Trump grants pardons to ‘persecuted’ mechanics in right-to-repair crackdown: ‘I am setting them all free’
President Donald Trump on Friday announced full executive pardons for more than half a dozen people he claims were “persecuted” by the Biden administration for simply “fixing their car.” In a Truth Social post Friday afternoon, the president took aim at federal prosecutions he characterized as part of the “Weaponization and Stupidity” of the prior administration, saying, “I AM SETTING THEM ALL FREE, RIGHT NOW!” Those who received clemency were charged after circumventing emissions control regulations that are no longer in effect, a White House official told Fox News Digital. They include: Joshua Davis; Matt Geouge; Jonathan Achtemeier; Tim Clancy; Ryan and Wade Lalone; Barry Pierce; Aaron Rudolf; and Mackenzie Spurlock. FORMER INDIANA REP STEPHEN BUYER RECEIVES FULL PARDON FROM TRUMP FOR 2023 INSIDER TRADING CONVICTION The pardons align with Trump’s broader push to defend the “right to repair.” Earlier in the week, he signed a presidential memo designed to make it easier for Americans to repair their own vehicles by protecting self-repair rights and opening up options for aftermarket parts. “It came to my attention because I noticed they were arresting people for fixing their car,” Trump said during an Oval Office news conference. “We rule by common sense.” The executive clemency follows the high-profile federal environmental case involving Elite Diesel Service Inc. and its owner, Troy Lake Sr. Lake received a full and unconditional pardon Nov. 7, 2025, wiping away his conviction in the case United States v. Elite Diesel Service, Inc. et al. WATCH: TRUMP EPA CHIEF SPARKS EXPLOSIVE HEARING SHOWDOWN OVER GLOBAL WARMING ALARM FROM DEMS: ‘I’M TALKING’ According to federal plea agreements, Elite Diesel had instructed employees to disable computerized on-board diagnostic systems on at least 344 heavy-duty commercial trucks between January 2017 and December 2020. The diagnostic systems are federally mandated under the Clean Air Act to monitor emissions control systems. Lake was sentenced on Dec. 5, 2024, to more than a year in prison and a $2,500 fine. The company was put on probation for five years, ordered to pay a fine of $37,500 and required to make a $12,500 payment to a Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment program designed to repair emissions systems for low-income drivers. REPUBLICANS DECLARE WAR ON ‘ORGANIZED THEFT’ WITH GOVERNMENT FRAUD CRACKDOWN Government prosecutors also argued that Elite Diesel’s co-conspirators, other diesel truck garages and fleets, hired Lake’s company to manipulate the computers so that emission system malfunctions would go undetected, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado. The EPA’s sprawling investigation ultimately swept up eight alleged co-conspirator garages and fleets across seven states, including Kansas, North Dakota and Oklahoma. The businesses were ordered to pay heavy fines and fund local community service projects, such as buying clean school buses or electric groundskeeping equipment to offset environmental impacts, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. At the time, Biden administration officials defended the criminal prosecutions as essential for public health. EPA Criminal Investigation Division Special Agent Lance Ehrig accused the defendants of leading a “large-scale conspiracy” that “diminished air quality.” A study cited by the prosecution claimed the tampered trucks collectively released more than 1,300 tons of excess nitrogen oxides and other pollutants into the air.
Mamdani blasts ICE agents, Elon Musk and ‘supremacy’ in America 250 speech ahead of July 4 weekend
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani took aim at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, Elon Musk and what he described as the “arena of supremacy” in the United States during an immigration-themed America 250 speech on Friday ahead of Fourth of July weekend. Flanked by eight recently naturalized U.S. citizens, Mamdani invoked the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and America’s history of immigration before turning his rhetoric on elements of today’s U.S. Mamdani also blasted the “world’s first trillionaire,” a milestone Musk achieved with the long-awaited Initial Public Offering (IPO) of SpaceX last month. “We see the wealthiest country in the history of the world, one where children go to sleep hungry while the world’s first trillionaire hungers for more,” Mamdani said, without naming Musk. “We see monopolies that dominate every industry, and oligarchs who buy elections. We see masked agents terrorizing our streets, eating food cooked by our undocumented neighbors before spiriting them away in unmarked vans. FETTERMAN WARNS MAMDANI RISKS ‘CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS’ BY VOWING TO DEFY SCOTUS IMMIGRATION RULING “We see a nation whose immense wealth has been built by those with calloused, dirt-streaked hands, those who toil on factory floors and chisel into stone. And we see a nation that has allowed so much of that wealth to be held instead in the soft hands of a precious few.” Mamdani, who was sitting at George Washington’s desk during the remarks, also praised the legacy of immigrants, claiming they have overcome riots “aimed at their very existence,” to create lives in New York. “Over the years that followed, despite laws enacted by the federal government to bar their entry, despite sweatshop fires that killed hundreds of women, despite riots aimed at their very existence, immigrants made homes here in New York City, and they helped to make New York City,” the mayor said. “That legacy of every generation of Americans insisting that the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness extends to them, too, is no relic of the past. It carried millions of Black Americans north during the Great Migration. It drew hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans to New York City after the Second World War. It invited countless others from the West Indies and South Asia and West Africa and across the world. And it is what brought my family to this city when I was seven years old.” ZOHRAN MAMDANI PRAISED FOR ‘FANTASTIC’ QUESTION-DODGING ON PRESIDENTIAL ELIGIBILITY Mamdani did not mention his own family’s wealth in the speech. His father was an elite Harvard academic, and his mother an acclaimed film director. “My family did not arrive by boat, although we saw the Statue of Liberty from the window of the plane. Even from the air, we could make out the promise of America, the promise of the beautiful patriotic work of rendering America, year after year, a little more faithful to its founding ideals,” he said. In his speech, Mamdani blasted those with “power and influence,” who he lamented have written American history. “There is a term so often used to describe our nation and those who have shaped it. American exceptionalism. American exceptionalism, the conventional wisdom tells us, makes our freedom a little more free. It is how we dug the Erie Canal and irrigated the West. (It) is why children in faraway lands grow up dreaming of one day moving here. And, yet, the irony is that the story of America has so often been written by those who were told by others with power and influence and wealth that they were anything but exceptional,” Mamdani said. “For generation after generation, we have been told that when the world has sent its people to our shores, it has not sent its best. “It sent Puritans and Sikhs and Quakers and Muslims and Jewish people who were banished for praying the wrong way, worshiping the wrong gods, angering the wrong people. It sent peasants and serfs from slums and shuttles who were treated as less because they hardly owned clothes, let alone land. It sent immigrants from whom power was something someone else had,” he continued. “We are told that America is exceptional because we are richer, stronger, more powerful than everyone else. The truth, my friends, is that America is exceptional because here nothing is fixed into place.” Mamdani referenced how he became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2018. Mamdani was born in Uganda in 1991 and moved to New York when he was 7. The mayor is a dual U.S.-Ugandan citizen. “Nearly a decade ago, I too felt what you feel the joy of no longer being just a New Yorker but an American too. You each hold a special power. The power to determine what America means,” the mayor said, speaking to the recently naturalized citizens by his side. “The powerful have always known their answer. America, in their view, is an arena of supremacy where only a select few are allowed freedom,” Mamdani said. “Where not all are created equal. America, if you ask them, becomes less the more people it welcomes. America, they will tell you, belongs only to those with the right accent or the right shade of skin. The rest of us, they insist, should be grateful for merely being allowed to visit. How small they are, how weak, how unoriginal. At every moment in our past, those who led through exclusion and isolation have tried to win power and enrich themselves by turning us against one another.” Mamdani also claimed ICE was invading New York neighborhoods. “We see America each time neighbors link arms with neighbors without asking how long they have lived here or what papers they have as ICE invades our neighborhoods,” he added. “We see America each time those young and old stand in the beating rain or the stifling heat to cast their ballots. We see America each time working people demand more, not just for themselves, but for their fellow Americans.” “There are some
Trump calls out NATO ahead of summit, calling it ‘ridiculous’ for US to persist on ‘one sided path’
President Donald Trump targeted the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), venting frustration about the alliance in Thursday’s social media posts. “The United States spends more money on NATO than any other country, by far, to protect them, without getting any benefit from so doing: U.S. 999 Billion Dollars, United Kingdom, 90.5 Billion Dollars, France, 66.5 Billion Dollars, Italy, 48.8 Billion Dollars, Poland, 44.3 Billion Dollars. Others, including Germany, are MUCH LOWER. (2014-2025) Ridiculous!” the president asserted in a Thursday morning Truth Social post. A NATO release, which explains that the “cut-off date for information used in this report was 3 June 2025” and that “figures for 2024 and 2025 are estimates,” listed the estimated 2025 U.S. defense expenditure as $980 billion, the United Kingdom’s as $90.508 billion, France as $66.531 billion, Italy as $48.8 billion, and Poland as $44.314 billion. MOST TRUMP SUPPORTERS STILL BACK NATO DESPITE YEARS OF TRUMP’S CRITICISM, NEW POLL FINDS America’s commander in chief also called out NATO in a post on Thursday night. “Ridiculous for the U.S.A. to continue along this one sided path when the relationship is not reciprocal. They were not there for us!!!” Trump exclaimed in the post. The president’s vocal complaints about NATO came ahead of the alliance’s upcoming summit in Ankara, Turkey, next week. Trump is scheduled to attend. NATO SECRETARY MARK RUTTE PRAISES TRUMP’S IRAN STRATEGY, ADDRESSES PRESIDENT’S FRUSTRATION WITH ALLIES Trump met with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at the White House last month. Trump has been critical of NATO amid the U.S. war with Iran. TRUMP ‘RIGHT TO BE OUTRAGED’ BY EUROPE’S BETRAYAL ON IRAN, SAYS FORMER THATCHER ADVISOR “Now that the Hormuz Strait situation is over, I received a call from NATO asking if we would need some help. I TOLD THEM TO STAY AWAY, UNLESS THEY JUST WANT TO LOAD UP THEIR SHIPS WITH OIL. They were useless when needed, a Paper Tiger!” Trump asserted in a mid-April Truth Social post.
Cruz pushes bill to hold tax-exempt sponsors accountable as DOJ probes Singham network
FIRST ON FOX: Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is doubling down on his bill that would strip the tax-exempt status of individuals and organizations that funnel funds to nonprofits engaging in political violence as the Justice Department probes the finances of far-left financier Neville Roy Singham. Fox News Digital learned that Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche authorized the investigation by U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton into the financial workings of a network of nonprofits funded by Singham. “I’ve long said that Democrat billionaires are funding left-wing political violence to push anti-American and foreign-aligned interests through tax-exempt entities,” Cruz told Fox News Digital. “The DOJ is absolutely right to investigate Neville Roy Singham’s funding network, which has been critical in bankrolling those efforts.” PROBE INTO ‘SUBVERSIVE’ ANTI-AI SINGHAM NETWORK IS ‘ENORMOUS,’ FORMER TREASURY ADVISOR SAYS In March, Cruz introduced the Stop Proxy Organizations Nurturing Subversive Operations and Riots Act, or SPONSOR Act, which would amend the Internal Revenue Code to expand the liability of 501(c)(3) nonprofits for the groups they fund or sponsor. Under the legislation, such nonprofits would be criminally and civilly liable for violations of the law by their sponsored entities. Critics allege that nonprofits in the Singham network use fiscal sponsorships so projects can avoid detection by law enforcement agencies and tax authorities. Cruz said he introduced the SPONSOR Act to “give law enforcement the tools they need to follow the money, close these loopholes and enforce accountability.” According to a Fox News Digital investigation, Singham, a U.S. tech tycoon now living in Shanghai, has funneled $278 million into the broad network of nonprofits since 2017. The nonprofits regularly mobilize agitators for demonstrations across the country, including anti-ICE protests and anti-Israel protests, Fox News Digital has reported. ISRAEL, JEWS TARGETED WORLDWIDE AS WELL-FUNDED LEFTIST, ISLAMIST GROUPS JOIN FOR ‘NAKBA 78’ PROTESTS Singham hasn’t responded to repeated requests for comment that Fox News Digital has sent him over the past several months. Singham routed his financial contributions through Goldman Sachs Donor Advised Philanthropy Fund For Wealth Management Inc., a donor-advised fund, including $22.44 million to The People’s Forum Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit hub for far-left activity in Manhattan. The People’s Forum is connected to a slew of proxy organizations, such as Venceremos Brigade, a controversial organization that has worked with Cuban government officials for decades to bring American activists to Cuba for political and labor solidarity work. The donation page for the Venceremos Brigade identifies it as a fiscally-sponsored project of the People’s Forum. FEDS SAY ARIZONA SUSPECT VANDALIZED ICE FACILITY AND ATTEMPTED TO IGNITE LOBBY AREA ICE Out of New York, which is known for rallying agitators to protest ICE operations, also hosts events at The People’s Forum and has participated in a number of demonstrations with The People’s Forum coordinators. Cruz chairs the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action and Federal Rights, which oversees grants to the Justice Department and is responsible for the regulation of the court system. The committee regularly holds hearings with Justice Department officials. “Loopholes in the Internal Revenue Code allow radical groups to use tax-exempt funds to bankroll violent, anti-American activity opaquely and therefore with impunity,” Cruz said in a statement when the bill was introduced. “The violence that has spread in recent years in our cities and on our college campuses is not organic. It is enabled by funding from well-resourced organizations that exploit such loopholes, including and especially through fiscal sponsorships.” The bill is co-sponsored by Sen. Ted Budd, R-North Carolina, and the House version was introduced by Rep. Nathaniel Moran, R-Texas. “Congress has a duty to safeguard the integrity of our nonprofit system and ensure our tax laws are not exploited by extremist or radical groups operating in the shadows,” Moran said in a statement when the legislation was introduced. Cruz is joined by a host of GOP lawmakers who have criticized Singham’s pro-CCP influence in the U.S., with Sen. Jim Banks, R-Indiana, going as far as to call Singham a “traitor.” Banks sat down with Fox News Digital on Tuesday, when he said that Singham’s nonprofit network poses a threat to the country. He highlighted CodePink, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that Banks said has targeted and confronted him directly on Capitol Hill. Fox News Digital has identified direct funding from Singham to CodePink, which Singham’s wife Jodie Evans co-founded. “Neville Singham is a traitor to our country. He has ties to the CCP,” Banks said. “He is an American citizen, but all of his loyalties lie with the Chinese Communist Party. And when you begin to untangle the web of his massive fortune and his philanthropic activities, the money that he sends to left-wing groups in America, and not just groups that espouse ideologies, but espouse violence.”
Democratic senate candidate called for mass release of criminals during prison abolition webinar
Abdul El-Sayed, a Democrat running for Senate in Michigan, has stated that “we need to be investing” in “any and all efforts to get people out of jails and prisons,” in a recording reviewed by Fox News Digital. El-Sayed joined a convicted murderer and a registered sex offender in September 2020 to speak at a webinar hosted by the University of Michigan’s Carceral State Project where he argued that the incarceration of criminals was a sign that “society has failed to deal with real problems” and, to address this, criminals should be set free. While part of El-Sayed’s argument hinged on the notion that overcrowded prisons posed a public health risk during the COVID-19 pandemic, he endorsed continuing to let people out of correctional facilities even after the pandemic passed. His comments came at the height of the defund the police movement, when violent crime spiked and Democratic-led cities made moves to cut their police forces. El-Sayed, who has aligned himself with independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, is a leading candidate in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary. On the campaign trail, he has promised to be critical of Israel and expand welfare programs if elected. MAMDANI-BACKED SOCIALISTS LOOK TO TAKE NEW YORK PLAYBOOK NATIONWIDE AFTER PRIMARY VICTORIES “There are so many ways that society has failed to deal with real problems and has used policing and jails as a stopgap for all of these failures,” El-Sayed told the panel. “We’ve got policies … which basically force people into jail because they’re poor … we’ve got to think about all of them systematically but any and all efforts to get people out of jails and prisons and to keep people out of jails and prisons is policy that we need to be investing in particularly right now … this doesn’t end when the pandemic’s over.” The American Friends Service Committee, which was also involved in hosting the webinar, advertised it as an opportunity to discuss “the road to decarceration and abolition with Abdul El-Sayed,” using the hashtags #FreeThemAll and #AbolishPrison to promote the event. The Washington Free Beacon first reported on the resurfaced comments. El-Sayed appeared alongside a sex offender and a woman convicted of second-degree murder, according to the Free Beacon. “When I was asked to participate in the webinar you’re writing about I did not know Dr. El-Sayed and I still don’t, except for what I see on TV,” Martin Vargas, the sex offender, told Fox News Digital. “I don’t follow him nor am associated with his political campaign.” Vargas stated that he was almost certain El-Sayed was unaware of his past before agreeing to appear on the webinar. MICHIGAN SENATE CANDIDATE ABDUL EL-SAYED TAKES HEAT FOR KHAMENEI COMMENTS, HASAN PIKER EVENT El-Sayed is locked in a heated Democratic primary to win the Democratic nod to run for Michigan’s open Senate seat in November. He is widely viewed as the most progressive of the three major candidates, raising electability concerns with some leaders in the party, NOTUS reported. “Abdul El-Sayed cannot win a general election in Michigan, full stop,” a longtime Democratic strategist previously told Fox News Digital. “This is a candidate who spent years calling police ‘standing armies we deploy against our own people,’ posted more than a dozen times in support of defunding the police, and then deleted his entire social media history the moment he decided to run statewide, hoping Michigan voters wouldn’t notice. They will notice. And so will Mike Rogers.” MICHIGAN DEMOCRATIC SENATE CANDIDATE CLAIMS ISRAEL ‘JUST AS EVIL’ AS HAMAS As alluded to by the Democratic strategist, El-Sayed deleted social media posts he made during the COVID-19 era in which he endorsed defunding the police, an idea once in vogue among Democrats that has since become far more controversial. “The last thing we have to remember is that jails and policing in America are like the ‘duct tape’ that people bring out to fix all the other broken systems,” El-Sayed said near the end of the webinar. “If we’re serious about fixing policing and, or rethinking policing, and fixing the mass incarceration system then we’ve got to fix all the broken problems that lead to them, right, where we’re then applying the ‘duct tape’ that is so corrosive to the lives of so many people.” El-Sayed’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment when reached by Fox News Digital.
Republican unveils Declaration of Independence bill ahead of America’s 250th birthday
A newly elected Republican lawmaker is putting America’s founding principles back before Congress ahead of the nation’s 250th birthday, arguing the country must recommit to them as socialist ideas gain traction on the left. Rep. Matt Van Epps, R-Tenn., unveiled legislation reaffirming the Declaration of Independence — a move he said follows a congressional tradition of marking major national anniversaries with the founding document. “Congress did this in America 100 to celebrate the 100th Anniversary,” Van Epps told Fox News Digital in an interview. “We felt like this was the right time to do it so that generations forward understand that we love our country at America 250.” The Tennessee Republican, who was elected in a December 2025 special election, said he filed the bill in response to socialism’s rise in the Democratic Party, with the far-left attempting a major power grab ahead of November’s midterm elections. AMERICA’S NEXT 250 YEARS DEPEND ON PASSING FAITH AND FREEDOM TO OUR CHILDREN Van Epps specifically referenced a slate of socialist candidates poised to serve in Congress after winning primaries in deep-blue districts anchored in New York City. Democratic congressional nominee Darializa Avila Chevalier, a 32-year-old activist who won an upset victory against an establishment Democrat, has argued that the deportation of any illegal migrant is wrong, voiced support for the prison abolition movement and questioned Israel’s right to exist. She also co-founded a pro-Palestinian organization at Columbia University that called for “the total eradication of Western civilization.” “These folks that are supported and endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America are antithetical to the founding,” Van Epps told Fox News Digital. “We’ve got to fight against that.” “Socialism, Marxist, leftist ideas have failed every time they’ve been tried in the history of the world,” he continued, adding that those ideas are “not America at its core.” “What the founders set out to do 250 years ago … We’ve got to continue so that the next generations know about that freedom and liberty and pursuing that greatness.” It is unclear when the House will consider the resolution, as lawmakers left Washington early for the July 4 recess after a group of conservative Republicans effectively froze the floor in protest over the SAVE America Act and border security priorities. MAMDANI-BACKED SOCIALIST IN HOT SEAT AGAIN OVER DELETED POSTS PRAISING COMMUNISM, MARXISM: ‘CRAZYPANTS’ Earlier this month, Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., also put the Declaration of Independence on the floor in the Senate, where it easily passed in the upper chamber. Both Schmitt and Van Epps agreed to put forward companion legislation after playing in the annual Congressional baseball game ahead of America’s 250th birthday. For Schmitt, it was to reinvigorate Americans’ pride in their country, which over the years, he contended, has steadily declined. “A generation ago, American pride was nearly universal,” Schmitt said on the Senate floor at the time. “After 9/11, more than 90% of Americans said they were proud to be an American. Today, Gallup puts that number at 58%.” He described the idea behind the document as an inheritance passed down through the generations to remind Americans why the founding fathers opted to wrench control of the colonies’ future from England, and carve their own path as a new nation. “That inheritance now rests in our hands, and too many powerful voices in this country teach the next generation to receive it with suspicion instead of gratitude,” Schmitt said. “We are done being ashamed of America. We love our country. We honor the men who built it. We give thanks for the inheritance they placed in our hand, and we intend to keep it.”
We asked Americans to grade the economy. Then we asked if it would change their vote.
As Americans gather in the nation’s capital to celebrate the Fourth of July and kick off the nation’s 250th anniversary festivities, Fox News Digital asked attendees at the Great American State Fair on the National Mall whether the economy will influence how they vote in November. While most respondents gave the U.S. economy a passing grade — most commonly a “B” — many said their ballots won’t hinge on inflation, jobs or economic growth alone. Instead, they pointed to values, leadership and party affiliation as the factors that will ultimately decide their vote. The responses offer a snapshot of how some voters are weighing one of the nation’s top political issues ahead of the 2026 midterms. TRUMP’S MANUFACTURING PROMISE IS DELIVERING IN ONE OF AMERICA’S OLDEST FACTORIES Although respondents expressed cautious optimism about the economy’s direction, several said improving conditions would not be enough to change their political preferences, underscoring the role that broader ideological and cultural issues continue to play in shaping voter decisions. “I would probably give the economy, compared to what it was, I would give it a B for sure,” Jay Miller of Lafayette, Louisiana, told Fox News Digital. “I think we are on the verge of an economic boom like we’ve never seen in our nation. And I’m glad that I’m living at this point and this time to witness it firsthand.” Miller said he believes lawmakers should work more closely with President Donald Trump to advance the administration’s agenda, arguing that doing so would help unlock further economic growth. Donna Festinger from Greenfield, Massachusetts, also gave the economy above average marks, grading it a “B-plus.” “I think it’s on the rise, and we’re getting more and more jobs, which I think really helps everyone in America,” the retired schoolteacher told Fox News Digital. “I think this administration is working hard to help everybody earn more money and to be able to save more money, which will circle back into a better economy.” But not everyone in Washington, D.C. this week was as upbeat. FOX NEWS POLL: MOST RATE THE ECONOMY NEGATIVELY, INCLUDING HALF OF REPUBLICANS Bonnie from Hollister, California, gave the economy a “C,” citing ongoing concerns about prices, but said she’s hopeful conditions will continue improving. “I don’t think it’s great right now,” she said, citing high gas prices in her home state of California. “I would say maybe a C, but I’m hopeful that it’s going to turn around and be getting up to a B soon.” Dan Cuda, 72, landed somewhere in the middle, saying the economy still has “a lot of upside potential” despite inflation. “Groceries are pricey. I’m an Air Force veteran, and I’m still shopping at the military commissaries, and it’s noticeably up,” Cuda, a Maryland resident, told Fox News Digital. Military commissaries are grocery stores on military installations that offer discounted prices to eligible service members, veterans and their families. Despite higher food costs, Cuda still said, “I’d call it a… B economy.” TRUMP VOTERS SAY COSTS ARE CRUSHING THEIR WALLETS — BUT LOOK PAST PRESIDENT FOR BLAME When the conversation shifted from the economy to politics, several Americans said economic conditions weren’t the deciding factor in how they plan to vote. “It doesn’t really factor into my vote,” Cuda said, adding, “I’m voting R no matter what.” SIGN UP TO GET THE POLITICS NEWSLETTER Miller echoed that sentiment, saying character and values outweigh economic performance when it comes to casting his vote at the ballot box. “Give me good people,” he said. “Give me conservatives. Give me somebody with a little faith, a little family, a little value. And that’s got my vote.” Bonnie also said the economy matters, but won’t change her support for her preferred candidate. “It does matter, but it’s not gonna keep me from voting for who I wanna vote for,” the Californian said.
James Carville breaks with famous ‘It’s the economy, stupid’ slogan because of Trump
James Carville, the architect of President Bill Clinton’s 1992 victory over President George H.W. Bush and industrialist H. Ross Perot, said this week that President Donald Trump has forced him to break with the catchphrase that many believe helped win that election and made him a political household name. Carville originally coined “It’s the economy, stupid,” as an internal reminder to campaign staff at Clinton’s Little Rock headquarters to stay on-message amid Bush’s rising approval ratings connected to his handling of the Gulf War. But this week, Carville suggested allegations of corruption involving President Donald Trump have supplanted the idea that the economy should remain top of mind during election season. During a discussion on his “Politicon” podcast network, former Mount Holyoke Dean Joseph Ellis mentioned “It’s the economy, stupid” before the Ragin Cajun cut him off. FOX NEWS POLL: AS ECONOMIC PAIN DEEPENS, DISAPPROVAL OF TRUMP HITS NEW HIGH “So, professor, I thought about that recently – about ‘It’s the economy, stupid’ – it’s a great catchphrase. It’s maybe one of the most oft-repeated things in politics,” Carville said. “I now have come to detest the fact I said that.” Without mentioning Trump by name, Carville — who has repeatedly accused the incumbent of corruption in recent months — compared him with the more genteel Bush. “I’ll listen to people who say, ‘people don’t care about corruption, they care about the economy — As long as their incomes are up, they don’t care what he does’ – and I’m afraid that’s right.” JAMES CARVILLE SAYS SOCIALIST DEMOCRAT SHOULDN’T BE IN THE PARTY, CALLS HER VIEWS ‘A BRIDGE TOO FAR’ “But I said it in 1992, and say what you want about George H.W. Bush, he was not… a corrupt man at all; decent man too. We have now the breathtaking, staggering — I understand if people say, ‘Yeah, you know, you’re right, that’s all people care about is the economy, and I won’t do it, I don’t say anything, I’m nice’,” he said, appearing to envision voters preferring to focus on the economy over other personality issues. “I want to punch him in the f—ing face. OK? Yes. I’m serious… Because the phrase actually haunts me today.” Asked about the invective, White House spokesman Davis Ingle called the Ragin’ Cajun a “stone-cold loser.” “[Carville] suffers from a severe and incurable disease known as Trump Derangement Syndrome, and it has rotted his peanut-sized brain,” Ingle said. During an earlier discussion with his co-host, former Wall Street Journal Washington bureau chief Al Hunt, Carville said that “we are drowning; we’re suffocating in corruption” before accusing Trump of increasing his net worth by $2 billion since becoming president. “I’m just really fearful for the United States,” he added. In February, Carville directed one of his segments at Trump as though the president was watching, telling the president that his inner circle “hates” him and that he is a “fat, sorry, sack of s—.” SIGN UP TO GET THE POLITICS NEWSLETTER Since then, he has continued criticizing the president and recently said he is proud to have the proverbial “Trump Derangement Syndrome.” Carville has been a mainstay in Democratic politics ever since helping engineer Clinton’s 1992 victory, alongside other notable campaign aides, including ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos, whom Trump also spars with on occasion. Clinton’s 1992 campaign produced several enduring touchstones, from Carville’s “It’s the economy, stupid,” to Fleetwood Mac’s 1977 hit “Don’t Stop,” which became the de facto theme song for his successful bid. Carville’s comments about his old slogan also come as he recently rebuked socialist nominees taking over his party. Fox News Digital reached out to Carville via his “Politicon” podcast for further comment.
Vulnerable House Dem’s bipartisanship push clashes with fantasy to ‘beat the s— out of’ Hegseth
Rep. Susie Lee, D-Nev., a swing-district Democrat who touts herself as a bipartisan dealmaker, told a liberal audience she wants to “work across the aisle” before saying moments later that watching Pete Hegseth testify made her want to “beat the s— out of him.” Lee made the remarks during an appearance last month before the Sun City Liberal Club in Las Vegas while discussing rare earth minerals and her work supporting MP Materials, a Las Vegas-based company involved in U.S. critical minerals production. The comments come as she seeks re-election in Nevada’s closely divided 3rd Congressional District. “I want to be bipartisan. I want to work across the aisle,” Lee told the crowd, according to video of the remarks. But moments later, while discussing Hegseth appearing before her committee, she said, “Now listen, it’s so easy. It’s so easy. Like you just wanna beat the s— out of him.” SWING-DISTRICT DEMOCRAT FACES BACKLASH AFTER VULGAR LATE-NIGHT POST TARGETING TRUMP, DOUBLES DOWN “But you got to bite it,” Lee said of wanting to “beat the s—” out of Hegseth. The Hegseth remark is not the first profanity-laced comment to draw scrutiny for Lee. In April, Fox News Digital reported that Lee deleted an expletive-filled late-night social media post targeting Trump after online backlash, then defended her remarks by saying her “nerve was touched” by what she described as attacks on the Constitution. “Secretary Hegseth has made life less safe and more expensive for Americans. The war of choice that he and President Trump started has placed more burden on working families by increasing the cost of gas and groceries. And despite promising to immediately review Congresswoman Lee’s request to get Nevada Test and Training Range veterans the health care they need, Secretary Hegseth has dragged his feet for nearly two months,” a spokesperson for Lee told Fox News Digital. “Clearly, there are many areas in which Congresswoman Lee does not see eye to eye with the Secretary.” Lee’s comments about wanting to beat up Hegseth came while she was teeing up a story to the Sun City Liberal Club about pressing the Secretary of War during a hearing on the Pentagon’s decision to invest in an Australian company while supposedly leaving a U.S.-based one out to dry. Lee said she appealed to Hegseth by telling him she believed in “made in America” and questioned why the Pentagon had invested more heavily in a different Australian company as opposed to MP Materials, an American one. “Now listen, it’s so easy. It’s so easy. Like you just wanna beat the s— out of him. I mean yea, but you just got to bite it. So this is what I did – he came in front of my committee twice,” Lee said as she told the story about the rare earth investments. “You got to lay on their ego, right?” she continued. “Well, three weeks later, they announced a $2 billion investment in MP Materials, okay? I didn’t want to be sweet with Hegseth, okay, I didn’t. But, you know, you got to do what you got to do to get s— done, right?” “Congresswoman Lee set aside [her differences with Hegseth] on behalf of her constituents to secure an investment in a Nevada-based employer that will create hundreds of jobs in southern Nevada,” Lee’s spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “She will continue putting politics aside and working with anyone — regardless of party — to lower costs, create jobs, and make life better for her constituents.” But Republicans took aim at the remarks as evidence that Lee’s bipartisan brand is at odds with how she talks about Trump administration officials behind closed doors. DEM REP WHO WENT ON EXPLETIVE-LADEN ANTI-TRUMP RANT WINS PRIMARY “It’s unfortunate for our Republic, near our 250th birthday of this great experiment we call America, that town hall comments like this reveal the truth, and Republican voters should be warned that Democrats, if they take over the majority, will simply spend their time going after President Trump and his administration,” said Mark Bednar, former head of communications for former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy. Republicans also took issue with Lee’s claim that her exchange with Hegseth helped spur a major Defense Department investment in MP Materials, accusing the Nevada Democrat of overstating her role while using the story to burnish her bipartisan credentials. “Either Susie Lee believes her words contain the persuasive power of the word of God, or she’s making stuff up and being completely unhinged to boot,” said Republican National Committee spokesperson Nick Poché. “Nevadans deserve a leader who will work to deliver for them, not posers whose only objective in office is to improve their stock portfolios like Susie Lee.” MP Materials eventually signed a major agreement with the Defense Department, including a $400 million Pentagon investment that made the federal government the company’s largest shareholder and other commitments aimed at strengthening the U.S. rare earth magnet supply chain.
Trump kicks off Fourth of July weekend with symbolic salute to America’s legacy
President Donald Trump will open America’s 250th Independence Day weekend with a return to Mount Rushmore, reviving one of the most symbolic scenes of his first administration as the White House stages a week of patriotic events across some of the country’s most recognizable landmarks. Trump last attended a Mount Rushmore fireworks display in 2020, when the landmark hosted its first official fireworks show since 2009. Trump issued a presidential action in January to honor the history of America, ordering “a grand celebration worthy of the momentous occasion of the 250th anniversary of American Independence on July 4, 2026.” On both a federal and state level, the nation has thrown a line up of events this summer including the “Great American State Fair” on the National Mall. WORLD CUP SOCCER FANS ARE DISCOVERING AMERICA’S GREATNESS. IT’S TIME AMERICANS DID, TOO Trump kicked off the fair on June 24 by hosting a rally the night before the beginning of the fair. He will return Saturday for the “Salute to America” event, where he is expected to take the stage. Washington, D.C., has been placed under an “Extreme Heat Alert” until Sunday morning with temperatures predicted to feel like 105°F or hotter, according to DC Homeland Security & Emergency Management. TRUMP TAKES INAUGURAL FLIGHT ABOARD NEW AIR FORCE ONE AHEAD OF LIBRARY DEBUT HONORING FAMED OUTDOORSMAN Trump’s remarks are expected to begin around 9:00 p.m. ET, prior to a massive fireworks display on the National Mall that has been touted by the administration as the largest in history. The National Mall has garnered special attention this year after a string of vandalism against the Reflecting Pool and monuments. The pattern emerged after Trump ordered a restoration and repainting of the reflecting pool, which was then met with “razor-blade cuts” to its lining, according to the White House. Earlier this week, Trump attended the opening of the Theodore Roosevelt Library in Medora, North Dakota, on Wednesday. Roosevelt was known for his passion for the outdoors – dramatically expanding federal protection of natural resources and public lands. He established national parks, created national monuments and strengthened the U.S. Forest Service. BIDEN-APPOINTED JUDGE ORDERS TRUMP TO RESTORE SLAVERY, CLIMATE CHANGE REFERENCES AT NATIONAL PARKS Trump signed the “Great American Outdoors Act Reauthorization,” which centers on previous legislation signed by the 45th and 47th president but renews funding in honor of America’s 250th birthday.