Eric Adams to sue Trump admin over revoked $80M in FEMA migrant shelter funding for New York City
New York City mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, plans to file a lawsuit against the Trump administration after the federal government secretly revoked more than $80 million in funding for the city’s migrant shelters. Counsel for the Adams administration sent a letter Friday to city Comptroller Brad Lander saying that the city’s Law Department planned to take legal action by the end of next week to have the $80.5 million in FEMA payments taken earlier this week returned, according to the New York Post. Lander is running against Adams in June’s Democrat primary election for the city’s mayor. “The Law Department is currently drafting litigation papers with respect to this matter,” corporation counsel Mureil Goode-Trufant told Lander in a letter, the outlet reported. “We intend to initiate legal action by February 21, 2025. As the Law Department is representing the City of New York in this matter, there is no need for an authorization for the Comptroller’s Office to engage external legal counsel,” the letter reads. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT MOVES TO DROP CASE AGAINST NYC MAYOR ERIC ADAMS The letter came after Lander urged the Adams administration to either file a lawsuit or authorize him to hire his own attorneys to sue Trump and Elon Musk, who leads the Department of Government Efficiency. “Given the gravity of the situation, we cannot afford to waste any more time. If the Mayor would prefer to spend his days advancing President Trump’s agenda instead of fighting for New Yorkers, then the Law Department must allow me to do so,” Lander said in a statement Friday. “Recovering these funds is imperative, and any action, or non-action, allowing the Trump administration to proceed without consequence would set a dangerous precedent and make our City a target for the next four years,” he added. The revocation of FEMA funds from New York City’s accounts happened Tuesday and was first discovered by Lander the following day. NEW YORK CITY MAYOR ERIC ADAMS SAYS HE WILL RUN FOR RE-ELECTION AS A DEMOCRAT “Let’s be crystal clear: This is highway robbery. Elon Musk, with no legal authority, illegally seized federal funds from New Yorkers,” Lander said Wednesday. Musk claimed that DOGE found a $59 million FEMA payment to New York City was being used on luxury hotels to house illegal migrants. Trump later repeated Musk’s claim and argued that “massive fraud” was happening. New York City was awarded two separate grants during the Biden administration — one for $58.6 million and another for $21.9 million — as the city attempted to pay to house migrants, many of whom were sent by Texas officials who were frustrated with the Biden administration’s handling of the influx of migrants entering the U.S. through the Southern Border. The payments were made under the Shelter and Services Program that Congress appropriated $650 million for last year to help local governments respond to the migrant crisis. The FEMA money, which was funded by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, paid $12.50 a night reimbursement for each hotel room. The city said most of the hotels used to house migrants are not luxurious. The remainder of the funds went toward security, food and other services for migrants. This came after the Department of Justice ordered prosecutors to drop their federal corruption case against Adams, who had been indicted on charges of fraud, bribery and soliciting campaign contributions from foreigners. Some have raised concerns that Adams may be beholden to the president because his case was dropped.
Trump’s mugshot spotted hanging in ornate frame near Oval Office
A copy of a New York Post front page featuring President Donald Trump’s mugshot was spotted hanging in an ornate gold frame near the Oval Office in the White House during a news conference this week. The photo was snapped at the Fulton County Jail in Georgia after Trump turned himself in Aug. 24, 2023, and appeared on the front page of newspapers across the globe the next day. Trump told Fox News Digital at the time Georgia officials “insisted” his mugshot be taken during processing at the jail and that doing so was “not a comfortable feeling — especially when you’ve done nothing wrong.” TRUMP SAYS GEORGIA INDICTMENT COMES DURING ‘DARK PERIOD’ FOR US, VOWS TO FIX IT BY WINNING A photo of the new artwork, shared by Margo Martin, Trump’s special assistant and communications advisor, went viral on social media. Dan Scavino, White House deputy chief of staff, later posted a video to X providing context on the frame’s placement. “HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY,” Scavino wrote in the accompanying post. “WELCOME TO THE BEAUTIFUL OVAL OFFICE @WHITEHOUSE.” The mugshot closely resembles the President’s official White House portrait, which debuted in January. The unprecedented charges stem from accusations that Trump attempted to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results, a case that is still unresolved. At the time of the indictment, the Trump campaign said the case was a “continued pathetic attempt by the Biden crime family and their weaponized Department of Justice.” TRUMP SAYS TAKING MUGSHOT WAS ‘NOT A COMFORTABLE FEELING, ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU’VE DONE NOTHING WRONG’ Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who filed the charges, is appealing a Georgia Court’s ruling that disqualified her and her office from prosecuting the case. A new prosecutor has not yet been assigned to the case. Four co-defendants have accepted plea deals in the case, including Scott Hall, Sidney Powell, Kenneth Chesebro and Jenna Ellis. Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman and FOX 5 Atlanta contributed to this story.
New poll reveals growing number of Dems want party to move in new direction
After the Democratic Party’s well-publicized setbacks in November’s elections, a new national poll indicates Democrats increasingly want their party to moderate by moving toward the center. And the survey, from Gallup, also suggests an increasing percentage of Republicans support the GOP staying the same ideologically. A plurality of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents — 45% — who were questioned in the survey said they want their party to become more moderate. That’s up 11 percentage points since 2021, at the start of former President Biden’s single term in the White House. DEMOCRATS FORCED TO DEFEND ANOTHER OPEN SENATE SEAT IN 2026 MIDTERM ELECTIONS “At the same time, Democrats’ and leaners’ desire for a more liberal party has declined five points, to 29%, and preferences for no change in party ideology have fallen nine points, to 22%,” the release from Gallup noted. The poll was conducted Jan. 21-27 in the immediate aftermath of President Donald Trump’s inauguration and at the start of his second tour of duty in the White House. WHAT AMERICANS THINK ABOUT TRUMP’S FIRST THREE WEEKS IN OFFICE Trump recaptured the presidency in November, and Republicans won back the Senate majority while the Democrats failed to win back control of the House of Representatives from the GOP. Republicans made significant gains among Black and Hispanic voters, as well as younger voters, all traditional members of the Democratic Party’s base. Gallup notes that the Democrats’ “current sentiment may very well be a reaction to their losses in 2024, as they look ahead to 2026.” The Gallup poll indicates that support among Republicans and GOP-leaning independents for the party to stay ideologically the same jumped nine points, from 34% in 2021 to 43% now. Meanwhile, those desiring a more conservative party plunged 12 points, to 28%. “The 27% of Republicans and leaners who now prefer moderation for their party is not significantly different from 2021,” the poll’s release noted. But the poll indicates that two-thirds of Republicans and Republican-leaning voters self-identify as conservative, with 31% seeing themselves as moderate and just 2% calling themselves liberal. Since his first election to the presidency in 2016, Trump has held immense sway over Republicans and has transformed the GOP from a conservative-dominated party to a more populist party of loyalists who strongly support Trump’s “America First” agenda. The release of the Gallup poll comes a couple of weeks after another national survey spelled trouble for the Democrats. Only 31% of respondents in a Quinnipiac University survey conducted last month had a favorable opinion of the Democratic Party, with 57% seeing the party in an unfavorable light. “This is the highest percentage of voters having an unfavorable opinion of the Democratic Party since the Quinnipiac University Poll began asking this question,” the survey’s release noted. Meanwhile, 43% of those questioned had a favorable view of the GOP, with 45% holding an unfavorable opinion, which was the highest favorable opinion for the Republican Party ever in Quinnipiac polling.
Here’s what happened during President Donald Trump’s 4th week in office
President Donald Trump and his administration forged ahead with its foreign policy priorities in meetings and calls with heads of state and advanced discussions surrounding the end of the Russia-Ukraine war this week. Trump spoke with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, where leaders agreed to launch negotiations to end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. “We agreed to work together, very closely, including visiting each other’s Nations,” Trump posted to Truth Social Wednesday after speaking with Putin. “We have also agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately, and we will begin by calling President Zelenskyy, of Ukraine, to inform him of the conversation, something which I will be doing right now.” “I have asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of the CIA John Ratcliffe, National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, and Ambassador and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, to lead the negotiations which, I feel strongly, will be successful,” Trump said. Additionally, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent traveled to Kyiv on Wednesday, and Vice President JD Vance also met with Zelenskyy Friday at the Munich Security Conference. TRUMP SAYS RUSSIA AGREES TO ‘IMMEDIATELY BEGIN’ NEGOTIATIONS TO END WAR IN UKRAINE Meanwhile, the Trump administration has come under scrutiny for the negotiations, fielding criticism that Ukraine is being pressured to give in to concessions after Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said Wednesday that it wasn’t realistic for Ukraine to regain its pre-war borders with Russia. “Putin is gonna pocket this and ask for more,” Brett Bruen, director of global engagement under former President Barack Obama, told Fox News Digital. But Hegseth shut down comments like these, and told NATO members in Brussels on Thursday: “Any suggestion that President Trump is doing anything other than negotiating from a position of strength is, on its face, ahistorical and false.” Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, and Trump vowed on the campaign trail in 2024 that he would work to end the conflict if elected again. Here’s what also happened this week at the White House: Trump welcomed Jordan’s King Abdullah II at the White House Tuesday, a visit that comes amid contentious discussions between the U.S. and Arab nations about relocating Palestinian refugees to Jordan and other neighboring Arab countries to rebuild Gaza. Trump unveiled plans on Feb. 4 that the U.S. would seek to “take over” the Gaza Strip in a “long-term ownership position” to deliver stability to the region during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. However, Trump’s proposal prompted swift backlash from Arab countries, including Jordan, and Egypt announced plans on Sunday for an emergency Arab Summit to discuss “new and dangerous developments” regarding the resettling of Palestinians on Feb. 27. TRUMP MEETS WITH JORDAN’S KING AMID TENSE TALKS ABOUT RESETTLING PALESTINIANS When asked how he felt about Trump’s plans for the future of Gaza, Abdullah remained tight-lipped and said he would wait for the Egyptians to take the lead on a proposal moving forward as they negotiate with the U.S. “I think let’s wait until the Egyptians can come and present it to the president and not get ahead of us,” Abdullah said. Abdullah did reveal plans to accept 2,000 sick Palestinian children to Jordan. “I think one of the things that we can do right away is take 2,000 children that are either cancer children or in a very ill state, to Jordan as quickly as possible,” Abdullah said. “And then wait for … the Egyptians to present their plan on how we can work with the president to work on the cause of challenges.” Trump floated a joint meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Putin, claiming he wants all countries to move toward denuclearization. Trump on Thursday told reporters he plans to advance these denuclearization talks once “we straighten it all out” in the Middle East and Ukraine, comments that come as the U.S., Russia and Ukraine are actively pursuing negotiations to end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. “There’s no reason for us to be building brand new nuclear weapons, we already have so many,” Trump said Thursday at the White House. “You could destroy the world 50 times over, 100 times over. And here we are building new nuclear weapons, and they’re building nuclear weapons.” “We’re all spending a lot of money that we could be spending on other things that are actually, hopefully, much more productive,” he said. The U.S. is projected to spend approximately $756 billion on nuclear weapons between 2023 and 2032, according to a Congressional Budget Office report released in 2023. Trump signed an executive order Tuesday instructing the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to coordinate with federal agencies and execute massive cuts in federal government staffing numbers. The order will instruct DOGE and federal agencies to work together to “significantly” shrink the size of the federal government and limit hiring new employees, according to a White House fact sheet on the order. Specifically, agencies must not hire more than one employee for every four that leave their federal post. TRUMP SIGNS ORDER INSTRUCTING DOGE TO MASSIVELY CUT FEDERAL WORKFORCE Agencies will also be instructed to “undertake plans for large-scale reductions in force” and evaluate ways to eliminate or combine agency functions that aren’t legally required. The order builds on another directive Trump signed after his inauguration implementing a federal hiring freeze, as well as an initiative from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management offering more than two million federal civilian employees buyouts if they leave their jobs or return to work in person. The White House told Fox News Digital Thursday that more than 75,000 employees have accepted the buyout. Trump unveiled plans Sunday to halt production of the penny — but getting that initiative underway requires a few additional steps and possibly congressional approval. Additionally, while Trump said he instructed the Treasury Department to stop minting them due to their high costs, supporters of the penny claim it’s wiser to evaluate changes to the nickel instead.
Federal department slashes millions in contracts, including $230K for ‘Brazilian forest and gender consultant’
Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced on Friday that the department has terminated nearly 80 contracts, including for a Brazilian forest and gender consultant and a Central American gender assessment consultant. Rollins said the 78 contracts active under the Biden administration totaled more than $132 million, and more than 1,000 contracts are still under review for potential termination. The findings come after a review from the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, which Rollins said will help the Agriculture Department to stop wasteful spending. “I welcome DOGE’s efforts at USDA because we know that its work makes us better, stronger, faster, and more efficient. I will expect full access and transparency to DOGE in the days and weeks to come,” Rollins said. DOGE SAYS IT DUG UP $1.9 BILLION IN TAXPAYER MONEY ‘MISPLACED’ BY BIDEN ADMIN The $132 million in terminated contracts includes $374,000 for a diversity, equity, and inclusion onboarding specialist, $254,000 for diversity dialogue workshops, $298,000 for international development for historically underrepresented communities, $229,000 for a Brazilian forest and gender consultant, $121,000 for a women and forest carbon initiative mentorship program and $29,000 for a Central American gender assessment consultant. Rollins previously issued a memo to officially rescind all diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility programs to instead focus on unity, equality and meritocracy. Now, the Agriculture Department has canceled 948 employee trainings, 758 of which focused solely on DEI. The other canceled trainings covered topics including environmental justice and gender ideology. Another terminated contract was an “African and Middle Eastern and Latin America and Caribbean Regions for training, education, and access to professional and economic opportunities for women and increasing their participation in climate change adaptation activities” totaling $91,000. There was also a neighborhood electric vehicle utility van for $33,000 and a Hawaii conference room rental for a 100-person Agriculture Department meeting on biodiversity for $11,000. The Agriculture Department also cut $277 million for media contracts, including subscriptions to POLITICO Pro, a news and information service that offers resources such as tracking legislation. POLITICO said the overwhelming majority of subscribers to POLITICO Pro were in the private sector. TRUMP AGRICULTURE PICK CONFIRMED AS PRESIDENT RACKS UP CABINET WINS Federal agencies and lawmakers, including Republicans in Congress, have been subscribed to POLITICO Pro, but the White House recently announced that the administration would be eliminating subscriptions to some news organizations as part of a plan to reduce government spending. The Agriculture Department, Rollins said, is also seeking to optimize its workforce by eliminating positions that are no longer necessary, requiring its workers to return to the office and relocating employees into the nation’s heartland.
Judge extends order blocking Musk’s DOGE team from Treasury payment system
A federal judge on Friday extended a temporary order that blocks Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team from accessing payment systems within the Treasury Department. The extension comes after 19 state attorneys general filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over DOGE’s access to the payment system, which has information about Americans’ Social Security, Medicare and veterans’ benefits, tax refund information, and much more. The lawsuit claims the Musk-run agency illegally accessed the Treasury Department’s central payment system at the Trump administration’s behest. TREASURY ‘MISTAKENLY’ GAVE MUSK DOGE WORKER ABILITY TO CHANGE PAYMENTS SYSTEM: COURT DOCS The lawsuit was filed in New York by New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office and includes attorneys general from Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin. TREASURY DEPARTMENT SAYS DOGE WILL HAVE ‘READ ONLY’ ACCESS TO PAYMENT SYSTEMS IN LETTER TO CONGRESS U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas in Manhattan on Friday said that she wasn’t going to issue a ruling yet on the attorneys general request for a longer preliminary injunction, leaving the temporary order issued last Saturday in place. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told FOX Business last week that the concerns about DOGE’s access to the Treasury Department are not valid. “DOGE is not going to fail,” he said. “They are moving a lot of people’s cheese here in the capital, and when you hear this squawking, then some status quo interest is not happy.” He continued, “At the Treasury, our payment system is not being touched. We process 1.3 billion payments a year. There is a study being done — can we have more accountability, more accuracy, more traceability that the money is going where it is? But, in terms of payments being stopped, that is happening upstream at the department level.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The newly-created DOGE aims to cut government waste and has been given access to more than a dozen government agencies, including the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Department of Education and the Department of Labor.
DOGE says it dug up another $1.9 billion in taxpayer money ‘misplaced’ by Biden admin
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the Elon Musk-led group tasked with eliminating wasteful spending, on Friday said it found $1.9 billion that was misplaced by the Biden administration. The funds were from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and have been recovered. “$1.9 billion of HUD money was just recovered after being misplaced during the Biden administration due to a broken process. These funds were earmarked for the administration of financial services, but were no longer needed,” a DOGE post on X stated. THROUGH THE EPA, WE CAN PURSUE ENERGY DOMINANCE, LEE ZELDIN SAYS | FOX NEWS VIDEO HUD Secretary Scott Turner worked with DOGE to “fix the issue” and “de-obligated the funds which are now available for other use by the Treasury.” On Thursday, Turner announced the creation of a DOGE task force within his agency. “We will be very detailed and deliberate about every dollar spent in serving tribal, rural and urban communities across America,” he said in a video posted on X. TRUMP TAPS FORMER NEW YORK REP LEE ZELDIN TO LEAD EPA Turner said his team had identified $260 million in savings just two days prior. DOGE has identified billions of dollars in questionable spending. With the help of DOGE, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin said he has canceled a Biden-era $50 million environmental justice grant to an organization that believes “climate justice travels through a Free Palestine.” The EPA also sent $160 million to a Canadian electric bus manufacturer under the Biden administration, Zeldin said during a Thursday appearance on “The Story with Martha MacCallum.” He noted that the Biden administration sent the full amount to the manufacturer, rather than making payments along the way as school buses were being produced. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Since receiving the money, he added, the company has declared bankruptcy.
Justice Department moves to drop case against NYC Mayor Eric Adams
Federal prosecutors on Friday asked a judge to drop the Justice Department’s case against New York Mayor Eric Adams, following the departure of several prosecutors who opted to resign rather than follow through with bringing the charges against Adams. The news comes after a federal prosecutor, Hagan Scotten, resigned Friday in a scathing letter, accusing top DOJ officials of looking for a “fool.” NYC MAYOR ADAMS, TRUMP BORDER CZAR HOMAN ANNOUNCE ‘GAME CHANGER’ FOR ICE ENFORCEMENT “Any assistant U.S. attorney would know that our laws and traditions do not allow using the prosecutorial power to influence other citizens, much less elected officials, in this way,” Scotten told acting U.S. Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove. Adams reacted to the news of his indictment being dropped Friday, clarifying that he had not made a deal to drop his case. “I want to be crystal clear with New Yorkers: I never offered — nor did anyone offer on my behalf — any trade of my authority as your mayor for an end to my case. Never,” Adam’s said in a statement released. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi’s Chief of Staff Chad Mizelle called the decision to dismiss Adam’s’ indictment “yet another indication that this DOJ will return to its core function of prosecuting dangerous criminals, not pursuing politically motivated witch hunts. NEW YORK CITY MAYOR ERIC ADAMS SAYS HE WILL RUN FOR RE-ELECTION AS A DEMOCRAT “The fact that those who indicted and prosecuted the case refused to follow a direct command is further proof of the disordered and ulterior motives of the prosecutors. Such individuals have no place at DOJ,” Mizelle said in a statement released Friday. A federal judge still needs to sign off on the order before the case against Adams can be formally dismissed.
‘You’re my rock’: Politicians trade roses and thorns this Valentine’s Day
Political power couples celebrated their love on social media this Valentine’s Day — but not without a few jabs from opposing political parties. Several political organizations took to X to post Valentine’s Day messages trolling their rivals, including a meme from the White House with a message to illegal immigrants. “Violets are blue, come here illegally, and we’ll deport you,” the official Trump White House X account posted. Some X users embraced the deportation meme, while others found it insensitive. The top reply on the White House’s post says: “ROSES ARE RED VIOLETS ARE BLUE YOUR ANCESTORS WERE IMMIGRANTS AND SO ARE YOU LET’S EMBRACE OTHERS AND THEIR DREAMS TOO.” Chris LaCivita, a GOP political strategist and a former advisor to President Donald Trump, posted a photo of Trump with a bandage on his ear from the July 2024 assassination attempt captioned, “I’d take a bullet for you.” A Valentine from the Republican National Committee to the Democratic National Committee said: “Roses are red, violets are blue; We won seven Swing States, what did you do?” Democrats had some fun with their Valentine’s Day message, too, poking fun at the power dynamics at play between Elon Musk and Trump. “The left can’t meme,” multiple users replied to the Democrats’ post on X. Another X user replied with a photo of Trump and former first lady Jill Biden speaking at the reopening of the Notre Dame captioned: “Will you be my Valentine?” Former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama celebrated 32 years of marriage with matching selfies across their social media accounts amid divorce rumors. “If there’s one person I can always count on, it’s you, @BarackObama. You’re my rock. Always have been. Always will be. Happy Valentine’s Day, honey!” Michelle said. Former President Joe Biden joined the love fest with a photo of his wife Jill sporting a “LOVE” jacket captioned, “Happy Valentine’s Day, Jilly!” PRINCE WILLIAM STEALS KISS FROM KATE MIDDLETON IN RARE VALENTINE’S DAY PHOTO Former second gentleman Doug Emhoff posted a photo wishing former Vice President Kamala Harris a happy Valentine’s Day, saying, “Grateful to be by your side through it all.” Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., fresh off being sworn in as Secretary of Health and Human Services, posted a photo on a hike with his wife, actress Cheryl Hines. He thanked her for “being my partner in this adventure.” SENATE CONFIRMS ROBERT F KENNEDY JR. TO SERVE AS TRUMP’S HEALTH SECRETARY “Thanking the love of my life Dina for her incredible support and love during the craziest year of our lives! Happy Valentine’s Day!” Sen. Dave McCormick, R-Pa., said to his wife Dina, who served as deputy national security advisor during President Donald Trump’s first term. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, posted a charming photo with his valentine of 70 years. Meanwhile, Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., wished his wife Mindy a happy first Valentine’s Day as a married couple. The 59-year-old was a longtime bachelor before announcing his engagement to a “lovely Christian girl” in January 2024. The couple got married in August at the Seacoast Church in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. California Gov. Gavin Newsom thanked his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, for championing the rights of Californians. “Happy Valentine’s Day, Jen. I’m lucky to call my best friend the love of my life. Thank you for all that you do to champion the rights of Californians. I love you,” Newsom said in a post. Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., posted a throwback photo with his wife of 25 years, calling the life they built in Southwest Florida his “greatest blessing.” “My high school sweetheart, the mother of our four amazing kids, the love of my life, and Pennsylvania’s First Lady! Happy Valentine’s Day, Lori,” Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro wrote in a post. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., wished his wife a happy Valentine’s Day with an Audrey Hepburn quote: “The best thing to hold onto in life is each other. New York City Mayor Eric Adams opted for a solo photo, holding up heart hands in his Valentine’s Day post and telling New Yorkers what he really loves is “making our city MORE affordable, building even MORE affordable housing, and making sure EVERY New Yorker has a job…so they can treat their boo to a night out.”
Trump so far has freed 11 hostages in his first month as president; Biden released around 70 in four years
President Donald Trump’s administration has secured the release of 11 U.S. hostages held by foreign governments since taking office less than one month ago, according to the White House. The Trump administration has emphasized arranging the release of U.S. hostages under his second administration and welcomed U.S. Marc Fogel, a U.S. history teacher who had been detained in Russia since 2021, back to the U.S. Tuesday. Other hostages released since Trump’s inauguration include six Americans detained in Venezuela, two Americans detained in Belarus and Israeli-American citizen Keith Siegel, who was held hostage by Palestinian militant group Hamas. There are at least two living American citizen hostages believed to be held in Gaza. By comparison, former President Joe Biden said in 2024 his White House secured the release of more than 70 hostages during his four years in office, according to an August 2024 statement. Fox News Digital didn’t find any available data to compare numbers from Biden’s first month in office. Trump claimed to have helped release 58 in his first term as president. ISRAELI PRESIDENT CALLS TRUMP A ‘TRUE FRIEND’ ON INAUGURATION DAY, PRAISES HIS WORK TO RELEASE HOSTAGES There were 46 American nationals known to be held captive in 16 different countries in 2024, according to the nonprofit Foley Foundation, which advocates for U.S. hostages and was named after James Foley, a U.S. journalist kidnapped while reporting in Syria in 2012 and killed by ISIS in 2014. That number is now likely closer to the low 30s after the recent releases of hostages in January and February. On Tuesday, Trump met with Fogel, who was arrested in August 2021 at a Russian airport for possessing drugs and was slated to serve a 14-year sentence. Fogel’s family said the drugs he had on him were medically prescribed marijuana. “I want you to know that I am not a hero in this at all,” Fogel said Tuesday after meeting Trump. “And President Trump is a hero. FREED ISRAELI HOSTAGE SPEAKS OUT FOR FIRST TIME “These men that came from the diplomatic service are heroes,” Fogel said. “The senators and representatives that passed legislation in my honor — they got me home — they are heroes.” Following Foley’s return and after announcing the release of another, unnamed hostage held in Belarus Wednesday, Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs Adam Boehler said Trump “has made bringing Americans home a top priority, and people respond to that.” The names of most of the hostages released in February have not been publicly shared. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital about which hostages the U.S. was planning to release next. Just before Trump’s inauguration Jan. 20, both the Biden administration and the incoming Trump administration coordinated to secure a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, which included provisions to release dozens of hostages on both sides. Biden and Trump separately boasted about their individual efforts to secure the deal, and State Department spokesman Matthew Miller described the Trump administration’s involvement as “critical” to getting the deal over the finish line. Trump also touted his administration’s involvement in a social media post Jan. 15, claiming it occurred “as a result of our Historic Victory in November, as it signaled to the entire World that my Administration would seek Peace and negotiate deals to ensure the safety of all Americans, and our Allies.” Although Biden said the two teams had been “speaking as one team” during the negotiations, he also mocked suggestions that Trump was responsible for securing the ceasefire deal. “Who in the history books gets credit for this, Mr. President, you or Trump?” Fox News’ Jacqui Heinrich asked Biden Jan. 15 after a White House news conference. ISRAEL RELEASES 90 PALESTINIAN PRISONERS AS PART OF CEASEFIRE DEAL TO FREE HOSTAGES “Is that a joke?” Biden said. When Heinrich said it was not, Biden replied, “Oh. Thank you.” The Associated Press and Fox News’ Emma Colton and Landon Mion contributed to this report.