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Shelters, Jesus, and Miss Pac-Man: US judge grills DOJ over trans policy in dizzying line of questioning
A federal judge in D.C. peppered Justice Department lawyers with hypothetical questions and video game references as she presided over the second day of oral arguments about the Trump administration’s attempt to restrict or ban transgender U.S. service members in the military. U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes searched in vain for answers to key questions about the nature of a Jan. 27 executive order signed by President Donald Trump that requires the Defense Department to update its guidance regarding “trans-identifying medical standards for military service” and to “rescind guidance inconsistent with military readiness.” Though Trump has instructed that “radical gender ideology” be banned from all military branches, the executive order did not explain how the Pentagon should do this – a lack of clarity that Judge Reyes, a Biden appointee, zeroed in on Wednesday. For a second day, Judge Reyes led the court through a dizzying-fast line of questions that whipsawed between real and hypothetical, fact and fiction, and was flecked with her own sarcastic quips and observations. FIRST OPENLY GAY DC FEDERAL JUDGE RAKES TRUMP ADMIN OVER MILITARY TRANS BAN At one point, Judge Reyes ticked through a list of actions the Trump administration has taken in the past three weeks against transgender persons, including moving to revoke a regulation that ensured trans-identifying individuals have equal access to homeless shelters. Judge Reyes then asked the Justice Department lawyers to tell her whether, in their view, such actions are discriminatory. “What do you think Jesus would say,” Reyes proceeded to ask, about an action that revokes a transgender person’s access to homeless shelters? “Do you think he’d say ‘sounds right to me’ or ‘WTF, let them in?’” LAWSUIT TRACKER: NEW RESISTANCE BATTLING TRUMP’S SECOND TERM THROUGH ONSLAUGHT OF LAWSUITS TAKING AIM AT EOS Jason Lynch, the Justice Department lawyer, told the court that the government did not have an answer as to what Jesus would think. The pace of the back-and-forth kept both plaintiffs for the transgender service members and the Trump administration’s lawyers on their toes, even if it did little, in the near-term, to effectuate an actual court ruling or answer any outstanding questions about the executive order, which is extremely scant on details. The Trump administration and DOJ lawyers have declined to answer Reyes’s questions over whether they can ensure plaintiffs in the case will not be removed from their roles in the military or face discrimination as a direct result of the executive order. The Justice Department, for its part, has described the order as not a ban but a pause, which Lynch said will allow the Defense Department time to align its policy with Trump’s order. During the second day of oral arguments, Reyes appeared exasperated and did little to disguise her displeasure with the order itself, which she described as expressing “unadulterated animus” towards transgender service members. Reyes did concede that there is an obvious national interest in ensuring the U.S. military is prepared. “It is the greatest fighting force this world has ever seen, and we want to keep it that way – I’ve got that part,” the judge said. “So how does this executive order effectuate that policy?” “By telling the Department of Defense to issue a policy within 30 days,” Lynch responded. “Oh, okay, any policy?” Judge Reyes quipped. She then outlined a hypothetical situation in which she, as head of the Pentagon, issued a policy that all DOD units be equipped with Miss Pac-Man machines – a game she noted she has in her own chambers, and plays from time to time to let off steam. DOGE SCORES BIG COURT WIN, ALLOWED ACCESS DATA ON 3 FEDERAL AGENCIES “So I’m now Secretary of Defense, I’m thinking about how to make my military best prepared,” Reyes said. “And I think people need to let off steam every once in a while. So I’m going to issue a policy that Miss Pac-Man machines should be in every unit.” “Would that be consistent,” she challenged Lynch, with the 30-day policy? Lynch said that would be for the president to decide. Putting aside whether the order discriminates on the basis of sex, Reyes asked the DOJ attorneys, “you agree the order penalizes on basis of sex, right? How is that not a sex-based classification?” The judge has made clear she will not rule on the executive action until the Trump administration outlines its policy – including how, or to what extent, transgender service members might be impacted. But she continued to probe Lynch, whom she reminded Tuesday is technically acting as the legal representative for the Trump administration. “I mean, I have no one else to ask, right?” Judge Reyes asked Lynch, before amending the question mark in her voice. “You are the person I have to ask,” she told him. The transgender military policy is slated to take effect Feb. 28, and the court has set a March 3 hearing date to consider the executive order. Fox News’s Jake Gibson contributed to this report.
Trump vs Zelenskyy: What’s behind escalating war of words?
United States President Donald Trump has called his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy a ‘dictator’ as the rift between them has deepened over Ukraine peace negotiations. Trump’s latest broadside against Zelenskyy came after the Ukrainian leader challenged his claims that Ukraine had started the war. Zelenskyy had also spoken against being left out of the Russia-US peace talks held in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Tuesday. In an online post later on Wednesday, and during a speech in Miami on the same day, Trump delivered scathing attacks against the Ukrainian leader, accusing him of taking US money and embroiling the country in an endless conflict. Here’s the war of words between Trump and Zelenskyy and how it may affect the Ukraine peace talks: What did Trump say about Zelenskyy? In a Wednesday post on his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump wrote that Zelenskyy, a “moderately successful comedian” has “talked the United States of America into spending $350 Billion Dollars, to go into a War that couldn’t be won, that never had to start”. Advertisement In terms of funding disbursed to Ukraine, he added: “The United States has spent $200 Billion Dollars more than Europe.” Trump added that Zelenskyy “refuses to have Elections, is very low in Ukrainian Polls, and the only thing he was good at was playing Biden ‘like a fiddle’”. He said Zelenskyy had done a “terrible job” as the leader of Ukraine, deeming him “A Dictator without Elections”. “In the meantime, we are successfully negotiating an end to the War with Russia, something all admit only “TRUMP,” and the Trump Administration, can do. Biden never tried, Europe has failed to bring Peace, and Zelenskyy probably wants to keep the ‘gravy train’ going.” On Wednesday, onstage during the Saudi-backed Future Investment Initiative (FII) Institute summit in Miami, Trump thanked Saudi Arabia for hosting talks about Ukraine which were attended by US and Russian officials. On Tuesday, diplomats from Russia and the US held the first face-to-face talks since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine three years ago. After four hours of talks, the two sides agreed to form a team to work on ending the war – Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II. They also agreed to revive diplomatic ties, which had descended to a historic low following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Why is Trump saying this and what else has he said? Trump’s comments came a day after Zelenskyy said that Trump was inhabiting a “Russian-made disinformation space” regarding the war in Ukraine. “The reason that Donald Trump is doing this is that he is notoriously thin-skinned. And he is not happy about the comments that Volodymyr Zelenskyy made earlier,” said Al Jazeera’s White House correspondent, Kimberly Halkett. Advertisement On Tuesday, Trump blamed Ukraine for starting the war, saying: “Today I heard, ‘Oh, we weren’t invited.’ Well, you’ve been there for three years, you should have ended it… You should have never started it. You could have made a deal.” He also asserted that Ukraine should conduct elections. He said, without evidence, that Zelenskyy had an approval rating of 4 percent. The pushback from Zelenskyy, some analysts say, came after Trump repeated Russian talking points on the Ukraine war and excluded Kyiv from the Riyadh talks on Tuesday. While the war of words between Trump and Zelenskyy has recently escalated against the backdrop of Ukraine peace talks, hostility has been brewing between the two for years. During Trump’s first term in September 2019, he wanted Zelenskyy to work with US attorney Rudy Giuliani in investigating political rival Democrat Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden. Trump alleged that Biden tried to interfere with a Ukrainian prosecutor in relation to his son. This was when it was alleged that Hunter accepted bribes from a Kyiv-based company, Burisma. Hunter pleaded guilty in the tax evasion case but was pardoned by Biden months later in December 2024. Despite criticising the Ukrainian leader on the campaign trail, Trump met Zelenskyy months before the elections at his New York base in Trump Tower to discuss how to end the war. What has Zelenskyy said? “We have evidence that these figures are being discussed between America and Russia. That is, President Trump … unfortunately lives in this disinformation space,” Zelenskyy told Ukrainian television on Tuesday in the context of Trump’s comments about his approval rating. Advertisement The war of words between the two leaders intensified after Trump spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin last week and agreed to hold talks with Moscow without the involvement of Kyiv and Europe. A miffed Zelenskyy asserted that Ukraine, with European nations, needed to be represented at the peace talks. Trump’s overture to Putin has stunned European leaders who believe the Russian leader cannot be trusted. They fear a Ukraine deal without them would leave Europe vulnerable to Russia aggression. On Wednesday, Zelenskyy accused the Trump administration of bringing Moscow out of isolation. He said Russia could not be trusted. “This isn’t positive for Ukraine. What it does is that they’re bringing Putin out of isolation, and the Russians are happy because the discussion focuses on them.” Are Trump’s claims true? Zelenskyy’s five-year term was due to end in May 2024, but elections have been suspended after martial law was declared following Russia’s full-scale invasion of the East European nation. The numbers cited by Trump in terms of aid to Ukraine contradict the data collected by research institutes. As of December 2024, European countries sent about $138bn to Ukraine, while the US sent about $120bn, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. In terms of Zelenskyy’s approval rating, at the end of 2024, 52 percent of Ukrainians said they trusted him, according to a survey conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS). Trump’s claim that Ukraine started the war is also untrue. Russia sent troops inside Ukraine as part of what it called a “special military operation” and has since captured nearly 20 percent of Ukrainian territory. Advertisement What are
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First on Fox: VP Vance to tout Trump’s historic first month in speech to MAGA faithful
EXCLUSIVE – Vice President JD Vance is expected to spotlight President Donald Trump’s avalanche of activity since returning to the White House a month ago, as he kicks off the Conservative Political Action Conference, better known by its acronym CPAC. Vance is no stranger to CPAC, but on Thursday morning at the opening session at National Harbor, Maryland, just outside the nation’s capital, he’ll address the confab for the first time since his inauguration last month as Vice President of the United States. “The Vice President is expected to emphasize the historic rate of achievement during President Trump’s first month in office,” a source familiar shared first with Fox News ahead of Vance’s CPAC appearance. According to the source, the vice president is expected to focus on the Trump/Vance administration’s efforts towards “securing the homeland and deporting violent illegal immigrants, unleashing American energy & fueling our economy, protecting American workers & promoting domestic manufacturing,” and “re-establishing American strength at home & abroad.” The vice president will make his points as he takes part in a fireside chat with Mercedes Schlapp, the veteran Republican political and communications strategist who is a senior fellow at the American Conservative Union, the group that hosts CPAC. Vance has been a regular at the conference in recent years, dating back to his successful 2022 campaign for the Senate in Ohio. And last October, as he crisscrossed the national campaign trail as Donald Trump’s 2024 running mate, Vance also spoke at a CPAC-hosted townhall in battleground Arizona. HEAD HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS’ REPORTING, ANALYSIS, OPINION ON VICE PRESIDENT JD VANCE CPAC, which dates back to 1974, is the nation’s oldest and largest annual gathering of conservative leaders and activists. In the years since Trump first won the White House in 2016, it has been dominated by legions of MAGA loyalists and America First disciples who hold immense sway over the GOP. Vance, who served two years in the Senate before being elected vice president, has been considered a key player in helping the GOP-controlled chamber confirm Trump’s Cabinet nominees at a brisk pace. CLICK HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS REPORTING ON CPAC And Vance made major headlines earlier this month at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, when he used his first major speech as vice president to deliver a blistering address directed at Europe’s political class. Trump’s naming last summer of Vance – a former venture capitalist and the author of the bestselling memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” before running for elective office – as his running was seen as a sign that the now 40-year-old politician was the heir apparent to Trump and his movement. Trump praised Vance in a recent interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier on “Special Report” for “doing a fantastic job,” WATCH: TRUMP SITS DOWN WITH FOX NEWS’ BRET BAIER ON “SPECIAL REPORT” But asked by Baier if he viewed Vance as his successor and the Republican nominee in 2028, the term-limited Trump said, “No, but he’s very capable.” “It’s too early. We’re just starting,” Trump added. Questions about 2028 may be hanging over Vance at CPAC, which has long held a closely watched GOP presidential nomination straw poll. Vance, in an interview earlier this month with FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo on “Sunday Morning Futures,” was asked about the next White House race. “We’ll see what happens come 2028, but the way I think about this is the best thing for my future is actually the best thing for the American people, which is that we do a really good job over the next three and a half years,” the vice president said. Vance noted that “we’ll cross that political bridge when we come to it. I’m not thinking about running for president. I’m thinking about doing a good job for the American people and I think the best way to do that is to make sure that President Trump is a success.” CPAC announced on Wednesday night what was widely expected, that Trump will close out the conference with a Saturday address, where he’ll likely take a victory lap for his convincing 2024 presidential election victory, which cemented his massive grip over the Republican Party. The president, long a major draw at CPAC, returns in triumph thanks to his recapturing of the White House, along with the GOP’s flipping the Senate majority from blue to red, and the party’s successful defense of their fragile control of the House. Trump has been a regular at CPAC since 2011, since the then business mogul and reality TV star gave his first speech at the confab, in what would be an appetizer for his first White House campaign four years later. Trump used his 2011 speech to tease a potential 2012 presidential run that never materialized, telling the crowd that if he did run, “our country will be great again.” “CPAC is where he developed his antennae. He appeared for several years while he was the host of ‘The Apprentice,’” former longtime CPAC communications director Ian Walters noted. “He learned how to arouse the crowd, how to toss red meat.” And Trump, at an extreme political low point after leaving the White House in January 2021 following the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters aiming to upend congressional certification of former President Biden’s 2020 election victory, gave his first post-presidency speech at CPAC. Walters told Fox News that the address, where Trump teased a 2024 White House run, “provided him a reliable and predictable opportunity with an audience largely of his supporters.”
DNC gave ex-Harris booster ‘no choice’ but to leave, she says, as Dems cry turncoat
EXCLUSIVE: A former Democrat fundraiser and political strategist is responding to questions about her leaving the party, saying she “didn’t plan” on making the exit and “had no choice but to leave the cult.” “I’m the only one from the campaign telling the truth,” Lindy Li, who fundraised for Democrats in the 2024 presidential election, told Fox News Digital in an interview. “DNC leadership responded to my questions with deeply personal attacks. I had no choice but to leave the cult and am finally free to return to my roots as a conservative.” Piers Morgan said in a post on X he was “confused” by one of Li’s posts during the campaign, where she is pictured with presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris and said that she “already voted” for her in Pennsylvania. “I’m confused. On Monday, you told me you didn’t vote for Kamala in the 2024 election. But you posted this on your X account on October 3. Though oddly, you have now deleted it overnight. What’s going on?” Morgan wrote Wednesday. ‘WOKE IS THEIR GOD’: EX-DEM FUNDRAISER SAYS PARTY ‘IN SHAMBLES’ AFTER 2024 ELECTION LOSSES Li, responding to the question, said that as a surrogate of the Harris campaign, she “didn’t want to hurt Harris by disclosing I didn’t vote for her” and felt a “responsibility” to “see the campaign through,” despite personal objections. DEMOCRATIC OPERATIVES FREAKED OUT THAT THE PARTY WON’T HAVE ‘COME-TO-JESUS’ MOMENT AFTER TRUMP WIN: NYT “As a public-facing surrogate of the campaign and a member of the team, I had a responsibility to see the campaign through, despite my personal objections — supporting Harris through Election Day was the right thing to do,” Li told Fox News Digital. “I didn’t leave the DNC. They pushed me out for simply asking for accountability for how the billions of dollars were spent.” Li was a well-known fundraiser for the Democrats’ 2024 presidential campaign before announcing her exit from the party in December after she said she was ostracized for criticizing then-Democrat presidential nominee Harris. The former Democrat said her decision to leave the party “wasn’t easy” but was the “result of a decade-long progression.” “It took a while for me to get here over the course of the past year. I just realized that the values of the Democratic Party are so incongruous to mine,” Li told Fox. “It just contradicts everything I believe, everything from open borders to woke and DEI insanity. It’s just not my party anymore.” “No one is contradicting me on the facts, they are coming after me as a person,” Li said, telling Fox that she is already working on fundraising for the GOP for the 2026 midterms. Fox News Digital reached out to the DNC for comment.