Vice President JD Vance stopped short of confirming a 2028 White House run during an appearance on My View with Lara Trump Saturday night, but he acknowledged the possibility—noting if he does his job well, ‘the politics will figure itself out.’

Vance, whose resilience amid an upbringing marked with family turmoil and economic hardship won over the nation, said he ‘doesn’t like thinking about’ a potential presidential bid and insisted his attention remains on his current role.

‘If we do a good job in 2025 and 2026, then we can talk about the politics in 2027,’ Vance said. ‘I really think the American people are so fed up with folks who are already running for the next job, seven months into the current one.’

The second-in-command added if he ends up running, he knows he will have to work for it.

‘There are a lot of great people,’ Vance said. ‘If I do end up running, it’s not going to be given to me—either on the Republican side or on the national side. I’m just going to keep on working hard. … [This] may be the most important job I ever had, outside of being a father to those three beautiful kids. So I’m going to try to do my best job, and I think if I do that, the politics will figure itself out.’

When asked specifically about potential 2028 Democratic candidates, he noted most of them ‘obviously have very bad records.’

Vance mainly focused on discussing his own ticket, praising President Donald Trump’s relentless work ethic and trusting leadership style and explaining the president ‘doesn’t have an off switch.’

‘Sometimes, the president will call you at 12:30 or 2 a.m., and then call you at 6 a.m. about a totally different topic,’ Vance said. ‘It’s like, ‘Mr. president, did you go to sleep last night.’ … What’s made this so much fun is the president, all the time, just saying, ‘JD you go and do this,’ or ‘JD you go and talk to these leaders about this particular issue.’ That ability to delegate and trust his people has been really amazing.’

The deadly U.S. strike in the Caribbean this week is being cast by experts as the latest move in a broader campaign to dismantle Iran and Hezbollah’s growing narco empire in Venezuela.

U.S. officials say Tren de Aragua works closely with the Cartel of the Suns — a network of Venezuelan military elites long accused of moving cocaine in collaboration with Hezbollah.

White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told Fox News Digital that ‘President Trump has taken numerous actions to curtail Iran’s terrorist proxies like Hezbollah, such as sanctioning senior officials and financial facilitators. The President has proven that he will hold any terrorist group accountable that threatens the national security of our country by smuggling narcotics intended to kill Americans.’

Brian Townsend, a retired DEA special agent, told Fox News Digital, ‘This was a decisive blow against narco-terrorists,’ and said Hezbollah’s role is rarely visible but essential, ‘They don’t get their hands dirty. Instead, they launder and provide networks to help cartels send money through the Middle East. Simply, they take a cut from the drug trade, which then funds their operations in the Middle East.’

Townsend added that Hezbollah has become ‘a main finance and money launderer for narco-terrorism groups like Tren de Aragua,’ ensuring that when cocaine moves, Hezbollah-linked facilitators are often processing at least part of the proceeds.

Dani Citrinowicz, a senior fellow at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, said Hezbollah’s reach depends heavily on the region’s Lebanese diaspora. ‘Most of the Shia diaspora, at least in Central and South America, is Lebanese,’ he told Fox News Digital. ‘Hezbollah is the connector between the diaspora and Iran.’

Citrinowicz said the group uses family ties, language and community institutions to cement its influence across Latin America. ‘They appoint imams, fund religious centers and control educational programs … through these networks, Hezbollah can interact with local cartels, sell drugs, and channel the profits back to Lebanon through elaborate schemes.’

He said this role as a connector makes Hezbollah indispensable to Iran’s strategy in the Western Hemisphere. ‘The connection starts and ends with enmity towards the West in general, specifically to the United States,’ he said. ‘As long as Maduro is there, the Iranians will be there. But if Maduro goes, Iran will lose the most important stronghold of its activity in Latin America.’

Townsend stated the partnership works for both sides. ‘Iran’s partnership with Maduro enables Hezbollah to operate in Venezuela. Iran gets to safely operate, through Hezbollah, in the West without prosecution, and Maduro and his officials get paid well. Ultimately, Iran uses and exploits Maduro. Maduro doesn’t care — he and his friends benefit financially.’

Both experts pointed to state complicity as the key enabler. ‘Under Maduro and Chávez, Venezuela has become a major transshipment hub for Colombian cocaine,’ Townsend said. ‘There have been several indictments in the U.S. and Treasury OFAC designations that tie senior government officials directly to the use of state infrastructure — ports, air bases, even military convoys — to move massive shipments of cocaine. Cartel of the Suns, high-ranking military officers, run and protects these shipments. Who launders all of this drug money? Hezbollah.’

Citrinowicz emphasized Iran’s investment in Venezuelan power structures. ‘The enhancement is illustrated by several aspects: first and foremost, the military cooperation, especially Iranian factories building UAVs for the Venezuelan army, and constant Quds Force flights from Iran through Africa toward Venezuela,’ he said. ‘Iran is also teaching Venezuela how to bypass sanctions and has invested billions into the economy.’

Experts say Washington’s best leverage lies in choking the finances. ‘We need to aggressively target and choke these financial networks,’ Townsend said. ‘The priority is to attack the financial and logistical networks, indict everyone we can and pressure Maduro. If we can cut off the financial arteries, the cocaine won’t be as profitable.’

Citrinowicz agreed that the strike fits into a broader effort. ‘By weakening Maduro, the U.S. weakens the Iranian presence in Latin America and weakens Iran’s ability to threaten U.S. soil,’ he said. ‘The best way to weaken Venezuela is also to aim against the Iranian presence over there.’

For Washington, experts say Hezbollah’s narcotics empire in Venezuela is no longer just a regional problem. It is increasingly being treated as a direct threat to America’s security at home.

Senate Republicans are getting closer to changing the upper chamber’s rules to allow for a slew of President Donald Trump’s lower-level nominees to be confirmed, and they’re closing in on a revived proposal from Democrats to do it.

The hope among Republicans is that using a tool that Senate Democrats once considered would allow them to avoid turning to the ‘nuclear option,’ meaning a rule change with a simple majority vote.

‘The Democrats should support it, because it was their original proposal that we’re continuing on,’ Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., told Fox News Digital. ‘And I wouldn’t be surprised if they won’t. This historic obstruction by the Democrats is all playing to their far-left liberal base, who hate President Trump.’

Republicans met throughout the week behind closed doors to discuss their options and have begun to coalesce around a proposal that would allow them to take one vote to confirm a group of nominees, also known as ‘en bloc,’ for sub-Cabinet level positions.

So far, the only nominee to make it through the Senate with ease was Secretary of State Marco Rubio in January. Since then, various positions throughout the bureaucracy have stacked up and have not received a voice vote or gone through unanimous consent — two commonly-used fast-track procedures for lower-level positions in the administration.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said that before Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., was in charge of the Democrats, ‘this was always done in a way where, if you had some of the lower-level nominees in the administration, those were all voted en bloc, they were packaged, they were grouped, they were stacked.’

‘This is the first president in history who, at this point in his presidency, hasn’t had at least one nominee clear by unanimous consent or voice vote,’ he said. ‘It is unprecedented what they’re doing. It’s got to be stopped.’

And the number of nominees on the Senate’s calendar continues to grow, reaching 149 picks awaiting confirmation this week. The goal would be to make that rule change before lawmakers leave town for a week starting Sept. 22.

The idea comes from legislation proposed in 2023 by Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Angus King, I-Maine, and former Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md. Republicans are eyeing their own spin on it, such as possibly not limiting the number of en bloc nominees in a group or excluding judicial nominees.

Republicans would prefer to avoid going nuclear — the last time the nuclear option was used was in 2019, when then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., lowered debate time on nominees to two hours — but they are willing to do so, given that Democrats haven’t budged on their blockade.

They may only be making a public display of resistance, however.

‘Democrats privately support what Republicans are talking about,’ a senior GOP aide familiar with negotiations told Fox News Digital. ‘They’re just too afraid to admit it.’

Sen. James Lankford, who worked with Thune and Barrasso over the recess to build a consensus on a rule change proposal, told Fox News Digital that his Democratic colleagues acknowledged that they’ve ‘created a precedent that is not sustainable.’

‘But then they’ll say, ‘but my progressive base is screaming at me to fight however I want to. I know I’m damaging the Senate, but I got to show that I’m fighting,’’ the Oklahoma Republican said.

‘We feel stuck, I mean, literally,’ Lankford continued. ‘Some of my colleagues have said, ‘We’re not the ones going nuclear. They’re the ones that are going nuclear.’’

Klobuchar told Fox News Digital that she appreciated the prior work she’s done with Lankford on ‘ways to make the Senate better’ but wasn’t ready to get behind the GOP’s version of her legislation.

‘When I proposed that, it was meant to pass as legislation, which means you would have needed bipartisan votes, and the reason that’s not happening right now is because the president keeps flaunting the law,’ she said.

Not every Senate Democrat is on board with the wholesale blockade, however.

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., told Fox News Digital that lawmakers should all behave in a way in which administrations, either Republican or Democratic, get ‘those basic kinds of considerations’ for nominees.

‘That’s not the resistance,’ he said. ‘I just think that’s kind of unhelpful to just move forward. I mean, you can oppose people like the big ones, whether it’s [Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F.] Kennedy or others.’

Fox News Digital reached out to Schumer’s office for comment but did not immediately hear back. 

Following unrelenting criticism from the United Nations, the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) is once again being targeted by NGOs, even as it delivered its 155 millionth meal to Gazans on Saturday.

Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF has launched ads criticizing GHFMeta’s Ad Library shows that in August it ran several Facebook ads targeting the foundation. One ad read ‘This is not aid. This is orchestrated killing.’ Another said, ‘In MSF’s 54 years, rarely have we seen such levels of systemized violence.’

Both allegations are taken from an Aug. 6 article on MSF’s website in which General Director Raquel Ayora describes accounts received from patients reportedly injured around GHF sites. Ayora says aid seekers claimed to have witnessed ‘children shot in the chest while reaching for food. People crushed or suffocated in stampedes. Entire crowds gunned down at distribution points.’ 

GHF spokesperson Chapin Fay called MSF’s accusations, ‘false and disgraceful,’ saying that it is ‘amplifying a disinformation campaign orchestrated by the Hamas-linked Gaza Health Ministry. They know better. By repeating these lies, they’re not aiding civilians, they’re aiding Hamas.’

‘No civilians have ever been shot at any of our distribution sites,’ Fay told Fox News Digital.

Fay said that ‘Nearly every day, Nasser Hospital issues false reports to the media of civilians killed near our sites, based solely on testimony from others. Not a single MSF doctor has ever witnessed an incident near our sites. Any conflict between Israel and Hamas, sometimes several kilometers away, the Gaza Health Ministry falsely links to GHF.’

In response to questions about whether MSF employees have witnessed injuries or deaths at GHF sites firsthand, a spokesperson told Fox News Digital that, ‘MSF has documented the impacts of violence and chaos at GHF sites in Gaza, based on firsthand accounts of our personnel and patients at two clinical sites, as well as a body of medical data.’

MSF declined to respond to questions about how much money it has spent on ads targeting GHF, or whether it has advocated for medical care for Israeli hostages taken by Hamas. 

The MSF spokesperson added, ‘For the past 22 months, humanitarian organizations working in Gaza and the West Bank have consistently faced baseless and inaccuratesmear campaigns.’

Though there is growing outcry about purported violence near GHF sites, reporting from the United Nations indicates that there were twice as many deaths surrounding humanitarian aid convoys (576) as there were deaths around GHF sites (259) between July 21 and Aug. 18. 

A U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs update from August states there were 1,889 deaths near aid sites between May 27 and Aug. 18, 1,025 ‘near militarized distribution sites’ and 864 ‘along convoy supply routes.’ As of July 21, U.N. News reported there were 1,054 deaths at food distribution sites, with 766 near GHF sites, and 288 near U.N. and humanitarian aid convoys.

The U.N. Human Rights Office did not respond to a request for confirmation of these figures by press time. 

Amid tensions between GHF and humanitarian aid organizations, Fay said that GHF nonetheless provided support to MSF in early August after it requested help to ‘safeguard their medical aid from the elements.’ A GHF post on X from Aug. 7. showed what it said were pallets of MSF aid in GHF care. MSF did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request to confirm that they asked GHF for assistance with their supplies. 

When GHF staff were brought to Nasser Hospital after a Hamas attack in June that killed eight, they did not receive care from MSF staff, according to Fay.

A GHF employee’s written statement provided to Fox News Digital describes how wounded workers were taken to Nasser Hospital, where doctors refused to treat them. The witness said survivors were placed in a courtyard, where hospital staff incited others to beat them. One GHF employee was reportedly stabbed.

‘Three more GHF staff died due to their lack of treatment by Nasser Hospital. MSF doctors work there, yet claim they weren’t aware of the situation,’ Fay said.

In an Aug. 25 report following the Israeli bombing of Nasser Hospital, MSF said that it ‘has been operational in Nasser since before the conflict escalated in October 2023, providing trauma and burn care, physiotherapy, neonatal and pediatric services, and treatment for malnourished children, among other critical services.’

The Foundation for Defense of Democracies has reported multiple times since October 2023 that Hamas fighters have been operating out of Nasser Hospital. On Aug. 26, FDD senior research analyst Joe Truzman shared photos on X of two Hamas summonses that reportedly ordered individuals to come to Nasser Hospital for questioning.

MSF did not respond to questions about GHF employees failing to receive care or whether its staff at Nasser Hospital were aware of Hamas’ operations at the site.

In an online statement about the incident, MSF said it ‘has seen no credible evidence that healthcare was refused by Ministry of Health or other medical staff.’ The group also said ‘MSF staff have not been present in the emergency department of Nasser Hospital since 2024.’
 

On Saturday, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation announced a new initiative to provide medical care to Gazans through a program with Samaritan’s Purse.

In a statement on X, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said that in addition to treating wounds, injuries and infections, it was also helping pregnant women.

America’s so-called allies – Britain, France, Canada, Australia and others – are about to stab President Donald Trump in the back. The goal is to lay waste to the president’s signature foreign policy success – the Abraham Accords.

The Abraham Accords denied violent Palestinian rejectionists a veto over the normalization of relations between Arab states and Israel. Now Palestinians and their band of useful idiots have launched a coup. The scheme opens by overthrowing the fundamental principle of a negotiated settlement to the Arab-Israeli conflict. United Arab Emirates officials have speciously started blaming Israel for the Accords’ demise.

The staging ground for this ‘Et tu, Brute?’ moment is the United Nations. French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Sept. 3, 2025, that he, and his Saudi counterpart, have called upon world leaders to assemble at the United Nations in New York City on Sept. 22 and endorse this agenda. Formally, the substance has been committed to paper in what they are outlandishly calling ‘The New York Declaration.’

This means that by the time President Trump addresses the General Assembly on the following day, he will have been reduced to the guy with the broom bringing up the rear. His hopes and plans for peace in the Middle East will have already been rejected by virtually every head of state or government in attendance. 

The New York Declaration first appeared at the conclusion of a confab, chaired by the French and the Saudis, at the U.N. in July of this year. The United States and Israel stayed away. The vast majority of states ignored State Department pleas to do the same. 

The document weighs in at 30 pages of anti-Israel venom and attacks on American foreign affairs. It twists the horrors of Oct. 7, 2023 – when more than 1,400 Jews (and others in Israel) were murdered, raped, tortured and kidnapped – into a political win for Palestinians. 

Here are just some of the Declaration’s extraordinarily dangerous demands:

A ‘State of Palestine’ before ‘mutual recognition’ of the Jewish state. 

A Palestinian ‘right of return’ that would flood Israel with millions of Palestinians from the river to the sea – thus ending the Jewish state.

A fully armed Palestinian state (called a ‘one state, one gun policy’) and an indefensible Jewish state.

An arms embargo on Israel (‘ceasing the provision or transfer of Arms’) cutting off the country’s ability to defend itself.

A global pogrom to arrest and prosecute Israelis in national and international courts the world over.

Abandoning the hostages and rewarding the kidnappers by conditioning their release on Israel freeing convicted Palestinian criminals and fully withdrawing from Gaza. 

And here is what the Declaration does not mention: Jews. Judaism. The Jewish state. Antisemitism – the actual driver of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Even Jerusalem is only discussed in terms of Islamic and Christian rights. Jewish history is nowhere.

The Declaration represents multilateral bullying at its worst. But the United States is not powerless. 

The president has options:

Don’t go. If the event to adopt the Declaration on Sept. 22 isn’t canceled or world leaders don’t decide to pull out, then cancel the president’s appearance on the 23rd. President Trump doesn’t need the U.N. stage to be heard loud and clear. The U.N. needs America.

Send the U.N. packing. Back in 1988, President Ronald Reagan and Secretary of State George Shultz denied Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat a visa to speak at the U.N. The General Assembly reacted by temporarily moving to Geneva. Lesson learned: move the whole lot out of the USA for good.

Stop paying. Bypass the organization and fund directly only what is consistent with American values and interests and is fully accountable to the U.S. taxpayer.

Apply sanctions. Impunity for the Declaration’s signatories is the wrong message to send states that endanger American national security and undermine our vital foreign policy goals. 

On Oct. 7, Palestinian terrorists massacred the nationals of 69 countries and kidnapped people from 22. That’s the Palestinian multilateralism the United Nations is all set to reward. 

Failing to respond is not an option.

President Donald Trump on Friday endorsed Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson as she runs to succeed retiring GOP Sen. Joni Ernst in Iowa.

Hinson — a former TV news anchor who is in her third term representing Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District, which covers the northeastern portion of the state — showcased her support for Trump as she launched her Senate campaign on Tuesday.

‘I’m running to be President Trump’s top ally in the United States Senate,’ she said. And in a Fox News Digital interview this week, Hinson highlighted that she’s ‘proud to stand’ with Trump.

Trump, in a social media post, said, ‘I know Ashley well, and she is a WINNER!’ 

‘I know Ashley well, and she is a WINNER! A Loving Wife and Proud Mother of two sons, Ashley is a wonderful person, has ALWAYS delivered for Iowa, and will continue doing so in the United States Senate,’ the president said. 

‘Ashley Hinson will be an outstanding Senator, and has my Complete and Total Endorsement – SHE WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN!’

Trump’s support followed earlier endorsements from Senate Majority Leader Sen. John Thune and the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), which is the Senate GOP’s campaign arm.

‘We need conservative fighters in the Senate — and that’s exactly what we’ll get with Ashley Hinson,’ Thune wrote early Friday as he endorsed Hinson.

And NRSC chair Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina said, ‘Having traveled Iowa with Ashley, I know she is the fighter the Hawkeye State needs to deliver President Trump’s agenda in 2026 and beyond.’

Hinson doesn’t have the GOP primary field to herself. Former state Sen. Jim Carlin and veteran Joshua Smith had already entered the primary ahead of Ernst’s announcement.

But the support from Trump, Thune, and the NRSC will further boost Hinson, who was already considered the frontrunner for the nomination, and will likely dissuade any others from entering the primary. The president’s clout over the GOP is immense, and his endorsement in a Republican primary is extremely influential.

Hinson’s campaign launch came a few hours after Ernst, in a social media video, officially announced that she wouldn’t seek re-election in next year’s midterms.

‘After a tremendous amount of prayer and reflection, I will not be seeking re-election in 2026,’ the 55-year-old Ernst, who was first elected to the Senate in 2014, said in a video posted to social media.

Ernst, a retired Army Reserve and Iowa National Guard officer who served in the Iraq War, had been wrestling for months over whether to run for re-election in 2026. And in her video, she said, ‘This was no easy decision.’

Ernst first grabbed national attention 11 years ago with her ‘make ’em squeal’ ads as she won the high-profile Senate election in Iowa in the race to succeed retiring longtime Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin.

And Ernst highlighted in her video that ’11 years ago, Iowans elected me as the first female combat veteran to the U.S. Senate, and they did so with a mission in mind – to make Washington squeal. And I’m proud to say we have delivered. We’ve cut waste, fraud, and abuse across the federal government.’

Hinson, in a social media post, thanked Ernst for her ‘incredible service to our state and nation’ as well as for her friendship. ‘Iowa is better off thanks to your selfless service,’ she said.

In an Iowa radio interview on Tuesday, she said that among her priorities as she runs for the Senate are ‘secure borders, keeping men out of girls’ sports, cutting taxes for our working families, standing up for Iowa agriculture and helping our young Iowans who are trying to buy a house and start a family.’

Hinson also pledged to campaign across all 99 of Iowa’s counties, starting with a kick-off event on Friday.

And as she entered the race, Hinson was endorsed by Republican Sens. Jim Banks of Indiana, Katie Britt of Alabama, and Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma.

House Majority Leader Rep. Steve Scalise, Majority Whip Rep. Tom Emmer, House Republican Leadership Chair Rep. Elise Stefanik and Iowa House Majority Leader Bobby Kaufmann also backed Hinson.

Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) communications director Maeve Coyle, following Hinson’s announcement, argued that ‘Republicans failed to convince Joni Ernst to run for reelection, and now they may be stuck with Ashley Hinson, who has repeatedly voted to raise costs and make life harder for Iowans by voting to slash Medicaid, cheering on the chaotic tariffs that threaten Iowa’s economy, voting against measures to lower the cost of insulin, and threatening Social Security.’

Responding, Hinson told Fox News Digital, ‘I think they’re misinformed at best.’

And she charged that ‘when I hear the lies and the fearmongering coming out of the left, it’s to only cover up for the fact that they have no message and no real leader other than Bernie and AOC and now Mamdani in New York,’ as she referred to Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani.

‘If that’s the direction they want to take our country, I think Iowans are going to reject that wholeheartedly,’ she predicted.

Iowa was once a top battleground state that former President Barack Obama carried in his 2008 and 2012 White House victories. But the state has shifted to the right in recent election cycles, with President Donald Trump carrying the state by nine points in 2016, eight points in 2020, and by 13 points last November.

Republicans currently hold both of the state’s U.S. Senate seats – Ernst and longtime Sen. Chuck Grassley – and all four of Iowa’s congressional districts, as well as all statewide offices except for state auditor, which is held by Democrat Rob Sand, who’s running for governor next year.

But Democrats in Iowa are energized after flipping two GOP-held state Senate seats in special elections so far this year.

Five Democrats are already running for Senate in Iowa. The field includes state Rep. Josh Turek, a Paralympian wheelchair basketball player, state Sen. Zach Wahls, Knoxville Chamber of Commerce executive director Nathan Sage and Des Moines School Board Chair Jackie Norris.

‘An open seat in Iowa is just the latest example of Democrats expanding the senatorial map,’ Lauren French, spokesperson for the Democrat-aligned Senate Majority PAC, said in a statement.

But Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), said in a statement, ‘The NRSC is confident Iowans will elect a Republican to continue fighting for them and championing President Trump’s agenda in 2026.’

Republicans are aiming to not only defend, but expand, the current 53-47 Senate majority in next year’s elections.

Senate Republicans enjoyed a favorable map in the 2024 cycle as they flipped four seats from blue to red to win back the majority.

But the party in power – the Republicans – traditionally faces political headwinds in the midterm elections. Nevertheless, a current read of the 2026 map indicates the GOP may be able to go on offense in some key states.

In battleground Georgia, which Trump narrowly carried in last year’s White House race, Republicans view first-term Sen. Jon Ossoff as the most vulnerable Democrat incumbent up for re-election next year.

They’re also targeting battleground Michigan, where Democratic Sen. Gary Peters is retiring at the end of next year, and swing state New Hampshire, where longtime Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen decided against seeking a fourth six-year term in the Senate.

Also on the NRSC’s target list is blue-leaning Minnesota, where Democratic Sen. Tina Smith isn’t running for re-election.

But the GOP is defending an open seat in battleground North Carolina, where Republican Sen. Thom Tills decided against seeking re-election. And Republicans will likely be forced to spend resources to defend Sen. Jon Husted of Ohio – who was appointed to succeed former senator and now-Vice President JD Vance – as he faces off next year against former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown.

Meanwhile, Democrats are also targeting moderate Sen. Susan Collins – who has yet to announce her expected 2026 re-election — in blue-leaning Maine. 

President Donald Trump has his sights on a new version of Air Force One as delays and cost overruns continue to plague Boeing’s long-awaited presidential aircraft replacements.

The most recent data from 2020 says at least 20 planes make up the executive fleet. A newly constructed plane has not been added in nearly 27 years. Some of the ones currently in service are expected to stay flying for another 13 years.

‘They’re not building the plane fast enough. I mean, they’re actually in default,’ Trump said about Boeing in a February interview with Sean Hannity.

Air Force One is used to designate any Air Force aircraft carrying the commander in chief. There are currently two highly customized Boeing aircraft that were deployed in 1990 when George H.W. Bush was president. The planes have since carried Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Trump, Joe Biden and now Trump once again.

‘I miss Air Force One,’ Bush said at an event for Veterans in 2014. ‘In eight years, they never lost my baggage.’

The two forthcoming Boeing planes have been plagued by delays due to the complex technology needed onboard Air Force One.

‘They’ve got to debug it, make sure there’s no signals intelligence risks. And I think just to make it secure against any potential military attacks. It was ironic for a long time. It was one of the Prince’s planes, which I think they were trying to sell. And now they’re giving it to the U.S., and it’s costing quite a bit to update,’ staff writer for the Free Press Jay Solomon said.

The Qatari jet is estimated to have a faster timeline than the two Boeing planes, but it still needs some of the same technology to make it Air Force One.

‘If you look at it just through economics, maybe it makes sense, but I still think the fact that we’re allowing a foreign country to gift something of that magnitude to a sitting president on top of all these other concerns,’ Soloman said. ‘I think it’s a risk, and it’s not a good look.’

Air Force One is required to have four engines, unlike most of today’s passenger planes which have two. Onboard is the highest level of classified communications and external protections against foreign surveillance. The planes are equipped with air-to-air refueling capabilities so they can fly for as long as is needed. Air Force One is built for the worst possible scenarios, like nuclear war, so that the president can still command military forces from the sky.

‘They’re extremely complex, and I’m not going to go into it, but they’re not like a normal plane. You know, it’s not like building a 747 normal,’ Trump said during his Middle East Trip on ‘Special Report’ in May.

Air Force officials say it is possible to add some of the security features to the Qatari jet, but it’s unlikely to have the full suite of technology by Trump’s February timeline.

‘Initially it was supposed to be like, maybe he’ll get it done by the end of his presidency,’ Solomon said.

Four modified Boeing 757s or C-32As are the newest planes in the executive fleet. Those were added in 1998 and 1999. The Air Force is studying potential replacement options, but the current planes will continue to fly until 2038. The aircraft are primarily used by the vice president, Cabinet members, members of Congress and other officials.

‘Even today and regardless of the airplane, we have to operate it differently based on the threat environment that even the current or any of the future aircraft will go into. Again, can’t talk in detail about that, but that is always a consideration,’ Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said during a June Senate Hearing. 

Air Force One isn’t the only aging plane; much of the executive fleet is more than two decades old. The aircraft have undergone modernization modifications, but officials have questioned the timeline for major updates as several incidents have taken place over the years.

In 2014, Obama was forced to switch planes during a campaign event in Philadelphia after a minor mechanical problem was reported on Air Force One.

In 2021, Vice President Kamala Harris’ plane requested an emergency return to Joint Base Andrews as she began her first foreign trip overseas to Guatemala and Mexico.

Most recently, Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s plane was forced to turn around while en route to Munich in February, after a mechanical issue.

The newest aircraft among the executive fleet are the Marine One Helicopters. Biden first rode in the newly designed Marine One in 2024 during the Democratic National Convention. Updating those took nearly two decades and in some cases replaced helicopters flying since the 1970s.

The Boeing 777X is expected to be the next new major commercial aircraft. It’s scheduled to enter service in 2026 after a nearly six-year delay with Lufthansa taking the first flight. The modernized plane is designed to have a folding wingtip, a touchscreen flight deck and wider cabin space.

Just over a year ago, Matthew Thomas Crooks nearly blew off President Trump’s head at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Only by the grace of God did Crooks’ bullets miss their target by millimeters because President Trump had turned his head ever so slightly to look at an immigration chart. Crooks did manage to murder a rallygoer and seriously wound two others before the Secret Service killed him. Just under a year ago, Ryan Wesley Routh took his shot at President Trump, establishing a sniper’s nest at the Doral golf course where he knew the president would play later that day. Routh was a hole ahead of Trump when Secret Service agents spotted him. A gun battle followed, and Routh escaped, yet he was captured 50 miles away. He now sits in jail awaiting trial before Aileen Cannon, a superb federal judge.

While Cannon epitomizes the gold standard of the federal judiciary, Obama-appointed D.C. Chief District Judge Jeb Boasberg represents the garbage standard. Throughout the January 6 saga, Boasberg had no problem keeping defendants—even nonviolent ones—locked up before their trials, in part based on social media posts. He let off disgraced former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith with probation after Clinesmith had altered an email to secure a surveillance warrant against former Trump campaign official Carter Page. Boasberg claimed that Clinesmith would receive punishment from the disciplinary authorities (the D.C. Bar) in the form of possible disbarment; yet, Clinesmith kept his license. Then, Boasberg made clear early in the second Trump administration that he was itching for a fight, expressing his baseless concern to Chief Justice John Roberts that President Trump and his subordinates would violate court orders.

This March, Boasberg instigated the fight he had longed for when he illegally ordered planes full of Tren de Aragua terrorists and vicious MS-13 gang members to turn around after they had departed for Honduras and El Salvador. This was an ongoing military operation. The planes would have been in danger trying to fly back over the Gulf of America with minimal fuel. Additionally, there were not the appropriate security resources in place in the United States to deal with the return of hundreds of foreign terrorists and violent gang members, unlike the situation in El Salvador and Honduras where the proper resources were in place. The planes did not turn around, and Boasberg ‘found’ probable cause to hold administration officials in contempt. A D.C. Circuit panel reversed; yet, Boasberg, undaunted by the smackdown he had received, mused at a hearing about disciplinary proceedings against Trump Justice Department lawyers before the jurisdictions in which they hold law licenses.

This past week, Boasberg has outdone himself. Nathalie Rose Jones is a nutcase from Indiana who is staying in New York City. She thinks that President Trump is a Nazi and a terrorist, and she blames him for the deaths caused by the coronavirus. Earlier this month, Jones posted on Facebook that ‘I am willing to sacrificially kill this POTUS by disemboweling him and cutting out his trachea with [former] U.S. Representative] Liz Cheney and all the affirmation present.’ Jones then told the Secret Service that she would kill President Trump at ‘the compound’ (presumably the White House) if she had to and that she had a bladed object to accomplish her ghastly goal. The next day, law enforcement arrested Jones at a protest that had begun at Dupont Circle and wound up near the White House.

A magistrate judge correctly ordered Jones detained without bail. It is hard to imagine a clearer case of someone who poses a danger, but Jones found an ally: Boasberg. He decided to send Jones back to New York with an ankle bracelet, and he ordered her to see a shrink. Boasberg found the case hard because Jones had not brought a gun. Never mind that Jones had referred to a bladed object that she had somewhere ready to kill President Trump. Never mind that guns are easy to procure, even for convicted felons who are prohibited from possessing them by federal law. Never mind that Jones could have returned to the White House at any time after the day that she showed up without a gun. Francisco Martin Duran, a former Army sergeant, gave no warnings before he showed up at the White House early in President Clinton’s first term and fired off dozens of shots outside the gate. These maniacs often strike without warning, as Crooks and Routh also did. Jones has telegraphed what she wants to do to President Trump, and still it is not enough for Boasberg.

Boasberg has established a pattern of utterly horrific judgment. After his illegal order in March, Congressman Brandon Gill of Texas filed an article of impeachment. It is time to move forward with that article—and add to it based on the Jones farce, as well as the revelation of Boasberg’s grossly improper comments to Chief Justice Roberts. President Trump is only alive thanks to divine intervention; a millimeter and a millisecond could have changed the course of history.

Reckless robed partisans like Boasberg, however, do not appear to care about the danger the president faces.

Trump-deranged judge refuse to accept that he won the election, and they have put up roadblock after roadblock in an appalling effort to overturn the will of American voters. The disgrace of the Jones case is just the latest example. The time has come for the House to exercise its core Article I power and use a legal tool to curtail these judges: impeachment.

President Donald Trump wrapped up the week Friday signing an executive order to change the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War. 

The executive order gives the green light to use the name ‘Department of War’ as a secondary title for the Department of Defense, along with terms like ‘secretary of war’ for Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, according to a White House fact sheet.

The order also calls for Hegseth to propose both legislative and executive actions to permanently cement the title as the U.S. Department of War.

Additionally, a White House official told Fox News Digital that implementing the order would mean making alterations to public-facing websites and office signage at the Pentagon. For example, one change on the horizon is renaming the public affairs briefing room the ‘Pentagon War Annex,’ the official said, noting other longer-term projects also will emerge. 

The U.S. previously used the Department of War title for its military agency until 1949, but modified it to the Department of Defense to align with multiple reforms included in the National Security Act of 1947.

Trump signaled in late August the change might happen. 

‘Everybody likes that we had an unbelievable history of victory when it was Department of War,’ Trump told reporters Aug. 25. ‘Then we changed it to Department of Defense.’

Here’s what also happened this week:

War on cartels

Trump also announced that the U.S. military strike against an alleged drug-laden Venezuelan boat in the southern Caribbean killed 11 suspected Tren de Aragua narco-terrorists Tuesday. 

Trump shared a video on social media Tuesday depicting the strike against the Venezuelan vessel, just days after he authorized sending three U.S. Navy guided missile destroyers to enhance the administration’s counternarcotics efforts in the region.

‘You had massive amounts of drugs,’ Trump told reporters Wednesday about the recent strike. ‘We have tapes of them speaking. It was massive amounts of drugs coming into our country to kill a lot of people. And everybody fully understands that fact. You see it, you see the bags of drugs all over the boat and they were hit.’

‘Obviously, they won’t be doing it again. And I think a lot of other people won’t be doing it again. When they watch that tape, they’re going to say, ‘Let’s not do this.’ We have to protect our country, and we’re going to. Venezuela has been a very bad actor.’

After the deployment of the destroyers, Maduro said Venezuela was ready to respond to any attacks and said the ship’s presence in the region was ‘an extravagant, unjustifiable, immoral and absolutely criminal and bloody threat.’

‘In the face of this maximum military pressure, we have declared maximum preparedness for the defense of Venezuela,’ Maduro said during a Monday press conference. 

Meanwhile, the Pentagon confirmed Thursday that two Venezuelan aircraft buzzed a U.S. Navy vessel in international waters. 

‘This highly provocative move was designed to interfere with our counter narco-terror operations,’ the Defense Department wrote in a statement posted to X. ‘The cartel running Venezuela is strongly advised not to pursue any further effort to obstruct, deter or interfere with counter-narcotics and counter-terror operations carried out by the U.S. military.’

Space Command HQ move 

Trump also unveiled plans Tuesday to move Space Command’s headquarters from Colorado to Alabama — putting an end to the controversy about where the command would be based. 

Space Command has been operating out of Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colorado, but Trump long has backed moving the command’s headquarters to Huntsville, Alabama. But in 2023, former President Joe Biden announced that the command would remain based in Colorado. 

‘The U.S. Space Command headquarters will move to the beautiful locale of a place called Huntsville, Alabama, forever to be known from this point forward as Rocket City,’ Trump told reporters Tuesday.