WASHINGTON, D.C. – Protesters rallying against the sweep of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) say that ending ‘corporate welfare’ should be prioritized over looking at money being reportedly funneled to terror-linked groups.

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been conducting a review of ‘waste’ identified within USAID, the government agency that handles the distribution of foreign aid.

According to an analysis by the Middle East Forum, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, the USAID and State Department have funneled at least $122 million to groups aligned with designated terrorists and their supporters. A White House report also identified $15 million of taxpayer dollars being spent on condoms for the Taliban, a known terrorist group.

On Wednesday, Fox News Digital asked individuals protesting the USAID cuts outside the U.S. Capitol their thoughts about the agency reportedly funding terrorist-aligned groups. 

‘I don’t want to hear anything about funding until we stop corporate welfare,’ one protester, who was wearing a mask, told Fox News Digital.

‘I think before we talk about funding that we’re sending off to other countries or devoting to poor people in this country that need help,’ he added, ‘we need to talk about the billions in subsidies that we give to corporations like Tesla, like Space X.’

Another individual, also wearing a mask, said giving money to issues that don’t prioritize helping Americans is ‘crazy.’

‘We need to be worrying about our people. We’re not out here giving money to help our people here and suffering,’ they told Fox. ‘Any money going toward other issues is just crazy.’

Asked about funding to terrorist-linked groups, Michael, a member of Veterans for Peace, said, ‘Funding has to be looked at, but I would suspect that that’s a very small minority of the funding that the U.S. does.’

‘Foreign aid is less than 1% of the U.S. budget. So it’s a very small monetary number,’ he added. ‘And like all programs, it needs to be evaluated every so often. And I think that the small number of programs who supposedly are connected with unsavory type groups are in the minority.’

The protesters all expressed opposition to Musk’s role in the Trump administration as he spearheads efforts to cut costs within the federal government.

‘If the White House would take the time to look at where the funding goes, I think they’d be more than happy with the results and the impact of U.S. taxpayer dollars to make the U.S. safer, stronger, and more prosperous,’ said Mary, who is retired.

Several Democratic lawmakers spoke at the rally, including Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine of Virginia, Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, and Reps. John Garamendi and Lateefah Simon of California.

The White House issued a report that revealed where taxpayer dollars have been funneled through the agency, such as over $400,000 to ‘help Indonesian coffee companies become more climate and gender friendly through USAID.’

Musk said on X that he and President Donald Trump came to an agreement that the agency needed to be shut down.

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

Energy Secretary Chris Wright has outlined eight ‘Day 1 Priorities’ he aims to accomplish, several of which he laid out in his inaugural address at the Energy Department headquarters Wednesday. 

Wright, the CEO of Colorado oilfield services company Liberty Energy, said he will prioritize refilling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), modernizing the U.S. nuclear stockpile, streamlining federal permitting for energy development, and abiding by the mantra: ‘Advance energy addition, not subtraction.’

In his remarks at the department’s building near Pierre L’Enfant Plaza in Washington, D.C., Wright spoke about his childhood love of science and how that focus led him to pursue work in the field.

Wright said he met President Donald Trump about a year ago, and the two businessmen connected over their support for unleashing American energy prowess and highlighting how U.S. energy dominance positively affects many other aspects of life.

Wright said Trump had a ‘simple vision’ that ‘energy is good and that we need more’ of it, particularly domestically-sourced.

‘So we just connected. And he asked me, ‘Would you be secretary of energy?’ And I said, ‘Boy, if I’m asked to serve my country, I don’t have to think about that one.”

He called the Energy Department the gem of the American government and said he has long been entranced by contemporary advancements in the field, from German chemist Otto Hahn splitting the atom in 1938 to Adm. Hyman Rickover creating the first nuclear-powered machines in submarines.

‘I want to better energize our country, strengthen our country, advance science… and get the politics out of all of this.’

‘Energy is not political: it is the basic infrastructure that allows us to live great lives, to allow whatever our dream is, whatever our vision is,’ he said.

Wright added that there is no such thing as clean or dirty energy, and that in reality, there is ‘no free lunch’ when it comes to the byproducts of the production process: ‘It’s about tradeoffs.’

Other ‘day one’ priorities Wright has outlined include a return to ‘regular order’ on liquefied natural gas exports.

Wright has been a longtime advocate of hydraulic fracturing – famously going as far as drinking fracking fluid to prove environmentalist critics wrong about its effect on nature.

Pennsylvania and North Dakota are epicenters of fracking, while New York retains the subterranean resources to do so but is under a statewide ban.

Wright has also pledged to strengthen the power grid’s reliability and security.

There have been blackouts occasionally in recent years from overtaxed grid areas, notably in California around 2001. 

There have also been security threats to energy transmission, including from a Catonsville, Maryland, woman who conspired to destroy the region’s power grid.

Then-FBI Director Christopher Wray said Sarah Beth Clendaniel ‘plotted to disable the power grid around the entire Baltimore region’ in 2018, after becoming acquainted with a Florida man who espoused White supremacist ‘accelerationist’ ideologies.

Under Wright’s tenure, the Energy Department also plans to promote home appliance affordability and choice – a break from the Biden administration’s efforts to restrict usage of gas stoves.

Former President Joe Biden also spent part of the nation’s SPR in what critics called a bid to assuage energy price spikes for political purposes. Wright said he would promote the refilling of the SPR, as well as modernize the U.S. nuclear stockpile, Fox News has learned.

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is working with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and has gained access to payment and contracting systems in search for potential fraud, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

Trump’s DOGE has already gutted USAID, but Musk argued on X that Medicare and Medicaid are where the ‘big money fraud’ is happening.

CMS oversees Medicare, the health coverage program for older and disabled Americans, and Medicaid, for lower-income enrollees, which provides insurance for over 140 million U.S. citizens.

The CMS regularly deals with improper payments that represent fraud or abuse but might also be due to a state, contractor, or provider missing an administrative step.

WSJ reported, citing one of the people familiar with DOGE’s work at CMS, that Musk’s allies have not been given access to databases that include identifiable personal health information of Medicare or Medicaid enrollees.

The new campaign comes just days after DOGE targeted USAID, leading to the firing of 50 top officials and the organization being folded into the State Department.

Signs were also removed from USAID’s headquarters in the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C., and the DOGE team took over the computer systems, sources said. USAID is responsible for distributing civilian foreign aid and development assistance to countries around the globe.

Musk referred to the organization as a ‘viper’s nest.’ The agency managed approximately $40 billion in appropriations last year, according to the Congressional Research Service.

The actions came after Secretary of State Marco Rubio, acting on Trump’s executive order, paused all U.S. foreign assistance funded by or through the State Department and USAID.

The 90-day pause has halted thousands of U.S.-funded humanitarian, development and security programs worldwide and forced aid organizations to lay off hundreds of employees because they can’t make payroll.

Fox News Digital’s Greg Wehner, Chris Pandolfo, the Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that President Donald Trump isn’t committing to deploying U.S. troops to Gaza after suggesting on Tuesday that the U.S. would ‘take over’ the Gaza Strip. 

‘It’s been made very clear to the president that the United States needs to be involved in this rebuilding effort, to ensure stability in the region for all people,’ Leavitt told reporters Wednesday at a White House press briefing. ‘But that does not mean boots on the ground in Gaza. It does not mean American taxpayers will be funding this effort. It means Donald Trump, who is the best dealmaker on the planet, is going to strike a deal with our partners in the region.’

Leavitt said that Trump is an ‘outside-of-the-box thinker’ who is ‘a visionary leader who solves problems that many others, especially in this city, claim are unsolvable.’ 

Trump announced Tuesday that the U.S. would ‘take over’ the Gaza Strip in a ‘long-term ownership position’ to deliver stability to the region. 

‘The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it, too,’ Trump said Tuesday evening in a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. ‘We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous, unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site.’

‘Level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out, create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area,’ he said. ‘Do a real job. Do something different. Just can’t go back. If you go back, it’s going to end up the same way it has for 100 years.’

Trump said that ‘all’ Palestinians would be removed from Gaza under his plan. But Leavitt described their removal as ‘temporary’ during the rebuilding process and said that Trump and his team were sorting out specific details with allies in the region regarding next steps. 

‘Again, it’s a demolition site right now,’ she said. ‘It’s not a livable place for any human being. And I think it’s actually quite evil to suggest that people should live in such dire conditions.’ 

But the proposal for the U.S. to take over Gaza has sparked massive backlash, including from the Palestinian, Iran-backed militant group Hamas, designated by the U.S. as a terrorist organization. 

‘What President Trump stated about his intention to displace the residents of the Gaza Strip outside it and the United States’ control over the Strip by force is a crime against humanity,’ a senior Hamas official told Fox News on Wednesday.

Trump’s statements also left Democratic lawmakers in shock. 

‘I’m speechless, that’s insane,’ Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., told Jewish Insider. ‘I can’t think of a place on Earth that would welcome American troops less and where any positive outcome is less likely.’

Some Republicans also voiced caution, and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told Jewish Insider that the proposal ‘might be problematic,’ but that he would ‘keep an open mind.’ 

‘We’ll see what our Arab friends say about that,’ he said. ‘I think most South Carolinians would not be excited about sending Americans to take over Gaza.’ 

Meanwhile, Sen. Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., didn’t appear fazed by the remarks. 

‘I think he wants to bring a more peaceful, secure Middle East and put some ideas out there,’ Thune told reporters on Wednesday. 

Fox News’ Emma Colton and Greg Norman contributed to this report.

: The Senate will look to beat House Republicans to the punch next week on plans to enact President Donald Trump’s agenda via the budget reconciliation process.

Ahead of a weekly lunch meeting hosted by Senate Steering Committee Chairman Rick Scott, R-Fla., a plan was unveiled by Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., to push for a committee vote next week on a first bill, with plans for an additional reconciliation bill later in the year, a Senate Republican source told Fox News Digital. 

The first bill would include Trump’s priorities for border security, fossil fuel energy and national defense. The second bill would focus on extending Trump’s tax policies from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA).

Senior White House staffers were also present at the Wednesday lunch, the source said.

It comes amid some infighting within the House GOP about what level of spending cuts to seek in order to offset the costs of Trump’s priorities. An expected vote this week to advance a resolution through the House Budget Committee is now likely poised for next week as well.

The first step in the reconciliation process is marking up and advancing a bill through the Senate and House budget committees.

House leaders had intended to make the first move in the process. The Senate passing their own bill first, however, would essentially force the lower chamber to contend with whatever product comes from the other side of Capitol Hill rather than start from a position of their own choosing.

It would also shift gears to a two-pronged reconciliation bill blueprint, something opposed by the House Ways & Means Committee and House GOP leaders.

Proponents of the one-bill approach are concerned about leaving Trump’s tax cuts, which expire at the end of this year, on the back burner. House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., previously referenced the fact that Republicans have not passed two reconciliation bills in one year since the 1990s, when they had a much larger majority.

Trump has said he prefers ‘one big, beautiful bill,’ but would be open to two.

Graham has notably been liaising with the House Freedom Caucus leaders on the subject all week, two sources told Fox News Digital. The caucus has preferred a two-pronged approach, in line with many Senate Republicans. 

By lowering the threshold for Senate passage from 60 votes to 51 out of 100, reconciliation allows the party in power to skirt its opposition to advance its agenda – provided the items included relate to budgetary and other fiscal matters. The House of Representatives already has a simple majority threshold.

But with razor-thin margins in the House and Senate, Republicans can afford precious little dissent to still get their priorities over the finish line.

Spending hawks on the House Budget Committee had balked at multiple offers by GOP leaders on a ‘floor’ for cutting back federal funding, calling for the baseline to be set at least at $2 trillion.

They’re also seeking assurances that House GOP leaders have a firm plan in place for those cuts.

Multiple House Republicans leaving their Wednesday morning conference meeting signaled they were growing anxious about the Senate jamming them with their own reconciliation bill.

‘I think there’s a lot of frustration right now,’ one House GOP lawmaker said. ‘There’s some concern now that if we don’t move forward with something soon, that the Senate is going to jam us.’

‘What we’re worried about is losing the opportunity. I think we’re more likely to cut than they are,’ a second GOP lawmaker said.

Johnson brushed off concerns that the Senate will act first in comments to reporters earlier this week, maintaining the House will take the initial step.

The head of the Senate Judiciary Committee slammed Democrats on the panel this week for their attempts to schedule a second confirmation hearing for President Donald Trump’s FBI director nominee, Kash Patel, describing the effort Tuesday night as a ‘delay tactic’ designed to stall Patel from taking the reins of the sprawling law enforcement agency. 

In a statement Tuesday night, Grassley criticized what he described as the ‘baseless’ attempt by Sen. Dick Durbin and other Democrats on the panel to push for a second hearing, noting that Patel testified for more than five hours before the committee and disclosed to the panel ‘thousands of pages’ of records, as well as nearly 150 pages of responses to lawmakers’ written questions. 

‘No one was convinced by the minority’s baseless efforts to mischaracterize and malign Kash Patel,’ Grassley said. ‘It’s additionally outrageous to assert that a nominee should come before the Senate to answer for government actions that occurred prior to their time at an agency.’

‘Further hearings on his nomination are unnecessary,’ Grassley concluded.

He said the committee still intends to vote on Patel’s confirmation as FBI director as early as next week.  

Grassley’s remarks – and his unrelenting support for Trump’s FBI director nominee – come after the Senate Judiciary Committee’s ranking Democrat, Dick Durbin of Illinois, urged Grassley to delay Patel’s confirmation vote Tuesday, citing what he described as ‘apparent falsehoods’ in Patel’s testimony last week, as well as the ‘recent removals and reassignments of FBI career civil servants.’

The letter, signed by all 10 Democrats on the panel, urged Grassley to delay Patel’s confirmation vote until Patel agreed to testify for a second time under oath about the recent removals and reassignments of FBI civil servants; and until DOJ agrees to provide the panel with volume two of former special counsel Jack Smith’s final report that refers or pertains to Patel’s testimony or actions, among other things.

‘Given the gravity of these matters, which bear directly on Mr. Patel’s integrity, his suitability to lead the nation’s premier law enforcement agency, and his regard for safeguarding classified information, we ask that the Chairman schedule an additional hearing for Mr. Patel to explain these matters in person,’ the Democrats said.

The letter – and Grassley’s swift dismissal of the effort – comes amid two new lawsuits from anonymous FBI agents that were filed separately this week. Both lawsuits sought to block any public identification of FBI employees who were involved in the Jan. 6 investigations into the U.S. Capitol riots after a list of agents involved and their roles was shared with DOJ leadership Tuesday afternoon in keeping with an earlier request from acting U.S. deputy attorney general, Emil Bove.

Both groups of FBI agents asked the court for emergency injunctive relief to block the names or identities of FBI agents involved in the Jan. 6 investigations from being shared, citing concerns that the probe or any retaliatory measures carried out as a result could have a chilling effect on the work of the FBI or spark retaliatory efforts inside the bureau. 

Lawyers for the Federal Bureau of Investigation Agent’s Association, a voluntary professional association representing more than 14,000 active and retired FBI special agents, told reporters Tuesday night that they see the Jan. 6 request as a ‘prelude’ to potential adverse action or mass layoffs in the bureau, citing fears that agents name could be subject to threats, harassment or targeting either by the public or inside the bureau.

To date, there are no known plans to conduct sweeping removals or take punitive action against the agents involved.

One retired FBI agent also urged calm, noting to Fox News in an interview that the acting director and deputy director of the FBI still remain in place. 

This person also stressed that the Jan. 6 investigation and the FBI personnel involved in investigating each case ‘fully followed Bureau and DOJ guidelines,’ and that violations of federal statutes were ‘proven beyond a reasonable doubt in federal courts of law.’

In 1992, Francis Fukuyama penned his famous ‘End of History’ essay in which he argued that former President Ronald Reagan’s Cold War victory had ushered in an age in which free market democracies would flourish almost by osmosis with a light, guiding American hand.

Thirty-five years on, after 9/11, after watching Communist China become a global powerhouse and Russia grow more belligerent, it is obvious that this careful management of neo-liberalism has failed. What we need is a new beginning of history, starting with President Donald Trump.

Of course, we all see the stark difference between the vibrant Trump and his immediate predecessor, Joe Biden, the first commander in chief who looked less alive in office than his Disney animatronic in the Hall of Presidents. But it’s more than that.

Every president since Reagan has essentially been a caretaker for Fukuyama’s vision of a world order in which the U.S., as the undisputed leader, puts its interests last, confident that ‘our way of life’ will inevitably dominate the globe.

The Bushes, Clintons and Obamas did not shape the world so much as they sought to preserve the shape created by Reagan’s Cold War victory. Today, we need Trump to see foreign affairs with fresh eyes, and so he is.

On Tuesday evening, the president shocked the world, and maybe even Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with whom he was sharing a press conference, by suggesting that the United States should take over Gaza and turn it into the Riviera of the Middle East.

On the domestic political left, and internationally, the idea of American Gaza was met with scoffing scorn and incredulity. But given the horrible conditions under which those in Gaza live and the intolerable threat they pose to Israel, we must ask why that is.

The answer is that, while the global institutions which neo-liberals created and rely on would never agree to Trump’s Gaza solution, these are the same groups that have failed to secure peace in the Middle East for decades.

Is trying something new so crazy? After all, it is the terrorists who favor the slow and steady status quo of death and destruction. Why give it to them?

And it isn’t just in the Levant that Trump is making waves. Regarding strategically vital Greenland and the economically vital Panama Canal, the new Trump Doctrine is not just that American interests should come first, but that putting them first actually benefits the entire world.

In all fairness, it made some sense in 1992 to think that, as the world’s lone superpower, the United States should be magnanimous and put developing nations first. But somewhere along the line, that magnanimity turned to self-loathing. 

In all fairness, it made some sense in 1992 to think that, as the world’s lone superpower, the United States should be magnanimous and put developing nations first. But somewhere along the line, that magnanimity turned to self-loathing. 

Former President Obama took such a dim view of American moral power that he preferred our nation lead from behind.

Under these caretaker presidents, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which was designed to burnish our reputation abroad, instead spent millions criticizing Western Colonialism and telling Africans they aren’t gay enough.

Reagan won the Cold War by keeping his eyes fixed on the aspirational America of the shining city upon a hill. Fukuyama mistakenly believed we had already achieved it and moved in.

Trump’s shining city on a hill may be a hotel and casino in Gaza, or a submarine base in Greenland. It might be freer passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. But what it will not be is more of the same.

It was Nietzsche who wrote, ‘In the mountains, the shortest way is from peak to peak; but for that one must have long legs.’ For too long, American foreign policy has labored in the valleys of conflict and discord, always waiting for the safest and easiest way to climb out, never quite managing to.

Like Reagan, Trump knows how to walk from peak to peak and how to ignore the naysayers who say change is impossible. 

At the end of history, one can only look backwards. Perhaps this is why we are a society of sequels and franchises rather than original stories, of old well-worn foreign policy paths, not new blazing trails.

At the beginning of history, all things are possible. There is no cynical past to foreclose on innovation and new ideas. 

Trump has no intention of managing the slow decline of America, nor simply standing athwart that decline yelling ‘Stop!’ No, for the first time in a long time, the American president sees new paths and visions for our nation, and under her leadership, for the entire world.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., called President Donald Trump’s proposal to ‘take over’ Gaza a ‘bold step’ toward restoring peace in the region.

‘Of course, the initial announcement yesterday, I think, was greeted with surprise by many, but cheered by, I think, people all around the world,’ Johnson said during his weekly press conference on Wednesday. 

‘Why? Because that area is so dangerous, and he’s taking bold, decisive action to try to ensure the peace of that region.’

Johnson also noted that conditions in Gaza needed to change in order to avoid another attack similar to Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas militants invaded southern Israel and killed more than 1,000 people. 

He stopped short of fully endorsing the action, however, and was later pressed again on whether he believed the U.S. should take control of Gaza.

‘This is a bold, a decisive move. And I think you have to do something to eradicate the threat to Israel. Here’s the problem – if you leave Gaza in its current form, there’s always a risk of another Oct. 7. There’s always a risk of proxies of Iran, all these terrorist organizations whose stated, openly stated goal is to eliminate Israel as a state,’ Johnson said.

‘So it just makes sense to make the neighborhood there safer. I think that’s logical. I think it follows common sense.’

Trump told reporters, ‘The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip,’ during a press conference alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday.

‘We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all the dangerous unexplored bombs and other weapons on the site,’ he said.

Trump said it would ‘create economic development that would supply unlimited numbers of jobs’ and the U.S. would turn the war-torn region into the ‘Riviera of the Middle East.’

Johnson said he would discuss the matter during his own meeting with Netanyahu on Thursday.