Happy New Year 2025

Category: Politics

Trump warns FEMA faces a reckoning after Biden admin: ‘Not done their job’

President Donald Trump warned late Wednesday that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is set to face a reckoning following four years under the Biden administration, arguing the emergency agency has “not done their job.”

“FEMA has not done their job for the last four years. You know, I had FEMA working really well. We had hurricanes in Florida. We had Alabama tornadoes. But unless you have certain types of leadership, it’s really, it gets in the way. And FEMA is going to be a whole big discussion very shortly, because I’d rather see the states take care of their own problems,” Trump said Wednesday in an exclusive interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, his first White House interview since his inauguration.

Trump then turned his attention to the state of Oklahoma, touting that he won all 77 of the state’s counties in the 2024 election, and arguing that if the Sooner State is hit by a tornado, state leaders should take the lead on emergency response before the federal government steps in for additional assistance.

“I love Oklahoma, but you know what? If they get hit with a tornado or something, let Oklahoma fix it. … And then the federal government can help them out with the money. FEMA is getting in the way of everything, and the Democrats actually use FEMA not to help North Carolina,” Trump continued.

TRUMP, GOP LEADERS MEET AT WHITE HOUSE AS PRESIDENT PLANS VISIT TO NC, DEFENDS EXECUTIVE ORDERS

President Donald Trump sits for an interview with Fox News. (Fox News / Hannity)

FEMA came under the nation’s microscope last year when Hurricane Helene ripped through North Carolina, devastating residents as it wiped out homes and businesses and killed more than 100 people. FEMA and the Biden administration faced fierce backlash for its handling of the emergency, while Trump accused the agency of obstructing relief efforts in Republican areas.

“The Democrats don’t care about North Carolina. What they’ve done with FEMA is so bad. FEMA is a whole ‘nother discussion, because all it does is complicate everything,” he said.

TRUMP SAYS NEWSOM IS TO ‘BLAME’ FOR ‘APOCALYPTIC’ WILDFIRES

“So I’m stopping on Friday. I’m stopping in North Carolina, first stop, because those people were treated very badly by Democrats. And I’m stopping there. We’re going to get that thing straightened out because they’re still suffering from a hurricane from months ago,” Trump said.

Floodwaters from Hurricane Helene in Western North Carolina. (Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty Images)

Trump will visit North Carolina on Friday, his first trip as president, where he is expected to tour and meet with residents who were left devastated by the hurricane in September. He will also visit California that same day, where wildfires have ripped through the Los Angeles area this month.

The trip is set to highlight what Trump has described as emergency response failures at the hands of Democratic leaders.

FAST-MOVING HUGHES FIRE ERUPTS IN LOS ANGELES COUNTY AS CALIFORNIA OFFICIALS ORDER EVACUATIONS

A house burns as the Palisades Fire rages on at the Mandeville Canyon, in Los Angeles, California, U.S., January 11, 2025. (REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton )

“And then I’m going to then I’m going to go to California,” he said, before criticizing Gov. Gavin Newsom’s handling of wildfire prevention and response. Trump has long criticized the Democratic governor for prioritizing environmental policies, such as protecting the dwindling smelt and Chinook salmon populations, and not tapping water sources in the northern part of the state that he argued would allow better fire response.

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“There is massive amounts of water, rain water and mountain water, that comes to with the snow, comes down, as it melts, there’s so much water they’re releasing it into the Pacific Ocean,” he said.

January 23, 2025
Hannity reveals what he told Trump after 2020 election loss: ‘Winston Churchill’ return

Fox News host Sean Hannity revealed he told President Donald Trump after the 2020 election loss that a return to the White House four years after the Biden administration would be “bigger” than a consecutive win, comparing it to Winston Churchill’s return as prime minister following World War II.

“Maybe I shouldn’t disclose this, but I will, and it was after the 2020 election, and you asked me a question. And we’ve known each other for 30 years, so we have a friendship and we have a professional relationship,” Hannity said in his exclusive interview with Trump on Wednesday.

“And the question you asked me, ‘maybe in the end, it will be better that if I came back in four years.’ And we talked about history. After World War Two, Winston Churchill was thrown out, but they brought him back. Grover Cleveland, the only other American president that did not serve consecutive terms,” he continued.

TRUMP DETAILS HOW HE FELT WALKING BACK INTO THE OVAL OFFICE IN EXCLUSIVE ‘HANNITY’ INTERVIEW

President Trump sits down for his first White House interview since his inauguration. (Fox News)

Churchill served as prime minister twice, from 1940-1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. Trump is the second U.S. president to serve two, non-consecutive terms behind President Grover Cleveland, the nation’s 22nd and 24th president.

ACLU LAWYER CALLS FEMALES ‘NON-TRANSGENDER WOMEN’ IN RANT ABOUT TRUMP EXECUTIVE ORDER

Hannity explained that he believed “it would be bigger if you came back.” Trump agreed that it’s already shaping up that way after three days in office.

President Trump speaks with Fox News’ Sean Hannity. (Fox News)

“It’s turning out to be bigger. And I think one thing is happening is people are learning that they can’t govern and that their policies are terrible. I mean, they don’t want to see a woman get pummeled by a man in a boxing ring?” he said.

Trump sat down for his first interview in the White House on Wednesday after he was sworn in as the 47th president on Monday.

BREAKING DOWN THE SENATE HEARINGS FOR TRUMP’S CABINET NOMINEES

President-elect Donald Trump greets President Joe Biden at the 60th Presidential Inauguration in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. (Kenny Holston/The New York Times via AP, Pool)

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“They don’t want to see men in women’s sports … They don’t want to have transgender for everyone. They don’t want a child leave home as a boy and come back two days later as a girl. A parent doesn’t want to see that, and there are states where that can happen. They don’t want to see taxes go through the roof like this,” he continued.

January 23, 2025
Department of Justice freezes all civil rights division cases: report

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) sent a memo to its civil rights division, ordering a freeze to all ongoing litigation originating from the Biden administration and halting the pursuit of any new cases or settlements, according to reports.

The Washington Post first reported that a memo sent to Kathleen Wolfe, the temporary head of the division appointed by the Trump administration, instructed her to make sure attorneys do not file “any new complaints, motions to intervene, agree-upon remands, amicus briefs, or statements of interest.”

As to how long the freeze will last, the memo does not say, though it practically ceases the division until President Donald Trump’s nomination to lead the department, Harmeet Dhillon, is confirmed by the Senate.

The publication also reported the freeze was “consistent with the Department’s goal of ensuring that the Federal Government speaks with one voice in its view of the law and to ensure that the President’s appointees or designees have the opportunity to decide whether to initiate any new cases.”

DOJ RACING THE CLOCK TO ENSHRINE ‘WOKE’ POLICING RULES, LAWYER SAYS, AS JUDGE HEARS BREONNA TAYLOR REFORM CASE

The Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. (Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

A source familiar with the memo confirmed its contents to Fox News.

The DOJ had no comment on the matter.

Wolfe was also told in another memo that the division must tell the chief of staff of the DOJ about any consent decrees finalized by the division over the past 90 days.

WATCHDOG SEEKS HALT TO 11TH HOUR BIDEN DOJ EFFORT TO ‘HANDCUFF’ KY POLICE OVER BREONNA TAYLOR INCIDENT

President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump (Getty Images)

Earlier this month, a Kentucky judge declined to immediately sign a police reform consent decree forged by the DOJ and the city of Louisville during a hearing one courtroom participant described as a hasty attempt by the Biden administration to hamstring incoming President Trump.

But federal Judge Benjamin Beaton refused to be a “rubber stamp” for a 240-page reform plan prompted by the 2020 police-involved shooting of Breonna Taylor, according to Oversight Project counsel Kyle Brosnan.

Taylor was killed in a hail of police gunfire after Louisville officers sought to serve a drug warrant at her boyfriend Kenneth Walker’s house. Walker fired a “warning shot” through the door and struck Officer Jonathan Mattingly in the leg.

PROPOSED CHICAGO POLICE RESOURCE CUTS COULD LAND CITY IN COURT UNDER CONSENT DECREE, OFFICIALS WARN

A photo of Breonna Taylor shared at the 2022 Defend Black Women March in Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, D.C. (Leigh Vogel/Getty Images for Frontline Action Hub)

A consent decree, Brosnan noted, is different from other legal agreements in that it cannot simply be reversed by presidential order or a change of heart by one of the parties involved.

The consent decree alleged a pattern or practice of racial bias in Louisville policing, including in traffic stops, sexual assault probes or use of force.

There are at least two other police reform consent decrees going through the legal process, one in Maryland and one in Minnesota.

On Jan. 6, the DOJ reached an agreement with Minneapolis, which still requires court approval, to reform the department’s “unconstitutional and unlawful practices” allegedly counter to the Americans With Disabilities Act and 14th Amendment.

In October 2024, the feds sued the Maryland Department of State Police alleging Civil Rights Act violations.

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“The United States claims MDSP violated Title VII when it used a certain physical fitness test and a certain written test to hire entry-level Troopers because the tests disqualified more female and African-American applicants than others and were not job related,” a court document states.

Maryland police dispute the allegations.

Fox News Digital’s Charles Creitz contributed to this report.

Greg Wehner is a breaking news reporter for Fox News Digital.

Story tips and ideas can be sent to Greg.Wehner@Fox.com and on Twitter @GregWehner.

January 23, 2025
Trump’s ICE racks up hundreds of arrests, including illegal immigrants arrested for horror crimes

FIRST ON FOX: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), in the first days of the Trump administration, has made for that 460 arrests of illegal immigrants, include those with criminal histories that include sexual assault, domestic violence and drugs and weapons crimes.

Information obtained by Fox News Digital, shows that between midnight Jan. 21 and 9am Jan 22, a 33-hour period, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) arrests over 460 aliens that include criminal histories of sexual assault, robbery, burglary, aggravated assault, drugs and weapons offenses, resisting arrest and domestic violence.

Agents arrested nationals from a slew of countries including Afghanistan, Angola, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Senegal and Venezuela.

‘PROMPT REMOVAL’: TRUMP DHS EXPANDS EXPEDITED DEPORTATION POWERS AS OPERATIONS RAMP UP

Arrests took place across the U.S. including Illinois, Utah, California, Minnesota, New York, Florida and Maryland.

On January 22, 2025, ICE-ERO News York arrested Kamaro Denver Haye, a citizen of Jamaica. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) previously arrested Haye on 12/10/2024 for “Promote A Sexual Performance By A Child Less Than 17 Years of Age and Possessing Sexual Performance By Child Less Than 16 Years of Age: Possess/Access To View”. (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement )

Meanwhile, ICE issued more than 420 detainers – requests ICE be notified when a national is released from custody. The nationals were arrested for crimes including homicide, sexual assault, kidnapping, battery and robbery.

TRUMP BORDER CZAR REVEALS ICE TEAMS ARE ALREADY ARRESTING ‘PUBLIC SAFETY THREATS’

Arrests include:

– A Mexican national, Jesus Perez, arrested in Salt Lake City, charged with aggravated sexual abuse of a child.

On January 22, 2025, ICE-ERO Chicago arrested Adan Pablo-Ramirez, an inadmissible Mexican national with convictions for operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol. (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement )

– A Honduran national, Franklin Osorto-Cruz, convicted of driving while intoxicated. He was arrested in New York.

– A Jamaican national, Kamaro Denver Haye, arrested for “promote a sexual performance by a child less than 17 years of age and possessing sexual performance by child less than 16 years of age: possess/access to view.”

– A Mexican national, Jesus Baltazar Mendoza, convicted of 2nd degree assault of a child. He was arrested in St. Paul.

– Colombian national Andres Orjuela Parra, who was arrested in San Francisco. He has a conviction of sexual penetration with a foreign object on an unaware victim.

TRUMP DHS REPEALS KEY MAYORKAS MEMO LIMITING ICE AGENTS, ORDERS PAROLE REVIEW

– Six illegal immigrants in Miami from Guatemala, with criminal histories including battery, child abuse, fraud, resisting arrest, DWI, trespassing and vandalism.

Meanwhile, Fox News’ Bill Melugin was on the ground in Boston, where agents arrested multiple MS-13 gang members, Interpol Red Notices, and murder & rape suspects.

The arrests come as the Trump administration is moving rapidly to fulfill its promise to launch a historic mass deportation operation, which it has said will focus primarily – but not exclusively – on public safety threats.

On January 22, 2025, ICE-ERO New York City arrested Jose Roberto Rodriguez-Urbina, a 22-year-old citizen of El Salvador. Rodriguez is an alleged MS13 gang member and is also the subject of an Interpol Red Notice from El Salvador for the offense of Extortion. (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement )

This week the administration has made a slew of moves to make it happen, including a barrage of executive orders by President Trump and subsequent moves by his cabinet agencies.

Fox News reported Wednesday that the Department of Homeland Security has removed limits from powers of expedited removal, a day after it rescinded a Biden-era memo restricting where ICE can conduct enforcement operations.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE

ICE-ERO San Francisco arrested Daniel Andres Orjuela Parra (right), a citizen of Colombia unlawfully present in the United States. Orjuela has been convicted of sexual penetration with a foreign object on an unaware victim and sentenced to 3 years in prison. (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement )

“Teams are out there as of today,” Homan said on “America’s Newsroom” on Tuesday. “We gave them direction to prioritize public safety threats that we’re looking for. We’ve been working up the target list.”

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“Right out of the gate it’s public safety threats, those who are in the country illegally that have been convicted, arrested for serious crime,” he said. “But let me be clear. There’s not only public safety threats that will be arrested, because in sanctuary cities, we’re not allowed to get that public safety threat in the jail, which means we got to go to the neighborhood and find him.”

Fox News’ Sophia Compton contributed to this report.

Adam Shaw is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital, primarily covering immigration and border security.

He can be reached at adam.shaw2@fox.com or on Twitter.

January 23, 2025
Bureau of Prisons director out as Trump’s Justice Department reforms take shape

The director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) has resigned from her position, while a Biden-era executive order that sought to phase out the use of private prisons has been repealed amid President Donald Trump’s efforts to implement drastic reforms to the Justice Department.

Colette Peters, who has led the BOP since August 2022, is out as director of the beleaguered agency, and she has been replaced by William Lothrop, who had been serving as deputy director of the BOP.

Peters was appointed by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland in 2022 and touted as a reform-minded outsider tasked with rebuilding an agency plagued for years by staff shortages, widespread corruption, misconduct and abuse.

DOJ TO INVESTIGATE STATE OR LOCAL OFFICIALS WHO OBSTRUCT IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT: MEMO

Then Attorney General Merrick Garland shakes hands with Colette Peters, then director of the federal Bureau of Prisons, after she was sworn in at BOP headquarters in Washington, on Aug. 2, 2022. (Evelyn Hockstein via AP)

The agency has nearly 36,000 employees and is responsible for more than 155,000 federal inmates.

Lothrop, who says he has more than 30 years’ experience working in the BOP, announced the change via a statement on Tuesday, the day after President Trump was sworn into office. The BOP director is not subject to confirmation by the Senate, per the legal news service Law 360.

“On Jan. 20, 2025, Director Peters separated from the Federal Bureau of Prisons and I will be serving as the Acting Director,” Lothrop said. “As we face ongoing challenges, including staffing shortages and operational issues, I am committed to working alongside you to find real solutions that strengthen our facilities. We will continue collaborating with our law enforcement partners and stakeholders to maintain robust programming and support services for inmates.”

“Our mission remains clear: to provide a safe, secure and humane environment, ensure public safety, and prepare those in our custody for successful reentry into society,” his statement added.

Colette Peters, the director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) has resigned from her position. ( Tierney L. Cross/Getty Images)

CAREER JUSTICE DEPARTMENT OFFICIALS REASSIGNED TO DIFFERENT POSITIONS: REPORTS

Soon after Trump was elected, Peters announced the closure of six male federal prison camps and one female facility, including the scandal-hit Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California, per Forbes.

FCI Dublin had garnered the nickname “rape club” after the Justice Department in December was ordered to pay almost $116 million to 103 women who say they were abused there.

The prison’s former warden, Ray Garcia, and at least seven other employees are now in prison themselves for sexually abusing inmates.

During her tenure, Peters appeared before the House and Senate Judiciary Committees and spoke about the challenges the BOP faced, but she had trouble getting results.

William Lothrop is the acting director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP). (Federal Bureau of Prisons )

In September 2023, Peters was scolded by Sens. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and Mike Lee, R-Utah, who said Peters forced them to wait more than a year for answers to written follow-up questions they sent her after she first appeared before the committee in September 2022, leaving them without information critical to fully understanding how the agency runs.

Peters also irked senators by claiming she couldn’t answer even the most basic questions about agency operations — like how many correctional officers are on staff — and by referring to notes and talking points on a tablet computer in front of her.

In 2024, then President Biden signed the Federal Prison Oversight Law, which allowed the Office of Inspector General to conduct more unannounced prison inspections, per Forbes.

Of the inspections OIG has done over the years, it found significant shortages of staff, poor medical care for prisoners, rotten food and dirty living conditions. Peters said she welcomed the law, but that it had not yet been funded.

The entrance to FCI Dublin, which is located in California’s Bay Area. ( Anda Chu/MediaNews Group/The Mercury News via Getty Images)

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Trump reversed Executive Order 14006, which had eliminated Justice Department contracts with private prisons. The reversal now allows for new contracts between private prison corporations and the U.S. Marshals Service.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Michael Dorgan is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business.

You can send tips to michael.dorgan@fox.com and follow him on Twitter @M_Dorgan.

January 23, 2025
House Speaker Johnson calls Biden’s last-minute pardons ‘shocking’ and ‘disgusting’

House Speaker Mike Johnson says former President Joe Biden’s last-minute pardons of his family members were “shocking” and “disgusting.”

“It was shocking. I mean, it was shocking what President Biden did on the way out, pardoning his family for more than a decade of whatever activity, any nonviolent offenses. It was breathtaking to us,” Johnson said Wednesday during the House Republican leadership’s weekly press conference.

“I don’t think that’s anything like that’s ever been anticipated. And by the way, go look at the tape. You know, four years ago when it was just implied that President Trump might do something similar, they were apoplectic. Joe Biden himself, Adam Schiff, Chuck Schumer, roll the tape. They all said that would be crazy and unconscionable. And now they’re cheering it along,” Johnson continued.

“To us, it is disgusting. To us, it probably proves the point. The suspicion that, you know, they call it the Biden crime family. If they weren’t the crime family, why do they need pardons? Right?” Johnson also said. “Look, there’s a lot of attention that’s going to be paid to this. And I think that is appropriate. And we will be looking at it as well.”

4 TRUMP RIVALS THAT BIDEN DIDN’T PARDON

Johnson listens as President Donald Trump speaks after taking the oath of office at the 60th Presidential Inauguration in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Monday, Jan. 20. (Kevin Lamarque/Pool Photo via AP)

Biden pardoned his siblings just minutes before leaving office on Monday.

The pardon applied to James Biden, Sara Jones Biden, Valerie Biden Owens, John Owens, and Francis Biden, the White House announced. The president argued that his family could be subject to “politically motivated investigations” after he leaves office.

“I believe in the rule of law, and I am optimistic that the strength of our legal institutions will ultimately prevail over politics. But baseless and politically motivated investigations wreak havoc on the lives, safety, and financial security of targeted individuals and their families,” Biden said in a statement.

“Even when individuals have done nothing wrong and will ultimately be exonerated, the mere fact of being investigated or prosecuted can irreparably damage their reputations and finances,” Biden added.

The pardons have been widely criticized, with Trump-Vance transition senior adviser Jason Miller describing them to Fox News as “nonsense.”

“I think for Joe Biden to do that, I thought that was nonsense,” he said.

‘THE VIEW’ CO-HOST SLAMS BIDEN’S LAST-SECOND PREEMPTIVE PARDONS, SAYS HIS LEGACY IS TARNISHED

Biden and the former first lady board Special Air Mission 46 at Joint Base Andrews following inauguration ceremonies on Monday. Biden pardoned his family members just minutes before leaving office. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

Former Biden White House communications director Kate Bedingfield also called them a “disappointing move.”

Biden issued another wave of pre-emptive pardons earlier Monday morning, those going to Dr. Anthony Fauci, Gen. Mark Milley and people associated with the House select committee investigation on January 6.

Since taking office, President Donald Trump signed off on releasing more than 1,500 charged with crimes stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the U.S. Capitol.

Johnson speaks to reporters in Washington on Wednesday, Jan. 22. (Fox News)

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“The President has made his decision,” Johnson said Wednesday when asked about those pardons.

Fox News’ Chad Pergram, Anders Hagstrom, Diana Stancy and Jamie Joseph contributed to this report.

Greg Norman is a reporter at Fox News Digital.

January 23, 2025
Biden’s letter to Trump revealed: ‘May God bless you and guide you’

President Donald Trump revealed the contents of the letter that President Joe Biden left him upon leaving the Oval Office earlier this week exclusively to Fox News on Wednesday.

The letter, which Trump found inside the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office with a little help from Fox News senior White House correspondent Peter Doocy, is addressed “Dear President Trump” and reads as follows:

“As I take leave of this sacred office I wish you and your family all the best in the next four years. The American people — and people around the world — look to this house for steadiness in the inevitable storms of history, and my prayer is that in the coming years will be a time of prosperity, peace, and grace for our nation.

“May God bless you and guide you as He has blessed and guided our beloved country since our founding.”

BIDEN LEFT TRUMP ‘INSPIRATIONAL’ MESSAGE IN ‘VERY NICE’ LETTER, NEW PRESIDENT SAYS

President Donald Trump holds up the letter that former President Joe Biden left for him in the Resolute Desk as he signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Monday. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

The letter was signed “Joe Biden” and dated Jan. 20, 2025.

On Monday, Trump found the letter — a white envelope addressed to “47″ — after Doocy asked if Biden left him a letter while he was signing a flurry of executive orders in the Oval Office in front of a gaggle of reporters.

“He may have. Don’t they leave it in the desk? I don’t know,” Trump told Doocy before discovering the letter. “Thank you, Peter. It could have been years before we found this thing.”

Trump found the letter in the Resolute Desk after Fox News senior White House correspondent Peter Doocy asked whether Biden had left him a note. Trump revealed the contents of Biden’s letter exclusively to Fox News on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

On Tuesday, Trump responded to further questions from Doocy about the contents of the letter.

“It was a very nice letter,” Trump told reporters. “It was a little bit of an inspirational-type letter. Enjoy it, do a good job. Important, very important. How important the job is.”

“It was a positive, for him, in writing it,” Trump continued. “I appreciated the letter.”

TRUMP EXCORIATES BISHOP AS ‘RADICAL LEFT HARD LINE TRUMP HATER’ AFTER POLITICALLY CHARGED PRAYER SERVICE

The presidential tradition of leaving a letter to their successor began in 1989 when President Ronald Reagan left the White House after two terms in office, with former President George H. W. Bush taking over. The tradition has carried on to this day through Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Trump and Biden.

Handwritten letters from former presidents left for their successors are photographed in Washington, D.C., on Saturday. Every president since Ronald Reagan has left a note for his successor. (AP Photo/Jon Elswick)

Biden, however, was the first president to find himself in the unique position of writing a letter to someone who is both his successor and the predecessor who left him a note four years earlier. Trump became the first president to serve nonconsecutive terms since Grover Cleveland in the late 1800s.

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Biden has said Trump left him a “very generous letter,” but has so far declined to share the content of what Trump wrote, deeming it private.

Fox News Digital’s Greg Wehner contributed to this report.

Peter Doocy currently serves as a Senior White House correspondent for FOX News Channel (FNC). He joined the network in 2009 as a general assignment reporter based in the New York bureau.

January 23, 2025
Working ‘in tandem’: Republicans prep to make Trump executive orders permanent

House Republicans have no plans to allow President Donald Trump’s key executive orders to expire at the end of his four-year term.

Trump marked his first day in office Monday with dozens of new executive orders, and signaled that he is aiming to use the commander in chief’s unilateral power to enact policy when possible.

Executive orders, however, can be easily rescinded when a new administration enters the White House. They can also be subject to legal challenges that argue they run afoul of existing U.S. law, as is the current case with Trump’s order limiting birthright citizenship.

But several House GOP lawmakers who spoke with Fox News Digital are signaling they intend to stop that from happening for at least several of Trump’s key policies.

HEAD HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS REPORTING ON PRESIDENT TRUMP’S FIRST DAY IN OFFICE

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson shakes hands with President Donald Trump. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

“I see him doing things by executive action as a necessity to signal… but they’re not the best way to do things,” former House Freedom Caucus Chairman Scott Perry, R-Pa., told Fox News Digital. “The best way to do things is the legislative process with a signature on a bill.”

Perry suggested starting with Trump’s orders on the border and energy.

Meanwhile, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., confirmed at his weekly press conference that Trump’s orders will be a roadmap for the House.

“This is an America First agenda that takes both of those branches of government to work in tandem,” Johnson said. “And so what he’s doing is kickstarting what will ultimately be our legislative agenda.”

Rep. Russell Fry, R-S.C., a close ally of Trump, told Fox News Digital, “I think the executive orders are easy because it requires one person.”

Rep. Scott Perry wants Congress to codify Trump’s border and energy orders. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)

“Equally important in our discussions with him is the legislative piece, that we permanently enshrine some of these things or that we correct mistakes in the law that maybe have been abused in the past,” Fry said.

Rep. Gary Palmer, R-Ala., suggested enshrining Trump’s rollback of Biden administration energy policies into law.

The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee’s border subcommittee, Rep. Michael Guest, R-Miss., said he wanted Congress to back up Trump’s immigration executive orders.

“We need to codify what President Trump has put in place by executive orders – Remain in Mexico, doing away with the CBP One app,” Guest said. “When President Trump leaves office in four years, those executive orders can be undone.”

FIRST ON FOX: TRUMP VOWS OVER 200 EXECUTIVE ACTIONS ON DAY 1

Freshman GOP Rep. Brandon Gill introduced a bill to codify President Trump’s Remain In Mexico policy. (Getty Images)

Some have already taken steps to do just that. House Science Committee Chair Brian Babin, R-Texas, introduced a bill this week to limit birthright citizenship the day after Trump’s order.

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Freshman Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, released a bill earlier this month to reinstate Trump’s Remain In Mexico policy.

“I think the border crisis is so egregious and so harmful to American citizens that everybody can see it, whether you’re a Republican or Democrat,” Gill told Fox News Digital.

Former President Joe Biden rolled back several of Trump’s key executive orders on his first day in office and ended enforcement of Remain In Mexico – though that was challenged in court.

Elizabeth Elkind is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital leading coverage of the House of Representatives. Previous digital bylines seen at Daily Mail and CBS News.

Follow on Twitter at @liz_elkind and send tips to elizabeth.elkind@fox.com

January 23, 2025
Newsom uses LA fires to criticize President Trump’s reversal of Biden-era climate emissions standards

In an apparent swipe at President Donald Trump, Gov. Gavin Newsom suggested the Los Angeles fires were the result of climate change, urging skeptics that, “If you don’t believe in science, believe your own damn eyes.”

He wrote those words in a press release issued on Tuesday in response to Trump’s executive orders around the environment and paired them alongside horrifying images of the fires raging in California, which have so far killed 27 people and destroyed tens of thousands of homes and structures.

Trump, who was sworn in as the 47th president of the United States on Monday, signed several executive orders to reverse parts of former President Joe Biden’s climate agenda, including withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement – a legally binding treaty between nearly 195 parties who are committed to international cooperation on climate change.

In response to Trump distancing from the climate pact, which sought to reduce emissions 61-66% by 2035, the California governor suggested that withdrawing from the global emissions agreement contributes to environmental incidents such as the West Coast fires.

TRUMP ELIMINATING LNG PAUSE TO HAVE ‘QUICKEST EFFECT’ ON ENERGY INDUSTRY: RICK PERRY

California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass tour the downtown business district of Pacific Palisades as the Palisades Fire continues to burn on Jan. 8, 2025 in Los Angeles. (Eric Thayer)

Several other Democratic lawmakers across the country have also tried to pin the disastrous fires on climate change, despite residents fuming at local officials after some fire hydrants were not producing water in areas impacted by the fires.

“The scale of damage and loss is unimaginable. Climate change is real, not ‘a hoax.’ Donald Trump must treat this like the existential crisis it is,” Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said in a social media post in January.

PRESIDENT TRUMP FOLLOWS THROUGH ON DAY ONE WITH TRADE, ENERGY, DOGE EXECUTIVE ORDERS

The claims come as California officials continue to receive backlash for funding diversity, equity, and inclusion in the city, while the fire department budget was slashed by $17.6 million this year.

President Donald Trump found a letter from former President Joe Biden while signing executive orders in the Oval Office on Jan. 20, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Anna Moneymaker)

“When you just look at water not coming out of fire hydrants and then nobody seems to know why. And then the governor says, ‘Well, I’m going to investigate it,’ it’s just kind of a sideshow in a time when we need real definitive, strong leadership,” Assembly Minority Leader James Gallagher told Fox News Digital of Newsom.

Actor Michael Rapaport also blasted Newsom for talking about “Trump-proofing” California ahead of his inauguration instead of focusing on “fire-proofing” the state.

“If you are going to run a city or run a state, you have to take care of the basics, and that’s to make sure that your fire and your police department are well-funded,” filmmaker and former “Family Ties” star Justine Bateman told Fox News’ Jessie Watters.

Fire crews monitor the Palisades Fire in Mandeville Canyon on Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025 in Los Angeles. (Jae C. Hong)

Newsom extended an invitation to Trump to visit the areas in California that were impacted by the fires.

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Trump told attendees at a pre-inauguration rally that he plans to visit southern California later this week, marking his first trip to the state since being sworn-in as president.

Fox News’ Stepheny Price contributed to this report.

Aubrie Spady is a Writer for Fox News Digital.

January 23, 2025
House Speaker Johnson captures VP JD Vance’s first visit to the Oval Office on video

House Speaker Mike Johnson channeled his inner dad energy as he excitedly recorded Vice President JD Vance’s first time in the Oval Office. The speaker not only celebrated the moment, but he noted Vance’s background, saying his story is one that could happen “only in America.”

“As we gathered for our meeting at the White House yesterday, JD Vance mentioned to us that he had never before visited the Oval Office. I told him and President Trump that I HAD to capture the moment on video,” Johnson wrote in a post on X. “Only in America can a hardworking young man from Appalachia rise from his humble circumstances to enter the Oval for first time as VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. What a country!”

REPUBLICAN LAWMAKERS MEET WITH PRESIDENT TRUMP, VP VANCE TO ADVANCE AGENDA

Vice President JD Vance, President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson speak during the 60th presidential inauguration in Emancipation Hall of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. (Alexander Drago/Pool via Reuters)

Vance’s background took center stage in the campaign as then-Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, Gov. Tim Walz, D-Min., made a joke about no one from his small town going to Yale, where Vance got his law degree.

“Now, I grew up in Butte, Nebraska, a town of 400 people. I had 24 kids in my high school class, and none of them went to Yale,” Walz said during his remarks at the Democratic National Convention.

The Trump campaign was quick to call out Walz’s remarks on social media, calling it a “weird flex.”

Vice President JD Vance takes his oath as his wife Usha Vance watches during the 60th Presidential Inauguration in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol on Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. (Kevin Lamarque/Pool Photo via AP)

WHO IS TRUMP’S RUNNING MATE JD VANCE?

Before he was chosen as President Donald Trump’s running mate, Vance served as a senator from Ohio after winning the seat in 2022. However, the current vice president entered the public eye in 2016 when he published his book, “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis.” In the book, he details his challenging upbringing in Middletown, Ohio.

Surrounded by poverty, and grappling with his mother’s drug addiction, Vance worked his way into a position to make change.

In 2020, years after the memoir was published, it was turned into a Netflix movie, which was directed by Ron Howard and starred Glenn Close and Amy Adams. “Hillbilly Elegy” faced fierce criticism, which both Close and Adams rejected. Recently, while on “The View,” Close praised the vice president’s “very generous family.”

Vice President JD Vance and President Donald Trump look on during a rally on Inauguration Day. (Reuters/Mike Segar)

GLENN CLOSE PRAISES ‘GENEROUS’ FAMILY OF JD VANCE DURING ‘HILLBILLY ELEGY’ FILMING, AS ‘VIEW’ HOSTS TAKE JABS

Vance’s mother, Beverly Aikins, has been sober for a decade. Aikins briefly addressed the crowd at the Ohio inaugural ball, which was held in Washington, D.C., on Sunday night. She informed the crowd that she officially hit 10 years of sobriety that day and that the next day was her birthday, in addition to it being her son’s inauguration, Cincinnati.com reported.

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Vance returned to his hometown for a rally held at Middletown High School, from which he graduated in 2003. He told the crowd that the town was “so good to me,” and that he was “proud” to be from Middletown.

Rachel Wolf is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital and FOX Business.

January 23, 2025