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President Donald Trump pumps up Rep. Byron Donalds in race to succeed Florida Gov. DeSantis

President Donald Trump is making it very clear whom he would support in the blockbuster 2026 gubernatorial race to succeed term-limited Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

“I am hearing that Highly Respected Congressman Byron Donalds is considering running for Governor of Florida, a State that I love, and WON BIG in 2016, 2020, and 2024,” Trump, a Florida resident, wrote in a social media post on Thursday.

And the president emphasized that Donalds, a longtime Trump friend, ally and supporter, “would be a truly Great and Powerful Governor for Florida.”

Trump added that Donalds, “should he decide to run, will have my Complete and Total Endorsement. RUN, BYRON, RUN!”

WHAT BYRON DONALDS SAID ON FOX NEWS SUNDAY

Byron Donalds speaks inside the Capital One arena at an event for President Donald Trump, on the inauguration day of Trump’s second presidential term, in Washington D.C., on January 20, 2025. REUTERS/Mike Segar (REUTERS/Mike Segar)

Donalds, a conservative former state lawmaker who has represented parts of southwest Florida’s 19th District in Congress for four years, has been eyeing a potential gubernatorial bid for nearly a year.

“I’ve thought about it. I don’t really rule anything out,” Donalds said in a Fox News Digital interview last spring when asked about a possible run for governor.

Sources confirmed to Fox News last month that Donalds had been telling potential donors and Florida political players that he intends to run for governor.

WHY TRUMP IS PRAISING ONE-TIME PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY RIVAL DESANTIS

Another signal also came last month, when Donalds hired prominent Republican pollster Tony Fabrizio’s research firm. Fabrizio was a top pollster in Trump’s 2016 and 2024 presidential campaigns.

Sources in Florida tell Fox News that Donalds, behind the scenes, continues to make moves towards launching a gubernatorial campaign.

Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida speaks during Day 1 of the Republican National Convention, at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 15, 2024. (REUTERS/Mike Segar)

And a source in Donalds’ political orbit told Fox News on Thursday that the congressman has been pushing hard for a Trump endorsement, in an effort to crowd out potential rivals for the GOP gubernatorial nomination.

Another prominent Florida Republican who’s seriously considering a run for governor is state Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson, the former president of the state Senate.

There’s also been some speculation that DeSantis’ wife, Florida First Lady Casey DeSantis, was potentially considering a run to succeed her husband in Tallahassee. A poll released earlier this week, which suggested Casey DeSantis would be favored in the race, grabbed plenty of attention.

Former Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, who was Trump’s first choice for attorney general in his second administration before dropping out amid controversy, late last year made some noise about potentially running for governor. But there’s been little buzz in recent weeks about a possible Gaetz campaign.

Dan Eberhart, a Florida-based oil drilling chief executive officer and a prominent Republican donor who’s raised big bucks for Trump and DeSantis in recent years and who is also in Donalds’ political orbit, told Fox News that Donalds, if he runs, would “bring a fresh conservative vision for Florida’s future that will be hard to beat.”

The social media post by Trump was his second this week to pump up Donalds.

Trump on Monday showcased a screen grab of a poll conducted by a group aligned with Donalds that indicated the congressman leading in a hypothetical 2026 Florida gubernatorial match-up.

Trump has been talking up Donalds for over a year when it comes to a possible run for governor. At a closed-door fundraiser in New York City last spring, Trump suggested that if Donalds ran for Florida governor, he’d have “many friends in the race.”

Donalds, speaking with Fox News Digital soon after Trump made the comments, said “it’s really cool that people back home in Florida consider me to be able to be the state’s next governor. It’s really an honor. It’s honestly surreal thinking about it because I’m 45 and my journey through politics has been a really fruitful one.”

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With Florida, which was once a top general election battleground state, now firmly red, the slowly emerging GOP gubernatorial nomination fight will be greatly impacted by Trump’s endorsement in his adopted home state.

But not to be discounted is any possible endorsement by DeSantis in the race to succeed the governor.

Paul Steinhauser is a politics reporter based in New Hampshire.

February 21, 2025
Are more airplanes crashing under President Donald Trump than under Joe Biden?

The United States saw double the number of fatal plane crashes under President Joe Biden’s first four weeks in office compared to the same time period under President Donald Trump’s second administration, federal data reviewed by Fox News Digital shows.

There were 10 fatal plane crashes in the United States between Jan. 20, 2021, and Feb. 18, 2021, according to the National Transportation Safety Board’s Case Analysis and Reporting Online, or CAROL, which has recorded aviation accidents since 1962. There were four fatal plane crashes recorded during the same time period under the second Trump administration — from inauguration day to Feb. 18 — the data shows.

A fifth fatal plane crash unfolded in Georgia on Saturday evening, which has not yet been added to the database but is included in Fox Digital’s final tally of five fatal plane crashes in the U.S. since Jan. 20.

Though the second Trump administration has seen fewer plane crashes than the first month of the Biden administration, the Washington, D.C., crash in January provided greater national visibility to concern over aviation crashes as it was the deadliest in U.S. history since November 2001, when an American Airlines flight crashed into a residential area of New York City, killing 260 people on board and five on the ground.

A total of 67 people were killed in January when an Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines passenger plane collided near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

Fox News Digital found that during the Biden administration’s approximate first month in office, there were U.S.-based fatal plane crashes in Janesville, Wisconsin; St. Thomas, Caribbean Sea; Tehachapi, California; Galt, Missouri; Belvidere, Tennessee; Chitina, Alaska; Hackberry, Louisiana; Port Angeles, Washington; Boynton Beach, Florida; Rio Rancho, New Mexico. A total of 18 individuals died in the 10 crashes.

TORONTO PLANE CRASH: HARROWING VIDEO SHOWS DELTA PLANE ERUPTING INTO FIREBALL, FLIPPING UPSIDE-DOWN

The United States saw double the number of fatal plane crashes under President Joe Biden’s first four weeks in office compared to the same time period under President Donald Trump’s second administration. (Getty Images)

The five fatal plane crashes in the first month of the Trump administration occurred in Nome, Alaska; Philadelphia; Washington, D.C.; Charlottesville, Virginia; and Covington, Georgia. A total of 96 people died in the plane crashes.

When comparing the two Trump administrations, Fox News Digital found there were 11 recorded fatal plane crashes between Jan. 20, 2017, to Feb. 18, 2017.

TORONTO PLANE CRASH TIMELINE: DELTA FLIGHT FROM MINNEAPOLIS FLIPS UPSIDE DOWN WHILE ATTEMPTING TO LAND

Fox News Digital also found that the Biden administration saw seven serious — not fatal — plane crashes between Jan. 20, 2021, and Feb. 18, 2021, compared to six serious plane crashes under the same time period for the Trump administration, according to the CAROL database.

As for crashes that resulted in “minor” injuries for passengers, the CAROL database recorded seven under the Biden administration’s first month and two under the second Trump administration’s first month, Fox Digital found.

A Delta Air Lines plane is upside down on its roof after crashing upon landing at Toronto Pearson Airport in Toronto on Feb. 17, 2025. (Geoff Robins/AFP via Getty Images)

SWALWELL DECLARES ‘ALL CRASHES ARE TRUMP’S FAULT’ AS HE DOUBLES DOWN ON PLANE DISASTER BLAME GAME

Another plane crash unfolded on Monday in Canada, when a Delta Air Lines CRJ-900 jet originating from Minnesota crashed at Toronto Pearson International Airport. None of the 80 passengers or crew were killed, but at least 18 were treated for injuries after the plane crashed, caught on fire and flipped upside down.

The Toronto crash unfolded as news mounted that the Trump administration is in the midst of firing a bevy of federal employees across various agencies as part of his administration’s effort to cut government spending fat and weed out corruption and mismanagement, including terminating Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) employees who have been hired in the past year, according to a union representing the employees.

President Donald Trump listens as Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy speaks at the White House on Jan. 30, 2025. (Alex Brandon/Associated Press)

A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Transportation told Fox News Digital Monday that the agency continues to hire air traffic controllers and those focused on air safety.

PLANE CRASHES SPARK RENEWED FEAR OF FLYING: 10 CAUSES OF AVIATION DISASTERS

“The FAA continues to hire and onboard air traffic controllers and safety professionals, including mechanics and others who support them,” the spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “The agency has retained employees who perform safety critical functions.”

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy added on X that his predecessor, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, had “failed for four years to address the air traffic controller shortage and upgrade our outdated, World War II-era air traffic control system.”

A police boat patrols the water and guards the crash scene on Jan. 30, 2025, after an American Airlines plane collided midair with a military helicopter and crashed into the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. (Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“Here’s the truth: the FAA alone has a staggering 45,000 employees,” he said. “Less than 400 were let go, and they were all probationary, meaning they had been hired less than a year ago. Zero air traffic controllers and critical safety personnel were let go.”

The crash, however, has opened the floodgates of criticism from Democrats and liberal media outlets who have laid blame for the crash at Trump’s feet.

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“I’m thankful that everyone in the flight incident in Toronto that took off from Minneapolis is safe, but we keep seeing these incidents day after day,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer posted to X after the Monday crash. “Meanwhile, Trump’s doing massive layoffs at the FAA—including safety specialists—and making our skies less and less safe. Democrats are fighting to protect the flying public.”

February 18, 2025
President Donald Trump unified the Republican Party, Rep. Marlin Stutzman says

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Follow on Twitter at @liz_elkind and send tips to [email protected]

February 16, 2025
Here’s what happened during President Donald Trump’s 4th week in office

President Donald Trump and his administration forged ahead with its foreign policy priorities in meetings and calls with heads of state and advanced discussions surrounding the end of the Russia-Ukraine war this week.

Trump spoke with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, where leaders agreed to launch negotiations to end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

“We agreed to work together, very closely, including visiting each other’s Nations,” Trump posted to Truth Social Wednesday after speaking with Putin. “We have also agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately, and we will begin by calling President Zelenskyy, of Ukraine, to inform him of the conversation, something which I will be doing right now.”

“I have asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of the CIA John Ratcliffe, National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, and Ambassador and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, to lead the negotiations which, I feel strongly, will be successful,” Trump said.

Additionally, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent traveled to Kyiv on Wednesday, and Vice President JD Vance also met with Zelenskyy Friday at the Munich Security Conference.

TRUMP SAYS RUSSIA AGREES TO ‘IMMEDIATELY BEGIN’ NEGOTIATIONS TO END WAR IN UKRAINE

Then-Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meet at Trump Tower in New York City, New York, Sept. 27, 2024. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has come under scrutiny for the negotiations, fielding criticism that Ukraine is being pressured to give in to concessions after Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said Wednesday that it wasn’t realistic for Ukraine to regain its pre-war borders with Russia.

“Putin is gonna pocket this and ask for more,” Brett Bruen, director of global engagement under former President Barack Obama, told Fox News Digital.

But Hegseth shut down comments like these, and told NATO members in Brussels on Thursday: “Any suggestion that President Trump is doing anything other than negotiating from a position of strength is, on its face, ahistorical and false.”

Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, and Trump vowed on the campaign trail in 2024 that he would work to end the conflict if elected again.

Here’s what also happened this week at the White House:

Meeting Jordan’s king

Trump welcomed Jordan’s King Abdullah II at the White House Tuesday, a visit that comes amid contentious discussions between the U.S. and Arab nations about relocating Palestinian refugees to Jordan and other neighboring Arab countries to rebuild Gaza.

Trump unveiled plans on Feb. 4 that the U.S. would seek to “take over” the Gaza Strip in a “long-term ownership position” to deliver stability to the region during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

However, Trump’s proposal prompted swift backlash from Arab countries, including Jordan, and Egypt announced plans on Sunday for an emergency Arab Summit to discuss “new and dangerous developments” regarding the resettling of Palestinians on Feb. 27.

TRUMP MEETS WITH JORDAN’S KING AMID TENSE TALKS ABOUT RESETTLING PALESTINIANS

When asked how he felt about Trump’s plans for the future of Gaza, Abdullah remained tight-lipped and said he would wait for the Egyptians to take the lead on a proposal moving forward as they negotiate with the U.S.

“I think let’s wait until the Egyptians can come and present it to the president and not get ahead of us,” Abdullah said.

Abdullah did reveal plans to accept 2,000 sick Palestinian children to Jordan.

“I think one of the things that we can do right away is take 2,000 children that are either cancer children or in a very ill state, to Jordan as quickly as possible,” Abdullah said. “And then wait for … the Egyptians to present their plan on how we can work with the president to work on the cause of challenges.”

Denuclearization talks with China, Russia

Trump floated a joint meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Putin, claiming he wants all countries to move toward denuclearization.

Trump on Thursday told reporters he plans to advance these denuclearization talks once “we straighten it all out” in the Middle East and Ukraine, comments that come as the U.S., Russia and Ukraine are actively pursuing negotiations to end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

“There’s no reason for us to be building brand new nuclear weapons, we already have so many,” Trump said Thursday at the White House. “You could destroy the world 50 times over, 100 times over. And here we are building new nuclear weapons, and they’re building nuclear weapons.”

“We’re all spending a lot of money that we could be spending on other things that are actually, hopefully, much more productive,” he said.

The U.S. is projected to spend approximately $756 billion on nuclear weapons between 2023 and 2032, according to a Congressional Budget Office report released in 2023.

Cuts to federal workforce

Trump signed an executive order Tuesday instructing the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to coordinate with federal agencies and execute massive cuts in federal government staffing numbers.

The order will instruct DOGE and federal agencies to work together to “significantly” shrink the size of the federal government and limit hiring new employees, according to a White House fact sheet on the order. Specifically, agencies must not hire more than one employee for every four that leave their federal post.

TRUMP SIGNS ORDER INSTRUCTING DOGE TO MASSIVELY CUT FEDERAL WORKFORCE

Elon Musk and President Donald Trump talk about DOGE’s efforts to investigate wasteful U.S. government spending from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 11, 2025. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)

Agencies will also be instructed to “undertake plans for large-scale reductions in force” and evaluate ways to eliminate or combine agency functions that aren’t legally required.

The order builds on another directive Trump signed after his inauguration implementing a federal hiring freeze, as well as an initiative from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management offering more than two million federal civilian employees buyouts if they leave their jobs or return to work in person. The White House told Fox News Digital Thursday that more than 75,000 employees have accepted the buyout.

Eliminate the penny?

Trump unveiled plans Sunday to halt production of the penny — but getting that initiative underway requires a few additional steps and possibly congressional approval.

Additionally, while Trump said he instructed the Treasury Department to stop minting them due to their high costs, supporters of the penny claim it’s wiser to evaluate changes to the nickel instead.

“For far too long, the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday. “This is so wasteful! I have instructed my Secretary of the US Treasury to stop producing new pennies.”

In fact, producing pennies is even more expensive than Trump’s numbers. It costs nearly 3.69 cents to mint a single penny, according to a 2024 U.S. Mint report. The coins are primarily made of zinc and then covered in copper.

While the waters are a little murky on the next steps, experts say Congress likely would need to become involved and pass legislation to fulfill Trump’s wishes.

“The process of discontinuing the penny in the U.S. is a little unclear. It would likely require an act of Congress, but the Secretary of the Treasury might be able to simply stop the minting of new pennies,” Robert Triest, an economics professor at Northeastern University, told the Northeastern Global News.

Fox News’ Emma Colton and Morgan Phillips contributed to this report.

Diana Stancy is a politics reporter with Fox News Digital covering the White House.

February 15, 2025
Democrats set to ‘waste millions’ litigating President Donald Trump’s executive orders, University of California, Berkeley, law professor John Yoo says

Democrats will likely “waste millions” of dollars battling President Donald Trump’s executive orders and actions in court with little success to show for it, according to University of California, Berkeley law professor John Yoo.

Trump “will have some of the nation’s finest attorneys defending his executive orders and initiatives, and the Democrats will waste millions of dollars losing in court,” Yoo, the former deputy assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel, told Fox News Digital on Tuesday when asked whether there are efforts of “lawfare” against Trump in his second administration.

“I expect that Trump will ultimately prevail on two-thirds or more of his executive orders, but the Democrats may succeed in delaying them for about a year or so,” Yoo said.

The Trump administration has been hit by at least 54 lawsuits in response to Trump’s executive orders and actions since his inauguration on Jan. 20. Trump has signed at least 63 executive orders just roughly three weeks into his administration, including 26 on his first day alone.

The executive orders and actions are part of Trump’s shift of the federal government to fall in line with his “America First” policies, including snuffing out government overspending and mismanagement through the creation of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), banning biological men from competing in women’s sports and deporting thousands of illegal immigrants who flooded the nation during the Biden administration.

‘ANYTHING BUT ORDINARY’: LEGAL EXPERTS SHRED NY V. TRUMP AS ‘ONE OF THE WORST’ CASES IN HISTORY

President Donald Trump’s administration has been hit by dozens of lawsuits in response to Trump’s executive orders and actions since his inauguration on Jan. 20. (Ian Maule/Getty Images)

The onslaught of lawsuits come as Democratic elected officials fume over the second Trump administration’s policies, most notably the creation of DOGE, which is in the midst of investigating various federal agencies to cut spending fat, corruption and mismanagement of funds.

A handful of Democratic state attorneys general and other local leaders vowed following Trump’s election win to set off a new resistance to his agenda, vowing to battle him in the courts over policies they viewed as harmful to constituents. Upon his inauguration and his policies taking effect, Democrats have amplified their rhetoric to battle Trump in the courts, and also to take the fight to “the streets.”

“We are going to fight it legislatively. We are going to fight it in the courts. We’re going to fight it in the streets,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said in January of battling Trump’s policies.

“Our biggest weapon historically, over three years alongside the Trump administration, has been the bully pulpit and a whole lot of legal action, so my guess is it will continue,” New Jersey Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy said the day after Trump’s inauguration.

Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, said at a protest over DOGE and its chair, Elon Musk, earlier in February, “We are gonna be in your face, we are gonna be on your a–es, and we are going to make sure you understand what democracy looks like, and this ain’t it.”

‘PLAYING WITH THE COURTS’: TRUMP ADMIN HIT WITH DOZENS OF SUITS AFTER YEARS OF PRESIDENT CONDEMNING ‘LAWFARE’

The dozens of cases come after Trump faced four criminal indictments, on both the state and federal level, in the interim of his first and second administrations. Trump had railed against the cases — including the Manhattan trial and conviction, the Georgia election racketeering case, and former special counsel Jack Smith’s election case and classified documents case — as examples of the Democratic Party waging “lawfare” against him in an effort to hurt his re-election chances in the 2024 cycle.

President Donald Trump has signed at least 63 executive orders just three weeks into his administration, including 26 on his first day alone. (Seth Wenig/The Associated Press)

Yoo, when asked about the state of lawfare against Trump now that he’s back in the Oval Office, said the president’s political foes have shifted from lawfare to launching cases to tie up the administration in court.

“I think that what is going on now is different than lawfare,” he said. “I think of lawfare as the deliberate use by the party in power to prosecute its political opponents to affect election outcomes. The Democrats at the federal and state level brought charges against Trump to drive him out of the 2024 elections.”

“The lawsuits against Trump now are the usual thrust and parry of the separation of powers,” Yoo explained. “The Democrats are not attacking Trump personally and there is no election. Instead, they are suing Trump as President to stop his official policies.

LAWSUIT TRACKER: NEW RESISTANCE BATTLING TRUMP’S SECOND TERM THROUGH ONSLAUGHT OF LAWSUITS TAKING AIM AT EOS

Yoo said the Republican Party also relied on the courts in an effort to prevent policies put forth during the Obama era and Biden administration, including when President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law in 2010, or his 2012 immigration policy, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). Republicans also challenged the Biden administration in court after President Biden attempted to forgive student debt through executive action in 2022.

‘LOSING THEIR MINDS’: DEM LAWMAKERS FACE BACKLASH FOR INVOKING ‘UNHINGED’ VIOLENT RHETORIC AGAINST MUSK

“Turnabout is fair play,” Yoo said of groups suing over various administrations’ executive actions or policies.

“What makes this also different than the law is that now Trump controls the Justice Department,” he added, explaining that Democrats will spend millions on the cases, which will likely result in delays for many of the Trump policies but will not completely thwart the majority of them.

“The lawsuits against Trump now are the usual thrust and parry of the separation of powers,” John Yoo explained. (Julia Nikhinson-Pool/Getty Images)

A handful of the more than 50 lawsuits have resulted in judges temporarily blocking the orders, such as at least three federal judges issuing preliminary injunctions against Trump’s order ending birthright citizenship.

TRUMP 100% DISAGREES WITH FEDERAL JUDGE’S ‘CRAZY’ RULING BLOCKING DOGE FROM TREASURY SYSTEM

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked on Wednesday during the press briefing whether the administration believes the courts have the authority to issue such injunctions. Leavitt appeared to echo Yoo that the administration will be “vindicated” in court as the cases make their way through the judicial system.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also appeared to think the administration will be “vindicated” in court as the cases make their way through the judicial system. (Evan Vucci/Associated Press )

“We believe that the injunction actions that have been issued by these judges, have no basis in the law and have no grounds. And we will again, as the president said very clearly yesterday, comply with these orders. But it is the administration’s position that we will ultimately be vindicated, and the president’s executive actions that he took were completely within the law,” Leavitt said, before citing the “weaponization” of the court systems against Trump while he was on the campaign trail.

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“We look forward to the day where he can continue to implement his agenda,” she said. “And I would just add, it’s our view that this is the continuation of the weaponization of justice that we have seen against President Trump. He fought it for two years on the campaign trail — it won’t stop him now.”

February 14, 2025
Donald Trump Jr invests in sporting event that will allow steroids

The Enhanced Games, the first athletic event in which performance-enhancing drugs will be 100% allowed, has backing from a prominent member of the Trump family.

The brand announced on Thursday that Donald Trump Jr.’s 1789 Capital has co-led a multimillion-dollar Series B round for the Enhanced Games.

Dr. Aron D’Souza founded the event in 2023, and the immediate backlash has been strong. He has been told his idea is unsafe, unfair and a mockery of the real Olympics.

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Donald Trump Jr. and his eldest child, daughter, Kai Trump, arrive at the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol for the inauguration. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post via AP, Pool)

However, Trump now joins billionaire Peter Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal, among the high-net-worth individuals to invest in the games.

“For over 100 years, elites in charge of global sports have stifled innovation, crushed individual greatness, and refused to let athletes push the limits of what’s possible. That ends now,” Trump Jr. said in a statement. “The Enhanced Games represent the future – real competition, real freedom, and real records being smashed. This is about excellence, innovation, and American dominance on the world stage – something the MAGA movement is all about. The Enhanced Games are going to be huge, and I couldn’t be prouder to support this movement that is changing sports forever.”

Donald Trump Jr. arrives at the Republican National Convention, July 17, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Added D’Souza, “With these powerhouse investors, we’re building something revolutionary – sports without hypocrisy, where the best can actually be the best. Our investors see the future, and they’re backing it with conviction.”

Despite the criticism, D’Souza believes his event may be one of the safest in recent memory, as plenty of medical professionals will be on hand, and athletes will go through rigorous testing before they can compete.

“Ultimately, we have one shot to do this right, and if that has any health complications whatsoever, it would not only derail the company and movement we’re creating, but also the social change that we’re attempting to create here,” D’Souza said in an interview with Fox News Digital last year.

Donald Trump Jr. introduces U.S. Senate candidate Ted Budd at a campaign rally on Oct. 13, 2022, in Greensboro, North Carolina. (Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty Images)

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“Ultimately, what we are doing is heavily destigmatizing performance enhancements and I think unlocking the field of performance medicine, which leads to longevity and anti-aging technologies, and the giant publicity storm that we’ve gone through, there’s so much attention, we know the world’s eyes are on us – we know we have to do this right. We know the expectations are very, very high, and there’s a great prize well beyond the future of the Olympics if we do it right, so we have to do it right.”

It remains to be seen when the events will take place.

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

February 13, 2025
President Donald Trump’s buyout offer to federal workers restored by judge

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A federal judge restored President Donald Trump’s deferred resignation program for federal workers in a decision Wednesday.

The deferred resignation program, also known as the administration’s “fork in the road” offer, asked government workers to stay or leave after Trump required them to return to their offices shortly after his inauguration. The legal group Democracy Forward had filed a lawsuit over the program on behalf of labor unions that represent thousands of employees.

U.S. District Judge George O’Toole of Massachusetts made the ruling in favor of the White House Wednesday evening. In his decision, he wrote that the plaintiffs in the case “are not directly impacted by the directive” and denied their case on that basis.

“[T]hey allege that the directive subjects them to upstream effects including a diversion of resources to answer members’ questions about the directive, a potential loss of membership, and possible reputational harm,” O’Toole wrote.

TRUMP TO SIGN MEMO LIFTING BIDEN’S LAST-MINUTE COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENTS

President Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., Jan. 20. (Getty Images)

“The unions do not have the required direct stake in the Fork Directive, but are challenging a policy that affects others, specifically executive branch employees. This is not sufficient.”

Additionally, the judge wrote that his court “lacks subject matter jurisdiction to consider the plaintiffs’ pleaded claims,” noting similar cases where courts were found to have lacked authority.

“Aggrieved employees can bring claims through the administrative process,” O’Toole said. “That the unions themselves may be foreclosed from this administrative process does not mean that adequate judicial review is lacking.”

In a statement to Fox News, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the decision “the first of many legal wins for the President.”

“The court dissolved the injunction due to a lack of standing,” Leavitt said. “This goes to show that lawfare will not ultimately prevail over the will of 77 million Americans who supported President Trump and his priorities.”

‘GET BACK TO WORK’: HOUSE OVERSIGHT TO TAKE ON GOVERNMENT TELEWORK IN 1ST HEARING OF NEW CONGRESS

President Donald Trump speaks during the National Prayer Breakfast at the Washington Hilton Feb. 6 in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) began emailing more than 2 million federal civilian employees offering them buyouts to leave their jobs shortly after Trump’s inauguration. The offers quickly outraged labor leaders, and the president of the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE) called the offers “shady,” claiming the deals “should not be taken seriously.”

“The offer is not bound by existing law or policy, nor is it funded by Congress,” NFFE National President Randy Erwin said. “There is nothing to hold OPM or the White House accountable to the terms of their agreement.

“Federal employees will not give in to this shady tactic pressuring them to quit. Civil servants care way too much about their jobs, their agency missions and their country to be swayed by this phony ploy. To all federal employees: Do not resign.”

Republican attorneys general previously signaled support for Trump’s program, writing in an amicus curiae brief Sunday that a challenge to the constitutionality of the order “would inevitably fail.”

U.S. District Judge George O’Toole of Massachusetts made the ruling in favor of the White House Wednesday evening in Boston. (Reuters/Lauren Owen Lambert)

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“Courts should refrain from intruding into the President’s well-settled Article II authority to supervise and manage the federal workforce,” the filing said. “Plaintiffs seek to inject this Court into federal workforce decisions made by the President and his team. The Court can avoid raising any separation of powers concerns by denying Plaintiffs’ relief and allowing the President and his team to manage the federal workforce.”

Fox News Digital’s Louis Casiano and Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.

February 13, 2025
Tyreek Hill says playing in front of Donald Trump is a ‘bucket list’ item: ‘I’ve always been a fan’

The stars are out in New Orleans for Super Bowl week, and the biggest one is expected to be there for the game itself.

President Donald Trump is slated to attend Super Bowl LIX on Sunday, which will mark the first time that a sitting president will have attended the big game.

Trump has shown his face at plenty of sporting events over the years, getting face time at numerous UFC events. Late last year, he attended the Alabama-Georgia game, the Army-Navy game, and a Steelers-Jets contest.

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Dec 22, 2024; Miami Gardens, Florida, USA; Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill (10) reacts on the field before the game against the San Francisco 49ers at Hard Rock Stadium. (Sam Navarro-Imagn Images)

Had Tyreek Hill stuck with the Kansas City Chiefs, he’d likely be playing in front of the president. For now, though, it’s only in his imagination.

And he really wants to do it.

“That’s tremendous. To be able to play in front of Donald Trump, that would be something to knock off the bucket list,” Hill said to Fox News Digital at an event in New Orleans. “Not every day you get to play football in front of the guy who people respect and is at the top of the helm of this country.

“I’ve always been a fan of Donald Trump, by the way. That’ll be awesome.”

Republican presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump attends a game between the NFL Pittsburgh Steelers and the New York Jets in Latrobe, Pennsylvania on October 20, 2024. (Evan Vucci-Pool/Getty Images)

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Brittany Mahomes and her mother-in-law Randi both supported the president during his re-election campaign.

Before the game kicks off, Trump will speak with Fox News Channel’s Bret Baier. The pre-taped interview took place at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, and will air in the 3 p.m. ET hour on Super Bowl Sunday.

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

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Trump didn’t attend many NFL games the first time around as he clashed with players’ decision to kneel for the national anthem as a form of protest against social injustice.

Fox News’ Ryan Gaydos and Larry Fink contributed to this report.

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February 8, 2025
President Donald Trump to deport Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, defund CRT with new executive orders

President Donald Trump is expected to order a law enforcement crackdown on antisemitism on college campuses, including removing pro-Hamas activists with student visas from the country, Fox News has learned.

Trump’s directive gives all federal agencies a 60-day window to identify civil and criminal authorities available to combat antisemitism and deport anti-Jewish activists who broke any laws.

“Immediate action will be taken by the Department of Justice to protect law and order, quell pro-Hamas vandalism and intimidation, and investigate and punish anti-Jewish racism in leftist, anti-American colleges and universities,” a White House fact sheet obtained by Fox News states.

Additionally, Trump is expected to sign two education-related executive orders: one that will strip federal funding from K-12 schools that teach Critical Race Theory or radical gender ideology and another that will support school choice.

COACH SUSPENDED AFTER HANGING UP PALESTINIAN FLAG, REFUSING TO SHAKE HANDS WITH JEWISH COACHES

Police officers set up fences at the scene of the anti-Israel protest at Columbia University. (AP/Yuki Iwamura)

House Republicans released report last month that urged the federal government to do more to combat antisemitism, including by conditioning federal aid to colleges to incentivize more strict policies against anti-Jewish bias, the New York Post reported.

The report came after Columbia University and other major schools were host to anti-Israel encampments on campus, where numerous antisemitic incidents were reported in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023 terror attacks in southern Israel.

Republicans accused Biden’s State Department and Department of Homeland Security of stonewalling requests for the number of visa holders among those anti-Israel agitators, the GOP report said, according to the Post.

“Immediately after the jihadist terrorist attacks against the people of Israel on October 7, 2023, pro-Hamas aliens and left-wing radicals began a campaign of intimidation, vandalism, and violence on the campuses and streets of America,” the Trump White House fact sheet states.

WASHINGTON POST CRITICIZES PRO-PALESTINIAN GROUP US GOVERNMENT DECLARED A ‘SHAM CHARITY’ FOR TERRORIST ORGANIZATION

Anti-Israel demonstrators deface property on the day of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to a joint meeting of Congress, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., July 24, 2024. (Katie Pavlich)

The White House said the previous administration turned a “blind eye” to campus antisemitism and a “coordinated assault on public order” that Trump has promised to reverse.

His selection of Israel ally Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, has already signaled strong support for the Jewish state against Israel’s critics around the world.

Since 2023, Stefanik has served as a conservative firebrand who has repeatedly grilled “morally bankrupt” college leaders over their handling of antisemitism on campus following the Hamas terror attacks on Israel.

Most notably, Stefanik grilled Ivy League college administrators from Penn and Harvard, her alma mater, in December 2023 regarding whether “calling for the genocide of Jews” violates the respective school’s codes of conduct. The school leaders, however, waffled in their responses.

ISRAELI COLUMBIA PROFESSOR WANTS TRUMP TO BLOCK CERTAIN INSTITUTIONS FROM RECEIVING FEDERAL FUNDING

Anti-Israel protestors hang signs from Columbia University in New York City on Tuesday, April 30, 2024. Columbia announced earlier today that its campus would remain closed “until circumstances allow otherwise”, after students occupied Hamilton Hall early this morning. (Rashid Umar Abbasi for Fox News Digital)

“It can be, depending on the context,” Harvard’s then-President Claudine Gay responded when asked if “calling for the genocide of Jews” violated school conduct rules.

“Antisemitic speech when it crosses into conduct that amounts to bullying, harassment, intimidation – that is actionable conduct, and we do take action,” Gay said when pressed to answer “yes” or “no” if calls for the genocide of Jews breaks school rules.

Both Gay and Penn’s then-President Liz Magill resigned from their high-profile positions shortly after the hearing, while footage of the exchanges spread like wildfire on social media.

Trump’s attempt to crack down on funding for schools that fail to fight antisemitism or promote Critical Race Theory comes amid intense controversy over an Office of Management and Budget memo announcing a temporary freeze to all federal aid and assistance programs – with potentially trillions of taxpayer dollars halted.

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A federal judge on Tuesday paused the freeze in response to a lawsuit brought by nearly two dozen Democratic attorneys general.

In his first term, Trump threatened to strip federal funding from cities that failed to stop anti-police riots that followed the May 2020 murder of George Floyd, but he left office before he could make good on that threat, the Post reported.

Chris Pandolfo is a breaking news reporter for Fox News Digital. Send tips to [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @ChrisCPandolfo.

January 29, 2025
5 things to know about President Donald Trump’s ‘Iron Dome’ plan for America

Trump signs executive order to build American Iron Dome

Veterans on Duty chairman Jeremy Hunt discusses why he supports the dome’s construction for national security purposes, how the possible missile defense system would work and how the DOD is restoring military readiness.

President Donald Trump has ordered the construction of an advanced, next-generation missile defense shield to protect the United States from aerial attack.

On Monday, the president signed an executive order that tasks Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth with drawing up plans to build an “Iron Dome for America” that will protect Americans from the threat of missiles launched by a foreign enemy. In doing so, Trump kept a campaign promise to prioritize missile defense.

“By next term we will build a great Iron Dome over our country,” Trump said during a West Palm Beach event on June 14. “We deserve a dome…it’s a missile defense shield, and it’ll all be made in America.”

TRUMP SAYS THAT IRON DOME CONSTRUCTION WILL BE ‘IMMEDIATE,’ SIGNS EXECUTIVE ORDER

But what exactly are Trump’s plans for an “Iron Dome”? Here’s what you need to know:

1. Israel’s first defense

Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepts rockets, as seen from Ashkelon, Israel, on Oct. 1, 2024. (REUTERS/Amir Cohen)

The Iron Dome missile defense system Trump has called for is similar to one that Israel has developed to intercept thousands of rockets.

Israel’s first line of defense, a missile defense system developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, is labeled the Iron Dome. It was first deployed in 2011, and has since rebuffed and destroyed rockets from Hamas terrorists, Hezbollah forces and Iranian drones and missiles.

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The Iron Dome is land-based and built to keep the citizens of Israel safe from barrages of rockets deployed most often by Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip. Israeli officials claim the Iron Dome has been 90% effective in intercepting thousands of rockets fired into Israel.

The U.S. has contributed at least $2.6 billion to the development of Israel’s Iron Dome system since 2011.

2. The threats facing the U.S.

Russia said it tested a hypersonic Zircon cruise missile in the Barents Sea, on May 28, 2022. (Russian Ministry of Defense)

Critically, the Iron Dome is a short-range defense system capable of tackling missiles with ranges between 2.5 miles and about 43 miles. Trump’s executive order identifies attack by long-range ballistic, hypersonic and cruise missiles as “the most catastrophic threat facing the United States,” so his proposed defense system will need to be adapted and redesigned to defend against intercontinental missiles.

Russia currently has an arsenal of 1,250 deployed weapons, according to the New York Times. Pentagon analysts believe China will have a weapons stockpile of similar size within 10 years, if not earlier, and North Korea has continued development of intercontinental ballistic missiles under both Trump and President Joe Biden’s watch.

Most recently, Russia and China have experimented with hypersonic missiles, which are designed to exceed Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound. Intercepting missiles at such speeds is a challenge the U.S. has partnered with Japan to confront at an estimated cost of $3 billion, the Associated Press reported.

3. Reagan tried it first

Ronald Wilson Reagan, 40th President of the United States and 33rd Governor of California. (Photo12/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

President Ronald Reagan was the first U.S. president to call for a national defense system that would counter the threat of the Soviet Union’s nuclear weapons, including warheads attached to ballistic missiles.

On March 30, 1983, Reagan proposed “a vision for the future that offers hope” that he called the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). The idea was to develop a space-based missile defense program that would protect the country from large-scale nuclear attack. Reagan proposed to develop technology that would allow the United States to identify and automatically destroy numerous incoming ballistic missiles before they reached their targets.

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Acknowledging that the technology to realize his vision did not yet exist, Regan urged the scientific community to partner with the defense community and work towards a future where Americans need not fear nuclear attack.

“I call upon the scientific community in our country, those who gave us nuclear weapons, to turn their great talents now to the cause of mankind and world peace, to give us the means of rendering these nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete,” Reagan said.

The president’s critics derided the plan, nicknaming it, “Star Wars,” and questioned why his administration would pursue a costly defense initiative with no guarantee that it would work. The Soviet Union accused Regan of violating a 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty that committed both countries to refrain from developing missile defense systems. Arms control measures stalled during Reagan’s term because he refused to give up the project.

After Regan left office, interest in SDI waned and the program was canceled before the U.S. could develop a functional missile defense system. However, research conducted while SDI was active contributed to the Iron Dome’s development. In 2002, the U.S. withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which now allows Trump to pick up where Reagan left off.

4. Hegseth’s to-do list

Pete Hegseth is surrounded by his wife Jennifer Rauchet and his 7 children as he is sworn in as the new US Secretary of Defense by Vice-President JD Vance at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 25, 2025. (Roberto Schmidt/AFP)

Under Trump’s order, freshly confirmed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth must submit to the president “a reference architecture, capabilities-based requirements, and an implementation plan for the next-generation missile defense shield.”

The plans must include defense against “ballistic, hypersonic, advanced cruise missiles, and other next-generation aerial attacks from peer, near-peer, and rogue adversaries.”

Hegseth is also instructed to accelerate the deployment of a satellite-based sensor system developed by the Missile Defense Agency that is currently in its prototype phase. Called the Hypersonic Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor, the system uses “birth-to-death” tracking to follow missile threats from launch through interception, according to the Defense Department.

Additionally, Trump’s order instructs the development and deployment of several space-based missile interception technologies, including systems that could disable a missile prior to launch, as well as a “secure supply chain” to ensure that the ordered missile defense infrastructure is made in America.

Hegseth must also submit a plan to pay for these dense systems before the president puts together his fiscal year 2026 budget.

5. Cooperating with U.S. allies

Trump’s order calls to “increase bilateral and multilateral cooperation on missile defense technology development, capabilities, and operations,” as well as to “increase and accelerate the provision of the United States missile defense capabilities to allies and partners.”

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Hegseth is also directed to conduct a review of the U.S. military’s missile defense posture in theaters across the globe and identify areas for cooperation with allies.

Fox News Digital’s Gabriele Regalbuto contributed to this report.

Chris Pandolfo is a breaking news reporter for Fox News Digital. Send tips to [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @ChrisCPandolfo.

January 29, 2025