President Donald Trump issued his ‘last warning’ to Hamas to accept his deal and release the remaining hostages or face the consequences.

‘Everyone wants the hostages HOME. Everyone wants this War to end,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social. ‘The Israelis have accepted my Terms. It is time for Hamas to accept as well.’

‘I have warned Hamas about the consequences of not accepting,’ he continued. ‘This is my last warning, there will not be another one! Thank you for your attention to this matter.’

Last month, Trump said the remaining hostages would only be returned when Hamas is ‘confronted and destroyed.’ At the time, Hamas was citing alleged progress in ceasefire talks.

In July, the U.S. and Israel pulled negotiators from Qatar after Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff said Hamas showed a ‘lack of desire to reach a ceasefire’ and was likely not negotiating in good faith.

On Aug. 26, Witkoff told Fox News’ Bret Baier on ‘Special Report’ that he and Trump wanted the hostages home that week. 

‘There’s been a deal on the table for the last six or seven weeks that would have released 10 of the hostages out of the 20 who we think are alive,’ he said, noting that he believes Hamas is ‘100%’ to blame for the hold-up.

Witkoff did not elaborate on what is delaying the hostages’ return, nearly two years after they were taken in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

Fifty hostages continue to be held by Hamas, only 20 of whom are assessed to still be alive. 

Trump previously predicted in late August that there would be a ‘conclusive’ end to the war in Gaza within the next ‘two to three weeks,’ though he did not say how this would be accomplished. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted that only a comprehensive ceasefire — one that ensures the return of all hostages and ends the war on Israel’s terms — will be considered.

Israel is preparing a new offensive in Gaza targeting Hamas, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said, as it expanded ground operations under Operation Gideon’s Chariots II.

IDF spokesperson Col. Avichay Adraee warned Palestinians in parts of Gaza City to leave ahead of an expected escalation. The warning included a map marking the area and highlighting one building the IDF planned to strike, citing ‘the presence of Hamas terrorist infrastructure inside or nearby.’

Fox News Digital’s Rachel Wolf and Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump issued his ‘last warning’ to Hamas to either release the remaining hostages or face the consequences.

‘Everyone wants the hostages HOME. Everyone wants this War to end,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social. ‘The Israelis have accepted my Terms. It is time for Hamas to accept as well.’

‘I have warned Hamas about the consequences of not accepting,’ he continued. ‘This is my last warning, there will not be another one! Thank you for your attention to this matter.’

Last month, Trump said the remaining hostages would only be returned when Hamas is ‘confronted and destroyed.’ At the time, Hamas was citing alleged progress in ceasefire talks.

In July, the U.S. and Israel pulled negotiators from Qatar after Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff said Hamas showed a ‘lack of desire to reach a ceasefire’ and was likely not negotiating in good faith.

On Aug. 26, Witkoff told Fox News’ Bret Baier on ‘Special Report’ that he and Trump wanted the hostages home that week. 

‘There’s been a deal on the table for the last six or seven weeks that would have released 10 of the hostages out of the 20 who we think are alive,’ he said, noting that he believes Hamas is ‘100%’ to blame for the hold-up.

Witkoff did not elaborate on what is delaying the hostages’ return, nearly two years after they were taken in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

Fifty hostages continue to be held by Hamas, only 20 of whom are assessed to still be alive. 

Trump previously predicted in late August that there would be a ‘conclusive’ end to the war in Gaza within the next ‘two to three weeks,’ though he did not say how this would be accomplished. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted that only a comprehensive ceasefire — one that ensures the return of all hostages and ends the war on Israel’s terms — will be considered.

Israel is preparing a new offensive in Gaza targeting Hamas, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said, as it expanded ground operations under Operation Gideon’s Chariots II.

IDF spokesperson Col. Avichay Adraee warned Palestinians in parts of Gaza City to leave ahead of an expected escalation. The warning included a map marking the area and highlighting one building the IDF planned to strike, citing ‘the presence of Hamas terrorist infrastructure inside or nearby.’

Fox News Digital’s Rachel Wolf and Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.

America’s so-called allies – Britain, France, Canada, Australia and others – are about to stab President Donald Trump in the back. The goal is to lay waste to the president’s signature foreign policy success – the Abraham Accords.

The Abraham Accords denied violent Palestinian rejectionists a veto over the normalization of relations between Arab states and Israel. Now Palestinians and their band of useful idiots have launched a coup. The scheme opens by overthrowing the fundamental principle of a negotiated settlement to the Arab-Israeli conflict. United Arab Emirates officials have speciously started blaming Israel for the Accords’ demise.

The staging ground for this ‘Et tu, Brute?’ moment is the United Nations. French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Sept. 3, 2025, that he, and his Saudi counterpart, have called upon world leaders to assemble at the United Nations in New York City on Sept. 22 and endorse this agenda. Formally, the substance has been committed to paper in what they are outlandishly calling ‘The New York Declaration.’

This means that by the time President Trump addresses the General Assembly on the following day, he will have been reduced to the guy with the broom bringing up the rear. His hopes and plans for peace in the Middle East will have already been rejected by virtually every head of state or government in attendance. 

The New York Declaration first appeared at the conclusion of a confab, chaired by the French and the Saudis, at the U.N. in July of this year. The United States and Israel stayed away. The vast majority of states ignored State Department pleas to do the same. 

The document weighs in at 30 pages of anti-Israel venom and attacks on American foreign affairs. It twists the horrors of Oct. 7, 2023 – when more than 1,400 Jews (and others in Israel) were murdered, raped, tortured and kidnapped – into a political win for Palestinians. 

Here are just some of the Declaration’s extraordinarily dangerous demands:

A ‘State of Palestine’ before ‘mutual recognition’ of the Jewish state. 

A Palestinian ‘right of return’ that would flood Israel with millions of Palestinians from the river to the sea – thus ending the Jewish state.

A fully armed Palestinian state (called a ‘one state, one gun policy’) and an indefensible Jewish state.

An arms embargo on Israel (‘ceasing the provision or transfer of Arms’) cutting off the country’s ability to defend itself.

A global pogrom to arrest and prosecute Israelis in national and international courts the world over.

Abandoning the hostages and rewarding the kidnappers by conditioning their release on Israel freeing convicted Palestinian criminals and fully withdrawing from Gaza. 

And here is what the Declaration does not mention: Jews. Judaism. The Jewish state. Antisemitism – the actual driver of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Even Jerusalem is only discussed in terms of Islamic and Christian rights. Jewish history is nowhere.

The Declaration represents multilateral bullying at its worst. But the United States is not powerless. 

The president has options:

Don’t go. If the event to adopt the Declaration on Sept. 22 isn’t canceled or world leaders don’t decide to pull out, then cancel the president’s appearance on the 23rd. President Trump doesn’t need the U.N. stage to be heard loud and clear. The U.N. needs America.

Send the U.N. packing. Back in 1988, President Ronald Reagan and Secretary of State George Shultz denied Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat a visa to speak at the U.N. The General Assembly reacted by temporarily moving to Geneva. Lesson learned: move the whole lot out of the USA for good.

Stop paying. Bypass the organization and fund directly only what is consistent with American values and interests and is fully accountable to the U.S. taxpayer.

Apply sanctions. Impunity for the Declaration’s signatories is the wrong message to send states that endanger American national security and undermine our vital foreign policy goals. 

On Oct. 7, Palestinian terrorists massacred the nationals of 69 countries and kidnapped people from 22. That’s the Palestinian multilateralism the United Nations is all set to reward. 

Failing to respond is not an option.

Following unrelenting criticism from the United Nations, the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) is once again being targeted by NGOs, even as it delivered its 155 millionth meal to Gazans on Saturday.

Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF has launched ads criticizing GHFMeta’s Ad Library shows that in August it ran several Facebook ads targeting the foundation. One ad read ‘This is not aid. This is orchestrated killing.’ Another said, ‘In MSF’s 54 years, rarely have we seen such levels of systemized violence.’

Both allegations are taken from an Aug. 6 article on MSF’s website in which General Director Raquel Ayora describes accounts received from patients reportedly injured around GHF sites. Ayora says aid seekers claimed to have witnessed ‘children shot in the chest while reaching for food. People crushed or suffocated in stampedes. Entire crowds gunned down at distribution points.’ 

GHF spokesperson Chapin Fay called MSF’s accusations, ‘false and disgraceful,’ saying that it is ‘amplifying a disinformation campaign orchestrated by the Hamas-linked Gaza Health Ministry. They know better. By repeating these lies, they’re not aiding civilians, they’re aiding Hamas.’

‘No civilians have ever been shot at any of our distribution sites,’ Fay told Fox News Digital.

Fay said that ‘Nearly every day, Nasser Hospital issues false reports to the media of civilians killed near our sites, based solely on testimony from others. Not a single MSF doctor has ever witnessed an incident near our sites. Any conflict between Israel and Hamas, sometimes several kilometers away, the Gaza Health Ministry falsely links to GHF.’

In response to questions about whether MSF employees have witnessed injuries or deaths at GHF sites firsthand, a spokesperson told Fox News Digital that, ‘MSF has documented the impacts of violence and chaos at GHF sites in Gaza, based on firsthand accounts of our personnel and patients at two clinical sites, as well as a body of medical data.’

MSF declined to respond to questions about how much money it has spent on ads targeting GHF, or whether it has advocated for medical care for Israeli hostages taken by Hamas. 

The MSF spokesperson added, ‘For the past 22 months, humanitarian organizations working in Gaza and the West Bank have consistently faced baseless and inaccuratesmear campaigns.’

Though there is growing outcry about purported violence near GHF sites, reporting from the United Nations indicates that there were twice as many deaths surrounding humanitarian aid convoys (576) as there were deaths around GHF sites (259) between July 21 and Aug. 18. 

A U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs update from August states there were 1,889 deaths near aid sites between May 27 and Aug. 18, 1,025 ‘near militarized distribution sites’ and 864 ‘along convoy supply routes.’ As of July 21, U.N. News reported there were 1,054 deaths at food distribution sites, with 766 near GHF sites, and 288 near U.N. and humanitarian aid convoys.

The U.N. Human Rights Office did not respond to a request for confirmation of these figures by press time. 

Amid tensions between GHF and humanitarian aid organizations, Fay said that GHF nonetheless provided support to MSF in early August after it requested help to ‘safeguard their medical aid from the elements.’ A GHF post on X from Aug. 7. showed what it said were pallets of MSF aid in GHF care. MSF did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request to confirm that they asked GHF for assistance with their supplies. 

When GHF staff were brought to Nasser Hospital after a Hamas attack in June that killed eight, they did not receive care from MSF staff, according to Fay.

A GHF employee’s written statement provided to Fox News Digital describes how wounded workers were taken to Nasser Hospital, where doctors refused to treat them. The witness said survivors were placed in a courtyard, where hospital staff incited others to beat them. One GHF employee was reportedly stabbed.

‘Three more GHF staff died due to their lack of treatment by Nasser Hospital. MSF doctors work there, yet claim they weren’t aware of the situation,’ Fay said.

In an Aug. 25 report following the Israeli bombing of Nasser Hospital, MSF said that it ‘has been operational in Nasser since before the conflict escalated in October 2023, providing trauma and burn care, physiotherapy, neonatal and pediatric services, and treatment for malnourished children, among other critical services.’

The Foundation for Defense of Democracies has reported multiple times since October 2023 that Hamas fighters have been operating out of Nasser Hospital. On Aug. 26, FDD senior research analyst Joe Truzman shared photos on X of two Hamas summonses that reportedly ordered individuals to come to Nasser Hospital for questioning.

MSF did not respond to questions about GHF employees failing to receive care or whether its staff at Nasser Hospital were aware of Hamas’ operations at the site.

In an online statement about the incident, MSF said it ‘has seen no credible evidence that healthcare was refused by Ministry of Health or other medical staff.’ The group also said ‘MSF staff have not been present in the emergency department of Nasser Hospital since 2024.’
 

On Saturday, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation announced a new initiative to provide medical care to Gazans through a program with Samaritan’s Purse.

In a statement on X, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said that in addition to treating wounds, injuries and infections, it was also helping pregnant women.

Senate Republicans are getting closer to changing the upper chamber’s rules to allow for a slew of President Donald Trump’s lower-level nominees to be confirmed, and they’re closing in on a revived proposal from Democrats to do it.

The hope among Republicans is that using a tool that Senate Democrats once considered would allow them to avoid turning to the ‘nuclear option,’ meaning a rule change with a simple majority vote.

‘The Democrats should support it, because it was their original proposal that we’re continuing on,’ Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., told Fox News Digital. ‘And I wouldn’t be surprised if they won’t. This historic obstruction by the Democrats is all playing to their far-left liberal base, who hate President Trump.’

Republicans met throughout the week behind closed doors to discuss their options and have begun to coalesce around a proposal that would allow them to take one vote to confirm a group of nominees, also known as ‘en bloc,’ for sub-Cabinet level positions.

So far, the only nominee to make it through the Senate with ease was Secretary of State Marco Rubio in January. Since then, various positions throughout the bureaucracy have stacked up and have not received a voice vote or gone through unanimous consent — two commonly-used fast-track procedures for lower-level positions in the administration.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said that before Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., was in charge of the Democrats, ‘this was always done in a way where, if you had some of the lower-level nominees in the administration, those were all voted en bloc, they were packaged, they were grouped, they were stacked.’

‘This is the first president in history who, at this point in his presidency, hasn’t had at least one nominee clear by unanimous consent or voice vote,’ he said. ‘It is unprecedented what they’re doing. It’s got to be stopped.’

And the number of nominees on the Senate’s calendar continues to grow, reaching 149 picks awaiting confirmation this week. The goal would be to make that rule change before lawmakers leave town for a week starting Sept. 22.

The idea comes from legislation proposed in 2023 by Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Angus King, I-Maine, and former Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md. Republicans are eyeing their own spin on it, such as possibly not limiting the number of en bloc nominees in a group or excluding judicial nominees.

Republicans would prefer to avoid going nuclear — the last time the nuclear option was used was in 2019, when then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., lowered debate time on nominees to two hours — but they are willing to do so, given that Democrats haven’t budged on their blockade.

They may only be making a public display of resistance, however.

‘Democrats privately support what Republicans are talking about,’ a senior GOP aide familiar with negotiations told Fox News Digital. ‘They’re just too afraid to admit it.’

Sen. James Lankford, who worked with Thune and Barrasso over the recess to build a consensus on a rule change proposal, told Fox News Digital that his Democratic colleagues acknowledged that they’ve ‘created a precedent that is not sustainable.’

‘But then they’ll say, ‘but my progressive base is screaming at me to fight however I want to. I know I’m damaging the Senate, but I got to show that I’m fighting,’’ the Oklahoma Republican said.

‘We feel stuck, I mean, literally,’ Lankford continued. ‘Some of my colleagues have said, ‘We’re not the ones going nuclear. They’re the ones that are going nuclear.’’

Klobuchar told Fox News Digital that she appreciated the prior work she’s done with Lankford on ‘ways to make the Senate better’ but wasn’t ready to get behind the GOP’s version of her legislation.

‘When I proposed that, it was meant to pass as legislation, which means you would have needed bipartisan votes, and the reason that’s not happening right now is because the president keeps flaunting the law,’ she said.

Not every Senate Democrat is on board with the wholesale blockade, however.

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., told Fox News Digital that lawmakers should all behave in a way in which administrations, either Republican or Democratic, get ‘those basic kinds of considerations’ for nominees.

‘That’s not the resistance,’ he said. ‘I just think that’s kind of unhelpful to just move forward. I mean, you can oppose people like the big ones, whether it’s [Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F.] Kennedy or others.’

Fox News Digital reached out to Schumer’s office for comment but did not immediately hear back. 

The deadly U.S. strike in the Caribbean this week is being cast by experts as the latest move in a broader campaign to dismantle Iran and Hezbollah’s growing narco empire in Venezuela.

U.S. officials say Tren de Aragua works closely with the Cartel of the Suns — a network of Venezuelan military elites long accused of moving cocaine in collaboration with Hezbollah.

White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told Fox News Digital that ‘President Trump has taken numerous actions to curtail Iran’s terrorist proxies like Hezbollah, such as sanctioning senior officials and financial facilitators. The President has proven that he will hold any terrorist group accountable that threatens the national security of our country by smuggling narcotics intended to kill Americans.’

Brian Townsend, a retired DEA special agent, told Fox News Digital, ‘This was a decisive blow against narco-terrorists,’ and said Hezbollah’s role is rarely visible but essential, ‘They don’t get their hands dirty. Instead, they launder and provide networks to help cartels send money through the Middle East. Simply, they take a cut from the drug trade, which then funds their operations in the Middle East.’

Townsend added that Hezbollah has become ‘a main finance and money launderer for narco-terrorism groups like Tren de Aragua,’ ensuring that when cocaine moves, Hezbollah-linked facilitators are often processing at least part of the proceeds.

Dani Citrinowicz, a senior fellow at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, said Hezbollah’s reach depends heavily on the region’s Lebanese diaspora. ‘Most of the Shia diaspora, at least in Central and South America, is Lebanese,’ he told Fox News Digital. ‘Hezbollah is the connector between the diaspora and Iran.’

Citrinowicz said the group uses family ties, language and community institutions to cement its influence across Latin America. ‘They appoint imams, fund religious centers and control educational programs … through these networks, Hezbollah can interact with local cartels, sell drugs, and channel the profits back to Lebanon through elaborate schemes.’

He said this role as a connector makes Hezbollah indispensable to Iran’s strategy in the Western Hemisphere. ‘The connection starts and ends with enmity towards the West in general, specifically to the United States,’ he said. ‘As long as Maduro is there, the Iranians will be there. But if Maduro goes, Iran will lose the most important stronghold of its activity in Latin America.’

Townsend stated the partnership works for both sides. ‘Iran’s partnership with Maduro enables Hezbollah to operate in Venezuela. Iran gets to safely operate, through Hezbollah, in the West without prosecution, and Maduro and his officials get paid well. Ultimately, Iran uses and exploits Maduro. Maduro doesn’t care — he and his friends benefit financially.’

Both experts pointed to state complicity as the key enabler. ‘Under Maduro and Chávez, Venezuela has become a major transshipment hub for Colombian cocaine,’ Townsend said. ‘There have been several indictments in the U.S. and Treasury OFAC designations that tie senior government officials directly to the use of state infrastructure — ports, air bases, even military convoys — to move massive shipments of cocaine. Cartel of the Suns, high-ranking military officers, run and protects these shipments. Who launders all of this drug money? Hezbollah.’

Citrinowicz emphasized Iran’s investment in Venezuelan power structures. ‘The enhancement is illustrated by several aspects: first and foremost, the military cooperation, especially Iranian factories building UAVs for the Venezuelan army, and constant Quds Force flights from Iran through Africa toward Venezuela,’ he said. ‘Iran is also teaching Venezuela how to bypass sanctions and has invested billions into the economy.’

Experts say Washington’s best leverage lies in choking the finances. ‘We need to aggressively target and choke these financial networks,’ Townsend said. ‘The priority is to attack the financial and logistical networks, indict everyone we can and pressure Maduro. If we can cut off the financial arteries, the cocaine won’t be as profitable.’

Citrinowicz agreed that the strike fits into a broader effort. ‘By weakening Maduro, the U.S. weakens the Iranian presence in Latin America and weakens Iran’s ability to threaten U.S. soil,’ he said. ‘The best way to weaken Venezuela is also to aim against the Iranian presence over there.’

For Washington, experts say Hezbollah’s narcotics empire in Venezuela is no longer just a regional problem. It is increasingly being treated as a direct threat to America’s security at home.

Vice President JD Vance stopped short of confirming a 2028 White House run during an appearance on My View with Lara Trump Saturday night, but he acknowledged the possibility—noting if he does his job well, ‘the politics will figure itself out.’

Vance, whose resilience amid an upbringing marked with family turmoil and economic hardship won over the nation, said he ‘doesn’t like thinking about’ a potential presidential bid and insisted his attention remains on his current role.

‘If we do a good job in 2025 and 2026, then we can talk about the politics in 2027,’ Vance said. ‘I really think the American people are so fed up with folks who are already running for the next job, seven months into the current one.’

The second-in-command added if he ends up running, he knows he will have to work for it.

‘There are a lot of great people,’ Vance said. ‘If I do end up running, it’s not going to be given to me—either on the Republican side or on the national side. I’m just going to keep on working hard. … [This] may be the most important job I ever had, outside of being a father to those three beautiful kids. So I’m going to try to do my best job, and I think if I do that, the politics will figure itself out.’

When asked specifically about potential 2028 Democratic candidates, he noted most of them ‘obviously have very bad records.’

Vance mainly focused on discussing his own ticket, praising President Donald Trump’s relentless work ethic and trusting leadership style and explaining the president ‘doesn’t have an off switch.’

‘Sometimes, the president will call you at 12:30 or 2 a.m., and then call you at 6 a.m. about a totally different topic,’ Vance said. ‘It’s like, ‘Mr. president, did you go to sleep last night.’ … What’s made this so much fun is the president, all the time, just saying, ‘JD you go and do this,’ or ‘JD you go and talk to these leaders about this particular issue.’ That ability to delegate and trust his people has been really amazing.’

In 1947, the United States War Department became the Department of Defense, as our nation was entering what would be four decades of Cold War with the Soviet Union, and taking its place as a global superpower.

On Friday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order bringing the original name back to the department created by George Washington in 1789. It brings with it a change that would have earned the hearty approval of our first president.

In the 78 years in which the United States has had a ‘Department of Defense,’ we never declared war a single time, but that didn’t stop thousands upon thousands of American soldiers from sacrificing their lives in Korea, Vietnam, and later, the Middle East.

During this time, the United States widely became known as the world’s policeman. Without actually declaring wars, we played a violent game of Twister across the globe, our Defense Department dipping its toes into conflicts across continents.

Too often, the role of our soldiers was not to kill the enemy, but to maintain order, and just as a police force is restrained from using total force against criminals, our military was too often simply not allowed to bring its full force to bear.

There is a fundamental and important difference between war and policing. Wars can be won, policing cannot. Policing is a never-ending struggle, and that is exactly what America’s military interventions felt like under the reign of the Department of Defense.

‘I want offense too,’ Trump has quipped about the name change. But what he really means is that he wants wars we can win, not endless nation-building boondoggles meant to maintain balance in a world full of conflagrations from Ukraine to Gaza.

Secretary of War, as he is now known, Pete Hegseth has made clear his priority is lethality, not just being a stick for diplomats to use. He wants an army, not a police force.

It was Carl von Clausewitz, the early 19th Century father of modern war, who defined military victory as compelling the enemy to do your will by destroying their desire and means to resist. That is something our military has not done in some time.

But that may be changing.

It was no accident that this cabinet-level name change occurred in the wake of the Trump administration blowing an alleged speedboat full of drugs and drug smugglers from Venezuela to smithereens.

Under the old rubric, that boat might have been stopped, its crew given Miranda rights. In other words, it would have been policed.

But does this mere police work actually work, per Clausewitz, to destroy the Venezuelan gangs’ and government’s will and means to flood our country with deadly drugs? It does not, it just maintains the status quo from the border to the graveyard.

But now, the next guys in line to jump aboard a drug-laden boat headed for Florida aren’t looking at possible jail time, in facilities all but run by their gangs. No, they are looking at a quick exit to eternity under the sea.

Likewise, Trump’s direct attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities sent a new message to the Ayatollah that if he goes too far, we will destroy him and his nation.

The Department of Defense, may it rest in peace, was a noble idea. It was launched in the spirit of ending war, not winning wars. It was meant to prop up democracies around the planet until all nations found the right and just path of freedom and capitalism.

It may have been worth a shot, but it just didn’t work, and that is why the Trump administration is returning to the original premise, that armies don’t exist to protect and serve the world, they exist to kill our enemies.

Not long after President Washington established the War Department, he would give a farewell address in which warned against engaging in foreign entanglements, and yet under the name Department of Defense, our military seemed to do little else.

President Trump is sending the message that the United States will no longer be defending itself through proportional half measures and never-ending peace missions. No, from here on out, the Department of War does not exist to contain or constrain our enemies, it exists, as it should, to destroy them.

Top Biden administration officials questioned and criticized the way the former president’s team handled pardons and made use of an autopen in the waning days of his White House term, a report said, citing internal emails.

A person familiar with the clemency process told Axios that after President Joe Biden pardoned his son Hunter on Dec. 1, 2024, ‘There was a mad dash to find groups of people that he could then pardon — and then they largely didn’t run it by the Justice Department to vet them.’ 

The news agency reported Saturday that several senior Justice Department officials raised concerns with the White House Counsel’s office regarding the process to pardon individuals.

Three days before Biden left office, the president announced that he was ‘commuting the sentences of nearly 2,500 people convicted of non-violent drug offenses who are serving disproportionately long sentences compared to the sentences they would receive today under current law, policy, and practice.’ 

‘With this action, I have now issued more individual pardons and commutations than any president in U.S. history,’ Biden said in a statement on Jan. 17. 

However, Axios reported that the following day, senior Justice Department ethics attorney Bradley Weinsheimer argued in a memo that describing those who were pardoned as nonviolent was ‘untrue, or at least misleading.’ 

‘Unfortunately and despite repeated requests and warnings, we were not afforded a reasonable opportunity to vet and provide input on those you were considering,’ Weinsheimer wrote, according to Axios. 

The news agency said Weinsheimer mentioned a man who pleaded guilty to murder-related charges. 

Weinsheimer described how the Justice Department labeled the man as ‘problematic,’ yet Biden commuted his sentence, Axios reported. 

‘I have no idea if the president was aware of these backgrounds when making clemency decisions,’ Weinsheimer reportedly added. 

Ed Siskel, the former head of the White House Counsel’s office, and representatives for Biden did not immediately respond Saturday to requests for comment from Fox News Digital.

Senior Biden White House officials also pushed back internally on requests to use the autopen, according to Axios, which cited emails it obtained. 

It said Biden White House staff secretary Stef Feldman repeatedly asked for more information and confirmation of Biden’s intentions with the autopen. 

‘When did we get [Biden’s] approval of this?’ Feldman reportedly wrote in a Jan. 7 email regarding the use of autopen to sign an executive order. 

‘I’m going to need email from… original chain confirming [Biden] signs off on the specific documents when they are ready,’ she was cited by Axios as writing in a Jan. 16 email about using autopen to commute cases linked to crack-cocaine sentences. 

The developments come as President Donald Trump has ordered an investigation into Biden’s administration, alleging that top officials used autopen signatures to cover up the former president’s cognitive decline. 

‘I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations. Any suggestion that I didn’t is ridiculous and false,’ Biden said in a statement in June.  

‘This is nothing more than a distraction by Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans who are working to push disastrous legislation that would cut essential programs like Medicaid and raise costs on American families, all to pay for tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy and big corporations,’ he added at the time. 

Fox News Digital’s Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.