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. 

President Donald Trump wrapped up the week Friday signing an executive order to change the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War. 

The executive order gives the green light to use the name ‘Department of War’ as a secondary title for the Department of Defense, along with terms like ‘secretary of war’ for Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, according to a White House fact sheet.

The order also calls for Hegseth to propose both legislative and executive actions to permanently cement the title as the U.S. Department of War.

Additionally, a White House official told Fox News Digital that implementing the order would mean making alterations to public-facing websites and office signage at the Pentagon. For example, one change on the horizon is renaming the public affairs briefing room the ‘Pentagon War Annex,’ the official said, noting other longer-term projects also will emerge. 

The U.S. previously used the Department of War title for its military agency until 1949, but modified it to the Department of Defense to align with multiple reforms included in the National Security Act of 1947.

Trump signaled in late August the change might happen. 

‘Everybody likes that we had an unbelievable history of victory when it was Department of War,’ Trump told reporters Aug. 25. ‘Then we changed it to Department of Defense.’

Here’s what also happened this week:

War on cartels

Trump also announced that the U.S. military strike against an alleged drug-laden Venezuelan boat in the southern Caribbean killed 11 suspected Tren de Aragua narco-terrorists Tuesday. 

Trump shared a video on social media Tuesday depicting the strike against the Venezuelan vessel, just days after he authorized sending three U.S. Navy guided missile destroyers to enhance the administration’s counternarcotics efforts in the region.

‘You had massive amounts of drugs,’ Trump told reporters Wednesday about the recent strike. ‘We have tapes of them speaking. It was massive amounts of drugs coming into our country to kill a lot of people. And everybody fully understands that fact. You see it, you see the bags of drugs all over the boat and they were hit.’

‘Obviously, they won’t be doing it again. And I think a lot of other people won’t be doing it again. When they watch that tape, they’re going to say, ‘Let’s not do this.’ We have to protect our country, and we’re going to. Venezuela has been a very bad actor.’

After the deployment of the destroyers, Maduro said Venezuela was ready to respond to any attacks and said the ship’s presence in the region was ‘an extravagant, unjustifiable, immoral and absolutely criminal and bloody threat.’

‘In the face of this maximum military pressure, we have declared maximum preparedness for the defense of Venezuela,’ Maduro said during a Monday press conference. 

Meanwhile, the Pentagon confirmed Thursday that two Venezuelan aircraft buzzed a U.S. Navy vessel in international waters. 

‘This highly provocative move was designed to interfere with our counter narco-terror operations,’ the Defense Department wrote in a statement posted to X. ‘The cartel running Venezuela is strongly advised not to pursue any further effort to obstruct, deter or interfere with counter-narcotics and counter-terror operations carried out by the U.S. military.’

Space Command HQ move 

Trump also unveiled plans Tuesday to move Space Command’s headquarters from Colorado to Alabama — putting an end to the controversy about where the command would be based. 

Space Command has been operating out of Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colorado, but Trump long has backed moving the command’s headquarters to Huntsville, Alabama. But in 2023, former President Joe Biden announced that the command would remain based in Colorado. 

‘The U.S. Space Command headquarters will move to the beautiful locale of a place called Huntsville, Alabama, forever to be known from this point forward as Rocket City,’ Trump told reporters Tuesday.

Just over a year ago, Matthew Thomas Crooks nearly blew off President Trump’s head at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Only by the grace of God did Crooks’ bullets miss their target by millimeters because President Trump had turned his head ever so slightly to look at an immigration chart. Crooks did manage to murder a rallygoer and seriously wound two others before the Secret Service killed him. Just under a year ago, Ryan Wesley Routh took his shot at President Trump, establishing a sniper’s nest at the Doral golf course where he knew the president would play later that day. Routh was a hole ahead of Trump when Secret Service agents spotted him. A gun battle followed, and Routh escaped, yet he was captured 50 miles away. He now sits in jail awaiting trial before Aileen Cannon, a superb federal judge.

While Cannon epitomizes the gold standard of the federal judiciary, Obama-appointed D.C. Chief District Judge Jeb Boasberg represents the garbage standard. Throughout the January 6 saga, Boasberg had no problem keeping defendants—even nonviolent ones—locked up before their trials, in part based on social media posts. He let off disgraced former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith with probation after Clinesmith had altered an email to secure a surveillance warrant against former Trump campaign official Carter Page. Boasberg claimed that Clinesmith would receive punishment from the disciplinary authorities (the D.C. Bar) in the form of possible disbarment; yet, Clinesmith kept his license. Then, Boasberg made clear early in the second Trump administration that he was itching for a fight, expressing his baseless concern to Chief Justice John Roberts that President Trump and his subordinates would violate court orders.

This March, Boasberg instigated the fight he had longed for when he illegally ordered planes full of Tren de Aragua terrorists and vicious MS-13 gang members to turn around after they had departed for Honduras and El Salvador. This was an ongoing military operation. The planes would have been in danger trying to fly back over the Gulf of America with minimal fuel. Additionally, there were not the appropriate security resources in place in the United States to deal with the return of hundreds of foreign terrorists and violent gang members, unlike the situation in El Salvador and Honduras where the proper resources were in place. The planes did not turn around, and Boasberg ‘found’ probable cause to hold administration officials in contempt. A D.C. Circuit panel reversed; yet, Boasberg, undaunted by the smackdown he had received, mused at a hearing about disciplinary proceedings against Trump Justice Department lawyers before the jurisdictions in which they hold law licenses.

This past week, Boasberg has outdone himself. Nathalie Rose Jones is a nutcase from Indiana who is staying in New York City. She thinks that President Trump is a Nazi and a terrorist, and she blames him for the deaths caused by the coronavirus. Earlier this month, Jones posted on Facebook that ‘I am willing to sacrificially kill this POTUS by disemboweling him and cutting out his trachea with [former] U.S. Representative] Liz Cheney and all the affirmation present.’ Jones then told the Secret Service that she would kill President Trump at ‘the compound’ (presumably the White House) if she had to and that she had a bladed object to accomplish her ghastly goal. The next day, law enforcement arrested Jones at a protest that had begun at Dupont Circle and wound up near the White House.

A magistrate judge correctly ordered Jones detained without bail. It is hard to imagine a clearer case of someone who poses a danger, but Jones found an ally: Boasberg. He decided to send Jones back to New York with an ankle bracelet, and he ordered her to see a shrink. Boasberg found the case hard because Jones had not brought a gun. Never mind that Jones had referred to a bladed object that she had somewhere ready to kill President Trump. Never mind that guns are easy to procure, even for convicted felons who are prohibited from possessing them by federal law. Never mind that Jones could have returned to the White House at any time after the day that she showed up without a gun. Francisco Martin Duran, a former Army sergeant, gave no warnings before he showed up at the White House early in President Clinton’s first term and fired off dozens of shots outside the gate. These maniacs often strike without warning, as Crooks and Routh also did. Jones has telegraphed what she wants to do to President Trump, and still it is not enough for Boasberg.

Boasberg has established a pattern of utterly horrific judgment. After his illegal order in March, Congressman Brandon Gill of Texas filed an article of impeachment. It is time to move forward with that article—and add to it based on the Jones farce, as well as the revelation of Boasberg’s grossly improper comments to Chief Justice Roberts. President Trump is only alive thanks to divine intervention; a millimeter and a millisecond could have changed the course of history.

Reckless robed partisans like Boasberg, however, do not appear to care about the danger the president faces.

Trump-deranged judge refuse to accept that he won the election, and they have put up roadblock after roadblock in an appalling effort to overturn the will of American voters. The disgrace of the Jones case is just the latest example. The time has come for the House to exercise its core Article I power and use a legal tool to curtail these judges: impeachment.

President Donald Trump has his sights on a new version of Air Force One as delays and cost overruns continue to plague Boeing’s long-awaited presidential aircraft replacements.

The most recent data from 2020 says at least 20 planes make up the executive fleet. A newly constructed plane has not been added in nearly 27 years. Some of the ones currently in service are expected to stay flying for another 13 years.

‘They’re not building the plane fast enough. I mean, they’re actually in default,’ Trump said about Boeing in a February interview with Sean Hannity.

Air Force One is used to designate any Air Force aircraft carrying the commander in chief. There are currently two highly customized Boeing aircraft that were deployed in 1990 when George H.W. Bush was president. The planes have since carried Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Trump, Joe Biden and now Trump once again.

‘I miss Air Force One,’ Bush said at an event for Veterans in 2014. ‘In eight years, they never lost my baggage.’

The two forthcoming Boeing planes have been plagued by delays due to the complex technology needed onboard Air Force One.

‘They’ve got to debug it, make sure there’s no signals intelligence risks. And I think just to make it secure against any potential military attacks. It was ironic for a long time. It was one of the Prince’s planes, which I think they were trying to sell. And now they’re giving it to the U.S., and it’s costing quite a bit to update,’ staff writer for the Free Press Jay Solomon said.

The Qatari jet is estimated to have a faster timeline than the two Boeing planes, but it still needs some of the same technology to make it Air Force One.

‘If you look at it just through economics, maybe it makes sense, but I still think the fact that we’re allowing a foreign country to gift something of that magnitude to a sitting president on top of all these other concerns,’ Soloman said. ‘I think it’s a risk, and it’s not a good look.’

Air Force One is required to have four engines, unlike most of today’s passenger planes which have two. Onboard is the highest level of classified communications and external protections against foreign surveillance. The planes are equipped with air-to-air refueling capabilities so they can fly for as long as is needed. Air Force One is built for the worst possible scenarios, like nuclear war, so that the president can still command military forces from the sky.

‘They’re extremely complex, and I’m not going to go into it, but they’re not like a normal plane. You know, it’s not like building a 747 normal,’ Trump said during his Middle East Trip on ‘Special Report’ in May.

Air Force officials say it is possible to add some of the security features to the Qatari jet, but it’s unlikely to have the full suite of technology by Trump’s February timeline.

‘Initially it was supposed to be like, maybe he’ll get it done by the end of his presidency,’ Solomon said.

Four modified Boeing 757s or C-32As are the newest planes in the executive fleet. Those were added in 1998 and 1999. The Air Force is studying potential replacement options, but the current planes will continue to fly until 2038. The aircraft are primarily used by the vice president, Cabinet members, members of Congress and other officials.

‘Even today and regardless of the airplane, we have to operate it differently based on the threat environment that even the current or any of the future aircraft will go into. Again, can’t talk in detail about that, but that is always a consideration,’ Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said during a June Senate Hearing. 

Air Force One isn’t the only aging plane; much of the executive fleet is more than two decades old. The aircraft have undergone modernization modifications, but officials have questioned the timeline for major updates as several incidents have taken place over the years.

In 2014, Obama was forced to switch planes during a campaign event in Philadelphia after a minor mechanical problem was reported on Air Force One.

In 2021, Vice President Kamala Harris’ plane requested an emergency return to Joint Base Andrews as she began her first foreign trip overseas to Guatemala and Mexico.

Most recently, Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s plane was forced to turn around while en route to Munich in February, after a mechanical issue.

The newest aircraft among the executive fleet are the Marine One Helicopters. Biden first rode in the newly designed Marine One in 2024 during the Democratic National Convention. Updating those took nearly two decades and in some cases replaced helicopters flying since the 1970s.

The Boeing 777X is expected to be the next new major commercial aircraft. It’s scheduled to enter service in 2026 after a nearly six-year delay with Lufthansa taking the first flight. The modernized plane is designed to have a folding wingtip, a touchscreen flight deck and wider cabin space.

President Donald Trump on Friday endorsed Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson as she runs to succeed retiring GOP Sen. Joni Ernst in Iowa.

Hinson — a former TV news anchor who is in her third term representing Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District, which covers the northeastern portion of the state — showcased her support for Trump as she launched her Senate campaign on Tuesday.

‘I’m running to be President Trump’s top ally in the United States Senate,’ she said. And in a Fox News Digital interview this week, Hinson highlighted that she’s ‘proud to stand’ with Trump.

Trump, in a social media post, said, ‘I know Ashley well, and she is a WINNER!’ 

‘I know Ashley well, and she is a WINNER! A Loving Wife and Proud Mother of two sons, Ashley is a wonderful person, has ALWAYS delivered for Iowa, and will continue doing so in the United States Senate,’ the president said. 

‘Ashley Hinson will be an outstanding Senator, and has my Complete and Total Endorsement – SHE WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN!’

Trump’s support followed earlier endorsements from Senate Majority Leader Sen. John Thune and the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), which is the Senate GOP’s campaign arm.

‘We need conservative fighters in the Senate — and that’s exactly what we’ll get with Ashley Hinson,’ Thune wrote early Friday as he endorsed Hinson.

And NRSC chair Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina said, ‘Having traveled Iowa with Ashley, I know she is the fighter the Hawkeye State needs to deliver President Trump’s agenda in 2026 and beyond.’

Hinson doesn’t have the GOP primary field to herself. Former state Sen. Jim Carlin and veteran Joshua Smith had already entered the primary ahead of Ernst’s announcement.

But the support from Trump, Thune, and the NRSC will further boost Hinson, who was already considered the frontrunner for the nomination, and will likely dissuade any others from entering the primary. The president’s clout over the GOP is immense, and his endorsement in a Republican primary is extremely influential.

Hinson’s campaign launch came a few hours after Ernst, in a social media video, officially announced that she wouldn’t seek re-election in next year’s midterms.

‘After a tremendous amount of prayer and reflection, I will not be seeking re-election in 2026,’ the 55-year-old Ernst, who was first elected to the Senate in 2014, said in a video posted to social media.

Ernst, a retired Army Reserve and Iowa National Guard officer who served in the Iraq War, had been wrestling for months over whether to run for re-election in 2026. And in her video, she said, ‘This was no easy decision.’

Ernst first grabbed national attention 11 years ago with her ‘make ’em squeal’ ads as she won the high-profile Senate election in Iowa in the race to succeed retiring longtime Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin.

And Ernst highlighted in her video that ’11 years ago, Iowans elected me as the first female combat veteran to the U.S. Senate, and they did so with a mission in mind – to make Washington squeal. And I’m proud to say we have delivered. We’ve cut waste, fraud, and abuse across the federal government.’

Hinson, in a social media post, thanked Ernst for her ‘incredible service to our state and nation’ as well as for her friendship. ‘Iowa is better off thanks to your selfless service,’ she said.

In an Iowa radio interview on Tuesday, she said that among her priorities as she runs for the Senate are ‘secure borders, keeping men out of girls’ sports, cutting taxes for our working families, standing up for Iowa agriculture and helping our young Iowans who are trying to buy a house and start a family.’

Hinson also pledged to campaign across all 99 of Iowa’s counties, starting with a kick-off event on Friday.

And as she entered the race, Hinson was endorsed by Republican Sens. Jim Banks of Indiana, Katie Britt of Alabama, and Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma.

House Majority Leader Rep. Steve Scalise, Majority Whip Rep. Tom Emmer, House Republican Leadership Chair Rep. Elise Stefanik and Iowa House Majority Leader Bobby Kaufmann also backed Hinson.

Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) communications director Maeve Coyle, following Hinson’s announcement, argued that ‘Republicans failed to convince Joni Ernst to run for reelection, and now they may be stuck with Ashley Hinson, who has repeatedly voted to raise costs and make life harder for Iowans by voting to slash Medicaid, cheering on the chaotic tariffs that threaten Iowa’s economy, voting against measures to lower the cost of insulin, and threatening Social Security.’

Responding, Hinson told Fox News Digital, ‘I think they’re misinformed at best.’

And she charged that ‘when I hear the lies and the fearmongering coming out of the left, it’s to only cover up for the fact that they have no message and no real leader other than Bernie and AOC and now Mamdani in New York,’ as she referred to Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani.

‘If that’s the direction they want to take our country, I think Iowans are going to reject that wholeheartedly,’ she predicted.

Iowa was once a top battleground state that former President Barack Obama carried in his 2008 and 2012 White House victories. But the state has shifted to the right in recent election cycles, with President Donald Trump carrying the state by nine points in 2016, eight points in 2020, and by 13 points last November.

Republicans currently hold both of the state’s U.S. Senate seats – Ernst and longtime Sen. Chuck Grassley – and all four of Iowa’s congressional districts, as well as all statewide offices except for state auditor, which is held by Democrat Rob Sand, who’s running for governor next year.

But Democrats in Iowa are energized after flipping two GOP-held state Senate seats in special elections so far this year.

Five Democrats are already running for Senate in Iowa. The field includes state Rep. Josh Turek, a Paralympian wheelchair basketball player, state Sen. Zach Wahls, Knoxville Chamber of Commerce executive director Nathan Sage and Des Moines School Board Chair Jackie Norris.

‘An open seat in Iowa is just the latest example of Democrats expanding the senatorial map,’ Lauren French, spokesperson for the Democrat-aligned Senate Majority PAC, said in a statement.

But Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), said in a statement, ‘The NRSC is confident Iowans will elect a Republican to continue fighting for them and championing President Trump’s agenda in 2026.’

Republicans are aiming to not only defend, but expand, the current 53-47 Senate majority in next year’s elections.

Senate Republicans enjoyed a favorable map in the 2024 cycle as they flipped four seats from blue to red to win back the majority.

But the party in power – the Republicans – traditionally faces political headwinds in the midterm elections. Nevertheless, a current read of the 2026 map indicates the GOP may be able to go on offense in some key states.

In battleground Georgia, which Trump narrowly carried in last year’s White House race, Republicans view first-term Sen. Jon Ossoff as the most vulnerable Democrat incumbent up for re-election next year.

They’re also targeting battleground Michigan, where Democratic Sen. Gary Peters is retiring at the end of next year, and swing state New Hampshire, where longtime Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen decided against seeking a fourth six-year term in the Senate.

Also on the NRSC’s target list is blue-leaning Minnesota, where Democratic Sen. Tina Smith isn’t running for re-election.

But the GOP is defending an open seat in battleground North Carolina, where Republican Sen. Thom Tills decided against seeking re-election. And Republicans will likely be forced to spend resources to defend Sen. Jon Husted of Ohio – who was appointed to succeed former senator and now-Vice President JD Vance – as he faces off next year against former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown.

Meanwhile, Democrats are also targeting moderate Sen. Susan Collins – who has yet to announce her expected 2026 re-election — in blue-leaning Maine.