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Lalit Modi shares photo from Vanuatu after citizenship snub: ‘Must put on your…’

Earlier, Vanuatu PM directed the Citizenship Commission to cancel the passport issued to Lalit Modi.

Sec Rubio says purge of USAID programs complete with 83% gone, remainder now falling under State Dept

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that 83% of USAID programs will be canceled following the conclusion of a six-week review by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). In total, 5,200 contracts are being terminated, Rubio wrote in his early Monday morning post on X announcing the new reforms. He said the canceled contracts amounted to “tens of billions of dollars” being spent “in ways that did not serve,” or even harmed, the national interests of the U.S. Rubio added that the remaining 18% of USAID programs—approximately 1,000—will now be managed by the State Department. The move to transfer that authority, he said, was made in consultation with Congress.  DOGE BLOWS THE LID OFF MASSIVE NUMBER OF LOANS GRANTED TO KIDS AND MORE TOP HEADLINES In his Monday morning post, Rubio also thanked DOGE and its “hardworking staff who worked very long hours to achieve this overdue and historic reform.” Musk responded to the post, adding “good working with you,” calling the work “tough but necessary.” “The important parts of USAID should always have been with Dept of State,” Musk wrote.  The pair reportedly got into a heated exchange last week during a meeting with President Donald Trump’s Cabinet officials, which included Musk, over whether Rubio was doing enough to implement cuts at USAID. Trump reportedly defended Rubio during the spat, according to The New York Times, chiming in that he was doing a “great job” in such a demanding and high-pressure position. Trump later wrote on Truth Social that the two “have a great relationship.” KAROLINE LEAVITT SHUTS DOWN ‘PITIFUL’ RUBIO-MUSK FEUD RUMORS FUELED BY MAINSTREAM MEDIA  USAID was an early target of Trump, who, just hours after taking office, ordered a 90-day pause on all U.S. foreign assistance programs pending a review to ensure those programs aligned with American interests. Musk has also been at the forefront of criticism of the agency, asserting it is “beyond repair” and likening the agency’s spending to illegal money laundering for left-wing nonprofits. As the Trump administration has sought to dismantle USAID, a slew of lawsuits seeking to halt its actions have come down. The Supreme Court issued an emergency ruling last week, refusing to halt a judge’s order directing the Trump administration to resume $2 billion in foreign aid payments owed to other countries via pre-existing contracts. Fox News Digital reached out to the State Department for comment but did not immediately hear back. 

Trump admin ends waiver allowing Iraq to buy Iranian electricity as part of ‘maximum pressure’ campaign

The Trump administration ended a waiver that allowed the Iraqi government to buy Iranian electricity in a renewed effort to choke off Iran’s profits. National security advisor Mike Waltz told Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani that the end of the waiver was consistent with President Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran as the administration goes all-in on trying to prevent the regime from acquiring a nuclear weapon. “Waltz welcomed the Iraqi Prime Minister’s efforts to achieve energy independence for Iraq, and encouraged the Iraqi government to welcome more western and U.S. energy companies into Iraq’s oil and gas sectors.”  Waltz also urged the Iraqi government to resolve its dispute with the Kurdistan Regional Government, where Iraq has been choking off the flow of oil from the Kurdistan region in Iraq to Turkey for years, allowing the region’s continued dependence on Iranian oil.  It is part of a global push to boost oil supply and keep prices in check, in an effort that would starve Iran and Russia of fuel profits.  “The National Security Advisor urged the Iraqi government to work with the Kurdistan Regional Government to address remaining contract disputes and pay arrears owed to U.S. energy companies, and also requested that the Iraqi government retain an investment coordinator to work with U.S. companies seeking to invest and operate in Iraq,” according to a readout of Waltz’s call with the prime minister.  IRAN’S SUPREME LEADER REJECTS NUCLEAR TALKS WITH US AFTER TRUMP’S OVERTURES Trump first issued the sanctions waiver for Iraq when he began applying “maximum pressure” on Iran during his first administration. The waiver only applied to electricity, where Iraqi reliance on Iran has precipitously fallen to just 4%. If the new move expanded to include gas used for power plants, however, it “would cause Iraq to lose more than 30% of its electricity energy,” according to a spokesperson for Iraq’s Ministry of Electricity, Ahmad Moussa, who said the nation is searching for alternatives.  Former President Joe Biden continuously renewed the waiver until its expiration on Saturday.  The U.S. has significant leverage over Iraq – $100 billion of its reserves are held in the U.S., and Washington could wield that leverage amidst Iran’s increasingly firm grip over Iraqi leadership. The U.S. still has a military presence of about 2,500 personnel stationed in Iraq to help fight ISIS.  IRAN CAN MANUFACTURE 6 NUCLEAR WEAPONS WITH NEWLY ENRICHED URANIUM, UN ATOMIC AGENCY REPORT SAYS Trump revealed he sent a letter to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, pushing for Tehran to agree to a nuclear agreement — or face military consequences. “I’ve written them a letter, saying I hope you’re going to negotiate because if we have to go in militarily it’s going to be a terrible thing for them,” Trump told FOX Business on Friday. “There are two ways Iran can be handled – militarily, or you make a deal,” Trump said. “I would prefer to make a deal, because I am not looking to hurt Iran.” According to nuclear experts, Iran is already enriching uranium to 60%, putting it mere days or weeks away from 90% weapons-grade supply. On Saturday, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Iran would not negotiate with “bullying countries.”  CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Iran currently exports an average of 1.5 million barrels of oil per day, but under Trump’s Feb. 6 executive order, the secretaries of State and Treasury are to work to “implement a campaign aimed at driving Iran’s oil exports to zero.”  The U.S. is also working to end a sanctions waiver for the Chabahar port in Iran, where India has poured in $370 million to build a trading gateway to the Middle East.  Next, the U.S. could set its sights on China, which buys up 90% of Iran’s oil outflow. 

Ukraine announces plan to boost FPV drone arsenal

Ministry of Defence says it will buy 4.5 million first-person view drones in 2025, triple last year’s amount. Ukraine has announced plans this year to buy about 4.5 million first-person view (FPV) drones, one of the most inexpensive and potent weapons in its war effort against Russia. In a statement on Monday, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence said it would allocate the equivalent of more than $2.6bn for the purchases. Hlib Kanevsky, director of the ministry’s procurement policy department, said Ukraine had purchased more than 1.5 million drones in 2024, 96 percent of which were bought from Ukrainian manufacturers and suppliers. “This year, the figures will be even higher because the capabilities of the domestic defence industry in 2025 are approximately 4.5 million FPV drones,” Kanevsky said, adding that the ministry “plans to purchase them all”. Small and cheap, FPV drones are controlled by pilots on the ground and often crash into targets while laden with explosives. In April, a NATO official said FPV drones that cost less than $1,000 had destroyed two-thirds of Russian tanks worth millions. Advertisement Ukraine became the world’s largest major arms importer from 2020 to 2024, the period when Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. Ukraine’s imports increased nearly 100 times over the previous four-year period. The country, which is seeking strong security guarantees from its partners before agreeing to any peace talks with Russia, is developing its own defence industry to reduce its dependence on its Western allies. It plans to also build long-range drones. The statement said the ministry for the past three years has purchased most of its drones in the country while the number of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) supplied to its armed forces had increased significantly. Kanevsky also said all procurement plans for this year have received money in the budget, which will ensure that the front line is supplied with UAVs as soon as possible. Both Russia and Ukraine have come to rely on cheaper and more effective alternatives to conventional artillery during the three-year conflict. In a separate statement on Monday, Kyiv’s top general, Oleksandr Syrskii, said Ukrainian drones had destroyed 22 percent more targets last month compared with January, but added that Russian forces were also adapting. “We simply have no right to lag behind the enemy in those areas of technological warfare where we should be arming and strengthening ourselves by our own resources,” Syrskii said. Adblock test (Why?)

Pro-Russian candidate to challenge bar on Romanian presidential run

The move follows rioting in Bucharest overnight after a court threw far-right Calin Georgescu out of the race. Romania’s far-right presidential contender Calin Georgescu plans to challenge a decision to bar him from taking part in May’s rerun presidential election. The pro-Russian politician said on social media on Monday that he would make an appeal to Romania’s Constitutional Court to lift the ban, which was placed on him the previous day. He made the announcement after violent clashes broke between his supporters and police in Bucharest overnight. “We go together all the way for the same values: peace, democracy, freedom,” Georgescu said in a video posted on Facebook. The appeal, and the unrest in the capital, follow an announcement on Sunday by the Central Electoral Bureau (BEC) that it had rejected the NATO critic’s candidacy for the election on May 4. Calin Georgescu, running as an independent candidate for president, speaks to the media [File: Alexandru Dobre/AP] Shortly after the BEC’s announcement, Georgescu supporters gathered in front of the electoral commission’s headquarters. Faced by a significant police presence, the protest turned violent, as participants broke through security barricades. A broadcast van belonging to a television station regarded as supporting Georgescu’s rivals was overturned, and fires were lit. Police responded with tear gas as rioters threw cobblestones and fireworks. Advertisement Some posts on social media claimed that Romania was descending into turmoil, suggesting that events could spark a revolution or cause the closure of borders. In the United States, CBS News described the country as tipping into “chaos“. However, the violence and numbers at the protests were limited. ‘European dictatorship’ The controversy surrounding the Moscow-friendly Georgescu has placed Romania in the midst of the rift between Europe and the administration of US President Donald Trump over military spending and the nature of democracy. Georgescu secured poll position in the first round of the election in November, but the vote was later annulled owing to evidence of suspected Russian interference. US Vice President JD Vance has claimed that the move illustrated Romania does not share US values. The EU has praised the independence of the country’s courts. Georgescu, who is currently under criminal investigation on numerous counts, including for communicating false information about campaign financing, has claimed that the ruling shows that Europe is turning into a “dictatorship”, and warned that “if democracy falls in Romania, the entire democratic world will fall”. If the BEC decision is upheld, the three ultranationalist parties that backed Georgescu’s previous bid for the presidency – parties that hold 35 percent of the seats in the Parliament of Romania – risk having no candidate in the election. Adblock test (Why?)

Syria clashes – what happened?

The government of Syria says it has ended an operation in the coastal governorates of Latakia and Tartous after four days of fighting between security forces and pro-Assad armed fighters. The unrest came only three months after the fall of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad in an offensive by opposition fighters. Reports from the Latakia region told of killings, kidnappings, theft, harassment and even public murders. So, what happened and who did this? Here’s what we know about the violence: What’s happening in Syria? On March 6, government forces began deploying to the coastal cities of Syria, including Latakia, Banias, Tartous and Jableh to fight what they dubbed “regime remnants”. The “remnants” are pro-Assad regime fighters who have announced their opposition to the new government. The Alawite religious sect, from which Bashar al-Assad hails, is concentrated in these cities. How did it start? On March 6, pro-Assad gunmen ambushed military personnel in and around Latakia in the northwest, killing at least 16 members of the security forces and the Ministry of Defence. Advertisement According to state media, the March 6 ambushes were not the first, with several past attacks on government forces since al-Assad fell. How many people have been killed or injured? Numbers are still emerging, but here’s what we know. According to a March 9 report by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), at least 1,311 people have been killed as of Saturday evening – some 830 were civilians, 230 security personnel from various branches, and about 250 armed fighters. Al Jazeera has not been able to independently verify SOHR’s numbers. (Al Jazeera) Why this area in particular? The Latakia-Tartous axis lies along Syria’s Mediterranean coast, with Banias and Jableh lying between them. These two Alawi-majority governorates have long been considered al-Assad strongholds, with the family’s hometown, al-Qerdaha, lying east of Latakia. When al-Assad fell, observers feared there would be revenge attacks against the Alawite community. This may be why “regime remnants” chose to attack there – possibly hoping to inflame sectarian tensions. Banias also hosts Syria’s largest oil refinery. Armed fighters tried to attack the refinery, security forces said, but were repelled. Who’s fighting? State security troops confronted armed groups led by former officers in al-Assad’s army. There are also unidentified groups who went to the coast to “avenge” the ambushed security forces, an unidentified security official told Syria’s state news agency. The presence of these individuals, the official said, had “led to some individual violations and we are working on stop them”. Advertisement Alawite community members said armed groups have been harassing and kidnapping Alawite civilians. The Syrian government estimates there are 5,000 armed individuals in the coastal area. Who are these ‘regime remnants’? Videos on social media since February show former al-Assad army officer Muqdad Fteiha declaring the formation of a group to counter “HTS violations” in the coastal region. Fleiha, who was in al-Assad’s Republican Guard, claims in his message that the Alawite community is mistreated. Other statements on social media, attributed to former al-Assad army Brigadier General Ghiath Suleiman Dalla, declared the formation of a “Military Council for the Liberation of Syria” to “expel all occupying terrorist forces” and “dismantle the repressive sectarian security apparatus”. What did Syria’s government say? The escalating violence presented a huge challenge for Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa. On Sunday, al-Sharaa announced two new committees to deal with the crisis. One is an independent committee of judges and lawyers to investigate the March 6 attacks and the violence that ensued and hold those responsible accountable, in pursuit of “higher national interest and civil peace”. The second is a “Supreme Committee for Civil Peace”, tasked with engaging with the residents of the affected areas and safeguarding their security. Earlier on Sunday, he spoke at a Damascus mosque, acknowledging the severity of the crisis and calling for national unity. Advertisement On Friday, March 7, he reaffirmed in a televised address his commitment to stability, and promised to pursue regime loyalists responsible for crimes and to consolidate state control over weapons. How are civilians doing in these areas? People are scared, panic has taken over the coastal regions. “I don’t ever go outside and I don’t even open the windows… There is no security here. There is no security for Alawis,” a resident of Latakia who chose to remain anonymous, told Al Jazeera. Those who remain speak of living in terror, fearing that armed fighters will attack them in their homes. This piece was published in collaboration with Egab. Adblock test (Why?)

Air India reveals what caused its flight to return to US: ‘Polythene bags, clothes were stuck in…’

AI126 from Chicago to Delhi returned to the US city and on that day, the airline said the air return was due to a technical issue.

Pentagon losing cutting edge on weapons innovation, needs ‘massive kick in the pants,’ say defense leaders

America’s defenses will not be able to keep up with its peer adversaries if the Pentagon continues to take years to innovate its weapons systems, experts agreed at a security summit last week.  The Pentagon’s modernization was given a “D” by the National Security Innovation Base Summit this week, a near-failing letter grade that national security leaders in Congress agreed was a fair assessment. “Progress lives in the private sector, and we’re not seeing enough progress in the public sector,” said Govini CEO Tara Dougherty. “The department needs a massive kick in the pants in this area, and should be held accountable for catching up in progress to match what is happening among the investor community and among the technology sector.” “I think the score is a deserved score, unfortunately,” House Armed Services Committee Vice Chair Rob Wittman said.  US CONTINUES TO SHARE DATA TO PROTECT UKRAINIANS AGAINST RUSSIAN STRIKES, DESPITE INTEL PAUSE: SOURCES “The Pentagon is the Ford Motor Company of the 1950s. I mean, they the way they operate, slow, stoic,” Wittman explained. “‘Let’s spend years to write a requirement, then let’s spend years to go to a program or record, let’s spend years to acquire.’ By the time we acquire something, guess what? The threat’s way ahead of us.”  “We want them to reflect the Apple 2025 model.” Nowhere is this clearer to defense leaders than in the nation’s shipbuilding capabilities. The Navy currently has 295 deployable ships, though its shipbuilding plan calls for that number to be increased to 390 by 2054. The Maritime Security Program, which maintains privately owned, military-useful ships to deploy in wartime, is down to 60 in its fleet.  “It’s precipitously low. We could not get to where we need to be in the Pacific right now if we needed to,” Wittman told Fox News Digital.  The issue seemingly keeps President Donald Trump awake at night.  John Phelan, Trump’s nominee for Navy secretary, quipped during his confirmation hearing that the president texts him late at night, “sometimes after 1 a.m.” about “rusty ships or ships in a yard, asking me, what am I doing about it?”  Phelan added that he has told the president, “I’m not confirmed yet and have not been able to do anything about it, but I will be very focused on it.” ‘STAR TREK SHIELD’ TECHNOLOGY GETS $250M BOOST TO KNOCK DRONE SWARMS FROM THE SKY WITH HIGH-POWERED MICROWAVE “We used to make so many ships,” Trump lamented during a speech to a joint Congress on Tuesday. “We don’t make them anymore very much, but we’re going to make them very fast, very soon. It will have a huge impact.”  He announced he had establish a White House Office of Shipbuilding.  With the Pentagon, “it’s process, process, process, not outcomes,” said Wittman, who announced he would be co-chairing a defense modernization caucus in Congress. “We’re operating off of an innovation cycle right now that, you know, used to be a decade, and it used to be five years. Then it used to be three years, and now it’s a year or less innovation cycle,” said Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo. “In Ukraine, they’re actually operating off of week-long innovation cycles.”  Crow said it is up to Congress to give the Pentagon the “kick in the pants” it needs to move faster.  “There are simply no demand signals being sent. So that requires a very real conversation about political will, which is actually bipartisan right now on this issue.”  The Pentagon began work on the F-35 fighter jet 25 years ago, and it is “just now getting into full scale production,” noted Wittman.  “The capability of that aircraft, the modernization that it needs to keep up with the Chinese threat, it’s just not where it has to be.” Even the newest F-35s need to be taken back to the assembly line to be fitted with 360-degree motion sensors known as the digital aperture system and the other latest technology in radars, Wittman said.  “We’re still not going to deliver the current jets coming off the line with technical refresh three hardware and have that software enabled until probably early next year.”  Under a new DOGE memo, the Pentagon has kicked off a review of its contracting procedures. “Each Agency Head, in consultation with the agency’s DOGE Team Lead, shall conduct a comprehensive review of each agency’s contracting policies, procedures, and personnel,” a memo circulated this week read.  Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa., told Fox News Digital she worries most about the military being prepared to defend against a cyberattack.  “China specifically is better at cybersecurity than we are,” she said. “It only takes one or two incursions that we don’t see coming or that we aren’t responsive to, to make an enormous difference here.”  Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., suggested that the U.S. may need to start thinking about offensive cyber missions.  CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “When it comes to cyber, we’ve got to change the rules of engagement,” he said. “China is eating our boxed lunch in the energy area, in our cellular phone infrastructure, they’re trying to get into Wall Street, they’re trying to get into agriculture.”  “We’re really good on cyberintelligence but we have [rules of engagement] that do not let us do nearly what China or Russia does,” he continued. “I don’t think it’s like taking punches to the face, saying ‘can I have another.’” “We’ve got to be able to allow cyber command to fight fire with fire. I wouldn’t even advertise it that much. Just carry a big stick and, get them back.” 

Newsom’s ties to CCP under microscope in new book exposing alleged corruption: ‘Fleeced American citizens’

FIRST ON FOX: A new book sounding the alarm about corruption in California spends a chapter focusing on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s history with a nonprofit organization that the authors say served as a major “gateway” for corrupt CCP-aligned corporations to flood into the state.  In their book, “Fool’s Gold: The Radicals, Con Artists, and Traitors Who Killed the California Dream and Now Threaten Us All,” authors Jedd McFatter and Susan Crabtree write extensively about Newsom’s relationship with the Chinese community in the Bay Area and his ties to CCP businesses.  The book explains that Newsom came into office as San Francisco’s mayor in 2004 after receiving strong support from Chinese voters, enough so that he celebrated his victory in Chinatown and the authors write that from an early point in his tenure he was ready to “go full steam ahead with Chinatown’s interests.” One of those interests, according to Chapter 3 of the book, was a nonprofit organization initiative started by Newsom called ChinaSF that the book argues served as a gateway for CCP officials and Chinese criminals to exploit California. CHINA’S BELT AND ROAD INITIATIVE PLAGUED BY CORRUPTION AND POLITICAL BACKLASH: REPORT The book describes a Newsom trip to China, where he was hosted in a Shanghai “clubhouse” by Vincent Lo, a Chinese businessman with deep ties to the CCP.  “It was during this meeting that Newsom and Lo hatched a long-​term plan to turn San Francisco into the premiere gateway through which Chinese companies could invest and expand their businesses in the United States,” the book says. “Upon his return from China, starry-​eyed Gavin told his staff that he was going to set aside a couple of million dollars to set up a public-​private partnership called ChinaSF that would open the floodgates to Chinese money and business like never before. It turns out the young mayor wasn’t just blowing smoke: three years later, Newsom and Lo joined forces in Shanghai to co‑launch ChinaSF.” The book says that ChinaSF impacted the Bay Area arguably “more than any other” program that Newsom created as mayor and that the initiative hauled in almost $5.5 billion of economic impact to San Francisco from 2008 to 2018 while recruiting 108 Chinese companies into the city.  The book alleges that during this time period, ChinaSF “helped several corrupt Chinese corporations come to America.” One of the several companies discussed in the book was Suntech, a Chinese solar company developed by the CCP that was personally recruited by Newsom into the United States, and he publicly praised the company’s CEO, Dr. Zhengrong Shi, multiple times, and made him an advisory board member for ChinaSF.  In addition to green energy companies who streamed through ChinaSF, real estate companies were also involved, and the book alleges that Newsom received over $23,000 in anonymous contributions from Chinese real estate company Z&L, whose billionaire owner was criminally sentenced for bribing a San Francisco government official.  Chapter 3, titled “Feeding the Dragon,” goes into detail about a variety of potential red flags on Newsom’s ties with China, including ChinaSF being used as a “tool to build San Francisco into a global hub for biotechnology and pharmaceutical science.” “Dozens of Chinese biotech companies were drawn to the Bay Area with huge tax breaks and other incentives, but it appears that there was very little vetting,” the book states. “One of ChinaSF’s most concerning recruits is the biotech company JOINN Laboratories, which has close ties to China’s military.” NEW REPORT WARNS OF GROWING NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT TO U.S. AS CHINA BUILDS AI: ‘SIGNIFICANT AND CONCERNING’ Fox News Digital reached out to Newsom’s office for comment and received a response pointing to an article about conspiracy theories with the headline, “Conspiracy theorists really do see the world differently, new study shows.” The book goes on to discuss ChinaSF’s involvement with biotechnology and pharmaceutical science companies that were “drawn to the Bay Area” with tax breaks and “little vetting” along with a liquor company called Kweichow Moutai, which has a history of “several major corruption scandals involving bribery by CCP officials.” The book also alleges that as California’s lieutenant governor, Newsom trademarked wines he owns in China and poured them for CCP elites at a lavish Shanghai tasting.  The authors also drew attention to the controversial connection between ChinaSF and Huawei, a company that has been involved in a myriad of questionable practices that have drawn scrutiny from U.S. presidential administrations, resulting in restrictions.  “However, no one seemed to notice when an infamous Chinese company became their top financial sponsor in 2016,” the book says. “This might be because the U.S. government has long identified that company, Huawei Technologies, as one of China’s most dangerous tech companies. According to an internal report, ChinaSF hosted two events in 2016, headlined by Huawei, which led to Huawei establishing a new research and development office in San Francisco. The amount of money Huawei funneled to ChinaSF is unknown, but it’s worth noting that in 2016, Huawei generated more than $75 billion in revenue, so they had plenty of cash to flash around.” ChinaSF once described itself as a nonprofit, including on its now defunct website, the book explains, but between 2009 and 2014 it was a limited liability corporation whose only member was the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce.  “In other words, for a period of time, ChinaSF was a private entity embedded in a local chamber of commerce,” the book says. SCHUMER SPOTTED POSING FOR PHOTO WITH CCP OFFICIAL AS WARNINGS SWIRL ABOUT CHINA INFLUENCE The chapter closes with a summary of why ChinaSF’s influence in the state deserves more scrutiny. “Close analysis of available data reveals that most descriptions of ChinaSF by government and media have been vacuous and misleading,”: the book says. “Essentially, ChinaSF is the branded name of a complex bureaucratic mirage used as cover to legitimize the massive transfer of Bay Area technology, property, and wealth to China while streamlining the establishment of Chinese business in the United States. It’s the secret elixir Newsom concocted to help

DOGE lawmakers look to defund Biden’s anemic-paced $3B EV postal truck ‘boondoggle’

EXCLUSIVE: Two top DOGE lawmakers are introducing a bill to claw back $3 billion authorized under former President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which was designated to create an electric vehicle (EV) fleet for the United States Postal Service (USPS). A South Carolina defense contractor responsible for the 60,000-vehicle order was already “far behind schedule” as of November. A Washington Post exposé revealed that by then, fewer than 100 of these vehicles had been delivered to USPS. Citing that, Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, DOGE Caucus chair, and Rep. Michael Cloud, R-Texas, will be forwarding the “Return to Sender Act,” seeking to recoup what is about 30% of the overall appropriation in Biden’s law that was intended to be geared toward reducing inflation. The Postal Service was to receive an initial order of 50,000 EV delivery trucks from defense contractor Oshkosh within the next three years, but only 93 had been produced by November, according to the Post. DOGE SENATOR SEEKS TO ENSURE FEDS CAN CONTINUE PURSUING COVID FRAUDSTERS One person involved in the production told the outlet that the “bottom line [is] we don’t know how to build a damn truck.” That, along with a Post revelation that the government’s deliveryman agreed to pay more for the trucks after the contractor increased its prices, appeared to lead Ernst and Cloud to announce their bill. The agreement forged between the Postal Service and the manufacturer ultimately finalized a $77,692 cost per EV truck for about 28,000 vehicles. While the company did not comment at the time of the exposé, its CEO told investors in October that Oshkosh “is really happy where we are” on the project. “Biden’s EV postal fleet is lost in the mail,” said Ernst, chief sponsor of the legislation. DOGE SENATOR PUSHES TO END ‘SLUSH FUND’ FOR FAILED PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES “The order needs to be canceled with the unspent money returned to sender, the taxpayers. I am defunding this billion-dollar boondoggle to stamp out waste in Washington. Tax dollars should always be treated with first-class priority.” Cloud told Fox News Digital the Inflation Reduction Act continues to be proven to be a misnomer, and that in this respect it “funneled billions into a failed USPS EV project that has delivered nothing but delays, defective trucks, and skyrocketing costs.” “Three years later, taxpayers are still waiting while the Postal Service refuses to provide basic transparency on where the money went. The Return to Sender Act takes back the $3 billion in taxpayer money that has been wasted in this project,” Cloud said. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP In February, Ernst also cited the USPS EV project in her Billion Dollar Boondoggle Act that targets disclosures of government projects costing 10 figures or more over-budget, and/or five years behind schedule. The text of the bill, which is less than one-page long, specifically directs “unobligated balances of amounts appropriated or otherwise made available by sections 70002 and 70003 of Public Law 117–169 (commonly referred to as the ‘Inflation Reduction Act’), as of the date of enactment of this Act are rescinded and those sections are hereby repealed.”