Hegseth hints at major defense spending hike, reveals new details on Trump’s anti-narco-terrorism operations
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth offered new details Saturday about how he personally authorized the Trump administration’s first strike on a suspected drug-smuggling vessel off Venezuela on Sept. 2, telling Fox News’ Lucas Tomlinson he watched the strike live in the Pentagon after giving the green light. Earlier in his keynote remarks, Hegseth declared that President Donald Trump is the true heir to Ronald Reagan’s “peace through strength” doctrine, accusing past bipartisan leaders of drifting into endless wars. After his speech, Hegseth sat down with Tomlinson for a Q&A that revealed new details about the Sept. 2 operation, which he said was the first in a series of more than 20 U.S. strikes targeting cartel-linked narco-terrorist networks across the Caribbean. He also sharply rejected reporting that he had instructed U.S. forces to kill all individuals on the boat. AS TRUMP’S STANDOFF WITH MADURO DEEPENS, EXPERTS WARN THE NEXT MOVE MAY FORCE A SHOWDOWN “(Is) anybody here from The Washington Post? I don’t know where you get your sources, but they suck,” Hegseth said when asked if he had ever issued such an order. “Of course not … you don’t walk in and say, ‘Kill them.’ It’s just patently ridiculous.” Hegseth also said it took “a couple of weeks, almost a month” to build the intelligence required for the first strike. He said the Pentagon had to reorient assets that had been focused “10,000 miles around the other side of the world for a very long time.” He kept strike authority at his level only for the initial operation due to its “strategic implications.” CAPITOL HILL REVOLT THREATENS TRUMP’S VENEZUELA PLAYBOOK AMID CARIBBEAN STRIKE OVERSIGHT “The briefing that I received before that strike was extensive, exhaustive,” he said. “Military side, on the civilian side, lawyers, intel analysts, red-teaming … all the details you need to strike a designated terrorist organization.” Hegseth said the target was part of an organization President Trump had formally designated as a terrorist group. “My job was to say execute or don’t execute,” he said. He approved the strike. HEGSETH TO HIGHLIGHT REBUILDING THE ‘ARSENAL OF FREEDOM’ IN SPEECH AT REAGAN NATIONAL DEFENSE FORUM According to Hegseth, he viewed the mission feed “for probably five minutes or so” before moving to other tasks once the strike shifted to tactical execution. Hours later, Hegseth said he was informed by commanders that a second strike was necessary. “There had to be a re-attack, because there were a couple of folks that could still be in the fight,” he said, citing access to radios, a possible link-up point with another boat and remaining drugs on board. “I fully support that strike,” he said. “I would have made the same call myself.” He added that secondary attacks are common in combat zones and fell “well within the authorities of Adm. Bradley,” who now oversees strike decisions. Hegseth said he no longer retains approval authority for subsequent missions. Addressing questions about survivor protocols, Hegseth pointed to a later incident involving a semi-submersible drug vessel. “In that particular case, the first strike didn’t take it out, and a couple of guys jumped off and swam,” he said. After the vessel was struck again and sank, U.S. forces retrieved the survivors. “We gave them back to their host countries,” he said, adding that the situation “didn’t change our protocol” but reflected different circumstances. HOUSE REPUBLICANS BACK TRUMP’S VENEZUELA MOVES FOR NOW AS ESCALATION UNCERTAINTY LOOMS Hegseth argued that the operations have already had a deterrent effect. “We’re putting them at the bottom of the Caribbean. … It will make the American people safer,” Hegseth said. Tomlinson pressed Hegseth on President Trump’s public statement that he did not oppose releasing the unredacted video of the first strike. “We’re reviewing it right now,” Hegseth said, citing concerns over “sources, methods” and ongoing operations. Hegseth said defense spending is one of the issues that “keeps [him] up,” adding he was recently in Oval Office meetings about the fiscal year 2026 and fiscal year 2027 budgets. Asked directly whether defense spending as a share of GDP will rise, he replied, “I think that number is going up,” while declining to get ahead of President Trump. “We need a revived defense industrial base,” he said. “We need those capabilities. We need them yesterday.” Tomlinson also asked whether Hegseth regretted using Signal ahead of combat operations in Yemen, referencing a recently closed inspector general review. “I don’t live with any regrets,” Hegseth said. “I know exactly where my compass is on our troops.” He argued that morale has surged under Trump. “The revival of the spirit inside our military … the desire to join and reenlist is at historic levels,” he said. Asked whether he prefers troops equipped with more AI-enabled tools or autonomous systems replacing them, Hegseth said the modern battlefield requires both. “It has to be both,” he said. “What AI is doing to ten, 100, 1,000 times the speed of sensing … is critical.” CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP Tomlinson ended with a traditional Reagan Forum question, asking who Hegseth wants to win the Army–Navy game. “Well, I’m with Navy,” he said, before adding that the Marine Corps “stood strong” during political “nonsense” in recent years.
Dr. Oz warns Walz to address alleged Somali Medicaid fraud or lose federal funding: ‘We’ll stop paying’
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Mehmet Oz on Friday warned Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz the state could lose federal Medicaid funding unless it restores “the integrity” of its program. In a post on X, Dr. Oz claimed more than $1 billion had been stolen through a massive Medicaid fraud scheme carried out by “bad actors” within Minnesota’s Somali community, alleging some of the funds “may have even made its way to the Somalian terrorist group (al-Shabab).” “Our staff at CMS told me they’ve never seen anything like this in Medicaid — and everyone from Gov. Tim Walz on down needs to be investigated, because they’ve been asleep at the wheel,” Oz said. COMER TARGETS WALZ IN NEW HOUSE INVESTIGATION, CITING NEARLY $1B IN ALLEGED MINNESOTA FRAUD Oz demanded Walz take the following corrective measures within 60 days: “If we’re unsatisfied with the state’s plans or cooperation, we’ll stop paying the federal share of these programs,” Oz warned. The CMS administrator pointed to two Minnesota Medicaid programs launched in recent years, noting dramatic spikes in costs. The Housing Stabilization Services program, projected at $2.6 million annually, paid out over $100 million in 2024, according to Oz. The Early Intensive Developmental and Behavioral Intervention program grew from $3 million in 2018 to nearly $400 million in 2023, he said. WALZ ‘DERELICT LEADERSHIP’ TO BLAME IN $1B FRAUD SCANDAL WITH ‘HAUNTING REMINDS OF WATERGATE’: GOP CHALLENGER “These scammers used stolen taxpayer money to buy flashy cars, purchase overseas real estate and offer kickbacks to parents who enrolled their kids at fake autism treatment centers,” Oz said. “Some of it may have even made its way to the Somalian terrorist group al-Shabab. … So why didn’t Walz stop them? That’s simple: because he went all-in on identity politics.” Minnesota officials previously reported the problem to CMS but failed to address it effectively, according to Oz. “We stepped in and shut down the worst program: housing. We also froze provider enrollment in a few of the most abused programs,” Oz said. PHOTOS EMERGE OF SOMALI ILLEGAL’S TIES TO TOP MINNESOTA DEMS AFTER ICE ARREST “The message to Walz is clear: either fix this in 60 days or start looking under your couch for spare change, because we’re done footing the bill for your incompetence.” President Donald Trump recently announced a flurry of actions to crack down and investigate fraud schemes in Minnesota, which he has assailed as a “hub of money laundering activity,” and cited it as the basis of his decision to terminate deportation protections for hundreds of Somali migrants. This week, senior Trump administration officials announced fresh investigations, including a new Treasury Department probe into how taxpayer dollars were allegedly diverted to the terrorist organization al-Shabab, according to Secretary Scott Bessent. Walz’s office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. Fox News Digital’s Breanne Deppisch contributed to this report.
Hegseth to highlight rebuilding the ‘arsenal of freedom’ in speech at Reagan National Defense Forum
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is preparing to deliver a speech Saturday on rebuilding the “arsenal of freedom” at the Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, California. Ahead of the keynote address, Hegseth shared a video on X touring facilities in California. “The era of vendor-locked, prime-dominated, closed architecture, cost plus is over. We’re going to compete. We’re going to move fast. We’re going to do open architecture. We’re going to innovate. We’re going to scale. We’re going to do it at cost. Because this is a commitment to a mission,” Hegseth said in the video. “Whether you’re a vet or not who served already, all of you are serving the Department of War, the American people and the arsenal of freedom,” Hegseth said. “I need you to understand that, yes, we’re here for the warfighters who are out there pulling triggers on the behalf of our nation right now. Everybody here’s touched someone who serves at some point. But they can’t succeed without you.” WAR DEPARTMENT REFOCUSES ON AI, HYPERSONICS AND DIRECTED ENERGY IN MAJOR STRATEGY OVERHAUL The secretary told those building the Department of War’s arsenal that American troops would not be able to do what’s required of them “in far-flung places, in dangerous moments, in the dead of night without the capabilities that you will underwrite for them.” “So, this arsenal of freedom is built not just with men and women in camouflage. But it’s in folks in civilian clothes all across the country who are also putting in the work 24/7, to out-compete, out-innovate and out-manufacture our opponents,” Hegseth declared. Hegseth’s speech is scheduled to begin around 2:50 p.m. ET, according to a Reagan National Defense Forum schedule. He will be joined at the event by other leaders from the U.S. military. “We are rebuilding the Arsenal of Freedom,” Hegseth wrote on X alongside the video. SAUDI ARABIA IS ALREADY AMERICA’S TOP ARMS BUYER AND NOW TRUMP WANTS TO ADD F-35S The event is being held at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. “The Reagan National Defense Forum (RNDF) brings together leaders from across the political spectrum and key stakeholders in the defense community, including Members of Congress, current and former Administration officials, senior military leadership, industry executives, technology innovators, and thought leaders,” the Forum said on its website. “Their mission is to review and assess policies that strengthen America’s national defense in the context of the global threat environment.” Notable speakers at the event so far on Saturday included Russell Vought, the director of the United States Office of Management and Budget; Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., who is the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee; Emil Michael, the U.S. under secretary of war for research and engineering; and Adm. Samuel Paparo, commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.
Afghan watchdog: US taxpayer-funded weapons left behind have formed ‘core of the Taliban security apparatus’
The final report from a government watchdog tasked with overseeing Afghanistan reconstruction efforts declared that “U.S. taxpayer-funded equipment, weapons, and facilities” left behind during the chaotic 2021 U.S. withdrawal have now “formed the core of the Taliban security apparatus.” The 137-page document released this week from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) states that Congress provided approximately $144.7 billion for Afghanistan reconstruction between 2002 to 2021, as part of a mission promising to bring stability and democracy to the country, “yet ultimately delivered neither.” “Due to the Taliban takeover, SIGAR was unable to inspect any of the equipment provided to, or facilities constructed for, the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) following the Afghan government’s collapse,” the report said. “However, DOD determined that the United States left behind approximately $7.1 billion in material and equipment it had given to the ANDSF.” “Similarly, any remaining ANDSF facilities that were not destroyed, can be assumed to be under Taliban control. These U.S. taxpayer-funded equipment, weapons, and facilities have formed the core of the Taliban security apparatus,” it added. TALIBAN KILLS INTERNET ACROSS AFGHANISTAN, CITING MORALITY CONCERNS AS UN PROTESTS The U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan concluded in August 2021 under the Biden administration. A Pentagon watchdog found the following year that, “Afghan forces had 316,260 weapons, worth $511.8 million, as well as ammunition and other equipment in their stocks when the former government fell, though the operational condition of these items was unknown.” “The DoD reported that the U.S. military removed or destroyed nearly all major equipment used by U.S. troops in Afghanistan throughout the drawdown period in 2021,” the Pentagon watchdog said at the time. SENATE REPUBLICANS DEMAND VETTING OVERHAUL AFTER SHOOTING OF NATIONAL GUARD MEMBERS In the SIGAR report released this week, Gene Aloise, the Acting Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, wrote that, “Multiple factors contributed to the failure of the U.S. effort to transform a war-torn, underdeveloped country into a stable and prosperous democracy.” “For example, early and ongoing U.S. decisions to ally with corrupt, human-rights-abusing powerbrokers bolstered the insurgency and undermined the mission, including U.S. goals for bringing democracy and good governance to Afghanistan,” he wrote in a letter attached to the report. “Efforts to improve Afghanistan’s economic and social conditions also failed to have a lasting impact. And, despite nearly $90 billion in U.S. appropriations for security-sector assistance, Afghan security forces ultimately collapsed quickly without a sustained U.S. military presence.” The SIGAR report said the “ANDSF remained reliant on the U.S. military in part because the United States designed the ANDSF as a mirror image of U.S. forces, which required a high degree of professional military sophistication and leadership. “This created long-term ANDSF dependencies. As a result of those dependencies, the decision to withdraw all U.S. military personnel and dramatically reduce U.S. support to the ANDSF destroyed the morale of Afghan soldiers and police,” the watchdog said. “Despite Afghanistan falling to the Taliban in 2021, the United States continued to be the nation’s largest donor, having disbursed more than $3.83 billion in humanitarian and development assistance there since,” it also revealed. “In the March 2025 quarter alone, disbursements totaled $120 million.”
Hollywood star endorses Republican for California governor after ‘devastating’ Newsom admin
EXCLUSIVE: Hollywood icon Lorenzo Lamas is endorsing a pro-law enforcement Republican for California governor after he says that Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has had a “devastating” impact on the state. Lamas, who is best known for his action roles in the 80’s and 90’s, told Fox News Digital he is endorsing Riverside Sheriff Chad Bianco for governor, saying, “The impact on the state of California with the current [Newsom] administration is nothing short of devastating.” Lamas said that “over the years I’ve been very careful about voicing an opinion politically,” noting that “sometimes it can affect who you work for, depending on a company’s or studio’s political point of view.” “But I think we’re at a point now, not just in California, but I think nationwide, that we have to start at least voicing what we feel is wrong with what’s happening,” he explained. UFC LEGEND ENDORSES PRO-LAW ENFORCEMENT PICK FOR CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR: ‘WE NEED HIS STRENGTH Lamas said he was motivated to finally speak out after long watching his home state be mismanaged despite its enormous economy and abundant natural resources. He described the Democratic Party’s grip on California as “a sickness that’s permeated the state from the top to the bottom.” “We have to figure out what we’re going to do with the people that are disenfranchised and living on the streets, the programs that supposedly are budgeted for these folks, where is that money? … There’s nobody that’s accounting for the millions of dollars that are spent on welfare programs that’s not benefiting anybody that can use it,” he said. Regarding the several devastating natural disasters the state has experienced in recent years, Lamas said, “I grew up in Pacific Palisades, that fire devastated my hometown. The home I grew up in burned down. My elementary school burned down. Why? Because not enough budget was allocated to resources to fight the fire.” “Not only that, the people that lost their homes in the Palisades. Many of them were second, third generation people. They cannot afford to rebuild in the city that they grew up in, the city that they came to love. Why? Well, because, hey, guess what? It takes years to get rebuilding plans approved. There’s just so much red tape, so much bureaucracy, and Chad wants to just eliminate it.” ERIC SWALWELL ANNOUNCES RUN FOR CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR, VOWS TO BE ‘PROTECTOR AND FIGHTER’ “I’ve watched the wealthiest state in the nation become completely mismanaged by the current administration,” he went on. “It’s just it’s beyond the pale what’s happened to my state.” Meanwhile, Lamas said that he believes Bianco, who has framed his candidacy around cost of living and public safety issues, “is the man that can really turn this thing around.” “We’ve got to have a governor that’s pro-law enforcement, that’s going to keep our moms and our daughters safe on the streets,” he said, explaining, “I have two daughters that live in Los Angeles, and there I tell them, every single day [that] their heads got to be on a swivel. You see all the crime that’s rampant, not just in California, but all around the country. It’s permeating this beautiful nation of ours, and it really makes me sick.” Bianco is facing a steep uphill battle to win as a Republican in deep blue California. It has been nearly two decades since a Republican won a statewide race. On the Democratic side of the aisle, California Rep. Eric Swalwell and former Rep. Katie Porter, both progressives and vocal critics of President Donald Trump, are running to replace Newsom, who is term-limited. HALLE BERRY STUNS CROWD BY CRITICIZING GAVIN NEWSOM, SAYS HE ‘PROBABLY SHOULD NOT BE OUR NEXT PRESIDENT’ On whether he believes California is ready to send a Republican to the governor’s mansion, Lamas answered, “What I see in Chad is a tremendous gift of being able to present his agenda with a commonsense foundation, and that’s going to appeal to anybody with half of a brain.” “Last November 6th, America voted for commonsense. And I think it’s time that California votes for commonsense, and the only person that I really feel can bring that to our state is Chad Bianco.” A spokesperson for Newsom brushed off Lamas’ criticism, sending Fox News Digital a one-word response, simply asking, “Who?” Bianco has also been endorsed by UFC legends Royce Gracie and Dan Henderson.
Walz ‘derelict leadership’ to blame in $1B fraud scandal with ‘haunting reminds of Watergate’: GOP challenger
As the city of Minneapolis faces a $1 billion welfare scandal, Minnesota Republican gubernatorial candidate Dr. Scott Jensen spoke to Fox News Digital about his belief that Gov. Tim Walz is not only directly responsible for the controversy, but suggested that a “cover up” that’s “worse than Watergate” is at play. Walz’s role in what’s been labeled by prosecutors as the largest COVID-19 fraud scheme in the country, stemming from allegations that the Minnesota nonprofit Feeding Our Future and its associates defrauded federal child-nutrition programs for hundreds of millions of dollars in COVID-19 aid, has been a major topic of conversation in the gubernatorial race in recent weeks. “In Minnesota, I don’t think that there’s any way to cut it other than to say the buck has to stop somewhere,” Jensen told Fox News Digital. “And it’s always been that the buck stops at the governor’s desk. Arguably, the governor is the CEO of the state of Minnesota and the business of the government. And Tim Walz has been derelict in doing his duties, and he’s absolutely corrupted common sense.” The dereliction, Jensen explained, is evident when one examines a timeline he says shows Walz knew about Feeding Our Future fraud far earlier than he has admitted and then misled Minnesotans about his administration’s response. OMAR ALLIES TIED TO MASSIVE MINNESOTA COVID MEAL FRAUD SCHEME INVOLVING SOMALI COMMUNITY “Tim Walz and the Minnesota Department of Education knew in 2020 that there was a problem… but they didn’t get the FBI involved until 2021,” Jensen said. “And yet they’ve made claims that as soon as they learned about it, they got the FBI involved. That’s not true. Their timeline’s a year off.” Jensen argues the delay was not just mismanagement but part of a broader pattern of deflection and dishonesty from the governor’s office. “At the end of the day, he’s demonstrated a very skilled approach to deflecting, so that he’s not being honest,” Jensen said. Jensen cited several examples of actions by Walz that he views as deflecting the blame onto others, including in 2022 after the first indictments in the scandal were handed down by the FBI and U.S. Attorney, and Walz placed blame on district court judge John Guthman for allegedly forcing the state to continue fraudulent payments. In what was described by media outlets at the time as a “rare public rebuke,” Guthman fired back at Walz accusing him of making “inaccurate statements.” ICE OPERATION IN MINNEAPOLIS NABS A DOZEN ‘WORST OF THE WORST’ CRIMINAL ILLEGAL ALIENS, INCLUDING SOMALIS “When Judge Guthman did that, then you saw Tim Walz and Keith Ellison try for someone else they could blame it on,” Jensen told Fox News Digital. “So they blamed it on the FBI and said, ‘Well, the FBI told us we had to keep paying because we’re not supposed to interfere with their investigation.’ And the FBI said, ‘We didn’t make you continue fraudulent payments to the Feeding Our Future agency.’” Jensen told Fox News Digital that the “elephant in the room” is what else will come out in the future about the “cover up” of the scandal. “The underlying question has to be: is there something more nefarious than this?” Jensen said. “Is there literally sequestration of funds that at some point in time could be paid back to people when things have calmed down? Is there some pay-to-play scheme that we haven’t yet been informed about? That’s what’s really frightening, because if that’s the case, then you have to, you have to ask yourself the question: will there be at some level a need for criminal prosecution to take place of some Minnesota elected officials?” LIZ PEEK: MASSIVE MINNESOTA WELFARE HEIST PROVES DEMOCRATS CAN’T POLICE THEIR OWN MESS The welfare fraud controversy has received the attention of the federal government in recent days. The Small Business Administration announced it is investigating the network of Somali groups in Minnesota that it says are tied to the massive COVID fraud scandal highlighting alleged systemic failures by Walz’s team to properly audit public funds. House Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., has claimed that “because of Governor Walz’s negligence, criminals — including Somali terrorists — stole nearly $1 billion from the program while children suffered.” He is leading the probe into Walz’s role in the Feeding Our Future scandal. President Donald Trump also recently announced a flurry of new actions to crack down and investigate fraud schemes in Minnesota, which he has assailed as a “hub of money laundering activity,” and cited as the basis of his decision to terminate deportation protections for hundreds of Somali migrants. Senior Trump administration officials announced fresh investigations this week, including a new Treasury Department probe into how taxpayer dollars were allegedly diverted to the terrorist organization al-Shabaab, according to Secretary Scott Bessent. “With where it’s gone from the beginning to now, recognizing that there’s been an interest in covering this up, for many people it has some of the haunting reminders of Watergate,” Jensen told Fox News Digital. “And yet, in this way, this time, it could even be worse, because it’s possible that there’s something far more nefarious than simply covering something up. It could be a pay to play scheme that involves elected officials.” Fox News Digital asked Jensen, who ran against Walz in 2022, what he believes the governor’s legacy is after two terms in office. “Tim Walz’ legacy right now would be fraud at an unprecedented level, and I think from his policies, I think people would say he seemed to worship the ground that AOC and Bernie Sanders walked on,” Jensen explained. “He went from someone who many people who knew him earlier in life thought of as a moderate person to a person who was literally living on the five-yard line of the hard left part of the Democratic field.” Fox News Digital reached out to Walz’s office for comment. Fox News Digital’s Deirdre Heavey and Breanne Deppisch contributed to this report.
‘Another D-Day’: Biden once urged ‘international strike force’ on narco-terrorists as Dems now blast Trump
Former President Joe Biden, when he served as a Delaware senator, railed against foreign narco-terrorists flooding the U.S. with highly addictive substances, calling for an “international strike force” against the drug traffickers in a fiery 1989 speech. “Let’s go after the drug lords where they live with an international strike force. There must be no safe haven for these narco-terrorists and they must know it,” then-Sen. Biden said in an 1989 video speech addressing then-President George H.W. Bush’s efforts to combat the narcotics flooding U.S. streets. The remarks have resurfaced on social media as the Trump administration currently faces outrage from Democrats over its strikes on suspected drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean. Biden’s address was billed as the Democrat Party’s official response to then-President H.W. Bush’s Sept. 5, 1989, address on his administration’s efforts to tackle the crack cocaine epidemic and rampant use of cocaine, C-SPAN footage reported. Bush had announced that the administration would double federal assistance to state and local law enforcement to tackle the drug problem, $65 million emergency assistance to nations such as Colombia to “fight against the cocaine cartels,” an overall $1.5 billion increase in drug-related federal spending on law enforcement and other initiatives. EXPERT REVEALS WHAT IT WOULD TAKE FOR TRUMP TO DEPLOY TROOPS TO VENEZUELA: ‘POSSIBILITY OF ESCALATION’ Biden, in the Democrat Party’s response, called for “another D-Day” to end the war on drugs. “The president says he wants to wage a war on drugs, but if that’s true, what we need is another D-Day, not another Vietnam, not another limited war fought on the cheap and destined for stalemate and human tragedy,” Biden said in his response. Biden railed that the H.W. Bush administration was failing to take stronger actions on drugs at a time when cocaine from Colombia flooded the nation and U.S. cities were rocked by the crack epidemic that persisted through the 1980s and early 1990s, when crystal meth and heroin became the drugs of choice. “We speak with great concern about the drug problem in America today, but we fail to appreciate or address it for what it really is, the number one threat to our national security,” Biden said during his 1989 address on the war on drugs. “It affects the readiness of our army, the productivity of our workers and the achievement of our students and the very health and safety of our families.” “America is under attack, literally under attack by an enemy who is well financed, well supplied and well armed and fully capable of declaring total war against a nation and its people, as we’ve seen in Colombia. Here in America, the enemy is already ashore, and for the first time, we are fighting and losing the war on our own soil,” Biden continued before arguing the U.S. should “go after the drug lords where they live.” CAPITOL HILL REVOLT THREATENS TRUMP’S VENEZUELA PLAYBOOK AMID CARIBBEAN STRIKE OVERSIGHT Fox News Digital reached out to Biden’s office Friday inquiring if he stands by his 1989 address or has any additional comment to include, but did not immediately receive a response. In recent weeks, the Trump administration has come under fire for carrying out a series of military strikes on boats suspected of trafficking narcotics from Venezuela in the waters off of Central and South America. The administration has carried out at least 22 fatal strikes on the boats since September, killing dozens of suspected drug traffickers. The administration has defended the strikes, saying the U.S. is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels after the groups evolved into transnational terror organizations. Trump has said the strikes are part of an effort to curb drugs flooding into the U.S., while experts have weighed in that the pressure on Venezuela is likely also to force Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s ouster and end his regime in the country. US CARRIES OUT 22ND STRIKE ON ALLEGED DRUG VESSEL OPERATED BY A DESIGNATED TERRORIST ORGANIZATION Democrats have taken issue with a pair of strikes on Sept. 2 against an alleged drug boat from Venezuela. The White House confirmed the military carried out an initial strike on the boat before firing off a second that killed two suspected traffickers, sparking Democrats to claim the administration committed potential war crimes. “If the reports are true, Pete Hegseth likely committed a war crime when he gave an illegal order that led to the killing of incapacitated survivors of the U.S. strike in the Caribbean,” Nevada Democratic Sen. Sen. Jacky Rosen said in a statement earlier in December. RAND PAUL JOINS DEMS ON ‘WAR POWERS RESOLUTION’ CLAIMING TRUMP ADMIN COULD SOON STRIKE VENEZUELAN TERRITORY Several Republican members of the House Armed Services Committee and House Foreign Affairs Committee told Fox News Digital that the Trump administration has been well within its rights to act against Maduro’s regime. They added that they’re eager for more information after several strikes against alleged Venezuelan drug boats and Trump’s heightened rhetoric targeting Maduro. Trump campaigned on ending the flow of narcotics flowing across U.S. borders in 2024, vowing after his election win to deploy the Navy to assist in the effort. “To stop the deadly drugs that are poisoning our people, I will deploy the U.S. Navy to impose a full fentanyl blockade on the waters of our region.…The drug cartels are waging war on America, and we will destroy those cartels!” Trump wrote on Truth Social a day before his inauguration. Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.
Alaska Natives defy Democrats, champion push to revive Arctic drilling that Biden shut down
FIRST ON FOX: Democrats sounding the alarm of potential harms to Alaskan communities if their efforts were reversed and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) was further opened to energy development got a very different response than they may have been expecting from a consortium of local Natives. Using the Congressional Review Act, the Senate voted Thursday night to pass a resolution from Rep. Nick Begich, R-Alaska, that formally reversed a Biden-era rule restricting more than 1 million acres to development in the refuge, where Native communities like Kaktovik reside. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., notably spoke out on the Senate floor against the effort, saying that Congress rightly established the refuge in 1980 but neglected to properly protect the “very fragile ecosystem” there from development, calling it “America’s Serengeti.” TRUMP ADMIN ANNOUNCES BIG STEP TOWARD ‘ENERGY DOMINANCE’ WITH MASSIVE ALASKA LNG PROJECT ALLIANCE “So far, we’ve been able to protect the coastal plain and keep it intact as it has been for millions of years, and many Americans had hoped we had moved on,” Cantwell said. Using “the Congressional Review Act to drill in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge (could) very well backfire on our drilling advocates. If Congress votes to overturn the Biden record of decision today, it would create legal and regulatory chaos, not clarity.” Additionally, several Democrats and at least one Republican supported a separate bill in April that would designate the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as statutorily protected wilderness, shutting out any development whatsoever. LEE ZELDIN: START YOUR RIGS: ALASKA IS OUR ‘GATEWAY TO ENERGY DOMINANCE’ “There are some places too special and too amazing and too ecologically and culturally significant to allow them to be permanently despoiled by oil and gas,” House Natural Resources Committee ranking member Jared Huffman, D-Calif., said at the time as chief sponsor. Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., also led that bill’s introduction along with Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a Pennsylvania moderate from the Philadelphia suburbs. Despite such claims that development would damage the land and adversely affect those living there, Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat (VOICE) — a group representing the communities in and around the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, were ecstatic at the Senate’s reversal of the restrictive rule. TRUMP ADMIN’S ENERGY AGENDA HAILED FOR CRUCIAL ‘WINS’ AS GREEN ACTIVISTS LASH OUT “These joint congressional resolutions are a positive sign that congressional decisionmakers support our Iñupiaq self-determination,” VOICE President Nagruk Harcharek said in a statement obtained by Fox News Digital. Harcharek said that the vote is turning the tide on years of “lopsided relations” with Congress and the executive branch. Our “communities are cautiously optimistic for the people of Kaktovik following this vote — supported by our local and regional leaders — in our Indigenous homelands.” BIDEN’S REGULATIONS WORSE THAN NORTH KOREA, TRUMP ENERGY SECRETARY SAYS Kaktovik Mayor Nathan Gordon Jr., added that the “Kaktovikmiut” — the community’s residents — overwhelmingly support responsible development projects in their native lands because it provides a prime way for them to provide for themselves and their regional economy. “Kaktovik is the only community within ANWR, but the federal government and Congress have disregarded our voices for generations,” Gordon said. A whaling captain who also attended a joint appearance in the region by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Energy Secretary Chris Wright also praised the news, crediting such officials for making efforts to engage with the Native community on issues that impact their lands. ENERGY GROUPS CELEBRATE TRUMP’S LATEST MOVE TO UNLEASH ALASKA DRILLING “Moving forward, we are hopeful to continue this positive relationship built on mutual respect with both Congress and the executive branch,” Charles C.C. Lampe said. In a statement after the vote, Begich remarked that “America is strongest when Alaska is empowered to responsibly develop its resources.” Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, also expressed the importance of listening to their state residents’ needs rather than the assumptions of the bureaucracy. BURGUM, ZELDIN, WRIGHT: THIS IS HOW AMERICA WILL ACHIEVE ENERGY DOMINANCE Murkowski said previous Democratic administrations “paused everything, illegally canceled every lease, and then rewrote the program to ensure that neither leasing nor development would occur.” “Their worldview was exactly backwards,” she said. “Today, we are on the cusp of righting this wrong, rolling back the lawless lock-up of ANWR, and unleashing good-paying jobs and opportunity for Alaska’s working families,” added Sullivan. Fox News Digital reached out to Cantwell, Markey, Huffman and Fitzpatrick for comment.
Teenage cancer patient’s final fight becomes law as House passes landmark pediatric bill
A teenage girl who spent her final years advocating for young people battling cancer is forever memorialized in history, thanks to a key bill passed by the House of Representatives. Mikaela Naylon was just 16 when she died five years after being diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, who helped lead the landmark legislation that became her namesake, said Mikaela spent much of that time fighting to give fellow children a chance to survive cancer. He told Fox News Digital that he viewed childhood cancer patients as “the best advocates” for their cause, calling them his “better angels.” TRUMP SIGNS EXECUTIVE ORDER TO HARNESS AI IN FIGHT AGAINST CHILDHOOD CANCERS “Mikaela was a great example of that,” McCaul said. “She was very sick. She’d just undergone radiation and chemotherapy. She wasn’t feeling very well, and I could tell. But she still made the effort to come to Washington, to go to members’ offices and advocate for the legislation.” The Mikaela Naylon Give Kids A Chance Act is aimed at expanding children’s access to existing cancer therapy trials, as well as incentivizing development of treatments and solutions for pediatric cancer. It reauthorizes funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to support pediatric disease research through fiscal year 2027, and extends the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) ability to expedite review of drugs aimed at helping certain pediatric illnesses. FORMER NBA STAR TEAMS UP WITH GOP LAWMAKER TO HELP YOUNG CHILDREN SUFFERING FROM STUTTERING DISORDER “It’s probably one of the most rewarding things I’ve done is to not only draw awareness to childhood cancer by forming the [Childhood Cancer Caucus] and then having an annual summit, but to be able to pass legislation that results in saving children’s lives. I don’t think there’s anything more important than that,” McCaul said. His bill passed the House unanimously on Monday, with both Republicans and Democrats speaking out in strong support for the legislation. Mikaela’s family was in attendance to watch both its passage and the speeches lawmakers gave in favor of it. “Nothing will take the place of her. But it helped fill kind of a void, an emptiness they have right now. And they’re very proud of that, that her legacy is carried on through this legislation,” McCaul, who also gave the Naylon family a tour of the U.S. Capitol, said. Mikaela’s parents Kassandra and Doug, and her brother Ayden, told Fox News Digital that she had “faced every day with hope, purpose and a fierce determination to make the world better for the kids who would come after her.” “She believed that all children, no matter how rare their diagnosis, deserve access to the most promising treatments and a real chance at life. This legislation reflects that mission,” the Naylon family told Fox News Digital. They thanked McCaul as well as Reps. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., and Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., for championing the bill, as well as advocacy groups who also helped shepherd it forward. “Their commitment ensures that Mikaela‘s voice, and the voices of so many brave children like her, will forever be heard in the halls of Congress,” the family said.
Fresh Trump-linked case puts Boasberg back in GOP crosshairs
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg is again facing scrutiny for his assigned cases after California Rep. Eric Swalwell’s high-profile lawsuit accusing a senior Trump housing official of brazen misconduct landed in his court. Some Republicans have criticized Boasberg’s docket, given his assignment to an earlier legal challenge involving President Donald Trump‘s removal of hundreds of Venezuelan migrants to a Salvadoran prison in March and his role in presiding over the so-called “Signalgate” lawsuit, which, as of this writing, is all but mooted. But like other federal courts, the D.C. District Court assigns its cases to judges via a randomized computer system — a process that former federal judges outlined to Fox News Digital in a series of recent interviews. A Fox News Digital review of the cases assigned to judges in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., showed the same — putting Boasberg on the lower side of Trump-related case assignments compared to some of his colleagues in the district. Judges are “totally reactive” by design, Philip Pro, a former U.S. district judge and Reagan appointee, said last month about the cases judges are tasked with hearing. SHELTERS, JESUS, AND MISS PAC-MAN: US JUDGE GRILLS DOJ OVER TRANS POLICY IN DIZZYING LINE OF QUESTIONING “We’re sitting in our districts. The cases are randomly assigned,” Pro said. “There is nothing ‘rogue’ about these decisions.” Boasberg’s earlier work on the FISA Court — and his rulings in cases tied to the Trump era — have long made him a focal point for Trump’s criticism. In 2014, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts appointed him to serve a seven-year term on the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, or FISA Court — a court composed of 11 federal judges hand-selected by the chief justice. After returning full-time to the federal bench, Boasberg oversaw the sentencing of former FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith, who pleaded guilty to doctoring a 2017 email asking to extend surveillance permissions for the wiretap of former Trump campaign advisor Carter Page. Boasberg declined to sentence Clinesmith to prison time and instead ordered him to 12 months of probation and 400 hours of community service — a notable decision, given his own background on the FISA Court. He said in his sentencing decision that he believed Clinesmith’s role at the center of a years-long media “hurricane” had provided sufficient punishment. Trump has since zeroed in on Boasberg, now the chief judge of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., as he continues to rail against so-called “activist judges” — though Boasberg is far from the only district judge to draw the former president’s ire. U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes, for example, has presided over cases involving the Trump administration’s attempt to restrict or ban transgender U.S. service members, and an early challenge to Trump’s National Guard deployment. U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb in November sought to temporarily block the continued deployment of National Guard troops in D.C. Cobb also issued a temporary order in September blocking Trump from immediately firing Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook. Other challenges heard by judges in the district involve mass layoffs at government agencies in the early months of the Trump administration, efforts to reshape U.S. international aid programs — including funding previously allocated by Congress — and one of the consolidated tariff cases appealed to the Supreme Court. Still, the notion that Boasberg has an outsize share of the cases persists. This is likely due in part to the longevity of the J.G.G. v. Trump litigation, which centered on the Trump administration’s use of a 1798 Alien Enemies Act statute to quickly deport hundreds of Venezuelan nationals to El Salvador in March. Despite Boasberg’s emergency order blocking the flights from leaving U.S. soil, the planes arrived in El Salvador hours later — kicking off a separate, months-long review of whether senior government officials knowingly defied his court order. A list of declarations from government officials is due Friday as part of that process, which Boasberg said he will use to determine which officials he plans to call as witnesses in the contempt proceedings. “The Senate has made great mention of the fact that the judiciary should not be involved in that decision,” former U.S. District Judge Liam O’Grady said about the Alien Enemies Act case in a recent interview with Fox News Digital. EXCLUSIVE: BONDI DOJ TRANSFERS DEATH ROW INMATES COMMUTED BY BIDEN TO ‘SUPERMAX’ PRISON Boasberg “didn’t pluck this issue out of the sky and say, ‘Oh, I’m going to refuse this, because I don’t believe that the Alien Enemies Act is appropriately being used,’” said O’Grady, who spent 16 years as a judge in the Eastern District of Virginia and was appointed by Chief Justice John Roberts to serve on the FISA Court, where he overlapped with Boasberg. Boasberg “has a case before him where one side is saying, ‘it can’t be used,’ and the executive branch is saying, ‘it can be used,’” O’Grady said of the Alien Enemies Act case. “And it’s up to him to make that decision.” Former judges note that the D.C. District Court, by design, has jurisdiction over a large share of cases that emanate in the nation’s capital, including lawsuits against government agencies or administrative actions. JUDGES V. TRUMP: HERE ARE THE KEY COURT BATTLES HALTING THE WHITE HOUSE AGENDA It’s not the first time Trump’s allies in Congress have attempted to cast doubt on the randomized assignments. Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee sent a letter to the D.C. clerk’s office in May seeking more information about how cases are assigned in the district, after Boasberg was assigned to an earlier case brought by the American Oversight group in response to the so-called “Signalgate” controversy. The lawsuit accused the Trump administration of potentially violating federal recordkeeping laws when they exchanged sensitive information — including a planned strike in Yemen — in the Signal messaging app. “While the District Court’s allocation process is intended to produce an ‘equal distribution of cases to all judges,’ in practice