Trump says he is pulling security clearances for people he does not ‘respect’
President Donald Trump said Sunday that he has revoked the security clearances of people he does not respect, which includes his political enemies. “There are people that we don’t respect. If there are people that we thought that were breaking the law, that came very close to it in previous years, we do it. And we’ve done it with some people,” Trump told reporters, according to The Hill. This comes after Trump on Friday pulled former President Joe Biden’s security clearance and stopped his daily intelligence briefings. ‘JOE, YOU’RE FIRED’: PRESIDENT TRUMP REVOKES BIDEN’S SECURITY CLEARANCES, INTEL BRIEFINGS “We’ve done it with Biden himself. Biden himself. We think our country is not as safe when you gave him clearance,” Trump said on Sunday. “We don’t think he knows what he’s doing and what he’s done to this country is a disgrace, and what he’s done in terms of allowing criminals, murderers, drug lords into our country, people from mental institutions into our country, he should be ashamed of himself,” he added. The president argued that there is no need for Biden to receive a security clearance or receive daily intelligence briefings. He had cited former special counsel Robert Hur’s report last year into Biden’s handling of classified materials. The report highlighted the former president’s frequent memory lapses and led to increased scrutiny from Republicans about his mental fitness. “There is no need for Joe Biden to continue receiving access to classified information,” Trump wrote Friday on Truth Social. “Therefore, we are immediately revoking Joe Biden’s Security Clearances, and stopping his daily Intelligence Briefings.” “He set this precedent in 2021, when he instructed the Intelligence Community (IC) to stop the 45th President of the United States (ME!) from accessing details on National Security, a courtesy provided to former Presidents,” Trump’s post continued. “The Hur Report revealed that Biden suffers from ‘poor memory’ and, even in his ‘prime,’ could not be trusted with sensitive information. I will always protect our National Security — JOE, YOU’RE FIRED. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” TRUMP REMOVED ANTONY BLINKEN, LETITIA JAMES, ALVIN BRAGG’S SECURITY CLEARANCES, AMONG OTHERS CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Trump has also revoked the clearances of former Secretary of State Antony Blinken, New York Attorney General Letitia James and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. He also pulled Secret Service protection for his former national security adviser John Bolton last month and security protection for his former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, despite both men facing threats from Iran over their hawkish foreign policy positions towards the country.
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Trump admin files motion to vacate restraining order prohibiting DOGE access to Treasury payment systems
The Trump administration has filed a motion to vacate or modify a court’s temporary restraining order blocking the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, and political appointees from accessing sensitive Treasury Department payment records. In the motion, Cloud Software Group, Inc. CEO Tom Krause argued that “it is important that high-level political appointees, such as the Treasury Secretary, Deputy Secretary, Chief of Staff, and Under Secretaries, retain the ability to attend briefings concerning information obtained from the data or systems from Treasury employees with appropriate access to the data or systems in order to perform their job duties.” Although Krause, who was working at Treasury as a special government employee, admitted that “these high-level officials do not ordinarily need to receive access to or review data from such systems,” he said an event could conceivably occur that could warrant them needing access. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly wrote in a temporary restraining order on Saturday that “political appointees, special government employees and any government employee detailed from an agency outside the Treasury Department access to Treasury Department payment systems or any other data maintained by the Treasury Department containing personally identifiable information.” FEDERAL JUDGE ORDERS LIMITED DOGE ACCESS TO SENSITIVE TREASURY DEPARTMENT PAYMENT SYSTEM RECORDS Anyone covered under those categories who was given previous access to the sensitive data must “immediately destroy any and all copies of material downloaded from the Treasury Department’s records and systems,” the judge said. This comes after a group of 19 attorneys general filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump, the U.S. Treasury and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent alleging that the Trump Administration illegally provided DOGE with unauthorized access to the Treasury Department’s payment systems. Kollar-Kotelly had earlier said in a temporary restraining order on Thursday that Treasury officials “will not provide access to any payment record or payment system of records maintained within the [Treasury] Bureau of Fiscal Service,” a program that handles an estimated 90% of federal payments. Thursday’s order came a day after the Justice Department agreed in a proposed court order to limit access to the sensitive records to only two special government employees within DOGE who will have read-only permission. Kollar-Kotelly approved the motion in a brief order on Thursday. The case in the Thursday order was brought by several government employee unions that sued over who could access the material as part of a government-wide evaluation of programs and systems led by DOGE. It argued that Bessent allowed DOGE improper access. ‘AMERICA HAS DOGE FEVER’: STATES FROM NEW JERSEY TO TEXAS DRAFT SIMILAR INITIATIVES AS FEDERAL LEADERS CELEBRATE Under that order, only Krause and Marko Elez — an engineer and former Musk company employee — were allowed continued access to Treasury’s Fiscal Service, but that changed with Saturday’s order. Krause and Elez were both named as special government employees in the Department of the Treasury, but Elez has since resigned.
Trump’s key to Cabinet confirmations: Senator-turned-VP Vance’s gift of gab
Vice President JD Vance has emerged as a key player in President Donald Trump’s effort to close the deal with senators and move his Cabinet nominees through the at-times difficult confirmation process. Vance is becoming an increasingly trusted voice among Republican senators, sources familiar shared with Fox News Digital. Republicans in the upper chamber also view the vice president as an honest broker in their talks about how to push Trump’s agenda forward, sources added, noting that this had established trust in Vance. TRUMP, GOP SENATORS TO DINE AT MAR-A-LAGO BEFORE CAMPAIGN RETREAT When it came to getting two of Trump’s most controversial nominees past their respective committees, Vance stepped up to assist, sources said. Both Director of National Intelligence (DNI) nominee Tulsi Gabbard and Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faced uncertainty ahead of key hurdles in the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the Senate Committee on Finance, respectively. Each committee housed potentially hesitant Republicans, who expressed initial uncertainty about the nominees. During the crucial committee-level votes, Gabbard and Kennedy could not afford to lose even one Republican’s support. INSIDE SEN. TOM COTTON’S CAMPAIGN TO SAVE TULSI GABBARD’S ENDANGERED DNI NOMINATION Ultimately, Gabbard earned the support of moderate Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, in addition to the last-minute backing of Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind. Similarly, Kennedy managed to snag Young’s support before the committee vote, and holdout Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., a doctor, announced his plan to vote for the nominee just minutes before it took place. To lock down these votes, a significant effort was underway behind closed doors — which included Vance’s crucial counsel to the senators. The vice president spoke to both Young and Cassidy several times in the days leading up to the recent committee votes that saw Gabbard and Kennedy advance to the Senate floor, the sources told Fox News Digital. In those conversations, Vance talked through any remaining concerns the senators had with the nominees. LEADER THUNE BACKS SENATE GOP BID TO SPEED PAST HOUSE ON TRUMP BUDGET PLAN A number of other administration officials had phone calls with Young and Cassidy, as well, also helping to parse through their lingering doubts. Vance’s conversations proved persuasive, in part because of his long-maintained relationships with both senators, whom he served with up until January, the sources detailed. “I think he’s been tasked with this role because of his preexisting relationship with us,” Young told reporters. According to the senator, Vance was respectful and actually “listened a lot more than he talked.” FORMER GOP LEADER MCCONNELL FALLS WHILE EXITING SENATE CHAMBER AFTER TURNER CONFIRMATION VOTE The vice president was also “effective” in getting the necessary concessions that Young, in particular, needed to get to a yes on the nominees. “He came through, he delivered for me, and I’m grateful for that,” Young said, noting he also delivered for Trump. The Indiana senator further explained he has “a certain affinity for Senator Vance,” adding, “He’s a Midwesterner. He is a U.S. Marine. And we share a lot of concerns about people who are left behind and overlooked and underprivileged.”
Here’s how Trump’s tariffs on China could impact drug pricing and other healthcare costs
President Donald Trump’s tariffs on China have raised significant concern over their potential impact on healthcare costs, but while the move could have a broad effect on the industry, it is likely they will not produce the devastating results that some may be expecting, health policy and trade experts say. A survey by market research group Black Book Research found that 84% of the healthcare consumers they questioned said they expect to see higher costs due to increased pricing on medical treatments and drugs as a result of Trump’s new tariffs. But health policy expert Chris Pope posited that healthcare is “not a very highly tradable sector” and that the sectors that do rely on trade relations, like pharmaceutical drugs or medical devices, will hinge on the magnitude of any Trump tariffs. “There’s not much international trade for most of healthcare. The biggest parts of healthcare – physician services, these are all provided domestically already, and hospitals are a domestic part of healthcare, so you take out those two things, and you’ve kind of ruled out almost three-quarters of all healthcare spending,” Pope said in an interview with Fox News Digital. “So, for the most part, we’re talking about drugs and devices, which are, at most, about a quarter of healthcare spending.” DEMS CLAIM TRUMP TARIFF COULD ‘DRIVE UP’ COSTS DESPITE DEFLECTING BLAME FROM BIDEN’S INFLATION “In terms of prices for the industry, whether it’s absorbed in their margins, or they do less research and development, or they pass it on to consumers … it’s not completely devastating, but it’s definitely annoying,” said Christine McDaniel, a senior economist at George Mason University’s Mercatus Institute. Experts told Fox News that drug prices are among the most vulnerable aspects of the healthcare system, largely due to the U.S.’ reliance on China for certain precursor chemicals and compounds that are essential for producing important medications. However, Pope said that the impact will likely only affect generic drugs and not branded drugs that are based on demand rather than supply. Generic drugs are already relatively cost-efficient, with many of them ranging under $10, he said. Monica de Bolle is an immunologist and a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. She painted a bleaker picture of how many drugs could be impacted by the tariffs. ‘MAKING AMERICA EXPENSIVE AGAIN’: DEMOCRATS FIND A TAX THEY DON’T LIKE IN TRUMP TARIFFS “If you go through a list of the kinds of things that we import from China when it comes to active drug ingredients, or anything else that goes into the making of over-the-counter drugs, everything is in there. If you look at the list, it basically spans the range of potential medications that anyone takes at any point in their lives,” said de Bolle. “It includes things like over-the-counter NSAIDS, so non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory drugs, things like Motrin, ibuprofen, even Tylenol, because Acetaminophen is on that list.” She added that drugs that are more dependent on China include medications for anxiety and other psychiatric disorders, such as antidepressants, and following Trump’s tariffs, “those prices are going to go up, for sure,” she said. Experts say costs in healthcare could also rise due to disruptions in the supply chain for medical devices, but they noted that the impact will be a lot harder to generalize, compared to the impact on drug pricing. “Maybe before [the supply chain] was broken up into five stages. Well, now maybe they’ve broken it up into six or seven stages. So there are certain things that they have to stay in China for, or they have to source from China, but then they do the next step in India or another nearby country . . . which is going to be more expensive,” McDaniel said. ‘THIS IS ABOUT FENTANYL’: TARIFFS ARE CRUCIAL TO COMBATING ‘DRUG WAR,’ TRUMP AND CABINET OFFICIALS SAY However, Pope argued that prices could change, depending on the device and the magnitude of Trump’s tariffs. “It’s going to vary a lot, according to where the devices are manufactured, where the components are manufactured, what kind of subsidies are available from other countries and domestically, and the degree of retaliation,” he said. While Trump’s tariffs might be new, the experts say that getting out of China is not. Reducing the U.S.’ dependency on Chinese products tied to healthcare, particularly drugs like antibiotics, has been talked about among lawmakers for some time due to the potential national security risks. Parallel to these discussions, companies have been preparing for future tariffs in light of increased geopolitical tensions. “There has been a lot of discussion coming from both the Democratic camp, as well as the Republican one, about the necessity to bring some of the production of certain types of drugs back to the U.S. to reduce dependency on China,” said de Bolle. “This whole deal about drugs and medical equipment and all of that that was under discussion before Trump. So, it’s not even Trump-related.” “In essence, you know what’s happening now with the tariffs that Trump imposed isn’t any different from the sorts of things that these people were thinking of doing anyway.”
‘Free speech and transparency’: White House launches Rumble account as social media presence grows
FIRST ON FOX: The White House is launching a Rumble account as its presence on social media grows larger, Fox News Digital exclusively learned. A White House official told Fox Digital that it will launch a Rumble account on Monday morning similar to its YouTube account as part of President Donald Trump’s plan “to reach the American people where they are and provide unparalleled transparency and accountability in government.” Rumble is a video platform founded in 2013 as an alternative to YouTube, which has a long track record of accusations surrounding censoring and limiting conservative content. “We thank President Trump and his entire team for their commitment to free speech and transparency, and we are extremely proud that Rumble is now a small part of White House outreach to the people of America and the world. At Rumble, we fight every day for the innate human right of self-expression, and we connect people directly to the marketplace of ideas to avoid the screeners and censors of Big Tech, the corporate media and governments around the globe,” Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski told Fox News Digital. TRUMP WHITE HOUSE ROLLS OUT SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNT TO HOLD ‘FAKE NEWS ACCOUNTABLE’ Rumble is a publicly traded company that most recently reported hosting 67 million monthly users in the third quarter of 2024, which is roughly a 26% increase from 53 million users in its previous quarter. On election night alone, the platform saw a peak of 1.8 million concurrent viewers, Fox Digital learned. The Rumble initiative comes as the White House’s social media engagement has increased under the Trump administration compared to President Biden’s tenure. TRUMP ADMIN TOUTS PURGING ‘WORST’ ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT CRIMINALS FROM US STREETS: ‘WORKING TIRELESSLY’ The Trump administration’s White House accounts on X and Instagram racked up 4,685,265 total engagements in the first two weeks, compared to the Biden administration’s 4,134,845 during its first two weeks, according to data provided to Fox Digital. The figures reflect a 13% increase in social media engagement in Trump’s first two weeks or a difference of 550,420 engagements. A White House official noted that when the Biden administration began in 2021, the White House account on X, which was at the time known as Twitter, began with a running start of 1.6 million followers. Under new X rules, however, the second Trump administration’s X account began with zero followers. “Despite this 1.6M follower advantage, our engagement still surpassed theirs,” the White House said of the difference. TOP 5 MOMENTS FROM TRUMP’S ‘HANNITY’ INTERVIEW Long before Trump jumped into politics ahead of the 2016 election, the real estate tycoon’s love of social media, specifically Twitter, had long been on display. Trump would frequently weigh in on pop culture, politics, the media and even Diet Coke on the social media platform ahead of taking office for his first administration. He remarked after his 2016 win that Twitter was crucial to speaking directly to voters. “Twitter is a wonderful thing for me, because I get the word out. … I might not be here talking to you right now as president if I didn’t have an honest way of getting the word out,” he said in 2017. TRUMP’S ‘SHOCK AND AWE’: FORGET FIRST 100 DAYS, NEW PRESIDENT SHOWS OFF FRENETIC PACE IN FIRST 100 HOURS In his second administration, the White House has further leaned into social media to reach voters, including launching a new social media account in January aimed to hold “fake news accountable.” “Welcome to the official Rapid Response account of the Trump 47 White House. We will be supporting President Donald J. Trump’s America First agenda and holding the Fake News accountable for their lies. Let’s Make America Great Again!” the X account, Rapid Response 47, posted in its first message on Jan. 27. The account has since posted dozens of interview clips highlighting what the White House describes as false rhetoric about the administration from Democrat lawmakers, “misleading” articles promoted by mainstream outlets, and touting work the administration has accomplished.