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Trump crypto czar says Biden-era executive order hamstrung American AI

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Hours after returning to the White House, Trump rescinded Biden’s executive order, which set in motion a sprint across government agencies to study AI’s impact on everything from cybersecurity risks to its effects on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.

January 27, 2025
Trump order ending birthright citizenship for illegal immigrants is constitutional, claims expert

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While nearly two dozen states are suing to stop President Donald Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants, some legal experts, such as Hans von Spakovsky with the Heritage Foundation, say the order is perfectly legal under the 14th Amendment and should be upheld by the courts.

“I strongly believe that Donald Trump is correct, that we need to enforce the 14th Amendment as it was originally intended,” Spakovsky told Fox News Digital. “No doubt there will be lawsuits against it, it’ll get to the U.S. Supreme Court, and if the court follows the actual legislative intent and history, they will uphold what Donald Trump has done.”

As Trump has moved quickly to clamp down on illegal immigration, his most controversial move yet was to issue an executive order ending birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrants.

The order titled the “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship” states that “the privilege of United States citizenship does not automatically extend to persons born in the United States” when that person’s parents are either unlawfully present in the U.S. or when the parents’ presence is lawful but temporary.

TRUMP ADMIN HITS BACK AS ACLU LAUNCHES LAWSUIT ON BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP: ‘READY TO FACE THEM’

Migrants in Brooklyn; President Trump (Getty Images)

Twenty-two Democrat-led states and the ACLU are suing to stop the order, arguing that it violates the 14th Amendment, which states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

The lawsuit argues that “the President has no authority to rewrite or nullify a constitutional amendment or duly enacted statute. Nor is he empowered by any other source of law to limit who receives United States citizenship at birth.”

However, Spakovsky, who is a senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation and an authority on civil rights and immigration, told Fox News Digital that the 14th Amendment was never meant to include the children of individuals in the country illegally or temporarily and that this broad interpretation has led to widespread “birth tourism” and abuse.

He said the key phrase often overlooked today is “subject to the jurisdiction thereof,” which necessitates the immigrants’ loyalties be to the U.S., not to some foreign power.

TRUMP’S HOUSE GOP ALLIES PUSH BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP BILL AFTER PROGRESSIVE FURY AT PRESIDENTIAL ORDER

A man plays with a child while waiting with other migrants from Venezuela near a bus station after being released from U.S. Border Patrol custody in El Paso, Texas, Sept. 13, 2022. (REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez)

“The 14th Amendment has two key clauses in it. One, you have to be born in the United States, but you also have to be subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. All those who push birthright citizenship just point to that first phrase and ignore the second,” he said. “I’ve done a lot of research on this. I’ve looked at the original passage of the 14th Amendment and what that phrase meant subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. According to the original sponsors of the 14th Amendment in Congress was that you owed your political allegiance to the United States and not a foreign government.”

CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE

“That means that children born of aliens who are in this country, and it doesn’t matter whether they’re here legally, illegally, as diplomats; if their parents are foreign citizens when they are born they are citizens of their parents’ native land, they owe their political allegiance to and are subject to the jurisdiction of those native lands, not the United States. So, they are not citizens of the U.S.,” he said.

According to Spakovsky, the 14th Amendment, which was ratified after the Civil War to acknowledge citizenship for former slaves and their descendants, was not used to confer birthright citizenship to illegal aliens until more than 100 years after it was adopted by Congress.

PRESIDENT TRUMP’S BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP EXECUTIVE ORDER FACES LEGAL CHALLENGES FROM 22 STATES

President Donald Trump participates in a ceremony commemorating the 200th mile of border wall at the international border with Mexico in San Luis, Ariz., on June 23, 2020. (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

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As Democrats and left-wing groups prepare to launch a legal war with the Trump administration over the order, Spakovsky said he is confident the Supreme Court will rule in Trump’s favor.

“The problem with birthright citizenship is it gives rights as an American citizen to individuals who have absolutely no loyalty to and no connection to the U.S. government, our culture, our society,” he said. “The Supreme Court should uphold it because the original meaning of the 14th Amendment is clearly not recognizing birthright citizenship.”

January 27, 2025
Trump’s ‘two sexes’ executive order comes on heels of SCOTUS accepting another challenge to LGBT agenda

In his first week in office, President Donald Trump has charged ahead with a series of executive actions, fulfilling a key campaign promise to challenge “gender ideology” in American institutions and promote “biological truth” rooted in “fundamental and incontrovertible reality.”

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court is poised to rule on two significant gender-related cases this year, and Trump’s new executive action could spell further controversy in the higher court.

Last week, SCOTUS agreed to hear Mahmoud v. Taylor, which would determine whether schools can force teachers to read LGBTQ books to elementary-age children despite parental objections. At issue is whether parents will have the right to opt their children out of such instructions.

“If the Supreme Court’s doing its job, it shouldn’t impact [the case decisions] at all,” Heritage Foundation senior legal fellow Sarah Marshall Perry told Fox News Digital in an interview. “What Trump’s executive order was is a statement of really what the policies are going to be for the executives going forward into the new administration. And he did exactly what [former President Joe] Biden did with his executive order expanding sex to include gender identity.”

TRUMP SIGNS DOZENS OF EXECUTIVE ORDERS, FULFILLING MANY BUT NOT ALL CAMPAIGN PROMISES

An LGBT demonstration outside the Supreme Court; President Donald Trump, inset, signs executive orders. (Getty Images)

Perry noted the separation of powers between the executive and judiciary branches, adding that while the executive is mostly a political entity, the judiciary is non-political.

SCOTUS will be obligated to focus solely on the facts presented in the cases before them, she said, which “will include questions relative to the parameters of the parental rights guidance on school curriculums and exactly what constitutes curriculum for purposes of opt-out, whether gender medicine and age and medical-based restrictions that happen to impact individuals who are transgender is a violation of the Equal Protection Clause.”

She also pointed out that the executive order should not influence the Supreme Court’s decision-making, adding, “The executive order should have absolutely no bearing on what the Supreme Court decides going forward.”

PRO-LIFE ACTIVIST PROSECUTED BY BIDEN DOJ REACTS TO TRUMP PARDON: ‘I WANT TO GIVE HIM A HUG’

Protestors rally outside the Supreme Court building as justices hear oral arguments in Washington, D.C. (Jack Gruber/USA TODAY)

In another case that already had their oral arguments heard last year, Skrmetti v. U.S., the higher court is weighing whether the equal protection clause, which guarantees equal treatment under the law for individuals in similar circumstances, prevents states from banning medical providers from offering puberty blockers and hormone treatments to children seeking transgender surgical procedures.

The Biden administration joined the lawsuit by filing a petition to the Supreme Court in November 2023.

“I think the American people are gratified that they’ve got a president who is common sensical, who recognizes biological reality, who recognizes the text of civil rights law and the rule of law itself, and now they’re going to say we have someone who was willing to stand in the gap for us, including through the Department of Justice, if the cases get all the way to the Supreme Court,” Perry said. “But parents should, and I think will, be involved to be able to bring more legal challenges.”

PRO-LIFE PROTESTERS PARDONED BY TRUMP, FOX CONFIRMS

Activists for and against trans rights protest outside the U.S. Supreme Court before the start of the United States v. Skrmetti case on Dec. 4, 2024. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

“I think this election really sort of rises to shift, not just politically, but for many people philosophically as well, because we recognize that America was sort of pulled back from the perilous brink on even understanding what it meant to be male and female, even understanding what it meant to live amicably in a pluralistic society,” Perry said. “We are now, I think, thankfully, seeing a rebirth of those long-standing beneficial ideas.”

Trump’s executive order, signed on Inauguration Day and titled, “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” declares that the U.S. will recognize only two sexes — male and female — based on immutable biological characteristics.

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It prohibits the use of gender identity in legal and administrative contexts, mandates that federal agencies, including those overseeing housing, prisons, and education, adhere to this definition when enforcing laws and issuing regulations. The order directs changes to government-issued identification documents, bans the promotion of “gender ideology” in federal programs, rescinds previous executive actions that promoted gender identity inclusion and instructs federal agencies to eliminate guidance or regulations that conflict with the new policy.

Trump’s executive order reverses the Biden administration’s executive order titled “Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation,” signed in 2021, which directed federal agencies to interpret and enforce civil rights laws to prohibit discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation.

Jamie Joseph is a writer who covers politics. She leads Fox News Digital coverage of the Senate.

January 25, 2025
Fox News Politics Newsletter: ATF Misfires on DEI Order

Welcome to the Fox News Politics newsletter, with the latest updates on the Trump administration, exclusive interviews and more Fox News politics content.

Here’s what’s happening…

– House Republicans clear path for Trump to act on tariff plans

-JFK’s grandson says there is ‘nothing heroic’ about Trump’s declassification order

– Deportation flights have begun as Trump sends ‘strong and clear message’

DEI by Another Name

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has been accused of allegedly quietly changing the job title of its former diversity officer as President Donald Trump ordered all federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) employees be placed on paid leave.

“The ATF defied @realDonaldTrump’s order to place DEI workers on leave, instead giving their DEI officer a new title. They attack citizens’ rights, ignore leadership, and act as though they’re above the law. Enough is enough. Time to abolish the ATF!” Republican Missouri Rep. Eric Burlison posted to X.

The ATF, a federal law enforcement agency under the Department of Justice’s umbrella, previously employed Lisa T. Boykin as its chief diversity officer before her title was changed on the ATF’s website this week to “senior executive” with the ATF. An archived link of the ATF’s website reviewed by Fox Digital shows Boykin was listed as the chief diversity officer as recently as Tuesday — Trump’s second day in the Oval Office — and now shows her as working as the agency’s “senior executive.”…Read more

TOPSHOT – US President Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on January 20, 2025. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP) (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images) ATF employee Lisa T. Boykin. (Getty/ATF)

White House

‘MAXIMUM PRESSURE’: Trump’s latest hires and fires rankle Iran hawks as new president suggests a nuclear deal…Read more

‘PROMISES KEPT’: Trump’s ICE nabs child sex offenders among 530+ illegal immigrants caught in single day…Read more

A Guatemalan man living in the United States illegally was arrested by Immigration authorities this month. (ICE )

‘DUE PROTECTION’: Veterans groups ask Trump to reconsider immigration executive order, cite impacts on Afghan partners…Read more

‘MASS INFLUX’: Trump DHS finds ‘mass influx’ of illegal migrants at southern border, requests assistance from all 50 states…Read more

‘RESTORE ORDER’: Bill to limit Biden-era immigration powers gets renewed push under Trump…Read more

World Stage

‘ENERGY SECURITY’: Energy experts weigh in after Canadian premier says she wants to discuss Keystone Pipeline 2.0 with Trump…Read more

‘EXTRAORDINARY MOVE’: Ex-Venezuelan military official applauds Trump’s ‘first good step’ targeting bloodthirsty gang…Read more

President Donald Trump signs an executive order to stop Tren de Aragua on his first day in office, January 20th, 2025 (Reuters/Getty)

‘RIDICULOUS WAR’: Trump says Ukraine’s Zelenskyy is ready to negotiate a deal to end war with Russia…Read more

Capitol Hill

BATTER UP: Date set for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s health secretary confirmation hearings…Read more

CODE RED: Murkowski voted to confirm 19 Biden Cabinet picks in defiance of GOP…Read more

ICE RAIDS: Dems rail against ‘egregious’ ICE raid after military veteran questioned…Read more

‘WHITE SUPREMACY’: McCormick responds to Squad member who claims ‘white supremacy and xenophobia’ are the right’s ‘true religion’…Read more

THIRD TIME’S THE CHARM: Lawmaker unveils resolution to allow Trump another term…Read more

Donald Trump is sworn in as the 47th president of the United States by Chief Justice John Roberts as Melania Trump holds the Bible during the 60th Presidential Inauguration in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. (Morry Gash/AP Photo, Pool)

‘WARFIGHTING AND LETHALITY’: Pentagon pauses all social media posts pending review by incoming secretary…Read more

BACK THE BLUE: GOP senator revives effort to make assaulting police a deportable offense: ‘We must act’…Read more

‘EMPTY WORDS’: 11 Dem state AGs criticize ‘vague’ threats over prosecution for noncompliance of immigration enforcement…Read more

Across America

JUNKYARD DOG: DeSantis pushes Florida lawmakers to take action on illegal immigration, warns of consequences for defiance…Read more

‘STANDING UP FOR LIFE’: March for Life rally unfolds in Washington, with Vance to make first public appearance since inauguration…Read more

PAY UP: Texas Gov. Abbott asks government to reimburse state for $11B spent to secure southern border…Read more

TROOPS ON THE BORDER: Active-duty troops begin arriving at US-Mexico border in Texas and California to combat migrant crisis…Read more

‘HEINOUS CRIMES’: Illegal immigrant in Texas wanted for allegedly raping child in Mexico repatriated back to native country…Read more

A group of over 100 migrants attempting to enter the US illegally rush a border wall Thursday, March 21, 2024. In the process the migrants knock down Texas National Guardsmen before they are halted by the border wall. (James Breeden for New York Post / Mega)

OFFICE VISIT: Rhode Island judge specializing in immigration law resigns after FBI raids office…Read more

FOX NEWS POLL: After Surgeon General’s alcohol warning, will voters still raise a glass?…Read more

GOOD BURGER: Top 5 fast-food burgers for your health, says new study…Read more

Get the latest updates on the Trump administration and Congress, exclusive interviews and more on FoxNews.com.

This article was written by Fox News staff.

January 24, 2025
‘Unusual order’ barring commuted J6 defendants from DC, Capitol raises constitutional implications: expert

An order barring commuted Jan. 6 defendants from entering Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Capitol could raise constitutional challenges, one legal expert says.

In a filing Friday, Judge Amit P. Mehta specified the order applied to “Defendants Stewart Rhodes, Kelly Meggs, Kenneth Harrelson, Jessica Watkins, Roberto Minuta, Edward Vallejo, David Moerchel, and Joseph Hacket,” whose sentences were commuted. Those pardoned are not subject to the order.

Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers, was previously seen in the Capitol complex’s Longworth House Office Building. He was convicted of seditious conspiracy.

PRO-LIFE PROTESTERS PARDONED BY TRUMP, FOX CONFIRMS

The order states, “You must not knowingly enter the District of Columbia without first obtaining the permission from the Court.” It adds, “You must not knowingly enter the United States Capitol Building or onto surrounding grounds known as Capitol Square.”

An order barring commuted Jan. 6 defendants from entering Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Capitol could raise constitutional challenges, one legal expert says. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

The filing says the order is effective as of Friday at noon. Later that day, the Justice Department filed a motion seeking to lift the order.

“If a judge decided that Jim Biden, General Mark Milley, or another individual were forbidden to visit America’s capital — even after receiving a last-minute, preemptive pardon from the former President— I believe most Americans would object. The individuals referenced in our motion have had their sentences commuted — period, end of sentence,” Acting U.S. Attorney Edward Martin said in a statement.

“This is a very unusual order,” Jonathan Turley, Fox News Media contributor and the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University, told Fox News Digital. “The judge is relying on the fact that the sentences were commuted, but the defendants did not receive full pardons.”

COMMUTED JAN. 6 DEFENDANTS BARRED FROM DC, CAPITOL BUILDING BY FEDERAL JUDGE

Ron Coleman, counsel at Dhillon Law Group, called the order “novel.”

Stewart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers was convicted of seditious conspiracy. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

“It is unclear what basis the court would have to assert jurisdiction over someone who has been pardoned for the conviction that is presumably the basis for the order or what the legal grounds are for making Washington, D.C., the kind of national capital, like Moscow in the old USSR, that a citizen needs permission to enter,” Coleman said.

NANCY PELOSI SLAMS TRUMP’S ‘SHAMEFUL’ PARDONS OF JAN. 6 DEFENDANTS

Turley said that although the new order could “prove a factor” in President Donald Trump extending a full pardon to those with commuted sentences, “it’s not clear whether an order will prompt Trump to reconsider his decision to offer only commutations.”

Turley noted that the order could raise constitutional challenges, including First Amendment implications.

Trump pardoned nearly all Jan. 6 defendants earlier this week after promising to do so at his inaugural parade. (Reuters/Carlos Barria)

“I think the court is effectively barring these individuals from being able to associate or petition government officials without the prior approval of the court,” Turley said. “That could raise questions under the First Amendment.

“I expect this will be challenged by these individuals.”

Trump pardoned nearly all Jan. 6 defendants earlier this week after promising to do so at his inaugural parade.

DOJ CONSIDERS CHARGING 200 MORE PEOPLE 4 YEARS AFTER JAN. 6 CAPITOL ATTACK

Trump signed off Monday on releasing more than 1,500 people charged with crimes from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the U.S. Capitol. The order required the Federal Bureau of Prisons to act immediately on receipt of the pardons.

Those pardoned in his initial order included Enrique Tarrio, the former Proud Boys chairman who faced a sentence of 22 years in prison for seditious conspiracy.

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Fox News’ David Spunt, Diana Stancy and Jamie Joseph contributed to this report.

Haley Chi-Sing is a Writer for Fox News Digital. You can reach her at @haleychising on X.

January 24, 2025
Colombia president decrees emergency powers to restore order in coca region wracked by rebel combat

Colombia’s president issued a decree Friday giving him emergency powers to restore order in a coca-growing region bordering Venezuela that has been wracked in recent days by a deadly turf war among dissident rebel groups.

President Gustavo Petro’s decree, which can be extended, gives him 90 days to impose curfews, restrict traffic and take other steps that would normally violate Colombians’ civil rights or require congressional approval.

AT LEAST 80 PEOPLE KILLED IN NORTHEAST COLOMBIA AS PEACE TALKS FAIL, OFFICIAL SAYS

It is the first time in more than a decade that a Colombian president has used such an extreme measure and underscores the seriousness of the current conflict in a country that for decades was paralyzed by political violence.

However, it applies only to the rural Catatumbo region near the border with Venezuela, where the Colombian state has struggled for decades to gain a foothold. In the past week, at least 80 people have been killed and an estimated 36,000 more displaced as fighting intensifies between the National Liberation Army, or ELN, and holdouts from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

Police patrol in Tibu, Colombia, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025, following guerrilla attacks that have killed dozens of people and forced thousands to flee their homes in the Catatumbo region. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Petro’s conservative opponents have criticized the move, accusing the former guerrilla of riding roughshod over the constitution. But some activists have celebrated it, saying they are hopeful the move translates into better infrastructure, health care and schools in the traditionally lawless region.

“Why are the armed groups here? Because the last government hasn’t made investments. They’ve abandoned us,” Jaime Botero, an activist in the town of Tibu, told The Associated Press.

Earlier this week Petro reactivated arrest orders against 31 top ELN commanders that had been suspended as part of an effort to woo the the Cuban revolution-inspired insurgency into a peace deal to end its 60 year war against the state. Petro also suspended all peace talks, which have advanced slowly since he took office in 2022.

The ELN has traditionally dominated in Catatumbo but has been losing ground to holdouts from the FARC, a guerrilla group that largely disbanded after signing a peace deal in 2016 with the government.

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The current conflict is spilling across the border into Venezuela, where some of those fleeing the violence have sought refuge.

The current whereabouts of the ELN peace negotiators is unknown. But Cuba’s government this week said they are not there, leading some to speculate they may be hiding in Venezuela, which is one of the sponsors of Petro’s peace initiative with the ELN.

January 24, 2025
DOJ requests order barring commuted J6 defendants from DC be lifted

The Justice Department filed a motion Friday asking to lift the order imposed on commuted Jan. 6 defendants barring them from entering Washington, D.C., and the Capitol building. The order was issued by a federal district judge earlier in the day.

In that order, Judge Amit P. Mehta specified it applied to “Defendants Stewart Rhodes, Kelly Meggs, Kenneth Harrelson, Jessica Watkins, Roberto Minuta, Edward Vallejo, David Moerchel, and Joseph Hacket,” whose sentences were commuted.

Those pardoned are not subject to the order.

The order states, “You must not knowingly enter the District of Columbia without first obtaining the permission from the Court,” and, “You must not knowingly enter the United States Capitol Building or onto surrounding grounds known as Capitol Square.”

TRUMP PARDONS FORMER DC POLICE OFFICERS CONVICTED IN DEATH OF MAN DURING DEADLY PURSUIT

People are seen climbing the west wall of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, on Jan. 6, 2021. (AP/Jose Luis Magana)

The filing says the order is effective as of Friday at noon.

Rhodes, founder of Oath Keepers, was previously seen in the Capitol complex’s Longworth House office building. He was convicted of seditious conspiracy.

Acting U.S. Attorney Edward Martin filed a motion later Friday to lift all release conditions on the defendants.

“As the terms of supervised release and probation are included in the ‘sentences’ of the defendants, the Court may not modify the terms of supervised release,” the filing reads.

President Donald Trump pardoned nearly all Jan. 6 defendants earlier this week, after promising to do so at his inaugural parade.

President Donald Trump holds a document on the day he issues executive orders and pardons for January 6 defendants in the Oval Office at the White House on Jan. 20, 2025. (REUTERS/Carlos Barria)

Trump signed off on releasing more than 1,500 charged with crimes stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the U.S. Capitol on Monday. The order required the Federal Bureau of Prisons to act immediately on receipt of the pardons.

Those pardoned in his initial order included Enrique Tarrio, the former Proud Boys chairman, who faced a sentence of 22 years in prison for seditious conspiracy.

SCHUMER BLASTS TRUMP’S J6 PARDONS AS ‘UN-AMERICAN’

Several prominent figures on the Hill came after Trump and his decision to pardon the defendants.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters the pardons were “deeply un-American.”

A federal district judge issued an order Friday barring certain Jan. 6 defendants with commutations from entering Washington, D.C., or the U.S. Capitol building. (Fox News Digital)

“There is no other way to describe President Trump’s pardon of Jan. 6th defenders than un-American,” Schumer said. “It is so deeply un-American to do that, to pardon. And let’s be clear, President Trump didn’t just pardon protesters. He pardoned individuals convicted of assaulting police officers. He pardoned individuals convicted of seditious conspiracy. And he pardoned those who attempted to undermine our democracy.”

TRUMP REVOKES SECURITY CLEARANCES OF 51 INTEL OFFICIALS WHO SIGNED DISCREDITED HUNTER BIDEN LAPTOP LETTER

Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called Trump’s pardon “shameful,” and “a betrayal” to those police officers “who put their lives on the line to stop an attempt to subvert the peacefyl transfer of power.”

President Donald Trump signed off on releasing more than 1,500 charged with crimes stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021 attack at the U.S. Capitol on Monday. (Carlos Barria/Reuters)

“The President’s actions are an outrageous insult to our justice system and the heroes who suffered physical scars and emotional trauma as they protected the Capitol, the Congress and the Constitution,” Pelosi said in a statement posted to X, formerly known as Twitter.

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Fox News Digital’s Diana Stancy and Jamie Joseph contributed to this report.

Haley Chi-Sing is a Writer for Fox News Digital. You can reach her at @haleychising on X.

January 24, 2025
Target scaling back DEI policies after Trump signs executive order

Bahnsen Group founder and managing partner David Bahnsen joins ‘The Big Money Show’ to discuss companies reversing course on DEI and ESG investing, UFC CEO Dana White joining Meta’s board and the ongoing California wildfires.

Target announced on Friday that it is scaling back its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies following President Trump’s executive order to review such initiatives. The move adds Target to a growing list of companies scaling back or eliminating their DEI efforts as these programs come under increased scrutiny.

Kiera Fernandez, Target’s chief community impact and equity officer, said in a note to employees on Friday the retailer will implement changes as part of its “Belonging at the Bullseye” strategy that adapts to the evolving external landscape. This includes concluding its three-year DEI goals and ending its Racial Equity Action and Change (REACH) initiatives in 2025, as planned.

“As a retailer that serves millions of consumers every day, we understand the importance of staying in step with the evolving external landscape, now and in the future – all in service of driving Target’s growth and winning together,” said Fernandez.

COSTCO DEFENDS DEI PROGRAM AS OTHER MAJOR RETAILERS DROP CONTROVERSIAL DIVERSITY PUSH

The Minneapolis-based retailer said it has used “years of data, insights, listening and learning” to share the next chapter in its strategy.

Target’s announcement comes as pressure mounts on major corporations, particularly from social media influencers such Robby Starbuck, to scale back on initiatives that purport to increase racial and gender equality in the workplace. The initiatives have also faced fierce criticism from Trump, who on Tuesday signed an executive order directing government agencies to investigate DEI programs at publicly traded corporations, large nonprofit corporations or associations and foundations with assets of at least $500 million. Target falls under that category.

“Illegal DEI and DEIA policies not only violate the text and spirit of our longstanding Federal civil-rights laws, they also undermine our national unity, as they deny, discredit, and undermine the traditional American values of hard work, excellence, and individual achievement in favor of an unlawful, corrosive, and pernicious identity-based spoils system,” the executive order said.

An employee pulls a wheeler to restock shelves at a Target store in Chicago on Nov. 26, 2024. (KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)

Fernandez said that Target recruits and retains employees “who represent the communities we serve,” but moving forward, she said it will stop all external diversity-focused surveys, including HRC’s Corporate Equality Index.

WALMART ROLLS BACK DEI POLICIES, BECOMING LATEST US FIRM TO JOIN GROWING TREND

Target will also change its “Supplier Diversity” team to “Supplier Engagement” to reflect an “inclusive global procurement process across a broad range of suppliers, including increasing our focus on small businesses,” Fernandez said in the note.

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It will also review corporate partnerships and ensure employee resource groups will focus on development and mentorship for all communities.

“We remain focused on driving our business by creating a sense of belonging for our team, guests and communities through a commitment to inclusion. Belonging for all is an essential part of our team and culture, helping fuel consumer relevance and business results,” Fernandez wrote.

Shoppers outside a Target store in Clifton, New Jersey, on Nov. 26, 2024. (Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)

A slew of companies, including Amazon, Lowe’s, Meta, McDonald’s, American Airlines and Boeing, have pulled back on their DEI programs as pressure increased over the past several months. In November, Walmart, the nation’s largest private employer, announced plans to roll back its polices, including how it monitors products within its marketplace and reviews grant funding.

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By contrast, some companies have resisted activist pressure, publicly reaffirming their commitment to maintaining DEI policies.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in the tech firm’s annual report in October that it continues to ensure that its “workforce represents the planet we serve and the products we build always meet our customers’ needs” and that it continues to “hire, develop, and grow a global workforce that best supports each other and our customers.”

Shopping carts outside a Target store in Albany, on Nov. 18, 2024. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)

Pinterest Chief Legal Officer Wanji Walcott posted on LinkedIn that the company is “laser-focused on advancing inclusion and diversity both within our organization and on our platform, investing in critical initiatives like pay equity internally and body inclusivity externally.”

Still, anti-woke activist Starbuck, who has been taking credit for companies scaling back or ending their DEI programs, stated he has no intention of stopping his campaign anytime soon.

Target first introduced the “Belonging at the Bullseye” strategy to employees in early 2024, but its been working on it since 2021.

January 24, 2025
ATF accused of ‘circumventing’ Trump order to place DEI staff on paid leave

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has been accused of allegedly quietly changing the job title of its former diversity officer as President Donald Trump ordered all federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) employees be placed on paid leave.

“The ATF defied @realDonaldTrump’s order to place DEI workers on leave, instead giving their DEI officer a new title. They attack citizens’ rights, ignore leadership, and act as though they’re above the law. Enough is enough. Time to abolish the ATF!” Republican Missouri Rep. Eric Burlison posted to X.

The ATF, a federal law enforcement agency under the Department of Justice’s umbrella, previously employed Lisa T. Boykin as its chief diversity officer before her title was changed on the ATF’s website this week to “senior executive” with the ATF. An archived link of the ATF’s website reviewed by Fox Digital shows Boykin was listed as the chief diversity officer as recently as Tuesday – Trump’s second day in the Oval Office – and now shows her as working as the agency’s “senior executive.”

Trump had railed against DEI programs and offices at the federal level, as well as in the education system, throughout his campaign. Upon taking office on Monday, he inked an executive order terminating ”illegal DEI and ‘diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility’ (DEIA) mandates, policies, programs, preferences, and activities in the Federal Government, under whatever name they appear.”

TRUMP REVOKES BIDEN ORDER ALLOWING TRANSGENDER TROOPS IN BID TO RID DEI FROM MILITARY

President Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 20, 2025. (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)

The following day, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) told agency and department leaders to begin shutting down DEI offices and to place DEI employees on paid leave.

TRUMP’S DISMANTLING OF DEI IS DEEPER AND BIGGER THAN YOU EVEN KNOW

Lisa T. Boykin’s official photo for ATF. (ATF)

“Send a notification to all employees of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) offices that they are being placed on paid administrative leave effective immediately as the agency takes steps to close/end all DEIA initiatives, offices and programs,” the OPM directive, which was obtained by Fox News Digital, read.

A biography for Boykin from 2023 detailed that she began working as ATF’s Human Resources Operations Division in 2016 and “as a collateral duty, in 2021, Mrs. Boykin also began serving as the Bureau’s Chief Diversity Officer,” the New York Post reported.

“With the Bureau’s continued focus on enhancing DEIA, Mrs. Boykin currently assumes the work of the CDO in a fulltime capacity, leading and implementing departmental programs and mandates, while bringing renewed vision and effective strategies to maintain an informed DEIA culture for the Bureau,” Boykin’s bio added.

WHITE HOUSE OPM ORDERS ALL DEI OFFICES TO BEGIN CLOSING BY END OF DAY WEDNESDAY

When asked about the title change and subsequent criticism on social media, an ATF spokesman responded that the agency has followed DEI directives from the Trump administration.

The ATF seal. (Photo by Ted Soqui/Corbis via Getty Images)

“ATF began implementing OPM’s Initial Guidance on DEIA immediately after its issuance on January 21, 2025, in response to the President’s Executive Orders. We have proactively taken the necessary steps to ensure compliance with this guidance, including by placing impacted personnel on administrative leave,” an ATF spokesman told Fox News Digital.

Fox News Digital asked for clarification on whether Boykin’s new title protects her from administrative leave but did not immediately receive a reply.

Fox News Digital also reached out to Boykin on her ATF email and received an automatic response noting she was unavailable to reply.

“I am currently unavailable and unable to return e-mails at this time,” the email read.

Social media commenters and critics of the Biden administration’s diversity initiatives slammed the ATF employee’s title change on social media, clamming the agency is “circumventing” the Trump administration’s orders.

3 IN 10 VOTERS THINK ENDING DEI PROGRAMS IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT, POLL SHOWS, AS FEDERAL DEADLINE LOOMS

Biden championed diversity initiatives under his administration, rolling back the first Trump administration’s policies that banned diversity training in government agencies during his first week in office in 2021.

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“In the weeks ahead, I will be reaffirming the federal government’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion and accessibility, building on the work we started in the Obama-Biden administration. That’s why I’m rescinding the previous administration’s harmful ban on diversity and sensitivity training,” Biden said in January of 2021. “Unity and healing must begin with understanding and truth, not ignorance and lies.”

January 24, 2025
JFK’s grandson says there is ‘nothing heroic’ about Trump’s declassification order

President Donald Trump’s executive order to declassify the JFK files left one of the 35th president’s descendants unimpressed. Jack Schlossberg, former President John F. Kennedy’s grandson, made his stance on the order clear in a post on X, saying that there was “nothing heroic” about Trump’s latest move.

“Declassification is using JFK as a political prop, when he’s not here to punch back,” Schlossberg wrote. “There’s nothing heroic about it.”

LEFT: JFK’s grandson, Jack Schlossberg RIGHT: Trump holds up a signed executive order. (REUTERS/Reba Saldanha/Kevin Lamarque)

TRUMP SIGNS ORDER TO DECLASSIFY FILES ON JFK, RFK AND MLK ASSASSINATIONS

After signing the order, which included the declassification of files on the assassinations of JFK, his brother Robert F. Kennedy and civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr., Trump told reporters that “everything will be revealed.”

RFK Jr., son of the late senator and Trump’s HHS nominee, told press that the order was a “great move” on the president’s part. He believes that the move will bring “more transparency” and it shows that Trump is “keeping his promise to have the government tell the truth to the American people about everything.” Kennedy has called for answers on his father and uncle’s assassinations.

Trump on Thursday signed an order to declassify files related to the assassinations of Kennedy and civil rights icon King. (Getty Images)

TRUMP’S AI ‘DECLARATION’ REMINISCENT OF JFK PLEDGE TO PUT A MAN ON THE MOON: FORMER WHITE HOUSE IT OFFICIAL

“I have now determined that the continued redaction and withholding of information from records pertaining to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy is not consistent with the public interest and the release of these records is long overdue,” Trump’s order reads.

The order gives officials just over two weeks (15 days) to give Trump a plan for “the full and complete release of records” on the JFK assassination. Additionally, officials have 45 days to present a plan on files relating to RFK and MLK Jr.’s assassinations.

King’s family reacted to the order in a statement, saying that they “hope to be provided the opportunity to review the files as a family prior to its public release.”

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While Trump promised to release the JFK files during his first administration, there is still an undisclosed amount of material that remains under wraps more than 60 years later.

Trump ultimately agreed to block the release of the files after pleas from the CIA and FBI. At the time, he said that the threat of making the documents public were of “significant gravity” that they outweighed “public interest.” In a recent appearance on “Hannity,” Trump said that then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo asked him not to release the documents, though he did not say if Pompeo explained why the files should remain classified.

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

Rachel Wolf is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital and FOX Business.

January 24, 2025