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Trump allies turn up the heat on GOP Senate holdouts in nomination battles

Trump allies turn up the heat on GOP Senate holdouts in nomination battles

As President-elect Trump and his transition team steer his cabinet nominees through the landmines of the Senate confirmation process, top MAGA allies are joining the fight by putting pressure on GOP lawmakers who aren’t fully on board. “There will be no resource that we won’t use to go after those U.S. senators that vote against Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks or his other nominees,” longtime Trump outside adviser Corey Lewandowski told Fox News this week. Fueled by grassroots support for Trump and his nominees, the president-elect’s political team and allies are cranking up the volume. Exhibit A: Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa. NEW POLLS REVEAL WHAT AMERICANS THINK OF THE TRUMP TRANSITION Ernst, the first female combat veteran elected to the Senate, is considered a pivotal vote in the confirmation battle over Pete Hegseth, Trump’s nominee for defense secretary. Hegseth, an Army National Guard officer who deployed to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and who until last month was a longtime Fox News host, has been the focus of a slew of media reports spotlighting a series of drinking and sexual misconduct allegations, as well as a report alleging he mismanaged a veterans nonprofit organization that he once led. FIRST ON FOX: HOUSE GOP MILITARY VETS ON NEW MISSION — BACKING HEGSETH Hegseth has denied allegations that he mistreated women, but did reach a financial settlement with an accuser from a 2017 incident to avoid a lawsuit. He has vowed that he won’t drink “a drop of alcohol” if confirmed as defense secretary. Ernst, a member of the Armed Services Committee, which will hold Hegseth’s confirmation hearings, took plenty of incoming fire after last week publicly expressing hesitance over Hegseth’s nomination. While Trump publicly praised Hegseth late last week, as the nomination appeared to be teetering, top allies of the president-elect took aim at Ernst, who is up for re-election in 2026 in red-state Iowa. GET TO KNOW DONALD TRUMP’S CABINET: WHO HAS THE PRESIDENT-ELECT PICKED SO FAR? Donald Trump Jr., the president-elect’s oldest son and MAGA powerhouse, took to social media to target Ernst and other potentially wavering Republican senators. “If you’re a GOP Senator who voted for Lloyd Austin [President Biden’s defense secretary], but criticize @PeteHegseth, then maybe you’re in the wrong political party!” he posted. Top MAGA ally Charlie Kirk quickly took aim at Ernst with talk of supporting a primary challenger to her. “This is the red line. This is not a joke.… The funding is already being put together. Donors are calling like crazy. Primaries are going to be launched,” said Kirk, an influential conservative activist and radio and TV host who co-founded and steers Turning Point USA. Kirk, on his radio program, warned that “if you support the president’s agenda, you’re good. You’re marked safe from a primary. You go up against Pete Hegseth, the president, repeatedly, then don’t be surprised, Joni Ernst, if all of a sudden you have a primary challenge in Iowa.” Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird, a top Trump supporter in last January’s first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses, wrote a column on Breitbart urging Hegseth’s confirmation. While she didn’t mention Ernst by name, Bird took aim at “D.C. politicians” who “think they can ignore the voices of their constituents and entertain smears from the same outlets that have pushed out lies for years.” HEAD HERE FOR THE LATEST FROM FOX NEWS ON THE TRUMP TRANSITION And longtime Iowa-based conservative commentator and media personality Steve Deace took to social media and used his radio program to highlight that he would consider launching a primary challenge against Ernst. Ernst, who stayed neutral in the Iowa caucuses before endorsing Trump later in the GOP presidential primary calendar, may have gotten the message. After meeting earlier this week for a second time with Hegseth, Ernst said in a statement that her meeting was “encouraging” and that she would “support Pete through this process.” But Ernst’s office told Fox News that “the senator has consistently followed the process, which she has said since the beginning, and doing her job as a United States senator.” It’s not just Ernst who has faced the fire from Trump allies and MAGA world. Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, one of four remaining GOP senators who voted in the 2021 Trump impeachment trial to convict him, is also up for re-election in 2026 in a reliably red state. Cassidy is now facing a formal primary challenge from Louisiana Treasurer John Fleming, a senior adviser in the first Trump administration. Sen. Mike Rounds, another Republican up for re-election in two years in GOP-dominated South Dakota, has also been blasted by Kirk, as well as by top Trump ally and billionaire Elon Musk. And staunch Trump supporter Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama had a warning for Republican Senate colleagues who may oppose the president-elect’s nominees. “Republicans: If you’re not on the team, get out of the way,” he told FOX Business. Whether these early threats from Trump allies turn into actual primary challenges in the next midterm elections remains to be seen. And ousting a senator is no easy feat. It’s been a dozen years since an incumbent senator was defeated during a primary challenge. But Trump’s team and allies are playing hardball in the wake of former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., the president-elect’s first attorney general nominee, ending his confirmation bid amid controversy. There has been a full-court press by Trump’s political orbit to bolster Hegseth — in order to protect him and some of the president-elect’s other controversial Cabinet picks. “If Trump world allowed a couple of establishment senators to veto a second nominee, it would have led to a feeding frenzy on Trump’s other nominees, and so the thinking in Trump world was we have to defend Pete not just for the sake of defending Pete, but also for the sake of defending our other nominees,” a longtime Trump world adviser, who asked to remain anonymous to speak more freely, told Fox News. Fox News’ Emma Colton, Cameron Cawthorne,

‘Land of Laws’: Former House candidate reveals how Trump will conquer Dem resistance with immigration mandate

‘Land of Laws’: Former House candidate reveals how Trump will conquer Dem resistance with immigration mandate

President-elect Trump was given a mandate by the American people to implement his full immigration agenda and needs to use leadership, relationship building and fidelity to the rule of law to accomplish the goals he has outlined, former House candidate Orlando Sonza told Fox News Digital.  “The American people, they delivered a mandate to the next president of the United States, and to President Trump the mandate is that this illegal immigration problem is something that needs to be fixed, that it needs to be fixed now,” Sonza, an attorney and former Republican candidate in Ohio’s 1st Congressional District, said.  He explained that one of the “biggest challenges” Trump will face in order to deliver that immigration mandate is public officials “continuing to defy the law” in liberal jurisdictions.  “What we’ve seen is clear leadership in President Trump that he’s not going to go for it,” Sonza said. “The sanctuary cities and sanctuary jurisdictions that are trying to now protect illegal immigrants, many of them criminals that have broken our laws, not just on the southern border, but here within our border as well, tried to harbor them within their jurisdiction. No — that is what undermines our national security and our safety in our community. And in President Trump, holding those cities and jurisdictions accountable is exactly, again, what we need in order to go back to a land of laws, and so this comes down to leadership.” NEW YORK VOTERS WANT STATE TO SUPPORT TRUMP DEPORTATIONS, POLL FINDS Democrats across the country have announced their intentions to attempt to defy Trump’s plan to enforce immigration laws and deport criminals by pushing sanctuary policies or trying to “Trump-proof” their jurisdictions. Sonza told Fox News Digital that deportation is not only a useful tool, but a necessary one as well.  “At the end of the day, it comes back to righting a wrong that we’ve seen in the last four years, going back to the way immigration should be, and that is the legal way when it comes to deportation,” Sonza said. “President Trump has been very clear on his strategy. There are priorities in terms of the prosecution and the deportation of dangerous individuals, including human traffickers, drug cartels, violent gangs like MS 13. They don’t belong in our country, and they certainly have tried to exploit the immigration loopholes that they’ve found on the southern border, smuggling people, drugs, weapons, inflicting devastating harm on our communities. They absolutely, first and foremost, have to be deported.” TRUMP’S ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION CRACKDOWN WELCOMED BY BORDER TOWN POLICE STRAINED BY BIDEN POLICIES “The next are those that have really tried to take advantage of the system, prosecuting individuals who have reentered the United States illegally after deportation. You know, many having criminal records themselves, blatantly disregarding U.S. sovereignty, posing ongoing threats to public safety. Look at visa overstays accounting for nearly 40% of illegal immigration. That is the very thing that President Trump in his plan is targeting by addressing violent criminals, addressing criminals that have broken laws within our community and then addressing overstays and fraudulent documentation. What President Trump is looking to do is to protect the integrity of lawful immigration, to ensure fairness for those that actually follow the rules,” he said. Sonza told Fox News Digital that Trump will be able to overcome those who try to ignore federal immigration law not only by withholding federal funding to sanctuary cities, but also by “promoting accountability and a strong cooperation with law enforcement.” “President Trump’s plan of fostering that strong cooperation between federal and local law enforcement is exactly what we need in order to ensure that communities are protected while upholding the rule of law,” he said. “So I think what we’re actually going to see is there is going to be, I think, much smoother cooperation than what a lot of people are expecting, because I think this plan of President Trump is shared by many, in that it’s going to fix a lot of the problems that we see regarding illegal immigration in our country.” Trump’s critics have cited concerns about the cost of mass deportations, which Sonza, a West Point graduate and former officer in the U.S. Army, said was a concern he also once shared until he looked into it more deeply. “It actually took research on my part and research of many Americans to realize the reality, and that is the long-term burden of keeping illegal immigrants in the United States costs taxpayers an exorbitant amount of money,” Sonza said. “Conservative estimates show that illegal immigration costs us taxpayers $151 billion annually.” Sonza, the son of legal immigrants, told Fox News Digital that the “overwhelming number of Americans” who voted for Trump believe, as he does, that “illegal immigration poses one of the most pressing challenges to our country today.” Sonza told Fox News Digital that voters resoundingly voted to “go back to law and order” by voting for Trump and that he is confident Trump’s leadership, coupled with aggressive implementation of his deportation plan, will yield results.  “The illegal way of doing immigration has cost Americans,” Sonza told Fox News Digital. “It has put Americans in a less safe position. It has undermined our national security. It has forced the drugs like fentanyl, the opioid epidemic like we see here in southwest Ohio, to now continue to just exacerbate as a problem in our community.” “We want to go back to a country of laws and one that keeps the American people safe and one that looks at the best interests, really of all people, whether it’s those that tried to come into the United States or are already here as citizens, their best interests in mind by upholding the rule of law and when it comes to immigration, doing it the legal way,” he said.

Alaska outraged at federal oil lease sale setup being ‘fitting finale’ for fossil fuel-averse presidency

Alaska outraged at federal oil lease sale setup being ‘fitting finale’ for fossil fuel-averse presidency

Multiple top Alaskan officials are expressing outrage at the way the Biden administration is orchestrating its final congressionally mandated leasing of Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) Section 1002 land for fossil fuel exploration. Both of Alaska’s U.S. senators, the state’s governor and local officials in the remote communities nearest the North Slope refuge collectively expressed that the Department of Interior’s planned January sale was set up in bad faith. “These leases should be executed in good faith along the established historical processes. And obviously, the Biden administration in the past four years has just been brutal on Alaska,” said Gov. Mike Dunleavy. “And, you know, they’re in the twilight of their term here. But nonetheless, they’re going to continue to double-down on denying Alaska opportunities, denying our people opportunities, denying America the opportunity to potentially get some more oil [exploration] going to the future.” AK GOV: BIDEN IS SEARCHING FOR OIL EVERYWHERE BUT AT HOME Dunleavy added that, despite his top perch in Juneau, he remained unclear on exactly what the Biden administration sought to gain by treating Alaska as alleged while buying energy from America’s rivals and working to shepherd in alternative fuels. “I think when we look back on this over time, there’s going to be a lot of head-scratching as to what was the purpose of all this?” he said. “I keep telling people the idea that nobody’s going to want oil if you don’t allow drilling in Alaska: it makes no sense.” For his part, Dunleavy has expressed an openness to pursuing alternative fuels, including the idea of harnessing tides in the Kenai Peninsula’s Cook Inlet — the second-strongest in the world — to produce energy.  The governor said that just as the Biden administration cancelled leases in ANWR-1002, President-elect Trump could nix those moves. ALASKA GOV SAYS INLET TIDES THE NEXT RENEWABLE RESOURCE “They defied the spirit of the law itself,” he said. “So I look forward to January 20th.” Meanwhile, leaders in the Inupiat village of Kaktovik — the only community within ANWR-1002 — slammed the structure of the lease sale. Green interests have long claimed local residents and Native communities oppose development on their lands, but in a statement to Fox News Digital, Inupiat leaders disagreed. “The release of the Coastal Plain Oil and Gas Leasing Program Record of Decision by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management has left the community of Kaktovik, Alaska… frustrated and discontented,” a community representative said. “The lands under question are the traditional lands of the Kaktovikmiut. However, it is apparent once again that outside, well-funded environmental groups have had the preferential voice during the Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) process.” Local leaders accused the administration of siding with outside interests, rather than hearing from locals who may not see it their way. “Kaktovik does not support this outcome nor condone the process by which it was reached,” community leaders jointly said of the lease sale structure. Edward Rexford, the Native village president, called it a “predetermined outcome,” and that as a small tribal entity, they were not afforded adequate opportunity to participate in the impact statement process. WESTERN NATIONS HAVE BOUGHT $2B IN RUSSIAN OIL THIS YEAR THROUGH SANCTIONS WORKAROUNDS “The City of Kaktovik is outraged by this result,” said Mayor Nathan Gordon, Jr. Officials at the Alaska Industrial Development & Export Authority (AIDEA) concurred, adding their analysis found the Biden administration’s record-of-decision blocked “nearly all development of even a small part” of ANWR-1002. “Sadly, the Biden administration continues to take illegal actions to stop all natural resource development in Alaska,” said AIDEA executive director Randy Ruaro. “Jobs from developing ANWR would offer high wages to Alaskans at a level that can keep families in-state.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP In a statement, Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, said the sale is an “eleventh-hour” decision and “yet another charade aimed at subverting the will of Congress in the 2017 Tax Cuts & Jobs Act.” The Trump-era law was the policy that set the timeline and compelled the Biden administration to conduct the sale. “It’s a fitting finale for an administration that has routinely allowed Iran, Venezuela and other adversaries to produce their resources, regardless of the consequences, while attempting to shut everything down in Alaska,” added Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska. Fox News Digital reached out to the Department of the Interior and the White House for response to the collective criticism, but did not receive a response by press time.