: The cafeteria in a top federal department resembles a ghost town after remaining empty and closed for years under the Biden administration, Fox News Digital has learned.

‘You have federal workers showing up to protest President Trump’s plan to make government work for the people on a federal holiday, but they refuse to show up to work when they are collecting a paycheck courtesy of American taxpayers. It’s just nuts,’ a source close to the situation told Fox News Digital.

The Department of Interior (DOI) cafeteria was initially closed during the coronavirus pandemic, but the lunchroom remained shut down for several years because the Biden administration did not require federal employees to work in person.

A photo taken on Feb. 20, 2025, reveals that five years after the pandemic, the lunchroom remains empty and unmanned, which ‘shows you exactly what’s wrong with the mindset of far too many federal workers,’ the source tells Fox.

‘President Trump is keeping his promise to the American people about having a government that works hard and responsibly for the people. Under the Biden administration, there were so few people in the Interior office that the cafeteria closed!’ Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a statement. 

‘The American people elected President Trump because they want results,’ the secretary said. ‘Getting the workforce back to the office will help accelerate America’s sprint to Energy Dominance.’

President Donald Trump, in January, took aim at Biden’s policies on remote work, warning that federal employees must return to in-person work by early February or ‘be terminated.’

 Burgum is requiring that all federal employees return to the office to comply with the return to work order issued by the president.

‘It’s understandable that the cafeteria would close during the pandemic, but the pandemic has been over for years,’ the source told Fox. ‘Why did the Biden administration let everyone continue to work from home when there is real work to be done for the country?’ 

Fox News Digital also recently found that the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) headquarters in Washington, D.C., was left relatively untouched since the first Trump administration, with an official saying it felt like a ‘taxpayer-funded ‘Spirit Halloween” store.

The Trump administration has been conducting a sweep of federal departments over the past month, slashing spending, as well as making cuts to the workforce in an effort to downsize the government.

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management offered more than two million federal civilian employees buyouts in January to leave their jobs or be forced to return to work in person. 

About 75,000 federal employees have accepted Trump’s deferred resignation program and will retain all pay and benefits and be exempt from in-person work until Sept. 30.

Fox News’ Emma Colton and Diana Stancy contributed to this report.

: Democrats are planning to make Republicans in the Senate go on the record on Medicaid during Thursday evening’s ‘Vote-a-Rama’ as potential cuts to the program become a sore point in budget discussions, especially for Republicans in states that rely on it. 

Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., who just won re-election in a state that also swung for President Donald Trump, is introducing several amendments to the Senate GOP’s budget resolution, all aimed at preserving Medicaid, her office shared with Fox News Digital exclusively. 

Among her tranche of amendments will be several to protect Medicaid access and funding for senior citizens, children, people suffering from drug addiction, Americans in rural areas and for pregnant women. 

‘Americans want us to lower the cost of their health care, not rip it away from new moms, seniors in long-term care, and poor kids,’ Baldwin told Fox News Digital in an exclusive statement. ‘Republicans have claimed they would protect Medicaid – despite their budget telling us otherwise – but tonight, they will have the chance to put their money where their mouth is: will they prevent Medicaid from being cut or will they put it on the chopping block to fund their billionaire tax break?’

Her amendments will get votes after others that are teed up by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Democrats. The first amendment of the evening, per a Senate Democratic source, will be aimed at stopping Republicans from renewing the tax cuts in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), which is a priority for Trump. 

If passed, the amendment would bar ‘handouts’ to millionaires or billionaires in new tax legislation. Specifically, it would stop a reconciliation bill from providing a tax cut to people earning more than $1,000,000,000.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., recently sounded off on potential Medicaid cuts. ‘I don’t like the idea of massive Medicaid cuts. We should have no Medicare cuts of any kind,’ he said in an interview with the Huffington Post. 

Such cuts could prove unpopular in Republican states with significant Medicaid coverage, such as Louisiana, Arkansas, Kentucky and West Virginia, which each reported more than 25% of their populations covered by either Medicaid or Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) as of last year, per KFF. 

After Senate Republicans cleared a procedural vote on their budget last week, it triggered a 50-hour debate clock that will end on Thursday evening. Then, a marathon of votes, known as a ‘Vote-a-Rama’ will begin. 

Senators are able to introduce an unlimited number of amendments, which will then all get votes on the Senate floor. The process will force Republicans to take a large number of potentially uncomfortable votes teed up by their Democratic counterparts. 

Going forward with the marathon of votes appears to be a calculated risk for Senate Republicans after Trump endorsed the House GOP’s budget resolution on Truth Social over theirs. However, Vice President JD Vance gave GOP senators a green light on Wednesday to continue with their budget despite this, a source told Fox News Digital. 

Amidst a war of words between President Donald Trump and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Sen. Josh Hawley is pitching legislation that would install a special inspector general for Ukraine aid.

Hawley, R-Mo., is reintroducing legislation he sponsored along with Vice President J.D. Vance, when Vance was in the Senate, for an independent watchdog to audit the more than $174 billion that Congress has appropriated for Ukraine aid.

The Special Inspector General for Ukraine Assistance Act was voted down by the then-Democratic-controlled Senate when Hawley first introduced it in 2023. But with Republican control of both chambers of Congress and President Donald Trump’s increasing frustration over Ukraine aid, Hawley believes it now has a chance of becoming law. 

‘American taxpayers shouldn’t have to wonder where their billions in aid to Ukraine went and what they’re funding there now. They deserve an accounting of every penny Congress shipped over there,’ Hawley said in a statement. 

The watchdog would be similar to those created for Afghanistan reconstruction, known as SIGAR, and one created to investigate CARES Act fraud during the COVID-19 pandemic, known as SIGPR, and another created after the 2008 financial crisis to audit the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP). 

Under Hawley’s bill, an inspector general’s office for Ukraine would conduct oversight of aid programs run by the Department of Defense, State Department, and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). 

The legislation would siphon dollars from the Ukraine Economic Assistance Fund for the office, and the inspector general would be required to submit quarterly reports to Congress on the office’s findings. 

And as Congress hashes out a budget blueprint, Hawley has issued a warning to Senate leaders not to try to ‘slip in’ Ukraine aid. ‘We shouldn’t be giving a dime more to Ukraine. We should be auditing the billions we’ve already given them,’ he said. 

Hawley’s action comes as tensions between Trump and Zelenskyy reached a fever pitch this week after Trump called the Ukrainian leader a ‘dictator’ who ‘never should have started’ the war. 

Zelenskyy in turn said Trump is operating in a ‘​​disinformation space.’ 

This week, Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security adviser Mike Waltz sat down with their Russian counterparts and agreed to increase their diplomatic presences in each other’s nations. 

Hawley, while veering away from calling Zelenskyy a ‘dictator,’ backed up Trump’s assertion that Ukraine needed to hold elections, even in a time of war. 

‘We held elections during World War II,’ Hawley said. ‘If they’re a democracy, they should hold elections. I don’t think that’s difficult.’ 

‘[Zelenskyy] is the elected leader of the country,’ said Hawley. ‘But, you know, at a certain point you’ve got to hold elections.’

Trump has been pushing Zelenskyy to pay up for past U.S. support. Last week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent traveled to Ukraine to hand the Ukrainian president a draft deal entitling the U.S. to hundreds of billions worth of its minerals. 

National security adviser Mike Waltz said on Thursday that Ukraine needs to ‘tone it down’ and sign the mineral deal. 

‘We presented the Ukrainians really an incredible and historic opportunity to have the United States of America co-invest with Ukraine, invest in its economy, invest in its natural resources and really become a partner in Ukraine’s future in a way that’s sustainable, but also would be – I think – the best security guarantee they could ever hope for, much more than another pallet of ammunition,’ he said. 

Elon Musk is set to deliver his debut speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Thursday afternoon. 

CPAC organizers made a surprise announcement that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) chief and close President Donald Trump confidant would give a surprise address to attendees on Thursday afternoon. 

Other CPAC speakers this year include President Trump, Vice President JD Vance, immigration czar Tom Homan and many of the nation’s leading conservative politicians and influencers. At the conference’s opening ceremony, Vance addressed a packed house and touted many of the Trump administration’s accomplishments in its first full month. 

Since Trump returned to the White House, Musk has been the center of much of Democratic and media vitriol because of his role with DOGE and work gutting wasteful government programs, many of which have been rooted in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and other favorite liberal causes.

DOGE claims that it has already cut $44 billion in previously wasted taxpayer dollars. 

Two buses in a parking lot reportedly exploded in Israel Thursday night in what appears to have been a terrorist attack. No one was injured. Several other bombs were reportedly discovered on other buses, according to TPS-IL, an Israeli news agency.

Israeli officials have ordered all bus and train services halted while all vehicles are inspected for bombs following the three bus explosions. Three public buses exploded on Thursday night at around 8:30 PM as they sat at a bus depot in Bat Yam, a city located just south of Tel Aviv. 

Firefighters arrived on the scene and put out the fires. The buses were empty at the time and no one was wounded.

Two other explosive devices were found under other buses after the police and Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, asked drivers to stop buses and check for devices. 

The explosions took place just hours after Hamas released the bodies of four Israeli hostages held in Gaza. The hostages were the first eight that Israel believes are dead and to be returned during the current phase of the ceasefire.

‘We need to determine if a single suspect placed explosives on a number of buses, or if there were multiple suspects,’ Police spokesman Haim Sargrof said. 

The buses had finished their routes and were in a parking lot, said Tzvika Brot, mayor of Bat Yam. He said one of the unexploded bombs was being defused in the nearby town of Holon.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been receiving updates from his military secretary on the incidents and is expected to hold a security assessment, his office said. 

Israel has conducted multiple military offensives against Palestinian militants in the West Bank following a Jan. 19 ceasefire. 

Following the bus bombings, Defense Minister Israel Katz instructed the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to ramp up operations in the West Bank, the Times of Israel reported. 

‘In light of the severe terror attack attempts [in the Tel Aviv area] by Palestinian terror organizations against the civilian population in Israel, I instructed the IDF to increase the intensity of the counterterrorism activity in the Tulkarem refugee camp, and all the refugee camps in Judea and Samaria,’ he said in a statement where he used the West Bank’s biblical name. 

‘We will hunt down the terrorists to the bitter end and destroy the terror infrastructure in the camps used as frontline posts of the Iranian evil axis,’ he added. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

National Security Advisor Mike Waltz said Ukraine needs to ‘tone down’ its criticism of President Donald Trump and its leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy needs to ‘come back to the table’ to work out an economic deal with the U.S.

Waltz spoke on ‘Fox & Friends’ a day after Zelenskyy suggested Trump is in a ‘disinformation space’ regarding peace talks with Russia. Trump responded by calling Zelenskyy ‘A Dictator without Elections,’ writing in a Truth Social post that ‘Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left.’ 

‘Why we are getting this pushback and certainly this kind of – as the vice president said, badmouthing in the press — for all the administration has done in his first term as well and all the United States has done for Ukraine is just unacceptable. They need to tone it down and take a hard look and sign that deal,’ Waltz said about Ukraine on Thursday. 

He later told reporters at the White House Press Briefing that Zelenskyy ‘needs to come back to the table, and we’re going to continue to have discussions about where that deal is going.’

The United States has sent billions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion nearly three years ago.  

The Trump administration is now seeking to recoup the cost of aid sent to the war-torn country by gaining access to rare earth minerals like titanium, iron and uranium. 

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gave Zelenskyy a document when they met last week that reportedly proposed the United States being granted 50% ownership of Ukraine’s rare earth minerals. However, Zelenskyy declined to sign the proposed agreement, telling the Associated Press in Munich that it didn’t provide enough security guarantees for his country. 

Waltz said Thursday that ‘the president thinks this is an opportunity for Ukraine going forward’ and that ‘There can be, in my view, nothing better for Ukraine’s future and for their security than to have the United States invested in their prosperity long term.’

Zelenskyy said Thursday that he had a ‘productive meeting’ with Keith Kellogg, the U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Russia and Ukraine, in Kyiv.

‘I am grateful to the United States for all the assistance and bipartisan support for Ukraine and the Ukrainian people,’ Zelenskyy wrote on X, adding that ‘We had a detailed conversation about the battlefield situation, how to return our prisoners of war, and effective security guarantees.’

Waltz said a ‘key part’ of Kellogg’s conversation with Zelenskyy on Thursday was ‘helping President Zelensky understand this war needs to come to an end.’

He added that it isn’t in America’s interest for ‘this war to grind on forever and ever.’

‘This kind of open-ended mantra that we’ve had under the Biden administration, that’s over. And I think a lot of people are having a hard time accepting that,’ Waltz also said.

Waltz, speaking earlier on ‘Fox & Friends’ about recent comments Trump and Zelenskyy have made about each other, said ‘There is obviously a lot of frustration here.

‘Vice President Vance was very frustrated leaving [last week’s] Munich Security Conference. Our Secretary of Treasury who traveled all the way to Kyiv is also frustrated, all on top of the president, obviously, who makes his frustration well known and that is because we presented the Ukrainians really an incredible and historic opportunity to have the United States of America co-invest in Ukraine, invest in its economy, invest in its natural resources, and really become a partner in Ukraine’s future in a way that is sustainable, but also would be I think the best security guarantee they could ever hope for, much more than another pallet of ammunition.’ 

‘The president also said how much he loves the Ukrainian people,’ Waltz said Thursday. ‘He was the first to arm them back in his first term, we have done a lot for the security of Ukraine and to say that we are going to change the nature of our aid going forward, I don’t think should offend anyone.’ 

Fox News’ Ashley Carnahan contributed to this report. 

Many pro-Trump Republicans took to social media on Thursday to celebrate Republican Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell’s announcement that he would be leaving the Senate at the end of his term, with one commentator saying he has ‘done so much destruction’ to the Republican Party.

At 83 years old, McConnell has been in the Senate for 40 years. Known as a moderate conservative, he served as the leader of the Senate Republican Conference from 2007 until 2025, which makes him the longest-serving party leader in U.S. history. His seventh and final term will expire in January 2027.

McConnell has at times been very critical of President Donald Trump. He recently voted against confirming some of Trump’s top Cabinet nominees, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., earning him the ire of many in the president’s sphere. He has also taken criticism for remaining in the Senate despite his advanced age and several frightening health episodes.

Some conservatives have accused McConnell of being a ‘Republican in name only’ (RINO).

Speaking on the Senate floor Thursday morning, McConnell gave a heartfelt address in which he said: ‘Seven times my fellow Kentuckians have sent me to the Senate… Representing our commonwealth has been the honor of a lifetime. I will not seek this honor an eighth time. My current term in the Senate will be my last.’

In response to McConnell’s announcement, Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, said, ‘It’s time for new blood from the great state of Kentucky’ and that ‘exciting opportunities await’ for the Republican Party. 

‘GOOD RIDDANCE, RINO!’ reacted conservative influencer Nick Sortor. 

‘Mitch McConnell, whose birthday is today, will not be running for reelection in 2026. Good. The statement comes as McConnell has suffered multiple medical emergencies in the past few years. McConnell is 83 years old and has been a Senator in Kentucky since 1985,’ said conservative media personality Collin Rugg.

‘Thank goodness. He has done so much destruction to this party,’ he added.

Another conservative influencer, Benny Johnson, who has previously criticized McConnell as being too old to remain in the Senate, described the retiring senator’s slow speech as an ‘absolutely brutal listen.’ This prompted another political commentator, Mike Sperrazza, to suggest: ‘We still need term limits.’

However, not everyone was so critical of McConnell. New Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., took to X to say, ‘McConnell’s legacy is one of remarkable service to the Senate, the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and our nation.’

‘Over decades of tireless work, his mastery of Senate procedure, commitment to the institution, and dedication to the rule of law have shaped the course of American governance for generations to come,’ said Thune. ‘His leadership has strengthened the Senate’s role as a deliberative body and delivered historic achievements, from advancing the judiciary to championing Kentucky’s interests.’

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released guidance Wednesday to implement sex-based definitions across the federal government and partners to expand President Donald Trump’s executive order signed last month titled, ‘Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.’

HHS announced the department will also be working ‘to implement policies protecting children from chemical and surgical mutilation,’ as well as developing a policy for women’s sports.

As such, HHS also launched a new web page for the Office of Women’s Health featuring a video of former collegiate swimmer and activist Riley Gaines discussing keeping biological men out of women’s sports.

‘Thank you, President Trump and HHS for courageously defending truth, common sense and women,’ Gaines said in the video.

‘The executive order ‘Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports’ ensures the next generation of girls has a fair opportunity to compete with the safety, privacy and equal opportunity they’re entitled to,’ Gaines said. ‘The clarity and decisiveness of the Trump administration sends a strong, clear message to women and girls across the country that we matter.’

Other links on the new website include ‘Defending Women’ and ‘Protecting Children.’

A screenshot taken by Fox News Digital shows the difference between the new HHS web page on Thursday versus February 2024, under the Biden administration, when a purple ‘Know Your Rights: Reproductive Health Care’ ticker can be seen on the Office of Women’s Health homepage.

‘This administration is bringing back common sense and restoring biological truth to the federal government,’ HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a statement. ‘The prior administration’s policy of trying to engineer gender ideology into every aspect of public life is over.’

According to the guidance, ‘Sex’ refers to a person’s immutable biological classification as either male or female. ‘Female’ is defined as a person with a reproductive system designed to produce eggs, while ‘Male’ refers to a person with a reproductive system designed to produce sperm. ‘Woman’ and ‘Girl’ represent adult and minor human females, respectively, while ‘Man’ and ‘Boy’ refer to adult and minor human males. The terms ‘Mother’ and ‘Father’ denote female and male parents, respectively.

Wednesday’s announcement comes as the Trump administration has been seeking to restore ‘biological truth’ to the public sector. The topic of gender was not included in the HHS guidance.

Trump’s gender-related executive orders – which include banning biological men from women’s sports and transgender people from the military – have sparked legal challenges, with several lawsuits filed by progressive and LGBT advocacy groups arguing that the orders violate civil rights protections for transgender individuals.

The Senate on Thursday voted 51-49 to confirm Kash Patel as FBI director. 

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., voted ‘yes’ on the conservative firebrand’s confirmation, even while moderates Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Susan Collins, R-Maine, voted ‘no.’ 

A vote to invoke cloture and begin two hours of debate on the nominee passed 51 to 47 earlier Thursday. 

Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee voted earlier this month, 12 to 10, to advance Patel to the full floor for a vote. 

Still, Patel faced a rockier path to confirmation, even in the Republican-majority chamber, after Democrats on the panel used their political weight to delay Patel’s confirmation vote earlier this month. 

Top Judiciary Democrat Dick Durbin claimed on the Senate floor that Patel had been behind recent mass firings at the FBI, citing what he described as ‘highly credible’ whistleblower reports indicating Patel had personally directed the ongoing purge of FBI employees prior to his confirmation.

But that was sharply refuted by Senate Republicans, who described the allegation as a baseless and politically motivated attempt to delay Patel’s confirmation, and by a Patel aide, who described Durbin’s claim as categorically false.

This person told Fox News Digital that Patel flew home to Las Vegas after his confirmation hearing and had ‘been sitting there waiting for the process to play out.’

Patel, a vociferous opponent to the investigations into President Donald Trump and one who served at the forefront of Trump’s 2020 election fraud claims, vowed during his confirmation hearing last month that he would not engage in political retribution against agents who worked on the classified documents case against Trump and other politically sensitive matters.

But his confirmation comes at a time when the FBI’s activities, leadership, and personnel decisions are being closely scrutinized for signs of politicization or retaliation.

Thousands of FBI agents and their superiors were ordered to fill out a questionnaire detailing their roles in the Jan. 6 investigation, prompting concerns of retaliation or retribution. 

A group of FBI agents filed an emergency lawsuit this month seeking to block the public identification of any agents who worked on the Jan. 6 investigations, in an attempt to head off what they described as potentially retaliatory efforts against personnel involved. 

‘There will be no politicization at the FBI,’ Patel told lawmakers during his confirmation hearing. ‘There will be no retributive action.’

But making good on that promise could prove to be complicated. 

Trump told reporters this month that he intends to fire ‘some’ of the FBI personnel involved in the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riots, characterizing the agents’ actions as ‘corrupt,’ even as he stopped short of providing any additional details as to how he reached that conclusion.

‘We had some corrupt agents,’ Trump told reporters, adding that ‘those people are gone, or they will be gone— and it will be done quickly, and very surgically.’

The White House has not responded to questions over how it reached that conclusion, or how many personnel could be impacted, though a federal judge in D.C. agreed to consider the lawsuit.

And in another message meant to assuage senators, Patel said he didn’t find it feasible to require a warrant for intelligence agencies to surveil U.S. citizens suspected to be involved in national security matters, referring to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

‘Having a warrant requirement to go through that information in real time is just not comported with the requirement to protect American citizens,’ Patel said. ‘It’s almost impossible to make that function and serve the national, no-fail mission.’

‘Get a warrant’ had become a rallying cry of right-wing conservatives worried about the privacy of U.S. citizens, and almost derailed the reauthorization of the surveillance program entirely. Patel said the program has been misused, but he does not support making investigators go to court and plea their case before being able to wiretap any U.S. citizen. 

Patel held a number of national security roles during Trump’s first administration – chief of staff to acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller, senior advisor to the acting director of national intelligence, and National Security Council official. 

He worked as a senior aide on counterterrorism for former House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes, where he fought to declassify records he alleged would show the FBI’s application for a surveillance warrant for 2016 Trump campaign aide Carter Page was illegitimate, and served as a national security prosecutor in the Justice Department. 

In public comments, Patel has suggested he would refocus the FBI on law enforcement and away from involvement in any prosecutorial decisions. 

In a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, he suggested his top two priorities are to ‘let good cops be cops’ and transparency, which he described as ‘essential.’

‘If confirmed, I will focus on streamlining operations at headquarters while bolstering the presence of field agents across the nation,’ he wrote. ‘Collaboration with local law enforcement is crucial to fulfilling the FBI’s mission.’

Patel went on: ‘Members of Congress have hundreds of unanswered requests to the FBI. If confirmed, I will be a strong advocate for congressional oversight, ensuring that the FBI operates with the openness necessary to rebuild trust by simply replying to lawmakers.’