A federal judge in Washington, D.C., temporarily blocked the shutdown of a U.S.-funded radio network. 

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, who was appointed by former President Ronald Reagan, granted a temporary restraining order on the shutdown of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), a non-profit news organization originally founded in the 1950s by the Central Intelligence Agency to broadcast behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War. 

Congress later began funding RFE/RL in the 1970s to promote democracy across the globe. 

The judge found Kari Lake, the longtime Arizona broadcaster and unsuccessful gubernatorial and Senate candidate tapped to oversee the U.S. Agency for Global Media, likely violated federal law in moving to slash RFE/RFL’s funding in line with President Donald Trump’s agenda to eliminate government waste. 

The U.S. Agency for Global Media houses Radio Free Europe and Asia, as well as Voice of America and Radio Marti in Cuba. 

‘RFE/RL has, for decades, operated as one of the organizations that Congress has statutorily designated to carry out this policy,’ Lamberth wrote. ‘The leadership of USAGM cannot, with one sentence of reasoning offering virtually no explanation, force RFE/RL to shut down—even if the President has told them to do so.’

Trump signed an executive order earlier this month aimed at dismantling U.S.-funded media organizations. A senior White House official told Fox News Digital at the time that Voice of America ‘has been out of step with America for years.’

‘It serves as the Voice for Radical America and has pushed divisive propaganda for years now,’ the official said. 

The executive order, which targets seven offices, including the U.S. Agency for Global Media, said ‘non-statutory components and functions of the following governmental entities shall be eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law, and such entities shall reduce the performance of their statutory functions and associated personnel to the minimum presence and function required by law.’ 

RFE/RFL sued in federal court, saying that the administration immediately froze nearly $7.5 million in funding already appropriated by Congress. The Justice Department wrote in court documents on Monday that the disbursement was underway and proof of payment would come by Wednesday. 

Voice of America Director Michael Abramowitz wrote on X that ‘virtually’ the whole 1300-person staff was placed on leave. 

In a court hearing Monday, Justice Department lawyer Abby Stout argued that RFE/RL has no grounds for a restraining order given the U.S. government would disburse the nearly $7.5 million. The plaintiff’s lawyer, Thomas Brugato, said the disbursement was only a temporary fix and the non-profit could expect widespread layoffs and to close by April if funding doesn’t continue.

‘It’s really a Band-Aid,’ Brugato said in court, according to The Hill. 

In his order, Lamberth said RFE/RL ‘was originally conceived of in the 1950s as a vehicle for providing trustworthy, locally relevant news to audiences subject to communist propaganda.’ 

‘Since its inception, RFE/RL has continued to expand, responding to threats to democracy and media freedom across the globe,’ the judge wrote, later concluding, ‘The Court concludes, in keeping with Congress’s longstanding determination, that the continued operation of RFE/RL is in the public interest.’

Separately, a lawsuit was brought Friday by Voice of America reporters, Reporters Without Borders and a handful of unions in U.S. District Court in New York against the U.S. Agency for Global Media and Kari Lake over efforts to shut them down. 

Fox News’ Emma Colton contributed to this report.

The Atlantic published Wednesday what it described as the ‘attack plans’ at the center of a Signal text chain leak involving senior officials in the Trump administration.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and national security adviser Mike Waltz have faced calls to resign following revelations that the outlet’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg was inadvertently added to a private group chat earlier this month in which Hegseth, Waltz, Vice President JD Vance and other top administration officials reportedly discussed impending airstrikes on Yemen’s Houthi rebels. Hegseth has said ‘nobody was texting war plans’ and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard vowed during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing Tuesday that there was ‘no classified material’ in the messages.

‘TEAM UPDATE: TIME NOW (1144et): Weather is FAVORABLE. Just CONFIRMED w/CENTCOM we are a GO for mission launch. 1215et: F-18s LAUNCH (1st strike package). 1345: ‘Trigger Based’ F-18 1st Strike Window Starts (Target Terrorist is @ his Known Location so SHOULD BE ON TIME – also, Strike Drones Launch (MQ-9s),’ Hegseth apparently wrote in a screenshot of a text message released Wednesday by The Atlantic. 

‘1410: More F-18s LAUNCH (2nd strike package). 1415: Strike Drones on Target (THIS IS WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP, pending earlier ‘Trigger Based’ targets). 1536 F-18 2nd Strike Starts – also, first sea-based Tomahawks launched,’ Hegseth reportedly continued, before adding ‘Godspeed to our Warriors.’

Waltz later allegedly wrote ‘The first target – their top missile guy – we had positive ID of him walking into his girlfriend’s building and it’s now collapsed,’ according to The Atlantic. 

‘Excellent,’ read a message in response attributed to Vance.

The Atlantic said in its report Wednesday – titled ‘Here Are the Attack Plans That Trump’s Advisers Shared on Signal’ – that ‘the statements by Hegseth, Gabbard, Ratcliffe, and Trump – combined with the assertions made by numerous administration officials that we are lying about the content of the Signal texts – have led us to believe that people should see the texts in order to reach their own conclusions.’

‘There is a clear public interest in disclosing the sort of information that Trump advisers included in nonsecure communications channels, especially because senior administration figures are attempting to downplay the significance of the messages that were shared,’ wrote the Atlantic’s Goldberg and reporter Shane Harris. 

‘Experts have repeatedly told us that use of a Signal chat for such sensitive discussions poses a threat to national security. As a case in point, Goldberg received information on the attacks two hours before the scheduled start of the bombing of Houthi positions. If this information – particularly the exact times American aircraft were taking off for Yemen – had fallen into the wrong hands in that crucial two-hour period, American pilots and other American personnel could have been exposed to even greater danger than they ordinarily would face,’ they also said.

Vance responded to the report Wednesday by declaring that ‘It’s very clear Goldberg oversold what he had. 

‘But one thing in particular really stands out. Remember when he was attacking Ratcliffe for blowing the cover for a CIA agent? Turns out Ratcliffe was simply naming his chief of staff,’ he added.

The Atlantic report said ‘A CIA spokesperson asked us to withhold the name of John Ratcliffe’s chief of staff, which Ratcliffe had shared in the Signal chain, because CIA intelligence officers are traditionally not publicly identified.’

Waltz wrote on X ‘No locations. No sources & methods. NO WAR PLANS. Foreign partners had already been notified that strikes were imminent. BOTTOM LINE: President Trump is protecting America and our interests.’

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich said in response to the report that ‘The Atlantic has already abandoned their bulls— ‘war plans’ narrative, and in releasing the full chat , they concede they LIED to perpetuate yet ANOTHER hoax on the American people. What scumbags!’

‘The Atlantic has conceded: these were NOT ‘war plans,’’ White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt added. ‘This entire story was another hoax written by a Trump-hater who is well-known for his sensationalist spin.’

Some Congressional Democrats have been calling for Hegseth’s ouster since the text chain leak was first reported.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the highest-ranking Democrat to do so, wrote a letter to President Donald Trump yesterday demanding that Hegseth be ‘fired immediately.’ 

‘The so-called Secretary of Defense recklessly and casually disclosed highly sensitive war plans — including the timing of a pending attack, possible strike targets and the weapons to be used –during an unclassified national security group chat that inexplicably included a reporter. His behavior shocks the conscience, risked American lives and likely violated the law,’ Jeffries wrote.

Pressed by a reporter yesterday about the matter, Hegseth claimed he has everything under control.

‘Nobody’s texting war plans,’ he said. ‘I know exactly what I’m doing, exactly what we’re directing, and I’m really proud of what we accomplished, the successful missions that night and going forward.’

Fox News’ Landon Mion contributed to this report.

: Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, will hold a hearing next week on federal judges’ use of nationwide orders to throttle the Trump administration’s actions, which will take place back to back with an identical hearing in the lower chamber. 

In an exclusive statement to Fox News Digital, Grassley said, ‘District judges’ abuse of nationwide injunctions has hobbled the executive branch and raised serious questions regarding the lower courts’ appropriate jurisdictional realm.’

‘Since the courts and the executive branch are on an unsustainable collision course, Congress must step in and provide clarity,’ he explained. ‘Our hearings will explore legislative solutions to bring the balance of power back in check.’

The hearing is slated to take place on April 2, one day after the House’s hearing. 

‘We plan to have hearings starting next Tuesday on this broad subject,’ House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, told ‘Fox & Friends’ on Wednesday morning.

It will be titled ‘Rule by District Judges II: Exploring Legislative Solutions to the Bipartisan Problem of Universal Injunctions.’

Specifically, the committee will look at both the constitutional and policy issues that are raised by judges issuing nationwide injunctions, particularly the uptick brought on by the Trump administration. It will further examine what harm the wide-ranging orders have posed to each branch of government, and what kind of solutions are on the table for Congress. 

The Senate Judiciary Committee’s Republican majority has invited witnesses Samuel Bray and Jesse Panuccio to testify at the hearing. 

Bray is the John N. Matthews Professor of Law at Notre Dame and is an expert on nationwide injunctions. He has written and testified on the subject extensively. He notably penned a Harvard Law Review article, ‘Multiple Chancellors: Reforming the National Injunction.’

Panuccio is a partner at Boies Schiller Flexner and was previously the acting associate attorney general at the Department of Justice (DOJ), as well as the chairman of the DOJ’s Regulatory Reform Task Force and vice chairman of the DOJ’s Task Force on Market Integrity and Consumer Fraud. He also spent time as Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s general counsel.

This is not the first time lawmakers have expressed concerns over the ability of federal judges to stop actions nationwide in their tracks. At a hearing in 2020, led by former committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., it was discussed at length by bipartisan senators. 

Several Republicans have already introduced bills in the House and Senate aimed at restricting the ability of federal judges to kneecap the administration. The president has expressed interest in one such measure, led by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., Fox News Digital reported last week. 

According to two sources familiar with the discussions, top White House aides told senior Capitol Hill staff members last week, ‘the president wants this.’ They also said the White House felt that time was of the essence when it comes to the judicial issue and Trump wants Congress to expedite the matter. 

While the hearings have been promptly scheduled for next week, there is no word on whether legislation on the issue will be brought to the Senate floor. 

The office of Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., did not provide comment to Fox News Digital when asked if he had ideas for policy regarding the injunctions, or whether he believed Congress needed to act. 

When asked by Fox News earlier this week about calls to impeach judges, Thune noted that Grassley was examining the issue and said, ‘At the end of the day, there is a process, and there’s an appeals process. And, you know, I suspect that’s ultimately how it’s going to be ended.’

During a floor speech Tuesday, Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said, ‘When partisan, unelected district court judges try to micromanage the president of the United States, it isn’t judicial review. It isn’t checks and balances. It is purely partisan politics – and it is wrong.’ 

But the No. 2 Republican didn’t call for any specific legislation on the subject. 

Critics of the GOP’s cautious approach toward federal judges’ wide-ranging orders include Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., who asked why bills weren’t already teed up at the start of the Congress. 

‘Congress has the authority to strip jurisdiction of the federal courts to decide these cases in the first place,’ the governor said on X earlier this month. 

‘The sabotaging of President Trump’s agenda by ‘resistance’ judges was predictable – why no jurisdiction-stripping bills tee’d up at the onset of this Congress?’ he asked. 

Sen. Josh Hawley asked FBI Director Kash Patel Wednesday to look into alleged Biden-era abuses against Christians, urging Patel in a new letter to crack down on what the Missouri Republican described as First Amendment violations he said were carried out under the Biden administration.

In the letter, previewed exclusively by Fox News Digital, the Missouri Republican asked Patel to investigate alleged abuses against pro-life activists and Christians. He also urged Patel to release by April 30 information compiled by the FBI’s Richmond, Virginia, field office – including a memo that labeled certain traditionalist Catholics as potential ‘security risks’ – and to address possible violations of the FACE Act, which Hawley said targeted pro-life protesters.

‘I trust that, under your leadership, this misconduct will end. But those responsible must be held accountable,’ Hawley said in the letter. 

‘Transparency and accountability will be paramount in restoring Americans’ faith in the Bureau,’ he added. ‘Getting to the bottom of the Biden Administration’s violations of religious liberty is an excellent place to start.’

The letter from Hawley, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, is not the first time he has used his post to urge Patel to protect against Christian persecution. 

Hawley’s letter calls on the FBI to share with his office by the end of April a list of 22 memos and documents compiled by the FBI Richmond Field Office and related to the alleged FACE Act abuses, including all emails, memoranda, directives and policy guidance, sent to or from the FBI director, deputy director, or any other senior official regarding the enforcement of the FACE Act under the Biden Administration. 

Hawley also urged Patel to share all documents – including communications with state and local law enforcement agencies – that discuss how the Richmond Field Office memorandum or similar FBI policies were implemented or considered for enforcement at the state or local level.

Hawley zeroed in on these issues during Patel’s confirmation hearing earlier this year.

‘Do you think it’s appropriate for the FBI to single out and target people of faith in order to discourage the exercise of their First Amendment rights?’ he asked Patel in January. 

Patel vowed in response that he would ‘fully utilize, if confirmed, the investigative powers of the FBI to give you the information you require and also to hold those accountable who violated the sacred trust placed upon the FBI.’

The leak of Houthi strike plans by the Trump administration to a journalist was not the result of a hack but an apparent human error. Still, it sparked debate over whether the nation’s most powerful government officials should communicate sensitive military information on a non-government platform. 

Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, wrote on Monday that he was added to a group chat on Signal on March 11 by National Security Advisor Mike Waltz titled ‘Houthi PC small group.’ His article details a leaked conversation between the nation’s top government officials, including the vice president, secretary of defense, director of the CIA and others, in which the sensitive details of a planned strike on Houthi terrorists in Yemen were reportedly discussed. 

The report shocked Washington and led to accusations from Democrats and others that President Donald Trump’s team endangered national security and possibly violated the law by using Signal, a messaging app. Signal’s platform is encrypted, but that doesn’t mean it is not susceptible to hacks, experts told Fox News Digital.

Encryption means that only the sender and the receiver of a message should be able to review it; not even Signal itself can pull its contents. But even without viewing a message’s contents, some metadata might be attainable.

‘Knowing who has spoken with whom at what time and for what duration is already very useful intelligence,’ said Vahid Behzadan, cybersecurity professor and researcher at the University of New Haven. 

‘If a phone is infected with spyware, messages can be intercepted before or after encryption.’

‘Screenshots or photos are not protected by Signal itself … and if previews are enabled by users in the app, sensitive info could appear on a locked screen,’ he said. 

Government officials and journalists often use Signal to communicate sensitive information for fear that emails and text communications on official government cellphones could fall under the Freedom of Information Act, meaning they could be made public. However, transmitting controlled but unclassified information on Signal is explicitly banned by Defense Department policy.

In February, Google’s Threat Intelligence Group warned of ‘increasing efforts from several Russia-aligned actors to compromise Signal accounts used by individuals of interest to Russia’s intelligence services.’ 

‘While this emerging operational interest has likely been sparked by wartime demands to gain access to sensitive government and military communications in the context of Russia’s re-invasion of Ukraine, we anticipate the tactics and methods used to target Signal will grow in prevalence in the near-term and proliferate to additional threat actors and regions outside the Ukrainian theater of war,’ Google said. 

Google warned that Signal could obtain access to all of a target’s information on their phone while their device is unlocked. 

‘As reflected in wide-ranging efforts to compromise Signal accounts, this threat to secure messaging applications is not limited to remote cyber operations such as phishing and malware delivery, but also critically includes close-access operations where a threat actor can secure brief access to a target’s unlocked device.’

At first, Goldberg said, he worried that the Signal chat was fake. 

But shortly thereafter, top names in the administration, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, began naming their points of contact for the impending offensive campaign in Yemen against the Houthis, according to The Atlantic. 

The group then reportedly began to use the chat for coordinating messaging plans as the administration moved closer to its offensive campaign, which was made public on March 14. 

The Trump administration has insisted no one shared classified information in the ‘Houthi PC small group’ chat. 

Ratcliffe said he’d been briefed by the agency about the ‘permissible work use’ of Signal. 

But Goldberg said the chat ‘contained operational details of forthcoming strikes on Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing.’ He redacted some of the information he deemed potentially sensitive, including the name of a CIA agent who Ratcliffe had named to run point on the strikes.

Ratcliffe said it was not improper for him to share the officer’s name because he was not under active cover.

Both Ratcliffe and Gabbard said they could not recall whether specific weapons systems or specific targets had been mentioned in the Signal chat during a Senate worldwide threats hearing on Tuesday. 

When asked whether Hegseth had declassified information about the Houthi operations before sharing it in the chat, they referred senators to the Defense Department. 

Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., a national security hawk, isn’t buying that the chat did not reveal classified information. 

‘I will guarantee you 99.99% with confidence Russia and China are monitoring those two phones,’ Bacon said of the chat. 

‘This is a gross error, and it’s intentional. They intentionally put highly classified information on an unclassified device. I would have lost my security clearance in the Air Force for this and for a lot less.’

Matthew Shoemaker, a former defense intelligence official, said sharing classified information on Signal would violate Title 18 of U.S. Code 793, which bans gathering, transmitting or losing defense information. The punishment for such a crime carries up to 10 years in prison.

‘They had to physically remove it from a classified system and then put it on an unclassified system,’ he said. ‘Any uniformed officer would immediately be relieved of command.’

‘It’s hard to believe this is the first time they’ve been doing this. It’s likely just the first time they’ve been caught.’ 

On top of it all, Shoemaker said, White House envoy Steve Witkoff, who was a part of the chat, was in Russia on Russian-operated cell networks at the time the strike information was being communicated to him.

‘Given the Russian GRU’s past activity breaking into Signal, it’s highly likely the Russians saw everything.’

He said that any conversations about the timing of the strike, assets used or weapons is all strike package information that is ‘highly classified, likely at the top secret level.’

‘I’m sure the targeting intelligence officers would be very surprised to learn their work is actually unclassified, if what Pete Hegseth is saying were true.’

The threat of hacking the chat would depend on whether officials were using their government phones with extra layers of encryption or personal devices, according to James Robbins, dean of academics at the Institute of World Politics and former advisor to the late Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

‘I think we can assume that any government-issued phone to somebody at a Cabinet level would have all kinds of safeguards preinstalled,’ he said. 

He said the fact that Witkoff was in Russia did not mean he ‘was plugging into a Russian Wi-Fi.’ 

‘Things get communicated from our foreign embassies and foreign locations all the time. That doesn’t mean it goes over a foreign network.’

Israel’s war in Gaza resumed in full force last week after the collapse of a two-month ceasefire and a deadlock in negotiations over the release of the remaining hostages. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched a new wave of airstrikes, quickly followed by coordinated ground operations in three key areas: the Netzarim Corridor, Gaza’s northern coastline and the Rafah district in the south.

With expanded U.S. support and favorable shifts in the regional landscape, this next phase signals a significant evolution in Israel’s military objectives, from degrading Hamas’s battlefield capabilities to dismantling its ability to govern.

‘We’ve been fighting them for 10 days,’ said Maj. Gen. Yaakov Amidror (res.), former Israeli national security advisor. ‘All they’ve managed to do is fire seven rockets. That tells you how much damage we’ve inflicted already.’

A senior Israeli security official told Fox News Digital: ‘We seized weapons caches, labs, and command centers. Hamas today is not functioning like an army. It’s a dangerous terror group, but it’s not what it was on October 7.’

According to Israeli data, most of Hamas’s senior command has been eliminated and only fragmented units remain.

‘They’ve lost their experienced leadership,’ the official said. ‘They’re operating in survival mode.’

This time, Israel is operating under dramatically improved conditions, both militarily and diplomatically.

‘The strategic environment has changed,’ Amidror told Fox News Digital. ‘Hezbollah is weaker, Iran is constrained, and the American administration is offering us true support. They’re not telling us where to bomb or how to fight.’

With fewer threats on other fronts and strong backing from the Trump administration, the IDF has broadened its scope to include Hamas’s political leadership.

‘We’re not just degrading military capabilities anymore,’ Amidror said. ‘We’re dismantling the structure that allowed Hamas to govern.’

During the pause in fighting, Hamas consolidated control over humanitarian aid, confiscating supplies, reselling goods and using them to recruit fighters and maintain loyalty. Israeli officials now say that won’t be allowed to continue.

‘We are working to find a solution so that humanitarian aid reaches civilians and is not weaponized by Hamas,’ the senior Israeli security official explained. He noted that Gaza currently has sufficient food reserves and that Israel is developing new delivery mechanisms that bypass Hamas entirely.

Fifty-nine Israeli hostages remain in Hamas captivity. Their continued detention has sparked nationwide protests, with families urging the government to prioritize a negotiated release. But the renewed fighting puts those hostages in greater danger.

‘The only real limitation is the hostages,’ Amidror acknowledged. ‘We want them alive, and fighting a war while trying to protect them is a huge challenge.’

Israel’s Channel 12 news’ chief political analyst, Amit Segal, reported on Wednesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the country’s parliament that as long as Hamas doesn’t free the hostages, more pressure will be exerted on the terrorist group, including seizing land. 

‘My position is that first we have to get the hostages back, even if we need to commit to end the war and pull back to a security perimeter,’ said Ram Ben Barak, former deputy head of Mossad and current Knesset member. ‘We can commit to that, but only if Hamas gives all the hostages back. If they don’t, that alone is a reason to go back to war. And even if Hamas does return them, we’ll be watching. If Hamas starts smuggling weapons again or training fighters, that, too, will be a reason to go in and hit them hard.’

The security official said military pressure is part of a coordinated effort to bring the hostages home.

‘They released a group of hostages earlier than planned because of the pressure we applied in Netzarim when they refused to release Arbel Yehud,’ he said.

Despite tactical gains, Israeli leaders know the war cannot eliminate Hamas’s ideology. The mission, they say, is to prevent it from ever ruling Gaza again.

‘We won’t go back to the days when we let them quietly build an army,’ Ben Barak told Fox News Digital. ‘We’ll strike every time we see military training or arms smuggling. They’ll never have tanks or armored vehicles again.’

Ben Barak said Israel can’t remain in Gaza long-term: ‘If we stay like we did in Lebanon for 19 years, we’ll leave in shame. The only way to win is to have someone else replace Hamas and govern Gaza.’

He also pointed to the West Bank as a partial model: ‘In the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority governs, and we operate from the perimeter when needed. We need the same in Gaza: an internationally backed civil authority that rebuilds the [Gaza] Strip and keeps Hamas out.’

Still, he cautioned against illusions of peace.

‘There won’t be peace in the next 20 years. But like Egypt did with the Muslim Brotherhood, we can suppress Hamas’s ideology and stop it from taking root again.’

Ben Barak also said Gazans who wish to leave should be allowed to: ‘Let them out. If they have visas and want to go, Israel should let them. It will make military operations easier in a less densely populated area.’

Israeli forces are now deeply embedded in Gaza, with simultaneous operations in the north, south and central regions.

‘These aren’t symbolic moves,’ Amidror said. ‘We’re positioning ourselves for the next stage. We will eventually need to reach every tunnel, blow up the infrastructure, and kill every Hamas terrorist. It is achievable, but it will take at least a year.’

European leaders were notably silent on Tuesday following the text exchange between Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Vice President JD Vance, who noted their ‘loathing’ of their long-standing allies.

‘I fully share your loathing of European free-loading. It’s PATHETIC,’ Hegseth said in response to Vance, who questioned U.S. leadership in advancing security policies in the Red Sea to counter Houthi aggression and reopen shipping lanes. 

Vance broke from President Donald Trump, who directed the U.S. to ramp up strikes against the Houthi terrorist group in Yemen which, backed by Iran, began escalating attacks on merchant ships along the major trade route following the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel. 

Following the offensive push earlier this month, Vance, in a Signal group chat, texted the U.S.’s top security officials, including Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and CIA Director John Ratcliff, among others, that only ‘3 percent of U.S. trade runs through the [Suez Canal]. 40 percent of European trade does.’ 

‘There is a real risk that the public doesn’t understand this,’ he added in reference to the route that connects the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea, and which is vital in connecting shipping from Europe, the Middle East and Asia. ‘I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now.’

‘If you think we should do it let’s go. I just hate bailing Europe out again,’ he added.

However, despite the degrading comments regarding the U.S. top allies, European leaders were noticeably tight-lipped in their response when Fox News Digital reached out for comment, and public statements were nearly non-existent.

The lack of public retort could suggest Europe is biting its tongue while it evaluates how to maintain a relationship with an administration that routinely argues against the value of its long-standing European allies.  

‘Reality is that there is certainly an element of European freeloading on relying on America as the one country that has the capability to really take on the Houthis in a major way and drive them out,’ Alan Mendoza, executive director of the Henry Jackson Society, an international affairs think tank based in London told Fox News Digital. ‘The Houthis are a desert dwelling ragtag bunch of terrorists, and most European countries do not have the capabilities to deal with that sort of situation. 

‘That tells you how bare Europe’s military cupboard is,’ he continued. ‘The idea that 50 years ago that would have been the case would have been laughable, but it’s here today.’

Ultimately, Mendoza argued, there would be an ‘element of hypocrisy’ if Europe were to try and push back on the comment. 

‘So I think a lot of Europeans, while not liking the way this conversation has unfolded…can’t actually dispute the substance, even if we don’t like the methodology for this conversation,’ he added. ‘And therefore, it is probably better to say little about it than to risk this sort of bigger argument about burden sharing, once again, coming to the fore.’ 

In the Signal text exchange, the administration officials said that ‘further economic gain’ would need to be ‘extracted in return’ for the U.S. taking the operational lead – which some British lawmakers took issue with, noting the Trump administration’s renewed attempt to ‘extort’ money from its allies.

Additionally, the leader of the U.K.’s Liberal-Democrats, typically a more centrist party to Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour Party, took to X to say the text exchange showed, ‘JD Vance and his mates clearly aren’t fit to run a group chat, let alone the world’s strongest military force. It has to make our security services nervous about the intelligence we’re sharing with them.’

Though the official responses from nations looking to make inroads with Trump, like the U.K. and France, maintained they will continue to pursue ‘cooperation’ with Washington. 

The U.K. – whose navy and air force have been heavily involved in countering Houthi aggression in the Red Sea alongside the U.S. – told Fox News Digital, ‘The U.S. is our primary ally, and we cooperate more closely than any other two nations on defense, intelligence, and security.’

‘The UK has been at the forefront of efforts to secure shipping in the Red Sea and has conducted a series of U.K. and joint U.K.-U.S. strikes over the past two years – helping to diminish Houthi rebel assets in the region,’ a British Embassy spokesperson said. ‘Prime Minister [Keir] Starmer has been clear about the need for European nations to step up their security contribution and the U.K. has led with announcing a major increase in defense spending and committing U.K. troops to a future Ukraine peace keeping force.’

Similarly, a spokesman for the French Embassy said, ‘France is not in the habit of commenting on reported remarks, no matter how surprising they may be. The United States is our ally and France intends to continue cooperating with Washington.’

President Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Johns Hopkins School of Medicine professor Dr. Marty Makary, was confirmed in the Senate on Tuesday.

His confirmation was cemented just hours after he cleared one last procedural test vote earlier in the evening. 

The Senate voted 56-44 to invoke cloture on the nomination prior to his final confirmation.

Makary, a former Fox News medical contributor, went before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) earlier this month and answered various questions on vaccines, chronic illness, food safety and abortion. 

During his hearing, the nominee faced scrutiny over an FDA vaccine meeting that was reportedly postponed at the last minute. 

‘So if you are confirmed, will you commit to immediately reschedule that FDA Vaccine Advisory Committee meeting to get the expert views?’ Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., asked Makary at the time. 

He responded that he ‘would reevaluate which topics deserve a convening of the advisory committee members on [Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee] and which may not require a convening.’ 

When this response wasn’t good enough for Murray, Makary flipped the question, telling her to confront the Biden administration. ‘Well, you can ask the Biden administration that chose not to convene the committee meeting for the COVID vaccine booster,’ he said. 

He was referring to the Biden administration in 2021 pushing through FDA approval for a COVID-19 booster for everyone over the age of 18. 

‘The FDA did not hold a meeting of the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee on these actions,’ read a press release at the time, ‘as the agency previously convened the committee for extensive discussions regarding the use of booster doses of COVID-19 vaccines and, after review of both Pfizer’s and Moderna’s EUA requests, the FDA concluded that the requests do not raise questions that would benefit from additional discussion by committee members.’

Committee member Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, criticized the administration’s move, saying, ‘We’re being asked to approve this as a three-dose vaccine for people 16 years of age and older, without any clear evidence if the third dose for a younger person when compared to an elderly person is of value.’

Makary has long been a critic of the administration he will now lead. He wrote an opinion piece in 2021, calling for ‘fresh leadership at the FDA to change the culture at the agency and promote scientific advancement, not hinder it.’

‘We now have a generational opportunity in American healthcare,’ he said at his hearing. ‘President Trump and Secretary Kennedy’s focus on healthy foods has galvanized a grassroots movement in America. Childhood obesity is not a willpower problem, and the rise of early-onset Alzheimer’s is not a genetic cause. We should be, and we will, be addressing food as it impacts our health.’

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., has lingering questions about President Donald Trump’s Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) nominee, Dr. Mehmet Oz, and his past stances on transgender treatments for minors and abortion, and he says the nominee hasn’t answered his inquiries. 

The Missouri Republican told Fox News Digital in an interview that he remains concerned by Oz’s past of ‘promoting transgender surgeries for minors, promoting transgender hormone treatments and puberty blockers for minors.’

He submitted a number of questions to Oz on the subjects earlier in the month, but Hawley said Oz never answered. ‘He hasn’t. Which I think is strange,’ he said. 

‘I’m hoping that he’s changed his views,’ Hawley added. ‘I’d like to hear from him that he is in total alignment with President Trump, who has been tremendously strong on this.’

In a statement to Fox News Digital, White House spokesman Kush Desai said, ‘Every member of the Trump administration is working from the same playbook, President Trump’s playbook, to restore commonsense policies and put an end to left-wing ideological nonsense afflicting our government.’

‘We look forward to the Senate’s swift confirmation of Dr. Oz so he can join the rest of our all-star team at HHS working to Make America Healthy Again by restoring common sense, transparency, and confidence in our healthcare apparatus.’

As Hawley noted, Oz has used his television show to platform people who supported and promoted transgender treatments, particularly for minors. 

Oz hosted two transgender children on his show in 2010 in a segment titled, ‘Transgender Kids: Too Young to Decide?’ 

Josie, 8, and the child’s mother, Vanessia, claimed that Josie’s life improved once the male-born child began embracing a feminine lifestyle. Isaac, who was 15, and the minor’s parents, Arturo and Monica, revealed that they decided to let their female-born teenager begin taking puberty blockers and have the teenager’s breasts removed in a double mastectomy. 

The segment was touted as ‘groundbreaking’ by LGBTQ activist group GLAAD, which told supporters to thank Oz. 

The television doctor has also had a history of supporting abortion. 

In a 2019 interview on popular radio show ‘The Breakfast Club,’ Oz said he was concerned by state laws aimed at restricting or limiting abortion, saying it’s ‘a hard issue for everybody.’

And while on ‘a personal level,’ he didn’t like abortion, he also believed he should not ‘interfere with everyone else’s stuff.’ 

‘Because it’s hard enough to get into life as it is,’ he added. 

When Oz ran for Senate in Pennsylvania as a Republican in 2022, he still opposed government jurisdiction on the subject of abortion. 

‘I don’t want the federal government involved with that at all,’ he said during a debate with now-Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa. ‘I want women, doctors, local political leaders, letting the democracy that’s always allowed our nation to thrive, to put the best ideas forward, so states can decide for themselves.’

Asked whether he would vote to confirm Oz even without answers to his questions, Hawley wouldn’t say. ‘I just have to believe that he will respond here.’

President Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Johns Hopkins School of Medicine professor Dr. Marty Makary, cleared a key vote in the Senate on Tuesday, the last such test before his final confirmation vote. 

The Senate voted 56-44 to invoke cloture on the nomination. 

A final vote to confirm the FDA nominee is slated for after 8 p.m. Tuesday. 

Makary, a former Fox News medical contributor, went before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) earlier this month and answered various questions on vaccines, chronic illness, food safety and abortion. 

During his hearing, the nominee faced scrutiny over an FDA vaccine meeting that was reportedly postponed at the last minute. 

‘So if you are confirmed, will you commit to immediately reschedule that FDA Vaccine Advisory Committee meeting to get the expert views?’ Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., asked Makary at the time. 

He responded that he ‘would reevaluate which topics deserve a convening of the advisory committee members on [Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee] and which may not require a convening.’ 

When this response wasn’t good enough for Murray, Makary flipped the question, telling her to confront the Biden administration. ‘Well, you can ask the Biden administration that chose not to convene the committee meeting for the COVID vaccine booster,’ he said. 

He was referring to the Biden administration in 2021 pushing through FDA approval for a COVID-19 booster for everyone over the age of 18. 

‘The FDA did not hold a meeting of the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee on these actions,’ read a press release at the time, ‘as the agency previously convened the committee for extensive discussions regarding the use of booster doses of COVID-19 vaccines and, after review of both Pfizer’s and Moderna’s EUA requests, the FDA concluded that the requests do not raise questions that would benefit from additional discussion by committee members.’

Committee member Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, criticized the administration’s move, saying, ‘We’re being asked to approve this as a three-dose vaccine for people 16 years of age and older, without any clear evidence if the third dose for a younger person when compared to an elderly person is of value.’

Makary has long been a critic of the administration he is poised to lead. He wrote an opinion piece in 2021, calling for ‘fresh leadership at the FDA to change the culture at the agency and promote scientific advancement, not hinder it.’

‘We now have a generational opportunity in American healthcare,’ he said at his hearing. ‘President Trump and Secretary Kennedy’s focus on healthy foods has galvanized a grassroots movement in America. Childhood obesity is not a willpower problem, and the rise of early-onset Alzheimer’s is not a genetic cause. We should be, and we will, be addressing food as it impacts our health.’