Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Friday made the case for the passage of the SAVE America Act, accusing opponents of the bill of favoring access to the ballot box for illegal immigrants. 

Noem was in the Phoenix area where she pushed the Trump administration’s efforts to shore up election integrity and voter security. 

She touched on the Save America Act, a bill that would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote, photo identification to vote in federal elections, and for states to remove non-citizens from their voter rolls. She noted that wide majorities of Republicans and Democrats approve of the legislation. 

MURKOWSKI BREAKS WITH GOP ON VOTER ID, SAYS PUSH ‘IS NOT HOW WE BUILD TRUST’

However, she criticized the bill’s opponents, who say it will disenfranchise millions of voters. 

“Each of the arguments that have been laid out to criticize this bill are baseless speculation from the radical left because they want illegal aliens to vote in our elections,” Noem told reporters during a press conference. “They want to disenfranchise American citizens by telling them that their votes don’t matter. There’s only one reason that anyone would oppose this bill, and that’s because they would want to cheat.”

“They want illegal people and aliens in this country to be able to vote for them, and to rob the United States citizens of their vote,” she added. “And that’s why they resist us at every single level.”

REPUBLICANS, TRUMP RUN INTO SENATE ROADBLOCK ON VOTER ID BILL

Congressional Democrats have characterized the bill as an effort to disappear millions of American off voter rolls, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., calling it “Jim Crow 2.0,” a term used by some to describe modern so-called voter suppression laws.

During her remarks, Noem mentioned a handful of illegal immigrants who were registered to vote in various states.

“There is no room in our election system for people that aren’t Americans,” she said. “There is no room in our election system for fraudsters and foreign influence.”

The secretary also called for Arizona to clean up its voter rolls, noting that DHS Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) can be used to do just that. The program assists local, state and federal agencies to determine the citizenship and immigration status of individuals.

“Maybe people who’ve passed away, people that aren’t citizens, people that don’t live here,” she said. “That would make sure that in your next election, when people are casting their votes, they know they’re voting for the right decisions and that those votes are counted, and they’re counted appropriately, and someone else didn’t get to weigh in on their leadership.”

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President Donald Trump Friday sharply criticized former President Joe Biden’s handling of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, calling it an “embarrassment” and arguing his administration would not have left military equipment behind.

“You remember that where they left all the military equipment behind? We didn’t. We wouldn’t have left anything,” Trump said while speaking at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. “We were going to get out with dignity and strength, respect. We looked like we were running. We don’t run from anybody. That was a Biden embarrassment.”

Trump also questioned why aircraft were not flown out of the country.

“We don’t leave equipment behind. We don’t leave jets behind,” he said. “I said, why do you leave those jets behind, sir? I thought it was cheaper to leave it behind. You know, $150 million plane. All they had to do is put a little jet fuel in there and fly it to wherever they want to fly it.”

He said the U.S. military had been rebuilt during his first term and is now stronger than ever.

“So with the help of everyone in this room, America is the strongest military on the face of the earth. We rebuilt it. We really did,” Trump said. “We rebuilt it in my first term.”

FOUR YEARS AFTER ABBEY GATE, VETERANS WHO SAVED CIVILIANS DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY

TRUMP HAILS ‘GREAT AND VERY BRAVE’ UK SOLDIERS AFTER SLAMMING NATO ALLIES’ AFGHANISTAN SERVICE

His remarks came during a visit that honored the special operators involved in the operation to capture former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, which he contrasted as an “extraordinary military operation.” 

The U.S. completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021 after nearly 20 years of war. The evacuation followed a February 2020 agreement negotiated during Trump’s first term that set a timeline for U.S. forces to leave the country.

Biden oversaw the final withdrawal as Taliban forces rapidly seized control of Afghanistan, culminating in a suicide bombing at Kabul’s airport that killed 13 U.S. service members and roughly 170 Afghan civilians.

Biden has argued that he was bound by the withdrawal agreement negotiated during Trump’s first term and faced the choice of completing the pullout or sending more U.S. troops back into combat. Trump has rejected that claim, saying his deal with the Taliban was “conditions-based” and that he would not have withdrawn if the Taliban failed to meet its commitments.

Fox News Digital reached out to Biden Friday for comment and has yet to receive a reply. 

Two of President Donald Trump’s top Democratic critics are using appearances at a high-profile European gathering to blast the Republican president’s agenda and beef up their foreign policy chops on the world state ahead of possible 2028 White House runs.

“Donald Trump is temporary,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Friday during a climate change discussion at the Munich Security Conference in Germany. “He’ll be gone in three years.”

And Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, during a town hall at the prestigious conference, pointed to Trump and charged, “We are seeing our presidential administration tear apart the transatlantic partnership, rip up every democratic norm.”

Newsom and Ocasio-Cortez are the most well known of a small group of potential Democratic presidential contenders using appearances in Munich to criticize Trump’s international agenda and offer a contrast to Vice President JD Vance, the perceived 2028 Republican front-runner, who delivered a scathing attack on Europe during his speech at the security forum last year.

NEWSOM STOP IN KEY PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY STATE SPARKS MORE 2028 SPECULATION

The other Democrats with likely national ambitions making the rounds at the confab and meeting with international leaders are Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Sens. Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly of Arizona and Chris Murphy of Connecticut, and former Commerce Secretary. Gina Raimondo.

Ocasio-Cortez pointed to her fellow Democrats in Munich and said, “I think many of us are here to say we are here, and we are ready for the next chapter, not to have the world turn to isolation, but to deepen our partnership … and increase commitment to integrity to our values.”

JD VANCE SAYS ‘DUMBEST’ DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE WILL WIN NOMINATION IN 2028

Newsom, who is speaking at his third major international conference in recent months, following appearances last month at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland and late last year at a world climate conference in Brazil, hammered Trump over climate policy, arguing the president is “doubling down on stupid.”

“Never in the history of the United States of America has there been a more destructive president than the current occupant of the White House in Washington, D.C.,” Newsom charged. “Donald Trump is trying to turn back the clock.”

THE 2028 WHITE HOUSE RACE IS ALREADY UNDERWAY

Fox Digital has reached out to the White House for a response to the jabs from Newsom and Ocasio-Cortez.

Ocasio-Cortez, during the first of her two appearances at the conference, was asked by the town hall moderator, “When you run for president, are you going to impose a wealth tax or a billionaire’s tax?”

Responding with a laugh, the four-term federal lawmaker then said, “I don’t think that anyone — that we don’t have to wait for any one president to impose a wealth tax… That needs to be done expeditiously.”

Matthew Bartlett, who served at the State Department during the first Trump administration, told Fox News Digital that “the regular foreign policy crowd is turning into something of a cattle call for 2028 as numerous Democrats take Munich to articulate their vision and try to develop some sort of foreign policy credential as the next presidential race is on the horizon.”

And Terry Shumaker, who served as U.S. ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago during the Clinton administration, noted that the appearances in Munich by the potential candidates “gives them experience, confidence, and something to refer back to on the campaign trail when they’re asked about their foreign policy experience.”

And Shumaker, a longtime New Hampshire-based attorney and Democratic Party activist, said it also signals to the world “that Trump is not a monolith. That there’s another side of the story in the United States.”

President Donald Trump recounted the military’s strength during the successful operation to capture Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro during an event in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Friday honoring U.S. special forces and their families for their roles in the capture. 

“It was in a matter of minutes before (Maduro) was on a helicopter being taken out of there. They had to go through steel doors,” Trump said Friday afternoon. “The steels were like it was like papier-maché. You know what papier-maché is? That’s weak paper.”

U.S. special operations forces carried out the successful capture of Maduro and his wife on sweeping narcotics charges. Trump celebrated that the mission did not kill any U.S. military personnel or damage U.S. military equipment in a nation that is heavily militarized, with Maduro himself living on a protected military base.

STATE DEPT CONFIRMS ‘LIMITED NUMBER’ OF PERSONNEL IN CARACAS WORKING TO RESUME VENEZUELA DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS

“These guys blasted through every door,” Trump continued Friday. “They got up to him before he got to the big safe. But that wouldn’t have worked either, because they had equipment that was going to knock that out in a matter of minutes, but he never got there. It went so fast.”

Trump continued that the operation had been “precise” and “incredible.”

HEGSETH SIGNS OFF ON WOUNDED US TROOPS KEEPING BULLETS, SHRAPNEL REMOVED FROM THEIR BODIES AFTER MADURO RAID

“Think of it in a matter of minutes,” he continued. “When people realize what happened, they’re looking up, and there’s the helicopter heading back to the aircraft carriers. So that night, the entire world saw what the full military might the U.S. military is capable of. And that was an unbelievable operation, but that was a smaller operation.” 

WIFE OF FORMER AMERICAN DETAINEE RELEASED AFTER MORE THAN A YEAR IN VENEZUELAN PRISON

Maduro was whisked off on a helicopter, before he was brought to the U.S., where he faces federal charges, including narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine-trafficking conspiracy and weapons-related offenses. He’s being held in federal custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center in New York City. 

First lady Melania Trump joined the president on the trip to North Carolina, with Trump joking that they enjoy the area so much, they might move there in the future. 

“Maybe I’ll maybe I’ll move here with our great movie star,” Trump quipped, giving a nod to Melania Trump’s new documentary, “Melania.” “We’ll move here with our first lady. We’ll move to Fort Bragg. Would you like that, darling?  She loves you. It’s a possibility.”

The Trump administration swiftly removed Carrie Prejen Boller, a former Miss California winner, from a White House religious council amid accusations she worked to “hijack” a hearing on antisemitism, earning applause from religious leaders and conservatives. 

“Carrie Prejean was thrown off the Religious Liberty Commission, and thank God,” a former Trump White House official told Fox News Digital in reaction to the ouster. “These commissions exist to advance the President’s agenda, not to serve as a personal Jew-hating platform.” 

Prejean Boller was ousted from the White House Religious Liberty Commission after she worked to “hijack a hearing” held Monday regarding antisemitism in the U.S. to promote her “own personal and political agenda on any issue,” according to chair of the commission, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. 

Prejean Boller is the 2009 Miss California USA winner who was stripped of her crown over allegations of breaching contract. She gained nationwide attention in 2009 for speaking out against legalizing gay marriage from the pageant’s stage. 

MAMDANI’S ANTISEMITISM CZAR ONCE SLAMMED POST CONDEMNING HAMAS TERROR ATTACKS

Trump owned the Miss Universe Organization at the time and defended Prejean Boller, then Carrie Prejean. 

Trump established the religious liberty commission in May via an executive order directing the Department of Justice to provide support to the newly formed body focused on upholding “Federal laws that protect all citizens’ full participation in a pluralistic democracy, and protect the free exercise of religion.”

The commission held a hearing Monday at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., on combating antisemitism and upholding religious freedom, where Prejean Boller wore a Palestinian flag pin and got into tense exchanges. 

Prejean Boller converted to Catholicism from evangelical Christianity in April and invoked her Catholic faith in comments rejecting Zionism during the hearing. 

TARGETED FOR THEIR FAITH OVERSEAS, PERSECUTED CHRISTIANS GET A WHITE HOUSE WELCOME UNDER TRUMP

“I am a Catholic, and Catholics don’t embrace Zionism,” she said. 

Catholic League President Bill Donohue swiftly called for her ouster in an opinion piece published on his organization’s website, underscoring that she did not represent Catholics in her remarks. 

“Prejean Boller is a former Miss California and a convert to Catholicism,” he wrote Wednesday. “She does not run a Catholic organization, has no Catholic credentials as an author or instructor, and indeed represents no one but herself. For her to say, without qualification, that ‘Catholics do not embrace Zionism,’ is presumptuous and arrogant.”

“Zionism is a movement that promotes Jewish self-determination in a homeland,” he said. “There are millions of Catholics like myself who, even if they do not identify themselves as Zionists, recognize the Jewish state of Israel. Prejean Boller apparently does not—she is more comfortable showing up at the Religious Liberty Commission wearing a Palestinian flag pin. So telling.” 

Shawn Carney, president and CEO of 40 Days for Life pro-life group, added in comment to Fox Digital that her “claim that Catholics are against Jews is absurd.”

“This division is a recent fad and an online invention,” Carney said. “For centuries, Catholics have understood that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the Davidic kingdom and that our faith comes from the Jews. Catholic teaching holds that the Church is the fulfillment of the promises of the Old Covenant. To suddenly claim that Catholics are against Jews is absurd — it is a modern, internet-based error.” 

He added that Trump has a very strong track record of hiring and appointing Catholics to his administration, noting “no president in modern history has done more to protect religious liberty for both Catholics and Jews.”

At one point, Prejean Boller got into a heated exchange with Shabbos Kestenbaum, a former Harvard student who sued the university over its response to antisemitism.

“Are you willing to condemn what Israel has done in Gaza?” Prejean Boller asked Kestenbaum during the hearing. “You won’t condemn that? Just on the record.”

She also defended Candace Owens when pressed by Babylon Bee Founder and CEO Seth Dillon if the commentator had ever made antisemitic remarks. 

“Do you think anything Candace has said is antisemitic?” he asked her, after referring to Owens as one of the “most famous antisemites” in the current political landscape. 

“No, I don’t,” Prejean Boller replied.

The former Trump White House official continued in comment to Fox Digital that backing Israel has long been a priority for President Donald Trump. 

“President Donald Trump has been clear for decades that he stands proudly with the Jewish people and with America’s closest ally, Israel,” the former official said. “Supporting Israel and standing with Jewish Americans is not just morally right, it is America First.” 

TRUMP SAYS GOP, MAGA MOVEMENT DOESN’T NEED, DISLIKES PEOPLE WITH ANTISEMITIC VIEWS

“President Trump delivered historic victories for the Jewish people. He recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moved the U.S. Embassy there. He recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. He brokered the Abraham Accords and reshaped the Middle East. He kept his promise to bring every last hostage home and made clear that antisemitism at home will be confronted head on, including holding universities accountable when Jewish students are targeted.”

Conservatives and others on social media celebrated her ouster while condemning her remarks at the hearing. 

“The only one who brought up Zionism at the event was … Carrie Prejean Boller,” account Bonchie posted. “Classic grifter play happening here. Cause a scene of her own making, claim to be the victim, profit. A story as old as time.”

“Whatever you think of the rest of Carrie Prejean Boller’s views, wearing a Palestinian flag to a hearing on religious liberty is disgraceful,” president of WorldStrat information warfare firm and chief editor of the Middle East Forum Jim Hanson posted. 

Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz said that while he does not personally know Prejean Boller, what he saw of her actions was “just sad.”

“There are 57 Muslim countries on earth; this poor thing has been deluded into thinking that the fact that Israel exists — in the promised land given to the Jewish people thousands of years ago by Jehovah — is somehow the source of all her troubles.” he wrote.  “And no, Catholics don’t hate Israel. As Charlie Kirk said repeatedly, antisemitism is a brain rot, and someone has been pouring this poison into her head.”

FOX NEWS ‘ANTISEMITISM EXPOSED’ NEWSLETTER: WALZ SHOCKS WITH MISGUIDED HOLOCAUST COMPARISON

Patrick said he personally made the decision to remove her, while Prejean Boller responded on X that only the president could order her removal. 

“You did not appoint me to the Commission, and you lack authority to remove me from it,” Prejean Boller wrote on X in response to Patrick. “This is a gross overstepping of your role and leads me to believe you are acting in alignment with a Zionist political framework that hijacked the hearing, rather than in defense of religious liberty.” 

Cruz shot back on X: “Let’s be clear: it was President Trump who fired her.”

The former Miss California has continued to stick by her remarks, saying she “will never bend the knee to the state of Israel. Ever.”

“Christians have been manipulated into believing that God blesses bombing, starvation, and mass killing,” Prejean posted to X. “That is the opposite of Christ, who came to stand with the suffering and confront power. I reject that lie completely. I am not owned by money, donors, or access. I belong to Christ alone who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. I would rather die than bend the knee to Israel.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for additional comment on the matter Thursday, and attempted to reach Prejean Boller Friday for comment. 

“The charges against them were based on lies by an ICE agent who recklessly shot into their home through a closed door,” the migrant’s defense attorney said.

While the California governor immediately attacked President Trump during his visit to Munich, accusing the POTUS of “doubling down on stupid,” Gavin Newsom’s globetrotting has sparked its own backlash in the Golden State.

Records obtained by The Post show the mayor was “directly” involved in the call to redirect scarce backup power to the Nutcracker ballet.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) laughed off ribbing by a panel moderator at the Munich Security Conference on Friday about a possible bid for the White House in 2028.

The secretary threatened federal investigations if the airlines refuse to comply.