President Donald Trump directed the Justice Department to fire all U.S. attorneys left over from the Biden administration.
“We must “clean house” IMMEDIATELY, and restore confidence,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.” America’s Golden Age must have a fair Justice System – THAT BEGINS TODAY!”
This story is breaking. Please check back for updates.
FIRST ON FOX: A conservative group is suing the Department of Homeland Security as part of an effort to get what it says is “maximum transparency” about the agency’s handling of criminal illegal immigrants during the Biden administration.
The Center to Advance Security in America (CASA) is suing DHS for records it requested in October during the Biden administration about the release of data on noncitizens on Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s non-detained docket with criminal backgrounds.
The data, released to lawmakers in September, stated that there were 425,431 convicted criminals on ICE’s non-detained docket, and an additional 222,141 with pending criminal charges.
ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT ARRESTS SKYROCKET UNDER TRUMP ICE COMPARED TO BIDEN LEVELS LAST YEAR: ‘WORST OF THE WORST’
This photo shows migrants at the southern border encountered in Arizona. (U.S. Border Patrol)
Those include 62,231 convicted of assault, 14,301 convicted of burglary, 56,533 with drug convictions and 13,099 convicted of homicide. An additional 2,521 have kidnapping convictions, and 15,811 have sexual assault convictions.
There were an additional 1,845 with pending homicide charges, 42,915 with assault charges, 3,266 with burglary charges and 4,250 with assault charges.
At the time, the Biden DHS said the data was being misinterpreted, noting it goes back decades, and includes those who are not only free but also those who are incarcerated by federal, state or local authorities but who are not in ICE custody.
CASA requested internal communications and records from ICE and Customs and Border Protection related to the data and the release of the data, including meeting requests, call logs and communications with media outlets. It requested the documents via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.
TENS OF THOUSANDS OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS WITH SEXUAL ASSAULT, MURDER CONVICTIONS IN US: ICE DATA
Alejandro Mayorkas is pictured next to a sighting of a drone in New Jersey. (AP Images/Doug Hood/Asbury Park Press)
The group did not receive a response and so has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colombia to compel compliance from the agency.
“Through DHS’s failure to make a determination within the time period required by law, CASA has constructively exhausted its administrative remedies and seeks immediate judicial review,” the lawsuit says.
“The American people deserve maximum transparency regarding the government’s handling of all illegal aliens, but particularly about those aliens with serious criminal convictions,” CASA director James Fitzpatrick told Fox News Digital.
“This lawsuit will force DHS to provide records and communications related to the release of these illegal alien criminals into communities throughout the country,” he said.
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It is unclear how DHS under the Trump administration will handle the request, given the administration’s significantly different attitude to the release of illegal immigrants. DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Trump administration has largely stopped the release of migrants into the U.S., in part due to President Trump’s order declaring a national emergency at the southern border. That, in turn, has meant that migrants can be removed without being offered the ability to claim asylum.
In addition, the administration has launched a mass deportation campaign and has been making significant steps to not only conduct arrests, but also to house illegal immigrants without releasing them and to increase the rate of deportations.
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Fox News Digital reported last week that the arrests of illegal immigrants have skyrocketed in the first weeks of the Trump administration compared to the same period last year under former President Biden.
Erin Witte, director of consumer protection for the Consumer Federation of America, on why the FTC was fighting for the CARS rule.
A federal appellate court vacated a rule last week that advocates argue would have made the car-buying process more transparent and saved consumers billions.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit struck down the Combating Auto Retail Scams Trade Regulation – or CARS – rule before it could go into effect, arguing that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) failed to follow its own internal process.
The rule was aimed at fighting two common types of illegal tactics consumers face when buying a car, such as bait-and-switch tactics and hidden junk fees. But it also included provisions specifically protecting military members and their families from deceptive dealers falsely claiming military affiliation, along with addressing other issues unique to service members.
AUTOMOTIVE GROUPS REACT TO TRUMP TARIFFS ON IMPORTS FROM CANADA, MEXICO, CHINA
The FTC estimated in a report that the rule would save consumers more than $3.4 billion and cut down on the time it takes to buy a car by 72 million hours each year. Critics such as the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) – an American trade organization representing nearly 16,500 franchised dealers, and the Texas Automobile Dealers Association (TADA) – said the FTC’s research was “rushed” and “poorly researched.”
A used vehicle for sale at a dealership in Richmond, California, on Feb. 21, 2023. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via / Getty Images)
A slew of changes would have taken effect if the rule had been implemented, including requiring car dealers to disclose the price of the car along with all mandatory fees up front every time they advertise the vehicle, according to Erin Witte, director of Consumer Protection for the Consumer Federation of America.
The FTC, which was granted authority to regulate unfair or deceptive practices by motor vehicle dealers under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, “discovered that throughout the process of buying a car, it is frequently riddled with deception and unfair practices” said Witte.
The price consumers see is “almost never” the price that they pay at the end of the day, said Witte, adding that it’s “remarkably common” for a dealership to tell consumers that they can’t tell them a price over the phone, and they should come in person to discuss what kind of deal they can offer.
Witte said it’s done intentionally to squeeze more out of consumers and that the tactics also rip customers away from “honest car dealers.”
ANGRY CUSTOMER CRASHES RECENTLY PURCHASED SUBARU THROUGH DOORS AT DEALERSHIP
“Not every car dealer wants to gouge people,” she said. “There are lots of car dealers that want to honestly advertise the price of their car, but they lose out if someone’s advertising the same car for a cheaper price. But they can track someone on their lot for four hours and then jack up the price because they’re there.”
Vehicles for sale at a Chrysler dealership in Richmond, California, on Feb. 21, 2023. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via / Getty Images)
New Jersey car dealership owner Tom Maoli told FOX Business that he was an advocate for the CARS rule because it would have increased consumer confidence in buying cars from franchise car dealerships. Historically, they have “bad view of how they are treated at car dealerships across the country,” said Maoli, whose company Celebrity Motor Car Company runs six dealerships.
Conversely, NADA and TADA argued that the new rule would have “added massive amounts of time, complexity, paperwork and cost to the car-buying and car-shopping experience for virtually every customer.” The industry groups also said it “would have been a nightmare for consumers and dealers alike.”
NADA said consumers would have spent an additional 60 to 80 minutes at the dealership for every transaction, and would have been subject to having to complete at least five new, untested forms during both the shopping and the purchasing process. This “would have driven up costs for vehicle purchases and, beyond that, would have cost consumers $1.3 billion a year collectively in lost time,” the trade group said in a statement to FOX Business.
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The court didn’t take sides for or against the rule. Instead, it ruled that the FTC skipped an important part of the notice-and-comment process called the Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM). In this initial step, the agency formally requests public input on a proposed regulation. It argued the FTC should have stated that it was considering issuing a rule about car dealers and these practices and left a discussion open for public feedback.
Instead, the FTC started at the second phase, called Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), where they outline their plan to change a rule and then open it up for public comment before finalizing it.
Used vehicles for sale at a dealership in Colma, California, on Feb. 21, 2023. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via / Getty Images)
Witte argued that the FTC should have been allowed to skip this step since it was given the authority to fast track rulemaking for motor vehicle dealers.
“It also is frankly ridiculous to think that the FTC didn’t do their homework on this to understand the impact of the rule,” Witte said. “This was a decade in the making. The FTC relied on many, many enforcement actions, conversations with car dealers, with NADA, with consumer advocates and with actual consumers. They paid attention to what people were actually telling them about their experiences.”
The FTC has to start this process over again if it wants to finalize the rule. It remains to be seen if that will occur, Witte said.
The now-archived website for the virtually shut down United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has a page devoted to pushing DEI which a former employee whistleblower told Fox News Digital was part of a larger Biden administration effort.
“Each of us has a responsibility to address bigotry, gender discrimination, and structural racism and uphold individual dignity… This isn’t just one of our values; it’s our mission—one hand extended out to another to meet people where they are and treat others as equals,” former USAID administrator Samantha Power, who previously served multiple roles in the Obama administration, is quoted as saying on the archived websites DEI page.
The website explains that the USAID was “committed to a diverse, equitable, inclusive workplace where everyone has an opportunity to thrive” and that it has implemented a DEI strategy that “commits USAID to improving and enhancing diversity throughout the Agency, enhancing inclusion and equity for everyone in the workplace, and strengthening accountability for promoting and sustaining a diverse workforce and an inclusive Agency culture.”
Mark Moyar, a USAID whistleblower who worked in the department from 2018 to 2019, spoke to Fox News Digital about how Power and others in the department made DEI a top priority.
AFTER DOGE CRACKDOWN ON USAID, TRUMP’S HOUSE ALLIES WANT THIS CABINET AGENCY ON CHOPPING BLOCK
USAID found itself on the chopping block in recent weeks due to the DOGE effort to cut government waste (Getty Images)
“Samantha Power’s emphasis on DEI was part of a larger Biden administration effort to infuse DEI into every federal agency and we saw this with very negative effects all over the place and you have people taking time off from their jobs to attend these indoctrination sessions and clearly pushing the message that people are divided into oppressor groups and victim groups and that there’s this white rage and white extremism running all over the place, which is basically not non existent,” Moyar explained.
Moyar told Fox News Digital that “far left theories” were given “legitimacy” in the wake of the George Floyd movement in 2020 and that when DEI became a “central” focus at USAID it resulted in other countries taking the United States less seriously.
USAID STAFFERS STUNNED, ANGERED BY TRUMP ADMIN’S DOGE SHUTDOWN OF $40B AGENCY
Samantha Power, administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, delivers a speech during a visit to El Salvador at the Central American University in San Salvador, El Salvador June 14, 2021. (REUTERS/Jose Cabezas)
“It’s particularly disturbing that not only were they pushing within the organization, they were actually funding DEI events all over the world, you know, DEI comic books or DEI workshops and so I think this can only undermine our image abroad because most people outside of this country recognized DEI for the silliness that it is and the divisiveness that it causes,” Moyar, author of the book “Masters of Corruption: How the Federal Bureaucracy Sabotaged the Trump Presidency”, said.
“We also saw this as well with women’s empowerment that everything for Samantha Power had to be viewed through a gendered lens. So you had all these gender consultants as well as DEI consultants taking huge amounts of taxpayer money to do this sort of analysis. And I don’t think they really have anything to show for it and I think you’ll find what we found in other places where this has been pushed, that DEI only makes things worse. It divides people and group tensions between groups are worse than they were before.”
President Donald Trump speaks before signing an executive order barring transgender female athletes from competing in women’s or girls’ sporting events, in the East Room of the White House, Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
USAID found itself on the chopping block in recent weeks as part of President Trump’s plan to rid the federal government of waste along with his campaign pledges to rid DEI from the federal bureaucracy.
“For decades, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has been unaccountable to taxpayers as it funnels massive sums of money to the ridiculous — and, in many cases, malicious — pet projects of entrenched bureaucrats, with next-to-no oversight,” the White House said Monday.
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Musk has meanwhile slammed the agency as a “viper’s nest of radical-left marxists who hate America,” and reported in an audio-only message on X on Sunday that “we’re in the process” of “shutting down USAID” and that Trump reportedly agreed to shutter the agency.
Democrats have slammed the Trump administration’s efforts on USAID. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., accused Trump of starting a dictatorship while she protested outside USAID headquarters on Monday.
“It is a really, really sad day in America. We are witnessing a constitutional crisis,” Omar said. “We talked about Trump wanting to be a dictator on day one. And here we are. This is what the beginning of dictatorship looks like when you gut the Constitution, and you install yourself as the sole power. That is how dictators are made.”
Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton contributed to this report
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has recently become the target of Elon Musk’s DOGE efforts to slash government waste and spending, bringing increased scrutiny to the record of Samantha Power, the agency’s administrator during almost the entire Biden administration.
Power, who previously served as the United States ambassador to the United Nations from 2013 to 2017 in the Obama administration after serving on his National Security Council, took the reins of USAID in the early days of the Biden administration and was tasked with overseeing the tens of billions of dollars budgeted for foreign aid.
“One of the most pressing challenges facing our nation is restoring and strengthening America’s global leadership as a champion of democracy, human rights, and the dignity of all people,” then-Vice President-elect Kamala Harris said in a statement at the time of Power’s appointment. “Few Americans are better equipped to help lead that work than Ambassador Samantha Power.”
Power was directly involved in the Obama administration’s surveillance of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and sought to obtain Michael Flynn’s redacted identity using an “unmasking” request on at least seven occasions, Fox News Digital previously reported, despite testifying under oath before the House Intelligence Committee that she had “no recollection” of ever making such a request even once.
USAID CLOSES HQ TO STAFFERS MONDAY AS MUSK SAYS TRUMP SUPPORTS SHUTTING AGENCY DOWN
Samantha Power led USAID from 2021-2025. (Getty Images)
Fox News reported in 2017 that Power was “unmasking” at such a rapid pace in the final months of the Obama administration that she averaged more than one request for every working day in 2016, and she even sought information in the days leading up to President Trump’s inauguration, according to multiple sources close to the matter.
Power’s tenure at USAID was also not without controversy, even from her own party, including an incident in which she faced a public revolt from current and former staff in 2024 over her support of Israel.
Critics also took issue with her repeatedly meeting with influential liberal foundations while serving in her role at USAID, which Fox News Digital reported in 2023, included George Soros’ Open Society Foundations at least two times, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation at least five times, and meetings with several other powerful groups like Ford and Rockefeller foundations.
Power’s supporters say she has played a critical role in providing U.S. assistance to war-torn areas like Ukraine and Gaza along with aiding the relief of humanitarian crises that have developed in places like Haiti, Armenia and Sudan.
“The best testament to USAID’s contribution is the surge in PRC-backed and Russian-backed propaganda maligning USAID and our work around the world,” Power said in an exit interview with Politico last month. “And it’s really picked up a lot over the last year and a half. We counted 81 malicious and false propaganda campaigns, really dedicated campaigns, aimed at denigrating USAID and our reputation. So we’re doing something that is getting on their nerves.”
USAID HAS ‘DEMONSTRATED PATTERN OF OBSTRUCTIONISM,’ CLAIMS TOP DOGE REPUBLICAN IN LETTER TO RUBIO
Samantha Power, administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, delivers a speech during a visit to El Salvador on June 14, 2021. (REUTERS/Jose Cabezas)
Power, who is married to former Obama administration official and professor Cass Sunstein, added, “We are an agency that has thousands of people around the world representing the United States, both because it’s in the interests of the American people to have health systems that are more secure and can spot infectious diseases and tackle them, to change regulations so it’s easier for American businesses to invest, but also to show up and to show the importance of investing in the partnership — and not investing in a manner that just leaves countries saddled with debt.”
USAID has been increasingly questioned by Republicans over its alleged funding of research relating to the coronavirus at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China, as well as millions in aid that supports LGBT rights abroad and dozens of millions of dollars for migrant crises in other countries, like the nearly $45 million slated to provide emergency food assistance and economic support for Venezuelan migrants in Colombia.
MEET THE YOUNG TEAM OF SOFTWARE ENGINEERS SLASHING GOVERNMENT WASTE AT DOGE: REPORT
Elon Musk speaks during an America PAC town hall on Oct. 26, 2024, in Lancaster, Pa. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)
Democrats counter that the agency plays a vital role in U.S. national security interests and say it should remain independent. They point to the work USAID did to counter Soviet influence during the Cold War, a sphere of influence that could remain a concern amid China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
Tech billionaire and DOGE Chair Elon Musk has been on a warpath against USAID, which is an independent U.S. agency that was established under the Kennedy administration to administer economic aid to foreign nations, as he leads DOGE’s mission of cutting government fat and overspending at the federal level.
Musk announced in an audio-only message on X over the weekend that “we’re in the process” of “shutting down USAID.”
“On Friday, February 7, 2025, at 11:59 pm (EST) all USAID direct hire personnel will be placed on administrative leave globally, with the exception of designated personnel responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership and specially designated programs,” USAID’s website currently says. “Essential personnel expected to continue working will be informed by Agency leadership by Thursday, February 6, at 3:00pm (EST).”
A Fox News Digital review of USAID’s recent history shows that it has repeatedly been accused of financial mismanagement and corruption long before Trump’s second administration, with spending that took place under Power’s reign likely to continue to be a focus of conversation with Republicans.
The USAID flag flies in front of the USAID office in Washington on Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., sent a letter to Power in October 2024, sounding the alarm on the “likely misuse of more than one billion dollars in U.S. humanitarian aid sent to Gaza since October 2023,” Fox Digital reported at the time.
A Syrian national named Mahmoud Al Hafyan, 53, was charged in November 2024 for allegedly diverting more than $9 million in U.S.-funded humanitarian aid to terrorist groups, including the Al-Nusrah Front. The Al-Nusrah Front, also known as Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, is a designated terrorist organization with ties to al-Qaeda, according to the State Department.
The Government Accountability Office published a report in 2023 finding that both USAID and the National Institutes of Health directed taxpayer funds to American universities and a nonprofit organization before the money found its way to Chinese groups, including the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Eight auditors and employees for the USAID inspector general’s office sounded the alarm to the Washington Post in 2014 that negative findings surrounding the agency’s work were removed from final reports and audits.
Trump repeatedly proposed slashing the nation’s foreign aid budget for USAID and the State Department during his first administration, including proposing in his first year in office to slash the budgets by 37%, which Congress rejected.
“With $20 trillion in debt, the government must learn to tighten its belt,” Trump said in 2017 while advocating for the cuts.
Elon Musk leads the Department of Government Efficiency. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
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Power sat down with late-night host Stephen Colbert on Tuesday night and defended USAID’s work and warned against shutting it down, claiming that children overseas in line for tuberculosis treatment were told to go home as a result of Trump’s executive order.
“Programs that were running, the people we’re depending on, in some cases, for life-saving medicine, like medicine, if you have HIV, that keeps you alive, quite literally,” Power told Colbert. “Or if you’re in Sudan and you have a child who’s wasting away because of malnutrition, a miracle paste, a peanut paste that USAID provides brings that kid back from the brink of death. All of those programs are shuttered.”
Democrat lawmakers took part in a rally against DOGE on Tuesday outside the Treasury Department, arguing that Musk’s actions are unconstitutional and a threat to Democracy.
“My heart is with the people out on the street outside USAID, but my head tells me, ‘Man, Trump will be well satisfied to have this fight,’” veteran strategist David Axelrod, who served with Power in the Obama administration, said this week. “When you talk about cuts, the first thing people say is: Cut foreign aid.”
Fox News Digital’s Caitlin McFall, Emma Colton and Gregg Re contributed to this report
President Trump’s FBI director nominee Kash Patel pledged in his confirmation to end the “targeting” of Americans by the government specifically as it relates to citizens who were in the crosshairs of the Biden administration for religious reasons.
“Is it appropriate for the Federal Bureau of Investigation to attempt to recruit spies or informants into religious institutions in this country, particularly Catholic parishes?” GOP Sen. Josh Hawley asked Patel in his confirmation hearing on Thursday.
Patel responded, “I don’t believe so, senator.”
“Mr. Patel, are you familiar with the recent actions of the FBI in this regard, including this memo that I have right here making a list of Catholic churches and parishes that they regard as potentially suspect and directing the potential recruitment of informants and other spies, let’s be honest, into those parishes,” Hawley asked.
GRAHAM GRILLS FBI NOMINEE PATEL OVER ‘DISGUSTING’ AND ‘CORRUPT’ CROSSFIRE HURRICANE PROBE
Kash Patel, President Donald Trump’s choice to be director of the FBI, appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee for his confirmation hearing, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025. ((AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite))
Patel told Hawley is familiar with the memo leading the Missouri Republican into his next question.
“Mr. Patel, would you commit to me that you will, if you are confirmed, that you will finally and officially withdraw this memo and make it clear that this is not only unacceptable, but that it is an absolute violation of the First Amendment, that every American voice under the Constitution of the United States,” Hawley asked.
“If I’m confirmed, Senator, yes,” Patel said back.
KASH PATEL FLIPS SCRIPT ON DEM SENATOR AFTER BEING GRILLED ON J6 PARDONS: ‘BRUTAL REALITY CHECK’
WASHINGTON, DC – FEBRUARY 28: Sen. Josh Hawley. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
“Will you also commit to me that you will conduct an investigation and find out who wrote this memo, who spread this memo?” Hawley asked. “The field offices involved in this memo, because I can tell you, we’ve had your predecessor sit right where you’re sitting. And he has repeatedly, repeatedly lied, there’s no other word for it, lied to this committee. He told us initially that it didn’t happen, that the FBI didn’t make any list of churches. That’s not true. We have it. A whistleblower brought forward the list for us.”
“He said then that only one field office had worked on, it turns out we know from another whistleblower, multiple field offices worked on it, worked on it. He said that it was never posted on the internal system. It turns out it was. We believe it’s still in effect. Will you find out who was involved in this gross abuse of Americans First Amendment rights? And will you discipline them? And if you possibly can, will you fire them? Mr. Patel, consistent with Department policy and law?“
Patel told Hawley that the senator has his “commitment” to “investigate any matters such as this” that “are important to Congress.”
President-elect Donald Trump has named longtime ally Kashyap “Kash” Patel, who has been a frequent and harsh critic of the FBI, to serve as the bureau’s next director in the new administration. (Reuters)
“I will fully utilize, if confirmed, the investigative powers of the FBI to give you the information you require, and also to hold those accountable who violated the sacred trust placed in them at the FBI,” Patel told Hawley.
Hawley responded, “I’m glad to use the word sacred trust, because that’s exactly what it is. The FBI’s the most powerful law enforcement body in this nation, arguably the most powerful law enforcement body, at least in a free nation in the world and to have this body corrupted politically such that it is targeting people of faith in this country and then lying about it to this committee and the American people is unimaginable.”
“I’ll be honest with you, I never thought this would happen in the United States of America, I just didn’t. If you had told me five years ago we’d be reading memos like this, I would have said, no way, no way. That’s bad fiction. In fact, it’s a horrible reality. The department needs to be cleaned up.”
The exchanges comes on the heels of Trump’s recent announcement that he would pardon pro-life activists convicted under the FACE Act during President Joe Biden’s administration.
A side-by-side of Kash Patel and President Donald Trump. (Getty Images)
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The pardons, first reported by The Daily Wire, would apply to activists convicted of protesting near abortion clinics during various demonstrations. The details and scope of the pardons have yet to be revealed.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, has also introduced legislation that would dismantle the FACE Act. Many lawmakers have argued that Democratic administrations have weaponized it against pro-life groups and Christians.
Fox News Digital’s Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report
Trump AI and ‘crypto czar’ David Sacks discusses the administration’s crypto policies and future ambitions for the digital currency during an exclusive interview on ‘The Evening Edit.’
Cryptocurrency czar David Sacks on Monday backed President Donald Trump’s reversal of a Biden-era executive order that instituted guardrails on artificial intelligence technology but “hamstrung” American AI companies.
Sacks cited DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup that that develops open-source large language models (LLMs). The company has been outperforming American AI companies like OpenAI and Meta.
The company recently unveiled R1, a specialized model designed for complex problem-solving, on Jan. 20, which “zoomed to the global top 10 in performance,” and was built far more rapidly, with fewer, less powerful AI chips, at a much lower cost than other U.S. models, according to the Wall Street Journal.
SILICON VALLEY PRAISING CHINESE AI STARTUP DEEPSEEK: ‘PROFOUND GIFT TO THE WORLD’
In a post on X, Sacks said DeepSeek R1 proves that the AI race “will be very competitive” and that Trump was “right to rescind the Biden EO.”
David Sacks, co-founder of Craft Ventures LLC, speaks during the Token Summit in New York, U.S., on Thursday, May 17, 2018. The Token Summit explores the economics, regulation and best practices around blockchain-based tokens, protocols, and crypto-a (Alex Flynn/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
He said the order “hamstrung American AI companies without asking whether China would do the same. (Obviously not.) I’m confident in the U.S. but we can’t be complacent.”
Hours after returning to the White House, Trump rescinded Biden’s executive order, which set in motion a sprint across government agencies to study AI’s impact on everything from cybersecurity risks to its effects on education, workplaces and public benefits.
Trump said the order acted as a barrier to American AI innovation.
“We must develop AI systems that are free from ideological bias or engineered social agendas,” Trump’s order says. It also “established unnecessarily burdensome requirements for companies developing and deploying AI that would stifle private sector innovation and threaten American technological leadership.”
In a policy directive last year, the Biden administration said federal agencies must show their artificial intelligence tools aren’t harming the public, or stop using them. Trump’s order directs the White House to revise and reissue those directives, which affect how agencies acquire AI tools and use them.
CHINESE APP DEEPSEEK HAMMERS US STOCKS WITH CHEAPER OPEN-SOURCE AI MODEL
A chatbot app developed by the Chinese AI company DeepSeek (Getty Images / Getty Images)
“For the last four years, the Biden administration has basically prosecuted and persecuted crypto companies, really driving them offshore,” Sacks said on FOX Business’ “The Evening Edit” last week. “I’ve heard so many outrageous stories by founders, by entrepreneurs, the Biden administration would not tell them what the rules of the road were, and they would then get prosecuted. And what the industry wants more than anything else is regulatory clarity.”
“They’re saying, ‘just tell us what the rules are. We will abide by them’,” he added. “And the Biden administration would never do that. And because of that, all the innovation was basically moving offshore, and America was about to lose this technology of the future.”
Alexandr Wang, CEO at Scale AI, a San Francisco-based software company, spoke out over the weekend on the DeepSeek technology, calling its quick success a “wake-up call for America.”
“DeepSeek is a wake up call for America, but it doesn’t change the strategy,” Wang wrote in a post on X.
EMJ Capital President and founder Eric Jackson analyzes tough A.I. competition, the future of Stargate and cryptocurrency cybersecurity under the Trump administration.
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Wang explained that the “USA must out-innovate & race faster, as we have done in the entire history of AI” and “tighten export controls on chips so that we can maintain future leads.”
“Every major breakthrough in AI has been American,” Wang said.
FOX Business’s Stepheny Price, Breck Dumas and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
FIRST ON FOX: A bill to strictly limit programs used by the Biden administration to allow migrants into the U.S. and protect them from deportation is being re-introduced in both chambers of Congress amid a flurry of immigration moves in Congress and the White House.
The End Unaccountable Amnesty Act, was introduced in the Senate last year but is now being re-introduced in both chambers by Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., and Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, which would limit the use of humanitarian parole to allow migrants into the U.S. and limit the use of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to protect them from deportation.
The Biden administration, as part of its efforts to expand lawful pathways for migration to curb the ongoing migrant crisis at the border, used parole to admit 1,450 migrants a day using the CBP One app at the border. It has also allowed more than 500,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela (CHNV) to fly into the U.S. using a separate program. Combined, nearly 1.5 million migrants were let in via CBP One and CHNV. President Trump ordered an end to both this week.
‘ABUSED THE LAWS’: GOP BILL VOWS TO SHUT DOWN KEY BIDEN-ERA POLICIES BENEFITING MIGRANTS
Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind. (Rep. Jim Banks campaign/File)
Separately, the Biden administration has used (TPS) to allow migrants from countries facing conflict and hardship to remain protected from deportation, including countries like Venezuela and Haiti. It extended a slew of designations in the final days of the administration.
The bill would restrict TPS designations by requiring Congress to approve them for 12-month terms (currently 18 months) and requiring additional moves by Congress to extend them.
The bill would also limit parole to a hard cap of 1,000 a year, significantly reduced from the hundreds of thousands allowed currently. Parole would also only be allowed for limited circumstances like emergency medical cases.
The bill would also impose stricter eligibility and placement criteria for unaccompanied children amid reports of such children being lost track of by authorities. Meanwhile, the use of DHS documents like Notices to Appear and also the now-limited CBP One app would be barred from being used for airport security checks.
‘TIDES ARE SHIFTING’: PUSH TO CODIFY KEY TRUMP-ERA POLICY SNAGS DOZENS OF CO-SPONSORS
Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas (Nathan Howard/Getty Images/File)
“The Biden administration exploited current law to grant legal status to millions of non-citizens, overwhelming communities in Indiana and across the country. Our schools, healthcare systems, and public services are struggling with this massive influx,” Banks said in a statement. “This bill will end mass parole, eliminate incentives for illegal immigration, and help President Trump restore order after the chaos caused by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.”
“The Biden-Harris Administration’s policies incentivized the worst border crisis in American history,” Nehls wrote. “Worse, President Biden and his cronies imported people from all over the world through the CHNV and other mass parole programs, flooding our communities with insufficiently vetted individuals. I’m proud to introduce legislation alongside Senator Banks to prevent future administrations from abusing TPS designations and parole authority.”
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When it was first introduced, the bill faced challenges with a Democrat-run Senate, but now the chamber is in the hands of Republicans, and a number of Democrats have backed restrictionist bills after a year in which illegal immigration was a top priority for voters.
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Dozens of Democrats recently backed the Laken Riley Act to require Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain illegal immigrants charged with theft-related crimes. Meanwhile, a bill to restore the Trump-era Remain in Mexico policy has picked up bipartisan sponsors in the lower chamber.
In an apparent swipe at President Donald Trump, Gov. Gavin Newsom suggested the Los Angeles fires were the result of climate change, urging skeptics that, “If you don’t believe in science, believe your own damn eyes.”
He wrote those words in a press release issued on Tuesday in response to Trump’s executive orders around the environment and paired them alongside horrifying images of the fires raging in California, which have so far killed 27 people and destroyed tens of thousands of homes and structures.
Trump, who was sworn in as the 47th president of the United States on Monday, signed several executive orders to reverse parts of former President Joe Biden’s climate agenda, including withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement – a legally binding treaty between nearly 195 parties who are committed to international cooperation on climate change.
In response to Trump distancing from the climate pact, which sought to reduce emissions 61-66% by 2035, the California governor suggested that withdrawing from the global emissions agreement contributes to environmental incidents such as the West Coast fires.
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California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass tour the downtown business district of Pacific Palisades as the Palisades Fire continues to burn on Jan. 8, 2025 in Los Angeles. (Eric Thayer)
Several other Democratic lawmakers across the country have also tried to pin the disastrous fires on climate change, despite residents fuming at local officials after some fire hydrants were not producing water in areas impacted by the fires.
“The scale of damage and loss is unimaginable. Climate change is real, not ‘a hoax.’ Donald Trump must treat this like the existential crisis it is,” Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said in a social media post in January.
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The claims come as California officials continue to receive backlash for funding diversity, equity, and inclusion in the city, while the fire department budget was slashed by $17.6 million this year.
President Donald Trump found a letter from former President Joe Biden while signing executive orders in the Oval Office on Jan. 20, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Anna Moneymaker)
“When you just look at water not coming out of fire hydrants and then nobody seems to know why. And then the governor says, ‘Well, I’m going to investigate it,’ it’s just kind of a sideshow in a time when we need real definitive, strong leadership,” Assembly Minority Leader James Gallagher told Fox News Digital of Newsom.
Actor Michael Rapaport also blasted Newsom for talking about “Trump-proofing” California ahead of his inauguration instead of focusing on “fire-proofing” the state.
“If you are going to run a city or run a state, you have to take care of the basics, and that’s to make sure that your fire and your police department are well-funded,” filmmaker and former “Family Ties” star Justine Bateman told Fox News’ Jessie Watters.
Fire crews monitor the Palisades Fire in Mandeville Canyon on Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025 in Los Angeles. (Jae C. Hong)
Newsom extended an invitation to Trump to visit the areas in California that were impacted by the fires.
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Trump told attendees at a pre-inauguration rally that he plans to visit southern California later this week, marking his first trip to the state since being sworn-in as president.
Fox News’ Stepheny Price contributed to this report.