Mike Rowe unleashes on Jimmy Kimmel’s latest ‘tone-deaf’ takedown targeting everyday Americans
Everyman host Mike Rowe called out late-night host Jimmy Kimmel for his “tone-deaf” comments mocking new Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin for being a former plumber, admitting he is a “tad butt hurt” by the dig. The “Dirty Jobs” veteran ripped into Kimmel over his remarks, which some have called elitist. Rowe said he took offense at the “suggestion that skilled workers should never evolve into something new,” asking if Mullin’s career progression from plumbing business owner to Congress and then to a top Cabinet official is “not the embodiment of the American Dream?” “Being offended is always a choice, and I don’t choose to be offended by a joke, even one that comes at the expense of the skilled tradespeople my foundation tries to elevate,” Rowe wrote on X. “But I am a tad butt hurt by the suggestion that skilled workers should never evolve into something new, and that competence is somehow limited to one vocation.” He continued, “Obviously, expertise and skill are important,” adding, “If I need a new kidney, I’d prefer a doctor do the surgery, not a late-night talk show host. But if the doctor in question used to host a talk show, why would I hold that against him?” JIMMY KIMMEL REFUSES TO BACK DOWN AFTER MOCKING SECRETARY MULLIN OVER PLUMBING BACKGROUND Kimmel, a regular critic of the Trump administration, took flak last week for using Mullin’s prior experience as a plumbing business owner as evidence that he is unqualified to lead DHS. “Trump’s got a whole new generation of thinkers lined up, including his newly confirmed secretary of Homeland Security, Markwayne ‘Chuck Mike Bruce Dave’ Melon — Mullin. Maybe melon’s better,” Kimmel said. “He’s the now former senator of Oklahoma. Before he was elected to the Senate, Markwayne Mullin was a low-level MMA fighter and a plumber. That’s right. We have a plumber protecting us from terrorism now. It worked for Super Mario. Why not Markwayne?” He continued, “But honestly — I mean, if Trump is going to keep picking these unqualified people to run the department, why not have more fun with it? I mean, next time, instead of Markwayne, how about Lil Wayne for Homeland Security? At least we can get a concert out of it, right?” Kimmel later doubled down, saying, “I’m not upset that the head of Homeland Security used to be a plumber. I’m upset that he isn’t still a plumber.” The late-night host added, “I wouldn’t put a plumber in charge of Homeland Security for the same reason I wouldn’t call a five-star general to pull a rat out of my toilet… We all have our areas of expertise.” WATCH: TRUMP GOES VIRAL FOR ILLUSTRATING HOW TO CUT GOVERNMENT WASTE WITH HIS FAVORITE WHITE HOUSE PEN Kimmel’s remarks were viewed as elitist by many commentators on X, who accused the comedian of mocking working-class professions. Among those offended by the joke was Rowe, who runs a nonprofit to promote skilled trade jobs called mikeroweWORKS. He emphasized that “the shortage of skilled tradespeople is now headline news and that closing it is nothing less than a matter of national security.” “The only sensible thing to do in the wake of a moment this tone deaf is remind America that the skills gap is wide and getting wider,” Rowe wrote. “What we really need in this country are more welders who can talk intelligently about Aristotle, and more philosophers who can run an even bead. More generals, in other words, who can fix their own toilets, and more plumbers who can hold a powerful government job.” “This is what Mullin did,” he continued. JIMMY KIMMEL SLAMMED FOR DIG AT NEW DHS SECRETARY “He was a private citizen who mastered an essential skill and then turned that skill into a multimillion-dollar company that employed a lot of people and served a lot of customers. That gave him the freedom to do other things with his life, including a career in public service, which got him into Congress, where he’s spent the last 11 years doing whatever congressmen do. Now, he has a very consequential position in the Cabinet of the current administration.” “Is that not the embodiment of the American Dream?” he asked. “I get that Jimmy Kimmel might have a problem with Mullin’s politics, but what possible objection could he have about the trajectory of his career, or his desire to do more than one thing with his life?” Rowe concluded, “I’d love to chat but I’ve gotta pull a rat out of my toilet.”
Supreme Court declines to hear ‘Tiger King’ Joe Exotic’s challenge after murder-for-hire conviction
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the case of Joseph Maldonado-Passage, commonly known as Joe Exotic, a pop culture icon from Netflix’s “Tiger King” documentary on Monday. The case stems from his conviction for a murder-for-hire plot. Maldonado-Passage is currently serving a 21-year prison sentence for the conviction, which he is seeking to have overturned. He has also repeatedly called on President Donald Trump to pardon him, claiming there were issues with his trial. Maldonado-Passage lost his last appeal before the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in July. “I lost my appeal for a new trial today. The United States Government wants me to die in prison even though they know their witnesses were lying under Oath,” he wrote in a post on X at the time. “In fact, their witnesses all admitted to perjury on world television on season 2 of Tiger King.” ‘TIGER KING’ JOE EXOTIC PLANS TO MARRY FELLOW INMATE IN PRISON, HOPES THEY ‘CAN WALK OUT’ TOGETHER He followed up the statement with a request for a pardon from Trump. “Make this right and allow me to go home,” he wrote. “8 years of my life I have lost.” BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP SUPPORTERS GET THE LAW WRONG BY IGNORING OBVIOUS EVIDENCE Maldonado-Passage was convicted in 2019 of hiring two men to kill Carole Baskin, another prominent character in the viral documentary who had criticized his big cat zoo for years. He sought a retrial in 2023, claiming new evidence had come forward and that witnesses had recanted their testimonies. That effort failed at the district level when U.S. District Judge Scott Palk noted that Maldonado-Passage’s own words had served as “the most credible and damning evidence” against him. Maldonado-Passage last made national headlines in April last year, when announced he had married one of his fellow inmates at the Federal Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas. The 62-year-old shared details of his romance with Jorge Marquez Flores in an interview with Fox News Digital from prison in 2024. JUSTICE JACKSON AUTHORS UNANIMOUS SCOTUS OPINION HANDING TRUMP AN IMMIGRATION WIN “From the very day we met, we’ve spent every minute of every day together,” he said. “And it just clicked so fast and so sincere, and it’s amazing. “I wished I would have met Jorge months ago or a couple of years ago, but God had a plan, I guess.”
NJ school district’s secretive transgender policy faces legal threat for bucking Supreme Court ruling
A New Jersey school district is being threatened with legal action unless it repeals a policy that lets schools withhold students’ gender-identity information from parents, setting up what could become an early test of the Supreme Court’s recent intervention in the fight over parental rights and school disclosure rules. The Thomas More Society, a conservative legal group, accused the Westwood Regional School District in a demand letter of wrongfully maintaining the policy, which also allows the schools, in some cases, to aid K-12 students’ “social transition” to becoming transgender without their parents’ knowledge. The move comes weeks after the Supreme Court dealt a major victory to conservative parents in Mirabelli v. Bonta by upholding an injunction against a similar policy in California. “I had hoped this would end the practice of secret gender transitions, but what’s becoming clear to us is this is just the beginning,” Peter Breen, Thomas More Society executive vice president, told Fox News Digital. “This is not an end, but a beginning, our big win in the Supreme Court. We are already fielding requests from other parents across the country, and we anticipate sending a lot more demand letters, unfortunately.” CATHOLIC GROUP ASKS SCOTUS TO BLOCK CALIFORNIA LAW AGAINST REVEALING STUDENTS’ GENDER IDENTITIES TO PARENTS Fox News Digital reached out to the school district board members who received the letter, as well as the district’s superintendent, for comment but did not receive responses. The school board told local media earlier in March that members were consulting with district counsel and reviewing policies. The letter requires the New Jersey school district to repeal its policy, called Policy 5756, within 20 days. Otherwise, Breen said, the Thomas More Society would follow the same path it did in California and begin litigation. “When the Supreme Court decides a case, the logic of the decision is binding on every other court in the country, federal or state,” Breen said. “And so, the Supreme Court has said that parents have a fundamental right to control the upbringing and education of their children… and so a school official who defies that right could be subject individually to a lawsuit, not just the school district.” In Mirabelli, California parents and teachers argued that the state’s transgender policy violated their rights under the First and 14th Amendments. The policy prevented school administrators from telling parents about their child’s potential efforts to transition their gender unless the child consented to it. It also required school staff to use students’ preferred names and pronouns regardless of the parents’ wishes. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit sided with Democratic Attorney General Rob Bonta in the case, leading the parents and teachers to turn to the Supreme Court. The high court vacated the 9th Circuit’s order 6-3 on an expedited and temporary basis while the case proceeds through the lower courts. The three liberal justices dissented. FEDERAL JUDGE STRIKES DOWN ‘GENDER SECRECY’ POLICIES IN CALIFORNIA PUBLIC SCHOOLS “The State argues that its policies advance a compelling interest in student safety and privacy,” the high court’s majority wrote in the unsigned opinion. “But those policies cut out the primary protectors of children’s best interests: their parents.” Corey DeAngelis, a research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, observed to Fox News Digital at the time that the Supreme Court’s decision was the latest in a string of victories for conservatives seeking to tighten policies surrounding transgender people. DeAngelis noted it only applied to California, despite its anticipated impact on other states. “This precedent is surely a sign of good things to come,” DeAngelis said. “If there’s a lawsuit that arises in another state, you can be pretty sure that the Supreme Court is going to rule on the side of families.” The Supreme Court has weighed in recently on several key gender identity disputes through full opinions and emergency orders, and the decisions have broken along ideological lines. Outside Mirabelli, the high court in United States v. Skrmetti affirmed 6-3 a state’s authority to ban certain transgender medical treatment for minors under the equal protection clause. In a 6-3 emergency ruling last year, the justices temporarily greenlit President Donald Trump’s ban on transgender service members serving in the military. The high court is also weighing two relevant and closely watched cases, one on a religious-based therapist offering alternative counseling to transgender youths and one on transgender athletes. Decisions on those are expected by the summer.
Communists, Democrats use #NoKings rally to call for May Day strike: ‘Shut it down’
From Times Square to here in Minnesota’s state capital, communist and socialist activists at the nationwide “No Kings” protests escalated their anti-America campaign and openly called for a nationwide economic strike on May 1, an international communist holiday known as May Day, as key Democratic activists joined their call. At the rally here in St. Paul, organizers, speakers and activists distributed communist literature, waved flags from socialist governments and revolutionary movements, and urged demonstrators to transform the day’s protests into a nationwide shutdown of work, school and commerce. By early Sunday, Press TV, the propaganda arm of the Islamic Republic of Iran, leveraged news of the protests to tell readers, “Regime change begins at home’: No Kings, No War protests held across US.” As Fox News Digital reported, about 500 organizations with an estimated combined annual revenue of about $3 billion sponsored and organized the demonstrations, creating a centralized protest apparatus even while organizers tried to market the activists as “grassroots.” The network included traditional Democratic advocacy organizations, like Indivisible, MoveOn and the American Federation of Teachers, alongside openly socialist and communist groups such as the Party for Socialism and Liberation, Freedom Road Socialist Organization and local chapters of the Communist Party USA, including the Twin Cities Communist Party USA club, which endorsed the St. Paul rally. 500 GROUPS WITH $3B IN REVENUES ARE BEHIND THE #NOKINGS PROTESTS AND COMMUNIST CALL FOR ‘REVOLUTION’ Offstage at the celebrity-filled “No Kings” protest in St. Paul, activists with the Party for Socialism and Liberation sold a manifesto, “Socialist Reconstruction: A Better Future for the United States,” filled with Marxist teachings. Yards away, near the main stage, Kevin Dwire a candidate for the U.S. Senate from the Socialist Workers Party, sold copies of the “Communist Manifesto” by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, the 1847 work that would transform the next century’s global politics. The group says it is “part of the continuity of revolutionary Marxism,” tracing back to Marx, Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky. In the middle of the lawn, flags for the Islamic Republic of Iran, Venezuela and Cuba flew next to a flag of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, a self-described Marxist group. In the back of the lawn, a young man who identified himself only as “Mason” championed the teachings of the Revolutionary Communists of America. A young woman nearby sold copies of Socialist Alternative, which describes itself as a “revolutionary organization working to build a movement for a democratic, socialist society.” ‘NO KINGS’ CALLS ITSELF LEADERLESS, BUT ITS OWN INTERNAL DOCUMENTS TELL A VERY DIFFERENT STORY Across the country, from Los Angeles to New York City, pro-communist Americans marched alongside traditional center-left Democrats in an alliance that many mainstream media outlets largely portrayed simply as anti-Trump protests. The ideological adherents themselves, however, were not shy about their beliefs. In Times Square, members of the Revolutionary Communists of America chanted: “There is only one solution — communist revolution,” while waving red flags bearing the hammer and sickle. The common refrain from these groups was a call for a nationwide strike on May 1, the traditional May Day holiday long embraced by communist and socialist movements as a day of mass political action. At the St. Paul rally, that call received support from the stage. Ezra Levin, the co-founder of Indivisible, the protest’s key organizer, joined the communist call for a national strike and urged protesters to prepare for economic disruption on May Day, similar to a shutdown that saw limited success in Minneapolis during protests on Jan. 23 against Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “I want everyone here to put this on their calendar… It is a tactical goal, an escalation… It is an economic show of force, inspired by Minnesota’s own day of truth and action,” Levin told the crowd. Levin continued: “On May 1, on May Day, we are saying, ‘No business as usual.’ No work, no school, no shopping. We’re going to show up and say, ‘We’re putting workers over billionaires and kings.’” While Indivisible has participated in May Day coalitions before, the prominence of socialist organizations in the protest ecosystem illustrates the growing influence of the far left within networks that overlap with mainstream Democratic political organizing. Indivisible Project, a nonprofit whose work is often marketed with just the first word of the group’s name, has received $5 million in recent years from billionaire George Soros’ Open Society philanthropy arm. POWER COUPLE OF CHAOS: HOW A TYCOON AND ACTIVIST BUILT A ‘REVOLUTIONARY BASE’ AT THE HOUSE OF SINGHAM Meanwhile, some of the openly pro-communist groups marching alongside Democratic activists are connected to a global activist network funded by Neville Roy Singham, an American-born tech tycoon now based in Shanghai, promoting messaging critical of U.S. democracy and sympathetic to China’s political model. That network includes media and organizing hubs such as the People’s Forum, BreakThrough BT Media Inc.’s BreakThrough News, CodePink, the ANSWER Coalition and the Party for Socialism and Liberation, which have received funding and support through the Singham network. Over the years, Singham, who sold his tech company for approximately $800 million in 2017, has provided $22.4 million to People’s Forum, $1.3 million to CodePink and $1.1 million to BreakThrough BT Media Inc. The ANSWER Coalition and Party for Socialism and Liberation have received support through their relationships with the People’s Forum. The network has funded conferences, media outlets and activist organizations promoting narratives that portray the United States as a “fascist” and “hyper-imperialist” power while defending the authoritarian governments of China, North Korea, Venezuela, Cuba and the Islamic Republic of Iran. The theme echoed throughout the protests, where demonstrators warned of rising “fascism” in the United States. In the hours after the protests ended, the activist networks celebrated the demonstrations online. In Los Angeles, CodePink posted video showing its banner in the middle of a protest where demonstrators chanted: “Hey, hey, ho ho, Donald Trump has got to go.” BreakThrough News shared videos from protests in San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Houston and Gainesville, Florida, declaring:
Insurgent Virginia Democrat says his party is ‘completely wrong’ on gun rights and gerrymandering
A political newcomer and former reality star running in Virginia’s Democratic senatorial primary is causing an uproar in his party after breaking with them on gerrymandering and a slew of new gun control efforts. Mark Moran, a former contestant on the HBO Max series “FBoy Island” and previously a Wall Street banker, is challenging longtime Senate Intelligence Committee ranking member Mark R. Warner, D-Va., whom he calls an “oligarch” who is no longer serving his constituents. Warner is the former richest and now fourth-richest senator, with a net worth upwards of $200 million, and is running for his fourth term despite a snippet unearthed by Moran showing him pledging to serve only two. “Since the establishment is already mad at me, here’s another truth: Virginia Democrats are completely wrong on the Second Amendment,” Moran said on X after invoking the ire of Virginia’s top Senate Democrat for opposing her politically charged redistricting effort. YOUR 2A RIGHTS ARE ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK AS VIRGINIA DEMS PLOT INSANE GUN BANS “After facing a personal safety issue, I got a gun. It made me realize how extreme our party’s stance has become,” Moran said. “Dan Helmer’s (loser) July 1st ban literally classifies regular handguns as ‘assault firearms’ so the government can take them away.” Helmer, a Democratic state delegate from Fairfax, did not respond to a request for comment. He has already launched a bid to run in one of the newly drawn congressional districts that have yet to be approved by the voters on April 21. Moran said the Founding Fathers crafted the Second Amendment to protect the U.S. from tyranny. “[That is] whether that tyranny comes from Donald Trump or a state legislature trying to disarm you. Our right to protect ourselves shall not be infringed,” Moran said. The Falls Church native’s comments irritated a handful of other Democratic figures within a few hours of his post, including Democratic strategist Adam Parkhomenko — the founder of “Ready For Hillary” when the former first lady was eyeing the White House in the mid-2010s. GOP-LED COUNTIES PUSH BACK AGAINST DEMOCRAT’S REDISTRICTING CHARGE, TESTING VIRGINIA’S CONSTITUTIONAL LIMITS “Go be a p—- in someone else’s party. We’re not doing that anymore,” Parkhomenko said on X in response to Moran. Virginia Senate President L. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, who has posted at times raunchy memes celebrating Democrats’ flip of the governorship and push to draw out all but one Republican congressman in Virginia, lambasted Moran’s tweet on that matter, spurring his gun rights commentary. “Anyone against our redistricting efforts to stand up to Donald Trump doesn’t share our values as Democrats,” Lucas said in a statement on X. “If you want to oppose redistricting, you picked the wrong primary to run in. [By the way] I endorse Mark Warner.” Moran had called his fellow Democrats’ cartographical creativity “extremely anti-democratic and that it is a reactionary policy to Donald Trump that was created by DC consultants.” He noted that Virginia voters already approved a resolution in 2019 to remove the legislature from redistricting considerations and slammed the new maps for “slic[ing] up Arlington and tak[ing] away the voices of everyone outside Northern Virginia.” “In every local Democratic committee I’ve been in, when this issue comes up, nobody can defend it, it’s just ‘well this is what the party says is best’ – NO. The Democratic Party loses because of reactionary maneuvers and because it doesn’t have a big bold vision for the future,” he said. VIRGINIA DEM ADMITS REDISTRICTING PUSH AIMS TO ‘STOP TRUMP’, NOT ABOUT ‘FAIRNESS’ “I can’t hold my tongue any longer despite what this will do to me with the Dems in Virginia.” Moran also has spoken out against the proliferation of data centers, sucking up power from the grid in both West Virginia and Virginia and allegedly increasing costs on residential consumers. He posited a plan to tax the data centers to create a free-college fund. While Moran came across as moderate on those issues, a report from the New York Post showed his campaign platform includes abolishing ICE and passing “Medicare-for-all,” which the paper said places him to Warner’s left on those key issues. “This year is the 250th anniversary of our country; now is the time for a peaceful revolution against the billionaires, the tech oligarchs, the data centers and all the other big money interests,” he said in a statement obtained by the Post. Fox News Digital reached out to Warner’s campaign, Moran’s campaign and Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s office for comment.
Interactive tool reveals which states stand to lose billions in education funding
FIRST ON FOX: States that decline to opt in to the Education Freedom Tax Credit (EFTC) could forgo nearly $23 billion in education funding over the next three years, according to a new analysis from the America First Policy Institute. To highlight those potential losses, the group will launch an interactive Funding Loss Calculator designed to show how much each non-participating state stands to lose in charitable donations tied to the federal tax credit program. GET RID OF THE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT. GIVE POWER TO PARENTS The projections estimate that 23 states could miss out on nearly $23 billion between 2027 and 2029—equivalent to more than 4.1 million lost scholarship opportunities for students. “We wanted to make sure that governors know and especially, the people in the states know, what is being foregone if they do not opt in to this federal tax credit scholarship program,” Erika Donalds, chair of educational opportunity at AFPI, told Fox News Digital. “The program will provide not just private school tuition, but homeschool expenses, curriculum assistance, tutoring, special needs services, dual enrollment and so many other resources for families,” Donalds said, adding that the funds come from private donations and not state budgets. She added that, so far, 28 governors have opted into the program. LA UNITED SCHOOL DISTRICT SCANDAL LEADS TO CHARGES AS $22M SCHEME ALLEGEDLY DRAINED FUNDS MEANT FOR STUDENTS Under the policy, taxpayers can receive up to $1,700 in dollar-for-dollar federal tax credits for donations to scholarship-granting organizations, which fund K–12 expenses such as private school tuition, homeschooling, tutoring and special needs services. But only students in participating states are eligible to benefit. That means taxpayers in states that opt out can still claim the credit—but their contributions are redirected to organizations in other states, effectively sending education funding elsewhere. As a result, the calculator allows users to model different participation rates and view projected losses on a state-by-state basis. Supporters say the tool is meant to underscore the potential consequences for governors weighing whether to join the program. “Every parent deserves to make education decisions on behalf of their children. We have seen state after state where parents are begging for school choice options,” Donalds said. “In Texas, in just one month, 250,000 applicants for a school choice program that is only going to accommodate about 80,000 students. In Tennessee, over 50,000 applications for a program that accommodates 20,000 students. There should not be wait lists on education freedom,” she added.
Trump claims donor funded White House ballroom includes hidden build below with security focus
President Donald Trump said Sunday that the military is constructing a “massive complex” beneath a planned White House ballroom, which he said will feature bulletproof glass and drone-proof protections while being funded entirely by private donors. The project, which Trump said is designed to accommodate large events and visiting dignitaries, would expand capacity at the White House, where he said existing rooms are too small for major gatherings. “The military is building a massive complex under the ballroom, and that’s under construction, and we’re doing very well,” Trump said. Trump said the underground construction is already underway and tied to broader security measures surrounding the site, describing the ballroom as serving a dual purpose tied to what is being built beneath it. DEMS MOVE TO SET LIMITS ON TRUMP’S DONOR-FUNDED WHITE HOUSE BALLROOM, CLAIMING ‘BRIBERY IN PLAIN SIGHT’ The ballroom itself will include a range of security upgrades, including reinforced materials and structural protections designed to guard against modern threats. “We have all bulletproof glass. We have drone-proof roofs, ceilings,” Trump said. “Everything is drone-proof and bulletproof, and unfortunately, we’re living in an age where that’s a good thing.” Trump said the project is being privately funded and will not rely on taxpayer dollars, emphasizing that the ballroom is being financed through personal contributions and outside donors. FEDERAL JUDGE QUESTIONS TRUMP AUTHORITY ON WHITE HOUSE BALLROOM PROJECT The ballroom proposal was approved in February by the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, which fast-tracked the roughly $400 million project following a unanimous vote of 6-0. The project will be built on the site of the former East Wing, which was demolished in October, and is expected to significantly expand the White House’s capacity for large events. Previous administrations have long relied on temporary structures to host major gatherings, as the old East Wing dining room had just a 200-seat capacity. MICHELLE OBAMA TAKES SWIPE AT TRUMP’S DEMOLITION OF WHITE HOUSE EAST WING “All of the money paid is paid by myself and donors…it’s all donors,” Trump said. “There’s not one dime of government money going into the ballroom.” He added that construction is progressing quickly and remains on track, describing the effort as both ahead of schedule and under budget as work continues. “We’re ahead of schedule and under budget,” Trump said. Trump also described the ballroom as being designed to match the look and scale of the White House, including its height and architectural style, calling it a tribute to the historic building. “I think it’ll be the greatest ballroom anywhere in the world,” Trump said. “It pays total homage to the White House, which is, I think, very important.”
Trump dominates CPAC poll as conservatives rally behind agenda, back Iran action
A new survey highlights President Donald Trump’s continued dominance within the conservative movement. According to a poll of more than 1,600 attendees at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), held this past week from March 25–28, an overwhelming 96% said they approve of the job Trump is doing as president. An additional 94% agreed with the statement that Trump has been “the best president in my lifetime.” Support for Trump’s policy agenda was similarly strong. The survey found that 91% of respondents back tariffs aimed at reducing the trade deficit and boosting American workers and businesses. TRUMP GETS HIGH MARKS FROM REPUBLICANS WHEN TICKING OFF ECONOMIC ACCOMPLISHMENTS Another 89% support Trump’s military action in Iran to remove Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and halt the country’s nuclear program, while 92% approve of the arrest of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. Other leading Republicans also received high marks among respondents. Vice President JD Vance earned a 92% approval rating, while House Speaker Mike Johnson received 84%. Senate Majority Leader John Thune trailed with 57%. 1 IN 4 AMERICANS BACK TRUMP’S IRAN STRIKES, MOST SAY HE’S TOO QUICK TO USE FORCE: POLL Within Trump’s Cabinet, Secretary of State Marco Rubio ranked as the most popular, with 42% naming him their favorite. He was followed by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. The poll also offered an early glimpse at the GOP’s future. In a hypothetical 2028 Republican primary, Vance leads with 53% support, ahead of Rubio at 35%, with all other contenders in single digits. SCATHING REPORT CLAIMS NATION’S OLDEST LABOR UNION ‘BETRAYED’ MAGA MEMBERS THROUGH ‘SHOCKING’ SPENDING On the Democratic side, respondents identified California Gov. Gavin Newsom and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani as the most articulate figures on the political left. Founded in 1964, CPAC is the nation’s oldest conservative grassroots gathering and promotes the values of “life, liberty, and property.” Among survey participants, 86% were from the South, and the average age was approximately 49.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to what to expect on DHS funding when the Senate meets Monday
The DHS funding drama heads back to the Senate on Monday morning after the House approved a two-month stopgap spending plan for all of DHS late Friday night. The Senate meets on Monday at 10:30 am et in what was supposed to be a brief “pro forma” session where the body simply gavels in and gavels out with a skeleton crew on hand. But that might not be what happens Monday. As soon as the Senate gets through the prayer and pledge, it’s likely a Republican senator seeks recognition from the chair. If that happens, we anticipate the GOP senator to ask for unanimous consent (meaning all 100 senators would agree) to take up the DHS bill passed by the House on Friday, that it be “read a third time” and passed. REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO WHAT’S NEXT TO END THE DHS SHUTDOWN The chair will then ask if there is an objection. If any senator – be they a Democrat or Republican – objects, the House bill is dead. That means that the House and Senate continue to be out of alignment on the DHS funding question. For instance, the House didn’t even consider the bill cleared by all 100 senators and passed by the Senate at 2:19 am Friday. The House simply wrote their own two-month interim bill, passed it Friday night and skipped town. If there is no objection, the House and Senate are aligned and will have passed the same bill. That means they are on the same page. Approval of the House bill by the Senate would end the DHS shutdown. But if there’s an objection, everything remains frozen. This is both the parliamentary magic – and dark underbelly of “unanimous consent” in the Senate. You could have 99 senators in favor of something. But all it takes is a solitary objection to foil a bill under “unanimous consent” or “UC” as it’s often called in the Senate. In fact, it’s possible that Democrats could then offer their own DHS funding bill and ask the Senate to approve that by unanimous consent. It’s likely that whatever Republican senator is on duty tomorrow would object, thus blocking the Democratic request. If the Senate blocks the House bill, it’s doubtful there’s any way to end the DHS shutdown until after both bodies return in mid-April after the Easter/Passover recess. DHS SHUTDOWN BREAKTHROUGH COMES AT COST FOR REPUBLICANS AS FUNDING FIGHTS NEARS END Republicans truly want to fund DHS. But a Democratic objection presents the GOP with a political opportunity. They can then point to that objection as the reason DHS remains shuttered, arguing that Democrats blocked the House-approved bill. Republicans believe this helps them in the midterms. They ran on border security and won in 2024. Republicans want to point to a Democratic objection as evidence that they don’t want to fund ICE. But by the same token, Democrats could argue that Republicans are partly responsible for the shutdown and the long TSA lines if they object to the Democratic unanimous consent request. And so it goes.
Scathing report claims nation’s oldest labor union ‘betrayed’ MAGA members through ‘shocking’ spending
FIRST ON FOX: One of the nation’s most prominent railroad unions is facing new scrutiny after a watchdog report alleged its leadership is quietly working against the political views of its members who support President Donald Trump’s agenda. The report, released by the American Accountability Foundation (AAF), claims the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET), one of the nation’s oldest labor unions, is run by leaders who are endorsing and promoting Democratic policies and candidates despite a membership base that data suggests largely supports the president. The report, which alleges the union “betrayed” its MAGA members, points to the union’s endorsement of the Harris-Walz ticket in the 2024 election cycle, as well as its ties to prominent Democrats, including Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and former Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, who is running for Senate again. While BLET has touted Republicans in recent years, including earlier this year when it applauded Vice President JD Vance and the bipartisan reintroduction of the Railway Safety Act (RSA), the report highlights repeated criticism of Trump-era policies, including transportation regulations, immigration enforcement and the conservative-backed Project 2025 agenda, alongside praise for the policies of the Biden administration. WORKERS SAY ‘I LIKE UNIONS, I JUST DON’T LIKE MY UNION’ — HERE’S WHAT THEY’RE DISCOVERING A review of the union’s social media account by AAF shows numerous examples of the union opposing various moves by the first Trump administration during his presidential campaign against incumbent Joe Biden, which the report describes as evidence of “woke leadership.” “In the lead-up to the 2024 election, BLET issued 14 tweets that criticized the actions of the first Trump administration while praising the Biden administration’s railroad policies,” the report says. “The messaging was clearly intended to skew union members toward the Democratic presidential ticket. In these tweets, they attacked nearly every major Trump-era rail policy decision while framing the Biden administration’s actions positively.” The union’s public support of Democrats had a financial angle as well, as the report states that the organization spent more than $26 million on political activity in recent years, with the vast majority supporting Democratic candidates and causes to a degree that AAF referred to as “shocking.” According to the report, 99% of the union’s party committee donations went to Democrats. “For example, in the 2016 cycle, BLET donated $15,000 to the DNC when they were the nexus for GOTV for the Hillary Clinton campaign but never donated a dollar to the RNC,” the report says. “In 2024, long after it had become clear that industrial union membership was strongly behind President Trump, the BLET leadership still hadn’t gotten the message, making 24 different donations to Democrat party committees for a total of $53,400 and a mere two donations to Republican committees for a spare $2000.” LEAKED TEACHERS’ UNION K-12 TRAINING PRESENTATION RAILS AGAINST TRUMP ADMINISTRATION, RED STATES According to the report, the divide reflects a broader shift in American politics, with blue-collar workers increasingly backing Trump while union leadership remains entrenched in traditional left-leaning positions. The report goes beyond the union’s spending on politics and delves into what it calls “waste and abuse” in the form of millions of dollars of member dues being shelled out for travel, hotels and “swag.” “While it’s bad enough that BLET spent over $5,000,000 on hotels and conferences, even more concerning is the fact that the union spent over $2,000,000 on casinos and resorts alone,” the report says. “The union appears more concerned with staying at entertaining destination resorts than they do being thrifty with their members’ dues.” Recent polling shows that labor unions like BLET consist of a large number of workers who support Trump, including Teamsters polling that shows a 60/40 breakdown in favor of Trump and exit polling from the 2024 election that shows working-class voters without a college degree went 56% for Trump and 42% for Harris. The report also points to leadership compensation as part of the disconnect, noting multiple top officials earning over $200,000 annually, with the union president and vice president each making more than $300,000. “The men pulling America’s freight voted for President Trump because they believe in secure borders and putting American workers first,” AAF President Tom Jones said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “But their union bosses are busy living large on member dues and carrying water for the Left. They’ve turned a blue-collar brotherhood into a woke political machine that’s doing everything it can against the Trump-Vance agenda, and likewise, against everyday railroad workers. Every BLET member should be asking where their hard-earned dollars are really going.” In a statement to Fox News Digital, a BLET spokesperson said: “We do not comment on false press releases by dark money groups who have no accountability to the truth.”