Trump blasts Supreme Court ‘disaster’ after justices rule against him on mail-in voting
President Donald Trump lashed out at the Supreme Court on Tuesday after justices ruled against his administration on a major mail-in voting initiative. “Republicans just got another bad decision from the United States Supreme Court, one that the Court System took forever to give, and then blamed it, in part, on no time left to implement a solution to our totally CORRUPT and out of control Mail-In voting ‘disaster,’ which is a laughing stock all over the World, and where we are the only country that has to endure such a Nation Destroying SCAM,” Trump wrote. The president went on to praise Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, who dissented from Monday’s order. Trump called the pair “legends.” SUPREME COURT REJECTS TRUMP BID TO REVIVE STRICT MAIL-BALLOT RULES BEFORE MIDTERMS “It is a big loss for Republicans, and America itself, and makes cheating by the Radical Left ‘Dumocrats,’ on Mail-In Ballots, a much easier thing to do – And now they have an open field to do so!” Trump wrote. Trump went on to list a series of cases where the Supreme Court has disappointed him, including its decision to strike down his tariff policies and void his executive order ending birthright citizenship. TRUMP CRITICIZES 2 SUPREME COURT JUSTICES BY NAME OVER TARIFF RULING “It is not easy for me to write this criticism of the United States Supreme Court – it will likely cost me dearly for years to come – but I feel it my obligation and duty, as President, to do so for the America we love!” he wrote. The Monday order rejected the Trump administration’s request for a stay in the implementation of a universal injunction against new mail-in ballot rules from the U.S. Postal Service. The rules would require federal ballot mail to be sent in envelopes bearing an election-mail logo, capable of being scanned by high-speed equipment and carrying a barcode unique to each voter. State and local election officials would also be required to submit envelope designs to the Postal Service for review and upload basic voter information to an online USPS portal. USPS WOULDN’T DELIVER BALLOTS IN STATES THAT REFUSE TO FORK OVER MAIL-IN VOTER INFO UNDER PROPOSED RULE Under the USPS rule, mailings that failed to comply would not be accepted and would instead be returned to election officials to correct and resubmit. The court’s Monday order went unsigned, but Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote a concurring opinion that allowed room for a potential Trump victory down the line. He nevertheless argued that it is too close to Election Day to realistically implement the rules for the 2026 midterm elections. “In my view, based on the briefing the Court has received at this interim stage, there is at least a fair prospect that the final rule falls within the Postal Service’s statutory authority,” Kavanaugh wrote. “But applying the rule in the 2026 elections would be arbitrary and capricious in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act because state and local election officials do not have sufficient time to reasonably implement the rule before the elections.”
Smithsonian move reignites ‘woke,’ ‘Marxist’ criticism as Latino museum avoids congressional approval
The Smithsonian designated its Arts and Industries Building as the permanent home of the controversial National Museum of the American Latino, a move critics say will allow the institution to move forward without another congressional fight over a museum they argue should not exist. The decision comes as the Smithsonian faces intensifying scrutiny over its historical exhibits. Mike Gonzalez, a former Bush State Department official and longtime critic of the Latino museum, argued its inaugural exhibition promoted a far-left worldview and said selecting the Arts and Industries Building was an effort to avoid a contentious Capitol Hill battle. “We need to fire the Smithsonian leadership,” Gonzalez said. “We need to get rid of the Latino museum. It needs to be de-authorized. It should not exist.” WATCH: SMITHSONIAN DIRECTOR ADMITS SHE SEES HISTORY AS ‘TOOL’ OF ‘SOCIAL JUSTICE’ AFTER EXPLOSIVE HEARING Shortly after the interview, his wish partially came true when the Smithsonian’s top official, Secretary Lonnie Bunch III, announced his retirement after four decades with the institution. Gonzalez examined the Latino museum’s inaugural 2022 exhibition, “¡Presente!,” in a Heritage Foundation report shared with Fox News Digital. He also testified alongside National Museum of American History Director Anthea Hartig during congressional hearings in July. The Smithsonian declined comment on Gonzalez’s report or his comments to Fox News Digital. Gonzalez argues the location decision matters because the Smithsonian already controls A&I, unlike the National Park Service sites previously under consideration. “They want to use this as kind of a ruse,” Gonzalez said, arguing that the institution can avoid another congressional fight by placing the museum on property it already controls. TRUMP V. SMITHSONIAN: A TIMELINE OF HOW THE WHITE HOUSE FIGHT OVER ‘WOKE’ HISTORY UNFOLDED Gonzalez examined “¡Presente!,” and argued that a series of panels reflected what he described as an anti-Western, anti-American worldview. He pointed to its use of the idea “we didn’t cross the border, the border crossed us” as historically inaccurate and said it is a favorite mantra of those on the left who criticize immigration law enforcement. He said the language casts U.S. westward expansion primarily through the lens of displacement while obscuring the history of Mexicans who remained in territory acquired by the United States and later became American citizens. “I guess your guest today would count as one of them,” he said of himself. “Even though I don’t… run around calling myself a Hispanic. I’m a proud American of Cuban heritage.” SMITHSONIAN’S NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN HISTORY PROMOTES ‘EXTREME POLITICAL ACTIVISM,’ WH REPORT ALLEGES READ THE FULL HERITAGE FOUNDATION REPORT His report also highlights exhibits dealing with gender identity, immigration and the veneration of Marxist luminaries and political figures. Speaking to Fox News Digital from Israel, he said such attacks on national identity would never “fly.” One exhibit featured in Gonzalez’ report was titled “Jose Julio Sarria: Drag and Politics” and described Sarria as a “legendary drag performer [and] the first openly gay person to run for public office in the U.S.” Another panel featured a Cuban transgender HIV/AIDS activist who fled the country during the Mariel Boatlift. SMITHSONIAN PUSHED ‘REVOLTING’ SOCIAL ACTION TRAINING AFTER ‘WHITENESS’ CHART APOLOGY: EXPERT “They create[d] a hothouse, an incubator of grievances among these 70 million Americans of Hispanic descent,” he said, adding that Sarria and another featured figure prove that point. That example involves Orlando Letelier, a foreign minister under former Marxist Chilean President Salvador Allende. A photograph from the exhibition shows a 1976 quote from Letelier discussing his imprisonment under the Pinochet dictatorship and his later “liberation” in the name of restoring human rights. “Orlando Letelier has nothing to do with America, other than the fact that he died in a car explosion in Washington D.C., in 1976, but I’m old enough to remember that he was a cause-celebre of the left [then],” he said. “This is not an American story. The only reason he’s there is because the curators who worked in this exhibit betrayed who they are… They’re Marxists.” Gonzalez, who said his father was imprisoned by Cuba’s former “tin-pot dictator” Fulgencio Batista before the leader was overthrown by Fidel Castro in 1959, said the Latino museum also does a rank disservice to the true history of Marxist-Leninist rule in Havana. “Havana perhaps has not been at war since the British invasion of 1763 and yet it looks like it’s been carpet-bombed: It’s been carpet-bombed by socialism.” The exhibit on Batista omits the oppressive reign of the Castro brothers and also features a cartoon mocking the U.S. for the Reagan-era Iran-Contra affair, the report said. Gonzalez noted the latter aged poorly because the Daniel Ortega regime the U.S. opposed in Nicaragua is back in power decades later and has recently eliminated elections. SIGN UP TO GET THE POLITICS NEWSLETTER Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., a Smithsonian Regent and someone who also fled Cuban socialism, said the institution is a “crown jewel” of the United States and should be held to that standard. “The Congressman believes that the Smithsonian should be fair and balanced, aim for truth, and present both sides of the equation,” Gimenez spokesman Rey Anthony told Fox News Digital.
Newsom roasted online for ‘staged’ fly-fishing interview with CNN anchor where he dropped major 2028 hint
Social media users are taking jabs at California Gov. Gavin Newsom over his latest political stunt — a recorded fly-fishing outing with a CNN anchor that the Democrat used to break news about his often-rumored presidential ambitions. In the interview, recorded in Montana more than a month ago, CNN’s Jake Tapper is seen with Newsom standing in shallow water, repeatedly casting fly reels while talking politics. Newsom told Tapper he wouldn’t run for president if former failed 2024 presidential candidate former Vice President Kamala Harris tossed her hat into the ring. “Of course not. Why would I?” Newsom said when asked whether he would run against Harris in a presidential primary. “I wouldn’t do that to her. I wouldn’t do it to me. Why would I? I wouldn’t do that to you.” “I wouldn’t waste everyone’s time. Who needs that?” JENNIFER SIEBEL NEWSOM DODGES QUESTION ON HUSBAND GAVIN’S PRESIDENTIAL ASPIRATIONS Tapper pushed back, saying Newsom could do it if he really wanted to. But the Golden State governor replied by saying that would be a “gift from God for everybody else,” likely referencing those who don’t want to see a Democrat win in November, and claimed a primary against the former nominee would be “mutually assured destruction.” “I know her base of supporters. I know her friends,” Newsom said of the former U.S. senator from California. “The zen diagram (sic) on that is just pure crossover. It’s not — I wouldn’t do that to — I wouldn’t do that to people,” he said, mixing up the Buddhist meditation practice with a Venn diagram, the visual tool where overlapping circles are used to show how groups are similar and different. KAMALA HARRIS IS THE ‘FAIRLY OBVIOUS’ 2028 PRESIDENTIAL FRONTRUNNER, DEMOCRATIC INSIDERS SAY On social media, the reactions to the video widely shamed the pair for a stunt that was viewed as contrived. “why [sic] is newsom fly fishing in business casual?” an X user named Sam Alberti asked. “How lucky are we that a camera crew just happened to be standing in a Montana river while two guys who can’t cast pretended to fly fish,” said a popular X user with more than 55,000 followers. “Totally organic. Not staged at all. CNN is doing the Lord’s work trying to make Newsom look like a regular dude. Herculean task.” Free Beacon reporter Chuck Ross wrote, “The best part of this is when Newsom says ‘Zen diagram’ when he was talking about a Venn diagram.” “Jake Tapper and Gavin Newsom pretending to be regular guys fishing is absolutely hilarious,” said another user with 1.7 million followers. ‘HE’S SO THIRSTY’: NEWSOM’S ‘ENTHUSIASTIC’ PRAISE FOR TRUMP POLICY TURNS HEADS “This is the most Gavin Newsom-ish fishing video ever — the French Laundry of fishing!” said politico Kenneth Baer, referring to the upscale California restaurant where Newsom dined with a group of friends during COVID-19 lockdown despite his implementation on state-wide restrictions on social gatherings during the pandemic. “‘Let’s do this interview surrounded by an entire film and sound crew in the river. Yeah, yeah, that’ll make us seem like nature guys,’” economist Nick Messenger said sarcastically. Fox News Digital reached out to Newsom’s office but did not hear back by time of publication.
China expert warns Beijing wants Americans — not the CCP — to spread its message
Congress will examine how foreign adversaries — particularly China — seek to influence American public opinion and policymaking at a hearing in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. One of the expert witnesses told Fox News Digital ahead of the hearing that Beijing’s greater advantage lies in shaping debate inside the United States through American organizations rather than direct Chinese propaganda. Matthew Johnson, a China expert and senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation, said Beijing increasingly seeks to influence debates over national security and other strategic issues by working through American institutions and organizations, making its messages appear homegrown rather than directed by the Chinese government. HOUSE PANEL TO PROBE FOREIGN ‘TROJAN HORSES’ AS SINGHAM SCRUTINY WIDENS “The idea is that it’s not the Communist Party talking, it’s actually institutions and individuals in the United States who are talking,” Johnson told Fox News Digital. “That’s actually the best outcome because then it looks organic… it looks like it’s somehow being produced from within our society as opposed to by external actors.” Johnson said one of Beijing’s current priorities is slowing U.S. advances in artificial intelligence and data-center infrastructure—an area he said Chinese leaders view as central to strategic competition with the United States. He said China’s influence strategy combines grassroots activism with efforts to shape thinking among academics, policy experts and other influential voices. His testimony comes as Congress continues examining the funding network linked to Shanghai-based Marxist tech tycoon Neville Roy Singham, whose nonprofits have become the subject of congressional investigations and a federal criminal probe. Fox News Digital previously reported that Singham directed at least $285 million into six pro-China, pro-communist nonprofit organizations beginning in 2017, including CodePink. Singham and the organizations have denied taking direction from the Chinese government, and neither Singham nor the organizations have been charged with wrongdoing. HOUSE PANEL SUBPOENAS 3 LEFT-WING GROUPS IN PROBE OF $39M TIED TO MARXIST TYCOON NEVILLE SINGHAM Johnson is scheduled to testify Tuesday before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on South and Central Asia, which will hold a hearing titled “Trojan Horses: Covert Foreign Malign Influence Operations in America.” Lawmakers are expected to examine how foreign adversaries, including China, Cuba and Iran, may use nonprofits, activist networks and other organizations to shape U.S. public opinion and policy. “My goal is to raise the curtain to expose these operations and stop them from undermining our national security, capitalism and the American Dream,” committee Chairman Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Mich., told Fox News Digital. Johnson said the hearing focuses on what lawmakers describe as “malign foreign influence”—efforts by foreign governments to shape American public debate and policymaking by steering conversations toward their own strategic interests rather than those of the United States. “I try to break down influence in terms of looking at ways in which the framework of very sensitive strategic conversations is being steered in ways that seem to map onto China’s strategic interests, not American strategic interests,” Johnson said. He said the concept of a “Trojan horse” reflects Beijing’s preference for influencing American debate through domestic institutions and individuals rather than direct government messaging. “From an American perspective, we want to be sure that it’s Americans who are leading the debate on this issue, not Beijing,” Johnson said. CHINA’S INFLUENCE MACHINE: FEDERAL RECORDS EXPOSE BEIJING’S PUSH TO SWAY AMERICA Among the organizations that have received funding from Singham’s network is CodePink, the anti-war activist group co-founded by Medea Benjamin and Jodie Evans, Singham’s wife. CodePink has spent years organizing disruptive protests inside Congress, campaigning against U.S. policy toward China, Cuba and Israel, and promoting its “China Is Not Our Enemy” campaign, which argues the United States should pursue cooperation with Beijing rather than confrontation. House Ways and Means Committee Republicans have accused the group of promoting narratives aligned with Chinese Communist Party interests, allegations CodePink denies. Asked why campaigns such as CodePink’s “China Is Not Our Enemy” matter, Johnson said they promote an image of China that serves Beijing’s strategic interests by downplaying the broader geopolitical competition between the two countries. “The idea that we don’t want war with China, we want peace… these are all noble goals,” Johnson said. “But… its strategic function is that it masks the fact that Beijing actually does seek a world order that is more shaped by Beijing in which the United States plays a lesser role.” Johnson said China does not have to convince Americans to support the Chinese Communist Party to advance its interests. Instead, he said, Beijing benefits when public debate shifts away from viewing China as a strategic competitor. “The real issue is whether there is actually a balance and whether we have enough transparency to allow us to assess whether there’s a balance,” Johnson said. Fox News’ Asra Q. Nomani contributed to this report.
Oil squeeze tightens as Iran-backed attacks cripple Hormuz escape routes
The U.S. is choking off Iran’s oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz. But the routes meant to shield other Gulf producers from that disruption are now coming under pressure themselves. A drone attack last week badly damaged Saudi Arabia’s East-West Pipeline, a critical bypass that carries crude oil across the kingdom to the Red Sea. Repairs could leave it largely out of service for three to five weeks after it had been moving roughly 2.6 million to 4 million barrels per day in recent weeks. At the same time, Iran-backed Houthi rebels have seized additional territory and strategic islands around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait — which connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean — adding pressure to another major shipping route already battered by years of attacks. And those repeated disruptions are already reaching American consumers. NEW RISK FOR US CONSUMERS AS IRAN-BACKED ATTACKS THREATEN A SECOND MAJOR OIL CHOKEPOINT U.S. diesel prices hit a record national average of $6.23 a gallon Monday, according to AAA, while regular gasoline averaged $4.32. Brent crude climbed as high as roughly $110 a barrel during the day. Washington has sharply curtailed Iran’s oil exports and trade, but the wider conflict is still disrupting energy supplies elsewhere in the region, especially as Iran-backed Houthi rebels strengthen their stance along the coastline in Yemen. THE OVERLOOKED WAY THE IRAN WAR IS MAKING GROCERIES, AMAZON PACKAGES AND NEW HOMES MORE EXPENSIVE The question now is whether Iran is hurting enough to make the concessions Trump wants — and how much economic damage Tehran and its allies can still inflict while it holds out. The economic pressure on Tehran is mounting. Iran has gone weeks without sending meaningful new crude exports through Hormuz. Since the United States reinstated its naval blockade July 14, no Iranian crude cargoes have successfully crossed the strait to China, Tehran’s largest remaining oil customer, according to Kpler, Vortexa and TankerTrackers.com. Iranian crude and condensate loadings fell to roughly 220,000 to 255,000 barrels per day in August, down from about 740,000 in July and roughly 2 million in March. Commercial shipping through Hormuz also remains deeply disrupted. Recent readings from Kpler, which tracks real-time data on global commodity flows and maritime shipping, have repeatedly put visible commodity-vessel transits in the single digits, even as the U.S. has worked to restore some movement through the waterway. Miad Maleki, a senior fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said the pressure is increasingly reaching beyond Iran’s oil industry and into the broader economy. HORMUZ CRISIS HIDES A DEEPER OIL THREAT THAT COULD OUTLAST THE WAR “There are a series of indications” that the pressure is working, Maleki told Fox News Digital, citing the combined effect of sanctions, the naval blockade and growing diplomatic isolation. Iran depends heavily on trade through the United Arab Emirates and Turkey, Maleki said, and restrictions on those channels are making it harder to obtain foreign currency and essential imports. Gasoline could become an especially difficult pressure point. Iran remains one of the world’s major crude producers but lacks sufficient refining capacity to meet its own demand, leaving it dependent on imports that have become more difficult to secure. The regime can cushion some of the financial blow by continuing to print currency and pay salaries, Maleki said, allowing inflation to absorb part of the pressure rather than immediately cutting government payrolls. Physical shortages are harder to solve. But that does not necessarily mean Tehran has deliberately substituted the Bab el-Mandeb for Hormuz as a new source of leverage. Iran expert Arash Azizi said Tehran has already been forced to recognize that its ability to dominate the Strait of Hormuz is weaker than it once claimed. “Iran has realized that some of the leverage it has over the threat of Hormuz is gone,” Azizi told Fox News Digital. “[Iran] is not able to close it effectively and is desperately trying to find a way to better its odds,” he said. Azizi cautioned, however, against treating every Houthi move as part of a coordinated Iranian strategy to transfer pressure from the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea. “Iran has limited control, and the Houthi-Saudi conflict has a dynamics of its own,” he said. IRAN LOSES KEY ECONOMIC LIFELINE IN MIDDLE EAST THAT TRUMP’S SANCTIONS COULDN’T REACH AS DEADLOCK PERSISTS Iran encourages and materially supports the Houthis, Azizi said, but does not exercise full operational control over the group. That distinction matters as the Houthis strengthen their position around Bab el-Mandeb. Their capture of Mayun Island, the port of Mokha and, most recently, the Greater and Lesser Hanish islands has expanded their reach around one of the world’s most important shipping corridors. Yet the group has continued to allow many vessels to pass rather than attempting a total closure of the strait. Azizi described the instability there as a “double-edged sword” for Tehran. Pressure on shipping and Saudi energy infrastructure can raise costs for Iran’s adversaries and increase anxiety in global oil markets. But a broader regional conflict can also make it harder for Tehran to achieve what Azizi described as its overriding objective: ending the war, preserving the Islamic Republic and beginning reconstruction. For Tehran, he said, the immediate goal is therefore less about opening a new front than improving the terms on which it can end the current one. Iran wants “some sort of a deal that puts an end to the war,” preserves the Islamic Republic and allows it to begin postwar reconstruction, Azizi said. That shifts the central question back to Washington. The Trump administration has demonstrated that it can inflict severe economic pressure on Iran. What remains unclear is whether additional pressure produces the concessions Washington wants — and whether the costs Iran and its regional allies can still impose improve Tehran’s bargaining position or deepen its isolation. Azizi believes Tehran may already be prepared to move. “I think Iran is ready to make concessions,” he said. “The question
Klobuchar’s NFL post backfires when internet notices glaring problem with her outfit choice: ‘Fraud runs deep’
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., running for governor of Minnesota, was widely mocked as inauthentic online this week as conservatives called her out for posting the same picture wearing the same shirt in posts supporting the Minnesota Vikings several years in a row. “Game Day against the Packers,” Klobuchar posted on X on Sunday in support of her state’s NFL team’s first game of the season. “Time to get out the shirt.” Conservatives on social media quickly pointed out that Klobuchar had posted the same photo, cropped differently, multiple times over the last few years as many users mocked the gubernatorial hopeful for being out of touch. “Amy Klobuchar has now used the exact same photo to ring in the Vikings season opener four years in a row,” Townhall columnist Dustin Grage posted on X. “So authentic.” KLOBUCHAR’S FRAUD FIGHT CLAIM TAKES HIT AFTER GOP OPPONENT COMBS THROUGH RECEIPTS: ‘WHERE WERE YOU?’ “Dems trying to appeal to normal people in a nutshell lol,” conservative commentator Riley Gaines posted on X. Grage added in another post, “The funniest part is that this year’s caption was ‘time to get out the shirt.’ Yeah, that didn’t happen. It’s why she just uses the same photo from 2023.” “Amy Klobuchar has been a fraud for a lot longer than she has been reusing this photograph,” Breitbart Washington bureau chief Matthew Boyle posted on X. ‘WE HAVE NOT SLOWED DOWN’: MINNESOTA NOT OUT OF THE WOODS ON MASSIVE FRAUD SCANDAL, EXPERT WARNS “Having known and dealt with Amy Klobuchar, we can say that she is the most inauthentic, plastic politician you will ever have the misfortune of encountering,” Minnesota Staff Fraud Reporting Commentary posted on X. “Very fake is how Amy Klobuchar really is.” “lol.,” “Ruthless Podcast” co-host Josh Holmes posted on X. “The fraud runs deep in Minnesota,” National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) national press secretary Bernadette Breslin posted on X. “lol huge fan that she is, she has only ever had one Vikings t-shirt and there’s only one photo in existence of her actually wearing it,” Former Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh posted on X. Fox News Digital reached out to the Klobuchar campaign for comment. Klobuchar, running against Minnesota Republican Speaker of the House Lisa Demuth in November to replace outgoing Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, has faced strong criticism from conservatives over the massive fraud scandal in the state which unfolded over the last decade as she represented Minnesota in the Senate. Klobuchar has defended her handling of the fraud scandal by pointing to her plan to launch a “top-to-bottom audit” of state agencies on her first day as governor and “identify waste, fraud and abuse.”
Trump admin moves to gut Biden’s signature environmental rules
President Donald Trump‘s administration is moving to gut Biden-era climate regulations that it says could save the industry up to $670 billion in compliance costs. Environmental Protection Agency chief Lee Zeldin says the agency is repealing the majority of the Biden administration’s greenhouse gas requirements for U.S. power plants. The EPA projects that alone will save $310 billion in compliance costs, and Zeldin has proposed eliminating all remaining greenhouse gas emission standards, which would save a projected additional $370 billion. The move, first reported by the Washington Free Beacon, is aimed at boosting coal and natural gas power production. The EPA says coal production for use in the power sector is expected to increase tenfold under the changes. TRUMP ADMIN AXES ‘GREEN NEW SCAM’ APPLIANCE RULES AS EUROPE BAKES IN BRUTAL HEAT “For over 15 years, the Obama and Biden administrations implemented a war on coal to destroy reliable and affordable energy. The Trump Administration has come in to protect American energy and to make sure you can afford to keep the lights on,” Zeldin said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital. “Americans will see a decrease in electricity prices, but this is just the beginning. We are working to go even further so that American energy can be fully unleashed. Realizing the full potential of American energy means more jobs, lower prices, and a more prosperous America,” he added. UNEARTHED EMAILS EXPOSE HOW OBAMA-ERA EPA PLOTTED ‘MASSIVE’ ENERGY REGULATIONS FROM DAY ONE: WATCHDOG On the chopping block are former President Joe Biden’s 2024 Carbon Pollution Standards, which Zeldin argues exceeded the EPA’s authority by setting impossible standards for power plants in an effort to force them to close. “Models continue to show that GHG [Greenhouse Gas] emissions from power plants have no material impact on global climate change. In fact, if all carbon dioxides were eliminated tomorrow, there would be no meaningful climate impact,” the EPA wrote in a statement. TRUMP’S EPA CHIEF PUSHES BACK ON CLIMATE SKEPTICS BEING LABELED ‘SCIENCE DENIERS’ “Additionally, the targeted emissions are global in nature, and any potential public health harms are too uncertain, conjectural, remote, and convoluted to tie specifically to the U.S. power sector,” it continued. Energy Secretary Christ Wright endorsed the EPA’s move as well, saying coal and natural gas provide critical stability for U.S. power infrastructure, “regardless of whether the wind is blowing or the sun is shining.”
Kash Patel to tout ‘largest’ year-to-year violent crime drop in US history
EXCLUSIVE: FBI Director Kash Patel is set to tell lawmakers Tuesday that the FBI and its law enforcement partners have achieved what he calls the “most prolific run of crime reduction in United States history,” according to his prepared opening remarks for the Senate Judiciary Committee’s annual FBI oversight hearing. In his opening statement obtained by Fox News Digital, Patel will highlight the achievements before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will focus on recent changes within the FBI. The results include a major drop in murder rates, crackdowns on drug and human trafficking, successful efforts to thwart terrorist attacks and the apprehension of top fugitives. According to his prepared statement, Patel attributes the gains to the Trump administration, saying the agency could not have achieved them without the administration’s support. FBI BOSS KASH PATEL DETAILS HOW AGENCY AND PARTNERS SECURED RECORD-SHATTERING FIFA WORLD CUP “In 2025, according to the Uniform Crime Report, we delivered the LARGEST year to year reduction of violent crime in AMERICAN HISTORY,” Patel’s statement reads. “They happened with an administration that BACKS the BLUE and a new FBI that has been REBUILT to crush violent threats BEFORE they harm Americans.” According to the FBI’s figures, the national murder rate fell 20% over the previous 18 months while violent crime arrests increased 90% and violent criminal and gang member arrests rose 30%. Just this weekend, the FBI disrupted a terrorist attack near Pittsburgh, according to Patel’s prepared statement. The suspect allegedly purchased a firearm and indicated online that he intended to carry out a violent attack on behalf of ISIS. In total, about 1,039 individuals were thwarted from executing terrorist attacks, according to Patel’s statement. The individuals are among more than 4,260 arrests tied to Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs). Those efforts also included securing major national events, such as the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the Grand Prix and UFC 250 without a single major security incident. FBI CAPTURES TOP TEN MOST WANTED FUGITIVE WITH ALLEGED SINALOA CARTEL TIES, PATEL SAYS Patel is expected to announce at Tuesday’s hearing the capture of Anibal Alexander Canelon Aguirre in Venezuela, making him the 10th FBI “Ten Most Wanted” fugitive nabbed during Patel’s tenure. According to Patel’s prepared statement, the FBI has now captured 10 fugitives from its “Ten Most Wanted” list — more than 2.5 times the number apprehended during the previous four years combined. Aguirre, according to the FBI, led “a large international conspiracy to steal millions of dollars from financial institutions in support of the Tren de Aragua, through an ATM jackpotting scheme since at least 2024.” Patel will also highlight that the FBI seized more than 3,258 kilograms of fentanyl, identified about 11,000 child victims and arrested more than 5,000 child predators and human traffickers. Patel’s prepared statement credits the historic transformation in American public safety and agency accountability to aggressive law enforcement, technological modernization, including artificial intelligence and operational efficiency. “We expanded our use of artificial intelligence by 605 percent to accelerate threat detection, triage, analysis, and processing,” the statement reads. PATEL SAYS FBI HAS CUT BUREAUCRACY, MOVED 1,000 AGENTS TO FIELD OFFICES IN ‘GENERATIONAL’ OVERHAUL Patel is expected to tell lawmakers that the FBI eliminated a multi-year backlog of 1.8 million lab samples while saving more than $300 million through spending and facilities reviews. “As we recently announced, the FBI’s Lab Division had a backlog of over 1.8 million samples that had existed for years prior to my confirmation… As of last month, that backlog is now ZERO,” Patel’s statement reads. Patel will also highlight internal bureau reforms that shifted more than 1,000 agents and staff into field operations, along with the opening of a new field office in Billings, Montana, as part of the FBI’s expansion in Indian Country through Operation Steadfast Promise.
Trump’s law-and-order blitz marks one year with eye-popping haul of suspects, guns in blue city
FIRST ON FOX: The Memphis Safe Task Force has made more than 12,000 arrests and seized more than 2,100 illegal firearms in its first year, Fox News Digital learned exclusively, as the Trump administration points to the operation’s enforcement record amid a drop in crime across the city. “President Trump’s Memphis Safe Task Force has driven down violent crime in a city that was failed by extreme Democrats’ soft-on-crime policies. The Task Force has made more than 12,000 arrests, including of murderers, sex offenders, drug traffickers and other violent criminals, and has seized more than 2,100 illegal firearms. President Trump restored law and order and made Memphis safe again,” White House spokesperson Lauren Bis told Fox News Digital. The task force, launched one year ago Tuesday, brought federal, state and local law enforcement agencies together after President Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum directing the deployment of National Guard personnel to Memphis. The intervention came as Memphis, a Democratic-leaning city in solidly Republican Tennessee, confronted one of the nation’s most severe violent-crime problems, with FBI data showing the city had the highest violent-crime rate in the country in 2024. BLUE CITY’S STAGGERING 40% VIOLENT CRIME DROP A ‘BLUEPRINT FOR OTHER CITIES,’ LAW ENFORCEMENT EXPERT SAYS The operation has led to a 36% decrease in overall crime year over year, with motor vehicle thefts down 57%, robberies down 43%, aggravated assaults down 27%, murders were down 44% in the first half of 2026 and is now at 35%, Fox News Digital learned. In 2025, overall crime in Memphis was down 28% compared to 2024, data reviewed by Fox News Digital showed. Memphis resident Darian Glover was convicted in August of distributing fentanyl that caused three fatal overdoses. One victim believed he was buying cocaine, but the substance tested positive for fentanyl. TRUMP’S DC LAW-AND-ORDER BLITZ MARKS ONE YEAR WITH EYE-POPPING HAUL OF SUSPECTS Burglaries are down 27% while shoplifting is down 44%, according to crime data. In September, the DOJ also sentenced Memphis resident Courtney Trenell to 15 years in prison for serving as a getaway driver in two bank robberies and joining a conspiracy to rob six Memphis-area banks. Memphis was grappling with a severe violent-crime crisis in the years before the task force launched, with homicides surging to 397 in 2023 from 301 a year earlier, according to the Justice Department. From coast to coast, violent crime surged in 2020 and remained elevated in the years immediately afterward, as the nation grappled with coronavirus lockdowns that year and widespread protests and riots. The Memphis operation is part of a broader Trump administration effort to deploy federal law enforcement resources to cities facing high levels of violent crime. The administration has also launched a federal law-enforcement surge in Washington, D.C., where officials say the effort has produced a sharp decline in crime.
‘Trojan horses’ in America: Congress probes influence networks tied to China, Iran and Cuba
Last Tuesday, at the corner of Church Street and 16th Street NW, blocks from the White House, Christine Balling, a former advisor to U.S. Special Operations Command South, led a panel discussion on the national security threat that communist-run Cuba poses to the U.S. Suddenly, a fresh-faced former college basketball star, Olivia DiNucci, stood up to steal the stage at the Institute of World Politics, yelling as she clutched a hand-painted banner: “SANCTIONS KILL IN CUBA.” “There is global solidarity with Gaza and Cuba and ICE here,” DiNucci shouted breathlessly, as security officials grabbed her banner and pushed her out a side door as she kept yelling, “because the liberation of our people is rooted in our neighbors!” In small print, the banner had DiNucci’s organizational and ideological affiliation: “CODEPINK.” DiNucci is a D.C.-based political organizer with CodePink, a left-wing political agitation group, spending her days and evenings as a professional protester and a regular gadfly, disrupting dinners, hearings and conferences as a sidekick to CodePink co-founder Susan Medea Benjamin. Their group supports the Communist Party of Cuba and has led caravans to the island nation, as Treasury Department officials investigate whether they violated any laws barring Americans from doing business with the communist regime. For Balling and her co-panelist, Michael Gonzalez, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation and a Cuban American firmly opposed to the communist government of Cuba, DiNucci’s political theater wasn’t the benign act of an “anti-war” group, as CodePink describes itself. “CodePink – and other organizations like it – essentially act like Trojan horses. They burst in onto the scene, and they’re meant to disrupt and destroy from within,” Balling told Fox News Digital. “They’re really interested in dividing America and, in doing so, weakening it,” she continued, “and increasing the friction between Americans by convincing some Americans that the American idea, the American dream, the freedoms we enjoy, all that sort of thing, that they are lies and they’re not worth fighting for, and that our enemies are our victims.” POWER COUPLE OF CHAOS: HOW A TYCOON AND ACTIVIST BUILT A ‘REVOLUTIONARY BASE’ AT THE HOUSE OF SINGHAM The confrontation comes as House lawmakers convene a hearing on Tuesday, titled “Trojan Horses: Covert Foreign Malign Influence Operations in America,” to examine a broad question: how do American activists, nonprofit organizations, media operations and social media influencers, like Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, advance the interests of adversarial nations, including China, Iran and Cuba, inside the United States? Piker joined CodePink’s delegation to Cuba earlier this year, posing for a photo in Havana with CodePink cofounder, Jodie Evans, both of them also drawing Treasury Department scrutiny. “Adversarial nations like China, Russia, and Cuba conduct malign influence operations here in the United States by utilizing social media influencers such as Hasan Piker as proxies to promote communism and push their false propaganda,” Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Mich., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on South and Central Asia, told Fox News Digital. “My goal is to raise the curtain to expose these operations and stop them from undermining our national security, capitalism and the American Dream,” Huizenga said. HASAN PIKER CALLS HAMAS ‘FAR MORE MODERATE,’ DISMISSES TERROR GROUP’S BRUTAL RULE IN GAZA The hearing will bring together several strands of alleged foreign influence that Fox News Digital has documented over the past year through investigations into money, political organizing, overseas travel, media operations and relationships between American activists and foreign entities and interests. Most of the groups fall into the “red-green alliance” of socialist and communist groups, symbolized by the color red, working closely with Islamist groups, such as the anti-Israel organization Students for Justice in Palestine, reflected by the color green, a symbol of Islam. The largest financial network examined in Fox News Digital’s reporting centers on Neville Roy Singham, an American-born tech tycoon who lives in Shanghai, late last year standing on a stage at the Golden Tulip Hotel during a conference on the “Global South,” delivering a speech supporting the Chinese Communist Party, China’s leader, Xi Jinping and China’s “new world order.” RUBIO’S CALL TO COMBAT GLOBAL FUNDERS OF FAR-LEFT TERRORISM COULD PUT SINGHAM IN CROSSHAIRS A five-part Fox News Digital investigation published earlier this year examined 223 transactions totaling $591 million across five continents between 2017 and 2025, tracing the flow of money through multiple layers of organizations and into a transnational network estimated at approximately 2,000 organizations. In 2017, Singham married Evans, the CodePink co-founder, in a ceremony in Jamaica attended by Benjamin and other pro-communist leaders. The Fox News Digital analysis documented $278 million flowing from Singham into six core nonprofit organizations that promulgate anti-America, pro-China propaganda, beginning in 2017: BreakThrough BT Media Inc., CodePink Women for Peace, Justice and Education Fund Inc., People’s Forum Inc., People’s Support Foundation Ltd. and Tricontinental Ltd. The organizations and their executives have denied any wrongdoing and allege they are the target of anti-communist “witch hunts.” Singham hasn’t responded to repeated requests for comment. CUBA BUILT COVERT NETWORK INSIDE AMERICA THROUGH SPIES, ACTIVISTS AND UNIVERSITIES, STATE DEPT ALLEGES Huizenga and the hearing’s witnesses say Congress must examine whether adversarial governments are influencing American political discourse through domestic messengers while keeping the foreign power itself at arm’s length. Fox News Digital’s reporting followed the money to the six nonprofits: That was only the first layer. The six nonprofits that directly received Singham money subsequently distributed approximately $163 million to 52 organizations — including themselves — and five geographic regions identified in financial records. Eleven groups at another layer distributed approximately $150 million into four nonprofits and five geographic regions, including $23 million directed to Sub-Saharan Africa, according to the Fox News Digital analysis. The financial architecture has been accompanied by political organizing, media operations and ideological activity that includes the fresh example of political theater that CodePink unleashed at this week’s disruption at the Institute of World Politics’ panel on Cuba. Balling, the former advisor to U.S. Special Operations Southern Command, used the opportunity to