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.

Attorney General Pam Bondi will issue several major directives on her first day leading the Justice Department, including orders to combat the weaponization of the legal system; make prosecutors seek the death penalty when appropriate; and work with the Department of Homeland Security to ‘completely eliminate’ cartels and transnational criminal organizations, Fox News Digital has learned.

Bondi was confirmed by the Senate Tuesday night as attorney general of the United States and was sworn in on Wednesday. 

Fox News Digital exclusively obtained memos outlining Bondi’s first-day directives, which will lay the groundwork for the Justice Department under her leadership. 

Bondi issued a directive regarding ‘zealous advocacy.’ Bondi said DOJ attorneys’ responsibilities include ‘aggressively enforcing criminal laws passed by Congress, but also vigorously defending presidential policies and actions on behalf of the United States against legal challenges.’ 

‘The discretion afforded Justice Department attorneys with respect to those responsibilities does not include latitude to substitute their personal political views or judgments for those that prevailed in the election,’ the memo states. 

‘When Justice Department attorneys refuse to faithfully carry out their role by, for example, refusing to advance good-faith arguments or declining to sign briefs, it undermines the constitutional order and deprives the President of the benefit of his lawyers,’ the memo continues. 

Bondi, in the memo, states that ‘any Justice Department attorney who declines to sign a brief, refuses to advance good-faith arguments on behalf of the Trump administration, or otherwise delays or impedes the Justice Department’s mission will be subject to discipline and potentially termination.’ 

Bondi is set to establish the ‘Weaponization Working Group,’ which will review the activities of all law enforcement agencies over the past four years to identify instances of ‘politicized justice.’ 

The working group’s first reviews will include prosecutions against Trump led by former Special Counsel Jack Smith; Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg; and the civil fraud case brought against Trump and his family by New York Attorney General Letitia James. 

The working group will also review any potential prosecutorial abuse regarding Jan. 6, 2021; the FBI’s targeting of Catholic Americans; the Justice Department’s targeting of parents at school board meetings; and abuses Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances, or FACE, Act. 

Meanwhile, Bondi also will end the moratorium on federal executions and order that federal prosecutors at the Department of Justice, including U.S. attorney’s offices, seek the death penalty when appropriate —specifically with a focus on violent drug trafficking crimes. 

Bondi also ordered that the Justice Department ‘re-evaluate instances of the prior administration electing not to seek the death penalty.’ 

Bondi also is expected to rescind any DOJ policies that are ‘not sufficiently in line with President Trump’s death penalty executive order.’ 

The move represents a major reversal from the Justice Department’s view of the death penalty under the Biden administration. In 2021, Biden allowed the DOJ to issue a moratorium on federal executions. 

In December 2024, Biden commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 criminals on federal death row, which President Donald Trump, in his executive order on the death penalty, described as the ‘most vile and sadistic rapists, child molesters, and murderers on Federal death.’ 

Bondi said she is now also directing the Justice Department to achieve justice for the families of the victims of the 37 murderers that had their death sentences commuted. 

As for cartels, Bondi is directing the Justice Department to work closely with the Department of Homeland Security and other federal partners to ‘completely eliminate’ the threats of cartels and transnational criminal organizations. 

Bondi plans to re-imagine charging priorities relating to those cases in order to ensure that law enforcement resources are focused on dismantling the foundational operational capacity of cartels, as opposed to just picking off low-level offenders. 

Here, the Justice Department is expected to temporarily suspend some ‘bureaucratic approvals and reviews’ in order to prioritize speedy prosecutions and captures of those accused of severe offenses like capital crimes, terrorism, or aiding the operations of cartels. 

Bondi said Joint Task Force Vulcan, which was created to destroy MS-13, and Joint Task Force Alpha, which was created to fight human trafficking, would be ‘further empowered and elevated’ to the Office of the Attorney General. Their missions are expected to expand—specifically Vulcan’s—with a new focus on destroying Tren de Aragua. 

Also on the cartel front, Bondi is directing the DOJ Office of Legal Policy to find legislative reforms to target equipment designed to make fentanyl pills and add Xylazine, a new deadly drug, to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act. 

And as for illegal migrants, Bondi has directed the DOJ to pause all federal funding for sanctuary cities. 

Bondi has also directed the DOJ to identify and evaluate all funding agreements with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that provide support to illegal aliens. 

She is also directing litigating components of the Justice Department to investigate instances of jurisdictions that are impeding law enforcement, and directing they be prosecuted, when necessary. 

Meanwhile, Bondi will also create a new Joint Task Force on October 7 focused on holding Hamas accountable for its crimes against Jews during its terror attack in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. The task force will also ‘achieve justice for victims and fight terrorist-led anti-Semitism.’ 

The task force on Oct. 7 will pursue criminal charges where applicable against Hamas; seek the arrest and extradition of Hamas leadership; and investigate anti-Semitism in the United States. 

Bondi is also directing the FBI to staff the joint task force with personnel ‘significantly experienced in investigating terrorism.’ 

Beyond those directives, Bondi is directing the DOJ to confirm the termination of all Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs at the department by March 15. She also is demanding the removal of all references to DEI in training programs—specifically ending the emphasis on race and sex-based criteria and refocusing hiring and promotion guidelines ‘solely on merit.’ 

Bondi will also work with the Department of Education to ensure that educational institutions receiving federal grants are adhering to ‘fair admission practices.’ 

Bondi, a longtime prosecutor and former Florida attorney general, has vowed not to use her position to advance any political agenda, testifying to the Senate Judiciary Committee that ‘politics has to be taken out of this system.’ 

Bondi told lawmakers in January that the ‘partisanship, the weaponization’ at the Justice Department ‘will be gone.’ 

‘America will have one tier of justice for all,’ she said. 

Before Bondi was confirmed, Fox News Digital exclusively reported that the Trump Justice Department fired more than a dozen key officials who worked on former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team prosecuting Trump, after Acting Attorney General James McHenry said they could not be trusted in ‘faithfully implementing the president’s agenda.’ 

And Friday, acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove issued a memo to the acting FBI director directing him to terminate eight FBI employees and identify all current and former bureau personnel assigned to Jan. 6 and Hamas cases for an internal review. 

After the directive, on Tuesday, a group of nine FBI agents filed a lawsuit seeking to block the public identification of any FBI employees who worked on the Jan. 6 investigations into the U.S. Capitol riots in an attempt to head off what they described as potentially retaliatory efforts against personnel involved in the probe.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi was sworn in to lead the Justice Department on Wednesday, where the nation’s newly minted top prosecutor is expected to spend her first days dealing with a firestorm of reassignments, lawsuits and resignations from senior law enforcement officials, despite early efforts to urge calm and head off any fears of politicization.

Bondi was sworn in at the Oval Office Wednesday by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, in front of an audience packed with her friends and family.

President Donald Trump, for his part, praised Bondi after the ceremony as ‘unbelievably fair and unbelievably good,’ and someone who he said will ‘restore fair and impartial justice’ at the department. 

‘I know I’m supposed to say, ‘She’s going to be totally impartial with respect to Democrats,” Trump told reporters, ‘and I think she will be as impartial as a person can be.’

Bondi’s nomination had earned praise both from Republicans and some Democrats for her composure and her ability to deftly navigate thorny and politically tricky topics and lines of questioning from some would-be detractors – putting her on a glide path to confirmation in the Republican-majority chamber.

Her nomination had also earned the praise of more than 110 former senior Justice Department officials, including former attorneys general and dozens of Democratic and Republican state attorneys general, who praised her experience and work across party and state lines.

Still, her swearing-in comes at a politically charged time for law enforcement agency. Just hours earlier, two groups of FBI agents filed separate lawsuits Tuesday seeking to block any public identification of employees who worked on Jan. 6 investigations, after the bureau complied with a request from Acting U.S. Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove to obtain information from thousands of agents, or their supervisors, detailing their role in the sprawling investigation. 

Questions ranged from agents’ participation in any grand jury subpoenas, whether the agents worked or responded to leads from another FBI field office, or if they worked as a case agent for investigations. 

The plaintiffs said any effort to review or discriminate against FBI employees involved in the Jan. 6 investigations would be ‘unlawful and retaliatory,’ and a violation of civil service protections under federal law.

Bondi, a former Florida prosecutor and state attorney general, vowed repeatedly in her confirmation hearing last month to head up a Justice Department free from political influence or weaponization.

If confirmed, she told lawmakers last month, the ‘partisanship, the weaponization’ at the Justice Department ‘will be gone.’ 

‘America will have one tier of justice for all,’ she said. 

Still, her work will be cut out for her. 

Earlier Wednesday, a senior FBI official also emailed employees at the bureau seeking to head off concerns that they could be terminated or discriminated against in response to their role in the investigation. 

‘Let me be clear: No FBI employee who simply followed orders and carried out their duties in an ethical manner with respect to January 6 investigations is at risk of termination or other penalties,’ this person said in an email shared across the FBI, and confirmed to Fox News. 

Trump declined to answer questions earlier this week over whether his administration would remove FBI employees involved in the investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot, telling reporters only that he believes the bureau is ‘corrupt’ and that his nominee for FBI director, Kash Patel, will ‘straighten it out.’

And former Justice Department officials have cited concerns that the actions could have an incredibly chilling effect on the work of the FBI, including its more than 52 separate field offices, whose agents have decades of experience in detecting and responding to counterterrorism threats, organized and violent crime, drug trafficking, and more.

But one retired FBI agent urged calm, noting to Fox News 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.’

The Palestinian terrorist group whose attack on Israel launched the war in Gaza is now calling President Donald Trump’s proposal for the U.S. to rebuild the territory a ‘recipe for creating chaos and tension in the region.’ 

Trump sent shockwaves throughout the Middle East after announcing last night that the U.S. will ‘take over the Gaza Strip,’ level it and rebuild the area. 

‘Instead of holding the Zionist occupation accountable for the crime of genocide and displacement, it is being rewarded, not punished,’ Hamas told the Associated Press Wednesday. 

Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, led to the Israeli military entering the Gaza Strip in their mission to eliminate the Palestinian terrorist group. As a result, the conflict has rendered much of the territory uninhabitable. The U.N. estimated late last year that 1.9 million people – around 90% of Gaza’s population – have been internally displaced. 

Hamas added to the AP that Trump’s plan is a ‘recipe for creating chaos and tension in the region.’ 

‘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 also told Fox News on Wednesday.

‘We demand that the mediators, especially the United States, oblige the occupation to implement the ceasefire agreement in its three stages without procrastination or manipulation, as we are committed to implementing the agreement as long as the occupation commits to it, and any manipulation in implementing the agreement may cause it to collapse,’ the official added.

Trump announced in a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House Tuesday that ‘The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it, too,’

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

‘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,’ Trump also 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.’ 

Fox News’ Chief Foreign Correspondent Trey Yingst said the timing of Trump’s comments ‘raises huge questions about the current ceasefire agreement that is supposed to see the remaining hostages released from Gaza.’

‘There are dozens of living hostages inside the Gaza Strip right now being held by Hamas, the group that is currently in control of Gaza. And it would not be surprising if tomorrow, Hamas threatens to step back from the current agreement or puts more pressure at the negotiating table,’ Yingst said in a video posted on X last night.

‘But the timing of these remarks is very significant remembering that these hostages remain in Hamas captivity and Palestinians being removed from Gaza has been a red line not only for Hamas but for regional countries including Egypt, Jordan and others as it relates to the Palestinian people there,’ he added. 

Fox News’ Trey Yingst and Emma Colton contributed to this report. 

After President Donald Trump announced that America ‘will take over the Gaza strip,’ Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., pushed back against the idea, suggesting that the move would betray the ‘America First’ principle Trump voters expected.

During his inauguration speech last month, Trump unequivocally declared that throughout his administration he will ‘put America first,’ echoing a longstanding pillar of his political philosophy, which he also expressed during his 2017 inaugural address.

But Paul is throwing a red flag in response to Trump’s newly unveiled Gaza plans.

‘The pursuit for peace should be that of the Israelis and the Palestinians. I thought we voted for America First. We have no business contemplating yet another occupation to doom our treasure and spill our soldiers blood,’ Paul declared in a Wednesday post on X.

The senator made the comment in response to a post in which Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared on Tuesday, ‘Gaza MUST BE FREE from Hamas. As @POTUS shared today, the United States stands ready to lead and Make Gaza Beautiful Again. Our pursuit is one of lasting peace in the region for all people.’

While delivering remarks alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanhyahu on Tuesday, Trump said that Palestinians should be settled outside the Gaza Strip, and that the U.S. will transform the region, which he described as a ‘demolition site.’

‘The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip,’ Trump declared, saying, ‘we’ll own it, and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site … level it out, create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area.’

‘I do see a long term ownership position,’ Trump said of the region.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., called Trump’s proposal ‘ethnic cleansing.’

‘This president is openly calling for ethnic cleansing while sitting next to a genocidal war criminal. He’s perfectly fine cutting off working Americans from federal funds while the funding to the Israeli government continues flowing,’ she declared in a post on X.

In a post on another X account she declared, ‘Palestinians aren’t going anywhere. This president can only spew this fanatical bulls— because of bipartisan support in Congress for funding genocide and ethnic cleansing. It’s time for my two-state solution colleagues to speak up.’

Rep. Diana Harshbarger, R-Tenn., welcomed the president’s remarks.

‘This is what the leader of the free world looks like, folks. President Trump campaigned on securing peace in Gaza, and he’s doing just that. Promises made, promises kept — it’ll never get old,’ she said in a tweet.

An internal memo being circulated to House Republicans is urging lawmakers to argue that President Donald Trump’s handling of foreign aid is ‘already paying dividends’ and that the Biden administration spent that money on initiatives like ‘a transgender opera in Colombia through the State Department.’

The three-page document, obtained by Fox News Digital through a House GOP source, is being sent to members of Republican leadership as well as lawmakers on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

It includes two pages of recommended talking points, including, ‘America is spending $40 billion in foreign aid annually. Much of those aid dollars are not even reaching the intended recipients and are instead propping up an NGO industrial complex that has, for years, swindled the American taxpayer.’

The memo urged Republicans to argue Trump’s freeze on foreign aid ‘is needed because it’s nearly impossible to evaluate foreign aid programs when they are on autopilot.’

‘A 90-day review period, with commonsense waivers for truly life-threatening situations, is the only way to give the State Department the time needed to root out waste,’ it said.

The State Department issued a freeze on most federal foreign aid days after Trump was sworn into office. Within recent days, Trump and Elon Musk’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ (DOGE) have also led a significant scale-back of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), including making Secretary of State Marco Rubio its acting head.

Opponents of the moves have said it would embolden authoritarian governments that want to see the United States’ stature on the world stage diminished and that it would imperil thousands of lives abroad that depend on the aid.

But Republicans like House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Brian Mast, R-Fla., a top Trump ally, argue that the moves are justified to evaluate what money is actually going to foreign assistance that aligns with Trump’s agenda.

‘America’s foreign aid is not charity and its goal should not be to advance DEI abroad,’ the committee wrote on X on Monday.

The memo also encouraged lawmakers to point out existing exceptions for ’emergency food assistance’ and ‘life-saving medicine, medical services, food, shelter, and subsistence assistance, as well as supplies and reasonable administrative costs as necessary to deliver such assistance.’

The third page is dedicated to highlighting where committee Republicans tracked foreign aid as going toward, including ‘$39,652 to host seminars at the Edinburgh International Book Festival on gender identity and racial equality through the State Department’ and ‘$425,622 to help Indonesian coffee companies become more climate and gender friendly through USAID.’

Other priorities listed included ‘$14 million in cash vouchers for migrants at the southern border through the State Department,’ ‘$446,700 to promote the expansion of atheism in Nepal through the State Department’ and ‘$32,000 for an LGBTQ-centered comic book in Peru.’

A group of House Democrats said they were denied entry into USAID headquarters on Monday amid reports of a scale-back in senior officials and others.

‘We are not going to let this injustice happen. Congress created this agency with the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, and if you want to change it, you got to change that law,’ said Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va.

It’s not clear if all Republicans are on board with Trump’s push, however. A vote to defund USAID last year led by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., failed with 127 GOP lawmakers voting against it, compared to 81 in support.

But Trump’s handling of foreign aid has been backed by Republicans known to be national security hawks, including previous House Foreign Affairs Chair Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas.

‘President Trump and his team are right to scrutinize and revamp U.S. foreign aid distribution to ensure every taxpayer dollar serves its intended purpose. And I am optimistic they will do it in a way that strengthens the intention behind these programs and strengthens our national security,’ McCaul said.