House conservatives are mounting a push that could extend the looming partial government shutdown if the Senate does not accept a key election integrity measure backed by many on the right.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., told Fox News Digital on Thursday evening that she and a ‘handful’ of House Republicans are pushing to get the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act added to the spending compromise that’s expected to pass the Senate and be sent to the House on Friday.

The legislation, which was introduced by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and passed the House in April 2025, would require proof of citizenship in the voter registration process.

‘I know for a fact that if the SAVE Act is a standalone vote in the Senate, just like every other good piece of legislation, it’s going to die,’ Luna told Fox News Digital.

She declined to say how many House GOP lawmakers supported her effort but said, ‘It’s definitely a number that’s big enough to completely halt all floor proceedings.’

‘There’s some Republicans that are just straight-up coming out saying, ‘We’re going to basically be with Luna, and we will not be voting for any piece of legislation, specifically on these appropriations, that does not include the SAVE Act because of the fact that we know it’s not going to survive in the Senate,” Luna said.

Rep. William Timmons, R-N.C., who is also backing the effort, told Fox News Digital, ‘If the Democrats can play this game and shut the government down yet again, I think that we need to hold their feet to the fire.’

‘The American people want us to do our job. Government shutdowns are terrible, and so if [Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.] is going to shut the government down, I think it’s appropriate to…say this is your shutdown, and here’s the way to reopen,’ Timmons said.

The push could cause complications in the House, which is expected to consider the Senate’s federal funding compromise early next week.

Senate Democrats walked away from a bipartisan deal to fully fund the federal government for the remainder of fiscal year (FY) 2026 amid fallout over President Donald Trump’s surge of federal law enforcement in Minneapolis.

Federal officers shot and killed two U.S. citizens in the Midwest city during separate demonstrations against Trump’s immigration crackdown. In response, Democrats threatened to hold up a massive federal funding bill that also includes dollars for the departments of War, Labor, Health and Human Services, Transportation and others unless funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was stripped out.

The deal reached would fund all but DHS through Sept. 30, while funding DHS with a two-week extension of current spending levels to give Congress time to hash out a compromise that would include stricter guardrails on immigration enforcement agencies under the department’s purview.

With some conservatives already complaining about the deal, it’s likely that Democratic support will be needed to pass the legislation back in the House.

It’s not clear if attaching the SAVE Act to that package will alienate Democrats, however.

On the other side, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., will need nearly all Republicans to move in lockstep for the package to survive a procedural hurdle called a ‘rule vote.’ It’s a House-wide test vote of sorts that allows for debate and final consideration of a measure, but normally falls along party lines.

Luna would only need a small group of Republicans to tank the rule, which could extend the partial shutdown that’s already expected to happen beginning Feb. 1.

House GOP leaders could sidestep the rule vote altogether, however, by putting the bill up under suspension — a mechanism for fast-tracking legislation in exchange for raising the threshold for passage from a simple majority to two-thirds.

‘I don’t think that they would do that. I mean, that would be really problematic for them,’ Luna said.

But if successful, the bill would have to be sent back to the Senate for another vote.

The Senate has a deal to fund the government, but Republican anger over the nature of the deal, earmarks and what changes could come to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) derailed its progress Thursday night. 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and President Donald Trump agreed to strip out the much-maligned DHS funding bill from a broader, six-bill funding package, and instead fund the agency with a two-week continuing resolution (CR), while lawmakers haggled over tweaks to the bill. 

Even though there is a deal backed by the White House that has key Democratic buy-in, there will still be a partial government shutdown this weekend, given that the House must weigh in on the package. 

Toward the end of the night, Republicans had blasted through hold after hold, amendment request after amendment request, but one lawmaker stood in the way: Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. Without his buy-in, the package couldn’t move forward.

Graham told reporters as he walked into Thune’s office late Thursday night that the package was a ‘bad deal.’ 

He was angered by the treatment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. Graham argued that ICE agents ‘are not infallible, but I appreciate what they’re doing. I’ve never been more offended than I am right now by what’s being said about these folks.’

Graham was just one of many Senate Republicans who were not unified in their view of the deal or the underlying original package, which failed a key test vote Thursday afternoon — seven Republicans joined all Senate Democrats to spike it.

Once the deal crystallized and Trump publicly announced his support of it, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and his leadership team went to work trying to quell resistance among their ranks Thursday night, but to no avail. 

‘Tomorrow’s another day, and hopefully people will be in a spirit to try and get this done tomorrow,’ Thune told reporters as he left the Capitol Thursday night.

Typically, when a package like the Trump-backed proposal is rushed to the Senate floor, it goes through what’s known as the hotline process in the Senate. That allows lawmakers to weigh in with approval, concerns, requests for amendments or, in some cases, outright block the package from moving forward. 

Sources familiar with Senate Democrats’ planning told Fox News Digital that as of Thursday night, their side of the aisle had not started the process as they waited for Senate Republicans to figure out their next move.

Part of the DHS funding bill included a repeal of a controversial provision that allowed senators whose phone records were subpoenaed during former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s Arctic Frost probe to sue for up to $500,000 for each infraction.

Graham has been a strong proponent of the provision, scuttling several attempts by Senate Democrats to repeal it over the last few months. 

When asked if his hold was related to its expected repeal, Graham said no and noted that he had reached an agreement with the Senate Ethics Committee that wouldn’t allow him to financially gain from a lawsuit.

‘We can find out a way forward, but not this way,’ Graham said.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said his department will ‘be prepared to deliver whatever this president expects’ following a warning to Iran about its nuclear program. 

Hegseth made the remark Thursday during a Cabinet meeting, one day after President Donald Trump told Iran that ‘time is running out’ to strike a deal. 

‘They should not pursue nuclear capabilities. So we will be prepared to deliver whatever this president expects of the War Department, just like we did this month,’ Hegseth said before describing the Jan. 3 U.S. military operation that captured former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. 

‘No other military in the world could have executed the most sophisticated, powerful raid, not just in American history, I would say, in world history. What those men did going downtown, another country, the most secure place in the most secure base in the middle of the night without anybody knowing until those simultaneous bombs dropped three minutes before the helicopters dropped. No other country could coordinate that,’ Hegseth continued. ‘No other president would have been willing to empower those warriors that way to be that effective.’

‘And that sends a message to every capital around the world that when President Trump speaks, he means business. And we are reestablishing deterrence at the War Department,’ Hegseth also said. 

The secretary of War also told the Cabinet that Trump has had to ‘rebuild the perception of America’ during his second term. 

‘And at the Department of War, that meant reestablishing deterrence. What happened in Afghanistan. What happened in Ukraine, a war that never would have occurred. What happened on Oct. 7 in Israel — never would have happened under President Trump. So as a result, we’re having to rebuild how our enemies perceive us,’ he said. ‘And when President Trump said, ‘We’re not getting a nuclear Iran, you won’t have a nuclear bomb,’ he meant it. And we sent those B-2s halfway around the world, and they never noticed.’

‘When you said, Mr. President, we’re securing the border, the military was proud to do their part alongside Homeland Security to do that. Same thing with Iran right now, ensuring that they have all the options to make a deal,’ Hegseth added. 

In a Truth Social post on Wednesday, Trump said, ‘A massive Armada is heading to Iran.’ 

‘It is moving quickly, with great power, enthusiasm, and purpose. It is a larger fleet, headed by the great Aircraft Carrier Abraham Lincoln, than that sent to Venezuela. Like with Venezuela, it is, ready, willing, and able to rapidly fulfill its mission, with speed and violence, if necessary. Hopefully, Iran will quickly ‘Come to the Table’ and negotiate a fair and equitable deal — NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS — one that is good for all parties. Time is running out, it is truly of the essence!’ the president warned.

‘As I told Iran once before, MAKE A DEAL! They didn’t, and there was ‘Operation Midnight Hammer,’ a major destruction of Iran. The next attack will be far worse! Don’t make that happen again. Thank you for your attention to this matter!’ he added. 

Fox News Digital’s Alex Nitzberg contributed to this report. 

House Republicans are breaking fundraising records as they build resources to defend their razor-thin majority in November’s midterm elections.

The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), which is the campaign arm of the House GOP, on Friday highlighted its robust fundraising last year, as well as ‘record’ hauls by House Speaker Mike Johnson, Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Majority Whip Tom Emmer.

The fundraising surge is much needed, as Republicans face a rough political climate due to persistent inflation, which is fueling President Donald Trump’s negative approval ratings. And as the party in power in the nation’s capitol, the GOP is also up against traditional political headwinds in the midterms.

The Trump administration and Republicans are also facing political backlash following the fatal shootings this month by federal enforcement agents of two U.S. citizens in Minnesota who were protesting the government’s unprecedented crackdown on illegal immigration.

Democrats, meanwhile, are energized following their ballot box successes last year as they rebound from their 2024 election setbacks and need a net gain of just three House seats in the midterms to capture the majority.

The NRCC showcased that it raked in $117.2 million last year, their best-ever off-election year haul other than 2021, when Democrats controlled the White House and Congress. The fundraising figures were first reported by Axios.

The committee also highlighted that Johnson brought in over $82 million for House Republicans in 2025, the most money ever raised in one year by a House speaker.

The NRCC also noted that Scalise’s $35.5 million haul marked his strongest off-year fundraising performance, and that Emmer brought in nearly $30 million, a record.

And the committee also noted that the Congressional Leadership Fund and the American Action Network, the top two outside political groups aligned with the House GOP, combined raked in a record $136 million.

‘House Republicans are building an unprecedented war chest because voters are buying what we’re selling. We’re all in on growing the majority, and our fundraising numbers prove we have the resources to win across the map,’ NRCC Spokesman Mike Marinella emphasized in a statement to Fox News Digital.

The rival Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) has yet to announce their fourth quarter fundraising figures.

But DCCC spokesperson Justin Chermol highlighted, ‘No amount of money can rescue this hopeless, directionless, and extreme House Republican majority.’

President Donald Trump likes the idea of holding the GOP’s first ever midterm convention later this year in Nevada or Texas, people involved in the discussions tell Fox News Digital.

But those sources say that the president’s initial preferences don’t mean that other cities are off the list of convention host city contenders.

As Fox News Digital first reported, the Republican National Committee (RNC) last week took a big step toward holding the convention by approving a change to the party’s rules that would allow Chair Joe Gruters to convene a convention during a midterm election year.

Gruters, speaking with reporters after the RNC greenlighted the midterm convention, called it a ‘Trump-a-palooza’ where ‘we can really highlight all the incredible things that this president has done.’

National political conventions, where party delegates from around the country formally nominate their party’s presidential candidates, normally take place during presidential election years.

But with Republicans aiming to protect their narrow control of the Senate and their razor-thin House majority in this year’s elections, Trump announced in September that the GOP would hold a convention ahead of the midterms ‘in order to show the great things we have done’ since recapturing the White House.

Details on the date and location of the midterm convention are expected to be revealed in the weeks ahead and will likely be announced by the president.

In the meantime, here’s a possible list of five strategic cities for the midterm convention. The locations, which anchor key battleground states or could serve as gateways to shifting demographic blocks, are aimed at giving Republicans an electoral edge in the midterms.

Las Vegas, Nevada

The city that touts that it’s the world’s entertainment capital due to its nightlife, shows and its long role as the nation’s legalized gambling mecca is also the largest city in swing state Nevada, which Trump narrowly carried in 2024.

Nevada will once again play a crucial role in the 2026 midterms, with Republicans aiming to flip three Democrat-held House seats. And the state will also likely hold a competitive gubernatorial election, as GOP Gov. Joe Lombardo seeks a second term.

Holding their midterm convention in Las Vegas might give the GOP a ballot box boost, similar to the likely bounce Trump received as he narrowly won battleground Wisconsin in 2024 after Republicans held their national nominating convention in Milwaukee.

And a party gathering in Las Vegas could help the GOP further appeal to the growing block of Hispanic voters and ‘service-class’ workers who have been increasingly attracted to the party’s economic agenda and messaging.

Dallas, Texas

Though Texas has been reliably red for a couple of decades, Republicans are working to protect GOP Sen. John Cornyn’s seat this year in a state that Democrats have long tried to stay competitive.

And the GOP aims to go on offense in Texas as they defend their House majority, looking to flip up to five congressional seats from blue to red after Lone Star State Republicans took the lead in the redistricting battle.

Plus, similar to Las Vegas, holding a convention in Texas puts Latino voters front and center for Republicans.

Phoenix, Arizona

Holding their convention in the nation’s fifth most populous city may boost Republicans as they strive to win back control of Arizona’s governor’s office in the midterms, as well as defend a handful of GOP-controlled House seats as they defend the majority in the chamber.

Choosing Phoenix as host city would also allow the GOP to hammer home themes of border security and inflation in the crucial southwestern battleground.

And hosting in Phoenix, similar to Las Vegas and Dallas, would give Republicans an opportunity to showcase outreach to Latino voters.

Detroit, Michigan

With ballot box showdowns for a Democrat-held open Senate seat and governor’s office, swing state Michigan is a top GOP target.

And with four competitive House races, the results in the Great Lakes State may determine if Republicans keep their majority.

Holding the convention in Detroit also allows the GOP to focus on manufacturing, energy prices and trade.

Atlanta, Georgia

Republicans view Sen. Jon Ossoff as the most vulnerable Democratic senator seeking re-election this year.

And the GOP’s also defending the governor’s office, as popular Gov. Brian Kemp is term-limited.

Plus, naming Atlanta as host city would give Republicans a chance to showcase their efforts to court Black voters.

Last week, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth released the 2026 National Defense Strategy (NDS), a Pentagon blueprint that elevates Israel as a ‘model ally’ and translates President Trump’s national security doctrine into concrete military policy.

‘Israel has long demonstrated that it is both willing and able to defend itself with critical but limited support from the United States. Israel is a model ally, and we have an opportunity now to further empower it to defend itself and promote our shared interests, building on President Trump’s historic efforts to secure peace in the Middle East,’ the NDS states.

The document is now influencing parallel debates over the future of U.S. security assistance to Israel and whether the next Memorandum of Understanding, or MOU, should continue delivering traditional U.S. military aid to Israel, amid dissenting voices that portray the alliance as a burden rather than a strategic asset.

According to the strategy, Israel proved its ability and willingness to defend itself following the Oct. 7 attacks, demonstrating that it is not a passive partner but an operational force that supports U.S. interests in the region. The strategy emphasizes empowering capable allies rather than constraining them, building on President Trump’s earlier push for regional integration through the Abraham Accords.

Jonathan Ruhe, director of foreign policy at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, said the strategy reflects a broader American shift toward partnerships that strengthen both U.S. security and domestic industry.

‘U.S. defense assistance to Israel in the MOU is spent in dollars here in America to support our industry,’ Ruhe told Fox News Digital. ‘And like in the national security strategy, it then enables Israel to go and do more to protect U.S. interests.’

He said a future agreement would likely extend beyond funding alone. ‘A new MOU would also likely be broader and include things that are more 50-50 partnership, like joint research and development, co-production, intelligence sharing and things like that to reflect the changing partnership going forward,’ Ruhe said.

The strategy also highlights the importance of revitalizing the American defense industrial base, noting that allies purchasing U.S. systems help strengthen domestic production while enabling partners to shoulder greater responsibility for regional security.

Avner Golov, vice president of the Israeli think tank Mind Israel, said the document makes clear that Israel is viewed not merely as a recipient of aid, ‘Israel is in the fight. We are protecting ourselves by ourselves. We just need the tools to do that. And by doing so, we enhance not only America’s standing in the Middle East, but also worldwide and contribute to the American economy.’

That framing comes as Israel and the United States prepare for negotiations over the next 10-year MOU, which governs U.S. military assistance to Israel. The current agreement, signed in 2016, provides $3.3 billion annually in foreign military financing, along with $500 million a year for missile defense cooperation.

The debate follows tensions during the Biden administration, when the White House paused the delivery of certain U.S. weapons to Israel in May 2024, including a shipment of 2,000-pound bombs. At the time, Netanyahu warned that Israel ‘will stand alone’ if Washington halted weapons deliveries, reflecting concern that limits or delays in U.S. military support could undermine Israel’s readiness and deterrence. 

Experts have noted that U.S. leaders have not always approved every Israeli weapons request and that roughly 70% of Israel’s military imports come from the United States, underscoring the strategic calculus behind Prime Minister Netanyahu’s recent push for greater independent production.

Golov criticized that approach, arguing it risks prioritizing optics over readiness. ‘I believe that is a short-term vision,’ Golov said. ‘In the long term, Israel must first be prepared for the next round of escalation. If we are not ready, we will face another war. If we are prepared, perhaps we can deter it.’

‘Israel must remain the strongest army in the region, and that is also a fundamental American interest,’ Golov said.

Ruhe said the debate reflects lessons learned from nearly two years of war. ‘You’ve got this sort of topsy-turvy world now where the Israelis are saying we don’t want to take any more U.S. money, and the Americans are saying, no, you’re going to take our money,’ he said.

According to Ruhe, the conflict exposed vulnerabilities created by heavy dependence on U.S. supply chains and political delays.

‘The war of the last two years showed that Israel can’t afford to be as dependent on the U.S. or continue to maintain the same defense partnership that it has because that creates a dependence,’ he said. ‘Israel becomes vulnerable to U.S. shortages in weapons output or politically motivated embargoes and holdups that can impact Israel’s readiness.’

At the same time, Ruhe noted that Israel remains reliant on the United States for major platforms.

‘Even Israel will say we’re utterly dependent on the U.S. for those big-ticket platforms,’ he said, pointing to aircraft such as the F-15 and F-35 that Israel has already committed to purchasing.

For that reason, Ruhe argued that maintaining stable funding under the next MOU may be the most practical path forward.

‘It’s actually much easier for Congress just to go ahead and approve that money,’ he said, explaining that predictable funding reduces annual political battles on Capitol Hill.

Golov said Israel’s long-term objective should not be reducing ties with Washington, but deepening them. ‘I don’t want to reduce dependency,’ he said. ‘I want to increase contribution to America.’

He described the emerging vision as a fundamental shift in how the alliance is structured. ‘We are moving from a 20th-century aid model to a 21st-century strategic merger,’ Golov said. ‘Israel is the only partner that delivers a 400% return on investment without asking for a single American soldier.’

Golov said the proposed framework is built around three pillars: an industrial defense ecosystem, a joint technology ecosystem and a regional ecosystem connecting Israeli innovation, Gulf infrastructure and American power.

He emphasized that maintaining U.S. security assistance during the transition period is critical.

‘We need a final ten-year ‘bridge’ with the current security aid MOU,’ Golov said. ‘A sudden cut would be a dangerous signal of American retreat to our enemies and may hinder IDF preparedness.’

‘I don’t know who the next president of the United States will be,’ he added. ‘This is where our enemies can read it in a very dangerous way.’

The Trump administration announced Thursday it was easing sanctions on the Venezuelan oil industry, as the U.S. aims to ramp up production in the South American country following the capture of dictator Nicolás Maduro earlier this month.

The U.S. Treasury said it is authorizing transactions involving the government of Venezuela and state-owned oil company PdVSA that are ‘ordinarily incident and necessary to the lifting, exportation, reexportation, sale, resale, supply, storage, marketing, purchase, delivery, or transportation of Venezuelan-origin oil, including the refining of such oil, by an established U.S. entity.’

The new license includes significant carve-outs, with sanctions remaining fully intact for persons or entities in Russia, Iran, North Korea or Cuba.

It also excludes transactions with blocked vessels, Chinese-owned or controlled entities operating in Venezuela or the U.S., and debt swaps, gold payments, or cryptocurrency payments, including Venezuela’s petro.

The announcement came as President Donald Trump pushes for the expansion of oil production in Venezuela.

‘We have the major oil companies going to Venezuela now, scouting it out and picking their locations, and they’ll be bringing back tremendous wealth for Venezuela and for the United States and the oil companies will do fine too.’ Trump said during a cabinet meeting Thursday.

Trump also announced during the meeting that commercial airspace over Venezuela would reopen, after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) released an emergency notice earlier this month blocking civil flight operations by U.S. aircraft over the South American country.

‘I just spoke to the president of Venezuela and informed her that we’re going to be opening up all commercial airspace over Venezuela,’ Trump said. ‘American citizens will be very shortly able to go to Venezuela, and they’ll be safe there and be safe. It’s under very strong control.’

 Earlier Thursday, Venezuela’s government approved opening the nation’s oil sector to privatization, with Acting President Delcy Rodríguez signing the reform into law — a move that reverses a core principle of the socialist movement that has ruled the country for more than two decades.

Fox News Digital’s Diana Stancy and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump warned the U.K. Thursday against strengthening ties with China, hours after Prime Minister Keir Starmer met President Xi Jinping in Beijing to reset relations after a long period of strain.

Trump’s remarks came as Starmer and Xi had called for a renewed ‘strategic partnership,’ highlighting the pressures facing them amid global instability.

Speaking to Fox News while traveling to Florida for the premiere of first lady Melania Trump’s documentary, Trump was asked about the U.K. ‘getting into business with China.’

‘Well, it’s very dangerous for them to do that,’ Trump said. ‘And it’s even more dangerous, I think, for Canada to get into business with China.’

Trump added that China was not the solution for Western economies despite his personal relationship with Xi. ‘I know China very well. I know President Xi is a friend of mine, and I know him very well, but that’s a big hurdle to get over,’ he said, before joking that Beijing might ban Canada from playing ice hockey. 

‘That’s not good. Canada’s not going to like that,’ he added. 

Trump had previously criticized Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney after Carney’s visit to China and warned then that ‘China will eat Canada alive.’

Trump’s latest comments followed an 80-minute meeting in Beijing between Starmer and Xi in which the leaders sought to thaw relations after several years of diplomatic chill.

The Associated Press reported that neither leader mentioned Trump directly in their discussions Thursday.

‘In the current turbulent and ever-changing international situation, China and the United Kingdom need to strengthen dialogue and cooperation to maintain world peace and stability,’ Xi told Starmer, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.

Xi also warned that if major powers failed to uphold international law, the world risked sliding into a ‘jungle.’

Starmer said cooperation on climate change and global stability was ‘precisely what we should be doing,’ The Associated Press also reported.

The outlet also reported that Starmer described the meeting as ‘very productive,’ and mentioned progress on whisky tariffs, visa-free travel to China for British citizens and cooperation on migration.

As previously reported by Fox News Digital, Starmer sought Xi’s help to disrupt the supply of China-made small boat engines that the U.K. leader’s office says are used to smuggle people across the English Channel.

He also raised human rights concerns and the Iran nuclear program.

Starmer is the first British prime minister to visit China in eight years and the fourth U.S.-allied leader to do so this month, signaling a push by Beijing to re-engage Western partners.

The visit also came as the U.K. navigates trade alignment with the U.S., defense cooperation in Arctic regions and negotiations over the sovereignty of the Chagos Islands.

In November, the U.S. and China reached a deal easing some tariffs and export controls, boosting U.S. agricultural exports, curbing fentanyl precursor flows and relieving pressure on American semiconductor and shipping companies.

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

President Donald Trump on Thursday declared a national emergency via an executive order over Cuba, accusing the communist regime of aligning with hostile foreign powers and terrorist groups while moving to punish countries that supply the island nation with oil.

Thursday’s executive order states that the policies and actions of the Cuban government constitute ‘an unusual and extraordinary threat, which has its source in whole or substantial part outside the United States, to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.’

To address that threat, Trump ordered the creation of a tariff mechanism that allows the U.S. to impose additional duties on imports from foreign countries that ‘directly or indirectly sell or otherwise provide any oil to Cuba,’ according to the order.

The White House said the move marks a significant escalation in U.S. pressure on the Cuban government, aimed at protecting American national security and foreign policy interests.

In the order, Trump said Cuba aligns itself with and provides support for ‘numerous hostile countries, transnational terrorist groups, and malign actors adverse to the United States,’ naming Russia, China, Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah.

The administration said Cuba hosts Russia’s largest overseas signals intelligence facility, which the order states attempts to steal sensitive U.S. national security information. The order also says Cuba continues to deepen intelligence and defense cooperation with China.

According to the order, Cuba ‘welcomes transnational terrorist groups, such as Hezbollah and Hamas.’

Trump also cited the Cuban government’s human rights record, accusing the regime of persecuting and torturing political opponents, denying free speech and press freedoms, and retaliating against families of political prisoners who protest peacefully.

‘The United States has zero tolerance for the depredations of the communist Cuban regime,’ Trump said in the order, adding that the administration will act to hold the regime accountable while supporting the Cuban people’s aspirations for a free and democratic society.

Under the order, the Commerce Department will determine whether a foreign country is supplying oil to Cuba, either directly or through intermediaries. The State Department, working with Treasury, Homeland Security, Commerce and the U.S. Trade Representative, will decide whether and how steep the new tariffs should be if so.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is tasked with monitoring the national emergency and reporting to Congress, while the Commerce Department will continue tracking which countries are supplying oil to Cuba.

In a fact sheet, the White House said the order is designed to protect U.S. national security and foreign policy from the Cuban regime’s ‘malign actions and policies,’ and described the move as part of Trump’s broader effort to confront regimes that threaten American interests.

The administration said the action builds on Trump’s first-term Cuba policy, which reversed Obama-era engagement and reinstated tougher measures against the communist government.

The executive order is set to take effect Friday.

The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for additional comment.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently revoked Iranian senior officials and their family members’ privilege to travel to the U.S., citing ongoing oppression by the regime.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s regime is accused of killing more than 6,200 protesters since Dec. 28, with nearly 17,100 additional arrests as internet communications remain halted, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).

‘As the people of Iran continue to fight for their basic rights, [Rubio] took action this week to revoke the privilege of Iranian senior officials and their family members to be in the United States,’ the State Department wrote in an X post. ‘Those who profit from the Iranian regime’s brutal oppression are not welcome to benefit from our immigration system.’

In addition to the potential civil rights violations in Iran, tensions have flared between Khamenei and President Donald Trump, as the U.S. attempts to strike a nuclear deal.

Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi warned on Wednesday the nation’s military is ‘prepared—with their fingers on the trigger—to immediately and powerfully respond to ANY aggression against our beloved land, air, and sea.’

Araghchi claimed that Iran has ‘always welcomed’ a mutually beneficial, fair and equitable nuclear deal that would ensure Iran’s rights to peaceful nuclear technology, and guarantee no nuclear weapons.

Trump fired back on Truth Social, warning a ‘massive’ armada was heading to Iran ‘with speed and violence, if necessary.’

‘Time is running out, it is truly of the essence!’ Trump wrote in a post. ‘As I told Iran once before, MAKE A DEAL! They didn’t, and there was ‘Operation Midnight Hammer,’ a major destruction of Iran. The next attack will be far worse! Don’t make that happen again.’

The president said Thursday night it would be ‘great’ if the U.S. did not have to use the military fleet.

The State Department on Wednesday also demanded Tehran overturn the death penalty for 19-year-old Saleh Mohammadi, a decorated Iranian wrestler who was arrested while peacefully protesting against the regime earlier this month.

Fox News Digital’s Alex Nitzberg contributed to this report.