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GOP warns Democrats’ DHS shutdown could jeopardize World Cup security

GOP warns Democrats’ DHS shutdown could jeopardize World Cup security

The ongoing government shutdown over Homeland Security funding could disrupt security planning for the FIFA World Cup, raising concerns among lawmakers as U.S. cities prepare to host matches this summer. Congressional Republicans warn that with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shuttered amid the funding lapse, host cities in both blue and red states gearing up for the games later this year could fall behind in planning. “I think it’ll be a concern real fast if we’re not able to get [DHS] reopened,” Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., told Fox News Digital. AGENCY THAT NABBED ‘EL CHAPO,’ ‘DIDDY’ THREATENED AS DEMOCRATS’ DHS SHUTDOWN DRAGS ON The World Cup kicks off in June and will be held across the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Several U.S. cities are set to host matches, including East Rutherford, New Jersey, New York, Boston, Dallas, Houston, St. Louis, Atlanta, Miami, Philadelphia, the San Francisco Bay Area and Seattle. DHS is the chief agency responsible for securing host cities as local officials prepare for an influx of fans from around the world. The agency has been shuttered for two weeks, with negotiations between the White House and Senate Democrats stalled. Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., told Fox News Digital he frequently discusses World Cup preparations with local officials but has not yet heard concerns about the shutdown’s impact. SCHUMER, DEMS AGAIN BLOCK DHS FUNDING, FORCE STATE OF THE UNION SHOWDOWN “I mean, look, if that’s the concern that Republican senators have, then have them press the White House to move forward on these negotiations,” Kim said. “You know, I just feel like they are not moving forward with the urgency that the American people want to see.” Congressional Democrats have blocked funding for DHS in a bid to enact reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), but neither side has reached an agreement on a path forward. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital it was clear to him the shutdown could affect the effort to prepare for the World Cup, though he said he had not yet heard concerns from local officials. “I think the Democrats took the wrong hostage,” Cornyn said. “I mean, they’re mad at immigration enforcement, which they don’t believe in, but they are taking TSA and FEMA and the Coast Guard hostage, and they didn’t have anything to do with that.” DEMOCRATS RISK FEMA DISASTER FUNDING COLLAPSE AS DHS SHUTDOWN HITS DAY 5 Senate Democrats argue there has been little urgency from the White House to move toward reopening DHS, citing a slowdown in negotiations over the past week. They have put the responsibility for ending the shutdown on the Trump administration, despite Republicans publicly pushing back against several of their demands, including requiring ICE agents to obtain judicial warrants and refrain from wearing masks, among other changes. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., told Fox News Digital she had not heard from officials in Boston about possible disruptions to World Cup preparations. She argued Democrats’ demands that ICE adhere to the same rules as local police forces were reasonable. Warren dismissed the criticism as typical political posturing. “Well, sounds like the usual for the Trump administration,” she said. “All talk, no action.”

Dems’ potential 2028 hopefuls come out against US strikes on Iran

Dems’ potential 2028 hopefuls come out against US strikes on Iran

Some of the top rumored Democratic potential candidates for president in 2028 are showing a united front in opposing U.S. strikes on Iran, with several high-profile figures accusing President Donald Trump of launching an unnecessary and unconstitutional war. Former Vice President Kamala Harris said Trump was “dragging the United States into a war the American people do not want.” “Let me be clear: I am opposed to a regime-change war in Iran, and our troops are being put in harm’s way for the sake of Trump’s war of choice,” Harris said in a statement Saturday following the joint U.S. and Israeli strikes throughout Iran. “This is a dangerous and unnecessary gamble with American lives that also jeopardizes stability in the region and our standing in the world,” she continued. “What we are witnessing is not strength. It is recklessness dressed up as resolve.” FROM HOSTAGE CRISIS TO ASSASSINATION PLOTS: IRAN’S NEAR HALF-CENTURY WAR ON AMERICANS California Gov. Gavin Newsom delivered some of his sharpest criticism during a book tour stop Saturday night in San Francisco, accusing Trump of manufacturing a crisis. “It stems from weakness masquerading as strength,” Newsom said. “He lied to you. So reckless is the only way to describe this.” “He didn’t describe to the American people what the endgame is here,” Newsom added. “There wasn’t one. He manufactured it.” Newsom is currently promoting his memoir, “Young Man in a Hurry,” with recent and upcoming stops in South Carolina, New Hampshire and Nevada — three key early voting states in the Democratic presidential calendar. Earlier in the day, Newsom said Iran’s “corrupt and repressive” regime must never obtain nuclear weapons and that the “leadership of Iran must go.” “But that does not justify the President of the United States engaging in an illegal, dangerous war that will risk the lives of our American service members and our friends without justification to the American people,” Newsom wrote on X. California is home to more than half of the roughly 400,000 Iranian immigrants in the United States, including a large community in West Los Angeles often referred to as “Tehrangeles.” DEMOCRATS BUCK PARTY LEADERS TO DEFEND TRUMP’S ‘DECISIVE ACTION’ ON IRAN Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., a leading progressive voice and “Squad” member, accused Trump of dragging Americans into a conflict they did not support. “The American people are once again dragged into a war they did not want by a president who does not care about the long-term consequences of his actions. This war is unlawful. It is unnecessary. And it will be catastrophic,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “Just this week, Iran and the United States were negotiating key measures that could have staved off war. The President walked away from these discussions and chose war instead,” she continued. “In moments of war, our Constitution is unambiguous: Congress authorizes war. The President does not,” she said, pledging to vote “YES on Representatives Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie’s War Powers Resolution.” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, another Democrat often mentioned as a potential 2028 contender, also criticized the strikes and accused Trump of ignoring Congress. “No justification, no authorization from Congress, and no clear objective,” Pritzker wrote on X. “Donald Trump is once again sidestepping the Constitution and once again failing to explain why he’s taking us into another war,” he continued. “Americans asked for affordable housing and health care, not another potentially endless conflict.” “God protect our troops,” Pritzker added. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro focused his criticism on war powers, arguing Trump acted outside constitutional guardrails. “In our democracy, the American people — through our elected representatives — decide when our nation goes to war,” Shapiro said, adding that Trump “acted unilaterally — without Congressional approval.” JONATHAN TURLEY: TRUMP STRIKES IRAN — PRECEDENT AND HISTORY ARE ON HIS SIDE “Make no mistake, the Iranian regime represses its own people … they must never be allowed to possess nuclear weapons,” he said. “But that does not justify the President of the United States engaging in an illegal, dangerous war.” Shapiro added that “Congress must use all available power” to prevent further escalation. Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg also accused Trump of launching a “war of choice.” “The President has launched our nation and our great military into a war of choice, risking American lives and resources, ignoring American law, and endangering our allies and partners,” Buttigieg wrote on X. “This nation learned the hard way that an unnecessary war, with no plan for what comes next, can lead to years of chaos and put America in still greater danger.” Buttigieg has been hitting early voting states, stopping in New Hampshire and Nevada in recent weeks to campaign for Democrats ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., who has been floated as a rising national figure within the party, said he lost friends in Iraq to an illegal war and opposed the strikes. “Young working-class kids should not pay the ultimate price for regime change and a war that hasn’t been explained or justified to the American people. We can support the democracy movement and the Iranian people without sending our troops to die,” Gallego wrote on X.  Fox News’ Daniel Scully and Alex Nitzberg contributed to this report.

Sustained war with Iran could drain US missile stockpiles, test escalation control

Sustained war with Iran could drain US missile stockpiles, test escalation control

As coordinated U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran continue, current and former defense officials say that while a limited strike lasting several days is feasible, sustaining a broader confrontation — one involving potentially hundreds of incoming missiles — is far more complicated. The U.S. and Israel undertook a mission known as Operation Epic Fury, targeting Iranian leadership and military sites Saturday. Its duration is still unclear, but the campaign may go on for days, according to U.S. officials.  Sustaining operations beyond the initial window presents a more complex challenge — one shaped by a “zero-sum” competition for missile defense inventories between the Middle East and Europe. Officials and analysts warn that certain U.S. missile and air-defense interceptor inventories have been severely drawn down by the relentless pace of recent operations. The strategic dilemma for the Pentagon is that the systems required to shield U.S. bases from Iranian retaliation are the same ones being depleted by the defense of Ukraine and the ongoing protection of Israel. TRUMP ISSUES STERN IRAN WARNING AS TEHRAN ANGRILY REACTS TO SPEECH AMID MUTED WORLD REACTION Iran already has fired counterattacks near U.S. positions in Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Jordan, with several host governments saying their air defense systems intercepted incoming projectiles. No U.S. service member fatalities or injuries have been reported as of Saturday, a U.S. official told Fox News Digital.  U.S. authorities have not publicly released casualty figures or formal damage assessments. During the intense June 2025 Iran–Israel conflict, U.S. forces fired more than 150 Terminal High Altitude Area Defense Interceptors — roughly a quarter of the total global inventory — and a large number of ship-based standard missiles to protect allies, according to published defense assessments. This shortfall largely is attributed to the dual pressure of supplying Ukraine against Russian cruise missiles and the surge of batteries to the Middle East. Replenishing these high-end systems can take more than a year, analysts say, because production lines are optimized for peacetime and cannot be surged overnight. Independent groups have noted the U.S. currently produces roughly 600–650 Patriot PAC-3 MSE missiles annually, reflecting recent contracts to boost production capacity. Analysts say that in a high-intensity war with a near-peer adversary like Iran — where multiple interceptors are often used to defeat a single incoming missile — even a year’s worth of production could be consumed in a matter of weeks, especially after recent drawdowns in Ukraine and the Middle East. “The Department of War has everything it needs to execute any mission at the time and place of the president’s choosing and on any timeline,” Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in response to readiness questions. Retired Air Force Gen. Charles Wald, former deputy commander of U.S. European Command, said the United States retains the ability to surge conventional strike munitions into the region and draw from prepositioned stocks if a campaign is ordered.  “From a conventional munition standpoint, we can always fly in more weapons from around the world,” Wald told Fox News Digital. “There are a lot of weapons stored there with this type of mission in mind.” The greater concern, he acknowledged, lies on the defensive side.  “The issue will be defensive weapons — Patriot, SM-3, and the Arrow system in Israel,” Wald said. “You can never have enough defense.” Regional analysts caution that in a sustained missile exchange, interceptor inventories — not offensive strike weapons — could become the binding constraint.  “There is a limit to how many THAAD missiles can be used,” Israeli defense analyst Ehud Eilam said. “These are not systems you can reproduce overnight.” Iran is believed to possess between 1,500 ballistic missiles and 2,000 ballistic missiles, as well as drones and shorter-range rockets capable of striking U.S. bases and Gulf energy infrastructure. Several experts also pointed to the psychological impact of recent U.S. operations.  The swift Operation Absolute Resolve in Venezuela in January 2026 and summer 2025’s 12-day exchange with Iran have reinforced confidence in American military capability. However, one former defense official cautioned that success in these tightly scoped missions can create a false sense of momentum toward action in far more complex scenarios. TRUMP SAYS IRAN HAS 15 DAYS TO REACH A DEAL OR FACE ‘UNFORTUNATE’ OUTCOME “Iran is a very different problem,” the official said — a large, heavily armed state with extensive missile forces and regional proxy networks that would not resemble a short, surgical operation. Wald acknowledged that risk.  “You don’t want to get people so confident that you don’t consider the risks. It’s not going to be as clean or pure as, say, Venezuela was, or the 12-day war.” Even as the strikes continue, officials warn that retaliation from Iran and its network of allied militias could broaden the conflict. Iran’s ballistic missiles and drones — coupled with allied groups in Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen — already have prompted missile salvos against U.S. bases and Gulf partners, according to defense reporting. Experts say the 2025 conflict underscored how quickly escalation can test both defensive systems and political will.  “Once these things break, you own what follows,” one former official said, underscoring the risk that missiles and proxy actions could quickly widen a limited U.S. strike. Wald warned that even a successful military phase would not eliminate the political uncertainty.  “Bombing Iran is not going to do regime change,” he said, emphasizing that air power can degrade capability but cannot guarantee a stable political outcome. Beyond the immediate exchange, officials say the economic consequences could prove just as consequential. Roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil supply transits the Strait of Hormuz, and even limited disruption could send global energy markets sharply higher. For Washington, the strategic calculus extends beyond the Middle East. China remains the primary long-term competitor, with the war in Ukraine already consuming significant resources.  A sustained regional conflict would draw on naval assets and air-defense systems that planners must also consider for potential future contingencies in Taiwan or North Korea. Officials familiar with internal