Melania Trump advisor reveals what first lady was thinking as Secret Service rushed WHCA Dinner
First lady Melania Trump’s senior advisor is opening up about how the first lady reacted the night an armed suspect stormed the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner in an alleged effort to assassinate President Donald Trump and administration officials. “She was not frightened. She was in full control. She knew what had to be done,” senior advisor Marc Beckman told Fox News Digital in a Zoom interview. Chaos broke out at the Washington Hilton Saturday evening just as the annual event was kicking off, when an armed suspect stormed the event in what authorities say was an attempt to assassinate the president. The incident prompted Secret Service agents to rush the president and first lady from the room as guests scrambled for cover. While this was not the first attempt on Trump’s life, it was the first time his wife was present. MELANIA TRUMP LAUNCHES ‘ON THE MOVE’ DIGITAL PHOTO SERIES HIGHLIGHTING HER ‘FAST-MOVING LIFE’ “She’s a strong person. She was not injured. Nobody was hurt, fortunately. She was really happy at the end of the day that everyone, in fact, in that room was in good health and was not injured,” he added. Beckman said the first lady quickly took cover at the Secret Service’s direction and then urged others at the table to do the same. During the chaos, a moment of shock appeared on the first lady’s face, with many assuming it was in reaction to the gunshots. Beckman, however, said it was due to something different. “She was learning that the mentalist [Oz Pearlman] was able to guess what Karoline Leavitt’s child, soon-to-be child, was going to be named, which is remarkable. It’s shocking. Hence, the expression. Coupled with literally Secret Service charging through the center of the room,” said Beckman. The first lady joined her husband and administration officials in the briefing room after they were evacuated from the dinner. MELANIA TRUMP HOSTS STAR-STUDDED WHITE HOUSE SCREENING AHEAD OF HER FILM’S RELEASE During an educational event with the Queen of England and students Tuesday at the White House, Trump told members of the media she was doing “very well” after the assassination attempt. Beckman shared that Trump echoes her husband’s stance that the Secret Service did their job well Saturday. COREY COMPERATORE’S WIDOW SHEDS NEW LIGHT ON FINAL MOMENTS WITH HER HUSBAND “The Secret Service is of very great value to the first lady. She holds them out with the highest level of respect,” he said. “They’ve done a tremendous job time and time again. “She has a tremendous amount of respect for the Secret Service, the military and beyond,” Beckman added. Beckman shared that Trump is well aware of the risks that follow being a member of the first family. “She’s very proud to be first lady. She’s very hard-working, she’s decisive and she’s going to keep pressing ahead,” he said.
House passes FISA renewal in bipartisan vote, putting pressure on Senate before looming deadline
Congressional Republicans are racing to extend a controversial spying program before it is scheduled to lapse Friday at midnight. House lawmakers voted 235 to 191 in a bipartisan manner to extend Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) for the rest of President Donald Trump’s term. The vote split Republicans, with more than 20 GOP privacy hawks voting against a three-year extension of the warrantless surveillance program. The successful vote leaves the Senate little time to act before the fast-approaching April 30 deadline. SPEAKER JOHNSON ONE STEP CLOSER TO RENEWING CONTROVERSIAL SPY PROGRAM AFTER CONSERVATIVES FALL IN LINE A swath of House conservatives voted against the FISA renewal bill, citing concerns that the measure does not include more stringent privacy safeguards, such as a requirement for intelligence agencies to obtain a warrant before accessing Americans’ data. The spy law, considered one of the government’s most powerful surveillance tools, allows the U.S. government to gather intelligence on foreigners abroad who are using U.S. platforms, even when those communications involve Americans. “We should all be standing up for the Fourth Amendment,” Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, a leading GOP privacy hawk, said during debate on the FISA renewal bill Tuesday. House leadership attempted to win over some conservative holdouts by adding language permanently banning the Federal Reserve from issuing central bank digital currencies (CBDC) to the FISA renewal bill. But Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has warned that the sweetener for privacy hawks will be interpreted as a poison pill in the Senate, where Democrats fiercely oppose a CBDC ban. “They know that,” Thune told reporters Tuesday, referring to House Republicans. DEMS PULL OUT ALL THE STOPS TO KEEP OBAMACARE SUBSIDIES FIGHT ALIVE AFTER VOTE TO REOPEN GOVERNMENT Johnson has voiced optimism that the upper chamber will take up the House bill without modifications. “I speak with Leader Thune all the time. They’re watching this very closely, and hopefully they can process what we send them,” Johnson told Fox News Wednesday. “No one, on the Republican side anyway, wants to play around with letting these critical national security tools go unfunded or expire,” he added. “So, I think they’ll move it expeditiously.” The Trump administration has pressured House Republicans for weeks to back an extension of the spy law, arguing the surveillance authority is too vital for national security to expire. “This department strongly supports the reauthorization of FISA 702,” Department of War Secretary Pete Hegseth told lawmakers Wednesday. “It is not hyperbole to say many of the most important missions we have executed could not have happened without the intelligence gathered through FISA 702.” House Democrats, many of whom have fierce objections to a clean extension of the spy law, voted en masse against the measure. “I’m suspicious. The way it’s proposed right now, particularly under this administration,” Rep. Andre Carson, D-Ind., told Fox News, referring to the FISA renewal bill. “I was more comfortable when I voted for it in 2024. Under this administration, I’m not as comfortable.” Just 42 Democratic lawmakers, including Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, crossed party lines in support of the measure. “I’ve seen countless, countless instances where the intelligence obtained through section 702 quite literally saved lives,” the Connecticut Democrat said. “So, given the binary choice between reauthorization and expiration, the responsible choice is reauthorization.”
Katie Porter’s ‘F*** Trump’ email day after assassination attempt draws sharp rebuke: ‘Degenerate loser’
California gubernatorial candidate Katie Porter sent an email to donors that included the phrase “F*** Trump” four times — once even in the subject line — just a day after the most recent assassination attempt on President Donald Trump’s life at the White House Correspondents Association dinner on Saturday. The “F*** Trump” email from Porter’s campaign is the latest controversy to trouble Porter, who has previously been scrutinized for shouting and using expletives on camera at a staffer and for threatening to quit an interview with a journalist. Her behavior has raised questions in California and across the country about whether she is fit to run the state. Republican National Committee spokesman Nick Poche said Porter’s “F*** Trump” email show’s she’s not fit to be governor. “Katie Porter is a degenerate loser who is sick in the head, and it’s telling that failing Democrat candidates think their path to victory is to fan the flames of violence right after an assassination attempt,” Poche said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “The Democrat Party has completely lost its mind, and anyone who refuses to condemn Porter’s remarks is just as responsible for the rise in left-wing political violence as Porter is.” PATTERN OF LEFTIST VIOLENCE GROWS AS TRUMP NEARS 10 MONTHS IN OFFICE Porter’s email sent out Sunday made no mention of the third assassination attempt on Trump’s life that occurred just the day prior. “Today, I wanna start with one simple, powerful message we all agree on,” the email stated. :Say it with me. Ready, 1 … 2 … 3 … F*** Trump.” “Yeah, that’s right, F*** Trump,” the email continued. “Together, we’re going to kick Trump’s a** in November and stop him in his tracks.” DEM SENATE HOPEFULS UNDER SCRUTINY FOR ‘CHOKE THEM OUT’ RHETORIC AFTER TRUMP ATTACK SCARE Writer and X influencer Bethany Mandel shared with Fox News Digital the email sent by Porter’s campaign. “Imagine Barack Obama surviving three assassination attempts and 18 hours later, a Republican sent a fundraising email like this,” Mandel posted on X. Fox News Digital reached out to Porter’s campaign for comment. The latest assassination attempt on Trump’s life comes as political rhetoric and tensions between Democrats and Republicans have reached a boiling point. Just days before the assassination attempt, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said Democrats are in an “era of maximum warfare.” Even in the wake of the assassination attempt and GOP condemnation, Jeffries is not backing down from his comments.
Vance pushes back on report of stockpile concerns as US races to boost missile production
The U.S. military is racing to boost missile production after years of output that lagged behind current demand left key weapons in short supply, according to an analysis of Pentagon procurement data. At current production rates, some of the Pentagon’s most critical munitions would take years — and in some cases decades — to replenish, exposing a gap between battlefield use and industrial capacity that cannot be quickly closed. Major defense contractors have struck new agreements with the Pentagon and pledged to significantly increase production across several high-end munitions programs. But senior military officials warn the buildup will take time. “I think it will take one to two years for them to scale. It won’t be soon enough,” Indo-Pacific Command Commander Adm. Samuel Paparo told lawmakers in April. TRUMP-BACKED MILITARY RIGHT TO REPAIR PLAN STRIPPED FROM CONGRESS’ FINAL DEFENSE BILL The push comes as recent combat has drawn down U.S. stockpiles of high-end munitions, exposing a growing gap between how quickly the military can use advanced weapons and the years it takes to replace them, raising concerns about longer-term readiness. The gap between usage and replenishment is also reportedly drawing scrutiny inside the administration. The Atlantic reported that, in closed-door discussions, Vice President JD Vance questioned whether the Pentagon is fully accounting for how much those stockpiles were depleted during the Iran conflict, raising concerns about the availability of key munitions even as defense officials publicly insist U.S. stockpiles remain sufficient. Vance disputed that characterization Wednesday in an interview on Fox News’ “The Will Cain Show,” rejecting the report’s sourcing while acknowledging concerns about military readiness. “Of course, I’m concerned about our readiness because that’s my job to be concerned,” Vance said, adding that defense leaders are “doing an amazing job.” He also dismissed the report, saying, “Don’t believe everything you read, especially in papers like The Atlantic.” Pentagon officials have pushed back on concerns. “America’s military is the most powerful in the world and has everything it needs to execute at the time and place of the president’s choosing,” spokesperson Sean Parnell previously told Fox News Digital. “As Secretary Hegseth has highlighted numerous times, it took less than 10% of American naval power to control the traffic going in and out of the Strait of Hormuz,” Parnell said. “Since President Trump took office, we have executed multiple successful operations across combatant commands while ensuring the U.S. military possesses a deep arsenal of capabilities to protect our people and our interests. Attempts to alarm Americans over the department’s magazine depth are both ill-informed and dishonorable.” But historic Pentagon procurement data helps explain the gap. The Navy’s Tomahawk cruise missile, for example, was procured at an average rate of about 66 missiles per year over the past seven years. At that pace, it would take roughly 12 years to meet the Navy’s goal of adding 785 more. For the Army’s Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system, the gap is even more stark. Procurement has averaged about 30 interceptors per year, meaning it would take nearly three decades to reach a new target of 857 additional interceptors at those rates. Even for more widely produced systems like the Patriot PAC-3 interceptor, historical output has fallen short of current demand. The U.S. has procured roughly 212 PAC-3 MSE missiles annually on average, a pace that would take about two years to meet a new goal of 405. Recent combat has already underscored the strain. Pentagon acting Comptroller Jay Hurst said the conflict with Iran has cost roughly $25 billion so far. “Most of that is munitions,” he told lawmakers in recent days. US FALLS BEHIND IN HYPERSONIC RACE AS CHINA, RUSSIA GAIN EDGE U.S. forces used large shares of several critical munitions during the campaign, a report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies found, including more than 850 Tomahawk cruise missiles and more than 1,000 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles. Patriot interceptor use was estimated between roughly 1,060 and 1,430 missiles, more than half of the U.S. prewar inventory. Despite the heavy usage, analysts say the U.S. retains enough munitions to sustain current operations. The greater concern, they warn, is whether stockpiles can be rebuilt quickly enough to support a future conflict against a peer adversary. Some production gains are already underway. TRUMP RALLIES DEFENSE TITANS TO SURGE WEAPONS OUTPUT AS IRAN WAR RAGES Similar scaling efforts have been seen in other munitions programs, including artillery production, which has expanded severalfold since 2022. Defense firms say they are already increasing output and investing heavily in expanding capacity. RTX, the parent company of Raytheon, said missile deliveries were up more than 40% year over year in the first quarter, building on production gains made in 2025. The company also said it invested $2.6 billion last year to expand manufacturing capacity and plans to continue increasing spending. The company has said it plans to produce more than 1,000 Tomahawk cruise missiles per year, while output of Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM) could reach nearly 1,900 annually. Lockheed Martin has increased production of the Patriot interceptor significantly in recent years to around 600 annually. The company recently announced plans to expand capacity to 2,000 per year. But analysts say funding alone cannot push these plans forward. “We have more money than we have capacity,” said Mark Cancian, a senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “It’s just time.” Missile production depends on long-lead components such as propulsion systems and guidance technology, often sourced from a limited number of suppliers, meaning new orders can take years to translate into delivered weapons. Even under normal conditions, missile production follows a multi-year cycle. Before recent conflicts, it typically took about two years from contract award to initial delivery, with another year to complete production. Those timelines have since stretched as demand has outpaced capacity, Cancian said, adding that new orders today could take “four, maybe five years” to fully deliver. Much of the Pentagon’s planned increase in munitions spending is
West Bengal Election 2026: Voting concludes with TMC, BJP war over EVM tampering, rigged polling booth, incidents of clashes
As the West Bengal Assembly polls concluded, the ruling Trinamool Congress and the opposition BJP has been sparring over EVM tampering, violence and polling booths. This has not been the first time when the two rival parties have raised questions on each other. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has accused the Centre of allowing its Central forces to beati up people, including women and children.
Rajasthan: Massive fire breaks out in Kota’s City Mall, no casualties reported; Video shows thick smoke emerging, watch
A massive fire broke out on the second floor of Kota’s City Mall located on Jhalawar Road on Wednesday. At the time the incident occurred at City Mall, most showrooms and shops were just preparing to open for the day. No casulaties reported.
Tamil Nadu Elections 2026: How the delimitation row could shape BJP’s future in state
The dispute over the delimitation row may shape voter sentiment in Tamil Nadu, challenge BJP’s growth in the state and highlight tensions between development-focused governance and political centralisation.
Kerala Election Exit Poll Result 2026: Congress-led UDF ahead, LDF closely behind, says early projections
The voting for the Assembly Election 2026 concluded on April 29 at 6 pm in which around 17 crore voters participated across 824 assembly constituencies in the five states of Assam, Kerala, Tamil nadu, West Bengal and Puducherry. Assam, Kerala and Puducherry voted on April 9 whereas Tamil Nadu voted in a single phase on April 23 along with West Bengal which voted for its first phase. The second phase of West Bengal Assembly Election tjust concluded today at 6pm. The results for all five states will come on May 4.
Assam Exit Poll Result 2026: BJP’s hat-trick, set to return to power in Assam
Assam Exit Polls 2026: Exit polls projects return of BJP government in Assam. BJP is all set for a hat-trick with a clean sweep securing 88+ seats out of total seats of 126.
Tamil Nadu exit poll 2026: Have experiments like Vijay’s TVK succeeded in the past?
Tamil Nadu, which has a thriving entertainment industry and has produced highly-popular film stars, has a long history of witnessing actors turning into politicians. But have experiments such as the TVK succeeded to take off in the past?