Noem vows criminal prosecution after catching alleged DHS ‘prolific leaker’
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Wednesday said another “prolific leaker” who disclosed information that put federal law enforcement officers at risk has been caught. Noem announced the revelation in a post on X. “I plan to refer this individual to @TheJusticeDept for criminal prosecution,” Noem wrote. “We are agnostic about your standing, tenure, political appointment, or status as a career civil servant—we will track down leakers and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law.” NOEM SAYS SHE GRIEVES FOR FAMILY AFTER CBP-RELATED SHOOTING IN MINNEAPOLIS, VOWS THOROUGH INVESTIGATION Noem has made the prosecutions of leakers within her agency a top priority as the Trump administration continues its crackdown on illegal immigration. Weeks after President Trump took office last year, she announced that two people in the Department of Homeland Security have been accused of disclosing DHS operations. DHS SLAMS DEMS FOR COMPLAINING ABOUT IMMIGRATION LAW: ‘IT IS QUITE LITERALLY THEIR JOB TO CHANGE IT’ “We have identified two leakers of information here at the Department of Homeland Security who have been telling individuals about our operations and putting law enforcement lives in jeopardy,” Noem said in a video at the time. “We plan to prosecute these two individuals and hold them accountable for what they’ve done.” “We’re going to continue to do all that we can to keep America safe,” she added. Fox News Digital has reached out to DHS. Noem has said the leaks endanger DHS law enforcement officers, who face an 8,000% increase in death threats against them.
House GOP moves to block DC from stopping Trump tax cuts for tipped, overtime workers
The House of Representatives passed a bill on Wednesday aimed at stopping the Washington, D.C., local government from blocking parts of President Donald Trump’s new tax law. D.C.’s progressive city council passed a local measure to stop certain parts of Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act from going into effect due to their expected effect of cutting city revenues. Policies that would have been blocked include Trump’s elimination of taxes on tipped and overtime wages, as well as certain tax cuts aimed at businesses. The legislation was led by Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, who told Fox News Digital he did not expect any Democrats to support his bill. It passed the House entirely along party lines in a 215 – 210 vote. GOP UNVEILS PLAN TO CUT DEFICIT BY $1 TRILLION WITH SECOND ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’ “Republicans want more money to be in the hands and in the pockets of working-class families, and Democrats want that money to be in the hands of government,” Gill said. The D.C. government generally conforms with large swaths of the federal tax code, as a federal territory itself. But according to local officials, including non-voting Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., enacting the full Trump tax bill would amount to a $600 million revenue loss for the city. TRUMP SIGNS ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL’ BILL IN SWEEPING VICTORY FOR SECOND TERM AGENDA, OVERCOMING DEMS AND GOP REBELS “This resolution is nothing short of unprecedented and deliberate administrative and fiscal sabotage of D.C.,” Norton said in a statement. But Republicans, including Gill, argue that the capital’s progressive officials are blocking Trump’s signature legislation for political reasons at the cost of working-class residents. “Whenever we passed that tax law, we expected Washington, D.C., to conform to those tax provisions. And unfortunately, they decided that they were going to try to separate from them,” Gill said. “So to give you a few examples, you have no tax on tips, no tax on Social Security, no tax on overtime pay, a variety of pro-growth, pro-business tax provisions that they decided they wanted to decouple from. So what we’re saying is, we think that that’s bad policy on D.C.’s part, and we’re gonna stop them.” Congress has the ability to overturn most local laws set by D.C. thanks to the District of Columbia Home Rule Act of 1973. If passed by both the House and Senate, however, Republicans’ bill could complicate the tax season for D.C. residents who have already begun filing for their annual returns.
SCOOP: Thousands of violent illegal immigrants arrested in Minnesota as admin vows ‘we will not back down’
EXCLUSIVE: The Department of Homeland Security announced Wednesday that federal law enforcement officials have arrested more than 4,000 illegal immigrants in Minnesota since launching Operation Metro Surge in late 2025. “President Trump’s commonsense immigration enforcement policies are delivering the public safety results the American people demanded, with more than 4,000 dangerous criminal illegal aliens already arrested in Minnesota since Operation Metro began,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Digital on Wednesday in response to DHS’ announcement. “Democrats opened our borders and allowed vicious criminals, including murderers, rapists, gang members, and terrorists, to invade our communities. President Trump is reversing that horrific damage and removing these threats from our country,” she continued. Operation Metro Surge is an ongoing immigration crackdown operation that focused on the Twin Cities, as well as Minnesota at large, as part of the administration’s ongoing mission to deport illegal immigrants, most notably violent offenders. GUN-WIELDING ICE AGENTS BRUSH BACK MINNEAPOLIS AGITATORS DHS shared a handful of arrests made on Tuesday alone, including: a criminal illegal alien from Ecuador with a criminal history of sexual conduct with a minor and domestic assault; a criminal illegal alien from Honduras convicted of domestic abuse, disorderly conduct and driving while intoxicated; a criminal illegal alien from Mexico arrested for assault/domestic battery, larceny, driving under the influence and possession of drugs; and a criminal illegal alien from El Salvador convicted of trespassing. “Despite coordinated attacks of violence against our law enforcement, our officers have made more than 4,000 arrests of illegal aliens including murderers, pedophiles, rapists, gang members, and terrorists in Minnesota since Operation Metro Surge began,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital. “We need sanctuary politicians to cooperate with us by notifying us before releasing public safety threats back onto the streets to commit more crimes and create more victims. We will not back down from our mission to remove criminal illegal aliens from American neighborhoods.” Federal law enforcement converged on Minnesota in late 2025 and early 2026 as massive welfare and social services fraud schemes came to light. The schemes have led to dozens of arrests, most of whom are from the state’s large Somali population. CRIMINAL ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT ALLEGEDLY RAMS ICE VEHICLE IN MINNESOTA AS ATTACKS ON AGENTS SURGE The immigration crackdown in the state sparked agitators and protesters to take to the streets, which included chaotic confrontations, including agitators storming into a church in the Twin Cities and disturbing Sunday services. Two Americans have been fatally shot amid protests by federal law enforcement in two separate cases in the Twin Cities, heightening criticisms against the Trump administration that the federal government allegedly had blood on its hands. President Donald Trump deployed border czar Tom Homan to the Twin Cities in January, following the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by Border Patrol agents, to continue the operation. The border czar announced Wednesday that 700 law enforcement officers would depart the city as he works for a “complete drawdown” of federal presence while local officials increasingly work with the administration. Most notably, local jails are communicating with federal officials regarding illegal immigrants currently in custody, allowing for speedy arrests at the jail as opposed to within communities. WEEKEND ROUNDUP: CONVICTED MURDERERS, CHILD SEX ABUSERS AMONG ILLEGAL ALIENS NABBED BY ICE ACROSS US “We currently have an unprecedented number of counties communicating with us now and allowing ICE to take custody of illegal aliens before they hit the streets. Unprecedented cooperation,” Homan said Wednesday. “I’ll say it again: This is efficient, and it requires only one or two officers to assume custody of a criminal alien target, rather than eight or 10 officers going into the community and arresting that public safety threat.” Leavitt told Fox News Digital on Wednesday that Homan’s drawdown plan follows the operation’s success in arresting the more than 4,000 illegal aliens from Minnesota. “At President Trump’s direction, Tom Homan’s commitment to draw down forces in Minneapolis today follows these achievements and the new, unprecedented cooperation from state and local officials in Minnesota. Commitments like these from elected officials to work with the president and federal law enforcement produce tremendous outcomes that help keep Americans safe,” Leavitt said.
World enters uncharted era as US-Russia nuclear treaty expires, opening door to fastest arms race in decades
A historic nuclear arms reduction treaty is set to expire Thursday, which will thrust the world into a nuclear situation it has not faced in more than five decades, one in which there are no longer any binding limits on the size of Russia’s or America’s nuclear arsenals and no inspection regime to verify what Moscow does next. Matt Korda, associate director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists, said the expiration of the New START treaty forces both countries to rethink assumptions that have guided nuclear planning for more than a decade. “Up until now, both countries have planned their respective nuclear modernization programs based on the assumption that the other country is not going to exceed those central limits,” Korda said. “Without those central limits … both countries are going to be reassessing their programs to accommodate a more uncertain nuclear future.” TRUMP WARNS RUSSIA: US HAS WORLD’S GREATEST NUCLEAR SUBMARINE ‘RIGHT OFF THEIR SHORES’ Russia had already suspended its participation in New START in 2023, freezing inspections and data exchanges, but the treaty’s expiration eliminates the last legal framework governing the size of the two countries’ nuclear arsenals. With no follow-up agreement in place, the administration has insisted it cannot agree to arms control without the cooperation of China. “The president has been clear in the past that in order to have true arms control in the 21st century, it’s impossible to do something that doesn’t include China because of their vast and rapidly growing stockpile,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday. A White House official told Fox News President Donald Trump will decide the path forward on arms control “on his own timeline.” “President Trump has spoken repeatedly of addressing the threat nuclear weapons pose to the world and indicated that he would like to keep limits on nuclear weapons and involve China in arms control talks.” Experts are skeptical that China would ever agree to limit its nuclear stockpile until it’s reached parity with the U.S., and Russia has said it would not pressure China to come to the table. China aims to have 1,000 nuclear warheads by 2030, but even that figure pales in comparison to the aging giants of the Cold War. As of early 2026, the global nuclear hierarchy remains top-heavy, with the U.S. and Russia holding roughly 86% of the world’s total inventory. Both the U.S. and Russia hold around 4,000 total warheads, with close to 1,700 deployed by each. Global nuclear stockpiles declined to about 12,000 in 2025, down from more than 70,000 in 1986. In February 2023, Russia announced it was suspending its participation in the New START treaty, halting inspections and data-sharing under the pact while saying it would continue to respect the numerical limits. But, more recently, it floated the idea of extending the treaty by another year. TRUMP STUNS WITH CALL TO RESUME NUCLEAR TESTS — WHY NOW, AND WHAT IT COULD MEAN Korda said that proposal reflected shared constraints rather than a sudden change in Russian intentions. “It’s not in Russia’s interest to dramatically accelerate an arms race while its current modernization programs are going so poorly and while its industrial capacity is tied up in Ukraine,” he said. Korda said that without inspections and data exchanges, countries are forced to rely on their own intelligence, increasing uncertainty and encouraging worst-case planning. “Without those onsite inspections, without data exchanges, without anything like that, all countries are really left with national technical means of being able to monitor each other’s nuclear forces,” Korda said. With New START’s limits gone, experts said the immediate concern is not the construction of new nuclear weapons but how quickly existing warheads could be deployed. Ankit Panda, a Stanton senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said Russia could move faster than the United States in the near term by “uploading” additional warheads onto missiles already in service. “Uploading would be a process of adding additional warheads to our ICBMs and submarine-launched missiles,” Panda said. “The Russians could be much faster than the United States.” PUTIN PRAISES TRUMP’S ‘SINCERE’ PEACE EFFORTS, SIGNALS POSSIBLE US-RUSSIA NUCLEAR DEAL Korda said a large-scale upload would not happen overnight but could still alter force levels within a relatively short window. “We’re looking at maybe a timeline of about two years and pretty significant sums of money for each country to execute a complete upload across the entire force,” he said, adding that, in a worst-case scenario, it could “roughly result in doubling the sizes of their deployed nuclear arsenals.” That advantage, however, is constrained by longer-term industrial realities. Panda noted that the U.S. nuclear weapons complex lacks the production capacity it once had, limiting how quickly Washington could sustain a larger arsenal over time. “The United States is currently unable to produce what is going to be a target for 30 plutonium pits,” a fraction of Cold War output, he said. Nicole Grajewski, a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said Russia’s ability to produce nuclear weapons may be faster than the U.S. in some, but not all, parts of the development chain. “Russia is very good at warhead production,” she told Fox News Digital. “What Russia is really fundamentally constrained on is the delivery vehicle side of it.” Grajewski added that this is particularly true as the war in Ukraine continues. Russia’s production of missiles and other delivery systems relies on facilities that also support conventional weapons used in the war, limiting how quickly Moscow could expand the intercontinental missiles, submarine-launched weapons and bombers that made up the core of New START. As a result, Grajewski said she is less concerned about a rapid buildup of those treaty-covered forces than about Moscow’s continued investment in nuclear systems that fall outside traditional arms control frameworks. “What is more concerning is Russia’s advances in asymmetric domains,” she said, pointing to systems such as the Poseidon nuclear-powered torpedo and nuclear-powered cruise missiles, which are not covered by
Republicans, Trump run into Senate roadblock on voter ID bill
Congressional Republicans, President Donald Trump and their shared base of support want to see voter ID legislation become law, but the last barrier is the Senate, where political reality has turned the notion into a pipe dream. The GOP’s legislative push to codify more requirements and restrictions surrounding voter registration nearly derailed Congress’ attempt to end the latest partial government shutdown on Tuesday. In an unlikely turn of events, like Senate Democrats’ push to save expiring Obamacare subsidies’ during the last funding battle and House Republicans’ desire to attach election integrity legislation, dubbed the SAVE America Act, to the Trump-backed package this week brought the issue back into focus. SCHUMER NUKES GOP PUSH FOR ‘JIM CROW-ERA’ VOTER ID LAWS IN TRUMP-BACKED SHUTDOWN PACKAGE Trump, who encouraged House Republicans to stand down from their do-or-die demands, renewed his call to pass voter ID legislation while signing the funding package into law Tuesday. “We should have voter ID, by the way,” Trump said. “We should have a lot of the things that I think everybody wants to see. Who would not want voter ID? Only somebody that wants to cheat.” While several Senate Republicans support what the bill could accomplish, they acknowledge the legislation would die on the floor without a handful of Senate Democrats, who nearly unanimously despise the move. “Democrats want to make it easy to cheat,” Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., told Fox News Digital. “They don’t want to do anything to secure elections.” The issue at hand, as has often been the case during Trump’s second term, is the 60-vote filibuster. The president has called on Senate Republicans to eviscerate it several times throughout the last year as the precarious threshold has time and again impeded his agenda. THUNE REJECTS TRUMP’S CALL TO NATIONALIZE ELECTIONS, WARNS DEMS TRIED THE SAME Some Senate Republicans, including Johnson, are mulling turning to the precursor to the modern filibuster — the talking, or standing, filibuster. The modern filibuster is less strenuous, literally, than the standing filibuster. While today’s standard requires that senators hit at least 60 votes, the standing filibuster demanded that lawmakers debate on the floor, consuming one of the Senate’s most valuable commodities — time. “The only way that’s going to get passed is if we do a talking filibuster or we end the filibuster,” Johnson said. There’s little appetite among Senate Republicans to nuke the filibuster given that it could play right into the desires of Senate Democrats, who tried and failed to modify the procedure when they controlled the upper chamber under former President Joe Biden. And many acknowledge that the votes simply aren’t there to do so. One Senate Republican told Fox News Digital that the “filibuster is not on the table” as pressure mounts to move on the SAVE America Act, but that the legislation would likely get a shot in the upper chamber and earn 51 Republican votes. But, the lawmaker contended, the question was what happened next in the likely event the bill fails. The notion of turning to the standing filibuster, the physical and original version of the filibuster, was also swiftly sidelined by Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., who said while there was interest among Republicans to discuss the option, “there weren’t any commitments made.” HOUSE CONSERVATIVES THREATEN EXTENDED SHUTDOWN OVER ELECTION INTEGRITY MEASURE Forcing the standing filibuster would come with its own ramifications in the Senate, given that the most valuable commodity in the upper chamber is floor time. That’s because of rules that guarantee any senator gets up to two speeches on a bill. That, coupled with the clock being reset by amendments to the bill, means that the Senate could effectively be paralyzed for months as Republicans chip away at Democratic opposition. “There’s always an opportunity cost,” Thune said. “At any time there’s an amendment offered, and that amendment is tabled, it resets the clock,” he continued. “The two-speech rule kicks in again. So let’s say, you know, every Democrat senator talks for two hours. That’s 940 hours on the floor.” Still, some Republicans hope that the bill gets its moment in the Senate. Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., who was an original co-sponsor of the bill, told Fox News Digital he hoped it got a chance on the floor and contended that it was a “very important thing to do.” “I don’t know,” Schmitt said. “I mean, we’ll never know unless it happens.”
Thune blasts Jeffries, Schumer as ‘afraid of their shadows’ as DHS funding fight heats up
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., doesn’t have confidence that top congressional Democrats want to fix Homeland Security funding as Congress gears up for tense negotiations in the coming days. With the partial four-day government shutdown now over, Democrats and Republicans are readying to relitigate the controversial Department of Homeland Security (DHS) bill, which threatened to completely derail a previous bipartisan funding deal. And with nine days on the clock to figure out a way forward, Thune doesn’t believe that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., or Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., are prepared to actually reach a bipartisan deal on the bill. SHUTDOWN AVERTED FOR NOW, BUT SENATE WARNS DHS FIGHT COULD TRIGGER ANOTHER IN DAYS When asked if he viewed Jeffries, who rebelled against Schumer’s funding deal with President Donald Trump, as a good-faith partner in the coming back-and-forth, Thune said, “He’s just not.” “He and, for that matter, Leader Schumer, both are afraid of their shadows, and they’re getting a lot of rollback and pressure from their left,” Thune said. “So, I don’t think they want to — particularly in [Jeffries’] case, I don’t think he wants to make a deal at all.” TRUMP UNDERCUTS GOP PUSH TO ATTACH SAVE ACT TO SHUTDOWN BILL AS CONSERVATIVES THREATEN MUTINY Schumer on Tuesday said that Democrats would have a proposal ready for Republicans to review that same day, but Thune noted that no such list had been handed over to his side of the aisle. There may still be lingering discourse between the top Democratic leaders, too, after Jeffries turned his back on the Trump-Schumer funding deal. However, both met on Tuesday night, and Schumer affirmed that they were on the same page. HOUSE DEMOCRATS MUTINY SCHUMER’S DEAL WITH WHITE HOUSE, THREATENING LONGER SHUTDOWN Meanwhile, DHS is currently operating under a two-week continuing resolution (CR) that maintains previous funding levels until Congress can pass legislation to fully fund it. But Thune and other Republicans believe that the truncated time period just isn’t long enough to actually hash out a deal. And it’s an open question whether Congress will again need to temporarily extend the funding patch, or allow the agency to shut down. Compounding frustrations among Republicans is that the original DHS bill was the product of bipartisan negotiations and included several guardrails and reporting requirements targeting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that would limit or block funding if they weren’t met. “I think they want to litigate, have the issue as a political issue,” Thune said. “Whether or not there’s a solution remains to be seen, but at least what they’re saying publicly suggests that that’s not their objective.”
Jill Biden’s 2019 memoir described being ‘devastated’ by divorce from Bill Stevenson, now charged with murder
In her 2019 book, “Where the Light Enters,” former first lady Jill Biden described her feeling of devastation that her first marriage ended in divorce. William “Bill” Stevenson, who currently faces a murder charge in connection with the death of his wife Linda Stevenson, is Jill Biden’s ex-husband, reports indicate. “My parents loved each other until they left this earth,” Jill noted in her book, according to People. “Even in their old age, they were playful and affectionate. They loved faithfully and unconditionally. Marriage, for them, meant forever. And I knew, deeply, unquestioningly, that was what I would have as well. So, when my marriage fell apart, I was lost. I watched, devastated, as it slipped from my fingers before I could even figure out how to hold on.” JILL BIDEN’S EX-HUSBAND CHARGED WITH MURDER IN DEATH OF WIFE “I’m not sure if I knew anyone who was divorced back then,” she noted, according to the report. “The very idea horrified me. It meant failure, and in my still-young life, I had never failed at anything serious.” “I felt ugly and inadequate; I was embarrassed and ashamed,” she explained, according to the outlet. “In a single devastating year, I went from thinking I had it all to feeling shattered and alone. I questioned if I would ever find love, if I would ever have a family of my own. How could I give my heart to someone again? How could I again risk this humiliation, this hurt? And how could I figure out who, exactly, I was?” BIDEN NEARLY INVISIBLE IN OWN CHRISTMAS FAMILY PHOTO AS HUNTER TAKES CENTER STAGE But her second marriage worked out — Jill and Joe Biden married in 1977 and remain together nearly five decades later. The New Castle County Police Department announced Tuesday that detectives from the Division’s Criminal Investigations Unit, in coordination with the Delaware Department of Justice, presented the case to a grand jury on Monday following “an extensive weeks-long investigation into the death of 64-year-old Linda Stevenson.” DEMS ‘LOSE CREDIBILITY’ WHEN THEY ‘STAY SILENT’ ON THIS, ARGUES FORMER JILL BIDEN CHIEF SPOKESPERSON “As a result, an indictment was returned by the New Castle County Superior Court charging 77-year-old William Stevenson with Murder in the First Degree,” the department noted.
Trump speaks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on range of issues including Russia-Ukraine war
President Donald Trump said he spoke to Chinese President Xi Jinping Wednesday to discuss a range of issues, including the war between Ukraine and Russia, while stressing that their relationship “is an extremely good one” that will bring “many positive results” in the coming years. The president and Xi also discussed Trump’s upcoming trip to Beijing in April, which he said he “very much” looks forward to. “I have just completed an excellent telephone conversation with President Xi, of China. It was a long and thorough call, where many important subjects were discussed, including Trade, Military, the April trip that I will be making to China (which I very much look forward to!), Taiwan, the War between Russia/Ukraine, the current situation with Iran, the purchase of Oil and Gas by China from the United States, the consideration by China of the purchase of additional Agricultural products including lifting the Soybean count to 20 Million Tons for the current season (They have committed to 25 Million Tons for next season!), Airplane engine deliveries, and numerous other subjects, all very positive!” Trump posted to his Truth Social. TRUMP WARNS UK IT’S ‘VERY DANGEROUS’ TO DO BUSINESS WITH CHINA AFTER STARMER’S BEIJING MEETING “The relationship with China, and my personal relationship with President Xi, is an extremely good one, and we both realize how important it is to keep it that way,” he continued. “I believe that there will be many positive results achieved over the next three years of my Presidency having to do with President Xi, and the People’s Republic of China.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The president’s call with Xi comes on the same day the Chinese president announced that he had a separate conversation Wednesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin. This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Trump’s Iran threats face ‘Obama red line’ test as White House pivots to diplomacy
For weeks, President Donald Trump has promised the Iranian people that “help is on the way” while positioning a massive U.S. naval armada within striking distance of Iran’s coast. But as the White House pivots toward a diplomatic summit in Istanbul Friday, analysts warn the president may face a growing credibility test if threats are not followed by action. By threatening “speed and fury” against a regime accused of killing thousands of protesters, Trump has drawn a red line — one that analysts say echoes President Barack Obama’s 2013 warning over Syria’s use of chemical weapons. Obama ultimately chose diplomacy over military strikes, a decision critics said weakened U.S. credibility and emboldened adversaries, while supporters argued it avoided a broader war and succeeded in removing large portions of Syria’s chemical arsenal. Trump now faces a similar debate as he weighs whether to enforce his own warnings against Iran. Trump’s envoys are set to meet Friday in Istanbul with Iranian officials to press for an end to Iran’s nuclear enrichment program, curbs on ballistic missiles and a halt to support for proxy groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah — terms Tehran has shown little public sign of accepting. Trump has also demanded an end to the regime’s violent crackdown on protesters. But signs of strain are already emerging around the talks. Iran is now seeking a change in venue to Friday’s meeting — wanting it to be held in Oman, according to a source familiar with the request — raising questions about whether the summit will proceed as scheduled or produce substantive progress. TRUMP CREDITS HALTED IRAN EXECUTIONS FOR HOLDING OFF MILITARY STRIKES Tensions on the ground have continued to rise even as diplomacy is pursued. This week, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said American forces shot down an Iranian drone after it aggressively approached the USS Abraham Lincoln while the aircraft carrier was operating in international waters in the Arabian Sea. CENTCOM said the drone ignored de-escalatory measures before an F-35C fighter jet downed it in self-defense. No U.S. personnel were injured. Hours later, Iranian naval forces harassed a U.S.-flagged, U.S.-crewed commercial tanker transiting the Strait of Hormuz, according to CENTCOM. Iranian gunboats and a surveillance drone repeatedly threatened to board the vessel before the guided-missile destroyer USS McFaul intervened and escorted the tanker to safety. CENTCOM warned that continued Iranian harassment in international waters increases the risk of miscalculation and regional destabilization. Despite weeks of delay, foreign policy analysts say the pause does not mean military action has been taken off the table. TRUMP SAYS IRAN ALREADY HAS US TERMS AS MILITARY STRIKE CLOCK TICKS “If you just look at force movements and the president’s past statements of policy, you would have to bet on the likelihood that military action remains something that is coming,” Rich Goldberg, a former Trump National Security Council official now at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital. “I don’t think the window is closed,” said Michael Makovsky, president of the Jewish Institute for National Security of America. “If the president doesn’t do something militarily, it would damage his credibility.” The standoff is reviving comparisons to Obama’s 2013 decision not to carry out military strikes in Syria after warning that the use of chemical weapons would cross a U.S. “red line.” The moment became a touchstone in debates over American deterrence. The Syria episode remains a touchstone in Washington’s red-line debates. Critics argued Obama’s decision not to strike emboldened adversaries, while supporters said diplomacy prevented war — a divide resurfacing as Trump weighs his next move. “They have challenged the president now to try to turn him into Obama in 2013 in Syria, rather than Donald Trump in 2025 in Iran,” Goldberg said. Fox News Digital has reached out to Obama’s office for comment. Trump has publicly encouraged Iranian protesters to continue their demonstrations, telling them in early January to “KEEP PROTESTING” and promising that “HELP IS ON ITS WAY.” U.S. officials, however, have previously said the pause reflects caution rather than retreat, pointing to concerns about retaliation against American forces and uncertainty over who would lead Iran if the regime were significantly weakened. Trump himself raised those questions in January, publicly casting doubt on whether any opposition figure could realistically govern after decades in exile. “As for the president, he remains committed to always pursuing diplomacy first,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday. “But in order for diplomacy to work, of course, it takes two to tango, you need a willing partner to engage.” “The president has always a range of options on the table, and that includes the use of military force,” she added. TRUMP SAYS GULF ALLIES KEPT IN DARK AS US NEGOTIATES WITH IRAN: ‘CANT’ TELL THEM THE PLAN’ Some analysts reject the premise that the administration has meaningfully slowed its military posture. “I don’t think they’ve paused action,” said Gregg Roman, executive director of the Middle East Forum. “The more assets that the president deploys to the theater gives the U.S. more maneuvering room, rather than less.” Roman pointed to continued U.S. force movements into the region, arguing the buildup signals preparation rather than restraint. “That’s not the behavior of a country backing away from military options,” he said. Fox News’ Aishah Hashnie contributed to this report.
Shutdown averted for now, but Senate warns DHS fight could trigger another in days
As the House crushed Republican resistance to a Trump-backed funding package to end the latest partial government shutdown, lawmakers in the upper chamber weren’t confident that Congress could avoid being in the same position in the coming weeks. President Donald Trump and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., brokered the deal to end the shutdown last week. That funding truce included a move to sideline the controversial Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding bill in favor of a short-term extension to keep the agency open. The House’s passage of the package, which funds 11 out of 12 government agencies under Congress’ purview, sets the stage for tense negotiations between the White House and Senate Democrats over reforms to DHS. END OF GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN IN SIGHT AS SPEAKER JOHNSON OVERCOMES GOP REVOLT But several Senate Republicans are questioning whether two weeks, which had shrunk to just nine days as of Wednesday, would be enough time to avert another partial shutdown — this time only for DHS. “I think it’s gonna be very difficult to get the funding bill done for DHS in two weeks,” Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., told Fox News Digital. Scott was one of a handful of Republicans in the upper chamber that rejected the compromise plan and the underlying original package because of bloated spending on earmarks and concerns that Senate Democrats would effectively try to kneecap Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations across the country. “We’re going to be in a worse spot,” Scott said. “I mean… all their earmarks got done, and then now they’re going to want to, you know, they want to [get] busy de-fanging and defunding ICE.” Congressional Democrats wanted to relitigate the bipartisan DHS bill after the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti during an immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis. The demand forced Trump to intervene and thrust the government into a partial shutdown on Friday. While the funding deal made it across his desk, it won’t get Congress out of the jam it’s in, given the short amount of time lawmakers have to negotiate the bill, which is consistently the most difficult spending bill to pass year in and year out. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., noted that once negotiations began, Congress had a “very short timeframe in which to do this, which I am against.” TRUMP UNDERCUTS GOP PUSH TO ATTACH SAVE ACT TO SHUTDOWN BILL AS CONSERVATIVES THREATEN MUTINY “But the Democrats insisted on, you know, a two-week window, which, again, I don’t understand the rationale for that,” Thune said. “Anybody who knows this place knows that’s an impossibility.” Some Senate Democrats did not want to weigh in on a hypothetical scenario just days away, but Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., contended that because of the events in Minnesota, “there should be some motivation across the aisle to do something on, you know, all these issues.” “I mean, I think [DHS Secretary] Kristi Noem should be fired, leadership needs to be changed at ICE, their budget needs to be the right size,” Kelly said. “We got to get them looking like normal police officers.” Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, struck a more positive tone. TRUMP, SCHUMER REACH GOVERNMENT FUNDING DEAL, SACRIFICE DHS SPENDING BILL IN THE PROCESS She told Fox News Digital that Congress would be in a much better position, considering that lawmakers will have passed 11 out of the 12 bills needed to fund the federal government. “We’ll now start the negotiations on DHS, and I hope we’ll be successful, but I don’t see how you can compare where we are today,” Collins said. Thune believed that Noem’s announcement that ICE agents in Minneapolis would begin wearing body-worn cameras could act as a sweetener for Democrats. There is already $20 million baked into the current bipartisan DHS funding bill for body cameras. Schumer rejected that olive branch from Noem, arguing that it didn’t come nearly close enough to the portfolio of reforms Democrats wanted for the agency. And he reaffirmed that Senate Democrats wanted actual legislative action on DHS reforms, not an executive order. “We know how whimsical Donald Trump is,” Schumer said. “He’ll say one thing one day and retract it the next. Same with Secretary Noem.” “So, we don’t trust some executive order, some pronouncement from some Cabinet secretary. We need it enshrined into law.” When asked if lawmakers would need to turn to another short-term funding patch, Schumer argued that “if Leader Thune negotiates in good faith, we can get it done. We expect to present to the Republicans a very serious, detailed proposal very shortly.” But Thune has said for several days that it would be the White House in the driver’s seat, and ultimately it would be Trump who could broker a new deal. “But at some points, obviously it has to be the White House engaged in the conversation with the Senate Democrats, and that’s how that thing’s gonna land,” Thune said.