Federal judge delays Labor Department’s request to block DOGE access
A federal judge on Friday indefinitely delayed a final ruling on the Labor Department’s request to block Elon Musk’s government efficiency team from accessing internal system data, telling both parties only that “you will hear from me,” while declining to promise an exact time or date. The update from U.S. District Judge John Bates, a George W. Bush appointee, comes just one week after he rejected an earlier attempt from the Labor Department to issue a temporary restraining order to block DOGE access to internal system data, saying that the plaintiffs lacked standing, and failed to show they would suffer sufficient harm as a result of the actions. In response, unions amended their complaint to broaden the scope of the lawsuit, adding the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Education, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. LAWSUIT TRACKER: NEW RESISTANCE BATTLING TRUMP’S SECOND TERM THROUGH ONSLAUGHT OF LAWSUITS TAKING AIM AT EOS Arguments on Friday stretched for more than three hours, with plaintiffs arguing that DOGE employees were accessing their information illegally, since DOGE is not technically a U.S. government agency. “There has been reporting that DOGE is directing the cuts of agency staff and contracts, not simply advising the president,” one lawyer for the plaintiffs told Judge Bates, “The situation is extremely fluid and changing,” plaintiffs argued. They urged Judge Bates to grant a temporary request to block DOGE’s access to the information, which they said would “force the agency to implement a more thoughtful process.” Meanwhile, the Justice Department argued in response that the DOGE personnel in question are “detailed” U.S. government employees, who have access to the information under provisions of the Economy Act. Judge Bates declined to rule from the bench, telling both sides only that “You will hear from me.” The update will likely do little in the near-term to assuage concerns at the Labor Department and other federal agencies over DOGE’s access to sensitive internal data. Attorneys for Labor Department unions argued during last week’s hearing that, absent court intervention, DOGE could access protected agency information, including the financial and medical records of millions of Americans, and employee safety and workplace complaints. Plaintiffs noted that Labor Department systems contain sensitive information about investigations into Musk-owned companies Tesla and SpaceX, as well as information about trade secrets of competing companies, plaintiffs noted— sparking concerns about Elon Musk’s possible access. Attorney Mark Samburg argued that DOGE access to this information could have a “chilling effect” on new employees coming forward, due to fear of unlawful disclosure or retaliation. “The sensitive information of millions of people is currently at imminent risk of unlawful disclosure,” Samburg said. Judge Bates suggested Friday that DOGE’s creation and its hierarchy were “odd,” noting that it “was created in a way to get it out of OMB [Office of Management and Budget], and instead answering to the chief of staff of the president.” DOGE “took great effort to avoid being an agency, but in this case, you’re an agency,” he said of DOGE. “It just seems to strain credulity.” This is a breaking news story. Check back shortly for updates.
Andy Barr mulls Senate bid, says ‘it’s time for Kentucky to have a US senator who supports President Trump’
EXCLUSIVE: Republican Rep. Andy Barr’s decision on whether to run for U.S. Senate in Kentucky will be made “independent of the decisions that others make, including Sen. Mitch McConnell,” he told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview Friday morning, stressing that “it’s time for Kentucky to have a U.S. senator who supports President Trump.” The congressman, who currently represents Kentucky’s 6th congressional district, told Fox News Digital that he is “doing a lot of listening right now.” “I’m listening to supporters, advisors, friends, people I trust, but most importantly, I’m listening to my family and talking to my family, and I am grateful for the strong encouragement to run,” he said. “A lot of constituents are encouraging me to run for the Senate, and I am grateful for the outpouring of financial support that’s coming my way.” RNC BRINGS ON NEW SENIOR LEADERSHIP TO ‘WORK AROUND THE CLOCK’ TO SUPPORT TRUMP AGENDA, ELECT REPUBLICANS But Barr said that “ultimately, this is going to be a family decision on our timeline.” “It will be a decision that we make independent of the decisions that others make, including Sen. McConnell, or others who have or will express an interest in running for the Senate in 2026, so this will be a family decision that we make,” Barr said. “All I can say is, I am very, very grateful for the outpouring of support, mainly from Kentuckians, but people around the country who want to see strong, America First leadership in the U.S. Senate.” Sources close to Barr told Fox News Digital back in 2023 that he could be “a serious contender” for McConnell’s seat in 2026. In a veiled swipe at McConnell, Barr told Fox News Digital that “it’s time for Kentucky to have a U.S. senator who supports President Trump.” McConnell, at this point, has now opposed three of Trump’s now-confirmed Cabinet secretaries: Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “He votes against almost everything now,” the president said of McConnell on Thursday. “He’s a, you know, very bitter guy.” Trump also said McConnell is “not equipped mentally” and said he “let the Republican Party go to hell.” Barr doubled down, saying: “I think it is time for Kentucky to have a U.S. senator who has a vision, not only to make America great again, but to make Kentucky great again, and I think that’s why a lot of people have encouraged me to run,” Barr said. “They see me as someone who has been, and has a proven record of, supporting President Trump’s America First agenda, but also a very strong record of supporting the signature industries of Kentucky and building a very strong record of constituent services and accessibility to the people of Kentucky.” He added, “I have a vision for Kentucky, just like America, to be great again. I have a vision for Kentuckians to achieve their potential and to restore the American Dream for Kentuckians.” Barr said he believes the state has “enormous potential” and said that “with strong partnership with President Trump, we can deliver just extraordinary possibilities for the people of Kentucky.” MITCH MCCONNELL STEPS DOWN AS REPUBLICAN LEADER When asked for comment, a McConnell aide told Fox News Digital that the senator has not made an announcement on his 2026 plans. McConnell, who will turn 83 later in February, stepped away from serving as the Senate Republican leader in November 2024. McConnell was the longest-serving party leader in U.S. Senate history. Meanwhile, Barr told Fox News Digital, “I’m my own man.” “People try to peg me as this type of Republican or that type of Republican, but at the end of it, I’m an America First conservative who loves my home state, the commonwealth of Kentucky,” he said. “I think what sets me apart is that nobody else looking at the race has been in the trenches on the job with President Trump to drain the swamp,” he continued. “I’ve got a proven record, and I think that does differentiate me from anyone else.” But Barr stressed that his decision on whether to run for the U.S. Senate “is not dependent on anybody else.” “I’m just going to remain focused on working with President Trump and working with his team to deliver on his America First agenda — we don’t have any time to waste,” Barr told Fox News Digital. “And so that’s my focus right now.”
Over-regulation partly to blame for ‘wildly expensive’ research costs, says medical executive
While the debate over President Donald Trump’s cuts to facilities and administrative costs associated with federally funded research grants rages on, one expert in the field of medicine says he sees a clear way forward. Dr. David Skorton, president and CEO of the Association of American Medical Colleges, has had a wide-ranging career spanning government, higher education and medicine. He now runs a national association that oversees all Medical Doctorate-granting schools in the country, and about 500 academic health systems teaching hospitals. Skorton told Fox News Digital that while he does not agree with Trump’s blanket cuts, the current status quo needs changing. He cited over-regulation as a reason why facilities and administrative costs have gotten so “wildly expensive.” TRUMP NOMINEES DEBUT NEW SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL AIMED AT SPURRING SCIENTIFIC DISCOURSE, INCREASING TRANSPARENCY He also said that transparency from research institutions could help create better awareness of how taxpayer dollars are being used to support those institutions that have become the bane of critics who say they are stockpiling taxpayer dollars for their own benefit. “In some cases, more than one agency will develop regulations, and the researchers have to answer to all of those different agency regulations. We should be able to harmonize those things and come out with a more thoughtful approach to reducing some of the regulatory burden,” Skorton said. He added that, in turn, researchers will be able to spend more time doing what they do best, research, which in the long run will mean greater results for the public. “It would also mean that the costs would go down because the additional personnel, the additional things that are necessary to keep track of things for these regulations, that would also go down,” Skorton pointed out. JUDGE BLOCKS TRUMP ORDER LIMITING ‘INDIRECT’ NIH RESEARCH COSTS AFTER PUBLIC OUTCRY Skorton said that the impact of reducing over-regulation will be two-fold: it will improve the current research environment and show that there is room for collaboration to reduce overhead costs while not threatening new research. In particular, he pointed to research involving human or animal subjects, which Skorton said is often riddled with regulatory requirements that, while important, could be streamlined. Skorton added that the AAMC was “very hungry” to work with the administration on improving this framework, noting that “we’re not here to claim that the status quo is perfect, and we want to defend it, but the idea of very quickly knocking down the facilities and administrative costs to what felt like an arbitrary number to many of us, 15%, will cause research to be reduced.” The AAMC president said there is an onus on research institutions as well to better educate folks about where their taxpayer dollars are going when they are utilized by federally funded research programs. JUDGE ORDERS TEMPORARY REVERSAL OF TRUMP ADMIN’S FREEZE ON FOREIGN AID “For every dollar that we get at universities, medical schools, et cetera, for research from the NIH or some other science agency, for every dollar another half dollar, roughly, is contributed by the institution,” Skorton pointed out. “That’s something that maybe people don’t realize, and why would they, because we have to be more clear in making that visible, that we already contribute a lot to the research.” Fox News Digital spoke to medical experts who have supported Trump’s blanket cut to administrative and facilities costs, and they argue that reducing this price burden on the federal government will increase the availability of new research grants, while getting rid of financial bloat that universities have been able to take advantage of at the taxpayers’ expense. One of the doctors who shared their thoughts, Dr. Erika Schwartz, echoed calls for reform to the current structure, similar to Skorton. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “While infrastructure support is necessary, there’s room for more efficient cost management. A reformed funding model could redirect more resources to direct research activities while maintaining essential support services,” Schwartz said. “This could potentially increase the number of funded research projects and accelerate medical breakthroughs, ultimately benefiting patients more directly.”
Judge issues restraining order after Trump blocks federal funds for youth sex change operations
A judge in Washington state has issued a temporary restraining order over President Trump’s executive order that withholds federal funding to health care providers who prescribe youth puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones or who perform surgeries for gender dysphoria. Judge Lauren King, in the Western Washington District Court, issued the order on Friday, two weeks after Trump signed the order, called “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,” on Jan. 28. It comes as a federal judge in Maryland issued a similar temporary restraining order on Thursday after a lawsuit was filed on behalf of families with transgender and nonbinary children who said they weren’t able to get the health care they needed. Judge Brendan Hurson, who was nominated by Biden, set the order to last for 14 days as the case proceeds through the courts, HOSPITALS NATIONWIDE CHALLENGE TRUMP’S EXECUTIVE ORDER ON TRANSGENDER TREATMENTS FOR MINORS King said the plaintiffs were likely to succeed in the lawsuit because the executive order discriminates against transgender minors. Trump’s order says in part: “Across the country today, medical professionals are maiming and sterilizing a growing number of impressionable children under the radical and false claim that adults can change a child’s sex through a series of irreversible medical interventions. This dangerous trend will be a stain on our Nation’s history, and it must end.” Trump later added on Truth Social, “Today, it was my great honor to sign an Executive Order banning the chemical castration and medical mutilation of innocent children in the United States of America. Our Nation will no longer fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support so-called ‘gender affirming care,’ which has already ruined far too many precious lives. My Order directs Agencies to use every available means to cut off Federal financial participation in institutions which seek to provide these barbaric medical procedures, that should have never been allowed to take place!” TRANS YOUTH MENTAL HEALTH PSYCHIATRIST RESIGNS FROM NCAA COMMITTEE AFTER ORG COMPLIES WITH TRUMP ORDER Mark Trammell, the executive director and general counsel of the Center for American Liberty, which represents some detransitioners in lawsuits, praised Trump’s action. “President Trump is to be commended for his incredible leadership protecting vulnerable children from the gender industrial complex,” Trammell said. “This executive order rightly distances federal agencies from the discredited World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) while also withholding federal funding from institutions that chemically and surgically mutilate kids.” “It is pathetic that Joe Biden lacked the moral and intellectual clarity to issue such an executive order, instead elevating politics over the health of vulnerable children,” he added. Human Rights Campaign president Kelley Robinson said in response to the order, “Everyone deserves the freedom to make deeply personal health care decisions for themselves and their families – no matter your income, zip code, or health coverage. This executive order is a brazen attempt to put politicians in between people and their doctors, preventing them from accessing evidence-based health care supported by every major medical association in the country.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “It is deeply unfair to play politics with people’s lives and strip transgender young people, their families, and their providers of the freedom to make necessary health care decisions. Questions about this care should be answered by doctors – not politicians — and decisions must rest with families, doctors, and the patient.” Fox News’ Louis Casiano and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Vance jokes about Greta Thunberg as he goes scorched earth on European censorship
Vice President JD Vance quipped that Europe could survive Elon Musk’s criticisms if the U.S. could “survive” climate activist Greta Thunberg’s. In a speech at the Munich Security Conference largely critical of Europe’s censorship activities, the vice president insisted the gathered leaders should listen more to their voters. “Trust me, I say this with all humor,” he said. “If American democracy can survive 10 years of Greta Thunberg scolding, you guys can survive a few months of Elon Musk.” Thunberg, the 22-year-old Swedish environmental crusader, stole the spotlight among liberals over her climate concerns before she even turned 18. VANCE EVISCERATES ‘SOVIET’-STYLE EUROPEAN CENSORSHIP IN ADDRESS TO MUNICH SECURITY CONFERENCE “I know you are trying, but just not hard enough. Sorry,” Thunberg told a U.S. Senate climate panel in 2019. “Don’t invite us here to just tell us how inspiring we are without actually doing anything about it,” she said at age 16. “How long do you think you can continue to ignore the climate crisis, the global aspect of equity and historic emissions without being held accountable?” Thunberg asked U.S. lawmakers two years later before the House Oversight Subcommittee on the Environment. GERMANY ACCUSES ELON MUSK OF TRYING TO INTERFERE IN ITS NATIONAL ELECTIONS ”You get away with it now, but sooner or later, people are going to realize what you have been doing all this time. That’s inevitable. You still have time to do the right thing and to save your legacies.” Musk, meanwhile, has gone toe-to-toe with Europe over censorship, and the European Commission recently ramped up its probe into whether Musk’s X had breached EU rules on content moderation. Musk has called the commission “undemocractic” and called on the European Union to hold referendums to vote on policies that apply to all of its nations. Musk has also riled European officials with his support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in Germany’s elections, and for endorsing Britain’s right-wing Reform party. “It’s good to be proud of German culture, German values, and not to lose that in some sort of multiculturalism that dilutes everything,” he said in a recent video appearance at an AfD campaign event.
Trump’s ‘two sexes’ order spurs state-level efforts to crack down on trans treatments for minors
Several states emboldened by President Donald Trump’s executive orders are moving to introduce bills banning transgender medical care for minors, and one legal expert believes it’s a “continuation” of the success other states have achieved in the last several years fighting against the Biden administration. “You go back to 2020, when Idaho became the first state to pass a save women’s sports law, and in 2021, Arkansas was the first state to protect kids from dangerous gender transition, drugs and surgeries,” Alliance Defending Freedom senior counsel Matt Sharp told Fox News Digital in an interview. “And since that time, we’ve had over 25 states pass both of those laws, plus other measures to protect women’s privacy and safety and schools or women’s shelters or correctional facilities.” “So, what we are seeing is truly the continuation of incredible work by state legislatures and others to address the concerns of gender ideology and make sure that women and children in their states are not being harmed by it,” he said. TRUMP’S ‘TWO SEXES’ EXECUTIVE ORDER COMES ON HEELS OF SCOTUS ACCEPTING ANOTHER CHALLENGE TO LGBT AGENDA So far this year, several states have introduced or considered legislation to ban transgender medical procedures for minors. More than two dozen states already have laws in place restricting such procedures. Alabama recently passed a bill in the Senate aiming to legally define gender based on one’s biological sex, in line with Trump’s “two sexes” declaration. Georgia’s state Senate also passed a bill this week that would cut state funding for transgender surgical treatments, extending to both minors and adults. The bill aims to block state funds for state employee and university health insurance plans, Medicaid, and the state’s prison system. Some states are still rebelling against Trump’s orders. Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, vetoed a bill this week that would have prohibited state funds from being used on gender transition treatments and procedures on minors and allow civil actions against healthcare providers conducting such treatments. Despite Trump’s executive orders, Democratic attorneys general from 15 states – California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin – issued a joint statement this month doubling down on their support for transgender procedures for minors. LGBT ACTIVISTS MOBILIZE TO CHALLENGE TRUMP’S ‘EXTREME GENDER IDEOLOGY’ EXECUTIVE ORDERS The executive orders, signed in late January, include a reinstatement of the ban on transgender troops in the military, a ban on federal funding for sex changes for minors and a directive requiring federal agencies to recognize only “two sexes,” male and female, in official standard of conduct. “What these executive orders represent is a 180-degree turn from that, rather than the federal government trying to push this dangerous ideology and being an adversary of states and their efforts to protect women and girls, you know, have an ally at the federal government,” Sharp, who filed one of the first state cases against a Connecticut policy allowing men to compete in women’s sports in 2020, said. Sharp described Trump’s executive orders as a “return to normalcy.” “What we saw starting a new Obama administration and continuing in the Biden administration, I think was trying to erase sex and replace it with the concept of gender identity,” he said. “And I think Americans have seen that. They’ve seen the harm that’s caused to countless young women, to young children, pushed to do irreparable damage to their bodies through these gender transition drugs and surgeries to even families who have had their rights violated by policies that were hiding information, lying to parents about a child who was experiencing distress over their sex and gender.” TRUMP SIGNS EXECUTIVE ORDERS BANNING ‘RADICAL GENDER IDEOLOGY,’ DEI INITIATIVES IN THE MILITARY While the Trump White House has made its stance on gender-related issues clear, the U.S. Supreme Court will determine a critical ruling this summer on whether the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, which guarantees equal treatment under the law for individuals in similar circumstances, prevents states from banning medical providers from offering puberty blockers and hormone treatments to children seeking transgender surgical procedures.
Trump executive order expected to block federal money for schools, universities with COVID vaccine mandates
President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order Friday barring schools who still have coronavirus vaccine mandates from receiving federal funds. The order, according to a report from Breitbart confirmed by the White House, prohibits “federal funds from being used to support or subsidize an educational service agency, state education agency, local education agency, elementary school, secondary school, or institution of higher education that requires students to have received a COVID-19 vaccination to attend in-person education programs.” It also tasks Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy and the Secretary of Education to establish guidelines for compliance and to “provide a plan to end coercive COVID-19 vaccine mandates.” That includes coming up with a system to block federal funding to “educational entities” that have coronavirus vaccine mandates. NO LONGER TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF: TRUMP SIGNS ORDER PRIORITIZING ‘UNIFIED’ US FOREIGN POLICY FRONT TRUMP ISSUES EXECUTIVE ORDERS ON RECIPROCAL TARIFFS The nonprofit Immunize.org said as of May 2024, no state required COVID-19 vaccines for any grade level K-12. No College Mandates, a group pushing to end coronavirus vaccine mandates, reported that as of December 2024, 15 of the more than 1,200 institutions it tracked had some form of coronavirus vaccine mandate. An executive order Trump signed in late January called a vaccine mandate for U.S. service members “unfair, overbroad, and [a] completely unnecessary burden.” That order called to “make reinstatement available to all members of the military (active and reserve) who were discharged solely for refusal to receive the COVID-19 vaccine and who request to be reinstated.” The order said in August 2021, the Secretary of Defense “mandated that all service members receive the COVID-19 vaccine.” That mandate was rescinded in January 2023. Trump also signed an executive order in January that removes federal funding from K-12 schools that teach critical race theory. This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Top Trump official teases 2026 bid for California governor if Harris jumps in race
One of President Donald Trump’s top aides is floating a potential bid for California governor if former Vice President Kamala Harris also runs. Richard Grenell, a longtime Trump loyalist who is serving as U.S. envoy for special missions in the president’s second administration, ended a gaggle with reporters at the Munich Security Conference in Germany on Friday by teasing, “I’ll make a little news.” Grenell then pointed to the 2026 race to succeed term-limited Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom of California. “If Kamala Harris runs for governor, I believe that she has such baggage and hundreds of millions of dollars in educating the voters of how terrible she is, that it’s a new day in California and that the Republican actually has a shot,” Grenell said. SOURCES TELL FOX NEWS THIS TRUMP SUPPORTING CALIFORNIA SHERIFF WILL RUN FOR GOVERNOR There has been plenty of speculation since Harris’ defeat last November, regarding her next political move, with the two potential options likely being launching a 2026 gubernatorial run in her home state of California or seeking the presidency again in 2028. Harris served as San Francisco district attorney and California attorney general and U.S. senator before becoming vice president. MAJOR CALIFORNIA DEMOCRAT PREEDICTS FORMER VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS WOULD CLEAR GUBERNATORIAL FIELD Sources in the former vice president’s political orbit say no decisions have been made about any next steps. The Democrats’ field for governor in the heavily blue-leaning state is already crowded. Among the more than a half-dozen candidates already running for governor are Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, a Harris ally, and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Former Rep. Katie Porter, who unsuccessfully ran for the Democratic Senate nomination last year, has expressed interest in launching a campaign. Former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, who served in Congress and as California attorney general before joining the Biden administration, is also seen as a potential contender. But pundits predict that Harris could clear the Democrats’ field if she decides to launch a gubernatorial campaign. It’s been nearly two decades since a Republican won statewide office in California. You have to go all the way back to former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 2006 re-election victory. Grenell considered a run for California governor during the 2021 recall election that Newsom eventually ended up easily winning, but he ultimately decided against launching a campaign. Grenell served as ambassador to Germany and as acting director of national intelligence during Trump’s first term. In his role as U.S. envoy for special missions in Trump’s second administration, he took part in a mission to Venezuela that led to the release of six hostages. Grenell also joined the president in Los Angeles last month to survey the horrific wildfire damage in the area. Grenell, who along with Trump blasted state and local Democratic leaders for their performance handling the wildfire crisis, returned to Los Angeles last week as he accompanied EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin on a recovery tour. Grenell isn’t the only California Republican considering or moving toward a gubernatorial campaign in 2026 in the race to succeed Newsom. Fox News confirmed earlier this week that Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco is planning to announce his candidacy at a scheduled event Monday in Riverside, California. And former Fox News Channel host and conservative commentator Steve Hilton is considering a Republican run for California governor. In California, unlike most other states, the top two finishers in a primary, regardless of party affiliation, advance to the general election. Fox News’ Kaitlin Sprague contributed to this report.
Bucking Trump order, GOP Sens. Murkowski and Sullivan push to change Mount McKinley’s name back to Denali
Following President Donald Trump’s move to change the name of the tallest mountain in North America to Mount McKinley, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, has once again introduced a measure to designate the mountain as Denali. Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, is the original cosponsor. “In Alaska, it’s Denali,” Murkowski, said, according to a press release. TRUMP TO RENAME GULF OF MEXICO, MOUNT DENALI ON FIRST DAY IN OFFICE “Once you see it in person, and take in the majesty of its size and breathe in its cold air, you can understand why the Koyukon Athabascans referred to it as ‘The Great One.’ This isn’t a political issue – Alaskans from every walk of life have long been advocating for this mountain to be recognized by its true name. That’s why today I once again introduced legislation that would officially keep this mountain’s quintessential name, ‘Denali.’” Trump issued an executive order on his first day in office to change the name of the mountain from Denali back to Mount McKinley, in honor of President William McKinley, who was assassinated in 1901. “In 1917, the country officially honored President McKinley through the naming of North America’s highest peak. Yet after nearly a century, President Obama’s administration, in 2015, stripped the McKinley name from federal nomenclature, an affront to President McKinley’s life, his achievements, and his sacrifice,” the executive order declares. MURKOWSKI AND CASSIDY ANNOUNCE THEY’LL VOTE TO CONFIRM TULSI GABBARD TO TRUMP CABINET POST Trump’s order directed the Interior secretary to “reinstate the name ‘Mount McKinley.’” “The Secretary shall subsequently update the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) to reflect the renaming and reinstatement of Mount McKinley. The national park area surrounding Mount McKinley shall retain the name Denali National Park and Preserve,” the order states. The same order also directed the Interior secretary to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. GOOGLE MAPS, FAA OFFICIALLY ACKNOWLEDGES GULF OF AMERICA AFTER TRUMP DECLARATION: ‘ISN’T IT BEAUTIFUL?’ The controversy over the name of the continent’s tallest peak has persisted over the years, and Murkowski has been engaged in the debate for more than a decade. She previously pushed measures regarding the mountain’s name several times in the past, including one in 2015 for which Sullivan was the original cosponsor. Interior Sec. Sally Jewell issued an order to change the name from Mount McKinley to Denali in 2015 during President Barack Obama’s White House tenure. “President Obama wants to change the name of Mt. McKinley to Denali after more than 100 years. Great insult to Ohio. I will change back!” Trump declared in an August 2015 tweet. He asked about potentially changing the name while meeting with Murkowski and Sullivan, but the senators expressed their opposition, Sullivan, whose wife is Athabascan, recounted in 2017, according to adn.com. If “you change that name back now, she’s going to be really, really mad,” the senator said he told Trump, according to the report. “So he’s like, ‘all right, we won’t do that,’” Sullivan recalled. Murkowski is one of the GOP senators who voted to convict Trump after the House impeached him in 2021 following the U.S. Capitol riot — but notably, the Senate vote, which was held after Trump had already departed from office, failed to clear the threshold necessary for conviction.
NYC council moderates ‘thrilled’ at Homan visit, pledging to help border czar fight ‘progressive monopoly’
Moderate members of New York City’s otherwise overwhelmingly progressive City Council met with President Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, on the same day the lawman met with Mayor Eric Adams. Homan, himself a New York State native from the Watertown area, joined a meeting of the bipartisan “Common Sense Caucus” led by Councilmembers Bob Holden, D-Glendale, and Joann Ariola, R-Howard Beach. At the meeting, Homan pledged to act swiftly when informed of another migrant shelter being planned for an outer borough. Councilwoman Kristy Marmorato told 1010WINS after the meeting that Homan had been incensed to learn that Adams’ Office of Asylum-Seeker Operations had announced a 2,200-bed shelter in the Bronx. DEMOCRATIC NYC COUNCILMAN BOB HOLDEN BACKS ZELDIN OVER HOCHUL “Get me that address,” Homan reportedly told Marmorato, R-Throggs Neck. The shelter is planned for a low-income area off the Bruckner Expressway in Mott Haven – not far from the RFK-Triboro Bridge, according to reports. “Enough is enough,” Marmorato – the only Bronx Republican on council – headlined a press release about “migrant dumps” there. Holden is a moderate who famously took office in 2017 by unseating a Democrat who outraised him tenfold while running on the endorsed Republican, Conservative and Dump de Blasio ballot lines. “Today, we had a productive meeting with Tom Homan, the Border Czar, to discuss the serious public safety consequences of sanctuary laws,” Holden said in a statement. “I have full confidence in Homan and his team to enforce federal laws and keep our communities safe.” As for Adams’ meeting with Homan, he appreciated the mayor’s acknowledgment of the crisis, but added, “words are not enough – he needs to take real action.” BLUE CITY POLICE SERGEANTS SAY THEY’RE PAID LESS THAN SUBORDINATES AS BILLIONS GO TO MIGRANTS Adams, who on Thursday also pledged to work with the feds to fight gang proliferation at the city’s Rikers Island prison, announced executive action to reopen an ICE facility on the island in Hell Gate. Holden called the move a “significant first step” toward prioritizing New York City public safety. “I first pitched the idea of reopening the ICE office in December, and I’m glad to see action finally being taken. Thank you to Tom Homan for his leadership on this issue.” Councilwoman Inna Vernikov, a Brighton Beach Republican and immigrant from Ukraine, noted that her family “came here legally” and slammed the “top-down failures” of the Biden era. “It’s a thrill to have a man of action leading immigration and border enforcement,” Vernikov said on X, formerly Twitter, adding that she was unable to make the meeting itself but sent a staffer in her stead. “The consensus is that we are all done with the media and leftist politicians making excuses for lawbreaking,” she said, adding that she had paved her own path to legal citizenship and now practices immigration law. “Illegal immigration is destroying this city and is offensive to citizens. Full stop. If the mayor won’t revoke sanctuary city status, I expect the Trump administration will provide very compelling and hard-hitting incentives to do so.” Ariola, who took over as the caucus’ GOP co-chair upon longtime Staten Island Councilman Joe Borelli’s retirement, said on X that “we need change – we need it now.” Councilman David Carr, R-New Dorp, also tweeted about the Homan meeting, saying New York needs to stop “shielding” migrants from ICE. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP ri Councilwoman Vickie Paladino, R-Whitestone, reacted to the meeting by pledging to double her efforts to fight the crisis. “Despite the progressive monopoly in this city, I plan to use whatever power I have, in partnership with the Trump Administration wherever possible, to keep my district and my constituents safe,” she said. Democrats currently hold a 44-5 supermajority on the council, with one vacancy from each party. One caucusmember, however, skipped the meeting with Homan, saying that she had a scheduling conflict and that “not every immigrant is a criminal.” “I am an immigrant. No one can ever tell me about the challenges faced by newcomers to New York and to this nation,” Councilwoman Susan Zhuang, who was born in China, told City & State. “Find the criminals and deport them, yes. But leave decent hard-working families alone,” said Zhuang, D-Dyker Heights.