Elon Musk received a round of applause from President Donald Trump’s Cabinet as he prepares for a planned exit from his role at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). 

‘You have been treated unfairly,’ Trump said to Musk during a Cabinet meeting Wednesday. ‘But, the vast majority of people in this country really respect and appreciate you. And this whole room can say that very strongly. It’s really been a tremendous help. You opened up a lot of eyes as to what could be done. And we just want to thank you very much.’

‘You’re invited to stay as long as you want,’ Trump added as applause broke out in the room for Musk. ‘At some point, I guess he wants to get back home to his cars and his family.’ 

Musk has been the public leader of DOGE since the administration began in January, leading teams through various federal agencies in search of government overspending, fraud and mismanagement, which has received repeated praise from Trump and his administration. 

The tech billionaire, who leads both SpaceX and Tesla, was hired as a ‘special government employee,’ which is a role Congress created in 1962 that allows the executive or legislative branch to hire temporary employees for specific short-term initiatives.

Special government employees are permitted to work for the federal government for ‘no more than 130 days in a 365- day period,’ according to data from the Office of Government Ethics. Musk’s 130-day time frame, beginning on Inauguration Day, runs dry May 30. 

White House chief of staff Susie Wiles told the New York Post Tuesday that Musk is no longer working regularly from the White House. 

‘Instead of meeting with him in person, I’m talking to him on the phone, but it’s the same net effect,’ Wiles told the outlet as the tech billionaire prepares to depart from his role at DOGE. ‘He hasn’t been here physically, but it really doesn’t matter much.’ 

Musk said during the Cabinet meeting Wednesday that DOGE has now saved the U.S. $160 billion through his efforts trimming government fat, and celebrated the accomplishments of the administration in the meeting. 

‘The American people voted for secure borders, safe cities and sensible spending,’ Musk said. ‘And that’s what they’ve gotten. Tremendous amount has been accomplished in the first hundred days. As everyone has said, it’s more than has been accomplished in any administration before. Ever. Period. So, this portends very well for what happens for the rest of the administration. I think this could be the greatest administration since the founding of the country.’ 

The tech billionaire notably wore two Trump hats during the meeting, quipping: ‘Mr. President they say I wear a lot of hats,’ he said. ‘Even my hat has a hat.’

DOGE is a temporary cross-departmental organization that was established to slim down and streamline the federal government. The group itself will be dissolved July 4, 2026, according to Trump’s executive order.

Musk and Trump have both previously previewed that Musk’s role was temporary and would come to end in the coming weeks. 

‘You, technically, are a special government employee and you’re supposed to be 130 days,’ Fox News’ Bret Baier asked Musk during an exclusive interview with the DOGE leader in March. ‘Are you going to continue past that or do you think that’s what you’re going to do?’ 

‘I think we will have accomplished most of the work required to reduce the deficit by a trillion dollars within that time frame,’ Musk responded. 

Trump also told the media in March that he would keep Musk ‘as long as I can keep him,’ but that ‘he’s got a big company to run.’

Tesla dealerships have faced repeated protests amid Musk’s work with DOGE, including physical attacks on cars and monetary boycotts of the company. 

Musk noted during the Cabinet meeting that protesters ‘do like to burn my cars, which is not great,’ which received laughter from colleagues.

WASHINGTON — Vice President JD Vance said the first 100 days of the Trump administration were about making changes ‘very quickly,’ but the next 100 days will require Congress and international partners to ‘step up to the plate.’

Vance spoke about the opportunities he sees ahead to ‘juice the economy’ and end the war between Ukraine and Russia during an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital Wednesday — Day 101 of the Trump administration — in his office in the West Wing of the White House. 

‘The first 100 days is — you’re almost fixing and addressing all the things that are very easy to do,’ Vance said. ‘I mean, the border crisis is a matter of presidential enforcement. You have a different president. You have different enforcement policies that happen immediately that don’t require an act of Congress. It is just something you can change immediately.

‘A lot of our energy policies are permitting policies,’ he continued. ‘We’re trying to make it easier to build things. Those are things you can change very quickly.’ 

But Vance cautioned that ‘the next 100 days are going to be a lot of things that don’t change as quickly.’ 

‘It’s the big, beautiful bill — the reconciliation bill that we think will lead to permanent tax relief for Americans, but also juice the economy a little bit,’ he said. ‘That’s going to be a major focus.’ 

‘Obviously, we have a lot of foreign policy issues that we’ve been working on that I think are going to come to fruition one way or another over the next 100 days,’ he said. ‘You know, the president made very clear that he doesn’t want Iran to have a bomb. He would like to bring the Russia–Ukraine conflict to a durable solution where you don’t have 5,000 people dying every single week on both sides of that conflict.’ 

When asked where negotiations stand with regard to Russia and Ukraine, Vance told Fox News Digital ‘the first and necessary step of getting the Russia-Ukraine conflict solved is to get each of them to make a peace proposal.

‘And that’s actually happened. The Ukrainians have said, ‘This is what we want.’ The Russians have said, ‘This is what we want,’ and now the work of diplomacy is to try to sort of bring these two sides closer together,’ Vance said. ‘Because there’s a very big gulf between what the Russians want and what the Ukrainians want.’ 

Vance said ‘a lot of our European friends who, in public, will say, ‘Well, you know, we didn’t necessarily agree with the president what he said, or what he’s done, or, you know, all parts of his policy.’ They will at the same time say he’s the only person who could have actually forced a peace proposal out of each side because these guys weren’t even talking — not to each other, not to anybody. They were just fighting. That was it.

‘So, we’ve got this first step,’ Vance added. ‘We’ve got the peace proposal out there and issued, and we’re going to work very hard over the next 100 days to try to bring these guys together.’ 

Meanwhile, the vice president will travel Thursday to Huger, South Carolina, for a factory tour at Nucor Steel Berkeley, one of the largest manufacturers of steel in the United States. 

‘The message tomorrow is really just a pro-American manufacturing message,’ Vance said, adding he is going to ‘tie it back to national security.’ 

‘One of the things that we learned the hard way over the last, you know, 15 to 20 years in this country is that national security is downstream of economic power,’ Vance said. ‘And if there are things that your troops need or things that your critical industries need that they can only get from a hostile adversary, then you’re not nearly as strong as you thought you were.’ 

Vance said President Donald Trump ‘has really set about rebalancing this in a very fundamental way.’ 

‘This is, in my view, a once-in-a-generation change, and it was totally necessary. It has to happen,’ Vance said. ‘And we’re going to talk about the things that we’re going to do to facilitate that rebalancing of global trade.’ 

Vance said that because supply chains of companies ‘are so complicated, the goal is to facilitate them, moving more stuff on shore.’ 

‘We work with industry,’ Vance continued. ‘The president has an extremely open door, and so when he is persuaded that he has to pursue a particular policy in an effort to facilitate more American manufacturing, that’s what he’s going to do, because that’s the goal. And I think you’re going to see, certainly, that continue over the next 100 days in the same way it has over the first 100 days.

‘So, that’s kind of how I think about it. The first 100 days, you can get a lot done with just the president’s signature on a piece of paper,’ Vance said. ‘The next 100 days are going to be a lot of things where we need Congress, and, in some cases, some of our international partners, to step up to the plate.

‘I have great confidence in Congress. I have some confidence in our international partners. We’ll see how it goes.’ 

CIA Director John Ratcliffe said Wednesday that a restructuring was underway at President Donald Trump’s direction to eliminate ‘well-documented politicization’ of the agency. 

Trump joked during a meeting of his Cabinet secretaries on Wednesday that perhaps Ratcliffe was the only one ‘who’s not allowed to talk about the great job he’s done,’ given the classified nature of the Central Intelligence Agency’s work. 

‘At your direction, the CIA has deployed our unique covert action, authorities in various places and continents, to successfully advance your national security and foreign policy priorities, to advance peace, to end wars, to take terrorists off the battlefield, and to keep illicit drugs from coming into this country and harming Americans,’ Ratcliffe reported to Trump, in front of news cameras. ‘Unfortunately, as much as I would love to detail your accomplishments in that regard, we can’t do so with this crowd. But you and I both know, Mr. President, that you have had a profound positive impact on America’s national security posture. And Americans are safer because of your leadership.’

‘Mr. President, the CIA is being restructured at your direction to focus on our core mission and to eliminate the political – the well-documented politicization that has taken place in the intelligence community from bad actors in the past to focus on our core mission and to Make America Safe Again,’ Ratcliffe added, thanking Trump for the opportunity without elaborating further. 

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard also referenced efforts to combat ‘politicization’ within the intelligence community at the Cabinet meeting. 

‘I’m grateful to have the privilege of leading the intelligence community towards ending the weaponization. Politicization of the intelligence community has gone on for far too long,’ Gabbard said. ‘And building out what is truly a lean and agile and effective intelligence community that is helping you deliver that promise to the American people of safety, security, and freedom.’ 

‘We’re working every day to hold the deep state accountable to end the politicization of weaponization of the intelligence community,’ Gabbard continued. ‘This past week, I sent three criminal referrals for illegal and unauthorized leaks to the media of classified intelligence for prosecution. We have 11 more that are under investigation. We’ve revoked, at your direction, 67 security clearances, and we continue the work of declassifying documents.’ 

The U.S. government has already declassified documents surrounding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and Gabbard said she was working to declassify more documents around the assassination of former U.S. Attorney General and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy – the father of Trump’s Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as well as the assassination of civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. 

‘And we continue our extensive investigations around exposing the very serious issues we have related to election integrity, illegal abuses of FISA, Crossfire Hurricane, and others,’ Gabbard said. ‘Mr. President, under your leadership, we are working every day to bring about that transparency and accountability that the American people deserve.’ 

Last month, Trump signed an executive order instructing 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.

At the Cabinet meeting, another U.S. intelligence leader, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, separately acknowledged that multiple federal agencies came together under the president’s leadership to capture terrorists, including the ‘evil individual responsible for the Abbey Gate bombing’ during the Biden administration’s botched Afghanistan withdrawal. Thirteen U.S. service members and roughly 170 Afghan civilians were killed when an ISIS-K suicide bomber detonated at Kabul’s airport. 

One of those agencies was the CIA. Ratcliffe told the gathering of Cabinet secretaries that the CIA ‘provided the intelligence that led to the apprehension of the Abbey Gate bomber, who is now being prosecuted by our great attorney general and providing a measure of justice to those 13 families that suffered as a result of that disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal, during the last administration.’  

Trump reiterated at the Cabinet meeting that what happened at Abbey Gate was a ‘disgrace’ under the Biden administration and that U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi is working on prosecuting the alleged planner of the attack. The Justice Department announced last month that ISIS-K member Mohammad Sharifullah, also known as ‘Jafar,’ has been arrested on federal terrorism charges in connection to the attack and was extradited to the U.S. He made a brief appearance in Virginia federal court. 

Ratcliffe also told the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday that the CIA, at Trump’s direction, has negotiated and secured the release of Americans like Mark Fogel and Ksenia Karelina, ‘who had been wrongfully detained, sending the message that you will forget about no Americans that are being held in other places unfairly and unjustly.’ 

FIRST ON FOX – Experts on the Islamic Republic of Iran’s manipulative atomic weapons bargaining strategy issued a dire warning to team Trump negotiators on how to avoid falling into the trap of former President Barack Obama’s flawed nuclear deal with Iran.

President Trump issued a scathing indictment of Obama’s agreement when he withdrew from the atomic accord in 2018, declaring, ‘This was a horrible one-sided deal that should have never, ever been made.’ Trump asserted that Obama’s 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the formal name for the Iran nuclear deal, did not stop Tehran from building an atomic bomb.

Experts from United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) published a report that outlines the 10 negotiating tactics Iran exploits to secure major concessions while retaining its capability to construct a nuclear weapon.

The report, in an ode to President Trump’s famous 1987 book ‘The Art of the Deal,’ is called: ‘Iran’s Version of the ‘Art of the Deal” and was authored by Saeid Golkar, Jason M. Brodsky and Kasra Aarabi.

The 10 tactics Iran uses in nuclear negotiations to outorganize the U.S. government and its allies, according to UANI, are:

Deception

The Grass Can Be Greener Promises vague future rewards to keep talks alive without offering anything concrete.

Good Cop, Bad Cop

Exploit the illusion of political pluralism – use ‘moderates’ vs. ‘hardliners’ to extract concessions, even though all power lies with the supreme leader.

The Promise of Lucrative Post-Sanctions Business Opportunities 

Dangle phantom investment deals to lure Western governments and companies – then pull the rug out.

Fanciful Alarmist Threats 

Issue exaggerated threats to stir anti-war sentiment and paralyze tough policymaking in the U.S.

The Art of Ambiguity 

Resist clear commitments; rely on vague language to allow deniability while still benefiting from deals. 

Running Down the Clock and Cosmetic Concessions

Engage in endless, exhausting talks to delay action, offering superficial gestures to avoid real consequences

A Post-Colonial Victimization Narrative

Invoke historical grievances to justify current behavior and shift blame onto the West.

Divide and Conquer 

Exploit rifts within Western alliances – between the U.S. and Europe, or even within U.S. administrations 

Baazar Mentality and Taarof 

Use bazaar-style haggling tactics – start high, concede slow, cloak intentions in false politeness.

Influence and Information Operations 

Leak selectively and spin the media narrative to present Iran as the reasonable actor driving diplomacy.

The UANI experts explained in greater detail in their report how Iran’s regime maximizes gains with minimum concessions via its 10 deceptive bargaining tactics. 

According to the UANI ‘These are derived from direct accounts from individuals who have firsthand experience in negotiating and dealing with Iranian officials, native Iranian policy experts, as well as from observations from veteran Iran watchers.’

The Trump administration and Iran have just completed a third round of indirect nuclear talks. According to Reuters, Omani officials have said a new round of U.S.-Iran talks could be held on May 3 in Europe. No formal decision has been taken.

Iran has reached out to Britain, France and Germany ahead of the next negotiating session. This suggests Tehran is keeping its options open, but also wants to assess where the Europeans stand on the possible re-imposition of U.N. sanctions before October, when a resolution ratifying the 2015 accord expires.

UANI says Iran is seeking to play the EU against U.S. to weaken the Western alliance. The experts wrote that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali ‘Ayatollah Khamenei’s overarching strategy has been rooted in his so-called ‘West without the U.S.’ method. Grounded in Khamenei’s and the Islamic Republic’s vehement anti-Americanism, this strategy has sought to divide the Europeans from the U.S. to undercut U.S. national interests.’

UANI argued that the Iranian regime’s ‘gimmicks are meant to try to mask the fact that the Iranians are offering nothing more than the concessions it made to President Obama under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) of 2015.’

Iran seeks to manipulate nuclear talks to diminish the ‘ideal conditions for Israel and/or the U.S. to take military action against Tehran,’ noted UANI. Trump’s military threats to target Iran’s nuclear facilities have forced Tehran to engage in negotiations, according to the experts.

President Donald Trump may prefer a diplomatic solution to stop Iran’s creep toward a nuclear weapon, but recently claimed he’ll be ‘leading the pack’ to war with the regime if talks falter. 

‘I think we’re going to make a deal with Iran,’ he told Time magazine in an interview published Friday, while claiming that President Joe Biden had allowed Iran to ‘become rich.’ 

Fox News’ Morgan Phillips and Reuters contributed to this report.

U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín is continuing to block the government from cutting off funding for legal services for unaccompanied immigrant children.

‘This injunction precludes cutting off access to congressionally appropriated funding for its duration,’ the court ordered.

The move to grant the motion for a preliminary injunction came after the court had previously granted a temporary restraining order to the same effect.

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment on Wednesday but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

In 2023, then-Vice President Kamala Harris broke a tie vote in the U.S. Senate to confirm then-President Joe Biden’s nomination of Martínez-Olguín to serve as a U.S. district judge for the Northern District of California.

The judge has previously worked as an attorney with the National Immigration Law Center, according to her biography on the court’s website.

‘Working at the intersection of immigrant, economic, and racial justice, NILC deploys a multi-pronged strategy to secure lasting, transformational change,’ the organization notes on its website.

The preliminary injunction comes amid a challenge against the government’s move to cut off funding pertaining to legal aid for unaccompanied immigrant children.

Various organizations lodged a legal challenge after the government partially terminated a contract with the Acacia Center for Justice, though Acacia itself is not a plaintiff.

‘Until March 21, 2025, the Acacia Center for Justice (‘Acacia’) managed a network of 89 legal services organizations (including Plaintiffs) in 159 offices across the country providing representation to unaccompanied children through funding from HHS and ORR, under a contract between Acacia and DOI (contracting on behalf of HHS and ORR),’ a complaint asserted, referring to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement and the Department of Interior.

The Trump administration has been facing a string of legal challenges over a variety of issues during the first 100 days of the president’s second term in office.

There are moments when I still wake up in terror, my heart pounding, convinced I’m back in those dark tunnels beneath Gaza. 

Then reality slowly breaks through—I am free. After 471 days held hostage by Hamas, I have returned to the world of light, of family, of possibility. But my heart remains heavy, knowing that others still endure the nightmare from which I’ve awakened.

My story begins on October 7, a day that tore my life in two. I went to the Nova festival with my best friend Gaya Halifa, looking forward to a day of music and celebration. When the terror attack began, we tried desperately to escape. After hiding in the bushes, Ben Shimoni arrived in his car to rescue me, Gaya and Ofir Tzarfati. 

For a brief moment, we thought we were safe. But that hope shattered when the terrorists opened fire on our car. I was wounded. Gaya did not survive. I remember her last words to me: ‘Romi, they shot me.’ We shared one final look, her eyes meeting mine before they rolled back as she took her last breath. In the end, I was the only survivor from our car. Since returning home, I’ve learned that Ben managed to save twelve other people at the festival that day before coming back to rescue us—a heroic act for which I am eternally grateful.

Every day in captivity tested every fiber of my being. I lost 22 pounds as food and water became luxuries rather than necessities. The bullet wound in my hand, untreated and without pain medication, led to complete disability in my right hand. Yet somehow, I endured. In captivity, I found an unexpected lifeline—Emily Damari. We first met after undergoing horrific surgeries in Gaza, waking up in a hospital after anesthesia. Thirty-nine days later, we reunited in the tunnels and remained inseparable. Two injured girls, two functioning hands between us, two bleeding souls becoming one.

She was my light when hope abandoned me. When I collapsed to the floor, she lifted me with a smile. When I cried so hard I couldn’t breathe, she wiped away my tears. When I yearned for my mother, she held me tightly and didn’t let go. We fought together to survive, and on January 19, we were both released.

I am incredibly grateful for getting my life back. I owe so much to you, President Trump, for your decisive leadership in advancing a deal that many thought impossible. When I returned, I learned how you promised from your first day in office that you would bring all the hostages back. Your commitment created the breakthrough that led to my release along with 37 other hostages. You achieved what many diplomats and leaders deemed impossible. Your intervention made this possible, and I look forward to meeting you face-to-face to express my profound gratitude. I believe you will finish what you’ve started.

I also thank the brave soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces who risked their lives. I thank my family who, like the families of all the hostages, fought tirelessly, traveled across continents and refused to let the world forget me and all the hostages. Their unwavering advocacy and determination to bring me home sustained them through their darkest hours, just as thoughts of them sustained me through mine.

Since my return, the journey has been far from over. I’ve been hospitalized, undergoing a 13-hour surgery. I never imagined my condition would be so severe. I didn’t anticipate that my leg would lose function as they harvested everything possible to repair my hand. I never expected to need rehabilitation for months ahead or that I would face multiple surgeries instead of just one. The rehabilitation is incredibly difficult, both physically and mentally. But I will face it all—this is what I waited for during those endless days of captivity.

As I navigate this new chapter of healing and hope, I carry with me the memory of those dark days and the people who sustained me through them. I carry the responsibility to speak for those who cannot yet speak for themselves—the hostages still waiting for their freedom.

It feels especially meaningful to mark the first 100 days of Trump’s presidency near Israel’s Independence Day. But true independence cannot exist when our people are still held captive. Every living hostage deserves the chance to breathe free air and reunite with loved ones, while those who have perished deserve to be returned to their families for proper burial and remembrance.

My story is not just one of survival but of the enduring human capacity for resilience. It is about finding light in the darkest places and strength when all seems lost. It is about the bonds that save us and the hope that sustains us.

My journey—and Israel’s journey—isn’t complete until every hostage returns home. I believe in us. I believe in you, President Trump. Let’s bring them all home.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez would ‘destroy America’ as president – but is a first-rate entrepreneur – says Canadian businessman and star of ABC’s ‘Shark Tank’ Kevin O’Leary.

O’Leary’s comments came over the weekend during the White House Correspondents’ Association annual dinner in response to questions about a new campaign-style video the far-left progressive lawmaker put out amid speculation she is considering a run for president.

‘I think she’s the best marketeer in politics. I buy her T-shirts, I gift them the tax the rich T-shirts – I love them. She makes 82% in margin on them, which, I think, shows you that inside of every socialist, there’s a capitalist trying to get out,’ O’Leary said. ‘Now, would she destroy America? Absolutely. There’s no chance she’ll ever be president. I don’t agree with anything she says, but I love her social media. She’s a crazy chicken.’ 

‘Her district is a wasteland,’ O’Leary added. ‘Why would anybody want her running anything? But I love what she does on T-shirts, so maybe she should start a T-shirt company.’

The ‘Shark Tank’ star’s comments came as Ocasio-Cortez has been criss-crossing the country over the last several weeks, participating in a ‘Fight Oligarchy’ tour alongside Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., in protest of President Donald Trump and his policies. The events have drawn large crowds and speculation over whether Ocasio-Cortez is testing the waters for a potential presidential run. 

Meanwhile, last week, Ocasio-Cortez posted a new campaign-style video to her social media accounts, invigorating that speculation even further.

Prominent pollster Nate Silver suggested earlier this month that Ocasio-Cortez is currently the leading Democrat to pick up the party’s presidential nomination in 2028, selecting her as his top choice in a 2028 election exercise with FiveThirtyEight’s Galen Druke. 

‘I think there’s a lot of points in her favor at this very moment,’ Druke said, adding, ‘Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has broad appeal across the Democratic Party.’

Fox News Digital’s Deirdre Heavey and Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.

Former vice presidential nominee Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., continued a self-described ‘listening tour’ across the country at a Harvard Kennedy School forum on Monday night, ruling out a 2028 presidential bid and revealing why former Vice President Kamala Harris chose him as her running mate. 

Walz said Harris chose him, in part, because, ‘I could code talk to White guys watching football, fixing their truck’ and ‘put them at ease.’ The Minnesota governor described himself as the ‘permission structure’ for White men from rural America to vote for Democrats. 

‘I think I’ll give you pretty good stuff, but I’ll also give you 10% problematic,’ Walz added when pushed by moderator Brittany Shepherd, ABC News national political reporter, about why he didn’t take that message to cable news to reach a larger audience. Walz laughed off criticism over inconsistencies in his background on the 2024 campaign trail, describing himself as a ‘knucklehead.’

Walz told CNN’s Jake Tapper earlier this month that he was considering a third bid for Minnesota governor but was not thinking about running for president in 2028. When asked by Shepherd to explain, Walz said the Democratic Party should run a collective 2028 presidential campaign. 

‘I think we need to collectively run a presidential campaign without a candidate right now that builds all the infrastructure… by the time we get to 2028, we’re ready,’ Walz said. 

And on what he would have done differently in 2024, Walz said, ‘We would have won.’ Acknowledging that Democrats came up short in November, Walz said the party is ‘better off doing more’ in ‘every forum,’ following criticism that Democrats didn’t prioritize media appearances enough in 2024, whether long-form podcasts or traditional network news shows. 

‘There is room for Gavin Newsom’s podcast, and there is room for Bernie Sanders’ rallies,’ Walz said, as he described both instances as opportunities for Democrats to reclaim their own narrative.

Gov. Gavin Newsom, D-Calif., long considered a potential 2028 presidential candidate, has invited President Donald Trump’s allies and conservative guests, including Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon, onto his new podcast to show he is open to ‘criticism and debate without demeaning or dehumanizing one another.’ The strategy follows criticism after the 2024 presidential election that Democrats didn’t prioritize new media appearances and unscripted conversations enough. 

Meanwhile, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has been jet-setting across the country on the ‘Fighting Oligarchy’ tour alongside another potential 2028 presidential candidate, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. The self-described Democratic socialists have amassed tens of thousands of supporters to what they say are record-setting rallies for both politicians. 

Walz has been on his own cross-country tour, hosting town halls in Republican-held congressional districts. But the former vice presidential nominee has fallen into familiar missteps from the 2024 campaign trail – on the road and back at home. 

Walz was heckled by veterans at the Minnesota Capitol earlier this month for claims of ‘stolen valor.’ At a town hall in Wisconsin last month, a woman who registered for the event told Fox News Digital she was removed for filming Trump supporters getting kicked out. And during one of his first town hall events, Walz was slammed by Republicans for celebrating Tesla’s stock drop amid a spree of vandalism. 

While the Democrat said he was chosen by the Harris campaign to relate to White men, Walz has been unable to escape the nickname ‘Tampon Tim,’ coined by conservatives for his bill providing free menstrual products to ‘all menstruating students’ in school restrooms grades 4 to 12, including the boys’ room. 

Regardless of the comment or legislation, conservatives find a way to criticize ‘Tampon Tim,’ including when Walz claimed he could fight most Trump supporters earlier this year. 

Further reflecting on the Democrats’ 2024 losses, Walz said the party wins on the issues and ‘competency,’ but ‘we lose the message, and we lose power.’

‘Why have we lost the self-identity that the Democratic Party is for personal freedoms, middle-class folks, for labor folks. How did we lose it, where people didn’t self-identify with that? How did we get to a point where people didn’t feel like this was an important enough election to get out and vote?’ Walz asked during his speech Monday. 

Walz’s speech was on the eve of Trump’s first 100-day celebration, and he warned his fellow Democrats, ‘If you leave a void, Donald Trump will fill it,’ and added, ‘If I ever had 100 days to live, I would spend it in the Trump administration because it’s like a lifetime.’

‘It’s been 100 days of destruction. You think we can survive 550 more? That’s the challenge. That’s how long it is until the midterms,’ Walz said. 

A new government relations firm led in part by a former Trump lawyer has launched in Washington, D.C., with the aim of advocating for clients in the crypto and artificial intelligence space that has gained momentum since Trump’s election and inauguration. 

NexusOne Consulting, founded by attorney Jeff Ifrah of Ifrah Law, former Trump administration attorney Jim Trusty and former Trump Commerce Department official Ross Branson, opened its doors this week, marketing itself as a firm ‘focused on shaping federal policy and regulatory frameworks for clients in the emerging technologies sector, including AI, cryptocurrency and social media.’

Fox News Digital spoke to Ifrah, who outlined what he believed was a gap in the crypto and AI consulting space heading into the next four years of the Trump administration.

‘I think primarily before the Trump administration, there wasn’t really a need. It wasn’t like the industry was searching out D.C.-based advocates on a federal level,’ Ifrah said. ‘Shortly after Trump won the election it became kind of clear that these two verticals, AI and crypto, were going to need representation, and they previously hadn’t thought about that.’

Ifrah explained that his team did not see many firms with the necessary experience in the space and saw a benefit in ‘starting up a new shop with our kind of relationships and connections in the administration’ and ‘also paired that to a vertical industry we were familiar with you know, for which there wasn’t a lot of competition out there.’

In a press release, Trusty said, ‘NexusOne was launched to give the crypto, AI, and other emerging tech industries a seat at the table.’

‘We are perfectly positioned to help both the Executive Branch and private industry understand and appreciate each other’s roles and abilities in forging the new economy.’

NexusOne also unveiled members of the company’s advisory board, which includes Bill Bennett, former U.S. Secretary of Education under President George H.W. Bush, former GOP Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin and Andrew Graves, a Wall Street veteran who co-founded a nonprofit fundraising organization with Eric Trump. 

‘Headquartered across from the White House, NexusOne is the essential bridge between regulation and innovation,’ the company said in the press release. 

Bo Hines, executive director of the President’s Council of Advisers on Digital Assets, told Fox News Digital earlier this month that Trump is aiming to make the U.S. the ‘crypto capital of the world,’ and that the administration is well on its way to ushering in ‘the golden age for digital assets.’ 

Ifrah told Fox News Digital that many potential clients in the space are looking for a ‘seat at the table’ and he believes NexusOne is the firm to help them do that. 

‘Technology is outpacing policy, and that creates both opportunity and risk,’ Ifrah said in the press release. ‘We created NexusOne to ensure that companies at the frontier of innovation have a trusted, connected voice in Washington.’

‘There’s a once-in-a-generation opportunity to shape the future of tech policy. We’re here to make sure innovators don’t just react to policy—they influence it.’

A coalition deal in Germany has paved the way for conservative leader Friedrich Merz to become the country’s 10th chancellor since World War II. As part of the deal, outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s party, the Social Democrats (SPD), will join with Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

Both parties in the agreement have ruled out governing with the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD).

CDU, along with its Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union (CSU), won Germany’s elections in February after garnering 28.6% of the vote, according to Germany’s international broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW). 

The AfD secured 20.8% of the vote. Meanwhile, Scholz’s SPD won just 16.4% of the vote, their worst result since World War II, according to the Associated Press (AP).

The coalition agreement was put to a vote among the SPD’s more than 358,000 members via an online ballot. More than half, 56%, of the party’s members voted on the deal, and of those who cast their ballots, 84.6% were in favor, the AP reported.

CDU/CSU and SPD are looking to invest in Germany’s infrastructure, raise the minimum wage to $17.01 per hour and to cap rents, according to Reuters, which cited the coalition contract.

The coalition deal gives SPD several major positions, including the finance, justice and defense ministries, according to the AP. In total, SPD was able to secure seven ministry positions, DW reported. 

Additionally, SPD leader Lars Klingbeil is set to become vice chancellor and finance minister — a key position as the country deals with the ramifications of President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

‘In these very difficult times in global politics, we bear responsibility for our security, for economic growth, secure jobs and equal opportunities,’ SPD General Secretary Matthias Miersch said, according to Reuters.

Merz celebrated SPD’s approval of the agreement in a post on X, which was translated by Reuters.

‘The broad approval of our coalition agreement shows that the political center is capable of taking action and assuming responsibility. This clears the way for a strong government that will finally solve our country’s problems,’ Merz wrote, according to a Reuters translation.