Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., acknowledged on Monday that the Biden administration “screwed up” when it comes to securing the southern border while also criticizing the Trump administration for arresting mostly migrants who have no criminal record.
During an appearance on Fox News’ “Special Report,” Warner was asked if he agreed with new Virginia Rep. Abigail Spanberger’smove to end state law enforcement collaboration with ICE to capture illegal immigrants with criminal records.
Warner responded by citing records showing that 75% of the people arrested by ICE in Virginia have no criminal record, even as the federal government continues to claim it is targeting the “worst of the worst” in its efforts to carry out President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda.
“They may have come across illegally into our country, but 75% of the people to have been arrested have no further criminal record,” he said.
Sen. Mark Warner said 75% of the people arrested by ICE in Virginia have no criminal record.(Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Pressed on whether Virginia should work with ICE on the people who do have criminal records, Warner admitted the Biden administration “screwed up the border” but that targeting those with criminal records is not what is happening now under Trump.
“Let’s potentially work on those who have criminal records,” he said. “But that is different than what’s happening right now, and the Biden administration screwed up the border, I’ll be the first to acknowledge that, but the idea of masked ICE agents picking up moms dropping off their kids, folks going to work and, as we’ve seen at least in the circumstance in Minnesota, sometimes where kids are being left in the car after their parents that may or may not have been actually criminals are being picked up.”
“I just think there ought to be a collaborative effort, and so far, at least based upon what I’ve seen in Minnesota, there is virtually no collaboration between local law enforcement and ICE, and I believe that is due to the ICE tactics,” the senator continued.
Sen. Mark Warner said that the Biden administration “screwed up” when it comes to securing the southern border while also criticizing the Trump administration for arresting mostly migrants who have no criminal record.(Kenny Holston-Pool/Getty Images)
This comes amid protests over an incident earlier this month in Minneapolis, where Renee Nicole Good, a U.S. citizen, was fatally shot by ICE agent Jonathan Ross, who fired into the driver’s windshield and open window from the side of the vehicle and subsequently exclaimed “f—ing b—-” as the car crashed into another parked vehicle.
Democrats and local residents have condemned the shooting as a murder and called for Ross’ prosecution, while the Trump administration and Republican lawmakers have defended the incident by arguing that it was a justified shooting.
A week after that shooting, an ICE agent shot an alleged illegal immigrant in the leg during an arrest attempt. The Department of Homeland Security claimed the agent fired at the suspect because he was “fearing for his life and safety” after the individual resisted arrest and “violently assaulted the officer.”
“I think everybody’s got a First Amendment right to protest, but I don’t think those protests should include or involve disrupting religious services. That seems inappropriate. I do know that in Minneapolis, at least from what I’ve read, they’ve got about 3,500 ICE agents there, overwhelming the local cops at about 800,” Warner said.
“I believe that local law enforcement is pretty damn good at going after actual criminals,” the Virginia Democrat added. “But when we have ICE agents, I’ve seen in my state, sitting outside a courthouse, when somebody comes to do their hearing as they try to get legal status in our country, and they get picked up because they did the right thing in reporting in, I’m not sure that’s the system we ought to be having at this point.”
Data obtained by The New York Times illustrates the differences between President Trump’s and President Biden’s approaches to deportations. Our data reporter Albert Sun describes what we found.
By Albert Sun, Gilad Thaler, Melanie Bencosme, Joey Sendaydiego, Edward Vega, Jon Miller and Thomas Trudeau
January 18, 2026
Albert Sun, Gilad Thaler, Melanie Bencosme, Joey Sendaydiego, Edward Vega, Jon Miller and Thomas Trudeau
The Trump administration secretly reimposed a policy limiting Congress members’ access to immigration detention facilities a day after a federal immigration officer fatally shot a woman in Minneapolis, attorneys for several congressional Democrats said Monday in asking a federal judge to intervene.
Last month, U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb in Washington, D.C., temporarily blocked ICE from enforcing policies limiting Congress members’ access to immigration detention facilities. In a court filing on Monday, plaintiffs’ lawyers asked Cobb to hold an emergency hearing and decide if the duplicate notice policy violates her order.
Cobb ruled on Dec. 17 that it is likely illegal for ICE to demand a week’s notice from members of Congress seeking to visit and observe conditions in ICE facilities. The judge said the seven-day notice requirement likely exceeds the Department of Homeland Security’s statutory authority.
The attorneys asking Cobb for an emergency hearing say the matter is urgent because members of Congress are negotiating funding for DHS and ICE for the next fiscal year with DHS’s annual appropriations due to expire on Jan. 30.
“This is a critical moment for oversight, and members of Congress must be able to conduct oversight at ICE detention facilities, without notice, to obtain urgent and essential information for ongoing funding negotiations,” the lawyers wrote.
Cobb didn’t immediately rule on the plaintiffs’ hearing request. Government attorneys also didn’t immediately respond in writing to it.
Representative Kelly Morrison, a Democrat from Minnesota, from left, Representative Ilhan Omar, a Democrat from Minnesota, and Representative Angie Craig, a Democrat from Minnesota, arrive for an oversight visit at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in St. Paul, Minnesota, US, on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026. The investigation into the killing of a US citizen by an ICE agent in Minneapolis this week is being complicated by clashes between federal and local officials, with the FBI taking control over the objections of Governor Tim Walz.
Victor J. Blue / Bloomberg via Getty Images
On Saturday, U.S. Reps. Ilhan Omar, Kelly Morrison and Angie Craig attempted to tour the ICE facility in the Minneapolis federal building. They initially were allowed to enter but then told they had to leave about 10 minutes later.
Officials who turned them away cited a newly imposed seven-day-notice policy for congressional oversight visits. Last Thursday, a day after Good’s death, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem secretly signed a new memorandum reinstating the same seven-day notice requirement, according to the plaintiffs’ lawyers.
Cobb, who was nominated to the bench by Democratic President Joe Biden, ruled last month in favor of 12 other members of Congress who sued to challenge ICE’s amended visitor policies after they were denied entry to detention facilities. Their lawsuit accused Republican President Donald Trump’s administration of obstructing congressional oversight of the centers during its nationwide surge in immigration enforcement operations.
Government attorneys had argued that the plaintiffs didn’t have legal standing to bring their claims. They also said it’s merely speculative for the legislators to be concerned that conditions in ICE facilities change over the course of a week. But the judge rejected those arguments.
“The changing conditions within ICE facilities means that it is likely impossible for a Member of Congress to reconstruct the conditions at a facility on the day that they initially sought to enter,” Cobb wrote.
A law bars DHS from using appropriated general funds to prevent members of Congress from entering DHS facilities for oversight purposes. Plaintiffs’ attorneys from the Democracy Forward Foundation said the administration hasn’t shown that none of those funds are being used to implement the latest notice policy.
NOTE: The original airdate of the video attached to this article is Jan. 10, 2026.
Former first lady, Jill Biden, went to Minnesota in 2022 to highlight the billions of dollars in investments for childcare that were part of Democrats’ American Rescue Plan Act, where she stood next to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and praised him for his leadership helping families.
“We helped states like Minnesota safely keep open child care centers and family child care providers and boost pay for their workers,” Biden said during a February 2022 visit to the University of Minnesota’s Child Development Laboratory School, alongside Walz and then-Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra.
“We supported high quality providers that enrich children’s lives and we helped make them more affordable,” she continued.
The 2021 American Rescue Plan Act, a $1.9 trillion COVID-era relief package, allocated nearly $40 billion for childcare after it was passed without any Republican support. Meanwhile, roughly 4 years after the first lady went to Minnesota to tout the Democrat-led investments in childcare, Walz and his state are facing immense blowback for allegedly failing to adequately monitor fraud within the state’s Medicaid program and its childcare sector. According to a local Fox affiliate, daycares in Minnesota received roughly $500 million in federal funds in 2021.
Former first lady, Jill Biden, touts billions in investments for childcare ushered to states like Minnesota visa-vis Democrats’ American Rescue Plan, which passed without any Republican support. (Fox Affiliate KMSP)
“Tim, you understand that childcare is not only critical to families, it’s critical to businesses and our economy,” the first lady said as she turned to Walz standing behind her as she addressed people at the school who were there to attend a listening session with a number of relevant lawmakers. “And Joe and I are so grateful for your leadership and for the friendship that you and Gewn– that we’ve had for so many years. And I’m excited to hear more today about what you’ve done here in Minnesota to help families recover from the uncertainties and the losses from the pandemic.”
Earlier this week, a major state audit in Minnesotaconducted by the nonpartisan Office of the Legislative Auditor found widespread failures and internal control problems in the Minnesota Department of Human Services’ Behavioral Health Administration (BHA) grant program, reaffirming concerns about massive fraud issues in the state.
An image of the Minnesota state capitol building, located in St. Paul. (AP Photo/Steve Karnowski)
The report, released on Monday, found that between July 1, 2022, and Dec. 31, 2024, DHS dished out more than $425 million in grants to 830 organizations, the majority being nongovernmental, and did not show proper oversight in watching over those taxpayer funds, which in many cases were meant to help those with addiction and mental health issues. The audit found missing progress reports and discovered BHA could not show it had completed all required monitoring visits and had no documentation at all for some of them.
The audit also found that when employees were surveyed, 73% of them said they did not receive the necessary training to properly administer manage grants, with one employee saying, “Executive leadership has repetitively shown staff that they won’t take the staff’s concerns or questions seriously until something serious happens or it makes the news.”
The scathing report comes as Minnesota’s government agencies and leaders face immense scrutiny amid a fraud scandal that prosecutors say could total as much as $9 billion and has already forced Gov. Tim Walz to drop his re-election bid.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz announces he will not seek reelection during a press conference at the State Capitol in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Jan. 5. Walz said he concluded he could not give a political campaign his full effort and took no questions from reporters, as the state faces ongoing federal investigations into large-scale social services fraud.(Jerry Holt/The Minnesota Star Tribune via Getty Images)
Some reports have indicated a handful of Minnesota’s Democrat leaders allegedly took donations from some of those accused of committing fraud in Minnesota, while others have suggested Walz retaliated against whistleblowers who tried to sound the alarm about the fraud.
A conservative podcaster who’s trumpeted false election conspiracies and called for the execution of political rivals, including Gov. Jared Polis, has formally joined the Republican race to become Colorado’s next governor.
Joe Oltmann, who filed his candidacy paperwork Monday night, now seeks to participate in an electoral system that he has repeatedly tried to undermine.
He is the 22nd Republican actively seeking to earn the party’s nomination in June. It’s the largest gubernatorial primary field for a major party in Colorado this century, surpassing the GOP’s previous records set first in 2018, and then again in 2022 — and it comes as the party hopes to break Democrats’ electoral dominance in the state.
That field will almost certainly narrow in the coming months; four Republicans who’d filed have already dropped out. No more than four are likely to make it onto the ballot — either through the state assembly or by gathering signatures — for the summer primary, said Dick Wadhams, the Colorado GOP’s former chairman.
The size of the primary field doesn’t really matter, he said, because few candidates will actually end up in front of voters. Eighteen candidates filed ahead of the 2022 race, for instance, but just two were on the primary ballot.
On the Democratic side, a smaller field of seven active candidates is headlined by Attorney General Phil Weiser and U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet. Polis is term-limited from running again.
For 2026, Wadhams counted only a half-dozen or so Republican candidates whom he considered “credible,” a qualifier that Wadhams said he used “very, very loosely”: Oltmann, state Sens. Barbara Kirkmeyer and Mark Baisley, state Rep. Scott Bottoms, ministry leader Victor Marx, Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell and former Congressman Greg Lopez.
Wadhams said that other than Kirkmeyer, all of those candidates had either supported election conspiracies or a pardon for Tina Peters, the former Mesa County clerk now serving a nine-year sentence for convictions related to providing unauthorized access to voting equipment.
Oltmann, of Castle Rock, has repeatedly — and falsely — claimed that the 2020 presidential election was not won by Democrat Joe Biden, while calling for the hanging of political opponents. He previously said he wanted to dismember some opponents to send a message, according to the Washington Post, before adding that he was joking.
In his Dec. 26 announcement video, Oltmann baselessly claimed that Democrats, who have won control of the state amid demographic shifts and anti-Trump sentiment, were in power in Colorado only because of election fraud.
He said Polis and Secretary of State Jena Griswold, along with 9News anchor Kyle Clark, were part of a “synagogue of Satan.” Polis and Griswold are both Jewish.
In his announcement, Oltmann painted an apocalyptic picture of the state and said he hoped that three of its elected leaders — Polis, Griswold and Weiser — would all be imprisoned. He pledged to eliminate property taxes, to focus on the “have-nots” and to pardon Peters, whom President Donald Trump has also sought to release by issuing a federal pardon that legal experts say can’t clear Peters of state convictions.
Oltmann’s decision to join the field is an example of “extreme candidates” from either major party “who file to run but will go nowhere,” predicted Kristi Burton Brown, another former state GOP chair. She now sits on the Colorado State Board of Education.
She said the size of the Republican primary field was a consequence of Republicans’ difficulties winning statewide races in Colorado. Democrats have won all four constitutional elected offices for two straight election cycles.
Burton Brown said it “might be a good idea moving forward” to require candidates to do more than just submit paperwork to run for office. That might include a monetary requirement: She said she didn’t support charging candidates significant sums but thought that “requiring some skin in the game” could prevent “unreasonable primaries.”
The 2026 election comes as state and national Democrats search for a path forward after Trump’s reelection last year.
Approval polling for leading Colorado Democrats has sagged this year, and voters here hold unfavorable views of both the Democratic and Republican parties that are roughly equal, according to a November poll.
Wadhams said that the odds were “very difficult” for any Republican gubernatorial candidate next year. While approval for Polis and other Democrats has declined, support for the Republican standard-bearer — Trump — is far lower in the state. In last year’s election, Colorado was a largely blue island in a broader national red wave.
To have a real shot of winning in 2026, Wadhams argued, the GOP needed to nominate someone for governor who could sidestep anti-Trump sentiment and press on the issues driving voter discontent. Running more divisive candidates in a blue state, he warned, would risk harming Republicans’ chances in down-ballot races the statehouse or in races for Congress.
“There seems to be an opening for Republicans we haven’t seen for a while,” he said. “But that opening will only exist if we have candidates who won’t get pulled into this conspiracy stuff and this Tina Peters stuff. Because those are nonstarters. They’re sure losers.”
President Trump delivered a prime-time address from the White House on Wednesday night, touting the administration’s actions during the first 11 months of his second term and outlining his goals for the next three years. CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell anchors a special report.
, addressing the label during an economic speech at Uline Inc. in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Vance said he sometimes embraces “crazy” conspiracies, citing that masking toddlers was foolish and that the media worked to cover up former President Joe Biden’s mental decline.
JACOB BOGAGE, WASHINGTON POST: Vice President Jacob Bogage from the Washington Post, it’s good to see you.
VICE PRESIDENT VANCE: Good to see you too.
BOGAGE: Merry Christmas.
VANCE: Thank you. Same to you.
BOGAGE: Unfortunately, I have to ask a bit of an off-topic question from Affordability because news events do intervene, and that is the interviews that White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles gave to Vanity Fair, in which she’s quoted as referring to you as, excuse me, and again, not my word, sir, but a conspiracy theorist of a decade and described your transformation from someone who once opposed President Trump to now his vice president as an act of political expediency. And I’d like to give you the chance to respond to that, sir.
VANCE: Well, first of all, if Susie, like, I’ll trust what you said. I haven’t looked at the article. I, of course, have heard about it.
But conspiracy theorists, sometimes I am a conspiracy theorist, but I only believe in the conspiracy theories that are true. And by the way, Susie and I have joked in private and in public about that for a long time. For example, I believed in the crazy conspiracy theory back in 2020 that it was stupid to mask three-year-olds at the height of the COVID pandemic, that we should actually let them develop some language skills.
I believed in this crazy conspiracy theory that the media and the government were covering up the fact that Joe Biden was clearly unable to do the job. And I believed in the conspiracy theory that Joe Biden was trying to throw his political opponents in jail rather than win an argument against his political opponents. So, at least on some of these conspiracy theories, it turns out that a conspiracy theory is just something that was true six months before the media admitted it.
And that’s that’s my understanding. Now, look, I do want to say something about Susie, though, because, again, having not read this article, Susie is a person I’ve come to know very, very well. And, you know, a lot of you probably ask yourself, what is it like behind the scenes?
What’s going on actually behind the scenes of the Trump administration? And I’ll tell you, the president is exactly in private who he is in public. Like, I’ll tell you a little story.
A few, maybe actually a week or so ago, I walk into the Oval Office and Marco and I are sitting there talking with the president about something. He says, stop. And he looks at our shoes and says, you guys have terrible shoes.
So he goes and gets a shoe catalog. And remember, this is the Christmas season. So the president’s got some holiday cheer.
He goes to get the shoe catalog and gets his favorite shoes and orders like four pairs of shoes for me and four pairs of shoes for Marco, because he’s like, you know, we need our vice president or secretary of state to look their very best. And, you know, then we went back to talking about whatever major international issue we were talking about. Again, he is exactly in private who he is in public.
That’s not true of most people in Washington, D.C. It’s not. And I’ve seen so many people who will say one thing to the president’s face, Democrats and Republicans, and then will do the exact opposite behind the scenes. You know why I really, you know what they are.
And you know why I really love Susie Wiles, because Susie is who she is in the president’s presence. She’s the same exact person when the president isn’t around. I’ve never seen Susie Wiles say something to the president and then go and counteract him or subvert his will behind the scenes.
And that’s what you want in a staffer, because as much as I love Susie, the American people didn’t elect any staffer. They elected the president of the United States. And what you want and what you want in a staffer is a person who understands they are there to effectuate the will of the American people, and they’re there to follow the orders of the duly elected commander-in-chief of the United States.
And Susie Wiles, we have our disagreements. We agree on much more than we disagree. But I’ve never seen her be disloyal to the president of the United States, and that makes her the best White House chief of staff that I think the president could ask for.
And the last thing I’ll say is if any of us have learned a lesson from that Vanity Fair article, I hope that the lesson is we should be giving fewer interviews to mainstream media outlets. So with that lesson internalized, I’m going to stop taking questions and just leave you with one final note.
And again, it’s just a note of gratitude. This is the coolest job I’ve ever had. Agree with us or disagree with us. I’m sure that every single person in this room made something happen to get me to this job. You went out there and voted. Maybe you persuaded one of your relatives to vote.
Maybe you even volunteered or knocked on doors or made phone calls for us. I will never forget that my job every single day is to make it so that you guys can have a safe and prosperous life in this country that all of us love.
EXCLUSIVE: Fox News Digital obtained a copy of President Donald Trump’s personal schedule since Dec. 1, showing back-to-back calls and meetings that frequently drag into the evening.
The president has come under heightened scrutiny in recent months from the media over his health and age, including the New York Times reporting last month that Trump, 79, is “facing the realities of aging” while in office. The concern surrounding Trump’s stamina follows the media’s silence on the topic when the then-oldest sitting president, Joe Biden, led from the Oval Office – a health saga that has continued long after Biden dropped out of the 2024 federal election and exited 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. on Jan. 20.
Over the 12 days covered in the internal schedule obtained by Fox Digital, Trump is on the books for roughly 10 hours a day, averaging around 21 separate meetings, calls or events per day – while some days pack in more than 30 such events.
A copy of the president’s schedule shows Trump begins most scheduled calls and meetings around 8:30 or 9 a.m., with his days typically not wrapping up until after 8 p.m.
President Donald Trump stops and takes questions from reporters on his way to Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House on September 22, 2020 in Washington, DC. President Trump is traveling to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for a campaign event. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
On Monday, Dec. 1, for example, Trump kicked off his day at 8:30 am with a phone call to his chief of staff Susie Wiles, which was followed by a 9:30 call to Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, and a 9:35 a.m. call into a rally. Across 10 minutes, Trump then held a series of rapid-fire meetings with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, press secretary Karoline Leavitt and Wiles, before holding calls with a member of Congress and a political advisor.
The day continued with 18 other meetings, phone calls and events, including a bill signing, remarks at a Christmas reception, additional meetings with the secretary of state, Leavitt and his trade team.
According to Trump’s schedule, his busiest day so far this month was on Wednesday, Dec. 3, when he held 32 events, meetings and phone calls. He began the day at 9 a.m. with a call to senior staff members, and wrapped the day up at 7:30 p.m., when he met with a “television personality.”
Every hour between 9 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. that day included a scheduled event or meeting or call.
Trump’s longest work day this month fell on Tuesday, Dec. 9, according to the schedule, at 13 hours and 9 minutes. Trump began his day at 9:46 a.m. with a call to a Cabinet secretary, before holding five other meetings, and one other call. He wrapped up the day at 10:55 p.m. after traveling to Pennsylvania on Tuesday, where he delivered a speech focused on his economic policies.
The schedule overall showed a heightened focus on foreign policy and business, including 11 separate meetings or calls with his secretary of state, eight head-of-state sessions, three meetings with a special envoy and two with an ambassador. Trump had at least one CEO or business-focused engagement on 10 of the 12 days, including 17 direct CEO calls or meetings, a call with “business leaders,” and other events on the economy or technology.
President Donald Trump speaks at the State Department Kennedy Center Honors medal presentation dinner at the U.S. Department of State on December 06, 2025 in Washington, DC. The 2025 Kennedy Center Honorees are Sylvester Stallone, George Strait, the rock band KISS, Gloria Gaynor, and Michael Crawford.(Aaron Schwartz/Getty Images)
One of Trump’s lightest days was on the weekend, when Saturday, Dec. 6, recorded 5 hours and 51 minutes of scheduled events, including meetings with Kennedy Center leadership and Secret Service leadership, meeting with the Kennedy Center Honorees, and taking part in the Kennedy Center’s Honors Dinner.
Trump entered his second term as the oldest person ever inaugurated at 78, with the media becoming increasingly focused on his health, including when he was spotted with swollen legs in July while attending the FIFA Club World Cup final in New Jersey, as well as other photos stretching back to February showing bruising on his hand.
The White House attributed the bruising to frequent handshakes and said the swelling stemmed from chronic venous insufficiency — “a benign and common condition, particularly in individuals over the age of 70,” according to previous comments from Leavitt.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt read out President Trump’s MRI results during a Dec. 1, 2025, press briefing. (Francis Chung/Getty Images)
The media most recently focused on an MRI scan Trump received during a checkup at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland in October, which was described as routine by the administration. The checkup was Trump’s second in 2025, following an April visit that Navy Capt. Sean P. Barbabella, the physician to the president, said found Trump “remains in excellent health.”
Trump pledged to release the results of the scan when pressed about it by the media, with the White House releasing the report a day after Trump’s pledge. The report found Trump was in normal and good health.
“The purpose of this imaging is preventative to identify any issues early, confirm overall health, and ensure the president maintains long-term vitality and function,” Leavitt said during a press conference while reading Trump’s MRI report. “… Overall, his cardiovascular system shows excellent health.”
President Joe Biden pardoned his son Hunter Biden on Sunday.(Jose Luis Magana/AP Photo)
The White House has been quick to challenge reporters’ focus on Trump’s health, pointing to his health reports and the lack of media coverage Biden received over his mental acuity concerns.
Biden’s mental acuity had been under conservatives’ microscope since before the 2020 election. Concerns among the mainstream media, however, did not heighten until February 2024, when special counsel Robert Hur, who was investigating Biden’s alleged mishandling of classified documents as vice president, announced he would not recommend criminal charges against Biden for possessing classified materials after his vice presidency, calling Biden “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
“I can tell you there was certainly a lack of transparency from the former president, from the entire former administration,” Leavitt told reporters in April. “And frankly, a lot of people in this room, when it came to the health and the competence of the former President of the United States, Joe Biden.”
DETROIT (AP) — President Donald Trump this week announced plans to weaken rules for how far automakers’ new vehicles need to travel on a gallon of gasoline, set under former President Joe Biden.
The Trump administration said the rules, known formally as Corporate Average Fuel Economy, or CAFE, standards, are why new vehicles are too expensive, and that cutting them will drive down costs and make driving safer for Americans.
The new standards would drop the industry fleetwide average for light-duty vehicles to roughly 34.5 mpg (55.5 kpg) in the 2031 model year, down from the goal of about 50.4 mpg (81.1 kpg) that year under the Biden-era rule.
Here are the facts.
Affordability
TRUMP: EV-friendly policies “forced automakers to build cars using expensive technologies that drove up costs, drove up prices and made the car much worse.”
THE FACTS: It’s true that gas mileage standards have played a role in rising vehicle prices in recent years, but experts say plenty of other factors have contributed, and some much more.
President Donald Trump speaks during an event on fuel economy standards in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
President Donald Trump speaks during an event on fuel economy standards in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
The average transaction price of a new vehicle hit $49,105 in October, according to car shopping guide Edmunds.
A Consumer Reports analysis of vehicles for model years 2003 to 2021 — a period in which average fuel economy improved 30% — found no significant increase in inflation-adjusted vehicle prices caused by the requirements. At the same time, it found an average of $7,000 in lifetime fuel savings per vehicle for 2021 model year vehicles compared with 2003. That analysis, done primarily before the coronavirus pandemic, attributed much of the average sticker price increase to the shift toward bigger and more expensive vehicles.
Cutting the fuel economy standards is unlikely to provide any fast relief on sticker prices, said Jessica Caldwell, Edmunds’ head of insights. And while looser standards may eventually mean lower car prices, their lower efficiency means that those savings could be eaten up by higher fuel costs, she said.
Ending the gas car?
TRUMP: Biden’s policies were “a quest to end the gasoline-powered car.”
THE FACTS: The Biden administration did enact several policies to increase electric vehicle adoption, including setting a target for half of new vehicle sales in the U.S. to be electric by 2030.
While those moves sought to help build the EV market, there was no requirement that automakers sell EVs or consumers buy them. And gasoline cars still make up the vast majority of the U.S. market.
EV charging
TRUMP: “We had to have an electric car within a very short period of time, even though there was no way of charging them.”
THE FACTS: While many potential EV buyers still worry about charging them, the availability of public charging has significantly improved in recent years.
Biden-era funding and private investment have increased charging across the nation. There are now more than 232,000 individual Level 2 and fast charging ports in the U.S. As of this year, enough fast charging ports have been installed to average one for every mile (1.6 kilometers) of National Highway System roads in the U.S., according to an AP analysis of data from the Department of Energy.
However, those fast charging stations aren’t evenly dispersed. Many are concentrated in the far West and the Northeast, where sales of EVs are highest.
Experts note that most EV charging can be done at home.
Safety
TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY SEAN DUFFY: The reduced requirements will make drivers “safer on the roads because of all the great new technology we have that save lives.”
THE FACTS: Newer vehicles — gas and electric — are full of advanced safety features, including automatic emergency braking, lane-keeping, collision warnings and more.
Duffy suggested that consumers will be more likely to buy new vehicles if they are more affordable — meaning fewer old cars on the streets without the safety technology. This assumes vehicle prices will actually go down with eased requirements, which experts say might not be the case. Besides, high tech adds to a vehicle’s cost.
“If Americans purchased more new vehicles equipped with the latest safety technologies, we would expect overall on-road safety to improve,” Edmunds’ Caldwell said. “However, it’s unclear whether easing fuel-economy standards will meaningfully increase new-vehicle sales.”
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, an independent automotive research nonprofit, also says electric or hybrid vehicles are as safe as or safer than gasoline-powered cars.
Another part of safety is public health. Efficiency requirements put into place to address the 1970s oil crisis were also a way to reduce pollution that is harmful to humans and the environment.
“This rollback would move the auto industry backwards, keeping polluting cars on our roads for years to come and threatening the health of millions of Americans,” said Katherine García, director of the Sierra Club’s Clean Transportation for All campaign. “This dangerous proposal adds to the long list of ways the Trump administration is dismantling our clean air and public health protections.”
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Associated Press data journalist M.K. Wildeman contributed from Hartford, Connecticut.
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As President Donald Trump announced a $12 billion farm aid package this week to help U.S. farmers hurt by tariffs, he placed responsibility for the U.S. agricultural trade deficit on former President Joe Biden.
But in casting blame elsewhere, he is ignoring other factors, including his own role. Currently, farmers — especially those that produce soybeans and sorghum — have had a hard time selling their crops while getting hit by increasing costs after Trump raised tariffs on China earlier this year as part of a broader trade war that has contributed to the deficit.
Experts say that it is a massive oversimplification to blame any one administration or policy.
Here’s a closer look at the facts.
CLAIM: There was an agricultural trade surplus during Trump’s first term that former Biden turned into an agricultural trade deficit.
THE FACTS: This is both misleading and missing context. It is true that there was an agricultural trade surplus when Trump entered the White House in 2017, which has since become a significant deficit. However, according to experts, this can be attributed to actions taken by both administrations, as well as factors outside their control such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I don’t want to let U.S. trade policy off the hook here, but it’s one element of a broader, more complicated kind of story,” said Cullen Hendrix, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
Still, Trump held Biden solely responsible for the agricultural trade deficit at a White House roundtable Monday where he announced the farm aid package.
“In my first term, we had an agricultural trade surplus by a lot,” the president said, misrepresenting the numbers. “We had a big surplus. We knew we were exporting American agricultural products all over the world, making a net profit and, in many cases, a very substantial profit. He came in and ruined it. Biden turned that surplus into a gaping agricultural deficit that continues to this day.”
What the numbers show
The yearly agricultural trade balance, which reflects the amount of those goods the U.S. has exported versus the amount it has imported, had been positive for nearly 60 years until 2019 during Trump’s first term.
According to data from the Department of Agriculture, it stood at a surplus of approximately $16.3 billion at the end of 2016 and fell the next year, Trump’s first as president, to one of about $13.66 billion. The balance further decreased over the next two years, ultimately turning into a deficit of about $481 million. It returned to a surplus in 2020 at about $3.39 billion, which further increased in 2021 — the year Biden entered the White House. In 2022, it transitioned back to a deficit that grew to approximately $36.45 billion by the end of 2024. As of August, the latest data available, there was an agricultural trade deficit of about $36.3 billion.
The yearslong trade war between the U.S. and China is partly to blame for the agricultural deficit, experts say. Trump fired the first shot in January 2018, with 30% tariffs on imported solar panels, which led to additional tariffs and import curbs from both sides that continued to a certain extent under Biden.
The countries signed a Phase One trade deal in January 2020 through which China committed to buying an additional $200 billion of U.S. goods and services over the next two years. However, the Peterson Institute later found China had bought essentially none of the goods promised.
What is the current situation?
Trump has instituted even more tariffs on Chinese imports since returning to the White House. In response, China has retaliated with tariffs and import curbs on U.S. goods, including key farm products.
The White House said in October, after Trump met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea, that Beijing had promised to buy at least 12 million metric tons of U.S. soybeans by the end of the calendar year, plus 25 million metric tons a year in each of the next three years. China has purchased more than 2.8 million metric tons of soybeans since Trump announced the agreement, according to AP reporting. That’s only about one quarter of what administration officials said China had promised, but Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said China is on track to meet its goal by the end of February, which is two months later than the White House originally promised.
“China’s been refusing large U.S. purchases in favor of other trade partners,” said Hendrix. “This is a lamentable, but kind of predictable, consequence of the United States engaging in this trade war and weaponizing trade policy. Our trade partners are going to seek to diversify both for self-insurance — we’re talking about food, we’re talking about survival here — and to punish the U.S. for kind of changing the rules of the game so unilaterally.”
But there are myriad other factors that have contributed to the current deficit, experts say. For example, high purchasing power enabled by a strong U.S. dollar and a desire by U.S. consumers to buy high-value goods that aren’t produced domestically. A stronger dollar also decreases demand for U.S. exports, as this makes it more difficult for other countries to buy those products.
In addition, Brazil and Argentina have begun exporting soy, corn and beef, competing directly with U.S. exports and lowering prices for such goods. Major world events of which the U.S. government has little or indirect control, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, climate variability and the Russia-Ukraine war, have also contributed.
“The tariffs can exacerbate the situation, but generally the fact that you may have a deficit or a surplus is really more dependent on global prices,” said Joseph Glauber, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who served as the Department of Agriculture’s chief economist from 2008 to 2014 under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
Asked whether Trump blames solely Biden for the agricultural trade deficit, White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said that “farmers suffered for years under Joe Biden,” but that Trump is committed to “helping our agriculture industry by negotiating new trade deals to open new export markets for our farmers and boosting the farm safety net for the first time in a decade.”
President Donald Trump has repeatedly said former President Joe Biden signed pardons with an autopen, a mechanical device that uses a robotic arm with an attached pen. When Trump installed portraits of past presidents in the White House, a photograph of an autopen took the place of Biden’s portrait.
On Dec. 2, Trump declared Biden’s pardons, and other actions signed with an autopen, invalid.
“Any and all Documents, Proclamations, Executive Orders, Memorandums, or Contracts, signed by Order of the now infamous and unauthorized ‘AUTOPEN,’ within the Administration of Joseph R. Biden Jr., are hereby null, void, and of no further force or effect,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Anyone receiving ‘Pardons,’ ‘Commutations,’ or any other Legal Document so signed, please be advised that said Document has been fully and completely terminated, and is of no Legal effect.”
Legal experts previously told PolitiFact that the U.S. Constitution doesn’t require presidents to directly sign pardons. Using a mechanical device for signatures is not prohibited and there is no constitutional mechanism for overturning pardons, they said.
“There is no viable way for the Justice Department to try to revive any impacted criminal charges against pardonees,” said Bradley Moss, a Washington, D.C.-based lawyer.
At a minimum, Trump would need to use a more formal process to try to undo Biden’s pardons — and then prevail in what would likely be strong legal challenges.
“It is well settled that once there is a pardon, no one — not any president or Congress or the courts — can undo it,” said Michael Gerhardt, a University of North Carolina law professor.
When we contacted the White House for comment, a spokesperson pointed us back to Trump’s Truth Social post.
Trump’s focus on autopen use
In March — after Trump allies commented on how similar Biden’s signature appeared across different official documents — Trump turned his attention to Biden’s pardons of lawmakers and others involved with the committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol attack.
The allegation by Trump and his supporters that anonymous aides issued pardons without Biden’s knowledge dovetailed with concerns about Biden’s mental and physical decline at the end of his term, when he was 82 years old, worries that forced him to quit his reelection bid.
In a June interview with The New York Times, Biden called Trump and other Republicans “liars” for saying he didn’t know what he was signing, and for alleging that someone other than him had made the decisions.
Biden told The Times he had orally granted all the pardons and commutations issued at the end of his term.
“I made every decision,” he said, adding that he worked with staff to use an autopen as a way of speeding the process because “we’re talking about a whole lot of people.”
Precedent for pardons without a president’s handwritten signature
The U.S. Constitution’ section on pardons does not mention the words “sign” or “signature,” and former presidents Barack Obama, John F. Kennedy and Thomas Jefferson are among those known to have used mechanized signing devices.
“The president possesses the power to pardon, but there is no specification (unlike for signing of bills) that this pardon be in writing,” Bernadette Meyler, a Stanford University scholar of British and American constitutional law, said in a March email to PolitiFact.
Dan Kobil, a Capital Law School professor, said presidents “historically have not personally signed grants of pardons for every individual they granted clemency to,” notably when granted in large batches such as mass amnesties following wars.
Government memos from 1929 and 2005 also supported using an autopen.
In 2005, during George W. Bush’s presidency, the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel wrote a memo that said: “The President need not personally perform the physical act of affixing his signature to a bill he approves and decides to sign in order for the bill to become law. Rather, the President may sign a bill within the meaning of Article I, Section 7 by directing a subordinate to affix the President’s signature to such a bill, for example by autopen.”
How could Trump’s vow to cancel Biden’s pardons play out now?
Potentially reversing pardons would have to begin through a formalized process, not a Truth Social post, legal experts said. Federal authorities would have to rearrest people who had been convicted and pardoned, or try or retry those who hadn’t been charged or convicted.
If the government did any of those things, the defendants could sue, and would have some significant legal cards to play.
In an 1869 ruling, a federal court wrote: “The law undoubtedly is, that when a pardon is complete, there is no power to revoke it, any more than there is power to revoke any other completed act.”
If Trump revoked someone’s pardon, that person “could argue that they have been validly pardoned, and the judge could dismiss the claim then and there,” Michigan State University law professor Brian Kalt said. The Justice Department “would have to prove that Biden did not authorize the pardon.”
That would be the longest of courtroom long shots, said Frank O. Bowman III, an emeritus law professor at the University of Missouri, because Biden has said he intended to issue the pardons.
“To me, that’s the end of the story,” Bowman said.
History is sprinkled with a fewexamples of presidents revoking their own pardons before they went into effect, Kobil said. But those about-faces were thanks to a change of heart, not because a subsequent president invalidated them.
Our ruling
Trump said any pardon signed by an autopen is now “fully and completely terminated, and is of no legal effect.”
Trump cannot unilaterally make that happen.
Legal experts said the Constitution doesn’t require presidents to directly sign pardons or ban using a mechanical device for signatures. There is no constitutional mechanism for overturning pardons.
Revoking a prior president’s pardons would be unprecedented, and if people’s pardons are revoked, they could challenge the revocation in court, with legal precedent on their side.
President Trump announced a series of immigration actions after the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. Those actions include pausing all current asylum decisions and reviewing all green card holders from 19 “countries of concern.”
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth wrote on X that “Biden coddled terrorists, we kill them,” in a post defending the Trump administration’s strikes on alleged drug vessels in the Caribbean Sea.
The declaration came following reports from outlets such as The Washington Post and CNN claiming the U.S. military ordered a second strike on a suspected drug vessel in the Caribbean on Sept. 2 after the initial attack left two survivors.
The commander overseeing that operation told colleagues on a secure conference call that the survivors were legitimate targets because they could still contact other traffickers for help and ordered the second strike to comply with a directive from Hegseth that everyone must be killed, according to The Washington Post.
“As usual, the fake news is delivering more fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory reporting to discredit our incredible warriors fighting to protect the homeland,” Hegseth wrote on X on Friday.
Video footage shared by President Donald Trump on Truth Social showed the suspected drug vessel shortly before it was destroyed on Sept. 2. (@realDonaldTrump via Truth Social)
“As we’ve said from the beginning, and in every statement, these highly effective strikes are specifically intended to be ‘lethal, kinetic strikes.’ The declared intent is to stop lethal drugs, destroy narco-boats, and kill the narco-terrorists who are poisoning the American people. Every trafficker we kill is affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization,” Hegseth continued.
“The Biden administration preferred the kid gloves approach, allowing millions of people — including dangerous cartels and unvetted Afghans — to flood our communities with drugs and violence. The Trump administration has sealed the border and gone on offense against narco-terrorists. Biden coddled terrorists, we kill them,” he added.
Hegseth also said, “Our current operations in the Caribbean are lawful under both U.S. and international law, with all actions in compliance with the law of armed conflict — and approved by the best military and civilian lawyers, up and down the chain of command.”
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, left, and former President Joe Biden.(Felix Leon/AFP via Getty Images; Scott Eisen/Getty Images)
In a separate post on his personal X account, Hegseth wrote, “We have only just begun to kill narco-terrorists.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to a Biden spokesperson for comment.
President Donald Trump also said on Thursday said the U.S. will “very soon” begin stopping suspected Venezuelan drug traffickers “by land.”
“From sending their poisons into the United States, where they kill hundreds of thousands of people a year — but we’re going to take care of that situation,” Trump said. “We’re already doing a lot … It’s about 85% stopped by sea.”
War Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed that the U.S. carried out a deadly strike on a vessel operated by alleged narco-terrorists in the Caribbean Sea on Oct. 24, 2025.(Department of War)
The president added, “You probably noticed that now people aren’t wanting to be delivering by sea, and we’ll be starting to stop them by land also. The land is easier, but that’s going to start very soon.”
Fox News’ Sophia Compton contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump announced Friday that he was cancelling executive orders signed by President Joe Biden’s autopen.
Like many presidents, including Trump, Biden used an autopen to sign certain official documents. Republicans have claimed the autopen was used by the people around Biden to circumvent a mentally declining president.
“Any document signed by Sleepy Joe Biden with the Autopen, which was approximately 92% of them, is hereby terminated, and of no further force or effect,” he wrote on Truth Social. “I am hereby cancelling all Executive Orders, and anything else that was not directly signed by Crooked Joe Biden, because the people who operated the Autopen did so illegally.”
Biden’s team did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the former presidenthas rejected these claims in the past, saying in June: “Let me be clear: I made the decisions during my presidency.”
“I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations,” he said then. “Any suggestion that I didn’t is ridiculous and false.”
The White House unveiled a new “Presidential Walk of Fame” featuring framed portraits of U.S. presidents, including what appears to be a photo of an autopen in place of Joe Biden’s portrait.
There’s no public record of how many documents were signed by autopen during Biden’s presidency. President Barack Obama was the first president to use an autopen and signed pardons while on vacation. Biden is known to have used it while traveling, too: CNN reported in 2024 that Biden signed a funding extension for federal aviation programs with the autopen, which an official said was used to avoid a lapse in funding while the president was on the West Coast.
Last month, House Republicans declared that they viewed executive actions signed by Biden’s autopen “without proper, corresponding, contemporaneous, written approval traceable to the president’s own consent” as void and urged the Department of Justice to investigate the matter.
“Joe Biden was not involved in the Autopen process and, if he says he was, he will be brought up on charges of perjury,” Trump continued in his Friday Truth Social post.
Perjury is the crime of lying under oath; Biden has not publicly testified under oath about the autopen. The former president has previously defended his use of the autopen in a New York Times interview.
An autopen is a mechanical tool used to reproduce signatures for everything from book signings and diplomas to presidential orders. Here’s what you need to know.
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced late Wednesday that it has stopped processing all immigration requests from Afghan nationals following the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C.
PresidentDonald Trump backed those reports in a video statement released by the White House on X Wednesday night, saying, “The suspect in custody is a foreigner who entered our country from Afghanistan, a hellhole on earth. He was floated by the Biden administration in September 2021 for those infamous flights that everybody was talking about.”
In a post on X late Wednesday, USCIS said, “Effective immediately, processing of all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals is stopped indefinitely pending further review of security and vetting protocols.
“The protection and safety of our homeland and of the American people remains our singular focus and mission.”
In June, the Trump administration placed Afghanistan on a travel ban list, with the exception of people with Afghan Special Immigrant Visas, given to Afghans who helped the U.S. government during the war there.
Why It Matters
The shooting of two West Virginia National Guard members deployed to Washington, D.C., has reignited concerns about security and the vetting of Afghan refugees, especially after the withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 led to rapid resettlement of tens of thousands of Afghans in the United States.
Trump linked the incident to his wider immigration policy and criticized the prior administration, calling for a “reexamining” of all Afghan nationals brought in under the program during the Biden administration.
The decision is expected to impact Afghan nationals seeking asylum, resettlement or other immigration benefits, while raising questions on U.S. commitments to wartime allies and national security priorities.
What To Know
USCIS announced in a post to X that all processing of immigration requests from Afghan nationals are “stopped indefinitely.” The statement came hours after a suspect in the shooting of the Guard members near the White House was identified as an Afghan national. The duration of the suspension is undefined, and the review process is ongoing.
Authorities identified the suspect as Lakanwal, who arrived in the U.S. in 2021 under the Operation Allies Welcome program after the Taliban recaptured Kabul.
The victims, two members of the West Virginia National Guard deployed to Washington, D.C., for the Trump administration’s crackdown on crime in the nation’s capital, were critically injured.
The suspect was shot, injured and arrested. Officials have not determined a motive, but Trump described the shootings as “an act of terror.”
Lakanwal reportedly served with U.S. forces in Afghanistan for 10 years and arrived in the United States as part of an effort to protect Afghan allies, according to family members who spoke to NBC News.
The U.S. government allowed around 76,000 Afghans entry under Operation Allies Welcome, designed to assist those at risk after the American withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Following the attack, Trump announced the deployment of an additional 500 federal troops to Washington, D.C., supplementing the over 2,000 National Guard soldiers already stationed there for what the administration calls a public safety initiative.
The shooting and the administration’s response have drawn renewed scrutiny to the legal status and operational role of the National Guard in the nation’s capital.
Advocacy groups and some lawmakers have also raised concerns about the vetting process for Afghan refugees.
While human rights advocates argue that arrivals face significant scrutiny, government audits have found flaws and data inaccuracies in records. The Biden-era program granted temporary parole, not permanent status, to most evacuees. The Trump administration recently moved to end Afghanistan’s temporary protected status designation.
What People Are Saying
President Trump: “We must now reexamine every single alien who has entered our country from Afghanistan under Biden, and we must take all necessary measures to ensure the removal of any alien from any country who does not belong here, or add benefit to our country. If they can’t love our country, we don’t want them.”
Shawn VanDiver, president of AfghanEvac, to NBC News Wednesday night: “This individual’s isolated and violent act should not be used as an excuse to define or diminish an entire community.”
Republican West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey, on Wednesday: “Our prayers are with these brave service members, their families, and the entire Guard community.”
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, on X Wednesday night: “The suspect who shot our brave National Guardsmen is an Afghan national who was one of the many unvetted, mass paroled into the United States under Operation Allies Welcome on September 8, 2021, under the Biden Administration. I will not utter this depraved individual’s name. He should be starved of the glory he so desperately wants. These men and women of the National Guard are mothers, fathers, sisters, daughters, children of God, carrying out the same basic public safety and immigration laws enshrined in law for decades. The politicians and media who continue to vilify our men and women in uniform need to take a long hard look in the mirror. Bryon and I will be praying hard for these two National Guardsmen, their families, and every American who puts on uniform to defend our freedom.”
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) under former-President Joe Biden promised to “swiftly and safely” resettle Afghan allies into the United States, but multiple sources have confirmed the D.C. National Guard shooter came in under that same Biden-era program in 2021.
Biden responded to the “targeted” attack in D.C. just before news broke of how the alleged shooter, 29-year-old Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal, entered the United States under humanitarian parole via Operation Allies Welcome,per DHS and FBI sources, giving him permission to be in country legally.
In 2021, amid the Afghan withdrawal debacle, Biden’s Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas promised to “swiftly and safely” resettle thousands of Afghan allies into the United States and confirmed that DHS had denied evacuees from entering the U.S. due to “derogatory” information obtained during the vetting process.
After the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan that was followed by a Taliban takeover of the country, the Biden administration launched a large operation to support and resettle vulnerable Afghans, including those that had helped U.S. troops in the past.
Due to the rushed nature of the evacuation, plus broader concerns over immigration and parole-release policies, fears arose over whom the country may have been letting in.
Mayorkas said during a September 2021 press conference that 120,000 people had been evacuated from Afghanistan since the beginning of the U.S. withdrawal, just months earlier. The Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center found that nearly 800 aircraft evacuated thousands of people over just a 17-day period in August 2021.
A defining image of Afghans running after an American military aircraft leaving Kabul amid the disastrous withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.
At the time, Mayorkas touted the robust biometric screening and vetting process in place — in both the U.S. and transit countries — in order to make sure every individual entering the country was properly screened.
In response to a question at the time from Fox News’ Jake Gibson, Mayorkas confirmed that there already had been individuals flagged with “derogatory information” during the vetting process, but did not specify the number of people flagged.
Mayorkas assured that 400 U.S. Customs and Border Patrol employees and the Transportation Security Administration would be brought up to assist. Part of the effort included moving refugees from military bases designated by the Pentagon to house and vet refugees before they enter the United States.
This split shows DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas the members of the Taliban.(Haroon Sabawoon/Anadolu via Getty Images and Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Lakanwal, who entered the U.S. in September 2021 after America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, had his permission to stay in the U.S. granted under Operation Allies Welcome, sources said. Authorities are investigating the shooting as a possible act of international terrorism.
FBI officials confirmed two West Virginia National Guardsmen remain in critical condition after being shot in the head during an apparent targeted attack just a few blocks from the White House.
During comments Wednesday night, President Donald Trump called Biden “a disastrous president” and “the worst in the history of our country.”
He also ridiculed the former president for flying Lakanwal “on those infamous flights that everybody was talking about.”
“Nobody knew who was coming in, nobody knew anything about it,” Trump pointed out about the Afghan evacuation process under Biden.
He also slammed broader parole and immigration policies under Biden, claiming Lakanwal’s “status was extended under legislation signed under President Biden. “
“This attack underscores the single greatest national security threat facing our nation,” Trump added, announcing that the government “must now reexamine every single alien who has entered our country under Biden.”
Trump also appeared to suggest the death penalty for Lakanwal, stating toward the end of his address that “we will bring the perpetrator of this barbaric attack to swift and certain justice – if the bullet’s going in the opposite direction – (unintelligible).”
National Guard soldiers stand behind the crime scene tape at a corner in downtown Washington, Nov. 26, 2025. Two National Guard soldiers were shot a few blocks from the White House, according to law enforcement.(Drew Angerer / AFP via Getty Images)
Meanwhile, former President Biden did respond to the tragic D.C. attack, but his comments came before news of how the shooter entered the United States.
“Jill and I are heartbroken that two members of the National Guard were shot outside the White House,” Biden posted on X, just before news broke that the shooter entered the country under his administration’s rapid resettlement program.
“Violence of any kind is unacceptable, and we must all stand united against it. We are praying for the service members and their families.”
Fox News Digital Reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment on the news that Lakanwal came into the United States under the Biden-era program, but did not receive a response. Attempts to reach former DHS Secretary Mayorkas also were unsuccessful in time for publication.
Fox News’ Brooke Singman and Kelly Laco contributed to this report.
Landlords could no longer rely on rent-pricing software to quietly track each other’s moves and push rents higher using confidential data, under a settlement between RealPage Inc. and federal prosecutors to end what critics said was illegal “algorithmic collusion.”
The deal announced Monday by the Department of Justice follows a yearlong federal antitrust lawsuit, launched during the Biden administration, against the Texas-based software company. RealPage would not have to pay any damages or admit any wrongdoing. The settlement must still be approved by a judge.
RealPage software provides daily recommendations to help landlords and their employees nationwide price their available apartments. The landlords do not have to follow the suggestions, but critics argue that because the software has access to a vast trove of confidential data, it helps RealPage’s clients charge the highest possible rent.
“RealPage was replacing competition with coordination, and renters paid the price,” said DOJ antitrust chief Gail Slater, who emphasized that the settlement avoided a costly, time-consuming trial.
Under the terms of the proposed settlement, RealPage can no longer use that real-time data to determine price recommendations. Instead, the only nonpublic data that can be used to train the software’s algorithm must be at least one year old.
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“What does this mean for you and your family?” Slater said in a video statement. “It means more real competition in local housing markets. It means rents set by the market, not by a secret algorithm.”
RealPage attorney Stephen Weissman said the company is pleased the DOJ worked with them to settle the matter.
“There has been a great deal of misinformation about how RealPage’s software works and the value it provides for both housing providers and renters,” Weissman said in a statement. “We believe that RealPage’s historical use of aggregated and anonymized nonpublic data, which include rents that are typically lower than advertised rents, has led to lower rents, less vacancies, and more procompetitive effects.”
However, the deal was slammed by some observers as a missed opportunity to clamp down on alleged algorithmic price-fixing throughout the economy.
“This case really was the tip of the spear,” said Lee Hepner, senior legal counsel for the American Economic Liberties Project, whose group advocates for government action against business concentration.
He said the settlement is rife with loopholes and he believes RealPages can keep influencing the rental market even if they can only use public, rather than private, data. He also decried how RealPages does not have to pay any damages, unlike many companies that have paid millions in penalties over their use of the software.
The governors of California and New York signed laws last month to crack down on rent-setting software, and a growing list of cities, including Philadelphia and Seattle, have passed ordinances against the practice.
Ten states — California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee and Washington — had joined the DOJ’s antitrust lawsuit. Those states were not part of Monday’s settlement, meaning they can continue to pursue the case in court.
BEIRUT — Seven years ago, he was virtually persona non grata, any link to him considered kryptonite among U.S. political and business elite for his alleged role in the killing of a Washington Post columnist and Saudi critic.
But when Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman came to Washington this week, he cemented a remarkable comeback, positioning himself as the linchpin of a new regional order in the Middle East, and his country as an essential partner in America’s AI-driven future.
During what amounted to a state visit, the crown prince — Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader — was given the literal red carpet treatment: A Marine band, flag-bearing horsemen and a squadron of F-35s in the skies above; a black-tie dinner attended by a raft of business leaders in the prince’s honor; a U.S.-Saudi Investment Forum at the Kennedy Center the next day.
Throughout, Bin Salman (or MBS, as many call him) proved himself a keen practitioner of the brand of transactional politics favored by President Trump.
President Trump and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman walk down the Colonnade on the way to the Oval Office of the White House on Tuesday.
(Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty Images)
He fulfilled Trump’s ask, first floated back in May during the Riyadh edition of the U.S.-Saudi Forum, to raise the kingdom’s U.S. investment commitments from $600 million to almost $1 trillion.
And the prince managed to mollify Trump in his oft-repeated call for Saudi Arabia to join the Abraham Accords, the normalization pacts with Israel brokered during the president’s first term, even while changing nothing of his long-stated position: That establishing ties with Israel be accompanied by steps toward Palestinian statehood — an outcome many in Israel’s political class reject.
“We believe having a good relation with all Middle Eastern countries is a good thing, and we want to be part of the Abraham Accords. But we want also to be sure that we secure a clear path [to a] two-state solution,” Bin Salman said.
“We want peace with the Israelis. We want peace with the Palestinians, we want them to coexist peacefully,” he added.
President Trump greets Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, at the White House on Tuesday.
(Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP via Getty Images)
At home in Saudi Arabia, the trip was touted as an unequivocal triumph for the prince. Saudi state media boasted the country’s emergence as a major non-NATO ally for the U.S., and the signing of a so-called Strategic Defense Agreement as demonstrating Riyadh’s centrality to American strategic thinking.
This touting came despite little clarity on what that agreement actually entails: Its text wasn’t published, and it was mentioned only in passing in a White House “fact sheet,” which emphasized Saudi Arabia would “buy American” with significant purchases of tanks, missiles and F-35s; the latter would be the first time the U.S.’ most advanced jet is sold to an Arab country.
Saudi Arabia will also be given access to top-line AI chips, enabling it to leverage plentiful land and energy resources to build data centers while “protecting U.S. technology from foreign influence,” according to the White House.
Talks over Riyadh’s civilian nuclear program, stalled for a decade over concerns from previous administrations, yielded a framework that in theory allows Saudi Arabia to build a nuclear plant. Uranium enrichment, which in theory would allow weaponization, isn’t part of the agreement, U.S. officials say.
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and President Trump watch a flyover of F-15 and F-35 fighters before meeting at the White House.
(Brendan Smialowski / AFP via Getty Images)
On the regional politics front, Bin Salman got a pledge from Trump to help broker an end to the war in Sudan.
The visit capped Bin Salman’s stunning redemption arc from the nadir of his reputation seven years ago.
Back then, his image as a dauntless reformer — reversing bans on women driving, neutering the country’s notorious religious police — was already crumbling after he sought to silence not only foreign opponents, but anyone domestically who questioned Vision 2030, his far-reaching (and hugely expensive) plan for transforming Saudi Arabia.
Then came the 2018 strangulation and dismemberment in Turkey of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi insider-turned-mild-critic and Washington Post columnist.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is seen inside a vehicle while leaving the White House after a meeting in the Oval Office with President Trump.
(Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP via Getty Images)
Trump appeared more inclined to side with the prince, who denied any involvement in the killing, but the CIA said in a leaked report it had high confidence the prince ordered Khashoggi’s assassination.
Association with Bin Salman, once Washington’s Middle East darling, became toxic. International companies rushed to pull out of the kingdom. Politicians made it clear he was unwelcome. Then-candidate Joe Biden vowed to make the Saudi government “a pariah.”
In time, the prince stepped back from his more pugilistic policies, while geopolitics, energy concerns and a turbulent Middle East forced Biden to moderate his rejectionist stance.
That same year, Riyadh helped broker a prisoner swap between Russia and Ukraine. Later, a China-brokered agreement saw the prince calm his country’s stormy diplomatic relations with Iran. Just last month, he reportedly worked behind the scenes to push through a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
His White House visit seemed to cement his comeback, but little of what was promised is a done deal.
For one, whether Saudi Arabia can pony up $1 trillion — a figure amounting to 80% of its annual GDP and more than twice its foreign exchange reserves — is an open question.
Crucially, the prince didn’t specify when the money would be invested.
Though the investment pledge is big, “how much and over what period of time is completely unclear,” said Tim Callen, an economist and former International Monetary Fund mission chief to Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia is also pulling back on its government spending, with deflated oil prices forcing it to downsize many of its gigaprojects, Callen added.
“The pot of money available to push out all these projects and investments has shrunk, relative to 2022 and 2023,” he said.
“My take on it is that things are going to advance both on the investment and trade side [between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia] because there are mutual economic interests between the two countries,” he said. But in the short term, he added, $1 trillion “is too big a number for the economy of Saudi Arabia.”
As for F-35s, seeing them on Saudi runways is likely to take years. Congress has to approve F-35 sales, and some opposition could arise if they’re seen to jeopardize Israel’s qualitative military edge.
Israel, the only nation in the F-35 program allowed to use certain specialized technology, would expect Saudi Arabia to receive “planes of reduced caliber,” Trump said on Tuesday, with the prince on his side.
“I don’t think that makes you too happy,” he said to the prince.
“As far as I’m concerned,” Trump added, “I think [Israel and Saudi Arabia] are both at a level where they should get top of the line.”
But the bigger obstacle may be Saudi Arabia’s links to China, said Richard Aboulafia, managing director of AeroDynamic Advisory and an aviation analyst.
Saudi security forces stand at attention beneath a portrait of Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, during a military parade as pilgrims arrive for the annual pilgrimage in the holy city of Mecca on May 31.
(AFP via Getty Images)
In recent years, Saudi Arabia has run military exercises with the Chinese navy and fielded Chinese-made weapons in its armed forces. Ensuring it doesn’t get a look at the aircraft’s capabilities presents “a different set of challenges,” Aboulafia said. Similar concerns scuttled the United Arab Emirates’ attempts to acquire the jet, he added.
Another issue is that a backlog in aircraft delivery means another recipient would need to give up their production slots in Saudi Arabia’s favor.
Also key to Bin Salman’s return to the U.S.’ full embrace was his treatment by Trump at the White House.
When a reporter asked the prince about the Khashoggi killing, it was Trump who put up a vociferous defense, and called Khashoggi “extremely controversial.”
“A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about. Whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen, but he knew nothing about it,” Trump said, pointing to the crown prince.
President Trump, right, and Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, shake hands during their meeting in the Oval Office.
(Nathan Howard / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Trump also took a swing at Biden’s fist bump, engaging in an awkward hand-grabbing game with Bin Salman.
“I grabbed that hand,” Trump said. “I don’t give a hell where that hand’s been.”
Past presidents and politicians of both parties will gather Thursday in Washington, D.C., for former Vice President Dick Cheney’s funeral.Neither President Donald Trump nor Vice President JD Vance were invited to Cheney’s funeral, according to a source familiar with the matter.Cheney will receive full military honors at the memorial service, which is expected to be a bipartisan who’s who of Washington dignitaries.More than 1,000 guests are expected at the invitation-only funeral Thursday morning at Washington’s National Cathedral — including all four living former vice presidents and two former presidents.Former Presidents George W. Bush and Joe Biden will pay their respects, along with former Vice Presidents Kamala Harris, Mike Pence, Al Gore and Dan Quayle. There are also expected to be a number of Supreme Court Justices, including Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Elena Kagan. A large number of past and present Cabinet members from both Republican and Democratic administrations will also attend, as well as congressional leaders from both sides of the aisle.Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi is expected to attend along with Senate Majority Leader John Thune and former leader Mitch McConnell.CNN has reached out to the White House for comment. Axios was first to report that Trump was not invited to the funeral.The funeral’s guest list itself is a nod to a time when Washington was not so polarized and politicians from both sides of the aisle paid their respects when a dignitary passed away.Cheney’s funeral will be held at 11 a.m. ET. Speakers will include Bush, Cheney’s daughter former Rep. Liz Cheney and some of his grandchildren.Cheney, who served as Bush’s vice president from 2001 to 2009, died on November 3 at the age of 84. Prior to being elected vice president, Cheney served as defense secretary, White House chief of staff and as a congressman representing Wyoming.He was considered one of the most powerful and influential vice presidents in history, but his role as the architect of the Iraq War saw him leave office deeply unpopular and cemented a polarizing legacy.While official Washington funerals usually include invites to the White House, excluding Trump should not be a surprise.Cheney was a lifetime hardline conservative who endorsed Trump’s 2016 campaign. But he spent the last years of his life speaking out against Trump, particularly after his daughter then-Rep. Liz Cheney drew the president’s ire for her prominent role in a congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol.In 2022, Cheney described Trump as a coward and said no one was a “greater threat to our republic.”Trump has not publicly expressed his condolences or commented on Cheney’s death.The White House offered a muted reaction after Cheney’s death with press secretary Karoline Leavitt telling reporters that Trump was “aware” the former vice president had died and noting that flags had been lowered to half-staff.Honorary pallbearers at Cheney’s funeral will include members of his Secret Service detail; his former chiefs of staff, David Addington and Scooter Libby; and photographer David Hume Kennerly.On one of the last pages of the service leaflet is a quote from the writer and naturalist John Muir, saying: “The mountains are calling and I must go.”
WASHINGTON —
Past presidents and politicians of both parties will gather Thursday in Washington, D.C., for former Vice President Dick Cheney’s funeral.
Neither President Donald Trump nor Vice President JD Vance were invited to Cheney’s funeral, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Cheney will receive full military honors at the memorial service, which is expected to be a bipartisan who’s who of Washington dignitaries.
More than 1,000 guests are expected at the invitation-only funeral Thursday morning at Washington’s National Cathedral — including all four living former vice presidents and two former presidents.
Former Presidents George W. Bush and Joe Biden will pay their respects, along with former Vice Presidents Kamala Harris, Mike Pence, Al Gore and Dan Quayle. There are also expected to be a number of Supreme Court Justices, including Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Elena Kagan. A large number of past and present Cabinet members from both Republican and Democratic administrations will also attend, as well as congressional leaders from both sides of the aisle.
Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi is expected to attend along with Senate Majority Leader John Thune and former leader Mitch McConnell.
CNN has reached out to the White House for comment. Axios was first to report that Trump was not invited to the funeral.
The funeral’s guest list itself is a nod to a time when Washington was not so polarized and politicians from both sides of the aisle paid their respects when a dignitary passed away.
Cheney’s funeral will be held at 11 a.m. ET. Speakers will include Bush, Cheney’s daughter former Rep. Liz Cheney and some of his grandchildren.
Cheney, who served as Bush’s vice president from 2001 to 2009, died on November 3 at the age of 84. Prior to being elected vice president, Cheney served as defense secretary, White House chief of staff and as a congressman representing Wyoming.
He was considered one of the most powerful and influential vice presidents in history, but his role as the architect of the Iraq War saw him leave office deeply unpopular and cemented a polarizing legacy.
While official Washington funerals usually include invites to the White House, excluding Trump should not be a surprise.
Cheney was a lifetime hardline conservative who endorsed Trump’s 2016 campaign. But he spent the last years of his life speaking out against Trump, particularly after his daughter then-Rep. Liz Cheney drew the president’s ire for her prominent role in a congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol.
In 2022, Cheney described Trump as a coward and said no one was a “greater threat to our republic.”
Trump has not publicly expressed his condolences or commented on Cheney’s death.
The White House offered a muted reaction after Cheney’s death with press secretary Karoline Leavitt telling reporters that Trump was “aware” the former vice president had died and noting that flags had been lowered to half-staff.
Honorary pallbearers at Cheney’s funeral will include members of his Secret Service detail; his former chiefs of staff, David Addington and Scooter Libby; and photographer David Hume Kennerly.
On one of the last pages of the service leaflet is a quote from the writer and naturalist John Muir, saying: “The mountains are calling and I must go.”
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former president Joe Biden will attend Thursday’s memorial service for former vice president Dick Cheney at the Washington National Cathedral, which will feature remarks from another former president, George W. Bush.
A spokeswoman for Biden confirmed his plans to attend. The Democratic president said in a statement after Cheney’s death that the former vice president was “guided by a strong set of conservative values” and that “he believed, as I do, that family is the beginning, middle, and end.”
The current U.S. president, Donald Trump, and his administration said little about Cheney after his Nov. 3 death following complications from pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease. It’s unknown whether Trump, who has had frosty relations with the Cheney family, will attend the funeral, which is by invitation only.
Trump never made a statement on Cheney’s passing and did not issue a presidential proclamation that often accompanies the death of notable figures. The White House did lower its flags to half-staff after his death, which press secretary Karoline Leavitt said it did “in accordance with statutory law.”
That was also the rationale conveyed by the White House to congressional leaders earlier this month, when the Capitol was told that it should go by the statute that governs when a flag should be lowered, including for deaths of principal government figures, according to three people familiar with the conversations.
Federal law says when a former vice president dies, then the U.S. flag will fly at half-staff from the day of death until the day of interment.
The American flag is seen at half-staff, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, at the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
The implication was that congressional leaders should not wait for a formal proclamation because one would not be coming. The people spoke on condition of anonymity to describe private conversations.
The White House on Wednesday did not respond to a request for comment on why a proclamation was never issued for Cheney, or whether Trump was invited to the funeral. During his reelection campaign last year, Trump regularly criticized Cheney and his daughter, former Rep. Liz Cheney, who had become one of Trump’s fiercest critics in the Republican Party after his attempts to remain in office after losing the 2020 election. The former vice president, a longtime Republican stalwart, said he would vote for Trump’s opponent, Democrat Kamala Harris, saying last year that Trump can “never be trusted with power again.”
In addition to serving as Bush’s vice president, Cheney was also the defense secretary under President George H.W. Bush and chief of staff for President Gerald Ford. He also served as Wyoming’s lone representative to the House, a seat that was occupied by his daughter, Liz, decades later.
Others delivering tributes at Thursday’s funeral are Cheney’s longtime cardiologist, Jonathan Reiner; former NBC News correspondent Pete Williams, who was Cheney’s spokesman at the Pentagon; Liz Cheney; and the former vice president’s grandchildren.
