Evita Duffy-Alfonso, a daughter of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, called for the abolition of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) on Thursday, asserting that she had been treated poorly by agents and endured an ‘absurdly invasive pat-down.’ 

‘TSA = unreasonable, warrantless searches of passengers and their property. That means it violates the Fourth Amendment and is therefore unconstitutional. Pls abolish,’ she wrote in a post on X, tagging President Donald Trump and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem.

In another post, she explained her negative experience.

‘I nearly missed my flight this morning after the TSA made me wait 15 minutes for a pat-down because I’m pregnant and didn’t feel like getting radiation exposure from their body scanner. The agents were passive-aggressive, rude, and tried to pressure me and another pregnant woman into just walking through the scanner because it’s ‘safe.’ After finally getting the absurdly invasive pat-down, I barely made my flight. All this for an unconstitutional agency that isn’t even good at its job,’ Duffy-Alfonso wrote in a post on X.

‘Perhaps things would have gone more smoothly if I’d handed over my biometric data to a random private company (CLEAR). Then I could enjoy the special privilege of waiting in a shorter line to be treated like a terrorist in my own country. Is this freedom? Travel, brought to you by George Orwell — and the privilege of convenience based solely on your willingness to surrender biometric data and submit to radiation exposure? The ‘golden age of transportation’ cannot begin until the TSA is gone,’ she added.

In a statement provided to Fox News Digital, the TSA noted, ‘We are aware of the incident in question. TSA takes complaints about airport security screening procedures seriously and investigates complaints thoroughly to ensure the correct procedures are applied.’ 

Fox News Digital reached out to the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Transportation for comment. 

Duffy-Alfonso noted in another post that the TSA falls ‘under DHS,’ which is lead by Noem, but asserted that if the TSA were under her father’s purview, ‘he’d radically limit it and lobby Congress to abolish it.’

‘To be clear, I am 100% behind all that @POTUS & @DHS has done to keep out terrorists and illegals, especially at the border. In fact, President Trump & @Sec_Noem aren’t getting enough credit for achieving zero illegal border crossings and stopping deranged terrorists from coming into the U.S.,’ Duffy-Alfonso wrote in another post on X.

‘But there needs to be more common sense around how we treat Americans exercising their right to travel. And I hope TSA works on improving their treatment of expectant mothers who don’t want to go through body scanners to protect their unborn children. We can do both,’ she added.

Her husband, Michael Alfonso, is running for U.S. Congress in Wisconsin. 

Duffy-Alfonso’s mother, Rachel Campos-Duffy, is ‘FOX & Friends Weekend’ co-host.

A handful of conservative energy and climate groups released a report outlining the top 10 challenges that rocked climate change activism in 2025, as President Donald Trump returned to the White House with a mandate to unleash American energy this year.

Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has signed a series of executive orders and legislation to scale back America’s green energy efforts. Now, a group of prominent conservative energy groups are declaring 2025 as the year of the cultural departure from climate activism.

‘This year has proven to be an unexpected tipping point for climate realism,’ the conservative groups declared in a report shared exclusively with Fox News Digital.

The American Energy Institute, The Energy & Environment Legal Institute, Truth in Energy & Climate, The Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) and The Heartland Institute signed the ‘2025: Climate Hysteria’s Surprising Tipping Point,’ outlining 2025 as a pivotal year in trading climate activism for energy production and economic realism.

‘This is the great climate tipping point the radicals never saw coming,’ American Energy Institute CEO Jason Isaac told Fox News Digital. ‘The world is waking up to the reality that net-zero was never achievable, never affordable, and never honest. Governments, investors, and even climate activists are abandoning the hysteria and choosing energy security, affordability, reliability, and common sense. President Trump led this shift by putting America’s energy strength first.’

According to the United Nations, net-zero is the global effort to cut carbon emissions to ‘a small amount of residual emissions that can be absorbed and durably stored by nature and other carbon dioxide removal measures, leaving zero in the atmosphere.’

‘As of June 2024, 107 countries, responsible for approximately 82 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, had adopted net-zero pledges either in law,’ or through other policy commitments, according to the U.N.

President Barack Obama led efforts to reach the Paris Climate Agreement on Dec. 12, 2015, a nonbinding accord in which nearly 200 nations pledged to curb greenhouse gas emissions in an effort to limit the impacts of climate change.

Trump withdrew the United States from the agreement during his first administration, while his successor, President Joe Biden, quickly rejoined and pursued policies to expand federal climate and clean energy initiatives during his four-year tenure.

After returning to office this year, Trump immediately rolled back restrictions on domestic energy production and began reversing U.S. participation in global climate commitments.

Trump signed an executive order ‘unleashing American energy’ on his first day back in office.

He also signed his marquee domestic policy legislation, The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, into law on July 4. It included a series of tax provisions that unwind clean energy credits from the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act and ease federal incentives for renewable energy, while prioritizing fossil fuel development. 

‘2025’s ‘tipping points’ are the product of President Trump’s energy dominance agenda and 35 years of valiant work by ‘cancelled’ climate realists who knew from the start that climate alarm was a hoax,’ Steve Milloy, senior fellow at the Energy and Environment Legal Institute and a former member of Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency transition team, said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

The report itself outlines 10 instances of shifting rhetoric from legacy media outlets and climate change activists, explaining why 2025 was the year of ‘climate hysteria’s surprising tipping point.’

In the first instance, the conservative signatories cite The New York Times reporting on ‘why global momentum on climate action is faltering, even as clean energy technology rapidly advances.’

The signatories also cited The New York Times’ reporting on the final document from the U.N. COP-30 climate conference not mentioning ‘fossil fuels.’

In another instance, the conservative energy groups referenced the resurgence of ‘climate denial’ at the annual U.N. climate talks, citing another article by the Times. 

‘When nearly 200 nations signed the 2015 Paris Agreement, acknowledging the threat of rising global temperatures and vowing action, many hoped that the era of climate denial was finally over. Ten years later it has roared back, arguably stronger than ever,’ journalists Lisa Friedman and Steven Lee Myers wrote in the article cited in the report.

More reporting from The New York Times included in the report pointed to Gov. Kathy Hochul, D-N.Y., backing away from New York’s 2019 climate law and quoting her as saying, ‘We need to govern in reality.’

The ‘tipping points’ also included Reuters’ reporting on ExxonMobil questioning the feasibility of net-zero efforts and The New York Times Magazine reporting that ‘the world has soured on climate politics.’

Additionally, the report pointed to The Washington Post’s reporting that political priorities are shifting from climate activism to energy affordability, and The Guardian reporting that a ‘dramatic slowdown in melting of Arctic sea ice surprises scientists.’

And the report cited The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board arguing that billionaire climate activist Bill Gates has reversed course on his earlier ‘doomsday’ view of climate change.

Fox News Digital reached out to Hochul and Gates for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., accused the Trump administration of orchestrating a ‘cover-up’ as the deadline for the release of documents and materials related to the late Jeffrey Epstein arrives.

Schumer on Friday blasted the Department of Justice (DOJ) following Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s admission that the administration would not be releasing all the documents in one, massive tranche.

Congress last month passed a law, later signed by President Donald Trump, that compelled the DOJ to dump all the documents, albeit with certain exceptions, including materials that reveal victims’ identities or medical files, child sex abuse materials, information that could jeopardize active investigations, images of graphic death or injury, or classified national security information.

‘This just shows the Department of Justice, Donald Trump, and [Attorney General] Pam Bondi are hellbent on hiding the truth,’ Schumer said in a statement. ‘Senate Democrats are working closely with attorneys for the victims of Jeffrey Epstein and with outside legal experts to assess what documents are being withheld and what is being covered up by Pam Bondi. We will not stop until the whole truth comes out.’

‘People want the truth and continue to demand the immediate release of all the Epstein files,’ he continued. ‘This is nothing more than a cover-up to protect Donald Trump from his ugly past.’

Earlier in the week, Schumer warned that failure to release the documents on Friday would result in legal and political ramifications for Trump and the DOJ.

His ire came after Blanche, in an interview with Fox News, said that the DOJ would be following through with releasing hundreds of thousands of documents related to Epstein, his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, known associates and entities linked to Epstein and Maxwell, internal DOJ decision-making on the Epstein case, records on destroying or tampering with documents, and all documents on his detention and death.

But, it wouldn’t be every shred of information on the late pedophile.

‘Now the most important thing that the attorney general has talked about, that [FBI Director Kash] Patel has talked about, is that we protect victims,’ Blanche said. ‘And so what we’re doing is we are looking at every single piece of paper that we are going to produce, making sure that every victim, their name, their identity, their story, to the extent it needs to be protected, is completely protected.’

‘And so I expect that we’re going to release more documents over the next couple of weeks,’ he continued. ‘So today, several hundred thousand, and then over the next couple weeks, I expect several hundred thousand more.’

More than 100 House Republicans are demanding increased oversight of Syria as the U.S. prepares to repeal longstanding sanctions against the country.

Reps. Josh Brecheen, R-Okla., and Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., are leading 134 fellow GOP lawmakers in calling for guarantees that the Syrian government will adhere to terms in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that set the stage for repealing those sanctions, while warning the U.S. needs to be prepared to reverse that if Syria falters on its progress.

‘Many Members of Congress, committed to seeking peace, prosperity, and tolerance for religious minorities in the region, worked with the Trump Administration and House leadership to secure assurances that snapback conditions regarding the repeal of Syrian sanctions would be enforced if Syria does not comply with the terms highlighted in the repeal language,’ their joint statement read. 

‘The mass murder of the Syrian Christians, Druze, Alawites, Kurds, and other religious and ethnic minorities must be a thing of the past.’

They said Congress was committed ‘to keeping a watchful eye on the new al-Sharaa Administration to ensure protections for religious and ethnic minorities in Syria.’

It comes after two members of the Iowa National Guard serving in Syria were killed in an ambush by an ISIS gunman.

Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa took power in Syria after the previous government led by Bashar al-Assad was toppled in 2024.

The new leader has sought friendlier relations with the West, even visiting the White House in November of this year.

The House GOP lawmakers said they ‘look forward’ to being invited to Damascus themselves to see that his administration ‘has created a safe environment for the religious and ethnic minorities historically persecuted in the region.’

‘We look forward to confirming that these terms have not been squandered by the Syrian government–whether by their President or by rogue military officials–and seeing for ourselves that the al-Sharaa Administration has created a safe environment for the religious and ethnic minorities historically persecuted in the region,’ they said.

‘As Members of Congress, we understand that the Syrian government’s adherence to the conditions laid out in the NDAA’s sanction repeal language is essential for lasting peace in the Middle East and Syria’s prosperity.’

President Donald Trump signed the NDAA into law on Thursday evening.

As the United Nations adopted a resolution condemning Iran for its execution spree ‘in the strongest terms,’ a leading dissident group released a report accusing Tehran of putting 2,013 Iranians to death under President Masoud Pezeshkian between Jan. 1 and Dec. 15 of this year.

TheMujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) report says this more than doubles the total of 975 executions that the United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights counted in 2024. The U.N. noted that the 2024 figure was the highest recorded since 2015. Thegroup counted a similar total of 1,001 executions in 2024.

According to MEK documents provided to Fox News Digital, a free-falling Iranian currency, nationwide protests, factional power struggles, ‘snapback’ U.N. sanctions and fractures among leaders are stoking the increase in executions. The MEK says that this year’s execution total is the highest recorded since the 1980s.

A State Department spokesperson condemned Iran’s continued abuse of human rights, telling Fox News Digital that, ‘We strongly condemn the Iranian regime’s use of execution as a tool of political repression.  For decades, the regime has subjected Iranians to torture, forced confessions, and sham trials, resulting in unlawful executions. Today, innocent civilians are being used as scapegoats for the regime’s military and economic failures.’

The spokesperson continued, ‘The Trump Administration restored the policy of maximum pressure, ending the Biden Administration’s policy of announcing fig-leaf sanctions while handing the regime billions.  Since January, we have designated dozens of people and over 180 vessels in Iran’s shadow fleet to deplete the regime’s coffers.’

Behnam Ben Taleblu, the senior director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Iran Program, said there are more steps needed to be taken by Washington. He told Fox News Digital that the U.S. has ‘been lagging behind’ other Western partners who have responded to Iranian human rights violations with sanctions and other measures, most recently Canada, which sanctioned four individuals after a protest in the Iranian city Mashhad in December.

‘The lack of practical measures to support the Iranian people is a strategic own goal,’ Taleblu said. 

Taleblu noted that Iran ‘arrested over 21,000 people’ following the 12-Day War in June, alongside a ‘political repression that is even much more expansive than ever before.’ He said that the Islamic Republic ‘understands how weak it is,’ and any efforts to appear more socially lenient, including regarding hijab laws, are an attempt to ‘retain their oligarchic political position in a post-Khamenei Iran.’

Noting the prior Trump administration’s strong stance on Iran, Taleblu says that ‘it certainly can do better much more cheaply and more cost effectively than it thinks.’ Taleblu said that one ‘simple’ messaging strategy will present itself in March during President Trump’s Nowruz address, when he can ‘give an homage to the most pro-American, the most pro-Israeli population in the heartland of the Muslim Middle East.’

‘The imperative for Washington to support Iranian protesters… stands,’ Taleblu said. ‘But that should be a constant in U.S. foreign policy, given the disposition of the Iranian street, which is almost entirely against the Iranian state. U.S. human rights policy towards Iran should not be limited to merely having social media accounts that are the stenographers for Iran’s decline into failed state status.’ 

The MEK has urged U.S. policymakers to recognize the Iranian people’s right to resist and overthrow the regime, which they claim is the only means for eliminating the country’s theocracy.

On Dec. 10, the European Parliament marked International Human Rights Day by calling for the world to take action against Iran on account of its execution campaign. Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, addressed the parliament with her concerns that Iran is attempting to crush dissent. She urged that ‘all relations with the regime must be conditioned on the halt of executions,’ with members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Ministry of Intelligence placed ‘on the terrorist list.’

Among those sentenced to death is Zahra Tabari, a 67-year-old engineer and mother who the MEK say was given her sentence after a ‘sham 10-minute trial… without her chosen legal representation.’ MEK documents say Tabari was arrested because she held a banner reading ‘Woman, Resistance, Freedom.’

The total number of executions in Iran has doubled since October. At the time, the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said that Iran was murdering up to nine prisoners each day, which they called an ‘unprecedented execution spree.’  In response, death row prisoners staged a hunger strike.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not offer comment on the report. 

Vice President JD Vance speaks Sunday at Turning Point USA’s America Fest conference. But the vice president landed a major endorsement when the annual conference, held by the increasingly influential conservative group, kicked off on Thursday.

Ericka Kirk, widow of the assassinated Turning Point co-founder Charlie Kirk, endorsed Vance in the 2028 presidential election during her speech in front of thousands of activists gathered in Phoenix, Arizona.

‘We are going to get my husband’s friend JD Vance elected for 48 in the most resounding way possible,’ in 2028, she said. ‘Forty-eight’ refers to the number of the next president.

Kirk, who took over the reins of Turning Point after her husband’s murder, also emphasized, ‘We are building the red wall.’

‘We’re going to make sure that President Trump has Congress for all four years,’ she added, as she pointed to next year’s midterm elections, when Republicans will defend their majorities in the House and Senate.

The backing of the vice president by Turning Point, which is particularly influential among younger conservatives and whose political arm has built up a powerful grassroots outreach operation, could give Vance a major boost should he decide to run for president in the 2028 election.

A longtime adviser to President Donald Trump told Fox News Digital that ‘it wasn’t a surprise to see her endorse, given that while he was still alive, Charlie couldn’t have been more explicit about supporting Vance in 2028.’

‘Last night simply reaffirmed that Turning Point’s entire political machinery will be behind him if he decides to run. It’s another big get for the vice president and a warning shot to other potential candidates,’ added the adviser, who asked to remain anonymous to speak more freely.

Vance and Charlie Kirk were close friends, and the vice president credits Kirk with his political rise.

Vance honored his late friend by flying with Kirk’s casket back to Arizona from Utah, where he was assassinated in September, aboard Air Force Two. And Vance hosted Kirk’s popular podcast as it returned following Kirk’s death.

While Vance has yet to say anything publicly on whether he’ll launch a 2028 campaign to succeed the term-limited Trump, he is considered by many on the right to be the president’s heir apparent to eventually take over the MAGA mantle.

Senate Republicans tried to advance a funding package as their last act of the year, but a last-minute block by Senate Democrats sent lawmakers home frustrated as the deadline to fund the government creeps closer.

Lawmakers have spent the last month since the government shutdown building consensus on a five-bill spending package that would go a long way toward preventing another one come Jan. 30.

The package would have funded the departments of Defense, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, Commerce, Justice, Interior, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development, which represent a massive chunk of Congress’ overall funding responsibilities.

But a deal never materialized, and the lights of the Senate chamber went out for the last time of the year as lawmakers beelined from Washington, D.C., back to their home districts. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., remained hopeful that when the Senate returned, Democrats would cross the aisle to finish the job.

‘The Democrats are indicating that they want to do them, they just didn’t want to do them today,’ Thune said. ‘So hopefully, when we get back, we’ll test that proposition, and hope that we’ll take them to face value, and hopefully we’ll get moving, and get moving quickly, because we’ve got a lot to do.’

Before the last gavel rang through the chamber, however, there was still hope that a deal could be reached.

As the clock ticked deeper into the night and the smell of jet fumes grew stronger in the Senate, top Republicans kept working the phones and trying to negotiate a path forward on the package.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, told Fox News Digital that Republicans had cleared the decks on their end after several weeks of holds on the package from fiscal hawks demanding amendment votes on earmarks, among other thorny issues.

When asked if Senate Democrats would play ball, she said, ‘I don’t know.’

‘I’m about to call one of the people,’ Collins said before ducking into her office.

When she emerged, Collins said that there was only one hold left. And that last remaining blockage appeared to be from Sens. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., and Michael Bennet, D-Colo., who were incensed by the Trump administration’s plan to break up the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo.

Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought called the facility in a post on X ‘one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country,’ and vowed a comprehensive review was underway and that any ‘vital activities such as weather research will be moved to another entity or location.’

Hickenlooper suggested that he and Bennet would lift their hold only if they received a guaranteed outcome on an amendment vote — a proposition Republicans have time and again this year for several other Democratic issues that they said they couldn’t do.

‘We need to find some Republican supporters. All we’re trying to do is just protect the budget that was already there,’ Hickenlooper said. ‘So, whatever disagreement there is between the state, the governor of Colorado, and the President of the United States, that shouldn’t affect a scientific institution. Science should be free of that kind of politics.’

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., was more blunt.

‘What the president did to Colorado is disgusting, and Republicans ought to get him to change,’ Schumer said.

Republicans opted to open the floor late following a signing ceremony at the White House for the annual, colossal defense package in order to finish the confirmation process for a tranche of President Donald Trump’s nominees.

It was a bid to buy time to keep negotiations alive in the hopes of a breakthrough. They even tacked on a handful of extra votes to keep the machine whirring, but in the end, Senate Democrats wouldn’t budge.

Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., who chairs the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations subcommittee, remained hopeful ahead of the vote and said the goal was ‘to stay until we get it finished.’

‘If we want the Senate to matter, we should figure it out,’ Britt said.

Failure to advance the package on Thursday does not guarantee another government shutdown next month, but it does tee up what will likely be a brutal January in the upper chamber.

Lawmakers are still scrambling to find a deal on expiring Obamacare subsidies, which are set to expire on Dec. 31, and they will have to contend with the funding deadline at the end of the month. And anything that can pass in the Senate has to make its way through the House and ultimately be approved by Trump.

Despite the inability to move forward with the funding package, for now, it appears that neither side wants to thrust the federal government into another shutdown.

‘I don’t think either side wants to see that happen,’ Thune said. ‘I think that’s toxic for both parties. So I’m hoping that there will be goodwill, and we’ll figure out how to fund the government.’

More than 100 House Republicans are demanding increased oversight of Syria as the U.S. prepares to repeal longstanding sanctions against the country.

Reps. Josh Brecheen, R-Okla., and Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., are leading 134 fellow GOP lawmakers in calling for guarantees that the Syrian government will adhere to terms in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that set the stage for repealing those sanctions, while warning the U.S. needs to be prepared to reverse that if Syria falters on its progress.

‘Many Members of Congress, committed to seeking peace, prosperity, and tolerance for religious minorities in the region, worked with the Trump Administration and House leadership to secure assurances that snapback conditions regarding the repeal of Syrian sanctions would be enforced if Syria does not comply with the terms highlighted in the repeal language,’ their joint statement read. 

‘The mass murder of the Syrian Christians, Druze, Alawites, Kurds, and other religious and ethnic minorities must be a thing of the past.’

They said Congress was committed ‘to keeping a watchful eye on the new al-Sharaa Administration to ensure protections for religious and ethnic minorities in Syria.’

It comes after two members of the Iowa National Guard serving in Syria were killed in an ambush by an ISIS gunman.

Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa took power in Syria after the previous government led by Bashar al-Assad was toppled in 2024.

The new leader has sought friendlier relations with the West, even visiting the White House in November of this year.

The House GOP lawmakers said they ‘look forward’ to being invited to Damascus themselves to see that his administration ‘has created a safe environment for the religious and ethnic minorities historically persecuted in the region.’

‘We look forward to confirming that these terms have not been squandered by the Syrian government–whether by their President or by rogue military officials–and seeing for ourselves that the al-Sharaa Administration has created a safe environment for the religious and ethnic minorities historically persecuted in the region,’ they said.

‘As Members of Congress, we understand that the Syrian government’s adherence to the conditions laid out in the NDAA’s sanction repeal language is essential for lasting peace in the Middle East and Syria’s prosperity.’

President Donald Trump signed the NDAA into law on Thursday evening.

A deadly insider attack that killed two U.S. service members in Syria is prompting fresh scrutiny of the Trump administration’s counter-ISIS approach and its rapid embrace of Syria’s new leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa. 

While Republican lawmakers largely urge a stronger campaign to contain ISIS, the shooting has exposed vulnerabilities inside Syria’s fledgling security institutions and raised new questions about whether the U.S. can rely on Syrian forces as the administration seeks to stabilize the country.

The incident has now become a flash point in a broader debate: whether the administration is underestimating ISIS’s resilience, overestimating the reliability of Syria’s fledgling institutions and potentially risking a withdrawal that could give the terror group room to rebound.

Syrian officials say the gunman was part of the new post-Assad security apparatus and had been flagged internally for extremist leanings. He reportedly was in the process of being reassigned when he opened fire on American personnel, killing two service members and injuring an American civilian before being shot dead.

The attack immediately raised questions about the strength of U.S.–Syrian cooperation — a partnership that hinges on Washington’s willingness to trust a government led by a man who was, until recently, a wanted terrorist himself. Trump officials have argued that al-Sharaa is essential to stabilizing Syria after Bashar al-Assad’s downfall, but critics say the weekend shooting reveals glaring cracks in that strategy.

Indiana Republican Sen. Jim Banks defended Trump’s approach, saying on Fox News that the president ‘rooted out and took out the ISIS caliphate in his first term’ and ‘is going to do that again’ in his second. But Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, pushed back sharply.

‘There’s been some discussion, the president has claimed repeatedly he defeated the caliphate, ISIS etc., and that’s not the case at all,’ Reed said on ‘Fox News Sunday.’ ‘Our intelligence agencies tell us that ISIS is still the most capable and dangerous Islamic terrorist group who have already demonstrated that their intent is to strike even within the United States.’

Reed and others argue that the ambush underscores why a U.S. presence in Syria remains necessary despite political pressure from Trump’s base to reduce deployments abroad. But some Republicans counter that the attack proves the opposite — that the mission has become strategically dubious and unacceptably dangerous.

‘The soldiers who died are obviously heroes … but the purpose of whether or not they should be there or not is a big question,’ Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press.’ 

Paul, who chairs the Homeland Security Committee, said the attack should force a reconsideration of why U.S. troops remain in the country at all. 

‘A couple hundred troops in Syria are more of a trip wire than a strategic asset. I don’t think they deter war.’

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., added that U.S. troops ‘should not be sent to foreign countries to be killed in foreign lands like Syria… Bring our troops home!!!’

The administration, however, has indicated it intends to double down. Tom Barrack, Trump’s envoy to Syria, said the killings ‘underscore the need for continued cooperation’ with al-Sharaa’s government. 

Trump himself said al-Sharaa was ‘devastated’ by the attack and vowed ‘very serious retaliation.’

But national security specialists caution that the administration may be moving too quickly to normalize ties with Syria’s new leadership. Michael Makovsky, CEO of the Jewish Institute of National Security of America (JINSA), said Washington appears reluctant to confront the fact that the shooter came from within al-Sharaa’s own security forces.

‘The administration is very invested right now in Shaara, and seems to want to minimize that the killer was from Shaara’s security forces,’ Makovsky said. 

He warned that ‘a lot of bad people’ remain embedded in the new Syrian institutions and that early cooperation should not come with premature sanctions relief. ‘His security forces have committed a lot of atrocities against minorities … I’m worried the administration is not focused on that.’

What retaliation might look like

Trump has vowed retribution for what he called ‘an ISIS attack against the U.S., and Syria, in a very dangerous part of Syria.’ But the White House has not clarified what specific steps it is considering.

The White House did not provide additional clarification on what types of retaliation the U.S. would pursue in response to the attack, and referred Fox News Digital back to Trump’s initial statement. 

However, Trump later told reporters Monday that ‘they’ll be hit hard’ when asked about the U.S. response. He also voiced support for al-Sharaa, and said he still has confidence in Syria’s new leader. 

Mona Yacoubian, director of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the administration’s response will depend on what investigators determine about the attacker’s affiliations. 

Syria’s Interior Ministry spokesman, Noureddine al-Baba, said the gunman had been scheduled to be relieved of duty Sunday after authorities identified he held ‘extremist’ views. Al-Baba told The Associated Press that the government had been forced to recruit quickly amid severe security shortages following Assad’s ouster.

The fact that the shooter, who was ultimately shot during the attack, was part of the Syrian security forces adds another layer of complexity, Yacoubian said.

If the gunman was part of a specific cell affiliated with a group like ISIS, that could prompt the Trump administration to launch strikes targeting leadership of the respective group or the group’s infrastructure, according to Yacoubian.  

Regardless, Yacoubian said that the attack raises alarms in terms of the vetting process for security forces and will prompt the Trump administration to dramatically increase their vetting and understanding of the security forces as it continues to partner with Syrian national forces.

U.S. forces in Syria currently work in tandem with both Syrian national forces and the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on efforts to counter ISIS in Syria.

The strategic crossroads

Dan Shapiro, former deputy assistant secretary of Defense for the Middle East, said Trump must resist the growing pressure — including from some in his base — to pull U.S. troops out of Syria. 

Earlier in 2025, the administration reduced its footprint in Syria. The U.S. currently has roughly 900 U.S. troops stationed in Syria — a drop from the roughly 2,000 that were deployed in Syria following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack against Israel. 

‘There will undoubtedly be some calls from his base to bring troops home from Syria. He will need to resist those calls,’ Shapiro said in an email to Fox News Digital Monday. ‘Leaving Syria when Syrian national forces are still finding their footing against ISIS and need support would almost certainly give ISIS more room to breathe. A precipitous U.S. withdrawal would also be seen as a victory for ISIS.’

Shapiro said that as the U.S. intensifies cooperation with Syrian national forces and the SDF, Syria will become increasingly dependent on U.S. intelligence to identify infiltrators or sympathizers within its ranks. 

Still, Shapiro warned that U.S. forces must remain cautious because the Syrian government’s ability to follow through remains uncertain, and so the Syrian forces must prove themselves as trustworthy — or else sanctions that the Trump administration lifted in May could return, he said.

‘Trump is both going to need and expect more from Ahmed al-Sharaa, and shorten the leash at the same time,’ Shapiro said. ‘Syria should understand that continued sanctions relief could be jeopardized unless they demonstrate clear commitment and capability to root out ISIS infiltrators.’

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Those worried about shuttering the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) were wrong, according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who touted the agency’s record in delivering support in the wake of Hurricane Melissa that ravaged the Caribbean in October. 

Although USAID historically functioned as an independent agency to deliver aid to impoverished countries and development assistance, the State Department announced in March that it would absorb remaining operations and functions in an effort to streamline operations to deliver foreign assistance amid concerns that USAID did not advance U.S. core interests. The move resulted in cuts for thousands of USAID employees. 

Critics including Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said that upending the agency would ‘lead to millions of preventable deaths,’ while a group of House Democrats wrote a letter to President Donald Trump in February as USAID cuts got underway that changes would lead to increased maternal and child mortality. 

But Rubio now claims those skeptics’ fears were unfounded. 

‘Alarmists in politics and the media forecasted that the closure of USAID would result in catastrophe. Now, nearly a year later, they’ve been proven wrong,’ Rubio said in a statement to Fox News Digital. ‘The State Department has realigned foreign assistance with the interests of the American people, streamlined disaster response capabilities, and leveraged the ingenuity of American companies to save lives.’ 

Specifically, Rubio pointed to the assistance the State Department provided in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa, which hit Jamaica as a Category 5 hurricane and was the strongest to strike Kingston since the island started tracking its storms 174 years ago.

The State Department deployed a regional disaster assistance response team (DART) and activated U.S.-based urban search and rescue (USAR) teams to support response efforts in the region as part of recovery efforts. 

Likewise, the State Department allocated roughly $1 million to go toward administering food and other resources to those in need, using predesignated supplies housed in 12 different warehouses across the region. Ultimately, the State Department coordinated with the United Nations World Food Program to distribute 5,000 family food packs to families in Jamaica. 

‘This new era of foreign assistance eliminates extreme ideological projects that previous administrations forced the American people to subsidize, cuts out the wasteful NGO industrial complex, and puts the American people first,’ Rubio said. 

Sanders’ office did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. 

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) targeted USAID in its push to eliminate wasteful spending during a review earlier in 2025. The agency attracted scrutiny for a series of funding choices, including allocating $1.5 million for a program that sought to ‘advance diversity, equity and inclusion in Serbia’s workplaces and business communities’ and a $70,000 program for a ‘DEI musical’ in Ireland.

USAID was officially closed down in July — a move that attracted criticism from Democrats and former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. 

‘Gutting USAID is a travesty, and it’s a tragedy,’ Obama said in a video that was shown to departing USAID employees, according to The Associated Press. ‘Because it’s some of the most important work happening anywhere in the world.’

Obama labeled the decision to upend USAID ‘a colossal mistake,’ and said, ‘sooner or later, leaders on both sides of the aisle will realize how much you are needed.’

Meanwhile, the State Department is undergoing its own transformation. In addition to absorbing USAID, the State Department has undergone a massive overhaul as part of the largest restructuring for the agency since the Cold War. 

Additionally, it rolled out an America First Global Health Strategy in September to deliver health aid worldwide by working directly with recipient country’s governments instead of through non-governmental organizations and other aid programs.

In December, Kenya became the first country to sign a five-year, $2.5 billion Health Cooperation Framework agreement with the U.S. in alignment with this new strategy, which also aims for recipient countries to eventually bear more responsibility for their own health expenditures. 

Fox News’ Emma Colton contributed to this report.