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Year: 2025

Trump order targeting law firm WilmerHale blocked as ‘unconstitutional,’ federal judge rules

Trump order targeting law firm WilmerHale blocked as ‘unconstitutional,’ federal judge rules

A federal judge permanently blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order targeting the law firm WilmerHale on Tuesday. Trump’s order sought to limit the influence of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP by urging federal agencies to suspend security clearances for the firm’s employees as well as cancel contracts with the organization. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon found that the order violated the Constituion’s First, Fifth and Sixth Amendments, as well as separation of powers. “For the reasons set forth below, I have concluded that this order must be struck down in its entirety as unconstitutional,” Leon wrote. “Indeed, to rule otherwise would be unfaithful to the judgment and vision of the Founding Fathers!” Leon argued that Trump’s order served as a threat to law firms across the country. FEDERAL JUDGES IN NEW YORK AND TEXAS BLOCK TRUMP DEPORTATIONS AFTER SCOTUS RULING “If you take on causes disfavored by President Trump, you will be punished!” Leon wrote. “Other firms facing similar executive orders have capitulated to President Trump.” WilmerHale drew Trump’s ire as the home firm of Robert Mueller, who served as special counsel during Trump’s first term and investigated alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election. ‘WOEFULLY INSUFFICIENT’: US JUDGE REAMS TRUMP ADMIN FOR DAYS-LATE DEPORTATION INFO Federal judges have been a bane to Trump’s agenda in the opening months of his return to the White House, foiling or delaying key aspects of his immigration and economic plans. A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily halted the administration’s effort to kill New York City‘s controversial congestion pricing program as well. U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Liman issued a temporary restraining order barring the administration from getting rid of the program and withholding federal funding if the city failed to nix the program. Another federal judge in Massachusetts chastised senior Trump officials Monday night for failing to comply with his court orders after a group of migrants was deported from the U.S. to South Sudan. APPEALS COURT BLOCKS TRUMP ADMIN’S DEPORTATION FLIGHTS IN ALIEN ENEMIES ACT IMMIGRATION SUIT U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy rejected Trump’s request to amend or withdraw the judge’s earlier decision requiring them to keep in U.S. custody six migrants who were deported to South Sudan without due process or notice.  “It turns out that having immigration proceedings on another continent is harder and more logistically cumbersome than defendants anticipated,” Murphy said in his order, noting that the Trump administration is free to return individuals to have the interviews carried out on U.S. soil. The salvo comes as Murphy, a federal judge in Boston, presides over a class-action lawsuit from migrants who are challenging deportations to third countries, including South Sudan, El Salvador and other countries, including Costa Rica, Guatemala and others that the administration has reportedly eyed in its ongoing wave of deportations. Fox News’ Breanne Deppisch contributed to this report

Succeeding Trump: 6 Republican potential presidential hopefuls to keep your eyes on in 2028

Succeeding Trump: 6 Republican potential presidential hopefuls to keep your eyes on in 2028

The 2028 presidential election seems like a long way away, but in reality, the early moves are already underway by some Democrats with likely national ambitions. And one Republican politician is already selling 2028 merchandise. “Trump 2028” hats are available for $50 and T-shirts that read, “Trump 2028 (Re-write the Rules),” sell for $36 on the Trump Organization’s website.  But the rules are quite clear: The 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution restricts presidents to two terms in office.  And after months of flirting with running for a third term in the White House, President Donald Trump appears to be ruling out another campaign. WHERE TRUMP STANDS WITH AMERICANS 4 MONTHS INTO HIS 2ND TERM Despite touting strong support in the MAGA world for a 2028 run for re-election, the president in an interview this month on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” said, “I’m not looking at that.” “I’ll be an eight-year president,” Trump added. “I’ll be a two-term president. I always thought that was very important.”  But Trump’s 2028 flirtations, which he said weren’t a joke, and his sweeping moves since the start of his second tour of duty in the White House are keeping the spotlight firmly on him, averting any lame-duck talk and putting a damper on any early moves by those in the Republican Party hoping to succeed the president. DEMOCRATS EYE 2028 JUST MONTHS INTO TRUMP’S 2ND TERM The race for the next GOP presidential nomination won’t get underway until Trump’s ready to share the spotlight, and he recently said it’s “far too early” to begin holding those discussions. But Trump also added, “I’m looking to have four great years and turn it over to somebody, ideally a great Republican, a great Republican to carry it forward.” With that in mind, here’s a look at the potential 2028 Republican White House contenders. Vice President JD Vance appears to be the heir apparent to the “America First” movement and the Republican Party’s powerful MAGA base. It was a point driven home by Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, MAGA rockstar and powerful ally of the vice president. “We are getting four more years of Trump and then eight years of JD Vance,” Trump Jr. said on the campaign trail in Ohio a few weeks ahead of the November 2024 election. As sitting vice president, Vance enjoys plenty of perks that could boost him to frontrunner status. Among them, a large staff that comes with the job, and Air Force Two, which he has repeatedly used to make stops across the U.S. and the globe since the start of the second Trump administration. And Vance is now finance chair of the Republican National Committee, the first sitting vice president to hold such a position with a national party committee. The posting puts Vance in frequent contact with the GOP’s top donors. But while Trump has hinted that Vance could be his successor and called him “a fantastic, brilliant guy” in the “Meet the Press” interview, he has avoided anointing his vice president as the party’s next nominee. Vance has taken no steps toward a 2028 presidential run and isn’t seriously thinking about it at this time, a source in the vice president’s political orbit told Fox News. “I really am just not focused on politics,” Vance said in early April in a “Fox and Friends” interview. “I’m not focused on the midterm elections in 2026, much less the presidential election in 2028. When we get to that point, I’ll talk to the president. We’ll figure out what we want to do.”  And the 40-year-old vice president added, “The way I think about it is, if we do a good job, the politics take care of themselves.” In his “Meet the Press” interview, besides Vance, Trump also named Secretary of State Marco Rubio as a “great” potential GOP leader. “Marco’s doing an outstanding job,” the president said. Rubio, a one-time rival who clashed with Trump during the combustible 2016 Republican presidential nomination battle, became a leading Trump ally in the U.S. Senate during the president’s first term in office. And besides serving as secretary of state, the 53-year-old former senator from Florida is also acting national security advisor, acting head of the National Archives and acting administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development. While Rubio’s expanding portfolio in the second Trump administration is fueling speculation about a potential 2028 presidential bid, he still faces skepticism from parts of MAGA world who question his “America First” credentials. Conservative Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was flying high after a landslide re-election in 2022, but an unsuccessful 2024 presidential primary run and a bruising battle with Trump knocked him down in stature. However, the term-limited 46-year-old governor, who has a year and a half left in office steering Florida, proved in the past few years his fundraising prowess and retains plenty of supporters across the country. DeSantis was also able, to a degree, to repair relations with Trump, helped raise money for the GOP ticket during the general election and earned a prime-time speaking slot at the 2024 Republican convention. And in December 2024, the governor was seen as a possible replacement when now-Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s nomination briefly faltered. While DeSantis is certain to still harbor national ambitions, his feud this year with the Republican-dominated Florida legislature and the controversy over a charity tied to Florida first lady Casey DeSantis are seen as potential hurdles. Thanks to his 2021 gubernatorial victory, the first by a Republican in Virginia in a dozen years, Gov. Glenn Youngkin instantly became a GOP rising star. In Virginia, governors are limited to one four-year term, which means Youngkin has seven months left in office. The 58-year-old governor, who hails from the Republican Party’s business wing but has been able to thrive in a MAGA-dominated party, likely harbors national ambitions.  And Youngkin’s trip to Iowa, the state that for a half century has kicked off the GOP’s presidential nominating calendar, in July to headline

‘Intensely loyal’ Jill Biden aide despised by White House staffers, new book claims

‘Intensely loyal’ Jill Biden aide despised by White House staffers, new book claims

President Joe Biden’s aides consider first lady Jill Biden one of the most powerful first ladies in history, according to the new book, “Original Sin,” by CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios political correspondent Alex Thompson.  By proxy, the first lady’s top aide, Anthony Bernal, became one of the most influential people in the White House, Tapper and Thompson said in their new book about Biden’s cognitive decline and the administration’s alleged cover-up.  “He would not be welcome at my funeral,” a longtime Biden aide told the authors.  Operating in a White House anchored in loyalty, Bernal wielded loyalty as a weapon to weed out the defectors, Tapper and Thompson said.  ‘THE KAMALA EXCUSE’: TENSIONS BETWEEN BIDEN AND HARRIS PLAGUED THEIR CAMPAIGNS, NEW BOOK REVEALS “He considered loyalty to be the defining virtue and would wield that word to elevate some and oust others – at times fairly and at times not. ‘Are you a Biden person?’ he would ask West Wing aides. ‘Is so-and-so a Biden person?’ The regular interrogations led some colleagues to dub him the leader of the ‘loyalty police,’” the journalists wrote in “Original Sin.” NEW BOOK REVEALS BIDEN’S INNER CIRCLE WORRIED ABOUT HIS AGE YEARS BEFORE BOTCHED DEBATE PERFORMANCE During the pandemic, Biden traded the campaign trail for lockdown. Two aides, Bernal and Annie Tomasini, found their way into Joe and Jill Biden’s pod, shifting the power dynamic of Biden’s so-called “Politiburo,” the group of advisors who steered Biden’s political orbit.  Tapper and Thompson describe the “intensely loyal” duo as taking on an “older-brother-and-little-sister vibe.” Thompson even had the title of deputy campaign manager, which Tapper and Thompson said was “unusual for a staffer to a spouse.” The duo were the masterminds behind loading a teleprompter for Biden ahead of a local interview, a misstep that followed Biden’s campaign. “The significance of Bernal and Tomasini is the degree to which their rise in the Biden White House signaled the success of people whose allegiance was to the Biden family – not to the presidency, not to the American people, not to the country, but to the Biden theology,” the authors wrote.  Tapper and Thompson said it was difficult to find many Bernal defenders and described him as using his power to cast out “potential heretics.” As Bernal earned a reputation for trash-talking fellow aides, “some even described him as the worst person they had ever met,” Tapper and Thompson said.  Bernal and Tomasini took on some of the residence staffers’ roles in the White House. Tapper and Thompson said the aides “had all-time access to the living quarters, with their White House badges reading ‘Res’ – uncommon for such aides.” When the Biden campaign began gearing up for a re-election campaign and some voiced fears about his age or battleground state polling, Bernal and other senior staffers reacted dismissively about Vice President Kamala Harris launching a bid. Bernal is quoted in the book as having said, “You don’t run for four years – you run for eight.” “He had already begun planning the first lady’s 2025 international travel schedule,” Tapper and Thompson said. Bernal worked overtime to elevate Jill Biden’s “profile and glamour,” freely criticizing her looks and outfits and even calling her “Jill,” according to the authors.  Jill Biden and Bernal worked in tandem, keeping score of “who was with them and against them.” The book described the first lady as “one of the chief supporters of the president’s decision to run for reelection, and one of the chief deniers of his deterioration.”  Bernal’s loyalty to the Bidens never faltered, and even after the disastrous debate performance in July 2024, Jill Biden and Bernal were determined to keep pushing on through November, Tapper and Thompson said.  CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Fox News Digital has written extensively dating back to the 2020 presidential campaign about Biden’s cognitive decline and his inner circle’s role in covering it up. A former White House staffer fired back against Tapper and Thompson’s allegations about Bernal in a statement to Fox News Digital.  “A lot of vignettes in this book are either false, exaggerated, or purposefully omit viewpoints that don’t fit the narrative they want to push. Anthony was a strong leader with high standards and a mentor to many. He’s the type of person you want on a team – he’s incredibly strategic, effective, and cares deeply about the people he manages,” the former White House staffer said. 

Defense Department workers no longer required to submit DOGE’s weekly production reports

Defense Department workers no longer required to submit DOGE’s weekly production reports

Defense Department civilian employees will no longer need to submit a weekly bulleted list of what they accomplished, which the Department of Government Efficiency had demanded of federal employees starting in February. In an email to the Pentagon’s civilian workforce, Jay Hurst, who is performing the duties of undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said the “five bullet exercise” will no longer be required and that employees should instead submit at least one idea by Wednesday to help improve efficiency or root out waste at the Defense Department. Other agencies have also begun to end the weekly reports, including the National Institutes of Health last month. FEDERAL JUDGE BLOCKS TRUMP DISMANTLING OF US INSTITUTE OF PEACE Workers had been required to submit weekly reports justifying their employment by listing five things they did the previous week, as part of efforts by billionaire Elon Musk and DOGE — which had been led by Musk — to eliminate waste in the federal government. Musk, who recently announced he is stepping back from DOGE and focusing more on his companies, Tesla, SpaceX and the social media platform X, said on Feb. 22 that federal employees would be required to start sending weekly reports of what they accomplished to the Office of Personnel Management as well as their managers. “Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week,” Musk wrote on X at the time. “Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation,” he emphasized. Some agencies, including the Defense Department, the State Department and the FBI, initially told employees to hold off on submitting the reports. Days later, the Office of Personnel Management told human resources officers across the government that the emailed reports were voluntary, according to The Washington Post. ELON MUSK ‘DISAPPOINTED’ BY TRUMP’S SPENDING BILL, SAYS IT UNDERMINES WHAT DOGE IS DOING Officials at the agency also said they did not plan to do anything with the emails they received. But Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sent a memorandum on Feb. 28 instructing all Pentagon civilian employees to submit the weekly emails requested by DOGE. The Associated Press contributed to this report.