The federal trial of Ryan Routh, accused of attempting to assassinate former President Donald Trump during a round of golf in September 2024, resumes Monday after a week that saw jurors seated, opening statements delivered and a flurry of early testimony.

In just two days of testimony last week, prosecutors called 13 witnesses — mostly FBI and Secret Service agents — to walk jurors through the investigation and security response to the alleged attack.

Prosecutors opened Thursday by reading Ryan Routh’s own words — ‘Trump cannot be elected’ and ‘I need Trump to go away’ — to argue he plotted for months, traveled from Hawaii, and positioned himself at Trump International Golf Club with a rifle chambered and ready to fire. 

Routh, representing himself, delivered a seven-minute opening statement that Trump-appointed Judge Aileen Cannon cut short after he veered into rambling remarks about Adolf Hitler and the Wright brothers, at one point telling jurors, ‘This case means absolutely nothing. A life has been lived to the fullest.’

The week’s witnesses included a Secret Service agent who testified Routh smiled at him while pointing a rifle ‘directly at my face,’ a civilian who identified Routh fleeing in a black Nissan Xterra, and bomb squad and FBI agents who described the alleged sniper’s hideout — backpacks clipped to a fence, a camera zip-tied to it, and Vienna sausages on the ground. 

Jurors were also shown photos prosecutors said linked Routh’s clothing to the scene, including pants with a red stain prosecutors compared to red paint on a bag recovered from the brush. Routh’s cross-examinations were brief and sometimes bizarre, from asking witnesses ‘Is it good to be alive?‘ to quizzing them on AK-47 mechanics.

Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, told jurors to expect the trial to go until 5:30 p.m. daily. More FBI agents and law enforcement witnesses are expected to take the stand Monday as the government continues presenting evidence.

There are moments in American politics when the ground shifts beneath our feet — when something that seemed fringe, even laughable, suddenly becomes the center of gravity. Today, that something is the MAHA movement: ‘Make America Healthy Again.’ And if you think this is just another Trumpian sideshow, you’re missing the tectonic plates moving under your feet. 

Let’s be clear: dismissing MAHA is not just shortsighted — it’s dangerous. Because what’s happening here isn’t just a rebranding of MAGA. It’s a recalibration of the American political compass, and it’s drawing in people who, until recently, wouldn’t have been caught dead at a President Donald Trump rally. 

A new American coalition — and it’s not who you think 

For years, the political class has comforted itself with the idea that Trump’s appeal is limited to a certain kind of voter: the angry, the disaffected, the left-behind. But look closer at the MAHA movement, and you’ll see something different — something unsettling for the status quo. 

Libertarians who once rolled their eyes at Trump’s bravado are now nodding along, drawn by his full-throated defense of medical freedom and parental rights. Moms who used to vote blue without a second thought are suddenly asking hard questions about what’s being injected into their kids’ bodies — and they’re not satisfied with the answers from the CDC or the FDA. Even some on the left, those perennial skeptics of Big Pharma and government mandates, are finding themselves, almost in spite of themselves, in Trump’s corner. 

This isn’t just a coalition — it’s a realignment. And it’s happening in real time. 

Trump, the maestro of the moment 

Say what you will about Trump — his flaws are legion, his style abrasive, his rhetoric often incendiary — but no one, and I mean no one, has a better instinct for the symbolic gesture. He doesn’t just talk about problems; he embodies them, dramatizes them, makes them impossible to ignore. 

Remember the wall? It wasn’t just about immigration — it was about drawing a line, literally and figuratively, between ‘us’ and ‘them.’ It was about making a promise that was as much emotional as it was practical. Today, with MAHA, Trump is doing it again. But this time, the stakes are even higher. 

This isn’t some sleepy task force or blue-ribbon panel. This is the Oval Office, the Resolute Desk, the full weight of the presidency brought to bear on a single, electrifying issue: the health of America’s children. Trump isn’t just asking questions — he’s making commitments. He’s turning parental anxiety into political power, and he’s doing it with the kind of showmanship that only he can pull off. 

The political class is missing the point — again 

Here’s the thing: the political establishment, in both parties, is still stuck in the old paradigm. They see MAHA as a distraction, a sideshow, a way for Trump to gin up his base. But they’re wrong. This is bigger than Trump. This is about trust — about who gets to decide what goes into our bodies and our children’s bodies. It’s about the creeping sense that the institutions we once trusted have failed us, and that no one in power is willing to say so out loud. 

Dismiss this movement at your own peril. Because what’s happening here is a revolt — not just against the medical establishment, but against the entire political class that has grown fat and complacent while ordinary Americans worry about the health of their kids. 

A moment that could redefine 2028 — and beyond 

If you’re rolling your eyes right now, ask yourself: when was the last time you saw a political movement that could unite libertarians, disaffected Democrats and suburban moms? When was the last time you saw Donald Trump not just riding a wave, but creating one? 

This isn’t just a coalition — it’s a realignment. And it’s happening in real time. 

The MAHA movement is not a blip. It’s not a meme. It’s a warning shot across the bow of American politics. And if you think it’s going away, you haven’t been paying attention. 

Trump has always been a master of the moment. But with MAHA, he’s doing something even more audacious: he’s building a new coalition, one that could upend everything we thought we knew about American politics. Ignore it if you want. But don’t say you weren’t warned. 

The House Republicans’ campaign arm is launching a pressure campaign against vulnerable Democrats as the deadline for a government shutdown looms on Capitol Hill.

The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) is rolling out an ad campaign on Monday targeting 25 House Democrats in battleground districts, urging voters there to pressure their representatives to vote in favor of whatever government funding plan the GOP unveils.

The House and Senate have just seven planned working days left together before the end of fiscal 2025 comes on Sept. 30. If a deal is not struck on federal funding by then, both Republicans and Democrats could face the political backlash of a partial government shutdown.

‘Democrats are threatening a government shutdown to stop President Trump’s policies – like Trump’s crackdown on MS-13 and violent criminals,’ a voice-over said in the short clip. ‘Democrats want to abolish ICE, allowing violent criminal illegal aliens roaming our streets. And to do it? They’re putting veterans’ care at risk while risking military pay, police and Border Patrol.’

The clip ended with a message to voters: ‘Tell Democrats: Don’t hold the government hostage to put illegals before us.’

Republican leaders are expected to unveil a short-term extension of FY 2025 government funding levels, called a continuing resolution, or CR, this week.

Democrats have warned for weeks that they will not accept a government funding deal that was written without their input. They’ve also threatened to oppose any spending measure without guarantees that the Trump administration will not seek to cut back those funds down the line.

‘The American people are hurting because of how they have decimated healthcare. We need a bipartisan negotiation to undo that damage,’ Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said during an appearance alongside House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., on Thursday.

‘If they try to jam something down our throats without any compromise, without any bipartisan or real bipartisan discussion, they ain’t going to get the votes. Plain and simple.’

President Donald Trump, meanwhile, told Republicans on Friday not to work with Democrats on the issue, accusing them of making impossible demands.

‘They want to give away money to this or that and destroy the country. If you gave them every dream, they would not vote for it,’ Trump said on ‘Fox & Friends.’ ‘Don’t even bother dealing with them.’

But Republican leaders are hoping that a ‘clean’ CR, free of any additional partisan measures, will be enough to sway enough Democrats into voting to avert a shutdown. 

‘Democrats currently are playing games with this government funding idea. They’re trying to bring in extraneous issues,’ Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said on ‘Fox News Sunday.’ ‘We may need a stopgap funding measure, a CR, for a short period of time to allow [funding] negotiations to continue. But it will be clean in its scope, and I surely hope the Democrats will not try to make this a big partisan fight.’

Congress passed a CR lasting from March through September 2025, with just one Democratic vote from Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine.

Meanwhile, Schumer is under pressure from progressives to reject any GOP-led funding deal without compromises for the left after his vote was key to averting a shutdown in March.

‘Out of touch House Democrats would rather grind our government to a halt than let President Trump crack down on violent criminals and secure our border,’ NRCC spokesman Mike Marinella told Fox News Digital. ‘They’ll risk veterans’ care, military pay and public safety just to appease their radical base.’

A Senate Republican warned Monday that Congress would likely have to change the law following deep Medicaid cuts in President Donald Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill.’

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said during an appearance at the Global Health Innovation Forum at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston that ‘pressure’ would grow over time for lawmakers to make a change to the megabill’s steep cuts to Medicaid.

She said she supported other big-ticket items in the bill, like extending provisions from Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and the beefing up of Medicaid’s work requirement.

But Collins argued that while there should be an effort to trim the costs of Medicaid and Medicare in the country, the deep, nearly $1 trillion cuts to Medicaid would hurt Americans.

‘They don’t go into effect next year, they go into effect the following year,’ Collins said. ‘But a year is not going to make any difference at all, and I’m just very concerned that people who need the care aren’t going to get it.’

Collins warned that once ‘we start seeing Americans getting sicker as a result of this, having delayed treatment because they no longer have the coverage,’ then lawmakers will have to take a better look at the cuts they greenlit in June.

‘I don’t see the states having the ability to step up and fill the gap here. I just don’t. Even wealthy states,’ she said. ‘I just don’t see that happening. And as the implications of the bill become better known, I think there’s going to be tremendous pressure on Congress to change the law. But we’re going to need the evidence, the stories, the research that didn’t occur.’

She was one of only three Senate Republicans — the others were Sens. Rand Paul, of Kentucky, and Thom Tillis, of North Carolina — to vote against the colossal package in June. At the time, she cited Medicaid cuts as the key reason behind her decision not to back the bill.

Collins noted that before the bill ever went to the floor for what would become a marathon, 29-hour vote-a-rama before final passage in the upper chamber, she told both Republican leaders in the Senate and officials at the White House that she was a hard ‘no’ unless changes were made to the bill.

She offered leaders and the administration a list of 10 items she took issue with, including cuts that would affect rural hospitals. Maine has 32 rural hospitals, she said, with one having just been closed.

‘We have five that are teetering on the brink of closure because they’re already in trouble, because the Medicaid reimbursements are not high enough, and also because of population changes,’ she said.

Collins and other skeptics of the Medicaid cuts, including Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., did notch a minor victory with the inclusion of a $50 billion rural hospital fund to help offset the broader cuts — and she vowed to pressure Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Director Mehmet Oz to hustle that funding out the door.

Still, in a state like Maine, which has roughly 31% of the population on Medicaid, she worried that the cuts would see hospitals shoulder more of the costs of care.

‘These cuts, I worry, are going to be devastating for states like Maine, for the people who rely on it,’ Collins said. ‘But you know, a lot of those individuals are still going to show up in the hospital emergency room.’

‘They won’t have been getting the care that they need to keep them out of the hospital emergency room,’ she continued. ‘They’re going to be coming to you with their problems, and they’re not going to be covered by Medicaid, and the problem with that is it’s going to be uncompensated care for hospitals.’

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment but did not immediately hear back. 

President Donald Trump doubled down on his demand that European nations cease all energy purchases from Russia as he mulls his first sanctions on Moscow since re-entering office amid its war in Ukraine.

Speaking to reporters Sunday evening, Trump said European nations, especially those in NATO, are not doing enough to counter Russia, despite the new round of sanctions enacted by the EU last week. 

‘They’re not doing the job. NATO has to get together. Europe has to get together,’ Trump said. ‘Europe… they’re my friends, but they’re buying oil from Russia, so we can’t be expected to be the only ones that are, you know, full bore.’ 

‘Europe is buying oil from Russia. I don’t want them to buy oil,’ he continued, noting that the sanctions Europe has issued on Russia and Russian officials ‘are not tough enough.’

 ‘I’m willing to do sanctions, but they’re going to have to toughen up their sanctions commensurate with what I’m doing,’ Trump confirmed. 

While European nations have drastically cut their reliance on Moscow’s oil following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, they have not cut it off entirely – particularly nations like Hungary, Slovakia, France, Belgium and Spain, which are Europe’s top importers of Russian energy. 

Hungary – whose president remains friendly with Putin despite being a NATO nation – is Europe’s chief importer of Russian crude oil and pipeline gas, purchasing more than double any other European nation’s Russian energy imports.

France, which is the second-largest European purchaser of Russian energy, continues to import liquefied natural gas (LNG), which has largely bypassed EU sanctions, in part due to long-standing legally binding commitments.

These agreements mean Paris has committed to ‘take-or-pay’ contracts through the early 2030s or would face arbitration or penalties. Reporting suggests, however, that the LNG imports are not only slated for French consumption, but are also being passed on to third-party nations like Germany.

Last month, the EU’s Data Protection Authority confirmed that the bloc had imported nearly $5.2 billion worth of Russian LNG in the first half of 2025. 

Trump’s comments came just one day after he sent a letter to NATO that said he is ‘ready to do major sanctions on Russia when all NATO Nations have agreed, and started, to do the same thing, and when all NATO nations stop buying oil from Russia,’ according to a post he made on Truth Social. 

But when asked on Sunday about his plans to hit Russia with additional U.S. sanctions – which have not been expanded since the Biden administration – he suggested Europe might need to stop all LNG imports as well.

The president claimed that all Russian imports are supposed to be barred at this time and said, ‘The deal is, they’re not supposed – whether it’s natural gas or whether it’s cigarettes, I don’t care – they’re not supposed to be buying from Russia.’

The president didn’t expand on which deal he was referring to, and he didn’t comment on the U.S.’s $2.1 billion worth of Russian imports it has purchased in the first five months of 2025, largely consisting of enriched uranium, palladium and fertilizers. 

In addition, he called on NATO allies to hit China with ‘50% to 100% tariffs’ that he said would be withdrawn only after the war in Ukraine concluded – a rate which is currently higher than the 30% tariffs Washington has slapped on Beijing, though which could significantly expand given Trump’s recent threats to hit China with tariffs as high as 200%.

The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s questions regarding this reporting.