Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell moved quickly behind the scenes after the Justice Department opened a criminal probe into his statements to Congress, with his calendar showing a burst of outreach to U.S. lawmakers.

The entries don’t reveal what was discussed, but they show Powell made 13 calls to senators and House members shortly after he accused the DOJ of using subpoenas as a “pretext” to ramp up pressure on the central bank to cut rates. The rapid-fire calls ranged from 10 to 15 minutes each. 

The Fed releases Powell’s monthly schedule with about a two-month lag, which is why the scope of that outreach is only now coming into view.

TRUMP’S PICK TO LEAD THE FEDERAL RESERVE MEETS GOP SENATOR HOLDING UP HIS CONFIRMATION

Powell’s calendar lists calls with Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska; Shelley Moore Capito, R-W. Va.; Mark Warner, D-Va.; Bill Cassidy, R-La.; John Kennedy, R-La.; Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.; Mike Crapo, R-Idaho; James Lankford, R-Okla.; and Tim Scott, R-S.C., as well as Reps. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio; Maxine Waters, D-Calif.; Steny Hoyer, D-Md.; and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.

Powell’s schedule also lists a breakfast meeting with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Jan. 15, four days after the investigation was disclosed.

Working Capitol Hill has long been central to Powell’s playbook, with the Fed chair regularly logging more one-on-one time with lawmakers than any modern predecessor. 

DOJ’S CRIMINAL PROBE OF FED CHAIR POWELL SPARKS RARE GOP REVOLT ON CAPITOL HILL

Still, the week of Jan. 11 stood out even for Powell. The last time he reached more lawmakers in a single week was February 2025, ahead of his semiannual testimony, when he typically schedules a run of prehearing calls with key members.

This burst was different, though it followed Powell’s Jan. 11 disclosure that the Justice Department had opened a criminal investigation tied to his congressional testimony on the Federal Reserve’s two historic main buildings on the National Mall.

Powell, in a rare video statement, called the probe “unprecedented” and described it as another salvo in what he described as President Donald Trump’s pressure campaign on the central bank to cut rates. The unusually public response followed days of private consultations with advisors and stood out for a Fed chair known for a measured approach.

The investigation centers on Powell’s June 2025 testimony to lawmakers, an unusual development for a sitting Fed chair.

TRUMP VS THE FEDERAL RESERVE: HOW THE CLASH REACHED UNCHARTED TERRITORY

Testifying before the Senate Banking Committee, Powell said: “There’s no new marble. There are no special elevators. They’re old elevators that have been there. There are no new water features. There are no beehives, and there’s no roof garden terraces.”

Powell added that no one “wants to do a major renovation of a historic building during their term in office,” and said cost overruns were driven in part by unexpected construction challenges and inflation.

The renovation is estimated to cost $2.5 billion and is being funded by the central bank itself, not by taxpayers.

The Fed is self-financing and does not rely on congressional appropriations to cover its operating expenses, which include employee salaries, facilities maintenance and the current renovation. Its primary income comes from interest earned on government securities and fees charged to financial institutions.

Trump has repeatedly targeted the project, threatening legal action and mocking the renovation’s cost and design.

“They’re building a basement into the Potomac River. I could have told them. That’s very tough to do, and it doesn’t work, and it’s very expensive,” Trump said. “But they’re up to $4 billion, headed by this clown,” he added in November, referring to Powell.

Powell, a Trump nominee first tapped to lead the Fed in 2017, is expected to finish his term at the end of May. Trump has picked former Fed governor Kevin Warsh to replace Powell, but the nomination is effectively stuck after Sen. Thom Tillis vowed to block any Fed nominees while the DOJ probe remains open.

The Federal Reserve declined to comment on Powell’s calendar.

A four-time deported illegal immigrant from Honduras with 15 prior criminal charges shoved two victims onto the tracks at a New York City subway station this week, including an 83-year-old Air Force veteran who remains in critical condition, according to reports. 

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) indicated Wednesday evening that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) lodged a detainer against Honduran national Bairon Posada-Herandez, 34, after he was arrested for allegedly shoving two men – unprovoked – onto the train tracks inside the NYC subway system. The older male, 83-year-old Air Force veteran and grandfather Richard Williams, is reportedly still fighting for his life at a New York City hospital.

Posada-Hernandez first entered the country in 2008, and was subsequently deported four separate times, the last time being in July 2020, before reentering later for a fifth time at an unknown location and date, Fox News Digital has learned.

At the time of the subway incident this week, Posada-Hernandez had a lengthy criminal history as well, including at least 15 prior charges for crimes such as aggravated assault, domestic violence, possession of a weapon, obstruction of police, simple assault and drug possession.

SPARKS FLY AS GOP SENATOR REACTS TO BIDEN ADVISOR’S ‘I DON’T KNOW’ ANSWER ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION LAW

“Bairon Posada-Herandez is a serial criminal, and four-time deported illegal alien from Honduras who should never have been able to walk our streets and harm innocent Americans,” said DHS Deputy Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis. “We are praying for the victims and their families. DHS is calling upon New York sanctuary politicians to commit to this ICE detainer and not release this heinous criminal back into New York communities.”    

Fox News Digital reached out to the New York City Department of Correction, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office, and the New York Police Department (NYPD) to inquire about whether there were plans to honor ICE’s detainer against Posada-Hernandez. The Department of Corrections responded, but did not directly answer any of Fox News Digital’s questions, instead pointing Fox News Digital to the publicly available information located on its “Person in Custody Lookup” database. 

Questions about Posada-Hernandez’s charges and future court dates were also left unanswered.

ICE HOUSTON TOUTS OVER 400 ILLEGAL ALIEN CHILD SEX OFFENDERS ARRESTED DURING TRUMP’S FIRST YEAR BACK IN OFFICE 

According to NYC’s custody database, reviewed by Fox News Digital, Posada-Hernandez was given a $100,000 bail following his arrest on Wednesday for First Degree Assault, a Class B Felony. However, other public reports have indicated that he was charged with attempted murder. 

Cell-phone footage from the younger male victim involved in the Wednesday incident surfaced following the subway attack this week, which showed Posada-Hernandez walking calmly away after allegedly pushing him. 

A passerby could be seen in the video trying to help the younger victim after he was first pushed. Then, Posada-Hernandez proceeded to spontaneously shove the older Williams onto the tracks as well. The younger victim suffered minor injuries, but Williams is reportedly in critical condition in the hospital. 

While it is unclear when Posada-Herandez returned to the United States after his fourth deportation in July 2020, what is known is that, under President Joe Biden, 5% of the entire population of Honduras entered the United States, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

In February, DHS condemned New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani for signing an Executive Order “turning New York City into a shield for violent criminal illegal aliens to reoffend and create more innocent victims,” which also came not long after New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s legislative proposal barring local police departments from cooperating with ICE. 

As of February, there were more than 7,110 illegal aliens in New York custody with an active ICE detainer, per DHS.

This includes 148 criminal illegal aliens accused of homicide, 717 accused of assault, 134 accused of burglaries, 240 accused of burglaries or robberies, 235 accused of dangerous drug offenses, 152 accused of weapons offenses, and 260 accused sexual predators, according to DHS.

While House Republicans gathered in South Florida to map out their strategy ahead of November’s midterm elections, one GOP lawmaker said she “jumped in to assist” with evacuation efforts overseas amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran.

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., told Fox News Digital that she traveled to the Middle East on Sunday after she learned a South Carolina family was trapped in the wake of the conflict.

“When your people are stranded in a war zone, the only answer worthy of the office, worthy of our state, worthy of our country, is to get them out,” Mace, who is running to be South Carolina’s next governor, said in a statement.

After the family made it safely back to South Carolina, Mace said she stayed in the region and partnered with Grey Bull Rescue, a Tampa-based crisis response group led by military veterans, to evacuate more Americans. Tens of thousands of U.S. citizens have scrambled to leave the Middle East following widespread flight cancellations and airspace closures due to Iranian counterstrikes.

PRIVATE SECURITY FIRM HELPING AMERICANS EVACUATE THE MIDDLE EAST AMID WAR WITH IRAN

Mace said she worked with the State Department to charter a flight for the stranded Americans while the private nonprofit supplied logistics for the rescue mission. On Wednesday night, Mace and dozens of American families on the flight landed in Greece.

Mace said 155 Americans — including 11 infants — were evacuated from Israel as part of Grey Bull Rescue’s 808th mission. The group says it has rescued 591 Americans from the region since the outbreak of the conflict.

“They had the people but didn’t have the plane. I jumped in to assist,” Mace said. “Tonight I am grateful. And I will never forget what I saw. What I learned. And the Americans who volunteered and who are serving our nation patriotically tonight.”

“Congresswoman Mace was fully embedded with our team, not to watch, but to work to save lives,” Bryan Stern, founder and chairman of Grey Bull Rescue, told Fox News Digital. “While a core value of Grey Bull Rescue is to be absolutely apolitical we are always PROUD AMERICANS to see our elected officials fighting for their constituents.”

WNBA’S TIFFANY MITCHELL AND FORMER SOUTH CAROLINA WOMEN’S BASKETBALL PLAYERS STUCK IN ISRAEL AMID STRIKES

Grey Bull Rescue has been operating in the Middle East since 2023, during which the volunteer organization evacuated more than 300 Americans from Israel following the Oct. 7 attack.

The group recently helped Americans escape cartel violence in Mexico, following the killing of a notorious drug lord in February, and also facilitated the extraction of Nobel Peace Prize winner and Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado from her home country in 2025.

Over 43,000 Americans have departed the Middle East since Operation Epic Fury began on Feb. 28, according to the State Department. Over 27,000 of those individuals received direct assistance from the U.S. government in evacuating the region, a department spokesperson told Fox News Digital on Tuesday.

The Trump administration advised Americans in 14 countries across the Middle East to “depart now” on Feb. 2, following a rise in security threats. Some Americans initially stranded in the region have criticized the State Department for failing to clearly communicate and distributing insufficient evacuation guidance.

President Donald Trump hailed the swift prosecution of the military campaign against Iran, but acknowledged there are terrorist “sleeper cells” in the U.S. that have to be watched and dealt with.

Trump said during a press gaggle Wednesday that he has been briefed on terror alerts and threats, including reported plans to conduct a drone attack in California, but he warned that any terrorists present in the country now might be the result of former President Joe Biden’s “stupid open border.”

“A lot of people came in through Biden with his stupid open border, but we know where most of them are: We’ve got our eye on all of them, I think,” Trump said.

“They came in through the open-border policies of Sleepy Joe Biden, one of the worst — the worst president in the history of our country — and we’ve got our eyes on all of them,” the president added.

TOP IRANIAN CYBERCRIMINAL ON FBI MOST WANTED LIST REPORTEDLY KILLED IN US-ISRAELI STRIKE

“But the war itself is being prosecuted at a level that nobody has seen before,” Trump continued. “It’s pretty — it’s pretty amazing to watch.”

When asked about a leaked law enforcement bulletin put out about a possible Iran revenge plot in California where a potential offshore boat might launch a drone swarm, Trump replied, “It’s being investigated, but you have a lot of things happening, and all we can do is take them as they come.”

US DESTROYS 16 IRANIAN MINE BOATS AS STRAIT OF HORMUZ OIL SHOWDOWN ESCALATES

“The war itself is being prosecuted as well as anybody has ever seen, and this is other countries telling me too,” he continued. “Big countries, powerful countries, they said they’ve never seen anything like it. And they also agree with what I’m doing. They say it’s an evil country, and it’s been for 47 years that way.”

The warning of a California drone swarm attack is not new, having originated in February, but law enforcement has re-upped the monitoring amid Iran threats to retaliate against Israel and the U.S.

FIRST ON FOX: One of the top Republican contenders for governor in Georgia hyped that he would “be Trump’s favorite governor” and is vying for President Donald Trump’s endorsement, but his Federal Election Commission records reveal he financially backed multiple GOP rivals of Trump during the 2024 presidential race.

In particular, two top contenders, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and billionaire healthcare entrepreneur Rick Jackson, have been sparring over who is more aligned with Trump. 

“This Primary Election is very simple,” Jones says on his campaign website. “There is one authentic conservative who has fought for President Trump.” Meanwhile, Jackson has assured voters that he would “be Trump’s favorite governor” after donating $1 million to the president’s political action committee, MAGA Inc. less than two months before he jumped in the race last month.

However, Jackson and his network of companies and investment groups have a history of donating funds to Trump’s rivals, including during his 2024 presidential bid prior to him obtaining the Republican Party nomination, according to a Fox News Digital review of FEC filings. Jackson gave at least $150,000 to Nikki Haley and $100,000 to Vivek Ramaswamy, who were both running against Trump at the time.

TRUMP ALLY CLAY FULLER ADVANCES IN GEORGIA FIGHT FOR MTG’S FORMER SEAT 

Jackson Investment Group, an entity that Jackson has controlled for decades, according to a 2024 SEC filing, spent at least $150,000 supporting Nikki Haley through the SFA Fund, INC., and Team Stand for America. The SFA Fund, INC. received three separate donations from the Jackson Investment Group totaling at least $140,000 between 2023 and 2024, including $40,000 weeks before Haley suspended her campaign in early 2024. Jackson also directly gave $10,000 to Team Stand for America, a joint fundraising committee that was supporting Haley.

The $100,000 donation from the Jackson Investment Group to Ramaswamy’s super PAC occurred in July 2023, months before he suspended his campaign in Jan. 2024.

Jackson has also donated across the last decade to other Trump rivals like former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., former Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, and over $1 million in support of Jeb Bush’s 2016 presidential campaign against Trump, FEC filings show. Jackson also contributed funds against Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green, R-Ga., when she was fully on the MAGA train in 2020, and donated to Sen. Lindsay Graham’s, R-S.C., 2016 presidential bid shortly after he dropped out and endorsed Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.

The $2,700 donation to Cheney’s leadership PAC, The Great Task, came weeks after she joined Democrats in voting to impeach Trump after they said he incited the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. 

Jackson, the wealthy founder of Jackson Healthcare who is seeding his own campaign with at least $50 million, shook up a primary field that many had expected was set in stone between Jones, the Trump-endorsed front-runner, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and state Attorney General Chris Carr. 

The newcomer to the race has brushed off attacks that he is not sufficiently loyal to Trump, comparing himself to people serving in Trump’s orbit who were once skeptics of the president, like Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance. When reached for comment about his previous donations to Trump rivals, a Jackson campaign spokesperson pivoted to Jones. 

“Self-dealing Burt Jones is recycling old attacks to distract from his failing campaign. From shielding doctors who perform sex change surgeries on minors to protecting Chinese vape manufacturers for campaign cash and family profit, the more Georgians learn about Burt Jones, the more they realize he operates like the kingpin of the Atlanta political mob. That’s why even with the endorsement, Burt Jones is losing,” Dave Abrams, a Jackson campaign spokesperson, told Fox News Digital when reached for comment.

“To be clear, President Trump endorsed Burt Jones for Governor,” a former senior Trump White House official told Fox News Digital. “Rick Jackson claiming he is Trump’s ‘favorite’ is downright dishonest.”

Kayla Lott, a campaign spokesperson for Jones, contested the claim from Jackson’s team that he has worked to protect Chinese vape manufacturers, arguing the Lt. Gov.’s efforts on a bill that would have created a directory of authorized nicotine vapor products was about preventing monopolization and promoting free-market solutions. Lott also pointed to Jones’ support for House Bill 54, preventing minors from obtaining sex-change surgeries or drug treatment. 

TRUMP FOE FANI WILLIS BLOCKED YET AGAIN FROM COLLAPSED RICO CASE AS PRESIDENT PUSHES TO CLAW BACK MILLIONS

“Never Trumper Rick Jackson bankrolled candidates running against President Trump and the America First agenda,” Lott said. “Now he’s lying to voters to try and cover it up. As the only Trump-endorsed candidate in this race, Lt. Governor Burt Jones will always stand up for Georgians and stand with our President. Not even Slick Rick can buy his way out of his own record.” 

Even before his support for Bush in 2016, Jackson supported Romney, another Trump rival who has described the president as a “phony” and a “fraud.” FEC filings show that Jackson spent over $100,000 supporting Romney’s presidential campaign and his political action committee, Romney Victory Inc. Trump repeatedly said Romney “choked” in 2012 and “let us all down.”

Jackson, Jones, Carr and Raffensperger will duke it out in their upcoming primary on May 19, with the general election to follow in early November.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has endorsed former U.S. Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, one of the candidates running in the Democratic primary for Maryland’s 5th Congressional District.

Dunn was serving on the police force during the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot.

“My friend Harry Dunn is a true American hero and exactly the right person to represent Maryland in Congress,” Pelosi asserted in a release, according to The Hill. “On January 6, 2021, Harry Dunn bravely defended our democracy from Donald Trump’s violent MAGA mob. Since then, Harry’s been called to do everything he can to protect Marylanders and all Americans from extremists like Donald Trump. I’m proud to endorse Harry Dunn for Congress.”

Pelosi is not seeking re-election.

NANCY PELOSI DOUBLES DOWN ON DEFENDING OBAMA’S STRIKES ON LIBYA WHILE ATTACKING TRUMP: ‘READ THE LAW’

Dunn said in the release that Pelosi “stood firm when our democracy was under attack and helped lead the country through one of the most difficult moments in our history,” according to the outlet. “I’m grateful for her support and proud to have her in this fight,” he noted.

Fox News Digital reached out to Dunn’s campaign on Thursday morning.

FORMER CAPITOL POLICE OFFICER RUNNING FOR CONGRESS IN DIFFERENT DISTRICT THAN FAILED 2024 BID

Pelosi previously endorsed Dunn in 2024, but Dunn ultimately failed to win the Democratic Primary that year in Maryland’s 3rd Congressional District.

Democratic Rep. Steny Hoyer, who currently represents Maryland’s 5th Congressional District, is not seeking re-election.

HOYER WON’T SEEK RE-ELECTION, SAYS HOUSE HAS STRAYED FROM FOUNDERS’ VISION

The congressman has endorsed his former campaign manager, Maryland Delegate Adrian Boafo, for the U.S. House seat.

Jack Schlossberg, the only grandson of former President John F. Kennedy, is running for Congress in New York City, where he says, despite being a member of arguably the most prominent political family in American history, he’s heading an ‘outsider’ campaign that’s upsetting the political establishment power brokers.

“It’s probably hard for people to believe me saying that I’m an anti-establishment outsider given my family ties, but in this race, I really am,” Schlossberg told Fox News Digital in an interview.

“I am going up against a political machine here in NY-12 that doesn’t want change, that doesn’t want any outsiders to come shake things up, do things differently,” he continued. “They want to control the people who they send to Congress, and that means trading favors and endorsements before the seat has even opened up.”

A dozen Democrats are running in the June primary to replace Democratic Congressman Jerry Nadler, who announced his retirement in September at the age of 78 after more than three decades in Congress, citing the need for “generational change” in the party. 

JFK’S GRANDSON RIPS ‘LOVE STORY’ SERIES ABOUT LATE UNCLE JFK JR AND CAROLYN BESSETTE, CALLS IT ‘GROTESQUE’

If Schlossberg, the only son of John F. Kennedy’s daughter Caroline, wants to be the Democrat that brings that change, he will have to navigate a political landscape in New York City dominated by county committees, major donors, and a Nadler-endorsed candidate in the race.

“The insiders here, they don’t like us,” Schlossberg said, before providing a recent example he says helps paint the picture of what he’s up against.

“There’s a couple of Democratic clubs here in New York-12, and I got a lot of respect for any group that does civic engagement, and that’s great, no knocks for that, but they’ve had a few forums where they invite the candidates to come speak. There was at least three forums where we found out about the forum because it was posted online with the lineup of all the other candidates, and we hadn’t been invited yet, so we’re kind of disinvited and disrespected when we get there,” Schlossberg said. 

“But I think what’s interesting — I think at least—is we do show up at all the forums, we put our best foot forward, and afterwards, there’s been a couple of times where some of the members — maybe not the leaders of the organizations, but some of the members — come up, and they say, ‘Hey, listen, I couldn’t say this, but you got my vote.’ There’s whispers. There are whispers around from the members and the people who realize this seat shouldn’t just be handed to somebody.”

JACK SCHLOSSBERG, JFK’S GRANDSON, DEFENDS ‘AGGRESSIVE’ POSTS ABOUT VANCE’S WIFE

Schlossberg, who is personally wealthy and was endorsed by family friend Speaker Emerita Rep. Nancy Pelosi, is lagging behind two candidates, venture capitalist Alex Bores, N.Y. State Rep. and Nadler protégé Micah Lasher, in fundraising and cash on hand. 

One of the most prominent Democratic organizations in New York City, the Four Freedoms Democratic Club, endorsed Bores, as did The NewDEAL.

Eleanor Roosevelt Independent Democrats, another significant Democratic club in Manhattan, endorsed Lasher.

Prominent local elected Democrats have mostly endorsed other candidates over Schlossberg and the 33-year-old New York City native told Fox News Digital he is the one candidate in the race that doesn’t “owe anybody anything.”

“I’m the only candidate who’s gone out and said I won’t take money from corporate PACs, from super PACS, or from big AI companies, and I’m doing this because we’re a people-powered campaign,” Schlossberg said, pointing out that his average donation is $40 and that his grassroots style of campaigning shows up on the streets of New York City when he holds events, including a packed house during a recent blizzard.

“I posted one infographic on my Instagram during the middle of a blizzard, and we had 300 people show up for a pizza party the next day, ready to, with Jack for New York shirts on, ready to volunteer, ready to sign up,” Schlossberg said. “And they’re there because they care. They’re there because they understand our campaign isn’t bought or paid for by any interest group, dark money, anything. We’re for the people, and we’re doing this our way.”

Just months after socialist New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, endorsed by Schlossberg, rode an anti-establishment wave into Gracie Mansion, the progressive Kennedy is promising to “shake things up” and attempt to ride a similar wave to Washington, D.C.

Schlossberg has faced intense criticism from Republicans and conservatives for some of his progressive platforms, inflammatory social media posts, and critiques of the Trump administration that included his own cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr., but he told Fox News Digital the thing he is “probably the most proud of is the policies that I’ve released to date”, which he believes will resonate with residents of his district, where 81% of voters supported former VP Kamala Harris in 2024.

Those policies, Schlossberg says, include a “standard renters deduction” that would let renters in NY-12 deduct part of their rent from their federal income taxes, lowering the cost of food and clothing by isolating and repealing certain tariffs while negotiating a broader trade deal, a plan called “Jack’s Fast Track Plan” to double funding for security upgrades at houses of worship in the district, and the “Ricochet Rule” to “stop the flow of illegal firearms into our state that end up being used in crime.”

Schlossberg joked that he understands now why the United States has secret ballots as he goes around and sees people “that may not be able to socially say that the’yre for Schlossberg” but that the “secrets going to get out eventually when we deliver a victory in June.”

Voters in NY-12 will take part in the Democratic primary to determine their nominee on June 23 and the winner is widely believed to be in the driver’s seat to win the general election in one of the most heavily Democratic districts in the country.

Senate Republicans know that Trump-backed voter ID legislation is doomed to fail and are trying to find a way to pin the blame on Senate Democrats.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., plans to bring the bill to the floor next week, but Republicans won’t take the route of launching into a talking filibuster, despite pressure from President Donald Trump and the GOP base to do so.

“We don’t have the votes either to proceed, get on a talking filibuster, nor to sustain one if we got on it,” Thune said. “But that is just a function of math, and there isn’t anything I can do about that. I mean, I understand the president’s got a passion to see this issue addressed, as we all do.”

TRUMP, THUNE CLASH ON VOTER ID ULTIMATUM AS GOP REMAINS DIVIDED ON PATH FORWARD

While the end result after an exhaustive marathon of debate would allow Republicans to pass the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act at a simple-majority threshold, Thune has time and again warned that the votes aren’t there among Republicans to block Democratic amendments that could completely reshape the bill.

Still, Trump and a sphere of online conservative voices are demanding that the bill pass at any cost. Trump warned that if it does not, Republicans will fall flat in the upcoming midterm election cycle. 

“It will guarantee the midterms. If you don’t get it, big trouble,” Trump told House Republicans at their annual policy retreat earlier this week. 

Meanwhile, Senate Democrats are nearly unified in their opposition to the bill, save for Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., which all but ensures its failure in the upper chamber.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., reiterated his opposition to the SAVE America Act and charged that it was legislation geared toward “destroying” and “purging” voter rolls across the country.

“This is a bill that destroys the country,” Schumer said. “And it is not about showing ID when you show up to vote.”

THUNE GUARANTEES VOTER ID BILL TO HIT THE SENATE DESPITE SCHUMER, DEM OPPOSITION: ‘WE WILL HAVE A VOTE’

The other option for the GOP would be to nuke the filibuster to pass the SAVE America Act, which some argue Democrats would do anyway when they eventually regain control of the upper chamber.

There is not an appetite among Republicans to blow up the filibuster either.

“I suggest our first goal will be to try and pass it, but I understand how difficult that is, and I’m sympathetic with the position of not ending the filibuster,” Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., told Fox News Digital. “But short of that, our next goal ought to be to make sure the Democrats get blamed, because they’re the ones that are truly blocking this.”

A likely strategy that Republicans will turn to is in the spirit of the talking filibuster, just without the marathon of debate and amendment votes that process would yield.

SCHUMER, DEMS HOLD FIRM ON DHS FUNDING DESPITE NOEM’S BOMBSHELL OUSTING

Johnson, who, along with Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Rick Scott, R-Fla., met with Trump to push for the SAVE America Act, said that instead of a straight up-or-down vote on the bill, Republicans could flood the floor with amendments in a genuine bid to reshape the bill. Then would come a final vote at the end of the amendment flurry. 

Those add-ons to the bill would include tweaks that Trump has requested, like nixing mail-in ballots save for certain exceptions, banning men from women’s sports and halting transgender surgical procedures on minors.

“We’re getting the Democrats on record voting, ‘Oh, you want to keep mutilating children on the altar of transgenderism,’” Johnson said.

Another route to pass the bill could be through the budget reconciliation process, which Republicans used to ram Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” through Congress last year.

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., has been the most vocal proponent of that tactic. But in order for the SAVE America Act to survive the reconciliation route, it would have to pass muster under the Byrd Rule, which requires that anything crammed into a reconciliation package have a budgetary effect.

Kennedy argued the best way to counter that is to lawyer up.

“It really comes down to what the [Senate] parliamentarian says, and I would get the best minds I could find to try to draft a provision that would survive Byrd,” Kennedy said. “When you argue or debate with the parliamentarian, you’ve got to be ready. You can’t just walk in there and pull it out of your orifices.”

Cheap Iranian drone attacks are forcing the Pentagon to rapidly expand layered air defenses in the Middle East, as thousands of U.S. troops stationed across the region face an escalating aerial threat that is testing the limits of traditional missile defenses.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) said Tuesday its air defenses detected nine ballistic missiles and 35 drones launched by Iran. Eight missiles were intercepted while one fell into the sea. 

Of the 35 drones, 26 were shot down and nine crashed on UAE soil, the country said. 

IRAN WAR, 11 DAYS IN: US CONTROLS SKIES, OIL SURGES AND THE REGION BRACES FOR WHAT’S NEXT

The engagement highlights how the battlefield is shifting. 

Ballistic missiles travel high and fast, allowing long-range interceptors such as the Patriot air defense system and the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system (THAAD) to engage them predictably. Drone swarms, which Iran increasingly has relied on in recent exchanges, present a different challenge to U.S. forces.

They fly lower, move slower and often arrive in clusters, making them harder to detect and more likely to strain defenses built for high-speed threats.

U.S. troops already have been directly affected by one-way attack drones in the region. In a March 1 strike near Camp Arifjan in Kuwait, six American service members were killed and dozens wounded when an Iranian drone hit a tactical operations center. 

Each interception also carries a cost. 

High-end missile interceptors can run into the millions of dollars per shot. 

Many of the drones they are designed to defeat are far cheaper and produced in large numbers — creating what defense officials have described as a growing “math problem” in modern warfare. The U.S. can end up firing expensive missiles at relatively inexpensive drones, a dynamic that becomes harder to sustain if attacks come in waves.

That imbalance is accelerating a push inside the Pentagon to expand a layered counter-drone strategy — combining short-range interceptors, electronic warfare tools and emerging technologies such as high-energy lasers.

For U.S. forces in the region, larger drone waves increase the odds that defenses are stretched, and that even one drone could reach a base or ship.

This marks the first sustained confrontation in which U.S. forces are facing large-scale, state-backed drone waves as a central feature of the battlefield — forcing commanders to adapt in real time and draw on lessons learned from Ukraine, where mass-produced Shahed drones reshaped air defense strategy.

Among the new U.S. systems drawing renewed attention are high-energy lasers.

Directed energy is being developed and tested for counter-drone missions and has been used in limited domestic contexts. 

U.S. defense officials say lasers offer a potentially significant advantage: Once powered, they can fire repeatedly without expending traditional ammunition.

Unlike missile interceptors, which must be replaced after each launch, a laser system can continue engaging targets as long as sufficient power is available. In theory, that provides sustained defensive capacity during large drone waves.

“It’s a function now of our procurement system, moving those things to the troops as fast as we can,” retired Vice Adm. Kevin Donegan, former commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command and the U.S. 5th Fleet, told Fox News Digital.

Donegan acknowledged the technology is real but not yet fully fielded across combat zones.

Scaling high-energy systems requires power generation, integration and infrastructure — all of which take time.

A U.S. official confirmed to Fox News Digital directed energy systems have been tested and employed to counter drones in combat scenarios and the Pentagon “continues to work to scale this capability as quickly as possible.”

Central Command, the U.S. military command tasked with overseeing the Middle East, declined to comment on whether lasers are part of its current drone defense system against Iran. 

While lasers represent a longer-term evolution, commanders are relying on multiple defensive layers today.

The recent deployment of the Merops drone-on-drone interceptor into U.S. Central Command reflects that approach. 

Developed by U.S.-backed defense firm Perennial Autonomy, Merops is a mobile counter-drone system that launches small interceptor drones from a truck-mounted platform to disable incoming threats. The system was battle-tested against Shahed drones in Ukraine and fielded in NATO countries such as Poland before being accelerated into the Middle East as drone activity intensified.

A former defense official familiar with counter-drone operations said effective counter-UAS capability depends on overlapping systems integrated around high-value targets rather than reliance on a single interceptor.

“Effective counter-UAS capability is overlapping,” the official said. “No one system solves the drone problem by itself.”

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U.S. ships in the region rely on short-range missile systems such as the Rolling Airframe Missile and Sea Sparrow, along with the Close-In Weapon System, a radar-guided rapid-fire gun that can engage threats at close range.

Ground-based defenses incorporate radar detection with specialized interceptors such as Raytheon’s Coyote family, designed to defeat small unmanned aircraft. Industry systems like Anduril’s Roadrunner add autonomous interceptor drones capable of engaging airborne threats and, in some configurations, returning for reuse.

Success begins with early detection. Radar systems track low-flying drones and give operators time to choose whether to jam, intercept or destroy incoming threats.

“We’ve built into the weapon systems of all our military platforms that are combatants counter-drone capability,” Donegan said.

Iran’s Shahed drones were refined during Russia’s war in Ukraine, where cities faced nightly waves of low-cost one-way attack aircraft. There, layered defenses combining short-range interceptors, electronic warfare and evolving technologies proved essential in absorbing sustained attacks.

Ukrainian officials have said some cities faced more than a hundred drones in a single night, forcing air defense crews to remain on alert for hours at a time.

Ukraine has since offered to share its battlefield experience with the United States and Gulf partners as Iranian drone activity expands in the Middle East.

Officials say those lessons are influencing U.S. planning.

“JIATF-401 is accelerating procurement of multiple counter-UAS capabilities across several combatant commands, including sensing radars, kinetic interceptors and other available systems, not just Merops, to expand layered defenses in the U.S. Central Command area of operations,” a U.S. official said.

“Some of the capabilities being surged to support our warfighters reflect lessons we are learning and technology we are transferring from the battlefield in Ukraine.”

The result is expanding defensive depth — designed to absorb and defeat a threat that is inexpensive, persistent and increasingly central to modern warfare.

For the troops stationed at those bases and aboard those ships, that layered defense is what stands between a drone intercepted in the sky and one that reaches its target.

As drone production scales and tactics evolve, the contest between low-cost attack drones and layered air defenses playing out in Iran the future of warfare itself.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday endorsed Texas Republican Brandon Herrera after his primary rival exited the race amid an ethics investigation into an admitted affair with a former staffer.

Herrera, a self-described Second Amendment activist and social media personality, was touted by Trump as a Republican who would promote the MAGA agenda in Texas’ 23rd District.

“Brandon is strongly supported by many Highly Respected MAGA Warriors in Texas, and Republicans in the U.S. House,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “As your next Congressman, he will work tirelessly to advance our MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN Agenda.”

“Brandon will fight hard to Grow the Economy, Cut Taxes and Regulations, Advance MADE IN THE U.S.A., Unleash American Energy DOMINANCE, Safeguard our Elections, Champion School Choice, Keep our Border SECURE, Stop Migrant Crime, Support our Brave Military, Veterans, and Law Enforcement, and Protect our always under siege Second Amendment,” Trump added.

MIKE JOHNSON ASKS EMBATTLED HOUSE REPUBLICAN TONY GONZALES TO DROP RE-ELECTION BID

Herrera thanked the president for his endorsement, which adds to backing from conservative lawmakers, including Reps. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., and Mary Miller, R-Ill.

“Thank you President Trump,” he said in a post on X. “It’s now time to take the fight to the Democrats in November and continue working to deliver great wins for TX23 and the rest of the nation.”

Trump’s endorsement comes after Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, announced last week that he would not seek re-election, clearing the path for Herrera to claim the GOP nomination.

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Herrera narrowly edged Gonzales by a 43.33% to 41.73% margin in Texas’ GOP primary for the 23rd Congressional District earlier this month, forcing a runoff because neither candidate earned 50% of the vote.

Gonzales — who was initially backed by Trump — bowed out of the race amid a House Ethics investigation into an affair he admitted took place with a former staffer.

Gonzales, a married father of six, admitted to the affair during an appearance on a conservative talk radio show the day after advancing to the primary runoff.

“I made a mistake, and I had a lapse in judgment, and there was a lack of faith, and I take full responsibility for those actions,” he said on “The Joe Pags Show” last week. “Since then, I’ve reconciled with my wife, Angel. I’ve asked God to forgive me, which he has, and my faith is as strong as ever.”

Herrera previously called his opponent’s withdrawal from the race the “appropriate decision.”

He will face Katy Padilla Stout, a local attorney and the Democratic nominee, in November.