August increase in Mexico tariffs could strain Texas economy
A vast majority of trade between Mexico and the U.S. has been exempt from tariffs for months. That could change on Monday.
Trump’s “one-two punch” targeting immigration courts will test Texas detention centers, experts warn
Moves to end bond for migrants and fire dozens of immigration judges deprive undocumented detainees of due process and may keep them in overcrowded centers longer, experts say.
In Kerr County, some summer camps are reopening after the devastating July 4 flood
At least two summer camps in the Texas Hill Country have invited campers back after sustaining little to no damage from the flood. Other camps are still combing through the rubble.
Scoop: Trump ally to launch key battleground state campaign in bid to flip Democrat-held Senate seat
FIRST ON FOX: Republican Rep. Mike Collins will announce a campaign for the U.S. senate in battleground Georgia early next week, sources with knowledge told Fox News on Friday. Collins is aiming to challenge Democrat Sen. Jon Ossoff, who is running for re-election in the key southeastern battleground state that President Donald Trump narrowly carried in last year’s election. The GOP views Ossoff as the most vulnerable Democrat seeking re-election in the Senate in next year’s midterm elections. Collins, a businessman who founded a trucking company, is in his second term representing Georgia’s 10th Congressional District, which includes a large swath of urban, suburban, and rural areas between Atlanta and Augusta. MIKE COLLINS TEASES SENATE RUN IN BATTLEGROUND GEORGIA The conservative lawmaker, who’s the son of the late Republican Rep. Mac Collins of Georgia, has been moving closer to launching a Senate campaign for weeks. “Tires kicked. Fueling up,” Collis wrote Monday in a social media post that was accompanied by a video where he showcased his ties to President Donald Trump. “Congressman Mike Collins, he loves this state,” Trump said in a clip in the video. Collins was an early backer of the president, supporting him as Trump first ran for the Republican presidential nomination in the 2016 cycle. POPULAR GOP GOVERNOR PASSES ON SENATE BID IN 2026 In the 2024 presidential campaign, when Trump won back the White House, Collins traveled on behalf of Trump to the crucial early-voting primary and caucus states of Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. He also appeared at multiple Trump rallies during the 2024 cycle and opened three Trump campaign offices in Georgia. And Collins, not facing a difficult re-election in his solidly red House seat, campaigned in ten congressional districts across the country to help elect Trump-aligned candidates as the GOP defended its razor-thin majority in the chamber. Collins at the beginning of this year reintroduced the Laken Riley Act, which mandates that undocumented immigrants charged with burglary or theft be detained. It’s named after a Georgia nursing student killed by a man who had illegally entered the U.S. The case grabbed national attention. The bill, which quickly passed the Republican-controlled House and Senate, became the first legislation signed into law by Trump as he started his second tour of duty in the White House. A Republican source said that Collins has a “great relationship” with the president and his political team. And a Georgia-based Republican consultant told Fox News that “the lane that Mike is going to run in is the America First fighter who’s been with President Trump.” OPINION: WHAT MIKE COLLINS TOLD FOX NEWS DIGITAL “Mike has the opportunity to run in that lane because it’s an authentic lane for him,” added the consultant, who asked to remain anonymous to speak more freely. Trump, who is the ultimate kingmaker in GOP politics and whose endorsements in Republican primaries are extremely powerful, has yet to weigh in on whom he may back in Georgia’s burgeoning Senate race. National Republicans were hoping to recruit popular two-term GOP Gov. Brian Kemp to take on Ossoff. But Kemp, who is term-limited, announced earlier this year that he would pass on a 2026 Senate run. Republican Rep. Buddy Carter, who for a decade has represented a district in coastal Georgia, launched a Senate campaign in the spring. Carter is also courting a Trump endorsement in the GOP primary. Georgia Insurance Commissioner John King was also running for the Republican nomination, but ended his bid on Thursday. Former University of Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley, who is the son of former longtime University of Georgia football coach Vince Dooley, is also considering a Senate bid. The younger Dooley is close with Kemp, who’s a longtime friend. Recent polling indicates that Collins holds the edge over his GOP rivals for the party’s Senate nomination and that he would be competitive with Ossoff in next year’s general election. While Republicans consider Ossoff vulnerable, beating him won’t be easy. The first-term senator hauled in over $10 million in the April-June second quarter of 2024 fundraising, bringing his cash-on-hand to over $15 million. And Georgia Democrats are taking aim at Collins. “Immediately after voting to rip away health insurance from 750,000 Georgians, Rep. Mike Collins now wants Georgians to give him a promotion?” Georgia Democratic Party spokesperson Devon Cruz said in a recent statement to Fox News Digital, as he pointed to the Medicaid cuts in the GOP’s megabill that Trump signed into law earlier this month. Cruz argued that “Collins would join a crowded, messy primary that will leave the GOP nominee badly bruised, while Sen. Jon Ossoff is building massive momentum to take on whichever Donald Trump loyalist limps over the finish line.”
DeSantis-appointed US senator scores major endorsement ahead of 2026 special election: ‘Tremendous job’
President Donald Trump endorsed U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody for election. Earlier this year, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis installed Moody in the seat vacated by Marco Rubio, who departed the Senate to serve as President Donald Trump’s Secretary of State. In a Thursday post on Truth Social, the president declared that Moody has his “Complete and Total Endorsement,” asserting, “SHE WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN!” WHO IS ASHLEY MOODY? MEET THE SENATE’S NEWEST MEMBER FROM FLORIDA Moody thanked Trump for his support. “Thank you, President @realDonaldTrump! I’m incredibly honored by your support and look forward to our continued work together to make this a SAFER and STRONGER nation,” Moody said in a post on X. Moody, like the vast majority of her Senate and House GOP colleagues, voted to pass the Trump-backed One Big Beautiful Bill Act earlier this month. DESANTIS’ CHOSEN RUBIO REPLACEMENT MOODY WANTS TO TACKLE INFLATION, SPENDING, BORDER: ‘AUDIT THE FED!’ Rubio, who won re-election to the Senate in 2022, departed office well before his term was slated to conclude in early 2029. A special election will be held next year to allow Floridians to decide who will represent them for the remainder of the term. DHS HAS BEGUN FLYING MIGRANTS OUT OF FLORIDA’S ‘ALLIGATOR ALCATRAZ,’ DESANTIS ANNOUNCES Prior to joining the U.S. Senate, Moody served as the Sunshine State’s attorney general.
Trump says SCOTUS immunity ruling likely helps Obama in light of Gabbard, DNI findings
President Donald Trump said Friday that former President Barack Obama “owes me big” following the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling. Trump on Tuesday claimed that Obama was the “ringleader” of Russiagate, calling for him to be criminally investigated amid new claims that members of his administration allegedly “manufactured” intelligence that prompted the Trump–Russia collusion narrative. Obama has denied the allegations, with a spokesperson for him describing them as “bizarre.” “It probably helps him a lot. Probably helps a lot. The immunity ruling, but it doesn’t help the people around him at all. But it probably helps him a lot,” Trump said Friday. “He’s done criminal acts, there’s no question about it. But he has immunity, and it probably helps him a lot… he owes me big, Obama owes me big.” The intelligence community did not have any direct information that Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to help elect Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential election, but, at the “unusual” direction of then-President Barack Obama, published “potentially biased” or “implausible” intelligence suggesting otherwise, the House Intelligence Committee found, according to a Fox News report earlier this week. OBAMA DENIES TRUMP’S ‘BIZARRE ALLEGATIONS’ THAT HE WAS RUSSIAGATE ‘RINGLEADER’ IN RARE STATEMENT Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard had declassified a report prepared by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence back in 2020. The report, which was based on an investigation launched by former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., was dated Sept. 18, 2020. At the time of the publication of the report, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., was the chairman of the committee. The committee focused on the creation of the Intelligence Community Assessment of 2017, in which then-CIA Director John Brennan pushed for the inclusion of the now-discredited anti-Trump dossier, despite knowing it was based largely on “internet rumor,” as Fox News Digital previously reported. According to the report, the ICA was a “high-profile product ordered by the President, directed by senior IC agency heads, and created by just five CIA analysts, using one principal drafter.” “Production of the ICA was subject to unusual directives from the President and senior political appointees, and particularly DCIA,” the report states. “The draft was not properly coordinated within CIA or the IC, ensuring it would be published without significant challenges to its conclusions.” DNI GABBARD CLAIMS ‘DEEP STATE ACTORS’ DIDN’T WANT TRUMP-RUSSIA INFORMATION TO ‘SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY’ The committee found that the five CIA analysts and drafter “rushed” the ICA’s production “in order to publish two weeks before President-elect Trump was sworn-in.” In a statement Tuesday, Obama denied Trump’s “bizarre allegations” that he was the Russiagate “ringleader.” “Out of respect for the office of the presidency, our office does not normally dignify the constant nonsense and misinformation flowing out of this White House with a response,” Obama spokesman Patrick Rodenbush said in a statement. “But these claims are outrageous enough to merit one.” “These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction,” Obama’s spokesman continued. “Nothing in the document issued last week undercuts the widely accepted conclusion that Russia worked to influence the 2016 presidential election but did not successfully manipulate any votes.” Gabbard later told “Jesse Watters Primetime” on Wednesday that there were “deep state obstacles” to releasing her information about the Trump-Russia collusion investigation and that some people within the intelligence community (IC) didn’t want it to “see the light of day.” “There are a lot of deep state actors still here within Washington. President Trump wants us to find the truth. I want to find that truth. The American people deserve the truth, and they deserve accountability,” she said. Fox News’ Brooke Singman and Ashley Carnahan contributed to this report.
‘Louder by the hour’: Senate GOP wants the Epstein drama to end, but Democrats aren’t letting it go
Senate Democrats have begun to ramp up their push for the full release of documents related to the late, convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, while Senate Republicans have tried to focus their attention elsewhere. “The story Republicans hoped would quietly fade is growing louder by the hour,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the Senate floor. SENATE REPUBLICAN DEMANDS STATE, FEDERAL COURTS ‘IMMEDIATELY UNSEAL ALL’ EPSTEIN DOCS Schumer has led the charge among Senate Democrats in demanding more transparency on the Epstein issue, and has used the drama in recent weeks as a political cudgel to go after congressional Republicans and the White House. His remarks come after a recent Wall Street Journal report alleged that President Donald Trump‘s name appeared in the documents surrounding Epstein, and that he was told by the Justice Department about it before publicly saying he was not among the untold number of names within the documents. Trump also ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi to “produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony” on the matter, and top Justice Department official Todd Blanche met with Epstein accomplice Ghislane Maxwell in Florida on Thursday to discuss the late pedophile and alleged sex trafficker. “It has the stench of a cover-up,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told Fox News Digital. “The only right outcome here is to release and disclose all the files. There should be no secret meetings or secret deals.” ‘NOT GOING AWAY’: INSIDE THE EPSTEIN DRAMA THAT’S THROWN HOUSE GOP INTO CHAOS However, the Epstein saga has not had near the effect in the Senate as in the House, where House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., sent lawmakers home early this week for a monthlong break after some Republicans and Democrats joined forces in their calls to bring the so-called Epstein files out in the open. Senate Republicans, meanwhile, have downplayed the issue, arguing that Congress has far less power to obtain the information than the Justice Department does. Sen. Ron Johnson, who chairs the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, told Fox News Digital that he does not like “duplicating efforts,” but noted that he is still curious to know more information about the Epstein documents. “I’m like every American who knows anything about this – I’m curious,” the Wisconsin Republican said. “It doesn’t make any sense to me, starting back with his original trial and very light sentence. But I think there are far more important things to worry about.” Senate Democrats are trying to force the issue, however. Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., again tried to introduce a non-binding resolution that called on Bondi to release all files related to Epstein, and the move was again blocked by Sen. Markwaye Mullin, R-Okla. TABLES TURN AS HOUSE GOP BLASTS DEMS FOR SUDDENLY DEMANDING EPSTEIN TRANSPARENCY FROM TRUMP ADMIN Gallego said that the White House continues to make the issue “political theater,” something that began on the campaign trail. “They fed this monster, and now they have to figure out the solution to what the American public is asking for, which is, you know, resolution and answers to their questions,” he said. Mullin, however, introduced his own resolution that comported with the president’s order for state and federal courts to release all Epstein documents surrounding the criminal investigation and prosecution against him. But when Gallego offered to combine the two, he objected, and accused him of turning the issue into a “political football.” “One, in this particular case — in a lot of cases — we’re not willing to stretch the truth to tell something that’s not accurate,” Mullin said. “We want to be accurate with what we’re telling the American people. And the truth is, what can Congress do?” So far, Mullin’s resolution is the only action offered by Senate Republicans in the ongoing Epstein saga. When asked if he would be interested in bringing the resolution to the floor for a vote, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said “obviously there is some interest in taking action on it, and we’ll see how intense that feeling is.” Still, some Republicans want to focus their efforts elsewhere. “I hope we don’t waste our time on that,” said Sen. John Cornyn, R-TX, and a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. “We’ve got enough to do.”
DHS has begun flying migrants out of Florida’s ‘Alligator Alcatraz,’ DeSantis announces
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced that Homeland Security has started flying migrants out of the “Alligator Alcatraz” detention facility. “I’m pleased to report that those flights out of Alligator Alcatraz by DHS have begun. The cadence is increasing. We’ve already had a number of flights, in the last few days, we’ve had hundreds of illegals [that] have been removed from here,” DeSantis said Friday while speaking in South Florida. When asked for the exact number of deportations and where the planes were heading to, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin delivered a one-line statement to Fox News Digital. “Fire up the deportation planes,” she said. INSIDE ‘ALLIGATOR ALCATRAZ’: THE NEWEST MIGRANT DETENTION FACILITY ERECTED AT AN ABANDONED EVERGLADES AIRPORT DeSantis authorized the construction of the illegal immigrant detention center on a 30-square-mile property in the Everglades’ swamplands of Miami–Dade County under an emergency order. The property in Ochopee is a former airport that has been outfitted with sturdy tent structures. The Florida Division of Emergency Management said the site has the capacity for 2,000 detainees but will eventually hold 4,000. TRUMP SAYS THE ONLY WAY OUT OF ‘ALLIGATOR ALCATRAZ’ IS DEPORTATION DeSantis said Friday that “The whole purpose is to make this be a place that can facilitate increased frequency and numbers of deportations of illegal aliens, and that is the goal.” “And one of the reasons why this was a sensible spot is because you have this runway that’s right here. You don’t have to drive them an hour to an airport. You go a couple thousand feet and they can be on a plane and out of here,” the governor added. “This airport is able to accept commercial-sized aircraft and conduct both, both day and nighttime operations,” DeSantis also said. Fox News’ Danamarie McNicholl, Emma Colton and Mara Robles contributed to this report.
Unearthed video exposes Mamdani’s ‘unabashed’ commitment to supporting anti-Israel sanctions as lawmaker
FIRST ON FOX: A resurfaced interview by New York City socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani highlights his commitment to BDS and sanctions against Israel, as he runs for mayor in a city with the highest Jewish population in the United States outside of Israel. “I’m very excited about being a member of DSA, specifically the New York City chapter,” Mamdani told SAAG Interactive in June 2021. “Within the questionnaire when you submit to be considered a candidate to be endorsed by the organization, you’re asked what your views are on BDS and I think that has also brought what it is typically thought of as a separate issue into the sphere of local politics where we create a bench of candidates. We’re not legislating on BDS on a daily basis, but it’s clear that our commitment is unabashed to justice.” Mamdani was interviewed in the clip by a journalist named Naib Mian, who has a social presence littered with anti-Israel posts, including accusing Israel of benefitting from “manufacturing antisemitism” and defending the phrase “from the river to the sea.” NYC COUNCILWOMAN WARNS MAMDANI VICTORY WILL DRIVE AWAY KEY VOTING BLOC: ‘AFRAID TO LIVE HERE’ Mamdani went on to speak more about BDS, an acronym for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, in the interview, saying that “the ways in which we can marry our struggle to our day-to-day life and show our solidarity in that life, I think that’s critical to winning this fight because it can’t all be, as you’ve very well stated, just kind of exclusively considered a legislative battle. It has to be a society-wide battle.” “And I think there is no thing that’s too banal to stand up against the brutality of the occupation and apartheid. And so, you know, if it’s a shipping container, or if it is a university that is being funded, a university that helped to develop IDF’s weapons technology, or it is an event with an Israeli ambassador, whatever it may be, I think that we have to showcase what that solidarity looks like.” Dating back to his college days, Mamdani has expressed support for BDS, which Influence Watch describes as “an international campaign to delegitimize the State of Israel as the expression of the Jewish people’s right to national self-determination by isolating the country economically through consumer boycotts, business and government withdrawal of investment, and legal sanctions.” MAMDANI’S FORMER DEM COLLEAGUE RAILS AGAINST HIS SIGNATURE CAMPAIGN PROMISE: ‘NAIL IN THE COFFIN’ Mamdani, who founded the Students for Justice in Palestine chapter at the prestigious Bowdoin College in Maine, wrote about the importance of an academic boycott of Israel in the school paper, Fox News Digital previously reported. “It also helps to highlight just how intertwined this oppression is, and just how much it relies on us normalizing it and saying that, you know, my convictions stop at the point when it becomes inconvenient, and we have to showcase that convenience means nothing in the face of these things,” Mamdani said in the interview. “On a personal level, I am very much committed to actively working to stop any additional anti-BDS bills that come through the Assembly.” Mamdani told Mian that he has been working on a letter to “circulate to support proactive measures that we can take to stop apartheid and to hold Israel accountable.” Mamdani continued, “My predecessor was somebody who very much marched in support and showed up at press conferences in support of the Israeli state. And I am somebody who is unabashedly in support of Palestinian liberation. My constituency hasn’t changed that much in between our terms. But it’s very clear to me that my constituency now, after I’ve said these things, the response that I received is just overwhelmingly in support. And so there are so many other people, so many other districts in New York City where people are just waiting to be given the go-ahead to express that solidarity.” Mamdani said that it is “my job” to give those people he previously mentioned “as many opportunities as possible and to push as many other colleagues of mine and people in any place of power to do the same.” “I really do believe that we have not yet hit the ceiling of support for the Palestinian people’s fight for justice,” Mamdani said. Fox News Digital reached out to the Mamdani campaign for comment. Mamdani’s support for BDS has drawn criticism from Jewish groups in New York and his father, Mahmood, has also voiced support for BDS while sitting on the advisory board of a tribunal that has routinely called for sanctions against Israel,” Fox News Digital previously reported. Mamdani has defended his support of BDS on the campaign trail, including in May where he said, “My support for BDS is consistent with my core of my politics, which is non-violence.”
SCOOP: Key GOP group starts work on 2nd ‘big, beautiful bill’ for Trump
FIRST ON FOX: House Republicans are already discussing contours for a potential second “big, beautiful bill” advancing President Donald Trump’s agenda. The Republican Study Committee (RSC), the 189-member-strong group that acts as a de facto “think tank” for the House GOP, is launching a working group to look at what a second budget reconciliation bill would look like, Fox News Digital has learned. It’s the largest organized effort so far by congressional Republicans to follow through on GOP leaders’ hopes for a second massive agenda bill. FAR-LEFT FIREBRAND SAYS SHE ‘NEVER HAD A CONCERN’ ABOUT BIDEN’S MENTAL STATE AS HOUSE PROBE HEATS UP “We must capitalize on the momentum we’ve generated in the first 6 months of a Republican trifecta in Washington,” RSC Chairman August Pfluger, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital. “To fulfill the promises we made to the American people, conservatives must begin laying the groundwork for the second reconciliation bill to ensure we continue to drive down the cost of living and restore America’s promise for future generations.” House Republicans left Washington on Wednesday to kick off a five-week recess period, where they’re readying to sell the benefits of their first massive agenda bill to their constituents. Meanwhile, Pfluger also directed lawmakers part of the new working group to begin reaching out to colleagues, conservative senators, and GOP organizations about potential policy proposals for a new bill, Fox News Digital was told. The goal of the new group is to create a framework for what a second “big, beautiful bill” could look like, and to recommend that framework to GOP leaders. TAX CUTS, WORK REQUIREMENTS AND ASYLUM FEES: HERE’S WHAT’S INSIDE TRUMP’S BIG BILL The first bill was a massive piece of legislation advancing Trump’s agenda on taxes, the border, immigration, defense, and energy. It made much of Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) permanent, while imposing new work requirements on Medicaid and food stamps, among other measures. After passing the House and Senate, Trump signed it into law during a celebratory event on the Fourth of July. But the political fight to get just one reconciliation bill took Herculean political efforts across both the House and Senate, with debates and even heated arguments ongoing for months before the bill passed. Notably, however, Republicans did get the legislation to Trump’s desk by July 4 – meeting a goal that many in the media and even within GOP circles thought impossible. The budget reconciliation process allows the party controlling the White House and both chambers of Congress to pass massive partisan policy overhauls, while completely sidelining the other side – in this case, Democrats. Reconciliation bills can pass the Senate with a simple majority rather than 60 votes, lining up with the House’s own passage threshold. But the legislation must adhere to a specific set of rules and only involve measures related to fiscal policy. Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told “Sunday Morning Futures” earlier this month that he was eyeing multiple reconciliation bills. “With President Trump coming back to the White House, and us having the responsibility for fixing every metric of public policy that Biden and Harris and the Democrats destroyed over the previous four years – so the big beautiful bill was the first big step in that,” he told host Maria Bartiromo. “But we have multiple steps ahead of us. We have long planned for at least two, possibly three, reconciliation bills, one in the fall and one next spring.”