Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., said SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has ‘no business’ conducting affairs at the Pentagon, amid reports Musk would receive secret information from top military officials Friday about military contingency plans should a war break out with China.  

While The New York Times reported that Musk was set to receive military plans about any potential China conflict, the Pentagon and White House pushed back and said Musk’s briefing wouldn’t cover China. 

‘Elon Musk is an unelected, self-interested billionaire with no business anywhere near the Pentagon,’ Gillibrand said in an X post Friday morning with a photo of the Times story, just after Musk arrived at the Pentagon. Gillibrand is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. 

The possibility of Musk receiving information on China raises a possible conflict of interest, given the fact that Musk has financial interests in China stemming from Tesla, and SpaceX is working with the U.S. federal government on military space capabilities. 

However, the Trump administration swiftly pushed back on the Times’ reporting, and Trump issued a post on social media discrediting the story as ‘completely untrue.’

‘They said, incorrectly, that Elon Musk is going to the Pentagon tomorrow to be briefed on any potential ‘war with China.’ How ridiculous?’ China will not even be mentioned or discussed,’ President Donald Trump said in a Thursday night Truth Social post. 

A former Obama administration official also sounded the alarm about Musk’s visit to the Pentagon. 

Xochitl Hinojosa, who previously served as a spokesperson for former Attorney General Eric Holder and communications director for the Democratic National Committee, said that career officials must have disclosed the information about the meeting to the press because they were concerned about what would be shared with Musk. 

‘What is happening here, and everyone needs to be scared, is Pentagon officials are sounding the alarm,’ Hinojosa said in an interview with CNN Thursday night. ‘This doesn’t just happen on its own. This has happened because career officials in the Pentagon are terrified. And they believe there is a conflict of interest. That is why it is in the New York Times. Because I am sure they took it to the senior most people within the White House and within the Pentagon and they didn’t do anything about it.’

Hinojosa said that during her time at the Justice Department, career officials would sound the alarm if they became aware of any unethical behavior at the agency. 

‘That is exactly what is happening here,’ Hinojosa said. 

Hinojosa could not be reached for comment by Fox News Digital. 

The New York Times published a story Thursday evening claiming that Musk’s visit to the Pentagon would involve discussing plans in the event of a potential war with China. Specifically, the Times reported that the briefing involved a presentation with 20 to 30 slides on how the U.S. would combat China, various Chinese targets to strike and how the Pentagon would share these plans with Trump. 

The Times also reported the meeting would occur in the so-called Tank, a secure conference room that the Joint Chiefs utilize for meetings, along with other senior staff and visiting combatant commanders. 

Meanwhile, the Times report also noted that Musk may have needed to know information about plans for China as he eyes cutting the Pentagon’s budget amid his efforts leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). 

Pentagon war plans are highly confidential for operational security purposes. Should details regarding the U.S. military’s strategy to combat an enemy be shared or leaked in any way, it would jeopardize U.S. forces and undermine the success of the military campaign.

Hegseth also weighed in on the matter, and said the meeting with Musk would primarily center around innovation. 

‘But the fake news delivers again — this is NOT a meeting about ‘top secret China war plans.’ It’s an informal meeting about innovation, efficiencies & smarter production. Gonna be great!’ Hegseth said in a post on X late Thursday evening. 

In response to Hegseth’s post, Musk responded: ‘Exactly. Also, I’ve been to the Pentagon many times over many years. Not my first time in the building.’ 

Musk also said in a separate post he looks ‘forward to the prosecutions of those at the Pentagon who are leaking maliciously false information to NYT. 

‘They will be found,’ he said. 

The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. 

: President Donald Trump is considering lifting sanctions on and resuming the sale of fighter jets to Turkey after a conversation with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. 

Trump expressed an intent to help finalize the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey and is open to the idea of selling Turkey its true prized goal, F-35 jets, if the two sides can come to an agreement that renders Turkey’s Russian S-400 system inoperable, two sources confirmed to Fox News Digital. 

That agreement could look like partially disassembling the machinery or moving it to a U.S.-controlled base in Turkey. 

Congress approved the $23 billion sale of 40 F-16s and modernization kits for 79 in its current fleet to Turkey last year, but there are ongoing negotiations between Turkey’s defense ministry and Lockheed Martin, which builds the jet. 

Trump’s team has asked for legal and technical analysis of how it could avoid finding Turkey in violation of Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) sanctions, according to one source familiar with the request. 

The State Department and National Security Council could not be reached for comment. 

The U.S. agreed to extend a waiver allowing Turkey to buy Russian natural gas until May, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. 

Trump and Erdogan spoke by phone on Sunday, and the Turkish government is looking to firm up plans to bring Erdogan to the U.S. to visit with Trump in the near future. 

The Turkish embassy pointed to a readout of the call from Erdogan’s office which said the president had expressed to Trump, ‘in order to develop cooperation between the two countries in the field of defense industry, it is necessary to end CAATSA sanctions, finalize the F-16 procurement process and finalize Türkiye’s re-participation in the F-35 program.’

Erdogan asked the U.S. to lift sanctions on Syria, where a new governing force, HTS, overthrew Bashar al-Assad with Turkish backing. The U.S. side did not provide a readout of the call. 

Turkey was kicked out of the F-35 program following its purchase of a Russian S-400 mobile missile-to-air system due to spying concerns associated with having a Kremlin-operated system so close to a high-level U.S. technology like the F-35.

‘The F-35 cannot coexist with a Russian intelligence collection platform that will be used to learn about its advanced capabilities,’ the White House said in 2019, adding that the purchase would have ‘detrimental impacts’ on Turkey’s participation in NATO. 

Ankara, Turkey’s capital, had brokered the $2.5 billion deal with Russia for the S400s in 2017, despite U.S. warnings that there would be political and economic consequences. In an effort to deter Turkey, the U.S. offered to sell them the Patriot system, but Ankara wanted the system’s sensitive missile technology along with it, and the U.S. declined. 

The U.S. considerations come after the United Kingdom offered a price proposal to Turkey to purchase 40 of its Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets last week. 

A move to sell Turkey F-35s would prove controversial, and prompt concern from U.S. allies like Israel, where Turkey cut off all relations due to the Gaza war last year, and Greece due to disputes over Cyprus and the surrounding waters.

Experts describe the F-35 as a ‘status symbol.’ ‘The F-35 club is really for trusted allies,’ said Jonathan Schanzer, executive director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. 

‘This is a Turkey that supports the Houthis, which President Trump is bombing and supports Hamas and supports Hezbollah,’ said Endy Zemenides, executive director of the Hellenic American Leadership Council. ‘We know that they don’t want to be a customer, they want to be a competitor in the arms market.’ 

However, isolating Turkey, which has the second-largest standing military after the U.S. in NATO, could push them to go to Russia and China for weapons supplies. 

‘Trump’s about making a business deal here, right? We don’t need Turkey with nearly one million soldiers on the other side and leaning more towards Russia and China, right?’ said Jonathan Bass, Argent LNG CEO and international trade expert.

‘Turkey is an unresolved thorn in the side of the NATO alliance,’ said Schanzer, ‘It certainly seems to be a priority right now for the Trump administration to try to bring them back into the fold.’

However, he added, ‘There’s the democracy deficit and the autocratic tendencies of Erdogan. All of these things are creating a very cloudy picture for U.S. engagement. So it’s buyer beware.’ 

‘Turkey is a major economy. We need them to come down on the right side of the fence. We need them from a supply chain standpoint,’ countered Bass. 

He added that the U.S. needs to partner with Turkey on mining for rare earths minerals. ‘Turkey has a lot more mining infrastructure,’ he said. ‘They can help us with mining operations in Africa. We don’t have the people willing to do that.’

‘If you don’t give Erdogan a seat at the table, he’s going to make his own table,’ Bass warned. 

‘He wants to be respected as he should. He’s got 80 million people that he represents. But we need to give him clear lines of engagement.’ 

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., said SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has ‘no business’ conducting affairs at the Pentagon, amid reports Musk would receive secret information from top military officials Friday about military contingency plans should a war break out with China.  

While The New York Times reported that Musk was set to receive military plans about any potential China conflict, the Pentagon and White House pushed back and said Musk’s briefing wouldn’t cover China. 

‘Elon Musk is an unelected, self-interested billionaire with no business anywhere near the Pentagon,’ Gillibrand said in an X post Friday morning with a photo of the Times story, just after Musk arrived at the Pentagon. Gillibrand is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. 

The possibility of Musk receiving information on China raises a possible conflict of interest, given the fact that Musk has financial interests in China stemming from Tesla, and SpaceX is working with the U.S. federal government on military space capabilities. 

However, the Trump administration swiftly pushed back on the Times’ reporting, and Trump issued a post on social media discrediting the story as ‘completely untrue.’

‘They said, incorrectly, that Elon Musk is going to the Pentagon tomorrow to be briefed on any potential ‘war with China.’ How ridiculous?’ China will not even be mentioned or discussed,’ President Donald Trump said in a Thursday night Truth Social post. 

A former Obama administration official also sounded the alarm about Musk’s visit to the Pentagon. 

Xochitl Hinojosa, who previously served as a spokesperson for former Attorney General Eric Holder and communications director for the Democratic National Committee, said that career officials must have disclosed the information about the meeting to the press because they were concerned about what would be shared with Musk. 

‘What is happening here, and everyone needs to be scared, is Pentagon officials are sounding the alarm,’ Hinojosa said in an interview with CNN Thursday night. ‘This doesn’t just happen on its own. This has happened because career officials in the Pentagon are terrified. And they believe there is a conflict of interest. That is why it is in the New York Times. Because I am sure they took it to the senior most people within the White House and within the Pentagon and they didn’t do anything about it.’

Hinojosa said that during her time at the Justice Department, career officials would sound the alarm if they became aware of any unethical behavior at the agency. 

‘That is exactly what is happening here,’ Hinojosa said. 

Hinojosa could not be reached for comment by Fox News Digital. 

The New York Times published a story Thursday evening claiming that Musk’s visit to the Pentagon would involve discussing plans in the event of a potential war with China. Specifically, the Times reported that the briefing involved a presentation with 20 to 30 slides on how the U.S. would combat China, various Chinese targets to strike and how the Pentagon would share these plans with Trump. 

The Times also reported the meeting would occur in the so-called Tank, a secure conference room that the Joint Chiefs utilize for meetings, along with other senior staff and visiting combatant commanders. 

Meanwhile, the Times report also noted that Musk may have needed to know information about plans for China as he eyes cutting the Pentagon’s budget amid his efforts leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). 

Pentagon war plans are highly confidential for operational security purposes. Should details regarding the U.S. military’s strategy to combat an enemy be shared or leaked in any way, it would jeopardize U.S. forces and undermine the success of the military campaign.

Hegseth also weighed in on the matter, and said the meeting with Musk would primarily center around innovation. 

‘But the fake news delivers again — this is NOT a meeting about ‘top secret China war plans.’ It’s an informal meeting about innovation, efficiencies & smarter production. Gonna be great!’ Hegseth said in a post on X late Thursday evening. 

In response to Hegseth’s post, Musk responded: ‘Exactly. Also, I’ve been to the Pentagon many times over many years. Not my first time in the building.’ 

Musk also said in a separate post he looks ‘forward to the prosecutions of those at the Pentagon who are leaking maliciously false information to NYT. 

‘They will be found,’ he said. 

The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Gal Dalal has spent nearly a year and a half fighting for the release of his brother, Guy Gilboa-Dalal, who was kidnapped by Hamas from the Nova music festival during the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on Israel. 

Dalal wants the world to know who his brother was before he was a face on a poster and why getting Guy out of Gaza is urgent.

‘So, my brother is the most warm-hearted man I know. He’s a very, very funny guy,’ Dalal told Fox News Digital. ‘For me, he’s actually my best friend. We share the same interests and hobbies and we do everything together.’

On Oct. 7, 2023, Guy was in the middle of experiencing his first-ever spiritual festival with his friends when Gal, a more seasoned festival goer, joined the group at approximately 6:15 a.m., less than 15 minutes before the attack began.

Dalal told Fox News Digital that when he arrived at the festival, an excited Guy ran up to hug him before pulling out his phone to take a selfie for their mother.

‘That’s the only reason I went there [to the Nova music festival] was to watch over him. And, you know, the fact that I came back without him, I think that’s the worst part of it for me,’ Dalal told Fox News Digital.

Neither of the Dalal brothers could have known what was coming next. As the sirens began to sound, Dalal told Fox News Digital that he suggested that the group go to his apartment, and they agreed. While Dalal went in his own car, Guy decided to go with his friends. Dalal estimates that Guy and his friends took an additional 10 minutes before leaving the festival area. At this point, they were not alarmed despite the rocket sirens blaring.

‘We [are] used to these alarms. We [are] used to missiles attack and no one thought it’s going to be a terror attack in this kind of scale,’ Dalal told Fox News Digital.

Safety protocol for rocket attacks is widely known in Israel. There are designated amounts of time to seek shelter depending on the location’s distance from Gaza. Many at the Nova festival ran to shelters on the side of the road, which would later turn out to be deadly. Hamas terrorists used the shelters to carry out mass killings. They would throw grenades into groups of people, many of whom did not survive.

Dalal told Fox News Digital that outside the festival, he sat in traffic for about 20 minutes before he heard shooting. From there, he spent hours running for his life. He was too far to go back for Guy, but the two were able to talk on the phone one last time before Guy was taken hostage.

The Dalal family found out on Oct. 7 that Guy and his best friend, Evyatar David, were taken hostage. Hamas published a video of the two kidnapped men already in Gaza. Guy and Evyatar went to the festival with two other friends, both of whom were killed.

Dalal and his family have spent the last 17 months advocating for the release of all the hostages, including Guy. 

‘I always say that in one hand, we are so tired. We are literally on the edge. This fight is taking so much out of us, and the only thing that we really care about is my brother seeing him again, knowing that he’s well and protecting him. Hug him. Help him to heal. We miss him so much, I miss him so much,’ Dalal told Fox News Digital.

Recently, the Dalal family received a sign of life, but it was not a relieving sight. Guy and Evyatar were forced to take part in a Hamas propaganda video, in which they were forced to sit in a van and watch hostages be released only to have the door slammed in their faces.

Dalal told Fox News Digital that the video brought him back to Oct. 7 and showed the ‘psychological torture’ the families of hostages endure. He says it’s clear that his brother and Evyatar are being ‘starved to death.’

‘It scares me that this negotiation can take more time, and Guy doesn’t have the time,’ Dalal told Fox News Digital. However, he believes that President Donald Trump and the U.S. have the power to bring the hostages home.

In his fight for his brother’s freedom, Gal traveled to the U.S. and met with members of both the Biden and Trump administrations. He said that meeting the Trump officials felt ‘different’ and that they understood that time is not on their side.

‘I think that the only one who can really put the pressure and bring these hostages back and make sure that they will return to their families is President Trump and United States as a nation, you have the power of that, the power and the support that we need to make sure the hostages will return and will come back home,’ Dalal told Fox News Digital.

Taliban hostage George Glezmann landed at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Friday after more than 800 days in captivity in Afghanistan, where he received a ‘champion’s welcome.’

‘I feel born again,’ Glezmann told Fox News. ‘I have no words. 

‘President Trump is amazing,’ he added before thanking Secretary of State Marcon Rubio, national security advisor Mike Waltz and hostage envoy Adam Boehler. 

‘A free American individual…abducted because of my U.S. passport.’

‘I’ve got no words to express my gratitude for my liberty,’ Glezmann added.

His wife, Aleksandra, arrived shortly after her husband landed, and the two embraced after she got out of the car for the first time since his Dec. 5, 2022, capture in Kabul. 

Ryan Corbett, who was released in January after nearly 900 days in Taliban captivity greeted Glezmann upon arrival.

Both Glezmann and Corbett were held together in Afghanistan.

News of Glezmann’s release was first revealed to Fox News Digital on Thursday after he departed from the Kabul International Airport headed for Doha, Qatar.

His release was secured after Boehler and Qatari officials engaged in direct communications with the Taliban in Afghanistan.  

Boehler met Glezmann in Kabul before the former captive flew from Doha to the Maryland base located just outside of Washington, D.C.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, is joining President Donald Trump this weekend at the NCAA men’s wrestling championships, a source familiar with his plans tells Fox News Digital.

The White House confirmed Friday that Trump would attend the event with Jordan and Sen. Dave McCormick, R-Pa.

McCormick previously confirmed that Trump would be in attendance at the event in the senator’s home state of Pennsylvania.

‘I’m thrilled to be in Philadelphia this weekend with [Trump] for the [NCAA Wrestling] Championship,’ McCormick wrote on X. ‘I grew up wrestling in small towns across PA and at West Point. It taught me grit, resilience, and hard work.’

Jordan himself was a noted wrestling champion during his time in high school and later at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he won the NCAA Division I men’s wrestling title twice. 

He was later an assistant coach at Ohio State University’s wrestling program from 1987 to 1995.

Fox News Digital emailed Jordan’s office for comment but did not immediately hear back.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has canceled hundreds of National Institutes of Health (NIH) research grants—worth over $350 million—funding projects related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and gender ideology, according to a department official.

The cuts included slashing projects studying ‘multilevel and multidimensional structural racism,’ ‘gender-affirming hormone therapy in mice’ and ‘microaggressions,’ among others. 

In total, there were more than 500 research grants related to DEI and progressive gender ideology that the administration terminated.

‘HHS is taking action to terminate more than $350 million in research funding that is not aligned with NIH and HHS priorities,’ HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said in a statement. ‘The terminated research grants are simply wasteful in studying things that do not pertain to American’s health to any significant degree, including DEI and gender ideology. As we begin to Make America Healthy Again, it’s important to prioritize research that directly affects the health of Americans.’ 

One of the grants cut included nearly $1 million to scientists at the University of Maryland-Baltimore for a research project titled, ‘Assessing intersectional multilevel and multidimensional structural racism for English- and Spanish-speaking populations in the US.’ The project included work to create an ‘intersectional, multilevel, and multidimensional Structural Racism Measure’ in order to ‘eliminate health disparities and discrimination’ for racial minorities.

‘There is an urgent public health need to collect valid and reliable data on structural racism before effective interventions to reduce structural racism can be designed,’ the project’s description stated. 

Multiple projects studying transgender medical treatments in mice were also among those cut. One of those grants provided close to $1 million to Emory University researchers to study how transgender hormone treatments impact the skeletal maturation of mice, titled, ‘Microbiome mediated effects of gender affirming hormone therapy in mice.’ Another project worth roughly $50,000 worked to understand ‘how chromosomal makeup and cross-sex hormone administration’ impacts wound healing in mice.

A separate research project that did not use mice got nearly $1 million ‘to study possible genomic associations with gender identity.’ 

Grants focused on recruiting scientists based on their race or ethnicity were also slashed by the Trump administration. A grant worth more than $5 million to researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center to help ‘achieve more racial and ethnic diversity among our scientific research faculty,’ included a commitment to hire at least 18 tenure-track faculty ‘from minoritized racial and ethnic groups.’

Soon after President Donald Trump was inaugurated, he directed federal agencies, including HHS, to temporarily freeze the issuance of new federal grants. The action was to ensure each agency’s funding was in compliance with Trump’s new policies and requirements, including those around getting rid of DEI and progressive gender ideology in the public sector.

A judge subsequently issued an order temporarily blocking the administration’s funding freeze, and shortly thereafter, the Trump administration rescinded its memo directing the funding halt. A short time after that, the NIH resumed important meetings and travel associated with the agency’s grant-review process.  

In addition to reviewing NIH’s grant funding to ensure it aligns with the president’s policies, Trump also implemented a 15% cap on facilities and administrative costs included in research grant awards.

The administration’s actions targeting NIH research have generated widespread backlash. Earlier this month, Trump’s pick to be the next NIH director, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, was peppered with questions from Democrats during his confirmation hearing over whether he would step in to prevent the president from slashing what they deemed critically important research projects. 

Bhattacharya would not explicitly say he disagreed with the cuts, or that, if confirmed, he would step in to stop them. Rather, he said he would ‘follow the law,’ while also investigating the impact of the cuts and ensuring every NIH researcher doing work that advances the health outcomes of Americans has the resources necessary to do their work. 

Bhattacharya also laid out what he called a new, decentralized vision for future research at NIH that he said will be aimed at embracing dissenting ideas and transparency, while focusing on research topics that have the best chance at directly benefiting the health outcomes of Americans. Bhattacharya said that he wants to rid the agency’s research portfolio of other ‘frivolous’ efforts that he says do little to directly benefit health outcomes.

 Hostage envoy Adam Boehler met in person with Taliban officials at the Kabul International Airport, Qatari sources told Fox News Digital, marking the first known time the White House has engaged with Afghanistan’s ‘interim government’ following the 2021 takeover by the terrorist organization.

While the meeting between Boehler and Afghan officials representing the Taliban’s foreign ministry met to secure the release of George Glezmann on Thursday, advisor and spokesman to Qatar’s prime minister, Dr Majed al-Ansari, told Fox News Digital that other ‘beneficial’ issues were discussed. 

‘U.S. envoy Adam Boehler came to Doha. He had meetings over here, and then we moved to Kabul, where he had meetings in the airport with the foreign minister and other Afghan officials,’ al-Ansari said. ‘That was the first meeting of its kind and opened the door for a lot of dialogue on lots of issues, including the issues of detainees.’

‘But also other issues that can be very beneficial for the Afghan people and for the people of the United States, and providing security regionally for Afghanistan, but also in general,’ he added. ‘It was a good first step that we helped facilitate.’

The White House did not return Fox News Digital’s questions on whether Boehler’s in-person meeting suggests the Trump administration may look to establish ties with the Taliban government – a subject that has been taboo among Western nations following the toppling of the democratically elected government and the subsequent severe human rights violations, including the removal of essentially all women’s rights. 

Al-Ansari confirmed that while Qatar has been working with the U.S. since 2022 to facilitate dialogue between Washington and Kabul in the more than three years since the deadly takeover, this is the first time the White House has directly engaged with the Taliban government. 

‘We always said that the way to resolve all of these issues all around the world is through dialog, is through talking, and is through beginning a mode of engagement that is positive and that would bring about more trust between the parties, and would bring about positive results,’ al-Ansari added, nodding toward Qatar’s heavy involvement in negotiations between Israel and Hamas. 

Boehler, who has not been confirmed by the Senate after he removed his nomination as special envoy to avoid divestment stipulations, serves as a ‘special government employee focused on hostage negotiations,’ according to a statement by White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly.

The freedom of Glezmann is the second major release Boehler secured this month after Marc Fogel was returned from Russia following his August 2021 arrest. 

Boehler, who helped secure the Abraham Accords as a lead negotiator during the first Trump administration, turned heads following the revelation that he met with another terrorist organization earlier this month – Hamas.

The hostage envoy met directly with Hamas officials in an attempt to secure the release of the five American hostages still held in the Gaza Strip, including Edan Alexander, who is the only remaining American hostage still alive. 

A liberal Canadian member of Parliament claimed the Trump administration has committed an ‘act of war’ over President Donald Trump repeatedly referring to Canada as the U.S.’ ’51st state’ and for leveling tariffs on the nation. 

‘Well, I think Marco Rubio probably needs to be sent back to school because when you say that someone doesn’t have a right to have a country, that’s an act of war. When you rip up, arbitrarily, trade agreements and threaten and say you’re going to break a country, that’s an act of war. And Canadians have responded in kind,’ Canadian MP Charlie Angus, who is a member of the country’s liberal New Democratic Party, said Monday during an interview with the MeidasTouch Network. 

Angus was reacting to a clip of Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaking with reporters during his recent trip to Canada for the G7 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting. Rubio was repeatedly asked by the press to weigh in on Trump referring to Canada as the U.S.’ ’51st state.’ 

‘The president has made his argument as to why he thinks Canada would be better off joining the United States… for economic purposes,’ Rubio said on March 14 when asked about Trump’s ’51st state’ comments, explaining the issue was not addressed during the G7 meeting. ‘There’s a disagreement between the president’s position and the position of the Canadian government. I don’t think that’s a mystery coming in, and it wasn’t a topic of conversation, because that’s not what this summit was about.’

Rubio further explained that the origin of the ’51st state’ rhetoric was born during a meeting between Trump and former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Trump began using the ’51st state’ title for Canada in November 2024, following his election win. 

Trump was meeting with Trudeau, ‘and Trudeau basically says that if the U.S. imposes tariffs on Canada, Canada couldn’t survive as a nation-state, at which point the president said, ‘Well, then you should become a state.’ And that’s where this began,’ Rubio recounted of the Trump–Trudeau meeting. ‘He made an argument for why Canada would be better off joining the United States from an economic perspective and the like. He’s made that argument repeatedly, and I think it stands for itself.’

Trudeau announced his resignation as the country’s prime minister in January after nine years in the position. Mark Carney was sworn-in as the nation’s next prime minister on March 14 after he was elected the new leader of Canada’s Liberal Party earlier in the month.  

During his interview, Angus said that Canada’s boycott of U.S. products over tariffs leveled on the nation would be ‘punishing’ to the U.S.

‘The boycott that Canada has launched against the United States is punishing. We were told in January a 10% drop in Canadian travel to the United States would cost 140,000 jobs,’ he continued. 

Trump leveled a 25% tariff on all imports of steel and aluminum from other nations on March 12, while Canada specifically is set to face a 25% tax on all imported goods beginning April 2. The tariffs have sparked boycotts of U.S. goods. 

Trump joined Fox News’ Laura Ingraham on Tuesday, where he railed against how the U.S. has subsidized ‘Canada by $200 billion a year.’

‘Here’s my problem with Canada,’ Trump said on Fox News. ‘Canada was meant to be the 51st state because we subsidize Canada by $200 billion a year. We don’t need their cars, we don’t need their lumber, we have a lot of lumber. … We don’t need their energy, we don’t need anything, we certainly don’t want their automobiles… millions of automobiles are sent in, I’d rather have them made in Michigan, I’d rather have them made in South Carolina.’

Fox News Digital’s Charles Creitz contributed to this report. 

A former special envoy to Haiti blames what he views as former President Joe Biden’s absentee approach to decision-making for the current woes afflicting the Caribbean nation.

Daniel Foote served as special envoy to Haiti in 2021 but resigned in protest over what he said was the administration’s failed approach of supporting unpopular and unelected leaders.

‘All of the governments that the U.S. has backed or anointed or imposed in the last 110 years have not represented the Haitian people,’ Foote said. He said the Biden administration backed the then-unelected Prime Minister Ariel Henry solely for his unwavering loyalty despite lingering questions about how Henry rose to power.

Foote has been involved with Haiti since the devastating 2010 earthquake that killed more than 200,000 people. He now believes the country has descended into near-total collapse.

‘It’s a thousand times worse now because we broke whatever weak social contract there was between the people and the government. And there has been no government since basically 2012. It’s a failed state.’

A recent U.N. report revealed that more than 1 million people have been displaced due to gang violence in Haiti, nearly 10% of the population. Another report indicated that 85% of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, is under gang control.

Foote said he never met Biden while serving as envoy, claiming that by then, Biden had ‘deteriorated to the point that they didn’t want him to see a lot of people.’ Instead, he said, Victoria Nuland, undersecretary of state for political affairs, and U.S. Ambassador to Haiti Michele Sison devised the plan to support Henry.

Foote said he recalled a remark that Biden allegedly made as a senator in 1994: ‘If Haiti just quietly sunk into the Caribbean, or rose up 300 feet, it wouldn’t matter a whole lot in terms of our interests.’

‘That explains Joe Biden’s approach to Haiti,’ Foote said.

Biden’s spokesperson and Sison did not respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.

Nuland rejected Foote’s accusations, calling them ‘completely false’ and referred Fox News Digital to former Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian Nichols.

‘What I observed that there was intense coordination, and there was not one person or two people who would make a significant decision on the policy,’ Nichols said, noting that he got the job roughly a week before Foote resigned on Sept. 21 and so was not involved in earlier decisions. ‘All issues were debated extensively internally at multiple levels, all the way up to the principals, that’s the Cabinet secretary level.’

Foote said that in the past he felt no need for security while walking around Haiti because Americans were widely welcomed. Things are not the same anymore.

‘Now the Haitians are looking at China, looking at Russia,’ he said. ‘They’re like, ‘Somebody help us. The Americans just keep screwing us over,’ yet they still want the Americans to help them.’

The Biden administration committed around $600 million to fund an international security force, known as the multinational security support mission (MSS), composed of personnel from countries like Bangladesh, Kenya, Chad and Guyana. But Foote said he sees the MSS strategy as a waste of taxpayer money.

‘They don’t have the security backbone to take on the gangs,’ he said. ‘They need help. And that help is not 5,000 random police officers from a mishmash of 10 different developing countries led by the Kenyans, who have never led a security mission in history.’

Nichols defended the MSS, declaring their efforts ‘incredibly heroic.’

‘Having seen them on the ground in Haiti, it’s an extremely professional force, extremely courageous and one committed to the mission,’ he said.

Foote recommends that President Donald Trump send 60 U.S. special forces personnel to train an elite anti-gang unit in Haiti and reestablish a signals intelligence program to monitor gang communication. Without such action, he said, the consequences would extend far beyond Haiti’s borders.

‘It’s just going to continue to create chaos right off the U.S. shores and create a massive surge in migration,’ he said. ‘Because if you walk down the street in Port-au-Prince, you look around and think, ‘I can understand why people leave. Humans can’t live in these conditions.”

Jack Brewer, who played in the NFL before founding a global foundation that has been in Haiti since the devastating 2010 earthquakes, echoed Foote’s assessment.

‘People are being burned alive, police officers are getting their heads bashed into the pavement – bloody, torturous deaths,’ Brewer said. ‘One of my doctors had five of his close friends and relatives murdered. This all just happened this week.’

Brewer said that any real change can come only from within Haiti.

‘I’m talking about a culture that doesn’t accept stealing and doesn’t accept corruption,’ he said. ‘Right now, culturally, it’s acceptable to steal, and that has to change. Until you fix the moral fabric of a nation and reinstate law and order, it doesn’t matter what America does.’