Trump turns to emerging tech giant in multi-billion bid to ramp up US submarine production
The Trump administration is turning to a defense technology giant in a $6.6 billion effort to speed production of submarines as the U.S. struggles to keep pace with China’s vast shipbuilding capacity. The ramp-up in production brings a Silicon Valley-style manufacturer into one of the Pentagon’s most troubled industrial bases as they fall behind expected pace of two Virginia-class attack submarines per year. Anduril will build a more than 2-million-square-foot shipyard at Sparrows Point shipyard just outside of Baltimore to manufacture critical submarine components, eventually scaling up to large sections of the vessels. A senior administration official said the facility could add roughly 9 million labor hours a year, equivalent to about a 15% increase in submarine production capacity. President Donald Trump will visit the shipyard on Tuesday afternoon to formally announce the new initiative in Baltimore alongside Anduril leadership. NAVY SECRETARY WARNS SHIPYARDS MUST ‘ACT LIKE WE’RE AT WAR’ AS CHINA’S AI-POWERED FLEET RACES AHEAD The investment takes aim at a problem the Navy has struggled for years to solve: shipyards are delivering roughly 1.3 Virginia-class submarines a year, well short of the Navy’s goal of two, even as demand for the nuclear-powered attack boats grows. The Navy currently projects reaching the two-per-year rate around 2032. It currently has 26 Virginia-class submarines and expects to add two more in the spring, according to a senior administration official.and For the submarine project, Anduril plans to invest $3.7 billion of its own capital to build the facility, workforce and manufacturing capacity. The Navy could spend up to another $2.9 billion purchasing the resulting production. The deal represents an unusual bet on a commercial model for fixing one of the Pentagon’s most stubborn industrial problems: Anduril will risk billions of dollars of its own capital building new submarine production capacity, while the Navy pays for what the company can successfully produce. “I wouldn’t say that the government’s paying us back. We feel the government [is] buying the results of what we’re able to produce,” an industry official told reporters of the deal. EMERGING TECH HAS NEW ARMY LEADERS WARNING TROOPS CAN’T ‘AI’ THEIR WAY TO VICTORY ON THE BATTLEFIELD The deal also deepens Anduril’s growing relationship with the Pentagon just days after War Secretary Pete Hegseth tapped company founder Palmer Luckey, along with Elon Musk and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, to launch Project Meridian — a 120-day study of how future wars will be fought and what weapons and technologies the U.S. military will need. The arrangement puts Luckey in a position to help shape recommendations about the Pentagon’s future technology needs as the company he founded expands its own business selling weapons and other systems to the department. Project Meridian does not have procurement authority, and the Pentagon has said “appropriate” safeguards will be used to address potential conflicts of interest. Anduril will work under General Dynamics Electric Boat and alongside HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding, initially producing components that have become bottlenecks in the construction of new Virginia-class boats. Among the first will be torpedo tubes , which a senior administration official described as a current “gating component” holding up production. The official said getting those tubes earlier could allow the Navy to move. Anduril has already begun work on torpedo tubes at a facility in California and plans to shift that production to Baltimore as the new shipyard, dubbed Arsenal-2, comes online. The company eventually hopes to move from individual components to complex modules and large sections of submarines. “We just need new production capacity,” an industry official said. “We need to grow the maritime industrial base, the submarine industrial base, so that we can produce more submarines.” The company plans to build Arsenal-2 around software, automation and digital manufacturing to break historically complex shipbuilding work into simpler tasks that can be done without years of shipyard experience. The push comes as the Navy faces growing pressure to expand the attack-submarine fleet while also preparing to transfer Virginia-class submarines to Australia under the AUKUS security pact. Meeting those commitments will require the industrial base not only to reach the Navy’s longstanding two-per-year goal, but eventually move beyond it. Arsenal-2 is expected to create 3,100 direct jobs and another 11,000 indirect jobs nationwide. Anduril expects the Baltimore facility to begin operations around 2030, though the company said production of some submarine components is beginning now in California. The approach will still have to clear the certification and safety requirements that govern nuclear submarine construction. Anduril acknowledged that it will have to prove it can meet those standards before graduating from individual components to increasingly complex sections of the boats.
Blue city emerges as ‘suspected hotspot’ of visa fraud as swing state lawmaker demands answers
FIRST ON FOX: A blue city in one of the country’s hottest battleground states is accused of being a potential hotbed of foreign worker visa fraud, according to the House lawmaker who represents the area. Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Ga., is writing to the Trump administration on Tuesday asking for an investigation into alleged abuse of the H-1B work visa program in his own district. He warned in the letter that his district is a “suspected hotspot of this fraud” and offered himself as “an interlocutor to help enable cooperation with state-level agencies and law enforcement.” Georgia’s 7th Congressional District, which McCormick represents, encompasses part of the Atlanta metro area including the city’s northern suburbs. That includes part of Fulton County, whose top prosecutor, Fani Willis, has been under heavy scrutiny by Republicans in recent years. FEDERAL JUDGE STRIKES DOWN TRUMP’S $100K H-1B VISA FEE, RULING IT AN UNCONSTITUTIONAL TAX “Established by the Immigration Act of 1990, the purpose of the H-1B program is to allow American businesses to temporarily bring in foreign citizens to fill key, high-skill employment positions when the domestic workforce demonstrably cannot provide the necessary labor,” McCormick wrote. “Unfortunately, the H-1B program has become the subject of rampant fraud and abuse for the nefarious purposes of obtaining labor that bad actors can exploit below-market-rate wages and abusive work conditions given H-1B holders’ dependence on retaining their employment in order to avoid removal back to their country of origin.” FURY ERUPTS AS US BRAND FIRES 1,600 EMPLOYEES AFTER SECURING THOUSANDS OF FOREIGN WORKER VISAS He said the alleged fraud is sowing uncertainty in the U.S. labor market by undercutting wages and unfairly increasing competition for American workers, particularly those fresh out of college. “Bad actors have developed illicit methods for meeting the requirements for obtaining H-1B visas and the necessary work authorizations, and they employ these methods at scale to enrich themselves through fraud and exploitation via the most threadbare compliance with the letter of the law,” McCormick wrote. VICE PRESIDENT VANCE SAYS MIGRANT COMMUNITIES SHOW ‘CLEAR PATTERN’ IN FEDERAL FRAUD AS INVESTIGATIONS WIDEN The Georgia Republican said his suspicions were raised by “stakeholder engagement, reports from my constituents, and recent federal investigation and enforcement activity targeting entities in and around GA-07.” And while he did not name specific businesses or people he believes are associated with such fraud, McCormick argued, “Metro Atlanta’s recent economic growth and international airport unfortunately make it a logical area of concentration for these bad actors.” EXCLUSIVE: ‘PHANTOM EMPLOYEES’ SCANDAL SPURS GOP CRACKDOWN ON $36B INCENTIVE FOR COMPANIES TO BYPASS AMERICANS The Trump administration launched an investigation into suspected H-1B visa fraud in July. H-1B visas have become the subject of fierce debate on the right, with prominent critics like Vice President JD Vance calling it a “broken” system while calling to eliminate it altogether. Supporters of H-1B visas, like Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, have argued it’s critical for attracting global talent in fields like technology and engineering that are key to keeping the U.S. at the forefront of global innovation.
Trump responds to concerns over suspected plague case in Russia, saying US ‘willing to help’
Amid a global health scare sparked by the death of a 28-year-old woman who worked at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East, President Donald Trump indicated that the U.S. would be willing to provide assistance to Russia. Russian public health entity Rospotrebnadzor said Sunday that the deceased individual had been diagnosed with “pneumonia of unknown etiology,” or origin, but that testing revealed “no microorganisms associated with the patient’s professional activities.” Rospotrebnadzor indicated it didn’t discover any incidents at the facility “involving pathogenic microorganisms.” MYSTERY DEATH AT RUSSIAN PLAGUE LAB TRIGGERS SWEEPING PRECAUTIONS AS US WATCHES CLOSELY During remarks on Monday, Trump said, “The germs have really become relatively stronger than they were, and things that used to work on pneumonia don’t work as well anymore. “Anybody that has that kind of a problem, we’re always willing to help,” he said. RUSSIAN BIO-LEAK SECRECY FOLLOWS CHERNOBYL PLAYBOOK, EX-CIA OFFICER WARNS “While the circumstances of this reported case remain unconfirmed, plague is a serious bacterial disease that is treatable with antibiotics, particularly when recognized and treated early,” a Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson noted in a statement, according to NBC News. “At this time, there is no indication from available reporting of a broader threat to the United States,” the statement said. US MONITORING SUSPECTED FATAL PNEUMONIC PLAGUE CASE IN RUSSIA, STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL SAYS Fox News Digital reached out to HHS on Tuesday. The Associated Press contributed to this report
NYT columnist thrashed online for suggesting Trump is to blame for alleged Cornell gang rape
The New York Times is under fire after one of its columnists suggested that President Donald Trump is responsible for creating the culture that led to an alleged sexual assault against a woman at Cornell University by seven men. “What this is, is it’s a fundamental disrespect for women,” columnist Michelle Cottle said on ABC News on Sunday. “You can’t send those messages no matter how drunk you are as a frat boy without having some kind of misunderstanding about what women are there for and whether this is a real person you’re dealing with.” “And that, I think, starts, you know — we can go to the president for this one,” Cottle went on. “I mean, we are in a moment in this culture where the glorification of being thuggish and swaggering and mistreating women is kind of making you a cool kid.” CORNELL PRESIDENT SAYS UNIVERSITY ‘MUST DO BETTER’ ON HANDLING OF SEXUAL ASSAULT ALLEGATIONS A woman identified as Jane Doe in court records has filed a civil lawsuit against seven men she alleges gang-raped her during a ketamine- and alcohol-induced incident at Cornell University in 2024. Former President Joe Biden occupied the White House at that time. The men have denied wrongdoing, with some saying the sex was consensual, and others saying they didn’t participate. No charges have been filed. AOC’S DRAMATIC RETELLING OF CORNELL RAPE ALLEGATIONS COLLIDES WITH COMPLAINT DETAILS The backlash to Cottle’s comments was fierce, especially among those pointing out that the incident happened when Biden was president, including Fox News contributor Joe Concha. “This happened in 2024 when Biden was President. Did she not know that?” another X user asked. “Latest edition of ‘Trump turned me into a newt!’ brought to you by a very very smart person,” said CNN contributor Scott Jennings. “Media and pundits fall all over themselves trying to make everything and anything about Donald Trump. It’s embarrassing and so incredibly lazy,” said Tricia McLaughlin, former assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security. “This take is SO far beyond delusional that you can’t even see sanity from here…” said conservative commentator John Ziegler. “Of course, it’s Trump’s fault,” said the Media Research Center, which first posted the clip. ATTORNEY FOR ACCUSED CORNELL STUDENT CALLS ON LETITIA JAMES TO STEP ASIDE OVER PRIOR COMMENTS Trump has commented on the case, which is now being investigated by longtime foe New York Attorney General Letitia James, who in 2022 filed a civil fraud lawsuit against him. Trump in 2024 was found liable for fraud and ordered to pay more than $350 million, but the penalty was overturned on appeal. Asked about James being appointed to investigate the alleged gang rape, Trump launched into an attack on the state attorney general. “Well, Letitia James is a corrupt person,” Trump said. “She’s totally corrupt, and I can’t imagine it — I feel badly for whoever she’s looking at because they won’t get a fair shake. Letitia James is a corrupt person.” Fox News Digital reached out to The New York Times and the White House for comment.
Millions saved by blocking dead people payouts as Trump Treasury drops hammer on federal fraud
FIRST ON FOX: The Treasury Department blocked $175 million in federal payments tied to deceased recipients in fiscal year 2026, up sharply from the $99 million identified just months earlier as the Trump administration expanded government-wide screening for improper payments. “I applaud Secretary [Scott] Bessent for slamming the door on these fraudsters before they can pick taxpayers’ pockets,” Republican Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy told Fox News Digital. “Unless you were playing Frisbee in the quad during Econ 101, you know the federal government shouldn’t be sending taxpayer money to dead people,” Kennedy went on. “I fought for years to pass my common-sense bill to stop fraudsters from gaming the system, and now it’s the law.” Kennedy has for years pushed to give Treasury greater access to Social Security death records, helping pass a 2020 law that temporarily authorized the Social Security Administration to share its full Death Master File with the department. That three-year data-sharing program began in December 2023. Trump then signed Kennedy’s Ending Improper Payments to Deceased People Act into law in February 2026, making access permanent. TRUMP’S WAR ON FRAUD EXPANDS AS TREASURY LAUNCHES NEW SITE WITH WHISTLEBLOWER INCENTIVES Trump has tasked his administration with rooting out fraud, waste and abuse across the federal government and tightening safeguards around taxpayer dollars — the latest effort to stop federal benefit payments to dead people is just another initiative within that broader effort. “President Trump continues to deliver for Americans where previous administrations have fallen short. This Administration is setting new standards in record time to prevent fraud and improper payments before hard-earned taxpayer dollars leave the Treasury. Under President Trump’s leadership, there is no tolerance for waste, fraud, and abuse,” White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers told Fox News Digital. Treasury screened more than 1.1 billion federal payments totaling roughly $3.7 trillion in FY2026, identifying and returning about 13,500 payments worth $175 million that otherwise would have been distributed to individuals no longer eligible for payments due to death. “Treasury continues to transform how the federal government protects taxpayer dollars by using better data, stronger controls, and advanced technology to stop fraud and improper payments before money goes out the door,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a press release shared with Fox News Digital. “In the past year alone, Treasury built and deployed new safeguards that verified more than $3.7 trillion in federal payments and increased Do Not Pay access from 4 percent of programs to 99 percent, ensuring agencies have access to the data they need,” Bessent added. “We are moving beyond ‘pay and chase’ and making prevention the federal government’s first line of defense.” WHITE HOUSE PUSHES ‘WATERSHED’ FRAUD-FIGHTING REFORM IN CONGRESS AS VANCE CONVENES TASK FORCE More than 99% of federal programs now have access to the “Do Not Pay” tool, up from roughly 4% at the end of FY2025. The expansion fulfills key requirements of a March 2025 executive order from Trump directing his administration to strengthen safeguards against fraud, waste and abuse involving federal payments. Treasury also screened more than 2.3 billion records against Do Not Pay data sources in FY2026, nearly four times the 641 million records screened the previous fiscal year. The jump comes as the program has expanded across the federal government, alongside new payment verification efforts and additional screenings for states. VANCE TO HOST CONGRESS AT WHITE HOUSE TO DISCUSS LEGISLATIVE ACTION ON FRAUD Treasury also tested new safeguards aimed at verifying that bank accounts belong to the intended recipients and checking Taxpayer Identification Numbers tied to federal payments. The checks became fully operational Sept. 30 and allow Treasury to flag and return payments that fail verification before the money is sent. The latest figures build on Treasury’s July announcement that it had screened more than 885 million payments worth roughly $2.77 trillion and flagged more than 4,900 payments worth about $99 million tied to deceased recipients.
Fox News Power Rankings: The biggest surprises come after October
Four weeks out from the election, and for most Americans, it’s time for football, foliage and flannel. For politics watchers, all eyes are on an October surprise. They’ve been game-changers before. In 2008, the collapse of Lehman Brothers, which ushered in the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression, was a turning point in John McCain’s presidential campaign. He was even with Barack Obama when the news broke, then trailed in every survey after. He lost the popular vote by seven points. Surprises have come from home and abroad. In 1980, it was President Jimmy Carter’s inability to resolve the Iranian hostage crisis. Eight years earlier, it was President Richard Nixon’s announcement that “peace was at hand” in Vietnam. Some have more impact than others. It’s not clear that news about George W. Bush’s DUI changed much about the 2000 election, nor that James Comey’s letter to Congress about Hillary Clinton’s email server was the decider in President Trump’s 2016 win. Still, these surprises all have one thing in common: they happened in presidential years. EXPLOSIVE SLEEPER ISSUE COULD FUEL MIDTERM SHAKEUPS, TOP REPUBLICAN PREDICTS: ‘YOU’RE GONNA SEE SURPRISES’ It’s not as though we don’t get breaking news during the last month of a midterm cycle. Take 2018, when the GOP warned about a migrant caravan, Brett Kavanaugh sought a seat on the Supreme Court, and a gunman opened fire at a Pittsburgh synagogue. But that was the exception, not the rule. For the most part, midterm October surprises affect individual races, not the overall trajectory of a party. In the last midterm, for example, Herschel Walker faced damaging allegations about paying for former girlfriends’ abortions, while in Florida, the destruction caused by Hurricane Ian gave Gov. Ron DeSantis the opportunity to show Floridians that he could be trusted to handle a crisis. FOX NEWS POWER RANKINGS: FOR THE DEMOCRATS, WHERE COULD IT POSSIBLY GO WRONG? Voters haven’t changed their minds about Trump or the party they’d prefer to elect to the House for several months now, so local stories like these are the ones to watch in the final weeks of the campaign. Besides, the biggest surprises come after October. For what still looks like a good – maybe great – year for the Democrats, the party is playing defense in some unexpected places. DAVID MARCUS: IN DEEP BLUE MINNESOTA A RED DAWN MAY BE RISING AHEAD OF THE MIDTERMS That starts with Minnesota, where Republicans have a star candidate in Michele Tafoya. The former NFL sideline reporter has been up and down the state with a message to “stop the fraud” if elected to the Senate. That’s been a hot issue in the state, and it’s allowed her to target the Democrat, Peggy Flanagan, who currently serves as lieutenant governor. Then there’s New Hampshire, another state where Democrats are in the driver’s seat thanks to this political environment, but where the GOP has a favorable match up. Former U.S. Senator John E. Sununu is back on the ballot this year against Chris Pappas, who seems to have had trouble animating his voters. Even Oregon’s gubernatorial race is competitive this year. Meanwhile, Republicans are spending money in surprising places. REPUBLICANS FACE BRUTAL MIDTERM HEADWINDS. SIX FORCES COULD HELP THEM DEFY HISTORY. In Arkansas, Sen. Tom Cotton has thrown $13.6 million at his reelection bid, outspending his Democratic opponent Hallie Schoffner 65 to 1. Cotton may have ambitions beyond his current role in the Senate, but in 2020, his spending fell short of $1 million. Idahoans got a letter in the mail from Vice President Vance last month warning them that Democrats could “pour millions of dollars” into independent challenger Todd Achilles; Vance called it an “urgent national race.” Mississippi Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith has been running ads attacking her Democratic challenger Scott Colom in recent weeks, calling him a “failed prosecutor” with a “chilling” record on crime; that state has seen $5 million in ad spending so far this year. FOX NEWS POLL: IT’S A LONE STAR SENATE SHOWDOWN BETWEEN TALARICO AND PAXTON And Florida is full of election surprises. In 2018, Rick Scott won his Senate race by 0.1 percentage points while DeSantis won his by 0.4 points. Two years later, the presidential race was decided by just 3.4 points. Nebraska and South Dakota could be closer-than-expected for Republicans as well. In this week’s Power Rankings, one Carolina gets more competitive while another drifts away from the GOP, and Democrats get nervous about a governor’s race in Oregon. The math is the same in the Senate. Each party has 47 seats to their name, leaving six toss-up races to determine control. Those are Alaska, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Ohio, and Texas, which all look close in the flurry of surveys released by pollsters last week. Two other races are highly competitive: New Hampshire (Lean D) and Kansas (Lean R). On the polling alone, these look more like toss-up states: surveys released last week have the Democrat ahead by only five points in New Hampshire, and the Kansas race dead even. It’s the partisan makeup of these states that keeps them at “lean.” North Carolina is less competitive than it was two weeks ago. Fox News confirmed on Friday that the Senate Leadership Fund, a powerful Super PAC aligned with Republican leadership, was pulling resources from the state. Earlier, Sen. Tim Scott left it off a list of states where Republicans were focusing spending. GOP nominee Michael Whatley is running as strong a race as he can there, and the margin will probably be tighter than polls currently have it. But the Democrat, Roy Cooper, is also a strong candidate, and he has had double-digit leads in multiple surveys. North Carolina moves from Lean D to Likely D. Nearby South Carolina is getting more competitive. Darline Graham, appointed to the Senate after the death of her brother, Lindsey, is reportedly getting more help on the campaign trail from President Trump. There are lingering questions about Graham’s ability to turn out
How Americans helped create the Chinese car tech capable of ‘spying’
FIRST ON FOX: Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison overlapped on work with China’s powerful police ministry developing vehicle technology capable of tracking cars and overtaking driving functions, according to findings from a report shared exclusively with Fox News Digital ahead of its release. Beijing has already begun deploying the systems across China. The technology, known as “vehicle-road-cloud” integration, links cars with roadside cameras and sensors and centralized cloud platforms, allowing authorities to monitor traffic in real time and, at its most advanced levels, send commands to connected vehicles. The implications of connected vehicles have alarmed U.S. officials. The Commerce Department moved last year to restrict certain Chinese and Russian connected-vehicle technology in the United States, warning that foreign adversaries could potentially collect sensitive information about American drivers or remotely manipulate their cars. HARVARD, NYU AMONG 30 UNIVERSITIES HIT WITH PENTAGON FOREIGN-TIE AUDIT DEADLINE In 2016, then-UW Vice Provost Jeffrey Russell traveled to Southeast University, where the schools signed agreements covering research, faculty exchanges, student training and plans to create a joint institute. The following year, Southeast University’s president traveled to Madison to formally establish the Joint Research Institute, according to university records cited by Strategy Risks. The institute focused on intelligent transportation, connected and autonomous vehicles and vehicle-road-cloud technology. UW-Madison’s own College of Engineering wrote in 2019 that the institute had “launched in late 2017.” Two years later, UW researchers appeared on technical work that also involved an institute of China’s Ministry of Public Security. Five UW-Madison researchers were among 46 contributors to a Chinese industry report on vehicle-road cooperative automated driving, according to Strategy Risks. The UW-SEU joint institute was listed first among the report’s drafting units, while the Traffic Management Research Institute of China’s Ministry of Public Security was listed seventh. The extent of UW-Madison’s institutional involvement in the joint institute is disputed. Counsel for a UW professor told Strategy Risks that the contemplated arrangement was never implemented and that the institute was never operational, funded or staffed by UW. Strategy Risks said it has not independently resolved that dispute, pointing to public records from both universities describing the institute as established. UW-Madison did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. Related vehicle-road-cloud technology was, meanwhile, becoming part of China’s national connected-vehicle push. In 2023, three major Chinese transportation and communications standards bodies published a framework for vehicle-road-cloud integration. Southeast University was among the drafters alongside the Road Traffic Safety Research Center of China’s Ministry of Public Security. The following year, the MPS joined four other Chinese ministries in launching a vehicle-road-cloud pilot program across 20 cities and regional groupings. OHIO STATE PAYS $2.1M SETTLEMENT AS IT ADMITS RESEARCHER HAD ‘INAPPROPRIATE FOREIGN AFFILIATIONS’ TO CHINA Under the government plan, participating cities are to install connected roadside equipment and sensing systems and build city-level cloud platforms capable of communicating with vehicles. The platforms can provide information to vehicles and assist with decision-making, planning and control, while safety-monitoring systems track participating vehicles in real time. Chinese authorities describe the program as an effort to improve traffic safety, advance autonomous driving and accelerate the country’s connected-vehicle industry. But those same capabilities have raised security concerns in Washington, where officials have warned that connected-vehicle systems could be exploited to collect sensitive data or remotely manipulate vehicles. Strategy Risks stressed that it is not accusing UW-Madison of intentionally transferring technology to China’s security apparatus. “Strategy Risks does not allege that UW-Madison, either on its own or through the JRI, deliberately channeled U.S. technology into Chinese surveillance or military systems,” the report states. But the group argues the research nevertheless contributed to technology that later took on broader applications in China. “The available evidence indicates that research conducted by scholars affiliated with the JRI contributed to the development of a civilian-framed dual-use technology in technical areas that also received U.S. institutional and federal research support,” the report states. “When Beijing incorporated this technology into national standards, the state absorbed a system that has significant surveillance, military, and human rights dimensions.”
Battle over daylight saving time erupts as push to stop changing clocks hits Senate wall
The battle over Americans’ clocks reemerged in an unlikely way over the weekend, with President Donald Trump picking a fight with one of his top allies over the issue. There have been many fights in Congress over the nearly two years that Trump has been in office for his second term that either ended in partisan victory or gloriously fizzled out, but one has quietly gone onto the shelf despite his pressure on Republicans to do something about it. And that fight is over allowing states to voluntarily observe daylight saving time year-round to effectively do away with the twice-a-year ritual of changing clocks. It’s a popular issue with voters and the president, and there’s a bill that passed the House this summer to enact the change. But it’s a policy issue that has divided both sides of the aisle and ground to a halt in the upper chamber. TRUMP URGES SENATE TO PASS BILL MAKING DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME PERMANENT AFTER OVERWHELMING HOUSE VOTE Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., has been one of the more vocal opponents of the bill, vowing to block any attempts to fast-track it on the floor. That resistance earned him a Truth Social post from Trump, who over the weekend shared his personal phone number in a bid to pressure the lawmaker to change his stance on daylight saving time. “Almost everybody wants “The Sunshine Protection Act” to pass, except for Tom Cotton,” Trump said. “To the Great People of Arkansas, please let your Senator know it would be a GREAT Bipartisan WIN for the United States Senate, and for America, itself.” Cotton responded, noting that Congress has tackled daylight saving time before, only to roll back the change shortly after. “No one likes changing the clock, me included, but Congress has enacted permanent Daylight Saving Time multiple times before and repealed it each time once Americans experienced absurdly late sunrises in the winter,” Cotton said on X. “Arkansans don’t want their kids going to school in the pitch dark, and I’ll always put Arkansas first.” TRUMP FACES REPUBLICAN REBELLION OVER DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME AS SENATE BILL NEARS DEAD END In the 1970s, lawmakers did enact year-round daylight saving time. But Americans rapidly soured on the change, especially parents whose children had to wait in the dark for the school bus. It was repealed about a year later. And Cotton recently answered an off-the-cuff question from a fellow Republican during their weekly closed-door policy lunches, a source told Fox News Digital, where he made a similar case as his response to Trump. No one pushed back during the meeting. The issue of daylight saving time, and supporting a permanent fix or sticking to the status quo are more geographical than political. It’s, in part, mountainous and Western states versus coastal states. On one side of the spectrum are lawmakers like Sens. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., who introduced a Senate version of the bill last year. “Every year, more Americans grow more frustrated setting their clocks back and forth, and every winter folks in Washington state despair at the prospect of losing an hour of precious sunlight when we are forced off Daylight Saving Time,” Murray said in a statement at the time. HOUSE PASSES DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME REFORM AS TRUMP SIGNALS SUPPORT FOR ENDING CLOCK CHANGE Lawmakers in landlocked states out West, like Sens. Steve Daines, R-Mont., and Mike Rounds, R-S.D., warn that it would cause kids in their states to go to school in the dark. “I can see where Florida likes it for tee times at certain times of the year, but it doesn’t work so well for moms and dads putting kids on buses when the sunrise in Western Montana wouldn’t be till 9:30 in the morning. It’s not going to work for us,” Daines told CNN in July. The most vital currency in the Senate is floor time. And lawmakers won’t have much floor time to spare when they return after the midterm elections in November. Though it’s popular, more pressing issues like the National Defense Authorization Act, supplemental funding for the war and a looming government funding battle will likely take precedence. And Republican leaders acknowledge that it’s not as easy as a simple yes-or-no vote for lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. “Depends where you’re living in the country and the impact — what it would be, in your own home state,” Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said in July. “So it’s not as simple as what one state might like.”
President Trump endorses Wyoming’s secretary of state for US House of Representatives
President Donald Trump endorsed Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray, the Republican candidate for the state’s at-large U.S. House seat. “Chuck Gray has been a tremendous Secretary of State for the Great State of Wyoming, a place I love and WON BIG in 2016, 2020, and 2024!” the president declared in part of a Monday Truth Social post. “Chuck Gray has my Complete and Total Endorsement to be the next U.S. Representative from Wyoming — HE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!” Trump asserted. TRUMP-ALIGNED CONSERVATIVE EMERGES FROM CROWDED PRIMARY TO DECIDE WHO FILLS WYOMING’S LONE HOUSE SEAT Gray, who won the Wyoming GOP U.S. House primary in August, thanked the president on Monday for backing him. “Thank you President Trump for your endorsement!” he declared in a post on X. ‘AMERICA FIRST’: WYOMING SECRETARY OF STATE CHUCK GRAY LAUNCHES HOUSE BID “As President Trump said, I have a real track record of advancing the key priorities of the people of Wyoming, and I will continue that track record in Congress. Together, we will defend our Wyoming way of life!” Gray added. GOP Rep. Harriet Hageman, the current occupant of the state’s only U.S. House seat, is running for U.S. Senate. WYOMING MAN KICKS MOUNTAIN LION IN THE FACE TO SAVE HIS DOG, THEN FIGHTS IT OFF BARE-HANDED Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., is not running for a second six-year Senate term.
Blue states set to trigger fresh minimum wage hikes with pay floors more than double federal rate
Workers across several Democratic-led states are set to ring in 2027 with another pay bump, widening an already sizable gap between state minimum wages and the federal floor of $7.25 an hour. Washington, California and Connecticut will all raise minimum wages that already top $17 an hour beginning Jan. 1, while New Jersey and Michigan will also hike their wage floors — widening the gap with the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour. Washington will lead the pack at $17.73 an hour, up 60 cents from its current $17.13 rate. Connecticut’s minimum wage will rise from $16.94 to $17.48, while California’s will climb from $16.90 to $17.40. New Jersey will increase its minimum wage by 56 cents to $16.48 an hour for most workers, while Michigan is slated for one of the largest jumps, rising from $13.73 to $15 an hour. AOC-BACKED $30 MINIMUM WAGE PLAN COULD BACKFIRE IN UNEXPECTED WAYS, EXPERTS WARN The hikes come as several Republican-led states have also pushed their wage floors well above the federal rate, though they remain below the highest-paying blue states. Florida’s minimum wage reached $15 an hour on Sept. 30 and will remain there through the end of 2027, while Missouri is also at $15. Nebraska will increase its minimum wage from $15 to $15.26 on Jan. 1. Washington’s statewide increase will come as Seattle pushes its own wage floor even higher. The city’s minimum wage is slated to rise to $22.14 an hour in 2027, nearly $4.50 above the new statewide rate. Seattle’s wage requirements have also become a flashpoint in the debate over the costs facing local businesses. Beginning in 2025, all employers in the city, including small businesses, became subject to the same inflation-adjusted minimum wage. Some restaurant owners who later closed their businesses cited rising labor costs among the financial pressures they faced. ECONOMIST WARNS THOUSANDS OF VIRGINIA JOBS AT RISK AFTER MINIMUM WAGE HIKE SIGNED BY SPANBERGER Washington’s minimum wage is tied to inflation under state law, with the wage floor recalculated each year rather than requiring lawmakers to approve a new increase. Washington voters approved a measure in 1998 that raised the minimum wage and, beginning in 2001, tied future increases to inflation. Voters approved another measure in 2016 that set wage increases through 2020. Since 2021, the minimum wage has again risen annually with inflation, with the goal of keeping workers’ pay in step with rising prices. Each September, the Washington Department of Labor & Industries calculates the following year’s rate based on changes in the CPI-W. The new rate is announced Sept. 30 and takes effect Jan. 1. “Democrats appear to be doing everything they can to make the business climate in Washington more untenable,” Seattle Red host and conservative commentator Jason Rantz told Fox News Digital. DOWNTOWN SEATTLE LOST 30,000 JOBS, BILLIONS IN OFFICE VALUE SINCE 2020 PAYROLL TAX: NEW REPORT FINDS “It’s not just the high cost of labor — Seattle is now going to be over $22 an hour — but it’s the high crime, open-air drug use, new income tax that targets pass-through businesses, and overregulation that make operating businesses more difficult than it should be,” Rantz said. “Our unemployment rate is higher than the national average, and we’re losing tech jobs left and right,” he added. “Democrats have no answers. They’re just making their problems worse.” The wage hike comes as Washington’s unemployment rate reached 4.9% in August, above the 4.1% national rate and up from 4.6% a year earlier, according to the state Employment Security Department. Washington also lost an estimated 900 jobs that month, including 2,300 information-sector positions, while professional and business services employment was down 13,100 jobs from a year earlier. Angela Rosen, who founded Penelope and the Beauty Bar and operates three Seattle spas, told Rantz that her therapists already make more than minimum wage, but said higher labor costs have squeezed support positions instead. “I had to cut my front desk,” Rosen told “The Jason Rantz Show,” according to Seattle Red. Rantz reported that the move eliminated 12 shifts per week across two smaller locations.