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President Donald Trump teased he might run for a third term, explaining to NBC News that he enjoys working and is ‘not joking’ about making another run for the Oval Office. 

‘A lot of people want me to do it,’ Trump told NBC News in a phone interview on Sunday. ‘But, I mean, I basically tell them we have a long way to go, you know, it’s very early in the administration.’

For now, he’s ‘focused on the current’ term, but told the outlet he was ‘not joking’ about making a run for a third term. 

‘It is far too early to think about it,’ he added. 

The 22nd Amendment of the Constitution, which was ratified in 1951, prevents individuals from serving more than two terms as president. The amendment was ratified after President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected as president for four terms. 

Roosevelt died during his fourth term and Vice President Harry Truman assumed the presidency. FDR is the only president in the nation’s history who has been elected and served more than two terms, which was largely due to the political and economic climate at home and abroad, with his presidency unfolding amid the Great Depression and the beginning of World War II. 

‘There are methods which you could do it,’ Trump said when asked about how he could go about running for a third term. The outlet floated a possible method where Vice President JD Vance could run for the presidency, win and pass the torch to Trump. The president said such a scenario is one of the methods he could use to serve a third term. 

‘But there are others too,’ Trump added, without elaborating. 

‘I like working,’ he told the outlet when asked if he wants to serve another term. 

Trump has previously teased running for a third term, asking Republican lawmakers in January during a retreat, ‘Am I allowed to run again?’

While Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., a top Trump congressional ally, introduced a resolution just days after Trump’s inauguration in January to allow a president three terms in office, but no more than two consecutive four-year stints.

The amendment would read, ‘No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than three times, nor be elected to any additional term after being elected to two consecutive terms, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.’

Ogles told Fox Digital in January that Trump ‘has proven himself to be the only figure in modern history capable of reversing our nation’s decay and restoring America to greatness, and he must be given the time necessary to accomplish that goal.’

‘To that end, I am proposing an amendment to the Constitution to revise the limitations imposed by the 22nd Amendment on presidential terms,’ Ogles said. ‘This amendment would allow President Trump to serve three terms, ensuring that we can sustain the bold leadership our nation so desperately needs.’

Fox Digital reached out to the White House for additional comment on Sunday afternoon, but did not immediately receive a reply. 

Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report. 

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The Trump administration’s Signal chat leak represents the ‘profound’ risk of ‘uncontrolled communication,’ which could have implications on future operations, a former national intelligence official said Sunday.

Sue Gordon, the former principal deputy national intelligence director during President Donald Trump’s first term, reacted to the leak during an appearance on CBS’ ‘Face the Nation.’

‘I’m glad the operation was successful,’ Gordon said, referring to the U.S. military strikes on Houthi terrorist targets. ‘Now we need to deal with the fact that this should not have happened, there is consequence when it does and you can’t be sure that there’s no persistent risk that follows it.’

Gordon said that while there have been errors in the past concerning the protection of a partner’s information, this leak is different due to the Trump administration’s reaction of ‘there was nothing to see here.’

‘I don’t think we should rest on the fact that nothing bad happened this time,’ Gordon said. ‘We don’t know whether that communications path has been penetrated, so we don’t know whether state actors that have lots of resources are just sitting and lurking now knowing we do important things on [Signal].’

Signal, an encrypted messaging app, is now under the spotlight after it was revealed that top national security leaders had been in a group chat discussing plans to strike terrorists in Yemen, which also included The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg. The chat was made public by a first-hand account of the group chat published by Goldberg in an article Monday. 

The Trump administration has maintained that no classified information was shared in the chat, doubling down on Wednesday that The Atlantic’s story was a ‘hoax’ after Goldberg published specific texts from the chat. 

Trump officials deny sharing classified information in leaked Signal chat

The messages included Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth outlining that combat aircraft were set to take off and strike drones were ready for the operation, which were accompanied by timestamps. 

Ret. Gen. Frank McKenzie, former CENTCOM commander, also appeared on the program Sunday, saying that while he was ‘surprised’ at the communications leak, he believed the ‘larger story’ was how the U.S. had ‘finally begun to strike the Houthis hard,’ at a speed ‘that, frankly, eluded the previous administration.’

Democrats grill intel chiefs on leaked Houthi attack plans

McKenzie said he ‘wouldn’t take anything off the table’ about how the U.S. would confront the Iranian-backed terror group.

‘I think we have the capability — actually, right now, in Iran’s weakened state — to threaten them very strongly,’ the retired general said.

Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton contributed to this report.

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JERUSALEM—President Donald Trump’s overtures via a letter to the Islamic Republic of Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, to jump-start talks on dismantling Tehran’s illicit nuclear weapons program, were met with rejection by the theocratic state on Sunday, following Trump’s latest threat to the regime.

Trump told NBC on Saturday that ‘If they don’t make a deal, there will be bombing,’ he said. ‘But there’s a chance that if they don’t make a deal, that I will do secondary tariffs on them like I did four years ago.’

Trump added the U.S. and officials from the Islamic Republic are ‘talking.’

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Sunday ‘We don’t avoid talks; it’s the breach of promises that has caused issues for us so far,’ according to the Associated Press. He added, ‘They must prove that they can build trust.’ The White House did not immediately respond to Iran’s rejection of the talks, the AP reported. 

Pezeshkian still noted that in Iran’s response to the letter that indirect negotiations with the Trump administration were still possible.

The apparent return of Iran’s regime to its standard playbook of opaque indirect talks between the U.S. and Tehran’s rulers raises questions about whether Trump would greenlight military strikes to eradicate Iran’s vast nuclear weapons program. 

After Iran launched two massive missile and drone attacks on Israel last year, Trump could also aid the Jewish state in knocking out Iran’s nuclear weapons apparatus. 

Indirect talks between the U.S. and the world’s worst state-sponsor of terrorism, according to Democratic and Republican administrations, have not compelled Iran to abandon its pursuit of nuclear weapons.

Jason Brodsky, the policy director of United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), told Fox News Digital that the Iranians ‘do not want to provide President Trump with a casus belli to strike Iran’s nuclear program. There may be indirect and non-public responses through various intermediaries. I think some Iranian officials perceive a fissure among President Trump’s national security team on Iran. This explains Iran’s foreign minister’s comment in recent days that President Trump’s letter to the supreme leader poses challenges as well as opportunities.’

Brodsky said, ‘These Iranian officials seek to bypass experienced hands like President Trump’s national security advisor and secretary of state, who have been demanding the dismantlement of Iran’s entire nuclear program in keeping with President Trump’s long-standing and rightful position on this issue, and cultivate individuals around President Trump who do not have experience with Iran or are considered non-traditional conservatives who would be more receptive to their entrees.’

Trump promised that ‘bad things’ would happen to Iran if the regime does not come to the table for nuclear negotiations.  ‘My big preference is that we work it out with Iran, but if we don’t work it out, bad things are gonna happen to Iran,’ he said on Friday. 

Iran is enriching uranium to 60%, just shy of the 90% weapons-grade. Experts say it could have a nuclear weapon within weeks if it were to take the final steps to building one. Fox News Digital reported in late March that Iran’s regime has enriched enough uranium to manufacture six nuclear weapons, according to a U.N. atomic agency report.

Alireza Nader, an Iranian-American expert on Iran, told Fox News Digital, ‘Khamenei may be signaling that he’s not interested in negotiations, but his regime desperately needs economic relief. Otherwise, another popular uprising against him could start. Khamenei doesn’t have the cards.’

There is widespread discontent among Iranians against the rule of 85-year-old Khamenei.

Iran’s has upped the ante ever since Trump told FOX Business he sent a letter to Khamenei. Iran has disclosed video footage of its underground ‘missile city.’

Trump also told FOX Business, ‘I would rather negotiate a deal.’

He continued, ‘I’m not sure that everybody agrees with me, but we can make a deal that would be just as good as if you won militarily. But the time is happening now, the time is coming up.

‘Something is going to happen one way or the other. I hope that Iran, and I’ve written them a letter, saying I hope you’re going to negotiate because if we have to go in militarily, it’s going to be a terrible thing for them.’

Brodsky said, ‘That means the Islamic Republic may dangle a JCPOA-like deal, with minor modifications from the previous 2015 agreement. Iranian media has been hyping such an arrangement.’

In 2018, Trump withdrew from the Obama-negotiated Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action deal because, he argued, that the agreement failed to ensure Iran would not build nuclear weapons and did not codify restrictions against Tehran’s missile program and sponsorship of Islamist terrorism.

Brodsky said, ‘These Iranian officials believe they can lure the Trump administration into this arrangement and then President Trump will wave a magic wand and bring the entire Republican Party along with Democrats to support the deal and make it more politically durable than the 2015 JCPOA. This is all despite President Trump’s consistent and strong record in rejecting the JCPOA framework. It reflects desperation in Tehran and a desire to buy time with another failed diplomatic gambit. But it’s important to have eyes wide open here as to the games the Iranians will (and are already) playing.’

While Trump’s director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, testified on Tuesday before the Senate Intelligence Committee that the intelligence community ‘continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Khamanei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003,’ she did note that Iran increased its enriched uranium stockpile.

In sharp contrast to U.S. intelligence since 2003, Fox News Digital has previously reported that European intelligence agencies believe Iran is working toward testing an atomic weapon, and sought illicit technology for its nuclear weapons program. 

Counter-proliferation experts, like the prominent physicist and nuclear specialist David Albright, have told Fox News that European intelligence institutions use an updated definition of construction of weapons of mass destruction to assess Iran’s progress in contrast to America’s alleged obsolete definition.

Fox News Digital sent press queries to the U.S. State Department and the National Security Council.

Fox News Digital’s Morgan Phillips and the Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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The Australian government has been taken to court by an internet personality known as ‘Billboard Chris,’ who challenged the nation’s ‘eSafety’ commission’s authority to geo-block a tweet criticizing the appointment of an Australian transgender activist to a World Health Organization board. 

Chris Elston, a Canadian national who often expresses his free speech through slogans and tweets on sandwich boards in public places, had a tweet of his geo-blocked by the Aussies – which was a ‘share’ of a U.K. Daily Mail article about the transgender activist headlined ‘Kinky secrets of UN trans expert revealed.’

The activist, Teddy Cook, filed a complaint with Australia’s eSafety commissioner, which led to a request for X to censor it.

X initially refused, but assented after the government issued a formal order to do so, according to Alliance Defending Freedom International, which is backing Elston. Elston is challenging the move before the Administrative Review Tribunal on Monday.

 World Health Organization to declare aspartame a possible carcinogen

‘I’m in Australia because their government think their people don’t deserve to know and to make their own mind up about toxic gender ideology,’ the London-based ADFI’s Lois McLatchie Miller said on X ahead of the case.

‘This post from @BillboardChris has been withheld in Australia in response to a legal demand; learn more,’ a message on the tweet’s URL posted by McLatchie Miller from the Land Down Under read.

‘Is that image offensive? Absolutely. It’s offensive to my eyes, because someone appointed as a WHO expert should not be posting those perverted photos, and promoting drugs and bestiality,’ she added, citing content from the Daily Mail piece.

Speaking with Fox News Digital, McLatchie Miller said the situation is a ‘monumental’ case for global free speech, and ‘the ultimate ‘What is a Woman’ suit.’

‘It’s an Australian authority bucking the speech of a Canadian man on an American platform,’ she said.

‘So the Australian authorities have found that because they don’t want Australians to be able to hear a message and discuss a certain topic, they have now reached over to other countries to block that free speech, which is in and of itself fascinating.’

‘Over the last few weeks, when it comes to foreign governments having very surreal policies which are thought to only impact their citizens and their citizens’ human rights, but also the rights for Americans, rights for Canadians, others around the world,’ McLatchie Miller said.

Elston had also recently been fined AU$806 ($508) for ‘obstructing people’ and removed from a public sidewalk by law enforcement after he engaged with passersby about another message on his sandwich board: ‘Children cannot consent to puberty blockers.’

McLatchie Miller’s group noted the case echoed recent stated concerns about global censorship from Vice President JD Vance at the Munich Security Conference earlier this year. Vance also brought up his concerns in a joint presser with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Elon Musk

‘We also know that there have been infringements on free speech that actually affect not just the British – of course, what the British do in their own country is up to them – but also affect American technology companies and, by extension, American citizens,’ Vance said at the time.

Fox News Digital reached out to Vance’s office for comment on being invoked in the case.

ADFI advocacy director Robert Clarke said in a statement on Elston’s case: 

‘The decision of Australian authorities to prevent Australian citizens from hearing and evaluating information about gender ideology is a patronizing affront to the principles of democracy.’

X is also challenging a six-figure penalty imposed by Australia in 2023 after failing to provide information on how it was addressing exploitation and abuse on its platform, according to News.com.au.

Fox News Digital reached out to Australian eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant’s office for comment.

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Denmark hit back at the Trump administration’s ‘tone’ regarding Greenland on Friday, saying ‘this is not how you speak to your close allies.’

Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen released the message in a recorded video just hours after Vice President JD Vance visited an American military base in Greenland, where the vice president criticized Denmark.

‘I have a message for our American friends and all others who are listening,’ Rasmussen said. ‘Much is being said these days. Many accusations and many allegations have been made. And of course we are open to criticism. But let me be completely honest: we do not appreciate the tone in which it is being delivered. This is not how you speak to your close allies. And I still consider Denmark and the United States to be close allies.’

The Trump administration has argued that Denmark is failing to protect Greenland from Russian and Chinese aggression, with Vance telling American soldiers at the U.S.’s Pituffik Space Base in northwest Greenland that ‘Denmark hasn’t done a good job at keeping Greenland safe.’

‘Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,’ Vance said. ‘You have underinvested in the people of Greenland, and you have underinvested in the security architecture of this incredible, beautiful landmass filled with incredible people. That has to change.’

Trump has made it a mission to take over Greenland from Denmark in his second administration.

Rasmussen said that ‘we respect’ the need for the U.S. to have a greater military presence in Greenland, and believes that ‘much more’ can be done within the existing framework of the 1951 defense agreement with the U.S.

‘Let us make use of that and let us do it together,’ the foreign minister said.

Rasmussen noted that Vance said that both Denmark and the U.S. have done little in the Arctic. In his message, Rasmussen said both countries have been ‘harvesting the peace dividend’ and acting on the assumption that the Arctic should be ‘a low-changing area.’

‘But that time is over,’ he said. ‘Status quo is not an option. And that is why we have stepped up as well.’

Former NATO ambassador doesn’t think there is ‘any reason’ for US to take over Greenland

Rasmussen detailed how Copenhagen invested a billion dollars in Arctic security a few weeks ago to provide more drones, ships and personnel in the area. 

The foreign minister also noted that Greenland is a part of NATO and welcomed all allies to play ‘a greater role in the Arctic,’ though said Copenhagen would step up to do its part.

‘We will shoulder our share of the responsibility. No one should doubt that,’ Rasmussen said.

Fox News Digital’s Caitlin McFall and Morgan Phillips contributed to this report.

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President Donald Trump commuted the criminal sentence of Ozy Media founder Carlos Watson on Friday, just hours before Watson was due to begin serving a 116-month prison term for a multi-million-dollar scheme that included falsely claiming the start-up had deals with Google and Oprah Winfrey, a senior White House official said.

Watson had expected to surrender Friday afternoon to the Federal Correctional Institution in Lompoc, California, before he received word of Trump granting him executive clemency, according to a source familiar with the situation.

Trump also commuted the sentence of one year of probation imposed on Ozy Media for the defunct news and entertainment company’s conviction in the same case.

Trump’s actions remove the criminal penalty imposed on Watson and Ozy.

Watson, 55, was convicted at trial in Brooklyn federal court last July of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft. He was sentenced in December.

In February, a federal judge ordered Watson and Ozy to pay almost $60 million in forfeiture and more than $36 million in restitution.

Watson’s defense attorney, Arthur Aidala, declined to comment Friday when contacted by CNBC.

A spokesman for the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney’s Office, which prosecuted Watson, also declined to comment on the commutation of his sentence.

Glenn Martin, a criminal justice reform advocate, in a tweet on Friday wrote, “We did it,” above a photo of him and Watson.

“President Trump commuted the sentences of Ozy Media and Carlos Watson hours before his surrender,” the tweet said.

″@CarlosWatson is not going to prison today,” Martin wrote.

“First and foremost, thank God for His grace, mercy and the power of redemption. A very special note of appreciation to @AliceMarieFree,” he added, referring to his fellow criminal justice reform advocate Alice Marie Johnson.

“Your advocacy, compassion, and relentless pursuit of fairness have made this moment possible for people like Carlos.”

When Watson was sentenced, then-Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said, “Carlos Watson orchestrated a years-long, audacious scheme to defraud investors and lenders to his company, Ozy Media, out of tens of millions of dollars.”

Prosecutors said that Watson and his co-conspirators between 2018 and 2021 defrauded investors by misrepresenting Ozy’s financial performance, its ongoing business relationships and its acquisition prospects, as well as its contract negotiations.

Ozy abruptly shut down in October 2021, after The New York Times reported that the company’s chief operating officer, Samir Rao, had impersonated a YouTube executive on a conference call with Goldman Sachs.

The investment bank was considering a $40 million investment in Ozy at the time.


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An American woman who had been detained by the Taliban since February has been freed, a source with knowledge of the release told Fox News on Saturday.

American citizen Faye Hall was released on Thursday and received at the Qatari embassy in Kabul. She has been confirmed to be in good health after undergoing a series of medical checks, the source said. Arrangements are currently underway for her return to the United States.

The Taliban agreed to release Hall after President Donald Trump removed multimillion-dollar bounties on senior members of the militant group, according to a report by the Telegraph.

Trump agreed to remove millions of dollars of bounties on three senior members of the Haqqani network, including Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Taliban government’s interior minister, the outlet reported, noting that Washington was offering a $10 million reward for information leading to his capture.

Fox News Digital wasn’t immediately able to confirm the nature of the agreement and has reached out to the White House and the State Department for comment.

Her release was initiated following a court order and with logistical support from Qatar serving in its role as the United States’ protecting power in Afghanistan, the Fox News source said. 

Hall, along with the British couple, Peter Reynolds, 79, his wife Barbie, 75, and their interpreter were arrested on Feb. 1, the outlet reported. 

The Associated Press previously reported that the British couple ran education programs in Afghanistan via Rebuild, an organization that provides education and training programs for businesses, government agencies, educational organizations and nongovernmental groups. 

The Sunday Times said one project was for mothers and children. The Taliban severely restricts women’s education and activities in the country.

It is unclear what relationship Hall had with the couple or their group.

The couple’s detention was not based on any violations of local laws or religious customs, but was a political move by a faction to increase international pressure on the government and Haibatullah Akhundzada, its supreme leader, the Telegraph reported. 

The couple’s children wrote a letter to the Taliban pleading for their release, saying that the couple respected and obeyed the laws.

‘They have chosen Afghanistan as their home, rather than with family in England, and they wish to spend the rest of their lives in Afghanistan,’ the letter reads in part, according to the Associated Press.

Hall’s release comes after the Taliban released American hostage George Glezmann, 65, last week after holding him for more than two years. That deal was also struck after negotiations between the Trump administration and Qatari officials. Glezmann was abducted while visiting Kabul as a tourist on Dec. 5, 2022.

Two other Americans, Ryan Corbett and William McKenty, were released earlier this year in exchange for a Taliban member in U.S. custody in a final-hour deal struck by the Biden administration.

Fox News’ Caitlin McFall and the Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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As federal judges exceed records with an onslaught of nationwide orders blocking President Donald Trump’s orders, some have revisited how each was confirmed, and whether Republicans could have foreseen their rulings or done anything more to block them. 

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., a member of the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee, told Fox News Digital in an interview, ‘This is why I think I voted against every Biden judge.’

He acknowledged that many of the judges in question were confirmed before his time, given he was first elected in 2018. 

‘People said to me, ‘Why don’t you ever vote for any of Biden’s judges?” he said. ‘This is why.’

‘Because if they’re not faithful to the rule of law, then you can bet they’ll just be looking for opportunities to intervene politically.’

Since Trump entered office, he has faced a slew of nationwide injunctions to halt actions of his administration, which exponentially outweighs the number his predecessors saw. So far in his new term, the courts have hit him with roughly 15 wide-ranging orders, more than former Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden received during their entire tenures. 

Some of those who have ordered the Trump administration to halt certain actions are U.S. District Judges James Boasberg, Amir Ali, Loren AliKhan, William Alsup, Deborah Boardman, John Coughenour, Paul A. Engelmayer, Amy Berman Jackson, Angel Kelley, Brendan A. Hurson, Royce Lamberth, Joseph Laplante, John McConnell and Leo Sorokin. There are 94 districts in the U.S. and at least one district court in each state. These courts are where cases are first heard before potentially being appealed to higher courts. 

Several of these judges were confirmed in the Senate in a bipartisan manner, and some even prevailed with no opposition. There were others who were opposed by every Republican senator. 

One of the most controversial judges, Boasberg, known for blocking a key immigration action by the Trump administration, was confirmed by a roll call vote after being nominated by Obama in 2011. The vote was 96-0 and no Republicans opposed him. 

Former Trump attorney Jim Trusty told Fox News Digital, ‘I don’t think the Republicans ever expected quite the onslaught of lawfare that we’ve seen when President Trump is in office.’

‘The activist nature of some federal district court judges – issuing nationwide injunctions against the Executive Branch on a minute’s notice – is unfortunate and puts pressure on appellate courts, including SCOTUS, to fix these problems,’ he explained.

However, he said the real problem is ‘an army of lawyers’ who he said are trying to ‘bend and twist legal principles.’

‘They are spending their days devoted to stopping President Trump’s agenda even if it means siding with Venezuelan gang members who illegally entered the US,’ Trusty claimed. 

Andy McCarthy, a former assistant U.S. attorney and a Fox News contributor, told Fox News Digital, ‘Republicans could have done a much better job blocking Biden’s judicial appointments.’

He pointed to Biden’s recent time as a lame-duck president, specifically referring to nominees that ‘squeaked by’ due to Republican absences. 

‘Biden’s nominees were very radical and should have been opposed as vigorously as possible,’ he said. ‘These are lifetime appointments and the progressives filling these slots will be a thorn in the nation’s side for decades.’

However, former Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo, made a point of saying, ‘There was no way to know how they would rule in future cases like these.’ 

He argued that senators can conduct their due diligence to the best of their abilities, but they can’t see into the future. 

‘The Senate has the right to reject nominees whom it thinks will interpret the Constitution incorrectly, but nominees also have an obligation not to promise how they might rule on cases once they join the bench,’ Yoo said. 

Thomas Jipping, senior legal fellow with the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at the Heritage Foundation, noted to Fox News Digital that senators ‘can’t use the filibuster to defeat the judge,’ which makes blocking controversial nominees even more difficult. 

‘The only way to actually defeat someone’s confirmation is to have the majority of the votes,’ he explained. ‘If Republicans are in the minority, there has to be at least a few Democrats voting against the Democratic nominee to defeat someone.’

Fox News Digital reached out to former Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, to comment on how these judges were able to get confirmed. 

The senators were asked if they were still happy with how the judges were confirmed and their individual votes. They were also asked whether there was anything alarming in the judges’ records and if Republicans did enough to block certain confirmations. 

McConnell’s office pointed Fox News Digital to comments he made over the legislative recess at a press conference in Kentucky. 

‘The way to look at all of these reorganization efforts by the Administration is what’s legal and what isn’t… they’ll be defined in the courts,’ he told reporters in response to the legality of potentially shutting down the Department of Education. ‘I can understand the desire to reduce government spending. Every Administration – some not quite as bold as this one – have tried to do that in one way or another. This is a different approach… and the courts will ultimately decide whether the president has the authority to take these various steps. Some may have different outcomes, I’m just going to wait – like all of us in effect are going to wait, and see whether this is permissible or not.’

Grassley’s office pointed to a previous statement from the senator’s spokesperson, Clare Slattery. 

‘The recent surge of sweeping decisions by district judges merits serious scrutiny. The Senate Judiciary Committee will be closely examining this topic in a hearing and exploring potential legislative solutions in the weeks ahead,’ she said. 

The committee has notably slated a hearing on nationwide injunctions for next week. 

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Mark Twain’s famous advice to ‘buy land, they aren’t making it anymore’ couldn’t have found a more receptive audience than President Donald Trump, a real estate man at heart who covets a certain piece of property to our north.

Vice President JD Vance and Second Lady Usha traveled to the Island nation this week, visiting a U.S. Space Force base, in the firmest message yet that Trump means business when he says he wants to make Greenland part of America.

Notice that when Trump talks about foreign countries he almost always references the properties he owns there, a golf course in Scotland or a hotel in Dubai. He’s not merely boasting. He’s saying that he has skin in the game and therefore understands the country.

This is not a president who puts much store in intangible multilateral defense agreements that allow the United States to pay for the protection of Danish Greenland. No, he wants the land, not some complicated leasing agreement.

And is it such a crazy notion? We are the nation that pushed Lewis and Clark across the Rockies. We have acquired Alaska and Hawaii, Guam and all the little micro-islands nobody has been to.

The last time the United States grew in territory was in 1947 with the addition of the Marshall Islands and some others, but these last 78 years have been an outlier. Prior to that, America’s appetite for land was almost insatiable. 

So why not Greenland?

The only reason that Greenland is Danish to begin with is that 1,000 years ago some Vikings bumped into it. Since then it’s been too cold for anyone else to bother with it.

And while it ultimately should be up to the Greenlandic people to decide their sovereignty, that is not the only consideration in a world where control of the Arctic could mean control of the globe.

Trump’s interests, which is to say America’s interests, may well be best served by possessing the strategic nation.

More than anything else, what is standing in the way of a big beautiful deal to buy Greenland, something the United States tried to do after occupying and protecting the large island in World War II while Denmark was under German rule, is the post-Cold-War order of the past 40 years.

Under the neo-liberal bromides of leaders with good hair, the West, led by the U.S., came to view newly-minted borders in Europe and elsewhere as sacrosanct, fixed as the firmament, immovable, which runs counter to all of human history, including America’s. 

It kind of worked for a while. There has been no third world war, but even by the mid-1990s, the former Yugoslavia was descending into violent chaos, there is no peace in the Middle East, and Russia has spent decades redrawing its border with Ukraine in blood.

To Trump, and to many Americans who think like him, if countries like Russia are expanding, if China has an eye towards doing so, then we cannot sit on the sidelines, especially if the defense of the free world is conducted on our dime.

In chess, the early 20th century saw the emergence of the hyper-modern style in which the conventional wisdom that pawns must physically occupy the all-important center of the board was tossed aside in favor of powerful pieces controlling the center from a distance.

But unlike chess, geopolitics does not have a firm and discrete set of rules. So one can see why Trump prefers the idea of physically holding space, rather than allowing it to be protected by a vague collection of Western interests.

Because we have been conditioned by the post-Cold War order, it sounds strange when Trump refers to borders as ‘artificial lines.’ But it’s absolutely true: Borders are negotiated, and you might even think of them as a kind of real estate deal.

Nobody wants to go to war over Greenland, but that is no reason not to pitch this deal to the 57,000 people who live there. America has a lot to offer, and maybe Trump can make them an offer too good to refuse.

In any event, as Americans we should not be shocked by or shy about the idea of expanding our territory. It’s not just what Trump has always done, it’s in America’s DNA. 

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While the U.S. military has been conducting strikes against Iran-backed Houthi rebels, President Donald Trump and his White House have been engaging in a battle of their own, defending leaked texts detailing war plans about those very strikes in Yemen. 

This week, the Trump administration has fielded a litany of questions and criticism after the Atlantic published a story detailing how administration officials used a Signal group chat to discuss strikes in Yemen, and accidentally added a journalist to the group.  

The group chats included White House leaders, including Vice President JD Vance and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, as well as other administration officials including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. Additionally, the chat included Atlantic editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg. 

While the White House said that classified information was not shared via the encrypted messaging service, the Atlantic published the full exchange of messages Wednesday. The messages included certain attack details, including specific aircraft and times of the strikes. 

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt maintained Wednesday no classified information was shared. 

‘We have said all along that no classified material was sent on this messaging thread,’ Leavitt told reporters. ‘There were no locations, no sources or methods revealed, and there were certainly no war plans discussed.’

Meanwhile, the episode has prompted backlash from lawmakers. Senate Armed Service Committee leaders Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Jack Reed, D-R.I., said they are requesting an inspector general investigation into the use of the Signal app and as a classified briefing with a top administration official on the matter. 

Additionally, several lawmakers including Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., from the House Intelligence Committee have called for Hegseth’s resignation.

Here’s what also happened this week: 

Trump pardons Devon Archer

Trump issued a pardon Tuesday for Devon Archer, former first son Hunter Biden’s prior business associate, who was convicted in 2018 for defrauding a Native American tribe in a plot to issue and sell fraudulent tribal bonds.

Archer faced a sentence of more than a year in prison, but his conviction was overturned before later being reinstated in 2020. His appeal to the Supreme Court was rejected, and so his prison sentence was up in the air prior to the pardon. 

‘Many people have asked me to do this,’ Trump said Tuesday ahead of signing the pardon. ‘They think he was treated very unfairly. And I looked at the records, studied the records. And he was a victim of a crime, as far as I’m concerned. So we’re going to undo that. … Congratulations, Devon.’ 

Declassification of Crossfire Hurricane Russia investigation docs

Trump signed an executive order Tuesday directing the FBI to immediately declassify files concerning the Crossfire Hurricane investigation, the agency probe launched in 2016 that sought information on whether Trump campaign members colluded with Russia during the presidential race. 

After signing the order, Trump said that now the media can review previously withheld files pertaining to the investigation — although he cast doubt on whether many journalists would do so.

 

‘You probably won’t bother because you’re not going to like what you see,’ Trump said. ‘But this was total weaponization. It’s a disgrace. It should have never happened in this country. But now you’ll be able to see for yourselves. All declassified.’

The FBI on July 31, 2016, opened a counterintelligence investigation into whether Trump, then a presidential candidate, or members of his campaign were colluding or coordinating with Russia to influence the 2016 election. That investigation was referred to inside the bureau as ‘Crossfire Hurricane.’

The extensive probe yielded no evidence of criminal conspiracy or coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Vance visits Greenland

Vance and second lady Usha Vance, along with National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, visited Pituffik Space Base in Greenland Friday, the Department of Defense’s northernmost military installation. The base is home to the Space Force’s 821st Space Base Group to conduct missile warning, missile defense and space surveillance operations.

The Trump administration is seeking to acquire Greenland for national security purposes, and has accused Denmark of neglecting Greenland. 

But leaders in Denmark and Greenland remain unequivocally opposed to Greenland becoming part of the U.S., although Greenland’s prime minister has called for independence from Copenhagen. 

Meanwhile, Denmark has come under scrutiny for its treatment of indigenous people from Greenland. A group of indigenous women from Greenland sued the Danish government in May 2024 and accused Danish health officials of fitting them with intrauterine devices without their knowledge between the 1960s and 1970s. 

Denmark and Greenland launched an investigation into the matter in 2022, and the report is expected for release this year.

The Associated Press and Fox News’ Emma Colton and Brooke Singman contributed to this report. 

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