For weeks, the U.S. military has quietly amassed what President Donald Trump has described as an ‘armada’ in Iran’s backyard. Mapped out across the Persian Gulf and beyond, the deployment tells its own story — one of calculated pressure backed by credible capability.

The latest signal of escalation is the movement of the world’s largest aircraft carrier, the U.S. Navy’s USS Gerald R. Ford, and its strike group from the Caribbean toward the Middle East.

The buildup coincides with indirect negotiations between Washington and Tehran over Iran’s disputed nuclear program. Trump has warned that the regime must fully dismantle its nuclear infrastructure — or face consequences.

At the heart of America’s force projection is another carrier strike group: USS Abraham Lincoln — a mobile fortress at sea, guarded by destroyers and equipped to unleash precision strikes at a moment’s notice. On deck, F-35 fighters and F/A-18 attack aircraft sit within range of dozens of key Iranian military and nuclear targets.

Meanwhile, in the Eastern Mediterranean, destroyers USS Bulkeley and USS Roosevelt provide additional strike capability and missile defense coverage — and could potentially assist Israel in defending against any Iranian counterattack.

Farther south, in the Red Sea, USS Delbert B. Black adds another layer of firepower along one of the world’s most important shipping lanes. The Red Sea links the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean through the Suez Canal, a corridor that carries a significant share of global trade and energy supplies. 

A U.S. destroyer there not only protects commercial traffic but also gives Washington the flexibility to respond quickly to threats moving between the Middle East and Europe.

Even closer to Iran’s coastline, in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, USS McFaul and USS Mitscher are operating in one of the most strategically sensitive waterways on the planet. Roughly a fifth of the world’s oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz each day. Their presence signals that the U.S. can both defend that vital choke point and, if necessary, strike Iranian targets from close range.

Beyond naval forces, U.S. air power is spread across multiple Middle Eastern bases, giving commanders the ability to strike, defend and sustain operations quickly.

Several types of combat aircraft are operating from regional bases, including F-15s, F-16s and the radar-evading F-35. The A-10 specializes in close-air support missions against armored threats.

Those fighters are backed by a network of support aircraft. KC-135 and KC-46 tankers refuel jets midair, allowing them to fly farther and stay aloft longer. EA-18G electronic warfare aircraft can jam enemy radar and communications. E-3 Sentry aircraft serve as airborne command centers, tracking threats across wide areas. P-8 Poseidon planes patrol and monitor maritime activity.

Additionally, heavy transports — including C-5 Galaxy and C-17 Globemaster aircraft — move troops and equipment, while MQ-9 Reaper drones provide surveillance and can carry precision weapons. The assets give U.S. commanders flexibility to operate across air, sea and land.

Taken together, the air and naval deployments create overlapping strike capability, missile defense coverage and control over major maritime routes. For Iran, it means U.S. forces are not concentrated in a single vulnerable location — they are distributed, layered and positioned to operate from multiple directions at once. 

Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be deposed by the House Oversight Committee in their hometown instead of in Washington, D.C. next week, Fox News Digital has learned.

The Clintons are testifying under oath for the committee’s probe into Jeffrey Epstein. Hillary Clinton’s deposition is scheduled for Feb. 26 while Bill Clinton will sit down with congressional staff and lawmakers on Feb. 27.

‘The Clintons’ depositions will be held in Chappaqua, New York on February 26 and 27 as an accommodation for their schedules. The depositions are in accordance with House and Committee rules,’ a spokeswoman for the House Oversight Committee told Fox News Digital.

The former first couple purchased their home in Chappaqua, just north of New York City, in 1999, and it has been their main residence since leaving the White House.

Their depositions will come after months of back-and-forth with committee Republicans about various terms for the closed-door meetings.

‘The Clintons’ testimony is critical to understanding Epstein and [Ghislaine Maxwell’s] sex trafficking network and the ways they sought to curry favor and influence to shield themselves from scrutiny,’ House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., told Fox News Digital on Thursday evening. ‘Their testimony may also inform how Congress can strengthen laws to better combat human trafficking. Our goal for this investigation is straightforward: we seek to deliver transparency and accountability for the American people and for survivors.’

House Republicans nearly moved forward with a vote on holding them both in contempt of Congress last month after the Clintons’ lawyers ripped Comer’s subpoenas as legally invalid and a breach of separation of powers.

While some Democrats agreed with the move, the majority of them accused Comer of persecuting the Clintons on political grounds.

If the votes were successful, they would both have been referred to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for prosecution. A guilty verdict for contempt of Congress carries up to one year in jail and a maximum fine of $100,000.

But days before the expected vote, the Clintons’ counsel told Comer they would agree to testify.

In the days since, however, both Clintons have waged a public pressure campaign demanding they get public hearings instead of a closed-door transcribed and taped interview. 

‘I have called for the full release of the Epstein files. I have provided a sworn statement of what I know. And just this week, I’ve agreed to appear in person before the committee. But it’s still not enough for Republicans on the House Oversight Committee,’ Bill Clinton posted on X this month.

‘Now, Chairman Comer says he wants cameras, but only behind closed doors. Who benefits from this arrangement? It’s not Epstein’s victims, who deserve justice. Not the public, who deserve the truth. It serves only partisan interests. This is not fact-finding, it’s pure politics.’

Comer has said that public hearings are not out of the question, but not before depositions behind closed doors.

Bill Clinton was known to be friendly with Epstein long before the federal case against him first emerged and has appeared in documents on the late pedophile released by the DOJ. But neither he nor Hillary Clinton are implicated in any wrongdoing.

The Clintons are two of over a dozen people and entities who have been subpoenaed for information in the committee’s bipartisan Epstein probe.

It’s not unprecedented for the committee to travel for depositions, either. Committee staff and some lawmakers were in Ohio on Wednesday to depose former Victoria’s Secret CEO Leslie Wexner, a former client of Epstein’s financial advisory firm who was named in documents released by the DOJ about the late pedophile thousands of times.

Some Republicans are quietly cheering the Supreme Court’s decision blocking most of President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Friday, even as it deals a blow to a cornerstone of the commander-in-chief’s foreign policy and economic strategy.

One conservative House GOP lawmaker granted anonymity to speak freely, for example, said they were ‘relieved.’

‘It’s the right result,’ they said. ‘I am already seeing messages of relief and approval from other members of the Republican conference, as well. I expect that even more will express that relief. This helps to ensure Congress keeps its power over tariffs and preserves separation of power.’

Another Trump-aligned House Republican told Fox News Digital, ‘I think the Supreme Court rightfully decided that this was an Article I authority.’

‘Conservatives don’t like tariffs as a long-term strategy,’ the second House Republican said. ‘The president was right to use them as a tool, and he was right to use them to get outcomes on certain things. But in a long-term way…it’s a tax on consumers.’

The conservative-majority high court ruled on Friday that Trump did not have the authority to impose tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). The White House’s interpretation of the 1977 law was used as the basis for sweeping ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs that Trump first unveiled last year.

But Chief Justice John Roberts argued that the law would have more expressly mentioned tariff authority if that is what it was meant for.

Roberts said ‘the president must ‘point to clear congressional authorization’ to justify his extraordinary assertion of the power to impose tariffs,’ which ‘he cannot.’

The ruling, and subsequent wave of relief, isn’t the first time Republicans have bucked Trump and his tariffs. The Senate on several occasions has voted against specific parts of the strategy, and the House voted last week to end Trump’s emergency declaration on Canada aimed at ending tariffs there.

‘Article One gives tariff authority to Congress. This was a common sense and straightforward ruling by the Supreme Court. I feel vindicated as I’ve been saying this for the last 12 months,’ Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., one of six House Republicans who voted against the Canada tariffs last week, told Fox News Digital. ‘Besides the Constitutional concerns I had on the Administration’s broad-based tariffs, I also do not think tariffs are smart economic policy. Broad-based tariffs are bad economics.’

One House GOP aide bluntly told Fox News Digital after the ruling, ‘Tariffs suck and are useless.’  

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., one of the most vocal opponents of tariffs in the Senate, contended in a post on X shortly after the ruling that the Supreme Court ‘struck down using emergency powers to enact taxes.’

‘No future administration, including a socialist one, can use ‘emergency’ powers to get around Congress and tax by decree,’ Paul said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

But not every Republican was thrilled by the result, nor their colleagues’ attitude toward the hefty blow dealt to Trump’s agenda and the ripple effect it could have on his economic policies. One Republican source described the outpouring of relief or opposition as ’50/50.’

A GOP Senate source told Fox News Digital, ‘If this is a relief to any Republican, then they clearly don’t care about their president’s agenda.’ 

‘The administration will find a way around this, and should, but anyone who’s celebrating right now is probably missing a part of their brain,’ the source said. ‘I don’t understand how someone can see President Trump and the American people lose trillions of dollars and smile.’

Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., told Fox News Digital that he was disappointed by the decision, but not surprised, and noted that the court was divided on the issue.

‘President Trump’s tariffs were delivering results — bringing our trading partners to the table, securing ten trade agreements, and driving supply chains and manufacturing back to the United States,’ Marshall said. ‘These tools were also advancing our national security interests, including pressuring countries like India to stop purchasing Russian oil.’ 

A third House Republican granted anonymity to speak candidly told Fox News Digital the Supreme Court decision was ‘a severe blow’ because the tariffs ‘were making progress that we finally have on fair trade.’

President Donald Trump has reportedly reacted to the Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision that ruled he does not have the authority to levy sweeping tariffs under a specific emergency powers law.

A source outside the Trump administration told Fox News that an aide came into the closed-door White House breakfast with governors and handed Trump a note about the Supreme Court ruling.

The source said Trump ‘called it a disgrace, and then he went on with the remarks.’

The high court blocked Trump’s tariffs levied under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act in what amounts to a major test of executive branch authority. 

Some of the Supreme Court’s nine justices will likely be sitting in the audience when the president delivers the State of the Union address on Tuesday.

In the opinion, the high court declared, ‘Our task today is to decide only whether the power to ‘regulate… importation,’ as granted to the President in IEEPA, embraces the power to impose tariffs. It does not.’

Trump has made tariffs a key plank of his economic agenda since retaking the Oval Office last year, but his policies have not come without controversy.

Republican reaction to the ruling has been mixed.

Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga., slammed the high court’s decision.

‘The Supreme Court just undercut the President’s ability to defend American workers. President Donald Trump was elected to fight unfair trade and stop the United States from being ripped off. I’m outraged by this decision; it’s clearly judicial overreach,’ Carter asserted in a post on X.

But Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., welcomed the ruling.

‘In defense of our Republic, the Supreme Court struck down using emergency powers to enact taxes. This ruling will also prevent a future President such as AOC from using emergency powers to enact socialism,’ Paul noted in a post on X.

Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., also hailed the decision.

‘The Constitution’s checks and balances still work. Article One gives tariff authority to Congress. This was a common-sense and straightforward ruling by the Supreme Court. I feel vindicated as I’ve been saying this for the last 12 months. In the future, Congress should defend its own authorities and not rely on the Supreme Court. Besides the Constitutional concerns I had on the Administration’s broad-based tariffs, I also do not think tariffs are smart economic policy. Broad-based tariffs are bad economics,’ Bacon wrote in a post on X.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Congressional Republicans are pushing back against Democratic claims that their marquee voter ID legislation would wreak havoc on elections in the country.

Congressional Democrats have panned the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act as a tool of voter suppression — saying it’s a bill that allows the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to monitor Americans’ voter information and create barriers for married women to vote, among several other claims.

Along with requiring photo ID to vote, the bill would require proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections, mandate states to actively verify and remove noncitizens from voter rolls, expand information sharing with federal agencies, including DHS, to verify citizenship, and create new criminal penalties for registering noncitizens to vote.

Trump has time and again pushed voter ID, calling the election reforms in the bill a ‘CAN’T MISS FOR RE-ELECTION IN THE MIDTERMS, AND BEYOND.’ 

Some of the bill’s strongest proponents fact-checked those claims in interviews with Fox News Digital.

‘If you look at what it actually says, rather than what Democrats aggressively and, I believe, disingenuously are arguing right now — they’re overlooking the requirements of the SAVE America Act — those requirements are actually really generous,’ Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, told Fox News Digital. ‘They’re really flexible.’

Here’s a closer look at some of the most common claims Democrats have made about the SAVE America Act — and how Republican supporters of the bill are responding.

Claim: ‘Federalizing voter suppression’

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., routinely has bashed the SAVE America Act as ‘Jim Crow 2.0’ — the segregationist laws of the Deep South largely done away with by the Civil Rights Act.

‘It has nothing to do with protecting our elections and everything to do with federalizing voter suppression,’ Schumer said earlier in February on the Senate floor.

But Republicans argued that Democrats were being ‘hypocritical’ in their voter suppression charge, particularly when it comes to voter ID.

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., whose home state is one of 36 that either requests or requires a form of photo identification before voting, argued that voter ID laws across the country had no effect on turnout.

‘This idea that they’re saying that it’s going to suppress any vote — it’s never done that anywhere,’ Scott told Fox News Digital. ‘They said that when Georgia passed it, and they had record turnout. So it’s not true at all. I mean, how many people do you know who don’t have an ID?’

Claim: DHS will have access to legal voters’ data

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., argued during a press conference that this iteration of the SAVE Act — with its new name — is ‘worse’ than the version that passed the House in April because it gave DHS access to Americans’ voter data.

He appeared to be referring to a provision that would allow DHS to begin potential deportation proceedings against a noncitizen found on a state’s voter rolls.

‘This version, as I understand it, would actually give DHS the power to get voting records from states across the country,’ Jeffries said earlier in February. ‘Why would these extremists think that’s a good idea? That we as Democrats are going to accept at this moment in time? We’d want DHS and ICE, who have been brutally, viciously and violently targeting everyday Americans, to have more data about the American people? It’s outrageous.’

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, who led both the SAVE Act and SAVE America Act in the House, argued Democrats were ‘really reaching’ for criticism.

‘This actually allows and empowers states to be able to — as many of them want to do — check their voter rolls against the citizenship database that they’re currently prohibited from doing under a judicial interpretation of federal law,’ Roy said.

‘So, long-winded way of saying, no — the SAVE system exists, we have citizenship data, and we’re simply going to allow the checking of voter rolls against citizenship data.’

Claim: Suppresses married women’s right to vote

Another oft-repeated argument by Democrats is that the legislation would make it harder for American women to vote — specifically married women whose last names are now different from those on their birth certificates.

That’s because the bill would require proof of citizenship, like a birth certificate or a Real ID, to register to vote.

‘Republicans aren’t truly afraid of noncitizens voting, which we all know is already illegal, already grounds for deportation,’ House Minority Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass., said earlier this month. ‘They’re afraid of women voting.’

Rep. Emilia Sykes, D-Ohio, said during the same press conference, ‘If your current name does not exactly fit and match the name on your birth certificate or citizenship papers, you could be blocked from registering to vote, even if you are a lifelong naturalized or American-born citizen.’

But Roy again said this was untrue.

‘This is absolute nonsense, and we specifically allow for a provision to make sure that no one can possibly be left behind,’ he said.

‘If a woman tried to register to vote with different names on her birth certificate and driver’s license,’ Roy said. ‘We literally put in the statute that all you have to do is sign an affidavit under penalty of perjury that, ‘I am that person. This is my birth certificate … and this is my driver’s license that is reflecting my married name.’’