An appeals court on Wednesday blocked California from requiring federal immigration agents to display identification during operations, handing the Trump administration a legal victory over Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit found California overstepped its authority by trying to regulate Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, marking the latest flashpoint in a broader fight between blue states and the federal government over immigration enforcement operations.

The panel of judges, comprising two Trump appointees and one Obama appointee, found California’s No Vigilantes Act violated the Constitution’s supremacy clause, which says that when a state and federal law are in conflict, the latter wins out.

“We conclude that [section 10] of the No Vigilantes Act attempts to directly regulate the United States in its performance of governmental functions,” the panel wrote in an order. “The Supremacy Clause forbids the State from enforcing such legislation.”

APPEALS COURT BLOCKS ORDER LIMITING IMMIGRATION AGENTS’ USE OF FORCE IN CHICAGO

The decision came after Newsom signed into law a pair of bills last fall designed to address reports of unidentified federal agents, sometimes wearing masks and other gear, carrying out arrests and detaining illegal immigrants in California. The No Vigilantes Act and No Secret Police Act required ICE agents to display identification and banned them from wearing masks, respectively.

“Trump’s ICE agents need to be reined in and held to the same standards as any other law enforcement agency,” Newsom said in a statement in March. “Federal accountability and clear identification shouldn’t be optional.”

The Trump administration sued over the two bills and sought injunctions, arguing in court papers that “a state law that directly regulates the federal government’s operations is straightforwardly invalid, no matter the size of the burden it imposes.”

ICE has defended the practice of agents concealing their identities during operations, saying last summer as Trump’s intensifying immigration crackdown prompted anti-ICE protests and riots that rhetoric on the left had caused a spike in “threats and assaults against [agents’] families.”

TRUMP ADMIN URGES NEWSOM TO HONOR ICE DETAINERS FOR MORE THAN 33K CRIMINAL ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

A federal judge also blocked California’s mask ban in February, and state Democratic lawmakers responded by attempting to rewrite the bill, a process that remains ongoing.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche commended the DOJ Civil Division, which has been handling the ICE litigation, calling the 9th Circuit’s decision “another decisive victory in this administration’s effort to remove illegal aliens from this country.”

Bill Essayli, first assistant U.S. attorney in California, celebrated the win, calling it a “huge legal victory … where the court permanently enjoined California’s unconstitutional mask law targeting federal agents.”

DOJ Civil Rights Division head Harmeet Dhillon said on X, “Told ya!”

Former DHS Acting Secretary Chad Wolf also weighed in, saying: “Finally – a good decision for common sense and strong immigration enforcement.”

TRUMP TELLS JUDGE HE DOES NOT NEED NEWSOM’S PERMISSION TO CRACK DOWN ON RIOTERS, DEPLOY NATIONAL GUARD

California could appeal the decision. Asked for comment, a Newsom spokesperson told Fox News Digital undercover ICE agents were “terrorizing” people at the direction of Trump and his aide Stephen Miller, the architect of many of the White House‘s immigration policies.

“These laws shouldn’t even be necessary,” the Newsom spokesperson said. “We shouldn’t have unidentified, masked men terrorizing our communities. We will continue demanding federal accountability and fighting against Trump and Miller’s reign of terror against our communities.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment.

Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., appeared to compare federal authorities enforcing immigration law to British forces that terrorized the 13 colonies. 

Her remarks Wednesday came during a debate on a budget resolution as both sides of the political aisle seek to end the partial Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown on their own terms.

Slotkin, a former CIA analyst, spoke as Democrats launched a new effort to reopen DHS, which has been partially shut down for 67 days. During her remarks, she noted the deaths of American citizens killed during interactions with federal agents during violent clashes in Minneapolis earlier this year.

“The behavior of our federal forces in our streets strikes at the heart of who we are as Americans,” she said. “I’m not going to go and list through everything ICE is doing, but I want you to think about what would happen if these things happened to you.”

RED STATE COMMISSIONER HIT WITH SET OF DEMANDS FROM GOP SENATOR OVER ‘DISGUSTING’ ICE ‘TERRORIST’ DECLARATION

“Imagine someone in a mask breaking your car window and pulling you and your 2-year-old daughter out of that car,” she added, citing examples in which ICE agents allegedly used force to detain undocumented immigrants or agitators impeding law enforcement operations. 

“Imagine being shot with rubber bullets at a protest in America. Masked men detaining your 5-year-old coming home from preschool; being pepper-sprayed while praying aloud.”

Slotkin and many Democrats have criticized ICE for pursuing illegal immigrants with criminal records and for the use of force employed by agents during arrests. Some have, at times, labeled the agency a “terrorist organization” or accused it of “terrorizing” communities in response to enforcement actions and family separations.

Slotkin said many Americans understand that ICE’s actions run contrary to the founding of the U.S.

“The rebellion that our American forefathers launched not too far north of here was because of an oppressive government, because of an oppressive regime that was using brutal tactics in the streets and in people’s homes,” she said of the Revolutionary War. 

“So, that’s why we’re here today: to have very commonsense reforms on federal law enforcement because of what we all saw with our own eyes.”

Federal agents should be required to be unmasked, identify themselves and present a judicial warrant when seeking to enter someone’s home, she said.

“We are here today because the other side of the aisle is refusing to have even a basic conversation on those reforms and wants to fully fund ICE with no changes,” she said.

A progressive Democrat vying for a hotly contested New York swing seat in November’s midterm elections is defending her association with controversial far-left streamer Hasan Piker.

Effie Phillips-Staley is facing backlash from her own party as she seeks the nomination to take on Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., after she went on Piker’s livestream in late March and called Israel an “apartheid state” and accused the Jewish nation of genocide in Gaza.

Democratic county chairs within the suburban New York district Phillips-Staley is running to represent put out a joint statement denouncing Phillips-Staley for participating in the “normalization of antisemitic, racist and misogynist rhetoric.”

Despite the intraparty criticism, the candidate doubled down. She told Fox News Digital Piker, 34, provides a vehicle for Democrats to reach young voters.

HOUSE SHOWDOWN: DEMOCRAT BACKED BY SANDERS, AOC FACES REPUBLICAN TRYING TO FLIP BLUE-LEANING DISTRICT

“While I don’t align with every word Hasan Piker has ever said, we recognize the massive value of a platform that engages millions of young people in the Democratic process,” Phillips-Staley said.

“As Democrats, our job is to build bridges, not burn them,” she added in a statement to Fox News Digital. “We should be inviting young people into the process by building a coalition rooted in collective humanity. I will always fight for universal human rights and Palestinian self-determination while standing firmly against antisemitism.”

Piker once said “America deserved 9/11.” He has since characterized that remark as “inappropriate.”

The streamer has been sharply criticized for calling some Orthodox Jews “inbred” and once described a listener who voiced disapproval of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks on Israel as a “bloodthirsty violent pig dog.” He has denied charges of antisemitism despite continuing to argue that Hamas is “a thousand times better” than Israel.

Phillips-Staley, who is endorsed by the left-wing Working Families Party and former progressive Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., has largely defended Piker’s controversial comments. She has argued that critics have taken some of his remarks out of context and that he is “on the right side of history” on issues related to Israel and the Palestinian people during an appearance on “The Left Hook” podcast.

A campaign spokesman for Rep. Lawler slammed Phillips-Staley’s defense of Piker.

“Embracing an antisemite who praised the 9/11 attacks and sympathizes with terrorists is no longer disqualifying in the modern Democratic Party, and Effie Phillips-Staley is proving that in real time,” Ciro Riccardi told Fox News Digital. “Even worse, her Democratic opponents refusing to call Effie out for such offensive behavior shows you just how radical you need to be to win a Democratic primary today.

“Middle-of-the-road voters should take notice and ask themselves whether this is who they really want in control of the House.”

National Republican Congressional Committee spokeswoman Maureen O’Toole was also critical of Phillips-Staley’s primary opponents — former Biden administration national security official Cait Conley and Rockland County legislator Beth Davidson — for not condemning Phillips-Staley’s appearance on Piker’s livestream.

Conley and Davidson have expressed support for Israel, and the former is backed by the pro-Israel Democratic Majority for Israel PAC.

Spokespersons for Davidson and Conley did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

SOROS-BACKED GROUP BEHIND TESLA UNREST ACCUSED OF ‘INFILTRATING’ KEY HOUSE RACE WITH CHOSEN CANDIDATE

Phillips-Staley is among a growing number of progressive Democrats embracing Piker ahead of November’s midterm elections.

Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.; Ro Khanna, D-Calif.; and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani have been interviewed by Piker on his show.

Piker headlined a campaign event earlier in April for Sen. Bernie Sanders’ preferred Michigan Senate candidate, Abdul El-Sayed.

But not all Democrats think the party’s embrace of Piker is a good idea.

A swath of Democratic lawmakers, including Sens. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., have distanced themselves from the far-left influencer’s platform, citing concern about his past statements.

Phillips-Staley maintains that her hardening anti-Israel stance is the pathway to victory in the battleground district this November.

“Advancing someone who is so close on this issue to Mike Lawler would be a genuine mistake when this is something that the overwhelming majorities of the Democratic party’s base are demanding a separation from,” Phillips-Staley told Piker, referring to Israel.

Just 13% of Democrats hold a positive view of Israel compared to 57% who view the country negatively, according to a March NBC News survey. Among independents, just over 20% see Israel in a positive light.

It’s unclear if Phillips-Staley’s approach will work in the southern Hudson Valley, which is one of the most heavily Jewish districts in the country.

“I’ve taken a very … what I hope that people perceive to be an authentic and progressive human rights-focused platform, and we’re going to test it here too,” Phillips-Staley told the “Breaking Points” podcast.

Lawler successfully fended off a challenge from Rep. Mondaire Jones, D-N.Y., in 2024. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates his re-election contest a “toss-up.”

Divisions over Israel are not the only topic on which Lawler and Phillips-Staley have clashed.

Lawler’s campaign filed a lawsuit Tuesday alleging the Phillips-Staley campaign forged voter signatures on petitions to be eligible for the Empire State’s June primary. The campaign submitted dozens of sworn affidavits from voters in the district who alleged they never put their names on petitions submitted by the Phillips-Staley campaign.

President Donald Trump appeared to target Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson Wednesday, calling her a “low IQ person” as he criticized the Supreme Court over recent rulings he opposes.

Trump’s comments come as he has grown increasingly frustrated with the Supreme Court, particularly after it blocked his sweeping tariff plan and weighs his effort to end birthright citizenship. 

Though Trump did not name Jackson directly, his reference to the “new” female justice appointed by former President Joe Biden was clear. Biden in 2022 nominated Jackson, a Harvard Law School graduate and former clerk to former Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, to the high court.

“The Republican Justices don’t stick together,” Trump said, adding that the court “ALWAYS vote as a group, or BLOCK, even that new, Low IQ person, that somehow found her way to the bench (Sleepy Joe!).”

JUSTICE THOMAS WARNS PROGRESSIVISM IS A THREAT TO AMERICA IN RARE PUBLIC REMARKS

Trump’s remarks came as part of a broader tirade against the Supreme Court’s conservative majority, which he said showed him “very little loyalty” earlier this year in blocking his global tariffs from taking force. He also suggested the court might rule against him on his executive order seeking to end so-called “birthright citizenship” in the U.S.

Trump had attended a portion of those oral arguments in person, making history and signaling just how closely he has been monitoring the issue.

“Certain ‘Republican’ Justices have just gone weak, stupid, and bad, completely violating what they ‘supposedly’ stood for,” Trump said. He contrasted this with Democrat justices, whom he said “stick together like glue, totally loyal to the people and ideology that got them there.”

TRUMP WARNS SUPREME COURT TARIFF SHOWDOWN IS ‘LIFE OR DEATH’ FOR AMERICA

“They are an immovable force, and there is nothing that can be done to change that,” Trump said, adding: “Frankly, I respect that a lot!” 

Trump’s remarks come after the high court blocked his so-called “Liberation Day” tariffs from taking force earlier this year. Justices in February blocked Trump, 6-3, from using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA to unilaterally enact steep reciprocal tariffs. 

Trump on Wednesday also suggested the high court might rule against him on birthright citizenship. Trump used the social media post to take aim at what he described as the “nasty, one-sided questions on the country destroying the subject of Birthright Citizenship” during oral arguments earlier this month.

Trump attended roughly half of the oral arguments, and left shortly after U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer finished making the administration’s case.

“If they rule against our Country on Birthright Citizenship, which they probably will, it will be even worse, if that’s possible,” Trump said of the Supreme Court. “It will cost America massive amounts of money but, more importantly, it will cost America its DIGNITY!”

FEDERAL JUDGE BLOCKS TRUMP’S BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP BAN FOR ALL INFANTS, TESTING LOWER COURT POWERS

The remarks come weeks after a majority of justices earlier this month appeared skeptical of Trump’s effort to end so-called birthright citizenship, using oral arguments to cite concerns over the legality and enforcement of an executive order that could reshape protections for millions of Americans.

A ruling in Trump’s favor would represent a seismic shift for immigration policy in the U.S., and would upend long-held notions of citizenship, which Trump and his allies argue are misguided. 

Trump said in a separate Truth Social post Tuesday night that, “based on the questioning by Republican Nominated Justices that I watched firsthand in the Court, we lose” the case. 

What began as a routine inspection of a four-door Lexus crossing the U.S. border into Mexico escalated quickly Sunday when officers discovered a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) launcher and dozens of additional weapons hidden in the vehicle.

Tucked in a cavity under the seats, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials found the RPG tube, four rifles, an Avtomat Kalashnikova (AK-style) pistol, 16 AK rifles, 24 rifle magazines, 16 rifle stocks, 20 pistol grips and other weapon parts in a vehicle attempting to cross the border at the Area Port of Nogales, near Tucson, Arizona.

CBP confiscated the arsenal, which authorities said demonstrates the scale of weapons smuggling across the U.S. border and the volume that can be transported in a single vehicle. Officials said the seizure highlights ongoing concerns about cartel firepower and the flow of U.S.-sourced weapons into Mexico.

“Under the powerful leadership of President Donald J. Trump and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, our frontline CBP officers utilized an effective combination of inspection experience and technology to find these weapons and prevent them from falling into the hands of the cartels,” CBP’s Acting Deputy Commissioner Ron Vitiello said.

AMERICAN HIKER SHOT BY SUSPECTED MEXICAN CARTEL WHILE ON US SOIL

“CBP prevented these dangerous weapons from wreaking havoc on the good people of Mexico,” he added.

CBP did not say whether the car’s contents have been tied to any particular cartel.

The driver, a woman, is being charged with smuggling goods from the United States, a crime that could carry a penalty of up to 10 years behind bars.

She was accompanied by three minors who were released to the custody of a family member, according to CBP.

BORDER PATROL, FBI LEADERS WHO FIRST IDENTIFIED TREN DE ARAGUA RECOUNT GANG’S RISE TO POWER

CBP’s Acting Director of Field Operations, Carlos Gonzalez, praised the work of the officers at the border who detected the weapons.

“Every day, CBP officers serve on the front lines, actively dismantling the transnational criminal organizations that destabilize the region. U.S. Customs and Border Protection remains steadfast in its mission to secure our borders and prevent these illicit networks from threatening the safety of our nation,” Gonzalez said.

Law enforcement officials said the cache reflects the level of firepower available to drug cartels, aligning with the administration’s terrorist designations.

EX-DEA CHIEF SAYS HE’S ‘NEVER SEEN’ CARTEL FIGHT SO INTENSE AS TRUMP WEIGHS MISSILES AGAINST TRAFFICKERS

“President Trump designated criminal drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations for good reason, and this case is one of many that shows their violent intent to hang on to power,” Timothy Courchaine, U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona, said.

“The United States Attorney’s Office is proud to work alongside the Department of Homeland Security to make sure we choke off the flow of weapons to violent actors in Mexico and bring their accomplices in the United States to justice.”

While Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., has been denying accusations she’s racked up a multimillion-dollar net worth since getting elected to Congress, her daughter has continued her hard-left political activism and support for communist causes that began when she was just 12.

Isra Hirsi, who was just 16 when her mother and charter member of “The Squad” was elected to Congress in 2019, has described herself as “an angry Black girl” and played the role of a strident political activist. 

While her views would seem to jibe with her famous mother’s, they don’t easily square with reports, which Omar denies, that Omar is worth as much as $30 million.

AOC’S CAMPAIGN POURS MASSIVE CASH INTO LUXURY PUERTO RICO HOTELS, PRICEY CATERING AND BAD BUNNY VENUE RENTAL

In a February letter to Omar’s husband, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., raised concerns about financial disclosures showing the value of two companies, eStCru LLC and Rose Lake Capital, surged from tens of thousands of dollars in 2023 to as much as $30 million in 2024.

Later, an amended filing reviewed by The Wall Street Journal showed Omar and her husband’s assets were worth between $18,004 and $95,000. The quick revision prompted skepticism from Omar’s critics, including Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.

“Ilhan Omar says her congressional financial reports have massive accounting error,” Fitton wrote on X. “She and her husband only worth 18k-86k, NOT $6 million-$30 million! Previously unreported ‘liabilities’ erase wealth!”

The New York Post reported in 2024 that Hirsi participated in demonstrations as early as age 12, when she joined Omar and their family at a Black Lives Matter event that forced the Mall of America to shut down. The demonstration was later stopped by 50 riot control cops and more than 200 police officers. 

At about age 15, Hirsi co-founded and served as co-executive director of the U.S. Youth Climate Strike, a branch of activist Greta Thunberg’s organization, Fridays for Future, according to a biography on the Brower Youth Awards website. 

Hirsi received the award, which is given to young people who are active in climate sustainability advocacy, in 2019.

ILHAN OMAR DEFENDS MEALS ACT DESPITE TIES TO MASSIVE MINNESOTA FRAUD SCHEME

Omar posted on X in 2024 that Hirsi organized “a statewide school walk out on the 20th anniversary of Columbine at the age of 15” and led “the biggest youth climate rally at our nation’s Capitol at 16.”

Hirsi’s involvement with the anti-Israel groups and her participation in the encampments that plagued the Columbia University campus prompted her suspension from Barnard College in 2024.

She later continued her education at the private, liberal arts college for women in New York City while Omar was in Congress. 

The estimated cost of attending Barnard is just shy of $100,000 for resident students, including tuition, fees, housing and food.

HOUSE DEM’S GRAPHIC CHICKEN DECAPITATION ‘HORRIFIED’ HER COLLEGE ROOMMATES: ‘BLOOD WENT EVERYWHERE’

Omar’s daughter then became an organizer with CU Apartheid Divest and Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine, an organization that is not formally recognized by the Ivy League school.

Fox News Digital reached out to Hirsi and Omar but didn’t receive a response. 

In April 2024, Hirsi was arrested by the New York City Police Department along with more than 100 people who were issued summons for trespassing as a result of the encampments on the Ivy League campus, an arrest for which Omar praised her daughter.

“I am enormously proud of my daughter @israhirsi,” Omar posted on X. “She has always led with courage and compassion, from organizing a statewide school walk out on the 20th anniversary of Columbine at the age of 15, to leading the biggest youth climate rally at our nation’s Capitol at 16, and now pushing her school to stand against genocide.

ILHAN OMAR SAYS THERE ARE FEW UNDOCUMENTED SOMALI MIGRANTS IN THE COUNTRY

“Stepping up to change what you can’t tolerate is why we as a country have the right to speech, assembly, and petition enshrined in our constitution.”

Just 15 months after her arrest, the New York Post reported that Hirsi posted an Instagram story, revealing she was unemployed and selling used clothes to make money, while still posting anti-Israel content on various social media platforms. 

OMAR ALLIES TIED TO MASSIVE MINNESOTA COVID MEAL FRAUD SCHEME INVOLVING SOMALI COMMUNITY

Last month, she traveled to Cuba on a trip sponsored by CodePink, an organization co-founded by Jodie Evans, the wife of a Shanghai-based American tech tycoon Neville Roy Singham, who supports the policies of the Chinese Communist Party.

Hirsi and other far-left activists went to Cuba to protest the economic sanctions imposed on the country by President Donald Trump’s administration. And many of the activists stayed in a five-star hotel while many residents of the communist country were coping with an electricity blackout.

“People are here from across the globe to express solidarity with the Cuban people,” Hirsi wrote in an X post. “People who are standing against the oppressive blockade exacerbated by the [T]rump administration. i am honored to be here. I am honored to make history and Eid Mubarak to all.”

In an Instagram post touting the trip to communist Cuba, Hirsi credited the People’s Forum, an organization that has received a documented $22.44 million from Singham, according to a Fox News Digital investigation. In the post, she noted that the U.S. “has long bullied Cuba with its sanctions and now this oil blockade is killing people.”

According to Fox News Digital reporting, Singham has funneled $278 million into a network of agitator groups across the country, with the People’s Forum and CodePink at the center of many heated demonstrations.

Omar’s non-congressional X account, which boasts 2.8 million followers, has interacted with her daughter’s account on the platform, mainly praising her political activism in posts that are then reposted by Hirsi. Hirsi’s social media presence has been less active on X, though she frequently reposted far-left accounts during her time at Barnard.

“I am incredibly proud of Isra and everyone who made the trip to Cuba,” Omar said in an X post that Hirsi then reposted. “They took tons of aid to make sure the people of Cuba knew that there are so many people across the world who stand in solidarity with them.”

Senate Republicans are worried that Democrats will force a government shutdown in the fall, and are eyeing ways to prevent government funding from being weaponized ever again.

Republicans are in the early stages of funding federal immigration enforcement through the party-line budget reconciliation process — a maneuver that would cut Democrats out of the process altogether.

The push comes as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) remains closed after Democrats more than 60 days ago refused to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) unless Republicans agreed to stringent reforms, including warrant requirements and agents unmasking.

SENATE TAKES FIRST STEP TO FUND ICE, BORDER PATROL IN BID TO CUT DEMS OUT OF THE FUNDING PROCESS

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said “it was a great idea,” and claims conversations were ongoing about how to include a measure in the reconciliation package that could survive the strict Senate rules dictating what can and can’t be done through the partisan process.

He told reporters on Capitol Hill Tuesday afternoon that Republicans tried and failed during the government shutdown last year to pass legislation that would prevent future shutdowns.

“If we could figure out a way to execute on that — anything that we can do that would ensure that the Democrats don’t decide once again to play partisan political games with the function of our government would be a good outcome,” Thune said.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who has pushed legislation to prevent shutdowns, was skeptical about whether Republicans could actually get that kind of measure into the broader package.

HOUSE CONSERVATIVES RAGE AGAINST SENATE DHS SHUTDOWN DEAL

“I would support that,” Hawley told Fox News Digital. “Will that happen? It seems to me to be pretty unlikely. But I think this package is baked, the text is out, it is what it is.”

He warned that Congress likely “would be facing this again” when the current fiscal year ends in September because “the Democrats are in a hostage taking sort of mood.”

“And sadly, the hostages they’re taking are for working people of this country,” Hawley went on. “And if they shut down the government again in September, which they very well may, well, that would just be disastrous, I think.”

Democrats, however, view the GOP’s reconciliation push as a prime opportunity to go on the offensive.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said his party will unload several amendments that target affordability issues in the country.

SENATE REPUBLICANS UNVEIL IMMIGRATION FUNDING PLAN WITH $140 BILLION PRICE TAG AS GOP AIMS TO SPEND LESS

When asked if Democrats had overplayed their hand on immigration enforcement reforms now that Republicans plan to fund ICE and Border Patrol for three and a half years, Schumer countered that Americans wanted changes and that Republicans were “tied in a knot.”

“They’re twisting themselves in a pretzel,” the senior senator from New York said. “They’re giving us an opportunity to emphasize the number one issue facing the American people in terms of reconciliation. So we Democrats are staunch and united in what we did.”

If Republicans can’t stop shutdowns, another option could be ensuring that federal workers are at least paid.

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., told Fox News Digital that he’s been pushing the House — which has so far not voted on the Senate’s carve-out DHS funding bill — to include his Shutdown Fairness Act, which would pay federal employees during closures and possibly act as a sweetener to conservatives frustrated by the Senate’s bill.

“I mean, they’re pretty upset about, I guess, not really being informed in terms of what the Senate was gonna do here,” Johnson said. “We were just doing what we could do to fund the agencies so we don’t deplete the flexible funding we had in reconciliation, but the box ticking on that.”

“So, the sooner we pass the partial DHS funding bill — I just think if Democrats would allow that bill to be passed by unanimous consent, I think they [wouldn’t] have a hard time voting for that exact same bill if all we’re adding is something their unions are lobbying hard to get,” he continued.

President Donald Trump said Iran is “starving for cash” after extending the ceasefire deadline, arguing that the regime is losing hundreds of millions of dollar a day due to the U.S.-enforced blockade.

Trump claims that that the foreign nation is “collapsing financially.”

“Iran doesn’t want the Strait of Hormuz closed, they want it open so they can make $500 Million Dollars a day (which is, therefore, what they are losing if it is closed!). They only say they want it closed because I have it totally BLOCKADED (CLOSED!), so they merely want to ‘save face.’ People approached me four days ago, saying, ‘Sir, Iran wants to open up the Strait, immediately.’ But if we do that, there can never be a Deal with Iran, unless we blow up the rest of their Country, their leaders included!” he declared in a Tuesday night Truth Social post.

IRAN THREATENS ‘NEW CARDS’ ON BATTLEFIELD AS CEASEFIRE WANES

“Iran is collapsing financially! They want the Strait of Hormuz opened immediately- Starving for cash! Losing 500 Million Dollars a day. Military and Police complaining that they are not getting paid. SOS!!!” the president claimed in another Tuesday night post.

Trump had indicated in a Tuesday afternoon Truth Social post that he would extend the ceasefire.

“Based on the fact that the Government of Iran is seriously fractured, not unexpectedly so and, upon the request of Field Marshal Asim Munir, and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, of Pakistan, we have been asked to hold our Attack on the Country of Iran until such time as their leaders and representatives can come up with a unified proposal,” Trump declared in the post.

“I have therefore directed our Military to continue the Blockade and, in all other respects, remain ready and able, and will therefore extend the Ceasefire until such time as their proposal is submitted, and discussions are concluded, one way or the other,” he added.

KEITH KELLOGG URGES US TO ‘FINISH THE JOB’ AGAINST IRAN BY SEIZING ISLANDS, STRANGLING ECONOMY

Earlier on Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi had declared in a post on X that “Blockading Iranian ports is an act of war and thus a violation of the ceasefire. Striking a commercial vessel and taking its crew hostage is an even greater violation. Iran knows how to neutralize restrictions, how to defend its interests, and how to resist bullying.”

Iran reportedly fired upon three ships in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday.

 The Associated Press contributed to this report

EXCLUSIVE: A coalition of pro-life groups, including Lila Rose’s Live Action, Students for Life, CatholicVote and others, is urging the Senate to take urgent action to enact a decade-long ban on federal funding for Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers before a July 4 deadline.

Senate Republicans hope to nail down the first step of their party-line funding package for immigration operations this week. 

The current prohibition on federal tax dollar funding for abortion businesses, which President Donald Trump signed as part of last year’s budget bill, is set to expire this Independence Day. With the deadline fast approaching and congressional majorities subject to change this November, the groups stressed in a letter to Senate Majority Leader John Thune that the lives of unborn children — and hundreds of millions in annual tax dollars — are at stake.

In their letter to Thune, the pro-life leaders wrote that extending the prohibition is a matter of urgent fiscal responsibility, saying the “financial stakes are significant” and that a 10-year extension “would represent one of the most meaningful pro-taxpayer reforms Congress can enact.”

PRO-LIFE GROUPS WARN TRUMP HYDE AMENDMENT IS ‘NON-NEGOTIABLE’ AFTER FLEXIBILITY REMARKS

Before the big, beautiful bill’s provision took effect, Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion business in America, received nearly $800 million annually in taxpayer funding, primarily through federal health programs.

The letter asserts that “at a time of historic federal debt and growing budgetary pressure, continuing to subsidize the abortion industry is neither fiscally responsible nor defensible.”

Though federal law bans taxpayer money from covering most abortions, many Republicans have long argued that abortion businesses such as Planned Parenthood use Medicaid money for other health services to subsidize abortion. Under the tax provision in Trump’s 2025 spending bill, Medicaid payments are barred from going to abortion businesses, including Planned Parenthood.

The letter states that this prohibition “reflected longstanding concerns that many of the nation’s largest abortion businesses engage in activities that extend beyond traditional healthcare services.” 

These services, the letter says, include “providing and promoting abortion as a core organizational activity,” offering or referring for gender transition interventions, including for minors, and delivering sex education programs that “promote inappropriate content to minors while denying parents meaningful transparency.”

The letter states that the budget reconciliation process “remains the appropriate and proven legislative vehicle to achieve this objective” and that “defunding provisions fall squarely within reconciliation’s fiscal and policy scope.”

“As the nation approaches the 250th anniversary of American independence,” the pro-life leaders argue that “Congress has an obligation to ensure that federal spending reflects fiscal discipline, accountability, and respect for life.”

PRO-LIFE ORGANIZATION CALLS ON HHS AND FDA TO SUSPEND ABORTION PILL APPROVAL, TIGHTEN SAFETY RULES

They further framed a ten-year extension as consistent with longstanding bipartisan precedent separating abortion from federal spending. Such an extension, the letter says, would also “provide long-term policy stability, protect taxpayers, and prevent future administrations from restoring funding through executive action alone.”

In response, a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood shared a statement in which the organization slammed Republicans for including a provision to make the prohibition permanent in a 2026 reconciliation package framework released by the Republican Study Committee.

Planned Parenthood has said that 23 of its health clinics have been forced to close due to Trump’s spending bill. More than 50 clinics closed in 18 states last year, with most located in the Midwest.

The organization called the 2025 budget bill’s bar on federal dollars for abortion businesses “unconstitutional,” adding that the closure of its locations has left “thousands of patients with fewer options, higher costs, and less freedom to make their own decisions about their lives, bodies, and futures.”

Alexis McGill Johnson, president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said that “any member of Congress who supports this proposal is choosing to sacrifice our health care system and Planned Parenthood health center patients who already struggle to get care, just so they can score points for their anti-abortion agenda,” adding that “people’s ability to get the health care they need is on the line.”

“President Trump and his backers in Congress have already caused irreparable harm when they passed a law ‘defunding’ Planned Parenthood,” said Johnson, concluding that “Planned Parenthood Action Fund will never stop fighting to protect everyone’s access to sexual and reproductive healthcare.”

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Meanwhile, Rose emphasized in a statement to Fox News Digital that “if Congress does not act, the abortion industry will once again have access to hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.”

“This letter makes clear why that cannot be allowed to happen,” wrote Rose, adding, “Planned Parenthood’s core business is abortion. It exists to kill preborn children for profit. It has also become a major promoter of gender ideology, including puberty blockers and cross sex hormones for minors.”

“The Senate should use reconciliation again and enact the strongest defunding measure possible under the law,” she added. “American taxpayers should never be forced to subsidize an industry that distributes cross sex hormones to vulnerable kids and kills millions of preborn American babies through abortion every year.”

In addition to Rose, the letter was signed by Students for Life President Kristan Hawkins, Catholic Vote President Kelsey Reinhardt, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser and 34 other pro-life leaders from across the country.

The DOJ’s fraud indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center is prompting swift reaction from groups named on its “hate map,” many casting the charges as vindication after years of being labeled extremist.

After a grand jury in the Middle District of Alabama returned an 11-count indictment charging the SPLC with six counts of wire fraud, four counts of bank fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, attention turned to groups the allegedly hate-group-linked organization itself has labeled as hate groups.

One of the more prominent names on SPLC’s “hate map” is the Family Research Council, which was the target of a 2012 attack by an armed man who allegedly found the group’s information on the SPLC’s website.

FRC President Tony Perkins said at the time that Floyd Lee Corkins II of Fairfax County — since sentenced to 25 years in prison — was responsible for wounding his building manager but believes “he was given a license by a group such as the Southern Poverty Law Center, who… labeled us a hate group because we defend the family and we stand for traditional, orthodox Christianity.”

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Corkins’ signed statement of offense acknowledged he targeted FRC because of its views, including advocacy against gay marriage, and intended to kill “as many employees” as he could.

The SPLC denied the connection at the time and did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on the blowback from groups featured on its hate map.

On Tuesday, Perkins called the indictment of the SPLC a “welcome development” that marks the beginning of a “long pattern of misrepresentation and harm.”

“For years, the SPLC has used its platform to label and target organizations with whom it disagrees, often blurring the line between legitimate concern and ideological attack,” he said, before noting Corkins’ attack.

“With over $750 million in their endowment which includes offshore accounts, the SPLC should be held responsible not only for what was done, but for the damage left behind,” Perkins said.

Shannon Adcock, leader of the Midwestern parental rights group Awake Illinois, responded to SPLC’s indictment by noting it had posted “incredibly inflammatory rhetoric against us as parents simply for standing up for our parental rights and for our liberty.”

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“Many of my friends across the country have been labeled by the Southern Poverty Law Center as well, while meanwhile there are legitimate terrorists that are running around this country and they are silent on those efforts while targeting law-abiding people such as Illinois and our friends Moms for Liberty, Parents of Indian Education, Courage is a Habit and many others,” Adcock said. “So we celebrate this news. This is a good move by the FBI.”

Adcock said she would purchase a bottle of Veuve Clicquot to celebrate.

Awake Illinois’ website used the indictment to solicit donations, suggesting new donors choose “Suck it, Southern Poverty Law Center, your hate can’t cancel us” as a reason on its dropdown menu.

PragerU, the education media nonprofit founded by conservative commentator Dennis Prager, was also featured on SPLC’s “hate map.”

Marissa Streit, the group’s CEO, told Fox News Digital on Wednesday that the DOJ’s indictment appears to confirm everything that people knew about the SPLC.

“The alleged shell game fraud reveals the Center as what it really is: a leftist political outfit and an actual hate group masquerading as one fighting for civil rights,” Streit said, as PragerU also highlighted its own recent video analysis of the SPLC: “The Anti-Hate Group That Is A Hate Group.”

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“Anyone paying any attention knows its ‘hate map’ is just a list of ideas the [SPLC] wants to destroy,” Streit added.

ACT for America, a group focused on combating the spread of radical Islamic ideology and threats from radical Islam, also responded via its founder Brigitte Gabriel.

“The SPLC labeled me and my organization, ACT for America a hate group year ago,” Gabriel said in a statement.

Gabriel founded the group after coming to America following years of living under threat of terrorism during the Lebanese Civil War, including attacks from Muslim militants who destroyed her house.

“[SPLC] considered us America’s largest hate group. A title we were proud to hold. It’s a wonderful thing to see the SPLC finally being held accountable for their lies.”

Moms for Liberty cofounder Tina Descovich said the organization’s affiliates make up more than half of the SPLC’s “hate map.”

“[That’s] simply because we’re empowering parents to get involved in their school board meetings and because we recognize the difference between boys and girls,” she told Fox News Digital.

“The SPLC’s hate map has been weaponized against us countless times, including by law enforcement where training manuals labeled us as an extremist group by citing the SPLC. We urge all who give to this dangerous organization to stop doing so immediately, and we call on all organizations who have used them in the past to condemn their actions.” 

Fox News Digital also reached out to the Center for Immigration Studies and its president, Mark Krikorian, for comment.

CIS pointed Fox News Digital to a column Krikorian wrote about being listed on the hate map in 2023, where he said the SPLC has been “lying low for some time, since the eruption of multiple humiliating scandals involving racism and sexual harassment that led to the firing of most of the group’s leadership, including founder Morris Dees.”

“The appearance of its annual ‘hate map’ was months late, raising suspicions that there were changes afoot. No such luck — the latest anathema was just pronounced. Google it yourself, if you want to see it,” he wrote.

“The Center for Immigration Studies is still there, of course; after operating for three decades, we graduated to ‘hate group’ status right after Trump’s election in 2016 — coincidentally.”

Fox News’ Kevin Ward, Alec Schemmel and David Spunt contributed to this report.