Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., blasted President Donald Trump and Elon Musk for undermining democracy, while comparing billionaire ‘oligarchs’ in both parties to ‘heroin addicts’ whose drug of choice is ‘greed,’ at a rally Monday night.

The comments came during a ‘Fight The Oligarchy’ rally in Idaho, which included an address by progressive ‘Squad’ Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. Both politicians took most of their time speaking on stage to blast Trump and Musk repeatedly by name, and blamed them for destroying democracy in an effort to provide benefits for their billionaire friends. 

‘I used to talk about oligarchy. And people say, What is he talking about? Everybody knows what I’m talking about tonight. When Trump got inaugurated, sitting right behind them were the three wealthiest people in this country: Musk, Bezos and Zuckerberg,’ Sanders told a raucous crowd in Nampa, Idaho Monday night.

‘Well, these guys, these oligarchs, have a major, major addiction problem. And you know what it is? It is greed,’ Sanders added during his Monday address. ‘They’re like heroin addicts. They can’t control themselves. They need more and more, and they do not care who they step over in order to get another billion dollars. So we are going to take care of their addiction problems.’

Sanders noted that billionaire ‘oligarchs’ can come from both political parties – Republicans and Democrats – but the night’s sentiment was directed towards those billionaires in Trump world. 

‘Understand that all of this right now is what it feels like to be governed by billionaires. This is what oligarchy feels like,’ AOC told rally goers. ‘This concentration of power, greed and corruption is oligarchy. It’s oligarchy in America, and we must acknowledge the terrifying moment that we are in right now.’

Both Sanders and AOC referenced the president’s inauguration as a key example of the ‘oligarchy,’ pointing to Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk being in attendance and sitting very close to the president. Sanders also noted the ’13 other billionaires who Trump had nominated’ to be in his cabinet, who were also in attendance that day.

Sanders and AOC also took their moment on stage Monday night to call for action. 

‘It will never be just institutions and politicians and officials alone that uphold our democracy. It will always be the people, the masses, who refuse to comply with authoritarian regimes, who are the last and strongest defense of our country and our freedoms. It is you. It is you Idaho,’ AOC told the crowd. 

‘We are here today because we choose democracy, we choose freedom, we choose justice. And that means we must choose to out-organize the oligarchy. We must do away with the power of big money.’

A man charged with making threats to murder President Donald Trump was also found to have threatened Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., a source with knowledge of the matter told Fox News Digital.

Mace’s office was informed by U.S. Capitol Police that Shawn Monper of Butler, Pennsylvania, made threats against her on social media in January, the source said.

The man allegedly wrote of Mace on YouTube, ‘If I ever see her unprotected in public I would live to be the one to put a bullet in her skull. What a disgusting peice [sic] of trash.’

Mace appears to be the only member of Congress targeted by the suspect for now, the source told Fox News Digital.

It’s not immediately clear why Mace, an outspoken Trump ally, was threatened.

But it comes amid concerns about escalating threats against elected officials on both sides of the aisle.

Trump, who was subject to two failed assassination attempts during the 2024 election, was targeted by Monper in a series of threats on YouTube, according to a release by the Department of Justice (DOJ).

The FBI ‘received an emergency disclosure regarding threats posted to YouTube by user ‘Mr Satan” between Jan. 15 and April 5, according to the release.

Monper also got a firearms permit ‘shortly following’ Trump’s inauguration, and posted in Februrary under the aforementioned username, ‘I have bought several guns and been stocking up on ammo since Trump got in office,’ the DOJ said.

Posts in March showed Monper threatening a mass shooting.

Further posts uncovered by federal authorities show him targeting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials and Elon Musk, the release showed.

The U.S. Secret Service was alerted to the suspect’s threats against Mace as well, the source told Fox News Digital.

U.S. Capitol Police said it would not comment on potential investigations when reached for confirmation.

Mace’s office did not immediately return a request for comment.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, D-Mich., said she regrets hiding her face during a meeting with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office last week. 

Whitmer poked fun at the now-viral moment by once again holding folders up in front of her face when asked about her trip to Washington, D.C., during an event at the Detroit Economic Club on Monday. 

‘… I don’t want my picture taken, that’s all it was. I kind of wished I hadn’t put my folder up in front of my face, but whatever. You know I was there … I just wrote a book about learning to laugh at yourself, so I’m pretty good at it. We all have our moments,’ Whitmer said. 

Whitmer was criticized for shielding her face as the photo became a meme on social media. Alex Meyer, deputy assistant to the president and White House director of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs who was standing to Whitmer’s left in the photo, joked that it’s his new profile photo. 

The Michigan governor’s trip to Washington last week brought her 2028 presidential ambitions into the national conversation as she struck a diplomatic tone with Trump. She carefully criticized Trump’s tariffs while saying she understood the ‘motivation behind the tariffs’ and even agreeing with Trump that we ‘need to make more stuff in America.’

Whitmer’s viral Oval Office moment marked her second meeting with Trump in less than a month. As Trump signed executive orders and answered questions from the press, he said Whitmer had ‘done an excellent job’ as governor and called her a ‘very good person,’ a break from his typical lines of attack on her character. 

‘One of her opponents will dig that clip up and put it in a television ad,’ Brad Bannon, a Democrat strategist and the president of Bannon Communications Research, told Fox News Digital. 

Bannon warned that Whitmer, a potential 2028 presidential candidate, getting too close to Trump could jeopardize her status as a ‘first-tier presidential candidate’ alongside fellow governors Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Andy Beshear of Kentucky and Gavin Newsom of California. 

As Trump signed executive orders calling for the investigation of two first-term administration aides who were critical of his actions, Whitmer’s office said she was brought into the room ‘without any notice’ and that her appearance was ‘not an endorsement of the actions taken or statements made.’

But Trump called the issues ‘bipartisan’ and jokingly added, ‘We’ll all stand there together and cut a ribbon. OK, Gretchen?’

Whitmer’s diplomatic moves last week seemed to put her out of step with her party as Democrat governors, many rumored to harbor 2028 presidential ambitions, spoke out against Trump’s tariffs as governors JB Pritzker of Illinois and Newsom worked independently with trade partners to try to soften the damage to their state economies. 

‘If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu,’ Whitmer said after her speech in Washington last week, seeming to explain her diplomatic tone. 

Whitmer’s office explained that she was meeting with Trump to discuss recovery aid for the northern Michigan ice storm, investing in Michigan’s defense assets and building the American economy for everyday Michiganders.

Fox News Digital’s Alex Nitzberg contributed to this report.

Taxpayer-funded gender transition surgeries remain a vulnerable issue for the Democratic Party that most voters oppose, according to a recent survey by the American Principles Project (APP) targeting likely midterm voters.

‘We wanted to help educate Americans, but mostly legislators, about where Americans or how Americans feel about funding for gender identity programs, specifically in healthcare services, especially in light of Congress deliberating on spending and doing the reconciliation bills and all of that,’ Terry Schilling, APP executive director, told Fox News Digital in an interview. ‘We want to make sure that they knew just how unpopular these programs are to fund by tax dollars.’

The survey, conducted in early April with 1,500 respondents, found that 43% of people who voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris in the last election are against using taxpayer money to fund gender transition procedures, including surgeries and hormone treatments. 

‘That was a little bit higher than we typically see for Democrat voters,’ Schilling said. APP is a socially conservative nonprofit advocacy group.

During the last few months of President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, his administration released high-budget ads targeting transgender women in women’s sports that may have helped move the needle with swing voters, with one ad famously proclaiming ‘Kamala is for they/them, President Trump is for you.’

The ad focused on Harris’ track record of ushering in sex change procedures for incarcerated people in California.

The survey found that nearly 66% of Americans don’t think the federal government should be funding gender transition procedures, including puberty blockers, hormones and surgeries. The survey did not differentiate between minors and adults.

‘The higher ups, like the elected officials in the Democratic Party, are going the other way, and it’s not going to work out well for them,’ Schilling said. ‘Democrats are in a really tough spot. They have to choose between 20 to 30% of the base, which supports paying for gender transitions and surgeries with tax dollars, or the swing voters, which swing voters do not want at all.’

In 2021, former President Joe Biden signed an executive order directing federal agencies to expand anti-discrimination protections to include sexual orientation and gender identity, including in healthcare. He also reinterpreted Title IX to ensure those same protections applied within educational settings.

The administration supported state-level initiatives, such as Colorado’s inclusion of transgender treatments in its essential health benefits, under the Affordable Care Act.

‘I think that the more Donald Trump’s been talking about it and bringing attention to it, the more people are going to the Republican side on the issue,’ Schilling said.

Another question of the survey asked respondents, ‘If the November 2026 general election for U.S. Congress was held today, and you knew that the Democratic candidate supports allowing federal tax dollars to pay for gender transition procedures, including puberty blockers, hormones, and surgeries, would you vote for the Republican or Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress?’

Fifty-two percent of respondents said they would vote for the Republican candidate, while 39% said they would back the Democrat.

Trump has clamped down on ‘radical gender ideology’ since taking office, cutting all federal funding for gender transition surgeries for minors and through public healthcare. He has also banned biological males from competing in women’s sports and mandated that transgender individuals serve according to their biological sex in the military.

Pete Marocco, the official who oversaw the dismantling of USAID, has now parted ways with the agency. 

Marocco, who served in the Defense, State and Commerce departments, was known as a conservative firebrand with a deep skepticism of foreign aid. His tenure sparked fierce protests on Capitol Hill and drew sharp criticism from Democrats, who celebrated his exit but said questions remain about the future of U.S. foreign aid.

‘Pete was brought to State with a big mission to conduct an exhaustive review of every dollar spent on foreign assistance,’ a senior administration official said of the departure. ‘He conducted that historic task and exposed egregious abuses of taxpayer dollars. We all expect big things are in store for Pete on his next mission.’

After President Donald Trump merged USAID with the State Department, Secretary Marco Rubio named Marocco acting deputy administrator of the agency, and he went to work whittling down the $40-billion, 10,000-employee USAID office. 

‘I continue to serve President Trump just as enthusiastically as I did last week, last month and last year,’ Marocco told Fox News Digital of his departure. ‘He is a once-in-a-lifetime leader of a movement for change to our government and to restore American greatness.  President Trump has the swamp on the run so we should intensify the fight.’

Of the agency’s 6,000 programs, only about 900 will now continue to operate, Rubio said on a podcast with Donald Trump Jr. last week.

In the past, USAID did not adhere to State Department authority and ‘did whatever they wanted,’ according to Rubio. 

In a March 19 op-ed for RealClearPolitics, Marocco argued that U.S. foreign aid has ‘created a global welfare state, committed unwelcome political interventions, encouraged unsustainable international labor unions (communism), made countries less capable of thriving in the modern global economy, and funded international organizations that spite our great country.’

Marocco learned he would no longer be employed at the State Department late last week, sources told the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news. 

USAID is now being run by a DOGE official. 

Democrats celebrated the departure of Marocco. Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, ranking member of the State and Foreign Operations subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee, said Marocco brought ‘chaos to USAID, reckless and unlawful policy to the State Department, and dismantled long-standing U.S. foreign policy.’

‘With his exit, serious questions still remain about the influence he leaves behind and whether or not Secretary Rubio plans to take actions that advance the mission and credibility of the United States,’ Schatz added. 

A U.S. Marine Corps veteran with a master’s degree in international humanitarian law from the University of Oxford, Marocco worked in USAID’s Office of Transition Initiatives in 2020 and was the subject of a 13-page memo posted in the agency’s ‘dissent channel,’ in which employees warned that ‘operational capacity and strategic efficacy have been and continue to be rapidly degraded’ under his leadership.

The memo said Marocco had wanted to personally approve all expenditures over $10,000 for the office with a budget of $225 million.

‘He has leveraged once-routine administrative processes to reopen previously-approved plans, interrogate and redirect country programs, halt movement on programs, procurements, and people, and inject uncertainty into daily operations and office planning,’ the memo said. ‘Intervention is urgently needed.’ 

Police arrested a 25-year-old man for allegedly sending threatening messages to director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and her husband.

The DOJ announced the arrest of Aliakbar Mohammed Amin on Monday, saying he had sent threatening text messages to Gabbard between March 29 and April 1.

The threats included Amin allegedly writing, ‘You and your family are going to die soon’ and ‘I will personally do the job if necessary.’

‘Death to America means death to America literally, Tulsi is living on borrowed time,’ another text read.

‘The home you two own in Texas is a legitimate target and will be hit at a time and place of our choosing,’ another said.

‘Prepare to die, you, Tulsi, and everyone you hold dear. America will burn,’ Amin allegedly wrote in another text.

‘Threatening to harm public officials is a criminal act that cannot be excused as political discourse,’ Acting U.S. Attorney Richard S. Moultrie, Jr. said in a statement regarding the arrest.  ‘Our Office, in coordination with our law enforcement partners, will vigorously prosecute individuals who commit these acts of violence.’

Police apprehended Amin in Lilburn, Georgia, on April 11. He faces charges of transmitting interstate threats to injure Gabbard.

‘The FBI sees all threatening communications as a serious federal offense. We will employ every investigative tool and resource available to identify those responsible and ensure they are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,’ said Paul Brown, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta. ‘Let this arrest serve as a clear warning: if you engage in this kind of criminal behavior, you will be caught and you will go to prison.’

Federal agents say they also discovered similar threats allegedly made by Amin in social media posts, including an image depicting a firearm pointed at a photograph of Gabbard, and a second image of a firearm pointed at a photograph of Gabbard and her husband.

Federal agents recovered a firearm while executing a warrant to search Amin’s home.

Read the full criminal complaint below