The State Department has received hundreds of calls on its 24/7 crisis hotline as Americans in Mexico scramble to find ways home amid escalating chaos following the killing of a top cartel leader. 

The calls have been mostly pertaining to flight cancellations and concerns about travel back to the U.S., Fox News has learned.

Violence erupted in Mexico after a Feb. 22 government operation in which Jalisco New Generation cartel leader Nemesio ‘El Mencho’ Oseguera Cervantes was killed. The cartel leader was killed during a shootout inside his home as the Mexican military attempted to capture him. The operation was carried out by Mexican forces with U.S. intelligence support. 

Mexico Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch said the 25 Mexican National Guard troops in Jalisco were killed in six separate attacks following the killing of El Mencho. He also said some 30 criminal suspects were killed in Jalisco and four others were killed in Michoacan. Additionally, García Harfuch said that a prison guard, an agent from the state prosecutor’s office and a woman whom he did not identify were also killed.

The State Department’s travel advisory for Mexico, which was issued in August 2025, has since been updated regarding areas of risk. The Mexican states of Colima, Guerrero, Michoacan, Sinaloa, Tamaulipas and Zacatecas are under a ‘Level 4: Do Not Travel’ advisory. Meanwhile, the states under a ‘Level 3: Reconsider Travel’ advisory are Baja California, Chiapas, Chihuahua, Guanajuato, Jalisco, Morelos and Sonora.

Americans in Mexico who need consular assistance are advised to call the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs at +1-202-501-4444 from outside the U.S. or +1-888-407-4747 from within the U.S. or Canada. 

Additionally, the department has recommended U.S. citizens enroll in the online Smart Traveler Enrollment Program or follow the ‘U.S. Department of State – Security Updates for U.S. Citizens’ WhatsApp channel for safety and security updates. The Smart Traveler Enrollment Program, also known as STEP, allows the U.S. embassy or consulate to contact travelers or their emergency contact if necessary.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Embassy and Consulates in Mexico issued an updated security alert for Jalisco State, including Puerto Vallarta, Chapala and Guadalajara, and Nayarit State, including the Nuevo Nayarit/Nuevo Vallarta area near Puerto Vallarta. The embassy and consulates said in the joint alert that due to road blockages and criminal activity, U.S. government staffers in several locations — including Guadalajara (Jalisco), Puerto Vallarta (Jalisco/Nayarit), and Ciudad Guzman (Jalisco) — are sheltering in place. The government entities said the workers would remain sheltered in place until blockades are cleared and called on U.S. citizens to follow suit.

While the State Department hotline has been flooded with calls regarding flight cancellations, the embassy and consulates noted that ‘all airports in Mexico are open, and most airports are operating normally.’ The entities noted that travelers whose flights to the U.S. had been canceled could be able to book a connecting flight through another Mexican city, as not all airports were impacted by the disruptions.

Fox News Digital’s Stephen Sorace contributed to this report.

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President Donald Trump, taking to social media earlier this month, touted, ‘The highest Poll Numbers I have ever received.’

‘Obviously, people like a strong and powerful Country, with the best economy, EVER!’ the president added in a post on his Truth Social platform.

But on the day of his annual State of the Union Address, Trump’s poll numbers remain in negative territory in the vast majority of national surveys.

The president’s approval rating stands at 44% in the latest Fox News national poll, which was conducted late last month, with 56% disapproving of the job he’s doing in the White House.

And he stood at 39% approval among all adults and 41% among registered voters in an ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos survey conducted Feb 12-17 and released on Sunday.

An average of the most recent surveys conducted over the past four weeks puts Trump’s approval ratings in the low 40s, with disapproval in the mid-50s.

Trump started his second term in positive territory, but his approval ratings sank below water last March and have slowly edged down deeper into negative territory in the ensuing months.

The latest surveys point to a massive partisan divide, with continued strong support for the president among Republicans, a thumbs down among independents and near total disapproval among Democrats.

‘Support among Republicans has remained in place, but the opposition has become even more calcified,’ veteran Republican pollster Daron Shaw told Fox News Digital, as he pointed to Democrats.

Deep concerns over inflation boosted Trump and Republicans to sweeping victories at the ballot box in 2024, as they won back the White House and Senate and kept their House majority.

‘We had record inflation. We don’t have it anymore,’ Trump said at a campaign event last week in Rome, Georgia. ‘I’m going to make a State of the Union address on Tuesday. I hope you’re going to watch and we’re going to be talking about it.’

But the president’s approval ratings on the economy are, on average, slightly lower than his overall approval ratings.

And Democrats say their decisive victories in November’s 2025 elections, and their overperformances in special elections and other ballot box showdowns in the year since Trump returned to office, were fueled by their laser focus on affordability amid persistent inflation.

A slew of surveys, including the latest Fox News polling, indicate Americans are pessimistic about the economy and say things have not generally improved during the second Trump administration.

‘He can’t unstick the notion that inflation is too high and that the economy is not moving in the right direction,’ added Shaw, who helps run the Fox News Poll with Democrat Chris Anderson.

But Democrats don’t have much to brag about when it comes to the polls.

The party’s brand dropped to historic lows last year in a slew of polls, with the trend continuing into the new year.

The president’s primetime address in front of Congress comes with just over eight months to go until the midterm elections, when Republicans will be defending their razor-thin majority in the House and their narrow control of the Senate.

Last week, the president’s political team huddled in a closed-door strategy session with Trump administration Cabinet members and their top aides on how best to sell the president’s agenda to voters in this year’s midterm elections.

According to sources familiar with the meeting, the message during a slide presentation by chief pollster and strategist Tony Fabrizio was that the economy will be the top issue on the minds of voters, and that the White House needs to spotlight its efforts on easing affordability.

‘Team Trump will deploy every resource necessary to win the midterms, protect our majorities, and ensure President Trump keeps delivering results for America’s working families,’ a source in the president’s political orbit told Fox News Digital.

Regardless of Trump’s overall approval ratings, he remains very popular and influential with Republicans. And in what may be a base election, the GOP sees the president as their best tool to motivate low-propensity MAGA voters, who don’t always vote when Trump’s not on the ballot, to show up at the polls during the midterms.

Republican National Committee Chair Joe Gruters told Fox News Digital last month that Trump was the GOP’s ‘secret weapon’ that will help Republicans ‘defy history’ in the midterms.

‘We got to make sure we turn our voters out, and we got to make sure that we have people energized. And there’s nobody that can energize our base more than President Trump,’ Gruters said.

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France has restricted U.S. Ambassador Charles Kushner’s access to senior government officials after he failed to attend a summons from the French Foreign Ministry over comments regarding the death of a French activist.

Speaking Tuesday in an interview with public broadcaster France Info, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said Kushner’s decision not to appear at the Quai d’Orsay ‘will naturally affect his ability to carry out his mission in our country,’ and demanded ‘explanations’ from the ambassador.

Barrot described the no-show as a ‘surprise,’ saying that when an ambassador has ‘the honor of representing your country in France,’ they are expected to ‘respect the most basic practices of diplomacy’ and respond to summons from the ministry.

The diplomatic dispute stems from social media posts by official U.S. government accounts following the death of Quentin Deranque, a 23-year-old activist who was killed in Lyon earlier this month.

The Associated Press reported that Deranque, described as a fervent nationalist, was beaten during clashes between far-left and far-right activists and later died of brain injuries sustained in the attack.

‘Reports, corroborated by the French Minister of the Interior, that Quentin Deranque was killed by left-wing militants, should concern us all. Violent radical leftism is on the rise and its role in Quentin Deranque’s death demonstrates the threat it poses to public safety,’ the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Counterterrorism said in a Feb. 19 post on X. ‘We will continue to monitor the situation and expect to see the perpetrators of violence brought to justice.’

The U.S. Embassy in France later shared the statement on its official account.

Barrot said the remarks amounted to an ‘injunction’ toward France and rejected what he characterized as foreign interference in the country’s domestic political debate. 

‘We have no lessons to learn in matters of maintaining order or public order in matters of violence and we have no lessons to learn at all from the reactionary international, simply,’ he told France Info.

The State Department did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Barrot said Kushner could regain access to French officials if he provides clarification to the ministry, stressing that the dispute would not alter broader relations between France and the United States. 

He noted the two countries are preparing to mark the 250th anniversary of their historic alliance this year and expressed hope that cooperation would continue ‘in this spirit.’

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As the Russia-Ukraine war enters its fourth year since Moscow’s full-scale invasion in 2022, United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer referred to the ongoing conflict as ‘the most critical issue of our age,’ according to a press release announcing additional UK assistance for Ukraine.

‘On this grim anniversary, our message to the Ukrainian people is simple: Britain is with you, stronger than ever. That is why we are announcing new support today and we will continue to support Ukraine for as long as it takes,’ Starmer said, according to the press release.

‘For all the noise in world affairs today, this war remains the most critical issue of our age. It asks the question of whether Ukrainian and European freedom will endure. Our answer, together, is unequivocal. Russia is not winning this war. They will not win this war. Ukraine’s courage continues to hold the line for our shared values, in the face of Putin’s aggression,’ Starmer continued. ‘We will stand by their side, until a just and lasting peace – and beyond. Slava Ukraini.’

Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has suggested that the Western World is ‘pussyfooting around.’

‘Putin will not stop the slaughter until he faces much greater pressure. So for heaven’s sake let’s get on with it. Impound his entire shadow fleet. Unfreeze all his frozen assets and give them to Ukraine. Give the Ukrainians the weapons they need to take out all the Russian drone factories. Do all of it now. Putin will not negotiate sincerely until he feels he has no choice,’ Johnson wrote in a post on X.

‘The Ukrainians fight like heroes while we in the West pussyfoot and delay. The West can end the war this year — if we stop pussyfooting around,’ he said.

President Donald Trump’s administration has been attempting to help broker peace between Russia and Ukraine.

In its statement, the UK government said the country’s security is closely tied to Ukraine’s fate and outlined new assistance, including £20 million (about $27 million) in emergency energy funding to help repair and protect Ukraine’s power grid and expand generation capacity.

The package also includes £5.7 million (around $7.7 million) in humanitarian aid for frontline communities, including people requiring evacuation and those affected by airstrikes or internal displacement, according to the release.

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Four years into Russia’s full-scale invasion, the war in Ukraine has settled into a grinding conflict defined by high casualties and incremental territorial shifts. Russia still controls roughly one-fifth of Ukrainian territory, while Kyiv has recently clawed back limited ground in counteroffensives. Military estimates put Russian losses at about 1.2 million casualties since 2022, with Ukrainian losses between 500,000 and 600,000, underscoring the scale of attrition on both sides.

Diplomacy has intensified alongside the fighting. President Donald Trump met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska last August for high-stakes talks aimed at advancing negotiations. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has traveled to Washington multiple times since Trump returned to office, including a contentious Oval Office meeting in Feb. 2025 and a follow-up visit later in the year.

The most recent U.S. engagement with both sides came during trilateral negotiations in Abu Dhabi earlier this year and more taking place in Geneva on Feb. 17–18, where special envoy Steve Witkoff met with Russian and Ukrainian delegations as part of ongoing efforts to broker a settlement.

As the war enters its fifth year, former officials and analysts say the next phase could unfold along three possible paths: prolonged stalemate, shifting Ukrainian momentum, or a dangerous erosion of Western resolve.

Scenario one: Prolonged stalemate

The most immediate trajectory is continuation. The war remains defined by attrition, with neither side delivering a decisive blow and negotiations producing little progress.

Ret. U.S. Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove, former NATO supreme allied commander of Europe, said Moscow is not winning despite its territorial hold, ‘There isn’t a winner right now.’

‘Russia, supposedly a world superpower with one of the world’s probably top three world armies and top four world air forces, in 12 years has gained about 20% of Ukraine. And they have lost some, say, over 1.2 million in the conflict so far. It’s a conflict that Ukraine is working hard to manage. It’s also a conflict that Russia is not, I repeat, not winning,’ he said.

Scenario two: Ukrainian momentum reshapes diplomacy

Recent battlefield developments suggest another possibility. Breedlove pointed to rapid Ukrainian gains following disruptions in Russia’s command-and-control systems.

‘In the last three or four days, because of the loss of the Starlink command and control system, Ukraine launched an offensive, and they have snatched back months of Russian gains in three days, three-pronged push, hundreds of square miles regained, and Russia is backing up in several places right now.’

Carrie Filipetti, executive director of the Vandenberg Coalition, said such advances could shift leverage at the negotiating table. ‘Ukraine’s recent advances to recapture its territory is yet another signal that Putin’s war machine is continuing to atrophy as the world marks the fourth year of Russia’s full-scale invasion. Russia’s latest territorial losses shows that far from being invincible, Putin and his army are beginning to experience real failures in terms of capability and resources.’

She added that momentum matters. ‘Not only is this the most significant Ukrainian advance on the battlefield in more than two years, its importance may be felt even more concretely at the diplomatic table. Finding a lasting and equitable peace deal through negotiation is often about momentum – and right now the Ukrainians have it.’

If sustained, such gains could alter Moscow’s calculations and give Kyiv a stronger footing in negotiations as long as Ukraine has strong U.S. support, Breedlove argues, ‘The first thing and the most important thing Ukraine needs is a declaratory statement by the West and specifically by the United States that we are not going to allow Russia to win in Ukraine, and we will give Ukraine what it needs to stop Russia… where Putin hears it loud and clear and where the people of Russia hear it loud and clear that is a game changer. And I think that’s when Mr. Putin is going to have to make some tough decisions.’

Scenario three: Escalation or Western fatigue

A third path worries some Western strategists: that inconsistent support could prolong or tilt the conflict in Russia’s favor.

Heather Nauert, who served as spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State from 2017 to 2019, framed the war as more than a territorial dispute. ‘As we now enter the fifth year of Putin’s war in Ukraine, we’re reminded that this conflict has never been only about territory — it’s about identity, faith, and the future of a free nation. Russia has destroyed more than 600 churches, persecuted millions of Ukrainian Christians under occupation, and abducted more than 19,000 children in an effort to break Ukraine’s spirit. President Trump’s push for a lasting peace must be backed by strength and accountability – one that protects innocent lives, defends religious freedom and brings stolen children home.’

Ret. Lt. Gen. Richard Newton said deterrence remains central. ‘Four years into this horrific war, the fundamental lesson remains unchanged: Peace is only possible when strength shapes the terms. Putin will continue to savagely test our resolve until the costs of his aggression outweigh any possible gain.’

‘What Ukraine needs isn’t gestures from the world, but instead, unwavering support from the U.S. and Europe that convinces Moscow further advances carry unacceptable consequences,’ he argued. ‘Russia must not prevail against Ukraine and the West. What are needed are credible security guarantees, robust offensive and defensive capabilities and a unified, long-term commitment by the West to ensure deterrence isn’t an elusive goal, but a lasting reality.’

Breedlove warned that negotiations alone will not shift the balance. ‘The most dangerous scenario is that we do not do what we should do in Ukraine and Russia takes over Ukraine because they’re not done.We have a policy of peace through strength and we’re using it in Iran. We’ve used it in Venezuela. We’re using it with oil tankers around the world… But when it comes to Putin and Ukraine, we are peace through weakness.’

‘Mr. Putin is making a point that he’s in charge in Ukraine, not the West and certainly not America. And so we need to change that dynamic. You got good guys and you got bad guys. And right now the bad guys have told America to take a hike. So now, rather than telling them what to do, we are going to the good guys and saying, you have to give up more because the bad guys are not playing well in the sandbox. That’s peace through weakness, not peace through strength,’ Breedlove concluded.

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The U.S. Secret Service-involved shooting of a man with a shotgun inside the secure perimeter of Mar-a-Lago over the weekend brought the Department of Homeland Security’s partial shutdown into new focus.

Two USSS agents and a Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office deputy confronted and later shot and killed Austin Martin, 21, who authorities said slipped through a vehicular exit gate that had opened for a car before brandishing his weapon.

‘They confronted a white male that was carrying a gas can and a shotgun. He was ordered to drop those two pieces of equipment that he had with him – at which time he put down the gas can, raised the shotgun to a shooting position… the deputy and the two Secret Service agents fired their weapons and neutralized the threat,’ according to Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw.

Those agents are among the many working their dangerous jobs without pay due to the ongoing partial shutdown of DHS, which Republicans say was brought on by Democrats’ demands that ICE, which remains funded through other means, be reformed.

Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., who represents Daytona Beach just up the coast from Mar-a-Lago, said the incident proves the bravery of the Secret Service no matter the circumstances.

‘The attempted assassination of President Trump at Mar-a-Lago is a stark reminder of growing leftist political violence in our country,’ Fine said in a statement.

‘Grateful to the Secret Service who neutralized the terrorist. Even as Democrats refuse to pay them because of their shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, these men and women continue to stand their post.’

Top White House aide Stephen Miller offered an even more pointed response to the dynamic:

‘Democrats voted to defund Secret Service, Homeland Security Investigations (who partner with Secret Service) and all the intelligence and law enforcement functions that support Secret Service,’ Miller said.

‘Never before in history has federal law enforcement been purposefully defunded.’

House Small Business Committee Chairman Roger Williams of Texas added that Americans should take note of the agents who responded whether paid or not.

‘As we continue to learn more about the armed man at Mar-a-Lago this morning, we must remember that the brave agents who responded are serving our country without pay due to the Democrat-led shutdown,’ Williams, R-Texas, said.

Prior to the incident, Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., warned that the Secret Service and other agencies like FEMA would be put in a bad spot if the partial shutdown went forward.

‘Democrats are prioritizing illegal immigrant criminals ahead of the safety of the American people,’ he said in a February 12 floor speech.

At least one Democrat did react to the agent-involved shooting.

Rep. Lois Frankel of Florida, for whom Trump is technically a constituent at his Mar-a-Lago address, said that ‘political violence is never the answer.’

‘Thank you to the Secret Service and Palm Beach County law enforcement for their swift response today and for their continued work in keeping the president safe,’ Frankel said.

The Northeast blizzard presents separate challenges for resource-suspended agencies like FEMA, while certain Homeland Security-run services, such as TSA escorts for members of Congress, are also suspended.

Fox News’ Elise Oggioni contributed to this report.

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The UK government is set to unseal a first batch of key documents relating to Peter Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to the U.S., MPs were told Monday.

The disclosure, set for ‘early March,’ follows a Commons motion ordering the release of files related to Mandelson’s vetting for the post and comes in the wake of his arrest on suspicion of misconduct in public office.

‘The government expects to be able to publish the first tranche of documents very shortly, in early March,’ Darren Jones, chief secretary to Prime Minister Keir Starmer, told the House of Commons.

‘I should, however, inform the House that it remains the case that a subset of this first tranche of documents is currently subject to the ongoing Metropolitan Police investigation,’ he said.

Jones added that ‘a small portion of that material engages matters of national security or international relations’ and would be handled through the Intelligence and Security Committee, in line with the will of the House.

As previously reported by Fox News Digital, a Metropolitan Police spokesperson confirmed in a statement Monday that officers had arrested a 72-year-old man at an address in Camden and took him to a London police station for questioning.

The arrest follows revelations about Mandelson’s links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and comes days after former Prince Andrew was detained.

The investigation relates to allegations that Mandelson shared confidential government information with Epstein while serving as business secretary.

Police had opened a criminal inquiry after the government passed on communications between the former ambassador and the disgraced financier.

Emails released by the U.S. Department of Justice also appeared to show Mandelson sharing market-sensitive information with Epstein during the 2008 financial crisis.

Mandelson has denied wrongdoing and said he does not recall the alleged disclosures and apologized to Epstein’s victims for maintaining contact with him after his conviction.

On Feb. 4, Starmer told the Commons: ‘I’m as angry as anyone about what Mandelson has been up to. The disclosures … are utterly shocking and appalling. He has betrayed our country. He has lied repeatedly. He is responsible for a litany of deceit.’

Starmer later said that if he had known then what he knows now, Mandelson ‘would never have been anywhere near government.’

Mandelson, an architect of New Labour, was appointed U.S. ambassador before being dismissed in September 2025 as scrutiny over his links to Epstein intensified. 

He resigned from the Labour Party and stepped down from the House of Lords.

As U.S. ambassador, Mandelson scored an early victory by ensuring Britain was the first country to agree to a deal with the U.S. to lower some of President Donald Trump’s tariffs, but was fired a few months later.

Starmer has also faced calls to step down over Mandelson’s appointment, Reuters reported.

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A deadly confrontation at Mar-a-Lago over the weekend is the latest in a string of high-profile security incidents involving President Donald Trump, as former Secret Service officials warn that low-tech, lone actors now pose one of the toughest challenges to presidential protection.

‘It should be quite clear to all of us by now that Trump is the most threatened president in the history of the U.S.,’ former Secret Service agent William ‘Bill’ Gage told Fox News Digital Monday, pointing to multiple high-profile incidents in recent years. Unlike past presidencies, where threat levels often subsided over time, Gage said, ‘the longer he’s president, the more these attacks keep happening.’

Gage said the most difficult cases to prevent are often the least sophisticated. The recent incidents, he noted, were ‘super low-tech attacks by people with zero training,’ using rudimentary weapons. ‘If you were standing behind them in line at Starbucks, you wouldn’t have given them a second look,’ he said.

Gage said the threat landscape shifted over the course of his 12-year career as a Secret Service agent. When he joined the Secret Service in 2002, he said the agency was moving away from what he described as the traditional ‘lone gunman’ model — figures like Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated John F. Kennedy, or international militants such as ‘Carlos the Jackal,’ one of the world’s most wanted terrorists in the ’70s and 80s — and adapting to a post-9/11 world focused on coordinated terrorist networks like al Qaeda and later ISIS.

‘But if you look at Butler and the two incidents at Mar-a-Lago, those were super low-tech attacks,’ Gage said. ‘The low-tech actors are the ones that tend to slip through the cracks.’

He also warned of a potential copycat effect when details of such incidents become public. 

‘If it were up to the Secret Service, they would never report any of these incidents ever,’ Gage said, arguing that widespread coverage allows others to ‘study what happened’ and attempt to refine it. 

In today’s hyperconnected political climate, he said, that dynamic adds another layer of complexity for agents trying to stop the next threat before it materializes.

In the early hours of Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026, a 21-year-old man identified as Austin Tucker Martin of North Carolina was shot and killed by U.S. Secret Service agents and a local sheriff’s deputy after entering the secure perimeter of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.

Authorities say Martin drove through the north gate carrying a shotgun and a gasoline can. After being ordered to drop both, he dropped the can but raised the shotgun toward officers, who fired and killed him at the scene. Trump and First lady Melania Trump were in Washington at the time.

The incident marked the third highly publicized security encounter involving Trump in less than two years. In July 2024, a gunman opened fire at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, grazing Trump’s ear and killing an attendee before being shot by a Secret Service sniper. In September 2024, a man armed with a rifle was confronted by agents near Trump’s golf course while he was playing; that suspect was later convicted on attempted assassination charges.

While the incidents have drawn intense attention, former Deputy Assistant Director Don Mihalek said the latest Mar-a-Lago intrusion does not necessarily signal a breakdown in protective systems.

‘He got through an exterior gate of an active club,’ Mihalek told Fox News Digital. ‘This wasn’t someone reaching the president’s residence.’ Agents confronted the suspect within seconds, he said, describing the rapid response as evidence that overlapping security layers functioned as designed.

Mihalek said presidential protection relies on multiple rings of security because outer perimeters at properties like Mar-a-Lago cannot be sealed in the same way as the White House. ‘If he ended up in the president’s house on Mar-a-Lago, that might be a different conversation,’ he said.

He also cautioned against viewing recent incidents in isolation, noting that presidents routinely face roughly 2,000 threats per year, most of which are mitigated before the public ever becomes aware of them. ‘These just happen to be very public instances,’ Mihalek said, arguing that the social media era amplifies perceptions of escalation.

Mihalek pointed to last summer’s rally shooting in Butler as an example of how early intervention can be decisive, noting that local law enforcement had reportedly identified the suspect prior to the attack. ‘If somebody had walked up and said, ‘Hey, who are you?’ we wouldn’t be talking about Butler,’ he said.

As Trump prepares to address Congress at the State of the Union, both former officials said the security posture at the Capitol is unlikely to change in response to the weekend incident.

The annual address is designated a National Special Security Event — the highest level of federal security planning — triggering coordination among the Secret Service, U.S. Capitol Police, FBI, War Department and other agencies. The designation allows for expanded perimeter controls, airspace restrictions and continuity-of-government planning.

Gage, who previously led advance planning for State of the Union addresses, said the event operates under a well-established security ‘blueprint’ built to account for worst-case scenarios. ‘There’s really no way to increase it anymore,’ he said.

Both former officials said the defining challenge for presidential protection today is unpredictability: individuals with minimal training, rudimentary weapons and the ability to find reinforcement online. Unlike organized extremist networks, such actors may leave few detectable signals before acting.

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A Republican lawmaker is teaming up with outspoken detransitioner Chloe Cole to push federal legislation that would block gender-related medical procedures for minors, saying that children are being rushed into receiving treatments with life-altering results.

The Chloe Cole Act is being introduced on Monday as federal legislation aimed at protecting minors from gender-related medical procedures. 

Rep. Bob Onder, R-Mo., who is behind the bill, has a medical degree and is sounding the alarm over the impact that gender-related treatments can have on minors. The congressman told Fox News Digital that his bill will not only protect minors from these treatments, but will also give children and parents the right to hold medical professionals accountable in court.

‘We know that in the last 15 years, the transgender movement has convinced tens of thousands of boys and girls that they are born in the wrong body…. And then a chain of transgender clinics has exploited these kids for the ideology and for the profit and really done permanent damage to the health of those kids with wrong sex hormones, puberty blockers and even mutilating surgeries,’ Onder told Fox News Digital.

The congressman said the Chloe Cole Act arises from President Donald Trump’s January 2025 order titled, ‘Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation.’ The order encouraged lawmakers to ‘work to draft, propose, and promote legislation to enact a private right of action for children and the parents of children whose healthy body parts have been damaged by medical professionals practicing chemical and surgical mutilation.’ The order noted that statutes of limitations for these cases should be ‘lengthy.’

Cole, who has become a prominent detransition advocate, told Fox News Digital that the legislation is ‘a vital step in our mission to ensure that no minor in America ever endures the kind of lasting, irreparable damage I experienced.’

‘While we’ve made significant strides in raising awareness and enacting protections in recent years, the fight is far from over. Too many children remain at risk of irreversible harm from puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgical procedures pushed on them before they can fully understand the consequences,’ Cole said in a statement provided exclusively to Fox News Digital.

‘We must finish what we’ve started and safeguard the next generation from these experimental and barbaric treatments,’ she added.

A recent legal judgment in New York has provided advocates like Cole some hope in holding medical providers accountable. Recently, a jury awarded 22-year-old Fox Varian $2 million in damages after she sued a plastic surgeon who performed a double mastectomy on her when she was a teenager. Varian’s lawsuit was also aimed at her psychologist. The New York Times noted that Varian claimed the 2019 double mastectomy left her disfigured. Varian, like Cole, was born female and at one point identified as a man. She is now undergoing the detransition process.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has previously expressed support for providing minors with gender-related medical treatment.

‘The AAP and other major medical organizations — including the American Medical Association, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the World Health Organization — support giving transgender adolescents access to the health care they need,’ a 2023 statement from the AAP read. ‘The AAP opposes any laws or regulations that discriminate against transgender and gender-diverse individuals, or that interfere in the doctor-patient relationship.’

Cole celebrated the judgment, and said in a Fox News Digital op-ed: ‘There are so many other young people like us. We were lied to by doctors, nurses and therapists when we were vulnerable and confused children. They did irreversible harm to our bodies and minds, making a mockery of the medical profession. They should absolutely be held accountable for sacrificing us in service to radical transgender ideology.’

In her op-ed, Cole brought up a subject that Onder also touched on during his interview with Fox News Digital: the prevalence of medical professionals warning parents that their child could harm themselves or even commit suicide if they are not allowed to undergo the procedures.

‘Those parents are being lied to,’ Onder said. ‘The words I hear quoted over and over again, by Chloe, by Luka Hein, by others, is that their parents were told, ‘Would you rather have a live son or a dead daughter?’ implying that the risk of suicide is approaching 100%, but nothing could be further from the truth. That is an utter lie,’ Onder said.

The congressman lambasted the industry behind gender-related medical procedures, wondering if children were being pushed into the surgeries because of ‘sick ideology’ or a ‘desire for profit.’

‘Parents are being lied to, the transgender clinics and the transgender doctors are making off with a lot of money. It’s really a despicable development in American medicine. And as a physician, I look forward to the day where it’s in our rearview mirror and no longer are kids being exploited,’ the congressman added.

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