The Senate GOP has been working in overdrive to confirm key officials for President Donald Trump’s administration faster than his predecessors.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Republicans in the upper chamber have successfully approved 18 of the 22 Cabinet positions. 

The most recent was former Sen. Kelly Loeffler, who was confirmed to lead Trump’s Small Business Administration (SBA). 

With the successful confirmation of Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick last week, the 17th official put in place, Republicans and Trump officially outpaced former President Joe Biden, who had just seven nominees confirmed at the same point in 2021. 

Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso’s office pointed out that former President Barack Obama had only 16 Cabinet officials confirmed by February 18, 2009, during his first term, meaning that Trump outpaced him as well with Lutnick’s confirmation. 

His office noted that 17 Cabinet nominees were not confirmed for Obama in 2009 until he had been in office for 36 days, citing official congressional records. Biden did not see 17 Cabinet nominees confirmed for 56 days. 

The GOP-led Senate confirmed Kash Patel as FBI director last week, giving Trump another win, even though Patel is not a member of the president’s Cabinet.

‘By the end of today, we will have confirmed 18 of President Trump’s nominees. These nominees are bold and well-qualified,’ Barrasso said on the Senate floor before Patel’s vote. 

‘That is more nominees than President Obama had in 2009. It is more than President Biden had in 2021. More than twice as many,’ he said. 

‘Americans voted for a bold, new direction in Washington. Senate Republicans are delivering it,’ he said.

While they still have a handful of Cabinet nominees left to confirm, the approval of Patel marked a crucial accomplishment for the party, as they officially put in place each of the president’s most controversial picks. 

Trump nominated Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard and Patel, each of whom managed to lose the support of at least one Republican. 

And while their confirmations were at some points uphill battles for the administration, each of them successfully got past the finish line. 

Those still left to be confirmed to Trump’s Cabinet are Lori Chavez-DeRemer for Secretary, of Labor Linda McMahon for Secretary of Education, U.S. Trade Representative nominee Jamieson Greer and Elise Stefanik to be ambassador to the United Nations.

Chelsea Handler is relieved her planned seduction of former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo didn’t pan out. 

According to Page Six, the 49-year-old comedian detailed in her upcoming memoir how she became captivated by Cuomo, 67, while watching his daily briefings at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

At the time, Handler publicly revealed her crush on the politician. In her forthcoming book, ‘I’ll Have What She’s Having,’ she wrote that the two began exchanging flirty texts until Cuomo abruptly ghosted her after agreeing to a date in New York.

In a recent interview with Page Six, Handler said she ‘dodged a bullet’ when Cuomo stopped contacting her.

‘My life is filled with dodging bullets,’ the former ‘Chelsea Lately’ host told the outlet, citing her unfulfilled romance with Cuomo as ‘just one example.’ 

In 2021, several women accused Cuomo of sexual harassment, which contributed to his resignation. Cuomo has denied all the allegations made against him.

In 2020, Handler gushed about her crush on Cuomo several times. She wrote of her adoration for Cuomo on social media, penned a ‘love letter’ for Vogue titled ‘Dear Andrew Cuomo, I Want To Be Your First Lady’ and spoke of her sexual attraction to the former governor and her preference for older men during her HBO comedy special ‘Evolution.’

While appearing on ‘The View’ via Zoom in October 2020, Handler expressed her desire for Cuomo.

‘First of all, he’s like a big giant. He came in like the Incredible Hulk,’ she told the hosts. ‘We needed somebody to come on the scene. We were so dehydrated for real leadership that when he came on the scene looking like this big Italian hunk. 

‘He was like, ‘Wear a mask.’ I was like, ‘I’ll wear a mask, I’ll put a mask on every part of my body. I wanna flatten your curve, and you can flatten my curve, and then we can both apex together.’

However, she explained she asked Cuomo out on a date, but he never followed up. With Cuomo due to appear on ‘The View’ later that week, Handler asked the hosts to ask him about ghosting her.

‘I do want you to follow up on something with him for me, ladies, if you wouldn’t mind,’ she said. ‘I did have a conversation with Cuomo a few months ago, and I did ask him out on a date. And he did say yes, and then I never heard from him.’

‘My life is filled with dodging bullets.’

— Chelsea Handler 

During his appearance on ‘The View,’ Cuomo responded to Handler’s crush on him.

‘I’ve had a lot of conversations about flattening the curve, but never quite that way,’ Cuomo said with a laugh. ‘I’m a big fan of Chelsea, and she is great. We have fun.

‘But, on my dating life, you know, I am only dating, at this point, in-state residents. I’m dating New York residents. So, if Chelsea changes her residence, then maybe we can work it out.’

According to Page Six, Handler wrote in her memoir that Cuomo had called her from an unknown number and left her a long voicemail three days after her appearance on ‘The View.’

‘I’m going to f— the governor!’ Handler recalled exclaiming to a friend at the time.

Handler wrote that she intended for the sexual liaison with Cuomo to take place during an upcoming trip to New York.

However, she noted that ‘the big hiccup here was that Mr. Cuomo stopped responding to my texts as soon as I arrived on the East Coast.’

Undeterred by Cuomo’s ghosting, Handler recalled that she continued texting him photos of herself, including images in which she was ‘swimming topless while wearing a face mask’ and ‘smoking a joint topless.’

Looking back, Handler believes she took the wrong approach while pursuing Cuomo. 

‘If I hadn’t been so forward and declared what I was looking for, I could have ended up in bed with him,’ she wrote. ‘It seemed he preferred touching women who weren’t interested in him, rather than touching women who were.’

Israel will delay the seventh hostage-prisoner exchange in protest of Hamas’ ‘humiliating’ treatment of hostages, according to Israeli officials.

The release of 620 Palestinian prisoners, which was scheduled for Saturday, has been postponed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. On Sunday morning, Netanyahu’s office issued a statement condemning Hamas propaganda generated during the exchange.

‘In light of Hamas’s repeated violations, including the ceremonies that humiliate our hostages and the cynical exploitation of our hostages for propaganda purposes, it has been decided to delay the release of terrorists that was planned for yesterday until the release of the next hostages has been assured, and without the humiliating ceremonies,’ the office’s statement said.

The statement came after reports of Hamas fighters exploiting Israeli prisoners while they were being released. On Saturday, five of the six freed hostages were accompanied by armed militants in front of a crowd, including three Israeli hostages who posed alongside terrorists.

Omer Wenkert, Omer Shem Tov and Eliya Cohen were among the hostages forced to pose with the terrorists. Shem Tov was also forced to appear cheerful, kiss two militants on the head and blew kisses to the crowd. 

The three also wore fake army uniforms, though they were not enlisted when they were captured by Hamas.

In another recent ceremony orchestrated by Hamas, four coffins were placed in front of a caricature of Netanyahu with a banner that said, ‘The war criminal Netanyahu & his Nazi army killed them with missiles from Zionist warplanes.’

Speaking to Fox News Digital, Israeli United Nations Ambassador Danny Danon called the gesture ‘evil and depraved.’

‘For 16 months, Israel has been fighting a deranged terrorist organization that places no value on human life, especially if it is Israeli or Jewish — all while international institutions like the U.N. refrained from condemning Hamas and formally demanding the immediate return of our hostages,’ Danon said.

The United Nations also condemned the coffin incident.

‘Under international law, any handover of the remains of [the] deceased must comply with the prohibition of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, ensuring respect for the dignity of the deceased and their families,’ the United Nations Geneva said on X, attributing the quote to High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk.

The Associated Press and Fox News Digital’s Rachel Wolf contributed to this report.

FBI Director Kash Patel will be tapped to run the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), two sources confirmed to Fox News Digital on Saturday. 

The news comes a day after Patel was sworn in as the ninth FBI director in a narrow Senate vote. 

Former FBI Director Christopher Wray resigned at the end of former President Biden’s term and Attorney General Pam Bondi fired the ATF general counsel, Pamela Hicks, on Thursday. 

‘Earlier today, I was served official notice from the Attorney General of the United States that I was being removed from my position as the Chief Counsel of ATF and my employment with the Department of Justice terminated,’ Hicks posted on her LinkedIn page Thursday, confirming her termination. 

Hicks had served as ATF’s chief counsel since 2021 under the Biden administration, and served as deputy chief counsel for ATF under President Donald Trump’s first administration. She spent 23 years overall as an attorney within the Department of Justice (DOJ), she posted to LinkedIn. 

‘Serving as ATF Chief Counsel has been the highest honor of my career and working with the people at ATF and throughout the Department has been a pleasure,’ Hicks continued in her post. ‘I thank my colleagues for their friendship and partnership over the years.’ 

‘These people were targeting gun owners,’ Bondi told Fox News on Thursday of the ATF. ‘Not gonna happen under this administration.’ 

Both the FBI and ATF are part of the DOJ. 

President Donald Trump celebrated his whirlwind first four weeks back in the Oval Office in a speech before the Conservative Political Action Conference Saturday afternoon, mentioning what he called ‘flagrant scams’ uncovered by Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency. 

‘I signed an order creating the Department of Government Efficiency — you probably haven’t heard of it — which is now waging war on government waste, fraud and abuse. And Elon is doing a great job,’ Trump said at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center Saturday in Oxon Hill, Maryland, just outside the nation’s capital. ‘He’s doing a great job.’

Musk is leading DOGE as investigators scrutinize various federal agencies in an effort to curb government overspending and stamp out fraud. DOGE’s work has become a lightening rod for criticism among Democratic lawmakers and government employees, who have filed a number of lawsuits attempting to end the investigations and audits. 

‘Here are some of the flagrant scams that, as an example, they’ve spent money on, and we’ve been able to recapture a large dose of it at least. Five hundred and 20 million dollars for a consultant … [on] environmental, social governance and investments in Africa,’ he said. 

‘Twenty-five million dollars to promote biodiversity conservation and socially responsible behavior in Colombia. This is Colombia, South America, not Columbia University. Of course, that might be worse. … Forty million to improve the social and economic inclusion of sedentary migrants.

‘Forty-two million for social and behavior change in Uganda. Ten million for Mozambique medical male circumcisions. Why are we going to Mozambique to do circumcisions?’ Trump asked, before continuing to rattle off a handful of other pricey initiatives funded by taxpayers uncovered by DOGE. 

CPAC is an annual conference of conservative lawmakers, leaders and voters, which kicked off on Wednesday and wraps up Saturday after Trump’s speech. 

Earlier in the day, Trump sent a message on his Truth Social platform calling on Musk to ‘get more aggressive’ with his DOGE work. 

‘Will do, Mr. President!’ Musk responded just a few hours ahead of Trump’s CPAC speech. 

Musk later added on X, ‘Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week. Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.’

‘We have a very corrupt group of people in this country, and we’re finding them out,’ Trump said during his speech. ‘We’re removing all of the unnecessary, incompetent and corrupt bureaucrats from the federal workforce.’

Trump said he and Musk will head to Fort Knox in Kentucky to ensure the United States Bullion Depository still houses a reported $425 billion in government gold. The Trump administration and Republican allies have called for more transparency about the vault.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt visited the vault in 1943, which was followed by Treasury Secretary William Simon opening the vault to journalists and lawmakers in 1974 and again during the first Trump administration when Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and lawmakers, including Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell, inspected the vault.

‘We are also going to Fort Knox. I’m going to go with Elon. And would anybody like to join us? Because we want to see if the gold is still there. We want to see,’ Trump said. 

‘Wouldn’t that be terrible? We open [it] up, and this Fort Knox has got nothing. It’s just solid granite that’s five feet thick. The front door, you need six musclemen to open it up. I don’t even think they have windows. Wouldn’t that be terrible if we opened it up and there was no gold there? So, we’re going to open those doors, we’re going to take a look. And if there’s 27 tons of gold, we’ll be very happy,’ he added. 

‘I don’t know how the hell we’ll measure it, but that’s OK.’

Trump ended his first full month back in the White House this week, which has included a breakneck pace of executive orders and actions. 

He took a victory lap for his whirlwind first month, touting in his speech the administration’s work to end the ‘weaponization’ of the government under the former Biden administration, his plan to soon impose reciprocal tariffs on foreign trading partners and celebrating the deportation of illegal immigrants from communities across the nation. 

‘We’re liberating communities like Aurora, Colorado, and Springfield, Ohio, that have been occupied by illegal alien criminals from all over the world,’ Trump said. 

‘We’re rescuing the Americans whose jobs have been stolen, whose wages have been robbed and whose way of life has been absolutely destroyed. And, under the Trump administration, our country will not be turned into a dumping ground.’ 

Tech billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that all federal employees are being instructed to report their productivity in a new Trump administration initiative.

In a post Saturday on X, Musk said the report will come in the form of an email that will give federal workers a chance to report how productive they were the previous week.

If the email is ignored, Musk said, the federal government will interpret that as a resignation.

‘Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week,’ Musk wrote. ‘Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.’

A spokesperson from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) confirmed Musk’s plans in a statement to Fox News Digital.

‘As part of the Trump Administration’s commitment to an efficient and accountable federal workforce, OPM is asking employees to provide a brief summary of what they did last week by the end of Monday, CC’ing their manager,’ the official said. ‘Agencies will determine any next steps.’

White House Communications Director Steven Cheung voiced support for the initiative later on Saturday, sharing a screenshot of the email in a post on X.

‘This is such a good idea and even White House staffers can list all of the great things they’ve done this week, just like everyone in the Administration should do as well,’ Cheung wrote.

The post came as Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) continues slashing suspected waste across the federal government. In an X post Tuesday, DOGE said it discovered 4 million active credit cards on the U.S. government’s books.

‘The US government currently has ~4.6M active credit cards/accounts, which processed ~90M unique transactions for  ~$40B of spend[ing] in FY24,’ DOGE said in a post on X Tuesday. 

President Donald Trump has been supportive of Musk’s work with DOGE. On Saturday, Trump wrote on Truth Social that though Musk is ‘doing a great job,’ he should be ‘more aggressive.’

‘ELON IS DOING A GREAT JOB, BUT I WOULD LIKE TO SEE HIM GET MORE AGGRESSIVE. REMEMBER, WE HAVE A COUNTRY TO SAVE, BUT ULTIMATELY, TO MAKE GREATER THAN EVER BEFORE. MAGA!,’ Trump wrote.

Musk responded with an enthusiastic ‘Will do, Mr. President!’ hours after Trump posted. 

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for additional comment.

Fox News Digital’s Michael Lee and Rachel Wolf contributed to this report.

Conservative voters believe Vice President JD Vance will become the Republican Party’s presidential nominee in the 2028 election cycle, a straw poll conducted at the 2025 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) found. 

‘You guys are the conservative movement, you guys are the thought leaders, the opinion leaders. We asked folks who they thought would be the Republican nominee, who they preferred for the Republican for president in 2028. And who is it?,’ Jim McLaughlin, president of McLaughlin & Associates Polls, said Friday from the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in Oxon Hill, Maryland, on Saturday. 

‘JD Vance. And why? Because he’s viewed as the closest thing to Donald Trump,’ McLaughlin added, he did not provide additional data on Vance’s support among CPAC attendees. 

Steve Bannon, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and others were also viewed by the attendees as the potential Republican nominee behind Vance, the full CPAC straw poll results posted to X found. 

The straw poll was conducted among more than 1,000 attendees of the conservative conference, which kicked off on Wednesday and wraps up on Saturday following President Donald Trump’s planned speech. 

McLaughlin noted that the straw poll has accurately predicted conservatives’ views and voting trends in previous years, including that Trump would win the 2024 primary and general election. 

‘You know how I knew Donald Trump was going to win the people in this room? Because when we did the CPAC polls over the years, and you had the mainstream media saying, you know, ‘Donald Trump couldn’t win again.’ Donald Trump was winning overwhelmingly, not by a little bit, overwhelmingly in every single CPAC poll. You guys knew he was going to win the primary. You all knew that he was going to win the general election, no matter what the Democrats threw at us,’ he said. 

This year’s straw poll overwhelmingly focused on Trump’s approval ratings since taking office, with a handful of results finding Trump’s approval sitting at 99% on various issues. 

‘The first few weeks of Donald Trump’s presidency have been the best for the modern conservative movement in my lifetime. What do you think about that?’ McLaughlin said of one of the poll questions. ‘Well, 99% agreed with that. Think about that. We don’t see 99% numbers.’

‘But 99% say this is the best … in modern conservative history,’ McLaughlin, who was joined on stage by CPAC chair Matt Schlapp on stage to announce the results, added. 

Ninety-nine percent of respondents also reported in the poll that Congress rapidly passing Trump’s agenda is important to them, while another 99% reported that Trump is doing a better job now than his first administration. All in, Trump’s job approval rating sits at 99%, according to the poll. 

‘It’s amazing. I’ve been working as a pollster now … going on four decades. . . . We’ve never seen numbers like this. We’ve never seen anybody unite the conservative movement the way Donald Trump has done this,’ McLaughlin added of Trump’s high marks. 

Trump also earned support for his comments regarding the U.S. potentially establishing a national security and an economic alliance with Greenland. 

‘Ninety-three percent of you approve of that, because it just makes sense for economic reasons, for national security reasons,’ McLaughlin said of Trump’s support for establishing an alliance with Greenland. ‘And by the way, we do a little bit of work over in Europe and whatnot. They also think it’s a very good idea. Donald Trump again, being a visionary.’

The straw poll comes just roughly one month into Trump’s second administration, which has been working at a break-neck pace as administration officials work to gut the federal government over overspending, while also stamping out potential fraud and mismanagement. 

After his whirlwind two-day visit to Ukraine, President Donald Trump’s special envoy for Russia and Ukraine retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg is within striking distance of sealing a rare-minerals agreement with the country under attack by Russian strongman Vladimir Putin. 

‘Minerals deal nearly done,’ a well-placed source told Fox News.  

The Ukrainian side made suggestions to the agreement text and sent it back to the American side, another source involved in the talks told Fox News.

Trump is seeking the rights to access Ukraine’s natural resources in exchange for the United States having provided billions of dollars in support for the Eastern European country against Russia’s invasion. Trump said on Friday that the mineral deal is ‘pretty close.’

The White House stresses that the deal would not be a guarantee of future aid for the war with Russia.

Ukraine has been engulfed in an existential war. Ukraine’s efforts to counter Russia’s occupation are viewed as a test case for free democratic nations to preserve the rule-based global order.

Kellogg visited wounded Ukrainian troops and met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whom he termed a ‘courageous leader.’ Trump, on the other hand, lashed out earlier this week at Zelenskyy, blasting him as ‘A Dictator without Elections.’

Trump walked back his comment on Friday that Russia did not invade Ukraine. He told Fox News Radio that Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine.

Rebekah Koffler, a former Defence Intelligence Agency officer, told Fox News Digital ‘The outcome of Trump’s play for the rare earth minerals is uncertain now, as the situation on the battlefield is by all means favouring Russia and on the diplomatic front, there are too many moving parts. It is the battle of the wills between the master of manipulation Putin and the master of the Art of the Deal, President Trump. And Zelenskyy is caught in the middle, just trying to survive, figuratively and literally.’

Koffler, who is the author of Putin’s Playbook and the host of the Trump’s Playbook podcast, warned about flaws in the minerals deal. ‘The problem is that a large share of these deposits is in Donbas, Eastern Ukraine, controlled by Russia. And Putin is acutely aware of Trump’s unconventional approaches to business deals. So, the Russian armed forces are now rushing to take over the Shevchenko region, containing Europe’s largest lithium deposits.’

Russia sent military forces into Ukraine nearly three years ago on February 24, 2022, to illegally absorb the independent nation into Russian territory. Russian forces have committed war crimes against Ukrainian citizens, according to UN experts.

Kellogg visited wounded Ukrainian troops at the Irpin Military Hospital. The New York Post’s Caitlin Doornbas accompanied Kellogg on his tour. She reported that Kellogg and Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget A. Brink had visited the hospital on Friday ‘where Ukrainian troops with leg and arm amputations were receiving treatments and getting outfitted with prosthetics.’

The New York Post reported that Kellogg said ‘The biggest reason I wanted to come here was President Trump has said he wants to stop the killing, and you’ve got to go to the place where you see what killing looks like — what death looks like — and see young men and women who have been wounded and combat. As a soldier, you owe them that respect. As a leader, you owe that respect. And that’s one of the reasons I wanted to come here to do that, and this gives me an opportunity to see them.’

According to the Post, ‘Kellogg visited roughly 20 troops, sitting with each one and having individual discussions. One, named Andrii, had lost both legs, an eye, his hearing and suffered a traumatic brain injury.’ 

A Ukrainian soldier named Denis, according to the Post, asked Kellogg, ‘In your opinion, can we trust Russia? That they will negotiate?’ 

Kellogg responded ‘You almost have to look back in history, and you have to have an ability to negotiate. All wars end through negotiation, the ultimate victory on the battlefield ends with diplomacy, and today’s world is no different.’

The retired General continued, ‘I think a better question would be: Can you trust the people that you are with to make sure that they’re with you? It’s sort of like you ask a deeper question: Are you with us? And the answer is, yes, we are.’

Kellogg said, ‘I think the nations of the world recognize aggression. Sometimes diplomacy for a soldier is messy, but what the soldier does is he gives time for the politicians and the diplomats to come to a conclusion, and that’s the reason why I make that comment that Ukraine owes you — the world owes you — because you basically sacrifice to allow diplomats to find . . . a good conclusion — a conclusion you fought for. We, in that position, we owe you that. We need to make sure that we end this right.’

The death toll of the Ukraine-Russia war is stomach-turning. According to the Wall Street Journal, the number of dead and wounded—based on estimates in September — is nearly one million.

The wounded Ukrainian soldier, Denis, told Kellogg that Ukraine must have ‘a strong army,’ because he worried that after negotiations, it could be ‘five, maximum 10 years of peace, and then it could get back to the next phase of war,’ reported the Post.

Kellogg answered, ‘Well, I think the intent is there’ll be no next war.’

Kellogg also the visited the Irpin Bridge on Friday, the scene of a powerful setback for Russian jingoism. ‘Ukrainian soldiers blew up the bridge during Russia’s initial 2022 invasion, playing a key role in stopping Moscow’s advance toward Kyiv,’ wrote the Post.

Kellogg told the Post at the bridge, ‘I know how soldiers fight for freedom and the people fight for people. I know what I mean. Anybody who fought for freedom understands what they did. [Coming here] was just a chance to see one of the places that they fought and give them the respect that they deserve — their soldiers — and that’s why I wanted to come out to do it. That seems one of the things I can do, is just pass on my respects.

Kellogg added, ‘I know how soldiers fight for freedom, I know what that means. Anybody who fought for freedom understands what they did. [Coming here] was just a chance to see one of the places that they fought and give them the respect that they deserve — their soldiers.

The retired General paid tribute at the historic site to the soldiers who fought against Russian imperialism. 

He noted that ‘One thing that you can never really understand until you see it is the intangible heart [of soldiers] and what they showed here was heart. And that’s something you can’t measure. And that’s what really saved Ukraine. It wasn’t necessarily the weapons, it wasn’t necessarily the fact that the world was against Russia’s invasion — it was the fact that soldiers decided to fight for their country.’

Fox News’ Jennifer Griffin, NaNa Sajaia and Brie Stimson contributed to this report.