H2Go: How experts, industry leaders say US hydrogen is fuel for the future of agriculture, energy, security
As the Trump administration pursues an “all of the above” energy strategy, hydrogen experts welcome the new attention and are advancing efforts to make it a top, domestically-produced power source. The Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Association, one of seven “hubs” nationwide, partners with tribal, public and private concerns to build hydrogen production projects throughout their region. “Hydrogen has a lot of dexterity as a molecule, and it can be used for a host of different things,” PNWHA president Chris Green told Fox News Digital. Hydrogen can be a power source, but it more so is utilized as an energy carrier due to its periodic makeup. “It is a carrier of electrons and can store energy in that regard. But as a fuel, it’s just like any other fuel. It can be used to propel machinery, equipment and industrial processes, those kinds of things. And so it’s another sort of energy commodity product that we can make here at home domestically,” Green said. Hydrogen also has a dual role in agriculture, he said. Fertilizer – of which much has been historically imported from now-war-torn Russia and Ukraine – is hydrogenic in makeup. Ammonium nitrate – a key ingredient – is hydrogen sourced. If the U.S. can bolster its hydrogen production, it can rely less on unreliable or adversarial economies, especially amid new tariffs. And its power-sourcing and energy-carrying nature can power equipment, mills and more. NIKOLA CEO: WE’RE THE ONLY ONES SELLING HYDROGEN TRUCKS IN THE COUNTRY With all of these important uses, Green said the U.S. has a chance to “leap ahead of everybody else if we can build out all this infrastructure.” Beginning in the aughts, there had been talk of hydrogen-powered vehicles. But the extremely flammable nature of hydrogen has kept it from being a ubiquitous fuel source like petrol. One company investing big in hydrogen, particularly in the West, is Chevron. The company said hydrogen may appeal to those worried about the energy sector’s environmental footprint. The Texas-based energy giant is “leveraging [its] strengths to safely deliver lower carbon energy in a growing world,” according to a statement. “Hydrogen can play a key role in delivering large-scale lower-carbon solutions especially where electrification of demand is not feasible,” the statement said, adding it is confident hydrogen’s prominence will grow in the near-term. Hydrogen is also used in processed foods, metallurgy and other areas. In Utah, Chevron entered into a venture with Mitsubishi called ACES Delta or “Advanced Clean Energy Storage [of] Delta [UT].” By harnessing the naturally protective state of an enormous subterranean salt cavern, the ACES Delta project currently under construction aims to produce up to 110 tons of hydrogen daily and store it at “utility scale” in the environmentally safe confines of the cavern. AMAZON SIGNS HYDROGEN SUPPLY DEAL Chevron expects the ACES Delta project to provide “delivery-scale” amounts to the Intermountain Power Agency – also based in the Beehive State – in the near term. The company also boasted of the accessibility of the hub – which is located along U.S. 50, a highway that cuts a 3,000-mile swath through the center of the country from Sacramento, California, to Washington, D.C., and on to Ocean City, Maryland. That hub also has the regional potential to power the world’s fifth-largest economy: California, which has otherwise driven out most fossil fuel refiners and producers. In his interview, Green also noted the demand for cleaner-burning jet-fuel alternatives and suggested that rather than replacing oil, it is a greener complement to sweet crude. “Sometimes, don’t think about hydrogen as replacing a bunch of other things as much as we think about it complementing and then nurturing or supporting or boosting some of these existing supply chains,” he said. “[I]f you produce a lot of it, then you’ve got optionality to support a host of different industry verticals that could benefit from it.” Hydrogen has earned rare bipartisan support, bridging a divide where the right typically resists renewables like wind and solar, and the left often opposes “Big Oil.” “Central Washington is leading the way in the all-of-the-above approach needed to achieve American energy dominance,” said Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash. “I am working with the Trump administration to ensure we protect the domestic resources we are building here at home.” Newhouse told Fox News Digital that PNWH2 has made “huge strides” in advancing technology toward safe and clean energy that decreases foreign reliance. “Supporting the hub means new jobs, new investments, and stronger domestic supply chains that fall in line with the administration’s bold energy agenda,” Newhouse said. On the left, Sen. Patty Murray of Washington said in June that PNWH2 “is poised to play a leading role in growing America’s green hydrogen economy.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “Investments in hydrogen have the potential to reduce emissions from the most difficult to decarbonize sectors,” added Sen. Jeffrey Merkley, D-Ore. “[W]hen done right, hydrogen can help us solve hard problems and decarbonize sectors of the economy.” In terms of agriculture’s interest in a hydrogen future, the Washington State Potato Commission told Fox News Digital that as a cornerstone of the Evergreen State and others’ economies, agriculture drives innovation and growth. “The Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Hub will play a crucial role in securing a local hydrogen supply for fertilizer production, helping to mitigate supply chain disruptions and rising costs that challenge the industry,” an official said. “Beyond fertilizer, hydrogen presents an opportunity to potentially fuel agricultural machinery, such as tractors and trucks. Washington’s potato farmers are committed to supporting hydrogen production in the Pacific Northwest, strengthening the future of agriculture in our region.” Fox News Digital reached out to the Energy Department for comment.
New York proposal would ban police from making traffic stops for minor violations to pursue ‘racial equity’
A bill making its way through the New York state legislature would prohibit police from conducting traffic stops for minor violations in an effort to limit unnecessary stops and further “racial equity and public safety.” The proposal would bar officers from pulling people over or searching them for various traffic violations, including having a taillight out, expired vehicle registration tags, too much window tint or if the smell of marijuana is detected. In certain cases, evidence collected in violation of the bill may be excluded in court. The measure aims to limit “the frequency of traffic stops for minor violations in furtherance of racial equity and public safety,” according to the bill, as racial minorities in the state make up the majority of arrests and traffic stops. NY LAWMAKERS CALL FOR TRANSIT CHIEF’S OUSTER, FLOAT REFORMS AFTER DUFFY DECRIES SUBWAY ‘S—HOLE’ In Nassau County alone, black and Latino residents account for 61% of arrests, 50% of traffic stops, 60% of field interviews and 69% of pat-downs, despite making up under 30% of the county’s population combined, police data shows. White drivers are issued an average of 1.3 tickets per stop compared to two tickets for black drivers and 2.1 for Latino drivers, the data shows. A lawsuit against Nassau argues that police in the county have acted with racial bias when conducting traffic stops. Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman told reporters on Friday it is “ridiculous” to argue that there is racial bias in policing during traffic stops, saying that officers are usually unaware of the driver’s race before making a stop. MEAT CLEAVER-WIELDING MAN STABS YOUNG GIRLS IN BLOODY NYC ATTACK AS 110YEAR-OLD CALLS 911: POLICE “It’s just a bizarre argument, it’s pro-criminal,” Blakeman said, according to the New York Post. “It doesn’t matter what race you are. If you’re breaking the law, then you’re breaking the law.” Nassau Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said minor infractions such as broken lights or expired registrations typically lead to warnings but that restricting the ability to enforce the law makes the roads less safe. “They say the roads are so bad in Nassau County. Well, you would just be taking another tool away from us that’s going to get these bad drivers off the road,” he told reporters. “Stop taking the handcuffs off of the criminals and putting them onto our men and women in law enforcement.” The county’s district attorney, Anne Donnelly, said the proposal “is the most ridiculous thing I have seen in my 36 years in law enforcement.” Donnelly also said she believes the bill would disproportionately impact Nassau because of the region’s high number of drivers and car accidents, as she claims it would allow people to essentially get away with breaking the law, according to the NYP. She referenced a traffic stop that resulted in the 1993 capture of serial killer Joel Rifkin, who murdered at least 17 people in the area before he was stopped over the missing license plate on the rear of his pick-up truck that had a body in its trunk, the outlet reported. “When an officer walks up to a driver and asks them for their license and registration — they never know what is going to happen next,” Donnelly said. “It’s important to be able to make these legitimate stops. There is no such thing as a routine traffic stop.”
Trump says US not willing to make deal with China unless trade deficit is solved
President Donald Trump said Sunday that he is not willing to make a deal with China unless the trade deficit of over $1 trillion is resolved first. While speaking to reporters on Air Force One, Trump said with some countries there is a trade deficit of over a billion dollars, but with China, it is over $1 trillion. “We have a $1 trillion trade deficit with China. Hundreds of billions of dollars a year we lose to China, and unless we solve that problem, I’m not going to make a deal,” he said. “I’m willing to make a deal with China, but they have to solve this surplus. We have a tremendous deficit problem with China… I want that solved.” SOME COUNTRIES TARGETED BY TRUMP TARIFFS SEEK NEGOTIATIONS, CHINA SAYS ‘NO WINNERS IN TRADE WARS’ Trump also said because of the tariffs, the U.S. has $7 trillion of committed investments when it comes to building automotive manufacturing plants, chip companies and other types of businesses, “at levels that we’ve never seen before.” But in terms of trade deficits, Trump said he has spoken with a lot of leaders in Europe and Asia, who are “dying” to make a deal, but as long as there are deficits, he is not going to do that. “A deficit is a loss,” he said. “We’re going to have surpluses, or we’re, at worst, going to be breaking even. But China would be the worst in the group because the deficit is so big, and it’s not sustainable. “I was elected on this,” Trump added.
RFK Jr makes Texas stop to visit family of 6-year-old measles victim, push MMR vaccine
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made a stop in Texas on Sunday and visited the family of a 6-year-old girl who died of the measles virus in February. Kennedy confirmed the visit to Texas in a post on X in which he encouraged people to get the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine amid rising measles cases. “I came to Gaines County, Texas, today to comfort the Hildebrand family after the loss of their 8-year-old daughter Daisy,” Kennedy wrote in the post. “I got to know the family of 6-year-old Kayley Fehr after she passed away in February. I also developed bonds with and deep affection for other members of this community during that difficult time.” Kennedy said his intention was to visit Gaines County quietly, console the families and be with the community while they grieve. SECOND CHILD WITH MEASLES HAS DIED IN TEXAS, OFFICIALS SAY But he also said he was there to support Texas health officials and to learn how HHS agencies can be better partners to control the measles outbreak. As of Sunday, there were 642 confirmed cases of measles across 22 states, and 499 of those are in Texas. Kennedy deployed a team from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in March to help bolster the local and state response to the outbreak while also supplying pharmacies and state-run clinics with MMR vaccines and other supplies. MEASLES OUTBREAK CONTINUES: SEE WHICH STATES HAVE REPORTED CASES Kennedy also had the team work with local schools and healthcare facilities to support contact investigations and reach out to communities to answer questions regarding healthcare. “The most effective way to prevent the spread of measles is the MMR vaccine,” Kennedy wrote in the social media post. “I’ve spoken to Governor Abbott, and I’ve offered HHS’ continued support. At his request, we have redeployed CDC teams to Texas. We will continue to follow Texas’ lead and to offer similar resources to other affected jurisdictions.” PARENTS OF GIRL WHO DIED AFTER MEASLES INFECTION SAID THEY WOULDN’T GET MMR VACCINE The grim Texas measles tally includes six infants and toddlers at a daycare center in Lubbock who tested positive within the past two weeks, according to NBC News. Two of those children are among 56 people who have been hospitalized with measles in the area since the disease began spreading in January. About one to three out of every 1,000 children infected with measles die from respiratory and neurological complications, according to data from the CDC. Nearly one out of every 20 children with measles suffers from pneumonia, which is the most common cause of death from measles in young children. The measles outbreak began in Texas in late January but has since spread to a few other states. Fox News Digital’s Landon Mion contributed to this report.
Anti-Trump activist boasts of being ‘undocumented, unafraid, queer’ at rally
An undocumented immigrant attending an anti-Trump “Hands Off!” rally on Saturday said she was “unafraid” to flash her immigration status and sexual orientation publicly. “I am an immigrant, I am undocumented, unafraid, queer and unashamed,” Greisa Martinez Rosas, a longtime left-wing immigration activist, told those in attendance at the Washington, D.C., demonstrations over the weekend, according to a report in the New York Post. The comments come as protests against the Trump administration’s immigration and cost-cutting policies have spread across the country in recent days, with critics slamming the president for his push to hasten deportations and gut federal agencies through the Department of Government Efficiency. US IMMIGRATION WILL ONLY RECOGNIZE 2 GENDERS GOING FORWARD, ENDS BIDEN-ERA PRACTICE Rosas is originally from Hidalgo, Mexico, but came to the U.S. as a child, the report notes, where she eventually grew up in the Dallas area. She has since gone on to serve as the executive director of United We Dream, a network of more than 400,000 young immigrants. Her comments were made in front of tens of thousands of protesters who attended the rally in the nation’s capital, one of more than 1,000 protests held around the country on Saturday. The report notes that Rosas’ comments quickly went viral on social media, where not all users were enthusiastic about her message. SOUTH CAROLINA AG TAKES ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT HIT-AND-RUN, PROMISES CRIMINALS ‘WE’RE COMING FOR YOU’ “Deport her. Now,” one user on X said, according to the Post. “Lock her up,” another said. Others quipped that her public declaration was likely to land her on the radar of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE). CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “The only thing she didn’t tell ICE is her home address,” one X user said. “I’m confident they can look that up.” “I guess we will see her arrested later this week, thanks for coming forward to let ICE know where you are,” added another.
Musk slams ‘puppetmasters’ after protesters struggle to explain why they call Trump a ‘fascist’ in viral video
Elon Musk slammed the alleged “puppetmasters” behind anti-Trump demonstrations this weekend after viral video showed protesters struggling to explain why they believe President Donald Trump is a “fascist.” “The problem is the puppetmasters, not the puppets, as the latter have no idea why they are even there,” Musk posted to X on Sunday accompanied by video footage of protesters stumbling over what issues they have with Trump. “He just does everything he wants… He’s a convicted felon, you know, that’s all I know,” one protester in the video said after tripping over why he believes Trump is a “fascist,” while holding a sign reading, “The Fascist Trump Regime Must Go.” The footage was recorded by Ted Goodman, a political strategist who launched a livestream program with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, on Saturday in Washington, D.C. “One of the things is he’s trying to control the media,” another protester in the video responded when asked for evidence Trump is allegedly a “fascist.” WATCH: ANTI-TRUMP PROTESTERS SLAM BUDGET REFORMS, LABEL ADMINISTRATION ‘ROBBER BARONS’ “Doesn’t every president try to control the narrative?” Goodman pressed. “They try to control their own narrative. But one of the things that Trump has done, for example, is the renaming the Gulf of Mexico and then not allowing the Associated Press to come into the White House,” the protester continued. The first protester explained in the video that he was there after he “saw people were hanging out,” while the second protester explained he was there due to “executive overreach.” ‘ASTROTURF’: CRITICS SPECULATE TESLA PROTESTS ARE NOT A GRASSROOTS MOVEMENT, BUT CAREFULLY ORGANIZED CAMPAIGN The first protester added that he had been given a sign describing Trump as a “fascist,” as well as a printed one-sheeter that declared, “We are facing fascism… The time to act is now!” alongside a photoshopped image of Trump with a Hitler-styled mustache. Video of the protesters racked up more than 12 million views on X by Sunday afternoon. More than 1,200 protests were held across the nation on Saturday as critics gathered to protest the administration, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), reciprocal tariffs, federal layoffs and immigration reform. FEDS ON ALERT FOR TESLA ‘GLOBAL DAY OF ACTION’ AFTER NATIONWIDE VIOLENCE LEADS TO ARRESTS “[I’m] protesting how horrible things have become in our country,” one protester told Fox News Digital from a demonstration in New York on Saturday. “I mean, we’ve been taken over by a bunch of robber barons who are trying to take away all of our rights, benefits and liberty.” “I am protesting what is happening with this blessed country, the democracy that was advanced democracy now in transition to a dictatorship, and we are almost in a fascist state right now – only because the rule of law is bending right now, and it may break,” another protester told Fox Digital. The protests this weekend follow mass protests targeting Tesla last weekend. Elon Musk, who is helping lead DOGE and is a staunch Trump ally, is the CEO of Tesla and has seen anti-Trump critics physically attack, monetarily boycott, and protest the car company over his politics. VANDAL STRIKES CYBERTRUCK, TESLA OWNER HITS BACK “Who is funding and organizing all these paid protests?” Musk posted to X last weekend of the recent anti-Tesla protests. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Amid the protests, a local news outlet, media personalities and conservative critics speculated that the anti-Tesla protests were embroiled in “astroturfing,” which is defined by Merriam-Webster as a campaign “falsely made to appear grassroots.” Fox News Digitals’ Kaylee Holland and Madeline Coggins contributed to this report.
Legacy media, DC journos come around to investigating Dem scandals years after conservatives sounded alarm
Legacy media and longtime politics reporters are increasingly reporting on scandals that rocked the Democratic Party ahead of the November election, shining additional light on political issues that Republicans had long spotlighted and railed against. “A full 4½ years after The Post’s bombshell series on Hunter Biden’s influence-peddling schemes, The New York Times has deigned to take an interest in the former First Son’s corruption,” the New York Post’s editorial board wrote in a piece last week slamming the New York Times for reporting on Biden corruption allegations years after other outlets had already uncovered reported details. “We’d say the Times’ willingness to at long last cover this comes better late than never, but it only published the story now that it doesn’t remotely matter anymore,” the editorial board continued. The New York Times declared in an article published on Friday that former first son Hunter Biden “sought support from the State Department” to aid his former employer, Ukrainian energy company Burisma, while his father served as vice president. Hunter Biden allegedly leveraging his last name and father’s political status in the U.S. has long been criticized by conservatives, who have alleged that Hunter and his father engaged in influence-peddling through Burisma. BIDEN’S CLAIM TO HAVE NO KNOWLEDGE OF HUNTER’S BUSINESS DEALINGS IS BECOMING HARDER TO MAINTAIN Hunter Biden was paid millions of dollars while serving on the board of Burisma after joining the company as legal counsel in the spring of 2014 before being elevated to the Board of Directors later that year. The Bidens were accused by Republicans of having “coerced” the Burisma CEO into paying them millions of dollars in exchange for their help in getting the Ukrainian prosecutor investigating the company fired during the Obama administration. The 46th president denied any involvement in his son’s business dealings. Biden issued his son a sweeping 10-year pardon before exiting the Oval Office in January that protects Hunter Biden from offenses he “has committed or may have committed” from Jan. 1, 2014, to Dec. 1, 2024. Alleged Biden family influence-peddling has echoed from the halls of Congress to social media channels on X, but legacy outlets and left-wing media outlets often didn’t give a platform to the allegations. CNN’S JAKE TAPPER GETS RIPPED ON SOCIAL MEDIA FOR ‘TRYING TO REWRITE HISTORY’ WITH NEW BOOK ON BIDEN’S DECLINE Jonathan Turley, Fox News’ contributor and Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University, published an op-ed for Fox News Digital on Sunday remarking on the NYT’s piece that was published years after other outlets and experts investigated alleged Biden family influence-peddling. “For years, some of us have written about the Biden family’s multimillion-dollar influence-peddling operation and the Justice Department’s refusal to charge Hunter Biden with being an unregistered foreign agent. Now, years later, The New York Times has found evidence suggesting that the former president’s son was acting as a foreign agent as early as the Obama administration, when his father was vice president,” Turley wrote. Media veterans and legacy outlets have leaned into reporting on and investigating a handful of other scandals and political news that conservatives had long sounded the alarm on, including that the coronavirus likely originated out of a lab in China, as well as on President Biden’s mental decline in the lead-up to the election last year. PUBLIC WAS MISLED BY THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY ABOUT COVID ORIGINS, NY TIMES COLUMNIST ARGUES The New York Times ran a column last month claiming the scientific community “badly misled” the public in an effort to suppress the theory that COVID-19 originated in a lab in Wuhan, China, even after the paper’s own science writer called the theory “racist.” “We Were Badly Misled About the Event That Changed Our Lives,” the March 16 piece published by NYT columnist and Princeton sociology professor Zeynep Tufekci, argued that the scientific community long suspected COVID-19 originated in a Wuhan lab, but purposefully “hid or understated crucial facts,” to mislead the public about the lab’s “terrifyingly lax” safety precautions. ‘MOST DAMNING EVIDENCE’: HUNTER BIDEN’S FULL PARDON RESURFACES DECADE OF CONTROVERSIES, ‘INFLUENCE-PEDDLING’ “We have since learned, however, that to promote the appearance of consensus, some officials and scientists hid or understated crucial facts, misled at least one reporter, orchestrated campaigns of supposedly independent voices and even compared notes about how to hide their communications in order to keep the public from hearing the whole story,” Tufekci wrote. The Trump administration’s CIA reported earlier this year that the lab leak was the likely origin of the COVID-19 virus, which had previously been passed off by media outlets and scientists as a likely conspiracy theory. The New York Times defended that it had reported on the lab leak theory multiple times across the years, including in 2021, when approached for comment by Fox News Digital on the recent articles on both Hunter Biden and the lab leak theory. “The New York Times has intensely pursued every theory and lead on the origins of Covid-19, documented the political debate, funding, influence, and shifts in thinking among the scientific community, and reported on China’s censorship campaign that has stifled the search for truth. The Times has helped readers navigate the coronavirus pandemic through independent, verified reporting, and any insinuation that we have not thoroughly pursued leads is false,” a NYT spokesperson said. And a newly released book by longtime D.C. reporters Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes, “Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House,” investigates Biden’s mental decline in the lead-up to the general election, calling him a “shell of himself.” “All of them,” Parnes told Vanity Fair of who in Biden’s inner circle is most to blame for covering up his mental decline when he was in office. “It’s pretty remarkable how they kept him very closed off. He was a shell of himself. When he entered the White House, he was so, so different from the man who I covered as vice president, a guy who would hold court in the Naval Observatory with reporters until the wee
Kevin Hassett doubles down on Trump tariffs, says dozens of countries are asking to negotiate
White House Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett doubled down on the effectiveness of President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Sunday, saying dozens of countries are now seeking to open negotiations and U.S. manufacturing is booming. Hassett made the claim during an appearance on ABC News’ “This Week” with host George Stephanopoulos. He said that over 50 countries have already said they want to negotiate new trade agreements with Trump’s administration since the tariffs hit last week, though he acknowledged there may be short-term pain for consumers. He pointed to the decrease in prices that has existed since China entered the World Trade Organization in 2000, arguing that the loss of jobs outweighs the low prices. “If cheap goods were the answer, if cheap goods were going to make Americans’ real wages better off, then real incomes would have gone up over that time. Instead, they went down because wages went down more than prices went down. So we got the cheap goods at the grocery store, but then we had fewer jobs,” he said. JUDGE ORDERS TRUMP ADMINISTRATION TO RETURN MAN MARYLAND MISTAKENLY DEPORTED TO EL SALVADOR PRISON Hassett added that he has received “anecdotal word” that some U.S. auto plants are adding second shifts to their work schedules in response to the tariffs. JD VANCE TORCHES MEDIA, DEMS’ ‘DISGRACEFUL SET OF PRIORITIES’ ON DEPORTATION OF ACCUSED MS-13 GANG MEMBER Stephanopoulos then pressed Hassett to explain why Russia wasn’t targeted with any additional tariffs. “There’s obviously an ongoing negotiation with Russia and Ukraine, and I think the president made the decision not to conflate the two issues. It doesn’t mean that Russia in the fullness of time, is going to be treated wildly different than every other country,” Hassett responded. “But Russia’s one of the only countries, one of few countries that is not subject to these new tariffs, aren’t they?” Stephanopoulos pressed. “They’re in the middle of a negotiation, George, aren’t they?” Hassett countered. “Would you literally advise that you go in and put a whole bunch of new things on the table in the middle of a negotiation that affects so many American and Ukrainian and Russian lives?” “Negotiators do that all the time,” Stephanopoulos argued. “Russia is in the midst of negotiations over peace that affects really thousands and thousands of lives of people and that’s what President Trump’s focused on right now,” Hassett said.
Palestinian protester Mahmoud Khalil excoriates Columbia in op-ed
Anti-Israel organizer Mahmoud Khalil ripped the administration of Columbia University in an op-ed published in the school’s newspaper on Friday. The op-ed, titled simply “A letter to Columbia,” accuses the institution of “laying the groundwork for my abduction.” He goes on to compare President Donald Trump’s crackdown on anti-Israel protesters to Columbia’s own apathy toward Palestinians, listing other students who have been “snatched by the state.” “The situation is oddly reminiscent of when I fled the brutality of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria and sought refuge in Lebanon,” Khalil wrote. “The logic used by the federal government to target myself and my peers is a direct extension of Columbia’s repression playbook concerning Palestine.” He went on to accuse Columbia administrators of manufacturing “public hysteria about antisemitism without once mentioning the tens of thousands of Palestinians murdered under bombs made of your dollars.” COLLEGES IN ICE’S DEPORTATION CROSSHAIRS SHELLED OUT DISCOUNTS, FINANCIAL AID TO ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS: GOP REP He also targeted some fellow students at Columbia who he says helped to create a false sense that antisemitism was spreading across the campus. He also pointed to efforts by certain students to unmask anti-Israel protesters, though he did not name any individuals. JUDGE ORDERS TRUMP ADMINISTRATION TO RETURN MAN MARYLAND MISTAKENLY DEPORTED TO EL SALVADOR PRISON “Especially in light of the dual degree program with Tel Aviv University, I can’t help but think that if I were in Palestine, some of these students would be the ones stopping me at checkpoints, raiding my university, piloting the drones surveilling my community, or killing my neighbors in their homes. While students were building solidarity at Columbia, some pro-Israel students were participating in the genocide as military personnel during their school breaks, only to return to campus and claim victimhood in the classroom,” he argued. “To members of Columbia’s faculty who pat themselves on the back for their progressive leanings but are content to limit their participation to performative statements: What will it take for you to resist the destruction of your University? Are your positions worth more than the lives of your students and the integrity of your work?” he added. The message comes weeks after ICE agents detained Khalil in New York City in early March. The Department of Homeland Security alleged that he “led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.” Last week, several Columbia University students chained themselves to a gate outside the school’s St. Paul’s Chapel in protest against Khalil’s arrest. The students demanded that the institution release the names of the trustees “who gave Mahmoud Khalil’s name to ICE.” The Columbia Palestine Solidarity Committee wrote on X that “We will not leave until our demand is met.” The school denies that any of its administrators requested ICE’s presence on campus.
Trump, Musk, face blame for setbacks, but are Wisconsin, Florida elections crystal ball for 2026 midterms?
Democrats are celebrating a larger-than-expected victory in a high-profile and historically expensive election in battleground Wisconsin, in the first statewide ballot box contest since President Donald Trump’s return to power in January. And while the GOP came out on top in Tuesday’s other marquee contests, comfortably holding control of two vacant congressional seats in twin special elections in red state Florida, Democrats are spotlighting that their candidates overperformed in overwhelmingly Republican districts. Democrats are portraying last week’s contests as early referendums on Trump’s sweeping and controversial moves during the opening months of his second tour of duty in the White House, including the massive federal government downsizing being steered by billionaire White House special adviser Elon Musk. And Democrats argue that the results in Wisconsin and Florida are a sign of things to come in next year’s midterm elections. POLITICAL BAGGAGE? – POLLS INDICATE AMERICANS SOURING ON MUSK “These races proved what we’ve seen over and over again this year: people are already fed up with Trump’s chaos agenda and they’re voting for a change,” Democratic National Committee chair Ken Martin emphasized in an email to supporters. But Republican National Committee chair Mike Whatley, pointing to the Florida victories, countered that “the American people sent a clear message…they want elected officials who will advance President Trump’s America First agenda, and their votes can’t be bought by national Democrats.” LIBERAL-LEANING CANDIDATE WINS FIRST MAJOR STATEWIDE ELECTION OF THE YEAR In Wisconsin, liberal-leaning Judge Susan Crawford topped conservative-leaning Judge Brad Schimel by roughly 10 percentage points, to preserve the liberal majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which is likely to rule going forward on crucial issues like congressional redistricting, voting rights, labor rights and abortion. With a massive infusion of money from Democratic-aligned and Republican-aligned groups from outside Wisconsin, which turned the technically nonpartisan race into the most expensive judicial election in the nation’s history, the contest partially transformed into a proxy battle over Trump as well as Musk, who personally inserted himself into the election. Musk, the chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX, who has taken a buzz saw to the federal government workforce as he steers Trump’s recently created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), dished out roughly $20 million in the Wisconsin race through aligned groups in support of Schimel. And Musk, in a controversial move, handed out $1 million checks at a rally in Green Bay last Sunday to two Wisconsin voters who had already cast ballots in the contest and had signed a petition to stop “activist judges.” DEMOCRAT CONGRESSMAN LASHES MUSK IN OPENING SALVO OF SENATE BID “I never could have imagined that I’d be taking on the richest man in the world, for justice in Wisconsin. And we won,” Crawford said in her election night victory speech. The results in Wisconsin will likely give the Democrats a jolt, and validate their efforts to target Musk. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the top Democrat in the chamber, argued that Wisconsin voters “sent a decisive message to Elon Musk, Donald Trump, and DOGE by rejecting an extreme Republican for their Supreme Court: our democracy is not for sale.” And the DNC, looking ahead to next year’s bigger contests in the 2026 midterm elections, called the showdown in Wisconsin a “bellwether race.” WHERE TRUMP STANDS WITH AMERICANS 10 WEEKS INTO HIS SECOND TOUR OF DUTY IN THE WHITE HOUSE But veteran Republican strategist Matt Gorman noted that two years ago, when the conservatives lost their majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, the liberal-leaning candidate won by 11 points. Pointing to this week’s 10-point margin, with Trump in the White House, Gorman asked”this is what Democrats are jumping up and down over?” In Florida, the double-digit victories by the Republican candidates will give the GOP a little bit of breathing room in the House of Representatives, where the party is holding onto a very fragile majority as it aims to pass Trump’s agenda. But the Democratic candidates in the two special congressional elections vastly outraised their Republican counterparts – a sign that the party’s base is angry and energized – which forced GOP-aligned outside groups to pour money and resources into the races during the final stretch. And the Democratic candidates ended up losing by 15 and 14 points in districts that Trump carried by 37 and 30 points in last November’s presidential election. REPUBLICANS HOLD CONTROL OF TWO VACANT CONGRESSIONAL SEATS IN THIS RED STATE Democrats quickly spotlighted how the party “overperformed” in Florida. And the House Majority PAC, the top super PAC supporting House Democrats, touted that the results showed “that the political headwinds are firmly at our backs heading into 2026.” But Mike Marinella, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, argued that “Democrats just lit over $20,000,000 on fire in a doomed-to-fail effort to make two deep-red Florida districts competitive – and got blown out of the water in the most embarrassing way.” WHERE TRUMP STANDS WITH AMERICANS 10 WEEKS INTO HIS SECOND TOUR OF DUTY IN THE WHITE HOUSE The elections in Wisconsin and Florida were held on the eve of Trump’s blockbuster tariff announcement, sparking a trade war with the nation’s top trading partners and triggering a massive sell-off in the financial markets. The latest move by the president could also set the stage for an even bigger ballot box backlash next year. But Democrats have a serious brand issue right now. The party’s favorable rating sank to all-time lows in separate national polls conducted last month by CNN and NBC News. Those numbers followed a record low for Democrats in a Quinnipiac University survey in the field in February. Additionally, the latest Fox News National poll indicated that congressional Democrats’ approval rating is at 30%, near an all-time low. And Democratic activists are irate over their party’s inability to blunt Trump’s agenda. And when it comes to normally low-turnout off-year elections and special elections, the party in power – which in the nation’s capital is clearly the Republicans – often faces political