Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said that President Donald Trump is under the ‘thrall of Lindsey Graham’ following the U.S. operation in Venezuela, according to audio of the remarks by the lawmaker that MeidasTouch’s Acyn Torabi posted on X.

Paul said that after the first presidential debate in 2016, the Trump family told him that they liked him and the ‘idea of not being involved in foreign wars.’ 

‘It was something I liked about Donald Trump,’ Paul said. ‘It was one of the things, whenever I had misgivings about something else, I would always come back and say, ‘Well, he’s the best we ever had.’ Much better than the Bush’s, who were war mad and wanted to be involved in all these crazy wars overseas… ‘We’re gonna make the world safe for democracy.’ I never liked any of that. And I thought Trump was different, and so, it disappoints me, but he’s under the… thrall of Lindsey Graham.’

Paul has described Trump’s move to unilaterally depose Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro without seeking congressional approval for the attack as ‘disdainful.’ 

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a hawkish Republican from South Carolina, has strongly supported the president’s action.

‘This is Lindsey Graham. Lindsey Graham has gotten to the president who expressed — I saw a clip — there’s like 20 clips of [Trump] saying he’s not for regime change and how regime change has always gone wrong. Somehow they’ve convinced him it’s different if it’s in our hemisphere,’ Paul said to reporters Monday, according to The Hill.

Torabi also posted audio on X in which Paul can be heard quipping, ‘There should be a law’ stipulating that Graham may only visit the White House ‘every other week’ and may only meet with ‘mid-level people, not the president. And no more golf outings.’

Graham was with Trump during a recent gaggle aboard Air Force One.

The senator also recently posted a photo on X that showed him giving a thumbs-up while smiling alongside of Trump, who was holding a cap that read, ‘MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN.’

Graham donned such a cap during an appearance on the Fox News Channel.

Trump endorsed Graham for re-election last year.

Health insurance companies are being summoned to Capitol Hill for a pair of blockbuster hearings as Americans across the country deal with rising costs for their care, Fox News Digital is first to learn.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees health policy, and the Ways and Means Committee, which has jurisdiction over tax policy, are both holding hearings on the rising cost of healthcare in the U.S.

It’s not immediately clear which companies will be represented or if they will allow executives to appear voluntarily.

But the announcement appears to be the House GOP’s move to counter-program an expected vote this week on extending enhanced Obamacare subsidies that expired at the end of 2025.

Obamacare subsidies were expanded in 2020 and 2021 to be available to more people during the COVID-19 pandemic, but then-Democratic majorities in Congress were only able to extend those for a finite period of time.

Whether to extend those subsidies was the subject of fierce debate on Capitol Hill in the waning months of 2025.

The vast majority of Republicans are opposed to extending the subsidies, dismissing them as a pandemic-era relic that’s part of a broken federal healthcare system.

Republicans have also argued that the subsidies only eased costs for 7% of Americans and did nothing to tackle the root causes of high healthcare costs.

But the moderate GOP lawmakers and Democrats who support extending the program have pointed out that an extension would give Congress more time to work on a more permanent solution to healthcare while avoiding the cost cliff seen at the end of last year.

A small group of moderate Republicans joined Democrats in late December to successfully force a vote on a three-year extension, which is taking place on Thursday.

The legislation is likely dead on arrival in the Senate if it passes, however.

House Republicans passed a healthcare bill just before leaving Washington for their two-week holiday break in December.

The Lower Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act includes provisions to codify association health plans, which allow small businesses and people who are self-employed to band together to purchase healthcare coverage plans, giving them access to greater bargaining power.

Republicans also plan to appropriate funding for cost-sharing reductions beginning in 2027, which are designed to lower out-of-pocket medical costs in the individual healthcare market. House GOP leadership aides said it would bring down the cost of premiums by 12%.

As Venezuela enters the post-Nicolas Maduro era, former officials and regional experts warn the country may be facing not a democratic transition, but a period of deeper instability and internal conflict between possible successors that some warn could be even worse than Maduro.

Marshall Billingslea, the former assistant secretary for terrorist financing and financial crimes in the U.S. Treasury Department, said Maduro’s removal has exposed a fractured system that was never held together by a single strongman, but by competing criminal power centers now moving independently.

‘The cartel has always been a loose association, with each of the mafia bosses having their own centers of gravity,’ Billingslea said. ‘Maduro was the frontman, but he didn’t exercise total control. Now we’re seeing each of those centers spinning off on their own.’

Billingslea said the capture of Cilia Flores, Maduro’s wife, was as consequential as Maduro’s removal itself.

‘The capture of Cilia Flores is a particularly big deal because she was the brains behind the operation and the one who cleared out potential rivals,’ he said. ‘Her removal is equally significant.’

Billingslea outlined what he described as five competing power centers, four within the regime and one outside it. ‘The removal of Maduro, and particularly the removal of Cilia Flores, leaves a huge power vacuum in the cartel,’ he said. ‘We haven’t yet reached a new equilibrium here.’

In the interim, he foresees a high risk of internal power struggles, violence and further repression as rival factions maneuver to secure control in a post-Maduro Venezuela. But he notes that the Trump administration anticipates this and is executing a clear-eyed strategy to first secure U.S. core interests, followed by the gradual restoration of democracy, all without needing American ‘boots on the ground.’

Delcy Rodríguez takes over, but power remains contested

Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s longtime vice president, was quickly installed as interim leader. But her rise has done little to reassure Venezuelans or international observers that meaningful change is coming.

Rodríguez is deeply embedded in the Maduro system and has long played a central role in overseeing Venezuela’s internal intelligence and security apparatus. According to regional reporting, her focus since taking office has been consolidating control within those institutions rather than signaling political reform.

Former U.S. and regional officials say Delcy Rodríguez’s rise has revived long-standing questions about who truly influences her decisions as she moves to consolidate power.

Those officials point to Rodríguez’s deep ties with Cuban intelligence, which helped build and operate Venezuela’s internal security and surveillance apparatus over the past two decades. Cuban operatives played a central role in shaping how the regime monitored dissent and protected senior leadership, embedding themselves inside Venezuela’s intelligence services.

At the same time, former officials say Rodríguez appears to be testing cooperation with Washington, creating uncertainty over how much leverage the United States actually holds. Some view her limited engagement with U.S. demands as tactical, aimed at buying time while she works to secure loyalty inside the regime and neutralize rival factions.

A former Venezuelan official previously told Fox News Digital that Rodríguez ‘hates the West’ and represents continuity with the Maduro regime, not a break from it.

Cabello mobilizes loyalists

Diosdado Cabello, one of the most feared figures in the country, has emerged as a central player in the post-Maduro scramble for control.

Cabello, who wields influence over the ruling party and interior security, has been rallying armed colectivos and loyalist groups. Those groups have been active in the streets, detaining opponents and reinforcing regime authority through intimidation.

Sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury for corruption and alleged ties to drug-trafficking networks, Cabello is widely viewed as a figure capable of consolidating power through force rather than institutions.

Jorge Rodríguez holds the levers of control

Jorge Rodríguez, president of the National Assembly and brother of Delcy Rodríguez, remains one of the regime’s most important political operators.

Rodríguez has served as a key strategist for Maduro, overseeing communications, elections and internal coordination. Recent reporting indicates he continues to work closely with his sister to maintain control over intelligence and security structures, reinforcing the regime’s grip despite Maduro’s removal.

Experts say Rodríguez could play a central role in shaping any managed transition that preserves the system Maduro built.

Padrino López

Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López, long considered the backbone of Maduro’s survival, remains a critical figure as well.

While Padrino López has not publicly positioned himself as a successor, analysts note that the armed forces are no longer unified behind a single leader. Senior generals are split across competing factions, raising the risk of internal clashes or a shift toward overt military rule if civilian authority weakens further.

Beyond the power struggle among regime elites, Venezuela faces a broader danger.

Large parts of the country are already influenced by criminal syndicates and armed groups. As centralized authority weakens, those actors could exploit the vacuum, expanding control over territory and smuggling routes.

Experts warned that an uncontrolled collapse could unleash forces more violent and less predictable than Maduro’s centralized repression, and the events unfolding now suggest that risk is growing.

Outside the regime, opposition leader María Corina Machado remains the most popular political figure among Venezuelan voters. But popularity alone may not be enough to translate into power.

Machado lacks control over security forces, intelligence agencies or armed groups. As repression intensifies and rival factions maneuver, her ability to convert public support into political authority remains uncertain.

Maduro’s fall, analysts say, did not dismantle Venezuela’s power structure. It fractured it.

With armed loyalists in the streets, rival factions competing behind the scenes, and an interim leader struggling to assert authority, Venezuela now faces a dangerous period in which the aftermath of Maduro’s rule could prove more chaotic — and potentially more brutal — than what came before, experts say. For Venezuelans, the question is no longer whether Maduro is gone, but whether anything that replaces him will be better.

President Donald Trump said Tuesday in an address before Republican lawmakers that first lady Melania Trump is no fan of when he dances in public, calling it ‘not presidential.’

‘My wife hates when I do this,’ Trump said Tuesday at the Kennedy Center during an address at the House GOP Member Retreat. 

‘She’s a very classy person, right? She said, ‘It’s so unpresidential.’ I said, ‘but I did become president.’ … She hates when I dance. I said, ‘Everybody wants me to dance.’’

”Darling, it’s not presidential,” he continued of what the first lady tells him. 

Trump dancing became a hallmark of 2024 campaign rallies, with Trump routinely kicking off and ending public events by dancing, frequently while the Village People’s ‘Y.M.C.A’ or Lee Greenwood’s ‘God Bless the U.S.A.’ blasted in the background. The signature dance typically includes Trump making a fist and shimmying his arms back and forth while pointing to people in the crowd. 

The president has previously mentioned the first lady did not approve of his rally dancing, recounting to crowds of supporters in 2023 in Iowa that: ‘She said, ‘Darling, I love you, I love you, but this is not presidential. You don’t dance off the stage. This is not presidential.”

Trump continued Tuesday that the first lady had pressed him that past presidents did not dance solo on political stages, pointing to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt as an example of how presidents should conduct themselves. 

‘She actually said, ‘Could you imagine FDR dancing,’’ he continued. ‘She said that to me.’

‘And I said, ‘There’s a long history that perhaps she doesn’t know because he was an elegant fellow, even as a Democrat.’

‘He was quite elegant, but he wouldn’t be doing this. But nor would too many others. But she said, ‘Darling, please, the weightlifting is terrible.’ And I have to say this, the dancing, they really like,’ Trump said of supporters who enjoy his rally dance routines. 

‘She said, ‘They don’t like it. They’re just being nice to you,” Trump recounted. 

‘I said, ‘that’s not right,” he continued. 

Trump’s comments on the first lady’s dislike of his dancing came amid him impersonating weightlifters while discussing biological males competing against biological females. Trump has said in public before that Melania Trump does not approve of him imitating weightlifters, as well as dancing during political events. 

Trump’s address before the group of Republican lawmakers follows a historic and busy weekend, when he confirmed the U.S. military carried out a successful strike in Venezuela and captured the nation’s former dictatorial president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife. 

The pair, as well as others entrenched in the regime, were charged with narco-terrorism conspiracy charges. The couple pleaded not guilty in a New York City court Monday and are being held in a prison in Brooklyn. 

Tuesday’s event, however, is more focused on the party’s agenda for the coming year, as lawmakers prepare for the wild midterm season that will pick up steam in the coming months. 

Trump capped off his address by clapping and dancing to the ‘Y.M.C.A.’ as he walked offstage.

A House Republican is seeking to tighten the screws on the U.S. immigration system in the wake of multiple investigations into alleged fraud within Minnesota’s social services system.

Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas, introduced a bill on Tuesday that would terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for people from Sudan, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and Somalia.

Immigrants from those countries currently in the U.S. on refugee status would be forced to self-deport within 180 days of the bill’s enactment.

‘It’s important that we ensure that those entering our country are properly vetted, and they clearly have not been properly vetted. So what we are trying to do is ensure that we address this, we stop this,’ Hunt told Fox News Digital.

Part of his impetus for introducing the bill now, Hunt said, was the increased scrutiny on Minnesota’s Somali community as federal prosecutors investigate what they believe could be billions of dollars of fraud targeting social programs in the Midwestern state.

Federal prosecutors in Minnesota have charged multiple people with stealing more than $240 million from the Federal Child Nutrition Program through the Minnesota-based nonprofit Feeding Our Future.

The probe has since widened to multiple state-run programs being investigated for potential fraud, however.

Childcare providers receiving state funding, mainly within the Somali community, are also under scrutiny.

Pressure from the growing scandal pushed Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to drop his bid for a third term. He said Monday that he did not want to distract from efforts to shield his residents from both fraudsters and people seeking to politicize the situation.

‘Every minute that I spend defending my own political interests would be a minute I can’t spend defending the people of Minnesota against the criminals who prey on our generosity, and the cynics who want to prey on our differences,’ Walz said.

Walz previously said his administration has taken steps to crack down on the fraud, but argued federal officials are over-inflating the scope of the damage.

‘I mean, looking at Tim Walz’s decision not to seek re-election — where there’s smoke, there’s fire. There certainly is more to come out of this situation,’ Hunt said. ‘He was clearly complicit in what was going on. That’s why he’s not seeking reelection, and so there’s a lot of ‘there’ that’s there, and it needs to be exposed, needs to be investigated.’

He added, ‘Making sure that we revoke these TPS designations is the beginning of cleaning up this mess.’

Hunt argued that his bill would help hasten the timeline for President Donald Trump’s move to end TPS for foreign-born Somalis in Minnesota.

He added that the wider purpose of the bill was also to block Sharia law from spreading in the U.S., noting it was something he experienced firsthand as a member of the military.

‘As somebody that has lived under Sharia law, somebody that has deployed to the Middle East, this is also a broader conversation about keeping people that hate our country out of here,’ Hunt said. ‘And so what we’re going to do is try to pass legislation that codifies what President Trump is trying to do.’

Hunt is currently running for U.S. Senate in Texas.