President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has a confirmation hearing ready to go, and he will have to reckon with an intraparty feud in the process.

Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., will soon undergo the rigorous confirmation process in the Senate after being tapped by Trump to replace embattled DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.

He will first go through the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee before heading to a full confirmation vote in the Senate.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who chairs the Homeland Security panel, wants to hold Mullin’s hearing next week. The White House formally sent over Mullin’s nomination to the Senate on Monday, according to the congressional record.

‘We’re shooting for a week from Wednesday if all the paperwork comes in,’ Paul said.

But Mullin and Paul have a personal rift that could spill out into the confirmation hearing.

In February, Mullin slammed Paul during an event with voters for his perennial votes against Republican priorities, like spending bills or other elements of Trump’s agenda, such as the ‘big, beautiful bill’ last year.

Oklahoma reporter David Arnett reported in a lengthy profile of Mullin that, during the event, the lawmaker was asked about an amendment to a spending package from Paul that he voted against.

Mullin warned that Paul was ‘trying to kill the farm bill because he’s trying to legalize hemp for drinks in Kentucky because of tobacco industry shifts,’ and then went after Paul’s voting history before taking a jab at the 2017 incident in which the Kentucky Republican was attacked by his neighbor over a lawn dispute.

‘I respect Bernie Sanders because he’s an open socialist, and you know that he’s a communist, so you know what you’re getting,’ Mullin said. ‘Rand Paul’s a freaking snake. And I understand completely why his neighbor did what he did. And I told him that to his face.’

That slight at Paul may come to bear during his confirmation hearing, but Mullin is expected to easily move through that first hurdle, given that most Republicans on the panel will back him, and he has the support of Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa.

Paul shrugged off the incident on Monday when he told reporters, ‘I’m going to reserve judgment now, and we’ll probably find out a lot more.’

‘I would suggest coming to the hearing, though,’ Paul said. ‘I think it’ll be interesting.’

Supreme Court Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Brett Kavanaugh had a dispute over the high court’s approach to its emergency docket in a rare, candid discussion during an event Monday night.

Jackson, a Biden appointee, signaled that the high court’s willingness to side with President Donald Trump most of the time when it comes to the emergency docket, sometimes known as the ‘shadow docket,’ was a ‘problem.’ The liberal justice is one of three, and all have frequently sided against Trump in emergency decisions, which have often broken 6-3 in favor of the president.

‘The administration is making new policy … and then insisting the new policy take effect immediately, before the challenge is decided,’ Jackson said, according to reports from The Associated Press and NBC News. ‘This uptick in the court’s willingness to get involved in cases on the emergency docket is a real unfortunate problem.’

Jackson said: ‘It’s not serving the court or this country well.’

Kavanaugh, a Trump appointee, countered that the Supreme Court’s approach to emergency requests was not unique to the Trump administration and that the high court handled the Biden administration the same way despite there being fewer interim requests under the former president.

Kavanaugh said presidents ‘push the envelope’ more with executive orders because Congress is passing less legislation.

‘Some are lawful, some are not,’ Kavanaugh said, later adding, ‘None of us enjoy this.’

The pair spoke in a courtroom during an annual lecture honoring the late Judge Thomas Flannery of the U.S. District Court of Washington, D.C., while several federal judges, including high-profile ones like Judge James Boasberg, looked on.

Jackson’s criticism is not new; she has been perhaps the most vocal dissenter in emergency docket cases.

In August, she lambasted the Supreme Court majority for ‘lawmaking’ from the bench in a dissent to an emergency decision to temporarily allow the National Institutes of Health’s cancellation of about $738 million in grant money.

‘This is Calvinball jurisprudence with a twist. Calvinball has only one rule: There are no fixed rules. We seem to have two: that one, and this Administration always wins,’ Jackson wrote.

The Trump administration has faced hundreds of lawsuits and adverse rulings in the lower courts, and the Department of Justice’s solicitor general’s office, which represents the government before the Supreme Court, often does not elevate cases to that level.

Such emergency requests allow the government to bypass the lengthy court process, involving extensive briefings and oral arguments, to seek immediate relief in the face of restraining orders and injunctions in the lower courts.

The Trump administration has brought about 30 emergency applications to the Supreme Court and secured victories about 80% of the time, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

Through the emergency docket, the Supreme Court has greenlit Trump’s mass firings and curtailed nationwide injunctions. The high court has also cleared the way for deportations and immigration stops viewed as controversial by critics of the administration. The justices have also found that the government can, for now, discharge transgender service members from the military.

But Trump has not won out all the time by taking this route. The justices required the administration to give more notice to alleged illegal immigrants being deported under the Alien Enemies Act and agreed with a lower court that the president improperly federalized the National Guard as part of his immigration crackdown in Chicago.

President Donald Trump, who rode promises of affordability back to the White House, is now confronting Iran-driven volatility that’s undermining that message as fuel costs rise nationwide — and putting fresh pressure on Republicans heading into the midterms.

With the Iran conflict rattling oil markets and raising fears of supply disruptions, gas prices are climbing again, squeezing Americans already worn down by inflation.

This week, oil prices surged past $100 a barrel for the first time since 2022 as fallout from the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran continued to roil global markets and investors priced in the risk of tighter supply. 

With oil higher, gasoline and diesel prices are rising fast.

The national average gas price climbed to $3.53 per gallon, up 59 cents over the past week, according to GasBuddy. Diesel prices also jumped, with the national average up 97 cents to $4.72 per gallon.

With control of Congress at stake, uneven gas price spikes are becoming a new midterm flashpoint, especially in hard-hit battleground states. 

The steepest week-over-week increases were in Indiana (up 58 cents), Florida (up 57 cents), Michigan (up 55 cents), Ohio (up 54 cents), and California (up 51 cents).

The lowest average prices were in Kansas ($2.90), Oklahoma ($2.95) and Arkansas ($2.98), while the highest were in California ($5.14), Washington ($4.58), and Hawaii ($4.33) — a regional divide that could sharpen midterm attacks over energy costs and inflation.

That kind of pocketbook pressure is exactly what Democrats have been eager to exploit. Last fall, Democrats leaned heavily on affordability themes in state and local elections, and it paid off.

In places like Virginia, New York and New Jersey, where voters have been squeezed by high housing costs and utility bills, Democratic candidates seized on Trump’s early economic moves, including his trade policy, to argue that his policies were worsening the affordability crisis rather than easing it.

They promised to rein in energy costs, expand affordable housing and protect middle-class wages, a message that resonated with voters.

With the ongoing conflict driving gasoline prices higher, the White House is weighing steps to protect shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz and keep prices from climbing further. That waterway is critical to global energy supply.

The Strait of Hormuz, a narrow passage between Iran and Oman, carries roughly 20 million barrels of oil a day and about one-fifth of the global supply of liquefied natural gas (LNG). 

When conflict flares in the region, even the threat of disruption can rattle markets because so much of the world’s energy moves through that single corridor.

Asked about the risk of disruptions, Trump said Monday evening he would keep the route open and threatened retaliation if Iran tried to interfere.

‘I will not allow a terrorist regime to hold the world hostage and attempt to stop the globe’s oil supply. And if Iran does anything to do that, they’ll get hit at a much, much harder level,’ Trump said during a press conference in Florida.

‘In the long run, oil supplies will be dramatically more secure without the threat of Iranian ships, drones, missiles,’ he added.

One week into the war with Iran, U.S. officials say American and Israeli forces are moving toward ‘complete control’ of Iranian airspace — clearing the way for deeper strikes, a broader target list and a conflict that appears to be expanding rather than winding down.

In briefings this week, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine described what they called near-uncontested airspace over key corridors, a shift that allows sustained bombing operations deep inside Iran. 

‘We are winning with an overwhelming and unrelenting focus on our objectives,’ Hegseth said in a press briefing Tuesday morning. 

Caine said U.S. forces have now struck more than 5,000 targets in the first 10 days of operations, including dozens of deeply buried missile launchers hit with 2,000-pound penetrating bombs.

The message from Washington is one of overwhelming military advantage. 

But the broader picture, rising oil prices, expanding drone warfare, strikes on energy and civilian infrastructure, and regional spillover touching NATO territory, suggests a conflict that is growing in scope even as U.S. officials project confidence in its trajectory.

Leadership hardens in Tehran

Amid the intensifying conflict, Iran’s Assembly of Experts has selected Mojtaba Khamenei — son of the recently deceased Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — as the country’s new supreme leader, consolidating authority within the clerical establishment and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps at a pivotal moment.

The succession, only the second since the 1979 revolution, signals continuity rather than recalibration in Iran’s posture. Mojtaba Khamenei had long been viewed as a potential successor and is closely aligned with hard-line factions inside Iran’s security apparatus.

President Donald Trump criticized the selection, saying the leadership change would not alter U.S. objectives and suggesting it reflects the same entrenched power structure Washington has sought to weaken. The administration has made clear that military operations will continue regardless of who occupies the supreme leader’s office.

Rather than opening a diplomatic off-ramp, the transition appears to reinforce the likelihood of a prolonged confrontation.

‘Uncontested airspace’

Hegseth said Tuesday that the U.S. and Israel had achieved ‘total air dominance’ over Iran and were ‘winning decisively with brutal efficiency.’ 

‘That doesn’t mean they won’t be able to project,’ Hegseth said. ‘It doesn’t mean our air defenders still don’t have to defend. They do. But that is strong evidence of degradation.’ 

‘Most of their higher-end surface-to-air missile systems are not factors at this point in time,’ Caine said. 

‘Fighters are moving deeper with relative impunity,’ he added, noting there is ‘always some risk.’

Adm. Brad Cooper, head of the U.S. military’s Central Command, also reported that Iranian ballistic missile launches had dropped by roughly 90% from the opening days of the conflict, while drone attacks had fallen by more than 80%, attributing the decline to sustained strikes on launchers and infrastructure.

Still, officials have cautioned that air superiority does not mean every threat can be stopped. Iranian missiles and drones continue to be launched, and some have required interception across the region.

A shift in munitions and message

Hegseth said the campaign is transitioning from expensive standoff weapons like Tomahawk cruise missiles to 500-, 1,000- and 2,000-pound precision gravity bombs — a shift he said reflects confidence that Iranian surface-to-air missile systems have been suppressed in key areas.

He described the U.S. stockpile of such bombs as ‘nearly unlimited’ and warned that Washington’s timeline ‘is ours and ours alone to control.’

The emphasis on gravity bombs is more than rhetorical. It signals a move toward sustained, high-tempo operations designed not only to hit active threats but to degrade Iran’s ability to regenerate its missile force.

Drones redefine the fight

Even as missile launches decline, unmanned systems remain central to the war.

Iran has leaned heavily on drones — including Shahed-style loitering munitions — to strike energy facilities, pressure U.S. bases and disrupt shipping near the Strait of Hormuz. Compared to ballistic missiles, drones are cheaper and easier to deploy in volume, allowing Tehran to sustain pressure despite losses elsewhere.

In response, the United States has deployed a Ukraine-tested counter-drone interceptor system to the region. Ukrainian specialists, drawing on experience defending against Iranian-designed drones used in the Russia-Ukraine war, are assisting in strengthening base protection.

The drone fight underscores a key dynamic: while U.S. forces may dominate the skies, lower-cost unmanned systems can still impose risk and strain air defenses.

Energy at risk

The Strait of Hormuz — through which roughly 20% of the world’s oil and major liquefied natural gas shipments transit — has become one of the most consequential flashpoints of the war.

Drone attacks and Iranian threats sharply have reduced commercial traffic, driving up insurance costs and forcing some vessels to reroute. Oil prices have climbed above $100 per barrel amid fears that disruptions could persist.

Israeli strikes on Iranian oil facilities, and Iran’s retaliatory targeting of regional energy infrastructure, signal that energy assets are now active targets. Reports of strikes affecting water and desalination plants further suggest the war is expanding beyond strictly military sites.

If instability in Hormuz stretches for weeks, analysts warn, global energy markets could tighten quickly, translating into higher gasoline prices and renewed inflation pressure in the United States.

Trump warned Monday that Iran will be hit ’20 times harder’ than it already has if it threatens ships in the Strait. 

NATO proximity and regional backlash

The war has edged closer to NATO territory. Two Iranian ballistic missiles were intercepted near Turkish airspace, raising the risk of broader alliance involvement.

Iran has also struck Azerbaijan, drawing sharp condemnation from Baku and angering Turkey, Azerbaijan’s closest ally. Notably, Iran has not seen a unified regional bloc mobilize in its defense, highlighting its relative diplomatic isolation even as it escalates militarily.

Industrial mobilization

Despite Hegseth’s assertion that certain offensive munitions are plentiful, sustaining air and missile defense operations is resource-intensive, and inventories of high-end interceptors were already under strain before the conflict began.

Iran has attempted to degrade radar systems tied to platforms such as THAAD and Patriot batteries. While U.S. commanders say launch rates have declined sharply, interceptors are expensive and produced in limited quantities.

Trump convened major defense contractors last week to press for accelerated production of interceptors and related systems. Expanding output could require congressional funding if the campaign continues at its current pace.

The battlefield now extends beyond launch sites and into supply chains.

Rising casualties

The Pentagon has confirmed seven U.S. service members have been killed and eight seriously injured in Iranian strikes.

In Iran, the U.S. claims over 50 top Iranian leaders, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, have been taken out. Iran claims more than 1,000 people have been killed in the strikes and approximately 175 people, including many schoolchildren, were killed in an attack on a girls’ elementary school in Minab. 

No group has claimed responsibility, and investigations are ongoing.

The incident has intensified scrutiny over civilian protection as the conflict widens.

No quick off-ramp

A little more than one week in, the trajectory points toward expansion rather than containment.

U.S. officials project confidence in air dominance and sustained strike capacity. Iranian leadership has consolidated under a hard-line successor. Energy markets are volatile. Drone warfare continues to test defenses. The conflict has brushed NATO territory and struck civilian infrastructure.

The central question is how far the conflict will spread, and whether military momentum can outpace the economic and geopolitical costs mounting across the region.

President Donald Trump said he is ‘not happy’ with Iran’s choice of a new supreme leader but that early results from Operation Epic Fury have been ‘way beyond expectation.’

Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been installed as the next supreme leader.

‘I don’t believe he can live in peace,’ Trump said in an interview with Fox News chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst.

The president touted what he described as the success of the joint U.S.-Israeli military operation.

‘Way beyond expectation in terms of result this early,’ Trump said.

More than 5,000 targets have been hit by the U.S. military since the operation was launched on Feb. 28, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced Monday.

‘When we attacked them first, we knocked out 50% of their missiles and if we didn’t, it would have been a much harder fight,’ Trump said.

He framed the opening strike as decisive and necessary.

‘No other President had the guts to do it…I don’t want some president who hasn’t got the courage in five years or in ten years to go in. It’s like a gun slinger, where he draws his gun first.’

‘If we waited three days, I believe we would have been attacked.’

Trump described what he called a surprise element in the timing of the operation.

‘Breakfast attacks are unusual and they were misled because they thought we weren’t going at that time and all that… And they just met. It was very, very surprising. And they all met together and it was open.’

‘If they would’ve had a bomb, they’d have used it on Israel and other parts of the Middle East. I think, and probably us, if they could get it there, but it would have been tough.’

Trump said Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner told him Iran claimed it had enough enriched uranium to build 11 nuclear bombs.

‘I said, you know, they’re not playing this smart. Because they’re basically saying that I have to attack them. They should have just said, ‘We’re not going to build a nuclear missile.”

Asked whether he would be willing to speak with Iranian leaders, Trump said: ‘I’m hearing they want to talk badly.’

‘It’s possible, depends on what terms, possible, only possible… You know, we sort of don’t have to speak anymore, you know, if you really think about it, but it’s possible.’

Trump also said he was taken aback by Iran targeted Gulf countries in response to the American and Israeli attacks.

‘One of the things that surprised me most was when they attacked countries that were not attacking them,’ he said.

The president also weighed in on reports of a strike that hit a girls school. Iranian state media and UNICEF estimates put the death toll at roughly 165 to 180 people, most of them young schoolgirls, with dozens more injured. The figures have not been independently verified.

‘It’s only under investigation, but we are not the only ones with that particular rocket,’ Trump said.

Vietnam’s trade ministry is urging businesses to encourage employees to work from home to curb fuel consumption as the country grapples with supply disruptions and sharp price increases triggered by the U.S.-Israeli war involving Iran.

In a statement on Tuesday, the government said Vietnam has been among the nations hardest hit by the turmoil due to its heavy reliance on energy imports from the Middle East. Citing a report from the Ministry of Industry and Trade, it called on companies to ‘encourage work-from-home when possible to reduce the need for travel and transportation.’

Fuel prices have surged since the end of last month, with gasoline up 32%, diesel rising 56% and kerosene climbing 80%, according to data from Petrolimex, the country’s top fuel trader. Long lines of cars and motorbikes were seen at petrol stations in Hanoi on Tuesday.

The ministry also urged businesses and individuals not to hoard or speculate on fuel.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Minh on Monday held calls with leaders of Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to secure additional fuel and crude oil supplies. The government has also removed import tariffs on fuels through the end of April in a bid to ease pressure on the market.

President Donald Trump’s strikes on Iran have made for volatile crude markets, with prices surging to $120 a barrel in the U.S. over the weekend before dipping back to just over $80 on Monday night as Trump spoke to a Republican retreat in Florida.

Prices have stabilized after Trump assured investors the Strait of Hormuz will be safe for oil tankers in the Middle East, a notorious chokepoint for the largely dismantled Iranian regime.

The situation in the region remains tenuous as Iran has announced Mojtaba Khamenei as the next supreme leader, a decision that Trump told Fox News that he ‘was not happy’ about.

‘I don’t believe he can live in peace,’ Trump said from Air Force One.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said Tuesday they would not let any oil out of the Middle East until U.S. and Israeli attacks cease, a threat that had prompted Trump to threaten to hit Iran ’20 times harder’ if it blocked exports.

Despite the defiant rhetoric from both sides, investors placed strong bets Tuesday that Trump would call off his war soon, before the unprecedented disruption it has caused to energy supplies causes a global economic meltdown.

‘I’m hearing they want to talk badly,’ Trump said, as the Department of War has claimed 50 Iranian naval vessels have been sunk and Trump is suggesting the war objections are weeks ahead of schedule, if not nearly ‘complete.’

‘It’s possible,’ Trump added of engaging the new Iranian leadership, descendants of the deceased leaders, but said it ‘depends on what terms, possible, only possible.’

‘You know, we sort of don’t have to speak anymore, you know, if you really think about it, but it’s possible,’ he said.

Fox News’ Trey Yingst and Reuters contributed to this report.

Some House Republicans are getting worried over the prospect of colleagues quiet-quitting after losing their primary races as election season heats up, threatening to whittle down the GOP’s already perilously slim majority.

House Republicans will likely only be able to lose two votes on any party-line measure after a special election in a deep-red Georgia district this week. 

Some told Fox News Digital they’re worried, however, that their colleagues could begin missing key votes before the end of their terms if their ambitions for higher office do not go as planned.

‘It’s a real problem,’ one House Republican who was granted anonymity to speak candidly told Fox News Digital. ‘Is one of them going to be gone for his runoff? Will another not come back at all because he’s mad? Is another one not going to come back because he lost?’

Asked if such absences could translate to Republicans losing a functional majority in the House, that GOP lawmaker said, ‘We could, that’s why everybody’s nervous about it.’

In the Lone Star State alone, two House Republicans are guaranteed not to be returning next year after last week’s primaries. Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas, lost his bid to unseat Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who is headed for a runoff with state Attorney General Ken Paxton. And Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, faced an upset against a primary challenger running to his right, conservative state lawmaker Steve Toth.

Neither has indicated they will be skipping House votes for the remainder of the term due to those losses, but Hunt’s attendance record has already generated frustration among his colleagues.

Aside from them, there are 18 other House Republicans currently vying for different positions in upcoming primaries and general elections.

Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., a high-ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee, told Fox News Digital that he too was worried about GOP attendance as election season heats up.

‘Our margins are as razor-thin as they can possibly be, so we need everybody to show up,’ he said. ‘So yeah, that could potentially be an issue. I hope it isn’t.’

Rep. Russell Fry, R-S.C., told Fox News Digital, ‘I think it’s a concern.’

‘I hope that they recognize the moment. There’s still a lot of lane left in this Congress, and people have put their faith in their elected representatives to get the job done. So they need to be here,’ Fry said.

But the election season starting up is not the first time this Congress — or even this year — that worries about the GOP’s margins have flared up.

For example, a small group of Republicans was able to join with Democrats to successfully force a vote on extending expired Obamacare subsidies that the GOP largely opposed. And just last month, President Donald Trump’s tariff strategy faced a public setback when a similarly small number of GOP lawmakers voted with Democrats to rebuke it.

Neither of those measures will likely be taken up in the Republican-held Senate, but it’s a testament to the slim margins Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is presiding over.

And aside from the legislative setbacks seen earlier this year, the sudden, tragic death of one House Republican and abrupt resignation of another have served to further whittle down the conference’s numbers.

Car accidents and other health problems have also at times forced the House to amend its schedule. It’s prompted House GOP leaders to warn their lawmakers to be as cautious as possible when outside of Washington.

‘The margins are really, really close. A few of us were in a car the other day, driving … if that became an accident, that would have tipped the scale,’ Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., told Fox News Digital back in January. ‘It’s a big deal to change power outside of a normal election cycle.’

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., told reporters last week that attendance is ‘always a concern’ but was optimistic about navigating through it.

‘We’ve had elections along the way, and yet we’re still able to move our agenda,’ Scalise said. ‘We track people that have surgeries, tell us in advance, and we work around that. But at the end of the day, we’ve been able to move President Trump’s agenda and our agenda, and get the things done for the American people that we ran on.’

President Donald Trump said he wants to keep the Strait of Hormuz open, saying it would be an ‘honor’ to do so in an effort to help other nations that rely on the vital Middle East waterway.

Trump was speaking with reporters in Florida on Monday, when he was asked about the global energy choke point, which has been disrupted amid back-and-forth attacks between Iran and Israel and the United States. 

At about 21 miles wide at its narrowest point, the Strait of Hormuz is between Iran and Oman and carries roughly 20 million barrels a day and about one-fifth of global liquefied natural gas, making it a top-value target when conflict in the region erupts.

‘We’re really helping China here and other countries because they get a lot of their energy from the Straits,’ Trump said. ‘We have a good relationship with China. It’s my honor to do it.’

Trump is slated to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping later this month. While touting the United States’ new energy partnership with Venezuela, Trump noted that China gets its oil through the strait. 

‘I mean, we’re doing this for the other parts of the world, including countries like China,’ he said. ‘They get a lot of their oil through the straits.’

‘We have a very good relationship with President XI (Jinping) and China,’ he added. ‘I’m going there in a short period of time, and we’re protecting the world from what these lunatics are trying to do, and very successfully I might add.’

The U.S. will also waive all oil-related sanctions on some countries in an effort to reduce energy prices amid the conflict in the Middle East, Trump said.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps took to Iranian State TV vowing it would ‘not allow [the] export of a single liter of oil.’

Later, Trump reaffirmed his position on the strait in a fiery Truth Social post.

‘If Iran does anything that stops the flow of Oil within the Strait of Hormuz, they will be hit by the United States of America TWENTY TIMES HARDER than they have been hit thus far. Additionally, we will take out easily destroyable targets that will make it virtually impossible for Iran to ever be built back, as a Nation, again — Death, Fire, and Fury will reign upon them — But I hope, and pray, that it does not happen!,’ he wrote.

‘This is a gift from the United States of America to China, and all of those Nations that heavily use the Hormuz Strait. Hopefully, it is a gesture that will be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your attention to this matter!’

Iranian Kurdish opposition groups say they are prepared to challenge Tehran but are holding back for now as the war between the United States, Israel and the Islamic Republic continues to unfold.

Khalid Azizi, spokesperson for the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (KDPI), told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview that Kurdish forces are closely watching developments but have no plans to launch a ground offensive at this stage.

Reports in recent days have suggested that President Donald Trump spoke with Mustafa Hijri, the leader of KDPI, as Washington explores possible Kurdish involvement in pressure on Iran. 

Azizi declined to confirm or deny whether such a conversation took place.

Azizi himself has firsthand experience with Iran’s military retaliation. 

In 2018, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched ballistic missiles at the KDPI headquarters in Koy Sanjaq in Iraq’s Kurdistan region during a leadership meeting, killing at least 18 people and injuring dozens.

‘We have been targeted by the Islamic Republic,’ Azizi said. ‘The first Iranian missile was sent to my headquarters and I was personally injured in that attack.’

Despite the risks, Azizi said Kurdish resistance remains strong after decades of confrontation with Iran. 

‘The Iranian Kurdish resistance movement is actually very strong because we have been on the ground since the Iranian revolution,’ he said.

Azizi spoke from Washington, D.C., where he said Kurdish representatives were meeting with policymakers and institutions to discuss the situation in Iran and the role Kurdish groups could play if the conflict evolves.

But for now, Kurdish groups say they are waiting to see how the broader war develops.

‘We are ready and our party is well organized,’ Azizi said. ‘But right now we do not have any intention to enter Iranian Kurdistan because the ground forces in this war have not been a topic.’

‘It’s very easy to start a war,’ he added. ‘But it will be more complicated how to end this war.’

The KDPI is one of the oldest Kurdish opposition movements fighting Iran’s Islamic Republic. The group is a member of the Socialist International and operates primarily from bases in the Kurdistan region of Iraq and has been in armed and political opposition to Tehran since the 1979 Iranian Revolution.

Azizi said Kurdish political movements have recently taken a significant step by forming a joint alliance aimed at coordinating their political strategy.

‘We have managed to create a unity among the Kurdish political parties,’ he said. ‘This has been welcomed by the Iranian Kurdish people and by different Iranian political parties.’

The alliance, known as the Coalition of Political Forces of Iranian Kurdistan, brings together several historically divided Kurdish factions that oppose the Islamic Republic.

Azizi said the future of Iran will ultimately depend on whether Iranians themselves rise up against the regime.

‘If you look at the goal of the United States and Israel in this war, they have been targeting the Iranian military, security and political institutions. In this aspect Iran has been weakened,’ he said.

‘But the regime still remains in power because people are not on the streets and there is no alternative right now to replace this regime.’

Azizi urged Western governments to focus not only on the military campaign but also on helping Iranian opposition movements coordinate politically.

Iran, he said, is a multi-ethnic country whose future stability will depend on building a democratic system that includes all of its communities.

‘The path and the roadmap for rebuilding Iran must be based on the participation of all ethnic groups,’ Azizi said. ‘Iran is a multi-ethnic society.’

For now, he said, Kurdish fighters remain in a holding pattern.

‘We have the ability and we have the capacity,’ Azizi said. ‘But it is not easy right now for us to make any decision regarding entering Iranian Kurdistan.’

President Donald Trump’s declaration that he won’t sign any new bills until the Senate passes voter ID legislation threatens to derail his own legislative priorities and sideline confirmation of the newest addition to his Cabinet. 

Trump wants Senate Republicans to ram the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act through the upper chamber with the talking filibuster, even at the cost of the Senate’s most valuable commodity: floor time.

‘It must be done immediately. It supersedes everything else. MUST GO TO THE FRONT OF THE LINE. I, as President, will not sign other Bills until this is passed,’ Trump said on Truth Social. 

But that comes as the Senate is wrestling with reopening the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which entered its fourth week of being shut down. A White House official told Fox News Digital that Trump was ‘referring to other bills, not DHS funding.’

‘If the Democrats do the right thing and pass funding for DHS, the president will, of course, fund the agency,’ the official said. 

Trump’s edict and push for the Senate to turn to the talking filibuster has intensified the pressure on Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., who has vowed to have a vote on the bill, but could not guarantee it would pass. 

When asked about the growing campaign from both Trump and social media to use the talking filibuster, Thune said, ‘A lot of that is, it’s in that kind of, you know, paid influencer ecosystem.’ 

‘But there’s a lot of support for it,’ Thune said. ‘Like I said, we’re, I think, for the most part, not everybody, but there’s a lot of really strong support among Republican senators for the policy. But the process and how do you ultimately try and get a result is still unclear to me.’ 

Republicans are also working to advance a massive affordable housing package that Trump backs, to consider a likely supplemental spending package to resupply munitions for the conflict with Iran, and go through the confirmation process for Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., the president’s latest pick to lead DHS.

Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., noted that the top priority for the GOP right now is funding DHS.

‘The Democrats have blocked that right now,’ Barrasso told Maria Bartiromo on ‘Sunday Morning Futures.’ ‘And the greatest threat to the American people today is terrorism.’

And while the SAVE America Act is supported by most Senate Republicans, it’s not an easy bill to pass in the upper chamber, given the hardline stance Senate Democrats have taken against it. 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., reiterated that the bill is ‘Jim Crow 2.0. It would disenfranchise tens of millions of people.’

‘If Trump is saying he won’t sign any bills until the SAVE Act is passed, then so be it: there will be total gridlock in the Senate,’ Schumer said on X. ‘Senate Democrats will not help pass the SAVE Act under any circumstances.’

Turning to the talking filibuster is unlikely, too, because of a major fear among Republicans it would dominate floor time for hundreds of hours of debate. But another factor is that there may not be unity among Republicans to kill amendments put forth by Senate Democrats. 

Further complicating matters is which version of the SAVE America Act Trump wants. 

House Republicans advanced the SAVE America Act last month, which would require voter ID to vote, proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections, mandate states to actively verify and remove noncitizens from voter rolls, expand information sharing with federal agencies, including DHS, to verify citizenship and create new criminal penalties for registering noncitizens to vote.

But Trump asked Republicans to ‘GO FOR THE GOLD’ with a bill to show voter ID and proof of citizenship, nix mail-in ballots except for military service members or people with illnesses, disabilities or travel issues, no men in women’s sports and ‘NO TRANSGENDER [MUTILATION] FOR CHILDREN!’

That version of the bill would again have to go through the House before making its way to the Senate. Whether it could survive either chamber is an open question. Thune acknowledged that Trump wanted a modified iteration of the bill, but still remained firm that the talking filibuster, or nuking the current filibuster, likely weren’t going to happen. 

‘The one thing I’ve said all along is, and I’ve told him and others that I can’t guarantee an outcome. I can’t guarantee a result,’ Thune said. ‘If the result is only achieved by nuking the legislative filibuster, we don’t have the votes to do that. And so that’s just not a realistic option. And I’ve made that clear to anybody who’s asked.’