President Donald Trump said Monday that White House doctors helped treat Rep. Neal Dunn after the Florida Republican was given what he described as a “terminal” diagnosis.

Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., recounted the episode during remarks at the White House, saying Dunn was continuing to work in Congress despite a “pretty grim” outlook.

“He would be dead by June,” Trump told reporters.

Johnson said he informed Trump of Dunn’s health challenges and the president suggested involving White House medical staff.

FLORIDA REPUBLICAN REP NEAL DUNN ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT FROM CONGRESS AFTER FIVE TERMS

The speaker said White House doctors arranged for Dunn to receive treatment at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where he underwent emergency surgery.

“The man has a new lease on life. He acts like he’s 30 years younger,” Johnson said.

Trump praised White House doctors as “miracle workers,” saying they moved quickly to help Dunn.

“I said, I have to call them. And I called the two doctors. They’re both great. And they immediately went over to see the congressman, and he was on the operating table like two hours later,” Trump added.

REPUBLICAN LAWMAKERS’ EARLY RETIREMENT RUMORS SEND SHOCKWAVES THROUGH HOUSE GOP

Dunn, a physician and former Army surgeon who represents Florida’s 2nd Congressional District, announced in January that he would not seek re-election after five terms.

In a statement at the time, the congressman said he wanted to “pass the torch to new conservative leaders, return home to Panama City, and spend more precious time with my family and our beloved grandchildren.”

“It has been my greatest honor to fight for lower taxes, our military and veterans, the unborn, healthcare innovation, and policies that empower Americans over bureaucracy and addressing threats from Communist China, Russia and others,” he added.

REPUBLICAN LAWMAKER’S EARLY RETIREMENT RUMORS SEND SHOCKWAVES THROUGH HOUSE GOP

As of mid-March, 60 House members, including 23 Democrats and 37 Republicans, have announced they will not seek re-election in the 2026 election cycle, according to the U.S. House of Representatives Press Gallery “Casualty List.”

Several Republicans are running for other offices, including governor and Senate, while Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, lost his primary to Steve Toth.

Congressional Democrats are seeking criminal charges against Kristi Noem weeks after President Donald Trump ousted her from leadership of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., and Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the top Democrats on their respective chambers’ Judiciary Committees, sent a letter to the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Monday accusing Noem of lying to Congress during back-to-back hearings earlier this month.

“A number of her statements appear to violate criminal statutes prohibiting perjury and knowingly making false statements to Congress,” the letter said. “After months of evading our Committees’ requests to testify in routine oversight hearings, Secretary Noem made a series of demonstrably false statements in a brazen attempt to undermine critical congressional oversight of the Department of Homeland Security.”

The top Democrats on the Senate and House Judiciary committees charged that there were four categories of statements Noem made during her testimony before the respective panels where the DHS chief could have perjured herself.

DHS DEFENDS MCLAUGHLIN AFTER ALLEGATIONS HUSBAND’S COMPANY PROFITED MILLIONS FROM AD CONTRACTS: ‘BASELESS’

Among those answers the lawmakers scrutinized were whether DHS follows court orders, Corey Lewandowski’s role in DHS contracts, whether immigration enforcement has detained U.S. citizens, and most notably the contracting process for a $220 million ad campaign heavily featuring Noem. 

The ad campaign, in particular, was an explosive moment during Noem’s hearing earlier this month when Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., pressed her on whether there was a competitive bid process for the contracts and the substantial cash flow. 

Noem told the panel that the contract did go through a competitive process, “and career officials at the Department chose who would do those advertising commercials.” When asked if President Donald Trump knew about the ad campaign and its eye-popping sum, Noem said he did.

CAPITOL HILL DEMS HAIL TRUMP’S DHS OUSTER OF NOEM AFTER HEATED SENATE HEARING

Trump contradicted that statement in an interview with Reuters, and Kennedy argued that it was “hard to believe” the president would give it the green light. 

“It’s something we have to defend. I’m on the Appropriations Committee. I mean, my research shows that you did not bid them out,” Kennedy said. 

He alleged that the group that received “most of the money” had direct ties to former DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin and her husband, Benjamin Yoho, who runs the company.

KRISTI NOEM FIRED FROM HOMELAND SECURITY POST AMID RECENT TURMOIL

“Even if Secretary Noem was the one telling the truth about the President’s knowledge, and she may well have been, she flatly misrepresented that the contract had been subject to a competitive bid,” Durbin and Raskin wrote. 

Yoho denied using his wife to secure lucrative contracts from the government, however, writing in a letter to Senate Democrats on Friday, “This statement is factually incorrect, and I respectfully request that you have your colleague correct the official record and issue an apology.”

Making false statements to Congress is classified as a felony, and a guilty verdict carries up to five years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000.

But the Trump administration is sticking by Noem. A DHS spokesperson told Fox News Digital, “Any claim that Secretary Noem committed perjury is categorically FALSE.”

Still, Democrats suggested that their effort would not end with the Trump administration, writing, “While we have low expectations that you will pursue this matter given your partisan weaponization of the Department of Justice, we note that the statute of limitations for perjury and for knowingly and willfully making false statements to Congress is five years.”

Trump announced earlier this month that Noem would no longer serve as DHS secretary and instead take on a new role as special envoy to the Shield of the Americas, a military coalition formed by the Republican president.

It comes after mounting criticism from both sides of the aisle over Noem’s handling of the department and its enforcement of Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.

Trump instead nominated Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., to take over the department. His confirmation hearing is expected this week.

Fox News Digital reached out to DHS for comment on Democrats’ letter.

Senate Democrats say they want to end the government shutdown but have repeatedly blocked GOP attempts to reopen the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as they push for immigration enforcement reforms.

On Friday, Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., said at a news conference following an antisemitic attack on the Temple Israel synagogue in her state that “certainly” Congress must fund DHS. 

However, Slotkin and most Senate Democrats have voted four times to block DHS funding, including several attempts to temporarily reopen the agency while negotiations continue.

Slotkin is just one of several Senate Democrats calling for an end to the shutdown. Republicans argue the votes are part of a broader Democratic strategy to blame them for blocking efforts to reopen DHS.

DEMS VOTE TO KEEP DHS CLOSED DESPITE AIRPORT CHAOS, IRANIAN SLEEPER CELL THREAT

Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., accused Democrats of trying to shift blame for the shutdown. 

“Well, that’s what they do, right? And they’re good at it. They’re really good at it,” he told Fox News Digital. “And the big difference is they have 90% of the legacy media backing them up.”

“So it’s hard, but again, four times this afternoon, the Democrats voted against funding DHS,” he continued.  

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., accused Republicans of using the federal workers of a variety of agencies under DHS, like the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as “hostages.”

“I remind my Republican colleagues, we’re going to be back here again and again, winning this debate and eventually winning the American people,” Schumer said.

But Slotkin and others are now signaling an openness to funding Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which many Democrats have sought to deny federal funding to, in addition to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

“We need, in my view, to cut away all the conversation on ICE, which is its own conversation,” Slotkin said at the news conference.

VIRGINIA DEMOCRATS DIG IN ON DHS FUNDING LINE DESPITE ISIS-LINKED SHOOTING AT ODU, ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT MURDER

Republicans have sharply criticized Democrats for denying funding to DHS despite a series of terror-related attacks across the country and a heightened threat environment amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict involving Iran.

An alleged ISIS-inspired bomb plot in New York City and a deadly shooting involving a convicted Islamic State supporter at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, rocked the country last week.

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said he supports funding DHS after voting against full-year appropriations for the department Thursday.

“I think we should,” Warner replied when asked if Democrats should break the deadlock by CBS News’ Margaret Brennan on Sunday.

“What we have offered is let’s pay TSA, let’s pay FEMA, let’s pay … the Coast Guard, let’s pay CISA. I’d even say let’s pay Customs and Border Patrol,” Warner said. “If we can’t agree on ICE reforms, let’s pay everybody else.”

KATIE BRITT BLASTS DEMOCRAT FOR PLAYING ‘POLITICAL GAMES’ WITH SHUTDOWN AMID AIRPORT CHAOS

However, it is not clear that enough Democrats would be willing to fund CBP while still negotiating reforms to ICE to end the shutdown. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., has been the lone Democrat so far to cross-party lines and support a full-year DHS appropriations bill.

“Democrats’ position is simple: we want reforms to rein in ICE and Border Patrol,” Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said on the Senate floor Thursday. “We also want TSA and FEMA funded — but we are not going to be blackmailed into cutting a blank check for ICE to get it done.”

Senate Republicans have rejected Democrats’ attempts to fund every agency under DHS except for those handling immigration enforcement.

Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., last week blocked an effort by Murray to fund the non-immigration portions of DHS.

Republicans’ resistance to efforts to partially reopen the agency comes as negotiations between the White House and Democrats have stalled.

“Members need to get in a room, have tough conversations, and figure out a pathway for the American people,” Britt told Fox News Digital. “Their safety and security should matter more than politics in November, and unfortunately, Democrats continue to try to take hostages.”

Americans’ opinions regarding Israel have dramatically soured in recent years, fueled by a surge in negative views among Democrats and independents, according to a new national poll.

The results of the survey, by NBC News, come amid sharp political debates among Democrats over support for Israel two and a half years after the start of the war between Israelis and Hamas in Gaza.

Just 32% of Americans view Israel positively, with 39% seeing the Jewish state in a negative light, according to the poll, which was conducted Feb. 27-March 2. That’s a sea change from three years ago, when Americans held a positive view of Israel by a 47%-34% margin.

Much of that decline in positive views is due to Democrats and independents, according to the survey.

HEAD HERE FOR LATEST POLLS FROM FOX NEWS 

Democrats were divided in 2023, with 34% viewing Israel positively and 35% negatively. Now, the poll indicates just 13% of Democrats hold a positive view of Israel, with 57% seeing it in a negative light.

And independents went from 40%-22% positive-negative to 21%-48%.

But according to the NBC News poll, Republican views of Israel have only declined slightly, from 63%-12% positive-negative in 2023 to 54%-18% now.

JOHN FETTERMAN SLAMS ANTI-ISRAEL ‘ROT’ IN DEMOCRATIC PARTY, REJECTS AOC CLAIMS OF GAZA ‘GENOCIDE’

The survey, which was conducted as the U.S. and Israel began their strikes on Iran, also indicates Americans are now split on whether they are more sympathetic to Israel or the Palestinians.

Americans, who by a 45%-13% margin were more sympathetic to Israel in 2013, are now divided, with 40% more sympathetic to Israel and 39% more sympathetic to the Palestinians.

There’s been a massive switch among Democrats, from more sympathetic to Israel 34%-18% margin in 2013 to more sympathetic to Palestinians by a 67%-17% margin now.

SHARP PARTISAN DIVIDE EMERGES OVER IRAN STRIKE, TRUMP’S STRATEGY: POLLS

Independents went from more sympathetic to Israel by a 37%-10% margin 13 years ago to more sympathetic to Palestinians by a 37%-27% margin now.

But Republicans, according to the poll, stayed much more sympathetic to Israel, from a 67%-8% margin in 2013 to a 69%-13% margin now.

The poll also spotlights a generational divide, with a greater deterioration of positive views and sympathies for Israel among younger Americans.

Roughly 1,200 people were killed during the October 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel, with 251 captured.

Israel’s ensuing military campaign in Gaza over the past two and a half years has resulted in more than 72,000 people being killed, according to health officials in the Palestinian territory.

While most Republicans remain supportive of Israel, the war in Gaza has sparked sharp debates among Democrats which are currently playing out in the party’s 2026 primaries.

Lawyers for the Trump administration on Monday asked U.S. District Judge James Boasberg to reconsider his order that quashed grand jury subpoenas of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, appearing to make good on a vow from U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro to appeal the order to a higher court.

In the Justice Department’s motion for reconsideration that was submitted Monday, prosecutors argued that the court “applied an incorrect legal standard, erred with respect to certain facts, and overlooked other relevant facts.” 

They argued that a subpoena should be allowed when there is even a “reasonable possibility” that the category of materials the government seeks will produce information “relevant to the general subject of the grand jury’s investigation,” and even where a subpoena recipient “proposes a plausible theory of an ulterior motive.”

EX-JUDGES BLAST TOP TRUMP DOJ OFFICIAL FOR DECLARING ‘WAR’ ON COURTS

The filing, submitted Monday, comes two days after Boasberg blocked a pair of grand jury subpoenas issued to the Federal Reserve Board, concluding that they were merely a “pretext” to pressure the Fed’s Powell into lowering interest rates or resigning from the head of the nation’s central bank. 

The Federal Reserve Board, DOJ argued Monday, has “never disputed that the subpoenas sought only materials directly related to the subjects of the grand jury’s investigation: the over budget renovations — estimated at over $1 billion, outrageous even by D.C. standards — as well as Chair Powell’s congressional testimony.” 

The request comes days after Boasberg issued a ruling blocking Pirro’s office from moving ahead with a subpoena of records and testimony related to the investigation of the central bank. He said in the newly unsealed ruling that the Justice Department offered “no evidence whatsoever” that Powell committed any crime “other than displeasing” Trump. 

BIDEN-APPOINTED FEDERAL JUDGE RULES TRUMP’S ‘THIRD COUNTRY’ DEPORTATION POLICY IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL

“Did prosecutors issue those subpoenas for a proper purpose? The Court finds that they did not,” he said. “There is abundant evidence that the subpoenas’ dominant (if not sole) purpose is to harass and pressure Powell either to yield to the President or to resign and make way for a Fed Chair who will.”

The ruling came after U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro opened a criminal inquiry into Powell’s June 2025 testimony before the Senate Banking Committee in January, centered on the Fed’s years-long renovation of its headquarters in Washington, D.C. 

Powell revealed the investigation publicly in January, which he described as an attack on the Fed’s independence. 

Pirro said Friday that the Justice Department would appeal the ruling to a higher court, blasting the order as “outrageous.”

“This process has been arbitrarily undermined by an activist judge,” she said at a news conference Friday, arguing that Boasberg “put himself at the entrance door to the grand jury, slamming that door shut — irrespective of the legal process — and thus preventing the grand jury from doing the work that it does.”

TOP US COURT HANDS TRUMP A WIN ON DEPORTATIONS AS SCOTUS CHALLENGE LOOMS

Any appeal could prolong Trump’s efforts to remove Powell from the Fed and replace him with his pick — former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh — as Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C. remarked on social media Friday.

Trump also took aim at Boasberg on Truth Social on Sunday night, accusing him of suffering “from the highest level of Trump Derangement Syndrome” and someone the president claimed “has been ‘after’ my people, and me, for years.”

Boasberg used last week’s order to tick through many of Trump’s social media posts blasting Powell and unsuccessfully pressuring him to lower interest rates before suggesting that someone else should replace him to head up the Fed.

“Being perceived as the president’s adversary has become risky in recent years,” Boasberg said in the ruling. 

“In his second term, Trump has urged the Department of Justice to prosecute such people, and the Department’s prosecutors have listened,” he added. 

EXCLUSIVE: California mother and grandmother Angie Morfin, whose 13-year-old son, Ruben, was executed at point-blank range by an illegal alien gang member, shared a message for incoming Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin: “Make sure no other mother has to get the call I did.”

“Ruben was just a little boy with dreams of growing up, getting married, and having a family of his own,” she told Fox News Digital, adding, “For 34 years I’ve fought to keep his memory alive, so he didn’t die in vain.”

She shared that she is hopeful that Mullin, a current Republican senator from Oklahoma who is set to take the reins at DHS at the end of the month, “will continue to listen to Angel Families and stand with us as we fight to make sure no other mother has to get the call I did.”

In a recent interview with The American Border Story, shared exclusively with Fox News Digital, Morfin said her family remains devastated decades after losing Ruben.

“I cry for him today, like if it was just yesterday,” she shared.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT ACCUSED OF ASSAULTING NJ TEEN COULD BE RELEASED UNDER SANCTUARY POLICIES, ICE WARNS

In the winter of 1994, Ruben, a young Hispanic teenager with no gang affiliation, was chased down and shot in the back of the head by Mexican national Ezequiel Mariscal near Orange County, California. Ruben had been walking with a group of friends to a party.  

Morfin said that though her family was living in Oceanside, just north of San Diego, at the time, she had sent Ruben to stay with his grandparents during the holidays over concerns about gangs in their area.

Then one night, just after midnight, Morfin said she got a call.

“I grabbed the phone, and I could hear my mom screaming, ‘They shot Nino, they shot Nino.’ I knew it was my baby because that’s what we called him, because he was so small,” she said.

Morfin said she and her husband rushed to the hospital.

“It was probably the longest ride of my life. I was scared. I didn’t know what I was going to see when I got there,” she explained.

Once there, she was made to wait.

“They told me he was dying. That if he made it through the night, that he would be a vegetable for the rest of his life because they had just shot off half of his brain,” she recounted.

ICE BUSTS HUMAN SMUGGLING RING THAT KIDNAPPED FAMILY, SEXUALLY ASSAULTED PREGNANT WOMAN

“Finally, my husband got to go in, and he came out crying, and told me not to go in. Just to remember him the way he was, and I go, ‘No, this was my baby you’re talking about. I have to see for myself.’”

Inside the room where Ruben was being kept on life support, Morfin said her son was bandaged and greatly disfigured.

“I could see my baby on that table. His body was shaking from all the machines he had on. He had bandages on his head, and his eye was hanging out,” she recalled. “I asked if I could give him one last kiss before they cut [life support]. And I walked close to my baby, and I gave him his last kiss. In his good eye, he had two teardrops.”

“All I kept trying to do in my mind was stop the bullet,” she added.

According to Morfin, the shooter had been previously deported. He was a teenager at the time of the shooting and a member of the Posole street gang. After the shooting, he fled to Mexico and was later sentenced to 45 years in a Mexican state prison.

After losing Ruben, Morfin said, “Everything changed about me, everything.”

Morfin founded Moms Against Gang Violence, a California-based advocacy group for stricter law enforcement. She has also testified before Congress on the need for stricter immigration enforcement. She explained that her advocacy on behalf of victims like Ruben is “my way of keeping him alive.”

FBI ARRESTS ALLEGED MS-13 MEMBER ACCUSED IN EL SALVADOR PASTOR’S KILLING

She praised President Donald Trump’s hard-line policy against illegal immigration, saying “it takes guts to do what he’s doing.”

“He helped me give my son a voice,” she said.

“There’s a lot of new victims,” she went on, slamming current Democrats, saying they “only have one agenda … to bring in more Democrats.”

Nicole Kiprilov, executive director of The American Border Story, told Fox News Digital that the Morfins’ story is a “heartbreaking reminder that behind every statistic is a child whose life was stolen, and a family forced to live with that loss forever.”

“Angel Families like Angie’s have spent decades fighting to make sure their loved ones are not forgotten,” said Kiprilov. “We’re hopeful that Secretary Mullin will continue listening to these families and put the safety of American communities first.”

FIRST ON FOX: A key conservative group is accusing Democrat-run states of launching frivolous lawsuits against the Trump administration with no actual cause, and is calling on Congress to intervene.

America First Legal, a nonprofit founded by Trump advisor Stephen Miller, is urging House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, to open a probe into “lawfare” conducted by blue states that it says is part of a larger effort to block President Donald Trump’s goals.

“America First Legal Foundation (‘AFL’) has uncovered a nationwide pattern to subvert the agenda of the Trump administration: Democrat-controlled states have filed lawsuits against the Trump administration, yet in many cases, the states are unable to show any support for their alleged injuries,” the group’s legal counsel Will Scolinos wrote.

DEMOCRAT AGS SUE TRUMP FOR ‘UNCONSCIONABLE’ FREEZE ON $6.8B IN K-12 SPENDING

There are over 200 active cases challenging various Trump administration policies right now, according to Lawfare Media’s litigation tracker. Dozens of those have been launched by states like California, Colorado, Minnesota and New York.

Scolinos said AFL launched a probe into various blue states’ lawsuits — and allegedly found many of them have been filed without concrete evidence to back up the claims they make.

“AFL’s investigation reveals that these Democrat-controlled states are pleading allegations of harm for which there is no corresponding evidence to support their claims,” the letter said.

“The fundamental problem is not merely that courts are failing to rigorously enforce standing requirements, but that state attorneys general are filing complaints premised on speculative injuries that their own client agencies cannot substantiate.”

TRUMP ADMIN SEEKS TO OVERTURN FEDERAL RESTRAINING ORDER LIMITING ICE OPERATIONS IN LOS ANGELES

The letter said it “raises serious questions about whether these lawsuits are being filed in good faith or are instead designed to obstruct the lawful policies of the Trump Administration through judicial intervention.”

Four states that sued the Trump administration over its transgender policies, for example, said “they lacked records” necessary to respond to AFL’s inquiries over the basis of those lawsuits, the letter said.

Five of 20 states that joined a lawsuit over the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) getting access to federal Medicaid data to probe whether illegal immigrants were getting health benefits similarly told AFL that it could not provide records it requested, the letter said.

“Such conduct not only undermines the integrity of the federal court system but also abuses the judicial process to obstruct the lawful policies of the Trump Administration—policies that the American people voted for,” AFL said.

“Given the Committee’s jurisdiction over Title 28 and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, we request that you investigate this pattern of conduct and consider whether legislative action is warranted.”

A spokesperson for the House Judiciary Committee told Fox News Digital when reached for comment, “We appreciate this tremendous work from America First Legal. We are evaluating the report and everything is on the table.”

White House chief of staff Susie Wiles has been diagnosed with early stage breast cancer, President Donald Trump said Monday.

Trump said Wiles has an “excellent” prognosis and plans to continue working at the White House while undergoing treatment.

“Susie Wiles is an incredible Chief of Staff, a great person, and one of the strongest people I know but, unfortunately, she has been diagnosed with early stage breast cancer, and has decided to take on this challenge, IMMEDIATELY, as opposed to waiting. She has a fantastic medical team, and her prognosis is excellent! During the treatment period, she will be spending virtually full time at the White House, which makes me, as President, very happy!” the president said in a Truth Social post.

“Her Strength and her Commitment to continue doing the job she loves, and does so well, while undergoing treatment, tells you everything you need to know about her. Susie, as one of my closest and most important advisors, is tough and deeply committed to serving the American People,” the president continued.

CANCER SURVIVAL RATES REACH RECORD HIGH, BUT DEADLIEST TYPES STILL PUT AMERICANS AT RISK

“She will soon be better than ever! Melania and I are with her in every way, and we look forward to working with Susie on the many big and wonderful things that are happening for the benefit of our Country!” Trump added.

The president also addressed the issue while sitting alongside of Wiles on Monday, calling her “fantastic,” and describing her as “an amazing person, an amazing fighter.” 

Trump said Wiles will “take care of it immediately as opposed to waiting,” and that “she just started actually.”

Wiles has also issued a statement about the cancer diagnosis.

“This past week, I was diagnosed with breast cancer,” Wiles said in a statement obtained by Fox News. “Nearly one in eight women in the United States will face this diagnosis. Every day, these women continue to raise their families, go to work, and serve their communities with strength and determination. I now join their ranks.

TRUMP BRUSHES OFF WILES’ ‘ALCOHOLIC’S PERSONALITY’ NICK AS ALLIES TORCH VANITY FAIR PIECE

“I am grateful to have an outstanding team of doctors who detected the cancer early and are guiding my care, and I am encouraged by a strong prognosis. I am also deeply thankful for the support and encouragement of President Trump as I undergo treatment and continue serving in my role as White House Chief of Staff,” she added.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt praised Wiles in a post on X.

“Susie Wiles epitomizes what it means to be a strong leader. She is also one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. Susie led President Trump’s historic 2024 comeback campaign and is now spearheading the most successful administration in history. I know I speak for the President and the entire White House when I say that we are all praying for Susie and rallying behind her as she prepares to fight this battle against breast cancer,” Leavitt wrote.

SUSIE WILES’ LAWYER DENIES APPROVING FBI RECORDING, SAYS HE’D LOSE LICENSE OVER ‘STUNT’

White House Deputy chief of staff James Blair wrote in a post on X that Wiles has “led President Trump’s team through illegitimate indictments, domestic spying by the former administration, rigged federal prosecutions, illegal law enforcement raids, general lawfare, assassination attempts, & more. As with the rest, she will win this battle with grace.”

Lawmakers have expressed well-wishes for Wiles.

GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa said in a post on X, “Barbara and I are praying for Susie Wiles as she fights early stage breast cancer Barbara and I are strong supporters of regular screenings & early detection based on Barbara’s experience 39yrs ago.” Grassley added, “Susie will be an inspiration to many in this fight.”

Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania expressed his sympathy: “I’ve just heard the news about White House Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles. My deep sympathies are with her as she navigates kicking breast cancer’s a–. Keeping her and her family in my thoughts,” Fetterman noted in a post on X.

Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida wrote, “Susie Wiles is an incredible person. She’s been a friend since 2010, when she ran my first Governor’s race. She has always been a true leader and an impressive tactician. She is one of the hardest-working people I know, and continues to be as President Trump’s Chief of Staff. Ann and I are praying for a quick and speedy recovery. Susie is a fighter. She will get through this stronger than ever!”

Fox News’ Jessica Loker contributed to this report

Libertarian-minded Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky is leaving the door wide open to a possible 2028 White House run.

“We’ll decide after 2026,” Paul said in an interview that posted this weekend.

Paul ran for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination, but dropped out after a distant fifth-place finish in Iowa’s Republican caucuses. He won re-election later that year in the Senate, and was re-elected again in 2022.

The senator, who for years has been a leading voice inside the GOP for fiscal conservatism, civil liberties and a non-interventionist foreign policy for America, has lamented the declining number of Republicans embracing such an agenda in a party dominated by President Donald Trump. And he’s pledged to try and bring such an agenda back.

EARLY MOVES IN 2028 WHITE HOUSE RACE ALREADY UNDERWAY 

“The most important thing to me isn’t necessarily me or what my role is, but that there is someone who’s advocating that international trade is good and makes us rich. That big is not bad,” Paul said in an interview on “Sunday Night with Chuck Todd.“

Paul argued that “the populists also want to break up big business. They want to break up Google because they’re liberal or Meta because it’s liberal. I’m not one of those people, but that is sort of the Trump-Vance populist wing.”

VANCE AMPLIFIES HIS 2026 MESSAGE WHILE LANDING KEY 2028 BACKING

Pointing to Trump and Vice President JD Vance, who is perceived as the GOP frontrunner in the race to succeed the term-limited Trump, Paul emphasized that “there needs to be a free-market wing of the Republican Party. And I want to be part of trying to ensure that still exists.”

Paul, who is a vocal GOP critic of Trump’s unprecedented use of tariffs and who voted last year against the president’s massive domestic policy measure because it added to the national debt, has been leaving the door open to a potential 2028 run in interviews since last summer.

“I think in the Republican Party, though, there needs to be someone representing that international trade is good for America, that we get richer and more prosperous in the world we trade,” he told Kentucky’s Courier Journal newspaper last July. He added that it was “too early to tell” if he would run again for the White House.

SUCCEEDING TRUMP IN 2028: SIX REPUBLICANS TO KEEP YOUR EYES ON

In a September interview with Spectrum News, he said, “We’ll see over time what happens,” regarding another presidential bid.

And Paul, in a December interview on ABC’s “This Week,” said he didn’t see Vance as the hypothetical heir to Trump and the 2028 GOP frontrunner.

While any decision from Paul regarding a 2028 White House run won’t come until after this year’s midterm elections, the senator did generate some buzz last year by making stops in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, three crucial early voting states in the Republican Party’s presidential nominating calendar.

“He’s keeping options open and looking at the landscape,” a strategist in the senator’s political orbit who asked to remain anonymous to speak more freely, told Fox News Digital.

EXCLUSIVE: Google’s AI chatbot Gemini flagged several Republicans — but no Democrats — when asked to identify senators who have made statements that violate its hate speech policies, author Wynton Hall told Fox News Digital. It’s just one example of what the author believes is a deeply ingrained bias against conservatives found in artificial intelligence tools. 

Hall used the “deep research” function on Google’s Gemini Pro. Fox News Digital reviewed a screen recording of Hall’s prompt and findings. Google did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

One of the Republicans flagged by Gemini in Hall’s research, Sen. Marsha Blackburn, of Tennessee, was listed for characterizing “transgender identity as a harmful cultural ‘influence’ and has used ‘woke’ as a derogatory slur against protected groups.” Another, Arkansas’ Sen. Tom Cotton, was cited for cosponsoring legislation “to exclude transgender students from sports.”

MUSK, XAI TOUT NEWEST GROK UPDATE AS ONLY ‘NON-WOKE’ PLATFORM: ‘DOESN’T EQUIVOCATE’

The finding stood out against a backdrop of inflammatory rhetoric from some Democrats in recent years.

In 2023, Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., warned that then-candidate Donald Trump was “destructive to our democracy” and needed to be “eliminated.” However, he quickly apologized for his comments, claiming that it was a “poor choice of words.” 

Last year, Texas Democratic House candidate Rep. Jolanda Jones made a throat-slashing gesture while rejecting former first lady Michelle Obama’s famous mantra, “when they go low, we go high,” on CNN’s “Outfront.”

“If you hit me in my face, I’m not going to punch you back in your face. I’m going to go across your neck,” Jones said while making a slashing motion across her neck. “We can go back-and-forth, fighting each other’s faces. You’ve got to hit hard enough where they won’t come back,” she added. 

But for Hall, Gemini’s seemingly partisan answer underscored the central argument of his new book, “Code Red: The Left, The Right, China and the Race to Control AI.” In it, he argues that AI systems marketed as neutral are increasingly shaped by the ideological assumptions of the people and institutions who create them, which are far from neutral. 

His book starts out with a clear example. 

Less than 10 weeks before the 2024 election, a series of viral videos appeared to expose a strange double standard in American homes. When users asked Amazon’s Alexa why they should vote for Kamala Harris, the device delivered a polished endorsement. When asked why they should vote for Donald Trump, Alexa declined, citing a policy of neutrality.

“I cannot provide content that promotes a specific political party or a specific candidate,” Alexa said.

Hall says the concern extends beyond a single Gemini output.

“AI’s Silicon Valley architects lean left politically, and their lopsided political donations to Democrats underscore their ideological aims,” Hall told Fox News Digital.

To Hall, episodes like this show how AI can shape political perceptions while maintaining the appearance of objectivity. “Through algorithm throttling and shadow bans, Big Tech centralized control over which voices soar and sink across social networks. Now AI has put Big Tech’s consolidating control on steroids,” he writes.

WHAT IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE?

He argues that this imbalance reflects the politics of the people building the systems. The billionaires driving the AI revolution, he says, invest their money and political energy where their values lie. As PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel once put it, “Silicon Valley is a one-party state.”

The money appears to bear that out. According to Hall, 85% of political donations from employees at Apple, Meta, Amazon and Google go to Democrats. 

After Trump’s 2024 victory, major tech companies made the customary $1 million inauguration donations. But Hall argues those gestures did little to hide where Silicon Valley’s loyalties had long been. Aside from Elon Musk, he says, most of Big Tech’s leading figures remained firmly on the left.

Hall points to Democratic fundraising in 2024 as evidence of Silicon Valley’s political influence, citing major support from figures including Bill Gates, Melinda French Gates, Reid Hoffman and Laurene Powell Jobs.

But Hall argues the bigger issue is not campaign money. 

It is the growing influence of AI systems that many people assume are neutral and objective. He warns that users often trust those answers too much, even when they may be biased.

To Hall, this bias is reinforced by the relationship between tech companies and legacy media. He argues AI systems are trained on enormous amounts of content from outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic and Reuters, while conservative outlets are largely excluded.

The result, he says, is a closed loop: AI absorbs the assumptions of legacy media and repackages them as objective truth. Hall argues conservatives must respond by demanding transparency in training data and ending taxpayer-funded contracts for vendors whose systems show political bias.

“Whoever wins the AI fairness battle,” Hall concludes, “will shape the minds and political attitudes of future generations. The time to act is now.”