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A baby products manufacturer is challenging a new federal regulation as overly broad and contrary to President Donald Trump’s agenda of reigning in three-letter agencies and commissions. 

New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA) filed suit Thursday in Washington, D.C. against the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) over a new federal safety standard for infant support cushions. NCLA, on behalf of Heroes Technology, says the commission misinterprets the term ‘durable’ in the provision to include items not previously covered by the standard, like cushions and other such products. 

NCLA argues that the CPSC previously only included items that fell squarely within the accepted definition of ‘durable’ as delineated by congressional statute – cribs, for example, as well as high chairs, swings and other products.

‘We think that this is a pure case of statutory construction that guides agency authority and over here they step their bounds,’ Kara Rollins, Litigation Counsel at NCLA, told Fox News Digital. 

Rollins said that, via the provision in question, the commission is ‘shortcutting and bypassing really important procedural checks, evidentiary requirements in order to push out a regulation faster.’

NCLA had previously sent CPSC a letter requesting a stay of the rule, saying that it ‘establishes an arbitrary and ineffective safety standard.’ NCLA sought ‘postponement and reconsideration’ in light of one of Trump’s executive orders ordering all executive agencies and departments to halt issuing new rules and regulations pending review and approval. 

‘The president has said to these agencies, ‘You must do X’, and it’s not clear that they’re actually following through with what’s required of them,’ Rollins said. 

Rollins said that the rule not only affects Heroes Technology but also extends to ‘thousands of manufacturers [and] thousands of manufacturing jobs’ both in and outside the U.S.

‘It’s emblematic,’ Rollins said of the broader implications of the rule. ‘When an agency is not held to account, when it’s not held to the standards set out by the statute, or is independent and doesn’t answer to the president in its own mind, then these sorts of self-aggrandizements tend to occur.’

Rollins said that while the rule applies to a specific sector of businesses and products, ‘there’s not really anything that stops it from sort of infiltrating further unless there’s a check on their power.’

‘And one thing we’re very clear on is that it’s not that we don’t think our clients’ products can’t be regulated or shouldn’t be regulated, but how Congress said they should be regulated,’ Rollins said. ‘Congress said if you’re a durable infant good, everything else has to go through the process, and it’s our view that it should have went through the other process.’

Rollins and NCLA argue that infant cushions such as the ones in the case should undergo a separate process that ‘is more onerous, more rigorous, requires more data, more fact-finding.’

The suit comes as the Trump administration works to reel in the administrative state via executive orders, directives and legal challenges. In February, Trump signed one order in particular that requires federal agencies to evaluate all of their regulations that could violate the Constitution as the administration continues to prioritize slashing red tape. 

The administrative state was previously dealt a blow by the Supreme Court in 2024 when it overturned the Chevron doctrine. 

In the landmark decision, Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, the Supreme Court effectively scaled back administrative power by holding that ‘Courts must exercise their independent judgment in deciding whether an agency has acted within its statutory authority.’ The doctrine previously gave deference to an agency’s interpretation of a federal regulation. 

Fox News Digital’s Diana Stancy contributed to this report. 


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On March 7, Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo asked President Donald Trump, ‘There are reports now that Russia says it will help the United States negotiate a nuclear deal with Iran. What kind of a deal with Iran do you want to do? You’ve said they cannot have a nuclear weapon.’ Trump made his position clear: ‘There are two ways Iran can be handled: militarily, or you make a deal.’  

He went on to call Iranians ‘great people’ suffering under what he described as an ‘evil’ regime that shoots protesters in the streets. Trump then revealed that he had sent an ultimatum-style letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, seeking a diplomatic settlement to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear state rather than resorting to military action.  

Iran’s supreme leader rejected the letter, disappointing regime officials who hoped Trump’s willingness to talk could ease their economic collapse. He warned that the U.S. wouldn’t stop at nuclear negotiations but ‘raise new demands, including restrictions on defense capabilities and international influence,’ a clear reference to the IRGC’s missile program and its terror proxy network.  

Khamenei’s stance mirrored Russian diplomat Mikhail Ulyanov’s warning that Trump shouldn’t expand nuclear talks to include Iran’s missile program or regional activities, calling it unrealistic to kill three birds with one stone.  

Russia’s strategy for helping the U.S. to negotiate with Iran seems clear — allow a U.S.-Israel strike to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities, easing international pressure. Once the regime survives, Russia regains control, exploiting Iran’s wealth for decades to come. But, how much influence does Moscow truly have over Tehran? 

On June 12, 1989, a week after Khamenei became supreme leader, U.S. Ambassador to Kenya Smith Hempstone, appointed by President George H.W. Bush, warned in the Observer-Reporter: ‘Unfortunately if Khamenei remains in power and seeks an opening to the outside world, he is more likely to look to the Soviet Union than to the US. He is a graduate of Moscow’s Patrice Lumumba university.’  

On February 5, 2010, Russia’s State TV confirmed Khamenei as a ‘notable alumnus’ in a special program marking the 50th anniversary of this training center. Dr. Ilan Berman, appointed to the RFE/RL Board of Directors by Trump’s administration in February 2025, reinforced this back in 2001, stating: ‘Interestingly, many of Iran’s hardest hardliners were trained in the Soviet Union’ including ‘Iran’s spiritual leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was himself a graduate of the USSR’s training academy for third-world anti-Americans, Patrice Lumumba University.’  

With Russian President Vladimir Putin, a former high-ranking KGB officer, in power, Moscow continues its Soviet-era strategy, using Muslim proxy groups against the U.S. and Israel. 

Israeli amb to US: Iran is

Russia’s influence over Iran is undeniable — Putin effectively controls the regime. In March 2021, leaked audio from Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, revealed that Putin ordered IRGC commanders, including Qasem Soleimani, to send troops to Syria and disrupt the nuclear feal, fearing improved U.S.-Iran relations.  

Under Trump’s successful maximum pressure policy, according to New York Times, ‘Iran Signals Openness to Limited Nuclear Talks With U.S.,’ following Russia’s guidance. However, history proves that once pressure eases, the Islamic regime resumes funding terror proxies with petrodollars, attacking Israel and U.S. allies, and plotting assassinations — including against Trump, his family, and officials, even after his presidency, as seen over the past four years.  

In the Oval Office, Trump stressed urgency: ‘We’re down to the final moments … Something’s going to happen very soon … We have a situation with Iran, and something’s going to happen very soon. Very, very soon, you’ll be talking about that pretty soon, I guess.’  

Khamenei’s stance mirrored Russian diplomat Mikhail Ulyanov’s warning that Trump shouldn’t expand nuclear talks to include Iran’s missile program or regional activities, calling it unrealistic to kill three birds with one stone.  

At the same time, Israel confirmed a joint drill of F-15 and F-35 fighter jets with a U.S. B-52 bomber — likely signaling a possible joint strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities.  

U.S.-Israel cooperation under Trump is preparing to neutralize Iran’s nuclear program, the IRGC’s missile arsenal, and its terror proxy network — a mission already underway post-October 7th.  

But if the regime survives and sanctions ease, Iran could access $100 billion annually to rebuild even stronger. Failure to act leaves Iran as a pawn of Russian oligarchs to ‘Build Back Better’ their terror networks and nuclear facilities. 


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Main Street has been excited for the Donald Trump presidency. Optimism picked up on the back of Trump’s resounding election victory. They found an ally in the Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent, who recently echoed his previous small business support, saying, ‘Wall Street’s done great, Wall Street can continue doing well. But this administration is about Main Street.’ 

Small businesses and others even scored a major win when Bessent’s Treasury Department suspended enforcement of the Corporate Transparency Act’s Beneficial Ownership Information reporting for U.S. citizens and entities, which had mostly been targeted at small businesses. 

But recent policy shifts, including substantial tariffs that have directly impacted small businesses and the markets, are standing in massive opposition to a Main Street win. 

While Trump and his advisors may be trying to play a long game here, small businesses, which have been brutalized by policy for the last five years, cannot withstand this chaos and blunt-force policy. 

Five years ago, a policy assault on small businesses began. Many small businesses were closed in whole or in part, or otherwise impacted by state and local COVID-19 policies, while large businesses were left open and supported in the stock market by the Fed. The PPP program purportedly meant to help affected small businesses was poorly structured, meaning a whole lot of people received funding who should not have, and many of those small businesses that rightfully should have been paid via PPP did not receive enough. 

Downstream effects, including labor force issues and supply chain disruptions on the back of COVID-19 policies beat down small business even more.  

Then came the Biden administration, bringing historic inflation and an estimated $1.7 trillion in new regulatory costs to small businesses. 

The effects from all of the above hurt small businesses disproportionally, because they do not have the scale to be able to absorb the costs and issues the way that larger businesses can. And everyone should care, because small businesses are close to half of the overall economy and more than 99% of all business entities.

Trump doubles down on tariffs as American aluminum production could benefit

If you want to grow the GDP and see the economy thrive, it must be done in concert with the success of small businesses. 

Which is why Main Street was hoping that they would get some certainty on tax policy, such as extending the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, and price stability instead of policy chaos. 

Tariffs are directly impacting small businesses that did not have time to implement alternate plans and, in many cases, don’t have alternatives available. I personally know and have heard stories of small businesses that have incurred major financial penalties that they cannot pass along to consumers – and if they did – it would still hurt Main Street.  

These are not major car manufacturers or steel producers or defense contractors – these are small and family-owned companies. 

If tariffs must remain in place, they should be surgical and targeted. If not, then small businesses should be exempt and not have to bear tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in costs. The economy will suffer otherwise, and small businesses do not deserve to be subject to what equates to more taxes and fees for them. 

Additionally, the secondary effects of the market are also a problem. Not only does Main Street have money invested through 401(k)s and other brokerage accounts that are directly hurt, but when those go down significantly, they spend less. When your customers are feeling less wealthy, that also ends up impacting small businesses. 

And while Trump and his advisers may have helped get the dollar index and yield on the 10-year treasury down, no doubt a part of their strategy to deal with the mess President Joe Biden left them, a massive decrease in markets can also mean less collected in tax ‘revenue,’ which could end up making the deficit worse and causing a bona fide debt crisis. 

These are not major car manufacturers or steel producers or defense contractors – these are small and family-owned companies. 

The administration may be playing a long game, but right now small businesses cannot last that long.  

The government should focus on certainty, growth, stability, deregulation and prosperity first, as they address government spending, waste and fraud and then look at addressing other issues. 

That’s what Main Street voted for and that’s what they deserve. 


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The Trump administration unveiled new sanctions on Wednesday against an Iranian-linked Swedish gang that coordinated an attack on the Israeli Embassy in Stockholm in January 2024, according to the Treasury Department. 

The sanctions freeze assets for members and those affiliated with the Foxtrot Network, a transnational criminal organization that the Treasury Department said is one of the most ‘prominent’ drug trafficking organizations in the region. The sanctions also single out and target the group’s fugitive leader, Rawa Majid. 

‘Iran’s brazen use of transnational criminal organizations and narcotics traffickers underscores the regime’s attempts to achieve its aims through any means, with no regard for the cost to communities across Europe,’ Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said in a Wednesday statement. ‘Treasury, alongside our U.S. government and international partners, will continue to hold accountable those who seek to further Iran’s thuggish and destabilizing agenda.’

In addition to trafficking drugs, the Foxtrot Network is a criminal organization that conducts violent acts, including shootings, contract killings and assaults, and is responsible for increased violence in Sweden. It is notorious for employing teenagers to conduct these violent acts, according to the Treasury Department. 

Iran has increasingly utilized criminal networks to conduct attacks targeting the U.S. as well as attacks against Jewish and Israeli targets in Europe, the Treasury Department said. 

For example, the agency accused Iran of colluding with the Foxtrot Network to conduct an attack on the Israeli Embassy in 2024 after Swedish officials identified a ‘dangerous object’ believed to be an explosive device at the embassy. While security forces neutralized the device, Sweden’s security police moved to investigate the attack as a ‘terrorist crime,’ according to Reuters. 

The Treasury Department also said on Wednesday that Majid has coordinated with the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security, which is already under U.S. sanctions, and faces charges in Sweden pertaining to narcotics and firearms trafficking. 

The White House referred Fox News Digital to the Treasury and State Department’s statements on the sanctions. 

The sanctions against Majid and the Foxtrot Network align with President Donald Trump’s maximum pressure campaign against Iran, which he reinstated in February through a series of sanctions aimed at sinking Iran’s oil exports.

 

Trump signaled Friday a nuclear deal with Iran could emerge shortly, and he revealed that he sent a letter to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to push for Tehran to agree to a nuclear agreement. Otherwise, he said Tehran could count on facing military consequences. 

‘I would rather negotiate a deal,’ Trump told Fox Business in an interview Sunday. ‘I’m not sure that everybody agrees with me, but we can make a deal that would be just as good as if you won militarily.’ 

‘But the time is happening now, the time is coming up,’ he said. ‘Something is going to happen one way or the other. I hope that Iran, and I’ve written them a letter saying I hope you’re going to negotiate, because if we have to go in militarily, it’s going to be a terrible thing for them.’


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Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is trying to harness two seemingly untamable forces: the Pentagon and the Department of Government Efficiency. First, he ordered the military to reallocate 8% of its budget away from low-priority items like climate change to better align with President Donald Trump’s ‘America First’ programs. If implemented, the budget shift would result in a 40% adjustment toward funding Trump’s priorities over DOD’s standard five-year defense program.  

Hegseth emphasized that his directive is ‘not a cut.’ Instead, he is ‘refocusing and reinvesting existing funds into building the force.’ Second, Hegseth has acknowledged that DOGE had officially entered the Pentagon. DOGE, he explained, would ‘be incorporated’ into DOD efforts ‘to find fraud, waste and abuse in the largest discretionary budget in the federal government.’ 

Hegseth is shrewdly attempting to leverage the power of DOGE and implement a much-needed comprehensive reform of the Pentagon budget. His reallocation plan assumes that savings from wasteful and unnecessary programs should be large enough to fend off pressure for more harmful cuts, potentially in areas essential for warfighting. His success will hinge on whether DOGE will embrace Hegseth’s 8% budget reallocation plan or if it demands blanket cuts on the Pentagon. President Trump, who has indicated he will allow his cabinet secretaries to take the first crack at cuts instead of DOGE, will be the pivotal player in Hegseth’s gambit.  

Hegseth’s position is similar to another reform-minded Defense Secretary, Robert Gates. Fifteen years ago, Gates warned that after a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan ‘the gusher of defense spending’ was over. With budget cuts looming, Gates reached an agreement with President Barack Obama that any efficiency and overhead savings he found could be reinvested back into force structure and modernization priorities — rather than used as an excuse to shrink the Pentagon budget. 

Gates found $100 billion in savings by reducing Pentagon contractors, canceling weapons programs like the Marine expeditionary fighting vehicle, and shuttering excess organizations like Joint Forces Command, but Obama reneged on his promise. He argued he could not justify real growth in the defense budget amid a debt crisis. Nine months later, Obama signed the Budget Control Act into law, with disastrous consequences for defense. In the 10 years after the BCA was enacted, the Pentagon’s budget was cut by 14%, totaling nearly $1 trillion.  

Trump will determine whether his team repeats the same mistake as Obama and Gates. Unlike 2010, the stakes are even higher and there is a consensus in Washington that America needs a military buildup to confront China’s unprecedented military modernization. Over the past two years, the PRC has enjoyed a 15% increase in its defense budget. This year China’s defense budget growth will outpace China’s economic growth, revealing where Xi’s real priorities lie. 

Congress appears to be doing its part to help. The reconciliation process underway on Capitol Hill may add $150 billion in defense dollars over the next decade. Reconciliation is an opportunity to move beyond the perennially dysfunctional annual defense authorization and appropriation bills.  

The multi-year funding measure would allow the Pentagon to recapitalize an industrial base that has not seen an upgrade since the 1980s.  

Secretary Hegseth says US is prepared after China issues ominous warnings

Defense funding in a reconciliation measure is especially critical to these priorities because, as Hegseth warned, substantial defense increases may not be coming in the president’s own budget request. That reality explains why Hegseth has said the Pentagon may have to make do with the resources already available and ‘make sure that every dollar goes further.’ Hegseth’s order could reallocate at least $50 billion this fiscal year and nearly $250 billion over the life of the defense program.  

Internal efficiencies along the lines of what Gates found more than a decade ago combined with capital increases from a reconciliation measure could deliver transformative results: a leaner, more agile Pentagon now able to recapitalize the industrial base, deploy new technologies and catalyze other underfunded priorities like munitions production critical to a China fight. A predictable flow of capital would go a long way toward realizing Trump administration priorities like expanding shipbuilding capacity and the Golden Dome national missile defense system.  

Trump has declared ‘we will again build the strongest military the world has ever seen. We will measure our success not only by the battles we win but also by the wars we end — and perhaps most importantly, the wars we never get into..’  

Whether DOGE prunes away DoD’s excess waste and inefficiencies or is an anvil that smashes through Pentagon programs – good and bad alike – is in President Trump’s hands. He uniquely can prevent the mistakes of his predecessors and allow the Pentagon to reinvest in itself and carry out the goal outlined in his platform to ‘Strengthen and modernize our military, making it, without question, the strongest and most powerful in the world.’  

Michael Stanton is a research assistant at the Reagan Institute.


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A second judge late Thursday ordered the Trump administration to reinstate probationary workers who were let go in mass firings across multiple agencies.  

In Baltimore, U.S. District Judge James Bredar, an Obama appointee, found that the administration ignored laws set out for large-scale layoffs. Bredar ordered the firings halted for at least two weeks and the workforce returned to the status quo before the layoffs began.

He sided with nearly two dozen states that filed a lawsuit alleging the mass firings are illegal and already having an impact on state governments as they try to help those who are suddenly jobless.

The ruling followed a similar one by U.S. District Judge William Alsup, who found Thursday morning that terminations across six agencies were directed by the Office of Personnel Management and acting director, Charles Ezell, who lacked the authority to do so.

Alsup’s order tells the departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Defense, Energy, the Interior and the Treasury to immediately offer job reinstatement to employees terminated on or about Feb. 13 and 14. He also directed the departments to report back within seven days with a list of probationary employees and an explanation of how the agencies complied with his order as to each person.

The temporary restraining order came in a lawsuit filed by a coalition of labor unions and organizations as the Republican administration moves to reduce the federal workforce.

The Trump administration has already appealed Alsup’s ruling, arguing that the states have no right to try and influence the federal government’s relationship with its own workers. Justice Department attorneys argued the firings were for performance issues, not large-scale layoffs subject to specific regulations.

Probationary workers have been targeted for layoffs across the federal government because they’re usually new to the job and lack full civil service protection. Multiple lawsuits have been filed over the mass firings.

Lawyers for the government maintain the mass firings were lawful because individual agencies reviewed and determined whether employees on probation were fit for continued employment.

Alsup, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton, has found that difficult to believe. He planned to hold an evidentiary hearing on Thursday, but Ezell did not appear to testify in court or even sit for a deposition, and the government retracted his written testimony.

There are an estimated 200,000 probationary workers across federal agencies. They include entry-level employees but also workers who recently received a promotion.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.


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Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., his staff and family have been the target of harassment and death threats, according to a memo released by his office on Thursday afternoon. 

Voicemails shared by Tillis’ team, which were filled with profanity and fueled by discontent with President Donald Trump, reveal a frightening new reality. The senator’s senior advisor, Daniel Keylin, said ‘the volume of threats and harassment directed at members of Congress and their staff is the new normal.’ 

‘Yeah, Thom Tillis, afraid of death threats? Then get the f— out of office,’ one caller said in a voicemail. 

Keylin said Tillis’ office in Greenville, North Carolina, received a handwritten and unsigned letter postmarked in Greensboro last month calling his staff members ‘sacrificial lambs’ and insisting they ‘signed up to be his shield.’ The anonymous writer, while reiterating ‘in no way is this a threat,’ said people are going to start ‘coming in filled with rage.’

The voicemails released by Tillis’ office express outrage over Trump’s policies and include violent threats to Tillis and his staff.

‘You are not going to destroy my country,’ one woman said. Another caller told Tillis he is ‘not one of the good guys anymore’ and said to ‘get the f— out of government.’

‘…When things get really bad, people are going to stop calling and writing. They’re going to start coming in, and they’re going to be coming in filled with rage… And you signed up to be his shield. Resign, please resign, or find a Groupon for self defense class because America’s transition to oligarchy is going to be a wild ride for us peons,’ reads the anonymous letter sent to Tillis.

The anonymous writer references ‘America’s transition to oligarchy,’ a term that has been used by the left to describe the alleged rising power of the billionaire class.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has drawn thousands of supporters to his ‘Fighting Oligarchy’ rallies across the country, with stops in Michigan and Wisconsin this past weekend. The events are billed as an opportunity to ‘discuss how we take on the greed of the billionaire class and create a government that works for all and not just the few.’

Democrats were outraged by Trump inviting billionaires like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg to sit behind him at his inauguration inside the U.S. Capitol. Former President Joe Biden also used the term ‘oligarchy’ in his farewell address to the nation. 

‘Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead,’ Biden told Americans on Jan. 13. 

Two weeks after Tillis’ office received the letter, Indivisible Guilford County, a local arm of a progressive political action group, organized a protest at Tillis’ Greensboro office. While the protest’s press release encouraged peaceful signs and ‘solidarity,’ Keylin said the protesters attempted to break into Tillis’ office.

‘They angrily yanked and attempted to open the office’s locked door, yelling at Tillis’ staff to open it: ‘Come back, we see you! Open the door!’ and reminding the staff they had no way to exit their office,’ Keylin said in the memo. 

Keylin said Tillis’ office received several media inquiries questioning if Tillis would attend the protests or town halls planned in Republican-held districts. Outlining years of targeted threats that have only escalated since Trump returned to office, Keylin said, ‘I imagine anyone with a modicum of sanity would understand what a silly question that is.’

The memo says that ‘out of an abundance of caution,’ law enforcement has directed the senator’s office to work from home on the days protests are planned. 

‘We will not make any apologies for prioritizing the safety and security of our staff,’ Keylin said. 

The memo outlines two more instances in which the North Carolina senator was subject to death threats. 

‘Senator Tillis, his staff, and even his family have long been subject to threats, harassment, attempted intimidation, and verbal abuse from unstable individuals who don’t agree with his political view,’ Keylin said. 

A U.S. citizen living abroad was arrested for threatening to kill Tillis and cut off the hands of his staffers in 2023, and a Minnesota man was indicted in 2022 for threatening to kill Tillis, the memo confirmed. 

Protests have shut down town halls and disrupted local legislative offices in the past two months, and Republicans have opted for tele-town halls instead of in-person town halls as a result. Democrats have accused Republicans of ignoring their constituents’ concerns by avoiding in-person town halls. 

Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., will host town halls on Friday in Republican-held congressional districts in Iowa and Nebraska ‘to lend a megaphone to the people.’ Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., has reportedly started planning her own rallies in Republican-held congressional districts as well. 

MoveOn.org, which has accepted millions of dollars from billionaire George Soros and his Open Society Policy Center, announced in a press release last month that it was mobilizing resources as part of a ‘Congress Works for Us, Not Musk’ initiative ‘aimed at pressuring lawmakers to fight back against the Trump-Musk agenda.’ The group planned protests at congressional-led town halls and congressional offices.

Fox News Digital’s Julia Johnson and Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.


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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., says he will vote to keep the government open, warning that a shutdown has worse consequences for Americans and would only empower President Donald Trump and Elon Musk further.

‘I believe it is my job to make the best choice for the country to minimize the harms to the American people. Therefore, I will vote to keep the government open and not shut it down,’ Schumer said while speaking on the Senate floor on Thursday. 

Democrats have criticized Republicans for their hesitation to pass government funding legislation, while their own party is currently on the brink of allowing a federal shutdown.

On Wednesday, Schumer said that his party would oppose the spending bill that Republicans drafted and passed through the House, as the Friday midnight deadline looms for Congress to take action to avoid a government shutdown. 

Schumer called for a one-month spending bill to keep the government open until April 11 so that Democrats can better negotiate a deal. The continuing resolution, which passed through the House on Tuesday on a nearly party-line vote of 217-213, would keep the government open for the next six months, for the rest of the fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.

Fox News Digital’s Danielle Wallace contributed to this report. 

Stepheny Price is a writer for Fox News Digital and FOX Business. She covers topics including missing persons, homicides, national crime cases, illegal immigration and more. Story tips and ideas can be sent to stepheny.price@fox.com


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A new report from the conservative Heritage Foundation calling for the U.S. to phase out direct aid to Israel in favor of a ‘strategic partnership’ is facing backlash from pro-Israel advocates.

But the report’s authors tell Fox News Digital they’ve been misunderstood. The ‘best thing’ for Israel would not be to leave them at the mercy of U.S. policymakers who can choose to withhold direct aid, they say. 

‘Our goal is actually to reduce U.S. leverage over Israel. I don’t want to force them to do stuff,’ said Victoria Coates, deputy national security advisor to President Donald Trump during the first administration and co-author of the report.

‘We want them to do stuff because we have a strong partnership and they have confidence that the United States is their best partner, but we don’t want that to be because we bought and paid for them,’ she explained in an interview with Fox News Digital. 

A current memorandum of understanding [MOU] signed in 2016 stipulates that the U.S. provides Israel $3.8 billion in foreign military financing per year until 2028. Congress allocated a supplemental $9 billion in 2024 for Israel’s war against Hamas.

The memorandum must be renegotiated in 2026, which Heritage argues will allow Israel’s relationship with the U.S. to evolve from ‘primarily a security aid recipient’ to that of a ‘true strategic partnership.’

The Heritage plan calls for a new MOU that increases Israeli aid to $4 billion from fiscal year 2029-2032, and requires all of it be spent on equipment made in the U.S., before decreasing that number by $250 million per year until it ends in FY 2047. 

But the call to wind down military aid raised some eyebrows when it was first reported by Jewish Insider on Tuesday.

Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said it was, ‘wrong, dangerous, and gives comfort to those who seek [Israel’s] destruction.’

House Foreign Affairs Chairman Brian Mast, R-Fla., and Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter had been slated to headline an event at the Heritage headquarters Wednesday to discuss the report, but they abruptly withdrew the day before. An Israeli embassy spokesperson said the ambassador would not be able to attend due to a ‘miscommunication regarding the format for the event,’ but ‘looks forward to future engagement’ with Heritage.

Still, the idea of reorienting the Israeli relationship got the backing of Jonathan Schanzer, executive director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a hawkish pro-Israel think tank.

‘It’s a legitimate debate that I think needs to unfold,’ Schanzer told Fox News Digital. ‘What happened over the last year with the Biden administration withholding military assistance to Israel… must not happen again.

‘I believe that is the impetus for the discussion that is now taking place. There does need to be discussion about making sure that America’s closest ally in the Middle East does not find itself in a position where it’s begging for the assistance that it expects.’ 

Biden halted arms transfers to Israel last year amid frustrations over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the war on Gaza. 

‘There is a legitimate debate about whether this is healthy for Israel to continue down the path of total reliance on the U.S.,’ Schanzer asserted. 

‘Some are trying to cast us as alt-right isolationists. It’s so disingenuous as to be laughable,’ said Coates, who last year authored a book entitled ‘The Battle For The Jewish State: How Israel – And America – Can Win.’ 

She claimed the plan was ‘non-controversial’ among the Israeli officials Heritage had circulated it to.

‘The Biden administration used their control of Israeli resupply to try to coerce their behavior,’ she said. 

Once Trump leaves office, ‘we can’t assume we’ll have another friendly president to this alliance, and if we have started a process like this now, we’ll be all the further along to having a more equal footing between Israel and the United States.’

Coates said the goal was for the U.S. to have the same sort of relationship it has with Israel as it does the United Kingdom.

‘We want to continue to invest in joint programs, the way we do with the U.K. Do joint exercises, station stuff in the country which gives them a lot of confidence, but not necessarily direct aid.

‘Given the scale of their economy, they don’t actually need $4 billion a year from us.’ 

The report also calls for an increase in spending on U.S.-Israeli joint programs, like developing missile, rocket, and projectile defense capabilities for both nations, to $2.25 billion. 

Beginning in 2039, the plan calls for a $250 million per year increase in the amount of weapons the U.S. sells to Israel, until Israel is buying $2.25 billion worth of U.S.-made defense goods by 2047. 

Heritage also calls for an increase in intelligence sharing and joint counterterrorism measures, establishing a cybersecurity partnership, loosening export controls and establishing ‘high-level economic dialogue.’

It also said the U.S. should condition aid to Palestinians on ‘robust deradicalization and disengagement programming in Palestinian territories to undo decades of antisemitic and anti-Israel propaganda.’

In response to the backlash against the report, Coates added: ‘The outburst of antisemitism here in the United States, you know, the attacks on Israel, showed that there’s a lot of work to do here.’

‘Rather than trying to tear us down for contributing, you know, maybe, maybe we should look more to getting after the substance of these issues, instead of instituting a circular firing squad.’


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President Donald Trump, taking questions from reporters on Thursday, touted that ‘a lot of great things are happening.’

But Americans, nearly eight weeks into Trump’s second tour of duty in the White House, seem divided on the job he’s doing steering the country.

Trump’s approval rating stood in negative territory at 42%-53% among registered voters nationwide in a new Quinnipiac University national poll conducted March 6-10 and released on Thursday.

That’s down from 46% approval and 43% disapproval in Quinnipiac’s survey from late January, in the days after Trump’s second inauguration.

The president was also underwater in a CNN poll (46%-53%) conducted March 6-10 and released this week.

But Trump was above water in three other surveys in the field in recent days. 

And Trump, who has long kept a close eye on public opinion polling, took to social media on Monday to showcase his ‘Highest Approval Ratings Since Inauguration.’

Trump’s poll numbers are an improvement over his first term, when he started out in negative territory and remained there for his four-year term.

An average of all the most recent national polls indicates that Trump’s approval ratings are slightly above water. However, Trump has seen his numbers edge down slightly since returning to the White House in late January, when an average of his polls indicated the president’s approval rating in the low 50s and his disapproval in the mid 40s.

‘A noticeable uptick of discontent can be seen over President Trump’s handling of a range of issues: from Ukraine to the economy to the federal workforce,’ Quinnipiac polling analyst Tim Malloy highlighted in the survey’s release.

The president’s approval rating was underwater in nine of the 10 issues tested in the Quinnipiac survey, with his handling of trade with China the only issue where most respondents gave him a thumbs-up.

And on the top issue on the minds of Americans, the economy, Trump stood at 41%-54%.

It was the third poll conducted this month, after the CNN survey and a Reuters/Ipsos poll, to spell trouble for Trump on the economy, which arguably was the most important issue that boosted him to victory in last November’s presidential election.

On his handling of the federal workforce, the president stood at 40% approval and 55% disapproval in the Quinnipiac survey.

Trump, through his recently created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), is on a mission to overhaul and downsize the federal government.

Trump named Elon Musk, the world’s richest person and the chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX, to steer the organization.

DOGE has swept through federal agencies, rooting out what the White House argues was billions in wasteful federal spending. It has also taken a meat cleaver to the federal workforce, resulting in a massive downsizing of employees. The moves by DOGE have triggered a slew of lawsuits in response.

Sixty percent of voters questioned in the poll disapprove of the way Musk and DOGE are dealing with workers employed by the federal government, with only 36% approving.

And the survey’s release adds that ‘54% of voters think Elon Musk and DOGE are hurting the country, while 40% think they are helping the country.’

The CNN poll indicated that more than 6 in 10 thought the cuts by DOGE would go too far and that important federal programs would be shut down, with 37% saying the cuts wouldn’t go far enough in eliminating fraud and waste in the government.

It’s no surprise that there’s a massive partisan divide in the latest polls when it comes to Trump and DOGE.

Democrats, by a 96%-2% margin in the Quinnipiac survey, gave the president a thumbs-down on the job he’s doing in office, while Republicans approved by an 89%-9% margin. Independent voters disapproved, 58%-36%.

There was also a large partisan gap over how Musk and DOGE are performing, with more than three-quarters of Republicans approving and 96% of Democrats and more than two-thirds of independents disapproving.

The poll also asked respondents about Vice President JD Vance’s performance in office. Vance stood at 41% approval and 49% disapproval.

Quinnipiac’s survey questioned 1,198 registered voters nationwide for their latest poll. The survey’s overall sampling error was plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.


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