President Donald Trump on Friday morning said that an ‘80% Tariff on China seems right!’ adding on Truth Social that the final number would be up to U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. 

An 80% tariff on Chinese goods coming into the U.S. would be nearly half of the current 145% tariff on the Asian country.

Minutes earlier, he posted: ‘CHINA SHOULD OPEN UP ITS MARKET TO USA — WOULD BE SO GOOD FOR THEM!!! CLOSED MARKETS DON’T WORK ANYMORE!!!’

It was the first time the president has put out a specific number, after previously suggesting the tariff could be lowered. 

Trump’s suggested lower tariffs come ahead of weekend talks between Bessent and chief trade negotiator Jamieson Greer and Chinese economic tsar He Lifeng in Switzerland. 

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a press briefing Friday, ‘That was a number the president threw out there, and we’ll see what happens this weekend,’ adding that Trump wouldn’t unilaterally lower the tariff and China would be required to make ‘concessions.’ 

Earlier this week, Trump said that China is eager to make a deal with the U.S. 

‘Scott’s going to be going to Switzerland, meeting with China,’ Trump told reporters Thursday at the White House. ‘And you know, they very much want to make a deal. We can all play games. Who made the first call, who didn’t make them? It doesn’t matter. Only matters what happens in that room. But I will tell you that China very much wants to make a deal. We’ll see how that works out.’

The Trump administration announced widespread tariffs for multiple countries on April 2, following criticism that other countries’ trade practices are unfair towards the U.S.

The administration later adjusted its initial proposal and announced on April 9 it would immediately impose a 145% tariff on Chinese goods, while reducing reciprocal tariffs on other countries for 90 days to a baseline of 10%. China responded by raising tariffs on U.S. goods to 125%.

Fox News’ Diana Stancy contributed to this report. 

Americans lambasted President George H. W. Bush for infamously vowing on stage at the 1988 Republican National Convention not to raise taxes on Americans, then supporting a tax hike as president two years later. 

History could repeat itself as President Donald Trump this week signaled his support for congressional Republicans raising taxes to accomplish the ambitious goals of his ‘big, beautiful bill,’ according to experts.

‘My opponent won’t rule out raising taxes, but I will. And the Congress will push me to raise taxes, and I’ll say no. And they’ll push and I’ll say no. And they’ll push again, and I’ll say to them: ‘Read my lips: no new taxes,’’ then-Vice President Bush vowed at the 1988 convention, before raising taxes two years later with the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990. 

While acknowledging the political backlash his fellow Republican faced, Trump signaled in a Truth Social post on Friday his own willingness to raise taxes on Americans, following reports confirmed by Fox News Digital that the president is considering raising the tax rate on individuals making $2.5 million or more by 2.6%, from 37% to 39.6%.

‘The problem with even a ‘TINY’ tax increase for the RICH, which I and all others would graciously accept in order to help the lower and middle income workers, is that the Radical Left Democrat Lunatics would go around screaming, ‘Read my lips,’ the fabled Quote by George Bush the Elder that is said to have cost him the Election. NO, Ross Perot cost him the Election! In any event, Republicans should probably not do it, but I’m OK if they do!!!’ Trump said. 

Ross Perot, the late billionaire Texas businessman and philanthropist, ran an independent campaign as a third-party candidate in the 1992 presidential election, winning an historic 19% of the popular vote.

As Trump suggested, the political fallout of raising taxes contributed to Bush losing re-election to President Bill Clinton in 1992. Democrats slammed Bush in campaign ads for walking back his word as conservative Republicans criticized the president for being out of step with the party’s traditional tax policies. 

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich led Republican criticism of Bush’s tax hike proposal, and Gingrich has urged Trump to stand down on raising taxes since rumors the administration was floating a small tax hike first swirled. 

Gingrich recently told Larry Kudlow on FOX Business that Trump is a Ronald Reagan Republican, not a Bush Republican, and raising taxes would be an ‘act of destruction.’

‘It would absolutely shatter his coalition,’ Gingrich said. ‘It would mean the entire conservative movement would rise in rebellion, and it would mean every small business in the country would start recalculating who they are going to lay off, if they are even going to stay in business. It would make no sense at all.’

Negotiations are ongoing among House Republicans to finalize Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill,’ which is expected to include an extension of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts and fulfill campaign promises, including no tax on tips, overtime or Social Security. 

Republican politicians and pundits have joined Gingrich’s critique of Trump’s potential tax hike, arguing Trump is repeating the same mistakes as Bush. 

‘[House] Speaker [Mike] Johnson and Republican members of Congress must have experienced collective déjà vu when President Trump urged Congress to raise taxes,’ New England College President Wayne Lesperance, a veteran political scientist and political historian, told Fox News Digital.           

‘Harkening back to the infamous ‘Read my lips’ pledge made by George H. W. Bush at the 1988 GOP Convention, today’s Republicans must be nervous at the president’s change on what is a sacrosanct issue for the party — tax cuts. Interestingly, George H. W. Bush’s decision to break his pledge was surrounded by notably different circumstances,’ Lesperance added. 

But Lesperance reminded Republicans, who currently control the House and Senate, that Democrats could gain an edge in the 2026 midterms if tax hikes prove to be as unpopular among Republicans as they were in 1992. 

‘Facing a Democratically controlled Congress, Bush reneged on his pledge as a compromise to reduce the deficit and pass the 1990 budget agreement. Bush’s decision to compromise on taxes is widely credited with costing him his bid for re-election. As Speaker Johnson and Republican members of Congress look ahead to midterm elections, there must be collective worry that President Trump’s shifting position on taxes will cost them at the polls,’ Lesperance said. 

Longtime Republican consultant David Carney, a veteran of numerous GOP presidential campaigns, said the move by Bush ‘was probably the single most detrimental thing to his re-election.’

Carney, who served in the elder Bush’s White House and worked on his presidential campaigns, told Fox News ‘the deal he cut was excellent. He cut spending, balanced out the taxes.’

But Carney emphasized ‘all that’s inside baseball and the reality is it was a great opportunity for people from the right and the left to make hay out of it, and it was absolutely hurtful.’

However, fiscal conservatives remain optimistic that Trump won’t raise taxes, despite the president softening to the idea on social media on Friday morning. 

‘President Trump campaigned on not raising taxes, and we are confident that’s exactly what he’ll do,’ Club for Growth President David McIntosh told Fox News Digital. 

When reached for comment about the Bush comparison, the White House pointed to press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s comments during the White House briefing on Friday. 

‘The president wants tax cuts, the largest tax cuts in history,’ Leavitt said. ‘He wants to extend his historic tax cuts from 2017, and he wants to see all the other tax priorities,’ including no tax on tips, overtime or Social Security. 

‘The president has said he himself personally would not mind paying a little bit more to help the poor and the middle class and the working class in this country. I think, frankly, that’s a very honorable position. But again, these negotiations are ongoing on Capitol Hill, and the president will weigh in when he feels necessary,’ she added. 

Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report. 

A 2018 deal between the Vatican and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) secured by Cardinal Pietro Parolin is once again under scrutiny as questions remain over how newly appointed Pope Leo XIV will take on the CCP.

The Parolin-brokered deal was and remains a controversial agreement between the leaders of the Catholic Church and the CCP, which has long oppressed Catholics across China. 

While the agreement was championed by the late Pope Francis and his secretary of state, Parolin — the Vatican’s top diplomat — as a step toward ‘normalizing’ Catholicism in the communist nation, experts argue it has brought dangerous consequences for the faithful.

‘It erodes papal authority to appoint bishops, the leadership of the Catholic Church in China,’ Nina Shea, senior fellow and director of the Center for Religious Freedom at Hudson Institute, told Fox News Digital. 

‘A principal responsibility of a bishop is to train and ordain priests,’ she explained. ‘Therefore, the CCP has been given control in determining the chain of authority in the hierarchical church.’

Under this agreement, all Catholic clergy are required to register with the CCP’s Patriotic Association — which was created in 1957 and was long rejected by the Catholic Church as illegitimate because it required that all clergy reject foreign influence, including that of the pope.

Parolin in 2019 said the aim of this agreement was ‘to advance religious freedom in the sense of finding normalization for the Catholic community.’

Details of the deal remain unclear because it has been kept secret, explained Shea. 

While the agreement reportedly looked to end the decades-long negative ties between the Vatican and the CCP by allowing China to have more influence over bishop appointments, experts have argued for years it gave too much authority to the oppressive government. 

But there is an even greater problem when it comes to the Vatican seeming to have capitulated to the CCP.

Following the agreement, the Vatican additionally agreed to drop its support for the underground Catholic network, which has existed in China for decades and has supported millions of Catholics in the country.  

According to Shea, the CCP essentially ‘tricked’ the Vatican because it simultaneously, in what she believes was an unbeknownst move to Parolin, banned children from being allowed in the Catholic Church — this ban included important sacraments of the church like baptisms, holy communion and confirmations.

The ban effectively blocks the continuation of the Catholic Church in China.

‘The underground, even during the harshest period under Mao, carried out this education and evangelization,’ Shea said. ‘Without being able to perpetuate itself, the Catholic Church in China could die out in a couple generations.’

‘It’s a campaign to create an atheist society,’ she added. 

The Vatican did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s questions over whether Pope Leo will adhere to the agreement with the CCP or look to forge a new one.

But in his first homily on Friday since being made leader of the Catholic Church, Pope Leo highlighted the church’s fight against rising atheism.

‘There are many settings in which Jesus, although appreciated as a man, is reduced to a kind of charismatic leader or superman. This is true not only among non-believers but also among many baptized Christians, who thus end up living, at this level, in a state of practical atheism,’ he said. ‘These are contexts where it is not easy to preach the Gospel and bear witness to its truth, where believers are mocked, opposed, despised or at best tolerated and pitied.’

The pope said, for this reason, ‘missionary outreach is desperately needed.’

Pope Leo warned that a ‘lack of faith’ has led to not only a ‘loss of meaning in life’ for many, but also ‘the neglect of mercy, appalling violations of human dignity, the crisis of the family and so many other wounds that afflict our society.’

While congratulatory messages were issued by leaders of Catholic and non-Catholic nations alike, China did not issue a similar message upon the pope’s appointment on Thursday.

In a Friday press conference, when asked about the Church’s new leader, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said, ‘We hope that under the leadership of the new pope, the Vatican will continue to have dialogue with China in a constructive spirit, have in-depth communication on international issues of mutual interest, jointly advance the continuous improvement of the China-Vatican relations and make contributions to world peace, stability, development and prosperity.’ 

Vice President JD Vance suggested the U.S. will not intervene in the ongoing conflict between India and Pakistan, arguing the dust-up is ‘fundamentally none of our business.’ 

‘We can’t control these countries,’ Vance told Fox News’ Martha McCallum on ‘The Story’ Thursday. ‘We’re not going to get involved in the middle of a war that’s fundamentally none of our business and has nothing to do with America’s ability to control it.’

Vance’s comments came after President Donald Trump offered his help to repair relations between the two neighbors in Asia.

‘Oh, it’s so terrible. My position is, I get along with both,’ Trump told reporters Wednesday. ‘I know both very well, and I want to see them work it out. I want to see them stop. And hopefully they can stop now. They’ve got a tit-for-tat, so hopefully they can stop now. But I know both. We get along with both countries very well. Good relationships with both. And I want to see it stop. And if I can do anything to help I will. I will be there as well.’

Vance, however, said the U.S. does not believe the issue will devolve into a nuclear conflict as he called on both sides to de-escalate. 

‘America can’t tell the Indians to lay down their arms. We can’t tell the Pakistanis to lay down their arms. And so we’re going to continue to pursue this thing through diplomatic channels. Our hope and our expectation is that this is not going to spiral into a broader regional war or, God forbid, a nuclear conflict.’

The vice president’s comments come after India attacked nine sites in longtime foe Pakistan’s territory in response to a terrorist attack that killed 26 mostly Indian tourists in the disputed Kashmir region. 

India said it had intelligence that a terrorist group based in Pakistan was responsible for the attack.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s military reported that the strikes killed at least 26 people – including women and children – and claimed India’s action amounted to an ‘act of war.’ Pakistan said it shot down five Indian fighter jets in response, claiming that the move was justified given India’s strike. 

India has since launched drones into Pakistan, which its military forces say they shot down. India has also called up its reservists to ready for the potential of a protracted conflict. 

Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for comment on whether Trump and Vance’s views on the conflict align.

Vance has emerged as the standard-bearer for the Trump administration’s non-interventionist wing, giving voice to an American-first foreign policy that breaks sharply from GOP orthodoxy and has been labeled isolationist by hawkish critics. 

He claimed the U.S. was ‘making a mistake’ when it began the offensive campaign against the Houthis in March. 

‘I think we are making a mistake,’ Vance wrote in a private Signal chat, inadvertently leaked to a journalist and later published by The Atlantic.

‘I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now.’ The commercial ships attacked in the Red Sea are largely European.

Vance has favored diplomatic negotiations with Iran to thwart its nuclear program and was on the attack at a White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in February. 

‘Right now you guys are going around forcing conscripts to the front lines because you have manpower problems,’ Vance told Zelenskyy. ‘You should be thanking the president for trying to bring an end to this conflict,’ he added during a meeting that devolved into a near-shouting match.

Trump, for his part, is seemingly behind Vance and his restraint-minded approach, naming the vice president as a potential successor to the presidency in an NBC interview last week. 

‘You look at Marco, you look at JD Vance, who’s fantastic,’ Trump said on the future of the top of the Republican ticket, referring to Vance and Secretary of State and interim national security advisor Marco Rubio.

‘Certainly you would say that somebody’s the V.P., if that person is outstanding, I guess that person would have an advantage.’

Former Supreme Court Justice David Souter died Thursday at his home in New Hampshire at the age of 85, the Court announced Friday.

‘Justice Souter was appointed to the Court by President George H.W. Bush in 1990, and retired in 2009, after serving more than 19 years on the Court,’ it said in a statement.

‘Justice David Souter served our Court with great distinction for nearly twenty years. He brought uncommon wisdom and kindness to a lifetime of public service. After retiring to his beloved New Hampshire in 2009, he continued to render significant service to our branch by sitting regularly on the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit for more than a decade. He will be greatly missed,’ Chief Justice John Roberts said.

Souter was described by the Associated Press as a ‘reliably liberal vote on abortion, church-state relations, freedom of expression and the accessibility of federal courts.’

Upon his retirement in 2009, President Barack Obama chose Sonia Sotomayor to take his seat.

The Supreme Court said Souter was born in Melrose, Mass., on Sept. 17, 1939. 

He graduated from Harvard College and also received degrees from Oxford University and Harvard Law School.

Souter then rose up the ranks to become Attorney General of New Hampshire in 1976.

‘In 1978, he was named an Associate Justice of the Superior Court of New Hampshire, and was appointed to the Supreme Court of New Hampshire as an Associate Justice in 1983. He became a Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit on May 25, 1990,’ the Supreme Court said Friday.

‘In addition to hearing cases on the First Circuit, Justice Souter participated in civics education curriculum reform efforts in New Hampshire during his retirement,’ it also said. 

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

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., was one of the final senators to question OpenAI chief Sam Altman during Thursday’s Senate Commerce Committee hearing, and the subject of both Three Mile Island and the Democrat’s penchant for Carhartt outerwear came up.

Fetterman said that as a senator he has been able to meet people with ‘much more impressive jobs and careers’ and that due to Altman’s technology, ‘humans will have a wonderful ability to adapt.’

He told Altman that some Americans are worried about AI on various levels, and he asked the executive to address it.

In response, Altman said he appreciated Fetterman’s praise.

‘Thank you, Senator, for the kind words and for normalizing hoodies in more spaces,’ he said.

‘I love to see that. I am incredibly excited about the rate of progress, but I also am cautious,’ Altman said about the Democrat’s particular question.

‘I think this is beyond something that we all fully yet understand where it’s going to go. This is, I believe, among the biggest … technological revolutions humanity will have ever produced. And I feel privileged to be here.’

Fetterman also questioned Microsoft Vice Chair Brad Smith on concerns over the proliferation of data centers making utility costs for Pennsylvanians and Americans go up.

‘For me, energy security is national security,’ he said, citing the use of renewable energy and fossil fuels. 

‘My focus is also that I want to make sure that ratepayers in Pennsylvania really hit too hard for throughout all of this,’ he said, as many mid-Atlantic states are seeing an increase in land purchases for data centers that new tech like AI requires.

While the construction of such centers does create jobs, he said, those roles are often temporary.

He went on to note how Microsoft is seeking to revive a reactor on Three Mile Island in Dauphin County, which infamously melted down decades ago, and carbon-neutral means to power data centers and more.

‘I’ve been tracking the plan to reopen TMI (Three Mile Island). My own personal story is I had to grab my hamster and evacuate during the meltdown in 1979,’ he said.

‘You might assume that I was anti-nuclear, and I actually am very supportive of nuclear because that’s an important part of the stack if you really want to address climate change.’

‘But I know that’s to power Microsoft’s data center. And I really appreciate that, but if I’m saying now, if we’re able to commit that, the power purchase agreement, it’s not going to raise electricity for Pennsylvania families.’

Smith replied that in data center construction, Microsoft plans to invest in the power grid an equivalent amount to the electricity it will use so that it is not tapping into constricted supply.

‘No. 2, we’ll manage all of this in a way that ensures that our activity does not raise the price of electricity to the community,’ he said.

Amid firings and government shake-ups, the Trump administration has repeatedly been assigning additional job roles to Cabinet members and other officials, Fox News Digital found. 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio was charged on May 1 with serving as Trump’s national security advisor after the president announced he had nominated former National Security Council chief Mike Waltz to serve as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. 

Rubio’s roles in the administration now include leading the State Department; serving as acting archivist of the United States after Trump ousted a Biden-era appointee; serving as acting administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development as the admin works to dissolve the independent agency by September; and taking the helm as the interim national security advisor. 

But Rubio is not alone in taking on multiple roles within Trump’s second administration. Fox News Digital looks back on the various Trump Cabinet members and officials who are wearing multiple hats as the president works to realign the federal government to track with his ‘America First’ policies. 

Marco Rubio 

Rubio and the Trump administration have come under fire from Democrats for the secretary of state holding multiple high-profile roles in the second administration, including Democrats sounding off on the national security council shake-up on Sunday news shows. 

‘There’s no way he can do that and do it well, especially since there’s such incompetence over at DOD with Pete Hegseth being secretary of defense and just the hollowing out of the top leadership,’ Illinois Democrat Sen. Tammy Duckworth said on CBS’s ‘Face the Nation.’ ‘There’s no way he can carry all that entire load on his own.’

‘I don’t know how anybody could do these two big jobs,’ Democrat Virginia Sen. Mark Warner said Sunday on CNN’s ‘State of the Union.’

When asked about the trend of Trump officials wearing multiple work hats, the White House reflected in comment to Fox News Digital on former President Joe Biden’s ‘disaster of a Cabinet.’ 

‘Democrats cheered on Joe Biden’s disaster of a Cabinet as it launched the botched Afghanistan withdrawal, opened the southern border to migrant criminals, weaponized the justice system against political opponents, and more,’ White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told Fox News Digital. ‘President Trump has filled his administration with many qualified, talented individuals he trusts to manage many responsibilities.’ 

The Trump administration has previously brushed off concern over Rubio holding multiple roles, most notably juggling both his State Department leadership and serving as acting national security advisor. Similarly, former President Richard Nixon in 1973 named then-National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger to simultaneously serve as secretary of state. 

‘You need a team player who is very honest with the president and the senior team, not someone trying to build an empire or wield a knife or drive their own agenda. He is singularly focused on delivering the president’s agenda,’ an administration official told Politico. 

Rubio’s multiple national security roles come as war continues between Russia and Ukraine, Israel and Gaza, and recently launched attacks from India on Pakistan. 

‘I am monitoring the situation between India and Pakistan closely,’ Rubio said in a Tuesday X post. ‘I echo @POTUS’s comments earlier today that this hopefully ends quickly and will continue to engage both Indian and Pakistani leadership towards a peaceful resolution.’

As Rubio juggles multiple roles, the Trump administration’s foreign policies have closely involved special envoys, most notably Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East.

Witkoff is a former real estate tycoon and longtime ally of Trump’s whose focus in the Trump administration has been on negotiating with Russia amid its war against Ukraine and leading talks with Iran regarding its nuclear program. Witkoff was notably credited with helping secure the release of U.S. schoolteacher Marc Fogel from a Russian prison in February.

Fox News Digital reached out to the State Department for comment on Rubio’s multiple roles but did not receive a response. 

Kash Patel

FBI Director Kash Patel, who railed against the ‘deep state’ and vowed to strip corruption from the federal law enforcement agency ahead of his confirmation, was briefly charged with overseeing the of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) in February after the Biden-era director resigned in January. 

Patel was later replaced by Secretary of the Army Daniel Driscoll as acting ATF director in a job change that was publicly reported in April. 

‘Director Kash Patel was briefly designated ATF director while awaiting Senate confirmations, a standard, short-term move. Dozens of similar re-designations have occurred across the federal government,’ the White House told Reuters in April. ‘Director Patel is now excelling in his role at the FBI and delivering outstanding results.’

Daniel Driscoll 

Driscoll was sworn in as the 26th secretary of the Army in February. The secretary of the army is a senior-level civilian official charged with overseeing the management of the Army and also acts as an advisor to the secretary of defense in matters related to the Army. 

It was reported in April that Driscoll was named acting ATF director, replacing Patel in that role. 

‘Mr. Driscoll is responsible for the oversight of the agency’s mission to protect communities from violent criminals, criminal organizations, and the illegal trafficking of firearms, explosives, and contraband. Under his leadership, the ATF works to enforce federal laws, ensure public safety, and provide critical support in the investigation of firearms-related crimes and domestic and international criminal enterprises,’ his ATF biography reads. 

Ahead of Trump taking office, Republican Reps. Eric Burlison of Missouri and Lauren Boebert of Colorado introduced legislation to abolish the ATF, saying the agency has worked to strip Second Amendment rights from U.S. citizens. 

The ATF has been tasked with assisting the Department of Homeland Security in its deportation efforts under the Trump administration. 

Doug Collins 

Former Georgia Republican Rep. Doug Collins was sworn-in as the Trump administration’s secretary of Veterans Affairs in February, a Cabinet-level position tasked with overseeing the department and its mission of providing health, education and financial benefits to military veterans. 

Days after his confirmation as VA secretary, Trump tapped Collins to temporarily lead two oversight agencies: the Office of Government Ethics and the Office of Special Counsel. 

The Office of Government Ethics is charged with overseeing the executive branch’s ethics program, including setting ethics standards for the government and monitoring ethics compliance across federal agencies and departments. 

The Office of Special Counsel is charged with overseeing and protecting the federal government’s merit system, most notably ensuring federal whistleblowers don’t face retaliation for sounding the alarm on an issue they’ve experienced. The office also has an established secure channel to allow federal employees to blow the whistle on alleged wrongdoing. 

The Office of Special Counsel also enforces the Hatch Act, which bans executive branch staffers, except the president and vice president, from engaging in certain forms of political activity. 

Russell Vought 

Trump named his former director of the Office of Management and Budget under his first administration, Russell Vought, to the same role in his second administration. Vought was confirmed as the federal government’s budget chief in February. 

Days later, Vought was also named the acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).  

The CFPB is an independent government agency charged with protecting consumers from unfair financial practices in the private sector. It was created in 2010 under the Obama administration after the financial crash in 2008. Democrat Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren originally proposed and advocated for the creation of the agency.

The CFPB came under fierce investigation from the Department of Government Efficiency in February, with mass terminations rocking the agency before the reduction in force initiative was tied up in court. 

Ric Grenell 

President Donald Trump’s former ambassador to Germany and acting director of national intelligence under his first term, a pair of roles held at separate times in the first administration, currently serves as president of the Kennedy Center and special presidential envoy for special missions of the United States. 

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts serves as the national cultural center of the U.S. Trump notably serves as the center’s chair of the board, with Grenell saying the center will see a ‘golden age’ of the arts during Trump’s second administration through productions and concerts that Americans actually want to see after years of the performing arts center running in the red. 

Trump named Grenell as his special presidential envoy for special missions to the United States in December before his inauguration, saying Grenell will ‘work in some of the hottest spots around the world, including Venezuela and North Korea.’

In this role, Grenell helped lead the administration through its response to the wildfires that tore through Southern California in the last days of the Biden administration through the beginning days of the Trump administration. 

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment on the administration officials working multiple high-profile roles as opposed to appointing or nominating other qualified individuals but did not receive a response. 

President Donald Trump said he does not know his new nominee for U.S. surgeon general, telling reporters Thursday that he relied upon the recommendation of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Trump withdrew the nomination of his first pick for surgeon general, Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, this week and instead nominated Dr. Casey Means. The president, upon announcing her nomination, said she has ‘impeccable ‘MAHA’ credentials.’ 

When asked Thursday about Means and why he tapped her for the role, the president said Kennedy recommended her. 

‘Because Bobby thought she was fantastic, brilliant woman who went through Stanford — wanted to be academic instead of physician,’ the president said. 

‘I don’t know her, I listened to Bobby,’ Trump added. ‘I think she’ll be great.’ 

Means, a vocal ‘Make America Healthy Again’ proponent, played a significant role in helping shape the administration’s agenda surrounding health alongside her brother, Calley Means. 

She has made a name for herself as a wellness influencer alongside her brother. In 2024, both Casey and Calley co-wrote a book about the chronic disease epidemic titled ‘Good Energy,’ and Casey is also the co-founder of a health-tech company called Levels.

Calley Means was previously tapped by the administration to serve as a top special advisor to Kennedy. 

It is unclear why Nesheiwat’s nomination was pulled. Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for more information and did not immediately receive a response. 

Meanwhile, in a follow-up post on X, Nesheiwat also said she was ‘looking forward’ to continuing to support Trump while working closely with Kennedy ‘in a senior policy role.’ 

‘My focus continues to be on improving the health and well-being of all Americans, and that mission hasn’t changed,’ Nesheiwat concluded in her public social media remarks.  

Nesheiwat is the sister-in-law of recently fired National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, whom the president indicated he will now be nominating to be the next ambassador to the United Nations after dropping his initial nominee, New York GOP Congresswoman Elise Stefanik. 

The Department of Justice has opened a criminal investigation into New York Attorney General Letitia James, Fox News has learned.

A source familiar with the matter confirmed that a grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia sent out subpoenas related to accusations that James misrepresented a single-family home in Virginia as her primary residence to obtain more favorable loan terms.  

News of the federal probe follows a criminal referral from the Trump administration’s Federal Housing Finance Agency Director William Pulte, who requested the DOJ investigate James over that matter and another incident in which she allegedly misrepresented the number of livable units in a multifamily Brooklyn house to once again obtain better loan terms. 

‘These baseless and long-discredited allegations, put to rest by my April 24 letter to the Department of Justice, are suddenly back in the news just days after President Trump publicly attacked Attorney General James,’ James’ attorney, Abbe Lowell, said Thursday. 

‘This appears to be the political retribution President Trump threatened to exact that AG Bondi assured the Senate would not occur on her watch. If prosecutors are genuinely interested in the truth, we are prepared to meet false claims with facts.’

After Pulte’s criminal referral was sent to the Justice Department, specifically U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, Lowell followed up with his own letter to Bondi and the Justice Department, accusing the president of seeking ‘political retribution.’ 

James has been part of a group of Democratic attorneys general who have sued to halt many of Trump’s orders during his first few months in the Oval Office. 

Additionally, James was the catalyst behind Trump becoming the first U.S. president sentenced as a felon. She was the lead prosecutor in a case she brought against Trump and the Trump Organization that alleged Trump and his company falsified business records to obtain more favorable loan terms.

Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records and was ordered to pay $350 million in penalties and is appealing the conviction.

‘The stunning hypocrisy of President Trump’s complaint that the Justice Department had been ‘politicized’ and ‘weaponized’ against him is laid bare as he and others in his administration are now asking you to undertake the very same practice,’ Lowell wrote in his letter to Bondi.

Lowell, in his letter, pointed to instances when Trump has called for revenge and instances when the president has personally attacked James. 

Lowell also responded to the allegations, including the claim James listed a home in Virginia as her primary residence while serving as a state official in New York. According to Lowell, James had no intention of using the property as a primary residence, and her indication of this in a power-of-attorney letter was a mistake. Lowell pointed out there were other documents in which James indicated to her lender that the Virginia home would not be her primary residence. 

James is also accused of fraud for allegedly inflating the number of livable units in a multifamily Brooklyn home to receive better interest rates. Lowell accuses Pulte of disregarding updated documentation listing the residence as a four-unit multifamily residence and instead pointing to a certificate of occupancy from 2001.