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Tag: Biden

Attorney General Pam Bondi stripped Biden, Harris portraits from DOJ wall

Attorney General Pam Bondi on Tuesday personally stripped the Justice Department’s walls of portraits of former President Joe Biden, former Vice President Kamala Harris, and her own predecessor, former Attorney General Merrick Garland, saying it was “ridiculous” for the portraits to still be hanging nearly three weeks into President Donald Trump’s tenure

Bondi’s role in personally removing the portraits, first shared on X by the New York Post’s Miranda Devine, was confirmed to Fox News Digital by a Justice Department official.

Bondi “saw portraits of Garland, Biden, Harris were still up, and she took the initiative to take them off the walls herself and stack them in the corner,” the official told Fox News.

BONDI SWORN IN AS ATTORNEY GENERAL WITH MISSION TO END ‘WEAPONIZATION’ OF JUSTICE DEPARTMENT

President Donald Trump speaks before Pam Bondi is sworn in as attorney general in the Oval Office of the White House by Justice Clarence Thomas. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)

The actions come after Bondi, who was sworn in earlier this month, vowed during her confirmation hearing in January not to politicize the Justice Department.

Bondi, a longtime state prosecutor in Florida and two-time state attorney general, used her roughly five-hour confirmation hearing last month to vow that, if confirmed, the “partisanship, the weaponization” at the Justice Department “will be gone.”

FBI AGENTS SUE TRUMP DOJ TO BLOCK ANY PUBLIC IDENTIFICATION OF EMPLOYEES WHO WORKED ON JAN. 6 INVESTIGATIONS

Former President Joe Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris (AP Photo/Getty Images)

“America will have one tier of justice for all,” she said.

Trump, for his part, praised Bondi during her swearing-in ceremony earlier this month as “unbelievably fair and unbelievably good,” and someone who he said will “restore fair and impartial justice” at the department.

Attorney General Pam Bondi and former Attorney General Merrick Garland (AP/Getty Images)

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“I know I’m supposed to say, ‘She’s going to be totally impartial with respect to Democrats,’” Trump told reporters then, “and I think she will be as impartial as a person can be.”

Breanne Deppisch is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital covering the Trump administration, with a focus on the Justice Department, FBI, and other national news.

February 13, 2025
Biden administration slow-walked Marc Fogel designation as ‘wrongful detainee,’ Republicans say

The Biden administration slow-walked its designation of American Marc Fogel as a “wrongful detainee” in Russia, Republicans and officials who previously worked on the effort to free Fogel told Fox News Digital.

“Marc Fogel was viewed by the Biden administration as just an average White guy from flyover country in Western Pennsylvania,” House Chief Deputy Whip Guy Reschenthaler, R-Pa., told Fox News Digital Tuesday. “He didn’t have any celebrity status; he wasn’t a military veteran; he wasn’t a journalist. So, the Biden administration overlooked him, and I think that’s absolutely appalling.”

FREED AMERICAN HOSTAGE MARC FOGEL LANDS IN US AFTER YEARS IN RUSSIAN CAPTIVITY

Fogel, an American teacher from Western Pennsylvania, returned to the United States late Tuesday, after President Donald Trump secured his release.

Fogel had been arrested at an airport in Russia in 2021 for possession of medical marijuana and was sentenced to 14 years in a Russian prison.

President Donald Trump welcomes Marc Fogel back to the United Stated after being released from Russian custody, on Feb. 11, 2025. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

The Biden administration did not designate Fogel a wrongful detainee until October 2024 and did not make that designation public until December 2024 – weeks after Trump was elected and the month before his inauguration.

Reschenthaler was first notified in 2021 of Fogel’s detention and began leading efforts with congressional colleagues to work with the Biden administration to bring Fogel home.

Along with a group of bipartisan lawmakers from Pennsylvania – including Reps. Brendan F. Boyle, Mike Doyle, Dwight Evans, Fred Keller, Mike Kelly, Conor Lamb, Dan Meuser, Glenn “GT” Thompson, Susan Wild, and Sen. Pat Toomey — Reschenthaler penned an August 2022 letter to then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken urging him to classify Fogel as having been “wrongfully detained.”

MOTHER OF FREED AMERICAN HOSTAGE MARC FOGEL THANKS PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: ‘HE KEPT HIS PROMISE’

Ellen Keelan, center, and other family members rally outside the White House in July 2023 for the release of Marc Fogel, who had been detained in Russia since August 2021. (Stephanie Scarbrough, The Associated Press)

The lawmakers argued that Fogel’s case was similar to that of WNBA player Brittney Griner, who had been imprisoned for a drug offense in Russia in February 2022. Griner, however, quickly was designated as being wrongfully detained and was returned home in December 2022.

Reschenthaler told Fox News Digital he spoke to Blinken “multiple times” about Fogel but said the secretary of state “refused to give me or my colleagues any kind of explanation for why (Fogel) was not put on wrongfully detained status.”

When determining whether an American is wrongfully detained, the individual’s case is measured against criteria established by the Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery and Hostage-Taking Accountability Act. There were 11 criteria established by that law, and lawmakers said Fogel had met at least six of the criteria.

Marc Fogel, a Pennsylvania history teacher who was working at the Anglo-American School in Moscow, returns to U.S. soil on Feb. 11, 2025. (The White House via X)

But the secretary of state has discretion over designations.

“There are a lot of things that President Trump brings to the table that secured the release of Fogel,” Reschenthaler told Fox News Digital. “For one, the Biden administration knew that Marc Fogel was going to be put on wrongfully detained status under Trump – and they didn’t want to give him the win, so they went ahead and did it on their way out the door.”

But Reschenthaler said Trump “has a lot more gravitas in talking to foreign leaders and adversaries.”

“Because when President Trump talks – when he makes a threat or draws a red line – he will actually deliver on that promise,” Reschenthaler said. “Biden would not make bold assertions, and there was nothing to back them off. The Russians did not take Biden or Tony Blinken seriously – and there was nothing to compel them to release Fogel.”

A former Biden administration official pushed back and defended Biden and Blinken’s work.

FLASHBACK: AMERICAN HELD IN RUSSIAN PENAL COLONY FOR MONTHS BUT STILL NOT LABELED ‘WRONGFULLY DETAINED,’ FAMILY SAYS

Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, R-Pa., penned an August 2022 letter to then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken, pictured here, urging him to classify Marc Fogel as having been “wrongfully detained.” (Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)

“Whether someone is designated or not doesn’t change our level of advocacy, which is how we brought home over 70 people who’d been detained abroad,” the former official told Fox News Digital. “We fought day after day to secure Marc’s release and we celebrate his return home.”

By June 2023, two years into Fogel’s detention without the wrongful detainee designation, Reschenthaler, Rep. Mark Kelly, R-Pa., and Pennsylvania Democrat Reps. Chris Deluzio and Brendan Boyle introduced the Marc Fogel Act, which would require the State Department to provide Congress with copies of documents and communications on why a wrongful determination had or had not been made in cases of U.S. nationals detained abroad within six months of arrest.

House Chief Deputy Whip Guy Reschenthaler was first notified in 2021 of Marc Fogel’s detention and began leading efforts to bring him home. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images )

“When you talked to career State Department officials, they understood what they were waiting for was a green light from the executive branch – but they could never say why they wouldn’t do these things,” Kelly told Fox News Digital Tuesday. “They would say, ‘Well, we’re working on it. We’re working on it.’ But the stopping point was that they would not designate him the right way, and it seemed like they had no interest in getting it at all.”

Kelly told Fox News Digital that, within the “political State Department,” there “just didn’t seem to be any energy toward getting that designation done.”

FLASHBACK: GOP REP INTRODUCES BIPARTISAN ‘MARC FOGEL ACT’ PUSHING STATE DEPT FOR ANSWERS ON AMERICANS JAILED OVERSEAS

“There have been so many things since I’ve been in Congress that you get stonewalled on, and that was just one of those things I felt at the beginning – we were just getting stonewalled,” Kelly said. “They were just giving us conversation.”

Kelly said, though, that he could “feel that the career State Department personnel wanted to do something.”

“But the political State Department was disinterested,” Kelly said.

Rep. Mike Kelly said within the “political State Department,” there “just didn’t seem to be any energy toward getting that designation done.” (Ben Curtis/The Associated Press )

It wasn’t just Republican and Democratic lawmakers trying to aid the Biden administration in securing the return of Fogel to the United States.

Former White House national security advisor Robert O’Brien, who served during the first Trump administration, also got involved.

O’Brien told Fox News Digital that he sent a letter to the Russian ambassador as “a humanitarian gesture.”

“I sent a letter to the Russian ambassador during the Biden years asking if they would consider a humanitarian release of Mr. Fogel,” O’Brien told Fox News Digital. “The Russian ambassador sent a cordial, but non-committal, letter of response.”

Former White House national security advisor Robert O’Brien, who served during the first Trump administration, also got involved in the effort to bring Marc Fogel home. (Eloisa Lopez/AFP via Getty Images)

O’Brien told Fox News Digital that he informed Ambassador Roger Carstens, Biden’s special envoy for hostage affairs, of his outreach. O’Brien told Fox News Digital that the Biden administration encouraged that outreach.

Carstens told Fox News Digital that he was “well aware that O’Brien sent the letter on Marc Fogel’s behalf.”

FLASHBACK: MARC FOGEL: FAMILY OF AMERICAN MAN DETAINED IN RUSSIA BEGS BIDEN, BLINKEN TO ADD HIM TO BRITNEY GRINER DEAL

“Robert O’Brien and his predecessor, Jim O’Brien, and I all worked together quite closely over the last four years to keep doing the hard work of bringing Americans home,” Carstens, who also served during the final year of the first Trump administration, told Fox News Digital.

Hostage negotiator Roger Carstens said the Biden administration did “work tirelessly to bring home Marc Fogel.” (Paul Morigi/Getty Images)

“Robert’s efforts on Marc’s behalf, and his efforts on behalf of others that are unsung, showcase the bipartisan nature of these efforts and the importance that the senior leadership in this country places on bringing Americans home,” Carstens said, calling O’Brien a “good personal friend and mentor.”

“We worked hand-in-hand throughout my entire time in the Biden administration to devise ways to bring people home,” Carstens said.

But as for Fogel, Carstens told Fox News Digital that the Biden administration did “work tirelessly to bring home Marc Fogel on the sides of negotiations of humanitarian release; negotiated separately as humanitarian release; and when designated, we included him in ongoing negotiations with the Russians.”

“Fogel’s return is fantastic news, and the Trump administration is to be commended for bringing this American home and bringing so many Americans home in just the last few weeks from places like Venezuela, Gaza and now Russia,” Carstens told Fox News Digital.

President Donald Trump greets former detainee Marc Fogel as he arrives at the White House on Feb. 11, 2025. (Ting Shen/AFP via Getty Images)

He added: “Bringing Americans home might very well be the last nonpartisan issue in this country and any administration that brings an American home should be congratulated for their efforts and their successes.”

And O’Brien, reacting to the news of Fogel’s return to the United States, told Fox News Digital: “If you asked me to define ‘America First,’ I’d define it as President Trump’s commitment to bringing Americans who were held overseas home.”

Meanwhile, Reschenthaler was at the White House Tuesday night with Trump to welcome Fogel back to the United States.

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“I was honored to be alongside President Trump at the White House to welcome Fogel back to the United States,” Reschenthaler told Fox News Digital. “President Trump promised to bring him home and kept his word – building on the already great success of his weeks-old presidency.”

Reschenthaler added: “While President Biden refused to prioritize this Pennsylvanian, President Trump delivered and secured his release. The American people are overjoyed to have strong and skilled leadership back in charge.”

Brooke Singman is a political correspondent and reporter for Fox News Digital, Fox News Channel and FOX Business.

February 13, 2025
Ex-NY Giants player is helping deported migrants in Guatemala, blames Biden for the problem

EXCLUSIVE: Retired New York Giants safety Jack Brewer and his global ministry are on the ground in Guatemala City this week, helping officials receive migrant families deported from the U.S., providing food, support and prayer as they essentially start life anew.

Brewer and his Jack Brewer Foundation have years of experience working in impoverished areas of the world like Haiti, Malawi and Central America, which Brewer said has allowed him to work closer than most and interact with the returning families.

While it is President Donald Trump and border czar Tom Homan enforcing U.S. law and deporting illegal immigrants, Brewer said it is clear former President Joe Biden’s “broken” policies are truly to blame for the heartache and hardship.

“Three years ago, I started to follow the fatherlessness crisis that is happening right here in Guatemala, where a lot of men were leaving their households and coming to Joe Biden’s open borders – and just seeing it literally devastate families.”

CHARITY LEADERS SLAM BIDEN ADMIN RESPONSE TO US PLANES SHOT IN HAITI AMID CHAOS

Jack Brewer on the Giants’ sideline in 2004. (Getty)

Brewer said Guatemala was losing much of its workforce and that a lot of those poor families trying to get to the U.S. actually did not know a “legal” immigration route existed, and they instead took the cartels and others at their word and paid thousands of dollars to be trafficked north.

“They’ve been told by coyotes and different people that you can just come [to the U.S.], and if you come here, if you bring your child, they’ll just let you in,” Brewer said.

“And so, you know, there’s a huge education gap there on the ground.”

Brewer also met with Raul Berrios from CONAMIGUA – the National Council for Attention to Migrants of Guatemala – as well as Sergio Samuel Vela-Lopez, head of the Guatemala Penitentiary Department.

Berrios, Lopez and others are trying to create an effective system for welcoming the migrants and processing those who are innocent families versus those who may have criminal records or other issues requiring government attention, according to Brewer.

FORMER NFL SAFETY JACK BREWER TORCHES CA’S COSTLY REPARATIONS PUSH

Former NFL safety Jack Brewer hands out food and supplies to deported migrants in Guatemala. (Jack Brewer Foundation)

Many families returning to the capital city live hundreds of miles into the countryside and have no established way of getting there. Some buses, however, have been hired to take migrants closer to home, and Brewer visited one of them and spoke to its driver.

“It’s really a unique perspective, I think, and just some of the things that we’ve witnessed since we’ve been here,” he said, adding stories ranged from familial hardships to reports that more than a dozen people have been burnt alive by Mexican cartels for failing to pay for passage.

“It’s just pretty tough to see and witness and watch.”

When a U.S. military plane arrived carrying migrants, Brewer was on the tarmac.

HEGSETH, HOMAN TOUR BORDER

Guatemalan families and children arrive in Guatemala City. (Jack Brewer Foundation)

“We were able to provide them with food and, most importantly, with Bibles, and we preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Brewer said the Guatemalan Migration Authority is focusing its efforts on children ages 8 and under. Many of these children have been “lied to,” Brewer said.

“They’re told it’s their life’s mission to migrate to the U.S. illegally,” he said, recounting stories told by some returning migrants of children on the backs of cartel coyotes and others drowning in rivers.

Then-Vice President Kamala Harris made her own trip to Guatemala City in March 2024, seeking to understand the “root causes” of illegal migration.

Jack Brewer visits a command center in Guatemala. (Jack Brewer Foundation)

“When you look at the root causes, we’re also looking at issues of corruption. Again, we’re looking at the issue of climate resiliency and then the concern about a lack of economic opportunity,” Harris said in 2021.

Brewer rejected that Harris’ work made any difference, saying she and her then-boss’s policies “empowered human traffickers” and that half of Guatemala still lives in extreme poverty with little education.

Jack Brewer meets deportation flights holding Guatemalan migrants (Jack Brewer Foundation)

He said the former leadership at the State Department “misguided resources” through USAID, a practice that Trump is now aggressively cutting back on.

“We need to first put our resources into addressing the issues that are fueling a multibillion-dollar human trafficking industry. Walls, deportations and enforcement are a must, but educating indigenous populations on the truths of coyotes will deliver a devastating blow to the modern human slave trade,” Brewer said.

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Jack Brewer meets with Raul Berrios of the National Council for Attention to Migrants of Guatemala. (Jack Brewer foundation)

“Guatemala is not enforcing their migration issue in the country. Haitians and Venezuelans are warned of the dangers of migrating, but there is no enforcement at the time.”

“There needs to be arrest and enforcement, but they require resources. Guatemala prisons are already overcrowded, and they don’t have immigration beds available for enforcement,” added Brewer, who said he also visited those prisons and saw conditions for himself.

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].

February 12, 2025
Trump seems to declare Travis Kelce ‘best tight end’ even after Taylor Swift’s Biden, Harris endorsements

It’s safe to say the president is looking forward to the Super Bowl.

President Donald Trump is expected to attend the Super Bowl in New Orleans Sunday, the first time a sitting president will attend the big game.

He’s getting a great matchup too, with the Kansas City Chiefs looking become the first team to win three consecutive Lombardi Trophies.

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Travis Kelce and Donald Trump (Imagn/AP Newsroom)

On the other sideline will be the Philadelphia Eagles, who will be playing in their third Super Bowl in seven seasons. It’s a rematch from the Super Bowl two years ago, which Kansas City won 38-35.

Trump gave a quick preview of the game on Truth Social, praising the “two great quarterbacks,” Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts; “an unbelievable running back,” seemingly Saquon Barkley; and “incredible coaching” from Andy Reid and Nick Sirianni.

But Travis Kelce appeared to get the highest praise from Trump.

In the post, Trump appeared to suggest the longtime Chiefs star was the “best tight end in football (ever)” without actually mentioning him by name.

Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce celebrates a touchdown catch in the first quarter against the Cincinnati Bengals Jan. 2, 2022, at Paul Brown Stadium. (Kareem Elgazzar/The Enquirer/USA Today Network via Imagn Images)

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That’s high praise mere hours after Antonio Gates was voted into the Hall of Fame. It also would put Kelce ahead of Tony Gonzalez, Rob Gronkowski and Jason Witten, among others.

The praise comes despite Kelce’s girlfriend, pop star Taylor Swift, endorsing Kamala Harris before last year’s election. Swift also endorsed Joe Biden in 2020 in his race against Trump.

After Swift’s endorsement and Patrick Mahomes’ wife’s apparent support for the president, some wondered whether Brittney Mahomes and Swift’s friendship was over, but that has not appeared to be the case.

Kelce has not made his political leanings very public.

Super Bowl LIX will be streamed on Tubi. (Tubi)

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Among tight ends, Kelce ranks third in NFL history in receptions (1,004) and yards (12,151) and fifth in touchdowns (77).

Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.

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February 7, 2025
Fentanyl’s financial grip on US skyrocketed to $2.7T at height of Biden admin: study

FIRST ON FOX: The opioid crisis under the Biden administration cost the U.S. $2.7 trillion in 2023 alone, a new study exclusively obtained by Fox News Digital shows.

The Council of Economic Advisers, an agency within the executive office that advises the president on economic policy, released a study on Friday, detailing that the opioid epidemic cost the U.S. $2.7 trillion in 2023 when considering costs related to loss of life, loss of quality of life, loss of labor force productivity, crime and costs to the health care system.

The opioid epidemic has raged for years, primarily inflamed by the use of fentanyl, which is a synthetic opioid that chiefly originates in China and comes to the U.S. over the Mexico border.

President Donald Trump is in the midst of leveraging tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China to bolster border security and stem the flow of fentanyl into the U.S., which has sparked condemnation from critics that the tariffs will lead to higher costs for U.S. consumers purchasing goods originating from those three nations.

The study, however, argues that the costs of the opioid epidemic “dwarfs even pessimistic estimates of the effects of tariffs.”

TRUMP IMPOSES TARIFFS ON IMPORTS FROM CANADA, MEXICO AND CHINA: ‘NATIONAL EMERGENCY’

The Council of Economic Advisers released a study on Feb. 7, 2025 detailing that the opioid epidemic had cost the U.S. $2.7 trillion in 2023. (Getty Images)

“Ever since his first entry into politics back in 2015, President Trump has been committed to tackling the opioid epidemic that is destroying American lives, families, and communities,” White House deputy press secretary Kush Desai told Fox News Digital on Friday.

“While Democrats cry foul and drum up hysteria over his use of tariff powers to save American lives from the scourge of illicit drugs like fentanyl, President Trump isn’t going to waver from using every lever of executive and legislative power to put Americans and America First — the costs of standing idly by in this drug war clearly far outweigh the exaggerated costs of fighting for American lives,” he said.

The Council of Economic Advisers study used a 2017 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that researchers adjusted to account for inflation trends, and opioid deaths and dependency, since its release.

The loss of life in 2023, for example, cost the U.S. $1.11 trillion, with the study explaining that researchers multiplied the 74,702 opioid deaths that year “by value of statistical life in the United States and then adding productivity and healthcare costs that arise due to opioid fatalities.”

President Donald Trump is in the midst of leveraging tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China to bolster border security and stem the flow of fentanyl into the U.S. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

TRUMP’S TARIFFS ON MEXICO AND CANADA WILL INCREASE PRICES FOR CONSUMERS; EXPERTS OFFER DETAILS

“We inflation-adjusted the $10.1 million value of a statistical life number provided by NIH (2017) to 2025 dollars ($13.0 million per life),” the study explained.

Bundles of blue pills containing fentanyl were intercepted at the border. (U.S. Customs and Border Protection )

Another $1.34 trillion of the $2.7 trillion total accounts for loss of quality of life for those in the midst of opioid addiction compared to Americans who are healthy and not addicted.

WHAT’S HAPPENING WITH TRUMP’S TARIFFS ON CHINA, CANADA AND MEXICO?

“The measure shows that life with OUD [opioid use disorder] has about 60 percent (0.626) of the quality of life of those in full health,” the study found. “Second is a measure of how much Americans value a year of life in full health. Adjusted for inflation, this value is estimated at $624,410 per person per year. Together these values imply that the lost quality of life costs $234,478 per year for each person living with OUD. We then multiply this value by the prevalence of OUD, estimated to be 5.7 million in 2023.”

The opiod crisis cost the U.S. health care system an estimated $107 billion in 2023, the study found, when accounting for treatment of individuals with opioid use disorder, relative to the average annual cost of treating patients who do not have an opioid addiction.

A homeless man, 24, holds a piece of aluminum foil he used to smoke fentanyl in 2022. (John Moore/Getty Images)

“This amounts to $19,000 additional dollars per year per person with OUD,” the study detailed. “These costs were primarily borne by private insurers, Medicaid, and hospitals providing uncompensated care. Ultimately, these costs are passed on to all Americans through higher insurance premiums, taxes, and healthcare expenses.”

Loss of labor productivity due to the opioid crisis cost the U.S. an estimated $107 billion, the study found. Researchers determined that figure by multiplying the number of productive work hours lost due to opioid-related deaths, addiction and incarceration by the average hourly wages and benefits for U.S. employees.

Crime was the final component in the study. The report found that police protection, court proceedings, correctional facility use and property loss stemming from opioid-related crime cost the U.S. $63 billion.

‘MAKING AMERICA EXPENSIVE AGAIN’: DEMOCRATS FIND A TAX THEY DON’T LIKE IN TRUMP TARIFFS

“The enormous economic cost of the illicit opioid epidemic to Americans, estimated at $2.7 trillion in 2023 alone, underscores the urgent need to control the flow of lethal drugs pouring in from foreign countries. The human suffering and financial burden inflicted by this epidemic are unsustainable,” the conclusion of the study found.

Trump and his administration are in the midst of a border security blitz, with law enforcement agencies stretching from the Department of Homeland Security to U.S. Marshals conducting raids across the nation to deport illegal immigrants and prevent the flow of other illegal migrants entering the nation.

As part of the immigration plan, Trump announced tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China at the end of January, which included a 25% additional tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico and a 10% tariff on imports from China. Energy resources from Canada were set to have a lower tariff, at 10%.

The executive order that authorized the tariffs, which Trump signed Saturday, said they were created in light of “extraordinary” threats stemming from “illegal aliens and drugs, including deadly fentanyl.”

ICE agents arrested seven illegal immigrants during a workforce operation raid. (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement)

“This challenge threatens the fabric of our society,” the executive order states. “Gang members, smugglers, human traffickers, and illicit drugs of all kinds have poured across our borders and into our communities.

TRUMP AGREES TO PAUSE TARIFFS ON CANADA IN EXCHANGE FOR MORE BORDER ENFORCEMENT

Both Canada and Mexico agreed to concessions with President Donald Trump, left, the day before the tariffs were set to take effect. (Nicholas Kamm)

“Canada has played a central role in these challenges, including by failing to devote sufficient attention and resources or meaningfully coordinate with United States law enforcement partners to effectively stem the tide of illicit drugs.”

MEXICO AGREES TO DEPLOY 10,000 TROOPS TO US BORDER IN EXCHANGE FOR TARIFF PAUSE

Both Canada and Mexico agreed to concessions with Trump on Monday, the day before the tariffs were set to take effect, pledging to send additional security personnel to their respective borders with the U.S. Trump agreed to pause the tariffs on the two nations for one month in light of the border security concessions.

Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum pledged to send troops to the border for a pause on the tariffs. (Rodrigo Oropeza/AFP via Getty Images)

China, on the other hand, imposed tariffs on some U.S. imports in response to Trump’s tariffs. China’s Finance Ministry said shortly after the tariff started that it would impose a tariff of 15% for coal and liquefied natural gas and 10% for crude oil, agricultural equipment and large-engine cars imported from the U.S.

‘THIS IS ABOUT FENTANYL’: TARIFFS ARE CRUCIAL TO COMBATTING ‘DRUG WAR,’ TRUMP AND CABINET OFFICIALS SAY

Critics of the tariffs have slammed them as leading to higher costs for American spenders, citing that goods stretching from Mexican beer, Canadian lumber and imported Chinese electronics would see a rise in costs for Americans.

“It’s going to affect beer, OK,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said during a press conference in his New York office on Sunday, while warning against the tariffs and holding up a tall can of Corona Extra. “Most of it, Corona here, comes from Mexico.”

“It’s going to affect your guac — because what is guacamole made of? Avocados. If you have pizza, it’s going to affect the cost of cheese.”

Goldman Sachs estimated that the U.S. would take a 0.4% hit to the GDP over the tariffs.

The Council of Economic Advisers study, however, argued that costs related to the opioid epidemic dwarf costs related to tariffs.

The Council of Economic Advisers released a similar report in 2019 that found the opioid epidemic cost the U.S. “$2.5 trillion for the four-year period from 2015 to 2018.” (Jon Elswick/The Associated Press)

TRUMP TARIFFS PROMPT WARNINGS FROM TRADE GROUPS

“This number dwarfs even pessimistic estimates of the effects of tariffs, like that of Goldman Sachs, who estimated losses of 0.4 percent of GDP,” the study found.

The Council of Economic Advisers released a similar report in 2019 that found the opioid epidemic cost the U.S. “$2.5 trillion for the four-year period from 2015 to 2018.”

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The recent report noted that the 2019 study’s findings were smaller “because it did not include the cost of reduced quality of life and because the number of deaths in 2015 was 33,000.”

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

February 7, 2025
Trump’s ICE limits illegal immigrant releases amid moves to shake off Biden ‘hangover’

EXCLUSIVE: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is taking dramatic steps to limit the number of illegal immigrants released from custody, as it moves at speed to shake off what one official described as the “hangover” from the Biden administration.

Fox News Digital is told that, as of this week, officials are being instructed that any release of an illegal immigrant in ICE custody must be personally signed off on by acting ICE director Caleb Vitello.

The administration has racked up thousands of arrests in the first week as it launched a mass deportation operation in cities and states across the U.S., with agents quickly hitting over 1,000 arrests a day as the agency drops Biden-era restrictions and takes a more aggressive stance towards illegal immigration.

TRUMP DOJ SLAPS ILLINOIS, CHICAGO WITH LAWSUIT OVER SANCTUARY LAWS

ICE agents arrested seven illegal immigrants during a workforce operation raid. (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement)

“We are fending off the hangover and some of the bad habits,” a senior ICE official told Fox News Digital, comparing the task to turning around the Titanic. “We are fixing four years of really bad habits.”

ICE currently has just under 42,000 beds available to it, and has been exceeding capacity under the current administration. The administration has been pushing hard to get more beds and detention space, but sources tell Fox it typically takes around 30 days for contractors to deliver given the time taken to identify buildings, hire people, conduct background checks and related requirements. That help is expected soon, but it is still in the process of coming online.

The White House confirmed on Wednesday that around 460 illegal immigrants have been released from custody of the more than 8,000 arrested. While that’s a small percentage, it’s expected to get even smaller with the additional restrictions.

“I expect the number of releases to fall off a cliff,” the ICE official told Fox News Digital, stressing that the new sign-off requirement sends a message to agents about a new posture by the agents.

The official stressed that any releases do not include public safety or national security threats. Anyone released is only done so with monitoring like ankle bracelets. Cases where illegal immigrants could be released could include someone who is pregnant or who is ill with cancer.

“That’s someone we are likely going to release…not only for the human side of it, but ICE and the government incur all of those medical costs the minute we take somebody into custody and so now we’re passing that on to the taxpayer as well,” they said.

While there are now additional limits on releases, ICE is also moving quickly to ramp up detention space. ICE has requested an apportionment of around $575 million from Congress as an advance of its funding for the year in order to be able to work quicker and get another step closer to a reported target of 100,000 beds and one million removals a year.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, along with other federal law enforcement agencies, attend a pre-enforcement meeting in Chicago, Illinois on Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025. (Christopher Dilts/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

It’s also working with the Bureau of Prisons to identify space to house illegal immigrants as well as Customs and Border Protection (CBP) — where there may be plenty of open space in soft-sided facilities due to a dramatic plunge in encounters at the border. This week, the administration began flying illegal immigrants to Guantanamo Bay, where there are expected to be around 30,000 spaces.

“We are looking well outside the box,” the official said.

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Family detention is one of the biggest challenges facing the agency. The Biden administration ended family detention in 2021, choosing instead to release families on Alternatives to Detention. The Trump administration is turning that back on.

“The Biden administration cut down so many of our beds and they canceled so many contracts. And the problem with that is you can’t just immediately turn those back on. It’s not a switch, it’s a dial,” they said.

ICE has been talking with other agencies, including the State Department to expedite travel documents for deportable illegal immigrants. That’s in addition to a slew of new agreements by the Trump administration with other countries. Venezuela and Colombia have both announced they will accept back illegal immigrants.

That cooperation was on display on Wednesday when Guatemala has said it will accept migrants from other countries in what is known as a safe third country agreement.

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That announcement came shortly after both Mexico and Canada had announced new restrictions at their borders with the U.S. in response to the threat of U.S. tariffs.

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

He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter.

February 6, 2025
Bondi seeks to reverse Biden death row commutations

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi is seeking to reverse the last-hour commutations for death row murderers last month by former President Joe Biden, directing state officials to pursue the death penalty against the inmates.

Bondi, who was confirmed Wednesday, sent out a letter about the commutations to Department of Justice (DOJ) employees Wednesday, accusing Biden of “undermin[ing] our justice system and subvert[ing] the rule of law” by granting the commutations.

“The commutations also robbed the victims’ families of the justice promised — and fought hard to achieve — by the Department of Justice,” Bondi wrote. “The Department of Justice is directed to immediately commence the following actions to achieve justice for the victims’ families of the 37 commuted murderers.”

Bondi said the DOJ will move to first “explore opportunities to provide a public forum for the victims’ families to express how the commutations affected them personally,” calling it an “important step” in building trust and achieving accountability.

FBI AGENTS GROUP TELLS CONGRESS TO TAKE URGENT ACTION TO PROTECT AGAINST POLITICIZATION

New U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi called out former President Joe Biden in an email Wednesday. (Getty Images)

Then Bondi said she would direct U.S. attorney’s offices to pursue death sentences against the commuted inmates using state law rather than federal law. She said this step would take place “after consultation with the victims’ families and other interested parties” and only “where appropriate and legally permissible.”

“The Capital Case Section shall assist the United States Attorney’s Offices in implementing this directive,” Bondi’s letter stated.

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“Third, the Federal Bureau of Prisons is directed to ensure that the conditions of confinement for each of the 37 commuted murderers are consistent with the security risks those inmates present because of their egregious crimes, criminal histories, and all other relevant considerations,” she added.

In a late-December decision, Biden removed 37 inmates from federal death row and reclassified their sentences to life without the possibility of parole.

At the time, the White House said the move would prevent President-elect Donald Trump’s administration from “carrying out the execution sentences that would not be handed down under current policy and practice.”

Pam Bondi speaks during the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Md., Feb. 23, 2024. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

“The President’s criminal justice record has transformed individual lives and positively impacted communities, especially historically marginalized communities,” the White House statement said at the time. “In the coming weeks, the President will take additional steps to provide meaningful second chances and continue to review additional pardons and commutations.”

Biden only left three mass murderers on death row: Charleston, South Carolina, church shooter Dylann Roof; Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev; and Robert Bowers, the gunman responsible for the Pittsburgh Tree of Life Synagogue shooting in 2018.

Bondi, a former prosecutor and Florida state attorney general, has previously said her main goal as AG is to root out political influence and weaponization from the DOJ.

“America will have one tier of justice for all,” she said at the time.

Pam Bondi is sworn in before the Senate Judiciary Committee for her confirmation hearing Jan. 15 in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

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Fox News Digital reached out to the DOJ for comment.

Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Pritchett and Breanne Deppisch contributed to this report.

Andrea Margolis is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business. Readers can send story tips to [email protected].

February 6, 2025
Eagles fan Jill Biden to attend Super Bowl LIX: report

Jill Biden, the former first lady and a Philadelphia Eagles fan, will reportedly head to New Orleans for the Super Bowl Sunday with her grandson.

Former President Joe Biden will not be in attendance at the game, USA Today reported Wednesday. The Bidens’ grandson, Hunter, is the son of their late son Beau.

Jill and her grandson were in attendance for the 2023 Super Bowl when the Eagles played the Kansas City Chiefs.

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Jill Biden walks the sideline before a game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Dallas Cowboys at Lincoln Financial Field Oct. 16, 2022, in Philadelphia. (Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images)

It will be a rematch of that game this weekend.

Philadelphia nearly knocked Kansas City off the first time the two teams met in the Super Bowl. But the Chiefs got the upper hand. The win kickstarted Kansas City’s run at a dynasty. The Chiefs have won three of the last four Super Bowls and have a shot at three straight, a feat no NFL team has accomplished.

Jill Biden reacted to the Eagles’ NFC championship win nearly two weeks ago.

Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts participates during Super Bowl 59 Opening Night Feb. 3, 2025, in New Orleans ahead of Sunday’s game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

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“Proud Philly girl!” she wrote in a post on X.

President Donald Trump is also expected to attend the game. He would become the first sitting president to attend a Super Bowl.

Trump didn’t say outright who he was pulling for but gave a small hint Tuesday.

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Super Bowl LIX will be streamed on Tubi. (Tubi)

“I don’t want to say, but there’s a certain quarterback that seems to be a pretty good winner,” he said, appearing to reference Patrick Mahomes.

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Ryan Gaydos is a senior editor for Fox News Digital.

February 5, 2025
GOP-led Senate confirming Trump’s picks faster than Biden admin, first Trump term

Despite Democrats’ attempts to slow down the process to approve President Donald Trump’s picks for various administration positions, the Republican-led Senate is confirming nominees at a record pace.

The Senate Republicans Communication Center reported on Tuesday that under the leadership of Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., confirmations are moving quicker than they did during the Biden administration and Trump’s first term.

As of Feb. 4, the previous two administrations – former President Joe Biden’s and Trump’s first term – only had six nominees confirmed, while the current administration has 11 positions officially filled.

WE NEED TO GET THE TRUMP NOMINEES ACROSS THE FINISH LINE: SEN. ROGER MARSHALL

Under the leadership of Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., President Donald Trump’s nominees are being confirmed quicker than they were during his first term and during President Joe Biden’s administration. (Left: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images; Right: Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)

On Tuesday, Trump’s pick for attorney general in Pam Bondi was confirmed, as was Doug Collins for secretary of veterans affairs.

Tulsi Gabbard, selected for director of national intelligence, and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., chosen to lead the department of health and human services, are next up for their confirmation votes after making it out of committee hearings on Tuesday.

After Gabbard and RFK Jr., nine more nominees await confirmation.

President Donald Trump’s nominees for his positions in his second term are shaping up quicker than his first term and former President Joe Biden’s. (Senate Republicans Communication Center/X)

TRUMP ANNOUNCES NEW PICKS INCLUDING DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF THE CIA, CHIEF PENTAGON SPOKESMAN

Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., shared a roundup on X of where confirmations stand as of Tuesday night.

A handful of Republican senators chimed in on the pace and promised to keep it up until all nominees are confirmed.

“.@SenateGOP is delivering results. Despite Democrat obstruction, we’re confirming @POTUS’ nominees at a strong pace—faster than in the Biden admin or first Trump admin. I’ll keep fighting to confirm President Trump’s team,” Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., wrote on X.

Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mon., said the chamber is “ahead of schedule and not slowing down.”

Former U.S. representative and war veteran Doug Collins, Trump’s pick for Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, was confirmed on Feb. 4 by a 77-23 vote. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

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The last administration to have all nominees quickly confirmed was former President George W. Bush, whose entire Cabinet was in place by Feb. 1, according to PresidentialTransition.org.

Trump’s first term saw all picks confirmed by the end of April, a timeline similar to former President Barack Obama’s, while Biden’s Cabinet was filled by March 22.

February 5, 2025
Experts rally around Trump’s under the radar executive order unlocking ‘critical’ project blocked by Biden

President Trump signed an executive order overlooked by some in the media on his first day of office that experts tell Fox News Digital will play a critical role in developing mineral resources in the United States.

On the first day of his presidency, Trump signed an executive order advancing the Ambler Access Project, a 211-mile industrial road through the Brooks Range foothills that enables commercial mining for copper, zinc and other materials in a remote Arctic area in Northwest Alaska.

That executive order, one of dozens signed by Trump in the early hours of his administration, reverses a move by former President Biden to block the project and represents a significant change in energy policy, according to experts who spoke to Fox News Digital.

“President Biden issued 70 executive actions that discouraged tapping into Alaska’s natural resources and public lands access,” Gabriella Hoffman, Independent Women’s Forum Center for Energy & Conservation Director, told Fox News Digital. “Unlike his predecessor, President Trump recognizes Alaska’s potential to meet domestic energy and national security needs for reliable energy and critical minerals—including restoring the Ambler Access Project connecting to the Ambler Mining District.”

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President Donald Trump, left, and the Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, Alaska, right (Getty )

“The Ambler Access Project has endured extensive environmental review and would bring economic development to rural communities in dire need of it without despoiling Alaska’s natural beauty,” Hoffman added. “”Those who would benefit from employment by Ambler also hunt, fish, and enjoy public lands.”

Research by the University of Alaska Center for Economic Development on the economic impact of the project concluded that the development of the Ambler Mining District could create thousands of direct, indirect, and induced jobs and the project could mean a projected $1 billion for the state in revenue, mining license tax revenue, corporate income taxes, and production royalties.

“Ambler Road is the equivalent of a shoe lace on a football field: a blip in the vast remoteness of Alaska’s wilderness,” Power The Future founder and Executive Director Daniel Turner told Fox News Digital, “Yet somehow bureaucrats in DC who do not live there and cannot find it on a map have the authority to prevent Alaskans from developing their own land and growing their economy. It’s insanity.”

AMERICA’S ENERGY CRISIS IS HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT AND IT’S WORSE THAN YOU KNOW

U.S. President Donald Trump talks to reporters from the Resolute Desk (Getty Images)

Unlocking the project comes under the backdrop of China’s emergence in the market for critical minerals as the country controls roughly 60% of the world’s production of rare earth minerals and materials prompting warnings from U.S. officials on the over-reliance on foreign suppliers.

Turner explained that projects like Ambler Road being held up by the Biden administration have increased US dependency on China.

“Critical projects in Alaska like Ambler Road and Pebble Mine and oil and gas exploration in ANWR which are held up by radical green ideologues have forced our dependency on China for these raw materials, compromised our national security, but also prevented our fellow Americans in Alaska from the prosperity and economic opportunities they deserve,” Turner said.

“So many raw materials we need are in Alaska, and Governor Dunleavy is hamstrung by green insanity in San Francisco and Washington, DC from developing them and growing his state’s prosperity. The Trump Administration could be the most pro-Alaskan Presidency since Lincoln bought it.”

Hoffman told Fox News Digital that “critics” of the Ambler project “ignore” is that “access to the Ambler Mining District is guaranteed by the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) of 1980.”

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Sunset Inside Passage near Sitka, Alaska, Inside Passage. (Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

“My fellow Lower-48ers treat Alaska as a national preserve to be untouched and unexplored–dismissing locals and their perspectives,” Hoffman said. “President Trump is actually listening to Alaskans and their needs.”

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Alaska GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan said he looks forward to “working with President Trump’s administration and Alaskan leaders in the region to fully implement President Trump’s Alaska-specific EO, which includes reversing Biden’s denial of the Ambler road.”

“After enduring a four-year onslaught of 70 executive orders and actions by the Biden administration targeting my state, Alaskans have a new sense of hope and optimism for our future across a whole host of sectors and projects, including in our ability to develop our vast deposits of critical minerals and metals—many of which the United States is almost wholly dependent on China for,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan added that he worked “closely” with the first Trump administration to approve a road to the Ambler Mining District before the Biden administration “issued an order that killed that road last June, even though federal law mandates it.”

“Ironically, during Joe Biden’s final overseas trip as president, he announced $600 million in aid to build a railroad in Angola to help that country produce and market its critical minerals. That’s insane.”

Trump also signed an executive order which he said will “unleash American energy” by directing agencies to revise and rescind actions that impose undue burdens on domestic mining.

“The Trump Administration is unwavering in its commitment to securing America’s energy future, strengthening national defense, and fostering economic growth,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly told Fox News Digital.

“By unlocking one the world’s largest undeveloped mineral belts, President Trump is ensuring a domestic supply of critical minerals, reducing our reliance on foreign adversaries, and creating thousands of American jobs. This project is a win for national security and the American people.”

Andrew Mark Miller is a reporter at Fox News. Find him on Twitter @andymarkmiller and email tips to [email protected].

February 5, 2025