Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen on Monday warned about the implications of President Donald Trump’s threats to annex Greenland, saying it could be the end of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Frederiksen told Danish broadcaster TV2 in an interview that Trump’s threats about Greenland should be taken seriously.

‘But I also want to make it clear that if the U.S. chooses to attack another NATO country militarily, then everything stops. Including our NATO and thus the security that has been provided since the end of the Second World War,’ she said, according to the outlet.

President Donald Trump told reporters on Air Force One over the weekend that the U.S. needs Greenland, a Danish territory, for ‘national security.’

European and Nordic leaders pushed back against the comments, with Finnish President Alexander Stubb, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and Denmark’s Ambassador to the United States Jesper Møller Sørensen underscoring their support for Denmark’s sovereignty over Greenland and stressing that its future must be determined by Greenland and Denmark alone.

White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller doubled down on Trump’s remarks, telling CNN in an interview on Monday that Greenland ‘should be part of the United States.’

CNN anchor Jake Tapper pressed Miller about whether the Trump administration could rule out military action against the Arctic island.

‘Greenland has a population of 30,000 people,’ Miller said. ‘The real question is by what right does Denmark assert control over Greenland. What is the basis of their territorial claim? What is their basis of having Greenland as a colony of Denmark?’

‘The United States is the power of NATO. For the United States to secure the Arctic region, to protect and defend NATO and NATO interests, obviously Greenland should be part of the United States,’ he added.

Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said in a Monday statement posted on Facebook that his country is ‘not an object of superpower rhetoric.’

‘We are a people. A land. And democracy. This has to be respected. Especially by close and loyal friends,’ Nielsen wrote in part.

‘Threats, pressure and talk of annexation do not belong anywhere between friends,’ he added. ‘That’s not how you talk to a people who have repeatedly shown responsibility, stability and loyalty. This is enough.’

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s wife arrived to court in New York City wearing bandages on her face and complaining of bruises on her ribs, according to her lawyer.

Her attorney, veteran prosecutor Mark Donnelly, told the court that Cilia Flores suffered ‘significant injuries’ when U.S. forces raided the couple’s compound in Caracas on Saturday. Donnelly requested that Flores receive a full X-ray to determine whether she fractured a rib in the incident.

Flores was already wearing two bandages on her face, one on her forehead and another above her eye.

Both she and her husband pleaded not guilty to narco-terrorism and other charges in their first appearance on Monday.

Maduro faces four charges: narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.

Flores faces three charges, including cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.

Donnelly filed a motion to serve as counsel for Flores earlier Monday. He previously served 12 years at the Department of Justice, including as senior advisor to the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Texas.

‘Mark has extensive experience investigating white collar cases, having run the Southern District’s fraud division for over two years. His white collar practice included FCPA investigations, Healthcare Fraud, joint SEC matters, large scale investor fraud, and cyber security matters,’ Donnelly’s biography on the website for the Parker Sanchez & Donnelly law firm reads.

The Texas House of Representatives also enlisted Donnelly to assist in the 2023 investigation and impeachment trial for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Paxton’s impeachment case made it to the Texas Senate, but he was ultimately acquitted on all charges.

Maduro and Flores, who have been married for 12 years, were first introduced while working closely with Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chávez. At the time, Maduro described her as having a ‘fiery character,’ according to Reuters.

The pair did not marry until nearly two decades after first meeting, after Maduro was elected president in 2013.

Fox News’ Emma Bussey contributed to this report.

A deepening political realignment across Latin America came into focus over the weekend at a summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, or CELAC, and sharpened further Monday at the United Nations Security Council, where governments publicly split over the U.S. role in the capture of Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro.

At CELAC, several leftist governments attempted to push through a joint statement condemning Maduro’s detention. The effort failed after a bloc of countries consisting of Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru, Ecuador, El Salvador, Panama, the Dominican Republic, and Trinidad and Tobago blocked consensus, preventing the regional body from issuing a unified defense of the Venezuelan leader, Merco Press agency reported.

The breakdown exposed growing fractures within what has long been a left-leaning regional forum and underscored the erosion of automatic solidarity with Caracas.

Melissa Ford Maldonado, director of the Western Hemisphere Initiative at the America First Policy Institute, said the fractures reflect a broader regional reckoning with the consequences of socialist and narco-authoritarian rule.

‘We are witnessing a regional awakening across Latin America,’ Maldonado told Fox News Digital. ‘The failure of socialism, communism and narco-authoritarian rule has become impossible to ignore.’

The shift is increasingly visible at the ballot box, where voters in several countries — last month alone in Chile and Honduras — have moved away from entrenched left-wing governments and toward right-of-center leaders campaigning on themes of security, sovereignty, border control and law and order — messages that echo aspects of President Donald Trump’s political approach in the United States.

‘The developments at CELAC this weekend reflect that reality,’ Maldonado said. ‘The fact that several governments blocked a collective defense of Nicolás Maduro shows how divided the authoritarian left has become. Venezuela has become a cautionary tale.’

That division carried over into the Security Council on Monday, where Latin American and Caribbean states took sharply different positions, with some openly backing Washington and others denouncing the U.S. action as a violation of international law.

Argentina emerged as the most forceful regional supporter of the United States, praising President Donald Trump and framing Maduro’s capture as a decisive blow against organized crime.

‘The Government of the Argentine Republic values the decision and determination demonstrated by the President of the United States of America and his government, and the recent actions taken in Venezuela that resulted in the capture of dictator Nicolás Maduro, leader of the Cartel of the Suns,’ Argentina’s representative Francisco Fabián Tropepi told the council, adding the Maduro regime ‘has not only constituted a direct threat to the citizens systematic violation of human rights in the state appropriation of the country’s resources and destruction of democratic institutions, but also to the entire region by leading and exploiting its networks of drug trafficking and organized crime.’

Paraguay echoed that framing, claiming Maduro’s continued presence ‘was a threat to the region,’ adding that ‘the removal of the leader of a terrorist organization should immediately lead to the restoration of democracy and the rule of law in Venezuela, making it possible for the will of the people, expressed at the ballot box, to become the foundation for the country’s reconstruction,’ its representative Marcelo Eliseo Scappini Ricciardi said.

Other CELAC members took the opposite view, condemning the U.S. action and warning that it set a dangerous precedent.

Brazil ‘categorically and firmly’ rejected what it called armed intervention on Venezuelan territory, describing the capture of Maduro as ‘a very serious affront to the sovereignty of Venezuela and an extremely dangerous precedent for the entire international community.’ 

Mexico denounced the operation as a violation of the U.N. Charter, arguing that external efforts to impose political change historically worsen conflicts and destabilize societies. Chile also condemned what it called unilateral military action and warned against foreign interference, while Cuba and Nicaragua delivered blistering denunciations of Washington, accusing the United States of imperial aggression and calling for Maduro’s immediate release.

The split at the U.N. mirrored the breakdown at CELAC, where governments increasingly appear unwilling to speak with one voice on Venezuela, even as they stop short of endorsing U.S. military force.

According to Maldonado, ‘Governments are increasingly forced to choose between defending failed autocracies, corruption and repression or responding to their own citizens,’ she said. ‘More governments are unwilling to carry that burden.’

Maldonado described Maduro’s capture as a break with decades of U.S. restraint in the region, ‘It shows that the United States is deadly serious about defending itself and the hemisphere, about stopping the flow of drugs, dismantling cartel-state alliances and about fighting back against the influence of China, Russia and Iran in our neighborhood.’

She argued that the regional reaction, split though it is, reflects a broader ideological shift.

‘There is a clear rightward shift underway in the region, and it is a healthy one,’ Maldonado said. ‘It reflects a growing alignment around the core principles of freedom, liberty, personal responsibility, national sovereignty and prosperity.’

While critics at the U.N. warned that U.S. action risks undermining international law, supporters argue the status quo had already collapsed under the weight of Venezuela’s humanitarian and security crisis.

‘Venezuela’s collapse has taught the region what happens when the state becomes your everything,’ Maldonado said. ‘When the state controls your job, your housing, your healthcare, your education, your courts and your information, freedom becomes conditional.’

A select group of lawmakers received their first closed-door briefing on Capitol Hill on Monday following the Trump administration’s weekend military strikes in Venezuela and the capture of President Nicolás Maduro — a meeting that quickly divided along political lines.

The roughly two-hour meeting deep in the bowels of Congress featured top administration officials providing a classified briefing to congressional leaders and the chairs and ranking members of the armed services, intelligence and foreign relations committees. 

None of the Trump officials, who included Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Attorney General Pam Bondi, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Gen. Dan ‘Raizin’ Caine and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, spoke after the meeting. 

But a handful of lawmakers did, and questions still lingered about what exactly would come next for U.S. involvement in the country, if other similar operations would be carried out across the globe, and who exactly was running Venezuela.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said that there was no expectation that the U.S. would be on the ground, nor would there be any ‘direct involvement in any other way beyond just coercing the interim government to to get that going.’

‘We are not at war,’ Johnson said. ‘We do not have U.S. armed forces in Venezuela, and we are not occupying that country.’

‘This is not a regime change,’ he continued. ‘This is a demand for change of behavior by a regime. The interim government is stood up now, and we are hopeful that they will be able to correct their action.’

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Brian Mast, R-Fl., echoed Johnson, and reiterated that the operation was a ‘specific law enforcement function that took place that took a significant obstacle out of the way for the Venezuelan people to go chart a new future.’ 

He didn’t expect further military action from the Trump administration in the country, either. 

‘These things are done before breakfast,’ Mast said. ‘They don’t do protracted war operations.’

However, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., countered that the lengthy meeting ‘posed far more questions than it ever answered.’ 

One growing point of contention among lawmakers is just how directly involved the U.S. will be, given that Trump said that the U.S. would govern the country until a proper transition of power happened. 

Schumer said that the plan presented behind closed doors or the U.S. running Venezuela ‘is vague, based on wishful thinking and unsatisfying.’

‘I did not receive any assurances that we would not try to do the same thing in other countries,’ he said. ‘And in conclusion, when the United States engages in this kind of regime change and so called nation building, it always ends up hurting the United States. I left the briefing feeling that it would again.’

Schumer, along with Sens. Tim Kaine, D-Va., Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., plan to force a vote later in the week on a war powers resolution that, if passed, would require the administration to get congressional approval before taking further military action in Venezuela. 

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said that he was satisfied with the briefing and that ‘it was a very comprehensive discussion.’

Lawmakers will get another bite at the apple later in the week when Trump officials again return to Congress to provide a full briefing to lawmakers on Operation Absolute Resolve. 

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., and the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, lauded the military for a ‘brilliant execution’ of the mission, and noted that the region was better off without Maduro.

But, like Schumer, he was still searching for the next step. 

‘The question becomes, as policymakers, what happens the day after,’ Warner said. 

House Freedom Caucus leaders are drawing battle lines as lawmakers return to Capitol Hill for the second half of the 119th Congress.

The conservative group’s board of directors is sending a seven-page letter to Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., outlining proposed policy goals on a vast array of topics from American elections, to immigration, to federal spending, taking on ‘rogue’ judges, and housing affordability.

It comes ahead of a policy forum that Johnson is hosting on Tuesday to lay out the House GOP’s agenda for 2026. Republicans are expected to huddle from 9:30 am to 6 pm at the Trump Kennedy Center, where they’ll hear from committee leaders and President Donald Trump.

Trump’s remarks are expected to rally Republicans around passing their legislative goals for the year, but several people told Fox News Digital they also anticipate him focusing heavily on the U.S. government’s recent operation in Venezuela.

The first policy goal listed by the Freedom Caucus is forcing the Senate to take up the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which passed the House early last year.

They’re also calling on Congress to pass legislation limiting early voting and reforming the census to only count American citizens.

On fiscal year (FY) 2026 appropriations, conservatives are calling on the House to ‘reduce or — at bare minimum keep flat total federal discretionary spending levels’ according to the document first obtained by Fox News Digital.

The recently released $174 billion spending bill that the House is expected to vote on this week would reduce current funding levels for the agencies it covers if were to pass.

Congress has yet to release information on six of its 12 remaining spending bills, however, while lawmakers face a Jan. 30 deadline to avert a government shutdown.

The Freedom Caucus is also urging Congress to crack down on the recent fraud scandal taking over Minnesota’s social programs by eliminating ‘all programs exposed as rampant with fraud and place punitive measures on states such as Minnesota that have allowed rampant fraud.’

‘Federal prosecutors have estimated that widespread fraud in Minnesota tied to Somali day care centers, COVID-era meal programs, housing, and special needs assistance programs alone could exceed $9 billion,’ the document said. ‘These revelations are startling, but just a drop in the bucket for a federal government that’s estimated to lose between $233 and $521 billion annually to fraud, according to government watchdog agencies.’

The document called for the denaturalization and deportation of ‘anyone who has committed fraud against the American taxpayer,’ specifically naming Minnesota’s Somali community, though doing so would likely require court intervention.

Conservatives’ policy roadmap also called on Congress to ‘freeze all immigration to the U.S., except for (very) temporary tourist visas’ for a temporary amount of time in order to revamp the U.S. immigration system as a whole.

In a section called ‘Stop Rogue, Activist Judges,’ the House Freedom Caucus urged the House to move forward on impeaching U.S. federal Judge James Boasberg ‘such as Judge Deborah Boardman, for reducing the sentence of a man who plotted and took steps to kill a Supreme Court Justice due to her indefensible views about transgenderism.’

An earlier push by conservatives to impeach Boasberg failed to gain traction among the wider House GOP conference, though the chamber passed ‘The No Rogue Rulings Act’ to limit the ability of district judges like Boasberg to issue nationwide injunctions.

The policy roadmap also called to radically shift America’s global priorities by completely removing the U.S. from the United Nations and halting all funding to the international body.

‘The UN is openly hostile to the United States, yet we remain its biggest source of funding. President Trump has significantly reduced wasteful spending on dangerous UN entities like UNRWA, and now Congress should go even further by enacting legislation such as H.R. 1498, the DEFUND Act, to completely withdraw the United States from the United Nations (UN) and end all funding and participation,’ the passage read.

Another section calls for banning stock trading for members of Congress, which Johnson said he would be in favor of last year.

The push to ban stock trading has gained rare bipartisan support among both Republicans and Democrats, but no such bill has yet seen a House floor vote.

Banning Sharia Law in the U.S. is also listed as one of the group’s policy goals, an effort that’s been led by Texas-based Freedom Caucus members like Reps. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and Keith Self, R-Texas, so far this Congress.

While it was founded as a group that was frequently adversarial to Republican leaders for not being conservative enough, the House Freedom Caucus has gradually gained influence within the House GOP during the 119th Congress.

Its chairman, Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., has frequently stood alongside Johnson in his push for conservative legislative goals.

Johnson notably spoke at the group’s 10th anniversary celebration late last year. Harris and Roy also made a public show of unity alongside House GOP leaders during the recent government shutdown.

Republicans are going into this year, however, grappling with a razor-thin House majority and what’s expected to be a tough November election cycle.

Switzerland announced Monday that it has frozen assets held in the country tied to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his associates following the U.S. capture of the leader in Caracas. 

‘On 5 January 2026, the Federal Council decided to freeze any assets held in Switzerland by Nicolás Maduro and other persons associated with him with immediate effect,’ the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) said. 

The decision, which will remain in effect for four years, aims to prevent the transfer of assets amid concerns that the funds were acquired illegally through a regime long accused of widespread corruption, according to the agency. The freeze does not apply to members of the current government, and Reuters reported that the order will affect 37 people. 

Should future legal proceedings ‘reveal that the funds were illicitly acquired, Switzerland will endeavour to use them for the benefit of the Venezuelan people,’ the FDFA said.

The council added that the asset freeze builds on existing sanctions against Venezuela, first imposed in 2018 under the Embargo Act, which includes restrictions on economic resources, travel, and specific goods. 

The new measure, enacted under the Foreign Illicit Assets Act (FIAA), now targets prominent individuals who were not covered in previous Swiss sanctions and are perceived as supporting the Venezuelan regime.

According to the FDFA, the decision was not made based on Maduro’s capture nor the legitimacy of his removal but amid concerns that his home country or others could launch legal action later to recover the potentially illegally acquired assets. 

Freezing the assets now acts as a ‘precautionary measure’ meant to preserve them for potential future proceedings, according to the Swiss authorities. 

‘The reasons behind Mr Maduro’s fall from power do not play a decisive role in asset freezes under the FIAA,’ the Federal Council said in a statement. 

‘Nor does the question of whether the fall from power occurred lawfully or in violation of international law. The decisive factor is that a fall from power has occurred and that it is now possible that the country of origin will initiate legal proceedings in the future with regard to illicitly acquired assets.’

Authorities added that the government is monitoring the situation closely and is calling for the peaceful de-escalation of the ‘volatile’ situation.

‘The situation is volatile, and several scenarios are possible in the coming days and weeks,’ the FDFA said. ‘Switzerland is closely monitoring the situation in Venezuela. It has called for de-escalation, restraint and compliance with international law, including the prohibition of the use of force and the principle of respect for territorial integrity. Switzerland has also repeatedly offered its good offices to all sides in order to find a peaceful solution to the situation.’

Democratic Gov. Tim Walz announced on Monday he is scrapping his re-election campaign for another term amid a massive fraud scandal in the state, but Republican lawmakers in Minnesota are calling the move an empty one. 

‘Don’t mistake Gov. Walz’s retirement for accountability,’ Minnesota state Sen. Mark Koran said in a statement to Fox News Digital after Walz’s Monday announcement. 

‘It’s an attempt to avoid it. Republicans will keep holding ALL elected Democrats accountable for Minnesota’s fraud mess, spending every dollar of the $18 billion surplus, and raising taxes by $10 billion.’

Accountability for Walz, according to several Republican lawmakers, involves him resigning as governor, which many have called for in recent months. 

‘The Governor is taking the easy way out, but it’s not good enough,’ state Sen. Michael Holmstrom said in a statement. ‘Minnesotans deserve and demand an IMMEDIATE resignation.’

‘Governor Walz couldn’t take the FRAUD heat so he’s getting out of the kitchen, but I’m going to keep holding ALL Democrats accountable for Minnesota’s fraud mess, blowing through the entire $18 billion surplus, raising taxes by $10 billion, and making life less affordable for all Minnesotans while rejecting Republican efforts to stop fraud. I’ll keep exposing these failures and holding Democrats accountable for what they’ve done to Minnesotans.’

Walz launched his bid for a third four-year term as Minnesota governor in September, but in recent weeks has been facing a barrage of incoming political fire from President Donald Trump and Republicans, and some Democrats, over the large-scale theft in a state that has long prided itself on good governance.

More than 90 people — most from Minnesota’s large Somali community — have been charged since 2022 in what has been described as the nation’s largest COVID-era scheme. How much money has been stolen through alleged money laundering operations involving fraudulent meal and housing programs, daycare centers, and Medicaid services is still being tabulated. But the U.S. attorney in Minnesota said the scope of the fraud could exceed $1 billion and rise to as high as $9 billion.

GOP state Sen. Rich Draheim accused Walz in a statement of simply ‘passing the buck’ with his ‘retirement’ announcement while ‘blaming Republicans for his failures.’

Minnesota Republican Sen. Andrew Lang echoed the messaging from his state party in a statement concluding that ‘retirement isn’t accountability.’

‘It’s him trying to wipe his hands clean of the fraud mess. But ALL elected Democrats own this. They fought Republican efforts to stop the fraud, failed to hold Walz’s agencies accountable, and let Minnesotans’ tax dollars get siphoned off by fraudsters.’

Walz met Sunday with Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota to discuss his decision to drop his re-election bid, a source familiar confirmed to Fox News’ Alexis McAdams.

Word of their meeting comes amid speculation that Klobuchar, a former Hennepin County attorney who’s been elected and re-elected four times to the U.S. Senate, may now run to succeed Walz.

‘Make no mistake, I don’t want Tim Walz to be our governor,’ Minnesota Republican state Sen. Andrew Mathews said in a statement to Fox News Digital. ‘But rather than swapping Democrat governor candidates, I want to FIX the damage Gov. Walz has done: Blew through an $18 billion surplus, Raised taxes by $10 billion, Oversaw one of the largest fraud scandals in the country, Left Minnesota for months chasing a failed VP bid, Now decides to leave office.’

‘This isn’t accountability. It’s avoiding it.’

Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump flipped the script on Democrats’ ‘no one is above the law’ mantra after years of hearing it aimed at him, invoking the phrase after news broke Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz would not seek re-election as a sweeping fraud scandal rocks his state.

‘Governor Walz has destroyed the State of Minnesota, but others, like Governor Gavin Newscum, JB Pritzker, and Kathy Hochul, have done, in my opinion, an even more dishonest and incompetent job. NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW!’ Trump posted to Truth Social Monday afternoon. 

The message followed Walz announcing Monday that he was withdrawing his re-election effort to continue serving as governor. Walz was first elected the state’s top leader in 2018 in a political career that also included him campaigning coast-to-coast in 2024 as former Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate. 

‘As I reflected on this moment with my family and my team over the holidays, I came to the conclusion that I can’t give a political campaign my all,’ Walz wrote in a statement. ‘Every minute I spend defending my own political interests would be a minute I can’t spend defending the people of Minnesota against the criminals who prey on our generosity and the cynics who prey on our differences.’

Minnesota has come under fierce scrutiny in recent weeks as a sprawling fraud scandal that has led to dozens of arrests, mostly from the state’s large Somali community, since 2022 comes to light. Minnesota was allegedly home to a massive COVID-era scheme that allegedly involved money laundering operations related to fraudulent meal and housing programs, daycare centers and Medicaid services, according to investigators. 

The Minnesota fraud is still being tabulated, with local officials speculating it could exceed $1 billion and rise to as high as $9 billion.

Trump’s use of the phrase ‘no one is above the law’ follows years of Democrats employing the same rhetoric against him as he faced a barrage of charges and court cases in between his first and second administrations. 

‘No one is above the law,’ President Joe Biden said after Trump was found guilty on 34 counts of falsified business records in a Manhattan court in May 2024. 

Trump faced four criminal indictments, which resulted in accusations of ‘lawfare’ on the national stage as Trump maintained his innocence and slammed the cases as efforts by the Democratic Party to hurt his political chances for re-election in 2024. 

‘As I’ve said before, no one is above the law, including Donald Trump,’ then-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in 2023 after the Biden administration’s Department of Justice announced Trump had been indicted on 37 counts related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents.

Even during Trump’s first administration, Democrats championed the phrase as they combated MAGA Republicans and Trump policies. 

‘Everybody wants the president to be held accountable in the most serious way,’ House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said of Trump in 2019 amid a discussion at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, underscoring that Democrats believe ‘no one is above the law.’ ‘And everybody believes, now I’m talking on the Democratic side, that no one is above the law, especially the president of the United States.’

‘We must be clear: no one, not even the president, is above the law,’ Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said in a statement in 2019 when introducing articles of impeachment against Trump. 

Upon his victory over the Harris–Walz presidential ticket in 2024, Trump has taken a victory lap for allegedly snuffing out the weaponization of government. 

‘We have ended weaponized government, where, as an example, a sitting president is allowed to viciously prosecute his political opponent, like me. How did that work out?’ he said during his joint address to Congress in 2025. ‘Not too good. Not too good.’ 

Trump added in his Monday Truth Social post that ‘Minnesota’s Corrupt Governor will possibly leave office before his Term is up,’ and that he’s confident the fraud investigations ‘will reveal a seriously unscrupulous, and rich, group of ‘SLIMEBALLS.”

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson added in comment to Fox Digital on Monday afternoon when asked about the Truth Social post: ‘It shouldn’t take an education from the Quality Learing Center for Democrats to understand this: Tim Walz and his Somali friends have been caught ripping off hardworking Minnesota taxpayers and now they will face the consequences. President Trump is right, no one is above the law.’

Walz has taken ownership of correcting the fraud. He said his administration had been taking action to stop some suspected fraudulent payments over the summer and that his office referred some for prosecution. The governor, however, has said that multibillion figures were ‘sensationalized’ by Republicans.

‘This is on my watch, I am accountable for this and, more importantly, I am the one that will fix it,’ Walz told reporters in December. 

Fox Digital reached out to Walz’s office for a response to Trump’s Truth Social but did not immediately receive a reply. 

Fox News Digital’s Amanda Macias contributed to this report. 

A Florida Republican is arguing that Democrats’ largely negative response to the U.S. government’s operation in Venezuela is the ‘definition of Trump Derangement Syndrome.’

Rep. Mike Haridopolos, R-Fla., represents a part of Florida that includes a significant chunk of the state’s central coastline.

‘It doesn’t take much research to find speech after speech of Democrat House members and Senate members who said that this guy is a bad guy, he should be taken out of power,’ Haridopolos told Fox News Digital.

‘Sometimes in politics, you’ve just got to say to the other side, politically, ‘Hey, we’re all Americans. This is in the best interest, clearly, of the United States.’ But they’re in a position where they’re so afraid of a Democrat primary that they will say anything to avoid having the extreme left attack them.’

He pointed out that it was the previous Democratic commander-in-chief, President Joe Biden, who raised the federal government’s bounty for Maduro’s capture to $25 million.

‘What did they expect was then going to happen? You think this guy was just going to voluntarily give up? He clearly was not. He was getting into bed with the Cubans, the Russians, the Chinese, the Iranians, even Hezbollah, as I understand. I mean, this guy was trying to create a group of enemies in an oil-rich state at our footstep,’ Haridopolos said.

Democrats and Republicans have been largely divided in their responses to the strikes in Venezuela.

Lawmakers on the left have mostly criticized the president and his officials, accusing them of illegal actions that ran afoul of the U.S. Constitution. Some progressives have even said Trump could be guilty of impeachable offenses.

The majority of GOP lawmakers praised Trump’s move as a necessary law enforcement action to get rid of a hostile actor threatening both the U.S. and the region writ large.

Haridopolos is no different, pointing out that the operation was carried out with no U.S. fatalities and relatively few among Maduro supporters in Venezuela.

He said his district is home to a number of Venezuelan refugees who were elated by President Donald Trump’s decision to strike Caracas and capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

‘I have a large population of Venezuelans within my community, and they are absolutely overjoyed,’ the congressman said. ‘They were in essence kicked out of their own country or fled through fear … because they lost their ability to make a living, or they were being terrorized by the government because they were anti-Maduro.’

Following the U.S. strikes, Maduro and his wife were both taken to New York City, where they will be prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York.

Maduro pleaded not guilty during his first court appearance on Monday.

Former President Joe Biden could be pulling in a hefty, taxpayer-funded pension — stemming from his expansive career as a federal employee, according to a new report. 

The National Taxpayer Union Foundation estimates that Biden could be collecting up to a $417,000 pension — more than he was making a year as president, and more than previous presidents — as a result of collecting pensions from several retirement programs he qualifies for after starting his career in Washington in the 1970s. 

‘It’s pretty unusual, historically unusual, to have such a large pension amount,’ National Taxpayer Union Foundation President Demian Brady told the New York Post. 

The estimate comes from Biden’s long-term career in politics, meaning he has the capability to receive benefits under the Former President’s Act of 1958, and retirement benefits from the Civil Service Retirement System for his time as a senator and vice president.

The Former President’s Act of 1958 stipulates that presidential pensions are equal to the salaries Cabinet secretaries receive, which is currently set at $250,600. Additionally, Biden could be eligible for up to $166,374 for his time as a senator and vice president under the Civil Service Retirement System, Brady told the Post. 

Still, it’s unclear if Biden will actually cash in on all of those benefits. A spokesperson for Biden did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

Biden launched his career as a U.S. senator in 1972, and served as former President Barack Obama’s vice president for eight years starting in 2009. He earned $400,000 a year annually while president. 

The National Taxpayer Union Foundation did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. 

Meanwhile, efforts are underway in Congress to curb how much former presidents can rake in once they leave office. For example, Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, reintroduced the Presidential Allowance Modernization Act in 2025, whichwould cap presidential pensions at $200,000The legislation was referred to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. 

Past initiatives to rein in presidential pensions have failed. Obama ultimately vetoed a similar piece of legislation that Congress backed in 2016 just before he was set to leave the White House.