President Donald Trump’s administration on Friday asked the Supreme Court to permit enforcement of a passport policy requiring transgender and nonbinary applicants to list their sex as male or female according to their birth certificate.

Due to a lower court order, transgender and nonbinary people can receive passports with an ‘X’ identification marker instead of male or female. The Justice Department has appealed that order, the Associated Press reported.

In its filing on Friday, Justice Department lawyers argued, ‘Private citizens cannot force the government to use inaccurate sex designations on identification documents that fail to reflect the person’s biological sex — especially not on identification documents that are government property and an exercise of the President’s constitutional and statutory power to communicate with foreign governments.’

On Jan. 20, President Trump signed an executive order directing the federal government to recognize only male or female designations based on ‘an individual’s immutable biological classification.’ 

The order instructed the State Department to issue official documents, including passports, in line with that standard.

A federal judge in Massachusetts later ruled the State Department must provide transgender and nonbinary applicants with passports reflecting the gender designation they select. 

The 1st Circuit Court of Appeals declined to block that order while the case moves forward, prompting the administration to appeal to the Supreme Court.

For more than three decades before the Trump administration, the State Department permitted people to update the sex designation on their passports.

In 2022, the Biden administration introduced the option for applicants to choose ‘X’ as a gender-neutral designation and to select ‘M’ or ‘F’ to indicate male or female, according to Reuters.

Fox News’ Bill Mears and Shannon Bream contributed to this report.

Senate Republicans’ bid to pass a short-term government funding extension was foiled by Senate Democrats as the deadline to fund the government fast approaches.

While the proposal easily glided through the House with little drama, it hit a brick wall in the Senate and failed 44-48. Only one lawmaker, Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., crossed the aisle to support the Republican plan. Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, also voted against the bill.

Their failure to send the House GOP’s continuing resolution (CR) to President Donald Trump’s desk came on the heels of Democrats’ failed attempt to advance their own counter-proposal to the Republicans’ plan.

It also comes as lawmakers gear up to leave Washington, D.C., for a week to observe the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah. They’re expected to return with just two working days left before the deadline to fund the government on Sept. 30.

‘The House has acted,’ said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. ‘The president’s ready to sign the bill. We’ve got the appropriations committee and a lot of senators who are ready to go to work to pass bipartisan appropriations bills to fund the government by allowing these additional weeks into November. In order to do that, Democrats have to take ‘yes’ for an answer.’

The CR would have kept the government open until Nov. 21, and it included tens of millions for increased security for lawmakers and the judicial and executive branches.

Senate Democrats have dug in against the GOP’s proposal, not so much because of what’s in the bill, but what’s not in it. They have also hung the possibility of a government shutdown on Trump, who demanded that Republicans cut Democrats out of the process.

Thune charged that if Democrats were ‘serious’ about funding the government, they wouldn’t have ‘put out the most partisan piece of legislation you possibly could.’

‘I mean, it’s kind of mind-boggling,’ he said.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has also accused Thune of not negotiating with him — a point Thune has pushed back against and noted throughout the week that his office is less than 25 yards from Schumer’s.  

‘We have two weeks. They should sit down and talk to us, and we maybe can get a good proposal,’ Schumer said. ‘Let’s see. But when they don’t talk to us, there’s no hope of getting a good proposal. And that makes no sense.’

‘And again, when Donald Trump says don’t negotiate with Democrats, because he doesn’t know what the Senate is like, or he doesn’t know how to count, because without Democrats, they’re going to end up shutting down the government,’ he continued.

However, the demands Schumer and Democrats laid out in their counter are a bridge too far for Republicans.

Included in the bill were a permanent extension to COVID-19 pandemic-era Obamacare subsidies, which are set to expire at the end of the year, efforts to repeal the Medicaid cuts in Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill,’ and a clawback of canceled NPR and PBS funding.

Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., told Fox News Digital that the legislation was a ‘Trojan horse by the Democrats.’

‘It’s to me, it’s a preview of what they’re going to want to do,’ he said.

‘Schumer has to play to the far-left fringe that is actually running the Democrat Party right now,’ Barrasso continued.

Senate Democrats are adamant that the Obamacare credits, in particular, need to be dealt with now rather than near the deadline. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., told Fox News Digital that lawmakers ‘have to do it now.’

‘All the [insurance rate] notices go out Oct. 1, so you have to have it now,’ Peters said.

However, Republicans argue that including an extension to the tax credits to a short-term extension isn’t germane to the bill, especially one geared toward trying to give Congress time to fund the government with spending bills. And Thune has said that the credits would be ‘addressed’ after a shutdown was averted.

But for now, the issue at hand still boils down to communication between Thune and Schumer.

‘I mean, these are the leaders of the U.S. Senate,’ Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said. ‘I expect them to step up. And if one’s not actually reaching out, the other one should at least demonstrate that they are — they’re trying to negotiate in good faith. If they don’t, then they get what they get.’ 

Senate Democrats’ counteroffer to congressional Republicans’ short-term government funding extension was torpedoed by the GOP on Friday.

The bill, which varies drastically from the House’s proposal that passed earlier in the day, was filled with Democratic priorities that they say are the only sweeteners that would convince them to keep the government open. But the provisions were a bridge too far for Senate Republicans.  

The Democrats’ bill, which was unveiled late Wednesday night, failed 47-45 along party lines. However, the GOP’s CR will be voted on right after. The fate of that bill is in the air, given that Democrats have vowed to oppose it throughout the week.

The deadline to pass a government funding extension, known as a continuing resolution (CR), is Sept. 30, and lawmakers are expected to leave Washington, D.C., Friday night for a weeklong recess to observe the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah.

House Republicans unveiled their CR on Tuesday and have lauded the bill as a ‘clean’ funding extension until Nov. 21. While it doesn’t include partisan policy riders, it does include tens of millions to beef up security measures for lawmakers.

However, Democrats, led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., opted to go with their own version of a CR, not because they disliked what was in Republicans’ bill, but what was not in it. They’ve also dug in against President Donald Trump’s demand that Republicans cut Democrats out of the process. 

Their plan would have kept the government open until Oct. 31, permanently extended expiring Obamacare premium subsidies, undoing the ‘big, beautiful bill’s’ Medicaid cuts, and clawing back the canceled funding for NPR and PBS.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., panned the bill and argued that the Republicans’ legislation was everything Democrats had pushed when they controlled the Senate under former President Joe Biden.

‘It’s not clean – it’s filthy,’ Thune said. ‘It’s packed full of partisan policies and measures designed to appeal to Democrats’ leftist base.’

However, Schumer has accused Thune of not coming to the negotiating table and directly engaging with him to find a path forward to avert a government shutdown.

Democrats particularly want a deal on the expiring Obamacare subsidies, along with some assurances on future rescissions and impoundments.

‘We’ll sit down and negotiate, if they will sit down and negotiate,’ Schumer said. ‘We don’t have a red line, but we know we have to help the American people.’

The House of Representatives adopted a resolution to honor the ‘life and legacy’ of late conservative activist Charlie Kirk on Friday, just over a week after he was shot and killed during a college campus speaking event in Utah.

The measure got bipartisan support in a 310-58 vote, with both Democrats and Republicans having quickly risen to condemn political violence in the wake of Kirk’s assassination.

The vote divided Democrats, however, with 95 lawmakers voting to adopt the resolution, 58 voting against it and 22 not voting at all.

Thirty-eight Democrats also voted ‘present’ on the resolution. The top three House Democrats – Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass., and Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar, D-Calif. – all voted in favor of the measure.

House Democratic leadership did not expressly tell their caucus how to vote on the resolution but communicated that they would support it, according to two sources familiar with discussions.

The measure to honor Kirk, led by Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., lauded the Turning Point USA founder as ‘one of the most prominent voices in America, engaging in respectful, civil discourse across college campuses, media platforms and national forums, always seeking to elevate truth, foster understanding and strengthen the Republic.’

It also said Kirk’s ‘commitment to civil discussion and debate stood as a model for young Americans across the political spectrum, and he worked tirelessly to promote unity without compromising on conviction.’ 

It called his killing ‘a sobering reminder of the growing threat posed by political extremism and hatred in our society’ and ‘calls upon all Americans—regardless of race, party affiliation, or creed—to reject political violence, recommit to respectful debate, uphold American values, and respect one another as fellow Americans.’

The resolution also invoked Kirk’s Christian faith, affirming that the House ‘honors the life, leadership, and legacy of Charlie Kirk, whose steadfast dedication to the Constitution, civil discourse, and biblical truth inspired a generation to cherish and defend the blessings of liberty.’

Despite lawmakers on both sides quickly coming out to condemn Kirk’s killing and political violence as a whole, subsequent days have seen partisan divisions skyrocket over the case.

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., was among the Democrats targeted by the right for her response to Kirk’s death, both in an interview on progressive outlet Zeteo News and in reposting a social media video that criticized Kirk’s allies’ responses to his killing.

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., led a failed bid to censure Omar over her reaction, which was tabled when four Republicans, three of whom cited First Amendment protections, voted to block the measure.

After conservative activist Charlie Kirk was murdered in Utah last week, leftist and contrarian figures across the country reacted with open celebration, prompting widespread public condemnation.

Fox News Digital spoke this week to several experts who analyzed whether the trend remains a fringe occurrence or if celebrations of political opponents’ deaths and injuries are becoming mainstream.

Paul Sracic is a former politics professor at Youngstown State University and is currently an adjunct fellow at the domestic policy-focused Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C. He said the answer depends on one’s definition of ‘fringe.’

Sracic said recent surveys showed as many as one-fifth of self-identified liberals agreed that political violence is sometimes justified.

‘Presumably, most of these very liberal and liberal voters support Democrats. This should horrify Democratic leaders, but it’s arguably the inevitable outcome of Democrats either adopting or at most failing to push back against notions that words themselves can be a form of violence and therefore can make people feel ‘unsafe’ if they are exposed to a political argument with which they disagree,’ Sracic said.

Democratic leaders, however they might personally think, also know that these more-energized voters must be attracted to the polls in the midterms, no matter the political environment, in order for the party to have a shot at winning back part of the federal government, he said. 

Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., who is also running for Sen. Mitch McConnell’s to-be-open Senate seat, offered another perspective – focusing on the increasing trend of political violence from the left against the right.

He cited Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., nearly being assassinated at a Virginia ballfield, two attempts on President Donald Trump’s life, and Kirk’s murder.

‘Make no mistake—whether you stand with President Trump, support Israel, or believe in free-market capitalism, you are being targeted,’ Barr said.

‘I will work with the Trump administration and provide every resource necessary to prevent these acts of domestic terrorism before they happen.’

Democratic strategist and former congressional staff advisor Julian Epstein argued that multiple factors are driving the reaction to Kirk’s killing.

‘The celebration of Kirk’s death on the far left, both on and offline, is far too common, and not sufficiently denounced,’ he said. ‘The minimization of assassination by Democrat elites in arguing the both side-ism — and in the case of an ABC reporter, the moral relativism — is also too common.’

Epstein warned that the indiscriminate use of historically charged terms like ‘fascism’ is radicalizing political bases, and argued the left is failing to uphold Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Civil Rights-era call to reject violence as a path to political change.

‘That failure occurred not only with the Kirk assassination, but also during the L.A. riots and the scourge of antisemitic violence on college campuses and elsewhere in the past few years,’ he said.

Link Lauren, former advisor to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and host of the podcast ‘Spot On,’ said the trend is no longer fringe but increasingly mainstream:

‘They call us Nazis, fascists, and threats to democracy. In the wake of George Floyd, the left burned down cities and businesses,’ Lauren said.

‘Since Charlie’s assassination, conservatives have gathered in churches and peaceful prayer. [That] tells you all you need to know.’

At the Manhattan Institute, legal policy fellow Tal Fortgang added that political violence is ‘capacious.’

‘There is an increasingly mainstream view among progressives, gaining ground within the Democratic Party as its democratic socialist influence grows, that terrorism is justified if it evens out power disparities,’ he said. ‘So you see prominent Democrats downplaying the atrocities of Oct. 7, 2023, on the grounds that Israel was the more powerful party in that fight.’

Fortgang said New York Assemb. Zohran Mamdani and the Democratic Socialists of America have risen in prominence since the Hamas terror attacks.

‘And, as Mamdani’s star has risen, so has the premise that violence is justified if it’s someone ‘powerless’ attacking someone ‘powerful.’’

Fortgang also pointed to comments from Democrats like Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts after the murder of a health care executive – a case in which the prime suspect has been treated like a celebrity outside his ongoing court hearings.

Warren originally said that violence is ‘never the answer,’ with the caveat that ‘people can only be pushed so far… if you push people hard enough, they lose faith in the ability of their government to make change.’ She later clarified her remarks, stating: ‘Violence is never the answer. Period. I should have been much clearer that there is never a justification for murder.’

Fortgang said suspect Luigi Mangione ‘struck a blow against capitalism,’ and posited that Kirk’s suspected murderer Tyler Robinson may have been motivated by a desire to avenge transphobia.

‘Hamas fights settler-colonialism when they burn families alive. Systemic thinking is dehumanizing, but it became basically orthodoxy on the American left,’ he said.

‘Even if it is not solely responsible for the uptick in political violence, or its widespread celebration, it helps sustain it. That’s what the Democratic Party needs to confront.’

The House passed a short-term federal funding bill backed by President Donald Trump on Friday morning, paving the way for averting a government shutdown if the Senate follows suit.

The legislation is aimed at keeping the government funded at current levels through Nov. 21 with a measure known as a continuing resolution (CR), designed to give House and Senate appropriators more time to strike a deal on fiscal 2026 federal spending.

Fiscal 2025 is slated to end on Sept. 30, and Congress risks a partial shutdown if the CR does not make it to Trump’s desk for a signature by then.

In addition to keeping the government open until just before Thanksgiving, the legislation also includes an added $30 million to boost lawmaker security through a mutual aid fund for Capitol law enforcement and local police.

That decision was made as concerns over political violence have skyrocketed in recent months, including after the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Utah last week.

The CR also honors a White House request for an additional $58 million in combined security funding for the judicial and executive branches, as well as $1 billion allocated for Washington, D.C.’s budget after Congress repealed that sum earlier this year.

A shutdown could be politically costly for both Republicans and Democrats.

Democratic leaders had threatened for days to oppose the bill, infuriated over being left out of CR negotiations and demanding increased funding for healthcare subsidies.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., was criticizing the CR as recently as Friday morning, less than an hour before the vote.

‘Today, there’s a choice before every single member of the House of Representatives: will we stand up for the healthcare of the American people, or will we bend the knee to Donald Trump and his continued efforts to gut healthcare for everyday Americans?’ Jeffries said.

‘We’re voting no on a partisan Republican spending bill, and we’ll continue to defend the healthcare of the American people.’

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., had precious little wiggle room going into the vote, affording to lose only two Republicans if all Democrats turned against it.

But in the Senate, where at least several Democratic votes will be needed to meet the 60-vote threshold to advance the legislation, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is under significant pressure from his left flank to buck the GOP-led bill.

Schumer angered progressives in March when he cast a key vote to help avert a government shutdown with another Republican-led bill.

Republicans, meanwhile, have been readying to place the blame on a potential shutdown squarely on Democrats’ shoulders.

Trump posted on Truth Social on Thursday evening, ‘House Republicans are taking a very important Vote to pass a CLEAN TEMPORARY FUNDING BILL. The Leader of the Democrats, Cryin’ Chuck Schumer, wants to shut the Government down.’

‘Republicans want the Government to stay open. Every House Republican should UNIFY, and VOTE YES!’ Trump wrote.

Democrats released their own alternative CR plan this week, but Johnson told Fox News’ ‘Special Report’ that it was ‘filled with partisan wish lists and poison pills and demands.’

The Senate is expected to consider both versions and could take a vote as early as Friday.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris noted that she was unaware that she had ‘pulled the pin on a hand grenade’ with her response to a question while appearing on ‘The View’ ahead of the 2024 presidential election, according to an Associated Press report about the unsuccessful candidate’s forthcoming book about her whirlwind 2024 White House campaign.

Asked whether she would have done anything differently than President Joe Biden, Harris replied by saying nothing ‘comes to mind’ and adding that she had ‘been a part of … most of the decisions that have had impact.’

‘I had no idea I’d just pulled the pin on a hand grenade,’ Harris wrote in her book, ‘107 Days,’ which is slated for release on Tuesday, according to the AP — ‘my staff were besides themselves’ regarding how she had handed a ‘gift to the Trump campaign,’ she noted, according to the outlet.

Harris explained in the book that she did not want to criticize the president or litigate matters on which they did not agree, according to the AP, but she did not grasp the extent to which her connection with Biden was holding back her presidential bid.

President Donald Trump decisively defeated Harris in the 2024 election, winning both the Electoral College and the popular vote.

‘I could barely breathe,’ Harris wrote regarding her experience of learning that she had lost the White House contest to her Republican rival, the outlet reported. She kept asking, ‘My God, my God, what will happen to our country?’

Earlier this year, Harris announced that she had decided against mounting a 2026 California gubernatorial bid.

‘In recent months, I have given serious thought to asking the people of California for the privilege to serve as their Governor,’ she noted in a statement issued in late July. ‘But after deep reflection, I’ve decided that I will not run for Governor in this election.’

House Main Street Caucus Chairman Mike Flood, R-Neb., will refer Democratic colleague Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., for a House Ethics Committee investigation, he first told Fox News Digital.

It is the latest move in the GOP-led fallout over Omar’s response to the assassination of Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist who was shot and killed in Utah during a college campus speaking event last week.

‘I will be filing tomorrow … a complaint with the Committee on Ethics in the House of Representatives with 18 very concerning incidents and/or behaviors and/or statements that, on their face, reflect poorly on the House of Representatives,’ Flood said of Omar.

The top of the list of complaints will include the progressive Democrat’s ‘obnoxious, insulting and dismissive comments following the assassination of Charlie Kirk,’ he said.

‘Second, harboring illegal immigrants. I believe in February of this year that Omar hosted a workshop advising Somalians on how to avoid being deported after protecting the laws of the United States,’ Flood continued of his points. ‘No. 3, she’s used TikTok for mixed official and campaign content, which specifically violates other House rules.’

Flood was one of four House Republicans to help Omar narrowly avoid being censured by the House on Wednesday evening.

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., moved to force a vote on censuring Omar over her reaction to Kirk’s killing, but the move was quashed when four Republicans and all Democrats voted to table the measure.

Flood said at the time of his vote, ‘Ilhan Omar’s statements and social media posts are reprehensible and should be referred to the Ethics Committee. The appropriate time to consider a censure motion would be after ethics reviews her conduct.’

He told Fox News Digital on Thursday that initiating an ethics investigation would make a censure ‘far more credible.’

Flood pointed out that he similarly voted to table a censure threat against Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., for her conduct outside a New Jersey ICE facility before the ethics committee could issue a report on the matter.

‘And so I have gathered enough information, starting yesterday, before I voted to table, understanding that this was an issue,’ Flood said.

He also disagreed with the other three House Republicans who all said Omar’s comments were protected by the First Amendment.

‘This isn’t a free speech issue. This is a ‘Have you demonstrated that you are behaving at all times in a manner that reflects credibly on the House?’’ Flood said.

Omar specifically faced backlash over an interview with progressive news outlet Zeteo, in which she criticized Kirk’s past commentary and Republicans’ reaction to the shooting. She later accused Republicans of taking her words out of context, and she called Kirk’s death ‘mortifying.’

She previously told Zeteo days after Kirk’s assassination that he had ‘downplayed slavery and what Black people have gone through in this country by saying Juneteenth shouldn’t exist.’

‘There are a lot of people who are out there talking about him just wanting to have a civil debate,’ the ‘Squad’ member said. ‘There is nothing more effed up, you know, like, than to completely pretend that, you know, his words and actions have not been recorded and in existence for the last decade or so.’

She later posted on X amid the backlash, ‘While I disagreed with Charlie Kirk vehemently about his rhetoric, my heart breaks for his wife and children. I don’t wish violence on anyone. My faith teaches me the power of peace, empathy, and compassion. Right-wing accounts trying to spin a false story when I condemned his murder multiple times is fitting for their agenda to villainize the left to hide from the fact that Donald Trump gins up hate on a daily basis.’

Omar also reposted a video on X, where others not associated with the congresswoman said, ‘Don’t be fooled, these people don’t give a single s— about Charlie Kirk. They’re just using his death to further their Christo-fascist agenda.’

The Minnesota Democrat’s colleagues have vehemently defended her against Mace’s censure and Republican criticism.

Fox News Digital reached out to Omar’s office for a response to Flood but did not immediately hear back.

Hunter Biden was involved in discussions about pardons toward the end of his father’s White House term, a source familiar with Jeff Zients’ interview with the House Oversight Committee told Fox News Digital on Thursday.

Zients met with House investigators behind closed doors for over six hours — the final former Biden administration official to appear in House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer’s probe into ex-President Joe Biden’s use of the autopen.

Comer, R-Ky., is also investigating whether Biden’s top aides covered up signs of mental decline in the former president, and whether executive decisions signed via autopen — including myriad clemency orders Biden approved — were executed with his full awareness.

Zients told investigators that Hunter was involved in some of those pardon discussions and attended a few meetings on the subject with White House aides, the source said.

It’s not clear how much say Hunter had in those meetings, or if he was involved in discussions about his own controversial pardon.

The former president issued a ‘full and unconditional’ pardon for his son in early December, just under two months before leaving office. 

That’s despite Biden and his staff denying the possibility of such a move on several occasions.

Biden approved nearly 2,500 commutations on Jan. 17, just days before leaving the White House, setting a record for most clemency orders ever granted by a U.S. president — more than 4,200 in total — and the most ever in a single day.

Weeks earlier, he issued pardons for several family members, including Hunter.

It had been previously reported by NBC News and other outlets that Hunter sat in on White House meetings with Biden’s aides in the wake of the former president’s disastrous June 2024 debate against then-candidate Donald Trump.

Zients is the final former Biden aide expected to appear before the House Oversight Committee in its autopen probe.

The source familiar with his sit-down told Fox News Digital that Zients ‘admitted that President Biden’s speech stumbles increased as he aged.’

‘He also noted that the president’s difficulty remembering dates and names worsened over time, including during the administration,’ the source said.

A second source familiar with Zients’ comments to the House Oversight Committee defended his comments. 

‘As chief of staff, Jeff’s job was to ensure that the president met with a range of advisors to thoroughly consider issues so that the president could make the best decisions,’ the second source told Fox News Digital.

‘Throughout Jeff’s time working with him, while President Biden valued input from a wide variety of advisors and experts, the final decisions were made by the president and the president alone,’ the second source said.

‘Jeff had full confidence in President Biden’s ability to serve as president and is proud of what President Biden accomplished during his four years in office.’

Fox News Digital reached out to Zients’ attorney and the law firm of Abbe Lowell, who was known to have defended Hunter previously, for comment but did not immediately hear back.

Shortly after announcing a strategy to go after deceptive direct-to-consumer advertising by the pharmaceutical industry, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Department of Health and Human Services released a parody video of a drug advertisement – a pointed way of emphasizing the fact that the United States is largely unique in allowing drug ads.

‘Tired of endless drug ads promising quick fixes but leaving you sicker than you were before? That can change today. Ask your doctor about MAHA,’ the parody commercial begins, referring to Kennedy’s ‘Make America Healthy Again’ initiative. 

‘MAHA may cause healthier living, fewer chronic diseases, and lower drug costs,’ the video’s narrator continues. ‘Some Americans reported more time spent with family instead of at the pharmacy. Other side effects may include healthier children, a stronger nation, more transparency in healthcare, honest advertising, and accountability from Big Pharma.’

The drug advertisement parody comes after Kennedy and HHS laid out their plans to target direct-to-consumer drug advertising – something that isn’t widely allowed outside the United States – in a new children’s health strategy released earlier this month. 

The strategy said it will ramp up enforcement of current prescription drug advertising laws, with a priority on ‘egregious violations demonstrating harm from current practices.’ The strategy noted these violations could include the dissemination of ‘risk information and quality of life through misleading and deceptive advertising on social media and digital platforms.’

The strategy to go after direct-to-consumer drug ads will also include inter-agency cooperation to explore the development of potential new industry guidelines that limit direct-to-consumer advertising for certain ‘unhealthy foods’ to children. These efforts include ‘evaluating the use of misleading claims and imagery,’ the MAHA children’s strategy stated. 

Kennedy said alongside the release of HHS’s parody advertisement that the Trump administration plans to begin holding the pharmaceutical industry accountable for not sharing full safety information in their drug ads on television, radio and beyond.

‘No more hiding vital information in small print, or pushing it off to a website, or a 1-800 number,’ Kennedy said in a video released in conjunction with the parody advertisement. He also noted that regulators have been letting pharmaceutical manufacturers avoid providing complete warnings in their marketing materials.

Kennedy said in the accompanying video that, in the past, regulators let companies mention a vague ‘major statement’ of risk that required consumers to go elsewhere for important details about the drug. The secretary said this ‘loophole’ opened the door to a ‘tsunami’ of misleading advertisements.

‘Drug ads drove up prescription drug costs and distorted doctor-patient conversations. Patients saw glossy ads and often asked for new medications,’ Kennedy continued. ‘Big Pharma’s marketing hooked the country on prescription drugs. We’re taking action to end that practice.’