Category: USA Politics

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., signaled Tuesday that Republicans will continue to closely align themselves with President Donald Trump as the November midterms creep closer.

“The American people are going to understand he is on the ballot, at least in a metaphorical sense, because if we were to lose the midterms, everybody knows the chaos that would ensue,” the leader of the House of Representatives told NBC News reporter Scott Wong.

Johnson made the remarks at House Republicans’ annual policy retreat, which is taking place this year at Trump’s golf course and resort in Doral, Florida, where GOP lawmakers are huddling to hash out policy goals ahead of the midterm races and beyond.

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He said Trump is also going to take an “active” role in the coming election cycle.

“President Trump is going to be … he’s engaged, he’s going to run like he’s 2024. He’s going to do the rallies and do the events, and he’s already doing it now,” Johnson said.

“He’s going to be heavily involved. And he is still the turnout machine for our side — as well as the other side, I acknowledge that.”

The speaker’s comments are not surprising given Trump’s continued command and influence over the GOP, but tying Republicans so closely to a sitting president in a midterm year could be viewed as a risky strategy.

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Political history dictates that the party holding all levers of power in Washington at the beginning of a presidential term — in this case, Republicans — generally lose control of one or both houses of Congress in the following election cycle.

It happened most recently during former President Joe Biden’s term, when Republicans clawed back the House majority in the 2022 races and won the Senate in the following 2024 cycle.

But Johnson has been and continues to be optimistic about Republicans’ chances of bucking that trend in November.

“I think there’s so many factors in our favor. I think the energy and excitement is going to be on our side,” Johnson said. “I can’t wait for the midterm convention that we’re going to have before early voting starts in the fall, where we parade all of our stars across the stage, and we talk about all the great things we’ve done for the American people.

“This is a midterm like none other. So, I’m telling you, do not bet against the House Republicans.”

Voters say artificial intelligence (AI) could dramatically reshape life in the United States — but for now, most say that transformation still feels more like a headline than a lived reality.

The latest Fox News poll finds nearly 9 in 10 voters think AI will change the way we live either a lot (53%) or some (34%) in the next few years. Roughly 1 in 10 think it won’t change much (8%) or at all (4%). Although overall sentiment is where it stood two years ago, the share saying AI will change our lives “a lot” is up by 10 percentage points — from 43% in 2023 to 53% today.

While nearly half find AI very or somewhat useful (47%) in their day-to-day lives, a small majority (53%) says it’s not very or not at all useful. More than twice as many say AI is “not at all” useful (29%) as think it is “very” useful (12%).

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Men under age 45 (66% very/somewhat useful) and Republicans under age 45 (61%) are the most likely to find AI useful — the only groups where more than 60% say so.

Among those least likely to find AI helpful are voters ages 65+ (67% not very/at all useful), women without a college degree (63%), Democrats ages 45+ (62%), rural voters (62%), and households with income below $50,000 (61%).

An overwhelming majority feels people should be clearly told when online images, videos, or written content are created with AI (89%). The survey was completed before an X announcement March 3, requiring its users to disclose when videos of an armed conflict are AI-generated, or face consequences.

Eight in 10 voters are extremely (44%) or very (36%) concerned AI is eroding trust in what we see and hear on the news and social media.  Nearly 9 times as many are extremely concerned (44%) as say they are not at all concerned (5%).

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Overall, 60% feel confident they can tell if something is AI-generated, while 40% are not — unchanged since June 2025.

By a narrow 5 percentage-point margin, more voters are concerned AI will eventually take control of humans (52% extremely/very concerned) than unconcerned (47% not very/not at all). 

Those most likely to be concerned are very conservative voters (63% extremely/very concerned), MAGA supporters (61%), households with income below $50K (59%), Hispanic voters (58%), and Republicans (58%).

One more thing …

While the AI debate rages here on earth, a majority of voters are certain about intelligent life elsewhere.

By a 50-point margin, more think life did or does exist on other planets in the universe (74%) than believe it never existed (24%).

CLICK HERE FOR CROSSTABS AND TOPLINE

Democrats (78% yes, life exists), independents (77%), Catholics (77%), and White voters (76%) are more likely to believe in life beyond our solar system than Republicans (68% yes, life exists), Protestants (67%), White evangelicals (64%), Black voters (65%), and Hispanics (68%).

Conducted Feb. 28-March 2, 2026, under the direction of Beacon Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R), this Fox News survey includes interviews with a sample of 1,004 registered voters randomly selected from a national voter file. Respondents spoke with live interviewers on landlines (104) and cellphones (642) or completed the survey online after receiving a text (258). Results based on the full sample have a margin of sampling error of ±3 percentage points. Sampling error for results among subgroups is higher. In addition to sampling error, question wording and order can influence results. Weights are generally applied to age, race, education, and area variables to ensure the demographics are representative of the registered voter population. Sources for developing weight targets include the most recent American Community Survey, Fox News Voter Analysis, and voter file data.

David Bier, a Democrat-called witness at a Senate Budget Committee hearing Tuesday, drew a sharp rebuke from GOP Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana after accusing the Trump administration of attempting a “population purge” in the U.S.

Earlier in the hearing, Bier, an immigration policy expert at the CATO Institute, argued that both legal and illegal aliens “are a benefit to this country” because they help to reduce the national deficit.

Kennedy ripped into Bier, asking, “What planet did you parachute in from? You trigger my gag reflex.” 

Bier had just claimed that federal judges opposing President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement operations “are much braver” than U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.

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“They are much braver. They put their names on their rulings, and they stand behind their constitutional rulings,” said Bier. 

He accused the administration of attempting to carry out a “population purge,” saying, “They’re trying to deport U.S.-born citizens, people born here, they are trying to deport them as well. So, it’s not a mass deportation agenda, it is also an agenda intended to reduce the population of the United States, including U.S.-born people.”

Earlier in the hearing, Bier had called for “more” immigrants to help address the soaring national deficit.

While being questioned by Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., Bier said that there are “clear reasons for believing that they are reducing the deficits and debt, they are a benefit to this country, and we need more people who are going to contribute in the future as our population ages.”

Bier said “it’s easy to understand why” immigrants reduce the deficit “because they work at 12 percentage points higher than the national average, they use less benefits because they’re subject to constraints, unique barriers to applying for those benefits, in particular Social Security and Medicare. Those are by far our largest programs, and they’re not eligible for those at all if they’re here in the country illegally or if they came legally and they don’t have a sufficient work history to qualify.”

After the hearing, Bier later told Fox News Digital that “this exchange had nothing to do with illegal immigration” and that “the question was about immigration generally.”

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Despite testifying in a hearing titled “Sanctuary Cities: The Cost of Undermining Law and Order,” during which members criticized the mass migration under the Biden administration, Bier posited that more immigration is a positive step for the country.

“According to the Social Security Administration, we need about 35 million more workers in order to keep revenues equal to expenses by the middle of the 2030s,” he said. “So, we are at a position right now where immigration is not going to solve it. Obviously, it’s not going to solve it, but it is moving us in the right direction.”

He praised immigrants, saying, “These are people who are showing up, they’re ready to work, they’re often prime age individuals who are ready to enter the labor force.”

“So, it’s a huge benefit fiscally to the United States to have these people who want to contribute to our country,” he added.

Bier was not the only one arguing in the hearing that illegal immigrants can improve communities. Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., one of the Trump administration’s most outspoken critics, took a similar line, arguing that sanctuary policies actually lower crime, poverty and unemployment.

“Data shows that sanctuary policies actually make communities safer, healthier and more prosperous. That’s right, the evidence shows, the research shows sanctuary jurisdictions have lower crime rates, higher median household income, less poverty, less reliance on public assistance, higher labor force participation, and lower unemployment,” said Padilla.  

“That’s right. It seems like sanctuary cities are helping to make America great, I said it,” he added.

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Likewise, Kennedy was not the only Republican who took issue with Bier. After arguing over whether it was a mistake for Congress to ban people from entering the country illegally, Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, slammed Bier as a “smug guy.”

“You haven’t answered my question, but that’s okay. You’re a smug guy, and that’s part of your shtick,” said Moreno.

After another Democrat-called witness declined to answer the same question, Moreno criticized both, saying, “This is the best that Democrats can come up with.”

“This is the best witnesses you’ve got? A guy who can’t distinguish whether it’s okay to have people enter our country illegally. Of all the millions of people that you could have chosen to testify … the best you have is a guy who has no idea what our immigration law is, and isn’t sure if somebody should enter the country illegally [and] another guy is a smug guy who obviously has an agenda,” said Moreno.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is sounding alarms about the threat of Sharia law in the U.S., warning that it is in direct conflict with the tenets the U.S. was founded on.

“There’s a lot of energy in the country and a lot of popular sentiment that the demand to impose Sharia law in America is a serious problem,” Johnson told reporters at a news conference at House Republicans’ annual policy retreat in Miami.

“I think that that’s a serious issue. Sharia law and the imposition of Sharia law is contrary to the U.S. Constitution.”

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He was answering a question regarding the budding backlash against Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., who posted on X, “Muslims don’t belong in American society.”

The post was immediately attacked by Democrats as racist and bigoted, with some, including Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., demanding that Johnson “speak out against this hate.”

Ogles, for his part, was unrepentant. He followed his post with another that said, “My comments wouldn’t even be a news story if I had said this about Christians. Please spare me your moral outrage. Cry harder.”

Johnson said Ogles’ comments were “different language than I would use” but suggested he believed the Tennessee Republican was referring to immigrants who refuse to adapt to U.S. culture and values.

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“When you seek to come to a country and not assimilate, but to impose Sharia law — Sharia law is in conflict with the U.S. Constitution. That is the conflict that people are talking about,” Johnson said.

“It is not about people as Muslims. It’s about those who seek to impose a different belief system that is in direct conflict with the Constitution. That’s where I think that comes from.”

Conservatives in Congress have grown more vocal about the threat of Sharia law in recent months, with representatives Keith Self, R-Texas, and Chip Roy, R-Texas, even moving to form a “Sharia-free America Caucus.”

Sharia broadly refers to a code of ethics and conduct used by devout Muslims. Sharia law more specifically often refers to the criminal code used in non-secular Islamic countries, like Iran.

In its most extreme cases, such as when ISIS controlled parts of the Middle East, charges like blasphemy could carry the death penalty. But guarantees of religious freedom in the Constitution mean that Sharia law cannot be carried out on any governmental level in the U.S.

A Minnesota Democrat whose retort to a Republican about potential “benefit[s] of shoplifting” during a hearing on worker misclassification defended the exchange as sarcasm gone awry.

During a Minnesota House Workforce and Labor Committee hearing this week, lawmakers reviewed information on how laws governing employee and independent contractor classifications affect insurance payments and other benefits, according to local reports.

State Rep. Dave Pinto, D-St. Paul, responded after a Republican lawmaker voiced concern that worker misclassification ultimately falls on the taxpayer.

“It is an intriguing line of questions,” Pinto said, appearing to suggest a study on the “benefit of shoplifting and retail theft.”

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Pinto spoke of a recent presentation before another committee he sits on that sought to address solutions to organized retail theft.

“And it actually had not occurred to me to ask — it probably would have been good — to make sure that they would study sort of the benefit of shoplifting, of retail theft since because perhaps people are relying on that and sort of using that maybe it’s you know assisting them in some way,” he said.

Pinto went on to describe whether people involved in such activities are considered to be violating the law, and that there may be a policy question at the root of such a discussion.

In comments to Fox News Digital, Pinto defended the remarks, saying he was reacting sarcastically to Rep. Isaac Schultz, R-Mille Lacs, who had posed the original question.

“My comments, intended to be sarcastic, followed a line of questioning from Republican Rep. Isaac Schultz suggesting a study is needed on whether the illegal practice of worker misclassification harms consumers,” Pinto said.

“As a prosecutor, of course I take retail theft and shoplifting seriously. Any insinuation to the contrary is absurd — just like Rep. Schultz’s remarks were.”

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Nonetheless, Pinto’s original comment was viewed thousands of times on social media and elicited responses from other lawmakers, amid ongoing scrutiny over social services fraud and other scandals in the Land of 10,000 Lakes.

State Rep. Krista Knudsen, R-Lake Shore, was rendered speechless in a video response to the matter, as she put her hands to her face.

“There are no benefits to shoplifting for the people that are being shoplifted from. I have no idea what else to say,” Knudsen said. “I’m shocked, actually. I don’t even know what to say. Who — I don’t know what to say — Who benefits from shoplifting? The criminals.”

State Rep. Kristin Robbins, a Republican from the Minneapolis area, appeared to cite her region’s nationally recognized scandals, saying she cannot believe the comment was made by Pinto.

“[W]e are trying to prevent fraud and prevent crime in Minnesota and this has been an issue that we’ve dealt with as a legislature for many years. We finally got the organized retail theft crime in statute last session,” she said.

“It’s been a long haul and that’s a tool that we need to crack down on this real problem throughout our communities around the state.”

Worker misclassification has been a focus of Democrat-Farmer-Labor lawmakers in the state legislature for some time, as an effort began in 2024 to ban employers from misclassifying employees.

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That policy was reportedly spurred by a construction worker who testified before lawmakers that he racked up major medical bills after a work-related injury, but his employer later only offered him a small amount for expenses and “told him to forget about insurance and to change his name and address, saying the bills would eventually disappear if nobody paid them,” according to a post on the House of Representatives website.

The man later allegedly found out his employer was misclassifying employees in order to save on labor costs, according to the lawmakers’ page.

State Rep. Emma Greenman, D-Minneapolis, authored HF4444 to ensure businesses don’t act in such a way in the future and/or misclassify employees as contractors or the like.

“Our job is to ensure that Minnesota workers have the protections that we in law provide,” she said at the time.

President Donald Trump is urging Congress to pass the SAVE America Act (SAA) as well as restore funding to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), as more than 100,000 federal employees go without pay during a prolonged funding lapse, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday. 

Leavitt outlined the president’s dual push for sweeping election legislation and immediate action to reopen DHS, where employees have missed paychecks and travelers are facing long airport lines.

The SAA would move through Congress as election legislation, while DHS funding requires a separate vote to reopen the department and resume full operations.

Leavitt described the SAA as “one of the most critical pieces of legislation in our nation’s history.”

“The Save America Act is overwhelmingly popular with all Americans because each provision is rooted in common sense,” she said.

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According to Leavitt, the legislation includes five core provisions: requiring voters to show identification to cast a ballot, requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote, ending universal mail-in ballots while maintaining exceptions for illness, disability, military service and travel, permanently banning biological males from competing in women’s sports, and banning transgender surgery for minors.

On voter ID requirements, Leavitt said the proposal reflects broad public support.

“Voters have to show ID to cast a ballot in an American election. Very simple,” she said. “Ninety percent of Americans, including more than 80% of Democrat voters, agree with this.”

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The legislation would also require proof of citizenship when registering to vote.

“The Save America Act will require all voters to show proof of citizenship in order to register to vote in American elections,” Leavitt said. “Again, this is popular and rooted in common sense. Only American citizens have the right to vote in American elections.”

Leavitt said Trump is urging Congress to “get the job done and send this historic piece of legislation to his desk immediately for signature.”

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She also pushed back on claims that the legislation could prevent married women who changed their last names from voting.

“There is zero validity to these claims,” Leavitt said. “The Save America Act does not prohibit anyone from voting, with the exception of illegal aliens.

“As far as married women who have changed their name, if they’re already registered to vote, they’re entirely unaffected by the Save Act,” she added.

Leavitt also turned to the ongoing funding lapse at the DHS, saying the president wants Congress to move quickly to restore pay for affected workers and fully reopen the department.

“President Trump wants the Department of Homeland Security — he wants TSA, he wants FEMA. He wants the brave men and women of our United States Coast Guard to receive their paychecks,” she said.

More than 100,000 employees across the country have been impacted, she noted, acknowledging the strain on families.

“To any American out there who is struggling without a paycheck, we know there’s more than 100,000 of you across the country,” Leavitt said.

She added that the lapse is also affecting travelers nationwide.

“To any American out there who is showing up to an airport and facing incredibly long wait times in lines,” she said, Trump is calling on Congress to restore funding and reopen the department.

The president wants DHS “fully funded and fully reopened,” Leavitt said.

DHS oversees agencies including the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the U.S. Coast Guard, all of which have personnel affected by the funding lapse.

Trump is pressing lawmakers to act on both fronts, with Leavitt saying the president is calling on Congress to move swiftly to deliver both measures.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., a top progressive in Congress, is backing former businessman and Kansas state representative Raj Goyle in his bid to become New York’s next comptroller — even as he’s framed himself in the past as a moderate with a track record of agreeing with Republicans on a majority of issues.

“I am proud to endorse [Goyle] for New York State Comptroller. Raj has been a lifelong progressive: fighting for immigrant communities, defending reproductive freedom and holding corporations accountable,” Jayapal said in a post to X on Monday.

The language of her endorsement seems to clash with Goyle’s characterizations of himself from 2010 as he pursued office in Congress.

“In the state house, I voted with Republicans 80% of the time. I was one of the top five Democrats in agreeing with Republicans. And 89% of the legislation I sponsored, I sponsored with Republicans,” Goyle said in a campaign video he filmed while pursuing Congressional office in Kansas.

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Goyle has also attracted the support of other progressives besides Jayapal.

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., another high-ranking progressive in the House, endorsed Goyle late last year. When asked about his support, Khanna’s office said the pair’s relationship spanned years.

“Rep. Khanna has known Raj Goyle for decades and appreciated his commitment to public service and working-class Americans,” Khanna’s office said in a statement.

Goyle, who has an Indian heritage, also shares similar backgrounds with Jayapal and Khanna as a fellow South Asian Democrat.

Notably, he has not received an endorsement from New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani — another key progressive Democrat. 

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Goyle previously represented Kansas’ 87th state district in the state’s House of Representatives as a Democrat from 2007-2011. In 2010, he would wage a bid for Kansas’ 4th Congressional District, raising $1.8 million for his bid, according to FEC records. Ultimately, he would lose out to Republican candidate Mike Pompeo.

Pompeo beat out Goyle in a 58.8% – 36.5% victory.

After his loss, Boyle would go on to found Bodhala, a business and legal analysis firm headquartered in New York City, before eventually selling the company in 2021.

Now, as he pursues the New York Comptroller Office, in which capacity he would become the state’s chief fiscal officer, Goyle has pitched himself as a progressive who bucked the trend in a red-leaning state.

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“During his four years in the Kansas legislature, Raj voted down the line as a pro-labor, pro-choice and anti-NRA progressive,” Goyle wrote on his website.

“His votes and advocacy supported working families, reduced healthcare costs, improved public schools and fought for immigration justice and clean energy — all in a deep-red state.”

Goyle and Jayapal did not respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment. 

PALM BEACH, Fla. — As Republicans aim to hold their fragile House and Senate majorities in the 2026 midterm elections, they’ve got an ally in the politically potent and deep-pocketed fiscally conservative group Club for Growth.

Framing the midterms, Club for Growth President David McIntosh emphasized in an exclusive Fox News Digital interview on the sidelines of the group’s annual economic conference “what’s at stake” in the midterms.

“It’s the difference between all the great progress, the jobs, the good economy, turning America around,” that McIntosh said President Donald Trump and Republicans on Capitol Hill have accomplished over the past year, “versus letting the socialists back in, they’ll shut it all down.” 

For a quarter-century, the club has been one of the biggest backers of Republican candidates and causes, as it pushes its pro-growth and limited-government conservative agenda.

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McIntosh, in a presentation to major donors to the group, highlighted that the club spent more than $160 million in the GOP primaries and general election during the 2024 election cycle, “and won nearly 80%” of its races.

In 2026, the group aims to raise and spend $175 million in the midterms, and says it’s already brought in $65 million from donors.

The club plans to spend $75 million on Senate races, $55 million on House showdowns, $20 million in ballot box battles for governors, and $20 million — mostly already spent — on issue advocacy in support of Trump’s tax cuts, school choice efforts and the push for congressional redistricting.

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“I think the House is the most vulnerable,” McIntosh said as he pointed to the GOP’s fragile 218–214 majority. 

“So we’ve already started raising money for the general. I’ve got a House fund, an ambitious goal of $40 million to help our guys win,” he added as he spotlighted a fund for vulnerable House Republican incumbents.

As the party in power, Republicans are facing traditional political headwinds which usually result in the loss of congressional seats in the midterms. And Democrats are energized, thanks to a slew of ballot box victories and overperformances in off-year and special elections in the 14 months since Trump returned to the White House, as they stay laser focused on affordability amid persistent inflation.

But the GOP also is dealing with a low propensity midterms issue that it didn’t have to worry about before Trump upended the political order: MAGA voters who don’t always go to the polls when Trump’s name isn’t on the ballot.

“We’ve got to get the folks who voted for President Trump,” McIntosh said. “They don’t necessarily come out in the midterms. We have to share with them what’s at stake.” 

“We’re going to work with President Trump on that so they know he wants them to vote,” he said. “He wants them to come out. He needs them so he can keep going.”

McIntosh said the Club will highlight that “Republicans have a plan that will help make things more affordable. It will keep cutting taxes. They will see the benefits.”

“But the bigger message is going to be, you can’t let the Democrats back in, because they’ll shut everything down,” he claimed. “It’ll be back to the Biden days, high inflation, higher taxes, fewer jobs. That’s what’s at stake, and our job is to tell the voters, we need you to vote because it makes all the difference.”

The economy, and specifically inflation, was a key issue that boosted Trump and Republicans to sweeping victories in 2024. But affordability boosted Democrats at the ballot box in 2025 and so far in 2026. 

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And with oil and gas prices surging since the start of the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran a week and a half ago, Republicans face more potential political headaches.

But McIntosh predicted that “by the end of the year, we’re going to be back to a robust economy because the Trump tax cuts are going to kick in. People will keep more of their money. There’s a huge incentive for companies to build factories back here in America again, and that will kick in. People will say, ‘Yeah, I like the direction we’re going. Things are turned around. We can’t let the Democrats ruin that.’”

Most Democrats obviously disagree with the political narrative coming from the club.

And the Democratic National Committee has long criticized the group for its “extreme positions on banning abortion and cutting Social Security and Medicare.”

While the club is ramping up for the general election showdowns, it’s already playing in this year’s GOP primaries.

In the battle for the Senate, the club recently made a major endorsement, backing Rep. Mike Collins of Georgia, who’s involved in an ugly three-way fist fight for the Republican nomination in the race to take on Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff in the southeastern swing state.

“We’re definitely going to be there in Georgia to help Mike Collins win,” McIntosh pledged.

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The club enjoyed a major victory March 3, as the candidate it was backing, Texas state Rep. Steve Toth, toppled high-profile incumbent U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, a former Navy SEAL officer, in the GOP primary for a Houston-area congressional seat.

But in this case, the club kept quiet its efforts to support Toth, as it put its funding in an aligned startup PAC.

McIntosh said he “knew if Club for Growth came in guns blazing, then the Washington money would come in to help Crenshaw.”

“We don’t need the glory. We don’t need to take credit for it,” McIntosh said. And pointing to Tosh, he added, “He did the job, but we were able to bring the funds in that let the voters know what their choice was.”

Border Patrol Chief Greg Bovino declared the Trump administration’s Chicago immigration crackdown “vindicated” Monday after a federal appeals court threw out a sweeping injunction that had curtailed enforcement operations in the city.

On Monday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit tossed out a preliminary injunction against federal officers enforcing immigration law in the Chicago area issued by Obama-appointed Judge Sara Ellis. The circuit court issued a blistering rebuke of Ellis’ injunction, calling it “overbroad” and “constitutionally suspect.” The ruling effectively erases the lower court’s restrictions on federal immigration operations in Chicago, delivering a legal victory to federal immigration authorities and giving the controversial official fresh political ammunition after months of backlash.

After the ruling, Bovino posted on X, “Chicago efforts vindicated!!! Well done.”

“What’s not suspect is legal, ethical, and moral Border Patrol Agents conducting operations in Chicago. Well done, Border Patrol! TRUTH came through!” he wrote in another post.

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Bovino was recently pulled out of his leading role in Minneapolis amid intense controversy over the killing of two anti-ICE activists, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, by federal officers. He has faced intense criticism from Democrats across the country.

In his previous role as Border Patrol commander at large, Bovino became the face of many of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operations, including Chicago, Minneapolis and Los Angeles.

Bovino was replaced by border czar Tom Homan as head of the Minneapolis operation in January. He was returned to his previous role as chief of the Border Patrol’s El Centro Sector in Southern California.

Despite the criticisms leveled against him, after the circuit court ruling, Bovino touted Border Patrol agents as the “most highly trained, experienced agency ready to take on expeditionary type missions in the toughest of environments.”

“Our operations are conducted with much foresight with the most experienced, proven, and battle hardened agents the Border Patrol has to offer to ensure we WIN every time,” he added in another tweet celebrating the ruling.

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In its ruling, the appeals court panel faulted Ellis for applying her injunction not just to specific officers but “the entire Departments of Homeland Security and Justice, as well as anyone acting in concert with them.” The panel criticized this, saying it “effectively established the district court as the supervisor of all Executive Branch activity in the city of Chicago.”

Ellis had issued a lengthy 233-page opinion explaining why she granted the class-wide preliminary injunction against Homeland Security and Justice Department authorities carrying out immigration enforcement in Chicago. Her order followed a string of clashes between protesters and agents during Operation Midway Blitz, the effort launched last year by the Trump administration to crack down on illegal immigration and street crime in Chicago.

Ellis justified the injunction by saying it was not novel and that it only ordered federal agents to follow current DHS policies regarding use of force and body-worn cameras.

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“In other words, the Court’s order should break no new ground, and indeed it tracks similar orders entered in other crowd control cases across the country,” Ellis said.

Senate Democrats are preparing a series of war powers votes aimed at curbing President Donald Trump’s authority to continue military operations against Iran — and forcing the administration to publicly defend its actions.

Several Senate Democrats filed war powers resolutions last week meant to handcuff Trump and his continued conflict in the Middle East. It’s a power play by the group, who say the administration has not shown enough evidence that the U.S. should have struck Iran in the first place, much less continue fighting in the region.

Sens. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., Cory Booker, D-N.J., Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., collectively filed five war powers resolutions last week, and they’re joined by Sens. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., and Tim Kaine, D-Va. Kaine has filed resolution after resolution to curb Trump’s war authority since he took office for his second term.

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Those resolutions, barring an official slate of hearings with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, could hit the Senate next week and grind down floor time.

“This Congress should be focused on the biggest military action since the Afghanistan war, and we’re not even holding hearings on that,” Booker told Fox News Digital. 

Murphy said that the resolutions could hit the Senate floor as soon as next week, and warned that if hearings are set in motion, Democrats would be able to “call up a vote every day on war powers and force at least a short debate and vote every day.”

“There’s no excuse to hide what the administration is doing from the public,” Murphy said. 

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While the group wouldn’t reveal exactly what their gridlock-inducing floor strategy would look like, they contended that the chairs of the Senate Armed Services and Senate Foreign Relations committees had already requested that Rubio and Hegseth testify.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Jim Risch, R-Idaho, wouldn’t say whether he had requested Rubio to appear before his panel but blamed Senate Democrats for helping the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

“You’ll notice the Democrats are the only entity on this planet who are helping the IRGC,” Risch told Fox News Digital, referring to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

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The group argued that Rubio and Hegseth should make the case for the war in Iran to the public and that closed-door, classified briefings on the matter weren’t enough to convince them that the war was necessary.

“I was absolutely not convinced. In fact, nothing was offered to show me that we were under imminent attack,” Baldwin said. “That we were under imminent attack, or that it was reasonable to believe that we were at risk — and that’s what would trigger the president’s authority to use military force without coming to Congress first.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., acknowledged that Democrats’ strategy would eat away at floor time but cautioned that “we’ll see how the next few days in the conflict go.”

“I’m sure there’ll be some decisions made around that, but maybe that’ll affect whether or not they try to trigger all those,” Thune said.

Thune said that “there always are” hearings and noted that the Senate Armed Services Committee would be holding hearings soon on the annual National Defense Authorization Act.

“So they’re going to have all those folks coming through on a fairly routine basis anyway, and I’m sure this will be a subject of discussion,” Thune said.