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Progressive groups across the country once again protested President Donald Trump on Monday. The ‘Not My Presidents Day’ or ‘No Kings Day’ protests were organized by the 50501 Movement, a coalition of activists united against Trump’s ‘executive overreach.’

From Austin, Texas, to Orlando, Florida, and Boston to Phoenix, demonstrators gathered in cities across the United States holding handmade signs, singing songs of resistance and chanting in protest. More than a thousand gathered at the Capitol Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C., this Presidents Day. 

‘On Monday, we call on organizations and activists across the nation to once again stand united,’ Sarah, a 50501 Movement and Voices of Florida organizer, said in a statement ahead of Presidents Day. ‘We will not cede ground to fascism quietly. We will fight back against Project 2025, and we will fight for the future of all of our beautiful communities.’

Protesters at the nation’s capitol on Monday carried signs calling to ‘impeach’ Elon Musk, resist the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and save our republic. Fox News Digital spoke with several protesters in Washington, D.C., about why they felt compelled to protest. Protesters said they gathered to reject Elon Musk and DOGE.

‘I’m here to protest the president, protest Elon Musk, and protest all the executive orders. He is not our president. Everything he’s done is a destruction of this country. He only cares about himself and his pockets and the pockets of his cronies. He’s not here to help any of the working Americans. Everything he’s doing is mass destruction. He is a weapon of mass destruction,’ Jennifer, a protester in Washington, D.C., said. 

Jennifer said Trump might be president, but he is not a president for the people. Mary Hart, an educator at the protest, said her immigrant and trans students have been targeted by the administration, and she wanted to be a part of the resistance. 

‘I’m an educator, and I’m scared for my immigrant students,’ Hart said. ‘I’m scared for my trans students. I’m scared for my country. I just had to show up and be part of the resistance. They’re being targeted and dehumanized by multiple people in this government. They’re coming to school scared, interrupting their learning. They’re being targeted and bullied by people who are emboldened by this administration, and it’s not right.’

Jerome Bobowski, a girl dad from Detroit, led a ‘Where is Congress?’ chant at the Washington, D.C., rally. He said he protested to protect his daughters’ rights. 

‘My kids are power women, and they have to have as many rights as my wife, who is a power woman too. We want justice. We don’t want a country without laws. That’s why they all come here. Because we have rules. We are not kings,’ Bobowski said. 

Protesters said they were afraid of losing personal liberties, but the White House told Fox News Digital that Trump is a ‘leader for all Americans.’ Responding to the ‘Not My Presidents Day’ protests, the Trump administration emphasized his ‘resounding mandate’ from the American people on Election Day and his commitment to delivering on his campaign promises. 

‘This Presidents Day, we honor the leadership of President Trump. He received a resounding mandate from the American people and swiftly took action to deliver on his promises of restoring common sense policies, strengthening the economy and re-establishing America’s dominance on the world stage. President Trump is a leader for all Americans, and he will continue to prioritize America’s interests in every decision,’ principal deputy press secretary Harrison Fields said. 

The 50501 Movement, which means 50 protests in 50 states on one day, began with a Reddit post, Sarah, who is a national core member of 50501, explained. From there, #buildtheresistance and #50501 gained traction on social media. On Feb. 5, they mobilized over 20,000 people across the country to protest Trump’s policies and Project 2025. 

‘All of this happened very organically and very fast,’ Sarah told Fox News Digital. ‘I think that people didn’t know where to put their feelings. They didn’t know how to move. I think that they were just shell shocked, and when that Reddit post happened, it gave people the power to go make their voices heard.’

The 50501 Movement is taking a decentralized approach, allowing individual groups and cities across the country to articulate their own mission. Sarah is also the executive director of Voices of Florida, which emphasizes reproductive rights, immigrant rights and queer rights. 

‘It goes down to what the states and the smaller groups want. We don’t tell people what their demands should be. To sum it up in a broad way, it’s to push back against Project 2025 and give the power back to the people,’ Sarah added. 

The 50501 is not affiliated with a political party, and there is no clear leader of the organization. At the protest in Washington, D.C., the organizers preached peace and emphasized civil disobedience was not welcome.


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The Trump administration’s quest to tame the sprawling federal bureaucratic leviathan is slated to face a key hurdle on Monday, as Judge Tanya Chutkan is expected to rule after more than a dozen states sought a temporary restraining order, accusing Elon Musk of ‘unconstitutional’ actions. 

Musk, who is spearheading the effort to identify government components that can be eliminated or slimmed down, has been widely hailed by the political right.

But he has been scrutinized and criticized by many on the political left as they raise alarms about DOGE probes.

While Musk is leading the charge, he is doing so with President Donald Trump’s blessing, and the commander in chief is standing firmly behind the push to root out government waste.

‘DOGE: BILLIONS OF DOLLARS OF WASTE, FRAUD, AND ABUSE BEING FOUND. CAMPAIGN PROMISE. IMPORTANT FOR AMERICA!!!’ he declared in a Truth Social post last week.

In a post late Sunday night, Musk indicated that a Social Security database lists scads of people as 100 or older ‘with the death field set to FALSE!’

‘Maybe Twilight is real and there are a lot of vampires collecting Social Security,’ he quipped. 

Musk shared a chart that indicated there were millions of individuals listed between the ages of 100 and 159, as well as some listed with ages even higher than that.

A Social Security Administration Office of the Inspector General Report issued in 2023 noted, ‘at the time of our review, although the Census Bureau estimated approximately 86,000 individuals residing in the United States were age 100 or older, SSA’s Numident included approximately 18.9 million numberholders who were born in 1920 or earlier but had no death information on their Numident record. Death information missing from the Numident and the DMF hampers both SSA and Government-wide efforts to prevent and detect fraud and misuse.’

‘Our audit revealed that the Numident includes approximately 18.8 million more ‘living’ numberholders age 100 or older than the U.S. Census Bureau estimates are alive and residing in the United States,’ the report noted.

‘Agency officials noted that, as of March 2023, SSA had issued approximately 531 million unique SSNs, and the 18.9 million records represent approximately 3.6 percent of all Numident records. Officials also noted that almost none of the 18.9 million numberholders currently receive SSA payments,’ the report stated. ‘At the time of our review, approximately 44,000 of the 18.9 million numberholders were receiving SSA payments,’ a footnote added.

The audit was conducted from September 2021 to May 2023, an appendix on the report indicated.

Karoline Leavitt: Musk is best to

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., declared in a post on X that while he wants to increase government efficiency and save billions of taxpayer dollars, ‘Rummaging through your personal s— is *not* that.’

‘A party of chaos loses – always,’ he added in the Monday tweet.

But Musk, a billionaire business magnate, fired back.

‘Bruh, if I wanted to rummage through random personal s—, I could have done that at PAYPAL. Hello???’ Musk declared. ‘Having tens of millions of people marked in Social Security as ‘ALIVE’ when they are definitely dead is a HUGE problem. Obviously. Some of these people would have been alive before America existed as a country. Think about that for a second …’

Their exchange continued, as Fetterman responded.

‘Elon, the DOGE mission resonated in PA; I came at it with common sense and an open-mind,’ Fetterman replied. ‘For many, it’s causing chaos and confusion – which IMO, doesn’t help DOGE. PA voters want their personal info secured and taxes spent wisely. Safe to assume both are priorities?’

‘I love the people,’ Musk responded. ‘We just want to fix the waste and fraud that is bankrupting the country. The scrutiny on me is extreme, so it’s not like I could ‘get away’ with something, nor do I have any incentive to do so.’

DOGE has recovered billions in ‘wrongful spending,’ says Sean Hannity

An interview featuring Trump and Musk is slated to air Tuesday night on Fox News Channel’s ‘Hannity.’


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As someone who fought in the bureaucratic trench wars of the first Trump administration, I was a surprised as anyone by the stunning rapidity of DOGE leader Elon Musk’s blitzkrieg into the heart of the federal bureaucracy. Within a matter of days, President Donald Trump seized control of a federal bureaucracy that he had never brought fully under control during his first term.   

A slower, more deliberate approach could have averted lawsuits and reduced collateral damage to the parts of the bureaucracy worth keeping. Yet the experiences of the first Trump administration gave Trump and DOGE good reason to believe that such an approach would bog down.               

One of the chief lessons Trump learned from his first administration was that senior career bureaucrats, left to their own devices, were willing and able to sabotage him. The most disturbing insubordination was the Crossfire Hurricane scandal and the ensuing Mueller probe or investigation into Russian collusion, the crimes of which would today be considered comparable to Watergate if the mainstream media gave them due attention.   

Prior to Trump’s election in 2016, senior FBI official Peter Strzok and FBI Director James Comey authorized spying on Trump campaign officials, some of which they justified through inaccurate FISA applications and bogus information in the Steele dossier.   

Once Trump was elected, FBI bureaucrats like Kevin Clinesmith and Brian Auten and Justice Department lawyers like Bruce Ohr and Dana Boente kept the espionage going through additional acts of duplicity.  

The weaponization of the government against Trump and his supporters extended into federal agencies. The Defense Department abused the security clearance system to oust Adam Lovinger after he identified the misuse of government funds to entrap Trump associates.   

At USAID, career bureaucrats employed similar tactics against me because I had reported several of them for corruption. The agency’s security director, ethics attorney and inspector general — the people who were supposed to safeguard ethics — took part in the moral turpitude.  

During his first term, Trump also learned that federal bureaucrats were intent on slow rolling or completely obstructing his policies. Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, surreptitiously orchestrated a March 2020 report dismissing the Wuhan lab leak theory, which he then used to undercut White House efforts to hold the Chinese government accountable for the deadly catastrophe.  

Kerri Urbahn says Supreme Court likely to side with Trump admin on DOGE lawsuits

Career lawyers at the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights division impaired the division’s investigations and prosecutions by refusing to work on matters such as affirmative action, religious liberty and biological males in women’s sports. USAID bureaucrats deliberately concealed the agency’s humanitarian programs in Syria because they feared Trump would terminate the programs if he learned about them.  

Prior to serving in the first Trump administration and learning about Crossfire Hurricane, I would not have believed that senior career bureaucrats would systematically subvert the White House and its policies. While there might be a bad apple here or there, it seemed implausible that substantial numbers of senior officials would have both the audacity and the authority to act.  

Experience led me, along with Trump and many other Republicans, to conclude that subversion was widespread, and hence subversives needed to be removed from the federal bureaucracies henceforth. Late January, perhaps not coincidentally, USAID became the first agency where large numbers of senior bureaucrats were sidelined for resisting White House policies. 

While those unfamiliar with the nation’s past may depict the Trump offensive as a radical break with tradition, fierce resistance to bureaucracy dates back to the nation’s founding. In 1776, Americans voiced a deep suspicion of government bureaucrats and cited it as a reason for breaking from Britain. The Declaration of Independence asserted that Britain had ‘erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.’ 

Presidents of both right and left have at various times belittled the federal bureaucracy and demanded its reduction in size and power. President Andrew Jackson restricted government employment to four years because with lengthier service men were ‘apt to acquire a habit of looking with indifference upon the public interests.’ President Bill Clinton cut the federal civilian work force by 427,000 during his two terms in office. 

While the federal bureaucracy is bloated and should be shrunk, it cannot be eliminated. As the founders of this nation recognized, sinful human nature necessitates the existence of a government for certain purposes, such as enforcing the law, protecting against foreign enemies, and regulating commerce. 

And as long as we have government, we need bureaucrats. Some bureaucrats need to be retained from one administration to the next to ensure that some people know how to keep the machines running. Congress should act, however, to make the firing of underperforming or insubordinate employees much easier than it is today. 

The experience of the first Trump administration also showed that reining in the bureaucracy requires improving not only in bureaucrats but also the presidential appointees who serve in the agencies. By law, career bureaucrats are required to follow the directions of political appointees, and most of the ones I encountered did so.  

Elon Musk

Thus, political appointees who are competent, ethical and committed to the administration’s principles can steer the ship in the right direction once the subversive bureaucrats and excess baggage have been offloaded. 

One reason why bureaucrats got away with so much during Trump’s first term was that too many political appointees lacked the desire or the courage to confront them. The first Trump administration came to power without a reservoir of such people from which to draw.  

For this reason, Trump and those around him spent the last several years screening individuals for these jobs. Some of his picks have provoked controversy, even among his allies, but thus far the new team appears capable of taming a bureaucracy that was never brought to heel the last time around. 


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U.S. and Russian officials held diplomatic talks in Saudi Arabia without any Ukrainian officials present on Tuesday.

The groups, led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, are seeking terms for a peace agreement in Ukraine as well as negotiating a potential meeting between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. They have proposed a framework that could involve a ceasefire, elections in Ukraine followed by the signing of a peace agreement.

State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce also confirmed that Rubio’s team agreed to ‘lay the groundwork for cooperation’ with Russia on various issues in addition to Ukraine. They also agreed to appoint ‘high-level teams’ to begin working on a path to ending the conflict in Ukraine.

Reports from multiple foreign diplomatic sources say forcing Ukraine to hold new elections could be a key part of a peace deal. Both the U.S. and Russia believe Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has a low chance of winning re-election, the sources say.

‘Putin assesses the probability of electing a puppet president as quite high and is also convinced that any candidate other than the current President of Ukraine will be more flexible and ready for negotiations and concessions,’ the diplomatic sources said in a readout of the meeting.

Zelenskyy has said his country would never accept peace terms negotiated by the U.S. and Russia without Ukrainian involvement. Trump has vowed that Ukraine will be involved in the larger process.

Trump envoy Steve Witkoff emphasized on Sunday that the ongoing meeting in Riyadh is more about ‘trust building’ than getting into the details of an actual peace agreement.

Zelenskyy urged Trump not to trust Putin in a phone call last week.

‘I said that [Putin] is a liar,’ Zelenskyy said of the call. ‘And he said, ‘I think my feeling is that he’s ready for these negotiations.’ And I said to him, ‘No, he’s a liar. He doesn’t want any peace.” 

The Ukrainian leader nevertheless said he believes Putin is a ‘little bit scared’ of Trump.

Also excluded from Tuesday’s talks are any European representatives, a notable absence given the stern rebuke of European allies delivered by Vice President JD Vance at the Munich Security Conference last week.

Some European allies are taking the cue, with U.K. Prime Minister Kier Starmer announcing that he is willing to put British troops on the ground in Ukraine to ensure its security as part of a peace deal.

‘I do not say that lightly,’ he wrote in the Daily Telegraph. ‘I feel very deeply the responsibility that comes with potentially putting British servicemen and women in harm’s way.’

‘But any role in helping to guarantee Ukraine’s security is helping to guarantee the security of our continent, and the security of this country,’ he added.


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A federal judge President Donald Trump once described as ‘the most evil person’ is now hearing a lawsuit brought by blue states to stop the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing government data. 

First named to the bench in 2013 by then-President Barack Obama, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan of the District of Columbia Court rose to notoriety in 2021, when she presided over the criminal investigation into Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Though, her role Monday centered on whether billionaire Elon Musk’s DOGE should be blocked from accessing government data or firing federal employees. 

Chutkan is a longtime legal foe of the current president – at least, if her actions from her more than 10 years on the bench are any indication.

In 2021, Chutkan rejected Trump’s claims of presidential immunity in the 2020 election interference case. The decision was later overturned by the Supreme Court, whose ruling considerably expanded the notion of immunity for U.S. presidents. 

The judge did little to remedy any strained tensions in the months that followed. Beyond boasting the harshest sentencing record for all criminal defendants that appeared before her for their roles in the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riots, Chutkan has been outspoken about her view of the day. After Trump moved to pardon and grant clemency to the more than 1,500 convicted, she said the president’s actions ‘cannot whitewash the blood, feces and terror that the mob left in its wake.’

‘And it cannot repair the jagged breach in America’s sacred tradition of peacefully transitioning power,’ she continued. 

Chutkan also denied Trump’s attempt to block the release of records requested by the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack, supplying them with some 1,800 pages of documents despite the staunch opposition from Trump’s legal counsel. Trump famously described her, in response, as the ‘most evil person.’ 

These actions and words have made her a target of Trump allies.

In 2024, Chutkan was the victim of a ‘swatting’ attack in her Washington, D.C., home, where police responded to what was later determined to be a false shooting report. 

While it seems unlikely she will side with the states to block DOGE access to federal government data, her record of opposition to Trump’s agenda is unlikely to reassure Trump and his supporters. 

During the first Trump administration, Chutkan was criticized by administration officials for many actions they saw as harmful to their policy agenda. In 2018, she temporarily halted the U.S. from blocking the abortions of illegal teenage immigrants – a ruling that was later overturned.

The following year, she ruled then-Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos had illegally delayed implementing an Obama-era special education equity rule, which required states to identify and correct for racial disparities in special education programs across the country. She ordered the administration to begin implementing the program ‘immediately,’ despite requests from Education Department officials who said they needed more time to do so.

She has also not been shy about using her position on the bench to criticize Trump’s actions. 

Following Trump’s decision to grant a mass pardon of the 1,600 criminal dependents involved in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, Chutkan reportedly had to reassure Capitol Police who were at the scene that the ‘rule of law still applies,’ as Politico reported last month.

However, she added at the time, ‘I’m not sure I can do that very convincingly these days.’


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Current Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy slammed former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in a post on X, accusing the Biden-era official of ‘mismanagement.’

He leveled the criticism when responding to a post in which Buttigieg wrote, ‘The flying public needs answers. How many FAA personnel were just fired? What positions? And why?’ 

Duffy responded, blasting Buttigieg.

‘Mayor Pete failed for four years to address the air traffic controller shortage and upgrade our outdated, World War II-era air traffic control system. In less than four weeks, we have already begun the process and are engaging the smartest minds in the entire world,’ Duffy declared.

Prior to serving in the Biden administration, Buttigieg served as the mayor of South Bend, Indiana.

‘Here’s the truth: the FAA alone has a staggering 45,000 employees. Less than 400 were let go, and they were all probationary, meaning they had been hired less than a year ago. Zero air traffic controllers and critical safety personnel were let go,’ Duffy continued.

He accused Buttigieg of utilizing the Department of Transportation ‘as a slush fund for the green new scam and environmental justice nonsense,’ and claimed ‘that over 90% of the workforce under his leadership were working from home – including him. The building was empty!’

Trump blasts Buttigieg after DC aircraft collision: ‘He’s a disaster’

‘When we finally get a full accounting of his mismanagement, I look forward to hearing from him,’ he declared.

Buttigieg fired back, ‘At least one of the claims here (concerning telework rates) is demonstrably false, so forgive us for seeking more specifics on the rest. Is the Secretary claiming, and will he show, that none of the hundreds of FAA personnel he just fired were important to safety?’

In a post on Sunday, Duffy had indicated that individuals from SpaceX were slated to visit the Air Traffic Control System Command Center on Monday.

‘The safety of air travel is a non-partisan matter. SpaceX engineers will help make air travel safer,’ Elon Musk replied.


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Former Vice President Mike Pence is positioning himself as a ‘constructive force for the conservative agenda’ during President Donald Trump’s second term as one of the few Republicans willing to challenge him. 

‘Well, for me, it’s always principles first. It’s not personal,’ Pence said in an interview with the Associated Press. 

Despite publicly falling out with Trump in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, Pence said he would support the new Trump administration on issues he agreed with, but would challenge others. 

Pence’s political advocacy group, Advancing American Freedom, spent nearly $1 million on ads opposing Trump’s newly confirmed Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 

The former vice president said he and those who work for him received ‘a lot of quiet encouragement’ in opposing Kennedy. Pence described finding it necessary to speak out on finding the ‘nomination of an abortion rights supporter to be secretary of HHS to be a dramatic departure from 50 years of strong pro-life leadership at HHS under Republican administrations.’ 

Asked why Republicans might be reluctant to oppose Trump publicly, Pence said, ‘I never speculate on motives. You know, I’m not new to town. I’ve waged lonely battles before.’

‘But you know, you have to be willing to step out and lead,’ the former vice president said. ‘My hope is that when the next issue of life comes up, that people will have been encouraged, emboldened to know that they’re not alone.’







Advancing American Freedom is now lobbying against Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Trump’s pick for labor secretary, accusing her of being pro-union. While Pence’s group plans to spend the coming months pushing to increase military spending, shrink the deficit, and make permanent the Trump 2017 tax cuts, as well as trying to convince Trump to stop implementing tariffs on allies, the former vice president and those who work for him insist they won’t take on the ‘Never Trump’ mantle. 

Pence has been delivering speeches urging Trump to stand with long-standing foreign allies and lobbying members of Congress, while his aides write letters and opinion columns. Advancing American Freedom says they intend to praise the administration when they agree with it, while raising concerns when they don’t, advocating for longtime conservative principles that they believe have taken a back seat to Trump’s ‘Make America Great Again’ brand of populism. 

‘We’re calling balls and strikes here,’ Pence told the AP. ‘I think that the way we want to approach this is with integrity to principle. And I’m very encouraged. I think the Trump administration is off to a great start… I’m very pleased about the president undoing Biden’s border policies and putting back into place the policies that we had negotiated and established that secured the border.’

Pence said he believes ‘some of the prominent voices in the party have embraced a more populist thinking’ but that ‘the overwhelming majority of people that ever vote Republican think any differently than they thought during our administration when we hewed to a conservative agenda or the years before or since.’ To support his opinion, the former vice president recalled an interaction he had with a farmer at a campaign stop in Iowa in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks in Israel. 

Despite the farmer saying he agreed with ‘absolutely everything’ that Pence stumped about regarding ‘strong American support for Israel, strong American leadership in the world, continued support for Ukraine in their fight and limited government and bringing about reforms to put our fiscal house in order and right to life,’ the former vice president recalled how the farmer said he could not vote for him in 2024 and that ‘I got to be for Trump this time.’ 

‘And he goes, ‘But I’ll see you in four years. You’re going to be a great president someday,” said Pence, who briefly pursued the 2024 GOP presidential nomination. ‘I said, ‘Would you mind telling me, you know, why?’ And he said words I never forgot, which was in effect: He lamented Biden’s failed record. And I saw that he was drawn to the need for a rematch. And then he said, ‘Plus, if they can do that to a former president, they can do that to me.’ And the ‘lawfare’ stuff went into higher relief.’ 

‘So I didn’t see in this last election a Republican Party that was embracing big government or a vision to pull back from America’s commitments on the world stage or marginalizing the right to life,’ Pence told the AP. ‘I didn’t see that traveling all over the country and I still don’t see it. I think there were other factors that gave the former president a decided advantage in the election. He’d earned it. He’d won it. And then he won it in the fall. But I don’t think the party’s changed.’



Pence told the AP that he went to Trump’s inauguration last month and ‘was very moved in the outpouring of kind words and expressions of appreciation from former colleagues, including many members of the new administration who I encountered in hallways.’ When he saw Trump’s new secretary of state, Marco Rubio, Pence said he gave him a hug and ‘told him how proud I was of him.’ 

‘We had praised him from here when he was selected,’ Pence told the AP. ‘I must have seen or interacted with about half the incoming Cabinet.’

At the funeral of former President Jimmy Carter, Pence said he had a ‘very cordial exchange’ with Trump. When Trump was coming down the front row of the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., Pence recalled him saying, ‘Hi, Mike.’ Pence said he extended his hand to Trump and said, ‘Congratulations, Mr. President,’ and ‘I could see his countenance softened. And he said, ‘Thanks.’’ Pence said he also congratulated first lady Melania Trump. 

‘You know, the people that know me know it’s not personal,’ Pence told the AP. ‘I’ve long since forgiven the president for any differences that we had at the end of our administration. We still have those differences as the president still holds the view that, to my knowledge, that I had some authority that I did not have under the Constitution or laws of the country. But from my heart, I’ve prayed often for the president.’

The AP also asked Pence about the viral moment at the funeral in which his wife, former second lady Karen Pence, refused to acknowledge President-elect Trump or shake Melania Trump’s hand.

‘My wife loves her husband. And I love my wife and I have great respect for her. And so – but I’ve been really moved at how many people around the country have thanked us both for that day,’ Pence said. ‘But again, you know, I want to emphasize, we’re eyes forward here. You know, I’d always thought the president was going to come around on the position he took on Jan. 6.’ 

In his book, Pence said, he describes how he and Trump ‘actually parted on very amicable terms, very good terms,’ but in the spring, when Trump ‘returned to the rhetoric about how I could have done something that neither the Constitution nor the law would ever permit any vice president to do, then I just decided it was important to go our separate ways.’ 

‘But hope springs eternal,’ Pence said. ‘And we want to be a constructive force for the conservative agenda. I think that’s good for the administration. It’s good for the Congress. More importantly, it’s good for America.’



The Associated Press contributed to this report.


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State-level lawmakers are introducing a wave of bills aimed at advancing priorities championed by new Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his ‘Make America Healthy Again’ platform, in some cases citing the new administration’s support for these causes as the catalyst for their efforts. 

Arizona, Kansas and Utah are examples of states doing this. The move is aimed at prohibiting junk food like candy and soda from school lunches and other federally funded food assistance programs, something Kennedy has expressed support for in the past. Others have included efforts to rid these programs of ultra-processed foods, certain additives and dyes.

‘It took Bobby to get into the position that he is in now for something to happen,’ Arizona state Rep. Leo Biasiucci said during a press conference this month during which he introduced HB 2164. The bill seeks to ban several food dyes and other additives from school lunch programs in the state. ‘I can’t thank him enough for being the microphone … at the high level, to finally put a spotlight on this.’

Rep. Jordan Redman, R-Idaho, similarly touted the new administration as a reason why he thought his new bill to remove candy and soda from the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, would be successful. The bill, HB 109, would require the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare to seek a federal waiver to remove these items from SNAP. When asked by a fellow state lawmaker why he thought such a waiver to get rid of these foods would be successful, Redman cited a Trump administration that would be friendly to him.

‘I think that the chances are higher now with the new administration,’ Redman said. 

Wyoming, Kansas, Tennessee, Utah and Wyoming have introduced similar bills aimed at reforming SNAP and school lunches.

In addition to dietary-related legislation, several states have also taken steps to amend their vaccine rules. During Kennedy’s confirmation hearings on Capitol Hill, he was routinely grilled about his past skepticism towards vaccines. The new HHS secretary iterated to lawmakers at the time that he was not anti-vaccine, but rather ‘pro-safety.’

Roughly a dozen states, including Arkansas, Connecticut, Indiana, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon and Texas have introduced a variety of changes.

Some of the new bills targeting state vaccine rules include protections for immunization exemptions, efforts to bolster vaccine transparency, revised requirements related to the administration of vaccines and efforts to hold vaccine manufacturers accountable for harmful side effects. Others prohibit any future COVID-19 vaccine mandates related to education, work or travel, with some providing an exception if state legislatures are able to pass a new bill requiring vaccinations for certain public health emergencies. 

Meanwhile, bills expelling fluoride from public water systems are also being introduced at the state level, another change Kennedy has promoted in the past. 

While states like Arkansas, Hawaii, New Hampshire, North Dakota and others have taken steps to introduce legislation preventing fluoride from being added to public water systems, other states, like Kentucky and Nebraska, are considering bills that would make fluoride optional.

At the federal level, the Senate’s Make America Healthy Again Caucus, which was formed to back the policies of Kennedy’s agenda, is reportedly readying a ‘package of bills’ aimed at improving nutrition and the nation’s agriculture sector, according to Politico.

‘The MAHA Caucus is ready to get to work with Robert F. Kennedy Jr,’ the group’s official X account stated on Friday after Kennedy’s confirmation by the Senate.


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The acting head of the Social Security Administration (SSA) quit her job over the weekend after butting heads with the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), over efforts to access certain sensitive government records, according to reports.

The Washington Post reported that three people familiar with Michelle King’s departure said on Monday that she stepped down from her position after the disagreement.

In response to King’s departure, President Donald Trump reportedly appointed Leland Dudek to lead the agency as the president’s nominee to serve as commissioner of the SSA, Frank Bisignano, is vetted by federal lawmakers.

Principal Deputy Press Secretary at the White House, Harrison Fields, said they expect Bisignano to be ‘swiftly confirmed in the coming weeks.’

‘In the meantime, the agency will be led by a career Social Security anti-fraud expert as the acting commissioner,’ Fields said without naming the replacement. ‘President Trump is committed to appointing the best and most qualified individuals who are dedicated to working on behalf of the American people, not to appease the bureaucracy that has failed them for far too long.’

The three individuals who spoke to the Washington Post on the condition of anonymity, reportedly told the publication that Dudek posted positive remarks about DOGE’s efforts to seek out fraud and cut costs across federal agencies.

The SSA did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on the matter.

Musk is leading DOGE to aggressively slash government waste when it comes to federal spending under President Trump. The department was created via executive order and is a temporary organization within the White House that will spend 18 months carrying out its mission.

One of the department’s most recent targets is the SSA, which was created by the Social Security Act under President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935 and tasked with establishing a federal benefits system for older Americans.

As DOGE continues to find fraud and wasteful spending at SSA, Musk turned to X on Monday to say millions of people listed in a Social Security database are recorded as centenarians ‘with the death field set to FALSE!’

‘According to the Social Security database, these are the numbers of people in each age bucket with the death field set to FALSE! Maybe Twilight is real and there are a lot of vampires collecting Social Security,’ Musk posted, adding a couple of rolling on the floor laughing emojis.

His post features a chart indicating there are more than 20 million listed with ages 100 and higher, including more than 3.9 million in the 130-139 age range, more than 3.5 million in the 140-149 range and more than 1.3 million in the 150-159 range.

While the U.S. population count in the 2020 census was more than 331 million, the count of people ages 100 and older was more than 80,000, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

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


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The Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) discovered an identification code linking U.S. Treasury payments to a budget line item, which accounts for nearly $4.7 trillion in payments which was oftentimes left blank.

‘The Treasury Access Symbol (TAS) is an identification code linking a Treasury payment to a budget line item (standard financial process),’ DOGE wrote in a post on X. ‘In the Federal Government, the TAS field was optional for ~$4.7 Trillion in payments and was often left blank, making traceability almost impossible. As of Saturday, this is now a required field, increasing insight into where money is actually going.’

The agency thanked the U.S. Treasury for their work in identifying the optional field.

According to the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, which is under the Treasury, TAS codes are used to describe any one of the account identification codes assigned by the Treasury and is also referred to as the ‘account.’

All financial transactions made by the federal government are classified by TAS when reporting to the Treasury and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

The discovery was announced on the same day DOGE appeared to have populated the DOGE.gov Savings page, which, as of Monday evening, said the total estimated savings since the establishment of the department total about $55 billion.

The savings are a combination of ‘fraud detection/deletion, contract/lease cancellations, contract/lease renegotiations, asset sales, grant cancellations, workforce reductions, programmatic changes, and regulatory savings.’

‘We are working to upload all of this data in a digestible and fully transparent manner with clear assumptions, consistent with applicable rules and regulations,’ DOGE wrote on the site, adding that the data will be updated twice per week until eventually becoming real-time.

Musk is leading DOGE to aggressively slash government waste when it comes to federal spending under President Donald Trump.

The department was created via executive order and is a temporary organization within the White House that will spend 18 months carrying out its mission.

The group has faced criticism over its access to federal systems, including the Treasury Department’s payment system, as well as moves to cancel federal contracts and make cuts at various agencies.

Attorneys general from 14 states are suing to block DOGE from accessing federal data, arguing Musk and Trump’s administration have engaged in illegal executive overreach.

The newly formed cost-cutting agency scored a win on Friday when a federal judge in Washington declined a request to temporarily block it from accessing sensitive data from the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Fox News Digital’s Hillary Vaugh and Stephen Sorace contributed to this report.


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