Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger took $50,000 from a Chinese businessman tied to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), according to campaign finance records. 

The donations came in two $25,000 installments in April and May from Pin Ni, president of Wanxiang America, the U.S. arm of Chinese automotive conglomerate Wanxiang Group.

The revelation comes as Spanberger, a former U.S. representative from Virginia, champions electric vehicle tax credits and mandates — policies that could directly benefit Wanxiang’s EV operations.

‘Virginians know that Abigail Spanberger has a demonstrated record of standing up for America’s national security, delivering results for Virginia families across party lines, and never backing down from keeping the American people safe,’ a spokesperson for Spanberger wrote in a statement to Fox News Digital. 

‘Her campaign will remain focused on what Virginians care about most, keeping our communities safe, driving down costs, protecting Virginia jobs, and making sure Virginia’s public schools are the very best in America,’ the spokesperson added.

While accepting the $50,000 in campaign contributions from Pin, Spanberger has continued to spotlight her national security credentials on the campaign trail.

‘At the CIA, she had one mission: protect and serve the United States of America,’ her campaign website states. ‘She worked undercover to identify threats to national security, prevent terrorist attacks, stop the spread of nuclear weapons, and track transnational criminal networks.’

Lawmakers from both parties have long raised concerns that the Chinese government exploits educational exchanges, research partnerships, and business investments in the U.S. as cover for espionage activities. These warnings have intensified in recent years amid growing scrutiny of Beijing’s influence operations on U.S. soil.

A spokesperson for the Winsome Earle-Sears campaign told Fox News that Spanberger was ‘once again cozying up to international interests.’

‘Taking $50,000 from someone with clear Chinese Communist Party ties tells us all we need to know,’ said the spokesperson. ‘You can’t claim to stand up to foreign threats while pocketing money from someone celebrated by the CCP.’

According to campaign finance records from the Federal Election Commission, Pin Ni has a long history of political donations to both Democratic and Republican candidates across the country. His contributions span multiple election cycles and include candidates at both the state and federal levels. In October 2024, Pin donated to the Republican National Committee and to New Jersey Democrat Senator Cory Booker’s ‘Purpose Pac.’

Now that the Senate has fled Washington until after Labor Day, Republicans finally have a chance to sell President Donald Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ to their constituents, but some fear that Democrats already have an advantage in the messaging war.

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said that Republicans could ‘absolutely’ do better in selling the colossal bill to combat Democrats’ ‘lies.’  

‘Well, we should have been prepared right off the bat and talked about, ‘No, we’re not talking about reforming Medicaid designed for [women, children and the elderly]. We’re looking at how we can save and preserve it and repair the damage done by the Obamacare addition to it,” he told Fox News Digital. ‘We should have been talking about that, but we didn’t.’

Since Trump signed the bill into law, and throughout the entire process to get it to his desk, Democrats have largely been unified in their attacks against the bill, rebranding it as Republicans’ ‘big, ugly betrayal,’ and targeting cuts to Medicaid, food assistance and a litany of other policies.

‘It’s a very unpopular bill, so if I were them, I would probably go out and start trying to spin,’ Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., told Fox News Digital.

Messaging against the bill has become routine in Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s floor speeches, where he often targets the cuts to Medicaid touted by the GOP as reforms to a broken system.

‘The more Americans learn about the Republicans’ bill, the more they are realizing that Donald Trump and Republicans sold them a raw deal,’ the New York Democrat said in a floor speech last week. ‘The Republicans’ ‘big, ugly betrayal’ is one of the most devastating bills for Americans’ healthcare that we’ve ever seen.’

Polling of the bill’s favorability among Americans is also working against Republicans. A Fox News poll conducted in June after the House GOP passed the legislation found that 59% of respondents opposed the bill.

Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., charged that ‘90% of the media is lying’ about the bill, and countered that Republicans were actually increasing Medicaid spending faster than the rate of inflation ‘to the tune of $200 billion a year when it’s all said.’

‘This is not the first message like this that we’ve struggled to get the truth through,’ he told Fox News Digital.

‘Republicans need to lean into it,’ he continued. ‘We worked really hard, and we’re going to save and preserve Medicaid for those who need it the most. And we need to be sharing that.’

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., contended that Republicans shouldn’t be shy about the work they put into the bill.

Hawley, shortly after the bill passed early last month, held an event in his home state pushing the bill. He, alongside former Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., lauded the bill’s inclusion of his Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, which renewed and expanded compensation funding for people exposed to nuclear waste.

When asked if Republicans had gotten off to a slow start on selling the bill, he said that too much time had been devoted to talking ‘about Medicaid, for my own taste.’

‘It’s less of that,’ he said. ‘Talk about the tax cuts in this bill for working people, you know. I mean, that’s what people want. I mean, I was asked when I went home. I was asked immediately by people, ‘When are those no taxes on tips? When does that start?’ So, I mean, people are tracking it, but they’re tracking what’s for them.’

And Sen. Tommy Tubberville, R-Ala., charged that Democrats had ‘zero credibility’ when it came to bashing the GOP for cuts and reforms.

‘We got a lot of time,’ he told Fox News Digital. ‘There will be a lot of water underneath the bridge. You won’t hear about the ‘big, beautiful bill’ here in another year because there’s going to be a couple more big, beautiful bills.’

Vice President JD Vance is hosting senior Trump administration officials at his residence in Washington, D.C. for dinner on Wednesday evening to discuss, among other things, how the administration should handle the ongoing Jeffrey Epstein fallout and move forward, Fox News has learned.

Vance invited U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche to dinner at the sprawling, 12-acre vice-presidential residence in Northwest Washington. White House chief of staff Susie Wiles is also expected to be in attendance, according to sources familiar. 

News of the dinner was first reported by CNN. It comes after weeks of unsuccessful attempts by senior Trump officials to quell mounting public pressure to release more information related to the Epstein investigation — underscoring the sticking power of the Epstein scandal, including among Trump supporters, who have been some of the leading voices demanding the release of additional information.

A spokesperson for Vance disputed the CNN report in question, which he described to Fox News as ‘pure fiction.’ 

‘There was never a supposed meeting scheduled at the vice president’s residence to discuss Epstein strategy,’ William Martin, Vance’s communications director, said in a statement. 

Two well-placed sources in the administration subsequently confirmed to Fox News that the dinner at the vice president’s residence is taking place. They said that the dinner — while not focused entirely on the Epstein fallout — will be one of the topics they plan to discuss.

The Justice Department and the White House have also struggled to coordinate their messaging on the ongoing fallout from the Epstein scandal, following the release of an unsigned July 7 memo that said they did not plan to release additional information about the investigation.

Most recently, the White House and DOJ have been at odds over whether to release an audio file and transcript from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s interview with Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell late last month, senior administration officials confirmed.

It is unclear how long the audio footage and transcripts from the interviews between Blanche’s interview with Maxwell are, but they do exist, Fox News Digital reported yesterday, and discussions remain underway today involving whether — and when — to release the transcript.

Fox News Digital reported yesterday that DOJ officials have both the audio and transcript from Blanche’s interview with Maxwell, which took place over two days at the U.S. Attorney’s office near the Federal Correctional Institution in Tallahassee, Florida, where Maxwell had been serving out a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking.

Maxwell was transferred last week without explanation to a new, minimum-security women’s federal prison camp in Texas.

Anything released by the Trump administration would almost certainly involve heavily redacting any identifying information of individuals named in the transcript in order to protect victims — something Bondi has stressed in public on multiple occasions.

News of Vance’s dinner prompted fresh concerns from family members of one Epstein victim, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who committed suicide earlier this year. 

‘We understand that Vice President JD Vance will hold a strategy session this evening at his residence with administration officials,’ Giuffre’s sibling said in a statement Wednesday shared with Fox News Digital. ‘Missing from this group is, of course, any survivor of the vicious crimes of convicted perjurer and sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein. Their voices must be heard, above all,’ they said.

‘We reiterate that Ghislaine Maxwell should have remained in a maximum security prison and does not deserve the luxuries currently afforded her.’

Pressure to release information has been unrelenting in the weeks since July 7, when the Justice Department said in an unsigned memo that it did not plan to release more information about the investigation. The Justice Department and FBI also said that investigators had not found a so-called ‘client list’ from Epstein, as had been suggested widely online, and by some Trump officials earlier this year.

Asked on Fox News in February about news that the DOJ would release ‘the list of Jeffrey Epstein’s clients,’ and when that would happen, Bondi replied, ‘It’s sitting on my desk right now to review.’ 

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt later said Bondi had been referring more broadly to all the files related to Epstein, and not a single list.

President Donald Trump lashed out at Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Wednesday, accusing the lawmaker of ‘extortion’ for holding up Trump’s nominees in the Senate.

Trump made the statement from his Truth Social account, arguing that never in U.S. history have so many of a president’s nominees been bottlenecked in the Senate. Senate Republicans had been negotiating with Schumer to speed up the nomination process this week, but the talks broke down.

‘Politically embattled Senator, Cryin’ Chuck Schumer, wants the Republicans to pay, as extortion, two billion dollars in order for the radical left Democrats to approve the hundreds of Trump appointments who have been waiting for months, and are raring to go,’ Trump wrote.

‘This has never happened before. There has never, in U.S. history, been such a delay. They are extortionists! Republicans must create legislation in order to get out of the grasp of these country-hating thugs. Move quickly!’ he added.

Lawmakers left Washington on Monday without a deal, leaving Republicans deeply frustrated with Schumer and Senate Democrats for their unprecedented filibustering of every one of Trump’s nominees. Only Secretary of State Marco Rubio received a smooth confirmation.

Schumer and the Democrats had demanded that Trump free up billions in funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and foreign aid, accounting for Trump’s claims of a $2 billion ‘extortion.’

Republicans are now discussing a rule change that would block Democrats from filibustering the nominees, allowing them to clear the Senate with just a simple majority.

‘I think that way is going to happen anyways, because of what Schumer has done. He’s forced this, and it’s ridiculous that he’s doing this,’ Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., said Tuesday. ‘And so, whatever, we’re at this point, and we’ll do, you know what they say, every action requires an equal [reaction], and that’s what we’re at right now.’

Currently, over 1,200 positions go through Senate confirmation. Senate Republicans have been able to confirm over 130 of Trump’s picks so far, but there are over 140 nominees still pending on the Senate’s calendar.

‘I think they’re desperately in need of change,’ Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters on Tuesday. ‘I think that the last six months have demonstrated that this process, nominations, is broken. And so I expect there will be some good robust conversations about that.’

Fox News’ Alex Miller contributed to this report

Vice President JD Vance is hosting senior Trump administration officials at his residence in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday evening for a strategy dinner to discuss how the administration should handle the ongoing Jeffrey Epstein fallout and move forward, Fox News has learned.

Vance has invited U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche to dinner at the sprawling, 12-acre vice-presidential residence in Northwest Washington. White House chief of staff Susie Wiles is also expected to be in attendance, according to sources familiar. 

News of the dinner was first reported by CNN. It comes after weeks of unsuccessful attempts by senior Trump officials to quell mounting public pressure to release more information related to the Epstein investigation — underscoring the sticking power of the Epstein scandal despite a fast-moving news cycle. Trump supporters have been among the leading voices demanding the release of additional information.

The Justice Department and the White House have also struggled to coordinate their messaging on the ongoing fallout from the Epstein scandal, following the release of an unsigned July 7 memo that said they did not plan to release additional information about the investigation.

Most recently, the White House and DOJ have been at odds over whether to release an audio file and transcript from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s interview with Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell late last month, senior administration officials confirmed.

It is unclear how long the audio footage and transcripts from the interviews between Blanche’s interview with Maxwell are, but they do exist, Fox News Digital reported yesterday, and discussions remain underway today involving whether — and when — to release the transcript.

Fox News Digital reported yesterday that DOJ officials have both the audio and transcript from Blanche’s interview with Maxwell, which took place over two days at the U.S. Attorney’s office near the Federal Correctional Institution in Tallahassee, Florida, where Maxwell had been serving out a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking.

Maxwell was transferred last week without explanation to a new, minimum-security women’s federal prison camp in Texas.

Anything released by the Trump administration would almost certainly involve heavily redacting any identifying information of individuals named in the transcript in order to protect victims — something Bondi has stressed in public on multiple occasions.

News of Vance’s dinner prompted fresh concerns from family members of one Epstein victim, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who committed suicide earlier this year. 

‘We understand that Vice President JD Vance will hold a strategy session this evening at his residence with administration officials,’ Giuffre’s sibling said in a statement Wednesday shared with Fox News Digital. ‘Missing from this group is, of course, any survivor of the vicious crimes of convicted perjurer and sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein. Their voices must be heard, above all,’ they said.

‘We reiterate that Ghislaine Maxwell should have remained in a maximum security prison and does not deserve the luxuries currently afforded her.’

Pressure to release information has been unrelenting in the weeks since July 7, when the Justice Department said in an unsigned memo that it did not plan to release more information about the investigation. The Justice Department and FBI also said that investigators had not found a so-called ‘client list’ from Epstein, as had been suggested widely online, and by some Trump officials earlier this year.

Asked on Fox News in February about news that the DOJ would release ‘the list of Jeffrey Epstein’s clients,’ and when that would happen, Bondi replied, ‘It’s sitting on my desk right now to review.’ 

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt later said Bondi had been referring more broadly to all the files related to Epstein, and not a single list.

The Russian and Chinese militaries practiced destroying an ‘enemy’ submarine during joint naval drills Wednesday, just days after President Donald Trump moved a pair of nuclear submarines toward Russia, a report said. 

The drills involved Il-38 planes from Russia’s Pacific Fleet and Chinese Y-8 anti-submarine aircraft, according to Reuters, and came after Trump announced last Friday that he ‘ordered two Nuclear Submarines to be positioned in the appropriate regions’ following ‘highly provocative statements’ made by former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. 

‘As a result of effective joint actions, the ‘enemy’ submarine was promptly detected and mock-destroyed,’ Russia’s defense ministry said Wednesday following the naval exercises in the Sea of Japan, Reuters reported. ‘After practicing anti-submarine tasks, the crews of the Russian and Chinese ships thanked each other for their fruitful work.’ 

The White House and State Department did not immediately respond Wednesday to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. 

White House envoy Steve Witkoff is preparing for a trip to Russia on Wednesday, two days ahead of Trump’s Aug. 8 deadline for Moscow to enter into a ceasefire with Ukraine or face stiff sanctions. 

On Sunday, Trump told reporters that nuclear submarines he ordered to counter Russia are now ‘in the region.’ 

Medvedev said earlier last week that Trump’s new deadline for Russia to end the conflict with Ukraine is an additional ‘step towards war.’ 

‘Based on the highly provocative statements of the Former President of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, who is now the Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, I have ordered two Nuclear Submarines to be positioned in the appropriate regions, just in case these foolish and inflammatory statements are more than just that,’ Trump then said in a post on Truth Social on Friday. 

‘Words are very important, and can often lead to unintended consequences, I hope this will not be one of those instances,’ he added. 

Fox News’ Diana Stancey, Danielle Wallace and Caitlin McFall contributed to this report. 

The federal government is stepping into the future and embracing artificial intelligence, specifically ChatGPT, across its agencies, which proponents say will streamline productivity while solidifying President Donald Trump’s pledge to keep the U.S. in the driver’s seat of the cutting-edge technology, Fox News Digital exclusively learned.

The U.S. General Services Administration announced Wednesday that OpenAI’s ChatGPT Enterprise is now available to all federal agencies to incorporate into their workflow at a $1 per agency cost, the GSA told Fox Digital. The deal with OpenAI, the tech company behind ChatGPT, is part of GSA’s OneGov Strategy that aims to modernize ‘how the federal government purchases goods and services’ under the Trump administration. 

‘The use of this tool has been deployed and tested with responsible policy makers, with responsible legal folks,’ GSA Federal Acquisition Service Commissioner Josh Gruenbaum told Fox News Digital of integrating AI into the federal government. ‘It’s not just auto-piloting and saying, ‘go machine’ and we just respond. … It’s automation, it’s ease of processes, but it’s also thinking about … the typical waste, fraud and abuse that we’re also focused on with this administration.’

ChatGPT is a wildly popular AI chatbot that can hold conversational discussions, provide research accompanied by citations, automate routine tasks such as data entry or file processing, summarize books or lengthy files, and even assist with brainstorming project ideas or problem-solving tasks. 

‘Open AI just announced the ChatGPT has over 700 million weekly users, so the amount of commercial adoption is quite astounding,’ OpenAI’s Joseph Larson told Fox Digital Tuesday of the partnership. ‘What we didn’t want to see was a gap between the tools available for artificial intelligence to the federal workforce, a gap between what is available in … the private sector or available to the public. So with this GSA partnership, what the administration is doing, which we believe to be in line with the AI action plan, is to make ChatGPT Enterprise, which is … the most advanced AI tools available to the entire federal government will now be available to all agencies of the federal government at the nominal cost of $1 per agency.’ 

How federal agencies employ the technology will likely range from department to department, with employees offered access ‘to a new government user community and tailored introductory training resources’ as well as ‘custom training platforms and guided learning, either directly or through partner-led sessions’ to best fit their needs. 

‘One of the best ways to make sure AI works for everyone is to put it in the hands of the people serving our country,’ OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said of the partnership in a Wednesday press release. ‘We’re proud to partner with the General Services Administration, delivering on President Trump’s AI Action Plan, to make ChatGPT available across the federal government, helping public servants deliver for the American people.’

The Trump administration rolled ut its AI Action Plan in July after Trump ordered the federal government in January to develop a plan of action for artificial intelligence in order to ‘solidify our position as the global leader in AI and secure a brighter future for all Americans.’ 

The AI Action Plan includes a three-pillar approach focused on American workers, free speech and protecting U.S.-built technologies. 

‘We want to center America’s workers, and make sure they benefit from AI,’ AI and crypto czar David Sacks told the media in July of the AI plan. 

‘The second is that we believe that AI systems should be free of ideological bias and not be designed to pursue socially engineered agendas,’ Sacks said. ‘And so we have a number of proposals there on how to make sure that AI remains truth-seeking and trustworthy. And then the third principle that cuts across the pillars is that we believe we have to prevent our advanced technologies from being misused or stolen by malicious actors. And we also have to monitor for emerging and unforeseen risks from AI.’

Gruenbaum told Fox Digital that when the GSA reviewed the administration’s AI action plan, it jumped at rolling out ‘widespread adoption’ for the government to help answer Trump’s call for the U.S. to stay on top of the artificial intelligence race on the global stage. 

‘Where we see ourselves playing, obviously, is through a lot of the Federal Acquisition Service, which is the largest procurement arm in the federal government,’ he said. ‘And as we kind of examined the President’s AI action plan, heard the call to action of, ‘Hey, this is a race, and we are going to win this race.’ From our perspective, all that meant, synonymously, was widespread adoption. Those were the words, quite frankly, that the OpenAI team used to us in our very first call. And their call to action was, ‘we need to get this into the hands of as many federal workers as possible.’ We at the GSA took that extremely seriously.’ 

‘Everything’s kind of leading to the place of having us poised for this AI revolution,’ he added. 

The Trump administration has notched massive wins in the artificial intelligence race, which has pitted the U.S. against China to develop the most high-tech artificial intelligence systems, including Oracle and OpenAI announcing in July that the companies will further develop the Stargate project, which is an effort to launch large data centers in the U.S. The two companies’ most recent announcement promises an additional 4.5 gigawatts of Stargate data center capacity, a move expected to create more than 100,000 jobs across operations, construction, and indirect roles such as manufacturing and local services.

The Stargate project includes a commitment from OpenAI, Oracle, SoftBank and MGX to invest $500 billion in U.S.-based artificial intelligence infrastructure throughout the next four years.

Wednesday marks the 80th anniversary of when the U.S. employed the first ever nuclear bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima, followed by the bombing of Nagasaki three days later on Aug. 9. But despite nearly a century of lessons learned, nuclear warfare still remains a significant threat.

‘This is the first time that the United States is facing down two nuclear peer adversaries – Russia and China,’ Rebeccah Heinrichs, nuclear expert and senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, told Fox News Digital.

Heinrichs explained that not only are Moscow and Beijing continuing to develop new nuclear capabilities and delivery systems, but they are increasingly collaborating with one another in direct opposition to the West, and more pointedly, the U.S.

‘It’s a much more complex nuclear threat environment than what the United States even had to contend with during the Cold War, where we just had one nuclear peer adversary in the Soviet Union,’ she said. ‘In that regard, it’s a serious problem, especially when both China and Russia are investing in nuclear capabilities and at the same time have revanchist goals.’

Despite the known immense devastation that would accompany an atomic war between two nuclear nations, concern has been growing that the threat of nuclear war is on the rise. 

The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – which collectively killed some 200,000 people, not including the dozens of thousands who later died from radiation poisoning and cancer – have been attributed with bringing an end to World War II.

But the bombs did more than end the deadliest war in human history – they forever changed military doctrine, sparked a nuclear arms race and cemented the concept of deterrence through the theory of mutually assured destruction.

Earlier this year the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists moved forward the ‘Doomsday Clock’ by one second – pushing it closer to ‘midnight,’ or atomic meltdown, than ever before.

In January, the board of scientists and security officials in charge of the 78-year-old clock, which is used to measure the threat level of nuclear warfare, said that moving the clock to 89 seconds to midnight ‘signals that the world is on a course of unprecedented risk, and that continuing on the current path is a form of madness.’

Despite the escalated nuclear threats coming out of North Korea, and international concern over the Iranian nuclear program, the threat level largely came down to the three biggest players in the nuclear arena: Russia, the U.S. and China.

The increased threat level was attributed to Russia’s refusal to comply with international nuclear treaties amid its continuously escalating war in Ukraine and its hostile opposition to NATO nations, as well as China’s insistence on expanding its nuclear arsenal.

But the Bulletin, which was founded by scientists on the Manhattan Project in 1945 to inform the public of the dangers of atomic warfare, also said the U.S. has a role in the increased nuclear threat level.

‘The U.S. has abdicated its role as a voice of caution. It seems inclined to expand its nuclear arsenal and adopt a posture that reinforces the belief that ‘limited’ use of nuclear weapons can be managed,’ the Bulletin said. ‘Such misplaced confidence could have us stumble into a nuclear war.’

But Heinrichs countered the ‘alarmist’ message and argued that deterrence remains a very real protectant against nuclear warfare, even as Russia increasingly threatens Western nations with atomic use.

‘I do think that it’s a serious threat. I don’t think it’s inevitable that we’re sort of staring down nuclear Armageddon,’ she said. 

Heinrichs argued the chief threat is not the number of nuclear warheads a nation possesses, but in how they threaten to employ their capabilities.

‘I think that whenever there is a threat of nuclear use, it’s because adversaries, authoritarian countries, in particular Russia, is threatening to use nuclear weapons to invade another country. And that’s where the greatest risk of deterrence failure is,’ she said. ‘It’s not because of the sheer number of nuclear weapons.’

Heinrichs said Russia is lowering the nuclear threshold by routinely threatening to employ nuclear weapons in a move to coerce Western nations to capitulate to their demands, as in the case of capturing territory in Ukraine and attempting to deny it NATO access.

Instead, she argued that the U.S. and its allies need to improve their deterrence by not only staying on top of their capabilities but expanding their nuclear reach in regions like the Indo-Pacific.

‘The answer is not to be so afraid of it or alarmed that you capitulate, because you’re only going to beget more nuclear coercion if you do that,’ she said. ‘The answer is to prudently, carefully communicate to the Russians they are not going to succeed through nuclear coercion, that the United States also has credible response options.

‘We also have nuclear weapons, and we have credible and proportional responses, and so they shouldn’t go down that path,’ Heinrichs said. ‘That’s how we maintain the nuclear peace. That’s how we deter conflict. And that’s how we ensure that a nuclear weapon is not used.’

Lockheed Martin is designing a space-based missile interceptor and aims to test the technology for potential integration into President Donald Trump’s ‘Golden Dome’ defense shield within the next three years.

The defense contractor revealed this week that it hopes to test a satellite defensive weapon capable of destroying hypersonic missiles by 2028.

If successful, this would mark the first time in history the United States has deployed interceptors in space to destroy enemy missiles before they reach the homeland. Lockheed is still weighing different technologies, ranging from lasers to kinetic satellites that could maneuver and strike high-speed targets in flight.

‘We have missile warning and tracking satellites made by Lockheed Martin in orbit today that provide timely detection and warning of missile threats,’ said Amanda Pound, mission strategy and advanced capabilities director at Lockheed Martin Space, told Fox News Digital.

‘We are committed to making space-based interceptors for missile defense a reality, leveraging our decades of experience, investments, and industry partnerships, to be ready for on orbit testing in 2028.’

Lockheed’s space interceptor project directly supports Trump’s ‘Golden Dome for America’ initiative, first unveiled in May 2025. The ambitious missile defense concept calls for a global constellation of satellites armed with sensors and interceptors, designed to detect, track and eliminate advanced missile threats – including hypersonic and ballistic weapons – before they can strike U.S. soil.

The idea echoes President Ronald Reagan’s 1983 Strategic Defense Initiative, often dubbed ‘Star Wars,’ which was dismissed at the time as science fiction. But today, the technologies once seen as far-fetched are rapidly advancing, according to defense leaders.

Gen. Michael Guetlein, appointed by the Trump administration to head Golden Dome, emphasized that key components of the system already exist, expressing confidence in achieving a test-ready platform by 2028. Still, it’s no easy feat.

‘Intercepting a missile in orbit is a pretty wicked hard problem physics‑wise,’ said Jeff Schrader, vice president of Lockheed’s space division. ‘But not impossible,’ he added, noting breakthroughs in maneuverability and guidance systems.

Analysts caution that to make the Golden Dome vision a reality, the U.S. may need to launch thousands of interceptors into orbit. Some have compared it to the Cold War–era ‘Brilliant Pebbles’ program, which proposed a similar space-based missile shield but was eventually shelved due to skyrocketing costs and technical hurdles.

Golden Dome is currently projected to cost $175 billion, with $25 billion already approved by Congress. But long-term estimates range anywhere from $161 billion to over $830 billion over two decades – raising questions about the program’s affordability and long-term sustainability.

Meanwhile, Lockheed is bolstering ground-based missile defense systems to complement the orbital layer. In March 2025, the company’s Aegis Combat System aboard the USS Pinckney successfully simulated the interception of hypersonic medium-range missiles during the FTX-40 exercise, codenamed Stellar Banshee.

The company is also advancing infrared seeker technology for interceptors, which would enhance the tracking and targeting of fast-moving missiles in their terminal phase.

Lockheed remains a central player in the Pentagon’s broader missile defense and hypersonic weapons development effort. It is the prime contractor for the Next Generation Interceptor (NGI), which is targeting an initial operating capability by the end of fiscal year 2028.

Simultaneously, the company is fulfilling Navy contracts for its Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) hypersonic weapons system. Sea-based deployment of CPS is expected to begin between 2027 and 2028.

President Trump has publicly stated he wants Golden Dome operational by the end of his term. But industry officials warn that supply chain limitations and the Pentagon’s slow-moving procurement system make full deployment by 2029 unlikely.

Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia asserted that she is ‘radically AMERICA FIRST,’ shaming those who are not and labeling them as ‘the enemy.’

The congresswoman said that the nation is ‘falling apart.’ 

‘I’m America First. Maybe even America only. I don’t care if you call me an isolationist. America is our home. And it’s falling apart,’ she wrote on social media.

‘When my children’s generation are buried in credit card debt, student loan debt, can’t afford rent, can’t afford car insurance, health insurance, and feel like they will never be able to afford to buy a home, Yes. I’m unapologetically and radically AMERICA FIRST. AND SHAME ON EVERYONE ELSE WHO IS NOT. As a matter of fact YOU are the problem. YOU are the enemy. As a mother, I can’t see it any other way,’ she declared.

Greene has been expressing frustration with the GOP. 

‘I don’t know if the Republican Party is leaving me, or if I’m kind of not relating to Republican Party as much anymore,’ she told the Daily Mail. 

‘I think the Republican Party has turned its back on America First and the workers and just regular Americans,’ Greene said, according to the outlet.

She has served in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2021.