New FBI leader Kash Patel tapped to run ATF as acting director
FBI Director Kash Patel will be tapped to run the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), two sources confirmed to Fox News Digital on Saturday. The news comes a day after Patel was sworn in as the ninth FBI director in a narrow Senate vote. Former FBI Director Christopher Wray resigned at the end of former President Biden’s term and Attorney General Pam Bondi fired the ATF general counsel, Pamela Hicks, on Thursday. FBI NOMINEE KASH PATEL CONFIRMED IN NARROW SENATE VOTE “Earlier today, I was served official notice from the Attorney General of the United States that I was being removed from my position as the Chief Counsel of ATF and my employment with the Department of Justice terminated,” Hicks posted on her LinkedIn page Thursday, confirming her termination. Hicks had served as ATF’s chief counsel since 2021 under the Biden administration, and served as deputy chief counsel for ATF under President Donald Trump’s first administration. She spent 23 years overall as an attorney within the Department of Justice (DOJ), she posted to LinkedIn. VP JD VANCE SPEAKS ON ‘FUNDAMENTAL GOAL’ OF TRUMP ADMINISTRATION AT CPAC ADDRESS “Serving as ATF Chief Counsel has been the highest honor of my career and working with the people at ATF and throughout the Department has been a pleasure,” Hicks continued in her post. “I thank my colleagues for their friendship and partnership over the years.” “These people were targeting gun owners,” Bondi told Fox News on Thursday of the ATF. “Not gonna happen under this administration.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Both the FBI and ATF are part of the DOJ.
Dem and GOP governors urge Trump to ‘let the states play a role’ in immigration decisions
Two governors, one a Democrat and the other a Republican, found common ground at a National Governors Association meeting in Washington, D.C., on one of President Donald Trump’s most critical goals. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat and chairman of the National Governors Association, and Oklahoma Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt told Fox News Digital they want states to have a say in immigration enforcement and issuing work permits. “We want to make sure we’re at the table in that with regard to immigration,” Polis told Fox News Digital. DEMS SAY THEY’RE AGAINST GOVERNMENT WASTE, BUT THEY HATE DOGE MORE He said the idea that the states should have a seat at the table regarding immigration decisions “has a lot of support (among) both Democratic and Republican governors.” Polis said states know what their labor needs are and could grant work permits after careful vetting. “Let us be able to grant those based on free background checks … and that’ll help our economic growth,” Polis said. Polis, whose state has been ground zero for criminal activity and violence by the migrant gang Tren de Aragua, said “varying degrees of cooperation” between state and federal authorities are necessary. Colorado has several sanctuary-style laws limiting law enforcement cooperation with federal authorities, but Polis insisted its relationship with federal law enforcement agencies is strong. COLORADO CITY HELPS DOZENS OF FAMILIES RELOCATE AFTER TREN DE ARAGUA APARTMENT INFESTATION Stitt said he would encourage Trump to consider giving states the ability to grant workforce visas. “I’ve been an advocate for workforce visas at the state level,” Stitt said. “Matching employers with employees is something that governors should be able to do, whether it’s in the construction industry, the agricultural industry, engineering, aviation, whatever.” OKLAHOMA SUPERINTENDENT WHO BRAWLED WITH CNN OVER ICE ENTERING SCHOOLS DOUBLES DOWN: ‘DEPORTED TOGETHER’ He joked that the U.S. is “like [a team in] the NFL with the No. 1 draft pick.” “We should be able to choose the very best and brightest to our country. But we’re just being silly how we do it right now. Let’s close the border. Let’s make sure we have the very best and brightest that come into our country,” Stitt said. Stitt also touted his state’s Operation Guardian, which he launched earlier this month to empower state and local law enforcement to better work with the Trump administration and ICE to deport criminal illegal aliens. “I put my commissioner of public safety in charge to say, ‘How many people do we currently have in prison in the state of Oklahoma who are here illegally that have committed crimes? And then how can we work with the Trump administration to get them out of our state, out of our country and off of the taxpayer rolls in Oklahoma? So, I think that’s probably the first step,” Stitt said. NOEM MAKES AGGRESSIVE NEW MOVE TO RAMP UP ARRESTS, DEPORTATIONS OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS However, Stitt said there is a limit to what states should be doing to enforce immigration law. He proceeded to knock a recent effort by the Oklahoma State Department of Public Instruction to check the immigration status of children enrolled in public schools. ALLEGED FENTANYL-SMUGGLING IMMIGRANTS LEAD POLICE ON DANGEROUS CORNFIELD CHASE “In Oklahoma, I also said, ‘Listen, we’re not going to ask for immigration status for 6, 7, 8-year-old kids in school,” he said. But Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters, also a Republican, responded by saying Stitt’s stance on not checking school children’s immigration status undermines Trump’s agenda. “It is unfortunate that Gov. Stitt is thwarting President Trump’s America First agenda,” Walters told Fox News Digital. “We cannot afford to stick our heads in the sand like Democrats and ignore the cost of illegals to taxpayers. President Trump was clear, Oklahoma voters were clear and we will defend the will of the president and Oklahomans.”
Trump rattles off ‘flagrant scams’ uncovered by DOGE, takes aim at Fort Knox in CPAC speech
President Donald Trump celebrated his whirlwind first four weeks back in the Oval Office in a speech before the Conservative Political Action Conference Saturday afternoon, mentioning what he called “flagrant scams” uncovered by Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency. “I signed an order creating the Department of Government Efficiency — you probably haven’t heard of it — which is now waging war on government waste, fraud and abuse. And Elon is doing a great job,” Trump said at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center Saturday in Oxon Hill, Maryland, just outside the nation’s capital. “He’s doing a great job.” Musk is leading DOGE as investigators scrutinize various federal agencies in an effort to curb government overspending and stamp out fraud. DOGE’s work has become a lightening rod for criticism among Democratic lawmakers and government employees, who have filed a number of lawsuits attempting to end the investigations and audits. “Here are some of the flagrant scams that, as an example, they’ve spent money on, and we’ve been able to recapture a large dose of it at least. Five hundred and 20 million dollars for a consultant … [on] environmental, social governance and investments in Africa,” he said. CPAC STRAW POLL REVEALS WHO CONSERVATIVES BELIEVE WILL BE 2028 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE “Twenty-five million dollars to promote biodiversity conservation and socially responsible behavior in Colombia. This is Colombia, South America, not Columbia University. Of course, that might be worse. … Forty million to improve the social and economic inclusion of sedentary migrants. “Forty-two million for social and behavior change in Uganda. Ten million for Mozambique medical male circumcisions. Why are we going to Mozambique to do circumcisions?” Trump asked, before continuing to rattle off a handful of other pricey initiatives funded by taxpayers uncovered by DOGE. ‘SAVED THE COUNTRY’: CPAC ATTENDEES SEE SILVER LINING AFTER ELON MUSK’S DOGE SPEECH CPAC is an annual conference of conservative lawmakers, leaders and voters, which kicked off on Wednesday and wraps up Saturday after Trump’s speech. KAROLINE LEAVITT OFFERS WORDS OF WISDOM TO YOUNG WOMEN AT CPAC: ‘JUST BELIEVE IN YOURSELF’ Earlier in the day, Trump sent a message on his Truth Social platform calling on Musk to “get more aggressive” with his DOGE work. “Will do, Mr. President!” Musk responded just a few hours ahead of Trump’s CPAC speech. Musk later added on X, “Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week. Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.” “We have a very corrupt group of people in this country, and we’re finding them out,” Trump said during his speech. “We’re removing all of the unnecessary, incompetent and corrupt bureaucrats from the federal workforce.” VP JD VANCE SPEAKS ON ‘FUNDAMENTAL GOAL’ OF TRUMP ADMINISTRATION AT CPAC ADDRESS Trump said he and Musk will head to Fort Knox in Kentucky to ensure the United States Bullion Depository still houses a reported $425 billion in government gold. The Trump administration and Republican allies have called for more transparency about the vault. President Franklin D. Roosevelt visited the vault in 1943, which was followed by Treasury Secretary William Simon opening the vault to journalists and lawmakers in 1974 and again during the first Trump administration when Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and lawmakers, including Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell, inspected the vault. “We are also going to Fort Knox. I’m going to go with Elon. And would anybody like to join us? Because we want to see if the gold is still there. We want to see,” Trump said. “Wouldn’t that be terrible? We open [it] up, and this Fort Knox has got nothing. It’s just solid granite that’s five feet thick. The front door, you need six musclemen to open it up. I don’t even think they have windows. Wouldn’t that be terrible if we opened it up and there was no gold there? So, we’re going to open those doors, we’re going to take a look. And if there’s 27 tons of gold, we’ll be very happy,” he added. “I don’t know how the hell we’ll measure it, but that’s OK.” Trump ended his first full month back in the White House this week, which has included a breakneck pace of executive orders and actions. He took a victory lap for his whirlwind first month, touting in his speech the administration’s work to end the “weaponization” of the government under the former Biden administration, his plan to soon impose reciprocal tariffs on foreign trading partners and celebrating the deportation of illegal immigrants from communities across the nation. “We’re liberating communities like Aurora, Colorado, and Springfield, Ohio, that have been occupied by illegal alien criminals from all over the world,” Trump said. “We’re rescuing the Americans whose jobs have been stolen, whose wages have been robbed and whose way of life has been absolutely destroyed. And, under the Trump administration, our country will not be turned into a dumping ground.”
Elon Musk says federal employees must fill out productivity reports or resign
Tech billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that all federal employees are being instructed to report their productivity in a new Trump administration initiative. In a post Saturday on X, Musk said the report will come in the form of an email that will give federal workers a chance to report how productive they were the previous week. If the email is ignored, Musk said, the federal government will interpret that as a resignation. “Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week,” Musk wrote. “Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.” WHITE HOUSE OUTLINES WHERE DOGE SAVINGS COULD GO AFTER TRUMP FLOATS RETURNING 20% TO AMERICANS The post came as Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) continues slashing suspected waste across the federal government. In an X post Tuesday, DOGE said it discovered 4 million active credit cards on the U.S. government’s books. “The US government currently has ~4.6M active credit cards/accounts, which processed ~90M unique transactions for ~$40B of spend[ing] in FY24,” DOGE said in a post on X Tuesday. $1,300 COFFEE CUPS, 8,000% OVERPAY FOR SOAP DISPENSERS SHOW WASTE AS DOGE LOCKS IN ON PENTAGON President Donald Trump has been supportive of Musk’s work with DOGE. On Saturday, Trump wrote on Truth Social that though Musk is “doing a great job,” he should be “more aggressive.” “ELON IS DOING A GREAT JOB, BUT I WOULD LIKE TO SEE HIM GET MORE AGGRESSIVE. REMEMBER, WE HAVE A COUNTRY TO SAVE, BUT ULTIMATELY, TO MAKE GREATER THAN EVER BEFORE. MAGA!,” Trump wrote. Musk responded with an enthusiastic “Will do, Mr. President!” hours after Trump posted. Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for additional comment. Fox News Digital’s Michael Lee and Rachel Wolf contributed to this report.
USDA launches review at University of Maine over transgender sports policy after Trump-Gov. Mills blowup
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on Saturday announced it was launching a compliance review of the University of Maine “following the State of Maine’s blatant disregard for President Trump’s Executive Order (EO) 14201, ‘Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.’” The review follows investigations launched by the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services in the last 24 hours after a tense exchange between President Trump and Democratic Maine Gov. Janet Mills over transgender student-athletes playing in women’s sports. “President Trump has made it abundantly clear: taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars will not support institutions that discriminate against women,” U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said in a statement shared with Fox News Digital Saturday. TRUMP’S DECISIVE RESPONSE TO MAINE’S GOVERNOR ON TRANSGENDER ATHLETES IS HOW IT SHOULD BE: RILEY GAINES “USDA is committed to upholding the president’s executive order, meaning any institution that chooses to disregard it can count on losing future funding.” The University of Maine receives more than $100 million in USDA funding, according to the USDA. Trump and Mills clashed Thursday at the White House during a bipartisan meeting of governors when the president told her she must follow his executive order or “you’re not going to get any federal funding.” “We’ll see you in court,” Mills replied. The blue state is one of several defying Trump’s Feb. 5 executive order prohibiting transgender athletes from competing in girls and women’s sports. Trump threatened Thursday to cut off federal funding to Maine before clashing with Mills at the bipartisan meeting of governors. “Are you not going to comply with that?” Trump asked Mills. “I’m complying with state and federal laws,” she responded. “Well, we are the federal law,” Trump said. “You better do it. You better do it because you’re not going to get any federal funding at all if you don’t.” TRUMP VOWS TO CUT OFF FEDERAL FUNDING TO MAINE OVER REFUSAL TO COMPLY WITH ‘NO MEN IN WOMEN’S SPORTS’ ORDER “And, by the way, your population, even though it’s somewhat liberal, although I did very well there, your population doesn’t want men playing in women’s sports. So, you better comply because otherwise you’re not getting any federal funding,” Trump added. “We’ll see you in court,” Mills snapped. “Good, I’ll see you in court. I look forward to that. That should be a real easy one,” Trump replied. “And enjoy your life after governor because I don’t think you’ll be in elected politics.” Mills released a statement Friday, saying, “The State of Maine will not be intimidated by the President’s threats. “If the President attempts to unilaterally deprive Maine school children of the benefit of Federal funding, my Administration and the Attorney General will take all appropriate and necessary legal action to restore that funding and the academic opportunity it provides.” After the exchange Friday, the Department of Education launched an investigation into Maine schools. “Today the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) sent a letter to the Maine Department of Education Commissioner Pender Makin announcing that OCR is initiating a directed investigation of the Maine Department of Education (MDOE) amid allegations that it continues to allow male athletes to compete in girls’ interscholastic athletics and that it has denied female athletes female-only intimate facilities, thereby violating federal anti-discrimination law,” the Department of Education said in a news release Friday. Trump reiterated his plan to cut off federal funding to the state at a meeting with Republican governors Thursday. “I heard men are still playing in Maine,” Trump said to a gathering of Republican governors in Washington Thursday. “I hate to tell you this, but we’re not going to give them any federal money. They are still saying, ‘We want men to play in women’s sports,’ and I cannot believe that they’re doing that. … So, we’re not going to give them any federal funding, none whatsoever, until they clean that up.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Trump also continued his criticism of Maine Saturday while speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference. “The governor of Maine. She’s fighting to keep men in women’s sports. You ever see what happens to a woman when a woman boxes? A man who transitioned to womanhood? Did you ever see what happens? … It’s not pretty. It’s not pretty,” Trump said. “Let her do that fight. Let them all do that fight. Because I think that’s about a 90/10 issue, and I can’t figure out who the 10% are. Nobody can.” Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House and the University of Maine for comment.
Coal still key to US energy dominance, says West Virginia governor
EXCLUSIVE: ‘King Coal’ still reigns as one of the most affordable, reliable and transportable sources of energy – and the U.S. still has a lot of it, West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey told Fox News Digital in an interview at the National Governors Association’s winter meeting. Morrisey acknowledged America’s ongoing race with China to be the most powerful nation in terms of both energy development and AI technology. West Virginia, he said Saturday, seeks to lead the way. “I’m still very hopeful that there’s a future for coal,” Morrisey said. “Let me explain why: We’re right now about to embark on an information technology arms race with China.” MOUNTAIN STATE CRACKDOWN: WV GOV’S ORDER LEADS TO 60 SUSPECTED ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT CRIMINAL DETENTIONS “And we have to catch up to what they’re doing in terms of the Chinese use of coal and many, many different types of fuel sources, because we can’t let them get ahead of us as they’re building capacity in AI, superintelligence, robotics and advanced manufacturing.” While both nations are likely to rely on advances in nuclear energy and hydraulic fracturing for natural gas, there remain the “resiliency, availability and affordability of coal,” he said. “I think there’s an opportunity … to increase the capacity of some of the coal-fired power plants that have been slowed down in recent years. Because if we don’t do that, we’re not going to compete with the Chinese.” The governor said that one of his top priorities is to bring the Mountain State’s coal infrastructure and industry back to a higher capacity. “I think that it’s sorely needed from a national security perspective.” West Virginia produced 89 million tons of coal in 2021, according to the latest data recorded by the state miners’ office. That figure is down sharply from the 1940s through the late 1990s, when the state averaged upwards of 130 million tons per year. WV LAWMAKER ARRESTED AFTER THREATENING TO KILL ENTIRE REGION’S DELEGATION OVER CAUCUS BEEF Wyoming remains tops in U.S. coal production, followed by West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Illinois. “West Virginia is America’s energy state. We’re so rich in resources: coal and natural gas and water. And we have a lot of opportunities in front of us,” Morrisey went on, adding that he was heartened by the substantive bipartisan discussions at the NGA in regard to speeding up the energy-permitting process at the state and federal levels. “So when you’re thinking about how to take advantage of those opportunities, you think of transmission, you think of permitting,” he said, echoing Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro of neighboring energy powerhouse Pennsylvania, who pledged Friday to refund applicants if there are delays or if things go awry. In terms of the Mountain State’s role in what Morrisey and other governors at the NGA called the “AI arms race” with China, the state is predicted to build on Morrisey’s predecessor, now-Sen. Jim Justice’s efforts to grow the state’s tech industry. “I’ve said over and over that we need to do everything possible to add these kinds of high-tech companies and jobs in West Virginia,” Justice said in 2019. “We have so many people in this state who are gifted beyond belief and who will be able to fill these spots and do incredible work. It’s truly a pipeline of talent.” On Saturday, Morrisey also reflected on his group meeting with President Donald Trump, Cabinet secretaries and his fellow governors at the White House. “They understand that you can’t move energy at the speed of slow. And so we’re eager to partner with them,” he said, adding that Trump pledged to the governors that he would seek to eliminate 10 regulations for every one that his administration adds. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “I think states like West Virginia and Pennsylvania and many other states have a chance to work closely with the Trump administration. It’s going to be a lot easier, because they know how important it is to reassert American energy dominance – if you get the permitting right.” Morrisey also spoke about his response to the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration and the flow of illegal drugs across the southern border. Last month, Morrisey issued an executive order aimed at illegal immigrants in his state, which led to five dozen people being detained pending immigration status verification in the state’s regional jail system. The governor noted West Virginia’s unfortunate spot as the state with the most drug overdose deaths per capita and said that both his and Trump’s immigration policies are needed to fix that systemic crisis. “We’re working hand in hand with ice to identify illegal aliens and make sure that they can get deported. And this is really important to do, because, as President Trump said yesterday, when you actually remove a lot of these illegal aliens from the system, you’re going to see a reduction in crime.” “It takes states working with the federal government to make sure that we’re kind of reasserting our position and stopping all the horrific consequences of what happened with the illegal immigrants coming in. I know in West Virginia we really felt the impact of that through the massive amount of death that flowed from fentanyl flood[ing] in from China [via] the Mexican drug cartels.” Fox News Digital’s Sophia Compton contributed to this report.
Tom Homan tells migrant terror groups Trump will ‘wipe you off the face of the Earth’
Trump administration Border Czar Tom Homan warned criminal aliens Saturday that they would all be arrested and said he would make good on his promise to immigrant terror groups to “wipe you off the face of the earth.” Homan, who previously served as the acting director of ICE and currently leads the Trump administration’s border efforts, told a rapt audience at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) that the number of illegal immigrant “gotaways” is down by 95%. “We had about 1,800 a day in 2023. You know how many we had yesterday? Forty-eight,” he said. “You’re talking about 2,000 miles of border, and only 48 people escaped. But that’s 48 too many. I’m not going to be happy till that number’s zero.” ACTIVISTS IN MEXICO REPORT FLOW OF MIGRANTS HAS ‘ENORMOUSLY DECREASED’ ONE MONTH INTO TRUMP ADMIN The border czar also announced that in Trump’s first month in the Oval Office, ICE arrested 21,000 illegal aliens. “I’m happy with the numbers, but I’m not going to be satisfied until every criminal alien gang member, every criminal alien, every Tren de Aragua is eradicated from this country and [we’ve] sent their ass to Gitmo, where they belong,” he said. Addressing criminal migrant groups like Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua and El Salvador’s MS-13 – which the Trump administration just designated “foreign terrorist organizations” – Homan said the Trump administration is making good on its promise to stamp them out. “He’s going to wipe you off the face of the earth,” he said. “You have killed more Americans than every terrorist organization in the world combined. You are now a terrorist organization. So, word out to anybody that assists them, anybody that sells their drugs on a street, anybody assists these cartels in any way, you are helping a terrorist organization.” TRUMP ADMIN REVEALS LIST OF CARTELS AND GANGS TO BE DESIGNATED TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS “We’re going to save lives, because when 95% less people [are] coming across the border, how many women aren’t being raped? How many Americans aren’t dying from fentanyl overdoses? How many … terrorists aren’t getting in the country? How many women and children aren’t sex-trafficked in this country? When you have a border lockdown, we’re saving lives,” he said. Addressing criticism from Democrats and the media that ICE has arrested illegal aliens without criminal charges, along with criminal aliens, Homan said, “Yeah, damn right we did. Because you’re in a country illegally, which happens to be a violation of our law.” “Entering this country illegally is a crime, and we’re not going to forgive it,” he said. And addressing self-proclaimed “sanctuary” cities and states, where local and state governments refuse to cooperate with ICE, Homan said his now-familiar line: “Game on.” MAGA LAW GROUP FILES BRIEFS IN SUPPORT OF TRUMP EXECUTIVE ORDER ENDING BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP “Sanctuary cities are a sanctuary for criminals,” he said. “We’re enforcing the laws enacted by Congress, and we’re not going to apologize for it, not under this administration.” Homan singled out Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox, who recently doubled down on the city’s sanctuary policies and said his officers would not assist ICE with deportation operations. “You said you doubled down on not helping the law enforcement officers of ICE. I’m coming to Boston, and I’m bringing hell with me,” he said. “I looked at the numbers this morning, I counted, I stopped counting at nine. Nine child rapists that were in jail in Massachusetts, but rather than honoring an ICE detainer, you released them back into the street. You’re not a police commissioner. Take that badge off your chest. Put it in the desk drawer. Because you became a politician. You forgot what’s it’s like to be a cop.” ‘RAMPANT’ ABUSE IN BLUE STATE MIGRANT SHELTER SYSTEM, SAYS FORMER DIRECTOR: ‘COLOSSAL MESS’ Homan also took a few moments to express his gratitude to the men and women of federal law enforcement agencies like ICE and Border Patrol. “God bless the men and women of ICE. God bless all the DOJ components, we’ve got the U.S. marshals, DEA, FBI, ATF, all these five agencies helping us,” he said. And to the men and women of Border Patrol, Homan said, “I love each and every one of you wearing that green uniform. You are the finest 1% of this country.” CPAC is an annual gathering of conservatives from across the country. This year, the conference took place in National Harbor, Maryland, and saw the participation of Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Elon Musk and several other top Trump Cabinet officials and Republican leaders.
Kennedy Center shake-up will usher in ‘Golden Age of the Arts’ under Trump, Ric Grenell previews
The Kennedy Center will usher in the “Golden Age of the Arts” in Washington, D.C., as its new leadership under President Donald Trump plans to roll out productions that will “sell tickets” and appeal to the public, interim Executive Director Richard Grenell told Fox News Digital. “This will be the Golden Age of the Arts,” Grenell told Fox News Digital in an exclusive comment on the matter. “The Kennedy Center has zero cash on hand and zero dollars in reserves – while taking tens of millions of dollars in public funds. We must have programs that sell tickets. We can’t afford to pay for content that doesn’t at least pay for itself right now. I wish we didn’t have to consider the costs of production, but we do.” “The good news is that there are plenty of shows that are very popular, and therefore the ticket sales will pay for themselves,” Grenell added. The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts serves as the national cultural center of the U.S. and is now led by President Donald Trump as its chairman, Grenell and its board of trustees. TRUMP ENVOY RICHARD GRENELL SECURES FREEDOM FOR 6 AMERICANS FOLLOWING MEETING WITH MADURO IN VENEZUELA The center came under scrutiny this week as the media and liberal critics spotlighted that a performance by the Gay Men’s Chorus and National Symphony Orchestra slated for May as part of Washington, D.C.’s gay pride celebrations was canceled, with critics attempting to tie the cancelation to the Trump administration. The chorus and orchestra were scheduled to perform a show titled “A Peacock Among Pigeons,” which is based on an LGBT-themed children’s book. TRUMP FIRES KENNEDY CENTER BOARD MEMBERS CITING DRAG SHOWS, APPOINTS HIMSELF CHAIRMAN The performance, however, was put on the chopping block weeks before the center’s leadership change and was canceled due to lack of ticket sales, Fox News Digital learned. The center’s new leadership has not canceled any shows since taking the reins of the cultural center, a source familiar with the Kennedy Center’s operations told Fox Digital. “Artists who have pulled down their shows are only punishing themselves and the patrons. It shows the artists have an intolerance to engage with those of differing opinions. Republicans are patrons, too, they should remember that,” the source said of recent left-leaning performers and celebrities who have pulled out of shows. Grenell, who also serves as special presidential envoy for special missions under the second Trump administration, joined the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Friday, where he pushed back that the production had been canceled over Trump. “Suddenly it was, the Gay Men’s Chorus was dropping out because of Trump. That wasn’t true,” Grenell added. “It was replaced with with some other things, that happens all the time.” A production of “The Wizard of Oz” replaced the planned performance of “A Peacock Among Pigeons,” the executive director of the National Symphony Orchestra said earlier this week, underscoring that the planned performance had been canceled before the leadership change and was due to financial issues. “Before the leadership transition at the Kennedy Center, we made the decision to postpone Peacock Among Pigeons due to financial and scheduling factors. We chose to replace it with ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ another suitable program for World PRIDE participation,” the orchestra’s Executive Director, Jean Davidson, said in a statement earlier this week. ACTRESS ISSA RAE CANCELS SOLD-OUT KENNEDY CENTER SHOW AFTER TRUMP NAMED CHAIRMAN OF VENUE “Program changes are a common practice. We were unable to announce the replacement program until we had secured the rights to present it, but in the interest of transparency, we removed the original program from the website to prevent further ticket sales. The Gay Men’s Chorus was to be contracted as a guest artist for Peacock Among Pigeons,” Davidson added. Grenell previewed during his remarks at CPAC that the Kennedy Center will now focus on performances “the public want to see,” such as Christmas-focused productions in December. “We have to do the big productions that the masses and the public want to see, we want to have really good programming,” he said. “So the first thing that we’re doing … you’ve got to be at the Kennedy Center in December, because we are doing a big, huge celebration of the birth of Christ at Christmas. How crazy is it to think that we’re going to celebrate Christ at Christmas with a big traditional production to celebrate what we are all celebrating in the world during Christmastime, which is the birth of Christ.” Trump fired a handful of the center’s previous board members earlier this month, arguing that they did “not share our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture.” He replaced the former members with 14 other members, including allies such as second lady Usha Vance and “God Bless the USA” singer lee Greenwood. “At my direction, we are going to make the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., GREAT AGAIN. I have decided to immediately terminate multiple individuals from the Board of Trustees, including the Chairman, who do not share our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture,” Trump posted to Truth Social on Feb. 7. Trump indicated that the motivation behind firing the former board members was due to the Kennedy Center’s drag show performances under the Biden administration that targeted children. “Just last year, the Kennedy Center featured Drag Shows specifically targeting our youth — THIS WILL STOP. The Kennedy Center is an American Jewel, and must reflect the brightest STARS on its stage from all across our Nation. For the Kennedy Center, THE BEST IS YET TO COME!” Trump said on Truth Social earlier this month. TOP TRUMP OFFICIAL RALLIES BEHIND PRESIDENT AMID BACKLASH FOR ‘DICTATOR’ ATTACK ON ZELENSKYY “We will soon announce a new Board, with an amazing Chairman, DONALD J. TRUMP!” he added. The new board elected Trump as chairman on Feb. 12. Trump appointed Grenell – who became the U.S.’s first openly gay cabinet
Maine gov’s transgender athlete dust-up with Trump made WH confab ‘uncomfortable,’ govs say
Maine Democratic Gov. Janet Mills’ public dust-up with President Donald Trump during a White House meeting with most of America’s state leaders didn’t live up to governors’ collective goal of “disagree[ing] better,” the National Governors Association chairman said Saturday. Colorado Democratic Gov. Jared Polis was asked about the exchange – in which Trump challenged Maine to comply with his executive order on transgender athletes in school sports, and Mills told Trump “see you in court.” The president remarked that any state that does not align its scholastic athletics with biological sexes will not receive federal funding. “As governors, we have our prior initiative that we continue to work on is to disagree better,” Chairman Polis said. “We always hope that people can disagree in a way that elevates the discourse and tries to come to a common solution around . . . what the issue is. I don’t think that that disagreement is necessarily a model of that,” he continued, adding that some governors may not have known the origins of the fiery exchange at the time. SLASHING ENERGY DEVELOPMENT RED TAPE, BEATING CHINA IN ‘AI ARMS RACE’ TOP PRIORITIES FOR NATION’S GOVERNORS Polis said governors do have the right to sue the federal government but that there are also other ways to understand where respective parties are coming from. “It was a little uncomfortable in the room,” added NGA Vice Chairman Kevin Stitt, Oklahoma’s GOP governor. “But like, like Governor Polis said, I wasn’t sure exactly what the backstory was behind the conflict there. Apparently, there had been some things that both sides have said.” Stitt remarked that the exchange may have been “good politics” for both Mills and Trump with their respective bases. HOCHUL DOES APPARENT ABOUT-FACE ON NATURAL GAS AS NYC UTILITY SIGNALS MAJOR RATE HIKES He added that he personally agrees with Trump’s stance and noted that he led a push in 2022 to ensure that scholastic athletes are competing against people of their own biological sex in Oklahoma. “The NCAA has followed that, I think the Olympics have. And then you have a governor saying that they’re not going to follow that. So, I don’t know what legal background she has, but they talked about seeing each other in court. And we’ll we’ll see what happens on it.” Polis added that Mills maintained that she is following current federal law under her current stance. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Later, Stitt said that Trump had invited all governors to give him a call, and had quipped that if a Democrat and a Republican call at the same time, he will take the Democrat’s call first. “He is a businessman. He is not ideological. He wants to get things done,” Stitt said. At the White House meeting, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey successfully asked cabinet officials to share their direct lines, to better facilitate cooperation between states and the Trump administration. That nugget was revealed by South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, who quipped that ther president had also offered governors an open line – but did not explicitly publicize his number. “I’ve got it, but I’m going to hold onto it,” McMaster joked.
CPAC straw poll reveals who conservatives believe will be 2028 presidential nominee
Conservative voters believe Vice President JD Vance will become the Republican Party’s presidential nominee in the 2028 election cycle, a straw poll conducted at the 2025 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) found. “You guys are the conservative movement, you guys are the thought leaders, the opinion leaders. We asked folks who they thought would be the Republican nominee, who they preferred for the Republican for president in 2028. And who is it?,” Jim McLaughlin, president of McLaughlin & Associates Polls, said Friday from the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in Oxon Hill, Maryland, on Saturday. “JD Vance. And why? Because he’s viewed as the closest thing to Donald Trump,” McLaughlin added, he did not provide additional data on Vance’s support among CPAC attendees. Steve Bannon, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and others were also viewed by the attendees as the potential Republican nominee behind Vance, the full CPAC straw poll results posted to X found. The straw poll was conducted among more than 1,000 attendees of the conservative conference, which kicked off on Wednesday and wraps up on Saturday following President Donald Trump’s planned speech. ‘SAVED THE COUNTRY’: CPAC ATTENDEES SEE SILVER LINING AFTER ELON MUSK’S DOGE SPEECH McLaughlin noted that the straw poll has accurately predicted conservatives’ views and voting trends in previous years, including that Trump would win the 2024 primary and general election. “You know how I knew Donald Trump was going to win the people in this room? Because when we did the CPAC polls over the years, and you had the mainstream media saying, you know, ‘Donald Trump couldn’t win again.’ Donald Trump was winning overwhelmingly, not by a little bit, overwhelmingly in every single CPAC poll. You guys knew he was going to win the primary. You all knew that he was going to win the general election, no matter what the Democrats threw at us,” he said. This year’s straw poll overwhelmingly focused on Trump’s approval ratings since taking office, with a handful of results finding Trump’s approval sitting at 99% on various issues. “The first few weeks of Donald Trump’s presidency have been the best for the modern conservative movement in my lifetime. What do you think about that?” McLaughlin said of one of the poll questions. “Well, 99% agreed with that. Think about that. We don’t see 99% numbers.” KAROLINE LEAVITT OFFERS WORDS OF WISDOM TO YOUNG WOMEN AT CPAC: ‘JUST BELIEVE IN YOURSELF’ “But 99% say this is the best … in modern conservative history,” McLaughlin, who was joined on stage by CPAC chair Matt Schlapp on stage to announce the results, added. Ninety-nine percent of respondents also reported in the poll that Congress rapidly passing Trump’s agenda is important to them, while another 99% reported that Trump is doing a better job now than his first administration. All in, Trump’s job approval rating sits at 99%, according to the poll. VP JD VANCE SPEAKS ON ‘FUNDAMENTAL GOAL’ OF TRUMP ADMINISTRATION AT CPAC ADDRESS “It’s amazing. I’ve been working as a pollster now … going on four decades. . . . We’ve never seen numbers like this. We’ve never seen anybody unite the conservative movement the way Donald Trump has done this,” McLaughlin added of Trump’s high marks. Trump also earned support for his comments regarding the U.S. potentially establishing a national security and an economic alliance with Greenland. “Ninety-three percent of you approve of that, because it just makes sense for economic reasons, for national security reasons,” McLaughlin said of Trump’s support for establishing an alliance with Greenland. “And by the way, we do a little bit of work over in Europe and whatnot. They also think it’s a very good idea. Donald Trump again, being a visionary.” The straw poll comes just roughly one month into Trump’s second administration, which has been working at a break-neck pace as administration officials work to gut the federal government over overspending, while also stamping out potential fraud and mismanagement.