Category: USA Politics

One month after President Donald Trump ordered a government-wide halt on artificial intelligence firm Anthropic’s technology following a clash with the Pentagon, the company’s CEO is back at the White House for high-level talks — as officials reconsider whether a system they sidelined over national security and political concerns may be too important to ignore.

A source familiar with the meeting told Fox News White House chief of staff Susie Wiles met with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei Friday. 

Anthropic’s new artificial intelligence model, Mythos Preview, is considered so advanced that the company has restricted its release, limiting access to a small group of partners over concerns about potential misuse.

The meeting signals a rapid reversal inside the Trump administration, as officials weigh whether a system previously flagged as a national security risk could also be critical to defending U.S. infrastructure — exposing a growing internal tension over how to handle powerful AI tools with both defensive and offensive potential.

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The talks come despite a recent clash inside the Trump administration, as officials reconsider a company the Pentagon flagged as a supply chain risk. Its ties to former Biden officials and past criticism of Trump by its CEO have added a political dimension to the debate over whether its technology should return to government use.

That potential and the risks that come with it already have triggered tensions inside the U.S. government.

The meeting comes after a sharp break between Anthropic and the Pentagon earlier in 2026.  

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth designated the company a national security “supply chain risk,” effectively cutting it out of military systems and barring contractors from using its technology.

Anthropic is now challenging the designation in court, after filing multiple lawsuits against the Pentagon and other federal agencies arguing the “supply chain risk” label is unlawful and retaliatory. 

The designation, which effectively bars contractors from using Anthropic’s technology and has been compared to measures typically reserved for foreign adversaries, already has faced conflicting rulings in federal court, with one judge temporarily blocking parts of the policy while an appeals court declined to halt its enforcement. The legal fight is ongoing, leaving contractors and agencies navigating uncertainty over whether and how Anthropic’s systems can be used.

The move followed a dispute over how the Pentagon could use Anthropic’s AI. 

The company declined to grant open-ended authorization for “all lawful purposes,” instead insisting its systems not be used for mass domestic surveillance or fully autonomous weapons. While Pentagon officials said they do not rely on AI for either purpose, they rejected being constrained by a private company’s restrictions.

Trump then directed federal agencies to stop using Anthropic’s models altogether, escalating the standoff beyond the Defense Department into a government-wide halt.

Now, just weeks later, the company is back in high-level talks with the White House as officials weigh whether its new Mythos system — despite the earlier ban — could shift the balance of cyber defense and attack.

The dispute also has taken on a political dimension.

Amodei previously has drawn attention for his criticism of Trump, at one point likening him to a “feudal warlord” in a pre-2024-election Facebook post, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

In an internal message posted on Anthropic’s Slack platform and later leaked to The Information, Amodei suggested the Trump administration’s dispute with the company was driven in part by its refusal to offer what he described as “dictator-style praise.” 

The message, written during a rapid escalation of tensions in early March, later was cited by the Wall Street Journal and other outlets. Amodei subsequently apologized for the tone, saying the post did not reflect his considered views.

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When asked about Anthropic’s governance, hiring and broader political ties, a White House official said the administration “continues to proactively engage across government and industry to protect the United States and Americans,” including “working with frontier AI labs to ensure their models help secure critical software vulnerabilities.”

The official added that “any new technology that would potentially be used or deployed by the federal government requires a technical period of evaluation for fidelity and security,” and said “the collective effort of all involved will ultimately benefit industry, and our country, as a whole.”

Beyond the immediate dispute, the company’s broader ties to Washington also have drawn attention.

Anthropic’s governance structure has also drawn attention as the administration weighs closer engagement. The company is overseen in part by an independent “Long-Term Benefit Trust,” an unusual mechanism designed to give nonfinancial stakeholders influence over corporate decisions. 

The trust holds special voting shares that allow it to appoint and eventually control a majority of the company’s board, with members drawn from national security, public policy and global development backgrounds.

Current trustees include Clinton Health Access Initiative CEO Neil Buddy Shah, Carnegie Endowment president Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, a Democrat who was appointed to the California Supreme Court by former Gov. Jerry Brown in 2014, and Center for a New American Security CEO Richard Fontaine — who advised John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign. The group is a mix of policy and national security leaders that underscores the company’s deep ties to Washington and global policy circles.

Anthropic’s backers also have placed it at the center of overlapping tech, policy and political networks. 

Early funding for the company included investments from figures such as Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, both longtime Democratic donors, and a major early investment from Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX.

At the same time, the company has since attracted a broad range of major institutional investors — including Amazon, Google and Microsoft — reflecting its growing role in the global AI race and complicating efforts to characterize it along purely political lines.

The company also has brought on several officials from the Biden administration into key policy roles, further embedding Anthropic in Washington’s AI policy ecosystem. Among them is Tarun Chhabra, a former National Security Council official who now leads the company’s national security policy work, as well as other advisers and staff with experience shaping federal AI and technology strategy.

Anthropic also has sought to build ties across party lines as it expands its presence in Washington. 

The company employs policy staff with Republican backgrounds, including legislative analyst Benjamin Merkel and lobbyist Mary Croghan, and in February added Chris Liddell — a former deputy White House chief of staff under Trump — to its board. It has contributed $20 million to Public First Action, a bipartisan group that backs candidates from both parties who support AI regulation.

The company has also faced criticism from within the Trump administration. 

White House AI adviser David Sacks has accused Anthropic of pursuing a “regulatory capture” strategy, arguing the firm is using concerns about AI safety to push rules that could benefit its own position while slowing competitors. 

Anthropic has pushed back on those claims, saying its approach reflects genuine concerns about the risks posed by advanced AI systems.

Anthropic declined to comment on the White House meeting and questions about its political ties.

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The new technology could help developers identify and fix long-standing security flaws, but it could also give hackers a powerful new tool to target U.S. businesses and government systems.

“Given the rate of AI progress, it will not be long before such capabilities proliferate, potentially beyond actors who are committed to deploying them safely,” Anthropic said in its announcement. “The fallout — for economies, public safety, and national security — could be severe.”

Anthropic has not released Mythos publicly, instead limiting access through a program called Project Glasswing, where a select group of companies use the model to scan critical systems for vulnerabilities.

The company says the system has already uncovered thousands of previously unknown flaws — some decades old — underscoring both its defensive value and the risk it could be used to accelerate cyberattacks if the technology spreads.

Fox Business’ Edward Lawrence contributed to this report.

Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., lashed back at accusations she “weaponized” a social media post with Dave Chappelle, arguing the comedian had already waded into the political debate over transgender issues.

“Dave Chappelle can have his little counseling session with NPR,” Boebert told Fox News Digital, referring to an interview Chappelle gave earlier this week when he criticized a post of the two of them together at the U.S. Capitol.

“That’s fine. You know, I took a photo with 50 Cent, a lot of people and posted about them. And none of them cried over it,” Boebert said.

Boebert snapped a picture with Chappelle in November 2023 and posted the image to Twitter with the caption: “Just three people who understand that there’s only two genders.”

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The original tweet, which also included Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., has since been deleted.

The incident resurfaced earlier this week when Chappelle told interviewers he resented the moment.

“I was on Capitol Hill and everybody ran up to take pictures with me from every congressional office. I didn’t ask how they vote or what their voting record is. And then here comes Lauren Boebert,” Chappelle recalled.

“And she said ‘can I get a picture?’ And I had already taken 40 pictures, I didn’t want to say no in front of everybody… She instantly weaponized it — or politicized it. You should never do that to a person like me.”

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Chappelle has repeatedly tackled transgender issues in his Netflix specials, including “Sticks & Stones,” “Equanimity” and “The Closer” — material that has drawn both backlash and support and put him at the center of the broader cultural debate he now says Boebert pulled him into.

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Boebert noted as much, suggesting Chappelle has already inserted himself into these national conversations through his comedy.

“I think he’s done that quite a bit, has he not?” Boebert said.

When asked if she believed she had politicized the moment with Chappelle, Boebert said she believes the gravity of the issue merits political discourse.

“They’re castrating our children and destroying them, absolutely ruining their lives over it. In Colorado … We castrate bulls not baby boys. Okay? And that’s what it should be,” Boebert said.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing Houston city officials over the adoption of a “sanctuary” ordinance designed to limit cooperation between local authorities and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The ordinance, passed by a 12-5 vote last week, ended a Houston police policy that required officers to wait at least 30 minutes for ICE to arrive if a suspect had an immigration warrant. 

The lawsuit names Houston Mayor John Whitmire, the city’s 16 council members, and Houston Police Chief J. Noe Diaz as defendants.

Paxton argued the ordinance violates Senate Bill 4, a state law passed in 2017 that prevents local governments from adopting, enforcing, or endorsing policies that prohibit or materially limit the enforcement of federal immigration laws.

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“I will not allow any local official to push sanctuary policies that make our communities less safe,” Paxton said in a statement. “Under my watch, no Texas city will be a safe harbor for illegals.

“The Texas Legislature passed strong legislation that specifically stops the type of lawless ordinance that Houston adopted,” he added. “Houston has no authority to ignore the Constitution and the laws duly enacted by the Legislature. I’m calling on Houston to immediately repeal this ordinance.”

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In a statement, Whitmire said it was “unfortunate that so much time and resources are being spent on an issue that should not be partisan.” He added, “It interferes with our responsibility to keep Houston safe and protect all residents.”

Houston City Council member Alejandra Salinas urged the city to defend the ordinance in court.

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“It’s no longer a question about whether the City should go to court,” she wrote on X. “We’re already there. The Mayor and City Council must vigorously defend the law we voted for and that the City Attorney deemed legal. I stand ready to work with my colleagues to defend our laws and protect Houstonians’ constitutional rights.”

Fox News Digital has reached out to several city council members for comment.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has also threatened to freeze public safety funding if Houston moves forward with the ordinance.

“Houston received more than $100 million from the state based on a written agreement that they will comply with immigration enforcement,” Abbott wrote on X in a Tuesday post. “If they refuse to comply, they better get out their checkbook. It will be costly if they refuse to keep their streets safe.”

A special City Council meeting scheduled for Friday was pushed back after Abbott extended the deadline for the city to respond to his funding freeze threat.

Republican Utah Gov. Spencer Cox and top state lawmakers ordered an independent investigation Friday into a state Supreme Court justice over allegations she had an unethical relationship with an attorney who worked on a high-stakes redistricting case.

Justice Diana Hagen, who was appointed by Cox, stands accused by her ex-husband of sending what he described as “inappropriate” text messages to an attorney who helped challenge a Republican-friendly map that maintained four red congressional seats in Utah. Hagen joined a unanimous decision to toss out Republicans’ redistricting plan in July 2024, a ruling that led to one of the seats flipping blue in time for the 2026 midterms.

The revelation of a possible relationship between Hagen and the attorney, David Reymann, who worked on behalf of progressive voting rights groups in the case, stemmed from a complaint that a lawyer for Hagen’s husband submitted to Chief Justice Matthew Durrant and the Judicial Conduct Commission, according to local outlet KSL.

Hagen and Reymann have both denied the allegations. Fox News Digital reached out to a Utah Supreme Court representative and Reymann for comment.

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The Judicial Conduct Commission, described on its website as an independent body comprising several state lawmakers, judges and members of the public, conducted a preliminary investigation based on the complaint and chose not to pursue the matter further, the outlet reported. Fox News Digital reached out to the Judicial Conduct Commission for comment.

The Utah Supreme Court issued a public statement on behalf of Hagen Friday afternoon in which she said she never had a conflict of interest.

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“My last involvement in the redistricting case was October 2024,” Hagen said. “I voluntarily recused myself from all cases involving Mr. Reymann in May 2025, and my recusal was reflected in the Court’s September 15, 2025 opinion in League of Women Voters. I took prompt, prudent, and transparent steps in response to the allegations made by my ex-husband, including reporting them myself to the Judicial Conduct Commission and submitting a sworn statement. The Judicial Conduct Commission recently reviewed the matter, dismissed the complaint, and closed the case. I remain committed to upholding the highest standards of judicial ethics, integrity, and impartiality.”

The complaint and interviews conducted by the Judicial Conduct Commission found that Hagen and her husband began discussing divorce in September 2024, had interacted together with Reymann toward the end of that year and that Hagen did not meet one-on-one with Reymann until 2025, according to KSL.

Cox, along with Senate President Stuart Adams and House Speaker Mike Schultz, who joined the governor in launching the new investigation, said in a joint statement that more “transparency” was needed on the matter, signaling that the public’s trust in the state’s highest court was at stake, especially after a polarizing decision in a redistricting case set to affect the midterms.

“An initial review by the Judicial Conduct Commission and the court left important questions unresolved,” they said. “Allegations of this nature, especially involving public officials, must be examined with transparency and accountability to establish the facts and to maintain public confidence.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Friday that the Trump administration is working with federal agencies and the FBI to review a growing number of cases involving American scientists who have gone missing or died and to determine whether any of the cases may be connected.

“In light of the recent and legitimate questions about these troubling cases, and President Trump’s commitment to the truth, the White House is actively working with all relevant agencies and the FBI to holistically review all of the cases together and identify any potential commonalities that may exist,” Leavitt said in a post on X.

“No stone will be unturned in this effort, and the White House will provide updates when we have them.”

Leavitt’s statement came after a Wednesday exchange with Fox News’ Peter Doocy, who asked whether federal authorities were investigating reports that scientists with access to sensitive U.S. research had gone missing or died.

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“There are now 10 American scientists who have either gone missing or died since mid-2024,” Doocy said. “They all reportedly had access to classified nuclear or aerospace material. Is anybody investigating this to see if these things are connected?”

Leavitt said at the time that she had seen the reports but had not yet spoken with the relevant agencies.

“I’ve seen the report, Peter. I haven’t spoken to our relevant agencies about it,” she said Wednesday. “I will certainly do that and we’ll get you an answer. If true, of course, that’s definitely something I think this government and administration would deem worth looking into.”

The number of cases has since grown, with an 11th scientist now included among the deaths and disappearances involving people tied to U.S. military, nuclear and aerospace research.

Amy Eskridge, a Huntsville, Alabama-based researcher who died in 2022 at age 34, is now being included in the list, Fox News Digital has reported.

Her death has drawn renewed attention as at least 10 other recent cases involving people tied to advanced research fields have raised questions about whether there may be a pattern.

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President Donald Trump said Thursday he had “just left a meeting” on the issue and vowed answers within days, calling the situation “pretty serious.”

“I hope it’s random, but we’re going to know in the next week and a half,” Trump said.

The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration said it is aware of the reports and is looking into the matter.

“NNSA is aware of reports related to employees of our labs, plants, and sites and is looking into the matter,” the agency said in a statement.

Officials have not confirmed any connection between the cases. But the timing of the deaths and disappearances, along with the individuals’ ties to advanced research fields, has drawn public attention and speculation.

There is no publicly available evidence linking Eskridge’s death to the other cases, and authorities have not indicated any tie between her work and the circumstances of her death.

A Virginia judge expressed concern over the mental state of former Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax while ruling on a child custody case involving two teenage children, commenting on his behavior and isolation.

Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Timothy J. McEvoy detailed these concerns in a March 30 court order involving Fairfax, his estranged wife, and their two children, writing that Fairfax’s “isolation, drinking and lack of participation in family life are manifestations of what seems to be a sense of fatalism and hopelessness,” WTOP reported.

Fairfax killed his wife, Dr. Cerina Fairfax, and then himself in a shocking murder-suicide early Thursday morning. The two were living under the same roof during ongoing divorce proceedings.

The split followed sexual assault allegations made against Fairfax in 2019.

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“At that time, [Fairfax] was the Lieutenant Governor of Virginia and was an ascendant political figure who was eyeing a run for Governor. The assault allegations deeply affected [him] and appear to have put an end to those plans,” court documents state.

Fairfax served as lieutenant governor from 2018 to 2022. In 2019, two women accused him of sexually assaulting them while they were students at Duke University.

The killing occurred just days before an April 21 divorce hearing and an April 30 court-ordered deadline for Fairfax to move out of the couple’s home. Authorities confirmed that Fairfax had recently been served with paperwork related to the upcoming court hearing.

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McEvoy’s order detailed a 2022 incident in which Fairfax purchased a handgun, which he possessed during a “kind of adverse psychological event.” The gun was allegedly purchased with money intended for his children’s horseback riding lessons.

At one point, he left his home with the weapon and was found by relatives in a nearby public park “after frantic searching.” Fairfax’s brother eventually called a mental health professional after being “unable to calm him down over the course of several hours,” the judge wrote.

According to the New York Post, Fairfax was drinking so heavily that he would lock himself in his home office, living among “empty wine bottles, trash and piles of dirty laundry.” The documents allege he would only emerge “long enough to get food or smoke cigarettes.”

McEvoy noted there was no evidence that Fairfax had sought professional help, but did not order psychological therapy.

The judge described the tension in the couple’s home life as “extremely high for an extended period of time,” noting that their living arrangements were exacerbating the situation. He had ordered Fairfax to move out of the home in Annandale, located outside Washington, D.C.

Authorities believe the acrimonious divorce likely played a role in Fairfax’s decision to kill his wife before taking his own life.

Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts University medical graduate student from Turkey whose charges were dropped after DHS detained her for allegedly “[engaging] in activities in support of Hamas,” has self-deported to Turkey, according to sources familiar with the matter. 

Ozturk self-deported from the U.S. late Thursday night on a flight to Istanbul, Turkey, according to sources familiar.

Ozturk was detained by ICE in Somerville, Massachusetts, in March 2025, sparking a battle between the Trump administration and a federal judge over her detainment.

The Tufts graduate student was living in the U.S. under an F-1 student visa, which the Trump administration revoked around March 21, 2025. At the time her visa was revoked, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the Trump administration were cracking down on student visas for students who were involved in protests and demonstrations regarding Israel and Palestine.

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“After 13 years of dedicated study, I am very proud to have completed my Ph.D. and to return home on my own timeline,” Ozturk said in a statement. “The time stolen from me by the U.S. government belongs not just to me, but to the children and youth I have dedicated my life to advocating for. With them in mind, I am choosing to return home as planned to continue my career as a woman scholar without losing more time to the state-imposed violence and hostility I have experienced in the United States – all for nothing more than co-signing an op-ed advocating for Palestinian rights.”

Ozturk co-authored an opinion piece on March 26, 2024 that was published in Tufts Daily, a student newspaper on campus.

“Credible accusations against Israel include accounts of deliberate starvation and indiscriminate slaughter of Palestinian civilians and plausible genocide,” the op-ed read. 

The authors, including Ozturk, were critical of the university’s response to anti-Israel protests, saying that the university should publicly acknowledge Palestinian suffering. 

Rubio specifically referenced opinion pieces in a statement surrounding the revoking of student visas, notably after the arrest of Ozturk on March 25, 2025.

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“If you apply for a visa to enter the United States and be a student, and you tell us that the reason why you’re coming to the United States is not just because you want to write op-eds, but because you want to participate in movements that are involved in doing things like vandalizing universities, harassing students, taking over buildings, creating a ruckus — we’re not going to give you a visa,” Rubio said.

Trump’s Department of Justice also weighed in on Ozturk’s self-deportation.

“Attending elite colleges and universities in the United States is a privilege afforded to foreign students who respect our values and follow our laws,” a DOJ official told Fox News. “Rümeysa Öztürk chose not to abide by those simple conditions, and as a result left the United States – something the Administration sought to accomplish from the beginning. We will continue to seek the deportation of any foreign student who abuses their opportunity to study in America by engaging in vile antisemitism, harassment, or other illegal behavior.”

Following Ozturk’s arrest, she was transferred to Methuen, Mass., then Lebanon, New Hampshire, and Vermont before she was sent to the South Louisiana ICE processing facility, according to reports.  

Protests erupted at Tufts and across the country over her arrest, and two months later she was released on bail.

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The legal battle continued between the Trump administration and Ozturk, who was legally represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), until Feb. 9 when Biden-appointed Boston immigration Judge Roopal Patel terminated deportation proceedings. 

Patel ruled that the Department of Homeland Security lacked the legal grounds to deport her. 

“I grieve for the many human beings who do not get to see the mistreatment they have faced brought into the light,” Ozturk said in a statement released by her attorneys after the ruling. “When we openly talk about the many injustices around us, including the treatment of immigrants and others who have been targeted and thrown in for-profit ICE prisons, as well as what is happening in Gaza, true justice will prevail.”

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The Trump Department of Justice fired Patel, among other immigration judges, last week.

Since Patel ruled as an immigration judge and not a federal Article III judge, the Trump administration and the executive branch has authority over her tenure.

The White House issued a press release on April 9, titled: “Era of Amnesty Is Over: President Trump Restores Rule of Law to Immigration Courts,” in which the administration touted “the most aggressive and successful immigration enforcement overhaul in modern history.”

“President Trump promised to end the open borders nightmare — and he is delivering on that promise with unrelenting force. The era of catch-and-release, mass releases, and activist judicial amnesty is over,” the White House statement reads.

Former President Barack Obama is urging Virginians to vote in favor of a congressional redistricting ballot measure that if passed, could give Democrats a big boost in this year’s midterm elections.

“By voting yes, you have the chance to do something important — not just for the Commonwealth, but for our entire country,” Obama said in the video. “By voting yes, you can push back against the Republicans trying to give themselves an unfair advantage in the midterms.”

The video by the former president, who remains one of the most popular former presidents and whose favorable ratings among Democrats remain very high a decade after leaving the White House, was released Friday on the eve of the final day of early voting ahead of Tuesday’s statewide referendum.

If the ballot measure is successful, it would give the Democrat-controlled legislature — rather than the current nonpartisan commission — temporary redistricting power through the 2030 election. It could result in a 10-1 advantage for Democrats in Virginia’s congressional delegation, up from their current 6-5 edge.

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That would give Democrats four additional left-leaning U.S. House seats ahead of the midterms, as the party tries to win back control of the chamber from the GOP, which currently holds a razor-thin majority.

“By voting yes, you can take a temporary step to level the playing field. And we’re counting on you,” Obama said in the video.

Republicans call the Democrats’ redistricting effort an “unconstitutional power grab.” Democrats counter that it’s a necessary step to balance out partisan gerrymandering already implemented by Republicans in other states under the urging of President Donald Trump.

The video by Obama is the former president’s latest effort tied to the referendum. He has previously appeared in ads released by Virginians for Fair Elections, the Democrat-aligned group working to pass the ballot initiative.

Virginians For Fair Maps, the leading Republican-aligned group opposing redistricting, is using past comments by Obama against political gerrymandering in their ads opposing the referendum.

“Because of things like political gerrymandering, our parties have moved further and further apart, and it’s harder and harder to find common ground,” the former president says in a clip showcased in the spot.

A separate group that is also urging Virginians to vote no has sent mailers across the state featuring Obama’s image alongside a six-year-old quote from the former president saying, “For too long, gerrymandering has contributed to stalled progress and warped our representative government.”

Supporters of redistricting have dramatically outraised and outspent groups opposed to the referendum. But polling suggests support for the ballot initiative is only slightly ahead of opposition, amid a surge in early voting.

Virginia is the latest battleground in the high-stakes fight between Trump and the GOP versus Democrats over congressional redistricting.

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Aiming to prevent what happened during his first term in the White House when Democrats reclaimed the House majority in the 2018 midterms, Trump last spring first floated the idea of rare, but not unheard of, mid-decade congressional redistricting.

The mission was simple: redraw congressional district maps in red states to pad the GOP’s fragile House majority to keep control of the chamber in the midterms, when the party in power traditionally faces political headwinds and loses seats.

When asked by reporters last summer about his plan to add Republican-leaning House seats across the country, the president said, “Texas will be the biggest one. And that’ll be five.”

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas called a special session of the GOP-dominated state legislature to pass the new map.

But Democratic state lawmakers, who broke quorum for two weeks as they fled Texas in a bid to delay the passage of the redistricting bill, energized Democrats across the country.

Among those leading the fight against Trump’s redistricting was Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom of California.

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California voters in November overwhelmingly passed Proposition 50, a ballot initiative that temporarily sidetracked the left-leaning state’s nonpartisan redistricting commission and returned the power to draw the congressional maps to the Democratic-dominated legislature.

That is expected to result in five more Democratic-leaning congressional districts in California, which aimed to counter the move by Texas to redraw their maps.

The fight quickly spread beyond Texas and California.

Republican-controlled Missouri and Ohio, and swing state North Carolina, where the GOP dominates the legislature, have drawn new maps as part of the president’s push.

In blows to Republicans, a Utah district judge late last year rejected a congressional district map drawn up by the state’s GOP-dominated legislature and instead approved an alternate that will create a Democratic-leaning district ahead of the midterms.

Meanwhile, Republicans in Indiana’s Senate in December defied Trump, shooting down a redistricting bill that had passed the state House. The showdown in the Indiana statehouse grabbed plenty of national attention.

Florida is next up.

Two-term Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and state lawmakers in the GOP-dominated legislature are hoping to pick up an additional three to five right-leaning seats through a redistricting push during a special legislative session that kicks off on April 28.

Hovering over the redistricting wars is the Supreme Court, which is expected to rule in Louisiana v. Callais, a crucial case that may lead to the overturning of a key provision in the Voting Rights Act.

If the ruling goes the way of the conservatives on the high court, it could lead to the redrawing of a slew of majority-minority districts across the county, which would greatly favor Republicans.

But it is very much up in the air — when the court will rule, and what it will actually do.

Virginia voters are set to decide a redistricting referendum Tuesday, even as a high-stakes legal challenge before the state’s Supreme Court argues the amendment should be invalidated because it was pushed through an unlawfully extended legislative session.

The case centers on whether lawmakers violated the Virginia Constitution by keeping the special session open for nearly two years to pass the redistricting measure, a move critics say was an abuse of legislative authority. The measure, if it passes Tuesday and survives state Supreme Court scrutiny, would reshape the state’s congressional map so that Democrats have a 10-1 advantage in the upcoming midterms.

“The voters are the first hope that we have, and the best one,” Jason Snead, executive director of Honest Elections Project, told Fox News Digital, warning that if the referendum passes, the Supreme Court decision could be “the last chance” before the next census to challenge the map.

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Snead’s group this week submitted a brief to Virginia’s highest court making the case that the legislative special session was improperly extended.

“If you look at what the Constitution of Virginia requires and what the law requires, it’s very clear that what happened here was an illegally extended special session that essentially turned a part-time legislature into a full-time one,” Snead said. “They kept it open for nearly two years and then used that to push through a constitutional amendment — and we think that’s a blatant violation of the limits the Constitution puts on legislative power.”

Virginia Democrats, led by Gov. Abigail Spanberger and House Speaker Don Scott, passed an amendment this year that they argued allowed them to bypass the typical redistricting process in the state to shift the current 6-5 map to 10-1. Scott told reporters in February the move was a direct response to national redistricting fights playing out across the country.

NEW POLL REVEALS SPANBERGER’S POPULARITY IS PLUMMETING AMID BACKLASH OVER GERRYMANDERING

“This is about leveling the playing field across the country. Republicans are gerrymandering maps to override the will of the voters,” Scott said. “We just saw it in Texas, North Carolina and Missouri. At Donald Trump’s direction they’re manipulating election maps because they know they can’t win on their agenda in 2026. … A 10-1 map levels the playing field.”

Democrats have argued to the Supreme Court that the General Assembly has broad constitutional authority to manage its own legislative sessions and procedures, including extending a special session, and that nothing in the Virginia Constitution explicitly prohibits how this particular session was handled. 

The Honest Elections Project’s brief argues otherwise.

“If you look at what the law requires, it’s very clear that Governor Spanberger and her allies are steamrolling the process to try to launch a power grab,” Snead said

SPANBERGER ONCE BLASTED GERRYMANDERING AND NOW BACKS AMENDMENT CRITICS SAY COULD ERASE VIRGINIA GOP

The Supreme Court decided in March to allow the referendum vote to move forward while it considers Republicans’ arguments challenging how the map amendment was passed by way of a special session.

“It is the process, not the outcome, of this effort that we may ultimately have to address,” the state’s highest court found. “Issuing an injunction to keep Virginians from the polls is not the proper way to make this decision.”

The state Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case April 27 and a decision could come anytime after that.

Fox News Digital reached out to Spanberger’s and Scott’s offices for comment.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris this week blasted President Donald Trump for the surge in gas prices triggered by the U.S. war with Iran.

But four years ago, the then-vice president said that soaring gas prices sparked in part by the Russian invasion of Ukraine were the “price to pay for democracy.”

“Here in North Carolina and around the country, gas prices are too high,” Harris wrote this week in a social media post. “This is a direct result of Donald Trump’s war of choice in Iran, and the American people are paying the price.”

The Wednesday post featured a video of Harris delivering remarks while standing outside in front of a sign displaying fuel prices at a gas station in North Carolina.

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“We’ve got a president who is paying more attention to what he thinks is in his best political interests and personal interests, as opposed to what is in the best interest of working people in America,” Harris declared at the end of the brief video.

The average price of regular gasoline surged to over $4 per gallon following the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran, which were launched on Feb. 28. Iran’s military has been decimated, and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and other top Iranian officials were killed during the month-and-a-half-long war.

In response, Iran targeted energy facilities with missile and drone attacks in a number of Persian Gulf nations. It has also made the Strait of Hormuz nearly impassable to commercial shipping, bringing roughly 20% of the world’s oil supply to a halt and sending global fuel prices sharply higher.

Trump’s attacks on Iran have provided Democrats with political ammunition amid their focus on affordability and persistent inflation. The issue has also boosted them to overperformance at the ballot box in two special congressional elections this month.

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The attacks have also upset some in Trump’s MAGA base, who feel the president has broken his 2024 campaign promise to avoid foreign military entanglements.

The current gas prices in the U.S. are the highest in four years.

Speaking during a press conference in Bucharest, Romania during that gas price surge in 2022 during the early months of the Russia-Ukraine war, Harris said the U.S. was “committed in everything we are doing” in support of Ukraine.

“And yes, the president did say in the State of the Union, there is a price to pay for democracy — got to stand with your friends — and as everybody knows, even in your personal life, being loyal to those friendships based on common principles and values, sometimes, it’s difficult — often, it ain’t easy.” 

“But that is what the friendship is about — shared values,” Harris said. “So that’s what we’re doing.”

FOX BUSINESS: OIL PRICES PLUNGE AFTER STRAIGHT OF HORMUZ REOPENS

Republicans at the time blamed then-President Joe Biden‘s administration for the high gas prices, just as Democrats are now blaming Trump.

But a major difference in the two situations is that while Trump ordered the U.S. strikes on Iran, the Biden administration came to Ukraine’s aid after Russian launched a widescale military invasion.

The White House at the time repeatedly blamed Russian leader Vladimir Putin for record-high gas prices in the U.S., even coining the surge the “#PutinPriceHike” and vowing that Biden would do everything he could to shield Americans from “pain at the pump.”

But Trump and Republicans capitalized on inflation, using it as a key issue in the sweeping 2024 election victories, when they won back the White House and Senate and held their House majority.

Democrats are hoping to turn the tables in this year’s midterm elections by spotlighting affordability as they aim to flip the House and Senate.

And Harris, who lost to Trump in the 2024 election after replacing Biden as the Democratic Party’s nominee, has left the door wide open to a 2028 White Houser run.

The White House pushed back against this week’s jab from Harris.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers argued, “No one cares or believes what Kamala Harris says because Americans remember the economic pain caused by the Biden-Harris administration’s very unpopular and costly Green New Scam. Kamala’s anti-energy dominance agenda sent electricity prices soaring more than 30 percent in just four years, and the average gas price across the country skyrocketed to $5 in just one year.”