Category: Politics

  • Trump tariffs spark ‘exciting time’ for Ohio steel plant as CEO eyes adding jobs, boosting productivity

    Trump tariffs spark ‘exciting time’ for Ohio steel plant as CEO eyes adding jobs, boosting productivity

    FIRST ON FOX: President Donald Trump’s tariffs will be a boon for an Ohio-based steel mill and its employees, the CEO of JSW Steel USA, a subsidiary of a massive India-based steel manufacturer, told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview. 

    “It’s a good piece of the formula that results in our company increasing utilization in the next 12 months, from 68% to probably 84%, and beyond that in years to come. So it’s a very exciting time for us,” JSW Steel USA CEO Robert Simon told Fox News Digital of Trump’s tariff plan in a phone interview on Thursday evening. 

    Simon has served as the CEO of JSW Steel USA since March of last year, bringing with him more than 30 years of experience in the steel industry. He spoke to Fox News Digital following Trump announcing his administration’s “fair and reciprocal plan on trade,” which he celebrated during a press conference as a project that will flood the U.S. with jobs as trading partners move their industries to U.S. soil to avoid tariffs. 

    JSW USA is a subsidiary of Mumbai-headquartered JSW Group, which owns India’s second-largest private steel company, JSW Steel. JSW USA has two steel locations in the U.S., one at Mingo Junction, Ohio, and another operation in Baytown, Texas. 

    TRUMP DETAILS HIS RECIPROCAL TARIFF PLANS, ASKS FOREIGN COUNTRIES TO ‘TREAT US FAIRLY’: ‘DELIVER RECIPROCITY’

    JSW Steel USA CEO Robert Simon spoke with Fox Digital in an exclusive interview. (JSW Steel USA )

    Simon told Fox News Digital that across his more than 30 years in the industry, U.S. steel manufacturers have complied with strict environmental and safety practices, and paid their employees fairly, while foreign steel manufacturers could skirt U.S. regulations while exporting their goods to the U.S. 

    “We, as steel producers, we paid our employees fair wages, treated them fairly, met some of the most – if not the most strict – environmental requirements in the world, and those practices in our markets, with the simple supply-demand equation establishes market pricing.”

    Steel facility in Ohio

    The JSW Steel USA facility in Mingo Junction, Ohio. (JSW Steel USA )

    “The frustration is, how is it fair that others that don’t treat their employees the same way, don’t follow the same rules, don’t follow environmental practices… they get government subsidies. How is it fair that they can come into our markets and take market share when it’s not an equal playing field?” he said. 

    Simon said the Ohio plant alone will likely see a minimum increase of 100 jobs in the next year under Trump’s tariff plan. 

    “As you look at that increase in utilization coupled with the overall increase in production that we foresee in the next three to five years, we estimate, at a minimum, a 100 jobs increase in the next 12 plus months associated with that utilization rate increase,” he said. 

    WHO GETS HIT HARDEST BY STEEL AND ALUMINUM TARIFFS?

    Trump’s administration issued a fact sheet last week restoring a 25% tariff on steel, which detailed “domestic steel and aluminum industries and achieving sustainable capacity utilization of at least 80%.” JSW Steel USA told Fox News Digital that they are already on track to increase their utilization rate from 68% to 84% – higher than Trump’s target number of 80%. 

    Under the first Trump administration, JSW Steel USA notably sued the federal government in 2019 over tariffs regarding imported steel-slab materials. The company now makes all domestic steel-slab materials as part of the JSW Group’s belief that its facilities both make products and supply the product in the communities they serve.

    Trump in Vegas

    President Donald Trump speaks at a rally at Circa Resort & Casino on Jan. 25, 2025, in Las Vegas. (Ian Maule/Getty Images)

    Simon celebrated in his comments to Fox Digital that Ohio families that had long worked in the steel industry are making a return to the factory as the industry reinvigorates under the first and second Trump administrations. JSW USA purchased the Ohio factory in 2018, after it had operated as a Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel plant, but sat dormant for years. 

    TRUMP ADVISOR TEASES NEW ‘GOLDEN AGE’ OF U.S. STEEL AND ALUMINUM

    “This is a company that had been shut down for over seven years, when we acquired it. We hired a workforce, trained a workforce, all from the local area. What’s really cool to see is we’ve got employees whose grandparents and great-grandparents worked in this same company, which ended up being shut down, and they’re part now of reviving that company and bringing it to an offering of products that’s extremely competitive and extremely impressive in terms of its value added products,” Simon said. 

    Trump announced a reciprocal tariff plan on Thursday, tapping Howard Lutnick, his nominee for commerce secretary, to produce a report on reciprocal trade relations within 180 days. Lutnik said Thursday that he will have the report ready for Trump by April 1. 

    Howard Lutnick, chief executive officer of Cantor Fitzgerald LP and US commerce secretary nominee for US President Donald Trump, right, and President Donald Trump during an executive order signing in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, Feb. 10, 2025. Trump ordered a 25% tariff on steel and aluminum imports, escalating his efforts to protect politically important US industries with levies hitting some of the country's closest allies. Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images

    Howard Lutnick, commerce secretary nominee, joins President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House on Monday, Feb. 10, 2025. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

    WHAT ARE TARIFFS, HOW DO THEY WORK AND WHO PAYS FOR THEM?

    ​​”On trade, I have decided for purposes of fairness, that I will charge a reciprocal tariff – meaning whatever countries charge the United States of America, we will charge them no more, no less. In other words, they charge us a tax or tariff and we charge them the exact same tax or tariff. Very simple,” he said at the White House on Thursday. 

    Trump touted that the plan will lead to a job boon in the U.S. as foreign trading partners move operations stateside to avoid the reciprocal tariffs. 

    “They can build a factory here, a plant or whatever it may be, here,” Trump said Thursday afternoon from the Oval Office. “And that includes the medical, that includes cars, that includes chips and semiconductors. That includes everything. If you build here, you have no tariffs whatsoever. And I think that’s what’s going to happen. I think our country is going to be flooded with jobs.”

    Simon told Fox News Digital that Trump’s business and deal-making abilities are “obvious to everybody” as he whips through dozens of executive actions and orders in just a few weeks back in the Oval Office, remarking that it’s “pretty amazing.” 

    “It’s become obvious to everybody that Mr. Trump is not a politician, right, but, more of a business person stepping in and leading our country, from much more of a business perspective than as a career politician. Like it or not, for those folks that have different opinions, this results in very quick negotiations. I don’t think I’ve ever in my time here seen so much movement, so much decision-making, so many decisions being made in this shorter period of time since he’s been in office. It’s pretty, pretty amazing,” he said. 

    JSW steel plant

    JSW USA purchased the Ohio factory in 2018, after it had sat dormant for years. (JSW Steel USA )

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    Trump also met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday, and the two discussed trade, the economic relationship between India and the United States and military sales. The pair also “committed to drive opportunities for U.S. and Indian companies to make greenfield investments in high-value industries in each other’s countries,” including naming JSW’s operations at Texas and Ohio as a prime ongoing investment in the U.S., according to a joint statement from the two nations. 

    President Donald Trump meets Indian Prime Minister Modi

    President Donald Trump and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi shake hands during a news conference at the White House, Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

    “The steel tariffs enacted by President Trump are a necessary step in leveling the playing field for American steelworkers and manufacturers. Foreign competitors fail to protect their workforce at the same safety standards, do not compensate them fairly, and produce steel that contributes to environmental degradation, all the while, seeking to flood the U.S. market, taking advantage of our strong economy, driving a collapse of our markets in the process,” Simon added in comment provided to Fox Digital.

  • Trans migrant finding sanctuary in NYC accused of raping 14-year-old

    Trans migrant finding sanctuary in NYC accused of raping 14-year-old

    A transgender woman wanted by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is accused of stalking and raping a 14-year-old boy in New York City.

    Nicol Suarez, a 30-year-old trans migrant from Colombia, was arrested Wednesday after allegedly following the child into the bathroom of a bodega across the street from Thomas Jefferson Park and attacking him, according to a report in the New York Post.

    The boy was able to leave the bathroom and flag down witnesses after the attack, resulting in Suarez’s arrest the next day.

    ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT ARRESTS SKYROCKET UNDER TRUMP ICE COMPARED TO BIDEN LEVELS LAST YEAR: ‘WORST OF THE WORST’

    Thomas Jefferson Park in East Harlem, New York CIty. (Google Street View)

    Suarez was already wanted in both New Jersey and Massachusetts at the time of the crime, the report notes, while ICE had a detainer on the Colombian migrant, the agency’s way of requesting that any law enforcement agencies that arrest the suspect hold him to be turned over to federal authorities. 

    That detainer means ICE could quickly deport the individual if local authorities cooperate, a source told the New York Post.

    “It just goes to show that Donald Trump and [border czar] Tom Homan are correct that you need to get the violent people out of New York City and Eric Adams, Letitia James and Kathy Hochul should all cooperate because this person has an ICE detainer,” the source said.

    TRUMP’S ICE LIMITS ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT RELEASES AMID MOVES TO SHAKE OFF BIDEN ‘HANGOVER’ 

    NEW YORK City mayor Eric Adams

    New York City mayor Eric Adams (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

    “ICE could just pick this person up and deport them back,” the source continued, adding that New York City’s “sanctuary laws” will mean local police “can’t do anything.”

    Prosecutors asked for $500,000 bail and $1.5 million bond for Suarez, according to the report, a number that was shot down by Judge Elizabeth Shamahs, who settled on a $100,000 bail or $250,000 bond.

    But the source believes the amount shows that the city is still not concerned with the true victims of migrant crimes.

    Migrants line up outside a migrant re-ticketing center

    Migrants line up outside a re-ticketing center on Jan. 5, 2024, in Manhattan. (Barry Williams/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

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    “I feel really bad for the kid that has to go through this because his life will never be the same,” the source said. “We worry about the migrants but what about the victim? This is a true victim.”

  • ‘Woke is their god’: Ex-Dem fundraiser says party ‘in shambles’ after 2024 election losses

    ‘Woke is their god’: Ex-Dem fundraiser says party ‘in shambles’ after 2024 election losses

    EXCLUSIVE: A prominent former fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee (DNC) revealed that donors are fed up with the Democratic Party, claiming that it is in “shambles” following the presidential election.

    Lindy Li, a well-known fundraiser who raised money for the Democrats’ 2024 presidential campaign, announced her exit from the party in December after being ostracized for criticizing then-Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris.

    Speaking to Fox News Digital after President Donald Trump assumed office, Li, who has raised tens of millions of dollars for Democrats over the years, said the party she once stumped for is now “completely rudderless.”

    “Democratic donors absolutely, without a single exception, they are so angry and upset with the state of the party. They think the party is in complete shambles,” Li told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview. 

    FORMER DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE SAYS HIS PARTY IS ACTING ‘PATHETICALLY’ TO THWART MUSK’S DOGE

    Lindy Li spoke with Fox News Digital about the state of the Democratic Party. (Fox News Digital)

    “I don’t know how they’re going to get out of this wilderness,” Li said, adding that the party has been “hijacked” by “woke” ideology.

    HOUSE DEMOCRATS ANGRY AT LIBERAL GROUPS FOR STIRRING UP DIVISION IN PARTY: REPORT

    “It’s their religion, it’s their god, woke is their god. This trans, woke insanity – they are enthralled by it,” Li said. 

    “Companies are running as fast as they can from this toxic agenda, yet the Democratic Party is doubling down time and time again on this,” the former Democratic fundraiser added. “Honestly, it’s gender hysteria. It’s almost like a social contagion.”

    lindy li behind desk

    A ‘Day in the Life’ profile of then-congressional candidate Lindy Li on August 8, 2015, in Philadelphia. (Charles Ommanney/The Washington Post)

    Celebrities, such as Beyoncé and Cardi B, were criticized for reportedly accepting payments from the Harris campaign to appear and speak at events. 

    The artists have denied accepting payments from the campaign, but Li said that they “lied about not getting paid.”

    “All their production companies were getting compensated,” Li told Fox.

    After Beyoncé did not perform during her appearance at a Harris campaign event in October, critics claimed attendees had been intentionally misled.

    Singer Beyonce and Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris embrace as they attend a campaign rally of Harris

    Beyoncé and Harris embrace as they attend a Harris campaign rally in Houston on Oct. 25, 2024.  (Reuters/Marco Bello)

    “I honestly believe that the campaign used that to generate attention and publicity for their event,” Li said in an interview.

    After suffering defeat in the 2024 presidential election, Li said there is “no one on the horizon” to lead the Democratic Party into the next election cycle.

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    The former DNC official said the “humanity and kindness” she has received from Republicans has been “unbelievable” and that she is “optimistic” that she will retain her donors after leaving the Democratic Party, as she will now raise money for Republican candidates.

  • Cuomo gets key endorsement in possible NYC mayoral campaign against Adams

    Cuomo gets key endorsement in possible NYC mayoral campaign against Adams

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    Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has responded after a prominent ex-official endorsed him to run for mayor of New York City against incumbent first-termer Eric Adams. 

    Former state comptroller Carl McCall, 89, released an open letter backing Cuomo on Saturday. Cuomo has not formally declared his candidacy in the race, though he is polling as the top potential challenger to Adams in June’s primary.

    In response to the letter, Cuomo, who resigned as governor in 2021 amid scandals connected to COVID-19 nursing home deaths and sexual harassment claims, acknowledged the history that he and his family share with McCall.

    “Carl and I have a special bond that starts before me.  I first had the pleasure of meeting Carl when I was in my early 20s when he worked with my father, the late Mario Cuomo, as the state’s human rights commissioner and together the two fought to make New York a fairer, more just place for all who live here.” 

    NEW YORK CITY TO SUE TRUMP ADMIN OVER REVOKED $80M IN FEMA MIGRANT SHELTER FUNDING FOR NEW YORK CITY

    Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo arrives to testify before the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic in the Rayburn House Office Building at the U.S. Capitol on Sept. 10, 2024, in Washington, D.C.  (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)

    “In these divisive and troubling times, his voice is needed more than ever – for his is one of moral clarity, experience and guided by what is right for the people above all else,” Cuomo wrote Saturday. 

    “Today, in these uncertain times, and after more than four decades of friendship and counsel, I thank him for his faith in me and for his advice, trust and confidence,” Cuomo said. “His sentiments are both humbling and deeply meaningful.”

    In his letter, McCall did not cite Adams by name, but he appeared to indirectly slam how the Justice Department on Friday asked a court to dismiss corruption charges against Adams that were filed during the Biden administration. Adams met with President Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, last week, agreeing to work together as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) cracks down on criminal illegal immigrants.

    JUSTICE DEPARTMENT MOVES TO DROP CASE AGAINST NYC MAYOR ERIC ADAMS

    “Donald Trump wants us to fail as a community. For that reason, the leadership of New York City has rarely, if ever, been as vital as it is today,” McCall wrote. “The Mayor of New York must not only have the competence and capacity to manage the City’s real challenges, but the mayor must have the ability to defend our city and demonstrate a powerful counterbalance to President Trump. The people of New York cannot be represented by someone whose loyalty to the city is compromised — we deserve a Mayor of New York to be for New York.” 

    Cuomo and McCall in 2002

    New York Democratic gubernatorial candidates Carl McCall and Andrew Cuomo at an event supporting the raising of the state minimum wage on May 2, 2002. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

    McCall, a Black elder statesman who once ran in a contentious gubernational primary against Cuomo in 2002, turned on Adams, who is New York City’s second Black mayor. McCall endorsed Adams’ 2021 mayoral campaign. 

    “I have never publicly urged a candidate to run for office. But I have never before felt it so necessary to use my voice,” McCall wrote Saturday. “For these reasons, I urge Governor Andrew Cuomo to run for Mayor of the City of New York and I offer my full support.”

    “I’ve known Andrew for over 40 years. Some might be surprised that I am supporting Andrew so strongly and so early,” the letter continued. “But despite how it is sometimes framed in the press, we were never political adversaries: twenty years ago, we were competing candidates who shared then and share now the same core values of what is right and wrong and sought to make New York a better place.”

    “More than anyone else, Andrew is the leader we need and the leader we deserve,” McCall wrote. 

    Despite still not having declared a mayoral bid, Cuomo released a campaign-style video on Valentine’s Day, in which he told senior citizens, “I missed you,” and declaring that “the strongest four-letter word is not hate, it’s love.” 

    McCall comptroller campaign in the 90s

    Democratic politician Carl McCall was elected as New York Comptroller in 1994.  (Bob Berg/Getty Images)

    Albany politicians have questioned Adams’ independence from Trump after the DOJ asked that the corruption charges be dropped, and some prosecutors resigned amid allegations of a quid pro quo agreement. 

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    In response, Adams said Friday on X, “I want to be crystal clear with New Yorkers: I never offered — nor did anyone offer on my behalf — any trade of my authority as your mayor for an end to my case. Never.” 

  • HUD Secretary creates DOGE Task Force

    HUD Secretary creates DOGE Task Force

    U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Scott Turner announced a new Department of Government Efficiency task force on Thursday to “eliminate waste, fraud and abuse” at his federal agency.

    DOGE revealed that $1.9 billion in HUD money had been recovered as of Friday, saying the funds were misplaced during the Biden administration and were “earmarked for the administration of financial services, but were no longer needed.” 

    DOGE said it worked with Turner to release the funds, and they are now available for use by the U.S. Department of Treasury. 

    Turner said HUD launched its own DOGE Task Force to review how the agency is spending taxpayer money. HUD employees will lead the task force with a mission to maximize their budget and efficiency, reporting their findings directly to Turner. 

    EXPERT REVEALS MASSIVE LEVELS OF WASTE DOGE CAN SLASH FROM ENTITLEMENTS, PET PROJECTS: ‘A LOT OF FAT’

    U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner was confirmed Feb. 5, 2024.  (Getty Images)

    “HUD will be detailed and deliberate about every dollar spent to serve rural, tribal and urban communities. Thanks to President Trump’s leadership, we are no longer in a business-as-usual posture, and the DOGE task force will play a critical role in helping to identify and eliminate waste, fraud and abuse and ultimately better serve the American people,” Turner said. 

    TRUMP TEAM DIGS IN, FINDS MILLIONS OF WASTED DOLLARS AT EPA, HUD WITH DOGE HELP

    Turner said he established the task force to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order to “maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.” 

    The HUD DOGE Task Force will work to “ensure all programs, processes and personnel are working together to advance the purpose of the department.”

    turner/musk sbs

    U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner launched a Department of Government Efficiency Task Force to review how HUD is spending taxpayer dollars. (Getty/AP)

    HUD is responsible for national housing policy and urban development, and its programs include affordable housing programs, community development, homeowner support, fair housing and anti-discrimination enforcement, homelessness services, and affordable housing programs. 

    Turner said during his announcement Thursday that the DOGE Task Force had already identified over $260 million in savings. 

    “We have already identified over $260 million in savings, and we have more to accomplish,” Turner said. 

    As Elon Musk and DOGE comb their way through the federal bureaucracy, some agencies are conducting their own investigations to meet DOGE halfway. 

    Administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency Lee Zeldin announced on Thursday he had canceled a $50 million environmental justice grant. 

    musk and trump at the white house

    Elon Musk listens as President Donald Trump speaks with reporters in the Oval Office at the White House Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025, in Washington.  (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

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    “I canceled a $50 million grant to an organization called the Climate Justice Alliance. They say that climate justice runs through a free Palestine. I think that the American taxpayer wouldn’t want $50 million going to this left-wing advocacy group. It’s canceled,” Zeldin said. 

    Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has also committed to cooperating with DOGE to cut wasteful spending at the Department of Defense. 

    “We will partner with them. It’s long overdue. The Defense Department’s got a huge budget, but it needs to be responsible,” Hegseth told Fox News. 

  • Rubio, Netanyahu affirm ‘common strategy’ for Gaza, set sights on Iran in join statement

    Rubio, Netanyahu affirm ‘common strategy’ for Gaza, set sights on Iran in join statement

    Secretary of State Marco Rubio advanced President Donald Trump’s “bold” plan for Gaza during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday.

    Rubio and Netanyahu both highlighted that Iran is the single largest obstacle to peace in the region during a Sunday joint statement. While Netanyahu did not comment on Trump’s specific plans for Gaza, Rubio emphasized that the U.S. and Israel cannot return to “tired” strategies that have failed to produce peace in the past.

    “The president has also been very bold about his view of what the future for Gaza should be. Not the same tired ideas of the past, but something that’s bold and something that, frankly, took courage and vision in order to outline. And it may have shocked and surprised many, but what cannot continue is the same cycle we’ll repeat over and over again and wind up in the exact same place,” Rubio said.

    Netanyahu affirmed that he and Trump share a “common strategy” for Gaza that includes the complete destruction of Hamas as a political and military force. He did not comment specifically on Trump’s stated plans to develop Gaza.

    TRUMP’S GAZA RELOCATION PROPOSAL SPARKS HEATED DEBATE AMONG PALESTINIANS: ‘NO LIFE LEFT HERE’

    Secretary of State Marco Rubio meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (Courtesy GPO)

    Netanyahu vowed to “open the gates of hell” on Hamas if it did not follow through with releasing every remaining hostage in Gaza.

    Rubio and Netanyahu discussed various other threats in the Middle East, including the collapse of Syria’s government and the presence of Hezbollah in Lebanon, among other things.

    SAUDI ARABIA CONTRADICTS TRUMP, VOWS NO TIES WITH ISRAEL WITHOUT CREATION OF PALESTINIAN STATE

    “The common theme in all these challenges is Iran. It is the single greatest source of instability in the region, behind every terrorist group, behind every act of violence, behind every destabilizing activity, behind everything that threatens peace and stability for the millions of people who call this region home, is Iran,” Rubio said.

    trump netanyahu gaza

    President Trump has put forward a “bold” plan to develop Gaza. (Getty Images / Fox News Digital)

    “There can never be a nuclear Iran, a nuclear Iran that could then hold itself immune from pressure and from action. That can never happen,” he added.

    ‘LEVEL IT’: TRUMP SAYS US WILL ‘TAKE OVER’ GAZA STRIP, REBUILD IT TO STABILIZE MIDDLE EAST

    The meeting comes more than a week after Trump raised eyebrows with a call to remove Palestinians from Gaza and develop the area under U.S. ownership. Trump said he remains committed to the plan despite heavy pushback.

    gaza

    Palestinians continue to return back to their homes after a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, amid destruction in Gaza City, Gaza on Feb. 2, 2025.  (Ali Jadallah/Anadolu via Getty Images)

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    “I’m committed to buying and owning Gaza,” Trump said. “As far as us rebuilding it, we may give it to other states in the Middle East to build sections of it, other people may do it, through our auspices. But we’re committed to owning it, taking it, and making sure that Hamas doesn’t move back.”

  • Trump targets McConnell’s mental acuity as former leader joins Dems against key nominees

    Trump targets McConnell’s mental acuity as former leader joins Dems against key nominees

    President Donald Trump derided former Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., as “not equipped mentally” after he went from being the face of the GOP in the upper chamber to opposing his entire conference and voting with the Democrats on Trump’s key Cabinet nominations in just a matter of months. 

    “He wasn’t equipped ten years ago, mentally, in my opinion,” Trump told reporters at the White House after McConnell refused to vote in favor of confirming his controversial Health and Human Services (HHS) pick, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 

    “He’s a, you know, very bitter guy,” Trump added of McConnell, with whom he has had a strained relationship with over the years, including during his previous presidency. 

    TRUMP AGRICULTURE PICK CONFIRMED AS PRESIDENT RACKS UP CABINET WINS

    The GOP’s recent and longest-serving Senate party leader has stood in opposition to his conference multiple times, demonstrating the party’s significant transformation in the age of Trump.  (Reuters)

    While such a shift from GOP leader to defiant Republican might be optically jarring, the move was unsurprising to Jim Manley, former senior communications advisor and spokesman for former Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and the Senate Democratic Caucus. 

    “He was living on borrowed time the last couple of years,” he told Fox News Digital of McConnell. Manley speculated that if he hadn’t decided to step down from leadership voluntarily before the 119th Congress, he would have had significant trouble being re-elected. “[I]t’s evident just how exactly out of step he is with the caucus,” he said, noting that it has become “much more conservative.”

    In three pivotal Senate votes on Trump’s most vulnerable Cabinet nominees in the last few weeks, McConnell bucked his party. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s nomination was confirmed by a razor-thin margin, 51-50, after Vice President JD Vance was called in to break the tie. 

    TULSI GABBARD SWORN IN AT WHITE HOUSE HOURS AFTER SENATE CONFIRMATION

    Donald Trump, Mitch Mcconnell

    McConnell and Trump have had a thorny relationship.  (Reuters)

    Moderate GOP Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, joined him in voting against the controversial defense pick.

    However, McConnell was the only Republican to vote against the similarly controversial Director of National Intelligence (DNI) nominee Tulsi Gabbard and HHS pick Kennedy. Even Collins, Murkowski, and several other senators with reputations for being somewhat hesitant got behind them.

    “If Senator McConnell was looking to accelerate the deterioration of his legacy as the former Republican Senate leader, he’s succeeded,” a Senate GOP source remarked. They described the Kentucky Republican’s actions as “an attempt to embarrass the president and the Republican Party” and evidence “of why he was no longer fit to lead our conference.” 

    McConnell released lengthy statements following each vote, explaining his reasoning. He also wished each of them well and committed to working with them.

    DOGE ‘PLAYBOOK’ UNVEILED BY GOP SENATOR AS MUSK-LED AGENCY SHAKES UP FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

    Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks at a press conference in Poland

    Hegseth was confirmed after JD Vance cast a tie-breaking vote. (Omar Marques/Getty Images)

    A defense hawk and chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, McConnell was unconvinced that Hegseth or Gabbard were the best national security selections. 

    As for Kennedy, McConnell recalled his childhood experience with polio and touted the effectiveness of vaccines, of which the now-HHS secretary has been consistently critical. 

    McConnell did vote in favor of Trump’s other, less-controversial and lesser-known Cabinet nominees. 

    Republican strategist Matt Dole called the former leader “an enigma.” 

    “[H]e sought to rule the Republican Caucus with an iron fist when he was leader,” he pointed out. 

    “That makes his own, lonely, votes stand out as all the more egregious.”

    McConnell’s successor, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., reacted to the “no” votes in an interview with Fox News Digital. “I think he knows better than anybody how hard it is to lead a place like the United States Senate, where it takes 60 votes to get most things done, and that you got to have everybody, sort of functioning as a team,” he said. 

    According to Thune, McConnell “is still active up here and still a strong voice on issues he’s passionate about, including national security, and so when it comes to those issues, he has outsized influence and a voice that we all pay attention to.”

    DEM LOOKS TO CODIFY NEW AG BONDI’S DESIRED CRACKDOWN ON ‘ZOMBIE DRUG’ XYLAZINE

    Mitch McConnell, John Thune

    Thune succeeded McConnell as Senate GOP leader.  (Reuters)

    He explained that while the conference doesn’t necessarily agree with him, “we respect his positions on these, some of these [nominations], and I know that a lot of big stuff ahead of us, he’s going to be with us. He’s a team player.”

    One former top Senate Republican strategist explained the former leader has “nothing to lose” at this point. In fact, they said, the feelings he is expressing about Trump’s most controversial selections actually reflects those of a number of other senators. But they can’t oppose the picks themselves “for fear of retribution by Trump or primary voters that will make a difference on whether or not they remain in power.”

    “Not being in leadership can be quite liberating,” GOP strategist John Feehery added. 

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    According to Grant Reeher, a political science professor at Syracuse University, “I think he wants to make a symbolic statement in favor of an older Reagan-era type of conservatism and a more traditional Republican Party—this is the way he wants to be remembered.”

    McConnell’s office declined to comment to Fox News Digital.

  • President Donald Trump unified the Republican Party, Rep. Marlin Stutzman says

    President Donald Trump unified the Republican Party, Rep. Marlin Stutzman says

    Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., has spent the better part of the last decade in Indiana, running various businesses and coaching his sons’ baseball team. 

    Before that, he had a front-row seat for most of the Obama administration, followed by the meteoric and unprecedented rise of now-President Donald Trump. Stutzman was a part of political history himself, having been one of the original members of the House Freedom Caucus — a group that has grown to be known as a bastion of ideological conservatism and, at times, a thorn in the side of House GOP leaders.

    Now he’s back as one of several first-term House Republicans, succeeding Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., as a member of a perilously thin House GOP majority.

    But according to Stutzman, who previously served in Congress from 2010 to 2017, he sees Republicans as more aligned with each other than before.

    SCOOP: KEY CONSERVATIVE CAUCUS DRAWS RED LINE ON HOUSE BUDGET PLAN

    Rep. Marlin Stutzman of Indiana served in Congress from 2010 to 2017 and is back for another term. (Getty Images)

    “I feel like it’s different. I don’t think the GOP conference is as far apart — you know, moderates to conservatives — as it was back in 2010,” he told Fox News Digital in an interview.

    “I was looking at the membership in 2010, and there were true moderates. I think we’re actually much closer together now than what we were back then. And, of course, we had large majorities. So that creates other challenges. So having a tight majority is not a bad thing at all. It actually makes you unify.”

    He credited that re-alignment in large part to Trump, pointing out that he and other Republicans were first elected in 2010 as a backlash against former President Barack Obama rather than in support of the leading party’s agenda.

    “We won the 2010 election because it was a reaction to Obama. And in 2020 — I mean, you could say every election is a reaction to the incumbent party, but I think in this case, after the Biden years, the American people elected Trump because they believed he could move the country forward,” Stutzman said.

    Marlin Stutzman with Paul Ryan

    Stutzman with former House speakers Paul Ryan and Kevin McCarthy in 2012. (Getty Images)

    “And so we have a leader that is casting a vision and is clear in his messaging, and it gives us the chance to, you know, coalesce behind his leadership. So that’s a huge help, compared to 2010.”

    He also disputed the notion that the Freedom Caucus was founded to be “obstructionist” to House GOP leaders, despite members of the group leading well-known coups against senior Republicans in the past.

    “There’s a lot of smart people that wanted to just be part of a group that looked at things from every angle and was really being productive. And so that’s why I wanted to join it, because I wanted to be at a place that I could learn, I could really dive deep and learn from other people and staff that were part of the caucus to really understand the policy, but also talk through the strategy,” he said.

    “It was never designed to be an obstructionist caucus. There have been times that it’s definitely been labeled that and accused of that . . . any obstruction was to stop bad things from happening. Not to obstruct the good things from moving forward.”

    BLACK CAUCUS CHAIR ACCUSES TRUMP OF ‘PURGE’ OF ‘MINORITY’ FEDERAL WORKERS

    Trump mar-a-lago

    Stutzman credits President Trump with unifying Republicans. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

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    Stutzman said that being a private citizen running businesses for eight years gave him perspective on the value of consensus-building, allowing him to return to Congress with an emphasis on the “big picture.”

    “You’re never going to get everything you want. You know, find a way to support the team and find a way to support us to a yes,” Stutzman reflected. 

    “Now, look, there’s going to be times when you just say no, And that’s just part of negotiating. But I think the main thing is just fight hard, offer everything you have. But then at the end of the day, let’s take a win and then move on to the next fight.”

  • IRS to slash thousands of workers off the payroll: report

    IRS to slash thousands of workers off the payroll: report

    The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is reportedly cutting thousands of probationary workers as tax season ramps up, according to The Associated Press.

    The announcement comes just days after the Trump administration instructed agencies to fire most probationary workers who have not secured civil service protection.

    The layoffs could potentially impact hundreds of thousands of people, although the exact number has not yet been confirmed, the AP reported.

    The Associated Press reported thousands of IRS employees will be fired.

    TRUMP SIGNS ORDER INSTRUCTING DOGE TO MASSIVELY CUT FEDERAL WORKFORCE

    In addition to the probationary cuts, President Donald Trump announced on Jan. 29 that federal employees would be fired if they did not return to in-person work by early February.

    A buyout offer, which has been extended, has already been accepted by about 65,000 employees.

    The Associated Press reported IRS employees involved in the 2025 tax season, which began on Jan. 27, are not eligible for the buyout until after the taxpayer filing deadline, according to a letter sent recently to IRS employees.

    IRS documents

    The IRS said in January Americans have benefitted from increased funding. (Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

    LAWMAKERS FROM STATE WITH MOST FEDERAL WORKERS PER CAPITA WARN AGAINST TRUMP BUYOUT BID

    The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is tasked with eliminating wasteful government spending and increasing efficiency, aims to cut $2 trillion from the federal government budget by eliminating programs and trimming the federal workforce.

    In January, the IRS announced it was “working to continue the success of the 2023 and 2024 tax filing seasons made possible with additional resources.” 

    The Biden administration’s Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act devoted $80 billion to hire 87,000 new IRS agents, according to a September 2023 report from the House Oversight Committee.

    The oversight committee claimed the funds were used to employ agents that specifically targeted middle-class Americans.

    U.S. President Joe Biden

    Former President Joe Biden provided $80 billion in additional funding to the IRS. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

    The past two filing seasons saw levels of service at roughly 85% and wait times averaging less than 5 minutes on the main phone lines, according to a statement from the IRS in January. There was also a significant increase in the number of taxpayers served at Taxpayer Assistance Centers nationwide.

    “This has been a historic period of improvement for the IRS, and people will see additional tools and features to help them with filing their taxes this tax season,” IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel wrote in the statement. “These taxpayer-focused improvements we’ve done so far are important, but they are just the beginning of what the IRS needs to do. More can be done with continued investment in the nation’s tax system.”

    The IRS expects to receive more than 140 million tax returns, according to the AP.

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    The IRS and Department of Treasury did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment, as of Saturday night.