amended to give school districts the option to charge tuition for a student's enrollment rather than making it a requirement, according to Fox Chattanooga.
"This legislation says, if you are not able to prove your lawful residence here, a local LEA may charge you tuition for attendance, which addresses the physical nature of this legislation. This is not about denying education to those students," Watson said, according to the outlet.
But the bill contradicts the current law affirmed by the 1981 U.S. Supreme Court decision Plyler v. Doe, which ruled that states provide funding for any student seeking a public education, regardless of their immigration status.
Immigration attorney Brittany Faith criticized the bill as unconstitutional and said it was proposed to challenge the Plyler v. Doe ruling.
"It's blatantly unconstitutional. They've been pretty honest that that's their goal, is to set this up as a challenge to Plyler v. Doe," Faith told Fox Chattanooga.
Faith also took issue with the option for schools to charge tuition, citing that Tennessee's tax structure is sales-tax-based.
"Because of that, they're paying the same amount of taxes that go towards the public education system that somebody who is in legal status does," she said.
