A judge in Washington state has issued a temporary restraining order over President Trump’s executive order that withholds federal funding to health care providers who prescribe youth puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones or who perform surgeries for gender dysphoria.
Judge Lauren King, in the Western Washington District Court, issued the order on Friday.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
President Trump signing an executive order. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
It comes after a federal judge in Maryland issued a similar temporary retraining order this week.
While the debate over President Donald Trump’s cuts to facilities and administrative costs associated with federally funded research grants rages on, one expert in the field of medicine says he sees a clear way forward.
Dr. David Skorton, president and CEO of the Association of American Medical Colleges, has had a wide-ranging career spanning government, higher education and medicine. He now runs a national association that oversees all Medical Doctorate-granting schools in the country, and about 500 academic health systems teaching hospitals. Skorton told Fox News Digital that while he does not agree with Trump’s blanket cuts, the current status quo needs changing. He cited over-regulation as a reason why facilities and administrative costs have gotten so “wildly expensive.”
TRUMP NOMINEES DEBUT NEW SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL AIMED AT SPURRING SCIENTIFIC DISCOURSE, INCREASING TRANSPARENCY
He also said that transparency from research institutions could help create better awareness of how taxpayer dollars are being used to support those institutions that have become the bane of critics who say they are stockpiling taxpayer dollars for their own benefit.
Dr. David Skorton, president and CEO of the Association of American Medical Colleges, which represents all the MD-granting accredited medical schools in the country, and about 500 academic health systems teaching hospitals.(Fox News)
“In some cases, more than one agency will develop regulations, and the researchers have to answer to all of those different agency regulations. We should be able to harmonize those things and come out with a more thoughtful approach to reducing some of the regulatory burden,” Skorton said. He added that, in turn, researchers will be able to spend more time doing what they do best, research, which in the long run will mean greater results for the public.
“It would also mean that the costs would go down because the additional personnel, the additional things that are necessary to keep track of things for these regulations, that would also go down,” Skorton pointed out.
JUDGE BLOCKS TRUMP ORDER LIMITING ‘INDIRECT’ NIH RESEARCH COSTS AFTER PUBLIC OUTCRY
Skorton said that the impact of reducing over-regulation will be two-fold: it will improve the current research environment and show that there is room for collaboration to reduce overhead costs while not threatening new research. In particular, he pointed to research involving human or animal subjects, which Skorton said is often riddled with regulatory requirements that, while important, could be streamlined.
The National Institutes of Health is facing a shakeup with the new administration, worrying some about how it may impact critical aspects of public health.(Fox News)
Skorton added that the AAMC was “very hungry” to work with the administration on improving this framework, noting that “we’re not here to claim that the status quo is perfect, and we want to defend it, but the idea of very quickly knocking down the facilities and administrative costs to what felt like an arbitrary number to many of us, 15%, will cause research to be reduced.”
The AAMC president said there is an onus on research institutions as well to better educate folks about where their taxpayer dollars are going when they are utilized by federally funded research programs.
JUDGE ORDERS TEMPORARY REVERSAL OF TRUMP ADMIN’S FREEZE ON FOREIGN AID
“For every dollar that we get at universities, medical schools, et cetera, for research from the NIH or some other science agency, for every dollar another half dollar, roughly, is contributed by the institution,” Skorton pointed out. “That’s something that maybe people don’t realize, and why would they, because we have to be more clear in making that visible, that we already contribute a lot to the research.”
In fiscal year 2023, the NIH spent around $35 billion across roughly 50,000 grants that went to research institutions, such as universities and hospitals. Of that $35 billion, according to the Trump administration, $9 billion was allocated for “indirect costs” that cover expenses related to depreciation on buildings, equipment, capital improvements, interest on debt associated with certain buildings, and operations and maintenance expenses.(iStock)
Fox News Digital spoke to medical experts who have supported Trump’s blanket cut to administrative and facilities costs, and they argue that reducing this price burden on the federal government will increase the availability of new research grants, while getting rid of financial bloat that universities have been able to take advantage of at the taxpayers’ expense.
One of the doctors who shared their thoughts, Dr. Erika Schwartz, echoed calls for reform to the current structure, similar to Skorton.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“While infrastructure support is necessary, there’s room for more efficient cost management. A reformed funding model could redirect more resources to direct research activities while maintaining essential support services,” Schwartz said. “This could potentially increase the number of funded research projects and accelerate medical breakthroughs, ultimately benefiting patients more directly.”
Vice President JD Vance quipped that Europe could survive Elon Musk’s criticisms if the U.S. could “survive” climate activist Greta Thunberg’s.
In a speech at the Munich Security Conference largely critical of Europe’s censorship activities, the vice president insisted the gathered leaders should listen more to their voters.
“Trust me, I say this with all humor,” he said. “If American democracy can survive 10 years of Greta Thunberg scolding, you guys can survive a few months of Elon Musk.”
Thunberg, the 22-year-old Swedish environmental crusader, stole the spotlight among liberals over her climate concerns before she even turned 18.
VANCE EVISCERATES ‘SOVIET’-STYLE EUROPEAN CENSORSHIP IN ADDRESS TO MUNICH SECURITY CONFERENCE
Vice President JD Vance quipped that Europe can survive Elon Musk’s criticisms if the U.S. could ‘survive’ climate activist Greta Thunberg. (REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay)
“I know you are trying, but just not hard enough. Sorry,” Thunberg told a U.S. Senate climate panel in 2019.
“Don’t invite us here to just tell us how inspiring we are without actually doing anything about it,” she said at age 16.
“How long do you think you can continue to ignore the climate crisis, the global aspect of equity and historic emissions without being held accountable?” Thunberg asked U.S. lawmakers two years later before the House Oversight Subcommittee on the Environment.
GERMANY ACCUSES ELON MUSK OF TRYING TO INTERFERE IN ITS NATIONAL ELECTIONS
Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg is removed by police during a pro-Palestinian demonstration outside the Malmo Arena venue ahead of the final of the 68th Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) 2024 on May 11, 2024. ((Photo by JOHAN NILSSON/TT/TT NEWS AGENCY/AFP via Getty Images))
”You get away with it now, but sooner or later, people are going to realize what you have been doing all this time. That’s inevitable. You still have time to do the right thing and to save your legacies.”
Musk, meanwhile, has gone toe-to-toe with Europe over censorship, and the European Commission recently ramped up its probe into whether Musk’s X had breached EU rules on content moderation. Musk has called the commission “undemocractic” and called on the European Union to hold referendums to vote on policies that apply to all of its nations.
Musk has also riled European officials with his support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in Germany’s elections, and for endorsing Britain’s right-wing Reform party.
Musl riled European officials with his support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in Germany’s elections, and for endorsing Britain’s right-wing Reform party. (REUTERS/Nathan Howard)
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“It’s good to be proud of German culture, German values, and not to lose that in some sort of multiculturalism that dilutes everything,” he said in a recent video appearance at an AfD campaign event.
Several states emboldened by President Donald Trump’s executive orders are moving to introduce bills banning transgender medical care for minors, and one legal expert believes it’s a “continuation” of the success other states have achieved in the last several years fighting against the Biden administration.
“You go back to 2020, when Idaho became the first state to pass a save women’s sports law, and in 2021, Arkansas was the first state to protect kids from dangerous gender transition, drugs and surgeries,” Alliance Defending Freedom senior counsel Matt Sharp told Fox News Digital in an interview. “And since that time, we’ve had over 25 states pass both of those laws, plus other measures to protect women’s privacy and safety and schools or women’s shelters or correctional facilities.”
“So, what we are seeing is truly the continuation of incredible work by state legislatures and others to address the concerns of gender ideology and make sure that women and children in their states are not being harmed by it,” he said.
TRUMP’S ‘TWO SEXES’ EXECUTIVE ORDER COMES ON HEELS OF SCOTUS ACCEPTING ANOTHER CHALLENGE TO LGBT AGENDA
US President Donald Trump signs the No Men in Women’s Sports Executive Order into law in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., on February 5, 2025. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP)
So far this year, several states have introduced or considered legislation to ban transgender medical procedures for minors. More than two dozen states already have laws in place restricting such procedures.
Alabama recently passed a bill in the Senate aiming to legally define gender based on one’s biological sex, in line with Trump’s “two sexes” declaration. Georgia’s state Senate also passed a bill this week that would cut state funding for transgender surgical treatments, extending to both minors and adults. The bill aims to block state funds for state employee and university health insurance plans, Medicaid, and the state’s prison system.
Some states are still rebelling against Trump’s orders. Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, vetoed a bill this week that would have prohibited state funds from being used on gender transition treatments and procedures on minors and allow civil actions against healthcare providers conducting such treatments.
Despite Trump’s executive orders, Democratic attorneys general from 15 states – California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin – issued a joint statement this month doubling down on their support for transgender procedures for minors.
LGBT ACTIVISTS MOBILIZE TO CHALLENGE TRUMP’S ‘EXTREME GENDER IDEOLOGY’ EXECUTIVE ORDERS
Activists hold a rally outside the Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C., as the court hears oral arguments in the transgender treatments case Skrmetti vs. U.S. on Dec. 4, 2024.(Fox News Digital)
The executive orders, signed in late January, include a reinstatement of the ban on transgender troops in the military, a ban on federal funding for sex changes for minors and a directive requiring federal agencies to recognize only “two sexes,” male and female, in official standard of conduct.
“What these executive orders represent is a 180-degree turn from that, rather than the federal government trying to push this dangerous ideology and being an adversary of states and their efforts to protect women and girls, you know, have an ally at the federal government,” Sharp, who filed one of the first state cases against a Connecticut policy allowing men to compete in women’s sports in 2020, said.
Sharp described Trump’s executive orders as a “return to normalcy.”
“What we saw starting a new Obama administration and continuing in the Biden administration, I think was trying to erase sex and replace it with the concept of gender identity,” he said. “And I think Americans have seen that. They’ve seen the harm that’s caused to countless young women, to young children, pushed to do irreparable damage to their bodies through these gender transition drugs and surgeries to even families who have had their rights violated by policies that were hiding information, lying to parents about a child who was experiencing distress over their sex and gender.”
TRUMP SIGNS EXECUTIVE ORDERS BANNING ‘RADICAL GENDER IDEOLOGY,’ DEI INITIATIVES IN THE MILITARY
President Joe Biden speaks at the Pride Month celebration on the South Lawn of the White House on June 10, 2023, in Washington, D.C. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
While the Trump White House has made its stance on gender-related issues clear, the U.S. Supreme Court will determine a critical ruling this summer on whether the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, which guarantees equal treatment under the law for individuals in similar circumstances, prevents states from banning medical providers from offering puberty blockers and hormone treatments to children seeking transgender surgical procedures.
Jamie Joseph is a writer who covers politics. She leads Fox News Digital coverage of the Senate.
President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order Friday barring schools who still have coronavirus vaccine mandates from receiving federal funds.
The order, according to a report from Breitbart confirmed by the White House, prohibits “federal funds from being used to support or subsidize an educational service agency, state education agency, local education agency, elementary school, secondary school, or institution of higher education that requires students to have received a COVID-19 vaccination to attend in-person education programs.”
It also tasks Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy and the Secretary of Education to establish guidelines for compliance and to “provide a plan to end coercive COVID-19 vaccine mandates.”
That includes coming up with a system to block federal funding to “educational entities” that have coronavirus vaccine mandates.
NO LONGER TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF: TRUMP SIGNS ORDER PRIORITIZING ‘UNIFIED’ US FOREIGN POLICY FRONT
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters in the Oval Office of the White House, where he signed an executive order, on Thursday, Feb. 13.(AP/Ben Curtis)
TRUMP ISSUES EXECUTIVE ORDERS ON RECIPROCAL TARIFFS
An executive order Trump signed in late January called a vaccine mandate for U.S. service members “unfair, overbroad, and [a] completely unnecessary burden.”
That order called to “make reinstatement available to all members of the military (active and reserve) who were discharged solely for refusal to receive the COVID-19 vaccine and who request to be reinstated.”
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
The order said in August 2021, the Secretary of Defense “mandated that all service members receive the COVID-19 vaccine.” That mandate was rescinded in January 2023.
Trump also signed an executive order in January that removes federal funding from K-12 schools that teach critical race theory.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
One of President Donald Trump’s top aides is floating a potential bid for California governor if former Vice President Kamala Harris also runs.
Richard Grenell, a longtime Trump loyalist who is serving as U.S. envoy for special missions in the president’s second administration, ended a gaggle with reporters at the Munich Security Conference in Germany on Friday by teasing, “I’ll make a little news.”
Grenell then pointed to the 2026 race to succeed term-limited Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom of California.
“If Kamala Harris runs for governor, I believe that she has such baggage and hundreds of millions of dollars in educating the voters of how terrible she is, that it’s a new day in California and that the Republican actually has a shot,” Grenell said.
SOURCES TELL FOX NEWS THIS TRUMP SUPPORTING CALIFORNIA SHERIFF WILL RUN FOR GOVERNOR
Former Acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell speaks on stage on the third day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum on July 17, 2024, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
There has been plenty of speculation since Harris’ defeat last November, regarding her next political move, with the two potential options likely being launching a 2026 gubernatorial run in her home state of California or seeking the presidency again in 2028.
Harris served as San Francisco district attorney and California attorney general and U.S. senator before becoming vice president.
MAJOR CALIFORNIA DEMOCRAT PREEDICTS FORMER VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS WOULD CLEAR GUBERNATORIAL FIELD
Sources in the former vice president’s political orbit say no decisions have been made about any next steps.
The Democrats’ field for governor in the heavily blue-leaning state is already crowded.
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign rally, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024, at the PNC Music Pavilion in Charlotte, North Carolina. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Among the more than a half-dozen candidates already running for governor are Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, a Harris ally, and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
Former Rep. Katie Porter, who unsuccessfully ran for the Democratic Senate nomination last year, has expressed interest in launching a campaign.
Former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, who served in Congress and as California attorney general before joining the Biden administration, is also seen as a potential contender.
But pundits predict that Harris could clear the Democrats’ field if she decides to launch a gubernatorial campaign.
It’s been nearly two decades since a Republican won statewide office in California. You have to go all the way back to former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 2006 re-election victory.
Grenell considered a run for California governor during the 2021 recall election that Newsom eventually ended up easily winning, but he ultimately decided against launching a campaign.
FILE – Then-former President Donald Trump speaks next to Richard Grenell during a presidential election campaign event at a farm in Smithton, Pa., on Sept. 23, 2024.(AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
Grenell served as ambassador to Germany and as acting director of national intelligence during Trump’s first term.
In his role as U.S. envoy for special missions in Trump’s second administration, he took part in a mission to Venezuela that led to the release of six hostages.
Grenell also joined the president in Los Angeles last month to survey the horrific wildfire damage in the area. Grenell, who along with Trump blasted state and local Democratic leaders for their performance handling the wildfire crisis, returned to Los Angeles last week as he accompanied EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin on a recovery tour.
Grenell isn’t the only California Republican considering or moving toward a gubernatorial campaign in 2026 in the race to succeed Newsom.
Sheriff Chad Bianco of Riverside County speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol on May 15, 2024, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
Fox News confirmed earlier this week that Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco is planning to announce his candidacy at a scheduled event Monday in Riverside, California.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
And former Fox News Channel host and conservative commentator Steve Hilton is considering a Republican run for California governor.
In California, unlike most other states, the top two finishers in a primary, regardless of party affiliation, advance to the general election.
Fox News’ Kaitlin Sprague contributed to this report.
Paul Steinhauser is a politics reporter based in New Hampshire.
Following President Donald Trump’s move to change the name of the tallest mountain in North America to Mount McKinley, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, has once again introduced a measure to designate the mountain as Denali.
Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, is the original cosponsor.
“In Alaska, it’s Denali,” Murkowski, said, according to a press release.
TRUMP TO RENAME GULF OF MEXICO, MOUNT DENALI ON FIRST DAY IN OFFICE
Left: President Donald Trump arrives to speak with schoolteacher Marc Fogel, who had been detained in Russia, not pictured, in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025; Right: Sen. Lisa Murkowski speaks during the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense in Washington D.C., on May 11, 2023.(Left: Aaron Schwartz/CNP/Bloomberg via Getty Images; Right: Celal Gunes/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
“Once you see it in person, and take in the majesty of its size and breathe in its cold air, you can understand why the Koyukon Athabascans referred to it as ‘The Great One.’ This isn’t a political issue – Alaskans from every walk of life have long been advocating for this mountain to be recognized by its true name. That’s why today I once again introduced legislation that would officially keep this mountain’s quintessential name, ‘Denali.’”
Trump issued an executive order on his first day in office to change the name of the mountain from Denali back to Mount McKinley, in honor of President William McKinley, who was assassinated in 1901.
“In 1917, the country officially honored President McKinley through the naming of North America’s highest peak. Yet after nearly a century, President Obama’s administration, in 2015, stripped the McKinley name from federal nomenclature, an affront to President McKinley’s life, his achievements, and his sacrifice,” the executive order declares.
MURKOWSKI AND CASSIDY ANNOUNCE THEY’LL VOTE TO CONFIRM TULSI GABBARD TO TRUMP CABINET POST
The Alaska Range with Mount McKinley and Wonder Lake with Tundra swans (Cygnus columbianus) in the fall, Denali National Park, Alaska(Arterra/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Trump’s order directed the Interior secretary to “reinstate the name ‘Mount McKinley.’”
“The Secretary shall subsequently update the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) to reflect the renaming and reinstatement of Mount McKinley. The national park area surrounding Mount McKinley shall retain the name Denali National Park and Preserve,” the order states.
The same order also directed the Interior secretary to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America.
GOOGLE MAPS, FAA OFFICIALLY ACKNOWLEDGES GULF OF AMERICA AFTER TRUMP DECLARATION: ‘ISN’T IT BEAUTIFUL?’
The controversy over the name of the continent’s tallest peak has persisted over the years, and Murkowski has been engaged in the debate for more than a decade.
She previously pushed measures regarding the mountain’s name several times in the past, including one in 2015 for which Sullivan was the original cosponsor.
Interior Sec. Sally Jewell issued an order to change the name from Mount McKinley to Denali in 2015 during President Barack Obama’s White House tenure.
“President Obama wants to change the name of Mt. McKinley to Denali after more than 100 years. Great insult to Ohio. I will change back!” Trump declared in an August 2015 tweet.
He asked about potentially changing the name while meeting with Murkowski and Sullivan, but the senators expressed their opposition, Sullivan, whose wife is Athabascan, recounted in 2017, according to adn.com.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
If “you change that name back now, she’s going to be really, really mad,” the senator said he told Trump, according to the report. “So he’s like, ‘all right, we won’t do that,’” Sullivan recalled.
Murkowski is one of the GOP senators who voted to convict Trump after the House impeached him in 2021 following the U.S. Capitol riot — but notably, the Senate vote, which was held after Trump had already departed from office, failed to clear the threshold necessary for conviction.
Moderate members of New York City’s otherwise overwhelmingly progressive City Council met with President Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, on the same day the lawman met with Mayor Eric Adams.
Homan, himself a New York State native from the Watertown area, joined a meeting of the bipartisan “Common Sense Caucus” led by Councilmembers Bob Holden, D-Glendale, and Joann Ariola, R-Howard Beach.
At the meeting, Homan pledged to act swiftly when informed of another migrant shelter being planned for an outer borough.
Councilwoman Kristy Marmorato told 1010WINS after the meeting that Homan had been incensed to learn that Adams’ Office of Asylum-Seeker Operations had announced a 2,200-bed shelter in the Bronx.
DEMOCRATIC NYC COUNCILMAN BOB HOLDEN BACKS ZELDIN OVER HOCHUL
Tom Homan and NYC skyline(AP/Reuters)
“Get me that address,” Homan reportedly told Marmorato, R-Throggs Neck.
The shelter is planned for a low-income area off the Bruckner Expressway in Mott Haven – not far from the RFK-Triboro Bridge, according to reports.
“Enough is enough,” Marmorato – the only Bronx Republican on council – headlined a press release about “migrant dumps” there.
Holden is a moderate who famously took office in 2017 by unseating a Democrat who outraised him tenfold while running on the endorsed Republican, Conservative and Dump de Blasio ballot lines.
“Today, we had a productive meeting with Tom Homan, the Border Czar, to discuss the serious public safety consequences of sanctuary laws,” Holden said in a statement.
“I have full confidence in Homan and his team to enforce federal laws and keep our communities safe.”
As for Adams’ meeting with Homan, he appreciated the mayor’s acknowledgment of the crisis, but added, “words are not enough – he needs to take real action.”
BLUE CITY POLICE SERGEANTS SAY THEY’RE PAID LESS THAN SUBORDINATES AS BILLIONS GO TO MIGRANTS
Adams, who on Thursday also pledged to work with the feds to fight gang proliferation at the city’s Rikers Island prison, announced executive action to reopen an ICE facility on the island in Hell Gate.
Holden called the move a “significant first step” toward prioritizing New York City public safety.
“I first pitched the idea of reopening the ICE office in December, and I’m glad to see action finally being taken. Thank you to Tom Homan for his leadership on this issue.”
Councilwoman Inna Vernikov, a Brighton Beach Republican and immigrant from Ukraine, noted that her family “came here legally” and slammed the “top-down failures” of the Biden era.
“It’s a thrill to have a man of action leading immigration and border enforcement,” Vernikov said on X, formerly Twitter, adding that she was unable to make the meeting itself but sent a staffer in her stead.
“The consensus is that we are all done with the media and leftist politicians making excuses for lawbreaking,” she said, adding that she had paved her own path to legal citizenship and now practices immigration law.
“Illegal immigration is destroying this city and is offensive to citizens. Full stop. If the mayor won’t revoke sanctuary city status, I expect the Trump administration will provide very compelling and hard-hitting incentives to do so.”
Ariola, who took over as the caucus’ GOP co-chair upon longtime Staten Island Councilman Joe Borelli’s retirement, said on X that “we need change – we need it now.”
Councilman David Carr, R-New Dorp, also tweeted about the Homan meeting, saying New York needs to stop “shielding” migrants from ICE.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
ri
Councilwoman Vickie Paladino, R-Whitestone, reacted to the meeting by pledging to double her efforts to fight the crisis.
“Despite the progressive monopoly in this city, I plan to use whatever power I have, in partnership with the Trump Administration wherever possible, to keep my district and my constituents safe,” she said.
Democrats currently hold a 44-5 supermajority on the council, with one vacancy from each party.
One caucusmember, however, skipped the meeting with Homan, saying that she had a scheduling conflict and that “not every immigrant is a criminal.”
“I am an immigrant. No one can ever tell me about the challenges faced by newcomers to New York and to this nation,” Councilwoman Susan Zhuang, who was born in China, told City & State.
“Find the criminals and deport them, yes. But leave decent hard-working families alone,” said Zhuang, D-Dyker Heights.
Charles Creitz is a reporter for Fox News Digital.
He joined Fox News in 2013 as a writer and production assistant.
Charles covers media, politics and culture for Fox News Digital.
Charles is a Pennsylvania native and graduated from Temple University with a B.A. in Broadcast Journalism. Story tips can be sent to [email protected].
Milwaukee’s Democratic Mayor Cavalier Johnson deleted a social media post following an officer-involved shooting that said the suspect’s death was also a “tragedy,” leading to criticism from the Milwaukee Police Association.
“My thoughts are with the [Milwaukee Police] officer shot in the line of duty today,” the original X post stated. “The entire incident, including the death of the suspect, is a tragedy.”
The new version of the post only includes the first line expressing concern for the police officer.
NEW YORK STATE PRISON PLACED ON LOCKDOWN AFTER INMATES TAKE OVER, INJURE THREE CORRECTIONS OFFICERS
The officer was allegedly shot by a suspect carrying a rifle before the suspect was slain by another officer, Fox 6 Milwaukee reported.
As of 2024, Milwaukee is considered one of the most dangerous cities in Wisconsin, according to SafeHome.org(Fox News)
“The original social media post was put up by a staff member. When the Mayor saw it, he immediately insisted it be taken down. His sentiments are accurately expressed in the video that was posted,” the mayor’s office told Fox News Digital in an email.
“My thoughts are with that officer. My thoughts are with that officer’s family. My thoughts are with the Milwaukee Police Department,” Johnson said in the video referenced in his office’s statement. “I’m grateful, and I know that the people of Milwaukee are grateful as well that there are so many brave men and women who are part of this force who put their own selves in the line of danger in order to make sure we have safety in this community.”
A Johnson spokesperson told Wisconsin Right Now that “an appropriate reprimand is forthcoming” for the staffer who allegedly posted the original comment.
The Milwaukee Police Association said Johnson’s original post was insulting to law enforcement.
“MPA President Alexander Ayala contacted the Mayor’s office after seeing a social media post calling the death of a criminal who nearly killed one of our police officers today, a ‘tragedy,’” the association wrote on Facebook. “While we accept the Mayor’s apology that he made in a call to President Ayala, we must make it clear that this sentiment, even in error, insults every Milwaukee Police officer who puts their life on the line for the city.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT POLICE AND LAW ENFORCEMENT
Officials and popular voices in the region also blasted the deleted post.
“Law Enforcement’s jobs are made harder by leaders like you who insult their service and sacrifice. A police officer almost didn’t go home today because he was shot by someone endangering his community. That is a tragedy, [mayor],” Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann posted.
“Your lack of leadership has created the environment for this to happen,” he added.
“Yes, he really did call the death of a lowlife thug who shot and very nearly killed a Milwaukee Police officer a ‘tragedy,’” Wisconsin-based radio personality Dan O’Donnell posted.
The Milwaukee skyline is seen on July 31, 2018.(Raymond Boyd/Getty Images)
As of 2024, Milwaukee is considered one of the most dangerous cities in Wisconsin, according to SafeHome.org. Statistics from last year indicate that the murder rate in the city had a decline, but carjackings did see an increase, Fox 6 Milwaukee reported.
WISCONSIN MAN, DOG FOUND STABBED TO DEATH AT HOME HOURS AFTER POLICE RESPONDED TO POSSIBLE BREAK-IN
Cameron Arcand is a politics writer at Fox News Digital in Washington D.C. Story tips can be sent to [email protected] and on Twitter: @cameron_arcand
You have reached your maximum number of articles. Log in or create an account FREE of charge to continue reading.
By entering your email and pushing continue, you are agreeing to Fox News’ Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, which includes our Notice of Financial Incentive.
Please enter a valid email address.
In a speech to European leaders, Vice President JD Vance said the continent’s recent censorship activities were a bigger threat to its existence than Russia.
“The threat that I worry the most about Vis-a-vis Europe is not Russia, it’s not China. It’s not any other external actor,” he said in an address at the Munich Security Conference.
“What I worry about is the threat from within the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values, values shared with the United States of America.”
Vance called out former European Commissioner Thierry Breton who said in January that if the right wing German AfD party won elections in Germany, the results could go the way of Romania.
“These cavalier statements are shocking to American ears,” said Vance.
HEGSETH SAYS HE AND VANCE ARE ‘ON THE SAME PAGE’ DESPITE VP’S REMARK ON US TROOPS IN UKRAINE
Vice President JD Vance and his wife Usha Vance wave upon landing at Munich international airport, southern Germany, on February 13, 2025, one day before the start of the Munich Security Conference (MSC)(TOBIAS SCHWARZ/AFP via Getty Images)
“For years we’ve been told that everything we fund and support is in the name of our shared democratic values. Everything from our Ukraine policy to digital censorship is billed as a defense of democracy. But when we see European courts canceling elections and senior officials threatening to cancel others, we ought to ask whether we’re holding ourselves to an appropriately high standard.”
Romania annulled the results of its December presidential election because President Klaus Iohannis declassified intelligence reports alleging a Russian influence campaign on social media to the benefit of Calin Georgescu, the darkhorse candidate who won the most votes.
“You can believe it’s wrong for Russia to buy social media advertisements to influence your elections. We certainly do. You can condemn it on the world stage, even. But if your democracy can be destroyed with a few hundred thousand dollars of digital advertising from a foreign country, then it wasn’t very strong to begin with.”
The vice president even called out the organizers of the Munich conference, who he said had “banned lawmakers representing populist parties on both the left and the right from participating in these conversations.”
The conference barred the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the newly formed left-populist Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) for what MSC chair Christoph Heusgen described as a rejection of the conference’s principle of “peace through dialogue.” Heusgen said the tipping point was when lawmakers with the parties walked out of the room as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was addressing German parliament last June.
“The threat that I worry the most about Vis-a-vis Europe is not Russia, it’s not China. It’s not any other external actor,” Vice President Vance said.(REUTERS/Leah Millis)
“To many of us on the other side of the Atlantic, it looks more and more like old entrenched interests hiding behind ugly Soviet-era words like misinformation and disinformation, who simply don’t like the idea that somebody with an alternative viewpoint might express a different opinion or, God forbid, vote a different way, or even worse, win an election.”
He then said Europe had forgotten the lessons of the Cold War and the Soviet Union’s censorship policies.
“Within living memory of many of you in this room, the Cold War positioned defenders of democracy against much more tyrannical forces on this continent. And consider the side in that fight that censored dissidents, that closed churches, that canceled elections,” Vance said.
“Unfortunately, when I look at Europe today, it’s sometimes not so clear what happened to some of the Cold wars winners. I look to Brussels, where EU commissars warn citizens that they intend to shut down social media during times of civil unrest the moment they spot what they’ve judged to be ‘hateful content’ or to this very country where police have carried out raids against citizens suspected of posting anti-feminist comments online as part of ‘combating misogyny on the internet.’”
“Most concerning,” according to Vance, is the United Kingdom.
“The backslide away from conscience rights has placed the basic liberties of religious Britons, in particular, in the crosshairs.”
Vance recounted Adam Smith Connor, who was found guilty in October of breaching the local government’s Public Spaces Protection Order, after he stood outside an abortion facility nearly two years ago with his head bowed in silent prayer.
” I wish I could say that this was a fluke, a one-off, crazy example of a badly written law being enacted against a single person. But no,” said Vance.
VANCE WARNS US WILL USE SANCTIONS, MILITARY ACTION IF PUTIN DOESN’T AGREE TO UKRAINE PEACE DEAL: REPORT
US Vice President JD Vance delivers his speech during the 61st Munich Security Conference (MSC) in Munich, southern Germany on February 14, 2025. (THOMAS KIENZLE/AFP /AFP via Getty Images)
The U.K. law suggests that those within the buffer zone of 200 meters of an abortion clinic cannot attempt to influence someone’s decision to access an abortion. Those who are in homes within the buffer zone cannot hang signs outside or shout anti-abortion messages that could be heard in range of the clinic.
Vance also called out Sweden, where Danish activist Rasmus Paludan was sentenced to four months in prison for burning copies of the Quran.
“Sweden’s laws to supposedly protect free expression do not, in fact, ‘Grant,’ and I’m quoting, ‘a free pass to do or say anything without risking offending the group that holds that belief,’” said Vance.
Vance’s speech had veered away from what European leaders had been expecting to hear – details on President Donald Trump’s plan for peace between Russia and Ukraine and how to strengthen the NATO alliance.
“I’m sure you all came here prepared to talk about how exactly you intend to increase defense spending over the next few years in line with some new target,” said Vance.
“I’ve heard a lot about what you need to defend yourselves from, and of course that’s important. But what has seemed a little bit less clear to me, and certainly I think to many of the citizens of Europe, is what exactly it is that you’re defending yourselves for. “
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
The vice president went on: “What is the positive vision that animates this shared security compact that we all believe is so important? And I believe deeply that there is no security If you are afraid of the voices, the opinions and the conscience that guide your very own people.”
“The crisis this continent faces right now, the crisis I believe we all face together, is one of our own making. If you’re running in fear of your own voters, there is nothing America can do for you.”
